Clean, Dirty, No Magic and tons of Pixie Dust??

[dianeschlicht]

If you look for problems, dirt and no magic, that is what you will find. If you plan to enjoy a great stay in a delux one or two bedroom, you will have a GREAT time.

 

[DBBN]

We've been members since early 1995 and have stayed at all of the DVC resorts except fo HH. We've had over 40 great vacations for a total of over 180 nights, we usually stay at OKW which is our home resort.

We have a routine when we arrive at our assigned villa and it goes something like this - First we confirm it isn't a HA villa, then we give the villa a smell test (we're non-smokers), then we check to ensure the door locks on the exterior doors operate properly, after that we look for the general cleanliness and condition of the villa, then we inspect the kitchen appliances, dishware, silverware and pots and pans (for cleanliness), any dishware, etc., that we intend to use goes into the dishwasher right away for another cleaning, lastly we check the closets and drawers sometimes even under the bed to ensure a previous guest hasn't left anything behind. This takes maybe ten minutes between the two of us.

We go in looking for problems and if we find any issues we call housekeeping or engineering for prompt attention. We've always been very pleased with the attention given to making the necessary repairs. If the problem is dust or dirt on the floor we'll simply correct the problem ourselves.

We see this as our responsibility to ourselves, the resort and the next guest checking-in because we understand housekeeping and engineering can't fix problems they are not aware of. The end result is after taking a few minutes to look around we end up with an enhansed sense of ownership and satisfaction with the villa and our membership. I doubt the guest checking-in after we leave will have issues with the villa.

After all the time we've spent at the WDW DVC resorts we've found very few problems. Typical issues might include mold in the bathroom, a window blind not operating properly or maybe a light bulb needing replacing. Ocassionally we find more serious problems like a balcony door that won't lock properly. On one ocassion we found clothes from a previous guest neatly folded in two of the drawers.

All in all the condition of the villas we've stayed in have been good considering the use they get. One thing I am certain of is that the villa is always in better condition when we leave than when we checked in.

Have fun enjoy your vacation and consider taking a few minutes to have any problems you find corrected promptly. I'll appreciate it when I check-in after you leave.

 

[Sammie]

I can honestly say that the majority of our rooms have been clean and problem free.

However that is not to say we have not had rooms that were not clean or problem free. We did not go in the room looking for problems, why would anyone want to spend their vacation time dealing with nonexistent problems and to imply that people who have experienced problems are "looking" for them is ridiculous. Some problems are just too hard to ignore. Sure if there is a stain on the rug, I clean it and move on. However if I get a nasty refrigerator, then No, I am not dealing with that.

We have never not had a problem solved. I can be very determined about this and I will take time from my trip to deal with it.

Enjoy your stay, odds are in your favor nothing will be wrong, however if it is call and let them know about it and have them correct it.

 

[fishermouse]

Well sometimes it just kinda hard to over look. When you find blood and hair in the refrigerator when you check in, are you saying you would not notice.

The blood was probably from a meat package that leaked, personally I would wipe out the fridge and get ready to go to a park. But that's just me I suppose some people would get stressedout about it, and a call to mousekeeping would not be out of line. But for me it's easier to just wipe it up and get on with vacationing. Of course I also don't let being bumped into or having people butt in lines get to me. Stress and confrontations are best left at home..
RELAX + ENJOY IT's DISNEY WORLD

 

[bobbiwoz]

...
Mousekeeping always had a smile in the hallways.
...
Have a great trip!!!

This is what always "gets me." I see these (usually) women working hard and they stop and smile and wish me a nice day. I just want to do something to give to them a bit of what they are giving to me.

Bobbi

 

[Sammie]

The blood was probably from a meat package that leaked, personally I would wipe out the fridge and get ready to go to a park. But that's just me I suppose some people would get stressedout about it, and a call to mousekeeping would not be out of line. But for me it's easier to just wipe it up and get on with vacationing. Of course I also don't let being bumped into or having people butt in lines get to me. Stress and confrontations are best left at home..
RELAX + ENJOY IT's DISNEY WORLD

If the blood, as you said could be a meat package, had been all there was I probably would have done the same, but blood, hair and broken glass on the kitchen floor, no way I am cleaning that up. In fact at the time I was not sure whether to call Housekeeping or CSI.

