I need your help

[tinkbutt]

Well, there was the time I booked that tour of Turkey through that online travel agency and ended up getting framed for smuggling and was sentenced to 30 years in . . . wait, no, that was "Midnight Express."

Or the time I used that new Internet-based travel agent to reserve a trip to France where I was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to Devil's Island, only to escape by sailboat and be captured in Columbia . . . no, sorry, that was "Papillon."

Okay, well, there is still that Internet agency that sold me that tour to Switzerland where my spouse fell off the Alp . . . oops, that was "Auntie Mame."

I got nothin', Pete. Sorry.

don't forget unless your with a family don't wear you Disney Garb for fear of being labeled a child molester!!!! yikes that was so awful!!!

 

[BeamsofLight]

I've had two bad online booking experiences, once straight through the hotel chain's online booking and once through orbitz. Fortunately that's a really good track record considering how many hotel stays I've booked online, but it does make them memorable.

The first was in Connecticut. We'd had an 10 hour drive to arrive at the hotel (this was the one booked through the hotel chain's own website). The hotel was under -heavy- construction, but we figured since it was still open it must look worse on the outside than on the inside. Alas... Check in went smoothly, though the clerk made a point of telling us to use the elevator at the far end of the hotel as the other one was out of service. The elevator that was in service was shaky, missing the (I guess?) wood panel covering from one wall and otherwise decorated with torn wallpaper hanging in shreds. The room was clean, though there was no air conditioning (it was probably about 80 degrees inside). I phoned the front desk who said that'd been happening all day because of the construction; apparently they kept knocking the power out. Unfortunately we quickly discovered that when the power came back on, the fire alarm went off in the whole building. Loudly. For a long time.

Okay, we figure, it's about 7 pm, surely they'll stop soon and we're only there 2 nights. We'll cope. We head out to get some dinner, only to find that in the time we've been in the room, the hallway has flooded to about an inch depth. The culprit is pretty easy to spot - water gushing out of the ceiling about 10 feet down the hallway, right outside someone's room. Somewhat alarmed by this, we reported it to the clerk on our way out. She, again, said "That keeps happening; it's because they're working on the third floor". Halfway through her explanation, the fire alarm went off again. We rounded up our luggage and spent our dinner break finding alternate accommodations.

I reported this to the hotel chain when we returned home and they actually did follow up with me, but had no explanation at all as to why their own website said nothing about the hotel being under construction. They also refused to refund the 1 night minimum I had to pay because we 'checked out' at 6:15 pm (the deadline), after checking in about 45 minutes earlier. Not impressed.

The second negative experience we had was on a package booked through Orbitz, at an allegedly 3 star hotel in Atlanta. We arrived around 4pm, after the check-in time, but were left waiting in the (empty) lobby for about half an hour while the desk clerk argued with cleaning staff (actually argued; not happy people working there) about which rooms were open. Finally they had a room for us ... for about 5 minutes ... until someone else called the desk while we were checking in and insisted to have their room changed. The clerk bumped us to give this other woman that room, confiding to us that said woman had already changed rooms 3 times.

We went back to waiting for another 20 minutes or so before she said they finally had another room. We got the keys and headed up to discover that there was already a family in the room. Back to the front desk for another 15 minute wait. Got another set of keys and headed out again to find that the keys don't work in the door. A maintenance guy was walking by and radioed down to the desk to send another maintenance guy up to help (not sure why the first guy couldn't do it..). He said that all the doors are recoded to match one pair of keys after people check out, and this door wasn't done, and that's why the keys didn't work. The question in my mind at that point was why we were able to get into the room with the family if there are only two keys for each room?

The room itself was okay but given the way the place was being run, and in light of the fact there was no guarantee we wouldn't find other people in our room at some point, we again gathered up our stuff and moved on to greener pastures. Orbitz 'refund' policy only applies before you've used any part of your package - at least it did for the one we had - so by using the first flight to our destination, we weren't eligible to recoup any costs. Lesson learned; I'll never book a flight/hotel package like that again.

