Disney Fantasy and How Disney handles cancelling a cruise

[Dug720]

Nope. They sailed hundreds of miles away from the hurricane. It was safe.

BUT said hurricane was hard to predict and even sat over Cuba - not that far north of where the ships were - much longer than expected. What if a butterfly had flapped its wings somewhere and she suddenly took a turn South no one saw coming? Then you have all those ships - some with only crew and others with guests they kept on board or allowed to stay on board. Everyone would be singing a whole different tune then.

Until meterology is a 100% guaranteed science - no prediction involved - people are going to have to make the best decisions they can based on the information and imperfect predictions they have.

And if people don't want their cruise vacation interrupted and to possibly have to deal with some unpleasantness to have it, they should just not cruise during hurricane season.

 

[cruiser21]

I'm confused. Has anyone that came off one of the DCL ships came out and said they were left stranded... had to actually find a shelter? I have heard stories of people being scared and feeling abandoned and having to make their own arrangements in a hurry, but I never heard any of the stories of the people left at the port or airport and had to make their way to a shelter for the duration. Did that happen to DCL passengers?

People off another cruiseline had to go to shelters in Miami. Very few cruisers post on this board so who would know. A lot of people evacutated from Miami to Orlando so hotels were full. I think pp was just making a suggestion for the future if this happens again. Sheltering people at the convention centers at WDW may not have been necessary this time, but it's a good idea.

 

[cruiser21]

BUT said hurricane was hard to predict and even sat over Cuba - not that far north of where the ships were - much longer than expected. What if a butterfly had flapped its wings somewhere and she suddenly took a turn South no one saw coming? Then you have all those ships - some with only crew and others with guests they kept on board or allowed to stay on board. Everyone would be singing a whole different tune then.

Until meterology is a 100% guaranteed science - no prediction involved - people are going to have to make the best decisions they can based on the information and imperfect predictions they have.

And if people don't want their cruise vacation interrupted and to possibly have to deal with some unpleasantness to have it, they should just not cruise during hurricane season.

Your really going out a limb this time. You really think the hutricane was going to make a make 180 turn south and go to Cozumel. They knew the hurricane was going hit Florida. Exact landfall is hard to predict but their not off by that much.

 

[ELKA]

As someone who was on the Fantasy when they cut the cruise short, I want to throw down what I think went wrong and what possible fixes are.

Cancelling the cruise was not the wrong decision, how Disney handles it is.

The captain announced during our dinner the cruise being canceled, the refund and the discount. That's it. The only way to make that more announcement more accurate would be to add "We will push you all of the boats through port doors and not the normal embarkation ramp, with no organization or control after we dock. Once off the boat, buses will take you to WDW or Orlando Airport after that you are all on your own."
This is a boat with limited satellite lines out, and Disney Runs the cruise line separate from Disney Travel. My group and many others spent the next entire day waiting in different hour-long lines to talk to guest services, then wait for an hour or two for a line to become available and guest services to then call your wave phone and connect you to the number you needed to talk to. For people calling agents, they generally got an answering machine asking for a callback number this is beyond frustrating because no one on the boat has a callback number. People dealing with airlines had it worse. Every airline but SouthWest treated passengers as if Orlando was going to be open the day the hurricane hit and the flights would go as normal,. Guests making changes where paying fees as if this was a voluntary change. The section of my family not going to WDW rented a car and drove to Atlanta to fly out. Other passengers learned that rental car companies will answer the phone and rent you a car even when they are out of cars then inform you at the counter when you goto pick up keys.

My wife and I were going to check into Port Orleans for a few days after this cruise, our goal was to get two days added. Because Disney Cruise charges a lot more for WDW rooms we had the cruise with them and the WDW stay with WDW travel. It took 2 hours or 137 minutes according to the phone and 2 supervisors at WDW travel to get those days added at full cost $500 plus. Disneyworld was selling all the rooms residents evacuating, and told many cruisers nothing was available. Towards the end of my call right before they said it was done, our call was disconnected (an issue with that technology not a problem with the boat), It took me 9 hours to get a successful call out, and I finally called Port Orleans directly and the wonderful person at the desk verified everything.

In the end, after checking in we found out there was offered a 40% hurricane discount (from other guests) and we went back to the front desk to get that sorted out.

At no point did any Disney Employee on the boat, or on the front line have a clear idea of what was going on, what or if any discounts were available, or even what passengers should do. Disney has canceled cruises in the past, apparently, they have never planned out a process for how to handle the passengers when they do so. This is their fault, not the hurricane, not the passengers. The only way to possibly treat customers worse would be to cancel the cruise, hand everyone innertubes from the AquaDuck and tell them to jump, Cuba is off the starboard side.

