Disney Cut Backs

[DeniseJH]

You know, I've always wondered...do they (housekeeping) wear the same gloves when they are cleaning the toilet, as they do when they are making the bed? I guess it depends on which they do first, and also, I try not to think about it too much!

 

[Disney Doll]

The thing that annoys me the most is paying for parking at the hotels.

 

[Just People]

You know, its been said before, but all this complaining means nothing if their bottom line does not get affected... But i'm still going to complain. Disney World has done plenty of greedy moves the last few years in their (so far successful) attempts to become the ultimate Overlord of entertainment. The biggest thing, beside constant price hiking, we hate the most now is how much advanced planning is required at Disney. It all became worst when we were forced to plan what ride we want to do 60 days out within an hour timeframe! Disney World is still entertaining once we are there, but really, we consider other options when planning our next vacation. Disney World is not our "Must-Do every year" experience.

 

[maxiesmom]

They do have shower gel as of my visit last week, but it was in a bulk dispenser mounted in the shower.

And that is always the problem with threads such as this. People start naming things as cutbacks that are not true. Disney still does offer toiletries in the bathroom, but they are putting in wall mounted dispensers. Osbourn lights are gone to make way for all of the expansion at that park, not to save money. A huge part of the Animal Kingdom is being close for a while. And then reopened.

And some of the ones are because of the way people act now. No towel animals I believe is because people didn't see them as a cute extra anymore, but something they could demand.

 

[lambdabeta]

And that is always the problem with threads such as this. People start naming things as cutbacks that are not true. Disney still does offer toiletries in the bathroom, but they are putting in wall mounted dispensers. Osbourn lights are gone to make way for all of the expansion at that park, not to save money. A huge part of the Animal Kingdom is being close for a while. And then reopened.

And some of the ones are because of the way people act now. No towel animals I believe is because people didn't see them as a cute extra anymore, but something they could demand.

No one said they weren't putting toiletries in the bathrooms. The OP stated he was listening to the Dreams Unlimited Travel Vlog(which is the sponsor of this board) and one of the contributors said Disney was eliminating shower gel. I didn't listen to the cast so I don't know what was actually said but I consider Dreams Unlimited a pretty reliable source. That being said, I know they have started putting shampoo, conditioner and possibly shower gel in dispensers in the showers. This IS a cost saving measure. As a cost saving measure this can be easily considered a cutback. There are whole threads about it on this and other hotel/resort boards.

BTW, people have reported getting towel animals recently...so they are not gone.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

No one said they weren't putting toiletries in the bathrooms. The OP stated he was listening to the Dreams Unlimited Travel Vlog(which is the sponsor of this board) and one of the contributors said Disney was eliminating shower gel. I didn't listen to the cast so I don't know what was actually said but I consider Dreams Unlimited a pretty reliable source. That being said, I know they have started putting shampoo, conditioner and possibly shower gel in dispensers in the showers. This IS a cost saving measure. As a cost saving measure this can be easily considered a cutback. There are whole threads about it on this and other hotel/resort boards.

BTW, people have reported getting towel animals recently...so they are not gone.

I don't consider it a cut back. You're still getting the Gel, conditioner and Shampoo you need. What it is cutting back on is a bunch of little plastic containers in the garbage which is a good thing. And 3/4 of em probably weren't completely empty. So it's cutting back on waste.

 

[SteveH]

I don't think ditching the Shampoo bottles is just a money savings, I've read that Marriott said it only saves about $2,000 per hotel to switch. But consider the real impact, the billions of partially used shampoo that get thrown away. This is a huge deal. If you are going to cut down on wasteful plastic for lids and straws this is a much better first step. While a few few chains like Marriott and SPG did start recycling of the left over shampoo and bottles, it's still highly wasteful. There is a bigger issue then just saving a couple grand per hotel, maybe Disney is being smart like other hotels and making this change for the right reasons.

I am not a tree hugging greenie by any means but this is a smart move IMHO>

 

[Shanti]

I don't think ditching the Shampoo bottles is just a money savings, I've read that Marriott said it only saves about $2,000 per hotel to switch. But consider the real impact, the billions of partially used shampoo that get thrown away. This is a huge deal. If you are going to cut down on wasteful plastic for lids and straws this is a much better first step. While a few few chains like Marriott and SPG did start recycling of the left over shampoo and bottles, it's still highly wasteful. There is a bigger issue then just saving a couple grand per hotel, maybe Disney is being smart like other hotels and making this change for the right reasons.

I am not a tree hugging greenie by any means but this is a smart move IMHO>

Many guests are just going to bring their own toiletries in little bottles in response, because they don't want to share communal toiletries, so it isn't saving the environment anything. It just saves Disney money.

We always take the unused portion of our mini-toiletries home and finish using them on other trips (or sometimes, in a pinch, at home) so nothing is wasted with us.

This is undoubtedly a cost-cutting move by WDW. If it cost more to have the pumps than the mini-bottles, there's no way they would switch.

