WDW is canceling Jan. 31st reservations at CRT to hold event for more $

[21stamps]

...says WDWMagic's resident 1%er.

(I really wish this site had a designated sarcasm font. I vote for italics.)

I snort Pixie Dust all day long.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I snort Pixie Dust all day long.

...that moment when a Wolf of Wall Street GIF would be perfect but also get you banned...

 

[Nubs70]

I wasn't supposed to come back to this thread..lol. But I just wanted to point this out-

The reality is, a mistake was made somewhere. One of 2 groups would be effected.
Group 1- the "31" families who already had reservations during park hours.
Group 2- the "60" (or less) event attendees.

Group 1 -can have their meals rescheduled, in the same restaurant, at a different time or different day. A cast member can call and work to assist in the rescheduling and adjustments that need to be made (i.e fast pass, bbb, other restaurant reservations etc).

Group 2- has no alternative to a different day or time because it is a set event. Rescheduling and adjusting is not possible.

If you were the decision maker, which would you choose?

Since you are back,

Assuming families of 4 persons:

At the point that a scheduling conflict was discovered, it was decided that:
124 attendees who have scheduled and paid with the expectation of an experience would be effected for 60 attendees who have yet to schedule and pay for the expectation of an experience.

This comes from WDW who proclaims to have superior event planning expertise as sold by the world renowned, preeminent organization known as the Disney Institute.

Someone somewhere couldn't or didn't make a simple Gantt chart and define the critical path.

Now that the evenings revenue will be short by 31 tables. The event will fall short of financial projections.

 

[xdan0920]

That's fine. Call it "stupid" and I'll agree with you all day long. The people I'm arguing against are the ones who are putting this somewhere closer to "evil."

Not evil. Sh*tty.

I also think you are making quite a lot of assumptions about how this went down. We don't know anything that happened internally. All we know is this. People who had and paid for regular dinner reservations got them cancelled because of an upcharge event, which was just recently announced. We don't know when planning started, who communicated with who, and so on. We also don't know how well this private party sold. How many upchargers would be inconvenienced by switching this event to a different location or time, or date or cancelling it all together. We know hardly anything.

Using what we do know, I say this blows.

 

[flynnibus]

But Disney could have chosen not to upend the boat in the first place.

You don't know they were not acting in good faith to start with...

Of course the perfect answer is 'don't be there ever'.. but special events at Disney I'm not against. I'm against converting normal experiences into add-ons or simple upcharge offerings in lieu of improving the experence for all. Something like a dinner special like this doesn't fall into those types of things.

 

[drizgirl]

You don't know they were not acting in good faith to start with...

Of course the perfect answer is 'don't be there ever'.. but special events at Disney I'm not against. I'm against converting normal experiences into add-ons or simple upcharge offerings in lieu of improving the experence for all. Something like a dinner special like this doesn't fall into those types of things.

I find the chance that they were indeed acting in good faith to be remote, a straw to be grasped at by those who can't believe Disney really would treat guests this way.

 

[xdan0920]

You don't know they were not acting in good faith to start with...

Of course the perfect answer is 'don't be there ever'.. but special events at Disney I'm not against. I'm against converting normal experiences into add-ons or simple upcharge offerings in lieu of improving the experence for all. Something like a dinner special like this doesn't fall into those types of things.

Except, in this case, it was converting a normal experience into an add on, wasn't it?

Also, we have no indication that they were acting in good faith. Do we?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Except, in this case, it was converting a normal experience into an add on, wasn't it?

It wasn't planned that way. It was planned as an after-hours event. Then, yes, the planning interfered with normal experiences.

Also, we have no indication that they were acting in good faith. Do we?

Call me an optimist, but I like to assume most people act on good faith unless I'm given evidence otherwise. Just like we have little evidence they acted in good faith, we have equally little evidence that they acted otherwise.

 

[xdan0920]

we have equally little evidence that they acted otherwise.

Aside from the end result, that is.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Aside from the end result, that is.

The end result is largely irrelevant when determining intent, which is what we're getting at here. Nobody is saying this doesn't suck for the guests who had reservations, we're debating whether Disney deliberately created that suckiness in the name of profit or if they simply screwed up by not checking with F&B ops before scheduling this new event.

 

[SorcererMC]

"That time" is an hour after park close. If the last reservation is at 7:55, on a night when the park closes at 8:00 it's not a huge leap to schedule an event at 9:00. Obviously their estimates were off because, on further review, they determined that there wasn't enough space between the last guests finishing dinner and however much setup time they need. Again, it was a poor decision, but you're wrong to imply that the event was scheduled DURING other guests' dinner reservations.

From the other site, the person had a 6:50 ADR, and I'm assuming similar times for the other affected guests. Agreed that estimates were off or overlooked - hence this being handled at the last minute/ 2 weeks out....and partly why I concluded that someone made an honest but awful mistake.

Call me an optimist, but I like to assume most people act on good faith unless I'm given evidence otherwise. Just like we have little evidence they acted in good faith, we have equally little evidence that they acted otherwise.

Right- have to be careful about assumptions and/or make allowances for the possibility that Disney isn't perfect and their internal processes aren't fool-proof either.

 

[Nubs70]

The end result is largely irrelevant when determining intent, which is what we're getting at here. Nobody is saying this doesn't suck for the guests who had reservations, we're debating whether Disney deliberately created that suckiness in the name of profit or if they simply screwed up by not checking with F&B ops before scheduling this new event.

