Pool Hopping Made Simple

[Werner Weiss]

Here's the official explanation of the Pool Hopping benefit from my Disney Vacation Club Member Guidebook, circa 1994, on page 2 of the "Your Home Away from Home" section:

http://www.mcs.net/~werner/poolhopping.jpg

(I'm aware this image exceeds DIS board image size guidelines, but I wanted it to be big enough to be read easily.)

Pretty simple, eh? It even mentions the need to show your resort ID at the pool.

Those of us who hang around this board or who read Vacation Magic carefully (and retain what we've read in our heads) know that the rules are now a little more complex. As of a few years ago, Disney added the right to suspend pool hopping at any resort pool on days when that pool would have a capacity problem. That makes sense. It's only fair (as long it's applied legitimately). That's why we're supposed to call the front desk (though exactly which front desk has been unclear) before pool hopping. Pool hopping is still pretty simple, eh?

Unfortunately these simple rules haven't been communicated as well as they could be. Not everyone remembers what they read in Vacation Magic in 1998 (if they were even members then). The current notice about no pool hopping at the Yacht and Beach Club from April 1-15 doesn't even mention that other pools might also have restrictions. I've never received an updated page for our Member Guidebook -- and I doubt other long-time DVC members have either. It's not surprising that DVC families showed up at BWV this week, never dreaming that they might be forced to leave the pool in the middle of their fun.

The solution is simple: Include the pool hopping rules in DVC mailings at least once each year. Set up a phone number with a recording that's updated every morning with that day's WDW-wide pool restrictions, if any. (That would be less labor intensive than the current system of taking a live call from each member who wants to pool hop.)

Not every DVC member thinks pool hopping is fun. That's fine. But there are also those who think that a day at the Polynesian, perhaps including a boat rental and dinner at the Kona Cafe, is more fun than going on the same park rides for the 20th time.

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Werner Weiss, Curator of Yesterland (http://www.yesterland.com), featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions

[This message was edited by Werner Weiss on 04-18-01 at 04:30 PM.]

[Lesley]

"I've never received an updated page for our Member Guidebook"

I was looking through my Member Guidebook today and found absolutely no mention whatsoever of pool hopping. I've only been a member since August... but does anyone have any info in their guidebook about hopping? The only mention I've seen has been in VM. I heard of pool hopping here and it was verified by our guide when we bought (with the caveat that it could change in the future).

Interesting...

And I have waaaaay too much time on my hands if I'm bothering with this because I don't really care about it anyway! :D


Lesley

ºoº
1979 Contemporary
1992 Off-site
1994 Carribean Beach
1999 Fort Wilderness and Coronado Springs
2000 Polynesian and Old Key West
2002 Boardwalk Villas

[nydizfan]

first off . great post werner. right to the point. i am a member since 93. the ambiquity of the pool hopping is troubling. us longtimers have it in writing but the newbies do not. why? maybe it an oversight but I dont think so ;) lesley if you dont care why post? thanks dave :cool:

offsite '71 contemporary '72 golf resort '76 village resorts '93 okw '94 okw '95 contemporary '96 okw '97(got married) okw '97 okw '99 okw '00

[jag90]

The thing I find interesting is when we checked in to OKW on 4/13 they gave us a flyer stating that pool hopping was not allowed at Y&BC. But nothing was said about BW. Seems like with all the problems we've heard about they would have mentioned it.

[slimplaw]

We joined in Dec and received a March 2000 update of Member Guidelines for DVC. It does address pool hopping in this section.

[Bwalker]

You mentioned that your guidelines book addresses the pool issue. I also joined DVC at the end of last year but cannot find anything in any handbook. Can you please tell me where to find it? much appreciated.

We have been avid fans of disney for years but have never even had time to go swimming (except for the water parks)! We're going in May to OKW and were actually thinking of checking out the other pools as our DVC guide told us we could pool hop. I certainly am not in the mindset to be embarrasssed and would love to know the facts before we go.

So ... thanks for the info!

