steamboatpookster
07-04-2007, 11:07 PM
Travel dates: June 28 to July 3rd
Travel method: 2008 Scion xB
Resort: Port Orleans French Quarter
Accommodations: Standard (?) Room 5239
Ages Represented in Group: George 35, Ashley 31, Alicia 15, Sarah 14
WDW Experience Represented in Group: George and Ashley, too numerous to count, Alicia and Sarah--first time
Comments: Disappointing
Cast of characters:
My wife and I decided to make another trip down to WDW only 2.5 weeks after our previous trip. We wanted to meet friends that live in Wellington, Florida that couldn't make it during the last excursion. We also wanted to make dreams come true for a couple of girls that deserved a little TLC. Somehow, I packed all the bags into my wife's new Scion xB and could still close the back hatch. I drove over night from middle Tennessee and arrived at POFQ @ 8am.
For this trip, I had two reservations. This is because my passholder rate did not start until July 1st. When I booked the room, I asked if this would be a problem. The CM in booking said no--that this is a frequent type of reservation. She said we would stay in the same room, I just had to check out and check back in again on Sunday morning. No big deal.
FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH:
Checked into hotel. Rooms not available. The girls got their swimsuits out and went into the pool. Room was ready by 10 am. Bell service brought our bags to the room whereby I discovered that our keys didn't work. No big deal, the bellhop let us in. I laid down for a nap, as I had driven straight through the night. After I awoke, I went back down to the desk to have our keys recut. Waited in line for this. Went back to room. Keys didn't work. Went back to front desk. Waited in line. Went back to room. Keys didn't work. Went back to front desk for THIRD time. Turns out, the CM giving me keys was not properly using the machine. Finally got keys cut and had access to the room. The wife went downstairs and added five day hopper passes to the girls room keys. She didn't want to do this, but the CM insisted that if it was lost, it would be easier to replace.
After unpacking, our friends from Florida took a bus over to MGM and then to POFQ to meet us for our first night out. Waited for 15 minutes for a bus. The line was packed. So when an EPCOT bus arrived, we decided to jump on it and then catch the monorail to MK. This would be fun for the girls and it would probably be their only time on the monorail during their stay. Turns out, it was. I was also disappointed that the bus made it's way through Riverside as well. Thus the bus trip was long. I hate the bus.
We arrived at MK @ 6pm. We headed straight for Pecos Bill's for dinner. After dinner, we got FPs for Thunder Mountain. After that, we went on POTC. Three things stood out. There was debris in the water. The flap of neck on the animatronic that sits on the ledge (with the dirty foot hanging down) was outside his shirt. You could see up inside his neck. At the end of the ride, we spotted animatronics showing through Johnny Depp's leg. Looked as if his pants were ripped. My wife was disappointed.
Next we rode Thunder Mountain. The girls enjoyed that.
Went on Stitches' Great Escape. Girls not impressed.
Girls then went on the Indy Car thingie next to Space Mountain. Right before that, we got our wristbands for the EMHs from 11-2am.
Watched Mickey's Philharmagic. Girls loved that. We then went on Small World. Something was wrong. The lights were on in the water. Also--it was filthy! There were bottles and wrappers and gunk all in the water. I actually gagged. John took pix of the nasty water. Then the girls went on Peter Pan and after that the wife drug me onto Winnie the Pooh.
Watched fireworks and then headed over to Space mountain where the sign said the wait was "20 minutes." This is at 1am. I thought it was strange that the line went out the door for a 20 minute wait time. Sure enough, my suspicions were correct. We waited an hour. Not ten minutes into the line, we passed a massive amount of vomit all over the FP line on the right hand side. A CM had poured the sand/kitty litter stuff over it. That at least took care of the smell. People coming down the FP lane nearly killed themselves as they came upon it. We couldn't believe that no one came to clean it up. They simply covered it and put a "caution: wet" sign next to it. A man in a wheelchair was forced to go right over it. Disgusting.
