May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!! Part 5

[nskjerven]

Deb & John:

Sorry for your lost. My prayers will be with you and your family for comfort during this time.

Nan

 

[ibouncetoo]

Deb and John, to you and your family. Even when it's expected, it's hard to lose a loved one.

We're having a memorial service this afternoon for the four newsmen who died on Friday in a tragic helicopter collision here in Phoenix. They were the ABC affiliate and the Indy stations' news teams. The 'copters collided while covering a police/car chase. Both pilots managed to hit in a nearby park and no one on the ground was hurt. We're all still pretty much in shock.

 

[gydell]

Hi all....mom passed over at 11:25am today....


So sorry to hear about your Mom. Wish there was something I could do to help.

 

[Jhalkias]

Just a quick FYI - I have no response yet, but I took a chance on email address, and sent the following email to what I considered to be the email address of the President of Disney Cruise Line:

Dear Mr. McAlpin,

I am taking the chance that this is your correct email address, and I hope that it will elicit a better response than the ones we have already been given.

Let me start out by saying that my family has been on many Disney Cruise, we love the product, and have never sailed on another cruise line.

Recently, many friends as well as myself who are cruising on the May Panama Canal Repositioning Cruise received communication that our cruise cost was increasing by $100 per person. The reason given was due to an increase in the taxes paid for passage of the Panama Canal.

Upon researching this issue, we all discovered that the Canal had changed the method for calculating payment for passage from a tonnage charge to a per berth charge for cruise ships. The new per berth charge that took the place of the tonnage charge is the $100 per berth fee.

Since we are all aware that DCL had to take into account the cost of passage of the canal when pricing this cruise, we feel we should be charged for the difference between the new fee, and the old fee, if any. However, it appears that DCL has not only charged us for the old fee in the cost of our cruise, but now added the new fee as if passage for the canal was not originally accounted for.

We have contacted several people both through travel agents and with DCL. The only answers we get are boilerplate non-responses that have left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. This is not the level of service we have come to expect from Disney Cruise Line, or Disney in general. Many of the affected passengers have banded together to suggest some sort of petition, or contact to business agencies or the press in regards to how DCL is being unresponsive to this issue.

In short, we want to be treated fairly, as intelligent adults. While we understand the language of the contract with DCL for our cruise (yes, some of us are even attorneys), and have no problem with DCL passing on an increase over which they have no control, the current situation does not logically seem to fall into that category.

I look forward to hearing from you, and hope you can help in this matter.

Sincerely,

John W. Halkias

It has been several hours since I sent it, and it has not bounced back as undeliverable, so I will let you know what happens!

 

[Ginamarie]

Deb and John for you.

I know how hard it is to lose a loved one, but it must feel better than she went peacefully and is no longer in pain. My heart goes out to you guys in your time of grief.

 

[Jhalkias]

Deb,

I also saw that you lost your mom, and from someone who lost his mom last year, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

May her memory be eternal!

 

[granmaz]

John,your email is brilliant. I look forward to the reply.

 

[katypop]

Deb and John,
I am so sorry about the loss of your mom It is so hard to lose a loved one. I am glad that you both have the support of family & friends and wish you both peace in the days ahead.
Kathe

 

[cquick]

Dear Deb and John,

Sorry to hear about your mom. I am so glad you had time together at the end.

Love Connie

 

[LiserAnn]

Deb and John-I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am to hear about the loss of your mom. I know this is particularly painful and you have have some tough times ahead. Just hang in there....

 

[pjpoohbear]

So, 9pm for us west coast folks?

I would hope so, we know at least that EST was able to book at 12:00 am EST. I would hope that they would not stagger that. Can you imagine, .

 

[pjpoohbear]

Hi all....mom passed over at 11:25am today....me and John are back at home and it feels good....she went easy and peacfully and with love. We're all ok here....we have a large group of support from friends and family and all of you. We've had time to get used to the idea, so it wasn't a shock....she'll be with others she loves and missed and we'll be with her again.

 

[pjpoohbear]

on-line petition sites

http://www.ipetitions.com/missing-petition.html

http://www.gopetition.com/

http://www.petitionspot.com/

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/


Hope these help, I think if John's letter doesn't get some kind of honest answer, a petition might be an interesting option.

 

[lillygator]

Hi all....mom passed over at 11:25am today....me and John are back at home and it feels good....she went easy and peacfully and with love. We're all ok here....we have a large group of support from friends and family and all of you. We've had time to get used to the idea, so it wasn't a shock....she'll be with others she loves and missed and we'll be with her again.

Karen, so great to see you back here. I really have missed you! Still reading even when not posting....How great for Alex to be "in the woods".....I LOVE live theatre. Don't overdue it....join us when you can without pushing yourself....you'll have more time again soon.

I am so sorry...my thoughts are with you and family at this time.

 

[lillygator]

and to those with Dreams..our onboard credit has been increased.
Dear Valued Dreams Unlimited Travel Client



Dreams Unlimited Travel is happy to announce we are doubling the shipboard credit you will be receiving on your Panama Canal crossing cruise next summer!!!



The new shipboard credit amounts will be $600 per stateroom for a verandah stateroom (categories 1 – 7) and $400 per stateroom for a non-verandah stateroom (categories 8 – 12). Previously the shipboard credit amounts were $300 and $200 respectively.



There is nothing you need to do. The increase will be reflected in your Client Services area of our site and added to your stateroom folio automatically.



The owners of Dreams Unlimited Travel have spent a great deal of time discussing the recent increase in taxes on the Panama Canal crossing cruises and we feel this is the best way we can help offset the cost of this increase for our clients. While we understand this may not cover the full increase for all our clients we hope it will help.



We appreciate everyone who books with us and feel lucky that we have so many wonderful Dreams Unlimited Travel clients who come to us again and again to book their precious Disney vacation. Many of you have become like family to us and we wanted to take this opportunity to help out by offsetting a portion of this unexpected increase.



Thank you for choosing Dreams Unlimited Travel and we hope you have a Magical Disney Cruise!!!!



Sincerely,



John Magi

President

Dreams Unlimited Travel



CC:

Donna LeFever

Peter Werner

 

[lillygator]

does anyone have an address for John? Kudos to DU!

 

[MrsMork]

Yes, Vanessa, we too got the nice email from Dreams with the added onboard credit. That was the second welcome surprise from Dreams for me today. Earlier I got a message that there was better pricing for our Dec 8 cruise and we are being credited $199 for that one!

 

[pjpoohbear]

Wow, DU understands putting the client on the front burner. They didn't have to do this at all, but MAJOR KUDOS!!!!!!​

Disney still needs to justify why they are not decreasing fares in an equal amount that was budgeted in the cruise fare per cruiser for the old Panama Canal fee.

 

[HollyTyler]

Great e-mail John! Can't wait to hear what sort of response you may receive.

And congrats to all the DU folks! Lucky dogs! Glad to know that others besides us cruisers seem to think the increase is a cruddy deal.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Well, I'm doing the happy dance!

Somebody was watching over me when I got the 'urge' to transfer my ressie to them just a couple of hours after making it!