Our vacation at AKV--started off rocky but ended up great...

alicat07

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Oct 28, 2008
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We have stayed at AKV Kidani several times over the past few years since it was built, it is our home resort and we love it, especially for the extra bathroom in the 1BR+ units since we usually bring extra people with us. Well, our 7 night trip started off rocky but finished up great, so all is well! :)

The rocky part regarded our room...we are not usually the picky types and have never had a problem with any of the rooms we were given in the past at AKV, so we didn't expect an issue. We arrived on Sunday Jan 20, checked into our standard view 1 BR, which was not ready, and headed out to the parks. We tried to link our tickets that we had purchased through UT to our room keys but they told us at the front desk that they could no longer do that, that they had to remain separate (which was a shock to me). Something about a glitch in the system or whatnot. We got back to the hotel late that evening, around 10pm, with 2 sleeping kids, and promptly put them to bed. I did notice a few things that I chalked up to coincidence that night, like there were drinking glasses left out to dry on a towel next to the kitchen sink, and the bed was made but with no bedspread or decorative pillows on it, they were tossed to the side. Mostly everything else looked ok at first glance, and we were so busy getting all our luggage in the room that we didn't notice other things until my husband went to take a shower before bed at almost midnight. There was open bar soap WITH HAIR (you can guess what kind) on it in our master bathroom, open and half used shampoos and conditioners, hairs in the tub, a man's flannel shirt in the closet, and a used disposable razor with hair in it was in the shower. The next morning my husband went down to the front desk to tell them about the half cleaning job they did, and they sort of blew him off telling him it would get taken care of. He asked for a complete cleaning of the room, including the sheets (which I started to think we were sleeping in the previous person's sheets which is why the bed wasn't made fully-it looked like the mid-stay cleaning), new towels, etc.

We went off to the parks, then got home late again that night (with again 2 sleeping kids), and got back expecting a clean room, and lo and behold we had gotten the mid-stay cleaning again, with nothing we had asked to be done been done. The bed was still not changed, the soap with hair was still there, the hair was still in the tub, the open shampoos and conditioners were still there, dirty razor still there. They basically gave us new towels and toiletries and remade the bed with the same sheets. My husband went down again and was once again not happy, and this time they sent the manager of housekeeping up to our room to see it. He apologized and told us right away that it was definitely not how it was supposed to have been done, and sent a housekeeper right away to at least change the sheets in the beds so that we could sleep in clean sheets, and he assured us that the following day it would be cleaned properly. The next day it definitely was! So after those 2 days of not being able to unpack and get settled we were finally able to relax and enjoy the rest of the vacation. I just couldn't get comfortable in the room knowing that we were in the previous people's stuff, you know? All the hair grossed me out, and it made me question that nothing else had been cleaned before we got there!

Another side note, this time regarding the tickets that couldn't be linked to our keys--when we got the parks we noticed that there were separate lines for the resort guests who had their tickets attached to their keys, but the front desk at AKV had told us that wasn't possible. So for 3 days we waited in the long lines while we watched many other people using their keys to get in. I finally asked the concierge on day 4 to see if that was correct and he at that point was able to link our tickets with no problem. I don't know why it wasn't able to be done the first day, but that was finally resoved halfway through our vacation.

The rest of the trip was great, we had a wonderful time as usual except for the beginning of the week problems. I just wanted to share our experience, and I would hope that our problem was a rare occurence. Sorry this was so long, I didn't intend it to be but wanted to get in as much detail as possible! :)
 
We have stayed at AKV Kidani several times over the past few years since it was built, it is our home resort and we love it, especially for the extra bathroom in the 1BR+ units since we usually bring extra people with us. Well, our 7 night trip started off rocky but finished up great, so all is well! :)

