Total Nightmare @ Disney

[bytheblood]

I would suggest not posting the details unless you want to be flamed. However, I'm curious too.

I would not post why either..unless you ant to be flamed AND be blamed..

This is where this thread should have ended.

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

I've heard Disney is using a very rigid room assignment system (i.e. I'm assigned Room X days in advance. No matter what time I check in, that's my room, ready or not). I don't know if that's true but I wonder if that's part of the problem.

I was talking about a hotel I worked at in an earlier post and this is exactly what we did. When the hotel was at capacity, we could not switch someone's rooms without affecting dozens of others and it eventually made someone upset.

But hiring more people would be too easy.

Law of diminishing returns...no, it is not that easy.

The problem with Disney is that they are not in the hotel business, they are in the theme park and entertainment business.
The hotels are just guest storage IMO.

If any hotel chain treated their guests the way Disney does they would not last.

Mangers who blow off guests, staff that are rude to guests, rooms that are not ready on time, rooms that are not clean after being in the park all day.
These should not be the norm, but they are in Disney. I have experienced all of these things on multiple occasions at Disney hotels.

There is no excuse to not be in your room in time to wash up before dinner, that is completely unacceptable.

At a Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, W, Four Points, Swan, Dolphin) if my room is not ready at check in time I have always received compensation without asking.
Free drinks and appetizers at the bar, a bottle of wine in the room, something for my time.

Still it has only been a handful of times (and I stay at least 25 times a year) , and this is a chain that guarantees its elite guests a 4PM checkout.
Many of the packages at their hotels also include a 4PM late checkout, yet somehow they still seem to always get you in your room by the check in time.

More often than not I am in my room well before check in.
When it is not ready they cannot apologize enough and they would never give a guest a “rude lecture that the rooms could not possibly be ready”.
If I show up at 11AM and my room is not ready they apologize and make every effort to find a room even though I do not expect it. They also put a rush on the room.

And don’t try to say they are not as busy as Disney.
It is not unusual for a Sheraton to be at 100% capacity depending on the season and the events in a local area.

I travel a lot for business and have traveled all over the world for business and pleasure and I've never had an issue at a Disney resort with my room not being ready by a stated time (in fact, i've checked in much earlier a few times). I have had issues at other major chain hotels but it just didn't bother me.

You can not control certain situations at a hotel and I know from experience (years and years ago when I worked at a Marriott) - plumbing broke in 212 so it is now out of order along with the room below it, man died in 511 (yup, he did -that was a fun week and trying to rid the evil spirits from the room - no joke, we had a shaman in there), people will NOT answer their door and refuse to leave the room (happens ALL the time - they can't get a late check out so they stay in the room), and here's something that ALL hotels practice - overbooking. I've never been turned away at Disney but we did it a lot at the Marriott. Oh, those were fun times....

And for those that travel a lot and have platinum or whatever status, you get special treatment at the chains - YOU DO. We bent over backwards for those folks. Disney doesn't have frequent stay programs so everyone is treated the same. I think for people that are 'platinum' or 'gold' or other 'statuses' get used to that special treatment. Now that I've reached those types of levels at hotels, I just remember back to the day that I was treated with such...contempt...and I smile and treat the person behind the desk like a human.

Darn it, I got sucked into this crap.

 

[tony67]

Would you all be happy to pay an additional $50 a night for Disney to hire more housekeepers in order to get all the rooms ready in a 4 hour window? Or do you think they should kick people out earlier, or make check in later? Because it is apparent they cannot get the rooms ready with the help they have in the window of time that they have. Which part would you want to change?

If you want all rooms available right at the time check in opens up, what would you do to make it happen?

We are already paying overinflated rates to stay on property.
If they cannot turn over the rooms than they need to hire more staff.

If you are going to charge a premium price you need to deliver premium service.

