Odd Experience Phoning Disney

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I made my hotel ressie & ADRs for December before I had airfare. I knew I could cancel them if we couldn't go, but I didn't want to risk not getting a room or getting good ADRs. They tried to sell me MVMCP tickets, but I told them since those are non-refundable I wasn't going to buy them until I had airfare booked. I did hear the line about them selling out, but I just said I would have to take my chances. Why on earth would I spend $130 on party tickets if I don't have airline tickets to get there?

I am dying to go to La Nouba but we just haven't been able to fit it in. I have NEVER had a CM ask me if I wanted to go, though. Weird.

The Dining CMs haven't tried to sell me the plan, either. We have had DDP the past 2 trips, but now we have DDE since DS is turning 10 and he eats like a bird. Nobody has ever asked me if I have park tickets. We have APs now, so maybe that shows up on their screen.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

Has anyone here ever gotten a hard sell when calling Disney?

Last week I had a CRO agent be VERY rude to me when I originally tried to get the package discount offered for October-December dates. Here is a paraphrase of the conversation:

Me: I have room-only with AAA discount, but I'm thinking it might be a great deal to upgrade to the package if I can get this discount!

Her: You don't qualify for this. Whoever told you about it...it's only for THAT person...sent to their house only...you can't use it.

Me: It's not one of the postcard codes...it's one anybody can use if there is availability at their resort, from what I understand...

Her: No.

Me: Could you check? It would definitely be great if we could get a discount and add the dining plan!

Her: Well even without a discount, it's a great deal [note: I understand this, but the numbers are absolutely DEAD EVEN for me and dh with and without the plan...39 cents difference when I did ALL the math a few months ago!].

Me: Well, yes, it is a great value, but actually for just my husband and myself, it would not save us any money.

Her: I don't see how THAT is possible.

Me: <stunned silence at her rudeness>

Her: It's impossible to eat for less than $37 per person per day in Disney World.

Me: <more stunned silence>

Her: I just find that VERY hard to believe...

Me: Okay... <still stunned>

Her: You mean to tell me that you can eat for less than $37 per day in Disney World?!?!?! [tone: disbelief tinged with nastiness]

Me: Actually, yes. <I do not elaborate>

Her: I just don't believe that...

Me: Thanks, bye!

I hung up, called back immediately, got an awesome agent named Keitea, and she hooked me up with the ZBH package discount on my original ressie. Woohoo! I just could NOT believe how rude the first agent was. I mean, come on...the dining plan IS a great deal, but obviously it IS entirely possible to eat in WDW for less than $37 per person, per day! Hasn't she ever heard of Counter Service? Bringing food from home? Going offsite for meals? Eating before entering the parks, snacking while there, and eating dinner after returning home (or on a break at the hotel)? She was just incredibly belligerent about the whole thing.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

She was very nice and let it drop, but she was really pushing a "package."

The agent I spoke with (the first time) seemed heck-bent on selling me a package WITHOUT any discount...even though I was already perfectly aware of a discount to which I was entitled (even if I had to switch resorts, which thankfully I didn't). I even told her the code letters and she REFUSED to check and instead wanted to argue about how it was already a great deal without any discount! I thought that was SO bizarre. Like going to a grocery store when something is on sale, and the cashier trying to convince you to pay full price.

 

[maciec]

I did a couple days ago. I called to price the new discount code for the Disney Visa holders for December (since that's when we were originally going to go, I wanted to price it out to see which would have saved us more money, free dining plan saved us more, btw). Anyways, the CM was like can I have your name and phone number blah blah blah... and I was like I just want to price a discount code. He's like ok. So I gave him my name and phone number and he goes, "You have a vacation planned for WDW in a couple of weeks." I said "Yeah I know. Can you tell me how much it costs for december?" He's like "you want to reschedule for december?" I go "No I want to price a new vacation." He says "You want to come more that once?!?!?!" My jaw like dropped, cuz I know so many people on the Dis may go mulitple times in a year, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I was like 'Yes I want to go twice, there are two different celebrations going on!" So he priced it for me.. how ever much it was I can't remember off the top of my head.

