Just checking in from my family trip to Port Orleans RIVERSIDE.
So far it's been the trip from H E double hockey sticks.... The airline we used experienced broken luggage conveyor belts so there were huge line of people tying to check in when we got to the airport. Thankfully we did not schedule the first flights out as all those people missed them if they had to check bags. By the time
we got to bag check they had developed a system of circumventing this problem but we had used up all our wait time and we made it to the gate just as they were boarding the passengers.
THEN we were on the ground for two hours while they fixed a generator in the plane. I wasn't complaining because I knew it would be impossible to reschedule the flight anytime soon if it was cancelled. There are never anymore empty seats on these planes so I don't know how people manage to find a new flight. Finally the generator was fixed and we were on our way! I was napping in my seat so the delay was not that bad...
Then we got to POR and the real fun began. They did not meet any of our room requests and they managed to put us in the worst location possible (Building 24 alligator bayou) It was so twisty and turn-ey to get from the room to the food court that I knew my 77 year old Dad would not be able to manage it, so I negotiated a room change for the next day. Let me tell you it was not fun NOT being able to un-pack your stuff because you would have to have Bell Services move it at 7:30 in the morning. Room REQUESTS are not guaranteed so I understand this.... The thing that really blew our fuse was the less than customer friendly approach used by the dispatchers from Bell services.
We stayed at POR last June and we had problems with Bell services then. Things have not gotten better so I made sure I had a discussion with the bell services manager to let him know just how his employees are treating the customers. Apparently it's like that book "Lord of the Flies" because it's very apparent that certain factions of Bell Services at POR are at war with each other and the guest is in the middle.
The dispatchers at the Bell services desk are standing around chatting and they get very annoyed when you approach them to ask for help!
I have noticed that there is a lot of spouting the party line that "We are here to help you" while the staff is pointedly AVOIDING really helping you, especially if you require special assistance. My husband was made to stand outside with a pile of our bags for over 30 minutes while someone was "On the way" to help him take the carry-on luggage and electronics to the room.
They wanted him just to leave the stuff there, on the ground and go to the room while they "got somebody to deliver it". There was no way DH was going to leave all the computers and other electronics that we brought with a Bell Services operation that couldn't even be bothered to put it on a cart or give him a receipt!
They allowed the stuff to lay there in a pile on the ground and refused to allow my husband to put it on a cart. At one point they told him he was "In the way" and HE had to move all the stuff out of THEIR way. All this while the 3 or 4 bell Services CM's were standing around chatting with each other. My husband repeatedly asked for help and was ignored until after 30 minutes of waiting/asking/ being brushed off He demanded to speak with a manager. It was only then that the staff started moving and someone took him and our carry-ons to our room.
While all this was going on I was doing my Walmart grocery run and having fun with the cabs. I had a problem with my pick up at Walmart. Since it was cab rush hour when we needed a pick up there was a delay in getting a cab out to me.
Another delay was because there was a Mears driver who was transporting passengers while turning off the meter and then if his passengers needed to pay by credit card he whipped out his phone and scanned the card using a plug in device linked to his PRIVATE account.
When I walked up to this Mears cab to see if he was the one dispatched for me I had to wait for him to finish this shady transaction, so I got to see the whole thing. The people he was transporting didn't know any better about what he was doing. I asked him if he was here to pick me up and he said that he wasn't allowed to pick people up from Walmart and he took off. This is not true ~ so that further confirmed that he was shady and not at all like what Mears allows to operate their cabs. It just goes to show you that there are crooks everywhere despite the companies best efforts. It took me a moment to put everything together about what was going on so I didn't get his cab number so I could call Mears and let them know what I saw.
We also saw a ton of Gypsy cabs trying to pick people up from Walmart. Many just had magnets that someone slapped on the side of the vehicle proclaiming them to be "Transportation companies" but there were no METERS or identifiable numbers on the cars. Some of the vehicles had more stickers on them that made them seem more legitimate but you have to remember that Mears and Yellow Cabs, which is owned/partners with Mears are welcomed on Disney property and these rogue cabs are not because of all the problems people have with them, like stating one price for a trip and then raising it in the middle of the ride and threatening to leave people on the side of the road if they don't pay it.
If you have ever noticed, Mears Drivers have passes that allow them to enter Disney properties, like the hotels, and they have special passes where they do not have to pay for parking when they go to the theme parks. These other cabs do not and stories abound where passengers are told they have to pay for theme park parking as a part of the ride and then the driver keeps the pass to use for the rest of the day.... but he charges each new person he takes to the theme park for this "parking fee".
ANYWAY we make it back to Port Orleans RIVERSIDE with the groceries and we are late for dinner, so we have to drop them off with Bell services to store them in the fridge while we eat. The CM at the Bell services desk told us that we had to separate out the stuff that needed to be kept cold because he didn't have room for everything.* (This will be important later...)
So we have to go through all the bags while keeping this CM from socializing with his friends, and we have to separate out the cold stuff that needs to be refrigerated. We go to dinner and afterwards I try to get the stuff sent to our room. All we want to do is just have someone go get it and take it to our room at a reasonable time. Preferably we would like to just do it ourselves but we are told that we can't borrow a cart and we will have to wait a LONG time until someone can transport it so we might as well just let them do it. By this time I've heard my husband's story about the carry-ons not being taken to the room until he demanded to speak with a manager so I know I'm in the position of asking for help from employees that are unwilling to provide it is a timely manner or in a way that would put the guests needs first. What this means is that you have to wait 30 minutes or more until someone can bring your stuff to your room and they are preventing you from doing it yourself.
I turn in the receipt, reminding them that there is stuff in the fridge and then stuff that wouldn't fit in the fridge that that needs to be brought, since none of this is noted on the receipt. The groceries are finally delivered to the room over 30 minutes later and Bell services has KEPT the case of beer and case of soda... which they are telling us they can't find.
