Onboard Booking Policy Change Unfair!!!!

[tajz90]

I'm not sure that I've ever heard Disney announce that the future cruise desk was open to book dummy cruises. We were informed that we could move our cruise and keep benefits, but I really believe over zealous guests took the idea too far.

 

[Angie789]

Since we haven't cruised DCL yet (we were planning on May, 2015 - still doing a cost/value analysis on that in light of the current pricing), I don't really have an emotional connection to the issue but I will say that I don't think this is "unfair". All other discounts have an "expiration date" and any company has the right to set it at whatever point they see fit.

However, I do think 18 months is unreasonable. Not because families need longer to save, but because DCL doesn't even set their schedule that far in advance! If I was cruising today, I'd have to gamble that schedules that haven't even been released yet will work with my plans/offer ports I'm interested in, and so on if I chose to make a booking. There are better ways to handle OBB than either the old system (which was flawed) or the new one (which is also flawed in a different way).

 

[keaster]

A cruise is a luxury. Because something is family friendly doesn't mean it is supposed to be inexpensive. There is a price point for everything.

Agreed. If people balk at the price point and don't book/buy a product, Disney and other companies will adjust the price accordingly so it does sell.

And I don't understand the OPs remark that Disney bills itself for everyone regardless of economic status.

When we were kids we would've loved to have gone to Disneyland but our family was broke (like, had to sell the car to buy groceries, broke!) A Disney trip was a pipe dream, but we never had any animosity towards Disney or anyone who could afford to go. It is what it is.

 

[insureman]

So Disney Cruise Line is now excluding the middle middle and the lower middle class from taking advantage of the onboard booking discount. I don't know about the rest of you but we can not afford to take a cruise every 18 months. We typically make a payment whenever we have extra funds and if we can not pay off the cruise we have booked in time we move the reservation to the next cruise we want until we can afford to get it paid off. then we have to start saving money for, air fare, excursions, gratuity and maybe a few bucks to have dinner at Palos (just to name a few thing).

I know some of you say that they are just running a business, but for a company prides themselves on being family friendly and treating all their customers the same regardless of the age, race, or socioeconomic status they have a funny way of showing it..

I don't want to sound elitist here but Disney has never treated everyone the same in regards to someones economic status. That's why there are inside cabins and concierge level cabins, that also goes with Disney resorts, you can stay at the Grand Floridian club level or you stay at the All Stars resorts. A cruise is a luxury and as with any Disney vacation and should be treated as such. When I was growing up in the 60's we could never afford such a vacation with 8 kids in my family so my Dad would rent a cabin on a lake in New Hampshire and that was great. I know you don't want to hear it but the Disney company is a business and as a consumer the way to protest what you think are high prices is to take your money elsewhere and spend it on a vacation that would be affordable for your family.

 

[lbgraves]

.... I do think 18 months is unreasonable. Not because families need longer to save, but because DCL doesn't even set their schedule that far in advance! If I was cruising today, I'd have to gamble that schedules that haven't even been released yet will work with my plans/offer ports I'm interested in, and so on if I chose to make a booking. There are better ways to handle OBB than either the old system (which was flawed) or the new one (which is also flawed in a different way).

EXCELLANT point!

IMO it won't be long before DCL stops offering this entirely. They cut back on the OBC offered, then limited the number of cruises you could book each cruise, now this. There isn't much left.

I think that instead of cutting back on actual repeat cruisers, they should restrict the OBB benefits to just those cruisers and stop allowing people to make OBBs for anyone -- even if they have never cruised DCL before.

 

[BrerNashville]

You can still get a full refund if you cancel prior to the due date of your final payment, right?

 

[jahber]

I completely understand people's upset with the change, but to be honest, I'm surprised DCL ever had their original offer in the first place. I can't think of many companies that would offer me a 10% coupon/discount that NEVER expires! Almost every coupon (including the 10% PIN DCL sent us last year) has an expiration date these days. I think the point someone made on another post is valid: if you keep rolling your OBB over, that 10% discount intended to be used THIS year turns into a much bigger loss for DCL if it's used 3 or 5 years later. It could easily translate into several hundred dollars more than it was originally intended to be worth. (The idea of which I, as a consumer, LOVE btw.)

I do hope people are able to make DCL work for them. But if not, there really are other great cruise lines out there. We will be sailing on them ourselves in the next few years.

 

[Snurk71]

I'm sure I'm going to offend some with this, but boy there are a lot of people showing their ignorance of how businesses work. So many with the attitude laced with "me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me". This is a free country, if you don't like Disney's new policy - vote with your feet and spend your money elsewhere. If Disney turns enough people off and losses too much business, they'll adjust to win business back. That's how capitalism works.

I think the move makes a lot of sense. The whole point of the discount was likely to encourage frequent cruising - not give anyone/everyone/the middle class a discount. That would be kind of an absurd decision for a business as another poster mentioned - whose purpose is likely maximize shareholder value. They've determined that 18 months is considered frequent to them now.

I don't think Disney is turning anyone away from sailing with them. For people that can't afford to go within 18 months at 90%, but could within 24 months at 90%, you should be able to afford to go every 30 months at 100% under the new policy. Or, as I said above, vote with your feet and spend your discretional money elsewhere.

Off soapbox...

Sent from my SAMSUNG Note2 using DISBoards

 

[bumbershoot]

to compare a high end luxury company and a company who prides themselves on family fun (not well to do families) is like comparing apples and oranges. and the unfair part that people are not seeing is only people who can don't need the discount, can get the discount.

