My 9th DCL Cruise May Be My Last

[hanscarlet]

OMG that sounds like a nightmare, please be sure to email guest relations, they need to find out who did that and understand how that happened, I am so sorry, I hope your cruise improved after that and you deserve OB credit at aminimum for a next cruise

 

[longboard55]

that's pretty screwed but rule number one, do not let details ruin your trip. Things happen, there are always oversells, cancellations, delays and thing you have no control of. That is the problem of overplanning everything down to the last minute Have a good time and ask for a generous credit when you back.

 

[Ofinn]

I had an reservation cancelled at WDW without my knowledge. The 40% discount had expired. I emailed guest services, and after a long conversation they reinstated it. I have no idea why it was cancelled...unhappy employee about to quiet their job?...maybe. They did fix the problem for me.

 

[Shanti]

Has your paid in full reservation ever been compromised/hijacked/hacked?

I used my on board booking reservation to book 2 specific connecting verandah rooms for my family on the Fantasy. When I got to Port Canaveral I was told that my family had 2 rooms, one was aft and one was forward. I told them that no, I have connecting rooms. I was then asked to move to a different line so I could speak with a supervisor. This was the start of a horrible experience.

Several supervisors/managers tried to explain to me that I booked a "Guarantee" room and that Disney has the right to place you in any room. I told them that I did not book "Guarantee", that I booked 2 specific connecting rooms for my family. I had my paperwork, but they did not want to see it. They told me that they can only go by what is in the computer and that I just didn't understand how "Guarantee" rooms worked.

We went back and forth, round and round. I was crying. I asked them why Disney would split apart my family. They told me that it is the customers responsibility to call and request that the reservations be connected, that there was no indication that my reservations were ever connected. I asked how could we be on the same dining rotation and table if we were not connected. I told them that I had just called days ago to request that birthdays be celebrated and noted on my reservation. They told me that there is no record of me ever calling about my reservations and there is no note about birthdays.

I was told that I didn't understand, my Disney documents were old, incorrect, wrong. Basically, I was called a liar without them ever using the word "liar". Defeated and dejected, we finally boarded. The next day, I went to find someone who could explain to me how I could have gotten this so wrong. Turns out, I wasn't wrong.

I found out that in March, an operator went into my paid in full reservations and changed one of the rooms to "guarantee" status. My family was then moved to several rooms that same day. DCL then began an investigation and later told me that the persons responsible have been identified and will be held accountable. They apologized.

I have 2 more cruises planned but don't feel comfortable booking right now.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Have you ever gotten to the port and found your family split up?

I would demand a refund of the cruise, after that. And report the incident to the Better Business Bureau. Really.

 

[aprincessatlast]

Seriously as a family of 5 this is WOW to me!

So far what they have done is in no way enough! They sent food to you on a cruise for an apology...uhm no, just no. I would be irate but as was mentioned I would let it play out and enjoy your vacation. Then as soon as I was off the ship I would be drafting my letter and copying everyone on it. Crazy!!!

TFS sharing by the way this is a definite problem that needs to be addressed by Disney and a warning for others. Your post and hearing DCL's response has me doubting my booking for the end of the year in our connecting staterooms for our family of 5. Seriously I am not sure what I would be more upset with- the screw up or how DCL is handling it. Keep us posted.

 

[xlxo]

I wonder if Disney was using a call center in another country...

