A run of yucky rooms...how to avoid a repeat this Saturday?

[JerseyJanice]

My last several stays in Disney resorts, I called resort reservations and asked for specific locations. I did not ask for any upgrades, but I did request certain buildings.

And I am pleased to report that they granted every one of my requests. Figure out what you want and where you’ll get it and put in a request.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

For the past few trips, we have had a slew of less than optimal rooms.

(yes, yes...totally get what a whiny first world issue this is. We are BLESSED to be able to stay at these fabulous resorts! Which are expensive. Which leads to why I was disappointed)

AKL: we were in a top floor and it sounded like there was some kind of loud machinery directly over our ceiling and we were also right by the elevator. The sounds kept us awake all. night. long.

AKL: I think it was room 2210. Tucked in a corner by the lobby, view of storage buildings and a tight corner of dirt. zero animals came by. CM was like "We have a great room for you!" No..no you don't. It was the worst view we have ever had at AKL.

Grand floridian: Sago Cay in far end room. View of monorail and workmen, ground floor and right next to elevator. Lobby sounds and people waiting on elevator talking loudly kept us awake till 1am

Grand Floridian: Learned we need to ask for quiet room. Placed at far corner end room in Big Pine Key...directly over the party patio for convention parties. I could have jumped off the patio into the Party City convention directly below...which kept us awake with all the loud music, yelling PARTY! PARTY!. We actually had to laugh at this one.
*"Excuse me...we have trouble sleeping. Could we get a really quiet room?*
*"Why yes, ma'am, we have just the room! Right over the convention party patio!"

So, here we are....about to head to GF again after a stressful year of caregiving for my elderly parents. We want it to be all that and a bag of chips.
We've been so disappointed in our last few rooms I almost feel like a have a mark by my name...give her the yucky room.
But I have been nothing but kind to every CM, not fussed about anything, tipped bellmen, smiled and thanked everyone.

How, pray tell, can I get a nice room without feeling like a complainer if it is sucky like these were?

(and yes, there are bad views in all the deluxe resorts....views of stairwells, views of rooftops...does everyone walk into these rooms, stand there and say, um, no thank you...and call the front desk?)

I haven't read all the replies but yes - I would have gone back to the lobby and asked for a different room unless you booked Standard View which in that case, you got the standard view.
Except for the convention party patio room - you asked for quiet and got that so I'd definitely be asking for a room change. Either that or ask if I can join the party. LOL

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

The last time we went to GF, we did request a room change. Twice. The first room had a broken refrigerator and we had bags of cold grocery items. We had just walked into the room and immediately asked if there was another room. There was.

That was the elevator room. We layed awake till 1am with the loud folks standing by the elevator talking, laughing and making all kinds of racquet.
After the second night, I asked for a quiet room.

That was when we were moved to the room literally directly over the party patio with the convention.
As I lay in bed, listening to 150 people chanting in unison directly underneath our balcony, I had to wonder if it was done on purpose. The desk gal told the room changer person on the phone that we were looking for a really really quiet room. So we were placed above the loud party. Seriously?

The view was stunning. We were overlooking the water and beach towards Poly. But our trip had been weird. The room issues, my hubby dumped a whole cup of coffee into his drawer of clean shirts, we saw a man dying getting CPR, our rental car broke and we had to go back to the airport and stand in line an hour...on our anniversary night..., the gift card I used to pay for a fancy dinner had a glitch and we spent two hours on the phone with visa/restaurant. One thing after the other. The whole trip. Every day.

As I sat listening to Party City employees yelling 'PARTY!! PARTY!! PARTY!! PARTY!!' I literally laughed.
Then I prayed.

What's going on Lord??

And that still small voice. Look out to that beach. A child lost his life a year ago right there. Right there. You think you have problems? Those aren't problems. That precious child's death...that was a problem. Be thankful for the problems you DO have.

It was a humbling prayer time, and yes, while wanting a nice quiet room is a thing....it sure isn't a problem. I think of that child who passed every time I go to GF and my heart aches for his parents.

Thank your for posting this. What a wonderful, sensitive and truthful post.
I was shocked soon after that incident when someone had the [I don't know what word to use] to title their trip report "The Worst Ending to a Disney Trip Ever!" How incredibly thoughtless, self-absorbed, etc could they be!!!! (To clarify, they were not referring to the Lane Graves tragedy, but something trivial.)
I thought they should have been made to at least change the title of their trip report. Can you imagine posting that soon after Lane Graves was taken by an alligator??
My heart still aches for that child and his family as well. It still brings tears of shock and disbelief.

 

[DISNEY1975]

For the past few trips, we have had a slew of less than optimal rooms.

(yes, yes...totally get what a whiny first world issue this is. We are BLESSED to be able to stay at these fabulous resorts! Which are expensive. Which leads to why I was disappointed)

AKL: we were in a top floor and it sounded like there was some kind of loud machinery directly over our ceiling and we were also right by the elevator. The sounds kept us awake all. night. long.

