Boardwalk, bugs, and birthdays

[ilovecoasters]

My husband posted this on another board. I thought I'd share with everyone here as well.

My wife and I went to Boardwalk staying at a DVC studio for one
night. It was a boardwalk view and my wife was very excited. We have
stayed at many different Disney hotels including Port Orleans,
Coronado Beach, Caribbean beach etc. as well as DVC sites such as
Saratoga Springs (0ur home base), Animal Kingdom,and Beach Club. We've always been happy with the hotels, in particular DVC hotels. They've been clean, quiet and overall just great places to stay.

Then comes our trip to Boardwalk. First of all we drive up to the
security kiosk and are told there is now a fee for DVC members to
valet park. I didn't feel like arguing and just told them I'd park
myself. Big mistake, the lot closest to the hotel is full and I end
up in employee parking across the street. Long story short, major
walk to the hotel only to find out that they DVC still did have free
valet parking. Strike one for Boardwalk, then I call my wife who has
already checked in to find our room. I go to the front desk as well
to make sure they are sending a happy birthday arrangement, especially since member services had also notated it on our reservation. They say
yes and I start my very long long walk to my room 2013. After about five
minutes of solid walking I find the room. It's dingy, with scratches
on the walls, old food by the sofa, and an overall shoddy appearance. I'm unimpressed since I've seen what DVC usually offers which is a very clean and up to date room. Also there was only one paper plate, two paper bowls,
and no plastic cups left by housekeeping. I'm pretty ticked by this
point but it's my wife's birthday and I don't want her upset. (Strike two for Boardwalk)

Later that evening we return to the room, no birthday arrangement. I
call downstairs and I'm told it's "being delivered as we speak", this
makes call numbers three to get a b-day greeting for my wife and it was already 9:30pm. It finally arrives after the fireworks at Epcot. I wonder who starts delivering bday greetings that late as most families are settling in for the night? My guess it that they forgot, again.

Next morning we get up to leave and I go to get my shoes on. Lift up
my sneaker with my hand and watch a 2 1/2 inch roach scurry out of my
shoe and run for a hole in the wall. I yell, my wife sees it as well
and I call down to complain. My wife is told that this is Florida and
we have roaches and that maybe it came in with us. Well, I've lived in Florida for 32 years and I know there are roaches, however I don't have them in my house and I live under 50 miles from Disney. I'm really annoyed at this point but the cherry on the cake was lifting up one of my suitcases and seeing a second roachscurry off the bottom of my luggage and run for the t.v. stand. This time my son is with me when I see it. Unfortunately the roaches were to quick to catch. I wanted proof for managment. As we head out of the room, to see a manager, we are greeted by a third roach in the hall, on its back, but still kicking. We point that one out to a housekeeper who smiles and shrugs. (Strike three for Boarwalk)

On the plus side when we did talk to managment and they were
fabulous. They tried to give us our points back, but because they were from last year's points, We were instead compensated well for our inconvenience which I wasn't really looking for but appreciated. They were very apologetic and I feel they were sincere. The staff by the way was very nice but the hotel was downright shoddy by Disney standards. I'll stick to Saratoga, Animal Kindom and Beach Club from now on.
Has anybody else has an issue like this at a DVC resort? I usually
don't post but I really wanted to know if anyone else has had issues
like this. The manager did ask that we call and write member services. He told us that refurb for Boardwalk was scheduled for 2009 and he felt it was needed as well. I am wondering if having the rooms on top of the restaurants contributed to the roaches, but either way, I will not be back.

 

[MrsNick]

I think I'd have about died seeing a roach or waterbug come out of my shoe when I picked it up.

Sorry to hear you had such a rough exerience.

DH and I stayed for one night in a studio at BWV last July, and while we did not have the room issues that you did, BWV just was not our cup of tea. I doubt we'll stay there again. The main pool was really, really crowded (and smaller than I had imagined from the pictures). That aside, I don't really know why we weren't crazy about the BWV, since we really had no issues. CM's were all friendly and professional. Our room was clean enough. The lobby was quite pretty. Can't really put my finger on it.

Funny, when I had asked DH where he wanted me to book that particular night, I said we had a choice of SSR, BWV and AKV. AKV was no go due to construction and potential noise issues. DH picked BWV. When we got there, he was confused. Because of DTD, DH thought SSR was the BWV, and wanted to know why we weren't booked there We ended up pool hopping to SSR and really enjoyed the pool at the Grandstand.

Thank goodness for the choices among DVC's since so many of us owners seem to have such different preferences

 

[Inkmahm]

Bugs are unacceptable at any time, any place, in any hotel. Yuck. That said, I've never seen a cockroach at BWV. We were in 5013, above the restaurant by a few floors, the last time we were there in Dec.

