dlpmikki
10-11-2007, 07:36 AM
Friday 5th October
Today was not a good day for my humans. It starts with a (by now) familiar tale of the being told one thing by one person and another by another and ends with – well, as I write on Tuesday it has not ended yet.
First thing: the express checkout has not worked and Mikki is asked to contact someone on the ‘phone. She says the credit card company wanted to speak to the cardholder and – since the cardholder was not about - refused payment. “Can I speak to them now?” asks Mikki. “No. Give us a different card.” “I would rather not, the one you have is on a dollar account and I don’t want to pay currency charges at the rate Visa gives. Can I come to the desk, let you put it through again and then speak to the company if they want me?” “Oh. Yes, I suppose so.”
But down at the desk, it is a different story. The clerk, Chet, refuses to contact the card company or do anything. He insists Mikki must telephone the company (in England). He says he expects she is over her limit (quite offensive to put it mildly).:mad: Mikki comes back and dials our bank in England (Citibank). Fortunately, we have a calling card so do not have to pay Disney’s outrageous international call charges ($10 a minute) but it is still a cost in time and money. Eventually, she gets past the succession of, “for something you don’t want please press 1; . . .” and speaks to another human. There is plenty of money in the account but there is a record of a false PIN number having been entered. This is fascinating as the card does not use PIN numbers in the USA and nobody has asked us for one.
Now it’s both humans off to Reception. Chet swipes both Mikki’s and Andrew’s cards and gets refusals. He rings the card company and is told they will not speak to us or give a reason for the refusal. After some time, a manager agrees they will mail a bill to us for settlement by cheque (no, it’ll be a $US one so it’ll be a check ;)). Mikki rings England again. The automated system seems to show a reduction in available funds of about the amount of the Disney bill but the system cuts her off before she gets through to the human being again.
We all set off to a Zag n meet at Epcot. With all the frustration at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we are a little late but they have not yet left the meeting place. The humans start to eat (and for some, drink) their way round the world. As we reach The American Adventure, everyone discovers a strong need to go inside and listen to the Voices of Liberty (who are excellent). I do like the way Americans show their national pride like this. I think it was quite mean of my British humans to think the thunderstorm had anything to do with it. :D
We left the party as they went on round World Showcase as it was time for us to check into our next resort: Marriott’s Sabal Palms. We are staying for a week in one of their two bdroom villas.
Sabal Palms is on the property of Marriott;s World Center Hotel. The first things we notice is the heavy traffic for the hotel (or for a convention that is in today) and the winding route past the parking garage. We think this is temporary during building works on extended convention facilities.
Like other Marriott resorts we have used, the accommodation is spacious and well equipped – but the finishes are not quite to Disney standards. Sabal Palms is all two storey buildings with lovely views of a golf course. We are in a second storey villa. Each of these has its own staircase (so no elevators). Another notable feature for anyone used to Disney is that the (large) balcony is screened. As our native Orlandian friend once said, “This is Florida. We have bugs.”
Oh, another difference from Disney is that there is free wireless Internet (and it works, although you have to beware the pop-ups we suspect come from a local hacker). Mikki sends her first “e-mail” to her Citibank manager in London to try to get him to sort the card issues out.
My humans have hardly eaten today so they go to the Outback Steakhouse in time to catch “happy hour”. While “eating round the world”, they came to a stall claiming to be “Australia” and selling “shrimp on the barbie”. None of our group who tried it were impressed. The shrimp was steamed or microwaved, the vegetables were cold and the whole thing was tasteless. So, Mikki could not resist getting the real thing as her appetiser at Outback. She followed with a chicken griller while Andrew had a steak. Yum, yum. :cloud9:
Today was not a good day for my humans. It starts with a (by now) familiar tale of the being told one thing by one person and another by another and ends with – well, as I write on Tuesday it has not ended yet.
First thing: the express checkout has not worked and Mikki is asked to contact someone on the ‘phone. She says the credit card company wanted to speak to the cardholder and – since the cardholder was not about - refused payment. “Can I speak to them now?” asks Mikki. “No. Give us a different card.” “I would rather not, the one you have is on a dollar account and I don’t want to pay currency charges at the rate Visa gives. Can I come to the desk, let you put it through again and then speak to the company if they want me?” “Oh. Yes, I suppose so.”
But down at the desk, it is a different story. The clerk, Chet, refuses to contact the card company or do anything. He insists Mikki must telephone the company (in England). He says he expects she is over her limit (quite offensive to put it mildly).:mad: Mikki comes back and dials our bank in England (Citibank). Fortunately, we have a calling card so do not have to pay Disney’s outrageous international call charges ($10 a minute) but it is still a cost in time and money. Eventually, she gets past the succession of, “for something you don’t want please press 1; . . .” and speaks to another human. There is plenty of money in the account but there is a record of a false PIN number having been entered. This is fascinating as the card does not use PIN numbers in the USA and nobody has asked us for one.
Now it’s both humans off to Reception. Chet swipes both Mikki’s and Andrew’s cards and gets refusals. He rings the card company and is told they will not speak to us or give a reason for the refusal. After some time, a manager agrees they will mail a bill to us for settlement by cheque (no, it’ll be a $US one so it’ll be a check ;)). Mikki rings England again. The automated system seems to show a reduction in available funds of about the amount of the Disney bill but the system cuts her off before she gets through to the human being again.
We all set off to a Zag n meet at Epcot. With all the frustration at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we are a little late but they have not yet left the meeting place. The humans start to eat (and for some, drink) their way round the world. As we reach The American Adventure, everyone discovers a strong need to go inside and listen to the Voices of Liberty (who are excellent). I do like the way Americans show their national pride like this. I think it was quite mean of my British humans to think the thunderstorm had anything to do with it. :D
We left the party as they went on round World Showcase as it was time for us to check into our next resort: Marriott’s Sabal Palms. We are staying for a week in one of their two bdroom villas.
Sabal Palms is on the property of Marriott;s World Center Hotel. The first things we notice is the heavy traffic for the hotel (or for a convention that is in today) and the winding route past the parking garage. We think this is temporary during building works on extended convention facilities.
Like other Marriott resorts we have used, the accommodation is spacious and well equipped – but the finishes are not quite to Disney standards. Sabal Palms is all two storey buildings with lovely views of a golf course. We are in a second storey villa. Each of these has its own staircase (so no elevators). Another notable feature for anyone used to Disney is that the (large) balcony is screened. As our native Orlandian friend once said, “This is Florida. We have bugs.”
Oh, another difference from Disney is that there is free wireless Internet (and it works, although you have to beware the pop-ups we suspect come from a local hacker). Mikki sends her first “e-mail” to her Citibank manager in London to try to get him to sort the card issues out.
My humans have hardly eaten today so they go to the Outback Steakhouse in time to catch “happy hour”. While “eating round the world”, they came to a stall claiming to be “Australia” and selling “shrimp on the barbie”. None of our group who tried it were impressed. The shrimp was steamed or microwaved, the vegetables were cold and the whole thing was tasteless. So, Mikki could not resist getting the real thing as her appetiser at Outback. She followed with a chicken griller while Andrew had a steak. Yum, yum. :cloud9: