Major porblems at SSR for first trip home - LONG!

[Ducky4Disney]

Let me start by saying that I loved SSR! The resort was beautiful, the room was perfect, and I loved the view of DTD! The front desk staff was hit or miss when it came to competence, and oh boy, were the "misses" way off target!

We checked in on 12/5 to room 1245 (1 bdrm) and 1247 (studio). I received a message from Robert at the front desk (very helpful) that there was a problem with my reservation and to call him back. I figured that it had something to do with the fact that I had waitlisted a couple of nights and they had come through a few days earlier. I called MS and they said my reservation was fine, 2 bdrm 12/5-12/12, a 1 bdrm 12/12-12/15, and the reservations were linked. Robert left me another message letting me know that everything was fixed and there was no problems.

Then it happened. My friends checked in on 12/9 to stay until 12/12. They arrived late (11:15pm) and the person that checked them in was HORRIBLE! I left an envelope with my friends name on it that had their room keys in it (they gave me all the room keys when I checked in). I even wrote in the envelope the room number - 1245. I didn't want them to go into 1247 - the studio - where my father and his girlfriend were staying. The front desk lady couldn't find my reservation, couldn't find the envelope, kept calling the "back desk" (whatever that is) and checking in took about 30 minutes. In the meantime, she managed to screw up my reservation beyond all recognition. I think she wiped out my current reservation and rebooked it. She cancelled all my room keys and made new ones. She told my guests to let us know that we would need to pick up new ones in the morning. And of course, they were told to go to room 1245, where they met my parents - in their PJ's.

The next morning my guests went down to get park tickets and Kay (very helpful) looked at my reservation and told my guests they had better go get breakfast because fixing this was going to take a while. Kay does something and fixes it. We all get new keys and they are supposed to get dropped off at my room. When me and DH get up and go to the front desk to complain about the inconvenience, the new keys get delivered to our room. We then have to tell them that we needed 4 keys with spending priveliges, not 2, so we get a whole new set of keys. Oh by the way, my parents have LOS passes attached to their room keys; yeah, they now have to carry two keys becasue they can't transfer the LOS to the new keys. AND - they have added two children to our reservation!

On Sunday when we "checked out" and "checked in" to go from a 2 bdrm to a 1 bdrm - the same room - we talked to Jon, a manager and complained that we have had over 30 keys cut for 6 guests. That's an average of 5 keys per guest! He looks at our account and there aren't any notations ont he account as to why all of these keys have been issued. He apologizes and says he'll look into it but we never heard anything. We chalked it up to a fluke and hoped it wouldn't happen again.

Fast forward to today. I call to make ressie's for BCV in June. MS makes the ressie and tells me I have 60 some points left for 2005 and there are 40 something points in a holding accout - WHAT!!?! I cancelled a 2 bdrm reservation that was 12/10-12/12? NO I didn't! Those points went into a holding account and they borrowed 2005 points when they "fixed" it!! Consuela at MS was very helpful tonight. She read my notes which were very confusing, I explained what I thought happened, she put me on hold, and when she came back she said it was all fixed. We did the math together and I have all 103 points for 2005 (after the 134 point BCV ressie).

AAAGGGHHHH! I have to write a MAJOR letter to someone about this! I can't believe any of this happened but worst of all, I'm upset that I had points put into a holding account and points borrowed that I didn't agree to. Who do I write to? I'm sure it's in here somewhere but if you know it off the top of my head - please post it here.

Thanks for letting me vent!

D4D

 

[Pa@okw95]

Had it been 40 years ago you would not have had the problems you had with your keys that you left because they would have been stabled to your reservation card. But today there is no card of course, just a computer screen. So the keys were probably put in some safe spot because they had the room number on the envelope. Add to the fact that you asked too much of the front desk personnel, 40 years ago yes, today no. This day and age you have to hold your breath while the personnel do their everyday job, but what you asked them to do, well, you were asking for trouble. It is just the way life is today. Keep it simple and you will have less trouble next time.

