WWYD: Screaming kid on the other side of the wall of your hotel room

[robinb]

So.. last year at YC this happened to me. My friends came with and were embarrassed by the pool when their one year old had a tantrum. Well, good God Almighty the heavens unleashed on us on day two of our trip. My two year old reached her breaking point before I saw it coming. The sky’s blackened and demons possessed my child. I literally had her over my back walking 20 miles back to our room. She was screaming as if she were kidnapped. I became alarmed that no one questioned me as I drug her back to our room. I still don’t know how no one called security on us. I literally wanted to cry in our room knowing how much money our neighbors spent and having my child screaming next to them.

The same thing happened to me when my DD was a little older. She threw a fit to end all fits at DHS and I hauled her little butt out of the park and back to our resort screaming the whole way. She continued to scream for over an hour back in the room. I felt bad for the people next to us even though it was in the middle of the day, but frankly I had my hands full with a child who was inconsolable.

I try to expend grace to parents who are going through something like that. Even though it appears that they are not doing anything, I remember being in their place where everything I tried failed and the only thing I could do is let her cry it out.

 

[SimonSez]

Another time we were staying at the CBR, and the people next door kept pounding on the walls and howling. The next morning there were liquor bottles outside their room. Either it was a great party or we had a family of werewolves next to us It was miserable at the time, but now we look back and laugh

 

[sophy1996]

At Pop once, I actually did knock on the next room's door when their kids were yelling and jumping off the beds, etc. at about 11:00 at night. I just let the father know that I could hear everything, given the connecting door. Dead silence after that.

If it had been temper tantrum/inconsolable type noise, I probably wouldn't have. But it was more, we're on vacation!, we're having such a great time!, no, we're not going to bed! type noise. And the parents had made some effort to get them to quiet down. Having a stranger knock on the door and remark on it appeared to shock the kids.

Looking back, though, I probably was lucky that the parents were cooperative and not belligerent.

It has never occurred to me that walls are so thin that you could hear a baby crying that loudly in your room that it would disrupt your sleep when they are in a completely separate hotel room. If I was the person with the crying kid I wouldn’t even think that it would disturb my neighbors. To me it’s like living in an apartment.

You can hear even ordinary conversation in Pop rooms that have connecting doors.

 

[a1tinkfans]

That’s just awful… as are the screaming kids and Loud adults that come down the hallways at 11pm or later and have No Regard for other guests and they meander to their Guest Rooms. Simply Self Important, Rude People imho.
I thought you were going to say at a value resort, where I think the walls are wafer thin, lol and imho tend to have more larger groups and younger families. That was a once and done for us. We heard Everything and it was not pleasant. Not worth coming into Disney a nite early for a fresh morning start, it was Anything but that.
I too would have called the front desk and just asked for assistance. Perhaps that little ring on their phone or knock on the door would “ alert” the Adult/s present that while it’s acceptable to have the behavior at their own home, it’s not really kind at a hotel.. any hotel.
thankfully, it doesn’t happen too often.

 

[Miffy]

If the walls at other WDW resorts are paper-thin, then the walls at the All Stars are air-thin. I spent 5 of the absolutely worst nights I've ever spent at WDW at All Star Music, hearing every word the couple next door said to each other, all their "activities," and their often-screaming baby.

I had about 2 hours' sleep, max, on any of those 5 nights. It never occurred to me to ask to change rooms or resorts. One of the reasons I didn't have this brilliant idea is that I was so tired, logical thought was inaccessible to me.

I've lived in apartments my entire adult life. The level of sound I experienced during this stay was nothing like anything I've ever experienced in any apartment where I've lived.

OP, you said something like you wouldn't go to the front desk. I'm not sure why you wouldn't, but it's not like your asking to have your room or resort changed is any reflection on your neighboring guests. I mean, Disney wouldn't throw them out--they'd try to accommodate you if they could. And your neighbors would never know that you said anything.

I gather you were in a room with a connecting door. The hotel could at the very least try to move you to a room without one. Unless something amazing was happening and WDW comped you the room, you're paying for it. Why shouldn't you try to see if there's something they could do?

