Contacting Disney Cruise AFTER a cruise to report an issue

[ppsml]

These matters have to be handled through email. The dcl.guest.communications@disneycruise.com is the correct email to use. Don't bother calling. They cannot help you. It has to be done through the email. The person who gets your email will follow up with you, but it can take time. They will have access to the notes from the ship. The cast members on the phone can only handle things that are pre-cruise. Anything post-cruise has to go through the email. I know people want instant gratification, but the email system allows there to be a paper trail for everything so there is a record of you contacting them and those cast members are THE ONLY cast members empowered to do anything. They also aren't working on weekends or holidays. There have only been 4 business days since you got back, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard anything. They're going to have quite a backlog from the holidays. Not only do they have to get caught up on the emails they've gotten, but they also have to get caught up on all the reports the ships send after each cruise, like the report that says to give you a call. If they told you on the ship that you will be contacted, you will be contacted (even if you didn't email), you just have to be patient.

Source: I used to work there.

Thanks for the info. Guest Services on the boat said "a week or sooner" but did not say business days. I guess my impatience stems from the fact that she originally said we would have a resolution BEFORE we got off the boat then changed it to "some one will call" after. Appreciate the info, will try to be more patient and will post when I hear.

 

[MUN]

I'm sorry to hear that. I was on the following cruise. I saw maintenance around a lot near our stateroom. I wonder if that happened to be your former room they were going to! We didn't have problems DURING the cruise, but we had major issues disembarking that we need to take up with DCL. I'm not hopeful it will produce any results, but they need some feedback regarding their coordination with customs in Galveston, to say the least. FWIW, we plan to email later this week. I was figuring the holiday break meant response times would be longer than usual (schools only go back into session this week for us and others), so there was no point in rushing out a message. I hope you get a satisfying response from them!

I'm sorry to hear about your major issues disembarking. Would you care to share with us what those were?

MUN

 

[cmph]

I'm sorry to hear about your major issues disembarking. Would you care to share with us what those were?

MUN

Honestly, it's a pretty long story!! The clearance officer onboard contacted DH the night before disembarkation - he was being randomly pulled for a border control screening. That seemed super odd, just him. (Whether or not they had more info, we'll never know.) We repeatedly asked - just him? and yes, just him. It occurred to us later that night that we didn't know how to handle the customs declaration form since we'd be separated, so he called back, and yes again - just he needed to get off early, and they brought by a second form for him. So he was to be at the port adventures desk at 7:15; the rest of us were just to go to breakfast at 8:30 and disembark as normal, meet up with him later. He left the room at 6:45 to go to Cabanas first, so it was a bit of a surprise when a panicky clearance officer started calling at 7:35... "Your husband isn't where he is supposed to be." Um, well, obviously he's not with me, so I don't know what to tell you? Luckily this is a US port, so I could text him. He was already off the ship. He did exactly what he was told by the CM at port adventures... which turned out to be mistakenly putting him in the express walk-off line. I'm the trip planner, he just does what he's told on our vacations, and he had no clue about the express walk-off option, even. I figured that out from his texts, and called the clearance officer back. She said everything was fine, she'd call if it wasn't. Then she called back and it wasn't fine. Yippee. Can they have his cell phone number? Sure. Meanwhile, he went through express walk-off, was asked by customs where his suitcases or family were - "still on the ship, they told me I was being randomly pulled for a border control screening" - they shrugged and cleared him, so he was OUT of the terminal. Once they called him in a panic, being a good US citizen, he returned back to the clearance area and told them someone was apparently looking for him. He waited a bit for people to figure out who he was and why he was being called back. This is where some breakdown between DCL and CBP occurred. Someone must have panicked that they let someone through CBP without extra screening, so the CM who mistakenly sent him to the express walk-off line called me and told me the kids and I needed to meet him in guest services and immediately disembark. ??? At this point it's just about 8am, I've spent the better part of 30min either texting DH or talking on the phone to the clearance officer/guest services, and my kids were still in bed. I was completely thrown, told him it wasn't going to be 2 minutes or even 10 since my kids were still asleep, but started hustling. He called again a few minutes later to give me a new meeting location (probably just wanted to make sure I was actually hustling). Dude - quit calling me, I'm trying to get us out of our room!! I had the 8yo doing the cabinet/drawers check, the 11yo checking the bathroom, while I jammed everything into the one carry-on we were going to take to the breakfast we now weren't going to eat. Not surprisingly - DH's watch was left behind. Something had to be, right? sigh. So we meet up with the CM who had been calling, and he walked us off the ship to our luggage and then to the customs officer. Meanwhile, DH was texting me "Stay on the ship. Eat breakfast. CBP says they never asked for you and the kids to be taken off." But of course I wasn't exactly reading his texts during all of this. So a minute later, we're out, confused as hell, and the clearance officer, CBP officer, and DH are there at the exit. DH is directly asking the clearance officer why his family was rushed off last minute - "because border control requested it". Border control - "No, we didn't." Again, ??? I then asked "well, what are we supposed to do now, my parents are still onboard!" Once you get cleared in Galveston, you're supposed to exit the building entirely. It happened to be 30-something degrees that day. Total "oh s**t" moment for DCL, who had NO clue we still had family onboard, despite linked reservations. DCL "kindly" told me we could wait in the incoming passenger lobby indoors while the CM who led me and the kids off would retrieve my parents, and he would pass them off to another DCL CM to bring to us. So my parents were kind of alarmed to have the CM interrupt them at the beginning of breakfast and tell them he would escort them off... and he eventually dumped them at border control to NO other CM. No clue where she went, and he just left them there without telling them where we were. They went outside to the shuttle stops and called me in confusion. We all met back up, and that was that.

