Just got a call from IC!!

[disneylover5]

From your lips to McAlpin's ears!!

I'd like to think that we, along with SoccermomCheri's family, are some of DCL's best customers. As I stated before, we've been on numerous concierge level cruises with them, and spent a ton of $$ doing so. And on the Mexico cruises, we got... ZILCH!

We've already booked an acceptable alternative (back-to-back east coast Wonder cruises), but I still feel like we got hosed, so I wanted to vent some more.

I think we were unfairly overlooked for the Mexican Riviera bookings, but we still maintained a loyalty to DCL and booked not one, but two Wonder cruises for that same timeframe. Heck, DCL oughta at least pick up our airfare, what with us living in California (where the Magic will be), but still travelling all the way to Florida to cruise with the Mouse...

Ok so that's not gonna happen.

Maybe one of the Disney CM's who works closely enough to Tom McAlpin will read this thread and forward the link to him. We've spent enough dough on your cruiseline to feed a third world country for 2 years, Tom! Throw us a bone, here...



Or I guess I could forward it to him myself since I have his email address.

I was thinking about everyone's problems, like Beano, last night instead of sleeping. Beano, if you really have Tom A. e-mail, this is what I think you should tell him. I may even start a thread on this all by itself.

I was thinking of the OVERCROWDED local preschool. People were waiting outside in JAN in the cold for several nights so they could registar their kids for the next year.....read MORE DEMAND THAN SUPPLY. Sound familar (like Disney cruise suites).

This is how the local preschool solved the problem.....tiered enrollment...existing students one week.....then the following week church members...who did not have a spot the year before....then the following week everyone else.

Disney could do the same thing....
Customers who have sailed more than 10 times DAY ONE
Customers who have sailed more than 5 times DAY TWO
Customers who have a reservation to transfer that was obtained on the ship DAY THREE
The balance of the population DAY FOUR.

IC has to go. If they are not going to manage the process correctly, then they need to toss it out the door.

Beano, you do have a very reasonable complaint. I hope something good comes out of this. I have decided that I do not know you, but I REALLY like you and the way you are handling this. I am proud to call you my DIS FRIEND!!

​

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

From your lips to McAlpin's ears!!

I'd like to think that we, along with SoccermomCheri's family, are some of DCL's best customers. As I stated before, we've been on numerous concierge level cruises with them, and spent a ton of $$ doing so. And on the Mexico cruises, we got... ZILCH!

We've already booked an acceptable alternative (back-to-back east coast Wonder cruises), but I still feel like we got hosed, so I wanted to vent some more.

I think we were unfairly overlooked for the Mexican Riviera bookings, but we still maintained a loyalty to DCL and booked not one, but two Wonder cruises for that same timeframe. Heck, DCL oughta at least pick up our airfare, what with us living in California (where the Magic will be), but still travelling all the way to Florida to cruise with the Mouse...

Ok so that's not gonna happen.

Maybe one of the Disney CM's who works closely enough to Tom McAlpin will read this thread and forward the link to him. We've spent enough dough on your cruiseline to feed a third world country for 2 years, Tom! Throw us a bone, here...



Or I guess I could forward it to him myself since I have his email address.

Vent away Beano, you have every right.

I would write to DCL and explain your situation. I, too, don't understand what went on with IC not calling people in advance to let them know they were already booked.

I remember so well in September 2004 for the 2006 cruises that two weeks before the bookings opened up that we all got calls from IC telling us the availability. I remember going back and forth with my TA and DCL about which room number I wanted. Thus when it was time to book I had the exact stateroom I wanted.

It was all so orderly and I remember being quite impressed.

I will admit I'm disappointed that the Magic is going to the west coast as we prefer to sail the Caribbean in the summer, but I'm so glad I was spared the stress wondering what happened to my IC request.

I am doing a Wonder back-to-back in August 2008. At least I was able to get a cat 3 and could have booked a cat 2 but couldn't justify spending an additional $2,200.

I was kind of hoping DCL would offer us B2B'ers some kind of price break for booking 2 cruises at once but it doesn't look like that. But maybe there will be a surprise onboard credit waiting.

But I would still write because we don't want to go through this kind of nonsense for 2009 cruises.

 

[kaseyC]

This whole IC issue has been on my mind. I cannot come up with any "logical" reason IC handled booking this way. For the past few years IC requests were dealt with in an organized manner. They need to come up with clear procedures or just do away with IC.

 

[pumpkinbaby]

We paid 13,7 something for cat. 2 July 20. 2 adults, 2 kids(11,7). We are lucky because some of our friends were able to get a cat. 4 right next to us! They thought about being put on a waitlist for a cat. 3, but decided since they are right next to us it would be better. They can always come to our room for breakfast or whatever!

IC really needs to be revamped! I feel bad for those people who have been treated so poorly! Maybe there will be some cancellations and more people can get what they want.

