Just back last night from the Poly Concierge. Lukewarm review.

[ppony]

Well, my 3 year long trip planning for WDW has come and gone.
We were SO excited to have gotten a chance to stay at the Poly Concierge! I was SO excited to have had a few surprised planned for my family. My mom came with as her first trip to WDW at 57 and it was the first trip for my 3 1/2 year old son. The surprises I had planned were not elaborate but they were intended to be fun anyway. I had been in contact via e-mail and verbally for months in advance, most correspondece coming in the last week. All I had asked for was for a bean bag chair size Stitch to be in the room with 3 dozen laytex Mickey balloons. I gave orders that if they couldn't find that size of Stitch to get a BIG Mickey. So we arrived at the hotel at 3pm, check in time. We got one sory when we got there that our room wasn't ready and would be for sure in a hour. THEN we went to the concierge desk in an hour and they weren't done yet...half an hour they said. SO.....round about 4:30 we finally got our room. I was excited...I went into the room last because I wanted to see their reactions to what I had had done.. Well, I didn't hear anything. So I peeked past my family and saw...NOTHING! I immediately called the desk and asked about the surprise...they were clueless. I heard them call up my account on computer and they stumbled as they said that they hadn't the time to get it up to the room and they would be up with it shortly. OK. 30 minutes later, someone came to the room with a shopping plastic bag with a normal sized Stitch in it and ONE balloon tying the bag shut! HOW TACKY WAS THAT?!?!?!? When I looked at her in obvious disappointment and said that it was supposed to be several dozen balloons and a LARGE Stitch, she just looked at me. Offered no apology, no offer to check to see what went wrong...nothing. Just a glare. Of course, I was VERY upset. MONTHS of planning and doing everything I could all to have people that were supposed to make thtings magical, be FAR less than cordial. In fact, the staff with the exception of 2 were quite rude. I even had one tell me on the phone that it was nt in the concierge's policy to get us boxes to ship...when I had had someone tell me the night before they would do that no problem. She got VERY snippy with me, said I don't know who you talked to but it's not our and cut me off. All I had to do was go to the shop inside the hotel and ask for boxes. they were free. How much effort was that for them?!?!?! As you all know, time is of the serious essence in many vacations and since we pay them for the concierge...I thought I should try to use it. Anyway...My husband as I went to the resorts front desk rather than the con. and a VERY nice man the name of Lyn helped us tremendously. After explaining our story, I started to cry...I couldn't help it. He was SO sweet, he said he'd talk to the con. manager and try to get things taken care of. Good to his word, when we returned, there were about 2 dozen balloons, a bottle of sparkeling wine with 2 glasses, and a plate with "Congratulations" written in chocolate on it with a bride and groom Minnie and Mickey. That latter part was from my telling them in my itinerary planner that my husband and I were celebrating our 10 year anniversary 1 1/2 years late (as we had cancelled last year due to serious illness of my grandmother). So that was very nice but I was still disappointed but my family wasn't since they didn't really know what they were missing. BUT...we moved on with the vacation. OH, the other easy thing I aslked to be a surprise was to have coffee at our door in the morning by 7am for my mom. Nope, nothing. We DID get our one request to be on the second floor close to the lounge but that was it.

I'll try to post a trip report in the next week. I can get into more detail then. But in MHO, te POY concerige is NOT close to worth it! Our 3 days we stayed at eth GF concerige 4 years ago WAS worth it. So it's not a matter of being cheap or frugal, it's a matter of getting a llittle more than what you would get in the regular resort rooms. BUT...Mousekeeping....was STELLAR!!!! Just GREAT!

OH, and may I express my disappointment at their serious lack of handicap parking?!?!?! If you want a spot, you're lucky to get one less than half of the time, of you have to use valet parking. Nice. We went at the slowest time, I would HATE to see it at busy times! Parks on the otherhand were great.