 

[wdw4rfam]

I feel like every time we are at the POLY we have a demon child next to us. Who lets their kid scream like that and just ignores that there are people next to you??? Our neighbors kid took it one step further, he was throwing at fit and screaming at 6 am outside on the balcony and throwing stuff off. Like seriously, pillows, clothes, etc. My husband is like good, hope it takes those parents forever to recover all those items. How do you not notice that??? We heard them arguing about him eating cereal so we know they were in the room.

 

[SimonSez]

He tried to wake his kids up from outside the room by pounding on the door?
As much as I can be a PITA when it comes to being prompt (I create the itinerary/ADRs, etc) I have never even considered that. Not only annoying for the rest of the hotel floor this cannot be effective in getting your kids to wake up.
Dump cold water on them or something.

Yes he actually yelled and pounded on the door from the hallway. They were probably trying to lock him out

 

[dez1978]

If it was March 2020 at the Poly sorry about that. .my kid was possessed being overtired most nights.
I guess all you can do is empathize with the parents as I am sure they are also wanting some sleep. It is definitely, in my eyes, the nature of the Disney beast.

I agree. Its just part of it. Kids and adults both get overtired and cranky. But man, overtired kids are the worst. Mine are 7 & 10 now and still when they are over tired they get wired and have a ridiculous amount of cranky energy.

Unacceptable. Had children. Never would have allowed my children at ANY age to disrupt someone else. Would have literally taken the kid/baby, whatever… outside no matter what time it was til they calmed down.

This always kills me. Your children never once annoyed any one else?? Please.. All kids are annoying. Even when you think your kids aren't.. They are.

In a restaurant, I've always made sure to take my kids outside if they cried for more than a min or 2, and never let them run around or throw stuff. They are pretty well behaved when we go out to eat. But if I were staying in a hotel and my baby was teething or had an ear ache, where exactly do you go that you won't be disturbing others? If you walk down to the lobby, every room you walk past will hear you. If you go outside, every room you are near will hear you unless you walk quite a ways from the building. Heck, when we went to Disney the 1st time we were at POR and my kids were a little wound up on our 1st day with excitement. It was 730 ish, and we were getting ready to head to MK. DH had to run back to the room to get something so I went ahead and took the kids down to the sidewalk to wait so we'd be away from the doors of the other rooms. They were just laughing and being kids, not loud or screaming or anything. We were out on the main path so prob 25-30 ft or more from the building. And some guy opened his door and yelled at me to shut them up, he was trying to sleep... I know that I am much more strict than most of my kids friends parents when it comes to this kind of thing, and I'm also perfectly aware of when my kids are being jerks, so I have no prob admitting when they are being jerks or being loud.
So no matter what you do as a parent, you will make someone mad. No matter how hard you try to be respectful of others and keep your kids quiet, there will be someone who is annoyed or "disturbed".

 

[snikki]

What if a baby has an ear infection? Or gas? Or teething? Or a fever? They are supposed to take them outside of their comfy hotel room so you don’t disturb the neighbors? That’s ridiculous IMO. This isn’t a restaurant. A hotel room is your home at the moment. We’re talking about a crying baby. Not a kid bouncing off the walls.

 

[Lisa_lvspplmvr]

It is ab

I was in room 1074 between 7/3-7/9. I LOVE that location!!
It is absolutely the perfect location ! We could walk right out our patio door and go to the quiet pool ! It was the best room and location we’ve ever had !

 

[HashberryOTG]

To each their own, and I'm not slamming anyone that does, but I could never take a baby to disney. My sanity couldn't take it. Some parents have the patience of the Gods. I honestly don't know how some of you do it!

I have called security once in all of our trips. The couple next to us were screaming at each other, and couldn't tell if it was getting physical or not. Security came up and it was quiet after that. Dunno if they were still in the room

 

[Gary Stocker]

To each their own, and I'm not slamming anyone that does, but I could never take a baby to disney. My sanity couldn't take it. Some parents have the patience of the Gods. I honestly don't know how some of you do it!

