Major Disney Security Issues (long post)

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I have not really posted anything about our 2 weeks at WDW during the last 2 weeks of Nov, because we had some serious problems. I have been waiting for proper responses from DVC and WDW on correcting these issues before really talking about them, but they have still not contacted me since Dec 10th. So here we go.

The major problem was the we checked into OKW at about 9:30 AM and the room was not ready, so they give you a phone number to call later to see if your room was ready. Well I called all day and finally at 5:30 it was ready. So we were oveer by DTD and jumped in the car and go to our room. We walked in our room and it smelled like something was dead in there. I open the doors to let it air out and bring all of the bags up. Now my DD and I quickly wash up and get ready to head to a ADR at Chef Mickey's. we unpack a few things and the smell just is not clearing out. So now I call the front desk to complain and the phone does not work. Well we have about 50 minutes till dinner time so I decide that we go to the front desk to complain about the room. We get there and I complain that the room smells and that something needs to be done. I found the smell to be coming from under the refridgerator and it smelled like rotten milk. She said that she could change rooms for us. I told here that we were on our way to dinner and we had about 15 minutes to get to Chef Mickey's. We would stop back in to the front desk when we were finished with dinner. She said that would be great and she would see us then. My DD and I walk back to the room to get the car and head for dinner and a housekeeping person was speeding away from our building. I take a quick run up and found that she sprayed a horrible deaoderant spray all over tha carpets to cover the oder and now the room stunk even worse. We go to dinner and had a terrific meal and lots of fun with the characters. After dinner we drive back to OKW and I pull up to the front of thge main building. Now the Bellman comes over to me and says are you Mr. Z**** and I say yea and he tells me he has my bags. I almost hit the ground. I asked him how he got my bags and he said they were asked to get all of my belongings out of the room and bring them back to storage. Now I had stuff I drawers, money on the table along with credit card receipts, camera and video camera, my GPS and the list goes on. They packed up my stuff and brought it back. So I ask to see the manager. While waiting I am looking to osee if all of my stuff is there. We now cannot find any of the refridgerated items of the 2 cases of bottled water. The guy tells me not to worry I can fill out a slip and Disney will reimburse me. Yeah, like that is what I want, NO I just want my stuff. So the manager come into the storage area and we start talking, actually I start ranting. A few minutes later the bellman that got my stuff from the room and brought it to storage walks in and he shows me where my missing items are. So now I am a little releived until he spills the beans. Now this is where it gets good.

Apparently the front desk at OKW checked someone else into my room and the guest called bell services to have my belongings removed from there room. NOw tell me, how secure is that. I could be sleeping and someone could come in late and be checked into my room be accident? I imagine the odds are 1 in 1,000,000 but apparently it is possible. I demanded to be changed to another resort, but I was told there was no rooms. This was the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving and WDW was busy. So I called DVC and got the call center and the woman I spoke to was very helpfull. She spent about an hour trying to find a room and was able to get on at the Beach Club. This woman talked to the manager of OKW to have her hold the BCV reservation for the next day, brecause she was the only one that could. I was now told all was set and to call DVC member services by 9:30 AM to get finalize the reservation that was on hold.

After a nearly sleepless night of thought, I called DVC and the reservation on hold was not there. I was told the manager of OKW never called to put the room on hold for me. I call the front desk and ask for the manager. I am told she is busy and she will call me back. Now it is 9:25 and I am concerned about my 9:30 room off hold issue and so I call the front desk again. Now I speak to the smae person and she says the manager is still busy, but they have a better room in OKW and they are going to send a bellman to move me again. Well, I just blow up. I WANT OUT NOW. I finally get to speak with the manager and she tells me that she called BCV after we disconnect last night and BCV did not have the room they said. Now is this BS or not???? So I said I want out of here so find me a room in another resort. She said that she had been checking all morning and that there was nothing available resort wide. I hang up the phone and of course call the reservation center. I find a room at CBR. They ask me for a CC to hold the room and I refused and explained the issues. They give me a reservation number and tell me I have 2 hours to process the reservation. My DD and I jump in my rental car (which is supposed to be returned in about 15 minutes from now to the CCC) and drive to the main building. I ask to see the manager and she comes out. SHe seems a little shocked that I am standing there. I tell here that I have a room and she says that is impossible. I hand her the reservation number and she types it in and says the number is no good. I almost lost it. I grabbed my cell phone and proceeded to call the reservations line and she says hold on and find the number all of the sudden. I tell her I want to be moved and she finally aggrees.


