Total Nightmare @ Disney

[Planogirl]

OP, I told you that you would be flamed. It's how it works around here.

I'm glad that you got the villa.

 

[doconeill]

Wow, I missed this whole thread. I didn't get a chance to post some facts and get called a Disney apologist lemming or anything like that.

Just a few notes:

Troll (ex.): I didn't get a towel animal when I checked in, who do I complain to?

Non-Troll: There are some problems I'd like to communicate to Disney to make sure the appropriate people are aware. Who do I contact?

Yeah, sure, there are plenty of search engines, FAQs, sticky posts, etc. etc. etc. But as we've all seen (and I've seen over many previous forum-like systems over many years), it's a lot easier for people to post in a forum and get the answers given to them. We're just going to have to live with it.

Now sure, you are more likely to get the "thank you for contacting us..." form letter back. But sometimes these do actually reach (mouse) ears. This happened twice to me.

Once was for a little email I sent after receiving a Disney Insider email, just before they redesigned it to get rid of the trivia questions, Ask Dave, etc. (Ask Dave moved to the D23 newsletter). The trivia question was, "What do they celebrate every night on Pleasure Island?" Of course I was thinking of all the snide answers I could give, but the answer was "New Years Eve". Now, if you know the history of PI, you know that hasn't been true in several years, and for the most part PI has been closed for the last two. I fired off an email letting them know that the answer hasn't been right for several years, and in fact nothing at all was celebrated there except for the lame stuff they were doing that was like a traveling carnival side show, and closing great places like the Adventurers Club was boneheaded.

About a month later I got a call from "Disney Studios" or something like that. COOL! I must have won a cruise, or a trip, or something. No, they were calling me about that email. They wanted to make sure I knew that someone was really reading my email, and although she really couldn't say anything about plans, they understood my concerns, etc. Nothing really came of it, but the fact they called was 10000x better than the standard form letter.

The second time came from our first DVC stay at AKL. This was shortly before Kidani Village opened, so we were staying at Jambo House. We had requested an Arusha SV room for particular reasons, and we understood that the request was not guaranteed, but we wanted to avoid the Sunset view side due to the ongoing construction at Kidani and they had only recently reintroduced the animals to that area.

We got there in the morning and checked in, and of course our room wasn't ready, but it would be - ta da - Sunset view. So I asked that since we have to wait hours before we can get out room (and therefore can't go shopping as planned for supplies), and have to wait anyways, why couldn't we wait for an Arusha room? So she went out back for quite a while, and came back and said that it would be fine, they'd switch us to another room. Now, during the time she was out back, a gentleman was checking in for a standard view studio room, but asked about upgrades. The CM helping him checked, and said that nothing was technically available, but they could give him a Sunset view room, and because of the construction they would do so at no extra charge. So they obviously knew that Sunset view wasn't up to snuff yet.

Well, the CM helping me shows me where the new room would be - and it was in the same block as before. So I questioned it, and she said that it would in fact be Arusha. Now I didn't know the layout of the rooms having never stayed there, so I asked if there was a room in that block that looked out over Arusha and she said yes. OK, fine.

Our room is ready later, but we're at the park, and finally get back late evening, get the room number and head to it...and we are heading AWAY from Arusha. We got a Sunset view room! She didn't change our room, she gave us the same one, and even when I questioned it she didn't correct herself. I was furious because either she made a mistake and when questioned she ignored it, or flat out lied. And there was NO room that looked out over Arusha in that block - that end was part of the common corridor, with thin windows that looked out between the other two buildings. What's funny is I could in passing see more animals through that window that I did all week from my balcony.

I went back to the desk and explained what happened. But of course it was late at that point and no other room was available, so we were stuck at that point. We could switch after a couple of days - taking valuable park time to pack up, give our bags to guest services, get new KTTW cards when we got back, unpack again...not to mention the food, etc.

