Has anyone else had issues with the new Oceaneer's club/lab policies?

[peachygreen]

Nothing is going to change dramatically enough to effect major plans without notice unless weather or an act of God intervenes, which I am aware can happen but cannot be predicted. I want to be able to plan for what CAN be predicted. This could easily be released in advance so families could plan around it. Why not do so? I don't like counting on adjusting plans while on board. CMs are not always able to accommodate everyone wo wants to change thier plan at the last minute. These open houses are deal breakers for us. We need to be able to plan around them. It is not like changing an activity on deck or what movie is showing.

But things will change. That is just the point. Open houses are based around certain activities. So if they have to move a deck party or change which shows are when that changes what cast members are available to do other things like planned events in the Club/Lab. Those activities are based around who knows what but they do change. It wouldn't surprize me if the hours of open house vs secured programing in which club have to do with the mix of children's ages on board. There is a reason they don't give you a weeks worth of navigators when you board on the first day. If they didn't they would probably have to reissue them every day. Things change from day to day and week to week. There is only one Snow White, there is only one Belle on the ship. There is only one Peter Pan. If they have to change their schedule because of other programing changes then this would effect the open house schedule.
This is not WDW where you can plan out every second of every day 6 months in advance and then get freaked out when they change the hours on you 1 month before you trip. (and yes I've seen people do just that or try to). They are still providing secure programming. I don't think they have any way to let you know 120 days out what hours will be what.

 

[TDC Nala]

That doesn't seem fair though. The people who have special needs children or children that have a difficult time meeting new kids ALSO paid top dollar for the cruise and I don't think it's unreasonable for them to want their children to have the opportunity to experience the clubs too.

It doesn't affect me either way. My son loved the kids club, The Edge and will love Vibe on our next cruise. He wants to do his own thing. I just feel bad for the parents who's children do not adapt as easily. I think their kids deserve the experience too.

The other solution is to let the parents back in and have unsecured clubs with some children attended by parents and some unattended, and they aren't going to do that. I think DCL now understands why other lines don't let the parents into the kids clubs. So they've done what they think they can do to accommodate everybody. It doesn't please everybody but it CAN accommodate everybody. they could build an indoor play area for families on the ships, but they would have to take something else out. I don't know if they anticipated that so many parents would want to stay in the clubs with the children.

 

[princessmom29]

But things will change. That is just the point. Open houses are based around certain activities. So if they have to move a deck party or change which shows are when that changes what cast members are available to do other things like planned events in the Club/Lab. Those activities are based around who knows what but they do change. It wouldn't surprize me if the hours of open house vs secured programing in which club have to do with the mix of children's ages on board. There is a reason they don't give you a weeks worth of navigators when you board on the first day. If they didn't they would probably have to reissue them every day. Things change from day to day and week to week. There is only one Snow White, there is only one Belle on the ship. There is only one Peter Pan. If they have to change their schedule because of other programing changes then this would effect the open house schedule.
This is not WDW where you can plan out every second of every day 6 months in advance and then get freaked out when they change the hours on you 1 month before you trip. (and yes I've seen people do just that or try to). They are still providing secure programming. I don't think they have any way to let you know 120 days out what hours will be what.

They absolutely COULD set the hrs and stick to them, but they CHOOSE not to. If something changes, change the programming but leave the hours set so parents can plan around them. It wouldn't be that hard.

 

[jetskigrl]

Why is it so very important to have it ahead of time when it is known that things can change from cruise to cruise? Again, make your plans with things that need to be scheduled and then adjust as needed once you board the ship if needed with the assistance of the staff and crew. I understand your desire to plan - and you can do so. Just know you may have to shift your plans a bit once your cruise arrives. Easy peasy.

- Dreams

I think that would work out fine if they could provide you with the full week's Open House schedule when you board.

But if you booked Palo on the 3rd night and then find out on the 2nd night that Open House is taking place where your child would be. So you talk to Palo and they are able to reschedule you for the 3rd night..great, you lucked into an opening a day after most changes have already been made.

