Hey there everyone! Disney News Today is back!
A week or so ago, I wrote that the site was going to be re-imagineered into reporting the news and happenings of the Disney Community along with my take on the stories. This will be the first installment of the new site with hopefully a lot more to follow.
Last week Friday Disney Vacation Members were sent an email from Ken Potrock, DVC Senior VP & General Manager, extending Holiday Wishes to members. Along with the holiday sentiments, Potrock also mentioned the “big plans” for the future that DVC was thrilled to tell us about.
The item in this list that drew my attention was the mention that DVC would begin removing trash on a daily basis. This change would begin immediately at Bay Lake Tower, Polynesian Villas and Bungalows, The Villas at The Grand Floridian, Disney’s Grand Californian and Aulani. The change would be implemented to all remaining Disney Vacation Club Resorts on January 7, 2018.
We’ve been Disney Vacation Members since 1995, and frankly we’ve gotten used to ‘Mousekeeping’ not showing up every day. So, understandably my first reaction was, “who complained about not having daily trash pick up” and what was this going to do to my dues.
Being the way that I am I had to find out why this was happening. I just didn’t believe that this was just about trash pick up. So, I contacted Membership Services. While the answer that I got from them was not completely forthcoming, it did shed some light onto the situation. In a statement that I got from a Cast Member at Member Services I was told, “It is important for us to visually inspect every room for maintenance, safety, security and other purposes.”
Within days sources were saying Walt Disney World was changing the security policy at this time for the Monorail Resorts (Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Polynesian Village . Reports stated that Disney would be removing “Do Not Disturb” signs. According to the Orlando Sentinel, guests at these locations can now use “Room Occupied” signs. Using the new door tag does not preclude maintenance or housekeeping staff from entering. Guests are now being informed that Disney staff will now enter rooms at these properties daily. If guests are not comfortable with Disney staff going into their rooms when they are gone, the company will coordinate with those people on an individual basis.
While Disney has not specifically said so, there is a lot of rumors and chatter that sooner than later this policy change is going to be extended to other resorts.
When the security policy at the Monorail Resorts was reported, the trash policy change at the Disney Vacation Resorts started making more sense.
So, why is Disney making these changes?
Like I mentioned earlier, I was initially confused why DVC was doing this. Then I thought it might have to to with it was taking Mousekeeping longer to clean out the trash when they did come because there was a significant number of guest not taking out their own trash between trash pick ups. Then I started thinking that maybe this way that maintenance/housekeeping staff and check on things that need to be fixed and get them fixed before guests check out, thereby not holding up guests checking into their new rooms.
Now, even though Disney has not “officially” stated so, the new policy appears to be a response to the October shooting in Las Vegas that killed 59 people and injured more than 500.
I have seen some blowback by a small amount of people on the Internet that they are not happy about this change….stating that they won’t be staying at any of the Monorail Resorts anymore.
Personally, I think that this is very short-sighted. While Disney has not officially said so, it appears that this change is going to spread to the remaining Disney Resorts.
Honestly, while inconvenient, I’m fully in support of this change. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in now. It’s why “we can’t have nice things.” Disney has to do this because they would end up being liable if they didn’t implement something like this and something like Las Vegas did happen on property.
What is surprising me is why Disney hasn’t come out front and said this is why they are implementing the new polices. I think as Disney Vacation Club Members, we’d be more understanding why the trash pick-up is being changed if management at DVC would just tell us it’s out of concern for guest safety. I also believe that guests staying at the Walt Disney Resorts would be less reactionary and more understanding of the security changes if Disney was more upfront about why the change is occurring.
Okay….that’s it for for today. I’ll be back soon with another story soon.
See ya real soon!
Disney News Today 