Disenchanting experience at our beloved AKL(long).

[DisOrBust]

It is with a heavy heart I make this post but I feel it is necessary. My family loves AKL. In fact it is the only reason my parents join us at WDW. AKL was our natural choice for spending Thanksgiving and my DH's 40th birthday. We had a very nice, albeit busy, dinner at Jiko for Thanksgiving. The next morning with horror I realized I had left my new digital camera on the table. I was completely dissolved into tears when I went to the front desk to see if it had been turned in. I was greeted with complete indifference and a yellow lost item card to fill out. I wanted to go into Jiko and make sure it wasn't there. I was told Jiko isn't open until 5pm and no one is available. Realize I was bawling my head off. My Mom was trying to get me to put it in perspective..a camera can be replace..no one died,etc... All I could think of was the 100 some pictures I took that couldn't be replaced. Dh and I asked to speak to the GM. After 10 minutes we were informed that any manger was too busy and could we come back. If it was found it would have been turned into lost and found. We said that was unacceptable we need to speak to someone who could get us into Jiko now. There was a food and beverage manager who could get us in. We preceeded to go to Jiko and meet Brenda and look around. I told her I need to be sure it was stolen before I made a police report and asked if it could be anywhere else. She said she would page the evening manager and get back to me within 15 minutes. I left in a pool of tears back to our room. After waiting an hour I attempted to call her at the number she had given me and it was a wrong number. I called the front desk and they said they would have someone run down and give her the message to call me. After another hal f hour and no call we tried to salvaged some of the day and went to AK.

I felt physically sick all day. They only people dinning that night around us were families like our selves. I couldn't believe a guest would take it. The wait staffed must of seen it and the thought of a CM at a four star restaurant in WDW taking it just about killed the magic permenantly for me. How could I have been so STUPID. As we were waiting in line to see Mickey the women behind me had the SAME thing just happen at RFC an hour earlier.She was also treated with complete indiffernece. We came to the conclusion it must happpen frequently since it didn't seem to bother anyone. All the stories that I had read on the DIS in the past were now haunting me...The guest who left their camera in the room and were told it was found and put in the safe at the Poly only to find it gone from the safe....The newly engaged women who left her new ring in her room returning 15 minutes later to find it gone, but later the house keeper found it...

We returned to our room at 5pm and had 2 messages on our phone!! The first was from Brenda She had gotten a hold of the night manager who had the camera and put it in Jiko's safe. She apologized that it wasn't returned to lost and found safe as it should have been. The second messaged was an hour later the CM from lost and found stating he had my camera and would be bringing it to my room and it would be by the phone. Well it wasn't there. I call Lost and found they are close. I call Jiko they are close. I run down there grab the manager at the time tell him the whole story and he looks at me dumbfounded because he was under the impression the camera had been already returned. He returned 15 minutes later with camera in hand. I was truely happy it was back. If they had only check everywhere as we had asked earlier that moring it all could have been resolved. Instead we were treated with indifference. If they would have followed their own process on lost items going to Lost and found it would have been resolved at 8 in the morning, instead we were told it couldn't be anywhere else!The Disneyworld I went to five years ago would not have blown off my concerns. They would have looked everywhere before saying its gone with such indifference. Yes I was stupid to have left it on the table and VERY luicky it was returned and am extremely grateful. The CM who turned it in has restored my faith in mankind. Management, specifically the GM, lack of concern for a guest who is at the front desk in a pool of tears pledding for someone to help check every possible place it could have been hads truely taken the pixie dust out of this girls eyes!! If the GM would have given me the time of day it could have been all taken care of at 8am for that precious wasted day I will never forgive the GM. I will be writing a letter to the pres of WDW. I just wanted my fellow Disers to be aware of that lack of concern and indifference taht are present and pray your are never in "my shoes!"

Sue

 

[amandaC]

I am so sorry that happened to you and I am so glad it was returned. I am amazed that some CMs can be so unsympathetic.

