Wonderful Resort until the final day!!

[wifey68]

We just got home on the 29th September from our celebratory stay at POFQ, we loved the grounds and the food court which had some tasty choices but if you don't mind a 10 minute walk up to Riverside they have some great choices too it's a pleasant walk and you can see a lovely turtle and some great wildlife. The boat to DTD was a nice amenity although it did mean that on the nights it rained we needed to use the bus stop (1) from behind Planet Hollywood. The bus stop at Market Place was closed for the duration of our stay despite signs saying it should only have been closed for two days. The room we had was 3208 a great location near the lifts and stairwell and literally a short walk to the food court the lobby and the pool and laundrette (watch those dryers they often would work for an hour before the cycle stopped) We did notice the flower beds being changed while we were there and the signs and lamp posts were being repainted but it didn't cause any problems. The bus service from the hotel was fairly good only early buses shared with Riverside apart from the day we needed to go to EPCOT when it went up to Riverside and took the long way over this almost ruined our night but luckily the YSH was running a little behind so we didn't miss our ADR (we allowed over an hour to get there too) but it was a stressful start to the evening. Our Maid came every day at 8:30 unless we left the privacy notice in the door lock. The air conditioning worked so well we got goose bumps some nights the fan was a great feature as were the two sinks and the fridge.

We had a great time there until our last day... now bear in mind it was forecast to be one of the hottest days of the season 100 degrees or higher. We had to go to DTD Virgin Atlantic check-in and take everything and everyone with us in our party for the security questions and checks (as you all know you can't leave anything unattended) before our cases were weighed and hand luggage seen and had our passports scanned and given our luggage barcodes for when we were to pick them up at our destination. It went well until we returned to our room.....

Now I'd just like to point out we had not checked out we had the room until 11:00 a.m. the official check out time. When we returned to the room at 9:17 a.m. the maid was in our room we politely said we needed to be back in.. she said "you go now bye bye" we said "no we have the room until 11:00 a.m." again she said "Okay thank you for staying you go now bye bye" so my husband went to get some ice and she still wouldn't let us in. We waited until 9:50 to give her chance to finish what she was doing and noticed everything was being cleared out of the room. Once she had moved to the next room we went in and she had set the room up for the next guests and had cleared out the fridge too. Well that was annoying so we agreed it needed sorting out and after trying to talk to
the woman she tried to hand back a bottle of drink from her refuse bag which we refused to take and went to the front desk to try to find out what was going on.
After talking to the Housekeeping Manager she apologised for the inconvenience and offered us a refund for the lost drinks, she said that the maid thought we had checked out we told her check out was not until 11:00 a.m. and that the room should not have been touched until after that time to prepare it for the next guests. While my husband went down to reception to sort this out at 10:19 a.m. another family tried to enter our room with a room card at literally 10:20 a.m.. they had passed each other on the landing I had to politely inform them we still had the room until 11:00 a.m. so they hung around outside the room until they decided to wander off. We left the rom just before 11:00 a.m to try to chill out and get some snacks before leaving to travel to the airport. A totally stressful end to a great vacation so be careful and lock your door even if you think it wouldn't happen to you it probably could.

[admin]

What a shame that last incident spoilt a nice stay for you.

To be honest, I can see the the maid's initial thinking in asssuming that you had checked out for your flight early, especially if you used the express checkout facility and had taken all your luggage from the room. She would naturally have assumed you had taken what you wanted and gone home, and she could thus make the room up. And as soon as it was made up and Released, the front desk would be able to allocate it to an incoming family (which is always great if they can do that for people arriving early, of course). Did you leave a Do Not Disturb notice on the door, by the way?

What was not at all forgivable was a problem I have also encountered myself, which is that WDW seem to be employing a larger and larger number of non-English speaking staff, especially in housekeeping/custodial roles. Your issue could have been resolved quickly and easily had you been able to communicate with the maid, but instead it turned an understandable (and correctable) mistake into a serious guest service issue and soured your stay at the resort, spoiling your last day.

By the way, what was DTD Virgin checkin like? We've used it twice before, both times fairly late (noon-ish) and last time we did it was rammed, it took us nearly an hour standing in the blazing Florida heat. It was the longest line we experienced in two weeks at WDW at the end of August, in fact. It seemed totally chaotic and disorganised and a complete waste of time - and they still had the nerve to charge us $10 each for the 'convenience' !!! This year, we used Virgin's online checkin and just took our bags straight to the bag-drop at the airport, which didn't take very long at all compared to the main checkin line - and it was airconditioned, of course. Much more civilised, and $40 cheaper.

A.

[Rascal]

What is DTD Virgin checkin?

[admin]

What is DTD Virgin checkin?

It's the airline checkin and bag drop location for Virgin Atlantic, located just behind Cirque Du Soleil at Downtown Disney. You check in for your flight and drop your bags there first thing in the morning, and then just turn up at the airport for the flight later in the day.

To be honest, we found it more trouble than it was worth. We all stood for at least an hour in the Florida sun at 11am one trip - and everyone needs to be there to have their passports checked, you can't just send one person from your group. It was a total shambles in fact, and we'd already done the actual checkin part online the night before! This year we did our normal online checkin and just took our bags with us to the airport when we returned the rental car and used the airport's bag drop (indoor, air con!) which was much quicker and saved us all the messing around at DTD on the morning of our last day. We went for a swim at the hotel instead, then to a park for four hours, much more relaxed.

A.

[wifey68]

The check in at DTD behind Cirque du Soleil was great although you would be surprised to see so many people with huge bags and cases well over the weight limits trying to get them taken from them as they were, luckily most of the staff were informing people they had to reduce the weights of their bags. This did mean though that the queue took a while to move thank goodness there were only half a dozen families waiting in each queue. We got down there before 8:15 a.m. and we had no problems with our two cases we were well planned and well under the weight limits only 12 kg and 13 kg each. I think we have finally busted the packing light thing thank goodness for laundry facilities which makes it all so much easier to reduce the amount of clothes we take. I have to say the Laundry on the Levee at the hotel was great too very quick and not expensive. We did see others taking laundry to wash but they didn't use the dryers they hung their clothes over the railings on the walkways Thank goodness the rest of us are civilised people.