What’s Up with Housekeeping at Disney World Resorts?
Whenever Walt Disney World resort cutbacks come up, readers complain or ask about scaled back or missing hotel housekeeping. Specifically, whether it’s returned to normal, if there’s daily cleaning, and what can be expected of mousekeeping. This answers with official policies, our experiences in 2026, what readers have shared, and more.
As you might recall, Walt Disney World instituted a range of health safety protocol back when the resorts started to reopen. Disney released operational changes and policies for its resorts, reflecting all of this. One thing that covered was resort cleaning, which would be both enhanced or scaled back, depending upon the circumstances.
A lot of attention was paid to surfaces throughout the parks, resorts, and even guest rooms. Prior to arrival, rooms were cleaned comprehensively, with deep-cleaning to surfaces and floors. During stays, only light housekeeping was performed occasionally. Obviously, a lot has changed since then–both in terms of Walt Disney World’s official policies, which are largely back to normal, and what guests experience from Mousekeeping.
With that said, here are the current housekeeping policies at Walt Disney World:
- Deluxe Resorts – Daily full housekeeping service.
- Deluxe Villas – Guests paying cash rates to stay at Deluxe Villas (DVC Resorts) will receive daily full housekeeping service.
- The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort (DVC Resort) – Unlike other Deluxe Villas, cash guests at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness will receive housekeeping service every other day unless you are using Disney Vacation Club Member Points or a DVC Member discount.
- Moderate Resorts – Full housekeeping service every other day.
- Value Resorts – Full housekeeping service every other day.
- Disney Vacation Club Resorts – Guests staying at DVC resorts on points will receive trash and towel service on the fourth day. If staying more than 8 nights, full housekeeping service is offered on the fourth day followed by trash & towel service on the eighth day. Disney Vacation Club Members and their guests may purchase additional housekeeping service by visiting the front desk or contacting housekeeping via their in-room phone.
Full housekeeping service includes: making the bed, replacing towels and amenities, cleaning the bathroom, emptying the trash and recycling, and tidying the room by dusting, wiping counters, and vacuuming (as necessary).
There are a few of additional options and policies pertaining to Walt Disney World housekeeping services:
- If you wish to decline housekeeping service at any time during your stay, you can opt out by speaking with a Cast Member in person or by placing the “Room Occupied” sign on your door. Please note that the opt out feature is no longer available during the online check-in process.
- If there is more than one room on your reservation and you choose to decline service, your selection will apply to all rooms on the reservation.
- If you require additional housekeeping amenities or have specific housekeeping requests, please visit the Front Desk or contact Housekeeping via your in-room phone.
- Walt Disney World reserves the right to enter any room at a Disney Resort hotel for maintenance, safety, security or any other purpose, even if the Room Occupied sign is displayed on the room door. (More on this below.)
Officially, Mousekeeping has largely returned to normal, but it comes against the backdrop of Walt Disney World continuing to deal with housekeeper shortages. These are likely to be a problem for a while–perhaps forever–and this impacts the actual guest experience with housekeeping at Walt Disney World (more on that in a bit).
We stay at Walt Disney World at least once per month, and have done over a dozen multi-night stays in the last year. Since housekeeping returned to normal, we’ve logged more stays than I can count–probably around 40. (It’s not nearly that many trips–we do a lot of split stays.)
Accordingly, we have a ton of recent firsthand experience with Mousekeeping during our stays at Walt Disney World. The biggest thing we’ve noticed is far more consistency with cleaning in the last couple of years. Prior to that, I would’ve described housekeeping as hit or miss at Walt Disney World.
On the Deluxe Resort end of the spectrum, we’ve done stays at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Grand Floridian, Contemporary Resort, BoardWalk Inn, and Yacht Club–all provided daily housekeeping consistent with what’s described above. (Note that these stays were on the hotel side of each resort–totally different ballgame on the DVC sides.)
