Let’s just go every year! Sept 2020 pre trip report. Cancelled!

[sha9]

Originally Posted by Elsa42

Look forward to seeing your daily plans! It wont be long before your ADR day is here.

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I know, just a couple of weeks away!
I’ve done a rough plan but it’ll now need to be tweaked to take out Epcot.

[sha9]

I’ve gone ahead and booked car hire today. With staying at Universal it was either that or get a transfer and I feel more comfortable with the car. It does mean paying for parking at both hotels but it can’t be avoided. I’ve only booked a week though to reduce costs. We’ll do any outlet or Walmart shopping in that first week and then use Disney transport the second week plus ME to get to the airport. We may also use the Minnie Vans if we feel the need.

[jothp]

I'm looking forward to hearing about your plans. I'm not really looking forward to Epcot this time either with all the construction going on.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by jothp

I'm looking forward to hearing about your plans. I'm not really looking forward to Epcot this time either with all the construction going on.

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Thanks!

We’ll go for Food & Wine but I’m less bothered about rides there.

[sha9]

Well the car hire I went ahead and booked is now cancelled. Not because I don’t think we’ll go (although if I’m honest I think it’s unlikely) but more because £200 is better in our bank account right now. The car hire can be booked at some point later.

[sha9]

I’m not really sure why I’m posting other than I think to get my thoughts about this trip down to make decisions easier.

Like many in the same position I don’t know whether to cancel/reschedule now or hold off until closer to the balance being due. I’m 99% sure we’re not going. This is due to several things the main one being that I don’t think we can afford it. Marie is self-employed and obviously our ability to pay for the trip has taken a big hit. I also don’t think things will be safe enough from a Covid perspective and definitely not normal enough for me to want to go. I can’t really think about going with an untreatable and virulent virus around. I’m not even sure if our ESTAs are still valid! I’m frightened to check!

So I’ll take each element individually.

Flights

Booked with Virgin miles so either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how Virgin come out of this. We could request an open ticket now and hopefully manage to get PE return flights for next September once the flights are released. Of course if Virgin go under at best I think we’ll get taxes and fees. I think this is a decision we could make now and start the ball rolling but something is holding me back. I do worry though that the open ticket offer may change if flights start up again however as they are miles flights we could still cancel for a small charge.

Disney

This is booked with deposit and balance due in July so we have time. I could reschedule to 2021 now but I’m holding off to see if free dining is offered for next year. We have until the balance is due to decide what to do here.

Universal

Hard Rock is booked as a Hot Rate deal with Hotwire. They currently have a cancellation request form which doesn’t specify dates so another thing I could get started.

The Annual Pass could be an issue. We paid to upgrade tickets so at best we could request the refund for that but they could argue that we got some benefit from the pass. I suspect this is something we’ll need to wait until nearer the time to deal with and may just have to lose it.

Airport Hotel

Payment isn’t taken until nearer the time of the stay and there’s no free cancellation. If we can’t cancel we may just go and stay there for the night! Another one I think we’ll need to wait for.

We haven’t prepaid for anything else so I think that’s everything covered. I think we need to have a conversation about what we can go ahead and move or cancel now and what we should wait for. We have to consider that if we got a refund for Hard Rocks that’s money in the bank.

Stay safe everyone.

[sha9]

Well as you can see I’ve changed my countdown. It’s an optimistic countdown as we can’t actually change our flights yet. The news over the last day or so has been the final nail in our holiday coffin. Cancellation of the dining plans in general isn’t the worst thing but the reason it’s being done is what’s putting me off going. Having to book a park in advance, reduced attendance etc just makes it feel like it’s too much to spend for a reduced experience. I know September is still a few months away but it just doesn’t feel like it’ll be much different by then.

Disney

Currently waiting for Disney to email with options. Our aim would be to rebook for next September for my 50th.

Flights

I checked with VA regarding the open ticket and reward flights. Essentially there would still need to be reward availability however they said they’d be releasing more reward flights due to that. I’m currently waiting on a reply to a question as to whether I could still book outbound and inbound separately as with reward flight normally as that may make up our minds about open ticket vs cancellation.

Universal

I had put in a cancellation request with Hotwire which was declined as the dates didn’t fall into the cancellation window. They apparently will continue to try but I worry we may lose out on this money as Universal hotels are starting to open. I’m going to get in touch to explain our situation and see if we can even get a credit note or move to next year.
I’ll also need to get in touch with Universal regarding the Annual Pass.

Airport Hotel

I haven’t been in touch with them yet but again I’m going to ask about moving to next year.

Positives

Next year is my 50th and with our desire to go this year it was possibly going to have to be scrimping and scraping to have a Disney resort stay since we’ve been going every year. Now we know flights are paid for and we should have a good chance of getting PE. Unfortunately not enough miles for UC! We’ll also easily afford POFQ even with the price increase and maybe could have stretched to WL if standard rooms become available again. So although we have to wait another year I think my 50th trip will be more special than if we’d went this year. I also have another year to lose my lockdown weight!

Once everything is cancelled I’ll start my 2021 pre trip report!

[jothp]

Sorry you've decided to cancel. I hope you manage to get everything moved or your money back.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by jothp

Sorry you've decided to cancel. I hope you manage to get everything moved or your money back.

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Thanks. I think making our minds up a few weeks ago helps as I don’t feel quite so disappointed.

What does seem weird is how quickly it all changed. When I look at when I posted about booking car hire and then cancelling they were only a couple of weeks apart!

[sha9]

I still can’t bring myself to change the thread title to reflect the cancellation but I’ve now started the process.

Flights

I’ve completed the open ticket request having now had confirmation that I can book each leg separately when the time comes. Not heard anything, not even an acknowledgment email but it’s early yet.

Disney

Like many others I’m waiting to see what the big announcement is. We’ll change to next year either way.

Universal

I’ve emailed to ask if there’s anything they can do regarding the Annual Pass. Still waiting for a response.

Airport Hotel

I’ve contacted them to say we won’t be going and asked if we can change to next year but no response. Next September isn’t book able yet so that may be an issue but we’ll see what they say.