 

[RedSox68]

Our experience wasn't as bad as these poor folks having their family split up, but last year we booked a 7 day cruise while onboard a 5-day Wonder, and another couple we travel with each year booked theirs for the same cruise by phone as soon as we returned from our cruise and told them which itinerary we had booked. Two totally separate reservations, only linked for dining purposes. Our friends re-shopped their own fare a couple months later while they were on a family cruise and saved a couple hundred dollars on the cruise we'd take together later in the year. While they were on that family cruise, I was checking my emails and saw two from DCL...one saying our cruise had been canceled, and another saying we had newly booked a cruise. Heart in my throat, I called immediately and the DCL agent told us we'd just canceled our reservation while onboard the Fantasy. I told them we weren't on the Fantasy (easy enough to prove) and didn't cancel our reservation...friends who we had reservations linked with ours for dining did when they re-shopped. Long story short, turns out the onboard booking agent who handled our friends' re-booking canceled BOTH our reservations, then must have realized the mistake and quickly re-booked us...just not in the same stateroom we'd chosen and with our book on-board discount on THAT DAY'S rate, which was a couple hundred dollars higher than the rate we'd originally booked a couple months before. I was panicking because of the higher fare, but the agent said she'd handle it, and we were eventually re-instated at the correct rate and back in our original stateroom. What I suspect, though, is that had I not seen these emails immediately and acted on the situation, our stateroom might have been given to someone else. And while that's not high drama, it was a bit disconcerting that our reservation could be erroneously canceled, then re-made again at a higher price and in a different location, as if we wouldn't notice.

This is beyond unacceptable. Who is training these reservation people?!? This is just as bad as the original poster's story in the sense that someone messed with your reservation and upset you and it should never have happened in the first place! Yikes, teaches everyone to keep a close eye on their reservations. What if Disney hadn't sent out those emails or sent them to the wrong address -- you would not have known in time!

 

[RedSox68]

I wonder if Disney was using a call center in another country...

 

[emnems34]

This is so scary! Sounds like I'll be double and triple checking my reservations every week from now on to make sure this doesn't happen to me! I agree with others, I would ask for more than an apology! I'd want a discount or stateroom credit or something if I was going to cruise again!

 

[FigmentSpark]

This is so scary! Sounds like I'll be double and triple checking my reservations every week from now on to make sure this doesn't happen to me! I agree with others, I would ask for more than an apology! I'd want a discount or stateroom credit or something if I was going to cruise again!

Here's the thing... OP said she had checked it just a few days prior. How often should you have to check that the system is right? Furthermore, Disney should not only compensate financially, but should have moved them to Consierge. Now, maybe Consierge wasn't available, so then they should be offered Consierge on a future booking (any length!) at the rate they were paying. Either that, or they should be compensated with the discount they would have gotten had they booked the 'guarantee' rate.

Something more than strawberries and an apology are required here.

 

[MUN]

It sounds like someone at DCL made a mistake. I'm sorry this happened. I hope DCL made it right with you and your family. I would be very upset as well.

 

[Markonefive]

Honestly, I have learned not to expect much from DCL regarding a cast member screwup in booking matters.

My first OBB we booked a set of connecting ocean view rooms for my family of 5, but when I received the confirmation from my TA upon return, the guy at the OBB desk had booked only one of them, and someone else booked the connecting room (which was the last set of connecting rooms in the category for the sailing). Instead of contacting us on the ship and give us an opportunity to fix it, he booked the other room (we had 3 kids aged between 2 and 7) on a different deck on the other end of the ship. Disney would do nothing to fix it and accused me of lying about the connecting rooms. They would not even give us the $200 OBC we had to miss out on in upgrading to a Cat 4 so we could be together for our trouble. So I am not a big believer in pixie dust.

Wouldn't your travel agent/company have some responsibility in this?

 

[Hundredacre]

This does not sound like disney which makes me think their customer service is as I feared actually declining. Any decent hotel would go out of their way to rectify this immediately in some substantive way, never mind a severely overpriced cruise line that prides itself on "magical" customer service. I have said this before but when you are paying disney prices you expect not only great but exceptional customer service. I do not personally need exceptional customer service, but paying $10000+for a seven night cruise I really expect it.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Did they comp you anything for the problems???

Yes, DCL sent us chocolate covered strawberries to our rooms and a large Stitch for the birthday girl. The CM on the ship were very nice to us, so unlike the port staff.

That seems like incredibly small compensation considering that DCL was completely at fault for changing your reservation and separating your family.

