Cruisers get the Castaway Club... and there's the Visa program... and DVC can be considered the ultimate loyalty program -- you've got to be really loyal to buy in for 45 years!
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Refunds or cancellations of Disney World Annual Passes
- Thread starter twilight mitsuk
- Start date
disneydan80
Member
Universal has paused monthly payments, we’ll see if Disney follows.
I wonder how long before they'll have the nerve to send out renewal solicitations? Those should be interesting reading
We got renewal notice in the mail on Saturday
Both companies to whom I make monthly payments for services stopped by the pandemic (my locally owned gym and and a national movie chain) have stopped accepting payments and will resume the period for which I last paid once they reopen. I think that is what most businesses are doing in America, for plans you can renew or cancel month by month. Some folks are conflating their experience with those kinds of monthly payments with their experience with monthly payments on purchases otherwise to have been made outright, and expecting the treatment of both to be identical. I don't think that is an entirely reasonable expectation.
That said, I agree with those who point out that customers have long memories. If Disney chose to pause payments, I think that would be a well appreciated gesture, but they've decided not to. Fine, but then I think Disney could do better than what they've announced, which I think is that a closure of, say, 30 days will result in a 30 day extension of the pass. Many people are not able or willing to take on the risk of paying for travel now which may or may not come to pass or be refunded, which I think is reasonable. When reopening is announced, it will likely be imminent, but non-locals often can't plan and execute a trip immediately, because rates for everything tend to be high.
So what do I think is the solution? I'm not sure, but I think it's somewhere between "shame on them Disney should cancel and refund all remaining time immediately" and "Disney should do nothing, you wouldn't get money back in these other circumstances." Perhaps a more open ended extension would be appropriate as a goodwill gesture, especially for out-of-state pass holders. Disney is certainly deep-pocketed but will be losing a great deal of money as this goes on. I hope they will make customer-friendly moves as they can.
That said, I agree with those who point out that customers have long memories. If Disney chose to pause payments, I think that would be a well appreciated gesture, but they've decided not to. Fine, but then I think Disney could do better than what they've announced, which I think is that a closure of, say, 30 days will result in a 30 day extension of the pass. Many people are not able or willing to take on the risk of paying for travel now which may or may not come to pass or be refunded, which I think is reasonable. When reopening is announced, it will likely be imminent, but non-locals often can't plan and execute a trip immediately, because rates for everything tend to be high.
So what do I think is the solution? I'm not sure, but I think it's somewhere between "shame on them Disney should cancel and refund all remaining time immediately" and "Disney should do nothing, you wouldn't get money back in these other circumstances." Perhaps a more open ended extension would be appropriate as a goodwill gesture, especially for out-of-state pass holders. Disney is certainly deep-pocketed but will be losing a great deal of money as this goes on. I hope they will make customer-friendly moves as they can.
donsullivan
Premium Member
Changes such as were suggested would require all kinds of new programming logic to be created, tested and deployed that simply does not exist today and is not likely the best use of limited resources with everything else going on right now. It's not unreasonable to come up with a hundred different 'they should do it this way for me' scenarios that someone would want a custom approach for. Pushing out the renewal dates can be done with one bulk database change to all pass holders once they are back open again and move forward. Everything else is variations of the highly demanding guest model we hear about so often.
Not to mention the fact that the parks hadn't been closed for more than 3 days when this all started. If you were impacted within 3 days of the parks closing you had issues before that and Disney isn't responsible to accommodate those. This all feels like something started by people who wanted out of the monthly payment 'contract' they agreed to and are trying to use the closure as a tactic to get out of it.
durangojim
Well-Known Member
I was part of that through the hospital I was completing my residency at. It was great!If you worked for the right company, which I did, you could join the Magic Kingdom Club...
Yesterland: Magic Kingdom Club
www.yesterland.com
Unfortunately that ended in 2000.
durangojim
Well-Known Member
The amount of people who are complaining about this is minuscule. disney will do nothing about this nor should they. Shame on us if we buy things we can’t afford based on the assumption that things in our world will always remain the same. I’m curious if everyone wanting a refund of stopping paying their monthly payments would still be willing to do so if it meant someone or some people would loose their jobs or if future experiences would be degraded because of this.
Not mutually exclusive.
Has Disney said when they will be adding the extended days to annual passes? We've pushed out our next trip, and now our passes expire two days before we've decided we'll come home. Renewing is questionable (as was last year's, but...here we are) so I'd love to have a few days added to our pass.
donsullivan
Premium Member
They will not likely do anything until they have a reopening date. There is really no reason to do anything before that.
I mean no disrespect, but I think this is a pretty cynical take. I didn’t find the Sentinel’s example particularly sympathetic either, and I personally choose not to make leisure purchases unless I can pay for them in full immediately. But I think a worldwide viral crisis hardly falls under the usual “consider the risks when you buy something on time.” It’s also not irrelevant that the service for which people are still making monthly payments is not available to them right now.
When virtually every business accepting monthly payments has suspended those when their services ceased, I’m not surprised that those without much financial wiggle room expect Disney to do the same. I understand that there’s a difference between installment payments on an annual service and discrete monthly subscriptions, and I’m also someone who could easily keep up the monthly payments if I had to, and I still think it would be gracious for Disney to that.
Many people are in sudden and, at a consumer level, pretty unpredictable financial crisis. I’m all for personal responsibility, as a rule, but I think now is the time for an exception. I don’t think people are looking for a free lunch. I think, while sometimes they should have made different past decisions, they are now genuinely struggling and hoping their creditors will make accommodations if possible. Many entities much smaller than Disney have seen fit to defer monthly payments of all sorts, after all.
As to the last sentence, I doubt anyone who can pay only one of their utility bill and their AP bill will be worried about the possibility of, say fewer open QS restaurants on future visits. As far as whether people may lose their jobs over this issue, some would say that a company that netted $11B last year has just as much responsibility, and maybe more, to have contingency plans to pay their workers if something changes as individual consumers have to pay their AP bills in the same circumstance.
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peter11435
Well-Known Member
Pretty sure they would lose. This isn’t a monthly membership. This isn’t a monthly subscription service. This is a product purchase where you make a down payment and finance the balance. There is a difference.
disneygeek90
Well-Known Member
If they stopped allowing monthly payments there would probably be less AP's/people in the parks in general which... really wouldn't be a bad thing.
Well, at least it wouldn't have been. I'm not sure what the crowds will look like when it does re-open.
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
This is more of a financial literacy issue than anything else. As many posters prior to me have mentioned, this is a single product (admission to Disney Parks) that has been purchased on an installment plan (aka binding contract that you will pay x amount at y interval for z months). Once you take possession, the transaction is complete. One side gets a good and or service, the other gets a downpayment and a promise that they will get the remainder overtime at stated intervals.
Philosophically its the difference between living on credit and pay as you go.
Philosophically its the difference between living on credit and pay as you go.
disneygeek90
Well-Known Member
We're going to acknowledge the extreme predicament the entire world is in and cut them a break. No one, especially not Disney, could have predicted this. They will open when they're able to. Nitpicking their conditions once they do reopen doesn't help.But what are they gonna do when one of the parks doesn't open with the rest? I bought an annual pass for 4 parks right?..
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
Terms of tickets generally allow them to suspend access to any park at any time for any reason. Also refurbishment and operational reasons, if they don't have enough staff (as they aren't taking on CPs) its an operational reason etc.But what are they gonna do when one of the parks doesn't open with the rest? I bought an annual pass for 4 parks right?..