With this story it may not be a problem for some, but I was travelling for the first week alone with my DD. My wife was not able to get out of work that week. I had just left WLV and had 2 wonderful nights. During the time at WL I had done laundry and left my 7 YO DD in the room watching cartoons while I ran up and down to the laundry room and felt secure. I now could not do that at OKW, matter of fact I am concerned when I sleep if 2 separate guest parties can have access to the same room.


If anyone knows who I can contact it would be appreciated. I have had no luck with DVC memeber services. I want to make sure this never happens again. Not just for me, but for nobody. There is some sort of a proceedure that was missed somewhere and it appears that someone wants to bury it.



Just a note, the problems did not stop where I left off. They continued for 2 more days. I almost callled the airport and got a flight home a week early, but my DD's birthday was a few days away.
 

Ciciwoowoo

Well-Known Member
I do hope you wrote them letters, and included the names of all parties involved. That really stinks! In fact, I would be tempted to sell my DVC interest if something like this happened. I don't think I'd want to stay there anymore.

Well, I think the best you can do right now is just post, post, post! Go to every Disney website you can find and let everyone know. Remember reading that someone in Disney follows the websites? It might not resolve your situation, but it might be helpful in future training of CMs.
 

smk

Well-Known Member
WOW. I had a reservation once at OKW, read some reviews of the place and called and changed right away to the Poly. The reviews I read were very negtive about the resort not being clean, not about the service. Sounds like you really got the once over. This happened once to us at FW, a mix up with a seperate site (for the kids to camp) and our cabin and wether the site was paid for. A note was left at the campsite informing the kids (teens) that they had to vacate the site because it was not paid for. We went right away with our reciepts and it was all worked out over several hours but it did take several hours for some unknown reason. The manager was very helpful and refunded 10% of the cost of both our reservations and gave us comped one day park hoppers to use whenever we came back. We were very statisfied with the response we got, it was right away as well. We did not have to wait for weeks to get the issue resolved! I am very sorry your trip was ruined. I dont know how to resolve it other than calling every day. Maybe someone will listen soon.
 

justducky78

New Member
Wow - what an experience you went through. I would have been LIVID if they had gone into my room without my permission, packed up my personal items and moved them into storage. I agree - it does pose a security issue.

That's really disappointing to hear, but at least you took action and got moved out of there. It doesn't sound like the manager handled it very well at all.

Did you get comped for any of the room charges/hassle that you went through, etc?
 

Dangeresque

Active Member
Apparently the front desk at OKW checked someone else into my room and the guest called bell services to have my belongings removed from there room. NOw tell me, how secure is that. I could be sleeping and someone could come in late and be checked into my room be accident? I imagine the odds are 1 in 1,000,000 but apparently it is possible. .

1 in a million. A whole lot less than that. One 2 occasion (not at WDW) I entered my hotel room only to find other peoples belongings in the room. When I went back to the front desk they admitted their mistake and gave me another room. On both occasions no one was in the room. If someone was it could be a dangerous situation if they saw me walk straight in thinking I was there to do them harm.
 

cmally1

New Member
I was in NYC with my mom last april and I was changing to go out to dinner when the door opened and a man walked in. My mom flipped, the same thing happened, they gave him our room too. Well we ended up getting upgraded to a better room and a comp to come back for 2 nights. It is very scary to think that mistakes this large can be made. I am sorry to hear about such a bad experience. I hope you DD had a nice birthday despite the mixup.
 

SpongeScott

Well-Known Member
I'm not disputing what you're claiming, but there are two sides to every story.