 

[SteveH]

Many guests are just going to bring their own toiletries ...

We takes ours too, which I think is smart and environmentally smart too. While it's great that a few people do that, remember there are billions of those that go into the landfill every year. BILLIONS!

I don't see that saving $2,000/hotel is really worth enough to make the change just for that reason.

 

[Shanti]

I don't see that saving $2,000/hotel is really worth enough to make the change just for that reason.

Where exactly are you getting that number? You quoted Marriott, but $2,000 per hotel for how long a period of time? What it costs one hotel brand isn't necessarily what it would cost Disney. We stayed at an expensive Marriott hotel recently and there were only a few mini-toiletries and they were tiny & yucky. Disney gives out a ton of different mini-toiletries with a deluxe resort stay, they're very nice H2O products, and a much bigger size than you'll get at Marriott. So the savings would be entirely different, especially considering the much higher occupancy rate of Disney resorts.

 

[MicroBeta]

Marriott states will save they will save $1000-$2000 per hotel annually. Let's assume an average of $1500.00/year. Marriott states they have 5700 hotels. That would equate to ≈$8.6 million per year.

Millions of dollars each year seems like a pretty big savings if you ask me.

Further, if it were just an environmental issue wouldn't they do it across all the resorts...although, I expect it will eventually be resort wide.

My 2¢ FWIW.

Mike

 

[SteveH]

Where exactly are you getting that number? You quoted Marriott, but $2,000 per hotel for how long a period of time?

The story came out originally in the WSJ back in May, and had since been picked by numerous other outlets.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-those-tiny-shampoo-bottles-1525180702

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...g/news-story/15598d3a70e012be8d16be0da57936e6

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/hotels-getting-rid-of-tiny-shampoo-bottles

 

[manning]

No one said they weren't putting toiletries in the bathrooms. The OP stated he was listening to the Dreams Unlimited Travel Vlog(which is the sponsor of this board) and one of the contributors said Disney was eliminating shower gel. I didn't listen to the cast so I don't know what was actually said but I consider Dreams Unlimited a pretty reliable source. That being said, I know they have started putting shampoo, conditioner and possibly shower gel in dispensers in the showers. This IS a cost saving measure. As a cost saving measure this can be easily considered a cutback. There are whole threads about it on this and other hotel/resort boards.

BTW, people have reported getting towel animals recently...so they are not gone.

Darn now I can't take them home to give it to organizations who give it out to needy.

 

[lambdabeta]

The story came out originally in the WSJ back in May, and had since been picked by numerous other outlets.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-those-tiny-shampoo-bottles-1525180702

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...g/news-story/15598d3a70e012be8d16be0da57936e6

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/hotels-getting-rid-of-tiny-shampoo-bottles

I read the article. Of note, Marriott is rolling this out to 1500 of it's hotels. That is a savings of $3 million dollars a year. They can say what they want but it is still saving them money. I also noticed that both hotel groups, Marriott and IHG are mostly rolling this out to their lower end brands. The other two hotel groups based on customer feedback and marketing decided not to do this and continue to use the small bottles. They also mention how Wyndham(one of the hotels keeping the bottles) send the left over soap to a charity called Clean the World for recycling.

When it comes to for profit companies, I don't just believe what their marketing people put out. They can spin anything to make it look like it is the best thing on the planet and they are doing it for the guest experience. If it saves them money that is usually the biggest motivator. I agree with Shanti if it cost more to go to the larger bottles but saved the environment I doubt they would be changing anything.

 

[luvsJack]

Personally I don’t care about the toiletries, always take my own anyway. That shampoo is killer on my dry hair.

I do care about cuts in entertainment, CMs, and things that affect the guest experience like cleanliness, useless long waits at attractions, etc.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

I'm trying to find it on youtube, but don't have a lot of time right now. It shows the maid blowing her nose in a hand towel, then wiping the drinking glass for the bathroom and the mirror with that towel (can't remember if she wiped anything else with it). It's definitely the Contemporary, as you can tell by the room decor. I realize it was random, but it just grossed me out so much, I avoid maid service whenever I can.

Disgusting.

 

[dhardawa]

Oh boy, I have some thoughts on this topic! I just got back a week or so ago. It was the first time I’d been to WDW in six years and I certainly noticed a difference. While we had several “pixie dust” moments from cast members (probably as a result of having a young child with us), I felt the “structural” aspect of Disney service had declined since we were last there.

