55 and 50 Party - Disneyland and Zlick!

[innerSpaceman]

Cool video, CP. Thanks for persisting.



Ok, now that enough time has passed, I will reveal the Dark Side of the Disneyland Hotel stay. Not enough to ruin anything, but enough that I wrote a rather scathing letter to the hotel on July 27. I know they received it (because my injury claims handler mentioned it), but I've received no response from Disney as of today, August 23. Pfft.

Theft, insult, threats and contempt -- best relayed by my actual letter:

My party and I were recent guests of the hotel, July 15 through 19, 2010, and had the occasion to stay in the Presidential Suite (formerly the Marina Suite), which we chose for its historical relationship to the theme of a Disneyland birthday event we held in the suite on the evening of July 16.

We generally enjoyed our time at the hotel. However, there were several disturbing incidents which marred our stay, at the alarming rate of at least one per day. Though we had many pleasant interactions with various members of the hotel staff, too many of our interactions were extremely troublesome. Furthermore, we were very disappointed with the physical condition of so expensive a suite, which conditions we would have found unacceptable were it not for the historical significance, as I mentioned, that was key to our planned event.

On the first evening of our stay, we were victims of an incident of theft perpetrated by the hotel staff. Fortunately, nothing of value was taken, but such an incident was completely unacceptable. Hotel security investigated, and made a report of the incident.

We were bringing in a case of water, the first of countless items of food and drink we would be bringing into the suite for our event the following evening. I left the case of water in the hallway, just outside the door to the suite’s kitchen. I proceeded to show a visitor briefly around the suite, after entering through the main doorway, and then immediately went to retrieve the water from outside the kitchen door. It was gone. Not more than five minutes had elapsed since I placed the case of water there.

Hotel security determined that housekeeping had removed the water. I was advised by security that it was housekeeping policy to remove any items left in the hallway for longer than half an hour. The water had been there for less than five minutes. Meanwhile, an unsightly tray of half-eaten food remained for several hours that evening outside a guest door directly across from the suite. In any event, the case of water was likely not removed for a legitimate housekeeping purpose - as it was retrieved and returned to us with over half the contents missing.

Fortunately, it was just water, and nothing of real value was lost. But it did not set a pleasing example to us on the first night of our stay, especially as we were making ready to bring large quantities of food and drink into the suite for our planned event.

The next morning, I received a telephone call from a woman by the name of Ann, who represented herself to be the assistant hotel manager, and the ranking management official on duty at that time - the morning of Friday, July 16, 2010. Ann was calling to inquire about the theft incident of the prior evening, but our conversation soon turned to matters of the event in the suite and became unnecessarily contentious and disturbing.

Ann advised me that the arrangements I had made with Kristin of the hotel, upon an earlier site visit, for complimentary guest parking for our anticipated 50 guests would not be honored, and that, furthermore, she contended no such arrangements were ever made. I begged to differ. Kristin had represented quite clearly to me and my friend, Laurie Wieland (who was also a registered guest of the hotel and present in the suite at the time of this phone call with Ann) that our guests would be able to park free of charge in the Disneyland Hotel self-parking lot, and that - if parking lot exit vouchers could not be found for our guests - the front desk would print up as many room keys as would be necessary to grant each of our guests free exit from the parking lot. Ann insisted to me that was an arrangement contrary to hotel policy and further, and most disturbing, that I was making the whole thing up in order to get some sort of freebie from the hotel.

I calmly informed Ann that I would have no way of knowing what was and was not hotel policy, but that I expected the hotel to honor its promises, made by Kirstin, the hotel’s representative, whether she was acting within policy or not. Ann went on to contend that she had spoken with Kristin that morning, as well as with Lauren Flicker, the person at Disney Vacation Planning who had handled all our reservation arrangements. According to Ann, Kristin denied ever having had such a conversation with Laurie and me and, even more incredulously, stated that Lauren Flicker had told her (Ann) that our expected event attendance was ten people - whereupon Ann told me I would not be allowed to hold my event in the suite that evening if 50 people were expected.

That was, of course, patently absurd. At no point did we ever make the ridiculous claim that we would be holding an event in the Marina Suite for ten people. At all points of our discussions with Disney representatives, we were very clear on our estimate of 50 people. I’m sure no mention of a ten-guest event was made during any of my several discussions with Lauren Flicker, and I was crystal clear on my 50-guest estimate in my conversations with Kristin at the hotel when we made our site inspection about a month prior to our arrival - at which time Kristin made the promise of free parking for each and every one of our expected fifty guests.

Upon informing Ann of this, she resolutely stuck to her position that I must be fabricating the conversation that took place between Kristen, Laurie and myself. At this point in our phone conversation, I warned Ann that she was coming perilously close to calling me a liar. In fact, she had called me a liar, and I was simply being tactful in offering her an avenue of retreat. Ann did not take that avenue, however, and insisted to me that the conversation with Kristin never took place. Furthermore, Ann said, the hotel would not honor such an arrangement even if it had been promised. She insisted I would have to pay for parking for my guests, but would afford me the discounted rate of $4 per vehicle.

Though I was loathe to do so, because I believe every hotel guest should be treated with the same level of dignity and respect, I reminded Ann that I was running up a hotel tab in excess of $13,000, and it seemed needlessly antagonizing to refuse to offer a mere hundred dollars’ worth of complimentary parking to me in light of the arrangement which I had made, or even claimed to have made. Of course, it was beyond the pale to refuse to honor the arrangements I had previously made with the hotel, no matter how large or nominal the cost, and certainly an affront and insult to me for Ann to repeatedly insist that I was lying about making such arrangements in the first place. And it bordered on threatening when Ann claimed we would not be “allowed” to hold an event in the suite if we were expecting as many as 50 people.

Of course, being such a nominal charge for guest parking, I would never have hesitated to assume the cost of my guests’ parking if Kristin had told me I would need to pay $4 per vehicle for parking privileges. But she did not. And I don’t believe either Kristin or Lauren Flicker had spoken with Ann before Ann relayed to me their purported statements about our prior dealings and conversations. Rather, I am inclined to believe that Ann was being less than truthful with me in that regard. And I find it hard to believe that Ann has ever had any training in proper customer service in the hospitality industry. I was severely insulted and upset by our conversation.



continued in following post