Hello Everyone,
I am preparing to contact MS and make arrangements for our first trip and was just wondering what to expect when I call and what the proper protocol is. Do they offer any advice if your first choice is unavailable? If unavailable, will they suggest alternatives that show as being currectly available? I am planning on a visit this summer and would like to stay at my new home SSR.
I have always found them to be very helpful. Certainly, any individual CM can have a bad day, but I have yet to experience that. I have found them to be especially helpful in working on alternative arrangements, and also in making sure I understand which pile of points my ressie is coming from (we have two home resorts).
Can I request a specific area/building at this time, or is that only an option as the actual date approaches?
You can request anything your heart desires, as long as you understand that the operative word there is "request." Nothing is guaranteed except special needs requirements made through a separate Disney special needs office. So things like non-smoking, a particular location, a particular view, etc, etc, etc, are requests -- not givens. (ETA: with the exception of certain guaranteed views, like BW view or standard view at BWV, which carry different point values. You're still not guaranteed a particular villa, but you will get the category of villa you reserved.)
In addition, when you make your ressie, there is no possible way anyone could know which units will be available on a particular date. You will hear about pre-assigning villas and you will also hear about "room-ready." My sense is that most of the time the CM at the front desk just offers you whatever pops up in inventory that meets your main concerns. If that's not acceptable, they can try to work with you, but they may or may not be able to improve things.
For that reason, I usually only make one or two requests. We always request non-smoking for medical reasons because of my daughter's asthma, and I sometimes request one other thing (depending on who's with us). Often, I only request the non-smoking and talk to the CM at checkin about anything else we'd like to have. The reason I use this strategy is I don't want a situation where they meet seven out of my nine requests, but don't give us what we
really want...which is non-smoking.
Other owners undoubtedly have very different approaches, but the truth is, we usually don't care where our villa is located because we're driving, only staying 4-5 days, and we don't spend much time in the villa. If we were staying longer and planned to really make the villa our Command Post, that would be different...but that's not our vacation pattern.
