Auto Train/SSR/AKV Trip Report

[crk1971]

This is my first trip report and I wanted to share our experiences with everyone, some for informational, some for criticism, and the last for praise.

We just got back from our trip to the world, our stay was from 1/11 to 1/18, here are the details.

We took the auto train out of Lorton, VA to Sanford, Fl. We found the Auto train to be enjoyable yet a tough ride for people with young kids, we have a 3yo and two 15 month old twin girls, one walking, one crawling. We had the family room and it was spacious enough for sleeping, but not for satisfying the exploratory needs of very active and curious toddlers. One of my daughters decided 4:00 am was a good time for everyone on the train to wake up, that resulted in me sitting with a writihing screaming toddler in the dining cart trying to get her back to sleep. It worked and I was stuck in a booth with a sleeping baby! Thank goodness the travelers on the train loved babies were very kind and understanding. One couple kept me company for quite some time and another lady whom we had chatted with in the lounge prior to our departure got me a coffee and muffins, she knew I couldnt move!

The auto train is nice to travel on it saves you from droning endless driving but if you are leaving from NH, like we did you need to get to VA the night before, get a hotel room then wait until 2:30 the following day to board the train, you then pull in to Sanford FL the following morning, it was a lot of down time. We recommend skipping the auto train going to FL if you have to make similar travel arrangements, you spend more time waiting when you could be there at the same time the auto train arrives. Time frame for this was we got to VA on Wednesday and FL on Friday, 2 days to get there and most of it was waiting.

Coming back is a different story, you leave your room at 11am, drive to sanford, fl from orlando which takes about 45 minutes then. You can bored the train staring at 2:30 and you leave at 4pm pull in to lorton the following morning between 8 and 9 am then we drove back home which took us about 8 hours, but there was no down time. We found this way much easier!

FYI-we got a great steak on the auto train, we highly recommend that!

We checked into SSR on Friday, our room was ready early, we were staying in a studio for two nights then checking into our 1br villa at AKV. We found the accomodations at SSR to be lacking in cleanliness, my daughters hands and pants were filthy from crawling on the rugs in the room, the bathroom was less than meticulous it looked like it got a quick wipe over and that was about it. We dont expect the RITZ but we wondered how the dues were supporting the maintenance of this facilty?

Also, the other complaint we have is that the CM's are not as accomodating as they should be and dont seem to care much about their job, I am not trying to be prejudice when I make this remark, but Disney seems to be hiring people that do not speak english well or at all and they are not being trained properly for their jobs resulting in poor work ethics less than disney standards and less friendly CM's due to a language barrier. My wife also encountered a CM who wanted to get into our room early so that she could take care of her tasks and was quite put out when my wife explained we werent ready to leave yet, it seemed like she wanted to get her job over with. ( Sorry if I have offended anyone, this was just our personal observations and experiences) We didnt feel this was worth the complaint due to our brief stay at SSR, by the time someone took care of the problems we would be checking out. We had no other negative experiences at SSR and we still love it there and will always go back, I will send a letter to Member Services and let them know how we feel and I will report back later on my response from them.

We checked out on Sunday and cruised over to AKV, we were greeted with very friendly valets they were accomodaing and got us our luggage right away. The check in went smooth, but I felt this location viewed DVC'ers similar to regular guests and we didnt get a welcome home! My guess is that the staff is still in training about how to handle DVC'ers. Other than that the staff here was very friendly and accomodating and seemed to enjoy their jobs.

Our room was ready early and we found the 1br to be stunning and well maintained; we had a savannah view and this was awesome. We did encounter bobbie pins on the floor and had the feeling that the cleaning ethics were going to be similar to SSR. I placed a called to Mousekeeping and the floor supervisor as well as a CM came by the room, we explained the problem, the supervisor relayed the information to the CM and the room was immediately vaccumed with several apologies. The staff here always went out of their way to say hi and have a conversation with us, I can' t applaud their professionalism enough. Other than this minor bumped we had an excellent time at AKV and my wife is already trying to spend our tax refund on a small contract here!

I have nothing bad to say about akv it is all good, my wife and I are just concerned that the disney standard is dropping. We hope small complaints will add up to a proactive endeavor to bring the standard back to that disney standard we have all grown to love no matter which resort you are staying at.

I hope this report offered some useful information and I look forward to discussing this with all of you! I welcome your comments and criticism.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Thanks so much for the trip report. It was very informative.

I'm sorry to hear the rooms weren't up to standard. We found the rooms at Boardwalk to be much better in January than they were last April. (I wonder if the resorts managers get moved around.)

I'm just curious. Why did you have to wait around all day for the autotrain? Is the check-in several hours before departure because of the car, or was it just a logistic headache to get to D.C. at 2:30 pm from New Hampshire?

Your little ones sound adorable. I hope they had a good time.

 

[alldiz]

Thanks for the honest feedback...glad you enjoyed your trip.

I must say I'm reading WAY to many reports about the disney
"attitude" lately.
I hope Disney is not putting all of their efforts into expansion.....only
to loose their great service.
Kerri

 

[bobbiwoz]

Clean floors and bathrooms are a must! What's going on with DVC's housekeeping these days?

Bobbi

 

[AKV707]

Thanks for the detailed report. Sorry to hear about the housekeeping issues. There is no excuse for that! As owners, none of us should tolerate this.

I am glad to hear that your AKV experience was a good one. I can't wait to be there!

 

[crk1971]

Thanks for the feedback, i was worried about being flamed for my report. I thought it might have been to harsh.

