Horrible stay at the Candy Cane Inn.

[Bud Ice]

Just brings up a good point, inspect the room/location, if folks don't like their room.

** Don't hesitate to ask for another room. **

Sometimes hotels will actually try to push less-favorable rooms on unsuspecting folks.
Believe me, the hotel staff know where all the pain points are, just not the type to admit
as much. Their job is to sell all the rooms.

 

[Gisele]

When my coworkers and I were stayed at the Gaylord Opryland in TN she woke in the middle of the night to a guy standing over her! Ever since then, not only do I use the deadbolt (hers had been used...he was a hotel employee) when I travel alone I scoot a piece of furniture up to the door. I'm a freak...I know but it freaked me out!

That's horrible! How did the worker get in if she had it deadbolted? Was there an adjoining door to another room? What was his purpose for being there. I hope she screamed at him.
Not a bad idea either to have mace with you. Hate to say it, but women have become victims of rape and or murder when in their hotel room. And on cruise ships too. Sometimes women end up missing, especially on cruises. That's a whole other story.

 

[tarheelalum]

Sometimes hotels will actually try to push less-favorable rooms on unsuspecting folks.
Believe me, the hotel staff know where all the pain points are, just not the type to admit
as much. Their job is to sell all the rooms.

That is what crappy hotels do. A good hotel sells to sell again and is not going to put a customer in a room that they know is problematic. It is bad business and short sighted.

 

[RKKUNK]

CCI used to be our "go to" place. Their rooms were clean, they had free parking, free breakfast, and the shuttle was a nice way to get to and from the park if you didn't want to walk. It started to seem like the rooms weren't being kept as clean.
I am a freak about bed bugs and we always check the entire room thoroughly at any hotel. The final straw for us at CCI was when we were checking the beds out in the room and housekeeping had made the bed in our room even though it was wet with urine from the previous family that stayed in that room. Gross!! Of course we didn't stay in that room. It was the last time we stayed there.
There are so many better places to stay around DL. We didn't realize how small the rooms were at CCI until we stayed at the Springhill Suites.

 

[texasgingerbread]

CCI used to be our "go to" place. Their rooms were clean, they had free parking, free breakfast, and the shuttle was a nice way to get to and from the park if you didn't want to walk. It started to seem like the rooms weren't being kept as clean.
I am a freak about bed bugs and we always check the entire room thoroughly at any hotel. The final straw for us at CCI was when we were checking the beds out in the room and housekeeping had made the bed in our room even though it was wet with urine from the previous family that stayed in that room. Gross!! Of course we didn't stay in that room. It was the last time we stayed there.
There are so many better places to stay around DL. We didn't realize how small the rooms were at CCI until we stayed at the Springhill Suites.

That is nasty!

 

[grammakelly]

CCI used to be our "go to" place. Their rooms were clean, they had free parking, free breakfast, and the shuttle was a nice way to get to and from the park if you didn't want to walk. It started to seem like the rooms weren't being kept as clean.
I am a freak about bed bugs and we always check the entire room thoroughly at any hotel. The final straw for us at CCI was when we were checking the beds out in the room and housekeeping had made the bed in our room even though it was wet with urine from the previous family that stayed in that room. Gross!! Of course we didn't stay in that room. It was the last time we stayed there.
There are so many better places to stay around DL. We didn't realize how small the rooms were at CCI until we stayed at the Springhill Suites.

YIKE! This is why I ALWAYS check the beds before we unpack!

 

[Gisele]

YIKE! This is why I ALWAYS check the beds before we unpqack!

Ditto!

 

[chickapin parterre]

.....well, you never become a bed checker till it happens...happen to us once in another city, another state, it was bad....so now we always check!!!!!!

 

[Gisele]

Yeah...and don't forget to roll down the bed spread or comforter. They can be a real petri dish for an unnamed disease or for a convention of germs.

 

[tarheelalum]

.....well, you never become a bed checker till it happens...happen to us once in another city, another state, it was bad....so now we always check!!!!!!

How do you check for them?

 

[chickapin parterre]

.... bed bugs?? just assume that they are there and put that comforter outside for the help to take away. Only use blankets that are washed everyday.... when trying to figure out if the room is indeed ready for guests...... you walk into a room, check the bathroom, look for evidence that shouldn't be in the room and roll back the blankets sheets upon check in. The signs for me where there, but this was a top notch lodging, so I just thought the maid had left the napkins by mistake, , the single hairs in the tub, but when we pulled back the sheets, it was obvious that someone had used the room. Were moved immediate and given a discount on the next trip. The task that made me remember to do this each time, is that we had come back from the hot tub, so we were wet!!! So even now for you, you will always now have a routine for checking hallways, maid doors, etc. Like in a restaurant, i never take a table that has a view of the tubs of collected dirty dishes, kitchen, ....unless I want to sit there for a few hours and have a long conversation. Then I don't fell guilty taking away their business .

And now with your great post, all of us will be checking door locations. I always try to tell folks who search here for across the gate lodging help that noise of the guests walking by the outside doors. Now we can add infrastructure doors.

