Staying at a Disney World hotel during your trip can make life so much easier.
Disney’s Riviera Resort
You can utilize Disney transportation, get free parking and early access to the parks, and get to dine at alllllll those delicious restaurants. But, every once in a while, staying at a Disney World hotel actually isn’t a dream come true — instead, it’s a nightmare. And we’ve experienced that firsthand.
We’re sharing the terrible, no-good, very bad hotel experiences we’ve had at Disney World — and what you can do if they happen to you!
Cheer Competition Chaos
As a former cheerleader myself, this is certainly not a slight against them. But, more than one person on our team here at DFB has made the unfortunate mistake of booking a room at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort without checking the ESPN Wide World of Sports calendar.
See this courtyard area at All-Star Sports resort? There will be lots of cheer practice happening here.
You see, ESPN Wide World of Sports hosts several events and competitions throughout the year — we’re talking soccer, dance, cheerleading, you name it. More often than not, these groups will book blocks of rooms for their teams to stay in at this hotel due to its close proximity to the Wide World of Sports. Keep this in mind the next time you’re considering booking a room here!
Slippery Shower
This one is a doozy — literally. One of our team members was staying at Disney’s Pop Century Resort and was getting ready to head into the parks. When she stepped into the shower, it was a bit slipperier than expected and caused her to lose her balance — leaving a nearly 3-foot-wide crack in the wall from where her head slammed into it.
Be careful!
Luckily, everything was alright and Cast Members asked if she needed any medical attention when she brought it to their attention, but she refused since she had places to be. And by “places” we mean Animal Kingdom, so we really can’t blame her! Make sure you’re careful when stepping in and out of the shower, and you can always reach out to the front desk at your hotel with any problems.
Accidental Attraction
This next story is one that we’re pretty sure we had a humiliating dream about one time. Disney World hotels often feature rooms that are ADA compliant and have other accessibility features — for instance, a button on the wall that will open the door to your hotel room.
View From the Room
Unfortunately, this button is near the pocket door to the bathroom, and it’s pretty easy to accidentally hit it, thus opening the door to your hotel room which takes a while to close. In the case of our team member, her kids thought it was hilarious and kept “accidentally” hitting the button in the middle of the night! If you find yourself in one of these rooms, you can always request a room change and Disney will try to accommodate. Otherwise, enjoy the show!
Bathroom Bad News
If you experience any sort of bathroom anxiety when you’re on vacation, you might want to stop reading this part. Staying in a room with others in close proximity and sharing one bathroom can be uncomfortable enough on its own — but what if you had to worry about people in other rooms hearing your bathroom business too?
Door to toilet and shower
Yep — it’s happened before and it’ll likely happen again. One of our team members was staying at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort and was able to actually hear someone go to the bathroom and then flush the toilet in the middle of the night. There really isn’t a whole lot you can do about this one save for staying in a different hotel or bringing some earplugs and a noise machine with you!
Pumbaa’s Problem
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is one of the most beautiful and immersive hotels on property, featuring gorgeous Savanna views and the opportunity to get up close with animals…but maybe a little bit too close.Â
Savanna view
A DFB team member was staying in a Savanna-view room and enjoyed every second of it — except that they were directly above a warthog pen and, well, you can imagine that it wasn’t the loveliest smell. Pumbaa is great at parties, but he probably wouldn’t make a very good roommate! You can request a room change in this situation and Disney will do their best to make something work. Or, just be one with the nature.
The room!
Stay tuned to DFB as we bring you the best hotel tips, tricks, and more news from Walt Disney World!
I Stayed at the Most Expensive Disney World Hotel. Here Are 9 Things I Wish I’d Done Differently.
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I had people running up & down on the 3rd floor of All-Star Movies (101 Dalmatians), and gotten lost in the dark at Treehouse Villas and Fort Wilderness.
We were at pop century in Feb. And yes the cheerleaders arrived in mass on the Thursday of our week-long vacation. It was a nightmare. Banging on our window late at night. Sitting right outside our door talking. I had to call security, go to the front desk multiple times. The first time front desk said sorry, nothing we can do!!!. It really destroyed a great vacation and the desire to go back. Dealing with Disney after was a bit of an issue. We werepromised compensation but the security guard would not let us back into the resort to deal with it once we checked out. Got the run around big time.
I’ve just returned from a jambo then oke holiday . We accidentally left GHD straighteners on the top ( not inside but on the top ) of the wardrobe . We rang reception at okw who put me through to jambo but an answer machine so I left a message explaining where the straighteners were incl the room number . We also completed a lost item form .on line , We got a message back 2 days later from the on line service saying they could not locate the item so I rang okw again and the cast member contacted jambo who said there was no mention on the room notes of any loss !!! So much for the online loss form and me leaving a message !!! They also said someone was now in the room so they could not look for them . 6 days later we returned to the u k without the $200 straighteners !!! Two points one that the online form seemed to have done nothing and surely if there was someone in the room could jambo not have left a message to the occupants asking them to check on top of the wardrobe ? I am sure if I was in the room I would most certainly be more than happy to check for an item in such circumstances ! It was so annoying because we knew exactly where they were they weren’t lost !!! ! I did think the hotel and on line loss people could have done something !!!
It was very frustrating !
while staying at Pop Century the day before checking out I walk the grounds, when I got back to my room, I found a black snake on the bathroom floor.