Total Nightmare @ Disney

[si-am]

No one knows if it was due to someone checking out late. 4pm is more than acceptable when the checkin time is 3pm. Stuff happens. Maybe some of the staff was out sick and the poor CM was stressed.

Stuff happens, but an apology would have been nice rather than a rude response. I don't care how stressed you are, if your job is to deal with the public, there's no need to be rude.

Did we complain, demand compensation or write a letter about the late check-in? No. We just grumbled about it a bit to ourselves and I mentioned it in my WL review when we got back. It didn't ruin the trip but it was a bummer way to start out-- we had ADRs at Cape May that night, so we were unable to actually see and get into our room until 7pm or so. We had been hoping to freshen up a bit before dinner.

 

[disneyfan55]

Page 4 post post 55

Thanks!

 

[WDSearcher]

Hey Siam!

This was not a good business practice from Disney. I feel your pain. Further, you're not asking for "ALL" rooms to be ready by 3, just your room, since you arrived at 7 a.m. you should have had a room ready and available at least no later than 1 or 2.

I don't agree with this. If listed check-in time is 3pm, Si-am should have had a room ready and available at 3pm. It was Disney's mistake to not have one at the stated check-in time (unless Si-am made a special request for a specific room or specific view or whatever, in which case that might take a bit longer based on when the person in that room decides to leave).

But it's not like Si-am was the only person checking in that day. Sure, they only care about THEIR room, but everyone else checking in that day only cares about THEIR room. And if Si-am gets their room at 1pm, how do you tell everyone else that arrived at 7am that day that they can't have their room too?

I agree that Disney messed up by not having the room ready at 3. But they were under no obligation to have it ready at 1 or 2 just because you show up at 7. Check-in is still at 3pm.

 

[si-am]

I've heard that WL (and WDW in general?) has made cutbacks in the mousekeeping area. I think they are just overwhelmed and can't get the work done on time.

To be fair, our mousekeeping was great for the rest of our trip and our room was clean by 2pm each day.

 

[d1gitman]

in reading some of the recent posts about mousekeeping and checkout times, it reminded me of a trip in October of 2005. It was a Daddy & Son trip while DW was home, 2 weeks from her scheduled due date (c-section).

The trip was unbelievably magical as my then DS4 made me feel like a 4yo again. Check out day came and i was scrambling to get everything packed (we went on a bit of a shopping spree for soon to be baby and for mommy, not to mention for ourselves). I was running behind, to top it all off, i had to run down to the gift shop with DS4 to buy some additional luggaage to fit it all.

It was 11:00 on the dot and mousekeeping came by and i had to tell them i needed about 10 minutes. she said okay. this was before i realized i needed an additional bag to fit everything. so then the games began. i was back in the room at 11:20 and there was a note on the door from mousekeeping that they had stopped by. i called mousekeeping to explain the situation and apologized for the delay. 5 min after hanging up with mousekeeping, they stopped by again. I was then in a panick because i realized i needed another bag to fit everything. At this point, i decided to call the front desk and explain what was going on and ask if they could let mousekeeping know that i was going to be further delayed. The front desk said don't worry, don't rush, everything is okay. DS and i returned from purchasing the second duffle bag and i proceeded to stuff the remainder of our belongings. It was at this point that mousekeeping called, 11:45am and told me i had to vacate the room. I told them to speak with the front desk about the situation. The lady on the phone from mousekeeping proceeded to give me some attitude on the phone about not being out of the room in time. After she hung up, i left a $10 tip, with a note apologizing for the delay.

When i went down to the front desk to check out, they must of had notes in the system about it cause they asked me if i was all set with getting my extra belongings packed. I wasn't going to say anything about it but since they brought it up i said that i was packed, it was stressful but that mousekeeping hounding me didn't help. They apologized and said mousekeeping never should have even said a thing to me.

Either way, i was the one who was late in checking out but i gotta tell ya, having mousekeeping on your tail is no fun when you are scrambling to get out the door. As it was, we had to hop a later ME bus to the airport since we were an hour late for our scheduled one.

 

[Jasper Dale]

why don't we all write Disney and ask them to raise all resort rooms $50.00 a night so that we can be sure we can check in at 3:00 and not 3:01?