So - we have no clue why the kids and I had to be rushed off, but it was some massive breakdown between DCL clearance and CBP. But the bigger security issue at hand is that the CM sent DH to express walk-off and he was consequently cleared through CBP. Why was he pulled to begin with? We learned the state dept mistakenly identified his passport as lost/stolen; mistake or not, that passport was taken from him, you know, AFTER he went back to CBP the second time. So DCL/CBP just let some potential criminal into the country through indifference and ineptitude, even after he specifically told CBP he was pulled early for a screening. Maybe this doesn't seem like a huge deal to some folks, but for DH - it's absolutely his civic duty to pursue how this happened. Ironically, nearly his entire career has been in national security/intelligence. (He's also still pretty cranky that his family was rushed off the ship and no one will own up to requesting it.)

Long story - you asked for it!

 

[MaleficentRN]

When I had an issue last October, it took nearly a month for a response to my email. Granted this was also after hurricane Matthew and I'm sure they were overrun with irate folks. I hope you get results faster.

 

[mevelandry]

Honestly, it's a pretty long story!! The clearance officer onboard contacted DH the night before disembarkation - he was being randomly pulled for a border control screening. That seemed super odd, just him. (Whether or not they had more info, we'll never know.) We repeatedly asked - just him? and yes, just him. It occurred to us later that night that we didn't know how to handle the customs declaration form since we'd be separated, so he called back, and yes again - just he needed to get off early, and they brought by a second form for him. So he was to be at the port adventures desk at 7:15; the rest of us were just to go to breakfast at 8:30 and disembark as normal, meet up with him later. He left the room at 6:45 to go to Cabanas first, so it was a bit of a surprise when a panicky clearance officer started calling at 7:35... "Your husband isn't where he is supposed to be." Um, well, obviously he's not with me, so I don't know what to tell you? Luckily this is a US port, so I could text him. He was already off the ship. He did exactly what he was told by the CM at port adventures... which turned out to be mistakenly putting him in the express walk-off line. I'm the trip planner, he just does what he's told on our vacations, and he had no clue about the express walk-off option, even. I figured that out from his texts, and called the clearance officer back. She said everything was fine, she'd call if it wasn't. Then she called back and it wasn't fine. Yippee. Can they have his cell phone number? Sure. Meanwhile, he went through express walk-off, was asked by customs where his suitcases or family were - "still on the ship, they told me I was being randomly pulled for a border control screening" - they shrugged and cleared him, so he was OUT of the terminal. Once they called him in a panic, being a good US citizen, he returned back to the clearance area and told them someone was apparently looking for him. He waited a bit for people to figure out who he was and why he was being called back. This is where some breakdown between DCL and CBP occurred. Someone must have panicked that they let someone through CBP without extra screening, so the CM who mistakenly sent him to the express walk-off line called me and told me the kids and I needed to meet him in guest services and immediately disembark. ??? At this point it's just about 8am, I've spent the better part of 30min either texting DH or talking on the phone to the clearance officer/guest services, and my kids were still in bed. I was completely thrown, told him it wasn't going to be 2 minutes