No more segmented vacations for ddp

[tjkraz]

Since the ability to do this was never an official DVC announcement I have to wonder how many members that do not hang out on forums such as this, even knew about it.

For the majority of the membership, it truly might be no big deal.

We can't have things that just suit us we have to accept what is good for the majority of the membership.

And if you're Disney, that's undoubtedly the #1 reason for not sending out an email blast to all members.

Not saying whether it's right or wrong...that's just how managers tend to think. Why get thousands of people in a tizzy over something which may never impact them rather than just putting out fires as the crop up.

 

[VLee]

Extra housekeeping doesn't come free. If segmented dining plans caused some villas to receive extra housekeeping, it has an adverse affect on the entire membership in higher maintenance fees, as well as longer delays in getting truly vacant rooms ready for the next member.

Our experience in have segmented DDP and housekeeping proved to be exactly opposite of what you are saying about "extra" housekeeping. Our room was never cleaned (trash/towel) with an 6-day segmented plan. So at least in our case, Disney saved on housekeeping!

 

[Sammie]

And if you're Disney, that's undoubtedly the #1 reason for not sending out an email blast to all members.

Not saying whether it's right or wrong...that's just how managers tend to think. Why get thousands of people in a tizzy over something which may never impact them rather than just putting out fires as the crop up.

Exactly.

Plus I know it is hard for many, to understand how complicated Disney as a company is.

At times DVC and Disney dining or Disney resorts might has well be Hilton dealing with Marriot.

I know you personally understand how complicated it is to them, when it seems so simple to most.

If DVC members think it is frustrating, they ought to work for them. The stories my friends tell, literally astound me at time.

Disney literally moves GMs to new jobs without any advance warning. Just show up one day and you have a new job, your support staff might go with you and they might not and your personal belongings are already packed for you to move.

So yes I truly believe that Disney Dining sent a memo to DVC and that is about all the warning they get.

 

[CarolMN]

As Carol mentioned, the deal really was a good one for the Candlelight Processional, and if I have to move, I will. Moving will involve getting another full cleaning. I was expecting to get a new key and check in and out of the same room.

I'm still expecting to stay in the same room and just get new keys. I truly believe they will honor existing DP arrangements as is.

Like all policy changes, not all CMs at MS understand the communications the first time. And sometimes the actual implementation changes the policy a bit.

I would not be at all surprised to find out that they decide to allow people who already segmented a reservation (in anticipation of adding a DP later) to add the DP as planned. We'll see.

 

[VLee]

As earlier stated, it is Disney that is ultimately to blame...DVC is the messenger. But we deal with the messenger, not Disney. We must go through DVC to purchase the dining plan and therefore, we rely on what we are told by the castmembers about various items. When a castmember tells you that you have until just a few days before check-in to segment and pay for the DDP, you tend to believe that.

The CMs probably did not find out about the change until this morning. But this is where customer service comes in and obviously Disney does not consider customer service a priority any more.

At one time, business sent its managers to the Disney Institute to learn the Disney way of providing quality customer service. That is long gone! No doubt Disney should have given more thought to the people who had made dining reservations with a segmented DDP in mind. For some are traveling soon, it will be next to impossible for them NOW to secure additional dining reservations during their vacation time. If they had planned on scattered dining, it is very possible, they will find dining slots now filled.

I know that I would not want to pay for a DDP under those circumstances, when I would be forced to take "leftovers". Given that choice, I would pay out of pocket, maybe using TIW at table service and I would absolutely order only what desired--saving by drinking water, instead of paying for a beverage, no dessert, and possibly even sharing an appetizer and one entree between two people! I wouldn't have to get those crummy kids' meals as my kids could share with me.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

OK. I gotta ask.

I would never do DDP because the food has become so lousy, IMO, that it's hardly worth tying yourself to only Disney restuarants during an entire week's stay.

Having said that, we do eat at the signatures occasionally, so I can see some limited value in maybe having DDP tied to, say 3 days, of a 7 day stay.

Seems easy enough to me. Book 3 days with DDP and then book 4 days w/o. Is that what you guys are calling "segmented reservations"? If so, I'm not really sure I understand completely. I don't see how they could prevent us from doing this. It's two completely different reservations, back-to-back, and this is certainly allowed under the POS.

I'm obviously missing something, probably because of what I Said in my second paragraph, and for that reason, I just don't keep up with it. But now, you've piqued my curiosity.

What am I missing?