Did you pay for his birthday arrangement that you were planning to have delivered to your wife or was this a request for something for free? If you paid for it, you have a right to complain that it was delivered so late. If it was just a request, I'd say you don't. Getting something for free is a nice extra but not to be expected, much less expected by a certain hour of the day.

Glad you were happy with the outcome, whatever it was that they did to compensate you.

 

[CarolMN]

Sorry that happened to you.

We always stay at the BWV and I have never seen a roach. We usually stay in the standard view units, though.

The one time I splurged and booked a BW view, I too was disappointed. The room (a 2 bedroom) was not in good shape, but it was clean. I just chalked it up to the BW view rooms being very popular - although the SV rooms are as well and those we've been assigned have always been in a lot better shape than the BW view unit was.

FWIW, when you called "downstairs", you were undoubtedly talking to someone at a centralized location and not the actual BW front desk. I hate it that Disney doesn't route those calls to the actual front desk, but I understand the cost savings in doing it the way they do. It doesn't surprise me that you got that "snarky" response regarding Florida and bugs. Some of the "O" CMs need to look for other work, IMHO. I don't think you would have gotten that if you had been talking to a "real" BWV CM.

Anyway, I've learned to give the "O" people just one chance. If we have any problems that aren't taken care of in a timely manner after that one call, I go to the front desk in person and talk to them. I've always gotten the same response from the front desk CMs that you did when you actually talked to management.

Hope you had a good birthday in spite of the problems and gave your DH a lot of "credit" for trying to make it special!

 

[jekjones1558]

YIKES! DH would go ballistic if this ever happens to us! We have stayed at BWV BW view rooms for 8 years, 3 or 4 times a year and never had this problem. I am so sorry that your one and only stay was a bummer. I am glad that you reported this and that you were compensated. Hopefully your report will result in a visit from pest control so that no one else has a stay spoiled.
Was your arrangement from Disney Floral? I wonder who is at fault for the delivery issue-- Disney Floral or BW services? During our last stay we received arrangements from 2 different friends, who both happened to choose the same type. Disney Floral caught this and made sure that the included mugs were Mickey for one and Minnie for the other. And these were not even delivered on the same day, so I was impressed! Whoever dropped the ball, it is unfortunate, but hope that the arrangement itself was up to standard.
Once again, sorry for the bad experience. Now let's hope that every DVC stay henceforth is magical!
P.S. Happy to hear about the planned refurbishment. BWV is almost always 100% booked, so the rooms do need re-doing often.

 

[AKLFan3]

I'm SHOCKED that you had roaches in your room! We've stayed on Disney property 9 times at various moderate and deluxe hotels and have NEVER even seen a knat, let alone a roach! I have not stayed at BWV yet. We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn in 2005 and everything was clean. I would have demanded another room. I am terrified of most bugs and have never actually seen a roach before. I'm so sorry that happened to you, and thanks for reporting it here. I hope you also intend to write a note to DVC or fill out one of those customer satisfactions surveys Disney sometimes mails to you once you get home. That is absolutely unacceptable, and you certainly handled it with a lot more tolerance than I would have mustered.

 

[robinb]

I'm sorry about your problems and I'm glad that you were compensated for your troubles. It's disappointing when you have a dirty room and bad service.

We also had a Palmetto bug in our AKV Concierge studio in late December. I chalked it up to leaving the patio door open. We caught him and re-introduced him to the patio.

 

[DebbieB]

I stayed there in early December (room 3031). My friend and I were sitting out on the balcony watching Illuminations with the door slightly open. I turned around and looked in the room and saw a large bug (palmetto or roach) scurrying across the floor. My friend was able to chase it down and hit it with her shoe. I'm convinced it came in through the open door (I saw one out on the balcony the night before when I was looking out).

You mentioned plastic cups. I don't think plastic cups are included in studios since they have glasses.

 

[ilovecoasters]

The manager was wonderful. He actually told us he was not surprised. He was recently moved from BCV and commented that they never had that issue there. He added that 450 rooms were being vacated this morning and 450 would be refilled. With that said, he then went on to tell us that they don't get to clean them as well when they are booked and was concerned that he'd be able to get pest control out in time. He offered our points back, but because they were 2007 points the computer system would not accept them. After leaving the front desk for a few minutes, he came back and told us that $325 had been credited to our credit card as he felt that was a dollar per point compensation. Extremely surpised we told him weren't looking for compensation we just wanted them to be aware that roaches just aren't acceptable. He insisted about the credit. We didn't get loud, sarcastic, or upset. We were just really glad to be leaving. As for the bday item, DH had pre-arranged it and prepayed. He's upset enough right now, so I don't want to push that issue with him. It was just a very off trip. We never received a "welcome home" message on our phone like we had at the other resorts, nor did we receive any type of check out message. The manager said that was unusual as well. I look at it this way, SSR is our home resort. We LOVE it there and it is considerably less points. Infact, AKV savannah view is less too. Glad we have so many choices. Fingers crossed that our anniversary trip next month to AKV goes better.

