DU reservations

[bellelinus]

Oh too cool
We're cruising with you again

Maybe we'll get the same server!!!!!

 

[MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER]

Add me to the list of those that decided to give DU a try. I've officially deemed my self disappointed with them. My agent was Kelsie (which it sounds like no one else on this board had ) and I have not heard anything from her. I wanted the Westbound repo and, after hearing nothing from her all day, I booked a room myself last night. The price had already jumped a few times.

I guess the lesson is either use a travel agent you know and trust, or do the work yourself. In my case, the $300 shipboard credit that DU offered lured me in. Next time, I'll pony up the cash myself and eliminate the stress!

I'm really sorry to all of those that depended on DU only to find out that you didn't get what you wanted.

 

[klaubaugh]

Count us in as disappointed in DU. We learned our lesson big time. Our quote came in over $2,000 more than what I could have booked in the morning. I'm trying to keep things in perspective, but man am I really disappointed.

 

[sg4Disney]

I used Dreams, and Kelsie was my agent. She managed to secure two SPH rooms for me on the Oct. 25, 2008 cruise, which is what I requested. I received an e-mail from Dreams around 3 p.m. yesterday. I had a question concerning the reservation so I sent an e-mail. She promptly replied with exactly what I wanted to hear!

Way to go Kelsie!! Thank you very much!!

 

[m&m's mom]

I agree w/ it not being DU's fault.
All week I have emphasized to my TA that she needed to start calling asap on the 31st. She called me in total panic and said she had been trying for over an hour and could not get through online or on the phone. She said "Let's both try". Fortunately I was in the office (I normally work from home) and our office has the equivalent on 10 T1 internet lines and I got in albeit a bit slow. I was so frantic to get 2 rooms that I did not pay attention to the dining or transfers or ins, taxes etc.
Good news/Bad news is I ended up w/ a cat 5 my parents wanted and I grabbed a 10 but it was on the 2nd floor which makes me nervous.
Anyway, my TA called about 9:30 and had managed to snag a few rooms too. We were debating between a 10 and a 5 and when we say the huge difference, we stuck w/ the 10.
It was rough going for everyone. There will definitely be cancellations so keep your eyes open.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Another HUGE fan of Kelsie's. Actually have used her for years now. Thanks Kelsie for always being there!

 

[Joan1]

Ok people take a step back - I am sure every TA had a problem yesterday
You have to keep in mind that most Disney specialized TA's had hundreds of requests to go through and that takes time. For future when something like this comes up again, book it yourself instead of going through a TA and then transfer it to one that is offering an onboard credit, rebates, etc

This will assure you get what you want but also get the benefit of having some money back on your cruise

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

To those that keep saying they are disappointed in DU, did you read my post that ALL TA's had the same problem? Everyone was calling at once and there were major holds on the phones even on the TA-only line but you're going to blame DU for this? That's really not fair.
(and I didn't even use DU -so I'm not just defending them!)

Also as for the prices going up or you getting the quote from DU at a higher amount than you saw online- so many people double or triple booking is what DROVE the price up so that by the time the TA's could get thru the line and get their ressies secured the price was higher. that also is not their fault!

 

[DisneyCM]

To those that keep saying they are disappointed in DU, did you read my post that ALL TA's had the same problem? Everyone was calling at once and there were major holds on the phones even on the TA-only line but you're going to blame DU for this? That's really not fair.
(and I didn't even use DU -so I'm not just defending them!)

Also as for the prices going up or you getting the quote from DU at a higher amount than you saw online- so many people double or triple booking is what DROVE the price up so that by the time the TA's could get thru the line and get their ressies secured the price was higher. that also is not their fault!

You hit the nail on the head!
Get over it people. Double and triple booking (just like in 2005) is the reason that the prices went up so quickly and the early dining was gone in an hour and the staterooms went to guarantee status within 2 hours of the phones opening up for booking.

 

[pansmermaidzlagoon]

To those that keep saying they are disappointed in DU, did you read my post that ALL TA's had the same problem? Everyone was calling at once and there were major holds on the phones even on the TA-only line but you're going to blame DU for this? That's really not fair.
(and I didn't even use DU -so I'm not just defending them!)

Also as for the prices going up or you getting the quote from DU at a higher amount than you saw online- so many people double or triple booking is what DROVE the price up so that by the time the TA's could get thru the line and get their ressies secured the price was higher. that also is not their fault!

I agree - everyone was in the same "boat" yesterday - it is no one's fault but Disney's for the way they handled - or didn't handle the situation yesterday!!! Disney made too many mistakes, lines went down, ..seems everything that could go wrong did. Disney is also to blame for much of the double booking - most who double booked did so out of necessity due to the situation Disney created - if they had handle the IC situation better, you would not have seen so much double booking and it would have helped with the phone lines as well.

I am glad I handed it off to DU - I didn't have to deal with the headache of calling ...and feel for those that did - TA's and individuals alike!!!!

 

[WebmasterJohn]

Hi Folks

Let me start by saying that to anyone who is upset or disappointed in the service and/or quote you received from DU I am sorry.

I know this doesn’t mean much when yours is the cruise that is affected but everyone at DU understands how important these sailings were to the folks who submitted quotes and tried their very best to make everyone happy and get them what they wanted. Every agent was up early and started calling DCL before they opened to get in to the phone queue. As soon as reservations were available on line they started booking what they could (not every stateroom category/option is available to a TA online).

The phone lines available to travel agents were jammed. The first agents to actually get through and into DCL’s queue were told it would be a 45 minute wait that for many turned into 3+ hours on hold listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack over and over again (and about 2 hours in someone finally changed the CD).

The online booking system was at a crawl, at one point it took an hour to complete one reservation, and that was if you were lucky. Many agents could get only partially through the process before they were bumped out.