Sorry to be a downer but it's the way the cookie crumbled for me and I have to share. Dores nayone know a quick way to e-mail or mail a letter to the concierge manager of the Poly or someone else? This wort of stuff is just wrong. When I didnt' want to talk to the conc. people at the front desk because they were snippy and rude, that isn't good. I'm NOT a confrontational person or even someone that expects the world for a few pennies, I just expected specific things asked for and PAID for in addition to be done. I'll never do the Poly again after that. It was my second experience there and the first wasn't great either but I just thought that might have been a fluke and that wasn't in a concierge room.


sigh


Good luck to all.

Steph M in MN
from 86 degrees to 15...NOT a nice return home. : ( brrrrrrrrr

 

[dandave]

I'm sorry to hear that you were so disappointed with your stay.

It seems like "Lyn" was the name of the gentleman who checked us in a few years ago (non-concierge) at the Poly. An older gentleman, right? He was very nice!

Did you get charged the same price for the small Stitch and single balloon that you received as you had been quoted for the large Stitch with 3 dozen balloons that you requested?

 

[ppony]

Yep, thatt was him. Nice guy! Might have been gay? NOT that there's anything wrong with that. : )

I was never quoted anything for the Stitch or balloons but wish they would have tol me they didn't find him and just got the Mickey. I know Tara said she was going shopping about 6 days before we arrived. We'll see what the credit card statement says since it didn't appear on our final bill for the stay. I figured because it was charged sooner.


sigh again. : (

 

[KathyTX]

And room service didn't deliver your morning coffee? Had you ordered this from room service yourself, or asked the concierge to order it?

I've almost always been amazed at how promptly and how professionally room service has delivered our meals at the Polynesian... It would be a little disappointing to find this has changed.

 

[dandave]

Originally posted by ppony
Yep, thatt was him. Nice guy! Might have been gay? NOT that there's anything wrong with that. : )

I was never quoted anything for the Stitch or balloons but wish they would have tol me they didn't find him and just got the Mickey. I know Tara said she was going shopping about 6 days before we arrived. We'll see what the credit card statement says since it didn't appear on our final bill for the stay. I figured because it was charged sooner.


sigh again. : (

Lynn was nice. I didn't ask him or care to know about his sexual preferences.
Sounds like you got the Stitch for free- as a gift.
Goodnight!

 

[ppony]

KathyTX,
I had asked the Poly to arrannge it before we got there. I could ahve called for room service once we were there but hey, we were only 3 doors away from the lounge and that coffee was GREAT!
Which brings up something else...the Poly con. must make their coffee from something like bottled water because the stuff you get from restaurants (even Narcoosee's!!! tasted like the bathroom tap water! YUCK! Ish ish, the water was aweful! The con louge had GREAT coffee as well as other things. No problems there!

 

[dandave]

Originally posted by ppony
KathyTX,
I had asked the Poly to arrannge it before we got there. I could ahve called for room service once we were there but hey, we were only 3 doors away from the lounge and that coffee was GREAT!
Which brings up something else...the Poly con. must make their coffee from something like bottled water because the stuff you get from restaurants (even Narcoosee's!!! tasted like the bathroom tap water! YUCK! Ish ish, the water was aweful! The con louge had GREAT coffee as well as other things. No problems there!

OK, I really was going to bed, but then I saw this.
ppony, Did you expect the concierge staff to hand deliver your coffee to your room?

 

[KathyTX]

Huh?

You asked the *concierge* to deliver coffee from their lounge to your room?

You had the option of ordering coffee to be delivered by room service, or serving yourself in the concierge lounge. I think expecting the concierge to provide free, personalized room service is a bit much.

JMHO, of course.

 

[epcotfan]

Originally posted by dandave
OK, I really was going to bed, but then I saw this.
ppony, Did you expect the concierge staff to hand deliver your coffee to your room?

I've never heard of concierge hand delivering food to the rooms either. Why didn't you fill out the room service breakfast menu and leave it on your door the night before if you wanted coffee at a certain time?

