Glad to Leave Caribbean Beach

We had never before been happy to be leaving Walt Disney World, but that was not the case this time. We all felt that perhaps the "magic" was finally gone and we doubted if we would ever return. The new FastPass+ system means having to schedule your vacation 60 days in advance because there are no FastPass slots available if you try to book them once you get to the park. And forget about changing plans, because you can't have an FP in more than one park, and can't book another until you've used all three pre-booked. This isn't a vacation at all -- it's like scheduling meetings at work. Every restaurant we went to had signs or CMs saying they were not accepting walk-ups, which means if you hadn't booked dining months earlier, you were out of luck.

Even worse, though, was the lousy level of service. All of the bus drivers were surly and we overheard several arguments between guests and bus drivers. The servers at the restaurants know they are getting their automatic 18% gratuity so they see no reason to provide anything more than a basic level of service. And then there is the Motel 6 of Disney resorts, the Caribbean Beach. Perhaps because this resort is under construction, Disney has placed its worst employees there. After our housekeeping debacle with the bed, we later discovered leftover underwear and cosmetics behind one of the drawers, a sign the room had not been cleaned properly in awhile. We had issues with the Magic Bands not working on the doors, including one night where the light simply didn't work and you had to listen to hear the door unlock. The Coke Freestyle machine was broken on three separate occasions.

The front desk either didn't care, didn't listen, didn't know, or outright lied to us. We called to find out where to pick up a package we had sent from Disney Springs and were told to go to Custom House. Janie called back later that same night to get hours and was told pickup was actually at concierge in Trinidad North. The final straw was our check-out. We had called the day previous to get a van to take us to the Custom House to make a 5:15 ME to the airport. The person on the phone at Bell Services said someone would meet us at our room at 4:40 AM. When 4:45 rolled around and no one appeared, J. R. called the front desk and was put on hold and decided to go to the parking lot to see if the van was loading other guests. He got there in time to see the van pulling away. He called the main number from his cellphone and got a rude agent who said they would sent the van back out but also said we were supposed to be waiting in the parking lot. The people manning the airline check-in were obviously TSA-trained as they were as rude as possible and showed no interest in their jobs. We were happy to be on our way to the airport and will be spending our next Orlando visit across town at the Royal Pacific and Universal Studios.