You won't believe what happened on our last visit home

[goofyforlife]

Valet at the BW isn't very good in my opinion.

We checked out last December and gave our slips to the girl at the desk.

SHe said it would be a few minutes because they were busy.... Well 15 minutes later still no car...I asked them to check when our car would be retreived. Here they didn't even pull the keys and the girl had lost our ticket stub. At this point I was ready to go get it myself.....

I still tipped the guy who brought it back though because it wasn't his fault.

 

[wdwstar]

SHe said it would be a few minutes because they were busy.... Well 15 minutes later still no car

this why we call from our room to valet for them to bring the car up while we are walking down to the valet.

At this point I was ready to go get it myself.....

this reminds me when Dsis & i were down for Members Homecoming and we were staying at the BWV, i forgot to call for the car, so when we got down to the valet we gave them our ticket and the cm said "they were very busy, that they would get to it so as possible". well, Dsis says to the valet cm, oh just hand me the keys, ill run down and get it & come back to pick up Dsis, i said what a great idea, you dont mind do you...... the valet cm grabbed our keys and said no, no i will get it, within a minute our car was sitting right in front of us.
i do have to say while we were staying at BWV the two us were treated very rudely, i dont know if it was because it was two women or it was to hot so Dsis and decided to start tipping valet disney dollars

 

[QuiltTeddy]

This is making me very nervous. We are driving our own vehicle down in December...perhaps we should just park it ourselves instead of valet parking.

 

[bavaria]

In general, I've never had issues with the valet parking, other than the lost car and the broken door. Since I travel so much, two issues, one with Disney, in many years of travel are not bad at all.

BW does have heavy valet usage, as there are many people coming in for dinner, etc compared to other resorts. This means that it may sometimes take longer to get your car, but they do also seem to have more valet staff than the BC, etc.

I really wouldn't worry about - these were probably isolated incidents.

 

[CarolMN]

This is making me very nervous. We are driving our own vehicle down in December...perhaps we should just park it ourselves instead of valet parking.

Unless a lot of WDW guests use the new Magical Express, plan on spending time looking for a place to self park. The BW self-parking lots tend to fill up with people going to EPCOT. We go in early December (which is a slower time for the parks) and often have trouble finding an open spot when we get back in the late afternoon/early morning time frame. There are plenty of spots after IllumiNations is over, though.

Self-parking at the BWV is a pain! Wish the BW management would reserve some space for BWI/BWV resort guests - it only seems fair!

Best wishe s-

 

[tinker925]

While we were at Boardwalk in January they had a hard time finding our car on a couple of occasions, we would call down first and take our time getting out front and got "we're still looking for your car". This is pretty sad for a hotel like Boardwalk, also they valets would stand with their hands open for a tip before they gave you the keys!

 

[MrsToad]

This is a silly question and I admit, we don't usually have a car so we've never valet-parked at Disney, however, do they have a system where they note the parking spot number on a ticket attached to your key?

 

[TChrist05]

The Boardwalk seems to have the perfect system so this is why it seems so funny.....when you valet the car...they take your name, room number and license plate number, give you a receipt and then enter all the info into a computer....when you pick the car up they enter that in the computer also. They also not the parking spot it is in. It almost seems like there is no way to mess it up. I do have to admit, I am a very easy going person....never seem to get rattled while on vacation no matter what seems to happen....and really...this did not rattle me.....and I must admit that Nelson who runs the valet was real upset....and he did call Alamo and explain what happened before they located the car.....my fear was I was responsible for a $25,000 car without any additional insurance besides what my personal insurance at home covered. I wonder if they had not found it....and I got back to the airport and tried to explain to them where there car was what they would have said.....
But yes....I will still use the valet system again because it is convienient....and free for us DVC members.....I truly felt bad for Nelson also....and my mother in law still thinks I should write Disney about the situation but I think it is just better to let it go.....what do you think?
Tom

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

We had this kind of problem at a nice hotel in Portland once. We drove away in "our" gold Taurus, drove it around all day and when we opened the trunk that evening someone else's stuff was inside. Turned out that the other family drove our car around all day without realizing it and we did the same with their's - the cars were both rented from Hertz and identical in every way (except the license plates which we all should have checked!)

 

[Deemarch]

Eventhough we always rent a car, I've yet to use Valet Parking! Even when we were a BWV earlier this month. DH & I go on the WDW advanced exercise program while we are there! LOL

I wouldn't notice if they brought me a different car, either, except for the fact that I leave my maps in the car & the parking pass on the dashboard. (But so do others)

If we ever use VP, I'll have to make sure that I leave our name, like a previous poster suggested.