Disney created the suckiness by not following a customer focus and incompetent planning.

 

[NYwdwfan]

The end result is largely irrelevant when determining intent, which is what we're getting at here. Nobody is saying this doesn't suck for the guests who had reservations, we're debating whether Disney deliberately created that suckiness in the name of profit or if they simply screwed up by not checking with F&B ops before scheduling this new event.

What we *know* is regular dining guests make reservations 180 days in advance. We also *know* this event was advertised on the parks blog on January 4th. We will never know when it was planned or if it was planned over 180 days in advance. However - personally - I find it difficult to believe an event would be planned and scheduled by a multi-billion dollar corporation that specializes in hospitality without taking into consideration there could be guests impacted.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

What we *know* is regular dining guests make reservations 180 days in advance. We also *know* this event was advertised on the parks blog on January 4th. We will never know when it was planned or if it was planned over 180 days in advance. However - personally - I find it difficult to believe an event would be planned and scheduled by a multi-billion dollar corporation that specializes in hospitality without taking into consideration there could be guests impacted.

Have you ever worked in a multi-billion dollar corporation? The people who work in Disney's event planning business don't have the full knowledge and foresight of the ENTIRE multi-billion dollar corporation. They know their area of work. If you don't work in park operations, there's a good chance you don't know that there might be guests in a restaurant an hour after the park closes. It's like asking your housekeeper at Animal Kingdom Lodge whether the bakery at the Norway pavilion sells Vitamin Water. The AKL housekeeper doesn't know that information because it's not his or her job to know that information.

 

[21stamps]

Aside from the end result, that is.

The end result, from what we can see, is that Disney worked with these people to reschedule their reservations. Not cancel them.
The initial phone call received by the impacted person said that the phone rep offered a same day lunch or dinner. That didn't work for the guest, so Disney worked with them to find what would work.

Mistakes can happen. Dealing with your mistake and making it "right" is what a good company should do. From the only personal account that we have- it appears that Disney did exactly that.
I also think reasonable people, who received such a call and worked out an alternative, will be ok with that outcome.

 

[NYwdwfan]

Have you ever worked in a multi-billion dollar corporation? The people who work in Disney's event planning business don't have the full knowledge and foresight of the ENTIRE multi-billion dollar corporation. They know their area of work. If you don't work in park operations, there's a good chance you don't know that there might be guests in a restaurant an hour after the park closes. It's like asking your housekeeper at Animal Kingdom Lodge whether the bakery at the Norway pavilion sells Vitamin Water. The AKL housekeeper doesn't know that information because it's not his or her job to know that information.

I understand that - but - I bet if you asked any employee in the resort what the hardest reservation to snag is the majority would say CRT.

 

[monothingie]

The end result, from what we can see, is that Disney worked with these people to reschedule their reservations. Not cancel them.
The initial phone call received by the impacted person said that the phone rep offered a same day lunch or dinner. That didn't work for the guest, so Disney worked with them to find what would work.

Mistakes can happen. Dealing with your mistake and making it "right" is what a good company should do. From the only personal account that we have- it appears that Disney did exactly that.
I also think reasonable people, who were effected, will be ok with that outcome.

Disney only relented until the issue was escalated. If the issue wasn't pushed no proactive accommodation would have been made on Disneys part.


I thought you left this thread 2 times already. Third time the charm?

 

[Nubs70]

Have you ever worked in a multi-billion dollar corporation? The people who work in Disney's event planning business don't have the full knowledge and foresight of the ENTIRE multi-billion dollar corporation. They know their area of work. If you don't work in park operations, there's a good chance you don't know that there might be guests in a restaurant an hour after the park closes. It's like asking your housekeeper at Animal Kingdom Lodge whether the bakery at the Norway pavilion sells Vitamin Water. The AKL housekeeper doesn't know that information because it's not his or her job to know that information.

I work for a multi billion dollar corporation. If last reservation is 19:55 and event starts at 21:00, there will will be a conflict unless the last guests are participants in the competitive eating circuit

 

[monothingie]

Have you ever worked in a multi-billion dollar corporation? The people who work in Disney's event planning business don't have the full knowledge and foresight of the ENTIRE multi-billion dollar corporation. They know their area of work. If you don't work in park operations, there's a good chance you don't know that there might be guests in a restaurant an hour after the park closes. It's like asking your housekeeper at Animal Kingdom Lodge whether the bakery at the Norway pavilion sells Vitamin Water. The AKL housekeeper doesn't know that information because it's not his or her job to know that information.

So you think they went into this clueless about its impact on guests? The excuse of ignorance only furthers the argument that Disney is supremely disconnected from the guest.

 

[Grimley1968]

What is the point of debating the "intent of Disney" in this issue?

The point is that guests who made CRT reservations in good faith 180 days ago, only to have those reservations cancelled in favor of an event in which other guests would pay multiple times more for the same venue, were left out in the cold. Whether the right hand knew what the left hand was doing, or there was poor communication, etc. is irrelevant, IMO. It still could be averted even now if they'd simply restore the good faith reservations made months ago, postpone the upsell event to some other time when there are no reservations (maybe 6 months from now), and apologize to the good-faith guests for the confusion and let them know they'll be treated with respect.

Telling guests there was a "technical issue" or whatever they said initially is not respectful to the guests when it is well known that there is no "technical issue." Failing to reschedule the upsell event at this point and simultaneously cancelling the existing reservations is catering to the people who agree to pay more over those who paid the good-faith price 180 days ago, no matter the intentions of any employee.