Disney's waning commitment to DVC quality

[Wes]

I am really concerned about the significant degradation in the quality of our DVC stays in the last 10 years. (Been DVC fo 25+years now)

It first showed up at Boardwalk about 10 years ago. The legendary Disney Quality was slipping in little things. For example, the phone had the numbers for specialized services, but when you used the phone to try to contact that service, you got a message that left no options but to walk up to the concierge desk. They clearly were no longer staffing the services printed on the phone the way they once were.

Trying to reserve either the Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier in California was a bad joke a couple years ago. Calling DVC and telling them our plans, they had to call someone else to set up the reservation, and something got lost in the translation because when we arrived, Hollywood Hotel told us the reservation was for one person and that the room they had for us was thus just for one person. Then they did put us in a room but one without the extra bed that I had requested when making the original reservation. They finally accommodated us but only after a stressful 2 hours of having to deal with this not just at the check-in but also when we saw that the room was not what I had originally requested. It seems that DVC has extremely low ability to make Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier reservations that you can actually count on.

The real nightmare -- the most recent -- was at the Grand Californian, our third stay there so that we knew what it once meant to have Disney Quality there. The facility is still great since the Disney commitment was there when they built it. I don't even want to go again through the utter failures -- more like Motel 6 Quality -- during our stay, one thing after another, failures of member services ... I just don't even want to think about it again.

The bottom line seems to be that Disney has gone from cutting corners on DVC quality to a real downgrading of the commitment to quality anywhere close to the level of Disney Quality that DVC originally had. DVC is a cash cow now, deserving just enough to sustain it but nothing more.

This really is sad to see. Disney Quality used to be the gold standard. And in some parts of the Disney business the commitment is still there. But it is not there for DVC.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

It seems that DVC has extremely low ability to make Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier reservations that you can actually count on.

DVC's ability to influence anything not at a DVC property has always been slight. They lack any control.

 

[Wes]

DVC's ability to influence anything not at a DVC property has always been slight. They lack any control.

You are referring to making the reservations for Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier. But even with these, the quality has dwindled over the years. We have stayed at Paradise Pier many times, but it is only in recent years that these reservation disconnects have become an issue.

Nevertheless we keep hoping that the next time will see a turnaround to improving quality, but so far that has not happened.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Most DVC members want to be treated as special. Other divisions of Disney don't care. It's rubbed off on DVC too.

 

[RoseGold]

When I bought DVC, it was after renting points to stay in a shabby BW room with 1 ply TP and a sad sleeper sofa. No bathrobes, no room service, one sad elevator. I has no illusions this was "gold standard" of anything. Maybe that wasn't true 25 years ago?

 

[Chuck S]

Disney has always been in flux as far as quality and services. Remember years ago the Disney restaurants were not consistent at all from one visit to the next. When everything works together it is awesome. Right now they are still very shorthanded. But they are treying to do their best. I had really nice week long visit at OKW and the parks the last week of January. My bigggest complaint is the "modernization" of the resort lobbies, basically an unthemed Holiday Inn. The rooms were still nice. It is rare that I stay in a studio, but thought I'd save some points for a big group trip in a couple of years. The laundry room at the Turtle Pond pool was in good condition, there was a building down for refurbishment (I'm assuming the exterior, as the siding was being refreshed).

 

[Wes]

Most DVC members want to be treated as special. Other divisions of Disney don't care. It's rubbed off on DVC too.

I'm not sure how they are selling DVC now, but when we first looked (1995) and finally bought (1998) that is what we were told to expect, and they did live up to it. We were sold Disney Quality which was the gold standard in those days.

 

[RoseGold]

I'm not sure how they are selling DVC now, but when we first looked (1995) and finally bought (1998) that is what we were told to expect, and they did live up to it. We were sold Disney Quality which was the gold standard in those days.

This kind of vague-memory is weird to me. OKW never had room service or robes, things that are standard in "gold standard" hotels. Maybe the TP or linens were nicer? Or the building was shiny and new, and you didn't care? What is it that made you think this was "gold standard" but isn't now?