I called Member Satisfaction the next day to make them aware of what happened the next day, as I really was not happy with what the CM did. That evening one of the AKL managers called me back - got pretty much the same option, which I refused as it would disrupt our plans, but he insisted on at least giving us a credit we could use for a dinner. We had some discussion about the view, which I certainly considered substandard for what was advertised. The position of the room was such that the view was a VERY tiny fraction of the savanna - basically just the alcove that led back to the main lobby building - over 6 days, all we saw was an eland, who basically laid on the ground and even disappeared after the 4th day, and an ostrich who for the most part stayed on the other side of the trees where we couldn't see him. We saw far more animals from the narrow hallway windows in 30 seconds than we did the whole stay in our room. This particular room probably had the single worst angle of view of any such room, and typically with Disney if you don't get a complete view, they don't classify it as that view. And why should I be paying point values for a SV room when they are giving them for free to others because they know the view is sub-optimal?

He did say that the CMs often get confused by some of the room numbers, but I would think that when questioned, she would have double checked and at least noticed that she hadn't actually changed rooms.

Anyways, after speaking with the manager I considered the matter, at least as far as the CM's mistake, closed.

After returning home, however, I contacted Member Satisfaction again over the view. As I mentioned, over the 6 days we were in that room we saw two animals, and despite all my reservations of getting a Sunset view room, not only did I wind up with a Sunset room view but it wasn't even a good view. Probably the worst SV view of any room in the entire resort. I knew that they probably couldn't reclassify the room (that would alter point totals, which isn't allowed), but that room really shouldn't be an SV room. She said that if they really needed to reclassify it, they could do it.

Fast forward to January 2010, and the released the 2011 points charts. Aside from the point rebalancing that has been going on, several DISers notice a discrepancy with the charts for AKV - they don't add up right. DVC later confirmed that some existing units were reclassified from SV to standard, with the new inventory from Kidani being used to deal with the points issue.

So apparently that complaint made a big difference. For all those that called me a Disney apologist in that other thread, hardly.

Wow, did I just waste a lot of time...

 

[DISNEY1975]

Wow, I missed this whole thread. I didn't get a chance to post some facts and get called a Disney apologist lemming or anything like that.

Just a few notes:

Troll (ex.): I didn't get a towel animal when I checked in, who do I complain to?

Non-Troll: There are some problems I'd like to communicate to Disney to make sure the appropriate people are aware. Who do I contact?

Yeah, sure, there are plenty of search engines, FAQs, sticky posts, etc. etc. etc. But as we've all seen (and I've seen over many previous forum-like systems over many years), it's a lot easier for people to post in a forum and get the answers given to them. We're just going to have to live with it.

Now sure, you are more likely to get the "thank you for contacting us..." form letter back. But sometimes these do actually reach (mouse) ears. This happened twice to me.

Once was for a little email I sent after receiving a Disney Insider email, just before they redesigned it to get rid of the trivia questions, Ask Dave, etc. (Ask Dave moved to the D23 newsletter). The trivia question was, "What do they celebrate every night on Pleasure Island?" Of course I was thinking of all the snide answers I could give, but the answer was "New Years Eve". Now, if you know the history of PI, you know that hasn't been true in several years, and for the most part PI has been closed for the last two. I fired off an email letting them know that the answer hasn't been right for several years, and in fact nothing at all was celebrated there except for the lame stuff they were doing that was like a traveling carnival side show, and closing great places like the Adventurers Club was boneheaded.

About a month later I got a call from "Disney Studios" or something like that. COOL! I must have won a cruise, or a trip, or something. No, they were calling me about that email. They wanted to make sure I knew that someone was really reading my email, and although she really couldn't say anything about plans, they understood my concerns, etc. Nothing really came of it, but the fact they called was 10000x better than the standard form letter.

The second time came from our first DVC stay at AKL. This was shortly before Kidani Village opened, so we were staying at Jambo House. We had requested an Arusha SV room for particular reasons, and we understood that the request was not guaranteed, but we wanted to avoid the Sunset view side due to the ongoing construction at Kidani and they had only recently reintroduced the animals to that area.