 

[manning]

Let me join the crowd. On check-out (SSR) on 12/17 we wondered where the bill was. It wasn't on the door. Their response " It's here waiting for you to pick up". When I asked why there response, "You should have requested express check out". My response, "I did request express check-out. Everytime I stay I request express check-out." There response, "oh OK we'll note that". HUH??????????????????

After their reluctance to deliver the bill we just picked it up on the way out.

I can see the above mistake if there were a thousand people checking in/out and the CM was rushed when we checked in. When we checked in there were only three people at the front desk, The cast member, my wife and I.

 

[rinkwide]

I can see the above mistake if there were a thousand people checking in/out...

Knock on wood.

 

[athenna]

As a brand new member of the DVC at Saratoga (became official today), you are all scaring me

 

[Sammie]

As a brand new member of the DVC at Saratoga (became official today), you are all scaring me

Absolutely no reason to be scared. Our stay at SSR was wonderful and check in a breeze.

I rarely, ok I never agree with Pa, but this time I do. I am not saying the OP was at fault, absolutely not.

But the law of averages is, if you ask too much of Disney Front Desk, you are going to have problems.

Everyone did not check in at the same time, different passes on different keys, late arrival, linked reservations. etc

It was just too much for them to handle. Should it be, probably not. But late at night you are going to get a trainee making minimum wage that probably had no idea where the keys were.

Also to the OP why did you have them go to the Desk anyway, which room were you in. If you were in 1245 and had the keys I would have had my friends just come straight to the room.

The OP experienced some inconvenience but nothing that should scare you.

 

[athenna]

Thanks for making me feel better! I guess I hear a lot of negative stuff sometimes,and I've always had such high expectations of Disney, I've never encountered any problems at all. I don't anticipate any check-in problems for me, it will just be me and my father, so it should be quite simple.
Happy Holidays

 

[kathleena]

Hi Jennifer!

I'm chiming in here because I was passing the BWV #2 tree to her and tried to call her on 12/8 to give her the bell services tag #, and 12/9 and 12/12 to see if she got the tree.

Well - each time I called I was told there was no one staying there under that name. I was talking with general WDW operators each time and they had nothing in their reservation system under her last name except at other resorts. So on 12/8 - before the second ressie, before her friends checked in, before all the card mess - her ressie was already messed up!

Now I think that linked reservations and having different assignments to room keys, plus having people check in at different time are routine. They happen all the time and Disney has systems in place to handle them. The only thing that may have helped to do differently is to have the front desk make keys for the late arrivals when they arrived, rather than leaving an envelope.

But to place blame on the OP for this mess - come on. That's just unnecessary.

This is a business that runs a huge show each day with computerized everything. They are quite capable of handling these requests in tandem. The issue is adequate training of cast members who are supposed to know how to handle it.

Jennifer - I hope your trip was great otherwise!

 

[bounceytigger]

I just recently returned from a stay at SSR, and agree that it was absolutely beautiful!

I also do wonder if some of the CM's at the Front Desk are still going through a major learning curve? I had a couple very helpful CM's, but I also experienced a couple that seemed very slow and uncertain about things. Not to mention, no one could find our Christmas Tree from the Christmas Tree pass!

I'm hoping it all amounts to things still being ironed out, and the kinks still being worked out. That's my hunch, anyhow.

So sorry you had to go through all of that, D4D! Ugh!

--Sarah

 

[rinkwide]

...I also do wonder if some of the CM's at the Front Desk are still going through a major learning curve?

Of course, that's not a problem that's exclusive to SSR. The front desk is usually a high turnover position at any resort or hotel so you can usually expect some level of incompetince nearly anywhere you stay.

Why just last week during our check-in at OKW we were mistakenly given a couple of slices of sharp cheddar instead of room keys. (Made a terrible mess of the door slot but they were delicious.)

