Aug 24 2014 cruise canceled!

[LizzieandLuke]

Agreed. How can they cancel and then charge me $800. I don't think I will ever ever ever deal with Disney again.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

This is a super shame. DC knows better than to alienate really good clientele. I definitely don't blame you, we would be so ticked!!! But a DC cruise is SOO much better than CCL. Call DC and tell them that you saw that DCL was highest in customer service according to JD Powers and that CCL was lowest, and yet CCL is offering comps for changing cruises and DC is not. That you will make sure everyone all over cruise critic and online message boards know how Disney treats their first time cruisers and that the survey is meaningless because they have worst customer service than even crappy Carnival. Ask to talk to a manager because this wasn't your fault at all and you want to do is pay the rate you agree to, even if you have to change your cruise week (which is a major, major inconvenience in itself!) and then tell them that if they choose big companies for charters over families, that will soon be the only clientele left to cruise them. A really, really unhappy customer can cause lots and lots of bad PR, and you love and are loyal to Disney and so you don't want to be that squeaky wheel.

I love Disney (obviously) but this is incredibly poor business. Very very bad business.

 

[LizzieandLuke]

Already on Royal Caribbean Site - Can do a week on the DreamWorks cruise the same week for the 7 nights for the same amount of money. Never been on a DCL so I won't know the difference and Royal Caribbean is a good name.

 

[LizzieandLuke]

Actually was planning a land/sea - I will save about $2000 just doing the sea on RC - I know no Castaway Cay or kids club but my family will still have a great time and I will save thousands - I am actually almost grateful Disney cancelled.

 

[honeymo78]

I hate to sound harsh but DCL generally does this at least once a year and I doubt they will stop. They aren't hurting for business over it and what they offer is reasonable.

We were affected by the 2013 DVC member cruise charter. Since we are DVC we did end up spending points to keep our cruise date and B2B. However we also took advantage to the rebooking offer and got a Jan cruise for about $100 less plus an extra OBC.

It sucks when you are forced to change your plans but it seems that DCL is getting better about doing it further in advance - if this is the member cruise it's definitely farther notice than last year, if its not, expect another fall cruise to be cancelled for the DVC charter.

 

[over50visits]

We pay Disney, and promise to keep our word on complying with their contract. We make often expensive and unchangeable commitments based on our cruise dates.

Seems to me if Disney takes our money they should honor their word to provide us with a cruise, absent something beyond their control.

This was absolutely under their control, and they chose to do this. It is wrong.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

RCI is a great choice. They came it right under Disney too. Great family vacation although more like Vegas meets DreamWorks. If I couldn't cruise DC, I might make a concession for RCI too. (No more CCL for me for a while. I'm burned out!)

I wish my CVP could have helped you. She did an amazing job helping me with 2 fairly big booking problems, one before and one after the cruise even. But it doesn't hurt to let Disney miss you for a while, it's their loss really and they should be doing whatever it takes to keep you. Bon voyage whatever you decide!!!

___________________________

See what you did Disney?! You are sending your clients to your competition and they are happy about it! Tsk tsk. :: Shame on you.

 

[r_mccool]

WOW ~ I think I am in shock. I guess I am naive. I am not on this cruise, so not personally affected by situation. However we are a Disney Loving Family and this makes us realize the "magic" is an illusion. We have a Disney Cruise booked this Fall and a Royal Caribbean Cruise booked for Spring Break 2014. I have been doing tons of research trying to decide if the Disney Experience is worth the cost. From reading the post it appears this can happen with any cruise line and before today, I would have thought Disney would have been the best cruise line to be with during something like this, thinking well it's Disney ~ they will do right. Again, how naive I am. Makes we realize Disney Cruises are not worth the extra $$. I feel like a child learning Santa isn't real. I know Disney is in the business of making money ~ but there is so much they could do to make people feel better about this ~ free dinner at Palo's, free shore excursions, day at the magic kingdom, merchandise from the gift shop, etc. I hope it works out ok for all families involved. We will continue to go to the world and will probably book another Disney Cruise ~ but Disney Corporation lost some of my families loyalty today.

 

[mgpan]

I can tell that you are NOT a DVC member. Disney has no special affection for those that love the mouse. They just like ways to find to take their money.

Disney is much more business-like lately.

Not a DVC member, but last WDW trip at the CR, rude non-caring cast members, dirty room, no response to requests, etc. etc. The 80s-early 90s they got it, customer service that was, you felt they really valued your business. Now it's more "fine, we don't need you, there is someone to take your place." And many who have that special affection refuse to see it, which enables things to get even worse. Search for the story with the fridges at WDW being removed due to a recall and it taking over 4 MONTHS TO HAVE THEM REPLACED. I can buy several hundred today and have them shipped by the end of the week. Absolutely unacceptable! We've already decided against yet another week long WDW stay or cruise and will be doing a 4 night Disney cruise (if prices go up much more we're dropping this) in conjunction with a 5 night Universal stay partially because of issues just like this. I'm not paying a premium price for an average experience/ service. Not when I have options for my travel dollars.

