Freaking Out - DCL Canceled Reserved Date - Dummy Booking Policy

[tfc3rid]

OK, so we just returned fro mthe 11 night Iceland/Norway cruise and had a fantastic time so it's time to focus now on the cruise I booked last year on the Panama Canal in September.

I booked the cruise for December 9, 2015, a nice little 4 nighter to Castaway, Key West and Nassau on the Magic. Booked my stateroom and received my confirmation last October. So, now that we are back from Europe, I wanted to put a few bucks toward paying down that 4 nighter and lo and behold, apparently in April because of the change to the booking policy with placeholder dates, my confirmed reservation is gone and I'm left with a $200 deposit (instead of my $349) and have no date for when I was actually trying to sail. DCL 'did' refund $149 in April but I wasn't sure if that was tied to my Iceland cruise reservation...

I have called DCL and they are going to see what can be done. I am incensed. I had no desire to use my 2015 date as a placeholder, I did not want it moved so I did not respopind to any of DCL's emails about the placeholder policy. They went and canceled my confirmed booking anyway.

Now the price they are quoting me to get that date back is about $600 more than my confirmed price...

Anyone else encounter this????

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Sounds a big mess up.......Somehow they took it as a palceholder/dummy, often December cruises were used for that.

Complaint they will restore it.

 

[tfc3rid]

Sounds a big mess up.......Somehow they took it as a palceholder/dummy, often December cruises were used for that.

Complaint they will restore it.

I wish. They quoted me a price for a new stateroom that is significantly more than my quote and remaining balance was. They are 'working' on it and will call me tomorrow. We shall see but I am livid.

The email they sent back in April as I read it now seems to make me think I should contact them IF my date was a placeholder.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I wish. They quoted me a price for a new stateroom that is significantly more than my quote and remaining balance was. They are 'working' on it and will call me tomorrow. We shall see but I am livid.

The email they sent back in April as I read it now seems to make me think I should contact them IF my date was a placeholder.

Hopefully they will sort it out.

 

[tfc3rid]

Hopefully they will sort it out.

I certainly hope so. The category stateroom I had booked and confirmed is no longer available so..... We shall see.

 

[tfc3rid]

FYI, this is the paragraph they were referring to me over the phone... I had a confirmed date and stateroom and never would have read this to mean my confirmed reservation was going to be zapped. It was the 4th paragraph of an email detailing that the new Summer 2016 itineraries were out.

"For those Guests who are not yet ready to select their next cruise vacation date, we have a new placeholder process. This new process has a flat deposit rate of $200 per booking. Please contact us by April 17, 2015, if you wish to select a future sail date. After this time, your booking will be moved to the new process and bookings with deposits over $200 will receive a refund of the difference in deposit amounts."

 

[Maggie'sMom]

FYI, this is the paragraph they were referring to me over the phone... I had a confirmed date and stateroom and never would have read this to mean my confirmed reservation was going to be zapped. It was the 4th paragraph of an email detailing that the new Summer 2016 itineraries were out.

"For those Guests who are not yet ready to select their next cruise vacation date, we have a new placeholder process. This new process has a flat deposit rate of $200 per booking. Please contact us by April 17, 2015, if you wish to select a future sail date. After this time, your booking will be moved to the new process and bookings with deposits over $200 will receive a refund of the difference in deposit amounts."

That paragraph definitely isn't clearly worded, but I would have interpreted it that if I didn't contact them my reservation would be switched to a placeholder. They really should have switched it the other way around and only changed people to placeholders if they contacted DCL to tell them their cruise was a dummy date instead of a real booking. I hope they get this worked out for you.

 

[mmouse37]

I probably would have called anyway just to make sure they kept my reservation since that paragraph is not very clear. Hope they can sort it out for you.

MJ

 

[samily]

So sorry this happened to you! I hope they get it worked out for you.

We booked the 12/4 Magic cruise while on board in February and your post made me log on and double check it - it is still there thank goodness!

Good luck in getting it worked out!

 

[Mrs Green]

The wording is very confusing so I would think you are not alone in this problem. Hope it gets worked out for you!

 

[adamki]

FYI, this is the paragraph they were referring to me over the phone...

Wow ... the construction of that paragraph is asking for BIG trouble. How does an organization the size of DCL let that get out the door?

Had I received that email in your situation, I might have stopped reading after the first sentence, "For those Guests who are not yet ready to select their next cruise vacation date ...", that's definitely not you. If I had kept reading, the second sentence doesn't really say anything, then the third sentence confirms that they DON'T want you to call if you are happy with your booking, "Please contact us by April 17, 2015, if you wish to select a future sail date." They never tell you to do anything if you are happy with what you've got!

You need to find someone at DCL who is a) empowered to resolve this immediately and; b) is able to read and understand the English language enough to see that the email you were sent is unacceptable!

 

[adamki]

If 'working on it' doesn't turn into a satisfactory solution ASAP, as in tomorrow, then I would initiate an "Executive Email Carpet Bomb".

The email addresses for the DCL executive staff can be found on this link to elliott.org scroll down to Executive Contacts. Write a clear and concise email describing the fiasco and send it to all of the listed executives. There have been two occasions in my life where I have had to initiate the EECB and both times I was put in contact with someone who was able to quickly and effectively resolve major issues. You can't do this kind of thing lightly, but this would probably be a good time to break out the big guns.

 

[bumbershoot]

I had a confirmed date and stateroom

Yep.

Please contact us by April 17, 2015, if you wish to select a future sail date.

Which you didn't (want to select a FUTURE cruise date), because you HAD a future cruise date.

I would have interpreted it that if I didn't contact them my reservation would be switched to a placeholder.

I wouldn't.

Had I received that email in your situation, I might have stopped reading after the first sentence, "For those Guests who are not yet ready to select their next cruise vacation date ...", that's definitely not you.

Exactly. It's not the OP. It's not her situation.

then the third sentence confirms that they DON'T want you to call if you are happy with your booking

Exactly.


This is all kinds of wrong. See what they do tomorrow.

 

[Ofinn]

Ah that's too bad. I almost booked that cruise. Unfortunately I didn't. It was a great price even without OBB. I see it has gone up a lot. I hope you get it worked out with DCL. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't use one of my OBB's for that cruise.

 

[tfc3rid]

UPDATE...

Just got off the phone with the Reservations Supervisor and he reinstated my original category at my original price. Thank heavens but in all reality, I would not normally have even looked at this reservation until September when full payment was due. That would have been a complete disaster. Speaking with my TA, this whole process was a compete disaster for folks, especially ones outside the US, many of whom 'lost' their reservations like me.

Anyway, DCL should have been more direct if they intended us to contact them. In fact, THEY should have been the ones contacting us to confirm our dates, or simply left it alone unless we actually changed it.

 

[gismo1554]

Thank God its sorted!

 

[AngelDisney]

Glad that it has all worked out for you at the end! Have fun planning!

 

[thumpie's mom]

Glad to hear they did the right thing for you!

 

[ktate82]

Glad they got it fixed! I was only reading along (and quickly double checked my reservations) and felt panicked so I can't imagine how you felt!

 

[tfc3rid]

Now, of course, I'm trying to pay back the portion of my deposit that was returned to me and there are a number of errors popping up on the DCL site... Looks like I'll have to call to get to deposit finalized. Always something.