Very sad. Just cancelled our Dec trip.

[disneygrandma]

I knew that I would be doing it, but kept putting it off. Split stays with everything we wanted. 4 nights BLT standard studio, 3 nights AKL Jambo CL studio, and 5 nights BCV studio. Booked at 11 months (plus some waitlist pixie dust). This was going to be our 2nd holiday couple's only trip. No kids, no grandkids. It was also going to be the end of our Platinum Plus AP's, with our large family trip being in May 2020.

We hope to reschedule our family trip for June 2021. But we probably won't reschedule our holiday trip. Honestly, right now, my husband is very disenchanted with Disney, and I'm getting that way. First, the whole let down of not getting something out of our banked 2018 points........ other than RCI. Second, AP holders could be treated better right now.

We have about 9 months of unused time left on our AP's. Their extension, which isn't adequate to begin with, won't cover our June 2021 trip. The refund, which we don't yet know how much that will be, is not really what we want either. We would like to have our complete 9 months of time on our AP's that we can use later at a time that works for us. We want to be able to get all of the benefits and features of our PP AP's when we feel more comfortable to return to Disney World. Disney could offer this option to AP holders and let us freeze, or pause, our AP's and then reactivate them at a later date for the amount of time remaining. With this option, they would be able to retain customers and not have to hand out lots of cash in refunds.

If you think AP holders should have this choice, please email Disney and let them know your feelings on it. By offering 3 options: 1. extension, 2. refund, and 3. a pause, or freeze, for use later, Disney should be able to make most AP holders happier about the situation.

Thank you!

 

[denecarter]

I’m sorry you felt you had to cancel your December trip... but just how long should they let your AP sit in limbo?

 

[Sandisw]

It is frustrating but I do believe the option to now cancel is more than fair.

I understand why people would like a pause, and those should email for sure!

Personally, the extension is going to benefit me in the long run.

 

[kmorlock]

The problem I find is the communication. Not everyone has been made aware of the AP cancellation option or the proposed additional 30 day extension. Judging by the OP’s wording, it sounds that might be the case. Disney nor DVC has had stellar communications throughout this. They also took a bad situation and complicated it even further with the park reservation roll out, Jambo and NBA impacts.

 

[disneygrandma]

I agree that more communication is needed. From my understanding, an AP holder can take the 4 month extension for the time period that the parks were closed. That extension is only fair because the AP could not be used during the park closure. Then there is an additional one month extension, which first of all, I don't think makes up for the lack of park hopping, water parks, and other benefits & features that we would normally get when using our AP. I have no idea why that one month extension won't be given out until Oct. However, right now our AP will expire on April 6, 2021. With the extra one month, we'd be looking at probably May 5, 2021. That is long before what we hope will be our rescheduled trip in June, 2021. So that extension does us no good. We would like to have our PP AP's to use on that June trip, plus hopefully one more trip after that.

As for the refund, I haven't seen any communications on how the refund will be calculated. But one thing for sure, it is not going to be enough to purchase comparable tickets. And why does Disney want to hand out refunds? We would be much happier to just be able to use our PP AP's a later time next year.

As for how long the AP's should sit in limbo, I would say at least until Dec 31, 2021..... and possibly May 31, 2022. That is a date that would need to be determined. Look at the people who are in possession of multi-day date based tickets. These tickets are for one trip only. Disney is allowing these people to use them any day before Sept 26, 2021. One trip. Could be 2 days or 10 days. But they can plan their trip to WDW when they feel comfortable going again, and when their schedules allow, all the way out to Sept 26, 2021. If we were able to pause our AP's, then once we scanned in to a park for the first time, then the clock would start counting down until the time is used up.

According to Disney, senior citizens and others with underlying medical conditions are more vulnerable to Covid 19. But yet they are only giving us until May 5, 2021 to use our remaining 9 months on our AP's. A person with a 2 day ticket has until Sept 26, 2021, and we have about 270 days to use, and only until May 5, 2021. Seems very unfair.

 

[Yensid67]

How do you get the additional one month extension on an Annual Pass? My pass was supposed to expired mid-May, but with the four month extension, it will now expire in early September. Do I need to call for the additional one month extension?

 

[mac_tlc]

How do you get the additional one month extension on an Annual Pass? My pass was supposed to expired mid-May, but with the four month extension, it will now expire in early September. Do I need to call for the additional one month extension?

No need to call, Disney will add it automatically, but it won’t be added til October 2020.

mac_tlc

 

[holden]

How do you get the additional one month extension on an Annual Pass? My pass was supposed to expired mid-May, but with the four month extension, it will now expire in early September. Do I need to call for the additional one month extension?

I was told by a CM in ticketing that the extra month will be added on in October.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We hope to use our AP in September, but if we can‘t go because of quarantine, we loose out.

 

[mac_tlc]

I understand your dilemma. We are Silver AP holders, ages 60 and 61. The extension is nice, but the added month is really insufficient. Given the reduced experience, limited attendance, need to have park reservations, increasing cases in FL, and heightened risk for those over 60, we realistically won’t go back until December or January. The extensions do very little for us.

We were last there in January. In a normal year we would have went back in April, August and September within our AP year. Probably the only reason I will not take the refund is so I can protect my ability to renew at the lower renewal price.

If Disney really wants to inflame the masses, they will raise the AP prices this fall.

mac_tlc

 

[Dean Marino]

I knew that I would be doing it, but kept putting it off. Split stays with everything we wanted. 4 nights BLT standard studio, 3 nights AKL Jambo CL studio, and 5 nights BCV studio. Booked at 11 months (plus some waitlist pixie dust). This was going to be our 2nd holiday couple's only trip. No kids, no grandkids. It was also going to be the end of our Platinum Plus AP's, with our large family trip being in May 2020.

