LoveToDisney
Always needing another Disney trip!
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 1,780
Hello everyone. We just returned from our first trip to Beach Club Villas for 7 nights the first part of June. We had a couple of BIG negative surprises, but overall had a good trip. When we checked in around 2pm, we were given room 442 (2 BR 2Q partial Epcot view), but the room was not ready. I asked if it was non-smoking (the ONLY request I had made because of my allergies to smoke and smoke residue) and they said no, it is a "smoking optional" room. I freaked out because I was being put on the smoking floor and in a smoking room. They looked for something else, but all the two bedrooms were taken and this room was our only option. They said they would put an ionizer in the room. I also have an allergy to fragrance, so I was concerned with their method of "prepping the room for a non-smoker" would include a fragrance to mask the odor and thus complicate things even further for my breathing. The front desk let me talk to housekeeping/engineering and they said they would not use fragrance in prepping the room. When we were finally let into our room, the engineer had cleaned the rugs with water and had a blower going. Later the ionizer arrived. I turned off the equipment late in the evening to really get an idea of how the room was. I believe we had been fortunate enough to have a non-smoker stay in the room before us because there was no smell or residue of smoke. We had neighbors across the hall that smoked heavily in their villa and all the way down the hallway....if they had been in our room before us, I'm sure we would have had trouble and the ionizer would not have been enough.
Since the room wasn't ready, we had up to two hours to kill, but weren't eager to go to a park and come back later to a smoking room (not knowing what we would find and not knowing if we would need to move to another resort), so I sat in the lobby trying to gather myself and decide what to do. Almost immediately, we were approached by a research consultant wanting us to keep a diary for our stay. We decided to do it. Each day you turned in a sheet telling them where you went, what you spent, etc. and they gave you a gift. Since we have been gone and I haven't read the Disboards for a while and probably someone else has described this. The gifts were the pens shaped like Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, etc. You got a different one each day as you turned the sheets in. The final day you turned your whole diary in and they are suppose to be sending a gift in the mail...don't know what that will be. It appeared to be just those staying in the DVC who were being approached. We were rather obvious since you are handed a DVC welcome home packet when you check in.
Sorry, I know this is long. Now about the villa itself. Please don't flame me. Being brand new owners, sight unseen...I'm just giving you our observations and impressions. Above all of these notes, we still love the location of BCV and are glad we became owners. Now, back to the villa... We were surprised that the arms on the sofa in the living room had food stains on them. I would have thought they would have used spot remover and tried to fix things. The food was heavy enough you could scrap some of it off. Mostly red, so I'm guessing spaghetti. It was evident from the first morning that we did not have a refrigerator that was staying cold. Our milk and water just was "not warm", but not cool to the touch. We called engineering and they came to put a thermometer in it....registered 50+ degrees. He left and said he had another refrigerator and if it was cooler, he would change it out. Later he arrived with another refrigerator, registering about 40 degrees and it was a wet mess moving one out and the other one in. We used our bathroom towels to try to keep the water in the kitchen area and not get the rug wet. The engineer said housekeeping would come and clean up, plus bring us towels to replace the ones we had used. Later housekeeping did clean up and brought a "towel set" since we had nearly used all of them. I was impressed with the towel set...are they always such nice towels? (You guys who get them--please let me know!) They were fluffy and smooth like at home (not semi hard like the ones in the room). If so, I think it would be worth the money to purchase the use of the towel set while there for a week! There were some other things we noticed over the week and we left a small note letting them know the bathroom door lock did not work, a glass had a chipped rim and the refrigerator handle on our replacement refrigerator was loose. The partial Epcot view was fine. You could see some of the fireworks by looking toward the right. I know you guys had mentioned that the beds were hard at DVC. I like a firm bed, but it was a big shock to get stuck with a hard, uncomfortable bed at a "deluxe resort." We had been spoiled by Marriott Grand Vista's latex foam mattresses several years ago and had purchased one for ourselves, so I'm not sure why Disney would not be using a quality mattress like that (completely personal opinion). The layout of the bathroom in the MBR was awkward. I must say location of BCV next to Epcot was perfect (We LOVED being able to walk to Epcot...what a dream!!!!), but in regards to layout of a room, Marriott wins hands down. I was not impressed with the use of space in the Disney villa. However, with the location next to Epcot, I would put up with the smaller room and crazy bathroom layout. I was also a little surprised that the shower door is so narrow...seemed smaller than I recall the norm. Regarding the water pressure, everything seemed fine. We did notice that the shower head has several settings (as another poster mentioned) and one could change the flow of the water depending on what choice was made.
