Just back: The Good, the Bad, and the Shocking! (kind of long)

[Jeafl]

We just returned after staying 8 days in the world. Here are some observations...

The Good.

As diehard, "stay on site" people, we took advantage of an opportunity to stay at the Westgate Vacation Villas right outside Disney property. I was not thrilled with the prospect, but the cost savings was too good to pass up. We were VERY pleasantly surprised at how nice they were and how convenient. It took us less than 4 minutes to get to AK, and less than 10 minutes to the other parks. I think we saved time by staying off property. Not having to wait for buses was huge.

Also, the food has greatly improved since we were there last in every park except HS. It is nearly impossible to have a decent meal at the Studios. The fast food choices were horrible, and the sit down restaurants were disappointing. However, we had many fabulous meals at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Boma was also great, as usual.

As hot and crowded as it was last week, we never waited to get on anything! We had one 20-min. wait to get on Peter Pan, but that was it. We went to MK on Saturday the 10th and for some reason, there were no lines anywhere! We arrived around 8:30, walked in at 9:00, and by 10:45 we had done Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Small World, Philharmagic, Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse and Peter Pan. We've been to WDW at least 10 times and have NEVER walked on rides like we did this time. The parks were packed, but for some reason the people weren't in line. We did use Ridemax, and that might have made a difference, although we didn't stick to it completely.

Everywhere we went we ran into CM's who gave us front of the line passes! We love talking to CM's and met a lot of great people. For some reason they kept giving us passes! Because there were no lines anyway, we didn't use a lot of them. As we were leaving the park we looked for families with lots of people to pass them on to. Since we were a party of 9, all the passes were for up to 9 people. We figured the bigger families could really use them. One CM in particular we noticed was from the same town we were so we talked to her for a few minutes. She ended up giving us 3 passes good for any attraction at the MK. We used one to go on Dumbo the next day since that ride did have a long line. It worked out great. We gave the other 2 away to people with lots of kids who were waiting in the hot sun.

Also, I did not make a lot of ADR's before we left because I wasn't sure what parks we were going to be in on which days up until the end. We found that in EVERY INSTANCE if we showed up at the restaurant where we wanted to eat we were seated within 15 minutes. The one ADR that I DID make for Boma turned out to be screwed up. They booked us for the same night as our Ohana ADR. They were able to seat us anyway, and there were lots of empty tables! This was at 6:30 too, not at an off time! My advice is, if you can't get an ADR, either call the restaurant directly or show up like we did. It worked every time!

The Bad.

For the first time EVER, in all my trips to WDW, we noticed a huge decline in cleanliness. I can't tell you how many restrooms we walked into that were FILTHY. There was paper all over the floor, the mirrors were so dirty you couldn't see out them, and the floors looked like they hadn't been mopped in awhile. We talked to one woman cleaning the bathroom at the TTC and she said that they cut so many people from her department that they cannot possibly keep up the standards people are used to. It was really sad.

We also noticed that the service is not what it used to be. We are not a particularly high-maintenance group and tend to go with the flow, but there were a couple of instances where it was pretty bad. In one case, we were having dinner at Ohana. The instant we sat down the waitress brought bread, salad, noodles, chicken wings and potstickers all at the same time! The noodles, wings and potstickers were all cold when they brought them out too! Then, less than 2 minutes later they started throwing meat on our plates! We asked the waitress if we could slow things down a bit, since we hadn't even had our salad yet and she said yes. She then did not show up again for about 40 minutes! When when she did show up it was to give us our check! We had not even been served the shrimp, steak or dessert yet!! Part of me thinks that she did not care because we were a party of 9 and she got an 18% tip from us no matter what she did. If that is true, it is really sad. 9 people times $34 each equalled a really hefty tip for her really poor service.