I’ve also done many stays at Coronado Springs and Gran Destino Tower during that time, and would note that it generally offers near-Deluxe service. (This is no surprise–although not official, Disney aims to exceed expectations at Gran Destino because it caters to different clientele.)
We’ve also done stays at every single Value Resort and Moderate Resort during that time. We’ve done All Star Sports, Art of Animation, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach each multiple times. Plus one-off stays at both Port Orleans Resorts.
It’s at these tiers where things get more hit or miss for us, especially between late last year and Spring 2026. At the Values and Moderates, I’d say our room has been skipped (despite not using the “Room Occupied” sign) nearly half the time. Entirely anecdotal, but I’ve noticed other guests put trash outside their rooms, which is an (inconclusive) sign that their room also might’ve been skipped.
It’s not just us. A recent thread on reddit covers reports of the same happening to other guests, and almost all of the complaints concern Value or Moderate Resorts. Some users go as far as to question whether Walt Disney World has laid off housekeepers. (To the best of our knowledge, they have not. This issue is likely due to high occupancy and persistent staffing shortages, as discussed below.)
As for what the service has entailed when we haven’t been skipped, it’s mostly been as advertised. Making beds, taking out trash, replenishing supplies like towels and coffee. There has been some tidying up of our stuff, but I would call it less comprehensive than many real-world hotels.
I can’t speak with authority to vacuuming or the cleaning of surfaces because we’re typically not doing things that would necessitate either or make it apparent when that had occurred–especially when I’m traveling alone. Although we have a toddler, she’s not really the crumb-y kind (yet?).
There have been a couple of times when it’s been clear that surfaces have been cleaned, but I’m not really sure one way or the other beyond that.
A lot of readers have shared their experiences with housekeeping during their stays at Walt Disney World, and those anecdotes are mixed. Some have reported that things are essentially back to normal.
Others indicated that housekeeping barely set foot in their room, except for the infamous safety/security checks. These people stated that not even the every other day services were occurring. Many also have shared that they didn’t receive any Mousekeeping at all without calling the front desk.
The middle ground of reader feedback more or less reflects the official policy–that housekeeping took out the trash and changed the towels, but not much else.
Our perception is that cleaning actually is more comprehensive in the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts (in addition to occuring daily), and faster and superficial in the lower tier-resorts. If you have experience with Walt Disney World Mousekeeping in the last two years, please share it in the comments.
Shortly after the original publication of this post, we also shared Housekeeping “Hassles” at Walt Disney World. Ironically, we have not experienced any of this issues in our stays since. That could simply be luck on our part–that does play a big role (just read the comments to that post with some regulars never having experienced the problems, and others having them with regularity).
There have been recent changes and more departure day issues (thanks to a new-ish My Disney Experience app feature for checking out), so it’s worth being aware of that new wrinkle to the housekeeping. Again, we have not had those problems firsthand and it does seem to us that the app feature has been fixed. (Knock on wood.)
Speaking of recent changes, another is that the ‘Hey Disney!’ Amazon Alexa device is now found in all hotel rooms at Walt Disney World Resort. This smart device can be used to make specific room requests, such as more pillows, towels, or coffee.
We’ve used it successfully for the purpose of such requests, which honestly felt like living in the future. Just asking a device for more coffee and having it delivered by a human shortly thereafter. When it works, it’s magic. When it works being the operative words.
We’ve also made a request that resulted in nothing happening. Perhaps we would’ve had similar (bad) luck when calling, but we now only use it if there’s no urgency on the request and we’re fine with trying again later. YMMV.
We’ve done many third-party hotel stays in the United States and internationally in the last few years. Our perception is that things are likewise improving at real world hotels.
Across the board, our experiences in Anaheim have been consistent with Walt Disney World resorts. However, Anaheim is also a unique market–with a lot of parallels to Central Florida–so I’d stop short of generalizing our experiences in Southern California to the whole industry as a whole.
