Update for January 17 – 22, 2006
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News and Views
Disney cancels Best Rate Program, reinstates former Annual Passholder discount program
What if you had a great idea, and your customers didn’t like it? Well, if you’re Walt Disney World and the idea is the Passholder Best Rate Program, you pull the program and bring back the program that it replaced.
Following an at-best lukewarm reaction to the Best Rate Program, Disney has returned to posting passholder discount codes with various prices for different times of the year. While there are some small changes, such as releasing multiple codes for shorter terms over a period of a couple of months concurrently, the program is basically the same as it was.
The Best Rate Program had promised passholders that they would be guaranteed to meet or beat the lowest publicly available rates for whichever time period that they had booked for, even if prices dropped after they made their reservation. However, there was confusion over what would be considered a publicly available rate, making those wanting to make reservations uncomfortable. In addition, some passholders discovered that a lower rate had been released for the second part of their trip, but since they had one reservation for the length of their stay, they were not eligible for the lower rate. On top of that, since reservations needed to be made at least 120 days in advance and modifying the reservation would incur a charge, they could not rework the reservation on two counts. Disney later dropped the requirement to 60 days, but that still didn’t please passholders, many of whom preferred to take advantage of the old discount rates to make a last-minute decision to visit the resort for a spur-of-the-moment trip.
So kudos to Disney for recognizing that passholders generally plan their trips differently than those who visit less frequently and for changing the program back to what their customers wanted.
The new passholder discounts are currently available for check-ins through April 13. There is no longer a 60-day advance booking requirement. No change or cancellation fee will be charged if you make your modification more than five days before arrival. Reservations can be booked via the Passholder Web site (link) or by phone (the special number for passholders is available on the passholder site, or you should be able to use the general reservations number).
You can book up to three rooms per pass. According to Disney, passholders must present their valid adult pass at check-in. We have also heard that annual pass exchange vouchers may be accepted by front desk staff. If you book using these rates and do not have an annual pass, you will end up paying much more for your room. Additional per adult charges will apply if there are more than two adults (18 or older) per room. Advance reservations are required.