Here Now - Pros and Cons (First-Timer's Perspective)

[mom2rtk]

They can't? Seriously, have you ever stayed at true Deluxe? I have. They have managers who check every room after housekeeping comes in. At a MINIMUM rooms are inspected at guest turnover.

It's not the guests job to maintain the hotel, it's management! At $600 a night I should NEVER have to report a dirty room. It's the reason I won't be back to Grand Floridian....

Absolutely THIS!

 

[maxiesmom]

They can't? Seriously, have you ever stayed at true Deluxe? I have. They have managers who check every room after housekeeping comes in. At a MINIMUM rooms are inspected at guest turnover.

It's not the guests job to maintain the hotel, it's management! At $600 a night I should NEVER have to report a dirty room. It's the reason I won't be back to Grand Floridian....

I'd like to know what business you work in where everybody does their job perfectly every time.

 

[3DisneyFanz]

At least there wasn't broken glass in the carpet so things may be getting better at the Poly.

 

[midge3426]

I could not possibly disagree with this more as someone who's gone multiple times a year over the last 11yrs.

Clearly, this is all subjective!!

I am looking at our experience since 1993. Service has gone down hill a lot!!!!!!! You have been going since the management change at DW (I am talking the Igor team). Everyone who goes to Disney pays a premium price for the experience. You are not getting a premium experience anymore. I am sorry, but you really cannot measure the service that was attainable by EVERYONE twenty years ago because you have been attending for eleven. For the past few years, service has declined little by little. Even my high school daughter noticed the changes!!! This is the first year that we are not visiting and it is killing my soul, but I have to start protesting with my dollars. Someone else will get my money this year.

 

[midge3426]

Not true. CMs have extensive training. FD have about two to three weeks plus OTJ. Then, if they are concierge must have 3-4 months at least on the desk before they can move over. Those "phone cms" everyone complains about train for 6/7 months.

Yes, indeed, it is true. Cast members use to be trained several months, not weeks, at the Mouse Academy. It also does not help that they have slashed personnel substantially.



This so much. Add that they are on a double or doing things outside of their job. Also, I think expectations are higher than they should be for a large corporation with large hotels and a reduced staff.



Then check-in would take twice as long for the one-two supervisors that are in the housekeeping budget would literally have to inspect the 450 regular rooms, plus the 200-300 villas (that are more than one bedroom). I mean if you want to check in at 7-8pm, then sure.

If there are not enough supervisors, whose fault could it be? The fault lies in the large corporation of Disney!!! They charge exorbitant rates for really inferior rooms and service. Twenty years ago, the rates were still expensive, but you got fabulous service. That is not the case anymore. To run a hotel which gives the guest a world class experience, you need staff. It is the job of the hotel management to ensure that each room is adequately cleaned and maintained. There should be more than one or two supervisors checking rooms. A guest should never check into a room and find garbage on the floor or dirty sinks. Everything should be thoroughly cleaned, TVs in working order, remote working and in the room, immaculate sheets and towels provided, all light bulbs in working order, etc..... If they cannot provide this service, then they need to go out of business. Please quit making excuses for Disney, they are not performing as they should.

 

[midge3426]

I must apologize for messing up my response in the above post. In the quote from the poster is a reply from me. I thought that the reply would be split. My comment about training appears in the quote. You can tell which sentence is mine.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Disney is the only business I've ever heard of where the guests are responsible for assuring they have a clean room & the restaurants get pass after pass for having "off nights".

 

[shalom]

The fault lies in the large corporation of Disney!!! They charge exorbitant rates for really inferior rooms and service. Twenty years ago, the rates were still expensive, but you got fabulous service. That is not the case anymore.

I don't blame Disney -- like any big corporation, they charge what the market will bear. Plenty of people are willing to pay Disney prices for smaller rooms and woefully spotty service (sometimes excellent, sometimes awful, mostly okay). As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to all four parks, then there are plenty of offsite options with better quality at lower cost that are equally close to the parks. But people stay onsite for reasons that I wouldn't. They go mostly to the MK or to Epcot, and like the fact that they can walk over and back. They want to Drink their way Around the World and not have to worry about driving home. They hate driving and appreciate the onsite transportation. They like to eat restaurant food at least two meals a day, or the various special deals offseason work out for them in some other way. Whatever.