 

[Donut23]

*
How bout hiring MORE housekeepers to keep up with the guests coming into the resorts!? Remember, too, attendance is down, that is why they are offering discounts on resorts and the so called FREE Dining. But guests are not breaking Disney's door down either. They have increased prices in everything yet, they are offering guests discounts to stay on property. But with the recession going on right now, people just aren't traveling like they were a few years back.

BING!

Cutbacks in 2009 - but actually mousekeeping started cutbacks even before that. (Don't forget, Fellow Castmember Bob got a ---what was it?----$28 million dollar year-end bonus at year-end 2008 - then 2 weeks later cut 10% of disney (all cost centers) staff worldwide (second round of layoffs in late Feb-or was it early March too).

More often than not, we become friendly with our mousekeepers. Their numbers have been cutback and daily responsibilities increased. It's no longer unusual to see them cleaning rooms at 5:30 - with guests going in and out of those rooms.

The only way I can manage staying out and play until midnight is to take a nap after lunch. I would not be happy if I came back to my room and found it not serviced.....which is why we go out of our way to get to know our mousekeepers. We let them know when we leave in the morning and our room is always taken care of by the time we return in the early afternoon. Besides, it seems to be the friendly thing to do.

Was not that way in the past.......but 5:30 room cleanings can be the norm now at Disney resorts.

 

[tony67]

You can not control certain situations at a hotel and I know from experience (years and years ago when I worked at a Marriott) - plumbing broke in 212 so it is now out of order along with the room below it, man died in 511 (yup, he did -that was a fun week and trying to rid the evil spirits from the room - no joke, we had a shaman in there), people will NOT answer their door and refuse to leave the room (happens ALL the time - they can't get a late check out so they stay in the room), and here's something that ALL hotels practice - overbooking. I've never been turned away at Disney but we did it a lot at the Marriott. Oh, those were fun times....

Those are exceptions and it happens, it seems in my experience (and others here) to be an accepted norm.

We hear of people being walked all the time in Disney.
Many of us have arrived at 10AM and are rooms are still not ready at 4PM or later.
Imagine if you are traveling from Ireland and this happens.


Is there a valid reason for my room to not be clean when I get back from the parks at 4PM?

Is there a valid reason for the GF manager to avoid me because they checked me out of my room a day early and packed my bags for me and stuck them in the hall for bell services to pick up at some point?
I come back to my room and my bags are in the hall and my key card does not work.
The manager will not even speak to me and I get a lame email response from Disney corporate.
They are incompetent and just do not care IMO.

I could go on and on and on with personal examples, but I have things to do.

The bottom line is they are understaffed and overworked.

This is where this thread should have ended.

Your no fun.

 

[Donut23]

tony - tough trip....so sorry.



Sure, we too have arrived and checked imediately into our room. That, however, is becoming the exception and no longer the norm.

I really do want to stand behind the mousekeepers. Morale IS terrible - the cutbacks have been very difficult for everyone. They just cannot do what they once were able to. Not and excuse.....just the sad reality more and more.

So many hotels realize during a recession great service is what will set them apart so guests remember. I guess, in a way, Disney is doing the same.....but with less than stellar service in some areas.

 

[Michelle and crew]

lol, one person has 54 posts on this thread that has nothing to do them. Amazing.

 

[Donut23]

lol, one person has 54 posts on this thread that has nothing to do them. Amazing.

....are there rules for the number of times you can comment?

 

[flicx]

BING!

Cutbacks in 2009 - but actually mousekeeping started cutbacks even before that. (Don't forget, Fellow Castmember Bob got a ---what was it?----$28 million dollar year-end bonus at year-end 2008 - then 2 weeks later cut 10% of disney (all cost centers) staff worldwide (second round of layoffs in late Feb-or was it early March too).

Here is what is wrong with alot of corporations.You will never ever ever convince me some one should get a 28 million dollar bonus!!This absolutely makes me ill.You get people on here preaching about stockholders,and how disney is a for profit company,then you read this.WOW!!!! I guess we know why they need to raise prices each and every year now!!

