What happened to the Poly?

[Daisy'sMom]

A friend of mine took her family to MVMCP last Sunday. To make it a special night, she got a room at the Poly. When they got into the room, they noticed the carpet was soaking wet. The two 6 year olds had taken off their shoes and their socks were drenched. Her husband opened one of the drawers and found a box of half eaten donuts. She went down to the lobby where she was promised it would be fixed. They got back to their room late and nothing had been taken care of. This was after 11pm, and her husband went down to the lobby and was told, "well this is one of the cheaper rooms". They asked several times to speak with the manager. Not one supervisor had the courtesy to come and speak with them. They left, vowing never to return, driving several hours home. Now, has the polivy for FL residents changed. Just because you are offered a cheaper amt, you are to expect less from a Disney Deluxe than a Motel Six?
I was very disgusted when I heard this had happened.:mad:

[Jasper]

Obviously I can't speak for what happened in this specific case but that is NOT the norm for Disney at ANY of its resorts much less one of the Deluxe ones! If they have not already done so I would strongly suggest that they contact the Disney Company and try to get to as high a level person within the resorts division as possible and lay out their case about what happened. This is not an excuse, but the higher level people cannot know about every single instance of bad service unless someone tells them about it.

By the way, before they make any telephone calls or write any e-mails/letters it would be helpful for your friends to write down in as much detail as possible what actually happened. They should be sure to include dates, times, room number, and if possible who they spoke to by name, and what those people told them they would do about the situation.

By writing it down in advance and having it in front of them for any calls or letters it helps to make sure that they don't miss anything important and also helps keep your friend from getting too emotional.

It is also a good idea to write down EXACTLY what they are looking for Disney to do about this situation and then communicate those wishes to whoever they speak/write to. Of course, they should be reasonable in their request. For example, it is reasonable to ask for a refund of the room cost for the night or a discount on another room in the future. However, it is not reasonable to ask that all the people involved from the housekeeper to the manager on duty be identified and fired.

Finally, if they actually speak to someone your friend should keep notes of the conversations and if the communication is in writing then be sure to start a file folder and keep paper copies of all correspondence. This is especially important if Disney agrees to give your friends some type of compensation. And if there is to be any kind of follow up by Disney to your friends they should try to get a commitment as to when the follow up will happen and who will do it. Then if that follow up doesn't happen close to the committed time then they shouldn't hesitate to make the follow up calls themselves.

I have done this many times with all kinds of different service issues from bad products to poor customer service at all kinds of different companies and have found that an organized approach gets far better results than just complaining, yelling, cursing, or crying to someone.

[J.T.Toad]

This Post really upsets me as our family has visited the Poly many time and not once did we receive a complementary box of half eaten donuts.

JT
:funny:

[chamonix]

When they first went to the desk to inform them about the carpet, the way it should have been "taken care of" was to move them to a dry room, immediately. What else did your friends think was going to be done to fix it? (I will assume they could have thrown the donuts away themselves, so that's not really a problem that needs to be "taken care of" it's just another indication the room had not been serviced properly) TBH, this is a lesson for them in making sure something is taken care of themselves, they should have asked to be moved and not left the desk area without new keys to a new dry room.

I agree though, that no matter what the case, they should not have been told that they should just deal with it because it's "one of the cheaper rooms". That is completely unacceptable, no matter what resort they are at!! :mad: Believe me, if that was said to me, they would be very shocked at my response, and a manager would be callled immediately. I would be livid.

Definitely write to Disney with all the details about time, any info on which CM said this, etc etc. I'm sorry their special night was ruined. I can only hope that they misunderstood the CM somehow. Perhaps s/he just said something about not having any more of that category of room available to change them to? Which, is also a poor excuse, because in that case, they should be moved to any room, anywhere on property that had dry carpet, no matter the cost category.

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Managers don't like to hear complaints.
2) Especially if they can't get solved QUICKLY.
3) It goes against them if complaints go beyond them.
4) So, "sometimes" they try to avoid issues.

5) They next time you need a manager after Day Shift
. . . first ask for the manager on call
. . . if no call to you, go the next step
. . . call the operator and ask for "Duty Mgr" (use this term)
6) Duty Managers are in charge of 1-4 resorts.
7) If there is a complaint, they MUST respond.

