Need Advice Family Assigned to Different Dining Times

[katiebeth]

For those of you who have cruised Disney frequently, I need some advice. We are a family of 10 (myself, husband, two children, and my brother and his wife and their two children, and my parents). We are sailing on March 18 on the 4 night Wonder cruise.

 

We have never cruised together as an entire family and are really looking forward to this time together. We live in Florida and my brother and his family and our parents live in Illinois. We get together only a couple of times a year, so we really value the time we have together.

 

We booked this cruise in November while my immediate family was on a 3 night Wonder cruise. At the time of our booking, my family and my parents were assigned Main seating and my brother and his family were waitlisted for Main. They were the first on the waitlist for Main seating. The Disney employee that booked us was most confident that my brother's family would clear as they were the first on the waitlist and she said that Disney would not separate a family traveling together. In addition, my brother's girls are 2 and 5 and would have a difficult if not impossible time waiting to eat until the Late seating.

 

Anyway, I have checked periodically to see if they have cleared. Each time I spoke with a Disney rep. they said that they had not cleared, but were confident that they would as Disney would not separate us as a family.

 

Much to my surprise, we received our cruise documents this week and my brother and his family are still assigned to late seating. I called Disney and the representative I spoke with was surprised as well, that we would be separated. (especially since we booked at the same time and our reservations were tied together) He spoke with his supervisor and she said she would contact the person in charge of dining requests/seating and that I should check back next week.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I know we will all be very very disappointed if we can't dine together. If push come to shove, I will switch with my brother as our children are 11 and 13 and more able to eat at a later time than his 2 and 5 year old. However, this may be the only time we all cruise together (our parents are 76 and 77) and it would be such a shame if we could not enjoy dining together.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Nancy

[scottishwee35]

For those of you who have cruised Disney frequently, I need some advice. We are a family of 10 (myself, husband, two children, and my brother and his wife and their two children, and my parents). We are sailing on March 18 on the 4 night Wonder cruise.

 

We have never cruised together as an entire family and are really looking forward to this time together. We live in Florida and my brother and his family and our parents live in Illinois. We get together only a couple of times a year, so we really value the time we have together.

 

We booked this cruise in November while my immediate family was on a 3 night Wonder cruise. At the time of our booking, my family and my parents were assigned Main seating and my brother and his family were waitlisted for Main. They were the first on the waitlist for Main seating. The Disney employee that booked us was most confident that my brother's family would clear as they were the first on the waitlist and she said that Disney would not separate a family traveling together. In addition, my brother's girls are 2 and 5 and would have a difficult if not impossible time waiting to eat until the Late seating.

 

Anyway, I have checked periodically to see if they have cleared. Each time I spoke with a Disney rep. they said that they had not cleared, but were confident that they would as Disney would not separate us as a family.

 

Much to my surprise, we received our cruise documents this week and my brother and his family are still assigned to late seating. I called Disney and the representative I spoke with was surprised as well, that we would be separated. (especially since we booked at the same time and our reservations were tied together) He spoke with his supervisor and she said she would contact the person in charge of dining requests/seating and that I should check back next week.

 

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I know we will all be very very disappointed if we can't dine together. If push come to shove, I will switch with my brother as our children are 11 and 13 and more able to eat at a later time than his 2 and 5 year old. However, this may be the only time we all cruise together (our parents are 76 and 77) and it would be such a shame if we could not enjoy dining together.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Nancy

 

I am sorry to hear that but I hope evrything will sort out soon as DCL won't let you all down. I think DCL are trying to best to sort it out. I send you pixie dust and hope everything go smoothly at end. Finger Cross.

 

Have a great times

 

Scottishwee35

[mom x4,grandma x4]

No worries!!

 

We had a similar experience once. we had booked ourselves a year out and just a few weeks before the cruise we invited our daughter and her family to come along. we claled and added them to our ressies. It showed us at different dining times. We were also told this would be changed.

when we got on board we checked our dining tickest as soon as we got into our rooms at 1:30. It still showed us at different times.

So we took our tickets and went to the club where you can go to change times and make Palos reservations and explained we were family and were suppose to be together.

They punched in a few numbers from our tickets and they said, it's all fixed.

we had early as we wanted, and all together.

 

So keep bugging them and if you have different times on your dining tickets, go immediatly to tell them. Upon check in you are given a paper that will say where and when to change dining times and to make Palos reservations. that is where you need to go.

Your room cards will also have your rotation on it (by initials) so if the rotation is different from your family I would go to get it changed as soon as you get on the ship. Usually the times are from boarding until 2 and since you cant get to your room until 1:30 you may just want to go without your dining tickets. Just to be safe.

 

But people are correct, Disney will not break up a family, although soemtimes it may be hard to keep early dining since it fills up first.

 

mom x4,grandma x4

[johardy]

I have had the same problem, we just kept phoning customer relations and finally got it changed shortly before we left home, I have also been able to change seating times when on board . Like others I do not think Disney would split a family up.

[katiebeth]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words. I am feeling confident that Disney will make the necessary adjustments to make sure we are altogether.

 

The representatives all seem to be doing their best to make sure things work o.k. Disney's customer service seems to be much better than the other cruise lines I have had to deal with. We cruise Celebrity frequently, but their customer service is pretty dreadfull. Everyone I have spoken with at Disney has been very pleasant and one even offered to call a supervisor without me even asking (I think that is a first!!!)

 

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to reply.

 

Happy Sailings,

 

Nancy