FOTL ,,,,,,just back from Hard Rock

[maepartner]

For the life of me, I cant understand why anyone would NOT stay at Universal's hotels, if at all possible. I know some folks have a timeshare, but if you possibly can, stay at their resorts. The FOTL is just priceless! I paid 220.00 two days ago for a club room, and it was awesome! To stand in line for express tix, or worse, to stand in the general lines is just too much for me....I would pay just about anything for the privilege of FOTL. you are TRULY a VIP at USF onsite hotels.

Look at it this way....with FOTL you can do the parks, say, in 2 or 3 days and see everything. If you dont have FOTL,,,,I would suggest a tour because if you DO want to see everything, youre going to have to stay an extra nite or two (if you're off-site), just to be able to see everything. So wheres the savings by not staying on-site? IMHO,,,,its the best deal , and when I return next year with my teens,,,,,I think we'll do Universal instead of Disney, just for that reason. (too spoiled to think about Disney now :) ) Mae :cool: :jester: :D

[Blinker1]

The reason Disney can't do FOTL is because of the number of onsite guests they have. A friend who works at Universal's PB hotel told me that the FOTL privelige will dramatically change when the Royal Pacific opens this June. THE FOTL will no longer be at any time. There will be blocks of time when the hotel key will get you in the Express line. During the other times, the hotel guests can still access the Express Pass machines like other guests. He didn't go into detail about the hours when hotel guests could use their keys. He also said that room keys will no longer get you the next available table at restaurants. There will just be too many onsite guests for these perks to work properly. Maybe during off season they could still implement them.

[jtopicz1]

I tend to disagree with the "Express Access" for On-site hotel guests changing anytime soon. First of all, Universal is still advertising this feature for hotel guests in all their print and online information. With guests booking up to a year in advance, I'm sure Universal would have MANY upset customers if they tried a bait and switch like that. Second Royal Pacific has about 1,000 rooms, with an average let's say of 3 guests per room, thats only an extra 3,000 guests MAXIMUM to be split up between 2 parks and Citywalk (Not even counting the people who will take a "pool day" to skip the parks and relax). So this may cause an increase of 1,000 Hotel guests in the park per day. Split up between the 15-20 attraction each park has plus restaraunts, the impact should be very minimal.

Granted eventually if Universal keeps adding resort after resort, Express Access will have to be changed. But I wouldn't expect that to happen anytime soon. Universal simply has too much invested in this program for hotel guests, to end it so quickly, IMO.

Just my thoughts!

Jim

[Humpbacks1962]

The reason Disney can't do FOTL is because of the number of onsite guests they have.

I always disagree with this one strongly. Disney does not do it because it does not want to. Universal has only two parks but Disney has several more. Resort guests won't be standing in the fotl at the same time, all the time. Heck, even fastpas lines do not fill up! With so much more to see and more time leftover to enjoy it, people would be more scattered around Disney parks.

This excuse cracks me up, altogether. Disney does not need one more reason to mistreat its guests. If it really wants to, it makes them feel unique and special, and it works out something similar, at least, to fotl.

But it is a matter of this catching on. We are among those who will stay at a USF resort for the first time during our next vacation, just for the perks. Disney may just find itself boosting Universal's business with its practices.

Wanda

[Muushka]

Disney may just find itself boosting Universal's business with its practices.

Oh yeah, you can say that again! We own at DVC and are going next week, and my greatest excitement is staying a few days at PB. WDW for maybe 1 or 2 days, the rest of the time Relaxing and Roller Coasters at IOA.

AAAHHH my kind of R & R :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Dznefreek]

The reason Disney can't do FOTL is because of the number of onsite guests they have.

I disagree!

If you take the number of hotel rooms (approx. 20k x 2 per room=40k) divide it by 4 parks, divide that by the number of attractions, the impact would be minimal. This assumes 100% hotel occupancy everyday which does not occur. Besides, not all WDW guests are all in the parks at the same time either. They are at Water Parks, DQ, Dinners, etc.

Disney does not do it because they just do not want to.

I guess they are to busy shopping for tacky, off-the shelf rides. (PEW, Tric Spin). The line about themeing is tired and outdated. It was "cute" in the past now it is just an excuse to save money.