In Anaheim, it’s been common for housekeeping to be every other day or only “upon request,” especially at budget and family-friendly hotels. At many of these hotels, we’ve noticed garbage outside other guest rooms in the hallways, and even that sometimes sits there for hours.
It’s also more common for hotel chains to give the option to decline housekeeping across-the-board upon check-in, which some chains used to offer as an incentive. Notably, Marriott eliminated its “Make A Green Choice” program, which gave Bonvoy members the option to receive 500 points for each day they declined housekeeping.
We were big fans of this, and always took advantage. We’re not trying to single out that brand as some sort of anti-Marriott agenda; they’re not the only chained brand hotel to quietly do away with its incentives for declining housekeeping. My guess is that hoteliers realized they could get away with cutting that bonus under the guise of health safety and just never brought it back.
Similarly, Walt Disney World had been offering gift cards as part of the “Service Your Way” program for those who declined housekeeping at select resorts. This did not return when the resorts reopened, presumably removed with the same underlying motivations as other hotel operators.
Disney’s “Service Your Way” offer started a few years ago. It was one of the rare perks that got better as time went on, as Disney increased the dollar amount to entice more guests to decline housekeeping. We also always took advantage of this, and there were some occasions–like when booked in tandem with Free Dining–where it felt like one of those “there’s gotta be a catch?!” things. Disney was practically paying us to stay there.
Of course, there was a catch and none of these hoteliers were offering points or cashback for their purported reasons of environmentality or customizable service. Its motivations were purely economic, just like a lot of recent changes that offer coincidental environmental or other benefits.
While I cannot speak to Marriott or chains in other markets around the country, Walt Disney World’s motivation was staffing shortages. Even from 2017 through early 2020, the company was having tremendous difficulties hiring and retaining housekeepers. College Program participants were offered incentives to change roles, there were multiple job fairs, hiring bonuses, and wage increases–but the shortages persisted.
As you’re undoubtedly aware if you’re read this blog at all, staffing shortages for many roles have only gotten worse, and housekeepers are one specific role that is always advertised for job fairs and hiring bonuses.
There are often open positions on Disney Careers for full-time and part-time housekeepers with a starting rate of $23 per hour. This is actually higher than many frontline Cast Members in non-tipped positions (although some guests elect to tip housekeepers, it’s classified as a non-tipped position).
When it comes to the role expectations of housekeepers, the job listing indicates that they’re expected to clean 14-22 rooms per shift. (Anecdotally, we’ve heard that it’s usually at the higher end of the range–at least during higher occupancy times.)
They also “clean and sanitize Guest rooms by cleaning floors, making beds, emptying trash and recyclables, electronics, telephones, windows, mirrors, glass, dusting all surfaces, clean and disinfect bathrooms by scrubbing basins, bathtubs, shower walls and doors, toilets, and tile floors with proper chemicals.”
The reasons for the aforementioned labor shortages are multifaceted. I won’t pretend to understand all of the nuances of the labor market for housekeepers in Central Florida, but I’d hazard a guess that there are few key factors at play.
They have been further exacerbated by the United States having an aging population, and many baby boomers have left the labor force entirely in the last several years. All of this makes the housekeeper shortage one that higher wages alone cannot resolve. However, there are a couple of significant issues that often get overlooked.
First, legal immigration to the United States has slowed down considerably. This alone leaves the country with a shortfall of over 2 million workers. This is of particular relevance for housekeeping roles, as they were disproportionately filled by immigrants. Legal immigration returning to previous levels would likely have the biggest impact on addressing the housekeeper shortage, but that seems unlikely to occur.
Second, development around Central Florida has exploded during that same span of time. I’m not going to crunch the numbers on how many hotel rooms have been added to the Orlando market during that time, but it’s easily tens of thousands.
Hotels aren’t the only thing that has been built. Residential construction has also exploded, with huge swaths of undeveloped land now filled by seas of subdivisions.
