Planning on booking a quick trip to Walt Disney World this fall? It might be a little difficult as the Walt Disney World Resort just enacted minimum length of stay requirements. This affects new bookings and modifications to existing reservations.

Availability across all Disney Resort hotels is now very limited from September through December. Shorter length of stays, or even 1 night room reservations are becoming increasingly difficult to find. For example, Disney’s Pop Century Resort shows available Oct 17 through Oct 26. However, it shows as unavailable for just 1 night - Oct 25 - 26.

If you have an existing reservation and would like to shorten your trip, you may not be able to do so. Disney will likely offer you 3 options: keep the reservation as-is, cancel it and try to rebook, or try a different resort. While this can be very frustrating, from Disney’s point of view, it doesn’t want holes in its reservation system. Holes are one or two nights scattered around that will likely go unsold. Holes are often created by short stays.

Travel agents who specialize in Disney can sometimes work with Disney on your behalf to get a modification to go through. As a travel agent myself, I know a few different routes to take, but no guarantees of course.

This is a pretty good indication that fall bookings are way up and that Disney World itself is reaching capacity. If you plan on visiting Walt Disney World this fall, the time to book is now!

Darren is a travel agent with Magical Vacations Travel, specializing in Walt Disney World travel.