Hello,
First, I want to thank everyone on this board for posting great questions and answers - I was able to find so much useful information for my recent trip to Disney that involved my mom, dad, brother, his fiance, her 5 year old son, my husband, and my 87 year old grandfather, who needed an ECV to get around and a handicap-accessible room (my husband and I were sharing with him).
I also want to apologize in advance for posting a negative review - I won't do it on the resort forums because I truly believe everyone's experience is different and just because I had a bad experience at a hotel doesn't mean everyone else will.
However, I waited several weeks to see if I calmed down (like I normally do), and I haven't, so I figured I would post here, where this information is most relevant. Sorry this story is so long - I want to provide all relevant details so anyone else in a similar situation doesn't think (like I did) that they've done everything right, only to have an issue when they get there!
My grandfather CAN walk, sort of, with a cane or his walker, but it is extremely slow and he has problems stepping up and down stairs or standing for long periods of time, etc...so getting him an ECV for the week was a no-brainer. We rented from Walker Scooters, and they were fabulous!
I also reserved a preferred-view room at the Caribbean for him...for those who aren't aware, the Caribbean is HUGE so I wanted to make sure he was as close as possible to the food court and the "main" pool. There is an internal shuttle so this may not have been entirely necessary, but we were worried my grandfather would struggle with getting on and off the buses in an ECV so we decided the extra $15/night for the preferred view was worth it.
Also because the Caribbean has two floors at each building, and no elevators, I specifically went through special needs when reserving the rooms to ensure that we would have the ground floor, and that the room my grandfather was in would be the type 1 (I think?) rooms with the handle bars and the bench so he could shower. We didn't care if the three rooms were adjoining or not, though they listed it as a preference on the reservation. Everything was confirmed, and I called once a week for the two months leading up to the trip just to make sure we would not have any problems.
The 8 of us arrived at the front desk for check-in earlier than expected. Each of the three parties had a different cast member check us in, and pretty much all at the same time we discovered that they had placed us in Trinidad South, the "pirate rooms" at the Caribbean that were as far away from the main food court/pool area as possible. When I immediately told the cast member that wasn't correct, that we had paid for preferred rooms, she got extremely defensive and said the pirate rooms were preferred (they are not - both cost $15/night extra, but they are two separate booking categories). The cast member helping my brother check-in said he would help us all out, but then insisted that there were no rooms available in the preferred section and there was nothing they could do. When I indicated we had paid $15 more per night for the preferred rooms for all 3 of our parties and that this was not a request, but a booking category, he again said there was absolutely nothing that could be done because they had us booked as pirate rooms and all preferred were full.
I carry all of my confirmation numbers with me, but I don't print anything out (I try to save paper and I know they can find things with the confirmation numbers). Luckily for me, my mother had printed out all of the information that she had, including the reservation showing we had booked the preferred room. The cast member once again said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do and we would have to take a different room, at which point I told him that I'm sorry but he would have to move us to a different hotel if my 87 year old grandfather was not going to get what he paid for and have to get on a bus every day just to get to the food court.
At this point, a manager got involved and miraculously "found" us 3 rooms in the same building of the preferred section, though not near each other (like I said, we didn't care about this). When I asked if the room would have the handicapped accessible features I needed for my grandfather, I was told that all first floor rooms at the Caribbean were handicap-accessible. (I knew this was not the correct answer, but at this point we had been in the lobby for close to two hours and my grandfather just didn't care anymore).
Room keys in hand, we went to bell services to retrieve the scooter. Bell services looked through a black box they have with keys, and said they didn't have anything in our name. They sent someone to a back room to check if the scooter was there, and it wasn't. Someone else came out and asked what the problem was and when I told them we were trying to pick up the scooter, they again went to the black box and said there was no key in there for us so it must not have been delivered. We called Walker, who confirmed they had delivered it nearly 3 hours earlier. Bell services claimed they couldn't send someone back to check again, but they would "as soon as they were able to"...nearly 30 minutes later (and close to 2.5 hours after arriving at the Caribbean) someone finally drove up to the lobby with the scooter.
The entire experience soured our first day - we had to rush around to get to our dinner reservation and didn't even have time to look at the hotel room when we checked in.
When we got back, I was unsurprised to realize that there were no benches, handle bars, etc in the room to assist my grandfather in taking a shower. When I called special needs to see what could be done, they confirmed it would be very easy for housekeeping to bring over a bench and a detachable shower head for the shower to make his life easier. Relief! Finally someone willing to help! Until...the housekeeper arrived, with the bench, but with no shower head. When we asked her where it was, she said "oh did you ask for one?" Why yes, I did! She said that they hadn't told her it was needed and that it's possible there were none left and I should call housekeeping to get one delivered. When I called housekeeping, again they asked me if I had asked special needs for one and made it sound like there were none available, but finally, close to an hour later, a maintenance man came and installed it.
The rest of the week wasn't perfect, but it went much better. It was definitely a learning experience being at Disney with someone in an ECV - I'll never get impatient in a bus line while someone is loading again, for sure! But I would suggest to people going in the future to make sure you know your rights, bring print outs of confirmations (and not just confirmation numbers), and don't be afraid to keep pushing until you get what you need.
First, I want to thank everyone on this board for posting great questions and answers - I was able to find so much useful information for my recent trip to Disney that involved my mom, dad, brother, his fiance, her 5 year old son, my husband, and my 87 year old grandfather, who needed an ECV to get around and a handicap-accessible room (my husband and I were sharing with him).
I also want to apologize in advance for posting a negative review - I won't do it on the resort forums because I truly believe everyone's experience is different and just because I had a bad experience at a hotel doesn't mean everyone else will.
