I am probably in the luckiest of the unlucky category. We were booked for the Contemporary 3/21-3/28, my son's first trip (and 11th birthday celebration) and my first trip in 20 years (former CP cast member who can't wait to get back). We cried it out on Thursday night but knew in the last week that it was a distinct possibility so we were somewhat mentally prepared. Anyway, I am loving this second chance at planning my family's first Disney World trip!
Because my
travel agent had five other clients in that window, I got on the phone with Disney Friday afternoon to book a December 2020 trip. After about 45 minutes (of actual talk time, was probably on hold for only 10), I had a new (longer!) split-stay reservation for Dec 2020. I was initially looking at Feb or March 2021, but there was literally ZERO Contemporary Main Tower availability those entire two months. The Contemporary, Main Tower is my monorail-enamored son's only request so I was trying to honor that. We ended up with most days at the Beach Club and then finishing with a bang with 3 nights in a Main Tower theme park view room and that seems to be making everyone happy.
My travel agent will cancel the original one or it will get refunded automatically, since we are squarely in the closed window, I don't need to worry about that. And I can transfer the new reservations to her (even though the Disney agent told me I couldn't, I knew otherwise). I threw out the whole working-around-the-school-schedule thing. As this whole pandemic has reminded us, you only live once people!
All the best to everyone else in this predicament, you are not alone! Stay healthy and have fun re-planning, it is part of the fun!