Disney Booking was terrible this year

[maxime29]

We got back from our 9 day family trip to WDW over the Christmas break. Before I start into this short rant, I do want to say that we had a great time and enjoyed our stay.

Now with that said, I really do think that Disney needs to seriously redo however they book the information in its computers.

We called to book our trip back in June. We originally booked two rooms at the GF in building six (concierge; not the main lobby). Also booked MYW for 9 days and dining. The cast member repeated back everything we requested since we've always had something mess up with booking our trips.

We get the first statement (forget the date it arrived in the mail) and it was wrong. Our printouts showed we were staying in a different building @ GF and our MYW was for 8 days. Called Disney up to get this cleared up. They denied that we ever requested this, but the cast member claims it was "corrected" as we were talking. Told we would get a new statement, but we never did. DME also didn't have our entire party signed up. We ended up getting two of the DME yellow luggage ID tags/bus ride tickets. Had to call again and tell them to send us the ones for the remainder of our party. Again, they claimed we weren't in the system.

So the trip begins. Arrive at GF and sure enough they still had us booked in the wrong building and the wrong MYW days. Fortunately, the lead CM at the reception desk was able to get us in the building we requested originally. We also got the MYW straightened out.

The CMs would not say why this would have happened. I could bank on the fact that the whole computer booking system messed something up. I would say that this post is more of a precaution to anyone booking a trip through Disney. Triple check your information and give them a call to make sure that you are getting what you asked for. We've had at least one thing like this happen each year, whether it's DME or getting only one room instead of two as requested (and paid for) originally.

 

[CLandrum]

I have had similar incedents happen in the past. But we normally get it taken care of before we leave. My friend had a very wierd situation happen though and still has not got it straightened out. She booked a trip for her family it was supposed to be in her name and her credit card was used to pay for it. Well her husband ended up filing for divorce and she wanted to cancel the trip. She called to get a refund and they said the trip was in her husbands name and they would not give her the refund. She explained it was on her credit card and they still denied it. She is working on getting the situation taken care of.

 

[captainkidd]

Yeah, they screwed my reservation up for this month. They keep telling me it'll be all set when I get there. If it's not, there are going to be fireworks, and I'm not talking about Wishes.

 

[ChipmunkStar]

I thought you weren't allowed to BOOK certain buildings and rooms, but only allowed to REQUEST them. Does the GF have a different policy regarding this?

 

[CLandrum]

The Grand Floridian has rooms priced differently based on what kind of room it is and the view so there and at a few other resorts you can request certain buildings.

 

[DisneyJoe]

I highly recommend using a travel agent that specializes in Disney; they deal with these situations everyday and know how to make sure that everything is correct before your trip. They do all of this detail work and follow-up so that you don't have to.

Kingdom Konsultants are the sponsors of this board and are highly recommended.

 

[Monty]

I highly recommend using a travel agent that specializes in Disney; they deal with these situations everyday and know how to make sure that everything is correct before your trip. They do all of this detail work and follow-up so that you don't have to.

Kingdom Konsultants are the sponsors of this board and are highly recommended.

I can second this, Marie at KK has taken care of me for a few years now. She sends me a copy of the e-mail confirming all the details and I have never once had anything not be 'in the system' anything other than the way it was booked by the time I got there. I suspect that if she received an e-mail that didn't reflect what was requested, I wouldn't see it until it had been corrected.

 

[maxime29]

In regards to using a travel agent:
We used to book everything through a travel agent. However we were told that Disney only offered a certain number of rooms that could be booked through a third party (e.g. not Disney reservations). Not sure what the policy is now, but this was the reason why we started booking trips ourselves. Can anyone comment on this further?

ChipmunkStar:
CLandrum pretty much summed it up. You can book a specific building whether its a garden view, lagoon view, etc... . We booked building six (aka: Sugar Loaf) because it has concierge service and food throughout the day. The main lobby is the other building that offers concierge, but we stayed there one year and found it to be more noisy.

 

[DisneyJoe]

In regards to using a travel agent:
We used to book everything through a travel agent. However we were told that Disney only offered a certain number of rooms that could be booked through a third party (e.g. not Disney reservations). Not sure what the policy is now, but this was the reason why we started booking trips ourselves. Can anyone comment on this further?

Definitely.

There are 2 situations here:

1 - large sites such as Expedia and Travelocity will contract with Disney to "block" groups of rooms. Disney limits the number of rooms that these large sites can block.

2 - travel agents, such as your local brick and mortar agency, or Kingdom Konsultants and others who work mostly online, and even AAA agencies, call Disney directly (or use their online site disneytravelagents.com) and work from the same inventory that you get when calling Disney directly.