However, I waited several weeks to see if I calmed down (like I normally do), and I haven't, so I figured I would post here, where this information is most relevant. Sorry this story is so long - I want to provide all relevant details so anyone else in a similar situation doesn't think (like I did) that they've done everything right, only to have an issue when they get there!
My grandfather CAN walk, sort of, with a cane or his walker, but it is extremely slow and he has problems stepping up and down stairs or standing for long periods of time, etc...so getting him an ECV for the week was a no-brainer. We rented from Walker Scooters, and they were fabulous!
I also reserved a preferred-view room at the Caribbean for him...for those who aren't aware, the Caribbean is HUGE so I wanted to make sure he was as close as possible to the food court and the "main" pool. There is an internal shuttle so this may not have been entirely necessary, but we were worried my grandfather would struggle with getting on and off the buses in an ECV so we decided the extra $15/night for the preferred view was worth it.
Also because the Caribbean has two floors at each building, and no elevators, I specifically went through special needs when reserving the rooms to ensure that we would have the ground floor, and that the room my grandfather was in would be the type 1 (I think?) rooms with the handle bars and the bench so he could shower. We didn't care if the three rooms were adjoining or not, though they listed it as a preference on the reservation. Everything was confirmed, and I called once a week for the two months leading up to the trip just to make sure we would not have any problems.
The 8 of us arrived at the front desk for check-in earlier than expected. Each of the three parties had a different cast member check us in, and pretty much all at the same time we discovered that they had placed us in Trinidad South, the "pirate rooms" at the Caribbean that were as far away from the main food court/pool area as possible. When I immediately told the cast member that wasn't correct, that we had paid for preferred rooms, she got extremely defensive and said the pirate rooms were preferred (they are not - both cost $15/night extra, but they are two separate booking categories). The cast member helping my brother check-in said he would help us all out, but then insisted that there were no rooms available in the preferred section and there was nothing they could do. When I indicated we had paid $15 more per night for the preferred rooms for all 3 of our parties and that this was not a request, but a booking category, he again said there was absolutely nothing that could be done because they had us booked as pirate rooms and all preferred were full.
I carry all of my confirmation numbers with me, but I don't print anything out (I try to save paper and I know they can find things with the confirmation numbers). Luckily for me, my mother had printed out all of the information that she had, including the reservation showing we had booked the preferred room. The cast member once again said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do and we would have to take a different room, at which point I told him that I'm sorry but he would have to move us to a different hotel if my 87 year old grandfather was not going to get what he paid for and have to get on a bus every day just to get to the food court.
At this point, a manager got involved and miraculously "found" us 3 rooms in the same building of the preferred section, though not near each other (like I said, we didn't care about this). When I asked if the room would have the handicapped accessible features I needed for my grandfather, I was told that all first floor rooms at the Caribbean were handicap-accessible. (I knew this was not the correct answer, but at this point we had been in the lobby for close to two hours and my grandfather just didn't care anymore).
Room keys in hand, we went to bell services to retrieve the scooter. Bell services looked through a black box they have with keys, and said they didn't have anything in our name. They sent someone to a back room to check if the scooter was there, and it wasn't. Someone else came out and asked what the problem was and when I told them we were trying to pick up the scooter, they again went to the black box and said there was no key in there for us so it must not have been delivered. We called Walker, who confirmed they had delivered it nearly 3 hours earlier. Bell services claimed they couldn't send someone back to check again, but they would "as soon as they were able to"...nearly 30 minutes later (and close to 2.5 hours after arriving at the Caribbean) someone finally drove up to the lobby with the scooter.
The entire experience soured our first day - we had to rush around to get to our dinner reservation and didn't even have time to look at the hotel room when we checked in.
When we got back, I was unsurprised to realize that there were no benches, handle bars, etc in the room to assist my grandfather in taking a shower. When I called special needs to see what could be done, they confirmed it would be very easy for housekeeping to bring over a bench and a detachable shower head for the shower to make his life easier. Relief! Finally someone willing to help! Until...the housekeeper arrived, with the bench, but with no shower head. When we asked her where it was, she said "oh did you ask for one?" Why yes, I did! She said that they hadn't told her it was needed and that it's possible there were none left and I should call housekeeping to get one delivered. When I called housekeeping, again they asked me if I had asked special needs for one and made it sound like there were none available, but finally, close to an hour later, a maintenance man came and installed it.
The rest of the week wasn't perfect, but it went much better. It was definitely a learning experience being at Disney with someone in an ECV - I'll never get impatient in a bus line while someone is loading again, for sure! But I would suggest to people going in the future to make sure you know your rights, bring print outs of confirmations (and not just confirmation numbers), and don't be afraid to keep pushing until you get what you need.
) so I'm planning our next trip now - what hotels have people had GOOD experiences with where mobility is concerned? We're considering getting a deluxe hotel because, while the drivers were very helpful with getting the 
When all unraffled and things first looked very grimm, I was SO regretting my decision to travel with my powerchair -first trip-, and I vowed never to travel again with the "ratched thing" on a solo trip. And as I need the chair; no more travel. That coming from somebody that goes all around the globe, solo. Not only did the CM's save that specific trip, but it made me see that even if the worst were to happen it'll somehow be OK. I still travel, both with the powerchair and solo. In a way they saved my passion of travel still being consumated.
) If not, if something like this ever happens again at a resort, politely ask to speak to the manager. Good to read that you communicated your problems back to Disney, a lot more productive than just venting on here. 
On to your next trip! Hopefully it'll be soon and great. 