The rocky part regarded our room...we are not usually the picky types and have never had a problem with any of the rooms we were given in the past at AKV, so we didn't expect an issue. We arrived on Sunday Jan 20, checked into our standard view 1 BR, which was not ready, and headed out to the parks. We tried to link our tickets that we had purchased through UT to our room keys but they told us at the front desk that they could no longer do that, that they had to remain separate (which was a shock to me). Something about a glitch in the system or whatnot. We got back to the hotel late that evening, around 10pm, with 2 sleeping kids, and promptly put them to bed. I did notice a few things that I chalked up to coincidence that night, like there were drinking glasses left out to dry on a towel next to the kitchen sink, and the bed was made but with no bedspread or decorative pillows on it, they were tossed to the side. Mostly everything else looked ok at first glance, and we were so busy getting all our luggage in the room that we didn't notice other things until my husband went to take a shower before bed at almost midnight. There was open bar soap WITH HAIR (you can guess what kind) on it in our master bathroom, open and half used shampoos and conditioners, hairs in the tub, a man's flannel shirt in the closet, and a used disposable razor with hair in it was in the shower. The next morning my husband went down to the front desk to tell them about the half cleaning job they did, and they sort of blew him off telling him it would get taken care of. He asked for a complete cleaning of the room, including the sheets (which I started to think we were sleeping in the previous person's sheets which is why the bed wasn't made fully-it looked like the mid-stay cleaning), new towels, etc.

We went off to the parks, then got home late again that night (with again 2 sleeping kids), and got back expecting a clean room, and lo and behold we had gotten the mid-stay cleaning again, with nothing we had asked to be done been done. The bed was still not changed, the soap with hair was still there, the hair was still in the tub, the open shampoos and conditioners were still there, dirty razor still there. They basically gave us new towels and toiletries and remade the bed with the same sheets. My husband went down again and was once again not happy, and this time they sent the manager of housekeeping up to our room to see it. He apologized and told us right away that it was definitely not how it was supposed to have been done, and sent a housekeeper right away to at least change the sheets in the beds so that we could sleep in clean sheets, and he assured us that the following day it would be cleaned properly. The next day it definitely was! So after those 2 days of not being able to unpack and get settled we were finally able to relax and enjoy the rest of the vacation. I just couldn't get comfortable in the room knowing that we were in the previous people's stuff, you know? All the hair grossed me out, and it made me question that nothing else had been cleaned before we got there!

Another side note, this time regarding the tickets that couldn't be linked to our keys--when we got the parks we noticed that there were separate lines for the resort guests who had their tickets attached to their keys, but the front desk at AKV had told us that wasn't possible. So for 3 days we waited in the long lines while we watched many other people using their keys to get in. I finally asked the concierge on day 4 to see if that was correct and he at that point was able to link our tickets with no problem. I don't know why it wasn't able to be done the first day, but that was finally resoved halfway through our vacation.

The rest of the trip was great, we had a wonderful time as usual except for the beginning of the week problems. I just wanted to share our experience, and I would hope that our problem was a rare occurence. Sorry this was so long, I didn't intend it to be but wanted to get in as much detail as possible! :)

As a fellow dvc'er I'm glad that you were able to get through this and have a great time...WE will be staying at AKV for the 1st time in another 2 mos. I'm hoping this was / is a 1 time event that doesn't happen to often.

Our 1st DVC trip this past August at BWV we heard a few people complaining about there room not being up to par or a moldy smell to it, but we didn't have an issue. The only Real problem we had was with the laundry room.
Being that we had a studio , we had no washer n dryer, so we had to use the laundry room. This was a comlete nightmare.3 washers and 2 dryers FOR all those guests in studios...:furious:. Not to mention on our 3rd day (out of 11) one of the dryers was broken for 2 days.... SO frustrating. They offered me coins to use at the BWI & yes they had a few more machines there, we had the same problem, as well as no Air conditioning in that room. They wouldn't let us keep the door open to the hall (To get cooler air in ). Also the speed washer there was shaking around like it was going to explode...Numerous guests came in complaining about the noise, which I had no control over.

Long story short is they ended up giving us a credit for $50 for our troubles... Hopefully Jambo house doesn't have any issues like these...Thanks.
 
Prior to Claire Bilby assuming command of the DVC we seemed to have one problem after another with rooms.

One trip we goot to the room and it had not been cleaned at all. I mean nothing had been done! Who ever had been in their were most likely not owners as the disrespected everything. I went to the front desk to complain and they sent mousekeeping down to check it out. The head mousekeeper was appalled at the condition of the room and called the front desk to have us switched to another room which luckily had just as good a view.