 

[DukeStreetKing]

Why just last week during our check-in at OKW we were mistakenly given a couple of slices of sharp cheddar instead of room keys. (Made a terrible mess of the door slot but they were delicious.)

 

[Ducky4Disney]

Am I the first person in DVC history to have friends stay with me? Am I the first person to go from a 2 bdrm to a 1 bdrm during my stay? I sure hope not! What should I do next time? "No no, you can't come see me in Disney for the weekend, the front desk can't handle that"?!?

When I left for Disney my ressie was fine. When we checked in, everything was fine, it went well. They gave me all of my tickets when I checked in. I don't know why, I didn't ask for all of them. When my parents checked in later that day, we had new keys made for them so they could charge to them. We then bought them LOS passes and had to explain to the lady at the front desk that LOS passes included DQ.

So far, so good. Then Robert calls us and I work that out. In the meantime, my DH uses his card to charge something and doesn't get it back, so they cancel that card and issue him a new one. No problem.

It went downhill when my friends checked in. I left their cards for them and I wrote the room number IN the envelope, not on the outside. I was out at PI when they arrived so I was not there to greet them and give them thier keys. If Ihad known that this was going to be such a big problem, I would have stayed around - trust me!

Then there was Mousekeeping, ugh. I had sceduled my cleanings ahead of time and then checked them again at check in. I got my first T&T just fine. Then the next day Mousekeeping is at the door again and I tell them that we just had T&T and I don't need it, I have a full cleaning tomorrow. We go back and forth a couple times, yes I'm sure I didn't schedule one today; "are you sure?" Yes, I'm sure. "Well let me do it anyway, I'm here." Hey, OK if you want to. I then get my full cleaning the next day... but the T&T I scheduled for Sat. (when I had 6 adults in the 2 bdrm) never came. We had to call the front desk to get it done - and it wasn't pretty.

I'm venting again - not my intention. The long and the short of it is that I loved SSR! I can't wait to go back there next October. There were definitely some areas where they needed improvement. I can't wait until it's all done, it's going to be a really great place to stay. I can usually give someone the benefit of the doubt - and I did the whole time I was there. But now I find out that they somehoe messed up my points? That's where my patience ends.

Athenna - don't be scared. Just do your job well. That's all I ask.

D4D

PS - they have a beautiful work out facility. When my DH asked the front desk about it, they told him it wasn't that great, it was small and had a few treadmills in it. It has $300,000 worth of equipment in it!

 

[athenna]

I'm pretty organized so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[PamOKW]

I have to say I'm confused reading this and not sure myself what was happening.

If you had checked into a single two-bedroom villa where your friends were also going to stay, they did not (and should not) "check-in". I think this is where the confusion came into play. The easiest thing would have been for you to meet your guests. If you didn't want to wait for them, you could have left an "envelope" for them to ask for at the desk. In the envelope could be the keys and a note from you telling them room number, not to use the studio, etc., etc. Live and learn for the future to try and avoid this type of confusion.

As to how points were borrowed, this might have happened if you changed this reservation. When making any kind of change, you need to be sure DVC processess it as a cancellation and re-booking and be sure before you hang up that you are in agreement as to what took place and how many points remain. We may know in our heads that we only want one villa at WDW but when we book the waitlist that comes through, we have to be sure to cancel any other reservation we were holding.

This might not have been what happened to you -- maybe they really did make a big mistake -- but it's a bit of advice for others to keep notes while making reservations.

 

[NCRedding]

Ducky4 Disney DID leave an envelope with her room number on it for her friends. Also from her post, it sounds like the front desk is the one who got creative with the points, not ducky4disney. If CMs are doing things in the computer, how are we supposed to check this.

D4D sorrry for all the inconvience!!

