Recent review

[jasondiff]

I just returned from a week at WDW. I had the Owner's Locker delivered to Pop Century for my check-in on Saturday Feb 24. I checked in about 10 am and wasn't sure if the Locker would be there yet, and we wanted to get to the parks ASAP, so I didn't ask at that time. Went back to get it about 9 pm. First I went to the Luggage Service window outside in front, told them there should be a big blue plastic box for me, but the CM didn't really know what I was talking about. He went and got his supervisor, who told me to check at the front desk. Thankfully the front desk wasn't busy at that time, so I went up to a CM and asked if there was a big blue plastic box with my name on it delivered earlier in the day. That CM looked at the computer and said nothing was noted there, then went in the back to check. She came back and told me to go ask at Luggage Service. I told her that they told me to come to the front desk, so she went in the back to ask someone else, who then came out with the Locker.

In a way I really expected all of this with Pop being a non-DVC resort, but I figured it would be good to test the system.

On Sunday I checked out of Pop and into Old Key West. I transported my Locker myself since I had a van. I could see how it might be a problem to transport it yourself if you have a smaller vehicle. Luckily Disney can do it for you if you are changing resorts.

We filled up the locker with all sorts of stuff: Laundry detergent, ponchos, light chasers, pins, lanyards, and a host of other things.

I checked out of OKW on Friday morning, and I used my vehicle to take the Locker up to the front of the resort and dropped it off with Bell Services. That CM knew what it was and said he would hold it for pickup.

A couple of observations/thoughts:

It would be nice if there was a notation in your reservation that something was delivered for you so that it could be retrieved easily at checkin and the checkin CM would know about it. It seems like this is how it is supposed to work, but in my case there was nothing noted at checkin, and I'm not sure if this was because I checked in before it was delivered. If it was there when I checked in, then Disney needs to be more diligent about noting things in the reservation. Actually I have had experiece with this aspect before where a delivery for me was supposed to be noted when I checked in and it wasn't, and this was at the Beach Club.

I stored about 5 ponchos in my locker. They had been used during the week, and were wet when I was packing up my locker. I made sure to carefully dry them, since I figured a wet poncho in the locker with no airflow won't dry well and probably will grow mold and smell. Wet ponchos might actually turn out to be a bigger problem that food, etc.since it's pretty sensible not to put food in your locker, but moist ponchos might be overlooked. I also folded mine and put each one into a quart ziploc bag, this way they took up much less room. Maybe the new locker design could incorporate small air vents in the sides to provide some airflow.

I think the zip-ties and lid design were relatively secure, but I could see the possibility, though unlikely,of Bell Services dropping the locker and it the zip-tie breaking. Also the plastic pouch containing the delivery name and resort wasn't secure; if the paper fell out it might be difficult for the luggage staff to find the Locker.

I loved the small plastic organizer inside. One suggestion would be to include several ziplocs as well (see poncho comment above!).

That's all I can think of at the moment, I will update if I think of anything else.

[Brian@Owner's Locker]

Hi Jason,

I am really sorry that you had to go through all of that to get your Locker. The really frustrating thing is that a message was notated on your reservation. I actually watched "Samantha" at the POP concierge desk put the message in. Wehave a GuestMessage Confirmation Sheet that we give tothe Front Desk/Concierge to make sure you are reminded that the Locker is there for you.The Message confirmation sheet simply has the name the reservation is in, the arrival resort, the check in date, and the message to put in the reservation "Your Blue Storage Bin is at Bell Services/Luggage Assistance". We were giving these sheets to Bell Services/Luggage Assistanceto give to the Front Desk. Some of our test members were not getting the message put into their reservation, so we have started hand delivering it to the front desk or concierge.In your case I was there when the message was inputted by the concierge. The Locker was actually delivered the evening before you arrived, so the Locker was there when you checked in.I really don't know why the CM did not see the message in the reservation. I do know that if you have several reservations at one resort they put the message in the first reservation, so I don't know if that was your case. If you ever have any problems in the future please feel free to call me on my cell (407) 739-1320. Everytime wedeliver a Locker we have some one at Bell Services or Luggage Assistancesign for it, so ifthey can't find it we can always refer back to the person that signed for it and track it if need be.

As far as the Luggage Service window. They are suppose to document on a clipboardthat they have in the room your name andwhat holding bin your item is in and it sounds like that did not happen either. POP is one of the resorts where Disney is outsourcing the Luggage Assistance, and they are still getting acclimated to everything, so that may have been the problem. Again, I am sorry you had to go through the firedrill that you did.

Moisture could definitely be a factor if someone left a wet poncho in the Locker. At first thought I liked your suggestion of the air vents in the side of the Locker, but then I remembered we have had a couple of our test members who have bad allergies and were concerned that another members perfume mightpermeate over to their Locker.It should not be a problem with the Locker that we have right now, butI am afraidthat the air vents would allow that to happen.Theaddition of Zip Locks is a good suggestion and one that I will talk to my partner John about.

Thankyou for yourobservation on the plastic sleeve that holds yourcheck in informationnot being secure.The adhesive that we were using was not to our liking and we have actually this past week found a sleeve that has adhesive on the entire backand is much more secure than what we were using.

Jason,we cannot thankyou enough for your observations and feedback. This is what the test is all about and every suggestion and observationwill help us to refine the service and make it even better as we go on.Please keep the feedback coming.

All the Best,

Brian

[jasondiff]

Hi Brian,

No need to apologize - as a beta-tester I expect little issues like this to come up. It really didn't take too long to track it down, since the front desk wasn't busy later at night. It might have taken longer when I checked in at 10 am because it was fairly busy then (I waited about 20 minutes to check in).

I originally thought to just have the locker delivered to OKW the next day, since I was only at Pop for one night, it was empty anyway, and I'd have to transport it to OKW. But I figured a test at Pop was more valuable to you since that's a resort that probably doesn't see a lot of Lockers.

I did in fact have two reservations at Pop with the same last name (one was my dad) so maybe they did put the note under the wrong reservation. I didn't think to ask about that, but when my dad checked in the CM didn't say anything about a note on his ressie either.

What I though was odd was that the locker was brought out from behind the front desk, not from the luggage service storage area. Why they had it back there I'm not sure.

One thing regarding wet ponchos, etc. you might want to do is have a label inside the lid with a little reminder about not storing any food or other perishable items or wet items. That way the members would be reminded just before they close it up.

If I think of anything else I'll let you know!

Jason