On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, Disney updated travel agents
with an announcement that refrigerators were being removed from resort
rooms. Rooms other than DVC villas,
suites, and the Cabins at Fort
Wilderness were going to
be affected. Simultaneously,
refrigerators were removed from resort room descriptions on-line. As of this writing, I am not aware of any
official press release from Disney regarding this matter.
The removal of the refrigerators is due to a fire started by
one at Disney Grand California Resort at Disneyland. Therefore, the same models are being removed
at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and the
Aulani Resort. Guests currently on-site
will not be affected as their refrigerators will remain until they check-out of
their resort.
Removal does not fully describe what is happening, it is
more of unplugging and informing guests via letter in the room as to what is
happening, and then replacing when new refrigerators become available which
could take months based on the information Disney gave travel agents.
Facebook and Disney message boards were hopping yesterday as
fans, guests, and prospective guests, like us, learned of the news. We were informed via our travel agent.
Disney did indicate the a limited number of portable
refrigerators were available for guests with medical needs, but could not
guarantee access.
Not having a refrigerator in our room is not life or death,
but is a matter of inconvenience. When I
received the news via email, I first phoned our travel agent to confirm. I asked if Disney was going to compensate
guests for this inconvenience. No information
was available. She suggested we take a
cooler—hmm. . . not a bad idea and we do have a collapsible Disney Cruise Line cooler,
which is going in our luggage.
My next call was to our resort. Yes, they were aware of the issue, which was
different than other’s experience when calling the Disney reservation
system. I was told that our room was
going to be affected. I explained that
we had already placed a grocery delivery order and that while the items could
be stored outside of a refrigerator, our juice and soda needed to be chilled
prior to consumption. I asked if the
resort would be providing ice chests or coolers to guests upon check-in. No answer.
I explained that one of the reasons we love Disney is that Disney
anticipates our needs even before we have them and would hope this issue would
be the same. I asked if the gift shop
would be selling inexpensive coolers.
Again, not sure. I asked if
guests would be compensated for the inconvenience, as well as paying for the
service upon making the reservation.
Again, no definitive answer. I
was told that a note was being made on our reservation.
So, prospective Walt Disney World guests traveling in the
next few months will experience this particular issue—some sooner than
others. Guests driving or renting a car
will most likely be stopping at the Hess station which will be inundated with
ice chest and ice purchases. I hope they
are well stocked. Guest relying on
Disney transportation will have to get creative with packing, like we are, or
hope that the resorts will have some sort of solution on hand. I just hope the ice machines at the resorts
are prepared to handle the volume. In
ten trips, we have never used the ice machines or ice buckets in the
rooms. With so many guests now relying
on various containers to use ice and chill drinks, food, or medicine,
housekeeping will certainly be affected, which I also shared with the resort
via phone. They didn’t disagree.
The husband knows I am just warming up on this issue, and
will inquire again upon check-in at the resort.
As one Disney fan put it on the message boards, this week’s Limited Time
Magic theme is “Raise the cost of my refillable mug and take away my resort
room fridge.” Hmmm. . .
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