WLV---VERY Disappointing trip

[tequoia]

why did they give you two seperate reservations??? that doesnt make sense? Did you add on nights after the original reservation, or was there a cash reservation. Not an excuse, but I wonder if thats what messed things up.

Nope, we simply went from 6 people in a 2 BR villa to 8. The two people they put on the separate reservation were my son, age 8(who was on the original) and my friend's daughter(age5) who was part of the new ressie. Go figure!

 

[disneynutz]

Another human being, I'll never judge nor condemn; cause he may have walked, where I've never been. How can I judge or condemn any man?; until in his shoes, I walk and I stand.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Sorry tequoia -- sounds like things definitely snowballed for you.

I hope your next visit has twice (no...make it three times) the magic to make up for the frustration you experienced with this one. As mentioned earlier, things can only get better, right?

 

[Disneyhappy]

Yikes- It sounds like one of those trips that if something could go wrong, it did! Your experience would try anyone's patience!

Sounds like they need to do something with their reservation system. I experienced a similar problem a week ago. DH and I were staying at SSR and my parents joined us at WDW as they are FL snowbirds. My father is blind and my mother does not drive long distances so they asked a close friend to join them for the weekend so they had a driver. When I made the reservations, I gave MS my parents names but I only knew the first name of their friend. I was told no problem, we could just give his last name when we checked in. I called a week before the trip and confirmed that they had three guests noted on the ressie and forgot to tel them the friend's last name during the call. Upon arrival to OKW, I went with my mother to check in and they could not add their friend's name to the reservation to get him a room key. They showed three people on the ressie but could not update the ressie with the friend's info. We ended up just taking the 2 room key cards which did not pose a problem. There would have been a problem, obviously, if they had wanted the DDP. Do you think the problem is related to the change that MS is requiring names and addresses of all guests at time of booking?

 

[Sammie]

Member services was contacted 1 month prior to our arrival that we would have 8 and not 6 people as originally thought. They had added the mother to our reservation and her daughter and my son (both under age9) into a separate reservation. We never requested 2 separate reservations. I have no problem with not being in a room until after 4pm...the problem was that because they could not figure things out and fix them for 4 hours, we could do NOTHING but sit in the lobby. Usually we could at least get our park tickets and head to the parks while waiting to check in, but we were held in limbo, not able to leave. So yes we did plan accordingly for a 4pm room assignment, brought extra clothes(including costumes for P&P) in carry on and everything. We are NOT disney novices. This is our 10th trip and it has never been this bad. I have never been treated with such a lack of care and respect at a Disney Resort before. My mother and I are not the type to voice a complaint in anything but a respectful manner, the responses that we received were so dismissive that all it did was make me see red. We did try to talk to several managers and not one even apologized. There is no excuse for that. I do realize that several things that went wrong were out of Disney's control but many things that happened were well within Disney realm of responsibility. I think part of the issue is trying to tease out where the real blame lies...WLV claims it is the DVC's error and DVC has given no response as of yet.

Thanks for all of your honest input.

Thanks for the additional info. This explains that MS dropped the ball and yes the Front Desk has to fix it and you the guest should never be put to inconvenience for that, but for some reason, the nature of the beast is that if MS messes up something, it takes longer for Resorts to fix it than if Disney Reservations messes up. I know that does not help your situation now but it might help others understand why the delay.

I hope everyone that was ill in your family is better now. In our 25 years of going we too have our share of sickness and injuries and hospital visits. We have gone to Celebration hospital so often they thought we lived there.

I am sure someone from Disney will follow up on your concerns if you let them know what happened.

 

[Sammie]

Yikes- It sounds like one of those trips that if something could go wrong, it did! Your experience would try anyone's patience!

Sounds like they need to do something with their reservation system. I experienced a similar problem a week ago. DH and I were staying at SSR and my parents joined us at WDW as they are FL snowbirds. My father is blind and my mother does not drive long distances so they asked a close friend to join them for the weekend so they had a driver. When I made the reservations, I gave MS my parents names but I only knew the first name of their friend. I was told no problem, we could just give his last name when we checked in. I called a week before the trip and confirmed that they had three guests noted on the ressie and forgot to tel them the friend's last name during the call. Upon arrival to OKW, I went with my mother to check in and they could not add their friend's name to the reservation to get him a room key. They showed three people on the ressie but could not update the ressie with the friend's info. We ended up just taking the 2 room key cards which did not pose a problem. There would have been a problem, obviously, if they had wanted the DDP. Do you think the problem is related to the change that MS is requiring names and addresses of all guests at time of booking?

Yes it does make a difference; which is why I asked the OP did they have everyone in their group on their reservation, full names, with MS prior to arrival. It is very hard to make changes at the desk after arrival and very time consuming.

The MS system and the resort system are not very compatable, I know they should be and I am again just the messenger.

I don't approve of the way Disney does things but I do understand why they do things. Which makes my trips less frustrating; because I understand the nature of the beast, so to speak.

