Disney - Part 2

OK, so I told you how the Disney Dining Plan sucked big time. Let me explain a little.

Back in January, after saving for about 3 years to go on this trip, my husband, rather than go through a travel agent, went to www.disney.com and booked our dream vacation. My kids are teens and will be going to college, so we figured this would probably be the last "family vacation" we would take for a long time, if not ever. We booked 8 days and planned to stay at the Port Orleans - French Quarter. We got the 7 day park pass and PAID for the meal plan (the dining plan along cost approximately $1200). We also booked a smoking room. We paid for the trip, made our flight arranagements and waited anxiously for August 25th to arrive.

We got our confirmation, and never again did we hear from Disney, until about July when we received our luggage tags and some other information in the mail. That was it. We never received e-mails or any type of snail-mail letting us know of any changes to our already confirmed arrangements.

Fast forward to August 25th at check-in. We are informed that the hotel has gone non-smoking. No smoking in the rooms, by the pool or on the balconies. There is one designated spot which is in the couryard with no shade. OK, we can understand that, however we should have been notified. First "issue", but not really a major one. We had been aware that the parks were "smoke free" and understand it. Plus the parks have ample designated areas and for the amount and frequency we smoke...no biggie. So we trek on.

I need to note at this time, that the staff at the Port Orleans are exceptional. All had wonderful enthusiam for customer service and went out of the way to be accommodating.

THE DISNEY DINING PLAN
This plan needs to be total canned or overhauled in a major way. They suggest that you make your reservations up to a year in advance. May I ask you....do you know what you're doing a year from now? Do you know what you're doing 6 months from now? Do you know what you're doing next week? Most people do not. And I'm sorry, but I believe that 95% of most vacationers do not plan what they are going to do once they arrive at their destination. ESPECIALLY at Disney. Oh sure, you have those type A personalites that have to have a schedule, but most people have an idea of what they would like to do, but don't have their vacations planned to the second. But I digress.

I actually tried to start making reservations 2 weeks before we left and the staff on the receiving end of the phone call (don't get me started at how long or how many buttons I had to push before I got a human being) seem to hate their jobs. The more I spoke to them, the more like trying to pull teeth it seemed. Not one of the staff tried to assist me by offering suggestions or scrolling to tell me what was available. They waited for me to give the name of a restaurant and then proceeded to tell me it was booked. When I finally did find a restaurant, my family and I didn't eat before 9:30 on ANY night we were there. One the final day, I called Disney Dining and after getting the same treatment, finally said - FIND ME A RESTAURANT. I told her to start scrolling through her list and find me availability. I told her I paid for this plan, and I didn't give a rats ass about the people who didn't pay. I told her to do her job and find me a place to eat.
Again....severe customer service issues.

There are not enough restaurants to accommodate the number of people who stay at the resorts. Disney has gotten too big and and has seemed to loose focus on what got them where they are in the first place. During Busy Season (which August is considered to be), they need to have the ability to connect with their guests on cancellations, stand-bys and availability. Maybe they need to have restaurants have NO reservations. First come-first serve basis. Then there is a fair opportunity for ALL parties involved. The restaurants won't suffer and neither will Disney. Lastly, they need to educate their phone representatives of customer satisfaction. I'm not done with this yet. NEXT UP!!!! - The Disney Executives and REFUNDS