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Here is what is wrong with alot of corporations.You will never ever ever convince me some one should get a 28 million dollar bonus!!This absolutely makes me ill.You get people on here preaching about stockholders,and how disney is a for profit company,then you read this.WOW!!!! I guess we know why they need to raise prices each and every year now!!

OK... first, I know my post is now WAY off topic from the OP, but I couldn't resist...

I know that those figures sound completely insane. I do think that context is relevant and helps to gain perspective, though. Disney had $36 billion in revenue in 2009, $3.3 billion in profit. This places that bonus at 0.08% of revenue, and 0.85% of net income. As crazy as it sounds, that is probably at the low end percentage-wise for a CEO in the US. Everything has a "market rate"... even a CEO salary.

I think that whether certain cuts were or weren't advisable / necessary is kind of a separate topic from CEO salary. And bonus really is effectively salary in this context, at this level.

OK... end of b-school lecture!

 

[Planogirl]

Bonuses are out of hand all across the board and have become quite the hot topic in some cases. I don't think that Disney is doing anything any differently than most other companies.

I realize that the percentage is small relatively speaking but it's hard to be understanding when the same company is laying off so many people. That is also happening way too often all over.

Sorry to be off topic.

 

[Leajess99]

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.

Even if you tell it does not mean they really will listen. Our last experience taught me that. We were staying at the Cabins and went to check in early as my sister's plane arrived early so we needed to see if our room was ready (it was just before noon) so we could get the luggage out of the car and run to the store to get what we needed. Anyway, while checking in I was first told the room was ready but then told "oh you had a request for VIP cleaning? It just popped up so I have to make a call." I was then informed the room was not ready and we could call back to check and see if it was ready in an hour or 2. I was told to leave the luggage with luggage services and they would put it in the cabin when it was ready. I was okay with that and figured it would not take that long. Well the room was finally ready around 4:30 or so so we headed back. Upon going into the room I found no luggage which I thought no biggie at that time. We had never been in the cabins so we walked around to check it out and the kids went and sat down. The cabin was not VIP cleaned and had layers of dust on some counters and the light switches. This would not be a big deal for many but my daughters have severe allergies which is why the request was made (previous experience at POR was awesome with the cleaning). I went back to the check in counter and told the guy what was going on and asked for whomever I needed to talk to. He got the manager and I explained it all to her. She then said that the mousekeeping manager would come down and talk to me at the cabin. I headed back down and waited for him. He got there and I explained the situation with the request and all and the reason for it. He asked me to point out the issues so I did and explained what needed to be done and how I did not have this issue at POR on our previous stay. Anyway he had a mousekeeper come down and clean the cabin for us (she was not real happy about having to be cleaning it) and told me to go back to the main building and pick up a golf cart. I was not looking for anything just the cabin to be cleaned for my children to be able to remain healthy and have fun. He told his assistant to have it ready for me. I waited while the mousekeeper cleaned up and then the Mousekeeping manager called to check on the cleaning and to let me know that while at the park they would get the VIP clean done. After that call i went to the main building to pick up the golf cart and found out that the assistant had done nothing as he had gotten sidetracked "fixing the barrells" as he said they needed to face a certain way (first thought in my head was OCD). Thankfully he was there to get it fixed but come to find out later he did not fix it as I was charged for the golf cart and had to jump through hoops after it showed on my credit card to get it removed.

At this time I also enquired about the luggage (6:45) and he said he would have it sent down to our cabin. The cabin was still not VIP clean but we chose to live with it and just make sure I had epi-pens close by as well as the Benadryl just in case. We went out to check out FW on the golf cart and figured the luggage would be there when we got back. It was still not there so at 8:30 I called again to enquire about it. We finally got our luggage at 9:30 pm. As my youngest was in the bathroom changing she noticed what looked like a mouse's head in the bathroom vent so she freaked out.

Needless to say it took until Thursday for the cabin to be "VIP Clean". We checked in on Sunday. I did not complain after the initial night but I did leave a note for mousekeeping manager to make sure he had the vents cleaned so my youngest could be done freaking out. It was a bummer but we are still thinking about a last minute trip. I feel I can give them a second chance but we won't stay at the cabins this time.