 

[jetskigrl]

The port staff offered to put all of us into one room so we could be closer together, but I refused and said that I would keep the 2 seperate rooms. Later that afternoon before the muster drill, the port staff called me in the "new" room and told me that they had a closer room which I accepted. They brought me a set of new key cards and gave me another lecture about purchasing a cheaper rate guarantee room.

Yes, I picked out 2 connecting rooms and purchased them with my OBB. Everything online, my cruise documents, and luggage tags show the connecting room numbers.

All of my Disney Documents and the luggage tags show the connecting rooms that I purchased. I was never informed that there was any sort of change until I got to the port. I had just called to confirm everything a few days before we left and there was no mention of a room change. Once I sailed solo and Disney called me less than a week out to inform me that my room had changed and to write the new numbers on the luggage tags. There was no notification of a room change this time.

This is exactly how I felt - shocked! I did ask if I would receive a refund since the room was downgraded to a cheaper rate guarantee room. They said they would check on it and get back with me.

Not yet, I wanted to post to see if this has happened to anyone else

So even after they admitted that DCL changed the room they still lectured you about purchasing a cheaper guarantee room? Right there is when I probably would have lost it with them

If it were me, I would make sure that I had copies of my cruise booklet, my luggage tags and anything else showing how they screwed up so that I could send it to them when I got home. At the very least, you are entitled to a refund for the difference between the room you paid for and the cheaper guarantee room that they moved you to (even if in the same category as what you paid, they owe you the difference in fare since they moved you to a guarantee rate).

But I think they owe you a whole lot more just for the way they treated you at the port.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

At the very least, you are entitled to a refund for the difference between the room you paid for and the cheaper guarantee room that they moved you to (even if in the same category as what you paid, they owe you the difference in fare since they moved you to a guarantee rate).

Well, GTY rates are the same as the specific room rates. There's no difference.

 

[BellsFam]

I have never heard of this happening except in one sort of situation. And that sort of situation involved an incredibly vindictive ex who had access to account information. And that wasn't Disney and it wasn't here, but on cruise critic, and it was AGES ago while planning our wedding and honeymoon (which was in Summer of '03 and I planned it for 2.5 years).

Any vindictive people in your life who have access to the relevant info that could have gotten things changed around?

Though I still don't know how it could have gone from a real stateroom number to a GTY, and I don't know how it didn't trigger an email to you. Or a refund. Or an extra charge.

I immediately thought vindictive employee who was maybe about to be let go and jarred up some reservations or wanted the room specifically for their own vacation!!!

 

[jetskigrl]

They brought me a set of new key cards and gave me another lecture about purchasing a cheaper rate guarantee room.

Well, GTY rates are the same as the specific room rates. There's no difference.

That comment was in response to Ajojo's post about being lectured about purchasing a "cheaper rate guarantee room." If it was really a cheaper rate room that they changed her to then they owe her the difference.

 

[RedSox68]

This does not sound like disney which makes me think their customer service is as I feared actually declining. Any decent hotel would go out of their way to rectify this immediately in some substantive way, never mind a severely overpriced cruise line that prides itself on "magical" customer service. I have said this before but when you are paying disney prices you expect not only great but exceptional customer service. I do not personally need exceptional customer service, but paying $10000+for a seven night cruise I really expect it.

I have heard this from more than one source, and we experienced it ourselves on our last cruise in 2014. They seem to have lost that "magic" ability to make you feel like your concerns matter and they want to help as much as possible. I think that comes through when you call and get a different answer depending on the CM you are speaking with. There is no uniformity (it appears) in their training or follow-up anymore! JMO

 

[JJsmama]

Did they ever tell you who changed your reservation? It makes me think money was involved. Scenario: you have booked your two rooms,then someone oboard wants to book the same rooms, for the same dates. Crew: Sorry Sir, that room is not available. Obnoxious passenger: here is $100. Is it available now?

otherwise, where is the motive to just change someone else's room number?