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I know we’re not the only ones in this position. We have (or rather had) a summer planned with several vacations and short trips. Now that I have a kid in high school, we’re no longer traveling during the school year. So, we try to cram in as much travel as possible in the summer.
Our first big trip was to be at the end of May to Disney World and Universal in Florida. We were going to leave the day after school let out and be there on my son’s Sweet 16 birthday. Unfortunately, we are canceling postponing this trip.
With the way things are now, I just don’t see Disney World or Universal up and running by the end of May. Disney cast members in the U.S. are furloughed. The Disney parks in Asia are still closed. If the U.S. parks do open in May, I believe they will be open with serious limitations (like reduced park capacities, modified character experiences and changes to ride queues).
Why Not Wait to Make this Decision?
Many people are waiting until the last minute to postpone or cancel a trip to get a better feel for the situation as it gets closer. In most cases, that is a good idea.
However, our situation was unique because we rented DVC points for our stay. Our contract clearly stated that our money was nonrefundable no matter the reason. Thankfully, the DVC owner was willing to work with us under these unusual circumstances. She was willing to move our reservation to another date later this year or bank our points to use next year.
The only date we were willing to switch to later this year was Thanksgiving week. And, we really weren’t thrilled about that week due to high crowds. Many people had already postponed and rescheduled for Thanksgiving week, so our resort options were very limited.
We decided to postpone until 2021. Due to DVC banking rules, we had to bank the points by the end of March in order to be able to use them in 2021. So, we made the decision last week to pull the plug and reschedule.
Canceling All the Pieces
Lodging: Thankfully, we’re not out any money for our DVC date change. Our points are banked until we make a reservation for 2021 11 months in advance. I had also reserved a room at Loews Royal Pacific Resort, and the refund has already hit my credit card.
Park Tickets: We already purchased Disney park tickets. We should be able to retain the value of those tickets to use next year and pay the extra difference for the price of next year’s tickets. We had not yet purchased Universal park tickets.
Flights: For our flights to Florida, we used BA Avios for AA metal for 4 of us and AA miles for the 5th ticket. I need to call British Airways, but we will be able to cancel and get our miles back for those 4 tickets. Our only loss will be the $5.60 in taxes per ticket. We will also call AA to get the miles redeposited (hopefully without a fee, as some folks have reported). For our return flight, I paid cash for tickets on Spirit. Our flight home was canceled, so I have already requested a refund (not a flight voucher, since I’m not sure Spirit will survive).
Disney Dining: Six months before our trip, I made many Disney dining reservations for our trip. I canceled them all without penalty.
Canceling all of these things was not nearly as fun as booking. Womp, womp, sad trombone.
The Silver Lining
The silver lining to postponing this trip is that there will (hopefully) be even more new things open by the time we go. The new Space 220 restaurant should be up and running, as well as the new Ratatouille ride.
Plus, the entire trip is almost entirely already paid for with the lodging, park tickets and miles refunds. Woohoo.
I haven’t told my younger kids yet about this vacation postponement. They will be devastated. But, they will be ok. We all will.
Have you canceled or postponed any upcoming trips yet?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
We have a Disneyland trip booked for the beginning of May. We’re not going but I haven’t canceled anything yet. We’ll try to go before the end of the year when our tickets expire. Do you think Disney will allow people to extend their ticket expiration dates? I would sure like to see that.
@Tammie I think the longer the parks are closed, the more likely Disney will extend the ticket expiration dates. At least I hope so.
I have a trip planned near end of August to Edinburgh, Munich and Krakow. Edinburgh cancelled their fringe festival in August along with the military tattoo. I’m suppose to get a refund for the military tattoo. I have flights with miles on American. Not sure what I’ll do yet, maybe reschedule for next years festival. So hard to know what to do at this point! But I’m so thankful for all the trips we’ve been able to take over the years because of this game!
@Lynn I hope your trip happens, whether this year or next year! You have such a great attitude. I’m thankful as well.
We have a 5 night mid September trip planning using our DVC points. Luckily they are from our Sep 2020 use year so if we do cancel we won’t lose points. The only issue we have is we are on Annual Passes that expire Nov 9. They have said they are extending them the days the park is closed…so we could move dates all the way to just past MLK weekend.
I’m holding out hope but who knows. Even if just the resorts are open we’ll probably still go….just being able to get away would feel like a victory.
@Shaun I hope your September trip happens! You’re right, even just a trip to the resorts will feel like a good break.
We were already booked for Thanksgiving week before this whole thing started. And I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen. Crazy times.
@projectx I hope your Thanksgiving trip happens! It seems that on Disney discussion boards, some folks are very optimistic (we’re totally going in May!) or very pessimistic (travel won’t commence this entire year). I don’t know what to think. I’m optimistic that things will improve sometime over summer.
I’m not real optimistic. This virus is still ramping up. Even in countries like Singapore where they locked down quickly and kept the numbers low, they tried a slow return to normalcy and now cases are again on the rise.
I can certainly see the US have a decline in cases, only to rush back too soon and have another spike. I hope I’m wrong.