Experiencing Disney's (harsh) Travel Package Policies

[fireworkz]

I thought I would share with everyone the situation my parents are currently having with their WDW Vacation, yes I may rant a bit, but I also hope their experience can start a discussion to be used by all of us to learn tips and things to consider with their future WDW trip planning.

A little background, my parents (and myself) have always been "off-siters". The last time we stayed on site was 35 years ago when there was only the Contemp, Poly and Golf to stay in. My parents have gone to Disney World over 25 times, including 1971 for their honeymoon! This time however they decided to try on-site for various reasons including the airport bus service and the dining plan.

So they booked a seven day stay, with five day park hopper and dining at the PO Riverside which was supposed to start the weekend. Unfortunately, we had some poor weather conditions here all weekend, which caused flight delays. This forced them to start their trip more than 48 hours late. Being retired and flexible with scheduling, they decided to actually extend their return date. They extended it out so not only so they would get their seven day vacation, but stretch it to ten days as they felt seven was kind of short to start with.

Here's where the fun begins. They called Disney, fully expecting to pay for the two nights of hotel they missed, to make sure if they could get the other five nights, then add five more. They also hoped to keep their five day park hopper and dining plans in tact to apply to the stay and add on extra days to those. Disney has told them no, they not only lose the two days of hotel, but also two days in the parks and two days worth of dining vouchers. Also to add days to their remaining three days of park tickets, they would have to purchase a whole new separate pass rather than the usual, much cheaper few $$ a day add-on rate.

This is ridiculous. For dining they haven't eating a thing, and they made no ADRs, but I guess some argument can be made dining is tied to your number of nights staying - so for dining the whole situation is kind of grey, but you think Disney would offer some compromise seeing they are extending their stay. The park tickets on the other hand is crazy. They only bought five days for a seven day stay. They weren't going to the parks the first two days anyway! One day for travel, one to relax a bit. So how can Disney claw back those two days when they don't even know when they were going to use them? Not to mention if you buy tix separately they don't activate until you walk up to the gate the first time. Then to say you can't use the add-on feature is even worse. If they got their on time and decided to add a day they could, but now because they missed two days for some reason they can't. They haven't given up yet. They are now spending part of their vacation fighting with Disney.

So here's where the discussion comes in.

• I've already learned there really isn't much of a discount on room or tickets when booking a package.
• The cancellation policies are actually much better when you book only a room as apposed to booking a package.
• Park Tickets when bought separate don't activate until you first use them. However in a package they activate from the day you're supposed to check-in. (Edit: I have since learned thanks to others who have posted this info is false. The packaged park tickets also don't start until first use.)

What I would like to know:

• Can you add Dining to a room only booking when you check-in or does this always have to bought in advance?
• Has anyone else had a similar experience to my parents and how did they go about resolving them?

Thanks!

 

[Master Yoda]

I believe the issue is that once you arrive on a package it can be difficult to modify that package.

The tickets can be taken to a ticket window and have days added with no problem.

In order for them to get 5 more days with dining, they'd need to have a 2nd package created with dining and at least a one day ticket.

Master Yoda, what do you think?

That sounds kind of right. From what I have been told the real problem comes when the reservation makes the jump from the DRC to the actual resort. Once it is at the resort the changes possible are minimal and consist primarily of an extension or outright cancellation. It sounds like what they did was simply delay the check in and extend the reservation.

What I think the should have done was try to re-book the entire reservation with the new dates and then cancel the existing reservation and override the cancellation fee. That however might not have been possible due to availability.

Either way a manager or someone with a deeper knowledge of the ins and out of the system should have been consulted. Flight cancellations due to extreme weather are not that uncommon and they are unavoidable. There had to be a better way of doing this than charging a guest for 2 nights they could not use due to no fault of their own.

 

[tracyandalex]

I agree with the others that said to speak with a manager. There have been times that the first one or two CMs I've run into don't know how to do what I want to do or are not authorized to or whatever.

 

[fireworkz]

I believe the issue is that once you arrive on a package it can be difficult to modify that package.

The tickets can be taken to a ticket window and have days added with no problem.

In order for them to get 5 more days with dining, they'd need to have a 2nd package created with dining and at least a one day ticket.

Exactly - that's what's happening. After checking into it a bit more today myself, I found out that's what is happening here. They can not extend their original reservation. Disney wants them to book a whole new reservation and in order to get dining with that new reservation they want them to buy a new park ticket package. Hence the real reason why they can't really extend their original five day pass. They shouldn't spend the money to extend the original five days when they have to buy another ticket to get a second dining plan.
Basically they are getting them on a technicality and are being in flexible about it. Poor business if you ask me. After all they want to spend more money with them, not less. All they want is for Disney to cut them a break and let them save some money overall by extending their original package. They haven't even asked for any money back at anytime during these conversations, they just want a break on spending more.

They still lose the two days of dining from the days they missed, which they are getting more ticked about. Because under the rules of the dining package, they didn't have to use their dining plan if they didn't want too on those two days in order to save the credits for other days. But just because they weren't physically there Disney wants to claw those back, despite the fact no one is asking for a refund for the two days they missed. So they still pay for meals they are never going to get! They wont even let them have the full amount of credits to use over the remainder of their original booking.

