hard saying not knowing. The lady did have the door to the room propped open with a chair... so there is a good chance she came back as mousekeeping was leaving and slipped in.
Of course I don't know for sure.
Total Nightmare @ Disney
- Thread starter wgibsonii
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hard saying not knowing. The lady did have the door to the room propped open with a chair... so there is a good chance she came back as mousekeeping was leaving and slipped in.
Of course I don't know for sure.
Probably. One of the posters here reported being given a text message with room number to go to and when she entered, room was actually occupied, nobody was checking out that day. She went to front desk and it turned into huge drama but long story short, her key even after given another room could still open their room, they became friends and tried key together. Moreover their bills somehow had charges from both rooms, that was a huge mess.
tesser21
Earning My Ears
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- Jun 20, 2010
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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 standardsSo......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.
Great perspective! I wonder if everything did go smoothly after the upgrade. If the Op writes a complete account of what occurred, she should relay the fact she received an upgrade and hopefully concur that it made a big difference in making her vacation as amazing as she had hoped.
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The industry standard meaning of check-in time is that the hotel is supposed to have the room cleaned and ready for you by that time (barring unusual circumstances), so you can fully "check-in" - that is, take occupancy of the room, and not have to wait further. But as I said, most hotels have tons of "identical" rooms in a single classification, so they'll give whatever room is ready when you check in. This only becomes an issue if the hotel is extremely occupied.
Disney really is supposed to have the room ready by 3pm/4pm. But with all the different classes of rooms and occupancy rates and cutbacks in mousekeeping, they are unable to do this so their "standard" is that it may not be ready. Which makes having a check-in time at all sort of useless. And I think part of it is they know a lot of people are going to run off to the parks anyways and won't be back until later.
If they can't have all needed rooms ready by 3pm, make the check-in time 4pm. If they can't have it by 4pm even, make it 5pm. But be consistent.
Disney at least makes up for part of it by holding your luggage for you (if you weren't already using DME), but then you feel obligated to tip bell services when they bring your bags. Really, if they can't have the room ready, they should take you bags, and then have them waiting for you in the room when you get there.
Disney really is supposed to have the room ready by 3pm/4pm. But with all the different classes of rooms and occupancy rates and cutbacks in mousekeeping, they are unable to do this so their "standard" is that it may not be ready. Which makes having a check-in time at all sort of useless. And I think part of it is they know a lot of people are going to run off to the parks anyways and won't be back until later.
If they can't have all needed rooms ready by 3pm, make the check-in time 4pm. If they can't have it by 4pm even, make it 5pm. But be consistent.
Disney at least makes up for part of it by holding your luggage for you (if you weren't already using DME), but then you feel obligated to tip bell services when they bring your bags. Really, if they can't have the room ready, they should take you bags, and then have them waiting for you in the room when you get there.
Planogirl
I feel the nerd in me stirring
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- Aug 11, 2000
- Messages
- 49,778
Now I feel peevish because the time we had so much trouble, we got nothing from Disney. But then I asked for nothing. I guess that we'll live. 
Plus I didn't write a complaint letter. I always meant to but just never got to it.
As for not having rooms ready, does that mean that they have an evening Housekeeping staff? Those are some long hours otherwise.
Plus I didn't write a complaint letter. I always meant to but just never got to it.
As for not having rooms ready, does that mean that they have an evening Housekeeping staff? Those are some long hours otherwise.
This is ridiculous. YOU place a lot of value on a Villa, therefore the OP has no right to complain? Maybe the OP doesn't care about a Villa. I wouldn't... we book off-site or Pop Century almost every trip. We spend so little time in the room that a Villa would do nothing of any value for us. It's not a money issue... we could book a Villa if we desired. We don't.
I can't believe how many people think an upgraded room is suitable compensation for a night spent sweating with a toddler and lost time. See my comment above. A Villa might mean nothing to the OP. Just because you think it is great compensation does not mean the OP does.