 

[Wendi]

First off let me say how sorry I am that it happened to you. I would not wish bad treatment on anybody. Especially at those prices. I hope this does NOT start anything but I have to let you know that what happen to you is not the first time. We went in January and even with it being slow had some of the RUDEST people. The weird thing was that I had NOTHING for them to do.......no PS's, no special requests, nothing. I even sent the girl who e-mailed me a candle and to this day don't know if she ever got it. There was one guy that sat on the phone talking to a buddy almost every time we saw him and he would not put that phone down for nothing. Come to find out, my husband had asked for some chocolate covered strawberries to delivered into the room in the middle of our stay to surprise me for my Birthday.............well forget it. They didn't do it. Then he snuck down that night to ask them what happened and they said the same song and dance they gave you. Well, they sent a Bride and Groom white chocolate candy on a plate with Congratulations on it to the room the next night when we got in. It was nice, but was I suppose to be Congratulating myself for hitting 35??????? I guess I should pat myself on the back every morning I wake up. . By the way, we were billed for the Strawberries on our final bill. I was fine with that IF we would have gotten them.
Don't get me wrong, I am so happy for the people that have all the wonderful things done for them and just being treated nice would have been great. I don't request anything special, I always say "Hi" and "Bye". I would think that during the slow period it would be easy to have "little surprises" happen. My husband said (after the surprise) that the girl he talked to said that they LOVE to do things like that, it makes the job more fun.
It really must be a "time of the month" thing or just a timing thing.
If that's the case I have HORRIBLE TIMING! I don't like to say anything about the Poly because so many do Love it and I do love the atmosphere, location but I have to agree if you pay more to stay in the Concierge, you should at least get some help.
We have stayed at the GF several time and it just must be our little place, because the Castmembers have always been super nice to us. I will say this..............There actions NEVER in any way
affected my vacation. I had a Wonderful time and always will. It's just a bump in the road and so I roll on. It's still the best place in the World to escape and have fun.

Wendi

 

[lat]

I was concerned when I first saw your thread heading. We love Poly concierge.

After reading your complaint, I am relieved. I would never have asked the concierge staff to deliver my coffee or finding boxes for my own shipping. Also, when I was planning on our YC concierge stay, I was asked how much I wanted to spend on the gifts that I wanted to be placed in the room. The staff there may have thought that you wanted them there for free and maybe that was why it was not done to your specification.

Overall, concierge is a service, but they are not people's maids to take care of personally delivering cooffee!!!

We like the convenience of the concierge service and if there is any magic, that is just extra, but they should not be expected.

This is just my opinion. I still believe Poly has one of the best concierge on Disney property.

 

[Efastpitch]

Do you ever get the feeling that you shouldn't plan anything? It seems to always go wrong.

 

[ppony]

People people people...
I did NOT expect them to hand deliver anything! Looks like one person suggested that;s what I meant and you ranwith it. No. I wanted them and told them verbally to set it up for room service to do it. Standing room service orders. It was something they just didn't arrange I had asked for. There was SO much more than that and NO I did not excpect to be pampered and given individual treatment. I knew some that loved what they got there would be defensive but it's my experience. I've had GREAT service in plces others have not and just chalk it up to individual experiences. When on only goes to WDW every 3 or 4 years such as myself, if they have other choices to go to where they've had better experiences, why should they go back to a place that didn't seem to care about carrying forward you arrangements.

 

[ppony]

Wedni and efastpitch,

Yes, it's sad when you try and try to plan and no matter what you do, powers that be can work against you. It's the sorty of my life really. I alwasy say that if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.
My husband did the SAME thing! He stopped down at the front desk twice to do something or ask something, I don't remember and the same woman was on the phone for at least 10 minutes each time and he didn't wait longer. She didn't even acknowledge he was there though they had eye contact. Yes, maybe he shoudl have sat down but we were all in a hurry those days, PS's to get to...things to do. it is SO sad you were charged for something you didn't get! that is just wrong! I hope you got it reversed.

It's funny how people would rather attack you than find out what really was my intention. I wasn't asking for them to be my maids, I was asking for their service in helping out. Doing the things they "say" they will do. I really had asked them to set up the room service NOT to bring things to us. Even though there are much fewer rooms in the Con. there are still a lot of them for the number of staff.

I've gotta head to work, I'm late now. I'll respond to other things later.

