Difference between Park guest services and Cruise...

[steves100]

All I can say is HUGE!!!!

DCL goes out of their way to help guests and REALLY bends over backwards to help, park doesn't give 2 ****s!

Waited today 1/2 hour just to talk to guest services in EPCOT, problem last week at boardwalk and they gave everyone 3 fast passes, which didn't get credited.

25 minutes after 1/2 hour wait just to talk to someone NOTHING, they wanted to confirm with Boardwalk.
Got manager who said he couldn't do anything, my reply was your a manager of course you can.

Ultimate I left since my woke pay had eaten lunch by then, they did resolve issue but took 4 hours to do so. DSL would have had it done in 5 minutes. Parks just are TOO busy and understaffed.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

All I can say is HUGE!!!!

DCL goes out of their way to help guests and REALLY bends over backwards to help, park doesn't give 2 ****s!

Waited today 1/2 hour just to talk to guest services in EPCOT, problem last week at boardwalk and they gave everyone 3 fast passes, which didn't get credited.

25 minutes after 1/2 hour wait just to talk to someone NOTHING, they wanted to confirm with Boardwalk.
Got manager who said he couldn't do anything, my reply was your a manager of course you can.

Ultimate I left since my woke pay had eaten lunch by then, they did resolve issue but took 4 hours to do so. DSL would have had it done in 5 minutes. Parks just are TOO busy and understaffed.

Well, not our experience. Just returned from a couple of days at WDW following Fantasy cruise. Had to deal with Guest Services at both locations. More helpful at the resort than onboard.

 

[steves100]

Not resort they do seem to help, park Guest Relations.

But I just talked to concierge and I mist take some of my complaints back, they gave 3 FPs per day to make up for the inconvenience

 

[mevelandry]

We've had a tv problem that was never solved during our second DCL cruise. I think it really depends what the problem is.

 

[bumbershoot]

Not resort they do seem to help, park Guest Relations.

But I just talked to concierge and I mist take some of my complaints back, they gave 3 FPs per day to make up for the inconvenience

Sounds like this was a resort problem. Park GS was an inappropriate place to go, or there should have been an understanding that they would in fact need to communicate with the resort.

 

[AshleeH]

I found the exact opposite to be true. The parks have always gone above and beyond and created absolute magic for us! I've only had one instance where I had to go to guest services on our past cruise - we were 5 minutes late to get to our Olaf meet and greet and they wouldn't let us in. I went to GS to see if there was anything we could do - acknowledging that it was our fault for being so late (we were eating lunch and then got lost on our way there), but I was hopeful we could get passes for one of the later experiences. They said, "No, we have no later passes available for the remaining times" and sent us on our way. This was back when Olaf was a brand new character to meet and I remember being so frustrated in the elevator back to the room that I had one prevailing thought: No one should be that upset on a Disney Cruise. If it had been something for me, it wouldn't have bothered me, but it broke my heart to disappoint our then-2 year old. That was not at all the Disney service I expected.

However, at the parks, I can list at least 3 things in the last two WDW trips (this past February and October) where Disney has gone completely above and beyond my expectations and left me with a magical feeling, without me expecting anything! One of those trips was during the hurricane closure - if ever there was a time for them to potentially (and understandably) drop the ball, that week would've been it. But the amount that they went out of their way to help, not only us, but everyone else flabbergasted us.

We're going on another cruise next week and I hope we don't have any reason to interact with GS - I don't have much faith in them now, in comparison with WDW.

 

[Dug720]

I found the exact opposite to be true. The parks have always gone above and beyond and created absolute magic for us! I've only had one instance where I had to go to guest services on our past cruise - we were 5 minutes late to get to our Olaf meet and greet and they wouldn't let us in. I went to GS to see if there was anything we could do - acknowledging that it was our fault for being so late (we were eating lunch and then got lost on our way there), but I was hopeful we could get passes for one of the later experiences. They said, "No, we have no later passes available for the remaining times" and sent us on our way. This was back when Olaf was a brand new character to meet and I remember being so frustrated in the elevator back to the room that I had one prevailing thought: No one should be that upset on a Disney Cruise. If it had been something for me, it wouldn't have bothered me, but it broke my heart to disappoint our then-2 year old. That was not at all the Disney service I expected.

However, at the parks, I can list at least 3 things in the last two WDW trips (this past February and October) where Disney has gone completely above and beyond my expectations and left me with a magical feeling, without me expecting anything! One of those trips was during the hurricane closure - if ever there was a time for them to potentially (and understandably) drop the ball, that week would've been it. But the amount that they went out of their way to help, not only us, but everyone else flabbergasted us.

We're going on another cruise next week and I hope we don't have any reason to interact with GS - I don't have much faith in them now, in comparison with WDW.

I get that it was disappointing, but if they had no more tickets, they had no more tickets. The characters are on extremely tight schedules and the tickets are allotted for the number that can be accommodated in the time frame.

 

[AshleeH]

I get that it was disappointing, but if they had no more tickets, they had no more tickets. The characters are on extremely tight schedules and the tickets are allotted for the number that can be accommodated in the time frame.

I agree and took full responsibility for it - but I was also crushed that if we'd finished earlier at lunch (we were eating at Triton's and had mentioned to the waiter - not our usual waiter - that we had to get to our meet and greet by a certain time), we would've made it. Regardless, we could've eaten at the buffet and chosen when we left, but Disney usually goes above and beyond when things don't align quite right. If they hadn't just been shutting the doors when we got there, if we hadn't missed it by 5 minutes, if we hadn't been pointed in the wrong direction by a well-meaning person when we didn't know which way to go - a lot of ifs went into missing it. And even though we're never late for FPs in the parks, I have heard there is a 5-10 minute grace period extended to those who are - sadly, this is not the case with DCL.

