Cannot get thru to CR IPO!

[goofie4goofy]

I have been calling CR IPO for 2 1/2 weeks...I cannot get thru and no one has called me back. This is our first time staying at the CR Atrium CLub and it is very frustrating. I was on the phone yesterday for 35 minutes trying to get someone to help me. I was passed around to everyone and they took my information and said someone will call me back within the hour.....well guess what!

I have a few questions, and one of which maybe you can help me with. For the first time, we are shipping stuff TO the Contemporary. I need the address (it is amazing but after many phone calls and being passed around no one was able to get me the information of where to ship, they said I have to contact the IPO...who does not answer or return calls). And since we are staying Concierge does the package go to a different department or handled differently?

Can someone post the E mail address for the CR Atrium Club IPO for me please?

Is there an other number to call except 407 824 1775?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Kteacher]

Here is the email address I have used :

WDW.Contemporary.Concierge@disney.com

They have always responded very quickly to my emails, usually within a day or two, sometimes within a few hours. We stayed Atrium Club level last summer before the renovations, and the staff were wonderful. We're staying again in October, and can't wait to see the renovations

 

[snowbunny]

we are shipping stuff TO the Contemporary. I need the address (it is amazing but after many phone calls and being passed around no one was able to get me the information of where to ship

There is only one address for the CR and it's easy to find on google:

Contemporary Resort, 4600 North World Blvd., Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830–1000

When I ship something to myself, I address it to myself at the resort like this: Snowbunny - GUEST, (resort address), Atrium Club (if you want), and also mark clearly: HOLD FOR GUEST ARRIVAL

 

[goofie4goofy]

Thank you so much.

I am quite frustrated with the IPO at the CR. I know they share with the GF, but NO ONE has gotten back to me. I made all my ADR's myself and did all my own planning. I'm glad I did, because I would never have been able to get anything if I waited for them. I know it does not sound like a big deal, but when you are paying for the service of having an IPO, you should be able to reach someone or have someone get back to you. That is one of the selling points of staying concierge at a WDW resort. I should not have to look anything up or even write this post. We have always stayed CL at the GF and have never ever had this problem with contacting the IPO before.

I will try the E-mail route. It is ridiculous that I cannot SPEAK to a real person. All I need is a 5 minute conversation.

Ok rant over....I feel better for now anyway!

 

[lyeag]

I had the same problem in June when our 180 day window hit. I ended up making my own ADRs also. My TA went up her chain to Disney and I finally got a phone call from Beth. She told me if I needed to leave a message(because I could never get anyone on the phone either) to say the message was for Beth.


I agree, the IPO service for pre planning is AWFUL. This is our first trip staying concierge and unless things are beyond my expectations during our trip we won't do it again. So far, I haven't seen any extra service, attention or even decent customer service. I was so excited to book the Atrium Club and had to work hard to convince dh that it would be worth it. I hope that things will be very different when we arrive. We don't have any special needs, requests or anything wild. We wanted to make ADRs, and reservation at the kid's club at GF. That's it. It shouldn't have been a hassle at all. Good Luck getting through, and when you do, I would really suggest asking for Beth or a manager.

 

[Lives4Disney]

Thank you so much.

I am quite frustrated with the IPO at the CR. I know they share with the GF, but NO ONE has gotten back to me. I made all my ADR's myself and did all my own planning. I'm glad I did, because I would never have been able to get anything if I waited for them. I know it does not sound like a big deal, but when you are paying for the service of having an IPO, you should be able to reach someone or have someone get back to you. That is one of the selling points of staying concierge at a WDW resort. I should not have to look anything up or even write this post. We have always stayed CL at the GF and have never ever had this problem with contacting the IPO before.

I will try the E-mail route. It is ridiculous that I cannot SPEAK to a real person. All I need is a 5 minute conversation.

Ok rant over....I feel better for now anyway!

WOW.....Glad it's not just me again. I am having a heck of a time getting any response from GF IPO for our Xmas stay. I also made all my own ADRs (good thing!) and got my DH & son the Segway tour, but I really would like them to try and book the Breathless cruise for me and a carriage ride - have heard nothing for about a week since my last email. I don't know if the I have a chance for the cruise & carriage ride or not. I have kind of thrown in the towel. I had a really hard time with GF IPO last spring trying to arrange things for our July trip.

Good luck!!!! Hope it works out for you. (and me!)

Lives4Disney

 

[shellybaxter]

It sounds to me like maybe you should just save yourself some money and downgrade to a regular room. If you're not being able to use the concierge service then why would you want to pay for it??

 

[Cool-Beans]

The secret is getting out! Concierge is nothing special. Concierge does nothing for you that everyone else doesn't have done for them...they just dial a different number.

If you want dining reservations, call dining. If you want to talk about your box, call the desk.

The only thing I ever got from concierge (when I bothered to pay for it) that I don't get now was food offerings, turndown service, and park purchases delivered to the room. The food meant nothing to me - wasn't there during the dinner hours for the mac n cheese, so we got cereal and mini-muffins (which I can buy myself) in the mornings, and snacks in the afternoon (gummy worms, bad cookies, and generic popcorn bags)...I can buy snacks, too...and get better ones. Couldn't care less about having the corners of the sheet turned down.

The only thing I miss is that packages aren't delivered to the room. I hate stopping by the gift shop. So, I buy less - that's a good thing!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Wow that is terrible. Thankfully I have had great service from Don and Juanita at AKL. I hope things improve once you get there. I here there CL is fabulous.

 

[Connears]

Sad to hear about trouble with concierge Atrium Club at CR. We stayed concierge at Poly last christmas(it was the first time staying there for us because we are DVC members, but we splurged at used disney reward points to stay there for 3 nights). I emailed polyIPO and did everything via email. the request form came via email and they were great in responding within a day. We even asked them the week before we left for vacation if they could get us into Lilo Stitch breakfast at OHana on the day of our arrival and they did with NO problems. Everything we asked for we got and there were many Mahalos and Alohas in the correspondance. Everyone was great before we arrived and during the stay. Sorry that CR is a problrm for you.

Connears

 

[Alicnwondrln]

there have threads about this for the past several months about the GF and CR IPO
i know we just got back from WL concierge and they are the Poly have the same IPO and they were amazing. They got us everything we wanted and more. I am going to the poly next feb, I emailed them and Trish got back to me within the 2 hours and had all my ards done by the end of the day. They got everything we wanted. The poly and WL ipo has been fab for us.

I wonder if people are having issues with the actual staffs at the resorts or if anyone is letting guest services know. If i had to make all my own adrs and not use the planning I would downgrade, not worth the $ if you arent getting any service.

 

[Jennasis]

BC concierge was a bit of a bust for us too. We actually got upgraded to Concierge for our honeymoon (from a standard view room...so we thought that was awesome). So imagine my surprise that all CL offered was cereal and muffins in the morning, chocolate chip cookies and goldfish crackers in the afternoon and evening, and occassionally some soup or hors douvres (but who the heck is in the concierge loung from 4-6???). Nothing I would be willing to actually PAY extra for. The room had a nice view, but so did the ones a floor lower and for less money. Also they couldn't get me ANY reservations (I had existing ressies, I wanted to change the # of people at ONE restaurant), and when I injured myself after a day of walking around Epcot (I was in excrutiating pain and could not bear any weight on my right ankle) they couldn't get me wheelchair (instead they sent me DOWNSTAIRS to the lobby concierge to get the chair...you know...the same desk that any Joe Hotel-Guest could walk up to and get service from.

So in closing, for US, concierge is totally not worth an extra penny.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

It should be noted that when you call the Contemporary IPO your not calling the Atrium Club itself, your calling the Grand Floridian. When my Dad called them about something one time, he asked if he was calling the Contemporary & they said he called the Grand Floridian. So don't hold this against the Cast Members of the Atrium Club because last month when my family & I were there, they were fantastic. They helped us with some last minute ADR's, they remember that we always make some special requests for my Mom's breakfast & one of them even surprised us with a 6 pack of Diet Cherry Coke which is not offered anywhere in the Contemporary & we only got it because we asked if it was possible to get them. Basically we were not serious about them getting it for us, so we were very shocked to see them in our room one night, because we asked was it possible to request them.

So all I am saying just because your frustrated now when your not calling the Contemporary Atrium Club directly, please don't hold it against the great & friendly Cast Members that work up there.

 

[lyeag]

The secret is getting out! Concierge is nothing special. Concierge does nothing for you that everyone else doesn't have done for them...they just dial a different number.

If you want dining reservations, call dining. If you want to talk about your box, call the desk.

The only thing I ever got from concierge (when I bothered to pay for it) that I don't get now was food offerings, turndown service, and park purchases delivered to the room. The food meant nothing to me - wasn't there during the dinner hours for the mac n cheese, so we got cereal and mini-muffins (which I can buy myself) in the mornings, and snacks in the afternoon (gummy worms, bad cookies, and generic popcorn bags)...I can buy snacks, too...and get better ones. Couldn't care less about having the corners of the sheet turned down.


IThe only thing I miss is that packages aren't delivered to the room. I hate stopping by the gift shop. So, I buy less - that's a good thing!

I wasn't aware that your packages will go straight to your room. How does that work? Do you tell them at the time of the purchase you are staying concierge at your resort, or does the resort figure it out once the deliveries arrive at their gift shop?

