Results of "Open Letter to Disney"

Three60guy

CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Earlier this year I helped documented here, a new policy at Disney which started January 8, 2018 which began the process of putting Disney eyes into every occupied room. I shared a letter I had sent to Disney management detailing my concerns about this new policy. The policy created a rather strict implementation of entering every room no matter the implications to personal privacy.

I just ended a rather long stay at DVC's Old Key West, which began on October 21, 2018 and ends today November 9, 2018. What I learned from cast members here is sometime in July 2018 a reversal of a portion of the new policy occurred. This occurred again with the same lack of transparency the as it began.... None.

What changed was the cast members are to respect the new "room occupied" sign the same way as the old "Do not disturb" sign was prior to the institution of the new policy. Specifically not to enter a room by any cast member other than housekeeping if that sign is shown on the entry door. In many specific situations I can testify that our privacy was respected. Cast members would not even knock on the door if that sign was present unless it was housekeeping cast members.

I honestly believe this is a good compromise and provides those attending Disney a balance between security and privacy. It is obvious that Disney responded to the many who raised their concerns about this new policy and hopefully learned an important lesson.

I want to thank all those who shared their concerns while visiting Disney. Our ability to share this with the many who read this forum certainly helped.

Thanks

Rees Roberts

Three60guy
 
That is great for those with littles and not getting woken up during nap time or even adults teimg to get in a rest before heading back to the parks, etc...

Thanks for sharing with js
 


Thanks for posting your info! During recent BWV stay I called maintenance day 2 about 2 maintenance issues. We were told to remove the room occupied sign. They did not say why and I didn’t ask. We removed the sign and several maintenance guys showed up pretty fast mid morning and took care of business. I guess this indicates a similar change in policy at BWV. I also met that morning with a HK manager to ask for the room check within a time frame 11-2. She agreed and the trash was removed each day during that time, so I assume HK was doing it. One day we returned before 2 and put the sign up. We quickly got a call to ask if they could do the check. We did see a male non HK type on our floor quietly knocking on doors holding a tablet device. We stayed long enough in a BW villa to get full housekeeping but I refused as it wasn’t needed. Got towels replenished 3-4 times and of course the trash in most of the receptacles magically disappeared.
 
I remember that thread. Just to add to the OP, we just returned from a 10 day stay at CSR, did not opt out of housekeeping, and used the Room Occupied several times. We never once received a knock on the door - no room check or even a knock by housekeeping. We spent a few afternoons in the room for a mid-day break, and our room had already been serviced by the time we returned. Two days we slept in and didn't leave the room until 11-12, and were not bothered then either. We did see the housekeepers cart next door and down the hall so she was in the vicinity at times, but I do believe she was respecting our Room Occupied sign. Good experience for us.
 


Thanks very much for the update and the groundwork on this.

There has still been recent reports of CM's barging into rooms while people are in them. I have noticed that most of the really bad reports are at value resorts. I'm wondering if the individual resort management teams have something to do with that?

CSR is our resort of choice so it's good to hear positive reports from there.

We aren't taking our annual December 2 week trip to WDW for the first time in 10 years largely because of this policy.
 
We had a later start on our fourth day at BWV (trash and towel day for DVC) and we got a phonecall asking when a good time would be for them to come service our room. This was around 11:30am. The only other time we got a call was on our last day, around 2pm as we hadn't left yet and still had the sign up. All other days our trash was taken and we hadn't seen anyone or heard anything. We were usually out of the room starting anywhere between 10am and noon. Not sure if a phone call is any better than a knock if someone is trying to sleep. But at least they weren't coming in.
 
We had a later start on our fourth day at BWV (trash and towel day for DVC) and we got a phonecall asking when a good time would be for them to come service our room. This was around 11:30am. The only other time we got a call was on our last day, around 2pm as we hadn't left yet and still had the sign up. All other days our trash was taken and we hadn't seen anyone or heard anything. We were usually out of the room starting anywhere between 10am and noon. Not sure if a phone call is any better than a knock if someone is trying to sleep. But at least they weren't coming in.



Thanks for your post. I agree with you about the phone call. We were lucky and were not resting yet when we got the call. They came right away and took our trash so we were able to relax after. I noticed the door to our closet was opened when we returned one day so I guess they are looking for stuff. I also mentioned to the HK manager that only 1 of the 3 trash cans was emptied. She wanted to know which days. That didn’t happen again.

It might be helpful to others if you post your experience on the guest experiences stickie thread. Thanks.
 
Earlier this year I helped documented here, a new policy at Disney which started January 8, 2018 which began the process of putting Disney eyes into every occupied room. I shared a letter I had sent to Disney management detailing my concerns about this new policy. The policy created a rather strict implementation of entering every room no matter the implications to personal privacy.

I just ended a rather long stay at DVC's Old Key West, which began on October 21, 2018 and ends today November 9, 2018. What I learned from cast members here is sometime in July 2018 a reversal of a portion of the new policy occurred. This occurred again with the same lack of transparency the as it began.... None.

