Compensation after returning from cruise?

[Club Disney Chandler]

I'd like to share the perspective of the person on the other side of the counter or phone for everyone who thinks, "it doesn't hurt to ask." Yeah, sometimes it really does hurt to ask. As a restaurant owner I'm always fielding questions in person, on the phone or social media, and I hate disappointing people and saying no, and trust me most people in customer service hate it too. The worst part of my day is dealing with people who don't have the insight on how my business runs and only see things from their limited perspective. Im not saying the people that ask are doing anything bad per say, they just don't always have the full extended picture.

@squirk is spot on in his analogy, once you say yes to one exception, you've lost the ability to say no to all others. For example, we only take reservations for groups of 20 or more people, if someone called with 17 and I break the rules, they're happy but tell a friend who has 15, so I have to break the rules again and so on until finally I'm taking reservations for 2 people.

I'm not accusing anyone here of doing anything wrong or being ill willed or anything like that, I'm just sharing a perspective from the other side of the counter.

 

[timrousbeastie]

That's awful about the sickness but it seems that DCL did the right thing by closing down all the self serve stations. We sail on the Fantasy in less than 3 weeks. Wondering if this will still be like that.
Bringing extra Lysol!

I only saw one instance of someone having been sick on the Fantasy, at one of the tables in Royal Palace on the last evening. While my nephew did throw up late on the 2nd evening, he was fine after that. Aside from those cumbersome soft serve procedures, which I am thankful were put in place as a precaution, it really was a wonderful Christmas cruise with the least motion I've experienced to date. I am sorry for those who did not get the dream vacation they had been hoping for, but we had a great time.

From reading this thread, I am starting to think that the children's pool might have been what made my nephew ill. He ate the same as the rest of us and he was the only one who used that pool.

 

[phinz]

I only saw one instance of someone having been sick on the Fantasy, at one of the tables in Royal Palace on the last evening.

I don't know where you were on the boat, but I saw plenty of carpet cleaning machines, closed pools, staff serving everyone everywhere, and on disembarkation there were many rooms with signs taped (!) to the doors that said "Protein Spill". A large portion of our cruise group on The Site That Shall Not Be Named had at least one member of their party who was sick, there were servers who were out all week, and more than once I smelled vomit in a hallway. Between that and the endless amount of croupy kids I heard, as well as the little bugger who sneezed on the back of my head during Aladdin, this was the sickliest cruise I've ever been on. From what I gathered listening to staff talk, the Fantasy was going to be under self-serve lockdown for the following cruise as well.

 

[jrabbit]

..... A large portion of our cruise group on The Site That Shall Not Be Named had at least one member of their party who was sick, ....

I didn't know that there was a Voldemort cruise web site. Do Disney Villains use it as well?

 

[hubbard53]

. . . Aside from those cumbersome soft serve procedures, which I am thankful were put in place as a precaution

I can only imagine. I've never seen so many people eat so much ice cream as i did on our Dream cruise in October. You would have thought it was the only food aboard...

 

[timrousbeastie]

I don't know where you were on the boat, but I saw plenty of carpet cleaning machines, closed pools, staff serving everyone everywhere, and on disembarkation there were many rooms with signs taped (!) to the doors that said "Protein Spill". A large portion of our cruise group on The Site That Shall Not Be Named had at least one member of their party who was sick, there were servers who were out all week, and more than once I smelled vomit in a hallway. Between that and the endless amount of croupy kids I heard, as well as the little bugger who sneezed on the back of my head during Aladdin, this was the sickliest cruise I've ever been on. From what I gathered listening to staff talk, the Fantasy was going to be under self-serve lockdown for the following cruise as well.

I am certainly not dismissing your experiences, nor those from the other site, which come as disturbing news to me. We seem to have been spared for the bulk of the problems, well, aside from the $700+ that I lost to cancelled port adventures after my nephew threw up, but that is no fault of DCL.

We stayed on deck 12 and I did hear the concierge staff mention a family that had put themselves voluntarily on quarantine. We went all over the ship, including completing two of the Midship Detective Agency puzzles (big hit with the kids!), but it seems we were just lucky not to encounter any yuckiness on the way.