That sounds like the same guy I got!!!!!

 

[ArielsMommy]

I have called about 20 times over the last couple of days and have never had anyone try to push anything on me. A couple did ask if I needed park tickets, but I politely told them that I had AP's and I was not interested. No one ever asked me to purchase the DDP. They did ask me if I had it though. Sorry you got a pushy rep. HTH

 

[Disneyfriend]

I agree with the original poster. I am a chronic dining reservation changer , so have been on the phone a LOT with Disney dining over the past couple months.

About 1/4 - 1/3 of the time I talk to Disney Dining, the CM asks me about La Nouba tickets and/or MNSSHP tickets. When I explain that I already have tickets to one MNSSHP date and am considering adding another party, they usually encourage me to go ahead and get the MNSSHP tickets sooner rather than later, as tickets are going faster this year, and dates will soon start selling out. Now, I don't know if this is true , but I have had several different CM's tell me something very similar.

And to be fair, this started at least several weeks before the DIS discussion and letter writing campaign regarding the closing time and day guest issue for MNSSHP.

Disneyfriend

 

[Zoie]

I had a pushy CM when I called to make ADRs for my December trip back in June. She asked if we were on the dining plan, and I said I wasn't sure yet, we were still thinking it over, and she asked if I'd made my resort reservations and I said no, I was hoping a discount code would come out so I was waiting. She says, Oh, well do you want me to go ahead and check for you and see if there might be a discount available for when you're coming? I thought, wow, I thought CMs NEVER went and found discounts for you, but said Sure!!! So she asks our dates, resort, names, ages, etc. and puts it all in, and says we have a special rate available for that week with the dining plan, so I said okay, that sounds good, so she gets the whole thing ready for me, then tells me what the total is going to be.

I asked how much per night that is at the resort, because I hadn't figured up ahead of time all the costs of the individual components to know what kind of discount I was getting, and I knew the rack rates for the resort I wanted so that would tell me how much of a discount this was, and she says, oh there's no nightly rate, it's all part of this special package. I said that I was trying to see how much of a discount this gave me and she says, Oh, the dining plan IS the discount. I said, oh it's free dining??? She says no, but the dining plan saves you a lot of money.

Now, I agree with the person that said there were two adults and it didnt' save them anything. We are two adults and one child, and all three of us are very picky eaters, and there is NO way that we would ever get our money's worth on the dining plan, and so unless we got free dining or some other dining discount, it just did not make sense for us to get it. So the dining plan for us is NOT a discount!!!!

While we were having this conversation, I was very quickly plugging all the info into Disney's website and I came up with the same total that the lady had given me, so I knew there was no savings at all going on here, she was just giving me the rack rate, and I said that I was really counting on a discount code coming out so I was going to wait to book it.

She said oh but if a code comes out you can apply it to your existing reservation. I said, well I just wasn't ready to do this yet, as I also had planned to put it on a Disney Visa to get the six months free financing and since I hadn't planned on making the reservation this soon, I hadn't even applied for the card yet. She said, Oh that's no problem, you can put this on your credit card now and they will transfer the balance over for you when you get the Disney card. (She did NOT tell me I was only required to make a deposit at that time, she said I had to pay the entire 2,000 or whatever it was right then, and I was just NOT prepared to put $2,000 on my credit card at that time!!!)

So again I told her I just couldn't do it at this time as to put that much on my existing credit card would put me over my credit limit (I had no idea if it would or not, actually, but again I was NOT prepared to put that huge sum of money on my credit card on the spur of the moment like that and I have enough experience with credit card companies that I highly doubted her "they'll just transfer it over and give you the free financing" line and would never just trust that without having it in writing from the credit card company itself), so THEN she says well, I can go ahead and reserve this for you now and you'll have two weeks to pay it.

I asked what happens if I don't pay in two weeks, and she says the reservation will be cancelled. So I said, great, go ahead and do that then, just to get her off my back, fully intending to never pay that and just let it expire after two weeks. Which I did.

Now THAT was a hard sell. And all I'd called to do was make my ADRs. SHEESH.