AKL: I think it was room 2210. Tucked in a corner by the lobby, view of storage buildings and a tight corner of dirt. zero animals came by. CM was like "We have a great room for you!" No..no you don't. It was the worst view we have ever had at AKL.

Grand floridian: Sago Cay in far end room. View of monorail and workmen, ground floor and right next to elevator. Lobby sounds and people waiting on elevator talking loudly kept us awake till 1am

Grand Floridian: Learned we need to ask for quiet room. Placed at far corner end room in Big Pine Key...directly over the party patio for convention parties. I could have jumped off the patio into the Party City convention directly below...which kept us awake with all the loud music, yelling PARTY! PARTY!. We actually had to laugh at this one.
*"Excuse me...we have trouble sleeping. Could we get a really quiet room?*
*"Why yes, ma'am, we have just the room! Right over the convention party patio!"

So, here we are....about to head to GF again after a stressful year of caregiving for my elderly parents. We want it to be all that and a bag of chips.
We've been so disappointed in our last few rooms I almost feel like a have a mark by my name...give her the yucky room.
But I have been nothing but kind to every CM, not fussed about anything, tipped bellmen, smiled and thanked everyone.

How, pray tell, can I get a nice room without feeling like a complainer if it is sucky like these were?

(and yes, there are bad views in all the deluxe resorts....views of stairwells, views of rooftops...does everyone walk into these rooms, stand there and say, um, no thank you...and call the front desk?)

At this point, I would go to check in and tell the CM all you just wrote. You have paid your dues. I dont mind an occasional yucky room, but every time? No. Tell them before you get to your room. Kindly state this is your 6th trip and sadly you have had bad luck with room assignments on EVERY trip prior and were wondering if there was anything available in a quiet area, not near the party patio, near AC Units/Elevator, construction or any other noise makers.

Us this room finder to find an exact room # / location you would like to be in (in your category) before you get there and request it prior to check in. If you dont get it, then ask the CM at the resort, when you check in, if its available, or anything very close.

https://touringplans.com/hotel_maps/disneys-grand-floridian-resort#

 

[kwdw]

I wish hotels had a way for folks looking for "normally" quiet locations (realizing they can't control LOUD guests) to request that. I don't care how far I am from the elevator. I don't care how far I am from the lobby. I don't care about what floor. And I don't care about the view (unless I am paying extra for a view). I just want a room away from the elevator, a room without windows facing noisy public spaces, a room not bordered or staring out the window at noisy machinery, a room not by the ice machine, etc. Sadly - that is often too much to ask for.

 

[crazedprincess]

This is so funny.... while I know room requests are never guaranteed, we had a good laugh over what happened on our last trip. I had put on our room request "top or high floor, close to lobby", and we ended up on the bottom floor and the farthest from the lobby that you could get! LOL It ended up being a great room though and we loved the location/view. (at YC)

 

[heidijanesmith]

I stayed at the GF for the 1st time this last January. I booked a Garden room and was upgraded to a lagoon view. I asked for unobstructed view of the pool and got a lagoon view with a great view of the Electrical Water Parade.

Big Pine Key, end of the hallway, away from the pool bar, facing the Poly. It was very quiet.

I did ask the CM at check in if my request was met, as I did not want a view of the back of the pool bar.

 

[DisHmsklMom]

So OP which room did you get this time? Keeping my fingers crossed for you.Hoping for pixie dust your way.

 

[Hisgirl]

Oh Yall.
I'm so happy!!

I went to Touring plans on the part where you can see room views and I remembered the time we stayed in Big Pine Key. We could see the most amazing fireworks right from our porch. The view was over the pool, up high and I loved it. (if it had been a tiny bit to the left, we would have seen the whole sky filled with fireworks!)

I asked for that same room via Touring plans messaging system.

So today. Just now. WE GOT THE ROOM READY TEXT AND I GOT THE ROOM I ASKED FOR!! Except one better....it's a few to the left and we will have the big sky view of the fireworks tonight. It's lovely and I don't mind pool sounds. Laughing children is lovely. I'm so happy!

(and...I changed our car from an suv to a Dodge Charger, so VROOOM VROOOM!!

 

[dansdad]

Oh Yall.
I'm so happy!!

I went to Touring plans on the part where you can see room views and I remembered the time we stayed in Big Pine Key. We could see the most amazing fireworks right from our porch. The view was over the pool, up high and I loved it. (if it had been a tiny bit to the left, we would have seen the whole sky filled with fireworks!)

I asked for that same room via Touring plans messaging system.

So today. Just now. WE GOT THE ROOM READY TEXT AND I GOT THE ROOM I ASKED FOR!! Except one better....it's a few to the left and we will have the big sky view of the fireworks tonight. It's lovely and I don't mind pool sounds. Laughing children is lovely. I'm so happy!

(and...I changed our car from an suv to a Dodge Charger, so VROOOM VROOOM!!