How is an accessible unit noted on the website under your vacation plans?

[Candace]

I need an accessible GV at OKW, and even though I booked at 11 months, there were none available. I have called frequently to check and always, there is still nothing available. Since we are going in 5 weeks, I called again today to ask if there were 2 2br units available that I could switch to (I already have one 2br unit and a studio). If so, I could let the studio go, and just have 3 2BR units, with at least one being ground floor. Confusing, I know, but my point is, when I called today (after just calling yesterday to check again), the lady at MS put me on hold and then came back to tell me she had found me a ground floor GV. I am so excited, but it is not showing up on the website. I asked her if it would be reflected on the website and she said yes, it would be there as soon as she entered it. That's been 3 hours ago....Should it be there, and what will it say? You know, when you have a dedicated 2BR, it always says that. I may be getting a little anal, but she's really gotten my hopes up! Do any of you know what it will say for an accessible/ground floor GV unit? Thanks

 

[LindaBabe]

Try clearing your cache and reloading the website from scratch. You may be getting a saved copy.

 

[Chuck S]

There is only one ground floor GV at OKW, and a couple more in elevator accessible buildings 62 to 64. The ground floor unit is located near the Turtle Pond area, in one of the 40s building (42, I think). I would call MS back, and make sure you have an accessible GV that is blocked for you through special needs/special services. If it is only noted by member services, you may not get it...because of the limited number, you need to be sure it is blocked by special needs.

None of the GVs at OKW, even the "accessible" GV, have wheelchair access to the second floor bedrooms and baths, that is stairs only. The master suite, living room, kitchen and dining room are on the first floor.

 

[jekjones1558]

We booked a 1 bedroom HA unit at OKW. The CM at MS called special needs to verify that a unit was available. But the member website does not say this. I called back to make sure we do, in fact, have a unit that is HA and was told that we do. It is hard for me to believe that there would not be some notation on the reservation that I can see. I will be nervous until we check in. So it sounds like you and I are getting the same story from MS. Good luck to us both!

 

[SueM in MN]

There is only one ground floor GV at OKW, and a couple more in elevator accessible buildings 62 to 64. The ground floor unit is located near the Turtle Pond area, in one of the 40s building (42, I think). I would call MS back, and make sure you have an accessible GV that is blocked for you through special needs/special services. If it is only noted by member services, you may not get it...because of the limited number, you need to be sure it is blocked by special needs.

None of the GVs at OKW, even the "accessible" GV, have wheelchair access to the second floor bedrooms and baths, that is stairs only. The master suite, living room, kitchen and dining room are on the first floor.

The only OKW GV that is accessible from ground floor is in building 48.

The only accessible bathroom is in the Master bedroom. There is an additional bathroom with a shower on the ground floor, but that bathroom is not accessible.

We booked a 1 bedroom HA unit at OKW. The CM at MS called special needs to verify that a unit was available. But the member website does not say this. I called back to make sure we do, in fact, have a unit that is HA and was told that we do. It is hard for me to believe that there would not be some notation on the reservation that I can see. I will be nervous until we check in. So it sounds like you and I are getting the same story from MS. Good luck to us both!

If you have a confirmation sheet, it should say Accessible Villa Guaranteed.
You can call the Special Needs Department yourself to check; the phone number is (407) 939-7807

This is not going to be encouraging, but we had problems with our reservation on our last 2 trips (made with MS calling Special Needs to guarantee an accessible room was available).
We've been members since 1993 and in the past, Member Services took care of all reservations - including Special Needs.
I'm not sure exactly when the change was, but I think it was in January of 2007. After the change, MS no longer did the Special Needs reservations. They started using the Special Needs Department, the same way as reservations thru CRO do.
The DVC reservation computer system is completely separate from the other WDW computers. When I called the Special Needs phone number to check on our accessible room before we went in April 2008 and October 2008, the CM at Special Needs could look our DVC reservation up in her log. She could not look at the DVC reservation because she said that her computer has no access to the DVC computer. DVC has no access to the Special Needs computer, but she said that a code is put in by DVC so they can see there is a special room assignment.
Apparently, people at the resorts are not always noticing the code.
In April 2008 when we went to check in and were being given our room keys, my DH asked to verify that 2 bedroom assigned to us was accessible. The CMs answer was that there was nothing saying we needed an accessible room, but "All our First Floor rooms are accessible." At that point, we showed our confirmation sheet, which did say "Accessible Villa Guaranteed", explained that we had reserved an accessible room with a roll in shower guaranteed thru Special Needs and asked for a manager.
The manager explained they had no accessible rooms left and the 'feeling' we got was that they wanted us to settle for the 'regular' one bedroom. We explained that they needed to find us an accessible 2 bedroom with a roll in shower, even if it was not at OKW. After some looking around in the computer, they were able to find us one.

