BLT internet problems?

stormer · Aug 24, 2015

we checked into BLT Saturday night and love our room. We have a lake view with a view of MK, love it. We have not been able to use the Disney Wifi at all. Saturday night we couldn't get it to work at all and called they said it was because everyone was getting back from the parks and using it. We didn't think that was the case, but the guy was condescending and it was late so we went to bed. Same thing yesterday. Could not use it at all, not even to check our email. I can't even check my Disney plans to see my reservations. Everyone we called acted like they didn't know what we were talking about. The TV didn't work right either and when the guy came to fix it he said he has heard the same complaints about the Internet from guests for the past few weeks. It is very frustrating because we want to unwind at night and go on our iPads, but can't. My husband needs to use his work email and can't. We spent four days at the Hard Rock before coming here and we were able to use all four iPads no problem.

Has anyone had the same problem? It just seems strange.

deedisneydream97 · Aug 24, 2015

Try going down to the lobby area to use your i-pads and stuff. I have never had great service from BLT....and it is true that too many people are trying to use it at once. Or try hard-wiring your device to the connection in the wall.

We just came back from an AKL stay and the TV did not work a lot of the time and I could not connect to wi-fi a number of times....but figured it was mostly due to the horrible storms that struck at least twice a day for 7 days straight.

If you need help with your Disney plans, go to the lobby and they can help you with just about anything. Enjoy the rest of your stay. Love BLT....the pool is usually cool when we stay there....but it is probably most welcome right now!!! It was blazing hot last week.

KAT4DISNEY · Aug 24, 2015

The wired jacks were disconnected when they went to wifi.

disneynutz · Aug 25, 2015

Internet service in the rooms at WDW took a turn for the worse a few years ago when they went to a different service provider. In addition the OP's post pretty much sums up an additional problem, they are trying to connect 4 ipads and probably some streaming video. The systems were never designed to support so many connections.

:earsboy:

Bill

citivas · Aug 25, 2015

I'm checking in next Saturday and this has me concerned. We're paying a massive premium to stay on-resort versus the great Marriott condo we always stayed at off-resort before. And it had fantastic wi-fi (fast, rock-solid consistent) and TV service. If I had known that wi-fi doesn't work consistently in the rooms I wouldn't have stayed there. By the time I get back to the room I usually have about 200 work emails to catch-up on.

hakepb · Aug 25, 2015

disneynutz said:
Internet service in the rooms at WDW took a turn for the worse a few years ago when they went to a different service provider. In addition the OP's post pretty much sums up an additional problem, they are trying to connect 4 ipads and probably some streaming video. The systems were never designed to support so many connections.

Bill

It should be designed to support such traffic at a somewhat pricey convention hotel.
How should a hotel manager respond if a company CEO guest cannot cannot connect to an important video conference call?
How should an IT guy respond to the hotel manager about such a situation?

RobbW · Aug 25, 2015

Okay, I don't mean to be rude or condescending in any way, but, of course, whenever you start a sentence like that, that's exactly how you're going to come across, right?! Anyway, what I want to say is IF you're going to judge and berate a hotel at WDW (or any VACATION resort) for having lousy wi-fi service, maybe you shouldn't be on vacation?! If you can't take a vacation from your work emails and all your eDevices, why even bother?

You're on vacation...

...at DISNEY WORLD!

Get out of your room and enjoy something other than the same ol' cr@p you can do anytime back at home!

And if you're back in your room because it's the end of the night and time for bed, why not go to bed and get a nice, long, relaxing night of sleep instead of frustrating yourself about lousy wi-fi and TV service? I mean, how often are you ever able to get an extended night of sleep in a luxuriously-appointed bed back home? Make the most of it!!! If you aren't ready to go to bed when you get back to your room, maybe you shouldn't have come back to your room already. Get back in the parks and have fun! Or head down to DTD! Or go swimming at your resorts' pool! Or just take a relaxing stroll with your significant other around the beautiful grounds of the resorts!

