Yacht Club Family
It’s our choices, Harry, that show what we really
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2006
We arrived at about 11:30 on Sept. 4th. During the check-in process, we did decide to upgrade to a preferred location and got 2630 in Martinique.
The room was clean with one exception. The refrigerator had not been cleaned out after previous guests checked out. There were containers, a couple of drink bottles (20 oz. size) and some food spilled on the top and bottom shelf). We called housekeeping about it, then went to the parks. When we got back we had expected it to be cleaned out, but it wasnt. We emptied the trash, called housekeeping again about the spilled food and did the same again for 4 days. It was never cleaned and I finally went out and asked a housekeeper for a wash cloth and some cleaner on it to clean it myself. She gave it to me, didnt care what it was for and went on her way.
Otherwise, the room was kept tidy each day, the tubs cleaned (my daughters shampoo and colored soap can leave a tiny bit of colored suds sometimes that we accidentally forgot to rinse, just to check. Floors were well cleaned/vacuumed each day and always a nice supply of towels left for us. Couple of the glasses left by the ice bucket were dirty once, but we were using the disposable ones anyway, so we simply left them on the sink with a polite note and they were removed and a generous supply of the disposable cups were left.
The bus service was really not that bad. There were times we had to hurry to reach a soon-departing bus (usually the driver actually waved over to let us know he would wait), and there were times we had to wait 20-25 minutes and then did see 1-2 of the same busses pull up one immediately following the other. With loading and off-loading of scooters and wheel chairs, waiting for guests (bless them) and everything else that can affect them, they did a pretty good job overall. The real trick is to allow plenty of time and be pleased when you arrive at your destination early manage your own expectations!
The parks were decorated for Halloween and looked very festive and cute. They were actually cleaner (including the restrooms) than last year. More evidence of cast members and they were more vocal (albeit still very polite) about asking people not to smoke in certain areas, one guy taken aside about his crude and offensive language (must have been handled well, he was careful afterward and not in a defensive or angry manner) and once a kid was told he would have to lift the wheels on his heelies (mom and dad were informed that they were not allowed in the parks, but if they removed the wheels, no problems). Everything went well and all in all, no line hopping, no overly rude guests (except for the one who was spoken to) and in fact, most guests were extremely polite and fun to be around.
Then, there was the dining. If youve never experienced it before, you may never know what true Disney service used to be like. Some people blame the free dining, some the . no . wait, everyone blames the free dining. But, service is service no matter what a guest pays. We saw waiters blow up after being stiffed on a tip and take it out on the next group seated there (spec. at Chef Mickeys, Coral Reef, Shutters, Cape May, Ohanas, and Crystal Palace). There were many more rude servers this year than in any time weve been there in 16 years. I dont care if they were losing money on tips or whatever, the bottom line lies in management not doing their jobs properly to ensure that the staff do their jobs properly at all times. We got to some restaurants and were seated, only to wait 15 minutes for anyone to stop at our table.
Le Cellier was one we had a problem at. We were seated and waited 15 minutes for the waiter to come to the table to take our drink orders and another 10 minutes for the drinks and then had them slammed down on the table so hard that one glass (the stemmed ones they use) broke. Then, we had to wait for them to clear the table and replace the settings. The only comment the waiter offered was that he had just had a table of 9 (4 adults and 5 kids, we were seated next to them) that had insisted they were 2 parties and not to add the mandatory tip because of it. They had explained to the manager (we heard them) that part of the problem was that they had to send their food back twice, wrong orders, undercooked, etc., and that the waiter was extremely slow. Well mine ended up sent back twice, my daughters pizza was burned to a char on the bottom and black on top and he still served it, and then after those were replaced and I took her to the restroom with ¾ of the pizza still on her plate and my food only missing one bite of the steak, he swept by picked up both plates and walked off. When my husband tried to call him back, he kept going. We spoke with the manager, who did go back and have them replace our meals (after another 20 minutes) who simply said the server was having a bad night. Hmmm so were we by that time. Nope, we did not tip. He did not do his job, much less do it well or add anything extra, but he and the manager were well aware of that fact when we left. We were not rude in any way, but did explain our reasons to the manager.
We had acceptable service at most places, but simply that acceptable. Only once did we have exceptional service and that was at ESPN Club. She was fantastic and did reap the rewards (we were so grateful for her being so nice we probably overdid the tip at that one).
More often than not, we either saw or experienced one or more issues with the food or the service everywhere we went. The attitudes were horrible and you felt they served you on sufferance only. Not good eating experiences overall and frankly, we rarely felt anyone deserved a tip at all. Very disappointing after 2+ weeks of going through it.
Otherwise, a lovely trip. the food court was pretty good most of the time and only a couple of times were the new employees they were training apparently overwhelmed. Managers stepped in, helped get back on track and they moved on. They did very well overall.
So, thats a short (subjective short) review of our trip. Ill add restaurant notes for all of the places we went later.
Any questions and I'll be glad to answer them.
