BWV - Self-Parking heads-up!

[DieHardJoe]

My DW and I just got back from a split stay. Our first 4 nights at VGF were excellent, and everything went without a hitch. It was our first time and we will definitely be going back. On Sunday we moved to BWV. We have stayed there many times and have enjoyed every one. We got there at 1:30 and there were a lot of cars pulling up in front. The CM that came over to our car immediately informed us that Self-Parking was full and there was only valet. I looked at her and nicely said that I was not going to be paying for valet and isn't there some place else I can park at which time she simply said "well, I guess you can drive around until a spot opens up". Huh? We went inside to check in and when I mentioned the encounter outside she nicely said I will be able to park in Self-Parking. She printed a pass and when I went to park, there had to have been easily over 40 spaces available! And these weren't just a space here or there where someone had just pulled out. There were blocks of open spaces. We just looked at each other and said Wow, that is probably the first time in the many times we have visited that we felt lied to. We honestly felt that it was simply a ploy to get us to pay for valet. We felt that if the CM inside who checked us in had absolutely no doubt we would be able to Self-Park, what possible reason would the person outside be so adamant that we would not be able to find a spot? Has anyone else experienced this, or anything similar?

 

[jekjones1558]

My DW and I just got back from a split stay. Our first 4 nights at VGF were excellent, and everything went without a hitch. It was our first time and we will definitely be going back. On Sunday we moved to BWV. We have stayed there many times and have enjoyed every one. We got there at 1:30 and there were a lot of cars pulling up in front. The CM that came over to our car immediately informed us that Self-Parking was full and there was only valet. I looked at her and nicely said that I was not going to be paying for valet and isn't there some place else I can park at which time she simply said "well, I guess you can drive around until a spot opens up". Huh? We went inside to check in and when I mentioned the encounter outside she nicely said I will be able to park in Self-Parking. She printed a pass and when I went to park, there had to have been easily over 40 spaces available! And these weren't just a space here or there where someone had just pulled out. There were blocks of open spaces. We just looked at each other and said Wow, that is probably the first time in the many times we have visited that we felt lied to. We honestly felt that it was simply a ploy to get us to pay for valet. We felt that if the CM inside who checked us in had absolutely no doubt we would be able to Self-Park, what possible reason would the person outside be so adamant that we would not be able to find a spot? Has anyone else experienced this, or anything similar?

I know that the parking attendants at BW get pretty tough during Food and Wine, and as a BW guest I am happy that they do or those of us staying at BW would have no place to park. But since you were checking into BWV, the attendant should have been HELPING you, not inconveniencing you. Thanks for posting this. We won't be at BWV for a few weeks but you can bet that I will not accept "no room" as an answer when we are staying there!

 

[supersnoop]

The guard should have had the parking permit already printed out to give you. Did you tell him you were checking in? This sounds like he was treating you like someone just parking for dinner.

 

[DieHardJoe]

I told the guard we were switching resorts and checking in. He scanned my band so he knew what I said was correct and he said that I would get a printed pass when I checked in, which I did get. So luckily everything worked out. I'm definitely glad we didn't cave to the pressure to use valet.

 

[sleepydog25]

I told the guard we were switching resorts and checking in. He scanned my band so he knew what I said was correct and he said that I would get a printed pass when I checked in, which I did get. So luckily everything worked out. I'm definitely glad we didn't cave to the pressure to use valet.

Odd the security person didn't hand you a pass. We checked out of VGF into BCV a few days ago, and the guard scanned my band then handed me a parking pass with my name printed on it. One would think that would be standard procedure.

 

[disneynutz]

You said that you pulled up in front so I take that to mean that you were in the valet area. The car un-loaders and the valets work for a outside company and they make their money when you valet park. Sounds like they are trying to increase their business.

I would talk to resort management and follow up with an email to member satisfaction and WDW guest relations.

Bill

 

[n2mm]

Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like past October trips there. We arrive in 3 weeks. We generally just go straight to self parking and walk up to the lobby because we find the entrance too congested. Seems like there are always conferences there when we are there which makes parking even worse. We tend to head to the little lot near the tennis court area.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

We've been the past few Octobers and have found that the parking security at BWV seems to go with the assumption that you are trying to bum free parking rather than being a legitimate guest. They also will close off the parking by the convention center only for conventions attendees and leave the lot half empty. Then it reopens and there's tons of parking when before there was little to be found. It's fairly annoying at times but we've only seen it during F&W and it's handled normally the rest of the year.

 

[Simba's Mom]

My DW and I just got back from a split stay. Our first 4 nights at VGF were excellent, and everything went without a hitch. It was our first time and we will definitely be going back. On Sunday we moved to BWV. We have stayed there many times and have enjoyed every one. We got there at 1:30 and there were a lot of cars pulling up in front. The CM that came over to our car immediately informed us that Self-Parking was full and there was only valet. I looked at her and nicely said that I was not going to be paying for valet and isn't there some place else I can park at which time she simply said "well, I guess you can drive around until a spot opens up". Huh? We went inside to check in and when I mentioned the encounter outside she nicely said I will be able to park in Self-Parking. She printed a pass and when I went to park, there had to have been easily over 40 spaces available! And these weren't just a space here or there where someone had just pulled out. There were blocks of open spaces. We just looked at each other and said Wow, that is probably the first time in the many times we have visited that we felt lied to. We honestly felt that it was simply a ploy to get us to pay for valet. We felt that if the CM inside who checked us in had absolutely no doubt we would be able to Self-Park, what possible reason would the person outside be so adamant that we would not be able to find a spot? Has anyone else experienced this, or anything similar?

If you want to press it, that's when you call a supervisor and say "You have dishonest employees here, and here's why". Just wondering, where is self-parking at BWV? Is it close, far away? DH says, "I'll bet it's not as close as at OKW".

 

[Deb & Bill]

The Gartner Convention is coming up, too. We were at BWV for a night during that last year (for TOT 10 Miler). Almost the entire parking lot adjacent to the BW inn was void of vehicles. We were lucky enough to find a parking place in the close up parking lot, though. We were told we could not park on the Inn side as that was reserved for convention guests.

The convention is Oct 5-9, but they take up a lot of space with set ups, large vehicles with lots of stuff. They set up tents and displays in the parking lots.

 

[n2mm]

The Gartner Convention is coming up, too. We were at BWV for a night during that last year (for TOT 10 Miler). Almost the entire parking lot adjacent to the BW inn was void of vehicles. We were lucky enough to find a parking place in the close up parking lot, though. We were told we could not park on the Inn side as that was reserved for convention guests. The convention is Oct 5-9, but they take up a lot of space with set ups, large vehicles with lots of stuff. They set up tents and displays in the parking lots.

Thank you for that info. Seems that convention is always going on while we're there. Glad to see we are going to miss it this year. We are there October 18 to November 1. Though the parking will be challenging like every year, esp Thursday to Sunday.