HIFS; anyone concerned about the renovations?

[kathyclownfish]

Hi Everyone! Is anyone concerned about the Nickelodeon renovations gong on at HIFS? We are going to be at WDW during "Jersey Week", Oct 30 - Nov 5th and made reservations at the HIFS. I know that usually you can't even tell when construction is going on.........but how about if the kids pool is closed That would be pretty major IMHO!! Anyone being there lately? Does anyone know the plan?

Thanks for your info





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[curlyjbs]

Just got off the phone with Tracey at HIFS. She told me that there will always be a family/kids pool open. They are doing away with the lap pool in the west wing and turning it into another family/kids pool. (She said it's really gonna be cool) This work is supposed to begin soon. When we go in june they told me to expect the lobby, part of the restaurant and the west side pool to be under construction. The new pool will not be done until September. Rooms are being re-done a few at a time. rolleyes:
We are going in June and I was assured that the work will not affect my stay. We'll see.

I also told her that we may return either Nov. or Dec. & would we be able to stay in the newer rooms. She said no. They are not taking reservations till MARCH '05. But she did say we would definetely be able to enjoy the new pool.

Unfortunetly the rates are definetly going to increase. But she didn't know by how much.

I told her to let someone know they should update the website with this information because she says they are getting alot of calls.

Curly :

 

[kathyclownfish]

Wow Curly you really did your homework. Thanks for the update. I'm hoping to be able to use the new pool when we go for Halloween!
I'm sure you will have a very nice stay in June. I've stayed at resorts that have been under construction.......and you really don't know its going on.

Thanks again for the detailed information!
Kathy

 

[pm914]

Thanks for all the great info.
I sure hope the rates don't go up significantly. The HIFS is going to be our hotel of choice for our annual/bi-annual WDW trips - unless it stops being such a good value.
I hope it doesn't change too much. (I find a lot of the Nikolodeon stuff rather garish). Time will tell.

 

[bigsis1970]

Wow Thanks for the update - Kathy we will be there for some of the sametime as you ( Oct 29-Nov1st ) and can't wait to try out the new pool ! even if the rooms will not be completely renovated they are still great ! Michelle

 

[Lewisc]

You won't know until it happens. The hotel could raise available rates (get rid of almost all of the deeply discounted Entertainment rates for example)without actually increasing their posted rates.

Originally posted by curlyjbs
Unfortunetly the rates are definetly going to increase. But she didn't know by how much.

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by Lewisc
You won't know until it happens. The hotel could raise available rates (get rid of almost all of the deeply discounted Entertainment rates for example)without actually increasing their posted rates.

I think that is exactly what is going to happen - there will be no more Entertainment Rates. When I called late last year to book my reservation for this June, I was told by the management that they were no longer offering the Ent Rate. When I found out that they were actually listed in the 2004 Ent Book I called back to question how they could be in the book and not offer the discount. They made me fax the listing to them and they all seem very surprised that it was in there. But they did finally say that they would offer the Ent rate again this year. My feeling is that this will be the last year for these discounts. They will rely on the "newly renovated" and Nickolodeon reasons to justify not offering deep discounts. I hope I'm wrong .......

 

[Julia M]

Has the main pool with the 0 depth entry already been renovated? I thought I heard that it was being updated and then the lap pool would be changed.

We have August ressies. I'm a bit concerned, because we will not be doing the parks, just hanging at the pool. I'm afariad it will be quite crowded

Julia

 

[pm914]

Julia, we got back from HIFS on 3/2/04 and the pool had definitely not been renovated. It didn't look like any construction had begun yet.