Originally Posted By SeventyOne Wow, I thought having to defend D23 was hard for Disney apologists. But trying to spin this major a screw-up? Polite golf applause for RoadTrip and Dr. Reinhardt. Suggesting they actually did her a favor by moving her to an inferior venue, so she wouldn't have to complain about all the construction? Well played, Trippy, well played.
Originally Posted By Ursula <<<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.>>> None of this should ever affect a guest.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Hmm. When I said "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," it wasn't to defend the actions that led to this woman's sorrow. It was to answer his statement: >>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.<< Despite the protestations in post #20, I absolutely believe that this could very easily be a screw up caused by poor communication. Of course a lot of people knew exactly what was going on. But did the correct individuals involved communicate with each other? Case in point: Many years ago I visited WDW, and noted a HUGE construction site across the main drag from DownTown Disney. I asked a friendly cast member what it was. They looked over at the towering cranes and said, "Uh, I'm not sure." I checked with Guest Relations. They smiled and brightly said, "There's always construction going on here at Walt Disney World!" For the next few hours I asked around, and got vague and baffling answers. HOW COULD IT BE? How could cast members not know the details on MAJOR construction going on across the street? (It was the Team Disney Orlando building, incidentally.) As to this: >>Most Disney fans on most if not all Disney fan sites knew about the proposed GF DVC last winter...<< Sad to say, but folks on the internet often are aware of things well before, and long after, everybody in the cast.
Originally Posted By DlandDug Not to mention that schedules can change, and not everyone gets the memo.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I was staying at the AKL when Disney was doing their "extreme makeover" and converting rooms over to DVC. EVERYONE at the AKL including guests knew the construction was going on. Shortly after my stay Disney decided that given the growing number of guests complaints about construction noise, shut down the AKL and offered people who had booked the concierge level rooms and suites, DVC rooms at Saratoga Springs ( which many if not most guests considered a subpar value ). So their "is" historical presidence for this very situation on property. The difference is that at AKL, Disney thought they could do the DVC conversion with the resort booked and full of guests. Reality proved otherwise! Given the situation at the AKL, I would surmise that the Disney management team would have had enough insight to consider GF would be experiencing the same situation. Even during the construction of BLT, the area around the poly was a complete mess. Disney should have been forthright with the truth when entering contractual agreements to offer the services of the GF Wedding Chapel especially since WDW offers other Wedding location venues on property. There is absolutely no excuses! Regardless of if a mistake was made, "no one got the memo", Disney pulled the plug on the availability of the Wedding Chapel. They need to make good.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>There is absolutely no excuses! Regardless of if a mistake was made, "no one got the memo", Disney pulled the plug on the availability of the Wedding Chapel. They need to make good.<< I totally agree, Tom. I don't understand why Disney wouldn't offer to give them a full refund. Is the bad PR from something like this really worth it? What would the good PR if they do the decent and fair thing be worth? Once again, it's a case where the reasonable and right thing to do becomes the last thing a company considers (not that they even are considering it). Instead, because the customer signed a contract, you don't let the fish off the hook. If I were her, I'd lawyer up.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I'm confident Disney is going to make good. Anyway that is going to have to be decided between Disney and the very soon to be wedded couple!
Originally Posted By hopemax And it's not like the Wedding Pavilion hasn't had "issues" before. Remember the big brouhaha with the pink castle that resulted in the creation of a special stained glass window to block it out? The other thing I found troubling from a guest service perspective is that 1. The groom was notified, not the bride. Really, who is normally the more involved one in the planning? 2. Her Disney planner was unavailable for 48 hours. The bride left multiple messages, leaving her current cell phone multiple times and verifying that her current number was the one that showed up if you pulled up her account, and the planner apparently kept calling a disconnected number. However, it looks like this bride has received satisfaction: "Today's call went much better than yesterday. It definitely helped that I had that forum thread deleted because it was mentioned in today's conversation and they appreciated that I did that yesterday after it went viral. I can't divulge too many details but what came out of this was that we got the Disney customer service that we all have come to know and love. They were much more apologetic and willing to bend a little. "
Originally Posted By PotNoodle It sounds like has been resolved to her satisfaction: Today's call went much better than yesterday. It definitely helped that I had that forum thread deleted because it was mentioned in today's conversation and they appreciated that I did that yesterday after it went viral. I can't divulge too many details but what came out of this was that we got the Disney customer service that we all have come to know and love. They were much more apologetic and willing to bend a little. We came to a good agreement and Jason and I are still leaving for our trip in 22 days!!! I am absolutely exhausted and I haven't eaten in a very long time. I'm gonna get myself some Mickey D's for comfort food and then take a well deserved nap. I am SO glad I'm coming home tomorrow!!! Thank you all SO much for your support. I'm sorry this happened but I'm glad it was handled to our satisfaction by DFTW. __________________ <a href="http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=644129&page=31" target="_blank">http://forums.wdwmagic.com/sho...&page=31</a>
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I am sure that Disney was glad that the thread disappeared AFTER it went viral. My guess is Disney was getting some push back on this. As for the wedding pavillion not knowing about the construction...I have worked for Disney long enough to know that this (as strange as it may seem) is very possible. The company is so large that often people are left out of the loop until at some point someone realizes that no one communicated with a group or dept. I would sit in on meetings and at some point say...well what about so and so, wont this affect how we do this thing? Only to be met with silence as it sunk in that decisions that had been made had a lot more ripples than the group appeared to understand.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<...I have worked for Disney long enough to know that this (as strange as it may seem) is very possible. The company is so large that often people are left out of the loop until at some point someone realizes that no one communicated with a group or dept.>> The construction fences at GF went up at least a month ago. That should have been a pretty good "tip off" something was up. If I worked at the GF I would have been asking questions, "are they drilling for oil in Bay Lake"? Is the Seven dwarfs mine train going to be built at GF instead of Fantasyland? Everyone knew a DVC was going in at GF, so I don't buy it. The question was when construction was going to begin. The construction fences should have been a good "clue".
