Just back form Dolphin(long)

[schuh61]

We just returned Saturdya from a 8 day stay at the Dolphin and I will not Stay there again.....This is how our trip started( this was our second stay at the Dolphin)......

Sat. July 17th we checked in aroun 2:30 we recieved a comp upgraded to club level i was excited... we went and swam for a while we had ps at 7 at Bomas and returned to our rooms(we had a jr. suite) My mom and mil in one room myself dh and two ds in the other room. At about 1:30 in the morning my mother woke me up and said security was at our room and that someone had a key and had open the door trying to get in!!!!!!What happen was they check someone else into our room and security tried to tell me we were in the wrong room. I showed him the key folder with our room #'s written down on them. he said there must have been a goof at the front desk. Now I wasn't so mad that someone had goofed ....But I was mad that before my mother woke me up security told her not to shut the door and he flipped the secrity latch over so the door would not shut....when I came to the door both secrity guards we down the hall and our door was left open.....I spoke to a manager the next day and our room was comped for the night.....Not a good way to start our trip!!!

The next day one of our rooms were not cleaned not that big of a deal I called the front desk and it was cleaned before we went to bed.

the next day we ran out of toilet paper not a big deal asked a maid for more(she was not very friendly.

The next day got back to our rooms around 5:30 and neither room had been cleaned. There were still maids in the hall way so I went out and asked if they were finished and she told me yes...I told her that our rooms had not beened cleaned and she rudely tolded me to call the front desk so I did!

The next day I called to try to speak to the Hotel General manager and was told he would not be in until Monday (we would already be gone) So I spoke with someone else.....He called me back later in the day and he comped another night for us.. I thank him and told him That I was not looking for another free night that I was on vacation and I would much rather pay than have all the hassles that we had during our trip.. Don't get me wrong we had a great ime but I did not check into the "MOTEL 6" I payed $300 a night plus tax. And I did expected our rooms to be cleaned daily. They also had the pool closed for cleaning for 1 day until 9pm!!!! So next time we will be staying at a disney resort as I am to afraid to take my chances at the Dolphin. The rest of the trip went great our rooms were cleaned daily after that(thank goodness). IjWe had a great time and are exhausted!!!

 

[Tiffany]

Sorry you had a bad experiance at the Dolphin. We will be there in about 46 days for our third stay. We have always used the *66 function and reserved our room to be cleaned daily at 10am. We have never had an issue in the past. I hope they still offer that service.

I am not sure why you ended up paying over $300 a night for a room at the Dolphin when there are so many discounts avaiable as I do not think that any hotel room is worth that much. Disney owned or not.

Hope your future trips are better.

 

[schuh61]

HI, I hope you have a great trip and better luck than we did. I booked a Jr. executive suite at the rate of 292.50 plus tax made it about $325 a night the room we had, had 2 rooms one with 2 double beds and a bathroom and the other room had a kind bed and a queen sofa bed an a lagre sitting area and it's own bathroom. There were 6 peopl in our party so we could not all fit in one regular room.

Have a great trip!

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by schuh61
HI, I hope you have a great trip and better luck than we did. I booked a Jr. executive suite at the rate of 292.50 plus tax made it about $325 a night the room we had, had 2 rooms one with 2 double beds and a bathroom and the other room had a kind bed and a queen sofa bed an a lagre sitting area and it's own bathroom. There were 6 peopl in our party so we could not all fit in one regular room.

Have a great trip!

Okay. That makes sense $325 for the suite. I thought you got upgraded to the suite. My bad.

 

[Bojangles]

Originally posted by schuh61

The next day got back to our rooms around 5:30 and neither room had been cleaned.

I hate coming back from a long day at the parks to a dirty room.


Be sure to email Starwood as well. That incident with security never should have happened. I'm glad you still had a good trip.

 

[DianeV]

The security thing was totally out of line however they did comp your room which you admit was over $300!

As far as the housekeeping and TP thing..that happens in ALOT of hotels. We just stayed at the Dolphin and one day our room didnt get cleaned until 4:30. I had called after we had been gone all day and came back to it not being cleaned and was told if there is a specific time you want it cleaned you can tell them and that is when they will do it instead of their regular schedule.

Evidently the maids have until 6pm to clean even though it is a bother to us guests.

I think that the fact that you got 2 nights comped (over $600) proves that they did quite alot for you. I dont understand how you would hold it all against them though. Yes the security thing was bad I admit that but not something that would happen routinely I'm sure.

I think they handled it well

 

[Connears]

I stayed at the Swan and had wonderful service all around. We were on CL and had turn down each night, fresh replaced towels and mineral water and CL lounge was wonderful. I have not heard the Dolphin having such poor service before. Both are Starwood resorts, so I would also send an e-mail at starwood.com about your experiences. Dolphin is run by Sheraton and Swan by Westin. I think they would certainly want to hear from you. Sorry about your seperience.
Connears

 

[CarolA]

I can see why the OP would hold it against them. Yes, she got free rooms, but as she indicated she was NOT looking for free rooms just a a hassle free stay. That she did not get.

