Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Latest-ID-78437.asp" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Bride Finds Out Wedding Pavilion Not Available Due to Construction Less Than 30 Days Out</b></a> <p>A poster on DisBoards.com writes about finding out her September wedding can no longer be held at the Disney Wedding Pavilion due to construction at the Grand Floridian. The bride is obviously very upset and is keeping followers up to date on her talks with Disney on DisBoards.com and via her @WaltSentMe007 Twitter account.</p>
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Why is she wasting time online? I would be talking to a lawyer and ask the lawyer to negotiate. The first thing I would ask for if I had to settle for BLT would be the bridal or honeymoon suite at BLT. Who wants to deal with transportation on your wedding day in your wedding gown. I hope she settles down and seriously looks at her options. I am trying to think of where the wedding at BLT is. If it is on the rooftop it would be very hot until the sun sets but the view is incredible all around.
Originally Posted By TP2000 I love the irony that this gal is using the Social Media, the same Social Media that Disney now desperately tries to control by operating their own happy-shiny blog while schmoozing and buying off other website owners with free stuff, to spin the complaints back at Disney. 15 years ago she would have been stuck writing a firmly written letter to a cubicle in the complaints department. Now she can broadcast to the world exactly how Disney screwed up, and update us daily on their inept attempts to fix their own mistake. I am now following her on Twitter and will enjoy seeing how this turns out. <a href="http://twitter.com/" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/</a>#!/WaltSentMe007
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Hmmm... being a true Disney apologist I'd like to hear the other side. Her check for the wedding was cashed less than 30 days before the wedding? Did she perhaps not make the payment when required? When I was married last year the wedding chapel required a substantial down payment to hold the date, and required full payment (except for the reception food) 60 days out. My other thought is that Disney had so many complaints from other weddings once the construction walls went up that they decided they better move scheduled weddings even though that had not originally been their plan. If so, she should consider herself lucky. God knows, Disney has no problem renting out their hotel rooms at full price even when they are disturbed by construction! If I were her, I'd try to book the wedding pavilion at the Boardwalk... I've seen other weddings held there and it is a lovely location. I know... since I'm a guy I don't really understand the impact. I'd have been plenty happy to get married in the tunnel between Frontierland and Adventureland if that was all that was available. But mess with my hotel reservation for the wedding NIGHT and you'd have GROOMZILLA on your hands! LOL
Originally Posted By PotNoodle She's all paid up. They offered her an alternate venue that is lesser than than what she paid for the Wedding Pavilion and it sounds like they won't refund her the difference. She also admits to not reading the fine print in the contact that stated there would be construction. Still, you just don't pull that a stunt like that a month out.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "She also admits to not reading the fine print in the contact that stated there would be construction." Well there you go. It was in her contract and they offered her an alternate location, so that should be the end of the story. I doubt if Disney will be intimidated by her rants since it appears that they have tried to fix the error. I do wonder if Disney has offered her a refund since technically speaking the venue she's paid for isn't suitable to hold her event. On another note, her dramatic posts are very entertaining to read though. This particular tweet caused me to roll my eyes uncontrollably: "Does anyone know Bob Iger? maybe I can talk to him about this wedding debacle." Oh brother. Get over yourself. I can't imagine being married to someone like her. "My other thought is that Disney had so many complaints from other weddings once the construction walls went up that they decided they better move scheduled weddings even though that had not originally been their plan." It is entirely possible that the folks booking the property had no idea that the construction was going to happen. Construction projects are notoriously unpredictable and someone in the organization probably didn't communicate properly.
Originally Posted By Ursula I think I have an interesting outlook on this whole thing. 1. I was a Disney Bride. 2. We paid good money. 3. We read and re-read the contract before signing. 4. Our wedding was to be during the construction of DTD at the DLH. 5. I've been in this bride's shoes. The only difference is that I was told all along what could and could not happen due to the construction. As an example, I wanted that Cinderella Coach SO bad. But, my wedding planner told me if I paid the $1800, I wouldn't be able to actually ride in it due to the width of the construction walls. I didn't book it because I knew ahead of time. Also, we knew there could be noise during the ceremony echoing from the building of the Grand Californian. I took a gamble and I knew ahead of time. I knew all sorts of things ahead of time. I'm not talking about four weeks early. I knew MONTHS in advance. It was explained to me many times and in many ways, depending on what section of the day's events we were covering during that planning session. This poor bride clearly wasn't told any of this verbally. The contract did say something about construction, but no one spelled that out to her. Frankly, contracts have things in them that no one expects to happen, and for all she knew, she wasn't told construction would happen so why would anyone think about that? It is akin to the weather clause. You see it, but no one expects a hurricane. I think that paying for something worth more and getting something worth less is a really big deal. Just being able to book the Wedding Pavilion on the day you want is a huge coup, and now just four weeks out or so, they want her to have inferior locations. Why couldn't they have said anything months ago? I'm sure Disney doesn't just plan construction four weeks out. There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between the venues offered. One of them has a view of a parking lot. So, I'm on her side in this. I think she's kept her head and hasn't gone into the realm of Bridezilla at all. If it were me and they told me four weeks out that my wedding would change, that the info I had on my already bought and mailed out invites would now be wrong...then they'd meet Bridezilla. I don't think I would be as restrained as she is being at all.