Our final surprise was at check out. I'm telling you this story just to warn those who like to pay cash rather than charge. When we bought our DVC purchase last summer, we were led through the reservation process the first time. Being totally new at this, when they asked for a Credit card, I gave them one. I'm used to hotels needing a CC to hold the room. Well, once you do that (and I don't know if you can get out of doing it during reservation), they can charge anything, anytime to your room during your stay without your permission. When we checked in, I told the front desk that we did NOT want anything charged to the room and our keys said "no charging privileges." Well, that doesn't mean that when you purchase E-Tickets for cash, that they CM cannot also charge your room (which is what happened to us). Being new to staying on Disney property, it was our first E-Ticket purchase and I didn't know that I needed to ask for a receipt. I just took the E-ticket cards given to me and gave the CM three twenties and she gave us the change from our purchase. When we checked out, the charge for the 4 tickets was on our room! Apparently, the CM can charge to your room without getting permission, so we paid twice...charged to the CC on our room and in cash. In trying to get things fixed, I have run into the giant that Disney is. Basically, they can do whatever they want to do and I have no recourse. I have talked to several departments and it is clear that they can charge as they so wish without letting you know what they are doing. So, BEWARE and get a receipt for anything you purchase such as E-tickets at the front desk. The strange thing is, the cash drawer of the CM that night was "even" they tell me. I don't have a clue why that would be unless at some point the $50+ was removed to make it even. Since the CM did not print out a cash receipt, she would not have to show that money in her cash drawer. A really sticky situation that I don't want anyone else to endure. It was quite a blow to us to get this surprise at the end of our trip and have no way to prove our side of it. What stops any front desk CM from charging against your room during your stay?....NOTHING! Apparently they don't need your signature or anything else...they can just do it--hard lesson learned.
Well, this was a mixed first trip and I hope we will have better things to report the next time. Our teen sons love SAB and we all loved being next to Epcot. It was so cool to enjoy Illuminations and then just WALK home!!! The afternoon T-showers were nice because it relieved the heat and gave us a nice evening to enjoy the parks.
Plus, we did notice that being at DVC we slowed down and got more rest rather than being at commando speed. Our older teens spent more time enjoying the resort and SAB. We stayed in touch with each other, and both our teens and us were able to go at varying rates to the parks via Disney transportation rather than forced to go as a group. Even with all the negatives, I would still have to say it was a good trip.
Thanks for listening!
Since the room wasn't ready, we had up to two hours to kill, but weren't eager to go to a park and come back later to a smoking room (not knowing what we would find and not knowing if we would need to move to another resort), so I sat in the lobby trying to gather myself and decide what to do. Almost immediately, we were approached by a research consultant wanting us to keep a diary for our stay. We decided to do it. Each day you turned in a sheet telling them where you went, what you spent, etc. and they gave you a gift. Since we have been gone and I haven't read the Disboards for a while and probably someone else has described this. The gifts were the pens shaped like Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, etc. You got a different one each day as you turned the sheets in. The final day you turned your whole diary in and they are suppose to be sending a gift in the mail...don't know what that will be. It appeared to be just those staying in the DVC who were being approached. We were rather obvious since you are handed a DVC welcome home packet when you check in.
