Has the front-desk experience ever tarnished your trip?

[mawatcha]

I am reading a great book on hospitality, and there's an interesting chapter on how crucial service delivery is.

This made me think about two recent check-in experiences at Disney resorts.

I stayed at POFQ and the cast member who checked me in welcomed the party to the resort, asked if we had questions, and made sure we knew where our room was. The individual really made us feel like we were "at home" for the week, and it set off a great love for the resort.

A few months later, I decided to try Pop Century. There was a short lineup, as there had been at POFQ, but no longer than 10 minutes. The cast member there rushed me through, seemed to skip any "magic" in terms of info and asking if I had questions. Once I was handed my magicband, I then had to ask him to show me where my room was on the resort map, and spent a good 20 minutes trying to find my room that night. I really could have used a little more direction, given that the resort is quite big.

I compare those two experiences and look at how they made me feel about starting my vacation. Every day at Port Orleans felt special, and I can't wait to stay there again. After not feeling so welcome at POP, largely due to that initial interaction, I don't plan on returning.

So I guess my question is, has front desk service at any Disney resort ever really positively or negatively impacted your trip?

 

[Tar_Heels_Love_WDW]

Front Desk service has definitely impacted my trip. Both positive and negative. Incidentally, both these occurrences were at our only two stays at OKW.

The first time we stayed at OKW, the front desk service was incredible. We got into our room early, which was great. The shower wasn't draining properly and when I called the front desk, they immediately moved us to a different nearby room. Furthermore, they gave us meal credit at Olivia's for our troubles. Staff was super friendly and really went out of their way to check up on us the next day. This set the trip off on a great note and just put us in a good mood.

The second time we stayed at OKW, the front desk service wasn't just lacking, it was bad. The CM was struggling with the MagicBand technology (this was during the early MagicBand years, but it wasn't the technology's fault). The CM ended up deactivating our MagicBands and accidentally deleting our park tickets from the MagicBands as well. Luckily, I was able to follow most of these actions along through the MyDisneyExperience app and was able to self-correct a lot of them after the fact. The one thing I couldn't do myself was un-do the fact that the CM had taken our room reservation off of our MagicBand. Therefore, we couldn't get back into our room. So after walking back to the Hospitality House (irony), it took another couple hours for a supervisor to correct the CM's mistake, despite the CM insisting that he committed no mistake and had no idea how the reservation was deleted. We spent about 6 hours with all these issues and had just driven 9 hours that day. Needless to say, we were exhausted. Even though nobody was rude, there wasn't a single apology or attempt to apologize for the ridiculous waste of time that they caused because the CM didn't know how to utilize their own technology. I certainly don't expect to be given anything for my troubles, I don't care about that...but an apology would've gone a long way to showing that somebody cared.

 

[megs1313]

Absolutely! I had a rough check in at POR last year...we arrived REALLY late (i wanna say like 11pm) and there was no one in there. not a soul. I waited for a few minutes before someone even poked their head out to check me in! it was my first time not at a deluxe and I thought that poorer service must be part of the deal. Having been back again to a different mod, I realize that's not really the case. My check ins everywhere else have been great, so that was just a fluke, I think.

 

[Ashleybritton]

We had a not so great check in at POFQ and while I don't want to say it tarnished my trip, I don't think highly of that resort...so maybe it did.

 

[adelaster]

Absolutely! I had a rough check in at POR last year...we arrived REALLY late (i wanna say like 11pm) and there was no one in there. not a soul. I waited for a few minutes before someone even poked their head out to check me in! it was my first time not at a deluxe and I thought that poorer service must be part of the deal. Having been back again to a different mod, I realize that's not really the case. My check ins everywhere else have been great, so that was just a fluke, I think.

I used online checkin at POR last year, but went to the desk later for a map and transit advice for an early ADR. It wasn't a friendly interaction, and the cast member honestly seemed irked I was asking for assistance at all.

When we checked out, we let the desk know that the window in our room was broken and the carpet had a weird large sticky stain that they might want to look into. They didn't seem to care.

We then sat in the lobby for about 10 minutes before we were approached to leave. We waited for the magical express standing outside in the rain instead of getting approached again.

It was our first visit, so I kind of assumed that is how all resorts were. I liked the online checkin but I wish the front desk was friendlier. I get it though, it's probably a difficult and thankless job for the most part.

