Total Nightmare @ Disney

[Albytaps]

This sucks no matter how you look at it but....

I'm not sure what you expected Disney to do. Unless you can show that it was their negligence that led to the theft, they are not responsible.

Yes, i know. I just wanted them to check their cameras.

 

[si-am]

I know it happens, but I don't think this was the case here. I think people reacted to 1) angry smilie & "nightmare", 2) with no details, 3) asking for info easily found using Google, and 4) poster with only 3 posts total.

That, and the overall context on the board these days, I think... seems like lots of negativity... more than I remember when I first joined. Maybe that will get better as more people post that they feel it's gone overboard...

Perhaps there is more negativity these days because Disney's standards are slipping.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Perhaps there is more negativity these days because Disney's standards are slipping.

Pretty sure I disagree... and in any case, there is already a substantial thread on this topic, right?

In any case, whatever is at the root, I'm seeing more and more posts recently saying the negativity has gone overboard. I'm all for constructive criticism, and even some venting, but it's a bit much now, IMHO. I'm just hoping it dies down a bit... maybe to 2007 levels...

 

[KellyNY]

I'm not the poster who wrote what you're responding to - but that's the kind of thing I always address while there.

We were finally told our room was ready at about 3:15 or so. I think we were at Whole Foods, near Universal, when we found out, so it took a minute to get back to the room. Plus, when we arrived, I grabbed ALL of our luggage, which was quite a bit. It couldn't have been before 3:45 pm before I went into the room. When I did go in, the mousekeeper was in there still cleaning.

Now I was aggrevated, but it was certainly something I could work with. Until she opened her mouth. And proceeded to give me attitude. It was clear she was slacking, and called in that the room was complete to make the 3:00 deadline and was ticked that I was back before she could finish.

I really was very nice, despite being really annoyed. I told her she could finish up, I just wanted to leave the bags instead of lugging them back to the car. This is when she started giving me attitude and told me she wanted to vacuum. So I mentioned I'd just leave them on the bed. Got a big old huff and a "Fine!".

If when I asked if I could leave the bags, she would have just said: "Sure!", no harm, no foul. But that attitude pushed me RIGHT over the top.

Went down to the front desk IMMEDIATELY. And I told the manager I spoke to flat out that I wanted NOTHING. I wasn't seeking anything. I wanted to let them know about the issue so they could work with her and other housekeepers to make sure that situation didn't happen to someone else. The manager insisted on compensating. I reinforced that it really wasn't necessary, but she basically said she had access to the computer and would do it irrespective. She cut the room rate by 50% for the night I think, and told me to take the family out for a nice dinner on the resort.

We had not ONE housekeeping issue the rest of the week, and the housekeeper was very pleasant the rest of the week.

That incident taught me 2 things. 1.) Tell someone while you're there. It's FAR too easy for stuff to get lost in the Disney beaurocracy and different divisions and levels of management after you get home. 2.) They do take guest complaints seriously.

Long story short? I'd say something now.

My story is different. First morning I left room around 11AM, I had "do not disturb" sign since night and at 11 AM I found a bag with clean towels on my door. I was quiet surprised because it was still very early, they usually come back if room is not ready to clean and hang a bag only if sign is still there by the end of their shift. Next morning, we were about to leave at 10:30AM when mousekeeper knocked on our door, I opened and she already had a bag to hang on my door. She actually asked if I want a service or she can just give me fresh towels. I paid for service, didn't I, why even to ask and prepare me bag at 10:30 AM? I said, I wanted service and that I am leaving room in couple minutes, which we did. In couple minutes she was already several rooms away with bags on doors. I walked by her and let her know that we were out and she may return. We were back around 2PM and room was still dirty, I had no fresh towels to take a shower. My mother stayed at room while I went to refill our mugs. During this time my mom heard her pass by our room, again, she did not stop, she passed us. My mom got out and literally made her come back and clean. It was crazy. The reason I did not complain right away was all the talk about cuts in CMs. I thought maybe they have so much work to do that they just do not have time to return to rooms and use any excuse not to waste time on cleaning but hanging bags instead. However, next morning when mousekeeper knocked on the door(I did not put "do not disturb" sign anymore), there was another lady and she saw that I was not ready to leave and asked me when she may come back. Totally different attitude. After first, lazy mousekeeper, I had 2 more, wonderful ladies to clean my room spotless. So then I figured out, she was just lazy, it had nothing to do with cuts and amount of work or new lowered standards, she was just not doing her job. By that time my DD joined us on our trip and I had no time nor desire to go to front desk, in CBR it is away from the rest of resort and I just did not want to waste my time, and I did not look for any compensation anyway. So I will mention it in my servey just for them to know and to improve their service.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Part of me is thinking this is one I should walk away from, but I think in OP's case it would be appropriate to follow up with a letter to Disney. You should tell them all that happened, including the upgrade. Probably management alerady knows about what happened, but you should write to make sure the poper folks are informed. If an employee collects too many such letters, I'm sure Disney will take action. (It may be simple oversight.)