Opps, find out later that the 3rd night is also Open House, so you talk to Palo again and cancel again, this time reschedule for the 6th night (since there are MDR events you don't want to miss on 4th and 5th...just an example). Opps, don't find out until the 5th night that there will be Open House on that night also...etc, etc, etc.... That sounds like a lot of time wasted for both the guests and the person handling the reservations at Palo. All that could be avoided if the Open House hours are consistent.

And I won't even get into the clothing issues of not knowing what night we will be in Palo (do I need two dressy outfits or three, because we wanted Palo on Formal Night but had to change it at the last minute)

They absolutely COULD set the hrs and stick to them, but they CHOOSE not to. If something changes, change the programming but leave the hours set so parents can plan around them. It wouldn't be that hard.

Exactly, they could schedule things within those set hours as much as they wanted. But Secure vs. Open House could easily be made a constant time schedule.

 

[Disney Dreams]

...This could easily be released in advance so families could pln around it. Why not do so?...

DCL does not release the daily schedules of anything ahead of time. The Navigator's that you have to reference are only available because of previous cruisers who has posted them. If DCL decided to shuffle all the programming and activities, they could. Movies can be shifted around (three cruises and we STILL haven't seen "African Cats" because of when it was offered each sailing!)

I am just trying to help you to see that not having every second planned and arranging some things upon arrival can be just fine and still result in a great vacation.

- Dreams

 

[princessmom29]

DCL does not release the daily schedules of anything ahead of time. The Navigator's that you have to reference are only available because of previous cruisers who has posted them. If DCL decided to shuffle all the programming and activities, they could. Movies can be shifted around (three cruises and we STILL haven't seen "African Cats" because of when it was offered each sailing!)

I am just trying to help you to see that not having every second planned and arranging some things upon arrival can be just fine and still result in a great vacation.

- Dreams

But oe things NEED to be planned in advance, and knowing in advance when there will be open house hours would make it MUCH easier to plan those things. It is pretty much a crap shoot at this pointith booking anything at ll in advance not knowing the open house hours. DCL wants yo to vook Palo, Remy, the spa ect in advance. There are some things they expect ou to paln for. They are making it VERY hard to do by not releasing these hours. I will not ever go into a vacation with no plan at all. It just will never happen, no matter how much you try to tell me otherwise. I don't plan out every minute, but WILL always have activites that require a reservation booked well in advance and planned out. I ont just o with it and hope i can get a last minute reservation. It seems there are several others here who operate this way.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I just saw some of the Navigators from the Magic 12/30 sailing and the open house times seem very manageable. There were only three days posted but the open house schedule was consistently 3:00pm to 6:00pm rotating between the club/lab and an activity was offered for families during that time (flubber, Aladdin's fun adventures and eggsperiment). The days posted were port days, so there may be additional open house times during the morning on sea days.

We won't really know for sure until we sail, but a few hours here and there doesn't seem too excessive and will hopefully be a good solution for most families

 

[threewilmingtonwalls]

I just saw some of the Navigators from the Magic 12/30 sailing and the open house times seem very manageable. There were only three days posted but the open house schedule was consistently 3:00pm to 6:00pm rotating between the club/lab and an activity was offered for families during that time (flubber, Aladdin's fun adventures and eggsperiment). The days posted were port days, so there may be additional open house times during the morning on sea days.

We won't really know for sure until we sail, but a few hours here and there doesn't seem too excessive and will hopefully be a good solution for most families

Thanks for posting this update!

 

[justhat]

I think that would work out fine if they could provide you with the full week's Open House schedule when you board.

But if you booked Palo on the 3rd night and then find out on the 2nd night that Open House is taking place where your child would be. So you talk to Palo and they are able to reschedule you for the 3rd night..great, you lucked into an opening a day after most changes have already been made.

Opps, find out later that the 3rd night is also Open House, so you talk to Palo again and cancel again, this time reschedule for the 6th night (since there are MDR events you don't want to miss on 4th and 5th...just an example). Opps, don't find out until the 5th night that there will be Open House on that night also...etc, etc, etc.... That sounds like a lot of time wasted for both the guests and the person handling the reservations at Palo. All that could be avoided if the Open House hours are consistent.