[suzysezso]

I agree with all of you about Disney just not wanting to do it (they can hardly count their money fast enough as it is, they just don't need that kind of promotion) and that Universal is not likely to drop it.
There is also another factor I have not seen mentioned. Even when you take the room keys out of the equation Universal handles their Express Pass program MUCH better than Disney does Fast Pass. I was at Epcot about a year ago on a non-holiday weekday and we got Fast Passes for the Test Track ride it STILL took over a half hour of waiting on a snail paced line to get on the ride. Even on the busiest of days Universal's Express lines rarely take longer than 10-15 minutes tops! (and let's not forget that's 10-15 minutes WITH the onsite people included in the lines)
On that trip I stayed at the highly touted Boardwalk Hotel (over 400 per night) and let me tell you they got NUTHIN on HRH!
So let's see...
Universal handles crowds MUCH better than Disney...
HRH is less expensive, has better beds, bigger rooms, and the Room Key perk....
No brainer from this point of view.

BTW- IF they were to decide to scale back the room key perk it is not likely that they would invoke some strange schedule of on and off times that would confuse and annoy people. My thinking is that when they have a few more hotels they will likey make the key perk part of the Club Level, so those guests paying more get the perk, with perhaps a "gold card" option regular guests could add to the cost of their rooms.
And let's see the reason WDW could not at least match THAT! You would at LEAST expect that kind of perk for their Vaction Club members that pay the equivalent of a year's salary at Walmart to spend 2 weeks at a WDW resport!
:jester:

[OrlandoDisney]

The FOTL Bonus sounds great and you all have made me change my mind about where to stay in Orlando....i might switch from Disney to Universal (Loews):)

[Humpbacks1962]

You got it, Dznefreek. I guess a while ago the "rational explanation" spread throughout the boards and now people accept such petty excuse. "Disney could never do FOTL because they have so many resorts"... Gag me.

It takes a skeptic consumer with a rational mind to scrutinize it. Bottomline is, Disney wants you back and the way to do it is by making you miss out on more and more.

But like I said before, give it time. It may backfire on them as Universal's business continues to bloom.

Wanda

[Pandorita174]

I totally agree with you guys. We went to Disney this past March, stayed onsite & could barely do any rides at the Magic Kingdom
:mad: The crowds were outrageous & fastpass helped a little but not much. We just got fed up & went back to the hotel. We've stayed at the Portofino & will be staying again at the Royal Pacific :bounce: :Pinkbounc . The rooms are MUCH better & with the ftol we feel like ROYALTY. So much better !!

[HauntedMansionFan]

I'm not even going to start in again about Disney not being able to do FOTL access. They can't do it, plain and simple. The numbers back it up, my decision won't change unless someone can crunch some numbers in their favor. But it isn't going to happen....

Also, once Universal begins to expand they will change their FOTL program, Universal also has the rights to terminate the program whenever they choose. Just because they advertise for it now, doesn't mean they couldn't decide to cancel it five months from now. Just look at E-nights and Early Entry at Disney, perfect example.

[OrlandoDisney]

Disney cant do the same FOTL privilege becuase they have a total of 23,000 rooms from there resorts and Universal has about 500-800+ and thats not too bad, i am making my reservations soon for the Royal Pacific Hotel in August !!:jester:

[CPanther95]

Disney's problem is not competing with Universal necessarily. Anyone who has been in the last few years knows that they are full past capacity. It has become very difficult to last a full day at Disney and get accomplished what used to be done in half a day. Extended park hours and FastPass aren't enough to make it a very enjoyable experience anymore.

Even if they lost 10% of their customers to Universal, there will still be more than enough capacity to make their parks bulge at the seams. They need a more up-to-date thrill amusement park if they want to keep their resorts booked, and I am not talking about another half-baked park that you can see in 2 hours like Animal Auschwitz.

FOTL will not go away at Universal. 2000 rooms filled to capacity will not have that great an impact. If Disney were smart they would offer FOTL in some form for some resorts/some days/some parks in whatever combination makes mathematical sense. After my first exclusive Universal trip this year, I will not go to another park without FOTL. (Maybe I'll sneak a day into MGM in the Off-Season for ToT.) Now that my youngest is 9, he no longer cares if he sees Magic Kingdom. I'll miss Haunted Mansion (been almost every year since WDW opened). None of us will miss Epcot - the only thing there that we liked was "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" in 3D.

