AKL "Club Level" expectations for ADRs

[Duke&Tree]

Hello!

We are so very excited to stay Club Level at AKL in October!! We were under the impression that our 'IPO' would be able to help out with our ADRs.

We sent an email to them around 185 days out, letting them know our ADR preferences. Our Ipod countdown showed us being at 180 days on Easter Sunday. Obviously, we didn't expect to hear anything on that day.

Monday, we still hadn't heard anything so DH sent a polite email. We were told that our 180 day mark was Monday (so we had been off by a day).

Now, it's Thursday and we're still waiting for a response. I guess our expectations is that we would hear right at that 180 day mark or a day after at most.

Are our expectations off, or do you think we should have been contacted by now? Just wanted to see what others had to say before we send another email.

Thanks for your input!

 

[MissionMouse]

Service has changed (declined) over the years but if you sent them an e-mail you should have received a receipt e-mail sending they received it and will be responding shortly. I would reference this e-mail which should contain a phone number and call them. They usually process items based upon arrival dates, so they may be working on others arriving before you still. Disney does not synch up their various processes, so waiting could impact your dining plans. I would recommend going on line and making your own if you are worried about them getting the job done to capture high demand ADRs.

 

[OhThePain]

We sent an email to them around 185 days out, letting them know our ADR preferences. Our Ipod countdown showed us being at 180 days on Easter Sunday. Obviously, we didn't expect to hear anything on that day.

Monday, we still hadn't heard anything so DH sent a polite email. We were told that our 180 day mark was Monday (so we had been off by a day).

If you go by count downs, most of the time you have to add a day. The countdown on my Droid says 175 days yet the countdown widget I have says 175 days, 15 hours... etc. The WDW website has me at 176 days (our 180 day mark was Easter Sunday). I only made one request to IPO (I was just not ready to hand over control of our ADR's), for the Wanyama Safari. I got an e-mail at 6:30 Sunday morning with a confirmation. Maybe it was because I only had 1 reservation that had to be booked through them anyway? I have also had a very good experience talking to IPO about some other things.

If you have any doubts, call them.

 

[irishtigger]

I have stayed club level 3 times once at the BW and twice at the Poly and they get back to you the same day. You need to call them ASAP and have your list ready and have them do it on the phone. I would not trust them to go by the list if you just email it at this point. I would not wait a second longer cause the last thing you need is to miss the ADR's that you want.

 

[vicki_c]

When we stayed CL at the Poly (2x), they contacted us quite a bit in advance of our 180 day mark and I filled out the reservations questionnaire. They contacted me on the 180th day and briefly confirmed they had made all our reservations, and then sent a follow up e-mail later that week listing out all our reservations and times/confirmation #s.

So I would say you are not getting appropriate service.

 

[woodkins]

We are staying CL at the Poly in Oct and our 180 day mark was Tuesday. I emailed my IPO request document on the Friday prior and got a confirmation email back. I had to call them with my credit card number for a few of the reservations that required a CC#. Tuesday came and went and I heard nothing. I still have not heard anything from IPO but when I log into my account on the disney website I am able to see that they made all of my reservations at the times requested. I would try that first and see if you are able to retrieve any dining ressies that way.

Just because you have not heard from them does not mean that they have not made your reservations...at least not in my case.

 

[Heard02]

Been doing concierge the last 5 years and the service is hit and miss. I would say you are better off calling yourself to get what you want or do it online. All they do is call just like we do. They really cannot pull any strings for you. (a cm at BW and GF actually told us that)
Good luck!

 

[MickeyNicki]

We stayed CL twice, once at AKL, and I didnt trust them to book my dining..I just did it myself.

I had emailed the AKL IPO when I booked my reservation that I wanted to do the Sunrise Safari. This was about 10 months in advance. They said they would make a note of it and when my 180 days came they would book it. I emailed, I called and I pestered them and they were not quick to respond. They will get back to you but it isnt quick.

And no, they never booked my sunrise safari but when I finally got a hold of them they were able to take care of it.

AKL IPO told me for months and months that the work on the zebra trail would be done by the time we got there. A week before we arrived they said it was done, a day before we arrived they said it was done.

Well guess what, it was no where near done and we had painters on the inside of the building and right outside our room the entire stay....I wasnt happy having my view restricted and smelling paint fumes in my room.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

During our recent Club Level stays at the Boardwalk Inn their IPO sent us a form to fill out online which said what time we are to arrive, along with any requests we have. Plus that's also where you can put down the ADR's you want. Well after we filled it out we got the standard auto reply and one or two days later they e-mailed us back saying our request was confirmed. Recently we filled out the same form for our next Club Level at the Boardwalk Inn and Beach Club and they already e-mailed us back, so I would check your e-mail to see if the Animal Kingdom Lodge IPO sent it to you.

 

[Duke&Tree]

Thank you all for your feedback! DH had called last week and gave someone our cc# as one of the ressies we were hoping for did require it, but we haven't heard back. I sent DH a quick email hoping that they made the ressies but just didn't notify us.

If not, it looks like we will be calling ourselves and hoping for the best. No matter what, we'll still be at WDW!

Thanks again for your help!

 

[cwdefouw]

Just booked a villa at AKL club level for next year. This is our first experience with Disney's concierge and I have a few questions.

What is an "IPO"?
What are the email addresses and/or phone numbers to reach them at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, or where do I find this contact information for them?

We desperately want to do the Sunrise Safari and I do not want to miss the 180 day mark as we will be there at the height of spring break season.

TIA for any information
Chris

 

[vicki_c]

IPO = Itinerary Planning Office.

As for contact info, you can check the Club Level/Concierge thread @ the top of the boards here, or the particular resort FAQ sticky. They should all be linked in a sticky @ the top of the board.

 

[Duke&Tree]

Just wanted to let you all know that after your responses, we did go online ourselves and were able to get all of the ADRs that we wanted, including CRT. We did finally get an email with reservation confirmation info from our IPO later in the evening. She was able to get us the ressies we wanted at two places, though we will cancel one that the IPO got as we like the time we got ourselves better.

Truthfully, I had sort of resigned myself to being really disappointed expecting that we wouldn't get any of the ADRs that we wanted since we were coming in a bit late in the game. But, all's well that ends well!

I don't imagine that we'll ever have a chance to do Club Level again (here's hoping!), but if we do we will be sure to take care of the ADR aspect ourselves.

Thanks again for all of the input! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

 

[tiger4me2]

I am happy that you got what you wanted I usually stay club level but I make my own ADR's as I know what times I want etc.. Half the time it is miss & hit with them. But when I do it I know it done & I got the times I want. Have fun !