This October, the same thing happened when DH went to check in (I was at MK with DD). He was told there was nothing in our reservation about an accessible room, even though our confirmation sheet again said "Accessible Villa Guaranteed" and we had actually called Special Needs a week before the trip to make sure it was in the computer correctly. Armed with information from Special Needs that there was another computer with that information, DH asked if there was another place the CM could check. The CM kind of went "Oh, yeah. Forgot about that computer." She checked and out room was in there, blocked for us.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If you have a confirmation sheet, it should say Accessible Villa Guaranteed.
You can call the Special Needs Department yourself to check; the phone number is (407) 939-7807

I have booked two different accessible rooms thru MS in the past couple of months, one at VWL and one at AKL. Both times they placed me on hold while they contacted special needs and both times they came back and said that the accessible units were available. However, neither time has my confirmation letter said anything about the accessible villa guarantee. This really is not encouraging and I hope that things are ok with the room.

 

[Candace]

Well, I called again when I got home today, right before MS closed. I expressed my concern that the accessible GV was not showing on the member website. The CM I spoke with said that sometimes it just takes a while to put it on, but he said it is showing in my ressie there at DVC. So I will just hope it's there when we arrive. It's now 11:00pm here and it's still not showing. I think I will call the number for Special Needs. Maybe they can clarify. Thanks all and good luck to all of us!

 

[SueM in MN]

I have booked two different accessible rooms thru MS in the past couple of months, one at VWL and one at AKL. Both times they placed me on hold while they contacted special needs and both times they came back and said that the accessible units were available. However, neither time has my confirmation letter said anything about the accessible villa guarantee. This really is not encouraging and I hope that things are ok with the room.

We have a confirmation letter for our planned trip to OKW for April 2009 that does have that language on it.
As I found out on our other trips, the language doesn't make much difference if no one is reading whatever is put in for comments on the DVC computer.

Well, I called again when I got home today, right before MS closed. I expressed my concern that the accessible GV was not showing on the member website. The CM I spoke with said that sometimes it just takes a while to put it on, but he said it is showing in my ressie there at DVC. So I will just hope it's there when we arrive. It's now 11:00pm here and it's still not showing. I think I will call the number for Special Needs. Maybe they can clarify. Thanks all and good luck to all of us!

Just for clarification, the Special Needs person can't see the reservation in the DVC computer, but can check in the Special Needs log where the reservation will be listed by your name and the dates (but not by reservation number).

 

[Candace]

Update - A CM for the special needs department assured me today that my HA Grand Villa is guaranteed. He found the ressie and told me that it read that way. When I told him that it still had not shown up at the member website, he said that was normal - it is never added like "dedicated" is added to the wording of some reservations. This is due to the privacy act he said. Gosh! I am so relieved! Thanks for all your help.

 

[SueM in MN]

This is due to the privacy act he said. Gosh! I am so relieved! Thanks for all your help.

I don't believe that reason (privacy act) is correct since the Privacy Act (HIPPA) has only to do with health care facilities/providers sharing information. As far as I know, the CM at Special Needs does not have access to the Member Services computer to add comments to it, so unless a MS CM adds something, it won't be in there.

DO make sure when you check in that the GV you are checking into actually IS the accessible one that was guaranteed for you before you leave Hospitality House. We have run into the problem that the CM assigning rooms/checking us in did not check the 'extra' computer and see that we already had a room assigned. The room we were checked into and given the keys to was not the accessible room that was guaranteed for us.

EDITED TO ADD:
There are only a couple of accessible GVs at OKW. One is in building 48, the other is in one of the buildings numbered in the 60s (can't remember off-hand which building of those it is). If they assign you a different building than one of those, it will be non-accessible with an entrance on the 2nd floor in a building with no elevator.

 

[CarolAnnC]

After reading these posts I am appalled at what some of you folks have had to go through at check in. I think the worst is the case where they tried to make you accept a room saying "all first floor rooms are accessible". These CM's need to be educated in what handicapped accessible truly is.

 

[Laurabearz]

I am with you Carol, sorry to hear about those who have had trouble.

Some retraining is in order.