*** Bay Lake Tower Owners Group***

[drlorilovesdisney]

Just saw this thread for the first time. We stayed at BLT in April, 2010, before we were owners. Bought 270 points in January, 2011. Just got back from our first stay on points (9/18-27). Love BLT! Novice poster- How do I put the BLT picture at the bottom of posts?

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Just saw this thread for the first time. We stayed at BLT in April, 2010, before we were owners. Bought 270 points in January, 2011. Just got back from our first stay on points (9/18-27). Love BLT! Novice poster- How do I put the BLT picture at the bottom of posts?

Click the purple oval in my signature. It will take you to a thread that shows how to make a signature. You can use it to create one using my designs, or copy other signatures you find.

 

[drlorilovesdisney]

Thanks. I will try it out.

 

[Disjunky]

cant remember if i posted on this yet. we joined in 2009 a day after getting back from me running the marathon. put it off for years and finally broke down. and with a then pregnant wife and now a 2 and a half year old, we couldnt be happier. i will have this for life and thats the idea. but it and keep it or pass it on. its disney after all.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We have not stayed at BLT since they remodeled the bathroom areas in the studios. Has anyone posted pictures of what the bathroom and kitchenette areas look like now? It has been quite a while now, so I feel sure someone has, but I am just not sure where to find them. Thanks.

 

[aprincesswannabe]

We have not stayed at BLT since they remodeled the bathroom areas in the studios. Has anyone posted pictures of what the bathroom and kitchenette areas look like now? It has been quite a while now, so I feel sure someone has, but I am just not sure where to find them. Thanks.

You can find some pictures here...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2250408&page=17

 

[MiaSRN62]

Just got back from a 3 night stay at BLT in studio lake view room. First of all....love BLT but we had a big issue upon check-in on Sept 29. Checked in at 11 am. Asked to receive a text when room was ready. Contemp CM said they would text when room was clean. Went to AK......2 pm.....3 pm.....4 pm.....4:45 pm......got back to Contemp at 5:15 pm ish and went to registration. Apparently room had been ready for hours but text never came through. So, ok, we'll let that slide. Head over to our room. Walk over, keys don't work (room 7440). Walk back over to Contemp (keep in mind pretty tired from being in AK in 88 degree heat all day). So the CM says she'll send a "runner" back over with us and he'll have some sort of electronic master key. She calls Bell Service to meet us with our luggage. Walk back with runner and his master key doesn't work. Bell Service and "runner" mumbling how this "never happens" and they will need to get an "E key" ? So we walk back over to Contemp AGAIN. I am beyond exhausted and we had dinner reservations with friends at 7 pm. I am sweaty and in bad need of a shower and clothing change. Get back there and ask to speak to a manager who is very rude to us. He says things like "we're wasting time just talking about when we could be walking back to see if the E key works". My dh says we're not walking anywhere again. Explained about how the text never came through, and the back and forth walks a couple times already and manager says "well you could have called the number on the back of your key card". I said to him, "the CM never told us to do that" and manager says, "well did they tell you NOT to call" ?! At this point, dh asks him to leave and demands another manager who is much nicer. Turns out our room wouldn't work with E Key either and electrician is called in "on-call". Our entire lock needed to be changed. We were without a room until 7:30 pm and had dinner at Tony's comp'd for us. I literally had tears in my eyes. I will preface with I had worked the graveyard shift the night before and was going on 2 hours of sleep and an entire day of traveling and hours in a park. So I was running on empty. I had my heart set on a short nap and shower thinking we'd have our room at the latest by 4 pm.
Rest of stay was great......love BLT, just didn't love that first Contemporary manager (a smart-*** 20 something year old). Sure enough, got home on Oct 10 and had a survey in the mail from BLT.
Thanks for listening and letting me vent. Electrician (who was very nice) told us BLT was the experimental guinea pig for these types of locks for the new Aulauni resort and he did not like them. Just sharing.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Pics from our stay in 7440 :

