OP, I agree. It's completely hit or miss. Years ago, IPO would actively reach out to guests via e-mail as soon as you booked CL. That hasn't happened to us for at least 3-4 years. I know IPO was discontinued last year and they centralized everything, but even now (we are staying WL CL in August), I have gotten no communication for them and know I would actively have to seek them out to get any pre-arrivel help (which I really don't need, so I won't do it). Even when I have reached out for planning help in the past, it was an absolute hassle. I rememer one time staying CL at GF, I had reached out about booking a pirate cruise for my son on a certain day. The only response I got was, it's not held that day. Not, "I'm sorry, it's not held that day, it's held on the following days OR you could go to another resort to do it that day." It was really, I felt, a complete brush-off, so I just don't involve them in planning anymore. I also found that the greeting upon arrival is completely hit-or-miss. We once arrived at AKL for CL check-in and there was no one to greet us, so I had to stand in the regular check-in line before they finally got someone to take us up. Then, I basically had to check-in all over again (and this was at the beginning of MB's when no one knew what was really going on with them). It was such a waste of time. Same thing happened at GF RPC. No greeting, no one to take us up to the room. At this point, I only book CL if I think we'll get any value out of the offerings in the lounge, because planning through them is like walking through molasses. We stay in hotels all over the world where I utilize concierge to book airport transportation, offsite and onsite restaurant reservations, tours, etc. It usually takes a simple e-mail to these hotels to get things planned and squared away. WDW simply doesn't do this.