Later we learned WDW travel due to hurricane had two many calls causing a busy signal for many people on the ship (and ashore). According to an employee at WDW I talked to the "entire state of Florida" called wdw resort at the same time for 2 days.

How Disney Should Handle This.

Go to the computer and print a sheet for each cabin with the following question "When my cabin reaches port we need the following
1. Our luggage as our car is at port or someone will pick us up
2. Transportation to Orlando Airport
3. Transportation to WDW and a room for the members of my cabin for 2 nights
4. Transportation to WDW and room for the members of my cabin for 1 night
5. Transportation to WDW and my reservation #______ to be extended by two nights.
Then have everyone drop it off at Guest Services have them fax it over to WDW travel and take care of it. Almost every passenger on that ship would have gladly handed over a credit card and said, fix this I deal with the costs later. It was Disney that was refusing to take our money. They should have a plan for how to communicate back with passengers once reservations are made. We as passengers have no normal means of communications of those ships, the staff however does.

I am not upset that the cruise was canceled. I am steaming mad they think pushing everyone off the boat in an evacuation zone is an allowable process. They also proved that they have no Guest Recovery Skills. I am just glad the 2-day refund will completely pay form my wife and I to repeat a Caribbean cruise next Thanksgiving on the Symphony of the seas, a company that so far has shown much better customer service than the now overpriced Disney Cruise Line.

Reading over your complaint about how Disney handled a lot of the shortened cruise and aftermath, there are a few things I disagree with.

The first one is no call back number, that isn't true. In the Cruise booklet there is a number for emergency contact. You can call that number and get to the passenger on the ship.

If a passenger used DCL for their flights, I am sure that they were accommodated and weren't charged the change fee. If the passenger made their own flight arrangements then DCL is not responsible and that is on the airline that charged the fee.

A car rental agency is also not a DCL company, and how is it DCL's fault that the car rental agency did not have cars?

As for your accommodations at WDW, DCL does have a land-sea package, but they aren't discounted, no dining package, no upgraded rooms. Most people including you and me find it cheaper to plan separate parts and then put it together. I went on a b2b cruise in early February on the Dream. I then added a stay at WDW before the cruise making separate reservations and added the DCL bus to the port and then the airport. The only thing DCL offered to do for me is the airline check in after the cruise, and handled my luggage and boarding pass.

As for the employees not knowing what was happening and what discounts there were, the situation with Irma was changing hour by hour. The decisions that were being made by management was probably done in a scrambled way so that the employees had no way of knowing what they could offer or not. That also included the WDW resort that you made arrangements with. You said you had to sort out with the resort the discount that you heard about. It seems to me that they accommodated you and gave you the discount.

As for the busy signals and everyone in Florida calling WDW for a room, as per the cast member you spoke with, again I ask how is that DCL's and WDW's fault? Are they responsible for all those people calling at the same time? Have you ever tried to call a radio station when they have a contest and they say the 100th caller will win money or concert tickets? Believe me when I say all you get are busy signals. Only once did I get through only I got a number spoken and it wasn't 100.

As for the satellite phones that the cast members have, it is the same satellite phone and internet that passengers have access to, so they probably had the same trouble you did. One question, why didn't you rent or buy a satellite phone for your trip? If you had one you would have been able to make your arrangements more quickly, and help your travel group to make plans.

I get that you are frustrated and disappointed that your cruise was shortened and then the scramble to make arrangements to stay also was difficult. It is also your choice whether to cruise DCL again or not. Some of your list that DCL give the passengers in a shortened cruise situations are reasonable and would give an idea about arrangements, blaming DCL for things not under their control like weather, airlines and rental cars I don't think is fair.

 

[phinz]

Carnival nor any other cruise line docks in Ft Myers. The only "ship" that really docks in Ft Myers (aside from dinner and sunset cruise boats) is the Key West Express. I have no idea what the previous poster was referring to... maybe Tampa? That would be the only west FL coast port.

That's what I figured. The KW Express was a big controversy when I lived down that way. IIRC, the city had developed the port but the company was dragging its feet and went under, or almost did. They were also supposed to have an express out of Marco as well, but I guess that never happened. I've since watched the Express come in to, as well as leave, Key West more times than I can count. If it had finally gotten underway while I lived in SWFL I'd have been on that boat at least a couple of round trips a month.

