ABD China changes?

[sayhello]

This is not good. They really need to make a decision. I'm actually kind of surprised that they are even messing around with it. I would hope as @neurosx1983 said that they wouldn't balk at returning deposits if people wanted to voluntarily cancel. Such a bummer situation.

I can't believe they haven't cancelled the April 5th trip yet. That's just a tad over 2 months from now. I can't imagine that there's any way that this will be all resolved in 2 months!

Sayhello

 

[Sakura1017]

We are scheduled to go on a mid-June China adventure, and when the CDC raise the level yesterday I called this morning and talked to an ABD representative. They said that ABD was monitoring the situation and have not made any "Business Decisions" on if they will be going forward with or canceling the China Adventures in 2020, I asking if she had any time frame for when they would make the decision, and they said no. I am hoping they make the decisions soon, before we have to start applying for Visa's and booking flights. But my family is almost to the point of we would rather lose the deposit then spend more money and then not be able to enjoy the trip because the Disney Parks are closed, or all of the other things we wanted to see are unavailable.

Hopefully they get everything figured out soon, because it just isn't a good situation for anyone involved!

I'm surprised they told you the wait approach when they said they closed down the parks and China said they were not doing tours in certain parts. I'm probably going to give them a call tomorrow.

 

[AddictedtoTravel]

British Airways just suspended all direct flights to and from mainland China.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

At this point, I would hope ABD would either offer refunds or the ability to transfer deposits to other ABDs.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I'm surprised they told you the wait approach when they said they closed down the parks and China said they were not doing tours in certain parts. I'm probably going to give them a call tomorrow.

I'll be interested to hear what they say.

ETA I just saw the US State Department increased the travel advisory to a Level 3 yesterday, encouraging travelers to avoid travel to China. My company has facilities in China and they just announced a travel ban for employees.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

British Airways just suspended all direct flights to and from mainland China.

I was just coming on here to report the same thing. ABD better get on the ball. This dickering doesn’t make them look good.

 

[1brooklynfamily]

I called Disney about the March Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos trip and right now it's still on. Though there aren't that many cases yet, I suspect in the next month there will be many more. Last I read there were 38 suspected cases in Vietnam and 18 hospital workers in quarantine. Cambodia is monitoring 3,000 Chinese tourists who arrived before the lockdown. It's hard to get information about Laos, but there has been at least one case. There's up to date information on Radio Free Asia (but for some reason this forum won't let me link to the article).

 

[Skylarr29]

Lucky us, we have Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia booked back to back with China. sigh. We’ve been unable to get any timeframe from Disney.

We’ve already decided we are not going no matter the decision Disney makes. This was an adults only trip for our anniversary and with young kids at home it’s just not worth the risk.

So we’re just waiting and hoping for a refund.

 

[Sakura1017]

Lucky us, we have Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia booked back to back with China. sigh. We’ve been unable to get any timeframe from Disney.

We’ve already decided we are not going no matter the decision Disney makes. This was an adults only trip for our anniversary and with young kids at home it’s just not worth the risk.

So we’re just waiting and hoping for a refund.

Did you call them and ask them how many people were on this trip? Maybe they may cancel based on low numbers.

 

[Skylarr29]

Did you call them and ask them how many people were on this trip? Maybe they may cancel based on low numbers.

We asked for China and I believe they said 23. There is a chance that other people will also want to switch so. I know we can change our trips once so we have back ups in mind, it would just be better financially to get a refund though.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I know we can change our trips once so we have back ups in mind,

I wasn't aware of this policy. Is this only in the case of cancellation, or in general is a change permitted even if ABD does not cancel the original itinerary?

 

[1brooklynfamily]

I'm pretty sure the March trip that we are on is totally full (now a waitlist). There are a lot of families w/kids on the trip.

