The DCL "company line" = predictable

[P'colaBeachBum]

Great, now I have the song "Alice's Restaurant" in my head.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I'm a zealot? LOL. How many different cruise lines have you said with? We've sailed 5 different cruise lines.

Yep, the definition fits. As for cruise lines: Platinum on DCL; Diamond Plus on RCL; 2-star Mariner on HAL; Elite on Celebrity; Lowly gold on Carnival; Ruby on Princess; and when we sailed on Sitmar Line back in the 80's, loyalty programs didn't exist

 

[FriendOfFanatic]

Interesting conversation you all are having. I am just here lurking, I used to read these boards weekly if not daily.

I wrote a letter like this about 2-3 years ago, and received a template like response. I sailed my 10th and 11th DCL cruises last October. We sail twice a year or so, and sailed Celebrity last April and will leave in a week for a second Celebrity cruise. Let me tell you all, the grass is just as green on the other side. If you enjoy DCL cruises, you will enjoy Celebrity (probably RCL and Princess as well). Yes they are different and DCL does some things better, but Celebrity does many things better.

The savings are amazing on other lines, and they have better ports and cheaper airports to fly into (FLL). I was so tired of the DCL food by number 11 (they never seem to change the menus). Variety is nice. Do you know most of the other lines give you free drinks all cruise long?

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Interesting conversation you all are having. I am just here lurking, I used to read these boards weekly if not daily.

I wrote a letter like this about 2-3 years ago, and received a template like response. I sailed my 10th and 11th DCL cruises last October. We sail twice a year or so, and sailed Celebrity last April and will leave in a week for a second Celebrity cruise. Let me tell you all, the grass is just as green on the other side. If you enjoy DCL cruises, you will enjoy Celebrity (probably RCL and Princess as well). Yes they are different and DCL does some things better, but Celebrity does many things better.

The savings are amazing on other lines, and they have better ports and cheaper airports to fly into (FLL). I was so tired of the DCL food by number 11 (they never seem to change the menus). Variety is nice. Do you know most of the other lines give you free drinks all cruise long?

And on Celebrity, the grass is real

 

[AquaDame]

Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? If they were alienating so many people, it wouldn't be a zoo since I presume you're referring to it being busy. (Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded - Yogi Berra)

I think you misunderstood my point/fear which is this won't be sustainable. Yes, it is very crowded /today/. Alienate your return guests because you happen to be doing well /today/ and what happens in 5 or 10 years? Are they right and there will there be a never ending pot of new customers? Or are they going to feel it down the road? I am a firm believer in fixing the roof while the sun is shining but I don't understand what their end game is yet.

 

[bellebookworm9]

Interesting thread here. Just my own two cents here, but:
1) In regards to taking out a mortgage, etc, to finance a vacation, I have a confession to make. I'm a graduate student. This is my final year, and I've been in school for seven years now. Three of those years were financed with both loans and scholarships; the other four are loan financed only (graduate students don't get grants and scholarships but that's a whole other story!) And I will admit, that I have used A LOT of my loan money to fund vacations to WDW or DL. Some of that was supplemented with earned income. Many of the trips were had at great discounts (free admission, 60% off hotels, 20% off food, flights paid for with frequent flier points) and that helped too. Will I regret those choices when I'm paying off my debt until I'm 50? Maybe, but I knew that was going to happen anyway. School is stressful, Disney is my happy place. I have great memories of both sets of parks now with friends and family. I probably won't be able to travel for while after graduation, but at least I can look back at the photos and think of all the happy times!
2) As for DCL and the price increases specifically: We were booked to do the Eastern Caribbean Fantasy on 9/26/15. However, as I'm sure you all know, the balance is due 60 days prior to sailing, and I couldn't make that happen-there were more pressing money issues at the time. So we decided to cancel the cruise, and go to Disneyland instead for the 60th anniversary. Cost was about the same as the cruise (probably a little more, if we're being totally honest), but I could pay at check-in, or in the weeks leading up to the trip, rather than a forced deadline.

