Just Back From OKW -- Cannot Believe Check-in CM!

[DiznEeyore]

Dh, ds & I just returned from cruising on the Wonder followed by 4 nights in a 1-bdrm at OKW. We arrived for check-in at 9 a.m. Sunday. I walked into the lobby and there was a woman standing in front of me at the "line sign". After a couple of minutes, a CM named Shelly looked up and said, "Next guest." I waited, expecting the woman in front of me to go over. She didn't move, so I sort of leaned forward to ask her if she'd heard the CM. Before I could say anything, Shelly looked at me, put one hand on her hip and pointed at me with the other, and said, "That would be YOU" in a really nasty tone. I looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, I thought she was ahead of me." She replied, "No, she's waiting for someone" like I should've known that.

At any rate, she did her thing on the computer and informed me a villa was available. I was thrilled, and asked her to confirm that it was non-smoking as I have Reactive Airway Disease and my ds and I both use inhalers. She went back through a couple of screens and found that it was smoking. I said, "No, I'm sorry, we have to have non-smoking. If we have to wait, that's fine." She took a few more minutes and said, "OK, here's one that's clean." I said great, she gave us our keys, and off we went.

Well, as soon as I walked up to the villa, I knew she'd screwed up. There was no "no-smoking" sign, and when we walked in, the smell of smoke almost knocked me over. I was furious. I had expressly told her I would not accept a smoking villa, and yet here we were! I grabbed the phone and got Jill at the front desk. I told her what the problem was, and she was able to find us a non-smoking villa that was ready. She asked me to come back up to the Hospitality House and get new key cards.

I have to say, she must've sensed how peeved I was because she actually met me outside at the valet desk with my new keys. LOL I thanked her and told her I realized it wasn't her fault that I was upset, but I couldn't imagine what would've possessed Shelly to give us a smoking villa when it had been clearly expressed to her that it was unacceptable and that we were perfectly content to wait for a non-smoking one to become available.

I'm going to write a letter to the GM about Shelly's nasty attitude and the room dilemma. That kind of performance is inexcusable.

The villa itself was lovely -- we'd never stayed in a 1-bdrm there before. Our balcony door lock kept breaking, so we ended up not using the balcony because it was inconvenient to keep going to the bedroom with food or drinks to enjoy outside. My ds was unimpressed with OKW -- he said, "Boy, this place is boring. Now I know why they call it OLD Key West." We do prefer our VWL (I especially prefer the layout of the VWL villas -- I like VWL's jacuzzi room w/the door rather than the no-door set-up at OKW), but OKW is beautiful and I know we'll stay there in the future.

 

[JudithM]

I am sorry to read you had problems with a CM at the front desk at OKW. I strongly encourage you to write your letter. Also, you might want to be sure to compliment the second CM for helping to resolve your problem. Disney cannot correct a problem if they are not aware of it.

 

[Doctor P]

Glad it worked out for you.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I am puzzled about your "no door" comment on the jacuzzi room at OKW. There are always two doors to the jacuzzi room. One near the master bedroom and one going into the bathroom.

 

[Pa@okw95]

It has been years since I got a room in the morning when I check in. There must have been rooms that were not used the day before for them to be ready so early. Most of the time it is near 4 PM when we get our rooms. A lot of people do not understand the need for a non-smoking room. I also need one. it must be that these people are smokers and really don't understand how offensive their habit is especially to the air we have to breath. Well i am glad everything worked out for you. I hope I get my room as quickly as that when I go down there in January

 

[sumessefui]

Sorry to hear that you had such a rude CM. I have noticed on our recent trip that there were quite a few not so great CM's in comparison to previous trips. The mostly great ones do make up for the others though. As far as the problem with the balcony door, did you call housekeeping about it? Every time I have had a problem like that at OKW, one call and it was taken care of within 20-30 minutes.

 

[joepoe]

Originally posted by DiznEeyore
...The villa itself was lovely -- we'd never stayed in a 1-bdrm there before. Our balcony door lock kept breaking, so we ended up not using the balcony because it was inconvenient to keep going to the bedroom with food or drinks to enjoy outside. ..

I hope you reported the broken door lock. When I find things broken in a room I always wonder why someone before me did not report it.

 

[Lesley]

I think perhaps the "no door" comment was in relation to the sort of shuttered window between the bedroom and whirlpool tub at VWL ? Or maybe not. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences myself on our upcoming trip.

Sorry to hear about the check in cm.....from experience, I know there are people out there who act like that and just say "that's just my personality...its part of who I am" Too bad Disney has had to hire folks like that! Sounds like the second cm you spoke to was great though....and I'm glad to hear everything was worked out.

 

[Uncleromulus]

I do know that in the "Grand" Villa there is NO door from the bedroom leading to the Jaccuzzi, shower, or sink area. We found that most irritating in the AM, when I got up much earlier than Mrs. U but couldn't shower and shave w/o waking her up.
AS for the CM, I seem to recall a run-in we had with the exact same CM a few years back. At that time she was working the old Guest relations both. We went up to purchase our Park passes, etc. She simply looked at us w/o saying a word--like "What do YOU want??" We mentioned it when we filled out one of those questionaires in the room--I see it did lirttle good.

 

[Laura24]

Originally posted by DiznEeyore
After a couple of minutes, a CM named Shelly looked up and said, "Next guest." I waited, expecting the woman in front of me to go over. She didn't move, so I sort of leaned forward to ask her if she'd heard the CM. Before I could say anything, Shelly looked at me, put one hand on her hip and pointed at me with the other, and said, "That would be YOU" in a really nasty tone.}

Obviously a bad attitude day(s) for *Shelly*. You could have turned the tides for her simply by using *Her* name throughout your converstaions with her....been here long, like your CM position, worked elsewhere in the *happiest* place on the planet? If the person offers the info, then the more personal you make the conversation, the more accountable she will realize she becomes in her CM etiquette. (It goes for any Customer service rep you speak to.)

 

[ilovebwv]

We have had the same cast member at check in at OKW. She is miserable and we have seen her there over multiple trips, I do not know why Disney keeps someone like this as an employee, especially an employee on the front desk.

 

[BigTigger]

Our initial CM at check-in at OKW last month was a college student from Minnesota working on an internship for his fall semester. He was very enthusiastic and did a good job of answering the multitude of check-in questions my kids had. I told him that I thought it was great he had the high level of knowledge given his short tenure. He told me that it was his first night "alone" handling guests as he had had a shadow employee with him the prior two weeks to help him out and had two weeks of training before that.

Our only other CM experience was cashing a check on day seven, and that CM was pleasant as well. DVC still uses the dial-in check approval system that takes forever, but she was pleasant throughout the five minutes it took to finish the authorization.