With more homes comes more demand for maids and residential home cleaners. In my cursory research, it appears those positions pay more than Disney. I’m also going to go out on a limb and guess they’re lower stress.
Ultimately, all of this is why I’m skeptical that housekeeping will ever return 100% to its pre-COVID normal. Not just at Walt Disney World, but for the U.S. hotel industry as a whole.
One expectation is that the degree of service will vary with occupancy and load levels. Guests who travel during the off-season or stay at unpopular hotels are probably more likely to encounter regular and comprehensive cleaning.
It’s also possible that housekeeping upon request becomes the industry standard going forward. However, the days of consistent and unsolicited housekeeping–or an economic incentive for declining it–are probably gone for good.
Finally, it’s possible that Walt Disney World will institute more changes, and Mousekeeping service becomes a way of segmenting among the various tiers of resorts even more. Which is to say that in the future it might not be offered period at Value Resorts and only lightly at Moderate Resorts. We’d expect daily service to continue being the standard at Deluxe Resorts and other luxury hotels.
This would be a way of addressing housekeeper shortages and also guest demand for daily room cleaning. Probably not a popular way among guests, but one that could make sense to the company if these shortages persist and costs keep rising. Wages have already increased significantly for housekeepers in the last few years, and even so, Walt Disney World still has trouble filling those open positions. So although things have returned to normal with housekeeping, it seems appropriate to append “for now” to that.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What have been your recent experiences with housekeeping at Walt Disney World–and beyond? Think housekeeping reductions are another cost-cutting measure by Walt Disney World, or agree that there are externalities that’ll make it difficult to restore housekeeping? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Amazing how everyone’s experiences off Disney property are so different than on property. Makes me think the Disney shills are overstating how bad things are “everywhere”. Nah, it’s just Disney being Disney.
What?? Disney offering less value for more money? I’m, like, so shocked.
Staying at French quarter towels changed every other day bed sheets changed twice in 2 weeks…for all the money we have spent in two weeks I expected better.
We were in the Coronado Springs resort from April 17 thru the 26th of 2021. For such a long stay we expected that housekeeping would be in the room a couple of times at least. We didn’t get any service at all for the whole time. Usually this would bother me greatly, but I shrugged it off due to the Covid issues. We didn’t call for housekeeping as we are generally very neat on our own. But I should have asked for extra towels. Since there are only two adults, we had enough to get by. What is sad is that I worked in the hotel business for a long time as a young person. Usually housekeeping has a supervisory level person who actually spot checks the rooms for the housekeepers in her group. I don’t think Disney has people doing that now. The room would have shown up as not touched, and someone would have been asked to tidy it up at the end of the shift. We took out the trash, kept our food and stuff neatly. It was just not the level of housekeeping I expect from any hotel, and certainly a hotel that has been so much better before. We are going back in the Fall this year, so it will be interesting to see if housekeeping is better. I will politely ask for attention this time if it hasn’t improved.
We stayed at Pop Century in November, 2021. Our housekeeping experience was terrible and the response from management was worse. During our 10 day stay the only time our trash was emptied, dirty towels picked up and replenished and the bathroom cleaned was on day 4, after several complaints from us about another more serious issue. Upon returning to our room that day it was quite obvious that someone had been smoking in it while we were at the parks. After a visit to the front desk and several phone calls, during which we were assured that the manager would contact us, someone from housekeeping came to inspect the room. She agreed that someone had been smoking in it and that the bathroom needed to be cleaned. Someone was sent to clean the bathroom, empty the trash and bring clean towels. The manager never contacted us. During the rest of the vacation we emptied the trash and chased down housekeeping for clean towels. When we returned home and unpacked everything in our suitcases reeked of smoke. We sent complaints to Disney and the hotel directly. Four months later we are still waiting to hear from the hotel manager. After 40 years of being loyal, frequent Disney visitors we are very disappointed. The lack of staff due to Covid doesn’t cut it as an excuse. If they don’t have enough staff, don’t open so many rooms. It is clear Disney cares about only one thing. Money.
