Not thrilled with our BC stay this time

[tjmw2727]

Back earlier this week from a great New Years trip - started out with 4 nights at SSS with extended family in a 2 bedroom followed by 3 nights at the BC just my 2 daughters and I.

SSS was a great stay - room was ready by 4ish good location, great housekeeping (cash not points) and the bus service was good.

Headed to the BC at 10ish to pre-check in, leave our bags and head to Epcot. Issues started when our room wasn't ready at 3:30 and the CM told me check in was 4 (I think BC is 3 BC villa is 4?). Ok we can wait a bit longer - when we still hadn't received a text by 5:15 I went back to the front desk only to be told we were texted at 2pm that our room was ready. No issues with texts at SSS or last month at AOA so I have no idea why the text didn't go through. My issue was more about why did the CM at 4 not know as well as with the nonchalant attitude of both CM's. We had Club Villain reservations and my kids really wanted to shower and change.

Got to the room - our only request was a full balcony and we didn't get that - but the view was nice, kids were wanting to shower and go so we decided to stick with the room.

The next morning we left for the parks at 10 - returned at 7 to no housekeeping, I called and they said they had cleaned the room "it was on the list!" so I just asked for fresh towels and some coffee pods, no big. We did get housekeeping on day 2

New Years day I received a text at 7am telling me my room wasn't ready yet! We were at Epcot New Years Eve so I wasn't to happy to be woken up for that text at all. 30 minutes later I got another text saying I needed to see the front desk about my room assignment? Grabbed a little more sleep and went to the front desk around 9:30 to see what was going on. CM was wonderful, couldn't figure out what happened but assured me all was well. 10:45 with our Do Not Disturb sign on the door we had loud knocking by the housekeeper. I opened the door and she told me if we wanted housekeeping it has to be now. I said I have the do not disturb sign on right now, and we would like housekeeping but not until later. She said she would see what she could do but our room was not serviced that day either.

We left for MK about noon and while walking into the park I got a text saying my room was ready - a completely different room than the one I was already in. So while in MK I have to call to find out what was going on. Yes - they had my check out date wrong and during my visit to the front desk apparently the CM tried to extend my stay but instead checked me in again.

On check out day I didn't receive the email with my folio so I called after we got home to inquire. I was sent two folios for two stays, one was correct for the 3 nights and the other was the "phantom" 1 night room. Ugh so now I am trying to correct the double billing with WDW and just to be sure with my credit card company as well.

We visit 3/4 times a year and have stayed at all levels of resort and this was one of the worst experiences with customer service I have ever experienced. A BC room at new years was at a premium price and we certainly didn't receive a premium experience. Each issue on its own was no big deal for me - but it was one thing after another over our last 3 days.

If you made it this far thanks for reading I didn't realize how long this would be. I am trying to decide if I am going to contact guest services or just move on (assuming the double billing will be resolved). We are in the process of planning a trip for my mother in law, sister and nieces in April as some of us are running the Dark Side race and if we have this type of issues it will be on me!

 

[siestakeys04]

That is crazy....I would definitely keep checking on the double booking. I hope you still had a good time with your family anyway.

 

[lbus42]

Thanks for your post. I was considering BC for a future stay and now I am re-considering it. You sound like a very reasonable person and that it would take a lot to give you a negative experience.

 

[Farro]

That would be very annoying!!!

 

[tgarre06]

I can only imagine how much that BC room was per night over a NYE stay. I would be just as frustrated as you after spending that much money.

 

[robinb]

I would contact guest services. Your experience is unacceptable.

 

[tjmw2727]

Thanks everyone for the support I hate to be a complainer !

While talking about this just now my daughter reminded me that only 1 of our bands worked for room entry the first day and a different band didn't work for room charging. We went to front desk on the second morning and they fixed that issue.

I would contact guest services. Your experience is unacceptable.

I think I will - just have to re-work the above to something more "professional" maybe.

 

[lbus42]

Thanks everyone for the support I hate to be a complainer !

You are definitely not a complainer! It sounded like you took everything in stride. There are a lot of posts where people get really bent out of shape when only one thing goes wrong. You dealt with a lot of goofs and inconveniences and have a perfect right to talk about them. And you did so in such a way that it made much more of an impression than someone who rants and raves.

