Florida: the next episode August 2020 Pre Trip Report.

[Kat11]

Hi there 👋

I’ve just caught up on your trippy. 😁

We are due to fly out on 11th August. After hearing that Disney aren’t going to open until 5weeks after universal, which I’m surprised about. It’s kinda put me in an even more confused state as what to do? As it doesn’t leave much time to see how things pan out.

So now the only real things potentially stopping us going is the FCO and the US boarders being open and in all honesty I think that they will both be lifted by August. I think the quarantine measure will be too.

So effectively I think it’ll all be open if we want to go. Now, here in lies the problem. Do we actually want to go? 🤔

I really do not want to wear a face mask! Even though I think that could be optional by then as I think once people start taking them on and off, hyperventilating or passing out and hurting themselves in 100 degree heat it’ll be safer without them, but do I want to take that chance?

We’re not too bothered about character meets or fireworks, so could live with that and ok with all the hand washing and distancing. We are also ok with only doing one park in a day. 😂 but still I’m just not sure. 🤔 I just feel a little uneasy.

Ideally we would be happy to just swop the whole holiday to next summer, but like you, we have GCSE and A-level results in August so we would need to go in July instead. So just hoping for Free dinning now and then we will probably just move everything over.

I don’t think we will make the decision for a few more weeks as nothing needs paying till early July.

Kat

[jothp]

Sorry to hear your trip is affected too. It is a very difficult decision to make. I agree that the US just seem to be opening everything up whether they have the virus under control or not so I can see us being allowed into the country. I'm not so sure about things our end. I think it may depend on how the R is looking here whether the government can afford to relax the quarantine and risk new imported cases. In our hearts we have decided not to go but like you are not doing anything for a few weeks.

GCSE and A Level results make things very tricky. I also work in a school so we will basically have to fly the morning after I break up or shorten our holiday to be back in time. I don't really like having fixed flight dates because it can make it more difficult to grab a bargain and the thought of having to be organised enough to get all the packing done amidst end of term madness terrifies me.

[Elsa42]

It’s such a hard decision isn’t it! We’ve already bit the bullet and rebooked for next year! I was pretty sure we weren’t going as soon as we went into lockdown! There’s so many different things to consider and it may not be if your allowed to go or not but if you want to risk it? My main thing was the flight there! Do I really wanna be on a flight for 9 hours with people that potentially have the virus? It’s a scary thought! It’s a sad feeling cancelling but I feel super excited that we are booked for next year!

I know what you mean about it feeling like a wasted year! I can’t imagine your children won’t want a Disney holiday with you still? I’m 26 and still travelled with my mum for a Disney holiday! Hope your well and it’s good to see you back! I’m all updated on your report now too!

[Goldia]

Well I woke up feeling calmer and even the news about all ADRs and FP being cancelled didn't upset me, well not too much. I think I've accepted that this summer is not going to happen and so it's just a case of waiting for us now. I hope you get your money back, I've read that BA have been pretty good about refunding. I'll keep my fingers crossed for another magical trip for you and your girls.

[jothp]

Thanks Abby. I'm sure next year will be magical but I'm wondering if it's even going to be back to something more normal by then.

I'm feeling more upset about the whole thing as time goes on. The Disney statement that they are refunding dining plan that has been paid for up until September 2021 makes me think that they believe this is going to go on for sometime. For US guests that had booked with free dining they are removing free dining and offering the chance to rebook for a later date with a 35% room discount. To us free dining is worth £2000 more than the room discount assuming we look to stay at beach club. That is a lot of extra money to either add the dining plan at a later date if it becomes available or to spend on food. That's assuming that this offer even applies and we don't just have to cancel because we can't fly and get nothing off next year.

I know many people think the dining plan isn't good value for money but if you are planning to stay onsite anyway and get it for free it's a no brainer. Even though it might not be the best value for money to pay for it, I probably would for convenience. The reason I like the dining plan so much is because I don't have to worry about what things the girls (or Ollie mainly probably!) want from the menu or how many drinks/snacks they want. I don't want to have to say no to them on holiday and even if I had put the money we would have spent on the dining plan on a card, I would probably spend half the holiday worrying that it was going to run out or trying to save money and I want to be able to relax.

Sorry that was a huge rant but this has really upset me today as me makes me feel very much like we are not going to get the holiday we were wanting or expecting, even delaying until next year.

[Goldia]

I couldn't agree more about the dining plan. I'm certain I could spend less on food than it costs to buy a plan, as I'd be forever telling the kids they weren't allowed a snack as I wouldn't want to spend $20 to $25 each time we wanted a cookie or an ice cream. There's no way I'd go to buffets or signatures without the DDP as each time I had to sign the check I'd have a heart attack. I agree that a trip without the dining plan is not something I'd look forward to.

I'm not sure how the Disney UK travel company will react to this. We've always had more free dining availability and been the envy of many Americans for that and our lengthy trips. But as we make up just a tiny fraction of their guests I doubt that wdw are at all worried about the impact on us.

