New charge for Bell Service Delivery

[chaoskids]

Saw a Facebook post by Dizzy Dolphin that Disney will now be charging $6 for bell services to deliver groceries to your room. FYI

 

[DLgal]

They should charge for that, IMO. It's a service above and beyond standard luggage service.

 

[s.r.disney nut]

If I have to pay for Bell Services to deliver my groceries, I'm not so sure they'll be getting a tip. That's ridiculous.

 

[s.r.disney nut]

They should charge for that, IMO. It's a service above and beyond standard luggage service.

How is it a service above and beyond standard luggage service?

 

[cedricandsophie]

How is it a service above and beyond standard luggage service?

I think it makes sense because it’s not luggage.

 

[piccolopat]

If I have to pay for Bell Services to deliver my groceries, I'm not so sure they'll be getting a tip. That's ridiculous.

Why would you deny the porter a tip just because you don't like the hotel's charge to deliver your groceries?

 

[piccolopat]

How is it a service above and beyond standard luggage service?

Groceries are not luggage and certainly not something most guests ask bell service to handle for them.

 

[s.r.disney nut]

Groceries are not luggage and certainly not something most guests ask bell service to handle for them.

I think more people than you realize use grocery delivery services at Disney.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

If I have to pay for Bell Services to deliver my groceries, I'm not so sure they'll be getting a tip. That's ridiculous.

.

If this is true and DD has correct information, $5 goes to Disney and $1 to the CM delivering the groceries. Not tipping in addition seems a little unfair to the person who has the least control over this situation.

How is it a service above and beyond standard luggage service?

Nowhere else have I ever been able to have groceries delivered, kept refrigerated/ frozen, and delivered to my room without me having to pick them up and cart them there myself. Some of these grocery deliveries could feed a small country for a month! Cases of water are large and heavy. Refrigerator/ freezer space doesn’t come out of nowhere.

The process is very time-consuming for the CMs as well. Alcohol deliveries from some services require the CM at Bell services to locate and wait for the guest (not all of them, not always but it is amazon’s and Instacart’s policy and they do enforce it as they choose). They get phone calls asking if the groceries have arrived, then they get calls asking for delivery. This doesn’t happen on this scale with luggage.

We like having grocery deliveries and I’ll pay $6 considering even with the added fee I’m still coming out well ahead of what breakfast and snacks would cost me on property.

 

[piccolopat]

I think more people than you realize use grocery delivery services at Disney.

In all of my years of going to WDW (since 1976), I haven't seen bell services handle one delivery of anything but what was obviously luggage. Most rooms only have a small refrigerator and not much storage for other foodstuff. Now if you are talking about DVC where units have kitchens, that might be more common. I thought DVC check in was in a separate area from regular hotel guests and that might explain why I haven't seen groceries handled.

 

[DLgal]

How is it a service above and beyond standard luggage service?

Are you serious?

 

[Hopefully]

If I have to pay for Bell Services to deliver my groceries, I'm not so sure they'll be getting a tip. That's ridiculous.

IMOit is NOT ridiculous.
Denying the Bell Services staff member a tip is ridiculous.

 

[jo-jo]

I wonder why the breakdown of $5 for disney and $1 for CM? Were CMs not getting any tips before?

I would have thought disney would have kept the whole fee. I'm sure this has to do with the sheer number of people getting grocery delivered.

If we did our usual 2 cases of water, 4 cases of soda, milk, juice and assorted stuff that added up to 6 bags of groceries, I wouldn't mind. If I ordered four things from amazon prime now, I'd be sure to pick it up my self.

 

[vacationer1954]

A fine restaurant in town has a wine list, but heck the prices are pretty high and they don't have the specific wine we like. Do we bring our own? Practically no one thinks twice if the restaurant charges a corkage fee, and practically no one would reduce the server's gratuity by the amount of the corkage fee.

Disney offers room service, restaurants, counter service eateries and even their own grocery delivery to villas and suites, but heck the prices are pretty high and they don't necessarily have the specific items that some people like. Yet, some people think that Disney charging a fee for bringing your own food warrants reducing or eliminating some other cost that the guest would otherwise incur.

Like many other things, the root cause of the conflict is that never-ending battle between Disney and its guests, with Disney working to do what it is supposed to do - earn full value for its investors - and guests doing what they're supposed to do - pay as little as they legitimately can for what they want - and Disney's employees caught in the middle. And the problem is made worse because Disney is expected to do things in a way that makes the guests feel like they are always right even when they are not. It is the image that Disney tries to project that confuses things. Take that out of the equation and the situation would be clearer.

