DCL Cancelled My Reservation...so worried! Updated(9/9)

[seaprincess]

Hi, I am trying to be calm why I share my story. I made a reservation on the Disney Fantasy for the Eastern Carribean Cruise for December of 2012. My deposit for the reservation was due on September 1st and realized that my direct deposit would not go in until the following day. I called and explained my situation to the DCL agent yesterday and he was so accomodating, he put me on hold and when he came back he actually extended the deposit due date for three days (although I only needed 24 hours). I thanked him so much for his time and was thankful he was able to help me.

I got home from work tonight and went to the Disney Cruiseline website and tried to pull up my reservation to make my deposit and it kept giving me a log in error. Worried, I went and priced the same cruise. Lo and behold when I went to price the cruise, the stateroom I had on reserve pops up as available. Let me just add that I require a Handicapped Accessible Stateroom and in a catagory 6A the only one that shows availibility is 9170(the one I was holding). I knew something was wrong.

I pick up the phone to call DCL. I am a Platinum Member so I called the Castaway Club phone #. The agent listened to my story and pulls up my reservation. She then tells me it's cancelled. I told her that the agent had extended my deposit date and she sees no record of that. She places me on hold while she tries to reinstate the res. She comes back minutes later and says sorry, that cabin is no longer available. I said, ma'am I just saw it available just a moment ago, that's why I am calling. This is the room I am supposed to have on hold! She seemed a little frustrated that I would challenge her, but she checked again, no cabin. I told her, I did make the effort to call, gave her the agents' name and what was said. All she could tell me is there were no more 6A's available and I would have to go to another catagory. At this point a 4D, another $600 jump in price. I couldnt believe what she was saying, I felt as if she didn't believe me. I asked if I could speak to a Supervisor. She put me on hold and came back with a Guest Service Supervisor.

I again went through the whole story, she puts me on hold, comes back to again confirm that the cabin not avail. I'm thinking, yes, we know this. She then tells me, have you thought about downgrading to a Oceanview room? No, I want a verandah, that's why I reserved it. She makes the same point of upgrading to a 4D. I told her, why should I have to pay another $600 for a mistake that the computer made cancelling my reservation. She then suggested another month. I told her my vacation is scheduled for December, there are only two sail dates for Eastern Carribean (actually three but the New Years sailing is really expensive) and I really want to see San Juan. I told her I would even be willing to move to the December 15th sailing if I could get the 6A. Well unfortunately, the cruises have such limited availibility that was not an option. I again politely reminded her that I did call to extend my due date. So then she tells me, well since it's a holiday weekend, that their inventory staff were gone until Tuesday and the best she could do was to reserve a Cat. 8~Oceanview until they got back from the holiday weekend and they would monitor to see if that stateroom became available again and I should hope for the best if the people decide against keeping that room.

After 16 cruises and a love of all things Disney, I felt like I was at a standstill. I was not looking to be problematic, I just wanted them to make it right. Obviously, someone has now reserved the room I had on hold and I can't change that. I was just hoping that DCL would have tried to make it right. Instead I feel like I have been downgraded.

Obviously these cruises to San Juan are popular and when I reserved this room last week, I was thrilled to find the 6A became available and grabbed it ASAP. Now I watched it slip through my fingers. If there was a 6B, or a Catagory 5 (which there are not), I would have considered paying a bit more, but going to a Cat 4 it's a jump. I sail solo so I am already paying 175% for my fare so it's a big expense.

Thanks for letting me share my story. Any suggestions??

 

[jilljill]

The problem occured because of the way DCL's inventory shows up as being available or not. Since you had been on their website and pulled up that cabin number it took it out of the system's inventory and that's why the DCL agents couldn't see it on their end. It takes about 20 minutes of no activity on that cabin for their agents to see it as available.
I had the same thing happen to me one year when I was trying to move my cabin and was dealing with a TA that I don't normally deal with and that didn't know DCL.

What you should have done was to just make a new reservation when you saw the cabin as available and then there wouldn't have been a need to call DCL.

 

[seaprincess]

Hi Jilljill,

I was aware of this because I noticed this happened when i priced cruises on line. I actually mentioned this to the DCL agent when I was on the phone and told them when I clicked on 9170 when you have the option of choosing the stateroom that it takes it out of inventory for a while. When she put me on hold, my hope was that the would be able to see that it was just in limbo and not actually taken. Apparently not. While on the phone I was on my laptop and checked about 30 minutes later, praying that the stateroom would come back into inventory. Sadly no. I have checked throughout the night. I think my luck has run out.

