To-Do: Contact Disney by June 12 to Re-Confirm Trips Between June 22 and July 4

Disney is asking guests with reservations between June 22 and July 4, 2020, to contact Disney to re-confirm those reservations.  Here’s the initial part of the message that’s going out to travel agents:

Your Clients may be receiving email communication from us if they have a Resort hotel booking between June 22, 2020, and July 4, 2020, if we have their contact information. We are asking them to contact their Travel Professional, but since we cannot reach all of your Guests, we request that you contact your Guests regarding their reservation adjustments and all of the information in the example Guest email below. We need them to confirm, modify or cancel their Disney Resort hotel reservations or Walt Disney Travel Company packages by June 12 for the travel period above.

Here’s additional text from Disney to travel agents on how to confirm those reservations.  Note that if you’ve booked through a travel agent, Disney expects the TA to do the work of confirming:

If you want to confirm your reservation:

• • Contact the Disney Reservation Center to notify our team of your Guest’s confirmation.
  • As needed, our team will move Guests from closed to open resorts during this time. This move will be at no additional cost to your Guests. Note that they won’t have an option to modify to another resort of their choosing for this reservation.
  • As previously communicated, for Guests who had a dining plan, we will be modifying their package to remove the dining plan.
  • If guests staying in our resorts before park opening on July 11, 2020, want to keep their reservation, they will be downgraded out of the ticket package and the package price will be reduced. Alternately, they can move their reservation to new dates, or cancel.

Note the part about moving guests from closed to open resorts, and that modifications to another resort won’t be possible.  I wouldn’t be too concerned about this, because the list of hotels that are opening appear to be DVC and Deluxe resorts. It’s possible that many guests will get significant upgrades.

Also, because tickets will be cancelled as part of any package between those two dates, it could be that any park soft-openings will be limited to annual passholders.  Now, I’ve got no information to suggest that the parks will soft-open before July 11. My thought is that if I was Disney, I wouldn’t want to wait until July 11 to open the gates to two of the world’s most popular theme parks, and only then see how a bunch of new procedures work with the general public. If it was me, I think I’d rather see a set of small, controlled tests. I could be completely wrong.

Here are Disney’s instructions for guests who want to modify or cancel their reservations.  Note again that if you’ve booked using a travel agent, Disney expects the TA to do the work:

For Guests wishing to modify their reservations to a future date in 2020:

• • Contact the Disney Reservation Center to modify their booking to a later date in 2020.
  • If your Client would like to modify to a date on or after July 11, 2020, they may only modify to one of the announced opened resorts, based on availability. Guests will be responsible for any higher rates.
  • Travel protection may be moved to a new reservation in 2020. The Guest will be responsible for any difference in price.

For Guests wishing to cancel their reservations:

• • Contact the Disney Reservation Center to notify our team of your Guest’s cancellation.

I didn’t see anything in these communications about how Disney will handle those guests who re-booked from earlier in the year, and received either a free-dining offer, or other discounts, if they moved to dates that fall between June 22 and July 11.  My guess is that those reservations are being handled separately.

Finally, Disney released other information on Saturday, June 6, about changes to resort operations.  Here’s a summary of which amenities will and will not be available during the re-opening phase.  And here’s a summary of how dining will run during that phase.

Let us know of any questions in the comments – we’ll try to answer them either in the comments or by updating this post.