A California father is refusing to stay silent after he says a Florida resort tried to buy his silence when his toddler found a sex toy in their vacation condo.
Mike Gross, his wife Angela, and their two young children had checked into Holiday Inn Club Vacations’ Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee for a four-day trip to Central Florida theme parks. The property near Disney World had drawn the family with its strong reviews and polished appearance. “It looked great, had good reviews — that’s why it was so shocking,” Gross told The Post.
The discovery came on the second night of their stay. Gross said his 3-year-old daughter walked up behind him holding a “present” she had pulled from a drawer. The item was a used sex toy. Gross said he remained calm enough to scrub his daughter’s hands thoroughly, then his own, before he and Angela put both children to bed. Afterward, the couple searched the entire condo for any other overlooked adult items.
Gross called the front desk expecting immediate action. He said he was told someone would contact him right away. That call never came. By the next day, with still no response from management, his frustration had hardened into anger. “At first we were laughing about it, trying to have a sense of humor,” he said. “What made me so mad was their total lack of concern.”
The family’s planned Disney World day went ahead, but Gross said he could not focus on the magic. “I couldn’t enjoy myself,” he said. “The hotel was ignoring a potential biohazard. How can they not care?”
His breaking point came when he marched into the resort lobby carrying the item itself. Gross slammed the sex toy onto the front desk and demanded answers in full view of other guests and staff. “By that time I was so mad I was shaking,” he said. “Everyone was staring. You could have heard a pin drop,” He said a manager appeared but offered what he considered a weak and inadequate response.
Three weeks after the incident, the resort finally made contact with a formal offer: $1,300 in exchange for Gross’s permanent silence. The proposed agreement would have barred him from posting reviews, speaking publicly about the “incident,” or contacting any government agencies about what happened. “No way I was taking that deal,” he said.
Rather than accept the money, Gross took his daughter to a doctor for medical testing to check for any health risks from handling the item.
The episode has cost the resort a customer for life. “Everyone makes mistakes,” Gross said. “But ignore the situation and the potential danger, now you’re gonna have a pissed-off dad,” He added flatly: “Holiday Inn will never get my business again.”
A spokesperson for Holiday Inn Club Vacations responded to The Post with a statement: “We are aware of this unfortunate situation and regret that it fell short of the experience our guests should expect. We take this matter seriously and addressed it with the appropriate resort teams. As this involves a specific guest matter, we are unable to comment further on private discussions.”
Gross’s confrontation in the lobby and his public rejection of the nondisclosure offer have drawn fresh attention to what he describes as a pattern of indifference from the resort chain toward a disturbing health and safety failure involving a young child.