The National Basketball Association suspended its 2019-2020 season earlier this year as a response to the recent global events.

Since the season was paused, the NBA has been in talks with potential locations to resume games including Las Vegas and Disney World. And next week, the NBA will make its decision on how the season will proceed.

Disney World was recently referred to as the “front-runner” with the potential to host the remainder of the season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the NBA commissioner and other league officials have notified the Board of Governors of their goal to resume the season on July 31st. The board will vote on Thursday, June 4th, to determine the specific date and setting for the remaining games.

NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has reportedly recommended finishing the games in Orlando and the board is expected to approve this proposal.

The league will continue to work with the National Basketball Players Association to determine the schedule and safety protocols if the season is to resume. We will continue to keep you updated on this developing story.

You can read more about Disney World’s reopening plan here!

Were you following the 2019-2020 NBA season? Let us know your thoughts about resuming the season below!

Disney World has been rolling out new information about their parks’ reopening — set to begin on July 11th.

In preparation for the reopening, Disney has canceled all existing dining reservations and dining plans until a new reservation system is unveiled. But Disney just offered clarity on one specific dining experience we have been wondering about: character dining.

Disney has been reaching out to guests who had booked Disney World dining plans to notify them that character dining will NOT be available when Disney World reopens.

Thanks to our reader, @ashleyrakow , we have access to one of these emails. The message states, “As a result of physical distancing, capacity in restaurants and availability of dining experiences is very limited and certain experiences such as Character dining cannot be provided.”

We understand that this statement is very limited and does not provide you with a lot of information. What we do know is that at this time Disney has suspended new dining reservations but they have not shared which specific dining locations will reopen when the parks reopen. There is potential that character dining locations could open, just without characters for the time being (again though, Disney has not released specifics). When Disney does give us more information on dining reservations and open restaurants, we will make sure to update you with the latest information.

When it comes to characters, Disney has shared that meet and greets will be temporarily unavailable but that characters will still be available in some capacity.

As things continue to change, we will continue to provide you will the lastest news. We are here to help you during this strange time, so if you have any questions at all, please let us know!!

You can learn more about Disney canceling dining reservations here!

Did you receive a notification that character dining will not be available? Let us know in the comments!

Now that Governor Ron DeSantis has approved Disney World’s proposal, Disney will officially reopen July 11th. Disney World’s reopening has come with a LOT of changes. At this time, Disney is no longer accepting new hotel reservations and guests cannot purchase tickets as Disney rolls out their new reservation system.

Last night, Disney shared that ALL FastPasses and dining reservations were suspended for the time being. They also shared that they were canceling the Disney Dining Plan through September 2021. Since many guests would be losing their Disney Plans, Disney has shared more information regarding the 35% discount they mentioned yesterday.

Disney sent out an email to those who had the Disney Dining Plan as part of their vacation plans with a bit of new information. And thanks to DFB reader @ashleyrakow we can share this email with you! It is important to note that this reader had received the FREE Disney Dining Plan after having to reschedule a vacation due to the closures. Disney has not specified if these are the only guests who will receive this offer.

According to the email Disney “will be modifying your package to remove the dining plan. As an accommodation, the price of the package will be adjusted to reflect a 35% savings on the room portion.” When this information was released yesterday, Disney had shared that you would have to rebook to a later date in order to receive the 35% discount. This no longer seems to be the case.

The email goes on to share that, “This modified package and price will be provided in a new confirmation. You will receive a refund of the difference in the package price if you have already paid in full or a reduction in amount due if you have not yet made final payment.”

Therefore, this should be an automatic 35% discount added to your resort package.

If Disney releases more information regarding this discount or the Disney Dining Plan, we will be sure to let you know. We know things are constantly changing and are hard to process so we’re here to help. If you have any questions at all, please let us know and we will do our very best to get you the answers you need!!

Read more about canceled dining reservations and the Disney Dining Plan here. 

Had you purchased a Disney Dining Plan? Let us know in the comments below. 

Things have been shaken up in Disney World and we are here to help you sift through it all.

Quick recap: Disney World closed in March, kept accepting reservations, announced reopening dates, then wiped out existing dining and FastPass+ reservations. Now what? Disney is still sorting our their plan of action for the reopening, but let’s take a look at each part of your vacation to see what they are currently refunding!

Disney World plans to open Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom on July 11th followed by Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios on July 15th. To help limit the parks’ capacities, Disney is rolling out a new reservation system. But what does that mean for guests who already booked resort reservations?

