Who is the General Manager at the Poly? Had to WORST time there ever!

[bdcp]

I feel sorry for those kids too. This is really about their future. If their parents have no control over them at this age, what are they going to be like as teenagers? I raised two wonderful DS who are both in college now. We never would put up with behavior like that, and we never had to because it never got that far, and the most it really took was a stern warning because they knew who was in charge. We stayed in hotels on multiple trips and never had any reason for anyone to feel disturbed by us. They are now two wonderful polite, adults. We never had a day of problems with either of them. These kids will continue down an almost irreversible path if no one places limits on them. Those parents probably feel like they're being their child's "friend" and dont' want to "hurt their feelings" or "break their spirit". Those are things I've heard from acquiaintances with out of control kids. All children need limits and parents. Some need more limits than others, but they all need them.

The problem with complaining to management is that the parents probably aren't capable of stopping these tantrums and I don't know how much leeway they have before they can kick someone out.

 

[Winnie Pooh Fan]

Should have, could have....the thing is you didn't by your own admission. Sorry to say this and it's just my opinion but you SHOULD have knocked on the door when the CM's didn't respond within 15 min of your FIRST complaint and asked them to please quiet their children.

I don't usually respond to these types of threads but in this case I felt I must. I truely feel that this advise is very dangerous to all resort guests. Just because these people are staying in a Disney resort it does not make them any less dangerous than any other stranger. How do you know this isn't someone that can do you harm at that time or later on?

Instead after nothing was done, I would have requested a CM come to my room and listen to the noise from within my room. Then I would request a room change, or even a resort change on the off chance that I was told the resort was full.

I don't care if this is at a deluxe $$$ resort or a value resort, this is unacceptable and the OP should have been offered a room change and after all the trouble should have been compensated.

BTW - OP I think there is a 800 number posted on here somewhere so your call wouldn't have to be long distance on top of all this mess. Good luck!

 

[vhoffman]

Sorry to hear about your miserable experience. If I were in your situation, I would have made even more noise--scream, holler, slam connecting doors, play tv as loud as could go, etc., and had my kids scream and holler. Then, when they complained to me, I'd say "I'll stop when you stop". If other guests complained about me, I'd take management's lead--that is, if security came and knocked on my door, I'd as them to take care of the situation next door as well. Clearly some people never stop unless and until they get a good taste of their own medicine.

 

[vjc715]

I do not feel it was my job to babysit the CM's to make sure they were going to do as they said they were. I am on vacation, not at work. I didn't ask them to move me to another room the 3rd night, the front desk manager offered it. And in HER own admission said that HER employees should have offered to change us to another room the 1st night. Regardless, the people should have been told to be aware of other's around them. I notified the front desk every morning and every night we were there. It was only the last morning before we changed hotels that we were told by the housekeeping manager that that nothing was probably said to our neighbors. In the meantime, I'm thinking something is being done. When in fact NOTHING was being done. I even asked one staff memeber to come to my room and sit with us, but they said no...they believed us and was not necessary, and was reassured that security would be notified and so would a manager. But the noise continued. And when I was finally moved to another room, they moved us right next to the elevator and the stairway was our neighbor. I held out the phone for the housekeeping manager at 7:30am in the morning so she could hear it first hand.

No...it's not the CM's vacation, but it is their job to take care of their customers. Which they failed to do. You pay for a clean room, ammenaties AND customer service.

I did not post this topic as a debate. What I'm writing are the facts. The poly failed in their customer service department. Plain and simple. I posted asked for the General Manager's name because his employees failed a paying customer. I went into detail on these boards because if I had read ANYTHING about the walls being thin and the unattentive behavior of the staff, I would have never chose the Polynesian.

5+ years ago, when Pete Werner went with us to Disneyland and San Diego, he recommended to me the Polynesian. He LOVES this resort. Who better to suggest a hotel than the owner of these boards himself! So....ever since then, I was excited about the thought of going to the Poly. However, Pete did the concierge building/level. Which was told to us unsolicited by a Poly cast member during this trip when I was talking to them, that our complaints would have been addressed immediately at this building. I did not do concierge building.

