Disney World Nightmare

We finally took the leap of faith. We booked our Disney World Vacation and couldn't have been more excited.

The vacation of a life time. We had literally spent years and months of saving money and planning. My husband is not such a Disney fan so my mom agreed to go with me to take the trip of a life time.

As you know I'm a school teacher and because of the specialty I teach (Latin--crazy, I know!) it is extremely hard to find a substitute to teach for me. Because of this I knew we had to pick a time to go when schools would be on some form of break. Our school had an extra week of Christmas break this year so we thought it would be the perfect time to take the kids to Disney. Most schools were going back that first week of January so we should be fine. Right? Wrong. So very wrong.

We flew out early on a Friday morning with a connecting flight that picked my mom up at her local airport. The plane ride was amazing. I just knew Big Red--who throws up when the wind blows--would blow chunks all over the plane. To my surprise she did fantastic! That's for another time though. Our plane arrived at Orlando Airport and we were greeted by the cutest Disney character statues.

The trouble began as soon as we hopped of the plane. We scheduled the Disney Magical Express--which is awesome. I mean seriously? You check your luggage and go get on a bus and your bags magically arrive in your room. How amazing, right? Well a little side note that they forget to mention is finding the stupid shuttle station in the huge Orlando Airport. We are newbie fliers and this was our first time flying into Orlando. We had to ask three different people who worked there how to get to the shuttle. Yes, there are signs. No, they do not make sense! Finally we found the shuttle and quickly hopped on and headed to our resort. Cue the excitement! The bus ride there was typical and we quickly checked in and head to our room. This is where the fun really began. To conserve time and spare you all the details I'll copy and paste the email I sent to the manager of the resorts.

Forwarded message --------- From: C Pabst Date: Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 9:19 PM Subject: Vacation-Disney World To: wdw.gm.allstarsports@disney.com <wdw.gm.allstarsports@disney.com>

Hello! 

My family has spent the last few years deciding if we should invest our money in a Disney World vacation. As you are aware Disney is very expensive and to us our first trip would be such a magical and joyous time we would attend every year after. You can not even begin to imagine the excitement we had, especially my six and three year old children. 

Upon arrival, our magical excitement quickly faded to pure horror and utter disappointment here are the highlights of our stay:

January 3- Our room. We checked into our room only to find mold growing on both the shower curtains and above the door. My son, having an extreme case of asthma has coughed the entire time. Not only is there mold growing but the piles of dust everywhere and generally uncleanliness of the room was enough to warrant a trip to the front desk where they scheduled for a maintenance manager to tour our room and we heard nothing more on the matter. When we arrived back at our room the bed had been made and the mold scrubbed off the shower curtain. The dust was still everywhere and the mold on top of the door was still there.

January 3-head to Magic Kingdom. We waited for a shuttle for 45 minutes before the sweet lady behind us went to the front desk to ask what was going on. Finally after waiting for almost an hour a shuttle arrived. We headed to Magic Kingdom for the night so excited to see the castle, characters, and rides. Our happiness quickly faded as we were crowded around by thousands of people. We know Disney is a popular destination so we knew it would be busy. However, we didn’t expect the piles and piles of trash every where. There were piles of trash on the tables, the floors, and the trash cans were over flowing. It truly was the most disgusting and dirty place we’ve ever been in our life. We complained to several different cast members who agreed that the park was disgusting and apologized. They didn’t offer to clean anything up though. We spoke with one cast member who informed us that it simply wasn’t his job and we could avoid those areas where the trash was. Talk about disappointment. Our magical moments were already being taken away. We visited the bathrooms a few different times only to find them almost unusable. There was urine all over the floor accompanied by toilet paper and paper towels EVERYWHERE on the floor and around the trash can. 

January 4- We started the morning off at Magic Kingdom where we got to meet a few characters then went to Disney Springs. While there my children went to the Boutique and truly had a magical time. The staff members took extra time ensuring that they felt like a true princess and knight. I commend Disney Springs for that experience. After Disney Springs we headed to Epcot which again was disgusting. There were piles of trash and we quickly walked out of the three bathrooms we tried to use because of the urine on the floor and the dirty toilet paper and paper towels every where again. 

January 5- We had gotten breakfast reservations to Be Our Guest—these reservations book months in advance and were SO excited to have breakfast there! We arrived at the park one hour before our reservation time. I carry a bag into the park so I went to wait in the bag check line. I stood in line to have my bagged checked for fourth-five minutes. While in line I spoke with the security guard Nes and explained that I had a reservation and had gotten to the park an hour early to ensure we were on time. I asked if there was anything he could do to help because I was going to miss my reservation. He informed me that there was nothing he could do because I didn’t get any special treatment and had to wait like everyone else. I sent my mother on with the kids so they could enjoy the meal hoping I’d make it there in time. After waiting in line four fourth five minutes to get my bag checked I waited another 25 minutes to scan my magic band to get into the park. By this time my reservation was already over and I was joining back up with my family after they had eaten breakfast. I not only had to miss out on eating at Be Our Guest I had to miss out on the precious memories of my children seeing the beast castle for the first time. After this we tried to make the most of the day by going to Hollywood Studios. The park was much cleaner than the other two but was still dirty. While in Toy Story Land we had a Fastpass for Toy Story Mania while in the FP line the ride broke down. We ended up waiting over an hour to ride this ride. However, We LOVED this ride and all of the interactive games in line kept my kids entertained. I thought this would be the turning point and we’d fall in love with Disney World. However, we came back to the food court in our hotel only to find a dead fly on top of the fruit cup my son had picked out and trash around the outside of the resort. 