The next thing we know (as we are moving VERY slowly) is that the FP line is no going out the door! Someone screwed up and gave out too many FPs. Thus our 20 minute wait turned into an hour. Finally we got to ride and after that we headed for the gates. Time to go home. Didn't have to wait long for a bus and we headed back to the hotel.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30th: slept in because we got back to the room so late. We drove to EPCOT @ 10:30 because my wife, Alicia, Sarah and Shelby had a reservation in Norway to have a Princess meal. My wife asked the reservations person if they would still be offering breakfast items. She said "yes". My friend John and I got our FPs for Soarin' and then ate a decent meal in The Land before we left. Stopped by Mexico and got a margarita. We waited on the girls outside of Norway. They came out disappointed. My wife was livid. We've never eaten in Norway. She said that no, they didn't offer any breakfast foods and that they all had to order off the kids meal at $25 a pop. No one ate their food as it was horrible. My wife commented that now she knew why they had the Princess dining at Norway--because otherwise, no one would ever choose to eat there. After that we all rode the Norway ride.
Then we headed back and stopped at Mexico to ride the boat.
We then headed back to ride Soarin'. After that, we decided to get out of the heat and go to the Character Premiere store off exit 75. The girls wanted to go swimming, so we gave them explicit instructions on how to get back to the room. We parted at the turnstiles. My wife and I along with John and Shelby went shopping. This was @ 3:00pm. We arrived back at the room @ 6:00. We planned on meeting John and Shelby back at EPCOT for Illuminations at 8pm. When we arrived, the girls were in the room--not swimming. Turns out, they got on the wrong bus and went to the wrong resort. They walked around for awhile until they figured out they were in the wrong place. They then had to ask someone how to get back. In the process, Alicia lost her room key. My wife took her down stairs and had another one made. When we asked how in the world the girls could get on the wrong bus they replied, "we were talking. Since we caught bus number six at MK, we just figured it was bus number six at EPCOT." To be honest, they couldn't even figure out where they were. We asked them which "resort" and they "think" they ended up at MGM. When asked it they had to use their tickets to get in, they said "yes" so I suppose it was MGM.
At 7:30 we got in the car and went to EPCOT. While standing in line, Sarah informed us that she didn't have HER room key and thinks she lost it. So I call John on the phone and explain that we wouldn't be joining them. I dropped the girls off at DTD and headed to the room to search for the room key. Found it.
SUNDAY, JULY 1: Woke up early and went to front desk to check out and check back in again. Brought reservation numbers with me. After five minutes of searching, the CM could not find our reservation. Forget the fact that I told him numerous times that I had the number if he wanted it. Finally he relented and actually USED the reservation number instead of my last name. Still couldn't find it. Finally, a higher up CM took the number and called central booking. Turns out that when I made the original reservations, the booking agent screwed up and had us checking into RIVERSIDE. Grrreat!
The CM informed me that there were no more rooms available and that he was sorry.
Now I'm getting angry. I'm a very patient man. By this time I have been in the lobby for over 40 minutes. We were supposed to be meeting our friends at AK at 9am. It's now 7:40. I tell the CM, "UNACCEPTABLE. I made reservations to stay HERE. When I talked to the woman (who spoke poor English) on the phone, I asked her to repeat the reservation twice to make sure. Evidently she still screwed up." They apologize once again and say there is nothing they can do but move our luggage. Once again I tell them that this is unacceptable and that I have three women upstairs sleeping and it would take us two hours to repack the room and unpack.
So finally the CM calls booking again and after ten minutes of hemming and hawing, the agree to bump someone else up to a better room so we can stay in ours. That took another ten minutes of typing. They had to take us completely out of the system and start from scratch. While that was going on, the woman next to us--that heard everything going on--I was the only person in the lobby at the time--gave our room away to someone!
WHILE I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE!!!!
The CM looks over and yells, "MARY! DID YOU JUST GIVE THIS MAN'S ROOM AWAY TO SOMEONE ELSE???" To which she replies, "yes, it was available."
Now I'm ready to just say "screw it, we'll find a place off-property."