Yes, it grates on guests to have to pay a fee for a service that used to be included and then put a tip on top of that. Yes, the bell staff has no choice about the fee or what work they're assigned. Yes, the bell staff's arrangement with their employer isn't the guests' problem. All three things are true. So where is the weak side of the three-part argument? It is in the lap of the guests, because a guest's upset about the way a service is offered should lead that guest to decide to do without, not make a third party pay for their upset.

Our choice is going to be to do without outside grocery delivery. It was an advantage that Disney let us take for a while and now they've made it barely worth the bother. Mission accomplished. If that means we have to downgrade from full-service to counter service for a meal or two each trip to make up for the added costs, we'll do that.

 

[Best Aunt]

In all of my years of going to WDW (since 1976), I haven't seen bell services handle one delivery of anything but what was obviously luggage. Most rooms only have a small refrigerator and not much storage for other foodstuff. Now if you are talking about DVC where units have kitchens, that might be more common. I thought DVC check in was in a separate area from regular hotel guests and that might explain why I haven't seen groceries handled.

Kinda have to say I disagree with this post.

I have stayed in DVC rooms at Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo House), Copper Creek Villas (Wilderness Lodge), Beach Club and BoardWalk. I checked in at the same front desk as people staying in regular hotel rooms (except for those times I did online check-in and was able to go straight to my room).

There is one Bell Services area for both DVC rooms and regular hotel rooms.

I have never personally seen groceries delivered to a Disney resort. I have never seen a grocery delivery van pull up, seen groceries removed from the van, seen groceries taken back to the Bell Services area. That doesn't mean that groceries are not delivered. In fact, I have had groceries delivered more than once - I have just never seen them arrive.

 

[Starwind]

By charging a specific service fee for the DELIVERY of the groceries [but not for just receiving them, which is what they do with packages], I think many guests are going to feel they have paid for exactly that service - the delivery of the groceries order to their room - and therefore there is no need to tip unless there is some kind of genuinely exceptional service on the part of the Bell Services delivery person [which isn't likely]: if they are just "doing their job" and delivering the groceries to the room, then the service is paid for through that delivery service fee charged by Disney, no tip needed. [ And if there is a tip, then what, 15-20% of the service fee ? so about a $1 ? Even with the supposed $1 from the $6 fee going to Bell Services, that is $2 which is still much less than what they previously likely would have gotten in tips for the same delivery, even if not everyone tipped ]

SW

 

[KenHutch]

Now I use Grocery delivery for one thing. Because of Disney's choice of soda (Coke) I have 2 cases of Diet Pepsi delivered. In the past I lways tipped them $10-$20 dollars for their trouble. If I am charged $6 for delivery they are getting paid for this and right or wrong I will drop my tip to $5-$10 dollars. Under the guise of money for stockholders Disney has just found another way to nickel and dime me. Should this bother me? Maybe not but after spending anywhere from $12K to $26K for a 2 week vacation I do get annoyed by everywhere I look Disney has its hand out.

 

[jo-jo]

Do you think people will now think the tip is included in the fee?

 

[Starwind]

I have never personally seen groceries delivered to a Disney resort. I have never seen a grocery delivery van pull up, seen groceries removed from the van, seen groceries taken back to the Bell Services area. That doesn't mean that groceries are not delivered. In fact, I have had groceries delivered more than once - I have just never seen them arrive.

I have only seen groceries actually delivered to resorts through the pictures the Dizzy Dolphin grocery delivery service posts to their FB page of their service's deliveries. Which are actually rather fascinating.

That said, I have tried to coordinate being present to receive Amazon Prime Now deliveries a few times [having left the comment for them to call so I can meet them etc] but always missed them - instead they delivered to Bell Services and I received the message from the app that my order was delivered. This is with me waiting outside the lobby doors, with the app in my hand tracking the delivery. No idea where exactly they went, it was like magic ! I didn't see them, and I was looking, but the orders were delivered ! This happened more than once at two different resorts. Our final order I gave up and didn't even try to meet with them, just let them deliver it, then I went to Bell Services to pick it up.

I did manage [by luck not design, we were headed out of the building at the time] watch my Turner Drugs order get delivered to the front desk. It was a small bag of OTC meds. They came in the front door, headed straight to a specific corner of the front desk area, and filled out what appeared from the distance to be some kind of log and then the package was placed in a specific location. I then got in line at the front desk and got my package a couple minutes later.

SW

 

[Starwind]

Do you think people will now think the tip is included in the fee?

Absolutely.

It is a specific delivery service fee.

Unlike the fee to receive packages shipped to the resort, which is a fee to simply receive each package, the grocery fee is a fee to deliver your grocery order to your room. I think many people will consider that that fee covers any obligation they have to pay for the delivery of the groceries to the room, including tips, and that no tip is needed unless there is genuine extraordinary service, which isn't likely to happen [not because they arent good employees, but because - what exactly would extraordinary service even BE when delivering groceries ?].

SW