BroadwayHermione5
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2017
Hello All,
First and foremost, I would like to say a thank you to all on the disboards- both Disney and Universal related-for helping me and my family navigate this new era (i guess you can call it that) trip.
I also want to give a shout out Pete and the whole DisUplugged and Dreams crew, especially Craig and Ryno. While my family and I were absolutely discouraged from staying on UOR property in the future (I might go back but it won't be for a long time), we value your input. Truly we do. I didn't italicize the word value for nothing. We truly value everything you say.
I also want to say this isn't a bashing of the parks, City Walk, or the TMs. We love the parks, our first trip to Volcano Bay was an absolute blast, and we now are recommending Big Fire and Antojito's to anyone and everyone. Plus, who can resist Jack and the HHN Icons?
I am also going to say that others, including friends, neighbors and colleagues recommended Royal Pacific to us, and they have been horrified or to a certain degree agreed with our assessment. I also found out from others staying at RPR and other UOR hotels during the same time we were were also having issues with the hotels. So it wasn't just us.
This is why we will stay on Disney property (or off property for UOR) from now on. We came to the conclusion we would rather pay the extra money to add express onto tickets and take a day out of our Disney trip to go here then stay on property. Our disgusting, dingy, frustrating, and at times confusing stay from 9/16 to 9/19 confirmed this.
I am going to start off by saying we truly thought it was us our first night. When I get around to my trip reports, I will reiterate that. I will also say the TMs we encountered were lovely, even if there was miscommunication (we will get to that). We also enjoyed the pool area, even though Mother Nature two days in a row decided after 5 minutes of us being in the pool that she would make Thor throw thunder and lightning everywhere.
Our first day we had a beautiful, early flight in. Took the superstar shuttle from MCO, no issues. We had done everything UOR required of us prior to arrival and checked in. Our room in Tower 3 was ready. On the way to our room on floor 4, we discovered that the hallways were stained and not vacuumed (as a matter of fact it look like they hadn't been vacuumed in a while). While we understand staining over time, and general wear and tear, we would be dealing with the debris outside for the rest of our trip. My mother uses a scooter due to severe arthritis issues, and while our room would be cleaned, we would track dirt in. We did the check of the room and while areas were dusty and our sink had weird pressure issues (what hotel sink doesn't lol), we were happy to have a clean room and wanted to go to the parks. We head out, come back, have our first chaotic moment with Mother Nature at the pool, and it starts down-pouring. At that time I go to the vacation planning desk because we were having issues with our photo package, and I end up discovering that we would need to make reservations and pay ahead for our breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron the next day (there is a thread on the boards about this). I do that and double check our Cabana reservation at VB and head up to the room. We decide we are too tired to head to City Walk and decide to try Jake's. Our service was so so, and our pizza we ordered wasn't cooked, but the rest of the food was well prepared. We headed up to the room, and discussed how we thought it was us. Maybe we didn't fit the vibe.
Next day wake up, head to the parks, have a wonderful time (minus a nasty call from VB that we missed in regards to our cabana rental-probably the only bad interaction with a TM that we had), come back and have our second chaotic moment with Mother Nature at the pool. This was also when we discovered the hallways were once again not vacuumed, and why I posted on here asking for an email and a phone number. We never felt clean because we would track everything back into our room. We really wanted to head to City Walk, so I head to the concierge after showering and ask a few questions. Two answers stuck out to me (and I would like to state before heading any further, I do not blame her for her answer regarding the transportation. That is miscommunication on the hotels end, not hers. She was lovely and very patient with me and all my questions.) The first answer that stuck out to me was in regards to the following question: How do we ship stuff home from the hotel? Her answer: Our business center is closed for the weekend. I do know the City Walks shops ship home, but we do not. If you are headed to Disney, I suggest asking them if they can (spoiler they don't ship non Disney items home anymore). She literally said to me to try Disney. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The second answer was in response to if buses would be available due to the horrible weather causing a stop to the boats? Her answer: Sadly, the only bus is to Volcano Bay. I would wait it out or walk if you feel up to it. We chose the former, had a lovely dinner at Big Fire, and came back.
