Bad Experience at Saratoga Springs

[wilderness01]

Alexander wrote:

What exactly do you want us to do about it? Cancel our memberships to DVC? If you own Marriot timeshares are so much better, maybe you should just stay there.

Uncalled for and nasty comment. If you don't have anything nice to say.....

To the OP sorry you were frustrated. Maybe at another time this resort will work out for you.

 

[magicalmcwho]

I am sorry your keys didnt work but this happened to us on our first trip at POR during our stay. The keys didnt work and it was quite a hike to get new ones at the front desk. The CM said sometimes placing the magnetic strips together will deactivate them. I wouldnt say we would never stay there again because of the keys or the size of the resort. We really loved our stay at POR and would like to stay there again sometime. We own and love SSR and dont think it is too big.

I guess though since you will never stay there again, that means more last minute trips for the rest of us who enjoy staying at SSR.

Jim.

 

[Chari910]

I will happily just stay at BWV. SSR owners won't have to worry about me If only you can reciprocate......

I didn't mean to offend SSR owners or putting the Resort down. It just is not a good choice for my family. We like to be able to walk to everything and have choices of more than one restaurants. That's all.

I got an OKW stay for my daughter and her friends a few months ago and she loved it.

 

[manning]

When we got locked out it was at 10:00 am on check-out day. Our routine is to load the car, shower and be on our way. By the time they got us into the room, the car loaded and showered it was a little after 12.

We may be the only ones allowed a late check-out.

 

[Bracho]

It is beyond me... these boards are for people to come, share their experiences at Walt DisneyWorld, the good and the bad and when they don't have a good trip and they post it for everyone to read, alot of people on these boards get down right rude.. and to be honest.. I'm getting a little tired of that as well.

Sell your DVC if you don't like it... what do you want us to do about it... PLEASE!!

I for one am glad to read the bad as well as the good, why on earth would I want to stay at a property that has the same problems being reported over and over again. I am sorry that you had the problems you did and I thank you for letting us know. It's important Chari910!

Could you tell us about the rest of your trip? I'd love to hear about it!!

 

[Chari910]

Thanks so much to Bracho and everyone else who understand my point and also share your own stories. I think I might have been a lot 'cooler' if I didn't have to worry about my elderly mom that day. She can't walk very far any more.

It was just a weekend trip for us to shop. (Just spent Christmas at BWV, January at Sundance FF in Park City, Valentine's at Las Vegas and St. Thomas)
So we just went to Downtown Disney and the Millennium Mall, didn't go the parks. We love the Lego shop at DD.

I'm happy to report that the traffic on 75 and Florida Turnpike and I-4 was light considering the time of year.

 

[DVCLady]

Delete

 

[MiaSRN62]

I didn't mean to offend SSR owners or putting the Resort down. It just is not a good choice for my family. We like to be able to walk to everything and have choices of more than one restaurants. That's all.

Chari910,
While I totally sympathize with what happened to you---it was a major inconvenience for sure----it could happen at any resort as many listed examples here. I can tell you we lost about 2-3 hours of our vacation at BWV due to key problems. I can totally understand the difficulties with your mom being there too and having to make the walk but at least the Bell person was there to assist. I hope the phone was reported as "not working" to the front desk because this could have totally saved alot of time if a situation were to arise like this again. They need to fix that.

I'm glad u enjoy your BWV , but as for the restaurant selection, I think many are very satisifed at SSR with the options. DD is just a hop and skip away (either walk or boat ride) from a variety of dining and shopping options for probably the exact same amount of walk that it takes to get to the BW dining options. I know it took us about 10-15 min to walk from our room at BW to Cape May Cafe. SSR owners have that same amount of walk from what I've been reading to DD if they want more than what the food court has to offer. Sorry your experience at SSR was not a better one.

 

[tinkerbell of winter]

From what I gather you won't be staying at SSR ever again because of one incident with your room key not working. That's just silly. I have stayed in hotels and had a problem with my room key not working and it was because all of a sudden the lock decided not to work. At first they thought it was the battery that needed to be changed but then it ended up being the lock so they had to replace that. Things do happen with the electronic door locks, as with anything computerized and it wouldn't cause me to boycott the place. Maybe i'll find some fault with your precious BWV when I stay there next month, and i'll be sure to post a thread. Maybe there will be one too few coffee filters or something. Too bad you won't be staying at SSR again, it just means more availability for those of us that own there.

 

[Sammie]

I see both sides of the situation and understand each point of view. It is very frustrating when things don't work. Even more so when you are dealing with an elderly person too.

However I think the point some are making is this, if for some reason at your own personal home with your Mom in your company you had a lock to fail, would you never go back. I don't think so. That is the point some are making, crap just sometimes happens. And it does happen at WDW. It is not some magical place protected by some unseen aura that prevents crap from happening, it happens every day; probably every hour, maybe even every minute. You can not have that many people in one place and it not happen. To expect otherwise is unrealistic. Any resort could have this happen.

(This is not commented to the OP), but to posts in general, I think the expectations about what will and will NOT happen at WDW are unrealistic for most.

