RobDoc
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 14, 1998
- Messages
- 34,195
After about 46 weeks (yes- over 320 days) at OKW since June, 1993 - I do, finally, have a negative experience to report.
We have had minor issues over the past 11+ years- light bulbs out, carpet stains, missing supplies, etc.- and in each case these were rectified promptly with a simple phone call to the desk or housekeeping. I have never felt the need to report any of these issues here, since all were eagerly corrected with a simple phone call. HOWEVER ...
We arrived last night for a business meeting/34th anniversary trip. We had a great flight (arriving 15 minutes early) and were greeted by Renata from FL Tours at the baggage claim area as expected. We had a good trip to OKW, including a grocery stop at Publix on the way and arrived to find no wait at the front desk at about 9:30pm. Our requests were non-smoking, upper floor but we were assigned to room 4211 (ground floor) - next to the Turtle Pond Pool. Not an upper floor, but no concern at the desk.
FL Tours had graciously waited to deliver us, with luggage and groceries, to our room after checking in at the resort. Upon arrival at our room, we were assaulted by an overpowering smoke odor lingering in the room. We immediately called the front desk and were informed that, even though the resort was at 75% occupancy, we had been assigned to last 1BR villa available at OKW. (This villa was also HC accessible). They offered to send someone to "spray" the room and also offered to move us to another room the next morning. At 10:00pm, a maintenance CM arrived to change the air filters and a few minutes later someone from housekeeping arrived to casually "spray" a <i>Febreeze</i> type of product around the villa. He also suggested moving the next day.
The effects of the "spray" lasted about 10 minutes.
This morning, I walked down to the front desk at 8:30 checked out of 4211 and got keys to our new room. As anticipated, there were no rooms available at that time. I was given a choice between a villa in buildings 23, 26 or 28. I chose building 23. I was told I still needed to vacate our current room by 11:00am and was given instructions about calling the desk later to check when our room would be ready. I called Bell Services and they came to gather our luggage, groceries, perishables and frozen items for storage until our room was ready. We left the room at 9:00am in the Bell Services van an headed by bus to the MK after leaving our belongings with the Bell staff. I called the desk before leaving MK at 2:00pm and was told that our room was not yet ready. We then headed to MGM (I earned my 11th trip to the hot seat- but that's another story!) and again called the desk at 3:50pm and was told our room was ready (#2325). We got the next bus to OKW and arrived at our room at 4:15pm. Upon entering the key in the lock and entering the room, it was very apparent that the room was either still occupied or hadn't been touched by housekeeping. The sleep sofa was open in the living room, there were deflated Mickey balloons drooped over the chair and the counter was covered with food. A quick walk to HH got me into a line about 15 guests long. There were 4 CM's manning the desk at that time. I got on the internal resort phone and asked again for our new room number. When was given the same room -#2325- I told the CM in needed to speak to a supervisor, since that room was either occupied or had not been cleaned. After several tries, the connection never went thru and I was forced to call again. I was greeted by the same CM who promised to connect me again. After a few minutes - again on hold, I hung up and joined my DW, who had just been invited to the desk by the next available CM. After again asking for our new room number (and being given the same room #), I went thru the saga of our long days and the condition of the room we had just been assigned. She disappeared for about 5 minutes and reappeared with a new room number and the promise that the front desk manager was "personally" inspecting our new room (#2421) and he would be right back to talk with us. We waited in Papa's Den for another 15 minutes and were finally greeted by front desk manager Peter, who apologized to us- gave us yet another room number (now in building 26) and a fourth set of keys- explaining that he would be addressing housekeeping regarding both the second and third rooms we had been assigned. It was now after 5pm and we had been homeless since 8:30am. Our luggage and supplies were still in storage.
In the ensuing discussion, Peter apologized for the events of the past 20 hours and assured us that it was not the usual way things were handled at the resort. He did place a generous credit on our room charge to compensate for our inconvenience. He explained that even though the resort was at 75% occupancy, all of the 1BR villas were occupied and that we had to accept what was available at our arrival. He suggested that, in the future, we should call 2 days ahead to make room requests. I suggested that he probably didn't really mean to tell me that and reminded him of the fact that DVC has pretty adamantly stated that faxes and phone calls are not appreciated or effective for DVC reservations and that these policies have been stated both on the website and in Vacation Magic. He reitterated that such contact is welcomed by the OKW staff. I repeated that he probably didn't want to make that statement to me since I would be happy to share it on the DIS and he again welcomed the opportunity for the quote. (He also admitted that it wouldn't be effective if everyone called to reassert their requests before arrival. So, please don't tell anyone else!!
