BAIT and SWITCH

[BobC]

So if it rains heavily during my entire time at Disney and I can't ride the rides I'd like and lose my FPs, is that bait and switch?

No.

Also, I've been to Disney where my favorite ride(s) were closed during my visit for refurbishment. I was disappointed, but it happens to everyone. Too much fun to do at Disney to be grumpy about one thing.

 

[dkrauss]

We've had our November trip booked since last December (Renting DVC). ROL was going to be a plus on this trip................but it was never the sole purpose of the trip. We've got F&W and MVMCP...........we'll fix the plan for the night we had ROL penciled in (note I said penciled in). To me the whole "bait and switch" attitude is completely wrong as outlined by others here.................things change..............refurbs happen. Jeez I'm just excited there won't be a crane at the castle......(hopefully I haven't jinxed it )

Doug

 

[HatboxHaint]

agreed, agreed, agreed.
Also pointless getting angry on a discussion board. If you are angry email Disney. Will it help? Maybe, maybe not. But at least you let the people that are the cause for you being upset, know about it. Very little we can do here but to say we understand your pain.
It reminds me of the old days of Star Wars Weekends. When you got as schedule of visiting celebrities, activities, parades, shows, only a couple of weeks in advance. When they were sure who would come and what day.
Disney did do a big boo boo when they announced RoL and all the hype that went around that...now they are paying for it and we (all planners) are going to have to do plan for Disney differently

Hey with all due respect...The point of getting angry on a message board is to vent and commiserate with like minded individuals and gather differing opinions so one can come to a better understanding of their current situation. I believe that I stated burned, which is more feeling jilted by than angry at a company whom I've come to trust over several years of procuring their vacation offerings.

 

[Srbright]

Well it's depressing that we plan trips not to see new things but to see things being taken away without replacement. The maximizing of profit at WDW gets old after awhile.

Then why do you keep going?

Stacy

 

[HatboxHaint]

So if it rains heavily during my entire time at Disney and I can't ride the rides I'd like and lose my FPs, is that bait and switch?

No.

Agreed. Disney can't control the weather.

 

[HatboxHaint]

Then why do you keep going?

Stacy

Maybe this is the last trip....but when you rent non-refundable points a year out, make adrs at 180 and FP at 60 you are pretty much going heck or high water.

 

[HatboxHaint]

We've had our November trip booked since last December (Renting DVC). ROL was going to be a plus on this trip................but it was never the sole purpose of the trip. We've got F&W and MVMCP...........we'll fix the plan for the night we had ROL penciled in (note I said penciled in). To me the whole "bait and switch" attitude is completely wrong as outlined by others here.................things change..............refurbs happen. Jeez I'm just excited there won't be a crane at the castle......(hopefully I haven't jinxed it )

Doug

Maybe I'm just a bigger fan of AK than others.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Not really. The PP's issue isn't at all with the flights. Their issue is absolutely with Disney.

Whatever. I believe that his issue is with his really poor choice of words, and then his unwillingness to admit that he was wrong. But defend him if you wish.

 

[HatboxHaint]

News flash - you can get your money from WDW today. Just cancel your trip.

Nope...rented points

 

[BobC]

Maybe this is the last trip....but when you rent non-refundable points a year out, make adrs at 180 and FP at 60 you are pretty much going heck or high water.

You'll still have a blast.

I was bummed when Space Mountain was getting refurbed there (my favorite ride by a mile,) but I'll be damned if Im not going to have a good time there.

Returned 5-6x after that

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Nope...rented points

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. My wife will not even consider renting DVC for this very reason.

 

[HatboxHaint]

My apologies, I didn't realize you were currently at WDW and being pressured to purchase EMM or some fancy fireworks viewing party. My mistake.

If not, her beef would be with the airline, not Disney. Airfare used to be totally refundable, and change fees were low to non-existent. Disney didn't change those rules, the airlines did.

The OP is a dude and no the airfare is not refundable either but I blame Disney anyway.

 

[HatboxHaint]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. My wife will not even consider renting DVC for this very reason.

In my original post I never claimed I didn't want to go anymore. Just expressing regrets on Wdw's reduction of magic.

 

[HatboxHaint]

Whatever. I believe that his issue is with his really poor choice of words, and then his unwillingness to admit that he was wrong. But defend him if you wish.

Hmmm I smell an insult in there somewhere. I never meant to get into a technical argument on the merits/validity/illegality of Disney's advertising techniques. (I didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!) Just simply stating that when I started planning a year ago the Disney hype machine was pumping out ROL pixie dust and now as I get closer to 30days out the hype machine is advertising the cancellation of a long running parade (See it one last time!) as the main draw for my trip's time frame.

 

[loves to dive]

