My nightmare with Disney cruiseline and irma

[hanscarlet]

Lol didn't want them to pay wanted them to find a place for us to actually go because ours was full

Ok so you just wanted them to act as a travel agent then? Why would they be obligated to provide travel agent services? That's not part of the cruise contract and it's not usually something they offer even when weather is good to my knowledge. Also did you think about the plight of the CMs? They actually live in Florida and some of them had their own homes to worry about, Disney likely was impacted by staffing shortages as well during this crisis so likely no extra CMs to perform adhoc TA services were available.

 

[mcd2745]

I agree the OP should not have left herself in that situation financially. If you're cutting it razor thin like that in terms of the budget and therefore have little to no available emergency/discretionary funds, maybe the whole vacation is a poor choice.

However, with that said, seems like DCL could have done a better job being proactive once the potential of cruises being cancelled became very likely. DCL probably could have been more helpful in assisting guests who were already in the Orlando/PC area either get back to their home cities, or if that was not possible, finding them area accommodations in the interim. Given they are two entities under the same business segment of the same corporation, DCL should have been able to work with WDW resorts to secure rooms for the cancelled cruise guests (especially since the first week of September is traditionally one of, if not the, slowest times of the year at WDW -so it would be logical to assume there were plenty of available rooms). Now, that doesn't mean they should be doing anything for people financially (such as providing the hotel rooms for free, or taking the room charges from the pending refund) though. Unfortunately, it's one of those situations where I'm fairly confident that a CM "on the ground" (such as the resort manager, in this case), will always go the extra mile to assist guests as opposed to anonymous, call-center CMs.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Things did not go how you planned but it is hardly a "nightmare". You knowingly headed into a hurricane evacuation area. You trusted an employee in a call center somewhere who said you would be taken care of. It is disappointing I am sure that things did not go how you planned, but I find it super scary that you headed into a hurricane with little to no money and no back-up plan. Travelers need to be responsible for themselves. In the best of circumstances maybe things will work out, but in the worse of circumstances your choices were downright scary and irresponsible.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

so needless to say I was beside myself I did not have enough funds with me for an extende c stay at the resort I planned on being housed and fed on the cruise with just a little spending money. I asked the cruise if thy could give me less of a refund nd pay for the hotel was told nope won't do that. So I spoke to the wonderful hotel manager at por who agreed with me how the cruise handled this was awful and made arrangements for me go stay here and charge my food to the room till my refund comes in whenever that will be he is sending me a bill to my home.

Everyone seems focused on my finances that was not my reason for being upset I put my trust in a company that prides itself in being one way and it was not.

I'm sorry my response and few others focused on the main issue being you not having extra funds available when travelling (let alone during hurricane) but that's what I gathered from your posts.

I know Disney is known for amazing customer service and spreading pixie dust... but in my opinion your expectations are unreasonable.

Don't want to beat a dead horse here but I'm glad you are OK. As in, safe and sound. Not hurt.

 

[Racer X]

Ok I don't want this to turn into a beat-down.... But don't you think you should have expected the cruise to be cancelled? You admitted yourself that you expected it and called every day to verify. So with that eventuality, what had you planned to do when this happened? Did you see if the airline could get you back home? Or have a rental car on standby? Or even a hotel reservation on standby? I realize that hindsight is 20-20 but you have to admit that a lack of planning on your part became an unnecessary emergency.

 

[quickcat]

Just wanted to say so sorry your trip got messed up, glad POR was able to help out. I think Irma had everyone on their toes!! She was supposed to go to Miami and went the Fort Myers way instead!
I can't imagine the scrambling those people on the west side had to do!
On the positive side it is great that you'll get back your whole cruise fare.
Here's hoping next September is much calmer

 

[mcd2745]

Ok so you just wanted them to act as a travel agent then?

I could be wrong, but I believe that's essentially what they are. DCL is probably is structured and operates very much like WDW. When you deal with any CMs for a WDW reservation, your dealing with 'The Walt Disney World Travel Company' which is basically a travel agency. They are under a different organization than the CMs who work in the operations of WDW.

