Worst WDW Vacation EVER!!!!!

I just returned from a 10 day stay at the WDW Carribean Beach Resort. This was my 20th time staying inside of the park....In general, I always come home impressed and in awe that after 18 years of visiting the parks they still provide a level of enjoyment unmatched by anywhere else in the world....Not this time however...I need to vent on this thread. This last stay may have been the worst 10 days i've ever spent away from home. I'm not sure what to do, or who to complain to.....Heres a list of everything that went wrong.

1) The folks working for the Magical Express service lost my luggage upon my arrival. It took a 11 hours for them to find it.

2) On the way to the hotel, the bus driver turned off the disney video's and music and instead put on his favorite radio station on and blasted the sound system to the point where the speakers began to distort.

3) Not a single cast member (no exageration) working in the food court said "your welcome", "please", "thank you", after any transaction. One of them actually told me "hurry up" because he thought I was taking to long while I was putting the wrinkled reciept and change he gave me into my wallet.

4) Sombody spilt a massive amount of ketchup on the stairs leading to my room...after several calls to the front desk to complain, noboby came out to clean it up...after a few days it began to morph into a graveyard for dead love bugs and took on a horrible stench. Its probaly still there. In general the Resort was very dirty...empty been cans on the beachs, cigarette buts everywhere, over flowing garbage from almost every can in the the food court, ect...

5) I broke my foot at Blizzard Beach (my own fault completely....I thought I just sprained it at first). When I got back to my room I called Center Care and requested a bus come and pick me up so I could get checked by a doctor. The woman on the phone told me the bus would arrive in 20 minutes and to walk to the front desk. I called the front desk to see if anyone could send a wheel chair over for me...the Cast member told me "No i'm sorry" and my jaw almost hit the floor. I limped all the way over to the customs house and waited for an hour and a half. The bus never showed up. When I got back to my room I called Center Care and the woman I spoke with told me I wasen't even on a list to be picked up, she had no idea who I was, and was unaware I called earlier...In a fit of anger I hung up on her, took some motrin and went to sleep (still unaware of the severity of my injury). The next day I deciced man it up and tag along with my friends to Animal Kingdom...Within a few minutes of walking around the park my foot swelled up and I called it quits. I went to the first Aid station and told them the what happened with the bus the previous day. They were appalled...They were nice enough to get a bus for me within 15 minutes.


6) My party and I ate at Alfredos where, to my amazement, our waiter screwed our order up to the point that only one person recieved the correct dish. The next night we ate at Mama Melrose's in MGM. Just as we arrived the urinals in the mens room flooded and filled half the lobby with with septic water. No disinfectant was sprayed...after it was cleaned 20 minutes later...To top it off, our server here also screwed our order up and my salmon was RAW in the middle.

7) Almost every cast member I ran into at the Magic Kingdom had a puss on thier face as if they absolutly hated thier job. I totally understand its hard to work with a smile and maintain your composure in the heat, and around screaming kids, but come on....If your really not that happy with your job...quit.

8) The parks were filled with people on scooters...I have no problem with people riding in them, but I do have a problem with people honking at to get out of the way while i'm limping on one foot. My girlfriend was acutally hit by a man on a scooter.....the second it happened he jumped off and ran to first aid....I know this was an accident....but if he was able to jump out of the vehicle and run to first aid...why was he in a scooter in the first place???....I think people are taking advantage this service. Its a shame too...I feel for the people who actually need them.

9) Finally....My luggage believe it or not, was lost again on the way home....I'm not sure if it was the airline's fault or the people at who checked my bags at the hotel, but it showed up almost an two hours after I landed, with luggage on a flight from Boston....I have no idea.......a horrible ending to a horrible trip.

I'm sorry if i'm ranting and raving...but I feel soooo cheated. I'm not sure what to do. I love Disney, and I've always had an amazing time there...so in a way I wouldn't feel justified to complain and cause a stink because this is the first time I've had a horrible experience.....On the other hand I feel like I was treated in a way that unfit for such an amazing company. What should I do?

Again...sorry to post this long message...I just needed to vent.
 

JWG

Well-Known Member
This would be a major time saver on rides as well as people with bad backs/hearts and the other problems that are supposed to keep them off certain rides wouldn't be able to get on them so they can get injured and force the ride to shut down while they get their body/corpse off the ride.

:eek: :eek:

Holy strong opinion.
Though I agree, for different reasons, in having a system that trys to evaluate validity of scooter need. Mostly, to make sure scooters are available for those who really need them and not being consumed by folks who don't like walking.
 