What a disappointment for those who embarked this weekend if they have to deal with the self serve restrictions all week. I really hope it didn't come to that.

 

[Dug720]

What a disappointment for those who embarked this weekend if they have to deal with the self serve restrictions all week. I really hope it didn't come to that.

As long as the ship received a thorough cleaning, there is really no reason the next cruise should have the restrictions. On a 7-night cruise, I would imagine the B2B cruisers would be small if any - you're looking at a whole new group of cruisers who don't have the intestinal issues the previous cruise had.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

On a 7-night cruise, I would imagine the B2B cruisers would be small if any

I don't know - a 7 night East/West Caribbean B2B isn't unheard of. We've done that. As well as at least one other person here that I know of.

 

[Dug720]

I don't know - a 7 night East/West Caribbean B2B isn't unheard of. We've done that. As well as at least one other person here that I know of.

Ok... But if it is one or two people who unaffected (because if they were they likely could not answer the health questions honestly) it still seems like overkill to punish the next cruise by making it not self serve. Kinda like punishing 3rd period for what 2nd period did.

That brings up an interesting point... What would DCL do if you were scheduled for a B2B but finished the previous cruise in quarantine?

 

[bbel]

As long as the ship received a thorough cleaning, there is really no reason the next cruise should have the restrictions. On a 7-night cruise, I would imagine the B2B cruisers would be small if any - you're looking at a whole new group of cruisers who don't have the intestinal issues the previous cruise had.

Often restrictions will be in place for a certain number of days (depending on circumstances of the outbreak) rather than cruises. So it may carry onto the next cruise, but not for the whole cruise...

 

[Dug720]

Often restrictions will be in place for a certain number of days (depending on circumstances of the outbreak) rather than cruises. So it may carry onto the next cruise, but not for the whole cruise...

Interesting. Seems like punishment for the next guests for something they had no responsibility for. But I guess that helps determine if it was guests or something on the ship.

I know the "non-self-serve-buffet" thing was one of the most annoying things on Holland America (theirs is policy for the first 48 hours, but in spite of nothing going on they never fully lifted it). Pretty sure that would just make me go to the sit-down places for my meals. I mean if I've got to be served anyway...

 

[tvguy]

I'd say no to compensation. The illness is not DCL's fault, they provided all the services you contracted for, and it appears many additional due to the illness at no additional charge.
Now if it was before the cruise, I would pursue that. My mom had a stroke 6 weeks before a HAL cruise. We did not have travel insurance, but we did book through a travel agent. Got an immediate full refund for the cruise and air fare. Travel agent says they have never had an issue getting a refund from any cruise line when it involved a major health issue. THAT, they said, would just be a bad business decision that would generate a lot of negative publicity.
Full disclosure, my travel agent does not sell travel insurance anymore, and they give all their clients a flyer saying they are absolutely neutral on whether it is needed. Apparently they had problems with almost every major travel insurance company paying claims, including one that went to court and cost them a lot of money.

 

[chrisrunty]

I only saw one instance of someone having been sick on the Fantasy, at one of the tables in Royal Palace on the last evening. While my nephew did throw up late on the 2nd evening, he was fine after that. Aside from those cumbersome soft serve procedures, which I am thankful were put in place as a precaution, it really was a wonderful Christmas cruise with the least motion I've experienced to date. I am sorry for those who did not get the dream vacation they had been hoping for, but we had a great time.

From reading this thread, I am starting to think that the children's pool might have been what made my nephew ill. He ate the same as the rest of us and he was the only one who used that pool.

We had an amazing time as usual, we (my family)fortunately didn't get sick. BUT it was worse then I've ever seen in the 15+ years I've sailed with Disney.