Maybe I'm projecting, but it sounds like that's what op was after. She already got some compensation for her inconvenience, but it was beyond the level of inconvenience that's okay. Something wasn't working. Writing a letter is sometimes a guest's way of simply making sure that the same error is not repeated.

I'm not sure OP's problems combined with the compensation she got rises to the level of 'nightmare', but it certainly is up to the level of being a legitimate problem she encountered, even if it was comped, she still experienced a fairly lengthy period of inconvenience.

Not attacking op, but probably in the future if you arrive at any resort, and the room is unsatisfactory, the best remedy is to immediately request another room, unless it's a tiny B&B and that's not possible. Yes, with a late arrival I realize that was not an easy choice to make.


Now to add to the mix....there are SOME threads and posts on the DIS that don't rise to the level of reasonable gripe. I don't think posters ever deserve to be outright attacked, but sometimes a spade is a spade. A poster with unreasonable expectations should be politely so informed. Okay...a few posts rise to the level of comic absurdity, but those are pretty rare.

 

[shasess]

Pretty sure I disagree... and in any case, there is already a substantial thread on this topic, right?

In any case, whatever is at the root, I'm seeing more and more posts recently saying the negativity has gone overboard. I'm all for constructive criticism, and even some venting, but it's a bit much now, IMHO. I'm just hoping it dies down a bit... maybe to 2007 levels...

If you don't like reading "negative" threads then why in the world would you open and post to one that clearly has the words "Total Nightmare @ Disney" in the title...... I don't get it!

 

[d1gitman]

I agree that the first 2 days were a nightmare, but being moved from a value resort to a DVC villa? That was more that adequate compensation. They took care of you while you were still there. I see no reason to write a letter now. I'm sure that management was involved in your problem already & that is the reason for the wonderful free upgrade.

Yes and no. For some people, having a mod, deluxe or villa over a value is not something that interests them. I have friends that love the values and have no interest in spending a $.10 more for a 'better' room. I think it's great that Disney stepped up and did provide nice compensation, but don't assume a nicer room erases the first two days of misery. Enduring what the OP went through for the first 48 hrs would put a large cloud over the rest of my trip. I would wonder what else is gonna go wrong everytime i did something.

There is nothing wrong with sending a letter to Disney regarding the situation. Sure, I wouldn't make it a scathing letter, it should be tempered with acknowledgement for what Disney did to make it 'better'. If having a room/resort upgrade wasn't the type of rectification the OP wanted, then by all means, the OP should let Disney know that. Disney should be open to the idea of having multiple options for 'compensation' when there is a guest issue deserving of compensation.

 

[nanalisa]

OK...I guess I could share one of my few nightmare stories from Disney:

One trip went very badly...first, the entire trip I never got a towel animal, someone in an electric cart ran into my foot, I had to walk through a smoking spot and couldn't breathe, someone cut in line on a ride way up in front of me, someone tried to hold a spot on the ropes for the parade, I got something from the counter service that wasn't up to Michelin guide standards, some people near me weren't wearing deodorant, a ride was closed for refurb that I wanted to go on, there were some screaming kids not being controlled by their parents. It was crazy!

And wasn't there folks from another resort swimming in your pool and people at the food court using their Big Gulp mugs to get soda?

 

[KellyNY]

My point is if someone came in and said something like Disney is the best thing ever and only wanted the address they would not be questioned.
Ten people would have given them the address and say I agree.

I really do not think ANYONE would have asked them why they did not use Google.

I do not think they would have been questioned about what is so great and I do not think that those who disagree would show up just to punch holes in the story and pick it apart like when someone has a complaint.

It is important to listen to both sides and not just attack the ones who do not agree with you.

