Beach Club CM - Bad Experience/Magic is Gone?

[StevieD]

Well, we just returned from a 7 day trip to WDW and were generally disappointed with the "magic" - Disney seems to have gone down hill a bit. In particular, here's our story:

We checked in last Wednesday for our 7 day stay at Beach Club Villas - our first DVC experience. Unfortunately, my wife was feeling a bit ill and after a brief lunch - she spent the rest of the day in the room (a precursor of worse to come). We had booked the Storybook Princess breakfast for our 6 yr old daughter, with reservations for 9 AM on the next morning - Thursday morning. Well, my wife's condition worsened through the evening. For those who have taken ill away from home, I'm sure you can understand the feeling - is it serious?, should I call a doctor?, etc. By early morning, we decided to head to the emergency room. We had no transportation (we had decided not to rent a car this trip), and thus had to arrange for transportation. We spent the next 8 hours in the emergency room (anyone who has spent anytime in an emergency room can understand - this was horrible - you're worried, frustrated, can't understand the delay in getting to see a physician, etc.). We finally made it back to the hotel by late afternoon - my wife's condition had improved (as a result of proper medication - although she was "out of commission" for the next 2 days) so we were feeling a bit better.

Anyway, we now had a 6 yr old who was broken-hearted about missing the Storybook Breakfast - princesses are a big thing to a 6 yr old girl! I contacted guest relations and explained the situation to CM "Brett" at Beach Club. "Brett" agreed to try to help. That was the last we heard from "Brett", until I saw him the last day of our trip and asked him about his "help" - his response - "You have to book those reservations ahead of time" - well DUH!!. Now I know that an unscheduled trip to the emergency room wasn't Disney's fault...and I also know that missing the Storybook Princess Breakfast is not the end of the world for a 6 yr old who is fortunate to just be at WDW....but a little part of me still believed that Disney magic would come through and help us out in this situation.......or at the very least, tell me they tried to fit us in but just couldn't....Instead, I got a response which leads me to believe not one ounce of effort was expended to even try to help us!!!!!!!!

OK, enought of my venting. Am I wrong to be a bit disappointed? Do others feel that the "magic" is diminished?

 

[roque]

sorry to hear that your DW got sick. other than the ER and your DD missing the breakfast how was the rest of your trip??

the cm should have followed up with you the next day, or called PS to see if they could squeeze you and DD in.

i don't think you are wrong in your disappointment. I think brett was just not a good CM. and your disappointment should be directed at an ill trained CM and not the whole magic. Personally, i think Brett was just a creep. He knew this was for a 6 yr old girl.

Hopefully, your DW got to feeling better and you and your family were able to enjoy some of your 7 days.

 

[E.Jane]

I think Brett is getting off too easily if you are only disappointed at him - I would be furious!

You made a request of him as a resort employee. As you say, it was not their fault, but it is their obligation to help you as much as possible, and if they've determined they can't help you, they should have gotten back to you to let you know. Bottom line, it was a shining example of terrible customer service.

What kills me are employees who feel "put out" by these types of requests. Have they not yet realised that "serving" customers (regardless of what they think of the request) IS their job? That without customers, they would not have a job at all?! I guess Brett forgot who was ultimately paying his salary (that would be you!!).

 

[COACHSTING]

As a supervisor of public servants, there is NOTHING more frustrating than learning an employee simply failed to take the time to communicate with a customer, a complainant or a constituent. Even a breif explanation that the cast member could not help the customer would have been disappointing, but it would not have left a sour taste in the customer's mouth.

Communication is the key to success with people and the cast member dropped the ball.

On the other hand, if it were me, I would not have waited the amount of time you did. You had too much of an investment to wait for a sub-par castmember to respond to what was not an unreasonable request.

If the request was not workable, a simple answer would have done.

I hope you and the wife rebounded enough to make the most of the rest of your visit.

 

[Trekker]

As you stated, your wife being ill, the unscheduled day at the emergency room, 2 more days laid up on vacation, missing the Princess breakfast, none of those are Disney's fault.

I can imagine that all put a bit of a damper on your vacation.

I'm a bit surprised you did not follow up with the front desk at all after the first conversation. If I had not heard something by the next day I would have been calling and asking. I never assume that I will get what I want by asking once. I always follow up with CMs and supervisor until I have exhausted all possible options.

I think it is unfair to say the magic is gone in this case. The illness at the beginning set the tone.