I really, really wish I could be on the May 2016 Transatlantic sailing but the price has increased $200 over the last two weeks for the cheapest room available, and even so, it was always over $3,000 (not a bad value, I think, just more than I can afford right now)). Even more, I wish I could do the June 2016 British Isles but don't even get me started on how ridiculous it is to pay $7k+ for an inside room. That seems high by any standard!

 

[truck1]

I seriously think that is a waster of time and paper.

I don't think so. The main reason is that I know that when I sent an email asking about the Dream coming home from Germany if there was going to be paying customers willing to be guinea pigs, and a few other minor questions, I got the same basic canned response from GS. Just a different agent. When I replied and told them you gave me 3 pages of a sales pitch but didn't answer any of the 3 questions I asked, I got the same email back again. I finally got them to call me, and the woman insisted that she did. I tried explaining that 3 pages of a sales pitch with ship dimensions and sizing didn't answer the question of coming home. Then she tried a different tack that all out said she had no clue as to what she was talking about. (one of the first things I learned working for Disney and it was at the time taught to all cms, was if you don't know find out or find someone who does. But don't make things up.) So when I sent in a different email, stating that fact, I may the only person or I could be 1 of several or more. At some point, some one at Disney may take notice of a repeating issue. The only thing for sure is to send in an email or snail mail and hope for the best. Some times you get lucky and sometimes you don't. But you will never know until you try.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I don't think so. The main reason is that I know that when I sent an email asking about the Dream coming home from Germany if there was going to be paying customers willing to be guinea pigs, and a few other minor questions, I got the same basic canned response from GS. Just a different agent. When I replied and told them you gave me 3 pages of a sales pitch but didn't answer any of the 3 questions I asked, I got the same email back again. I finally got them to call me, and the woman insisted that she did. I tried explaining that 3 pages of a sales pitch with ship dimensions and sizing didn't answer the question of coming home. Then she tried a different tack that all out said she had no clue as to what she was talking about. (one of the first things I learned working for Disney and it was at the time taught to all cms, was if you don't know find out or find someone who does. But don't make things up.) So when I sent in a different email, stating that fact, I may the only person or I could be 1 of several or more. At some point, some one at Disney may take notice of a repeating issue. The only thing for sure is to send in an email or snail mail and hope for the best. Some times you get lucky and sometimes you don't. But you will never know until you try.

Agree. There was a time when you could actually talk to someone at the cruise line who knew what they were doing. Back when Tom McAlpin was running the show, it seemed that the DCL shore side folks actually cared. We only had a few minor (and widely scattered) post cruise concerns that we put on our comment cards, and every time we received a call from DCL to discuss. That doesn't happen any more.

 

[squirk]

To be fair to the person on the other end of the phone, or the one replying to the email, I think we need to remember that there are very specific things these front-line reps can and cannot say, and facts that they can and cannot share. Supervisors and QA teams listen to those calls and scan those emails, and hold people accountable if and when they go "off-script".

As helpful as some CMs may want to be, they're not going to risk getting written up (or worse) to tell you exactly what you want to hear.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

To be fair to the person on the other end of the phone, or the one replying to the email, I think we need to remember that there are very specific things these front-line reps can and cannot say, and facts that they can and cannot share. Supervisors and QA teams listen to those calls and scan those emails, and hold people accountable if and when they go "off-script".

As helpful as some CMs may want to be, they're not going to risk getting written up (or worse) to tell you exactly what you want to hear.

Don't disagree. However, the counterpoint is that serious CRM discussions probably shouldn't be shunted to front-line sales reps in the first place.

 

[Rogillio]

On the next to last night of or 7-day DCL cruise we had lobster and my wife got food poisoning. She went to medical and they took a blood sample. My wife's sister is a nurse and is always talking about the dangers of drawing blood so my wife was surprise that the nurse did not put on gloves before drawing blood. My wife was guaranteed to our room the next day. This was CC day and she is not a beach person so she didn't mind that the kids and I spent the day at the beach while they gave her DVDs to watch in the room.
After the cruise she wrote a letter to DCL about the incident and advised them to wear gloves to protect the patient and the nurse. A few weeks later we got a letter back acknowledging the incident. The did not admit any wrong-doing but instead said the medical people are contractors to DCL. But they refunded the entire cost of her cruise in the form of a credit voucher for a future cruise. Since this was 7 day cruise with veranda room during the peak summer time, the amount of the credit was enough to pay for the entire cruise for the 4 of us the following January.
So every cruise we go on now I encourage my wife to try the lobster and maybe we can get another free cruise! She doesn't find it as funny as I do.
So sometimes it does pay to complain. In truth, when she wrote the letter she was not looking to get anything. She just wanted to encourage them to look at their medical practices.

