OKW in hurricane

[carolanne]

Today is Wednesday. We arrived home last night about 11 from our extended, involuntary stay for Hurricane Frances at OKW. We were scheduled to leave on Friday, but due to airport closing before we were scheduled to take off, we were stranded. Our group of 12 were stranded with no place to go for the storm. We tried to extend our stay via the front desk of OKW and were told we would be put on a list and eventually notified if we could remain in our Grand Villa. This was Thursday. We were frantic and eventually found rooms at the Marriott Villas. Member services were less than helpful and the cast member was brusk. Unfortunately I was brusk in return. Eventually on Thursday night about 9:30 we were told we could extend our stay until Monday morning. We cancelled at the Marriott and remained in OKW. They sucked those points out of my account faster than I could count them. We eventually had to stay Monday night also due to an inability to get airline reservations.

Question - has anyone else been in this type of a stuation with DVC. Is there any consideration to the emergency nature of the stay when sucking up my points? would a letter or call help me out? At the rate I am going, I may get back to Disney in about 5 years.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[lenshanem]

See anniet's thread -

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=640344

 

[DebbieB]

If you didn't want to pay the points, why didn't you go to the Marriott? You weren't forced to stay at OKW. From other's posts, people were begging for rooms.

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

It sounds to me like Disney didn't do a GREAT job of taking care of the guests during the hurricane. However, that may have been due to the fact that it was the second one in 3 weeks and the staff had a lot of other things on their minds (i.e. family, their houses, pets, etc...).

I say, forgive and forget and move on.

 

[kda]

While it sounds like a terrible, frightening situation to have been in Orlando, I don't see why Disney should charge less than the usual # of points to stay there. They weren't price gouging and no one there could control the dangerous weather. I can't recall EVER reading about a disaster situation where things went smoothly. People are human. It's a miracle there wasn't more damage and loss of life.

 

[CruzNMom]

I think the possibility of hurricanes is why it is called Hurricane Season.

I've booked in "HS" before - resorts and cruises, but knew if a hurricane blew in there would be a problem. Everyone probably did the best they could under extremely difficult circumstances.

 

[Figment2]

Friends who headed for WDW had to pay for their hotel room so I guess I don't understand why you would think they shouldn't charge the points against your account. Did you ask if you could pay cash for the weekend? Why do you think they should have given you the villa for free (if I misunderstood, I apologize).

It is one thing to get points returned because you couldn't get to the resort. It's another if you are there and stuck because of weather, etc. Other friends were "stuck" at a DL hotel because of 9/11. They paid for the extra week they were there.

I'm with Montana - forgive, forget and move on.

C.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I would never expect that DVC should allow you to stay free of charge. Our points are finite items that equate to money. If you were unwilling to pay for the extra nights, yes you should be charged the points. You had the option to move to a less expensive accommodation but chose to stay in the GV. I guess I don't see there should be any complaint. We have heard of others on this board who were able to find less expensive ways to go than using points. I don't really see that Disney had any other choice in this, unless it was to ask you to pay cash. Believe me, at $800+ per night that would have been worse!

 

[Nanajo1]

Back last December when most of the North East was hit with a series of snow storms my dss fights were canceled the day before they were to fly out of MCO. Because it was a Saturday and MS was closed I called OKW front desk to find one night's lodging for the two families. We were to vacate two 2Br that Sunday. I was told the resort was full. I pointed out that if my sons could not fly out chances were folks were not going to be flying in! Eventually we were able to consolidate the families in one of the 2BR. But the party line immediately was we're full.

 

[madcoco]

A little off topic but SSR did a wonderful job imho handling us evacuee's during Hurricane Francis. It was SIL's 1st trip home after buying. What timing in having reservations Labor Day Weekend. We had to extend for a day due to the slow moving storm. One of our neighbors got a little miffed because Disney would not extend them at more than a 25% discount so they said they were going elsewhere.

 

[beccasmom]

Our situation was this: scheduled at OKW for one night in a studio, moving next day to a two-bedroom (lock-off unit). We "moved" the next day. The following Tuesday was 9/11. We had guests staying with us who were using the second bedroom and scheduled to leave that Thursday. We were staying 2 weeks but were planning to again stay in the lock-off unit the following Friday and Saturday (to save points) and move back again Sunday morning. Our friends could not leave until Sunday morning - after reconfirming flights and traveling three times to the airport. A studio for 6 of us was out of the question. They allowed us to stay in the larger unit for the weekend nights with no extra usage of points. Our friends did have to present their airline tickets as proof.

We were stunned at their generosity. Of course, the circumstances were extremely unusual and tragic, but I was very happy with the way things were handled. We were also able to make free long distance calls that day. Being far from home was scary those days....Disney made it easier and has my heartfelt gratitude.