or even 10 since my kids were still asleep, but started hustling. He called again a few minutes later to give me a new meeting location (probably just wanted to make sure I was actually hustling). Dude - quit calling me, I'm trying to get us out of our room!! I had the 8yo doing the cabinet/drawers check, the 11yo checking the bathroom, while I jammed everything into the one carry-on we were going to take to the breakfast we now weren't going to eat. Not surprisingly - DH's watch was left behind. Something had to be, right? sigh. So we meet up with the CM who had been calling, and he walked us off the ship to our luggage and then to the customs officer. Meanwhile, DH was texting me "Stay on the ship. Eat breakfast. CBP says they never asked for you and the kids to be taken off." But of course I wasn't exactly reading his texts during all of this. So a minute later, we're out, confused as hell, and the clearance officer, CBP officer, and DH are there at the exit. DH is directly asking the clearance officer why his family was rushed off last minute - "because border control requested it". Border control - "No, we didn't." Again, ??? I then asked "well, what are we supposed to do now, my parents are still onboard!" Once you get cleared in Galveston, you're supposed to exit the building entirely. It happened to be 30-something degrees that day. Total "oh s**t" moment for DCL, who had NO clue we still had family onboard, despite linked reservations. DCL "kindly" told me we could wait in the incoming passenger lobby indoors while the CM who led me and the kids off would retrieve my parents, and he would pass them off to another DCL CM to bring to us. So my parents were kind of alarmed to have the CM interrupt them at the beginning of breakfast and tell them he would escort them off... and he eventually dumped them at border control to NO other CM. No clue where she went, and he just left them there without telling them where we were. They went outside to the shuttle stops and called me in confusion. We all met back up, and that was that.

So - we have no clue why the kids and I had to be rushed off, but it was some massive breakdown between DCL clearance and CBP. But the bigger security issue at hand is that the CM sent DH to express walk-off and he was consequently cleared through CBP. Why was he pulled to begin with? We learned the state dept mistakenly identified his passport as lost/stolen; mistake or not, that passport was taken from him, you know, AFTER he went back to CBP the second time. So DCL/CBP just let some potential criminal into the country through indifference and ineptitude, even after he specifically told CBP he was pulled early for a screening. Maybe this doesn't seem like a huge deal to some folks, but for DH - it's absolutely his civic duty to pursue how this happened. Ironically, nearly his entire career has been in national security/intelligence. (He's also still pretty cranky that his family was rushed off the ship and no one will own up to requesting it.)

Long story - you asked for it!

Woh. That really sucks.

 

[lanejudy]

Wow! Sorry you had to go through all that. It honestly sounds more like a Customs mess-up, with a bit of DCL not knowing what to do (which is explainable in that Customs runs their own game and may not have given DCL much direction). It's like TSA pulling one passenger aside for detailed screening but your airline has no knowledge of all that.

I haven't cruised out of Galveston, but thought in general DCL wants everyone to vacation staterooms by 8am. Whether or not you were on the phone, I would think the family should have been up and mostly packed. But it is a shame they rushed you out and without your full party -- again, I suspect this had something to do with Customs not fully explaining their needs to DCL.

It also likely explains why it could take longer for DCL to respond post-cruise -- they need to deal with bureaucratic nonsense if they have unanswered questions for Customs about what occurred. At debarkation, DCL is simply following "orders" from Customs who runs the game, so to speak. I hope you get some answers to your questions in the near future!

 

[mort1331]

Why are you asking?

But there are a couple of reasons to be asking why.
1) maybe the story might be able to help someone else out that has/had a similar experience
2) this person just joined yesterday with no history so is it legit?
3) if we knew the whole story, we might be able to give better direction to help solve the issue.

 

[cmph]

Wow! Sorry you had to go through all that. It honestly sounds more like a Customs mess-up, with a bit of DCL not knowing what to do (which is explainable in that Customs runs their own game and may not have given DCL much direction). It's like TSA pulling one passenger aside for detailed screening but your airline has no knowledge of all that.

I haven't cruised out of Galveston, but thought in general DCL wants everyone to vacation staterooms by 8am. Whether or not you were on the phone, I would think the family should have been up and mostly packed. But it is a shame they rushed you out and without your full party -- again, I suspect this had something to do with Customs not fully explaining their needs to DCL.

It also likely explains why it could take longer for DCL to respond post-cruise -- they need to deal with bureaucratic nonsense if they have unanswered questions for Customs about what occurred. At debarkation, DCL is simply following "orders" from Customs who runs the game, so to speak. I hope you get some answers to your questions in the near future!

It was definitely on DCL that they accidentally sent DH to express walk-off to begin with... if they sent him to the clearance officer like they were supposed to, I highly doubt we would have had the ensuing confusion! I'm sure it was no coincidence that the CM who messed that part up was also the one who told me and the kids that we had to immediately get off the ship.

Actually, we were not supposed to be out by 8am. We had late dining. One dining room had breakfast at 8:15, the other 2 dining rooms (including ours) at 8:30. We were in the very last group scheduled to disembark. I wouldn't think they want folks wandering around for 30min before their scheduled breakfast time. But I would have been ready by 8 if not for all of the phone calls and texting that kept me from getting ready. The irony, ha!

editing to add: we are in no way putting the entire blame on DCL. Except for that one CM who clearly screwed up all on his own, it was a comedy of errors and/or poor communication between CBP and DCL. However, we have no way to easily contact CBP and ask for them to review their security protocol, so we're kinda stuck having to bring the issue to DCL. They obviously need to implement a better procedure for separating express walk-off guests from those requested for extra screening, no matter what.

 

[FigmentSpark]

@cmph - I hope your husband is able to find out what happened. Customs and security is not something to just be taken lightly. I'm sure, given his line of business, he's well aware of that. Glad to hear it turned out okay, though.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Long story - you asked for it!

Thank you for sharing your story. Knowing the nature of it was very helpful, IMO. I thought at first it was some sort of problem with your cabin, or a medical issue. I had no idea that was a port security issue. I never gave a thought to something like that. Thanks again!

 

[hoffman1]

Ours is a different sort of situation but we had an item damaged by a screening machine while we were getting back on board at one of the ports. We filled out a form at the time and followed up again while on the ship. We were told we would be contacted later (once home) but we have not heard anything.
Should we use the same email listed in this thread to contact DCL?

 

[ppsml]

Thank you for sharing your story. Knowing the nature of it was very helpful, IMO. I thought at first it was some sort of problem with your cabin, or a medical issue. I had no idea that was a port security issue. I never gave a thought to something like that. Thanks again!

I think two issues are getting confused. The issue of this thread is a mechanical one. The customs issue is someone else.

 

[ppsml]

But there are a couple of reasons to be asking why.
1) maybe the story might be able to help someone else out that has/had a similar experience
2) this person just joined yesterday with no history so is it legit?
3) if we knew the whole story, we might be able to give better direction to help solve the issue.

