suebedo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2008
- Messages
- 348
We (DH, DS11 and me) are WDW veterans having been on 10+ trips since 2009. This is our second full trip with magic bands& FP+ ( we also had one MK day FP+ before a cruise but I don't count that as a full trip). We were there for DH to run the Dopey challenge. This was his first run Disney event so we did not know what to expect.
The good:
Resort Location was great!: First stay at the Beach Club and I loved the location. Being near Epcot and the Studios was great for trips for dinner or a quick ride or two in the evening. I loved the Boardwalk. I wish we could have spent more time walking around there but it got cold later in the week. Our room location at the Beach Club was great. We were on the first floor very close to the Marketplace. So easy for cup fill ups and quick snacks if needed. I was worried there would be lots of noise but no problems with that at all. We swam a few times early in our trip as the weather was still warm. We loved the pool. I would love to be at this report during the summer.
ESPN club dinner was great. They asked my son to do the sportscast during dinner. He was up on all the screens in the restaurant reading the sports news. It was awesome! Great memory.
The not so good: I feel like the service all over has gone down quite a bit. It just doesn't seem the same. There was no real glaring example, just a death from a thousand little cuts it seems.
Beach Club room : We had a disabled room which was fine. Due to this type of room we had a pocket sliding door for the bathroom door. The lock did not work, it would not latch. My 11 year old is in a very shy private stage and likes to lock the bathroom door. They came three times to try and fix it and replace it. It never worked the entire stay. Also, our patio door would not lock when we first arrived. They were able to fix it though. Then half way through our stay, the toilet handle broke and would no longer flush. We called for service and then left for the day. After returning from parks , it still wasn't fixed. I called and it was obvious from the response that the service ticket was never "picked up" . The maintenance man finally came and was not very nice. He did manage to get it working but made a snarky comment like I was bothering him ...
The marketplace at the Beach Club was always a madhouse. The food service workers there seemed stressed and overworked. Not a smile to be found. The server lady rolled her eyes at the person in front of me when she told them no cheese on her breakfast sandwich and no potato casserole either. I really have never seen such rude behavior from Disney employees before.
The parks: very very very busy. It was height of summer/holiday busy. I'm sure it had to do with the timing of the holidays this year. It kind of sucks because we were already back to school and had to pull the kiddo out of school for this trip. My husband is a teacher and used his personal days he had saved up for 2 years. It would have been nice if the parks were a little slower but Oh well.
rides: So many rides were down. And so many little things didn't work. For example, the moving walkway up to the people mover was not working. Also the moving walkway out of Pirates didn't work either. There were so many other little things like this that showed so much wear and tear and broken. Once again, a death of a thousand cuts...
Race Expo: what a mess. DH had to pick up his packet on the Wed, the first Expo day. There was such confusion and people everywhere. We have nothing to compare it to but it seemed to be a complete mess. The signage was lacking and the lines were Looooooong.
run Disney gave my husband the wrong shirts (Dopey runners got 6 shirts). We got back to room , he tried them on and I cracked up laughing, they were deep V necks and super tight. I told him they obviously gave him women's shirts! LOL he was livid. He called the run disney line and they insisted that there was only one style of shirt, then they insisted he filled out the registration wrong and marked Female instead of male. We were getting more and more angry. Long story short: he had to return to the expo the next day and swap out the shirts. They gave us a FP in our account which we appreciated.
The BAD:
Be our Guest dinner: I checked multiple times daily for a month to get reservations and finally a spot opened for a 6:55 PM dinner the last night of our trip. I was so excited because we have never been able to get BOG dinner ressies. The food was good and the service was great-once we were seated. But the wait for a table process was ridiculous. We checked in outside and then entered restaurant to wait for a table( it was very cold outside). They kept pushing everyone to wait in the little hallway of suits of armor. Literally herding us in there like a ride queue, yelling to fill in all the space because they needed to keep the exit clear for departing guests. It was so bizarre. They had this huge foyer open but kept pushing us in this tiny little room. They had ropes up so you couldn't go past the hallway into the next little room where the study-Beast meet&greet is located. You couldn't hear them calling names because the suits of armor snoring was so loud. The hosts/hostesses couldn't get into the little room to call names because it was so tightly packed with people. My DH was getting annoyed so he fought his way out of the hallway room and waited in the foyer near the door. I see him a few minutes later frantically waving to me with this angry look on his face. Apparently, one of the hosts called out our name/party of three. Another family who was waiting in the open foyer area took our table before my husband could get to the host! My husband was calling to the host but he never stopped and kept taking that family to a table. BY the time my son and I made our way out of the packed waiting hallway area, my husband was flagging down another hostess and she went looking for the other guy. Apparently that family had said they were us and they let them have our table. I don't know that family didn't hear the name correctly or what. Our name is a LONG Polish name and there are only a few people in the US that have the same name and we are related to all of them for the most part. It would be very hard to mistake our name for someone else. Anyway, they made us wait a bit more and were apologetic and ended up taking us to a table about 5 minutes later. We were placed at a pretty crappy table in the dark rose room right against the wall near the door. I was disappointed but didn't want to make a scene. I really wanted to enjoy my dinner having tried really hard to get reservations. They offered us no compensation for the mix up and at that point I just wanted to eat & get the hell out of there. The server was great and helped lighten the mood a bit but really it was a crappy experience.
