New Disney World Hotel Horror Story: Wilderness Lodge Loses Air Conditioning for Days During Heat Wave
With over two-dozen resorts and 30,000 rooms, something is bound to go wrong at Walt Disney World hotels from time to time. We’ve done literally hundreds of hotel stays in the last ~19 years, and have had plenty of negative experiences and a few horror stories of our own.
This has included construction right outside (or on the balcony), really rough rooms (including black mold), having our water turned off, rooms not ready at check-in, excessive noise, and rude security inspections. And that’s to say nothing of issues caused by other guests overhead and around us.
During our Christmas trip last year, we experienced Two Hotel Horror Stories at Walt Disney World. One of these concerned construction noise late into the night as a race against the clock to finish the Birdcage Bar at Grand Floridian ahead of its opening. The other involved overnight Yacht Club evacuations because the fire alarm went off (twice). Based on reader comments, neither were unique occurrences; Wilderness Lodge has been similarly evacuated on multiple occasions.
Wilderness Lodge is also home to the latest Walt Disney World horror story, which beats anything we’ve experienced firsthand!
According to reports on reddit (and reddit again), Facebook (and Facebook again), and various Disney fan forums, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge has been experiencing a multi-day air conditioning outage. The issues began earlier this week with the AC becoming spotty or struggling, with the outage beginning in earnest on Wednesday or Thursday (reports conflict).
Meanwhile, Heat Advisories have been in effect at Walt Disney World for the last couple of days. Orange and Osceola counties are both included, with heat index values between 105° and 111°F and actual high temps from the mid to upper 90s.
UPDATE
On June 24, 2026, Walt Disney World is taking the air conditioning offline at Wilderness Lodge to complete maintenance. According to a sign in the lobby and notice that went out to guests, AC will be temporarily unavailable starting at 7:00 a.m. and throughout Wednesday morning.
Walt Disney World has not yet announced when the maintenance work will be complete, but thanks guests for their patience as teams work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Guests are advised to contact front desk Cast Members with any questions, concerns or for additional assistance.
Uncorroborated chatter among Cast Members suggests that it could be a couple of weeks before the lobby and other common areas at Wilderness Lodge are back to normal temperatures.
Meanwhile, we’re hearing even more rumors that Kidani Village over at Animal Kingdom Lodge is experiencing similar AC outages, again in the common areas as opposed to guest rooms. We’re investigating these unconfirmed reports and will report separately in the event that we’re able to independently verify and the issue remains ongoing until later today. We’ll keep you posted on the AC status at both lodges. Meanwhile, here’s the previous update on where things stand…
Based on reports we’ve received from readers on the ground, the situation at Wilderness Lodge had improved prior to this, but is not completely resolved. Walt Disney World has brought temporary chillers to the hotel to replace the broken chiller unit(s) in the main building.
These temporary units are still in the process of cooling the hotel as a whole, but have already made guest rooms comfortable. We’ve received and seen separate rooms that guest rooms in the hotel (including Copper Creek) have gotten down to the low to mid-70s overnight, which is over 10 degrees cooler than they were at the height of the outage. The expectation is that temperatures will decrease gradually in the next day or two, as a building of this size takes time to cool.
The air-conditioning is still noticeably deficient in the common areas, including the lobby and restaurants (which have reopened and are once again accepting ADRs). There are portable fans set up throughout the property, but it’s still hot and humid. It was described to us by one reader as being similar to Geyser Point, minus the breeze coming off the water.
Readers have also indicated that Cast Members are going above and beyond to make lemonade out of lemons, although it’s unclear whether/when Walt Disney World is reaching out pre-arrival to guests with upcoming reservations at Wilderness Lodge.
Also unclear is when the situation will be resolved completely. As noted deeper in the post, we won’t pretend to have any knowledge of HVAC, let alone what repairing or relaxing a chiller entails. If you have an upcoming stay at Wilderness Lodge this week, consider calling Walt Disney World or contacting your travel agent about a potential relocation if you prefer a frigid room or resort. (From what it sounds like, the status quo will already be sufficient for most guests, with the situation only improving in the days to come as the building gradually cools.)
Being a separate outlying building, Boulder Ridge is not impacted. The same goes for all of the waterfront Cascade Cabins, which are technically part of Copper Creek, but have their own individual air-conditioning units.
Both Whispering Canyon Cafe and Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White were closed for the day yesterday and blocked out Advance Dining Reservations for Saturday. The resort’s counter service restaurant, Roaring Fork, remains open. As does Geyser Point Bar & Grill, which is outdoors anyway.
