Hotel Surprises and Disappointments??

[Tropical Wilds]

Biggest Disappointment ~ All-Star Music.

We were not excited to stay there but figured it's a place to flop so it doesn't matter. I don't think we made it through our first day before we wanted to upgrade. The theme didn't appeal to us, but that wasn't a biggie... The hotel just seemed very generally poorly run. We got our room and it hadn't even been cleaned yet. We called for mousekeeping, they were apologetic, and said somebody would be right over to clean it. We went to DTD, came back 3 hours later, the room hadn't been touched. There were towels on the floor, the beds were unmade, trash was overflowing... There were even toenails on the floor. We called mousekeeping again, said that the room still wasn't cleaned... The person on the phone said they never got a request and even not-so-subtly implied that perhaps I didn't call the first time and was making it up. Instead of just cleaning the room, they moved us from a prime-spot with a king bed to the corner of the resort, farthest from everything, with two smaller beds.

Beyond that, we found the food to be poor-to-average. The bus service... While it was frequent... Was a lot like how I imagine cows are stuffed into a corral. We shared with the other 3 All-Stars, the waits at the end of the night at park close were 30-45 minutes or more... Our line spilled out of the waiting line and blocked the walkway it got so long. And it seemed like the hotels were far away from everything but AK. It seemed like the bus rides took a really, really long for everything. The employees, while not unfriendly, just seemed less thrilled with being there than most Disney folks. And, not to be mean, I think that the general population of the guests were the rudest, most foul, inconsiderate, and loudest of everybody. We saw a woman just tearing into a lifeguard who had the nerve to tell her son to stop peeing against a tree near the pool. It was ridiculous. We hated it there.

Biggest Surprise ~ Pop Century.

As much as we *hated* All-Star Music, we were almost dreading staying here. But we read such great things, we figured we'd try it. We noticed a difference as soon as we walked in the front door. The place was fun, vibrant, and the employees were Disney-enthusiastic. Our room wasn't ready, and they just took our info and sent us a text when it was, which they did and it was awesome. The buses were great... We didn't wait long at all, ever, and the ride to everything (save for AK) was almost nothing. In fact, we discovered that when you leave Pop, take a right at the intersection, that road dead-ends (sneakily enough) almost dead behind America's Pavillion at EPCOT.

The food... That was the first resort, even out of the Mod I stayed at, where I looked forward to eating there. Mom's Night Out was delish, the cheesecake was addictive, even the stupid little things like the lo mein was amazing.

