$500 a night and no running water. Updated with news on page 5

[AustinTink]

The water was turned off for 2 of our 3 nights at the Grand Californian. This sucks, but what sucks more is not knowing it was going to happen and really needing water.

Imagine our surprise when we closed down the parks and got back to our hotel room around 1am and wanted to take showers. Hot and filthy after a day of parkhopping, we were quite surprised to say the least. When I called down to the front desk to ask if our room was having issues, I was told the whole hotel was under maintenance from 1-5am... no water. Apparently, every other room in the hotel had a letter slipped under the door alerting guests of the upcoming maintenance. We didn't get a letter!! Had we known, we would have planned accordingly and returned to the hotel in time to get cleaned up before bed.

It was one gross and sticky night.

Just a word of caution for night owls like us who might be heading to the Grand in the near future. Ask the front desk if you will have water for all 24 hours of your nightly stay.

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh my. I wouldn't be paying $500 a night any longer.

 

[Butterfly123]

Wow, how frustrating! Did they offer no compensation? That is surprising, given how much you are paying for your room.

 

[Indiana Scott]

That's outrageous.
They should have moved you to another hotel or something but that's just not acceptable.

 

[Happy_Haunt999]

I would've been at the front desk demanding some kind of compensation. That's ridiculous and uncalled for, major mess up on their part.

 

[AustinTink]

Well, since I was definitely in a state of true discomfort, I did press the front desk agent for some sort of solution. She was actually pretty rude and did not want to offer any assistance. So, I told her I would like to speak to the GM on duty. The general manager was much nicer and hugely apologetic about the fact that we didn't receive the letter under our door. Unfortunately, the only solution she could offer was the use of a room at the Paradise Pier to shower in... mind you it was to shower only. We could shower there and traipse back to our room at the Grand. Yeah, no thanks. It was 1:30am at this point. Not going to happen. It would have been 3am by the time we were back in bed.

So, she offers to send us up extra water bottles to "shower" with. I accept that offer and hold my ground. Then she offered to buy us breakfast at Storyteller's in the morning and gave us a late check out. Better than nothing, I guess. My guys were happy. They love a good buffet. She said she couldn't offer us a break on our stay because we booked through Costco.

In the end, I think we she did her best to make it up to us. It just really was such a shock to not have running water at such a pricey hotel.

 

[Sherry E]

Also, I can't imagine that you were the only ones heading back to the hotel after the park closed. Surely other people would have encountered the same issues, especially if they needed to brush their teeth or wash their hands. They definitely should have credited you for at least one of your nights, even though you booked through Costco -- or given you a Disney gift card in the same amount. That's a lot of money to spend to not have access to water whenever you need it!

That said, since the PPH is right across the street from the GCH (it just takes a couple of minutes to get from one to the other), if I needed a shower that badly I think I would have gone to the PPH and then come back. It would have been annoying to have to schlep my various shampoo or body wash bottles with me, as well as a change of clothes, but if I felt really gross I probably would have done it.

 

[robinb]

She said she couldn't offer us a break on our stay because we booked through Costco.

That's BS. It shouldn't matter how you booked your room.

 

[Dentam]

I probably would have taken her up on the offer of a shower at PP if I felt that sweaty and gross. Also, if they did notify everyone with a letter than I guess that covers their end of things. I would think the info should have been relayed to you upon check-in at the hotel though - which would have ensured that you got the info in person.

 

[kylie71]

So, what if somebody had a tummy bug?? Sick kids........? Nobody in the whole hotel could flush the toilet???
I would expect more from a pricey hotel like this!!
I am very sorry for your experience!

--Lori

 

[Dentam]

Well... they have to do maintenance at some point so I guess they thought the middle of the night would be the best option. It's not like they ever close down for a day. The information just should have been given to guests via phone calls or at check in so they wouldn't risk missing anyone.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If you remember the name of the rude CM at the front desk (or even in you only have the date/general time/general description), report her to Guest Relations via the contact us link on the DLR website or through a card at City Hall or Chamber of Commerce. Behavior like that from a CM is unacceptable, especially for $500/night.

 

[Nonsuch]

...The information just should have been given to guests via phone calls or at check in so they wouldn't risk missing anyone.

Along with the printed notice, there should have been a phone message.
I have received a phone message at GCH (years ago, for the reopening of Captain Eo, DL opened early for onsite guests), so the hotel can send a message to all rooms.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Even if they had no choice but to shut off all the water, I think 1:00 a.m. is too early. DL stays open until midnight, and Main Street stays open until 1:00 a.m. They should give people until at least 2:00 a.m. to get back to the their rooms and use the water if they need to.

 

[bumbershoot]

That said, since the PPH is right across the street from the GCH (it just takes a couple of minutes to get from one to the other), if I needed a shower that badly I think I would have gone to the PPH and then come back.

Absolutely. It's directly across the street. Easy peasy!

That's BS. It shouldn't matter how you booked your room.

I agree completely.


