First trip home-probably my LAST!

[Sammie]

The non-smoking thing is certainly a problem at the resorts from the sound of it - I'm in the camp of making all of the rooms non-smoking and then it wouldn't be a problem anymore! Or less smoking - obviously there is more demand for non-smoking....
The cleanliness thing, to me, is completely unacceptable. Write letters, make phone call - if we EVER get a nasty room - there will be a lot of people hearing about it! You did the right thing calling the manager right away - and he does seem to have handled everything great- but it never should be an issue in the first place!
Hopefully you'll give it a second try - but I would have also been very upset and disappointed with a dirty room.

How will that help, then you will defnitely have people smoking in NS rooms.

 

[mark&sue]

This whole thing about late check in really gets to me. I book my flight from the UK well over a year in advance, book at the 11 month window but cannot get the room we want as someone who booked two weeks ago got it!!!!

We got the worse room in the whole resort at Grand Floridian as our flight from UK had been delayed by 4 hours and we arrived at 10 p.m. DH had booked this as my surprise 40th birthday present over a year in advance.

I know that we can book somewhere the first night cash but this surely is not the answer!!!

Rant over. feel better thanks.



Susan

 

[snowbunny]

they had one room left & I was not taking it, no matter... they finally got us a room at the regular WL for one night, we were moved the next day...

Never take a smoking room if you are NS due to medical... even if it means you have to move the next day... it's not worth the risk to your health.

In general these are Disney problems, not DVC... it's a property wide problem. Now I'm just not EVER checking in late again... we'll be checking in at 6pm on Thursday, hope that's not too late...

Hey Chris I take it they comped you the WL room (didn't charge you $ but you had still of course used your points for the night)? This is good to know, we have a lung cancer survivor who cannot stay in a smoking room, period.
Good luck to your DS this week! My DD rec'd her first-ever first place at the Maine Karate Classic last week...lots of fun

 

[Sammie]

While no one likes the late arrival, get whats left situation, I am afraid that is the way all the hotel/resort industry works. I was on a business trip and I called the hotel early to see if I could get a first floor room and was assured no problem. I had a delay in actually getting to the hotel due to business and when I arrived, you guessed it all the first floor rooms were gone.

If I am going somewhere that it makes a difference such as WDW over a business trip, I will stay offsite if I am arriving late and check in early the next day.

 

[Daname]

Bringing granddaughter who has asthma, have reserved non-smoking BW. Do I need to bring medical paper from doctor?

 

[byoung]

Sorry about what happen to you. Now I still love the DVC never had any bad happening to us. If so I will let you know.

 

[Lasrnw]

Former smoker here - more recently a cardiac patient - I travel quite a bit and have had issues with the non-smoking room situation. I pack a plug in fan room deodorizer and they work great. I found one recently for a trip to SC that actually was unscented and just a deodorizer right in the grocery store. Might help......

 

[SueOKW]

I agree that the hotel industry works first come first serve.

I absolutely make sure I get to OKW early to check in. I feel if one is arriving late and room location etc is important, one should spend the first night elsewhere.

 

[Forever a Princess]

I am so sorry that you had a bad stay. I would of probably fainted if I had found the bathroom that way. Great job in the way that you handled all of this.

Please try a second trip. The second trip usually makes up for the bad trip.

Have you considered flying in a day earlier and staying one night at the resort hotels?

We're from the Midwest and also tend to arrive later in the day. At our upcoming trip in December we will arrive to our hotel around 11 pm. I did not want to encounter "the leftovers" at our DVC resort so I booked that night at one of the value resorts.

That way we'll check out of the value and check into our DVC Resort early the next day. Although we know that our room will not be ready until later in the day. After checking in we'll go to the park and come back when our room was ready.

Please don't give in. You bought at such great DVC resorts. Give it one more try!!!!

