Useful Concierge Information

[ksoehrlein]

Just wanted to do a banana dance:

The CP package I'd requested through the IPO months ahead of time for Christmas Eve was booked for me today with no prompting necessary on my part. Truth be told, it had actually slipped my mind this morning.

I got both the time and restaurant I was hoping for. No need to start frantically dialing at 5:59 AM (Central) along with the rest of the world!

Have I mentioned that I'm loving the IPO right now?

 

[RedsoxMickey]

We stayed in a MK view room towards the North side of building.

WOW what a great trip -
The staff is amazing.
The view of the MK and fireworks - WOW - Tune your TV to channel 20 and turn up the sound while standing on your balcony. At the time of wishes channel 20 plays what you here at the park.

Don't regret anything about the trip but if interested I would be happy to give other the benefit of my experience a couple of things that I might have done or not done. A couple of items listed below.

Tip a little less - I went a little crazy with the tipping and really no need for it
I would still tip but less. Nobody refused a tip.

Would bring a car - Disney transportation (one night took me over an hour via monorail from epcot to CR) is horrible.
Wasted money on taxi cabs to be able to get around easier - Taxis are very expensive - $20 from CR to Yacht club for example


The only negative regarding the Atrium club was the food.
Breakfast:
the fruit was ok but thought could be a little more diverse
bagels - not very tasty
Danish - ok

Afternoon/evening - PBJ was fine but I did not find any snack food including deserts that had much appeal.

Soda cans are warm and water bottles are big and glass so trying to get a beverage to go is challanging. I did however take advantage several times of taking that extra cup of coffee in a to go cup.

 

[TammiMcMan]

Hey RedSoxMickey, glad to hear that you had a nice time. So basically, if you are watching Wishes from the lounge, they can tune the TV there to channel 20 and you'll be able to hear it as well. That's good to know. How did you like the new room? I've seen some complaints about not being enough storage. Also, did your in-room computer still come with free internet access?

Unfortunately, I always plan an hour irregardless of where I'm going on Disney transportation. A little trick I've learned with leaving from Epcot, is to go out through the International Gateway instead. We walk over to the BC and take the resort bus back to the MK. You can walk to the CR from there. Sounds like a few more steps, but it's much less crowded and usually gets us there with half the hassle.

Any pictures to share?

 

[RedsoxMickey]

Hey RedSoxMickey, glad to hear that you had a nice time. So basically, if you are watching Wishes from the lounge, they can tune the TV there to channel 20 and you'll be able to hear it as well. That's good to know. How did you like the new room? I've seen some complaints about not being enough storage. Also, did your in-room computer still come with free internet access?

Unfortunately, I always plan an hour irregardless of where I'm going on Disney transportation. A little trick I've learned with leaving from Epcot, is to go out through the International Gateway instead. We walk over to the BC and take the resort bus back to the MK. You can walk to the CR from there. Sounds like a few more steps, but it's much less crowded and usually gets us there with half the hassle.

Any pictures to share?

Yes - they can tune in channel 20 on the TV for wishes. We found it great to be able to watch from our room and turn off our room lights to watch. You don't have to be staying at club level to tune to channel 20. The nights we watched from the hotel the kids were very tired - it was great to see it and then shut the door, turn the tv off and tuck in the kiddies.

I loved the new room - My DD (7) slept on the pullout couch and my DS (10) slept on the other regular bed in the room.
Although space for putting clothes away was limited the room itself is large so for me to live out of the suitcase was fine - this is usually how I live anyway. My DW, DS, and DD had no problem fitting most of their clothes - plenty of space to hang stuff.
The bathroom was a good size with two sinks and a seperate area for toilet(you can close off the toilet area with a sliding door). Not a lot of space at sink level but plenty of storage for all of our toiletries on shelves under the sinks - we have lots of bathroom stuff and had no problem organiziing it all.

The lounge is nice.

Internet was free on the computer - although down a couple of nights - I am sure they could have fixed it but I was to tired to bother with it.

Need to download the pictures. We are not very camara savey and taking photos is not fun for us so I don't think we have much of the room or other atrium club areas. I will need to figure out how to post the photos we did take.

I loved the CR and would recommend it but we like to do different things on different trips so next time we will be checking out yet another resort.

 

[Angel16]

Ok, If I read this correctly. Internet is now free? Or did I get that all wrong? Will it be free at all Deluxe resorts?

RedSoxMickey, Glad to hear that you had a good trip. You also mentioned you would have rented a car. How long were you at WDW? Did you stay anywhere else besides CR?