One of the most noticeable areas where service was lacking was housekeeping. (This was at AKL.) As soon as we checked in to our room, my husband commented that he thought the room might not have been used in a while because there was a layer of dust on the entertainment center so thick you could draw in it. Then our room went TEN days before the sheets were changed on the bed. I realized they were remaking the bed without changing the sheets because of a dirt stain that ended up smack dab in the middle of the bed from my toddler’s shoe on one of our first mornings there. I don’t want to give the impression that it was a huge streak of mud or anything, but an inch or two long and visable enough that anyone making the bed should have noticed it. I will shoulder some of the blame for the sheets not getting changed in that time — On day 3, we returned to our room for a midday break at 3:30pm and housekeeping had not yet cleaned it, so we declined service for that day. Likewise, we declined service on days 8 and 9 when we were all laid up sick with fevers. But seriously, what about the other week’s worth of days that they serviced our room and didn’t bother to change the sheets? (Sheets that we’re becoming visibly dirtier by the day, mind you, thanks to the aforementioned toddler and his knack for grinding crumbs into every surface he touches.) Beyond the issue of the sheets, the housekeeping just seemed subpar. I got the impression they were emptying the trash, replacing the towels, and remaking the bed but doing nothing beyond that in terms of actual cleaning. I know that room was never once vacuumed during the 15 days we were there. (Again, toddler and crumbs.) This was the first time, out of all the hotels I’ve ever stayed in domestically or abroad, that I’ve ever noticed the housekeeping as being substandard.

The room checks? Ugh. I’m not going to go into the details in this already lengthy post but holy cow, they were so much more disruptive than I had imagined they could be prior to experiencing them. They don’t just knock softly and then leave to check back a couple hours later if you don’t answer — they hound you by phone and in person until you open that door. When you answer the phone and tell them “come now, get it over with,” then of course it takes another 15-30 minutes for them to actually show up. This was all hugely inconvenient in our sick-and-sleeping baby/sick-and-wanting-to-sleep parents circumstances.

I came away from this trip more disenchanted than I ever have before. Disney has never been a budget vacation and I’ve always been okay with that. I understand resort pricing is inflated and I’m typically willing to shell out for things that fall under the umbrella of travel/life experiences/family memories. But the rising prices combined with the declining service brought me to a point of feeling like I can’t even justify it anymore. When you’re staying in one of their “deluxe” hotels and you realize you can hear the guest in the next room peeing and flushing (not an exaggeration), you start to think, “Maybe this room isn’t worth $500 a night.”



Wow, now I feel dumb. I actually asked a CM what time the nighttime parade started. I didn’t realize they had done away with it. I guess I didn’t bother to look into that detail in my trip planning because, you know, Magic Kingdom has done a nighttime parade longer than I’ve been alive.

I had similar issues with housekeeping. We were there 7 nights and our room was only cleaned three times (once being on checkin). The trash was overflowing and we were going to the pool for towels. We were in the parks all day and would come back to find our room not touched.

 

[SteveH]

I read the article. Of note, Marriott is rolling this out to 1500 of it's hotels. That is a savings of $3 million dollars a year.

Keep in mind that these are all the Marriott brands, but Marriott does not own all of the hotels many are a type of "franchised" hotels. So the savings across the whole chain are large, but Disney only owns like 25 at WDW so is the roughly $50,000 savings, using the same math that Marriott used, which might be low since I think Disney hotels probably have a higher occupancy rate, so double it for fun. Is that enough to drive this change? I think there needs to me a larger reason then that type of savings.

Both SPG & Marriott (now they are all Marriott have done the Clean the World too, but with the new change to the how China is refusing plastics I wonder how this will impact shampoo bottles.

 

[lambdabeta]

Keep in mind that these are all the Marriott brands, but Marriott does not own all of the hotels many are a type of "franchised" hotels. So the savings across the whole chain are large, but Disney only owns like 25 at WDW so is the roughly $50,000 savings, using the same math that Marriott used, which might be low since I think Disney hotels probably have a higher occupancy rate, so double it for fun. Is that enough to drive this change? I think there needs to me a larger reason then that type of savings.

Both SPG & Marriott (now they are all Marriott have done the Clean the World too, but with the new change to the how China is refusing plastics I wonder how this will impact shampoo bottles.

I disagree. We have no way of knowing the real reason behind this. All I know is there will be a savings. I don't know how much. You can't assume the Marriott numbers will exactly translate to Disney. But definitely a savings on the part of Disney or they wouldn't be doing it at all. It is a business and businesses like this are motivated by profits. Besides they don't seem to be rolling this out in all their resorts right now. They don't have to wait for remodels to install a dispenser in all of the showers. So just something to think about. If it is purely for recycling purposes wouldn't you be installing them everywhere now and not waiting? Trust me big companies care more about the bottom line than the environment. Disney included.

 

[jerseygal]

Many guests are just going to bring their own toiletries in little bottles in response, because they don't want to share communal toiletries, so it isn't saving the environment anything. It just saves Disney money.

We always take the unused portion of our mini-toiletries home and finish using them on other trips (or sometimes, in a pinch, at home) so nothing is wasted with us.

This is undoubtedly a cost-cutting move by WDW. If it cost more to have the pumps than the mini-bottles, there's no way they would switch.

Personally I like the large pumped bottles, ditch those little bottles that sometimes you get just 1 or two and with a family you have to use it so darn sparingly, think it makes good economic and environmental sense.