OKW Trip Report 1/09/08 - 1/13/08

[RobDoc]

We arrived at OKW about 9pm on Wednesday, using DME from the airport. DME was fine and check-in was very prompt as expected. The CM even brought out the desk manager to "welcome" us home.

We had Bell Services transport us to our 1BR villa (Building 27). Everything was in great shape and very clean - BUT - the phone was missing from the bedroom, so I immediately called the front desk and reported the missing phone ( how mousekeeping missed that I do not understand - actually they now go by "Showkeeping" but that's another discussion). I was told it owuld be brought the next day. Our Owners Locker was waiting for us in the room and, as always, it was good to see our "stuff" again!

About 9:30am on Thursday we had a knock at the door with the identification as "Maintenance". Expecting the reported phone to be delivered, I opened the door and was surprised to see that it was a maintenance CM who wanted to check our microwave. He stated that we were missing the woven metal filters for the exhaust fan - and then spent the next 10 minutes measuring the filter frame and writing down the microwave registration number. He explained that we had no filter on the microwave and , even though he had one in his hand , they were "out" of the proper filters and would be back. I mentioned the missing telephone to him and he said he'd report it.

About 10:30am we had a phone call from Martha Ordonez, the "Guest Show Manager" who was in charge of our villa. She asked if we had everything we needed. I stated that everything seemed to be fine - except for the missing telephone. She said she'd report the missing telephone.

We left the room about noon and went to MK for a few hours. We had a quick lunch at Columbia House, rode Buzz Lightyear, CoP, TTA, PotC and HM and I got my haircut at the Mainstreet Barbershop before returning to our room. The bedroom phone was in place when we arrived.

Friday morning, about 10:30am, we again had a knock at the door with the "Maintenance" identification. When DW answered the door she had an explanation that they needed to "check" the airconditioner. (We actually had the heat on at the time and had no problems with the air the previous 2 days.) We wrongly assumed it would be a quick "change-the-filter" type of service call - WRONG. There were two maintenance CMs who worked on the AC for over an hour - eventually re-plumbing the PVC piping accessed thru the laundry room. Redoing PVC involves using "pipe dope", with a particularly strong chemical odor (glue-sniffing). They eventually announced they were done and left the room - leaving the strong odor behind. It took an hour with the front door and both patio doors wide open to clear the smell from the villa.

Why the missing phone was missed and the missing filter and "repair" of the functioning AC couldn't have been accomplished either before we arrived or after we checked out, I do NOT understand.

On Saturday, we had our expected T/T service - everything was as expected, but now we had someone in our room everyday of our 4 day stay.

At check-in we provided a credit card, as we always do, to allow room charges and also to have Express Checkout. This morning, we had no statement on our door so I called the desk and was told we were not "signed up" for Express Checkout. I questioned how that could be since that was one the "benefits" quoted for providing a credit card. The CM asked if I had made any charges and after affirming that we had charged a number of thing sto the room, she checked and told us our balance. I asked why there was no Express Checkout if they had allowed charged and she asked if I wanted to speak to "accounting". I declined and asked to speak to a manager.

After a few minutes, "John", the desk manager came on the line and I inquired why I had not gotten my statement. He replied that I was not signed up for Express Checkout. After a "discussion" about the purpose of providing the credit card he finally blamed not getting the statement on "human error". He stated that the default setting is to be signed up for Express Checkout whenever a credit card is provided and the "only" way it would not be provided was if it were manually removed by a CM. At this point I vented my frustration with the missing phone, missing vent filters and scheduled AC repair during our 4 day stay. He stated that he would "pass along" my comments to maintenance. He did arrange for our errant final statement to be delivered to our villa.

I find it hard to believe that these maintenance issues could not have been scheduled between 11:00am and 4:00pm on Wednesday or delayed until 11:00am today. Except for the missing telephone, none of the other "maintenance calls" were reported by us and none of them affected the use of our villa - so why was it critical that they be addressed during our stay - while we were in the room?

We called Bell services to store our luggage and they took good care of us.

We picked up a rental car and we grabbed lunch at Fulton's (20% DVC discount), did some more shopping and then retrieved our bags from the Bell Staff at OKW.

We are staying another week as I have a conference at Universal's Portofino Bay Resort this week. We're staying at Silver Lake resort on a timeshare exchange. We can see EE from the resort. It is the closest offsite resort to AKL. We can also see the Kidani construction from 192 as we went for groceries. There is a really nearby Publix store (when you leave AKL, take a right at the first light leaving the resort - Sherberth Road - . You'll go past the Disney rehearsal facilities, Silver Lake is on the right, and when you get to 192, turn right and the Publix is about 2 miles on the right - near the Orange Lake Resort) - you will see Kidani on the right when you pass Black Lake Road. 192 is relatively quiet at this point, so there shouldn't be too much traffic noise at Kidani.

I took some photos of the new construction from the CR observation deck yesterday and will post those when we get home next weekend. They are working on the 6th floor now. I only have a wireless aircard connection (think - dialup speed) at this time and can't easily upload any photos. OKW did NOT have free broadband yet.

We have a 2BR at Silver Lake. Nice resort. About 400 units, 3 pools, tennis courts, movie theater, golf simulator, store and snack bar. Size of the 2BR is smaller than an OKW 2BR, but still nice with Jacuzzi tub, 2 balconies, King bed in the master BR and King Bed in the 2nd BR with a queen sleep sofa. Sleeps 6 - probably about 1200 sq feet.

We had a great dinner at CA Grille last night, a nice meal at Fulton's today and dinner at Olivia's on Thursday. No problems with any of the dining experiences thus far.

 

[AKV707]

Thanks for the report Doc. Very strange that they would send maintenance in while the room was occupied. Shouldn't they just have waited and taken it out of service for the day?

