How can this happen?????

[Poohs Pal]

Our family stayed in the h/c G/V at SSR in Decmeber. Other than the extremely small balacony you won't be disapointed. It is just beautiful. As others have posted I would assume that some kind of problem occurred with okw G/V. I know when I called to make my ressie at SSR fo a H/C G/V I was put on hold while special service's was contacted so that my entire stay was booked H/C(this was done on the first day of calling). I was calling day by day for my stay in December and even though I needed to call day by day MS told me my entire stay was blocked but if I didn't call by 5p each day I could lose that day. It sounds like you will be staying in the same one we stayed in. It was very quiet and the veiws were wonderful. My only disapointment no GV's in The Springs area, but for others in our group if the golf course view will have a H/C G/V all will be well . The other nice thing about staying at SSR will be the zero entry pool and H/C lift for getting into the hot tub. You can also borrow a water wheelchair free of charge. If you have any question's feel free to ask and hopfully i can answer them. Susan

 

[SuzanneSLO]

When a hotel overbooks and needs to move guests to another property, it is called being "walked." Although the compensation for being walked is not set as a matter of law, it is not uncommon for the hotel to provide the alternative room at NO CHARGE for each night they are unable to accomodate you. I once got a free night plus the frequent stay points I would have earned had I paid.

It appears that Disney often upgrades its guests instead (witness the All Stars to SSR upgrade thread), but its hard to imagine how they could upgrade the OP when she already has a GV booked. With hotels, as with any piece of real estate, there is always the element of "location, location location." While SSR may cost more points, reasonable people could disagree on whether the same size unit there was really an upgrade.

Best of luck -- Suzanne

 

[Nanajo1]

I posted about a similar situation last November. I reserved a H/P GV as well as 2 1BR at OKW. The GV was not available for the first three days of our trip.We didn't find this out until we arrived. The offer was to move half of my guests to SSR for three days but not everyone. I told them it wasn't very Magical Gathering that way. I asked and got 2 2 br ,one w/c accessible for the days before the GV was available. Carli D'agostino was very helpful after the fact adjusting points etc.
Good luck.

 

[Sammie]

You know it's bad enough the OP is having to deal with this challenge, but do you think we might be kind and polite enough to keep the SSR bashing to another thread. I personally think she has enough to deal with, without having to wade through someone else's personal vendetta against SSR, again.

Pretty much all the complaints leveled at SSR could be said for OKW. As to the fact that some people are being moved from All Star to SSR and OKW has more to do with availability and less about appeal. They are simply larger resorts with more inventory for Disney to access.

 

[crisi]

Why do we thing OKW screwed up? There are two HA Grand Villas at OKW. Two. If both are booked as a guarnantee, and one goes out of service because someone had a small fire in the kitchen (it happens), OKW isn't screwing up. BWV has all of seven GV total, which makes it unlikely theirs aren't booked solid - and I think only one is HA. SSR is only at fault for being large enough to have a free Grand Villa - and one that is HA. I do feel for the OP, it isn't nice to have your plans jerked around - and even if SSR appealed to her, changing plans last minute with guests that you have sold on your resort choice isn't great, but with as few HA GV as are available at Disney total, in a way she is fortunate that she is not being told "two bedroom and a studio."

I'm not a fan of SSRs decor, but even I think the GVs there are beautiful. I hope the OP has a wonderful trip

 

[JodyTG]

Just to get rid of the "All Stars of the DVC" taste in peoples mouths, I want to tell everyone what I was told recently. This is just an unverifyied rumor that I've heard, so take it with a grain of salt...

A friend was talking to someone (at the sales office) at SSR a few days ago and asked about people being upgraded from the All Stars to SSR for no charge. Here is what she was told:

Reason #1 - overbooking at the All Stars (Remember when this happed a year or so ago at the Polynesian?)

Reason #2 - Do you remember when you make reservations and you use your phone number and they ask how many times you've visited Disney in X # of years? Well, these are the people that are getting this upgrade. Disney figures that if you go there so many times, you might be interested in buying into DVC.

Reason #3 - SSR is the only (officially) DVC for sale right now.

Reason #4 - Marketing, Marketing, Marketing - It's like test driving a car. You drive it, you fall in love, you buy it.

Like I said, this is just heresay (she didn't get a name) but it sounds plausible to me.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Regarding the OP guarantee. There are no guarantees only that you will have a room for the dates you book. As for, room #, smoking/non-smoking, etc. - they are not guaranteed.

 

[chris1gill]

Regarding the OP guarantee. There are no guarantees only that you will have a room for the dates you book. As for, room #, smoking/non-smoking, etc. - they are not guaranteed.

