Nice story about Fort CM's

[Donna]

According to The Basics, a Cast
Member’s duty is to protect and preserve
the magic of a Disney vacation for each
Guest. Imagine the challenge Cast
Members at Disney’s Fort Wilderness
Resort & Campground faced when a
family of Guests was in a car accident
just prior to arriving at the Walt Disney
World Resort.
A family from Hemlock
Creek, Penn., recently wrote a letter to
the Company describing how the actions
of Guest Service Manager Ellen Ruel,
Housekeeper Olga Huertas and Front Desk
Guest Service Manager Rosemarie Farago
(now with Disney’s Guest Connection
Services) saved their vacation.
“Our son and his family were already in
our campsite on May 12, 2009, waiting for
us when the unthinkable happened – we got
into an accident on Interstate 4 that totaled
our motor home. When we finally limped
into the Outpost to check in, it was late and
still raining. My husband went in to check
in, and I stayed in the car that was piled
with the contents of our motor home, so
much that I couldn’t get out.
“Disney constantly came to our aid,
making a cabin available, and our kids
came to the cabin in the morning. After
crunching the numbers, they decided to
let us stay in the cabin for the 10 days for
the same price as our campsite. We were
extremely grateful, as we were traveling on
a shoestring [budget], especially after we
paid [to tow our motor home].
“Then the girls at Disney went into
action again, giving us five-day Park
Hopper passes for each of us, which just
blew us away. They also made numerous
phone calls and made us maps and
directions to find the place they towed our
motor home. Unfortunately,
it was unfixable.
“We have been coming to
Disney since 1971, after
you just opened, missing
only a few years the last
few because of open-heart
surgery, pacemakers and
two toes amputated. We were so looking
forward to this vacation, and the girls at
Disney didn’t disappoint us. These girls,
Rosemarie Farago and Ellen Ruel, were
absolutely wonderful and compassionate.
We can’t say enough about them. We also
should commend our maid, Olga (from
Colombia), who did her job around piles
of contents [from] our motor home and did
so graciously, like we weren’t causing her
problems. She raised our spirits when she
would make swans and alligators and other
decorative things with our towels.”
According to Manager of Guest Service
Operations Jeff C. Martin, these Cast
Members did their best to help these
Guests recover from a negative situation.
“[They] clearly went above and
beyond,” Jeff said. “They anticipated the
Guests’ needs as they knew the Guests’
camper was totaled in an accident and
provided them a cabin for the same rate as
their campsite. By doing this at check-in,
they provided immediate service recovery,
which allowed the Newberry party to start
their vacation on the right foot.”

[mouseketeer_mom]

thanks for sharing the reminder that the Disney magic is alive and well at the Fort!

[OK GRUMPY]

Wow that is awesome,

[blm2003]

What an awesome story, not very often you can see a bad situation turned around like that! Great Job CM's!

[camperhappy]

Nice to hear a happy ending story! After all you went through, it was nice they came through to provide the "magic" that Disney is famous for!

[disney4dan]

That is great to hear, there are still some nice folks in this world.

[datgrt@fw]

I would also like to say that 'Ellen Ruel' is "OUTSTANDING"!!! We have been traveling to Fort Wilderness for many years and on our May trip this year for the first time we experience a small problem with one of the CM at FW. I felt the need to report it because I didn't want another guest to experience the same type problem with this CM that we had. Believe me, our situation was no where close to the major problem that this family was faced with! Even though our problem was very minor in comparison Ellen handled our concern with the same care and compassion that she did for this family! Ellen truly believes that a "Cast Member's duty is to protect and preserve the magic of a Disney vacation for each Guest" and it shows in her actions! I can tell you from our experience she takes this to heart and she is one of the very "Best" at providing exceptional customers service then anyone I have ever come in contact with at Walt Disney World over the last 36+ years or any where else! I know she is the type Cast Member that Walt Disney himself would be very proud to have representing his company! I believe Ellen lives Walt's Dream everyday and tries to make sure that every Guest feels the magic!!!

Doug / datgrt@fw

[team bradfield]

We had a very good experience this past june with a CM (Sara from Columbus,OH)

We never use our CC and decided to take advantage of the points program this year on our vacation. So naturally as soon as the out of state charges started popping up, the "Whats in your wallet" folks decided that our card had been stolen and of course, shut it off...Well can't tell you how much stress that was, we were at FW/Disney (with 3 kids) for 12 nights and depleted the debit card balance rather quickly. Of course the replacement card was mailed to FW and all worked out, but it took 5 very loooong days.

Sara knew our story, as she worked at guest services, she stopped by our site every evening to see how we were doing, she was great.

She even followed up with an email a couple weeks after our departure to see if everything worked out ok.