Don't know if any of that will help your writer's block, but it certainly brings back memories for me.

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

Hey Pete - you should ask Regina about her recent Charlotte trip. She blogged about it ("Maris went missing and no one noticed") I think it is just the story you are looking for and her story reminded me of mine.

Last June, we got a phone call from my brother-in-law who is the lead engineer for one of the shuttles a week before the launch date telling us he had tickets for us to see the launch from where the press sits. Immediately, we were online booking booking airfare and searching for a hotel around Titusville. The only hotel we could find with availability was a Days Inn. It didn't look terrible from the pictures and we figured it was only for a week, how bad could it be, right? (now think back to June and remember it was the height of love bug season) So fast forward a week later and we checked in. The first thing we noticed before opening the door was the doors all had strips of tape at the base on the outside and were completely black. On closer inspection, we found the reason they were black was because of the dead love bugs stuck to them. Now one might have taken that as a sign and not even opened the door but I was not that smart. Oh no, not me - I went in. I wish I could report that it got better from there, but it didn't. The bug situation only got worse - the dead love bugs were everywhere but the live ones were too (along with other bugs - but I'm not a bug person so I didn't stay around to try to figure out there names ) - the floor was wet and stained and we didn't know why so we left our shoes on - the beds just didn't look clean and after all, if the rest of the place wasn't clean, why have clean beds??? - the shower/tub was stained and pieces were broken so I just wasn't sure how clean I'd feel if I used it. The toilet was "previously experienced" and the stains in the sink were permanent, we think. The vanity and mirror were disgusting and the smell was overwhelming (the mystery smell could have been from the wet carpet, maybe the dead bugs, who knows!) And there was some kind of dirt on the wall that we initially thought was blood splatter but thankfully on closer inspection we found was just dirt. Needless to say, with all of the hotels in the area booked for the launch, we spent most of the night on the laptop (oh, that is one nice thing I can say about the place is that it did have wireless for me to look for another hotel!) but the place we found was 45 min away. For us, it was worth the drive not to have to sleep with the bed bugs - I mean love bugs.

When we checked out of the Days Inn, the snotty girl asked DH if he was sure he wanted to give up the room because once he did, he couldn't get it back. DH assured her that we were certain we wouldn't be coming back. We left as quickly as we could and didn't look back.

 

[tmli]

I have only booked through an online agency twice. The first time was a company called selloffvacations.com. I booked air only for 8 from Toronto to Orlando, the flight was with a charter airline. About three weeks before the trip I am reading the Canadian forums on the disboards and discover the airline has cancelled the flights. I call the company and after an hour of talking to various TA's and eventually a supervisor I discover they refunded my credit card 3 weeks prior. When asked why nobody notified me of the cancellation, I was told "you got your money back what more do you want!!". I tried to explain how my chances of finding a flight would be better at 6 weeks out than 3 but she chuckled at me. "We tried she said, there was nothing....again I hear "you got your money back, I don't know what else you expect!!"

It was tough but I managed to get the 8 of us on a flight from Buffalo (2 hr drive away), with no help from the "travel agents" from this online site.

I think the issue with many online sites is that they don't have to look you in the face when they are messing up your holiday plans!! The same level of accountability is not there.

For the upcoming podcast cruise I of course had to use DU and was very impressed. The entire process from the beginning has been very professional, my questions answered timely and accurately.

 

[bababear_50]

Live and learn,,,live and learn,,

The family joke is how many "pineapples" is mom booking us into.. I booked a trip online (Expedia) a couple years ago ,,pics all looked great and hotel was rated three pineapples,,,so I hit the purchase button.
Imagine to my horror when we arrive in the middle of the night (single mom and two sons) to realize that we are now staying in the worst motel/hotel room you've ever seen. I'd rather ride TOT.or E E
We had to go to a local corner store and buy cleaning products before I could let my kids enter the room. Lesson learned three "pineapples" does not mean three star rating,,,,made me very hesitant to book a room at a resort before I've first seen it up close and personal.

