Would you send a letter?

[kakn7294]

It certainly won't hurt to write a letter, especially if it makes you feel better and you do so not expecting anything to come of it except that your issue was brought to someone's attention. I've learned over the years to have everything I might need (when flying) for the first day in a carry-on bag. I'm sorry you didn't have a magical first day and cancelled your reservation. I hope the rest of your trip was everything you expected and more.

[Fastpasssteve]

When I arrive before check-in time, I have no expectation of our room being ready. Our plans reflect that. We usually arrive from the airport at around 10:00 am, get on the Disney's Magical Express, take a short ride to our resort, check in with the desk, and then drop our carry-ons with Bell Services, and proceed to EPCOT, where our first meal is always scheduled for 12 noon.

When we arrive back from our slightly drunken Biergarten adventure, all our luggage, including our carry-ons are waiting for us in our room which is now ready for us.

There is no rule stating that you have to go to your room before you go anywhere else.

Next time, forge ahead. What did you gain by waiting? Frustration. Go. Start your vacation.

[Disney-4-Me]

I have e-mailed guest services before and always gotten a response, usually by phone. Luckily, I always had positive comments about our stay or specific comments about outstanding castmembers.

We almost always arrive before check in time and leave our bags with bell services without any problem. Then we head to the parks for our day of fun.

I hope this difficult start didn't ruin your vacation for you. It helps to keep a positive attitude and remember that a day at Disney World is still better than a day at work!

I'd write a letter or e-mail with the approach of giving them information about your experience and ways to make guest check-in experiences better. When I choose to complain about something, I always try to give a solution too.

I hope the rest of your vacation was wonderful!

[ChipDale2708]

We arrived at the BC on the 5th and had a notification issue as well. When we checked in at 11am the room assigned to us was ready, however it was right in the water view painting zone. The cast member checking us in was great and had us check out the room/view before we officially had the room. It would have been awful! After declining that room, she found one overlooking SAB closer to the Yacht Club. However it didn't have the full balcony we requested. They could move us the following day to a room w/ a full balcony, but for four nights I didn't want to move around. We took this room, but it wasn't ready. She called mousekeeping and had them go to that room next so it would be ready quickly and they would text me when it was. I spent the next four hours staring at my phone waiting for the text - I'm new to the text world and have only had my I-phone a couple of weeks so I didn't want to miss it.

Never receiving anything, at 230p I checked w/ the desk and they said it still wasn't ready. At 4pm I checked again and it was all set. Still never received a text, but when we got to the room, there was a welcome message on our phone that was sent at 245pm. None of this really affected our plans since we were just going to DTD for the evening, but I was annoyed about the communication system.

I haven't decided if it's worth sending an e-mail pointing out our frustration w/ the non-text and the painting project. Everything turned out great and we had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!

[BraddyB]

Yes, we could have gone on to the Rose and Crown and gotten our luggage later, but it was also 89 degrees and with spending four hours in Epcot, we were quite sweaty and needed to shower.

[buzznwoodysmom]

My thoughts exactly. People get to the park at opening and stay all day and still have dinner in WS without the need to go back to the room and shower. I'm sure a shower would have been nice, but I still don't see how Disney messed up their Rose and Crown dinner. They were in the park already!!!!!

[wmdaddy]

I'd write a letter just to vent, but don't expect anything. Disney, as much we all love it, could care less about any of us.

[lylone]

No this wasn't the fault of Disney that we needed a shower, but I don't know why they couldn't have been more realistic with their communication. CM told us the room would be ready easily by 3p. It wasn't until 4p and we waited in the lobby for it while they had someone go check on the room. Then we had to wait on them to deliver the bags to the room, we could not take them with us when we were in the lobby headed to the room. We spent 3-4 in the lobby and was told our bags would be up quickly within 15 minutes when I called from the room. At 5p we were still in the room waiting for the bags and that is when I cancelled the ADR. We got the bags at 5:15p and this is when our ADR was for. I understand things happen, but they could have communicated more realistically to us. Everything seemed to take WAY longer than promised.
If we would have known all this.. then we would have stayed in the park instead of wasting over 2 hours getting in the room and getting our bags.
Last time we didn't have to be in the room to get the bags. Our room was assigned and bags in our room while we were still in the parks.. I don't know why it is all different now.

[BrerGnat]

I agree that the communication seemed to be very poor indeed. That's very frustrating!

This is just me, but I wouldn't have waited around in the lobby that long. If the meal had been really important to me, I would have just told them "okay, we're leaving for dinner, and I expect our bags in the room upon our return."

I'm not really sure what the whole bag situation was all about. Did you use the Magical Express? If so, then I think there is a policy that the bags must be delivered in room, and they can't give them to you in the lobby. If you had arrived with your bags, and given them to bell services, they would have issued you a ticket, with which you could claim your bags at ANY time at the Bell Services desk.

[lylone]

We couldn't leave to go to dinner because a CM took my card and went off with it to find out if the room was ready. I told them we had ADRs at 5:15p and we didn't use Magical Express. We checked our bags with bell services when we arrived at 11a and our room wasn't ready. When the lady came back, she gave me my card and then said our room was ready. Then I asked her which room number and then asked about bags. Was told to go to room and call bell services and bags would come up quickly within 15 minutes. Yeah.. that didn't go well either...
Let's just say....I don't think we will do deluxe at BC again because their service was BAD compared to POFQ....

[DizneyRox]

I believe if the bags are sent using ME, they can be delivered to the room without you being there. If you check them into Bell Services, you need to be in the room for delivery. They want their tip.