What changed was the cast members are to respect the new "room occupied" sign the same way as the old "Do not disturb" sign was prior to the institution of the new policy. Specifically not to enter a room by any cast member other than housekeeping if that sign is shown on the entry door. In many specific situations I can testify that our privacy was respected. Cast members would not even knock on the door if that sign was present unless it was housekeeping cast members.

I honestly believe this is a good compromise and provides those attending Disney a balance between security and privacy. It is obvious that Disney responded to the many who raised their concerns about this new policy and hopefully learned an important lesson.

I want to thank all those who shared their concerns while visiting Disney. Our ability to share this with the many who read this forum certainly helped.

Thanks

Rees Roberts

Three60guy


Except that many (us included) got phone calls when our sign was up asking if they could come over and do a sweep of the room. If one is trying to rest, nap or keep kids down ... the phone ringing and the security sweep is not different than knocking on the door. Noise will wake or disturb whether knocks or ringing so they just changed the interruption method.
 
Except that many (us included) got phone calls when our sign was up asking if they could come over and do a sweep of the room. If one is trying to rest, nap or keep kids down ... the phone ringing and the security sweep is not different than knocking on the door. Noise will wake or disturb whether knocks or ringing so they just changed the interruption method.

I agree that the phone calls aren’t ideal. Only thing I can recommend is to ask HK in advance, preferably a manager, to do the room check/HK/trash removal during a window of time. It worked for us at BWV. If plans change you might call and ask for another time.

I hope others that try scheduling will come back and post their experience on the DIS.
 
I agree that the phone calls aren’t ideal. Only thing I can recommend is to ask HK in advance, preferably a manager, to do the room check/HK/trash removal during a window of time. It worked for us at BWV. If plans change you might call and ask for another time.

I hope others that try scheduling will come back and post their experience on the DIS.

I think at Villas or even Deluxe you might have better luck. At values and even some moderates I feel lucky just to get my room cleaned (there's a reason for $ to opt out of housekeeping) and don't expect any assistance in this way. There simply is minimal service at the bottom tiers anymore. I'm booked onsite for a week in January, not excited. I got great rate but if I can pick up offsite rate in range with it, I'll likely move offsite.
 
I think at Villas or even Deluxe you might have better luck. At values and even some moderates I feel lucky just to get my room cleaned (there's a reason for $ to opt out of housekeeping) and don't expect any assistance in this way. There simply is minimal service at the bottom tiers anymore. I'm booked onsite for a week in January, not excited. I got great rate but if I can pick up offsite rate in range with it, I'll likely move offsite.

Thanks for explaining this. We haven’t stayed at a mod or value in more than 10 years, so I didn’t realize the service at those has diminished. We like offsite too, particularly the Bonnet Creek resorts. We even got a great suite at Hilton Bonnet creek last year on Priceline. That was truly a deal, not to mention the lazy river there that is to die for. The breakfast buffet there is very good too.
 
Thanks for explaining this. We haven’t stayed at a mod or value in more than 10 years, so I didn’t realize the service at those has diminished. We like offsite too, particularly the Bonnet Creek resorts. We even got a great suite at Hilton Bonnet creek last year on Priceline. That was truly a deal, not to mention the lazy river there that is to die for. The breakfast buffet there is very good too.

Disney's major housekeeping shortage is being absorbed at the values and moderates, mostly values. First you hope your room got cleaned at all, and if so did you get replacement towels, coffee products etc. It has become an ongoing joke about what we will find upon returning to our room. The crazy part is we expect it .... even at the high rates they charge, and we shouldn't be okay with that. Now last time we had a letter in room from resort manager to let him know any issues ..... but I just didn't have the energy to bother about the uncleaned room, phone calls etc.

LOVE Bonnet Creek (would stay every time if I could) and we are Hilton folks so usually my first choice anywhere I go. We've stayed at Hilton Orlando (by convention center) which is sister resort (built same time and basically the same) and we loved it. Amenities are great, the service top notch and all the food in the Executive Lounge was great.
 
Omg I thought about it my one and only value stay at Pop was when DD23 was 6 and graduating from kindergarten. That’s been awhile. It was cute then.

She and her dad and I prefer BWV or Bonnet creek now. I guess we grew up. I hate it when that happens.
 
We stayed at POR early Sept and if we had our sign up when housekeeping came by, we would get a call later in the day asking when it was OK to check our room. We were also lucky and didn't receive the call while resting. We had good luck with housekeeping cleaning our room. They emptied all trash cans and re-stocked everything.
 
I'm advocate of giving feedback when necessary, and I reiterate that Disney (more than many companies) actually takes feedback into consideration. I don't expect "transparency" in a situation like this, but your report is valued by the many people in this community who were frustrated by the room check policy. Hopefully this will alleviate much of the angst that this policy had apparently created.
 

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