Disney Reservation's telephone hold times....

[Disney Daddy]

What is going on with Disney? I've been holding on the telephone for 42:15....and I'm still holding! It's Sunday afternoon for goodness sake. Peak time or not, this is TOTALLY unacceptable. By the time I get through, the good deal that I saw online will be gone!!!!!

 

[Tom]

No it won't. They only have so many phone agents, who can only work so many shifts at one of the two call centers. There are often long waits, especially when they release a discount.

Most people book online or with a travel agent these days, so they've cut back on phone agents because of that too.

 

[Disney Daddy]

Yeah, not everyone likes to use a travel agent. Regardless of the fact, for a company as large and popular as Disney, 97 minutes for hold times is ridiculous no matter how you look at it. Disney is not in any danger of going broke, so running a skeleton (so it seemed today) call center is ludicrous! By the way, the deal that was online was gone by the time I actually got someone on the phone. Oh well, what good would $219 saved dollars have done anyways! Sigh.....

Forgot to mention, the reason I was on the phone was because I already have a reservation, I just needed to modify it.

 

[Boardwalker]

What is going on with Disney? I've been holding on the telephone for 42:15....and I'm still holding! It's Sunday afternoon for goodness sake. Peak time or not, this is TOTALLY unacceptable. By the time I get through, the good deal that I saw online will be gone!!!!!

Lol! First trip?

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Yeah, not everyone likes to use a travel agent. Regardless of the fact, for a company as large and popular as Disney, 97 minutes for hold times is ridiculous no matter how you look at it. Disney is not in any danger of going broke, so running a skeleton (so it seemed today) call center is ludicrous! By the way, the deal that was online was gone by the time I actually got someone on the phone. Oh well, what good would $219 saved dollars have done anyways! Sigh.....

Forgot to mention, the reason I was on the phone was because I already have a reservation, I just needed to modify it.

What deal would that have been?

 

[R W B]

Please explain how the deal was gone by the time you talked to a phone agent, ive always thought disney sales/promotions ended at the end of the day. I've never heard of Disney running a flash sale or anything like that. I'm honestly curious as to what kind of deal this was.

 

[Tom]

Please explain how the deal was gone by the time you talked to a phone agent, ive always thought disney sales/promotions ended at the end of the day. I've never heard of Disney running a flash sale or anything like that. I'm honestly curious as to what kind of deal this was.

I am too. There were no new discounts issued recently, so it was either an old one (which only comes with a pre-determined allocation of rooms per resort anyway), or something available only to guests outside the US.

 

[MinnieM123]

Last year I booked a "room only" reservation online with Disney reservations. As I got closer to my trip dates, I had to cancel the reservation, and the only option was to call them directly to cancel. I, too, was waiting on hold for over 50 minutes. I think they really need to reevaluate their system, and hire more people to handle the volume of calls.

 

[Disney Daddy]

I'm sorry, I should have been a little clearer. There wasn't a new "offer" per say, but a cheaper category became available within the "Spring Vacation Offer". Originally, we were booked in a garden view room. Initially, standard view rooms were not part of the SVO; however, now they are. The standard rooms are a good deal cheaper than the garden rooms. I check prices multiple times a day, and I have seen Disney (or maybe someone cancelled their room) put a small number of rooms back into their SVO inventory. If you don't jump right on it, those newly allocated rooms disappear very quickly.

After unsuccessfully being able to take advantage of the deal last night (due to there not being anymore rooms), I checked again this morning at 6:00am. Behold, the cheaper rooms were showing available again on Disney's website. So, at 6:33am, I called Disney....no waiting....spoke to another CM. She was able to find a standard room at the lower rate, and I am being refunded the difference onto my debit card.

I don't know what's going on, but within the SVO, I have indeed seen rooms come and go within a blink of an eye. Persistence pays off, I guess!!!

 

[tlev]

Currently I cannot do anything regarding reservations online or with the app. I'm being told to call so perhaps that is the issue.

 

[loveofamouse]

The only time I've had longer waits was when the website had problems. The other day, I had been trying to link my APs with MDE but kept getting an error. When I called in, it was a 20min wait. Normally, maybe I'm super lucky, I get no waits. I didn't complain, though, as I wasn't waiting for a deal. I'm happy that more things can be done online, like ADRs. I can't wait for military to be able to book resorts online. That's the only reason I ever call in, that and to ask the random question

 

[MickeyisMyBestFriend]

Just think of it this way, WE ALL are waiting that long Disney does has some flaws. It is just apart of the price we pay to be at the happiest place on earth happily.

 

[BigTxEars]

I use FP+ and ADRs to make my reservations to call Disney reservations.

Honestly I am surprised to hear about the times, called them I would guess 10 times over the last 4 years and never waited more than 10 mins. Yes, got lucky on something at last!

 

[Rob562]

A question for the OP, about the screen shots you included in your post. If I'm reading them correctly, it looks like you made multiple calls to WDW. If you're on hold and you hang up, you're put back at the end of the queue. I'm not sure adding up all of the hold times over 5 phone calls to get a total of 97 minutes on hold is a fair piece of data to use.

And if your first call was at 5:03pm on a Sunday evening, when a chunk of the operators probably got off-shift at 5, wait times are bound to increase.

Not bashing on you or anything, but just weighing in from my experience with working a (non-Disney) call center early in my professional career.

-Rob

 

[NutsForFlorida]

What is going on with Disney? I've been holding on the telephone for 42:15....and I'm still holding! It's Sunday afternoon for goodness sake. Peak time or not, this is TOTALLY unacceptable. By the time I get through, the good deal that I saw online will be gone!!!!!

Happened to me too. It was about 50 minutes on a Sunday waiting. At least they play music for you.

 

[maelstrom98]

I called Sunday too to have reservations I made linked. I put the phone on speaker and made cookies while I was waiting lol I didn't even bring it up, but the cast member I spoke to said the website was having issues Sunday and that people had been calling in like crazy.

 

[MickeyPeace]

I called during the week about a month ago and had the same experience. Waited an extremely long time. Then got passed off to two other people because no one could answer my question. I have never had such a bad experience booking before. I told each operator and have written two emails detailing my experience. No reply from Disney.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I called this morning about 10am and was told the wait would be 25+ minutes. I hung up and tried again an hour later. The estimated wait at that point was 11 minutes, which was apparently pretty accurate, as I waited 12.

 

[draybook]

I called this morning to add two days to our package. It took all of 15 minutes, including the automated system. This was around 7:15am Central.

 

[PigletIsMyCat]

even if they aren't running a skeleton crew, some calls take longer than the average call.

also, re: two call centers, there are home based agents as well.