Disney does not force you to plan that far out, I don't even think they suggest it. They open the ADRs and FPs so you can, the fact that a lot of people take advantage of the openings thus booking causing things not to be available is not Disney's fault. It's the fault of people doing the reserving. If your local restaurant is the most popular restaurant in town and you have to book a year in advance, is it the restaurants fault they are popular? I think no one disputes the fact that going to Disney is not cheap and most people have to save to get there. No one disputes that once you lay down a large chuck of change you expect to have the best experience available. The fact is things change, we either adjust or not. I can't tell you how much money I've laid out a year in advance for a dive trip to an exotic location on the advertised chance to get to see or do x. The weather changes, the dive operator changes staff or goes out of business, the airlines cancels flights, the darn fish refuse to cooperate and the manta rays that have migrated to x spot at exactly a certain time frame every single year for the past 100 years decide that this year, they are going to wait 3 weeks or come 3 weeks early. The once in a lifetime trip to see this fish/reef/hole in the water goes on without getting to see or do the one thing you wanted to do. We never know these things until we get there, we adjust and have not ever had a bad trip because being on an island in the South Pacific or a dive boat in the Caribbean or even the cost of Florida with visibility of 30 feet and 60 degree waters with 5 foot seas is better than being at home and at work. The same goes for Disney, we've been specifically to do a certain thing and it either gets cancelled, the weather screws up, a ride is down. We have never had a bad trip, we've had bad moments, we've even had bad days but we've pulled up our grown up pants and enjoyed ourselves in spite of ourselves.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Hmmm I smell an insult in there somewhere. I never meant to get into a technical argument on the merits/validity/illegality of Disney's advertising techniques. (I didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!) Just simply stating that when I started planning a year ago the Disney hype machine was pumping out ROL pixie dust and now as I get closer to 30days out the hype machine is advertising the cancellation of a long running parade (See it one last time!) as the main draw for my trip's time frame.

No insult. You are passionate about this, and the DVC rental gives you few options. But that does not make this a bait/switch. It just makes this trip a little different than you expected when you booked it. Different good or different bad - you won't know until after you take the trip.

My unsolicited advice - Forget about the things that you will miss and focus on the many, many things that you will love. You will not have a good time unless you allow it to happen, and that means letting this stuff go. You never know when/where the pixie dust will appear, but for us it always does. It does because we look for it.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Hmmm I smell an insult in there somewhere. I never meant to get into a technical argument on the merits/validity/illegality of Disney's advertising techniques. (I didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!) Just simply stating that when I started planning a year ago the Disney hype machine was pumping out ROL pixie dust and now as I get closer to 30days out the hype machine is advertising the cancellation of a long running parade (See it one last time!) as the main draw for my trip's time frame.

Well to be fair your original post and some of your subsquent posts seemed pretty focused on showing how Disney was baiting and switching you rather than the overall feeling of disappointment at what is not going to happen, despite much anticipated hype, on your vacation.

Posters were attempting to explain that what was going on wasn't actually bait and switch.

 

[yulilin3]

Hey with all due respect...The point of getting angry on a message board is to vent and commiserate with like minded individuals and gather differing opinions so one can come to a better understanding of their current situation. I believe that I stated burned, which is more feeling jilted by than angry at a company whom I've come to trust over several years of procuring their vacation offerings.

I'm not saying you're not allowed to get angry, frustrated, upset. .. what I'm saying is that there's very little people on the boards can do about it.
You can vent but other than that there's little else that can be done here, that's why I always advice that people email disney

 

[bluezy]

No insult. You are passionate about this, and the DVC rental gives you few options. But that does not make this a bait/switch. It just makes this trip a little different than you expected when you booked it. Different good or different bad - you won't know until after you take the trip.

My unsolicited advice - Forget about the things that you will miss and focus on the many, many things that you will love. You will not have a good time unless you allow it to happen, and that means letting this stuff go. You never know when/where the pixie dust will appear, but for us it always does. It does because we look for it.

This!!! We can't control the decisions that Disney makes, only the way we choose to react to them. Several years ago we took a trip to Disney in May. We were really looking forward to it because we'd always been there in late June and we knew that mid-May would bring slightly better weather (cooler, less rain) and slightly lower crowds (CL7's instead of 9's). We were also looking forward to doing all of the fireworks/nightime shows because our kids were finally old enough to stay out late every night. We pre-purchased Photopass because it was probably going to be the last trip with all 5 kids and we wanted to make sure we took plenty of pictures. It was going to be a fabulous trip full of so many new things!!! Then the swine flu decided to spread like wildfire through the Orlando area. People were cancelling their trips. I packed a ton of vitamins, hand sanitizer, and Clorox wipes. I was ready for battle!! And then a tropical depression stalled over central FL. We had torrential rain for hours and hours every single day we were there. Everyone forgot about the swine flu because all you could think about was the never-ending rain. We only got to one fireworks show all week because none of us wanted to stand out in the rain and look up into the rain drops to watch fireworks. Photopass photographers were non-existent -- we don't have a single picture of the 7 of us together on that trip. Our shoes and socks or leather sandals were soaked through before we even got to the parks each morning. But after the first 24 hours of what we now fondly refer to as "monsoon week", we made a decision. And that decision was to have a good time despite the weather. We had no control over it, so why stress out about it? (Similar to not having any control over Disney's decisions). We went to the gift shop and bought Disney ponchos for the 7 of us (best money we spent all week) and soldiered on. And we had an awesome trip. We did things that we had never taken the time to do before. We moved at a much slower pace because there was no need to rush from one thing to the next as lines were short and sometimes non-existent. It's one of our favorite trips and we talk about it often. It could have easily been a terrible trip, but we chose not to let that happen.

 

[wilkeliza]

You know, the funny thing is that you would expect DLR to be able to get it together 60 days out. I mean, it's not like it's 180 days, right? And it's not like people have to reserve rides 60 days out, right? Nope. They can't get it together either. I believe I heard they finally added park hours for 10/1 today maybe? People have been waiting for several weeks to book in park ADRs and haven't been able to because Disney would not commit to park hours.

Their park hours have always been released pretty late. I meant their ADR system works fine at 60 days. Of course I don't choose my parks based on hours so the last minute changes never really bothered me. At Disneyland it is even easier since there is nothing to prebook except ADRs.