$500 a night and no running water. Updated with news on page 5

[Dentam]

I'm out... will let the plumbing experts take it from here.

 

[honicakes]

Just wanted to give a tip to folks - ALWAYS book directly with hotels, airlines etc if possible. I have family in the travel industry and YES it is standard with MANY travel agency bookings (including the likes of those from web agencies like travelocity etc) that refunds are not able to be generated by the actual airline/hotel etc. If you booked this way, and you wish to seek compensation, you must take it up with the travel agency as unfortunately there is nothing that the hotel or airline can do in forms of a literal "refund".

That being said - there are, of course, OTHER things that they can do for you, such as offer you free dining, maybe a Disney gift card, park tickets etc. It does seem like they tried to offer somewhat of an equitable level of compensation for the level of inconvenience. Really, it might be slightly uncomfortable, but crashing a few hours without a shower and then getting up a little earlier before leaving for the parks the next day to shower then is not the worst thing that could happen.

And remember - you get more with honey than you do with vinegar. Whenever you may feel that you have been inconvenienced enough to have some type of compensation offered to you, be civil, be polite, keep your tone of voice and demeanor calm, professional and respectful. Yelling and "demanding" compensation will usually not get you very far.

Footnote - This is just general advice - I am in no way saying that OP was behaving any one which way or the other because I wasn't there so I have no idea what actually took place.

 

[disneyfirsttimer18]

You know, this actually reminds me of something I saw on Facebook the other day. It has to do with the Candy Cane Inn (not a water issue, but another issue which I will explain), and I wonder what you (and anyone else here) think of it.

On the Candy Cane Inn page on Facebook, in the posts on the left-hand side of the page, a woman wrote a long, angry review. From what I could gather, it sounds as if she and her husband booked a room for some time away from the kids. It doesn't sound as if she had the Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door. Apparently, in the morning (before check-out), the maid came to the door, briefly knocking and then opening the door to enter the room. The woman/guest of CCI said that she stood there, half-dressed, watching as the maid walked into the room. She said she explained to the maid why she and her husband were there (which shouldn't have been an issue), and that the maid reminded her that there should have been a DND sign hanging on the door.

I agree with the maid -- there should have been a DND sign on the door. And I agree with the guest, that the maid should have knocked more than she actually did. At the end of the day, it seems like it was an unfortunate, embarrassing mishap -- something that could probably even be laughed about later on down the line. The guest who wrote the review, however, is not letting it go. She has tried and tried and tried and tried to get restitution for this episode. It sounds like CCI said they would make it right, and now are either avoiding her or just not giving the responses she wants. (Go to the Candy Cane Inn Facebook page to read the entire story -- it's quite lengthy.)

So, in that particular case -- seeing that it was just a wacky mishap and no one was harmed, or left with an unsanitary situation, or burdened with extra financial expense -- I think that seeking restitution is probably a bit extreme. And, in fact, if I had been the guest who was walked in on, I probably wouldn't want to draw more attention to myself with the CCI people, so they could all snicker every time I wrote in and say, "Oh, there's the half-naked lady again." I don't know for sure what I would do, but I think I would probably just want to drop it and never return to CCI!

What does anyone else think about that scenario?

We had something similar to this happen at DLH in March.

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and the door started opening. I immediately thought it was one of my kids. Upon realising it was not, I just said, "Um, we are in here". A very quick apology and the door shut.

We were going to get breakfast before checkout, so we put the DND sign on the door and off we went. Came back to the room just as we left it.

I have to say that I would have been annoyed if the housekeeper had argued with me. We had been in the parks the 2 previous mornings at the same time, so she probably figured it was empty at the time.

 

[AustinTink]

I'm kind of giggling with you about this .... I would want to shower especially if I felt gross.....but then after walking that long I'm usually "butt crawling" at that point.

I can just picture the internal fight I would be having .... I wanna shower --- I can't walk --- I wanna shower --- I can't move! And yet we find that to be fun

This was us exactly. I just wanted to be clean and go to sleep. We not only walked all day at Disney, but Disney was the second part of our trip. We had just flown in from a week in San Francisco where we walked our butts off. It's not good when you start a Disney vacation with your feet already aching. Not doing that again.