 

[chrisrunty]

I don't know where you were on the boat, but I saw plenty of carpet cleaning machines, closed pools, staff serving everyone everywhere, and on disembarkation there were many rooms with signs taped (!) to the doors that said "Protein Spill". A large portion of our cruise group on The Site That Shall Not Be Named had at least one member of their party who was sick, there were servers who were out all week, and more than once I smelled vomit in a hallway. Between that and the endless amount of croupy kids I heard, as well as the little bugger who sneezed on the back of my head during Aladdin, this was the sickliest cruise I've ever been on. From what I gathered listening to staff talk, the Fantasy was going to be under self-serve lockdown for the following cruise as well.

Hi there!!!! (it's Christine) So awesome to randomly sail with you again!!!

 

[SeaSpray]

Travel agent says they have never had an issue getting a refund from any cruise line when it involved a major health issue. THAT, they said, would just be a bad business decision that would generate a lot of negative publicity.

Full disclosure, my travel agent does not sell travel insurance anymore, and they give all their clients a flyer saying they are absolutely neutral on whether it is needed. Apparently they had problems with almost every major travel insurance company paying claims, including one that went to court and cost them a lot of money.

Does your travel agent at least direct their clients in the right direction so they can purchase travel insurance themselves if they want it? I'm really surprised that a travel agent wouldn't see the value of travel insurance these days. I don't know about anyone else's experience, but we've had to put in claims with our travel insurance company after two of our cruises. Both fell under "Trip Interruption"; one was due to a major hurricane during the cruise, and the other one was due to illness that resulted in quarantine. "Quarantine" has definitely been a covered reason under the category of "Trip Interruption" on every travel insurance policy we've ever purchased. Most recently was following our October Disney Magic cruise (I wrote a trip report if anyone is interested in the gory details).

No issues at all with the insurance company, either it's a covered event or it's not. I simply filled out the forms that the insurance company emailed to me, then emailed them back along with the documentation that I had from the ship, and within a few weeks (it would've taken less time but they said they were backlogged from processing so many claims due to Hurricane Matthew) I had a check in my hands for way more than I would've guessed would've been covered (percentage-wise). No, I'm not going to say what the amount was, but it was an extremely fair amount, and all it took me was a few minutes of filling out a couple of forms when we got back home.

The most important step is actually purchasing the insurance before the trip! I highly recommend travel insurance especially for cruise vacations, and if you do purchase it, make sure to keep all receipts. After our hurricane cruise I found out that a lot of things would've been covered had I saved every receipt.

(All of this is my humble opinion, and personal experience).

 

[CruizinTigers]

I'd like to share the perspective of the person on the other side of the counter or phone for everyone who thinks, "it doesn't hurt to ask." Yeah, sometimes it really does hurt to ask. As a restaurant owner I'm always fielding questions in person, on the phone or social media, and I hate disappointing people and saying no, and trust me most people in customer service hate it too. The worst part of my day is dealing with people who don't have the insight on how my business runs and only see things from their limited perspective. Im not saying the people that ask are doing anything bad per say, they just don't always have the full extended picture.

@squirk is spot on in his analogy, once you say yes to one exception, you've lost the ability to say no to all others. For example, we only take reservations for groups of 20 or more people, if someone called with 17 and I break the rules, they're happy but tell a friend who has 15, so I have to break the rules again and so on until finally I'm taking reservations for 2 people.

I'm not accusing anyone here of doing anything wrong or being ill willed or anything like that, I'm just sharing a perspective from the other side of the counter.

Thank you very much for sharing this perspective, Club Disney Chandler! I totally get your point and understand.

With all the social media outlets available, for business owners like yourself to large corporations like Disney, your damned if you do, and damned if you don't. You potentially get slammed for not showing good will or risk opening yourself up to a sea of people wanting their piece of the pie because they read about someone else who got theirs. Still, I'd like to believe that there should be a way for organizations the likes of Disney to be able to show some good will when it is really appropriate, in a way that benefits both the consumer and the organization. I mentioned earlier in this thread a situation I experienced with RCCL where their simple gesture of a small on board credit made me a fan for life. And you can be certain, we blew through that onboard credit and spent plenty more before disembarkation!

 

[CruizinTigers]

I think the problem with good-will gestures in cases of "cruise disruption" is that there is no objective standard by which to grant these favors consistently and fairly across a wide variety of circumstances.

