My stay at the BoardWalk Villas was fabulous. I arrived on Sat., 4/30, at about 2:30 p.m. My room, 4034, was ready, and the view was great. This is what I saw from my balcony:
I had rented a car for the first few days of my stay, but would be needing to use the Magical Express to get back to the airport. According the BWV guest services CM, all I had to do was let the bellman/concierge desk know, and they'd get me set up. I asked if the situation would be the same at the Grand Floridian since I'd be switching resorts to stay there on my final night. The CM assured me it would. Excellent.
There were some extra points we had to use or lose in non-DVC resorts, so I had the chance to treat myself. I had first tried for the AKL, but as there were no more rooms available I had to "settle" for a lagoon view of the GF.
Imagine that. "Settling" for the Grand Floridian.
I was so looking forward to staying there, knowing this would probably be my one chance. When I checked in at 3 p.m., I had a choice. I could either get a room right then and have a general lagoon view, or I could wait and get a MK view. Hmm...what to do? Gee, those chairs over there in the lobby look cozy. I'll wait, thanks.
Since I had the time, I asked the front desk CM about getting a reservation on the Disney Magical Express (DME). She told me to check with the bellman, but if they couldn't help, she gave me a number to call. I went to the bellman. He told me to check with the DME desk outside by the valet stand. There was no desk with the DME sign. So I asked the valet CM where it was. "You mean, Mears?" she asked me. No, I explained, the DME. "Yeah, Mears," she replied. No, I repeated, the Magical Express. There's supposed to be a desk out here. Do you know anything about it? "You're talking about the Mears' bus," she said again.
At this point, I gave up on her. In her defense, it turns out DME is run by Mears. So she wasn't completely clueless. However, I didn't realize this at the time. So I went back in to the bellman and explained that the CM he directed me to wasn't aware of a service Disney is providing. It's not like this is an obscure service, either. You'd think they'd know. No. As the bellman explained to me, "It bypasses me. So I know nothing about how it works." Scratching my head, I went off to one of those comfy-looking chairs to puzzle this one out and call the number the front desk CM gave me.
The person I talked to at DME told me, since I was flying Southwest which is not one of the five participating airlines (Delta, Delta Song, United, TED, and Continental are), I would be responsible for my own luggage and didn't need to make a reservation. All I needed was to present a transportation or travel voucher to the driver. The front desk could provide me with this. Fine.
At 4 p.m., I went back to the front desk to get my room assignment. I asked the CM for a voucher and promptly got a blank look. She had no idea what I was talking about. She did, however, disappear for about 5 minutes in search of one. When she returned, she said one would be slid under my door later. Great. Off I went to my room (Sago Cay, 5244).
The rooms at the GF are very well appointed. The view of the Castle and Space Mountain was great. However, after this stay, I can easily say I'd rather take a studio or one bedroom at one of our DVC hotels over this any day of the week. (ducks any flames coming her way) The DVC rooms are bigger; they come with a fridge and/or kitchen facilities; and BCV and BWV are just as centrally located as the GF, albeit for a different park. While the front desk CMs at GF did make an effort to help me out, it was frustrating to be given the run-around the way I was in regard to the DME. The travel voucher the one CM promised me did show up under my door. Though I'm not sure why it was such a mystery because an envelope containing an explanation of the DME and a travel voucher was swinging from my doorknob the next morning.
I did finally find the DME desk and waited for the bus to show up. The person manning the desk was overwhelmed, and the driver never came over to the desk to see if anyone would be taking his bus or needed help with bags.
Maybe I'm being too demanding when it comes to service. But I expected this hotel, the creme de la creme of Disney accomodations, to be more knowledgeable about a service that is being heavily advertised. Were it not for those two very nice front desk CMs, I would have given up on DME and called Mears to come pick me up. It made for a very frustrating end to an otherwise wonderful stay.
I had rented a car for the first few days of my stay, but would be needing to use the Magical Express to get back to the airport. According the BWV guest services CM, all I had to do was let the bellman/concierge desk know, and they'd get me set up. I asked if the situation would be the same at the Grand Floridian since I'd be switching resorts to stay there on my final night. The CM assured me it would. Excellent.
There were some extra points we had to use or lose in non-DVC resorts, so I had the chance to treat myself. I had first tried for the AKL, but as there were no more rooms available I had to "settle" for a lagoon view of the GF.
Imagine that. "Settling" for the Grand Floridian.
I was so looking forward to staying there, knowing this would probably be my one chance. When I checked in at 3 p.m., I had a choice. I could either get a room right then and have a general lagoon view, or I could wait and get a MK view. Hmm...what to do? Gee, those chairs over there in the lobby look cozy. I'll wait, thanks.
Since I had the time, I asked the front desk CM about getting a reservation on the Disney Magical Express (DME). She told me to check with the bellman, but if they couldn't help, she gave me a number to call. I went to the bellman. He told me to check with the DME desk outside by the valet stand. There was no desk with the DME sign. So I asked the valet CM where it was. "You mean, Mears?" she asked me. No, I explained, the DME. "Yeah, Mears," she replied. No, I repeated, the Magical Express. There's supposed to be a desk out here. Do you know anything about it? "You're talking about the Mears' bus," she said again.
At this point, I gave up on her. In her defense, it turns out DME is run by Mears. So she wasn't completely clueless. However, I didn't realize this at the time. So I went back in to the bellman and explained that the CM he directed me to wasn't aware of a service Disney is providing. It's not like this is an obscure service, either. You'd think they'd know. No. As the bellman explained to me, "It bypasses me. So I know nothing about how it works." Scratching my head, I went off to one of those comfy-looking chairs to puzzle this one out and call the number the front desk CM gave me.
The person I talked to at DME told me, since I was flying Southwest which is not one of the five participating airlines (Delta, Delta Song, United, TED, and Continental are), I would be responsible for my own luggage and didn't need to make a reservation. All I needed was to present a transportation or travel voucher to the driver. The front desk could provide me with this. Fine.
At 4 p.m., I went back to the front desk to get my room assignment. I asked the CM for a voucher and promptly got a blank look. She had no idea what I was talking about. She did, however, disappear for about 5 minutes in search of one. When she returned, she said one would be slid under my door later. Great. Off I went to my room (Sago Cay, 5244).
The rooms at the GF are very well appointed. The view of the Castle and Space Mountain was great. However, after this stay, I can easily say I'd rather take a studio or one bedroom at one of our DVC hotels over this any day of the week. (ducks any flames coming her way) The DVC rooms are bigger; they come with a fridge and/or kitchen facilities; and BCV and BWV are just as centrally located as the GF, albeit for a different park. While the front desk CMs at GF did make an effort to help me out, it was frustrating to be given the run-around the way I was in regard to the DME. The travel voucher the one CM promised me did show up under my door. Though I'm not sure why it was such a mystery because an envelope containing an explanation of the DME and a travel voucher was swinging from my doorknob the next morning.
I did finally find the DME desk and waited for the bus to show up. The person manning the desk was overwhelmed, and the driver never came over to the desk to see if anyone would be taking his bus or needed help with bags.
Maybe I'm being too demanding when it comes to service. But I expected this hotel, the creme de la creme of Disney accomodations, to be more knowledgeable about a service that is being heavily advertised. Were it not for those two very nice front desk CMs, I would have given up on DME and called Mears to come pick me up. It made for a very frustrating end to an otherwise wonderful stay.
