Non-monetary reality check for purchasers.

[Gregowa]

I just returned from China last month. Upon entering my Holiday Inn after 18 hours of travel, I see the front desk clerk chasing a giant rat through the lobby with a shovel. Until I see that at DVC, I won't complain much

The only thing I've even seen chased while staying DVC was one of the animal keepers at AKV who had one of the emu on the savannah after him!

 

[Dean]

We stayed at a Wyndham in Orlando a number of years ago. It was dingy, poorly lit, the carpet was stained, the walls needing washing, bedspreads were threadbare, it smelled funny. Way below the current standards of a DVC resort.

One other point that has been implied by some of the previous posts. I think DVC is for people who want 1 or 2 BR condo versus hotel room. Don't buy it for the price. It takes years and years to recoup your investment -- it was 7 years when I bought at $63 per point (comparing renting 2 BR versus points). I can't imagine what it takes to recoup at current prices. If I had compared to 2 motel rooms it would probably have been a lot longer.

If you want a condo, buy. If you just want a room, don't. It is a lot of hassle to keep up with the points versus just paying for a room. If you decide not to go one year, then you have a bunch of points to deal with. You have dues every Jan which aren't cheap. You have to calculate the 11 month and 7 month windows and prepare to get online at 8 am.

Wyndham hasn't been around all that long but that's why you investigate the resorts ahead of time. Still, you can get a bad room at a Ritz.

 

[Judique]

I just returned from China last month. Upon entering my Holiday Inn after 18 hours of travel, I see the front desk clerk chasing a giant rat through the lobby with a shovel. Until I see that at DVC, I won't complain much

Well, Andrew, we have had the occasional snake in a DVC room, but I haven't seen a rat in the last 13 years of my DVC ownership. Bunnies on the patio, birds nests under the awnings on the balconies, gators over in the canal at BCV, turtles also, deer and armadillos and turkeys and peacocks in the woods near VWL on the path to FW. In general I appreciate the nature at Disney - but if I ever see a rat I may run off in horror.

 

[crisi]

Well, Andrew, we have had the occasional snake in a DVC room, but I haven't seen a rat in the last 13 years of my DVC ownership. Bunnies on the patio, birds nests under the awnings on the balconies, gators over in the canal at BCV, turtles also, deer and armadillos and turkeys and peacocks in the woods near VWL on the path to FW. In general I appreciate the nature at Disney - but if I ever see a rat I may run off in horror.

We've had room geckos at DVC. First floor patio room - I'm assuming that at some point we, or a previous guest, opened the patio door.

We had a room scorpion in Mexico. Not a hotel - it was a villa owned by a friend of a friend.

And I used to help run hotel operations for a big convention - one year we lost both a ferret and a boa constrictor. The ferret turned up in a room a few days later and housekeeping and not a guest (thank god) found it. I can't remember if the snake was every found.

I will say that I'm not fond of rooms with pets. Anyone else's or ones gifted to me by nature.

 

[DizBub]

Well, Andrew, we have had the occasional snake in a DVC room, but I haven't seen a rat in the last 13 years of my DVC ownership. Bunnies on the patio, birds nests under the awnings on the balconies, gators over in the canal at BCV, turtles also, deer and armadillos and turkeys and peacocks in the woods near VWL on the path to FW. In general I appreciate the nature at Disney - but if I ever see a rat I may run off in horror.

And this is the reason I usually request a room on the 2nd floor and up.

 

[Deb & Bill]

And this is the reason I usually request a room on the 2nd floor and up.

Snakes and rats can climb. Easily. Didn't you ever hear the story about the guest at the Contemporary who found a snake (must have been a black racer) wrapped around the curtain rod over the patio window?

 

[DizBub]

Snakes and rats can climb. Easily. Didn't you ever hear the story about the guest at the Contemporary who found a snake (must have been a black racer) wrapped around the curtain rod over the patio window?

No, hadn't heard that one. Thanks.......I think.

Yeah, I know they can climb but the odds are a little better not being on the ground floor. I keep telling myself that.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I just returned from China last month. Upon entering my Holiday Inn after 18 hours of travel, I see the front desk clerk chasing a giant rat through the lobby with a shovel. Until I see that at DVC, I won't complain much

Not an animatronic rat I gather.....

I live in Florida, snakes, spiders, scorpions, flying palmetto's, bunnies, opossums, oh, well one gets used to the flora and fauna!

I just got back yesterday from a 3 day 2bd stay, #4212, bottom floor, Turtle Pond, villa was in great shape, clean! A lizard went in just as I opened the door but my Son caught it and released it into the wild!

I have to say in 12 years of ownership I've had very little to complain about!

 

[brertoad]

DH saw a "6-8 foot" snake in our backyard yesterday near the fence. DH said it was a black racer. I just don't like snakes.

We were at BCV last week and we saw a tiny 1 ft. snake along the back walkway leading to Epcot/along those guest rooms on the bottom floor. Still freaked me out, even though it was little.

 

[dwight16]

do they have shut down wings of rooms and remodel them? i was in the beach club about 1 year ago and my room still had a tube tv. so that is pretty shocking. is there an upgrade cycle? i mean isnt that why we pay dues?

 

[disneynutz]

do they have shut down wings of rooms and remodel them? i was in the beach club about 1 year ago and my room still had a tube tv. so that is pretty shocking. is there an upgrade cycle? i mean isnt that why we pay dues?

There are different levels of refurbishment. The exact cycle is a Disney secret. I believe that BCV is scheduled for a refurb in 2014 and there is a carpet test going on there now. SSR was just completed.

Bill

 

[nd43]

I report everything, good and bad. I have talked face to face with Lewis and Bilby about various topics and issues, and this year DVC finally got some software to track problems. I just don't understand how a company that can be so good at providing a great guest experience in the parks, do such a poor job cleaning and keeping rooms maintained.

Bill

Bill, not that it helps, but the last two regular hotel rooms I used at Disney were in awful shape as well. The one at the GC was truly terrible (it had a terrible, damp smell like it had been flooded and several things did not work). This was for a room I paid $585 per night to use. Of course, the grounds, lobby, etc. were fantastic.

Disney just does not focus on the "in room" experience. All the money is spent on the "out of the room" areas. However, when you vacation there more, you spend more time relaxing in the room. Disney must have the attitude that everyone still comes to Disney to be away from the room. For regular guests, I am sure they are right.

I think that attitude has infected DVC as well.

 

[disneynutz]

Bill, not that it helps, but the last two regular hotel rooms I used at Disney were in awful shape as well. The one at the GC was truly terrible (it had a terrible, damp smell like it had been flooded and several things did not work). This was for a room I paid $585 per night to use. Of course, the grounds, lobby, etc. were fantastic.

Disney just does not focus on the "in room" experience. All the money is spent on the "out of the room" areas. However, when you vacation there more, you spend more time relaxing in the room. Disney must have the attitude that everyone still comes to Disney to be away from the room. For regular guests, I am sure they are right.

I think that attitude has infected DVC as well.

One of the DVC problems is that we use the resort staff to clean the DVC rooms. They really don't have any incentive to do a great job and if push came to shove, my guess is that the cash rooms would take priority.

If DVC has a room issue, resorts is a separate business unit and DVC and the owners are just another customer.

Bill

 

[dmunsil]

One of the DVC problems is that we use the resort staff to clean the DVC rooms. They really don't have any incentive to do a great job

I don't understand. Why would they have less incentive to do a great job? What is different about the incentives when working on DVC rooms? Don't they get paid hourly? Aren't they just as likely to get fired, reprimanded, etc. for doing poor work in any room?

Are DVC members lousy tippers? Because that wouldn't actually surprise me.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...Are DVC members lousy tippers? Because that wouldn't actually surprise me.

Why would that even matter? Housekeeping isn't a tipped position. Bell Services, valet, food servers, yes. Housekeeping, no.

 

[disneynutz]

I don't understand. Why would they have less incentive to do a great job? What is different about the incentives when working on DVC rooms? Don't they get paid hourly? Aren't they just as likely to get fired, reprimanded, etc. for doing poor work in any room?

Are DVC members lousy tippers? Because that wouldn't actually surprise me.

Cash guests if disappointed with the room might not come back to that resort, or they might not come back to WDW.

DVC owners if disappointed with the room by design of the program, have to come back.

If you had limited resources, who are you going to take better care of, the guest who might not come back or the guest that is forced to come back no matter what condition the room is in?

Bill

 

[Dean]

do they have shut down wings of rooms and remodel them? i was in the beach club about 1 year ago and my room still had a tube tv. so that is pretty shocking. is there an upgrade cycle? i mean isnt that why we pay dues?

MOST timeshares have a long term refurbishment plan. The better ones are 5 years for soft goods and 10 years for hard/soft combination. The lessor ones are more 7/14. A soft refurbishment would include things like mattresses, carpet, drapes (usually), LR and similar furniture and the like. A hard refurbishment would add the additional furniture not in the first round, tile, hardwood and often cabinets and countertops along with appliances. With that cycle, OKW would have completed 2 hard reburbishments by now for a portion of the resort to match the process of better resorts. I think Eagles nest actually does a hard reburbishment every 4 years (from what I was told by the resort itself) but their situation is different. They don't collect ongoing reserves for this but bill the owners the full amount when it occurs. Often they'll plan the process then do one unit and see how it does before they proceed or do several units in different ways and compare how they hold up.

Even DVC/WDW is seasonal so they would shut down a portion of the resort in a rotating manner during a slower time. A resort I own in HH had a plan to do 2 of 10 buildings every year over a 5 year period. They did that 2 years but the third they did the rest of the resort because they found that it was much cheaper to do it all as one round than piece meal.

 

[Andrew015]

Cash guests if disappointed with the room might not come back to that resort, or they might not come back to WDW.

DVC owners if disappointed with the room by design of the program, have to come back.

If you had limited resources, who are you going to take better care of, the guest who might not come back or the guest that is forced to come back no matter what condition the room is in?

Bill

I understand the logic behind this thought, but at the end of the day, the job description for a Disney Housekeeper - be it a Resort housekeeper or a DVC housekeeper - is the same, and I would expect that their performance is monitored, reviewed and graded in the same fashion. I don't think DVC is assigned the "B-Team" housekeeping crew.

I suspect that the main resorts are better staffed than the DVC Villas simply because the resort rooms require every-day attention, where as most DVC rooms only get one cleaning per week (unless otherwise requested and paid for by the guest, or if staying on a cash reservation).

Even if the crew is smaller, I don't think the quality of work is any less.