Just made a reservation and found out that for the three DL hotels, for reservations past May 10 they will now immediately charge your credit card for the first night and you have to cancel five days (instead of three) prior to arrival.

Just wanted to give everyone a head's up.
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Thanks for the reminder. I thought I put this change in the Park update when it was announced, but I need to do it again. The explanation I read was that this change will bring Disney up to industry standards... I'm just not sure which industry.

Maybe its a move to the Travelocity/Hotels.com standard of "you pay for the full stay up front and it is non-refundable. But I'm sure Disney will combine it with the W standard of "discounts? you want discounts? what are you, new?"

Thanks for the reminder. I thought I put this change in the Park update when it was announced, but I need to do it again. The explanation I read was that this change will bring Disney up to industry standards... I'm just not sure which industry.

It makes it match the policies at WDW for room-only reservations, so the Disney industry?

I found this out last week, and it applied then as well.

5 days is pretty steep, IMO. Especially when dealing with kids (though, we are local so we can change our plans more easily when a kid gets sick, etc.)

and it does take one to two billing cycles to come off your card if you cancel, still waiting for ours and its been over four weeks.

and it does take one to two billing cycles to come off your card if you cancel, still waiting for ours and its been over four weeks.
Off-topic but related to your post, but it never ceases to amaze me as to the "logic" of how, in this day and age of electronic billing, businesses and CC companies have no problem submitting/posting credit card charges so quickly...yet take forever when it comes to posting/refunding credits. Is there some sort of regulation that allows credit card companies to get away with this (not posting credits as quickly as they post charges)? No wonder people are always clamoring for credit card reform...

For some reason I thought I read somewhere even if you cancel, there is a $100 cancellation fee? Is this correct?

Given these challenging economic times, I'm surprised Disney made this move. I know there are a lot of people who will pay anything to stay onsite, but for our family the 5 day cancellation killed the deal. Most hotels put a hold on your credit card for the first day, so that wasn't too unexpected, but with all the unknown factors leading up to a trip, a 5 day cancellation is insane. Most major hotel chains only require 24 or 48 hours. I think Disney will loose a lot of long time APer's with the new policy. I know they did with our family. I love staying onsite, but it's just not worth it with the new policy. I really hope that Disney reconsiders this policy.:(

It's about time they did this. It gets so frustrating hearing about people having reservations at Disney hotels and then cancelling them when the prices don't drop and they have ressies at other hotels for back up.

Personally I always thought it was bad form to put a hold on a room, through a reservation, that one doesn't intend to keep unless the prices change, as it prevents someone who is willing to pay the going price from staying there.

People can still wait for the AP prices to come out and then book the rooms that are available for those dicounted prices.

Disney did the same thing at WDW a few years back because of the abuse of the canellation policy there. People would have ressies at two or three Disney hotels and then cancel the more expensive ones if prices didn't drop.

Think about it this way. If you go to a store and want to buy a pair of slacks and they have your size and it is full price you can buy it and pay full price or take your chances that the pair of slacks will still be available in your size if they go on sale. What you wouldn't be allowed to do is put that pair of slacks on hold for yourself until the slacks went on sale, and then if they didn't go on sale just decide not to buy them at all. The charging of the first night and the 5 day cancellation policy are a means to discouraging people from holding rooms that they have no intention of using unless they go "on sale".

Disney is not in the business of trying to hurt their guests and they do make allowances for illness and other events in life, as long as you have proper proof that an event took place that truely kept you from keeping your reservation. It happened to us with Fantasmic! Balcony reservations. When my sister became ill they refunded hers and her DH's tickets, even though they are not refundable. The DLH also changed our ressie for the DLH past the cancellation date, with no peanalty, when we had a death in the family. They are flexible and willing to work with their guests. They just aren't going to be putting their rooms "on hold" any more for those that want the "sale" prices.

The one thing that does stink about this is what another poster mentioned, the lack of timeliness in credit card companies giving you credits. Of course this has nothing to do with Disney, but they should be forced to give you credit in the same timely manner they charge you!

dsny1mom

I am still wondering if they charge you $100 to cancel the reservation?

My understanding is that if you cancel more than 5 days before your arrival date there is no charge at all. If you cancel after the 5 day cut off you are charged the first nights rate. I think before this change in policy there was a $100 cancellation fee if you cancelled less than 72 hours before check in.

dsny1mom

Thanks a bunch.

I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but we just spent a night at the Disneyland Hotel. When I checked in, although early at 11 a.m., I didn't get my room key ahead of time. I asked about it and the CM helping me said oh they don't do that. I told her that yes they do, I've stayed there before, just a couple of months ago and I got my room key which was activated for the amenity facilities just not the room and that I can call later to check if the room was ready and if it was they would just activate it. The CM said, no, they don't do that, maybe it was Paradise Pier. She said I would have to come back in and get the keys. She said that was always her policy. Now i've stayed here and at GCH and I've always come early (7 am even) and always received my keys. I was kinda of just stunned (and tired as my brain was not responding and processing quickly). When I turned back around to ask her about accessing the pool, she was already helping another person and would not even look at me. I went to the information person and he made some pool only keys for me.
I didn't have time to dwell on this more when we were there but has anyone else ever had this issue? I really liked the convenience of this.

BoosMommy-Our family has checked in early at the Disneyland Hotel and gotten our keys (cards) ahead of time. Either they have changed the policy recently, or the clerk didn't know.

We stay at the DLH every trip and usually arrive before 3pm, and they have never given us our room keys ahead of time.

Every time we've stayed we've gotten keys that gave us access to the pool/self parking and when we're concierge ...the lounge...then when our rooms were ready we'd just go get new keys that gave us access to our rooms. Anyone that's stayed in the last couple years knows that the cards are designed to be luggage tags after your stay so they don't have any intent that you should 'turn the keys in' at the end of your stay.

I just stayed at DLH 10 days ago and checked in @ 10am. Asked for a pool key and access to the fitness center and had no problems. Kept checking back at the information desk and my room was ready @ 2pm. They would not however, tell me what the room number was going to be when I checked (I had asked for a specific view) which is understandable.

Hmmm, it sounds like another inconsistent policy.

Over the past 2 years, we've stayed at GCH or the Disneyland Hotel a total of 9 times, all checking in before 10 a.m. with various views and only once was concierge and this last time was the ONLY time we've never been given our room key or know what room we were in! We'd never, until now, had to go back and get the actual room keys. I wonder if it has to do with the actual time you check in? Don't know.