TEMPORARY Refrigerator Removal from Walt Disney World

[Marionnette]

Sharing this from the Resorts Board. It's going to have a HUGE impact on everyone heading to Disney over the next few months!:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3138895

This was just posted on the Disney TA Blog:


"Due to a possible defect in the refrigerators in some of the Guest rooms at the Walt Disney World® and Disneyland® Resorts, as well as Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, Resort hotels at these locations have removed or temporarily disconnected Guest room refrigerators until the issue can be resolved.

Guests staying at these Resort hotels will be notified of the refrigerator removal via a letter in their room. Currently the schedule for replacing the refrigerators at these Resorts is expected to last several months."

Anyone have more details?


This comment was just posted by Disney:
"This is for all Resorts, except Disney Vacation Club rooms and the cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground. Currently we do not have an exact timeframe for when the fridges will be replaced, but it is expected to take at least 4 months. At each Resort there will be a limited number of refrigerators available by special request"

 

[Malibustyle23]

Well that truly changes alot of my plans. Thanks for cross posting, I am hardly on that board. Pretty disappointing that Disney needs to potentially take that long to replace fridges. Even more upsetting that they would not at the very least send an email to all of those with current reservations. Glad I found out before we left!

 

[Planogirl]

That is big news! We plan for a refrigerator when we go so we'd have to pick up a cooler if we were to go soon. I imagine that this will be true for some of those visiting soon too.

 

[dhardawa]

They're going to have some really angry people who stop at the grocery store and stock up on things that have to be refrigerated only to find that there is no refrigerator AFTER they check in and get to their room. There is no reason for it to take 4 months to replace those refrigerators.

 

[Marionnette]

They're going to have some really angry people who stop at the grocery store and stock up on things that have to be refrigerated only to find that there is no refrigerator AFTER they check in and get to their room. There is no reason for it to take 4 months to replace those refrigerators.

I can see it taking that long if they have to purchase new refrigerators for each of those rooms. The actual installation may only take a few minutes per room but the take it takes for new fridges to be ordered and delivered could be the rate limiting step in the process.

In the mean time, I can envision Disney maintenance crews going from room to room and snipping the plugs off of each refrigerator in order to take them out of service quickly. Something very dangerous must have happened with one of those fridges for Disney to take a drastic measure like this. Their liability lawyers must have told them to take all those fridges offline immediately.

 

[OhMari]

We were at Coronado Springs in April and ours did not work. We called Maintenance right away. They never came. The next morning we talked to our cleaning lady and told her it didn't work. She had a walkie talkie radio with her and called her manager. He came in the room and said, "yep it didn't work." Within 10 minutes a new one came and my dh actually helped the maintenance guy put it in. He had no idea how to plug it in or put it in the cabinet. We turned it on and it got cold instantly.

These refrigerator's are very small. Our kids had bigger one's in their dorms. They really are not made to last. And turning them on and off actually wrecks them.

Disney is probably trying to find a new "dealer" and manufacturer to work with and they probably can't deliver for 4 months.

 

[OhMari]

I can see it taking that long if they have to purchase new refrigerators for each of those rooms. The actual installation may only take a few minutes per room but the take it takes for new fridges to be ordered and delivered could be the rate limiting step in the process.

In the mean time, I can envision Disney maintenance crews going from room to room and snipping the plugs off of each refrigerator in order to take them out of service quickly. Something very dangerous must have happened with one of those fridges for Disney to take a drastic measure like this. Their liability lawyers must have told them to take all those fridges offline immediately.

I bet you are right. See above post. We had water on the floor and inside the cabinet, while the refrigerator was plugged in.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Disney has about 23,000 regular rooms that are not DVC. Most manufacturers do not have that number in stock. Also, Disney has a limited number of people to do the work.

And I would expect the larger deluxe to be done first with the value resorts last.

 

[IbeAbitGOOFY]

They're going to have some really angry people who stop at the grocery store and stock up on things that have to be refrigerated only to find that there is no refrigerator AFTER they check in and get to their room. There is no reason for it to take 4 months to replace those refrigerators.