[Dznefreek]

Like I said before, themeing was "cute" in the past and the stories behind the rides were interesting but guess what; it is 2002.:D

Step up to the plate and build the best attraction that you can. No Matter What!

Do not wait to see if the movie will be a hit. (i.e. Reign of Fire).

Disney is great at building the best they can when it is someone else's money (Tokyo Disney Seas) but when they foot the bill it is dreck! (All of DAK, all of DCA).

IOA did not wait for the Spider-man movie (even though it is a Sony pix) to be a hit and they did not wait for the "Hulk" movie to judge acceptance.

[CPM]

Well personally I think Disney is a big loser these days. I used to go three to four times a year, sometimes more. We always stayed on site, ate out every night, & had annual passes. Well, the have lost our business & and the business of many others I know. You pay so much to stay on site w/o many special privelges. Their ability to just drop EE or E nights amazes me, really makes you want to stay there, NOT.
Well, one stay on site at USF changed my favortism of theme parks. Until Disney makes it worth it for me to stand in line all day & over pay for resorts, I will not be back. I don't thinkwe'l ever see those soaring stock prices again any time soon!
PORTOFINO BAY forver...................

[jrgutknecht]

Well, I have to agree with CPM but I think I'd go one step further.

I would go so far as to say that FOTL is SUCH a huge bonus, that I would be willing to pay for a room that I wasn't going to use, just to get it.

WHY?? You ask??

Well, # 1 FOTL is an unbelievable perk. We were at HRH Sat. - Thursday last week. We went to US two days and IOA one day. On the third day when we went to Sea World and HAD TO STAND IN LINE we realized how spoiled we were.

Universal wasn't that crowded and the longest wait I ever saw ws 20 minutes, but being able to just walk onto the ride was unbelievable. It enabled us to have a relaxed vacation AND see and do everything at US and/or IOA in ONE DAY! The only reason we went back to US a second day was because we were waiting for our evening flight. We had already seen everything in one day!

However, that said, Universal and Loews don't even come CLOSE to Disney in terms of service and quality. I'll post a trip report soon with all the details. As good as FOTL is, it won't get me to return to the HRH.

Then it occured to me that next year, I'm going back to Disney and staying on site the entire trip. If FOTL is still offered, I'll book a cheap room at HRH (or even the newer hotel if they offer it) stop at the hotel in the morning, "check-in" and take my room key and head to the park. Use my FOTL all day that day, and the next and then "check-out" I would get the benefit, but not have to put up with sub-par service and food.

[damo]

Sub-par service and food? Where the heck have you been eating? USF park food beats Disney park food hands down! And as for service, I have never had any worse service than at Disney if that's what you are comparing it to. In fact my Hard Rock Hotel room was much cleaner and the people much nicer than my last stay at the Wilderness Lodge. Didn't want to take my shoes off in my room it was so disgusting. Been there, done that, never goin' back!

[jtopicz1]

I don't think he was saying anything bad about the park service or food, but that he had a problem with the hotel service and food. My onsite Universal stays have always gone flawless. The hotel food is a bit expensive, but that is to be expected. I have heard the service is a bit inconsistant......some love it, some have problems. I myself have never had any MAJOR problems.

Jim

[maepartner]

Damo: I know just what you mean about not wanting to walk barefoot in a hotelroom......Ive never stayed at the WL but it happened to me TWICE at a Red Roof Inn,,,,(thought it might have been a fluke, so tried again) GROSS!!!!! NASTY!!! Not only was the rug disgusting, I slept on TOP of the covers with my clothes on! YUK! And NO WAY was I taking a shower in that bathroom.

I wonder, did you complain about the room at WL? The place is pretty new, isnt it? Hard to believe they would let it go like that....I havent had any bad room experiences in the World yet.

I was quite impressed with the Hard Rock though I didnt eat onsite except the wonderful Mexican spread they had in the Club Lounge. Room was very nice, upscale, and clean :)

Mae :bounce: :jester: :Pinkbounc

[Granny]

We've stayed several times at the Wilderness Lodge. Always spotless rooms and great staff friendliness and helpfulness.

