Does arriving late reduce your chances of getting your requested preferences?

[tjctoy]

Over the years we have had both good and bad luck with Disney requests. Prior to becoming a DVC member we stayed at Disney's Caribean Beach Resort alot. As you all know this resort goes on forever, and if you have kids you don't want to be at one of the area's a mile away from the food/games/main pool. Even when we booked a year in advance and put in our request for a specific area we were 50/50 on getting our request. The issue I had then was I paid for the trip in full 11 months before the trip and still they couldn't honor a request for location which is a joke.
I would like to be able to pick a specific room or area just like on Disney Cruise line, so it will be on a first come first serve basis on who gets what. I would even pay a fee to book specific room in lieu of letting them pick. I think either we can book specifics or take away the requests all together and you get pot luck.
I own points at 2 DVC resorts now, SSR, BLT, SSR any location is fine with us, but we bought BLT for the MK view and using our room to enjoy the fireworks. We will book far in advance 11 months to day generally and I expect my request to be honored when I book as far in advance as possible. I bought into BLT just for the view no other real reason so I expect to do what they pushed in the sales pitch, watch the fireworks from your room,woot.
But as we get older the less we make a big deal about our request not being honored, we do understand everyone is also making requests. This does not mean we let Disney off the hook on the issues, something needs to change and they won't make changes unless we make them.
A Disney trip is generally the best even when all your requests go south and don't let your trip be made miserable because of it. I agree with the smiling and being nice as much as possible, you get more with less generally.

Good Luck.

Tom and Maria
To many Disney trips to list, next one DCL members only cruise 2010 in September.

 

[hsmamato2]

in the past,we never had too much luck w/ requests, other than if we booked HH category specifically- but usually we'd get an upper floor even tho Mom had hard time on stairs,etc-no matter how far ahead we booked. It always irked me frankly,that a room couldn't be assigned at booking. It is a very expensive thing to stay here,and extremely high prices should equal extremely EXCELLENT customer service in exchange,IMHO.
Last time,we got in late,like 8 p.m. or later,and were assigned a room the likes of which I'd never seen at a DVC
unfortunately,there were no other studios to switch to,so we stayed for one night. the next a.m.,I went back to front desk and asked if a nearby,and not so badly situated room was available. turns out it was,and they moved us so kindly.
I think I'll try online check in next trip,maybe things will be more 'set' no matter what time we get in,b/c I do think it's harder to switch keys,etc when it's already all done.......
In general, we just stay where we're assigned,except the one time we hated that room.
I don't think it's 'taking someone elses room' necessarily to be switched,as most people have different preferences. I just remember it always boggled Moms mind that a res. made 11 mos. in advance couldn't have one request honored.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

My feeling is sometimes we will get them and sometimes we won't, but in the end I will be at the resort I love, at WDW, and nothing is better than that!!

I have never made a specific request, and I've never been disappointed.

 

[Disneydonnam]

On our last trip in Feb. we got delayed. We were suppose to arrive in Orlando at 9:30 am and arrived after 8pm. We got to BLT and had an awesome room and view I believe we were on the 8th floor. We were at BWV in Sept. we checked in at 10 am the room was not ready but we did have a request for the boardwalk view. It was probably the worse view of the boradwalk they had.

 

[schewy]

I have never made specific room requests. I have made requests such as: At BLT : can I have the highest floor available (got the 10th). At AKL and AKV asked: can we be close to the pool if possible.
I have always check in early in the morning (usually before the parks open offically) and have always gotten the rooms in the area that I have requested, even if the room is not ready when I check in.
I am always nice to the CM at checkin and usually try to strike up a conversation about something other than Disney stuff. I figure it can't help since they talk about Disney stuff all day long.
I usually do the online check in, however, I have found it to be worthless. 50% of the time I havehad to re-check in at the front desk of the resort becuase the front desk does not have the paperwork. I always take my confirmation of on-line checkin with me to show them as well.

 

[La2kw]

We've always gotten our requests, but we don't make more than one of two of them and the requests we do make are pretty general. For example, at OKW, we would request a water view at Turtle Pond or a golf course view at Hospitality House. We have checked in at 7am and had to wait for the room that met our requests, or we could take a room that was ready then. We usually opt for the room that's ready when we check in since we have been to WDW so often it hardly matters any more to us (now that all the rooms are nonsmoking). We have also checked in after 7pm and the rooms we have gotten have always met our requests.

 

[Princess&CowboyMommy]

We get about 50% of our requests, maybe a little more, but the little more isn't always the "optimal" of that request. But we've never been unhappy per se with any of our unmet requests. For example, we once requested Congress Park or waterview for our Thanksgiving stay a couple of years ago (week long stay). We arrived around 4-5pm. We got Paddock and a lovely view of the parking lot/building next to us (unless you leaned out over the balcony a couple of feet and looked waaaay right, definitely no water view, lol). But it was a clean 2BR and we had a lot of stuff planned for the daytime hours since my sis and niece were along - so the only one that it affected was my Mom who always stays back in the room and never goes to the park. She's got a bad knee/partially-handicapped so we asked her if the room was ok for her and she was fine with it. So, no worries there.

We had a few other requests not met on shorter, split-stays of 3 days or less, but honestly it's not a big deal to us on short stays .

For us, right now, if we are traveling without my mom or in-laws, we pretty much will just be ok with what we are given UNLESS it is a H/A room. We kinda have an issue taking a H/A room, esp at smaller resorts/options. First, my mom and sister-in-law (who is full-handicapped and has never walked on her on since birth) NEED H/A rooms. We would feel horrible taking them from another family that needed it if we were on a just-us-4 trip. That happened to us once at BCV a few years ago - checked in at 8am because of a split stay. CM offered us a ready-to-go H/A room or wait until a 1 BR was ready (turned out it wasn't ready until after 4:30pm - but that's ok). We waited.

2nd reason for not wanting a H/A is that my kids are still a little young for "showers" only options. 2 nights or under, we could make do, (still yuck after day 2), but they really need a tub at least for another year or two). If you had ever seen my son, 5, walk on DRY, flat pavement, or even just stand for more than a minute or two, you'd understand a shower isn't his best option...slip and slide!! He trips on dry pavements

We are staying (luckily) at AKV-CL for 3 nights right before Christmas and I understand there is one HA roll-in room and one HA tub room with bar, as the other 3 are regular design. Given there are only 5 1Brs here, I am soooo hoping we get a 1Br with tub, even the HA with bar would be ok. We have an 80% chance of a tub, but I have to admit I'll be a little bummed if we get the H/A non-tub room because of my kids. Something we'll have to figure out then if it happens...

 

[Pig Pen]

In my experience, online check-in does not guarantee much, at least at regular resorts. We recently stayed at ASMU and did online check-in. My only request was a ground floor room as my sister has a knee that crunches when going up and down stairs.

Of course they put us on the top floor. When I asked about ground floor availabilty, they changed it immediately. Of course we were stuck out in outer siberia, but that didn't bother us as we had a car.

The resort was definitely NOT FULL. I sometimes wonder if there is any rhyme or reason to the process at all.

Other times, we have received plum locations and upgrades without asking....