The CM is now in a panic. He says to Mary "where are they? Which direction did they go in???" to which she calmly replies, "they're right over there at the concierge desk." So then the CM rushes over and kindly explains that there was a mishap and that they were given a room that was already occupied. No big deal to them, luckily.
So then we had to start from scratch. JOY! While starting from scratch, I told the CM no less than three times that the girls' room keys had THREE DAYS left on their hopper passes and to make sure he didn't leave them off. He assured me they were on them.
In all the panic, I forgot to call the room to wake the girls up. I left my cell phone in the room because I thought I would be gone for no more than ten minutes. I had another CM call and wake them.
We finally got showered and left the resort. We got to AK about 9:45. Luckily our friends were running late as well. We stood in line for about 10 minutes. I told my wife, "let the girls go first to make sure their cards work."
The cards didn't work, of course.
Now I'm SUPER LIVID. We are told to go to the ticket counter and get things straightened out. When my wife gave the names of the girls, no hoppers came up on the system! The guy actually asked us if we were SURE we bought them tickets!
HELLLLLOOOO????
He then said he needed proof.
Now I'm UBER ANGRY--as if I couldn't get any more mad.
Thank God my wife kept the print-out for the passes. It wasn't a receipt, per se, but a print out of the passes and the girls names. The CM found this acceptable and gave the girls a one day pass to get by on. He told us to stop back at the front desk at the resort so that they could "take care of it."
Yes, just like they did with the reservations.
Finally we get inside the park. We ate at Tusker House and then headed on to the safari. While we ate, John went and got FPs for Everest. After eating and riding the Safari we went to Everest. It was having "technical difficulties." We waited 30 or so minutes and decided that we didn't have time to wait all day--John and Shelby had to head back to Wellington in a few hours. So to get out of the blistering sun, we went to the Kali River Rapids and persuaded a CM to let us use our Everest FPs for the Kali. He sent us to another CM who sent us back to the original CM--except this time we talked to someone who actually listened. She gave us a yellow slip of paper for six people and we rode the rapids. No one got wet except for myself and Sarah. I've never liked that ride, it isn't very rapid nor exciting.
After that we headed for Dinoland. While walking by Everest, we noticed that it was working again. So John, Shelby, Alicia and Sarah decided to wait in line. My wife and I headed toward Dinoland. While sitting down, a thunderstom starting--which shut down Everest according to John's text message he sent me. The rain stopped after 20 minutes and Everest started up again. Finally after an hour or so, they were 20 people from getting on the ride when, you guessed it, the damn thing broke down again. So the CM's handed out FPs that were good for one month.
We then left AK. We said goodbye to our friends on the parking lot and headed back to the room. The wife then went BACK to the front desk to work out the girls' tickets. That took another 40 minutes.
Later that night my wife took the girls back to MK while I stayed in the room and watched Disney's The Kid on my iPod. Their night was uneventful--Space Mountain was broke down. But they had a good time, nonetheless.
I am stopping here. The last day was uneventful. My wife and I went to EPCOT to do some shopping without the girls while they went back to AK to use their fastpasses. They rode Everest twice because John gave them he and Shelby's FPs. They also rode Dinosaur and Primeval Spin. They made it back to the room without any incidents. Later that night my wife took them to MGM to see Fantasmic and to ride a few rides. The girls rode TOT but couldn't ride ARR because--once again--it was not functioning.
All in all, the girls had a good time--which is what counts. We, however, have decided NOT to renew our passes. We've been six times since last July and to be quite frank, I'm "Disney'd OUT." We are planning a family retreat there for Christmas of 2008. Hopefully we won't go through the same things that we experienced on this trip.
What really irks me is that through all the crap that we went through with reservations and tickets, we were never offered anything. Not a free meal or anything. Just an apology and a thank-you for being patient. Also, after six trips during the "year of a million dreams" we never had anything "special" happen to us. Someone posted in another thread that "having a CM smile at you and ask about your day" or something like that was "special". Nope--that called service and doing their jobs.
