Hi all, I have been reading on these boards for a while now but have not recently posted. My family and I have just returned from the GF RPC a few days ago and I am so furious I felt I needed to make a post. I'm sorry all but this is going to be very long. I am going to start by telling you all a little history behind this trip. It was not only me who went but my entire family consisting of my two sisters and their spouses and children, my brother and his spouse and children and both my parents as well as me, my significant other and our son. All totalling 16 people and we booked 4 rooms in the main building concierge. Now this was a very special trip for us. The whole family was traveling down there because my father recently retired and sold his business of 30 years, and my mother recently finished going through chemotherapy. It was also my mothers birthday and my parents 40th wedding anniversary. We were all traveling down there because of my mother recovering from cancer and it has always been her dream vacation to go to DW and stay in the GF RPC. We have all been to disney many times and have stay'd in many of their resorts, though never the GF. Money was not an issue for this vacation as it was a special one for the whole family. After reading a few negative posts on the rpc here, my sister and I tried to get my mother to switch to the yacht club, but as I said this was her dream vacation and this is where she wanted to stay. So we decided we would give it a try as we are not hard to please people. Let me just give you a report of what went on during our 8 day stay there.
---THE RESORT
The resort itself was beautiful. We loved the main building and the pools and the lounge. The rooms were spacious and kept very clean. I only had one complaint here. The air conditioning unit is apparently operated with a motion sensor (no motion no a/c). During the day, when returning from the parks the room was about 78 degrees (very warm when you're sweating). However this isn't what even bothered me as it would cool off quickly. The thing that was troublesome was in the middle of the night when we were sleeping the a/c would shut off because of no motion in the room. We called the concierge to send someone to look at it. They came and looked and said the a/c was operating the way it should be. The thing I really did not like was being told by the concierge upon complaining that if we couldn't sleep because the room was too hot, to get up and move around. Excuse me? this a/c shut off every 3 mins. I'm supposed to get out of bed every 5 mins or so to get it to come back on? Hmmm doesn't sound right to me.
----Housekeeping
As I said before the room was kept very clean and had no complaints about that. The only complaint I had here was that there were no towel animals left in the room. Now I know that they do this randomly and it is not required. However we did have 7 children with us and they were very disappointed. So we called the concierge desk to see if we could arrange this "surprise" for them. Well I think one day we got two ducks with no eyes..lol.. I also left generous tips and a note each day asking for these towel animals to please be left for my son. Nothing from housekeeping. Nothing from concierge staff.
----Service
Now here is where it gets messy. A few complaints here(not all from me but from the four rooms which we occupied). I will start with the buffet. The continental breakfast was great, we enjoyed it almost every morning. The food throughout the rest of the day was good as well although not enough to go around. Now I know that the lounge food is not meant for meals and I never expected it to be. My problem here was that food often ran out prior to the scheduled serving times. My other problem was the buffet attendants sometimes downright rude comments. Let me give you specifics. We returned from the parks in the afternoon to empty trays, when asking an attendant if there were any more cookies available we were told no they are g-o-n-e . Yes no offering of anything else just looked at us and spelled out gone and walked away. So upon returning to the room my sister called the concierge desk and more cookies were brough to the buffet which still had a good hour left to it. Now let me start with the strawberries(yes i know it sounds silly but there is a reason). My mother, prior to going to the GF was reading all these great things about these chocolate covered strawberries which looked like they were wearing tuxedos. (Let me just say that the concierge desk was made well aware of how special this vacation was for my mother). We even asked where we could purchase these strawberries as my mother was really looking forward to them. Ok they have these strawberries in the evening, half my family was there around 7 when they first put them out and was able to enjoy them. Upon return of the rest of my family around 9 or so, there were no more strawberries out. I asked the attendant if there were any left and her exact reply was "no, if you want the good stuff, you'll have to get here earlier".. o.k as i think to myself take a deep breath, you're on vacation. So back to the room we go to put another call into the concierge desk.. pretty good resolution as strawberries were then sent to all four rooms, but never an apology. My mother has a very hard time asking for things ( I don't know why). She had three adults in her room and called the concierge desk to request an extra bathrobe (this is the only thing she asked for the entire vacation) . Well she never got it and also never told anyone she requested it until we were already home (as she knows my sister or I would have called again{I don't know what her issue is with asking for things}). My sisters room housed 2 adults and 2 teenagers when she ask for extra slippers she was told she could not have them as they were only allowed 2 pairs per room!
