Trying to Change Reservation-All Kinds of Problems!

Not really so many problems. You just have one and it is not quite as easy as you might think it would be given how the Disney reservation(s) work.

Since you have a DP you have what is known as a ticket-less package. You can't just remove the Dining Plan since you have a package. What you want to do is cancel the package and have the CM book you are Room Only (RO) reservation with your AP discount and add your DD. Note: there needs to be availability within the AP block of rooms to make this change. You might need to change room category or even change resorts to get an available AP discounted room.

There are actually two systems: 1 for RO and 1 for packages. The CM will need refund your package payments and need a new deposit for your new RO reservation. There are different rules between the 2 systems. For packages a final payment is due at the 30 day mark. With a RO reservation, only a 1 night deposit is required and the balance is due on the first day of your check-in (physical arrival at hotel).

Also what time of day are you calling as that may determine the level of help you get?

Dave
 
Not really so many problems. You just have one and it is not quite as easy as you might think it would be given how the Disney reservation(s) work.

Since you have a DP you have what is known as a ticket-less package. You can't just remove the Dining Plan since you have a package. What you want to do is cancel the package and have the CM book you are Room Only (RO) reservation with your AP discount and add your DD. Note: there needs to be availability within the AP block of rooms to make this change. You might need to change room category or even change resorts to get an available AP discounted room.

There are actually two systems: 1 for RO and 1 for packages. The CM will need refund your package payments and need a new deposit for your new RO reservation. There are different rules between the 2 systems. For packages a final payment is due at the 30 day mark. With a RO reservation, only a 1 night deposit is required and the balance is due on the first day of your check-in (physical arrival at hotel).

Also what time of day are you calling as that may determine the level of help you get?

Dave

Yes, this. Personally, I would try to try to make a new room-only reservation with the AP discount and, if you can do that, simply book it and cancel the package. You will need to put down one night's deposit for the room-only and will be refunded $200 for the package cancellation since you are more than 30 days out from check-in. If that doesn't work and there aren't any rooms left under the AP discount, call WDW back and ask to speak with someone in guest services to see if they can get you the room-only and retain the AP discount.
 


The price was significantly higher for a new reservation but that’s what I ended up doing. (I had to call to cancel though, couldn’t do it online.) It was more the total lack of professionalism that baffled me. The first guy really seemed confused about the idea that there were such things as resort reservations at WDW.

The second woman was just rude. When she told me the reservation couldn’t be cancelled and I said that she was wrong she got pretty confrontational for Disney. When I said I’d prefer just to try again later she hung up on me.

I haven’t had to call Disney in a while now and was just surprised.

You may have ended up speaking to Arise agents who are basically outsourced phone agents. I've found they tend to have zero clue as to what they are doing.
 
You may have ended up speaking to Arise agents who are basically outsourced phone agents. I've found they tend to have zero clue as to what they are doing.
Interesting. Which lines do they man? I had some difficulties with a Bounceback agent pulling my current onsite reservation. I just attributed it to Disney IT, but now I'm wondering if I got an outsourced agent.
 


Interesting. Which lines do they man? I had some difficulties with a Bounceback agent pulling my current onsite reservation. I just attributed it to Disney IT, but now I'm wondering if I got an outsourced agent.
More than likely, all of them ring to the same exact places, even if you dial different numbers in the beginning
You don't have any control over which agents answer.
It's the way a call center works.
They have 1 phone number and they are answered by whichever is available next, in a rolling fashion
It may be one of the Disney based agents
It may be one of the home-based agents
It may be one of the outsourced agents who work for companies that cover hundreds of businesses at once
You'll never know which till it's answered
But once you start a conversation it can be real obvious real fast which you've gotten.
The outsourced group is the worse as they know the least which is saying a lot considering how little the even Disney based agents can know at times.
 
You may have ended up speaking to Arise agents who are basically outsourced phone agents. I've found they tend to have zero clue as to what they are doing.

Some of them do know what they are talking about, but Disney is backing off using them and soon won't at all.

Notice how the "preferred" way to book dining is now online? Someday soon I bet Disney will be one of those corporations where it is very, very difficult to get to a live person at all.
 
Because the folks at the Disney call centers never give wrong info. Don’t want to be argumentative but she said the reservation couldn’t be cancelled. It most definitely could because I did so right after getting off the phone with her and calling to get a new agent. I was in no way impolite, I find that rarely pays off.
I've had to tell cms on the phons to please speak to their supervisors as I know the info. they're relaying is inaccurate. It happens ALL THE TIME. It really is unfortunate that Disney choses to eithernot inform/train their phone cms properly or that they hire those who don't care to try to help their customers.
 
Interesting. Which lines do they man? I had some difficulties with a Bounceback agent pulling my current onsite reservation. I just attributed it to Disney IT, but now I'm wondering if I got an outsourced agent.

I worked for ten years in a company that took work that was outsourced to us. There were no dedicated line from tehat company, but the calls were diverted once the hold wait times hit a specific metric.

I will take exception that the misinformation comes from outsourced representatives. My crew was measured on their accuracy, and we had a standard that exceeded the company we took work from.
My son worked for a center that we were an overflow for. WE had one center that the calls were diverted to, and he had the impression that their call accuracy rate was less than ours. Once we ran the numbers he was shocked. We blew the doors off their center, but we had to. We billed by the minute at that time, but also had to remain within specific metrics in regards to call time, accuracy and hold times or we were financially penalized.

