MS systems down

[CarolMN]

Sorry this happened to everyone. What unfortunate timing since there are lots of people trying to book Thanksgiving week with their 7 month window and a spring break week with their 11 month window.

This could have been handled much better. MS could have just "turned off" the phones & put a recording on the phones that said when they expected to be back in business. Then when that time arrived, they could have turned the phones on (now everyone has the same chance again) or updated the voice recording if it was going to take a little longer.

Sometimes I think MS has little to no experience running a big time call center!

 

[LisaS]

The sunrise safari isn't just for DVC concierge, either. It's for all of AKL concierge. I wonder how many rooms THAT is? Anyone know? I think there are quite a few concierge rooms on the 4th floor.

I also think there are quite a few people in concierge who do NOT do the sunrise safari (whether because they don't want to, don't know about it, or just didn't reserve in time.) There are only two trucks that hold 28 people each.

I think AKL Concierge may have a fair number of repeat guests. Maybe some of them have already done the Sunrise Safari once or twice and don't feel the need to do it every stay? Or maybe some people aren't interested in getting up at dawn while they're on vacation no matter how wonderful the activity might be!

Thanks for posting the number of people they can accommodate on the Sunrise Safari. I thought it was around 55, but since that is also the price I thought I might be getting the two confused!

ETA: Just wanted to add that I'm sorry you ended up on the waiting list. Didn't something like that happen to you the first time you tried to book AKV Concierge? I hope you have better luck with the waiting list this time around.

 

[ead79]

You might be on to something here! I do agree that it would be nice to allow DVC owners who don't win the Concierge lottery the option to do the Sunrise Safari. It would also ease some of the competition for Concierge villas, leaving them to those who really want the Concierge experience and not just the opportunity to do the Sunrise Safari.

That is a potentially very good suggestion in my opinion. They could just offer the Sunrise Safari on additional days of the week.

I have noticed that many folks seem to be interested in booking AKV concierge just for access to the safaris. I agree with Lisa that this could potentially help ease up availability for those who want the entire concierge experience. I wonder if DVC sees lots of one night AKV concierge bookings on the nights before the safari is offered. I'm betting those nights are the hardest to get.

We've got a 1BR concierge villa booked for December, and we're really excited about it. We stayed at AKL concierge back in 2004, and we loved the entire experience. We are of course looking forward to the safari, but we really enjoy the pampering of the entire concierge experience. I hope that it's not impossible to ever book these rooms in the future.

 

[momof3poohlovers]

Inkmahm, I sympathize with you! I would be livid as well if I were trying to book our trip and this happened. We have 2 AKV concierge trips booked, that we booked day by day and if we had to move in the middle of either trip due to a MS problem, I would be very upset. I really hope your waitlist comes through. Maybe talk to someone at MS and see if they can give you priority on the waitlist due to the circumstances. Good Luck!

 

[Inkmahm]

Did you try to reserve a one bedroom? It seems like the concierge studios are what go the fastest.

There were NO concierge rooms of ANY kind open by the time I got through to call.

 

[Inkmahm]

Sorry this happened to everyone. What unfortunate timing since there are lots of people trying to book Thanksgiving week with their 7 month window and a spring break week with their 11 month window.

This could have been handled much better. MS could have just "turned off" the phones & put a recording on the phones that said when they expected to be back in business. Then when that time arrived, they could have turned the phones on (now everyone has the same chance again) or updated the voice recording if it was going to take a little longer.

Sometimes I think MS has little to no experience running a big time call center!

Exactly. If you say the phones are going to be back on at 10 am then turn them back on at 10 am so everyone has an equal chance. That is what is so upsetting. People who actually called in what I would consider "late" -10 minutes after 9 am, got through and got reservations. Those of us who called right at 9 am did not. Even more upsetting is that I called at 9:15 am to check and the CM I got said the phones were still down when clearly, they weren't.

 

[Inkmahm]

I think AKL Concierge may have a fair number of repeat guests. Maybe some of them have already done the Sunrise Safari once or twice and don't feel the need to do it every stay? Or maybe some people aren't interested in getting up at dawn while they're on vacation no matter how wonderful the activity might be!

Thanks for posting the number of people they can accommodate on the Sunrise Safari. I thought it was around 55, but since that is also the price I thought I might be getting the two confused!

ETA: Just wanted to add that I'm sorry you ended up on the waiting list. Didn't something like that happen to you the first time you tried to book AKV Concierge? I hope you have better luck with the waiting list this time around.