Travel method: 2008 Scion xB
Resort: Port Orleans French Quarter
Accommodations: Standard (?) Room 5239
Ages Represented in Group: George 35, Ashley 31, Alicia 15, Sarah 14
WDW Experience Represented in Group: George and Ashley, too numerous to count, Alicia and Sarah--first time
Comments: Disappointing
Cast of characters:
My wife and I decided to make another trip down to WDW only 2.5 weeks after our previous trip. We wanted to meet friends that live in Wellington, Florida that couldn't make it during the last excursion. We also wanted to make dreams come true for a couple of girls that deserved a little TLC. Somehow, I packed all the bags into my wife's new Scion xB and could still close the back hatch. I drove over night from middle Tennessee and arrived at POFQ @ 8am.
For this trip, I had two reservations. This is because my passholder rate did not start until July 1st. When I booked the room, I asked if this would be a problem. The CM in booking said no--that this is a frequent type of reservation. She said we would stay in the same room, I just had to check out and check back in again on Sunday morning. No big deal.
FRIDAY, JUNE 29TH:
Checked into hotel. Rooms not available. The girls got their swimsuits out and went into the pool. Room was ready by 10 am. Bell service brought our bags to the room whereby I discovered that our keys didn't work. No big deal, the bellhop let us in. I laid down for a nap, as I had driven straight through the night. After I awoke, I went back down to the desk to have our keys recut. Waited in line for this. Went back to room. Keys didn't work. Went back to front desk. Waited in line. Went back to room. Keys didn't work. Went back to front desk for THIRD time. Turns out, the CM giving me keys was not properly using the machine. Finally got keys cut and had access to the room. The wife went downstairs and added five day hopper passes to the girls room keys. She didn't want to do this, but the CM insisted that if it was lost, it would be easier to replace.
After unpacking, our friends from Florida took a bus over to MGM and then to POFQ to meet us for our first night out. Waited for 15 minutes for a bus. The line was packed. So when an EPCOT bus arrived, we decided to jump on it and then catch the monorail to MK. This would be fun for the girls and it would probably be their only time on the monorail during their stay. Turns out, it was. I was also disappointed that the bus made it's way through Riverside as well. Thus the bus trip was long. I hate the bus.
We arrived at MK @ 6pm. We headed straight for Pecos Bill's for dinner. After dinner, we got FPs for Thunder Mountain. After that, we went on POTC. Three things stood out. There was debris in the water. The flap of neck on the animatronic that sits on the ledge (with the dirty foot hanging down) was outside his shirt. You could see up inside his neck. At the end of the ride, we spotted animatronics showing through Johnny Depp's leg. Looked as if his pants were ripped. My wife was disappointed.
Next we rode Thunder Mountain. The girls enjoyed that.
Went on Stitches' Great Escape. Girls not impressed.
Girls then went on the Indy Car thingie next to Space Mountain. Right before that, we got our wristbands for the EMHs from 11-2am.
Watched Mickey's Philharmagic. Girls loved that. We then went on Small World. Something was wrong. The lights were on in the water. Also--it was filthy! There were bottles and wrappers and gunk all in the water. I actually gagged. John took pix of the nasty water. Then the girls went on Peter Pan and after that the wife drug me onto Winnie the Pooh.
Watched fireworks and then headed over to Space mountain where the sign said the wait was "20 minutes." This is at 1am. I thought it was strange that the line went out the door for a 20 minute wait time. Sure enough, my suspicions were correct. We waited an hour. Not ten minutes into the line, we passed a massive amount of vomit all over the FP line on the right hand side. A CM had poured the sand/kitty litter stuff over it. That at least took care of the smell. People coming down the FP lane nearly killed themselves as they came upon it. We couldn't believe that no one came to clean it up. They simply covered it and put a "caution: wet" sign next to it. A man in a wheelchair was forced to go right over it. Disgusting.