NOTE: There are good managers that take on any problem in order to help guests. There are others that try to ignore problems. If someone creates waves at WDW (like not resolving problems and having complaints escalate), it counts against them hard.

[AbeeNormal]

This Post really upsets me as our family has visited the Poly many time and not once did we receive a complementary box of half eaten donuts.

JT
:funny:

I'm sorry to tread on this post but that was hilarious.

Thanks for the great laugh J.T. Toad:thumbsup:

[Polynesian Dweller]

The mistake made here by Disney staff, and it is a huge one, was to not immediately move the people to a different room. Friends of mine have been in the same predicament at Disney, at CBR, but were immediately moved. I'm sure that's more like what the standards are. The failure to do that definitely requires a complaint and some compensation from Disney.

[kathymk616]

This Post really upsets me as our family has visited the Poly many time and not once did we receive a complementary box of half eaten donuts.

JT
:funny:


I'm sorry to tread on this post but that was hilarious.

Thanks for the great laugh J.T. Toad:thumbsup:

Ditto. That was hilarious! Hope it gave the O.P. at least a chuckle for all their trouble!

[Nate's Grandpa]

"well this is one of the cheaper rooms".

This has to be one of the stupidest things ever said to a guest at any hotel. If upper management ever hears of this, somebody will seeking employment elsewhere.

I suppose if it had been a more expensive room there would have been a half eaten pizza left for them.

If satisfaction can not be obtained through Disney, there is always the Better Business Bureau.

[CaptainJessicaSparrow]

I'm not jumping to any conclusions here...but this sounds a little fishy to me. And I'm not referring to the food at the Poly.

If there's anything I know about Disney, is that they don't like unhappy guests. And they usually go out of their way to help guests. I've seen them offer to drive guests off-property to buy them clothes since the airport lost their luggage (which many guests blame on DME....). I've personally had them offer to make me another dishes if I didn't like the first one I ordered. I've seen them comp so much for the smallest thing and going above and beyond.

I think that this just seems like so non-Disney that I think they might have checked into the wrong resort that wasn't the Poly.

[tikiman]

Chances are that the carpet was wet from them deep cleaning it. I have checked in a few times to a wet carpet but I was glad it was cleaned that well. Also it usually dries in a few hours.

Since this discussion where the CM said "well this is one of the cheaper rooms" is hearsay I will not try ad comment on it. I would be surprised if that is exactly what they said.

I think you have to pay extra to get the doughnuts in the drawers or maybe it is if you are on the premium dinning plan.

[Tygger7]

If there's anything I know about Disney, is that they don't like unhappy guests. And they usually go out of their way to help guests. I've seen them offer to drive guests off-property to buy them clothes since the airport lost their luggage (which many guests blame on DME....). I've personally had them offer to make me another dishes if I didn't like the first one I ordered. I've seen them comp so much for the smallest thing and going above and beyond.

I hate to say this, but this wasn't how CM's acted when we had problems at the WL. Long story, but we had requested a non-smoking room and got a smoking room that was unbearable. When I complained to the front desk, they said they could move me to another room...but only if we moved THAT INSTANT. I explained that moving at that moment would cause us to lose our dinner reservations, and the response was, "Oh well, then there's nothing we can do." I asked for a manager and they agreed to deodorize the room, but it still stunk.

The instance referred to at the Poly is totally unacceptable, and I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me that this happened at a deluxe resort. I don't know how much good it will do, if any, to submit a complaint after the fact, but it's worth a try. I submitted a complaint about the problems we encountered, and all I got was a standard "sorry about your luck" form letter response.

[Ian]

If there's anything I know about Disney, is that they don't like unhappy guests. And they usually go out of their way to help guests.Couple points here ... first and foremost, this is the way Disney World used to be, but not so much any more. They really seem to have adopted an attitude at WDW that says, "Look ... if you're not in your room someone else will be, so either take what we give you and shut up or go somewhere else."

Don't believe me? Check out the boards for the sheer number of bad experiences people have had lately with housekeeping and management's response (or lack thereof) to issues. It's even happened to members of my family ... basically this exact same thing.