Reports on social media are all over the place. Some have reported 80 to 90 degree temperatures in their rooms, a sauna-like lobby, and no answers from anyone at the resort. Others have indicated that their stay has been great, the AC outage is barely noticeable, and Cast Members have done their best to assist.
Cast Members have told some guests that the engineering team was working on the problem, but there has been no clarity as to when it would be fixed. Guests have indicated that they’ve seen portable units, equipment, and third party contractors on-site attempting to remedy the situation.
One of the running ‘themes’ from guests on the ground is a lack of proactive communications and confusion, with Cast Members not really having a consistent explanation. This is despite Walt Disney World leadership being at Wilderness Lodge, trying to address the issue as quickly as possible.
This tracks with our own experiences last year during the fire alarm incident at Yacht Club. At that time, there was a lot of confusion and supposition among guests and Cast Members about what caused the fire alarm to go off twice in one night. We also overheard a lot of chatter, and it seemed like the prevailing theory that emerged from the gossip was an issue in one of the kitchens.
Not wanting to risk a repeat of that night, Sarah spoke with a Cast Member about what happened. She explained the situation, and why we didn’t want to potentially endure another night of that (not that there were other guests who did, but still).
In our case, the Cast Member with whom we spoke proactively offered guest recovery without being asked or prompted. We also could’ve switched resorts if we wanted, but opted against it after receiving a reassurance that the issue had been addressed and it shouldn’t happen again on subsequent nights. For us, this was a more than fair resolution to the issue, and we were satisfied.
The difference between our incident and the air-conditioning being out at Wilderness Lodge is that ours occurred in the middle of the night. It would’ve taken time to get managers briefed on the situation and frontline Cast Members on the same page in order to present a unified explanation to guests and consistent communications.
This air-conditioning outage at Wilderness Lodge has been a known issue for at least a few days. Managers would’ve been present during that time, and as noted above, higher level leadership has also been on-site. The problem is presumably sufficiently significant that it would rise to Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle’s level at this point.
During the last couple days, there would’ve been time to cobble together a consistent message and convey that to all guests. Not just the ones who visit the front desk and inquire with Cast Members, but via a physical letter under guest doors from the hotel manager (or higher), calls to in-room phones, a message on TVs, etc.
This should be a situation where prompt communications are paramount and management ‘shields’ frontline Cast Members from the brunt of guest frustrations. This problem is above their pay grade and they have no control over it; and yet, they’re the ones dealing with disaffected guests.
Based on reports we’ve seen, guest recovery is being offered, but again, it’s inconsistent and upon request.
Many guests currently staying at Wilderness Lodge have requested to move to a different resort or have been compensated for nights of their stay that the resort has been without air-conditioning. Walt Disney World has offered to move impacted guests to a variety of resorts, ranging from Art of Animation to Gran Destino Tower to even a multi-bedroom Club Level Suite at the Grand Floridian.
Since word has gotten out about the AC outage at Wilderness Lodge, more reports have come from guests checking into Wilderness Lodge this weekend and beyond. According to these accounts, guests are being relocated for stays beginning today, but not tomorrow, with the given rationale that Walt Disney World is prioritizing people already there or arriving sooner.
This has drawn the ire of many guests with upcoming stays, but honestly, this one element of this story that actually strikes me as a reasonable response. (It’s also fair to assume the problem would be fixed long before many of them even arrive.)
The main building of Wilderness Lodge has over 500 rooms, and it’s a holiday weekend. Despite Walt Disney World typically having lower occupancy in the summer, that is a lot of rooms to absorb! There’s no way that could be done for arrivals that are in the more distant future.
I’m skeptical that the bandwidth even exists among the other Deluxe Resorts to accommodate all of the existing displaced guests, especially once you consider how many rooms are already out of commission due to work at the Contemporary, Polynesian, Yacht & Beach Club, BoardWalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and various DVC resorts. There is a lot of exterior construction happening across Walt Disney World right now, along with rooms offline for refurbishments.
This might be part of the reason for the lack of communications in the first place. If there was no ETA on the solution as of Thursday or Friday but comparable resorts to Wilderness Lodge don’t have the excess rooms over the next X days, that puts Walt Disney World in a bind.
I’d hazard a guess that this is an issue, as normally Walt Disney World wouldn’t relocate guests from a Deluxe Resort to a Value or Moderate–even if they are the nicer ones. Moreover, in browsing online room inventory for the next few days, options are incredibly limited.