 

[disworldnum1]

I can definitely identify with you.I have been staying aT THE bwv SINCE 1998 AND HAVE MANY RUN INS WITH THE NON-SMOKING /OPTIONAL ROOMS.It seems when they run out of smoking rooms alot of people feel free to smoke in the non-smoking rooms also.My son is severely asthmatic and some of his triggers involve smoke.Two years ago I was given the "last" room available and had to change the curtains,cover the furniture with sheets and as always we bring our own pillows and sheets for the bed.the bed spread was so bad i had taken out of the room.The staff was excellent and kept asking me what they could do for me..but there really wasnt anything else they could do.When I got home and had time to relax I wrote a letter and stated what had happened and several days later another manager got in touch with me and asked what they could do to make things right...again I explained I just needed to vent some of my feelings about the incident and several days later I receieved a letter stateing they were going to give me another nites stay at a 1 bedroom preferred view room.I appreciated the thought and decided to let go of the bad feelings and have enjoyed several nice stays since then.I'm also booked in May to go back.I know its terrible when it happens but hopefully it wont happen again.

 

[SoCalKDG]

We go back to our room, all is cleaned and well, until my husband goes to the bedroom to turn on the lamp, still no light bulb! We just started laughing. Nothing else to do at this point.

By the way, only through reading these boards, I was aware we were to be given a print out of all our reservations for dining,etc upon check in.

Even though our room didn't smell of smoke on day one, as each day progressed, the odor became very evident. To sit on the patio, our neighbor was also outside, smoking, and had to deal with smoke wafing over to us.

Some housekeeping, upkeep issues that really concern us. The ceiling light next to the washer/dryer was out and never replaced, the latch to the bathroom door was broken and you couldn't close the door completely, the resin furniture on the deck was awful, I mean fithy and when we first checked in there were matches left on the patio floor and some food, obviously never swept by housekeeping and even during our stay, never swept.

we live on the West Coast and cannot check in as early as some people do and so get the 'left overs' even though I needed a nonsmoking room for MEDICAL REASONS.

As fellow west coaster, we stay in a value our first night, then check in the next morning. Saves points and gets us an early shot at a room.

If there is a next time, call maintanance to have lights, latches, etc. fixed. If you don't, they won't get fixed. As owners we need to call on these things when we see them. No call, no fix. Then the next person will get the same problems you had with the latch, lights, etc.

Balcony smoking is a pain, unfortunately it happens in every hotel. It wouldn't have mattered if you are in a non-smoking room, your neighbor may smoke on his balcony.

What is this printout that you can get showing dining reservations?

Sorry you had a bad time. We were on a cruise and our neighbors were smoking weed next door. Talk about a smell that is bothersome. Thankfully a cruise ship has lots to do so we minimized our time in our room and had a great time.

 

[chris1gill]

Hey Chris I take it they comped you the WL room (didn't charge you $ but you had still of course used your points for the night)? This is good to know, we have a lung cancer survivor who cannot stay in a smoking room, period.
Good luck to your DS this week! My DD rec'd her first-ever first place at the Maine Karate Classic last week...lots of fun

Hey Snowbunny That's correct, we did not have to pay for the regular Lodge room, but we did still use our points.... it is rather a funny story. There were no rooms anywhere at WL, so the manager spent more than an hour calling around to every resort on property (except Floridian, he hadn't called there yet)... it was now close to 1am & I said I would sleep in the lobby... that would be fine. There are couches there & it was pretty quiet, we'd do fine if that's the only place they had non-smoking! All of a sudden at 1am, so guy came down & said his party wasn't coming & he had an extra room he didn't need!! We got THAT room... we lucked out we had a bed that night LOL.... The next morning they re-assigned us to a different room & we left for last year's tournament... we came back at 6pm only to find they GAVE THAT ROOM AWAY... back to the desk we went where we were assigned yet another room.... that's right 3 room assignments in 24 hours... We laughed about this for a long time... but I absolutely will not take any smoking rooms (and this one was quite bad, I could smell the smoke from three doors away)....