Bwalker ;)

[Joeblack]

Great Post Werner. Couldn't agree more.

[Lesley]

nydizfan- I'm wondering that myself! Can't get enough of these boards I guess! LOL Let's face it...pool hopping doesn't effect anyone's life in any drastic way. Perhaps we all need to get out more often! ;)

I'd also like to know where in the March 2000 update of the member guidelines the mention of pool hopping is located...I can't find it.

Thanks


Lesley

ºoº
1979 Contemporary
1992 Off-site
1994 Carribean Beach
1999 Fort Wilderness and Coronado Springs
2000 Polynesian and Old Key West
2002 Boardwalk Villas

[Caskbill]

OK, I believe I have found the ONLY reference to pool hopping in the latest Member Benefits Guidebook.

The latest(?) guide, which we received along with our last Vacation Magic, is dated 01-01-01.

On page 9, under Special Programs Options, it says in part:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>1. Through the Special Programs Option, DVC Members and/or their Guests may elect to participate in recreational, educational and miscellaneous programs and discounts which may be offered from time to time (including, without limitation, programs offered to children through the Disney Discovery Club, and pool hopping among the various WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort pools)

2. These miscellaneous programs....including types...times, dates and frequency....will be determined by DVD in its sole discretion.

3. The price .....

4. These programs and discounts may be unavailable due to capacity constraints or inclement weather and may be denied or restricted during special events and subject to availability. All programs and discounts may not be available at all times, however one or more of these miscellaneous programs or discounts will be available to DVC Members at all times. [/quote]

This appears to be the only reference. For whatever it's worth.

Caskbill

[TheWho]

Very interesting input.

Dave

[slimplaw]

Bwalker
Now I am beginning to think I dreamed up this reference to the member update. Early this morning I was sure I had read it during the last 48 hours. I rechecked but did not find it in that document. Now I want to know where I did see it. If I find it I will let you know. (Unless it was the old copy I threw away Sunday night)

[baileybrad]

you hit a HR WW.

[Werner Weiss]

Disney has been "selling" pool hopping as a DVC benefit since the beginning of DVC, almost ten years ago. As RLevy29 wrote in another thread (http://wdwinfo.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=40009993&f=14009194&m=6850913251&p=2), "When we bought into DVC one of the percs that interested us was being able to pool hop."

With just a little attention, pool hopping will continue to provide one more reason to buy DVC memberships and add-ons for the next 40 years. DVC members will continue to enjoy other WDW pools, providing one more reason to return to WDW year after year.

Some participants on this forum have suggested that DVC ought to discontinue the DVC pool hopping benefit. But there's really no reason to do so. Getting rid of pool hopping wouldn't eliminate the problem of unauthorized freeloaders who use WDW pools. And getting rid of pool hopping wouldn't even mean fewer people at the BWV pool on an average day -- in fact, compared to the few DVCers from OKW who pool hop to BWV on any given day, there are probably as many or more BWV DVCers who pool hop to another WDW pool, thereby making more room at the BWV pool.

Eliminating pool hopping would just lead to a lot of customer disppointment and resentment against Disney. The issue isn't whether or not the wording of the contract allows DVC to discontinue pool hopping, it's that tens of thousands of DVC members bought with the understanding that pool hopping is a DVC benefit.

I really think that DVC management wants to make pool hopping work. For the most part, it works just fine today. But as experiences this week have shown, DVC needs to communicate the program better to DVC members, and it needs to be easier to understand when pool hopping is temporarily restricted at any WDW pool.

And WDW pool CMs need to check resort IDs to keep the freeloaders out so that legitimate resort gusets and DVC members can enjoy the pools.

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Werner Weiss, Curator of Yesterland (http://www.yesterland.com), featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions

[nydizfan]

they will never have a cm checking ids . that is too much . ha . but maybe they can give us a report on when we can pool hop? too much too ask .dave

offsite '71 contemporary '72 golf resort '76 village resorts '93 okw '94 okw '95 contemporary '96 okw '97(got married) okw '97 okw '99 okw '00

[baileybrad]

checking IDs is too much trouble or can't be done...stay at the WL sometime...they check IDs there alot and when they do it, you see lots of trespassers grabbing their stuff and hightailing it out of there one step ahead of the sweep. I will always believe that most of the overcrowding caused at WDW pools is by people who have NO right to be there to begin with.

