HEARTBREAK: Flight cancelled - Cruise missed

[wildonethirtyseven]

I also searched other posts by mattj009 and saw that they booked there trip through DVC. Doesn't DVC have some other rules that can maybe help them rebook or even get some or all there points back? it's worth a shot to call them and see. Anyone else agree?

 

[Bethshaya]

We are sitting in our family room, kinds stating at each other and trying to figure out how this happened. Ironically - it's a beautiful morning outside. If we had booked air for this morning, we'd be on our way to the port right now.

Imagine going from planning Spring break for a year, and then being home, on vacation, with no budget for vacation because you had it all poured into your cruise.

I did speak with Disney Cruise Line this morning, and while I received profound sympathies, I did not receive anything else - not even a discount on a future cruise... Not that I expected one. It's not Disney's fault I couldn't get there. I was a bit peeved however, that they took all of my money and won't even count the cruise towards the Castaway Club count. That seems a little cheap to me.

Oh - and aside from travel insurance, here's the next lesson... Get a passport. Two in our party had passports, but two did not... and that fact precluded us from possibly joining the ship in Nassau... (Although I'm sure the Nassau airfare would have been cost prohibitive for us anyway...)

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

We almost had this happen to us many years ago. We got to the airport at 7 AM for a 9:30 flight and got bumped with another family from the flight as they overbooked it.

They put us on stand by for the next flight, and the next and the next. We did get a spot on a 9 PM flight, but we gave it up to the other family as sadly, they were going to Disney too on the Make a Wish program. We were flabberghasted that the airline would bump a child that was terminally ill going to Disney as their last wish and ruining their final memories together.

The airline booked us on a flight to Boston instead and we took a flight from Boston to Orlando later on. We had a 3 yr old in tow and he was so good the whole day.

Our lesson learned. Never take a flight where they won't assign you a seat number. That is a sure sign that the flight is over booked.

 

[SoCaOC-Mom]

Count me in


OP,
I am still thinking of your family tonight. I hope you find a way to recoup some of the financial loss and are able to rebook soon!
Mary

I'm in for $10

 

[msmayor]

While there may be 'some' financial loss, I don't think its really as 'devastating' as people may think...

We're on the Dream on the 17th, and got our docs on Friday... and we booked on points, too!

The cruise appears to have been booked on DVC points.

 

[goofysgirl]

OP-if this was a cruisde booked thru DVC, I would start the plea with them and try to negotiate something to get your points back...maybe not all but some of them or I would be discussing an alternative cruise. DVC is more likely to get something from Disney than you are as a sole person. I also would be talking to SW and trying to figure out why they are only refunding your money and not offering anything else to you in return...in the end according to your post it was not the weather that cancelled the flight...they are responsible for much more than a refund of the flight if they cancelled because of crew. At this point, there may not be much you can do for this week, but I would be planning my next vacation and hoping that DVC could so something for me along with pushing SW for a better solution rather than just a refund!

 

[cmclaura]

Maybe a PayPal account would be easier than a bank account?

 

[Mickeyhugger]

I also would be talking to SW and trying to figure out why they are only refunding your money and not offering anything else to you in return......they are responsible for much more than a refund of the flight if they cancelled because of crew.

No, they are not.

 

[Mazz519]

So sorry to hear about your plans being ruined

 

[KingRichard]

Where did the empty plane and flight crew that were supposed to be on it end up?

I have read trip insurance on DVC points is something like $5 per point. So they would have got back maybe half there money or even less?

 

[mattj009]

Thanks for the gestures, though. My wife woke up this morning after essentially being up for 2 days without sleep, and said "Sleep doesn't make it any better. This is not where I'm supposed to be right now."

That pretty much sums it up.

And yes - we did pay for the cruise with points. You can think me smart or stupid or whatever you want to think. Either way, it's a loss of thousands of dollars for us - a loss of vacation time and vacation memories and DVC points we're not getting back. And we're stuck at home now this week staring at the walls with nowhere to go because our budgeted vacation left Florida without us.

The worst part - I have no one but myself to blame for not getting the insurance.

I've received dozens of suggestions both here and on Facebook that I write long letters or make threatening phone calls or go to the local media. The fact is that both DVC and the Cruise Line have both already given me very sympathetic answers of "no" when I've asked for even token relief. That doesn't mean I won't ask again in the future if and when we go to rebook.

Personally, I think it would be smarter business if they could offer me even a small discount on a future cruise, but hey - they sell travel insurance (or work with companies that sell it), too. In a way, it would be bad business for them to give me any relief.

 

[JustTJ]

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

We almost had this happen to us many years ago. We got to the airport at 7 AM for a 9:30 flight and got bumped with another family from the flight as they overbooked it.

They put us on stand by for the next flight, and the next and the next. We did get a spot on a 9 PM flight, but we gave it up to the other family as sadly, they were going to Disney too on the Make a Wish program. We were flabberghasted that the airline would bump a child that was terminally ill going to Disney as their last wish and ruining their final memories together.

The airline booked us on a flight to Boston instead and we took a flight from Boston to Orlando later on. We had a 3 yr old in tow and he was so good the whole day.