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>The construction fences should have been a good "clue".<< Yes, they should have been. But, just as I faced several years ago, giant cranes can be in operation, and nobody knows what's going on. Again, I have no argument that Disney made a mistake. I totally reject the notion that they intentionally misled people, that everyone knew everything that was going on at all times, and that anyone who doesn't agree otherwise is some sort of Company apologist. Also note that Disney has made good. Just too bad this whole thing had to be blown out of proportion. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I never got to see the original thread, so I only know the details I have read here. But I do know how bureaucracies work...!)
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom The important thing is the matter has been resolved. Best of luck to their Wedding!
Originally Posted By dshyates Disney does have a magical way of making things right when things go wrong. I am glad that they lived up to that reputation and everyone is happy now.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt <<<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.>>> None of this should ever affect a guest." Well of course it shouldn't, but the fact of the matter is that mistakes happen. There are two issues here: how did the booking happen when there was construction scheduled to encroach on the venue and how will Disney make it right with their client (the bride and groom). I'm not siding with Disney... who can since the property has been mum on the subject? For that very reason I'm also not going to jump on the bride's bandwagon and assume that her online rants are justified. I'm simply saying that I've dealt with my share of brides and venues while producing high end weddings and I've seen some pretty unreasonable behavior when a client clearly didn't listen, read the fine print, misunderstood their agreements, demanded the impossible, and so forth and so on.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The other thing I found troubling from a guest service perspective is that 1. The groom was notified, not the bride. Really, who is normally the more involved one in the planning?" You'd be surprised. I've done plenty of weddings where our office talked to the groom more than the bride. In some cases its the groom paying for everything and in some instances the bride just wasn't that into throwing a big to-do for her wedding but the groom was. "The construction fences at GF went up at least a month ago. That should have been a pretty good "tip off" something was up." It probably was the tip off. Within a few weeks they likely began to issue the cancellations.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom << Within a few weeks they likely began to issue the cancellations.>> This cancellation was rendered recently and at most 30 days out. So much for full disclosure on Disney's part that the venue was going to be unavailable. Someone somewhere within the Disney organization had to have knows that a multi-hundred dollar DVC complex was going in. Oh and for those within the Disney organization who are still being kept in the dark there are proposed DVCs going in at the Poly as well as the site of River Country. Apparently ignorance is bliss at WDW.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Someone somewhere within the Disney organization had to have knows that a multi-hundred dollar DVC complex was going in." Of course "someone" knew Tom. The question is did the person or persons responsible for renting the venue know. I'm guessing that they didn't. I'm also guessing that you've never worked for a large multi-leveled organization like WDW, not that that gives them a pass, but things like this do happen from time to time in big organizations when communication breaks down.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<The question is did the person or persons responsible for renting the venue know. I'm guessing that they didn't.>> Even if they didn't (which I don't buy since virtually every Disney fan out there knew last February) they should have known something was up months ago when the construction fences, cranes and dredges arrived. << I'm also guessing that you've never worked for a large multi-leveled organization like WDW, not that that gives them a pass, but things like this do happen from time to time in big organizations when communication breaks down.>> You be surprised at the power of internal memos. An internal memo from a (former) member of my employeer's management organization leaked and caused the Obama Administration's Justice Dept to file suit stopping a 30 Billion dollar merger.