 

[Skylarr29]

I wasn't aware of this policy. Is this only in the case of cancellation, or in general is a change permitted even if ABD does not cancel the original itinerary?

this is policy for any trip as far as I understand it (we haven’t actually switched yet). You can switch one time and you have two years from the day you booked the first trip to move it. After that you lose your deposit completely. When moving trips you can not take advantage of any discounts such as early booking or anything like that so that’s why I’d rather they cancel, so I can rebook a new trip for next year with the early booking discounts.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

this is policy for any trip as far as I understand it (we haven’t actually switched yet). You can switch one time and you have two years from the day you booked the first trip to move it. After that you lose your deposit completely. When moving trips you can not take advantage of any discounts such as early booking or anything like that so that’s why I’d rather they cancel, so I can rebook a new trip for next year with the early booking discounts.

I'm curious to learn more! Where did you hear about the policy? Google isn't being helpful

 

[Skylarr29]

I'm curious to learn more! Where did you hear about the policy? Google isn't being helpful

this is what my travel agent told me and I’ve also heard other people mention the same thing. I haven’t done it yet but plan to just move both trips if Disney doesn’t cancel.

 

[Jess_S]

I have been monitoring the situation in southeast Asia because we have a trip to Singapore and Malaysia booked in 2 weeks. A wait and see approach on the southeast Asia ABD could make sense because it's possible that the measure being taken will be effective. In Singapore there are 10 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals from Wuhan. Of the more than 100 suspected cases, another 70 or so have tested negative. There haven't been any cases of transmission in Singapore yet. Singapore seems to be pretty illustrative of the region as a whole (but with more people passing through because it's a regional travel hub).

At this point, no one is leaving Wuhan so if those who already left China haven't spread the disease yet, it may not spread outside China. There really isn't a way to predict at this point.

 

[lovetotravel]

I have been monitoring the situation in southeast Asia because we have a trip to Singapore and Malaysia booked in 2 weeks. A wait and see approach on the southeast Asia ABD could make sense because it's possible that the measure being taken will be effective. In Singapore there are 10 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals from Wuhan. Of the more than 100 suspected cases, another 70 or so have tested negative. There haven't been any cases of transmission in Singapore yet. Singapore seems to be pretty illustrative of the region as a whole (but with more people passing through because it's a regional travel hub).

At this point, no one is leaving Wuhan so if those who already left China haven't spread the disease yet, it may not spread outside China. There really isn't a way to predict at this point.

I tend to agree with your wait and see approach. I travel with Disney because I trust them to make good decisions on our travel arrangements, particularly when there is a health issue. I doubt they would want to put us at risk and I would wait for their decision. You should consult your doctor on their opinion as well. As with any flu, we should take precautions when traveling in general during the flu season. I would hope that Disney has access to higher level decision makers and would consult health experts if a trip should be cancelled. Ultimately though, it is our own decision if travel is worth the risk of infection. As such, we could worry about other contagious diseases.

For the Peru trip, I really stressed out about altitude sickness and water issue and almost cancelled the trip because of it.

 

[sayhello]

I'm curious to learn more! Where did you hear about the policy? Google isn't being helpful

Yes, ABD's policy is that you can move your deposit once from one trip to another. I did that when they announced the first Danube river cruise. I switched my deposit from the land Central Europe ABD to the river cruise. But it's only the deposit you can switch. You cannot do this once you have paid in full. But as others have said, it is then not considered a new reservation, and is not eligible for any discounts that may be available for the trip you switch to (which always state that they are good for new reservations only).

Sayhello

 

[Sakura1017]

I wasn't aware of this policy. Is this only in the case of cancellation, or in general is a change permitted even if ABD does not cancel the original itinerary?

I believe you can switch as long as you are not paid in full. Once you are paid in full I think if you want a refund they will have to cancel

 

[Sakura1017]

So after calling regarding China, it seems like they are just going to monitor it. They don't want to cancel tours right away. They are looking at what CDC recommends. They said you do have the option of switching to a different tour. Yet, in terms of getting a full refund it didn't seem possible at the moment unless your tour gets fully canceled due to lack of numbers. I wanted to point out about other tours that were coming up, but she knew mine wasn't until September so she kept playing the let's play it by ear routine.