) I asked why it should be necessary to call at all when the requests had already made at the time of the reservation and he admitted that requests can't always be met. I again asked why DVC would issue a policy statement about NOT calling if they were really accepted and he replied that he wasn't aware that such a policy existed.
Sooooo, if you have any concerns about your room requests, I guess it can't hurt to call or fax a few days prior to remind the resort (at least at OKW) of what you have already asked for- inspite of the policies published by DVC. He admitted that, in this case, it might not have made any difference in our initial room assignment (since we were apparently the last to arrive at he resort last night), but suggested to call in the future. With his permission/insistence, I am reporting this here. He addressed all of our concerns and complaints satisfactorily and all agreed none of the issues should have ever occurred. I'm confident that everything will be addressed in proper manner with the resort staff.
The pool slide addition is underway. Construction barricades obstruct view from the Turtle Crawl area, but the site can easily be seen from several areas along Peninsular Road. At this point, only initial groundwork has begun- it does appear that the pool has been drained (or at least lowered), but no sign of the finished project is yet evident. If anything of note appears in the next few days, I'll try to post a photo- but nothing photo-worthy is yet apparent. Stay tuned!
On another note, Hurricane Jeanne continues to bear down on FL and landfall is currently expected near Vero in the early hours on Sunday (2-4AM). It is currently expected to pass near WDW Sunday afternoon, but no announcements have been realeased about park closures at this point. Since this will be our third hurricane experience at WDW (Floyd, Charley and now Jeanne - and we were originally scheduled to be here when Frances went thru), I do feel like a magnet for these weather events- and for that, I do apologize.
We will be here for another 9 days- some at OKW, some off-site attending a convention and a couple of nights at BCV. Hopefully the remainder of our trip will be uneventful!
We have had minor issues over the past 11+ years- light bulbs out, carpet stains, missing supplies, etc.- and in each case these were rectified promptly with a simple phone call to the desk or housekeeping. I have never felt the need to report any of these issues here, since all were eagerly corrected with a simple phone call. HOWEVER ...
We arrived last night for a business meeting/34th anniversary trip. We had a great flight (arriving 15 minutes early) and were greeted by Renata from FL Tours at the baggage claim area as expected. We had a good trip to OKW, including a grocery stop at Publix on the way and arrived to find no wait at the front desk at about 9:30pm. Our requests were non-smoking, upper floor but we were assigned to room 4211 (ground floor) - next to the Turtle Pond Pool. Not an upper floor, but no concern at the desk.
FL Tours had graciously waited to deliver us, with luggage and groceries, to our room after checking in at the resort. Upon arrival at our room, we were assaulted by an overpowering smoke odor lingering in the room. We immediately called the front desk and were informed that, even though the resort was at 75% occupancy, we had been assigned to last 1BR villa available at OKW. (This villa was also HC accessible). They offered to send someone to "spray" the room and also offered to move us to another room the next morning. At 10:00pm, a maintenance CM arrived to change the air filters and a few minutes later someone from housekeeping arrived to casually "spray" a <i>Febreeze</i> type of product around the villa. He also suggested moving the next day.
The effects of the "spray" lasted about 10 minutes.
