INTERCOT Insider April 2014

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<<Introduction>>

The air is getting warmer and a new parade is marching down Main Street USA; that must mean that Spring has sprung and another edition of the INTERCOT Insider is in your mailbox.  In this Springtacular edition we take a look at the brand new daytime parade at the Magic Kingdom, find out what it is like to stay among the animals at Disney's Kidani Village resort, and take a look forward to some Summer savings.   Hang on to them hats and glasses, cause this here's the most informative ride on the internet!

<<Disney Deals>>

with Magical Journeys Travel Agency

-- Summertine Savings --

With special benefits and legendary service, Disney Resort hotels are filled with wonder and excitement. And now is a great time for your Clients to take the plunge with huge savings!Save on rooms at select Walt Disney World® Resort hotels for stays most nights June 15 - Aug. 28, 2014. Save up to 30% when you stay up to 5 nights, Save up to 35% when you stay at least 6 nights, or save even more when you stay 6 nights and add minimum 6-day Magic Your Way Tickets to your room!. Book by June 6, 2014. For details on these, and other specials, contact INTERCOT's Official Travel Agency, Magical Journeys at 1-570-785-3283, or visit their web site.

>>Contact Magical Journeys Today!

<<Home Away from Home with Hammer>>

INTERCOTee Hammer stayed at the Kidani Village this past Fall.  Here's the experience she has to share:

We were in a savanna view 2 bedroom handicap accessible villa which was our request to accommodate our Mom. Interesting thing we discovered on this trip. Just so everyone is aware, not all of the bathrooms are wheelchair/handicap accessible if there is more than 1 bathroom in the unit; just that one of the bathrooms is accessible. On all of our previous DVC trips, the handicap accessible bathroom has been the master bathroom. It was the second bathroom attached to the 2nd bedroom in our room at Kidani. Required us to do a little shuffling around for sleeping arrangements, but as there are 3 bathrooms, Mom could still have the bathroom devoted for just her use.

We loved having the large continuous balcony! We had a great deal of animal activity outside our room. We saw giraffes, Anoke cattle, gazelles and various other animals throughout the week. We started having afternoon happy hour out there; just a glass of wine and watching the animals! Room was in very good shape for the most part. Discovered the dishwasher door would not shut properly when we went to run it. Was quickly fixed with a call to maintenance.
Service- For the most part, the Cast Members were really fantastic. I want to especially point out how great the valets were. We use valet a lot due to my my Mom and her wheelchair. Every one of the valets would help us with the chair. My sister and I are used to having to lift the chair so it was nice to have someone else take care of it. The valet at Beach Club even remembered us when we were back there a second time and called us by name. While this is outsourced, these Cast Members still maintained Disney standards. I make a point to mention that before I move on to my next topic.

The one exception was Bell Services. When we checked in, our room was not ready, so bell services took our luggage to store, one of the things being a cooler with IV bags of medication which had to be administered to my Mom daily (Mom would have her IV in the afternoons, Cheryl and I would have a glass of wine ). The cooler was clearly marked as medication and that it needed to be refrigerated.

Our room was ready around 4:00. We get to our room and call for our bags to brought up. 30 minutes go by; no bags. We call bell services and we are told he is on his way and should be there in 5-10 minutes. 20 minutes; no bags. Second call to bell services. We ask to speak to a manager. Manager sends a call out and we find our bags are sitting another room. Manager tries to tell us it was delivered as part of Magical Express, which we answer her that’s not possible as our bags did not have ME tags and we did not take ME but drove there from Tampa! Our bags finally get there except the medication cooler is missing! Yet another call to Bell Services and the cooler is found sitting in the baggage room! Fortunately, we had packed the cooler with many freezer packs so the medication was fine, but we were so done with Bell Services at this point. Received a phone call less than 30 minutes later from a guest services manager who wanted us to hear about our problems. We did and she gave us a $200 credit to our account, though we did not ask for any sort of compensation. Whoever is the outsourced company who was given the Bell Services contract needs to have it revoked and put out for bid again.

The thing we really noticed this trip was the all-around shortage of staff. The staff, with the exception of bell services, was really great, but there really aren't enough of them, so they are really overworked. That’s why we had housekeeping knocking on our door on checkout day before 9:00 to clean our room. Or that you have to allow 3 hours for the maid to clean a 2 bedroom villa. If they allotted 2 maids to clean the larger 2 bedroom and grand villas, things would be completed in a timelier manner.

We enjoyed Kidani Village, but will stay there when we aren't there for Food and Wine--It was pretty far to keep going back to Epcot.

As the Easter Bunny hops your way, this edition is hopping off into the sunset.  Spring continues to bloom at the Walt Disney World resort and so do the surprises. We'll be back in a few weeks with more great tips, news and deals.  See ya real soon!


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