One way or another, Disney's keeping their units full, even as the quality has fallen off. Ditto the restaurants -- everyone I know who went in the eighties has complained about the drop in food quality, but people keep eating onsite. Disney isn't motivated to pick up the slack when people keep coming back. Why work harder when slacking off carries no costs?

 

[miamimi]

Disney is the only business I've ever heard of where the guests are responsible for assuring they have a clean room & the restaurants get pass after pass for having "off nights".

Isn't that amazing? I totally agree with you.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I didn't say anyone should put up with a dirty room, but complaining to the front desk and getting the room cleaned to your satisfaction at a minimum if not other compensation is much more effective than complaining after the fact on a message board or review site.

I agree about complaining at the time. We got several hundred dollars comped for our bad stay at DL's Grand Californian because we kept at it complaining to the front desk. That said, not everyone is a take-no-prisoners ex-New Yorker like me. My partner, from rural Illinois, has a hard time speaking up in situations like we and OP experienced. It's not easy to make repeated trips to a front desk. At some point you feel like an idiot, especially when things don't get resolved. And I'm happy to hear about OP's experience because that's what we're all here for.

 

[cindyfan]

Every time I read of guests having poor housekeeping I get so frustrated/angry!!!!
This is just unacceptable!!! The housekeeping in my opinion has declined horribly the last few years to the point that I am ready to bring my own cleaning supplies!!!
WDW used to be one of the best at housekeeping.... now..... just plain aweful!!! Along with speaking to management at the front desk you also need to write a letter/email to guest services!!! They need to hear this.... it needs to change and they need to make things better!!!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

You are not getting a premium experience anymore. ... For the past few years, service has declined little by little.

Again, I disagree with you completely. And that's ok. Subjectivity and all.

In WDW we've stayed at: Caribbean Beach back in 1994, then over the last 11yrs... Contemporary, BLT, BCV, BWV, SSR and VWL. So resort-wise, these are the only ones I can speak to. Had one room not up to our standards at BCV once (cleanliness and odor issues) -- demanded a room change and got it.

Just spent 11 nights at BLT and was greeted by all new upholstery throughout - gorgeous! Room in impeccable condition.

Had great service throughout our vacation. Our friend on his first trip to WDW was very impressed. And we HAVE NOT sensed the decline that some here describe. That has just not been our experience.

You mention it no longer being a "premium" experience... For context about us as travelers, we feel extremely fortunate to have the option to stay at some beautiful hotels. When we go to NYC we like The London best. In Montreal just stayed at Le Saint-Sulpice. In Paris we liked Le Meurice. Have stayed at Four Seasons in Georgetown in DC. Many other lovely hotels.

Is service at BLT "equal" to Four Seasons in all respects? No. It's also less expensive -- so that makes sense. The biggest place I've noticed a difference btwn these two is when something goes wrong with the room/stay -- how quickly management resolves it and how they strive to make up for it.

However, when in WDW, I'd rather "stay in the magic" at BLT -- to not leave that unique WDW environment for our whole stay. THAT has value to us that Four Seasons or the like can't offer.

And again... this is ALL subjective!!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Every time I read of guests having poor housekeeping I get so frustrated/angry!!!!
This is just unacceptable!!! The housekeeping in my opinion has declined horribly the last few years to the point that I am ready to bring my own cleaning supplies!!!
WDW used to be one of the best at housekeeping.... now..... just plain aweful!!! Along with speaking to management at the front desk you also need to write a letter/email to guest services!!! They need to hear this.... it needs to change and they need to make things better!!!

OTOH, I wonder how many people tip their mousekeeper. Your level of service shouldn't depend on whether you tip them, but we always tip ($5 a day on a pillow) and we've never had a mousekeeping problem at WDW or DLR having to do with cleanliness of linens, floors, or bathrooms.

