Best Way To Contact WDW with Problem (Resort Related)_Small Update

Christine

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Aug 31, 1999
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I am having a bit of an issue with my accommodations. I am hoping to resolve it in the next day or two with a CM on the phone, but I want to send a complaint of sorts to WDW. I've read here on the DIS of, I think, people contact Guest Services. All I am seeing is the Contact Us section in the Help area for if you have a question. Is there somewhere else I should be sending my issue to?

In a nutshell (although I don't think I can make it short), I booked 6 rooms at the GF back in June. This is an extended family trip and it revolves around my aunt who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She is still relatively well, so we all decided to do a big blowout trip with her, her sister, her children, grandchildren, great grandchilden. You get the drift. I don't like to predict someone's health, but it will very likely be the last trip like this she can do. Ideally, we wanted to stay at the Contemporary, they were booked, so we are going to be at the GF. When my cousin and I both called together to book the rooms, we were VERY clear with the CM regarding the nature of the trip and that my aunt had some health issues and would need a handicapped room located close enough to her daughter. The whole reservation process for six rooms took a long time and during that call, the CM actually put us on hold for about 10 minutes so he could call over to the GF and talk to the room scheduler to see what the possibilities were for getting us together. He came back on the call, said he had put in a "medical need" so that this could be done, told me she had a handicapped room, and that were were verified to have 6 rooms in the general area of the hallway, same floor, etc.

As time went on and the trip is getting closer, I've realized now that there has never been a note made of the need for a handicapped room. My mother, who at least has time time during the day, spent over an hour on the phone with two different CMs yesterday, only to find out that there have been ZERO notes made in our reservations about the medical issue, my aunt has no handicapped room, and there are no more available. I think the whole place is sold out. The only note made has been that we'd like 6 rooms together (which I actually don't overly care about but if it works, what the heck). A very nice CM advised my mother to call back on Thursday because, at that point, the 30-day-out package people may have dropped their rooms. She also put in a priority request for my aunt to have a handicapped room should one come available but said there was no guarantee of that.

I'm just sort of stunned. We were very clear with the CM when we booked what was needed and he went out of his way to work it out and tell me of all the notes he made. I honestly don't know how my aunt will shower as I don't think she can step over the top and into the shower. She also needs a shower chair.

I'm not sure what I expect them to do but I feel like I should complain to someone. Maybe something can be done. The CMs can only do so much but I'm very disappointed at this slip up. I know, in part, I'm responsible for not reviewing her room reservation, but I felt so assured that it was handled.

So, any advice or how I should handle this?
 
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Keep calling, and hopefully it will work out.

As far as the shower, one thing that sometimes works for people who can’t step in/out is a shower seat. In a nutshell, you sit on that seat and then swing your legs over. It may work for her, or or may not, but it’s something to consider. They are called “sliding transfer chairs” or something like that, so different than a walk in and sit down chair. It works very well for some. You can have it delivered to the hotel from a medical supply company I’m sure.
 
Keep calling, and hopefully it will work out.

As far as the shower, one thing that sometimes works for people who can’t step in/out is a shower seat. In a nutshell, you sit on that seat and then swing your legs over. It may work for her, or or may not, but it’s something to consider. They are called “sliding transfer chairs” or something like that, so different than a walk in and sit down chair. It works very well for some. You can have it delivered to the hotel from a medical supply company I’m sure.

Thanks. I'm not sure that would work. The issue is her knees. Very bad. I think sitting and then getting up is a problem. If she stays standing and just walks in she's fine. Getting up is the problem. She has some sort of chair in her home shower but it's not for sitting. I believe it's more for support.
 
guest.services@disneyworld.com They helped me out with something and I was so pleased.

Yeah, I found out too that my request was never actually on my reservation. I had them email an itinerary and it wasn't on there, so I called and then they added it - you can see the request (at least you could back in 2017). They again emailed my itinerary and it was on there. :)
 

If you can find out the name of the current general manager of the Grand Floridian, I would start by emailing him or her. Maybe it's just WDW.GM.GrandFloridian@Disney.com. When I had an issue at Saratoga Springs, I contacted the GM and also sent an email to the president of WDW, George Kalogridis. He may have been replaced by now though. It's hard to keep track. I received a phone call from Kalogridis' office the very next day.
 
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I would contact Disability Services: For more information, please contact Disability Services at (407) 560-2547 or email disability.services@disneyparks.com.

Did you actually reserve an HA room? Or was it only requested? If you reserved one, the room description would include that information. They can’t guarantee connecting or adjoining, but will try. The key is to reserve an HA room, which come in various types - it sounds like your aunt needs one with a “roll-in shower.”

Good luck sorting it out and enjoy your vacation!
 
I would contact Disability Services: For more information, please contact Disability Services at (407) 560-2547 or email disability.services@disneyparks.com.

Did you actually reserve an HA room? Or was it only requested? If you reserved one, the room description would include that information. They can’t guarantee connecting or adjoining, but will try. The key is to reserve an HA room, which come in various types - it sounds like your aunt needs one with a “roll-in shower.”

Good luck sorting it out and enjoy your vacation!

My intent was to reserve an HA room. That's what we asked for and we explained all of her issues with the CM (it was a long call). No one told me that there was NOT one available back in June. If they had, I would have assumed that I just had a request at this point. I'm really wondering how this could have gone so wrong.
 
I’m so sorry this is happening. I had a similar issue last year when booking rooms at CR last year when we traveled with a young man with severe disabilities and his nurse. I had a very similar experience to what you are having now. Copious notes were taken, resort was spoken to directly and then all got lost in the vortex. After at least six phone calls, we thought we had it figured out only to arrive and the rooms had different bedding configurations than what we had booked. It was really stressful at first, but we made it work.