 

[Wes]

This kind of vague-memory is weird to me. OKW never had room service or robes, things that are standard in "gold standard" hotels. Maybe the TP or linens were nicer? Or the building was shiny and new, and you didn't care? What is it that made you think this was "gold standard" but isn't now?

You are confusing two different posts. I never made any mention of room service or robes.

Disney Quality was not about posh stuff. It was about taking care of the little things -- like making sure you could get member services on the phone from your room instead of having to walk up to the lobby to have your question answered. What makes me think that it really was the gold standard then is because they really did take care of all those aspects to make the guest experience as perfect as possible.

I will relate one of the more recent (multiple) significant failures, disturbing as the bitter memory is. We went for a sit-down lunch at a restaurant in the park (California) and wanted to charge it to our room. First the waiter tried one of our room key cards - twice. Then he tried two more of our room keys. None of them worked. Then the restaurant manager came out and told us we could not use our room key cards. It felt like we were being looked at like people trying to fraudulently scam a free meal. We put it on a credit card and went straight to the desk at Grand Californian to ask them why this had happened and to fix the problem so that it did not happen again. They checked all of our cards and told us that from their end there was no reason that the problem should have happened since our room key cards were set to allow charging while we were in the park. So, there was no solution, and we did not dare to try to charge anything in the park again after that.

 

[RoseGold]

You are confusing two different posts. I never made any mention of room service or robes.

Disney Quality was not about posh stuff. It was about taking care of the little things -- like making sure you could get member services on the phone from your room instead of having to walk up to the lobby to have your question answered. What makes me think that it really was the gold standard then is because they really did take care of all those aspects to make the guest experience as perfect as possible.

"Gold standard" is literally posh stuff. Even in the 90s, posh hotels had robes and room service and not 1ply TP. And, you know, elevators. Even then, DVC buildings were in sub-optimal locations and didn't have high end amenities.

I guess I never expected any kind of concierge from DVC, which maybe existed at some point. And the valet, never saw that one.

 

[BeachClub2014]

"Gold standard" is literally posh stuff. Even in the 90s, posh hotels had robes and room service and not 1ply TP. And, you know, elevators. Even then, DVC buildings were in sub-optimal locations and didn't have high end amenities.

I guess I never expected any kind of concierge from DVC, which maybe existed at some point. And the valet, never saw that one.

I think people had, and continue to have, different expectations of what DVC is or should be.

I never expected any concierge level of service from DVC and never expected or wanted robes. We wanted the "home away from home feel" and flexibility offered by the one and two-bedroom accommodations.

If people want to be, or expect to be, pampered like in a 5-star luxury hotel, then that is where they should stay.

ETA: Totally agree with you on the TP!

 

[JodyK]

The most recent DVC Show on youtube was about this, so I must admit I expected different examples of the potential waining DVC quality in this post.

 

[KPeterso]

And I have stayed at VGC twice in the last year (July and November) and DLH once (just last week). No issues at all with any of my stays. I have been a DVC member for 16 years and I got exactly what I expected for my stays - a clean room with the same service I have always expected. It is DVC - my home away from home at VGC - it is all about the accomodations. Parks don't play into any of it as I know DVC is just for accomodations.

 

[Ruttangel]

I stayed at 3 DVC resorts last year.
Club Level at AKV was awesome and having concierge to chat to and sort things was fantastic
VGF resort studio, only 1 small issue when the electronic safe locked itself out but it only took 5 mins for someone to appear to sort it.
BWV was a great stay but we did ask for some linen one day and had to remind them a couple of times And they ended up bring wrong item

As for restaurants we went to Jiko, Flying Fish and Topolinos, have to say that Riviera seems to be attracting higher quality of servers, food wasn’t better than Jiko but service was.
Im sure that active sale resorts get better trained staff.

Resorts like OKW and SSR are so spread out you barely see any CM which is maybe where you lose some connection to the resort/Disney

 

[fumanchu2488]

I have no reference of historic quality, but I can say that my reason for purchasing was mainly to save money on Disney Deluxe accommodations. My first stay renting points in January 2019 was at Saratoga Springs in a 2 BR with the jet tub. We put our then 15 month old in the tub and I turned on the jets just to see his reaction and the tub filled with black crud that was sitting in the jets. We called the front desk and they offered to refund points but since I was renting them they ended up giving us fast passes.