Secondly, I believe that front desk is outsourced at the Poly, so technically these weren't folks weren't really dealing with "Disney." Makes me wonder if the outsourcing company has some sort of incentive in their contract to keep complaints down, ergo they try and sweep them under the rug whenever possible. Maybe they figure you'll go away mad, but you'll just go away.

Personally, I think that Disney (the company) has basically abandoned all pretense of meeting their own standards in WDW. I think the place is so darn big, the cast so huge, and the maintenance requirements so demanding that they've just decided to let the place go. People keep coming, so why not?

I can tell you on this past stay last week, I saw about 100 examples of bad show, poor guest servicing, indifferent (and sometimes openly hostile) cast, lousy maintenance, and terrible Imagineering.

It's come to the point now where I go to WDW knowing full well I'm not going to get a real Disney experience. I just have learned to live with it and not let it bother me anymore.

But anyway, back to the OP's post ... tell them to complain in writing long and loudly until someone listens. It probably won't get them anywhere, but maybe ... just maybe ... if enough people complain long enough and loud enough someone higher up will get tired of listening and make some changes.

[WriteDisney]

If there's anything I know about Disney, is that they don't like unhappy guests. And they usually go out of their way to help guests. I've seen them offer to drive guests off-property to buy them clothes since the airport lost their luggage (which many guests blame on DME....). I've personally had them offer to make me another dishes if I didn't like the first one I ordered. I've seen them comp so much for the smallest thing and going above and beyond.

I think that this just seems like so non-Disney that I think they might have checked into the wrong resort that wasn't the Poly.

I completely agree. Every trip I take to Disney I have seen service above and beyond and not just in the resorts. I've seen a level of service that does not compare to other resorts anywhere. I've seen Disney on New Years Eve last year when the parks were at maximum capacity and I didn't run into a single employee who wasn't going above and beyond in trying to make the parks guests day enjoyable. Same thing with the resorts, I've stayed at an All Star resort with my entire HS senior class and at Coronado Springs last february and had the same service in the resorts as in the parks, absolutely amazing.

However, I will say that every one in a while you might run into a bad seed, I don't think that should take away from the overall quality of Disney. I definetely don't think Disney service has ever or will ever be going down hill.

[DisneyFan1979]

Given the sheer volume of hotel guests that Disney must deal with on a daily basis, overall I think Disney does a really good job (especially as compared to other hotels of the same size).

That said, I've learned that when you have a problem with your room - you have to be very firm, but polite, in raising your complaint. You really can't leave the front desk until the problem has been resolved to your satisfaction. One thing to remember is that there are some people who will just complain about something for the sake of complaining and will do so in a rude way. So, while there are of course a few "bad apple" castmembers, sometimes even the good ones may get tired and impatient after having dealt with rude guests.

I recommend writing a letter to Disney Guest Relations. We had a problem with our room at Boardwalk when we checked in the day before Thanksgiving a couple years ago - got a smoking room that smelled horrible (the front desk moved us to a new room after we expressed our displeasure rather firmly), key printer broken, and toilet clogged in new room. I wrote a very detailed letter to guest relations after the trip and got a very quick call back from Disney along with complimentary 1-day park hopper passes. And I think if I had complained more during our phone call, she probably would have given us more as the passes were her first offer.

[tikiman]

Secondly, I believe that front desk is outsourced at the Poly, so technically these weren't folks weren't really dealing with "Disney." Makes me wonder if the outsourcing company has some sort of incentive in their contract to keep complaints down, ergo they try and sweep them under the rug whenever possible. Maybe they figure you'll go away mad, but you'll just go away.

That statment is not a fact. The valet is outsourced but not anyone in the lobby.

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . The valet is outsourced but not anyone in the lobby . . .

1) This is accurate.
2) I can see a lot more outsourcing, but not the Front Desk.
3) This is too important as a "Disney Face" to give to strangers.
4) Front Desk and Lobby Concierge can make-or-break the experience.
. . . they can keep the upbeat experience continuing
. . . they can reverse a developing bad experience
5) We cannot understate the importance of these underpaid individuals.