They are planning to approach the front desk tonight, I'll update on what happens. Right now word is if they don't reach some kind of deal it's back off-site they will go for the final days of their trip. Disney won't see one red cent for those days.

 

[DisneyJoe]

BTW, their first package tickets could be extended to 8 or 9 days and they'd only need a 1 day base ticket on the 2nd package too qualify for dining

This is what I would recommend:

- take their current ticket and maximize it to the number of days that they will be staying
- buy a 1 day base ticket for the second part of their stay so that they can get dining
- they can keep the 1 day base ticket for a future visit, whether it be onsite or offsite

 

[DisneyJoe]

There had to be a better way of doing this than charging a guest for 2 nights they could not use due to no fault of their own.

This is where travel insurance kicks in. Every policy I've seen covers travel delays to some degree. Have them keep all documentation of the delay and charges etc and submit a claim immediately after the trip - maybe even have them call the insurance company now.

 

[bethymouse]

Yikes! They do have a very strict policy.

 

[unkadug]

Well this is the straw that broke the camels back as far as customer service is concerned.

I have now officially lost all hope for WDW.

 

[Figments Friend]

I hope this gets resolved for them.
Good luck !

 

[fireworkz]

Okay - here's the update, just got off the phone with them. It's good news...

They saw the manager tonight were met immediately with "sorry you missed your first few days let's see what we can do". He set them up with all of their original dining credits, they only have to use them up by the original check-out date. No claw backs. He extended their package accommodations to their new departure date, even lowered the price of the extra nights when he found out the price he had in his system was higher than what my parent's travel agent was quoted. Matched that price. As for the dining plan on the additional nights, my parent's decided to hold off to see how the dining plan works out for them over the next few days, but the manager promised them if they wanted to add the dining later to their extended stay they could without buying any further park tickets. Their existing five day pass would cover it. Finally he would look into the possibility of getting some kind of credit for the nights of accommodations they missed! My parents didn't even ask for him to do that, he offered it without request.

So the moral of the story is, don't deal with the Disney call center when you have an issue to resolve. Deal with the CMs at the front desk!

Thanks for all the advice

 

[lovepooh]

That is awesome!! so glad to hear a happy ending happened!! I have stayed on Property every time except for once. I have noticed that the CM on site do everything they can to make everything right and the guests happy! Glad it worked out for your parents

 

[Master Yoda]

Okay - here's the update, just got off the phone with them. It's good news...

They saw the manager tonight were met immediately with "sorry you missed your first few days let's see what we can do". He set them up with all of their original dining credits, they only have to use them up by the original check-out date. No claw backs. He extended their package accommodations to their new departure date, even lowered the price of the extra nights when he found out the price he had in his system was higher than what my parent's travel agent was quoted. Matched that price. As for the dining plan on the additional nights, my parent's decided to hold off to see how the dining plan works out for them over the next few days, but the manager promised them if they wanted to add the dining later to their extended stay they could without buying any further park tickets. Their existing five day pass would cover it. Finally he would look into the possibility of getting some kind of credit for the nights of accommodations they missed! My parents didn't even ask for him to do that, he offered it without request.

So the moral of the story is, don't deal with the Disney call center when you have an issue to resolve. Deal with the CMs at the front desk!

Thanks for all the advice

Very incorrect. While the first person your parents spoke to clearly dropped the ball, the DRC must be the first place you contact prior to arrival. The resort can do nothing until you get there and once you are arrive there is very little they can do.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Actually, since they had a travel agent, if they were good, they should have called Disney first when they knew about their flight delay and the agent could and should have handled much of the rest before they even got there.

 

[fireworkz]

Very incorrect. While the first person your parents spoke to clearly dropped the ball, the DRC must be the first place you contact prior to arrival. The resort can do nothing until you get there and once you are arrive there is very little they can do.

Agreed - I should have said "if your have a weather delay call the call center. Then if get nowhere with them in terms of new arrangements then you should see what you can arrange with the front desk, not the call center."

Actually, since they had a travel agent, if they were good, they should have called Disney first when they knew about their flight delay and the agent could and should have handled much of the rest before they even got there.

They have an excellent travel agent, she actually started calling as soon as the flight was cancelled. I mean literally within five minutes. Made up to a dozen phone calls to Disney's call center on their behalf, stayed up all night to fight it. Made it past the tier ones, spoke up to three different supervisors. To bring in more influence, the agent also called up the wholesale agency she used to book the trip and pulled them in to help. They also made several calls on their behalf. Every call - the same answer. The call center always maintained to do what they wanted required a whole new booking, new park tickets to get dining for that package and the claw back of dining on the days they missed. My parents actually never spoke directly to the call center, it was all travel agent.

So if you end up in the same situation the advice seems to be your agent should try the call center first, but if you get nowhere, then the agent should call the front desk - fighting the call center gets you nowhere.

 

[DisneyJoe]

A dozen calls? 3 supervisors? All night? (call center closes at 10) I don't think the agent was familiar with Disney. There was nothing to fight.

Any agent experienced with Disney policies could have handled this with one call, two tops.

 

[fireworkz]

Maybe I was exaggerating a bit about the overnight, so to clarify 10 pm EST is 11:30 here, she kept them on the phone well past that time. I have talked quite a bit with her about how she handled this and am quite satisfied with her response and her knowledge on the issue.