bweagle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2001
- Messages
- 958
Drove down from Ohio. Stopped our first night in Brunswick GA and left early the next morning in hopes of a late morning WDW arrival. Not long after crossing over the Florida State Line, it began pouring......an omen of things to come the next 2 weeks. It took us nearly 2 hours longer to get to WDW than we had figured because the rain had traffic so tied up! YUCK! It rained all the way into Orlando and let up just as we crossed under the WDW sign (Yippee!)
We finally arrived at our resort, All Star Music, around noon. We were doing a budget trip so ASMu it was. While our stay here was a nice one, I don't know if we will be returning due to several encounters with staff members there.
Check in went ok. I inquired about a late check out on our final morning and was told I would have to request this on the day before we planned on checking out. I did this on the day before checking out and was told that that was a request that needed to be made upon checking in! Grrrr.....
So early check out it was....
Anyways, we checked in but our room was not ready. They gave us the card and told us to call that number anytime after 4 to get our room assignment. No problem.....off to lunch!
We headed over to Olivia's for our lunch PS (see my restaurant reviews) Great lunch, great service.......wonderful experience...but here came the rain clouds again.
After lunch we headed to the marketplace and darted in and out of shops to escape from the showers. Didn't buy a lot during the first round of shopping....but never fear....we'd return. I did buy some ornaments at the Christmas shop.
By the time we were finished shopping it was nearly 5 pm so we drove back to ASMu and I used the phones in the lobby to call the number given to me at check-in. The woman I spoke with asked for my name 4 times and I had to spell it twice. Finally she said, I'm sorry but we don't have a room reserved for you and hung up! What!!!! Here I am holding room keys, and have already given the check-in staff all of my credit card info and I have no room??? I head straight to the check-in counter and tell my delimma to a cast member, who looks things up on the computer and says....."no, we don't have a room for you. It says the room we had initally reserved for you is occupied" She says there are no more available rooms that evening so I tell her that I need to speak to a manager, who again tells me there are no rooms available. So I suggest he upgrade DH & I, to which I get a smirk. Surprisingly, he finds a room available. A short 2 - mile hike out to Country Fair. I kid you not when I say we were in the room furthest away from the lobby, but oh well, we have a room! So we got our lugguage hauled over there, far away from the nearest parking lot and on the 3rd floor (of course). We get everything up there and I notice that the door says this is a non-smoking room. I had requested a smoking room, had this on my confirmation notice from CRO. I don't smoke but DH does.....so I make a call to the front desk.
I explain my story (yet again) and the CM says she'll have to talk to the supervisor. The supervisor then gets on the phone and suggests that my DH not smoke for the evening because there are no more rooms available and they'll "try" to find us a smoking room the next day. This of course was not an adequate solution and I was dreading my decision to stay at ASMu. First of all, my DH would not be able to go a night without smoking, and secondly we were planning on hitting the parks the next day and didn't really want to have to stay to move our stuff (they said their staff was overwhelmed with requests and would be unable to assist us) Finally after nearly 15 minutes of going round and round with these people, the miraculously find an available room in Broadway. Still 3rd floor, still far away from the lobby, but it's a smoking room and it's near the parking lot so we were happy. DH hikes back up to the front desk to turn in our old keys and get the new ones and FINALLY we are in our room.
Overall it turned out to be a nice room throughout our trip. Away from the noise of pools and foot traffic and near the parking lot it worked out well.....if only it were closer to the bus stop!
So, after our fiasco, we take a little down time in the room, unpack and then head out to Pleasure Island. What a good time! We had never been there before and loved it! We started with the Comedy Warehouse which was great and I enjoyed the "punchline" drink. Then on to the Adventurer's Club, which I loved, but DH thought was a little over the top! Kungaloosh! We ended our night with a late show at the Jazz Club which DH really enjoyed. While we were there we munched on Chili & Cheese nachos that we had gotten from a little counter service place near the shops. We left around a quarter till midnight, and back to the room to get some sleep for tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom.
