Our BAD BAD experiences at value resort About This Page:

[DzzzNee]

We had a few awful experiences at the Movie Resort. We stayed 9 nights and just got back yesterday. I didn't want to wait to tell others about it so I'm posting right now -to help them know the 'value' they are getting.

A few days before we had to leave Disney World, we were at the Movie Resort food court and I had a few items in my hands, looking at the registers for which one to go in line to when all of a sudden I lost my balance. I went sliding down with one leg and landed HARD on my knee. It hurt so bad I couldn't get up. I just had gallbladder surgery 6-8 weeks ago too so I was wondering if the fall would do anything inside to my surgery. I'll spare you all that happened afterwards but I saw around me what I had slipped on... a HUGE pile of yogurt.

OK, before you think that was one incident and not bad...

On the last day (yesterday), we packed everything but there were no luggage racks available and check out was at 11am. We were at the Ducks which is the furthest from the main building. We had 4 large bags, 4 carry ons and a few personal items with no help and my knee all sore still.

Ok, before you think that wasn't enough here is the perce to resistance...

We decided to put our suits on and swim till it was time to go. The resort holds your carry ons and checks your other large bags in. SO... we are swimming in the small pool by our old room we stayed in (at Ducks) and this loud family moves in. It was apparent they bothered a lot of people but it was Ok. Well, all of a sudden they left and all was quiet. I KNOW we (my family and all the others around the pool) were pretty happy about that. THEN IT HAPPENED... my son yells, "oh man, oh sick, oh man........." I was only 10 feet from him and started looking at what he was looking at and said, "what IS that???" My son (who is 11 and has Asperger's -mild form of autism) said, "you don't want to know." So dummy me goes closer only to find out what it was... POO! REAL HONEST HUGE PLOP OF POOOOOOO. I grew up with a pool and I know how dangerous it is to be in water with a bowel movement in there with you so I immediately told everyone to get out. Another guy around my age said there's more at the bottom. We were all pretty certain that family did it and that's why they left so fast. Most of us went to the bigger pool and I immediately told the life guard. We then had 2 extra life guards scanning the large pool for the rest of the time we were there.

My son who has the Asperger's is now afraid to go in pools. UGH. Anyone who has a child on the spectrum (autism) knows this may take some time (may be even years) to fix. UNBELIEVABLE.

All the rest of our vacation (outside of our resort) was GREAT but I would not recommend the All Stars.

We also found that as an All Start (Movie or Music or Sports) guest, you had to walk the furthest to get to your bus, wait the longest waits to get picked up and stand in the longest lines. I didn't mind it too much until my knee was messed up from slipping on yogurt. UGH

THINK CAREFULLY before you decide on All Stars. If you already made reservations, just avoid the food court and check the pool before you go in, rethink renting a car too!!!

Happy Vacations to all!!!!!!
DzzzNee
p.s. I do plan to write Disney World and give them a piece of my mind, especially for the yogurt which messed up the last days of our vacation. thanks all though for all your tips and Jennifer for a SUPER GREAT BOOK which I'll write more about later!!!!

[scarlettsmom]

Ok.... Crap happens. No pun intended. Things get spilled and maybe no one said any thing or it just happened before you got there. I work at Petsmart and dogs pee on the floor all the time and some people don't say anything and walk away and god only knows how long its there when we see it.

Kids pee and poop in pools. If you are swimming in a public pool, it's bound to happen. We were at a $500 a night resort this year and paid a fortune to be there and a pool got closed because a kid pooped in it. I didn't complain. Public or hotel pools are usually horribly loud.

The lines....... ACTUALLY, POP busses are furthest for the most part. There are long lines because its the largest resort.

It could have been worse. It wasn't that bad

[Caldercup]

Wow -- sounds totally unmagical.

Unfortunately, there are many guests who can be inconsiderate -- even at the deluxes and the moderates. Hopefully, the CMs in the food court came to your aid and made sure the yogurt was cleaned up (they are usually quickly "on top" of stuff like that for exactly this reason.) What a bummer that it aggravated your condition and made your knee so sorre!

Good for the lifeguards for acting very appropriately after that biohazard. I've been in pools at all levels of resorts where we had to be "cleared" while they cleaned up the biohazard and shocked the pool before letting guests back in.

It's also a shame about the lack of luggage carts -- during check-out time, they are always hard to come by. One trick I've learned is to have a Bell Services person come to the room the night before or very early in the morning and take my luggage to storage. I'll walk over whatever small bag I need through check-out time and add it to my pile later. Waiting until check-out time to try and get my luggage out always means I'll be schlepping my stuff -- and I *hate* that.

