Quick post--break in at VB

[prncssjas]

Hi everyone again!! I am lucky enough to be on my cousin's computer but don't have much time but wanted to tell everyone what happened at VB. As much as I loved it, I too was surprised at the some of the behavior of some children. DH and I arrived on Sunday and that night, we were standing near our balcony--we had a deluxe ocean view room. I looked up and saw a boy (around 8-10 years old) STANDING on our balcony. I about flipped cause he 1)he startled me and 2)what the heck was he doing out there?!! So my DH approaches the balcony and this kid climbs over the thick railing on the side and leaps over to his family's balcony.

For those of you who know VB, you know that the lower, 3rd floor balconys are easily accessible to one another if you climb carefully.

SO this happens and I am upset but don't give it much thought...

The next morning, DH and I go to shutter's for breakfast (YUMMY BY THE WAY!! ) and we go back to our room upstairs at 8am only to find our room door wide open and food tossed all over our balcony. At first, I thought it was a random burgler but when I saw the mountains of cheerios on our balcony floor, I KNEW. I was LIVID!!! First they made a mess of our balcony, tossing food everywhere. THEN, they go through our room?!?!! Thank god though, nothing was taken. We had our valuables on us.

We called management and security, they read the codes/lock info and told us that it must have been opened from the INSIDE which means that it only could have been the neigboring children. Disney management contacted the parents and warned them that if it happened again, security would have to handle it.

I was pretty upset but didn't want it to ruin my vacation. At first, I thought I was going nuts thinking "did I shut the door???" but those doors are HEAVY and they slam. So I KNEW it wasn't me!! I think I am mad because ANYONE could have gone into our room then--they just left if open...don't these children have supervision? I was very surprised about this. DOn't get me wrong, I love kids but I thought this was a little out of line.

So DVCer's BEWARE: lock ALL doors including those on the balcony!! Sad but true!

Okay...gotta run...DH is waiting for me...I am late again....

Be back soon!!

Rima

 

[Peggy Sue]

Wow! So sorry this happened to you! You're right, where were the parents, and how did the get the food from their room up to yours without the parents seeing what was going on! You're a more generous person that I..I would have demanded those folks be moved out of their room! That behavior is inexcusable! Certainly hope the experience doesn't ruin the rest of your stay! Thanks for posting!

 

[Olaf]

Did the parents not apologize to you? Did they send their children over to apologize? That is the least I would have I would have expected. You're absolutely right to be upset. I would have come unglued. Seems to me somebody should have called the police, if only to teach those little monsters a lesson or two.

I know I'm a mean ol'witch.

 

[DVCDAD]

That would burn me up! I would have probably taken it up with the parents and further ruined the vacation!

 

[rbuzzotta]

I would have been quite upset. Not only to see that parents allow children to behavior in such a manner (or at that age left unattended!!) but especially that it would show my children another type of behavior. I don't think my DD's would ever do something like that but anyone that has children know that know matter how hard you try to instill the best morals and behaviors, sometimes peer pressure just gets the best of them.

If it were my DD's, they would have found themselves with a babysitter sitting in the room!!!!!!!!!

We will be aware next time we are at VB! Thanks and hope the rest of your stay is better!!

 

[Cap]

I can't believe that DVC management just "warned them". They should have evicted them. If the children behave this way to guests next door, they probably terrorize people at the pool and beach.

 

[canda]

that sort of thing happened to us at HH. We were a party of quiet adults of 4. They put us on the 1st floor.
Above us were 2 adults and 18 teenage girls. Yes this was a 2 bedroom unit. The noise upstairs was unbearable. After our second night a group of 6 teenage boys broke into our unit by climbing on the balcony. and somehow they picked the lock. When they saw us They said they were sorry and they thought we were the girls they met that afternoon. They left by the balcony and no harm done. I called front desk and told them what happened. I thought they would just send security over and talk to the boys. Several HHI police cars came in 2 minutes after i called and an officer came to my door. I didn't want them to go to jail, I knew they were just looking for the girls. But i can't lie to the law either so i gave the description and i said i don't want to press charges and they said it was not up to me and left. I have no idea what happened to the boys, but the 20 people upstairs were mad at us, and they made as much noise as they could. at one point, they were jumping and screaming. The front desk moved us to another room- not kick them out. so we were annoyed with that 11 - 3 time of no room.

 

[vernon]

To the original post

While I have to agree it isn't on they went into your room and trashed the balcony etc. I also think that it serves to remind everyone that it is good practice to lock your doors/windows when you go out. I wouldn't leave my doors or windows at home unlocked and just because I'm on vacation doesn't mean that unpleasant things can't happen.

Break ins do happen ( even at WDW hotels) and they are more likely to happen if you don't take all possible precautions to protect your property. Good advice EVERYONE SHOULD LOCK THEIR DOORS.



