Question for Those Who Have Stayed Recently at the Riviera

[MrsInsG]

Hi All-

My family and I are just back from a split stay at the Polynesian and Riviera. This was our first Riviera stay, and we were very excited to have the opportunity to experience the resort. My question is in regards to the state of the rooms.

We were in a preferred studio, room 8887, and while the decor was lovely (floors, backsplash, bathroom tilework, fixtures, etc.), the room was in rough condition. The sofa was frayed at the seams, and the bed frame, the table, and the chairs were fairly dinged up. Worse than that, though, was the general cleanliness of the room. There were cobwebs beneath the cabinets in the kitchenette, significant dust (my husband wrote his name in the dust on the coffee maker (he did clean it off!)) on various surfaces including the hard floor (the sun shown in in the morning and there was a stripe of visible dust and debris (hair, etc.) about 2" wide along each wall in the hall area.) In short, I've never seen a Disney resort like this. I ended up cleaning the floor because it was so gross.

We are not owners at Riviera, but we are considering a DVC purchase. Was our experience an outlier and the result of some bad luck regarding a room that has been abused by guests and poor housekeeping, or is this more typical than it should be?

Thanks for your input!

 

[cakebaker]

We were there a couple of weeks ago and while I didn't care for the resort at all, the room was in near perfect condition. I didn't notice any kind of wear at all. We too had a preferred view. I think it was the location of the room that mostly that turned me off although the view was certainly not worth the increased cost. It's the first time we didn't get any of the room requests we made. The walk to an elevator was the longest one I've ever experienced, the pool was just blah. It's not on our list to revisit. But it was clean.

 

[DVCsloth]

We weren't there recently, but last September our room was in excellent condition and the resort itself was the same. I have noticed at some of the resorts, there was some noticeable wear and tear and not fully cleaned rooms. I usually let the management know about it early on and they usually take care of it right away. I think some of this is the nature of DVC not having daily housekeeping and the staff trying to keep up the best that they can. I think most DVC rooms are constantly booked so there is tremendous wear and tear. I don't know the ratio to housekeeping staff and how many rooms they need to clean each day, but I can imagine that some of the rooms are not left in the best of shape. I do know that when we check out our room is pretty easy to turn over.

ETA, we recently stayed at OKW for the first time in a studio for a few nights and our room was almost in perfect condition.

 

[Nursemanit]

We were in a preferred studio, room 8887, and while the decor was lovely (floors, backsplash, bathroom tilework, fixtures, etc.), the room was in rough condition. The sofa was frayed at the seams, and the bed frame, the table, and the chairs

While the design and decor is probably the best in all of WDW - and I would love the RR designer to design all future renovations. They went a grade down in furniture.

This could be a conscious decision to focus on a tight refresh cycle and keep the rooms changing. As you can see on these boards DVC folks are room sensitive. Some of the furniture in BRV and PVB is "lifetime furniture" - The small chairs in PVB that they reupholstered probably cost over 1k apiece. That kinda forces them to keep the furniture longer.

Remember the Ethan Allen colonial furniture a lot of our parents had? That stuff will last a hundred years but unfortunately went out of style in 10. Disney may just be changing plans and going for 15 year furniture and dumping it as they refresh to avoid all the " dated" comments they must get on BR and Poly.

One thing of note is they did use quality tile and bathroom fixtures - which would support this theory. They were willing to spend when it was an item that would not go out of style quickly. The main doors are also high quality.

I have not seen the new rooms in GF BPK yet but, one thing that stood out in the many videos is the closet/coffee built in. When the reviewers opened the door and it closed it had that distinct look and sound of mass produced laminate ( with some wallpaper applied) In the Florida climate that has a very short lifespan. I will check it out it in a few weeks. But I don't think this is specific to RR I think it may be DVC wide.

The housekeeping could just be a bad employee ... I have had that in many hotels that are usually spotless.

 

[DeeBee3]

That is surprising for such a new resort. I would definitely email Disney even though you are home now. I would have called immediately when finding the state of the room.

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

We’ve stayed at Riviera multiple times and it was immaculate each time. On our first trip in December. 2020 (during pandemic restrictions) one of the cabinet hinges wasn’t screwed all the way in so just let the front desk know on our way to the park and it was fixed immediately. I am thinking your experience was an outlier, but definitely let them know your room was missed in the cleaning rotation.

 

[Sandisw]

I have been to RIV for 5 stays this year so far, and the rooms were in great shape and clean.

I have done only 1 and 2 bedrooms so no studios and all but one were SV and not PV.

It Is said to hear that a room is in that shape and that housekeeping didn’t go a good job getting it ready for you.