I apologize. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just really into traveling and having great life experiences these days. All too frequently these days, those moments that should be awesome, memory-making, lifetime experiences are being supplanted with and usurped by ubiquitous eDevices and other frivolous distractions.

cvjw · Aug 25, 2015

We have stayed at BLT multiple times, but only had unacceptable wifi on our last visit. We were on the 16th floor, the end unit. We had ZERO wifi. I went to the front desk the next day and inquired about it. The CM told me that our party of 7 should just use our computers in the lobby. She actually said that with a straight face. Like it would be no problem to come from the 16th floor to the lobby to use our phones

I told her that would not work for us. Disney advertises wifi in their resort villas, and we need it in ours. If they need to add another router on the 16th floor, that is what needs to happen.

When we came back from the parks, miraculously, we had wifi. Not great, but acceptable.

I think location in the resort can affect wifi reception. On the 16th floor, end unit, we were too far from the router.

stormer · Aug 25, 2015

It is very frustrating. We are not trying to stream video, just check email, sports scores, and read the newspaper. The Wifi is not slow it is nonexistent. We can't connect at all. We travel often and have never experienced this. In the past few months we have stayed at Marriotts in Washington DC, Williamsburg, VA, and Connecticut. We have always been able to use the wifi. This stay cost us two years worth of points and it is frustrating to not have something that should be available to us. We spent four days at Hard Rock at the start of this trip and wifi was perfect. It is not the end of the world, but not acceptable in my opinion for what this trip cost us. I hope others have more luck.

disneynutz · Aug 25, 2015

stormer said:
It is very frustrating. We are not trying to stream video, just check email, sports scores, and read the newspaper. The Wifi is not slow it is nonexistent. We can't connect at all. We travel often and have never experienced this. In the past few months we have stayed at Marriotts in Washington DC, Williamsburg, VA, and Connecticut. We have always been able to use the wifi. This stay cost us two years worth of points and it is frustrating to not have something that should be available to us. We spent four days at Hard Rock at the start of this trip and wifi was perfect. It is not the end of the world, but not acceptable in my opinion for what this trip cost us. I hope others have more luck.

But I guess that others are streaming video not even thinking about it.

We find the internet access to be iffy at all of the DVC resorts depending on several factors.

IMO there isn't any excuse for TV or internet issues at any major resort or hotel.

:earsboy:

Bill

deedisneydream97 · Aug 26, 2015

KAT4DISNEY said:
The wired jacks were disconnected when they went to wifi.

Didn't know that KAT...now that you mention it, I no longer see the hanging bag with the ethernet cable in the closet. I still have a hard-wired computer at home and it works a lot faster than my wireless one.

Our family also has issues with the wireless devices at night in our home....and the tech person for my internet service said that is when most issues develop because we will have 3 kindle fires going in addition to an i-pad and two computers.

Having hundreds of people using their wireless devices at the same time is probably too much for whatever "things" they have for wi-fi at BLT.

To tell the truth, the TV barely went on while at the AKL last week. And as stated previously, the signal was out a couple of times, but the same thing happens at home when we have a severe storm. And believe me when I say there were A LOT of severe storms last week. Jambo House even lost power in parts of the resort one night.

rlovew · Aug 26, 2015

I have found that villa location is a key to having decent internet service now that Disney is on Wifi- the farther from a router or box the room is the less internet capabilities you will have. We generally have good internet but also regular receive rooms in the center portion of the building. I have also found that even in rooms with good wifi that times when most people are in from the parks and using it. The best service I get is generally for 8:30am to 10am if we are not going to a park in the morning. Afternoons are better than evenings and when I have happened to be up from 2am-6am the service has been spectacular.

citivas · Aug 26, 2015

The bottom line is you are paying way above 5-star resort prices for these rooms (and a premium to other time shares). Disney advertises room-based wi-fi internet as one of the amenities. So there is a completely reasonable expectation they should provide it. This is a 100% solvable problem with enough distributed equipment. Plenty of places with even higher room and guest density with just as many devices provide great internet coverage. The latest commercial grade WAP's can handle hundreds of high speed connections each at a time and can be setup collectively to handle thousands without any reduction in service. My office building is packed with coders and heavy users of wi-fi and I still get a minimum of 150mbps of connectivity at peak hours.

gdrj · Aug 27, 2015

KAT4DISNEY said:
The wired jacks were disconnected when they went to wifi.

Maybe they need to reconnect these

disneynutz said:
Internet service in the rooms at WDW took a turn for the worse a few years ago when they went to a different service provider. In addition the OP's post pretty much sums up an additional problem, they are trying to connect 4 ipads and probably some streaming video. The systems were never designed to support so many connections.

