Watch out for "non-refundable charges"!

[MomOTwins]

So, after many days of being shut out of the phone line, and a brutal 5+ hour wait on hold starting 7am central for me today, I finally got through to Disney's phone lines to ask about something weird that was showing on my payment summary for my upcoming April cruise that has been paid in full for months. The amount showing for my Miami DCL bus transfers ($21 per person each way) was showing up as $63 less than what I paid, and at the bottom of payment summary there was a line with a $63 charge labeled simply "non-refundable charges." I was concerned that perhaps this meant 3 of our family of 5 had somehow lost our bus transfers in all the upgrade glitchiness. It turns out my suspicions were correct--those three people had their bus transfers cancelled in the upgrade. I am back on hold now while they try to sort it out and get my transfers rebooked.

I hate to recommend anyone else call in knowing how bad the phone lines are, but if you have a cruise coming up and you are seeing something similar, I do think it warrants a call. The CM I talked to was really surprised and hadn't seen it before, but I know a few of you have mentioned this in other threads so I know it is not just me. This recent system upgrade really was the WORST (worse than Bruno's tower even)

 

[StlZNF]

We had the same issue with our Vacation Protection Plan for one of our reservations. My TA had to call and sort it out especially with our cruise being on Monday. Glad you were able to get through on the phone line!

 

[lanejudy]

We had the same issue with our Vacation Protection Plan for one of our reservations. My TA had to call and sort it out especially with our cruise being on Monday. Glad you were able to get through on the phone line!

The insurance sold through DCL specifically is NOT refundable if you cancel, though you may be able to get the insurance carrier to shift it to a new date. But that has to be done directly through the insurance, not DCL.

 

[StlZNF]

The insurance sold through DCL specifically is NOT refundable if you cancel, though you may be able to get the insurance carrier to shift it to a new date. But that has to be done directly through the insurance, not DCL.

True. In our case, we didn't change a thing. It was all due to the update.

 

[MomOTwins]

Well an update, they did fix it but it took them 2 hours with me on the phone! So I can see why the phone lines are so backed up.

I kind of feel exhausted, this was the second massively long phone call I’ve had to make because of the stupid upgrade (the first was getting check in fixed after it was broken).

It’d sure be nice if Disney gave us a little something to make up for the trouble…bottle of bubbly in the stateroom, or a fridge magnet, or a tube rental on castaway. I feel like in customer service, when you screw up and inconvenience someone massively (between both calls, I spent over 13 hours on the phone this week), the nice thing to do is comp the guest something. But I won’t get my hopes up—Disney seems not to care as phone lines for the parks and the cruise line have both been a disaster the past couple years.

 

[lanejudy]

True. In our case, we didn't change a thing. It was all due to the update.

Ugh, sorry, I missed it was due to the upgrade. That’s just wrong on DCL’s part - what if you hadn’t noticed right away to get it fixed.

 

[MomOTwins]

Ugh, sorry, I missed it was due to the upgrade. That’s just wrong on DCL’s part - what if you hadn’t noticed right away to get it fixed.

I know, right? That’s why I posted it… doesn’t sound like it is common enough that they are doing a systemic fix. If I hadn’t noticed it (and I probably wouldn’t have noticed it except our check in last week was derailed by the whole drama with payment due showing up for excursions/activities), we might not have a spot on the dcl transfer bus as those typically fill up. Insurance like the pp had is even worse—what if they needed to make a claim?

This is pretty bad.

 

[MomOTwins]

Oh my gawd, I got my confirmation email and they botched it--my transfers were previous from the ship to the airport, and now they are going to a hotel after the cruise. I am so unhappy. I can't believe I have to call back AGAIN

 

[soniam]

Thanks for heads up. Just checked ours, and it seems OK. We aren’t PIF yet though. I hope your situation gets fixed soon and quickly.

 

[anjuan]

Well, after seeing your post I looked more closely at our reservation because I suddenly had a random credit for $78. I didn't think it was port transfers because port transfers were still showing. However, when I looked closer I just realized the only transfers that were still showing were the ones from the port back to MCO. They deleted the ones going from the airport to the port!! Thank you so much for posting your issue, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed. Our cruise is in a week so I'll be waiting on the phone with you. I'm sorry you're still having problems.