The room was clean with one exception. The refrigerator had not been cleaned out after previous guests checked out. There were containers, a couple of drink bottles (20 oz. size) and some food spilled on the top and bottom shelf). We called housekeeping about it, then went to the parks. When we got back we had expected it to be cleaned out, but it wasnt. We emptied the trash, called housekeeping again about the spilled food and did the same again for 4 days. It was never cleaned and I finally went out and asked a housekeeper for a wash cloth and some cleaner on it to clean it myself. She gave it to me, didnt care what it was for and went on her way.
Otherwise, the room was kept tidy each day, the tubs cleaned (my daughters shampoo and colored soap can leave a tiny bit of colored suds sometimes that we accidentally forgot to rinse, just to check. Floors were well cleaned/vacuumed each day and always a nice supply of towels left for us. Couple of the glasses left by the ice bucket were dirty once, but we were using the disposable ones anyway, so we simply left them on the sink with a polite note and they were removed and a generous supply of the disposable cups were left.
The bus service was really not that bad. There were times we had to hurry to reach a soon-departing bus (usually the driver actually waved over to let us know he would wait), and there were times we had to wait 20-25 minutes and then did see 1-2 of the same busses pull up one immediately following the other. With loading and off-loading of scooters and wheel chairs, waiting for guests (bless them) and everything else that can affect them, they did a pretty good job overall. The real trick is to allow plenty of time and be pleased when you arrive at your destination early manage your own expectations!
The parks were decorated for Halloween and looked very festive and cute. They were actually cleaner (including the restrooms) than last year. More evidence of cast members and they were more vocal (albeit still very polite) about asking people not to smoke in certain areas, one guy taken aside about his crude and offensive language (must have been handled well, he was careful afterward and not in a defensive or angry manner) and once a kid was told he would have to lift the wheels on his heelies (mom and dad were informed that they were not allowed in the parks, but if they removed the wheels, no problems). Everything went well and all in all, no line hopping, no overly rude guests (except for the one who was spoken to) and in fact, most guests were extremely polite and fun to be around.
Then, there was the dining. If youve never experienced it before, you may never know what true Disney service used to be like. Some people blame the free dining, some the . no . wait, everyone blames the free dining. But, service is service no matter what a guest pays. We saw waiters blow up after being stiffed on a tip and take it out on the next group seated there (spec. at Chef Mickeys, Coral Reef, Shutters, Cape May, Ohanas, and Crystal Palace). There were many more rude servers this year than in any time weve been there in 16 years. I dont care if they were losing money on tips or whatever, the bottom line lies in management not doing their jobs properly to ensure that the staff do their jobs properly at all times. We got to some restaurants and were seated, only to wait 15 minutes for anyone to stop at our table.
Le Cellier was one we had a problem at. We were seated and waited 15 minutes for the waiter to come to the table to take our drink orders and another 10 minutes for the drinks and then had them slammed down on the table so hard that one glass (the stemmed ones they use) broke. Then, we had to wait for them to clear the table and replace the settings. The only comment the waiter offered was that he had just had a table of 9 (4 adults and 5 kids, we were seated next to them) that had insisted they were 2 parties and not to add the mandatory tip because of it. They had explained to the manager (we heard them) that part of the problem was that they had to send their food back twice, wrong orders, undercooked, etc., and that the waiter was extremely slow. Well mine ended up sent back twice, my daughters pizza was burned to a char on the bottom and black on top and he still served it, and then after those were replaced and I took her to the restroom with ¾ of the pizza still on her plate and my food only missing one bite of the steak, he swept by picked up both plates and walked off. When my husband tried to call him back, he kept going. We spoke with the manager, who did go back and have them replace our meals (after another 20 minutes) who simply said the server was having a bad night. Hmmm so were we by that time. Nope, we did not tip. He did not do his job, much less do it well or add anything extra, but he and the manager were well aware of that fact when we left. We were not rude in any way, but did explain our reasons to the manager.
We had acceptable service at most places, but simply that acceptable. Only once did we have exceptional service and that was at ESPN Club. She was fantastic and did reap the rewards (we were so grateful for her being so nice we probably overdid the tip at that one).
More often than not, we either saw or experienced one or more issues with the food or the service everywhere we went. The attitudes were horrible and you felt they served you on sufferance only. Not good eating experiences overall and frankly, we rarely felt anyone deserved a tip at all. Very disappointing after 2+ weeks of going through it.
Otherwise, a lovely trip. the food court was pretty good most of the time and only a couple of times were the new employees they were training apparently overwhelmed. Managers stepped in, helped get back on track and they moved on. They did very well overall.
So, thats a short (subjective short) review of our trip. Ill add restaurant notes for all of the places we went later.
Any questions and I'll be glad to answer them.
Being in customer service my entire career, you learn what to say and do and what NOT to say and do, so maybe these employees are just green, but as a manager, one of your top responsibilities is making sure that your employees are doing their job, which is making the guest as satisfied as you have advertised they would be (ie great food, friendly staff, clean rooms, terrific atmosphere,) I dont know, but all the recent bad service review are really starting to get to me
.