numerous requests for extra towels and blankets were never met. When we called to complain they sent the manager to the wrong room ( my sister in-law) along with the manager they sent the maid who was said to look like she was in tears and my sil told them don't worry about it due to the maid being so upset. Now don't get me wrong we are very nice people and were not being rude about any of these complaints to anyone. My husband collects those quarter press things, so he went down to the concierge desk to ask about the locations of some of the machines. Nobody knew what he was talking about, after a few phone calls she jotted down about 5 different location. After that he went to the front desk and asked a received a computer print out of about 7 sheets with every location ( hey not bad for the front desk huh..) I thought the concierge were supposed to be very knowledgable(sp) about disney things oh well. On an e-ride night I lost my glasses on space mountain, I asked the ride attendant and was told that all found things go to city hall and to call in the morning to see if they were found. So the next afternoon, I go down to the concierge desk to call city hall. I was told to go back to my room and dial 0 and ask the operater to connect me. (was this the outstanding service I was paying for)? My sister checked out a few days prior to me and left her wallet by mistake in my car.. OK no problem I think I will just go down to the concierge and fed ex it to her.. hmm that went smoothly, or so i thought, this was on a Saturday, on Monday my sister called for the tracking number and was told they had no record of anything being sent out, so now I have to return from the park to straighten this out. ( after I got my bill I found it funny that they had no record of this since it was posted to my room bill on that Saturday of which I sent it). Attendants at the buffet were actually making fun of a guest wearing a g-string bikini in the lounge. ( yes i do think this is inappropriate attire, however I would not have even of noticed if I didn't glance over my shoulder to see what these attendants were laughing and looking at). We decided to stay an extra day after my family left but asked to be moved to the wilderness lodge concierge for the last night as we were not happy with the service we were receiving at the GF. We asked the concierge about adding a night on and were told to that we would have to go back to the room and call cro! After making the wl reservation, I called the concierge desk over there and explained that I knew it was silly but could we possibly arrange for some towel animals to be in the room upon check in as my son was disappointed. When we checked in ( room was ready at 11:00 am), there were 16 animals in our room, Bravo WL! Upon check out of GF I had to call for my bill around 10:30 am and was told they didn't know why it wasn't sent, no apology, just they didn't know why. Then the bill itself was wrong as we were charged for valet parking (we hold a handicapped permit) so there shouldn't have been a charge. So yet one more trip to the desk. Upon leaving a concierge staff member told my sister that she was complaining about insignificant things in order to receive a discount!!!!!!! The service here was absolutely horrible and the staff was down right rude at times. I am posting this to get it off my chest and to see other opinions about our complaints. Yes I know some of them sound insignificant but when it was one after another and you have to keep calling about keycards not working, extra blankets, length of stay passes not being correct ( my brothers room needed 3 child length of stay passes and when he checked in he was given four.. he brought if back down to the concierge desk and was told not to worry about it as he was only charged for 3, well the bill comes and yes there were 4 charges, now that refund is held up in accounting. I would not say that this poor service ruined our vacation, but it certainly took a lot of the magic out of it. I would like to know who to complain to about this and what you all think of our experience.
---THE RESORT
The resort itself was beautiful. We loved the main building and the pools and the lounge. The rooms were spacious and kept very clean. I only had one complaint here. The air conditioning unit is apparently operated with a motion sensor (no motion no a/c). During the day, when returning from the parks the room was about 78 degrees (very warm when you're sweating). However this isn't what even bothered me as it would cool off quickly. The thing that was troublesome was in the middle of the night when we were sleeping the a/c would shut off because of no motion in the room. We called the concierge to send someone to look at it. They came and looked and said the a/c was operating the way it should be. The thing I really did not like was being told by the concierge upon complaining that if we couldn't sleep because the room was too hot, to get up and move around. Excuse me? this a/c shut off every 3 mins. I'm supposed to get out of bed every 5 mins or so to get it to come back on? Hmmm doesn't sound right to me.
----Housekeeping
As I said before the room was kept very clean and had no complaints about that. The only complaint I had here was that there were no towel animals left in the room. Now I know that they do this randomly and it is not required. However we did have 7 children with us and they were very disappointed. So we called the concierge desk to see if we could arrange this "surprise" for them. Well I think one day we got two ducks with no eyes..lol.. I also left generous tips and a note each day asking for these towel animals to please be left for my son. Nothing from housekeeping. Nothing from concierge staff.