Yes, i'm legit. My 16th Disney cruise, current Disneyland annual passholder, previous Disney world annual passholder, visited Disneyland Paris . Have read the board, never had a need to post until now. We normally love all things Disney and I don't want to bad mouth them. Needed help on contacting them and will post the full story with outcome when there is one. A mechanical issue they were unsuccessful in repairing.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yes, i'm legit. My 16th Disney cruise, current Disneyland annual passholder, previous Disney world annual passholder, visited Disneyland Paris . Have read the board, never had a need to post until now. We normally love all things Disney and I don't want to bad mouth them. Needed help on contacting them and will post the full story with outcome when there is one. A mechanical issue they were unsuccessful in repairing.

Chances are, if there's any sort of monetary agreement, you'll not be allowed to reveal the outcome. But you may be able to post the actual issue.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

Curious when that happened to you and which boat? We were on the Magic. Guest services insisted they had to do it stateside.

We were on the Magic as well. We came back to our room and found that a waterfall had started in the room. After an hour-ish of them trying to sort it with LOTS of people in our room, they figured it would be better to move us for the night as they were having issues with the fix. We just grabbed a few things for the night. As just two adults it wasn't a large inconvenience. They gave us a little room credit for the inconvenience. Not a lot, but it felt about right.

On a side note, it was interesting that they had extra rooms since I'd asked about upgrades at the port but none were available. We had been inside and they moved us down the hall to an outside room. But, it was clear why. There was something wrong with the room. Cannot recall exactly what it was but it meant people could not stay in the room for long.

Overall, it was kinda interesting to watch how it all went. They had procedures for handling this. Not surprising of course, but interesting to see them in motion. IIRC, one of the things was that since there was maintenance people involved, they wanted us or an officer to be present. No idea what happened after they re-located us though.

 

[MunFam]

I posted about our issues in great detail when we returned from the cruise, but the short is that we had multiple times where the kitchen assured us 100% a meal was safe for DD who has food allergies and it was not. The worst time was when we would not have been there to catch it if I trusted them. They sent a hamburger up to the club for her to eat as lunch (because the regular lunch was not safe for her) and it had mayo and coleslaw. Both items containing egg, which is an immediate anaphylactic reaction for her, even just touching her skin. Thank God I did not trust them and checked on her meal before she ate it. They also served her a previously frozen mac and cheese that was sour and moldy. We kept saying "they made it special for you, eat it" and she kept refusing after the first bite, so in my mighty parent way I took a bite to show her and almost threw up at the table. Then passed it to her father and he almost threw up. The server came over and smelled it and agreed it was sour and should have been an orange color and not white...then the head waiter came over and told us it was previously frozen so it could not have been bad. I told him to taste it to prove that it was fine which he refused. Mind you, I came onboard with fairly high expectations based on how well they handled food allergies. I had to lower them because the chef was not willing to create anything special or off menu. But what we experienced was NOT okay. 2 other people we knew of had anyphylactic reactions while on board due to cross contamination.

The other issue was with our housekeeper who refused to get us ice saying it was room services job. Okay, no big deal. As a former housekeeping manager at a AAA5 diamond resort, I am especially sensitive about ensuring that we clean up after ourselves and that we make the "refreshing of the room" duties simple. Well, on more than one occasion, 3 actually, after our morning showers, our housekeeper came in and took the old towels but didnt replace any of them. Odd, maybe her cart was out and she will refresh at turn down...no big deal. Nope. No towels, so we went up to the pool deck for towels the first two times, the third time i called GS for towels. Then our Wave Phone disappeared. Turns out, she was down the hall chatting with another SR host on our phone!!! The final blow was on pirate night, we did not get bandanas, so we inquired about them at dinner and GS got us the bandanas. No big deal. The next morning our SR host knocks on our door, throws three bandanas at me without even making eye contact and says "I heard you were looking for these". Now I was mad... Lets also not forget that she left us a "crest of Arendale" that looked like a toilet with turds on it. Even GS was shocked by her towel animal. The way it was supposed to be set was in a triangle shape, twisted with the Frozen circle card at the top of it...and chocolates on the side. It was NOTHING like what we got. At that point, we kept a DND on our door the last few days and got our own towels. I did not trust her in our room. The last night, she saw me in the hallway and as happy as ever reminded me to give her good marks on our comment card so she did not lose her job.