And I won't even get into the clothing issues of not knowing what night we will be in Palo (do I need two dressy outfits or three, because we wanted Palo on Formal Night but had to change it at the last minute)




Exactly, they could schedule things within those set hours as much as they wanted. But Secure vs. Open House could easily be made a constant time schedule.

I think you just suck it up and either go to Palo or don't in your scenario. If you don't want to skip the events on nights 4 and 5, and nights 2, 3, and 6 have open house, then what other option is there? If you knew in advance it wouldn't have helped anyway as you don't want to go the only 2 nights that open house won't conflict.

DCL does not release the daily schedules of anything ahead of time. The Navigator's that you have to reference are only available because of previous cruisers who has posted them. If DCL decided to shuffle all the programming and activities, they could. Movies can be shifted around (three cruises and we STILL haven't seen "African Cats" because of when it was offered each sailing!)

I am just trying to help you to see that not having every second planned and arranging some things upon arrival can be just fine and still result in a great vacation.

- Dreams

Very true. And if you are planning based on old Navigators, then you can use the open house times found in those as well.

But oe things NEED to be planned in advance, and knowing in advance when there will be open house hours would make it MUCH easier to plan those things. It is pretty much a crap shoot at this pointith booking anything at ll in advance not knowing the open house hours. DCL wants yo to vook Palo, Remy, the spa ect in advance. There are some things they expect ou to paln for. They are making it VERY hard to do by not releasing these hours. I will not ever go into a vacation with no plan at all. It just will never happen, no matter how much you try to tell me otherwise. I don't plan out every minute, but WILL always have activites that require a reservation booked well in advance and planned out. I ont just o with it and hope i can get a last minute reservation. It seems there are several others here who operate this way.

But how is it any different than past cruises? On our 10/11 Wonder cruise the club was not open till noon on morning X. If I had Palo then, I wouldn't have know until the night before that this was the case. In fact, I might have had Palo that day, I don't remember. I feel like we did cause I remember feeding the kids in Triton's but don't think we ate with them, so must have been Palo brunch.

Same with nights when one club was closed. I might have had an activity planned, but now I see the night before that the Club is closed. There were no open houses back then, just one side was closed. Same idea as now though. Only instead of one side being closed, it is hosting an open house.

 

[kidclassic]

I have not read through this entire thread, but my wife has. I asked her to call and find out more about the new open house times directly from Disney.

She called on Monday and the woman she spoke with was completely rude to her. When she said she had seen the information online and would like more clarification the lady started talking about how everyone reads stuff online and blows it out of proportion. At that point she started getting more and more snippy with my wife.

She then started calling the time something other than "open house", something like "Family time"(wife can't remember exactly out of frustration). Which was followed by the woman accusing my wife of not wanting to spend time with our kids. This was what really sent my wife over the edge. A customer service agent should not treat someone like this or make judgments about their character. My wife told me that the woman wouldn't let her finish a sentence and kept talking over her. She then told my wife that there is no way there could be open house times as long my wife was telling her. After again calling her out for not wanting to be with her kids, she put my wife on hold.

When she came back on she said that you can still check your kids into the area having the open house and was slightly nicer. My wife ended the call and was "sent" to the customer service rating survey. She was mysteriously sent to the "I didn't book a cruise survey".

I am actually extremely bothered, not as much with the open houses, but at the treatment of my wife. This is our families first Disney Cruise and we have heard so much about the exceptional service provided by Disney and this is not that. Because of my wife and I 23 people are on this cruise.

Sooooo what should I do. Should I call and complain? I am torn.

Thoughts?

 

[jetskigrl]

I think you just suck it up and either go to Palo or don't in your scenario. If you don't want to skip the events on nights 4 and 5, and nights 2, 3, and 6 have open house, then what other option is there? If you knew in advance it wouldn't have helped anyway as you don't want to go the only 2 nights that open house won't conflict.