Justin Jones

New Member
I keep reading a lot of complaints about Caribbean Beach. We used to stay there every time that we went to the world. One year, however, Caribbean was overbooked and they put us at Coronado Springs. Since then, we ALWAYS choose Coronado. It's the same price, newer, cleaner, and all around a much better experience. I highly recommend it to those people who are tired of problems at Caribbean Beach.
 

dox

New Member
Oh man based on all these reports I don't think I'll ever stay at the CBR. Thats the only moderate i've never stayed at and I guess never will.

I have to agree with the scooter issue. Although its true, there is no way Disney can monitor who uses scooters, the truth is that there are way too many people using scooters who don't need them. On my last trip, Labor Day Weekend of 2006, both my best friend and I noticed an overabundance of people of all ages using scooters. And yes although I could not tell what if any problems many of these people could possibly have, the majority of them were not elderly and seemed in perfect health whenever they disembarked their scooters. I really found it quite odd. Now I did notice that many of these people were also obese so that could be a contributing factor as to why they felt they needed the scooter, but not sure I'd find that as legit. But regardless of why they were using the scooters, so many scooters on the walkways and paths made it dangerous for many guests.

Most dangerous were elderly guests who have trouble driving the scooters and really should be pushed around in a wheelchair by other family members. On one occassion, I saw one guest, an elderly woman, practically run over a 5 year old girl who was standing patiently in line to enter the Bird Show over at AK, all because the lady was in rush to enter the theater.

Unfortunately, there really is nothing I can think of that is reasonable for Disney to do to monitor the use of the scooters, but people who are not handicapped and/or disabled, and use scooters need to start exercising some responsibility and restraint in their own use. For one, if you rarely if ever use a scooter don't use one at Disney.
 

banimall

New Member
Reading all of these responses reminded me that we had problems at CBR as well. That was years ago though, I can't believe it's still like that.
 

figmentmom

Well-Known Member
After having some issues myself, the best advice I can give to anyone that has ANY type of problem while on any vacation is DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU GET HOME to do something - contact someone while you are there until you get some satisfaction - they are more able to correct something or compensate you for something while you are there than after you leave.

Well said, and I agree. :wave:
 

Chickapin Chick

New Member
Reading all of these responses reminded me that we had problems at CBR as well. That was years ago though, I can't believe it's still like that.

I agree. The one constant here is none other than CBR.

As for Disney's Magical Express, I have heard too many luggage horror stories, and so upon booking it for my trip in December, I have made be one minor alteration: I'm not going to be putting the Disney tags on my suitcases, and I will be picking them up from baggage claim myself. Has anyone else done this before?

And to the OP: I am truly sorry that you had such a bad time. It made me so sad to read your story - you invested so much money, planning, time, and energy into WDW, only to have it fall apart. Please do write the appropriate authority figure, and keep us posted.
 

CleveRocks

Active Member
As for Disney's Magical Express, I have heard too many luggage horror stories, and so upon booking it for my trip in December, I have made be one minor alteration: I'm not going to be putting the Disney tags on my suitcases, and I will be picking them up from baggage claim myself. Has anyone else done this before?
I've never given up one of the best perks of DME, but many people have, and it's your choice.

I'm curious about all the horror stories you've read, though. Most of the ones I read are from people who had unrealistic expectations and/or didn't read the instructions in the booklet. Like the guy who was ranting about the fact that his luggage wasn't waiting for him in his room when he checked in -- he obviously didn't read in the booklet that luggage will arrive about 3 hours after you arrive at the resort. Nothing anyone can do to calm his anger if he believes he read it would BEAT him to his room. There was also the young mom who ranted about Disney callously preventing her from taking care of her baby by keeping her from her luggage and she didn't have enough diapers or formula for the first few hours -- again, she was angry about a condition she was already informed about, but she chose to ignore that and just be angry instead.
 

nibblesandbits

Well-Known Member
I agree. The one constant here is none other than CBR.

As for Disney's Magical Express, I have heard too many luggage horror stories, and so upon booking it for my trip in December, I have made be one minor alteration: I'm not going to be putting the Disney tags on my suitcases, and I will be picking them up from baggage claim myself. Has anyone else done this before?