Recently I had a bad experience with an online air ticket company but since it looks like they are one of the Dis sponsors I won't comment.
But before you hit the buy button know what exactly it is your buying.
Remember if using Visa call them as they can help.

Hugs Mel

 

[wishspirit]

Deary me! Some nasty holidays!

Our worst was our holiday to France (for Americans this sounds exotic, for us its like going to the next state along). We took our own car on the Euro Tunnel from Dover to Calais and spend a week driving down to the south of France stopping off at B&B's on the way then staying at a Villa for a week then drive on back.

My mom booked it all using books and websites (usually using the websites and email to go direct to the people owning them)

The trip down started out well, staying at a vineyard (my parents are all about the Wine!) with a very nice family. However as the B&B's went on, the worse they got! One we stayed in had a very vicious little dog (which was NOT advertised on their website), and since both my mother, Sister and I have a bit of a fear of noisy dogs, this set us right on edge! This horrid dog spent a great deal of time following my sister around trying to bite her shoes, which ofcourse set her off no end! I also found out that the son of the people who owned the B&B kept snakes, then spent the rest of the time there trying to hide the fact from my sister (she wouldn't of slept at all if she knew there where snakes in the house, not that she could anyway with the fear of this dog)

We stayed in a few grotty places but finally set of for our final destination, our supposidly beautiful looking Villa. First off we couldn't even find the place, the website had given us the most awful instructions that we couldn't even find the place! After calling up their office, getting them to call up the owner, for them to call us back to find the place, only to find it was 2 minutes drive away, but up a horrid pokey one way street!

When we arrived, it looked lovely with a pool and 'automatic' gates (that took us another 10 minuites to figure out how to work). When we finally got in we found a gloomy, smelly dump. The dim lights covered over the obvious grime about the place, but the smell of old and stagnant air, wasn't encouraging. Even with the windows and doors open we could never get rid of that smell! We had 3 bedrooms, my parents sharing one and me and my sister having seperate ones. She automatically got the double bed one (as she was the oldest) whist i got the 'kids' room. I remember my parents complainning about their rooms, but i remember hating mine! I was not a 'child' at this point, but i had a small bed which squeeked no end, with a slimey feeling rubber mattress, which still makes me shudder to think about. There was no real light in these rooms, which made it even worse.

However the worst thing was the bugs! We didn't realise how bad it was on the first day, but by the next morning ants had over run the place. They where up the walls, in the bath all over the kitchen, it felt like my skin was crawling with them. I will give you one example, i dropped a tiny piece of brownie on the floor when taking a plate into the dinning room from the kitchen. Went back no more than 5 minuites later to pick it up and get a drink and it was COVERED in ants! The worst thing was when we found them getting into the dishwasher and has our 'clean' dishes covered in dead ants. Plus they where all around the pool and patio, it was VILE!

So we ended up leaving a over a day early (my mom just couldn't stand another minuite and drove 20 hours straight (including euro tunnel) to get home and back to our clean warm house.

My mom didn't end up doing anything about it, but i think she gave the company a bad review on trip advisor.

 

[Northern_Julie]

I booked on an airline tickets online. I had been watching the prices for a few months and one site had a really really good price. I actually called a local travel agency and they looked it up and said they couldn't match it but I should go for it. I booked that night and I got a confirmation email and a day later got a phone call asking me to give them a call. The time never worked because of time zones so they ended up getting me at work. My originating airline is a small airline (getting to the first major city is a choice between two local airlines that are like the old days of airline travel - so spoiling) and the TA is unable to generate electronic tickets. To get around this they told me I needed to g to the airport and get paper tickets. This is my first online travel interaction so it never occurred to me that they could have couriered them to me. I thought this was normal. No problem getting because the airport is a 10 minute cab ride. The lady told me there was no hurry and actually encouraging me to wait till the date of travel but I went the following weekend when I knew there was a lull between flights.

