Last week, for our honeymoon, we stayed at Disney's Art of Animation resort. Being a (former) avid Disney fan, a Disney Visa credit card holder, and a shareholder, I was SO excited for this trip. On our third morning there (we were in the Little Mermaid section), I found two bed bugs in the bed. When I killed them, blood filled the tissue and stained the bed sheet. These bugs had been feasting on us all night. Things actually got worse from there. We were told we needed to leave our belongings with them to be sanitized and had to go to Walmart to get new clothes, shoes, etc. to get through the next day while our clothes, luggage, shoes, etc. were processed by Disney. They moved us to a room in the Lion King section and moved some of our belongings that had not been sanitized into the new room. Where did they put these items? On the bed in our new room! So, they had to test the new room for bed bugs. Our clothing was returned with damages AND (ready for this?) our clothing was returned with a little something extra....SOMEONE ELSE'S underwear! We dealt with managers on every shift for the duration of our stay. Management continued to push us off on their claims department, which, conveniently is unavailable during the weekend. Aside from this nightmare, the towels had holes worn in them, the counter service food court is very chaotic, and the staff was unfriendly. As we were departing and had our arms full of luggage, 3 "cast members" with luggage carts walked by. Not only did they not offer to assist, they didn't even make eye contact or say hello! As a lifelong Disney fan, this experience has changed how I view the entire enterprise. Seeing how the service and magic have diminished greatly over the years, I don't think I can ever go back. My husband has 202 bed bug bites and I have 80. Sad to say that Disney, of all places, actually completely ruined our honeymoon.
@JulieL Wow, this sounds like a nightmare. Sorry you had to go through this experience. I stayed at a value (pop) just last year for the first time and I can agree with the food court and staff not being up to the typical Disney Standard. I don't think I will stay at another value again. If that value would have been my first visit to Disney then I may not even be the hardcore fan that I am today. ' We have have a few experiences where we needed to get management over the past 10+ years and when i say management I mean the head person of the Hotel to get a resolution. I hope you get compensated for the damages, but don't expect anything extra. That's not Disney anymore. It seems Disney even has a disconnect with its management, I know @Tim had a run in with a manager who was almost like a bully at one location. With isn't the A-typical reaction you expect to get from a manager. All Disney said in his case was "retraining" which I think everyone says... Its really lost its value. I know your sore right now, but I hope you don't let this horrible experience rune your love of Disney and we hope to see you come back Good luck!!!
Wow, I am glad I did not have to go thru what you did and am sorry that you did. But like @Sean said, don't let it dissuade you from Disney all together. I've asked for management a couple of times, but they were for easy problems and it was mainly communication problems with the CM. Hope all goes extra great in the future for you.
Thank you for sharing your experience. We too have had to get management involved- my husband contracted the Norwalk virus during one of our stays- from people that had been on a cruise and then come to Disney- it was an outbreak situation- that you hear nothing about. While I am sad to hear of your experience- it does bring light to the fact that the bed bugs do exist at Disneyworld My personal worse experience was in 1996- I was ready to walk away and NEVER go back- but the magic does come back- in time- if you let it. Please continue to communicate with Disney- taking it to an even higher level if you need to - you can never have your first honeymoon over again- that I understand.
If you haven't already...email, call, mail Disney's customer support people. Make a stink to their twitter accounts so all your followers and theirs sees it. You are owed for all this inconvenience and down right health threat to you and your husband.
That's awful! I personally have never had an experience like the one you described, but it does happen...as everyone else said, make sure that you communicate with the upper level management so you can get it resolved. I hope your bad experience doesn't keep you from going back to Disney altogether and I hope you can get it all worked out, but I can definitely see how it would change your view of the enterprise after receiving such bad service.
That sounds absolutely terrible! I'm sorry you had such an experience. I can't say I've ever felt the same; our family stayed at The Little Mermaid resort last summer when we visited, and I encountered nothing of the sort. Did you ever receive compensation of any sort?
I am so sorry that you had to experience that. I hope that they tried to make it right in some type of way. A honeymoon is supposed to be romantic and fun..not sucky
While it is unfortunate that this happened to you, this can happen at ANY hotel, whether it be Disney or not. You received compensation. In Disney, if this occurs, you are given a night's stay back and also more than enough money to buy new clothes. And anything beyond that in regards to compensation is required to go through the claims department. Same as any other major corporation.
