A Trip to BLT with Many Surprises

[LowesChevy]

BLT Review
Our stay began Sunday September 23 at BLT. We arrived early mid morning and checked in to obtain our Keys to the World. It wasnt too long after we had arrived at the Magic Kingdom that our room was ready. We walked back over and had the CM request a bellman to help with our things. Then we waited and waited-finally a bellman arrived to help us after 30 minutes or so. It was annoying, but the combination between the procedures they have and the new check in at the lobby is not quite fully operational yet, I can understand. Plus it was Sunday and early afternoon-a high check in check out day in general.

He took us to the room and we began getting settled in and unpacking before our dinner reservation later that evening at Citricos. It was a beautiful two bedroom unit overlooking the pool on the 10th floor. My brother, nephew and sister in law were set to join us in a few days and the spacious layout is perfect. This unit actually seemed a little more on the compact side than the units we normally had on the other side of the hall viewing Bay Lake. This one had a separate laundry room of the living space rather than having a closet near the front door. The view of the pool was nice, but we imagined my nephew getting a kick out of the monorail whipping in and out of the Contemporary. However you do not always have a choice, especially when I overheard the front desk CMs tell another guest that BLT was near 100% occupancy and he was unable to add a day.

Photo

 

[LowesChevy]

The first few nights were really great-you just can’t beat the convenience of the monorail and access to the Magic Kingdom. Becoming DVC members was an excellent cost effective choice for us and it has been a good experience overall. I had one restless night, but I didn’t think much of it until Friday morning. I noticed one or two brownish spots on my sheets, but figured it was a pimple or a cut from shaving. The next day our trip became a disaster.

Thursday morning, my mother stripped the king size bed in order to make way for my brother and sister in law. My parents were joining me in the other queen size in my bedroom. We had breakfast and drove to DHS-after a few hours we were off to the airport to pick up my brother and nephew. My sister in law was arriving later that evening around midnight so everyone stayed up rather late.

Friday morning, I sit at the edge of the bed and look over to a pillow spotted with brownish red stains. I was like “Dad, did you cut yourself shaving or what the heck here?” He and my mother were already up moving around. I pulled back the sheets on their bed and discovered two huge streaks of blood on the sheets and yelled for my father! I knew exactly what it was-bed bugs!

My parents didn’t quite know the severity of the issue that I do from reading reports of them on the boards, but they soon found out the hard way. My dad trapped a few with an extra contact case I had and took them to the front desk. He calmly asked a CM to come aside and explained what he found. Housekeeping took the issue very seriously and said they would be up to inspect the room. We composed ourselves and went off to breakfast. Unfortunately this was their first trip with their grandson (my nephew), and we ended up losing a lot of time with them in the park because of this. By 10 AM I received a call from housekeeping and we were told to report back to the lobby to meet with them.

The CM met with us and we went back to show him the room. He must not have been at the initial inspection because at one point he picked up the pillow my father had used and threw it back down when they were bouncing off of it. I just about gagged-that could have been my bed! Apparently they hadn’t gone “condo” in my bed, but in the other bed they were all different sizes and there were like a hundred of them scurrying around. You do not see them in the day and we went to bed it was late and we were dead tired. We were instructed to gather anything that was soft fabric-clothing, our pillows, suitcases, purses, etc and sort them to be placed in bags. Anything like chargers, cords, flip flops they cannot live in or on, so they were safe to take without cleaning.

In the meantime the housekeeping CM had to find an alternative home for us to stay. First they offered two rooms in the Contemporary, but not adjoining rooms. My father said that wasn’t good enough-he wanted the rooms to be connecting after all we were in a two bedroom unit and with extended family. Next offer was a cabin at Fort Wilderness-my mom was like “No way am I staying in a cabin in the woods!” Lots of camping trips as a kid-not her idea of a vacation. I know they are nice, but to go from walking distance to the MK and monorail hops to other resort-there’s a big difference. Finally they could offer us a suite in the Polynesian for the next three nights, which was fine by me.

We surrendered everything in room, back packs, travel pillow, sheet, shorts, socks, undergarments-everything. I grabbed a polo shirt from the closet and my sandals for dinner that evening as everyone else took a nice shirt or bathing suit to swim. Another gentleman joined the CM and they had to make record of everything that was to be treated and laundered by Textiles, then they wrapped everything into large plastic trash bags including the suitcases. We put what we could take in shopping bags and the bags they had and took it to the van. My purse was literally a small plastic shopping bag now! We drove over to the Polynesian and checked in and of course it took forever, they asked for my cell phone number three times. We were not pushy or rude just tired and skeeved out and the CMs helping us never put the park passes onto the new Keys to the World, so that was a fiasco the next morning at the Animal Kingdom.

 

[dapod423]

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gross. I'm itchy jsut sitting here reading this! I will be sure to check my bed when I check into VWL on Thursday! Thanks for the heads up.

I hope your trip gets better!

 

[jennyjinx3]

 

[LowesChevy]

This suite was gorgeous, an upgrade even from the 2 bedroom villa at BLT! This definitely made the current situation a little brighter. The concierge and mousekeeping staff were wonderful too.

Queen Bedroom

King Bedroom

Living Room/Kitchen

Plus there is another full bathroom with a large walk in shower and huge counter top.

