Cabana?

[Hwmms814]

The info on the monorail pool cabanas at DLH says they are for up to 6 guests. If we are a larger group, but the kids are going to swim and the adults will cabana, will they let the kids run in for a hug and a drink and run back out? We have 14 people total, and the girl on the phone said we would be required to rent 3. Really??? Are they that strict on counting heads, or is it relaxed enough that we could all use it if we weren't crowding around and bothering other people?

 

[Malcon10t]

The info on the monorail pool cabanas at DLH says they are for up to 6 guests. If we are a larger group, but the kids are going to swim and the adults will cabana, will they let the kids run in for a hug and a drink and run back out? We have 14 people total, and the girl on the phone said we would be required to rent 3. Really??? Are they that strict on counting heads, or is it relaxed enough that we could all use it if we weren't crowding around and bothering other people?

Yes, you will need multiple cabanas. They do a check for key and the number of people. You will have a cabana attendant to assist with your needs, they will be tracking the number of people. 14 is WAY too many for 1 cabana. We will have 12 of us, and we have 2 cabanas come July. Your cabana will be next to others and it is very easy to spill into the other cabana areas.

This picture can kind of show why it would be tight with more than 6 and definitely 14...

 

[larina]

Yes, for 14 of you, you will need 3 cabanas. As Malcon10t said, any more than 6 in a cabana just wouldn't work and would be noticed by your assigned cabana CM.

 

[smiles33]

If you don't want to spend $ to rent 3, make all the kids and any adult swimmers set up on the free chairs and you meet them there if they want a hug or a drink. That leaves adults who aren't swimming in the cabana. As Malcon10t's photo shows, it's WAY too crowded for more than 6 people. What you can't see in this photo is the cabinet with the mini-fridge and TV (it is on the left just out of the frame) and how close you are to the other cabana if you're in the middle cabana (#2 by the slides).

I rented one last week (#1 by the slides on Sun 6/8) and my kids were in it for all of 10 minutes (to take off their flip flops, to drink a juice drink DH ordered for them, and then to put their flip flops and cover-ups back on for the walk back to our room). Otherwise, the only person in it was DH (who only got off his lounger each time he had to chase down someone to get us drinks because of the terrible service we had from both our cabana attendant and our assigned waiter). I was in the cabana maybe 1.5 hours at most, as I mostly trailed the kids (and I found the monorail slide really fun, too!).

We went back on Monday, not having a cabana rental, and had far superior service sitting in the free section. We also went earlier to ensure we'd get a free lounger and found 2 right next to an umbrella. Hope this helps!

 

[larina]

I'm sorry Smiles33 had such poor service, but that was not our experience at all. And correct me if I'm wrong, but without a cabana you can't eve order food or drinks at the pool, correct? You go get them yourself, don't gou?

 

[darcie2000]

I'm sorry Smiles33 had such poor service, but that was not our experience at all. And correct me if I'm wrong, but without a cabana you can't eve order food or drinks at the pool, correct? You go get them yourself, don't gou?

I'm not sure about food but we were able to order cocktails and mocktails poolside without having a cabana. We were there May last year.

 

[smiles33]

I'm sorry Smiles33 had such poor service, but that was not our experience at all. And correct me if I'm wrong, but without a cabana you can't eve order food or drinks at the pool, correct? You go get them yourself, don't gou?

You can totally order food and drinks from the free chairs. We did it on Monday, June 9 and like I said, my server that day actually voluntarily walked up to us twice over 2 hours, as opposed to our experience the day before when we paid $150+tax to sit in a rented cabana for 3 hours (we left an hour early because we were so fed up and hungry and didn't want to wait another hour to order food to be delivered to the cabana).

On Sunday, DH was chasing down multiple people just to put in an order when we had rented the cabana. I contacted Disney to suggest that both the waiter and the cabana attendant be given more training because it was a terrible experience. DH spent the entire 3 hours in the cabana and the only time someone approached him (versus him getting up off the lounger to walk around and find someone) was when they came to tell him (after he had approached them) they couldn't find our waiter either or they just found him and he'd be over shortly. No one ever voluntarily came up to ask, "Would you like to order anything?"

 

[Malcon10t]

You can totally order food and drinks from the free chairs. We did it on Monday, June 9 and like I said, my server that day actually voluntarily walked up to us twice over 2 hours, as opposed to our experience the day before when we paid $150+tax to sit in a rented cabana for 3 hours (we left an hour early because we were so fed up and hungry and didn't want to wait another hour to order food to be delivered to the cabana).

On Sunday, DH was chasing down multiple people just to put in an order when we had rented the cabana. I contacted Disney to suggest that both the waiter and the cabana attendant be given more training because it was a terrible experience. DH spent the entire 3 hours in the cabana and the only time someone approached him (versus him getting up off the lounger to walk around and find someone) was when they came to tell him (after he had approached them) they couldn't find our waiter either or they just found him and he'd be over shortly. No one ever voluntarily came up to ask, "Would you like to order anything?"

This was very different from our experience last summer. We had the attendant at least once an hour. And we had the server by every 30 mins or so. Once I had told her we didn't need anything, then changed my mind and called on the phone and ordered a couple drinks. Had great service. Hope we get the same next month!

 

[smiles33]

This was very different from our experience last summer. We had the attendant at least once an hour. And we had the server by every 30 mins or so. Once I had told her we didn't need anything, then changed my mind and called on the phone and ordered a couple drinks. Had great service. Hope we get the same next month!

I hope you get great service, too. The woman who served us on Monday was lovely and came by twice, like I said, about 1/hour whereas the man who was assigned to our cabana (so none of the other waiters could take our order) was MIA. I don't know if DH ever used the phone. He was in the lounger in front of the cabana so he never even wandered back there. He wanted to be able to see the girls as they played near the little water plumes that shoot up next to the slides.

Still no reply from Disney after submitting my complaint via email, so I hope they are actually investigating and will send the man back to training or at least provide more specific guidance (like, don't hide in the back of the pool area by Fantasy Tower if you're assigned to the cabanas by the slides closer to Frontier and Adventure Tower!).