This actually is not true as it relates to a wheelchair guaranteed room... they are absolutely blocked off and guaranteed by Special Services... If a Wheelchair Accessible room was blocked off and guaranteed, the unit itself has been held aside for this OP.... I assume something in that unit malfunctioned, and the unit itself is out of commission....

 

[linzbear]

Regarding the OP guarantee. There are no guarantees only that you will have a room for the dates you book. As for, room #, smoking/non-smoking, etc. - they are not guaranteed.

There are for HA rooms in the case that there is someone in a wheelchair. You have to get MS to book it and transfer you over to the disability service, but they definitely can book off the specific room for you.

They have to give people in wheelchairs this guarantee. It's the law.

The fact that it went out of service 3 days before check in definitely smells like the room they were booked in went out of service for a small fire, mold, pig sty, whatever.... something that they had good reason to have to close it off for. I'd take the GV at SSR. You're still getting world class accomidations...just not exactly the ones you want. But the best part about DVC is that there's always next time...

 

[rigsby25]

I'm posting from work, so I don't know if this will go through or not. I'm leaving work in about 10 minutes and I will update everyone when I get home.

 

[chris1gill]

I'm looking forward to your update Rigsby25!

 

[SueM in MN]

Regarding the OP guarantee. There are no guarantees only that you will have a room for the dates you book. As for, room #, smoking/non-smoking, etc. - they are not guaranteed.

If the reservation confirmation says either "Guaranteed" or "Confirmed" wheelchair access, it is not a request. It is a confirmed reservation for a wheelchair accessible villa as was mentioned by chris1gill and linzbear.
It has been blocked in the computer and reserved for that particular reservation. That's the situation for the OP.

If a confirmation letter lists handicapped accessible or first floor access as a request (even if it is listed as a Medical Request), then you are right; it is just a request. The reservation is for a GV, but the other things are just requests. In that case, the medical requests would be filled before other requests for the same thing.

In our case, we made a reservation for a GV at OKW to stay last March. When we first got the confirmation form, it said "Medical request for First Floor or Building with elevator". At that point, it was just a request and we could have gotten to the resort and found they did not have a GV available that met those requests. Since OKW only has 2 wheelchair accessible GV and (I think) one non wheelchair accessible GV in building 63, the chances of all of those being occupied when we got there was pretty good.
Our youngest DD uses a wheelchair and can't walk or stand. So, if we did not get our "requests", we would not be able to stay there (I would not look forward to carrying a 90 pound young woman up the stairs to a 2nd floor access GV).
I called back and got a guaranteed wheelchair accessible GV. It was blocked for us at the time of the call and our confirmation sheet was updated to reflect that. We ended up with GV 4815, which is accessible.

 

[rigsby25]

When I got to work today and got ready to call MS, I pulled up myDVC on my computer and was astounded to find the reservations for Saratoga Springs already there. I called and there was no fire, no maintenance issues. Disney made a mistake. Pure and simple. Bob the manager admitted it was human error, but that there was nothing that he could do about it now. He sounded very sympathetic to my feelings. He only found out about it himself at 2:30 yesterday. He said he scrambled to get us in a HA grand villa at SSR. Even though I didn't ask, he even gave me the name of the person that made the mistake. When I made the reservation, they put me on hold and called special needs. Special needs confirmed the room was available and put a block on it. They keyed in the wrong room number. I was supposed to get 4815 I think and they blocked out 4814 which isn't a grand villa I guess, and doesn't have handicapped access. I was almost willing to go to a non-handicapped access grand villa just so that my SIL could get in, but after reading the post by another person in a wheel chair, I almost choked when I got to the part where they said that handicappled people are "used to being disppointed". They state that SSR is really very handicap accessible. But I kept going back in my mind of the big, sunny, open rooms at OKW, and the big porches, and the full size washer and dryer, etc. I asked for (2) 2-bedroom units at OKW instead. He said the best he could do was (1) 2-bedroom and (1) 1-bedroom. And he wasn't sure if they would be HA. That really wouldn't do. So I asked if he could get us into the Springs so that we'd be closer to the zero entry pool, etc. He tried, and called me back and said, no he couldn't do that either. So we are still at SSR in the original site he picked out for us. I told him at the VERY least, could the rooms please be ready early so that we can make our move go smoothy. I think they must know the room number already, but he said he didn't. He did upgrade me,my husband, my son, and his friend from a Studio on the Saturday coming in and the Saturday going out. We'll have the Grand Villa between the Saturdays for the relatives. So:

1. Mistakes happen
2. They bent over backwards to ease my disappointment
3. They can't pull an OKW HA Grand Villa out of a rabbits hat.