Did you get an idea of how Kidani construction is going?

 

[Pootle]

At check-in we provided a credit card, as we always do, to allow room charges and also to have Express Checkout. This morning, we had no statement on our door so I called the desk and was told we were not "signed up" for Express Checkout.

This happened to me last November too - first time in more than 25 stays at OKW!

I also had a slight problem with a small maintenance issue and having to report it to several different people before getting a result. There seems to be a communication problem at OKW at the moment.

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the report Doc - how strange that, as you say, the maintenance issues could not be addressed after you'd checked out

We had some issues while staying at BWv last Feb where maintenance was in our room for several hours during our stay. In the end, we were well compensated by the management - however, the problem still wasn't fixed during the 5 days we were there and it was so inconvenient having other people int he room the whole time we were there. I can totally get your frustration.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thanks for the report. That would've bugged me, too, having maintenance work being done during my stay, especially stuff that could've been done before or after I left. It's not like you were staying two weeks. Enjoy the rest of your stay in the ORL area.

 

[jakenjess]

Thanks for the report. We stayed at OKW in Oct. and also didn't receive the express checkout on our door. I thought it was strange, but it was only our second stay at OKW so thought it may not be a practice there. I went to the front desk to check out, and the CM told me I was all set and there were no charges to my room. I knew that was wrong and told her there was at least $400, and when she double checked she found the charges.

All those maintenence visits sound bizarre to me. Why wouldn't they have taken care of it before you checked in or after you checked out? Strange.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[jbrowna]

Although it may have been inconvenient for you, better that they are getting maintenance things done than waiting until something minor turns into something major, and a room have to be taken out of service.

Look at it from the maintenance point of view. Say they get reports of issues from a dozen different rooms. They don't have the personnel or the time to get to all of those issues in the noon-to-4 time when no one would be in the room. If they wait until the next opportunity -- when the room will be empty -- another dozen or so issues may show up at other rooms, so now they're even further behind the 8-ball. If they keep putting off doing maintenance until the room is unoccupied, a minor issue may turn into something major requiring extensive refurbishment and downtime. So then you can't get in a room on time, or have to be moved to another resort because no room is available for you.

I am sorry that you had to put up with all those interruptions, but I'd rather they get the work done!

 

[JudithM]

Martha Ordonez, the "Guest Show Manager," called us, too, last month to be sure everything was fine in our OKW unit.

We, too, did not get the express checkout at our door the day of check out. I called the front desk & the CM assured me he would bring it right out. An hour and a half later I went to the front desk & got it - no explanations or apologies. I almost forgot about it until reading this thread.

I still believe there needs to be more communication between various departments - housekeeping, maintenance, front desk, etc.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I'm with you, Doc. I think those kinds of things should be taken care of when the room is "out of service". Has OKW had a change of maintenance or mousekeeping leadership recently???

 

[alldiz]

thanks for the report.....

I would also have been annoyed at the repeated visits.....
Kerri

 

[RobDoc]

Although it may have been inconvenient for you, better that they are getting maintenance things done than waiting until something minor turns into something major, and a room have to be taken out of service.

Look at it from the maintenance point of view. Say they get reports of issues from a dozen different rooms. They don't have the personnel or the time to get to all of those issues in the noon-to-4 time when no one would be in the room. If they wait until the next opportunity -- when the room will be empty -- another dozen or so issues may show up at other rooms, so now they're even further behind the 8-ball. If they keep putting off doing maintenance until the room is unoccupied, a minor issue may turn into something major requiring extensive refurbishment and downtime. So then you can't get in a room on time, or have to be moved to another resort because no room is available for you.

I am sorry that you had to put up with all those interruptions, but I'd rather they get the work done!

Well, in our case we had signed up for DME - so the resort knew we would NOT be arriving until after 9:00pm that day. In the case of the first maintenance intrusion, no exhaust filters were even replaced while we were there. Since we did not report the missing filters, that is something that certainly could have been done on a changeover day - especially since they were still not replaced as of yesterday. Had they actually replaced the filters, I would have been fine with it - but that did not occur and it will now still need to be done. If it was something so critical that it was necessary to disturb my stay - why was the repair still not made? I agree that this was something that could have been done during a guest stay, but it was NOT done inspite of the intrusion.

As for replumbing of the PVC piping for the AC system - inside the villa - it seems that you are suggesting that using noxious chemicals inside a room is acceptable while a guest is staying in the room and physically in the room at the time the work is being done? How about replacing carpeting or repainting the bedroom - are those also maintenance issues that MUST be done while a guest is staying in the room? DVC maintains ownership of 2-4% of the rooms at each resort - specifically for this purpose, so that rooms can be renovated without affecting guest utilization.

I would suggest that handling minor repairs, like changing light bulbs, replacing furnace filters (or exhaust fan filters) and even repairing a leaking faucet can be appropriately managed during a guest's stay - but that issues involving more time or demanding solvents and other chemicals- except for emergencies - should be scheduled while a room is not occupied.

 

[Chuck S]

You almost have to wonder how things like phones and microwave filters turn up "missing" in the first place.

 

[JudithM]

Has OKW had a change of maintenance or
mousekeeping leadership recently???

The head of housekeeping at OKW has been in that position since late 2004. The head of engineering at OKW moved into that position sometime last year; I believe he was a CM in engineering at OKW prior to his current position.

 

[littlestar]

There's also a report over on the resort board about a guest having an issue with their room "being painted" while it was occupied -

 

[dianeschlicht]

There's also a report over on the resort board about a guest having an issue with their room "being painted" while it was occupied -

That is just NOT appropriate! None of these things are short of something reported as a problem by the occupant.