AVOID the Disney resorts
 

A cautionary tale

Two weeks before our trip to the Disney resort at the Polynesian, I called them to confirm. The rep confirmed my reservation.

When we got to the so-called "poly", they had overbooked. They sent us to the Contemporary, which is really beyond your worst nightmares.

The next day, we finally got to the Poly, which is completely okay but nothing to be excited about.

I bet it's been 15 years since I stayed at the Contemporary. It was bad then. It could only be worse now unless some major change has taken place. Apparently not. To add insult to injury, after a horrible stay, we went to our car new car in the parking lot and it had been keyed down both sides. Security kept telling us it probably was that way when we arrived.

Stayed at the Contemporary about 6 years ago. When we were checking in they told us that 2 days into our 5 day stay, we should come to the front desk, check out and check in again, so that they could move us to another room within the complex. (We were not there during prime time, and arrived in the evening when most people had already checked out, so to this day, I do not understand the problem.) I calmly told them that their plan was not acceptable, that they needed to find a room that would not neccessitate a move during our stay. I asked to speak to the manager. They made me wait approximately 45 minutes to do so because the manager was "busy", (probably trying to calm down another dissatisfied customer). The manager finally spoke to us, but by that time I had smoke coming out of my ears. She put us up in the towers on the "club" floor overlooking the castle. My family does not remember the stay on the club floor, or the view of the castle, but they do remember the problem at check-in after a long flight. FYI-- For those of you who are planning on booking the Contemporary at WDW, beware that most of the rooms are not in the tower, but in the wings behind the pool. It is a very long walk from the wings to the monorail for families with young children. The premium rooms ($$$$) are located in the tower.

There are so many newer and more luxurious resorts than these two, it is hard to justify the expense of staying at either the Poly or Contemporary. They stay popular because of the monorail only,imo.

It is more difficult to stay at the Wilderness Lodge or the Animal Kingdom Lodge but they are better run, have excellent restaurants and pool areas and the themeing is excellent. The Grand Floridian needs some TLC at this point. It was looking a little seedy in its public areas during Thanksgiving.

We prefer to stay off site. There are many truly luxurious places to stay in Orlando. LMF

Avoid the All Stars also. A friend of mine stayed there and she said the walls were paper thin, the woodwork gouged up, the door had a sticky crud on it (they were afraid to touch it) and the place was noisy. She told me the place was nothing but a Motel 6 on Disney property. We have always stayed outside of the park. There are some really nice hotels with shuttle service around the area.

I heartily recommend the Wildernesss Lodge....while the rooms are not huge...they are very nicely themed. The restaurants, the lobby, the pools, EVERYTHING is wonderful. We very much enjoyed the boat ride and had excellent timing the first time we rode it on our way to the Magic Kingdom....the fireworks went off as we were going across the lake towards the castle :) I second the advice to check mousesavers.com....always good deals to be found on that site for the resort. Make sure you always call more than once for room rate inquiries...they change constantly (along with the kind of rooms available.) To add, if you have children check the schedules to see if any characters will be visiting the hotel during your stay. My dd will never forget Goofy coming to the Wilderness Lodge after she ate breakfast and posing for pics with many hugs. AND the breakfast in the hotel restaurant is lots of fun especially for children (and the young at heart)....picture children racing around on little hobby horses all smiles and then receiving little certificates.

Recommendations to stay at other places diminishes what Yawn_boring is saying. As I recall, the prices at the Polynesian and the Contemporary are nothing to sneeze at. This behavior by Disney is an umbrage -- this is not way to treat a guest to the great state of Florida. If not for tourism, Disney would be what it was before, a swampland. And there would be a lot less traffic along the interstate, better water quality, better roads, etc.

If Disney sets such low standards for its visitors, then maybe a stay outside its rip-off hotels is a good way to go. Or maybe this is Disney's way of forcing guests to stay at its more expensive sites.

I say screw that. Har-umph!

The Poly and Contemporary are in the "luxury" tier at Disney along with Wilderness, African, Grand Floridian and one or two others. They are very expensive, especially considering the quality of the rooms and service. WDW has some big problems and the decline in attendance the past two years hasn't helped. LMF

I always think of the Brady Bunch Goes to Disney when the Polynesian or Contemporary come to mind. As all of our U.S. standards of living have improved so much in the past 30 years, those hotels must seem like real dumps. It is hard to fathom the Mouse won't spring for some capital outlays when the location is so valuable.

Disney has no money to refurbish or reinvent. The parks need to be completely revamped. They are quite tired at this point and not very interesting except for the very little children.

The boneheaded purchase of ABC and some other Eisner boo-boos have put the company in jeopardy. Used to be a stock holder but no longer. LMF

Patrick, were you staying in the same room at the same time as Yawn boring at the Contemporary?

We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge several years ago. Yes, the pool was awesome and it was a neat theme. But for $300/night (several years ago), the room were very small and the walls were paper thin. I could clearly hear a conversation our next door neighbor was having at 1:30am. To me, this is inexcusable in a hotel room this expensive. After two trips to Disney with our kids, we've decided that there are much better places to spend our family vacation dollars.