Again, I'm afraid that you are missing my point. If we know in advance that our only option was to go on nights 4 and 5 due to the Open Houses, we could make a decision the first night and avoid the runaround of having to book, cancel, rebook, cancel, etc, etc, etc. We would know on night 1 that we would be missing Palo, rather than having to check every single night to see if we could go.

I just saw some of the Navigators from the Magic 12/30 sailing and the open house times seem very manageable. There were only three days posted but the open house schedule was consistently 3:00pm to 6:00pm rotating between the club/lab and an activity was offered for families during that time (flubber, Aladdin's fun adventures and eggsperiment). The days posted were port days, so there may be additional open house times during the morning on sea days.

We won't really know for sure until we sail, but a few hours here and there doesn't seem too excessive and will hopefully be a good solution for most families

Thank you for the update. This is what I am hoping they implement on the Wonder also.

I have not read through this entire thread, but my wife has. I asked her to call and find out more about the new open house times directly from Disney.

She called on Monday and the woman she spoke with was completely rude to her. When she said she had seen the information online and would like more clarification the lady started talking about how everyone reads stuff online and blows it out of proportion. At that point she started getting more and more snippy with my wife.

She then started calling the time something other than "open house", something like "Family time"(wife can't remember exactly out of frustration). Which was followed by the woman accusing my wife of not wanting to spend time with our kids. This was what really sent my wife over the edge. A customer service agent should not treat someone like this or make judgments about their character. My wife told me that the woman wouldn't let her finish a sentence and kept talking over her. She then told my wife that there is no way there could be open house times as long my wife was telling her. After again calling her out for not wanting to be with her kids, she put my wife on hold.

When she came back on she said that you can still check your kids into the area having the open house and was slightly nicer. My wife ended the call and was "sent" to the customer service rating survey. She was mysteriously sent to the "I didn't book a cruise survey".

I am actually extremely bothered, not as much with the open houses, but at the treatment of my wife. This is our families first Disney Cruise and we have heard so much about the exceptional service provided by Disney and this is not that. Because of my wife and I 23 people are on this cruise.

Sooooo what should I do. Should I call and complain? I am torn.

Thoughts?

I would definitely complain (I hope you got the person's name). That is unacceptable no matter what subject matter you are calling about.

 

[justhat]

Sooooo what should I do. Should I call and complain? I am torn.

Thoughts?

I would ask to speak with a supervisor immediately if this ever happens again. For now, if you have her name, I'd call and speak to someone about it. If not, not a whole lot that can be done.

Again, I'm afraid that you are missing my point. If we know in advance that our only option was to go on nights 4 and 5 due to the Open Houses, we could make a decision the first night and avoid the runaround of having to book, cancel, rebook, cancel, etc, etc, etc. We would know on night 1 that we would be missing Palo, rather than having to check every single night to see if we could go.

I do see your point. You'd like to know in advance that you can't go at all. But I guess since the end result wouldn't change, I figured you meant more for the purpose of planning Palo a different day. But if you're fine with not going at all, and just want to know that in advance, why not just not book a Palo at all, then when you get on the ship, if they have availability, book then? You risk not being able to get in at all, of course, but that seems like it wouldn't be a big deal for you if I'm understanding correctly.

For me, I would rather book Palo for the time I thought was "best" from what was available in advance, then if it doesn't work out on board, and I have to cancel it, well, okay. But the calamari and souffle are pretty important to me! I could care less about all other food on the ship, but those 2 rank pretty high!

 

[stitchlovestink]

I have not read through this entire thread, but my wife has. I asked her to call and find out more about the new open house times directly from Disney.

She called on Monday and the woman she spoke with was completely rude to her. When she said she had seen the information online and would like more clarification the lady started talking about how everyone reads stuff online and blows it out of proportion. At that point she started getting more and more snippy with my wife.