In another instance, we were in line at Min and Bill's at HS and the line just wasn't moving at all. When we finally got up to the counter we found that although there were three lines to take orders, there were only 2 people available to take orders and only ONE PERSON in the back making the food! The guy who took our order told us that the one guy in the back was doing the job of 3-4 people! He said a lot of people had been cut and management just didn't care. The other order taker girl ended up leaving the counter to go help the guy in back catch up, but then there were 2 very long lines of people left standing there with no explanation!! We told the guy he should call his manager for back up and he told us that management had just been there and they JUST DON'T CARE. He told us he had applied for a transfer twice and he was twice denied. He was really frazzled and there was an angry mob and it was not a good scene. Especially when all the people in the other 2 lines realized there was no order taker in their lines! Which brings me to...

The SHOCKING.

I have never, ever run into so many disgruntled CM's who felt compelled to tell you their horror stories. In most cases I think their complaints were totally justified, but that doesn't mean that the guests necessarily wanted to hear them. I personally feel it took away some of the magic for me. Which brings me to my next point.

At Typoon Lagoon we (meaning me, my husband, son and 2 teenage daughters) were in the wave pool. My husband noticed this 16-17 yr. old kid standing near us looking from one daughter to another. DH stood there and watched him for a few minutes, and when the big wave started coming this kid once again looked from one daughter to another and then reached out toward my younger daughter's bikini top like he was going to untie it!!!!! My DH grabbed the guy's wrist just as he was touching the tie and said "What do you think you are doing?" and the kid said "Nothing!" My husband let him go and he literally ran out of the wave pool scared ****less. There was a guard in the pool nearby (which I have never seen before, usually they are all on the edges). My husband told her what happened and she said she couldn't do anything about it because she didn't see it! She did not care one single bit! It was really a sad moment for me. We did tell someone else on the way out, but they pretty much said the same thing.

Also, this to me is probably the most shocking thing of all. While at TL, we found some lounge chairs in a somewhat isolated area not too far from the wave pool. A family with a toddler girl was on the chairs next to us. We came back after the wave pool incident to find that the ENTIRE family was gone except for the toddler girl who was left sleeping alone on the lounge chair!!!! She was wearing nothing but a swim diaper, laying in the full sun sound asleep. I looked around for someone who could have been watching her and there was no one!

I sat there for awhile waiting for someone to come back but after about 15 minutes I went over to Leaning Palms and asked to see security immediately. I brought the guy back to where we were sitting and showed him the little girl. He called for a female security guard for some reason who came and picked up the sleeping girl and took her somewhere. About 20 minutes later the parents came back with the other kids and went ballistic when the girl wasn't there. They asked me if I had seen her and I told them that security took her. They asked me why and I told them because she was left unattended and I was concerned that she would wake up and wander into the wave pool or somewhere equally dangerous. Well they totally went off on me and told me it was none of my business, etc. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The whole day at TL kind of put a damper on the vacation, but on the whole it was a wonderful trip.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

[RMulieri]

Holy Crow I think the female security guard thing is because it was a female child.I think they try to keep the guard the same sex or something .I am shocked.truly shocked

[TinkerBelle_325]

Originally Posted by Jeafl

We just returned after staying 8 days in the world. Here are some observations...

The Good.

As diehard, "stay on site" people, we took advantage of an opportunity to stay at the Westgate Vacation Villas right outside Disney property. I was not thrilled with the prospect, but the cost savings was too good to pass up. We were VERY pleasantly surprised at how nice they were and how convenient. It took us less than 4 minutes to get to AK, and less than 10 minutes to the other parks. I think we saved time by staying off property. Not having to wait for buses was huge.

Also, the food has greatly improved since we were there last in every park except HS. It is nearly impossible to have a decent meal at the Studios. The fast food choices were horrible, and the sit down restaurants were disappointing. However, we had many fabulous meals at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. Boma was also great, as usual.