I always feel like people want to blame the victim when they had a bad stay at Disney.
I have had great stays at Disney and stays that were beyond awful. It happens.
L

Not entirely true. I was on board for maybe couple of days and being happy to find this board I wanted to share my bad experience from 6 months old then trip. I did not ask for complains addresses, I just wanted to share. I stated story right away in OP and I stayed with my thread as long as people posted. I did not recieve any "troll" comments, nobody was mean to me and I had only few posts by that time. It all depends on how you tell your story, what words you use, if you are around or nowhere to find. I read lots of complains here and yes, some of them even from older members are nothing but attention seeking or trolling, but there are plenty of valid complains and there are plenty of new members who never called a troll even if they complain.

 

[Suellen]

My point is if someone came in and said something like Disney is the best thing ever and only wanted the address they would not be questioned.
Ten people would have given them the address and say I agree.

I really do not think ANYONE would have asked them why they did not use Google.

I do not think they would have been questioned about what is so great and I do not think that those who disagree would show up just to punch holes in the story and pick it apart like when someone has a complaint.

It is important to listen to both sides and not just attack the ones who do not agree with you.

I always feel like people want to blame the victim when they had a bad stay at Disney.
I have had great stays at Disney and stays that were beyond awful. It happens.
L

Okay. But still wouldn't have considered them a troll because they would not have been coming to "stir the pot" with a hey all is great.

Pretty sure no one can really "justify" good behavior.

i.e. If I come on and say I had and AWFUL meal at San Angel Inn.

It would be quite easy to say "You probably just don't like real Mexican food"

However if I came and said "I had a GREAT steak at Le Cellier" what could the retort be? No you didn't it was awful!

Not that I am saying either scenario is "right" but one is more likely to happen.

Negativity stirs the pot around here and gets people fired up.

Just saying positivity does not a troll make.

 

[Jasper Dale]

i think you need to put yourself in the place of the OP. we had our air conditioner go out a few summers ago and waiting 8 hours in a 90 degree apartment gave both of us really bad headaches which lasted for days.

factor in a screaming child, and i can see how you could say "my vacation was ruined". PLUS, going all the way to the parks, tired and hot already, and not being able to get into the parks?

yep, there is a lot of whining on these boards and frankly i think 95% percent of it is petty, but this situation is different. it was nice they got an upgrade, but that doesn't diminish the crappy way they must have felt for the first 3 or 4 days of their trip.

we scrimp and save every year to go to Disney World. it is a huge investment for us. every minute we are at the world is money that we had to sacrifice stuff for in order to go.

there is NO WAY they should have had to go back to All Stars to get their tickets added on to their card. i think i would have flipped out at that point.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

If you don't like reading "negative" threads then why in the world would you open and post to one that clearly has the words "Total Nightmare @ Disney" in the title...... I don't get it!

I understand you probably didn't read the whole thread. I generally don't post to negative threads - maybe have a handful of times in 3 yrs, at the most.

I often click on them just to read, as others have said, to potentially help me avoid a negative experience, or pick up on general trends (e.g. food doesn't appear to be getting any better... ).

I think the general negativity these days, and the context on this particular post (which I addressed earlier), prompted me to post.

Not to worry... after this one, I'll happily go back to only sometimes reading and almost never posting in response to negativity. After all, who needs cranky responses like this in their free time, right?

 

[heather13]

Thanks for posting about your experience and so sorry it was a rough first few days. I for one am really glad you told what happened - it's very constructive and helpful for me to consider that the meal plan and tickets might not be attached to our room card. Just one thing I'll make certain to review when we check in. Maybe your experience will prevent it happening to the next person

 

[mrbghd]

I guess i should have just googled the questions.... but here are a few details of what took place...

10 nights 9/2 All Star Sports

Arrived 9/2 @10pm

Room temp was 83 and it seems the AC was not working.... call and said they will send someone out... midnight came and no one arrived... call them back to have someone come out in the morning because i need to get 2 tear old son to sleep....

called the next morning -- said they would send someone out... heading out to pickup some items we forgot and came back to the room about 5 hours later... room temp now at 87.... called and they said someone would be right out.... called front desk asked for manager... she said she will work on it as well.... 2 hours went by and no one shows up.... headed to the front desk to speak with the manager --- she said someone is just minutes away and she would call the room in 30 mins to see if everything was taken care of.... 1.5 hours later i head back to the desk -- no one had showed up.... and it was now 89 in the room and i insisted she come to the room... she enters the room and says "o my.... it is very hot in here" only just then someone arrived... she stays behind... -- The Filter of the AC unit had about 5 inches of dust and the motor was clogged with dust.... they had to replace the motor and things were solved.....

