Fantasy having mechanical issues

[Neptune's Fork]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a permanent fix in the .marine industry. Everything has a lifespan. Some are shorter then others, and some are unexpected,( the Queen Mary, built.to even higher standards then DCL has blown several large capacitors and damaged the ship. At least 1 explosion tore a door off the hinges) Cruise lines really don't like when things like this happen. It costs them money and worse bad publicity.Freedom of the Seas just out of the builders block had a bad thrust bearing in an azipod and had to go right back into a dock to have it replaced. Unfortunately, things like this will continue to happen if it's made by man.

ETA: corrected fat finger autocorrect.

So do cars, airplanes, lawnmowers, you name it. If it's mechanical, it will have issues at some point. I'm guessing there are just many people that are not very mechanically inclined by the looks of some of these comments.

 

[cruiser21]

So do cars, airplanes, lawnmowers, you name it. If it's mechanical, it will have issues at some point. I'm guessing there are just many people that are not very mechanically inclined by the looks of some of these comments.

Your are really reaching with that statement. My dh just spent the day fixing the AC in my car with my help. I think were pretty mechanically inclined. You think because people expect DCL to take responsibilty for their mechanical problems that people don't realize things break? If my car was still under warranty I'd have it the dealer making them fix it, give me a free rental, and wash my car when they were done. Unfortunately my car is 12 years old so we tackle the problem ourselves. If you were to get stuck in a connecting city because of mechanical problem on a airplane or bus would you not expect the airline or bus company to foot your hotel stay for the night? I would and I think most people would.

 

[Kim&Chris]

We were on the Fantasy and our overall experience was excellent. There was noticeable vibration on the last night during dinner in the Royal Court. Later that evening an announcement was made about the mechanical problem. The estimated time of arrival was 11:00 am. We placed our luggage outside the stateroom door at 10:15 pm. The next day, at 12:15 pm, we were instructed to depart. We were through customs and in the car by 12:30 pm. I heard that others, who decided to carrier their own luggage off, didn't make it through customs until 12:15 pm. Personally, I do not care to be a Sherpa.

We were watching Beauty and the Beast when I felt the vibrations on the floor. I turned to my DH and told him we must've hit an iceberg

 

[Neptune's Fork]

Your are really reaching with that statement. My dh just spent the day fixing the AC in my car with my help. I think were pretty mechanically inclined. You think because people expect DCL to take responsibilty for their mechanical problems that people don't realize things break? If my car was still under warranty I'd have it the dealer making them fix it, give me a free rental, and wash my car when they were done. Unfortunately my car is 12 years old so we tackle the problem ourselves. If you were to get stuck in a connecting city because of mechanical problem on a airplane or bus would you not expect the airline or bus company to foot your hotel stay for the night? I would and I think most people would.

Ok, I see that you are mechanically inclined enough to realize things break. I guess what I probably don't really have a good grasp of is what you mean by DCL taking responsibility for their mechanical problems. What should they have done differently had they taken the appropriate level of responsibility in your view?

 

[cruiser21]

Ok, I see that you are mechanically inclined enough to realize things break. I guess what I probably don't really have a good grasp of is what you mean by DCL taking responsibility for their mechanical problems. What should they have done differently had they taken the appropriate level of responsibility in your view?

I think your being rather insulting by insinuating that people on these board are too stupid to realize that things break. Anyone that owns a house, a car or anything on this planet knows that things break. I would expect DCL to take care of my airline change fees or pay for my hotel if I was delayed a day. It's their fault I missed my flight so they should take care of it. I really don't think that's too much to ask. When Carnival broke down in St Martin they chartered planes to get people back to Orlando, paid for hotels, refunded the cruise, gave 50% off on another cruise. I'm sure that all cost them a fortune, but the mechanical issues were on them.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

I think your being rather insulting by insinuating that people on these board are too stupid to realize that things break. Anyone that owns a house, a car or anything on this planet knows that things break. I would expect DCL to take care of my airline change fees or pay for my hotel if I was delayed a day. It's their fault I missed my flight so they should take care of it. I really don't think that's too much to ask. When Carnival broke down in St Martin they chartered planes to get people back to Orlando, paid for hotels, refunded the cruise, gave 50% off on another cruise. I'm sure that all cost them a fortune, but the mechanical issues were on them.

My apologies, I'm not trying to insult anyone. I believe DCL did do that from the reports I read, not sure. One of the reports was saying that DCL took care of rescheduling flights etc., so I'm assuming they covered the fees. I think one person did post they that they did.

