Horrible stay at the Dolphin!!!!!

[Amberly303]

All I was trying to do is voice my opinion on my stay at the Dolphin, and I feel I have a right to do that. You seem to question everything i have wrote about my stay at the Dolphin.
And , NO, were were not told about alot of things going on at the Dolphin. Is this my fault? No!!
We had already been in Fl. for almost 3 weeks when we had checked in at the Dolphin, so we had all intentions of just laying by the pool, and having a few drinks from the Bar&Grill. But even the Bar&Grill was closed early. Do you really feel that was fair ? We should have been informed of that. They list all that as Amenties of the Hotel. And thats what my family and I expected.
As for the Coral Cafe, I said my husband and I had stomach cramps. I NEVER said we were deathly ill. I also had my 7 yr old son I had to feed Breakfast .
As for the phone charges yes there was a paper there that said we would have a 65% surcharge but it NEVER said the rate we were gonna pay either. Im sorry but almost $43 for a 6 minute call is crazy. Like i said before i have stayed at other hotels and they have never charged that much. The Dolphin is making a huge profit off of these calls people have to make.
All i was trying to do is inform people that if they have ressies for the Dolphin in the near future that they are very understaffed with everything going on so I just wanted to give everyone a Heads Up. And by the way, my husband and I were not the only people at the hotel complaining about everything going on. Alot of people were very upset that weekend.

 

[Amberly303]

Ok as for the review thru the Tv. I had checked it but it wouldnt allow me to access it due to how i booked the hotel. I booked thru HotelKingdom. So i called the front desked after i couldnt retrieve it and they said they would bring me a copy up to my room. Which they did after waiting an hour and a half for it.
Why just because i booked thru Hotelkingdom .........couldnt i retrieve my bill. The Front desk clerk said it has always worked that way when you bok thru a travel agency. But last time we stayed at the Dolphin for 7 nights i booked thru a travel agency and got a package deal and i had no problems checking my bill on the tv. Makes no sense to me really.

 

[SeaSpray]

Amberly:

I'm sorry you've been made to feel so defensive about your post. I'm also sorry about the bad service you received. When we come to these boards to report about our trips, whether good or bad, I don't believe we should be questioned in a manner that makes us feel as if we've done something wrong, or as if we deserved to be treated poorly. I don't think you were being overly critical of the resort, you were merely stating what happened to you and your family.

I would definitely write to the management, including all the details of your trip, if for no other reason than to help them improve the service to their future guests.

It's very hard for some people to read negative posts about their favorite resorts.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

I sympathize with you. I hope you follow up with your complaints to the appropriate channels. Maybe it will help others down the road. Too much money and not enough service!

 

[SeaSpray]

Amberly:

I'm sorry you've been made to feel so defensive about your post. I'm also sorry about the bad service you received. When we come to these boards to report about our trips, whether good or bad, I don't believe we should be questioned in a manner that makes us feel as if we've done something wrong, or as if we deserved to be treated poorly. I don't think you were being overly critical of the resort, you were merely stating what happened to you and your family.

I would definitely write to the management, including all the details of your trip, if for no other reason than to help them improve the service to their future guests.

It's very hard for some people to read negative posts about their favorite resorts.

 

[Amberly303]

I had called the front desk about our stay and all they basically said was they had 1200 people come there for a convention and they we sorry. That's all .........they were sorry!! So then i even said something to the front desk at check out that we had a horrible time and she said" I'm really sorry to hear that". So wouldnt to get us out of there due to there was alot of people there ready to check in and I really dont think she wanted them to hear what i had to say. My husband and I had saved awhile for this vacation and really wanted to splurge.We felt we reallydeserved this and i guess we were just really let down. When someone stays at a 5 star deluxe hotel you sorta expect get what you pay for. My husband and I are true believers that you do get what you pay for . And like i said in another post I gotbetter treatment from a $70 a night stay at Holiday Inn.

 

[Amberly303]

thank you SeaSpray, and Bibbi for understanding my point of veiw. This may of been just a fluke thing and im sure this rarely happens at the Dolphin but it did happen to my family. And now theres no way fo changing that. We were just looking so forward to out stay at that hoteland for it to be ruined like it did and for no one to even care less ...........i guess thats what really hurt us. We truly loved that hotel before all this. But now after this stay i doubt we would ever stay there again. There are too many other deluxe hotels we could stay at and im sure get much better treatment. Thanks again guys : )

 

[JonHM]

Sorry about your awful experience, and also for the way that you were - dare I say - attacked for criticizing the Dolphin. If a hotel is going to take on something like a huge convention, they'd BETTER make sure that they have the staff to a capacity that they can handle it.

I know I'll get flamed for saying this, but remember that the Dolphin is not a Disney Hotel - both Swan and Dolphin are run by other companies, and partially Disney-fied. We have had several experiences like yours, but never at any on-site Disney run hotels. At least when bad things happen on-site at Disney, the company winds up standing on their head to make things right for you, unlike most of the major hotel chains (no matter how nice they may be).

