Concierge....Not all it is cracked up to be....

[KerryCM]

tiffsix You will love the BWI concierge! You will see such a huge difference in the way you are treated. I have stayed at the Poly, BC, YC and BWI concierge. I liked the BC and YC, but fell in love with the BWI. The cast there has to be one of the best on prperty. From the IPO to the Innkeepers cast we were treated so wonderfully. I will only stay there now. i was not impressed with the Poly at all, in fact we asked to be moved to the BW after only 1 night there.
My son and his wife honeymooned at the BW. They returned 2 years later with us and their infant daughter. Jackie remembered them and was so welcoming. I truly feel like I am going home when I go there.

 

[madalex]

We have stayed concierge many times at the YC and AKL. I fully agree that anyone who tries to make up the extra cost of concierge by using the lounge as a "buffet restaurant" for all meals during a trip will be disappointed. It is hard to get back to the resort during meal times (except breakfast, of course), the offerings put out are somewhat skimpy for a full meal and the food gets a tad ordinary after several days.

However, until reading these boards, I never even considered using the food in the lounge in this way. It is nice to be able to get breakfast, snacks, desserts and drinks there, but it is clearly not intended to replace other resort dining.

In addition, concierge is really about the many other "above and beyond" services which are provided, such as pre-trip itinerary planning, separate check-in, help with last minute PS (and I have snagged tables at the last minute through concierge), in room amenities, etc. The lounge itself is a great place to hang out and relax (especially the concierge lounge at AKL) and is one of the great things about concierge, so long as you don't rely on it for all your meals.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

I'm sorry you did not enjoy your concierge.

I tend to think though, that the hurricanes have a lot of the CMs on edge, worrying about their homes and families. Not that they should be taking it out on guests, but maybe that is why?

I enjoyed the Poly when I stayed there in 2002. It's not my favorite, but I certainly like it and would stay there again. Concierge doesn't really appeal to me much, since for the most part I don't need or want the services it provides, but I do want to stay at AKLs concierge one of these times to do the sunrise/sunset safari.

I have read several accounts on various boards though, about bad CM behavior over the last few weeks and I really think they are understaffed and stressed out about the hurricanes.

I hope you'll give it another chance someday.

 

[ppony]

Tammi. Wierd sort of thing here, I am just not very good at confrontation when it's an emotional thing like it was with this situation. Whenever I was in the Con. front desk area I did look to see if I saw a name tag for Tara but I just expected, even if I had gotten to see her that the answer would have been that I fell through the cracks. And then she would have said sorry. I guess I just wanted to move beyond that and not dwell too much on it for the trip. I ahe my mom with us for her first WDW trip ever and our son who was 3 and a half so I was hoping that I would not have any more bumps in the road and didn't want to make anythong a downer more for them.

With the credit card... Well, She shopped within a week of us arriving. I guess it's common for them to do thsi sort of shopping. I had asked if it wasn't for them to do if she could recommend another way to make the surprise happen. I know about Dreams Unlimited and such but if they could do it, okay. So we didn't see a statement before we left and I honestly never looked to see if we were double billed. sigh... The way things like that work, I wouldn't doubt it. I don't really know if she had shopped of not, she said she did and the Stitch was brough up to the room in a shopping bag and left that way with one balloon tied to keep the bag shut. So it may have just been sitting there and they found it and brought it up. I dunno. That just was so impersonal and it felt like "here ya go whinebag." I can understand some of this if it was a busy time but it was early December, low crowds and not near busy as we could see.

I think I might just write to the manager and say how I felt. I really don't expect him or her to care and certainly not to do anyting but yes, if they hear from several people, maybe it might cause them to look at it anyway. Also, at the end of our trip, we were planning on shipping a bunch of stuff home and we had one CM say they could help us locate boxes and get us some materials and then another huffed at me saying they don't help get us anything. I didn't expect them to do anything for me. But when one says one thing and then another says something totally opposite, I feel the second person doesn't need to cop an attitude about my inquiry. This is what I was talking about. Just poor attitudes al the way around from the concierge cms we had personal dealings with. Sure there are really of cms that are not even close to what we ran into but I tried to be relaly friendly and upbeat with everyone and felt like I was getting doors slammed in my face.
I don't know if I'm going to plan anything for the AKL con. if we do that for a few days or not...but I'll definately try another approach.

Hope your trip goes well Tammi! Really I do!!! I know that place is a FAVE of many so who knows what the deal was.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Stephanie, who could blame you really. When you put that much thought and effort into pre-planning your trip, it's a major disappointment when it doesn't work out. Especially since you were assured that things were being handled. We had a weird stay at the GF in May and it was so out of the ordinary, that I wanted to make note of it. I was shocked when I went to the front desk and they said they didn't do guest comment cards. What hotel doesn't want to hear what their customers have to say? I ended up just sending an e-mail through the guest communications folks. They acknowledged the e-mail and responded with a phone call.

