Disney's CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT Information & Questions

[AngiTN]

As a side note: Has anyone compared the pre-gift card rack rate with the post gift card rack rate? I admit I didn't pay attention to the per night rate when we booked, only our total package cost. If the rack rate is lower now that the gift cards are not available, that may be part of the compensation for the construction.

I haven't looked for far down the road but for recent dates, the rack rate has not altered.

 

[ulcards99]

How are they giving the gift cards when you check in? Is the total amount on 1 card?

 

[ehrenrj]

My understanding was that the GC was offered to those who booked before the CBR construction announcement as a way to compensate for the inconvenience. And those booking March 20 forward would not receive it/them because they are booking knowing full well about the construction.

I've been lurking for quite some time now on this board and just recently signed up so I could view the pictures that were being posted. Thank you everyone who has! It's been very helpful! We booked back in October as a bounce-back offer with DDP. We've always wanted to stay at CBR and it looked like a great opportunity to do so. I actually didn't see the GC offer until I got the Build A Better Mousetrap email on 3/18. It turns out the email from Disney went into my junk box. (oops!) I called immediately just to be sure that we were going to get it (since I didn't see the communication from Disney) and have confirmed it again on every call since. We've made three changes - adding days, then removing , then adding again - to our reservation. Each time I've told them that if we lose the DDP or the GC then we won't make the change. Each time they've assured me that we will get them. The one thing that worries me is that when I call up and enter my reservation number the VRU says they can't find the reservation, but when I talk to a CM they are able to pull it up. The number I have on My Disney Experience has never changed. So I have my concerns when we eventually get down there on July 1.

How are they giving the gift cards when you check in? Is the total amount on 1 card?

My understanding is that you get a card for each night of your stay. I interpret that to mean that you'll get as many cards as the nights you are staying. My question is, if they are giving out individual cards do you get all the cards when you check in or do you have to go back to the Custom House each day to get them?

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Others have posted on here that they received one gift card for the total stay ($75 x # of nights) at check-in.

 

[FigmentFinder]

COMPENSATION should be given to everyone experiencing the Construction or to no one.

IMO, the compensation was meant for people who had booked the resort before the construction announcement. I booked my vacation as a bounce back last September, there was no notification of any construction. The food court looked and functioned just fine when we were there. But once there was a construction announcement, people were asking to be transferred to other resorts, which is completely justifiable. I would have asked to be moved at the same rate to at least a comparable room. The gift card was given out to keep everyone from changing their reservations.

After a couple of months it was well posted about the construction on their website, so if you wanted to book after that date you were aware of what was going on. People booking now have the choice to book elsewhere. It's not the same as having a reservation for months and then have construction announced. Plus there are obviously from the map, way less rooms to book. Disney will give further discounts if they can't book the available rooms. I would rather have had a reduced room rate, than getting a gift card that I'm forced to spend at Disney World.

 

[dansdad]

How are they giving the gift cards when you check in? Is the total amount on 1 card?

Yes and yes.

 

[meohmy]

I can't say for certainty because I have not tried to add any days. I was moved from CBR to SSR and they did tell me when the switch was made that I could not make any changes to the dates or add anybody to the reservation while retaining the same price. I would think that you would have to pay the price of the new resort for any days you add since it wasn't part of the original concession offering that they gave you. My reservation has a notification on it that it can't be modified and only Guest Services can make any changes, but they have to basically override the system. My guess is any changes that have to do with the concession offering itself, such as adding, deleting, or changing dates while retaining that concession discount, will not be permitted. I could be wrong though.

Thank you for your reply.
I gave Disney a call and I can keep the concession for the original part of the trip but additional days will be charged at rack price.

 

[Bsams1654]

I think its ridiculous for people to still be going on about the gift cards. Disney owes you nothing. Regardless of your trip or when you booked or didn't book or whatever other excuse you think should get you something. You choose where to spend your money. If you don't like that you're not getting gift cards because of when you booked then that is your own fault. You more than likely knew about the construction if you booked any time after March 1st or so when they announced it. Go somewhere else if you feel so inconvenienced. Someone else will surely take your place. Disney does such a great job with everything I think people need to be a little more gratfeul. Unless something crazy or terrible happens and completely ruins your trip, all on here should just enjoy their vacation and time away from the everyday stresses of life.