You obviously did not have a good experience and hopefully you can come to some kind of closure with Disney. However, mistakes do happen and they do happen on a monumental proportion sometiimes. I have worked in a hotel before and I know that double-booking of a room does unfortunately happen. It doesn't happen often, but it does. All it takes is to key something into the system wrong, forget to key something, etc. Therefore, if someone else is then booked into your room, what else is security to do besides remove all of your belongings?

Attitude will also get you a long way. "Blowing up" to management will not make your case any stronger, no matter how much you think you are in the right. Don't forget that people are people--doesn't matter if they work for Disney or not. They are still going to make mistakes, they are still going to be human, they are still going to dig their heels in when you jump all over them. Working/dealing with Disney does not guarantee perfection or no slip-ups. Losing your cool rarely helps your case with anyone.

I'm sorry you had a problem with all of this. But remember, Disney has thousands and thousands of hotel reservations they deal with every day, especially at a busy time when you were there. Perhaps they thought things were resolved since you finally ended up with a room; perhaps they chose to deal with you in the least minimal way possible because of you losing your temper; perhaps they are still contemplating a reply to you. As I've heard before, if you paid with a CC, you could have refused to pay the charges since the goods promised to you were not delivered in a proper manner.

Good luck.
 

justducky78

New Member
Everyone knows that a temper isn't the best way to handle a situation, but after the OP was basically put through the ringer, he was forced to deal with a rude manager who was doing the bare minimum for him, then basically lying to his face...even I would have "blown up." Everyone has a boiling point.
 

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
I find this whole thing pretty scarey!
How fortunate for you though that you got your valuables back!

I think the whole "no available rooms" thing may be something they're trained to say when you ask - we got the same line when we were at POR last September and had been given the wrong type of room. We asked for a different room, and first they said there was nothing else available at POR (possible, although not really likely at that time of year), then the manager told us that there were no rooms available on all of Disney property (!!!!). That's when I started laughing. Turned out they had the wrong paperwork in front of them (we noticed it when we went to sign), and all of a sudden, they "found" a room for us like the one we had requested. No apologies given I might add....:(
 

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I have written lettters and do have names of all that were involved( I did not and will not use any names here).

The only reason I posted this is to ask for contact info. The info available on this site amazing. Who else should I turn to but freinds at WDWmagic.

This post is also not to deter anyone from going to WDW. As I said and what others have said "this can happen anywhere not just WDW"
 

wdwishes2005

New Member
1 in a million. A whole lot less than that. One 2 occasion (not at WDW) I entered my hotel room only to find other peoples belongings in the room. When I went back to the front desk they admitted their mistake and gave me another room. On both occasions no one was in the room. If someone was it could be a dangerous situation if they saw me walk straight in thinking I was there to do them harm.

Exactly. I know if someone I didn't know walked into my room I would be on them in a second with something to beat them away with...
 

po1998

Well-Known Member
I think that the most discouraging part of this incident is that the person wrote Disney on 12/10 and has heard nothing back. I would think that a problem of this magnitude with repeated instances of bad customer service would have been addressed quickly. Instead, 6 weeks have gone by with no reply.
 

Dubman

Well-Known Member
I wonder if this could have been easily resolved and all the subsequent trouble avoided by having housekeeping clean/disinfect under the fridge and if applicable, clean/disinfect the fridge's drip pan.

Even after he mentioned that to guest services, all the maid did was spray air freshener.. I would have wanted out also, even if they did clean the fridge..
 

Computer Magic

Well-Known Member
It sounds like your room was released when you talked to the front desk thus got reassigned to someone else. As for security while you are in your room, that is what the deadbolt and metal latch is for. I would not trust any place this day of age while in my room, even the housekeeper could walk in.

Disney should be responsible and reimburse you for thier mistakes.

The good part is, nothing was stolen and someone honest walked into your room. I wonder if they smelled what you smelled?