Originally Posted By Ursula <<<If I were her, I'd try to book the wedding pavilion at the Boardwalk... I've seen other weddings held there and it is a lovely location.>>> It doesn't even begin to compare to what she paid for in the first place. The Wedding Pavilion has an altar that has a window. That window frames the castle in the far distance. This is what she paid for. Huge difference. Also, Disney handles payment differently than your local wedding chapel. She did her payments correctly to the rules she agreed to and if you miss anything with Disney, you lose your date and venue.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I've worked on the other side of this for 12 years. I wouldn't necessarily automatically believe everything she's saying. As far as we know she may have an axe to grind. People can and do say just about anything on the Internet.
Originally Posted By tashajilek I couldnt even imagine having my wedding venue changed in a months notice. It would be hard to even want your wedding at Disney anymore.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Hans>>"On another note, her dramatic posts are very entertaining to read though." My thoughts exactly. It's a riot to read, really.
Originally Posted By Liberty Belle Okay, I have to say I do think the bride is being a bit overdramatic with her posts. Having said that, I think it would be a horrible, stressful thing to have happen right before your wedding. My normally practical friend cried on her wedding day because her flowers were off-white instead of cream - something no guest would ever notice! So I can imagine how most brides would react to a situation like this, especially after paying some serious money for the wedding. I'd be fairly devastated if it were me.
Originally Posted By dshyates I think that if Disney refunded the difference in cost and threw in some sort of special perk like Princess Fiona's Onion Coach, then that's about all they can do to rectify the situation. But as it stands, it sounds as if Disney is being a titch insensitive, and the client a bit of a drama queen. The perfect storm.
Originally Posted By PotNoodle ^^^ This. And if I were her at this point in the game, I'd be a bit more circumspect about what I was tweeting and posting. While I totally believe she was venting, her list of demands for compensation was ridiculous and could be taken out of context. Once it's out there, it's out there. Still, DFTW needs to refund her the difference for the lesser venue and throw a little something in for good will. To do that less than a month away from the wedding is just bad business practice. The take away lesson here is always read your contract before signing.
Originally Posted By DlandDug She's gone. At least, the thread in question is... gone. Here's a new thread discussing what may have happened to it: <a href="http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2791110" target="_blank">http://www.disboards.com/showt...=2791110</a> Apparently she had it pulled herself. Here's what she said on Twitter: >>WaltSentMe007: Getting pretty tired of my viral forum thread. Seeing if it can be pulled from the site.<< I didn't get to read it. Anyone know if it has been archived anywhere?
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom This has nothing to do with a contract and everything to do with the fact that Disney was well aware NO Weddings were going to be able to take place at the Wedding Pavallion during the contruction of the GF DVCs and failed to inform quests who would be affected. Disney kept it all secret. It is a dubious business practice. No good faith effort was being made on Disney's part to ever mention the GF DVC construction. At anytime Disney could have said that the Wedding Pavillion was unavailable ( just like they did with the AKL construction). Clearly Disney was aware the construction was going to begin, yet they entered a contract that was fundamentally dishonest as Disney never had any intention of providing the agreed upon service (use of the Wedding Pavillion at the GF). There ARE other Wedding venues on WDW property. In the planning stages Disney should have made a good faith effort and informed the affected partys that the Wedding Pavillion at GF was NOT available and all Disney could offer was the use of another on property Wedding Venue.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Disney kept it all secret." You talk about Disney as if the all the people involved were one unified body. This simply isn't the case. While the bride and groom have a legitimate complaint, and clearly someone dropped the ball, it is completely within the realm of possibility that the folks responsible for selling and booking the venue had no idea until recently that the construct was going to encroach on their property. This sort of thing happens all the time within large organizations. Communication can often be poor between divisions and important details get overlooked. One clue to how this may have gone down is to have a better understanding of the internal operations of the Wedding Pavilion, The Grand Floridian, and the contractor responsible for the expansion.
Originally Posted By DlandDug ^^^ Totally agree with Hans. Disney (especially at WDW) is often clueless about what individual divisions are up to. It's as much a result of bloated bureaucracy as anything else.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <You talk about Disney as if the all the people involved were one unified body.> No, I just find it completely implausible that no one within the WDW organization knew the GF DVCs were scheduled to begin construction this summer. << This simply isn't the case.>> Your kidding me right? Most Disney fans on most if not all Disney fan sites knew about the proposed GF DVC last winter (along with the one proposed for the poly and the site of the former River Country water park). To somehow suggest that in the last 30 days Disney conjured up and implemented plans for a DVC project at the GF is implausible. <<clearly someone dropped the ball,it is completely within the realm of possibility that the folks responsible for selling and booking the venue had no idea until recently that the construct was going to encroach on their property.>> So your premise here is that a MAJOR DVC expansion is going to take place at the GF and your going to convince me that no one, not a sigle soul within the WDW management, GF management team or the Wedding Planning organization knew in advance? More than likely they knew but were forbidden to mention it. Well, until the cranes showed up and the dredging of the lagoon started. But, I suppose your right that was everyone at the GFs first clue something was up! SPOILER ALERT: For all you CM's over at the GF..... your about to get a major DVC project constructed on your turf. << This sort of thing happens all the time within large organizations. Communication can often be poor between divisions and important details get overlooked.>> Most employees are clued in prior to the construction fences, cranes and dredges showing up though. Well, unless they are kept in the dark or told to shut up! But then again said employees probably should not be entering contractual agreements based on falsehoods. But even if certain CMs were kept in the dark, that still makes the Disney organization liable and negligent. <<One clue to how this may have gone down is to have a better understanding of the internal operations of the Wedding Pavilion, The Grand Floridian, and the contractor responsible for the expansion.>> Your right, it is the contractors fault! He showed up with cranes and dredges six monthes early! Well, except when the contractor showed up no one within the GF organization, Disney organization, Wedding Pavilion organization shooed them away.
