Nadine&Scott
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2006
- Messages
- 204
Yeah! Our first trip(s) home, December 3-9 at VB and 9-15 at SSR, our home resort.
Trip started Dec 2 with our flight from Bos to Mco. We stayed that first night at the Wyndham on International Drive, a pretty nice place and all the better that our $44 bid was accepted on priceline.com. Drove down to VB Dec 3 and arrived at the resort around 12:30 PM. Told the CM at check-in that this was our first trip to VB and our first stay as DVC members, asked for the best available studio unit. We were given a room in Villa building 12 on the first floor. The living room window had a view of the inner courtyard and the terrace a view of the lush landscaping outside but no Ocean view and we felt very closed in, also, we noticed a musty smell in the room. After unpacking all our stuff we realized that we didnt want to spend six days in this room. We went to the front desk. A different CM at this time. Explained our situation and she found us another studio in the same building on the second floor. A much better room with a partial ocean view and a CM helped us move our things in no time. We knew this would be a fine room for our stay.
The resort is very impressive, a very relaxing resort. The temps were in the 70s 3 days 80s 2 days and high 60s just 1 day. Spent most of our days at either the beach or the pool. Water slide and hot tub were great, pool temp was a little on the cool side but not at all cold and very refreshing. We ate flatbreads at Shutters, quite good. Burgers at Bleachers, very tasty. And then a superb dinner at Sonyas but very expensive, even by Disney standards.
We did have an incident though. On our second night my DW stepped on a blob of driveway sealer tar and got it in our rental car and ground into her shoe before we realized what had happened. We explained what happened to the desk CM and then the night manager. Her communication skills with us were not very good and she initially had us believing that our only option was to take the rental to a car detailer to be cleaned. We had tried to clean in ourselves with some tar wipes provided to us by the front desk, but that didnt remove all the stains, After further discussions with the night manager she finally made it clear that she meant that Disney would indeed reimburse us for the cost of cleaning the car. We just did not feel that we were getting Disney service from the night manager and decided to wait until the next morning to talk to the day manager. That was certainly the right choice, He could not have been more apologetic. He gave us a very fair reimbursement for my DWs shoes and our time spent doing the cleaning ourselves and told us if we were charged by the rental car company for damage that he would also reimburse us for that. By the way my cleaning was sufficient for them and we did not get charged. We immediately got the magic Disney feeling back again and kept it for the rest our stay. Mistakes are inevitable in life, so I try to be polite and courteous in dealing with people and in this case it certainly paid. Always remember that even Disney is not perfect and they will try their best to correct any wrongs but it takes tact on our part as well.
We took the Kayak Adventure on Thursday and it was the highlight of our stay, Both of us highly recommend this 4 hour trip, and its a bargain at $40.00 per person with the DVC discount. We had super close-up encounters with Manatees and Dolphins. What a great day!
We were hoping to see the Space Shuttle launch on Thursday night but it was delayed until Saturday. By the sixth day we were truly feeling that Disney magic and didnt want to leave, but dont feel sorry for us. Next we were on our way to SSR for 6 more days!
Part two to follow soon,
Scott
Trip started Dec 2 with our flight from Bos to Mco. We stayed that first night at the Wyndham on International Drive, a pretty nice place and all the better that our $44 bid was accepted on priceline.com. Drove down to VB Dec 3 and arrived at the resort around 12:30 PM. Told the CM at check-in that this was our first trip to VB and our first stay as DVC members, asked for the best available studio unit. We were given a room in Villa building 12 on the first floor. The living room window had a view of the inner courtyard and the terrace a view of the lush landscaping outside but no Ocean view and we felt very closed in, also, we noticed a musty smell in the room. After unpacking all our stuff we realized that we didnt want to spend six days in this room. We went to the front desk. A different CM at this time. Explained our situation and she found us another studio in the same building on the second floor. A much better room with a partial ocean view and a CM helped us move our things in no time. We knew this would be a fine room for our stay.
The resort is very impressive, a very relaxing resort. The temps were in the 70s 3 days 80s 2 days and high 60s just 1 day. Spent most of our days at either the beach or the pool. Water slide and hot tub were great, pool temp was a little on the cool side but not at all cold and very refreshing. We ate flatbreads at Shutters, quite good. Burgers at Bleachers, very tasty. And then a superb dinner at Sonyas but very expensive, even by Disney standards.
We did have an incident though. On our second night my DW stepped on a blob of driveway sealer tar and got it in our rental car and ground into her shoe before we realized what had happened. We explained what happened to the desk CM and then the night manager. Her communication skills with us were not very good and she initially had us believing that our only option was to take the rental to a car detailer to be cleaned. We had tried to clean in ourselves with some tar wipes provided to us by the front desk, but that didnt remove all the stains, After further discussions with the night manager she finally made it clear that she meant that Disney would indeed reimburse us for the cost of cleaning the car. We just did not feel that we were getting Disney service from the night manager and decided to wait until the next morning to talk to the day manager. That was certainly the right choice, He could not have been more apologetic. He gave us a very fair reimbursement for my DWs shoes and our time spent doing the cleaning ourselves and told us if we were charged by the rental car company for damage that he would also reimburse us for that. By the way my cleaning was sufficient for them and we did not get charged. We immediately got the magic Disney feeling back again and kept it for the rest our stay. Mistakes are inevitable in life, so I try to be polite and courteous in dealing with people and in this case it certainly paid. Always remember that even Disney is not perfect and they will try their best to correct any wrongs but it takes tact on our part as well.
We took the Kayak Adventure on Thursday and it was the highlight of our stay, Both of us highly recommend this 4 hour trip, and its a bargain at $40.00 per person with the DVC discount. We had super close-up encounters with Manatees and Dolphins. What a great day!
We were hoping to see the Space Shuttle launch on Thursday night but it was delayed until Saturday. By the sixth day we were truly feeling that Disney magic and didnt want to leave, but dont feel sorry for us. Next we were on our way to SSR for 6 more days!
Part two to follow soon,
Scott