JMHO...

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

"Brett" is an idiot!

If I worked at Disney, I would look forward to helping folks with trouble.

I am getting ready to purchase a DVC Membership at Beach Club Villas. Other than Brett, what did you think?

BTW: Is your wife ok? How was the rest of the trip? My brother and I were also there this last week. We arrived at Beach Club the morning your wife was sick.

My son was sick when we landed at Boardwalk a couple years back. The whole trip sucked and I wrote a post about hating the BW due to the inconsiderate cm's. I think back now and I guess being on "edge" made everything seem a little worse. We ended up at the walk in clinic with him. I am now glad I know where it is. I had a car so it was not as bad for me as it was for you.

Better luck next time.

 

[LvsTnk]

We had the same thing happen during our trip last Christmas. DS got very sick.

CM's at the BWI concierge arranged for special treats to be delivered to DS, and also special seating for one of the shows.

The CM you were dealing with missed the perfect opportunity to spread a little magic. Maybe he couldn't get you the PS but he could have done something, JMHO.

 

[PamNC]

Brett needs to be fired! That's all I have to say about that.

We've had two Disney trips turn out not so good due to personal situations. One time I got sick with bronchitis about mid-way through...the trip wasn't a total wash but it certainly put a damper on things.

This year, my horse was injured a few days before our trip. My vet convinced me to go because we had a caretaker staying at our farm to take good care of her. But, I couldn't relax or concentrate for the whole trip on anything but her.

Thinking back, we should have cancelled. But we didn't - and now we'd give anything if we could go but unfortunately it's only going to be one trip for us this year. It's very disappointing when you wait and wait for your trip and something goes wrong such as an illness. You look forward to it, spend tons of money on it, and you just want your vacation to be special. Especially at Disney. I've gotten over this year's trip being "ruined" - and I'm focusing on next year's! Just don't know when that will be.

PamNC

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by PamNC
Brett needs to be fired! That's all I have to say about that.
PamNC

Wow, that's pretty harsh. I agree that the CM dropped the ball, but he shouldn't lose his job.

I'm wondering if the OP tried to get a PS on his own, and why didn't he check back with guest services to see if the CM was able to book the PS.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Brett should be fired??? Thats a good one. Lot's of compassion & goodwill around here! Maybe they should keep him and cut his minimum wage salary.

Certainly it appears that he dropped the ball big time, but we don't really know what else happened that could have altered the situation for him, do we? Perhaps his pet hamster was very ill.

I'm with Trekker in that if it was important to you, follow-up requests should have been made.

I think it's too bad that because of one bad incident you're ready to conclude that the magic has faded. Disney has never had 100% of the CM's be perfect and sometimes bad stuff happens. I do hope all the rest of your trip was happy.

I'd write a very mild-mannered letter outlining your frustration to the BC Manager and hope for nothing past an apology.

 

[StevieD]

I probably should have been more clear about my conclusion that the "magic" has faded. I posted a bit more detail in my trip report - but to summarize, we found that, in our 3rd trip in 2 years, Disney service has definitely declined in that period. CM's, (generally speaking) were, for the most part, lackluster. Not very many smiles, no extra offers to help, not attentive to our needs. Now, we certainly encountered outstanding CM's (particularly those at the Disney Downtown pin store) - but the overall CM mood seemed a bit off. As recent DVC owners, we have another 40 years of vacations at Disney - so believe me, I'm looking for any reason to conclude that this is not a trend. But in my experience, it (Disney attitude, magic, whatever you want to call it which makes Disney special) has declined somewhat in the last 3 years. Perhaps its reflective of the overall economy.

As for checking up on our request - we frankly didn't have time, and I didn't view it (missing the breakfast) as the end of the world - I mean, we still had a fun time and my DD is not spoiled enough to have complained about missing the breakfast (after all, we were at WDW). But I was a bit disappointed that Brett didn't follow up after our harrowing emergency room visit - and it was only one of several instances were I thought the CM's weren't all that spectacular.

 

[Moonmom]

Originally posted by StevieD
Disney service has definitely declined in that period. CM's, (generally speaking) were, for the most part, lackluster. Not very many smiles, no extra offers to help, not attentive to our needs. Now, we certainly encountered outstanding CM's (particularly those at the Disney Downtown pin store) - but the overall CM mood seemed a bit off. As recent DVC owners, we have another 40 years of vacations at Disney - so believe me, I'm looking for any reason to conclude that this is not a trend. But in my experience, it (Disney attitude, magic, whatever you want to call it which makes Disney special) has declined somewhat in the last 3 years. Perhaps its reflective of the overall economy.


