NMAmy
Can speak food in German
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2000
- Messages
- 15,229
I've been a huge cheerleader for the Dolphin after multiple stays. The family loved it and we had nothing but exemplary service.
Over the past couple of years, we've taken advantage of some of the great Disney deals and have stayed at BWV twice and POFQ once. This year, we decided we'd missed the Dolphin and we were very excited about staying there again.
Things have sadly gone really downhill in the last few years. I'm not going to go into all the issues that we had but our room was incredibly dingy-the two lamps were completely missing lightbulbs and one of the lights over the bed had burnt out, a huge area of the paint on the back of the bathroom door had been chipped away and repainted in a non-matching color, carpet was stained, drawers would not open, etc.
We were there for a split stay so we put up with the room for the first part of our stay. We'd checked out to go to Universal for one day and when we checked back into the hotel, they assigned us in the same room again. Out of all the hundreds of rooms available, really?
I asked to be moved to a different room and was told there was nothing available. I tried repeatedly to speak with a manager and was told none were available but I could email. I'd like to point out here that I was NOT asking for an upgrade but simply a different room. We were at the front desk for 45 minutes but she would not budge--that was the only room available in the whole hotel. She also seemed miffed that we had booked through Dreams Unlimited and wanted to know why I'd do that instead of booking directly with Starwood.
I finally gave up and just emailed while we were still in the hotel and did not hear back until after we had checked out (6 days later). We also had issues with the daily water not being delivered. I had to call repeatedly to get it sent to the room.
Even after we left, the poor customer service continued. The gentleman I was dealing with would email and say he'd get back with me by a certain date and then nothing. At this point, I wanted nothing more than to let them know the issues we had and that we would not be back. I've been an SPG member for years and he offered me 10,000 points then it took a month for them to be credited to my account and only then after I contacted SPG directly and asked if a request had been entered from the hotel. Within one day of me writing SPG, I finally heard back from the hotel.
This gentleman also told me that my requests for a different room should have been escalated and he wasn't sure why they were ignored.
In prior years, we thought the service was wonderful. When you arrived, you were given a letter from the general manager with contact phone numbers if you had an issue. I remember stopping by the front desk for assistance with a leaky a/c and having maintenance beat me back to the room to start resolving the problem. I'd also get multiple phone calls to make sure problems had been resolved to my satisfaction. Last trip, even calls to room service were picked up by voicemail and not returned.
I'm not picky and I'm not a complainer. I've stayed at many WDW hotels (all the values, POFQ, BWV, WL) and never posted a bad review. However, we will not be back to the Dolphin in the future.
Over the past couple of years, we've taken advantage of some of the great Disney deals and have stayed at BWV twice and POFQ once. This year, we decided we'd missed the Dolphin and we were very excited about staying there again.
Things have sadly gone really downhill in the last few years. I'm not going to go into all the issues that we had but our room was incredibly dingy-the two lamps were completely missing lightbulbs and one of the lights over the bed had burnt out, a huge area of the paint on the back of the bathroom door had been chipped away and repainted in a non-matching color, carpet was stained, drawers would not open, etc.
We were there for a split stay so we put up with the room for the first part of our stay. We'd checked out to go to Universal for one day and when we checked back into the hotel, they assigned us in the same room again. Out of all the hundreds of rooms available, really?
I asked to be moved to a different room and was told there was nothing available. I tried repeatedly to speak with a manager and was told none were available but I could email. I'd like to point out here that I was NOT asking for an upgrade but simply a different room. We were at the front desk for 45 minutes but she would not budge--that was the only room available in the whole hotel. She also seemed miffed that we had booked through Dreams Unlimited and wanted to know why I'd do that instead of booking directly with Starwood.
I finally gave up and just emailed while we were still in the hotel and did not hear back until after we had checked out (6 days later). We also had issues with the daily water not being delivered. I had to call repeatedly to get it sent to the room.
Even after we left, the poor customer service continued. The gentleman I was dealing with would email and say he'd get back with me by a certain date and then nothing. At this point, I wanted nothing more than to let them know the issues we had and that we would not be back. I've been an SPG member for years and he offered me 10,000 points then it took a month for them to be credited to my account and only then after I contacted SPG directly and asked if a request had been entered from the hotel. Within one day of me writing SPG, I finally heard back from the hotel.
This gentleman also told me that my requests for a different room should have been escalated and he wasn't sure why they were ignored.
In prior years, we thought the service was wonderful. When you arrived, you were given a letter from the general manager with contact phone numbers if you had an issue. I remember stopping by the front desk for assistance with a leaky a/c and having maintenance beat me back to the room to start resolving the problem. I'd also get multiple phone calls to make sure problems had been resolved to my satisfaction. Last trip, even calls to room service were picked up by voicemail and not returned.
I'm not picky and I'm not a complainer. I've stayed at many WDW hotels (all the values, POFQ, BWV, WL) and never posted a bad review. However, we will not be back to the Dolphin in the future.
Too bad each of those stays was only one night and the bulk of our stay was at the Dolphin.
