Clue to room assignment logic?

[benseven]

I booked a BCV studio at exactly 11 mos. out, day by day (OK, maybe overkill, but we hadn't been in 3 years), and requested a high floor, Epcot view. We had a partial, kind of behind the tree you can see some of the Epcot ball view. I remember our last balcony we could see the high fireworks, and that's what I wanted this time. OK, fine, still WDW, still had a great time (Thanks, Fay! No lines!) BUT, I've been thinking about this and it kind of bugs me that there couldn't have been that many people that reserved before me, but I didn't get the view I really wanted. Why couldn't someone who booked after me have had the semi-view, while I got the whole one? Am I really off base?

 

[Chuck S]

Actually, I thought DVC announced some time ago that they would no longer take requests for "Epcot View" because few villas actually had a satisfactory view of Epcot.

It may not have been possible to fill your request, remember that, unlike cruise ships, people come and go all during the week at DVC...so a great Epcot view room may simply have not been available on your check-in day.

 

[CarolMN]

Maybe (most likely) the rooms that met your request were already occupied when you checked in. The previous occupants have to be checking out on the day you are checking in for the room to even be available to you.

Also, it's been reported that rooms are not usually assigned in advance anymore. The resorts are now using the "Room Ready" method. That means when a guest arrives at the front desk, they assign a room that is clean and ready if one exists at that time. So perhaps those who arrived earlier in the day than you did were assigned the rooms that you requested.

Anyway, it doesn't matter how far in advance you booked (It used to matter, wish it still did). They used to assign the rooms in advance, but too many people wanted to get into their room asap and hung around in the lobby area, waiting for housekeeping to finish "their" assigned room. So the resorts switched to "room ready". They still block/preassign rooms for special needs, though.

FWIW, I think they still pre-assign most rooms when it's really busy and the resorts are at capacity. For example, it seems to me that we always get a preassigned room at the BWV, but we travel mostly at busy times for DVC.