I'm not familiar with that Carnival situation you reference. The circumstances sound like they could differ a bit if they weren't able to return to port at all, rather than a few hours late.

 

[samily]

We (the people who got off today) didn't get any compensation, nor should we (in my opinion). Stuff happens and DCL did everything right (in my first timer's eyes).

My flight change fees ended up being $600 (+miles) and I am hoping the insurance I bought through Disney will cover that. Though I did not book the airfare through Disney. Someone else said Delta knew about the mechanical problems and wasn't charging, but they did for us and we told them about the ship mechanical problems and switched flights at 1am. Still charged us a ton to change flights. Off to read the insurance details...

Would you mind coming back and posting after you work with the insurance to let us know how you make out? I know normally flights are not covered by the DCL insurance unless you have booked the flights through DCL but am wondering what happens when it is a DCL issue that causes the problem to begin with.

 

[cruiser21]

My apologies, I'm not trying to insult anyone. I believe DCL did do that from the reports I read, not sure. One of the reports was saying that DCL took care of rescheduling flights etc., so I'm assuming they covered the fees. I think one person did post they that they did.

I'm not familiar with that Carnival situation you reference. The circumstances sound like they could differ a bit if they weren't able to return to port at all, rather than a few hours late.

There's been other instances when Carnival was late leaving and returning and they compensated customers pretty generously. Carnival has a lot of ships and they are no strangers to mechanical problems as we all know. I did read one person had to pay 600.00 dollars in change fees and then file a claim with insurance. I buy insurance each cruise, but I don't expect to have to use it for a mechanical failure on the cruise ship. Does the insurance even cover that? Or would they deny it and say the cruiseline should cover it. I don't know? I know if I rented a car from Alamo and it broke down I would expect Alamo to foot the bill not my insurance company.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

There's been other instances when Carnival was late leaving and returning and they compensated customers pretty generously. Carnival has a lot of ships and they are no strangers to mechanical problems as we all know. I did read one person had to pay 600.00 dollars in change fees and then file a claim with insurance. I buy insurance each cruise, but I don't expect to have to use it for a mechanical failure on the cruise ship. Does the insurance even cover that? Or would they deny it and say the cruiseline should cover it. I don't know? I know if I rented a car from Alamo and it broke down I would expect Alamo to foot the bill not my insurance company.

It would probably be best to wait until we have more facts on exactly what DCL did, or didn't do, to assist these people with their logistical difficulties in this situation, and then we'd be able to have a more meaningful discussion on whether their response was appropriate or not. I would assume we'll be getting this info over the next few days. So in the meantime we should withhold judgment?

 

[truck1]

Your are really reaching with that statement. My dh just spent the day fixing the AC in my car with my help. I think were pretty mechanically inclined. You think because people expect DCL to take responsibilty for their mechanical problems that people don't realize things break? If my car was still under warranty I'd have it the dealer making them fix it, give me a free rental, and wash my car when they were done. Unfortunately my car is 12 years old so we tackle the problem ourselves. If you were to get stuck in a connecting city because of mechanical problem on a airplane or bus would you not expect the airline or bus company to foot your hotel stay for the night? I would and I think most people would.

From reading this thread from the beginning I think there are 4 or 5 groups of.people.
1 group basically says it's Disney, nothing should ever break, I paid way too much to be inconvenienced, by a mechanical breakdown that Disney should.have known about and avoided.
2, Disney didn't do enough or inform us enough.
3. Disney did what they could under the circumstances.
4. Another adventure in the books. To quote my friend, life's amazing adventure continues.

The point I'm making is this. If it's made by man it will fail. Maybe at the most inopportune time. Same thing Neptune was trying to say.

As far as I can tell DCL owned the problem. They said weve had a malfunction. Well take care of rescheduling Disney air. If you didn't book thru us, gs will help. This is me but I think where the issue comes in is that some weren't getting info as fast as they thought they should.Or if they were in their cabins they may have missed it. In the age of ordering pizza and groceries with an app, and being able to track it real time people think someone can snap their fingers and the problem goes away. The impression I get is that Commodore Tom or one of the officers should have been sitting next to them the whole time, with a play by play.

