Club Level currently no longer booking dining through IPO

[jlx2]

We booked a last minute trip leaving on the first of December and tried to call the Grand Floridian IPO office to assist with dining since we are staying club level. I kept getting a recording that said all cast members were assisting other guests and if I was looking to book dining call the main dining number 1-407-WDW-DINE. It did not give me the option to hold to speak to someone, just to leave a message and someone would call me back. I ended up e-mailing the grand Floridian IPO office and here is the response I received. Hopefully in the new year they will have a team that will assist with dining again, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up that may be booking club level soon of the changes.


Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting us! In order to provide the best experience for our Guests, our Concierge team will be focused on assisting guests personally with all of their needs once they arrive at the resort. We look forward to welcoming you in December!

As always, our Reservations Cast Members are able to assist you with your planning needs. They can be reached by dialing 407-934-XXXX, 7 a.m.-11 p.m. EST. You may also contact 407-WDW-DINE for dining reservations or visit My Disney Experience.

Additionally, as we are always looking for ways to enhance the Guest experience, sometime after the new year, a new team will proactively engage with Guests to assist with their end-to-end vacation planning.

Best,

Concierge Itinerary Planning Office

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

 

[vicki_c]

That doesn't really seem to say they aren't booking dining any more. The first two sentences of the second paragraph suggest you can still call them, and it seems the WDW-dine is an additional option.

The first paragraph though seems to contradict the second, in any case.

Or is that phone number you blocked out just the regular Disney line? That would change my answer.

 

[MinnieMouse28]

That doesn't really seem to say they aren't booking dining any more. The first two sentences of the second paragraph suggest you can still call them, and it seems the WDW-dine is an additional option.

The first paragraph though seems to contradict the second, in any case.

Or is that phone number you blocked out just the regular Disney line? That would change my answer.

I received the same email while following up with IPO regarding my reservation. (we are discussing this change on the CL board). It is the regular Disney Dining number.

 

[Skywise]

According to Tikiman's facebook page they're centralizing all of the Club Level itinerary planning offsite and won't have custom ones per resort anymore.

https://www.facebook.com/Tikimanpag...549335056416/1332426640135340/?type=3&theater
"All Disney Resorts with Club level Itinerary Planning will be moved to a centeralized group off site. This is similar to how if you call the resort you actually call a call center instead of the actual resort. Now when you call the Island Planning Office it will be an offsite group handling all resorts. This was to cut cost but I see it as cutting staff, staff hours and handing this responsibility over to staff not as familiar with the resort."

There will still be people on hand at the clubs to assist but all the call ins will go through the centralized office

 

[rwdavis2]

Looks like a cost-cutting measure to reduce in-resort CL staff.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Wow. CL has just gone even more downhill.

 

[vicki_c]

Well that's a bummer downgrade for sure.