Next day, while waiting for the bus to Volcano Bay, a family comes up to us and asks if the bus to City Walk stops here. We said no it's the boats. They said they were able to take the bus due to the bad weather the night before and assumed they could do so during the day. Color us shocked and angry at this point (we later confirmed the concierge had the wrong information). Anyway, we enjoy VB, come back to still dirty hallway carpets, and head out to HHN and City Walk. Come back, pack because the next day we were headed to Disney, and go to bed.
My mother, being the early riser she is, receives an email and discovers we are being charged a huge bill. She immediately gets angry and frustrated, and looks it over. The only thing that made sense was our Bula Bula tab from the second night at the pool. We head down, and my dad goes to sit in one of the check in area chairs and immediately realizes its sticky and gets up to join my mother at the check out desk to mention the chair. The reason they charged us was apparently we didn't do any of the protocols or paperwork or payments we needed to prior to coming. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! We had made these reservations in MARCH. And according to MULTIPLE friends and others we asked, we would have never been allowed to check in had that been the case. After arguing for a long time and not having the manager come out, we decided to dispute the charge when we got home (which we are now doing), we immediately called a Mears and headed to the Boardwalk.
Now, I know that no hotel is perfect. But even Boardwalk with the rolling power outage we had one night of our stay (it was due to some new wiring in the lobby) notified us every which way to Sunday what was going on.
Again, with all due respect to the dis team, especially Craig and Ryno with UO Fan, and everyone who recommended this hotel to us, we really wanted to enjoy it. Honestly. And we loved our time in the parks and VB and City Walk and will continue to use your knowledge to help us visit in the future. But you will never see us (again maybe me but it won't be for a long time and not at RPR) stay at UOR hotel property again.
We just wanted to try something different, and enjoy it, and it bit us where the sun doesn't shine.
BroadwayHermione5
Updating to add some video and photos of the hallway. My apologies for the crummy lighting and quality of the photos.
First and foremost, I would like to say a thank you to all on the disboards- both Disney and Universal related-for helping me and my family navigate this new era (i guess you can call it that) trip.
I also want to give a shout out Pete and the whole DisUplugged and Dreams crew, especially Craig and Ryno. While my family and I were absolutely discouraged from staying on UOR property in the future (I might go back but it won't be for a long time), we value your input. Truly we do. I didn't italicize the word value for nothing. We truly value everything you say.
I also want to say this isn't a bashing of the parks, City Walk, or the TMs. We love the parks, our first trip to Volcano Bay was an absolute blast, and we now are recommending Big Fire and Antojito's to anyone and everyone. Plus, who can resist Jack and the HHN Icons?
I am also going to say that others, including friends, neighbors and colleagues recommended Royal Pacific to us, and they have been horrified or to a certain degree agreed with our assessment. I also found out from others staying at RPR and other UOR hotels during the same time we were were also having issues with the hotels. So it wasn't just us.
This is why we will stay on Disney property (or off property for UOR) from now on. We came to the conclusion we would rather pay the extra money to add express onto tickets and take a day out of our Disney trip to go here then stay on property. Our disgusting, dingy, frustrating, and at times confusing stay from 9/16 to 9/19 confirmed this.
I am going to start off by saying we truly thought it was us our first night. When I get around to my trip reports, I will reiterate that. I will also say the TMs we encountered were lovely, even if there was miscommunication (we will get to that). We also enjoyed the pool area, even though Mother Nature two days in a row decided after 5 minutes of us being in the pool that she would make Thor throw thunder and lightning everywhere.
