This week's episode had me question the CM room access

[Capang]

That's a great question. I have no idea. Certainly if I checked in to a hotel and there was no DND sign, I'd call the front desk or stop down there and ask to have it replaced.

And keep in mind that 99% of Disney guests have no clue this is even happening. We're all sitting around talking about it but it will come as a total surprise to the typical visitor who isn't plugged into the whole fan community. How are they going to feel when staff comes knocking on the door?

Is the typical visitor even going to notice a change? If you stay in hotels somewhat frequently then you have probably had housekeeping walk in on you at some point. In my experience they've always seen me and said they'd come back. It's never been a big deal. I've never used a do not disturb sign as in my youth I was the jerk kid that would flip those over to the please clean room early side. Or I'd just take it. Like I said, I was a jerk kid who basically lived in hotels growing up.
This new program has already started and I really doubt we will hear about any big issues with it. The only *real* change is the sign wording.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Is the typical visitor even going to notice a change? If you stay in hotels somewhat frequently then you have probably had housekeeping walk in on you at some point. In my experience they've always seen me and said they'd come back. It's never been a big deal. I've never used a do not disturb sign as in my youth I was the jerk kid that would flip those over to the please clean room early side. Or I'd just take it. Like I said, I was a jerk kid who basically lived in hotels growing up.
This new program has already started and I really doubt we will hear about any big issues with it. The only *real* change is the sign wording.

While others have expressed that they've been walked in I haven't. If that happened I wouldn't be happy at all.

I don't think the typical person has had someone walk in on them in their hotel room. I think that's something that does happen (as several posters on various threads have mentioned) but isn't the experience of the majority. My husband sure the heck hasn't had someone walk in on him when he's traveled for business. If it happened enough times at the same chain of hotels and my husband's company had that complaint they would probably re-evaluate that hotel chain as one they would want their employees to stay at.

In my experience in general with hotel stays housekeeping hasn't said a word about them coming back. Sometimes if they have their head up they may smile they may say "hello" but I've never had someone acknowledge me and state "we'll come back".

I'm glad it's not been a big deal to you that's really good but it would be a big deal to me to have someone enter when I'm changing clothes for instance or coming out of the shower for very obvious reasons. I'm not anticipating someone doing that to me at Disney but I know other people have that real fear and it would be a big deal for them too.

Funadamentally the two signs are being utilized differently.

Do not disturb...means do not disturb and majority of people have not been disturbed.
Room occupied..means someone can and likely will knock on the door, you may get a phone call or a text.

And if you think about it from the guest who isn't on the DIS or doesn't know about the new policies they likely would be alarmed at this new procedure not knowing that room occupied doesn't give them the same norm as do not disturb.

 

[BusMan]

I completely disagree. One lunatic in Vegas bringing guns into his hotel room hardly justifies tens of thousands of hotel guests at Disney World losing the right to privacy in their rooms. It's the same wild over reaction that is behind us all having to take off our shoes at the airport - because one nut job tried to light his shoe on fire years ago.

This is really the part that bothers me. Not the barging in part but the knocking part. If I have a Do Not Disturb sign out, that means DON'T KNOCK! I'm sleeping or showering or otherwise don't want to be disturbed. If the new policy eliminates that courtesy, I have a huge problem with that.

But I could knock on your door. There is no way to prevent that.

 

[BusMan]

We've been in deep sleeps before where someone (hotel staff) came into our hotel room (DND sign was removed by pranksters unbeknownst to us). The reaction was scary for all parties involved.

Pranksters 1
hertamaniac 0

 

[BusMan]

Exactly the issue. You would think a top priority for a hotel would be guest comfort. If there is no way for a guest to indicate that they'd like to not be disturbed at a certain time, that's a problem. Sure, the hotel always has the right to enter a room if they suspect something is wrong, but is everyone really okay with surrendering the common hotel courtesy of "please don't come knocking on my door while I'm sleeping, or my kid is napping"?

Guest safety > Guest comfort

 

[BusMan]

So do you think a hotel guest should have no way to indicate, "Hey, my kid is napping right now. Please don't knock right now unless it's an emergency"?

If so, we'll have to agree to disagree on that point.

I guarantee that if Disney actually does this, you're going to start to see a bunch of homemade signs that say "Baby sleeping. Please don't knock right now." And the next step will be nicely made signs and magnets to that effect being sold on Etsy.

If I see "please don't knock" signs the first thing I'm gonna do is knock.