I am appalled at the system tha Disney does NOT seem to use in ensuring their call center representative have complete and accurate information. It really is not that difficult, and if an outsourced center could keep up with changes I cannot understand why their centers are so ill informed.
 
I worked for ten years in a company that took work that was outsourced to us. There were no dedicated line from tehat company, but the calls were diverted once the hold wait times hit a specific metric.

I will take exception that the misinformation comes from outsourced representatives. My crew was measured on their accuracy, and we had a standard that exceeded the company we took work from.
My son worked for a center that we were an overflow for. WE had one center that the calls were diverted to, and he had the impression that their call accuracy rate was less than ours. Once we ran the numbers he was shocked. We blew the doors off their center, but we had to. We billed by the minute at that time, but also had to remain within specific metrics in regards to call time, accuracy and hold times or we were financially penalized.

I am appalled at the system tha Disney does NOT seem to use in ensuring their call center representative have complete and accurate information. It really is not that difficult, and if an outsourced center could keep up with changes I cannot understand why their centers are so ill informed.
You should look at the cruise critic boards for the mass market cruise lines. You would see very similar complaints about their call centers as you see here.
 
I had to call to add DD and DSIL to DME yesterday and the CM on the other end of the phone was so pleasant and efficient it kind of threw me. it was like it was 1999.


I have always found the DME agents to be wonderful. Glad you had that experience!
 
...Has something changed? My reservation is well outside the 30 day change window.
There is no ‘change window.’
...When she told me the reservation couldn’t be cancelled and I said that she was wrong she got pretty confrontational for Disney...
Perhaps she was trying to explain to you that you couldn’t change a package reservation in the way you wanted. I’m always amazed at how differently two people can interpret the same conversation. Rudeness is never acceptable, IMO.
Hopefully you took the survey at the end of both phone calls to give management feedback, the recordings of the calls can be reviewed and appropriate corrective action can be taken if warranted. I suspect not everyone is suited to working in a call center.
 
I’ve already explained this on this thread. When she said I couldn’t change the reservation I asked to cancel. The CM/outsourced person told me that under no circumstances could I cancel even though I was outside the 30 day window. She was absolutely 100% wrong about this as was proved after another CM (my third at that point) cancelled the reservation in seconds less than an hour later.

I couldn’t take the survey, the CM HUNG UP ON ME. No goodbye, no “Have a magical day!”, nothing. I very nicely told her that I believed she was incorrect
about the cancellation and click.

I love WDW as much as the next person but that doesn’t mean that sort of behavior is okay.
Didn’t know that the CM hanging up blocked the survey - in that case an email w/ date, time & name might be in order, since otherwise her rude behavior won’t change. I guess I’ve been very lucky, I’ve always had very nice CMs on the phones, it’s the long waits to speak to them that irritate me.
 
I know how you are feeling. My last call to Disney to make a change was unlike any other I have ever encountered in my 30 plus years of calling. Agent was clueless and very unmagical. Figured it must have been a call center. I was finally able to add the day I needed, but was not a very Disney experience.
 
My brother tried to add one night to a GF CL room last Month. It took almost an hour on hold, listening to Disney tunes, before he was transferred to dead air. Well, not entirely dead. He could hear background voices and the chirping sound that some cellphones make when a text comes in. After about 5 minutes of waiting, someone came on the line.

That was the first sign that this was not going to be a magical call.

The person who finally answered did not offer the usual, upbeat Disney greeting. It was more along the lines of “Oh. I didn’t know you were there. What do you need?”

Sign #2. He should have run for the hills but he had already invested more than an hour in this call and he felt that this should have been an easy modification.

It wasn’t. First, she told him that he couldn’t modify the reservation. Okay. Probably true. The website was showing no availability for the one night, but maybe it would for all 7 nights (the first night, which he was trying to add, and the 6 nights he had already booked). There was a lot of ummm’s and ahhhh’s and plenty of dead air before she came back on and said “I don’t think you can do that”.

Fine. Let’s book just one night in an outer building at GF. More ummm’s and ahhhh’s. She finally finds a lake view room and starts to book it...under my niece’s name.

Time to start again. He should have hung up and booked online but he persevered. She finally got the room queued up again, as she kept calling him by another name. No clue where that name came from and he kept correcting her.

After 45 minutes on the phone with her (this in addition to the 65 minute wait), they’re finally at the point where he needs to give her his deposit/payment and he tells her that he wants to use a gift card. Big mistake. HUGE! She can’t get it to work. He repeats it over to her multiple times. She insists there’s something wrong with the gift card.

Time to end the call. She gives him a reference number and places a courtesy hold and tells him that it will be good for two days while he figures out what is wrong with the GC.

He goes online and books the room...using the GC for payment. I told him that he should contact guest satisfaction using the reference number to identify the person who will obviously needs additional training. He said that he wouldn’t want to be the cause of someone losing their job. He’s a much nicer person than me. I would have written just to make sure that the next guest didn’t have to deal with that level of incompetence.
 

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