Again, I'm sorry that you had such a negative experience.

Take Care.

 

[NancyIL]

You have every right to feel as you do about your treatment at the Dolphin. I like the Dolphin a lot, but I won't defend poor customer service. On the other hand, the things I pointed out (phone bill and not getting in to the Coral Cafe) were things that I don't believe are the fault of the hotel. If I had gotten a $43 phone bill I would've been mad, too - but at myself for making a long distance call from a hotel room. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but a drop in the bucket compared to the $1700 you paid for 2 days. I do hope your next visit to WDW will end on a more pleasant note.

 

[CarolA]

Folks NEVER bill a long distance call to your hotel room. The charge this customer got is actually fairly normal. That is one of the greatest profit centers for hotels. You should always use a credit card or calling card.

As to this thread, I am working on why you would want to spend $1700 for two nights at the Dolphin, but I will leave it at that. It is a nice hotel, but that is A LOT of money!

 

[mickey7861]

What exactly is the phone billing policy at the Dolphin (and I'm assuming the Swan). I have stayed in many hotels both in and out of WDW and I have NEVER been charged anything close to that. We call home (MA) nightly and our total bills don't tally this high for a week. I'm concerned since I've booked the Swan for a weekend in August but I don't want to pay $50 for a couple of phone calls. Local calls are included in the resort fee, right? If I use a phone card at the Swan what is the fee to use the phone?

 

[cforza]

I also have to emphasize the avoidance of long distance from any hotel room. It's a fortune, but $ 43 for 6 minutes is puzzling. We stayed at the Swan a few weeks ago and my husband forgot his cell phone. He had to make some business calls, so just used the phone in the room since they would be expensed. He made three calls, the longest one was 12 minutes and the charge was $ 17.00. How was his 12 minute call only $ 17.00, long distance and during business hours? Perhaps there really was an error in your bill. $ 43.00 doesn't seem right, even for a hotel. Are you sure it wasn't phone line access for the use of a computer and the internet? Now that is a fortune. I've heard of people at many different hotels getting their bills and finding internet charges of over $1000 because they are so exorbitant.

If you still have the bill I would contact the hotel and bring it up. That just doesn't seem possible for a phone call. Good luck.

 

[NancyIL]

If you pay the resort fee, there is no charge to make a calling card call. If you don't pay the resort fee, I don't know what the charge would be, but I'll guess the same as to make a local call- about $1.00 or so.

 

[threeboysmom]

I learned the hard way too about making phone calls from a hotel. I stayed at a DISNEY hotel last September (All Stars) and had almost $100 in phone charges when I checked out!! I just now pulled out my receipt & tried to find what the actual charge was - one of the calls was less than a minutel and I was charged $6.78!! It doesn't just happen at the Dolphin. I will always use my cell phone or a calling card from now on........

Lesson learned.....

 

[jaguar9748]

I think we've all learned some valuable lessons about phone calls from hotels and the possible downside of convention hotels. Thanks Amberley.

I think constructive suggestions are always appropriate, but some of the comments on this thread can be interpreted as personal attacks. One person's opinion is just that. We all might have had the same opinion had we been at the Dolphin during this 2-day period.

 

[kbeverina]

Thanks for taking the time to post, Amberly.

 

[Vderon]

I don't mean to offend, but it does seem that this board has a bias when it comes to the Dolphin and the Swan.

I just recently commented on a disappointing stay there, and the only acknowledgement I got was a "sorry for your troubles, Vderon".

The most frustrating thing for me was the lack of solid, basic customer service. And if I would have gotten an apology , or a smile, it would have gone a long way.

As it is, I won't be staying at the Swan at Christmas. I have moved my business to the POR and the Hard Rock.

Could it be that the Swan/ Dolphin is slipping? I had a great experience there several years ago, and this time is was not so good.

Anyway, Amberly, I empathasize with you.

 

[Tina26]

So sorry you had such a horrible stay Amberley. I know it must stink to get your hopes up so much only to be disappointed. I can definitely understand your being upset. Thanks for warning us about the phone charges from your room, $7 a minute from ANY hotel in the US is a big fat rip off! I'll be purchasing a phone card before my summer trip!

Tina

 

[Trekker]

I'm sorry to here about your problems. I would be upset to with the phone charges.

I just returned from 10 nights at the Dolphin and can tell you I did not experience any off the problems you did. We checked out 4/1.

I do have to agree that you should feel free to voice your opinion / experiences here without feeling like you are being attacked.

Please people do not get defensive and pick apart everything a poster says. Just because you personally love the Dolphin and happen to know every little detail about how it works does not give you the right to belittle anothers opinion and / or experiences.

Please continue to treat each other in a civil manner or I will be forced to start removing posts that are construed as attacks.

 

[laurenk]

I hope you didn't take my post as attacking you. I was just trying to ease your pain over your phone bill, and to let you know that we had a similar problem. I am sorry you are being put on the defensive. Unfortunately, I have learned to keep any and all unhappy experiences to myself.