Bill

IMO with technology changing at light speed, this is not uncommon. Many hotels have have improved dramatically, while WDW has not. Add to that the need for internet that Disney has created to use on vacation, from FP to Dining etc...

citivas said:
We're paying a massive premium to stay on-resort versus the great Marriott condo we always stayed at off-resort before.

While the internet should be at least acceptable, that is not what the massive premium is for. Its for on-resort, grounds, 27 sq miles of Resort, its magical Express, its for transportation options, convenience for your vacation. AGAIN I agree that internet should be accessible. As far as the work emails etc... that is a societal issue. I will say I do attempt to unplug as much as possible while at Disney World.

RobbW said:
If you can't take a vacation from your work emails and all your eDevices, why even bother?

You're on vacation...

...at DISNEY WORLD!

Get out of your room and enjoy something other than the same ol' cr@p you can do anytime back at home!

And if you're back in your room because it's the end of the night and time for bed, why not go to bed and get a nice, long, relaxing night of sleep instead of frustrating yourself about lousy wi-fi and TV service? I mean, how often are you ever able to get an extended night of sleep in a luxuriously-appointed bed back home? Make the most of it!!! If you aren't ready to go to bed when you get back to your room, maybe you shouldn't have come back to your room already. Get back in the parks and have fun! Or head down to DTD! Or go swimming at your resorts' pool! Or just take a relaxing stroll with your significant other around the beautiful grounds of the resorts!

I apologize. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm just really into traveling and having great life experiences these days. All too frequently these days, those moments that should be awesome, memory-making, lifetime experiences are being supplanted with and usurped by ubiquitous eDevices and other frivolous distractions.

As I mention above this is more of a societal issue, and a change in the work environment and workforce. Some jobs and careers are easier to disconnect when not working. Some unfortunately you can not. Looking from the outside it is easy to say disconnect but I'm not in their shoes, nor are you. Sometimes work life and personal life balance is learned, and some people are wired or focused on work and its rewards. No judging here, because I have been on both ends. In and ideal world to unplug from work would be great.

citivas said:
The bottom line is you are paying way above 5-star resort prices for these rooms (and a premium to other time shares). Disney advertises room-based wi-fi internet as one of the amenities. So there is a completely reasonable expectation they should provide it. This is a 100% solvable problem with enough distributed equipment. Plenty of places with even higher room and guest density with just as many devices provide great internet coverage. The latest commercial grade WAP's can handle hundreds of high speed connections each at a time and can be setup collectively to handle thousands without any reduction in service. My office building is packed with coders and heavy users of wi-fi and I still get a minimum of 150mbps of connectivity at peak hours.

Just my thoughts. Even when BLT was built internet needs were a fraction of what they are now. As a DVC member how much do I want my annual fees invested into wifi? Two years ago I would never bothered with a hotspot for myself, now I have one that I use for work and personal use when I want to connect. It is more secure as well.

To play devil's advocate what successful business person in the day and age of the need to connect relies on a hotels unsecure wifi? Look back 15 years ago at how many people did not travel with their cells? With Data Plans being the norm and personal hot spots becoming more common, not sure how much I want DVC to invest in something that may be outdated in 2 years. As I said earlier there should be access. Should they limit it to email and browsing and have an upcharge for video and gaming? I don't do either when staying at WDW so do I want to pay for that? Just posing some thoughts

YourEveryDayAdam · Aug 27, 2015

In my experience, it's actually just the internet at BLT specifically that has issues. Most of WDW, the internet is fine...even at the other resorts. I think the system at BLT is having issues on it's own and they are either willfully ignorant of them or ignoring the problem altogether. My guess is that they built the backhaul internet connection (the connection from BLT out to the rest of the world) too small and it's just overloaded when everybody is using their tablets, cell phones, and computers to stream, upload videos/photos of their trip, etc.

The internet access at The Poly, AKV, BWV, SSR, and OKW have all been fine. I've also, generally, had good wifi in the parks...with the exception of a few places where the signal just doesn't reach (inside the tree of life, a few of the queues for attractions, etc.) At BLT I always just connect my cell phone to my computer and use that for internet.

