Do Not Disturb Gone! (BLT)

[mjr0483]

There just isn't enough information about this. If they are concerned about another Las Vegas then they need to x-ray all the bags as they enter the resort. How much of your privacy are you supposed to give up? How intense is the room visit? Are they going to look in the bathroom on every trip? Under the bed? In the closet, in the kitchen cabinets in the DVC rooms? Is it just to peek in, but not enter just to get the vibe of the room?

 

[Just People]

Soon enough we'll see a late-night special on MSNBC "Lock-up: Disney." Can't wait to see housekeeping staff dressed up in riot gear do Surprise Shake-Downs of guest rooms looking for contraband.

 

[mjr0483]

When will they start checking the cars? You have your minivan in the parking lot full of all they are trying to stop. You wait in your room all day and wait for the security check. After they leave, you walk to your car and get your goodies. Security policy circumvented. This is complete *^%&(

They need to put security at the front door and scan the luggage as it comes in the door!

 

[dansdad]

I think this thread is going to be important going forward as there are going to be a ton of questions from folks bothered by this. Like what to do, what is expected, etc. Because of this, I think it's important that the thread not be closed. I have a feeling with the way it's going, it won't be open for long. I saw it happen with multiple threads when they announced their new dog friendly resorts plan. I understand people are upset by this and they have every right to be. But the hyperbole that's being posted is not helpful and will surely get this thread shut down. So this is my one shot at trying to help. I am in no way trying to tell people that "it's fine", "blindly trust Disney", etc. But I am trying to say that some of the statements here are a little much. Though I don't feel strongly about this change in any way, I understand some do which is why it's important to keep things to facts and actual experiences.

@Lynne M already gave one warning which means the leash is even shorter so to speak.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

I'm wondering if any Disney employee who enters my room would count as a 'security visit' for that day. If so, I see lots of room service breakfasts in my future, LOL.

As I've said before, I don't (really) mind someone entering our room and glancing around while we're out for the day. In fact, for longer (more than 3 days) stays, we aim for daily housekeeping. It doesn't always happen, however, because often housekeeping has not reached our room by 2'or even 3 PM when we come back for a rest or swim. When we arrive back to our room and find housekeeping hasn't been there yet, we put up our DND sign. We take it back down later if we go out for dinner, but by then housekeeping has usually passed us by. Like the posters with lupus and MS, my DD has an illness that at times requires more rest. She is already a restless sleeper, and once she is awakened (potentially by a knock), she cannot fall asleep again. Usually she is healthy when we travel, but she had a flare in November, and we spent at least half of our day in our room at WL so that she could get adequate rest. If someone had knocked and woken her during those times, we might have been forced to cancel the remainder of our vacation and get medical attention and/or travel home. This could really impact whether or not we stay onsite in the future, which makes me sad.

I look forward to updates from anyone staying on site in the next few weeks/months about how this is going. I remain apprehensive about it.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

When will they start checking the cars? You have your minivan in the parking lot full of all they are trying to stop. You wait in your room all day and wait for the security check. After they leave, you walk to your car and get your goodies. Security policy circumvented. This is complete *^%&(

They need to put security at the front door and scan the luggage as it comes in the door!

Which door? Which entrance? (Think about the tree house villas.)

The really sad part is that people actually believe that this check is going to make them "Safer." When in reality, it is security theater.

All I really want is for Disney to let me sleep. Don't mess up my nap. Or my alone time with my husband.

I shall see in January how it goes.

 

[mjr0483]

Which door? Which entrance? (Think about the tree house villas.)

For the Tree House Villas, they are going to have to have you pull over your car at the security gate and take our luggage and scan it. Once on the way in is better than every room, every day.
I am totally against this.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

For the Tree House Villas, they are going to have to have you pull over your car at the security gate and take our luggage and scan it. Once on the way in is better than every room, every day.
I am totally against this.

And every other car since there is no way to know who might head over to the villas. Or who might walk over from Disney Springs. (you know where there is no security.)

I am totally against this as well.

They are hoping to have housekeepers act as security. Heck, at least part of the time they can't get housekeepers to act like housekeepers.

 

[LSUmiss]

Have we heard for an official Disney site that they are rolling out to all resorts? If so, I've missed it.

I'm willing to see what Disney actually does before I panic and claim they are violating my privacy. Seems more likely the security check will be in the form of housekeeping.

Also, the idea of some nutball in the room next to me stockpiling guns is way more offensive than housekeeping or whoever opening the door to glance in my room.

Which might make sense IF this policy would actually prevent it or it were even a likely concern. But it’s nothing.

