My wife and I just returned from WDW after a two week stay. It is at about 50% right now with housekeeping every four days, and Dinning menus with very limited choices. Cape May’s Cafe once had huge peeled Shrimp and all the crab legs you could eat. No more. No more a buffet but Homestyle like many other restaurants now. Ohana’s no longer delivers meats on skewers, but rather now delivered in bowls. Only two buffets that I know of at this time and they are Germany and Crystal Palace in MK. They are far from what they used to be. Disney now demands more my for Lightening Passes or Express Pass such as Universal has. $15 per person per day extra. Lines are long and on average about a hour wait. Is the Magic gone? No but it sure has been reduced. The one nice thing is the Skyliner. It runs from Pop Century, Caribbean Beach and DVC Riveaira to Hollywood Studios, Epcot at the International Gateway. It is a must. Speaking of Hollywood Studios, the Great Movie Ride is no more. Instead you have Mickey’s Runaway Train ride or a ride through a cartoon. Blah. Of coarse for you Star Wars fans there is much new ad to see. Toystory Land is great for the kids. OK last piece of information. Why stay at a Deluxe, or Intermediate resort when there is little to no housekeeping? Value Resorts cost much less and there is the Skyway instead of buses. My two cent about our trip. You may see things differently.
France pavilion is gorgeous with Reny’s addition. I love MMRR. I liked GMR too, but MMRR is magical. I like the addition of character appearances at resorts. I’m not a big buffet fan so family style suits us. I love the pop up character sightings in the parks- esp. around WS. Agree- Skyliner for the win!
Boma is also buffet and is open. We are eating there in December. I personally prefer family style to buffet, but everyone has different tastes.
We are staying at ASMo and I’ve been disappointed hearing about housekeeping from multiple sources. When I did early check in recently, it says housekeeping should be stopping by every 2 days to at least pick up trash and leave towels. If it’s that bad, Disney should really be limiting how many people stay at their resorts. I’m hearing that is already happening, but it sounds like it should be reduced even more.
Tiffins or Tusker House is doing a proper buffet right now too.
I was not so enamoured with the Skyliner. I mean it was fine when running, but had ginormous waits at park opening, and a good percentage of the time would inexplicably not be running. At Epcot, Skyliner wasn’t running, so we headed to the front of the park to take a bus instead. After hoofing it there and waiting about 20 minutes with no bus nor cast member in sight, the Skyliner started running again and we had to walk all the back to the IG.
As long as you are willing to modify your arrival and departure times to and from the park, and like playing Russian Roulette with whether it is running, it is fine. Buses were far more reliable. Now, when it was running and not a busy time, Skyliner was great.
As it relates to food, most restaurants are suffering from supply chain issues. I agree with you about housekeeping, but the worker shortage is real.
Folks stay at deluxe resorts for the amenities - full service restaurants, location, transportation, etc. As long as the room is clean upon arrival, people are graceful about housekeeping overall. And if there’s a problem they do their best (in my experience) to correct it. I appreciate your candor, though. WDW definitely needs to step up their game if they are going to continue with the exorbitant pricing.
I’ve been reading some of the reviews on ASMo just to see some of what to expect when we go. There are some positive reviews, but 2 of the biggest complaints I saw were housekeeping and paying to park at the resort. (One person even figured out people who weren’t staying at the resort were parking for free and going to the parks on the bus.). So people may appear graceful about housekeeping, but they certainly aren’t happy, including at the value resorts. I stayed in a hotel at Cape May,NJ for 2 nights in April. The hotel was completely booked due to a wedding. We received full housekeeping service while we were there. Sounds like Disney really needs to step up their game a lot to hire enough staff.