Anyhow, this is much too long, but it is quite a story LOL.... I hope that Hurricane Wilma does not interrupt our weekend plans.... DS scored 1st place in sparring down in Cape Cod in September.. let's just say it got VERY competitive!!!

 

[dgaston]

What is this printout that you can get showing dining reservations?

This might be the printout that is available at the Concierge (formerly Guest Relations) Desk. I have always had to ask for it, never received it as part of check-in. When we got ours in July, I was surprised to see all of our September reservations printed out as well!

 

[scootert]

Bringing granddaughter who has asthma, have reserved non-smoking BW. Do I need to bring medical paper from doctor?

Just make sure your confirmation states "non smoking for medical reasons". If it doesn't, call MS and have them add the phrase and request an updated confirmation. It's still not a guarantee, but it will make it a higher priority. No need to bring medical documentation with you. I always figure if they ask DH can just unload his meds at the front desk

 

[Mark099]

Debbie,

I can understand your frustration. The room assignment system is horribly biased to those that arrive early. Being from the west coast and always arriving after 9pm we will always be SOL.

It happened to us at SSR. We had requested Congress Park and was told that all available 1BR villas were given away much earlier in the day. After taking 15 minutes to walk to our villa, then another 25 to DTD to find some food at 11 pm we were extremely unhappy. Why? Because from Congress Park, DTD is only a 10 minute walk. We did not have a car so being able to walk to DTD was important to us this trip.

Long story short... my wife complained about the 25 minute walk, and complained louder again because only McDonalds was open after 11pm. I called the front desk and asked them to make arrangements to move us the next day. The front desk wasn't too cooperative at first, but I simply told them that I made my reservation before 98% of the other members staying there that night and that we should not be penalized by geography. The next day we were moved.

As for maintenance and cleaning...

We had a burnt out bulb. I called and it was replaced within 15 minutes. Cleaning was another story. I was in the room one of the days it was cleaned. It's safe to say, I could do a better job in half the time.

 

[manning]

Doesn't it look like these unsatisfactory stories are getting more and more frequent

 

[debbie in Seattle]

As fellow west coaster, we stay in a value our first night, then check in the next morning. Saves points and gets us an early shot at a room.
**********************************************************

My husband and I talked about that being the only way to get a nonsmoking room and I've read on the boards that more and more people are coming in a night earlier, staying in a hotel somewhere else so they can check in either early or earlier than their arriving flights that may come in late and that way being assured that their requests at least have a chance of being honored.

What's wrong with this picture? ALOT! We shouldn't have to go to the expense to stay in a hotel somewhere else and taking an additional day of vacation when we're paying what we're paying to be a DVC member!

 

[JoEllen]

We have the same problem flying from Seatac and always a late arrival. We now stay our first night at a non-DVC resort and check in early the next day to our "home away from home". We haven't had a problem getting our request met since. This December we will stay our first night over at POR and will check in to BWV the next morning.

Good luck with your next stay!

 

[Mark099]

We have the same problem flying from Seatac and always a late arrival. We now stay our first night at a non-DVC resort and check in early the next day to our "home away from home". We haven't had a problem getting our request met since. This December we will stay our first night over at POR and will check in to BWV the next morning.

Good luck with your next stay!

and Debbie,

That doesn't seem right. There must be a way to get our requests without adding to our expense. Granted, getting a $50 a night hotel off-site is probably more cost effective, but it defeats the purpose of DVC ownership.

 

[snowbunny]

Doesn't it look like these unsatisfactory stories are getting more and more frequent

I think that's really hard to know....will most people go to the trouble, even in a trip report, to post that they asked for a nonsmoking room and the request was met? I doubt it. The need to vent when upset (or shout from the rooftops when something was spectacular) is a lot stronger than the need to report that everything was OK, i.e., I got my nonsmoking room request.