Indeed it can take 4 months to accomplish this task. If they are replacing all units throughout the entire three resorts (WDW, DL, and Aulani), this is pretty large task. They first need procure the thousands of units and then install. They can certainly subcontract the install out to a non-Disney company, but even that would take several days, if not weeks, per resort to deliver the units to the resorts, then carry them to the rooms, unbox and install each unit. If they didn't subcontract the install out, I could see it taking even longer as they would be taking people away from their normal duties.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Thank you so much for posting this!

Now I can be prepared just in case the fridges aren't intalled by the time I arrive in mid-Sept.

I'll be tossing my little squishable portable lunch cooler into my suitcase. I just add a bit of ice to it nightly and it will keep the juice and water I like to keep in the room cold.

 

[ilovemk76]

They're going to have some really angry people who stop at the grocery store and stock up on things that have to be refrigerated only to find that there is no refrigerator AFTER they check in and get to their room. There is no reason for it to take 4 months to replace those refrigerators.

One should never buy food that needs to be refuge rated before they check in. What if your room is not ready, the fridge is not turned on or it is broken?

I am sure they will first sort to find the "good ones" and use them for the ones who really need a fridge. Then they would start the repairs. It is possible it could take up to four months to get all the needed repair kids from the manufacturer.


Our last trip the first fridge was not working. They brought a second one that worked but was not ready to put perishables into. It took sometime before it was cold enough to be safe.


I havewondered about the fridges in the cabinets. Some do not seem to have enough ventilation.

 

[comicguy]

I just spoke w/ a WDW reservation rep and she told me that Art of Animation is scheduled to have the refrigerator swap completed within the next 2-3 weeks.

I hope that helps someone else out there

 

[dtnrhi]

This sounds like it is due to the fire caused by a refrigerator at the Grand Californian at DLR.

 

[wiigirl]

This sounds like it is due to the fire caused by a refrigerator at the Grand Californian at DLR.

Yikes!

 

[dhardawa]

One should never buy food that needs to be refuge rated before they check in. What if your room is not ready, the fridge is not turned on or it is broken?

If I've paid for a room that was advertised as having a refrigerator, I would expect one to be there. Now, if you arrive before check in time, that's your own problem if the room isn't ready. But, based what's quoted above, you should never bring refrigerated items because the refrigerator could break at any time.

 

[dani7776]

Wow that's crazy !!! I just placed an order on garden grocer for our trip Aug 30 hopefully they have fridge sorted out by then or I will be very unhappy like I'm sure all the guest would be !! I would like to think disney would try there best to get them back and running as soon as they can !

 

[Suzanne74]

Garden Grocer is going to lose a fortune over this!

So glad I am staying at SSR for the week in Aug but I do move to AoA for 3 days. It is one thing if you are staying in a basic room but I will be annoyed if I paid for a suite to get breakfast/lunch stuff only to find out there is no fridge.

 

[Marionnette]

Garden Grocer is going to lose a fortune over this!

So glad I am staying at SSR for the week in Aug but I do move to AoA for 3 days. It is one thing if you are staying in a basic room but I will be annoyed if I paid for a suite to get breakfast/lunch stuff only to find out there is no fridge.

From what I've read, the AoA Family Suites are not affected.

 

[Colleen27]

One should never buy food that needs to be refuge rated before they check in. What if your room is not ready, the fridge is not turned on or it is broken?

Bell services at Disney resorts can keep perishables refrigerated if your room isn't ready, and a turned-off or broken fridge should only take a short time to correct. That's not quite the same as checking in to find out that there won't be a fridge at all even though at the time of booking the room description said there would.

Disney's in a really tough position with this one and I assume they'll be scrambling to get the issue resolved ASAP to minimize guest impact.

 

[hsmamato2]

hmm,seems like a discount on a room that doesn't have a fridge might be in order....it won't happen,but it should.