Hmmm... Can't find the beer, huh?.... yeah... right.
So at this point I call and ask to speak with the manager of Bell Services. I called using the room phone and at one point I said "I know this is a call center and not a real number at the hotel but I really need that manager to call me back RIGHT AWAY please". That fairly freaked out the call center CM, that I would know that, so he made sure to tell me that he would make sure it was taken care of and the manager would be notified.
The Bell Services manager calls me and is very apologetic but I can totally hear the 'Management speak, official party lines' he is giving me about how sorry he is that all this has happened and that he will speak with his staff, blah, blah, blah.
Miracle of Miracle the Beer and soda are found and I hope that that is the end of it..... only it's not.
The next morning at 7:30am we had to move all our stuff out of the room so that we could be moved into the room we were supposed to get, that room that we paid MORE for...... and when we mentioned that at our original check in and requested a refund on the up charge, it was decided that we should be moved THE NEXT DAY instead. (gotta love
not being able to unpack all your stuff because you have to change rooms!) So because of all the problems we have been having with Bell Services my husband knows that he has to stay behind and miss out on the early morning park visit we had planned so that he can make sure that the cold items are refrigerated, the electronics are LOCKED up and that the rest of the luggage for 3 rooms of people are stored properly. At this point he is purposely supervising each step of this transfer because we can't afford to take a chance that the staff at Bell services are going to get it right.
None of these new rooms were ready until 3 pm so he basically hung out in the lobby waiting for the rooms to be ready so he could unpack and try to make up for lost time in our touring plan. THAT didn't pan out so well did it?? We came back from the parks and because our rooms were not ready we were decorating the lounge area at POR with the rest of the "Living Dead" who were room-less and exhausted for various reasons.
We get the text that our room is ready and my husband goes back to bell services and supervises that 100% of our stuff is retrieved from the various storage areas. While my husband is in the refrigerator area he notice that they do not have enough fridges for everything that needs to be stored.*
We get the stuff to the room (I'm leaving out the part where my husband tripped over a bag that was unloaded from the Bell services cart and BASHED his forehead... Calling Feckless, calling Feckless, we have a swollen, bruised "husband" forehead that has a scab on it. It's not as bad as yours was but is definitely in second place). So we are unloading the stuff and we get to the refrigerated groceries we discover that because they don't have enough room in their fridges, the solution used by the staff was to SMASH everyone's stuff further in the fridge to make more room.
I am talking smashing it so hard that two yogurt containers burst and exploded yogurt all over the rest of the items in that bag. Honestly you would have to push way hard to get those things to pop. This is why I'm thinking that it's like the "Lord of the Flies" in POR Bell Services and the dysfunction and resentment is so deep that the staff is just mindlessly cramming stuff in a fridge that can't possibly hold it all and they just don't give a damn. What kind of intelligence level are we talking about when A) Cast members do this and B) management allows it to happen?
My husband saw that they didn't have the fridge space that they needed. We were told that they couldn't keep the beer cold when we stored it with them so obviously unless the management is Helen Keller they know that this too much stuff, too little storage space is happening.
So we called and asked to speak with the Bell Services manager AGAIN. We got more of the party line about how sorry he was that this is happening and that the yogurt would be replaced and more generic talk about how this is not the experience that we are supposed to be having, blah, blah, blah.
The Bell Services manager did get kind of quiet when I asked what the name of the Hotel Manager was. I told him that I thought that that person, in addition to guest services, should know what was happening so that HE could get the resources from Disney that would allow him to do his job more easily and allow HIM to serve the guests better. I made sure to phrase it in 'manager speak' with lots of party lines about how Disney just wasn't providing him with the means to be able to deliver the customer service that should be provided. He kind of weakly pointed out that the Hotel Manager usually doesn't handle that type of thing and that HE WAS THE ONE that we should be talking to. I kind of pointed out that
if the Hotel Manager knew what was going on then they could probably help him solve his problem.
I'll let that last line percolate a little in your brains....
Fundamentally this problem is being allowed to exist and fester because the people that are in charge of supervising the operation are allowing it to happen.
So anyway I know this is all about the mess that is going on at Port Orleans Riverside and this is the Beach Club/Yacht Club thread BUT I don't hang out on that POR Dis Thread and there is a lot of news about Taxis and how to contact management in this post that will help people know what to do when staying at any other Disney Resort.
I am happy to say that I know for a fact that Bell Services at the Beach Club is MUCH better that POR and I have gotten EXCELLENT assistance from the Beach Club Bell services CM's. I also will mention that the guys running your stuff to and from bell services storage at POR are great, the problem seems to be the clowns that dispatch them and a couple of people who work in the storage area.
The good news about our trip is that my extended family seems to be adhering (and appreciating!) to my tour plan. Fast pass plus is a complete disaster because it allows people to go online, in advance of their trip and exhaust the supply of available fast passes, where as before, you could only do it the day of your trip, while you were in the park, and only if you were willing to do the labor of running from place to place and managing your time windows. Since so many people have so many fast passes it defeats the purpose and the fast pass lines grow longer in wait times as the day progresses and a bigger volume of people are in possession of them versus the number of people that utilized them before when you had to run around and get them.
We also had a FABULOUS Meal at Boatwright's restaurant at POR. Now that we are FINALLY settled in and free of any need for Bell Services I'm hoping we can have a fun and relaxing trip. Tomorrow we are off to Soaring where I have a golf ball hidden away, ready to sneak out and have someone in our family catch and thus blow the mind of my niece and nephew. Mwa ha, ha!
~NM
We can sip grey goose together
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)
for a quick recovery. Please keep us updated about how you are doing!