 

[Sammie]

Another human being, I'll never judge nor condemn; cause he may have walked, where I've never been. How can I judge or condemn any man?; until in his shoes, I walk and I stand.

I am sorry but I think this is a great saying, but what is the relevance.

 

[disneynutz]

I am sorry but I think this is a great saying, but what is the relevance.

I suppose it struck me when I read this post:

"I'm sorry to hear about your stay and it doesn't help when people try to dismiss your feelings. I remember it happened to me when my son was rushed to the hospital. Some people on these boards are a little rough with others feelings. Hopefully it doesn't happen to them".

It's a cloudy day and I guess I'm feeling a little melancholy.

 

[Sammie]

I suppose it struck me when I read this post:

"I'm sorry to hear about your stay and it doesn't help when people try to dismiss your feelings. I remember it happened to me when my son was rushed to the hospital. Some people on these boards are a little rough with others feelings. Hopefully it doesn't happen to them".

It's a cloudy day and I guess I'm feeling a little melancholy.

I hate cloudy days too. I guess my point is it seems at times to some, we might be hard on someone, but truly I don't know anyone here that is hard hearted.

Most are just trying to get more info to be helpful to the next person in this situation and often times comments such as, "Hopefully it doesn't happen to them" is moot, because it has happened to many us, we simply did not come hear and share it.

I had a dear friend whose Mom had a brain anurism at the BWV while we were all on vacation, I guess I am just not the type to come here and share all, as it serves no point.

Hope your clouds move on quickly and the sun shines brightly on your day.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

We know there are computer issues at WDW. I've stayed off DVC property at other WDW resorts and had to supply all of the names on the reservation again or had to add names...and this was prior to the dining plan.

What I think could be a simple solution-mail a confirmation with all people's names on the reservations and on any present/future plans like Dining. If there is a problem at check-in, give the person your copy of the confirmation, and go enjoy yourself, while they straighten the problem out and don't hold your vacation hostage. You shouldn't have to stand there while they get computer A to talk to computer B. And they have all the info they need on the confirmation letters.

The $1500 charge has never been an issue for me, and I've gone over it many times on property. That is poor training resort wide. That credit card just needed to be cleared. There should have never been a denial. The OP goes out of the way to criticize the WL, and praise everyone else at WDW, but this is an example of where it was a problem outside the WL where they didn't do things the way I've always been dealt with.

This just seemed like one of those trips....it happens. When there was no record of the P&P party or the Grand Gathering event, it was no big deal. Everything else was a major screw-up by the WL. These people are subject to the limits of the computers that they work on.

The computers are one of the major sources of irritation resort wide for me. I've had the 'glitch' at midnight where we walked into someone else's room at Coronado Springs. Luckily they weren't in there at the time, but how two people can be registered to the same room is beyond me.

One thing I've personally never ran into at the WL is people who are dismissive and or unfriendly.

 

[jadejazzkayla]

We have written a letter detailing all of our issues, but I am not quite sure who to send it to. Has anyone here written complaint letters before, did anything come of it? What did you ask for to make up for your troubles? How long did it take to get a response?

I called Disney and asked for the managers name and addressed my letter to him. In my letter I didn't ask for any compensation but i ended up getting my money back for my stay. The manager called me within a week. I must say he was quite abrupt which made me nervous but at the same time mad. It was not a fun conversation to say the least because of his attitude. I thought your letter was great. I hope you receive a response quickly and NICELY.

 

[TravelingJen24]

It's funny how things work out. When we stayed at WLV back in Nov. for the first time I need to add park hoppers to our cards. I went down the first morning to get it taken care of and there was a problem in the system where they had already added three days when we were supposed to be there for seven. After about twenty minutes they fixed the problem and didn't even charge us for the tickets except to add on the days which totalled about thirty dollars for everyone. Basically Disney ate the 1000.00 that it would have cost us. There mistake became our benefit. I hope your next glich in the system is one like ours and you have a better trip.

 

[kendzee94]

I have to seriously question if the DDP and KTTW problems are because of MS or the way they pull up the info at WL. We stayed at WL in Oct 05 and were on the dining plan with connecting rooms for a party of 6 (MIL, FIL and the four of us). They had our names spelled wrong on the KTTW cards and each kid split between each adult couple even though we had bunks in the one room. If I wanted to use the card that was issued to me (charging privileges) I had to re enter my inlaws room I asked the front desk to change it for us after we realized the mix up, but I was told that the person booking the ressie was to blame and there was nothing they could do at that point. The best part is that somehow, they put my MIL as the primary name on my account. When I called the ressie # to try to take my MIL off as the primary name (all mail started coming to my address in my MIL's name), I was told that the only way they could fix it was to say she was deceased to take her out of the system!!! After a series of phone calls, they were able to take her out without killing her off!!! Good luck with getting your issues addressed!!!

 

[disneynutz]

Our DD who is a DVC Member with us on our contract gets her DVC mail some how sent to our old business address. This is in spite of the fact that we never used that address on any of our DVC documents. My DW thinks that we may have given the business address on our first DVC tour several years ago.