 

[d1gitman]

why don't we all write Disney and ask them to raise all resort rooms $50.00 a night so that we can be sure we can check in at 3:00 and not 3:01?

and while were at it, ask them to raise all the pases by $50 so we can all park hop? (sorry, i couldn't resist)

 

[maxiesmom]

*
You're kidding me right? You're saying the CM is allowed to tell a paying guest that, "not all the rooms can possibly be made up by 3." This is the last thing a PAYING guest wants to hear! Sorry, but I totally disagree with your assessment.

What, you think the CM had a good attitude?

Couldn't resist.

Good grief, it sounds like the CM was a bit rude, but they were right in that Disney can't (won't?) have all of the rooms available for check in at 3. Now if that CM would have lied to the OP, we would hear about how horrible it is for the CMs not to tell the guest the truth. And now when they did, it is bad too.

Would you rather the CM had spouted some nonsense about why the room wasn't ready yet?

 

[KellyNY]

It is not horrible, check in STARTS at 3:00. It IS impossible to check every single guest in at 3:00. Can you not imagine the line if a few hundred guests all wanted to check in right at 3:00? Also, the Value resort check in time is 4:00.

The CMs attitude sounds bad, but he was right.

Check in is actually a process of 2 parts.

Part 1. You check in, give information and so on, can be done in Disney 10 days in advance and in all respected resorts any time from 7AM.

Part 2. You are given key or your key is activated and you are given room # and may enter your room at Check In time.

Part 1 is a guarantee that hundreds of people do not line up at the same time. Resorts have a list of people arriving and so can be prepared to have a given number of rooms clean by check in time, it is not impossible, it is how this business works. The phrase "check in begins at 3PM" means guest may enter the room at 3PM. Guest if he feels so may enter later, same as leaving resort before check out time, but no later then official check out.

 

[si-am]

What, you think the CM had a good attitude?

Couldn't resist.

Good grief, it sounds like the CM was a bit rude, but they were right in that Disney can't (won't?) have all of the rooms available for check in at 3. Now if that CM would have lied to the OP, we would hear about how horrible it is for the CMs not to tell the guest the truth. And now when they did, it is bad too.

Would you rather the CM had spouted some nonsense about why the room wasn't ready yet?

Hey, I am not the OP of this thread. I simply posted an experience I had about check-in time when it came up in conversation.

Note that I did NOT pitch a fit about it or make a big deal of it. It wasn't ideal or convenient or even nice, but it happened, and we made do.

 

[maxiesmom]

I don't care how many parts you divide it up into, you are still wrong. Check in begins at the stated time, but you are not guaranteed to get your room at that time. And it sounds like the CMs are now explaining that, like it or not. You may think it should be that way, but that doesn't make it so.

si-am, I didn't think you pitched a fit at all! As someone who has gotten into their room after the stated start of check in, I did what you did. Made do and went on with my vacation. I don't see the point in getting all riled up about something you can't control. And standing around demanding a room may just backfire. I wouldn't want a room that they hadn't yet had the chance to clean properly. Or in which they had shampooed the rug and it wasn't yet dry.

If you (in general) think about it, there are many reasons your room may not be available at the stated check in time. Maybe the person who had the room before you trashed it, and it needs extra cleaning. Or someone was sick. Or maybe that person decided to extend their vacation, and now they have to find you a new room and are trying to meet your requests. All the rooms Disney expects to be ready to go are probably not ready to go on any given day. Why is it so hard to cut them some slack?

 

[KellyNY]

I don't care how many parts you divide it up into, you are still wrong. Check in begins at the stated time, but you are not guaranteed to get your room at that time. And it sounds like the CMs are now explaining that, like it or not. You may think it should be that way, but that doesn't make it so.

si-am, I didn't think you pitched a fit at all! As someone who has gotten into their room after the stated start of check in, I did what you did. Made do and went on with my vacation. I don't see the point in getting all riled up about something you can't control. And standing around demanding a room may just backfire. I wouldn't want a room that they hadn't yet had the chance to clean properly. Or in which they had shampooed the rug and it wasn't yet dry.

If you (in general) think about it, there are many reasons your room may not be available at the stated check in time. Maybe the person who had the room before you trashed it, and it needs extra cleaning. Or someone was sick. Or maybe that person decided to extend their vacation, and now they have to find you a new room and are trying to meet your requests. All the rooms Disney expects to be ready to go are probably not ready to go on any given day. Why is it so hard to cut them some slack?