 

[DisDarling]

Hello fellow Wisconsinite!!
Im so sorry this happened to you, we will be staying at AKL in 2 months time and I will make sure to rememeber your story so that I watch my items carefully and make sure I get someones attention that it happened before.
Sorry again.
D.D.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

When you're at WDW you're mind is spinning and racing at 100+++++mph, right? It's hard to remember everything you're supposed to at exactly the right moment and you do things you might not ordinarily do at home or while traveling to some other location, such as leaving your camera on the table. We were at WDW at Thanksgiving and it seem to be mobbed that day (we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe and we go there again in a heartbeat!) The CM were moving a mile a minute that day. We were glad that we were leaving the next day because it was really getting crowded. Anyway...........

I'm glad that your camera was eventually turned in to the right place and turned over to you. Yep, you hit it right when you said you were lucky. I think that the Disney Managers can get so overwhelmed with people, ordeals, lost items, room problems, employee problems, etc that sometimes they just don't treat everyone as they should or even the way they even ordinarily do. Sometimes other folks just don't handle crying well either and feel helpless. They don't do all they could because they simply don't know what else to do, balls get dropped, or some other CM told them one thing and then did another. Ahh, there could be a thousand reasons and not one of them would make you feel any better about how you were treated that day. Think about how many rooms there are at AKL and maybe you'll feel a little better. Maybe? I do agree that there are some CM's who seem to fly and others flail and at different times and places we seem to meet both.

Hope the rest of your pictures were full of smiles.

 

[MermaidsMom]

"Yes I was stupid to have left it on the table and VERY luicky it was returned and am extremely grateful. The CM who turned it in has restored my faith in mankind."

Please don't be so hard on yourself! It was simply a mistake and you were not stupid. It could happen to anyone. I'm glad you got it back, take care!

LOOK, It's my 500th POST!! :jumping4:

 

[snow1459]

We stayed at AKL the first part of October. I totally agree, the staff at AKL needs some training. Indifference it putting it mildly. We asked at the desk for assistance with a dinner reservation. I was the only one at the desk, 4-6 CM's standing around talking. Unfourtunately I broke up the gab fest and was treated with total indifference and told not one single dinner reservation available anywhere in the whole of WDW! When we checked in, we had a couple of dirty glasses on our balcony. 5 days later when we checked out, still there! Our alarm clock was broken on check-in. Called down and asked for a new one, even said tomorrow would be fine. 5 days later, still waiting. For a deluxe, they have some fine tuning to do.

 

[VIOLETSMOM]

A flood of tears and feeling physically sick because of a lost camera ??? Wow I can only hope for you that this is the worst thing that happens in your life !!

 

[russellp]

We had almost the same exact thing happen at Boma! My wife left her brand new camera there. We didn’t notice it was missing until almost 24 hours later, after we had moved to the Poly from the AKL. After several calls and no luck I drove back to the AKL to ask in person at the front desk, nothing. I went to the check-in podium at Boma and asked about it. The CM opened a drawer at the podium and there it was, with 4-5 other cameras. This was 3 years ago and I see nothing has changed!

 

[Tiffany]

We stayed at AKL the first part of October. I totally agree, the staff at AKL needs some training. Indifference it putting it mildly. We asked at the desk for assistance with a dinner reservation. I was the only one at the desk, 4-6 CM's standing around talking. Unfourtunately I broke up the gab fest and was treated with total indifference and told not one single dinner reservation available anywhere in the whole of WDW! When we checked in, we had a couple of dirty glasses on our balcony. 5 days later when we checked out, still there! Our alarm clock was broken on check-in. Called down and asked for a new one, even said tomorrow would be fine. 5 days later, still waiting. For a deluxe, they have some fine tuning to do.

Wow!! I am sorry you had such a bad experiance. Give the AKL another try as our experiance has been completely different. We have stayed at the AKL four times since it opened in April of 2001 and will be back for our fifth stay next month and have never encountered a CM that was not smiling and willing to share information about their country. Granted we only dealt with the front desk for checking in and that was it. Everyone else, maids, lifeguards, Mara staff etc. were great.

 

[bexareaglecheryl]

A flood of tears and feeling physically sick because of a lost camera ??? Wow I can only hope for you that this is the worst thing that happens in your life !!