 

[AustinTink]

Given that we were walking back and forth from the Hilton after long days at the parks in that heat, yeah, easy peasy from the Grand to PPH. Even at 1:30. If I felt dirty and gross enough, ayep.

From your response, you didn't think it would be, but I do think it would be.

But then...I find the Grand to be anything but grand, and we don't stay there.

I googled the distance. It's .3 miles from door to door of the hotels. Add in walking from our room in the "timbuk-two wing" of the hotel and double it for round trip...it was going to be a 3/4 mile endeavor. I would have been sweaty again by the time we got back.

I agree with you about the Grand not being so grand. The water wasn't the only disappointing thing this trip. But that's another thread.

 

[taniahappy]

I would have been furious! But hey, a good free breakfast was nice

 

[Sherry E]

I googled the distance. It's .3 miles from door to door of the hotels. Add in walking from our room in the "timbuk-two wing" of the hotel and double it for round trip...it was going to be a 3/4 mile endeavor. I would have been sweaty again by the time we got back.

I agree with you about the Grand not being so grand. The water wasn't the only disappointing thing this trip. But that's another thread.

I don't want to belabor the point -- I think you're in the right for feeling inconvenienced by the water situation, and I am glad that you sent an email and explained your situation, so I'm on your side. Just for clarification, though, regardless of what the Internet tells you in terms of distance between hotels, I think that the visuals when you are actually there make a big difference. And, when you step outside of the GCH's front entrance and walk to the sidewalk, you will see the PPH right across the street. That's the famous "short cut" that people take when they stay at the PPH. Likewise, when you go out of the front entrance of the PPH, you see the GCH right there, across the street at the corner. They're really close, and they look much closer in person than they sound or read on the Internet, if that makes sense.

I probably would have taken the late shower because I'm very familiar with the path to and from the two hotels -- only if I really felt grungy and gross and had an immediate need to be clean or use a bathroom -- but I can totally understand why and how you didn't want to. It makes sense!

 

[AustinTink]

I don't want to belabor the point -- I think you're in the right for feeling inconvenienced by the water situation, and I am glad that you sent an email and explained your situation, so I'm on your side. Just for clarification, though, regardless of what the Internet tells you in terms of distance between hotels, I think that the visuals when you are actually there make a big difference. And, when you step outside of the GCH's front entrance and walk to the sidewalk, you will see the PPH right across the street. That's the famous "short cut" that people take when they stay at the PPH. Likewise, when you go out of the front entrance of the PPH, you see the GCH right there, across the street at the corner. They're really close, and they look much closer in person than they sound or read on the Internet, if that makes sense.

I probably would have taken the late shower because I'm very familiar with the path to and from the two hotels -- only if I really felt grungy and gross and had an immediate need to be clean or use a bathroom -- but I can totally understand why and how you didn't want to. It makes sense!

I hear you. No big deal either way. We simply were not up for the trek at that ungodly hour. The length of our hallway alone was enough to stop us.

 

[Sherry E]

I hear you. No big deal either way. We simply were not up for the trek at that ungodly hour. The length of our hallway alone was enough to stop us.

Oh my goodness -- I know what you mean! If you are talking about the endless corridor in the GCH that I think you're talking about, I definitely understand! I once stayed in a GCH room that was way, way, way down at the end of that never-ending corridor. It may not have technically been far in actual distance, but it seemed like it was miles away -- especially at the end of a long day. I liked the view from the room, but that corridor seemed ridiculous at the time.

The water situation -- I still feel -- was badly handled by Disney, timing-wise and communication-wise, even if they really had no choice about when to do maintenance. The time you arrived back would have been the time other people who stayed late in the park arrived back at the hotel, and I'm sure that someone else in that hotel was also unaware that there would be no water. Imagine a family choosing to not go to the bathroom in the parks, because they figured they could go when they got back to the GCH, and then... surprise!!

I'll be interested to hear how Disney responds to your email.

 

[tarheelalum]

AustinTink please tell us what Disney has to say for itself in this matter.

 

[AustinTink]

AustinTink please tell us what Disney has to say for itself in this matter.

I'll post an update when they contact me.

 

[azdisneylover]

The water was turned off for 2 of our 3 nights at the Grand Californian. This sucks, but what sucks more is not knowing it was going to happen and really needing water.

