Worst Disney World hotel experience thread

[Tom 55]

I have been going to WDW since my honeymoon in 1979. I have stayed off site, at the All Stars, POP PORS and FQ. I have spent about 20 visits of a week or more in the last 39 years. I have never stayed at any of the Deluxe resorts. This year 9/24 to 10/3 we decieded on a split stay. 2 days at Contemporary and 6 days at POP. It was a hard decision to spend the extra money on a deluxe resort for a room you only spend a few hours sleeping at. We come down in Sept all the time. Parks and resort have less crowd levels. All the other times we have a room ready between 12 and 1pm. So we get to Contemporary just after 12. Room not ready. So off to lunch at GF. Back at 1.30 still not ready. Decide to wait in lobby. Cant be much longer, right. Wait and wait still not ready. At 3pm we go up to the front desk again to find out why with 3 pm check in time our room was not ready at 3pm. This is a deluxe resort. I am paying a crazy amount of money to be here. So front desk is on phone with housekeeping. And we wait and wait till about 3.10 when he finally says your room is ready. Give us a map and room number. We had checked in 4 bags before we went to lunch. Told just go to room and call they will bring them to you. We had our costumes for MNSSHP in our luggage and wanted to change and get to MK by 4pm. To speed thing up I gave ticket to front desk and said you call. Was told I better hurry to room our luggage will get there before us. Get to room it is great. What you would expect from a deluxe resort. Start waiting for luggage and waiting and waiting. Finally there is a knock on the door. Not luggage. Cleaning supervisor wanting to know if our room is clean enough. Room is fine were is our luggage? Did not say it but got " not my job". What a deluxe resort and a guest asked for something and gets nothing. So I go off to find a vending machine for a Coke. Right around the corner are 4 of the cleaning carts with the all white collage looking men and women standing around talking. All greet me with a hello. Figure it is end of shift and I was the last room cleaned. Find vending machine. Takes dollar bills or credit cards. Start feeding in dollar bills . Get 2 in before machine stops working. Not rejecting bills just nothing. Start pressing buttons. Nothing works. Finally press coin return. Machine starts spitting out coins. One after the other , on and on. Looked like I hit the jackpot on a Vegas slot machine. It is spitting out nickels. So many come out they fill return and spill onto floor. $2 worth of nickels. Figure machine should be working now. Look to put the nickels back into machine. No place to put in coins. Leave without Coke. Back to room still no luggage. Went out agian in search of soda. Went up a floor and found different machine. Used CC and got soda. Back to room wife says got call about luggage. Our 2 bags from airport were here and would bring all down at once. They had 7 bags we only had 6. Had a piece that did not match the other so call us to ask about it. There was another guest that had the same last name as us. Finally after 40 minutes our luggage arrived. Still tipped the guy. Not very impressive for a deluxe resort first impression.

 

[BASS]

Worst experience was at one of the All Stars . . . they put us in a handicap room without telling us, which isn't such a problem, except for the bathroom. There was no tub. Just a large space with a shower. That made for quite a mess when trying to bathe our daughter at the time, who was a toddler.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

Our worst was the Animal Kingdom Lodge on our arrival day we checked in were told our room wasn't ready, which was no big deal we just checked our carry on's with bell services and went to Epcot. We got a text about 4:30 saying our room was ready and giving us our room number so we went about our evening, our dinner ADR ran late so it was about 10:00 when we got back to the room, our luggage had arrived and we had an unexpected savanna view, then we saw there was a phone message upon listening to the phone message we hear that the power at the resort is about to go out , so here we are dirty from flying in in the morning and then running around Epcot most of the day, not to mention we have almost been awake 24 hours at this point, so we have to take cold showers in the dark with only our cell phones for light, and try to sleep in a hot room as well as no charge for our cell phones for the next day., luckily the power came back on around 5am so we had light to get ready with the next day. Interestingly if you looked outside the concierge level rooms had light (thus Power) all night long. We complained but all we got was a half hearted sorry, it was Reedy Creek FD fault., however I sent a email to guest services and they did refund us the first night of our stay.

 

[larryz]

Caribbean Beach. If moist had a distinctive smell, which it sometimes does, that would describe the room. I called to change rooms. The Front Desk said there were no available rooms. So, we said we'd stay. What could we do? Then, my partner - who went to get a snack - comes back and his room key doesn't work. I call the Front Desk. They say that we had checked out of our room. And to make things even wackier, a family of three proceeds to enter with their luggage.

