Disneyland Paris Cancellation Policy • Mouse Travel Matters

Last Updated on February 15, 2020

Understanding the Cancellation and Modification policies of Disneyland Paris

As someone from North America traveling to Disneyland Paris, their cancelation and modification policies seem completely out to lunch, if not illegal in many parts of our world. However, as a tourist in their country, we are required to follow their laws and hope that we have an agent that is able to explain all of the fees and policies before we virtually sign on the dotted line.

Having traveled to Disneyland Paris several times in the last 5 years, driving from Germany, we have always scheduled 1-2 months in advance, knowing full well that we are able to make it. This time, however, we are flying from Ottawa, Canada and booked almost 1 year in advance in order to capitalize on the amazing discounts they were offering.

Plans changed, things got in the way, and we are at a point where we need to cancel or at least seriously modify our current reservation. This is when we learned, for the first time, about Disneyland Paris’ cancellation policy and how hard it would be to get our deposit back. Regardless of the fact that we are calling 6 months in advance and they have plenty of time to put our reservation back on sale and sell it to another family at full price, guests are required to make an insurance claim in order to receive any sort of compensation.

Disneyland Paris Modification Policy

A non-refundable deposit of fifteen percent (15%) of the total cost of your booking will be required for bookings made more than sixty (60) days before your arrival date.

After your initial booking, modifications can not be made online, even if this is how you booked your holiday. Modifications can only be made by calling the Disneyland Paris call center. They can be reached at 08448 008 898

Disneyland Paris is experiencing higher than normal call volume due to its changing reservation system. Hopefully, this means we will soon see an app that is able to make modifications and dining reservations just like in Walt Disney World.

There are rules to the modifications, however. Disneyland Paris does allow for alterations between 61-8 days, free of charge when modifying to a higher price point. This also means there is a modification charge when modifying to a lower price point, as much as charges 89euro per booking, when calling 61-8 days in advance.

Disneyland Paris Cancelation Policy

When requesting a cancelation from the date of booking to 61 days in advance, there is a 15% cancelation fee. Hence, we mentioned the deposit is non-refundable.

Disneyland Paris: Travel Planner - Vacation Planning, Disneyland ParisPlanning, Printable PDF

Disneyland Paris Travel Insurance

When making your Disneyland Paris vacation reservation either online or over the phone, you will be asked if you want to purchase Travel Insurance. As a rule of thumb, we only book refundable tickets and hotels. While refundable costs more than non-refundable in most cases, the cost difference is cheaper than buying trip cancelation insurance. Once we start adding non-refundable options like airfare, we start to look into Travel Insurance to cover that portion of our holiday, especially when booking 1 year in advance.

We have been lucky thus far in that our airfare comes with a $50 change fee, so we are still able to modify out flight dates without having to “cancel”.

Knowing that Disneyland Paris doesn’t have a “cancel for any reason” style reservation system like Walt Disney World (up to 30 days in advance, of course), purchasing their travel insurance isn’t such a bad idea. Especially when you don’t have your own or don’t know who to go with.

Allianz Travel Insurance is a worldwide insurance provider and we have used them in the past for other vacations. Each package is different, so don’t assume just because you used them once for something else, that you know what their terms and conditions are.

When purchasing from Disneyland Paris, you are purchasing this specific insurance package. They are fairly accommodating, in that I have yet to see a previous underlying conditions clause (but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, please read the fine print on your own time).

Covers temporary or permanent disability
Death
Redundancy on economic grounds
Change to paid leave
Refusal of a tourist visa

The two conditions that are covered for insurance reimbursement that stood out to use the most is Redundancy at work and change of paid leave.

For a small fee (we paid $53usd for 1 week, 2 people), Allianz will reimburse any Disneyland Paris fees in the event you lose your job or your Leave request is canceled. The only catch is that you need to have your leave request accepted before you book the holiday, but that’s it. If your boss changes their mind and you can’t go on holiday that week, they will take care of all the change fees or cancelation fees. That’s amazing!!

Once upon a time, our company (because we do have full-time jobs outside of this blog), used to reimburse us for any cancelation fees that we incurred by their actions, so this helped them reconsider canceling any leave requests after they have been approved. Somewhere down the line, this no longer happens so we are happy to purchase insurance in the unlikely event this were to happen.

For more information regarding insurance coverage, contact [email protected]

Disneyland Paris Ticket Refund

As a company, Disney doesn’t refund tickets. They especially don’t refund partial tickets – you know, you bought 10 days because it’s only $10 more than buying 5 days, but you only had 5 days worth of hotel stays. They won’t give you your $10, or even extend the time you have to use your remaining 5 days. They definitely won’t allow you to transfer your remaining days to another person.

But, if you have purchased a ticket and have yet to use it or can’t use on the days you purchased them for – because Disney now sells date-specific tickets – you are able to call in and have that date extended. All you have to do it pay the fair difference. They don’t want extra money out of you, they just want you to pay the same as everyone else walking into the Parks that day.

Now, we know that Disneyland Paris still operates on paper tickets, vs Walt Disney World that has RFID and fingerprint tickets. So one could technically sell the paper tickets to a friend or scalp them at the gates. There are a few problems with this scenario, other than the obvious point of breaking Disney’s terms and conditions and risk being banned from the parks. That’s a pretty big consequence.

So, when you sell (or buy) leftover tickets, there is no real way to tell how many days are left. You would need to trust the person selling them to you.

Furthermore, when someone comes to you in the Park parking lot and asks to buy your leftover days, they aren’t doing this because they want cheap entrance tickets.

According to local police, these people are doing one of two things; looking to buy your tickets at a cheap price and scalp them for a profit, hence they can’t buy tickets at full value on their own. Or, they have been banned from the parks and are looking for a cheap way back in… in order to pickpocket from tourists. There is always the chance that these people are legit looking for cheap tickets, but there are so many ways to buy tickets that are inexpensive, we even wrote an article about it, that the likelihood that these are their intentions is unlikely.

We don’t know much about the way Disneyland Paris collects data on their guests, but I am sure there is a way for them to know who sold whom a ticket. Just food for thought.

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