Someone else mentioned the availability of a late checkout. It's not always available, and they may charge you for it.
However.... You are not required to leave the resort when you checkout, and bell services will hold your bags for you. There is nothing preventing you from checking out, and then spending the day at the pools at the resort until you need to make your way to the airport. There are restrooms near all the pools which you can use to change from your swim gear to your airport gear. I believe i've heard people mention that at least some of these pool restrooms also have showers if you wanted to shower before heading to the airport.
I don't remember if it's an official Starbucks location that will accept a GC, but the coffee/pastry shop in the lobby of the Wyndham Grand does sell Starbucks Coffee.
Sorry you had such a bad experience. I'll 3rd the idea that the clientele that the resort draws can be less respectful of the property than many people would think. The "Not my house" atmosphere seems to run rampant from a large number of the renters. As the previous poster mentioned, the cheap rentals is both a boon and a bane.
I did also want to mention a few things in some defense for the resort itself. First, the Room requests are just that, requests. There is nothing that guarantees they will honor the request. Officially, The only people who's requests are even considered are VIP owners staying at the resort [it's one of the "perks" of VIP ownership.... and like all VIP benefits, aren't transferable]. That said, WBC does seem to do a very good job on the whole of at least trying to accommodate room requests from everyone based off reports around here. The earlier you check in however the better your chances of have the request met since they'll have more inventory to work with. [for the majority of reservations, your room assignment is not locked in until you check in, so someone checking in prior to you may make a request at checkin that has the front desk assign the room that was tentatively was going to assigned to you].
Secondly, Since the resort is a timeshare resort, It's options are extremely limited on it's abilities to 'Make it Right' with guest satisfaction offers. With a hotel, if there is an issue, They have the option to offer items such as free nights or comp certificates for various services. This is because the budget, including any losses due to these comps, is paid for by the rates your pay the hotel for your nightly stay. These guest satisfaction measures ultimately will come out of the profit the hotel generates, with the idea that the short term loss will generate future profit from a repeat stay.
Since this is a timeshare resort however, The resort doesn't have room in it's budget for such things. Your nightly rate you are paying as a renter goes into the pocket of the owner you are renting the points from. The Resort's budget is set/voted upon at the beginning of the year and paid for out of the annual dues which every owner is responsible for paying.... both the large commercial outfits, and the sweet old retired couple who own enough points for a week with the grandkids at disney every year. There is no profit built into the budget as it's designed to pay for the costs of maintaining the property and daily operations, as well as funding a small reserve fund for any future repairs or unexpected expenses [to help shield the owners from a surprise $500 payment should something like a hurricane hit the area and cause some damage to the resort.... or to pay for plumbing repairs due to a burst pipe.... or TBH.... to pay for the damage done by the college kids who found a cheap rental and trashed their room or parts of the resort]. The Profit that Wyndham generates/generated from the resort comes from selling the resort to the owners, and not from the nightly stays. [similar to how DVC makes a majority of it's money from sales, and not cash-rate nightly stays]. Since the resort doesn't have in it's operational budget the money for "make it right" expenses, they don't have any options available for a like-cash type response like a voucher for one of the onsite food locations. (which aren't run/funded as part of the resort operations).
Sorry if I rambled or ranted, but I felt it was important to make the distinction between the differences between a hotel and timeshare resort in this context. Especially as there are a LOT of renters staying at this resort who probably have no idea how a timeshare works, I felt it was important to try and show that sometimes the 'lack of customer service' which the staff can get blamed for isn't due to the staff's lack of concern or desire to provide customer service, but the simple fact that as this is not a hotel, They don't have all the tools in their customer service tool-bag that people only familiar with hotels may be accustomed too.
and getting really excited! We are staying in a 2 bedroom deluxe and not sure about asking for lake or fireworks view or which tower. Actually after reading hundreds of posts I'm more confused!!!
So, what would a family of 5; DH,DW,ds21,ds18,and ds3 be looking for in a room? TIA!!!
everytime i see my babies on it. Despite the unit problems i found the property to be beautiful and my kids enjoyed themselves and that is what is most important to me afterall. Will book again next year hopefully everything will be sorted out by then.
