While no one wants to cancel a Walt Disney World trip, unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way and forces a change of plans.
Cinderella Castle
If you ever find yourself in that situation, there are some rules you NEED to know, including a new change that caught me – who’s been visiting Disney theme parks for over 30 years – off guard.
The rules for canceling a Walt Disney World vacation without extenuating natural circumstances – we’ll get to those shortly – vary depending on what type of vacation you have booked.
Hotel-only reservations – ie, those not tied to a vacation package with theme park tickets – must be canceled 8 days before your scheduled check-in to get a full refund. If you cancel between 0 and 7 days, you will lose the cost of a one-night stay, which is the deposit, but be refunded for the rest. This is a change from the previous rule, which allowed guests to get a full refund when canceling up to 5 days beforehand. This new rule was instituted in 2025, and may be unfamiliar to those who haven’t been to the resort recently.
Disney’s Pop Century Resort
Vacation packages, which include Walt Disney World accommodation and theme park tickets, can be canceled up to 30 days before arrival without penalty and a full refund. Cancellations made between 3 and 29 days before arrival require a $200 cancellation fee, and cancellations within 2 days of arrival mean the entire package becomes nonrefundable.
EPCOT’s Mexico Pavilion
Now, let’s pick up on those extenuating natural circumstances. Specifically, if a hurricane warning is issued by the National Hurricane Center for the Orlando area or for a guests place of residence within 7 days of their scheduled arrival date, the guest may reschedule or cancel their Walt Disney Travel Company Disney Resort hotel packages and most room only reservations (booked directly with Disney) without any cancellation or change fees. Most of these room-only and vacation packages can be modified or canceled online, including changes to travel dates.
Magic Kingdom entrance the day after Hurricane Milton
Also note, if you need to cancel a Walt Disney World vacation, you will also need to separately cancel any dining reservations or tours. In addition, third-party suppliers, including air transportation, non-Disney hotels, and car rental agencies, will require their own cancellation policies, likely with their own rules.
Rental Cars at Orlando International Airport
While no one ever wants to cancel a Disney World vacation, it’s important to know how, just in case! Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney vacation tips.
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We have had to change our plans, thankfully we have known in enough time that we didn’t lose any actual money. We’ve lost discounts though, and that stings. One of the reasons we’ve never done bounce back offers is we can’t be completely sure when the next time we can visit will be. My recommendation is, don’t cancel, change your dates! Even if you can’t go on the rescheduled date, Disney will work with you to change it again. Unless you know you’re never going back, or you need what money you can get back, reschedule. I don’t know if there’s a limit on how many times you can ‘reschedule,’ but I do know that Disney is pretty flexible about it.
We, Disney adults, needed to cancel 14-12 hours before our vacation was to start! I started with calling Disney guest services about our park passes (6 day park w/hopper). Super helpful, explained how that worked in my Disney account, and emailed me my $ amount that would be sitting in my Disney experience, and emailed me the confirm # to give staff when ready to use that credit when ready to rebook tickets. However that $ amount could be used for hotels, tickets, or anything Disney. And no expiration date. But prices do increase of course, so keep that in mind so we may have to pay more if wait years etc. Next, he mentioned our resort reservation, DVC, at Saratoga Springs. I had paid a friend of mine who is an owner, for her points. And she is unable to cancel less than 30 days notice. So I told the cast member, this and I h destined we were going to loose this money…(FYI-Why were we cancelling SO LAST minute? My MIL is 91 and took a huge medical turn for the worse, and we were told to rush to her bedside). The cast member then said he worked the DVC line also, and for this situation, they would allow a cancelation and my friend her points back. But she would need to call, from Scotland! And she did that and of course Disney gave her points back and did not put them in holding (whatever that means), and we got our money back for that. Airfare, we had purchased travel insurance, so no fee for cancellation (yes, buy the insurance people!) have voucher and one year to use the funds we paid.
Overall, we have paid for everything, and have vouchers to book again. But, people are more important and so are those last goodbyes.