Resort that didn't live up to your expectations?

I must admit that I have never run into that problem. However if I were to pick out the worst of the best in that distinct category, that honor would have to go to the DVC studio we stayed in at the Boardwalk villas. The only disappointment was with the location of the room. We were on the first floor right near the lobby and close to the elevators, an absolutely fantastic and perfect location, EXCEPT that it was right over the tunnel that goes from near the Wyland Galleries store and goes through to the Clown pool, (can you all picture it?). Days and evenings were no problem at all BUT EVERY night at about 3 AM, that was the route that the Electric fork lifts would use and go through to service the screen door store and other stores right on the corner. They would go back and forth 2 to 3 times in a row and it literally sounded like a FREIGHT TRAIN going through that &^#@* tunnel. Other than that it was a perfect location.

I have never been disappointed. I have however been pleasantly surprised. We stayed at the Allstar Music resort after having stayed at a moderated resort. It was just a clean and wonderful as our previous stay. The bedding was high quality, the quick service restaurant fair was excellent, the pools absolutely outstanding. The whole place was just fantastic. It had the same Disney atmosphere that the resorts are famous for.

Nope, I've never been disappointed with Disney resorts. That's probably why I always insist on staying on property. I also avoid the places that I think I would be disappointed in. I like big rooms and full service hotels, so I stay away from the values, I might think it was "nice enough" but I would really miss being spoiled with a deluxe.

Nope That's why I keep going back I think. Luckily we set the bar pretty low. We stayed at POP and ASMovies for years before heading to a moderate and eventually AKL and OKW. By the time we got to AKL we thought we had woken up and landed in a fairy world. This is or first year back to a value in about seven years so it will be a bit a an adjustment for a quick second but POP is so great it will be quickly forgotten!

I was only disappointed once, but it wasn't Disney's fault. Hubby and I arrived at POFQ for our honeymoon and walked into a room with two double beds instead of a king. I (being over-stressed and still half crazy from the wedding planning) started crying.

Hubby asked the concierge what had happened and it turned out our travel agent forgot to request the king bed.
Concierge found us a king bed room over in POR, took us and our luggage there, and didn't charge us for the upgrade.

Good ol' Disney service!

I'd say the least favorable experience we had was actually at the Beach Club. And it wasn't a bad experience, just kinda different than what we were expecting.

First was the interior maze to get to our room. I was a bit surprised by that.

The second was when we opened the room door, took in the gorgeous room, and then looked out the sliding glass door window to see....the pool. We were directly in front of the pool. And it was LOUD. During the afternoons they play lots of music and have someone with an announcer's microphone outlining all the activities. So for folks like us that like to come back for a nap around 2:00, it was a little difficult with all that going on. But we just turned the TV on enough to drown that noise out and it was fine. (I now more noise to drown out noise? Go figure, but it worked for us!)

For what we spent on a deluxe, I kinda wanted to be in a bit of a quieter place. WE decided to just deal with it and not see if they had any other rooms.

Of course, we still were very happy with the Beach Club and our room despite the location, and the pool did make up for it for us.

Personally.. I have never been disapointed. Now... if you ask my parents... the first resort we ever stayed at was Caribbean Beach Resort. If I remember right... my parents werent too impressed with it. I was little. It had a killer pool at the time (I think I was 8(ish)?) so of course I was happy.

The next time we went, we went to Port Orleans (French Quarters). I personally didnt care for it. Not because it was horrible, but because I was a young either teenager or about teenager, and they style wasnt my thing. Plus we always had a long walk to the bus's and didnt like that, but loved the boat ride to DTD. But like I said... that was just one of those teenage phases of wanting to be somewhere cool, so I dont count it.

So now were DVC Members and our home is AKL. Have to say... how can you even try to hate that place? So im with everyone... I dont think its possible to hate ANY place you stay at in Disney. Even say it starts out rough (like it did for us... just check out my wifes trip report), it always manages to be a Disney Experience.

We have always stayed in the cabins/homes at Fort Wilderness and only had one problem in 18 times we've stayed there. The toilet kept backing up and overflowing.