 

[MrsMas]

I have no suggestions; all I can say is sorry that happened. Because of you story I now know that Disney has a caribbean cruise that stops in San Juan. I'm so excited about that.

 

[Zeppelin]

write a long letter, with all the facts and the names of the people you spoke with...hopefully you have the name of the person who said they would extend your pre-payment for three days- state all the facts and your Disney history- they may upgrade you for free....

i'd even consider calling tomorrow and specifically ask for the person who promised to extend your reservation- demand to speak to him and ask what happened...

last Sunday we arrived at WDW at 10AM for a family magic tour....i did not have the confirmation number as i was told all our reservations would be available at the contemporary resort when we checked in...we i got their our names were not on the list....i explained everything ad naseam and the supervisor who was helping me knew i did not make a mistake nor was i lying and it was WDW's fault- long story short he went into the system, forced us on the family magic tour the next day and comped us....

 

[clten]

Usually, if you are in your own reservation or a linked reservation, it gets locked up for 20 minutes. When a cabin is pulled from inventory for someone "booking" a reservation (whether they confirm it or not) may take the room out of the system for longer than that. I would check again after midnight (a lot of people say rooms are released at that time which leads me to believe they run their overnight programs at about that time) and again the morning. The cabin might pop up.

Otherwise, I might book the lower category room, call DCL to add a note to your reservation so if the proper type room shows up, you can upgrade to it and ensure that they will hold the price for you. If you don't want to tie up your deposit money unless you are guaranteed the cabin, I don't think you'll have any other recourse but to just keep checkiing. If someone really booked the cabin, they can't kick them out of it because of their mistake.

 

[Wadekind]

So I ask DCL to modify their whole reservation system just for me (extension of deposit due date). Then I find out I did not get it, lost my room and now want DCL to correct their "mistake". The DCL agent was obviously misinformed BUT the only mistake made was me missing the due date. The deposit due date is clearly noted.There has to be a cut off point so why should I really expect my reservation to be handled differently than the other 1249 state rooms?
I hope OP gets their room back but I don't see anything that DCL should feel obligated to correct or give a free upgrade for. OP could have been told no extension by the DCL agent and their situation would be no different than it is now.

 

[HallsofVA]

Have you looked again now that it's after midnight? Midnight is when DCL's system seems to actually release rooms that had been on hold but have since been released (like when a hold is auto canceled). I've noticed that after midnight, sold out cruises often appear available again....

 

[grits98]

So I ask DCL to modify their whole reservation system just for me (extension of deposit due date). Then I find out I did not get it, lost my room and now want DCL to correct their "mistake". The DCL agent was obviously misinformed BUT the only mistake made was me missing the due date. The deposit due date is clearly noted.There has to be a cut off point so why should I really expect my reservation to be handled differently than the other 1249 state rooms?
I hope OP gets their room back but I don't see anything that DCL should feel obligated to correct or give a free upgrade for. OP could have been told no extension by the DCL agent and their situation would be no different than it is now.

I think that, perhaps, the OP might agree had a DCL representative not explicitly promised to extend the deposit due date. Once the DCL agent promised something, the OP certainly has the right to rely on that representation. It was kind that the original DCL agent had compassion for the OP, but it would have been even kinder if had actually followed through with what he promised (or, if he had, at the very least, noted their conversation in the call history).

 

[MTmomma]

So I ask DCL to modify their whole reservation system just for me (extension of deposit due date). Then I find out I did not get it, lost my room and now want DCL to correct their "mistake". The DCL agent was obviously misinformed BUT the only mistake made was me missing the due date. The deposit due date is clearly noted.There has to be a cut off point so why should I really expect my reservation to be handled differently than the other 1249 state rooms?
I hope OP gets their room back but I don't see anything that DCL should feel obligated to correct or give a free upgrade for. OP could have been told no extension by the DCL agent and their situation would be no different than it is now.

I really wish that I could feel for you OP, but the reservations system is set up to have a time limit. Unfortunatly it did not work in your favor this time. The same rules should apply to everyone across the board, not just a select few.