RobbW · Aug 27, 2015

gdrj said:
As I mention above this is more of a societal issue, and a change in the work environment and workforce. Some jobs and careers are easier to disconnect when not working. Some unfortunately you can not. Looking from the outside it is easy to say disconnect but I'm not in their shoes, nor are you. Sometimes work life and personal life balance is learned, and some people are wired or focused on work and its rewards. No judging here, because I have been on both ends. In and ideal world to unplug from work would be great.

Sorry, I know I probably came across too harsh in my post. I totally understand the *perceived* need for some people to be able to connect, especially for work reasons. I guess I was lamenting more about the ever-growing trend, especially in the corporate world, of people *needing* to stay connected all the time or companies *requiring* their employees to remain connected. It's sad that people can no longer go on vacation and REALLY get away from their everyday lives.

I really wish companies, especially, would understand that just because their employees CAN be available 24/7 thanks to modern technology, that they really shouldn't EXPECT them to be available 24/7. If an employee goes on vacation, they should be allowed to totally disconnect and be completely unavailable without any repercussions. If there is ever an issue that comes up that cannot be handled by someone other than the vacationing employee, that is the COMPANY'S problem for not having back-up and contingency plans in place, NOT the employee's problem!!!

DVCjj · Aug 27, 2015

RobbW said:
Sorry, I know I probably came across too harsh in my post. I totally understand the *perceived* need for some people to be able to connect, especially for work reasons. I guess I was lamenting more about the ever-growing trend, especially in the corporate world, of people *needing* to stay connected all the time or companies *requiring* their employees to remain connected. It's sad that people can no longer go on vacation and REALLY get away from their everyday lives.

I really wish companies, especially, would understand that just because their employees CAN be available 24/7 thanks to modern technology, that they really shouldn't EXPECT them to be available 24/7. If an employee goes on vacation, they should be allowed to totally disconnect and be completely unavailable without any repercussions. If there is ever an issue that comes up that cannot be handled by someone other than the vacationing employee, that is the COMPANY'S problem for not having back-up and contingency plans in place, NOT the employee's problem!!!

stormer said:
we checked into BLT Saturday night and love our room. We have a lake view with a view of MK, love it. We have not been able to use the Disney Wifi at all. Saturday night we couldn't get it to work at all and called they said it was because everyone was getting back from the parks and using it. We didn't think that was the case, but the guy was condescending and it was late so we went to bed. Same thing yesterday. Could not use it at all, not even to check our email. I can't even check my Disney plans to see my reservations. Everyone we called acted like they didn't know what we were talking about. The TV didn't work right either and when the guy came to fix it he said he has heard the same complaints about the Internet from guests for the past few weeks. It is very frustrating because we want to unwind at night and go on our iPads, but can't. My husband needs to use his work email and can't. We spent four days at the Hard Rock before coming here and we were able to use all four iPads no problem.

Has anyone had the same problem? It just seems strange.

Just back yesterday from BLT 12th floor 1 bedroom. Wonderful stay (tho pullout bed mattress horrible condition) and the wireless was very bad. Frustrating to have to use data plan.

The wireless at BWV was great which made BLT all the more aggravating.

McCrae · Aug 27, 2015

stormer said:
It is very frustrating. We are not trying to stream video, just check email, sports scores, and read the newspaper. The Wifi is not slow it is nonexistent. We can't connect at all. We travel often and have never experienced this. In the past few months we have stayed at Marriotts in Washington DC, Williamsburg, VA, and Connecticut. We have always been able to use the wifi. This stay cost us two years worth of points and it is frustrating to not have something that should be available to us. We spent four days at Hard Rock at the start of this trip and wifi was perfect. It is not the end of the world, but not acceptable in my opinion for what this trip cost us. I hope others have more luck.

Please can you complain to member services.... It will only get fixed if people complain.

DenLo · Aug 27, 2015

I think folks should start reporting it to DVCmembersatisfaction.com. Obviously it doesn't work just reporting the problems of the WiFi to the BLT management or the front desk.

stormer · Aug 27, 2015

I will report it to member services, thanks for the suggestion. I agree with others that this seems to be s BLT problem, not a Disney problem. We haven't had this issue at any other resorts or the parks.

BLT internet problems?

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To Scope or not to Scope? THAT is the question!

To Scope or not to Scope? THAT is the question!