Just Bcuz It Says Deluxe, Doesn't Mean It Is !!!

[erinshaneb]

We just returned from our week at WDW yesterday and I will be posting a trip report when i get a spare minute, but I did want to share this. We started out our trip at OKW, and it was so horrible we had to be transferred to AKL...I was shocked, I assumed that since OKW was a deluxe villa resort it would be up to Disney's standards..NOT EVEN CLOSE !!! I could have stayed at the Motel 6 and had nicer accommodations...It started out okay, we were greeted as we got off of Magical Express by a wonderful women that welcomed my daughter as "princess" and said "welcome home" and walked us inside and then it went downhill from there...She dropped us off at the counter that to me was a bit childish..they had ballons made into shapes of letters spelling out Welcome Home scotch taped the wall behind the counter (oh well, that may be just a matter of opinion)...The lady that checked us was non-chalant about the whole thing and then when I asked her where we were to go now she pointed out the parking pass in the folder..i told her we didn't drive, we flew and she said "oh, head back outside and see bell services..they will help you"..so we tromped back out side and waited in the heat for 15 minutes as they tried to figure out what to do..we had a crib and stroller deliverd to the resort, the crib was found, but not the mattress..then the stroller was found, but the lady that found it couldn't get it down, so the guy she sent back there to find it couldn't find it and it was just a mess..they finally load us onto a dirty golf cart that belched diesel smoke all over us the whole way to the room..The bell services guy was not very friendly and even had the stroller hanging half off the golf cart and I was very afraid it would fall off and I would be responsible....Finally we get to the room and were kinda underwhelmed....we have stayed at All-Stars Movies, Carribbean, Coronado, and AKL and there is a "Disney" standard that all resorts have (regardless of price level)..the room seemed a little dirty, but since we checked in before noon we thought that maid service might not have been there and decided to not worry too much, we unpacked and headed to the park since last year we miss Fantasmic and my daughter was soo upset..That night when we returned we discovered all the other problems..I have taken pics so that you can see i am not a nut case whose standards are way to high...Other than an over-all unfriendly atmosphere (we passed about 20 employees and not one said anything to us) we found these major problems..

• Hair dye all over the tile in both parts of the master bathroom
• Shower head constantly dripped and leaked
• Cracked tile in the master bath
• Urine stains (or lack of cleaning) at the toilet
• Mold all over the window in the shower
• Access door for jacuzzi tub had broken lock and instead of fixing it they wedged a piece of cardboard in the door to keep it closed (my 20 month old found it crawled under the tub IN the dirt they had been sweeping in there)
• A/C access door also had broken lock and it would swing open all the time
• Leaves all over porch that had been there so long some were starting to rot apart
• Lock on patio door broken
• Cart path for golf course less than 5' from patio
• All tile and shelves in bathroom covered in dust
• No toiletries left in master bath
• Fan in master bath covered in dirt and made horrible noise
• Handles on TV cabinet broken and just spun around
• Broken wire on light in 2nd bedroom
• All lights in 2nd bedroom would be one brightness when you turned them on, then dim to almost unusefulness after 3 minutes
• Fire hose connection outside of villa (glass box on wall) was missing the hose and a fire extingusher was just stuck in the case
• Dirt and mold all over door threshold going to patio