Not many places in the world compare favorably to that place.

[damo]

When the carpet is filthy, has come up in many areas enough that you can trip over it and that the walls are dirty and scuffed up then somebody isn't doing a very good job maintaining on a consistent basis. This room had looked like that for a while. When I am paying $299 a night for a room that I probably wouldn't pay $49 for at a Red Roof Inn somewhere else, it makes me livid. Just because the lobby is gorgeous doesn't mean that the rooms can be disgusting. The fact that someone obviously felt that the room was acceptable to guests (or I wouldn't have been put there) tells me that room standards are quite low and my comfort was unimportant. If there was something in the room that had been overlooked by the cleaning staff, then yes it is worth a complaint but when the room was obviously long overdue for maintainance, people should not be staying in it and Disney has a lot of nerve expecting them to do so.
However, I must add that room cleanliness was not an issue at Yacht Club or Grand Floridian, the rooms were lovely. Polynesian was a little worn and dated but not dirty.

[jrgutknecht]

The room at HRH was very clean and housekeeping did a great job. However if you don't want to be disturbed at 8am, put out the do not distrub sign. Every day they knocked on the door at 8:00 am. Finally the last day, I used the DND sign and it wasn't a problem. I hate feeling rushed by housekeeping.

Here are some of my issues.

When I checked in, I asked about upgrading my 2 day pass to a three day pass. The staff member at the desk told me that the concierge could take care of that for me. When I went to the concierge desk, (at which there was no line) the concierge looked up at me and said (and I'm quoting) "What?" Not, 'what can I do for you' or 'what can I help you with', just a plain old "What?" Trying to explain what I wanted in a brief and concise manner, he simply said "You have to do that at the parks" I explained it again, thinking maybe he didn't understand and again, he said "You have to do that at the parks" I told him that the front desk told me that I should come over here and that as a point of trying to help them get their line of communications together, that maybe they should inform the front desk what they can and can not do. The response I got was "Is that all, I'm busy"

Okay, so not the best start to my stay. IT wasn't about who was right or wrong or what the right procedure to use for my situation. It was simply about how to greet a GUEST and make them feel welcome ... this was not the way to do it.

I found the club lounge staff to be just as in-different. On one occasion stepping in to grab a couple bottles of water after returning from IOA they had decided to post a staff member at the door asking for room keys and names. This was after a full weekend of coming and going as we pleased. Without any explaination as to why, the person at the door simply stopped me going in and asked "Room number?" and then "Your name?" That was all, no explaination or thank you or excuse me. He could have at least said "hello"

Now, maybe I'm being nit-picky, but when I was at the Wilderness Lodge, I felt like a GUEST. At the HRH, I felt like I was imposing on these people who were trying to do their job. It's the same kind of response I get when I go to any number of stores at the mall and the teenagers working at the store are two busy conversing amongst themselves to help the customers.

The BIGGEST complaint I had about the HRH staff was overhearing two housekeepers complaining about their job while walking down the hallway. I heard one say to the other "I'm serious if he asks me to work another weekend I'm giving my two weeks notice, I don' t have to put up with this S#!%" I couldn't believe it! Not only were they discussing something that should not have been discussed in front of the guest, they were using inappropriate language.

Finally, I found the food service and wait staff to be sub-par at best.

We decided to grab a burger our second night and went out by the pool. We went to the bar at the pool and found a table. After 20 minutes a server finally came over to us and said "If you want a drink you'll have to go to the bar" I asked him if they were still serving food and he said "No" This was after he walked by our table no less than three times delivering food to other tables. He could have mentioned this EARLIER!?!?!? Another night we decided to try again, this time we went earlier. Still it took 10 minutes before someone came over and gave us menus, another 5 before a server showed up, another 10 to get our drinks and then another 20 before we got our food. All in all it took 90 minutes to get 2 drinks and a couple of burgers. I know it's supposed to be a "casual" place, but this was a little ridiculous.