Sorry to hear that your experiences were so terrible. I'll have to admit that my family loves Disney and we go yearly. Our past few years we have stayed at The Boardwalk, Old Key West, and Yaucht and Beach Club. We liked them all, but prefer the Y & B club and Boardwalk because of the location. The staff was great and rooms were nice.

Our family of 4 stayed at the Dolphin Resort in Nov and we would go back in a second! They just updated the place and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

We stayed at Animal KIngsom in JUne and loved it. The restaurants are wonderful and the grounds are well-maintained. It is a bit farther away from MGM or MagicKingdom, but the transportation buses were great. I would stay here again and again.

Stayed at Poly and Dolphin and loved it loved it!

I think the Dolphin and Swan while on Disney property, are owned by someone else.

lilmisfoodie, Disney is currently in the process of refurbishing many of their resorts...Swan/Dolphin are done or just about. Riverside is currently undergoing a massive renovation. We've stayed at many of the resorts many times and never had a problem--even the All Stars. The rooms have been clean, never shabby, but to respond to Buckeyemom's friend, she was also paying the price of a Motel 6 on Disney property - $79/ night-you get what you pay for...

p.s. Swan/Dolphin were never owned by outside contractors, however, they were run by them. They are both now owned by Disney.

Actually, Swan and Dolphin are Starwood hotels and are not owned by Disney.
If you want a good moderate that has recently been refurbished, try the Caribbean Beach Hotel.

Actually, Swan and Dolphing are Starwood hotels and are not owned by Disney.
If you want a good moderate that has recently been refurbished, try the Caribbean Beach Hotel.

Thanks for clarifying swalter. As to my friend's comments..you are right you get what you pay for, but the room they were in had crud on the door and around the bathtub. They asked to be moved and the second room wasn't much cleaner. Staying at Disney you expect the rooms to be sparkling.

I've stayed at the Yacht & Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary, Grand Floridian and all three of the All Stars and I've never experienced a problem.

I did have a CM call me out for accidently breaking in line at the gift shop in the All Star Music.

We stayed at the Poly in 1996. Thought the property was gorgeous, although the rooms were nothing special. The convenience factor was huge, with the monorail right there. The second time in 1998, we stayed outside WDW in a lovely condo, and rented a car. The condo was secure and very deluxe. Much cheaper than on site at WDW. Our kids were 12 & 10 the second time...it was nice to have the 1-bedroom unit, so that mom and dad could have a little privacy!

Leslie

checked into all stars on 12-20 at 11 an.my room was ready got to pick the buzz and woody rooms. the boys were thrilled,they swan in the cold weather. i was treated great also tiffany towncar was great with me changing driving time to airport. nice trip

I thought that everything at Disney was sterilized and Americanized for your protection. Oh horrors!!! \:D/

Disney is so obsessed with keeping their stock price up that they cut corners in every possible way. It is completely unacceptable considering the prices that they charge.

I never stay at a Disney hotel for what most would consider a very silly reason....they are the only hotel group that does not have a toll free reservations number. If any company is THAT cheap, they don't get my patronage.

Besides, several nice properties such as the Sheraton Lakeside offer convenient shuttle to Disney's entrance, actually closer than any Disney hotel is. In other words, it's quicker to shuttle from an off-property hotel than it is to walk or wait-in-line to monorail from a Disney hotel.

Message: We had a wonderful stay at the Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando. The best asset was the front of the line pass at the Universal Theme Parks. I am quite a Disney fan but Universal has one upped them with this perk. If I had to search for a complaint it would be the rooms are starting to show some wear. The staff was premiere. We ate at Tschoup Chop at the Royal Pacific and it was great. Palms at Hard Rock was excellent but their portions were TOO BIG... The waitress was very very good. I usually whine about the small things and my wife and I are fortunate to travel a great deal. I'm picky and couldn't find much to pick on there!! I could go on and on and believe me I would if I was not 150% satisfied. I WAS. Please feel free to ask away if you have any q's! Universal parks were super.

It drives me mad when someone has a less-than-perfect experience, and then posts an all points bulletin to have others jump on their grudge-mobile.
Yawn, you described your experience as a "cautionary tale", but chose to name your post "AVOID the etc..."

Disney, fortunately, can weather the storm of this thread, but when I see this done to a small or fledgeling business, it is a disgrace.

I don't mean to offend anyone here, including the original poster, but not everthing in the world, including a well-planned vacation goes without a hitch. Yawn, you rolled with it,and you survived.

Thanks for listening.

Wefferman, I agree with you that Universal has done some things much better than Disney. My sons enjoyed Islands of Adventure more than Magic Kingdom. If someone were asking me for advice on Orlando, I'd recommend Universal over much of Disney. And I do feel compelled to stick up for Yawn. Having a hotel be overbooked and being moved to a totally different hotel is a pretty unusual travel experience and I'd not be thrilled to have to go through that. I'd personally want to avoid some hotel/restaurant/etc. that many people have had many problems with, but that's just my opinion.