We just came back yesterday from our first Christmas trip to Disney. I picked the WL to stay mainly due to the overwhelming positive comments about it on this board. Well, our stay there was miserable, and I'd like to add my comments about that place.
First, the decorations are not that great. They are very nice, but nothing to plan a trip around. If you're staying there, fine, but I would not schedule a seperate trip over there just to see the decorations, like so many have suggested. My disappointment with WL started when we entered. I was hyping my kids up about how wonderful the decorations were. My dd said, just before we entered, "sometimes people lie". Well, I would call it more of an exageration. I mean, nice, but nothing to go out of your way for.
Check in took so long my kids fell asleep in the little tv viewing area. We were the only ones in line! I thought at one point the CM at the desk was some sort of robot and needed her batteries replaced! She just stood there staring at her computer screen without so much as a comment for minutes at a time. I realize Disney's computer system leaves much to be desired and I'm sometimes stuck waiting an excessive amount of time when trying to use it, but you'd think the system would work better at such a time critical point. We too so darned long to get checked in we missed our PS at Chef Mickeys. We just went later and got seated, but we didn't like starting out with so much stress. And never an apology from the cm for the excessive wait. I really think for such an in convenience we should have gotten something, such as coupons for free breakfast, or at least an apology. Instead, she acted like we came to spend our entire vacation standing at the desk! After we finally had our room assignment and keys, she stood there talking on and on about how to use the keys! Its printed on the envelope! I finally snatched the keys from her and said "I want to get out of here before the sun goes down". Some way to start our stay!!!
On to the room. It was so small it was a joke. They say the rooms are about 340 sq ft. Baloney! There was barely enough room for two queen beds with about a foot of space between the beds and the wall and about 18 inches between the beds. You could sit on the end of the bed and touch the tv amoire. There were three little drawers in the tv amoire, and a small chest of drawers near the closet area. The closet itselt was tiny. That was all the storage for a family of four.
However, the real misery was the location. We were located in the main building, on the sixth floor (I forget the room number, think it was 6082). It looked directly over the lobby below. There's a restaurant on the main floor, Whispering Canyon. That was the most noisy place I've ever heard in my life! There was constant screaming, hollering.clanging, etc. from about 8 am 'till 11 pm. The noise carried right up to the rooms. Its incredible, but we were awakened out of a sound sleep from all that noise on the sixth floor with the door shut. I suppose the rooms located in the buildings away from the lobby are quieter. We had a Woods view, for which we paid extra. We would have been better off with the standard view. The only view we had was of the parking lot and part of the roof below. We also heard buses and beeping from vehicles all night long. We asked to be moved, but were told the hotel was sold out. Our stay was further ruined by housekeeping, who pounded on the door at 8 am, despite the DND sign. I guess they thought that didn't apply to them. Since most of our park activities were at night this time (MVMCP, Osbourne Lights, Candlelight Processional), we did not want to get up at the crack of dawn and hit the parks and be dragging when the main events occured. We wanted to sleep in to about 9-10 am. However, between the hollering from that restaurant and the housekeeping pounding on the door every 20 minutes, we couldn't get any sleep. I asked Housekeeping to please come back later that afternoon, when the DND sign was off. As they walked away, I heard one say to the other "Does she think we have all day?" I had envelopes printed out to leave a tip for Mousekeeping. Instead, the last day, I left a note instead, apologizing to the Mousekeeping staff for not getting out of my room at their convenience. I promised to be a good girl and never come back to their hotel and bother them in such a manner again!
If they're so insistent on making up the rooms at 8 am, why did we have to wait over an hour for our room when we checked in at 4:30 pm? Go figure!
Last but not least, the transportation form this place sucks! Everywhere we went it was at least an hour or more and two busses or bus/boat. We ended up taking taxis (and paying for them) just to get somewhere and not spend our entire trip pi$$ed off in the hotel or riding around and around trying to get somewhere. We only had three days and wanted to make the most of it. I had originally planned to stay at Grand Floridian and I'm sorry now we didn't. We stopped by there to check out the decorations and were quite impressed. Yes, the GF is more expensive, and you do get what you pay for!
We enjoyed our trip once we were out of the hotel. We are already planning our next year's Christmas trip there. Hopefully it will become a family tradition. However, our schedules only permit us about four nights for the Christmas trip. For such a limited amount of time, I'm planning a hotel that is more conveniently located and more "guest friendly". In my opinion, the WL exists for the enjoyment of the customers of that darned restaurant and the convenience of the housekeeping. The paying guests are just a nuisance for the hotel!!!!
