No more pool hopping at Grand Floridian


I hadn't looked at pool hopping restrictions for a long time, and I was surprised to find this on the member site:

  • Pool hopping is not available at the following pools—with no exceptions to this policy:
    • Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort – Bay Cove Pool
    • Disney's Art of Animation Resort – pools
    • Disney’s Beach Club Villas – leisure pool
    • Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – pools
    • Disney's Polynesian Village Resort – The Lava Pool and leisure pool
    • Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – Boulder Ridge Cove Pool and The Copper Creek Springs Pool
    • Disney's Yacht Club Resort and Disney’s Beach Club Resort – Stormalong Bay
This is actually a smaller list of exclusions than I remember. For example, I explicitly remember them removing AK-Jambo pool from the pool hopping list once they build AKV there. And now it is not on the list. But overall, this isn't a very long list of exclusions considering how many resorts are at WDW.

Just to be clear, they should probably list the Swan & Dolphin pools as being excluded even though they are not Disney owned.

I’m probably one of the people who think pool hopping should stop totally. It’s not fair to the people who pay to stay there to have to share with people who didn’t just because their pool is better.

Well, the pools are Disney's and they've had pool hopping as a DVC perk for at least 20 years. We don't use the perk but I don't think it's a big deal. Once they shut down pool hopping to Stormalong Bay, I think that the hopping frequency went way down. It's more of a bother than most vacationers want to put up with, I would think. And they do have many blackout dates to protect those times of the year when the resorts are known to be at full capacity.


 
I know that dvcnews just noticed this, but I’m pretty sure that dis’ers noticed it a month or two ago.

I personally like hopping. And we haven’t just done it to fancy pools (not that there are overly fancy pools you can hop to). If it weren’t for the love bugs, our second fave pool hop would have been to Coronado.
 


I hadn't looked at pool hopping restrictions for a long time, and I was surprised to find this on the member site:

  • Pool hopping is not available at the following pools—with no exceptions to this policy:
    • Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort – Bay Cove Pool
    • Disney's Art of Animation Resort – pools
    • Disney’s Beach Club Villas – leisure pool
    • Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – pools
    • Disney's Polynesian Village Resort – The Lava Pool and leisure pool
    • Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – Boulder Ridge Cove Pool and The Copper Creek Springs Pool
    • Disney's Yacht Club Resort and Disney’s Beach Club Resort – Stormalong Bay
This is actually a smaller list of exclusions than I remember. For example, I explicitly remember them removing AK-Jambo pool from the pool hopping list once they build AKV there. And now it is not on the list. But overall, this isn't a very long list of exclusions considering how many resorts are at WDW.

Just to be clear, they should probably list the Swan & Dolphin pools as being excluded even though they are not Disney owned.



Well, the pools are Disney's and they've had pool hopping as a DVC perk for at least 20 years. We don't use the perk but I don't think it's a big deal. Once they shut down pool hopping to Stormalong Bay, I think that the hopping frequency went way down. It's more of a bother than most vacationers want to put up with, I would think. And they do have many blackout dates to protect those times of the year when the resorts are known to be at full capacity.
Yeah they updated the list a Couple months ago it was discussed in a couple threads here. I guess the blog sites finally caught the change. People were shocked AK was removed and thought it was an oversight. But apparently they asked and were told it is open.
 
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I’ve always wondered how popular pool hopping actually is. We’ve been aware of the perk, but never done it in the 10+ years we’ve been members so far. The convenience of our resort’s pool always wins over the allure of another resort’s for us. We go to the parks pretty much every day of our trips, though. Perhaps we would pool hop if we took days off from the parks.
 
Awwww. That was one of our favorites enjoyed by hopping.

Thanks for posting the news.
 


I’m probably one of the people who think pool hopping should stop totally. It’s not fair to the people who pay to stay there to have to share with people who didn’t just because their pool is better.

I'm also in the camp that thinks no pool hopping should be allowed. I would actually prefer it if all pools were gated off and needed magic bands to get in.
 
I'm also in the camp that thinks no pool hopping should be allowed. I would actually prefer it if all pools were gated off and needed magic bands to get in.
You can do that and still allow hopping. In fact, I'm guessing that enforcing hopping through the Magic Band would enhance the experience.
 
I’m probably one of the people who think pool hopping should stop totally. It’s not fair to the people who pay to stay there to have to share with people who didn’t just because their pool is better.

After thinking about it I would have to agree. It's never really interested me to hop around. Sometimes going to the pool where I'm staying is a hassle enough.
 
We have never been interested in pool hopping. It just feels off when going to another pool and not staying there. I rather get the full experience by staying at the resorts as well as using the pools. I also don't mind people who do pool hop, unless the pools are full to capacity.
 
This one bums me out. We loved the courtyard pool at GF. We'd send our son on the Pirate Adventure from there, enjoy the pool alone, then spend the rest of the day there. It has waiters...I loved having a waiter at the pool...sigh....
 
We like this perk. Having kids allows for a different pool experience and 1 less day at the parks, so, therefore, saving some money. I also enjoy investigating the other resorts to see if I would like to stay there, and being able to enjoy their pool is just part of the experience. JMO
 
Still very frustrating that BWV is not on this list. I really don't understand it.

Given that there are so very few people on the Dis who hop, and Dis people tend to know how to use their memberships, I kinda doubt there are huge numbers of regular owners who hop (or even know it's allowed). So maybe that's why? Because there just aren't that many people who do it to create a problem?

I say I like hopping there, but I've literally done it once on a day that we weren't moving from or to there (split stay moving days are awesome for pool purposes).
 
Given that there are so very few people on the Dis who hop, and Dis people tend to know how to use their memberships, I kinda doubt there are huge numbers of regular owners who hop (or even know it's allowed). So maybe that's why? Because there just aren't that many people who do it to create a problem?

I say I like hopping there, but I've literally done it once on a day that we weren't moving from or to there (split stay moving days are awesome for pool purposes).
I care about it more because when you have pool hopping restrictions at your resort, they check everyone. There are instances where guests of other resorts (moderates, values) leave Epcot for a stroll on the Boardwalk. And then fully clothed kids end up in the pool.
 
We have always enjoyed pool hopping as a convenience...not as a getting a better pool than where I am staying type of thing. If we were at MK we might pop over to a local pool midday just to cool off then go back to the parks. We always followed the rules----if it was a non pool hop location, we would not use that pool. All of the DVC resorts and pools are great. Of course BCV pool has more going on so would tend to be popular. I have enjoyed this perk as we have been members for 21 years. However, I have noticed a need to restrict the availability of the pools as there seems to be many additional pool hoppers that probably are not even DVC members. As someone said here, this could be controlled if you had to have your Magicband scanned for pool entry and it would open for all the DVC resorts not just those staying at that resort.

I am thinking that they removed the restriction on AK pools because it is less convenient and has less traffic and you would not get people walking or stopping by like any of the EPCOT or MK resorts.
 

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