Credit: DisneyWalt Disney World Resort is a magical place full of exciting attractions, memorable experiences, and a wide variety of tasty food and treats to discover, especially at restaurants like Be Our Guest or Cinderella’s Royal Table in Magic Kingdom.
However, yesterday brought some interesting news from the world of Disney dining. It was discovered that on the Disney World app, Guests could cancel their reservation more than two hours in advance without getting charged for it.
Related: Disney Hack: How to Cancel a Dining Reservation Last Minute With No Fee
Nexstar journalist Scott Gustin recently Tweeted about apparent new changes with Disney World’s dining system:
It appears you can now cancel dining reservations in the Walt Disney World app if it’s at least 2 hours before your reservation.
I don’t think this tweak impacts restaurants that require prepayment (Cinderella’s Royal Table, etc.).
If you try to cancel inside 2 hours, you will see the “Please call to cancel” message. You will need to call or modify to a future date/time.WDW posted a message in the app last night about maintenance — I assume this was one of the updates.
If you try to cancel inside 2 hours, you will see the "Please call to cancel" message. You will need to call or modify to a future date/time.
WDW posted a message in the app last night about maintenance — I assume this was one of the updates. pic.twitter.com/mP209LMyhN
— Scott Gustin 👋🔜 (@ScottGustin) November 3, 2022
Previously, Guests would incur a $10 penalty fee per person for “no-shows” or if they didn’t cancel 24 hours in advance.
However, this same-day cancellation policy may have been a glitch, as some commenters replied to this Tweet saying they could not cancel on the app even though they had done so outside of the two-hour window.
Scott then replied to these comments, saying:
I’m not sure the same-day change is a glitch — but there is an issue where canceled dining reservations are canceled and cancelation emails are being sent out, but the reservation is still displaying in MDX
And another user, @jayflyers, confirmed this issue:
Can confirm. There was a long paper list of cancellations being kept at Oga’s this afternoon due to those glitches. CM indicated they would make sure no charge was applied to the paper list names
Related: 6 Hacks To Land Those Hard To Get Dining Reservations
Regardless of whether or not this was a glitch in the dining system app as it was undergoing maintenance, users are still upset that it might cause an increased hoarding of reservations that are already hard to get for certain dining locations at Disney World.
Disney’s official messaging for their cancellation policy has not changed either and still reads:
You can cancel your dining reservation online. Please refer to the cancellation policy provided at the time of your booking and in your email confirmation.
Restaurants offering advance reservations charge a per-person cancellation fee for reservations cancelled after the designated cancellation period, or for no shows. Each restaurant at Walt Disney World® Resort maintains its own cancellation policy, so be sure to confirm the policy before finalizing your reservation. For additional assistance, please call (407) 824-1391.
If this cancellation process seems confusing, there is a workaround. As some commenters on this Tweet pointed out, if you reschedule your reservation to another day and then cancel on the app, you will also not be charged.
It is unclear how long this new policy will be in place or if it was a glitch due to the updated system, but either way, we will keep an eye out for any future changes.
Have you ever had to cancel a dining reservation at any of the Disney Parks? How was the experience? Share your story below!