Has Disney's handling of room assignments changed recently?

[EpcotPhoenician]

My understanding of room requests (non-DVC, cash direct through Disney) has always been that there is a back office team that assigns rooms a few weeks prior to check-in. I've had decent success with calling the main phone line and placing room requests through them. Then, the morning of check-in, I speak with a Cast Member at the front desk who will then again place a phone call to that back office team to confirm whether the room request can be fulfilled.

I have a trip planned in a few months, so I called the main line just now to place the room request. I was advised by the Cast Member, who seemed super knowledgable, that it is now the Team Lead for the resort itself performing room assignments instead of the offsite team.

Is it possible that Disney cut costs by shifting room-assignment responsibility to the resort Team Leads... or has it been this way all along and I was just misunderstanding the process?

 

[Mle8308]

MANY years ago when I worked FD at Disney, room requests were assigned 5 days prior to arrival date. It was CM's at the resort, more experienced Cast who had good knowledge of the resort and room locations and features. Reservations used to download from the central reservations system 5 days prior to arrival. We could not see a guest reservation in the hotel system unless it was within that 5 day window. Not sure how it works now. We did not assign every room, only requests or if we had a "hole" and needed a specific reservation for a certain number of nights to fill it. Otherwise, rooms were auto selected when the guest arrived and were standing in front of you at check in. We did not have advance check in back then, so I am sure it has changed.

 

[focusondisney]

Is it possible that Disney cut costs by shifting room-assignment responsibility to the resort Team Leads... or has it been this way all along and I was just misunderstanding the process?

From what I remember, room assignments were moved from the individual resorts to a centralized location a few years ago. I don’t remember if that was after Covid closures or before. If what you were told is accurate, it sounds like they moved assignments back to the individual resorts. This is the first report I’ve read of them being done back at the resorts.