How would you improve your Disney resort experience?

[hereforthechurros]

Characters. Once upon a time, there were characters in the lobbies of all the resorts in the morning to send you off to the parks.

Well that’s adorable. For how much the deluxe resorts charge they could at least do something like this!

 

[DLgal]

1. Free valet parking for Club Level guests
2. Robes and slippers in all Deluxe resort rooms
3. Turn down service at Deluxe Resorts
4. Padded loungers at ALL pools
5. Pre booking FP+ should be allowed ONLY for resort guests (at 60 days out still). APs can keep their 30 day prebooking window. Everyone else has to do day of FP+ after entering the park. No more prebooking for off-site guests.
6. 24 hour pool access. Close the slide if you must, but let guests swim at their own risk.
7. Access to cold, filtered water, either in the lobby in a dispenser or install one of those water bottle filling stations on each floor (like they have at airports).
8. Free continental breakfast at all levels

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

1. Free valet parking for Club Level guests
2. Robes and slippers in all Deluxe resort rooms
3. Turn down service at Deluxe Resorts
4. Padded loungers at ALL pools
5. Pre booking FP+ should be allowed ONLY for resort guests (at 60 days out still). APs can keep their 30 day prebooking window. Everyone else has to do day of FP+ after entering the park. No more prebooking for off-site guests.
6. 24 hour pool access. Close the slide if you must, but let guests swim at their own risk.
7. Access to cold, filtered water, either in the lobby in a dispenser or install one of those water bottle filling stations on each floor (like they have at airports).
8. Free continental breakfast at all levels

Wow I have no words for your list- I love it. And #7 seriously Orlando has the worlds worst tasting tap water. I grew up in south Florida and our water fountains tasted like Fiji water compared to what they serve in the restaurants. It’s disgusting. We bring flavor packets since we drink so much water to tolerate it.

 

[crostorfer]

1. Free valet parking for Club Level guests
2. Robes and slippers in all Deluxe resort rooms
3. Turn down service at Deluxe Resorts
4. Padded loungers at ALL pools
5. Pre booking FP+ should be allowed ONLY for resort guests (at 60 days out still). APs can keep their 30 day prebooking window. Everyone else has to do day of FP+ after entering the park. No more prebooking for off-site guests.
6. 24 hour pool access. Close the slide if you must, but let guests swim at their own risk.
7. Access to cold, filtered water, either in the lobby in a dispenser or install one of those water bottle filling stations on each floor (like they have at airports).
8. Free continental breakfast at all levels

Here here! This list is amazing, and sounds like what you would get standard at a Four Seasons. If Deluxe Disney Resorts want to charge the same, or more, than luxury hotel brands, like the Ritz or the 4S, they need to provide the same level of service. If the tag line CM's are using about the parking fees being implemented to bring Disney in line with the other resorts in the area is true, then the rest of Disney's services need to reflect the price of similar resorts. The resort amenities need to reflect the price catagory.

 

[DLgal]

Here here! This list is amazing, and sounds like what you would get standard at a Four Seasons. If Deluxe Disney Resorts want to charge the same, or more, than luxury hotel brands, like the Ritz or the 4S, they need to provide the same level of service. If the tag line CM's are using about the parking fees being implemented to bring Disney in line with the other resorts in the area, the resort amenities need to reflect the price catagory.

We usually stay Deluxe. I have never even stayed at a Four Seasons or Ritz but I compiled this list merely from experiences at major chains like Starwood, Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton properties. One of our favorite hotels is a place called Marines Memorial in San Francisco. It's under $300/night (you have to be a member or active duty military) but they provide robes and slippers, a filtered water dispenser near each ice machine with a carafe in each room, free guest laundry, fresh fruit and macaroons daily in your room, complimentary happy hour at the rooftop steakhouse, a full breakfast buffet every morning (that they charge non guests $40/person for), a Keurig in the room, high end linens and spa quality toiletries. For under $300/night. In the heart of Union Square in San Francisco. If this hotel can pull all that off, Disney should be ashamed that they don't even come close.

 

[Jeremy Nolen]

Realistically, the one thing they could do that would greatly improve my experience is to FIX THE *bleep* BUS SERVICE, which has pretty much been terrible every trip. Or to be more precise, more than half of my attempts at using the Disney bus system, over the course of our last few trips, have taken an unreasonable amount of time to get back to our resort (as in, overall wait + travel time > 1 hour.) Heading TO the parks in the morning, the buses seem to be more reliable, and this most recent trip, they showed up within about 5 minutes of the time shown on the 'board' posted outside the waiting area.

Our solution has been to drive ourselves around, but now with the resort parking fee even that will irritate me.

Other than that? I find the rooms small for the price, but I'm just there to sleep/shower/change anyway. The All-Stars are very quiet, too, so no improvement needed on that.

Someone mentioned 'extra FP for resort guests' which would be a nice perk, and easy to operationalize in their current system.

Overall I find staying in the World to be worth it for convenience (and AllStars is cheap enough that the savings from staying off-campus at a close-by hotel are not that significant)

 

[Hoodie]

In all honesty, we are likely having our last onsite visit this year. The three biggest reasons are:

1) Cost. It used to be that by the time you added in a rental car and parking fees, staying offsite was comparable to staying onsite. Those days are gone.
2) Bus service. In the past it was really reliable and you did have buses coming every few minutes. The last couple of trips have been awful. 30+ minute between buses, add in the construction detours and not unheard of to take over an hour from room to park. That's nuts.
3) microwave in the room. We have a son with ASD and sometimes he just needs to be away from the crowds in the food court/quick service areas to decompress. Heck, sometimes I want to get away from the people and decompress and reheat a meal. That you can only do that in a AoA suite or DVC is insane.