She then started calling the time something other than "open house", something like "Family time"(wife can't remember exactly out of frustration). Which was followed by the woman accusing my wife of not wanting to spend time with our kids. This was what really sent my wife over the edge. A customer service agent should not treat someone like this or make judgments about their character. My wife told me that the woman wouldn't let her finish a sentence and kept talking over her. She then told my wife that there is no way there could be open house times as long my wife was telling her. After again calling her out for not wanting to be with her kids, she put my wife on hold.

When she came back on she said that you can still check your kids into the area having the open house and was slightly nicer. My wife ended the call and was "sent" to the customer service rating survey. She was mysteriously sent to the "I didn't book a cruise survey".

I am actually extremely bothered, not as much with the open houses, but at the treatment of my wife. This is our families first Disney Cruise and we have heard so much about the exceptional service provided by Disney and this is not that. Because of my wife and I 23 people are on this cruise.

Sooooo what should I do. Should I call and complain? I am torn.

Thoughts?

Yes, you should. I'm sorry your wife was spoken to that way. That's not okay! And clearly not Disney! Hope you are able to get someone more helpful when you call.

 

[conandrob240]

3 hrs a day at a time I'd consider " prime" is ridiculous. I really hope they reconsider this whole silly plan. I still really don't get how it addresses the original problem. 1) it doesn't make it any safer for kid's. In fact, it makes it less safe because now parents are encouraged to be in the clubs thus kid's now come into contact with more unknown, unscreened adults and 2) do they really think they are now not liable if an incident happens? I am not a lawyer but I doubt this. If an incident happens on a Disney ship with a child being hurt or harassed, I think Disney would bear some liability this way or the previous way, wouldn't they? I just don't get it. I really, truly believe this is a covert attempt to reduce staffing in the kid's clubs and save some $. Unacceptable.

 

[kidclassic]

I would ask to speak with a supervisor immediately if this ever happens again. For now, if you have her name, I'd call and speak to someone about it. If not, not a whole lot that can be done.

She is not 100% sure of the woman's name. However, I have worked for call floors in the past and I know that because she accessed our reservation they will have record of it.

 

[justhat]

3 hrs a day at a time I'd consider " prime" is ridiculous. I really hope they reconsider this whole silly plan. I still really don't get how it addresses the original problem. 1) it doesn't make it any safer for kid's. In fact, it makes it less safe because now parents are encouraged to be in the clubs thus kid's now come into contact with more unknown, unscreened adults and 2) do they really think they are now not liable if an incident happens? I am not a lawyer but I doubt this. If an incident happens on a Disney ship with a child being hurt or harassed, I think Disney would bear some liability this way or the previous way, wouldn't they? I just don't get it. I really, truly believe this is a covert attempt to reduce staffing in the kid's clubs and save some $. Unacceptable.

Regarding your first point, when parents are in the club, kids are not left alone in the clubs. So kids will only be in contact with other random adults if they are with their own parents.

Point 2, no, I am sure DCL could still be sued regardless of the policy. Anyone can be sued it seems.

 

[True Romance]

I have not read through this entire thread, but my wife has. I asked her to call and find out more about the new open house times directly from Disney.

She called on Monday and the woman she spoke with was completely rude to her. When she said she had seen the information online and would like more clarification the lady started talking about how everyone reads stuff online and blows it out of proportion. At that point she started getting more and more snippy with my wife.

She then started calling the time something other than "open house", something like "Family time"(wife can't remember exactly out of frustration). Which was followed by the woman accusing my wife of not wanting to spend time with our kids. This was what really sent my wife over the edge. A customer service agent should not treat someone like this or make judgments about their character. My wife told me that the woman wouldn't let her finish a sentence and kept talking over her. She then told my wife that there is no way there could be open house times as long my wife was telling her. After again calling her out for not wanting to be with her kids, she put my wife on hold.

When she came back on she said that you can still check your kids into the area having the open house and was slightly nicer. My wife ended the call and was "sent" to the customer service rating survey. She was mysteriously sent to the "I didn't book a cruise survey".