EXACTLY.
No, obviously not. Suitable compensation varies from person to person depending on what they value. In any case, the fact that the OP received a Villa as compensation does not erase the OP's right to complain afterwards.
Let's see... how can we blame the OP for this problem... he/she checked in too late. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Sorry, but check-in time is no excuse for what happened. If the manager says somebody will be right up, then somebody should be right up. If somebody can't be right up, then the guests should be moved immediately to a room with working AC.
We had a problem at Pop when we checked in for our Jan 2009 trip, but I'll save that for a separate post.
David
You must be kidding. Seriously. Check-in time means CHECK IN TIME. It means your room is READY FOR YOU TO MOVE INTO. That's why there is a several hour difference between check-out time and check-in time -- so the rooms can be prepped for the people checking in.
My job involves frequent travel (between 15 and 25 weeks out of every year). I have stayed in hotels all around the U.S. and abroad. Check-in time is the time you can get in, not the time you might be able to get in. Period. If particular resorts at WDW are having trouble meeting that standard, then they need to hire more people or state a different check-in time that they can meet with the staff they have.
David
DebbieB
DIS Legend
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I didn't read through all the pages so not sure if anyone mentioned this. How often do you see people post "I have a late flight, can I get a late checkout"? So if people checkout at 1:00, that only gives them a couple hours to get those rooms cleaned by 3:00. If they don't get a late checkout requested, people will be ticked about that.
Stuff happens. If someone leaves a room with a huge stain on the rug, it will take time to get it cleaned and dried. If they don't clean it thoroughly, people will complain about that.
But... the people checking in should not be penalized for poor planning on the part of people checking out.
Hi David,
Nobody blames OP for checking in at 10PM, but we all noticed that many complains happen at night, meaning resort have problems resolving issue after hours what could be a partial problem here. Definitely situation was not resolved the way it should be and I personally would walk to front desk and request a Disney bus with working A/C to sleep in if there was absolutely nothing available in all Disney resorts which I do not believe. Yes, they had to offer another room and a night in a heat with a baby is a hard and horrible experience. However they did appologize, fixed situation and offered a compensation in a form of upgrade which is pretty generous compensation, moneywise. If OP did not like it she could always refuse it and ask for something else. Since she accepted, she closed the case. Acceptance of compensation means it is over. Writing to Disney simply to let them know is her right and so being upset about first 24 hours and nobody takes it away from her.
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- Feb 11, 2007
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- 17,547
Does Disney actually allow late checkout? If they did, it should only be if the room is not already assigned to anyone for check-in.
And they do offer to hold your luggage at bell services if needed.
And yes, stuff happens. And they should be prepared for it after many, many years of knowing what to expect. The famous Disney Efficiency and all that.
My Pop story from Jan 2009.
We arrived for check-in around 10:30 PM (shudder!). We were a group of 7 people in two connecting rooms. We had requested 60s or 70s buildings, ended up in the 90s. Oh well, no big issue. Room requests are accommodated if they can be, but aren't guaranteed.
What was an issue was what we found when we entered the room. Or rather, what we smelled. I'm trying to find a polite, G-rated word. But the best I can come up with is PG. The room carried a faint but persistent odor of poop. Not infant-diaper poopies, either.
We looked around for a minute or two to see if there was an obvious source for the odor, but couldn't find one. I immediately got on the phone and called the front desk. I explained the problem. The person I spoke with offered to move us to new rooms the next day.
Um... no. I informed the person I was talking to as politely as I could that we would not be sleeping in that room, that in fact my family was rolling our luggage back out onto the outside walkway as we spoke. If they couldn't accommodate us in a Disney resort that night I would be moving to an off-site hotel. (I have lots of hotel rewards program points for Marriott and Hilton, and wouldn't have had a problem with getting a couple rooms last minute.)
