A Spirited Perfect Ten

[gmajew]

In general, the average time you have to wait in the morning for a bus to a theme park, seems to be getting lower in many resorts. It's well under 15 minutes in many places, and 11 or 12 in some situations. There are still instances where you'll get a 35- to 45-minute gap, but those are rare (and the extremes seem to be down).

Thank you for the research.... So overall it appears that the outliners are what we have been stating the 34-45 min waits are far from the norm?

 

[ford91exploder]

Not quite sure I'd call it a review. A report about some towel issues perhaps.

Ratty towels and bloodstains on a supposedly freshly made bed. Gah I'd expect this at a Super 8 or Motel 6 not at one of WDW's premier resorts plus the described attitude of the front desk. Service is truly dead at WDW

 

[wdwmagic]

Ratty towels and bloodstains on a supposedly freshly made bed. Gah I'd expect this at a Super 8 or Motel 6 not at one of WDW's premier resorts plus the described attitude of the front desk. Service is truly dead at WDW

And we know for a fact that any of that actually happened do we?

 

[baymenxpac]

I still think you are going far too easy on Disney. in the real world, hotels/resorts that are under massive renovation usually shutter (and Disney has closed resorts before, so it could easily have done so here). If they don't, then they usually offer 'construction specials' to begin with. They don't charge $400-800 a night for hotel rooms in the midst of massive construction that closes most of the lobby, the main feature pool and the QSR.

I won't argue that Disney made people aware to some extent of what was going on AFTER they booked. And I am sure they moved people who requested it post-booking. But people not very familiar with the Poly or even WDW as a whole may not have understood just what they were getting themselves into until they were there.

I recall riding with a family who had been on the Fantasy with Angie and myself who were getting dropped off at WDW after the cruise and they took them to the Poly before taking us to our resort (yes, I had a problem with that, but it's another tale). All I could think was 'do these poor folks (not in the financial sense!) know what they are in for?'

I'll also give Disney credit for generally dealing with these situations well after the Guests arrive IF they complain and complain loud enough. I once had a very bad experience at the YC when it was allowed to fall into utter decay around 2001-02 and when I sat down with the on-duty manager, he admitted that most of my concerns (his word, not mine) were fair, but that he couldn't do anything about them as they spoke to neglect, business and the fact the hotel was getting a major renovation within 12-18 months, so they were just ignoring things (my word, not his).

At this point, I told him that he'd have to come up with a better Guest Recovery option than to express his sincere apologies that my visit was less than MAGICal. After 15 minutes in the back, he returned and told me he could move me to either the BW or Grand Flo for the same $169 a night AP rate with one free night for my trouble. I took the GF and moved there. They had issues there as well, but I just let those go and realized that WDW resorts weren't what they once were.

But you have to be firm and demanding and not accept small tokens or apologies or that is all you'll get.

and this says it all, doesn't it? about the way disney does business and the state of customer service in general.

a lot of people (myself included) are non-confrontational by nature. particularly when i'm on vacation and i don't want to get aggravated. no one should have to fight for the right to be valued as a customer, especially when you're dropping hundreds, if not thousands, or dollars.

but whether it's my aforementioned fridge incident, or having to call three times to simply get some extra towels (hilariously, for a price), or being snottily told by a pirates CM that "it IS a boat ride" when i asked to wait for the next boat when there was 5 inches of standing water in the row he tried to put us in...at 9:03 AM with a walk-on wait time (this was right after installing the next leak-heavy boats), or a waiter at turf club being completely rude to my wife simply because she asked about gluten free options (she has celiac), or any other examples i can think of off the top of my head that happened on property in the last five years, it seems that you have to fight like h-e-double hockey sticks just to get treated like a human being at modern day WDW.

 

[ford91exploder]

And we know for a fact that any of that actually happened do we?

Well unless the photos are fakes and the poster on the other board is outright lying I would have to say it happened now I have not looked at the photos with a EXiF editor which pulls the metadata from the photo to get time/date/lat long to assure they are authentic.

But I checked into AKL on Monday with family and on arrival the front of the refrigerator door was smashed and the sheet metal creased, milk was splashed on the wall and not cleaned and the TV in one of the bedrooms was not working. Front desk was NOT helpful in resolving these issues.

