Anyone Written Disney About Their Experience Recently?

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As some of you know, I write a letter after almost every trip, always 80% complimentary, 20% constructive criticism.

I always mail a letter and hand sign it because I feel it gives a more personal touch and shows I am truly sending something with thought and care.

Anyway, I always at least get a call back to discuss any concerns and thanks for the compliments. I am extremely polite and complimentary of Disney, even going into detail on how much Disney is in our DNA. I wrote a letter about our most recent experience and had just a few concerns, including a few minor issues with the hotel, staff, and or course a couple park issues.

I keep the park issues brief because it's like trying to move the earth to change things at the parks.

My little voice is obviously most likely ignored, laughed at, or brushed off as another letter from a silly guest, but I always find Disney's response genuine and extremely accommodating. I've received stuffed Disney characters, picture frames, money off my reservation, and even hand written thank you notes BACK from the Disney employee reading my case. I never ask or expect anything out of my letters. It's truly just feedback that makes me feel good.

Maybe
something I say gets forwarded to just the right person and it's the last voice needed to push management to change.

The last 2 trips, I've received a very dismissive and "check box" call that basically scans through the points in my letter, says it's great feedback and assurance it will be sent to the appropriate team. I'm sure that's all that was ever done, but the delivery of the message has been lacking.

I kind of feel like it's a waste of time (even if it always was), but now I actually get the impression from Disney that it's a waste of time. I wrote a 3 page letter and the call lasted <2 minutes. Maybe I just got lucky before or unlucky now, but writing a letter appears to be totally useless now. I'll keep doing it, but I doubt it will change.

I used to talk with them for 30 minutes or so every time and it wasn't me driving the conversation. The cast member seemed genuinely interested, adding their perspective as well.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has gotten the same or different feedback recently.
 

BigRedDad

Well-Known Member
Yes, our service at Via Napoli was horrible. First, we were never told that our meals were required to be $55 per person for seating at the Candlelight Processional. It only said we have to order entrees from the menu. We showed them the information on the reservation and it only states you must order an entree. Oh well, we are not worried about it, but stuck with it. It takes 15 minutes and going to the Manager to get our drink order. Once the drink order finally comes, our waiter disappears. 10 minutes later, we ask the waiter at the table next to us to take our order. Waiter is no where in sight for drink refreshing. We walk back up to the manager to order drinks again. Eventually, the waiter comes back with our drinks and then informs us our orders are cooked in 2 different kitchens and may come out at different times. We tell him it is his responsibility to work with the kitchen to have them ready at the same time. One meal comes out 30 minutes after we order. We ask where the rest is and he tells us that he told us they come at different times. We inform him that we told him it was his job to insure they came out at the same time. Off to the manager again while we wait for the rest of the meals. We now inform the manager that we may miss our Candlelight Processional time. His response is "No worry we will give you passes to the later show." Guess what? We had not planned to see it 2 hours later.

Eventually, they other meals come out but the first is cold. We get the waiter over and the manager to tell them the meal is cold. They asked why it was not eaten when it came out...Well duh, we wanted to eat together as we informed the waiter. After we just say F' It!! Eat our meals fast, get the heck out, they say they cannot give us passes to our Candlelight Processional show because they just gave out the last ones. !!!! We take the passes, head to the CP kiosk, talk to the manager there. He gives us passes for the show we were suppose to be at and get there just as it starts. He told us to meet him after to take him through everything that happened. After telling him, he went with me to Via Napoli to get the manager and waiter. We discussed what happened, he thanked me, and said he will fix it. He did not want to make a seen there.

We received credit for the "meal". We were also asked by the manager at the CP Kiosk to send a letter to Customer Relations with the name of the manager and employee which he provided including their last names. His response was that the service given was unacceptable anywhere on property. He gave us his full name to include so Guest Relations knew who to contact to verify the situation. Guest Relations called us to apologize, stated the situation was immediately corrected, and gave us a meal voucher.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
I write a letter every once in a while, and I try to keep it balanced between positive and negative comments, but I always get the same pixie-dusted girl calling me with the same standard remarks, and no real answers to questions, while reminding me incessantly that Disney cares about me. :rolleyes:
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
As some of you know, I write a letter after almost every trip, always 80% complimentary, 20% constructive criticism.

I always mail a letter and hand sign it because I feel it gives a more personal touch and shows I am truly sending something with thought and care.

Anyway, I always at least get a call back to discuss any concerns and thanks for the compliments. I am extremely polite and complimentary of Disney, even going into detail on how much Disney is in our DNA. I wrote a letter about our most recent experience and had just a few concerns, including a few minor issues with the hotel, staff, and or course a couple park issues.