As hot and crowded as it was last week, we never waited to get on anything! We had one 20-min. wait to get on Peter Pan, but that was it. We went to MK on Saturday the 10th and for some reason, there were no lines anywhere! We arrived around 8:30, walked in at 9:00, and by 10:45 we had done Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Small World, Philharmagic, Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Swiss Family Treehouse and Peter Pan. We've been to WDW at least 10 times and have NEVER walked on rides like we did this time. The parks were packed, but for some reason the people weren't in line. We did use Ridemax, and that might have made a difference, although we didn't stick to it completely.

Everywhere we went we ran into CM's who gave us front of the line passes! We love talking to CM's and met a lot of great people. For some reason they kept giving us passes! Because there were no lines anyway, we didn't use a lot of them. As we were leaving the park we looked for families with lots of people to pass them on to. Since we were a party of 9, all the passes were for up to 9 people. We figured the bigger families could really use them. One CM in particular we noticed was from the same town we were so we talked to her for a few minutes. She ended up giving us 3 passes good for any attraction at the MK. We used one to go on Dumbo the next day since that ride did have a long line. It worked out great. We gave the other 2 away to people with lots of kids who were waiting in the hot sun.

Also, I did not make a lot of ADR's before we left because I wasn't sure what parks we were going to be in on which days up until the end. We found that in EVERY INSTANCE if we showed up at the restaurant where we wanted to eat we were seated within 15 minutes. The one ADR that I DID make for Boma turned out to be screwed up. They booked us for the same night as our Ohana ADR. They were able to seat us anyway, and there were lots of empty tables! This was at 6:30 too, not at an off time! My advice is, if you can't get an ADR, either call the restaurant directly or show up like we did. It worked every time!

The Bad.

For the first time EVER, in all my trips to WDW, we noticed a huge decline in cleanliness. I can't tell you how many restrooms we walked into that were FILTHY. There was paper all over the floor, the mirrors were so dirty you couldn't see out them, and the floors looked like they hadn't been mopped in awhile. We talked to one woman cleaning the bathroom at the TTC and she said that they cut so many people from her department that they cannot possibly keep up the standards people are used to. It was really sad.

We also noticed that the service is not what it used to be. We are not a particularly high-maintenance group and tend to go with the flow, but there were a couple of instances where it was pretty bad. In one case, we were having dinner at Ohana. The instant we sat down the waitress brought bread, salad, noodles, chicken wings and potstickers all at the same time! The noodles, wings and potstickers were all cold when they brought them out too! Then, less than 2 minutes later they started throwing meat on our plates! We asked the waitress if we could slow things down a bit, since we hadn't even had our salad yet and she said yes. She then did not show up again for about 40 minutes! When when she did show up it was to give us our check! We had not even been served the shrimp, steak or dessert yet!! Part of me thinks that she did not care because we were a party of 9 and she got an 18% tip from us no matter what she did. If that is true, it is really sad. 9 people times $34 each equalled a really hefty tip for her really poor service.

In another instance, we were in line at Min and Bill's at HS and the line just wasn't moving at all. When we finally got up to the counter we found that although there were three lines to take orders, there were only 2 people available to take orders and only ONE PERSON in the back making the food! The guy who took our order told us that the one guy in the back was doing the job of 3-4 people! He said a lot of people had been cut and management just didn't care. The other order taker girl ended up leaving the counter to go help the guy in back catch up, but then there were 2 very long lines of people left standing there with no explanation!! We told the guy he should call his manager for back up and he told us that management had just been there and they JUST DON'T CARE. He told us he had applied for a transfer twice and he was twice denied. He was really frazzled and there was an angry mob and it was not a good scene. Especially when all the people in the other 2 lines realized there was no order taker in their lines! Which brings me to...

The SHOCKING.

I have never, ever run into so many disgruntled CM's who felt compelled to tell you their horror stories. In most cases I think their complaints were totally justified, but that doesn't mean that the guests necessarily wanted to hear them. I personally feel it took away some of the magic for me. Which brings me to my next point.

