DVC Medical Necesssity Requests

[JudithM]

Jackie L is no longer the DVC Member Satisfaction Manager. Carli D'Agostino is the DVC Member Satisfaction Manager. I would start with Carli. If you send a letter to Jim Lewis it will most likely be given to Carli to handle.

 

[Forever a Princess]

Yikes,

Thanks for posting how this was resolved for you. What a bummer.

 

[Dean]

How can anything trump owners? I don't get it. If you are unable to use stairs, what did you do? We will have an ECV this trip for our son's fiance' who broke her back a couple of years ago, but she is able to use stairs, so we will leave the ECV at HH if we don't get a first floor unit. Please let us know how this all got resolved.

I agree that owners at THAT resort should come first, no matter when they booked. IMO, that's one of the big negatives of DVC and one of the many reasons why I will pare down my DVC holdings after next Dec.

 

[Nanajo1]

I also posted this on the disAbilities Board.
Carli D'Agostino called me yesterday. She was very gracious. She apologized for taking so long to get back to me but she said she wanted to investigate and find out what happened. DVC took responsible for the problem. Member Services is the contact with Special Needs and they should have called Special Needs to block off the GV I needed. She confirmed that Tatiana at the front desk had credited me for one night GV points. She also said because the mix up caused my party to move multiple times she credited my account the difference in points I used and what I would have used if there had been no mix up. The pouints re in my current use year.
I didn't note if she actually said MS would be reminded to involve Special Needs when medical requests are made but I have that impression. Unfortunately, when she called I had family arriving for dinner and it was a bit chaotic. At least I now know to request Special Needs.
All in all I am pleased with the resolution.

 

[dianeschlicht]

So glad it finally got resolved, and thank you for coming back to let us all know about the resolution! Glad it worked out to your benefit, and possiblly to the benefit of other owners now, who call and will get the correct answer about how to book!

 

[Cyndy]

As one who has been in that "sandwich" between parents/kids as a caregiver, and has spent a few years in a wheelchair (no longer required). I believe that as we baby boomers/dvc owners age, as well as the large numbers of others with disabilities, this will become a much bigger problem. I would hope that DVC will adjust their HC request policy to best satisfy the needs of the owners. OKW seems to be a favorite for many of us, and I would bet if the poll were taken that OKW resort has the most senior owner population. Without the elevators of the other resorts, it seems that this problem will just get worse.

I wish I had only thought to ask Jim Davis, on the 05 DVC cruise, if this issue was getting any attention by mgmt. It appears that Nanajo's brought it to their attention once, but I wonder how many more times it's happened and not received the same level of attention?

 

[T.E. Yeary]

Nana-I personally find this situation very disappointing!

From what I understand you did everything correctly.

Best wishes for a resolution to an extremely sad situation and let's hope this type of thing is never repeated!

Sincerely,
Tom

 

[lisareniff]

Thanks for reporting back your resolution and what should happen. It is helpful to me. I'm trying to convince my DSis who is wheelchair bound and has not travel at all to go to WDW. I need to make sure I can assure her of how everything would work.

 

[JimC]

Thanks for the report. Not a very fun way to start a vacation. I agree with others who have said that this is an area where DVC could do better.

When we have requested accessible villas the CM usually puts us on hold to call the resort (DVC, WDW, DL) and confirm that they had a room available that met our needs. They also usually ask several questions about the types of accommodation we require first -- not all accessible rooms have roll-in shower for example. They then confirm the room and it is not a request.

Of course things can go wrong as it did at the YC when the room we were assigned was taken out of service. But the front desk CMs were very helpful in getting us settled. Even offered to take us up to the new room to see it first. The view was courtyard instead of lake so they called MS and our points were returned that same afternoon. Really good recovery all the way around.

Just a work of caution on resorts with elevators and guests with mobility and other challenges. Think about how you would evacuate at 2 am with no resort personnel around and fire alarms going off. Would you use the elevator anyway. If it was not operational how would you get down the stairs. It has happened to us and 2 am is not the time to figure it all out. I make it a habit to walk to the two nearest exits in both directions from my room making a mental note on how many doors I pass along the way. If there is smoke and noise touch will be your best means to know how far you have gone.

Same thing on airplanes -- count the seat backs (not rows) to the emergency exit in front and behind you. Flight attendants taught me this.