Our lesson learned. Never take a flight where they won't assign you a seat number. That is a sure sign that the flight is over booked.

This is a common misconception with Make a Wish Kids. Not all children in the Make a Wish Program are Terminal. They all do have however a life threatening illness. Some children have their WISH while in Treatment for their illness, others wait till the end of treatment to have their Wish granted. Therefore in some cases, a Healthy child is granted a Wish, a Way to celebrate the END of a nasty few months or years. Since airlines do not know the particular circumstances of a Wish child, I too am surprised that they would BUMP them.

 

[Schmoopsie Poo!]

Once again, we are so sorry for you.

I haven't read every post, but wanted to contribute this:

We were flying out of Ohio in February which is iffy at best weather-wise.
I asked DCL if I purchased trip insurance through them would it be covered if our plane couldn't make it due to weather. They said the money for the cruise would NOT be refunded, but that the total amount paid would be applied toward another cruise... that being the dollar amount paid, but any discounts would not be able to be used. I thought that was fair, so we purchased the insurance. Luckily, the weather cooperated, although the plane needed an extra hour to be de-iced and our connection had us running through Atlanta at a ridiculous pace.

As you can see from the multitude of posts, many people care about your situation. Hope it helps in some small way to have so many warm thoughts sent your way.

 

[goofysgirl]

If SW is only responsible for the refund then they should also offer some type of goodwill gesture. I have had hotel rooms, meals, and vouchers for further travel given to me in the past when we have had any issues by Delta, SW and Jet Blue. This past Christmas I was in the middle of that NE snowstorm mess and ended up with a RT voucher for future travel as well as a flight back at a later time from Jetbluw without asking for anything. OP anyway you can jump on a flight today or tomrrow and borrow some vacation points to stay at a resort? It would keep you from staring at the four walls and would at a least give you a little bit of a vacation.

 

[engle]

Well, I for one bought trip insurance today after reading this. We sail in 2 weeks and I do not want this to happen to me!!!

 

[wildonethirtyseven]

Thanks for the gestures, though. My wife woke up this morning after essentially being up for 2 days without sleep, and said "Sleep doesn't make it any better. This is not where I'm supposed to be right now."

That pretty much sums it up.

And yes - we did pay for the cruise with points. You can think me smart or stupid or whatever you want to think. Either way, it's a loss of thousands of dollars for us - a loss of vacation time and vacation memories and DVC points we're not getting back. And we're stuck at home now this week staring at the walls with nowhere to go because our budgeted vacation left Florida without us.

The worst part - I have no one but myself to blame for not getting the insurance.

I've received dozens of suggestions both here and on Facebook that I write long letters or make threatening phone calls or go to the local media. The fact is that both DVC and the Cruise Line have both already given me very sympathetic answers of "no" when I've asked for even token relief. That doesn't mean I won't ask again in the future if and when we go to rebook.

Personally, I think it would be smarter business if they could offer me even a small discount on a future cruise, but hey - they sell travel insurance (or work with companies that sell it), too. In a way, it would be bad business for them to give me any relief.

Well I dont know if this is comforting or not, I just got off the phone with DVC and they said if you would have used DVC travel insurance (travel Lex) they would have covered the flight and the Annual dues portion for that use year. So if you used 200 points and your annual dues were $800.00 thats all you would get back plus air fare change fee per ticket NOT the cost of airfare. The fees for this insurance is 79.00 for everyone. Not alot of coverage and I personally think its horrible. It seems like you are better off to book through DCL than DVC. Needless to say I have 3 cruises booked with points and I am thinking about canciling all of them.

 

[mattj009]

I just read through some more pages of responses. Just to respond to some questions that was put out there about why we weren't able to find other ways to get there...

Well, here's what happened to us after the flight was cancelled at 2:15 am...

My wife stood in line at the gate for 2 hours after the flight was cancelled while the poor agent alone at the counter (who had herself been there for at least 12 hours herself) tried to deal with an angry mob of passengers... State troopers had to come at least once to threaten to arrest one extra-belligerent guy).

Sometime around 4 am, even the counter agent couldn't take it any more. She broke down in tears. She couldn't leave her post, and Southwest couldn't send her any relief - they were clearly waiting for the morning crew to show up, and every one who WAS working had been there from the previous afternoon. Finally, her computer froze up, and Southwest sent us out to the main ticket counter, which didn't even open until 4:30...

Once all of the Sunday morning passengers started arriving, they segregated all of us leftover Saturday passengers into one corner of the SW Counter, so they could get all of the Sunday travelers onto their planes.

T the ticket counter, there were probably 200-300 stranded passengers being helped by ONE counter agent. My wife didn't get to the front of the line until 7:30 am - more than 5 hours after our flight had been cancelled. By that point, there was really no chance to get on a SW flight that could have gotten us within driving distance of Cape Canaveral... not even on standby, because by that point, all of the Sunday travelers had already checked in for their flights. (BTW - Southwest gave up one agent to deal with all of us, and had about 20 to take in all of the Sunday business. We were angry about that, but pragmatically - if they hadn't taken care of the current travelers, they would have just added up with a lot more people who were joining us on the "dead and forgotten" line.)

