Animal Kingdom Lodge customer service?

[Ava31]

I know I shouldn't do this, but I read all of the 1-star ratings on TripAdvisor (47 of them to be exact) and the recurring theme is poor customer service. My husband has been to Disney World one other time and his astonishment at the outstanding customer service at the POFQ is the reason we're going back.

We have reservations at AKL at a very busy time of year, so I'm worried that the customer service will be lacking...any words of encouragement from someone who's been there?

Thanks!

Ava

 

[madalex]

I have been to AKL four times and never experienced poor customer service. You will be fine.

 

[surfergirl602]

Every time we've stayed there the serivice has been over the top. We love it there!!

 

[PrincessAurora]

Let me assure you, all those people were smoking crack. This was the BEST customer service of ANY resort I have stayed in EVER! Better than Wilderness Lodge and I LOVE Wilderness Lodge. Desk staff, wait staff, mousekeeping, gardeners, cast member guides, photopass, bartenderes, valet, gift shop people. Dealt with all of them and they were all fabulous. Those people are whack.

Also remember that WAY more people will whine & complain rather than praise.

 

[Pooh Bear Hugs]

Same here great service lovely CM execpt the Boma podium where the staff were frazzeled and indifferent not rude.

 

[jess20k]

The CM at the front desk when we checked in was in a bad mood or something, she just seemed like she did not want to be bothered. However, every other cm that we dealt with during our stay was wonderful! Especially Mousekeeping!

 

[verticalchaos]

We were just there and had amazing service wherever we went around the lodge.

One thing to keep in mind with those review sites: usually the people who feel the need to write them are the rare few who had a bad experience. The vast majority who have good experiences don't usually bother to write them.

 

[shoppnmom]

When we were there a year ago, we had unbelievable service! DS came down with croup & strep throat. He coughed so hard he gagged himself & threw up in the middle of the night. They promptly came & helped us clean up. DS was back asleep within minutes! The CM's were awesome helping us deal with everything!! They called Reedy Creek Emergency Services the next day when he couldn't breath from coughing so hard and stayed a CM with us the entire time. They repeatedly called to check on him. Getting sick on vacation is bad but they really made the situation easier! Everything we needed that week was taken care of quickly and smoothly! They were all friendly and caring.

I agree people are quick to complain online but rarely go online to give kudos for quality service.

 

[big_red_s]

LOL, I've read the same thing on TripAdvisor before we went. Some complaints were legitimate, but most of them were from people who paid premium price for Luxury and got "Disney Luxury" (a fancy, expensive hotel filled with kids) or they didn't feel they got pampared enough for the price they paid.

We were there for eight days and customer service was terrific.

 

[disney pro]

I have stayed at AKL and have always had the best service from cm's then any of the other resorts that we have stayed at and we have stayed at alot of them. We did a split stay between Poly CL and AKL CL in Oct. 09 and AKL cm's were the best by far, you will really enjoy AKL, it is a magical resort.

 

[mpbs]

my family loves AKL, and have always had great service. It is a wonderful place to stay!!!

 

[nemofans]

We received great service from AKL, SO much better than we received at Poly. That's why we're going back to AKL!

 

[Kae]

The AKL is wonderful & we had great CM's we found them always nice & willing to speak to you. And the stories they have, one afternoon I was looking a headress in the lobby & one of the Cm's was explaining all about it me & another couple then she took us down one of the hall ways to show a headress from another part of the country & explained the differences & the simlarities. And the ones that are studing to work in the Zoo's have tons of knowlege also.

Kae

 

[BYC]

We stayed there for 6 nights in January. Customer service was TOPS! Don't fret! We LOVED AKL!!!

 

[wendypooh]

We've stayed at the lodge 5 times. We LOVE it so much and have had such consistantly EXCELLENT service - that we purchased DVC there. I can honestly say that they've on occasion gone out of thier way to make our trips extra special. Never have we encounted anyone who was less than pleasant.

I would not worry one bit if I were you - AKL is a gorgeous, friendly, relaxing, warm and inviting resort - and the staff is lovely - you will love it!

 

[LUVDZNY2008]

We had great customer service at AKL!!

 

[kaffinito]

Sorry - have to be the voice of dissent here. (And no I'm NOT smoking crack LOL)

I've stayed at AKL twice and found the customer service to be terrible everywhere but at Boma. I could only get Bell Services to take my luggage once, the front desk concierge told me that if I wanted an ADR then I should call myself since he was too busy to check for me, and I found everyone else there to be distinctly unhelpful.

And yes, I did complain to management while I was there. When I went to complain about Bell Services, the manager was rude. He looked at me and said "So what?" Then he turned his back to me and walked away.

As much as I love the theme and the pool there, I really don't want to go back because of the service. I have had really wonderful service at CR, Poly, and BWI and would recommend those resorts before I would recommend AKL to anyone.

 

[KatMark]

We have never stayed at the AKL, but we have visited three times. Each and every time we have gone over to visit, we have wonderful CM's whenever we have stopped to ask a question, or shopped in the gift shop, or just a friendly greeting. We went up to the Front Desk to ask if we could see a room and we have a very friendly CM who was more than willing to show us a room but due to the fact that the resort was full he could not do so at that time. He asked if we wanted to come back later and they would be able to do so after check out (unfortunately, we could not as we were heading to the airport within the hour). This was totally different from the experience we had when we asked at the WL when the CM lied to us and said Disney does not allow us to do that. You can have a bad encounter with a CM at any resort, but we've never personally had one at the AKL.

 

[MYD714]

I know I shouldn't do this, but I read all of the 1-star ratings on TripAdvisor (47 of them to be exact) and the recurring theme is poor customer service. My husband has been to Disney World one other time and his astonishment at the outstanding customer service at the POFQ is the reason we're going back.

We have reservations at AKL at a very busy time of year, so I'm worried that the customer service will be lacking...any words of encouragement from someone who's been there?

Thanks!

Ava

I loved staying AKL. I felt that CM I encountered was extremely polite and helpful. They were even kind to me the 5th time I went to bell services within 15 minutes to get "one more thing" out of my bag before heading to the parks. My friend's son wet his bed a couple times and with one phone call, housekeeping flew to our room each time to change the sheets. I felt like royalty. In fact, it's one of the reasons I'm heading back there this summer. You will love it.

 

[dalt01]

Let me assure you, all those people were smoking crack.

i beg your pardon? i'll have you know that i much prefer Vicotin...........we were upgraded from a down the alley and around the corner view to a savannah view because of customer service at AKL.....