 

[mevelandry]

BUT said hurricane was hard to predict and even sat over Cuba - not that far north of where the ships were - much longer than expected. What if a butterfly had flapped its wings somewhere and she suddenly took a turn South no one saw coming? Then you have all those ships - some with only crew and others with guests they kept on board or allowed to stay on board. Everyone would be singing a whole different tune then.

Until meterology is a 100% guaranteed science - no prediction involved - people are going to have to make the best decisions they can based on the information and imperfect predictions they have.

And if people don't want their cruise vacation interrupted and to possibly have to deal with some unpleasantness to have it, they should just not cruise during hurricane season.

I don't know how fast hurricanes can go... But can't a ship go faster?

And I agree 100% with your last sentence. I sail in hurricane season but I know it's a gamble. You have to be fine with the idea of redoing everything from scratch and take what you can get.

 

[KashasMom]

OP - sorry that you had all those hassles. You will always find people with different perspectives after having the same experience and it doesn't make yours less correct. It's YOUR experience. Just as you will always find people who will defend DCL no matter what. We were on the cruise before yours and feel very lucky to have had an uninterrupted cruise in this very busy hurricane season. I do believe that DCL could have handled things better with your cruise.

Friends of ours are currently doing a back to back on RCI - southern Carib out of San Juan. They completed the first week and had to make adjustments to the second week due to Irma. Actually they repeated the first week's itinerary. My friend said that during the cruise the captain has kept them fully informed. They made a stop in St. Martin to drop off relief supplies and pick up 300 displaced people to bring them to Curacao. They made a stop in St. Kitts to pick up supplies but canceled the port stop. Some passengers disembarked in Aruba to fly home from there. The ship obviously could not dock in San Juan so they are adding a day to the cruise and heading to Fort Lauderdale to disembark. RCI is offering everyone the option of staying onboard an extra night so they can make arrangements to get home. They've ended up with 2 (free) extra nights to their cruise. They are fortunate to have had insurance which so far has been very helpful for them (flying back to the UK). And they have the best attitude and are having a great time. However, there are probably people on the same cruise having a completely different experience. I am sure this season has cost RCI a bundle, but do love that they had several ships helping with relief efforts. Enjoy the Symphony! We LOVE the Oasis class ships!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

I admit I only read the first couple of posts, and I just don't see how DCL could have taken completed forms from 1200+ staterooms and see who wants a bus to the airport, who has a WDW reservation and wants it extended by one day, by two days -what if you can also include your resort preference?
Most of these expectations are unrealistic for DCL or any other line.
Unless you were personally on a different ship during the same time, you don't know how exactly everything was handled there. So many factors had to be taken into consideration. There will always be varying opinions.
There are passengers from the same sailing as you that will say DCL handled it best they could. Others that will agree with you and then some.

Could DCL done better, or done something different?
Sure. My opinion is they should have provided free internet and phone calls as soon as that announcement was made, and direct people to maybe watch all details of the announcement on their stateroom television, prerecorded by the CD or Captain. I'm sure tons couldn't hear everything on the PA, and simply stood in line just to find out what exactly is happening.

In the end all passengers from this Fantasy sailing were safe. It was clearly more difficult for some to make the necessary arrangements, and that wasn't fun I'm sure. Just don't see why blame has to always be laid somewhere.
It's Mother Nature and nobody not even Disney can look into their crystal ball to predict exactly what will happen, and then waive their magic wand and spread pixie dust...

 

[cruiser21]

I think OP's biggest complaint was just the disorganization. If your going to cancel a cruise half way through you need to expect that 5000 people onboard are going to need to make alternative plans. The cruiseline should have a plan for that. Free internet, staggered times for each deck to use internet, make free phone calls etc, the ability to communicate with WDW about their availabilty. Extra transportation at the port, extra help at the port. Disney has a lot of resources. It sounds like it was kind of a hot mess. OP wasn't expecting Disney to pay for anything, but it sounded like they didn't make a bad situation any easier.

 

[BruinEd03]

In the end all passengers from this Fantasy sailing were safe. It was clearly more difficult for some to make the necessary arrangements, and that wasn't fun I'm sure. Just don't see why blame has to always be laid somewhere.
It's Mother Nature and nobody not even Disney can look into their crystal ball to predict exactly what will happen, and then waive their magic wand and spread pixie dust...

That last part illustrates the fallacy of most of the arguments here. People are conflating Disney's handling of the situation with Disney being responsible for the Hurricane. Disney is not responsible for the hurricane, no one says Disney is responsible for the hurricane. Disney also is not legally responsible beyond dumping their passengers out on the shore. However, their customer service (not just legal requirements) seemed to be lacking.

Disney had a a large number of rooms available at Disney World (you can see my previous post). My numbers already show that there were 3000+ rooms available NOT including DVC and non-Disney hotels. They didn't widely provide free Internet or phone service. Also, if they were giving the public a 40% discount, why not reserve a block of rooms at DW for Disney Cruise at the same discount and give people 12 hours of exclusivity to book those rooms? Reduce cancellation fees for no-shows. This has very little downside from WDW as they will get the business at the prevailing rates.

Alternatively have a system where guests were provided a paper with an option to indicate if they are going to need a hotel (some people will drive home or will just want to take their changes with alternate hotels) within 8 hours. They can also rank the 4 hotels and given the actual rate with the idea that if there is a match for any 4 they will be charged, with the obvious notice that choosing different price brackets will maximize chance of matching. If they are matched, they will be charged. There can then be a separate 2 hour time slot where people can switch the hotels if they want (or try to book a hotel if they are not matched).

This would be very similar to a matching program for hospitals and med students.

Again that's just one solution. I'm sure if Disney invested some $$$ they could develop a pretty good algorithm.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

That last part illustrates the fallacy of most of the arguments here. People are conflating Disney's handling of the situation with Disney being responsible for the Hurricane. Disney is not responsible for the hurricane, no one says Disney is responsible for the hurricane. Disney also is not legally responsible beyond dumping their passengers out on the shore. However, their customer service (not just legal requirements) seemed to be lacking.

Disney had a a large number of rooms available at Disney World (you can see my previous post). My numbers already show that there were 3000+ rooms available NOT including DVC and non-Disney hotels. They didn't widely provide free Internet or phone service. Also, if they were giving the public a 40% discount, why not reserve a block of rooms at DW for Disney Cruise at the same discount and give people 12 hours of exclusivity to book those rooms? Reduce cancellation fees for no-shows. This has very little downside from WDW as they will get the business at the prevailing rates.

Alternatively have a system where guests were provided a paper with an option to indicate if they are going to need a hotel (some people will drive home or will just want to take their changes with alternate hotels) within 8 hours. They can also rank the 4 hotels and given the actual rate with the idea that if there is a match for any 4 they will be charged, with the obvious notice that choosing different price brackets will maximize chance of matching. If they are matched, they will be charged. There can then be a separate 2 hour time slot where people can switch the hotels if they want (or try to book a hotel if they are not matched).

This would be very similar to a matching program for hospitals and med students.

Again that's just one solution. I'm sure if Disney invested some $$$ they could develop a pretty good algorithm.

I didn't say that Disney is responsible for the hurricane. A lot of people were saying Disney should have cancelled earlier, done this or that - but it's not always possible to predict exactly how a hurricane will affect the particular area. Even Irma changed track a bit just a couple of days before. What I meant is that Disney can't predict exactly how it will unfold.
And again.... there are people that were on this sailing that were happy with DCL's customer service and others not at all.
We can go in circles
I agree that some things they could have done better, but most of the suggestions were not realistic. Disney or not.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Alternatively have a system where guests were provided a paper with an option to indicate if they are going to need a hotel (some people will drive home or will just want to take their changes with alternate hotels) within 8 hours. They can also rank the 4 hotels and given the actual rate with the idea that if there is a match for any 4 they will be charged, with the obvious notice that choosing different price brackets will maximize chance of matching. If they are matched, they will be charged. There can then be a separate 2 hour time slot where people can switch the hotels if they want (or try to book a hotel if they are not matched).

This would be very similar to a matching program for hospitals and med students.

And how long does that matching process take? I doubt that it only takes overnight to work it out.

With (at a minimum) 4 resorts/3000 rooms and 3,000-5,000 people to match up with whatever their needs are...... I just don't see that it would be any more efficient than just letting those people who require a place to stay to find their own.

 

[ELKA]

isney had a a large number of rooms available at Disney World (you can see my previous post). My numbers already show that there were 3000+ rooms available NOT including DVC and non-Disney hotels. They didn't widely provide free Internet or phone service. Also, if they were giving the public a 40% discount, why not reserve a block of rooms at DW for Disney Cruise at the same discount and give people 12 hours of exclusivity to book those rooms? Reduce cancellation fees for no-shows. This has very little downside from WDW as they will get the business at the prevailing rates.

