Why we will not stay on UOR property again.....

[BroadwayHermione5]

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.

 

[damo]

Sorry you had a disappointing stay.

I felt the same way after a stay at the Contemporary where my room had brown smears on the walls coming out of the bathroom, black mould on the bathroom ceiling and the filthiest, stained halls I have ever seen. My feeling was that these issues weren't one-time issues where someone neglected a duty but instead were things that had been going on a long time. I haven't been back there since... however, I have been back to many other Disney hotels and am so glad I have! I can't imagine not going back!

There will be lots of people who say that they've never encountered issues at Disney or Universal but there are issues everywhere.

You should have an email that says exactly how much you paid in advance. It is a one night's fee unless you purchased a package.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Sorry you had a disappointing stay.

I felt the same way after a stay at the Contemporary where my room had brown smears on the walls coming out of the bathroom, black mould on the bathroom ceiling and the filthiest, stained halls I have ever seen. My feeling was that these issues weren't one-time issues where someone neglected a duty but instead were things that had been going on a long time. I haven't been back there since... however, I have been back to many other Disney hotels and am so glad I have! I can't imagine not going back!

There will be lots of people who say that they've never encountered issues at Disney or Universal but there are issues everywhere.

You should have an email that says exactly how much you paid in advance. It is a one night's fee unless you purchased a package.

You are absolutely correct that there are issues everywhere. And as I said I wouldn’t mind going back and trying let’s say the hard rock down the road, but for right now I’m so just ugh.

 

[Calee]

Is the bill a hold? I know they do a nightly hold but it falls off if you don't spend the money, kind of like what Disney does now. And unlike Disney you only pay one night to reserve the hotel, and pay the rest of the nights when you check out.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Is the bill a hold? I know they do a nightly hold but it falls off if you don't spend the money, kind of like what Disney does now. And unlike Disney you only pay one night to reserve the hotel, and pay the rest of the nights when you check out.

Not a hold. We were told we owed the entire reservation and that we didn’t have the proper paperwork handed in on time. Which we did not owe the entire bill and we handed in the paper work on time. Hope that clarifies.

 

[Calee]

I don't know what paperwork I have never had paperwork for a stay! Hope you get it sorted.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I don't know what paperwork I have never had paperwork for a stay! Hope you get it sorted.

Thank you. And from what we are figuring out it was the paper we had emailed to us and had to sign and submit back. Which we did and have confirmation of them receiving.

 

[Robo56]

I’am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.

I have stayed at RPR and found it to be a beautiful clean Resort. I’am guessing that was the same experience that the other disboard folks have had.

There were some factors that could have been at play over the hallway situation.

I will tell you with all the rain that was occurring as I was there staying onsite at another Resort from 9/12 to 9/23 the hallway carpets took a beating. People were tracking in with wet muddy shoes and disability scooters. It couldn’t be helped.

I also was asleep one night and heard some banging during the night and woke up the next morning and someone had used the luggage trolley to cart their luggage to their room during the middle of the night and gashed the wall and there was plaster off the wall on the carpet.

The cleaning crew the next day had to clean that up.


I guess what’s s throwing me is like previous poster said. When you make a reservation for any of the onsite resorts they take one nights deposit amount plus taxes to hold your reservation.

When you check in you give them your credit card that you reserved your room with. You check in. They let you know that they will put a hold on your card for incidentals if you wish. If you don’t want to charge back to your room I think it is $50.00 per day. That is released back to your credit card after you check out.

If you do want to use your room key to purchase food, beverage and merchandise on your hotel account then you can ask for a larger amount to be put towards your incidentals. What ever is not used goes back to your credit card.

At the end of your stay you can stop at the desk and check out and have a look at your charges and have a copy handed right to you.

I had really bad experience at Pop Century a few years ago. Then I went back a couple of years ago for a 2 nights and things were better.