I'm sorry that this experience soured you on the values. It really sounds like the other guests were not at all considerate (or safe) and that you witnessed some terrible stuff. (Who doesn't notify staff when they spill something slippery on the floor and -- gaaaaack -- I can't even imagine who allows their kids to foul a pool and doesn't even notify someone in charge about the serious health risk!) But... that can happen at all levels of resorts and I've always seen the CMs react quickly.

I hope youre next experience at Disney is much, much better!
Eileen

[Happymommy]

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience, we weren't big fans of the values either (we went to ASMovies once), and feel that the moderates were much more magical (and with a AAA discount, not that big of a difference in price). We always say, we'd give Pop a try for a long weekend trip, when the weather is cooler, and crowds are low, but we usually do a week to 10 days, in the summer, and it was very very crowded there when we went on an August trip . I do think they're a great choice, if you're really looking for somewhere to sleep and shower. We tend to spend alot of time just relaxing at the resort.

Kind of funny (not really), and I know purely coincidental (can happen anywhere)--- someone poo'd in the pool at ASMovies when we were there too. Eww. But, it also happened at our swim club last week too, so I know it can happen anywhere. It still stinks when it happens (literally, hehehehe!)

[coffeechef]

I think that Eileen pretty much said it all..... But to those of you who have booked a Value Resort... do NOT panic.. that you have made a mistake in staying there. What happened could happen anywhere is not reflective of the Value Resorts. I have stayed in them on many a visit and have always had a wonderful stay. As far as the busses being the furthest out... well someone has to be and it tends to be the values. Since they have the most rooms, then yes..... there may be lines at the end of the night when the Park closes. They expidite the busses out as fast as they can to get everyone back to their resort... even the Values. I don't blame you for being upset with the Biohazard that occured, but that was not the fault of Allstar Movies. Even the nicest and priciest places can have bad guests. Hope you had some magical times too and can look back and find the good.

[stefffe]

well we loved ASports.....we actually enjoyed it more than pop..... it was quiet and nice and the pool and lifeguards were great!! Its not the resorts fault tht some people dont know what restrooms are for.....im osrry you fell but accidents do happen...you could have easily slipped on yogurt at the poly or GF...it was an unfortunate thing but could have happened anywhere. We arent hotel "snobs" as ive seen some call it on this and other boards.....so for us the Sports will definatly be ob the top of the list for us. And our rental car made life WAY easier.......we will never go without one again....

so there are 2 sides to every story....im sorry yours was negative....but ours was filled with positive after positive....

[B.M.]

Sorry you didn't have a good trip.
We stayed at Pop (a value) this past June and had a great experience!
Hope your next visit is better!

[notjustamom]

My son who has the Asperger's is now afraid to go in pools. UGH. Anyone who has a child on the spectrum (autism) knows this may take some time (may be even years) to fix. UNBELIEVABLE.

For that I am truly sorry for you. My son is PDD-NOS so I feel for the mess that this has made for you. Good luck working on his pool issues now. My heart goes out to you.

[katskids]

Sorry you did not have a great trip. We just got back last week and stayed at POP and had a wonderful time as well. No incidents at all. I think that those kind of things can happen at any resort. Hope your next trip is more magical!

[CRCrazy]

I am so sorry that you had a few rough patches during your vacation - I hope they didn't ruin the magic for you altogether.

I agree with everyone above that the pool issue can and does happen at any pool, particularly when there are many young children around. We have stayed deluxe many times, and also in Pop Century several times, with one stay at the All Stars (Music). I think the worst trouble we had with pools needing to be closed for sanitary reasons was at the Polynesian. We stayed in the Hawaii building (concierge) for four nights - and the pool was closed 5 times to clean it that we know about (and we spent a good deal of time at the parks.)

Long lines for the buses can happen at any resort - although it does seem that it happens for the larger resorts more often at closing time - Disney also sends more buses to the longer lines, so they move more quickly. The deluxe resorts share buses - which can lead to VERY long rides and waits - particularly for the monorail resorts. We've learned our lesson - and I will never take the bus to Downtown Disney from a monorail resort. We do usually rent a car if we can get a reasonable rate - and if not - figure that a little extra time is the trade off for not incurring that cost.

It is unfortunate that you slipped on the spilled yogurt - I do hope that the CMs cleaned up the mess quickly once they were alerted to it by your fall. Again - it does seem more the result of careless, rude guests than mismanagement - and those type of guests can and are found at all resort levels.

While Disney's value resorts are often crowded, I think they provide exceptional value for what they are. After all - you pay less per night for a Disney value resort than you would for an Econolodge level hotel in many areas, and you get so much more service for your dollar. They are located in prime real estate (in the middle of the magic), provide entertainment, multiple pools, free transportation, excellent mousekeeping, as well as the opportunity to participate in extra magic hours, package delivery, dining plans, etc.