I can excuse a little dirt (that can always be cleaned), but the safety issues are unexcuseable !!! This was NOT a Disney hotel..this is our 7th trip in 10 years and we were shocked at the state of this resort..When we returned back to the resort that night and discovered all these issues we heade to the front desk to speak to someone....He offered to move us to another room and at that time, my husband was done...we decided to just move to AKL (which we should have stayed at in the first place, but I wanted to try somewhere different)..They called AKL, made the arrangements and apologized..They did say they were going to credit the cost of the room for the night..When we got to AKL after being at the park on Monday, there was NO reservation !!!! They called, but never transferred us!! So it took another 30 minutes at AKL to figure it out and fix the situation..we did get the credit, but I am not that worried about that...I do have to say the rest of the stay was as it should be...DISNEY quality to the nines....We tried to explain to the people at OKW that when you spend almost 5k on a vacation certain things should be a given...they are clueless, when we left the front desk at OKW we wanted to get some cokes..the store was closed so we asked if they had vending machines and they DIDN'T KNOW !!! He said he could call someone, but......NEVERMIND....I don't think I will ever get my husband to try a "new" place at WDW again...I can say that in the end Disney made good (as if they wouldn't), but it's a damn shame that the first two days of our vacation were filled with such hassles....I am so dissappointed, to me Deluxe Villa MEANS deluxe Villa...there should be a standard across the board for that level and OKW was NO WHERE NEAR IT !!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/110030352883970304605/OKW#

This is a photo album to all the pics

 

[SleepingMonk]

Oh no, please not. We check-in to AKL in a little less than 3 weeks. What were your problems or complains?

Worn and chipped paint, broken lamps, stained and frayed carpets, peeling wallpaper, etc...

Housekeeping did a decent job but the room itself needed updating. The furnishings, tiles, carpet, wood trim, etc...all are very tired and dated.

ETA: It's obvious as a regular guest when businesses do this sort of thing. They're squeezing resorts for every dollar possible while only reinvesting pennies.

 

[COProgressFan]

Worn and chipped paint, broken lamps, stained and frayed carpets, peeling wallpaper, etc...

Housekeeping did a decent job but the room itself needed updating. The furnishings, tiles, carpet, wood trim, etc...all are very tired and dated.

ETA: It's obvious as a regular guest when businesses do this sort of thing. They're squeezing resorts for every dollar possible while only reinvesting pennies.

This is a problem I've been noticing in recent years at Disney resorts as well. The maid service was great, the room was nicely cleaned, but its obvious the maintenance aspects (peeling paint, worn furniture/fixtures, etc.) and deep cleaning is not being done regularly.

For example, I could dust, vacuum and mop my house every week, but after a while, you have to do a more thorough cleaning and refresh. Scrubbing the mildewy gunk in the corners of the shower, getting dust off of the tops of the armoire or ceiling fan, cleaning rust and limescale around the faucets, steam cleaning the carpets and curtains. These are the types of thing that aren't being done as much.

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

Worn and chipped paint, broken lamps, stained and frayed carpets, peeling wallpaper, etc...

Housekeeping did a decent job but the room itself needed updating. The furnishings, tiles, carpet, wood trim, etc...all are very tired and dated.

ETA: It's obvious as a regular guest when businesses do this sort of thing. They're squeezing resorts for every dollar possible while only reinvesting pennies.

Where did you stay? Regular rooms, Jambo House or Kidani Village?

 

[SleepingMonk]

Main building, savannah view room.

 

[Scuttle]

The cobwebs at the Poly are a common problem. The excuse is that spiders can make them so quickly. So what? Shouldn't someone be out there everyday cleaning them up? That's what they'd do at any other hotel that cost over $400 per night.

The Poly is my favorite resort, but mousekeeping is not their strong suit.

Exactly!

 

[worldfanatic]

Disney is slipping, they know and they just don't care.

Maybe, maybe not.
Could be specific resort issues. Could be a WDW issue.
Could be guests expecting perfection, which is very difficult to achieve.

I do know this:

We just got back from a stay at the Grand Californian Villas at the Disneyland Resort. Everything was virtually perfect, it was just amazing!!

Disney can get it right sometimes.

 

[COProgressFan]

Disney can get it right sometimes.

They get it right more often than not. But not quite as much as they used to.

 

[dizzney]

I have to say, we havent had those problems and we jsut returned from a trip in August at BWV. There I had a two bedroom and a studio (had alot of family with us) and two cousins stayed at the Dolphin when i ran out of points.

Everything was absolutely wonderful, no issues and I am picky. Inf act my cousins who stayed at the Dolphin and visited us were very impressed with Boardwalk and they constantly travel all over the world.