 

[Ensusieasm]

I used online checkin at POR last year, but went to the desk later for a map and transit advice for an early ADR. It wasn't a friendly interaction, and the cast member honestly seemed irked I was asking for assistance at all.

When we checked out, we let the desk know that the window in our room was broken and the carpet had a weird large sticky stain that they might want to look into. They didn't seem to care.

We then sat in the lobby for about 10 minutes before we were approached to leave. We waited for the magical express standing outside in the rain instead of getting approached again.

It was our first visit, so I kind of assumed that is how all resorts were. I liked the online checkin but I wish the front desk was friendlier. I get it though, it's probably a difficult and thankless job for the most part.

Approached to leave? Huh?

 

[KrazeeK120]

Front Desk service has definitely impacted my trip. Both positive and negative. Incidentally, both these occurrences were at our only two stays at OKW.

The first time we stayed at OKW, the front desk service was incredible. We got into our room early, which was great. The shower wasn't draining properly and when I called the front desk, they immediately moved us to a different nearby room. Furthermore, they gave us meal credit at Olivia's for our troubles. Staff was super friendly and really went out of their way to check up on us the next day. This set the trip off on a great note and just put us in a good mood.

The second time we stayed at OKW, the front desk service wasn't just lacking, it was bad. The CM was struggling with the MagicBand technology (this was during the early MagicBand years, but it wasn't the technology's fault). The CM ended up deactivating our MagicBands and accidentally deleting our park tickets from the MagicBands as well. Luckily, I was able to follow most of these actions along through the MyDisneyExperience app and was able to self-correct a lot of them after the fact. The one thing I couldn't do myself was un-do the fact that the CM had taken our room reservation off of our MagicBand. Therefore, we couldn't get back into our room. So after walking back to the Hospitality House (irony), it took another couple hours for a supervisor to correct the CM's mistake, despite the CM insisting that he committed no mistake and had no idea how the reservation was deleted. We spent about 6 hours with all these issues and had just driven 9 hours that day. Needless to say, we were exhausted. Even though nobody was rude, there wasn't a single apology or attempt to apologize for the ridiculous waste of time that they caused because the CM didn't know how to utilize their own technology. I certainly don't expect to be given anything for my troubles, I don't care about that...but an apology would've gone a long way to showing that somebody cared.

I'm so sorry for your trouble! But I'm not sure I understand exactly what happened. There is nothing "on" the MagicBand. The band just accesses a database where all of your information/reservations are stored. So, there's no way to "take" anything off of the band. (However, the band can be deactivated, rendering it useless, and it sounds like that's what happened at one point.)

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

Definitely POP was and will always be our worst check in experience. Especially when the CMs & their manager stand in front of you a few steps from where you are - talking about you and know that you can hear their entire conversation. Thank goodness this was a one nite trip, but it was the last time I set foot in that resort. I had everyone's name I had spoken to about my room issues and you can believe that 2 days later WDW had their names, time frames & all the issues & conversations that happened that happened that day.

 

[Tar_Heels_Love_WDW]

I'm so sorry for your trouble! But I'm not sure I understand exactly what happened. There is nothing "on" the MagicBand. The band just accesses a database where all of your information/reservations are stored. So, there's no way to "take" anything off of the band. (However, the band can be deactivated, rendering it useless, and it sounds like that's what happened at one point.)

I should've clarified. The CM deactivated our MagicBands and assigned us different MagicBands. However, he mistakenly set up those MagicBands on a differing MyDisneyExperience account (I repeatedly told him that i already had one, and he insisting on making me a new profile). So after he was done messing around, we had our park tickets on MagicBands that were attached to our new MyDisneyExperience account, and our room reservation which was linked to our original MyDisneyExperience Account (with the now-deactivated MagicBands). Again, this was early in the technology, so even though I tried to tell them that what needed to do was sync the two accounts (the 2nd of which didn't need to be made in the first place), it took way too long. Hope this clarifies what the issue was. I didn't explain fully in the post for brevity's sake.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I should've clarified. The CM deactivated our MagicBands and assigned us different MagicBands. However, he mistakenly set up those MagicBands on a differing MyDisneyExperience account (I repeatedly told him that i already had one, and he insisting on making me a new profile). So after he was done messing around, we had our park tickets on MagicBands that were attached to our new MyDisneyExperience account, and our room reservation which was linked to our original MyDisneyExperience Account (with the now-deactivated MagicBands). Again, this was early in the technology, so even though I tried to tell them that what needed to do was sync the two accounts (the 2nd of which didn't need to be made in the first place), it took way too long. Hope this clarifies what the issue was. I didn't explain fully in the post for brevity's sake.