I got to the airport with all my documentation in hand. I am a records person so I always grab whatever I need...and most times do not need it. They printed my tickets off and I left to go grab the cab...on my way I noticed that I had 3 flights going out and only two coming back. The flight leaving the city I was visiting was not on the ticket. I went to the desk with the emailed itinerary to show them the error. They claimed that it was not there error but offered me the phone to call the travel agent. I got the agent and she looked up my file. She claimed that although I had a file they were not my travel agent. They did me a favor and booked my ticket and got no commission so my issue was with the airline. I informed them that is them who booked it wrong. They then claimed that they called me to confirm that the flight was missing and I permitted them to not book that leg but told them to book the rest. I really had wished it was in writting because they kept claiming there were phone calls. I told them that I never called them directly outside today and they are mistaken but they claimed there were 3 conversations. They asked who was charged to my visa statement and I stated the airline appeared. They then said then it is the airline I would need to talk to. I asked why I had to deal with the airline when they booked it.

Now I started getting emotional. This was my trip home for Christmas. It was the first time I would see my family in a year and I think the ticketing agent saw the look on my face get desperate. She took the phone and explained that she was with the airline and that I had emails, written notes and visa statements with me and it was obvious that they needed to rebook. I got the phone back and the travel agent accused me of putting a fake person on. I hung up and thanks the ticketing agent and say I know it was not there fault. I would book that leg later today. She asked me to wait and called head office. She explained it to them and came back to say that they were going to change the ticket. They couldn't give me a the same price but because there is a seat sale starting that day they could give me the same flight plan for more money but still not as much as it would have been the day before. This more money was less money than that one leg would be. So I got wait I needed but not from the travel agent.

I went home and the first thing I did was write a letter to the airlines head office. I stated how helpful they were. I then attempted to contact the travel agent but asking to speak to management. I was flat out told no. I called again and asked again. This person actually asked the situation. I explained and said I just want to know how all these changes were made and why she refused to say she was my travel agent. I had tickets so now I want to deal with the actual situation. He admitted the reason there was no management to talk to is because they were all on trips and one would be back from Brazil mid week.... I wrote an email never got a response and gave up not seeing anything else I could do.

 

[smphbear]

My sister and her friend were going to Disney. They were gifted with plane tickets. This meant they had to add another night. They decided to just grab a room at a nearby hotel from a national chain.

The interesting part started when they went to their room. She went to put the card in the door, and the door fell off! She was in shock for a moment. They went back downstairs. The people at the front desk did not believe her. They finally radioed a maintenance man who went and confirmed what she told them.

They moved them to a new room where the air was broken. So another trip back downstairs.

The room they finally ended up in was right over the lounge. That night happened to be karaoke. She said they did not get to sleep until the lounge finally quited down early in the morning.


For me -
As a child, we traveled with a camper. After a week at Fort Wildnerness, we were spending a few nights at a SpaceCenter campground. (early 80s) When we pulled in, we noticed there were many snakes around. This was not a happy thing for us. While getting settled at our camp site, the power to the campground went out. We were all very freaked out. We ended up sitting on a picnic table. My aunt was on the pay phone at the front of the campground. We could hear her scream. We were very careful even when the power came back on.

 

[aldango]

One year for the Formula 1 race in Indianapolis I booked a hotel room online at the Dollar Inn. I was thinking: "Hey, this is nice and cheap and we are only about 45 minutes from Indianapolis Motor Speedway".

We get to the motel located right off of Interstate 65 and check in with the completely disinterested receptionist who was watching Maury. We went to our room and it was like I was hit in the face with a baseball bat as soon as I walked in. The smell can only be described as vomit mixed with amonia.

I ran back down to the recepetionist who immediately told me, "There are no more rooms". So I got on my cell phone and started calling around to find another hotel, but she was right, there was literally no more rooms anywhere around central Indiana.

So, I go back to the receptionist and ask if I can have a fan, which she was nice enough to give me. We propped the door open and tried airing out the room, which helped very little.

I finally laid down on the bed and kicked my shoes off since I was tired after the 6 hour drive and the resulting fiasco. I got up to use the rest room only to find the carpet was wet with some substance, GROSS!!

It was finally time to try and sleep so we shut the door, which was a bad idea because the smell came back and was really stong. We literally had to sleep with the door open all night and the fan blowing in fresh air.

Next morning I told the manager who was working the front desk about the crappy smelly room we had. So, being the generous person he was, he took $5 off our bill, because we had already got an "internet bargain". LOL.

To top it off, we went to the race and I noticed I was missing my watch, I had left it back at the motel. So I called and sure enough, they couldn't find it. I hope the cleaning lady enjoyed the watch.

OT: Hey! I was at the race the past two years, also. Too bad it's not back for 2008

 

[miss missy]

Hi Pete,

Can you warn people about rentals. BE CAREFUL WHEN RENTING CARS while on vacation!! It isn't big, but it is something I think happens a lot and most people NEVER knew they were even taken.

Mom just got home from Orlando. I did her reservation for her online for Alamo. I used discount codes and printed the reservation and coupon for her to take. Last time she did it alone, she paid huge, they sold her insurance and such, this is what they do to unknowning people. So this time I did it for her and I got her an Economy for 10 days for $238.00 yet she came home and told me she paid
$460.00!!!!!!! She told me the "guy" said her luggage wouldn't fit in the car and she needed to upgrade to a bigger size. She did not do anything but trust him. She thought nothing of what he was saying, other than he knew better.

Now I am an Alamo vet, I go with DD to WDW and we go 10 days with 2 huge suit cases and 2 mediums AND 2 carry ons ALL the time and have done just fine with an economy. Not to mention it was mom and 1 other person, they only had 2 suitcases. Between the backseat and trunk they would of done fine with any small car and still could of fit more luggage than they had!

Yes I know, I know, they are a business and they have a right to sell. But Mom is not sharp as she used to be and they took advantage or that. They do the same to young kids in their early 20's, who just don't know better and they trust they are being told the truth.

I did call Alamo because I felt they took advantage of her. My problem was, she had plenty of room in the original size car at the original price, there was no need for her to pay more. I called Alamo, a manager and - told him I feel they tok advantage of my Mom. He blew me off with "She signed it" "I stand behind our agent." Not even a sorry you feel that way, just attitude that they were correct.

I asked for his supervisor and he gave me a number for "consumer advocates" guess what, it has no live person and no voice mail- it is a dead end number.

My mother paid $460.00 for a midsize car, double what she should have, because an Alamo worker took advantage of her trust. If they sold her a bigger car, just for comfort or because they are a good salesperson, fine, but to mislead people, is plain WRONG!

I would like you to warn people to check into car rentals in dept before they go on vacation. Put it out there that these companies will try to sell you more than you need. Just make thema ware. I know insurance is also something they will sell to people, making they believe they NEED it. People need to check with their agents and see if their policy covers rentals.

 

[amyhughes]

Missy, I totally agree. We have been appalled recently when we have gone to rent a car. I went in recently to rent for a large capacity SUV. We were told at our local Enterprise, "Nope, we don't have any." Not let me check our other branches or the airport, "We don't have any." I called two others they both had several. I know it's probably not in this guy's best interest as I am sure they get incentives for their own stores for sales, (and he was the manager) to sell me on another store, but it was in the chain and it's called customer service. The lady at the airport said in a whisper to me when I picked up the vehicle, "Yeah, that guy's an idiot. So sorry!"

Another "take" that they do is insurance. 90% of the time your own insurance provider will cover if you rent, provided you put your insurance card in the glove compartment. I was shocked when my DH came through the door before we travelled down last time with a receipt for over $800!!! We had been quoted $430 for a minivan for our trip. They upsold him on the insurance coverage and $370 additional later the van was ours for the week.

