Got a call from WDW Executive Offices concerning my email to them

[karebear1]

Unfortunately, I wasn't home, but the gal that called left a very nice and informative message for me along with a phone number to call if I want to call back with any questions.

Anyway- I sent an email to WDW about the trip we took and mentioned both positives and negatives of the trip. The neg. included- I reserved at the 11 month window and requested non smoking and EPCOT view 2 br villa. When we checked in, we were assigned NS unit with a poolview, which was very nice, but not the EPCOT view we had requested. I'd mentioned that we enjoyed the room we were assigned to, but were slightly disappointed that we did not recieve the room requested at the 11 month window. In addition, I mentioned the condition of the furniture in the lobby area of the BC was in bad condition, and I mentioned in passing that we had also stayed at BWV and the lobby was very clean and furniture in good repair.

In her response to my email she mentioned that the DVC cannot block a room request and that the resort recieves our ressies about 10 days before we actually check in. She also said that any room request should be sent to the resort 10 days prior to you checking in. And that if we are under the impression that reserving at the 11 month window through the DVC & being a DVC member, will give us priority to a certain requests- that is not the case. Now- she said this in a much nicer way, I'm just trying to convey in my own words what I heard. I must say that while I knew that there were no room guarantees, I have always been under the impression that reserving at the 11 month window would certainly give you a better chance of getting what you requested and that as DVC members we would have some kind of preference due to the fact that we were owners in the DVC. I am the only one that thought that? I have not called her back, but I plan on returing the call tomorrow- so, if anyone has any questions you want me to ask- let me know and I will relay them to her.

 

[Disney-Kim]

from my understanding...request are just that...requests. The 11 month window helps you to get a room at your home resort before those who have to wait till the 7 month window. plus cash people could book 2 years out if they really wanted. I guess thats the way I understood it.

 

[msdis]

Unfortunately these boards have made us all a little more demanding, given us all a little higher expectations, made us jealous of those who get perfect rooms, and made us feel like we are missing something or being treated poorly for various reasons. Think if you never saw any of this information, we would all be blissfully happy.


Life is short, the only thing worse than sweating the small stuff is sweating the stupid stuff.


So what were the positive things you wrote about?

 

[gracelrm]

I thought we were discouraged recently from contacting the resort for room requests. Seems as though I remember one of the Vacation Magic issues telling us NOT to fax room requests to the individual resorts. This seems to contradict that doesn't it?

 

[gopherit]

Originally posted by gracelrm
I thought we were discouraged recently from contacting the resort for room requests. Seems as though I remember one of the Vacation Magic issues telling us NOT to fax room requests to the individual resorts. This seems to contradict that doesn't it?

I'll back you up on that one -- it was in a members newsletter, as I recall, in the DVC website, saying that faxes to the resort only made things worse.

As taken from the Members website:

As a reminder, the established procedure and appropriate time for making special room requests is when you make your reservation with Member Services. If you have any additional requests, or changes to your original request, call Member Services directly. Please do not call or fax the resort where you'll be staying. To be fair to all Members, the only information we use when trying to honor special room requests is that which comes from Member Services.

With so many Members having special requests, it's important that everyone follow this established procedure. As you can imagine, the number of Members asking for particular rooms, views, floors, and buildings makes it impossible to honor all of the requests. We do our best to honor your requests, but please understand that we cannot guarantee them.

 

[Pig Pen]

Originally posted by msdis
Unfortunately these boards have made us all a little more demanding, given us all a little higher expectations, made us jealous of those who get perfect rooms, and made us feel like we are missing something or being treated poorly for various reasons. Think if you never saw any of this information, we would all be blissfully happy.


This fits me to a T ! For years I was content to stay at the Holiday Inn or Days Inn on 192 at $39 per night. But after finding this site I am now a Dis Nazi.