----Service
Now here is where it gets messy. A few complaints here(not all from me but from the four rooms which we occupied). I will start with the buffet. The continental breakfast was great, we enjoyed it almost every morning. The food throughout the rest of the day was good as well although not enough to go around. Now I know that the lounge food is not meant for meals and I never expected it to be. My problem here was that food often ran out prior to the scheduled serving times. My other problem was the buffet attendants sometimes downright rude comments. Let me give you specifics. We returned from the parks in the afternoon to empty trays, when asking an attendant if there were any more cookies available we were told no they are g-o-n-e . Yes no offering of anything else just looked at us and spelled out gone and walked away. So upon returning to the room my sister called the concierge desk and more cookies were brough to the buffet which still had a good hour left to it. Now let me start with the strawberries(yes i know it sounds silly but there is a reason). My mother, prior to going to the GF was reading all these great things about these chocolate covered strawberries which looked like they were wearing tuxedos. (Let me just say that the concierge desk was made well aware of how special this vacation was for my mother). We even asked where we could purchase these strawberries as my mother was really looking forward to them. Ok they have these strawberries in the evening, half my family was there around 7 when they first put them out and was able to enjoy them. Upon return of the rest of my family around 9 or so, there were no more strawberries out. I asked the attendant if there were any left and her exact reply was "no, if you want the good stuff, you'll have to get here earlier".. o.k as i think to myself take a deep breath, you're on vacation. So back to the room we go to put another call into the concierge desk.. pretty good resolution as strawberries were then sent to all four rooms, but never an apology. My mother has a very hard time asking for things ( I don't know why). She had three adults in her room and called the concierge desk to request an extra bathrobe (this is the only thing she asked for the entire vacation) . Well she never got it and also never told anyone she requested it until we were already home (as she knows my sister or I would have called again{I don't know what her issue is with asking for things}). My sisters room housed 2 adults and 2 teenagers when she ask for extra slippers she was told she could not have them as they were only allowed 2 pairs per room!
numerous requests for extra towels and blankets were never met. When we called to complain they sent the manager to the wrong room ( my sister in-law) along with the manager they sent the maid who was said to look like she was in tears and my sil told them don't worry about it due to the maid being so upset. Now don't get me wrong we are very nice people and were not being rude about any of these complaints to anyone. My husband collects those quarter press things, so he went down to the concierge desk to ask about the locations of some of the machines. Nobody knew what he was talking about, after a few phone calls she jotted down about 5 different location. After that he went to the front desk and asked a received a computer print out of about 7 sheets with every location ( hey not bad for the front desk huh..) I thought the concierge were supposed to be very knowledgable(sp) about disney things oh well. On an e-ride night I lost my glasses on space mountain, I asked the ride attendant and was told that all found things go to city hall and to call in the morning to see if they were found. So the next afternoon, I go down to the concierge desk to call city hall. I was told to go back to my room and dial 0 and ask the operater to connect me. (was this the outstanding service I was paying for)? My sister checked out a few days prior to me and left her wallet by mistake in my car.. OK no problem I think I will just go down to the concierge and fed ex it to her.. hmm that went smoothly, or so i thought, this was on a Saturday, on Monday my sister called for the tracking number and was told they had no record of anything being sent out, so now I have to return from the park to straighten this out. ( after I got my bill I found it funny that they had no record of this since it was posted to my room bill on that Saturday of which I sent it). Attendants at the buffet were actually making fun of a guest wearing a g-string bikini in the lounge. ( yes i do think this is inappropriate attire, however I would not have even of noticed if I didn't glance over my shoulder to see what these attendants were laughing and looking at). We decided to stay an extra day after my family left but asked to be moved to the wilderness lodge concierge for the last night as we were not happy with the service we were receiving at the GF. We asked the concierge about adding a night on and were told to that we would have to go back to the room and call cro! After making the wl reservation, I called the concierge desk over there and explained that I knew it was silly but could we possibly arrange for some towel animals to be in the room upon check in as my son was disappointed. When we checked in ( room was ready at 11:00 am), there were 16 animals in our room, Bravo WL! Upon check out of GF I had to call for my bill around 10:30 am and was told they didn't know why it wasn't sent, no apology, just they didn't know why. Then the bill itself was wrong as we were charged for valet parking (we hold a handicapped permit) so there shouldn't have been a charge. So yet one more trip to the desk. Upon leaving a concierge staff member told my sister that she was complaining about insignificant things in order to receive a discount!!!!!!! The service here was absolutely horrible and the staff was down right rude at times. I am posting this to get it off my chest and to see other opinions about our complaints. Yes I know some of them sound insignificant but when it was one after another and you have to keep calling about keycards not working, extra blankets, length of stay passes not being correct ( my brothers room needed 3 child length of stay passes and when he checked in he was given four.. he brought if back down to the concierge desk and was told not to worry about it as he was only charged for 3, well the bill comes and yes there were 4 charges, now that refund is held up in accounting. I would not say that this poor service ruined our vacation, but it certainly took a lot of the magic out of it. I would like to know who to complain to about this and what you all think of our experience.
