We had a rough stay.
We stayed here recently and had a genuinely frustrating experience due to a plumbing issue.
Most of the staff are extraordinarily kind. The location is prime for easy access to the parks. It has a gift shop with almost everything you could possibly need and depending on your room location it is possible to see the fireworks.
However, the hotel is presently in a poor state. We stayed during a weekend when we were told the construction was unlikely to be a problem. I don't know if the room we stayed in had recently been redone or was waiting to be redone but its tub apparently leaked into the room beneath us.
During my first shower on the property after a long drive down the night before there was a knock at the door. Maintenance informed us that our bathroom was leaking into the room below. The maintenance guy said when we were out of the tub and ready to be out of the room to give a call down to the front desk so maintenance could have access to the room. Annoying and unexpected but understandable. I got out of the tub as soon as I could and began to get my family ready for a day at Disney.
While already rushing to get ready, we got a phone call from an employee who came across as borderline hostile once I told her it would probably be an hour thirty before we were out of the room. She implied we weren't vacating the room quickly enough for maintenance to get in.
I explained the water was no longer running. This was not satisfactory to her. I had to fire back that I have a young child and nothing with young children is quick, especially not getting ready to leave the house for multiple hours. For 350 a night no one expects to be guilted about using the shower let alone not leaving the room fast enough for maintenance of a facility problem. Insane.
We left our room to give them space to work as soon as we could. And we called down to let the staff know it was possible to work while we were gone.
We spent several hours across the street at Disney and came back exhausted, hot, and ready to just rinse off and relax. We showered and almost immediately, the phone began ringing! Great...
This time it was a nicer staff member, but the message was the same: the leak was happening again, and maintenance needed to come to the room a third time.
Unfortunately, this call came right during my preschooler's nap time, which made the timing especially disruptive. When you disturb the nap time, you disturb the day and the capacity to go back to the park after naptime.
Again, for 350 a night one expects reasonable continuous access to the room to carry on all the normal daily functions of living. If I wanted plumbing problems disturbing my day I could have targeted a stay at a lower quality hotel with worse reviews. Instead I chose to stay here under the incorrect assumption it would be a problem free stay.
At that point, I asked to be moved to a different room entirely, since it was clear the issue hadn't actually been fixed the first time and I didn't want to risk a fourth interruption. Also, we just wanted to be able to use the shower!
The move to the new room was handled well. They brought a baggage cart, 75 dollar gift card compensation and comped us one night of parking. So, that's 105 dollars out of 1050 on a three night stay. Does that seem proportional to you for throwing off a whole day? The inability to relax and use our room and its facilities was also impacting our ability to enjoy Disney. We were making it work. But, that was *us* choosing to ignore how bizarre the whole experience was.
For a room priced at $350 a night (we had a suite), I expected a functioning bathroom at minimum, and definitely didn't expect to have my family's day and more concerningly my kids's nap disrupted because of a maintenance issue that should have been resolved after the first report.
The second night, after the most chaotic of days, I fell asleep on the couch of our new room. When I woke up there was a giant silverfish on the wall next to me. Cool, cool. A darling sentinel greeting bug of what I would then notice were many lurking about the place. Perhaps this is related to the overall water intrusion issues?
At this point all I could do was sigh. This place is falling apart. Most of the people are so nice you feel guilty for saying anything about it. But, at present, it is definitely not Marriott quality.
They're probably going to say this review is related to the construction going on at the hotel. And maybe it indeed is. But, maybe the hotel should also be closed until it gets a handle on all its problems.
It was a birthday weekend. And it was Disney. So, it's really hard to view the whole thing negatively. But, holy hell man. Staying here is a real gamble with your time and stress levels. I wouldn't do it again.
