gracelrm
<font color=teal>Wow - you learn something new eve
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2002
- Messages
- 1,757
I checked in to BLT on Monday, Oct. 3 with DH, DS and two of DS's friends. We were planning to stay until Sat. Oct. 8th. We really never dreamed that Hurricane Matthew would affect our trip, other than being prepared for rain in the parks. However, on Wednesday night , the local stations were warning that Orlando might see 100 mph winds and I started to really worry. We felt safe at Disney and thought we'd be fine, however, since we had DS's friends with us, we worried that their parents might think we were being irresponsible by staying at WDW when a Cat. 5 might be headed our way. So we woke up on Thursday morning with no significant change to the forecast and decided to head for home.
It was the day for our trash & towel day and Mousekeeping knocked on our door early. I explained that within the hour we'd be checking out and the room would need a full cleaning. As we were leaving the room, the same housekeeper was near our room and we talked to her again and they began pulling the sheets off and getting it ready for a full cleaning. We told her we had food & water we were leaving and hoped she and the others could make use of it.
The boys all headed to the car and I went to the front desk to check-out. We had contacted member services the night before to ask all the what-ifs about leaving early. We were told our points would temporarily go into holding and after four or five days, we should call and they would move them to the original use year with no penalty.
As you can imagine, the front desk was super busy. Many people checking out, many people trying to get a room or extend their stay. There were probably four or five behind the desk and several people (some in suits, some in hotel costumes) that were trying to triage the line in the lobby. Two of the extra people asked if they could assist me, but both said I'd need to speak to the people behind the desk. A third person asked what I needed and I told her. She took me to a phone and said she was calling the back office. She asked me a ton of questions, had me write down my email address and after 20 minutes of so on hold, she asked if I would trust her to email me the room charges and to take care of checking me out so that I could get on the road out of Orlando. She told me the exact same information about returning points to our account as the DVC CM on the phone the night prior. She said they had many people needing rooms and needing to extend the stay and they could certainly use our room for the next two nights. So I left.
Fast forward six days. I called MS on Tuesday to ask about my points. No points had been placed in holding or returned to the original use year. The very nice CM asked if I could wait one more week and if it wasn't all back as it should be, to call back. I agreed, as I was sure it was still crazy around the DVC offices. I waited the extra week and checked and no points in holding or original use year so I called back. The MS representative I spoke to was wonderful. She put me on hold and came back and said there was no record of of me checking out early and no record of a request for points to be returned. As far as the resort was concerned, I stayed for my entire scheduled trip. She listened to everything I had said to her, repeated back many of the details, asked for the name of the person who checked me out and put me on hold again. When she came back on the line, she said the office said everything I described sounded identical to what was happening that day and something had just gone wrong somewhere and they would fix it.
The CM at MS asked me to wait another four or five days and call her back if it didn't all work out. She gave me her extension number to call if I needed it. I was so glad to have such diligence on the part of the MS CM. I never worried that it wouldn't turn out the way I expected it to. It took some patience on my part, but it just reminded me that I'm glad I have DVC and am happy that I have the professionals at MS to work with.
Now, on to planning what to do with those points!
It was the day for our trash & towel day and Mousekeeping knocked on our door early. I explained that within the hour we'd be checking out and the room would need a full cleaning. As we were leaving the room, the same housekeeper was near our room and we talked to her again and they began pulling the sheets off and getting it ready for a full cleaning. We told her we had food & water we were leaving and hoped she and the others could make use of it.
The boys all headed to the car and I went to the front desk to check-out. We had contacted member services the night before to ask all the what-ifs about leaving early. We were told our points would temporarily go into holding and after four or five days, we should call and they would move them to the original use year with no penalty.
As you can imagine, the front desk was super busy. Many people checking out, many people trying to get a room or extend their stay. There were probably four or five behind the desk and several people (some in suits, some in hotel costumes) that were trying to triage the line in the lobby. Two of the extra people asked if they could assist me, but both said I'd need to speak to the people behind the desk. A third person asked what I needed and I told her. She took me to a phone and said she was calling the back office. She asked me a ton of questions, had me write down my email address and after 20 minutes of so on hold, she asked if I would trust her to email me the room charges and to take care of checking me out so that I could get on the road out of Orlando. She told me the exact same information about returning points to our account as the DVC CM on the phone the night prior. She said they had many people needing rooms and needing to extend the stay and they could certainly use our room for the next two nights. So I left.
Fast forward six days. I called MS on Tuesday to ask about my points. No points had been placed in holding or returned to the original use year. The very nice CM asked if I could wait one more week and if it wasn't all back as it should be, to call back. I agreed, as I was sure it was still crazy around the DVC offices. I waited the extra week and checked and no points in holding or original use year so I called back. The MS representative I spoke to was wonderful. She put me on hold and came back and said there was no record of of me checking out early and no record of a request for points to be returned. As far as the resort was concerned, I stayed for my entire scheduled trip. She listened to everything I had said to her, repeated back many of the details, asked for the name of the person who checked me out and put me on hold again. When she came back on the line, she said the office said everything I described sounded identical to what was happening that day and something had just gone wrong somewhere and they would fix it.
The CM at MS asked me to wait another four or five days and call her back if it didn't all work out. She gave me her extension number to call if I needed it. I was so glad to have such diligence on the part of the MS CM. I never worried that it wouldn't turn out the way I expected it to. It took some patience on my part, but it just reminded me that I'm glad I have DVC and am happy that I have the professionals at MS to work with.
Now, on to planning what to do with those points!