If SSR does not meet your personal preferences then you are completely right to wish to stay elsewhere. However things will happen at any resort and do.

As to locks. There is no way to know for sure what happened. They might have rekeyed after a maid saw you leave the room. Even though you had not checked out. Did you leave a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Everytime we leave the room, since we do not get maid service at DVC we put the sign on the door. It does help. The keys are a pain at times, anything can demagnetize them. Just having them in your pocket or purse can do it. But this happens as much at other resorts as SSR.

As stated it's nice that DVC offers so many choices and everyone can choose what they want. I find the BW restaurants to be as inconvenient as some would find DD to be for SSR. Actually I would guess if you are in the very farthest room at BW in those long hallways and the closest room to DD at SSR the distance difference is minimal if any. We love Artitst's Palette and it would be one of the main reasons to stay at SSR for us.

Hope your next stay home is more to your liking.

 

[lulu71]

From what I gather you won't be staying at SSR ever again because of one incident with your room key not working. That's just silly. I have stayed in hotels and had a problem with my room key not working and it was because all of a sudden the lock decided not to work. At first they thought it was the battery that needed to be changed but then it ended up being the lock so they had to replace that. Things do happen with the electronic door locks, as with anything computerized and it wouldn't cause me to boycott the place. Maybe i'll find some fault with your precious BWV when I stay there next month, and i'll be sure to post a thread. Maybe there will be one too few coffee filters or something. Too bad you won't be staying at SSR again, it just means more availability for those of us that own there.

They are her points to use however she wants to, aren't they? If SSR isn't satisfactory to her, it doesn't sound silly to me to not want to use them there. I'm not sure that she should be belittled because of it. Sure, one can disagree but I wouldn't call her decision silly.

If something does go wrong at BWV, please do post a thread.

 

[kathleena]

Maybe i'll find some fault with your precious BWV when I stay there next month, and i'll be sure to post a thread. Maybe there will be one too few coffee filters or something.

 

[TCPluto]

It's getting really frustrating that so many people are coming here to complain!

Amen to that.

It's also more than a little frustrating to read comments from people who are not yet members (and even some of the very new members) coming on here and complaining about the "awful" DVC reservation system (not referring to the OP). It's kind of like they are saying to those that have been members and live happily within the system, that we are now going to be saved by them, because they don't like the system. Huh??

The system works fine (with a few inevitable hiccups), but they are here, and will soon be members (maybe), so the entire DVC system has to change. After all, who would know better than them??

Just seems a little arrogant (ok, alot) and condescending to many of us.

Edited to add that we just got home from SSR two hours ago. We had a great six night stay, and loved the resort. It is far differrent from BWV, but no less impressive in our opinion.

 

[DrTomorrow]

Last time we stayed at SSR, we'd heard on the car radio that an escaped criminal, who'd had his hand replaced with a hook because he'd had it cut off during his crimes, was in the Buena Vista area. We didn't think much of it, so we went to bed all safe and secure. But in the middle of the night, we were woken up by a dreadful noise; a scratching, Scratching, SCRATCHING at our door! Well, we just huddled together until morning; then, with the sun shining brightly, we opened our door. There was no one there, but hanging off our doorknob was one, single hook....

 

[lulu71]

Last time we stayed at SSR, we'd heard on the car radio that an escaped criminal, who'd had his hand replaced with a hook because he'd had it cut off during his crimes, was in the Buena Vista area. We didn't think much of it, so we went to bed all safe and secure. But in the middle of the night, we were woken up by a dreadful noise; a scratching, Scratching, SCRATCHING at our door! Well, we just huddled together until morning; then, with the sun shining brightly, we opened our door. There was no one there, but hanging off our doorknob was one, single hook....

Did you email MS about this?

 

[OneMoreTry]

Sounds like a minor problem that just happened at a bad time and led to a major inconvenience for you. It's nice to have a place to vent your frustrations. Hopefully other DISers can understand that and not take it personally.

In all fairness, on the other side of the issue, I don't this means SSR is a terrible resort. (Remember a year ago when BWV alledgedly had bed bugs? And it is certainly not a terrible resort!)

I don't think reading this story will keep anyone else from staying at SSR.

 

[rinkwide]

...but hanging off our doorknob was one, single hook....

Oooooh, scary story. Darn it, my marshmallow caught on fire.

 

[lllovell]

Oooooh, scary story. Darn it, my marshmallow caught on fire.

Blow it out! Blow it out!!!!! I love schmoes (spelled ala Buzz ) but not on fire.

I would be so frustrated by what happened to the OP too. I hope time makes you forget that part of your vacation and only remember the good times with your mother. I am sure the door lock issue will happen to all of us at some point until the technology updates, but the situation could have been handled better.

 

[SueOKW]

I am totally empathetic to OP.. once at a hotel I was checking in - had to use the restroom pretty badly..... but held it .. bravely... got up to my room and the key wouldn't work...... that was a long trip back downstairs and up again....

 

[Mickey's Monkey]

Umm, just a thought, but did the keys accidently get de-magnatized by something in your pockets perhaps? Cell phone? PDA? As others have said, while rare, not uncommon. It could even happen at... eek! The Grand Floridian!!!