Why should people who booked after that gift card offer "expired" not receive them?
Simply because Disney decided that at one arbitrary date they would discontinue the additional compensation?
Will these guests not experience the same discomfort as those who booked a few weeks prior?
Has anyone given thought to emailing the General Manager and asking for some compensation?
Maybe I am missing something, but it seems like the compensation should be for anyone staying while construction is happening.
This is just my suspicion and based only on my own little mind. I suspect that what happened was that there were such a large number of people who learned of the gift card offer and booked CBR only for that reason, Disney made the decision to suspend the offer because they were reaching capacity. Typically with a big project such as what is happening at CBR, you don't want a resort that is completely full so the construction can move ahead without guests "in the way" for lack of a better term. (Not that paying guests are ever "in the way" but if the resort is 100% full there is the potential for problems. Or from another viewpoint, if something were to go wrong with the construction and guests had to be moved from one area to another or heaven forbid evacuated, that could be a whole other set of problems for a full resort.
Does that mean that those who booked after March 19 (20?) will receive nothing for the inconvenience of construction.... not necessarily. Disney is known for their customer service and going above and beyond for their guests in so many situations (after all, isn't that a big part of why we all love it so much?). While the construction compensation may not be a $75 per night gift card, I have to believe there will be **SOMETHING** for those staying during this time. Perhaps not something that would entice people to book CBR just for the "perk", but some type of offering none the less.
I do believe that Disney severely underestimated guest response to the somewhat late announcement of such major construction, then underestimated again the response to the gift cards. They seem to have finally accepted that this really is a pretty big deal and will have a better plan moving forward.
We booked back in October and it never crossed my mind to stay anywhere else -- even after I learned of the construction by reading these boards. I have yet to receive any emails about construction or gift cards or anything else, although my parents who will be traveling with us have. We check in to CBR next Wednesday and will make the best of whatever comes our way.
As a side note: Has anyone compared the pre-gift card rack rate with the post gift card rack rate? I admit I didn't pay attention to the per night rate when we booked, only our total package cost. If the rack rate is lower now that the gift cards are not available, that may be part of the compensation for the construction.