Disney prices itself on a pretty luxurious scale. It's family fun AND it's expensive.

When we were kids we would've loved to have gone to Disneyland but our family was broke (like, had to sell the car to buy groceries, broke!) A Disney trip was a pipe dream, but we never had any animosity towards Disney or anyone who could afford to go. It is what it is.

We were even in driving distance, and there were two Disneyland trips in 17 years. One with my mom and one with my dad. Both times were because of generous stepparents with better jobs than parents. If mom and dad had still been together I doubt we would EVER have gone. Some things just can't be afforded!



Seems to me with this 18 month thing, a family that requires 2 years to save up could start that savings 6 months before they normally would, then have a cruise and book 18 months out. They would be 6 months of savings ahead of themselves so it would work out the same, just with that 6 extra months of saving without anything booked or planned. Kind of like doing your own monthly payment plan for an AP. Save monthly for a year, buy an AP with that money, and keep on saving each month for next year's AP. Paying monthly just like if you were a Florida resident for WDW or a SoCal resident for DLR, but with a year of no Disney.

 

[bigvig1130]

I think you are misinterpreting who Disney thinks their current market is. Their current market IS well to do families in their vacation product lines. For a few years, they were catering to families that were far more average, but between overpriced cruises and ABD, they've shown their hand. There is far more margin to be had in selling luxury goods. For Disney, poor people can enjoy their brand by going to the movies and buying Disney princess dolls and Mickey t-shirts at WalMart.

As a corporation, Disney is obligated to give me as a stockholder a return on my investment before they give me as a customer a deal.

I don't know how many videos I've seen of Walt Disney saying he wanted to create a place where EVERYONE could bring their families. The fact that you think the pricing out of middle America is a good thing seems troubling. Just like middle America has been priced out of sporting events. Making things more exclusionary will eventually lead to loss of sales and will effect the stockholders even more than offering a small discount to a larger group of people.

 

[bigvig1130]

I'm not sure that I've ever heard Disney announce that the future cruise desk was open to book dummy cruises. We were informed that we could move our cruise and keep benefits, but I really believe over zealous guests took the idea too far.

The second I sat down at the desk, the CM offered to book a "placeholder" cruise. Placeholder = Dummy. I'm pretty sure it is an often used tactic to get people to commit.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I think people are taking this change personally as it applies to them. Seriously think about this logically.

I'm quite sure nobody sat in a meeting about the OBBs and discussed how they could appeal or work towards increasing or decreasing their bookings to the different socioeconomic classes. Shortening the time limit and setting a cut off is a business decision to increase repeat cruising frequency. This is not a "class" issue and it would never be in any company's best interests to exclude anybody intentionally.

It seems as if some are feeling victimized by a policy revision. Disney is not out to discard any guest. They're trying to increase repeat cruising frequency without having sailings tied up with gobs of "dummies" that kill the ships' capacity numbers at the PIF dates. Must not be pleasant to watch booking numbers vanish overnight as "dummies" are moved.

As others have said, this is business. Sounds cold, I agree. But it is what it is. Don't overthink it, emotionalize it, or make it into something its not. It's just a business decision. That simple.

 

[tajz90]

The second I sat down at the desk, the CM offered to book a "placeholder" cruise. Placeholder = Dummy. I'm pretty sure it is an often used tactic to get people to commit.

Again, placeholder wasn't offered to me. Then again, I always knew when I wanted to sail.

 

[Zeppelin]

to compare a high end luxury company and a company who prides themselves on family fun (not well to do families) is like comparing apples and oranges. and the unfair part that people are not seeing is only people who can don't need the discount, can get the discount.

A cruise is a luxury. Because something is family friendly doesn't mean it is supposed to be inexpensive. There is a price point for everything.

agree 1000%...the OP seems to think only low end category's are getting the shaft yet the fact is the concierge & cat 4/5 rooms took a major bump in prices...

and unless i'm reading this totally wrong i find it very offensive for the OP to decide who "doesn't need a discount"...somehow because I get cat 4 or 5 room or someone else gets a concierge rooms the OP seems to think she/he can judge we/they don't need a discount...

 

[lbgraves]

This policy change isn't what is making my family leave DCL. The insane 40% rate hikes for 2015 made me decide that before I even saw this announcement.

 

[hgon76]

This policy change isn't what is making my family leave DCL. The insane 40% rate hikes for 2015 made me decide that before I even saw this announcement.

^^^this^^^. The onboard booking policy is just an extra sting.

 

[kohsamuichris]

Mine Too!

 

[Dug720]

I don't know how many videos I've seen of Walt Disney saying he wanted to create a place where EVERYONE could bring their families. The fact that you think the pricing out of middle America is a good thing seems troubling. Just like middle America has been priced out of sporting events. Making things more exclusionary will eventually lead to loss of sales and will effect the stockholders even more than offering a small discount to a larger group of people.

The quote is "parents". Not "everyone". And not "all". Just the generic "parents".

 

[wendyoconnor]

This policy change isn't what is making my family leave DCL. The insane 40% rate hikes for 2015 made me decide that before I even saw this announcement.

Ditto for us. We are re-evaluating why we are choosing to cruise on Disney. Is it because of the characters or do we just want a week at sea? I found our on board booking sheet from our October 2013 cruise and compared it to a quote for an April 2015 cruise. It is a $1000 more for us and once I include airfare and a hotel stay it's more then I want to spend on a vacation.

 

[mkdreams]

Only $400?!?!?!?! Im sorry but that is a few months of payment to some people. and when we cruise we stay in Cat 11.

Well said.