NOTE: Just to bolster this, it was a Front Desk CM that lost a star for the Grand Floridian. A Front Desk CM also cost the Beach Club a star, but the General Manager was able to campaign for a re-evaluation and got the star back. Not so the GF.

[MickeyMousse]

I'd call my credit card company and stop payment on that charge ASAP. :noway:

[Ian]

That statment is not a fact. The valet is outsourced but not anyone in the lobby.I checked and you're correct. I could have sworn I read before that they were planning on outsourcing guest relations positions at their deluxe resorts, but that does not appear to be the case. Everything I've found just says it's valet and baggage handling positions.

My mistake.

[Mackflava99]

Once when we were staying at the WL- we were at the parks one day and when we returned, our keys didnt work (?) we went to the front desk and they said- "Oh we have you scheduled to check out today?"We had been checked out. But we actually had 2 more days-
I showed them my keys which had the days imprinted on them and the original reservation. It was obvious we were still staying there. Out clothes were still in the room.
As it turns out, there was a computer issue at the WL which caused this in a number of people.
So they fixed our keys and we went back to the room.
BUT- our park hoppers and DDP were also canceled due to our "check-out" so we had to spend 2 hours waiting in the lobby to correct it- rushed to our ADR at Concourse and our cards again were void.- we had to pay cash for dinner .
Basically it was a real mess- the manager couldn't help, and we were upset-
Then the next morning the day shift manager corrected everything so our last day was pleasant-
They also worked out the $$ we spent for dinner and credited us the amount. They apoligized alot and tried their best to make us feel better.
Then when we checked out we had 2 bills, and the person at the front desk was all confused. The 2nd bill was for the entire stay and the 1st was for the first 5 days- so they wanted us to pay both? So it didnt get better- I complained in writing and Customer Service got back to s and helped ease the troubles- I felt alot better because they really seemed to care about our issues.

[tikiman]

I checked and you're correct. I could have sworn I read before that they were planning on outsourcing guest relations positions at their deluxe resorts, but that does not appear to be the case. Everything I've found just says it's valet and baggage handling positions.

My mistake.

No problem. I would not be surprised if there have been rumors of this happening so I am sure you did hear it somewhere. Lets hope it never happens and like therustyscupper said it is up to them to set the tone of the guests experience and they are under paid and overworked.

By the way, the outsourced valet ad baggage (not the bellmen, they are still Disney for now) has been a negative experience for our family so far. They were nice but very much under trained.

Aloha

Steve

[Ian]

I had a major issue with one of the valets at the Poly on this past trip. I had to escalate to a manager who finally took care of it, but the guy I originally had to deal with was very rude and unhelpful.

[tikiman]

I had a major issue with one of the valets at the Poly on this past trip. I had to escalate to a manager who finally took care of it, but the guy I originally had to deal with was very rude and unhelpful.

Yeah the new system at valet needs some serious improvement. They had trouble communicating with concierge and we sat at the curb for 30 minutes with no one doing anything with our bags. They even told us that our room was not ready and it was. They told us they would just put our bags in storage and left us sitting there. Eventually a Disney bellmen came by and took our bags and us to the room and apologized for the people up front. He was worried they are going to start to outsource his job eventually.

[Ian]

That's oddly like what happened to us at the Poly. And now that I think about it, it happened at the Beach Club, too.

Also, when we checked out from Saratoga we had a mystery $10 charge for "Beach Club Valet Parking" on our bill. I don't pay for valet parking since I'm a DVC member, as evidenced by the fact that I parked there 5 times and they only charged me once.

Irritating ...

[Hammer]

That's oddly like what happened to us at the Poly. And now that I think about it, it happened at the Beach Club, too.

Also, when we checked out from Saratoga we had a mystery $10 charge for "Beach Club Valet Parking" on our bill. I don't pay for valet parking since I'm a DVC member, as evidenced by the fact that I parked there 5 times and they only charged me once.

Irritating ...


Don't get me started on the outsourced valets...

