Milesmom,
Sorry you didn't enjoy your stay at PBH, your visit certainly seems a very long way away from my own recent stay.
To address your "complaints"
I can't comment on how helpful (or not) housekeeping were to you, my own experience was they were very prompt. Inadiquate CMs can happen anywhere in the world and at any standard hotel. I hope you raised the issue with their management. It shouldn't happen anywhere, but occassionally happens everywhere. In your situation, I'd have give housekeeping a couple of goes to sort it out, then I'd have marched down to check in (blankie in hand) and made a loud fuss until it got sorted out. The stain would also have been a topic of discussion had I felt it required dealing with. I try to deal with these situations by being polite but firm, I won't be ignored for very long and it's rare I'm ignored twice by the same person
.
The walk to the pool. Well it's a spread out hotel, as has been commented upon if you visit Y+B, CSR, OKW, AKL all are great hotels but you face a long walk to the main pool at all of them. It may be factually correct, but for anyone that reads the information on the hotel, it's an obvious possibility.
The cost of food at PBH I must take issue with, granted the top restaurant there is a little pricey ( as is V+A, Yachtman's and any other number of Disney restaurants) but there are a number of other options ( I believe a total of 8 options). We ate at the excellent Italian buffet at La Trattoria which was less than $20 per person for a very good quality and filling meal. The Pizzeria was no more expensive than similar offerings at Disney and the coffee shop served snacks and pastries at a reasonable cost. The OP may have had an expensive meal if they went to the top restaurant in the resort, but IMHO the critisism is unfair as anyone who looks through the information offered by the hotel ( in a booklet in your room) can check for a restaurant they can afford. Here's a link to the restaurant page on their website
http://themeparks.universalstudios.com/orlando/website/resort_hotels/por_amenities_page2.html . When combined with all that's available a short walk away at Citywalk, I think the comment is incorrect.
Transportation, again if you read the blurb in your room it tells you the hotel offers transportation by boat, bus and walking path and gives you the location of path and pick up points. Perhaps the OP missunderstood the CM (perhaps the CM assumed you knew there was a bus). If the boat ( the prefered method of most guests) was out of action there would be a lot of people waiting for the bus, perhaps the CM said (or meant) that if you had a car that was going to be the quickest and easiest way to get to the park.
Perhaps this is a little bit of a lesson to people, when you check into a hotel, particularly a relatively expensive one, it can be a huge benefit to you to read the information they give to you so you have a reasonable idea of what the hotel offers. Obviously doing some research before you go is always a good idea as well. I appreciate all views and comments good or bad about experiences, but I do think that the OP is at times unreasonable in their comments and at times their lack of (easily obtainable) knowledge contributed to their experience.
It's easy to blame the hotel staff when they are lazy, ignorant or unhelpful, but IMHO we have to take responsibility if we, as guests, fail to make the best of an experience due to our own laziness or ignorance. JMHO