Another time we checked in and went to our room and found that it had been ransacked. Everything that the previous occupants could steal was gone. They even managed to get the decor that was glued down and took the bedding. Again we called the front desk and the manager thought we were joking. I said I didn't find anything funny about it. She came to the room, walked in and just shook her head. They didn't have another clean room available at the time but comped us lunch at Olivia's while we waited for one to become available. I'm guessing they were not owners either.

another time we checked in and the first thing we noticed was that we had no kitchen table or chairs. The rest of the room was fine but I had a hard time imagining that the mousekeeper didn't inform maintainence of the problem.

Since then every room we have had has been close to perfect.!

Sorry you had to go through what you did....
 
Jambo house, when I checked in, the room was beautifully clean (except for the is a child height hand print on the bathroom door mirror), but I had to request paper plates and plasticware.

On day 4 I got a complete clean, even though it really didn't need it. Again I needed to request paper plates and plastic ware. no spoons in the packets through, so i bought a cheap set of flatware at IKEA when I was there.

The room smelled 'funny' every time I entered. Finally, even though you're not supposed to, I opened all the cupboard doors, closet door, and left the balcony door open all day one day. That seemed to help.

On day 8? it guess it was - Trash and towels - no paper plates. I bought a plastic plate on my next grocery run.

On day 11, i guess it was, I expected a full clean and clean sheets. Didn't get it, so I called and they said no - it's tomorrow you get that. ok. old lady loses track.

Day 12 (yesterday) came home exhausted at 4 and ready for dinner but the room had not been touched. Called. Oh I'll send some one at 5 to do it. (I AM *HOT* by this time) 6 pm, beyond annoyed, I finally can kick off my shoes and fix supper. I had specifically left a note with the tip - Please leave paper plates. Tip and note were gone, but NO PLATES. Now, I had my plastic plate, but I called anyway, there SHOULD be plates.

Oh, and on day something or other, I had to have my refrigerator replaced - first it froze my food - then I turned it up half a notch and it wouldn't cool. I lost some food to that too. THEN I wondered if that might be why the room smelled funny - if other people had had food spoil.

This trip, on the whole (not merely the minor housekeeping issues), has been singularly lacking in *Magic.*
 

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear these other stories! I know things happen, and for us it was an isolated case, we haven't had any other issues prior to this. All the rest of our rooms in the past (we've been in a 3BR Grand Villa in Kidani, a 2 BR, several 1 BR, and a studio) were fine. This was the first time that it wasn't, and it wasn't completely noticed until we really started looking and taking note. The thing that pissed my husband off the most was that they had blown him off the first time, saying it would get done, and so we just left for the parks thinking that we'd come home to a clean room. So when we got back that 2nd night and it was exactly the same, he was livid and went straight downstairs to let them know. And it was such a pain to have to keep repacking our suitcases for the cleaning for 2 more days because they couldn't get it right, and with 5 of us staying there (me, my husband, my 2 kids, and my mom) it took some time in the morning to put everything away so they could clean it properly (which obviously was finally done the 2nd morning).

Thankfully, the rest of our trip went without too many hitches, and we had a wonderful time. My husband did get a bit doubtful saying that he felt that since we had bought into DVC that they just didn't care since they had our money already. I am more optimistic in thinking that it was an isolated event, and overall it won't deter us from wanting to go of course! We love it too much! By the end of the trip he was telling me we should stop all other spending and save up to buy more points! :laughing:
 
We have stayed at AKV Kidani several times over the past few years since it was built, it is our home resort and we love it, especially for the extra bathroom in the 1BR+ units since we usually bring extra people with us. Well, our 7 night trip started off rocky but finished up great, so all is well! :)