What is the recommended tipping now for housekeeping? When I was there pre-Covid it was $1. per person per day?
That sounds fair. Depending on length of stay, number of people and your rock band status. Meaning if you are destroying rooms ala Led Zeppelin or The Who you may want to leave more, much more. If you are much cleaner and sedate then well your suggested amount works. If we get a personal touch or develop a relationship with the staff I have given more as well. Things such as towel critters, check-ins, extra glasses or linens etc.
Stayed at Riverside Feb 3 – 10th 2022. Mousekeeping was spotty. We only received trash take away and towel replenishment. At day 4 we received additional bathroom supplies and new disposable cups. They never made the beds. Since most items were not moved around other than the bathroom vanity I assume that they did not surface clean anything other than the vanity every other day. We did have more than enough towels for our family though. And I do appreciate the drying line in the bathroom for swimsuits and other wet items. We went over to Cabana Bay at Universal for another three nights and the room was in poor condition. We had maintenance come and fix a number of problems with the room, still found two more after they had left. Maintenance was wonderful. The service of the resort in general from other employees was poor. You could tell this was just their job and they wanted to get through it. The cleanliness of the rest of the resort was also very poor. The quality of responsiveness was poor compared to people at Disney. I would also say that the level of clientele at Cabana Bay was such that we wished we had splurged and gone with Portofino instead. The only thing really to recommend that hotel was the pool for the kids and that was a stretch. I did send a detailed complaint to management after we had left and got a “we’re sorry for your experience” email back and that was it. The cost differential for Portofino would have been worth it with express passes included. And that really does matter if you’re going on a Friday or Saturday and don’t want to spend all of your time in a line.
Now I’ve also stayed at three other separate hotels within the last 90 days separate from this trip and the cleaning in all of those hotels has also been “adjusted”. There was deeper cleaning cards every time. But be careful if you look underneath the furniture, more than likely it hasn’t been cleaned in a long time. I believe that the surfaces are being cleaned but this just shows me that really we were all previously staying in disgusting germ infested rooms beforehand. This is marginally better. But housekeeping is ok, lots of towels everywhere, all other things including making beds are spotty at best. They want to make you feel like it’s first class service cleanliness wise and I’d say that it’s hit or miss because of staffing issues everywhere. I was assigned a room that they were sticking sanitized stickers on the doors for you to break, the room had a broken one, walked in and someone else’s trash was present and the beds had been slept in. Went and told the front desk and she proceeded to argue with me about it. I invited her to go look at it with me and then I received another room, which was fine.
I take it that if I have a great experience then wonderful. If something isn’t right, I communicate. But overall right now my expectations are pretty low with the idea that everyone and everywhere is hurting and it doesn’t cost me anything to have some grace. Now that being said I do expect, if you’re advertising cleanliness and high satisfaction experiences, to have better responsiveness and some type of value added perk if there’s a problem. I’d say that’s hit or miss right now.
We were in Disney World last week, staying at the Boardwalk Inn. Our room was freshly cleaned when we arrived and we received every other day housekeeping which included making up the bed, cleaning the bathroom as well as fresh towels and trash removal. I will also note that we had a good supply of towels and washcloths that were adequate to see us through the every other day cleaning schedule. Housekeeping staff working on our floor was always friendly, greeting us with a smile and hello every day
We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge – Club Level – from Jan 23th thru Jan 29th, 2022. We had 2 rooms. Mousekeeping serviced the rooms every day of our trip including making the beds as well as doing the normal cleaning. To us, it seemed like a return to pre-covid days in regards to Mousekeeping.