We've also stayed all over the property and at all the DVC resorts including OKW and never had that problem

Sorry you obviously visited a bad room on a bad day for the OKW staff but dont count out DVC as we have found it to be the best way to vacation,

 

[marcriss]

Definitely send an actual letter, and send one to Meg Crofton or whoever is currently in charge of WDW. We had some problems with a trip a couple of years ago and I copied her on a letter I sent. I received a call back from her office exactly 1 week from when I mailed the letter. The woman I spoke to was great and really listened to everything I had to say and even asked follow up questions.

I have a family member who's an imagineer and she said they (management) take the written letters very seriously. Emails are frequently seen as someone blowing off steam. Send the photos too if you can.

I'm sorry that you had that experience, it's unacceptable anywhere.

 

[olinecoach61]

Those pics are ridiculous!

 

[erinshaneb]

Oh no, please not. We check-in to AKL in a little less than 3 weeks. What were your problems or complains?

We ended up at AKL and couldn't be happier..the room was immaculate and the staff and mousekeeping GREAT...We also stayed there last year and found the same thing to be true..I wouldn't worry too much..

I do understand that "thorough maintenece and upkeep" can't be done weekly, and sometimes rooms may need a little overhaul, BUT the stuff I found has been a condition for AWHILE...

 

[erinshaneb]

Snail Mail

I think I will send out letters snail mail..I sent a general email comment with the description listed below and the links to the pics and that was on Monday and there has been no response..Does anyone know how i can get snail mail addresses for Claire Bilby, Karl Holz and (?? opps) the other guy that was mentioned a few posts below ?

 

[s8film40]

[*]Fire hose connection outside of villa (glass box on wall) was missing the hose and a fire extingusher was just stuck in the case

Just wanted to point out this seems to be a property wide change that appears to be intended. I would imagine they probably changed the code or something. All the hose boxes I have seen have had the hose removed.

 

[COProgressFan]

Just wanted to point out this seems to be a property wide change that appears to be intended. I would imagine they probably changed the code or something. All the hose boxes I have seen have had the hose removed.

Not an expert in this at all, but in the building where I work these were removed as well. I was told by a the alarm company that hoses are being removed from buildings because, 1-they deteriorate over time and facilities managers don't replace them and 2-the general public (office workers, hotel guests, apartment dwellers, etc.) may have a false sense of security and attempt to use them themselves, which can be dangerous. (they are designed to be used by trained firefighters). The goal is to have people get out of buildings on fire ASAP, not think they can fight it themselves.

So it appears that it is affecting building codes and policies in lots of jurisdictions.

 

[mickeymatt]

This sucks because we had such a fantastic experience at Olivia's Cafe in June 2011. I hope this get's fixed/ Here's a link to my post:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=749787&highlight=olivia's

 

[captainkidd]

Maybe, maybe not.
Could be specific resort issues. Could be a WDW issue.
Could be guests expecting perfection, which is very difficult to achieve.

Not the case with this poster. That room was absolutely disgusting and embarrassing. Same thing with the Poly. I don't think it's expecting perfection to not want to see cobwebs all over your balcony.

 

[dave&di]

We had a similar experience in the famous Poly in 2010. The furniture looked used with several visible damages, there were coffee creamer stains spilled over parts of the furniture, there were a lot of cobwebs on our balcony, the windows hadn't been cleaned for weeks and it took THREE complaints until the not-so-able CMs at the front desk finally managed to get them NEARLY clean. Completely cleaning seemed to be a task they simply couldn't fullfil.
It was a shame for one of the most expensive resorts in WDW.

When we stayed at the Poly last year we had the same problem, but to be fair I personally wiped them away in the morning and they always reappeared by the afternoon so even if a maid had removed them they still would have returned!

The room was generally dusty as well, we didn't complain as it was not a major problem to us. I was just so happy to be at WDW.

BUT, no this level of cleanliness at a Deluxe Resort is not good enogh.