The lay over in D.C. was really a logistics issue, the choice was either leave way early in the morning to avoid all big city traffic from NH to VA or leave after rush hour and drive when people are in work. So that is why we felt going down was a waste, we stopped driving to wait almost 12 hours to leave, when we could have done a lay over in VA then got up and drove the rest of the way to disney.

I think the disney attitude due to expansion at a rapid rate is one of the underlying problems. Our experiences there were not all bad by any means we had encountered many great CM's while at the world. We met a CM at AK outside the safari and he chatted with my kids then gave each one of them a pin of his lanyard, he was a great guy! Something like that right there makes your whole trip.

We also got extra attention from CM's because we had twin girls, and that is just a magnet for attention, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad, you can't really be mad at anyone for wanting see a baby, especially when there are two of them!!!

As for the cleaning issue i think the theory of who is managing staff at each club or resort may play a key part in the cleanliness. My wife read on one of the posts here that it should take mousekeeping 2 hours to clean a room, we some how doubt that is happening.

At one point during our vaction one of the trouble twins got into a magazine that was left under the tv stand, so my wife figured it was left behind from before so she threw it out, low and behold on our house keeping day, she found the same magazine back on its original perch!!!!!!!!!! The magazine was a current disney magazine, but to actually dig it out of a trash barrel with dirty diapers and other trash is not acceptable. We believe that it is very hard to communicate the US standards of cleanliness to people who are coming from countries that have different views of cleanliness. Standards are different and what is normal and acceptable in one place is not necessarily the same for another.

This did not sour us by anymeans but it is disheartening, that the best kept secret is starting to become a dirty secret!!!!! Not a good impression for people just coming into DVC.

I would love to post a couple of pics from our trip but i still dont have posting attachment privleges yet, I heard it happens after 50 posts so maybe this will happen any day now!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[disneyfan2kids]

Thanks for the report! Can't wait to stay at SSR (again) and try out AKV eventually!

We stayed at SSR in December, and didn't encounter any non-helpful CM's so maybe you just got the short straw (so to speak.)

As for the cleanliness issues, it's all in the eye of the beholder. Honestly, bobby-pins on the carpet wouldn't have bothered me that much. I don't think I'd call housekeeping unless something was very obviously overlooked (dirty dishes or unclean bathrooms.) Also, if there was an infant crawling on my rugs at home, they might end up with a little dirt on their knees...ha! I vacuum daily, but unless you're "shampooing" the rugs daily, dirt will happen.

Again, thanks for the report!! Not trying to say you didn't experience valid issues... just that maybe "up to par" is different for different folks!

ETA: The magazine thing would've creeped me out too though! EEK!

 

[nunzia]

Thanks for the honest feedback...glad you enjoyed your trip.

I must say I'm reading WAY to many reports about the disney
"attitude" lately.
I hope Disney is not putting all of their efforts into expansion.....only
to loose their great service.
Kerri

I have also been running into this alot in DLR. mainly in Disneyland proper, I seem to see alot of apathetic if not downright surly CMs.(yes, alot are still great, but the trend seems downward).I've been in customer service off and on for many years, retail and food service, and yes, I know hours are long, pay bad and customers horrible..but you have to fake it if you can't be sincere. You truly are on stage as Disney stresses, so get over it. I'll never forget the CM leaning against the wall at the Disney Story intro, mumbling and barely speaking english. You could tell she was bored out of her skin. Yes, it's hard to show enthusiasm for something you do over and over, but again, fake it and smile and stand up straight and speak clearly. If we can do it in our little Hastings store for worse pay and worse benefits then I expect Disney CMs to rise to the occasion also.
OK, rant is done

 

[crk1971]

Thanks for the report! Can't wait to stay at SSR (again) and try out AKV eventually!

We stayed at SSR in December, and didn't encounter any non-helpful CM's so maybe you just got the short straw (so to speak.)

As for the cleanliness issues, it's all in the eye of the beholder. Honestly, bobby-pins on the carpet wouldn't have bothered me that much. I don't think I'd call housekeeping unless something was very obviously overlooked (dirty dishes or unclean bathrooms.) Also, if there was an infant crawling on my rugs at home, they might end up with a little dirt on their knees...ha! I vacuum daily, but unless you're "shampooing" the rugs daily, dirt will happen.

Again, thanks for the report!! Not trying to say you didn't experience valid issues... just that maybe "up to par" is different for different folks!

ETA: The magazine thing would've creeped me out too though! EEK!

It is all relative and subject to the individual. I just feel that disney's meticulous nature should apply to the staff who manage their resorts and that they receive proper training. As they saying goes, garbage in=garbage out!!!

Trust us we are not retentive by anymeans you really dont have time to be that worriesome when you have 3 kids in diapers, it is inevitable they will get dirty and they do wash. But when my child gets dirtier in a Disney hotel than in the comfort inn we stayed at prior to our auto train trip, something is being overlooked. Her pants were greenish yellow from the rugs!!!!! I cant figure that one out. We didnt make a fuss to SSR because the complaint would of been more bother, probabaly having to do a room switch and moving a room full of stuff for young kids is something you want to really minimize.

My intent was not to flame SSR it was more of a throw the topic out there and see what kind of responses come back. Any vaction will have similar issues, disney or what ever. Unfortunately, I believe disney is held to a higher standard, which i hope they return to.

 

[ldo]

1 way is 1/2 price of RT. We are the opposite of OP. We live in VA and find that going down is great--get the kids out of school at lunch, zip over, check-in , wait 1 hour and go. But, coming back, we would rather be one our way at 9AM and drive back to VA. I am glad that one way is 1/2 price of RT.