It's all such a mess. I'm not sure what we will do in the future.

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Elsa42

It’s such a hard decision isn’t it! We’ve already bit the bullet and rebooked for next year! I was pretty sure we weren’t going as soon as we went into lockdown! There’s so many different things to consider and it may not be if your allowed to go or not but if you want to risk it? My main thing was the flight there! Do I really wanna be on a flight for 9 hours with people that potentially have the virus? It’s a scary thought! It’s a sad feeling cancelling but I feel super excited that we are booked for next year!

I know what you mean about it feeling like a wasted year! I can’t imagine your children won’t want a Disney holiday with you still? I’m 26 and still travelled with my mum for a Disney holiday! Hope your well and it’s good to see you back! I’m all updated on your report now too!

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Thanks, here's hoping the girls will still want to holiday with us as they get older too.

[Kat11]

I agree, the DDP is probably the most important part of a Disney holiday for us. I couldn’t bare paying some of the prices in the onsite restaurants. $200+ for a family of 4 just for one nice meal is hard to bare, it’s great to just wave my magic bad and get it for “free” 😂

Even if they gave us 35% off the room cost we would still have to pay for food so wouldn’t see the benefit of the reduced room rate at the point of paying for food. iukwim

It’s all moving so fast at the moment and not in a good way! ☹️

Kat

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I couldn't agree more about the dining plan. I'm certain I could spend less on food than it costs to buy a plan, as I'd be forever telling the kids they weren't allowed a snack as I wouldn't want to spend $20 to $25 each time we wanted a cookie or an ice cream. There's no way I'd go to buffets or signatures without the DDP as each time I had to sign the check I'd have a heart attack. I agree that a trip without the dining plan is not something I'd look forward to.

I'm not sure how the Disney UK travel company will react to this. We've always had more free dining availability and been the envy of many Americans for that and our lengthy trips. But as we make up just a tiny fraction of their guests I doubt that wdw are at all worried about the impact on us.

It's all such a mess. I'm not sure what we will do in the future.

See more...

Originally Posted by Kat11

I agree, the DDP is probably the most important part of a Disney holiday for us. I couldn’t bare paying some of the prices in the onsite restaurants. $200+ for a family of 4 just for one nice meal is hard to bare, it’s great to just wave my magic bad and get it for “free” 😂

Even if they gave us 35% off the room cost we would still have to pay for food so wouldn’t see the benefit of the reduced room rate at the point of paying for food. iukwim

It’s all moving so fast at the moment and not in a good way! ☹️

Kat

See more...

Hopefully we will find out soon what they are planning for us. I know that there are a lot better value places to eat offsite but we usually spend most of our time in the parks and leaving a park to drive to an offsite restaurant to eat and then driving back to the park again just seems like a waste of time and effort so we would end up eating at least some of our meals in the parks and paying those prices but I feel like I would be penny pinching the whole trip.

To add insult to injury, I woke up this morning to an email from Disney reminding me that my balance is due in 14 days. I know they are delaying the balance due date but they obviously haven't told their email system that! I'm hoping that they make a decision on what they're offering us soon so I can just make one phone call and have it all sorted in one go rather than phoning once to check I don't have to pay the balance yet and then another call to cancel.

[jothp]

Update

We are now officially cancelled
Last Wednesday morning I had an email from BA saying that our outbound flight had been cancelled. We had already decided that we weren't going so this is what we were hoping for as it meant we could get the cash back instead of getting a voucher. We had flight, car and a few nights in a hotel on our booking so it actually counted as a holiday so we had another email shortly after the first to say that they were refunding us in full and we didn't even need to call. On Friday I had another email confirming the cancellation, showing the amount that was being refunded to our card and was told the money should be there within 7-10 days. I have to say I have been impressed by the efficiency with which BA have dealt with the situation and will be happy to book with them again if the price is right.

We had initially opted to cancel our Disney booking with the plan of waiting to see if there would be an offer for next summer much nearer the time. However, I then started reading reports of people getting to keep their giftcards and Disney released details of the park reservation system that is continuing into next year. I started to consider rebooking to get access to the park reservations but if we had known we would have wanted to rebook so soon then I would have just kept our original booking. A quick (well no so quick really as we were on hold for 2 and a half hours) call to Disney and we had moved our booking to next year and kept our giftcard.

The final piece of the puzzle slotted into place this morning. I had our Universal and Seaworld tickets booked through Attraction Tickets .Com. Their policy allows for carrying over your deposit for bookings travelling until 31st July but we were not travelling until August. I had emailed them a couple of weeks ago to see if there was anything that could be done. Yesterday I had a reply to say that they would hold my deposit as a credit to use against a future booking. I confirmed that I would like them to do that and had an adjusted invoice with confirmation of my deposit credit this morning.

So that is it really. Everything cancelled or rearranged.