 

[Alicnwondrln]

that package thing doesnt always work
none of our packages were delivered to our room
we had to get them downstairs
once the staff relaized it they took care of it
and said the mercantile should have brought them up so the staff could out them in our rooms

 

[goofie4goofy]

It should be noted that when you call the Contemporary IPO your not calling the Atrium Club itself, your calling the Grand Floridian. When my Dad called them about something one time, he asked if he was calling the Contemporary & they said he called the Grand Floridian. So don't hold this against the Cast Members of the Atrium Club because last month when my family & I were there, they were fantastic. They helped us with some last minute ADR's, they remember that we always make some special requests for my Mom's breakfast & one of them even surprised us with a 6 pack of Diet Cherry Coke which is not offered anywhere in the Contemporary & we only got it because we asked if it was possible to get them. Basically we were not serious about them getting it for us, so we were very shocked to see them in our room one night, because we asked was it possible to request them.

So all I am saying just because your frustrated now when your not calling the Contemporary Atrium Club directly, please don't hold it against the great & friendly Cast Members that work up there.

Thanks CR FAn, but I did note that in my post by saying CR IPO. The IPO is completely different than the concierge staff Iteniary Planning Office is there to help you BEFORE you arrive. The Concierge staff at the Club levels are to assist you during your stay. I do know the difference. Don't want to sound like I have a snotty tone in my post I don't, I am well travelled and have been to many many hotels around the world. I have been staying CL at WDW resorts longer than I care to think about. I am also a Travel Agent, and have phone numbers that most people don't have and I still can't get thru to anyone. I know the difference in good service and poor service and I also know what to expect from IPO. My complaint is directly at the IPO and their inability to contact me, and apparently I am not alone. All I am looking to do is spend money to be honest! There are some things that I would like to order for our stay since it is our Anniversary. I don't think it is too much to ask to actually speak to someone when you need to order some very expensive things that will most likely cost $1000.00 or so. We celebrate our Anniversary at WDW every year and we always have a bottle of expensive champagne among other things. I know most people don't order a $700.00 bottle of champagne, but I would like to speak to someone about it.

I know the GF and the CR share the same IPO staff and they have the same number 407-824-1775, so it would be obivious to state which resort you are staying at. As stated above the WL and the Poly also share the same IPO staff, but must have better management because most people seem to be pleased with their planning office. Since we always stay at the GF RPC, I have noticed a change in service.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

i wonder who is in charge of that GF/CR ipo because there have many threads and posts about them lately. There was a flurry of them on the GF thread awhile back about both resorts.
For what a person spends to stay RPC or the Atrium Club there they really need to get it together.

 

[MrsBlovesDisney]

Goofie4Goofy,
I'm sorry you're having so much trouble communicating over the phone....I would be just as frustrated!!!! I hope you will have better luck via Email. We have a trip scheduled for February and so far I have communicated twice with the CR Concierge without any problems. Good luck and best wishes!!

 

[DisneyDoogie]

We had some problems with the GF IPO for our May 2006 trip. We e-mailed them a few times and no response. I ended up calling the GF and spoke to a manager who told me that the problem might be that my computer was filtering out messages from the GF's IPO e-mail address as spam. Sure enough, when I looked into it, that's what was happening. So, I just spoke with a computer techie who fixed the problem and everything was OK. (We're DVC members and we're always reminded to make sure that our computer is set up to receive e-mails from DVC.)

 

[TammiMcMan]

At Disney specifically, when you stay concierge or club level, you are pretty much only paying for a higher level of service. The lounge is nice, but not anything that "justifies" or makes the higher price "worth" it. I don't have a lot of time during the day, so it's convenient to be able to just drop an e-mail at 200 days out with a list of ADR's and anything else that I'd like them to handle. So far, the only wonderful experience I've had was with the Epcot team. They were always responsive within 24 hours, their e-mails had a friendly tone and they were always signed. With the GF Itinerary planning office, which now shares with the CR, they don't sign their e-mails, if you want something special, like champagne ordered, they'll give you the number for private dining so that you can call yourself . I'm sorry, but isn't that why I'm paying more to stay on this floor, so that they'll make the phone calls for me? I remember trying to plan something very unique for our 20th anniversary. It was like pulling teeth to have them come up with anything. The part that was extremely frustrating, was that Janet2K had just come back and was raving about the VIP Safari that they helped her setup and I think she also had a dessert party on the GF grounds during that trip. I couldn't get any information from the IPO. Partly in their defense, most folks do find out that their e-mail requests were received and fulfilled, but I just don't understand why they can't at least acknowledge the e-mail and let their customer know that they will followup when they have a confirmation.

Luckily, as CR Fan mentioned, this was no reflection on the on-site staff and we've always had a perfect vacation when we actually get there. Usually though, I don't need that much help with last minute things though, I need the help up front.

I don't know if anyone in the Disney organization peruses these message boards, but this is an area that is sorely lacking in customer service skills. Whether they can't find the employees or if they don't pay them enough for this high profile position, I don't know, but they've been needing changes for a long time. Unfortunately, this is nothing new.