I am actually extremely bothered, not as much with the open houses, but at the treatment of my wife. This is our families first Disney Cruise and we have heard so much about the exceptional service provided by Disney and this is not that. Because of my wife and I 23 people are on this cruise.

Sooooo what should I do. Should I call and complain? I am torn.

Thoughts?

I also called on Monday, I believe the lady I spoke to was named Riley. She did talk over me a bit, and also called the open house Family Time. She was not rude however. She told me the same thing you were told, that we could still check our kids into the club during the open house, it would still be secured.

I really wish that shoreside would get the correct information. You would think they can call the ships and find out exactly what is happening.

 

[twindaddy]

She is not 100% sure of the woman's name. However, I have worked for call floors in the past and I know that because she accessed our reservation they will have record of it.

I have worked in two different call centers, one modern and one not. The modern one, EVERY call was recorded, if you told me as a supervisor about when you called and the number you called from, I could have your call in seconds.

The other one, unless you actually did something on my account, I or a rep could look at your account all day long and there would not be a record of it. As a relative of a Disney CM who works in the digital group, I would lean towards Disney having an older system, but I could be wrong.

Just like your workplace, there are good and bad employees, sorry the previous poster got a bad one. It happens. I have learned if I call somewhere and it is not going well, I don't waste my time arguing with a rep. I just hang up and call back and try someone else or ask to speak with a supervisor calmy and politely. I think everyone should have to experience a call center once, it is about as high stress a job as you can get relative to the crappy pay.

Very un-Disneylike!

 

[Disney Dreams]

But oe things NEED to be planned in advance, and knowing in advance when there will be open house hours would make it MUCH easier to plan those things. It is pretty much a crap shoot at this pointith booking anything at ll in advance not knowing the open house hours. DCL wants yo to vook Palo, Remy, the spa ect in advance. There are some things they expect ou to paln for. They are making it VERY hard to do by not releasing these hours. I will not ever go into a vacation with no plan at all. It just will never happen, no matter how much you try to tell me otherwise. I don't plan out every minute, but WILL always have activites that require a reservation booked well in advance and planned out. I ont just o with it and hope i can get a last minute reservation. It seems there are several others here who operate this way.

I absolutely agree with you 100% that some things have to be planned ahead of time. Spa, Palo, Excursions specifically and I would strongly advise that you do so. We have on all of our DCL cruises.

I have never said to go on your cruise without any plan. I certainly have one when we cruise. I operate in the same way you are in that regard. I make spa plans, book Palo dinner, have arranged Palo brunch for 14 people, and all around our anniversary celebration. What I (and some others) are trying to help you see, but for some reason am not succeeding, is that you can (and in my opinion should) plan with whatever information is available to you ahead of time and adjust once onboard if/when you receive new information.

Remember, there will be others with kids that may need to adjust due to the open house schedule. You are not the only one. This will help with shuffling. DCL staff is there to help when they can and with Palo, they quite often can -- and in our experience, have.

In fact, I just remembered a perfect similar scenario! We wanted to do a martini tasting on our last cruise. However, we had no clue when they would be offered or if we could get to participate as they cannot be signed up for until boarding the ship. Well, sure enough, it conflicted with other plans! So... after booking our tasting (and paying for it), we went to the appropriate place to try to shift our dining plans that conflicted, nicely explained the situation and we were able to make the necessary adjustments. Was it a guarantee? No, but we booked what we could ahead of time, put it all on my pre-cruise planning spreadsheet, and worked with the staff upon arrival. And it all worked out. Again, it's not a sure thing, but much more likely than you may believe.

When I was prepping for our first DCL cruise (and subsequent ones for that matter!) fellow DIS members helped with tips and advice tremendously. I am just trying to pay it forward a bit and trying to help you on the same way.

I wish you all the best for what I hope is an incredible first of many DCL cruises for you.

- Dreams

 

[disneymagicgirl]

So now I am confused...
2 posters just states that the open house area IS still available for check-in. I thought the whole point is that is unsecured. Do u think they have changed it already or the CM was just trying to appease them and get off the phone?