DVC Customer Service actions

[erickr123]

I will be staying at the VWL this month and was never notified of the pool closure. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience on getting anything extra from Disney when you are using points.

Usually I would complain until I got some money off, but here, there is no money (just points). Has anyone been compensated with anything else? We would change resorts, but we have 3 studio villas reserved and There is no availability.

I know the small pool is still open and they let you use the Poly and Contemp's pools but it is still very inconvenient.

Thanks,
Erick

 

[Deb & Bill]

You have the villas pool available to use. You have other resort pools available to use. What more do you want????? A little cheese to go with that whine???

 

[dannyh23]

I will be staying at the VWL this month and was never notified of the pool closure. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience on getting anything extra from Disney when you are using points.

Thanks,
Erick

Pardon my bluntness, but what do you want them to do for you???

There is nothing in our disclosure documents that mentioned anything about Disney requiring to notify us any time they were working on a pool.

Be happy they still let us go to other pools!!!

 

[Chuck S]

Disney resorts in general don't give "compensation" for resort construction.

Resort amenities need to be refurbished from time to time, usually when it is a pool, all guests at the resort (cash or DVC) are allowed to hop to a nearby resort pool. When the main pool at OKW was closed, guests (cash or points) were encouraged to hop to SSR. No discounts or compensation. When Olivia's was undergoing major rehab and food was trucked in from another resort...again, no compensation. It is what it is...

 

[dvcbrad]

Sorry to say this, but this seems like a kind of a silly question. Would I be upset or disappointed that the pool would be closed when I was staying there? Absolutely. But to complain until you get something?! I'm not sure that there's really any justification for that. Let's face it ... maintenance needs to be done, otherwise the property, pools, etc. will slip into a state of disrepair, and then you'd be complaining about the poor condiditon of the pool, the property, or whatever. Besides, how much time do you REALLY spend IN the pool?

Personally, I'd suggest wait-listing at all DVC's for the three studios and switch. it's hard to believe that with the size of SSR and OKW that all of those would have no availablity.

 

[erickr123]

Just thought it would be nice to have had all the info up front before making the discission for my family.

And if you are paying for something that is advertised, you should get what you pay for. When I made the decision to stay at VWL, it was after looking at the Disney website and seeing the pictures and description of the pools. This was also what I advertised to my family.....When I told my 6yo son where we were staying, I stated it was the place with the slide that you said looked cool. Now he will be staying at the only resort that does not have a slide.

 

[dvcbrad]

Depending on how far in advance you made your reservation, they may not have even known that they would need to be closing the pool. And if you're an owner, you ARE getting what you're paying for - maintenance!

It's obviously unfortunate that this is happening when you're there, but it will be impacting everyone there at the same time you are, too. Every DVC has a pool with a slide - I've read great things about the SSR one - so again ... if it was me, I'd just be trying really hard to get to one of the other DVC's if it bothered me enough.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[DVCLiz]

...Usually I would complain until I got some money off...

Ugghhh, I am ALWAYS the one standing in line behind people who do this. I must have a big sign on my back that says, "If you're going to make a scene, please wait until I can witness all of it."

Why do people feel the need to behave this way, I wonder? I watched someone have a total meltdown one day while waiting for an ADR in Tony's, because he felt he wasn't being seated quickly enough. I watched someone throw a temper tantrum once in line checking in because he didn't like the fact that one of his requests wasn't able to be accomodated.

Do women behave like this, I wonder? I've never witnessed it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen just as frequently. And do people do this just to see what they can get? I mean, it's not like there aren't other options - the quiet pool at VWL is closer than the pool that will be down, and there are easy transportation options to the other pools as well. Why make it into such an enormous deal??

It must be exhausting to be married to this kind of personality - I couldn't stand it for a minute.

 

[Chuck S]

Just thought it would be nice to have had all the info up front before making the discission for my family.

And if you are paying for something that is advertised, you should get what you pay for. When I made the decision to stay at VWL, it was after looking at the Disney website and seeing the pictures and description of the pools. This was also what I advertised to my family.....When I told my 6yo son where we were staying, I stated it was the place with the slide that you said looked cool. Now he will be staying at the only resort that does not have a slide.

From the DVC member website:

*Amenities may vary by resort and are subject to change without notice.

 

[hematite153]

Just thought it would be nice to have had all the info up front before making the discission for my family.... I stated it was the place with the slide that you said looked cool. Now he will be staying at the only resort that does not have a slide.

Not that this is likely to change your feelings but we have found that we greatly prefer the villas pool to the lodge pool at WL. The slide looks cool but is rather small and boring. Whereas the villas pool has springs that no other resort can offer.

If you are DVC members, staying on points (and not traveling during one of the black-out periods) you can actually hop to any pool you wish (except SAB at YC/BC/BCV and Uzima at AKL)

 

[murcor]

I would be disappointed too.

The same thing happened to us when the BWV keister coaster was closed. We hyped it all up to the kids to find out that it was going to be closed when we were suppose to be there.

We switched to SSR. At first we were disappointed at the switch but glad we did it as it was worth the convience to us not to lug the whole family around to other resorts to swim.

Stay positive and dont let it ruin your vacation
Angela

 

[Chuck S]

Do women behave like this, I wonder?