We got there in the morning and checked in, and of course our room wasn't ready, but it would be - ta da - Sunset view. So I asked that since we have to wait hours before we can get out room (and therefore can't go shopping as planned for supplies), and have to wait anyways, why couldn't we wait for an Arusha room? So she went out back for quite a while, and came back and said that it would be fine, they'd switch us to another room. Now, during the time she was out back, a gentleman was checking in for a standard view studio room, but asked about upgrades. The CM helping him checked, and said that nothing was technically available, but they could give him a Sunset view room, and because of the construction they would do so at no extra charge. So they obviously knew that Sunset view wasn't up to snuff yet.

Well, the CM helping me shows me where the new room would be - and it was in the same block as before. So I questioned it, and she said that it would in fact be Arusha. Now I didn't know the layout of the rooms having never stayed there, so I asked if there was a room in that block that looked out over Arusha and she said yes. OK, fine.

Our room is ready later, but we're at the park, and finally get back late evening, get the room number and head to it...and we are heading AWAY from Arusha. We got a Sunset view room! She didn't change our room, she gave us the same one, and even when I questioned it she didn't correct herself. I was furious because either she made a mistake and when questioned she ignored it, or flat out lied. And there was NO room that looked out over Arusha in that block - that end was part of the common corridor, with thin windows that looked out between the other two buildings. What's funny is I could in passing see more animals through that window that I did all week from my balcony.

I went back to the desk and explained what happened. But of course it was late at that point and no other room was available, so we were stuck at that point. We could switch after a couple of days - taking valuable park time to pack up, give our bags to guest services, get new KTTW cards when we got back, unpack again...not to mention the food, etc.

I called Member Satisfaction the next day to make them aware of what happened the next day, as I really was not happy with what the CM did. That evening one of the AKL managers called me back - got pretty much the same option, which I refused as it would disrupt our plans, but he insisted on at least giving us a credit we could use for a dinner. We had some discussion about the view, which I certainly considered substandard for what was advertised. The position of the room was such that the view was a VERY tiny fraction of the savanna - basically just the alcove that led back to the main lobby building - over 6 days, all we saw was an eland, who basically laid on the ground and even disappeared after the 4th day, and an ostrich who for the most part stayed on the other side of the trees where we couldn't see him. We saw far more animals from the narrow hallway windows in 30 seconds than we did the whole stay in our room. This particular room probably had the single worst angle of view of any such room, and typically with Disney if you don't get a complete view, they don't classify it as that view. And why should I be paying point values for a SV room when they are giving them for free to others because they know the view is sub-optimal?

He did say that the CMs often get confused by some of the room numbers, but I would think that when questioned, she would have double checked and at least noticed that she hadn't actually changed rooms.

Anyways, after speaking with the manager I considered the matter, at least as far as the CM's mistake, closed.

After returning home, however, I contacted Member Satisfaction again over the view. As I mentioned, over the 6 days we were in that room we saw two animals, and despite all my reservations of getting a Sunset view room, not only did I wind up with a Sunset room view but it wasn't even a good view. Probably the worst SV view of any room in the entire resort. I knew that they probably couldn't reclassify the room (that would alter point totals, which isn't allowed), but that room really shouldn't be an SV room. She said that if they really needed to reclassify it, they could do it.

Fast forward to January 2010, and the released the 2011 points charts. Aside from the point rebalancing that has been going on, several DISers notice a discrepancy with the charts for AKV - they don't add up right. DVC later confirmed that some existing units were reclassified from SV to standard, with the new inventory from Kidani being used to deal with the points issue.

So apparently that complaint made a big difference. For all those that called me a Disney apologist in that other thread, hardly.

Wow, did I just waste a lot of time...

What? Could you repeat that?

 

[verticalchaos]

I know a couple of pages back someone mentioned that they would have gone to the front desk when they realized the a/c wasn't working (I'm tired and going back to quote would make my eyes cross). Hasn't it been pretty well documented that even when you call the "front desk" of the resort you're actually getting a call center? So yeah - I would have gone to the front desk in person. If someone wasn't available to come and fix it, they could have looked then and there about changing rooms.

