Cruise and Theme Park Operational Updates due to Coronavirus

[deserrai]

I have said before, I’m not a huge fan of Universal, I actually have a pretty low opinion of them. But it’s based on 1 single experience more than 5 yrs ago. Up until now, I’ve had no reason to even give them another try.

The only thing that’s stopping me from doing just that is my concern about the rising numbers both in FL and here at home. We seriously considered it, but decided if we were going to do it, it’s better to wait and do it when things relax a bit. But that’s our plan. It’s not easy, honestly it breaks my heart just thinking of being there and not being at WDW, but the WDW I love doesn’t exist and It may never be back.

I think I’m at the acceptance stage. :/

I am right there with you. I am a diehard Disney fan. Been going since I was a little girl. It is my happy place. But I am so disappointed with how they have handled this and the fact that they are taking away every piece of magic. I've already booked a different vacation for this summer and I'm not sure I'll be back any time soon. I don't mind paying thousands of dollars for my happy place, but I will not do it to be miserable. I think what upsets me the most is that Disney has been squeezing every dollar they can out of guests for a while now. Now they have an excuse.

 

[Jrb1979]

You really put a lot in perspective here. And you are exactly right on everything. To add to it and I know people will say they are different places but Universal is open now and they arent really sacrificing the guest experience at all. Sure there are some things toned down which is to be expected but overall its the same park many love going to. Disney on the other hand is trying their hardest to strip its core dna away and leaving little left at all. Its very disappointing to say the least.

On park wants people to come the other is trying to get people to cancel.

 

[yulilin3]

1999–reservations for CRT, party of 15 (GS trip). Mom made me unplug the internet cable and plug in my sister’s hospital phone, so we had two chances of getting through the minute reservations opened. We got our reservation.

Cinderella Royal Table?

 

[merry_nbright]

Honestly tell me if you think this is ok
The company tells people arriving from the 22nd to the 10th (that's 3 weeks) that you can make dining reservations, only if you are arriving those days,, for only DVC properties and FW
You call right at 7am and you are in a 2 hour hold. Not only that the message cheerfully tells you that you can skip the waiting and book online

Is that ok to you?

I’d be so annoyed. Good luck, friend!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I understand you 100%. The problem is lack of communication. It's honestly getting to a ridiculous place when not even the cm that are supposed to help you get any information.
Im right there with you, and upset that I won't be able to go to whatever park i want, whatever day at whatever time, I not only paid for this, this is my livelihood.
But
I have read the fine print on their terms and policies and rules and ive also been an ap long enough to see the consumer service they were famous for be in decline for a decade. So i had realistic expectations. I only expected from Disney the 4 months that the parks were actually closed, that's all they said they would give us
If they decide to do something more that would be fantastic, but im not counting on it

I definitely agree with you about the details and that what they are doing fits '"realistic expectations" - I think the aspect that sort of stinks is that in the past Disney would "exceed expectations" with guest recovery and this seems the opposite of this.

And who knows, maybe when they actually open there will be no issues getting reservations and they will be going above and beyond in providing "extras" to make up for what is now not available in the park ... But for now it feels like getting the "minimum" or "business standard" and not "exceeding expectations"

And I am not even wanting the world, but giving people 3 months extra on their passes (so 7 months total) would have been a nice gesture and not killed hem financially

 

[gottalovepluto]

Reading the AP Terms and Conditions is interesting. There are clauses in there which likely limit their legal exposure in case they have to cut down on park hoping and limit reservations. Basically the entire system is almost at whim and relies mainly on customer satisfaction rather than strong contractual protection of pass holder “rights” relative to what they bought a specific pass for.

“ Restrictions apply including, but not limited to, capacity constraints and other closures. Passports do not guarantee Theme Park admission, especially during high attendance periods”

“ Parks, services, entertainment and attractions may change operating hours, close temporarily, or may otherwise change or be discontinued without notice and without liability.”

“ Disney reserves the right to cancel, suspend or revoke any Passport or deny Theme Park admission to any Passholder at any time for any reason.”

“ All terms, conditions and benefits including, but not limited to, admission privileges, Blockout Dates, prices, Pass type availability, parking locations, benefits and discounts are subject to restrictions, availability, and change or cancellation without notice at any time.”

Yes BUT... boilerplate is not be all end all even though they try to make you think so. They will need to show an attempt to fulfill it to the expectations they have set or they could have a legal mess. “I get to keep all your money and not provide you the promised services because you signed my boilerplate” is not a good legal argument. If the boilerplate is thrown out, they’re swimming naked.

Now, if reservations are not hard to get after all I think Disney will ultimately be able to get by with simply extending all pass expiration dates by 117 days. It will leave a lot of angry people but I think legally they make a good enough case they did what they said they’d do.

Honestly I get the feeling extending passes for 117 was hard enough for IT. If they were going to give American parks any extra time to make up for the limited opening they would have picked a different number from 117. Shmucky they aren’t giving passholders at a minimum what Hong Kong is getting but they’ve signaled before (ie 20% price raise Plat) they have more APs than they want so two birds, one stone (cheapest way to fulfill APs + get APs to cancel).

 

[merry_nbright]

Okay, but how can I get a Homecoming reservation for September? I’ve tried multiple times and can’t. Gonna try OpenTable next.

 

[Eric Smith]

Honestly tell me if you think this is ok
The company tells people arriving from the 22nd to the 10th (that's 3 weeks) that you can make dining reservations, only if you are arriving those days,, for only DVC properties and FW
You call right at 7am and you are in a 2 hour hold. Not only that the message cheerfully tells you that you can skip the waiting and book online

Is that ok to you?

I don't see that as a big deal. Obviously you know that isn't possible. Someone forgot to change the hold message on a phone, is that really a big deal?

