Valuable Lesson Learned!!!!!!!!!!!

[taterbaby]

I feel that I must warn you all-my new Disney friends!!!! I kn ow that many of you plan for months in advance and I applaud you!!!!! My husband and I decided that we would surprize our children for Christmas with a Disney trip-I obsessed with the planning-immediatly joined Tour Guide Mike, booked an offsite suite (after much research) and went about the day by day-min. by min planning of THE TRIP!!!! Unfortunatly-since we are a family of five we could not get reservations on that short notice inside the Disney parks. First I was very sad about that-but after finding a company that represented Hawthorne Suites-I researched and found it to be acceptable-rather nice in fact. We were told that the hotel was very close to Disney-300 or so seconds to be exact-and that it was in VERY close proximity to Downtown Disney which by the way was very important to me. The only hotel inside DTD that had rooms available-we would have to get two rooms because we had 5 people. I said that 2 rooms was just too much and we booked the room at Hawthorne. We then went about counting the days until our departure. On Monday, January 1, we drove 14hours with 3 very tired and excited children, and a husband that had worked the night before- (he is a registered nurse in a very stressful cardiac unit). Needless to say-we were all tired and ill!!! We arrived at our destination (or so we thought) at 11 P.M.-only to be told that we did not have reservations at that hotel-they called the other one out by SEAWORLD and sure enough-THAT IS WHERE WE WERE BOOKED!!!!!!!!!!! NEVER NEVER NEVER IN THE 5 OR 6 TIMES THAT I SPOKE WITH THE PEOPLE AT www.orlandovacation.com DID THEY EVER MENTION SEAWORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After arguing with them for a second-I realized that it was not the hotels fault -I called and left a messege on their machine-called today and was told basicly tough luck-we don't even represent the other Lake Buana Vista Hawthorne Suites hotel!!!! Sure they would refund our money-IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS-NO GUARANTEE WHEN!!!!!!! and then we are on our own as far as finding a hotel. Well excuse me-we have paid enough money and want the room at the hotel that we were promised!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course they accepted no responsibility and said that that we got exactly what we were told. I am no fool-am an educated woman and DID NOT receive what I was told I was getting. I feel as though I have been lied to, that they misrepresented the hotel and negleted to give me the correct details-they told me what I wanted to hear and left me hanging. I am very disappointed-cried in front of my children-and know that I will NEVER trust an online company again-I will book my own hotels from now on thank you very much! This hotel is old, smelly, and not what they represented!! I am sorry for venting so long-but felt the need to warn other Dissers of www.orlandovacation.com. Oh yeah-it rained all day today but we had fun anyway!!

 

[bab31]

Oh , my heart goes out to you. What dirty dirty scoundrels.

I am glad to hear you had fun today, especially with the weather. I hope that you are given lots of pixie dust while visting the parks. At this point there is not alot you can do but salvage your vacation and have fun. And call the better business bureau when you get home. I am sure you talked to mangement. Unbelievable!

 

[luvgrumpy]

Sending Pixie Dust. Hope you can make the best of the rest of your trip.

 

[kribit]

I noticed they are part of the BBB. I highly recommend you file a complaint with their local office. If you have all your written documentation and they in fact lied to you, you could probably be refunded.

Guess we can't always trust the BBB membership.

Try and have a good rest of the trip.

 

[byoung]

That's why I book thru Disney only. Onsite is the Best.

 

[themudd4]

Thanks for sharing...sorry you had a bad experience. Sending Pixie Dust your way...

 

[kimis]

I think your next trip you might want to try AAA. We always use them because you get a little bit of a discount. I hope your next trip is much better.

 

[taterbaby]

We started planning this trip only a couple of monthes ago and were trying to save a little money-since we would have had to book 2 rooms or go the ultra expensive way through Disney. We just needed extra time to pull $5,000 or hotel and tickets plus what we would spend o n airfare or gas and the additional cost of what we would spend there. I guess what I am trying to say is that we are not independently wealthy (hehehhahhaahh) and needed a couple more monthes of planning time. But guess what-God is smiling on us-the sun has shone for the last three days and we are having a wonderufl time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The pixie dust must be helping too-heheheheh Thanks

 

[3DisneyGals&1Grumpy]

Sorry you had a tough start but I hope the rest of your vacation is filled with lots of Pixie Dust!