I keep the park issues brief because it's like trying to move the earth to change things at the parks.

My little voice is obviously most likely ignored, laughed at, or brushed off as another letter from a silly guest, but I always find Disney's response genuine and extremely accommodating. I've received stuffed Disney characters, picture frames, money off my reservation, and even hand written thank you notes BACK from the Disney employee reading my case. I never ask or expect anything out of my letters. It's truly just feedback that makes me feel good.

Maybe
something I say gets forwarded to just the right person and it's the last voice needed to push management to change.

The last 2 trips, I've received a very dismissive and "check box" call that basically scans through the points in my letter, says it's great feedback and assurance it will be sent to the appropriate team. I'm sure that's all that was ever done, but the delivery of the message has been lacking.

I kind of feel like it's a waste of time (even if it always was), but now I actually get the impression from Disney that it's a waste of time. I wrote a 3 page letter and the call lasted <2 minutes. Maybe I just got lucky before or unlucky now, but writing a letter appears to be totally useless now. I'll keep doing it, but I doubt it will change.

I used to talk with them for 30 minutes or so every time and it wasn't me driving the conversation. The cast member seemed genuinely interested, adding their perspective as well.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has gotten the same or different feedback recently.

I like that you write letters. No one does that anymore. I'm just as guilty.

One can only hope that the letters are taken seriously. I understand replies pretty much have to be cookie-cutter style.

But how you write it sounds pretty spot-on to me. Being complimentary to them about how they made your trip "magical" provides feedback on what they did right. But how can they make guests' experiences better without constructive criticism? If they have their heads on straight, they would have the mindset that there is always room for improvement.

Hopefully, your letters get routed to the appropriate CMs in management.
 

Ariel1986

Well-Known Member
I wrote an email last year after returning, in regards to some housekeeping issues and a meal at CRT. I also included some positives as the issues we had were a minor point overall in regards to the vacation, but we felt they were enough to send some feedback.
I received an email back and a number to call- or said if I sent my number they would call me. I replied with my number and they called within 20 minutes. I spent a good 20-30 minutes talking through my issues and the lady was very sympathetic and appeared genuine- and we received a very generous compensation in the form of a partial refund along with a dining gift card for the meal complaints.
I wasn't expecting anything except an email response so I was extremely happy and pleasantly surprised by the response we did get.

Edited to add: She did also say that the complaints would be passed onto to the departments involved as they were unacceptable.
 

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I like that you write letters. No one does that anymore. I'm just as guilty.

One can only hope that the letters are taken seriously. I understand replies pretty much have to be cookie-cutter style.

But how you write it sounds pretty spot-on to me. Being complimentary to them about how they made your trip "magical" provides feedback on what they did right. But how can they make guests' experiences better without constructive criticism? If they have their heads on straight, they would have the mindset that there is always room for improvement.

Hopefully, your letters get routed to the appropriate CMs in management.
Thanks. You're exactly right. I try to give them not only constructive criticism, but also compliment them on how magical most aspects of my trip were. If you do what a lot of people do and just bash them about the negative, you just come off as a hater and probably have no impact.

If you think about the entire vacation as a whole, 95% of it is amazing, magical, and incredibly fun. I focus on that and bring up the other stuff in a constructive manner, in hopes it actually makes a difference. You can't let one broken animatronic, one rude cas member, or one bad meal make the trip "ruined."

I organize my letter into "hits" and "misses" and use bullet points so they are easy to see. Who knows how much impact it has if any. If they actually forward it on, hopefully someone in the right place reads it eventually.
 
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Doug Means

Well-Known Member
I have never written a letter after any vacation i have been on, even if they were bad. I'm just curious, do you (any of you, all of you) write letters every time you go on vacation? i think i'm going to start.

and when you do write the letter to Disney, who and where do you send it?
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
I've written even when I haven't been on vacation if I have an issue. In the past I've written to Tom Scaggs, George Kalogridis, Meg Crogton, etc. but it's always the same girl that calls me.
 

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I have never written a letter after any vacation i have been on, even if they were bad. I'm just curious, do you (any of you, all of you) write letters every time you go on vacation? i think i'm going to start.

and when you do write the letter to Disney, who and where do you send it?
I pretty much write one every time. I typically send mine to:

Walt Disney World Guest Communications
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
 

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ironically, I received a more thorough and concerned phone call and message after I notified them about a server that was glorifying a violent act on Facebook than I did the last trip "report" that I sent them.
There are probably those "sensitive" issues that they scramble to contain. Our trip reports are probably just filed in a huge stack of same old same old.