 

[Donut23]

Here is what is wrong with alot of corporations.You will never ever ever convince me some one should get a 28 million dollar bonus!!This absolutely makes me ill.You get people on here preaching about stockholders,and how disney is a for profit company,then you read this.WOW!!!! I guess we know why they need to raise prices each and every year now!!

.......and you know what, flicx? I don't buy the "everybody else is doing it" answer.


As some know, David Weston is leaving ABC. When he announced the 25% layoffs in March he said it would be company wide, including the 5th floor (executives). Well, guess what? Sadly, I guess the executives haven't received their FedEx envelope with the buyout information yet.

They allowed tremendous talent to leave ABC and they left the pencil pushers in place. I think of George from Seinfield. Remember when George had the job with the Yankees and had to learn ways to look busy with little to do? It doesn't take much to imagine the 5th floor'ers doing the same things now!

All of this because ABC only had a 6% PROFIT in a recession year when advertising dried up to 15% less than nothing. I guess the double-digit profits the first quarters of this year don't count.


Don't kid yourselves.....disney is rolling in $$$$. It's greed.

I said it before......give 'em less charge 'em more.

 

[honeydiane1953]

(Sorry about your foot!)

I rhink u e being facetious!!!

 

[Minnie J]

In a way I can truly thank you guys for talking about this subject as I am taking Organizational Behavior in college and this is the exact same things I'm studying right now. Can someone write my term paper on stockholders and budget cuts?

 

[heatherwillmom]

"Hospitalists"? Are they the folks who take care of sick hospitals?

A hospitalist is a doctor who doesn't have a private practice & only makes visits to the hospital patients. Most family practice doctors now use them to see their patients in the hospital. They basically work for the hospital. It's a great concept because they are in the hospital their entire shift & making rounds is all they have to do.

 

[heatherwillmom]

I guess for me the problem with this topic is the word TOTAL. Is it just me or does that mean the ENTIRE (TOTAL) vacation was a nightmare?

Title is misleading.

I agree. It was basically less than 24 hours that the nightmare occured

 

[tallen429]

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'm very late to this thread and the OP probably isn't even reading it anymore...LOL, but I will add my 2 cents. What you describe is nearly identical to our last trip (different room issue, but major issue all the same) same issues with tickets, meal plan etc. We were also moved. Most posters will tell you how thankful you should be, but I can tell you when we were moved we were sent to the boonies of Disney property to a room on the edge of the resort at a resort with no counter service. So what if it was a "nicer" resort? It wasn't nicer for us! We were miserable. Oh well...just thought I'd throw that in.

 

[doconeill]

A hospitalist is a doctor who doesn't have a private practice & only makes visits to the hospital patients. Most family practice doctors now use them to see their patients in the hospital. They basically work for the hospital. It's a great concept because they are in the hospital their entire shift & making rounds is all they have to do.

It's a relatively new term. Normally we just called them "residents"

 

[WDSearcher]

I think you missed the point...what I am getting at is why say check-in is at 3/4pm, if checking in then is absolutely no different that if I checked in at 7am?? There has to be a reason why they tell you what the real check-in time is. Otherwise it serves absolutely no purpose.

I understand that they need to clean the rooms. And they have that time. Disney perhaps has to start being more strict about check out time. But I would think that the number of people failing to check out late is small, but the rooms still aren't ready.

But checking in at 3/4pm is different from checking in at 7am. Because in the afternoon, MOST room are ready to be given over to guests. SOME rooms will not be. At 7am, my guess is that very very very few rooms are available to new incoming guests.

That is the whole point of "checking in." You check in so that Disney knows you're there. You are noted as a guest of the resort and can use your park tickets and take advantage of EMH and use transportation and such because you have checked in.

Perhaps Disney needs to change it's verbiage to say, "You may check in with the front desk at any time during the day. However, rooms will not be assigned to guests until after 3pm."