At Saratoga springs ended badly

[scauzilloc1121]

Our first time using our points and it started off with our room being filthy and once that was fixed our vacatiom was great. Then the end came, and all heck broke loose. They locked us out of our room at 12:30 am, made us miss extra hours, and then this morning they stormed into our room at 7:30am thinking we left. And yes we had our do not desturb sign up. What a memorial day weekend.

 

[TisBit]

A little confused...how did htey lock you out of your room? Did the keys just stop working or did they literally lock you out (there is a way security can lock a room down, preventing cards from working). I presume by 1230 am, you are saying just after midnight, how did this make you miss EMH's?

I would definitely say something if they entered the room with the do not disturb sign on, but not sure how that is much of a disaster. I always suggest people to use deadbolt when in the room, it takes a special key that is very controlled to override those (and if it doesn't have the deadbolt, it does have the metal latch, I just can't remember what SSR has).

 

[Chic]

You mentioned that your room was filthy upon check in. Can you give us specifics please? I also stayed at Saratoga Springs over Martin Luther King weekend and was assigned a studio in the Grand Stand section which had a huge wet spot on the carpet, had a vomit odor in the air, splatter marks on the walls, and broken handles on the dresser drawers. Makes me wonder about their quality control for housekeeping. I was disappointed they would allow a guest to enter a room in such poor condition. We always try to avoid this resort if possible. We have had 4 stays since December 2008 and all but one ended up with housekeeping issues.

 

[Sammie]

Sorry you had problems, we just stayed there and our room was spotless and never had anyone bother us with the do not disturb sign on our door. One night it did storm and our sign did blow away.

SSR has deadbolts and door latch, no reason for anyone to be able to enter your room and if you are not using it, then sorry, I can't say I would be upset.

Did you speak to anyone while there about your problems.

 

[rentayenta]

You mentioned that your room was filthy upon check in. Can you give us specifics please? I also stayed at Saratoga Springs over Martin Luther King weekend and was assigned a studio in the Grand Stand section which had a huge wet spot on the carpet, had a vomit odor in the air, splatter marks on the walls, and broken handles on the dresser drawers. Makes me wonder about their quality control for housekeeping. I was disappointed they would allow a guest to enter a room in such poor condition. We always try to avoid this resort if possible. We have had 4 stays since December 2008 and all but one ended up with housekeeping issues.

If I walked into a room that smelled of vomit, I would vomit. I hope they moved you.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Wow, I've always found that the housekeeping is one of the best features of SSR. Sorry for your experience. I've put the lock on the door, no matter what resort or hotel I stay at, you may want to start doing the same! Though OKW is my home resort and also my favorite I've equally enjoyed our last 3 stays at SSR! I thankfully have never had a filthy room, anywhere on property!

 

[scauzilloc1121]

Well all 4 keys we had no longer worked, and they did admit that they thought we checked out already so they disabled our keys. I dont know how but they did. And we missed extra magic at Disney because we were shopping and wanted to drop off our packages before heading to theme parks. By the time they recut all of our keys it was past 1 am. And we didn't lock our deadbolt because of all of the crap we went through to get our room open. Sorry you didn't think it was bad but lets see you handle those issues and not get upset. As for the dirty room, it had bugs crawling all over the floor, someone clipped their tonails and left them all over the floor, the shower had pubic hair in it, and the room smelled like a wet dog.

 

[BeesKnees]

Mousekeeping has gotten very aggressive lately. I know they are under a lot of pressure to flip the rooms but if I have a late flight I am leaving at check-out and I don't want them beating down the door or coming right in until I leave. They came in on me in the non-dedicated second room while I was dressing. I didn't think I had to lock the door to keep out the maids. I assumed they would knock. A few moments earlier and they might have gotten a real show.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

they did admit that they thought we checked out already so they disabled our keys.

No judgment, just questions? Did you have a parking pass, and if so was the check out date correct on it? What would lead them to think you had checked out, I wonder if there was a mistake from the get go? You were staying on points, did they charge the correct amount of points?

