We Lost Our Disney Cruise Because of a Travel Agent Mistake

Travel agents can be lifesavers in certain situations. But they are human too, and it pays to verify a few details if you want to make sure your vacation goes according to plan.

In this case, a Disney cruise reservation was canceled because one of the most important parts of the booking process was mishandled.

A Silver Castaway Club member and family were all set for the only 7-night Canada cruise currently scheduled out of New York on Disney Cruise Line. The ship: Disney Wish.

They worked with their usual Disney travel agent and locked in two guaranteed family veranda cabins.

The booking process was a bit chaotic, but the agent confirmed the rooms were secured last week. The cruiser, who posted the entire ordeal on Reddit, handed over a credit card for the deposit and thought everything was taken care of.

Then came the call.

“This morning, I received a call from her informing me that she failed to send our deposit on to DCL, so both rooms had been canceled. Apparently, she’d set a calendar reminder for the wrong date. Of course, as you all know, that voyage is entirely sold out now (except for the Tower Suite, which now shows a $60k price tag for the week).”

The person posting this story said they had received an invoice, submitted the card (which was never charged), and had confirmation the agent received it.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that we did everything right… and through a clerical error on the part of the person who gets paid to help us with these things, now we are SOL.”

The agent apologized and promised to keep trying, but sailings like this sell out fast and are even harder to book if too much time after the final payment date has already passed.

From years of booking my own cruises through many cruise line websites, this is exactly the kind of mistake that should never happen and is completely preventable.

Once an agent confirms rooms are held and takes payment information, the deposit needs to go through that same day, ideally right then and there on the Disney travel agent portal or over the phone with DCL.

Sure, it’s easy to say in hindsight, but holds expire and cabins get booked fast on popular sailings that are only offered one time.

Setting a calendar reminder for the wrong date is the sort of mistake that separates a reliable agent from one who ends up just creating more stress.

The Internet Reacted Exactly How You’d Expect

The post on social media quickly racked up hundreds of comments (now over 300) in just the first 24 hours, and the consensus was pretty clear that this was a completely avoidable mistake.

Many were surprised the deposit wasn’t processed the same day the credit card info was provided.

“Granted I’m not a TA and I am aware TA have multiple customers, but I would think that as soon as you gave your TA your credit card info to make the deposits on the rooms, the TA should have started the transaction that day instead of scheduling for a different day to do it.”

Another comment stated: “Why in the world did the TA not make the deposit immediately upon receiving the credit card number? I don’t understand waiting to do so.”

A former travel agent gave some practical advice that many others shared as well: agents should charge the card directly on the Disney site or over the phone with DCL so the charge comes from Disney, then immediately send the confirmation number.

Without that confirmation number, assume you don’t have a reservation.

In my experience, the moment you walk away from a booking without a confirmation number (or email) from the cruise line, you don’t actually have a booking. Good agents know this and treat the deposit like the most important step of the entire process.

Plenty of people shared that this kind of error is why they stopped using agents for Disney Cruises (or most cruises) altogether.

“TAs come downvote me – but no one needs a TA for DCL. A 5 years old could log on and book a cruise if you gave them a credit card, it’s that easy.”

Others went further: “I’ll go a step further and say that no one needs a TA for most trips. It is so easy to research and book vacation destinations now with the internet… I personally would never put my vacation in someone else’s hands.”

One cruiser who’s done 22 sailings (nine with Disney) and helps family book theirs put it this way: “My travel agent could make a mistake like the one OP experienced, but I won’t. Or if I do, at least I can live with the knowledge it was my own dumb fault.”

It’s true that cruise lines have made it easier than ever for guests to book their own cruises and manage their own sailings.

Disney Cruise Line is one of the easiest major cruise lines to book yourself. For straightforward family veranda bookings like this, the value an average agent adds is pretty much limited to onboard credit or the convenience of not having to click the buttons yourself.

That being said, this is not an anti-travel-agent rambling. Especially for complicated bookings with many cabins reserved, a travel agent can save you a ton of headaches and catch things you might miss (a good one that is).

One former agent admitted the anxiety of making exactly this kind of mistake used to keep them up at night. Their advice? Keep watching the sailing.

People cancel, especially closer to final payment. Cabins can and do pop back up.

Bottom Line

Mistakes happen. Travel agents are human, and popular sailings move fast.  I know, this isn’t earth shattering information here.

But when the entire point of using a professional is reliability on the most important details, a missed deposit on a sold-out cruise is a tough one to justify.

But who knows, maybe this can be a lesson for someone else. After all, I’d rather learn from someone else’s mistakes than my own.

The key takeaway is to get that confirmation number right after payment info has been sent over. Assume you don’t have a cruise booked until this happens.