January 6- We went to Animal Kingdom on the bus ride there we had an amazing driver named Jim who told jokes the entire time. We thoroughly enjoyed Animal Kingdom and only had one MAJOR incident. We were in Dinoland in the Boneyard riding the slides. My son took a different slide then the one I was waiting down. We looked for a good ten minutes before pure panic and terror set in. We couldn’t find him anywhere. I went to a cast member to ask for help and she replied with “Keep looking I’m sure you’ll find him.” Not once did she offer to help look or even ask what he looked like. My mother went to a different cast member who recommended she look in the digging pit. This particular cast member was in charge of the exit however while looking outside the attraction for my son I saw several kids leave the exhibit while he was piddling around. After 20 minutes we finally found my son. My major concern is the unwillingness to help from either of the cast members that we spoke with.  Seeing your daughter ball her eyes out because she didn’t think she’d ever get to see her brother again and no one offering to help at all is heart crushing. 

Because of the negative experiences we’ve had on our stay we’ve decided to skip Disney all together tomorrow and go exploring outside of the park. We have had such a terrible time that we aren’t even concerned with foregoing the money we’ve paid for tickets and food for one whole day. This has been such a disappointing and heartbreaking trip for us all.

While here we did use the My Disney Experience App. The idea and concept is fantastic however it drains your battery so quickly that you can only get walking directions to a few rides or check wait times just a couple of times before your battery is dead and then you’re in big trouble if you have never been to the parks before and have NO clue where you’re going. 

The level of disappointment I have with Walt Disney World brings me to tears. This was supposed to the most magical experience ever and one that my family would make lifetime precious joyful memories of. Instead we have sadness, broken hearts, and disappointment. I have lost all hope in Disney World and will not be returning again. I cannot believe not only the way we were treated but the conditions of the parks. I understand Disney sees millions of people a year but for so many things to go wrong for us is simply unacceptable. Explaining to a six and four year old why the most magical place on earth is nothing like I said it was going to be is not something any parent should ever have to go through. Seeing the joy and hearing the giggles on the plane ride in turn to tears and disappointment breaks my heart.  We were scheduling a Disney cruise for this year but due to this experience we will not be booking any more vacations at anything Disney. My heart is so sad from this journey and I cannot believe this is the famous Disney World that people rave about. To back up all of our experiences I am including some of the pictures I’ve taken around the different parks and our hotel room. I do have more pictures and would be more than happy to explain the locations that each picture was taken at. I truly hope and pray that I hear a prompt response and a way to change our hearts to experience true Disney Magic. 

Blessings,

C. Pabst 

Yes--I included pictures of everything because guess what? Nobody believed a word I said! I had posted on social media how awful our trip was and everyone said I was not being honest! I'll spare you the gross pictures unless you want to see them. If so drop a comment below!

I have to say I fully expected to never hear a word back from Disney. I thought without question my email would fall through the cracks. After all they make thousands of dollars a day why did they care if we had issues or not?

To my surprise I sent that email at 9:19 P.M. I received a phone call to our room at 9:30 P.M. from the general manager of our hotel-Jack. He wanted to know if I could come to the front and speak with him. I crawled out of bed and thew on my slippers and headed to the front to hear what he had to say.

He had read my email and apologized repeatedly about all of the issues we had encountered. He wanted to fix this trip and save it in anyway he could. I explained that we simply didn't want our money back we wanted the Disney dream vacation everyone else had. He said he would get back to me and see what he could do. In the meantime he personally came out and inspected our room and scrubbed it from top to bottom. The room looked so clean even though we were set to leave the next day.

Within a few days of returning home I received an email saying that Disney wanted us to return and they would pay for the visit.

WHAT?! No joke. They not only corrected the issues with our room but they are bringing us back to have our magical vacation on their dime. To be clear my intentions were NEVER to get a free trip or our money back. I simply wanted Disney to know what was going on at their parks. We were shocked at this offer. We are returning in September and hope that this time will be a much better visit and restore our hope in a magical vacation at #DisneyWorld.

**It is important to note that we did not make any mention to the kids about the problems we encountered. In their minds Disney World was and is awesome!**

Have you had any issues with Disney World? Did they correct the issues? What was your Disney trip like??