I called MS several weeks ago and asked them to correct it, which they say they did. Yesterday DD gets a "Here is your web site PIN" postcard, you guessed it, sent to the business address. Nice of them to send her the PIN since we have been members since the first of January.

I wonder when they will send me my PIN?

 

[TMB1203]

I'm sorry for the problems you had at VWL.

This is where we own our points at and I love this resort. This last time, we also experienced problems at check in, which had never happened before.

I made 2 reservations, one for us using points and one for my mom, which was 1 night cash and the rest points. The CM really messed things up upon check in and it took 2 hours to get checked in. Instead of doing each check in seperatly, she was trying to do both at the same time and switching back and forth between the two reservations. We all had the dining plan, so there was a big outlay of cash between the two of us.

The cash was misapplied and they gave credit for too much cash being given. I kept telling them we didn't give them that much cash, but by that time it was so confusing they just said they would fix it later. I had them give me a receipt for the cash I knew I gave them and left them to fix it. It took 5days for them to realize that we really didn't give them the amount of cash they said we did. They finally fixed it. They did send both my mom and us a fruit basket. It was a nice gesture.

We also asked for adjoining rooms, which we didn't get. They first told us we were on totally different floors...when I did complain about that they moved us across the hall from each other. I figured those aren't guaranteed requests so we lived with it.

I think that most CM will go out of their way to make the trip magical, there are some that won't but for the most part if you are nice to them and respectful, they will treat you the same way.

I also learned to use my debit card next time instead of cash..

 

[loribell]

I just wanted to add to this our experience in December. We had a 2 bed booked for just the 4 of us so no one would be in the living room when Santa visited. At the last minute my oldest son decided to join us, very last minute, and we were on the dining plan. I totally forgot to call MS to add him to our reservation so I was just going to pay out of pocket for him. When I went to check in and asked for a room key for him they had all kinds of trouble, all due to the dining plan. They told me that with it ANY changes had to be done through MS. It took forever for them to get it taken care of. They had to go back and forth from me to talking to MS for well over an hour.

Then the day he left we moved to SSR for the last three nights. The room had originally been booked for one more night on cash while i was waiting to get airfare. Dining plan on this reservation again but the charge was for 4 nights, not 3. When I canceled the cash night they did not change the dining plan. Again, a long wait for the CM going back and forth between me and the back talking to MS to get it fixed.

This was two resorts and both told me they have terrible problems any time there is anything wrond now with a reservation that has the dining plan on it. MS is the only one that can fix it. They can't do it at the resort.

I know that between the two mix ups that it took well over 2 hours to fix what was wrong. Of course the first problem was totally my fault. I forgot to let them know DS was joining us and I would have just as well let him use my daughters room key to get in and out. And if I hadn't canceled that cash night then that would have been okay too. So both problems I had a hand in.

I felt terrible for the CM's that had to deal with it. They had no control over what was going on.

Just FYI!

 

[diznyfanatic]

It is my opinion that it is a combination of internal problems that causes these unfortunate things to happen and the primary culprit is Disney's outdated, or at least extremely manually intensive computer systems.

For whatever reason, it appears that Disney has elected to use multiple databases to service the corporation. Normally, this wouldn't be much more than a few additional keystrokes, but it's no secret that Disney's computer systems do not interface well together, if at all.

The second major contributing factor is CM training because in order to navigate through all of the systems involved in order to correct problems when they occur, it requires far more training in areas that they haven't received training for.

For instance, a Resort Front Desk CM trying to correct MS mistakes which are apparently totally different databases in the first place , and have far different policies and rules in the second place, is going to be an extremely time consuming process.

You then throw the Dining Plan into the mix, which has enough training issues all by itself, and the fact that the policies are somewhat different between CRO and DVC (paid in full prior to arrival vs. payment at check in) and it's a miracle that things go as well as they do most of the time.

I'm very sorry there seems to have been multiple incidents of this occuring at our VWL home. I would definitely let DVC know.

 

[edk35]

I am so sorry all of these things happened....Disney related or NOT. I can see you putting a short summary in your letter about WHAT ALL HAPPENED to you....whether Disney had any control (sickness) just to say that DESPITE WHAT ALL HAPPENED TO YOU THAT WAS OUT OF THEIR CONTROL...it sure would have been nice for most EVERYTHING DISNEY to have been magical and problem free. Too much shooting from the hip on these boards at times. I truly feel terrible for you and hope that your next vacation is 100% perfect. At least you had all your confirmations with you.

 

[edk35]

Another human being, I'll never judge nor condemn; cause he may have walked, where I've never been. How can I judge or condemn any man?; until in his shoes, I walk and I stand.

AMEN!!!!!!

 

[jodifla]

I'm not sure why EVERYONE had to hang around the lobby.....I would have sent the rest to the pool, or the boardwalk, or Downtown Disney, and met up with them.