 

[FCDub]

If I see "please don't knock" signs the first thing I'm gonna do is knock.

Oh, good. Because this is kind and helpful for everyone.

 

[BusMan]

Things that don't happen: CMs come into your room and bother you when you don't want it.

Things that do happen: crazies hoard weapons in their hotel room/suite and then kill scores of people.

 

[BusMan]

Oh, good. Because this is kind and helpful for everyone.

My point, for the needlessly dull and unimaginative, is that having a knock-free experience is IMPOSSIBLE.

 

[Monykalyn]

The only *real* change is the sign wording

THIS! CM's and Mousekeeping etc are NOT going to go randomly knock on doors just because.

Do not disturb...means do not disturb and majority of people have not been disturbed.
Room occupied..means someone can and likely will knock on the door, you may get a phone call or a text.

IF your "room occupied" sign is out do you REALLY think management/CM's etc are going to choose that time to do the check? REALLY? NO-they will make a note and come back at next round. If the sign remains up for hours and hours and hours every day then you may get a knock when sign is up. How many people spend 16 hours in a resort room at Disney (unless sick?)

This is being blown way way way out of proportion with what-ifs...

 

[FCDub]

My point, for the needlessly dull and unimaginative, is that having a knock-free experience is IMPOSSIBLE.

Especially with antagonistic people roaming the hallways, apparently.

 

[BusMan]

Especially with people existing.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

IF your "room occupied" sign is out do you REALLY think management/CM's etc are going to choose that time to do the check? REALLY? NO-they will make a note and come back at next round. If the sign remains up for hours and hours and hours every day then you may get a knock when sign is up. How many people spend 16 hours in a resort room at Disney (unless sick?)

This is being blown way way way out of proportion with what-ifs...

I don't know about that

This is from a DISer on another thread. I highlighted the fact that they had the room occupied sign up but you can read the whole post to get their experience:


There are other posts that a DISer is putting up on another thread from other forums or from Trip Advisor which reflect what is going on is inconsistent and people are having knocks and entering and requests sometimes demands to enter with the sign up. There have also been other posts but they are buried somewhere in the posts.

The truth is people are not getting a uniform experience. Some are getting this some are getting that.

I think it's easy for a lot of us to say what will happen but none of us actually know. You're inferring that they would never knock on the door and enter with the room occupied sign up. I'm more realistic in that I don't have that confidence. Just like the dog policy some people experienced this some people experienced that. On practical terms it's clear really though from multiple posters on various threads and various other outlets outside of the DIS that Disney doesn't quite have their system down or what their uniform procedure is.

 

[sweetpeama]

As a parent of a child with neuro problems which includes not sleeping well I am going to resort to having a sign that can be put on doors at hotels and motels that reads

This room has a child staying in it who has sleep issues if this sign is up please do not knock until (insert time) as we got our child to finally go to sleep really late and if the sun is out our child will not go back to sleep and as a result we do not get to sleep. We understand that a visit to WDW is exhausting at times however we would like to enjoy our time here and need some rest in order to do that. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
The last name family

 

[Capang]

I don't know about that

This is from a DISer on another thread. I highlighted the fact that they had the room occupied sign up but you can read the whole post to get their experience:
View attachment 295434

There are other posts that a DISer is putting up on another thread from other forums or from Trip Advisor which reflect what is going on is inconsistent and people are having knocks and entering and requests sometimes demands to enter with the sign up. There have also been other posts but they are buried somewhere in the posts.

The truth is people are not getting a uniform experience. Some are getting this some are getting that.

I think it's easy for a lot of us to say what will happen but none of us actually know. You're inferring that they would never knock on the door and enter with the room occupied sign up. I'm more realistic in that I don't have that confidence. Just like the dog policy some people experienced this some people experienced that. On practical terms it's clear really though from multiple posters on various threads and various other outlets outside of the DIS that Disney doesn't quite have their system down or what their uniform procedure is.

If the poster was so worried about people entering why leave a child unattended napping in a room? That seems to be a bigger issue that's not addressed....maybe it was in a different post but really. Every time I have been to WDW I have seen very, very few do not disturb signs hung up. And of those signs I would guess at least some of those rooms really had no one in them, they just didn't want housekeeping in for whatever reason. So while I get the worry of being walked in on while showering or getting dressed, I just don't think it is really going to happen. If I'm getting dressed number 1 I latch the door. Number 2 if someone knocks I scream, "Just a minute I'm getting dressed." Between the latch and my big mouth I wouldn't be concerned. But that's just me. If I was super concerned about this I would just stay off site in a rented home or condo or something.