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

Okay, one more thing about rental cars - do NOT forget to walk around the car BEFORE you rent it and when you RETURN it. I work in auto claims and we often get claims from the car rental companies for damages that our customers say they didn't cause. The contract shows no damage when the car was rented and if you don't take the time to do the walk-around on your return, any damage on the rental can be claimed. Just use your head - Amy is right - many auto policies will transfer coverages to a non-owned car which will save you money but make sure you take the extra few moments to do the walk around and verify what damage, if any, is already on the rental before it is in your name.

~ Stacy

 

[winotracy]

We've had numerous trips where the hotel wasn't quite what we expected, but mostly our problems have been with flights.

We booked at flight to Key West in January one year. Unfortunately it had three legs - Milwaukee to Chicago, Chicago to Miami, Miami to Key West. The night prior to our trip we had some bad weather and got a call around 4 am from the airline indicating that the first leg of our flight was canceled. We had two options - drive to Chicago (about 2 1/2 hours under normal driving conditions) or go to Milwaukee and take a bus to Chicago. Since our return flight came back to Milwaukee and it was closer, we drove to Milwaukee.

When we got to Chicago, we were allowed to board our flight on time which amazed us considering the weather. It was too good to be true. We were asked to buckle up and get ready for departure, then they told us that we were waiting for deicing but they wanted us to stay in our seats so we were ready to take off as soon as deicing took place. We sat at the gate for over 2 1/2 hours before we could finally leave with no beverages or snack during the wait.

We obviously arrived in Miami too late to make our connection. We were told to talk to the American Airlines representative to reschedule our flight to Key West. We were told that all of the remaining flights that night were full and we were out of luck. There were a number of passengers that missed their flight that evening (about 20 of us). American said that it wasn't their problem because it was a weather issue and the flight we missed was on American Eagle. American Eagle said it simply wasn't their problem because our problem flight was on American.

After a few passengers got very irate, American finally decided to get a bus to take us all to Marathon and Key West. Our luggage should be there when we get there.

Once we got in the little bus to head down the Keys, we were told that the driver needed to stop and get gas and he would let us out to get something at the convenience store, but that American was not paying for any food that we got. He also would stop at McDonalds for us to get food since it was now after 7pm. When we arrived at McDonalds, my husband said loud enough for everyone to hear "Twenty unhappy meals please". It added a bit of levity to the situation.

Shortly after 11pm we arrived at the airport in Key West. After they searched for a while, they finally found our luggage. Our lengthy trip was finally over.

 

[froggy5657]

When is the interview going to be on

I would like to listen to it

 

[Madi100]

We've had numerous trips where the hotel wasn't quite what we expected, but mostly our problems have been with flights.

.

Tracy, we had horrible experience with our flight coming home from Florida in December. It was my sister and myself. The night before we left Florida, my sister and I had a horrible fight, because her husband called and said that weather was supposed to be horrible in Des Moines the day we were coming home, and we needed to leave right now! What he doesn't understand is that Mickey does not live right next to the airport. She got all worried, and it just wasn't a good night.

We arrived at the airport and found that by the time we arrived at the airport, flights were leaving from Des Moines already, which is where we were headed. The weather had come and gone and all was good. What we hadn't planned on was the fact that Detroit was getting snow. When we arrived in Detroit, the guy next to us told us our flight was delayed by two hours awaiting a crew. The crew was in Des Moines. We arrived at our gate and there sat our plane - awaiting the crew. At 3 hours past the departure time, they finally announced that the crew had just left Des Moines. So, we sat and waited some more. There was no one at the desk that could answer any questions.