The rocky part regarded our room...we are not usually the picky types and have never had a problem with any of the rooms we were given in the past at AKV, so we didn't expect an issue. We arrived on Sunday Jan 20, checked into our standard view 1 BR, which was not ready, and headed out to the parks. We tried to link our tickets that we had purchased through UT to our room keys but they told us at the front desk that they could no longer do that, that they had to remain separate (which was a shock to me). Something about a glitch in the system or whatnot. We got back to the hotel late that evening, around 10pm, with 2 sleeping kids, and promptly put them to bed. I did notice a few things that I chalked up to coincidence that night, like there were drinking glasses left out to dry on a towel next to the kitchen sink, and the bed was made but with no bedspread or decorative pillows on it, they were tossed to the side. Mostly everything else looked ok at first glance, and we were so busy getting all our luggage in the room that we didn't notice other things until my husband went to take a shower before bed at almost midnight. There was open bar soap WITH HAIR (you can guess what kind) on it in our master bathroom, open and half used shampoos and conditioners, hairs in the tub, a man's flannel shirt in the closet, and a used disposable razor with hair in it was in the shower. The next morning my husband went down to the front desk to tell them about the half cleaning job they did, and they sort of blew him off telling him it would get taken care of. He asked for a complete cleaning of the room, including the sheets (which I started to think we were sleeping in the previous person's sheets which is why the bed wasn't made fully-it looked like the mid-stay cleaning), new towels, etc.

We went off to the parks, then got home late again that night (with again 2 sleeping kids), and got back expecting a clean room, and lo and behold we had gotten the mid-stay cleaning again, with nothing we had asked to be done been done. The bed was still not changed, the soap with hair was still there, the hair was still in the tub, the open shampoos and conditioners were still there, dirty razor still there. They basically gave us new towels and toiletries and remade the bed with the same sheets. My husband went down again and was once again not happy, and this time they sent the manager of housekeeping up to our room to see it. He apologized and told us right away that it was definitely not how it was supposed to have been done, and sent a housekeeper right away to at least change the sheets in the beds so that we could sleep in clean sheets, and he assured us that the following day it would be cleaned properly. The next day it definitely was! So after those 2 days of not being able to unpack and get settled we were finally able to relax and enjoy the rest of the vacation. I just couldn't get comfortable in the room knowing that we were in the previous people's stuff, you know? All the hair grossed me out, and it made me question that nothing else had been cleaned before we got there!

Another side note, this time regarding the tickets that couldn't be linked to our keys--when we got the parks we noticed that there were separate lines for the resort guests who had their tickets attached to their keys, but the front desk at AKV had told us that wasn't possible. So for 3 days we waited in the long lines while we watched many other people using their keys to get in. I finally asked the concierge on day 4 to see if that was correct and he at that point was able to link our tickets with no problem. I don't know why it wasn't able to be done the first day, but that was finally resoved halfway through our vacation.

The rest of the trip was great, we had a wonderful time as usual except for the beginning of the week problems. I just wanted to share our experience, and I would hope that our problem was a rare occurence. Sorry this was so long, I didn't intend it to be but wanted to get in as much detail as possible! :)

We were there the same week as you! Checked in on the 20th and out on the 27th.

Sorry to hear this, the hair on the soap is just GROSS. :sick: :sick: :sick:

We had minor problems with Mousekeeping on T&T day, but I chalked it up to the fact that we had done a split stay and I think the timing was off.

As a side note, this was our first trip as members so I didn't know that you could link your park ticket to your room ticket previously. We also stood in the ridiculously long lines watching the other guests breze through. I remember thinking to myself that I was starting to understand why some people on the Dis say that DVC members are treated as "less" than a cash guest.

I'm glad to hear that this is something that I was just unclear on, and that I will (well, should .... hopefully..?) be able to link my ticket to my room key and not have this problem again :thumbsup2
 
I finally asked the concierge on day 4 to see if that was correct and he at that point was able to link our tickets with no problem. I don't know why it wasn't able to be done the first day, but that was finally resoved halfway through our vacation.

We had a similar experience. We were told the system was quirky and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It took 3 stops at the front desk before we could get our tickets put on our card last fall. The other thing that was strange is that I later went to upgrade to PAP (at Epcot) and the CM told me that I had to pay more then I anticipated because we bought 'discount tickets'. When I questioned her she said that is what the system is telling her. After getting a supervisor and waiting an additional 20 minutes, they sold them to me for the upgrade ticket price as I expected but I had to really be aggressive explaining to get it. It also seemed strange that we were flagged as buying discount tickets in the system. (BTW, What was really irritating is that she was trying to tell me that I paid less than I actually paid through UT)
 
We have no experation date tickets and plan to use them on our trip this month and in July. Do you know if they can be linked to the room key on various trips?
 