At Typoon Lagoon we (meaning me, my husband, son and 2 teenage daughters) were in the wave pool. My husband noticed this 16-17 yr. old kid standing near us looking from one daughter to another. DH stood there and watched him for a few minutes, and when the big wave started coming this kid once again looked from one daughter to another and then reached out toward my younger daughter's bikini top like he was going to untie it!!!!! My DH grabbed the guy's wrist just as he was touching the tie and said "What do you think you are doing?" and the kid said "Nothing!" My husband let him go and he literally ran out of the wave pool scared ****less. There was a guard in the pool nearby (which I have never seen before, usually they are all on the edges). My husband told her what happened and she said she couldn't do anything about it because she didn't see it! She did not care one single bit! It was really a sad moment for me. We did tell someone else on the way out, but they pretty much said the same thing.

Also, this to me is probably the most shocking thing of all. While at TL, we found some lounge chairs in a somewhat isolated area not too far from the wave pool. A family with a toddler girl was on the chairs next to us. We came back after the wave pool incident to find that the ENTIRE family was gone except for the toddler girl who was left sleeping alone on the lounge chair!!!! She was wearing nothing but a swim diaper, laying in the full sun sound asleep. I looked around for someone who could have been watching her and there was no one!

I sat there for awhile waiting for someone to come back but after about 15 minutes I went over to Leaning Palms and asked to see security immediately. I brought the guy back to where we were sitting and showed him the little girl. He called for a female security guard for some reason who came and picked up the sleeping girl and took her somewhere. About 20 minutes later the parents came back with the other kids and went ballistic when the girl wasn't there. They asked me if I had seen her and I told them that security took her. They asked me why and I told them because she was left unattended and I was concerned that she would wake up and wander into the wave pool or somewhere equally dangerous. Well they totally went off on me and told me it was none of my business, etc. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The whole day at TL kind of put a damper on the vacation, but on the whole it was a wonderful trip.

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

The situation with the teenage boy and your daughters sounds very similar to a male that was arrested and charged with molestation

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-b...,3029772.story

Perhaps this teenage boy was copycatting after hearing about this story

I'm very sorry that the lifeguard did nothing.

That is shameful that the family would just abandon their daughter! They can't possible have known that she would stay asleep. What if someone had taken her?

[bwilcox]

They went off and left a toddler alone for at least 35 minutes (that you know of)?! You did the right thing calling security. That is the kind of thing CPS gets involved with. What were they thinking?:scar ed1:

[stitch1094]

We were just there over the 4th and our family is a party of 6 so we also fall into the automatic 18% tip. This is total BS. Several times during the week we received really poor service that we felt was directly realted to the fact that regardless of what ever level of service was provided, the server was guaranteed at least 18%. This rule really stinks. There is little recourse for a famliy if they receive bad service.

[nanceliz]

wow....it is really sad to hear the service has gone down.
But, I'm glad you posted this so we will be prepared on our upcoming trip.

The story about the little girl is really scary! I would have done exactly what you did!
There has been alot of stories in the press lately about wierdos at the water parks. We are going Thanksgiving so we will be skipping those this trip anyway.

Glad to hear your trip was good otherwise good to hear the CM's are handing out some magic

[TakeMe2Disney]

Good for you for calling security over! I have a 2 year old son and am mortified that someone would just leave their child like that. I would have done the same thing you did in a heartbeat. What a crazy day!

My husband's cousin works for Disney and she said the same thing the CM's were telling you. They've had to make budget cuts and the general attitude is that they should be grateful to have a job. Hopefully things will start to turn around...

[Alesia]

Originally Posted by stitch1094

We were just there over the 4th and our family is a party of 6 so we also fall into the automatic 18% tip. This is total BS. Several times during the week we received really poor service that we felt was directly realted to the fact that regardless of what ever level of service was provided, the server was guaranteed at least 18%. This rule really stinks. There is little recourse for a famliy if they receive bad service.

Actually, that isn't true. You can ask a manager to remove the gratuity.

