Offered free move to another resort due to Wilderness Lodge Refurb

[eXo]

Last month I received a letter detailed the refurbishments taking place at Wilderness Lodge this fall. They had already been detailed here on the boards, so this was not news to me.

I had heard about some folks getting various discounts due to the work, so I had called in after receiving the letter and asked if there was anything they could do. I was fairly bummed about all the walking trails, the beach area, and the firepit all being closed. Essentially, all the outdoor aspects of the park (aside from the main pool) were going to be off limits.

The cast member I spoke offered to see if they could find any openings at other resorts, and ultimately came back with an opening at the Poly. However the Poly is going to be under certain refurbs as well, and since we are going at Christmas time we were really looking forward to the decorations at the Lodge, something the Poly doesn't really offer. Oh, and did I mention I was going to have to pay several hundred dollars difference as well? Ya... it made no sense to take their offer, so I passed and just forgot about it.

Yesterday I got a call from Guest Services asking me if I had received my letter about the refurbishments taking place at the lodge, if I had any questions about them, and if there was anything they could do to make my stay easier. I mentioned that I had attempted to look into alternative arrangements, but that I was not keen on the option given to me.

She informed me that they are now honoring the price I already paid and offering several a move to another resort for no extra cost. I asked what my options were, and she pretty much named off every single other deluxe hotel, including the Grand Floridian (which is quite an upgrade).

Ultimately we opted to take a Garden View room at the Contemporary, and it cost us nothing to make the change. The funny thing is, when we first priced out the vacation we wanted to stay at the Contemporary but the exact same dates and options for that resort were $2,000(!) more than staying at the Wilderness Lodge. Since that time I also got the 20% off deal applied to my resort stay at the Lodge along with a free upgrade to a woods view room. So they took my discounted room /free upgrade at the lodge and moved it to an upgraded room at the Contemporary... which was really outstanding on their part.

While I will post this in the Wilderness Lodge thread as well, I thought others might be interested to know about this as well.

Thanks Disney =)

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Nice upgrade

 

[Allison]

Sounds like a good alternative to me.

 

[dizzyinwdw]

Wow! Have a terrific time!

 

[disprincess2213]

congrats! When are you going? Were you staying in a room or a villa?

 

[Mrs. Toaster]

It's a bummer you can't stay at the Lodge, but that is a nice upgrade!

 

[TeamSy]

That's awesome!! Years ago we booked at AKL and got the note about them closing the pool AFTER we booked. I called to switch hotels because I didn't want to be somewhere there was no pool. We were only offered Wilderness Lodge, because it was what was comparable price wise, so you definitely got lucky!! We took it, and once we got to WL, we HATED it - our room was GROSS. Unfortunately, it was the LAST room left with a king bed. FINALLY, they moved us somewhere else (we didn't care where - we just wanted a clean room with a king bed). They ended up placing us in Beach Club, but it wasn't without a major hassle! They did NOT want to move us. The front desk kept telling us we had to call Disney "over the phone" and the "over the phone" people kept telling us we had to talk to the front desk. I ended up handing the people at the front desk my phone saying here talk to each other lol

 

[midge3426]

Enjoy that free upgrade!!!!

 

[JACKNAG]

Nice, enjoy

 

[mamamary]

Nice!

 

[pmaurer74]

that happened once to us and we were upgraded to the GF theme park view... it was very magical!

 

[Jon84]

We were lucky enough that when we changed to Beach Club for Nov next year, it was only £10 more to change!

 

[oylerfam1]

SWEET!

 

[spritna]

Im glad to see disney is changing the way they handle these sort of things. Last year when we were booked for wl and they announced pool refurb, i like so many other people called to change resorts. Only offering they had was gf and i give them a little $. I told them we didnt care for the gf can we get in por? We got in por and found out thru a cm friend that we were now tagged as "difficult guests" in the computer system. I didnt give it any more thought, untill the day we checked in at por and i ended up getting mad. For 20 years anytime we have gotten there early (anytime before 3pm) we have always gotten into our room early. This time we got our alert text way after that. And the 2 request we made we got opposite.....requested second floor mansion bldg, got first floor ab way out in the boonies. I just shook my head and thought disney got the last laugh i quess. When we got home and received our survey email of how was your trip, we wrote every detail and till this day heard nothing back.