 

[disneynutz]

As earlier stated, it is Disney that is ultimately to blame...DVC is the messenger. But we deal with the messenger, not Disney. We must go through DVC to purchase the dining plan and therefore, we rely on what we are told by the castmembers about various items. When a castmember tells you that you have until just a few days before check-in to segment and pay for the DDP, you tend to believe that.

We don't know anything about anyone. DVC may have canceled the perk, or Disney, or both. Just like we will never know who really canceled the Valet parking perk. I stopped believing the words coming out of Mickey's mouth when DVC started changing perks, policies, and rules, and telling we that it was due to member feed back and that the changes will enhance my Disney experience!

Bill

 

[Mtnman44]

What you are describing are completely separate, unlinked reservations. This would require a new checkin and checkout with a probably room change. I would imagine that DDP could continue to be used for one of the reservations in this scenario.

If there reservations are "linked" so that the above is not required they become one reservation. This one reservation would require all days to be part of the DDP.

OK. I gotta ask.

I would never do DDP because the food has become so lousy, IMO, that it's hardly worth tying yourself to only Disney restuarants during an entire week's stay.

Having said that, we do eat at the signatures occasionally, so I can see some limited value in maybe having DDP tied to, say 3 days, of a 7 day stay.

Seems easy enough to me. Book 3 days with DDP and then book 4 days w/o. Is that what you guys are calling "segmented reservations"? If so, I'm not really sure I understand completely. I don't see how they could prevent us from doing this. It's two completely different reservations, back-to-back, and this is certainly allowed under the POS.

I'm obviously missing something, probably because of what I Said in my second paragraph, and for that reason, I just don't keep up with it. But now, you've piqued my curiosity.

What am I missing?

 

[disneynutz]

OK. I gotta ask.

I would never do DDP because the food has become so lousy, IMO, that it's hardly worth tying yourself to only Disney restuarants during an entire week's stay.

Having said that, we do eat at the signatures occasionally, so I can see some limited value in maybe having DDP tied to, say 3 days, of a 7 day stay.

Seems easy enough to me. Book 3 days with DDP and then book 4 days w/o. Is that what you guys are calling "segmented reservations"? If so, I'm not really sure I understand completely. I don't see how they could prevent us from doing this. It's two completely different reservations, back-to-back, and this is certainly allowed under the POS.

I'm obviously missing something, probably because of what I Said in my second paragraph, and for that reason, I just don't keep up with it. But now, you've piqued my curiosity.

What am I missing?

That's exactly what we are talking about and that is how our family used the perk. Booked the deluxe plan for a couple of days, used the credits for some signature dining and ate in the villa for the rest of the stay. Using the DDP this way is great for the Guests, we saved $250, but it doesn't make any money for Disney.

You can still have separate reservations but you might be forced to change rooms.

Bill

 

[TisBit]

Since the ability to do this was never an official DVC announcement I have to wonder how many members that do not hang out on forums such as this, even knew about it.

For the majority of the membership, it truly might be no big deal.

We can't have things that just suit us we have to accept what is good for the majority of the membership.

As far as this being an example of them not looking out for our best interests. Our interest is a DVC villa, nothing else. Perks come, perks go. As long as I get what I paid for in the 90's I am a very happy DVC member.

I really think some of you are going to very unhappy for a long time if you feel DVC is always going to cater to your wants and needs outside of what you actually bought per your POS.

As to the clout DVC pulls right now in the Disney hierarchy, thanks to Jim, we are pretty much close to being the embarrassment of the company. In my 30+ plus years of being very close to many at Disney in management I can not remember another time a President was fired under these conditions.

I told you so about JL and many of you acted like I had some personal vendetta against him. I simply saw him for what he really was months before this happened.

If this is the only thing we lose I would say we are doing good.

And if you're Disney, that's undoubtedly the #1 reason for not sending out an email blast to all members.

Not saying whether it's right or wrong...that's just how managers tend to think. Why get thousands of people in a tizzy over something which may never impact them rather than just putting out fires as the crop up.

I have to go with Sammie on this one. This was never a policy/perk that was listed anywhere. It was merely a byproduct of the computer systems being changed over last year, that word of mouth spread that we could "segment". Disney never announced this as being a perk or policy, so preventing it from being done did not require an announcement either.

This is one of those things that happened with the computer change and DVC permitted members to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, there were a TON of problems with it and it is in the best interest of Disney, DVC and the members to kill it. How many members had horror stories of having to be at the front desk multiple times a day. This cost Disney and DVC money, through wasted man hours trying to fix the problem and all the compensation they gave people for the inconvenience.

