Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Newsflash: A Disney fanatic can detest the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland.

We had some serious problems with the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland, and we wrote to Disney's Customer Service Department on Sunday.  Today's Wednesday.  I'm still waiting for Disney's response.  If you know me, you know that I buy into the whole Disney experience.  I love the company--and I have, ever since my first visit to Disneyland after taking the California Bar.  Jeff & I are DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members, and I go to a Disney site at least twice a year.  (Jeff usually goes on one of these trips.)  So I tend to be pretty forgiving about minor problems.  This visit, though, wasn't about "minor" problems. 
  • The room smelled like skunk when we checked in.  To housekeeping's credit, when we asked, the folks there got rid of the skunk smell.  Then the room smelled strongly of cleaner.
  • It took more than a normal amount of time to reach anyone by phone:  room service, front desk, operator.  It shouldn't take three minutes to reach the operator or the front desk, especially during normal hours.
  • The front desk got some basic information wrong about what was open at which times.
  • When we checked out and said that we'd written to Customer Service because of some serious problems, the check-out person responded with "OK."  Not "I'm so sorry to hear that."  Not "Tell me what happened."  Just "OK."
We're lucky.  We used DVC points to stay there.  I can't imagine paying several hundred dollars a night for the room there.

Um, Disney?  So far, we're not impressed with your response.

I'll keep everyone posted.

UPDATE:  2/8/13--a very nice person from Disney Guest Relations called me, listened to my complaints, and was very, very helpful.  She restored my faith in Disney.  Although we still won't go back to the Grand Californian, we'll be happy to go back to the Disneyland Hotel.

1 comment:

Jeff VanNiel said...

"N" is truly a Mouse House supporter to the bone. Sadly this weekend soured her a bit, at least on this particular hotel.

We've been DVC members for over a decade, and this was our/my worst Disney experience.

I might be wrong, but I get the feeling that they take the DVC folks for granted at this particular hotel. We definitely get treated better at Beachclub in Orlando our plank location).