DCL Contact for help with hardship

[Lynes88]

We had to cancel our cruise (Sept 02 sail date) last week at the last minute. Our daughter was in a car crash and in the hospital still as I write this. Yes, luckily we had insurance and expect to get covered for the cost of the cruise. We were about to become Platinum members with this cruise so we are loyal customers, often taking the same cruise in early September. This was not a situation where we could re-book or move the date.

So, I wanted to try and reach out to DCL and try and appeal to someone about the situation. Our daughter is really upset about missing the cruise and really wants to try and re-schedule. Without missing even more school, the next chance we would have is spring break. The prices are much higher (several thousand) and because we did not make it on our cruise, we could not book a placeholder and get the 10% discount. I am looking for an e-mail or insight from someone who has experience with contacting DCL for help. I don't think a typical customer service e-mail is what I need. I want to reach out to someone who can sympathize with our specific situation, having a daughter in the ICU for 2 weeks and wanting to be able to help her and our family get back to another Cruise. Having some kind of discount restored would really help lessen the burden of what we lost and give us hope that we could book a spring break cruise. I am open to any suggestion... and yes, our daughter is recovering well and we hope to be home this weekend.

 

[professorandmom]

So sorry to hear of your family tragedy!
I reached out to Disney when my niece's cancer recurred about 9 days before our cruise. We got a box with cruise hats, stuffed Mickey and Minnie dolls, and some keychains. That was nice. We got no other options, despite our request - even for a room upgrade when we rebooked after chemo, etc.
I hope you will be more successful - and that your spring break cruise will be feasible.

 

[ljhayes]

Was the cruise you had to cancel booked with a placeholder? If so I would think that might be your best bet. Seeing if that placeholder (which you weren't able to use) could somehow be reinstated. ETA: and to answer your question, if that is the case I would start with the call center and then ask for guest services if/when they aren't able to help you.

 

[Mags2002]

I am so sorry this has happened! Sending warm hugs and kind wishes to you and your daughter

 

[Lynes88]

So sorry to hear of your family tragedy!
I reached out to Disney when my niece's cancer recurred about 9 days before our cruise. We got a box with cruise hats, stuffed Mickey and Minnie dolls, and some keychains. That was nice. We got no other options, despite our request - even for a room upgrade when we rebooked after chemo, etc.
I hope you will be more successful - and that your spring break cruise will be feasible.

How did you reach out? Just through the standard phone number?

 

[lanejudy]

Sorry to hear your DD is still in the hospital but glad to know she is recovering.

Agree with PP -- if the cancelled cruise was booked using a placeholder that's the position to pursue, extending that placeholder to spring. You'll just have to keep (patiently) asking for a supervisor or higher level CM. If spring puts it outside of the 24-month window, it will be a harder sell.

If the cancelled cruise was not booked with a placeholder, I honestly don't think they will offer one. As PP mentioned, maybe a box of some gifts.

Have you tried reaching out in writing? Sometimes those letters do find their way to the C-suite.

 

[Lynes88]

Was the cruise you had to cancel booked with a placeholder? If so I would think that might be your best bet. Seeing if that placeholder (which you weren't able to use) could somehow be reinstated. ETA: and to answer your question, if that is the case I would start with the call center and then ask for guest services if/when they aren't able to help you.

Yes it was booked with a placeholder. When I called last week about cancelling I did ask something similar and after being on hold the person came back said that the policy was that placeholders can only be booked on the ship. I did not press at the time since I was in the hospital room...

 

[Lynes88]

Sorry to hear your DD is still in the hospital but glad to know she is recovering.

Agree with PP -- if the cancelled cruise was booked using a placeholder that's the position to pursue, extending that placeholder to spring. You'll just have to keep (patiently) asking for a supervisor or higher level CM. If spring puts it outside of the 24-month window, it will be a harder sell.

If the cancelled cruise was not booked with a placeholder, I honestly don't think they will offer one. As PP mentioned, maybe a box of some gifts.

Have you tried reaching out in writing? Sometimes those letters do find their way to the C-suite.

Yes I want to reach out in writing, but asked where? What e-mail is best for something like this? I was hoping someone had an e-mail address to a POC or something....

 

[lanejudy]

Yes it was booked with a placeholder. When I called last week about cancelling I did ask something similar and after being on hold the person came back said that the policy was that placeholders can only be booked on the ship. I did not press at the time since I was in the hospital room...

Did you ask about pushing the current cruise out instead of cancelling? I know policy is to cancel within the penalty period, but that might be something to pursue -- that you really wanted to push it out but the phone CM cancelled it. And I realize you were doing it last minute with other things more pressing on your mind. Use that to your advantage when making contact to request that the placeholder be reinstated.

A google search brings up Thomas Mazloum as the President and maybe interim CEO of Disney Signature Experiences. Someone may know how they do their email addresses (firstname.lastname or firstinitial.lastname or such). But I might even recommend a good old fashioned snail mail letter. The corporate headquarters mailing address is Disney Cruise Line, 200 Celebration Pl, Kissimmee, FL 34747. corrected address based on report below:
Disney Cruise Line
PO Box 10200
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

 

[ljhayes]

Yes, what lanejudy said! I would emphasize that you want to book another cruise with the placeholder discount that you had for your cancelled cruise. I suspect it may have been confusion on the cm's part thinking you were trying to create a new placeholder, which isn't possible once the placeholder has been converted to a specific sailing. But they should have been able to switch it to a new sailing and maintained the discount (unless you were at the end of your 24 month period on the placeholder).