That said, if the place was packed, I doubt I'd want to be there. It looks like it's a zoo if it's full. But the resort is so big (maybe a negative for some?) I think that you wouldn't feel like you were crawling all over people all the time like at the All-Star.

~~~~

In the end, while these were my biggest surprises and bummers, that doesn't represent my favorite resort... Which is CBR.

 

[mama2ethan04]

Biggest Surprise - we love Pop! I'm ready to stay there again!

Biggest Disappointment - CBR's mousekeeping. We loved everything else about the resort, but the room was WAY BELOW my expectations of a "clean" room.

 

[jillybeanjo]

Biggest Surprise: The Dolphin. Having stayed at the Poly, CSR, Boardwalk Inn, and Yacht and Beach Club, I was afraid we would miss the Disney magic. But the hotel was lovely, the beds were comfy, and the proximity to Epcot was great, and the price is less than half that of any other Epcot resort.

Biggest Disappointment: The Boardwalk Inn. We liked the hotel and had a room with a balcony overlooking the boardwalk above the arcade. Our disappointment was in the fact that it was almost a 10 minute walk to get out of or into our room from the boardwalk! This was especially a pain when using our refillable mugs.

 

[Keegansmommy]

We LOVE Pop Century! I found it to be superior to the other value resorts in transportation and feel.

Our last trip we "splurged" and stayed at POFQ. We really loved this resort (and will be staying there again this upcoming trip), BUT we did have some disappointments. I thought the food court was mediocore at best at POFQ - definitely not the variety of Pop and a lot of the employees we encountered were just not very Disney friendly. The CM at check-in didn't really exude that Disney vibe and we felt like we were checking into a local Best Western. We also found Mousekeeping to be not as great at the Moderate resort as well.

I can't wait to try the new Art of Animation Resort!

 

[FLCyndi]

Biggest Surprise-CBR, had never stayed there and was a little apprehensive-loved it, my son wants to stay again.

Biggest Disappointment-Coronado-too spread out-hated the Pepper MArket

 

[Swan4Me]

Biggest Surprise: The Dolphin. Having stayed at the Poly, CSR, Boardwalk Inn, and Yacht and Beach Club, I was afraid we would miss the Disney magic. But the hotel was lovely, the beds were comfy, and the proximity to Epcot was great, and the price is less than half that of any other Epcot resort.

.

TOTALLY agree with you!

We stayed at the SWAN -but ate almost every meal at the Dolphin!!!

 

[bowbat]

Biggest Surprise: BWI. At the time we booked our stay, there was very little about BWI to be found on these boards. It had good reviews on TripAdvisor, though...and it was available with our discount, so I took a chance and booked it. LOVED. IT. Every part of our stay there was delightful.

Biggest Disappointment: Poly. This was the opposite of our BWI experience, in that we had a wealth of information in advance, all of it positive, from here & numerous other websites. Plus seriously everyone we know just adores Poly. But for us it was so-so at best. Maybe it was just a case of too-high expectations, but we left there very unimpressed.

 

[delilah]

We have stayed at all three of the All Star resorts, GF, AKL Jambo and Kidani, Beach Club Villas, Bay Lake Tower, SSR, and our very first DVC stay was renting points at OKW.

OKW was the most disappointing to us. There was no in room safe, no food court/quick service. The bus was slow, the pool was so-so. I'm not even sure if there is a main pool at OKW, but the one within walking distance of our room, which was way distant from the main building, was small, with no kiddie area. My son, at the time, wasn't much into pools, so, we didn't even go in.

Bay Lake tower was totally awesome, especially the upper lounge level. We enjoyed going up there just to look out even when there was nothing going on. It would be great to watch fireworks there, but there is a guest limit on that floor, so, we never actually went at that time.


We own points at SSR and AKL. I am embarrassed to say that we have only stayed there three times, and the last time was in 2006. We most often have stayed at AKL, probably overall our favorite.

 

[dclfun]

My happy surprise was Boardwalk Inn- we stayed CL and absolutely loved it. I wasn't expecting so much as we've stayed on the villas side many times. This was SO different. My biggest disappointment was Poly CL. I absolutely hated it. We had a room in bad condition, the elevator there is prehistoric, and the lounge is so crowded with tables that it felt like a restaurant vs. a lounge where we could relax. The whole building was filthy- from the carpets in the hallways to the crushed cookie that stayed crushed in front of the elevator for 2 days while housekeeping CM's chatted right next to it.

I've also been happily surprised at the renovated rooms at CS- they're more like a deluxe than a mod except for the space, and we also really liked Pop and All Star Music. I've stayed at every WDW resort at least once and can't really say any stay was a total disaster, but the happy surprise stays were so nice! You really can't go wrong at WDW, IMO.

 

[catra121]

Biggest Surprise - Pop Century was a very pleasant surprise. I was fine with staying there because we were on a budget and I would much rather stay onsite at a value than offsite but I absolutely LOVED the resort which I wasn't expecting. I thought the grounds were very nice and enjoyed walking around the resort at night...especially along the lake. It was very clean and the bus service was the best I have experienced on property. I cannot say enough good things about this resort...such a great value.

