Back Highs and Lows

[sjt22]

Hi all just thought I would do a quick highs and lows.

Highs
Saratoga springs, yes the rooms are a bit tatty in some places but the resort was clean and the staff amazing. Emily the duty manager changed our MNSSHP reservations because the day we were going was the day of the hurricane meaning rain for us. She basically booked us new tickets then comped them to to room meaning we had 2 sets of tickets as they couldn't cancel the original ones ,instead of making an issue they just did it and trusted us not to use both and we didn't .

The staff at saratoga springs also sorted out many room charge issues for us.

MNSSHP was amazing we dressed as Belle and Gaston and the cast members totally played along with it. We ate in be our guest and got a personal visit from the Beast.

The frozen ride, I loved it.

High/low the DxDDP
I loved most of the food but it was just too much to the point I didn't want to eat anymore, we couldn't make use of the snacks as I was never hungry, it made the days too restrictive and quality and service at signatures was often at opposite ends of the scale.

Had great meals at whispering canyon cafe, Jiko the first time, STK, Flying fish and the artist point.

Lows

Having servers basically steal from you. Every restaurant worked differently we were always asked if we were on a dining plan, they then scanned our band and we put in our pin, little did we know this meant they then had the power to charge what they wanted to your room. We paid cash for drinks and tip at one restaurant but the server had already charged it to our room without our knowledge and took the money too. ( we did get it back thanks to saratoga springs staff). We then took to charging stuff to our band as this seemed easier and even when we signed something as a 5 dollar tip on some drinks they charged a 19 dollar tip, we also got this back, we took to having to take photos of the receipts we signed. We had so many problems with tips charges and bills it was ridiculous, not one restaurant was the same. I think we would have been ripped off even more if the lovely server on our second day at the biergarten hadn't explained the situation to us. We paid our room bill daily so we could look for errors.

California Grill

We had a 9.40 reservation and checked in early, sat at the bar and 50% of the people are no where near in the dress code, they knew it was our anniversary meal and at 9.55 went to check on our table and was told people are hanging at there table to watch wishes, at 10.15 the barman (who was amazing) called the manager. Basically our table had been given to another couple with the same surname, we got a crap table in the corner and no apology, if we hadn't needed to use the credits I would of walked out.

In general we had a great trip but restaurants caused our main issues.

Still looking forward to January though.

Sarahx

 

[tinkerpea]

That's terrible about the servers. We had this issue a few times on our last trip too,
We had akl refund on 3 different occasions as one meal we even paid cash,instead of using our credits yet it was charged to our room, along with the tip.
I wouldn't have been at all happy at cali either, I also prefer it when people adhere to the dress code,
They used ro be alot stricter about it, but one night at citricos people was in board shorts and tshirts!
I'm pleased you had some highs.
We go in just under two wks and disney standards have been slightly falling each year we've gone

 

[disneyholic family]

we had a problem with the meal charges last time, but in our case it seemed as if the servers were too stupid to figure out how to charge credits rather than money..

i was thinking that this time i won't permit charging to the rooms, other than food credits..
if i don't allow charging to the room, i assume this means they won't be able to make mistakes regarding cash charges

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

That's really scary about the charges. I'll be really on my guard now in October

 

[pickers1982]

we also had issues on our last trip. Mainly with the wrong number of credits being taken (we were two parties so maybe servers got confused). Disney always sorted it no questions asked though which is good

 

[jerseygal]

we had a problem with the meal charges last time, but in our case it seemed as if the servers were too stupid to figure out how to charge credits rather than money..

i was thinking that this time i won't permit charging to the rooms, other than food credits..
if i don't allow charging to the room, i assume this means they won't be able to make mistakes regarding cash charges

This past May, at Kona our server seemed very "unfamiliar" with the DDP and MB's and it took forever, probably a half hour extra or more trying to include the tip on the bill. I keep every copy of our receipts in case we need it when we review the bill. We usually review the hotel invoice very late the night before checkout to review all charges through that point. In case there are any problems we would rather deal with it then, instead of the morning of check out. I am also thinking of not allowing charging privileges for that concern as well. Instead we will pay the tip directly with our Disney Visa charge possibly and of course retain ALL dining receipts.

 

[Ruth B]

How is best to handle the charging tip situation? We will use ddp but pay for our eldest son meal( as booked him on later and he doesn't have ddp)
I think I will charge it to the room instead of paying cash and check the room charge matches my receipt.
Glad you had some highs as well as the lows!!

 

[pickers1982]

How is best to handle the charging tip situation? We will use ddp but pay for our eldest son meal( as booked him on later and he doesn't have ddp)
I think I will charge it to the room instead of paying cash and check the room charge matches my receipt.
Glad you had some highs as well as the lows!!

This caused a few issues for us with servers taking credits for our 1 year old who wasn't on the plan(although he usually ate kids meals). I would just highlight it at the start and check the bill at the end. They won't know whose on the plan so worth just saying you ll pay for whoever is cheapest!

 

[Ruth B]

This caused a few issues for us with servers taking credits for our 1 year old who wasn't on the plan(although he usually ate kids meals). I would just highlight it at the start and check the bill at the end. They won't know whose on the plan so worth just saying you ll pay for whoever is cheapest!

Thank you

 

[sjt22]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

It does seem like a very messy system at the moment regarding DDP room charges and tips.

What seemed to work for us in the end was photographing the final receipt that the servers kept(sometimes we had 3 or 4 different receipts come out to us and they often ended up with 2 to keep themselves) and then checking the bill on the room daily.

It was a pain and I hope disney do something to improve the system as I am sure many people will have been ripped off.