Our first day we had a beautiful, early flight in. Took the superstar shuttle from MCO, no issues. We had done everything UOR required of us prior to arrival and checked in. Our room in Tower 3 was ready. On the way to our room on floor 4, we discovered that the hallways were stained and not vacuumed (as a matter of fact it look like they hadn't been vacuumed in a while). While we understand staining over time, and general wear and tear, we would be dealing with the debris outside for the rest of our trip. My mother uses a scooter due to severe arthritis issues, and while our room would be cleaned, we would track dirt in. We did the check of the room and while areas were dusty and our sink had weird pressure issues (what hotel sink doesn't lol), we were happy to have a clean room and wanted to go to the parks. We head out, come back, have our first chaotic moment with Mother Nature at the pool, and it starts down-pouring. At that time I go to the vacation planning desk because we were having issues with our photo package, and I end up discovering that we would need to make reservations and pay ahead for our breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron the next day (there is a thread on the boards about this). I do that and double check our Cabana reservation at VB and head up to the room. We decide we are too tired to head to City Walk and decide to try Jake's. Our service was so so, and our pizza we ordered wasn't cooked, but the rest of the food was well prepared. We headed up to the room, and discussed how we thought it was us. Maybe we didn't fit the vibe.
Next day wake up, head to the parks, have a wonderful time (minus a nasty call from VB that we missed in regards to our cabana rental-probably the only bad interaction with a TM that we had), come back and have our second chaotic moment with Mother Nature at the pool. This was also when we discovered the hallways were once again not vacuumed, and why I posted on here asking for an email and a phone number. We never felt clean because we would track everything back into our room. We really wanted to head to City Walk, so I head to the concierge after showering and ask a few questions. Two answers stuck out to me (and I would like to state before heading any further, I do not blame her for her answer regarding the transportation. That is miscommunication on the hotels end, not hers. She was lovely and very patient with me and all my questions.) The first answer that stuck out to me was in regards to the following question: How do we ship stuff home from the hotel? Her answer: Our business center is closed for the weekend. I do know the City Walks shops ship home, but we do not. If you are headed to Disney, I suggest asking them if they can (spoiler they don't ship non Disney items home anymore). She literally said to me to try Disney. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The second answer was in response to if buses would be available due to the horrible weather causing a stop to the boats? Her answer: Sadly, the only bus is to Volcano Bay. I would wait it out or walk if you feel up to it. We chose the former, had a lovely dinner at Big Fire, and came back.
Next day, while waiting for the bus to Volcano Bay, a family comes up to us and asks if the bus to City Walk stops here. We said no it's the boats. They said they were able to take the bus due to the bad weather the night before and assumed they could do so during the day. Color us shocked and angry at this point (we later confirmed the concierge had the wrong information). Anyway, we enjoy VB, come back to still dirty hallway carpets, and head out to HHN and City Walk. Come back, pack because the next day we were headed to Disney, and go to bed.
My mother, being the early riser she is, receives an email and discovers we are being charged a huge bill. She immediately gets angry and frustrated, and looks it over. The only thing that made sense was our Bula Bula tab from the second night at the pool. We head down, and my dad goes to sit in one of the check in area chairs and immediately realizes its sticky and gets up to join my mother at the check out desk to mention the chair. The reason they charged us was apparently we didn't do any of the protocols or paperwork or payments we needed to prior to coming. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! We had made these reservations in MARCH. And according to MULTIPLE friends and others we asked, we would have never been allowed to check in had that been the case. After arguing for a long time and not having the manager come out, we decided to dispute the charge when we got home (which we are now doing), we immediately called a Mears and headed to the Boardwalk.
Now, I know that no hotel is perfect. But even Boardwalk with the rolling power outage we had one night of our stay (it was due to some new wiring in the lobby) notified us every which way to Sunday what was going on.
Again, with all due respect to the dis team, especially Craig and Ryno with UO Fan, and everyone who recommended this hotel to us, we really wanted to enjoy it. Honestly. And we loved our time in the parks and VB and City Walk and will continue to use your knowledge to help us visit in the future. But you will never see us (again maybe me but it won't be for a long time and not at RPR) stay at UOR hotel property again.
We just wanted to try something different, and enjoy it, and it bit us where the sun doesn't shine.
BroadwayHermione5
Updating to add some video and photos of the hallway. My apologies for the crummy lighting and quality of the photos.
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