Wondering, what makes you think that you are correct? Any hard proof? Check business dictionary to see what exactly is Check in time. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/check-in-time.html

 

[maxiesmom]

Wondering, what makes you think that you are correct? Any hard proof? Check business dictionary to see what exactly is Check in time. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/check-in-time.html

Experience. More than once we have gotten ownership of our room later than the stated check in time at Disney World. At the Beach Club we didn't get our room until almost 5:30pm. And from previous posts it seems that is what the CMs are now telling people too.

Why don't you write WDW and ask them if they guarantee you will get your room exactly at check in time? I bet your answer comes back as something along the line of "We of course do our best, but due to unforseen circumstances that may arise cannot guarantee you your room exactly at check in time." And I think that that is all we can really expect from them. That they do their best.

 

[KellyNY]

Experience. More than once we have gotten ownership of our room later than the stated check in time at Disney World. At the Beach Club we didn't get our room until almost 5:30pm. And from previous posts it seems that is what the CMs are now telling people too.

Experience is not a hard proof, my room was always ready by check in time at any resort, different experience. The link I posted however clearly states what exactly check in is and it is a hard proof. CMs sometimes telling a lot of interesting things to cover what is wrong or simply because of lack of knowledge but it does not change rules.

 

[flicx]

I will say this 3:00 means 3:00 not later.Of course I know whats next the old disney has the right to do whatever,whenever they like.

 

[momof2intx]

I wasn't going to respond to this thread but I read the OP's post about what happened on her trip. I am a front office manager of a high end hotel with awesome service scores...so awesome that our guests have even compared us (our staff) by way of Disney standards So......I have to add my 2 cents...

There is nothing worse than everything going wrong for one guest and then you (as a manager) do everything within your power to turn it around for them and genuinely want them to leave with a smile on their face...wether it means giving the house away, then so be it......Then you still get a notice from your corporate office stating that the guest complained and wrote a letter. And 80% of the time that this happens, they don't even mention what the hotel did for them to make up for it.

Being upgraded from an All Star property to SSR Villas, certainly is huge compensation to the guest considering the cost and amenity difference of the two. If this were me (assuming everything else went smooth from that point) I would be writing Disney not to complain, but to tell them what a great job the staff did by taking a terrible experience and making it memorable.

Again, just my 2 cents but I thought it would be worth posting.

 

[Suellen]

The time we were assigned a room someone was IN when I got there, when I went back to the front desk I was informed that those people had checked out and mousekeeping had cleaned the room and that they occupant RETURNED to the room after it was released. In meantime DH called and said she was leaving and we could keep the room. CM said NO! the room had to be recleaned before it could be released. So STUFF does happen. I am guessing STUFF if often previous "tenant" ~ not always mind you ~ but my guess would be more often than not.

 

[KellyNY]

Why don't you write WDW and ask them if they guarantee you will get your room exactly at check in time? I bet your answer comes back as something along the line of "We of course do our best, but due to unforseen circumstances that may arise cannot guarantee you your room exactly at check in time." And I think that that is all we can really expect from them. That they do their best.

If you bet this would be a case, why don't you write and post respond here, will be glad to read it. Things do happen but this is why people appologize instead of making up stories or talking about how impossible it is to get room ready by stated time, unacceptable.

 

[heatherwillmom]

I try to always be nice to the CM at check-in. After all, they aren't the ones cleaning the rooms. We drive all night & always arrive betweem 6-8am. We usually check-in, get out KTTW, & head to a park. When we come back in the afternoon, our room has always been ready. This year, at the GF, they sent me a text when our room was ready around 2 pm. A couple of years ago, We were at the SSR. When we got there, the Cm told me that our room wasn't ready that early (around 8 am). I told her that I didn't expect it to be ready that we would just go to a park. She checked a few things on the computer & said that she could give us another room that was ready. It was an up-grade to a suite. I happly accepted it & thanked her profusely. I told her she made my day. She smiled & said, "just doing my job." It pays to be nice sometimes.

 

[KellyNY]

The time we were assigned a room someone was IN when I got there, when I went back to the front desk I was informed that those people had checked out and mousekeeping had cleaned the room and that they occupant RETURNED to the room after it was released. In meantime DH called and said she was leaving and we could keep the room. CM said NO! the room had to be recleaned before it could be released. So STUFF does happen. I am guessing STUFF if often previous "tenant" ~ not always mind you ~ but my guess would be more often than not.

Isn't key suppose to stop opening door after guest checks out and in this case it took time since mousekeeping already cleaned or they just lied?