When you’re planning your Disney World trip, it all seems to be sunshine and rainbows, right?
Disney World
But what if you — perish the thought! — need to cancel your trip? Y’all we love talking about al the GREAT things about vacation, but sometimes…well, we’ve gotta look at what can go wrong. And there is a VERY important thing you need to know about your Disney World tickets! So, let’s take a look.
This may not SEEM like a big deal to you IF you’re in the Disney World planning honeymoon phase and don’t plan on backing out of your trip for NOTHIN’, buuuuuuut… things happen. LIFE happens. There are storms, there are sicknesses, there are a dozen things that could force you into a corner where you need to back out of your Disney World vacation.
Storm clouds in EPCOT
And while, for the most part, Disney reservations for things like hotels and restaurants can be canceled no problem-o (if you cancel soon enough, that is — you’ll just have to check Disney cancellation policies on their website), Disney World park tickets are pretty unforgiving.
Disney World tickets are nontransferable and nonrefundable, so you cannot cancel a ticket or get your money back for it. And that… can really feel like salt on an open wound when you’re already bummed about postponing your trip in the first place.
Disney World Theme Park Ticket Cards
With that being said, Disney does warn that “while you cannot cancel or get a refund for tickets or packages, you may be able to change the date of your unused tickets.”
You can often use unexpired tickets in the future just as long as the first date has not already been used. But you’ll need to change the date of an unused standard theme park ticket via the Disney World website.
You can change the dates for your unused park tickets — but you won’t be able to get a refund.
If you’re picking a different date to use your park tickets in the future — and said future date happens to be during a more expensive time of year — don’t sweat it! You’ll just have to pay the price difference between your original ticket date versus this new ticket date instead of paying for all-new park tickets.
Tickets, please!
So, in short, you can’t go back on a Disney ticket purchase once the purchase has been made, but Disney will work to accommodate you if you need to push back your Disney vacation to a later time.
We have also had success in converting our tickets to other types — for example, applying a completely unused 4-day ticket to the purchase of an annual pass. We have found this type of transaction best done in person, and because there are no specific policies regarding this on Disney World’s website — please understand that your mileage may vary!
We Found Every Single Disney World Ticket Price Increase So You Don’t Have To
Basically if you need to cancel a Disney World trip you can, but to get your money’s worth our of those non-refundable, non-transferable tickets, you’ll need to schedule a Disney World trip for some time in the future. And that’s not a bad thing, right?!
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I had a ticket credit from a trip that was scheduled until the PANDEMIC hit. I just used the credit during my March 2024 trip. Why wouldn’t you want to return to WDW?! It’s my happy place. My daughter handled the exchange and buying the new tickets. Very nice and informative employee. All went smoothly.
Back in 2006 we had a UK 14 day pass each. We had a lovely first day in Epcot but the next morning got a call to say that my Dad had unexpectedly died. I needed to get home but the only flight home had just 2 available seats & we are a family of 3. I decided to go on my own whilst my husband & son stayed behind. After dropping me at the airport my husband popped to guest relations at Disney Market Place as it was at the time. He explained what had happened & asked if he could pay to add non-expiry to my ticket to use another time. They were brilliant & said they would refund the unused part of my ticket. He assumed they’d deduct the price of a one day ticket before calculating the refund amount. However, they just deducted 1/14th of the value which obviously was much better for us. If something bad happens & you need to cancel a ticket, just let Guest Relations know. They have rules, of course, but are real people who understand if something has gone badly wrong & can show compassion.
You can cancel a ticket, but it has to be a really good reason. My friend just did. He had somehow injured himself to where driving, walking pained him so much and he was prone to panic attacks so he feared he’d have one in the crowded parks so he spoke to Disney and got his money back…