 

[LowesChevy]

After we had checked in and settled in the room we put on what clothes we were able to grab and head to dinner at California Grill. Our items were supposed to be returned that evening around 5:30-6:00 PM and our dinner adr was for 5:45 PM. We figured they would just drop them off. No sooner did we step out of the room do I get a phone call from housekeeping that our items were not done and wouldn’t be ready till the next morning! I was ready to cry, I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t use foul language, but I gave him a piece of my mind about the entire deal-we have breakfast ressies at 7:45 AM, we have no clothes, it was unacceptable, but there really wasn’t anything that we could do. He said they would reimburse us for toiletries and clothing that we need till the next morning and he would call Kona to tell them to accept our late adr, but really?! My mom, dad and I bought a t-shirt and boxers to sleep in-sharing room-no one is allowed to sleep in the buff! My brother and sister in law probably did, but I don’t want to know lol!

We woke up the next morning waiting for our things, but no arrival at 7:30, nor at 8:00 AM. They went on to breakfast-I was not feeling extremely hungry. I grabbed a muffin at the lounge. To top off this nightmare it was my time of month and I had a sinus infection, brilliant! I went to the front desk and found a lovely CM to help me track down the textiles truck. It took about 20 minutes, but she was able to track down the truck. It finally arrived and all of our things were delivered by 8:30! Like 30 shoe boxes full of stuff-it was insane, plus clothing on hangers and the suitcases. Clean underpants woot!! I began sorting and they came back and everyone grabbed a fresh outfit and got dressed. We didn’t get through all of the boxes and I didn’t see a few key items, but we wanted to get to the park asap with only two days left to enjoy.

So at the front gate, our KTTW do not work. You have got to be kidding me?! Can it get any worse, like for real?! We had to wait 15 minutes for a manager CM to call the Polynesian to check on the passes. She was really nice and we did get some fast passes for the ordeal though.

We made it on KS and I was not feeling well at all. I excused myself from the park and caught a bus back to the Polynesian to rest. I also found the missing items and Mickey doll in a suitcase, so I was more relieved. My sinus infection was really bad that day and I felt miserable and in combination with the heat of 90 degrees and stress, yikes. I relaxed on the couch and wandered down to the concierge goodies for some apple juice and a snack, but I am glad I did come back to rest. I was feeling better by the afternoon when they returned and we had dinner ressies at Le Cellier, which would be a total bummer to miss. Dinner was nice, but I still wasn’t feeling 100%.

 

[LowesChevy]

We had one more day, Sunday, to make the most out of the Magic Kingdom and we did our best. I still missed out on Big Thunder Mountain RR and like 2-3 more rides on the POC and the Haunted Mansion, but riding the Tea Cups, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise and others with my nephew was priceless! Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern was good-a huge plate of turkey and the trimmings on a 90 degree day, not a problem for me. My stomach was feeling a lot better obviously. After a break and snooze, we took my nephew back to the MK for dinner at the Plaza while my brother and sister in law went to Narcoossee’s for their anniversary dinner. Oh yes, what a fun experience for their special weekend too! It’s a good thing I bought them several bottles of wine as a gift-they will need to drink them when they get home!

Never in a million years do you think that this will happen to you, let alone at Disney. The fact is most hotels in the Orlando area have had reports of bed bugs. It was probably a blessing that we discovered the issue before we went home otherwise I would have brought them home, then it would have been our nightmare! The housekeeping CMs took our complaint very seriously and treated us with respect. It’s not their fault, nor is it our fault there are just some things you have no control over. They accommodated us well in a beautiful suite at our favorite resort-it was actually a nice surprise return. They compensated us for the items we had to purchase and for the last night that was a cash reservation for the room. We had two nights of DVC points returned, but we had to call DVC services to make sure they didn’t expire by the end of this Use Year, that would have been crappy. They did bank them to be used by the end of next year, so I felt that was fair. The worst part is that we lost time in the parks, and we lost time with our family. That I cannot get back.

We just look back and have to laugh at the situation no matter how upsetting and hair raising it was. I get grossed out just thinking about it! It was a major inconvenience and total disruption of our vacation time, but we remember that no one was seriously injured or taken to the hospital. With the exception of my mom’s pillow and my dad’s pajamas, everything was returned bug free, clean, ironed and in the same condition it was given. We honestly believe those items were disposed of-the jammies were bloody from the bites and the pillow beads may have melted. It is the running joke in the house now by the way.

It has been a little over a week since we have returned and so far no stow aways to be found! I check every night lol, but I think we are safe. My cousins are a bit on the leery side because they are also BLT owners, but we told them what to check for. They are set to arrive the first week of November and of course we have already started talking about our next trip! Looks like we will be doing a split stay at Beach Club and Polynesian or BLT, but we need to hammer out the deets since we have some points we need to use by the end of next year. It certainly was an interesting trip-see you real soon!

Cheers,
Erika

 

[bbn1122]

I am so sorry your trip went the way it did....yuck.....

I am glad you got that beautiful suite.

My family will be back at BLT next June....hopefully they will remedy the situation. I will have to be prepare to do some checking of the bed and couch before we settle in next year.

All the best for future trips....

 

[LowesChevy]

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gross. I'm itchy jsut sitting here reading this! I will be sure to check my bed when I check into VWL on Thursday! Thanks for the heads up.

I hope your trip gets better!

It still skeeves me out lol! I am sure you will be fine! Have a wonderful trip

 

[LowesChevy]

I am so sorry your trip went the way it did....yuck.....

I am glad you got that beautiful suite.

My family will be back at BLT next June....hopefully they will remedy the situation. I will have to be prepare to do some checking of the bed and couch before we settle in next year.

All the best for future trips....

Thanks...just something to be aware of unfortunately! We can't wait to go back again next September too! Check out the information online for sure.

Have a great trip!