Hello all..
We are back from our trip which included stays at the CR and BC.
We arrived at CR on 8/14 and our room (GW SV) was not ready, so we headed to the Poly to have a quick lunch. Well, on this lunch, we were enchanted by the Poly, and wish we'd kept our reservation there regardless of the construction. Over lunch, we got buzzed that our room was ready. We actually got a kick out of the view, being able to see the monorail go by, but we were not enchanted with the room, to put it mildly.
First off, the hallways in the GW are claustrophobic. They are narrow, and the ceilings are low. DP is 6'4 and was uncomfortable. Secondly, the hallways in the GW needed vacuuming desperately. They were gross. We got to the room and it is lovely. It is appointed beautifully. But where was Mickey? As I feared, those cute yellow pillows are gone, leaving the room feeling bland and looking wildly unfinished. In addition, when you have beautiful dark wood furniture, you need to dust it well...and it wasn't I could have written my name in the headboard. Now, I'm sure you'll find dust at any resort, but the furniture here showed dust like woah. The desk chair was broken, as it almost collapsed when I sat on it. Also...no alarm clock. What? Yeah...no alarm clock. Weird. We thought the bathroom was great...until our last night. More on that later.
So, we looked at each other, and agreed we weren't feeling it. We went to the front desk and were brutally honest, saying that "We're just not happy." We were introduced to a wonderful manager named Mario, who worked with us for about 45 minutes. We asked to just go right to BC, where we knew we'd be happy, and where we were due to head in 5 days anyway. Mario called BC and YC....no availability. He called the Poly...no availability. He called the GF...no availability. We had no interest in the lodges, and asked about BWI..and he said that they never have availability because they're so small. So, he poked around in the CR computer, muttering that he had no real availability either. I stressed that I wasn't looking for a better view or an upgrade within the CR, we just weren't that happy with the resort, but apparently, it was our only option.
After poking and poking, Mario told us that of our 5 nights at the CR, if we could stick it out for 2 nights in the GW room he'd move us to the tower with a Bay Lake view for our last 3 nights. It wasn't really what we wanted, but we took it to experience the tower.
We got to that room, and guess what? We still weren't in love. The view was lovely, but to be honest, we kinda missed watching the monorail slide by. And this room was still very dusty, and we found an open DVC welcome packet, and crayons on the desk, the hairdryer plugged in on the desk, and ponchos hanging in the closet. Obviously the room wasn't completely cleaned before we got there, but we were glad to be at Disney, grateful for Mario's help, and glad to be able to say that we tried the CR. On our last night, whenever we turned on the faucet in the left sink in our bathroom, sewage would back up into the sink on the right..which we didn't notice until our toiletry bags and all the items inside were thoroughly soaked. We called the front desk, and their reply was that wasn't that awful....and they'll send someone up in the morning after we check out.
Ooook.
I don't want this all to be negative. We loved the room size, the beds were very comfy, and the AC was amazing! We actually missed CR AC once we got to the BC. On our last night, we finally noticed an etching of Mickey in the shower curtain, but we would have liked to see a bit more in the room. The room itself was really nice, but nothing you couldn't get at a Sheraton or Marriott, and we were looking for a bit more theming at WDW.
We're glad to say we've stayed at CR, and glad to "check it off our list," but we likely won't be back.
We've learned that when we stray from the Epcot resort loop (BWI, YC, BC), we're just not happy. We've had lovely stays at the GF, and would love to try the Poly, and will do a "Bonus Night," or 2 there in the future, but our hearts are really at the Epcot loop.
Thanks for being a great thread, and being helpful with the questions I had when planning this trip!
I'll be glad to answer any questions.