First, the decorations are not that great. They are very nice, but nothing to plan a trip around. If you're staying there, fine, but I would not schedule a seperate trip over there just to see the decorations, like so many have suggested. My disappointment with WL started when we entered. I was hyping my kids up about how wonderful the decorations were. My dd said, just before we entered, "sometimes people lie". Well, I would call it more of an exageration. I mean, nice, but nothing to go out of your way for.
Check in took so long my kids fell asleep in the little tv viewing area. We were the only ones in line! I thought at one point the CM at the desk was some sort of robot and needed her batteries replaced! She just stood there staring at her computer screen without so much as a comment for minutes at a time. I realize Disney's computer system leaves much to be desired and I'm sometimes stuck waiting an excessive amount of time when trying to use it, but you'd think the system would work better at such a time critical point. We too so darned long to get checked in we missed our PS at Chef Mickeys. We just went later and got seated, but we didn't like starting out with so much stress. And never an apology from the cm for the excessive wait. I really think for such an in convenience we should have gotten something, such as coupons for free breakfast, or at least an apology. Instead, she acted like we came to spend our entire vacation standing at the desk! After we finally had our room assignment and keys, she stood there talking on and on about how to use the keys! Its printed on the envelope! I finally snatched the keys from her and said "I want to get out of here before the sun goes down". Some way to start our stay!!!
On to the room. It was so small it was a joke. They say the rooms are about 340 sq ft. Baloney! There was barely enough room for two queen beds with about a foot of space between the beds and the wall and about 18 inches between the beds. You could sit on the end of the bed and touch the tv amoire. There were three little drawers in the tv amoire, and a small chest of drawers near the closet area. The closet itselt was tiny. That was all the storage for a family of four.
However, the real misery was the location. We were located in the main building, on the sixth floor (I forget the room number, think it was 6082). It looked directly over the lobby below. There's a restaurant on the main floor, Whispering Canyon. That was the most noisy place I've ever heard in my life! There was constant screaming, hollering.clanging, etc. from about 8 am 'till 11 pm. The noise carried right up to the rooms. Its incredible, but we were awakened out of a sound sleep from all that noise on the sixth floor with the door shut. I suppose the rooms located in the buildings away from the lobby are quieter. We had a Woods view, for which we paid extra. We would have been better off with the standard view. The only view we had was of the parking lot and part of the roof below. We also heard buses and beeping from vehicles all night long. We asked to be moved, but were told the hotel was sold out. Our stay was further ruined by housekeeping, who pounded on the door at 8 am, despite the DND sign. I guess they thought that didn't apply to them. Since most of our park activities were at night this time (MVMCP, Osbourne Lights, Candlelight Processional), we did not want to get up at the crack of dawn and hit the parks and be dragging when the main events occured. We wanted to sleep in to about 9-10 am. However, between the hollering from that restaurant and the housekeeping pounding on the door every 20 minutes, we couldn't get any sleep. I asked Housekeeping to please come back later that afternoon, when the DND sign was off. As they walked away, I heard one say to the other "Does she think we have all day?" I had envelopes printed out to leave a tip for Mousekeeping. Instead, the last day, I left a note instead, apologizing to the Mousekeeping staff for not getting out of my room at their convenience. I promised to be a good girl and never come back to their hotel and bother them in such a manner again!
If they're so insistent on making up the rooms at 8 am, why did we have to wait over an hour for our room when we checked in at 4:30 pm? Go figure!
Last but not least, the transportation form this place sucks! Everywhere we went it was at least an hour or more and two busses or bus/boat. We ended up taking taxis (and paying for them) just to get somewhere and not spend our entire trip pi$$ed off in the hotel or riding around and around trying to get somewhere. We only had three days and wanted to make the most of it. I had originally planned to stay at Grand Floridian and I'm sorry now we didn't. We stopped by there to check out the decorations and were quite impressed. Yes, the GF is more expensive, and you do get what you pay for!
We enjoyed our trip once we were out of the hotel. We are already planning our next year's Christmas trip there. Hopefully it will become a family tradition. However, our schedules only permit us about four nights for the Christmas trip. For such a limited amount of time, I'm planning a hotel that is more conveniently located and more "guest friendly". In my opinion, the WL exists for the enjoyment of the customers of that darned restaurant and the convenience of the housekeeping. The paying guests are just a nuisance for the hotel!!!!
I am not saying it is in any way your fault, but maybe you should have gone down to the front desk and let them know how, ahem, "unhappy" you were at being awakened. Trust me, if this had happened to me, they would have not wanted to see me coming! 
