"What would Walt do?" for Resort CMs

[ChairborneRangr]

Sometimes the troubles we have get talked about a lot. But the good things need exposure too. Every once in a while I like to get a good sampling of the outstanding experiences people have had with various CMS. There are occasional threads along these lines, but they get buried. It is good to have a place for newbies to find out how good CMs can actually be.

Tyler (Chip-n-Dale Express) is a Pop Century CM, but he will soon be returning to Transportation. I wanted to take this oppotunity to get good stories from the DIS boards.

Pop Century
I have never stayed in Pop... yet... But we plan to because of all the information and online service Tyler has provided. He has been an outstanding champion of his resort. He has gone out of his way to answer questions from all over the place. When he produced an mpg video of the resort, I contacted him. He made a hi-res version just for me and mailed it out at no charge.

All-Star Sports
When we were at WDW in 2002 for the infamous Spring Break Cheerleading competitions, we were assigned to All-Star Sports. The front desk had a couple of personnel in training. These people were also refining their english language skills. Through a seiries of conversations we had with (I found out later) trainees we had a misunderstanding of passes and e-ride nights. We ended up burning a day on our PHP getting in to e-ride nights at MK. The next morning I talked to the manager. He printed up some 1-day park hoppers for us at no charge to replace the lost day on the PHP. 7 passes in all. I wish I had kept track of his name. I'll definately keep track of names in the future. CMs deserve to be recognized for good service.

Anyone else have a "What would Walt do?" moment at one of the resorts?

 

[rileyroosmom]

I had great CM experiences this May at WL. My 2 year old got lost at the resort and every CM went out of their way to locate her, from the towel boy to the manager. Great, great people.

The manager that night who replaced one of our resort mugs, no questions asked, when we realized we lost one in the confusion of loosing our daughter.

Steve at WCC who went out of his way to entertain our 7 year old son. He did a great job, even gave him the thing that holds his kerchief around his neck when my son asked him for it. He gave it up willing saying he wasn't suppose to, but can't turn a child down. He had given away 32 by then!

Our mousekeeper (never did get her name) who left towel animals everyday!

Excellent CMs!

 

[HookedOnDiz]

When we stayed at BWI in 2002, I was ironing a pair of shorts and the iron suddenly "spit" up rusty water all over the shorts leaving stains. Not a big deal, but we called housekeeping to see if we could get a different iron. The head of housekeeping came to our room with a brand new iron (still in the box) and apologized. She was very nice and even took my shorts and had them laundered and pressed for free.

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

Over the last 30+ years we have had many many more great CM's than CM's that didn't feel the "magic".

Perhaps one of the best was in May of 2003 at the BC. I posted this last year on the DisBoards.

I won't post the entire report again, however, here is our experience in a nut shell.....

We checked in the YC, just DW and I on an anniversary trip, and were surprised by the "siding" replacement being done outside our patio. We visit often, so this trip was going to include a lot of time enjoying the patio, view of the Board Walk, and soaking up the "Disney Atmosphere". We politely called the desk to inquire on a different room. Shortly the front desk manager CAME to our room. He said "yes, this room will never do"!

After checking other rooms at the YC...none having a comparable view...he told us to wait in the lobby for a few minutes. When he came back he said "Since you were very pleasant ...we like to bend over backwards to please our pleasant guests...

He took us over to the BC and checked us in the Newport Suite!

What a great CM!

 

[catherines_mama]

Male at the Pop Century

She is WONDERFUL! Upon calling and getting our room number DD and I headed on up. However our key did not work. It was 4:30pm and we had 6:30 PS at Ohanas. I called the front desk from my cell and they sent up Male. It did take her awhile to get there and it was very cold on the 3rd fl hallway overlooking Hourglass Lake. We had DDs blanket from the drive down and were curled up in it when Male arrived.

She was very pleasant and helpful. She got us in with her master key, but had to take ours to be reprogrammed. She was back in a flash! Throughout the week we saw her around the resort. She'd stop and join us as we walked and she inquired about our trip and gave us some useful hints!

On our 3rd day.. a very trying day.. I locked EVERYTHING in the room on accident. We truck down to the front desk and who is at the counter... Male! Again, totally great!

Male is wonderful! She is a definate WWWD CM!

 

[alliecats]

On our first on-site trip in may, I had booked a standard room at the Swan with the all-ears discount & one free upgrade to the lakeview (no balcony) room. I really wanted a king bed since it was an anniversary trip but one was not available. We got there about 7 or 8 in the evening, and my husband requested a king bed. They had one available. They did not tell us but they had upgraded us to a Resort View with balcony. It was such a nice surprise. The whole stay at the Swan was perfect & magical--I can't imagine a better experience. Definitely the type of first-time on-site experience to encourage us to stay there again!

 

[ctrabada]

She made towel animals every day that my daughter loved and gave us extra towels for the pool.

 

[LisaZoe]

OK, she's not a resort CM but since I haven't been to WDW yet, this is as close as I can get for now

I had called WDTC to enquire about rates at WL. I was told the "rack rate" so said I had an emailed offer for a discount at value resorts and wanted to check on rates for PC. After getting some information and obviously having some problems getting the PIN to work, she took down my return number and said she'd call me back after checking with Guest Services.

Well, I made the mistake of vacuuming after that call so I missed 2 return calls from Marian. In the first, she said she'd been able to clear up the problems and could continue with the res. The 2nd call, she indicated she had gone ahead and made the reservation - but at WL because my offer was not limited to value resorts! She gave the details of the reservation as well as the reservation number and said to call back if I had any questions. Her taking the initiative was so unexpected and very welcome as it saved me having to make another toll call.

 

[imadisneyfanatic]

Isn't there somewhere that you can purchase the "What Would Walt Do" pins/buttons to give to a CM when they do a great job? I thought I have read that somewhere in the past but can't remember

I would love to have those to give out!

Thanks for all of the POSITIVE stories. The bad experiences sometimes make you wonder if it is still "The most magical place on earth".

 

[enchantedpixiedust]

You can get them at whatwouldwaltdo.com. I think I'm going to order some too, there have been several times on past trips I wish I had a way to say thanks.

 

[tinkerbella22]

Just for the info. I went to "What would Walt do..." Those pins were a little pricey for me....maybe because I get a lot of magic. But 16 dollars plus tax and shipping would really limit how many I could hand out. I went to "Stuckup.com" and I had custom pins made. They say Magic Maker Dream Creator You made our day Thank You!!! And I got 25 of them...came to about $2.25 each. I am sure they are not the quality of What would Walt do...but I can spread a lot more magic this way....just thought I would let people know.