Like many of you, we started visiting Disney by staying at park resorts before buying at DVC.
In fact, I remember pool hopping as a resort guest in the mid-nineties and do not recall any prohibitions on this.
There are several concerns that have been presented that are valid and unfortunately in conflict. I think a few common sense security measures might reconcile rights of resort guests to fully enjoy the resort pools with the right of DVC members to pool hop.
First, resort guests have a right to access to the resort pool. When pool hoppers take up tables, lounges and resort guests cannot find space, the resort guests are being denied service they are paying for. In this instance allowing pool hopping is both unfair and a bad policy.
Second, pool hopping is a nice perk. When pools are not at capacity, it is interesting to check out other pools. Our kids enjoyed the slides at Stormalong Bay and Luna Park which we hopped to from OKW. Also, pool hopping tends to be for a few hours on one day of a visit in our experience. If the pool was that big a deal, we'd use our points to stay at the other resort.
Third, part of the magic of Disney is being very relaxed at your resort. Would having fences, room key entry, and CM's checking ID's intrude? (It works at Vero, without a problem.)
Fourth, security at Disney has definitely declined over the years. On our first visit in 1991, our room ID's were asked for to get towels at the Poly pool, and we had to show our ID's to get on buses or on to the monorail. That doesn't happen anymore.
So, more day trippers are using Disney transportation to go to resorts and use the pools illegally. I believe this is much more of a problem than the DVC pool hopping policy. Asking to see ID's to get on to the resort monorail, and all buses to/from resorts would make it much harder for day trippers to use the resort pools. I don't know why Disney stopped doing this, but it should start again. I think this would eliminate about 90% of the problem.
Fifth, wrist bands are a pain. They were tried at Vero on one visit there. They wound up as litter, and they were a general bother. Also, nobody seemed to enforce the policy anyway, so some folks wore them, others didn't and the result was more trouble than it was worth.
Overall, I believe the best possible approach that preserves pool hopping for DVC members, while being fair to resort guests would involve:
1. To get towels at any pool, a valid resort ID must be shown.
2. To get on the resort monorail, a valid resort ID must be shown.
3. To get on any bus that stops at a WDW resort, a valid resort ID must be shown.
4. Allow pool hopping as it is now, with the right for the practice to be suspended (as it is now) during periods of high occupancy.
5. CM's should be instructed to politely question anyone they believe to be illegally at the pool, and if caught, any tickets held by the tresspassers would be invalidated. Signs to this effect should be posted prominently wherever tickets are sold and tickets purchased through the mail or a
travel agent should include this information clearly in large print.
The above is fairly easy to implement, would not add to expenses and would probably eliminate most problems.