Also, the maids told her they were done.... so why wasn't her room done?

My room was not made up at the Dolphin once because according to them I had the Do Not Disturb sign on. I did from noon to 2. I guess they came by once and never rechecked. (And no, I did not get a free room with my complaint, just some towels! LOL!)


I am sorry, but for $300 a night I expect GOOD service and I don't see the OP got it.

 

[schuh61]

Hi, DianeV

I am not holding it against them as they did comp me 2 nights and I realize people make mistakes. we just had to many for one trip on top of the security thing and the housekeeping we also had to have our keys recoded twice, one time at 1:30 in the morning after e-nights our keys wouldn't work......we also went into tubbis and mil ordered hamburger and dh a chicken sandwich and my kids a pizza and they forgot to cook the pizza so.......next time we will try our luck at a disney resort( already decided on the yacht club). We still had a great time in the parks. We were exhausted when we returned home.

 

[TDC Nala]

Interesting to see that the Dolphin is still having housekeeping issues. Had one myself over the 4th of July weekend (it did result in an upgrade, although the first room I got reassigned to smelled of smoke - even though the front desk swore it was a nonsmoking room) and a credit to the room that ended up covering the resort fee and meals at Fresh and Kimonos (both good).

 

[DianeV]

I can tell you not to get the egg breakfast at Tubbis either! Nasty..fake runny watery eggs and they charge $6.50 for it Yuck!

I wasnt trying to minimize the problems the OP had -just stated that the housekeeping issues happen alot and at alot of hotels. We didnt know that you could request a certain time..things we now know and honestly mistakes do happen although I did mention on my comment card that they need to do something about getting rooms cleaned earlier. I agree with that.

I think that they did what they could considering the damage had already been done but I wouldnt hold it against them and not go there again.

Just my opinion

 

[Cinderella37]

All the free nights in the world don't make for a hassle like that when on vacation. When you book a trip, you obviously intend to pay for each night or you wouldn't be going. I think everyone would rather pay for their reserved room than have a hassle that causes stress on vacation and get a night or two comped. At least they did something about your problem, but I'm sure you would've rather paid and had a stress free vacation. Good luck with your next trip!!

 

[sharonk]

Schuh61,

I've been trying to find out info about rates for the Dolphon Junior Suite and it sounds like that's what you stayed in!

Do you know what the regular "rack" rate for your room was? How did you get the $292.50 rate? Was it a AAA or teacher/government discount or something else?

We are a family of 5 and are starting to outgrow typical hotel rooms, and most "suites" on Disney property are so expensive,so I have been thinking about the Dolphin.

Sorry to hear about the bad experience...I've been woken up in the middle of the night by someone trying to get into my room after the front desk had mistaken assigned them to my room. It's very unsettling!

SharonK

 

[Tigger Woods]

Just be glad you weren't staying at a Disney owned hotel. I guarantee you would not have been comped 2 nights for what you described.

 

[jmcross]

Tigger is correct.

I had some problems checking into AKL and no comp nights were ever offered by the management(or expected by us).

I have found the staff at the S/D to be much more friendly and accomodating.

Joanne

 

[swilphil]

We had a problem with maid service the first whole day of our stay at the Swan a couple of weeks ago. We called down to the desk at around 5 p.m., and told them our room hadn't been cleaned yet. they were cleaning the floor earlier that afternoon, but our kids were napping. When we returned at 10 p.m. our room had been cleaned and was cleaned by 11 a.m. the rest of our stay. Last year at the Dolphin, we requested our room to be cleaned in the morning and that worked very well.

We did have one maid be a little rude to us when I asked her a question, but another maid was EXTREMELY friendly. That security thing is inexusable. How could somebody be staying in the wrong room?? I'm glad you were compensated for that, but I understand how the money isn't the issue. Were you comped anything for having your rooms rekeyed. We received a $15 bar/restaurant comp for having our keys rekeyed, and it wasn't in the middle of the night or when we were trying to get back in our room. They realized the mistake and brought new keys up to us and gave us the comp for the inconvenience, though there was really none.

I agree with the other poster that the S/D is very good with comping and upgrading you to make up for any mistakes. We have not had the experience at any other hotel.

I can understand why you want to stay only at a Disney resort in the future. I would suggest that if you get the chance you might try the Swan instead of the Dolphin. It is a much smaller hotel and the problems you had perhaps could have been avoided. I also know that the week of July 17th, both the Swan and the Dolphin were completely sold out. We had to leave on July 15th because of this reason.

 

[schuh61]

sharonk,

This rate was with an entertainment card discount. You can purchase these cards on line and they cost aprrox. $30. Have a great trip!

 

[Cinderella37]

Originally posted by Tigger Woods
Just be glad you weren't staying at a Disney owned hotel. I guarantee you would not have been comped 2 nights for what you described.

Tigger Woods is exactly right. We had much more pervasive and ongoing problems at the GF July 2003 and weren't offered anything (nor expected to be - just wanted a clean room).