 

[tjmw2727]

Thanks for your post. I was considering BC for a future stay and now I am re-considering it. You sound like a very reasonable person and that it would take a lot to give you a negative experience.

Thanks for the support but if you like the BC I wouldn't discount it just because of my experience - I think it was just a "murphy's law" type of thing!

I have to say that BC is great - we had 2 successful stays at the BC villas with no issues. The pool area is great, location is great and we had no issues on previous stays. I don't like the fact that at BC you can't "book" a balcony but that is my only issue and I was willing to take that chance with a request. Not sure I will return but I don't want to totally discourage others as this is a really nice resort.

 

[vinotinto]

Did you have 2 separate reservations at BC, or did the system "create" a second reservation? If the system created a phantom second reservation, that is crazy!

I just reread it and I see that you did not have a second reservation, it was a wrong check-out date. What a pain to have to sort all that!

 

[tjmw2727]

Did you have 2 separate reservations at BC, or did the system "create" a second reservation? If the system created a phantom second reservation, that is crazy!

I just reread it and I see that you did not have a second reservation, it was a wrong check-out date. What a pain to have to sort all that!

Nope - one reservation for SSS for a party of 6 and one reservation for 3 nights for a party of 3 at BC ! Only one confirmation number in my advance reservations for BC. But two different confirmation numbers in the two different folios - one is correct and the other is not.

 

[Dave006]

TJ, first I agree that you had a very bad experience at the BC! You planned a great Disney vacation but you can you can rest until you are back home. Since you invested time planning and a good chunk of money, please invest 20 more minutes to help prevent "preventable errors"

A general disclaimer: I am only going to provide some well proven ideas the can prevent this type of experience for you and others on DIS. First, lets start with a question: How do you know your request for a Full balcony was actually noted in your BC reservation?

You might be surprised how many Guest "requests" don't actually make it into the actual reservation. The best option is to verify that your "request(s)" actually have the best chance to make it to the room assigner and requires 3 simple steps that work 95% of the time. With about 30,000 on-site rooms at WDW there will always be a percentage of mistakes made by the "human" CMs every day!

1. Regardless of how you make your initial reservation (Web or Phone), call and have a phone agent read back any requests. You would be surprised by the simple data entry mistakes that get into a reservation. Note if you use a Travel Agent, the agent owns your reservation and can request / verify your information and any requests directly with Disney.

2. If you do "Online Check-In", don't make any requests as they often conflict or override any original "request(s)" noted in your reservation.

3. Stop at the Front desk ASAP: Online Check-In queue if you did an online check-in or regular queue. Ask the CM to verify your reservation information: check-in date, check-out date, view reserved and any requests noted on your reservation and ask if your assigned room meets your reservation. If it does not match, this is the place to get it fixed. Just ask the CM if there is a room that would be a better match to your "request(s)".​

Next up late room availability: If you have a time constraint, share this information with the CM at the Front desk, they will offer you an "available room" if there are any rooms available. It might not meet your request(s) but will get you into a room. If you don't get your room assignment when expected/promised, check back every 20-30 minutes, please don't wait 1-2 hours before checking back. The room ready texts are not 100%, data entry errors can and do happen. Check-In times for WDW resorts: The check-in time is 4:00 PM for Disney Deluxe Villas, 1:00 PM for The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and 3:00 PM for the other Disney Resort hotels. The check-out time is 11:00 AM.

Next up Mousekeeping: No excuse here but a simple explanation, human error on a Holiday weekend for the missed cleaning. The door knock just before 11 is a very frequent pattern. You would not believe how many Guests leave the room with the DND hang tag on the door when rushing to the park or on check-out day. Your's sounds like it was listed as your Check-out day base on your comments about the wrong Check-out day.

Next up 2 reservations: It sounds like the front desk CM screwed up trying to fix the original error in your reservation, as you noted the incorrect check-out day. This sounds like this is what caused the 2 reservations, generated the texts that you received on the wrong day, generating the two reservations, and the 2 Folios. If you did not receive the provisional eFolio, stop by the Front desk and get a copy of your Folio before you leave. Please don't wait until you get home to request a copy of you eFolio from Guest Services.

Dave

 

[shoreward]

Besides the excellent inside info/recommendations provided by @Dave006, I suggest that you send a letter to the General Manager of the Yacht and Beach Club. Management takes guest comments seriously.