 

[rosiep]

So I ask DCL to modify their whole reservation system just for me (extension of deposit due date). Then I find out I did not get it, lost my room and now want DCL to correct their "mistake". The DCL agent was obviously misinformed BUT the only mistake made was me missing the due date. The deposit due date is clearly noted.There has to be a cut off point so why should I really expect my reservation to be handled differently than the other 1249 state rooms?
I hope OP gets their room back but I don't see anything that DCL should feel obligated to correct or give a free upgrade for. OP could have been told no extension by the DCL agent and their situation would be no different than it is now.

I really wish that I could feel for you OP, but the reservations system is set up to have a time limit. Unfortunatly it did not work in your favor this time. The same rules should apply to everyone across the board, not just a select few.

Ouch and ouch. I think the OP has a valid gripe given that DCL had agreed to extend the due date. I would be terribly upset if it happened to me.

So sorry Seaprincess...I hope things turn around for you.

 

[justmestace]

I've said it before and I'll say it again....you can call DCL ten times, and get ten different answers.

I NEVER trust a CM on the phone to give me the correct answer.


Sorry about the whole mess!

 

[kimgg]

I feel for you OP. Hopefully it will all work out - if you watch that website availability comes and goes on a daily/almost hourly basis. The good thing is you booked direct so you don't have to wait on a TA at least if one comes open.

I had to move from a 7 day fantasy to a 5 day dream b/c of a similar situattion as it started w/ my own mistake. I booked only two people instead of the four I needed b/c I booked waaaaayyy ahead to get a good discount. My fault I did not monitor availability and it got away from me and the lifeboat station was full when I got ready to add two people. I panicked and instead of waiting for availability I inadvertantly lost my discount for booking early when I had the TA move me to another cruise date - the cruise had gone WAY up and I didn't realize I would have to pay more for an inside cabin on another cruise date than a family veranda on my original cruise - the TA did not bother to explain to me the cost or what I was losing - so the only way I could afford to cruise next summer was the 5 day.

Anyway, it WAS my fault and I am not even making a complaint as I know it all started with my own mistake at not booking all four passengers to begin with. I didn't realize how quickly the Fantasy was going to fill up. I so wish I had just waited and maybe I could have added our people and at least still kept the first two people at a discount. Oh well live and learn! (And some people are so harsh with their comments - OP is not a child, she just came here to vent and that should be OK)

Good luck at getting your room back!

 

[seaprincess]

Thank you all for your responses. First please understand that I my intention was not to ask for preferential treatment only an explanation . I totally get that there are guidelines for deposits with DCL. When I realized that I had a problem with making the deadline for the deposit (by 24 hours), I reached out to ask for assistance. At the time of my call, the gentleman listened to my story and kindly adjusted the date for me with two additional days grace period. I thought that if this was not feasible the DCL agent would have told me, Im sorry, it's now or never. (I was prepared to hear him say no but was hopeful.) On the contrary, Disney made an exception and I was very grateful.

Had I not seen the very stateroom that I (thought) I had on hold at that very minute, I would never been aware that my reservation was not secured. I called to inquire as to what happened and asked if they could please reinstate my reservation.

I have not checked the DCL website since midnight at will check after this post. I am hopeful that the stateroom may be released back into the system. If so, it would make my day. If not, then I will hear back from the DCL rep when their inventory control staff gets back from the holiday weekend. If 9170 becomes available in the interim I will rebook and be happy.

Over the years I have spoken to many DCL agents and from experience, you get a sense of whether he/she seems knowlegeable and helpful. Yes there have been times where I just don't get a good feeling and have called back to speak to a different person who seems to be more helpful and confident. Per my conversation the other night, I felt that the gentleman that helped me understood my request and addressed my concern in a timely manner. I trusted that my request was handled properly and followed up the next evening with the deposit that I promised. I don't think it unreasonable for me to ask Disney what went wrong?

Again, thank you for listening I am just disappointed is all.

 

[caaraa]

Midnight is when DCL's system seems to actually release rooms that had been on hold but have since been released (like when a hold is auto canceled).

 

[Friendofpluto]

Hoping you have good news to share.

 

[salbythec]

I hope it all works out for you sending some

 

[HUNGTE]

.

 

[NancyIL]

Just curious...no credit card for charging the deposit?

 

[mmouse37]

DCL often extends payment deadlines...this is not something unheard of and if the CM told the OP he was going to do it then she should be able to rely on that info. I doubt he would of told her no problem if he could not do it. The question now is why did it not get done?...did the CM think they did it and there was a glitch or did they not follow through. Who knows.

Hope it gets worked out.

MJ