Imagine our surprise when we closed down the parks and got back to our hotel room around 1am and wanted to take showers. Hot and filthy after a day of parkhopping, we were quite surprised to say the least. When I called down to the front desk to ask if our room was having issues, I was told the whole hotel was under maintenance from 1-5am... no water. Apparently, every other room in the hotel had a letter slipped under the door alerting guests of the upcoming maintenance. We didn't get a letter!! Had we known, we would have planned accordingly and returned to the hotel in time to get cleaned up before bed.

It was one gross and sticky night.

Just a word of caution for night owls like us who might be heading to the Grand in the near future. Ask the front desk if you will have water for all 24 hours of your nightly stay.

Oh, no! Be careful! The tag fairy might tag you with something like AustinSTink, orAustinStinky.

Seriously,

The hotel didn't handle itself is a professional manner.

Linda

 

[Malcon10t]

I understand it was an inconvenience, but things do happen. Maintenance does have to happen. A couple years ago, we were staying in a 2 bedroom suite at the DLH for 10 days. The hotel was fully booked. The boiler went out for the Adventure Tower. It lasted about 30 hours. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold outside, and no boiler meant no heat and no hot water. Disneyland Hotel was very accommodating, and along with making sure we had extra blankets and stuff, they comped us 2 nights. (I book directly thru the hotel as I know hotels have to go thru outside sources if you book thru outside sources.)

 

[White Rose]

Before a recent cruise we stayed one night at a Ft Lauderdale hotel. We were sound asleep when the door to our room opened and someone was standing there. Of course we were both wide awake at this point! The door closed and we both freaked out, calling down to the front desk.

We were comped the night. And received a lengthy apology. We did not demand anything. We just called and told the front desk what happened and that we were concerned...we usually use the extra security latches in the room...from now on it is a priority. No one knows who opened the door, btw. The front desk claimed no one from staff did it.

It did reinforce us using the security latch, though!

 

[calilou]

Bottom line, I feel that it is a very big deal to not have access to water while staying at a hotel. I for one would have been livid in your situation. That being said, I understand that maintenance needs are going to make turning off the water necessary from time to time. I feel that the hotel did what they could in attempting to make the shut off affect the least amount of guests and tried to notify all. However the OP was not properly notified and was very negatively affected by the shut off. The hotel should gone above and beyond compensating him/her for the inconvenience, and it shouldn't have had to take demanding to speak to the GM to get the situation addressed. I feel the hotel started off right in offering an alternate shower location, but they should have absolutely compensated one night of hotel cost in the form of a gift card if a refund was not possible. I certainly don't think it's necessary to compensate all guests, but those who found themselves not able to function as they normally would should be.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

What a horrible experience! What if you needed to use the toilet suddenly between 1-5am that night because Mother Nature suddenly called? A bottle of water wouldn't fix that!

Not being able to flush a toilet for a few hours is hardly a "horrible experience!" OP was offered a shower at another hotel; seems like reasonable compensation to me.

 

[AustinTink]

I received an email from a guest experience services rep yesterday. Basically, it said he had been forwarded my email and will be personally addressing my comments within the next seven days. Interesting. I've never written in to guest services before, so this is all new to me. I'm curious to read his response sometime this week.

 

[Sherry E]

They/he may end up calling you, AustinTink! From what I have been hearing in the last few years, it seems that Disney is trying to make an effort to personally interact with people who write in by calling them to chat about the issue. Sometimes they even call if the comments were all positive.

 

[AustinTink]

They/he may end up calling you, AustinTink! From what I have been hearing in the last few years, it seems that Disney is trying to make an effort to personally interact with people who write in by calling them to chat about the issue. Sometimes they even call if the comments were all positive.

I like that. That's going the extra mile on their part. He did give me his phone number to call if I wanted to speak to him immediately. I'm in no hurry, so I'll wait till I hear from him instead.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Not being able to flush a toilet for a few hours is hardly a "horrible experience!" OP was offered a shower at another hotel; seems like reasonable compensation to me.

You know, we Californians have to pay higher rates for water if we use over our allotment. One of the water saving methods that's suggested and widely practiced (at least in my neighborhood) is not flushing the toilet every single time it's used. Of course it depends on the type of waste. Liquid waste can wait. It's not gross. You just shut the lid and don't worry about it. Many of us also collect our extra shower water (when the shower is heating up) in a bucket and use it to flush the toilet.