CR water problem?

[lenshanem]

I read CR had water problems recently. Anyone know what this is about. I'm curious................

Thanks!

 

[cinmell]

CR water main break

 

[poohandwendy]

We were there for the (recent) water main break, it happened last monday (a week ago). It was quite a mess. It happened on the Bay Lake side (luckily we were on the MK side). My biggest problem was the total lack of communication with the guests. They sent everyone to the Fantasia room saying that we would be told what was going on there. Nope, they just offered Mickey Bars, snacks and drinks but no information to those wondering if/when they would be getting to their rooms. Everyone just milled around and wondered what they should do. We were told conflicting information by every person we talked to. Management dropped the ball on this one big time, IMHO. We finally ended up going back to the MK for enight, not knowing whether or not we would come back at 1 am and have to move. They could have saved a ton of worry (on the guests part) by being a bit more forthcoming with what was going on. Many people were not even told what happened.

I heard, from others, that a few guests were burned (hot water), not sure if that can be confirmed. I do know that they cleaned it up very quickly though. Tons of water poured down from what I heard, damaged ceiling tiles and one of the gift shops was damaged.

Between the way that situation and the hurricane was handled, I was not impressed with the CR management. The general staff was great though.

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks. Now I'm curious about how CR handled the hurricane???

 

[poohandwendy]

**Note that this is my family's experience and of those who I talked to while at the CR, others may have totally different experiences (actually, I am certain others at the CR during the hurricane DID have different experiences, that was the problem)**

The CR primarily used the in-room telephone messaging service to communicate with the guests regarding the hurricane and updates, which was pretty decent until after 3 pm.

We had gone to MK that morning (open until 1 pm). When we returned to the CR (around 1:30), the food court was PACKED so we refilled our mugs and got some food from the vending machines on our floor (10th).

Around 3 pm, we received a message that all of the restaurants except the food court would be closed, but they would be serving a buffet dinner (in the Fantasia room) to all guests between 6 and 8:30 pm. We decided to skip the food court chaos and go for the buffet (we figured it would at least be a better set up than the cramped Food and Fun Center). We went down at 6:15 and were stopped and told the resort was under 'lock-down' and would have to return to our rooms. No problem, we totally understood the severity of the situation. Not a half an hour later we saw people walking around with hot food. We tried to go down gain and we turned away.

Again, throughout the early evening we saw guests walking around, some just wandering, some with food. We tried again around 7:30 and were actually yelled at by a security guard to get in our room and that we would be notified when we could come out. He also told us the buffet was cancelled. We had no more change (lowest bill we had was a 10) for the vending machines and nothing to drink other than the (nasty) water from our sink. We couldn't even get to the vending machines if we had change because the security guard wouldn't allow us out. At one point, I was yelled at for peeking outside my room door. During all of this, I could see people walking around on other floors, carrying food containers (from the 'closed' buffet- we asked, that is where they got it). This was frustrating because we were really hungry and thirsty at this point.

Finally, after the hurricane went through and it was only lightly raining, my DH went and demanded to talk to someone at the front desk, he was accompanied by the security guard. (btw, calling the front desk was pretty much futile, obviously due to the overload of calls) He was going there to at least get change for the vending machines.

They offered him ONE boxed lunch and said we all needed to be present to get more (????), after telling the front desk manager that we were NOT allowed to leave our room per the gestapo they had stationed on our floor and that he was getting a bit tired of being treated like a child and not the concerned guest that he was, they finally gave him 5 boxed lunches and we finally ate at 11 pm.

All we really wanted was to be kept up to date and for the treatment of all guests to be consistent. It truly wasn't. Let me know when the buffet is re-opened and if it closes again for whatever reason, let me know if you ran out of food and are working on the situation. They had the means to let the guests know...but for hours and hours... nothing.

It was just really frustrating, especially when the kids are peeking out the peephole and seeing people out there wandering around taking pictures and carrying trays of food when they haven't eaten a full meal in 12 hours.

We finally received a message the next morning that we were allowed to leave our rooms. (this must have been left after 12 am, because that is when we went to sleep)

Gee, thanks for the update...

I cannot express how much I understood and appreciated the severity of the situation and those who worked endless hours before and afterward, but the total inconsistency of the treatment of the guests, the lack of continued communication with the people who were in their rooms...it was just not handled well in my opinion. This is pretty much what I heard from all of the other guests I talked to on our floor (with the exception of the lucky ones who somehow were allowed into the 'closed' buffet) and a few from other floors the next day.

That said, I would definitely go back to the CR (everything else was wonderful), I just would make sure to keep food/bottled water in our room and hope like hell there was no emergency situation.

 

[poohandwendy]

I just wanted to add that we are generally 'go with the flow' types...actually 'demanding' anything is so out of the ordinary...the situation has to be pretty frustrating for us to get to that point. I am adding this because I know many people are always 'demanding' something or another. This was the first time I can remember doing so on a vacation...

We actually never would have said anything if we were kept informed and others weren't treated totally differently in the same circumstances.