 

[DebbieB]

If they are using the new "room ready" policy which began about a year ago, the date you booked has nothing to do with room assignment and getting requests. When someone checks in, they look for a room that is already available for occupancy that meets at least one of the requests. Under this policy, no advantage is given to date of reservation, no rooms are pre-assigned by requests. I personally spoke to the member satisfaction manager at the time (Jackie Lueders) and this was how it was explained to me.

From my own experiece and posts of people coming back, it seems like they are still pre-assigning some rooms and also looking at other open rooms when you arrive.

 

[OneMoreTry]

It seems we get contradictory information all the time.

Fax. Don't fax.

Room ready. Preassigned.

It's enough to drive a planner crazy.

It would be nice to know what we're up against.

 

[jodifla]

I never thought that booking at the 11 month window got me anything but first dibs on a room at the resort, not a particular room.

After that, it's luck of the draw based on who's checking out that day. With the points system and people staying all different lengths of time, I don't see how it could work any other way.

I feel sorry for the Disney CMs trying to make everybody happy. If I'm not wild about a room (and that's only happened once in about 20 visits), I figure I'll get one I like the next time.

I mean, doesn't everyone want an Epcot view? I just don't see how you can expect that.

 

[PamOKW]

As a reminder, the established procedure and appropriate time for making special room requests is when you make your reservation with Member Services. If you have any additional requests, or changes to your original request, call Member Services directly. Please do not call or fax the resort where you'll be staying. To be fair to all Members, the only information we use when trying to honor special room requests is that which comes from Member Services.

Right off the Member Site (the bolding is theirs). This is the direct opposite of what the message said regarding contacting the resort!

With so very few rooms having an Epcot view, even booking at 11 months wouldn't guarantee getting that view. If the room(s) are booked on the day you check-in, there just isn't a room to give. It is also important to list your requests in order of priority when you make them. i.e., non-smoking first if that's most important, then whatever else is important.

 

[KathyR]

In her response to my email she mentioned that the DVC cannot block a room request and that the resort recieves our ressies about 10 days before we actually check in. She also said that any room request should be sent to the resort 10 days prior to you checking in.

I think what they mean is that at the same time the resort gets our ressies (as stated 10 days before arrival), they also get the requests that we made via MS.

They are not telling us to fax requests ahead of time. Just stating when they are received by the resort.

 

[Caskbill]

Requests are just that....requests. Last January we checked in and out of several resorts/timeshares during our trip, and one of the weeks at OKW we got a smoking 1-B/R villa, even though NS is always our #1 request. We didn't check in until about 7:00 pm at night and there were only two 1-B/R units still available, both of them smoking.

They said they could change us in 2-days, but for a 5-day stay I thought that wasn't worth the trouble. They did send a housekeeper over right away who sprayed Febreez all over the place which really made a difference. She then left the bottle for us to use if we wanted to freshen things up anytime. I asked about those electronic 'ozone' type cleaners that they have at BWV's, but she said that OKW doesn't have them.

However, I really do wish they'd make NS rooms a guarantee. Just like they now will guarantee a boardwalk view at BWV.

Just 2-cents worth.

 

[disneyberry]

they have definitely done away with the policy that the earlier you book, the more chance you have for your room request.

that was mentioned to me last year when i spoke with Jackie Leuders (sp?), who used to be the Customer Satisfaction Manager of Member Services (i believe the new Manager is Scott Lish).

at that time, she told me about a "Room Ready" policy where she said that rooms are not preassigned at all, that whether you get your requests depends on what rooms are available when you walk up to the front desk to check in.

however, we have seen cases where the front desk does seem to have preassigned rooms during busy times when the resort has high occupancy.

basically, the gist of it all is that DVC resorts seem to be handling requests the same way that regular Disney hotels handle them. my guess is that there probably still is a room assignor, but they no longer take into consideration how early you made your reservation. they don't care about that. it's now luck of the draw, first come first serve, and they try their best to grant some requests, but nothing is guaranteed at all unless you have a medical needs.


btw, i did want to add that even if the old policy were in place, that doesn't mean your requests would be guaranteed. DVC has been having a hard time because some members are very upset when their room requests aren't granted, which is why they put that notice on the member website, emphasizing that requests are in no way guaranteed.

anyway, hope this helps clear things up.
it's good to see that at least they are responsive to letters.