As for the ticket part, yeah that does suck.

 

[doconeill]

What? Could you repeat that?

Maybe it will slow down the posts in the thread while they read it and try to make sense of it. The thread grew two pages while I was typing it...

 

[doconeill]

I know a couple of pages back someone mentioned that they would have gone to the front desk when they realized the a/c wasn't working (I'm tired and going back to quote would make my eyes cross). Hasn't it been pretty well documented that even when you call the "front desk" of the resort you're actually getting a call center? So yeah - I would have gone to the front desk in person. If someone wasn't available to come and fix it, they could have looked then and there about changing rooms.

As for the ticket part, yeah that does suck.

I know if you call a resort from the outside, you get a call center. Not sure about picking up the in-room phone. But I never use that phone, I always talk to them at the desk.

As for the tickets, I've learned to always ask the CM to verify the entitlements on the ticket after making any changes. And I'm thinking of keeping my tickets OFF the KTTW cards anyways.

 

[vicki_c]

Even from your room, you don't get the front desk.

 

[duffy]

That is a truly awful experience, but they GAVE YOU A VILLA AT A DELUXE AS AN APOLOGY.

You said you had an awful 10 days. You had an awful 2 days and then 8 awesome days. I would try to see the bright side here.

I totally agree. I would have been totally thrilled to be moved to a deluxe as compensation! My attitude would be: "Disney made my first 2 days miserable, but the next 8 were a vast improvement! Disney rocks!"

But, the original poster has every right to wish to complain still.

 

[bwilcox]

I totally agree. I would have been totally thrilled to be moved to a deluxe as compensation! My attitude would be: "Disney made my first 2 days miserable, but the next 8 were a vast improvement! Disney rocks!"

But, the original poster has every right to wish to complain still.

There are other reasons to complain than just trying to get something out of it. Some people want to make sure the mistake isn't repeated in the future for other visitors. For that, I am grateful that the OP is complaining. Maybe management will stress to the hotel CMs the importance of quickly fixing an AC when someone complains that it is 90 degrees in their room!

 

[larryz]

Um people it's a troll........

-- I agree, most people wouldn't post "I had a problem -- where do I complain" without details unless they're purposefully trying to elicit requests from the readership. Maybe it's a control issue...?

Update - further in the thread, OP gives details. Good. OK, she had a bad experience, and Disney's response wasn't initially up to Disney standards, so Disney tried to make it right.

She prob was more patient than I would have been initially, and I think my letter would be two-edged, something along the lines of "What the h-e-double hockey sticks took your people so long to respond to my air conditioner complaint!?!" followed by "However, I greatly appreciate the ultimate resolution your managers provided by moving my family to the 2 br villa, from which we ultimately enjoyed the rest of our vacation"...mais non?

 

[duffy]

There are other reasons to complain than just trying to get something out of it. Some people want to make sure the mistake isn't repeated in the future for other visitors. For that, I am grateful that the OP is complaining. Maybe management will stress to the hotel CMs the importance of quickly fixing an AC when someone complains that it is 90 degrees in their room!

I'm sure that somewhere a log is kept of issues, and that Disney keeps excrutiatingly detailed reports of problems like this, so that there was no need to make sure that Disney knows about it. They upgraded him/her, correct? OF COURSE they knew about it and don't wish that the situation is repeated!

Disney knew that they messed up. They upgraded the customer. The letter of complaint, to let Disney know that they messed up, at that point, would be redundant.

 

[DisGirl23]

So 10 years ago you went to what you think is WinterSummerland mini golf and it was in horrendous shape to the point it should be demolished? Sorry I'm not buying it, the place just opened in 1999, it would have been no more than 1 year old when you were there by my calculations and depending on the month even less old than that. Maybe you were somewhere else.