Even when you got through to Disney it didn’t get much better. The systems the DCL agents were using were freezing and crashing during the booking process. A stateroom would be confirmed and you would hear ‘oh, can you pick another category’ as the system apparently lost the room that was held. This actually happened to me, I was on the phone and had a category 3 stateroom confirmed just as I was waiting for the confirmation number the DCL agent asked me to pick another category. The cat 3 that I had was not only gone, but all cat 3s and cat 4s were gone as well.

DU agents wound up spending hours on the phone that day and then hours preparing quotes to get out to their clients, as can be verified by all those folks getting quotes back at 2AM

I realize this sounds like I am making excuses, and trust I am not. I simply offer it as an explanation as to what happened and to hopefully show everyone that the DU agents (and I’m sure agents from other TAs as well) were trying very hard for their clients. It was circumstances beyond their control that impeded the booking process.

Now, everyone saw this coming. It was obvious from all the hype that the repo cruises would be the most popular and fill first. DU stopped accepting reservations several days before the cruises were open to book to ensure that no one agent had more than he/she could handle. A system was in place to try to ‘move the calls around’ if one agent got in and others could not. Many advanced preparations were made. The problems wound up being things that were completely out of the control of DU, or any TA for that matter.

Prior to these cruises being released I saw many threads on the boards that talked about the last time these cruises were released and how some people held multiple staterooms from multiple sources (more than one TA, themselves, family and friends calling in) and many people said they weren’t going to that this time. Unfortunately it happened again. Many people held multiple requests and that caused a price increase early and took up inventory. I know that a lot of these multiple requests will cancel within the next few days but the damage is done. Disney Cruise Line will not reduce their tier pricing on this (Eastbound repo) cruise, even if half the reservations cancel. That’s just how their system works. So now any new quotes will be priced at the current tier pricing.

DU received countless emails yesterday as well from people who did not submit quotes but who where frantically requesting help with their booking. It seems they were on the phone for hours themselves and couldn’t get their reservation booked online either. Why some people were able to get though and book easier than others, who knows.

Again, no excuses being made. This was just how things played out during the day.

Everyone at DU, especially the agents, are disappointed when they can’t get their clients exactly what they want. They look at reservations as more than just a booking. They are genuinely invested in making sure folks experience something that means a lot to them, a Disney Cruise (or WDW or DL) vacation. They are happy when they can get a client a great price for what they want and frustrated when they cannot. They actively seek out discounts because they know how important it is to save any amount of money on a Disney vacation. Clients eventually become friends to many agents. It’s about more than booking Disney vacations – it’s about sharing their favorite place in the whole world.

I for one am very proud of the job the DU agents did yesterday. They poured their heart and souls in to trying to get everyone what they wanted for the best price possible.

Once again, I am sorry for any disappointment a DU quote has caused.

Thanks for listening.
John

 

[gydell]

I got my cat. but no room # - ok. We wanted early dining but got late -we need early - What do you think my chances are?

 

[gydell]

I don't know many TAs that would work as hard or as many hours in one day as DU did. I am sorry for all the people that didn't get what they wanted but maybe it will be like the med repo where enough people dropped, that prices went down. Thanks to all the hard working TAs at DU.

 

[eeyoregon]

26 HOURS CAME AND WENT AND NOTHING FROM DU! That's what I get for being patient and not doing it myself. I sat by and watched the ship sell out...UGGH!

 

[disneyjunkie]

I think it's kind of harsh to tell people to get over it.

If it's ok to praise TAs(great rate, great location...), why isn't ok to express disappointment?

I was in tears myself yesterday afternoon as I watched the prices go up and up. My heart almost stopped when I found out the eastbound repo was sold out and I still hadn't heard from Dreams. (it all worked out in the end)

Since deposits are due on Saturday, I'm sure plenty of cabins will open up by Sunday. Hopefully everyone will be able to get what they want the second time around.

 

[WebmasterJohn]

Hi eeyoregon

Please write to me directly at john@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com so I can look into what happened to your quote. It may be that one was prepared for you and you just never recieved it.

Please include your DU ID number, or any correspondence you had with a DU agent, so that I can track it down more efficiently.

Thanks
John

 

[ivanova]

You hit the nail on the head!
Get over it people. Double and triple booking (just like in 2005) is the reason that the prices went up so quickly and the early dining was gone in an hour and the staterooms went to guarantee status within 2 hours of the phones opening up for booking.

In general DU and other TAs are not at fault ... as John posted, they had plans in place in anticipation of what could go wrong ... and everything that could go wrong seemed to do just that ... the fault really does lie (IMHO) with DCL ultimately ... had IC called people in advance (as in the past) fewer people would have been calling (or booking online) yesterday ... had DCL pre-released all category price ranges in advance everyone would've known what (if anything) they could afford that would have reduced the need for some of yesterday's calls ... had DCL offered to keep pricing at tier 1 for the first day, panic wouldn't have set it ... had DCL beefed up their servers they wouldn't have had system crashes (and based on history there's no reason they shouldn't have anticipated the volume of calls or website hits they got yesterday).

 

[ivanova]

I got my cat. but no room # - ok. We wanted early dining but got late -we need early - What do you think my chances are?

Honestly, this early, I'm sure you've got a good chance of changing dining before your cruise.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Honestly, this early, I'm sure you've got a good chance of changing dining before your cruise.

Is there a waiting list for early dining? If so, how do get your name placed on the list?

 

[kimerinc]

I could not agree with Ivanova more. I place full and total blame for this fiasco on DCL. With inflationary increases like this it seemed somewhat reminiscent of gas prices in the 70's. Not enough supply, to much demand. It seems like DCL could have worked out a better system especially because they seem to have greatly upset a large DCL customer base. Not a great idea.