Everyone will naturally think that their personal set of circumstances merits a good-will gesture, and once a precedent is set on social media, everyone will expect the same, even if their situation is not exactly the same.

You can see the progression:

"I read that you gave a break to a family when the kid had diarrhea and was throwing up. My kid didn't throw up, but still had diarrhea. Surely we deserve something?"

"I read that you gave a break to a family when the kid had just diarrhea. Mine didn't have diarrhea, but felt really queasy for a whole day. How's about a little help?"

"I read that you gave a break to a family where the kid had an upset stomach for a day. My kid tripped on his shoelaces and twisted his ankle and had to skip our day in Tortola. How about a 'good-will gesture'?"​

I'm being slightly ridiculous, but I don't think it's that huge of a stretch. And the instant that DCL pumps the brakes and says "Whoa! We are making way too many 'good-will gestures' lately, including for relatively minor inconveniences that are patently not our fault", tons of people will cry "foul!".

squirk, Great point! I can see how this can get out of control. I find it sad and unfortunate because I do believe that a good will gesture, in the right situations, on the part of an organization the likes of Disney can be a real win-win situation - the consumer and the company can both win by improved customer loyalty and increased spending.

 

[squirk]

squirk, Great point! I can see how this can get out of control. I find it sad and unfortunate because I do believe that a good will gesture, in the right situations, on the part of an organization the likes of Disney can be a real win-win situation - the consumer and the company can both win by improved customer loyalty and increased spending.

I think the phrase "the right situation" is the sticking point. As we have seen in this thread, the gap between what the cruise line deems is "the right situation" and what guest believes can be enormous.

And, of course, you also have the bat-**** crazy people to worry about, too......

 

[tvguy]

Does your travel agent at least direct their clients in the right direction so they can purchase travel insurance themselves if they want it? I'm really surprised that a travel agent wouldn't see the value of travel insurance these days. I don't know about anyone else's experience, but we've had to put in claims with our travel insurance company after two of our cruises. Both fell under "Trip Interruption"; one was due to a major hurricane during the cruise, and the other one was due to illness that resulted in quarantine. "Quarantine" has definitely been a covered reason under the category of "Trip Interruption" on every travel insurance policy we've ever purchased. Most recently was following our October Disney Magic cruise (I wrote a trip report if anyone is interested in the gory details).

No issues at all with the insurance company, either it's a covered event or it's not. I simply filled out the forms that the insurance company emailed to me, then emailed them back along with the documentation that I had from the ship, and within a few weeks (it would've taken less time but they said they were backlogged from processing so many claims due to Hurricane Matthew) I had a check in my hands for way more than I would've guessed would've been covered (percentage-wise). No, I'm not going to say what the amount was, but it was an extremely fair amount, and all it took me was a few minutes of filling out a couple of forms when we got back home.

The most important step is actually purchasing the insurance before the trip! I highly recommend travel insurance especially for cruise vacations, and if you do purchase it, make sure to keep all receipts. After our hurricane cruise I found out that a lot of things would've been covered had I saved every receipt.

(All of this is my humble opinion, and personal experience).

Other than mentioning Travel Insurance is available online from a variety of sources, no. They are neutral. The legal mess they got in with a Travel Insurance company nearly put them out of business, so I understand why they want to stay clear.
Travel insurance is one of the most profitable products insurance companies offer, since claims are rare.
In 9 cruises and 3 extended overseas trips over the last 40 years I have purchased Travel Insurance just once. It was for our Disney Cruise. I purchased it because it was our most expensive cruise (by three fold), and because the cruise was between Christmas and New Years when travel is heavy, and the weather bad.
The best advice I think is to look at what your health insurance covers........look at what your credit card covers if you paid by credit card.....and evaluate what your tolerance for financial risk.

 

[CruizinTigers]

I think the phrase "the right situation" is the sticking point. As we have seen in this thread, the gap between what the cruise line deems is "the right situation" and what guest believes can be enormous.

And, of course, you also have the bat-**** crazy people, to worry about, too......

Agreed!