I am debating on a car rental for our Thanksgiving/Christmas trip. Does anyone know how much a cab from the Poly to AKL would run? I would like to take the family there one morning for breakfast at Boma then onto AK park.

TammiMcMan there is a PM on the way to you.

 

[RedsoxMickey]

Ok, If I read this correctly. Internet is now free? Or did I get that all wrong? Will it be free at all Deluxe resorts?

Sorry but I am not sure if it is free for just atrium club or not. I have no idea about the other resorts -

RedSoxMickey, Glad to hear that you had a good trip. You also mentioned you would have rented a car. How long were you at WDW? Did you stay anywhere else besides CR?

Our trip was for 7 days.
This trip we stayed at the CR but we have been to other resorts in the past.

To start - it took magical express over 5hrs to get my luggage to my hotel
We waited about 10min before loading on the bus at the airport and stopped at three other resorts on the way to CR

On the way back CR was the first stop and we got to the airport way to early. The dropping the bags off in the morning and not having to worry about them until we got back home was a huge help but the transportation was not.

We went to Seaworld one day and took a cab - we took a bus back and that was fine but we had to find the bus stop (took us awhile) and had to wait for the bus. Had to transfer from Ticket center back to Hotel.

At times we were in a hurry to get to some places and stressed by transportation as a result. The money I spent on cabs would have paid for the rental car and it would have been nice to have the back up of the car.
I think it would have also made it easier to and from the airport.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

What does IPO mean? Do all levels of concierege service get it?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

What does IPO mean? Do all levels of concierege service get it?

IPO means Internal Planning Office & all WDW Resorts with Concierge floors have this.

 

[paladin]

I think it is actually Itinerary Planning Office.

 

[JeanfromBNA]

Does the IPO usually help guests prior to their arrival? Can we e-mail or call for advice?

 

[TammiMcMan]

Does the IPO usually help guests prior to their arrival? Can we e-mail or call for advice?

Yes they do. Once you have your reservation in place, just take a look at the first post of this thread. It contains all the contact information for IPO. I would suggest being proactive and get in touch with them first. They aren't always timely in contacting guests.

 

[steffali]

This will be our first time staying CL. We booked through AAA TA and are set to go Jan.28th. Will anyone be contacting me from IPO? Who and when do I call to make any ADR's????? I s there anything I should be doing that I don't know about ?????

 

[mmmears]

steffali,

I would call them or email them asap. We booked 2 concierge resorts in March, and after waiting for a while, I contacted them myself. The sooner they start making ADRs for you the better! Also, while they should contact you first, I have read enough here on these boards to know that lots of people fall through the cracks and never hear from them.

I asked them to send me a hotel map as well, and I received that plus maps to all the theme parks! IPO can be really helpful once they know you're coming!

 

[TammiMcMan]

This will be our first time staying CL. We booked through AAA TA and are set to go Jan.28th. Will anyone be contacting me from IPO? Who and when do I call to make any ADR's????? I s there anything I should be doing that I don't know about ?????

Steffali, just take a look at the first page of this thread. It has all the concierge contact information. Unfortunately, when you book through a TA, Disney does not have your contact information. It's up to the TA to either update that or pass along the info to you. I wouldn't hesitate to drop them an e-mail now.

 

[susie2]

hi, we booked for dec 07 direct with disney for the 12 floor, when should we expect to hear from IPO, and how long should we leave it before we contact them if we dont hear anything from them, thanks this is all very new to us, susie2

 

[TammiMcMan]

Susie, it really depends on what you need them to do for you. Most ADR's can't be made until 180 days out, but there are some that have a year window. If you don't require any reservations beyond 180 days, then I would just mark the calendar for contacting them at about the 200 day mark.

 

[susie2]

thanks tammi, will do as you advise, thanks again susie2

 

[wasabi girl]

Hi guys,

I was planning to book a trip in 2007 for a 1 BR suite AKL concierge level...if the 5th and 6th floors are supposed to be converted to Vacation Club by the fall 2007...any ideas what will happen to the concierge lounge? and concierge guests?

 

[Cass]

No idea what is happening to Concierge at this point. I am staying AKL Concierge in December and will try to dig up as much info as possible.

 

[TammiMcMan]

The last rumor I heard was that some of the rooms on the 5th floor were going to be converted to DVC model rooms. That's why they now have the category of deluxe concierge (rooms on the 6th floor) and standard concierge (rooms on lower floors). #1HockeyMom might have a few more answers. She's pretty well connected there.