The crew finally arrives, and we are allowed to enter the plane. By this time it's about 10 o'clock. We get on the plane that isn't even started. It was freezing cold. I could see my breath, and the seats were vinyl. By this time I'm exhausted. I fall asleep off and on. We have to go through the de-icing process and then wait to take off. While we were waiting to take off, the de-icing process wore off, so the captain comes back on and tells us that we will re-deice and then see if the weather is appropriate for taking off. We headed immediately for the gate when the flight attendant came on and told us we were going to get off the plane while they decided what to do. Of course, while she is talking, they are unloading our luggage from the plane. At no time did they ever tell us that our flight was cancelled. When we got off the plane, people were lined up at the desk, and I got in line. My sister told me I shouldn't be standing in line because we didn't know what was going to happen.

We got in a line that was slower than slow. They had vouchers for the first people in line. And, then someone announced that the hotels were gone and all booked in the area. If we wanted to stay in a hotel, we had to drive 15 miles and pay for a cab. The airline took no responsiblity for this problem, because it was weather related. However, the guy that "helped" us told me that it was because the pilot timed out on his hours while we were waiting to take off. We were just planning on spending the night into the airport until someone directed us to an area outside of security, and we couldn't get back in the airport. Our DHs ended up finding us a hotel, with a free shuttle. The airline didn't take responsibility at all. NWA is not an airline I will ever fly again.

 

[LilGMom]

Disney resorts have sorta spoiled us, lol. In May 2007, we decided to stay the night in Lake City after leaving Northwest Florida for Walt Disney World so that my husband & I wouldn't be so tired when we got to Disney. We thought that being approximately 2.5 hrs. from Orlando would allow us to wake up, leave Lake City and be refreshed for the day. Man were we wrong, we both felt like we needed to be dipped for fleas after checking out of that Best Western.

I had gone on various traveling and hotel booking website looking at and researching various hotels. We came across the Best Western Lake City Inn, the pictures looked great, it looked clean and up-to-date and the reviews were all favorable so we booked online. It was a Best Western so we figured it would be alright.

When we checked in my husband commented that the person at the counter looked like they were on a prison work-release program. We got our overnight bag out, unloaded the kids and headed up to the room. As soon as we walked in it smelled like we had walked into a dog pound. We turned the window A/C unit on cold and full blast, we all got showered/bathed to get ready for bed and I made the kids keep their shoes on until they crawled into bed. I have never itched so bad while trying to sleep in my life! Even though we had all bathed the night before I woke up feeling dirty and wanted to get our stuff and get out of that hotel as soon as possible. We grabbed our bag and headed out hoping that we could check into our Disney resort early and could get cleaned up again and wash the funk off of ourselves from that Best Western Lake City Inn.

The hotel offered a free continental breakfast but who knows what day of the week the good was placed out for people to eat. We checked in and out on weekend days so for all we know the food could have been there since the previous Monday and it wouldn't have surprised us.

After we were finally able to check into our Disney resort my husband and I had to toss a coin to see who got to use the shower first to get rid of the "Best Western funk". And the cleanliness of the Disney room was such a welcome treat after the room that we had the night before. Never thought I'd need to make sure that we had all had our tetanus shots before staying in a hotel.

 

[astrodrummergirl]

Well, I've only had one bad experience, and after reading all of these, it doesn't actually seem so bad.

Last January we booked a trip to Disneyland Paris through disney. Now, after a quite lengthly phone call to france to make sure all the details were correct and names were spelt correctly so we were certain that all the flights, room, tickets and transfers were all sorted.

Now, two weeks later when we recieve the documents, what does my ticket say? It says my name is CHARLOETTE, which is now wrong, and doesn't match my passport whatsoever. So, we call up disney again (I will also explain that a few hours after the initial phone call, they rang us to check the names, and my sister clearly spelling out my name at least three times) and they tell us that that was how the name was spelt out over the phone, and that the ticket is now wrong, as Air France will not accept any errors. So after another lengthy phone call explaining how we'd spelt the name a number of times, we had to end up paying £30 just to get the name changed on the ticket. My mum was definately not happy.