Part of the OP's complaint was that DCL and WDW are separate divisions of the same company. That since the two were owned by Disney that he should have been accommodated by them. That DCL should have known about the discount and availability of rooms that WDW had. How could they when even the call center that the OP contacted didn't even know. He got the discount, and he then complained that Disney was responsible for car rental agencies not having enough cars. Do you know of any car rental agency that Disney owns? He also complained about airlines, unless Disney made your arrangements with an airline they do not help you with your individual flights. Maybe if he had paid the premium and had DCL make all the arrangements before he took his trip, flights, hotels and cruise then he would have been accommodated more easily, but he didn't and had to scramble to make his own arrangements.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I do not believe Disney had nearly the amount of space you're convinced they had.

 

[cruiser21]

It doesn't sound that complicated to me. Disney cruise line calls Disney resorts says we're cancelling cruise and we'll need rooms for guests. Disney resort blocks some available rooms. Guest services notifies guests if anyone interested in a Disney resort room to see guest services. The whole ship is not going to want rooms. Like op stated a lot of people drive to cruise, live local or were able to rebook flight.
It doesn't sound like rocket science to me. I don't even think you need a fancy computer program for this. As someone who works in customer service if I only did what I was obligated to do. I would be out of a job. I get paid to think outside the box and problem solve. Even if a natural disaster occurs if I'm on the clock I have to help the customer.

 

[FigmentSpark]

That last part illustrates the fallacy of most of the arguments here. People are conflating Disney's handling of the situation with Disney being responsible for the Hurricane. Disney is not responsible for the hurricane, no one says Disney is responsible for the hurricane. Disney also is not legally responsible beyond dumping their passengers out on the shore. However, their customer service (not just legal requirements) seemed to be lacking.

Disney had a a large number of rooms available at Disney World (you can see my previous post). My numbers already show that there were 3000+ rooms available NOT including DVC and non-Disney hotels. They didn't widely provide free Internet or phone service. Also, if they were giving the public a 40% discount, why not reserve a block of rooms at DW for Disney Cruise at the same discount and give people 12 hours of exclusivity to book those rooms? Reduce cancellation fees for no-shows. This has very little downside from WDW as they will get the business at the prevailing rates.

Alternatively have a system where guests were provided a paper with an option to indicate if they are going to need a hotel (some people will drive home or will just want to take their changes with alternate hotels) within 8 hours. They can also rank the 4 hotels and given the actual rate with the idea that if there is a match for any 4 they will be charged, with the obvious notice that choosing different price brackets will maximize chance of matching. If they are matched, they will be charged. There can then be a separate 2 hour time slot where people can switch the hotels if they want (or try to book a hotel if they are not matched).

This would be very similar to a matching program for hospitals and med students.

Again that's just one solution. I'm sure if Disney invested some $$$ they could develop a pretty good algorithm.

Help me out, here... where did you get the there were 3000+ rooms were available at WDW over the storm period?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Help me out, here... where did you get the there were 3000+ rooms were available at WDW over the storm period?

If you back up, there were assumptions made about occupancy rates that were based on conjecture and didn't also account for the Fort Wilderness Cabins/Campgrounds, Poly Bungalows or Treehouse Villas getting taken out of service.

The numbers there:

• 60THV
• 409 FW Cabins
• 20 Bungalows
• 799 campsites

So, this takes a healthy chunk out to start.

 

[wombat_5606]

Is a Marriott hotel in the midst of an evacuation due to a hurricane, supposed to, in the interest of customer service, find another Marriott hotel for their guests outside of the evacuation route? Are they required to find transportation for them also, whether it is a car or air tickets?

 

[FigmentSpark]

If you back up, there were assumptions made about occupancy rates that were based on conjecture and didn't also account for the Fort Wilderness Cabins/Campgrounds, Poly Bungalows or Treehouse Villas getting taken out of service.

The numbers there:

• 60THV
• 409 FW Cabins
• 20 Bungalows
• 799 campsites

So, this takes a healthy chunk out to start.

Ah, yes. So it's not that WDW published an availability or that someone here is a CM in the know, but a supposition of total rooms, less an average guestimate of occupancy at normal times.... ie: no real hard information that would make those numbers valid for consideration in these conversations.



BruinEd03 seemed to imply these numbers were facts, not guesses.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Might I also point out that a good many of these supposedly available WDW resort rooms were needed to house the ride out crews for the resorts. I really don't think there were nearly the number of rooms available that some posters assume there were.