With the temp coming down in the room ---we headed to MK.... to our surprise they did not add our tickets on our room at check-in..... so here we are with a 2 year old crying at the gates because we wanted it and we had no tickets.... customer relations could not assist -- they called the all star and we were told we had to head back to the resort to have it fixed.....

They fixed that issue -- we heading back to the room only to find out the the room keys did not work...... heading back to the front desk....

After we got that fixed we heading back to the park -- tickets worked --- but they never added the meal plan on out tickets.... you would have thought they would have looked at that after the tickets were not placed on the card.....

I called the manager from my cell phone with still in the park ---- I wanted her to fix everything ----- she called me back 10 mins later and said she wanted to fix everything much better for us and they had a 2 bedroom villa for us at SSR.....

She said they wanted to make this a good time and nice villa.... she said she knew they messed up several time over and wanted to make it right....

So -- Why i wanted the address was to try and inform management what took place on our vacation and have it and use it as a case study.

We will be back -- been several time --- Just not at the All Star Sports

But i guess you get what you pay for

I have a suggestion for you, feel free to disregard. I have found that when dealing with customer service industries such as Disney, they are far more resposnive to complaints if you deliver them in an evenhanded manner. Your explanation here is very evenhanded. You presented the bad with the good (the free upgrade to a deluxe villa). If anyone at all was good to deal with during the process (bell services, housekeeping, desk CM, manager, etc.) mention it. It is important for businesses to be made aware of problems, but it is also important to know if anyone was able to make you less "angry" during the issue. This is helpful for learnign how to handle "situations that occur.

 

[WDSearcher]

Yes and no. For some people, having a mod, deluxe or villa over a value is not something that interests them. I have friends that love the values and have no interest in spending a $.10 more for a 'better' room. I think it's great that Disney stepped up and did provide nice compensation, but don't assume a nicer room erases the first two days of misery. Enduring what the OP went through for the first 48 hrs would put a large cloud over the rest of my trip. I would wonder what else is gonna go wrong everytime i did something.

Of course a nicer room won't erase the first two days of annoyance, but what can? No one can give you those two days back ... they can only offer you a better experience for the days remaining. If those two days were so awful as to cloud the other 8 no matter what, then how would more (or different) compensation fix it? Based on what you've written, someone could offer to cover your entire vacation plus give you a couple of nights in the castle, and you'd still have a large cloud over the rest of the trip, making you constantly wonder what else was going to happen. So then why bother offering you anything at all, if it won't make a difference? Or does more compensation make the cloud smaller?

There is nothing wrong with sending a letter to Disney regarding the situation. Sure, I wouldn't make it a scathing letter, it should be tempered with acknowledgement for what Disney did to make it 'better'. If having a room/resort upgrade wasn't the type of rectification the OP wanted, then by all means, the OP should let Disney know that. Disney should be open to the idea of having multiple options for 'compensation' when there is a guest issue deserving of compensation.

I'll agree that there is nothing wrong with sending a letter to Disney to relate all of this -- just so that it goes onto the official record at Guest Communications, if nothing else. But asking for additional compensation at this point would be difficult, particularly if nothing else happened to the OP after those first two annoying days. The OP did, after all, accept Disney's offer of an upgrade and did not (apparently) ask for anything else. In Disney's head -- as with most companies who offer guest / customer compensation -- I imagine that once you say "yes" to an offer, you've basically ended the chance of receiving more. I can't imagine taking an upgrade (or free tickets or a comped meal or whatever) offered in response to a problem and then coming home and writing a letter to re-state the problem and then asking for MORE compensation after the fact. That would definitely make the company in question wonder if the problem was really that bad to begin with or if the person writing the letter was just looking for more freebies. At which point the focus shifts from "how to fix the problem" to "how to deal with the person". JMO

 

[tesser21]

Okay. But still wouldn't have considered them a troll because they would not have been coming to "stir the pot" with a hey all is great.

Pretty sure no one can really "justify" good behavior.

i.e. If I come on and say I had and AWFUL meal at San Angel Inn.

It would be quite easy to say "You probably just don't like real Mexican food"

However if I came and said "I had a GREAT steak at Le Cellier" what could the retort be? No you didn't it was awful!

Not that I am saying either scenario is "right" but one is more likely to happen.

Negativity stirs the pot around here and gets people fired up.