Maybe it was because it was holiday level crowds but this was by far the worst Disney vacation we have had. The special touched just aren't there anymore. I feel like the price is too expensive for what we got. I was always willing to pay a premium for a great level of service and experience but the value is not here anymore.
The good:
Resort Location was great!: First stay at the Beach Club and I loved the location. Being near Epcot and the Studios was great for trips for dinner or a quick ride or two in the evening. I loved the Boardwalk. I wish we could have spent more time walking around there but it got cold later in the week. Our room location at the Beach Club was great. We were on the first floor very close to the Marketplace. So easy for cup fill ups and quick snacks if needed. I was worried there would be lots of noise but no problems with that at all. We swam a few times early in our trip as the weather was still warm. We loved the pool. I would love to be at this report during the summer.
ESPN club dinner was great. They asked my son to do the sportscast during dinner. He was up on all the screens in the restaurant reading the sports news. It was awesome! Great memory.
The not so good: I feel like the service all over has gone down quite a bit. It just doesn't seem the same. There was no real glaring example, just a death from a thousand little cuts it seems.
Beach Club room : We had a disabled room which was fine. Due to this type of room we had a pocket sliding door for the bathroom door. The lock did not work, it would not latch. My 11 year old is in a very shy private stage and likes to lock the bathroom door. They came three times to try and fix it and replace it. It never worked the entire stay. Also, our patio door would not lock when we first arrived. They were able to fix it though. Then half way through our stay, the toilet handle broke and would no longer flush. We called for service and then left for the day. After returning from parks , it still wasn't fixed. I called and it was obvious from the response that the service ticket was never "picked up" . The maintenance man finally came and was not very nice. He did manage to get it working but made a snarky comment like I was bothering him ...
The marketplace at the Beach Club was always a madhouse. The food service workers there seemed stressed and overworked. Not a smile to be found. The server lady rolled her eyes at the person in front of me when she told them no cheese on her breakfast sandwich and no potato casserole either. I really have never seen such rude behavior from Disney employees before.
The parks: very very very busy. It was height of summer/holiday busy. I'm sure it had to do with the timing of the holidays this year. It kind of sucks because we were already back to school and had to pull the kiddo out of school for this trip. My husband is a teacher and used his personal days he had saved up for 2 years. It would have been nice if the parks were a little slower but Oh well.
rides: So many rides were down. And so many little things didn't work. For example, the moving walkway up to the people mover was not working. Also the moving walkway out of Pirates didn't work either. There were so many other little things like this that showed so much wear and tear and broken. Once again, a death of a thousand cuts...
Race Expo: what a mess. DH had to pick up his packet on the Wed, the first Expo day. There was such confusion and people everywhere. We have nothing to compare it to but it seemed to be a complete mess. The signage was lacking and the lines were Looooooong.
run Disney gave my husband the wrong shirts (Dopey runners got 6 shirts). We got back to room , he tried them on and I cracked up laughing, they were deep V necks and super tight. I told him they obviously gave him women's shirts! LOL he was livid. He called the run disney line and they insisted that there was only one style of shirt, then they insisted he filled out the registration wrong and marked Female instead of male. We were getting more and more angry. Long story short: he had to return to the expo the next day and swap out the shirts. They gave us a FP in our account which we appreciated.
The BAD:
Be our Guest dinner: I checked multiple times daily for a month to get reservations and finally a spot opened for a 6:55 PM dinner the last night of our trip. I was so excited because we have never been able to get BOG dinner ressies. The food was good and the service was great-once we were seated. But the wait for a table process was ridiculous. We checked in outside and then entered restaurant to wait for a table( it was very cold outside). They kept pushing everyone to wait in the little hallway of suits of armor. Literally herding us in there like a ride queue, yelling to fill in all the space because they needed to keep the exit clear for departing guests. It was so bizarre. They had this huge foyer open but kept pushing us in this tiny little room. They had ropes up so you couldn't go past the hallway into the next little room where the study-Beast meet&greet is located. You couldn't hear them calling names because the suits of armor snoring was so loud. The hosts/hostesses couldn't get into the little room to call names because it was so tightly packed with people. My DH was getting annoyed so he fought his way out of the hallway room and waited in the foyer near the door. I see him a few minutes later frantically waving to me with this angry look on his face. Apparently, one of the hosts called out our name/party of three. Another family who was waiting in the open foyer area took our table before my husband could get to the host! My husband was calling to the host but he never stopped and kept taking that family to a table. BY the time my son and I made our way out of the packed waiting hallway area, my husband was flagging down another hostess and she went looking for the other guy. Apparently that family had said they were us and they let them have our table. I don't know that family didn't hear the name correctly or what. Our name is a LONG Polish name and there are only a few people in the US that have the same name and we are related to all of them for the most part. It would be very hard to mistake our name for someone else. Anyway, they made us wait a bit more and were apologetic and ended up taking us to a table about 5 minutes later. We were placed at a pretty crappy table in the dark rose room right against the wall near the door. I was disappointed but didn't want to make a scene. I really wanted to enjoy my dinner having tried really hard to get reservations. They offered us no compensation for the mix up and at that point I just wanted to eat & get the hell out of there. The server was great and helped lighten the mood a bit but really it was a crappy experience.
Maybe it was because it was holiday level crowds but this was by far the worst Disney vacation we have had. The special touched just aren't there anymore. I feel like the price is too expensive for what we got. I was always willing to pay a premium for a great level of service and experience but the value is not here anymore.