And to the OP: I am truly sorry that you had such a bad time. It made me so sad to read your story - you invested so much money, planning, time, and energy into WDW, only to have it fall apart. Please do write the appropriate authority figure, and keep us posted.
I did that on my last trip...picked my luggage up before I went to the DME thing...I didn't have much of a problem...except I didn't originally pay attention to which baggage claim I'd need to go to. Otherwise it went really smothely...I was thinking about doing the same thing this time around, but after reading CleveRock's responses...I'm thinking maybe I will use ME all the way this time.
 

SallyfromDE

New Member
Since being in a non weight bearing cast and unable to walk the last 6 months, I've had to use scooters on occasion shopping. I can not count the times that someone has stopped in front of me and stopped. Or looked right at me and tried to dash across my path. It's been luck that I've never hit anyone. So don't think it's always the scooter driver!!
 

ilovepluto23

New Member
This is possibly the worst Disney Trip story I've ever heard of. I'm so sorry this all happened to you. Hopefully, you won't be too discouraged by it and will be able to enjoy your next trip.:wave:
 

nankeldisney821

New Member
I am sorry too for you horrible vacation!

I had a question for everyone...I too had a few horrible incidents when I went to POR back in Oct.2005 and it was my stepdaughers first visit and my husbands first since he went when EPCOT opened so I wanted a great trip because I rave about how wonderful it is all the time.

I did complain when it happened but nothing was done about it. Is it too late to do something about it now?? :shrug:

First, it was dirty at POR and they told us that the building we were in had been shut down since Sept 11th, which obviously was fine, but they said they hadn't had a lot of time to clean it up and it had just opened up.

My now husband had some beers in our hotel room at night and left the bottles neatly above the sink area. Apparently when the housekeepers were in the room one morning to clean, they broke a bottle and didn't clean it up that good. My daughter had taken a shower and stepped out of the bathroom and stepped on a piece of glass but luckily it didn't go in too far. I called down to the front desk and they said they would send someone to clean it up and never apologized or anything. The woman they sent came with a spray bottle and towel and said "clean bathroom" barely speaking English and when I told her there was a broken bottle and probably needed a vaccuum she said "no, clean bathroom" again. I told her again she would need a vaccuum so she left. We had to leave because we were late for our breakfast. When we got back that night, they had seemed to have cleaned it up but we were still careful and I did find another couple of pieces. :mad:

I did go to the desk on our way to breakfast and explained what happened and they didn't seem to really want to listen and so I left. I didn't want to argue because they didn't seem to care. I told them too that the building and our room was quite dirty and again they didn't seem to care.

One morningwe went to the food court to have breakfast, my daughter who was 14 and my husbands daughter who was 10 wen to get their food. My daughter told me they ordered their food and one of the women asked her what they were waiting for and my daughter told her and she yelled at her for not telling them they wanted kids meals when they did, plus they were clearly kids! It was just uncalled for. Also, there was a dead cockroach on the counter under my tray and then another one walked on by as my husband moved his tray so I told the guy behind the counter and still nothing. I also told the woman at the register and she asked where so I pointed out where I was and she said, we will check on it. I never saw anyone go over there.

On another trip in 2004, my daughter left a bag in Pecos Bills right before we were leaving to get our train so we went back to get it and the table that we left it at said there was a group of teenage girls sitting there and they turned in the bag. I asked the worker that they told me they gave it to and he said he put it on top of the trash barrell and he didn't know where it went from there. So I went to a manager and he told me it was my fault for leaving it.:zipit:

Believe me, I know it was my fault and I was only mad because the worker had left it instead of giving it to the mgr or putting it behind the counter. I know very well that it was our fault that someone took it becasue we left it and I wrote a letter about it letting them know that he was in the wrong for where he put it and was very nice in the letter including the worker and the mgrs names with the date and time and everything and said that I was just upset that no one helped me in any way and they told me they were too busy to help me look for it and they couldn't deal with it. I just think it was a very poor way to treat me. All I ever got back in an email was that they were sorry and would look into it. I wrote again about a month later and never heard anything since.

I know I have a long post here and I am sorry but I guess I just thought I would explain what happened and see if it was worth it or too late to write again about any of it. :shrug:

I still love Disney and just went again in October for my honeymoon and am going again in August for my daughters sweet 16 birthday!! So I have no hard feelings and it just stinks when you get some people once in a while that don't have that "Disney Magic" in them! :wave:
 

CleveRocks

Active Member
but I guess I just thought I would explain what happened and see if it was worth it or too late to write again about any of it. :shrug:
I'm not sure if I understand you correctly ... are you asking if it's worth it to write to Disney in 2007 with complaints from 2004 and 2005????:veryconfu

Um ... no, I don't think it's worth it. What in the world can they do about it now? It's not like they can "fix" it now. It's unlikely there are the same people employed at each venue by now.

