DVC veterans-Help please, I need advice.

[MarkandMatt'sMom]

Last year my husband and I took my parents and two sons ( then ages 11 months and 3.5 years) to Disney for my parents' 60th birthdays. We stayed in a two-bedroom at the BWVs. It was lovely but it was literally the room farest from the elevator on the third floor. It was somewhat tough on my parents but we were at Disney so we were having a great time anyway. This year we decided to go again. We are staying in a one bedroom and a studio at the BWV for 8 nights in July.( I tried for a two bedroom but there were none available under the discount code I used.) The first night on each of the reservations is being taking care of by an angel of a friend using some of her "expiring" points. The remainder of the reservation is under the 4/7 Disney VIsa New Aquisition discount.

I have a few questions for veterans:

Based on your experience, will we have to switch rooms after the first night?

What are my chances of having the rooms located very close to one another?

How should I convey our preferences?

If I would like the following how should I ordered my preferences on my request: non-smoking; rooms located close to each other; rooms located near the elevator or on the first floor (my parents are not as young as they used to be.); as nice of a view as possible.

Thanks for any advice you can give,

 

[dianeschlicht]

We are told to make requests at the time of the reservation. If your resservation with the points was linked to your other reservation, you might have a chance of not changing rooms, but don't count on it at this point. You can also request that the rooms be near each other and near an elevator, but again, don't count on it. Most DVC members make their ressies between 7 and 11 months ahead, and also make their requests at that time. requesting this late might be difficult at best. That being said, I would still go ahead and make those requests, putting your most important one first and then on down to the least important.

 

[Granny]

I'm not overly familiar with how DVC point reservations and cash reservations are linked. My suggestion would be to have your "angel of a friend" call Member Services, and ask if the reservations can be linked. If so, you would not have to move.

Also, during that call, your friend can put in your requests. I think you've already put them in priority order, and that's how they should be given to Member Services. Unlike cash reservations, it is not recommended to contact the room controller at the resort by phone or fax a week before arriving to make the requests. With DVC, requests should be made at the time of the reservation.

I think that they will try to work with your requests as well as they can. But they will work on the first request first and work their way down the list. If the only two non-smoking rooms that are somewhat near each other happen to be at the very end of the hallway, then you'll be back in the same area again.


Last but not least, they are just requests. Just trying to set expectations...in our experience they've tried hard to honor the requests we've made.

 

[DVC Grandpa]

Last November, I took all of our kids to WDW and stayed at BCV. We had four rooms, two of which had continuing reservations. We did not have to change rooms, it was noted that they were continuing reservations. As far as being in a location desirable to you, I requested non-smoking, a view and near each other. I got just that, side by side rooms or just on the other side of the hallway. It was noted on all of the reservations that they were in the same party…everything worked out and this was over Thanksgiving week when everything was “sold out”. .

 

[wdwsos]

I just booked a few days for a friend and she needed to add a day with cash. Member Services told me that she shouldn't have to switch rooms, but what I needed to do was to call them with her cash confirmation number so that they could note it on the reservation. MS said that my friend should also let CRO know that the cash reservation was linked to a DVC reservation.

Dotti

 

[dianeschlicht]

Having the ressies linked is always the best strategy for this situation. It still is not a guarantee, but we have never had trouble with having to change when we have linked reservations. We have never linked them with cash ressies, but I can't imagine it would be any different than linking two point ressies.