I am alerting to GM because the customer service that was provided was unacceptable. If he doesn't know that his employees are doing a poor job, how can there be improvements made? It's not about getting reimbursed, it's about being corrected in the future. (Heck, the meal that was supposed to be "comped" was charged to my card w/no credit as told.) It's about employees who need to do their job and not drop the ball. Hopefully my letter will help someone in our situation in the future. I made documented calls and visits to the front desk. I relied on others to do their job. I personally had a horrible time, others may not in this situation (although I don't know how someone could not have). We all handle situations differently, and I had chosen to believe what I was being told when going to and calling the front desk each and everytime. I wanted to give the resort an opportunity to rectify the situation. I don't expect ANYONE to understand, because you weren't there with us. But it was horrid. Everyone has an opinion on how i "should have" handled this situation, but I handled it the way I thought was best at the time.

 

[vjc715]

Tinkerbellmagic: haahaa...thanks for the chuckle about Amanda. Nope.....they were Riley and Aaron.

Thank you for those who understand. I'm typically not a complainer and will go with the flow....but this was the most horrendous experience at ANY resort I've been to. We tried the towel under the door, and it had NO effect what so ever. The next room we were moved to, DH immediately thought of taking the matress from the day bed and had pillows in any open area. But THANK GOD there were parents who did hush their child when loud. And did try and quiet them down and told him others were sleeping. That was a breath of fresh air. Did tje Poly ever do anything about the screaming child/s?

RobinB ~ Thanks so much for your post. I actually wasn't fuming about not being moved, because I didn't want to be moved. I wanted the family just to control their children's volume/noise. I found it to be another pain or disruption to pack up everything, and move to a potentially worse building. I LOVED our room, our location, etc. But...ultimately we ended up packing up everything anyway wasting a good part of the day, storing our stuff with bell services until the room was ready, coming back to find out our new room assignment is, we called the front desk from the lobby to be told it wasn't in the hotel notes, call back...prior to this being hung up on after holding for a long time, then to be moved to the elevator room, thermostat not working, etc. I admit it....by that time, I was toooo tired and aggravated to move again, but never thought I was going to wake up to the noises from the stairs and elevator on our last day. I guess I expected the Poly staff to say something to our neighbors that would quiet them down and be more respectful to others around them, and if that didn't control the situation have THAT family move since I had a legitimate complaint and even offered them to come to our room and join us in our misery. I actually don't believe security even came to the room and listened. Because they would have had NO problem hearing the rukus. That is where I feel the Poly failed us....by taking our complaints seriously.

 

[palmtreegirl]

We had a simliar problem at the CR. The first night we went to bed and at 11pm the noise started, it sounded like a herd of elephants was above us, this went on till 1am and then started back at 6am.

DH went straight down to the front desk in the morning and told them about it. He said he knew it wasn't there fault but that we were really bummed that we didn't get a good nights sleep. I was still in the room when the phone rang, it was a CM at the front desk apologizing for the night before(even though it wasn't even their fault) and letting me know DH was on his way back to our room with our new room keys, they moved us to the top floor.

Anytime we've ever had a problem we always go down to the desk rather then call because we find that things get resolved a lot faster that way.

 

[Sandi]

I'm so glad Winnie Pooh Fan posted the response to Mom2of2. Like you, I don't normally post in these types of threads -- although I totally sympathize with the OP. You cannot take matters into your own hands in those situations because you do not know with whom you might be dealing. I don't understand why so many people are responding negatively to the OP. They were given a raw deal no matter how you slice it. A different room in an entirely different building would have been appropriate and it should have been done quickly.

My 10 year old DD and I will be staying at Poly for our first visit there in February. I sure hope Aaron, Riley and Amanda are long gone! When we first started traveling with our dd, she learned how to whisper in hotel rooms, use "inside feet" (in fact, we always requested a ground floor room so we wouldn't have below neighbors to hear the pitter patter of little feet), and only have the TV on low after 8:30 p.m. Maybe we were a little over the top, but she has great respect for other people's needs and expects to also be treated respectfully.