We had a squeak in our room that eventually got fixed as well as a toilet that smelled terrible, so we had to keep the toilet door closed at all times. Both issues were reported, but the stink never went away, but that is just ship life for you.

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

We had a few serious problems on our 2015 WBPC cruise. They did indeed call us about 10-12 days after we got back. They offered us a booking discount of 20% on a cruise within one year. I said not acceptable. They upped it to 30% off a regular fare for 2 years. That was the best they could do. I had expressed that we would VERY LIKELY not sail DCL again and that I would prefer some sort of a partial refund. That was not a possible option at all. Even a 1% refund. Nope, nada, not happening. The coupon expires in May and we will very likely not be using it.

WOW you really must of had a problem not to take the 30% discount and book another cruise. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

[MunFam]

WOW you really must of had a problem not to take the 30% discount and book another cruise. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I listed out the two main issues we had (that I felt were compensation worthy), but I forgot about the spa experience too. I paid for a few treatments and asked for no sales pitch as my mom is an esthetician, so no need to pay full price for anything. Not only did I get the sales pitch, but she hunted me down the next day in my SR to "let me know a few items went on sale". I never lead her to believe I was interested in the first place...and to make matters even more awesome, my relax time in the Rainforest room was disrupted by a game of basketball on the sports deck going thud, thud, thud.

DCL's GS did the best that they could with the situations, but for the price DCL charges, I expected more. I work in the industry and know what standards are vs someone just looking to be dissatisfied. We really wanted to have the most magical trip ever, and we were able to make it a memorable and enjoyable trip, but I do not want to have to go to GS about something, I just want smooth sailing from beginning to end. The characters and staff were delightful and almost made up for the downfalls we had, but I will not spend my hard earned money on DCL again. We have sailed other lines and prefer the level of service on them. We are not really "Disney people". so we wont miss it.

 

[Dug720]

We were on the Magic as well. We came back to our room and found that a waterfall had started in the room. After an hour-ish of them trying to sort it with LOTS of people in our room, they figured it would be better to move us for the night as they were having issues with the fix. We just grabbed a few things for the night. As just two adults it wasn't a large inconvenience. They gave us a little room credit for the inconvenience. Not a lot, but it felt about right.

On a side note, it was interesting that they had extra rooms since I'd asked about upgrades at the port but none were available. We had been inside and they moved us down the hall to an outside room. But, it was clear why. There was something wrong with the room. Cannot recall exactly what it was but it meant people could not stay in the room for long.

Overall, it was kinda interesting to watch how it all went. They had procedures for handling this. Not surprising of course, but interesting to see them in motion. IIRC, one of the things was that since there was maintenance people involved, they wanted us or an officer to be present. No idea what happened after they re-located us though.

These Magic stories are making me nervous. What staterooms were they?

As far as no upgrades available, I believe DCL has to keep SOME rooms back in case of issues where people have to be moved once on board.

 

[mort1331]

Yes, i'm legit. My 16th Disney cruise, current Disneyland annual passholder, previous Disney world annual passholder, visited Disneyland Paris . Have read the board, never had a need to post until now. We normally love all things Disney and I don't want to bad mouth them. Needed help on contacting them and will post the full story with outcome when there is one. A mechanical issue they were unsuccessful in repairing.

Did not mean to offend you, but if you lurk on the boards long enough you see some who are new and just post to antagonize. My 2 main points were to help others and that is why full stories are good.
Sorry you had a bad cruise, but since you have been on 16, you know this is not the normal. Hope you get a satisfactory settlement.