Sept Magic cruise Major changes

[Pauly Wally]

I have just been informed that the trip has been postponed to Monday sailing with only two Mexican ports, Costa Maya and Cozumel, and the rest at sea, incentives offered to us are

40% off this trip
$200.00 onboard credit
25% off future bookings

Or

Full refund

Seems a little cheap when basically they have cut the cruise in half if you look at the ports. Is the credit usually per stateroom, is the 40% off just the cruise part of the vacation and not the transfer charge and port taxes. What a decision to make! We just came back from Mexico a few months ago. Oh well, hope Air Canada can do the flight if we so decide to go on monday, we are flying out of Toronto.

[captaincrash]

Here's OUR modestly amazing story of travel to make the DIsney Magic sailing PAST hurricane Frances!

First and foremost - I want to SING PRAISE for Disney's Cruise crisis management. I believe it was clearly very very difficult for them AND some of their reps (in particular the Group rep/crisis agent we were assigned - AMY was 1st rate EXCELLENT) .... their reps were simply unexpectedly amazing. The other reps we encountered we pretty good but ocassionally inconsistent on the fringe. Disney's hotel and transfer staff looked slightly stressed given the generally sour mood of some travelers - but they performed fairly well in spite of it!

So on to the story.....

We were offerred the same sort of deal for the 5 day alternative. However, it ended up being shifted to tuesday with just Cozumel. A four day with ONLY COzumel. FOr the additional loss of a day and port we were given an increase of refund to only 50%. Ratio wise... it mean that if we were to sail the 5 day like you are expecting - then we would get 40% cash refunded, $200 cabin credit plus 25% off a future sailing (for comnparison purposes we assumed the future sailing would be for an exact same cost cabin). This translated as about 75% off for losing 2 of 7 days = about 29% loss of sailing days.

So this seemed worth while to us EXCEPT we were really missing out on the ports - but on the other hand we felt our daughter would NOT miss much if she just got a few days on the ship. So - as we initially discussed the possibility of going or not going we determined that our older daughter and my spouse were pretty glum at the prospect of not going. So with rather short consideration of this (refund, credit, and future discount + desire of spouse and dauther to continue) we set out to try and go.

It could be looked on in two ways by us. Example 1... it was like reducing our $2400 7 day cruise to 5 days and approximately 960 refunded; 200 ship cabin credit + 75 travel agent cabin credit; and a future 25% discount we assumed was worth 600. Well... this came to 1835 off so the 5 day sailing was costing us 565 for 4 of us. The "other way" of looking at it was we broke out the 25% off to apply towards a future cruise. This meant the cost of out 5 day sailing was 1165. This seemed like a more realistic observation at the time.

So we began with the expectation of a Monday sailing. We reserved immediately to fly into Orlando on Sunday. Then they announced Orlando was closing due to the storm size and tracks - so we had a cancelled flight. SO we studied the storm track and timing at the time and felt Tampa looked OK on the opposite coast. Wrong... UNited cancelled the flight and we looked towards West Palm Beach as being close to Port Carnaveral and south of the spiral. Well, we also decided to move up our flight from Sunday to Saturday to ensure we were in the area to make the flight. That was change #3.

Well, West Palm Beach closed so we shifted to FOrt Lauderdale (#4) and tried to fly on the next possible flight on Saturday evening. By the time we got to the airport we discovered on check in that the flight had csancelled from Chicago to FOrt Lauderdale and their reservation computer had automatically reassigned us had split our party to two flights! So Change #5 involved reconnecting us onto 1 flight for the adjusted Dulles to Fort Lauderdale flight. Oh - and the change also involved a switch from the prior Oxnard-LA-Chicago-Fort Lauderdale to now be a Oxnard-LA-Chicago-DULLES-Fort Lauderdale.

So we boarded our 1st leg somewhat apprehensive at the flurry of changes but hopeful while joking privately at "what else can they cancel or change" to try and dissuade us? Well - on the upside - while waiting at LAX a proactive United Customer Service counter rep saw she could SPEED us on our journey by dropping the LAX-Chicago-Dulles for a LAX to Dulles leaving at aboiut the same time as our Chicago flight. This would mean an earlier arrival into DUlles - but certainly it was better then the connect through Chicago. So we had a bit more of a layover in Dulles but that was tolerable.

On arrival in Dulles we checked the last leg of the flight to Fort Lauderdale and it cancelled. So we rescheduled for a 8PM (or 9PM?) flight into Jacksonville. Oddly enough I had assumed that Jacksonville was less desireable since it was on the ingress spiral side of the hurricane and it ws squarely on the evacuation path for Floridians. Well, it remained open because evidently the storm had stalled south and effected all the other Florida airports! So we now had change #6 and a huge layover in Dulles from 6AM to 8PM. I figured - fine, we'll get a day-room and/or rental car and recover a bit and explore DC a little.