 

[Joan1]

I think we should flood their "contact us" page with complaints and maybe they will listen next time. This was a major pain in the neck today.

https://secure.disney.go.com/dcl/en_US/general/contactUs?name=ContactUsPage

 

[RachelTori]

I feel there should be an organized write-in campaign addressing our dissatisfaction with the way this entire process was implemented. Even though I got what I wanted (which wasn't a suite, btw!), I am distressed at the way things were handled by IC, and I feel strongly that they need to know!

There is strength in numbers!

 

[carole88]

I agree with everyone that IC could have handled this differently. However, I am a little confused about those posters who are angry that they didn't get the cabin that they requested even though they requested the cabin a year ago. Maybe those cabins were requested by someone else more than a year ago. Many people put requests in years in advance. Nobody knows the order in which the requests were received.

 

[buck4568]

What is IC?

 

[ivanova]

This whole IC issue has been on my mind. I cannot come up with any "logical" reason IC handled booking this way. For the past few years IC requests were dealt with in an organized manner. They need to come up with clear procedures or just do away with IC.

I've nothing better to do this morning than theorize ... how's this for a theory ... last year DCL pre-released the price ranges for all room categories for the Med cruises, and IC pre-called folks on their lists to fill their requests before the sailings opened for booking ... and what's happened? Not as much hype, and the cruises didn't sell out, and now they're (in desperation) offering all kinds of incentives for folks to book some of those cruises.

As illogical as it may be, DCL might attribute the poor Med sails to the fact they pre-released prices and let IC pre-book rooms. (we all know they should attribute poor sales to lack of advertising in Europe, and the fact that most Americans don't want to pay for trans-Atlantic airfare).

 

[kaseyC]

I've nothing better to do this morning than theorize ... how's this for a theory ... last year DCL pre-released the price ranges for all room categories for the Med cruises, and IC pre-called folks on their lists to fill their requests before the sailings opened for booking ... and what's happened? Not as much hype, and the cruises didn't sell out, and now they're (in desperation) offering all kinds of incentives for folks to book some of those cruises.

As illogical as it may be, DCL might attribute the poor Med sails to the fact they pre-released prices and let IC pre-book rooms. (we all know they should attribute poor sales to lack of advertising in Europe, and the fact that most Americans don't want to pay for trans-Atlantic airfare).

You know ivanova, I wish I could say that your theory sounds farfetched but IMHO, I believe your theory is dead on.

 

[Mickey02]

I agree! I know the one of the reason I decided to transfer my reservation from the med repo to the Panama is because of the airfare.

 

[justmestace]

From your lips to McAlpin's ears!!

I'd like to think that we, along with SoccermomCheri's family, are some of DCL's best customers. As I stated before, we've been on numerous concierge level cruises with them, and spent a ton of $$ doing so. And on the Mexico cruises, we got... ZILCH!

We've already booked an acceptable alternative (back-to-back east coast Wonder cruises), but I still feel like we got hosed, so I wanted to vent some more.

I think we were unfairly overlooked for the Mexican Riviera bookings, but we still maintained a loyalty to DCL and booked not one, but two Wonder cruises for that same timeframe. Heck, DCL oughta at least pick up our airfare, what with us living in California (where the Magic will be), but still travelling all the way to Florida to cruise with the Mouse...

Ok so that's not gonna happen.

Maybe one of the Disney CM's who works closely enough to Tom McAlpin will read this thread and forward the link to him. We've spent enough dough on your cruiseline to feed a third world country for 2 years, Tom! Throw us a bone, here...



Or I guess I could forward it to him myself since I have his email address.

I'm sorry....but I just have to say this. I think your expectations were unreasonable. There are a LOT of us who don't advertise that we have always booked suites....and/or multiple suites and staterooms. I know you said that you and Cheri were among some of their best customers, but you really have no way of knowing how many people there are who are repeat customers, and have booked and paid for their families (upwards of 20 people in one family!) in suites...multiple times. In other words, I know of people who have handed over a lot more than your estimated $100,000 to DCL over the years.....myself being one of them, although I don't place it in my sig, and I don't announce it.
My family wanted to do the Mexican Riviera, and I wanted to go with friends on the Repo. I didn't insist that DCL give me the Cat 1 again....for one thing, I've been there/done that, and to me, it just isn't that big a deal....but I also knew that there would be a lot of people vying for it, and since we live close to California, and would be saving on airfare and this was something that we really wanted to do....I was willing to take a Cat 3, connecting Cat 4's, 5's, whatever.....even two lower categories somewhat close to eachother. Especially for the Repo cruise, because I didn't go last time, and it's something I'd prefer to do with Disney.

Not taking a Mexico cruise simply because you didn't get the room you felt entitled to seems somewhat like "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Okay fans...flame away.