Disney World Resort Hotels

As the closure has been extended, Disney has been cancelling and refunding hotel reservations that were scheduled during the closure automatically.

Disney retracted their previous announcement that Resort Hotels (Other than Disney Vacation Club and Disney’s Fort Wilderness) would be reopening and have not released a reopening date for these other hotels. However, in order to accommodate guests with existing reservations, Disney World placed a hold on new hotel and ticket reservations. Guests with existing Resort reservations will have priority access to the new park reservation system.

Disney World Tickets

As we mentioned, you can’t purchase a new ticket right now, because Disney is focusing on guests with existing tickets for the time being. But with all the different types of Disney tickets available, Disney World is handling each one a little differently.

Park Tickets

Unexpired multi-day park tickets or date specific park tickets that would have been valid on March 12th are still being extended through December 15, 2020. Or, you can apply the value from an unused ticket towards a ticket at a later date.

At this time, park-hopper add-ons will NOT be automatically refunded. According to a Cast Member we spoke with, “It will not happen automatically do to the fact that we currently do not have information on if our Guests will be able to park hop.”

You can read more about Disney World’s Ticket extension policy here!

Disney’s new reservation system will require guests to book a ticket for a specific date, similar to how Shanghai Disneyland reopened. Guests with resort reservations will have priority access to this new system. Guests will also be required to have a valid park reservation and admission before they can book dining or other experiences. We will keep you updated when we hear more details about this new system!

You can read more about the reservation system here!

Florida Resident Discovery Disney Tickets

Florida Resident Discovery Disney Tickets are currently valid through September 30, 2020.

Disney World Annual Passes

Disney stated that Annual Passholders might have access to special experiences and priority booking once the parks reopen. However, the website is still reflecting the same cancellation policy from the closures.

You can read more about Disney World’s Annual Pass refund process here!

Special Ticketed Events

During the closure, Disney has been refunding event tickets for cancelled events including Disney’s After Hours, Villains After Hours, Early Morning Magic, and H20 Glow Nights.

Disney has discontinued ticket sales for upcoming events such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, but a Cast Member confirmed that — as of now — the tickets are still valid. We will keep you updated as we learn more about these parties.

You can read more about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets here!

Disney World Dining

In anticipation of the reopening, Disney has canceled all existing dining plans and dining reservations “including Disney dining plans included in packages.”

So if you grabbed an advance dining reservation, you booked a Disney Dining Plan with your trip, OR you received a free Dining Plan with your vacation package — these will be automatically canceled and refunded. This cancellation applies to plans from May 28, 2020 through September 26, 2021.

All pre-paid dining or dining experience reservations will be automatically refunded and you will not be charged a cancellation or no-show fee.

Note: This does not mean Disney will not have dining plans or reservations by 2021, they are just clearing their current bookings to make way for a new system.

Once the new reservation system is live, the traditional 180 day booking window will change to a 60 day booking window prior to the reservation date. Additionally, if you are a Tables in Wonderland member, your membership will be extended by the number of days the parks are closed.

Similar to the park reservation system, once the new dining reservation system goes live, guests with existing reservations will receive priority access to rebook dining reservations.

You can read more about the dining cancellations here!

Now What??

A LOT has changed in the past several hours, so things are very much up in the air. Take a deep breath and know that you aren’t alone in this. We’re tracking down as much info as we can and will keep you posted here at DFB with the most up-to-date news we have!

If you have questions about your booking, you can call (407) 934-7639 for Disney Customer Support or use the chat feature to message with someone on the Disney World website. To cancel or change your reservation, you can do so online using My Disney Experience.

As you can imagine, Disney World is receiving a high volume of calls and messages, so there might be a bit of a wait. If you booked your trip with a travel agent, you can contact them for more details and for next steps. We’re in this together and please let us know your questions so we can help you out as much as possible!

If Disney World adds or changes any refund policies, we will keep updating this post with the newest information!

Click here to learn more about Disney World’s CONFIRMED reopening dates!

What questions do you have for us about the reopening? Let us know in the comments and we’ll do our best to get the answer to you!

After a months-long suspension, it’s expected that the National Basketball Association’s Board of Governors will approve commissioner Adam Silver’s proposal to resume the season in Orlando, likely at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the approval is expected to occur at a vote planned for Thursday. ESPN.com writer Ramona Shelburne reported that four plans for the structure of the season were discussed today, including one where the regular season would resume for […]

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