WinterSummerland is also right smack next to Blizzard Beach. They share a parking lot. Right across the street from Coronado Springs Resort. Not on the edge of Disney so, it's very possible they were somewhere else.
We were just there last September. Very nice mini golf! Had big fun.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

May I just add a thought here?
Perhaps another issue here is the TIME the OP lost due to all the problems.
I know I had a similar situation this year at the Poly. We arrived at 0900 - but were not able to check in till after 6PM (that's not a misprint!). There was construction on the roof in the Hawaii bldg (which we weren't advised of until just a few days before our arrival...) So we had to take a room for one night in another bldg. We were a group of 2 families on a family reunion trip. We were split up into 2 different bldgs and our luggage was totally misappropriated and some never arrived until the next day.
We had reservations at HDDR that evening. We also ate bkfst & lunch at the resort - didn't go to any parks - we were anxiously awaiting a room assignment. When we got back from HDDR we settled into our respective rooms.
The problems became evident the next morning when we tried to move into our originally reserved rooms. Because we stayed in the first room just one night, we were considered a "split stay". Therefore, the powers that be decided that our meals would have to be paid out of pocket - even tho we were on the DxDDP (because HDDR is 2 credits, and we already used 2 credits for bkfst & lunch - plus some snacks, etc we were being charged hundreds of dollars OOP.) It literally took me 3 hours to straighten this out the next morning. That meant that I lost the entire morning at the MK. To say I was disappointed that our first full day started on such a note would be an understatement, however; none of us let us interfere with our "fun".
Now to add insult to injury - our tickets were also messed up - it's too long of a story to go into here - but that issue was never resolved.
We "budgeted" our time for a 1 week stay to include 1 day at each of the 4 parks, 1 day at TL, and 1 resort day. I can honestly say I personally lost 2 of those days. Those were 2 precious days I had planned on spending with my grandchildren.
I didn't ask for nor did I receive any compensation or upgrades. I would never think that a room upgrade - no matter how grand - could ever make up for lost time. The point is, that the OP will never be able to make up that lost time. And I suspect that if he/she rented a Value Room he/she was either not planning on spending much time in the room (hence the upgrade was of dubious benefit for him/her), or he/she was on a very strict budget and will not be going back soon...
Just my 2 cents....

 

[BriarRosie]

I think the OP has a legitimate reason to contact Disney about the problem, and that the cast members did do a sufficient "guest recovery" after many times inconveniencing the guests.

I think the GM of the hotel would be very upset to find that it took that long for the a/c problem to be addressed. I've had stays where the battery wasn't working on the TV remote and the new remote was delivered to me within a half hour. IMHO, the maintenance issue alone is worth mentioning.

The KTTW card problems just added insult to injury, so offering the 2 BR villa seems like a very good compensation for all the cumulative issues combined.

 

[tinkrebell]

May I just add a thought here?
Perhaps another issue here is the TIME the OP lost due to all the problems.
I know I had a similar situation this year at the Poly. We arrived at 0900 - but were not able to check in till after 6PM (that's not a misprint!). There was construction on the roof in the Hawaii bldg (which we weren't advised of until just a few days before our arrival...) So we had to take a room for one night in another bldg. We were a group of 2 families on a family reunion trip. We were split up into 2 different bldgs and our luggage was totally misappropriated and some never arrived until the next day.
We had reservations at HDDR that evening. We also ate bkfst & lunch at the resort - didn't go to any parks - we were anxiously awaiting a room assignment. When we got back from HDDR we settled into our respective rooms.
The problems became evident the next morning when we tried to move into our originally reserved rooms. Because we stayed in the first room just one night, we were considered a "split stay". Therefore, the powers that be decided that our meals would have to be paid out of pocket - even tho we were on the DxDDP (because HDDR is 2 credits, and we already used 2 credits for bkfst & lunch - plus some snacks, etc we were being charged hundreds of dollars OOP.) It literally took me 3 hours to straighten this out the next morning. That meant that I lost the entire morning at the MK. To say I was disappointed that our first full day started on such a note would be an understatement, however; none of us let us interfere with our "fun".
Now to add insult to injury - our tickets were also messed up - it's too long of a story to go into here - but that issue was never resolved.
We "budgeted" our time for a 1 week stay to include 1 day at each of the 4 parks, 1 day at TL, and 1 resort day. I can honestly say I personally lost 2 of those days. Those were 2 precious days I had planned on spending with my grandchildren.
I didn't ask for nor did I receive any compensation or upgrades. I would never think that a room upgrade - no matter how grand - could ever make up for lost time. The point is, that the OP will never be able to make up that lost time. And I suspect that if he/she rented a Value Room he/she was either not planning on spending much time in the room (hence the upgrade was of dubious benefit for him/her), or he/she was on a very strict budget and will not be going back soon...
Just my 2 cents....

