2020 ROOM ONLY cannot add tickets or book park Reservations until further notice! !!!!

[Bruce66]

We have a special crying room available in the DVC-mouscellaneous forum! A safe place for you to share with equally frustrated people who have literally spent thousands of dollars and are owners of these resorts but can’t use their points or are losing their points because of this. Sorry, but spending into the six figures and visiting 2-3 times a year for the last 20+ years should qualify me for some type of priority like the passholders

ABSOLUTELY!!!l Are you listening Disney? DVC'rs have/will spend 10x the amount AP's will over their lifetime but are given no priority at all.

 

[Lilias]

I rented and have already paid for my DVC rental for December. I'm optimistic I'll be able to buy tickets and be able to see the parks, but a Seasonal Universal AP is the same price as 4-day Disney tickets sooooo I'll just hop over there from my DVC rental if I must

 

[Heather07438]

I'm sorry this is happening to you and I agree that it stinks. However I will point out that Disney doesn't sell nonrefundable rooms to guests. Only DVC rental agencies & individuals do that. So the bind you're in is due to renting DVC points at the wrong time. It's not your fault, as no one saw the pandemic coming, but it isn't Disney's fault, either. DVC rentals are not controlled by them. I wouldn't expect Disney to set policy based on the fact that an unofficial cottage industry has grown around renting DVC points. From Disney's perspective, all of their own resort guests can just cancel if they need to. People who booked via 3rd parties have to deal with the 3rd party vendor. If that vendor is unreasonable or intransigent, that's who you should be mad at.

Again, this is not your fault. I'm just pointing out that it isn't Disney's fault, either. DVC companies have not always been easy to deal with during the pandemic. I had a DVC rental in June that I had to fight the agency to get rescheduled. It stinks, but it's not Disney's responsibility.

I have to admit seeing this from a jaded view. Everything my family had scheduled and pre-paid before the pandemic, I am not getting even $5 back out of almost $5k (beside what's now going on here). Our group lost over $500k together. Might get a small BA flight credit but they keep flip-flopping. The other vendors decided to keep 100% of the paid-in-full money.

This^ has nothing to do with WDW other than putting me on the defensive, and the relation that WDW has already lost some of our confidence over the past few years in many ways. Most annoyingly 2 (two) different trips where they double billed our MB linked CC for our family's entire out of pocket park expenses. The 2nd time, even though again the entire thing was paid upon checkout as their in-house records could easily show and we responded, they sent the duplicate out 6 months later to put a judgement against us because we refused to pay the duplication.

Last trip WDW tried to put us in a disgusting $700/nt room that was 3 hours late because they probably spent that time trying to un-disgustify it (didn't work, but they still let us go to the room after waiting 3 hrs and waste our time). The peppermint bomb they set off to disguise it made our eyes water and nose/throat burn from the fumes. Instead of finding a decent room on the second chance, they thought it was best to offer a down grade for our troubles. Guess I should feel fine with getting our normal room in the end, even though we moved our luggage 3 times, spent hours waiting and then hours moving around, and finally got settled in a room too late to bother going back to MK that first night as planned. Christmas party was also disappointing with the crazy crowds. Food at couple places was shameful too.

How hard should trip planning be and how hard do we need to work to make sure we aren't getting ripped off sometimes. We keep going back because WDW is special and magical and for the most part we find it a good value when we can manage to avoid the pitfalls. It's just the zingers are real doozies and I'm hoping not to let this this trip fall into that category.

So now that I'm getting 0% consideration for my DVC reservation commitment as far as park reservations go, it's not sitting well. I rented personally from a direct owner, don't want to leave them holding the bag either. We're kind of in this 50/50 together. Wish I had more faith that this will all work out OK and wasn't afraid I could blow it by taking a misstep in WDW planning.

 

[twinklebug]

I have to admit seeing this from a jaded view. Everything my family had scheduled and pre-paid before the pandemic, I am not getting even $5 back out of almost $5k (beside what's now going on here). Our group lost over $500k together. Might get a small BA flight credit but they keep flip-flopping. The other vendors decided to keep 100% of the paid-in-full money.

This^ has nothing to do with WDW other than putting me on the defensive, and the relation that WDW has already lost some of our confidence over the past few years in many ways. Most annoyingly 2 (two) different trips where they double billed our MB linked CC for our family's entire out of pocket park expenses. The 2nd time, even though again the entire thing was paid upon checkout as their in-house records could easily show and we responded, they sent the duplicate out 6 months later to put a judgement against us because we refused to pay the duplication.

Last trip WDW tried to put us in a disgusting $700/nt room that was 3 hours late because they probably spent that time trying to un-disgustify it (didn't work, but they still let us go to the room after waiting 3 hrs and waste our time). The peppermint bomb they set off to disguise it made our eyes water and nose/throat burn from the fumes. Instead of finding a decent room on the second chance, they thought it was best to offer a down grade for our troubles. Guess I should feel fine with getting our normal room in the end, even though we moved our luggage 3 times, spent hours waiting and then hours moving around, and finally got settled in a room too late to bother going back to MK that first night as planned. Christmas party was also disappointing with the crazy crowds. Food at couple places was shameful too.