Holy moly at the poor compensation. We were at the Hilton Anaheim last week. Room rate 139/night. Unlike the 200/night Hyatt we'd just been at in Long Beach, Hilton doesn't have shower mats in the bathrooms. DH slipped and fell in the shower. Managed to land outside of the tub. Sooo not good. He called down to request a shower mat, they asked why, he said he'd just slipped, and they nearly sent lawyers up. Security came up, housekeeping, etc etc. While they didn't comp a night, they gave us massively late checkout on our last day (since he was taking a later flight for a work trip that was going from Anaheim to South America and his hip was still hurting and he wanted to rest) and they gave us breakfast buffet every morning. That breakfast was like $25pp! DS is an "adult" for pricing. We were there 5 mornings! AMAZING compensation.

Oh and they brought us a shower mat. Apparently some people trip ON shower mats, so you have to request them at the Hilton. Crazy.

 

[5forMickey]

Even if they had no choice but to shut off all the water, I think 1:00 a.m. is too early. DL stays open until midnight, and Main Street stays open until 1:00 a.m. They should give people until at least 2:00 a.m. to get back to the their rooms and use the water if they need to.

First off, I am by no means defending the Hotel, I would be upset also had this happened to us. That being said, I would think there would have been some intense planning on deciding which hours would be the least inconvenience for the most guest. If they needed a 4 hour window and they turned the water off at 2:00, then all the guest getting up and ready before 6:00 am would not have had water including the restaurant which opens early.

It's a bummer that happened and there probably isn't a really good way to have fixed it but it sounds like they did try and make it up. Regardless of how much the room rate was, I think this could happen at any Hotel since it was a maintenance issue and it probably couldn't wait.

We don't typically stay at the Grand because we prefer DLH but one of the times we stayed we also had a room issue that ended up costing me one whole day worth of "park time". I wasn't very happy because you truly just want to be at the park (or in the shower in your case) and when there really isn't anything they can do to fix that it is frustrating, but in our case I felt like they went above and beyond trying to solve the problem. Like the OP, they were going to refund us one nights stay but also couldn't because we had booked through WTD and any refunds would have to go through them (I'm sure that's standard in the industry) but they more than refunded our money through food and other credits. That was the last time I booked through a travel agent because I always wanted to leave the Hotel the option to do that should there be any problems and the only way they can do that is if you are paying them directly. Thankfully, we haven't ever had another problem.

My whole point is just to say that when we have had issues with the resort Hotel's I have always found them going above and beyond trying to find a solution. I think we want to hope that when we pay that much everything will always be perfect, but somethings are out of their hands.

 

[kamik86]

Also, I can't imagine that you were the only ones heading back to the hotel after the park closed. Surely other people would have encountered the same issues, especially if they needed to brush their teeth or wash their hands. They definitely should have credited you for at least one of your nights, even though you booked through Costco -- or given you a Disney gift card in the same amount. That's a lot of money to spend to not have access to water whenever you need it!

That said, since the PPH is right across the street from the GCH (it just takes a couple of minutes to get from one to the other), if I needed a shower that badly I think I would have gone to the PPH and then come back. It would have been annoying to have to schlep my various shampoo or body wash bottles with me, as well as a change of clothes, but if I felt really gross I probably would have done it.

To the bolded above:
If all someone needed was to brush teeth or wash hands (say someone that likes to shower in the morning) and especially if they had already known about the issue from the flyer it wouldn't have been that bad... It is pretty easy to brush teeth or wash hands with bottled water.

The other room would have been annoying but not undoable. I had a meeting I HAD to attend once when staying at boardwalk villas. My room had an internet problem (this was pre-wifi) and they did let me borrow another room to do my meeting in (which DH loved because then he had our room to himself to sleep in on top of it) It was annoying as it wasn't close by and I did have to bring my laptop and cords and all my stuff to another room but it worked.

 

[VandVsmama]

What a horrible experience! What if you needed to use the toilet suddenly between 1-5am that night because Mother Nature suddenly called? A bottle of water wouldn't fix that!

 

[Sherry E]

To the bolded above:
If all someone needed was to brush teeth or wash hands (say someone that likes to shower in the morning) and especially if they had already known about the issue from the flyer it wouldn't have been that bad... It is pretty easy to brush teeth or wash hands with bottled water.

The other room would have been annoying but not undoable. I had a meeting I HAD to attend once when staying at boardwalk villas. My room had an internet problem (this was pre-wifi) and they did let me borrow another room to do my meeting in (which DH loved because then he had our room to himself to sleep in on top of it) It was annoying as it wasn't close by and I did have to bring my laptop and cords and all my stuff to another room but it worked.

Agreed.

My point was that I am assuming that someone else in the GCH didn't get the letter either. Someone else in the hotel would somehow have missed the info about the water being turned off. I'm sure it wasn't only the OP who didn't know. Maybe most of the people got the letter or were otherwise informed, but I have to imagine that someone else was in the OP's boat, and unknowingly came back to the GCH after the park closed, expecting to have water. Then they would try to brush their teeth or wash their hands, only to find out that there was no water.

So, my point was not that teeth can't be brushed or hands can't be washed with bottled water -- I would brush my teeth without water if I had to, and I would certainly go to the PPH if I badly needed a shower. What I was trying to get at is that the teeth brushing and hand washing attempts would have been how some other folks might have learned that there was no water if they didn't get the letter.

 

[StormyCA]

I call shenanigans on not being able to comp you. I've been upgraded at the Grand gratis numerous times when I've booked through AAA so who you reserve through doesn't have anything to do with what they can do once you're there. The least they could have done is refunded half the price of the night.