Gotcha. Now that would seriously irritate me!

 

[adelaster]

Approached to leave? Huh?

I think they wanted the couches and seats empty for appearances? They just didn't want people waiting in that area.

 

[wilkeliza]

I think they wanted the couches and seats empty for appearances? They just didn't want people waiting in that area.

I've sat on those couches for over 30 minutes before and never have been asked to leave. Did they give you a reason why? They are there for people waiting for their party or ME.

I hope everyone who had bsd service emailed in the names and locations. There is no way upper management will know what's going on unless you do. Showing up to a completely empty hotel is never ok. There is always suppose to be at least 1 front facing CM at all times.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I had two different front desk experiences at POFQ that didn't tarnish the trip, but were less than magical.

First one I was traveling with my mom and the resort reservation was in my name, but my mom wanted her cc set up for the room charges. The CM told me we couldn't do it, that only the primary person on the account could put their cc on the room for charging. I knew this wasn't right, but she insisted. So, we waited for 45 minutes while she totally changed the room reservation into my moms name. A total waste of time.

The next year I was traveling with DH and I went to the desk to pay down my room charges with gift cards (this was before the website where you could combine them, so I had quite a stack). When I told the guy what I was there to do, he rolled his eyes and said "I guess I won't be going to lunch".

 

[firegurl]

A few years ago at CBR the service was so bad that I was ready to leave the first day and it just got worse from there. There are lots and lots of lite details but the 2 that stick out and were actually so terrible it's funny now make me laugh. We were checking in around 930 am, we had a 1 night RO followed by a package. I asked about staying in the same room and the CM picked up the phone like she was calling someone but never actually said a word. She was facing me the entire time, I could easily tell she wasn't speaking. After a couple of minutes she hung up and said no, it's not an option. Several hours later (about 1pm) I went back to the front desk to check on the status of our room. This was when you had a 50/50 shot of getting the "room ready" text. I walked up to the girl with a tablet in the lobby and asked her to check if our room as ready. She responded that check-in was at 3pm, check back after that if I haven't heard anything . That was it. She never asked our name, never looked anything up just said check back after 3. If she even pretended to look me up I would have been satisfied.

 

[bumbershoot]

We then sat in the lobby for about 10 minutes before we were approached to leave.

That's just bizarre.

However, he mistakenly set up those MagicBands on a differing MyDisneyExperience account (I repeatedly told him that i already had one, and he insisting on making me a new profile).

More bizarreness!

I've sat on those couches for over 30 minutes before and never have been asked to leave. Did they give you a reason why? They are there for people waiting for their party or ME.

YES. It makes no sense and I would NOT have gone along with that.

 

[godders]

I've had two experiences that were negative at All-Star Movies in 2015 & 2016 and both with the exact same woman.

First time, I was asking to see if there was any possibility of staying in the same room for the next part of my split booking (it was 6am so there was no one around) and she said no straight away and was not particularly polite about it, which was fine but when I went back literally an hour later to check out/re-check in and saw someone else and he said straight away my current room was free so I could stay there but I had already packed all my stuff and brought it to luggage services so I took the room change.

Second time - I had checked in the night before but the CM checking me in hadn't given me my magic band and I didn't remember to ask for it. Remembered the very next day though so I went down first thing (6am again) and was seen by the same woman as the year before. She went to look for it but said it wasn't there and asked if had modified my reservation - which I had 2 months before to be fair - and she said that was why I didn't have one. No apology, no customer service yet again. Just surly. I said right fair enough and off I went to the parks. Didn't think anything about it until a few days later when I'm on MDE and notice that there is a purple magic band activated on my account.... Deactivated it straight away and double checked my bill to make sure nothing had been charged to it.

Anyway, next day I checked into CSR and the lady checking me in was not only lovely and polite but also provided me with a purple magic band when I said what had happened - no questions asked.

Now I get being tired at the end of the night shift but mustering up a small smile and an apology as the face of a hotel, is kind of essential in my book whatever time. I have worked night shift customer service so I know how tired you can be and how irritating people are but I don't think it's an excuse. Plus I am a very smiley, and polite Brit who always says Good Morning to CMs and please and thank you so it wasn't even as though I would've put her in bad mood (unless I was too much of a morning person)

 

[Disneylover99]

We've stayed in several Disney resorts. I've had horrible check in experiences twice at POFQ and once at Pop.
Both POFQ and Pop have remained amongst my favourite resorts. So no, I guess I've managed to shake off my first impressions.

 

[100acreHiker]

I've sat on those couches for over 30 minutes before and never have been asked to leave. Did they give you a reason why? They are there for people waiting for their party or ME.

I hope everyone who had bsd service emailed in the names and locations. There is no way upper management will know what's going on unless you do. Showing up to a completely empty hotel is never ok. There is always suppose to be at least 1 front facing CM at all times.

In six trips, we've had pretty much only positive front desk experiences and have always been treated kindly, but I will add that my family was asked to leave a sitting area at the GF. We were guests there (our second stay at that resort--still my favorite!) and checked out that morning but there was a virtual monsoon happening outside, and we decided to wait out the storm in the lobby while waiting for the magical express bus. Lobby was FULL because of the weather and planes were being delayed. We are a perfectly presentable family of four, but the front desk CM came up to us and said, "we have a photographer here and she's getting photos of the pianist and you're in the background. We're going to need you to leave." Um, no thanks. There was no place to go. There was a tornado warning and torrential downpours. Every seat in that lobby was taken and we had no room to go back to. We had our carry on luggage, two tired boys and a long flight ahead of us, and we were just sitting quietly and reading. I'd have happily moved for a minute while they snapped a photo, but they were asking my family (and only mine) to just leave and it really really rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[maxiesmom]

I've had 2 experiences that were not good, to put it lightly.

The first one was when I showed up around 7 pm to the All Star Music. I had booked a preferred room, as my dad was along and I wanted everything close. The CM went thru all the check in info just fine until he circled where our room was. It was not preferred. When I pointed that out he insisted I had booked standard. Thank goodness I always have my resort info in my carry-on, so I pulled it out and showed it to him. He went over to a different desk and had a conversation with someone. When he came back he told me that was all they had available. I was not happy, to say the least. He then went and got a manager who told me all the values were booked up, and that was the only room type open. He offered to move me if one did open up, but it was a short 4 night trip, and we were on the dining plan (which I was afraid they would screw up) so I declined. What really made me irate was that they didn't credit me the price difference in the room. You would think you wouldn't have to ask, but apparently you do. I called once home and they credited me what I had over-paid, and have me another $100. I know they only have so many rooms, but I still think it is bull that they downgrade people.

The second time was at POR. I went with my sis and her 2 daughters. We had booked at a moderate ONLY because my youngest niece wanted to have a resort with a pool slide. Went to the parks, left in the middle of the day so DN could swim and use the slide. Guess what wasn't working? Guess what was down for maintenance the whole trip, with no note in the room, only a sign by the slide? I went to the front desk and asked why they wouldn't tell us at check in that the slide was down? The CM got a manager (supposedly, not sure I believe he was, he had such an attitude) who told me Disney could shut down anything they wanted, even the restaurant if they wanted to, without telling guests. I told him I though the least they could do was tell guests at check in, that I would have switched resorts if they had said something. All he would say is they didn't have to tell us, they didn't have to tell us. That really soured me on POR and it was many years before I stayed there again. Still makes me irritated to think about it. But now when people complain when they get notified of things being changed ahead of time, I know it is an improvement over where they used to be.

 

[maxiesmom]

I thought of something else, but it may really not be the front desk's fault, it was bell services. Last October we were arriving to CSR really late (flight landed after 11 pm) so I ordered food from Garden Grocer. I knew everything at the resort would be closed by the time we made it there, so I wanted some food to eat. The front desk directed me to bell services when I asked about the order. Bell Services told me I had to call from my room, they wouldn't give it to me. So I went to my room and called. I was told it would be around 45 minutes. After an hour passed I called again. By now it was after 1 am. That person asked me if I really need the order, and didn't I really want to wait until the following day? That the CMs were all busy running luggage and it would be at least another hour before I could get my delivery. I wasn't happy, and let them know. Fortunately I had some trail mix and snacks in my carry-on so that was something to eat.

And wouldn't you know when they delivered my food the following day all of the soft stuff was smashed to bits. I sent off an email once I was home, and a nice lady called me back. We had a good conversation, and I told her I didn't want any compensation, but that they need to change how they were handling things. She let me know what happened was unacceptable, and there would definitely be some retraining going on.

My next trip is booked at CSR again, and once again I will be ordering food. So we will see how it goes next time.