 

[Farro]

I'm surprised phone lines so busy.

Guess a lot of people still going or very few cms working.

 

[Eric Smith]

On park wants people to come the other is trying to get people to cancel.

One park still can't reliably fill even their reduced capacity, one has way more demand than capacity.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

You really put a lot in perspective here. And you are exactly right on everything. To add to it and I know people will say they are different places but Universal is open now and they arent really sacrificing the guest experience at all. Sure there are some things toned down which is to be expected but overall its the same park many love going to. Disney on the other hand is trying their hardest to strip its core dna away and leaving little left at all. Its very disappointing to say the least.

How can you really compare Disney and Universal though?

Universal has very limited TS dining. Not a draw there. They don’t have to deal with reducing TS capacity on the level Disney does. They don’t have to deal with what’s happening today because there’s very little focus on TS experiences.

Universal also doesn’t have the network of hotels that Disney does.

Universal also has less guests traveling there specifically for Universal.

What of the Disney parks experience is being stripped away? Fireworks and parades? That’s more of a Disney thing than Universal. Universal is a rides park. As far as I know, most of the Disney rides should be open except for a few. Universal isn’t doing traditional meet and greets either. Not being able to park hop is a bummer but makes sense since Disney demand is higher than Universal.

Pretty hard to judge what the Disney parks experience will be like when they’re not even open yet ...

The truth is they are totally different parks. Because Disney goes over the top with parades and fireworks and entertainment, it seems like the experience is being stripped away. Those things aren’t a selling point of “big, fast, not your mama’s rides” Universal.

IMO, because Disney sets the bar higher and offers more from an all-around experience perspective, there’s farther for them to fall during pandemic adjustments.

(Yes, I have been to Universal/IOA.) I don’t think their operations can really be compared on the same level.

 

[gottalovepluto]

All I know is after going to the Disney World website so many times, the one ride I am not looking forward to riding if Disney let’s me into a park is Mickey and Minney’s Runaway Railway.

Every time I see that I feel like the look on Mickey’s face is telling me “oh no this is gonna be bad!”

He’s been right so far.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm surprised phone lines so busy.

Guess a lot of people still going or very few cms working.

I know they were scaling back the number of CMs to handle calls and why they were pushing people to use the app so might be a bit of the later

Also I think it would just be so many people calling at once - even if just 20% capacity you probably have a very large portion of that 20% (or their travel agents) calling all at once so winds up being quite a few people

 

[jlwhitney]

I'm surprised phone lines so busy.

Guess a lot of people still going or very few cms working.

Probably few CM's

 

[princesscinderella]

I just got off the phone it took 1 1/2 hours to get my 2 dining reservations. I did take the survey after because I remember reading here that that’s how they are grading employees working from home. I was surprised by the question if “I owned a business would I hire that person?”

 

[AmberMV]

On hold with Disney dining, cannot remember the last time I had to call at 7am for anything

I called right at 7am and it took 1 hour and 23 mins to get a person on the other end of the line She said they currently had 468 people in the queue

 

[Eric Smith]

I know they were scaling back the number of CMs to handle calls and why they were pushing people to use the app so might be a bit of the later

Also I think it would just be so many people calling at once - even if just 20% capacity you probably have a very large portion of that 20% (or their travel agents) calling all at once so winds up being quite a few people

The group that is still going to come to Disney World even before the parks open is also likely to mostly be the die hard fans who are going to do things like call for dining reservations right when the window opens. That could also increase the call volume.

 

[yulilin3]

I don't see that as a big deal. Obviously you know that isn't possible. Someone forgot to change the hold message on a phone, is that really a big deal?

You will go to no ends to apologize for their lack of costumer service.
What if someone hangs up and then goes to check online cause the message just told them so, only to find it not possible. They lost their place in 2 hour line
Also a 2 hour line for only 3 weeks worth of people coming to only the DVC and FW

 

[TheMaxRebo]

How can you really compare Disney and Universal though?

Universal has very limited TS dining. Not a draw there. They don’t have to deal with reducing TS capacity on the level Disney does. They don’t have to deal with what’s happening today because there’s very little focus on TS experiences.

Universal also doesn’t have the network of hotels that Disney does.

Universal also has less guests traveling there specifically for Universal.

What of the Disney parks experience is being stripped away? Fireworks and parades? That’s more of a Disney thing than Universal. Universal is a rides park. As far as I know, most of the Disney rides should be open except for a few. Universal isn’t doing traditional meet and greets either. Not being able to park hop is a bummer but makes sense since Disney demand is higher than Universal.

Pretty hard to judge what the Disney parks experience will be like when they’re not even open yet ...

The truth is they are totally different parks. Because Disney goes over the top with parades and fireworks and entertainment, it seems like the experience is being stripped away. Those things aren’t a selling point of “big, fast, not your mama’s rides” Universal.

IMO, because Disney sets the bar higher and offers more from an all-around experience perspective, there’s farther for them to fall during pandemic adjustments.

(Yes, I have been to Universal/IOA.) I don’t think their operations can really be compared on the same level.

I do think the other big difference is Universal isn't using park reservations and overall seemed to be better about communicating (granted there was less notice but they provided pretty much all you needed to know when they did). Disney feels like they are making you jump through hoops just to (maybe?) Get to enjoy a reduced experience

It is apples to oranges (or at least macintosh to Granny Smith), but feels like Universal was making things as easy/simple as possible to get to experience their parks in what state they can

 

[Eric Smith]

You will go to no ends to apologize for their lack of costumer service.
What if someone hangs up and then goes to check online cause the message just told them so, only to find it not possible. They lost their place in 2 hour line
Also a 2 hour line for only 3 weeks worth of people coming to only the DVC and FW

I'm not apologizing for anything. It's a message while you're on hold, it's not the end of the world.