Thanks. Yes, I am aware of those discounts. The issue my past couple trips is that the room types I have been considering were not part of the discount (or perhaps were gone by the time I checked late morning on the day the offer went into effect). Going back 5 years and prior, I was able to get these discounts for rooms at GF and CR, but the past few years, the discounts seem to be much more limited at the Monorail Deluxes.
I had the same issue with the “bounce back” offer when I was at WDW last fall. The rooms I was interested in were not included in the bounce back offer.
For these reasons, I have paid rack rate my last 2 trips. I have seen various posters say things like “no one should ever pay rack rate”, but my experience has been that if you only want to stay at a Monorail resort, these days rack rate can often be the only option.
I just watched this on YouTube with my wife last night.
While I think Pete was justified in his thoughts, and he was fair about it…I was really annoyed at how incredibly and needlessly long the video was. We got MOSTLY segments of him stating what he was upset about, followed by ANOTHER segment of him stating the exact same thing again, filmed at a different time, interspersed with needless footage of them shopping, followed by ANOTHER segment of him complaining about the same thing in the same way, and ending with, you guessed it, him complaining about the same thing in the same way.
It is a prime example of VERY poor editing on their part. The entire video could have been 1/3 as long and been more effective. I left less upset with the Grand Floridian and more annoyed with Pete.
Funny b/c we had this happen when we stayed at AKL 5 years ago- otherwise it was a fantastic stay, but it was definitely annoying that we would come back after a long day, exhausted and then have to walk all the way back to the front desk (happened several times in the 5 days we were there).
Stayed at GF this past Thanksgiving and had a lovely time! Nothing to complain about, but agree the rooms are tried and in need of refurb.
Most recent stay was CSR just last month and had a fantastic stay! Beautiful grounds, amazing CMs and room brand newly refurbbed. My ONLY complaint were the swarms of love bugs all over the place.
Between bounce back, AP, regular discounts, and MVT I have had to work at it but the only time I have paid rack rate was my first trip. Now, I have switch to DVC because I assume discounts will be limited for a while.
We go once a year for 4-5 days so AP discounts are not an option for us. I have never checked with MVT as I have always booked directly, but maybe I will check with them next time. My inflexibility on room choice has definitely impacted my ability to get discounts. For example, for our anniversary trip, my wife and I only wanted a tower room in the Contemporary (as I recall there were discounts in the garden wing, but not the tower).
ryan, I had the exact same thoughts. i was actually a bit surprised by how unprofessional it all felt given who he is. I hadn’t watched any DIS videos before so I assumed it would be a bit more polished. Room nice, couch awful, really bad experience with that front desk staff. Got it. He sort of glossed over the excellent response he got the next day.
I think it boiled down to his being so stunned and outraged by that one CM. I don’t blame his reaction but think it influenced the review too much.
I’ve heard him mention in the past using AP Rates or discounts that are widely available to the public on reviews before. He doesn’t always pay rack rate, per se, but he won’t write a review if he’s given a free room or a rate that wouldn’t be widely available to the public.
I think this whole thing was blown way out of proportion for what really happened, and frankly was left wondering what the other side of story was from the alleged “W” CM, to be really frank. We’re staying at the GF in 3 months at 54% of the cost (after taxes) this guy complained about and expect to have a great time.
Right, BWI had a chef from Flying Fish in the CL lounge every evening, and on Sunday morning, too, for brunch. Our stay there was outstanding in every way- and I am very picky about hotels as anyone who knows me can attest- I’ve asked for a different room (or different hotel!) many times over the last couple dozen years. I had two small incidents occur at BWI- one their fault and one mine and both times the problem was rectified with speed and courtesy.
If anyone needs an alternative to GF, BWI might be it. It’s a little bit understated compared to the GF, though, as it is smaller, so the “wow” factor is less. I happen to like that, though. GF is a bit palatial, BWI more quietly elegant.
However the service was top-notch and that’s my usual complaint about WDW- that they’re too big and “corporate” to have stellar service. Not this time. I am happy to have been proven wrong.
I appreciated the review. I thought it sounded quite fair, Pete definitely shared the positives of the hotel (I’m now second guessing not planning at eating at The Grand Floridian Cafe) as well as being direct and fair about the criticism. I would have a harder time believing the review but for the fact that both Pete and his mother praised most of their experience and had only positive things to say about the other cast members.
