🚀 go-pugleaf

I need your help.



I don't know quite how to go about this but here goes anyway....

Last January I took my family (wife and 2 kids, ages 2.5 and 4.5) to Orlando 
to visit DisneyWorld.  We booked a package through a local travel agent which 
included airfare and hotel....

The accomodation was at the Holiday Inn Sunspreee Resort near Disney World. 
An otherwise stellar resort with wonderful wonderful staff.... Here's the 
problem....

The Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort was UNDER RENOVATION.  Major renovation to 
the rooms was taking place.  There was a small amount of dust and debris 
around...our main problem was that they were hammering, taking down walls in 
the rooms, and drilling the concrete walls, floors, etc. The end result was 
that we could not enjoy our accomodations....the kids were not able to take 
their regular afternoon naps and were (if you have kids you will know what I 
mean) somewhat cranky....unable to "last the day", etc.  Our whole schedule 
was screwed up. And while I will not say that our vacation was totally messed 
up, I will say that what we paid for and what we got were totally different. 
 We paid for and expected an enjoyable vacation. We got something less. But 
the key here is that we WERE NEVER TOLD ABOUT THE RENOVATIONS BEFORE WE 
ARRIVED....Had we been told at least we would have had the opportunity to 
decide if we wanted to put up with the inconvenience....as it happened, we 
were forced to put up with it.

If this was all that we had to complain about, we probably would have let the 
whole matter "slide" as we are really not whiners....having neither the time 
nor the energy to do so....BUT...

On our third or fourth day at the Holiday Inn Sunspree, my wife had our two 
children in the childrens' wading pool at the Hotel.  About ten minutes into 
their visit to the pool my daughter started to scream hysterically and came 
out of the pool, her foot bleeding profusely.  As there was no help 
forthcoming at the pool, my wife wrapped my daughter's foot in a towel and 
brought her up to the room.  I examined her foot and the bottom of her big 
toe (the "pad") had been sliced off neatly. As my wife tried to calm her down 
I grabbed our own first aid kit and dressed her wound, which by this time was 
not bleeding quite as bad.

I then called the front desk to advise them what had happened and to suggest 
that they might want to get everyone else out of the pool. About five or so 
minutes later a burly security guard appeared at our door and demanded to 
know "what was wrong". I showed him my daughter's foot, the bandage now being 
soaked in blood. He immediately called down and had the pool cleared. We 
examined my daughter's toe again and by this time it had pretty much stopped 
bleeding (down to a trickle). We decided that the trauma of a visit to the 
local hospital would have been more damaging than beneficial and declined 
further medical attention. The guard, acknowledging the blood-soaked 
bandage,declined to view the wound and left to see that the pool was cleared 
and drained.

The staff, having drained and swept the pool, later advised us that NOTHING 
was found in the pool at all. (No glass, not even a hairpin?) They further 
declined to give us a copy of their written "incident report".

I wrote the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort a letter of complaint on my return to 
Toronto, advising them that we were not at all happy with our vacation, etc., 
etc. and they have offered us a 50% discount on our next visit off their 
"rack rate" which essentially means that they are offering us nothing for our 
trouble, as we can get the same deal in any package tour.

I have promised my wife and children to replace the "lost" vacation to them 
this year. We attempted to return to DisneyWorld during our stay at the 
Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort with the kids a couple of times (at $100 a visit) 
but my daughter could not tolerate more than an hour in the park due to her 
foot, so we even lost that. I was heartbroken for my kids.

Now, I am not a charity case, but I am damn ANGRY. And I guess what I am 
looking for now is some advice from my Florida cousins as to what the legal 
situation is in that state.....I am looking to speak with an attorney and get 
this situation made right. Not looking for a million bux....far from 
it....just want the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort to make good on their screwed 
up customer relations. Up to this point, had they offered to let us stay for 
the same 10 days that we "lost" I would have said "great...thanks a 
million...you're wonderful people". And I would have covered all the other 
costs of that stay myself, including the airfare, etc. But they have been 
realy pigheaded about the whole thing, perhaps for fear that we were looking 
for a million bux in compensation.....so here I am. Pissed off and really 
wanting to ensure that they make things "right". And if I don't do it...then 
the next family that goes throught the same BS as we did will not even get a 
"how do you do" from them either.

Needless to say, I have cut the disertation here down to a bare minimum. In 
actual fact, I have written their manager several times and have generally 
got a runaround. Nobody knows a thing. Nothing is their fault. We must be 
nuts. Etc.

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how we should handle this would be most 
appreciated. At this point, I am actually thinking about hiring an attorney 
and letting the courts decide if their actions were right or wrong...or if 
I'm just a miserable whiner.

Friends, your comments and suggestions would be most appreciated.

Please reply by email to lampert@io.org

And thanks for listening. I feel much better for it.

Murray Lampert
Toronto Canada

Phone: (416) 347-8746
Fax: (905) 508-4148
email: lampert@io.org