Biggest Disappointment - CSR. It was a moderate and I had stayed at POR before (which I loved) and CSR just wasn't a good experience. The theme isn't really my style which was part of it. But more importantly was how dirty and disgusting I found the room. When we first checked in and got to the room I went to use the bathroom and there was a pair of dirty underwear on the floor behind the bathroom door. Mistakes happen and I work retail so I've literally seen it all but that just was a bad first impression and it didn't get any better. My parent had the room next door and when they turned on the fan in the bathroom a bunch of dead bugs came out and ended up all over the place. There was also a mix up with the ME luggage here where they delivered everyone's luggage (there were 3 different rooms) all to our room...which is an easy mistake but it was just one more thing that just didn't seem to go right. I would stay there again if someone else paid but I don't think I would ever pay to stay there again because it was just an overall disappointing experience.

 

[fla4fun]

My biggest disappointment was AKL. I wanted to like it, was excited about staying there (my sister had won a complimentary stay, so it didn't even cost us anything), but when I was there, it just didn't do anything for me. We had a savannah view, but in addition to the savannah, I could still see part of Hwy 192 - which really took the magic right out of the view. I really love being near the water or having a water feature nearby. I really missed being on Bay Lake or Crescent Lake, or even the lakes and canals of the moderate resorts. Once I had watched the animals for an hour or so, I was done with that. It would have to be something pretty powerful to get me to go to AKL again.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think FW was my biggest positive surprise. My first stay there I booked because it was the cheapest alternative available for that particular trip. I really liked how it felt like a neighborhood instead of a hotel. I liked that the cabins didn't share walls, and had huge bathrooms, and your own personal driveway. I had worried about the bus service, and found it to be very easy to get around by bus and that the internal buses came at very frequent intervals. I've been back quite a few times (and considering a trip there this year) - I love the Fort!

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

Biggest surprise was how much we loved AKL Club Level. We love AKL in general, but we weren't sure Club Level would be worth the money. It was. The Sunrise Safari was amazing, and that alone would have been worth the extra money, but we also loved the food offerings, the view from the top, and the CMs were amazing.

Biggest disappointment was the Poly. It had been our "dream" resort for years, and we were soooooo disappointed last year. We had a horrible dirty room and the CMs were rude. The monorail was nice, but it definitely didn't make up for the downsides.

 

[lcj19]

Biggest surprise: Pop Century . I love how fun and inviting the resort theme is. It seems like no matter where your room is you are not too far away from the food court.
Biggest disappointment: CSR . There wasn't anything "wrong" with resort, it just didn't have that "Disney feeling" for me. It also took us what felt like forever to walk from our room to the Pepper Market.

 

[ZebraDomeCrazy]

Biggest Dissappointments: Both BWI and POLY; Loved the resorts, BUT hated the transportation. Cannot get past deluxe resorts sharing buses!

Biggest Surprises: CSR! Not necessarily my favorite resort, but for a moderate, this resort definitely has alot of deluxe perks!

 

[readytogotodisney]

We stayed on property last year for the first time at BCV. We had a 2 bedroom villa, and we loved how nice and clean and spacious it was. All of the CMs we encountered were really nice & helpful, too. In fact the only disappointment we had with BCV was with the beds & bedding. The beds were pretty hard & they had the standard, thin ugly hotel comforters on them. Not at all what I would expect for nearly $700 a night (we rented points).

I couldn't agree more! I hated the bedspreads there.

 

[J'aime Paris]

Biggest Surprise.....ASMu and Dolphin.
Stayed at ASMu on a trip where it was just me and DD. We booked preferred and were put in an excellent location. DD loved the activities by the pool. Found buses to be plentiful and timely. We enjoyed it so much we booked a bounceback mom/daugher trip. Dolphin was in such an awesome location for the price. And the grotto pool is a gem. AAA discount on many eating locations. Good value!

Biggest Disappointment.....YCcl and GFcl
The conc. lounge at YC was so small, and the view was terrible! I thought it would at least look out on the Boardwalk area, water, Epcot, something. After staying at Poly, GF and AK concierge lounges, this lounge was lame.
GF was disappointing because of rude staff. My dad used a tray from the lounge to bring a snack back to the room and was verbally scolded by a CM for taking the tray. We had to speak with a supervisor, and were "given permission" to take the tray. Isn't that what the trays are for?!?!

Our "go to" resort is always the Poly

 

[stitchaholic]

biggest dissapointment- I know I am going to get flamed for this , but here goes Pop Century , I had stayed at ASMo and we thought it was very clean and nice , we found Pop to be overcrowded , dirty , old and very , very used beds , I upgraded to CSR which brings me to my ....

biggest surprise CSR , beautiful resort , amazing main pool , lovely helpful staff , never crowded busses , loved it , wish i could get a reservation upgrade for our upcoming trip

We have also stayed at ASMo , AKV kidani , SSR , WL , AKV kidani is definitly a fav

 

[litlpixie]

Biggest surprise: POR. And I say that because it was our very 1st onsite stay and I can honestly say that it was the moment that it finally hit me about what is was all about staying onsite. Even after all my research prior to that trip, I still thought k, its a Disney owned hotel that will bus you to the parks.

I was amazed and fell in love w/ the whole Disney experience that stays with you after you leave the parks w/out overloading you with it's sweetness. We found the resort so relaxing, peaceful and very clean- and so fun for our kids, who at the time were 10 and 11 and thought food courts were the greatest thing this side of Heaven Love that place!!!

Biggest Dissapointment: Wilderness Lodge. Not only did I think the pool was too small, but it just ended up not being our kind of theme. Our Junior Suite was nice however.