Bedbugs on the Magic

[dreamer17555]

I suspect DCL was trying to replicate what they already had, 2 connecting inside (was it inside?) rooms, and didn’t even think about putting them in 1 room from the get go. Who knows. But none of it looks good. I agree it is minimalist customer service on display. We are on the Magic on deck 6 in a month. And boy do I feel stupid. We should have switched when we had the chance after the Magic water leaks. We thought long and hard about it at the time. Ugh

Im on Deck 6 in Sept and I feel you.

 

[Moonspinner]

Im on Deck 6 in Sept and I feel you.

I’m not going to tell my husband about this thread because he will lose it. I’m going to look into getting that spray pp got on this thread and I will try to “secretly” do a quick survey for BB right when we get in the cabin. We have two cabins. We’re at Bay Lake tower before and after the cruise, so if we get BBs, they are going to Bay Lake tower as well. This is another reason Disney needs to take this stuff seriously!

 

[brentm77]

You are making a lot of assumptions as well. The family booked 2 regular (oceanview?) staterooms. That was probably 1 adult plus 1-2 kids. We don’t know what discussions actually took place. In looking for a replacement room, DCL looked for something for the number of individuals booked into that stateroom, which was not 5. Only going by the information shared earlier in this thread, never does it mention the family indicated they needed 1 room for 5.

I think there were communication issues on both sides. Neither handled the situation perfectly. But it does serve as a reminder that DCL can change your stateroom and if you choose to book multiple rooms you may need to split.

They were a family of five, booked in two connecting rooms with one known to be infested with bed bugs; of course they needed a new room or two new rooms that would sleep all five of them. And DCL clearly knew, without me making assumptions. OP says:

New cabin only sleeps 4, btw, but they say it’s a fully booked cruise and that’s all they can offer.

This shows DCL knew they were expecting accommodations for all five of them, but this was "all they [could] offer."

Pray tell, where did the family miscommunicate?

 

[brentm77]

I’m not going to tell my husband about this thread because he will lose it. I’m going to look into getting that spray pp got on this thread and I will try to “secretly” do a quick survey for BB right when we get in the cabin. We have two cabins. We’re at Bay Lake tower before and after the cruise, so if we get BBs, they are going to Bay Lake tower as well. This is another reason Disney needs to take this stuff seriously!

Agreed. This is a problem that you don't mess around with. I would do a close inspection upon entering the room, checking small crevasses of mattresses, headboards, etc. Try to do it before your bags are put anywhere soft (don't know how you explain this to your husband - but they really should be put in the tub while you do this). I use the light on my phone to help too. I think the odds are high that you won't have a problem, but if you do, it would be best to know quickly. Honestly, if you have an infestation, that spray isn't going to be enough.

Hopefully DCL will do a little better. It won't be long before those crappy Disney websites start picking up the story and people start seeing it pop up in their feeds, which means DCL will hopefully get a little negative attention to take a closer look at how it handled this and will handle it going forward.

The Magic is a great ship in my opinion, even with some recent issues, so hopefully it turns out to be an amazing cruise for you.

 

[lanejudy]

They were a family of five, booked in two connecting rooms with one known to be infested with bed bugs

Was this your family? Why are you so invested in my opinion on the matter?

Two rooms. One needed to be taken out of service. Full ship. One new room that slept equivalent of the room taken out of service. That’s standard procedure. I get that you think DCL should do more but a 1:1 swap is adequate. When a family books across 2 rooms they may need to split if one gets relocated due to a room taken out of service. I’m not sure why that’s so difficult to grasp. I grew up in a family of 6; splitting up isn’t the end of the world. Maybe not ideal but not intolerable, especially with the ages of the kids.

If the family required to have all 5 moved, that needed to be communicated at the start — not after they moved and realized it wasn’t the right size room.

 

[brentm77]

Was this your family?

No. Was it your family?

We have the evidence we have, which while limited, doesn't look good in my opinion and the opinion of many others.

Why are you so invested in my opinion on the matter?

Why are you so invested in my opinion? Sheesh, I thought people came here to discuss topics related to DCL? I posted first, you refuting my opinion, so I did the same with yours, then you did it with mine, etc. That is how discussion boards work in my experience. It was cordial and very normal for a discussion from my perspective. Do you expect us all just to take your opinion as the final say on a matter? I don't get it. Is important to you to have the last word or something? Go ahead...be my guest.

Two rooms. One needed to be taken out of service. Full ship. One new room that slept equivalent of the room taken out of service. That’s standard procedure. I get that you think DCL should do more but a 1:1 swap is adequate. When a family books across 2 rooms they may need to split if one gets relocated due to a room taken out of service. I’m not sure why that’s so difficult to grasp. I grew up in a family of 6; splitting up isn’t the end of the world. Maybe not ideal but not intolerable, especially with the ages of the kids.

If the family required to have all 5 moved, that needed to be communicated at the start — not after they moved and realized it wasn’t the right size room.

