HA Room Roulette at VGF

[Disney On The Bayou]

Checking in tonight at VGF for a 6 night stay in a 1 bedroom. We are very excited, but I'm also very nervous since we are checking in so late and we might get a HA room. I wish they would assign these similar to the boardwalk view at BWV, that way you don't have to play the HA Roulette game. We have been members since 2001 and I would say that it's been our experience to be assigned a HA room about a 1 in 10 trips. We had one last year at BWV, in that case it was actually nice since we were in a studio and the room we had actually had more space then a typical studio, not to mention it was in a great locations. However, I would be disappointed to receive one this evening for a 6 night stay, when we are looking forward to the beautiful bathrooms at VGF. If we are assigned one we will make do, but this is an area that DVC can improve and make less anxious for members.

What's been your experience? About 1 in 10? Or more or less frequent?

 

[Chuck S]

My experience, since we used to request first floor at OKW since Mom had heart issues, was about 20%. When I travel with fully ambulatory folks, I request 2nd floor at OKW, which kind of eliminates that possibility... unless they are fully booked and have no other option.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I can't think of a time that we've gotten a HA room at WDW DVC unless I had requested a certain location due to medical reasons (that didn't require the HA facilities but the room assignor seemed to think if you have other medical then you must need HA! I have gotten HA on the hotel side though.


I'm curious what you mean about the BWV boardwalk view and HA rooms though? They are extremely few in number but they are part of the mix just like any other place AFAIK.

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

I was just saying that it should be a booking category, similar to the boardwalk view. That way you know ahead of time that you have a HA room or not before you go and it's your choice, not some random assignment. I guess the same could be said for dumpster views and other arrangements that we don't prefer, but the HA room is a completely different set-up then the standard rooms. Plus if I'm traveling with someone that needs those accommodations I would want to be sure we were booked into that category.

 

[erionm]

I was just saying that it should be a booking category, similar to the boardwalk view.

There is an option in the on-line booking tool to specifically book an accessible room. If not all of them are booked, someone that book a regular room will get assigned one of the open accessible rooms. When you check-in, the front desk is supposed to tell you if you are in an accessible room and will try to accommodate you if that's not acceptable.

 

[Simba's Mom]

There is an option in the on-line booking tool to specifically book an accessible room. If not all of them are booked, someone that book a regular room will get assigned one of the open accessible rooms. When you check-in, the front desk is supposed to tell you if you are in an accessible room and will try to accommodate you if that's not acceptable.

Key word-SUPPOSED TO tell you. Not only have I had them not tell us, when I asked (after having been unknowingly assigned HA rooms several times in a row), I actually had a front desk CM lie to me and say it wash't HA when it was. Then the front desk manager tried to tell me that front desk CMs don't know which rooms are HA (and if that's the case, the CM still lied). But when I asked her, "Then how do you deal with someone checking in who says they need a HA room?" she had no answer. Now I have a list of HA rooms, so when they tell me my room #, I know.

 

[misskari]

What's an HA room?

 

[Simba's Mom]

HA=Handicapped Accessible. Usually no tub (although a few HA villas have tubs), different amounts of closet and shelf space. People have differing reactions to getting HA villas without asking or needing one, ranging from "I don't mind" to "No Way!"

 

[Dean]

I was just saying that it should be a booking category, similar to the boardwalk view. That way you know ahead of time that you have a HA room or not before you go and it's your choice, not some random assignment. I guess the same could be said for dumpster views and other arrangements that we don't prefer, but the HA room is a completely different set-up then the standard rooms. Plus if I'm traveling with someone that needs those accommodations I would want to be sure we were booked into that category.

In a sense I agree but I also realize it's likely not truly workable for resorts other than SSR & OKW due to the fact that it'd fragment each and every booking category. Often one would end up with a split stay simply on this issue alone plus combined with the limit of 2 wait lists at a time, it's make WL reservations far more difficult. Likely the best way to do this would be to go back to prioritized room assignments based on when the booking occurred or owner vs non owner that resort.

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

Well we arrived late and I couldn't be more pleased with the room assignment. I requested a ground floor close to the lobby and got neither thankfully. We ended up on the 6th floor with a fantastic view of the pool area and monorail. It's a standard view but I was very impressed with it. Did have a few surprises though... I arrived at 11pm and the check-in at that time is in the Grand Floridian and not the Villas. Makes sense, but I didn't know until this evening (morning). Also, we had two purple boxes delivered to the bell service's at the villas, however, bell services is not available at the villas that late. We were able to eventually get them as the CM couldn't have been more helpful, however, this was a one off as the official policy is not to do this. We were very thankful as all of our toiletries are stored there and we didn't bring any additional and the store was closed at this point as well. Anyway, I'm very happy with things overall, we really enjoy DVC. Here for 6 nights and on to Vero Beach for 5, should be a great trip!

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

Got assigned a room on the 6th floor, 1 bedroom standard view and standard arrangement, non HA room. I originally requested ground floor and near lobby, I got neither thankfully. Our view from the room is one of the better views you can have in the standard view category IMHO. We are super please!

Just some other quick notes on our experience arriving late at the resort. Upon check-in we were directed to the main building as the Villas were not open at 11:00PM. This surprised us a bit, but we understand the enormous expense it would be to staff the Villas with 24/7 front desk service. Also, we didn't have access to our purple boxes because they were in the villa's bell services area and it was not accessible until the morning. We keep all of our essential toiletries in the box, as well as, clothes for us, so this presented a challenge. Thankfully the CMs accommodated us, and we will be better prepared for this in the future.

 

[wdrl]

Enjoy your stay at VGF! We just spent three nights at VGF before our cruise and were very impressed with our villa and the resort.

You might have already discovered it, but underneath the little shelf on the nightstand is an electrical outlet and USB connector. It can be quite handy for charging a phone. Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until the morning we were checking out.

BTW, the VGF Villas and Views thread can always use a photo of the view from your villa.

Edited to Add: This post on the DVCNews Forum has photos of the USB port and nightstand at VGF.

 

[Disney On The Bayou]

Oh... Great tip on the USB!

 

[DebbieB]

In almost 15 years of DVC, I've never been assigned a HA room. The only time I stayed in one was at AKV on a friend's reservation. We had concierge and were assigned pool view. We asked if we could be moved to savannah view if it became available. One became available the next day but it was HA, we decided to accept it.

Was at VGF last week, loved it!

 

[Simba's Mom]

In almost 15 years of DVC, I've never been assigned a HA room. The only time I stayed in one was at AKV on a friend's reservation. We had concierge and were assigned pool view. We asked if we could be moved to savannah view if it became available. One became available the next day but it was HA, we decided to accept it.

Was at VGF last week, loved it!

Boy are you lucky! In our first 6 trips as DVC members we got HA rooms 3 times (all without being told). Since none of the HA rooms we got had tubs, we were more than a little disappointed, especially when one CM told us "Now that you're DVC members, a tub is not a guarantee."

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Boy are you lucky! In our first 6 trips as DVC members we got HA rooms 3 times (all without being told). Since none of the HA rooms we got had tubs, we were more than a little disappointed, especially when one CM told us "Now that you're DVC members, a tub is not a guarantee."

It cracks me up when the CM's come up with things like that.

As I mentioned above the only time I've gotten an HA room at Disney other than when we had a request for a medical reason was thru CRO cash in the hotel side.