Typically, when there is a guest complaint that necessitates recovery or when Walt Disney World overbooks a resort (which happens surprisingly often for a variety of reasons), the standard procedure is an upgrade.
This is similar to being bumped from a flight, with Walt Disney World likewise ‘compensating’ guests by moving them to a superior resort as opposed to a lateral change (e.g. Caribbean Beach to Contemporary, as opposed to Caribbean Beach to Coronado Springs).
There was a period when many guests were being offered upgrades from the All Stars and other lower-tier resorts all the way to the Grand Floridian (pre-overhaul). My suspicion is that this happens most frequently with hotels hosting events or having rooms taken offline for projects that were calendared after bookings began.
Our actionable advice for situations like this (not necessarily this exact one as we’d hope anyone already at WL has already been assisted) is similar to issues with airlines. You have to advocate for yourself. Be polite, but also assertive and persistent.
As with flights that get cancelled, it also helps to be proactive. I would hazard a guess that the first guests who asked to be relocated from Wilderness Lodge achieved better results than those did after night two of no air-conditioning, just by virtue of greater room availability across Walt Disney World earlier on.
At the same time, it’s understandable that guests would’ve taken a ‘wait and see’ perspective. Switching resorts mid-trip is a pain and it probably seemed unlikely that Wilderness Lodge would be without AC for multiple days during a heat wave. It’s easy to say what should’ve been done with the benefit of hindsight, but harder in the moment. (We speak from experience there!)
More than anything else, this should serve as a cautionary tale and reminder to have a loose plan of how you’d react in various situations.
When we’ve experienced our own issues, Sarah and I have gamed out the best and worst-case scenario to suss out the most likely outcome of contacting a Cast Member. This usually comes up more in the context of “will asking this question yield any real results or information we don’t already know?”
In both cases last Christmas, we determined that it was pointless to go to the front desk in the moment. With the Grand Floridian incident, there was also no need to do anything after the fact. With Yacht Club, it felt more necessary to speak with someone the following day, by which time there was presumably a plan in place for accommodating impacted guests.
Ultimately, the thing that really gets me about situations like this is the lack of consistency and prompt communications from Walt Disney World leadership. I know nothing about HVAC so I’m not going to second-guess anything about the outage or attempted fixes. But I do know that things break, and cannot be quickly or easily fixed.
I would also presume that fixing an HVAC system at a hotel is not simple, and requires specialized knowledge, experienced engineers, and equipment. Accordingly, I’m willing to give Walt Disney World the benefit of the doubt on the underlying problem itself.
It’s not like they want the AC out as some sort of nefarious cost-cutting measure. Having to comp rooms, relocate guests, and offer other recovery is expensive! Disney is presumably doing everything in its power to get the air-conditioning up and running again. And it’s hopefully safe to assume that’ll happen sooner rather than later, and won’t be a problem plaguing the resort for months, weeks, or even days to come.
What can be remedied more easily is Walt Disney World being more proactive in such situations. Even if they cannot offer all ~500 rooms a switch to another Deluxe Resort, that’s no good excuse for leaving guests in the dark. It’s better to over-communicate what’s happening; even when there’s no material update, it’s reassuring to guests.
One thing Walt Disney World does exceedingly well is hurricane ride outs. We’ve experienced that before, and would give Disney incredibly high marks for doing a superlative job at accommodating guests in a situation that was wholly beyond their control.
The reason this goes so smoothly is because Walt Disney World has a storm preparedness plan and defined policies that have been refined over the years. It boggles my mind that this same type of philosophy cannot be applied to other issues.
We’ve made the point before that Walt Disney World stumbles in the consistency of the service. This is one of those things that you may not realize until a problem arise that frontline Cast Members simply were not empowered to resolve.
These are the types of issues and inconveniences that a real world hotel at this price point would fix the instant it was brought to their attention. But ideally, it wouldn’t need to be brought to their attention because they’d address it preemptively.
To be clear, this is not a problem with frontline Cast Members. If anything, they are the biggest asset to Walt Disney World and their friendliness and warmth helps overcome a lot of other issues. It would be nice if management followed their lead with communications, developed policies to empower frontline Cast Members to solve problems quickly as they arise.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you staying at Wilderness Lodge currently? What’s been your experience with the AC outage? Any Walt Disney World hotel horror stories of your own? Or have your stays at WDW resorts been entirely positive? Thoughts on our experiences, or anything else? 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!