The family literally did communicate that – go back and read the post again. They said that the new room only slept four, but DCL said the ship was full and the room for four was "all they could offer." Why would DCL say that if the family didn't ask for a room for five? That's nonsensical. It's not an assumption I am making; it's the only reasonable way to read that part of the narrative.

Take a step back. Most families don't cruise DCL like it's their local country club membership, like so many do here. I think that jades many to how serious these events would be on this type of cruise. These are huge trips for many families. Think about how frustrating it would be to find a bed bug in one room, have DCL think you merely had a clogged toilet three different times, showing they weren't even aware of a serious problem or working to fix it, to be split up as a family (four decks apart) because the "ship was full" and that was "all they could offer," to then suddenly find out DCL magically has a room for five, after finding another bed bug in another room, and still not have DCL do anything to make it right other than to say "call us" when you are back home. This, all after other people have recently reported bed bugs on the same ship, meaning DCL isn't doing enough to get it under control up to this point. How in the world is this defensible? If it were a four- or five-star hotel, would you be giving them so many benefits of the doubt?

The desire to always think DCL and Disney can do no wrong is baffling to me. Why not assume the simplest explanation versus adding facts to help DCL? We are paying 20-100% above market rate for comparable cruises and expect a very high level of service. That's a reasonable expectation. DCL used to meet it, but often falls shorter and shorter these days. Until the fan club starts calling them on it, and voting with our wallets in particular, we can't expect better.

The bottom line is DCL had bed bugs, it negatively affected this families experience, and DCL didn't make it right yet. I hope they do.

But go ahead and have the last word, since I misunderstood that we were having a dialogue.

 

[lanejudy]

I posted first, you refuting my opinion, so I did the same with yours, then you did it with mine, etc.

You keep quoting me — my first post was not directly refuting your opinion, just stating my opinion, which you picked apart. Even this morning when my post was a response to another poster, not you.

Discussion is fine. We have a difference of opinion. No need to constantly pick mine apart.

 

[SnowWhite2]

When you go from 4 ships to 7 ships, there is a lot of new faces in the company. We already know that the dining room service is not always up to par at this point due to all of the new people and I’m sure it is an issue at all levels. I think that is PART of the problem here.

I’ve had serious issues with DCL over the years, and have never had good resolution of problems. My last problem was they put us in a GTY room and then kicked us out for 2 1/2 afternoons to do “maintenance on the balcony” (paint). GS was confounded why I was upset that I couldn’t use my room from 8am-4pm for 2 days. The third day I told them i’m staying in my room when I want to. This was a much less than full cruise so I don’t know why they had to put is in a room that they wanted to perform maintenance. The other issue was them serving my 16 yo champagne until she was drop down drunk. The Vibe group and CM went to the fireworks for NYE. The Vibe wondered what happened to her after the fireworks. At least her friends took her to medical. The officers standing next to them while they were being served thought it was funny according to her friends. I just wanted them to revisit their policy of handing out champagne to ANYONE on NYE that grabbed it. Wouldn’t do it. Refused to admit it might cause a problem. That is all I wanted - for them to revisit their policy. Never once asked them to pay the $1003 medical bill for getting 1 liter of saline over 1 hour. My daughter did drink and wasn’t forced. (and she paid us back for the cost).

 

[CamColt]

I'm going to start this with we did NOT have any bugs in our room, and this was on the Fantasy but I want to share our experience, and more importantly, DCL's response. I don't think I have even mentioned this here as it was not a big deal but since it seems DCL is getting slammed over this, I want to share a positive.

I got into bed one night and laid on my stomach with my hands sort of hugging my pillow. As soon as I put my hands under there I felt something, gritty, sort of like sand (this was not a beach day nor did we have any sand in our room). Of course DH thought I was nuts but then he checked and felt something too. We looked. It was NOT bugs. We aren't 100% sure what it was but theories we later heard were laundry detergent, powder from gloves, or worn out sheets. We really couldn't see anything, but felt it for sure.

Me being me, over thinking everything, and my mind wandering, there was no way I was going to sleep on that So we called housekeeping (it was probably after midnight now), and someone came and listened to us, apologized and changed the sheets. The next morning our stateroom host was right there, apologizing, asking what we needed, on and on, falling over backwards for us. We told him it was fine, no big deal. We weren't upset at all. On our way back from breakfast he caught us and asked if we had a minute and called someone in charge (a white suit) to talk to us. Again he could not have been nicer, apologizing, on and on.... Again, we told him it was fine, not a problem at all. Later that day we had a bag in our room filled with all kind of goodies, and our host apologized every time he saw us.

So, the point I'm trying to make here, is all experiences are different. We could not have been treated any better, after what really amounted to nothing. Would the response have been the same if there actually were bugs? Who knows? But from our experience DCL went above and beyond in a similar situation.

With that said I will be on deck 6 on the Magic next month and I will certainly be checking my bed first thing.