How hard should trip planning be and how hard do we need to work to make sure we aren't getting ripped off sometimes. We keep going back because WDW is special and magical and for the most part we find it a good value when we can manage to avoid the pitfalls. It's just the zingers are real doozies and I'm hoping not to let this this trip fall into that category.

So now that I'm getting 0% consideration for my DVC reservation commitment as far as park reservations go, it's not sitting well. I rented personally from a direct owner, don't want to leave them holding the bag either. We're kind of in this 50/50 together. Wish I had more faith that this will all work out OK and wasn't afraid I could blow it by taking a misstep in WDW planning.

Is that a typo? Did you mean to write half of a million dollars?

 

[Heather07438]

I am sorry that all of this has hit you hard but how else could they have handled it? What about all those people who did invest that extra $2k for tickets already for the trip later in the year, only to be told they might not get in simply so someone else who waited gets a shot first simply because they are day guests?

I really believe that 2020 sales will open much sooner than most think and that many will get into the parks. Even today, other than HS a few days opening week, nothing sold out yesterday.

What I think is we all share the burden equally. We all have committed to WDW in one way our another, deal out the park days as such. I'd rather end up with 3 park days on a 9 day trip than nothing.

 

[Heather07438]

Is that a typo? Did you mean to write half of a million dollars?

No typo. Yes The West Milford Highlander Band was set to go to the UK, paid in full. 128 kids plus chaperones. Every single vendor has seen fit to keep 100% of our money.

 

[Sandisw]

What I think is we all share the burden equally. We all have committed to WDW in one way our another, deal out the park days as such. I'd rather end up with 3 park days on a 9 day trip than nothing.

Sure..but in this case, ticket to park is really the only thing in play right now, IMO.

But, as I said, I feel good they will open sales sooner rather than later, and just as they gave onsite guests with tickets an advanced window to book park reservation, maybe they will do the same for 2020 tickets sales, and give onsite guests first crack to buy them before general public.

 

[Heather07438]

I really believe that 2020 sales will open much sooner than most think and that many will get into the parks. Even today, other than HS a few days opening week, nothing sold out yesterday.

Thanks you for that reminder. I do see I'm getting worked up pointlessly for something that has a good chance of working out in the end.

 

[twinklebug]

No typo. Yes The West Milford Highlander Band was set to go to the UK, paid in full. 128 kids plus chaperones. Every single vendor has seen fit to keep 100% of our money.

That amount is just unfathomable. While I understand each of the families as well as fundraisers created the pool of money, I can't help but think that it could have been used to build out an entire new band room complete with acoustical tiles, or toward buying new instruments as loaners for kids who can't afford their own.

I'm so sorry.

 

[Heather07438]

That amount is just unfathomable. While I understand each of the families as well as fundraisers created the pool of money, I can't help but think that it could have been used to build out an entire new band room complete with acoustical tiles, or toward buying new instruments as loaners for kids who can't afford their own.

I'm so sorry.

Yeah, it's a little nuts. This is a grand once every 4 yrs trip the high school bands does. Most families save for years knowing the trip is coming. Some parents had 3 kids going, out $13,500. These kids work their butts off and it usually is a spectacular reward for their commitment. It was bad enough not going but losing all of the money made it worse.

We were told to let our travel agency handle everything around refunds. They got no where.

This is Shrewsbury Scotland from the 2016 trip. The kids are astounding at the high school level.

They take a tour around the UK, invited to very prestigious setting like cathedrals, castles, and even the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Lovely Shrewbury hosts them for their town parade and to stay with Scottish families for a few nights to really get a feel for the culture.

 

[JLCDisMom]

[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry this is happening to you and I agree that it stinks. However I will point out that Disney doesn't sell nonrefundable rooms to guests. Only DVC rental agencies & individuals do that. So the bind you're in is due to renting DVC points at the wrong time. It's not your fault, as no one saw the pandemic coming, but it isn't Disney's fault, either. DVC rentals are not controlled by them. I wouldn't expect Disney to set policy based on the fact that an unofficial cottage industry has grown around renting DVC points. From Disney's perspective, all of their own resort guests can just cancel if they need to. People who booked via 3rd parties have to deal with the 3rd party vendor. If that vendor is unreasonable or intransigent, that's who you should be mad at.

Again, this is not your fault. I'm just pointing out that it isn't Disney's fault, either. DVC companies have not always been easy to deal with during the pandemic. I had a DVC rental in June that I had to fight the agency to get rescheduled. It stinks, but it's not Disney's responsibility.

I agree, even though it affects me too. I'm kicking myself because we rented 11 months out, so we had loads of time to make our plans (including buying trip cancellation insurance-- enter COVID--) now it's too late to get that insurance. Totally our fault, but there's no way we knew in February what the world would look like 3 weeks later. All things considered, we're healthy and employed. If we can get through COVID and the worst thing we've experienced is a $2000 loss on a Disney resort, I think that's ok in the big scheme of things.

All that to say, I think I've accepted that the Christmas trip we envisioned in February isn't going to happen the way we envisioned it. I'll wait until later into the summer and see how this all plays out. Still bummed though. Really, really bummed.