Renovations at VWL in October

[Whilykit]

Just a heads up, Member Services told me today that they just received the news that there will be renovations going on at VWL in October. They are in the process of trying to move some of the reservations to other resorts.
I found out because they cancelled a reservation that I had made for a friend at 11 months out and rebooked them at AKV. They were in a 2 bdrm at VWL and they were rebooked in 2- 1bdrms at AKV with a waitlist for at 2bdrm.
The most upsetting thing to me was that I received the confirmations by email last night, too late to call DVC and had NO idea what this was about. They did not contact me at all, just called the guest on the reservation and asked would they be willing to move. The guest said yes, but I had no idea about that until 12 hours later when I could reach DVC and ask what the heck was going on.
I would love to know if I am correct in believing that they should have contacted me. I will say that they have not taken any more points as a result of this, but I was very upset because I had no idea who was accessing my account and why these reservations were being cancelled/made.

I just got my call. I . am. so. mad! We are bringing another family who has never been and they are so excited to stay at WL. Sucks to plan a vacation for a YEAR and then get a phone call that we have a choice between a very noisy/inconvenienced stay or moving to Saratoga. What?!
GRRRR

 

[LVSWL]

So sorry for everyone that is having their vacations changed. I really hope it all works out for you and you have a wonderful vacation! My situation has been resolved, except for the fact that someone from MS is supposed to call me where I will lodge my concern/complaint about DVC accessing my points without my knowledge, especially about the fact that the totals for each contract were not correct when they were finished with their messing around and it would have cost us our 11 month window advantage for our next vacation if we hadn't figured it out and called AGAIN to get it resolved.

 

[Firepath]

I just wanted to share my experience. We were booked for Thanksgiving week (Nov 21-28) in a 2 BR at VWL (our home resort). We were really looking forward to this as VWL truly is our favorite. Yes, we like the tree views, the smaller quiet pool, and the darkness. This was to be our first time staying during the holidays and in a 2 BR. I should mention that last year we were booked for our 25 yr. anniversary and ended up switching to AKV during the pool renovation, so we were particularly happy to be headed back home. Then came the construction news. Our flight arrives at 11:15pm, so we will likely be the very latest to arrive and I imagine we would be given the worst possible room, the one nobody else wanted. I started looking for alternate locations as soon as I heard about the construction, but nothing was left, not 2 BR or 1 BR or anything else for that matter. I received the phone message from Guest Experience Services last Sunday. I waited until today to call back, having read about what others were being told, and continuing to check availability which didn't change much at all. I thought we'd just be at VWL and have to bear with the noise, maybe get some extra fastpasses, and hope for the best. The person I spoke with actually made it sound quite bad! I wrote down most of what she said: Hidden Springs pool will be closed, the beach, playground, spa, and marina will be closed. Bike Rentals will be moved to Cubs Den. The nature trail will be closed. The movies will move to Carolwood. Construction will be daily from 9am to 7pm and will be "quite noisy." There will be alternate pathways. Additionally she said the water side of the villas will be completely torn up. She did mention that the water taxi would still be operating as would the main pool. Wow!
I told her I had checked availability elsewhere and found nothing. I told her we were open to 2 BR or 1 BR as long as there were at least 3 beds. She put me on hold for quite some time while she got with MS then came back with several options. I was expecting maybe if we were really lucky we might get Saratoga, but she offered the following - keep in mind this is Thanksgiving week: 2 BR Saratoga, 1 BR Beach Club, 2 BR lockoff Beach Club, 1 BD std Kidani. Honestly, I thought all of those were okay, except no third bed in the 1 BR BC. I chose the 2 BR lockoff at Beach Club because it's the only one I think it fairly easy without a rental car during a holiday and was exactly the same # of points, so they wouldn't have to mess with our banked and borrowed situation. Since I love Epcot, I'm pretty happy, though still sad about our home. I was expecting the worst and am quite pleased.

 

[Whilykit]

Glad it worked out for you - I just spent another 45 minutes on the phone trying to figure out our two trips this year... I'm so bent that we planned this year with 2 trip at Wilderness, bringing so many people with us and now it's not working out like that ... best plans laid...

 

[Firepath]

Glad it worked out for you - I just spent another 45 minutes on the phone trying to figure out our two trips this year... I'm so bent that we planned this year with 2 trip at Wilderness, bringing so many people with us and now it's not working out like that ... best plans laid...

Whilykit, I sure hope it works out for you too. It seems odd that they can find available inventory for Thanksgiving week but not yours. When are you going and what size room if you don't mind my asking? I wonder if they would be willing to give you back some points if they can't move you anywhere comparable.

 

[ErinC]

We have a Christmas reservation for VWL. I got my call on Tuesday. We were offered a 1 bedroom at beach club. I thought about it for a few minutes, but I just didn't want to lose the proximity to magic kingdom for Christmas week. In the end we opted to stay at wilderness lodge and they offered us extra fast passes each day.

 

[wdrl]

I told her I had checked availability elsewhere and found nothing. I told her we were open to 2 BR or 1 BR as long as there were at least 3 beds. She put me on hold for quite some time while she got with MS then came back with several options. I was expecting maybe if we were really lucky we might get Saratoga, but she offered the following - keep in mind this is Thanksgiving week: 2 BR Saratoga, 1 BR Beach Club, 2 BR lockoff Beach Club, 1 BD std Kidani. Honestly, I thought all of those were okay, except no third bed in the 1 BR BC. I chose the 2 BR lockoff at Beach Club because it's the only one I think it fairly easy without a rental car during a holiday and was exactly the same # of points, so they wouldn't have to mess with our banked and borrowed situation. Since I love Epcot, I'm pretty happy, though still sad about our home. I was expecting the worst and am quite pleased.

I'm glad you were offered some alternatives for your Thanksgiving stay. I'm not surprised that DVC could offer you more choices than what is normally available to DVC members. I suspect DVC is taking inventory that belongs to DVD and making it available for DVC members.

 

[sdolphin2284]

I had a reservation at VWL for 12/11-12/19 and only recently heard about the construction and figured I would just have to deal with it. However yesterday I received a letter from DVC explaining just how disruptive the construction may be to my family's vacation. I wasn't sure what I was expecting since the resort availability tool showed no other accommodations for that time period but I called anyway to, if anything, express my displeasure with the "late" notice. My call was answered by CM Molly who asked where I would like to stay if not at VWL. I blurted out Beach Club since I wasn't really expecting that question. Before you'd know it, she had my reservation changed to a one bedroom at BCV, and for less points! All in all a great experience!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

Can someone share the phone number to call back to? I can't find where I wrote it down.