That's really the only difference that I see. This has also been my experience. Used ME once and the bags were in our room at the end of the day. We usually do a town car, and when we go to a park after checking our bags, they make sure we are in the room. They actually have asked, "You're in the room right now?" I think the ME service is hitting the bell hops hard, so when they get somoene who should tip, I think they do their best to make sure they get it. Empty promises, etc aside, most poeple will still tip I'm sure.

[jonahbear2006]

We always hope and pray to get our room early in the day. Disney can tell if you flew or not and If I flew in, I dont care, however, if I have driven down to florida, I really need my room as soon as possible. I would definitely write a letter bc this would have ruined my entire day. If I had to wait around til 4 to get a room I wouldve had to nap in the lobby. I drive 18 hrs straight through on no sleep. If I dont get a nap before I go to the parks then by that evening, I have been up for 40 hrs straight. I stress this to them on the phone before arrival and only once have we had an issue of not getting our accomodations at 11 or noon. It was at Fort Wilderness and I did, In fact, sleep in the lobby. The upsetting fact was that we had to press and press to get them to give us our site, even at 3, and once we got management he said this site has been ready for hours! It was extremely upsetting! Yes, you couldve gone to dinner, and yes you could have gotten your tickets and said forget the luggage let's just have fun, but the truth of the matter is that you requested your room and were told one thing or another and as far as you are concerned, Disney dropped the ball. In my experience, if you bring it to their attention, they will right the situation. They are an amazing company and we have gotten great responses from emotional complaints. I got a phone call from them on a complaint where she almost had me in tears, explaining our mishap. By then end of the call she offered us free 3 day park hoppers for the entire family and one free night stay. We were MORE than compensated for our troubles!!!

[lylone]

Well, we actually flew to Orlando, but still had been up since 4:15a and we had to go another night to Illuminations because we were dead tired after taking a later dinner.
I just wish I was younger and had more energy, but that day felt like we had driven there....
I will go ahead and write a letter this weekend and maybe suggest that they keep people informed of what is going on. We were also in a section that had painting going on and it kind of put a damper on it. Our quick sneaky way to get out of the hotel and get to Epcot was blocked off most of our stay. If I would have known what was really going on, I would have asked for a room change.

[BraddyB]

I'm sorry but I dont see who Disney wronged you. You went to the parks came back and your room wasn't ready. You didnt have to stay there. You could have went to dinner, you could have saw Illuminations, you decided not to.

Did you talk to the Rose & Crown in person? (Not Disney Dining on the phone) If you explained the situation to them, I am sure they would have made something happen.

If you didnt hear about another family getting extra attention for their trouble, would you really have wrote about this?

When we were on our honeymoon, we got a couple free things as a Congrats. When we talked to another couple on their honeymoon, we found out they were upgraded from a value to a deluxe and got lots of extras. We didnt complain, it's life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but to get jealous and let it bother you is pretty pointless.

[javamama]

We had a very similar issue on the 5th at the YC, no call on my cell or dh's....not a good way to start off our trip IMO. The Regatta Club stated they would call us when we checked in with them, and never heard a word. When we returned from MK around 6pm, I asked why were not called like they stated, and they were confused why we weren't.
I can one up the notification issue though.....
the Bus to MK ran out of gas on 5/10 from the YC!!! I still cannot believe this happened and at DISNEY. We were 1 hour and 20 minutes late for our ADR at the GF
Plus with what the driver said was even worse.
I'm very disappointed, and amazed this happened.

[BrerGnat]

I can one up the notification issue though.....
the Bus to MK ran out of gas on 5/10 from the YC!!! I still cannot believe this happened and at DISNEY. We were 1 hour and 20 minutes late for our ADR at the GF
Plus with what the driver said was even worse.
I'm very disappointed, and amazed this happened.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

How in the world does that happen? Isn't there a fuel gauge on the bus? Was that driver completely not paying attention to the dashboard? Man, I wouldn't want to be riding on a bus with such an oblivious driver...

That is awful.

[brivers222]

When you get there at 11 did you check in? If you did you would have atleast had your park tickets. Worst case I would have dealt with the room and luggage when I got back from dinner. I wouldnt have cancelled my dinner because of it.

n/m didn't notice page to on my phone lol

[Aurora]

I'm also not trying to hijack the thread, but for people who are saying they couldn't get the phone number to call to see whether their room was ready, I'm a little confused about this.

Can't you just call the hotel directly? All the resorts have their number listed without having to go through reservations. I've called the resorts directly many times. Am I missing something?

[lylone]

Javamama,...
Yep, you definitely have one up on me on that. I would have called a taxi and got a receipt and made them pay it. I guess we both just expect more for the $$ we paid staying at a Deluxe Resort. I am going to write a letter this weekend and give them some ideas about improving their service when their computers go down. Give mousekeeping supervisors cell phones or something!

[BrerGnat]

Javamama,...
Yep, you definitely have one up on me on that. I would have called a taxi and got a receipt and made them pay it. I guess we both just expect more for the $$ we paid staying at a Deluxe Resort. I am going to write a letter this weekend and give them some ideas about improving their service when their computers go down. Give mousekeeping supervisors cell phones or something!

Good for you!

What I've always wondered is, why all the secrecy about the room numbers? Why can't they just give that out when you check in? We don't have this issue when we visit non-Disney hotels. Why would it be so bad if the guests could go up to the room to see if it's done yet or not? If you go up and the housekeeper is still there, or the room isn't ready, at least you know the status. I hate having to depend on the "notification" system. Clearly, it's flawed.