Resort alarm clocks being replaced by USB/Power hubs?

Flalex72

Well-Known Member
Lol. Confusion? You're lucky people didn't think you were trying to say that Disney's getting rid of value resorts. About Disney ever going to try to get rid of the phones though. Of the resorts you stayed in that did not have a phone, how did you get a hold of the front desk?

I'll just take this opportunity to say: If you ever have a reason to call the front desk or any other hotel service, do it from the phone in your room. It's easier on the cast, who can see who you are and what room you're calling from, and you would be amazed how many people end up connected to the wrong front desk (or bell stand, or housekeeping...) when they call from their cell.
 

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
Of the resorts you stayed in that did not have a phone, how did you get a hold of the front desk?

The few times I've been in a hotel without a room phone it has been a Travelodge type place and quite small (under 50 rooms) so just walked down to the front desk.
Also at Travelodge and similar they don't offer room service and you can't make external phone calls as they don't keep a credit card on file for incidentals so it is simpler not to have a phone.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Add me to the list of "old fogies" who prefer an alarm clock rather than using a phone alarm or the wake-up call. I occasionally use my phone alarm, but it's not as easy to hit the snooze button on my phone as it is to hit one on the alarm clock. :) Plus, if I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't want to have to "wake" my phone to see what time it is. Nor do I want to have to walk across the room to my phone to see what time it is during the day. I just want to look at the clock.

I've used the wake-up calls a few times...mostly for the kids...but when we were at AoA in June, I never received my scheduled wake-up call on 2 different days (thankfully we had our alarm clock set as well). It's nice to see the USB hubs in the resort rooms but we've had 2 portable ones that we've traveled with for a few years now so the in-room ones aren't necessities for us. The alarm clock is, though. I guess I'll add 1 or 2 of those to our travel bag now. <sigh>
There are plenty of free clock apps that'll just sit there and display the time.
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
Original Poster
I wish they'd replace the crazy thermostats and allow for them to go below 68 and not cut off at night when there is no movement. In today's day and age...there's no reason they couldn't know when the rooms are occupied for a vacation time period and allow it to be more flexible and then reset after a checkout has occurred or the room is empty for awhile, etc.
 

allgiggles

Well-Known Member
I wish they'd replace the crazy thermostats and allow for them to go below 68 and not cut off at night when there is no movement. In today's day and age...there's no reason they couldn't know when the rooms are occupied for a vacation time period and allow it to be more flexible and then reset after a checkout has occurred or the room is empty for awhile, etc.

I agree...though when we stayed in a Lion King suite at AoA in 2013, our thermostat didn't seem to have that auto shut-off feature enabled and my husband felt we needed to keep the suite at a frigid 66 degrees 24/7. The kids and I were so cold that I had to call Mousekeeping for extra blankets for each of us -- which we would wrap ourselves in even when we weren't sleeping. Fortunately, our suite this past summer did seem to jump up to 70 when we weren't in the room and didn't seem to go lower than 68. Much more tolerable in my book.
 

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
I wish they'd replace the crazy thermostats and allow for them to go below 68 and not cut off at night when there is no movement. In today's day and age...there's no reason they couldn't know when the rooms are occupied for a vacation time period and allow it to be more flexible and then reset after a checkout has occurred or the room is empty for awhile, etc.

Linking the aircon to the reservation system is slightly over complicated. The motion sensor is the simplest way to ensure it goes off when the room isn't occupied. More complicated means it's more likely to go wrong!
 

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
Original Poster
Linking the aircon to the reservation system is slightly over complicated. The motion sensor is the simplest way to ensure it goes off when the room isn't occupied. More complicated means it's more likely to go wrong!

The 2 problems are
- thermostats not going below 68
- shutting off in the middle of the night
 

EpcoTim

Well-Known Member
Linking the aircon to the reservation system is slightly over complicated. The motion sensor is the simplest way to ensure it goes off when the room isn't occupied. More complicated means it's more likely to go wrong!

It would actually be dead nuts simple, just require the proper backbone.
 

ewensell3

Well-Known Member
Someone want to confirm this aircon hack?

"If you don't move much at night when you stay at a Disney property the AC will turn off and you will wake up in a pool of sweat. Override or bypass for 24 hours by pressing the power and blue arrow button together at the same time. Thermostat should read Bp if it worked."
 

ewensell3

Well-Known Member
Umm, you do realize that this article is talking about IOS 6 from 2 years ago. Right?


The point of my post was to inform people of a threat they might not know existed and maybe be a little proactive concerning personal security. "The bad guys" don't stop just because one hole gets fixed. They continue to poke and prod to find new weaknesses. The URL I posted was just the first one in the search results.

By all means feel free to connect your devices to whatever open USB port you come across.
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Someone want to confirm this aircon hack?

"If you don't move much at night when you stay at a Disney property the AC will turn off and you will wake up in a pool of sweat. Override or bypass for 24 hours by pressing the power and blue arrow button together at the same time. Thermostat should read Bp if it worked."
Googling the thermostat model and "override" will usually link to you YouTube video or three that works about 90% of the time.

EDIT: I freaking hate the Disney thermostats. I complain about them on every resort survey I get.
 
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LuvtheGoof

DVC Guru
Premium Member
The point of my post was to inform people of a threat they might not know existed and maybe be a little proactive concerning personal security. "The bad guys" don't stop just because one hole gets fixed. They continue to poke and prod to find new weaknesses. The URL I posted was just the first one in the search results.

By all means feel free to connect your devices to whatever open USB port you come across.
I was by no means advocating plugging into any old USB port. But we are talking about items in a resort at Disney. Do you honestly believe that Disney is going to load malware onto a phone? Otherwise why post this?
 

tayl

New Member
I was by no means advocating plugging into any old USB port. But we are talking about items in a resort at Disney. Do you honestly believe that Disney is going to load malware onto a phone? Otherwise why post this?

Siphoning data is certainly not unheard of. It's the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread. Don't make the mistake of thinking Disney is not a huge collector of big data. As soon as you step on the grounds you're being tracked in a few different ways. Your phone broadcasts unique information while hopping from access point to access point around the parks (even if you're not connecting to them), which maps your trip throughout the day. Where you stop, etc. Those unique IDs are matched to your party activity through magicband/card activity. Once you're back in the hotel room, the phones are associated with whomever is registered as in the room and everything is matched up if it hasn't been already.

They're not necessarily loading malware onto the phone, just pulling data from it that helps connect your guest profile. Makes it easier to market things to you.

I'm not confirming that they do any of these things, but if airports, universities, stores, etc. do it, there's no reason to think Disney isn't.
 

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
^^^^^^

weirdalfoil_2322.jpg
 

tayl

New Member
Does the tinfoil hat apply if it's factual? Everything I talked about is common practice in big data collection. It wasn't opinion. It's up to you whether you want to accept it or not I guess
 

dstrawn9889

Well-Known Member
the hat is because EVERY company does this. you dont think Verizon wireless does not know your travel patterns? or Delta airlines... or Starbucks for cryin out loud?
 

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