 

[fla4fun]

3) microwave in the room. We have a son with ASD and sometimes he just needs to be away from the crowds in the food court/quick service areas to decompress. Heck, sometimes I want to get away from the people and decompress and reheat a meal. That you can only do that in a AoA suite or DVC is insane.

Isn't it the "industry standard" to have microwaves in the rooms? Every other hotel I have stayed in recently has had a microwave in the room in addition to the fridge. Just sayin' . . .

Lots of good suggestions!

 

[Farro]

Characters. Once upon a time, there were characters in the lobbies of all the resorts in the morning to send you off to the parks.

Now that is one of the first things I've read that I really consider "taking away" from the customer. That's awesome- I wish they still did that and I never experienced it.

 

[Tink-osophy]

2) Bus service. In the past it was really reliable and you did have buses coming every few minutes. The last couple of trips have been awful. 30+ minute between buses, add in the construction detours and not unheard of to take over an hour from room to park. That's nuts.

Crazy, isn't it?!

This doesn't bode well if fewer people now drive because of the parking fee.

I said it on the other thread: The least they could have done is assure people that the bus system would be boosted in light of this drive (!) to decrease cars onsite (i.e. raise revenue ).

...Or is a slow, over-stretched bus system industry standard?

 

[Tink-osophy]

Note to Bob!

1. Free valet parking for Club Level guests
2. Robes and slippers in all Deluxe resort rooms
3. Turn down service at Deluxe Resorts
4. Padded loungers at ALL pools
5. Pre booking FP+ should be allowed ONLY for resort guests (at 60 days out still). APs can keep their 30 day prebooking window. Everyone else has to do day of FP+ after entering the park. No more prebooking for off-site guests.
6. 24 hour pool access. Close the slide if you must, but let guests swim at their own risk.
7. Access to cold, filtered water, either in the lobby in a dispenser or install one of those water bottle filling stations on each floor (like they have at airports).
8. Free continental breakfast at all levels

 

[Tink-osophy]

...Characters. Once upon a time, there were characters in the lobbies of all the resorts in the morning to send you off to the parks...

This, too, Bob! ...Let's remember what Disney really means.

 

[skyp4WDW]

Make 1 resort at each level "smoke-free"; and get rid of that new dog policy (Disney is too expensive to have to put up with that).

 

[zobow02]

Make the family suites CHEAPER. It bothers me when Disney says they have "affordable" accommodations for larger parties. Also we need free parking again, and better themed rooms. I miss the old All star rooms

 

[dansdad]

Make the family suites CHEAPER. It bothers me when Disney says they have "affordable" accommodations for larger parties.

Yeah. A more accurate statement would be "We have accommodations for larger parties that are more affordable than 2 over priced rooms that we won't guarantee to be connecting or even remotely close to each other".

 

[Arielfan98]

Can't think of anything that really stands out but I do miss the days when they used to recognize return visitors. I'm not sure if it was just in the deluxe resorts, since that was the only place we used to stay in the old days, but there would be a little disney figure in your room, just a tiny one nothing big or expensive but I collected about 5 of them over the years. Now, they ask you about 10 times if it's your first stay, which they know since it's in MDE but they don't recognize if you are a returning guest.

Nope. Stayed at All Stars my whole life (late 90's-present), and they used to recognize us as well. Our "home resort" is All Star Music.

 

[DLgal]

Isn't it the "industry standard" to have microwaves in the rooms? Every other hotel I have stayed in recently has had a microwave in the room in addition to the fridge. Just sayin' . . .

Lots of good suggestions!

I have never stayed in a hotel room outside Orlando with a microwave. This is definitely NOT industry standard. Only two rooms in my life that had this were Cabana Bay Family Suite and Art of Animation Family Suite.

Places like Residence Inn and Springhill Suites have microwaves but they are also set up like apartments with full kitchens (well, not Springhill, but that one has a kitchenette).

I have never stayed in a Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton high end property (i.e. NOT a "suite or villa set up") that has a microwave in a room. To me, that's definitely not the sign of a high end luxury property. At Disney, I might expect a microwave in the value resorts, but definitely not in a deluxe room.

 

[DLgal]

Now that is one of the first things I've read that I really consider "taking away" from the customer. That's awesome- I wish they still did that and I never experienced it.

This is still a daily occurrence at the Disneyland Hotel.

So, align away, Disney! (Especially since they show this in the commercials for WDW....)

 

[Arielfan98]

I'm speaking from a value resort perspective, so I don't have very much to add. What I have is common sense and what Disney used to have.

1. FREE parking.
2. Magical mousekeeping with animal designed towels/mickey confetti around.
3. Extend EMH for on-site guests.
4. More FP for on-site guests, or at least take away the advantage for others to pay for extra FP (not sure if that policy ever went in place).
5. Recognize/value returning guests. Of course, new guests should be welcomed too, but returners offer a lot of profit for Disney. A simple smile and "Welcome back Smith family...." upon check-in goes a long way.

 

[Kevin355]

I have never stayed in a hotel room outside Orlando with a microwave. This is definitely NOT industry standard. Only two rooms in my life that had this were Cabana Bay Family Suite and Art of Animation Family Suite.

Places like Residence Inn and Springhill Suites have microwaves but they are also set up like apartments with full kitchens (well, not Springhill, but that one has a kitchenette).

I have never stayed in a Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton high end property (i.e. NOT a "suite or villa set up") that has a microwave in a room. To me, that's definitely not the sign of a high end luxury property. At Disney, I might expect a microwave in the value resorts, but definitely not in a deluxe room.

I have never stayed at a hotel in the last 10 years that didn't have a microwave. From PA to LV, and from Michigan down to Key West...every room we have booked has had a microwave.