 

[bpmorley]

Just got back from a 3 night stay at BLT in studio lake view room. First of all....love BLT but we had a big issue upon check-in on Sept 29. Checked in at 11 am. Asked to receive a text when room was ready. Contemp CM said they would text when room was clean. Went to AK......2 pm.....3 pm.....4 pm.....4:45 pm......got back to Contemp at 5:15 pm ish and went to registration. Apparently room had been ready for hours but text never came through. So, ok, we'll let that slide. Head over to our room. Walk over, keys don't work (room 7440). Walk back over to Contemp (keep in mind pretty tired from being in AK in 88 degree heat all day). So the CM says she'll send a "runner" back over with us and he'll have some sort of electronic master key. She calls Bell Service to meet us with our luggage. Walk back with runner and his master key doesn't work. Bell Service and "runner" mumbling how this "never happens" and they will need to get an "E key" ? So we walk back over to Contemp AGAIN. I am beyond exhausted and we had dinner reservations with friends at 7 pm. I am sweaty and in bad need of a shower and clothing change. Get back there and ask to speak to a manager who is very rude to us. He says things like "we're wasting time just talking about when we could be walking back to see if the E key works". My dh says we're not walking anywhere again. Explained about how the text never came through, and the back and forth walks a couple times already and manager says "well you could have called the number on the back of your key card". I said to him, "the CM never told us to do that" and manager says, "well did they tell you NOT to call" ?! At this point, dh asks him to leave and demands another manager who is much nicer. Turns out our room wouldn't work with E Key either and electrician is called in "on-call". Our entire lock needed to be changed. We were without a room until 7:30 pm and had dinner at Tony's comp'd for us. I literally had tears in my eyes. I will preface with I had worked the graveyard shift the night before and was going on 2 hours of sleep and an entire day of traveling and hours in a park. So I was running on empty. I had my heart set on a short nap and shower thinking we'd have our room at the latest by 4 pm.
Rest of stay was great......love BLT, just didn't love that first Contemporary manager (a smart-*** 20 something year old). Sure enough, got home on Oct 10 and had a survey in the mail from BLT.
Thanks for listening and letting me vent. Electrician (who was very nice) told us BLT was the experimental guinea pig for these types of locks for the new Aulauni resort and he did not like them. Just sharing.

That's horrible. I'm not a big fan of having to go to the Contemporary to check in and for bell services. But this can happen anywhere, I'm still waiting for my text from SSR about my room being ready.

 

[ssawka]

That's horrible. I'm not a big fan of having to go to the Contemporary to check in and for bell services. But this can happen anywhere, I'm still waiting for my text from SSR about my room being ready.

Yes, at any hotel, when they say they will text/call me, I never believe them. I always bring their number with me and if they don't call in a certain period of time, I call them or stop by the front desk to check. Rarely have I ever gotten a call or text from a place that said they would call or text me.

 

[bpmorley]

Yes, at any hotel, when they say they will text/call me, I never believe them. I always bring their number with me and if they don't call in a certain period of time, I call them or stop by the front desk to check. Rarely have I ever gotten a call or text from a place that said they would call or text me.

I did get the text on the first day of our stay, but we had to switch rooms on the 2nd day. that day we never got a notification

 

[gonecrusin]

Yes, at any hotel, when they say they will text/call me, I never believe them. I always bring their number with me and if they don't call in a certain period of time, I call them or stop by the front desk to check. Rarely have I ever gotten a call or text from a place that said they would call or text me.

On a positive note, we have always gotten our text message!

 

[ssawka]

On a positive note, we have always gotten our text message!

I assumed Disney was better about it, I was talking about hotels in general.

 

[gonecrusin]

I assumed Disney was better about it, I was talking about hotels in general.

We do expect the highest quality service being that you pay for it. Believe me I am sooooo disappointed when I don't get it. I guess that is one area I haven't been disappointed in yet. Poor customer service would be unacceptable as far as the manager that was flip and very unprofessional.