 

[WDWinTX]

I can appreciate your opinion, but all the "you're not owed anything" talk is merely bad customer service. If your product is suffering while you improve it, then compensate your customers (paying customers, not just entitled ones) for the sub par quality of the product. Compensate all of them, not just ones that booked in a certain window. Disney valued that compensation at $75/night. Give it to everyone. Anything less than that is poor customer appreciation - and customers should be appreciated - this is in fact a service industry. Holding Disney to a high level of customer service is not entitlement, it is what keeps them at the top of their game.

 

[wizzytoon]

Why should people who booked after that gift card offer "expired" not receive them?
Simply because Disney decided that at one arbitrary date they would discontinue the additional compensation?
Will these guests not experience the same discomfort as those who booked a few weeks prior?
Has anyone given thought to emailing the General Manager and asking for some compensation?
Maybe I am missing something, but it seems like the compensation should be for anyone staying while construction is happening.

I did book my vacation for August after the cut off date for the gift cards. Not even knowing about the gift cards, and not having all the information about the construction. When I found out my husband and I sent emails all with the same response "Sorry,no can do". We are still staying at CBR because any were else for 5 is atleast 600 more. But its all good we have stayed at CBR for the last 10 years and love it, we plan on having a great time even is we didnt get the GC. Have fun everyone!!

 

[AngiTN]

I can appreciate your opinion, but all the "you're not owed anything" talk is merely bad customer service. If your product is suffering while you improve it, then compensate your customers (paying customers, not just entitled ones) for the sub par quality of the product. Compensate all of them, not just ones that booked in a certain window. Disney valued that compensation at $75/night. Give it to everyone. Anything less than that is poor customer appreciation - and customers should be appreciated - this is in fact a service industry. Holding Disney to a high level of customer service is not entitlement, it is what keeps them at the top of their game.

And on the other side, people expecting to get the same thing Family X got is what has caused a drop in some of the services we all came to love from Disney. Everyone doesn't get the same things at Disney, in all circumstances. It's part of the way they do their business. They give their staff liberties to give special extras here and there. When everyone starts to ask for special extras they just stop them for everyone (see towel animals for a small sample of this).

Now, I'm not saying that I totally disagree that it would have been nice had they continued to offer some sort of extra compensation to anyone who books at CBR during construction. And they might. Like the gift bag folks are seeing. WL gave a cute pin set. As a PP stated, no one is forcing anyone to stay at CBR during construction. Guests have a lot of other resorts, including other mods that sleep 5, to pick from. But taking away the offer for the gift card is not bad customer service. It's just someone came along too late to get the offer. No different than someone who came along too late to book Free Dining, once that offer expires. Offers have expiration dates. Period. Always have, always will. Not bad customer service.

 

[grover]

Update ..for the group here who rec'd the 75.00 room discount, offer for a gc & fastpasses from guest services. I was in the same boat, I booked my room with guest services when they gave me the above offer. I was concerned I would not rec the gc based on things I had read here and on FB. At check in the gc was here and
waiting for me, I didn't have to ask.

In other news, I had heard that pizza service to the room was very slow (maybe due to limited dining??). We ordered yesterday at 6 and had it hot and fresh by 6:30.

 

[WEDWDW]

How are they giving the gift cards when you check in? Is the total amount on 1 card?

Yes and yes.

They will say "excuse me while I go get your Gift Card",go "in the back" and return with it in a white envelope with a "thank you" letter also inside.

The GC has Hard Hat Mickey on it!Too cute!

The funny thing is that we've talked to several Guests who had no idea about the GC-when the Check-in CM told them they were going to get their GC,they had NO idea what they were talking about!lol

 

[WEDWDW]

In other news, I had heard that pizza service to the room was very slow (maybe due to limited dining??). We ordered yesterday at 6 and had it hot and fresh by 6:30.

We'v had great service from Room Service as well,just wish it ended at 1:00 AM instead of Midnight.

 

[Bsams1654]

I can appreciate your opinion, but all the "you're not owed anything" talk is merely bad customer service. If your product is suffering while you improve it, then compensate your customers (paying customers, not just entitled ones) for the sub par quality of the product. Compensate all of them, not just ones that booked in a certain window. Disney valued that compensation at $75/night. Give it to everyone. Anything less than that is poor customer appreciation - and customers should be appreciated - this is in fact a service industry. Holding Disney to a high level of customer service is not entitlement, it is what keeps them at the top of their game.