Just wanted to chime in that when we went (1/28-1/31), the lines for resort guests with linked tickets were longer than regular tickets! I guess you had the opposite problem. We were staying at Kidani but using up old non-expiration cards.
 
There is always a line somewhere at WDW. I am nervous aboul linking the tickets because I do not want any issues when I travel on future dates.
 
We have no experation date tickets and plan to use them on our trip this month and in July. Do you know if they can be linked to the room key on various trips?

To be honest I'm not sure...we never had non expiration tickets. We either get the tickets for the amount of days we need or we get the AP if we know we are taking more than 1 trip in a year. The AP can't be linked of course, so I would think the non expiration ones would be similar.

The lines when we went (exactly like PP--1/20-1/27) were crazy for the non resort guests. There were pretty much no lines for the resort guests with linked keys when we were there so for 3 days we watched people breeze right through while we waited 10-15 minutes on line to get in. Normally it wouldn't be an issue but I was just annoyed that they told us specifically that it couldn't be done anymore, only for us to get to the park and see that there was a completely separate and empty section for that exact thing. So at first we thought that maybe it was a new thing where they could only link them if you bought directly through Disney, we thought we were being "penalized" for buying through UT. But finally it was done so it was much better the rest of the trip!
 
We were there the same week as you! Checked in on the 20th and out on the 27th.

Sorry to hear this, the hair on the soap is just GROSS. :sick: :sick: :sick:

That was probably the grossest thing for me!! We took pictures on the 2nd day to show the front desk what we were talking about, and when we showed them the soap with hair on it (still grosses me out thinking about it) and the used razor with hair on it they FINALLY realized that we were serious. It sucks that it took that to make them take it more seriously (and of course my husband being pissed off kinda finally made them do more about it).
 

We had a similar experience. We were told the system was quirky and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It took 3 stops at the front desk before we could get our tickets put on our card last fall. The other thing that was strange is that I later went to upgrade to PAP (at Epcot) and the CM told me that I had to pay more then I anticipated because we bought 'discount tickets'. When I questioned her she said that is what the system is telling her. After getting a supervisor and waiting an additional 20 minutes, they sold them to me for the upgrade ticket price as I expected but I had to really be aggressive explaining to get it. It also seemed strange that we were flagged as buying discount tickets in the system. (BTW, What was really irritating is that she was trying to tell me that I paid less than I actually paid through UT)

Something to watch - request that they give you your UT tickets back after they move them to your key cards. We went in November, our group of 4 was fine but my DSIL and her 9 year old had issues when we got to AK - our BLT concierge had put their tickets on their cards, but a) but the child's ticket on the adults key and b) keyed the wrong issue date on the adult ticket (which was on DN's card), so neither ticket would work. We spent 30 minutes at opening at Guest Services on the phone with UT (which was WONDERFUL customer service, UT is the BEST) trying to figure out what was wrong after Guest Services just shrugged at us and said we must have bought fraudulent tickets. If we had kept the transferred ticket stubs it would have made it all go much faster, but you assume they know what they are doing....

Sorry your trip started so yucky, but glad it turned out great!
 
Something to watch - request that they give you your UT tickets back after they move them to your key cards. We went in November, our group of 4 was fine but my DSIL and her 9 year old had issues when we got to AK - our BLT concierge had put their tickets on their cards, but a) but the child's ticket on the adults key and b) keyed the wrong issue date on the adult ticket (which was on DN's card), so neither ticket would work. We spent 30 minutes at opening at Guest Services on the phone with UT (which was WONDERFUL customer service, UT is the BEST) trying to figure out what was wrong after Guest Services just shrugged at us and said we must have bought fraudulent tickets. If we had kept the transferred ticket stubs it would have made it all go much faster, but you assume they know what they are doing....

Sorry your trip started so yucky, but glad it turned out great!

This is great advice! I never thought you could keep the tickets at stubs for proof later on. I always did wonder "what if" they did it wrong, we'd have really no way of telling or proving anything, you know? We've all been fine with ours, but I will definitely be asking to keep the ticket stub in the future!
 















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