 

[Dug720]

I agree and took full responsibility for it - but I was also crushed that if we'd finished earlier at lunch (we were eating at Triton's and had mentioned to the waiter - not our usual waiter - that we had to get to our meet and greet by a certain time), we would've made it. Regardless, we could've eaten at the buffet and chosen when we left, but Disney usually goes above and beyond when things don't align quite right. If they hadn't just been shutting the doors when we got there, if we hadn't missed it by 5 minutes, if we hadn't been pointed in the wrong direction by a well-meaning person when we didn't know which way to go - a lot of ifs went into missing it. And even though we're never late for FPs in the parks, I have heard there is a 5-10 minute grace period extended to those who are - sadly, this is not the case with DCL.

Right. Because regarding character meets in the parks, the characters have more "friends". On the ships it is a much more limited pool of "friends" to select from - even with the head characters as Disney has strict size guidelines for them so you can't just throw a friend of say Goofy in an Olaf outfit.

 

[bbel]

With guest services anywhere, it is one of those things that it completely depends on what you expect the outcome to be as to whether you think they did all they could or not. Even at Disney there are times when the answer is simply 'No', even if thats not what the guest wants to hear...

 

[PrincessShmoo]

With guest services anywhere, it is one of those things that it completely depends on what you expect the outcome to be as to whether you think they did all they could or not. Even at Disney there are times when the answer is simply 'No', even if thats not what the guest wants to hear...

Exactly.

 

[party-of-five]

I agree and took full responsibility for it - but I was also crushed that if we'd finished earlier at lunch (we were eating at Triton's and had mentioned to the waiter - not our usual waiter - that we had to get to our meet and greet by a certain time), we would've made it. Regardless, we could've eaten at the buffet and chosen when we left, but Disney usually goes above and beyond when things don't align quite right. If they hadn't just been shutting the doors when we got there, if we hadn't missed it by 5 minutes, if we hadn't been pointed in the wrong direction by a well-meaning person when we didn't know which way to go - a lot of ifs went into missing it. And even though we're never late for FPs in the parks, I have heard there is a 5-10 minute grace period extended to those who are - sadly, this is not the case with DCL.

Right. Because regarding character meets in the parks, the characters have more "friends". On the ships it is a much more limited pool of "friends" to select from - even with the head characters as Disney has strict size guidelines for them so you can't just throw a friend of say Goofy in an Olaf outfit.

@Dug720 - I understand your explanation, but the point is customer service. Something could have been done to not let someone (in particular a child) walk away disappointed especially when it was an honest mistake in not making it on time. ... a post card signed by Olaf; a sticker, a character call to the room; a picture of Olaf with a 'hey sorry I missed you', etc. IMHO customer service is not bending the rules, or making the impossible happen, but just going that little extra step in customer satisfaction. But I understand this isn't always possible. To the OP's issue... if they were given fast passes (whether they understood them or not) and they went to the park to use them, and encountered an issue, it shouldn't take hours to get that resolved.

Years ago we were at EPCOT and had been at the other parks in the previous days. Daisy is my daughter's favorite character. (She was about 6 at the time). I had gone into guest services to change a dinner reservation time and also inquired about when Daisy might be making appearances as we hadn't hadn't see her on the schedule all week. We were told that Daisy was on 'vacation' and was disappointed not to meet my daughter. We didn't make a big deal out of it, just a simple 'that's too bad'. At dinner that night, my daughter was presented with a folder with Daisy and Minnie on the cover. Inside was a signed note by Daisy and Minnie along with a Daisy trading pin. My daughter was so touched. (We all were) It was just a simple little thing, but that simple little thing, and so many others like it, have us coming back for our vacations.

 

[Dug720]

@Dug720 - I understand your explanation, but the point is customer service. Something could have been done to not let someone (in particular a child) walk away disappointed especially when it was an honest mistake in not making it on time. ... a post card signed by Olaf; a sticker, a character call to the room; a picture of Olaf with a 'hey sorry I missed you', etc. IMHO customer service is not bending the rules, or making the impossible happen, but just going that little extra step in customer satisfaction. But I understand this isn't always possible. To the OP's issue... if they were given fast passes (whether they understood them or not) and they went to the park to use them, and encountered an issue, it shouldn't take hours to get that resolved.

Years ago we were at EPCOT and had been at the other parks in the previous days. Daisy is my daughter's favorite character. (She was about 6 at the time). I had gone into guest services to change a dinner reservation time and also inquired about when Daisy might be making appearances as we hadn't hadn't see her on the schedule all week. We were told that Daisy was on 'vacation' and was disappointed not to meet my daughter. We didn't make a big deal out of it, just a simple 'that's too bad'. At dinner that night, my daughter was presented with a folder with Daisy and Minnie on the cover. Inside was a signed note by Daisy and Minnie along with a Daisy trading pin. My daughter was so touched. (We all were) It was just a simple little thing, but that simple little thing, and so many others like it, have us coming back for our vacations.

If it was something in Disney's control somewhat - such as Olaf wasn't there because his friend was sick (or in your case where Daisy was "on vacation" - and it was not something YOU had scheduled a time for) - I would agree. But this was totally user error - so while they *could* have done something, I would not fault them for doing nothing in this case. It was not their fault the poster was late.

Edit to add: While I do believe the poster, Guest Services had no way to know that they really did miss the time. Our tickets were looked at but not marked or collected in February. I don't know if that is usial, but if so, if word got out online that they were making exceptions because people were saying they missed their window, they would face the very real possibility that more people would start claiming that just to get more tickets.