I did not think the criticism was blown out of proportion. Excellent customer service and elevated furnishings are what people are paying for when they are spending anything over $500/night at a hotel or resort (in my opinion). Heck, if I’m spending $200/night I expect great customer service and most of the time get it. A big thank you to all the hard working people in hotel and hospitality customer service!
We have stayed at the Grand Floridian before and (thankfully) had a much different experience but I think everyone going to a deluxe resort should able to expect deluxe service.
At no time, ever, is it acceptable for a member of any service team to give a guest a hard time. And the fact that she was in sight of the first two interactions and did not step in to resolve the matter says a lot about her.
The customer is always right. And when the customer is wrong, review that rule again.
Though I will say it was good for me as a consumer and an agent to see that having the same lead guest on two overlapping ressies can cause trouble. This came up recently and I was advised to have different leads as this can happen. To see it in action - I will never allow the same lead guest on two overlapping ressies.
I thought his review was, overall, fair. I had trouble, however, with him spending 2/3 of the entire 36 (?) minute review just spitting out the same issue over and over again. It’s like he forgot he just told us the same thing in the previous segment. When you edit it together, you go, “Oh. This is just rehashing the same thing. Let me cut it.” And his calling the CM at the desk as “witch” was just uncalled for, regardless of any treatment he received. Since we have no actual video of the encounter, it makes it entirely unfair to do more than tell us what happened and not make it so emotionally loaded language.
Plus, what’s the deal with us watching them shop? That shouldn’t have been a part of the review. Now, had they just showed us what the store looked like, fine. But it was focused for a long time on his mom picking out a nightgown and him a robe?
But, the takeaway for me was ultimately that for the price, they didn’t live up to the expectation, which is entirely fair. Just as Pete’s mom thought, the room was rather bland and uninspiring at the price they were paying. I regularly stay in Comfort Suites rooms at 1/6 the cost that look nicer.
We ended up eating at Grand Floridian Cafe as much as we did the QS (which is good too). I could usually booked a reservation an hour out. It was super convienient. And let DH relax more.
@ryan1 I guess we will need to agree to disagree because I thought the reason he kept bringing up the customer service issues in the review is that the situation continued to go downhill (and kept getting worse in my opinion until the very end).
1st instance - Pete’s mom (who has limited mobility) couldn’t get into her room. 3 phone calls needed to “fix” this, including one from another cast member to the front desk.
2nd instance - Pete now locked out of his room because the front desk cast member who messed up mom’s room messed up Pete’s room when she “fixed” his mom’s room. Requires Pete to go down and deal with this again with major attitude on the part of the front desk cast member.
3rd instance - Pete discussing the call from Front Desk Lead the next morning as Grand Floridian was trying to make this situation right.
Pete was doing the review in real time, as it were. If this problem had been solved the first time - I don’t think we would have heard about it over and over again. This was a continuing problem and one that the Grand Floridian didn’t handle well. I have a lot of respect for Pete giving GF (and his viewers) the information of asking for the problem to be fixed, the problem not being fixed and a guest being given primo attitude from the hotel staff who had messed up. He didn’t want free dinner, or extra fast passes. He wanted access to the rooms he had paid a huge amount of money to access.
This was all good information to have as someone who might consider booking GF. And I don’t care that Pete called an un-named person a witch in his review as he was clearly very frustrated at that point (as I would have been as well!) and didn’t call the cast member that name. He said that is how he thought of the person…but didn’t say it to her, didn’t curse at her and didn’t give any identifying information that would lead to any further issues for that cast member. Pretty tame as far as I am concerned.
Yes, and know. I agree with you initially. But then the reports from the next day, and the final day they were there, nothing new had happened. He just rehashed the entire situation both times without anything different. I had no issue with him bringing up the issues. They NEEDED to be brought up.
But, the entire video could have conveyed the exact same information to us in about 13 minutes. It ended up wasting a lot of our time, as viewers. But I think the DIS Unplugged videos, in general, struggle in this: They don’t bother doing any editing despite being in desperate need of editing.
Aren’t we all??? 