 

[famy27]

Speaking of fun with housekeeping, at YC for 4th of July, we went to sent up the daybed for my DD, and when I lifted it up, there were Apple Jacks (or some other type of cereal) stuffed in the crevice, and tiny bugs were crawling all over it. I went down to the front desk to report it, and they promised us a "thorough cleaning" the next day. I went back to the room and discovered that the little bugs were not just in the daybed but were crawling all over the room. Back down to the front desk I went, where I was given a room at the BC, as YC was pretty much booked up. Even though it was kind of a pain to have to switch rooms at 11:00 pm, there was no way my DDs were willing to sleep in a room with lots of bugs. We ended up loving our BC room, so all was well. But I was a little surprised that nobody had reported or cleaned up the mess previously. That cereal looked like it had been there for quite some time, and it was clearly visible if you lifted any part of the mattress. It makes me wonder how housekeeping could change the bed without noticing it. Or maybe they saw it but just didn't care? In any event, it was not what I expected in a Deluxe. Now, I'm a little concerned, as we have our first-ever Poly stay next Thursday. I'll be checking the room carefully before we unpack...

 

[Srbright]

OTOH, I wonder how many people tip their mousekeeper. Your level of service shouldn't depend on whether you tip them, but we always tip ($5 a day on a pillow) and we've never had a mousekeeping problem at WDW or DLR having to do with cleanliness of linens, floors, or bathrooms.

If it doesn't matter then why bring it up?

 

[Klayfish]

This is another reason why I love staying off property. Almost all of the conversation here revolves around poor service at the hotels. Whether it's a function of poor service, unrealistic expectations, or any combination thereof, I have never had to even concern myself with it. We rent a 3/4 bedroom condo or townhouse and the only people we can blame if we get bad service is ourselves. Our experience with CMs inside the parks has been 99% overwhelmingly positive.

 

[miamimi]

Every time I read of guests having poor housekeeping I get so frustrated/angry!!!!
This is just unacceptable!!! The housekeeping in my opinion has declined horribly the last few years to the point that I am ready to bring my own cleaning supplies!!!
WDW used to be one of the best at housekeeping.... now..... just plain aweful!!! Along with speaking to management at the front desk you also need to write a letter/email to guest services!!! They need to hear this.... it needs to change and they need to make things better!!!

I've read several posts where people are saying that you should report issues to the front desk. I feel like Disney knows there's a problem, but it's less expensive to continue with their current staffing and manage unhappy guests than it would be to correct the problem.

Personally whenever I have gone to the front desk, I feel like I get a canned response. It feels like this has become the norm rather than the exception.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Personally whenever I have gone to the front desk, I feel like I get a canned response. It feels like this has become the norm rather than the exception.

That's not been our experience. When we've had an issue with our room they have always been responsive. Whether something like one of the curtains not pulling back, drawer that's stuck or doesn't open, or some other small thing it's been corrected in a timely manner.

If a bigger problem, like the one time we had a real cleanliness/odor issue with the room, I went down and spoke with them face to face. Got my room changed.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

If it doesn't matter then why bring it up?

I did not say it doesn't matter, I said it shouldn't matter. There are legacy threads that describe mousekeeping horror stories from guest parties that didn't tip, however, and that's why I brought it up. They usually read like this:

Non-tipper: "Our room was filthy all week and they never changed our towels. Also, it burned down mid-trip and they made us sleep in the courtyard after that."

Tipper in same resort: "Really? They gave us towel animals every day and left chocolate mints and a miniature talking rainbow unicorn on little Jimmy's pillow. After we got home, our mousekeeper came to Jimmy's elementary school graduation, brought more mints, and cleaned up after the unicorn, which still talks about how clean our room was."

YMMV.

 

[mom2rtk]

OTOH, I wonder how many people tip their mousekeeper. Your level of service shouldn't depend on whether you tip them, but we always tip ($5 a day on a pillow) and we've never had a mousekeeping problem at WDW or DLR having to do with cleanliness of linens, floors, or bathrooms.

The room was dirty when the OP checked in.

How on earth would mousekeeping know whether someone who wasn't checked in yet would be leaving tips?