 

[DisneyPhD]

I don't think they were asking for too much or too complacated for the CM. After all this is Disney, magical gathering and all. Come bring your big group and play with the mouse. DVC guides sell it as the way to take your whole family with you, get lots of points, lots of rooms.

We had family stay with us 2 times, checking into our room after us with out us there and everything was fine. (OKW and BCV). We have changed from a studio to a one bedroom mid trip a few times now with no problems what so ever too.

So sorry you had these problems and hope they don't happen again. Go ahead and complain more to managment. If you don't, they don't know anything is wrong and how will they fix it?

Merry Christmas all.

 

[DrTomorrow]

I agree that you should contact management and let them know the circumstances of your experience. If they don't know there's been a problem, they can't act to prevent it from happening again.

Personally, I try to simplify things as much as possible; I find that - whether or not it "should be OK" or "they should be able to handle it" - the more complex the situation, the greater the likelyhood of an error. I'm not just talking Disney here; I've had friends take a dinner check and try to put part on one credit card, part on another, the rest on a third and the tip on a fourth (don't ask ) - and had it all screwed up by a sincere but confused server.

To me, it sounds like the OP got caught in a "perfect storm" of DVC confusion, and the CMs didn't know how to handle all the contributing factors. I certainly haven't seen many posts of this nature, so hopefully it is an isolated incident.

IMHO - YMMV

PS To the OP: if the room number was IN the envelope, how would a random CM checking them in know it was for them - or even that there was an envelope sitting somewhere? Whenever we travel with friends/family, whoever gets there first checks in and gets all the keys, then distributes them to the later arrivals.

 

[Ducky4Disney]

PamOKW: I understand what you mean. Even I'm confused by the whole thing. The envelope had their names on it and the front desk left a note on our account that they were coming. The room number was in the envelope. I didn't expect them to give me all my keys when I checked in - I don't know why; but now I know!

Now for the points thing. That was done by someone other than me. When I called MS on the 2nd or 3rd day of my stay (before the giant snafu) I verified my room situation and points. According to MS just the other night, I checked in on the 10th - nobody checked in on that day! That was the day my ressie's were "fixed". They had it listed that I had cancelled a ressie for a 2 bdrm for that weekend, which never happened.

I need to get my thoughts in order to write a letter about this. I wish I could convey everything that happened on this board. The frequency of snafu's is staggering. I could have dealt with about three or four of these mistakes.

My vacation was wonderful all things considered. My Dad enjoyed himself so much he wants to go back next year for 2 weeks (this is a man who hasn't taken a vacation in 10 years) and considered getting an AP before leaving!

My trip was great, I can't wait to go back, and I hope everyone gets a chance to stay at SSR.

D4D

 

[Sammie]

I agree that you should contact management and let them know the circumstances of your experience. If they don't know there's been a problem, they can't act to prevent it from happening again.

Personally, I try to simplify things as much as possible; I find that - whether or not it "should be OK" or "they should be able to handle it" - the more complex the situation, the greater the likelyhood of an error. I'm not just talking Disney here; I've had friends take a dinner check and try to put part on one credit card, part on another, the rest on a third and the tip on a fourth (don't ask ) - and had it all screwed up by a sincere but confused server.

To me, it sounds like the OP got caught in a "perfect storm" of DVC confusion, and the CMs didn't know how to handle all the contributing factors. I certainly haven't seen many posts of this nature, so hopefully it is an isolated incident.

IMHO - YMMV

PS To the OP: if the room number was IN the envelope, how would a random CM checking them in know it was for them - or even that there was an envelope sitting somewhere? Whenever we travel with friends/family, whoever gets there first checks in and gets all the keys, then distributes them to the later arrivals.

That was my point, I was never saying any of this was the OP's fault, definitely not. But as you stated it seems that if it can happen it will happen and I try very hard to remove as many obstacles as possible.

 

[bongo59]

meeting the guests would have by passed the CM's. We always try to make our own arrangements with friends to avoid this exact problem.