 

[skiwee1]

We had a noise issue too, we were in Samoa by the way. Each morning at around 7AM we were awakened to screaming yelling children running down the hallway. I am blessed with two semi late rising girls so we were apalled that parents would let their kids act that way in a hotel that early in the morning. I guess that they were on their way to a character breakfast but it was still unpleasant. We had no problems with the first part of our stay at Wilderness Lodge so I guess that just made it worse. Then when my girls decided that they wanted to swim on Saturday (our last day there) the volcano pool was closed all day because of a throw up incident!

I remember those screaming kids too! I was right down the hall from you. I couldn't believe anyone could wake up that early and be going to the park. LOL!

 

[vjc715]

Sandi ~ don't let my post discourage your trip. I hope other's can learn not to believe that cast members will "take care" of something when clearly it wasn't that case with us. I called many times and and I personally spoke to 3 different cast members when I hauled my tail to the front desk each day/night. All gave me what I call the same reassurance that things would be taken care of....and now that I think of it & looking back on it, the look on their face was like they could care less about my complaint. I did the mistake and was not a "squeeky" wheel. I calming spoke to each one, went into detail about the situation about our unhappiness, etc. I was calm, cool and professional. I really was concentrating on watching my stress level and taking a different approach than I would have normally taken since I was at Disney! One time going to the front desk I even broke down to a CM in tears because of lack of sleep, sick about how much money we spent, and how nothing was still done. DH on the other hand was going to blow a gasket (who is extremely calm and laid back) told me I should do the talking because all he could do was include swear words when he spoke. Now thinking back, DH should have talked to them and not me. hahhahhaa

Susan, who is the front desk manager, was very friendly and apologetic the last day we were there when I spoke to her. And did tell me that she was disappointed her staff didn't rectify the situation and/or offer to move me to another room sooner. I appreciated that. However, why they moved us to a horrible room...and made us wait for it to be cleaned is another post in itself. If I was the front desk manager, I would have called the housekeeping manager asking them to get a maid to our new room to get it cleaned right away. We paid bell services $16 total to get our luggage to store and bring us our luggage when in the new room. I couldn't not tip the bell service guys and penalize them for our misfortune. I guess because it was all 4 nights that were horrid, I was looking for alot more customer service and disney magic.

 

[blanq]

vjc715, I just want to say how sorry I am that your trip was ruined and I would feel the same way if I had been through an experience like yours! We travel frequently and only have one child (who is now 11), but from when he was little we taught him the importance of using his quiet voice when in a hotel room. I mean to this day our entire family whispers when we are in the hallway of a hotel, as we know that other guests keep different hours, and some like to nap mid-day when on vacation. We have, thankfully, only experienced little spurts of loud, obnoxious kids in all of our travelling. Recently, on a non-WDW trip, there were two children (maybe 6 and 7) running and screaming up and down the hallway of the resort we were staying and it was 11:30 at night. It woke us up out of a dead sleep and we tolerated it for about 20 minutes. At that point, I peeked my head out of our room, and there was not an adult anywhere. I couldn't believe it! So, I called out to the girls and told them that it was very late at night and that their yelling was keeping us up. I asked where their parents were, at which point they scampered into their room and we never heard another peep. I have no doubt that their parents heard my interaction with them, and honestly I blame their parents for allowing it more so than the kids who did it. Kids will try and get away with lots of inappropriate behavior, and it is square on the shoulders of parents to reign them in.

 

[vjc715]

Thanks everyone for those who understand and for those who offer constructive advice.

Convincing DH to go back to WDW is another story. This will take an act of god. He is NOT a disney addict like myself, and I was hoping that he would get a taste of why I love Disney soooo much. After this trip....he's scratching his head and believes WDW is now the best birth control ever! haahaahaa!