So what am I going to do? Make the best of it. If I stay angry and hurt, I won't enjoy the vacation, and I might interfere with some one elses good time if I continue to complain. All I am saying to my family is, I'm sorry, I'm truly embarrassed, SSR is supposed to be an upgrade. And leave it at that.

As far as the All Stars comment. I have nothing against All Stars. I've never been there. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I always see the All Stars busses so packed and so many throngs of people waiting, that I assume people go to the All Stars because they can't get into the moderates or deluxes for one reason or another. SSR, I have a feeling, will be just that way. It seems to me that there will always be room available at SSR. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. How about the last minute plans, where nothing would be available at all if the SSR wasn't there. Last night in my anger I saw all kind of greedy DVC people and cunning SSR people. But now that I am calmed down, they look like ordinary human people running a vacation club the best way they know how.

You know what would be nice? If we could see the rooms like you can sometimes see the seats on a plane. See whats occupied and what's not. What's blocked for that day and so on.

Whatever. I am satisfied that this is a one time thing and nothing against handicapped people's rights, as they are willing to give us a handicapped villa, not just where we reserved it. I'm still not sure that this isn't some kind of ploy for a chance to sell more SSR to my family members, but I'm not going to let it bother me.

TWO MORE DAYS!!!!

 

[SueM in MN]

They keyed in the wrong room number. I was supposed to get 4815 I think and they blocked out 4814 which isn't a grand villa I guess, and doesn't have handicapped access.

Sorry to hear what happened. we would have been just as disappointed as you are if this had happened to us when we went in March.
They should have found that before 3 days out, but I suppose that's when the reservations actually get to the resort and someone noticed then that the blocked room was not a GV.
4815 is a GV and is HA; it's the GV where we stayed in March. I don't know what size 4814 is, but I know it's not a GV.

Our home resort is OKW, but we have stayed at various times at all the resorts. DH and I stayed at SSR in a one bedroom. It's not as much "home" to us as OKW is, but it's still a beautiful resort (more elegant, less "beachy"). I hope that your group has a great time despite a rocky start to the trip.

 

[RobDoc]

I'm glad it has been "resolved" - even if it's not what you had planned originally. It sounds as though you won't be penalized regarding points and that they have given you some consideration for the aggravation. Your attitude not to let it spoil your trip is wonderful.

The SSR GV's are really nice. We love the furnishings and the access to both floors by elevator, if needed. I'm sure you will enjoy the accommodations.

I'm also glad you got an honest explanation ... and human error is certainly a high possibility. It sounds as though it might have been Special Services that caused the error by blocking the wrong room number.

Sorry you've had to endure the frustration of the past couple of days, but glad you have some understanding of what happened.

Thanks for the report!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[crisi]

Have a great trip. Maybe you'll fall in love with SSR.

 

[chris1gill]

Rigsby25, so ultimately, you have one night at OKW, five nights at the GV at SSR & then one more night at OKW? That's a bit of moving around, but if you pack light, I think you will be fine... I really think that if you put yourself in the right mindset, you will really enjoy SSR.... we stayed there last October, and I thought it was a great resort.... We look forward to staying there again no doubt... I'm also one that needs a W/C, so I take particular interest in these matters... Believe me, in my travels, I've been dissappointed a few times, but more often than not, places we go try to bend over backwards to try to make someplace accessible, even when it clearly wasn't meant to be... We go in with an open mind & hope for the best!

Have a great vacation, please report back after your trip!

Oh, one more question, did you have to pay more points for SSR? I would expect that you wouldn't have had to?

 

[JodyTG]

I'm sorry that this happened to you, but at least you got a h/c GV even if it's not at your first choice hotel. SSR really is a nice place. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourselves. Plus, if you need to just go visit your OKW, you can hop on the boat.

Have a great time!!!

 

[holcomb-mania]

Please tell us you didn't have to pay more points. That would shock me.

 

[rigsby25]

We were given a 1 br in SSR for the first night, the HA GV in SSR for the next 5 nights, and then a 1 br in SSR again for the next night. "Bob" said he is requesting that all reservations be in the same building to make moving easier. He said that he is "giving" me over 200 points, so I don't think they are charging me. They are showing on myDVC as the actual point values. If they charge me, I'm going to go clear into 2008 borrowing I think. This is what I meant by bending over backwards. We only have a 210 point contract. I can't think of a more generous compensation, and believe me, it is softening the blow for us. We called my brother in law in California and told him about the extra HA features and he is doubly excited now. We just aren't the "elegant" type, we are more the "beachy" type. But we will have fun and enjoy our stay. I had a really rough night last night, and I want to thank you all for your help. My husband was ill and in a wheel chair for 3 months, so I caught a glimpse of what others might go through. God bless you all.