Stage Crew Policies
It was the first full day of an eight night stay at WDW Resort and I was at Epcot on January 10th at the San Angel Inn, where some sort of computer glitch prevented application of my Deluxe Dining plan credits. Poor David was the manager, hamstrung from poor policies.
Magic band did not show my Deluxe Dining Plan. However, from elsewhere, they could see that I had twenty three dining credits. It was the second time the DP was used and that morning had worked fine for breakfast.
So, the manager said I could wait for 1/2 to 1 hr while they manually confirmed my entitlements. Or I could pay the bill and bring it to Guest Services for a refund. I expressed my displeasure with both options and told him so. I requested that he comp the meal and recover it when his staff had the time. However the final options presented penalized me for his operational issues.
I could miss my FastPass reservation (which were already delayed from my Dolphins in Depth experience). I could pay again for something that was already paid for and lose time the next day from my plans. And so on...
Tell me that ANY hospitality business, especially DISNEY, will succeed with such Draconian policies? “You can visit with us, but if we screw up, you’ll miss that for which you paid!” I spoke with some cast members and they indicated that this was a common occurrence!
What!?!
First, a tiny background, I was in the hospitality business for 20+ years. A programmer for fifty+ years. And in fact, my company, a hospitality services company, was a finalist to supply our services in what was to become My Disney Experience. Plus, I’ve started up my own hospitality company, providing extended family entertainment.
IMHO, the system SHOULD have put a hold on my account (and not charge anything) until the back end could have automatically resolved the issue. The manager should have explained this AND an email sent when the issue was resolved. Note that in this case, your guests are NOT directly impacted, NOT wasting time at a dining location and NOT spending their vacation time at Customer Service.
As it is, the system is definitely NOT DISNEY! And the sad part is that this is just one problem of the same sort that I experience at WDW routinely (I come twice a year so far).
I agreed to pay but warned him there would be consequences. This post is but one of my possible actions.
The one thing that I am thankful for is Disney has taught me one policy NOT to have and this lesson has made it into my corporate handbook as a case study.
It was the first full day of an eight night stay at WDW Resort and I was at Epcot on January 10th at the San Angel Inn, where some sort of computer glitch prevented application of my Deluxe Dining plan credits. Poor David was the manager, hamstrung from poor policies.
Magic band did not show my Deluxe Dining Plan. However, from elsewhere, they could see that I had twenty three dining credits. It was the second time the DP was used and that morning had worked fine for breakfast.
So, the manager said I could wait for 1/2 to 1 hr while they manually confirmed my entitlements. Or I could pay the bill and bring it to Guest Services for a refund. I expressed my displeasure with both options and told him so. I requested that he comp the meal and recover it when his staff had the time. However the final options presented penalized me for his operational issues.
I could miss my FastPass reservation (which were already delayed from my Dolphins in Depth experience). I could pay again for something that was already paid for and lose time the next day from my plans. And so on...
Tell me that ANY hospitality business, especially DISNEY, will succeed with such Draconian policies? “You can visit with us, but if we screw up, you’ll miss that for which you paid!” I spoke with some cast members and they indicated that this was a common occurrence!
What!?!
First, a tiny background, I was in the hospitality business for 20+ years. A programmer for fifty+ years. And in fact, my company, a hospitality services company, was a finalist to supply our services in what was to become My Disney Experience. Plus, I’ve started up my own hospitality company, providing extended family entertainment.
IMHO, the system SHOULD have put a hold on my account (and not charge anything) until the back end could have automatically resolved the issue. The manager should have explained this AND an email sent when the issue was resolved. Note that in this case, your guests are NOT directly impacted, NOT wasting time at a dining location and NOT spending their vacation time at Customer Service.
As it is, the system is definitely NOT DISNEY! And the sad part is that this is just one problem of the same sort that I experience at WDW routinely (I come twice a year so far).
I agreed to pay but warned him there would be consequences. This post is but one of my possible actions.
The one thing that I am thankful for is Disney has taught me one policy NOT to have and this lesson has made it into my corporate handbook as a case study.