Housekeeping extras

[shari71]

Last year we went to Port Orleans Riverside with our then almost 2 year old. Every day housekeeping would arrange her stuffed animals into the cutest scenes. For example, one day they were all sitting at the window waiting for her to come back. A different day they arranged them to watch the Disney channel. The also left wash rags arranged as bunnies and Halloween ghosts. She had the greates time coming back to see them.

We are going again in Oct and I was wondering if this was a standard thing they do at most of the hotels. It was something we all looked forward too and she remembers it and really is looking forward to it again.

 

[shari71]

I guess I was always naive about tipping. It wasn't until that trip that I even knew you were supposed to tip for housekeeping. After she did such a good job last year I went out of my way to meet her and thank her for it. I did start tipping the next day. And I will continue to do so on this trip, but I would expect that if they are going to provide this service then they need to be a little more consistant.

On the Great Hotels show it made it sound like it was a given that they do this to everyone, but I get the distinct feeling it is based on how good of a mood your housekeeping person is in.

 

[crazygirley]

We tipped $5 twice during our stay. Our room was always spotless and vacumed every day!

 

[thedisneyfan]

Management should know that these magical touches make Disney Disney. They should encourage it rather than punish for it. Unfortunately, our last stay at the Wilderness Lodge went for not.

 

[Momx3]

In '95 at CBR we didn't get towel animals but my sons plush animals were always arranged in neat ways. One night they were in the window looking like they were awaiting his return. We all loved it and I hope it happens again at ASMo.

 

[HennieBogan1966]

Towel Animals

We had the same experience during our stay in January. It was really nice of the staff to do so, we always looked forward to seeing what we'd find upon our return each day. It sounds like things got a little out of hand one way or the other. I could see a verbal warning if it was a matter of the work not getting completed on time. But it also seems that this is common practice among the cast members employed in housekeeping. Cause we stay at the All Star Resorts and it looks like others at assorted resorts experience the same thing. So, I hope it does continue, as it is just another thing in the arena of customer service that helps distingush Disney as the leader in customer service and satisfaction.

 

[Disneyfan63]

We stay at the All-Star Resorts and it's pretty common, but always a treat, to come back and have you stuffed animals and toys displayed in the window. We've never had the "washcloth art" though. It's not always done so it probably does depend on the housekeeper.

 

[Shannon_Yensid]

washcloth art is really cool. although we've never had housekeeping at a WDW hotel leave us anything but thats because we're vacation club members and dont get a visit from housekeeping everyday. but it happened every day on the cruise! one day we even found our extra blanket had turned into a turtle i think it was. but we had a monkey and doves and all sorts of things. and if we left sunglasses in the room, the animals would be wearing the sunglasses

as for stuffed animal rearranging, we had an unfortunate accident with a stuffed animal in 1994. my sister (then just two) had left here stuffed animal in the sheets and they had gone through the wash. we asked housekeeping if it had been found (no luck) so we went to the store to get her a new one and they gave us one, free of charge anyway, im pretty sure thats not common but thats not the point i was getting at. now we all make sure our stuffed animals are on top of the dresser or at least off the beds before we leave (if its a trash&tidy day at OKW or anyday if were at a non-dvc place.)

ok, im done rambling now.

 

[shari71]

That is why we ended up loving this. Every morning before we left we would make sure all the stuffed animals were put on the table away from the beds. So they had to make a special effort to retreive them and arrange them. That made it so special. I especially loved it when we came back and they were waiting at the window for us. We have a great picture of our daughter looking through the window with her animals back at us.

This just makes for magical memories that I love.

 

[Stefffe]

Originally posted by shari71
This kind of disappointing. We have gone every year of our marriage and we thought they might have done this because of the stuffed animals lying around and that it was Halloween. We even saw it on Great Hotels when she did one on the Grand Floridian. I had kind of hoped it would happen because you had kids and they wanted to make it special for them. Oh, well, if they don't then I might just have to sneak back to the room and do it myself.

ahhh i may do just that myself.....we are staying at PORS in november...and i was kinda looking forward to the extras that the housekeepers might leave for our DD....mabey we will get lucky...if not i better learn towel arranging in a hurry...

~stefffe~

 

[marypopmom]

Well we just got back from the poly and we tipped every other day. We did this because with 3 ds's our room can be a challenge. I do put towels in a pile etc. The ds's say mom, someone else is cleaning the room, remember? Well we never got a towel animal nor did I expect one. THey did put the stuffed animals on the bed once as we normally left them on the chair. I commented.oh look what she did with your snake (had it strangle another animal). One ds commented, oh mom, I did that! Gee. I have come to the point that I dont expect anything and if we get something then I am pleasantly surprised. We did have a great mousekeeper at the beach club one year. She told us she was in housekeeping for 20 years. She was great with the towel art and we gave her a big tip.

 

[The Mom]

I've found that it really depends upon the "mousekeeper."

My son has a HUGE plush Komodo dragon that we bought at AK a few years ago. One mousekeeper at the BW had a great time hiding it in various places, including the tub, under the bed, etc. My son would then hide it as we were leaving for the day. This went on for 3-4 days, and was a real highlight of the trip. (Plus the fact that we could watch Illuminations from our balcony)

 

[kewlgrl127]

I was just staying at the Yacht Club last week and every day the housekeeper would make 4 or 5 towel animals. My brother and I are older so we don't have any stuffed animals for them to arrange. This is the 8th time I have been to Disney World and it was the first time the housekeeper has ever arranged the towels like that so it definitly depends on who you get.

 

[smilez4011]

I just came back form my trip and we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our "mousekeeper" became pretty inventive with the arrangement of several Disney Beanie Babies that we had in our room. Keep in mind that we weren't traveling with any children (it was four adults) and we still enojyed coming back to the room at night to find what new arrangement they were in.
It's jsut one of those little extra added things at Disney that's makes coming back again and again so special.

 

[granmapatsy]

warning.... negative post

extra's, what extra's? we didnt even get the basics! the only bad part of our trip was housekeeping. we were there for 6 days and the service was horrible, even with tipping. the room had one bar of soap for two sinks and one tub. we had to ask three times for the sharps container for my husbands insulin syringes. you have to ask for the coffee maker and then they didnt touch it for the whole week, no refills or cleaning. they never vacummed, left cleaning rags behind twice and left bagged up garbage once. by our last night, i was fed up. i complained and they took $50 off the bill. the next day i asked for late check out and they refused so i demanded another $50 off which they did. this was at the contemporary/deluxe/$2oo per night!!!! i was appalled.
only plus at this hotel was the room was on the first floor right on the lake.
patsy in las vegas- you will get better housekeeping in a $39 room in vegas

 

[shari71]

Sorry to hear that. We have stayed at POR for the last six years without any problems with housekeeping. Hope this keeps up since we are going to GF this year and have no clue what to expect.