 

[tnkrbell]

Im so sorry to hear about your stay. I think it is why we pay extra for concierge to get teh extra services!!! Especially when you asked ahead of time for them!! You were not looking for any special treatment just using the concierge services but didnt get any help from them!!
We had a bad experience in Jan also (I wonder if we were there at the same time Wendi??)
We stayed two nights then swithced to Yacht club concierge!! WE had the rudest concierge staff(behind the desks) When we arrived the man would not even look up from his computer game!!!! There was one nice woman in the mornings!! I was just so use to the friendly yet not over barring staff at the Yacht!! Maybe you could give it a try next time!!

 

[Bojangles]

I wouldn't have asked the concierge staff to set up room service. It would have taken far less time to call room service myself. Don't they have the little door hangers there where all you have to do is fill out your choice and hang it on the door knob the night before?

I don't really think it's up to the concierge staff to be personal shoppers and party planners. If you want things like that, there are companies like Gifts of a Lifetime that perfom this service for a fee. Concierge is wonderful...we have always paid the extra simply for the convenience of having breakfast, snacks, drinks, etc...available and it's nice not having to worry about getting PS or other reservations. The staff members, however, aren't personal hand-servants there to fetch and carry everything for you.

 

[MHopkins2]

IMO, whether or not the requests made were appropriate is irrelevant. Once they agreed to fill the requests, they should have done so. I'm sure if ppony had requested the coffee thing and they'd said, "I'm sorry, Mme. Pony, but you'll need to request that from Room Service - I'll be happy to transfer you to that extension now." it wouldn't have been an issue. But please don't tell me you're going to do something and then flake out.

 

[disney4us2002]

I have to say I agree with the last poster, MHopkins. It doesn't matter if they (Poly Concierge) agreed to the requests, then it should have been taken care of. What exactly does the concierge staff do? We are considering this mostly because of the continental bkft, snacks and drinks rather than the extra service but I don't think it is asking too much of any Disney staff to treat the guests with respect.

It is unacceptable to continue to talk on the phone when someone is standing in front of you waiting for assistance. That is one of those things that reallllllly irk me. It's like going to the local Walmart, waiting in line for 15 minutes to purchase something and then someone from home calls in and gets bumped to the front of the line??? NOPE! A phone call can be returned or the caller asked to be put on hold for two minutes.

My concern is that I'm reading more and more negative experiences with the Poly concierge than good these days. I've been dreaming of being at the Poly for Christmas forever it seems and I'm beginning to wonder if this is something I should reconsider. Like the op we don't do Disney every year, in fact we usually don't do Disney more than every 4 yrs or more so I'd hate this kind of disappointment especially at Christmastime.

I know for certain that I will be making all my own PS's and planning all my family's surprises myself. What a shame!

PPony, please do write the Poly manager with your experiences and disappointments.

 

[KathyTX]

Sorry if we misunderstood about the room service. It wasn't clear whether you were talking about room service or concierge delivering your morning coffee.

It is interesting to see some of the expectations folks have of the concierge services... I see concierge as offering a secured building, light snacks, a convenient check in, help making PS arrangements, and a way to avoid lines and crowds at the front desk for business matters.

Sounds like some expect them to be personal butlers and party planners.

If they can help you with special arrangements once you've checked in- GREAT. For special surprises in the room and such, call someone who specializes in this (A Perfect Gift or a local florist, for instance.) For room service, contact room service directly. I think the best way to have your expectations met is to plan carefully and contact the appropriate folks for your various arrangements.

And remember that they have a building full of guests who they are responsible for. I would imagine that assisting guests who have already checked in takes priority over doing "extras" for those who have not yet arrived...

 

[MHopkins2]

Sounds like some expect them to be personal butlers and party planners.

And it also sounds like their own staff is contributing to this expectation by agreeing to act as butler or whatever. Again, if it's not a service you provide, I am fine with that, and will make my buying decision accordingly. But do not agree to provide a service, fail to provide it, and then expect me not to be upset. THAT is an unreasonable expectation IMO.