Hi Tom, First I wanted to say thanks for all your work on the blog. I am a long time reader and first time commenter. I was at Wilderness Lodge from June 17-23 and experienced the outage firsthand. I did provide some (polite, constructive) feedback via the front desk before checking out. Your article really helped me advocate for myself and gave me some good talking points. I was wondering if you could share the best email/contact for providing further feedback to Disney? I believe you have provided something before here on the blog, I’m just not finding it right now. I have an email link from Wilderness Lodge for feedback, but it redirects me to this link: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/help/email/. I’m not sure this is the proper venue or not. I really think your points about consistency and being proactive are something that Disney needs to hear and learn from in situations such as these. Thanks!
Reading about all of this put me in check with my complaints to my family a couple of weeks ago who kept cranking the AC and I was freezing (an embarrassment of riches). I really hope for guests and cast members that this issue gets a final fix very soon. I also hope that the Kidani rumors are just rumors and that after the dust settles that Disney does both an examination of other resorts to do what they can from preventing such a catastrophe and also they do some post discussion from this disaster to see what they need to do better next time (starting with communication!) and write some policies and procedures to reflect this.
We were scheduled to come in to WL on the 27th of june but we didnt want to take a chance on the air not being completely back on so we changed our reservations to Grand Floridian and 1 night at the POLY so i can tell you the room inventory is not there . A cm we spoke with told us that even if they got the air fixed on the 21st that it would take 4-5 days for the resort to cool off ,especially the lobby with such high ceilings ! When you spend almost 2200 per person to do 5 nites and 4 days in the park you dont want to take that chance even though it cost me another 1k to make that change. We normally do 1st or 2nd week of december but decided to celebrate my daughters bday and our anniversary at the same time this year! Tom thanks for your coverage on this and everything you do for all of us, keeping us informed and well educated about all things Disney!
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it feels strange to describe this as a “horror story,” or your other experience with the fire alarms going off. A hotel horror story is the 2004 tsunami in Thailand where thousands of people lost their lives or had to actually fight for their lives (hanging on to hotel furniture in the tsunami waters), including thousands of tourists and hotel staff.
The AC went out. Yes, extensive heat exposure is a very serious medical risk. But if people were in actual danger – as opposed to discomfort – they could have just drove / taken a cab over to a nearby hospital at any time, where presumably they have AC.
This is a negative hotel experience, not a horror story.
‘Hotel horror story’ is a phrase used to describe situations like this. Kind of like ‘hotel hell,’ which is also a more lighthearted, non-literal term.
I don’t think anything involving actual death should be described as a horror story. That is an actual tragedy.
That is a fair position to take. I did not realize it was a term of art or industry term! I am glad to have now learned of it.
There was a heat advisory on June 19th with real feel temp ranging from 100-107. This is dangerously hot for fragile groups. Heat stroke is very possible. It’s appalling that affected guests did not receive push notifications, signage in resort, room phone message at a minimum. When the daily security check takes place, a letter could have been dropped off explaining options. Every room should have been comped automatically and option to move offered.
My only resort experience with no AC was my wedding day. Since Cindy let me borrow her coach to take to the wedding pavilion, hair and makeup (as well as gown steaming) were done in the Grand Floridian hotel room. I have wedding photos with the engineering team in the ceiling of my room!
There absolutely should have been better/more communication. It’s honestly shocking to hear that Disney didn’t do it in this case (and it was more “if you asked” sort of thing). To me, I would think it would be like when the cruises sometimes get cut short or changed etc due to weather. We got a letter detailing what happened and what our options were. Stuff is outside of Disney’s control, but what they do about it is in their control.
We checked out of Wilderness Lodge on the 17th, though we were staying in Boulder Ridge. To lighten the mood a little – my “theory” is that they must have used all the A/C on the Boulder Ridge lobby because it was the COLDEST area I was in all week! I was freezing in there! 😉
Ok, so I know people want to blame Disney for the AC issue, but the truth is that it’s not just Disney. The problem is happening all over Florida (and I’m sure across America). There are less AC techs than ever there before because kids today aren’t taking Heating & AC repair (it’s happening across all blue worker/ labor skilled fields including plumbing, electrical, and auto mechanics). Also, parts are getting harder to get, which is why when your home AC goes down, it can take a few days before someone can come out and a week for the parts. I talk to people in these fields all of the time, so does my husband because of his career. It’s already getting bad because the skilled labor market is hitting approaching or at retirement age and it will only get worse in future. Some companies are actually adding incentives to keep their older employees from retiring or asking retired ones to come back to work. Also, Disney doesn’t want the AC to go out because the humidity down here damages everything in the building and causes black mold which is more expensive than guest satisfaction.