I've definitely got to agree with you here. This year was unusual for me; three trips in one year; one with DD for the marathon in January; one with my mum for Mother's Day and most recently, 10 days alone with DH for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. I thought maybe it was burn out or something; maybe DIsney overload; but even DH who normally remains in total vacation glow was getting annoyed daily with problems we had with our room and housekeeping and later with a castmember.
Sounds like that cast member just plain didn't know what to do... maybe he figured that if he couldn't get p.s. to replace the one's you had to miss...then "oh, well..' .... It would've been nice to been able to go...but it even something as small as maybe a tray of tea and muffins with a note from one of the princesses wishing that the princess's mom feel better real soon with a signed photo would've been a real special memory for your daughter..... and a real nice thing for the castmember to do. It doesn't take much to do just a little thing.
BTW....... Once while staying at OKW got one of my really nasty migraines; and I really dreaded the idea of having to sit in the emergency room. We called the "Disney Doc", (part of the Celebration Hospital doctor service)... my husband called; I described my problem; what medication I usually am given, etc., he was at our hotel within 40 minutes; administered some medication then; and prescribed 2 others which were delivered by the pharmacy later that morning; not cheap...but when you feel that awful; you really just want to feel better!

 

[castleri]

Just have to say the Brett isn't always that bad. He checked us in when we were there this month and went out of his way to answer questions etc. Did you go directly to the front desk and ask for assistance or did you do it over the plone? I find that face to face usually gets a better response. I have to say that we did not run into any of the not so frindly CM's- In fact everyone had a smile and hello etc. Of course sometimes we spoke first but i found everyone very pleasant and as always some are more helpful than others. I agree with those who posted that you probably should have followed up the next morning as maybe it was somehting as simple as Brett being called to do something else before he made a note of what you needed and he forgot.
Surely we all have moments like that.

 

[StevieD]

Castleri, I did speak with Brett face-to-face, and he did write a note. After that, I didn't want to bug him so I didn't check back the next day - and after that, we were just too busy. I agree, one bad experience isn't indicative of a trend. However this was one of many encounters with CM's on this trip which point to a bad trend. I am speculating wildly here....but Disney's stock price is way down, they've got to cut costs, which could trickle down to less training for CM's, reductions in benefits, layoffs (although I don't think that has happened yet), etc. All this doesn't contribute to happy employees.

 

[gepetto]

The princess breakfast PS's are very hard to get even 90 days out. Maybe he was just unable to get you one on such short notice. Or maybe he simply forgot to check. In any case, it really sounds like a minor complaint and nothing to indicate the decline of customer service at WDW.

 

[dvc guy]

We have had problems over the years with the CM's. You have to stay on top of the matter to get it corrected.

Last year my DW woke up with an ear problem, we were off site. I though here we go for a 3 hour trip to a walk in clinic. Called the front desk , they have DR's that come to your room, same cost as a clinic $100.00. He checked her out, called in the medicine and we were on our way in a few hours.

 

[tink2dw]

You must have gone to the Celebration Hospital,we spent From 9:AM to 4:30 PM there trying to get our DD seen for Acute Swimmers Ear. Dd was in terrible pain. They only had 1 nurse Practioner on duty,and the counter person at 4:00pm was yelling at the NP thay she HAD to see those in the Emergance room.

I wish they would have just sent us away for all the good that visit did! Next morning Dd was worse!!


So,we used the FREE Disney Amb. Service to Sand Lake Hospital,DD was seen immeadately,treated and we were out of there in 45 minutes!! Let me tell you Sand Lake was 2x cheaper than Celebration Hospital,too!

 

[disneyleslie]

We were also at the beach club last week - checked in on Wed. I found the CM's to be not that outgoing and helpful there. I went to the guest services and I stood in line and there was a cm at a different end of the counter just standing there waiting for someone. I finally went down by her and she said "Oh I can help you. Now, why did she not just motion for me to come down to her to begin with. It was a bit odd. They did not seem to be on top of things there.

Leslie

 

[StevieD]

There's another thread on the DVC board about the poor attitude of the Beach Club CM's recently - so I guess I'm not the only one who has noticed.