Oh well, I have been fighting jumping into this one, but I just cant seem to resist a good firefight.
First to Carl RN, believe me I can sympathize with your frustration, tension and over all unhappiness with the situation. Yes there are many worse things than a shortened cruise, and I dont think that was her point. But those of us removed from the situation a bit dont know first hand what it has been like for these folks for the last week. Trying to get good up to date information, constantly changing flight arrangement etc. etc. etc.. Of course it would get to you. Youre really hoping for the best possible out come for the folks in the path of the storm, but youre also trying to salvage your expensive, long anticipated vacation. And I am certain that there has been tons of confusion and poor information given out from
DCL, the airlines, whomever.
That being said, I am holding fast to my staunch position of Disney supporter. Put yourself in the place of the day-to-day cast member, many of who live in Florida and were having to battle a hurricane along with thousands of passengers. With the constantly changing circumstances I am sure they were receiving all kinds of conflicting information and even acting on rumors or educated guesses. Lets all think about how things go at our jobs, are we always able to provide our customers with the latest most accurate information? Do our channels of communication get garbled from time to time? Do we get testy with folks when weve been under the hammer for hours on end? Speaking for me, someone who works in customer service everyday, the answer is yes. So maybe we need to judge the cast members and their efforts in a little softer light.
Could the higher ups maybe have done things better, of course, who doesnt have room for improvement? However, Disney is one of the few companies left that truly tries to deliver a complete and exceptional experience, but they are still a company and business run by people. We have to make sure our expectations are a little bit more realistic about just what Disney can do.
And the logistics of the cruise industry are mind-boggling. Im not surprised that things were a mess at Port Everglades. Like one poster said, they may have only had those few cast members available, some may be picking pieces of their houses up around their neighborhoods. Plus DCLs entire system is not located at that port. Their computer network, baggage handling, supplies, regular staff and on and on. What a nightmare for them as well.
This entire situation requires a great deal of patience and grace on all sides. I can guarantee you that if Disney had its choice no of this would have happened. But they didnt. They dont want to be aggravating customers or staff. But hurricanes by nature are wildly unpredictable so you cant plan for every contingency or know what subsequent problems will occur.
I guess my point is, lets all chill a bit on all sides. Folks like Carol RN should be able to vent some of their frustration with a crazy situation. But everyone should keep a better-balanced perspective on the results of a storm no one could control. For the most part it sounds like Disney did the best they could with a crappy set of volatile circumstances. So please when you list your litany of screw ups try being as objective as possible.
We (God willing) sail in a couple of weeks. So this may become a lot more subjective to us should we see more hurricanes after Ivan. Selfishly I hope not at least until were on the Magic.
To those on her now, enjoy and keep us posted.