The next thing we know (as we are moving VERY slowly) is that the FP line is no going out the door! Someone screwed up and gave out too many FPs. Thus our 20 minute wait turned into an hour. Finally we got to ride and after that we headed for the gates. Time to go home. Didn't have to wait long for a bus and we headed back to the hotel.
SATURDAY, JUNE 30th: slept in because we got back to the room so late. We drove to EPCOT @ 10:30 because my wife, Alicia, Sarah and Shelby had a reservation in Norway to have a Princess meal. My wife asked the reservations person if they would still be offering breakfast items. She said "yes". My friend John and I got our FPs for Soarin' and then ate a decent meal in The Land before we left. Stopped by Mexico and got a margarita. We waited on the girls outside of Norway. They came out disappointed. My wife was livid. We've never eaten in Norway. She said that no, they didn't offer any breakfast foods and that they all had to order off the kids meal at $25 a pop. No one ate their food as it was horrible. My wife commented that now she knew why they had the Princess dining at Norway--because otherwise, no one would ever choose to eat there. After that we all rode the Norway ride.
Then we headed back and stopped at Mexico to ride the boat.
We then headed back to ride Soarin'. After that, we decided to get out of the heat and go to the Character Premiere store off exit 75. The girls wanted to go swimming, so we gave them explicit instructions on how to get back to the room. We parted at the turnstiles. My wife and I along with John and Shelby went shopping. This was @ 3:00pm. We arrived back at the room @ 6:00. We planned on meeting John and Shelby back at EPCOT for Illuminations at 8pm. When we arrived, the girls were in the room--not swimming. Turns out, they got on the wrong bus and went to the wrong resort. They walked around for awhile until they figured out they were in the wrong place. They then had to ask someone how to get back. In the process, Alicia lost her room key. My wife took her down stairs and had another one made. When we asked how in the world the girls could get on the wrong bus they replied, "we were talking. Since we caught bus number six at MK, we just figured it was bus number six at EPCOT." To be honest, they couldn't even figure out where they were. We asked them which "resort" and they "think" they ended up at MGM. When asked it they had to use their tickets to get in, they said "yes" so I suppose it was MGM.
At 7:30 we got in the car and went to EPCOT. While standing in line, Sarah informed us that she didn't have HER room key and thinks she lost it. So I call John on the phone and explain that we wouldn't be joining them. I dropped the girls off at DTD and headed to the room to search for the room key. Found it.
SUNDAY, JULY 1: Woke up early and went to front desk to check out and check back in again. Brought reservation numbers with me. After five minutes of searching, the CM could not find our reservation. Forget the fact that I told him numerous times that I had the number if he wanted it. Finally he relented and actually USED the reservation number instead of my last name. Still couldn't find it. Finally, a higher up CM took the number and called central booking. Turns out that when I made the original reservations, the booking agent screwed up and had us checking into RIVERSIDE. Grrreat!
The CM informed me that there were no more rooms available and that he was sorry.
Now I'm getting angry. I'm a very patient man. By this time I have been in the lobby for over 40 minutes. We were supposed to be meeting our friends at AK at 9am. It's now 7:40. I tell the CM, "UNACCEPTABLE. I made reservations to stay HERE. When I talked to the woman (who spoke poor English) on the phone, I asked her to repeat the reservation twice to make sure. Evidently she still screwed up." They apologize once again and say there is nothing they can do but move our luggage. Once again I tell them that this is unacceptable and that I have three women upstairs sleeping and it would take us two hours to repack the room and unpack.
So finally the CM calls booking again and after ten minutes of hemming and hawing, the agree to bump someone else up to a better room so we can stay in ours. That took another ten minutes of typing. They had to take us completely out of the system and start from scratch. While that was going on, the woman next to us--that heard everything going on--I was the only person in the lobby at the time--gave our room away to someone!
WHILE I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE!!!!
The CM looks over and yells, "MARY! DID YOU JUST GIVE THIS MAN'S ROOM AWAY TO SOMEONE ELSE???" To which she replies, "yes, it was available."
Now I'm ready to just say "screw it, we'll find a place off-property."