 

[pigby]

We have just returned from SSR and had a wonderful time - exceptionally clean, marvellous DTD view and side view of small pool at Congress Park yet convenient location - end studio 2701- Mickey heads on the balcony railings. The CM's were the friendliest around and no problems with the buses. Mickey didn't tuck us in but wished us a good morning every day on the in-room phone.

 

[MiaSRN62]

We just came back from a wonderfully fantastic stay at OKW. Everything was pretty and fresh smellin'
My only complaint was we didn't get one of the new sofa beds.....that was the only thing that was lacking. My dd chose to sleep on the sofa cushions.
We received many "welcome homes" at OKW. One, in particular, was during a heavy downpour/lightening. We came through the gate with our car windows up and the guard "mouthed" the "welcome home" to us----he literally came out of the booth and stood in the rain to do that. Now there's some magic for ya.

 

[OneMoreTry]

All our trips have been great. No reason to bail out.

We encountered a few minor details always taken care of immediately by maintenance. (I blame those on the previous guests not reporting a problem they should have -- maybe because they were the cause.)

 

[wilderness01]

Sammie wrote:

However that is not to say we have not had rooms that were not clean or problem free. We did not go in the room looking for problems, why would anyone want to spend their vacation time dealing with nonexistent problems and to imply that people who have experienced problems are "looking" for them is ridiculous. Some problems are just too hard to ignore. Sure if there is a stain on the rug, I clean it and move on. However if I get a nasty refrigerator, then No, I am not dealing with that.

well said.

That is great that some people have never encountered problems, dirt, etc. For anyone to imply that anyone who has encountered these problems are "looking" for problems is just plain rude. I'm glad so many people are so loyal to DVC. I hope these same people will buy up my contract at a healthy profit for me.

 

[Muushka]

Sammie wrote:

However that is not to say we have not had rooms that were not clean or problem free. We did not go in the room looking for problems, why would anyone want to spend their vacation time dealing with nonexistent problems and to imply that people who have experienced problems are "looking" for them is ridiculous. Some problems are just too hard to ignore. Sure if there is a stain on the rug, I clean it and move on. However if I get a nasty refrigerator, then No, I am not dealing with that.

well said.

That is great that some people have never encountered problems, dirt, etc. For anyone to imply that anyone who has encountered these problems are "looking" for problems is just plain rude. I'm glad so many people are so loyal to DVC. I hope these same people will buy up my contract at a healthy profit for me.

Oops, that would be me

I don't know about others, but when we check into our villa we do not look for dirt! We may look out the window to be sure we didn't get a crappy view, but we don't look for dirt!

If you look for things wrong, you will find them.

I think I may have tried to lighten up the situation a little too much, and I am sorry. Blood, hair and glass among other problems are not acceptable. Big old stains on the carpeting and furniture are also not acceptable. I would also complain about this sort of thing.
And no. I am not that loyal to DVC. Believe me.

But I think what I should have said in my comment was that people post on these boards about every little thing that bothers them. When they write a trip report, one of the first things mentioned is the cleanliness of the room and what was wrong where. The first thing they do (or seem to do) is to go looking for dirt or things wrong. It may be because they have children. I don't have any, so I do not have a child's saftey as a concern. When you read trip report after trip report about the problems in the rooms, it appears that there is a huge problem with DVC. This may in fact be the case, and I guess we won't know unless people do post all of these problems.

I have stayed at DVC since 2000. I think we have been lucky in that we have yet to find something really out of whack. But now we will probably find a dead body in our room next time because of my 'bad post'!

So, in conclusion. I apologize for my comment. It was rude.

 

[Sammie]

Oops, that would be me


I think I may have tried to lighten up the situation a little too much, and I am sorry. Blood, hair and glass among other problems are not acceptable. Big old stains on the carpeting and furniture are also not acceptable. I would also complain about this sort of thing.
And no. I am not that loyal to DVC. Believe me.

But I think what I should have said in my comment was that people post on these boards about every little thing that bothers them. When they write a trip report, one of the first things mentioned is the cleanliness of the room and what was wrong where. The first thing they do (or seem to do) is to go looking for dirt or things wrong. It may be because they have children. I don't have any, so I do not have a child's saftey as a concern. When you read trip report after trip report about the problems in the rooms, it appears that there is a huge problem with DVC. This may in fact be the case, and I guess we won't know unless people do post all of these problems.

I have stayed at DVC since 2000. I think we have been lucky in that we have yet to find something really out of whack. But now we will probably find a dead body in our room next time because of my 'bad post'!