Heres the issue. Something breaks. The head engineer on duty, gives everything a once over to establish what the problem is. Then he/she calls the bridge and informs them. Then the bridge calls the Capt, and Chief engineer. The cheng and the engineering team start trouble shooting to find the exact extent of the damage. At this point, all the Capt knows is something broke. The cheng calls the bridge and says, this is what we got, this is whats left, this is what the power plant can give you.It may be `10 minutes, it could be 3 hours. Its a case by case. Capt gets on the PA says well be late, this is whats being done. Dept heads are woken up and things start to move to support the plan. All of this takes time. Meanwhile, the engineering team is hard at work getting all of the details they need, and I'm sure there was a call to 200 Celebration for shoreside engineering support. Who in turn more then likely called Germany for more technical help. The whole time the ship is coming in, the engineers, are earning there money. Shore support is calling with instructions. Germany or whoever built the broken system is calling for info. Now they have a ballpark on what it will take to fix completely. Again, this could be an hour later or 5 hours later. I can pretty much gty that no engineer that night got any sleep. They could even be breaking down the broken parts, so the new can be dropped in when the ship drops lines to the pier. Ship comes in. Now either temporary repairs are made or permanent repairs are made, depending on what happened. Office says new sail time 6 pm based on current info. Incase heres the new itin. Parts go in, what ever broke gets tested and ok everything seems to be ok. Now, theres a group of alphabet soup organizations that gets involved. The CG will come aboard and ask what happened, what did you do, lets see it. That takes time. Now, the ships insurance gets involved. Who what where when how. They have to give an approval. Now the shipping class gets involved. And the list goes on. All it takes is for 1 group to say no, and its game over. That's also assuming that whatever the fix was worked and a new problem didn't pop up. And then the process starts all over again.

 

[truck1]

My apologies, I'm not trying to insult anyone. I believe DCL did do that from the reports I read, not sure. One of the reports was saying that DCL took care of rescheduling flights etc., so I'm assuming they covered the fees. I think one person did post they that they did.

I'm not familiar with that Carnival situation you reference. The circumstances sound like they could differ a bit if they weren't able to return to port at all, rather than a few hours late.

Short version. One of Carnivals ships went into St Maarten. This was right after 2 other ships lost power at sea. During a routine test, a back up generator failed. Carnival said we don't feel comfortable coming home like that. So they chartered flights to fly everyone home, then the ship sailed empty back home. Then they fixed the problem. The ship was there for 2 or 3 days until the last guests were off the ship. Some guests got 2 or 3 days wandering St Maarten until they were flown home.

 

[Ravenne]

Since the Fantasy left so late, did they still have a Sail Away Party?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Further back people asked about Gold Platinum receptions. They are not in Navigator, you find out in your room. We are on a 15 night cruise. Yes, wine is one of the gifts offered to Platinum members. It is a sparkling white wine.

Best wishes to all. We are in Day 10!

 

[OKW Lover]

Wanted to thank @truck1 for that great explanation of what was likely going on.

 

[DisneyPups]

The other thing to add is that, as humans, we do not deal with change well... we do much better with routine, expectations, etc. I agree, each person's experience is their own. We have no right to judge others for their experience and the emotions that follow.
There is certainly legal obligation vs. customer service. And a simple "I'm sorry" does go a long way (so does $$ off a future cruise... b/c then Disney wins by getting more $$ down the road for those who choose to use it).
But it reminds me of the time I flew, by myself, on Christmas Day from DC to Seattle via Twin Cities, as a 16yo senior in HS to visit my Dad, stepmom and little bro. There was mechanical plane failure and I was stuck in MN all day. I kept getting updated, sure, with more bad news... this was before cell phones ('95) and each time I got on the pay phone to call my mom with the bad news, and she would call my dad to remind him to keep checking the flight updates. I was 16, I had no idea I should have been asking for "compensation." I had nothing to eat that whole time (8 hours in the airport), b/c I didn't travel with cash, and I obviously didn't have credit cards. I even ran out of change for the pay phone and started calling collect. Was the airline obligated to give me money for lunch? I don't think so. Should they have told me I would be in the airport, all alone, on Christmas day until it was no longer Christmas day? How would they have known? It was an issue they tried several times to fix, replaced it with another plane that had an issue, and then needed a third plane. It was Murphys law that day.... yes it sucked, and yes, I cried to my poor mom via collect call all day, who already felt guilty for flying me out there ON xmas day b/c it was cheaper. I received nothing. If there was social media back then, yeah, I probably would have gone online to complain, b/c Hey, sometimes you just gotta VENT! So let's let people vent, they may realize that DCL doesn't have to do anything, and hey maybe they did enough...
But can we at least use this as a PSA to buy trip insurance? I have to kids (5 and 2)... and missing flights (which means missing naps) would have ADDED to my stress, I get that. So please just stop attacking people for their thoughts... and simply discuss. You share your view, I'll share mine, you share your suggestion, he'll share his...
I love these boards, but sometimes posters need to re-read before they hit post... are you being helpful, informative, adding to the convo, or are you just trying to shame and belittle someone? Give people the benefit of the doubt once in a while...