Our next stay was once again renting in November 2019 at BWV. We traveled a day early and stayed one night at the Destino Tower. My wife (who is not the biggest WDW fan) thought we went from the penthouse to the outhouse moving from Destino to BWV. The BWV room was outdated, run down carpet, pull out bed and no housekeeping. Our check in was closer to 6 pm than 4 pm and with a toddler that was a nightmare.

We still went ahead and purchased DVC at RIV in 2019.

I guess my point in this is that we never had illusions that the quality of DVC was higher than any other resort or service. We bought because we knew we wanted to go to WDW every year and we wanted to stay on property at their deluxe resorts and save money against rack rates. In all honesty, DVC is probably a half step down from standard Disney rooms. But we are okay with that.

 

[Her Dotness]

I guess my point in this is that we never had illusions that the quality of DVC was higher than any other resort or service.

My impression precisely.

Any hotel room with a kitchen is not a quality accommodation.

We kid ourselves if we insist DVC is anything but a low-rent Deluxe stay. "DIY Deluxe" is how I think of it.

We bought because we knew we wanted to go to WDW every year and we wanted to stay on property at their deluxe resorts and save money against rack rates. In all honesty, DVC is probably a half step down from standard Disney rooms. But we are okay with that.

Not entirely why we bought in but close enough. The rest, I heartily agree with.

And, I strongly suspect that if DVC CMs and properties went out of the ordinary to make initial members feel they'd gotten into something special and were going to be treated with special care, it was largely promotional. Intended primarily to encourage word of mouth to boost sales.

That's a common sales ploy that rarely endures. Particularly not for something never intended to provide top-quality accommodations and service.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Any hotel room with a kitchen is not a quality accommodation.

A fact that seems constantly overlooked by so many. The cognitive dissonance required to expect a hotel that provides you with the opportunity to heat frozen pizzas and popcorn, or bake your own casserole in your room and wash your own bed linens, should conversely be compared to true 5-Star premium accommodations, in every other aspect, is staggering. Not sure I've seen many Park Hyatt, St. Regis, or Mandarin Oriental properties with a kitchen and washer/dryer...

Just because it's called "Deluxe" doesn't mean it's a premium resort, it's simply that level of Disney accommodations above others. News flash: Disney "budget" resorts ain't budget either (they're just the least expensive on the Disney spectrum).

 

[DVCSunDevil]

I think sometimes people, including myself, romanticize the past. We harken back to when things were "better" and we think that things are slipping away. When I think back to visiting Disneyland and WDW in the 80's and 90's, my first thought is how things were "better" then: the service, the cleanliness, the accommodations...everything about the experience. But then when I think back to the individual trips over those times I remember many issues that were encountered. One year we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel and my mom actually checked us out on night two of a 5 night stay, all because the staff was rude and had failed to fix something that was wrong with our room (I think it was the toilet). She said the DH was too expensive to be treated that way, so we stayed a couple miles away at cheaper hotel (I think it was a Holiday Inn). But overall, my memory of those time periods is that everything was "better" than it is today.

I've come to realize this simply isn't true. Not every visit to Disney is perfect. We want it to be, but it isn't. It never has been. But overall, I think the magic is still there and the employees try to make every stay magical. For every "my room wasn't cleaned to my liking upon check in" there is a cast member going out of their way to make a certain moment special for a guest. For contrast, I stayed at a Four Seasons last year and was really unhappy/shocked with the level of service at certain points throughout the stay. Overall the stay was good, but there were points where it wasn't so great. But I remember that trip/resort stay as a whole as being good. That's how it is with visits to Disney, IMO. The hotels/resorts, parks, and restaurants are all still magical. But there will always be hiccups...that is part of the deal with anything service related.

 

[Matty B13]

The tag line is "Welcome Home" not "Welcome to the Ritz" for DVC.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The tag line is "Welcome Home" not "Welcome to the Ritz" for DVC.

And I walked.out to the kitchen today to find dirty socks on the table. So really my expectations of home are slight right now.

(Teenagers are cretins.)