 

[professorandmom]

Did you ask about pushing the current cruise out instead of cancelling? I know policy is to cancel within the penalty period, but that might be something to pursue -- that you really wanted to push it out but the phone CM cancelled it. And I realize you were doing it last minute with other things more pressing on your mind. Use that to your advantage when making contact to request that the placeholder be reinstated.

A google search brings up Thomas Mazloum as the President and maybe interim CEO of Disney Signature Experiences. Someone may know how they do their email addresses (firstname.lastname or firstinitial.lastname or such). But I might even recommend a good old fashioned snail mail letter. The corporate headquarters mailing address is Disney Cruise Line, 200 Celebration Pl, Kissimmee, FL 34747.

I did an old fashioned letter on paper in hopes it would get some solid attention...

 

[happycamper47]

The corporate headquarters mailing address is Disney Cruise Line, 200 Celebration Pl, Kissimmee, FL 34747.

They don't get mail at that address, it will come back, not delivered.

Disney Cruise Line
PO Box 10200
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

 

[lanejudy]

They don't get mail at that address, it will come back, not delivered.

Disney Cruise Line
PO Box 10200
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Thank you, I'll change my post! As I said, I pulled it off Google.

 

[JWG]

We had to cancel our the "to-back" cruise of a back-to-back while onboard the first cruise this past December. Because that cruise hadn't started yet, the on ship guest services team couldn't help us and we had to work through shore side.

Our experience was not great. First, there is no "back door" number to get through to Guest Services, we had to call the regular number from the ship (they at least provided the phone) and hold - thank goodness it wasn't a cruise release day.

Second, there's not a lot they can do. If you have insurance they will tell you your best bet is to cancel, get the insurance money, and then rebook in the future. That said, we were given a secondary option which carried a cost that I can't remember (it wasn't cheap) and it allowed us to move our confirmed sailing to a different date but we had to know the date then and there. We had just found out, on board, that my MIL had a massive stroke that morning, we weren't really able to confirm a new cruise date at that moment. We chose to do nothing and file the insurance claim (not through Disney, 3rd party). We then rebooked a separate cruise once back home. Thre cruise line seemed more concern with trying to determine what to do with our unused stateroom then helping us.

The easiest part of our trip was canceling our DVC stay following the cruise. The member services representative was a joy and without asking put our points back into our account instead of a holding account as is the norm. Even the airline was more sympathetic and helpful then DCL.

Hope you have better luck!

 

[CamColt]

Im sorry to hear about your DD. Prayers and Pixie Dust on the way!

 

[Sakura1017]

Hopefully your daughter is improving. I know it's upsetting when you have to cancel last minute due to an emergency. I don't think there is a way DCL will give you a discount placeholder as if you would have cruised on board. I would say talk to shoreside to see if they can do something for you ie supervisor. One person mentioned in one of my cruise groups is that they had a circumstance and they were still able to move the funds to a new cruise. I know dcl policy is you don't get refunds once your in cruise penalty depending on where you fall but they were able to.

Otherwise, hopefully you can get 100% back with your vacation and use that to book the new cruise. I know it's not the price that you want but at least it would help.

 

[Lynes88]

Thank you all for the advice and help on this thread. I am going to try an e-mail to Thomas Mazloum and see if that works first. I learned today that our cruise last week on the Fantasy had mechanical issues and skipped Castaway Cay. Passengers were offered a 25% discount on a future cruise so I am going to try and get connected to this offer.... lets see.

 

[plutolovr]

Thank you all for the advice and help on this thread. I am going to try an e-mail to Thomas Mazloum and see if that works first. I learned today that our cruise last week on the Fantasy had mechanical issues and skipped Castaway Cay. Passengers were offered a 25% discount on a future cruise so I am going to try and get connected to this offer.... lets see.

I don't think this is correct. The sailing leaving tomorrow was changed and they are being offered the discount. The one from the 26th, from what I can tell, wasn't offered anything. I read the letter DCL sent to the staterooms, unless something has changed. Since you didn't sail anyway, not sure why they would extend an offer for those that were onboard.

 

[RedHead0186]

I don't think this is correct. The sailing leaving tomorrow was changed and they are being offered the discount. The one from the 26th, from what I can tell, wasn't offered anything. I read the letter DCL sent to the staterooms, unless something has changed. Since you didn't sail anyway, not sure why they would extend an offer for those that were onboard.

It's the current cruise on the Fantasy that is having engine issues. She was supposed to go to Castaway Cay today (9/8), but instead is skipping that and slowly going right back to Port Canaveral. They are being offered the discount (plus OBC) as compensation. AFAIK there are no changes to the Fantasy sailing that departs tomorrow (9/9).

I do agree with your take that since the discount offered was compensation for the inconvenience, DCL is unlikely to offer that discount to someone who didn't experience that inconvenience because they weren't on the ship.

 

[DCLMP]

I don't think this is correct. The sailing leaving tomorrow was changed and they are being offered the discount. The one from the 26th, from what I can tell, wasn't offered anything. I read the letter DCL sent to the staterooms, unless something has changed. Since you didn't sail anyway, not sure why they would extend an offer for those that were onboard.

The current cruise with the mechanical issues was given a 25% discount off a future cruise. The letter has been posted on reddit.