 

[delilah]

We haven't willingly valet parked any of our cars since we had gone to a pharmaceutical program in downtown Indy at a nice hotel. There was valet parking only. We had driven our three month old Honda accord. When they brought the car back, there was a horrible dent and scratch all across the passenger side of the car, and both tires on that side were damaged. We drove the car home, but, when I went to the tire dealer the next day, he told me that the tire damage was so bad that we shouldn't even have driven home. There was thousands of dollars of damage to my brand new car. Fortunately, the drug company sponsoring the dinner (but not the hotel or the valet service) took responsibility and paid for the repairs.

In March, we went to Chicago, and couldn't self park our Toyota Highlander. We valet parked for the four days we were there, and, I am glad to say, we got our car back in the same condition it was left.

 

[manning]

and my mother in law still thinks I should write Disney about the situation but I think it is just better to let it go.....what do you think?
Tom

Do us all a favor and write Disney!!!

 

[manning]

In March, we went to Chicago, and couldn't self park our Toyota Highlander. We valet parked for the four days we were there, and, I am glad to say, we got our car back in the same condition it was left.

Lucky, here in Chicago we usually valet park in the middle of the street.

 

[OneMoreTry]

Our experience with valets at BW was good.

I have a hard time believing that someone didn't know they were driving off in the wrong car. But I guess I can think of times, when I was preoccupied, it could have happened to me. If I really stretch my imagination.

Still, I'm not quite sure I believe the valet's story. It seems a little fishy.

 

[Halle]

We stayed at the Beach Club pre DVC in 1992. Valet parked our car, checked in and went back out within the hour. The valet promptly brought up our pale blue Caravan......we drove all the way to Goodings before we realized that we were given the wrong van....my DH realized that the time on the clock was wrong..he had set it ......then we noticed change in the compartment under the radio.....ought oh wrong car!!! Valet was very apologetic but not at all surprised. We have never had that problem again and trust me we valet all the time.

 

[MickeyCrazed]

We had a similar situation happen at the Boardwalk. Another couple got into our car and drove off before realizing it was not their car.
They didn't go very far before they realized the mistake, and I shrugged it off as an "isolated incidient."
Yikes... I'm going to have to figure out a way to make our car identifiable to us and to others in the future.
If not, it sounds like this could easily happen again.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have not yet had a problem with valet parking at WDW but did get back a damaged car in Boston a couple of years ago. The valets denied any knowledge of what happened.

 

[TChrist05]

I just find it hard to believe that they can make this many mistakes with allthe backup systems they have. The log everything in the computer...your spot...your room number....the license plate number....everything...maybe they should check your room key against there records....

They are just very good about everything they do so it is hard to accept this....but still look forward to going home...wish I could go more often....

Tom

 

[NMW]

That is really odd. You're lucky they didn't check out and try to return it!

 

[Pluto4Pres]

This is a great story. It has all the makings for a study is psychology. How many people would notice when the valet pulls up and hands you the keys to the strange car you only spent a half hour in two days ago when you drove in from the airport? How big would the difference have to be before everyone noticed? Black Chevy vs. white Ford? If the man at the valet stand asked you what kind of car they were picking up for you, would you know? Generally, I think I would. but, if they brought out a similar color car to me I not so sure if I would notice. I recently had a rental car (while my car was in the body shop) and it was a Chevy 4-door, but there was no model name on it. I still don't know if it was a Malibu or a Cavallier or what. I had great fun with it asking people what it was. "It's a Chevy." "Yeah, a Chevy what?" They would then walk around the car looking for a clue, but there wasn't any.

My other thought is that if the other couple waited 15-20 mins. for "their" car, maybe they just didn't care to bother making the correction and waiting another 15-20 mins. Maybe they were already late for their tee time. They probably had a running joke for the rest of the week as they got to valet, "Let's see what car they bring us today dear." (They're probably the same people who break all the rules too!)

This reminds me of an episode in my former life as a police officer. The department I worked for issued a car (cruiser) to each officer. We discovered over the years that the key combinations are not as infinite as you might think. When the department bought 200 Ford Crown Victorias, there were probably only 20 different key combinations, so your key would work in several other cruisers, you just never knew which ones. One night there was a call and an officer ran outside the station and unlocked what he thought was his cruiser, got in, started the engine, put the car in drive and it was at this point that he felt hot breath in his right ear and heard a low rumbling grrrrrrrrrr. The car that he got in to belonged to a K-9 officer and there was now a 110 lb. German Shepard standing up in the back seat very curious as to who was trying to drive him away. I should add that there was no cage separating the front and back seats. The officer then slowwwlly turned the car off and eased out of the front seat while sweetly saying "Good boy, good boy," He then got out and quickly shut the driver's door as the shepard slammed against the window going nuts. Needless to say, the officer took about 5 mins. to catch his breath before going on the call.