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

[cattywampus]

Let me start by saying that I love the Grand Californian and book multiple night stays 2-3 times per year.

However, unless this was an outright emergency (i.e. pipe burst, etc), it is absolutely unacceptable to just slip letters under doors.

Any planned maintenance should be disclosed upon booking and certainly upon check-in. Guests should have the right to cancel reservations and/or pursue other accommodations. The guests have booked and paid for a certain accommodation level, that includes running water 24 hours per day, and waiting until you are checked in and settled, to notify you is unacceptable and, at a minimum, acting in bad faith (in my non-legal opinion, it is unethical and borders on fraudulent practices).

I had a similar situation with them for a planned power outage that they failed to disclose until we returned from the parks, little one in tow and asleep, where we were met with a letter and a single glow stick that had been left by housekeeping. My little one is afraid of the dark and we always leave a light on.

I was furious and made a large stink to mgt. Again, if it had been an emergency, that would have been different but they KNEW and let us check in any way. To make matters worse, only part of the hotel was affected. They could have advised us at checkin and we could have requested a room that was not affected.

Instead they offered to move us at 11:00 pm. So let me get this straight... I should pack up our entire room, wake my sleeping child and change rooms is your solution... when the whole thing could have been avoided?

Unacceptable. Needless to say, I was refunded for my stay. Hell hath no fury like a woman with a sleeping child.

By the way, the fire alarms and water issue go together. There were many alarm issues in the year after opening. The fire life safety system will sound the fire alarms if water pressure in the interior sprinkler system drops. while the water lines for the FLS system may be separate from domestic water (that which comes out of room faucets, etc.), I would bet dollars to donuts, the alarm was a result of the water service interruptions.

 

[Malcon10t]

The hotel is a 24/7/365 location. Often, issues such as the water is not pre planned. It is decided 3-5 days in advance, if then. The city of Anaheim may tell them "We have to turn the water off tonight." Would you rather they call you as you are leaving for a trip or as you are arriving and say "Sorry, we are going to take the water down for 4 hours in the middle of the night, so decide if you are going to stay?" It happens. It happens at EVERY hotel. The power outage was not "preplanned". Things like this happen. What do you do at home where there is an outage? Do you really freak out?

 

[cattywampus]

The hotel is a 24/7/365 location. Often, issues such as the water is not pre planned. It is decided 3-5 days in advance, if then. The city of Anaheim may tell them "We have to turn the water off tonight." Would you rather they call you as you are leaving for a trip or as you are arriving and say "Sorry, we are going to take the water down for 4 hours in the middle of the night, so decide if you are going to stay?" It happens. It happens at EVERY hotel. The power outage was not "preplanned". Things like this happen. What do you do at home where there is an outage? Do you really freak out?

What makes you think the power outage was not pre-planned? ...because you are dead wrong.

They admitted they knew about the PRE-PLANNED power outage when we checked in but did not tell us. The letter specified they were turning it off for construction related to the DVC wing. I'm in real estate development. You KNOW when that tie-in is happening.

We could have been relocated at check in, but we're not told. Yes, I fully expect to be told any known issues. 3-5 Days knowledge does NOT constitute an emergency... that is pre-planned and guests should be notified, no later than checkin, when they know a guest will be affected. It is called disclosure and I fully expect it. That is called reasonable, not freaking out.

If I am paying for top of the line, I expect to get top of the line. Perhaps they should adjust rates for planned inconvenience, instead of just hoping no one will complain. Rates should reflect the value of what is being provided. Not being able to shower after a day in the parks is lowest of the low.

 

[bumbershoot]

See, I don't consider ANY Disney resort to be anywhere near top of the line. And if they were they would charge even more.

 

[cattywampus]

Top of the line for the DLR. GCH is their flagship property.

I agree that true top of the line isn't available.

 

[Malcon10t]

See, I don't consider ANY Disney resort to be anywhere near top of the line. And if they were they would charge even more.

True. My brother recently stayed at The Towers in NY, and they took the water out from 2-6am. He didn't notice and didn't care. When we stayed at the DLH in Dec 2013, we were without hot water and heat for a day (about 36 hours, boiler went out). Yes, it wasn't fun, but I wasn't going to dwell on it. My thoughts are usually more along the lines of enjoying my vacation. All this "They should shut the hotel down" when maintenance is needed is overkill.

 

[Cats2]

By the way, the fire alarms and water issue go together. There were many alarm issues in the year after opening. The fire life safety system will sound the fire alarms if water pressure in the interior sprinkler system drops. while the water lines for the FLS system may be separate from domestic water (that which comes out of room faucets, etc.), I would bet dollars to donuts, the alarm was a result of the water service interruptions.

I really don't think these 2 events were related. The fire alarms went off in the wee hours of Sun 9/27. More than one person has confirmed that there really was a fire in the hotel. We got notice about the water on I think Tues or Wed (9/29 or 9/30) for Thur 10/1 IIRC. And then they cancelled the water outage that week and apparently did it the following week.

I do think that a power outage is a bit different than the water being off. So many thing are reliant on electricity, the clocks, the lights, the in-room fridge and cell phones/other devices chargers. What if someone has a medical device that needs power? What did they do about hall lighting and elevators with the power being off? I do think they should've told you about a planned power outage if it was known at check in. I agree that receiving an in room notice the day of the outage is not really advanced notice, especially since you didn't find about it til you returned to your room. I do agree with others that scheduled maintenance does need to occur, and I would assume they felt that disruption of water service in the middle of the night would likely not be a problem for the majority of the guests. (Of course, these are just assumptions).