Good memory! I tried calling on the very first day that concierge was available to anyone at anytime as AKV member. I wanted last Dec 1, the one night before our cruise. I never got it through DVC although I had it booked already since January as a cash concierge night, before I even knew there would BE an AKV DVC. The waitlist never came through.

Then I went on the cruise and found out one of the DVC guide on the cruise had gotten that very night in a concierge studio by calling the day before to AKV directly and talking his way in (he had points about to expire.) I was still on the waitlist then so I was even more upset that employees were put over owners. The DVC guide had been trying to use it as a positive selling point, about how he got concierge at the last second. He didn't expect my angry reaction when I told him I'd been waitlisted for that night that he stole from under me.

 

[Tinker74]

Oh my goodness..I just found this thread...Iam so sorry for the OP..I too was calling that morning..(well 2pm in the afternoon here)..I needed a CL studio for the last night of a 3 night stay..I couldn't believe it when the system was done.. ..Iam renting the points to a lovely couple for their honeymoon..and I know they had their heart set on the this ressie.
When I was initially told to call back after 10am I panicked because i knew I had to leave to pick the Kids up from school at 2.45pm here..i thought for sure we had lost it.
But i ignored that and just kept calling on redial..ech time I got through i was told something different by the CM..call back at 10am...call later today..call in a couple of hours..I just kept calling...At 2.13pm on my pc I was talking to a cm who let me book... ..So that was 9.13am.

iam sorry it didn't work out for you...fingers crossed for waitlist.

 

[Inkmahm]

Oh my goodness..I just found this thread...Iam so sorry for the OP..I too was calling that morning..(well 2pm in the afternoon here)..I needed a CL studio for the last night of a 3 night stay..I couldn't believe it when the system was done.. ..Iam renting the points to a lovely couple for their honeymoon..and I know they had their heart set on the this ressie.
When I was initially told to call back after 10am I panicked because i knew I had to leave to pick the Kids up from school at 2.45pm here..i thought for sure we had lost it.
But i ignored that and just kept calling on redial..ech time I got through i was told something different by the CM..call back at 10am...call later today..call in a couple of hours..I just kept calling...At 2.13pm on my pc I was talking to a cm who let me book... ..So that was 9.13am.

iam sorry it didn't work out for you...fingers crossed for waitlist.

Thanks, but I'm not too hopefull for the waitlist. I've read about at least 4 of the studios booked for my night here on the DIS alone. Even if they are all rented as one bedrooms and studios, that means there are only 10 maximum studios available I believe.

Perhaps you'd like to give up the ressie for an owner rather than a renter to use? At least one other ressie was also being made for "friends" and not the owners to use themselves...
I know there is no way for DVC to regulate that but for concierge, I'd really rather see owners using the rooms when they are so popular and hard to get even though I'm sure people renting them to others can get a pretty good $ value for them.

 

[Tinker74]

I do sympathise...but i couldn't snatch the ressie away from the honeymoon couple...they are so delighted that it all worked out..Its given me joy to be ab;e to get it for them...as for $..i rented for $10 a point the same as i did last year.
I don't mind if I rent to an owner or not...Its still my points I'm using..and Iam an owner....
Hopefully next year we will get to try for AKV ourselves.

Being able to rent out points was a big draw to us buying so many points ...We know we won't be using all of them for the next few years but after that we hope to use all our points ourselves...so in the mean time we will rent out any excess points...it works well and we actually use about 75% of our points ourselves anyway.

Iam not sure what you mean by disney regulating it??...Our guide clearly told us renting some points is allowed.

 

[manning]

And this is the very reason I think the whole CL at AKV was a HUGE HUGE error on DVC's part.

Sorry, but when they had 10 rooms they were just building up to a bunch of disgruntled members. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!

 

[Inkmahm]

I do sympathise...but i couldn't snatch the ressie away from the honeymoon couple...they are so delighted that it all worked out..Its given me joy to be ab;e to get it for them...as for $..i rented for $10 a point the same as i did last year.
I don't mind if I rent to an owner or not...Its still my points I'm using..and Iam an owner....
Hopefully next year we will get to try for AKV ourselves.

Being able to rent out points was a big draw to us buying so many points ...We know we won't be using all of them for the next few years but after that we hope to use all our points ourselves...so in the mean time we will rent out any excess points...it works well and we actually use about 75% of our points ourselves anyway.

Iam not sure what you mean by disney regulating it??...Our guide clearly told us renting some points is allowed.

Oh, it clearly is allowed. Just not something I would do for the most popular rooms around when owners can't even get them to stay in themselves.