Sounds like there was a perfect storm of events no pun intended. The weather, some misinformation and questions on the charges. I have always found Loews Resorts to be most accommodating on sorting out any billing issues. I hope all goes well and you will come back onsite for another try in the future.

 

[cschaaf]

Was it a package? Otherwise, I have no idea what paperwork there would be? We've never booked a package.

I'm confused about the bus answer you got. I believe there are regularly scheduled busses that run from City Walk to the hotels; even the premiere hotels. That was a wrong answer even in good weather lol

If the business center was closed for the weekend, it sounds like she gave you the best advice she could on that one. You were heading there anyway.

 

[DLgal]

What paperwork? There is no paperwork that you have to sign and return before checking in. This whole billing thing seems to be a huge misunderstanding. Your bill that you get on checkout day is usually the remaining room balance, taxes and fees, daily parking charge, resort fee, and then whatever you charged back to the room.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Some ideas since they claim you didn’t make payments when you have the credit/debit charges to prove you did…

-Did you book through a Travel Agency/Third Party or direct? If it was TA/third party you need to get them involved now.

-Try calling RPR billing department if you haven’t already. New day maybe a new perspective or access to not broken systems will help them see the payments you made since you will have amounts and dates of each payment. (This is why a receipt is not enough, look at your credit/debit activity and make sure you were actually charged.)

-I’d send an email or a Twitter DM or something to Loews Corporate prior to the credit/debit card dispute stating you have proof payments were made to your reservation and that RPR refused to apply them and whatever your other issues with RPR are.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Some ideas since they claim you didn’t make payments when you have the credit/debit charges to prove you did…

-Did you book through a Travel Agency/Third Party or direct? If it was TA/third party you need to get them involved now.

-Try calling RPR billing department if you haven’t already. New day maybe a new perspective or access to not broken systems will help them see the payments you made since you will have amounts and dates of each payment. (This is why a receipt is not enough, look at your credit/debit activity and make sure you were actually charged.)

-I’d send an email or a Twitter DM or something to Loews Corporate prior to the credit/debit card dispute stating you have proof payments were made to your reservation and that RPR refused to apply them and whatever your other issues with RPR are.

Only thing booked through a third party was the tickets. Actual hotel and everything else was through UOR.
I tried Twitter and nothing worked. We do have proof of payments so I will be emailing after calling. Will definitely be doing the second thing. We are also in the process of disputing with the credit card company.
Thank you for your input.

 

[SCSabresfan]

I am still confused by the paperwork you had to fill out before your visit. We have stayed there on numerous occasions (pre-COVID) and never had to fill out paperwork. Is this something new?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I am still confused by the paperwork you had to fill out before your visit. We have stayed there on numerous occasions (pre-COVID) and never had to fill out paperwork. Is this something new?

My guess is yes. It was our first time staying on property but when we reserved we had an email sent that we had to sign and submit back (I want to say it was electronic signature). I know this isn’t much but I hope it helps a little bit.

 

[bsmcneil]

I'm curious - how did you receive a nasty call if you missed the call? They also gave you a raw dough pizza - yuck. I hate those places (take and bake pizza places). Sounds like a cruddy vacation - sorry!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I’am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience.

I have stayed at RPR and found it to be a beautiful clean Resort. I’am guessing that was the same experience that the other disboard folks have had.

There were some factors that could have been at play over the hallway situation.

I will tell you with all the rain that was occurring as I was there staying onsite at another Resort from 9/12 to 9/23 the hallway carpets took a beating. People were tracking in with wet muddy shoes and disability scooters. It couldn’t be helped.

I also was asleep one night and heard some banging during the night and woke up the next morning and someone had used the luggage trolley to cart their luggage to their room during the middle of the night and gashed the wall and there was plaster off the wall on the carpet.

The cleaning crew the next day had to clean that up.


I guess what’s s throwing me is like previous poster said. When you make a reservation for any of the onsite resorts they take one nights deposit amount plus taxes to hold your reservation.