When we stayed at the GF concierge last January, my DH had roses sent to the room. Well, the vase was so cute I wanted to take it home. The CM there went out of her way to not only find a box, but to package it all in bubble wrap and tape it closed. You are paying a premium for the room and just partaking of the services and amenities that they offer. You didn't ask them to do anything out of the ordinary that I can see.

I can say that we've had many trips to Disney resorts and 99% of the time, they have been truly magical. I hope this doesn't sour you on any future plans you might have.

Tammi

 

[erinz]

Any feedback aout the CR 14th floor? Was it worth it?

We are going to be staying there for 2 nights (the first 5 nights at WLV). The full day we will be there is Saturday. We always choose Sat. to hang out at the resort and avoid the parks. I thought that the CR 14th floor lounge would be a cool place to hang out.

So, good experiences? Bad experiences? Give me the dirt!

 

[Patty3]

About 7 years ago, we stayed concierge at the GF main building. At that time, the food offerings were absolutely wonderful as well as the CM's. Our room was just so beautiful with a fantastic view of the castle. DH was getting a little annoyed with me, because after it was lights out, I would open the drapes so I could just gaze at the castle from my bed. It was very expensive, we paid over $600 a night, but it was a special occassion trip. In October, 2001, we stayed at the YC concierge. It was not the same experience as we had with the GF. I found that the staff on the concierge level as a whole were totally disinterested in the guests satisfaction. Did this have something to do with 9/11, I do not know if they were just preoccupied. I am glad to hear that this has changed. But for me, I would never stay YC concierge again. I would like to try the AKL concierge since I have read so many glowing reports about this resort and their service.

 

[tiffsix]

Hopefully BW Conc will be better. We are planning as we speak. Probably next October.

 

[Shalida]

Ugh, this thread is making me really depressed. I have my reservations (pun almost intended) all in place for Poly concierge for the beginning of November. We leave in a month and I have never received a planning kit others have mentioned....just a slip of paper from CRO saying I have paid in full.

I called the Poly front desk to ask how I could get a hold of concierge to ask about this and a few other pre-planning questions and they said they didn't know. When I asked for the phone number for concierge they said they don't have a phone. When I asked for an email address the CM said he didn't know of one.

Thinking I had spoke to someone totally uninformed I called back another day, spoke to a different CM who was pretty terse on the phone and gave me the same answers as the first CM - concierge doesn't have a phone and they don't know if they have an email address.

I haven't even gotten on property yet and so far my opinion about Poly concierge service (and the resort in general now) is pretty low.

I have been calling CRO everyday to see if there is an opening at GF or Contemporary for concierge but so far no luck. They keep advising me to call back and see if any cancellations come in. The whole situation has me really bummed out and each day I am regreting that I ever booked at Poly to begin with.

Cross your fingers something comes up at another resort.

 

[Bojangles]

wdw.polynesian.island.planning.office@disney.com or phone 407-824-2466.



Hope your vacation goes well.

 

[Shalida]

Originally posted by Bojangles
wdw.polynesian.island.planning.office@disney.com or phone 407-824-2466.



Hope your vacation goes well.

Oh thank you, you are a doll!

 

[ppony]

HUGS Tammi. Thank you!!! I'm SO glad someone understood!!! : ) And I'll admit when we stayed at the GF, we didn't ask for a single thing (we treated it like a regular room) so the real experiece was lost on us. I was just so afraid it was a mistake we got the room, I dit want to rock the boat! So for me to say it was great, maaayyybeee ws a little presuptuous!!?!??

Bless you! have fun on teh enxt trip!!!

And I had to say YUM for that Krispie picture form another poster. MAN, gotta get me one of them!!!!!

 

[tiffsix]

Ppony, i need to get a countdown like oyu 400 days out. We won't be back for that long as well.

 

[goin2disneyagain]

Originally posted by ILoveWDW2003
That has always been my dilemma with the added cost of concierge -- will I be able to take advantage of all that it encompasses? We eat so much at the Disney restaurants, that I am not sure that I would ever pay for concierge unless I was planning on spending the majority of my time at the resort.

That's the way we see it and the reason we have never done it. We make our own plans too so I don't see an benefit for us.

 

[roadtripper]

We got a surprise upgrade to WL concierge last month, from our AP standard room. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and fell in love with the WL, but I agree with previous posters who questioned its value. As an upgrade, it was a wonderful treat, and we saved money by chowing down on ribs, other snacks, and drinks from 4-6 and cancelling our Whispering Canyon reservation. I'm too much of a bargain hunter to spend rack rate concierge and really enjoy it, though-- I would be worried that we weren't getting our money's worth-- and who wants to worry on vacation? I can definitely see its allure for busy people for whom money isn't an issue, however. There is something kinda cool about feeling like a VIP for a day or so! Isn't it great that Disney offers so many choices that we can all get the vacation we want?