Looking back at my “DVC Experiences I’m Looking Forward to in 2020” blog now, I sound naively optimistic about the future. Then again, I don’t think I could have possibly imagined the chaos that COVID-19 has brought to our lives. This year was supposed to be the year of 5 DVC trips for my fiancé, Timothy, and me, and so far we have 1 win (January) and 2 losses (March and now June).
June was planned as the split stay of all split stays for us with 5 resorts in 7 days: BoardWalk Villas, Villas at the Grand Floridian, Bay Lake Tower, Copper Creek, and Animal Kingdom Lodge. It would have been quite the whirlwind adventure! Being relatively new DVC members, we have not yet stayed at most of the DVC resorts, and we were anxious to try out as many as possible. Yes, that is a lot of checking in and out of resorts, but we had our reasons.
Our beloved home resort, the BoardWalk Villas, would have brought us within walking distance of the Yacht Club Resort where we were supposed to have our much anticipated menu tasting for our wedding. (How could you not be excited to taste a menu full of your favorite Disney foods??) Staying at the Grand Floridian, we would have been close to our villa after having our wedding planning session at Franck’s Studio. The days at Bay Lake Tower would have been our first time staying at our second home resort and a perfect excuse to revisit Top of the World Lounge. We loved touring Copper Creek when we were first looking into DVC, so we were excited to get a reservation there. Finally, the Savanna View Studio at Jambo House meant we would have had an awesome view of the animals from our balcony, and it would have been very easy for us to dine at Boma for the first time. As with our cancelled March trip, there was so much to look forward to, and I was really clinging onto hope that this trip wouldn’t meet the same sad fate.
Alas, I was wrong. This time around, we were not only contending with the closure of the Walt Disney World Resort, but also travel restrictions. Since we are from NYC, we are currently subject to a 14-day quarantine upon arrival in Florida through at least phase one of its reopening plan. Since there is no precise timeline as to when this restriction would be lifted, there was a chance that Disney World would reopen before we would be able to visit. My concern was that should that be the case, our DVC points could go into holding if I cancel too late. After all, the waived holding policy is only temporary and could easily be reinstated once the resorts open. I didn’t want to assume our points were safe. So at the 31-day mark, I decided it was time to cancel. I really didn’t want to, but it was a better alternative to 130 points going into holding.
I begrudgingly called Member Services and was connected with Gloria who turned out to be like a fairy godmother who helped take the sting out of cancelling. While she couldn’t tell me for certain when the normal holding rules would be reinstated, she was able to help me cancel the June trip and reallocate the points. She patiently went through each reservation from our June vacation as well as the 4 reservations we have planned through March 2021 in order to move all of our banked points from June to later vacations. Thanks to Gloria, all of the remaining unused points in our account are bankable. It felt like a little bit of pixie dust.
Now that I have cancelled our June trip, I feel oddly relieved. I am no longer as anxious about our points, nor am I digging through Florida news articles and state executive orders–at least not as intently as before. As with our cancelled March trip, the silver lining is that I know I will be back eventually. It’s just a matter of when, be it June, August, or later. I have yet to cancel our June flights (or our ADRs and fast passes for that matter), and as I am writing this on May 7, Disney has just announced that Disney Springs will have a phased reopening beginning May 20. Maybe there is a great big beautiful tomorrow after all.
We have also lost 2 trips – one to Disneyland and one to WDW. We have one booked for November, but unless there’s a vaccine by then (which there won’t be) we won’t go because of high risk people in our group. Likewise, today is registration for the marathon weekend, and I will not be doing that, for the same reason. There will be many banked points in 2022 for us, I think.
Wish this was my biggest problem in life…
If one cancels a reservation 31 days out, that has borrowed points involved, and Disney Resorts still do not have a re-opening date announced, do the borrowed points go back into the year they were borrowed from? I cannot decipher a clear answer
DVC is currently allowing borrowed points to go back into the year that they were borrowed from, and holding policies are being waived during the resort closure. This may change once the resorts reopen.