We also ate at the Sunset grill a couple times. We did the breakfast buffet and with the exception of the hot food, it was the same food offered at the club lounge. The hot food was okay, but certainly not nearly as good as the breakfast buffets' I've had at Disney or Ponderosa for that matter. For dinner, again the food was okay, but the service was TERRIBLE. I asked for a glass of water and after asking me if I wanted carbonated or non-carbonated water, the waiter still brought me the wrong kind of water. It seemed to take forever to get waited on - or even get an acknowlegement that we were there. It was like we were the invisible guests. When the food arrived it was cold and I shouldn't have to ask 3 times for a cup of coffee. We had three different servers and they were all just as confused.

However, the dinner we had at Mama Della's at PBH was Suberb. The service was GREAT, they made us feel right at home. The food was superb and the attention to details was fantastic.

Having said all of that, I don't want to give the wrong impression, the HRH is clean, well decorated, a beautiful hotel. The rooms are clean and spacious and the public areas and the pool are very nice. But the service (which in my mind is 90% of the reason to choose a hotel) was just sub-standard. It did not rise to the level of expectation that they had set for themselves, much less to compare to that at the WL at Disney. It's not that I want people to wait on me hand and foot, but I do want people to make me feel welcome. From day 1 at the HRH, I just didn't feel like they really cared one way or another if I was there or not. They were just there to do their job and that was all. To me, that's sub-par service. I don't pay upwards of $250 a night for the room, I pay the extra money for the service and I felt that I might as well be staying at Motel 6 for the quality of service I received.

[damo]

Yes, I agree that would definately put me off for my vacation. Sorry you ran into such miserable people. We didn't encounted anybody like that on either of our five day stays. People were so friendly. When you passed any worker in the hall they were so cheerfull and funny. One jumped out from around a corner to scare my 16 year old daughter!!!! We laughed so hard.

We find the people much friendlier at USF. I guess it's the luck of the draw as to what's going on behind the scenes any specific day at any park or hotel. Could the workers in the hall perhaps have been talking about another job? That doesn't excuse the language but they may have other part-time jobs.

[Sherrilatte]

It's a shame you had to put up with that type of behavior, especially on your initial arrival. I would have requested a manager in a heartbeat. You were much more gracious in this respect than I would have been.

But with that said, the service and attentiveness of the staff during my stay was excellent at HRH, IOA and US. (With one exception which was at the NBA Restaurant in Citywalk.) Everyone was polite, attentive and cheerful. And I received a smile from practically everyone . This may be due to the fact that I smile alot too, and this tends to be contagious :)

It would be hard for me to compare WDW to US resorts,
because I have always felt that WDW was too overpriced and overrated for what they offer--have stayed at Hyatt Grand Cypress instead---which by the way has awesome anemities and service. This summer though, I'll be trying the Radisson Universal for one night.

Realistically, no facility will have 100% perfect staff ( unless warm bodies are replaced with animatronics or AI :p ), there will always be those few who do not completely follow the corporate program. Of course this is still NO EXCUSE for the problems you encountered.

Make sure you take the time to inform LOEWS of your experience. They can't fix it if they don't know its broken.:)

[Robinrs]

I'm in total agreement with Sherrilatte, I would complain to Loews. This kind of treatment is unnecessary and insulting. I have not encountered anything like this during my stays at the Hard Rock but everyone has different experiences, no matter where you stay. My experience was exemplary, that goodness.

I always make sure I notate times, dates and names to make sure that the right people are reprimanded.

[nhrenee]

And in the same train of thought be sure to write and let the hotel manager if you had an exceptional experience. When I was at the HRH in Feb, there was an especially nice young woman in concierge. Her name was Zoe and she actually remembered my name and addressed me personally the 3 days I was there. I wrote the HRH manager and told him how terrific she was!:)

[Jon360]

jrgutknecht,

I agree with everybody here, write a letter to the hotel manager and to Loews!!!

I hope you remember the names of some of these people.

-Jon

[ksdave]

I agree with what everyone is saying about letting the management know what is going on. I think one of the biggest problems we have in this country today is poor service. It seems that every other employee you deal with at hotels, airlines (in particular), stores, restaurants, etc., feels it is an inconvenience that you are requesting service from them for your dollar. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE THEIR JOB!!!
If everyone who received poor service or negative attitudes from these people would contact the management, either in person, by phone, or in writing, I'm sure these jokers would be fired pretty quick. I know I do my part.