 

[LYSE]

OP did the trip insurance that was cancelled cover anything other than the cruise - if it did this is a major mistake on Disney's part.

If not, I do agree it was still very poorly handled even if the contract was followed.

I do hope you consider at least opening up a good Travel credit card for both emergency funds and the included travel insurance benefits.

 

[JsMom2]

If you had a good 3rd party insurance policy then your hotel stay, and possibly food and incidentals, would have been covered - although as others have mentioned it isn't an immediate pay out. It's important to read the fine print of any insurance policy when you purchase it. For instance in May I was staying at DLR when I woke up with extreme vertigo. My medical insurance paid for the ambulance ride and ER visit, and some of the prescriptions. But my travel insurance paid for the prescriptions that weren't covered by my insurance plan, along with unused Disney tickets for 4 people, an Urgent care visit that I'd had the night prior, and some clothing that was left behind in the hotel room.

 

[hanscarlet]

I could be wrong, but I believe that's essentially what they are. DCL is probably is structured and operates very much like WDW. When you deal with any CMs for a WDW reservation, your dealing with 'The Walt Disney World Travel Company' which is basically a travel agency. They are under a different organization than the CMs who work in the operations of WDW.

Don't they operate as separate entities though? I can see on site Disney resorts maybe trying to accomodate guests who are overbooked or something to maybe another resort but that's probably rare because their systems rarely overbook. But where's the connection between DCL and WDW in terms of accomodation, is it normal procedure for DCL to make up a mistake via a WDW resort room? I'm sincerely asking because I've just never heard of the connection between the two when it comes to accomodating guests in unique circumstances such as the OP described. They just appear to operate separately it seems like.

 

[darnheather]

OP did the trip insurance that was cancelled cover anything other than the cruise - if it did this is a major mistake on Disney's part.

If not, I do agree it was still very poorly handled even if the contract was followed.

I do hope you consider at least opening up a good Travel credit card for both emergency funds and the included travel insurance benefits.

How is it Disney's fault if she didn't read the fine print?

OP you are lucky the Disney way wasn't to hand you a map to the nearest shelter. I have never seen such entitlement even from this board. You are allowed to have feelings but when you express them others can let you know that you are wrong.

 

[LYSE]

How is it Disney's fault if she didn't read the fine print?

OP you are lucky the Disney way wasn't to hand you a map to the nearest shelter. I have never seen such entitlement even from this board. You are allowed to have feelings but when you express them others can let you know that you are wrong.

It sounded to me like she was encouraged not to cancel early and as such she left on part of her vacation, while the OP should have been better prepared for this DCL should have had mechanisms in place to assist stranded passengers who were already in the area due to Disney's encouragement that all would be handled.

All it would take is a handoff to Disney Travel to help find the stranded passenger accommodations, the reason i think this isn't unreasonable is because the first part of the OP's vacation is with Disney as well...it's not like she was doing something completely unrelated with another company.

It also sounds like the WDW CM's that helped the OP were amazing and I hope they get the credit they deserve.

 

[cruiser21]

When you cruise in hurricane season you take a risk, but so do the cruiselines by selling cruises in hurricane seasons. Cruiselines aren't obligated to help out customers for weather related issues, but if they want people to book cruises in hurricane season it is in their best interest to do so. Full refunds and a discount on a future cruise seems to be the industry standard in these situations. It would be nice if they could help out with the people stuck, but in this case I don't think it was feasible. Many people evacuated to Orlando Im sure every hotel was booked solid including WDW resorts.
I'm glad the manager of POR took care of you.

 

[bbel]

When everyone feels entitled to the 'Disney way' then it doesn't work. When you have such high expectations of a company, if they don't or can't live up to them, you're going to think its a 'nightmare'.

Its unfortunate what happened but thousands of people could have potentially been in the same situation. They simply don't have the people, resources or time to find accommodation for everyone last minute.