 

[TisBit]

Well all 4 keys we had no longer worked, and they did admit that they thought we checked out already so they disabled our keys. I dont know how but they did. And we missed extra magic at Disney because we were shopping and wanted to drop off our packages before heading to theme parks. By the time they recut all of our keys it was past 1 am. And we didn't lock our deadbolt because of all of the crap we went through to get our room open. Sorry you didn't think it was bad but lets see you handle those issues and not get upset. As for the dirty room, it had bugs crawling all over the floor, someone clipped their tonails and left them all over the floor, the shower had pubic hair in it, and the room smelled like a wet dog.

Actually, I rarely have any trip anywhere that is completely flawless. Did you go to the desk early to speed up check out? This really shouldn't have disabled your cards, but maybe it did. Sounds like they might have misprogrammed the keys so they were disabled a day early.

As far as that making you miss EMH's, you might have been slightly delayed in getting there, but EMH lasted until 3 am and a 30 minute delay wouldn't have made me miss the whole thing (and there is something to be said about preplanning. A bus could delay you by 20 minutes.)

You have to understand, most people on the boards try to figure out what went wrong which caused the problems. Sounds like you had a problem with the room not being cleaned properly (which a is not all that uncommon, but they got it fixed for you). Then there was the key issue, definitely sounds like they misprogrammed your cards and the resort caused the problem there...but I don't think they are the reason you missed EMH, sounds more like you were cutting it close or didn't want to go after getting the keys.

As for the maid "barging in" on you with the do not disturb sign on...well that isn't cool, but for all the people reading this thread, the way you can prevent that is to use your deadlock or latch to prevent this. I wouldn't be surprised if they had you as checked out in their system, the maid might have disregarded the sign thinking that you had left it up by accident (although she should have knocked first).

 

[Rora]

Sorry you had a bad experience! We absolutely adored SSR. Give it another shot.

Again, I'm sorry for your bad experience. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your trip!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Did you have a linked reservation for that last day? That often ends up causing problems with the computers and the date they think the check out is.

 

[disneynutz]

Our first time using our points and it started off with our room being filthy and once that was fixed our vacatiom was great. Then the end came, and all heck broke loose. They locked us out of our room at 12:30 am, made us miss extra hours, and then this morning they stormed into our room at 7:30am thinking we left. And yes we had our do not desturb sign up. What a memorial day weekend.

Sorry that you had these problems.
Contact the Member Satisfaction Team @ dvcmembersatisfactionteam@disneyvacationclub.com.

Tell them about your experience, provide your name, member#, and a phone# where they can call you back. They will get back to you in a couple of days.

If we don't make the people in power aware of what's going on, things will never improve.

Bill

 

[scauzilloc1121]

Our parking pass had the correct date on it. As for them thinking we had checked out I have no clue why they thought that. We were staying on our points, and they did charge us for the correct amount. It wasn't a split reservation, we made the reservation over 2 months ago. We didn't do a quick check out like tisbit might of suggested. And tisbit, when i go on vacation, I don't have to have my vacation planned out to the last second. That is not a vacation. Relaxing, doing things on a whim, and just seeing where the days take us is a vacation to me. So there was no poor preplanning on my part as you are suggesting. You obviously cannot handle someone saying that Disney made a boo boo so you want to turn it around on the person, but face it, they made a mistake. Say after they cut my keys and I wanted to go to EMH at Disney, it was 1 am. I then have to get a bus or drive, either way that is going to take about 30 minutes to get to the park if the bus is right there when I arrived at the bus stop, if not it could be longer, then get off the bus and catch the monorail, go through the turnstiles and into the park, it is now about 2am. That gives me a little under an hour to enjoy myself. Too me that is not something I want to do. And after dealing with the situation with our keys, why would anyone be up to rushing around at such a late time. Lets look at this way, if DISNEY didn't make the mistake and disable our room keys then I would of been in the park by 12:45 or 1 am. Leaving me with 2 hours. Then there would of been no issue here. I think Disney is great. I have been a annual pass-holder since 1997 and I love everything Disney. Tisbit, I just posted on here to let others know that you are going to run into problems, letting them know not to always expect everything perfect. I recently bought into DVC and love that aspect too. Instead of turning it around and trying to make it seem like I poorly planned my night or that I might dislike Disney, why don't you just say, oh sorry about that, not everything at Disney is perfect, but I am sure you will have great memories in the future, and oh by the way, here is a nice suggestion for you. Take a look at beastlyboo or rora's comments, they know how to make suggestions or ask for more information.