Hey, at times we all get hit physically hard by something that at another less stressful time might not be such a big deal. Who knows what else might be going on and this one thing is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Also, if it were me (with only 1 income and one chronically ill spouse and a child in private school (no choice there!), and I had waited and saved and researched and penny pinched to get a nice digital camera, who knows how I may have reacted.

Let's keep the DIS a happy place and not snipe at each other so much, what do you say? No one is perfect. I'm #1 on that list for sure.

 

[robinb]

If they had only check everywhere as we had asked earlier that moring it all could have been resolved. Instead we were treated with indifference. If they would have followed their own process on lost items going to Lost and found it would have been resolved at 8 in the morning, instead we were told it couldn't be anywhere else!

First of all, I want to say that I'm glad that the staff at Jiko's found your camera and kept it safe for you.

I know that the camera and the pictures on it were very important to you. But, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said lost cameras happen all the time. I think it's unreasonable to expect some CM to drop everything to check everywhere for a commonly lost item. Especially when one of those places is a safe that very few people have access to. A little more patience on your part by waiting until Jiko's re-opened would have gone a long way for everyone. In addition, the front desk CM could only do so much. S/he can check the lost and found for you (which she did) and offer you a slip to fill out so they can return the camera to you if it's found. She may not have been indifferent at all, but uncomforable with your behaviour and tears. Some people shut down when faced with that kind of thing.

Management, specifically the GM, lack of concern for a guest who is at the front desk in a pool of tears pledding for someone to help check every possible place it could have been hads truely taken the pixie dust out of this girls eyes!! If the GM would have given me the time of day it could have been all taken care of at 8am for that precious wasted day I will never forgive the GM.

Maybe you were not being blown-off. Maybe the GM was really too busy to come out and talk to you. Personally, I think it's great that Brenda went out of her way to help you, allthough she should have called you back sooner if only to tell you she had not reached the night manager.

The one point you make about Disney needing to follow their own proceedures is a good one. If the night manager had dropped off the camera at AKL lost and found when he left, then it would have been there in the morning for you and you would have had a better day.

 

[ILoveWDW2003]

Wow!! I am sorry you had such a bad experiance. Give the AKL another try as our experiance has been completely different. We have stayed at the AKL four times since it opened in April of 2001 and will be back for our fifth stay next month and have never encountered a CM that was not smiling and willing to share information about their country. Granted we only dealt with the front desk for checking in and that was it. Everyone else, maids, lifeguards, Mara staff etc. were great.

Agreed - we have been to CBR twice, All-Stars twice, WL once, and AKL just this past October - and I was constantly in awe of the customer service I received from all of the AKL Cast Members during my stay. We will definitely go back.

 

[lovethattink]

I'm glad that you ultimately got your camera back! Once we left our camera behind at Pizza Planet at MGM. Never got it back. Another time, I left it on an airplane, never got that back either. I know that sinking in your stomach feeling. So for years, we only bought really cheap cameras. With the birth of our baby back in April, we splurged and bought a digital camera. So far, we haven't left it behind. We guard it carefully! As for the indifference, I'm so sorry you experienced it. We are at Disney all the time, and I've seen the good and the bad. Thankfully the good far outweighs the bad. My mouth was left open a few months ago, when I saw a CM throw away a child's sippee cup. Guess that family won't ever find their cup, (sarcasm.) On the other hand, my son had the most magical experience yesterday at Epcot thanks to a CM named Megan. She gave him an Incredibles Opening Day pin, straight from a bag with receipt from her pocket! He was so excited! He loves the Incredibles! He was wearing an Incredibles jacket and she noticed that. She wouldn't accept anything in return for it. There's a CM with a good generous heart!

 

[MrsJ Henry]

Believe me I know how important not only the camera is for you but also the pictures that you took and were worried that were gone forever.

I have lost things in my life that may not seem as important to someone else as they were for me. It's easy for people to see this objectively when reading it and not being personally involved.
Glad to hear you got the camera back and I hope all you pictures came out wonderfully!!!!
I know if my husband had lost all of his pictures he took ( it was his first visit to WDW 11/04) He would have been crushed!!!!

 

[Tinkbell]

I'm glad you got your camera back. I lost a camera once at Cedar Point and I was so mad at myself. Now, I always keep a return address label on my cameras just in case an honest person or CM should find it.