 

[MaleficentRN]

Trying to put myself in your shoes. Was going home when DCL announced the cancellation not an option? I know change fees were waived on the airlines. And I would think you could get refunds at WDW (Unused tickets, room cancel fees) given the situation. Could you not get a flight?

 

[iamporch]

I think that in situations like this Disney should allow people to cancel and get their money back. It sounds like the OP had called and would have not gone at all if she could have cancelled her cruise and get a refund. But when you have thousands of dollars on the line of course I would also have flown to FL hoping it all worked out. Do I blame Disney for not making arrangements after the fact? No, but I do think that maybe they should have opened up a cancellation with refund so people who were heading that way days in advance could make their own decisions. They do advertise the park and cruise vacations so they have to assume that lots of people are already at WDW before their cruise.

 

[mevelandry]

No my key issue was how they handled the situation not how prepared I was.My rant is because how they handled it in a Un Disney like manner. I am not the only person who was upset by how things went down many others that we ran into were also upset of how things were handled. Everyone seems focused on my finances that was not my reason for being upset I put my trust in a company that prides itself in being one way and it was not. To be fair Disney corporation does do this it is their partnership with the cruise company that did not handle things in the Disney way. I have spoken to both corporate Disney as well as the cruise corporate and all agree it was handled poorly. I am not going to debate my feelings any further

You know... A lot of people believe in the magic because it is Disney... But Disney is a business, and has flaws like any other business.

Also, this was a very usual situation and I am sure everybody will learn from it.

 

[Shanti]

This is why no one should travel to a hurricane region during hurricane season without both a contigency plan and good insurance.

 

[undertheradar]

OP, you were already at the resort when the cruise was cancelled? Were these booked as individual trips, not a continuing trip? You already had a room and the law would have protected that you could not be removed from your room due to the impending storm. Not seeing how this is DCL's fault.

 

[AquaDame]

Let me start with I have been going to Disney for 20 years and been on 3 Disney cruises and would have never expected the awful way the cruise line treated us. I was schedulled to go on the Disney dream on sept 8th thru the 11th with a previous resort stay at por 4th thru the 8th. Before we left for Florida the cruise line told me if I cancelled before they made the decision I would only get a 75 percent refund so I decided to wit and see and went to Florida . I called the cruise line repeatery asking for info what was going to happen to the passengers if they chose to cancel and was repeatedly old not to worry Disney will make sure it's guests will be taken care of and safe in that event well that was a fat lie...when they finally decided to cancel I asked them were they going to put us up at another hotel or make some other arrangements since we now we're stranded fir those 3 days with no place to stay for the hurricane the answer was sorry not our problem see what the resort will do for you and no refunds for 7 to 10 business days..so needless to say I was beside myself I did not have enough funds with me for an extende c stay at the resort I planned on being housed and fed on the cruise with just a little spending money. I asked the cruise if thy could give me less of a refund nd pay for the hotel was told nope won't do that. So I spoke to the wonderful hotel manager at por who agreed with me how the cruise handled this was awful and made arrangements for me go stay here and charge my food to the room till my refund comes in whenever that will be he is sending me a bill to my home. He checkedid in with us everyday to make sure we were OK and didn't need anything he was what I have always thought of Disney as to be a great caring company not the money grubbing uncaring company the cruise line side of Disney is. So I will never give Disney Cruise line another dime of my money and will stay loyal as always to Walt disneyworld. Thanks to all that had to suffer my rant lol

Put another way, DCL has no control over the resorts or the ability to make promises as to what they can and can't do, but the managers of those resorts CAN and DID. I'm confused by their promise before you left saying that they would 'take care of' you and 'keep you safe' that sounds more like a statement in regards to if they sailed and ran into something..? In this case keeping you safe was not sailing and taking care of you was fully refunding your money. They didn't have any other way to accommodate you unfortunately - both ships returned to PC and sailed away without guests aboard. DCL always says it takes awhile to process refunds since banks are slow as molasses sometimes but I have frequently received my money much quicker than they said - I hope that holds true for you and I am of course sorry things didn't turn out the way you had planned!