Thanks for all the replies. Having slept on it I'm almost sure we'll keep our reservation as it is. We have two small children so its kind of a big deal either way. No pool at the hotel is a big deal and being at AK with the longer ride to MK is also a big deal!
I'm not expecting a whopping discount but something would have been nice. Even the offer of a character dinner or something (not that I've been able to get any for my trip anyway!). Just to make me feel less hard done by.
Hey ho. Sorry to all you others whose vacations are a bit scrambled now. This trips been 12 years in the planning, using inheritance from my grandma and is to celebrate 2 x 40th birthdays and 15 years of marriage - so I was kinda hoping it would be perfect.
It certainly is disappointing, but again I hope you don't let it ruin your vacation. There's so much to see and do at Disney, you hopefully will barely miss having the pool. The good thing is that in November, temperatures are usually cool enough that the pool isn't such a must-do. In fact we were there last November, and half the trip was too cool for the pool. (And we are from Northern US almost Canada.)
As others have mentioned, there is a second DVC pool at the resort. It's not that big, so maybe they don't want to advertise that it is available for general use, but my guess is that you could use it, and it certainly would be more convenient than traveling to the other resorts. My recommendation here would be to call and ask about it. IT's called the Hidden Springs Pool
I did a little more research, and while getting to Fort Wilderness is easy, I suspect getting the the Fort Wilderness POOL will be a lesser option as any bus or boat that takes you to Fort Wilderness would then require an internal bus to take you to the pool, unless Wilderness Lodge has a separate bus that takes you right to the pool.
However, the Contemporary is less than a 5-minute ride from the Wilderness Lodge, which might not be too bad depending on how they shuttle you.
Another option is turn a negative into a positive. If you are willing to pack your swim gear and stow it in a locker at MK, you could take a break during the day and head directly to the Contemporary. Whereas getting back to Wilderness Lodge is a 20 minute boat-ride, the Contemporary is about a 2 minute monorail ride away.
Another option (and this probably would only be possible once you are actually there though you could ask about it over the phone as well) is to talk to someone in guest services and see if you could convince them to give you a free upgrade to a Water Parks and More pass. Not 100 % sure they would do it, but if you appear with the right mix of upset but not antagonistic you might just be able to convince them. Then you could travel over to Blizzard Beach for some "pool time".
Again, none of these are as ideal as having the main pool, but unfortunately you can't plan around these closures. They do happen with usually fairly limited notice.
