Never stay at the Grosvenor

[CVW]

Unless you're absolutely 100% sure there won't be any bad weather.

We stayed there during Hurricane Jeanne (before moving over to BCV). We were on the 9th floor facing east. Both my and my brother's rooms had soaked carpets from the rain blowing through the windows. My brother's room had multiple leaks through the ceiling,and we ran out of wastebaskets to catch the drips.

The TV's went out during the storm. They receive their local channels over satellite instead of over the air, so we couldn't even get hurricane information except over the clock radios.

But this wasn't the worst problem.

The Grosvenor's fire escapes are EXTERNAL! If the power had gone out and we needed to evacuate, I would have had to carry my kids outside in the hurricane nine floors up until I reached bottom. For some, the 19th floor! (Interestingly, the exit is enclosed from the fifth floor down. But by the time you get to the second floor, the downdraft was so strong, you couldn't even open the fire escape door. I tried opening it from inside, and was unable to do so.)

We made a break for it the second the curfew was lifted and had a perfect vacation at BCV. But I must state in the strongest possible terms that I did not feel safe in this hotel.

 

[CarolA]

External Fire Escapes are the norm in buildings of that age. The only reason you would have used them is in the event of a fire which considering the rain situation you describe seems unlikely, but one never knows.

I think the clock radios are pretty much the norm and I have never been able to get decent radio reception with them in any hotel (Disney included) there is just too much interefenence. Also, I am pretty sure 99% of the hotels I have stayed at now receive Local TV Channels over the satellite.

Sorry you had a bad stay.

 

[CVW]

Originally posted by CarolA
The only reason you would have used them is in the event of a fire.

Au contraire. The real concern was loss of power, not fire. If we had lost power, we would have more likely braved it out in the hallway rather than trying to make it downstairs. The true weirdness of their design is in allowing a downdraft making it extremely difficult to get the door open, even on the lower floors. It's a fire escape only. Not a storm escape.

Originally posted by CarolA
I am pretty sure 99% of the hotels I have stayed at now receive Local TV Channels over the satellite.

Actually Disney appears to use a combination of OTA (over the air) reception for local channels, and satellite feed for "cable" channels. This is strongly preferable in bad weather, where you may lose satellite feed, but the OTA signal is still present.

The Grosvenor was obviously using a two-satellite system for locals and "cable" stations without any OTA backup. The irony was that the more reliable satellite (for national feed) would occasionally come on during the storm. So we would get sporadic coverage from CNN, but they only showed howling winds and gave minimal detailed information.

A simple pair of rabbit ears could have fixed the problem.

Originally posted by CarolA
Sorry you had a bad stay.

Actually, we had a wonderful vacation. The Grosvenor experience just gave us something to make this one even more memorable. Probably the best point I can make is, be aware if the fire escapes are internal or external, particularly if you're in "hurricane hunker down" mode. I can't recommend the Grosvenor.