Extremely Disappointing Experience – Safety Concerns, No A/C, and Poor Customer Service
I really wanted to love this place and make it our family's go-to vacation destination. Unfortunately, our experience was anything but magical.
We arrived on Wednesday, and initially everything looked promising. The staff was kind and helpful, our room was clean, and the crab cakes at Geyser Point were excellent.
However, early Thursday morning, things took a turn for the worse. I woke up to loud noises and a terrible smell outside our balcony, only to discover that the entire resort had lost air conditioning. Please keep in mind that this was June in Florida, with temperatures feeling well over 100 degrees. We were traveling with our one-year-old daughter, and the conditions quickly became unbearable.
The pool was mostly closed due to weather, the room was incredibly hot, and there wasn't much to do at the resort. The staff did their best by handing out bottled water and Mickey ice cream bars, which was appreciated, but it was clear there was no immediate solution. By Friday, the A/C was still not working.
Meanwhile, large generators had been placed outside our building. Not only were they running day and night, creating constant noise, but they were also emitting black exhaust smoke directly toward our balcony. I have video evidence showing the exhaust blowing toward our room while my one-year-old was sleeping inside.
I showed the video to the front desk manager, Patrick. His response was simply, "We have an emergency here. I'm sorry." No offer to move us to another room. No acknowledgment of the obvious safety concern.
When I asked to speak with a higher-level manager, I was referred to Randall, who was overseeing the resort that day. After showing him the video, I asked, "Would you want your children staying in this room?" His only response was, "I'm sorry."
To me, this was a serious health and safety issue.
Later that day, I checked on the status of the A/C repair and was told there was no estimated time for restoration.
Unfortunately, things got even worse.
We skipped the parks that day because we had an important reservation at Artist Point, where we planned to celebrate my daughter's birthday and meet Snow White. After spending the day waiting around the resort, I received a call at 3:00 PM informing me that our 4:00 PM reservation had been canceled because of the A/C outage.
A cast member offered to move our reservation to a character dining location in EPCOT, but the experience was disappointing and we waited more than an hour for a table. At that point, my daughter's birthday celebration had already been significantly impacted.
I went back to the front desk to discuss compensation. One cast member informed me that guests would be refunded for Thursday due to the A/C outage. I asked about the second day without air conditioning, the canceled birthday plans, and the overall disruption to our vacation.
The response was essentially: take the one-night refund or nothing.
When I requested a manager, he appeared irritated and uninterested in helping. The only solution offered was relocating us to a lower-tier resort on our final day, which made little sense. Eventually, after a lengthy discussion, he agreed to refund two nights. The fact that I had to fight for compensation under these circumstances was unacceptable, and the way it was presented felt as though they were doing me a favor.
To make matters worse, housekeeping never serviced our room. With a baby in diapers and no air conditioning, you can imagine how unpleasant that became. Trash, including dirty diapers, sat in a hot room all day.
I visited the front desk and politely requested housekeeping. I was told someone would come. Nobody did. After calling again later that evening, I was told I needed to speak with a housekeeping manager. I explained that I wasn't making a special request—I simply wanted the room cleaned.
Finally, at approximately 11:30 PM, someone arrived to remove the trash and replace towels.
By that point, any expectations I had left were gone.
This was not a magical Disney experience. While I understand that emergencies happen, what matters is how a resort responds to them. The lack of communication, poor customer service, refusal to proactively address obvious safety concerns, canceled plans, and inadequate recovery efforts turned what should have been a special family vacation and birthday celebration into a frustrating and disappointing experience.
I expected much better from a Disney resort.