 

[ilovecoasters]

I stayed there in early December (room 3031). My friend and I were sitting out on the balcony watching Illuminations with the door slightly open. I turned around and looked in the room and saw a large bug (palmetto or roach) scurrying across the floor. My friend was able to chase it down and hit it with her shoe. I'm convinced it came in through the open door (I saw one out on the balcony the night before when I was looking out).

You mentioned plastic cups. I don't think plastic cups are included in studios since they have glasses.

The only type of glasses were two blue mugs, nothing else other than the 2 paper plates/bowl. No drinking glasses at all.

 

[Jimdvc]

$325 had been credited to our credit card as he felt that was a dollar per point compensation.

How many pts did that nights reservation use?

 

[ilovecoasters]

How many pts did that nights reservation use?

29 for one night in a studio.

 

[Jimdvc]

So basicly for seeing 3 bugs, and walking across a parking lot, and having to call 2 times for flowers, they gave you 325 dollars.

I hope the same happens to me next time I go to WDW.

Not making light of seeing 3 bugs, but due keep in mind that you can fumigate a room, and if the next guest leaves a door open on a balconey while they are at the parks, there isn't much hotel services can do to stop natures creatures from crawling in. I really don't blame the BW for you seeing 3 bugs.

Now the flowers.........yes they should have been there on time. Where they pretty? I hope so.

As far as your hubby having to walk across the parking lot. He shouldn't have had to do that, but did that really harm anything?

BTW it sounds like you got right into your room, that's great.

I hope your future trips go better.

Sounds to me, like the MGR bent over backwards to make things more the right with you. It's not often they give away free nights at the Board Walk.

 

[VrBchJ]

I'm sorry you had the bug problem. That would freak anyone out. I was surprised to read that they told you DVC members had to pay for valet parking. That must be something very new. I was at BWV last month and valet parked with no charge. My parking permit had the "M" on it so I didn't even have to show my blue card. Does anyone know when this changed?

 

[toocherie]

I'm sorry you had the bug problem. That would freak anyone out. I was surprised to read that they told you DVC members had to pay for valet parking. That must be something very new. I was at BWV last month and valet parked with no charge. My parking permit had the "M" on it so I didn't even have to show my blue card. Does anyone know when this changed?

Actually, the OP indicated that after her husband had parked at the remote parking lot they found out they had been given wrong information and DVC members did get free valet parking.

 

[DebbieB]

The only type of glasses were two blue mugs, nothing else other than the 2 paper plates/bowl. No drinking glasses at all.

I can't remember for sure but I thought we had some clear glasses. I did buy a pack of plastic cups at Walmart so that we wouldn't have to keep washing the glasses/mugs. We had at least 4 paper plates & 4 bowls. Sounds like they forgot to replenish them.

 

[3pirates]

Wow...

Sorry your experience wasn't great, but glad that someone finally acted like you had the right to be disappointed at sub-standard hospitality.

I'm sure compensation wasn't what you were after, you wanted a nice vacation with your family, and people that seemed to know what was going on and cared about the quality of your stay.

We have stayed at Boardwalk a few times, the last one in December. We've always really enjoyed it. This past time we did have some minor housekeeping issues, but as we were there for only one night we just overlooked them...as housekeeping apparently had!

 

[alldiz]

Roaches

that would have sent me over the edge.....I can handle a lot....but
bugs

I'm glad they compensated you....glad to see they are trying to keep
the magic alive.

I hope they bring the nuclear exterminator before my April stay.....
Kerri

 

[robinb]

Roaches
{snip}
I hope they bring the nuclear exterminator before my April stay.....
Kerri

They can exterminate all they want but all someone has to do is leave the patio door open and the bugs walk or fly right in. Even if you keep your door shut, not everyone does ... myself included.

 

[WoodysRoundup]

So sorry for your experience. THREE roaches!!!!!! Don't they say if you see one, there's like hundreds you can't see? If you had described a palmetto bug (large flying roach), I would not have been concerned. They can just wander in. That is very disturbing. I wonder if what another poster said about the fact that the rooms are above the restaurants contributed to your problem. Anymore reports like yours, and I doubt we'll try BWV. These were regular ROACHES!!!!!! To those who think, you just had 3 bugs in your room, the OP is not talking about ants, flies, lovebugs, etc. ROACHES are in a whole different category. And.....they don't "wander" in if you leave the door open. They're already there......behind the walls, etc. OMG, soooooooooo disturbing!!!!!!!!!!