I stayed at a resort in Tucson, in August… 4 day stay ,no housekeeping…
I hate to say it but all this looks like a money grab to make up for Covid losses. How are you safe by NOT doing common room house keeping just part of the time? While we were there for two weeks housekeeping made our beds every for days. They emptied trash every other day and provided towels and or clean sheets upon request but you made the bed. Now here’s my big question. If they are cleaning or entering rooms at all, doesn’t this expose you and them to covid? Case in point. You may have noticed there are few table service buffets and menus have about three to four items listed to choose from. Why a buffet? Because I am diabetic and choose items that are mostly protein to keep my sugar level in check. That’s me but they have decided to go the home style route and bring you many items you may not want and lack item’s you do. Example: Cape May’s Cafe. Remember eating there for all you could eat crab legs, huge peeled shrimp and Claim Chowder soup. Not any more! Crab legs are gone and shrimp are unpeeled and small. Bye bye Cape May’s. For the money it just is not worth the cost. No more meats on skewr at Ohana’s. Now this is not to say some restaurants are bad but chooses are severely limited. Let’s talk about decorations for Halloween on Main Street USA. Remember the decorative pumpkins on the corners of each building? Gone. Replaced by banners. You will now find you pay more and get far less than you did. The good news is No bag checks for the most part at Security. Walk through a scanner directly to ticketing. Is the Magic gone? Somewhat yes. Will people still go? Guess so as it was a mad house while we were there. Tickets for Boo to You were $160 per person for three extra hours but that didn’t stop them from buying them up to capicity. I hope WDW gets back to normal in the near future but I have a feeling these items are here to stay. Oh yes, the Skyliner! Bright spot in all this. If you haven’t been your missing out. Do it! it’s free to ride just for the scenery. Have a Magical Day! Will we be back? Of Coarse. how could we not? Mickey. See you real soon. 
For most hotels, it’s not about safety but about lack of staffing. It’s not only a Disney problem.
I hear this too much so here is a article I just read that may be of interest and to which I agree totally. https://insidethemagic.net/2021/10/fire-bob-chapek-disney-petition-kc1/?fbclid=IwAR0FZzr2D6NIS_apijvH552CrVX7W25ZACPD-dXrh2_pGmzmH1ogbtrS69c
No. Exposure is defined as unmasked in a room for 10 minutes or greater over 24hrs.
You can always request more of what you want and less of what you don’t.
And WDW was paying less that surrounding resorts. WDW just got to $15 starting pay this past month whereas Universal had been starting their new hires at $15 for almost a year. So, yes WDW has had trouble hiring ppl back due, in part, to the competition paying more/better.
I get the staffing shortage completely. But I am also not willing to spend the same amount of money for what I perceive as lesser value. I have been itching to do the Every Ride Challenge again now that I am fit and in shape to do it - I booked one night at BLT because a friend was desperate to unload DVC points for $200 (and for the challenge I want the before and after extra hours) and plan to stay at Aventura at Universal for the rest of the trip. I know they will still have the staffing shortage issues, but at least I’m not paying through the nose for the stay.
The question I have is with housekeeping being limited at best, why pay the exorbitant prices to stay at a intermediate or premium resort. I just stayed at POP for half the price of Caribbean Beach Resort and a third of POR. As my wife stated, we were hardly in the room anyway as we were in the parks for the most part. Of coarse if money is no object, have at it, but for us especially with the Skyliner coming into POP, we will stay there until house keeping makes it worth going to a better resort.
And that is why it’s nice to have choices.
Please take a look at this article and then think again about why housekeeping and many other things have been cut way back. Stock prices aren’t doing so hot either. Petition Asking For Bob Chapek to Be Fired From Disney Goes Viral - Inside the Magic
Is Chapek to blame? Sure. He’s CEO.
But I feel the petition gives a free pass to Iger and D’Amaro, who were also VERY heavily involved in this downward trend. In many ways, I blame Iger just as much as Chapek (possibly more) because all of this cost-cutting and changes started under his watch.
I’m not sure an on-line petition is terribly effective, but then, I suppose if it garners enough attention, Disney MIGHT take notice???
Doubtful it would do any good but the point is it is NOT the shortage of people to employ but rather not employing them. May are standing in line to work at Disney parks.
Also take a look at Disney stock under Iger.