Obviously you of all people know about the problem with calling "the front desk". I would assume you had a different number to call, but you've said the front desk more than once. Do you think that you reached a call center at first, and that's why there were delays in hearing back or having anything done?
When we had our horrid mildew problem at SSR just before your stay, DH called the "front desk" despite my telling him that someone needed to GO to the front desk, but he did end up having a night manager call him back (who he met the next day in person), so he was ultimately talking to someone actually there in FL on property. But I know I wouldn't have been surprised to not hear back at all, since it's just too easy for balls to be dropped when getting word from a call center to the people there at the hotel.
I've actually lived in an apartment building under renovation that had a roach problem, and I learned that hair spray stops 'em nicely. Palmetto bugs, too, actually, which I learned when my mom lived in Miami. For whatever reason they don't bug me (ha) (though I do hairspray 'em to death). Something has to be actually venomous OR have 8 legs before it really freaks me out, but I get that others aren't as weird as I am!
And it just shows how different each individual stay is, that SSR was your saving grace, but SSR made me sick as a dog until we got to a new room, and then the computer problems nearly drove DH off a cliff.