Yep, they do. Saw a lady meltdown at the the OKW front desk a few years ago, crying, screaming, the whole shebang because the room wasn't ready and her child needed a nap. I mean, there were couches a few feet away in "Papa's Den."

 

[dannyh23]

Now he will be staying at the only resort that does not have a slide.

Are you a DVC member? You have plenty of other options -- he would probably love a boat ride to another resort and use the "much cooler" (in my opinion) slides at GF or Poly. Even if you aren't DVC, they will still take you to another pool!

You can always change ressie to a different resort, change your dates, or cancel if you think it's going to ruin your vacation. Man, life's too short to worry and whine about stuff like this!!!! Instead of having fun, now he's going to remember Daddy yelling at CM's....

 

[pilferk]

Are you a DVC member? You have plenty of other options -- he would probably love a boat ride to another resort and use the "much cooler" (in my opinion) slides at GF or Poly. Even if you aren't DVC, they will still take you to another pool!

You can always change ressie to a different resort, change your dates, or cancel if you think it's going to ruin your vacation. Man, life's too short to worry and whine about stuff like this!!!! Instead of having fun, now he's going to remember Daddy yelling at CM's....

There is a direct boat from WL to CR. CR has a slide, too...

 

[erickr123]

There will not be any yelling or meltdowns, and I am far from that type of person that some have labelled me. I am just an upset parent looking for some guidance from fellow Disney lovers. I am trying to change to a different resort but it is tough with the 3 rooms we have.

Fo those who have offered advice, thank you.

 

[LisaS]

There is a recent post by someone staying at, or who just returned from, VWL. The post mentioned that VWL is running a special pontoon boat to the CR (and maybe the Poly as well?) for people who want to use the pool there. The pontoon boats run on demand -- they take you right over when you ask and when you are ready to return to VWL, you ask a lifeguard at the CR and they call over to VWL to send the boat for you. The pontoon boats leave from the boat rental area (not the main dock where you catch the boat to the MK).

If I can find the post, I'll update this post with a link.

ETA: Sorry, I cannot find the post. Can't remember if it was posted on the DVC boards or the Resorts board but I searched both and cannot find it. I do remember that the poster said taking the pontoon boat to the CR was pretty fast since it was an "on demand" service.

 

[dvcbrad]

Now THAT'S the type of customer service us owners have come to appreciate from DVC! I hope we don't get to the point that we have owners (or especially non-owners, as this OP didn't confirm that he really is an owner) expecting to complain until they get something, since DVC is normally VERY good at reasonably correcting and/or accomodating issues!

Remember - as owners, we pay for maintenance, and this is what DVC is doing here. Even though sometimes it's inconvenient, it's what keeps the DVC properties in the condition that we all want and expect them to be in.

 

[DVCLiz]

There will not be any yelling or meltdowns, and I am far from that type of person that some have labelled me. I am just an upset parent looking for some guidance from fellow Disney lovers. I am trying to change to a different resort but it is tough with the 3 rooms we have.

Fo those who have offered advice, thank you.

Well, good. In that case, you're allowed to feel unhappy and to come here and vent about it. Nobody likes to be disappointed about something they were looking forward to, and I know if you chose a resort based on one amenity and it's not avialble, you would feel unhappy. BUT, there really are lots of other good options, so don't let it ruin your feelings about the resort.

I know the pool is an issue, but:

you'll have a wonderful location for all sorts of great activities. The transportation to MK and Epcot is a piece of cake, and you have great watersports right there at the resort. How about you rent a WaterMouse with your son for 30 minutes and let him have a turn "driving?" That should make up for some of the disappointment of the pool not being available. And really, the pp is right about that slide. It wasn't that much of a draw for my daughters, either.

In other words, make a little lemonade here and you'll have a great, great trip!!

 

[Caskbill]

There is a recent post by someone staying at, or who just returned from, VWL. The post mentioned that VWL is running a special pontoon boat to the CR (and maybe the Poly as well?) for people who want to use the pool there. The pontoon boats run on demand -- they take you right over when you ask and when you are ready to return to VWL, you ask a lifeguard at the CR and they call over to VWL to send the boat for you. The pontoon boats leave from the boat rental area (not the main dock where you catch the boat to the MK).

If I can find the post, I'll update this post with a link.

ETA: Sorry, I cannot find the post. Can't remember if it was posted on the DVC boards or the Resorts board but I searched both and cannot find it. I do remember that the poster said taking the pontoon boat to the CR was pretty fast since it was an "on demand" service.

Years ago, before BCV was constructed, we were staying at BWV. They had the pool closed there for maintenance.

They were doing a similar thing with pontoon boats. You could hop a boat at BWV and take it across to BC and use SAB. So, far from being a disappointment that the BWV pool was closed, it was actually a perk to get to go and use SAB instead.

 

[dis-happy]

There will not be any yelling or meltdowns, and I am far from that type of person that some have labelled me. I am just an upset parent looking for some guidance from fellow Disney lovers. I am trying to change to a different resort but it is tough with the 3 rooms we have.

Fo those who have offered advice, thank you.

The best advice I can offer you as a fellow DVC owner and parent:

Teach you kids that sometimes life doesn't go exactly as planned. Be a good example and show them how to have a great attitude about it. There's so much more to VWL than the pool slide and our family also prefers the bubbling springs pool. Anyway, with DVC, you know you can always come back....