Rope Lights Outlining Roofs on Deluxe Resorts Diminishing?

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Disneygal1

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Currently in WDW, and it looks as though the Grand Floridian has a power outage in terms of the lights on the roof. This has been going on for days, and it looks terrible. I went to the Yacht & Beach Club, and the same exact thing is happening: Only a few rope lights are on and many that are on have a lot of bulbs out. What is going on here?
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)

Tom

Beta Return
I mean they are literally all out at the Grand Floridian...

Yeah, it's bad, and they don't care at all.

Interest as I know that it has gotten significantly worse in just a year.

Probably.

All the lights were on and looked good last November 2014 so it can't have been happening that long! Lol

Wow, really? I've been going once a year, if not more often, for the past several years. They've either had several missing bulbs, or entire strings out. It's never been completely lit.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
This is my last evening here - and I have been underwhelmed overall at the entire resort. The exceptions being Ohana (the best TS meal/service I have had); Columbia Harbor at MK (amazing); and select CMs throughout the resort. However, housekeeping was tragic at sports. Out of all the years (about 25 stays total) in the values - my room did not get cleaned until 4pm everyday. And the service seemed to be a spot clean vs. the more detailed cleaning I have received daily every other trip. The food court service at sports was horrific - you would think given they host every teen/child camp/sports team they would have it together but to wait 30 minutes for a burger was plain bad. The rapid fill station was worse - once one side shuts down at 11pm then you have 30 plus people trying to figure out how to get the soda to dispense while the machine screams "place the cup on the dispenser". I did direct to room check in but drove a car - I realized I needed a pass. The first day, I went to the front desk and the CM basically implied I should have not did direct to room check in and I should have stopped by the front desk - on top of having an attitude. Something about this trip was just off - I am not sure what it was. But I had a great time overall as I normally do - but thankfully I had a car where I could leave the world when needed :)
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
Yeah, it's bad, and they don't care at all.



Probably.



Wow, really? I've been going once a year, if not more often, for the past several years. They've either had several missing bulbs, or entire strings out. It's never been completely lit.
The OP has a right to mention as all seem to be out not just a few BUT before this Is several missing bulbs really that big of a deal? and that might be why I never noticed it and thought it looked fine. lol No company or place is perfect with light maintenance even Disney and I don't expect them to be perfect with every little detail. They may have been more "perfect" in running things many years ago but with how much attendance has grown etc it will take even more and more effort to keep running things "perfectly". They still do a things better than anywhere else I have been and set the bar even if some lights that line the resort buildings is out. Lol Sorry I had to rant! Nitpicking these types of things drives me crazy sometimes on these boards. Yes everyone has the right to complain as they see fit on here but it just sometimes gets too nitpicky in my opinion! Love all of my fellow posters but I had to say all this and speak my mind. :rolleyes:
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
This is my last evening here - and I have been underwhelmed overall at the entire resort. The exceptions being Ohana (the best TS meal/service I have had); Columbia Harbor at MK (amazing); and select CMs throughout the resort. However, housekeeping was tragic at sports. Out of all the years (about 25 stays total) in the values - my room did not get cleaned until 4pm everyday. And the service seemed to be a spot clean vs. the more detailed cleaning I have received daily every other trip. The food court service at sports was horrific - you would think given they host every teen/child camp/sports team they would have it together but to wait 30 minutes for a burger was plain bad. The rapid fill station was worse - once one side shuts down at 11pm then you have 30 plus people trying to figure out how to get the soda to dispense while the machine screams "place the cup on the dispenser". I did direct to room check in but drove a car - I realized I needed a pass. The first day, I went to the front desk and the CM basically implied I should have not did direct to room check in and I should have stopped by the front desk - on top of having an attitude. Something about this trip was just off - I am not sure what it was. But I had a great time overall as I normally do - but thankfully I had a car where I could leave the world when needed :)
Glad you still overall had a wonderful trip!! :). I do agree with housekeeping issues as it seems to be becoming an ongoing trend and happened to us on the last 2 trips at a deluxe at Kidani/AKL. So you are not alone and at least they showed up for you! Lol. Ours on our scheduled days (we are DVC now) never showed several days in a row passed our scheduled days!! We complained numerous times to no avail and they were extremely rude! Even the housekeeping manager herself was one of the worst with being rude! Besides other issues with them when they did decide to show up like you had an issue with too. Hoping it's better with housekeeping when we go back again in Oct. :)
 