Well, at 12 noon I checked the flight status again and our Jacksonville flight cancelled and we were sadly informed that EVERY airport into FLorida was now closed. Now I must pause to say - we were acting initially on a few objectives and presumptions up to this point: 1st) we were trying to meet the ship on MOnday; 2nd) We had to be in driving range of Port Carvnaveral on monday to make the sailing between 6-10PM. SO... 3rd) the theory went as we flew closer to Florida with each "LEG" that we had a better chance of making flights that were shorter legged into Florida at the end - except they closed every Florida airport!

So we decoded we would default to requesting the next nearest airport to Florida and this meant considering in descending order of distance ~ Savannah, GA.; Charleston, SC.; Atlanta, GA.. I asked United about availability and flight times and then - a small obstacle arose when United said their "waiver" regarding Frances allowed only flight changes to another Florida airport. If I wanted to change to a non-Florida airport and agree to not be "protected" from this last airport to Orlando (my original destination) I would still be charged a change fee and the prevailing rate difference! I was finally beginning to lose my cool - as up till now we looked on it as an "elongating" flight adventure. Bear in mind we were traveling with a 3.5 year old and 9 month old daughter. So up til now (and beyond) the kids had traveled with NO PROBLEMS or ISSUES (really). The kids do travel extensively with us by car/train/plane. They've been to Europe 1 or 3x; zero or 2x; Carribean 1x or 4x; and the lesser traveled younger daughter was a supremely easy traveler compared to the more seaasoned older sister who was an easy traveler.

So while United waited for a supervisor to review my stern appeal for "courtesy" fly me to one of the 3 airports I picked up the other cell phone to check with Disney and rental car agencies. Disney counseled that it would be advisable to fly into Either Savannah 1st or Atlanta even though Charleston was 2nd closest. Reason being was Atlanta had far easier roads then Charleston into Jacksonville - which was my Sunday evening target to make a Monday sailing. Well.... on hearing back with UNited - they approved my changes without fees... but the Savannah flight options left that SUnday were an evening flight which landed at midnight.... numerous Atlanta flights and a couple of Charleston options. Well - on checking for rental cars - Altlanta had NO CARS from all of the majors we were considering. So that left me with Charleston at 5PM landing at 7... 5 hours before the Savannah flight. This seemed as the only practicle option we could squeeze onto.

We arrived in Charleston - stopped an hour to pick up some amazingly good Chinese take out at the juncture of the road leading to 95 (?17?) from Charleston... and we picked up a little "emergency food" from the adjacent super market. So we ended up driving just under 4 hours to cover 250 driving miles into south Jacksonville - arriving at 11:30PM. We reserved a Hampshire Inn enroute which was much nicer then we expected... nice folks runnin' it too.

story continued on next thread entry.....

[captaincrash]

......


And on Monday I checked the internet CHAT boards on Disney and noted on the THREE CIRCLES disney board they posted that the MOnday sailing of the Magic had been.... RESCHEDULED TO TUESDAY! We could have flown into Florida on Tuesdsay - or so it seemed. Oh well... we relaxed a bit as we waited an hour to talk to DCL to confirm the rescheduling. I began to complain that this change mean another day rental car plus hotel, etc (very polite complaining - as I sometimes deal with unhappy folks in MY work so I try to NOT complain rudely - but I DO try to express MY exhausted and strained position). So, the DCL rep advised IF we would drive into Orlando they would provide a free hotel at their resort, plus DIsney park passes good MOnday AnD Tuesday plus the already announced standard increase of refund from 40% to 50%. Quick math suggested we were losing another day (20% of reduced sailing and/or 14.4% of original 7 day schedule). So a 10% refund was out of line considering we were losing 20-14.4%. Adding the hotel and park passes seemed OK. We were IN Florida and at the moment it seemed a tolerable LOSS and offset. Actually, considering what it costs to get into WDW and stay on property it seemed pretty fair.

So UNFORTUNATELY, driving 130 miles from Jacksonville to Orlando proved IMPOSSIBLY SLOW down Highway 95! Fortunately, we stopped relatively early in the afternoon for a potty break and got advice from some kind Florida State troopers who encouraged we take highway #1 which parallelled 95. It was clear through "their county" and would serve as a fast bypass. In my ignorance - as I approcahed re-entry to 95 it looked as if it was moving so I though what harm would there be in re-entering 95 as the map showed a hwy 1 crossing just a little ways SOUTH of where we were. Well - 95 came to a total STOP and we were traveling the 6 miles or so to the crossing at the slowest imaginable pace!

As soon as we got onto HWY1 it went about freeway speed! We followed secondary roads avoiding Daytona and went all the way in at freeway speeds excepting 2 ocassions. 1st was turning around to take another secondary road when we went too far towards Daytona (hit a set of nearly stopped cars pushing into Daytona on Hwy1).... and a second delay as we drove through a clogged small town.