The person I spoke with put me on hold, called somebody else, and then came back on the line. She could move us to other rooms in the same 90s building at Pop Century, but they wouldn't be connecting or adjoining... one on the 3rd floor, one on the 2nd. Then she could move us to new rooms that were connecting the following day. They would have their people move our luggage for us while we were enjoying our day in the parks.
Sounds like a plan. We were in the temporary rooms just before midnight.
Next morning I called the front desk to be sure they understood the plan. They confirmed that if we left our luggage packed and ready to roll near the doors of our separate rooms, that we would be moved by their staff to connecting rooms while we were away at the parks. They informed us that we would have to stop at the front desk when we returned from the parks to have our KTTW cards re-keyed for our new rooms.
That evening, after a fun day at the parks and a late dinner ADR, we returned to Pop. The front desk had no idea what we were talking about. They informed us that we were still listed in their system with the separate rooms, the same 'temporary' ones we had slept in the previous night. We were tired after a long day so I didn't push it. I asked if it would be possible to get connecting rooms the following day, and he said sure. We made the long walk back to the 90s building and went to our rooms, where we found that our luggage had been removed.
I'll spare you the details, but it took an hour and a half for it to be returned to us from the luggage storage area.
We got to bed much later than we had hoped, and wouldn't be able to sleep in the next day because we had an early breakfast ADR at Kona.
The next morning I called the front desk before we left for Kona and confirmed that we would be moved. The CM I spoke with that morning told me it wouldn't be a problem, but that we had to drop the luggage off at the temporary area ourselves, and pick it up again that evening after returning from the parks. I didn't want to miss our breakfast ADR so I didn't bother arguing. I drove our rental minivan over to the closest curb, we threw the luggage in, and dropped it off at the Pop luggage holding area.
Breakfast, MK, dinner ADR, back to Pop. We went to the front desk, waited in line, and they re-coded our KTTW cards for our new connecting rooms. In the 60s, so we were happy. (The 60s is much closer to the food/shopping area, the check-in desk, the pool, and the luggage storage area than the 90s.) My family went to check out the rooms while my father-in-law and I went to get the luggage from storage.
Got to the luggage area, handed them our receipts, and they informed us that they couldn't locate our luggage. Just then DW called and told me the luggage was in the room.
We didn't ask for any additional compensation for our hassles, but I did send a polite letter to customer relations about what happened. The rooms in the 60s were adequate compensation for us. Luckily all we really lost was a few hours of sleep for two nights.
David
We arrived for check-in around 10:30 PM (shudder!). We were a group of 7 people in two connecting rooms. We had requested 60s or 70s buildings, ended up in the 90s. Oh well, no big issue. Room requests are accommodated if they can be, but aren't guaranteed.
What was an issue was what we found when we entered the room. Or rather, what we smelled. I'm trying to find a polite, G-rated word. But the best I can come up with is PG. The room carried a faint but persistent odor of poop. Not infant-diaper poopies, either.
We looked around for a minute or two to see if there was an obvious source for the odor, but couldn't find one. I immediately got on the phone and called the front desk. I explained the problem. The person I spoke with offered to move us to new rooms the next day.
Um... no. I informed the person I was talking to as politely as I could that we would not be sleeping in that room, that in fact my family was rolling our luggage back out onto the outside walkway as we spoke. If they couldn't accommodate us in a Disney resort that night I would be moving to an off-site hotel. (I have lots of hotel rewards program points for Marriott and Hilton, and wouldn't have had a problem with getting a couple rooms last minute.)
The person I spoke with put me on hold, called somebody else, and then came back on the line. She could move us to other rooms in the same 90s building at Pop Century, but they wouldn't be connecting or adjoining... one on the 3rd floor, one on the 2nd. Then she could move us to new rooms that were connecting the following day. They would have their people move our luggage for us while we were enjoying our day in the parks.
Sounds like a plan. We were in the temporary rooms just before midnight.