 

[truck1]

To be fair to the person on the other end of the phone, or the one replying to the email, I think we need to remember that there are very specific things these front-line reps can and cannot say, and facts that they can and cannot share. Supervisors and QA teams listen to those calls and scan those emails, and hold people accountable if and when they go "off-script".

As helpful as some CMs may want to be, they're not going to risk getting written up (or worse) to tell you exactly what you want to hear.

This is true but making up answers isn't a substitute for sending the email to someone that can answer the question. Or simply saying the question is being researched as we do not have the information at this time. For example If I ask what specific cruises go to Norway there is no reason or excuse to send me the dimensions and capacities of the ships and the itinerary from Alaska since that is not what I asked but the type of response I received.

 

[squirk]

This is true but making up answers isn't a substitute for sending the email to someone that can answer the question. Or simply saying the question is being researched as we do not have the information at this time. For example If I ask what specific cruises go to Norway there is no reason or excuse to send me the dimensions and capacities of the ships and the itinerary from Alaska since that is not what I asked but the type of response I received.

I don't disagree at all. Crap customer service is crap customer service.

But I just think that sometimes, we don't realize that their hands are tied in many respects. Doesn't excuse sending irrelevant information, though.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

I don't disagree at all. Crap customer service is crap customer service.

But I just think that sometimes, we don't realize that their hands are tied in many respects. Doesn't excuse sending irrelevant information, though.

The reality is that front line staff's hands are only tied if there is no process in place to escalate a call to someone whose hands have the proper information or the authority to make a judgement call. "My hands are tied" means I don't have the information I need, I've been instructed never to escalate a call, and if I go "off script" my job is in jeopardy.

 

[squirk]

Well, escalating only makes sense if there is some grey area or subjectivity that the next-level representative or call manager can do something with, no? I've had a job like this, and even when I knew I was giving correct information, even when I knew I was delivering the answer in the manner the company wanted, people still would not accept it. If the manager is going to give the exact same accurate/allowable answer that I had already given, escalating the call generally does nothing but waste everyone's time. Granted, some people will feel better having "talked to a manager," but in the end, the result is the same.

Not saying that's what happened in @truck1's situation, but again, sometimes neither a CS rep nor their supervisor can tell or give you exactly what you want.

 

[eskimoinparadise]

Well, escalating only makes sense if there is some grey area or subjectivity that the next-level representative or call manager can do something with, no? I've had a job like this, and even when I knew I was giving correct information, even when I knew I was delivering the answer in the manner the company wanted, people still would not accept it. If the manager is going to give the exact same accurate/allowable answer that I had already given, escalating the call generally does nothing but waste everyone's time. Granted, some people will feel better having "talked to a manager," but in the end, the result is the same.

Not saying that's what happened in @truck1's situation, but again, sometimes neither a CS rep nor their supervisor can tell or give you exactly what you want.

An escalation process allows someone with a broader view of the environment to make an assessment of the significance and frequency of an issue so that potential impacts and solutions can be both evaluated and quantified. Without such a process, it really doesn't do the company any good even if everyone on the front line provides exactlly the same "right" information. If nothing is escalated, you break your CRM system, and you trully have the corporate definition of insanity because you have no metrics to control or alter the outcomes.

 

[squirk]

Exactly - escalation to someone who has the authority, latitude and discretion to modify protocols and procedures to best address the given issue while maintaining adherence to the broader operational framework. I guess my original point is that sometimes at Disney, I wonder how many layers of support you must go through to get to someone who truly can make a difference.