Your comment above would apply to #1 but not #2.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

I am so sorry to hear that you had such a dilemma dealing with your reservations. I know that this can happen and it is very frustrating. As Joe stated we do have access to the same inventory as Disney whether we are calling them directly to book or booking it through the travel agents site.

I would be more than happy to help you with any further trips in order to help make your trip as stress free as possible. Feel free to contact me or any of my agents here on the forums. We don't charge a thing for our services.

Pam:wave:

 

[maxime29]

Thanks for the feedback. We will look into it when we're ready to set our dates for a December 09 trip.

 

[nankeldisney821]

I highly reccommend Kingdom Konsultants. I had heard about them on here and I used them for my trip lastFebruary and it was great. No problems at all and they did everything I needed. I dealt with Pam and she was great. I am actually about to send her an email to help my sister book a trip. :wave:

 

[BuddhasHomeGirl]

Even though I got everything straightened out, Disney messed up my reservations also, it all worked out thankfully.

No offense but, Disney is such an easy trip to book, you should be able to do it yourself, everyone needs to make formal complaints to Disney and they can straighten out the "problems" with the cast members in the reservations department.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

I highly reccommend Kingdom Konsultants. I had heard about them on here and I used them for my trip lastFebruary and it was great. No problems at all and they did everything I needed. I dealt with Pam and she was great. I am actually about to send her an email to help my sister book a trip. :wave:

Thank you!!!

And I will watch for your e-mail.

Pam

 

[TURKEY]

Did you tell them you wanted to book a room in building 6 or did you tell them you wanted an outer lodge concierge room?

Not all reservation agents know what buildings have what type of view based on the building number. They know by room description.


If you do end up going through a travel agent like Kingdom Konsultants, Travelocity, or Expeida, be sure and research them and trust them (not saying anything about anyone). Once you book with them, you will not be able to make any requests or changes to your reservations. All changes or requests must be done by that agency. The agency technically owns your reservation, even though it is in your name.

If you don't trust your agent enough that you have to immediately call Disney and check on your booking, just book with Disney directly.

 

[BRER DAD]

I too am going to use Kingdom Konsultants next time. I have herd nothing but amazing things about them........Keep an eye out for my email!!

 

[AboveAverageJoe]

After booking our flights to and from Orlando, I called the Walt Disney World Travel Company to inform them of my flights and to update our information for Magical Express. I encountered no problem in doing that. I asked the reservations agent to confirm my itinerary. Again, no problem.

Then I asked her a question about vacation insurance. PROBLEM! She said that I did not purchase insurance. I told her I did, I always do. She once again stated that I did not purchase and she would be more than glad to add the insurance to my itinerary for a cost of $133. I told her that I was not going to pay for something that is already part of my vacation package. I told her that my online itinerary, email confirmation and printed itinerary all stated that I purchased the insurance. At that point, she put me on hold. When she came back, she apologized and said that I did purchase the insurance. She checked my information with some other agent. She said since I booked online, her reservation screen does not reveal all of my vacation information.

Why would this happen? Why can't she see all my info? Does their online booking system not communicate with their offline system? You would think that both reservation systems share the same database. Have a flag set in the vacation info table (or whatever they call it) as to which method was used to book the vacation.

The previous paragraph comes from a computer software guy that is thinking too much....

 

[maxime29]

Did you tell them you wanted to book a room in building 6 or did you tell them you wanted an outer lodge concierge room?

Not all reservation agents know what buildings have what type of view based on the building number. They know by room description.

Yes. We specifically asked for building six. We mentioned that we've stayed in the same building for the past two trips (06-07). The CM commented that she noticed it in her computer, and we started talking about how a family friend told us about the building's perks back in 2006.

 

[TURKEY]

Yes. We specifically asked for building six. We mentioned that we've stayed in the same building for the past two trips (06-07). The CM commented that she noticed it in her computer, and we started talking about how a family friend told us about the building's perks back in 2006.

I would recommend asking for your specific room category next time. I'm not placing any blame on you or on the cast member. It seems like it was just a miscommunication. Even though the cast member noticed it, it might not have clicked that a specific room category had to be booked, not a garden view.

I would bet that the agent you spoke with didn't realize building 6 was Sugarloaf Key filled with concierge rooms. There are so many agents that book reservations that might/are not familiar with the room buildings and what type of room categories are located in which buildings.

When recapping your reservation did the CM advise you were booked in a garden view or Sugarloaf Key - club level room?







Requesting a room category based on building number won't necessarily mean you are getting what you want booked. Just because you want a Tahiti room at the Poly doesn't mean you are getting a theme park view room or request building 31 at Caribbean Beach doesn't mean you are booking a preferred room.

 

[maryszhi]

on our last trip they messed up a bunch of things :dazzle::brick::goodnevil:hammer:but we were able to clear things up. its going to be interesting to see how things go this year not only at disney world, but land as well :veryconfu