 

[karebear1]

msdis- We actually really enjoyed the room we were assigned to. My comment about being a little disappointed we didn't get EPCOT view as requested was one sentence. I didn't think I made that big of a deal of it, but it must have stuck a chord with them. I told them we loved the view of the room overlooking the pool and the Wishes fireworks we could see from our room. Also told her the room was in great condition and that the staff there was wonderful and very nice and patient with us.
I see after reading others thoughts , that my thoughts about the DVC were somewhat skewed. I understood that there are no room guarantees- I guess I just wrongly assumed that DVC owners would be given preference over non DVC members when it came to room requests. But- that's ok! At least now I have a clearer understanding of what a DVC member can expect when reserving... that is basically the same as everyone else expects. I love my DVC (warts and all!) and I am thankful to be able to stay at such beautiful accomadations as these.

 

[jaysue]

Did they say anything about the state of the furniture in the BC lobby?

thanks
jaysue

 

[ClarabelleCow]

If you do call - Ask about the Vero rumor!!!!

 

[goofy4tink]

Can I ask a question here about room requests at the time of check-in?? We have a preferred view studio in August. Non-smoking. When we check-in, I imagine it will be early in the day, can we ask at this point for a room on an upper floor? Or is this considered somewhat pushy? We wouldn't need to get into the room at this point. WE could come back much later in the day. I just really like the idea of being a little higher up than on the lower level.

 

[DebbieB]

I would put the request for an upper floor on your reservation record by calling MS. I would not wait until you get to the front desk in case they are preassigning rooms that day.

 

[SimbaCub]

I had an opportunity to meet Jackie at the condo meetings in Dec. I did ask about the "room ready" with regards to smoking/non-smoking requests. I was told that they are supposed to make sure they don't put a smoking request in a non-smoking room or a non-smoking in a smoking room. I mentioned that it appears to happen quite frequently based on some "fellow DVCer comments"--though I would imagine she knew I was referring to this website. I pushed on this when they had the question forum asking why they couldn't track it in the system when MS made our ressies so we would know at the time of the phone call if a room was available or not. They balked of course but I pushed back telling them it's not that difficult to modify their system especially as they have already modified it for BWV preferred views by adding the boardwalk view/garden view on the request. I do know that one of the people wasn't happy when I compared the change to BWV to adding smoking/non-smoking but that's too bad. One person, I cannot remember who, did seem interested but I know it wasn't the person from MS who was there. Still, I think a "guaranteed" room is something we would all like but reality is it cannot be done. I do have a problem if someone books at 2 months and I book at 11 and we have the same "basic" request like upper floor and they get it because they checked in earlier than I did. Jackie said our ressie date was supposed to be what determined who got what room as they were going through so in the example above I should get the upper floor room and if there are any left after assigning the rest then the person booking at 2 months would get it. I think they can work on that and most people would be satisfied knowing that since they didn't book at 11 months they didn't get the upper floor but if someone booking at 2 months did then I feel members have reason to complain.

SimbaCub

 

[MelissathePooh]

The thing is, besides froma few rooms rented out by cro or by members themselves, the whole resort is filled with dvc members who own points there. Every single room has some dvc member in it. Or, somebody who payed good cash to stay there. So everybody there feels like they should get a "good" room - but some rooms seem better than others. Sometimes it might work out great, because what one person is looking for isn't what another one is - like someone wants to stay on the first floor, and someone else wants a high room. But things like "Epcot view" are just in rare supply. Most everyone would be happy to have one, but there aren't enough for everyone. Somebody has to be a the end of the hall, it is just the luck of the draw. Sometimes we've had great rooms, sometimes not so great. I agree with the poster who said that sites like this build us up to hope for the great thing that the next guy got. One of the great things about dvc is that we'll all be back again.