Experience at Fairfield Inn Titusville

[ptcbass]

Since we ask about what hotels to stay at before our cruises and what ones offer the port parking 40% off coupons (and this one does) I though I would share this in case someone has a room booked or was looking for a place to say for the night before their cruise.....


May 1st we stayed at the Fairfield Inn Titusville and my DS woke up itching bad and we found a bed bug on his pillow. We left the room immediately but this meant very little sleep for our cruise the next morning. Just check the bed bug reports before you book. The best hotels can get them (even the Deluxe WDW ones) but I don't want others to have the same experience we did. We were so tired for our first day on the Fantasy and ended up trying to sleep for a little bit once the state rooms were ready.

Picture we took of the bug in my sons bed... sorry it is fuzzy looking


Picture of one found off the internet...

 

[undertheradar]

Since there was apparently only this 1 bug and the hotel had the room checked, yes this is what you should expect. The fact that they provided an answer that denies your request for the refund of points, they did offer you a free night at that property. They are giving you a free night, just not via refunded points.

 

[ptcbass]

I guess I am also wondering if anyone else had problems when they stayed there before their cruise. Also would anyone else have just stayed and slept in the room after that? Now for our next cruise I am not sure where to stay. I know even the nicest hotels can get them so how to do avoid this happening again? We were SO tired for our first day on the ship and it makes me want to just get up and drive and not leave any extra cushion time (which I have always said everyone needs). I would hate the thoughts of missing the ship but since we are only about 4 - 5 hours from the port we might just drive same day from now on. We can't be the only ones that have experience this though. I just wonder if we handled it wrong but I don't feel like we had much choice but to pack up and leave.

 

[undertheradar]

It is simply a matter of luck. Bed bugs can be found in stores, hospitals, schools, day camps, daycare centers. Just something to check for when occupying a hotel room.

 

[dittymau]

A sad reality, but these pests don't come from the hotel, but from prior guests that may have had one hide in their luggage, and so it goes... Always check beds when I enter a hotel room (100 nights a year) and only found once, left and went to another hotel. That was a Hampton Inn by the way...

Cheers

 

[ptcbass]

For what it is worth we did check the mattress and didn't find any. We did find brown spots which now I know is a sign of them being there before. I even lifted up the sheets and looked under them and never seen anything. Then we checked again on the ship once we got into our room. The hotel manager made me feel like I was lying about the whole thing and even said several times they did not have bed bugs and they had a Terminix report to prove it. I wasn't trying to get them in any trouble or say it was a nasty place (it was actually quite nice for a small hotel). I was just a little shocked and just didn't expect the brush off approach they took and dismissed the fact that what I found was a bed bug and he could have cared less about our bad experience. I know they can't control everything but they all but called me a liar. Ok, lesson learned - next time check every crack and crevice or just drive down to the ports the day of the cruise. I just keep wondering what we could have done differently or if I overreacted by leaving but I guess I need to chalk it up to bad luck combined with the usual poor customer service that is everywhere now days.

dittymau I am glad to hear that you travel a lot and haven't had this problem but once. This experience has kind of left me a little shy about staying in a hotel again - well other than POR. We LOVE that place

I guess I need to also ask if anyone has a hotel they can recommend at the ports for our next cruise.

 

[dittymau]

Unfortunately, unless you never leave home, it's bound to be an issue, I bet if you dug hard enough there would be some reports of these critters on a Disney cruise ship somewhere... Important to make sure you don't bring them home, a neighbor did and it cost $$$ to eradicate them once the got into the house... Almost forget the last question- Residence Inn at Port Canaveral is super close, already have our night reserved for November cruise!

 

[ptcbass]

Unfortunately, unless you never leave home, it's bound to be an issue, I bet if you dug hard enough there would be some reports of these critters on a Disney cruise ship somewhere... Important to make sure you don't bring them home, a neighbor did and it cost $$$ to eradicate them once the got into the house... Almost forget the last question- Residence Inn at Port Canaveral is super close, already have our night reserved for November cruise!

Thank you! We were so scared we would bring them home or even on the cruise with us so before we left the hotel we washed everything we had out of our bags, even my sons blanket and put his pillow in the dryer for a while on high heat. I guess I just haven't had any experience with them so it was a bigger deal to me than most and it didn't help that my son was itching pretty bad for the next 12 or so hours. Next time I will try to do more research and a more detailed searching the room when we first get there. Thanks everyone!! I hope maybe this discussion can help someone else too.