It was happening so often that I asked the "engineering" guys to just leave a plunger so I wouldn't have to keep calling them. One of the two guys who were working/cleaning up the latest incident grabbed his communicator, talked to someone, and said "Give us 5 minutes." Next thing I knew, there was a van outside with a couple of CM's. They came in packed all our stuff, including the food in the fridge and moved us to a brand new cabin. We didn't have to lift a finger.

When we checked out, we were not charged for the two nights we had tolerated the toilet problem.

...and people ask why we always go to WDW for our vacations?

I'd have to agree with the majority here. I've never been disappointed in a Disney stay. I WILL say that it was a little difficult to go from club level at the Grand Floridian back to Caribbean Beach Resort. But that really isn't CBR's fault; it's just different. I figure as long as you have the right expectations, they will be met - and more than likely, exceeded - everytime. I also LOVE what's included with Disney. EMH, parking, no resort fees. We've been tempted a time or two to book off property to save a little money, but I swear, you don't save much when it's all said and done. And what you save isn't worth the trade off (keep in mind, I'm talking about 1-2 night getaways.)

See... this is why I love staying with them. Our first year (With my wife and kids) our room was not ready when it was supposed to be. I guess rooms were to be ready by 4pm. 5:30 came around and they said our room was finally ready. They ended up comping everything we had bought up to that time, and gave us the first night free. We had bought our mugs for the week.... had a late lunch at Mara. There were some other things they did, but they escape my mind right now. But they will go over and beyond to make your stay as magical as possible. You wont get that at a Marriott.

Yeah my biggest complaint is that the rooms arent ready when you check in... But in the scheme of things it's not that big a deal and would never deter me from staying at a Disney resort

This only bugs me when they're not ready at the resort's stated check-in time. When I'm there earlier than that I figure it's my own dern fault.

Its also not a big deal when your bags are coming Magic Express. Remember that first year at AKL? We had our bags and everything? That was a pain because we had no where to go for like 4 hours... it was nuts. But now with Magic Express... even if the room isnt ready... we wont have our bags, and can go do something.

Honestly, biggest disappointment for us was staying at the Grand Floridian. We stayed there in October 2011 for 3 nights I think. We resort hopped - came from Bay Lake Tower. We had 'reservation points' we had to use (don't ask, long story) and the Polynesian wasn't available - the Poly is where we always stayed before becoming DVC members. Sooooo, we chose the GF.

It was not 'all that' - the outside of the GF and the grounds are definitely beautiful but the inside...the rooms....ugh, just so stuffy and old looking. I know, this is how the style is meant to be but it just wasn't us, I felt almost like I had aged by 40 years, lol. It felt dated - not time period correct. Maybe instead of adding DVC they should updated the rooms

The quick service seemed very lacking - food was not all that great. Now, I know, it's quick service BUT the quick service at the Contemporary and even at All Star Movies was soooo sooo much better. In fact, ASMo was best by far.

That's SO good to hear as I am going to ASMu in 10 days. I've stayed at AKL and GF, but this time I wanted just a room and didn't want to spend the money on something I wasn't going to use as much.

I would say that of the two, AKL was not up to my expectation. I was on the concierge level and the room while decorated nicely, just wasn't comfortable. It was tiny and dark. There were no extra outlets and upon calling the front desk, they didn't have any extension cords or adapters. The only accessible plug had the TV and Fridge plugged in with the lamp plug sitting there. I would have had to choose between light, which was badly needed, or either appliance.

Both main restaurants were a let down for me. The 4-star restaurant wasn't that great and the one that was supposed to have the best breakfast buffet in all of WDW (according to several people) was meh at best. There were 2 small hot tubs located at opposite ends of the pool area and they were over chlorinated.

As for animal viewing, I could see them, with binoculars. I know they're free roaming animals, but they could have helped spread them out by feeding them in different areas.

All in All, I am glad I stayed there for the experience, it's is really beautiful, but I don't have a desire to go back. I would go back to the GF in heartbeat.