NOW - while all of this was going on with my wife in line, I was working my Droid like mad, checking any pattern of flights out of BWI, DCA, IAD or Philly that I could to MCO, FLL, TPA, JAX or West Palm Beach... Going through Chicago, Newark, NY, any and everything. There was NOTHING that would have gotten me to Port Canaveral by 3:45 pm. I did find one American Airlines fare that might have gotten us to West Palm Beach by 1 pm, but it would have cost around 3,000 dollars, and there was still a better than even chance we wouldn't have made the boat.

And a little PS I haven't shared... while we never made it to Florida, our luggage DID. We have to go back to BWI today to pick it up. If we had somehow miraculously made the cruise by flyign through any other airport, we would have likely gone on board with only the clothes on our backs - which I actually think would have made for a fun little adventure...

 

[AnnieEMT]

I just wanted to say so, so sorry for your situation

 

[breakingd_awn]

The Dream will sail this afternoon (4/17) without our family. We had been planning our trip for a year, and scheduled flights the evening before departure just to be safe. Just to make a terribly long terrible story short, our 6:10 pm flight from BWI kept getting pushed back and back and back because of bad weather. They let us on the plane at 1 am, but the plane did not have a first officer. We waited on board for another hour and 15 minutes before Southwest finally announced the flight had been cancelled.

We spent another 5 1/2 hours at the airport looking for alternative ways to get to Florida - Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa or West Palm Beach - NOTHING was available. No time left to drive. No way to get to Canaveral before the ship departs.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who even thinks about cruising without trip insurance... We didn't have it... And now, our Deck 8 verandah stateroom will sail the next four days without us - but still fully paid for.

John

Wow ...I feel sooo sorry for you and your family. I can only imagine how disapointed you are. A whole year of planning and paying, scrimping and saving...all for nothing. You probably also had to pay for the pre-cruise hotel stay? because of the cancellation policy. We've always thought we were doing good to fly in the day before and that we'd be guarenteed to not miss the boat.I think because of what happened to you I'm going to get insurance this time, better to be safe than sorry .

 

[tinkerone]

i haven't read all the posts, i actually only got to page 4 but i wanted to add a comment. my family and i have been traveling for more than 30 years. in that time i have only purchased travel insurance once. that was our first time traveling and at that time i could not help but think about how much of our vacation budget went into that insurance. it was the last time i bought it. we travel any wheres from once to three times a year where we could/should have purchased insurance. i figured out, very early on, that if i did not purchase the insurance that even if i did have to forgo a vacation i would still be ahead after 10 years. going with this concept my next vacation will be free and will in fact be the third free vacation we have taken. i just now checked what the cost of insurance for two would be with dcl and on a 7 day inside cabin it was $134. that was about 8 percent of the cost of the trip.
nothing is going to get your trip back and for that i'm sorry. yes, you would have received your money back if you had insurance but if you do the math on all your triips, now as well as in the future, you probably have not lost a lot. don't beat yourself up over this. i am curious as i don't know tons about the insurance, having never purchased, do you get all your money back at that point, at the last minute?
don't flame me. if you dissagree, disagree. we all have different thoughts, mine may not be right for everyone. take the person who will only ever travel once. maybe it is best for that person. it just dosen't pay off for us, to cost prohibative.

 

[mellers]

i haven't read all the posts, i actually only got to page 4 but i wanted to add a comment. my family and i have been traveling for more than 30 years. in that time i have only purchased travel insurance once. that was our first time traveling and at that time i could not help but think about how much of our vacation budget went into that insurance. it was the last time i bought it. we travel any wheres from once to three times a year where we could/should have purchased insurance. i figured out, very early on, that if i did not purchase the insurance that even if i did have to forgo a vacation i would still be ahead after 10 years. going with this concept my next vacation will be free and will in fact be the third free vacation we have taken. i just now checked what the cost of insurance for two would be with dcl and on a 7 day inside cabin it was $134. that was about 8 percent of the cost of the trip.
nothing is going to get your trip back and for that i'm sorry. yes, you would have received your money back if you had insurance but if you do the math on all your triips, now as well as in the future, you probably have not lost a lot. don't beat yourself up over this. i am curious as i don't know tons about the insurance, having never purchased, do you get all your money back at that point, at the last minute?
don't flame me. if you dissagree, disagree. we all have different thoughts, mine may not be right for everyone. take the person who will only ever travel once. maybe it is best for that person. it just dosen't pay off for us, to cost prohibative.

Quite honestly, while I am not thrilled with DCL insurance (coverage is too weak, in my opinion, for the cost), there are many less expensive insurers, with better coverage. In my opinion, it's just too big a risk to take not to travel with insurance. Surprisingly, not because of this situation. While heartbreaking, it's not likely to result in long-term financial destruction, as you say.

However, if a medical emergency occurred on board the ship, and you did not have medical insurance that would cover it, you could wind up wishing you were only on the hook for the cruise, airfare and pre-cruise stay.

Still, I am very sorry that this family is in this situation. It is not fun to have your vacation ruined. It's definitely a good idea to purchase the insurance, IMHO.