This is an excellent point. It’s one we’ve discussed at length when it comes to Walt Disney World’s in-house teams that do routine ride refurbishments and maintenance.
This would’ve happened regardless due to baby boomers largely being the ones in those jobs and reaching retirement age, but it was exacerbated with the COVID closures that pushed many of them to early retirement all-at-once, and without training the next generation.
Obviously, what you’re describing is slightly different and more widespread, but it’s been a noticeable issue even prior to this within WDW (and Disneyland).
again, it’s not the issue that the AC broke. Shit happens. The issue is how it was handled.
From what i understand, if you complained, you were taken care of in some way. If you didn’t complain, you were left to swelter.
From another responder it seems that you had to request a fan.
Perhaps he just didn’t convey what happened well. Perhaps Disney did contact every room and ask what they could do for them. But as it’s been presented, it seems to have been dealt with by the method “The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease”.
Perhaps i’m more disturbed than others because i’ve “known” disney world the longest. Pretty much every year since 1974 (from the age of 18 to now at 71). What happened at WL would not have happened back then. And i don’t mean the AC outtage, i mean how it was handled. For example, you don’t wait for a guest to request a fan, you deliver a fan to every room. You call or write or leave a message for every guest asking what they need and offering compensation before it’s requested. Proactive not reactive.
These are some really great points, and good to make people aware of.
Things happen but a deluxe should have deluxe customer service. It’s that simple. Disney didn’t provide that and should be called out.
I was there! I finally have something to contribute to my favorite blog (well… the only one I actually read).
We checked in June 17. We checked out June 19 so this only impacted us one night (though that might be misleading). According to the front desk CM, the AC officially went out at 5am the morning on June 18. The resort felt a little warmer than I’d expected when we arrived at 4pm on June 17. It felt even warmer when we came back from lunch at 2pm on June 18. But that FL heat can cause even a warm hotel to feel cooler than it is so we didn’t think it super noteworthy. I travel with a small fan for sleeping so that may have helped mask the issues the night of June 17. We became aware of the issue when my girlfriend heard someone else talking about the AC at 5pm on June 18. That guest made it clear it was a Copper Creek issue and not a Boulder Ridge issue. We would later hear from another guest that the AC had allegedly been struggling for days including alternating icing in the rooms with not working. If I recall correctly, this guest was relaying second hand information. We did not encounter this so I cannot speak to the validity of those claims from a guest who was at least legitimately aggravated if not preparing to become irate with the front desk CM they were about to encounter.
Here was our experience:
June 18:
1. It was definitely above 80° in Copper Creek at 10pm. The humidity was the bigger issue for us.
2. The line for the front desk was 30ish deep at 10pm.
3. Roaring Fork had a portable AC unit at 10pm that was not there at 2pm.
4. The lifeguards at the Copper Creek pool told us that even though that pool was closing at 11pm that the pool at Boulder Ridge would be open later for us.
5. The line for the from desk was 7ish deep at 11pm when we decided to get in the line. We were 80% trying to pay off the balance for the room with a gift card and 20% trying to get info on the AC. We decided to tough it out for the one night.
5a. The front desk was fully staffed.
5b. There was a CM from the Contemporary still in Contemporary costuming working the line asking for room numbers of guests who wanted a box fan delivered to their room. We asked for one and received it within 1.5 hours. We were told they were coming from all over property so under 2 hours seemed reasonable. Due to a mix up, we’d receive a second fan 30 minutes later. Based on my interaction with the Mousekeeping CM, it was clear that another guest requested 2 fans and 6 extra pillows and the Mousekeeping CM was prepared to deliver on that.
5c. The front desk CM notated my stay to have my DVC points refunded for the night of June 18. I have not confirmed or followed up on this because I can only imagine the hell DVC and WL CMs are dealing with currently.
6. It was a much warmer night than I would have liked but it reaffirmed my belief that the Disney hotel thermostats are like the thermostats at work – only there to give you the illusion of control ha. It’s never actually 68° when I set it to 68° when the AC is actually working and this whole event made me realize there are not individual AC units for each room.
June 19:
1. Actual Guest Relations CMs in the white dress shirts with the red plaid shoulders were in the lobby at 11am when we checked our bags. We’d later find out from a Guest Relations CM at Epcot (Guardians went down on us at 815pm June 18 so we had to deal with LL issues – I won’t be going back on June 18th for a while ha) that he personally had dropped off Guest Relations CMs at WL that morning.