We hightailed it to the French Quarter (which is the only moderate, much less one of the few resorts in all of WDW where I stay). The only reason we went with CBR was for a change of pace.

You must have said, "I'd like to check out my options for another room..."

 

[Mickey shaped world]

Quite aggressive ducks trying to get into our room at Pop Century and then vomiting on our door step multiple times.

 

[Sonconato]

Quite aggressive ducks trying to get into our room at Pop Century and then vomiting on our door step multiple times.

You win.

 

[Minnie Mum]

Hate to break it to you, but I think that what you saw came from the other end of those ducks.

 

[BWDVCkidsince96]

"Worst" experience we have had was at the Beach Club. I must say the experience was not at all bad, but is was not up to our expectations. The shared busing to MK/AK was a challenge, and the pick up schedule never varied, with Beach Club being the last pick up/drop off. We are "Value Resort" peeps and have given the Mods and Deluxes a chance, but cannot get past the $$$. We see a resort as a place to sleep, bathe, and use the restroom. It is funny the amount of times we've stayed at the All-Stars we never had the shared busing experience, but had it 100% of the time for MK/AK at the Beach Club!!

But at Beach Club aren't the other stops the Yacht Club/Boardwalk/maybe Swan Dolphin? So you can get off at any of them and walk 5 minutes and be back at your hotel. We stay at Boardwalk and I've always wondered what the pick up/drop off order is since it seems like boardwalk buses always go straight to the parks (although the wait time at the hotel is shamefully long as of my last trip - 40+ minutes every time). If a bus stops at another one of those hotels before boardwalk on our way back, we always just get off at the first stop and walk since its such a nice area. Also at MK and AK there are separate buses for Yacht/Beach and Boardwalk/Swan Dolphin so you have two options of buses to take to get back to your hotel (doesn't really help the wait times, but it helps a little!). The main benefit of Beach club is walking to epcot and MGM so at least the bus issue is only an issue for 50% of the parks compared to the required bus transportation from the all stars. I hate the buses. Could never survive being at a hotel where you need to take a bus everywhere.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Yes, when taking the bus to AK/MK the other stops are the Boardwalk, Swan and Dolphin, and Yacht Club. Not sure if they have separated the buses and now pair only Boardwalk/Swan and Dolphin with the other pairing being Beach/Yacht, but that was not the set up in 2015. We'll be down Sunday and are staying at the Beach Club again, but don't plan on taking the buses at all.

It is a nice walk in the Epcot Resort area, but i 2015 we were accompanied by my then 4 month old nephews and walking was a bit of a challenge. This trip we'll walk to Epcot and DHS, drive to Ak and MK. Another difference from 2015 is the AP free parking perk!! We hated the buses as well and look forward to NOT riding them!

 

[Tick Tock]

Quite aggressive ducks trying to get into our room at Pop Century and then vomiting on our door step multiple times.

They're just going door-to-door, trying to sell you supplemental insurance to help pay benefits your major medical insurance doesn't cover.
Don't take the vomiting personally. Just try to be a tad more respectful if you turn down their offers.

 

[Texas84]

Only experience anywhere close to bad was when they gave me an accessible room in Sports for some reason. The walk-in shower would have been great except for the bolted in the floor bench right where I would normally stand.

Not me, but my father requested an accessible room at OKW once and they gave it away to someone else. No attempt was made for other accommodations. They basically told him too bad.

 

[YankeeMouse]

Not a huge deal in the grand scheme, but enough of an issue to make us switch resorts permanently and we go 5 times a year from Chicago and are annual passholders. POFQ. Front desk. Paid for a River View room and were told it was not available, gave us a garden view accessible room (different price classification). I asked nicely to speak with the manager and was very ingratiating and she told me almost verbatim, "When you book a room at Disney you are only promised a room." I said, does this mean if I booked at Grand Floridian, I am only guaranteed a reservation at All-Star Sports?" She answered tersely, "Yes". We didn't accept the room, after some discussion, a river view room suddenly became available. The front desk cast member apologized for her manager. After many years of getting kind of a lukewarm reception at POFQ, after this visit we swtiched to CBR, where the service and Disney magic was wonderful and authentic. Seemed the people at the check-in desk are unhappy. It may have changed, it's been several years, and CBR has been wonderful so that's that.

 

[Shouldigo12]

Not a huge deal in the grand scheme, but enough of an issue to make us switch resorts permanently and we go 5 times a year from Chicago and are annual passholders. POFQ. Front desk. Paid for a River View room and were told it was not available, gave us a garden view accessible room (different price classification). I asked nicely to speak with the manager and was very ingratiating and she told me almost verbatim, "When you book a room at Disney you are only promised a room." I said, does this mean if I booked at Grand Floridian, I am only guaranteed a reservation at All-Star Sports?" She answered tersely, "Yes". We didn't accept the room, after some discussion, a river view room suddenly became available. The front desk cast member apologized for her manager. After many years of getting kind of a lukewarm reception at POFQ, after this visit we swtiched to CBR, where the service and Disney magic was wonderful and authentic. Seemed the people at the check-in desk are unhappy. It may have changed, it's been several years, and CBR has been wonderful so that's that.

Oh my. Someone didn't have her daily dose of pixie dust that morning.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Not a huge deal in the grand scheme, but enough of an issue to make us switch resorts permanently and we go 5 times a year from Chicago and are annual passholders. POFQ. Front desk. Paid for a River View room and were told it was not available, gave us a garden view accessible room (different price classification). I asked nicely to speak with the manager and was very ingratiating and she told me almost verbatim, "When you book a room at Disney you are only promised a room." I said, does this mean if I booked at Grand Floridian, I am only guaranteed a reservation at All-Star Sports?" She answered tersely, "Yes". We didn't accept the room, after some discussion, a river view room suddenly became available. The front desk cast member apologized for her manager. After many years of getting kind of a lukewarm reception at POFQ, after this visit we swtiched to CBR, where the service and Disney magic was wonderful and authentic. Seemed the people at the check-in desk are unhappy. It may have changed, it's been several years, and CBR has been wonderful so that's that.

Maybe its just the resort, I had issues with a male manager, when I had waited all day to get confirmation on a room and it was now 5PM and I still did not have one.

 

[Muffinpants]

This last June we stayed at POR . It was my mother ,husband,my son and me with one reservation and my father and his wife with another. We landed checked in about 12pm room not ready no big deal since check in isn't till 3pm. So we checked our bags had lunch and headed to MK. My father got a room ready message around 2. I have yet to get anything. 4 pm rolls around still nothing so I call and get redirected to a different person who says they will text when the room is ready.. ok.. 8pm comes around nothing... We are heading to our mk dessert party so I called again. They said "oh your room is this" I never got a text nor did my app put a room number for us.

So we get back about 12 am tiered and ready for bed. We get our luggage and head to our room. None of our bands work with this room. So I go back down to check in they give me a spiel about oh they must have been deactivated (they all worked just fine for purchases and fast passes all day).. k fine just please fix it. Finally get to our room and the Disney florist delivery was all set up and they don't deliver so late so I was kinda confused about why we didn't have a room when the items I ordered we're delivered .

So we sleep wake up go out by 8am come back about 4 pm and the room was not touched. We called and asked for some towels and asked why housekeeping didn't visit at all. No answer and it took 2 hours to get towels after 3 calls. After day 2 things went back to normal.

Was not a happy camper but didn't let it ruin the trip. I really hope this doesn't happen this coming trip.

 

[disney4life2008]

I was staying at All Star Sports, and I went to the food court to the grill. And the guy behind the fry counter turned around and put his hands in his crotch and scratched. Then continue to cook food.

 

[ChanceH]

Cousin got bed bugs at POR in August. Disney acted like they weren’t responsible and it wasn’t a big deal.

 

[larryz]

Cousin got bed bugs at POR in August. Disney acted like they weren’t responsible and it wasn’t a big deal.

Sounds like Cousin didn't complain at POR.

 

[ChanceH]

Sounds like Cousin didn't complain at POR.

Whole family was only there 1 night. Uncle complained when we were checking out and were pretty much given the runaround. Was given number and email to general manager. Called and emailed with no response.

 

[larryz]

Whole family was only there 1 night. Uncle complained when we were checking out and were pretty much given the runaround. Was given number and email to general manager. Called and emailed with no response.

Ah. Customers have no leverage at check-out. Normally, if BBs are detected and complained about at check-in, Disney's response is phenomenal (as reported by others who had the issue).