 

[scauzilloc1121]

Thanks disneynutz, I appreciate the info. I will contact them and let them know the issues at hand. Other than the few issues, I had a great time. Everything else was magical and the staff was great.

 

[JimMIA]

I haven't ever had the filthy room problem at DVC, but you have every right to be upset about that and I'm glad you got that taken care of. If you email member satisfaction, that's the complaint I would highlight because there is no excuse for the level of uncleanliness you had.

I've had keys suddenly not work in numerous hotels (though not DVC). They're electonically coded and it happens -- probably nobody knows why. I just go to the front desk and get them re-coded. In a regular hotel, that's a 5-minute "ordeal," but in a spread out resort like SSR, obviously it could be a little longer.

I've had housekeeping come to the door on checkout day -- at DVC and numerous other hotels, and with and without the "Do Not Disturb" sign displayed. I leave the door latched, so they don't actually come in, but when they've tried I just tell them we're still in the room. Problem solved, and not something I'd give a second thought to.

 

[scauzilloc1121]

Yea not latching the door was my mistake, I usually latch any hotel room door I stay in but we were upset at how long it took them to get us in the room and didn't think about it. These issues will not stop us from using our points. As a matter of fact we have already booked 2 nights at DHH the beginning of October and 2 nights at AKV during July 4th weekend. I am hoping though they get this thing about not cleaning the rooms under control. We have friends and other family members that are DVC members and they have this problem quite a lot. They just stayed in BLT in April and even there they had to get another room due to lack of housekeeping. We also stayed in OKW in July and for some reason they gave us a room where construction was going on, the table and chairs in the room were cracked and broken and the ends of the mattress on the bed curled up like the ends of a elf's shoe. Also tile in the shower was cracked and it had mold all over the grout. Maybe we are just unlucky.

 

[twinklebug]

I've noticed a trend both in my stays and those reported here: When experiencing one glitch with the keys, another is sure to follow despite the problem being "resolved" (per front desks).

Happened with us trying to charge to room from EPCOT (middle of a stay, not on DDP). Happens with those with segmented DDP reservations.

Although it doesn't happen to everyone, most commonly, when it does, it occurs at a point in the reservation where the stay is either segmented or additional days were added on, despite them being at the same resort. Under these situations chances are there are flags in the software that aren't being set properly - nothing the front desks can really do but wait for the problems to occur and then fix with apologies while enduring the wrath of the guests.

 

[scauzilloc1121]

Yea twinkle but our stay wasn't segmented. Our reservation was for 3 nights at SSR, Friday through Monday.

 

[DVCDan36]

We did a split stay and had a few issues. There was no room at AKL on the first night we were staying so we booked BCV for one night. After wandering the resort and into Epcot, we got the call that our room was ready. We lugged our stuff up to the room only to have the keys not to work. We should have sent one person back with the keys, but absentmindedly we lugged everything down to the desk to get it fixed. The room was a little dusty, but it was nice.
We checked into AKL the next day. We had a great room overlooking the savanah. The only issue we had was the internet connect was bad (and since we were both doing work on vacation we needed the internet). Every day we went to the desk to fix the problem to no avail. Finally two days before we checked out, concierge told us we had already checked out. No such thing as we were booked two more days and I was not ready to leave. They did let us use the business office to answer a few emails. Then we had issues with our DDP as our keys would never recognize we had the plan.
All in all, we did make a complaint with both the Conceirge on duty and with the DVC complaint department. There are always going to be issues, but even my worse day at Disney is better than my best day at work.