 

[bpmorley]

Just got back from a 3 night stay at BLT in studio lake view room. First of all....love BLT but we had a big issue upon check-in on Sept 29. Checked in at 11 am. Asked to receive a text when room was ready. Contemp CM said they would text when room was clean. Went to AK......2 pm.....3 pm.....4 pm.....4:45 pm......got back to Contemp at 5:15 pm ish and went to registration. Apparently room had been ready for hours but text never came through. So, ok, we'll let that slide. Head over to our room. Walk over, keys don't work (room 7440). Walk back over to Contemp (keep in mind pretty tired from being in AK in 88 degree heat all day). So the CM says she'll send a "runner" back over with us and he'll have some sort of electronic master key. She calls Bell Service to meet us with our luggage. Walk back with runner and his master key doesn't work. Bell Service and "runner" mumbling how this "never happens" and they will need to get an "E key" ? So we walk back over to Contemp AGAIN. I am beyond exhausted and we had dinner reservations with friends at 7 pm. I am sweaty and in bad need of a shower and clothing change. Get back there and ask to speak to a manager who is very rude to us. He says things like "we're wasting time just talking about when we could be walking back to see if the E key works". My dh says we're not walking anywhere again. Explained about how the text never came through, and the back and forth walks a couple times already and manager says "well you could have called the number on the back of your key card". I said to him, "the CM never told us to do that" and manager says, "well did they tell you NOT to call" ?! At this point, dh asks him to leave and demands another manager who is much nicer. Turns out our room wouldn't work with E Key either and electrician is called in "on-call". Our entire lock needed to be changed. We were without a room until 7:30 pm and had dinner at Tony's comp'd for us. I literally had tears in my eyes. I will preface with I had worked the graveyard shift the night before and was going on 2 hours of sleep and an entire day of traveling and hours in a park. So I was running on empty. I had my heart set on a short nap and shower thinking we'd have our room at the latest by 4 pm.
Rest of stay was great......love BLT, just didn't love that first Contemporary manager (a smart-*** 20 something year old). Sure enough, got home on Oct 10 and had a survey in the mail from BLT.
Thanks for listening and letting me vent. Electrician (who was very nice) told us BLT was the experimental guinea pig for these types of locks for the new Aulauni resort and he did not like them. Just sharing.

You should have slapped that rude manager in the face for talking to you like that. At least that's what i would have done

 

[MiaSRN62]

That's horrible. I'm not a big fan of having to go to the Contemporary to check in and for bell services. But this can happen anywhere, I'm still waiting for my text from SSR about my room being ready.

The text issues didn't get to us nearly as much as the lock issues did. The contant walking back and forth from the Contemp to BLT (3x back and forth !) and they STILL couldn't get us in. The rudeness of the first manager (unacceptable---he took upset guests and made us 10x more upset than we needed to be). The being without a room until 7:30 pm and having to pretty much ask for some sort of compensation. Let me tell you, we checked out a tad late on Oct 9 due to the weather and a rental car issue. The maid was knocking on our door at 11 am---and opened it and came in at 11:10 am after we told her we were coming right out. They will kick you out 60 seconds late but thinking nothing of inconveniencing a guest who can't get into their room for 3.5 hrs after posted DVC time of 4 pm. We had just had it. The meal that was comp'd at Tony's was not due to the text issue....but rather the lock issue. In fact, at 6 pm the "nice" manager told us the electrician would NOT have to enter the room and could fix the lock from outside so I was free to shower and change for dinner. No way......he had to come in the room and stayed in there until 7:30 pm. We had to ask for some sort of compensation. Would have been much nicer had they offered it. But whatever. I so wish BLT had their own check-in. Having had 4 stays at BLT, and other similar issues with check-in (in May 2010 got put in a dirty room ---luggage and all), I sort of feel like BLT is the unwanted stepchild or something where Contemporary CM's concerned.
PS : This is the first time in like 4 years we have not received a text for our room. And noone ever told us to call number on back---not that we could see the writing anyway. It's very small. And we were in AK and didn't want to come all the way back if room wasn't ready. So that was just mildly annoying. My main issue was the lock and how it was handled and how we were spoken to.