 

[LSUmiss]

Being woken up is not the end of the world. It just isn't. It is, at most, annoying.

I don't particularly like this policy. It's worthy of an eye roll, to me. We liked being DVC and not getting daily housekeeping as we prefer not to have people in our room. But it's "their house" and their rules, so I'll live with it. Frankly i would be ok if a CM walked in on me butt nekkid in my room (whether it was a man or a woman). It would be the stuff of legends...the kind of story we'd love telling for years after. I'd feel badly for the poor Cm just doing his/her job LOL.

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s disappointing when there are so many things that continue to chip away WDW value & magic. There are always threads about that very thing & this just adds one more thing. It’s frustating b/c eventually they’ll be enough things that push me to vacation elsewhere too. And I know wdw will be just fine without me, but sad to have to give up something you once loved b/c annoyance become too numerous.

 

[NHLFAN]

My suggestion would be that the room checks (aka trash pulls) in DVC rooms should occur between the hours of 11 am and 4 pm.

 

[Jennasis]

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s disappointing when there are so many things that continue to chip away WDW value & magic. There are always threads about that very thing & this just adds one more thing. It’s frustating b/c eventually they’ll be enough things that push me to vacation elsewhere too. And I know wdw will be just fine without me, but sad to have to give up something you once loved b/c annoyance become too numerous.

True...like allowing dogs at the resorts. Things do pile up after a while. We all have our breaking point. Haven't hit ours...yet.

 

[Tinkerbell2017]

I'm not against this security procedure, but they will do this every day? That seems excessive. What are the hours of this? Is it random?

 

[mjr0483]

I have written an email to Guest Services regarding my concerns.

 

[Lynne M]

My point about hyperbole is this.

Here's what we know, officially, from Disney: The Do Not Disturb signs are being removed from rooms. A Disney employee will enter the room once per day. Generally, that will be covered by the daily housekeeping visit. You can still choose to decline housekeeping, but in that event, “the hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room for any purposes including, but not limited to, performing maintenance and repairs or checking on the safety and security of guests and property.” That statement isn't anything new or radical, by the way. Any hotel you have ever stayed in, or ever will, has the ability and the right to have their staff enter guest rooms when it's deemed necessary by management.

That's it. There has been no mention by Disney of security guards barging into your room at all hours, conducting searches of the room or your possessions. Or cameras in the room, or body searches, or any of the other wild assumptions that have been posted on these threads. Most of what people are reacting to is speculation and worst-case assumptions by their fellow posters. There's just no point to that. It's not helpful, it's not productive, and it sends a thread right off the rails into argument-and-personal-attack territory. Is it possible that Disney is creating their own massive force of armed agents that will be pounding on guests' doors late at night so they can search their room? Well, yeah, I guess. It's also possible that I'll hit Powerball this week and win enough money to buy Disney Springs. Neither are very likely, and I think it's a better use of time and board space to talk about things that might actually happen.

My own assumption: Disney is protecting themselves from the legal exposure that the Mandalay Bay now faces because one of their guests had an arsenal in his room and they didn't know about it because he kept his do not disturb sign up. They're just putting a set of employee eyeballs on the rooms to make sure nothing is obviously amiss.

Most guests will be utterly unaffected by this, because the majority of guests don't decline housekeeping. I suspect that for guests that do decline housekeeping they'll try to have a housekeeper open the door and take a look around, so the housekeeper can check the box on her clipboard that says "Nope, no stacks of ammo on the table." It makes sense to have the housekeepers do the check, because a) they're a friendly, non-intimidating presence, and b) the resort is already staffed to have a housekeeper visit each room each day. To have security guards check each of the 30,000 rooms would require a mass hiring. My guess is that security will only become involved if housekeeping or maintenance sees something suspicious, or a guest is very resistant to allowing staff in the room, or is otherwise behaving in a way that arouses suspicion.

Is it reasonable to have concerns about this? Of course. It will be a concern and an inconvenience for those guests who usually decline housekeeping. My suggestion? Talk to guest services at the resort if you're worried. We all know that Disney will bend over backward to accommodate a guest's needs whenever possible. If you need to rest in your room during the day, tell them. If you're concerned about privacy, tell them. Give the staff the opportunity to help.

If you're worried someone will open the door while you're changing or showering or sleeping.....that's what that flip latch on the door is for. I've never been barged in on in a hotel room, because that latch is always closed if I'm in the room. If housekeeping or maintenance tries to open the door, I just say "Can you come back later, please?" Yes, I know that those latches can be opened by staff. I hardly think they're going to be forcing the door unless they think you're dying on the floor or are about to start shooting out the window.

