ASMO Fantasia pool closed Sept to Dec

[Night-train]

That's what I intend to do Paul. Sent a hopeful email to Virgin Holidays just in case I might find them in a generous mood though!!

 

[DebIreland]

as all the values are same price you can change to any.You wasnt told about the pool when you booked.

Yeah, that's true. I'll give it a shot. Thanks Paul.

 

[CHRIS F]

Spoke to going places as we are booked for ASMo on 5th October for 16 nights, on a Jetsave holiday, they want to charge us £500 to change to Pop Century, but they had not been notified of the pool closure, GP told us to wait a few days because when they get official notification they may lower the price

I am not annoyed at Disney as they have to close stuff for refurbishments at some time, but the attitude of JS was like "why do you need the pool?", our thinking was to change to pop as I will imagine the all star pools will be extremely busy, also we have already stayed at the other resorts, ASMo should have some great rates for that period for people booking direct though, the annoying thing is that this is the first time we have booked a package since 2002 normally book it all seperately,if we had done that this time all it would have taken was one phone call to CRO

While the pool is not the most important part of the holiday, the boys do go swimming after we return from the parks some nights and I must admit I do enjoy sitting by the pool with a beer, and now I am getting ear ache from my family about sorting it out, Scott wants to upgrade to C-Beach, Glenn wants to stay at ASMo and Val wants to stay anywhere except where I change it too!!

 

[DebIreland]

Good news! I changed to ASMU and I was able to keep the AAA rate - I got a really great CM at CRO (Sheila Lee) who was extremely helpful. I told her I wanted to change because of the pool issue and she checked availability at ASMU and just said the AAA rate is available, I didn't need to ask for it. I was sure it would be gone because way back in March when I rang about adding one more night to my ASMO reservation I was told the AAA rate was gone, so it's either still there for Music or they honoured it because of the pool issue.

I had decided to upgrade to a preferred rate but that wasn't available. I don't mind. I'm very happy now. In any case, with both my boys being big music fans I'm sure they'll love the cheesy guitar shaped pool.

 

[DebIreland]

Spoke to going places as we are booked for ASMo on 5th October for 16 nights, on a Jetsave holiday, they want to charge us £500 to change to Pop Century, but they had not been notified of the pool closure, GP told us to wait a few days because when they get official notification they may lower the price

Ouch! £500 is insane. I really hope they can do something for you Chris.

I am not annoyed at Disney as they have to close stuff for refurbishments at some time, but the attitude of JS was like "why do you need the pool?"

Good God, it's Florida. Just imagine how cheap a hotel in Florida without a pool would be?!! And why do *all* the hotels have pools, even the horrible cheaper than cheap hotels, if it wasn't important??!! Their attitude stinks.

While the pool is not the most important part of the holiday, the boys do go swimming after we return from the parks some nights and I must admit I do enjoy sitting by the pool with a beer

I know what you mean. It's not the main thing for us either but it's still important.

and now I am getting ear ache from my family about sorting it out, Scott wants to upgrade to C-Beach, Glenn wants to stay at ASMo and Val wants to stay anywhere except where I change it too!!

Ah! That Disney magic!!! Sorry, I hope it works out for you, I really do. Travel agents shouldn't charge a single penny for changing resort over something as fundamental as a pool.

 

[traceycooper]

Well done Deb for being able to change, looks like our meet may be difficult now though
Looks like we will have to wait till we arrive to change as i've booked with TA & parents have booked with virgin direct & i'm worried if we manage to change but parents might not!! Plus i know they will rip us off with charges!!
Is it easy to change when you arrive??? Do you think accomadation will be available if we leave it till then???

 

[DebIreland]

Tracy, I'm sorry you're having this problem. I think it really stinks that a tour operator would charge for something like this. A pool is such a basic part of the package.

I will have a mobile Tracy. I don't know the number yet (I'll be borrowing it from DH's sister) so hopefully we can still meet up, just not at the closed pool. Grrr!

I don't know how easy it would be to change when you get there. I'm sure they'd be accommodating, it just depends on availability of course. PaulH was saying in an earlier post that they were happy to move people to Pop when this happened before.

I would keep calling Virgin and your own tour operator about this. I'm sure this can't be the first time they've come accross this type of thing. The onus is on them to know about hotel refurbishments and provide a fair service to their customers.

In the meantime let me know if you've had any luck sorting it out.

 

[Miffy2003]

Deb that is great news, I am really pleased

Chris - £500? That is insane! I bet they haven't even givine your details to WDW yet!

Maybe leave it till you arrive and WDW wil change you free of charge (subject to availability)

 

[Lesleyluvdisney]

Just changed to POp century - thanks for the info!

Hi Carol,
Fellow travel agent Lesley here, going out same time as you, on the phone to Virgin just now, they have no record of refurbishment! If I sent a client to ANY hotel where a pool was closed Id be hiding under my desk when they came home. Have u stayed at the POP B4, may consider moving myself, getting a quote for Caribbean Beach just now - prob be a no go !!!

 

[traceycooper]

Hi Carol,
Fellow travel agent Lesley here, going out same time as you, on the phone to Virgin just now, they have no record of refurbishment! If I sent a client to ANY hotel where a pool was closed Id be hiding under my desk when they came home. Have u stayed at the POP B4, may consider moving myself, getting a quote for Caribbean Beach just now - prob be a no go !!!

That doesnt suprise me!! We knew my parents hotel was being demolished back in February & Virgin said they knew nothing, we got a letter informing us about 5 months later!!!!

 

[carolfoy]

Hi Carol,
Fellow travel agent Lesley here, going out same time as you, on the phone to Virgin just now, they have no record of refurbishment! If I sent a client to ANY hotel where a pool was closed Id be hiding under my desk when they came home. Have u stayed at the POP B4, may consider moving myself, getting a quote for Caribbean Beach just now - prob be a no go !!!

Hi Lesley no, I've had no official confirmation at all, not even from disneytravelagents.co.uk I guess because there are other pools ie mighty ducks that can be used they probably count it as 'minor refurbishment' ha ha , you know what problems they cause when they stick to their t&C so precisely. Like you I personally wouldn't know about it if it wasn't on the Dis and wouldn't want my clients staying at a hotel where the main pool is out of action so I was quite happy to pay the £50 adminfee to guarantee pop century instead (I've since changed again and gone to POFQ for the second week only as I couldn't affors the full 14 days at POFQ) as far as I can see its not errata'ed on ANY of the package holidays viewdata systems.
bad huh?

 

[traceycooper]

fightinfire21 has just posted this on the ASMo's Resort thread on the trip planning forums:

''QUOTE: POOL UPDATE: Just to let everyone know for sure... I auctally got a letter in the mail today from Disney telling me that the pool was being refurbed while I am staying at ASMo from 9/10 to 9/20.''

Sounds like they have just got round to informing people & the September trips would be informed first right?

 

[carolfoy]

Well I suppose its good that they've started informing people but I would have expected immediate notice on something as major as this. I would also expect the big companies like first choice, thomsons etc to have flagged up an errata on their booking systems

 

[Night-train]

Sending you a pm Carol!