Most parents I know:

 

[Summer2018]

 

[Dakota731]

We had the same thing our last trip only it sounded like ten kids screaming and bouncing off the walls. I turned my sound machine up full blast and luckily they finally got quiet at midnight. Any later and I would’ve called the front desk for sure

 

[Dakota731]

I get that babies cry with ear infections, fever etc, but I hope if it’s late at night and for a prolonged period of time, the parents would get the child medicine or go to urgent care, so the baby and hotel neighbors could sleep. When in such close proximity as a hotel room you would hope that everyone is considerate of other guests.

 

[Ashley Marie]

To each their own, and I'm not slamming anyone that does, but I could never take a baby to disney. My sanity couldn't take it. Some parents have the patience of the Gods. I honestly don't know how some of you do it!

I have called security once in all of our trips. The couple next to us were screaming at each other, and couldn't tell if it was getting physical or not. Security came up and it was quiet after that. Dunno if they were still in the room

Oh, babies are actually much easier to bring to Disney than ages 2-5 or so, in our experience!

Unless they unfortunately get sick, of course, but no kid is easy when they’re sick. Then, yeah, they might cry at night and (in response to what someone else suggested) no, in my situation I was probably not going to stroll the grounds of GF at 2am with a sick 11-month-old.

 

[Dakota731]

And it’s not just babies - our grandkids have gone to Disney since birth and are great sleepers. As soon as we get to the room they are fast asleep and stay that way till seven. I’ve experienced teens next door who stay up until all hours of the night screaming and carrying on, as well as drunk adults banging on walls and shouting all night. Maybe some people don’t realize how thin the walls are or how loud they are, but I think if it goes on for hours no matter how old the perpetrator is then someone needs to be called.

 

[Ashley Marie]

I get that babies cry with ear infections, fever etc, but I hope if it’s late at night and for a prolonged period of time, the parents would get the child medicine or go to urgent care, so the baby and hotel neighbors could sleep. When in such close proximity as a hotel room you would hope that everyone is considerate of other guests.

It’s not that easy when you’re on vacation and have other kids with you, and no car. (Used Magical Express like most Disney guests did.) None of the car services we tried to schedule could provide the correct (safe) or enough car seats to transport my family to an urgent care, if there was even one open 24/7 back then? Plus, it wasn’t an emergency, it was a normal illness, no need to drag everyone out in the middle of the night. We did what we could as soon as we could - we paid a premium to get an on-call doctor service to come to our hotel room in the morning, confirm diagnosis and get us a prescription. But even then, with meds, an ear infection still takes some time to clear up.

Just saying all this to show the other side & that many people are probably not being inconsiderate if you hear a baby or young child crying, it just is what it is when you’re vacationing at a family destination...

 

[Marthasor]

It has never occurred to me that walls are so thin that you could hear a baby crying that loudly in your room that it would disrupt your sleep when they are in a completely separate hotel room. If I was the person with the crying kid I wouldn’t even think that it would disturb my neighbors. To me it’s like living in an apartment.

If I were the OP I wouldn’t have said anything. 20 minutes at 6 am and 11 pm is no big deal to me. I have kids. They cry sometimes. Especially at unfamiliar places and being overly stimulated. I do sleep with a white noise machine so that would drown some of the noise out if we were sleeping. I would find it to be more of a pain to pack and unpack again.

Yeah, some of the WDW hotels rooms seem to have very thin walls and the connecting doors don't help. There are some hotels that seem worse than others. We had terrible noise problems at AoA and BWI, but never seemed to have issues at other hotels. I think it's probably luck of the draw regarding who your neighbors are during any given vacation.

a call at Disney gets you a call center most likely offsite and maybe out of state, you need to walk to desk not call

It's a popular misconception on this board that the CMs in the call center cannot help with anything. Certainly, they cannot reassign rooms, but I've had two emergency situations in WDW resorts and the call center immediately dispatched WDW security in one instance and the sheriff's department in another. If you have an emergency while in your room, guests should most certainly pick up the phone and not walk all the way to the front desk.

 

[Malfie Cent]

I would have went to the front desk the 2nd morning it happened and ask to be moved.