There was such a ruckus over my Wilderness Lodge review that I pointed out some negatives that I never got around to writing about our poor valet experience at the Beach Club (the valets at the Wilderness Lodge were quite good). As we paid for valet parking for our entire stay at WL, we used valet parking ever evening when we would go to dinner. So, we parked at the Beach Club and went to dinner. After dinner, my sister and I went over to the Boardwalk and had a drink at the Bellevue Room. We go to get our car at the Beach Club. It's after 11PM so it is night staff. We finally find the valet (had to go to the front desk) and give our ticket. And we wait..and wait. Meanwhile I noticed a car off to the side. After waiting over 20 minutes, I take a closer look at the car off to the side. It is our rental car and it has a flat tire caused by a nail! Well, now the fun starts! We get the night manager out there and no one is going to admit to leaving the car there or causing the flat tire (there isn't any way my sister and I drove from Wilderness Lodge to Beach Club and not notice the tire going flat). Finally, my sister gets some info about contacting the 3rd party vendor to "see" about covering the damages (replacement tire). After getting the doughnut tire put on(my sister and I are perfectly capable of changing a tire, but at this point we made them do it). My sister informs them as we are leaving that she is an account manager for a NYC event planning company and that the outsourcing of the valets was one of the stupidest moves Disney has ever made :mad:!

[Ian]

I've had multiple problems with Beach Club valets, mostly revolving around them charging me when they shouldn't.

They also brought me the wrong car the other night and then never said anything when they saw me standing there for 20 minutes with two young kids at 10:30 at night!!

I mean they brought around what they thought was my car ... didn't they wonder why I was still standing there, leaning on the valet counter???

They stink.

[tikiman]

That's oddly like what happened to us at the Poly. And now that I think about it, it happened at the Beach Club, too.

Also, when we checked out from Saratoga we had a mystery $10 charge for "Beach Club Valet Parking" on our bill. I don't pay for valet parking since I'm a DVC member, as evidenced by the fact that I parked there 5 times and they only charged me once.

Irritating ...


I got a good one for you. Boardwalk valet!!! I checked out early to get to a early flight. I wet to the valet booth and no one was there. I waited a while than went to the booth again to see if there was a bell. I looked over the counter and the guy was balled up in the corner asleep.

[garymacd]

This Post really upsets me as our family has visited the Poly many time and not once did we receive a complementary box of half eaten donuts.

JT
:funny:

Oh man! I nearly fell off the couch! The situation is terrible and unacceptable; but .... oh man!

:funny:

:laughing:

:rotfl:

[4myprincesses]

The OP sounds very much like what we encountered at POFQ this past September. We've stayed there many times before and always enjoyed a clean room, friendly service and attentiveness from the staff. I am not afraid of a little dirt, I am not afraid to wait my turn. However, when you check into your room after dinner (wasn't available at noon, understandably, before we hit the parks) and it is 1 AM before you are finally moved to a new room and then the next day they transfer you back to the same room still dirty (dirty as in enough dust you could write your name on the armoir and see it in the dark, candy wrappers (hershey's kisses) all over the floor, powder on the floor in front of the sinks, hairs (as in not one of two, but gross amounts of hair) on the bathroom floor...uck! It was not until late that next day that we got our room. We didn't have to pay for the one night that we got transferred to a new room at 1 AM, but family that joined us the next day had their room before we did. A good thing too as we had to be out of our "substitute" room before our dirty room was cleaned.
Their sompensation for our trouble was a $50 credit to our room and we did appreciate it. Not sure we will stay there again though. We delt with housekeeping, valet/bell services (when we checked in after dinner the first night, we could not get our baggage as the one guy working in there could not be reached and the place was, understandably, locked), front desk, night manager, day manager...only one person of the many we dealt with even said "I am so sorry for all this and I'll do what I can to help" and he was a front desk guy "earning his ears" and stayed as long as he was allowed past his shift trying to help us. Amazing how 3 or 4 nice stays can be erased a bit in your mind after one really bad one. I know it was all pretty much that we just hit the bad stuff all at once. Any one of the things rectified quickly would have been completely understood and non-issue to us. However this turned our "romantic" night away (first one since adoption infant twins) into a night with no sleep and little idea what was going on.

[Here we go again...]

Thank you RustyScupper for letting us know who to ask for the next time we have issues with our room.

