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 doesnt 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 DCLs 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 didnt 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 Im 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 werent 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. Thats 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 couldnt 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 cant 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. Its about more than booking
Disney vacations its 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
