September 29,2013 - DVC Member Cruise

[aan1701]

Yup I am gone. My friend and a bunch of her family is not DVC. I hope you guys have fun. Honestly the points are way to much to make me stay even if I could.

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[poison ivy]

Originally Posted by aan1701

Yup I am gone. My friend and a bunch of her family is not DVC. I hope you guys have fun. Honestly the points are way to much to make me stay even if I could.

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It seems surreal you are no longer cruising here. So many gears shifted to arrive at this point. I am really glad your friend was able to finally secure a date - still stinks that it's not the original one she planned.

How has everyone been fairing? I would have really mixed feelings about the whole thing.

[aan1701]

Everyone has been fairing just fine. We are just glad it's over. My friend and myself are just scratching our heads over why it takes emailing the executive office to get anything explained to us. The communication by DCL shoreside really sucked big time on this one. You know the saga so I won't repeat it.

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[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Yes me too re mixed feelings. Glad its sorted but still wish our original plans had remained. The compensation I felt was lacking.

[aan1701]

I was fine with the compensation. 200 OBC for a four night is very good in my opinion.

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[poison ivy]

Originally Posted by aan1701

Everyone has been fairing just fine. We are just glad it's over. My friend and myself are just scratching our heads over why it takes emailing the executive office to get anything explained to us. The communication by DCL shoreside really sucked big time on this one. You know the saga so I won't repeat it.

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I don't understand it either. What really was a surprise was that you personally out of anyone had to go through this despite having a contact over there.

I do like the fact that they added the 200 obc to an existing one, rather than replace one over the other.

But as I stated before, I did not like the fact that you had what I would consider a minor price differential applied rather than waived given the circumstances. In your case though, since you are planning to reshop everything I can understand where you were coming from. (any idea when they typically release CM offers for the fall?)

I hope you stick around here anyway. It's a big tent!!!!

You can share that panama canal trip and any DL holiday treks you have planned. Love that place!!! By the way, my daughter is planning to take the kids - son age 1 1/2 and daughter 3 for their first time very soon. She keeps telling me she wants to take them to both parks. Aladdin and Cars Land are on her california adventure must do list. I told her I thought aladdin was closing and that cars land may be too popular to visit easily right now with toddlers. Any advise you can share would be more than welcome.

[aan1701]

Poison Ivy. Thank you so much for your kindness. First off let me say that just because I have a very good friend that works at DCL, does not mean I will play that card. It's not fair to my friend. It's not my friends department and I never even mentioned my friend in any email or phone call. Now when it comes to DL let me tell you I absolutely hated Aladdin. The reason is the Genie was trying to be Robin Williams and it annoyed the crap out of me. So it's never on my list and I wish it would close. I will try to share stories from the PC trip got another trip to WDW in three months for a week form my 38th.

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[poison ivy]

Alan,

You're right. I forgot that was a close friend. I definitely wouldn't involve them either.

Oh and thanks for reminding me about the genie comedy routine of that show. My daughter has this vision of her daughter lighting up when Aladdin and Jasmine fly on the magic carpet singing a whole new world.

but she isn't remembering the majority of the show - which is the genie as the lead act. (it's been years since she's been back to DL even though she's lived in So. Cal for over a decade)

Too bad Mickey's Philharmagic isn't an option over there. I wonder if it would fit in the area where One Man's Dream used to be?

Anyway, I keep going over how the DCL seemed so removed in dealing with all this. Given the company prides itself on customer service and has such a high standard, why so lacking here?

Look at Paula's conversations. I also seem to recall Danielle having one where it was suggested she just move off the ship.

Ok so I took a step back to try to look at the big picture over there and see what else might be going on. Besides the Galveston cruises once again being modified which I'm sure is prompting a ton of calls and the delay in releasing 2014 dates, I couldn't find anything else significant enough to warrant the attitude toward our cruise.

Chartering out a sail constitutes a pretty big deal in my book!!!

[honeymo78]

DCL had told us we were out of luck with regard to the second half of our B2B. They wouldn't help in any way with adjusting it (or the room) if needed. Thankfully we don't have to change that now. But we were surprised with how unwilling they were to help.

[aan1701]

Poison Ivy Aladdin and Jasmine have not flown on the carpet for a while now due to a malfunction over a year ago I believe. Not seeing the show I don't know what they are doing, I just know they are not flying. To the others, I really think DCL lost some good will with this situation.

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[Dreamer7787]

Yes, I was told to cancel my reservation the last time I called to check the status of the cruise. The CM was very nice, but by the end of the phone call she had no confirmation that the cruise would be chartered (or by who) and still encouraged canceling since I couldn't move to another cruise.

[Johnny Quest]

Maybe the reason we had to go through this was so DCL would change their attitude towards these situations. NOT!!!

My theory is that the cruise line feels no responsibility for the charter. "The cruise was taken off our hands, therefore we don't have to service the customer." They must be very confident that cruisers will not leave the DCL. To be honest, it wouldn't have prevented me from booking a future Disney sailing and I've never cruised on another line. I like the service and security that comes with DCL.

I was really looking forward to meeting everyone and hope those of you that changed your plans will stay on the thread regardless.

[aan1701]

The chartering of the cruise would not have made me not book with DCL again but the way they handled it would have. I am not kidding. The guy who called me from Karl Holtz office saved them a passenger. If it were not for his kindness and his explanation, the wedding cruise would have been my last with them.

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[Dreamer7787]

I have to admit that this whole experience has me questioning whether or not we will cruise with them again. Especially since we would probably always be cruising around our anniversary and with DCL suggesting that one simply not book during the month of September to avoid this headache well... What's the point?

But we'll see. We still have to get through our first ever cruising experience. Maybe we'll find out that cruising isn't out thing. lol

[Johnny Quest]

Originally Posted by Dreamer7787

I have to admit that this whole experience has me questioning whether or not we will cruise with them again. Especially since we would probably always be cruising around our anniversary and with DCL suggesting that one simply not book during the month of September to avoid this headache well... What's the point?

But we'll see. We still have to get through our first ever cruising experience. Maybe we'll find out that cruising isn't out thing. lol

I wasn't sure about cruising having never done it, and I was instantly hooked. We have been Disney fans for a long time and when you put that on the ocean in a beautiful ship it's an amazing thing. I think you will like it very much! If the timing is an issue... sail the Fantasy! They don't charter her.