The problem at DW and traveling in general is people. People got used to treating service workers so bad now people reep what they sow. Management at DW isn’t the greatest, they treat younger people and foreigners bad, talk down to them, expect the workers to work 10-12 hours a day and “be happy to have a job”. People stopped saying Thank You, didn’t tip well, left hotel rooms DISGUSTING and allowed their bratty azzz kids to act anyway at the resorts. People left vomit, blood, old food, dirty underwear on floors & even left dogs in their rooms and expected service workers to clean up after them. People became comfortable treating service workers lower than them and acting privileged as if DW employees were their personal maids. Service workers just aren’t taking that crap anymore, so they are leaving the service industry. Workers at DW hotels & restaurants also don’t get paid well at all. So if you are/were one of those people who bought your family out to DW and f***ed it up by treating others like that, now we all suffer the consequences due to other people who disrespect and disregard those servicing your vacation needs. Perhaps DW and people will learn to do better.
You seem to be describing a murder scene, for which I’d agree housekeeping is insufficient.
We recently stayed at All Star Music and we couldn’t fault housekeeping, we weren’t expecting it as I make our beds and keep our room tidy regardless but they changed our towels regularly wether we left dirty towels out or not! They changed the sheets once a week and emptied bins regularly too. So impressed couldn’t actually see what all the negative comments were about, normally we opt out of mousekeeping when the offer had been available. Well done Music
Recently stayed at Saratago springs.Very poor full cleaning ( at 8 days) – dirty floors and dusty. Complained to a manager who arranged for re clean and this was much better. This was v disappointing and first time we have encountered such poor service. Seems to be lack of oversight.
I think Disney is a casualty of both the pandemic and poor management. Other hotels aren’t having these kinds of housekeeping problems. A corporation the size of Disney should be ashamed of itself. Instead, it is seemingly ignoring all complaints, as if everything is okay.
We have one more trip planned for Disney (before moving to Universal). We didn’t cancel because this trip we have a two bedroom villa, with a washer and dryer. We’ll be doing our own cleaning, including towels, if necessary. If there are problems, we’re not optimistic that Disney will rectify them, and so the disappointment factor will be low.
We rented a car so we don’t have to rely on Disney transportation. Except for two Disney dining reservations, we plan on having meals off property or in our villa. Each of us is bringing something that housekeeping would usually supply, like toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies. And as I review this comment, I realize what a sad commentary on Disney this is. After almost 50 years of Disney vacations, this will be our farewell trip. Arrivederci Disney. Hello Universal. .
We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside the end of January into February. We didn’t get any housekeeping unless we called to ask for towels, etc. What was so bothersome was the fact that they had time to do a supposedly safety check each day. A maintenance man would stop by every day to say he was required to look in our room for possible dangers, etc. He said it was for our safety. We noticed he did this with all the rooms near by. We felt very violated that the resort would send someone up to our room to check it out. Really, safety issues??? All he did was walk through look around and run the bathroom water. One day he left and forgot the water on. We stay at Disney Resorts because we have always been so pleased with how clean and friendly everyone is, and that we felt safe. We do not need resort staff walking through our room each day to feel safe. Disney needs to stop being so intrusive. It is not something most guests want. Maybe it could be an option if they think it’s something their guests want and need. My family and I do not want it! Did anyone else experience this?
There actually is a good reason for the safety check.
That was instituted after the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. The shooter rented two rooms at the Mandalay Bay Resort, placed the do not disturb sign on the doors and over the course of several days amassed an arsenal of weapons and even set up surveillance cameras to watch for hotel staff. I’m sure you know what the result was.
After this most hotel operators instituted policies requiring frequent room checks so prospective perpetrators don’t have a chance to do something similar.
Lol Jason, I’m curious…exactly how many security threats have been detected by such invasions of privacy? Since the number is obviously zero, your argument holds, well, zero water. It’s like saying taking your shoes off at TSA is for safety. No, it it’s for safety theater. If they have time and resources to inspect rooms, they have time and resources to clean them. Instruct housekeeping that if, in the course of cleaning a room, they discover a stash of automatic rifles laying around, as they sure as hell better not be looking through luggage, to stop cleaning and advise management. Problem solved. Sigh.
