Alarm Clocks being removed

[paults]

How many times have you checked into a hotel and found the clock was wrong and when you went to change it you couldn't. I think those Ihomes needed a screwdriver to open the place where you could change the time. I liked them better when they actually had a radio or sleep sounds on the clock.

exactly this! Our last 3 BWV trips (just this past OCT). Clock had wrong time and Icouln't change it. Same with DS in next studio, s we unpuged th Sorry for the skippedtters its my ptop don't kow what's wrog

 

[nfceagles]

I much prefer an alarm clock to glance at the time during the night and in the morning rather than needing to pick up my phone and turn it on. More importantly, my children use one to tell what time it is at night and if it's late enough to wake up in the morning. They do not have phones to use instead. This will annoy me. I shouldn't have to pack an alarm clock on vacation.

 

[loves to dive]

I've noticed it is a trend lately to not have clocks in the rooms so I can sort of kind of see why WDW is doing it. I'm one of those who could care less about the alarm, I don't even set one at home just rely on my internal clock for that. I do, however, have one sitting on my night stand by my bed because I'm blind as a bat without my reading glasses and can't see the time on my phone. I can see the big ole numbers on the clock though. I do travel with a small travel alarm when I go to places I don't think will have them, but alas, even that has gotten too small for my eyes to read. Silly really to assume everyone has a cell phone or wants to use it for their time piece but it's the sign of the times. You can't find as many watches as you used to either, and yes, I still wear one.

 

[Sammie]

I am fine with it, I use my phone. The I-dock ones never kept the correct time. They took up way too much space also. We stayed at a Hampton Inn recently that had the charging station on the nightstand and it was so convenient.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We don't use the alarm or the iphone dock but we do use the clock to tell us the time. What a pain in the butt.

Yup, so did I. I guess I just don't understand why they are wasting the time (At least I see it as a time-waster) and paying housekeeping to remove something that may be outdated, but may also be useful to some people. I mean, it's not taking up valuable space nor is it costing anything to leave it there, is it? I guess I'm just a dinosaur too-that I-dock fit my iPhone 4 perfectly and made it an easy place to recharge it. So why go thru the bother of removing them?

 

[Sammie]

Yup, so did I. I guess I just don't understand why they are wasting the time (At least I see it as a time-waster) and paying housekeeping to remove something that may be outdated, but may also be useful to some people. I mean, it's not taking up valuable space nor is it costing anything to leave it there, is it? I guess I'm just a dinosaur too-that I-dock fit my iPhone 4 perfectly and made it an easy place to recharge it. So why go thru the bother of removing them?

Don't think there is enough room on the night stand to leave the clock and add the new recharge center.

 

[disneynutz]

No big deal IMO, guests and housekeepers had trouble setting the correct time anyway.

Bill

 

[LisaS]

I don't see why having those chargers precludes also having a very small digital clock in the bedroom. DH and I appreciate having an illuminated clock in the room to see the time at night and yes my DH always has his phone nearby but finds it easier to glance at a clock. We even keep a small digital clock in our Owners Locker so that there is a clock on both sides of the bed. I guess I'm going to have to go buy a second one if the clocks are indeed gone for good.

When we go to bed the first night I check to see if the clock is set to the correct time and I make sure the alarm is turned off. It just takes a minute. I agree that the iHomes were not easy to adjust so the solution would appear to be to put a very simple, basic clock in the room.

ETA: And I agree with those who suggest that the high chair and pack'n'play be available on request rather than taking up valuable closet space. It's particularly bad at the resorts where they have eliminated the separate closet in the living area of the 1BRs (Kidani for example) so they store the sticky high chair in the master closet. Yuck!

 

[cedricandsophie]

I could never figure out to change the time or set the alarm anyway. Good riddance. Much prefer my iPhone alarm

 

[DVCjj]

But it's silly to have to request one IMO. Was it such a detriment to people who apparently don't look at them to have them there? Doubtful. Clocks are a standard. I'm going to guess the answer to why will be due to guest requests though. We shall request and ask for them to be set up for us - not just dropped off.



They were easy to adjust and did not require any tools. At least the ones they have/had now - I did that when we were there last weekend and we went of DST. Whether correctly set or not you could change them just as you have to do with clocks at home.

Twice we called maintenance to set our clock (and now ALWAYS check the clock when entering the room) recently at BCV and we watched him use a screwdriver to take off the back in order to turn the little wheel on the right to set it. Possibly not all the clocks are the same in each DVC resort.

I also like the clock in the room and even though I am quite proficient with an iPhone, I shut it off at night and don't want to use the battery to check time or set an alarm. Even if I did want to dock it all night, I never saw one that was compatible with a 6.

If they were to keep the iHome's, I feel Housekeeping shouldn't walk out of a newly made up room without checking and resetting that clock......including shutting off any alarms maliciously set. (I also have experienced.....grrr)

 

[n2mm]

I could never figure out to change the time or set the alarm anyway. Good riddance. Much prefer my iPhone alarm

I agree. We just returned from BWV this weekend and the clock was off by 2 hours. Couldn't figure out how to change it so unplugged it. I just use the clock on the microwave or my iPhone.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I hear you. But considering they had the docking stations, they were outdated. That means they either needed to update them or remove them entirely, and they chose the latter. Even if they put the most basic of alarm clocks in the room as replacements, you'll still have the issue of ones needing to be replaced due to breaking (an expense), guests being annoyed because they didn't know how to use it and are now late for something, guests being annoyed because the prior guest never turned off the alarm, etc etc. My guess is most people won't miss them, so it was easier to just eliminate them.

I have always owned an Android phone and the ihomes still worked fine as a clock. I did think it was very "jump on the bandwagon" of them to install them in the first place because of the extra cost and the chance of them getting outdated for docking but they were ok. I'd guess we had to pay for that change which added nothing over an ordinary digital radio clock for me but now I'll have to go thru the bother of requesting to have any at all. As others have mentioned, being semi blind makes a clock the easiest thing for checking what time it is at night. I certainly have the time on my phone but using it at night would mean really having to wake up and pick it up. I just don't understand it - especially at BWV or any of the new resorts where they are incorporating charging ports and outlets into the furniture. There's even less reason to go with a charging station although adding one to the rooms did not preclude removal of the bedside clock.

I'm feeling like this is my "cupgate".

 

[disneynutz]

Twice we called maintenance to set our clock (and now ALWAYS check the clock when entering the room) recently at BCV and we watched him use a screwdriver to take off the back in order to turn the little wheel on the right to set it. Possibly not all the clocks are the same in each DVC resort.

I also like the clock in the room and even though I am quite proficient with an iPhone, I shut it off at night and don't want to use the battery to check time or set an alarm. Even if I did want to dock it all night, I never saw one that was compatible with a 6.

If they were to keep the iHome's, I feel Housekeeping shouldn't walk out of a newly made up room without checking and resetting that clock......including shutting off any alarms maliciously set. (I also have experienced.....grrr)

Housekeeping has enough trouble giving us a clean room with working light bulbs, setting the clock either in the bedroom or in the kitchen is the last thing that they want to do.

Bill

 

[supersnoop]

What about the rooms that already have USB and power plugs build into the nightstand? Is that only at PVB? And why couldn't they get an alarm clock with build-in USB ports?

I'm sorry; my phone might replace my alarm, but it doesn't replace my clock.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

We were at BWV a couple weeks ago and the clock time was wrong. We couldn't see any way to fix it. I was really annoyed by it. Yes I have my phone, but with a nightstand only on one side of the bed I had nowhere to plug in and set my phone. So I charged my phone over on the table/Murphy bed. In the middle of the night I had no idea what time it was without getting up to check. This really bothered me. It was fine for DH who had his phone on the night stand next to him.

I think the no nightstand on my side of the bed is the bigger annoyance. I also have no place to set my kindle or a drink.

We also heard other people complaining at the front desk about missing alarm clocks. The lady acted like she had no idea why they were missing. So maybe they had already started removing them.

 

[karrit2000]

Putting in the iHomes was IMO a huge waste of our maintenance fees. As I and others have already stated all we really want is a small digital clock with an alarm. I think one of the major problems with the time on the iHomes is most times I found they weren't even plugged into an outlet so they were running off the battery backup which is fine for a power failure but not round the clock use so I would just plug the darn thing back into the outlet. Once someone explained about the screw thing on the back needing to be opened to get to the clock controls I had no problem setting them to the correct time if they were wrong but it was a major PITA for many that could have been avoided if they had just stuck with supplying simple alarm clocks instead of trying to impress some techies with the iHome.

 

[LisaS]

Putting in the iHomes was IMO a huge waste of our maintenance fees. As I and others have already stated all we really want is a small digital clock with an alarm. I think one of the major problems with the time on the iHomes is most times I found they weren't even plugged into an outlet so they were running off the battery backup which is fine for a power failure but not round the clock use so I would just plug the darn thing back into the outlet. Once someone explained about the screw thing on the back needing to be opened to get to the clock controls I had no problem setting them to the correct time if they were wrong but it was a major PITA for many that could have been avoided if they had just stuck with supplying simple alarm clocks instead of trying to impress some techies with the iHome.

This techie was never impressed with the iHomes. I have an Android phone plus the darn things took up way too much space on the nightstand.

 

[karrit2000]

Unfortunately that's what they put back in the room when we requested an alarm clock be supplied. It is a monster but at least it has the right time set. Now I need to figure out how to set the darn alarm on it again. And note I did say "some techies" not "all techies". And I am anti "i" everything ever since my iTune account got hacked & they gave me the run around trying to get it straightened out years ago. Since Apple refuses any help or responsibility for any issues with the suppliers of apps, content, etc. you need to use for their products I refuse to give them any of my hard earned money.

 

[bwang123]

But it's silly to have to request one IMO. Was it such a detriment to people who apparently don't look at them to have them there? Doubtful. Clocks are a standard. I'm going to guess the answer to why will be due to guest requests though. We shall request and ask for them to be set up for us - not just dropped off.

I doubt clocks will be available for request in the future. This person probably was able to because they haven't trashed the old ones yet.

 

[hakepb]

Weren't the docks for the 4 generation iPhone anyway? I seem to recall wondering why they hadn't upgraded them when I was there last year.

The DVC ones, yes, they were old school.

But we were moved to a cash WL room due to a maint issue, and their iHome had the newer port, and a USB, I believe.

With an Otterbox case(even the more slim Commuter) either iHome port was useless.

The idea that a hotel must have power ports or alarm clock is a bit silly. Hotel furniture with USB and A/C ports is now kinda standard.