 

[CarolynFH]

Hi All-

My family and I are just back from a split stay at the Polynesian and Riviera. This was our first Riviera stay, and we were very excited to have the opportunity to experience the resort. My question is in regards to the state of the rooms.

We were in a preferred studio, room 8887, and while the decor was lovely (floors, backsplash, bathroom tilework, fixtures, etc.), the room was in rough condition. The sofa was frayed at the seams, and the bed frame, the table, and the chairs were fairly dinged up. Worse than that, though, was the general cleanliness of the room. There were cobwebs beneath the cabinets in the kitchenette, significant dust (my husband wrote his name in the dust on the coffee maker (he did clean it off!)) on various surfaces including the hard floor (the sun shown in in the morning and there was a stripe of visible dust and debris (hair, etc.) about 2" wide along each wall in the hall area.) In short, I've never seen a Disney resort like this. I ended up cleaning the floor because it was so gross.

We are not owners at Riviera, but we are considering a DVC purchase. Was our experience an outlier and the result of some bad luck regarding a room that has been abused by guests and poor housekeeping, or is this more typical than it should be?

Thanks for your input!

I hope you said something to the front desk or called Housekeeping or otherwise let someone know that the room wasn't cleaned properly. If you didn't, please email wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com and tell them exactly what you said in your post - you could copy and paste it if you'd like. They need to know!

 

[RoseGold]

Really surprised by this. I've done dozens of DVC stays since Covid, and I've never been able to say anything but immaculate for Disney housekeeping, cash or DVC. I have several other complaints, but that isn't one of them.

I have not seen the new rooms in GF BPK yet but, one thing that stood out in the many videos is the closet/coffee built in. When the reviewers opened the door and it closed it had that distinct look and sound of mass produced laminate ( with some wallpaper applied) In the Florida climate that has a very short lifespan. I will check it out it in a few weeks. But I don't think this is specific to RR I think it may be DVC wide.

The actual hotel room door is flimsy and cheap with a giant gap at the bottom, and the one separating the connecting rooms is a joke. Those are the doors that should have been replaced, to modern privacy and noise expectations for expensive hotels. I thought the closet doors seemed nice, and I think were new?

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I find Disney housekeeping has gone downhill.

 

[MrsInsG]

Thanks, all! I do appreciate your replies. Your responses seem to mirror my thoughts- this was an outlier. I've never had a Disney room like this before. The amount of dust suggests whomever has been cleaning this room has really not been doing much more than a cursory clean. The dust and hair in stripes on the floor likely mean that the housekeeper brings a dry mop through, but does not bring it against the baseboards.

Several of you asked if I mentioned the issue while we were at WDW; we did not. My husband had a medical emergency the night we checked into the Poly and spent two nights in the hospital after an anaphylactic reaction. We arrived at the RR the day after he came back from the hospital and we were (reasonably) otherwise occupied. I think that's why I noticed the issues in the first place, we were in the room A LOT. I will send an email to the hotel, though, letting them know.

Thanks again!

 

[prouddaddycdn]

Our experience back in January was similar to yours MrsInsG. We love Riviera Resort but our 2 bdrm room was fairly abused by careless guests. All of the tables and chairs were dinged up and the bottoms of the kitchen base cabinets were literally shredded by something, although I can't think of what.

The housekeeping itself in our Riviera room was fine but couldn't believe the state of the room for such a new hotel. Shame that guests don't take the same care with things as they would at home.

We did a split stay at Boardwalk last January and the mousekeeping a that 1 bdrm room was pretty much as you describe. Dust everywhere, bits of trash on the floor, dirty dishes in the dishwasher etc. Was not impressed.

 

[UofMGuy423]

We were there in March/April in a Studio and thought it was well-cleaned.

Now, my trip to BRV a few weeks ago, the shower had a long woman's hair stuck to the shower wall when we got there, which surprised me that it went unnoticed by housekeeping.

 

[CarolynFH]

We did a split stay at Boardwalk last January and the mousekeeping a that 1 bdrm room was pretty much as you describe. Dust everywhere, bits of trash on the floor, dirty dishes in the dishwasher etc. Was not impressed.

I hope you called Housekeeping immediately to report it. To me, dirty dishes in the dishwasher, trash on the floor, and dust everywhere = Housekeeping did NOT clean that villa. I would call Housekeeping, and if no one came in a reasonable length of time, we’d be down at the front desk asking for the manager.

 

[prouddaddycdn]

Yes, we called housekeeping and they came to clean the room once more. Still, should not have come to that in the first place. The year prior we had to switch rooms outright since it was clear that a party was thrown in the room as wine was all over the couch, the room stank and dirty bandaids were on the floor.

We love BWV but have not had great luck with them over the past two trips.