So all the while we were to receive a call from a DCL rep with our hotel info - no call came YET so we called 2 or 3x to try to firm up where we were set to go for the night. After a while driving - I decided we had had enough driving and I called DCL to say - you have NOT assigned me a room yet - and I'm tired of driving - so forget the room - I'm seeking a hotel right where I was and I'll just drive ourselves to Port Canaveral tomorrow - keep the Disney passes as they're useless to enjoy today at this rate.

It was then they told me I really should drive into Orlando since the sailing had also been MOVED from PC to Fort Lauderdale. Quickly I asked - now how do you expect me to drive from Orlando to FL? And they said they would transfer us for free IF I would come stay with them on the WDW property. OK... so I pressed on into Orlando still not knowing where I's stay. NOW NOTE... my designated DCL crisis specialist had earlier advised she was going to be out a couple of days since she had to go home to prepare aginst the threatening hurricane. So up to now I was getting my direction from general service RESORT crisis folks and on Monday I had DCL crisis staffers - but not MY assigned crisis manager.

So - just before I entered Orlando I called DCL to complain that I had arrived and waited 5 HOurs while driving and NO ONE had called me to say where I would stay. The general service DCL staffer was in the middle of saying I could go to their "moderate" property Port Orleans and ask the DCL staff at the desk and they would assign me something there. And in the middle of getting directions to this Port Orleans my Original DCL crisis specialist called to say she had booked us into their "better" property at the Polynesian AND that our bus departure had been scheduled for 9AM. We were pleased and slightly disappointed.

We had a better hotel but lost any residual chance of visiting WDW. So we drove into Orlando - stopped at an outlet mall a few minutes (my spouse was happy) - we picked up some middlin' take out food - and checked into the hotel and returned the rental car. After a brief rest we ventured out to downtown disney then turned in.

The rest was routine. Awaken - board bus - board Magic - etc., etc..

Except to say - we noted no one had as complicated a time traveling in - yet we were in pretty good spirits. It seemed many folks on the cruise were confined to their hotel ROOMS during the hurricane - and they were pretty sour with confinement and expensive resort food. They seemed uniformly ambivelant (misspelled?) yet somewhat happy to finally be on the cruise. No one said much about missing St Thomas or San Juan.... but a few (including us) felt missing castaway cay was a significant loss. Also, I really do not care much for the western sailing ports - but we knew all along the destination we were targeting was the Magic - not it's port calls. However - if we had had St Thomas/San Juan/Castaway Cay then there were IN FACT high value ports to us.

I guess I should also mention I had a couple of minor favors that were done for us by DCL which they asked I keep quiet about. They were very personal in nature and of variable value - but these "favors" added significant personal appreciation to our reshuffled cruise. SO - I have not divulged the actual "favors" but I expressed they helped in a small ways that we really appreciated! Seems reoetitive - but I'm getting cross eyed from all this writing!

So - if I had any advice to you - 1st don't drive into a TROPICAL STORM front - let alone a hurricane front! 2nd book into your hotel earlier then 10PM when I booked enroute to Jacksonvile. I was trying to drive as far as I could to make a MOnday sailing. 3rd... all along they said cancelling folks would only get a refund. IF we knew everyone would get the 25% off as they announced later - then we might NOT have tried to travel into FLorida and sail knowing what I know from our experience!

The real vacation on DCL Magic should include Castaway Cay plus ports whoch interest you. HOWEVER - once we were aboard our daughter was SOOOO HAPPY - nothing else really seemd to matter to me or my spouse. Of course, once we were NOT watching our happy daughter we reflected constantly as to whether we did the right thing to come out to cruise through a hurricane/tropical storm?

IF there was a "NEXT TIME" situation like this - as what YOU"RE facing. I would say .... if everything happened the same way again .... we would do it again. Although we had one of the "tougher" trips in - others were incarcerated in their hotels. What's worse? I think staying home to rebook a flight at the last minute would have been tough since no one seemed to know WHEN the ship would sail. Being so far away (Calif.) it would have been TOUGH to make the tuesday sailing unless we ran matters the way we did.

It just ended up being more of an adventure then we expected. It pushed our tolerences to NEW LIMITS. And DCL group staff really SHINED when they were sadvising and supporting us. Regular DCL staff were OK if not trying. SOme of the other passengers confided they felt info was withheld - while I felt very comfortable with my group crisis contact: AMY.

BTW - we are going to send a very nice "thank you" gift to AMY as she was central to making us feel suppported by someone who took a personal interest in us - in a manner that was 2 or 3 cuts above an already concerned and supportive staff. In retrospect we also felt suspician the DCL staff might have withheld info or staged the divulsion of info - but we were not offended. We work with unhappy and demanding clients sometimes and we can easily recognize a very chalenging service environment. Frances certainly provided a tough nut for all!

Any direct Qs are welcome - publicly here or privately. I will not confirm the nature of my extra "favors" except to say Disney was been an unexpectedly GOOD experience for us - even though our trip was compromised more then we expected. It's not really DCL's fault and they did pretty well under difficult circumstances.

Hope I din;t put you to sleep with my endless dribble!