The CM is now in a panic. He says to Mary "where are they? Which direction did they go in???" to which she calmly replies, "they're right over there at the concierge desk." So then the CM rushes over and kindly explains that there was a mishap and that they were given a room that was already occupied. No big deal to them, luckily.
So then we had to start from scratch. JOY! While starting from scratch, I told the CM no less than three times that the girls' room keys had THREE DAYS left on their hopper passes and to make sure he didn't leave them off. He assured me they were on them.
In all the panic, I forgot to call the room to wake the girls up. I left my cell phone in the room because I thought I would be gone for no more than ten minutes. I had another CM call and wake them.
We finally got showered and left the resort. We got to AK about 9:45. Luckily our friends were running late as well. We stood in line for about 10 minutes. I told my wife, "let the girls go first to make sure their cards work."
The cards didn't work, of course.
Now I'm SUPER LIVID. We are told to go to the ticket counter and get things straightened out. When my wife gave the names of the girls, no hoppers came up on the system! The guy actually asked us if we were SURE we bought them tickets!
HELLLLLOOOO????
He then said he needed proof.
Now I'm UBER ANGRY--as if I couldn't get any more mad.
Thank God my wife kept the print-out for the passes. It wasn't a receipt, per se, but a print out of the passes and the girls names. The CM found this acceptable and gave the girls a one day pass to get by on. He told us to stop back at the front desk at the resort so that they could "take care of it."
Yes, just like they did with the reservations.
Finally we get inside the park. We ate at Tusker House and then headed on to the safari. While we ate, John went and got FPs for Everest. After eating and riding the Safari we went to Everest. It was having "technical difficulties." We waited 30 or so minutes and decided that we didn't have time to wait all day--John and Shelby had to head back to Wellington in a few hours. So to get out of the blistering sun, we went to the Kali River Rapids and persuaded a CM to let us use our Everest FPs for the Kali. He sent us to another CM who sent us back to the original CM--except this time we talked to someone who actually listened. She gave us a yellow slip of paper for six people and we rode the rapids. No one got wet except for myself and Sarah. I've never liked that ride, it isn't very rapid nor exciting.
After that we headed for Dinoland. While walking by Everest, we noticed that it was working again. So John, Shelby, Alicia and Sarah decided to wait in line. My wife and I headed toward Dinoland. While sitting down, a thunderstom starting--which shut down Everest according to John's text message he sent me. The rain stopped after 20 minutes and Everest started up again. Finally after an hour or so, they were 20 people from getting on the ride when, you guessed it, the damn thing broke down again. So the CM's handed out FPs that were good for one month.
We then left AK. We said goodbye to our friends on the parking lot and headed back to the room. The wife then went BACK to the front desk to work out the girls' tickets. That took another 40 minutes.
Later that night my wife took the girls back to MK while I stayed in the room and watched Disney's The Kid on my iPod. Their night was uneventful--Space Mountain was broke down. But they had a good time, nonetheless.
I am stopping here. The last day was uneventful. My wife and I went to EPCOT to do some shopping without the girls while they went back to AK to use their fastpasses. They rode Everest twice because John gave them he and Shelby's FPs. They also rode Dinosaur and Primeval Spin. They made it back to the room without any incidents. Later that night my wife took them to MGM to see Fantasmic and to ride a few rides. The girls rode TOT but couldn't ride ARR because--once again--it was not functioning.
All in all, the girls had a good time--which is what counts. We, however, have decided NOT to renew our passes. We've been six times since last July and to be quite frank, I'm "Disney'd OUT." We are planning a family retreat there for Christmas of 2008. Hopefully we won't go through the same things that we experienced on this trip.
What really irks me is that through all the crap that we went through with reservations and tickets, we were never offered anything. Not a free meal or anything. Just an apology and a thank-you for being patient. Also, after six trips during the "year of a million dreams" we never had anything "special" happen to us. Someone posted in another thread that "having a CM smile at you and ask about your day" or something like that was "special". Nope--that called service and doing their jobs.