I'll fast forward to the trip, we arrive at Heathrow Airport, bags, tickets and passports in tow, and get to check in. Whilst checking in we have a nice chat to the woman about what went on, to then find out that Air France will accept up to 3 letters wrong on a name. Lets just say my mother was a little angry, but, she kept it calm because we were on holiday.

 

[wishspirit]

Well, I've only had one bad experience, and after reading all of these, it doesn't actually seem so bad.

Last January we booked a trip to Disneyland Paris through disney. Now, after a quite lengthly phone call to france to make sure all the details were correct and names were spelt correctly so we were certain that all the flights, room, tickets and transfers were all sorted.

Now, two weeks later when we recieve the documents, what does my ticket say? It says my name is CHARLOETTE, which is now wrong, and doesn't match my passport whatsoever. So, we call up disney again (I will also explain that a few hours after the initial phone call, they rang us to check the names, and my sister clearly spelling out my name at least three times) and they tell us that that was how the name was spelt out over the phone, and that the ticket is now wrong, as Air France will not accept any errors. So after another lengthy phone call explaining how we'd spelt the name a number of times, we had to end up paying £30 just to get the name changed on the ticket. My mum was definately not happy.

I'll fast forward to the trip, we arrive at Heathrow Airport, bags, tickets and passports in tow, and get to check in. Whilst checking in we have a nice chat to the woman about what went on, to then find out that Air France will accept up to 3 letters wrong on a name. Lets just say my mother was a little angry, but, she kept it calm because we were on holiday.

oh yes! My mom has to be very perscriptive with my name (Katherine on my passport, just to make my life a little more complicated). There are soo many ways that can be spelt wrong, and our Surname too have lots of different variations!

 

[astrodrummergirl]

oh yes! My mom has to be very perscriptive with my name (Katherine on my passport, just to make my life a little more complicated). There are soo many ways that can be spelt wrong, and our Surname too have lots of different variations!

My surname has that too, and 9 times out of ten, they will spell it wrong without instruction. I've just realised, my story isn't about online travel nightmares, it was by phone! Oh well, the story is out there now.

 

[Jennygt]

Disney resorts have sorta spoiled us, lol. In May 2007, we decided to stay the night in Lake City after leaving Northwest Florida for Walt Disney World so that my husband & I wouldn't be so tired when we got to Disney. We thought that being approximately 2.5 hrs. from Orlando would allow us to wake up, leave Lake City and be refreshed for the day. Man were we wrong, we both felt like we needed to be dipped for fleas after checking out of that Best Western.

I had gone on various traveling and hotel booking website looking at and researching various hotels. We came across the Best Western Lake City Inn, the pictures looked great, it looked clean and up-to-date and the reviews were all favorable so we booked online. It was a Best Western so we figured it would be alright.

When we checked in my husband commented that the person at the counter looked like they were on a prison work-release program. We got our overnight bag out, unloaded the kids and headed up to the room. As soon as we walked in it smelled like we had walked into a dog pound. We turned the window A/C unit on cold and full blast, we all got showered/bathed to get ready for bed and I made the kids keep their shoes on until they crawled into bed. I have never itched so bad while trying to sleep in my life! Even though we had all bathed the night before I woke up feeling felt dirty and wanted to get our stuff and get out of that hotel as soon as possible. We grabbed our bag and headed out hoping that we could check into our Disney resort early and could get cleaned up again and wash the funk off of ourselves from that Best Western Lake City Inn.

The hotel offered a free continental breakfast but who knows what day of the week the good was placed out for people to eat. We checked in and out on weekend days so for all we know the food could have been there since the previous Monday and it wouldn't have surprised us.

After we were finally able to check into our Disney resort my husband and I had to toss a coin to see who got to use the shower first to get rid of the "Best Western funk". And the cleanliness of the Disney room was such a welcome treat after the room that we had the night before. Never thought I'd need to make sure that we had all had our tetanus shots before staying in a hotel.

This story had me cracking up! Very well told!! Sorry for your bad experience but the story is very funny!