 

[lalasmama]

How do you check for them?

To check for bedbugs, we have a whole little routine.

Suitcases stay out on the sidewalk until I have deemed it "clean" as to not grab some hitch-hiking stowaways if there are any in the room.

So, first, I go to the bed. I pull back the fitted bottom sheet. Ideally, there is a mattress cover on the mattress. Is it clean? Are there black spots? Are there red spots? If it can be unzipped, look near the piping on the sides of the mattress. Black or red spots or stains?

If there's a headboard, I pull it away from the wall, and check for red and black spots.

If there's a nightstand, I look open the drawer, and look for red and black spots.

Then I go to the dresser area, and check for the same things: red and black spots.

If I see red "splotches" or black spots, I ask for a different room. I've never actually had to do this, though.

An easy check takes about a minute. Of course, during that time, I'm looking for general cleanliness: no trash, no left-overs from the previous guests, etc.

Here's a website about it: http://www.bedbugs.umn.edu/travelers/inspecting-your-hotel-room-for-bed-bugs/

 

[sophy1996]

We used to love the Candy Cane Inn, until they gave us a room at the very front of the property on the first floor. Turns out the lights on the landscaping shine right in the windows. It was so lit up, even with drapes drawn, that we could hardly sleep. We also experienced noise during the day when we were trying to nap (since we hadn't slept much at night). I wasn't very happy with their reaction when I brought up the issue of the lights (basically a shrug). But maybe it was a good thing; since then we haven't felt the need to book there at all, leaving us free to book the hotels much closer to the parks' entrances.

 

[justgrace]

Sorry about your bad experience! That's never fun on vacation.

I'm always surprised that some people don't use deadbolts, or for that matter, even lock their doors! Rule of thumb is, if you have a lock/deadbolt on an outside door, always use it!

 

[PinkBudgie]

We have stayed at CCI about 10 times at least. Sometimes for a weekend, sometimes for a week. We've always had great experiences so we keep coming back. Of course I do realize that unpleasant things can happen anywhere. One time we were on the first floor and it always sounded like the people above us were tossing their suitcases around. I don't know what they were really doing, but we now always ask for a second floor room on the reservation. This past trip, our boys ended up meeting us there after their Big Bear trip so we had two cars to one room which they allowed us to do. They have also allowed us to park there way before check in or stay parked there after check out so that we can go to the parks.
We always always lock the dead bolt when inside any hotel anywhere. But found it odd on our last trip (at CCI) that we were getting ready to go to DLR and the maid came and knocked on the door to make up the room before we had even left for the day. Odd because we are always up early so it wasn't late, probably about 8am (the parks opened at 9am that day). And I would assume they would start with people who had already checked out. So now, I will always put a DND sign on the door the night before just in case.
About the dated rooms- yes, they are dated but clean. But the free breakfast, free parking, free shuttle, return discount coupon ($10 a night, plus an extra $10 a night for AAA discount), and close walking distance out weigh any thoughts about the decor. I just toss the dated bed spread on the floor. And I'm so tired that I'm not looking at the boring pictures on the wall for long.
I know that management can go down hill and I do worry that will happen someday, but for now we'll keep coming back.

 

[disneychrista]

For every great stay someone has, someone else has a horrible stay. It is all about expectations. If you are expecting a quiet hotel, honestly, I say don't stay at one near Disneyland that is likely to be full of kids family having fun, joking in the halls (during the day), etc.

 

[lalasmama]

For every great stay someone has, someone else has a horrible stay. It is all about expectations. If you are expecting a quiet hotel, honestly, I say don't stay at one near Disneyland that is likely to be full of kids family having fun, joking in the halls (during the day), etc.

That's always a great point, too!

DH and I stayed at PVI for our honeymoon. Hey, we're Disney peeps going to Disneyland for our honeymoon, so why wouldn't we stay nearby? The Jacuzzi suite was at the very end of the building (very last room on the north [?] side). We thought it was fantastic! No neighbors would be going past our window so we could sleep in a little, etc. And then, at 6:30am, on the first day of our honeymoon, our immediate neighbors saw that we had some "out of the way" sidewalk space in front of our window... and suggested that's where the kids should play while parents finished getting ready. I grumbled about it to DH, and then we really stopped to think about it. We were at Disneyland. In a hotel across the street. Just because our room location was ideal didn't mean the neighboring kids wouldn't/couldn't find a way to remind us that we were at a premier family destination. If we needed a quieter space, there were other places we could have stayed.

 

[5forMickey]

I add my sadness that your stay was less than happy. I have always been of the camp that a bad Hotel stay ruins my trip.

 

[VandVsmama]

It sounds like you had a really horrible stay! If I'd had your same experience, I agree that there's now way I would ever want to return to CCI.

 

[alvernon90]

That is what crappy hotels do. A good hotel sells to sell again and is not going to put a customer in a room that they know is problematic. It is bad business and short sighted.

Assuming this is true, there are only two ways to do it: either leave all problematic rooms empty at all times, or tell yourself you have no problematic rooms. In my experience, most hotels do the latter.