 

[dpuck1998]

I had much smaller, but similar issue. On our last night of a wonderful 7 night stay at the Poly we had a (for lack of better words) redneck family move in. The dad was cussing at his kids until 8-9 telling them to get inside. About that same time he comes out on the patio and turns on his portable stereo loudly. I give it 10 mins and call the front desk. I go thru the same stuff the OP describes, I call 4 times and finally walk up the the front desk. It take over 2 hours before anyone shows up to ask them to turn down the stereo. Since it was our last night I was up late anyway, and was fortunate that it didn't wake my 2 kids. However, security/front desk was horrible in handling the situation. Otherwise, we had a fantastic vacation and stay at the Poly.

 

[eeyore0062]

We stayed at the Poly in October, and it was peaceful and serene. Yes, there were children staying in the rooms around us, but we heard nothing. The Polynesian is a very popular resort for families, so kids and noise are to be expected at times.

I don't honestly think that the hotel can be held responsible for all things, especially screaming kids. It is a tough call, and it does sound as though management did try to make amends. It is a situation where fairness has to be observed on both sides. It is VERY possible that by the time security got to the room, there was no disturbance.

Personally, I once I figured out where the noise was coming from, I would have gone over to the room, knocked and asked if there was a problem and if they needed any help, since it seems as though the kids are upset. This could have been truly a favor to the parents, if they were having difficulties. It could have solved the entire problem and alieviated the high blood pressure on all sides.

Hope your next trip is more peaceful.

 

[polkadotminnie]

I too was very disappointed in the POLY CM's. We were there in Oct. I called for bed rails several times. They were never delivered and a housekeeping charge was added to our bill (we never used any housekeeping services). The last day it was pouring rain. Several CM's rode by in their carts while my 3 DD's and I got soaked. We had just checked out and we were so wet that we had to change in the car. I think they were more interested in getting tips for luggage than helping a mom and 3 small kids. I wrote a letter when we returned. I will stay at ASMO before going back to the POLY.

 

[jerinknox]

what were the CM's going to do? Ask the parents to tape their child's mouth shut?

I could not have said it better myself!!

 

[Cinderella37]

I agree that it is not safe to knock on a stranger's door and confront him/her about behavior in a hotel room. You have no idea how this could have escalated or if the people in the other room had a weapon. It was the management's responsibility to rectify the situation, not the guest's.

From a security standpoint, I'm surprised that management wouldn't have checked the situation out immediately to ensure that there wasn't a dangerous situation occurring in the next room. The reason for the screaming could have been child abuse, a domestic incident, or God knows what. The Poly dropped the ball on this one, but sometimes with WDW (and many other service providers) you have to be specific in what you want in order to get it. You'd think that common sense would have prevailed and whoever you spoke to on the phone would have moved you to another room.

 

[dpic]

I would have gone to the front deck and had them check when the neighbors were leaving. If more than a day, move me. People that thoughtless will not change their ways with a mere phone call from the resort.

 

[momtobrynncess]

I was sorry to hear you had a bad time. I can totally relate to the "so much time planning, so much money" only to be disappointed in your trip. Personally I think that parents who cannot control their children, and allow them to be rude, and do whatever they want to without consideration for other (guests) is inexcusable. I think we all work hard for our money, and to have to deal with a ridiculous level of noise on a vacation that we saved and saved for is very disappointing. I'm sure you and your family did everything in your power to make it as enjoyable as possible, and I do "feel your pain" so to speak. Don't pay attention to people who tell you that you are overexaggerating. You feel the way you feel, and you are entitled to feel that way, and vent if you want to. I hope your next vacation is the best ever!

 

[disneymania]

Can I ask what building you were in? I am starting to panic about the massive amounts of ppl complaining about noise at Poly. We are headed thaere in January & hate the dreaded noisy neighbors. Do you think requesting certain buildings would help eliminate the chances of this. Sorry about your stay!!!

 

[Leslie32]

I am scared also. We are going in July , we reserved a concierge room. It will be our first trip and I worry about it not going good.