If you think that this is how it works then you've never worked for a massive multi billion dollar service company. I worked management for a very large and successful retail company for several years and I can tell you straight up this is not how it works. No one is entitled to anything because someone else got it. If I had a customer who had a bad experience it was up to my discretion on how to deal with that. If I had another customer who came in the next day and said "well I know someone who got blah blah blah so I want blah blah blah" do you think I gave it to them? No, because that isn't how it works. A company as big as this can run any deal, promotion, or compensation as they see fit. They offered the gift card compensation because they could see their numbers falling as far as resort capacity goes because many people were taking a resort change for the same price. They saw an opportunity to offer an incentive to get their numbers back to capacity, and when that was reached they made a cutoff. That is how it works. And they knew they knew with the free dining offering coming up they would have no issue filling rooms even without a gift card compensation or otherwise. Which is proven correct seeing as there are not many rooms left for that promo at this resort. If you really feel like it is going to ruin your vacation because you are not getting anything even though you KNEW about the construction before booking, then switch resorts or spend your money else where. It is as simple as that. There are other options for you, you are just choosing not to take them and would rather complain about how you are not getting the same thing as someone else. I was going to book at CBR before any compensation offering or deal knowing very well there was construction. Then i saw that they were offering the gift cards so I went and booked right away. I took the incentive. It is not Disney's fault you or anyone else failed to capitalize on their offering. I apologize if this offends you or anyone else, but I have seen this complaint everywhere about how one isn't getting the same as the other and I really just wish people would get over it.

 

[WDWinTX]

And on the other side, people expecting to get the same thing Family X got is what has caused a drop in some of the services we all came to love from Disney. Everyone doesn't get the same things at Disney, in all circumstances. It's part of the way they do their business. They give their staff liberties to give special extras here and there. When everyone starts to ask for special extras they just stop them for everyone (see towel animals for a small sample of this).

Now, I'm not saying that I totally disagree that it would have been nice had they continued to offer some sort of extra compensation to anyone who books at CBR during construction. And they might. Like the gift bag folks are seeing. WL gave a cute pin set. As a PP stated, no one is forcing anyone to stay at CBR during construction. Guests have a lot of other resorts, including other mods that sleep 5, to pick from. But taking away the offer for the gift card is not bad customer service. It's just someone came along too late to get the offer. No different than someone who came along too late to book Free Dining, once that offer expires. Offers have expiration dates. Period. Always have, always will. Not bad customer service.

For me the difference is an "extra perk" vs. a planned discomfort for your guests. I am far from the type of person to demand an extra bit discretionary pixie dust. This is not that. This is a plan to improve the resort. This should be considered part of their expenses for the upgrading of the resort. They simply realized that they did not need to give the $75 and they stopped it. That is a customer service decision, one that is well within their rights, and nothing ethically wrong with it. I simply do not agree that it is a good decision.

If you think that this is how it works then you've never worked for a massive multi billion dollar service company. I worked management for a very large and successful retail company for several years and I can tell you straight up this is not how it works. No one is entitled to anything because someone else got it. If I had a customer who had a bad experience it was up to my discretion on how to deal with that. If I had another customer who came in the next day and said "well I know someone who got blah blah blah so I want blah blah blah" do you think I gave it to them? No, because that isn't how it works. A company as big as this can run any deal, promotion, or compensation as they see fit. They offered the gift card compensation because they could see their numbers falling as far as resort capacity goes because many people were taking a resort change for the same price. They saw an opportunity to offer an incentive to get their numbers back to capacity, and when that was reached they made a cutoff. That is how it works. And they knew they knew with the free dining offering coming up they would have no issue filling rooms even without a gift card compensation or otherwise. Which is proven correct seeing as there are not many rooms left for that promo at this resort. If you really feel like it is going to ruin your vacation because you are not getting anything even though you KNEW about the construction before booking, then switch resorts or spend your money else where. It is as simple as that. There are other options for you, you are just choosing not to take them and would rather complain about how you are not getting the same thing as someone else. I was going to book at CBR before any compensation offering or deal knowing very well there was construction. Then i saw that they were offering the gift cards so I went and booked right away. I took the incentive. It is not Disney's fault you or anyone else failed to capitalize on their offering. I apologize if this offends you or anyone else, but I have seen this complaint everywhere about how one isn't getting the same as the other and I really just wish people would get over it.