If segmenting worked seamlessly without many glitches I am sure they would haven't felt a need to prevent it. But it didn't and this is in the best interest of members in the end, no one wants to deal with the hassles that accompanied this.

 

[missycj96]

We segmented on our last trip. It was a great deal so im not surprised they did away with it. But im guessing the real reason is that it caused havoc with reservations. I called to segment one night and somehow when they opened my reservation they lost the last few nights of a blt res i made 7 months ago. I realized it when i went to print out my confirmation to take with me the night before we left. Somehow they fixed it for me and i got the nights back. I had a sleepless night. If this happened often it was probably a mess for them.

 

[DiznyDi]

Boy am I glad I called last week to segment and add the DP for the middle of our trip. What a disappointment it would have been......

 

[El&Asmom]

I have to go with Sammie on this one. This was never a policy/perk that was listed anywhere. It was merely a byproduct of the computer systems being changed over last year, that word of mouth spread that we could "segment". Disney never announced this as being a perk or policy, so preventing it from being done did not require an announcement either.

This is one of those things that happened with the computer change and DVC permitted members to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, there were a TON of problems with it and it is in the best interest of Disney, DVC and the members to kill it. How many members had horror stories of having to be at the front desk multiple times a day. This cost Disney and DVC money, through wasted man hours trying to fix the problem and all the compensation they gave people for the inconvenience.

If segmenting worked seamlessly without many glitches I am sure they would haven't felt a need to prevent it. But it didn't and this is in the best interest of members in the end, no one wants to deal with the hassles that accompanied this.

Agreed. And if you look at dvcmember.com it still says in the DDP section that the plan must be added for the entire length of stay. It was simply a loophole that was allowing the segmented days.

Given the prices of dining at WDW even with TIW, we will likely start eating in our villa more or offsite. I just don't think that a place like Le Cellier is worth the prices they charge. The buffets are another example. Just way too expensive for a family of 5.

 

[horselover]

Boy am I glad I called last week to segment and add the DP for the middle of our trip. What a disappointment it would have been......

I wish I had been as smart as you. I segmented for 2 days in Dec., but didn't add the DP at the same time. I was hoping to pay for it after we return from our Oct. trip. Now I can't.

 

[ryanshana]

I just got off the phone with MS, and I was told that if you already have segmented reservations, they will honor it. Hmmm... now I'm confused.

I was told this as well. And I specifically asked if I would have to change rooms and they said no. (I asked two people too)

 

[Ksp]

So sad to see this change ....

 

[ryanshana]

I wish I had been as smart as you. I segmented for 2 days in Dec., but didn't add the DP at the same time. I was hoping to pay for it after we return from our Oct. trip. Now I can't.

As long as your reservation is already segmented I believe u can. Even if u didn't pay for dp yet. This is what happened to me. Segmented trip hadn't paid for dining yet. And I am able to keep it the way it is.

 

[dansyr2514]

So in actuality it could be done if you segment your stay also...switching rooms.
However, this decision is very disappointing.

 

[Sammie]

I love these forums, if anyone comes on here and asks can you rent points and get Free Dining, most everyone will let them know in no uncertain terms, NO, and it's not really free etc. etc.

Basically making the person feel that even asking was a huge mistake.

Then when others ask if getting the dining plan as a DVC member is a good idea and many will say NO, get the TIW, etc. etc. It has ruined Disney dining, does not save you any money, etc. etc.

And now this change probably affects a very small percentage of the membership and it's like the sky has fallen yet again.

Truth be told I think some were working it to be a huge advantage to them and lost revenue to Disney and they realized that and as someone else said, closed the loophole.

They are not always quick to recognize a money drain but eventually they do and close it.

And to me as a stockholder, that is good business.

 

[quirty30]

I agree with those who think that "segmenting" was nothing more than a loophole. Inasmuch as there was never a formal announcement about it, I think it stands to reason that there would be no formal announcement to rescind it. I never saw it as an "official" perk, but I'm glad we were able to try it once. Ours went off without a hitch, but even I felt it was a pain to get new keys, and I'm sure it created some extra work for the hotel front desk staff.

I also booked a segmented dining plan for a renter. Their trip is not until next month and I'm interested in knowing for certain whether it will be honored or not. They are friends and I'd hate for them to be forced into the plan for their whole trip, especially since they've already paid me. If there's going to be a problem, I'd like to let them know now rather than later.