We visited in February 2022 and we noticed on the days we left a generous tip $10-$20 cash, our beds were made, all towels were replaced, trash was taken etc. Regardless if it was the “designated day”
We’re going next year. I’ll be sure to bring plenty of cash. Thanks for the info.
Additional Housekeeping policies…….# 5 maintenance, security etc. has the right to enter your room.
Jan. 2022, Wilderness Lodge. 9pm. floor flooded, frig on the blink, call for maintenance, mousekeeper sent to clean up floor, no, no we already had towels down, mousekeeper calls maintenance, frig. needs to be replaced, I think I passed out around 10:30pm, woke up the next morning, floor was clean, all items removed from leaking frig. were neatly put back in brand new frig. NOW that is MAGIC!!!!!!
They cut into the pay of the housekeepers they do have in regard to tips, we tip well and appreciate their work but not if we don’t have their service
Coming in May for ten days, two rooms. After reading this, I seriously might wash my dirty sheets and towels myself and make the beds. If/when I see a housekeeping cart, I’ll help myself to toiletries and trash bags. Pretty sad but think of the tip money I’ll save.
Checking out of Portofino Bay at Universal this morning, and we couldn’t have had better housekeeping. On check in day we called to complain that our toilet seat was loose and to request a rollaway bed. The seat was fixed within 15 minutes, and the rollaway bed turned up a moment later, (bonus – we have not been charged the publisher $35 a night fee for the rollaway). The room was fully cleaned every day and every staff member we passed was friendly and helpful. In fact, every single Universal employee we have interacted with has been enthusiastic, polite and helpful. The overall customer service level was easily twice as good as what I experienced at the Disney parks last month, and housekeeping about 10x better. I wish I liked these screen-heavy attractions more than I do, because Universal has felt more like a hassle free vacation than any of our Disney stays over the last 5 years.
We stayed @ the Portofino for a week this past Jan. little over per Tom’s suggestion. It was absolutely awesome! Huge room, housekeeping cleaned, beds made everyday, security checkpoint easy to get thru, express pass included with room, it was AWESOME! Then we went to Disney, Wilderness Lodge, tiny room, no mouse keeping, couldn’t access room a couple times, I wasn’t the only person down at the front desk asking for clean towels, Universal cost me a fraction of what Disney cost.
@Carolyn, same! First ever trip to Universal last month and I couldn’t say enough about the Portofino Bay. We had such good customer service and housekeeping that it actually felt “magical.” Express Pass is awesome, and the Harry Potter experiences are as immersive as it gets. My vestibular system doesn’t adjust well to a lot of the screen-based attractions, but I’d be happy to go back for some more Butterbeer and spend a couple of days chilling by the pool at the Portofino Bay!
Haha! This comment popped up with a different title and I didn’t realize I was replying to my own comment! Lol!
As a comparison for baseline, we stayed at the Beach Club Villas for 9 days in mid January right before the pandemic, (in 2020). We experienced the same poor HK service then. (We had 2 villas for our group.)
We called multiple times, begging for service over the course of the stay. Which equaled 18 “room-nights” nights total. Here is how that went..
Had tip taken with no service. Had to call front desk for manager after 5 days with no service at all. This after 4 straight days of calling HK directly with promises but no response. Finally manager overseeing all of the Villas responded. Promised service, and he said there was a big problem with his staff. We actually spotted a HK person and directly asked for service. They told us they would be there. One person even came to the door saying that she would be back at 4. Never came.
The result? We left Disney 2 days early. Moved up our flights. Asked for a refund of the nearly $3000 we weren’t spending on those extra nights. Front desk promised this was going to happen.
Never happened.
Pandemic struck, and it was then nearly impossible to get anyone on the phone to process our refund. We gave up,
We’ve been to DW over 30 times, always staying at the Beach Club Villas, paying full price, often bringing guests who we put at Club Level.
We are not in a hurry to return.