[Kay1]

We had service problems, too, but with Housekeeping. I called their department (as I always do) and asked if we could have our room cleaned anytime between 8 and 2. The person I spoke to said, Well, I can tell them but that doesn't mean anything. Sure enough, only had our room cleaned once after I called again and pleaded.

Flash forward three weeks, we stayed at the JW Marriot and housekeeping was wonderful. Our room was cleaned twice a day and the turn down service was wonderful. Soft lights, chocolate, and the radio turned to nature sounds.

Glad you enjoyed Westgate and I'm sorry about your problems.

[j-jhall]

Originally Posted by stitch1094

We were just there over the 4th and our family is a party of 6 so we also fall into the automatic 18% tip. This is total BS. Several times during the week we received really poor service that we felt was directly realted to the fact that regardless of what ever level of service was provided, the server was guaranteed at least 18%. This rule really stinks. There is little recourse for a famliy if they receive bad service.

I could be wrong, but I swear I read somewhere that you have the right to knock down the percentage of tip if you feel the service is poor. I think you just have to ask for the manager or something like that.

[1girl1boy]

WOW what a story - Ididn't mind one bit it was long to me it was very informative thanks for taking the time to advise the feloww DISers.

Regarding the 18% auto tip. I read over on the dining board that if you do not agree with the 18% as what happened in your case you can call a manager. While it may seem a bit extreme I intend to do it for my party of 8 in August as I don't want the servers to think they can give below par service and expect a 18% . Now I will border along 10-15% depending on how bad and don't bash me I used to be a server.

Re the TL incident - OMG the wave pool incident was bad enough and good on your DH!!!!!! the little toddler what in the world were these parents thinking and to come back and go off on you - shame on them. Do they not realize that kids get taken in a heart beat (innocent ones at that) I don't care what happens if one of my kids needs a nap or time to chill I or my DH will be staying with them regardless of where we are.

[kathyell]

If you feel you received poor service with a party size where the gratuity is automatically added to the bill, I have read that you can ask to speak to the manager before finishing your meal and adjust the gratuity to something you feel is more appropriate. I don't think you should *have* to do this because people with smaller parties don't have to justify themselves to anyone when they choose an appropriate amount for a merit-based tip, but if you ever find yourself (I hope not, though!) in that situation again, it might not be a bad thing to send one person away to the hostess station or something and ask to speak to the manager of the restaurant. You shouldn't have to tip 18% if you feel that the service was too poor to justify it.

(I just know someone's going to read this a way I didn't intend and take me to task for it, so I'm going to clarify quickly. I personally usually tip more than 20% and I tip more than that if I receive good service. I also reserve the right to tip based on my experience at the restaurant, and if that experience was poor, I doubly reserve the right to reflect that in the tip. I was a restaurant server myself during college and I feel that tips commensurate with the level of service is what is fair. Larger parties should have that same ability to tip based on merit, good or bad.)

ETA: Ha! Look at several of us posting the same thing at pretty much the same time.

[j-jhall]

Originally Posted by Alesia

Actually, that isn't true. You can ask a manager to remove the gratuity.

I guess I did hear correctly! I get it right every once in awhile

[harpinjean]

I feel so bad for that little girl - that goodness you saw her and called security.

We are heading to WDW in August and I hope that we find it is still the great place it has always been in the past. From some of the posts, I am beginning to wonder............

[Jeafl]

Originally Posted by j-jhall

I could be wrong, but I swear I read somewhere that you have the right to knock down the percentage of tip if you feel the service is poor. I think you just have to ask for the manager or something like that.

We probably could have asked for a manager, but at that point we were all exhausted and just wanted to get the heck out of there.

A side note--on the drive home from Florida we stopped at Macaroni Grill and for some reason all of our dinners arrived except my dad's. We informed the waiter who then took about 10 minutes to bring it, and by that time it was cold. My dad was tired and hungry and asked to see a manager who brought him another entree immediately, plus COMPED THE MEAL for all 9 of us!!!! It was unbelievable! I'm sure they lost a bundle on that one, but they definitely gained some loyal customers!