On the HH debacle
I think getting moved was a relief to you. Did you inform the management about the number of guests in the room above? I couldn't have walked away from that situation without creating a MAJOR incident. I don't think I'd have been as "understanding" as you either with the boys involved. I'm pretty sure I would have pressed charges if possible.

 

[PamOKW]

Above us were 2 adults and 18 teenage girls. Yes this was a 2 bedroom unit.

This is why I don't like to hear about the room limits being left "flexible". A situation like this is ridiculous and should never have been allowed much less allowed to continue once it was known. I'm not as concerned about the extra 10 year-old as for the precedent it starts to set for a situation like this. A consistent enforced policy needs to be set.

 

[christiansmom]

I hope at the very least the parents made their children apologize to you. That is really awful to hear although I am glad that you did not let it ruin your vacation. It is a lesson to me for sure. I am very lax about balcony doors and will be more diligent although fortunately my husband is the exact opposite. Hope you're having fun otherwise.

 

[Disnydad]

I'd have bypassed Disney Security and called the Orange County Sheriff directly. Let's see the Deputies give them a "warning"!

 

[qdog]

I find this whole thing very disturbing. It just doesn't sound like a 'Disney Magic' kind of episode.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

Good point...... one extra child is not the same as 18 teen age girls.

Obviously the parents were not in thier right mind going on vacation with 18 teen age girls.

 

[normr]

That's totally ridiculous, if they had that kind of number in that unit, I would have made sure that management do something about it immediately, not move me, but throw them out. 18 people in a 5 bedroom house would even be ridiculous and probably not allowed by any zoning laws in this country

 

[baileybrad]

should not be allowed to go unpunished. The HH incident is bad but I find the bigger problem with filling a unit over-capacity in a manner that blatantly affects other guests and in this case their very privacy. The Vero stunt could have been tragic and I am sorry, but both responsible names on the register for both the HH and Vero units should have been, at a very minimum been put on some type of probation with any further incidents mandating further action. The Vero deal is almost worse than what the teen boys did because of the age of the perpertrator. The bigger problem in both cases is the lack of adults taking responsibility. It only takes a few to spoil the entire bunch.

 

[Gail Reale]

Something similar happened to my son and his 3 friends at OKW for their senior trip. I gave them a studio to enjoy (DH and I not there). The boys arrived about midnight, swam for about an hour, and then were told there were 3 noise complaints against them from a neighboring unit. They were only in their unit for about 1/2 hour, showering, etc. and all 4 swear they never received a phone call about a noise complaint, much less 3!! In this case, the police and Disney security DID evict these boys (with the exception of my son because he was a member's kid). They only had the money they needed for food (still had those free passes) and they had to spend that on a motel unit somewhere out on 192. They took photos of them so that they were not to return to DVC property. I am grateful for the boys that they did not take their free passes. My son had to stay alone and the others had to spend food money for a hotel and taxis to the parks. Never once did anyone question whether or not the woman who complained knew what she was talking about, no one cared about the safety of these boys (then approx. 17-19), and no one ever gave them a warning. Never told DH about the incident, because I love OKW and didn't want him on a rampage!! I know these boys well since grade school, and my money is on their honesty, not the other guest.

 

[prncssjas]

Wow...I didn't realize how many other people had experienced something similar to this. Gail--sorry about what happen to your son's friends...that's terrible!!

And to those of you who had questions...no, we didn't receive an apology or even an acknowledgement from the parents. To be honest, I was so determined to not let it bother me, that I tried to simply not lose my temper and let it go. But I was really upset. I never let my doors go unlocked and I am not a careless person BUT I NEVER would have thought that a third story balcony facing only an ocean would have been a potential hazard. I mean, who was going to break into my room? Jaws?! LOL!

But again, the only thing that bothered me was that the parent's didn't even acknowledge their son's behavior. I didn't want special treatment nor did I want them evicted--I just wanted to enjoy my vacation! Hopefully, this was a fluke thing and won't happen again.

But the good news is that the BWV trip ended up being perfect!! Happy ending guys!

 

[Renee']

Jas,

Thanksfully nothing was missing. We too were on the 3rd floor last week. It was our first time on the 3rd floor (we've been on 2nd and 4th). I truly didn't care too much for the balconies on the 3rd floor. They don't offer much in the way of privacy as the 4th floor balconies are directly overlooking you. We saw guests on the 4th floor throwing food to the birds below and quite a bit of it was landing on the balconies below.

The only other problem we encountered was our balcony door kept opening (if we didn't latch it at either the top or bottom). Even though we closed the door, the suction from our main door closing created a vacuum and we returned 3 or 4 times to our balacony door being wide open. Next stay we'll try to request the 4th floor as you can't beat that view and the more private balcony.

 

[Jenn]

Can we talk about how unsafe it is for kids to be climbing from one balcony to another? If one of them fell and was injured or killed can you imagine the uprising from the parents? What morons....