I know there are people who reserve the most popular times at holidays, etc. just to rent them out. Not something I'm personally interested in doing. I don't even rent my points, I will transfer them to fellow owers to use if I have excess. I'm just not a big fan of renting, period.

Again, I wouldn't be so irritated in this case, either, if everyone had an equal chance of reserving the rooms right at 9 am. That didn't happen and THAT is what I am irritated with. The poor communication by MS with all their different stories and even telling me the system was still down at 9:15 am on my second call when it clearly was not. I don't think the rooms reserved for 3/23 were reserved fairly, with everyone on equal ground to get them. Then seeing the rooms that WERE rented are going to "friends" (another person) and renters, that just makes it more difficult to see.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

And this is the very reason I think the whole CL at AKV was a HUGE HUGE error on DVC's part.

Sorry, but when they had 10 rooms they were just building up to a bunch of disgruntled members. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????

Agree here CarolA. It also really skirts the borders of false advertisement as just what are the chances that owners can fairly and with some consistency book CL? Yes as an owner you have the OPPORTUNITY to book CL, but the PROBABILITY of securing the ressie is relatively low. This is what they should be telling perspective buyers. Can anyone do the math? Total DVC occupancy at Kidani and Jambo vs. the probablity of securing a concierge ressie? Room size and dates all being equal. I think we would all be surprised at the number.

 

[tjkraz]

Can anyone do the math? Total DVC occupancy at Kidani and Jambo vs. the probablity of securing a concierge ressie? Room size and dates all being equal. I think we would all be surprised at the number.

Once Kidani is open, there will be a maximum of 708 rooms at the resort. That includes counting all lockoff 2Bs separately as a Studio and a 1B.

Of those 708, only 10 will be in the concierge class. So at any point in time, about 1.4% of members will be booked concierge.

Some that I've spoken with claim that DVC didn't know how popular concierge would be, which is the main reason for the low numbers. I might buy that if the points were much higher per night--say, 2x the same size non-concierge room.

But with concierge currently being the only way to book at least one tour, plus the other added perks, I don't see how there could have been any question regarding its popularity--particularly with the points only being a small increase over the non-CL rooms.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Once Kidani is open, there will be a maximum of 708 rooms at the resort. That includes counting all lockoff 2Bs separately as a Studio and a 1B.

Of those 708, only 10 will be in the concierge class. So at any point in time, about 1.4% of members will be booked concierge.

Some that I've spoken with claim that DVC didn't know how popular concierge would be, which is the main reason for the low numbers. I might buy that if the points were much higher per night--say, 2x the same size non-concierge room.

But with concierge currently being the only way to book at least one tour, plus the other added perks, I don't see how there could have been any question regarding its popularity--particularly with the points only being a small increase over the non-CL rooms.

Thanks Tim, wow this is really, really low. I wonder how many owners realize this.

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks Tim, wow this is really, really low. I wonder how many owners realize this.

Those of us calling right at 9 am at the 11 month mark certainly do!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I also asked on another thread, but Inkman, you've had experience. If we wanted to do the Sunrise Safari, what nights' bookings would currently work for one of those? Do you know? DH and I would like a 3 night AKV CL stay and hope to do all of the offerings.

I do hope your waitlist comes through.

Thanks.
Bobbi

 

[tjkraz]

Thanks Tim, wow this is really, really low. I wonder how many owners realize this.

And problems like this are only going to get more and more frequent. After all, AKV is only about 25% sold-out right now.

I hate to sound overly negative about this, but for high demand periods like early-December, I'll be surprised if people can even string together 3 or 4 nights in a concierge room.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I also asked on another thread, but Inkman, you've had experience. If we wanted to do the Sunrise Safari, what nights' bookings would currently work for one of those? Do you know? DH and I would like a 3 night AKV CL stay and hope to do all of the offerings.

I do hope your waitlist comes through.

Thanks.
Bobbi

Bobbi, I answered on the other thread too, but I don't think you saw it. Sunrise safaris are Sunday and Thursday, so you would need to be booked Saturday or Wednesday nights.

 

[Starr W.]

And problems like this are only going to get more and more frequent. After all, AKV is only about 25% sold-out right now.

I hate to sound overly negative about this, but for high demand periods like early-December, I'll be surprised if people can even string together 3 or 4 nights in a concierge room.

I think you're sound very realistic, it's going to be the phone lottery at 11 months, who's calls get answered first at 9am. It's that way now, but going to get worse(more on hold time for everyone).

When will we see the "AKV owners hogging MS phone lines trying to book CL rooms thread?