2. The CM from Contemporary was back (in WL costuming) and passing out Mickey bars and bottled drinks at 11am. Along with way more CMs to help. It was still overly busy as you’d expect.
3. Roaring Fork had a second portable AC unit by 3pm.
4. There were lifeguards passing out Mickey cooling towels in the lobby at 3pm – the pool was closed – probably due to the lightning in the area. I saw one person with 8 of them for what looked like a party of 5 so Disney was not skimping.
5. They were delivering more boxes of Mickey bars and the fruit bars along with cooling towels as we were leaving at 4pm.
6. As our Uber (please bring back at least baggage airport transfer services to all hotels!) was leaving the Port Cochère at WL, we got in a traffic jam caused by a flatbed tractor trailer delivering a second industrial HVAC unit – like Tom I wouldn’t know the first thing about HVAC but the massive unit literally said HVAC on the label. The first one was already sitting in the parking lot that looked like it had arrived minutes before because the other tractor trailer was still navigating the parking lot.
Every CM we encountered was still polite, courteous, and doing their best while sweating their butts off. There were also towers of iced water in the lobby from at least 10pm June 18 through 4pm June 19. Though, WL didn’t leave the best first impression on my girlfriend.
Thanks for taking the time to share your detailed experience, we really appreciate that!
Obviously not an ideal situation, but your stay sounds like it went much smoother than many reports on reddit and Facebook. Perhaps it’s a vocal minority unrepresentative of all WL guests, but many of them are very, very mad.
did they call every room and ask if the guests wanted a fan? Or even better, automatically deliver a fan to the room?
Waiting for people to request a fan????? seriously
That is not customer service at all.
This method of service is actually called, “The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease”
Meaning, those who complained got fans or were transferred to other resorts, while those who remained stoic, were left by disney to swelter in their rooms, rather than proactively asking them if there is something that they need by directly contacting every single room and speaking with them.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease method of customer service is not what disney should be adopting at any of their resorts and certainly not at a deluxe.
Outrageous that you had to wait in line to get a fan! I would have been so pissed!
What a terrible experience, even if the heat index was “normal” for this time of year!! I have so many questions about the technical aspects of this – I am by no means an HVAC expert, but my construction-adjacent job makes me just knowledgeable enough to be dangerously stupid. I’m assuming this is a chilled water plant issue, because it’s otherwise a real head scratcher to connect 500 individual room cooling systems to a common area failure. At 111 degrees, capacity just might be strained beyond the original engineering for requirements anticipated back in 1994. Smarter, better informed minds will prevail here, but I am super curious!!
Most families save and plan for such a long time that it’s heartbreaking to think of having that long-anticipated vacation disrupted by the lack of sleep and hot-park-day recovery a properly cooled room should provide. Even having a smooth communication process with compensation for the cost of a room night wouldn’t adequately cover the loss of that time in the scheme of the travel, park tickets, and dining costs. I feel horribly for those disrupted travelers!!
Tom, don’t beat yourself up. The vast majority of us that take the time to read the blog and comment are big fans and appreciate the time and effort you put into the site and can tell it’s a labor of love. In this era of AI slop it’s so refreshing for someone to still put out an old fashioned, high quality blog with actual first hand experience and your own, unique point of view. Keep doing what you are doing!
I am the one, actually, who is compensated by Universal, and I demand more positive Universal coverage on this web page. For example, how about a counter-article about one of Universal’s fine hotels? “Our Fantastic Stay at [Universal Resort Hotel] Came with FREE A/C During a Heat Wave Unlike Some Other Places We Could Mention.” You should be writing this down, this is good stuff.
@Beth – I’m guessing you were trying to reply to me and your response got put below the wrong comment by accident (the multi-level threading here leaves something to be desired).
Either way, we’re in complete agreement about the lack of communication. That is my big issue with all of this, and the only reason I reported on it in the first place. I know this is a recurrent issue that extends far beyond this one incident.
If this were “only” a multi-day AC outage accompanied by flawless communication and guest recovery, it would’ve been an unfortunate incident, but arguably evidence of Disney’s commitment to delivering exemplary guest service and making lemonade out of lemons. Instead, it sounds like the opposite (based on the bulk of frustrated guests on social media).
yes, i posted it below the wrong one and then noticed, so reposted.
Anyway, perhaps Disney will learn from this that they need to be more proactive.
Thank you for the update on Wilderness! Please keep us posted on how this continues to unfold.