Disneygal1

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The OP has a right to mention as all seem to be out not just a few BUT before this Is several missing bulbs really that big of a deal? and that might be why I never noticed it and thought it looked fine. lol No company or place is perfect with light maintenance even Disney and I don't expect them to be perfect with every little detail. They may have been more "perfect" in running things many years ago but with how much attendance has grown etc it will take even more and more effort to keep running things "perfectly". They still do a things better than anywhere else I have been and set the bar even if some lights that line the resort buildings is out. Lol Sorry I had to rant! Nitpicking these types of things drives me crazy sometimes on these boards. Yes everyone has the right to complain as they see fit on here but it just sometimes gets too nitpicky in my opinion! Love all of my fellow posters but I had to say all this and speak my mind. :rolleyes:
It's not several bulbs, it's entire strands missing and only a few working. As I mentioned, the Grand Floridian is practically dark. If I was staying at one of those deluxe resorts, I would be mad. Can you imagine paying 400 a night for a hotel that cannot keep up with the basics of making the resort look good at night?
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
It's not several bulbs, it's entire strands missing and only a few working. As I mentioned, the Grand Floridian is practically dark. If I was staying at one of those deluxe resorts, I would be mad. Can you imagine paying 400 a night for a hotel that cannot keep up with the basics of making the resort look good at night?
I put in my post you had a right to say something being all were out in my first sentence. Lol. But I was mainly talking about Rob saying that he noticed a few bulbs OR sometimes a strand but not all of them like you. I only have ever stayed at Deluxe/Deluxe Villa resorts since 2008 when I started visiting as an adult (had not visited since 1998 prior and stayed offsite). We always paid more than $400 a night before easily before we joined DVC In May 2013. In fact I don't think I ever paid under $450 a night at any of them as we always stayed in a 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom Villa and at The Boardwalk we stayed in the Garden Cottages with Club level privileges. Still does not make me mad at all about lights. We have stayed over the years at Grand Floridian, The Boardwalk, SSR, and AKL/Kidani (our now home resort) numerous times. In fact we stayed Grand Floridian in Dec 2013, and sorry but I do not let some lights being out bother me whether I paid $500+ bucks a night or not. The only things that truly ever bother me are problems with types of service and cleanliness to my room and common areas etc. Just my opinion and you might feel differently when paying that much.
I get though if they are all out why you said something like I said in that post, but if it is just some or a few like Rob mentioned that is what I think is more nitpicky than what you mentioned. Everyone is different in what bothers them and for me and DH some lights out is not something that has bothered us even while paying to stay at one of those resorts. :)
 
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MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
Yup, this has been a problem since at least 2010-2011. Running joke indeed, it looks horrible. And it's clear from their (WDW management) vacant expression, the "lights" are not all on upstairs (kudos if you get that Disney reference).

I don't know exactly how long this trim lighting problem has been going on for (I hadn't visited WDW for well over a decade prior to know exactly when this started getting out of hand), but it has gotten even worse since then. The only building at Grand Floridian with ANY working trim lighting was the Narcoosees restaurant, and there were still a great number out on that building as well. During my most recent October 2014 and April/May 2015 visits, quite literally ALL of the lights on the other GF buildings were out.

I'm not sure at this point whether all of them are burned out (which is possible given the lifespan of incandescents), or if they've actually intentionally switched them off entirely (which is also possible). I recall reading a comment some time back from someone in the know that they had been purposefully turning the remaining functional lights off to pinch pennies...

Oddly the lightbulb situation on Main Street is actually FAR better than it was a few years ago. I'm sure the fact that the facades were heavily refurbed recently have something to do with that, but i'm also sure there are lights that have gone out since then already given that they're regular short-life incandescent. So they may be replacing these more often than elsewhere.

The lights on the Crystal Palace facade were actually replaced with LED's at some point during the past couple of years (the rest of Main Street is still the old type of lighting however). Same goes for the bus stops for MK, they are also the LED variety and most seemed to be working on my last visit. The monorail station and ticket entrances at MK sadly had several dark strands however (these areas don't seem to have been replaced with LED's).

LED's are designed to last immensely longer than incandescents. They used to look horrible (the ones used on the overhead chandeliers in the Boardwalk Lobby for instance are the older kind and have an white-blue hue that are quite hideous), but there are a lot of newer LED bulbs that look fantastic. Panasonic have some of these over in Europe that were installed in some gorgeous historical buildings, they really nailed the color and I personally think they're at a point where they'd be great for replacing WDW trim lighting.-

 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
And everyone should read this post by Lee in the other thread from a few years ago, should be required reading for anyone either interested in how maintenance at WDW used to (and still should) work, or anyone who tries to make an excuse for this sort of nonsense being allowed.-

Is it a big job? Sure.

But, here's the thing.
Once upon a time, like the resorts first 20 years or so, they had a schedule.
All onstage lights were replaced when they reached 80% of the manifacturer's estimated lifespan. Yep, they changed them before they burned out. This guaranteed that situations like at GFC would never happen. It was a point of pride with the company.

It lasted until a bean counter killed it in the name of running the resort cheaper.
That's the Disney of today.
 

sxeensweet

Love a little Disney every day!! ;)
And everyone should read this post by Lee in the other thread from a few years ago, should be required reading for anyone either interested in how maintenance at WDW used to (and still should) work, or anyone who tries to make an excuse for this sort of nonsense being allowed.-
I have read that before but thanks for posting again. Still does not change my opinion that they are not perfect nor expect them to be. :)
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I have read that before but thanks for posting again. Still does not change my opinion that they are not perfect nor expect them to be. :)
I do not expect to see no lights out. But I do expect to see no more than one or two within a strand of a hundred, which is not an insurmountable expectation at all (and within reason when factoring in the chance for a couple of defective bulbs among the lot). I expect Disney to follow their OWN standards, the ones they once set for themselves. In this particular case, having entire strands out being unacceptable. And I expect not to see the same bulbs remaining out for weeks, months or years (broken lights should be addressed overnight and shouldn't even be allowed to last a week).

The preventative lightbulb maintenance ensured that the only lightbulbs you saw out were defective ones that died before their 80% life expectancy. And those were dealt with by night crews on a day to day basis, you didn't see the same bulbs burned out on multiple visits (as is commonly the case now).

I don't expect absolute perfection, but I do expect something as close to it as humanly possible (a level they're not even close to amounting to anymore). And what I expect from Disney management is to treat their attempts as if they were TRYING to achieve perfection. Just that attempt (even if it's never 100% flawless) will ensure the best experience we can possibly hope for out of WDW. This is not asking for the impossible and isn't unreasonable whatsoever, it's what they used to do.
 
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