I was rather disappointed in Coronado Springs. Yes, the resort is beautiful, but it was much, much bigger than we expected. We only went to the the feature pool once because it was a hike to get out there. We had gotten a preferred room (I think it was in Building 2), and it was still a several min walk to the main buildings as well. We really enjoyed that at POFQ how you could wander over to the food court at any time really, and get a drink refill with out it being too out of the way.

The food was a huge disappointment as well - it's not run by Disney and never seem really good even for breakfast snacks. We ate dinner at Pepper Market and both me and my husband got sick from it - not how we wanted to start our vacation. Also, and this might be a small thing - but they used to have REAL coffee there (as stated on several reliable sources - there were even pictures!), not the Nescafe stuff. It seriously was a main reason for me to pick that resort as me and my husband as serious caffeine junkies (Heck, even our wedding had a coffee theme!). But when we got there, seems like they had fallen over to the Dark Side and only had Nescafe as well (grr!).

Our biggest issue wasn't really Disney's fault, however - there was a Florida Elks conference there the first few nights and they were pretty rowdy. Now, I know everyone says to stay away from the cheer groups, but having over a hundred drunk retiree-aged people partying in every courtyard is also not very amusing. Other people had seen them come in and bring multiple luggage carts filled to the top with liquor. And they were smoking everywhere - DH and I smoke as well, but we are always very respectful of the smoking areas and clean up after ourselves, but we'd come out in the morning and find piles of butts everywhere. We almost called security on them the first night; we live in NYC, and have a first floor apartment right next to one of the busiest streets in the boroughs and we still thought it was too loud!

Maybe if it wasn't for all of that, we would have enjoyed it more - the theme was beautiful, the main pool (when we went to it) was spectacular, no issues with mousekeeping, and the grounds were kept up really well (there was one planter I walked by and commented one night that the flowers were looking a little worn - the next day we walked by, and all those plants were taken out, and the day after that they were replaced with new ones!).

My goodness, so sorry to hear about your discomfort at Animal Kingdom Lodge. I've stayed on the concierge level several times and enjoy it very much. I do however think that they have some of the hardest beds ever. The last two times we've stay at AKL (In a DVC Studio) I have ended up sleeping on the couch because the beds were way to hard for me.

I think I got the best night of sleep ever at the Grand Floridian, my stay there was even beyond my expectations.

My biggest disappointment was probably our stay at the Polynesian. It's not that it wasn't gorgeous and a wonderful place to stay but I guess I expected more. And because it is so expensive there were hardly any kids. We go as adults to Disney all the time and have no kids but I like the hubbub of the more reasonably priced resorts.

Blasphemy! Just kidding, sorry, had to do that. Sorry you weren't happy with the Poly. Rack rate is high , but if you can get an annual pass discount or a bounce back discount, it really not that bad in price (30% to %50) off. We like being on the Monorail loop and the being able to take the launches to the MK. The view is one you can't get anywhere else.

I havent been disappointed in any of the resorts/rooms I've stayed in. I agree that AKL's rooms are somewhat small and dark, when compared to SS or OKW. As OKW is the oldest resort at WDW, the rooms seem a little dated. I know there has been some recent freshing up, but we were in a Grand Villa during our previous trip and we had some clogged sink, stopped up toilet issues, and broken coffee maker. All items were taken care of ASAP once reported. The 1 thing about OKW and SS that I am not thrilled about is that depending on where you stay, you are not necessarily walking distance to the food area. In those situations where you just want a quick bite/drink - you just cant walk down to the restaurant and walk back to eat/drink in your room. I say this since on one of our previous trips when my wife got sick - while we were at AKL - it was easy just to go donwstairs to fill up your endless refill cup and get some quick food. If we were at OKW or SS - depending on where we had stayed, I would have either made the walk or waited for a bus. I have stayed at the Dolphin/Swan for meetings and I'd say their rooms are nothing special.

I really felt this way about the Little Mermaid section in Art of Animation. If I were to stay there again it would have to be in the Finding Nemo section. There was nothing actually wrong with the Art of Animation, I'm sure for a value resort it's smashing, but I think I'm really a Deluxe and DVC kind gal.