When you check in you give them your credit card that you reserved your room with. You check in. They let you know that they will put a hold on your card for incidentals if you wish. If you don’t want to charge back to your room I think it is $50.00 per day. That is released back to your credit card after you check out.

If you do want to use your room key to purchase food, beverage and merchandise on your hotel account then you can ask for a larger amount to be put towards your incidentals. What ever is not used goes back to your credit card.

At the end of your stay you can stop at the desk and check out and have a look at your charges and have a copy handed right to you.

I had really bad experience at Pop Century a few years ago. Then I went back a couple of years ago for a 2 nights and things were better.

Sounds like there was a perfect storm of events no pun intended. The weather, some misinformation and questions on the charges. I have always found Loews Resorts to be most accommodating on sorting out any billing issues. I hope all goes well and you will come back onsite for another try in the future.

Sorry for just replying. Was in a meeting last night and am catching up now.
It was so rainy and muddy during that time! And like I said general wear and tear and staining over time wasn’t as big an issue as dust and paper and other “debris” (can’t think of another word right now). And holy smokes to the plaster story!

as I replied to someone down below, it could very well be new/something done post pandemic/first time visitors. Essentially it was within 24 hours of making the reservation we received an email and had to sign and return it.
As far as I am aware, we were not told of this hold. I also know we had paid the reservation in full weeks in advance of arrival. We used cash or our own cards. Only time anything was billed to the room was at Bula Bula.
All in all as I said above, I might go back and try another hotel. It would be a long time though (not just because of this horrible experience-this crazy thing called life will definitely get in the way). My parents however will definitely not return. It really is a shame as we had heard nothing but amazing things. I also don’t think-as both you and I mentioned-others having other issues at the other hotels helped either. We were essentially validating our feelings.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I'm curious - how did you receive a nasty call if you missed the call? They also gave you a raw dough pizza - yuck. I hate those places (take and bake pizza places). Sounds like a cruddy vacation - sorry!

It was a voicemail-sorry for the confusion.
And yes it was super yuck.
And it wasn’t by any means. We still enjoyed our time at the parks and city walk. Love HHN. Really enjoyed Volcano Bay. It was also only the first half of our vacation.
As someone else mentioned above, a perfect storm of chaos.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Was it a package? Otherwise, I have no idea what paperwork there would be? We've never booked a package.

I'm confused about the bus answer you got. I believe there are regularly scheduled busses that run from City Walk to the hotels; even the premiere hotels. That was a wrong answer even in good weather lol

If the business center was closed for the weekend, it sounds like she gave you the best advice she could on that one. You were heading there anyway.

So we booked a room only/cabana rental when we booked as we got the park tickets and HHN tickets through a third party. As I mentioned to someone else, I want to say this is new. We received an email, had to sign and submit the signed copy back within 24 hours. Also we paid in full weeks prior.
Yeah we were very shocked by the bus answer. Again I don’t blame the concierge at all. Miscommunication is to blame for that.
your last point is true, we were just hoping we wouldn’t have to lug stuff around and find a way to pack it.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

What paperwork? There is no paperwork that you have to sign and return before checking in. This whole billing thing seems to be a huge misunderstanding. Your bill that you get on checkout day is usually the remaining room balance, taxes and fees, daily parking charge, resort fee, and then whatever you charged back to the room.

Didn’t have a car so no parking fee. Only thing we had charged was a Bula Bula bill. Everything else including the reservation was paid for weeks in advance.
As I’ve mentioned to others, we had to sign an emailed form and submit it within 24 hours of signing.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Is the bill a hold? I know they do a nightly hold but it falls off if you don't spend the money, kind of like what Disney does now. And unlike Disney you only pay one night to reserve the hotel, and pay the rest of the nights when you check out.

So we paid in full. We even asked at check in if we were paid in full and they said yes. From what I am gathering there has been some huge miscommunication going on. Will be really combing through records.