 

[bluecruiser]

If the poster was so worried about people entering why leave a child unattended napping in a room? That seems to be a bigger issue that's not addressed....maybe it was in a different post but really.

I think you misunderstood. Nowhere did they say the child was unattended in the room. Even if the parents are in the room, when someone knocks on the door they are likely to wake up anyone who is sleeping.

 

[Capang]

I think you misunderstood. Nowhere did they say the child was unattended in the room. Even if the parents are in the room, when someone knocks on the door they are likely to wake up anyone who is sleeping.

It did, it said she went for a cigarette after putting up the room occupied sign and she came back to a CM with a key fob trying to enter the room, where she pointed out her "princess"....
It's in the highlighted paragraph, at the end.

ETA: maybe "princess" is a girlfriend/wife/significant other but I took it to mean child. Sure, people that knock may wake up the sleepers, but those have always been the dice we roll staying at resorts, even when we have a do not disturb sign.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If the poster was so worried about people entering why leave a child unattended napping in a room? That seems to be a bigger issue that's not addressed....maybe it was in a different post but really.

I don't know if they were left unattended or not you'd have to ask the poster in the other thread; I can infer that it's just the poster and 'princess' but I don't really know the way they worded. As for bigger issue..that one I think is a loaded one because it's their family not mine.

Every time I have been to WDW I have seen very, very few do not disturb signs hung up. And of those signs I would guess at least some of those rooms really had no one in them, they just didn't want housekeeping in for whatever reason.

I've only stayed onsite once (this past September) so I don't have enough experience in what the norm is at WDW. But as a norm I'm not really in the habit of looking for/paying attention to if other rooms have the signs or not or at the least I can't remember enough to tell you what my normal experience is elsewhere.

So while I get the worry of being walked in on while showering or getting dressed, I just don't think it is really going to happen.

I don't think it will happen often but I do think it can happen. I'm glad you have confidence in your assurity it won't happen I don't share that. It may be rare and it may not happen anytime soon but the possibility is there. Just like all those in the dog policy threads who were confident that it will no doubt lead to a person getting bitten, a person having PTSD because of a previous event in their life, anxiety due to dogs, the resorts would become laden with dog poop and drool, etc. While the possibility is likely low there is still that possibility and try telling that to the people extremely opposed to the dog policy that the chances of the above "isn't really going to happen".

If I'm getting dressed number 1 I latch the door.

I'm not going to get into the latch discussion again but suffice to say it works for you great..I know it won't work for everyone 24/7 and I recognize that. Part of my comments throughout the thread and other threads aren't about me but are about recognizing things for other people. I didn't take a nap once on my most recent trip but I certaintly know plenty of people weary from the sun, heat and excitement, walking, etc come back to rooms to take naps children and adults.

Number 2 if someone knocks I scream, "Just a minute I'm getting dressed."

That can work but only if I actually have a few minutes to get dressed..I would rather have enough time to get all my unmentionables on plus my clothing too. But to be honest I don't get dressed in the bathroom so I could have been in the shower and not heard a knock and come out and hello I'm not dressed which is another possibility.

Between the latch and my big mouth I wouldn't be concerned. But that's just me.

Again I'm so glad it won't concern you but really what you aren't concerned about is not the same as someone else. What I'm not concerned about is not the same as someone else.

If I was super concerned about this I would just stay off site in a rented home or condo or something.

Agreed. Nothing saying a person can't do that. Just like the dog policy and those against it staying off site is a choice but doesn't alleviate the overall issue if enough people have a problem with a new policy.

 

[Monykalyn]

Gosh people are you that paranoid with ringing doorbells at home with napping kids?
Again-blown out of proportion. CM's aren't going to knock/announce/enter all at once with the sign up. IF the sign isn't up then I can see them simultaneously entering while knocking. Remember-Mousekeeping has a job to do and they are going to assume you will be at the parks during day if sign isn't up (ya know-why you paid big bucks to be there in first place!)

 

[bluecruiser]

It did, it said she went for a cigarette after putting up the room occupied sign and she came back to a CM with a key fob trying to enter the room, where she pointed out her "princess"....
It's in the highlighted paragraph, at the end.

The post with the "princess" reference was written by a man, not a woman. You can see later in the post he was referenced as "Mr." Reading the full post, it sounds like his "princess" was his girlfriend/wife, not a child.