SSR Nightmare!!!

[BroganMc]

Just for some perspective, nightmarish trips for me at Disney include:

• The New Year's trip where the airline broke my power wheelchair batteries and left me at the gate to deal with it myself.
• The Halloween trip where en route to the resort my dad tripped in a parking lot and ended up with a broken leg.
• Closest I get to this is checking in late to SSR on 12/30 and being sent to a room in the Paddocks that was not wheelchair accessible. Tubs, no roll-in showers or low profile beds = I don't shower or sleep for the entire trip.

Fortunately Disney stepped up to help me in each of these cases. Either I got a loaner chair, or a shoulder to cry on or a quick reshuffling of rooms to get me what I needed.

FWIW the text message thing has never worked for me. I simply never get a text.

 

[Brenner965]

Should I have gotten angry?

Not as angry as you did.

And your post reminds me why I could never work in the hospitality industry.

 

[Dean]

This has been the continuing trend , lacking customer service. This is a Human resources problem and lack of training. The staff now seem to be not as friendly ,knowledgeable or willing to help as much anymore. I have had recent phone experiences where they borrowed my points for 2011 when I had points current. And now I recently am going to lose 110 points in all the confusion. Do they even say welcome home. If your lucky.

To a degree, but just as prominent are that people's expectations don't match up with what DVC has presented with reality. IMO there are people who have expectations that are over the top and those where their expectations just don't match, the latter is the situation in this case it appears to me. I give the OP the benefit of the doubt regarding the emotions and wording of the OP and I agree that what they had happen was aggravating though I also realize it was complicated by the fact they did not approach the realities as well as they might have. As a group, DVC members tend to be a demanding lot.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Closest I get to this is checking in late to SSR on 12/30 and being sent to a room in the Paddocks that was not wheelchair accessible. Tubs, no roll-in showers or low profile beds = I don't shower or sleep for the entire trip.

Fortunately Disney stepped up to help me in each of these cases. Either I got a loaner chair, or a shoulder to cry on or a quick reshuffling of rooms to get me what I needed.

You worried me!!!!! Glad this worked out - without you feeling the need to rant and rave

 

[5forDiz]

OP I think you started out with lemons & then very caring CMs at SSR graciously dug deep into their bag of Magic to make lemonade for you. I'm hoping you wrote to the powers that be about them & how you appreciated the considerate compensation given for your inconvenience ( jmho your seeming like a fool had little to do with being directed to a specific building to await a text ).

 

[BroganMc]

You worried me!!!!! Glad this worked out - without you feeling the need to rant and rave

Well I did march myself right back up to the front desk and SSR and boldly say, "Houston, I have a problem." My panic was on the walk/roll back when I realized it was going on 6pm (we had a late flight) on Dec 30 and I had this sinking fear all the ADA rooms had been assigned already.

I'm getting ready to head back down tomorrow for our NYE trip and praying I don't have a 4th nightmare to deal with.

OP, this is why I routinely give SSR Front Desk staff such high marks. They have a lot of guests to deal with and have always been very gracious and accommodating. I see what they do with other guests having far less issues. And I also hear from some of my friends there stories of the less than graceful guests who give them grief. Dsiney resort CMs do love their guests. Usually a little sweetness brightens everyone's day.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Respectfully, since checkin is after - not at - 4 PM, your expectations are unrealistic. Even if it were at 4 PM, it would be physically impossible for all Guests to check in at 4 PM and be in able to settle in their respective rooms by 4 PM.

I understand. I guess after 7+ years of DVC I've never had huge or recurring issues with this, therefore, not considered the linguistic use of "after" in comparison to "by" in the fine print.

 

[seashoreCM]

"Do as I say, not as I do"
I never wait for phones to ring (or for text messages). Instead I will go off and do something else and come back later.

In fact I don't even know how to text let alone with a 10 key ordinary phone keypad. (Actually I had to learn a little about typing on a phone keypad in order to do stocks on Etrade or Charles Schwab.)

However once I was going to meet someone after completing what should have been a short task and traffic was iffy. I told him (yes this is verbatim), "Wait for the phone to ring and when it does I will be in the lobby". (I wasn't allowed into the building without an (his) escort.)