We've been staying at the GCH only since 2011, and since the DVC wing opened in 2009, I'm assuming the power issue was before the wing opened?

 

[cattywampus]

The fire alarms were both before and after the new wing was added and it was a security cast member who let me know about the water pressure issue. I have enough construction experience to ask the right questions -- he didn't just blurt it out.

It sound like this alarm was different but it is still interesting that water repairs/improvements were taking place. It does not mean that the alarm was necessarily avoidable.

We have been staying at least once per year, since it opened. The false alarms haven't happened to us over the last few years, so whatever issue they were having seems to have been resolved.

The power issue related to connecting the new wing into the existing system and only affected the southern wings. They could have easily informed guests and allowed those with issues to be located in the non-affected wings.

 

[Indiana Scott]

Odd but after staying at all the local, lesser, off-site hotels for 15 years, we have NEVER lacked for water, power or anything else.

 

[cattywampus]

Malcon: you are welcome to your opinion. Once again you are using an unplanned emergency for comparison to planned issues.

By the way, there are temporary fixes that the hotel should have been expected to employ. 36 hours is way too long to be without hot water and pay full rates (coming from a Director of a company that has a hospitality division).

Perhaps you are more easy going and that's fine. I don't camp and don't expect to rough it and still pay hundreds of dollars per night. I would guess most would agree.

 

[justgrace]

Odd but after staying at all the local, lesser, off-site hotels for 15 years, we have NEVER lacked for water, power or anything else.

We were just thinking the same thing. We've stayed at most the hotels along Harbor and a couple on Katella, and have never had any of the issues described by many of the people here, and we've been going to Disneyland frequently for a while now. Just because the hotel is 4-5x more per night, doesn't mean that the quality is any higher.

I guess us poor folks have it nice!

 

[cattywampus]

These problems are the oddity. I can assure you that I wouldn't return multiple times per year if they weren't.

The vast majority of the stays have a magic all their own.

 

[MommyJKM]

Once again, if you're expecting perfection just because you're paying $500/night you will probably be disappointed. It's not really THAT big of a deal to have your water shut off for a few hours, it happens ALL THE TIME at hotels around the world. Roll with it.

 

[Indiana Scott]

I traveled for work for many years, have traveled all over and the closest thing to this I ever had was when there was no hot water. Even then it was fixed within 30 minutes.
Sorry but I have to argue that this is not normal in any way.

 

[Malcon10t]

I traveled for work for many years, have traveled all over and the closest thing to this I ever had was when there was no hot water. Even then it was fixed within 30 minutes.
Sorry but I have to argue that this is not normal in any way.

I travel a lot also. And it does happen everywhere. I've had places where we had no notice, I've been in places where we received notices in the room, and I've been where they tell us ahead of time.

To say it isn't normal in any way, how do you propose they do maintenance? Every hotel at some point or another has to take down electrical or water. How they deal with it is what counts. I have been in one hotel that shut off water from 8am-noon. It was warned ahead of time, but personally, I'd prefer Disney's way of 1am-5am.

The bigger thing is how you let it affect you. Yes, we had an instance where we had no heat or hot water for 36 hours. It was a pain, but we dealt with it. The boiler went out, and once they had it repaired, it took a few hours to get flowing again. The temp in the room dropped to 56 degrees. Disney did make it right by comping 2 nights of our trip. (We had a 3 bedroom suite.) Despite the issues, we had a GREAT trip.

 

[Indiana Scott]

I travel a lot also. And it does happen everywhere. I've had places where we had no notice, I've been in places where we received notices in the room, and I've been where they tell us ahead of time.

To say it isn't normal in any way, how do you propose they do maintenance? Every hotel at some point or another has to take down electrical or water. How they deal with it is what counts. I have been in one hotel that shut off water from 8am-noon. It was warned ahead of time, but personally, I'd prefer Disney's way of 1am-5am.

They can do maint. by isolating the area in need of repair and not shutting down the whole floor, building, etc. Your normal and mine are two different things. I've been fortunate to work for a company that always put us up in the nicest hotels and just haven't experienced it - so that is my normal.

 

[Malcon10t]

I've been fortunate to work for a company that always put us up in the nicest hotels and just haven't experienced it - so that is my normal.

We do too. I would consider the Waldorf Towers in NY to be one of the nicer hotels, and it happened there in early Sept. It can happen, it really isn't that big of a deal.

 

[Indiana Scott]

We do too. I would consider the Waldorf Towers in NY to be one of the nicer hotels, and it happened there in early Sept. It can happen, it really isn't that big of a deal.

It never happened to me at the Ritz Carlton.

 

[5forMickey]

I guess I'm just still confused at what people want the Hotel to do? I can imagine the outrage if your reservations got cancelled three days before your trip because there were maintenance issues. I think it happens everywhere, if it hasn't happened to you then you are lucky. I agree with Malton10T, it's all about how you handle it and if you let it ruin your time or not because things will go wrong at some point.

It never happened to me at the Ritz Carlton.

Actually we were at the Ritz in Denver once and it happened there, only it was off for 12 hours

 

[cattywampus]

We don't expect our reservation to be cancelled. We DO EXPECT THE HOTEL TO INFORM US, as soon as they know and no later than checkin so that we may make our own decision and/or plan.

For example, the OP might have come in from the park earlier, in order to shower before the water went off. Had I been informed of the PLANNED power outage, I could have requested a room that was unaffected or prepared my little one and packed a flashlight. Any discounts to full rates should be automatically applied. Don't make me complain to get it.

Easy peasy. That is reasonable expectation and good service.