My family and I are recently back from a 3 night stay at the Wilderness Lodge (Courtyard View, Winter Thaw Rate), and have an experience to share relating to room assignment promises and switches (with a good ending!).
We arrived at WL at 2:00 pm and attempted to check-in. We were told that our faxed room requests had been received (high floor, unobstructed view of lake & water pageant, non-Villa view), as a result of which a room was blocked-out for us. The only problem was that the room would not be ready until after 3:00 pm. I was then offered an "equivalent" room but on a lower floor and on the south rather than north wing. I declined, and was given a phone number to call back to check on my room's readiness. We were more than willing to wait for our preferred room, despite our exhaustion from having just flown in from NJ and driven from Tampa!
At 6:00 pm, we returned and were brought to our supposedly "blocked out" room which, also supposedly, met all of our requests. Hmm...not quite...we had a 6th floor room with a straight-on view of the green metal roof of the main lodge building. If one went onto the balcony and stretched outward to the left while leaning out, some specs of the lagoon could be seen.
Needless to say, I went to the front desk and complained. My response, amazingly, was that "no one knew" of any "blocked out" room for us, and "we have some new cast members at the front desk who may not have known what they were saying." What a thing to tell a guest! Amazingly, I was also told, "well, maybe because you didn't come back until 6:00 we might have given the room to someone else, because people were checking in all day" -- YIKES, so much for comprehension of the concept of "blocking out" a room! I was not amused whatsoever by this room assignment switch.
The next hour and a half was spent looking at two other rooms, neither meeting the requests which had supposedly been granted in assigning the initial room. The first was a south wing lakeside view, directly over the pool bar, with no view whatsoever of any of the rest of the resort - yes it overlooked the lake (and geyser, which was out of service during our entire stay), but it was also dark and isolated. We declined it, and ended up in room 3007 (north wing, view of waterfall from bed, behind weeping willow trees, partial (and obstructed) view of the lagoon). We "settled" for this room because we wanted to invest no more time resolving this room fiasco. The next morning, however, I wrote a letter to the hotel manager, conveying my speculation that our room was given to someone else as we awaited its preparation.
An amazing response: a very professionally handled acceptance of culpability ("we certainly are responsible for dropping the ball on this one"), and compensation for our inconvenience by giving us complimentary one day ultimate park hopper passes (good for up to 20 years in the future) for each member of our family (totalling 4 passes). More important than this compensation was a statement accepting responsibility and a promise to address the room switch with all involved employees! I could not have been more satisfied.
One last great experience: Having only 3 days to spend this vacation, we carefully planned which park we would see on which
day. We did not, however, think to ask whether the Buzz Lightyear ride in the MK (my 3 year old son's ONLY reason for living!) would be closed for renovation, which of course it was - and set to reopen on the day we LEFT Disney!!!! Thinking I would be laughed at with my request, but willing to do so anyway, I explained the situation to the Guest Services at the inside entracnce to the MK, and - ready for this - they allowed us to come in the next day, and as long as we were out by 1pm, there was no cost (this was handled by us purchasing 4 tickets and then returning them for a full refund if out by 1pm). Being a Saturday (and President's Day Weekend), it actually took us 2 hours from beginning of Fast Pass to end of ride, but my son's face made it all worth it!!!
Just thought I'd share these 2 experiences!
We arrived at WL at 2:00 pm and attempted to check-in. We were told that our faxed room requests had been received (high floor, unobstructed view of lake & water pageant, non-Villa view), as a result of which a room was blocked-out for us. The only problem was that the room would not be ready until after 3:00 pm. I was then offered an "equivalent" room but on a lower floor and on the south rather than north wing. I declined, and was given a phone number to call back to check on my room's readiness. We were more than willing to wait for our preferred room, despite our exhaustion from having just flown in from NJ and driven from Tampa!
At 6:00 pm, we returned and were brought to our supposedly "blocked out" room which, also supposedly, met all of our requests. Hmm...not quite...we had a 6th floor room with a straight-on view of the green metal roof of the main lodge building. If one went onto the balcony and stretched outward to the left while leaning out, some specs of the lagoon could be seen.
Needless to say, I went to the front desk and complained. My response, amazingly, was that "no one knew" of any "blocked out" room for us, and "we have some new cast members at the front desk who may not have known what they were saying." What a thing to tell a guest! Amazingly, I was also told, "well, maybe because you didn't come back until 6:00 we might have given the room to someone else, because people were checking in all day" -- YIKES, so much for comprehension of the concept of "blocking out" a room! I was not amused whatsoever by this room assignment switch.
The next hour and a half was spent looking at two other rooms, neither meeting the requests which had supposedly been granted in assigning the initial room. The first was a south wing lakeside view, directly over the pool bar, with no view whatsoever of any of the rest of the resort - yes it overlooked the lake (and geyser, which was out of service during our entire stay), but it was also dark and isolated. We declined it, and ended up in room 3007 (north wing, view of waterfall from bed, behind weeping willow trees, partial (and obstructed) view of the lagoon). We "settled" for this room because we wanted to invest no more time resolving this room fiasco. The next morning, however, I wrote a letter to the hotel manager, conveying my speculation that our room was given to someone else as we awaited its preparation.
An amazing response: a very professionally handled acceptance of culpability ("we certainly are responsible for dropping the ball on this one"), and compensation for our inconvenience by giving us complimentary one day ultimate park hopper passes (good for up to 20 years in the future) for each member of our family (totalling 4 passes). More important than this compensation was a statement accepting responsibility and a promise to address the room switch with all involved employees! I could not have been more satisfied.
One last great experience: Having only 3 days to spend this vacation, we carefully planned which park we would see on which
day. We did not, however, think to ask whether the Buzz Lightyear ride in the MK (my 3 year old son's ONLY reason for living!) would be closed for renovation, which of course it was - and set to reopen on the day we LEFT Disney!!!! Thinking I would be laughed at with my request, but willing to do so anyway, I explained the situation to the Guest Services at the inside entracnce to the MK, and - ready for this - they allowed us to come in the next day, and as long as we were out by 1pm, there was no cost (this was handled by us purchasing 4 tickets and then returning them for a full refund if out by 1pm). Being a Saturday (and President's Day Weekend), it actually took us 2 hours from beginning of Fast Pass to end of ride, but my son's face made it all worth it!!!
Just thought I'd share these 2 experiences!
)