So, in conclusion. I apologize for my comment. It was rude.

You are one fine person. Not many will come back and admit a mistake. Thanks

Everyone that has read these forums for at least a year knows no one is a stronger supporter and defender of Disney and DVC. I love going, we have many good friends that work for them, but sometimes even I get upset and disappointed. This thread just seemed to be making light of some serious housekeeping issues and literally sweeping them under the rug with a Pixie Dust broom.

Most of our trips have been without problems or problems that were easily fixed, such as wasps. However we have gotten units that were just not acceptable and had to be recleaned and management was contacted. It was not often but it has happened.

My advice is not do not go in and put everything under a microscope, I don't think we would want anyone doing that to our own homes, but deal with issues there, get them resolved, and the next member will get a better unit for your efforts. If we all did this fewer members would encounter problems.

 

[bcvillastwo]

If someone encounters a cleanliness problem and they feel it is serious enought to complain about then, for them, it's a serious problem. But, as others on this tread have said, just because one person encounters a cleanliness problem at one of the DVC resorts doesn't mean that the another will encounter similar problems.

As I read through the previous posts on this tread it's clear to me that nearly all of these people have had fair to better experiences when they've stayed at a DVC resort. Contrast that with other threads that describe one cleanliness issue after another.

I'm betting that only a small portion of the 100,000 plus DVC members actually read and/or post comments to the DVC Dis Boards. One of the threads is set up for people to self identify themselves as DVC Dis Board users. At this point the count is just under 800 self proclaimed DVC members. This offers then offers some perspective on the number of DVC members who actually use read/post (800 out of 100,000 plus).

Overall, I have to believe that the vast majority of people are satisfied with their DVC experience and for those that aren't it's likely that sell and most will probably at least break even.

 

[mello]

On our first ever trip to WDW last fall, after lots of travel over the years - including Disneyland, Europe, Canada, Mexico, a Panama Canal cruise, various states, various amusement parks, camping in national & state parks, etc., DH asked, "Why do we vacation anywhere else except Disney???" I don't remember what prompted him to ask that, but I know it was another in a series of excellent Disney customer service experiences. Our answer to that question was to buy DVC lol. DL, WDW, and DVC may not be perfect, but as vacations on this earth go, it's pretty much as close as you're gonna get.

 

[fishermouse]

If the blood, as you said could be a meat package, had been all there was I probably would have done the same, but blood, hair and broken glass on the kitchen floor, no way I am cleaning that up. In fact at the time I was not sure whether to call Housekeeping or CSI.

I have heard (on these boards) that people sometimes go back into rooms after checking out and mousekeeping has finished. From what I've read your key actually works until someone uses the new key assigned to the room. Hope this is the case considering the mess you found. Originally thought you just found a little blood on the shelf in the fridge. I probably would call mousekeeping (or CSI) given your circumstances. We see so many petty complaints on here that I ASSUMED you were just whinning
And to think I made it all the way to Sept. without being wrong this year.

 

[Sammie]

I have heard (on these boards) that people sometimes go back into rooms after checking out and mousekeeping has finished. From what I've read your key actually works until someone uses the new key assigned to the room. Hope this is the case considering the mess you found. Originally thought you just found a little blood on the shelf in the fridge. I probably would call mousekeeping (or CSI) given your circumstances. We see so many petty complaints on here that I ASSUMED you were just whinning
And to think I made it all the way to Sept. without being wrong this year.

I don't whine, in fact when this happened I did not even post a report here, as I saw no reason.

The housekeeping manager was as shocked as we were, the only thing we could both figure out was the maid got interrupted, as the beds were made, one bathroom clean, one not clean and the kitchen area not touched. There was even leftovers in the frigerator.

The manager took care of it, had it recleaned so we were satisfied with the recovery situation, but not happy with the state of the room when we walked in.

 

[Entropy]

Well sometimes it just kinda hard to over look. When you find blood and hair in the refrigerator when you check in, are you saying you would not notice.

Did you have to push aside the CRIME SCENE tape to get inside?

 

[Sammie]

Did you have to push aside the CRIME SCENE tape to get inside?

I was beginning to think so, it actually was a little unsettling, like maybe the maid had gone to the kitchen to get a drink of water, and something happened. As the broken class and blood were still on the kitchen floor. The glass pretty much went everywhere including into the dining area. It looked like someone just left then and never came back to clean up and finish.