 

[jcemom]

Wow! That is really poor customer service coming from Disney!

My sister was booked on a Carnival cruise sailing June 2014. They decided to change ships. Her cruise is still on, same itinerary and dates, but just on a different ship. She was given the option to change to ANY Carnival cruise of the same length and same stateroom category, any ship, any date between now and December 2014, at the same rate. I believe she was also given an onboard credit but I'm not sure about that.

 

[LizzieandLuke]

Thank you twin mermaids for the words of encouragement.

I would have never thought this would happen to me and when it did I still can't get over Disney didn't make it right. All she kept saying on the phone was that I needed to pay what other people paid for the previous week - that was her justification of the $800 difference. I kept saying that I am not the one the cancelled and they needed to make it right - she said that was the $100 on board credit was for - so I would only be out $700. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I think its amazing anyone who says that it is OK that they do this. I do encourage anyone who got kicked off the boat to look at RC. Especially if they need to shell out more money. Disney not care about you.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Thank you twin mermaids for the words of encouragement.

I would have never thought this would happen to me and when it did I still can't get over Disney didn't make it right. All she kept saying on the phone was that I needed to pay what other people paid for the previous week - that was her justification of the $800 difference. I kept saying that I am not the one the cancelled and they needed to make it right - she said that was the $100 on board credit was for - so I would only be out $700. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I think its amazing anyone who says that it is OK that they do this. I do encourage anyone who got kicked off the boat to look at RC. Especially if they need to shell out more money. Disney not care about you.

I would go with Royal Caribbean. There's no excuse for DCL's handling of this, and if you go along with it, you're just encouraging them to mistreat their loyal customers. again.

 

[r_mccool]

I would look at Royal Caribbean. We already had a spring break cruise booked with them and have cruised with them before. The spring break Royal Caribbean 7 night cruise was $2900 (including pre paid gratuities), Disney 7 night spring break week was $6800 (not including gratuities) so for us it was a no brainer ~ actually could not even go if Disney was the only choice ~ simply couldn't afford it. Disney may have done this several times over the years and not been effected but they will eventually if people lose their loyalty to the Mouse.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Lizzie! You makin' me cry!

I sent you a message. ::

 

[NY Disney fan]

Disney is a premium cruise line with the price tag that reflects it. There is no excuse for such treatment.

 

[PegIra]

So sorry this has happened to so many. We had it happen for a cruise in Dec 2014, luckily it wasn't a problem for us, but I don't understand how Disney can be so uncaring.

I must admit, we are finding this attitude quite often at WDW also. Not everyone but still, there is a definite lack of caring that they used to have.

One example last February I was backing off the monorail on my mobility scooter and I'm not sure what happened, but I went over the edge of the ramp. I fell off my scooter (I'm 72) and the scooter flew so hard, the battery flew off. The Disney employee was standing there staring at me, but never even asked if I was OK. Two very nice men came over and helped me up and put my scooter back upright for me. Not one Disney employee came to my aid. I wrote Disney and their response was that maybe they will discuss this with their employees at a training sometime. I wanted nothing out of this, just for someone to act like they actually cared, but that didn't happen. Luckily I was not hurt other than a scraped knee and a big bruise.

 

[LizzieandLuke]

Thank you mermaid

 

[maria-fan-22]

I'm surprised DCL and other lines don't have some sort of policy about charters. Like you have to charter a cruise not publicly available yet, or you have to pay for all our current guests to get moved to a different cruise..

 

[Greatfalls]

My family has done this cruise twice, in 2011 on the Wonder and 2013 on the Dream. My kids' school starts the day after Labor Day, so this has been a nice last week of summer, coupled with a few days at WDW. It's surprising this won't be available next year.

I would suggest that anybody affected write a polite but directed letter or email expressing how disappointed they are. If they get enough of these, they might decide that they need to do more, such as refund the difference between rescheduled cruises. Something similar happened this year with the Washington Nationals. They had a rain out and initially said that ticket holders had to attend the makeup the next day, which was a 4 pm weekday game. They couldn't exchange for another game. After enough people complained and the Washington Post picked up the story, the team changed the policy and allowed exchanges.

 

[tankin]

This might be an opportunity to shame DCL into doing the right thing in the future. Someone like Chris Elliott, who is Nat Geo's travel ombudsman, might be a good method. Chris's email is chris[at]elliott.org

This stinks for everyone involved...