Family still at AKL I'm on another business trip for a sudden issue. But with my experience I find that posters issue to be entirely credible.

 

[Quinnmac000]

And we know for a fact that any of that actually happened do we?

Why would the owner of OU lie?

 

[wdwmagic]

Why would the owner of OU lie?

Not saying he is not telling the truth - just raising the point that it seems rash to declare service dead at WDW due to a photo of a towel. That very thread on that site seems to be be having a good time taking a dig at the WDWMAGIC forums, so perhaps a reaction was being sought. Not sure really, and not really interested to find out.

 

[Bairstow]

Sounds par for the course.
Back in 2013, we checked into AKL in the morning and found that there were several handfuls of goldfish crackers in the pullout bed in the couch, which we were going to be using. We thought "no big deal" and simply told the desk about it on our way to the parks. When we came back that evening, the crackers were still there, so we told the desk again, "no really, we actually would like for there not to be crackers in there." Thankfully, they changed the sheets, or at least removed the crackers during dinner.

 

[ElBriMan]

And we know for a fact that any of that actually happened do we?

I'm not looking to start any trouble, but that's a little low to accuse me of something like this.

There's proof in the pics. This was my honeymoon and I was trying to make sure my now-wife had a fantastic time. Not all stays are going to be bad, the point of my post was to show this isn't the "Disney Experience" I paid for.

So unless my plan all along was to sabotage Disney and spend a good amount of money during my honeymoon to further whatever agenda you think I may have.... I stand by my story.

 

[lentesta]

Thank you for the research.... So overall it appears that the outliners are what we have been stating the 34-45 min waits are far from the norm?

The distribution probably looks something like this, based on a quick 110-sample analysis:

45% of the time you'll wait under 15 minutes.
25% of the time you'll wait 15-20 minutes.
25% of the time you'll wait 20-30 minutes.
5% of the time you'll wait more than 30 minutes.

So 70% of the time, your wait will be less than or about what Disney says ("Every 20 minutes.") 5% of the time, it'll be substantially worse.

The thing to realize is that 5% bad experiences for a huge number of visitors, is still a large number of unhappy people.

I think Disney's bus service improvements is one of the unheralded corporate achievements they've done over the last couple of years.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I'm not looking to start any trouble, but that's a little low to accuse me of something like this.

There's proof in the pics. This was my honeymoon and I was trying to make sure my now-wife had a fantastic time. Not all stays are going to be bad, the point of my post was to show this isn't the "Disney Experience" I paid for.

So unless my plan all along was to sabotage Disney and spend a good amount of money during my honeymoon to further whatever agenda you think I may have.... I stand by my story.

Thanks for stepping in here to clarify. I wasn't trying to start anything but I thought your post fit well with one of the conversations going on in this thread.

 

[ford91exploder]

Not saying he is not telling the truth - just raising the point that it seems rash to declare service dead at WDW due to a photo of a towel. That very thread on that site seems to be be having a good time taking a dig at the WDWMAGIC forums, so perhaps a reaction was being sought. Not sure really, and not really interested to find out.

It might be rash but I don't think so. When I checked in THIS MONDAY the room which we waited 6 hours for had a badly damaged refrigerator, Milk splashed on the wall and a non-functional TV in one of the bedrooms.

The response from the front desk was not 'We'll send someone right away", Rather "So, What do you expect ME to do about it" It's the ATTITUDE from the CM's which makes me say 'Service is dead at WDW'.

My motivation for going to the front desk is of course twofold making sure a manager sees the damage so I don't get billed for it and of course getting it fixed.

Reality is things get broken at Hotels, Good hotels FIX them with a smile, Disney too often gives guests attitude instead of service.

 

[Monoblanco13]

And we've got over three years. I know we ... yes, WE ... can prevent Tom from ever seeing that position.

Is there really anything we could do to sway any of TWDC decisions? Who would you propose to take over?

 

[gmajew]

The distribution probably looks something like this, based on a quick 110-sample analysis:

45% of the time you'll wait under 15 minutes.
25% of the time you'll wait 15-20 minutes.
25% of the time you'll wait 20-30 minutes.
5% of the time you'll wait more than 30 minutes.