Thank you for saying this.

I don't go on long Disney vacations. In fact, I'm going next week with my husband for only five days as our anniversary trip, and while I've been a few times before, it's his first. If we missed one of those days, we'd miss an entire park (we're including IoA for HP). My next trip will be for my mom's birthday - same deal, four days, and missing even half of one would scrap a park for us. I really, really want to spend that time with my mom, because my parents are three hours away and I don't get to hang out with her like I used to. She's my best friend. How could a room make up for time we lost having fun together because we were running from park to park - on her birthday, as I'm sure it would be, thank you Murphy's Law - for someone else's mistake? We're putting a lot of time and effort planning our vacation to make sure it goes right - and that time, even now, is worth something that I'd lose if my keys were screwed up not once, but three times, on top of a miserable room.

OP, good luck with the letter! I've found from working in restaurants that people often try to gloss over what they've done in explaining the "situation" to upper management - so while she may have "rescued" the room situation, never treat the problem like it was fully taken care of until you make sure that your side was documented BY YOU. Again, worth it if only to further educate CMs on how to handle updating mismanaged KTTW cards in cases of prior mistakes.

Good night everybody! Thirteen pages later, this is quite an interesting thread for a bedtime story

 

[*Meagan*]

I see no point in complaining either.. you got upgraded to a VILLA! That compensates for the broken AC and messed up tickets for the first 2 days. Sorry but no need to write a letter or email..

 

[minandmick]

To the OP. I am so sorry that you had this experience at Disney. I am glad and relieved that they did what they could to help your stay become a better one. However, there was an obvious break down in the system somewhere. I don't even know if I would label the letter as a complaint as much as an informative letter. Let them know what happened, let them know what they did to fix it and suggest that they look at the process that broke down and caused it to happen in the first place.

Stuff like this happens in every business or organization. It doesn't mean that the business is going down hill or bad, it just means that they need to know what to improve in order to become better. Chances are the right people already know about the situation that happened. But your letter might be the gentle reminder that they need to make sure this doesn't happen again to someone on their magical Disney vacation.

Who knows, my husband and I might be thanking you next year if we encounter a problem that is taken care right away because of them fixing a break down in the system.

Writing a NICELY worded letter doesn't mean you don't appreciate them remedying the situation, it just means you care about seeing Disney remaining the place that we all love so much.

 

[Pjimmeyer]

Holy cow what an experience. Glad they tried to make it right for you after all of those mistakes. I hope you ended up enjoying yourself.

 

[heatherwillmom]

I think saying that the entire trip was a nightmare is a bit harsh. Granted, the first 2 days were a nightmare. That still left 8 days of a wonderful vacation. 8 days in a villa is a lot longer that most people can afford. If nothing else went wrong, I would say it worked out good

 

[todai]

Just returned from a 10 day visit to Disney --- What a nightmare

I think what happened to you at WDW was totally inexcusable. I hope you do complain and that Disney learns from this one. I don't care what level of compensation WDW gave--staying overnight in a hotel room 80-89 degrees with a 2 year old!! WHAT?? That is not only wrong but dangerous. The issue with not loading your park tickets and DDP, just added to the frustration. I think you dealt with it in the best way you knew how at the time and I'm glad that, in the end, you received some respite from the manager. I mean, really--if the manager felt the room was HOT, then imagine how miserable it was for the poor toddler? I wonder exactly how many CMs just passed the buck on this one? SAD...

WDW is supposed to be a happy experience--that's what you pay for!!