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Disney Cruise Line and Other Cruise Planning Cruise Questions and Tips. |
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28 Mar 19, 05:49 PM |
#1
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jun 16
Location: God's Own Country
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Awful customer service
Decided to cancel my Disney cruise and go on the new Navigator of the Seas instead. Long story but I saw the ship was extensively renovated and the kids liked the look of the new Island with waterpark it calls at, and big slides onboard, Laser tag, ice skating etc. Same itinerary as Disney and same dates. I know Disney is the best, but this 4 night cruise is a massive $2000 cheaper for a larger room (although not as big balcony as I'd got the special one thanks to help on here).
Anyway for a supposedly premium product why can't they staff the phones properly. Every time I have ever rung, you are on hold forever. When I tried to book it originally on the supposed DVC deal (tip don't bother, I changed the booking the day after and it was the same price) I was on hold for literally hours.
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29 Mar 19, 02:38 PM |
#2
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Disney Cruise Line VIP!
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Ah yes, Disney and their systems. never good and I can't see it ever getting better.
With the price changes .. some cruises don't go up in price straight away, especially the ones on the Dream that are the most common ones. It's the unique ones or ones with a new port that go up in price. Ours for 9 nights in June 2020 to Greek isles has gone up by $1000 (2 people) since we booked it. Joa
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30 cruises with DCL and counting ... |
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5 Apr 19, 10:16 PM |
#3
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Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 15
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I have to agree, I’ve been less than impressed with Disney cruise this week.
I was supposed to be flying out tomorrow and getting on a Disney cruise Wednesday. Unfortunately my lovely Dad had a stroke on Sunday and died Tuesday so we’ve had to cancel. My flights were non refundable... BA will give me a full refund on production of the death certificate. One of my hotels was non refundable, but booking.com had an option to email them to ask for reduced cancellation fees and on explaining the situation they have given me a full refund. Two hotels were free cancellation so good there. That only leaves Disney... now I know I’m in the non refundable period, but we do definitely want to take a Disney cruise as I’m not letting the kids down. Could they move the money to one later in the year? No. Ok then, since I’m fully paid up can I book a placeholder to ease some of the pain on rebooking a replacement (it would almost cover my insurance excess) but no, can’t do that without me getting on that ship I’ve fully paid for. I know they don’t NEED to do anything for me, but neither did BA or Miami hotel. No pixie dust from Disney here 😢 |
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5 Apr 19, 10:25 PM |
#4
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 14
Location: The Tiki Room.
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So sorry to hear about your Dad. As you say it wouldn't have hurt to show some compassion.
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"PAGING MR MORROW, MR TOM MORROW..." ''I drink Wine and know things'' DVC Owners at SSR since 2003. Multiple annual visits to America since 1976 |
5 Apr 19, 10:30 PM |
#5
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 14
Location: The Tiki Room.
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YT. As you know we cancelled our Disney cruise as I wasn't happy after my Wife had health issues and the fact of being offshore.
The process to cancel was ok but it took Disney 21 days to refund me. Not a big issue but wow talk about slow. As an aside I was right sadly. Hip replacement later this year.
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"PAGING MR MORROW, MR TOM MORROW..." ''I drink Wine and know things'' DVC Owners at SSR since 2003. Multiple annual visits to America since 1976 |
6 Apr 19, 02:45 PM |
#6
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VIP Dibber
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Sorry for your loss.
I just don't understand the price difference between Disney and other cruise companies. Sad to hear you didn't get any leeway on moving the cruise from them.
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7 Apr 19, 02:44 AM |
#7
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 08
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Product and demand I guess. Product - what takes place on board is unique and therefore no competition. Demand - the product sells so no need to do price reductions.
We don’t get the whole Disney obsession (shouts of heresy 😱 ) so our cruise lines of choice are Celebrity, Princess and Holland America. They are competing for roughly the same demographic and prices are competitive. Having said that, our next two cruises are with MSC and Costa - only because they are choices that are itinerary (and price) driven. The proof of the pudding... |
7 Apr 19, 08:22 AM |
#8
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jun 16
Location: God's Own Country
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Sorry to hear of the hip replacement. My FIL has his done and both knees, no issues now at all, so hopefully will go well.
As I said above we booked with RCL instead. It’s actually higher rated for teenagers and when the kids looked and saw the new Navigator boat with teen room (which they can both go in as they treat a 12 yo as a teen), waverider, climbing wall, longest water chutes at sea, ice skating etc they wanted to switch. Then they have this new island water park, with the highest water slide in North America. Again, they preferred the look of it to Castaway Key. It was $2000 less for same cruise, same days, that’s a lot of money. People say Disney give you free pop, but RCL costs 9.99 a day- doesn’t eat much into the 2k. I was worried a bit about the Disney, as to whether it could be a bit young for the kids, and it seems my kids would have been split up at the clubs, as one is 12 and one 15 when we travel. Internet was also extremely expensive on Disney. In fact I have booked us ‘The Key’ which means we get full high speed internet, priority boarding, lunch at Chops Grill, front seats all shows, private hours on Flowrider, ice skating, climbing wall, special breakfast morning we leave and priority disembarking. Disney would charge a lot each a day for such perks , this has cost me 19 a day limited to 100 cabins on ship. I’ve got the full unlimited drinks packages, the kids have the full pop package. I’ve paid for a full days entry for us all to the island water park. We will go to the a la cart Japanese for Mrs YTs birthday. And I’m still $1000 better off than the base price I paid for the Disney Cruise. Also when I rang them up, they answered the phone straight away. Disney is clearly cost cutting and understaffed when it comes to back office staff. I am sure the Disney Cruise is fantastic, especially if you have younger kids, but for us this seemed a much better deal. The $1000 will probably cover a decent chunk our spending money for the other 10 days of the holiday in Florida also so that’s a bonus and not a penny more to pay on the ship for drinks etc.
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Edited at 08:28 AM. |
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7 Apr 19, 09:01 AM |
#9
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 14
Location: The Tiki Room.
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YT. As always a comprehensive response. One cannot argue with your Maths and the savings to be had.
I know Disney has set a very very high standard but heck a $1K saving is a lot. I would have been swayed as well. Anyhow. We are fairly confident we are going to try a week at Vero Beach (DVC) next year as well as doing another Villa stay as a 'bolt on' to the May trip. My goodness I am 64 and trying new things.
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"PAGING MR MORROW, MR TOM MORROW..." ''I drink Wine and know things'' DVC Owners at SSR since 2003. Multiple annual visits to America since 1976 |
7 Apr 19, 04:32 PM |
#10
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Apprentice Imagineer
Join Date: Jul 15
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I take it all back!
Emailed Disney cruise complaints this morning, very nice email understanding that they didn’t need to do anything for me but expressing my disappointment that they didn’t show any compassion and try to help. Just had a phone call from a lovely lady who has moved all my money onto the equivalent cruise next Easter, same room, dining etc. I’ve got until the final payment date in January to move to another cruise or different room etc. It’s around £600 more than I had paid this year but on the plus side everyone has now refunded me directly so I don’t need to claim on insurance where I would have lost £400 in excess. Now I’ve got 2 weeks til flights are out and the nervous Skyscanner searching begins... |
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