BWV -- Truly Feels like home

[bwvBound]

My husband sometimes dreads going to our weekend home as "every visit means fixing something." About 15 minutes into our arrival at BWV, he said the same thing about being here.

We've been here 5 nights and we've had countless visits by Engineering. We arrived last Friday to a room that seemed to have suffered a disaster. Moving wasn't an option and thus we started getting to know the Engineering staff. Some, incredibly, too much. (I will now endeavor to use the "do not disturb" hangy-thingy anytime I really don't wish to offer "open house" in my vacation villa. And, just in case that doesn't work -- I'll keep my robe w/in easy reach should I ever again dare a quiet bath.)

I am happy to now report that all issues have now been resolved -- the room is fully functional. The water leaks, plural, causing a large puddle under the kitchen sink have been repaired. The faucet on the pedestal sink in the bathroom has been replaced -- although finding the right parts took 4 separate visits over several days (the most recent visit at 9:30p, unannounced and without appointment) and the smashed floor molding, which threatened to remove someone's toe, has been repaired by carpentry. Good as new and very lovely!

In all, DVC's Engineering and Carpentry staff have been delightful and demonstrated a sense of humor through this very strange visit. I hope they are saying the same of us, as guests. For those of you who wonder, the Front Desk surprised us with a beautiful fruit bowl placed on our dining table early in the trip. On our part, we know that sometimes a unit sees rough times -- I'm hoping our visit gave it a chance for 'healing.'

To the prior guest, the phrase, "rode hard and put up wet," seems to apply. It is pretty clear you celebrated something big. You left lots of trash stuffed into the drawers of the room for us to deal with. It seems the carpets had cleaned as we arrived to damp floors throughout. Perhaps you were smoking as we entered to overwhelming chemical smells that took two days to air out. I have no idea how you flooded the kitchen but you left the unit in a state that caused housekeeping to miss several items in their disrupted turn-around activities. Next time -- please try to remember that we SHARE these units.

 

[Christillina]

I LOVE your sense of humor about all the little...let's call them "hiccups". You totally had me giggling.

 

[disneynutz]

The same thing happens at all resorts, rather than take a room out of service, Disney thinks it's okay to do room maintenance while the rooms are occupied.

Bill

 

[wiigirl]

 

[delilah]

Our last vacation was also at BWV, during Christmas break, Dec 21-25, which seems like ages ago, given the month of January we have suffered at home. We stayed at a 1BR unit, and also got to know the engineering staff. The whole ordeal started with my husband opening the refrigerator door too fast, and upsetting the pitcher of water that was on the door shelf (he has done the same thing at home). So, I used several towels to clean up that mess. Since we had already used some of the towels, and it wasn't trash and towel day, I decided to wash the towels. Washed without difficulty, but, the dryer took forever to dry the towels. At the same time I dried the towels, I washed the clothes we had already worn, and left to go to the parks for the day. Got home, towels were still too wet. Finally dried the towels, but, when I put the clothes in, the dryer made a horrible thumping noise, that in my 40+ years of doing laundry, I have only heard when putting tennis balls in while drying a down jacket. Since I didn't put any tennis balls into the dryer, I knew there was something wrong. So, we called maintenance. We were home for the evening, and it was about 10 pm on Dec 23. They said they were sending somebody right down. I said OK, but, secretly hoping they wouldn't be coming so late at night. They didn't show up that night. I had hung our washed laundry around the room, since, I didn't want to spend all night in the laundry area, either. Went out to a park on Christmas eve, come back about 4pm, with a 5 pm reservation at Cape May, and wanting to go to midnight Mass at Mary Queen of the Universe. Sure enough, they were in the room with a new washer/dryer. Got in installed for us, and I was able to do our wash after dinner and get to church on time. I joke that I got a new washer and dryer for Christmas. The guys told us that the washers/dryers only last about 2-3 years in the rooms, and that the dryer wasn't drying because of all the lint in the exhaust.

It was very entertaining listening to their conversation about making sure that hot and cold water were connected correctly. Last June, I stayed at Kidani, and the hot and cold water were connected incorrectly, so, if I wanted the wash done cold, which I usually do, the clothes were actually washed in hot water. I didn't call maintenance on that one until we left, since, usually I do wash mid trip, and I didn't want to have to stay in the room for maintenance to fix the connections. However, I seriously considered, after that trip, that I should bring a pipe wrench with me, so I can change the connections if that situation should arise again.

 

[TagsMissy]

While BWV isn't out home we adore the resort and do always feel 'at home' there but not quite in the manner you're listing

I'm sorry your trip had some rough patches but I'm glad your keeping your sense of homour about it all. I am certain Disney appreciates it, the bowl of fruit was a nice touch.

Sometimes I wonder about people and how they treat things, I certainly do give my head a shake.

I hope your trip went great despite the near lost toes and wet socks!

 

[gdrj]

While a big fan of BWV (our home resort), I would definitely call Member Service and voice my concern. While stuff happens, and certain rooms may need some TLC, there need to be accountability for the staff to report and correct. Also to give maintenance a specific time frame when you will be out of the room and your expectations on it being fixed.

Hope the rest of the trip is magical

 

[MsTessP]

Sure enough, they were in the room with a new washer/dryer. Got in installed for us, and I was able to do our wash after dinner and get to church on time. I joke that I got a new washer and dryer for Christmas.

:

Actually did this! ----------->

 

[jillgunter]

Sorry you had so much problems! There are people who dont treat things like their own and just dont care. We always try to treat any place we vacation just as we would our own. Gosh when we rented a house at the beach last year, I was so paranoid of messing it up!! Hope its better next time.

 

[twinsouvenirs]

we had a four day split stay in sept and we had issues with our rooms at both SSR and BWV with frequent late night visits from maintenance (rejected because of sleeping babies). To SSR's credit, due to a flood caused by the washer, they were willing to move us, in fact asked us to move, but we were only there that night and the girls had already fallen asleep. I thought the whole thing was kinda funny too

 

[bwvBound]

I hope your trip went great despite the near lost toes and wet socks!

Hope the rest of the trip is magical

Indeed, we've had a great trip for the annual IBM conference, IBM Connect 2014, aka Lotusphere. We caught up with hundreds of friends (like a huge family reunion), attended great sessions, explored new ideas, talked with the IBM developers and product managers (at length), was a champion on behalf of my customer's needs, etc. Once the closing session concluded, after 5 long days of eventing, my DH and I enjoyed a quiet dinner at Shula's -- w/out a reservation. It was perfect.

We are now mostly packed and will be out very early tomorrow morning.

 

[Kidanifan08]

I actually keep a multi-purpose tool in my OL to repair minor issues in the villa such as loose cabinet knobs or other loose screws. Obviously, that tool would not remedy some of the issues you had to deal with. We spend most of our trips at AKV-Kidani, and have not had any big maintenance issues. I always walk through the villa when I get there and turn on every light. If one is not working (which has been the case on most trips), I call maintenance right away. BLT has been the biggest offender of burned out lights for us.