I know that our family loved the old version of E-nights at the Magic Kingdom, and were willing to pay the extra $10 per person to particpate. That added up to $40/day - and I'm only paying $49/night to stay at Pop Century this December with Disney's discount.

I really think that the Disney value resorts provide an excellent opportunity for families who might not otherwise be able to afford a vacation a chance to share in the magic.

Still - I am sorry that you had such a difficult end to your stay. I hope you will give Disney another try.

[Tonichelle]

aside from the luggage cart thing, it doesn't sound like the resort was being negligent or anything like that.

and 'value' does not mean the inconsiderate people will all stay there... trust me, rude people come in all shapes and sizes and pocketbooks.

[DzzzNee]

Thanks for all the comments. I don't want to give the impression we had a lousy trip but all our issues came from the resort and I thought it was only fair to post about them.

When I slipped to the floor (and it was HARD), nobody came over to me. The area was wide open and I sat on the floor trying to just handle the pain. This wasn't a small spill. I hit hard and I'm a little upset that others might make light of this when it DID affect the last days of our vacation that cost thousands and I don't know when we'll get back again. I'm not a snob at all so I hope it didn't come out that way. I'm only 130 lbs so it hit my bone to the core on the side of the knee cap. Nobody from the resort came over and I had to sit there a while till the pain started to ease off enough for my husband to help me up. A few minutes on the floor in the middle of the food court right in front of all the registers in a huge amount of pain feels like forever too. My husband went to get someone. After a while a few cast members came over to talk with us and offered paramedics but I refused. As we talked, I pointed out the yogurt on the floor and you could see where my foot slid through it (at least a few feet) and i told them you better clean that up before someone else slips on it. We had to stand in line to pay for our food for pete's sake too. I thought it would get better so i tried to just continue as if it would. Then we tried to walk to our room but I couldn't do it. We didn't even pass the food court so we turned around and told them to get the paramedics. They gave me an ace bandage and were pretty nice with some good advice. I took tons of ibuprophen and that helped a lot. We were given a slip for a no strings wheel chair. I paid hundreds with Jenny Criag to lose weight before the trip and was 1 lb from goal. I was looking forward to eating what I wanted and walking it off. So please understand this was not the experience I wanted and it could have been prevented. We had to skip Blizzard Beach as we planned to do that before EPCOT. We tried to just continue but the reality was that there was really no compensation and it should have been prevented. That yogurt must have been on that floor for a while because nobody passed in front of those registers while we were there picking our food at the donut area.

They told us the wheel chair would be great for lines but we already had a pass for my son with Asperger's and seeing World Showcase at EPCOT is not what I wanted. I wanted to walk. I used it more to limp with towards the end of that day. The next day it throbbed (still does -small shoots of pain from one side to the other) but I'm still taking the ibuprophen.

It's been about 15 years since we were at Disney so I can't say this would have happened or not at any other resort. I don't mean to sway anyone in one direction or another but to voice what happened to me. It's very fair to do so. I thought it would be helpful to at least let others know our experience. The parks were AWESOME!!!! I still love Disney World but I would think twice about a value -that's just from my experience.

DzzzNee

[thrashers09]

Sorry u had all that trouble especially the GROSS part!! We stayed at the Movies resort and LOVED it!!?? I know everyone has different experiences, I just wanted to let others know that we had no trouble what so ever-with the food court, the rooms, the pools, the buses or anything.
So, with that being said-if you are staying anywhere whether it be at Disney or any other hotel-be prepared for the best and the worst. Anything can happen anywhere-I am just sorry there are people in the world like that NASTY family that tries and sometimes succeeds in ruining things for other families.
Don't let that ruin your Disney experience and know that it doesn't happen all the time but can happen anywhere.

[chezp]

What a shame you had such a bad experience there. My heart goes out to you and I hope it didn't ruin the rest of your vacation.

[piratehorse]

Sorry you had some "stuff" happen on your trip. It often seems like when it rains it poors.
But I have to say we LOVED our stay at ASMv in the Toy Story bdlg. We just had a basic rm but all we needed was a place for 4 and a baby to rest at night. The food court worked great for us (we also got some groceries for a quick brkfst, snacks, and/or sandwiches). Court was convenient for the refillable mugs. Room was clean, mousekeepers did an excellent job leaving surprises w/ the kids toys. Enjoyed exploring the other bdgs and themes. The kids couldn't get over all the Toy St. characters and me? the attention to detail. We had no long waits for bus; stop at ASM for us was just around the corner.
All in all it was a great experience for the money esp. Just your basic but Disney's basic is ...dare I say... magical.