I will continue posting my other days as time allows. Incidently, the trip gets much better after my less than pleasant experience with the front desk on day one......just not the way you'd like to start your trip!
We finally arrived at our resort, All Star Music, around noon. We were doing a budget trip so ASMu it was. While our stay here was a nice one, I don't know if we will be returning due to several encounters with staff members there.
Check in went ok. I inquired about a late check out on our final morning and was told I would have to request this on the day before we planned on checking out. I did this on the day before checking out and was told that that was a request that needed to be made upon checking in! Grrrr.....
So early check out it was....Anyways, we checked in but our room was not ready. They gave us the card and told us to call that number anytime after 4 to get our room assignment. No problem.....off to lunch!
We headed over to Olivia's for our lunch PS (see my restaurant reviews) Great lunch, great service.......wonderful experience...but here came the rain clouds again.
After lunch we headed to the marketplace and darted in and out of shops to escape from the showers. Didn't buy a lot during the first round of shopping....but never fear....we'd return. I did buy some ornaments at the Christmas shop.
By the time we were finished shopping it was nearly 5 pm so we drove back to ASMu and I used the phones in the lobby to call the number given to me at check-in. The woman I spoke with asked for my name 4 times and I had to spell it twice. Finally she said, I'm sorry but we don't have a room reserved for you and hung up! What!!!! Here I am holding room keys, and have already given the check-in staff all of my credit card info and I have no room??? I head straight to the check-in counter and tell my delimma to a cast member, who looks things up on the computer and says....."no, we don't have a room for you. It says the room we had initally reserved for you is occupied" She says there are no more available rooms that evening so I tell her that I need to speak to a manager, who again tells me there are no rooms available. So I suggest he upgrade DH & I, to which I get a smirk. Surprisingly, he finds a room available. A short 2 - mile hike out to Country Fair. I kid you not when I say we were in the room furthest away from the lobby, but oh well, we have a room! So we got our lugguage hauled over there, far away from the nearest parking lot and on the 3rd floor (of course). We get everything up there and I notice that the door says this is a non-smoking room. I had requested a smoking room, had this on my confirmation notice from CRO. I don't smoke but DH does.....so I make a call to the front desk.
I explain my story (yet again) and the CM says she'll have to talk to the supervisor. The supervisor then gets on the phone and suggests that my DH not smoke for the evening because there are no more rooms available and they'll "try" to find us a smoking room the next day. This of course was not an adequate solution and I was dreading my decision to stay at ASMu. First of all, my DH would not be able to go a night without smoking, and secondly we were planning on hitting the parks the next day and didn't really want to have to stay to move our stuff (they said their staff was overwhelmed with requests and would be unable to assist us) Finally after nearly 15 minutes of going round and round with these people, the miraculously find an available room in Broadway. Still 3rd floor, still far away from the lobby, but it's a smoking room and it's near the parking lot so we were happy. DH hikes back up to the front desk to turn in our old keys and get the new ones and FINALLY we are in our room.
Overall it turned out to be a nice room throughout our trip. Away from the noise of pools and foot traffic and near the parking lot it worked out well.....if only it were closer to the bus stop!
So, after our fiasco, we take a little down time in the room, unpack and then head out to Pleasure Island. What a good time! We had never been there before and loved it! We started with the Comedy Warehouse which was great and I enjoyed the "punchline" drink. Then on to the Adventurer's Club, which I loved, but DH thought was a little over the top! Kungaloosh! We ended our night with a late show at the Jazz Club which DH really enjoyed. While we were there we munched on Chili & Cheese nachos that we had gotten from a little counter service place near the shops. We left around a quarter till midnight, and back to the room to get some sleep for tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom.
I will continue posting my other days as time allows. Incidently, the trip gets much better after my less than pleasant experience with the front desk on day one......just not the way you'd like to start your trip!