 

[gonecrusin]

The text issues didn't get to us nearly as much as the lock issues did. The contant walking back and forth from the Contemp to BLT (3x back and forth !) and they STILL couldn't get us in. The rudeness of the first manager (unacceptable---he took upset guests and made us 10x more upset than we needed to be). The being without a room until 7:30 pm and having to pretty much ask for some sort of compensation. Let me tell you, we checked out a tad late on Oct 9 due to the weather and a rental car issue. The maid was knocking on our door at 11 am---and opened it and came in at 11:10 am after we told her we were coming right out. They will kick you out 60 seconds late but thinking nothing of inconveniencing a guest who can't get into their room for 3.5 hrs after posted DVC time of 4 pm. We had just had it. The meal that was comp'd at Tony's was not due to the text issue....but rather the lock issue. In fact, at 6 pm the "nice" manager told us the electrician would NOT have to enter the room and could fix the lock from outside so I was free to shower and change for dinner. No way......he had to come in the room and stayed in there until 7:30 pm. We had to ask for some sort of compensation. Would have been much nicer had they offered it. But whatever. I so wish BLT had their own check-in. Having had 4 stays at BLT, and other similar issues with check-in (in May 2010 got put in a dirty room ---luggage and all), I sort of feel like BLT is the unwanted stepchild or something where Contemporary CM's concerned.
PS : This is the first time in like 4 years we have not received a text for our room. And noone ever told us to call number on back---not that we could see the writing anyway. It's very small. And we were in AK and didn't want to come all the way back if room wasn't ready. So that was just mildly annoying. My main issue was the lock and how it was handled and how we were spoken to.

A similar lock issue happened on our last cruise. We had two cabins and when our family returned from an excursion both room keys would not work. Had to try 3 times before the key worked but we never could use them to charge we had to do a paper slip. I really think they feed you a line about the locks. Ever since they upgraded their computer system from DOS they have been having major issues. It all started late DEC last year. I was so disappointed in them I was in tears.

 

[MiaSRN62]

A similar lock issue happened on our last cruise. We had two cabins and when our family returned from an excursion both room keys would not work. Had to try 3 times before the key worked but we never could use them to charge we had to do a paper slip. I really think they feed you a line about the locks. Ever since they upgraded their computer system from DOS they have been having major issues. It all started late DEC last year. I was so disappointed in them I was in tears.

I agree Susan....and the on-call electrician was a real nice guy. He kept saying he was gonna try and get us into our room asap so we could go "have fun", but found it interesting that he mentioned how BLT was the testing prototype for Aulauni's lock system. He told us you cant put the key in too fast or take it out too fast and must wait at least 60 sec in between attempts if it doesn't work the first time. Of course, this was something new I learned about BLT.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I posted a spearate thread with this question, but then saw this thread and thought I might get more answers over here where people actually own and have stayed at BLT, so here goes again:

I know that the top floor of the BLT Grand Villa has it's own entrance door in addition to the one on the first floor. My understanding is that the second entrance door opens onto the same floor as the Top of the World Lounge and that you can go out that door and down the hall and there you are.

I am wondering if the room keys for the Grand Villas get you access on the elevators that take you to floor where the second entrance door is. I know a CM has to let give access to guests going to the Top of the World lounge, but can Guests get to that floor on their own?

I ask because we will have young adults with us that will probably hit Jelly Rolls, etc. and be coming in late, and I was wondering if they would be able to get back to their bedrooms via that top floor of the Grand Villa or will they still need to use the main door on the first floor?

 

[RweTHEREyet]

BTT. This thread doesn't seem to get much activity any more. Has everyone fallen out of love with BLT???