I would also watch card charges as we were told by someone that when they charge your credit card they have a 2 hour window to add charges and one family had another persons meal added to it even after they had left the restaurant. I am not sure how true this is but its what I was told.

We did have a great holiday by the way even with these issues, the staff who sorted them were amazing.

 

[Karenpowley]

Hi all just thought I would do a quick highs and lows.

Highs
Saratoga springs, yes the rooms are a bit tatty in some places but the resort was clean and the staff amazing. Emily the duty manager changed our MNSSHP reservations because the day we were going was the day of the hurricane meaning rain for us. She basically booked us new tickets then comped them to to room meaning we had 2 sets of tickets as they couldn't cancel the original ones ,instead of making an issue they just did it and trusted us not to use both and we didn't .

The staff at saratoga springs also sorted out many room charge issues for us.

MNSSHP was amazing we dressed as Belle and Gaston and the cast members totally played along with it. We ate in be our guest and got a personal visit from the Beast.

The frozen ride, I loved it.

High/low the DxDDP
I loved most of the food but it was just too much to the point I didn't want to eat anymore, we couldn't make use of the snacks as I was never hungry, it made the days too restrictive and quality and service at signatures was often at opposite ends of the scale.

Had great meals at whispering canyon cafe, Jiko the first time, STK, Flying fish and the artist point.

Lows

Having servers basically steal from you. Every restaurant worked differently we were always asked if we were on a dining plan, they then scanned our band and we put in our pin, little did we know this meant they then had the power to charge what they wanted to your room. We paid cash for drinks and tip at one restaurant but the server had already charged it to our room without our knowledge and took the money too. ( we did get it back thanks to saratoga springs staff). We then took to charging stuff to our band as this seemed easier and even when we signed something as a 5 dollar tip on some drinks they charged a 19 dollar tip, we also got this back, we took to having to take photos of the receipts we signed. We had so many problems with tips charges and bills it was ridiculous, not one restaurant was the same. I think we would have been ripped off even more if the lovely server on our second day at the biergarten hadn't explained the situation to us. We paid our room bill daily so we could look for errors.

California Grill

We had a 9.40 reservation and checked in early, sat at the bar and 50% of the people are no where near in the dress code, they knew it was our anniversary meal and at 9.55 went to check on our table and was told people are hanging at there table to watch wishes, at 10.15 the barman (who was amazing) called the manager. Basically our table had been given to another couple with the same surname, we got a crap table in the corner and no apology, if we hadn't needed to use the credits I would of walked out.

In general we had a great trip but restaurants caused our main issues.

Still looking forward to January though.

Sarahx

Hi,
Sorry to hear about the extra charges - is there any way you can stop them charging anything to your room through your magic band even if you are on the DDP? - I'd sooner pay cash for any extras and tips...as I find this really quite scary.

I'm glad you had a good time though!

 

[clareyfairymouse]

Thanks for sharing this.
My parents are going in a couple weeks so will give em a heads up.

Glad you had a good trip overall

 

[Jon84]

This is the exact reason I don't have my card attached to my MDE account. It's too much hassle to get things fixed. I only tip cash when using dining credits.

I agree with you on DxDDP. If you do 3 meals a day, it's too restrictive. Our next trip we have Dx, but have only booked breakfasts, and 2 Credit venues. The types of food at 2Cr places tends to be lighter and less stodgy than burgers, buffets etc.

Sad about Cali Grill, that was a highlight of our last trip. I did receive advice first to make a reservation well before 9pm if you want to see Wishes as people do hang on to their tables.

Also agree about the Cali Grill Dress Code, it wasn't so bad in May, but I'd assume that in the Summer heat alot of people will skip the dress code. I've never seen it enforced at any restaurant in WDW (I'm sure Victoria and Alberts would though!)

Hi,
Sorry to hear about the extra charges - is there any way you can stop them charging anything to your room through your magic band even if you are on the DDP? - I'd sooner pay cash for any extras and tips...as I find this really quite scary.

I'm glad you had a good time though!

Yes, you just don't link a card to the room/account, job done Having a card linked to a band makes it no quicker than using the card itself anywhere.

 

[Karenpowley]

Thanks for that...I won't link anything then!

 

[nursejackie]

This will be our 7th year at WDW and we never charge anything to our magic bands. We pay cash so we can keep track of our spending and there is no risk of being overcharged. A few years ago we were given a credit on our magic band as a good will gesture but it didn't show when we paid for our very expensive meal. We had to pay by cash and then deal with that issue as well. That taught we are doing the right thing by paying cash.

 

[jon18uk]

I haven't been since they brought in Magicbands and we didn't have any issues before about charging DDP and tips using a KTTW card.

I thought you needed to input a PIN to charge to a MagicBand, therefore does the display on the reader not show a total cost to be charged to the room account before you input the PIN? If not it sounds like a very poor system.

 

[robinb]

I've never had a problem with being charged incorrectly so I'm confused about how it happened to you so often. Could it be that the servers were automatically adding the 18% gratuity on your bill? I also am confused about why you were even paying with cash when so much easier for the servers to just charge your bands and then you can pay your bill with cash at the end. The DDP can be a pain in the but sometimes so it's better to keep things simple.

 

[Wakey]

The problem is many of the receipts are different and it is confusing what, if anything to write in for a tip etc, particularly if party of 6 and auto 18% added on. Sometimes there was space to write a tip, sometimes not. I had 18% added on most so wrote 'tip as above' in the tip box and the total amount at the bottom so nothing could be added on. In the Disney Springs restaurants 18% wasn't even added on so it was even more confusing.