 

[A fat english gent]

I'm sorry....but I just have to say this. I think your expectations were unreasonable. There are a LOT of us who don't advertise that we have always booked suites....and/or multiple suites and staterooms. I know you said that you and Cheri were among some of their best customers, but you really have no way of knowing how many people there are who are repeat customers, and have booked and paid for their families (upwards of 20 people in one family!) in suites...multiple times. In other words, I know of people who have handed over a lot more than your estimated $100,000 to DCL over the years.....myself being one of them, although I don't place it in my Sig, and I don't announce it.
My family wanted to do the Mexican Riviera, and I wanted to go with friends on the Repo. I didn't insist that DCL give me the Cat 1 again....for one thing, I've been there/done that, and to me, it just isn't that big a deal....but I also knew that there would be a lot of people vying for it, and since we live close to California, and would be saving on airfare and this was something that we really wanted to do....I was willing to take a Cat 3, connecting Cat 4's, 5's, whatever.....even two lower categories somewhat close to each other. Especially for the Repo cruise, because I didn't go last time, and it's something I'd prefer to do with Disney.

Not taking a Mexico cruise simply because you didn't get the room you felt entitled to seems somewhat like "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Okay fans...flame away.

Spot on...No flames here everything you said made sense how could DCL give all the people who requested a Cat1 the suite they wanted?,when i enquired about a suite a few weeks ago the lady laughed out loud and said "Gone, we could sell the Cat 1/2 ten times over"....That's the problem...

ps...and to the family who got the Roy for $19 and some,thats a bargain imho....

 

["Got Disney"]

WEll besides the problem with IC...I called DVC to see what the points are for my cruise....they informed me that they had 'NO IDEA"

They are taking bookings she told me with no deposit or anything because the pts will not be realeased untill around 2 weeks ...They were very mad because there lines have been ringing off the hook ..I was on hold for 30 minutes till I got through to them

So the problem with that you may ask??? well if the pts value is too high as I suspect it will, you will be having alot of people cancelling..which will open up many rooms...however..these rooms will know be at ..THE HIGH PRICE!!!

What is that all about..

I just don't get all this...is it just that we are all to pickey or is it that they are not doing there work...after all the other cruise lines do not go through this crazyness to book there cruises...are we all just crazy Disnery addics that expect the moon and the stars and feel that we deserve the very best at all time...do we really expect that from our everyday life...maybe...maybe not..

Yes we spend alot of $$$ for DCL but have we gone overboard(no pun intended ) with our expectations of always saying "Well it is Disney"...

Maybe if we werent all on these boards all the time we would think a little differently...I think I would...will I leave these boards..never...

well this is just a though ..being more opptomistic than pesamistic today...

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Yes, we know DCL doesn't owe anyone anything except the Walt Disney Corp's shareholders.

But we're still human and we're going to vent. Please don't be too harsh on people who had their hopes up and saw them dashed yesterday.

I remember when it was reported on DIS that the Magic won't be in the Caribbean for another summer and I was hopping mad that DCL wasn't looking out for us loyal summer Caribbean customers.

After a few days my anger subsided and I resigned myself to the situation. But that didn't prevent me from venting my anger on the DIS boards.

With that said, I'm off to get out my faxes to IC for years 2010-2020. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

["Got Disney"]

With that said, I'm off to get out my faxes to IC for years 2010-2020. Better to be safe than sorry.

....ME TO

 

[taysmom]

Is IC only for cats 1-3? I want to book a room on the "new" ship Inaugural! (if they're building a new ship)
Also...got disney..I am a dvc'er too, and am disappointed that they don't have the points as they did for the med. BUT...I am on the fence for mexico. I just booked the westbound repo...cash cause I want to do that the most. BUT...not sure about another...so I did have DVC hold one for me. Just in case the points come out and they are reasonable. Then we're crusing twice!

steph

 

[carole88]

I'm sorry....but I just have to say this. I think your expectations were unreasonable. There are a LOT of us who don't advertise that we have always booked suites....and/or multiple suites and staterooms. I know you said that you and Cheri were among some of their best customers, but you really have no way of knowing how many people there are who are repeat customers, and have booked and paid for their families (upwards of 20 people in one family!) in suites...multiple times. In other words, I know of people who have handed over a lot more than your estimated $100,000 to DCL over the years.....myself being one of them, although I don't place it in my sig, and I don't announce it.
My family wanted to do the Mexican Riviera, and I wanted to go with friends on the Repo. I didn't insist that DCL give me the Cat 1 again....for one thing, I've been there/done that, and to me, it just isn't that big a deal....but I also knew that there would be a lot of people vying for it, and since we live close to California, and would be saving on airfare and this was something that we really wanted to do....I was willing to take a Cat 3, connecting Cat 4's, 5's, whatever.....even two lower categories somewhat close to eachother. Especially for the Repo cruise, because I didn't go last time, and it's something I'd prefer to do with Disney.

Not taking a Mexico cruise simply because you didn't get the room you felt entitled to seems somewhat like "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Okay fans...flame away.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

 

[RJAYL]

My TA told me that they are going to stop excepting advanced requests, unless they include a deposit!

 

[SweetSpot]

My TA told me that they are going to stop excepting advanced requests, unless they include a deposit!

It's true to be waitlisted I had to put down a refundable booking deposit for all travelling in my party.