 

[maxiesmom]

I too lost my camera (had it stolen) at Epcot this October. I was at guest relations the minute I realized I didn't have it. They called the last place I remembered having it (Akershaus). Nope, not there. Called lost and found. Was met with total indifference from the cm there. My camera was a gift and it had a roll of used film in the case, not to mention the one in the camera. The cm asked for a descripiton and looked for maybe 2 miuntes before coming back on the phone and saying "Nope, don't have it." I called the folloing day thinking it might have been turned in, only to be treated to the same attitude from a different cm. This after being on hold for what felt like a lifetime but was probably 15 minutes. I have the feeling that they deal with many lost cameras, and to them it is no big thing! I can get another camera, but my whole first day pictures are gone! You would think they could be at least a little sympatetic.

 

[Misti]

When I worked for Disney, cameras and eyeglasses were THE most common thing lost. This sort of thing literally happens all day long so perhaps to a CM it doesn't seem to require the attention or empathy you expected. I think overall Disney has a great Lost and Found system. They return 1000's of items every year. Give the AKL another chance--if you have great memories there, try not to let this incident tarnish them.

The great thing is that the camera was returned and everything turned out fine for you.

 

[Sammie]

When I worked for Disney, cameras and eyeglasses were THE most common thing lost. This sort of thing literally happens all day long so perhaps to a CM it doesn't seem to require the attention or empathy you expected. I think overall Disney has a great Lost and Found system. They return 1000's of items every year. Give the AKL another chance--if you have great memories there, try not to let this incident tarnish them.

The great thing is that the camera was returned and everything turned out fine for you.

Misti is very correct.

I sympathize for the OP's misfortune, but ultimately it was her fault. You have to realize Disney deals with thousands of guests daily. They have to carry on with their jobs or nothing would ever get done if everything came to halt to help everyone that has lost something find it. I am truely amazed they opened the restaurant up for you and allowed you to look. I mean would you want to check in and wait for hours at the front desk to be told it was slow due to staff helping a guest look for a camera.

In my opinion they went beyond the necessary to help you and I am glad you were able to get it back.

If anything I would be singing their praises and telling everyone what a wonderful staff AKL has.

 

[iwaseeyore]

I guess what bothers me in this is that it was your mistake and your anxiety and you're taking out on the CMs. It sounds like they did all they could albeit not to your demands.

I'm glad you got your camera returned and I'm glad I wasn't any of the CMs you dealt with.

 

[Tiffany]

When I worked for Disney, cameras and eyeglasses were THE most common thing lost. This sort of thing literally happens all day long so perhaps to a CM it doesn't seem to require the attention or empathy you expected. I think overall Disney has a great Lost and Found system. They return 1000's of items every year. Give the AKL another chance--if you have great memories there, try not to let this incident tarnish them.

The great thing is that the camera was returned and everything turned out fine for you.

I agree. I left a pair of Oakley Sunglasses (cost more then my digital camera) on the table at the Crew's Cup Lounge one night during our last stay at the Dolphin on our past trip. It was a Saturday night. Sunday morning when we were getting ready for the parks I noticed I did not have them. We were staying at the Dolphin so we went down to their guest services and they checked the Dolphin's lost and found as we had stopped into the Dolphin Fountain on our way back to our room that night. Whey then connected us with Disney Lost and Found. I had to leave a voice mail message as L&F is not open on a Sunday. We walked over to the YC and filled out one of those yellow forms at the YC guest services area and then bought a cheep pair of sunglasses from the gift shop to get through the day.

The next day we headed off to the parks. When we got back to our room there was a message about my sunglasses and that they were over at the YC/BC L&F which is located on the BC side. They were only open until 4pm so we headed right over and my glasses were returned.

I look at it this way. Yes, it did take until late Monday afternoon to get my glasses back but the fact that I got them back at all still amazes me. Those were a $170 pair of sunglasses that can be worn by a man or a woman. I know that if I left them on a table up here in Boston I would not be getting them back.

Considering the share volumne of items that must we lost on Disney property on any given day I can understand why the process is complacated.

I give Disney's L&F a big thumbs up.