Although I get that you might want to report on some things that went wrong or a bad experience at a Disneyworld hotel which can happen at any hotel, I do not appreciate you making such negative generalized statements such as “exacerbated by the paper-thin walls at just about every on-site Walt Disney World resort”. Why do you even stay at any of the resorts if that is the case? Additionally, hotels are inconsistent in how they remediate a situation as it is always dependent on the concerns/complaints of the guests. This article is so outlandishly negative and strongly smells of trying to put pressure on Disneyworld to compensate you. I know that you have recently started to write about universal. Did they start paying you or compensating you more than Disney?? I have been on your listserve for years, but NO MORE. I find this article beyond reporting/giving information to just being outright outlandish in its statements. I’m cancelling subscribing to you. I urge others to do the same. So disappointing what you have done here.
Wow, quite the overreaction on your part. Buh-bye.
I’m guessing you won’t see this, but that’s a fair point about the paper-thin walls line. That was unnecessary hyperbole that detracts from the substance of the article. You’re right about that.
But it’s likewise hyperbole to claim that I’m somehow doing this to pressure Disney to compensate me. That is absolutely not the case, nor is it with Universal. (If anything, our Universal coverage skews more negative than Disney–this has been especially true with Epic Universe, which has had an uneven opening year.) For better or worse, our aim is to hold Disney to their own high standards. Maybe that missed the mark here.
WDW has lots of issues including thin walls almost everywhere and we’ve stayed almost everywhere in the 50+ years we have been visiting. We were at BWV last month and part of the resort had no hot water for several days. A guest asked us what she should do as she was afraid to upset anyone. We told her to talk with someone at the desk and ask to be moved to another villa (our side had hot water). She wasn’t sure it was “bad enough” to complain as her sister gifted her DVC points! Hot water, like a/c is expected anywhere. A week at a Deluxe is not comparable to a cheap motel in any way. People who travel to and spend 10K+ a week should have clean, safe accommodations which is the least Disney can do. To suggest anyone is trying to game a crisis situation in the FL heat (which it is) is insulting.
This is such a bizarre take, especially since I don’t even see the quoted language in this piece? I’ve been waiting for DTB to report on this and I’m glad he did.
Quite the overreaction here. My guess is you often get upset if you perceive that anyone criticizes Disney at all. That issue lies with you, not Tom.
Checked into Wilderness lodge this morning thankfully we are staying in Boulder Ridge. The AC is working there because it’s a separate building I can confirm as of 11 this morning , The main building had no AC we had breakfast at whispering Canyon but not sure if they’re accepting dining reservations they did have fans running in the restaurant. We noticed the temperature immediately walking into the lobby. Normal music was not playing no scent as I imagine it runs through the AC vent. It’s definitely not your typical wilderness Lodge experience but cast members are polite and friendly as usual trying to make the most of it even had Mickey and Minnie and Chip and Dale in the lobby, but it’s definitely a multi day issue.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Others in the main building are reporting that the temperature is improving–hopefully that’s the case. Regardless, enjoy your trip–those new(ish) rooms at Boulder Ridge are awesome!
Mickey and Minnie in the lobby?! Okay, I gotta say, if I were there, my dd would be so excited that she would not notice the heat for at least another hour. 😉
This is definitely NOT magical if you’re experiencing it! While things like this can happen anywhere, the fact that Disney management hasn’t dealt with it expediently and consistently across guests is telling to me about how far the standard of service has fallen recently. My hope is that the D’Amaro era will bring us (as he has implied) a return of the magic at the resorts- or at least to a higher level than is currently being seen. This should be an easy one (as you said)- communicate the issue and the options (move, partial refund, whatever is deemed “fair” for a resort guest) and empower the frontline cast to make it happen. For a brand built on “going above and beyond” in customer service, they surely need to do better in instances like this before they can return to their former glory.
I have high hopes for the D’Amaro era as a whole, but guest communications on the resort side have been an issue for a while, and is something he could’ve addressed when he was Experiences Chair. This is actually something the WDW parks themselves do better, in my opinion. If you were to visit Animal Kingdom tomorrow and Expedition Everest were down until early afternoon, a push notification would be sent out by the park VP via My Disney Experience to all guests thanking them for their patience, apologizing for the inconvenience, and explaining the situation.
Something comparable in a situation such as this would’ve gone a long way with guests, and would’ve prevented some of them from airing their grievances on social media in the first place. It’s better to over-communicate, even when they are not material updates, than to leave people in the dark. (And again, Disney also does this really well with hurricane protocol at the resorts!)
