Sorry this is so long....We stayed for 2 nights in BLT this weekend and I was so disappointed in the resort.
We checked in at the Contemporary and headed to our room. We stayed in a studio - room 7214. We were happy to be right at the elevator on the 2nd floor and had booked a standard view so I was okay that we could only see the roof of the entrance and the lake off to the side. If we had been one room over we would have been able to see Space Mtn.
We did not stay in the room just put our bags in and headed out for the day - we returned at 11:00 pm. There were no pillows for the pullout so my Dh called housekeeping and were told they were in the closet. They weren't and then they asked how many were on the bed. He answered 4 and they told us we would have to share those b/c they didn't have any extra pillows to send us.
My daughter has bad allergies and she struggled through the night with coughing and a stuffy nose. We had just returned from a cruise so I figured the return to vegitation had triggered the reaction. I was wrong. The next morning - we saw there was a layer of dust on the tv console that my husband was actually able to write the words "dust me" in it.
I took my shower and was unable to locate the hairdryer. I looked everywhere and called the front desk to see if there was supposed to be one. She said yes and would hang on while I checked again. I did find it tucked away in a hard to find spot and returned to the phone apologetic - she only said to me "Have a nice day" in a tone that told me she didn't really mean and hung up the phone. While that wasn't a huge deal - it just gave itself to the impression we had felt while there that the Contemporary staff is bothered by the addition of BLT and do not view us as the same caliber of their high paying guests at the hotel side.
This coupled with what I consider serious design flaws: The bathroom door. Absolutely NO PRIVACY. Not only does it not lock but it also doesn't seal making everything you were doing in there perfectly clear to the others in the room. My kids also found the shower head to be too hard for them. I was able to soften it by adjusting the knob but it was a very hard to find line between too little flow and too hard. The kitchen across from the vanity is an awful design as well. As I flipped my hair to dry it - I realized I was also in the kitchen space - it also meant I had to go into the room to spray anything in my hair to avoid getting it in the kitchen.
We were exctied about being on the monorail but the one time we rode it to the MK from the Contemporary took 60 minutes from our door to the MK.
We also never saw any staff in the lobby of the BLT and I never once had to use my key to gain access to the building. I didn't feel great about the security of the building.
I guess that maybe they were just overwhelmed coming off of Thansgiving weekend (we checked in on Sunday and out on Tuesday) but we decided this was not the right resort for us. I can't speak about the other rooms as we were in a studio and maybe they have better designs. For a quick weekend or even if there were only two of us - they would be okay but for an entire week the room would have been a bad fit for us.
We decided on the spur of the moment Tuesday to extend our stay until Wed. and stayed at OKW that night - the difference in being in a hotel that is DVC versus one where DVC was an afterthought seemed huge to me.
It bothers me that I was so disappointed in BLT b/c I was so excited for it! I think in time the service issues will work themselves out as the resort adjusts to the new addition and if you are okay with the awkwardness of the room layout this will be a great choice for many DVCers!
We checked in at the Contemporary and headed to our room. We stayed in a studio - room 7214. We were happy to be right at the elevator on the 2nd floor and had booked a standard view so I was okay that we could only see the roof of the entrance and the lake off to the side. If we had been one room over we would have been able to see Space Mtn.
We did not stay in the room just put our bags in and headed out for the day - we returned at 11:00 pm. There were no pillows for the pullout so my Dh called housekeeping and were told they were in the closet. They weren't and then they asked how many were on the bed. He answered 4 and they told us we would have to share those b/c they didn't have any extra pillows to send us.
My daughter has bad allergies and she struggled through the night with coughing and a stuffy nose. We had just returned from a cruise so I figured the return to vegitation had triggered the reaction. I was wrong. The next morning - we saw there was a layer of dust on the tv console that my husband was actually able to write the words "dust me" in it.
I took my shower and was unable to locate the hairdryer. I looked everywhere and called the front desk to see if there was supposed to be one. She said yes and would hang on while I checked again. I did find it tucked away in a hard to find spot and returned to the phone apologetic - she only said to me "Have a nice day" in a tone that told me she didn't really mean and hung up the phone. While that wasn't a huge deal - it just gave itself to the impression we had felt while there that the Contemporary staff is bothered by the addition of BLT and do not view us as the same caliber of their high paying guests at the hotel side.
This coupled with what I consider serious design flaws: The bathroom door. Absolutely NO PRIVACY. Not only does it not lock but it also doesn't seal making everything you were doing in there perfectly clear to the others in the room. My kids also found the shower head to be too hard for them. I was able to soften it by adjusting the knob but it was a very hard to find line between too little flow and too hard. The kitchen across from the vanity is an awful design as well. As I flipped my hair to dry it - I realized I was also in the kitchen space - it also meant I had to go into the room to spray anything in my hair to avoid getting it in the kitchen.
We were exctied about being on the monorail but the one time we rode it to the MK from the Contemporary took 60 minutes from our door to the MK.
We also never saw any staff in the lobby of the BLT and I never once had to use my key to gain access to the building. I didn't feel great about the security of the building.
I guess that maybe they were just overwhelmed coming off of Thansgiving weekend (we checked in on Sunday and out on Tuesday) but we decided this was not the right resort for us. I can't speak about the other rooms as we were in a studio and maybe they have better designs. For a quick weekend or even if there were only two of us - they would be okay but for an entire week the room would have been a bad fit for us.
We decided on the spur of the moment Tuesday to extend our stay until Wed. and stayed at OKW that night - the difference in being in a hotel that is DVC versus one where DVC was an afterthought seemed huge to me.
It bothers me that I was so disappointed in BLT b/c I was so excited for it! I think in time the service issues will work themselves out as the resort adjusts to the new addition and if you are okay with the awkwardness of the room layout this will be a great choice for many DVCers!
Bill