I am happy to say that I have not had too many problems, but POR will always bug me.
We had Mousekeeping issues every day but there was one night that we had no toilet paper and could not get any one to bring us any. Good thing we were staying right next to the pool so we were able to use that restroom until someone in our family made the long walk to the front desk.

Another night we arrived to the room to find one of the beds with no sheets. We had to wait over 30 minutes for sheets that were handed to us. We had to make the bed ourselves.

I went to speak to the manager the next day and got the "sorry and we will make sure nothing like this happens again" speech. We will never stay at POR again.

[Brian]

If there's anything I know about Disney, is that they don't like unhappy guests. And they usually go out of their way to help guests. I've seen them offer to drive guests off-property to buy them clothes since the airport lost their luggage (which many guests blame on DME....). I've personally had them offer to make me another dishes if I didn't like the first one I ordered. I've seen them comp so much for the smallest thing and going above and beyond.

Unfortunately, depending on the cast member they spoke to, I completely believe the original poster's story. We stayed at the Contemporary two years ago. I ordered flowers for my wife from the Disney Florist as it was our anniversary. The delivery date came and went and our flowers never showed up. I checked with the front desk and found out that the front desk staff who was delivering them to our room dropped them and broke the vase. Not only did they never inform us of the problem (they just decided not to deliver them), they never made an effort to correct it (send new flowers) or refund me for the flowers. I had to coordinate that myself between the Disney Florist staff and the Contemporary.

So, I wouldn't put it past staff at one of the resorts to handle things the way the original poster described.

[Sinewiz]

"well this is one of the cheaper rooms". I'm sorry but you just have to laugh. I can't imagine someone at Motel 6 saying something that stupid, much less someone at the Polynesian. I stayed there a few months ago and I didn't realize there was a cheap room. :D

[Daisy'sMom]

"well this is one of the cheaper rooms". I'm sorry but you just have to laugh. I can't imagine someone at Motel 6 saying something that stupid, much less someone at the Polynesian. I stayed there a few months ago and I didn't realize there was a cheap room. :D

I know for a fact that this did happen and my friends thought they had made a wrong turn and were indeed at a Motel 6.:mad:

[TBone]

We had a problem room at the Poly a couple of trips ago. The room smelled, the sliding door didn't lock, there was mold in the shower. It took going to two levels of manager to get some resolution. They said that there were no more rooms so they cleaned our carpet, put fresh drapes up, changed the throw pillows and the comforters and cleaned the shower. That seemed to work but the fan in the bathroom didn't work right, and two repairmen couldn't fix it, it shut off after a couple of minutes and the bathroom steams up.

The service is nowhere near where it was years ago, in my opinion, it's not magic anymore, just another business trip with hassles.

[LGL]

I just returned from the Poly, which is my family's favorite hotel at WDW. We have stayed at most of the deluxes, including the GF, and we still prefer the Poly. That being said, this time my husband and I were very disappointed, particularly with housekeeping, and I don't know if we'll stay there again.

Yes, the rooms are large. The Poly and the Contemporary have the largest rooms since they were the two original hotels. We were surprised that our room at the GF (we stayed there in March) was much smaller and shabbier (well-worn furniture, no flat-screen TV. TINY bathroom, etc.). But at the Poly, the carpet was so filthy that my kids' white socks were gray in seconds, and black within the hour. The carpet is brown, so it's hard to see the dirt, but it was very dirty. One of the bedspreads was full of holes on the inside. A bobby pin (not mine!) was on the bathroom floor when we checked in and it remained there for three days. Soap was not replaced; we were not even given fresh soap each day. We are a family of four and were not given more than 2 hand towels until our fifth day, or any extra bath towels, though they were requested. Our TV inexplicably turned on, at full volume, each morning at precisely 7:08 and when we requested they fix it, the front desk CM expressed disbelief at my complaint and it was never fixed the entire week we were there. On our first day, we had groceries delivered that had come before our arrival. After waiting 30 minutes for them to come (we had to have someone in the room), they forgot our refrigerated items and when I unpacked, realized it, and called them back, they said I'd have to wait another 45 minutes even though it was their mistake. We sent out laundry one day that was promised back by 6pm the following day (our last night) and when it hadn't arrived at 6, I called and was told that it was delivered to the resort at 6 and I wouldn't get it until 7 or 8. We needed the clothing for dinner that night, but that was that. Beds were made sloppily each day, sometimes the bedspreads were just pulled up over messy sheets (hard to keep sheets neat when they don't use fitted bottom sheets). The triple sheeting they used right after the renovations has disappeared, and so has turndown service (they say you can request it, but even if you do it doesn't happen, at least not to us).