I wish they'd listen to us :(
 

Minthorne

Well-Known Member
Ironically, I received a more thorough and concerned phone call and message after I notified them about a server that was glorifying a violent act on Facebook than I did the last trip "report" that I sent them.

On the Server's Facebook page or on the Disney Facebook page?
 

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just got an email to rate my experience at Kidani Village and wrote an in depth review there. Why not. If I am asked for feedback, I generally provide a thoughtful response. I'm glad they proactively reach out and ask how they're doing.
 

draybook

Well-Known Member
On the Server's Facebook page or on the Disney Facebook page?


It was on some news page or something. It was about that guy that got trampled by the elephant during his legal hunt or whatever. He basically said he was glad he was dead and used some colorful language. When I hovered over his name I saw his job listed as a server at the new Boat House.
 

daisyduckie

Well-Known Member
I guess I don't know what else you really expect? They won't change something based on one guest's input. Only if a massive amount of guests point out the same issues, or have the same dislikes, can you start to look for change.

I have to wonder too, if the calls you get back are now shorter as they see you write after every trip. I wonder if it is more easy to ignore guests that give you feed back all of the time than it is to ignore a guest who writes once.
 

Misterdcp

Active Member
feedback is the only way for Disney to truly know how their customers' experience at the parks was. Whether it be positive or negative feedback, it is an extremely useful tool to help them tweak things to try and make the "magic" better for everyone.
 

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I guess I don't know what else you really expect? They won't change something based on one guest's input. Only if a massive amount of guests point out the same issues, or have the same dislikes, can you start to look for change.

I have to wonder too, if the calls you get back are now shorter as they see you write after every trip. I wonder if it is more easy to ignore guests that give you feed back all of the time than it is to ignore a guest who writes once.
I don't really "expect" anything really, other than the agents to do their job. The team that exists at Disney exists at many large customer facing companies and they have a very specific set of duties. Even if unimportant, they still have a job to do and I can tell you these last few agents did a poor job.

I doubt they have a very sophisticated method of knowing I consistently write letters. I might be wrong, but I doubt an "account" of each person writing in is kept because the information they receive is so inconsistent. Some people might sign just their first name or even if first and last, names are too common. Some might include address, some might not. Some might include a reservation number, some might not. Some might not even include any details of their trip dates, etc. I've seen a lot of these letters at other companies. You get this long story and no detail. Or you just get "YOU GUYS SUCK!"

I include my reservation number, so they maybe have a way of attaching it to my reservation and can see I always write. I'd argue if they could see that, a good agent would point that out and thank me for writing again.

I've actually done analytics for a large call center (at a company even bigger than Disney) and can tell you that Disney's team is probably rather large and has a script. You get good and bad agents who either follow their script, or go above and beyond. I just think I've been unlucky lately or that the script has changed. I guarantee if I pushed harder and told her I wasn't satisfied with the response, there would be have been an escalation process, probably ending with me getting something free or money back.

Our agents kept a record of the letter only if it was detailed enough to definitively discern who wrote the letter. You can't just go by name or partial information.

I'm willing to bet my feedback was probably more detailed, long, and too advanced for an agent to really get on my level. I'm not being conceited, but I know I know more about Disney and its history than the agent I spoke with who probably got a week of training. I think in the past, I've spoken to more of a "Disney enthusiast" than recently.

Also, I'm willing to bet much of the feedback they get is very negative and a true beat down of a job to call angry guests back all day.

Sure, they won't change based upon my input alone, but this is like voting. I am only one guest and only have one vote. I need to do my part in giving feedback just like I need to do my part in voting. Of course my one vote won't matter, but if everyone thought like that and didn't do their part, nothing would change. At least I know I did my part.

Regardless, I've had better luck in the past and I have not changed my delivery and style. Something on their end has changed or I've just gotten bad agents.
 
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Doug Means

Well-Known Member
I wonder how often Disney Reps get on all the different forum boards and read them?

In the old days, businesses would say they listened to written letters because for every letter actually written there were 100 to 1000 people thinking the same thing but don't write the letter. written letters were important to them.

that was 25 years ago when i heard that on a news story. i'm not sure how email and social media has changed that, because people are some much braver now to be negative in situations sometimes where it isn't even true. mainly because they can hide behind avatars and bogus names.

i hope and believe though that a hand written letter still has to have some effect, though small...how many people do they have dedicated to calling?
 

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