First I wanted to let you know my background. Myself and my wife have been long term visitors to your parks and have been DVC owners at Boardwalk Villas since December 1999. We are also Platinum members of the
Disney Cruise Line Castaway Club taking everything from 3 day to 14 day Panama Canal sailings.
But over the past few years we have just become disenchanted with Disney with from all the little cut backs that Disney keeps making, while at the same time ever increasing your prices. We’ve just completed a stay at the Disney World resort from 11/27 to 12/4 and I wanted to pass along some of the things we experience during our trip that have just reenforced our decision.
- We had done everything we could from preordering Magic Bands to the online checkin to make our checkin experience go smoothly. That was not to be, we got a text saying that our room was being prepared but that we needed to stop by the front desk. We were told there was an issue with the system where our Magic Bands would work for park admission and room charges but wouldn’t open our doors. It took over 20 minutes and multiple staff members at the front desk to resolve the issue.
- Once we got settled into our room we decided to go to Disney Springs for dinner. We went to the bus stop where the display screen said the next bus would arrive at 4:22PM, too bad the current time was 5:29. We waited for over 20 minutes and finally asked a drive on one of the other busses if they could check on when one would arrive, which he did and once arrived shortly there after.
- As long as I mentioned issues with your bus fleet we ran into a number of times where a bus would pull up to a stop but the display read “Refilling my Pixie Dust”. You then need to go ask the driver where the bus was going, why can’t you get the signs work display the destination?
- That night we’re getting ready for bed and go to plug in all our iPhones and watches to get ready for the next day, since Disney is basically forcing their customers to use these smart devices to navigate their parks. However in room 3009 at the Boardwalk Villas one night stand has no available outlets and the other had one. Heck, I go to an Hampton Inn and they provide USB and standard electrical outlets on their nightstands and Disney calls these Deluxe Villas.
- Last comment about the rooms, have you every used the Kleenex or toilet paper that you provide in the DVC rooms? I’m glad I had seen comments on various forums about how bad it was and purchased a few rolls for delivery with our food. Since DVC members pay for these supplies with our annual dues I think we’d all be happy to pay for a couple cents more per point to get a better grade of produce. I can see Disney cheating out on these products for their bottom line profit but you aren’t making a profit on our annual dues.
- The joke on the internet is how bad Disney IT is. I’ve experienced the issues myself a number of times on the web site where you get cute screens with the Seven Dwarfs saying there’s an issue. I also ran into issues trying to use your new Genie app trying to make reservations for that day. First of all WHY do you make someone have to be up at 7AM everyday they are visiting a park to make a reservation for a ride. This is supposed to be a vacation! But I digress, a number of times right at 7AM I tried to make a reservation for a Lightning Lane or Lightning Lane+ and was greeted but a looping message saying the app was updating my experience. I’d give up waiting, exit the app and go back in but now find the ride I was tying to get a reservation for was filled up. And you make me pay $15 per day per person for this aggravation.
- One member of our party was celebrating a birthday on 11/28 and we were able to get a dinner reservation at Le Cellier. I noted on the reservation that we were celebrating a birthday, the person was wearing the Disney birthday button plus I mentioned it to the server. In the past something special would have been done to note the occasion, this time not a single thing was done.
- At this same dinner one of the entries the was bought our was incorrect. When the correct one was finally delivered the other three members of the party were just about done eating. In the past Disney would make an adjustment in the check due to this error, this time nothing.
- On 11/30 we went to Disney Springs again and had lunch at Jock Lindsey’s, never again. Our ‘server’ Frank ignored our table for over 15 minutes, he only came over when a hostess happened by and we flagged her down. When the plates for our appetizers were delivered one of them had dried cheese on it. The quality of the food was not very good and everyone was very disappointed in the place. And BTW, the birds on the outside deck are horrible, one of them sitting on a heater above our table happened to target a ‘dropping’ which landed on one of our cell phones, guess we should be happy it wasn’t one of us.
- On a positive note I would like to get a job well done to a server at Sci-Fi Dine In named Michael. He was very attentive to our needs and was very friendly in the process, a 180 degree difference from Frank and Jocks.
- On 12/2 the group wanted chocolate martinis from a booth in France. After waiting in line to place our order we were told that your systems were down and you couldn’t accept Magic Bands for payment, only credit cards. Since Disney sells the Magic Band as all you need that’s all we were carrying, hence no martinis. As someone that worked in IT for over 30 years a I know things happen, but what couldn’t Disney place someone at the beginning of the line to warn your customers of the problem?
- On another positive note I’d like to thank a Noel and Grace at the Boardwalk. My wife left her iPhone in the bathroom of our room, but she didn’t notice it until were were already on the Magical Express bus to the airport. I called the number listed on the DVC web site for the Boardwalk and was on hold the entire time it took to drive to the airport (your hold times are another major complaint your customers have). Once on the airside I called DVC member services who was able to get in touch with Noel. Noel retrieved the phone and Grace drove it our the the airport so I could get it. Now that’s the level of service we used to expect from Disney.
- We were looking forward to doing the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this year but that was replaced by the new after hours party. I was ready to purchase tickets to that party until I saw that pricing, we’d have to pay over $240 a person including tax compared to the old party which last time we attended was under $100. We have the means to purchase a ticket at that price but there was no way I was going to spend that money. Looking at the line of people entering the park for that party you still have your loyal base but for how much longer?
So as you can see, our trip was not what you’d expect from the Disney of old. Frankly with all the hoops you now have to go through to visit the parks, to the constant price increases, to the lessening of the experience unless you spend extra money for things like a desert party or VIP viewing area so you can see fireworks, to elimination of services like Magical Express and luggage transfer we are giving up. We have promised our grandkids to take them too WDW for Thanksgiving next year and after that we are done. Even before all the recent changes we had sold three out of our four DVC contracts and after that trip next year we’re going to sell our last contract. We also have had our broker sell all the Disney stock that we had held, I just can’t do business with your company anymore.
Lastly I’d like to mention the cruise line. As I said, we are Platinum members of
DCL and love the cruise line, it’s a place where you can still find the magic of the Disney of old. In fact we were booked on a 7 night cruise in January in a category 4A cabin. But I started to look around and frankly Disney has reached a point where we just don’t see the value in paying the premium that DCL commands. We cancelled that cruise and booked a suite on Celebrity which includes free WiFi, $600 of on board credit, tips are included and since it’s a suite access to their suite level only deck, lounge and restaurant and I’m paying less than Disney. Plus their loyalty program is MUCH better than Disney. One thing that bugged my about the Castaway Club was that someone booking 10 cruises in your cheapest cabin on a 3 day cruise earned the same credit as someone that booked a suite on a 14 night cruise. Plus now you’ve cheapened the platinum level by making changes to the Palo dinner experience that we would get for free as Platinum. Plus the web site use to show that platinum members could use the concierge checking area, that is now gone.
I know Mr Chapek will never see this e-mail but I just had to express myself as to why the Disney company has lost a long term customer.
). The magic was most certainly there, and dare I say, stronger than my last visit 4 years ago.
to folks here who take the time to answer 8 MILLION questions a week.
Wow, those were all the "little" things that made a disney vacation magical to me. 