Agreed, Tom- though it seems simple enough that you would think they would have a plan for something this major at the resorts! I read there may be water issues at another resort today, so maybe someone will start to realize this could be something they need sooner vs. later.
This seems another example of WDW no longer having a fulltime staff of top notch engineers and maintenance personnel. So something that might never have occurred at all or been dealt with more expediently, dragged on for far longer than one would expect.
Again, I know nothing about HVAC, but I’m willing to cut them some slack on the underlying problem. I think ‘catastrophic occurrences’ like this have always happened at hotels, and always taken time to fix. We just hear more about them nowadays in the social media era.
We were a single occurrence with leaks and pests. Leak turned out to be the toilet above and dripped onto the ensuite bath in the main bedroom. It took many, many calls and waiting around all afternoon for visits from housekeeping and engineering. Finally someone made the call that it was not safe to stay there (my point from the beginning). We were provided the same size villa at the same resort and also provided a future stay in the any size villa at any resort (except 3 BR and a few resorts). A specialist CM was assigned to us. DVC moved us and we continued our vacation with our first day being a total waste. Those who have travel insurance should file a claim (separate from Disney’s obligation).
As a decades long DVC member I believe management should address all the families’ needs by moving everyone and refunding DVC points or a future stay that is fair for all. This should be offered to all those affected in writing with a sincere apology. Your villa is where you seek shelter from the Florida heat and Disney needs to step up immediately and face the music. This is a herculean task, an expensive one (they have insurance which could cover part of it) but could deter future guests from taking the risk of being ignored in what amounts to an emergency situation.
Waiting and hoping either the situation will change or Disney will offer a comp without asking isn’t happening so guests must take this on individually. Eventually, Disney should come through but I wouldn’t gamble being lost in the crowd.
how frustrating!! which resort? we’ll be at BLT in august for 15 nights. I’m hoping all will be well.
Very well said from start to finish–totally agree (and sorry to hear about your experience).
the problem, Tom, is the lack of communication. And the lack of a plan. Bring fans to guests’ rooms. Supply free ice cold drinks to all rooms. Something. As you said, communication was missing. This is a very expensive hotel. The rack rates are high. You’d expect better service from a motel 6 in a crisis. And Disney used to do much better. But they are short on staff. And it’s not just a leftover from covid. They’d been cutting back on those costs for years before covid.
I’m a disney fan from way way back. My first visit to WDW was back in 1974 (when there was only MK as hard as that is to believe). I was 18 then, so i’m not exactly a spring chicken. Disney did do better in the past and one would hope they will do better in the future, but i’m not holding my breath.
the problem, Tom, is the lack of communication. And the lack of a plan. Bring fans to guests’ rooms. Supply free ice cold drinks to all rooms. Something. As you said, communication was missing. This is a very expensive hotel. The rack rates are high. You’d expect better service from a motel 6 in a crisis. And Disney used to do much better. But they are short on staff. And it’s not just a leftover from covid. They’d been cutting back on those costs for years before covid.
I’m a disney fan from way way back. My first visit to WDW was back in 1974 (when there was only MK as hard as that is to believe). I was 18 then, so i’m not exactly a spring chicken. Disney did do better in the past and one would hope they will do better in the future, but i’m not holding my breath.
Talked to someone there now and it seems the air is back on since early this morning. Hope so for everyone staying there.
Oof, that stinks-AC this time of year particularly in Orlando is a must. Not nearly as bad but last summer we stayed at the Polynesian and somehow were digitally locked in our room- it was during a mid day break , we had showered after visiting pool for a bit were headed back to parks for dinner and rides but door would not open- we called front desk sho told us we had to call the police- it was a bit of an ordeal and after about an hour of being trapped the disney employee opened door but proceeded to lock himself in with us- was mind boggling- I even asked him if we could leave first- was definitely annoying but we survived
Happened to us at Animal Kingdom Losge – sliding door to balcony locked behind us and we were told we had to call 911. When Disney Engineer came to let us in we were told that it happens more often than you think! She then showed us exactly how it happened, it was just crazy that these doors do this and there are no warnings! I’m glad I had my phone outside!
@Nicole
Jeez- IM glad you guys had a phone with you – could of been a worse though possibly more comical story
James, same happened to me, but in a hotel in New Orleans. Returning to my hotel around 9pm, door was flashing red. Front desk said they suspected someone was in my room, after a litany of questions and finally security opened door at 1am, checking room, all was in order. Turned out it was a battery replacement situation. Automactically refunded 2 nights and free breakfast for the last 2 weeks of stay.