I, personally, wouldn’t wait until Thursday to call. People cancel all the time and something could become available tomorrow. I would also suggest focusing on just trying to secure the HA room and nearby room for your cousin. If you don’t care where the other rooms are located, it might make it easier for the room assigner to fulfill just those two requests. I hope it works out for you. I’ve been following your posts and know how hard you’ve worked on this trip. I wish you the best.
 
I’m so sorry this is happening. I had a similar issue last year when booking rooms at CR last year when we traveled with a young man with severe disabilities and his nurse. I had a very similar experience to what you are having now. Copious notes were taken, resort was spoken to directly and then all got lost in the vortex. After at least six phone calls, we thought we had it figured out only to arrive and the rooms had different bedding configurations than what we had booked. It was really stressful at first, but we made it work.

I, personally, wouldn’t wait until Thursday to call. People cancel all the time and something could become available tomorrow. I would also suggest focusing on just trying to secure the HA room and nearby room for your cousin. If you don’t care where the other rooms are located, it might make it easier for the room assigner to fulfill just those two requests. I hope it works out for you. I’ve been following your posts and know how hard you’ve worked on this trip. I wish you the best.

I'd like to call everyday but unfortunately Disney has a long hold time it seems EVERY DAY and most of us are working. My mother is able to call at times so she is on for calling Thursday morning at 9:30 am. She has the name and extension of the last CM she talked to yesterday who really was helpful and went out of her way to figure out what was wrong. She really wants to get her back on because a few of the others were not helpful. In the meantime, I've written Guest Services so I'm hoping to hear something from that end.

Honestly, if the hotel is fully booked and HA rooms are minimal, I really don't know what I expect them to even be able to do. I'd be willing to move us all to another resort if that would work. I guess because of the marathon and Jersey Week, WDW resorts are pretty full right now. We also don't need to be all in the same area in the resort so my top priority is the HA room. I don't care about anything else.
 
I am handicapped with bad knees. I've had HA rooms in the past. This year I contacted disability services and expressed my needs. They suggested a regular room with shower only. (No lower bed - which was great for my knees). The room also didn't have grab bars in the bathroom. The shower just had a "lip" to cross over. Not sure what you need, but this worked out great for me. Maybe it will help you.
 
I am handicapped with bad knees. I've had HA rooms in the past. This year I contacted disability services and expressed my needs. They suggested a regular room with shower only. (No lower bed - which was great for my knees). The room also didn't have grab bars in the bathroom. The shower just had a "lip" to cross over. Not sure what you need, but this worked out great for me. Maybe it will help you.

According to the CM, they don't have anything like that left. Right now, there are only regular tubs.
 
Phones may be (much) less busy in the evening. Try now.

Well, that was a 20 minute wait only for them to tell me that they couldn't do anything with room scheduling in the evening. Although they could see that as of last night, there was still no availability. Today is the magic cancellation day for a trip starting 11/2/2019. Maybe we'll get lucky.
 
I'd like to call everyday but unfortunately Disney has a long hold time it seems EVERY DAY and most of us are working. My mother is able to call at times so she is on for calling Thursday morning at 9:30 am. She has the name and extension of the last CM she talked to yesterday who really was helpful and went out of her way to figure out what was wrong. She really wants to get her back on because a few of the others were not helpful. In the meantime, I've written Guest Services so I'm hoping to hear something from that end.

Honestly, if the hotel is fully booked and HA rooms are minimal, I really don't know what I expect them to even be able to do. I'd be willing to move us all to another resort if that would work. I guess because of the marathon and Jersey Week, WDW resorts are pretty full right now. We also don't need to be all in the same area in the resort so my top priority is the HA room. I don't care about anything else.

I hope this all works out for you. Please keep us posted. I'm so sorry. I can imagine this is very frustrating and I know you have been working so hard to make this a great trip for your family.
 
This is a prime example of why I don't ever like booking on the phone. I never trust they can get done what they are supposed to be doing. Heck, I barely trust them to actually book or even bother to look for stuff like they claim. Even when we need multiple rooms, I book it all online. There's an option to include "traveling with" party information. Then, if I must call to have notes made to what I know is the correct reservation, then I will if there's no choice.

I hope you are able to find the room you want. I'd get online and look for myself, quite honestly. Just check the HA box and look. Even if it comes to a different resort. Heck, CR may be there now
 
I hope you're able to get this resolved. Has anyone responded to the emails you've sent out? You should also try look at other hotels and see if they have any availability with what you need.
 
This is a prime example of why I don't ever like booking on the phone. I never trust they can get done what they are supposed to be doing. Heck, I barely trust them to actually book or even bother to look for stuff like they claim. Even when we need multiple rooms, I book it all online. There's an option to include "traveling with" party information. Then, if I must call to have notes made to what I know is the correct reservation, then I will if there's no choice.

I hope you are able to find the room you want. I'd get online and look for myself, quite honestly. Just check the HA box and look. Even if it comes to a different resort. Heck, CR may be there now

Oh, I'm with you. I love booking online.

We were using a military discount and needed 6 rooms and the online process was not allowing that. Plus as we configured our rooms with various people in each room, that wouldn't even work. I was forced to call. Basically, though, needing the military discount required that.

For now, if I just got to availability for 2-9 November 2019 and trying to get just ONE standard room at the GF, there is only one Club Level King Suite available (at $1200 per night). Last week, that wasn't even available. I feel like a check several times a day. That week seems to be just booked solid for most of the resorts.
 



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