 

[WDWLODGE]

I don't understand why people are saying there was a lack of communication. We were in the Tube when there was an announcement that there was a mechanical issue. We were informed then that they were working on rescheduling flights and if you did not book with DCL that guest services would assist you. We were also told that we would dock around 10:00 AM the next morning with disembarkation around 11:00. Then told no further announcement would come until 8:00 AM Saturday morning. At exactly 8:00 there was a thorough announcement telling us it would be an hour longer than originally thought and that there would be lunch, activities (specified them all) and that we didn't need to be out of the room until 11:00. I think the only thing they handled wrong was telling passengers walking off, an hour earlier than needed, to head to the Theater. It created a cluster because on a 3 day cruise most everyone is just walking off. Assuming there would be an issue we sat around the adult pool, ate lunch and waited. We saw the 1st people head off toward the buses, took the elevator down to deck 3, and walked right off. I think most of the complaints are from people listened and were in that cluster and who had issues with flights and traveling which is very understandable but not everything can be controlled. I think DCL did a good job handing this situation.

As with the other complaints, air conditioning, toilets, etc., this was the 1st cruise after dry dock. We all knew that. If you have the ability to be on the disboards and complain you should have had the ability to know that cruises immediately following dry dock can and do have issues. We went in knowing that so the issues we experience were expected and far fewer than we anticipated.

We were on this cruise as well and I agree 100% with SweetSpot, I don't understand the complaints about the lack of communication. I think maybe we just live in a time where we are so used to having basically any information at our fingertips and people felt they needed more info. I felt we were provided with all the information that was needed. We took full advantage of the extra time on the ship Saturday, my DW & DD watched Beauty & the Beast, my DS & myself enjoyed the Kid's Club, Midship Detective Agency & meeting characters who were just roaming the ship. We also were able to sleep in and enjoy a full breakfast, lunch & ice cream. Fortunately for us we were driving home, so we didn't have the worries about flight times like others.

I can say for us we enjoyed every minute of the cruise and did not have any issues like others had.

 

[mcurrence]

We were on this cruise as well and I agree 100% with SweetSpot, I don't understand the complaints about the lack of communication. I think maybe we just live in a time where we are so used to having basically any information at our fingertips and people felt they needed more info. I felt we were provided with all the information that was needed. We took full advantage of the extra time on the ship Saturday, my DW & DD watched Beauty & the Beast, my DS & myself enjoyed the Kid's Club, Midship Detective Agency & meeting characters who were just roaming the ship. We also were able to sleep in and enjoy a full breakfast, lunch & ice cream. Fortunately for us we were driving home, so we didn't have the worries about flight times like others.

I can say for us we enjoyed every minute of the cruise and did not have any issues like others had.

Thank you for this As an aside, did you notice any differences in the Detective Agency? Was hoping for something new! Not to minimize others experience, but a good attitude goes a long way

 

[TGaines107]

Man we had a great time! Our 13th trip into the Bermuda Triangle on DCL! Our trip starts with a 4am call our flight is cancelled. No problem, on the phone with jetBlue to re-schedule and we're down there by noon. Great food, great cast, great people, Kim & I got to play withCrush at Animator's Palate that first night! Then pirate night, Castaway Cay, just loved it all. Kinda weird though seeing Serenity Bay completely packed that first day, never seen anything close on previous trips! That last day, again, no problem, I'm on the phone to jetBlue rescheduling (again, praise to those guys, no charges for either flights), go see Guardians of the Galaxy, go eat steak and shrimp, walk off the ship, grab our bags down by the blue section, on the bus, at the airport, blew some time at some stores, on the plane, home and looking forward to our next trip on the Dream 8/25! Very sorry for the folks who had problems but we loved seeing old friends and making new ones, especially on pirate night! I do hope that those who had problems, continue to cruise DCL, we've cruised other cruise lines and we still feel DCL is the best by far!

 

[WDWLODGE]

Thank you for this As an aside, did you notice any differences in the Detective Agency? Was hoping for something new! Not to minimize others experience, but a good attitude goes a long way

It had been about 3 1/2 years since our last cruise on the Fantasy, but we did not notice anything new and we tried all 3 scenarios.

 

[KashasMom]

Thank you for this As an aside, did you notice any differences in the Detective Agency? Was hoping for something new! Not to minimize others experience, but a good attitude goes a long way

I think the difference is that this family was driving. For many others rescheduling their flights was likely a big hassle. And other things come into play - as someone mentioned picking up their pets, etc. Those hassles would not have been any less by having a "good attitude".