It's one thing to discuss it on a message board, but in terms of the real world ... just let it go.
 

SallyfromDE

New Member
I called down to the front desk and they said they would send someone to clean it up and never apologized or anything.

I work for a major retail company and we are constantly told not to apologize when there is an accident. It puts them in the position of liability. You certainly help the customer, do what you can. But NEVER say "I'm sorry".
 

Deadmanwalking

New Member
Since being in a non weight bearing cast and unable to walk the last 6 months, I've had to use scooters on occasion shopping. I can not count the times that someone has stopped in front of me and stopped. Or looked right at me and tried to dash across my path. It's been luck that I've never hit anyone. So don't think it's always the scooter driver!!

Driving a scooter is like driving a car. If your going to fast you can't stop or avoid someone that walks in front of your your driving too fast. You should remember that sidewalks and isles aren't freeways, they were intended for people walking; not running, roller skating, skate boarding, or scooters.
 

Kwit35

New Member
Oh my gosh! What an awful story. I am so sorry your trip was such a mess. It is bad enough to deal with the heat and the crowds, but to deal with rude CM's, a broken foot, and EVERYTHING else. Yuck!
Here is hoping that Disney does something to compensate, even if it is just an apology. And here is hoping your next trip is the best ever! :)

On a side note: My dad shattered his hip a few years ago and has needed the scooter the past few trips to Disney. They are VERY hard to control. He was constantly bumping our ankles (completely accidently). I ran the Disney Marathon with booboos on my ankles from Dad, the day before. Scooters and crowds don't mix.
 

mickster

New Member
Here is hoping that Disney does something to compensate, even if it is just an apology.

A mere apology would hardly be compensation for this this person's ordeal. My guess, though, is that he'll be lucky to even get that. Disney's service recovery is severely lacking these days.
 

mkt

Disney's Favorite Scumbag™
Premium Member
1) The folks working for the Magical Express service lost my luggage upon my arrival. It took a 11 hours for them to find it.

Not surprising

2) On the way to the hotel, the bus driver turned off the disney video's and music and instead put on his favorite radio station on and blasted the sound system to the point where the speakers began to distort.

Wow... surprising, but I don't doubt it.

3) Not a single cast member (no exageration) working in the food court said "your welcome", "please", "thank you", after any transaction. One of them actually told me "hurry up" because he thought I was taking to long while I was putting the wrinkled reciept and change he gave me into my wallet.

I've noticed this as well in recent months/years

4) Sombody spilt a massive amount of ketchup on the stairs leading to my room...after several calls to the front desk to complain, noboby came out to clean it up...after a few days it began to morph into a graveyard for dead love bugs and took on a horrible stench. Its probaly still there. In general the Resort was very dirty...empty been cans on the beachs, cigarette buts everywhere, over flowing garbage from almost every can in the the food court, ect...

Not surprising... I've noticed this as well

6) My party and I ate at Alfredos where, to my amazement, our waiter screwed our order up to the point that only one person recieved the correct dish. The next night we ate at Mama Melrose's in MGM. Just as we arrived the urinals in the mens room flooded and filled half the lobby with with septic water. No disinfectant was sprayed...after it was cleaned 20 minutes later...To top it off, our server here also screwed our order up and my salmon was RAW in the middle.

I despise Alfredos.... Mama Melrose surprises me though. I've had only good experiences there


7) Almost every cast member I ran into at the Magic Kingdom had a puss on thier face as if they absolutly hated thier job. I totally understand its hard to work with a smile and maintain your composure in the heat, and around screaming kids, but come on....If your really not that happy with your job...quit.

labor disputes do that to people


9) Finally....My luggage believe it or not, was lost again on the way home....I'm not sure if it was the airline's fault or the people at who checked my bags at the hotel, but it showed up almost an two hours after I landed, with luggage on a flight from Boston....I have no idea.......a horrible ending to a horrible trip.

Magical Express is terrible :)
 

CleveRocks

Active Member
Magical Express is terrible
Do you base this on personal experience, or on rumors??? Please share.

It's been wonderful for me twice.

It is so great that even though it was supposed to end in the Fall of 2006, that in April 2006 it was extended through at least the end of 2011.
 

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