Sorry, I know this is long. Now about the villa itself. Please don't flame me. Being brand new owners, sight unseen...I'm just giving you our observations and impressions. Above all of these notes, we still love the location of BCV and are glad we became owners. Now, back to the villa... We were surprised that the arms on the sofa in the living room had food stains on them. I would have thought they would have used spot remover and tried to fix things. The food was heavy enough you could scrap some of it off. Mostly red, so I'm guessing spaghetti. It was evident from the first morning that we did not have a refrigerator that was staying cold. Our milk and water just was "not warm", but not cool to the touch. We called engineering and they came to put a thermometer in it....registered 50+ degrees. He left and said he had another refrigerator and if it was cooler, he would change it out. Later he arrived with another refrigerator, registering about 40 degrees and it was a wet mess moving one out and the other one in. We used our bathroom towels to try to keep the water in the kitchen area and not get the rug wet. The engineer said housekeeping would come and clean up, plus bring us towels to replace the ones we had used. Later housekeeping did clean up and brought a "towel set" since we had nearly used all of them. I was impressed with the towel set...are they always such nice towels? (You guys who get them--please let me know!) They were fluffy and smooth like at home (not semi hard like the ones in the room). If so, I think it would be worth the money to purchase the use of the towel set while there for a week! There were some other things we noticed over the week and we left a small note letting them know the bathroom door lock did not work, a glass had a chipped rim and the refrigerator handle on our replacement refrigerator was loose. The partial Epcot view was fine. You could see some of the fireworks by looking toward the right. I know you guys had mentioned that the beds were hard at DVC. I like a firm bed, but it was a big shock to get stuck with a hard, uncomfortable bed at a "deluxe resort." We had been spoiled by Marriott Grand Vista's latex foam mattresses several years ago and had purchased one for ourselves, so I'm not sure why Disney would not be using a quality mattress like that (completely personal opinion). The layout of the bathroom in the MBR was awkward. I must say location of BCV next to Epcot was perfect (We LOVED being able to walk to Epcot...what a dream!!!!), but in regards to layout of a room, Marriott wins hands down. I was not impressed with the use of space in the Disney villa. However, with the location next to Epcot, I would put up with the smaller room and crazy bathroom layout. I was also a little surprised that the shower door is so narrow...seemed smaller than I recall the norm. Regarding the water pressure, everything seemed fine. We did notice that the shower head has several settings (as another poster mentioned) and one could change the flow of the water depending on what choice was made.
Our final surprise was at check out. I'm telling you this story just to warn those who like to pay cash rather than charge. When we bought our DVC purchase last summer, we were led through the reservation process the first time. Being totally new at this, when they asked for a Credit card, I gave them one. I'm used to hotels needing a CC to hold the room. Well, once you do that (and I don't know if you can get out of doing it during reservation), they can charge anything, anytime to your room during your stay without your permission. When we checked in, I told the front desk that we did NOT want anything charged to the room and our keys said "no charging privileges." Well, that doesn't mean that when you purchase E-Tickets for cash, that they CM cannot also charge your room (which is what happened to us). Being new to staying on Disney property, it was our first E-Ticket purchase and I didn't know that I needed to ask for a receipt. I just took the E-ticket cards given to me and gave the CM three twenties and she gave us the change from our purchase. When we checked out, the charge for the 4 tickets was on our room! Apparently, the CM can charge to your room without getting permission, so we paid twice...charged to the CC on our room and in cash. In trying to get things fixed, I have run into the giant that Disney is. Basically, they can do whatever they want to do and I have no recourse. I have talked to several departments and it is clear that they can charge as they so wish without letting you know what they are doing. So, BEWARE and get a receipt for anything you purchase such as E-tickets at the front desk. The strange thing is, the cash drawer of the CM that night was "even" they tell me. I don't have a clue why that would be unless at some point the $50+ was removed to make it even. Since the CM did not print out a cash receipt, she would not have to show that money in her cash drawer. A really sticky situation that I don't want anyone else to endure. It was quite a blow to us to get this surprise at the end of our trip and have no way to prove our side of it. What stops any front desk CM from charging against your room during your stay?....NOTHING! Apparently they don't need your signature or anything else...they can just do it--hard lesson learned.
Well, this was a mixed first trip and I hope we will have better things to report the next time. Our teen sons love SAB and we all loved being next to Epcot. It was so cool to enjoy Illuminations and then just WALK home!!! The afternoon T-showers were nice because it relieved the heat and gave us a nice evening to enjoy the parks.
Plus, we did notice that being at DVC we slowed down and got more rest rather than being at commando speed. Our older teens spent more time enjoying the resort and SAB. We stayed in touch with each other, and both our teens and us were able to go at varying rates to the parks via Disney transportation rather than forced to go as a group. Even with all the negatives, I would still have to say it was a good trip.
Thanks for listening!
You should have wonderfully smooth trips from here on out. 