We hope to reschedule our family trip for June 2021. But we probably won't reschedule our holiday trip. Honestly, right now, my husband is very disenchanted with Disney, and I'm getting that way. First, the whole let down of not getting something out of our banked 2018 points........ other than RCI. Second, AP holders could be treated better right now.

We have about 9 months of unused time left on our AP's. Their extension, which isn't adequate to begin with, won't cover our June 2021 trip. The refund, which we don't yet know how much that will be, is not really what we want either. We would like to have our complete 9 months of time on our AP's that we can use later at a time that works for us. We want to be able to get all of the benefits and features of our PP AP's when we feel more comfortable to return to Disney World. Disney could offer this option to AP holders and let us freeze, or pause, our AP's and then reactivate them at a later date for the amount of time remaining. With this option, they would be able to retain customers and not have to hand out lots of cash in refunds.

If you think AP holders should have this choice, please email Disney and let them know your feelings on it. By offering 3 options: 1. extension, 2. refund, and 3. a pause, or freeze, for use later, Disney should be able to make most AP holders happier about the situation.

Thank you!

I am so sorry that you had to do this.... but going to add? It was the right choice. WDW may be "open" in Dec 2020 - but XMAS PTY probably won't be there, limited parks, close to zero fine dinning... It all screams "not worth the money, or the risk".

DW & I cancelled TWO trips, Nov 2020 (one for us, one for our eldest Son and his wife). We all agreed: This was not going to be a vacation. It was going to be Army Basic Training..

We are all now going for 2021, banking what we can, renting out the points that WDW wishes to steal, trying to minimize our losses, and doing our best to NOT put our trust into WDW in the future.

 

[atlmgm]

I am so sorry that you had to do this.... but going to add? It was the right choice. WDW may be "open" in Dec 2020 - but XMAS PTY probably won't be there, limited parks, close to zero fine dinning... It all screams "not worth the money, or the risk".

DW & I cancelled TWO trips, Nov 2020 (one for us, one for our eldest Son and his wife). We all agreed: This was not going to be a vacation. It was going to be Army Basic Training..

We are all now going for 2021, banking what we can, renting out the points that WDW wishes to steal, trying to minimize our losses, and doing our best to NOT put our trust into WDW in the future.

I totally agree with you and have made the same decision to cancel all WDW trips for awhile. The current Disney experience just isn't worth the cost.

 

[disneygrandma]

Love the comparison to "Army Basic Training". Yes, that explains it. We just knew that this Dec wouldn't be magical and would not be worth the risk or the cost. But it was still painful to hit that cancel button.

The best way to keep so many of us coming back is for Disney to pause our AP's for use later on when a little magic returns and we feel safe to visit. I think that there will be a lot of people who will take their refund and then just go elsewhere to spend their vacation dollars.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I agree that Disney should have more options for AP holders. You are not getting the product you purchased at all. We just went ahead and took the credit because there is no way we are wearing masks. Period. That’s our beef, but I know there are a variety of other reasons why people have chosen to cancel. If we had health conditions, for example, that would be a big one, as I am sure it is for many people. Even if masks were not an issue, we would be put off by the reservation to get into a park thing. It’s already enough of a hassle to schedule the stupid fast passes ahead of time. Now we have to schedule to get into a park. No thanks.

 

[tgropp]

Same here. For us, our Dec trip is being cancelled. The experience, though no fault of Disney will not be there and I won’t pay top dollar for that. I will shoot for Dec 2021. Hopefully things will be better by then

 

[oufpat]

I feel your pain. We have scheduled an early December trip to use our 185 banked points. Have an AP purchased 12/4/19, used for 6 days then. May 2020 cancelled, we cancelled 8/20. Also have an April 2021 trip planned, AP expire April 4, can't use gold AP, blackout out time. So, if we cancel December we loose our banked points and only used AP for 6 days. Still undecided, but waiting to see how things are going.

 

[ORD2KOA]

I’m sorry you felt you had to cancel your December trip... but just how long should they let your AP sit in limbo?

They should at the very least give us the same deal they did in Shanghai. Shanghai passes are extended by the number of days the park was closed all the way through when the park reservation system disappears.

 

[RoseGold]

I'm also booked club level for AKL for December. I haven't canceled yet, I have until Sept with Feb use year. I imagine I will also feel this sadness. Unless there's a miracle cure, there's no way club level will be running by then.

 

[jo-jo]

Yes, I was in tears when I cancelled our May trip...Using gobs of points for one bedroom and part of trip was club at AKL. In 14 years , we never used points to book one bedroom just for the two of us.

I like the freeze idea. I don't think Disney will offer it, but I like it.

 

[disneygal55]

Disneygrandma, I completely agree with Disney putting a pause and restart option on the AP's. My DH and I (65 and 71 years old with DH having medical issues) were also scheduled to take a trip to WDW in December. We have a BCV stay scheduled but probably will cancel. We were scheduled for a May 2020 AKV trip also but that was cancelled. Luckily we have new Gold AP's which were never activated.
Our son has an AP which was activated during an October 2019 family trip with us.
He also was to join us in May 2020 and December 2020. He used his pass a total of six days. Because of virus concerns, the very limited park offerings...park reservation system, no park hopping etc...AP holders aren't getting what we paid for. I know the situation isn't Disney's fault, but if you're giving multi day park pass holders an extension til Sept 2021, then giving AP holders a 4-5 months extension is just not enough when not everyone is able to travel during that time period. The refund option is ok for those that want to go this route.
I sent an email regarding the AP pause recommendation a couple of days ago.