So 70% of the time, your wait will be less than or about what Disney says ("Every 20 minutes.") 5% of the time, it'll be substantially worse.

The thing to realize is that 5% bad experiences for a huge number of visitors, is still a large number of unhappy people.

I think Disney's bus service improvements is one of the unheralded corporate achievements they've done over the last couple of years.

Thanks again for posting and your right 5% is still a huge number of people to be unhappy... So they still have work to do but it is great they have seen the problem and are working towards improving it.

Same way I feel about the refurb they are doing.... They had a serious problem and it is great to see that they are working on fixing past mistakes... Main street is the best example...

 

[Bairstow]

It might be rash but I don't think so. When I checked in THIS MONDAY the room which we waited 6 hours for had a badly damaged refrigerator, Milk splashed on the wall and a non-functional TV in one of the bedrooms.

If I might ask, why did you wait 6 hours for a room?
Did you have park tickets for that day?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Wait. So Willow Bay isn't more evil?

Kinda like a Black Widow where she kills her mate, only in a Yoda dress?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

The thing to realize is that 5% bad experiences for a huge number of visitors, is still a large number of unhappy people.

Not to mention the fact that, on a week long trip, you're going to remember the single bad experience much more than the twenty good experiences. There's nothing remarkable about a bus that arrives when it's supposed to and takes a reasonable amount of time to reach its destination. On average, a week-long guest is probably going to have one or two bad bus waits and that will blow up in their mind to "the bus service was bad in general."

 

[jakeman]

If I might ask, why did you wait 6 hours for a room?
Did you have park tickets for that day?

Because that number sounded good for the story?

 

[ford91exploder]

If I might ask, why did you wait 6 hours for a room?
Did you have park tickets for that day?

We all have AP's, However our opening day routine since we are usually staying for 10-14 days is to get food and set up the room for the rest of the stay. We arrived at noon, room was ready at 6PM - long after the 'official' check in and after a long wait one would expect the room to be in peak condition but no it was not.

Of course we went out and did something but that meant a long evening of getting room set up etc rather than getting set up having some pool time and visiting EPCOT or MK for RoE or Fireworks to finish off the day.

And I'm off on another business related trip, perhaps I'll get back to WDW or not but the rest of the crew will have a good time.

In other news FP+ worked for me for the first time in 2 years, Can't use the selections as I'm not THERE but a small victory nonetheless.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

So here is an interesting review of a recent stay at The Poly. @WDW1974 is going to love it.

http://www.orlandounited.com/forums/showthread.php/9498-My-Stay-at-Polynesian

A few gems from the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes.

Asked concierge to make a dinner reservation for my family preceding our arrival. Was told she made the reservation at a restaurant 10 min away. Arrived at hotel checked in and jumped in a cab to get to the restaurant. 35 min later we arrive at restaurant to NO RESERVATION! Complained to hotel 2 times. No one got back to me on what happened. Finally was given the explanation that the concierge did not remember. What? Then we were given 5000 Marriott points. who cares. I don't care how pretty the lobby is, I will never bring my family here again. Poor service. No remorse. Ridiculous.

Impossible! Only Disney concierge service is less than perfect!

Stay started with no one manning the Elite Check In ( I am a Platinum member).

But the show stopper was being charged a mandatory resort fee. Since we had to pay it, we utilized the shuttle service. The first day was fine, but the shuttle failed to show up the second day. The hotel staff could not have cared less. After calling both the shuttle operator and the hotel and being told it was our problem we took a taxi back to the hotel. Would ordinarily use a taxi anyway but it is galling the be charged for something that is not provided, not to mention the inconvenience off waiting in the cold and the lack of concern by the hotel.

Impossible! Only Disney transportation is less than perfect!

Service was mediocre. Bar was great though as the bartender got a bottle of wine from the italian restaurant. Something was sticky on the bar stool and got all over my pants. Gross. Woke up with bites in the a.m. Got car through valet and bolted out of there, as a courtesy called hotel later and was connected with rudeness. This did not leave a good impression with me as I would hope that there would response would have concern about other guests.

Impossible! Only Disney housekeeping and maintenance are less than perfect!