I hope you didn't let it ruin your vacation. I have learned ranting and raving does no one good. Hopfully your DD didn't witness you being upset. She just wanted a WDW trip for her birthday.
 

goof29

New Member
Unfortunately when you're dealing with millions of people a month, we are bound to get it wrong once in a while. It really sucks. I am dealing with a guest right now for whom we REALLY botched things up. It makes me personally so angry when a guest doesn't have a good experience let alone a terrible one.

I do want to say that we are NOT trained or told to give a generic answer like telling people there are no rooms. Most likely the person just didn't know how to find the right answer and as far as they could tell there weren't any rooms.

Reading this depressed me. I am going to contact the OP privately to provide a different contact alternative, and hopefully we can make this right for him.

(I am not posting as a Disney Cast Member officially, by the way, so this is not an official Disney response...just doing what I can to help).
 

maelstrom

Well-Known Member
Unacceptable. I really hope that Disney does something to rectify this situation. I don't blame you for blowing up. What you experienced was just ridiculous.

When we stayed at the Dolphin in 1993 (not a Disney-owned hotel, I know), we were given someone else's room (someone else with my father's name even). We had to go back down to the front desk and they seemed very unconcerned and confused about it. My dad said when we checked in that they said someone had already checked us in, but my dad thought maybe it was the convention people (we were there for the HWI convention). But nope, it was the people who the room actually belonged to! We finally got our own room. Housekeeping left the door partially open one evening when they turned down the beds as well. Needless to say, my parents came away with a very bad feeling about the Dolphin.

So, while this kind of thing may happen more often than we think, it still doesn't make it acceptable, and quick and appropriate action must be taken to fix things, if Disney (or in my case, Starwood) doesn't want to lose a customer.
 

H20Babie

Well-Known Member
goof 29 -- it's people like you that make Disney what it is! And makes me come back for more! (Just wish I could afford the GF ... lol)! And if no one else says it, I do -- thank you!
 

MickeyTigg

New Member
I'm not disputing what you're claiming, but there are two sides to every story.

You obviously did not have a good experience and hopefully you can come to some kind of closure with Disney. However, mistakes do happen and they do happen on a monumental proportion sometiimes. I have worked in a hotel before and I know that double-booking of a room does unfortunately happen. It doesn't happen often, but it does. All it takes is to key something into the system wrong, forget to key something, etc. Therefore, if someone else is then booked into your room, what else is security to do besides remove all of your belongings?

Attitude will also get you a long way. "Blowing up" to management will not make your case any stronger, no matter how much you think you are in the right. Don't forget that people are people--doesn't matter if they work for Disney or not. They are still going to make mistakes, they are still going to be human, they are still going to dig their heels in when you jump all over them. Working/dealing with Disney does not guarantee perfection or no slip-ups. Losing your cool rarely helps your case with anyone.

I'm sorry you had a problem with all of this. But remember, Disney has thousands and thousands of hotel reservations they deal with every day, especially at a busy time when you were there. Perhaps they thought things were resolved since you finally ended up with a room; perhaps they chose to deal with you in the least minimal way possible because of you losing your temper; perhaps they are still contemplating a reply to you. As I've heard before, if you paid with a CC, you could have refused to pay the charges since the goods promised to you were not delivered in a proper manner.

Good luck.

Scott...give the guy a break will ya. The guy tried to remain calm and handle the problem without getting upset and was getting no where. Sometimes you have to get upset and rant on people in order to get noticed and let them know you're serious.

A lot of customer service these days is placating the guest/customer so they go away...not take care of the problem.

Disney wouldn't take care of the smell...spraying isn't going to get rid of the problem if something spilled under the refrigerator and never got cleaned up or if something died under there.

It's totally inexcusable to promise them to move them and then tell someone else the room is available and not move their things or at least tell them they would.

I'm sorry the OP had a bad experience...but I have to concur that the housekeeping quality control at OKW has a lot to be desired lately. And the bell services staff has slipped to over the last few years...and it's my home resort.

The OP needs some compassion Scott not a lecture.

I wish the OP luck in getting this resolved.
 

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