If everyone subscribed to the mantra of "That's how it's done, get over it" nothing would improve. I happen to believe their decision, one that is not unethical in any way, is a bad customer service decision. Saying nothing validates it by omission. I would rather voice my opinion. If nothing comes of it I am fine, and my trip will be fine. I never said it would be ruined. Would I like to get compensated in the same manner as other guests? Yes I would - and so would anyone else.

I would disagree that there are many other options for everyone. I tried to get moved and I was offered a change for a 34% increase in cost. Not exactly apples to apples.

 

[pktbMouse]

If you think that this is how it works then you've never worked for a massive multi billion dollar service company. I worked management for a very large and successful retail company for several years and I can tell you straight up this is not how it works. No one is entitled to anything because someone else got it. If I had a customer who had a bad experience it was up to my discretion on how to deal with that. If I had another customer who came in the next day and said "well I know someone who got blah blah blah so I want blah blah blah" do you think I gave it to them? No, because that isn't how it works. A company as big as this can run any deal, promotion, or compensation as they see fit. They offered the gift card compensation because they could see their numbers falling as far as resort capacity goes because many people were taking a resort change for the same price. They saw an opportunity to offer an incentive to get their numbers back to capacity, and when that was reached they made a cutoff. That is how it works. And they knew they knew with the free dining offering coming up they would have no issue filling rooms even without a gift card compensation or otherwise. Which is proven correct seeing as there are not many rooms left for that promo at this resort. If you really feel like it is going to ruin your vacation because you are not getting anything even though you KNEW about the construction before booking, then switch resorts or spend your money else where. It is as simple as that. There are other options for you, you are just choosing not to take them and would rather complain about how you are not getting the same thing as someone else. I was going to book at CBR before any compensation offering or deal knowing very well there was construction. Then i saw that they were offering the gift cards so I went and booked right away. I took the incentive. It is not Disney's fault you or anyone else failed to capitalize on their offering. I apologize if this offends you or anyone else, but I have seen this complaint everywhere about how one isn't getting the same as the other and I really just wish people would get over it.

Boy am I glad you dont work for Disney...LOL

 

[Bsams1654]

Boy am I glad you dont work for Disney...LOL

That's fine lol. I guess all my years in customer service made me bitter. It's not an easy job and people who have never worked in it truly don't understand. Customer service employees hear more negative than positive. About 85/15 I'd say. So it's discouraging and annoying when people just complain about every little thing. I personally think Disney has handled the situation well. There's always bumps in the road and they seem to have handled them well. So I guess I kind of just feel for the phone customer service reps and the employees of the resort who I am sure have heard a lot of negative feedback and probably been confronted/yelled at. I recall seeing someone (not sure if on here or somewhere else) who said that she would flip out on the rep if they didn't receive the gift cards or discount or whatever. That resolves nothing and proves no point. And it makes the employees feel like poo and quite honestly makes them feel embarrassed for you. But it is what it is right? People are always going to complain and not be happy with what they have.

 

[ehrenrj]

Customer service employees hear more negative than positive. About 85/15 I'd say. So it's discouraging and annoying when people just complain about every little thing.

I certainly agree with that. Having working in customer service myself, people will go out of their way to complain about the smallest thing, but do not offer praise even if they have received exceptional service.

 

[M1ckeyM0use]

Over the weekend I was on the phone for almost an hour with a Disney Guest Services Specialist at the Disney Reservation Center (aka "the rep"). The first thing the rep cleared up for me was that as of right now, no future compensation is scheduled (if anything is scheduled, the rep doesn't know about it). The rep also said that any compensation comes from an executive decision. So after talking to the rep and explaining things, the rep highly suggested we move to another resort, which we did. My party and I felt that our needs would be better accomidated at a different resort. We were just at CBR this Feb and would go back in a heartbeat but right now, we felt that we would be happier at another resort. But! We were just at CBR this past Feb and absolutely loved everything about it. I know we can't wait to get back and see it when all the construction has been completed.
Also- the rep confirmed that the construction for CBR and Coronado Springs Resort is scheduled for 18 months. I'm not sure if that has been confirmed anywhere or not. The rep said the CSR construction will not be as extensive at CBR but that they're building a huge tower (I think with 500 (give or take) guest rooms).