All hotels struggle with the balance between providing security and providing a good guest experience. A lot of the assumptions I've seen here would create an environment so unpleasant for guests that no one would ever stay at a Disney resort again. I think there's very, very little chance that Disney will willingly put their own resorts out of business.

 

[JacknSally]

Everyone keeps saying "Just use the latch to double-lock the door, that will keep them out"... It's not that cut and dry, honestly. Every hotel has a tool to throw that latch back from the outside. It's not rare for a latch to fall just enough accidentally to lock someone out of the room, so they use that tool to throw it back so the door will open. The whole point of taking away the DND sign is for hotel staff to do room security checks, so it's not like they're going to try to open the door, see the latch is used, and say "Oh, gotta skip this one, they used the latch" - that would be the easiest way for someone setting up their arsenal to keep going uninterrupted. They'll just use the tool to throw the latch back and enter the room anyway.

 

[JacknSally]

I'm not against this security procedure, but they will do this every day? That seems excessive. What are the hours of this? Is it random?

For optimum "security" effectiveness, I would assume the checks would be random. Giving out a dedicated time frame would just tell a bad guy not to set up during that window.

 

[marikujawa]

My point about hyperbole is this.

Here's what we know, officially, from Disney: The Do Not Disturb signs are being removed from rooms. A Disney employee will enter the room once per day. Generally, that will be covered by the daily housekeeping visit. You can still choose to decline housekeeping, but in that event, “the hotel and its staff reserve the right to enter your room for any purposes including, but not limited to, performing maintenance and repairs or checking on the safety and security of guests and property.” That statement isn't anything new or radical, by the way. Any hotel you have ever stayed in, or ever will, has the ability and the right to have their staff enter guest rooms when it's deemed necessary by management.

That's it. There has been no mention by Disney of security guards barging into your room at all hours, conducting searches of the room or your possessions. Or cameras in the room, or body searches, or any of the other wild assumptions that have been posted on these threads. Most of what people are reacting to is speculation and worst-case assumptions by their fellow posters. There's just no point to that. It's not helpful, it's not productive, and it sends a thread right off the rails into argument-and-personal-attack territory. Is it possible that Disney is creating their own massive force of armed agents that will be pounding on guests' doors late at night so they can search their room? Well, yeah, I guess. It's also possible that I'll hit Powerball this week and win enough money to buy Disney Springs. Neither are very likely, and I think it's a better use of time and board space to talk about things that might actually happen.

My own assumption: Disney is protecting themselves from the legal exposure that the Mandalay Bay now faces because one of their guests had an arsenal in his room and they didn't know about it because he kept his do not disturb sign up. They're just putting a set of employee eyeballs on the rooms to make sure nothing is obviously amiss.

Most guests will be utterly unaffected by this, because the majority of guests don't decline housekeeping. I suspect that for guests that do decline housekeeping they'll try to have a housekeeper open the door and take a look around, so the housekeeper can check the box on her clipboard that says "Nope, no stacks of ammo on the table." It makes sense to have the housekeepers do the check, because a) they're a friendly, non-intimidating presence, and b) the resort is already staffed to have a housekeeper visit each room each day. To have security guards check each of the 30,000 rooms would require a mass hiring. My guess is that security will only become involved if housekeeping or maintenance sees something suspicious, or a guest is very resistant to allowing staff in the room, or is otherwise behaving in a way that arouses suspicion.

Is it reasonable to have concerns about this? Of course. It will be a concern and an inconvenience for those guests who usually decline housekeeping. My suggestion? Talk to guest services at the resort if you're worried. We all know that Disney will bend over backward to accommodate a guest's needs whenever possible. If you need to rest in your room during the day, tell them. If you're concerned about privacy, tell them. Give the staff the opportunity to help.

If you're worried someone will open the door while you're changing or showering or sleeping.....that's what that flip latch on the door is for. I've never been barged in on in a hotel room, because that latch is always closed if I'm in the room. If housekeeping or maintenance tries to open the door, I just say "Can you come back later, please?" Yes, I know that those latches can be opened by staff. I hardly think they're going to be forcing the door unless they think you're dying on the floor or are about to start shooting out the window.

All hotels struggle with the balance between providing security and providing a good guest experience. A lot of the assumptions I've seen here would create an environment so unpleasant for guests that no one would ever stay at a Disney resort again. I think there's very, very little chance that Disney will willingly put their own resorts out of business.

One of the best things I've seen written on this forum.

 

[Cindylieu]

One of the best things I've seen written on this forum.

Completely agree

 

[Allison]

One of the best things I've seen written on this forum.

Definitely.