Originally posted by totalia
Ok, I work in a hotel.
Second, it was the MIDDLE OF A HURRICANE. Did you expect the staff members to be cheerful and pleasant and quick? They have more important things to deal with than just you.
If you have a complaint, tell them but they likely won't be all Disney pleasant like you would like because its possible that a hurricane would wipe the hotel (and them and the guests) off the map for good.
I don't know about you, but thats alot of pressure and they are dealing with much more than just the guests (not to mention that likely EVERYONE was complaining. Perhaps its horrible but eventually as a hotel clerk, you just get sick to death of hearing it. There is nothing we can do about the weather or how it is handled. We just work there).
Put it this way, did you really expect the staff to be happy and pleasant? Their lives are in danger because they are in the direct path of a hurricane. They probably want to be with their families or long gone out of town no matter how good the pay is because frankly, their lives are more important than making other people happy. Some of them may have even had their jobs threatened if they left because likely they were shorthanded when other staff members just simply left not caring whether they lost their jobs or not (can you blame them?).
My fiance was in the path of Ivan. I told him I didnt care if he lost his job, he needed to get out of town. His life was more important than a job and jobs are a dime a dozen. The hurricane turned at the last minute and missed New Orleans though. But I will tell you that I am very glad he was in Houston at the time. I'd rather have a live fiance than a dead one.
I disagree--CMs are onstage--there could be bombs dropping outside--they have NO EXCUSE to be rude, aloof, or dumb. If they don't know an answer--they should find it. The disney property buildings are safer than most homes that CMs and their families would otherwise be occupying during the storm. When it was known that we were an evacuated family--I was assured that Disney was a safe place to be.
Second--They have a hurricane crew at all of the resorts--some have to work, some volunteer to work--they can bring their families--heck, they can bring their dog--so the argument that they are worried about loved ones--while true--they do have the choice to bring household members along for the ride.
Third--Guest/Passenger/Customer safety comes first at the expense of the employees. No matter how worried they are for their own safety--it should not be projected onto the guests and it is certainly not justification for a rude attitude. Like I said--they are on stage. Our island evacuated--the grocery stores closed early,
Walmart closed early--but by golly up until closing time--they were cordial and telling everyone to be safe. Not once did any employee I encountered anywhere on my way out of town--project their worry in the form of ineptness to do their job.
In other words--a hurricane is...
1. no excuse to go into a guest room unannounced (i.e., no knocking first) just to deliver a flash light.
2. No excuse to have a guest wait up all night for something that will not be delivered (if you can't say that you can't send one up--give a more honest answer of we will try--but it may be sometime tomorrow..)
3. No excuse to not have a reserved item available (if you reserved a room and they cancelled your ressie and gave it away--you'd be peeved--fridge was reserved, either guest should have been notified before trip of a policy change--or his ressie should have been honored).
4. No excuse to not change an evidently soiled sheet when housekeeping resumed. No excuse to not have housekeeping for 4 days--if they were shortstaffed--the staffed stayed until their assignments were completed--at least that is how it worked when I worked housekeeping at Vero Beach. Granted they try to conserve energy and will not swap out except for every 3 days--but it is every 3 days of your stay--not every third housekeeping visit. Working as a housekeeper for Disney--I doubt it wasn't so much the low staffing/hurricane issue as the CMs taking advantage of relaxed cleaning requirements and doing as little as they had to do. They have housekeepers solely for the rooms and separate housekeepers for the public areas--so it isn't likely that the room CMs were off cleaning other areas of the resort.
OP--your complaints our valid--take it from someone whose home was in the threat zone TWICE and had to EVACUATE twice. Take it from someone who stayed at WL for an evacuation--who knows the difference between guests who understand a hurricane is there and those guests who are too silly to understand why the parks are closed or that it just isn't a good idea to swim when most doorways are locked and blocked and it is blustery. Hurricane or not--it sounded as though the AKL was inept---based on the varying observations of AKL during hurricane and non-hurricane resort stays...it sounds that they just do not have their act fully together. Sounds as though they need a better hurricane preparedness plan, better uniform treatment of guests by CMs during regular and not-so-regular times, better handling of housekeeping. Sounds like a management issue and not a hurricane issue (with the exception of those water buckets and having to block/close access to outside or food courts).
I hope your next on-site stay at wdw is much better!
. Really you should have asked for a room change if you weren't happy with your room (or asked for a room away from the stairwell and a good view on check in)