Just saying positivity does not a troll make.

I agree with your explanation/examples; however it isn't the posters fault that some dis members automatically choose to jump to conclusions before they give the poster a chance. I probably would have asked the question instead of googling, but also would have provided more detail of my experience.

 

[d1gitman]

Of course a nicer room won't erase the first two days of annoyance, but what can? No one can give you those two days back ... they can only offer you a better experience for the days remaining. If those two days were so awful as to cloud the other 8 no matter what, then how would more (or different) compensation fix it? Based on what you've written, someone could offer to cover your entire vacation plus give you a couple of nights in the castle, and you'd still have a large cloud over the rest of the trip, making you constantly wonder what else was going to happen. So then why bother offering you anything at all, if it won't make a difference? Or does more compensation make the cloud smaller? More compensation always makes my cloud smaller The AMOUNT of compensation was not my point, rather it was the TYPE of compensation. Maybe they would have preferred an upgrade on their ticket to hopper or WPF&M or DreamPasses or tix to LaNouba or a Signature Restaurant or some other item. Not every one likes the same things. For instance, if i were offered a free round of golf, it would be useless since i don't golf. For me, the resort upgrade would have been the best offering but not to all.

I'll agree that there is nothing wrong with sending a letter to Disney to relate all of this -- just so that it goes onto the official record at Guest Communications, if nothing else. But asking for additional compensation at this point would be difficult, particularly if nothing else happened to the OP after those first two annoying days. The OP did, after all, accept Disney's offer of an upgrade and did not (apparently) ask for anything else. In Disney's head -- as with most companies who offer guest / customer compensation -- I imagine that once you say "yes" to an offer, you've basically ended the chance of receiving more. I can't imagine taking an upgrade (or free tickets or a comped meal or whatever) offered in response to a problem and then coming home and writing a letter to re-state the problem and then asking for MORE compensation after the fact. That would definitely make the company in question wonder if the problem was really that bad to begin with or if the person writing the letter was just looking for more freebies. At which point the focus shifts from "how to fix the problem" to "how to deal with the person". JMO

Read what I previously posted. I wasn't suggesting to ask for additional compensation. I was suggesting that they point out to WDW that 'one size doesn't fit all'

.

 

[disney_bob]

I agree with your explanation/examples; however it isn't the posters fault that some dis members automatically choose to jump to conclusions before they give the poster a chance. I probably would have asked the question instead of googling, but also would have provided more detail of my experience.

I agree. It's getting a little tiresome reading posts with responses that are either or "ooh boy get prepared to be flamed". The OP hadn't even said what the issue was and people were already making assumptions while contributing nothing to the thread... nobody had posted anything negative even.

To the OP, that sucks that happened to you. I'm glad Disney tried to make it right.

 

[brunette8706]

Hey All!

You know I try to be as unbiased as possible. With that said, I'm just wondering why the OP isn't MORE ACTIVE on this thread. Now, I try to see the positives and negatives of all trips at WDW. But, why on earth would a poster write "Nightmare at Walt Disney World", and then WAIT AWHILE and later pipe in on page 3 or 4 to give us details!?? This to me really gets me somewhat angry. Was this a ploy to just get people all up in arms! It's almost like the boy who cryed wolf in a way. Why not just gather your thoughts, then type them in the opening post? Or at the very least state I will write details later I need to log off for a few minutes. Something to let the reader know that poster will be back. And why the poster is still going to complain is beyond me. She was beyond compensated for her inconvenience, in my opinion. And yes, I too thought she was a troll.

Brunette

 

[shalom]

But asking for additional compensation at this point would be difficult, particularly if nothing else happened to the OP after those first two annoying days.

I saw nothing to indicate the OP wants additional compensation. What the OP wants is for this NOT to happen to anyone else. A room upgrade is all very nice, but, as pointed out elsewhere, AC in Florida in September is crucial for a lot of us from a health perspective, and the manager did not deal with that in a timely fashion.

In the OPs place, I would write in to say, "Look, the upgrade was lovely and much appreciated, but frankly I would have preferred it if someone had just shifted me to another room in the same level resort as soon as they realized they couldn't fix the AC in my room in a timely fashion." I don't know if that's what the OP intends to say, but I do see a point to writing a letter even if you feel the situation was already resolved. There's a difference between writing in saying, "I want further compensation" and writing in saying, "Maybe you need to rethink your approach."

Personally, I view AC in Florida as crucial as plumbing anywhere else.