Contact info:

Cosmo Kapoor, General Manager
Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts
1800 EPCOT Resort Boulevard
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

I have stayed at the BC many times, and when sometimes things do not go exactly as planned, there is usually a CM there who will try to resolve the issue at hand. If you are having problems that a CM has not been able to resolve, ask for a supervisor. If you are on site, always speak to someone in person, as all calls go through to an off-site call center, which usually delays or impedes resolution of problems.

I have also had a couple of times where the room text was not working well. After waiting in the lobby for my text, well past the time it was supposed to be received, I finally went back up to the front desk and was advised that my room was ready. Next time, I will not worry so much about "bothering" the CMs at the front desk to recheck on my room's availability, if a text is not received by the anticipated time.

 

[Mousemommy1]

I agree that you should let Disney know about your troubles. That's all incredibly frustrating!

 

[Mpls Mom of 4]

I'm furrowing my brow because we had nearly an identical issue at Beach Club last month..AND something similar at Kidani Village last year! We arrived at the hotel around 2:30, told that we would get a text when our room was ready, so we hit the pool. Around 5, my husband checked back in with the desk and they said they had sent a text which we had not received around 4:15 that our room was ready. The same thing happened at Kidani Village. This was compounded with the fact that by the time we did make it to the room, our Magic Bands did not work. We had to go back to the desk twice to get mine fixed. The issue with housekeeping is absolutely unacceptable. But a string of unpleasant events - I don't blame you for being frustrated!!

 

[loves to dive]

Yep, sounds like you just had a Murphy's Law type of stay but made the best of it so good for you. I love YC/BC, YC is actually my favorite resort on all of Disney property and I've stayed at just about all of them. Mistakes happen and they can and do snow ball. I don't even check on the room's ready texts, we tend to get there around 2 since we drive, check in and leave our bags in our car and head over to a park. We are rarely ready to get back into our room until well after 5 or 6 so if I haven't received a text, I just head back to the front desk. I would contact guest services to just to make sure your cc doesn't get double charged and to let them know there was a problem but it can happen anywhere.

 

[tjmw2727]

I am going to respond to the below but I do resent the "tone" in which I am reading here - why are you assuming I did none of these things? Yes these are "preventable errors" but I don't agree it was my responsibility to prevent them!

I have traveled quite a bit and am very familiar with how the hotel industry works. If I had provided more detail in my OP it would have indeed been a novel.

I did physically check in with the front desk in the morning despite also doing online check in. We did verify the reservation dates, room category, checked pin #s and MBs as well as the request for a full balcony. Since check in time is at 3 and our CV reservation was at 8:15 I didn't feel the need to mention a time constraint. Honestly the lack of a full balcony was the least of my issues but the CM knew I would rather have the balcony than the room ready early (prior to 3).

We checked on the room at 3:30 but went off to do other things, there were three of us and lots to do so I didn't want to be in the lobby waking back and forth to the front desk every 30 minutes hoping for a room. For me it was better to go do something fun on our vacation; I had been assured a text would be coming (and had no issues on many prior trips getting room ready texts).

I disagree with a housekeeper knocking on a door with the DND sign on - a phone call would be acceptable if they thought this was our check out day and we had forgotten the DND sign. IMHO nobody should be knocking when the sign is on and trying to enter an occupied room.

I agree about the check out day issue but again - how is this my fault? There is nothing 20 extra minutes on my part could have done to avoid the early am texts and new room assignment.

I never stop by the front desk to get the folio - complete waste of time IMHO and I wouldn't have been able to correct the issue then anyway. It usually shows up sometime on check out day. Stopping to get it/them would have done nothing to change this !

I do appreciate your taking the time to respond with so much good info - but I actually did most/all of your suggestions

TJ, first I agree that you had a very bad experience at the BC! You planned a great Disney vacation but you can you can rest until you are back home. Since you invested time planning and a good chunk of money, please invest 20 more minutes to help prevent "preventable errors"

A general disclaimer: I am only going to provide some well proven ideas the can prevent this type of experience for you and others on DIS. First, lets start with a question: How do you know your request for a Full balcony was actually noted in your BC reservation?

