Hilton In The Walt Disney World Resort Disappoints
My husband and I spent our anniversary at this hotel located on Hotel Plaza Boulevard, walking distance to downtown Disney and the Disney Marketplace. We chose this location because we love Benihana, which is housed in the hotel. We booked an executive level room, expecting peace and luxurious quiet. Unfortunately we were met with loud unruly children, an over extended club lounge and ineffective customer service.
When we arrived we were disappointed to learn that, despite indicating it in the reservation & calling to confirm our requests were received, housekeeping had not replaced all feather bedding before our arrival. We were told upon check in that the room was set up according to our request. This was very important to us as I am severly allergic to feathers. We made our way up to our room, even stopping to speak with a lovely Hilton Honors Representative for at least 15 minutes, to discover that housekeeping had just begun preparing the room. Given it was our anniversary and we are generally laid back people we decided to just head to the club lounge to give them some time to prepare the room.
The club lounge was way overcrowded, especially considering it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. There were children running around, screaming, crying, etc... This is the first time we had stayed at a hotel that allowed young children on the executive level. We were a little surprised but figured okay it is a hotel near Disney so roll with it.
Finally our room was ready, unfortunately the champagne bucket with ice and glasses we requested failed to come. After waiting an hour, we decided to create a make shift bucket to chill the champagne. I called room service to let them know we no longer needed it, they apologized but told us they forgot to write our room number down and were hoping we would call back.
Again, given we were celebrating our anniversary and really just wanted to relax and enjoy each other's company we didn't let it affect us. There we were trying to relax before dinner, when we are startled with shreiking of a child. This brings to our attention how unfortunate it is to have a room with a door that shares to another room when there are children in that other room. Don't get me wrong I love children, but we were there to relax.
After an hour of crying we gave up and went to dinner. We returned from dinner to find the child was still crying with no end in sight. We left our room to give the child time to relax and fall asleep. Upon returning the child was still crying. Finally we called the front desk, they apologized and said they would send someone up. We again left our room, this time to sit in the club lounge. Unfortunately, it became crowded again, now almost 10PM. We headed back to our room, it was quiet. Yeah!
We settled in, suddenly I hear knocking on our door and see the door handle of the door in between the rooms moving. I hear a little child saying a knock knock joke. Then crying starts again, this continued all night with no reprive or apology from staff.
Then a car alarm started going off outside, needless to say I did not get to sleep much that night. Not what you would expect for this type of hotel and room level. We travel a lot and have never encountered this.
The next morning, we planned on having breakfast in the lounge, but at 6:30AM it was already cleared out since they were so over booked. I headed downstairs to make a reservation at the only breakfast dining restaurant. I won't get into it but I will say disgusting...the food, the service, the cleanliness...just awful.
Anyway, a manager saw me walking and asked how my stay was. I took the opportunity to tell him. He apologized but said that when you stay at a hotel near Disney quiet in your room is not expected. This is ridiculous, we have stayed at hotels in Disney without this problem, also in Universal - no problem.
The Hilton offered to give us the difference back in the room from the club level and the standard room to make up for it. Quite honestly they should have done a lot more. Oh and to extend check out, I said quite honestly we live 40 minutes away we would rather go home and sleep.
I requested to have the big manager contact me and still have not heard from them. This was in December . . . I also completed an online survey requesting follow-up again nothing.
I would not recommend staying at this hotel. They do not respect guests nor their needs. To not be able to sleep in a hotel room that costs over $200 a night is insane. There are far better hotels in the area - like the Gaylord Palms.
