Disney World extends cancellation notice for resort hotels in 2025

Feb 26, 2024 in "Walt Disney World Resorts"

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Posted: Monday February 26, 2024 3:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World has modified its room-only resort hotel cancellation policy for stays in 2025.

For room-only reservations, beginning January 1, 2025, guests must cancel at least eight days before the arrival date to receive a full refund with no penalty, an increase from the current five-day notice.

Disney will require 8 days of notice for resort cancellations in 2025

Although Disney has not yet given any reasons for the change, it may be related to upcoming changes coming to Disney Genie+.

In a post in May 2023, Disney said, "We have heard from guests that they would like ways to plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit, and we want you to know we are working on ways guests may do this for visits in 2024. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family. While we are not yet able to share specific details, we look forward to sharing more information at a later date."

It is thought that Disney will allow Genie+ reservations to be made seven days in advance, and this new eight-day cancellation policy may help avoid issues relating to Genie+ reservations for stays that are then canceled. Disney is still to announce the details for the new advance Genie+ reservations.

This is the current cancellation policy in effect through 2024.

In order to receive a refund of your deposit, notification of cancellation must be received at least 5 days prior to your arrival date. To cancel or modify a reservation, call (407) 934-7639† or you can cancel or make changes to many reservations online by visiting DisneyWorld.com/MyTrip and signing in to your Disney account. If your reservation can be cancelled or changed online, it will have a Cancel or Modify Reservation link next to it. Just select the link to start the cancellation or change process. If you don't see the Cancel or Modify Reservation link, please contact us at (407) W-DISNEY (407-934-7639). Additionally, if you are holding any other types of reservations, such as dining, those reservations will not be cancelled unless you cancel them or advise us to cancel

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Jrb1979Mar 01, 2024

My family prefers to go with the flow. We schedule enough in our day to day lives. We don't want to go to a theme park and have to have a spreadsheet for our day to day plan

doctornickMar 01, 2024

I actually would say that having things scheduled in advanced and not having to worry about things while on your vacation actually kind of is on the magical side. Better to be relaxed on the vacation and confident about what you are doing rather than anxious and uncertain IMHO. But I realize different people value different things.

PREMiERdrumMar 01, 2024

Intended the collective "you." You obviously get it! 🤣

MissingDisneyMar 01, 2024

Oh I do. Thus, the tone of that response. Maybe you meant the other poster??? Disney IT. I'm still laughing and wiping away tears. 🤣

PREMiERdrumMar 01, 2024

The sooner that you realize that TWDC operates not as one streamlined global corporation, but as a random chain of disparate mom-and-pop shops with limited connectivity between them, the better.

MissingDisneyMar 01, 2024

Disney IT. Bahahah-hahahahah-bahahahaha! Bless your heart. You must be new around these parts.

nickysMar 01, 2024

That works for some instances, such as cancelling and staying offsite. It gets more complicated if people have overlapping reservations. Even when one is cancelled they’re still onsite guests. To automatically cancel them would also affect legitimate changes - like a flight delay.

DisneyCaneMar 01, 2024

I still say a better system would be to convert all LL to ILL and have the purchase be made at the entrance to the queue with dynamic pricing based upon how full the LL queue is at that moment. Price would be displayed on a sign along with expected wait time for the LL. If you think it is worth the price to save the time vs. standby than you tap in. Once the LL queue reaches a maximum it becomes unavailable until the queue reduces. With a system like this, Disney still gets to monetize wait time reduction but it brings back some spontaneity as well as the "fairness" of the original FP system where you have to physically be at the ride entrance to take advantage. If the dynamic pricing is done correctly, it will get high enough where it will never be sold out and if somebody wants to pay a ridiculous price they will always be able to "skip the line" when they arrive at an attraction entrance.

Markc2Mar 01, 2024

Disney's cancellation policy has never been "generous". Even at it's current 5 day term, it's still way behind industry average. Disney's charging enough for their hotels that they can afford to figure out how to manage their IT infrastructure which should flag and automatically cancels anybody's reservations who try to game the system.

MissingDisneyFeb 29, 2024

This. This was a huge problem. I know people who had this down to a perfect science. Not that I was proud of their skills. 😐 It could be very advantageous if one was willing to put in the effort and research and keep manipulating reservations to their favor, knowing they were going to be in the parks for different days than what the resort reservations were for. The ultimate was when they were able to do this knowing full well they were actually staying off properly and never had any intentions of staying in a Disney resort but used the reservation system and generous cancellation policy to their benefit.

nickysFeb 29, 2024

The use of Leading reservations for the purposes of booking FP+ was getting very popular. Even for dining. And not just for split stays. I think they want to minimise that. Booking on the UK site we always had a £50 per person fee to change or cancel a reservation at any time after booking. It was only after Covid that they relaxed that.

nickysFeb 29, 2024

You’ll be allowed to book more through the day as you use them. Unless you’re happy paying $30 a day for just 1 / 2 / 3 rides.

Markc2Feb 29, 2024

Absolutely not! Nobody should have to buy supplemental travel insurance because of insane cancellation policies at a hotel. I get doing it for a cruise because you're not just subsidizing the room but rather all of the on board amenities - but not at a hotel with an inflated hotel price. On top of that, everybody knows what a hassle it is to deal with travel insurance and half the time legitimate reasons are denied. The answer is not travel insurance. The answer is hotels need to be realistic with their cancellation policies - and that includes Disney. Nobody is forcing anybody to book a Disney hotel, so everyone can make their own decisions based on how this policy will alter their booking decisions, but I hope enough people start to look elsewhere. Disney's already charging $700 a night sometimes for a room at their deluxe hotels which barely exceeds the quality of a Hampton Inn. The idea that they're going to start adding unreasonable cancellation policies to this is even more mind blowing. Industry average for a cancellation policy for a "resort" is 48-72 hours prior to check-in. Average cancellation policy for a room in Orlando (assuming a "flex" rate was booked) is 24 hours prior to check-in. Disney was already pushing it with their current policy. They're starting to get greedy again.

JD80Feb 27, 2024

I have never heard it speculated that prebooking will be for your whole day. That system would not make sense at all. More likely than not, it'll be just like FP+ with tiers. The only question, I suspect, will be how many selections will you get to prebook? My money is on 1 so it takes away your 7AM scramble. You'll only have to do VQs that morning.