You might be surprised how many Guest "requests" don't actually make it into the actual reservation. The best option is to verify that your "request(s)" actually have the best chance to make it to the room assigner and requires 3 simple steps that work 95% of the time. With about 30,000 on-site rooms at WDW there will always be a percentage of mistakes made by the "human" CMs every day!

1. Regardless of how you make your initial reservation (Web or Phone), call and have a phone agent read back any requests. You would be surprised by the simple data entry mistakes that get into a reservation. Note if you use a Travel Agent, the agent owns your reservation and can request / verify your information and any requests directly with Disney.

2. If you do "Online Check-In", don't make any requests as they often conflict or override any original "request(s)" noted in your reservation.

3. Stop at the Front desk ASAP: Online Check-In queue if you did an online check-in or regular queue. Ask the CM to verify your reservation information: check-in date, check-out date, view reserved and any requests noted on your reservation and ask if your assigned room meets your reservation. If it does not match, this is the place to get it fixed. Just ask the CM if there is a room that would be a better match to your "request(s)".​

Next up late room availability: If you have a time constraint, share this information with the CM at the Front desk, they will offer you an "available room" if there are any rooms available. It might not meet your request(s) but will get you into a room. If you don't get your room assignment when expected/promised, check back every 20-30 minutes, please don't wait 1-2 hours before checking back. The room ready texts are not 100%, data entry errors can and do happen. Check-In times for WDW resorts: The check-in time is 4:00 PM for Disney Deluxe Villas, 1:00 PM for The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and 3:00 PM for the other Disney Resort hotels. The check-out time is 11:00 AM.

Next up Mousekeeping: No excuse here but a simple explanation, human error on a Holiday weekend for the missed cleaning. The door knock just before 11 is a very frequent pattern. You would not believe how many Guests leave the room with the DND hang tag on the door when rushing to the park or on check-out day. Your's sounds like it was listed as your Check-out day base on your comments about the wrong Check-out day.

Next up 2 reservations: It sounds like the front desk CM screwed up trying to fix the original error in your reservation, as you noted the incorrect check-out day. This sounds like this is what caused the 2 reservations, generated the texts that you received on the wrong day, generating the two reservations, and the 2 Folios. If you did not receive the provisional eFolio, stop by the Front desk and get a copy of your Folio before you leave. Please don't wait until you get home to request a copy of you eFolio from Guest Services.

Dave

 

[robinb]

I did physically check in with the front desk in the morning despite also doing online check in. We did verify the reservation dates, room category, checked pin #s and MBs as well as the request for a full balcony. Since check in time is at 3 and our CV reservation was at 8:15 I didn't feel the need to mention a time constraint. Honestly the lack of a full balcony was the least of my issues but the CM knew I would rather have the balcony than the room ready early (prior to 3).

Wow. I also thought your mini balcony to be the least of your issues because it is merely a request. BUT if you checked in at 8:15 and verified that request and told the CM that you were willing to wait longer for a full balcony ... well ... that just doesn't seem right. YOU should have been pretty much first in line for your request.

 

[maryj11]

Wow that is crazy !

 

[lbus42]

Yeah, I do not understand the "tone" of some of the responses. It's as if everyone expects substandard service from Disney and they are willing to settle for it.

With about 30,000 on-site rooms at WDW there will always be a percentage of mistakes made by the "human" CMs every day!

I understand that is a lot of rooms to have to manage, but there are LOTS of people managing those rooms. Each of these room managers should be striving for zero mistakes. They won't be able to get that, but if they are striving for lets say only 5 % mistakes, they WILL get 5 % and probably more. Their goal should be zero dis-satisfied customers.

Other comments I've seen seem to suggest that the OP should have been more proactive in the management of their reservation or more diligent in insuring that CM's are doing their jobs. If I was to stay at the Plaza Hotel in NYC, I would expect them to provide the level of service I paid for. If I requested a room facing 5th Avenue, I am certain that when I get there my room will face 5th Avenue. I would not have to double-check that this request was recorded.

I am not going to arrive at the Plaza and find that my room is not ready at the time they said that it would be. Nor would I have to ask to have toiletries or towels replenished, trashcans emptied, or have my room cleaned.

Disney deluxe resorts are the price of some 4 star hotels and at certain times the same as 5 star hotels. Every customer of a deluxe should expect a 4 star experience and receive it without having to ask for it.