Orange Lake Resort Gave us used tickets to Disney Kissimmee Florida

My husband and I received an advertisement in the mail for this resort approximately 14 months ago. The offer was for several days and nights in the resort since we are IHG members. The cost of the visit was greatly reduced in an effort to have us sit for a presentation of the timeshare property. For our time, we were promised 2 tickets to Disney. We booked the trip for that April 2013, for my daughter’s spring break. She was 16. Almost immediately following that booking, my daughter became very ill. Shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with a very rare brain disease that only affects about 10,000 people in the world.

She was hospitalized and the months that followed were life changing for our whole family. Close to time for our trip to Orange Lake, her team of doctors allowed her to go stay at the resort, but would not allow her to go to Disney because of the rides and the heat. They would be too much on her fragile body. We all set out on the long trip to Florida with her and her best friend. The resort was very nice, the people were friendly, the food was good. We went to the timeshare as promised and toured the lovely facility.

If it had not been for the mounting hospital bills and uncertainty about what her future looked like, we regretfully passed on purchasing a timeshare. At the end of our visit, we were given the 2 tickets to Disney. We explained that we wouldn’t be able to visit the park that trip because of her condition, but were hopeful for the next year. This year, 2014. We were promised that the tickets had no expiration and would be accepted upon our next visit. The year that followed was tumultuous, at best. Countless doctor visits, and life changing events were a result of her diagnosis, but she improved.

All along, all she wanted for this year was what we affectionately referred to as “Spring-Break Re-Do”. We booked another trip this year with her best friend in tow. Florida and most importantly, Disney-bound. With the girls now being 17, they wanted to visit the park together and didn’t mind if us – the parents – opted not to go with them. What a great day was planned, celebrating her feeling well now, and venturing out on her own with her best friend, to have a day to remember – her very first trip to Disney. I escorted her to the hotel shuttle (from our Holiday Inn Express on Polynesian Isle), and saw them off, with their 2 Disney tickets from the year before in-hand. Approximately 1 hour after they left.

I received a phone call from my daughter, crying so hysterically I could barely understand her. She was sobbing, absolutely broken-hearted. The tickets that Orange Lake gave us were USED! Used?! How could this be? How could these people do this? After everything we’ve been through, and now this?! To the person reading this letter, I don’t know who you are, or if you have children, or nieces or nephews, and I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced seeing the child you love suffering, but when that happens, there is nothing you want more than to see them enjoy life again.

This may seem outrageous to put so much into a trip to Disney – but this was a monumental week. One year since her diagnosis, one year since all the pain and hospitals, one year of overcoming obstacles most adults will never have to face. One year just to have a spring-break re-do. And now it’s not going to happen? As I tried to console her, promising her that I would drive there as fast as I could, a wonderful angel from Disney (Nathan, in guest-services) came to her aid. Seeing her obviously desperate situation, he stepped in. I was able to get him to talk to me on the phone as I am heading out to get her UNUSED tickets, and he promised to take care of her.

He said he was not going to let this ruin her day, and there was no reason for me to have to come there, he would let them in the park. Thank goodness for Nathan, but no thanks to Orange Lake for almost ruining our trip. Nathan told me that this happens all the time – timeshare properties giving out bad tickets, and never to trust tickets that aren’t purchased directly from the park. He was also able to confirm that the tickets given to us were used in October of 2012, 6 full months before we ever visited Orange Lake Resort.

We will never again stay in another Holiday Inn; we will never again be associated with any Holiday Inn property or IHG resort. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am, and how unprofessional this whole situation has been. Again to the person reading this, I hope you never have to go through misfortune like this. There is nothing worse than someone upsetting your child. Nothing worse than that. This will not be soon forgotten.