Next morning I called the front desk to be sure they understood the plan. They confirmed that if we left our luggage packed and ready to roll near the doors of our separate rooms, that we would be moved by their staff to connecting rooms while we were away at the parks. They informed us that we would have to stop at the front desk when we returned from the parks to have our KTTW cards re-keyed for our new rooms.
That evening, after a fun day at the parks and a late dinner ADR, we returned to Pop. The front desk had no idea what we were talking about. They informed us that we were still listed in their system with the separate rooms, the same 'temporary' ones we had slept in the previous night. We were tired after a long day so I didn't push it. I asked if it would be possible to get connecting rooms the following day, and he said sure. We made the long walk back to the 90s building and went to our rooms, where we found that our luggage had been removed.
I'll spare you the details, but it took an hour and a half for it to be returned to us from the luggage storage area.
We got to bed much later than we had hoped, and wouldn't be able to sleep in the next day because we had an early breakfast ADR at Kona.
The next morning I called the front desk before we left for Kona and confirmed that we would be moved. The CM I spoke with that morning told me it wouldn't be a problem, but that we had to drop the luggage off at the temporary area ourselves, and pick it up again that evening after returning from the parks. I didn't want to miss our breakfast ADR so I didn't bother arguing. I drove our rental minivan over to the closest curb, we threw the luggage in, and dropped it off at the Pop luggage holding area.
Breakfast, MK, dinner ADR, back to Pop. We went to the front desk, waited in line, and they re-coded our KTTW cards for our new connecting rooms. In the 60s, so we were happy. (The 60s is much closer to the food/shopping area, the check-in desk, the pool, and the luggage storage area than the 90s.) My family went to check out the rooms while my father-in-law and I went to get the luggage from storage.
Got to the luggage area, handed them our receipts, and they informed us that they couldn't locate our luggage. Just then DW called and told me the luggage was in the room.
We didn't ask for any additional compensation for our hassles, but I did send a polite letter to customer relations about what happened. The rooms in the 60s were adequate compensation for us. Luckily all we really lost was a few hours of sleep for two nights.
David
flicx
You can't handle the truth!
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2004
- Messages
- 1,816
I agree
If you can't meet the check in time you are promising,either get more help or make it later.Don't pull the old doctors office trick of saying 3:00 when you mean 4:00 or 4:30.If there are any doctors on here I apologise in advance!(just my expierience at a doctors office/may not reflect yours).
That sounds like a total hassle! Sure, in the end, it didn't amount to a whole lot, but it would be really annoying to not feel "settled in" for the first day or two of your trip. I avoid split stays because I hate having to move around.
Sorry that happened!
I agree
This is why I only book doctor appts for first thing in the morning... before they have a chance to fall behind!
(Although this backfired on me once when the nurse told me the doc had been on call all night and was sleeping in a bit that morning.
)This is why I only book doctor appts for first thing in the morning... before they have a chance to fall behind!
(Although this backfired on me once when the nurse told me the doc had been on call all night and was sleeping in a bit that morning.
Your best bet for the doctors office is 1st appointment after lunch.
True story... a bit of a trade secret.
Your best bet for the doctors office is 1st appointment after lunch.
True story... a bit of a trade secret.
Good to know!
That was a hassle. Reminds me of our moving from room to room experience years ago. It was during smoking buildings times. I actually forgot to mention that I want a smoking room and was assigned non smoking room/building. I called right away, appologized for my mistake and asked if we can change room. Nothing was available and they told me they can move us next morning and I should expect a call. Morning came, no call. I called myself and nobody new a thing about moving and nothing was available. So I said, that was fine, no problem, we stay where we were, I wanted to finally unpack. Next morning however I get a call very early that we were scheduled to move, go figure.
No big deal really. We never smoked in a room anyway but it was annoying not to settle right away.
brunette8706
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2004
- Messages
- 4,065
Just curious....so where's the OP?
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