 

[angierae]

When friends booked at Royal Room at POR back in 2012, they didn't get all the rooms ready on time and they got a complimentary move to the Grand Floridian. She'd never been and had no idea what a great deal she'd gotten - I told her to go price out her trip as staying there. She was floored.

I'm glad they were able to help you. Not being able to enjoy any of the outside aspects of a resort would definitely be troublesome to me, especially for what you pay for a deluxe.

 

[eXo]

congrats! When are you going? Were you staying in a room or a villa?

We had a woods view room booked (one level above "standard", which apparently ought to be named "Parking Lot view"). The short story is we had booked a standard room. Then last month (I think?) Disney ran some 20% offer on specific rooms. I called in to see if the discount applied to our room and was told that it did not, but that it did apply to woods view rooms. After pricing out the woods view room with the discount, I was able to get upgraded to woods view AND get about a $300 refund on what I had already paid.

So now they have essentially switched us out from a woods view WL room to a garden view CT room. At first I was a little bummed we were out in the Graden Wing and not in the main tower... but after reading about the CT, it sounds like the main tower can be quite noisy. So it's fine, we will enjoy ourselves either way.

Im glad to see disney is changing the way they handle these sort of things. Last year when we were booked for wl and they announced pool refurb, i like so many other people called to change resorts. Only offering they had was gf and i give them a little $. I told them we didnt care for the gf can we get in por? We got in por and found out thru a cm friend that we were now tagged as "difficult guests" in the computer system. I didnt give it any more thought, untill the day we checked in at por and i ended up getting mad. For 20 years anytime we have gotten there early (anytime before 3pm) we have always gotten into our room early. This time we got our alert text way after that. And the 2 request we made we got opposite.....requested second floor mansion bldg, got first floor ab way out in the boonies. I just shook my head and thought disney got the last laugh i quess. When we got home and received our survey email of how was your trip, we wrote every detail and till this day heard nothing back.

Yikes. I suppose being tagged as 'difficult' means they are less likely to go out of there way to do 'special' things for you? I'm sort of surprised I wasn't tagged as such. Back when they moved us from standard to woods the screwed up the dates and dropped our arrival date. When I saw they were wrong I called in and they told me they had nothing else available and offered to stick me at AKL for the first night. The last thing I wanted to do was truck our stuff all the way over to a new hotel right in the middle of our first full day at the parks. I can't imagine how much of a hassle that would have been, especially considering we will be relying on buses and monorails while we are there.

Anyways, I hounded them until they finally got me someone who somehow magically made a room appear for us at WL for that night. At least two other times I've gotten upset with CM's on the phone who were giving me info that I knew to be blatantly wrong (like the one who told me that MK doesn't have fireworks every night, just on "special" nights... I guess every night is special you dope).

In this case though, I didn't even ask t be moved. Disney called me and offered it to me.

When friends booked at Royal Room at POR back in 2012, they didn't get all the rooms ready on time and they got a complimentary move to the Grand Floridian. She'd never been and had no idea what a great deal she'd gotten - I told her to go price out her trip as staying there. She was floored.

I'm glad they were able to help you. Not being able to enjoy any of the outside aspects of a resort would definitely be troublesome to me, especially for what you pay for a deluxe.

I was really looking forward to the walking trails, the fire pit, and the outdoor areas in general. So when I found out that these were all the places that were going to be shut down, it was a huge bummer.

When my son is a bit older we plan to go back, so we will be sure to stay at WL on that trip. The lodge looks beautiful, and I'd really like to be able to enjoy it sometime.

 

[spritna]

Yeah, we figured the reason we didnt get not one request and had to wait a very long time for our room was a way to get back at us for being "difficult." I only say this because guests are always raving about how disney goes out of there way (and they do) to please customers or sprinkle pixie dust, but at the same time putting this difficult tag besides your name so other cms can see it when they bring up your file on the computer. We wouldnt even know this if it wasnt for a cm friend who told us. Anyways, very happy for the way you got treated

 

[summerw]

Does the "difficult" tag follow you on subsequent visits?

 

[100acreHiker]

After the mess of getting my and my friend's reservations moved from WL to CR, i am pretty sure I've been tagged as difficult now. Sigh. Curious if you've spoken to someone at wdw about being tagged as such and if they had a response to that.

 

[916chipndale]

Difficult?

I don't think I am tagged as difficult but if Disney knew my username on here than I am sure I would be.