Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Because there's far too much to see and do. We're here to help guide you through. We are a married couple with two boys age 9 and 6 talking all things Disney World. This podcast will cover the tips and tricks we've learned along our journey, history of the parks and attractions, and most importantly why and how Disney makes us feel how we do while in the parks and that it's ok to feel that way.
Circle of Parks Podcast: Talking all things Walt Disney World
Episode #191:What Happens When You Have to Cancel a Disney Trip Last Minute!
Navigating the emotional landscape of canceling a Disney trip last minute highlights the value of family, flexibility, and a great travel planner. With unexpected obstacles arising, we explored our feelings and learned practical lessons about adjusting plans and cherishing family moments.
• Discussing the latest Disney merch and Cinderella's anniversary
• Sharing emotions experienced during the trip cancellation
• Importance of a travel planner in handling cancellations
• Transitioning trip plans to future dates
• Overview of refunds and travel credits
• Emphasizing the value of family time amidst cancellations
• Plans for future episodes and revisiting old favorites
Hello and welcome to Circular Parks podcast episode number 191. Today we are talking about what happens when you have to cancel your Disney trip last minute. There is far too much to see and do. We are here to help guide you through, but before we do that, we must talk Disney merch. So I still want to do Disney merch because, with it being Cinderella's 75th anniversary year, they are releasing lots of new items, and one that caught my attention today is the Cinderella 75th anniversaryiversary Magic Band Plus. It's a limited release for $54.99 and it is very detailed with all things Cinderella. You've got classic Cinderella with a star-dusted design presenting Cinderella, jack and Gus on a glittering band, plus the glass slipper on coordinating tappable icon. And again, this is a limited release. I really love all the details of it and if I were a really big Cinderella fan I love Cinderella, don't get me wrong. It's just not one of my favorites, but if it was, this would probably be a band that I would get. So that is currently on DisneyStorecom and that is this week's Disney merch.
Speaker 2:I don't see how you can be so chippy right now.
Speaker 1:I mean, it is what it is, I don't I just. I did not wake up that way. I thought about where we could be heading.
Speaker 2:when I woke up, yeah, I mean right now. We're supposed to be at Flame Tree Barbecue.
Speaker 1:Yes, or shortly arriving there anyway.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, last episode that we recorded just a few days ago was our trip planning episode and we had told you guys, next time you hear from us we would be doing a live dining review from Animal Kingdom at Flame Tree Barbecue. And, as I stated at the intro of this episode, we have now found out what happens when you have to cancel your Disney trip last minute.
Speaker 2:So instead we're sitting here in Nashville, Tennessee, there's snow on the ground and it's 19 degrees outside.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, but this morning it was like nine degrees.
Speaker 2:Whereas Orlando right now is sunny, with a high of 63.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:Still with no snow on the ground.
Speaker 1:Yes, still with no snow on the ground. Yes, so literally, we find we literally found out after recording our trip planning episode, like literally right after recording, that we were going to have to cancel our trip. There was some issues with family being able to help watch the boys. Illness hit and yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we decided to leave that episode up because we wanted. We thought this would be a good opportunity and, yes, I did get sick. I'm doing much better but we wanted to compare and contrast the episodes and talk about what it's like canceling a Disney trip last minute.
Speaker 1:yes, and it's not good no, and but I mean the way, once we get into all the details, you know, think things worked out the best they could. So but uh, yeah, you know, a big thing was we were going to have family help watch the boys and they're going through some health issues. Right now. Our backup to that is going through some health issues as well, some other family members, and you know it's not just the boys, we also have two dogs and everything too. So you know, we definitely went through a lot of emotions at first. You know, like first it was denial, like oh, this isn't happening.
Speaker 2:And not like denial on Jungle Cruise.
Speaker 1:Right, no. And then it was anger, but not like at anyone, just the overall situation.
Speaker 2:This situation.
Speaker 1:Yes. And then sadness, because you know we'd been looking forward to it. You can hear our excitement on the last episode. You know we'd been looking forward to it. You can hear our excitement on the last episode. And then disappointment, you know, because we, even though we've been several times before, you know you still kind of plan things out. You know your day to day, like we were talking about on the last episode, what we're looking forward to doing, where we're eating, the order of how we plan to do the rides, all of that. And then we were trying to figure out a way to still make it happen. Like, well, if we did this and if we did this, or you know, but we ended up, you know, defeat, hit and, yeah, acceptance that it's just not going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have a saying, not a saying, but it's lessons I've learned through life, and and I'm not saying this in every situation, but when the universe, or God, or whoever you want to say, starts throwing up roadblocks to something that you're looking forward to, maybe you listen to those and not in every situation. Right to maybe you listen to those and not in every situation, right, but when our plan A and plan B did not work out, and then you start having to figure out ways, to piecemeal it together.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's not meant to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, like the big things in our lives us getting married, us buying the house, jobs, everything like that just happened. There was no forcing it to happen, there was no making it going out of our way to make it happen.
Speaker 1:It just happened. It just kind of fell into place.
Speaker 2:Correct, yeah, it just happened and it just kind of fell into place. Yeah, correct. And so when, when the universe starts throwing up these roadblocks in certain situations?
Speaker 1:I'm not saying, don't always work hard for stuff, that's not what I know, because I learned that a couple of years ago and you know I fought through some obstacles and got to where I am now.
Speaker 2:Me as well, but when, when stuff like this happens, you might want to listen to them, and I did get sick. Our boys were sick last week, I got sick this week. I've been doing pretty well staying on top of it and usually what happens in this situation? Brittany is next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're just waiting.
Speaker 2:Or maybe she won't, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe I won't. I mean, I haven't been like completely 100%, but I wouldn't say I'm sick either. No, and being sick in disney is not fun either.
Speaker 2:No, I've done it before and I've I felt myself getting sick before, earlier this week, but I was like I'll be fine, we'll push through.
Speaker 1:And then this came up, and then that was the sign telling us like okay not just that getting sick, but just not being able to have anyone watch the boys and the dogs yeah, and so what do you do when you must cancel last minute?
Speaker 2:now, this is when a great not a good, a great travel planner is worth their weight in gold. Now, we haven't talked about her because we're not affiliated with anybody anymore. We we're not sponsored by anybody, but we still use Travel Planner Erica. Yes, and she is just amazing. We're not saying this because we're friends with her. We're not saying this because we used to be affiliated with her. She is amazing.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Her attention to detail and her wealth of knowledge as a trainer travel planner made this so easy for us.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I got you yeah, no well, I mean she really does go above and beyond, like I mean, she's done so many things for us through our trips and added nice little surprises here and there. You know, um, sometimes just letting cast members know ahead of our arrival that we are celebrating a special occasion, you know that we maybe failed to mention, um, you know she's, she's had little, like when it was the boys birthdays and stuff. Like she's had little surprises for them waiting at, like bill services when we've arrived and things like that yeah.
Speaker 2:So she is great. Um, check her out. If you want not a good, I'm talking a great travel planner. Go check her out wwwtravelplannerericacom. We're not just saying this, it is the truth. She really is great. Again, we're not affiliated with her whatsoever right now, but we still use her for all of our trip planning. She is amazing. She truly truly is. So she was still trying to figure out ways we could do it too. You know, throwing out suggestions, ideas and all this stuff. She didn't want us to cancel it either.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, she was like well, what about this for the dogs or this for the kids? Or like a day of doing this and then another day of doing this?
Speaker 2:And it was like oh, it's just too much. It was too much to try to.
Speaker 2:But she was really trying to help, yeah, so instead of canceling everything, we were already planning on going for fall break. Right, she just moved our booking and tickets to that trip. We even got money refunded yeah, a little bit. So our original. We were supposed to stay at Port Orleans, French Quarter, and we were using an AP discount. I am not renewing my AP this year After May. After May, Since the book research will be done there is. I have planned, done the cost analysis. It is not worth it for me to keep the annual pass. So she rebooked it with a non-AP and we're staying at the Pop Century Resort in October. Even got a little money refunded. Moved Brittany's tickets to those dates.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And now all we have to do is buy the boys tickets and that trip is booked.
Speaker 1:And yours now too.
Speaker 2:Well, I gotta get tickets for me too, because I don't have an AP anymore.
Speaker 1:For October For.
Speaker 2:October. But yeah, that trip the resort's booked. It was a seamless transition. The only thing we lost money on was the lightning link single passes, and even erica then was on the phone with disney trying to get those refunded. Uh, with no luck. So we were out 100 bucks.
Speaker 1:Right, but yeah, but other than that, I mean, it definitely could have been much worse. You know, like she, she was able to to do all those things zach just mentioned. You know, and yes, we're not staying at the same resort, but this was the next best option and at one at some point in time we were wanting to stay at pop and you know, pop is one of those that is on the skyliner route and everything too. So you know it.
Speaker 2:It worked out it did, um, but yeah, she was on the phone with Disney the whole time. She did all of that. We just told her hey, this is what we want to do on these dates, and she took care of everything. It was so easy. This is why we recommend travel planners, especially travel planner Erica. She's going to do this work for you.
Speaker 2:They're going to do that work for you. It was literally no work on our part. The only thing we had to cancel or change was our flights which on southwest. You don't get refunds, you just get travel credits to use in a certain time. Well, they don't expire I thought they did no, they don't. And um make sure you or your travel planner cancels your dining reservations or they will charge you $10 per person if you don't.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, make sure those dining reservations get canceled, which you can easily do on the my Disney app. Yeah, or again, travel planners can do that for you as well, but definitely don't let that slip your mind.
Speaker 2:No, we were also able to get refunds on the car services we had booked and already paid for. Make sure you check their cancellation policies. Ours were 48 hours, so we were able to get that back, excuse me, and um, yeah, so, um, the this whole experience has taught us just the value of a great travel agent. It really truly did, erica, you really are great, you are amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, you know, and they help just talk you through things too, when stuff like this happens.
Speaker 2:Calm you down.
Speaker 1:You know, because initially we were in all those emotions mentioned earlier and got her on the phone and, you know, after her throwing some suggestions out of well, what if, what if you do this or this? Then she was like, well, let me see what I can do for October.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and so going in fall break.
Speaker 1:But we are still going in in May June.
Speaker 2:That's definitely.
Speaker 1:But in fall break man southwest knows when fall breaks are yes, because those plane tickets I like I think my mouth like legit dropped open thirty seven hundred dollars for four round trip so even with our travel credits.
Speaker 2:That is yeah ridiculous.
Speaker 1:So we're hoping we're not purchasing those anytime soon. We're hoping they will go down.
Speaker 2:That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:And you know, if not, we might look at some other options of flying down there, flying into Tampa, is like three quarters cheaper. Yeah, and then getting a rental car and it's like a two hour drive.
Speaker 2:So hopefully it won't come to that, but you know it's when it gets that. A two hour drive, so hopefully it won't come to that, but you know when it gets that is outrageous. Yeah, you know we're not that price sensitive, but that is just crazy. Your airfare costs the same as your Disney trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or more Right, yeah, so yeah. So we'll be checking that off and on over the next couple of months.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So again, I just want to reiterate the importance of a great travel planner. We literally said this is what we're going to do, what we want to do, and she was on the phone with Disney, did everything for us. She just said, hey, check your my Disney experience app and everything was done.
Speaker 1:Taking care of yeah. So thank you, erica, do appreciate it. Thank you so much. And you know, guys, you know life just happens, you know, and so you know, yes, would we rather be in animal kingdom right now, of course, I mean it's nine degrees here, or 12 to whatever 20 but at the same time, you know, again, life happens and there's, you know, we're still spending time with our kids this weekend.
Speaker 1:I know it was supposed to be a kidless trip but you know, maybe it was just a way, before our busy season really ramps up, to get us to have this family time Relax, because next week soccer starts, work goes back to normal.
Speaker 2:It's going to be crazy through our next trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, until until. Yeah, literally right before we go together as a family in may, like I think it ends like a week or two before so I didn't know the weekend before yeah, we have tournaments until the weekend before. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:All over the state. So anyway.
Speaker 1:So again, maybe this was just a different way for us to slow down, instead of being in Disney and slowing down and relaxing. It was a different way for us to slow down as a family of four. This weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you know, we've been getting caught up on Cobra Kai.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have never watched the show until just a few days ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so some big twist at the end of season four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, few days ago. Yeah, so some big twist at the end of season four yeah, wow, and there's what?
Speaker 2:six seasons? Yeah, I've got two more to go. Yeah, maybe we'll get done this weekend, maybe all right. So, uh, I'm sorry we won't be able to provide any new restaurant resort reviews in the coming weeks. I was really looking forward to doing those, but I think we need to go back to the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, like some of our older episodes, like early, early on, we need to revisit those because they were so early on and we've gone several more times since then. There's some new attractions, yeah, new lands and so you know, we may be doing some of some episodes that you've heard before, but with new information.
Speaker 2:Some over-under. Are they overrated or underrated? Ranking lands and attractions I want to rank the coasters. I think we should do ranking the coasters. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Talk that over with the boys.
Speaker 2:You want to have the boys on for this.
Speaker 1:Well, they're kind of hit and miss with whether they want to be on or not. But at least have them help you plan that episode, like because y'all love the coasters.
Speaker 1:But you like some of them, I like some of them too, but they can really like help you. Well, well, what about this on this one? And then you might not have thought about that. Oh yeah, Well, maybe. And then you might not have thought about that and be like oh yeah, well, maybe let me change that number to this then, because I forgot about that part.
Speaker 2:Do we rank it just on coaster only or full experience? Because that changes things right, that changes the rankings?
Speaker 1:I don't know, that's something you'll have to decide, I don't know. Yeah, I just think, though, like with like Everest, for example, and Cosmic Rewind and stuff like they can help you more but they can help you more with those.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? I'm going to put a thing up to Instagram to see what the listeners think.
Speaker 1:Like overall experience. Overall experience versus just the coaster because that changes.
Speaker 2:Changes the rankings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it can for even other rides as well. Drastically.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, Anything else you would like to talk about?
Speaker 1:No, just you know, but be looking for that, not necessarily every week for the next several weeks, but here and there we will probably revisit some older episodes and update information. Or maybe it was something that you know we weren't so sure about before and the more we write it, we like it now, Because you just mentioned, for example, in the last episode, Ratatouille. You weren't real big on it the first time you rode it, but then now, the more you ride it, you like it.
Speaker 2:I thought it was a you and Nolan attraction and the more I ride it, the music I've been coming to like it more.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So I'm just saying, like, if we revisit that for several of the rides that we've talked about and stuff in the past, you know there may be some of that and we've got a lot of new listeners that maybe don't want to go back and search through hundreds of episodes to find something.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know I get it. And plus, we were not saying we're great podcasters or even good podcasters.
Speaker 1:But I get it. And plus, we were not saying we're great podcasters or even good podcasters, but back then, like the audio, when you're just starting off, you're like oh, and then it was just so bad.
Speaker 2:Not that we're good now, but at least the audio is a lot better.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so we'll see, and I mean we'll still come up with some new ideas as well, but obviously once we go at the end of May, we'll have plenty to-.
Speaker 2:Lots to talk about, lots to talk about. We're even going to that one park. Well, ryan and I are going to that one park. We must not name Rounds of Smirnoversals.
Speaker 1:And then you might be wondering well, when you're doing that in May, what are Brittany and Nolan going to be doing?
Speaker 2:Nothing.
Speaker 1:We will be doing plenty, but we won't share all that now all right, so anything else about this uh cancel. You know, like we do we might just have the disney blues a little bit a little bit um, but I'm holding back tears over here um, and in my last episode I had mentioned uh, bath and body works.
Speaker 1:Having like that new princess line, I have still yet to see it, so I am going there for sure today just to get a little bit of some disney magic so I know, I know, I know exactly where we're going when we get out today.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I just want to say thank you, erica, you made this process so easy, seamless. Thank you again. Not affiliated with her professionally, but we do still use her and she is great. Thank you, erica.
Speaker 1:We really, really do appreciate everything you did for us on this she just makes everything very, very personable and you know, like I, like I said before, you know when it's been birthdays for the boys and stuff it it's. You know she does not have to go out of her way to have a surprise waiting for you, but she does. And you know she provides a lot of additional information that she doesn't have to but just to help help you with guiding you through your vacation.
Speaker 2:So again if you want to go check her out, wwwtravelplanetericacom. You won't regret it, you really won't. All right, well, thank everybody for joining us. Sorry, I feel bad. I still feel bad. We could be an animal kingdom right now.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:Listen to the great music.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll find some good barbecue place today to eat to make up for Flametree, I don't know.
Speaker 2:All right If you want to email us, circleofparks at gmailcom, wwwcircleofparkscom. Again, we're on Facebook, instagram and X, all at Circle of Parks.
Speaker 1:And you know if you have to cancel a trip. It just life happens sometimes it does, but we'll talk to you soon, thank you.