I admit I am picky about hotels. But this is not a deluxe hotel by any definition. The location is great, and we love the atmosphere and the Kona Cafe.Cann Cook's is much less convenient than it used to be, with far less to offer. The rooms are really dirty-- corners are thick with dust and no furniture is ever moved for vacuuming, even between guests. I tried not to look too closely at anything, and put it out of my mind, but it is really a shame that after spending so much money on the renovations,they would let housekeeping slide so much that this is the result.

As far as the "cheap room" comment, this puzzles me since I have stayed in every type of room from lagoon view concierge to garden view, in almost every building, and almost every room is exactly the same (there are a couple of buildings with sinks outside the bathrooms). Only the views are different. The housekeeper would likely be the same person who is cleaning the more expensive room (view) across the hall!

[IloveDisney71]

We just returned from our very first stay at a Disney Deluxe resort & it just happened to be at the Poly and I have to tell you that we didn't experience anything like this during our 5 night stay. The room was very clean upon arrival and every day upon our return from the parks. We were in one of the "cheaper" garden view rooms.
The entire staff was helpful and very friendly. I don't recall passing any staff member that didn't speak to me first with a friendly "aloha".
We went to the front desk to make sure our bill was settled the night before we checked out (we were leaving really early the next morning) and the CM was very accomodating and so friendly. He loved that we knew how to say "merry Christmas" in Hawaiian and even went thru the trouble of writing down how to say "happy new year" for my DD. He even told her about the Disney college intern program since she works in at a hotel front desk in our hometown.
I hate that your friend had such a bad experience!
I'm happy to say that we would gladly consider returning to the Poly in the future if our budget allows us the opportunity.

[LudwigVonDrake]

Hmmm..I stayed at the Poly last summer and had a great time and everything was perfect. I'm sorry to hear of your friend's bad experience.

[Manda]

Doesn't surprise me at all. When we were there in September, there were water problems all week. We came back to our room from swimming to find no water at all one day. No one could take showers. I called the front desk and the swore it would be fixed shortly. Three hours later, only a dribble of water. I managed to wash my kid off enough with no water pressure, but there was no way I could wash myself. I called the desk again and they told me that I shouldn't have washed my kid because the water wasn't sanitary. Of course, they didn't notify anyone of this, just like they hadn't notified anyone that there wasn't water in the first place.

We were without water for hours with no reason, no explanation, and no apology. They also couldn't provide a time estimate. After many calls, I got them to provide us with a key to an unoccupied room in another building so we could shower (we couldn't really move because we had 3 rooms together). The explanation was that a pipe burst in the building (Fiji). The building was wet and musty smelling the rest of the trip.

[javamama]

Great to hear this about the Poly, hope our stay there in April at the Princess Suites goes better than wet carpeting, and eaten boxes of donuts:unsure: or else they're going to have 10 unhappy guests on there hands at once.
Last April on a good note, I left my ds' lovey in the bed at the WLV and called from the ME on the way out, the housekeeper did find it, called me here in Chicago, before I even boarded my flight home--excellent service IMO:thumbsup:
Now the WLV, blew bigtime, I set up my pickup time, reconfirmed it because I wanted the bags checked thru to Chicago, they forgot to pick up the luggage then the airport checkin part was closed, ME was waiting for the 6 of us---can you say nightmare:mad: On the contracting out stuff, in my job I've been the one contracted out so I hate it bigtime, but it seems like all these huge corps are doing it more and more. Some company comes in, claims they can provide the "same" service which we all know rarely happens at a cheaper price---I loathe it, and lost my job to it. So when I get awful service from a contract person, someone will hear about it. I was an airline employee frontline airport customer service for 15 years, so this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.