Letting them know that the room you opened for the first time was unclean could be useful to track down behind-the-scenes problems where mousekeeping might even have left rooms undone yet reported back that the rooms were done. Sanctions might not be taken immediately but repeated guest reports would home in on specific areas or sub-departments.

Complimentary hoppers to an inconvenienced owner or renter actually cost (here, the DVC owners collectively) essentially nothing. Better would have been not giving out new hoppers but just reconfiguring their existing hoppers so the remaining days spent in the hospital instead of the parks would be usable on the next trip without collecting more money, again costing "nobody nothing".

 

[Dean]

I understand. I guess after 7+ years of DVC I've never had huge or recurring issues with this, therefore, not considered the linguistic use of "after" in comparison to "by" in the fine print.

Except that they changed it and made a big deal of the change including a blurb in Disney Files (Vacation Magic) IIRC, must have been about the time you would have become a member.

 

[cheezNE1]

Come to think of it, Ops has all the right to get upset and rant. It's the CM that's at fault for the excessive compensation (rookie mistake ). What is the CM's name, i want to check in with him/her next time i stay at SSR.

 

[OKW mom to 3]

CM's are human and make mistakes. This one made a huge one by giving in to your ranting and raving.

 

[Coach81]

Good for you!!! Whenever you are not completely satisfied.. let someone know about it!!!

 

[lugnut33]

If you tell me that I can check "anytime" after 4PM, then it seems taht rooms should be ready at 4PM. Do you agree?

You are the reason why someday DVC will implement a "NO CHECK-INS BEFORE 4PM" policy. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for the nightmare!!

 

[lugnut33]

I suppose OP will want to be compensated for how this thread turned out?

 

[cheezNE1]

You are the reason why someday DVC will implement a "NO CHECK-INS BEFORE 4PM" policy. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for the nightmare!!

or up the check-in time to 12pm.

 

[kaytieeldr]

or up the check-in time to 12pm.

Entirely impossible and unrealistic, unless all DVC members are willing to check out by 7 AM.

 

[Dean]

We're currently in Aruba. Stayed at the Bluegreen resort for 2 nights, then to the Marriott, then back to La Cabana for the final 3 nights. La Cabana has a check out of 3 and a check in of 12 AND they have daily maid service. Of course they do have the airline schedules to help them out and spread out the check out and check in numbers somewhat. Along these lines, Marriott has a policy that you can stay in room A UNTIL room B is ready, even if it's a different resort in the same area. They actually have more resorts in the same area than one might think.

 

[cheezNE1]

Entirely impossible and unrealistic, unless all DVC members are willing to check out by 7 AM.

So it is possible if we all agree to check out at 7 am. Let's propose that to everyone.

 

[twinklebug]

Turn overs could happen faster if owners would step in to make it happen. How would folk feel if we were required to scrub clean our own rooms before departing? We're talking a full kitchen wash down, putting dishes away, vacuuming, stripping beds and linens. What if failure to do the above would be a fine because you're causing someone to be delayed getting into that room? (yea, not a popular concept)

OK, aside from the few who do this already (& god bless you over active hearts) I think it's entirely reasonable that housekeeping needs time to turn over the rooms. I try to do what I can stripping the beds, tidying up etc, but on a day I'm off to catch a plane there is no way I'd be able to fully clean a unit - all I care about is packing up and not leaving chargers, RX and kids behind.

Sometimes problems happen and a room will take longer than usual. In those cases, alternate arrangements should be offered to the folks waiting. If I'm in my room by 5pm I'm happy. Anything after 6pm is tiring, after 8 is unacceptably late. I feel for the families that need their rooms for rest and medication purposes - been there. It's tough.

 

[Dean]

People are sadly mistaken if they think this is primarily an owners checkout issue. This is a system issue that is only marginally affected by the specifics of when people check in and check out. The fix is likely a FEW more staff and a better way to know when rooms are available for cleaning. Changing from 11 to 10 would likely help some but not nearly as much as some would like to think.