This morning, I walked down to the front desk at 8:30 checked out of 4211 and got keys to our new room. As anticipated, there were no rooms available at that time. I was given a choice between a villa in buildings 23, 26 or 28. I chose building 23. I was told I still needed to vacate our current room by 11:00am and was given instructions about calling the desk later to check when our room would be ready. I called Bell Services and they came to gather our luggage, groceries, perishables and frozen items for storage until our room was ready. We left the room at 9:00am in the Bell Services van an headed by bus to the MK after leaving our belongings with the Bell staff. I called the desk before leaving MK at 2:00pm and was told that our room was not yet ready. We then headed to MGM (I earned my 11th trip to the hot seat- but that's another story!) and again called the desk at 3:50pm and was told our room was ready (#2325). We got the next bus to OKW and arrived at our room at 4:15pm. Upon entering the key in the lock and entering the room, it was very apparent that the room was either still occupied or hadn't been touched by housekeeping. The sleep sofa was open in the living room, there were deflated Mickey balloons drooped over the chair and the counter was covered with food. A quick walk to HH got me into a line about 15 guests long. There were 4 CM's manning the desk at that time. I got on the internal resort phone and asked again for our new room number. When was given the same room -#2325- I told the CM in needed to speak to a supervisor, since that room was either occupied or had not been cleaned. After several tries, the connection never went thru and I was forced to call again. I was greeted by the same CM who promised to connect me again. After a few minutes - again on hold, I hung up and joined my DW, who had just been invited to the desk by the next available CM. After again asking for our new room number (and being given the same room #), I went thru the saga of our long days and the condition of the room we had just been assigned. She disappeared for about 5 minutes and reappeared with a new room number and the promise that the front desk manager was "personally" inspecting our new room (#2421) and he would be right back to talk with us. We waited in Papa's Den for another 15 minutes and were finally greeted by front desk manager Peter, who apologized to us- gave us yet another room number (now in building 26) and a fourth set of keys- explaining that he would be addressing housekeeping regarding both the second and third rooms we had been assigned. It was now after 5pm and we had been homeless since 8:30am. Our luggage and supplies were still in storage.
In the ensuing discussion, Peter apologized for the events of the past 20 hours and assured us that it was not the usual way things were handled at the resort. He did place a generous credit on our room charge to compensate for our inconvenience. He explained that even though the resort was at 75% occupancy, all of the 1BR villas were occupied and that we had to accept what was available at our arrival. He suggested that, in the future, we should call 2 days ahead to make room requests. I suggested that he probably didn't really mean to tell me that and reminded him of the fact that DVC has pretty adamantly stated that faxes and phone calls are not appreciated or effective for DVC reservations and that these policies have been stated both on the website and in Vacation Magic. He reitterated that such contact is welcomed by the OKW staff. I repeated that he probably didn't want to make that statement to me since I would be happy to share it on the DIS and he again welcomed the opportunity for the quote. (He also admitted that it wouldn't be effective if everyone called to reassert their requests before arrival. So, please don't tell anyone else!!
) I asked why it should be necessary to call at all when the requests had already made at the time of the reservation and he admitted that requests can't always be met. I again asked why DVC would issue a policy statement about NOT calling if they were really accepted and he replied that he wasn't aware that such a policy existed. Sooooo, if you have any concerns about your room requests, I guess it can't hurt to call or fax a few days prior to remind the resort (at least at OKW) of what you have already asked for- inspite of the policies published by DVC. He admitted that, in this case, it might not have made any difference in our initial room assignment (since we were apparently the last to arrive at he resort last night), but suggested to call in the future. With his permission/insistence, I am reporting this here. He addressed all of our concerns and complaints satisfactorily and all agreed none of the issues should have ever occurred. I'm confident that everything will be addressed in proper manner with the resort staff.
The pool slide addition is underway. Construction barricades obstruct view from the Turtle Crawl area, but the site can easily be seen from several areas along Peninsular Road. At this point, only initial groundwork has begun- it does appear that the pool has been drained (or at least lowered), but no sign of the finished project is yet evident. If anything of note appears in the next few days, I'll try to post a photo- but nothing photo-worthy is yet apparent. Stay tuned!
On another note, Hurricane Jeanne continues to bear down on FL and landfall is currently expected near Vero in the early hours on Sunday (2-4AM). It is currently expected to pass near WDW Sunday afternoon, but no announcements have been realeased about park closures at this point. Since this will be our third hurricane experience at WDW (Floyd, Charley and now Jeanne - and we were originally scheduled to be here when Frances went thru), I do feel like a magnet for these weather events- and for that, I do apologize.
We will be here for another 9 days- some at OKW, some off-site attending a convention and a couple of nights at BCV. Hopefully the remainder of our trip will be uneventful!
DVC resort can have problems.