[nydizfan]

sorry there brad . I just never saw this practice . but as a member i am happy to here its going on . thanks dave :cool:

offsite '71 contemporary '72 golf resort '76 village resorts '93 okw '94 okw '95 contemporary '96 okw '97(got married) okw '97 okw '99 okw '00

[Bwalker]

Thanks for your efforts. One of the posts above your's outlines some of it.

My hubby and I were looking through our book and under Benefits, it does allude to the pools but if you really read it, it sounds like it only refers to the resort you are staying at right then. Pretty tricky.

I plan to ask while I'm there before leaving OKW to go to BWV - I do not want to be embarrassed.

Thanks again!

Just thought I'd add - for us newbies - our membership book does not have the picture or info listed above. They've changed it.

Cheers,
Bwalker ;)

[Zimbubba]

Even Simpler-

Let us alone when we pool hop like it was in the beginning.

[twinglefam]

But I sure plan on checking with every desk - mine, the places we hop too, etc. Don't need any scenes on vacation...

Here we go...........

'74, '79, '82, '86 - as a "kid"
'00 - BCR & offsite
'01 - VWL (purchase trip!)
10/01 - BW & OKW

[BarbOKW]

We at Boardwalk the last week in March. When we arrived on a Saturday, I had a lot of trouble finding a chair. After about half an hour I got one for my family of six. I started talking to the very nice lady next to me and she explained she was there with her four kids for the day. She lived in Orlando and decided to spend the day at the Boardwalk pool. She told me that the residents weren't allowed at any of the other pools but the Boardwalk pool was "open" as part of the Boardwalk experience. I felt bad but I did discretly rat on her and she was asked to leave. But according to her, she does this all the time and so do a bunch of her friends. It was her understanding that it was O.K. at Boardwalk.

I was told by the lifeguard at Boardwalk that it's becoming a real problem and they're thinking of fencing the pool off like they've done with Storm Along Bay

[Jimbo]

BarbOKW - You did the right thing; don't feel bad.

[jcodespoti]

Good job barbokw, Next time I'm in ORlando I just show up at somebody's pool w/ all my stuff and use it :cool:


Joe in CT

[Werner Weiss]

In another thread (http://wdwinfo.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=40009993&f=14009194&m=8010970551), KNWVIKING wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>If Disney and DVC had any idea there would be this many problems with pool hopping they would have either never started it or taken 8 pages to explain and regulate its useage.[/quote]
Are there really "this many problems" with pool hopping? I don't think so. Generally, pool hopping works very well. It doesn't take 8 pages to explain pool hopping. It only takes two short paragraphs. Unfortunately, those paragraphs haven't been communicated well to DVC members. That's not a pool hopping problem, that's a communication problem.

Yes, there were problems last week. A Boardwalk CM forced some DVC members to pack up and leave in the middle their fun, as though they were crooks who had been caught stealing. The DVC members were there in good faith, thinking that the only pool hopping restriction was at Stormalong Bay (Yacht & Beach Club) -- a misconception that DVC must take responsibility for because of the ambiguous wording of a note about the April 1-15 pool hopping restrictions, posted on the Internet and handed out at check-in.

But would a restriction at the Boardwalk pool even have been needed if, as people arrived, access had been properly limited to Boardwalk guests and DVC members staying at DVC resorts on points?

Pool hopping isn't even a problem at Stormalong Bay (Yacht & Beach Club). Most of the year it's open to pool hopping. I remember going to Stormalong Bay on an August 1999 afternoon. It was perfect pool weather, but the pool area wasn't at all crowded.

Do you really want to see angry and disappointed DVC members? Then eliminate pool hopping.

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Werner Weiss, Curator of Yesterland (http://www.yesterland.com), featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions