Room Request Question

[t3hWheez]

First off I apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this.

Hello all,

We will be going to Disney BW Deluxe Villas this December. I have requested a room through my travel agent, which she says is the best way of doing it. However, is doing Tourplans room request an added % chance or?

What about the possibility of being upgraded for free, does this ever happen? If I check in early, will my chances for being upgraded (if any) be ruined since I am skipping the front desk? I feel like I've read and heard about a lot of people being upgraded for what they originally had.

Thanks!

 

[AngiTN]

Upgrades have zero to do with how you check in.
Rooms are assigned prior to your arrival, no matter if you do online check in or not. You can still go by the front desk upon arrival even if you complete online check in and get your room number. Totally up to you
I believe upgrades in Villas are even more rare than upgrades in traditional rooms but I'm not sure on this
I always use the fax service with TP and I always do online check in. If I include room requests via online check in, then I always repeat the request, never entering anything that is conflicting or confusing.
One of the main reasons I do online check in is to let them know when I arrive early that I would like my room ready early, if at all possible. This is also less likely to happen in a Villa than in a regular room.

 

[ErinsMommy]

First off I apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this.

Hello all,

We will be going to Disney BW Deluxe Villas this December. I have requested a room through my travel agent, which she says is the best way of doing it. However, is doing Tourplans room request an added % chance or?

What about the possibility of being upgraded for free, does this ever happen? If I check in early, will my chances for being upgraded (if any) be ruined since I am skipping the front desk? I feel like I've read and heard about a lot of people being upgraded for what they originally had.

Thanks!

I've read best way to make a room request is by phone and have the Disney agent note it on their system. Which will be hit or miss depending on their availability.

As for upgrades, I've been going 5 years in a row and never got upgraded. If they have rooms they're looking to fill they may. If resort is pretty solidly booked, they may not. Again, hit or miss. Doesn't hurt to ask, but if you ask be prepared that they'll tell you that you can upgrade for $X

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I would put the request in through your TA and do Touring Plans as well, if you are a subscriber. We've had good luck with the Touring Plans fax service. That being said, I requested things that were within the room category we booked. I would not request anything that is out of the realm of the room category you have booked. Room upgrades are typically only done if rooms are put into maintenance. If you ask for an upgrade at check-in, they will see if it's available and then will charge you for the upgrade.

 

[wilkeliza]

Touring Plans does nothing more or less then what your TA should do if you are putting your request in through them. I'm really not sure why people pay for TP but I guess that is on them.

I would not get my hopes up for a free upgrade. I've been going for almost 10 years and the only "upgrade" I have ever gotten was back when the few not real Savannah rooms but were sold that was still were in the system. When that was going on they would often "upgrade" standard rooms there so that people who had paid for Savannah views didn't get upset. Now I believe they are just marked as standard anyways so it doesn't happen as much.

 

[Lynne M]

Complimentary upgrades are much less common than it would appear from reading these boards. They're generally done for the resort's own purposes (the room you would have gotten had to be taken out of service, resort is overbooked, etc), and are assigned before you even arrive, so the way you check in doesn't matter. Bottom line, they're possible, but quite rare. A tiny percentage of the thousands of guests checking in at Disney resorts every day will be upgraded.

Edited to add: I just noticed that you'll be at a DVC resort in December. That's the single busiest time of year for those resorts, they book up completely, many months in advance, so the chance that there'd be a villa available to upgrade you to is slim to none.

 

[Hopefully]

Are you staying at a BWV through Disney or on rented points? If you are on rented points DO NOT even ask about an upgrade. If they did upgrade you ( very unlikely) the added cost (points) would be taken from the members account. That would be very unfair to the member.

 

[t3hWheez]

Are you staying at a BWV through Disney or on rented points? If you are on rented points DO NOT even ask about an upgrade. If they did upgrade you ( very unlikely) the added cost (points) would be taken from the members account. That would be very unfair to the member.

I purchased the room.

When I booked through my TA the company I went with gave me a free membership to TP so I can use that. I requested a specific room from the pictures I found on their website.

Thank you all for the information.

 

[wilkeliza]

I purchased the room.

When I booked through my TA the company I went with gave me a free membership to TP so I can use that. I requested a specific room from the pictures I found on their website.

Thank you all for the information.

If your request is a specific room you are even less likely to get it. There is no way Disney can guarantee that specific room will be available on your check in day. That is not even a request they typically look at as only area of the hotel near an elevator/lobby, top floor/bottom floor, etc are requests they can usually process. Please don't get your hopes set on that one specific room.

 

[Lynne M]

Yeah, I would advise requesting room features rather than specific rooms. In other words, if you like room 4752 because it has a view of the pool and it's on an upper floor, it's much better to request "upper floor, view of pool" than a specific room. It gives the room assigner more ways to get you want. If 4752 isn't vacant on the day you check in, the assigner won't have any idea why you wanted that room.

That's particularly true in this case, because the resort is going to be very, very full, so the odds of a particular room being open on your check-in day are pretty low.

 

[Hopefully]

I agree with @wilkeliza Getting an exact room request is not going to happen. We own BCV. I make generic requests ( high floor, water view for example). I have never gotten my requests. But I have never been disappointed.
I fear you are setting yourself up for a major disappointment.

 

[t3hWheez]

Sounds good. I want upper floor so I put that in on Disney check-in page. Will also do the same for TP.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Touring Plans does nothing more or less then what your TA should do if you are putting your request in through them. I'm really not sure why people pay for TP but I guess that is on them.

This isn't true. You can actually be a little more specific on the Touring Plans fax than you can be by noting requests on a reservation. If you do the TP fax request, you can request a specific room, but also, with that request, request a specific area and a range of rooms so the person who reads the fax gets a sense of exactly where in the building you would like to be. For example, we've done requests for both BCV and GF. On both, we put in an area we wanted to be, including a specific room number if it was possible. For GF, we got the exact rooms we requested (and they were connecting to boot - yes, we were very lucky and I would never expected this would happen particularly as it was over Presidents Day). At BCV, we got the area of the building we wanted but ended up on 1st floor instead of a high floor, which was fine with us as I was more concerned with noise level than anything else there. On both, I also noted requests on the reservation that complimented the TP fax. If you have the TP service, you might as well use it.

 

[wilkeliza]

This isn't true. You can actually be a little more specific on the Touring Plans fax than you can be by noting requests on a reservation. If you do the TP fax request, you can request a specific room, but also, with that request, request a specific area and a range of rooms so the person who reads the fax gets a sense of exactly where in the building you would like to be. For example, we've done requests for both BCV and GF. On both, we put in an area we wanted to be, including a specific room number if it was possible. For GF, we got the exact rooms we requested (and they were connecting to boot - yes, we were very lucky and I would never expected this would happen particularly as it was over Presidents Day). At BCV, we got the area of the building we wanted but ended up on 1st floor instead of a high floor, which was fine with us as I was more concerned with noise level than anything else there. On both, I also noted requests on the reservation that complimented the TP fax. If you have the TP service, you might as well use it.

That fax is available to everyone though is what I was getting at. You can either call and have it noted on your reservation as a request or look up the fax number yourself. Disney doesn't treat TP requests as any more important them any other.

 

[Deb & Bill]

December is an extremely busy time for DVC villas and DVC members. So the chance of getting an upgrade is probably nil. They have been booked solid by members (except for the few villas owned by DVC or traded out by members) since at least May. DVC doesn't usually accept faxes, so your fax might just be tossed.

 

[AngiTN]

If your request is a specific room you are even less likely to get it. There is no way Disney can guarantee that specific room will be available on your check in day. That is not even a request they typically look at as only area of the hotel near an elevator/lobby, top floor/bottom floor, etc are requests they can usually process. Please don't get your hopes set on that one specific room.

This is not how the room request on TP works. It does not request a specific room. The user does use a specific room to build the fax but that's just for a sample base line

Yeah, I would advise requesting room features rather than specific rooms. In other words, if you like room 4752 because it has a view of the pool and it's on an upper floor, it's much better to request "upper floor, view of pool" than a specific room. It gives the room assigner more ways to get you want. If 4752 isn't vacant on the day you check in, the assigner won't have any idea why you wanted that room.

That's particularly true in this case, because the resort is going to be very, very full, so the odds of a particular room being open on your check-in day are pretty low.

This is exactly how the room request on TP works. It gives them sample rooms that have features for the room requestor to use

 

[AngiTN]

That fax is available to everyone though is what I was getting at. You can either call and have it noted on your reservation as a request or look up the fax number yourself. Disney doesn't treat TP requests as any more important them any other.

No but it does word them in "Disney room assigner speak" and makes it easier to send a fax with a single click vs. calling the awful Disney reservation system

 

[wilkeliza]

This is not how the room request on TP works. It does not request a specific room. The user does use a specific room to build the fax but that's just for a sample base line


This is exactly how the room request on TP works. It gives them sample rooms that have features for the room requestor to use

That clarifies it. The OP made it sound like they requested a very specific room.

 

[AngiTN]

That clarifies it. The OP made it sound like they requested a very specific room.

Technically, they did select to generate the fax while viewing a specific room on the room layout. You click on a room on the layout that you like and their system bases the fax off that specific room but it does not request that specific room, it lists all rooms with the same features as that room. It's possible OP doesn't even realize that's how the room request system works but it is. If you go in and edit the fax you can see what it does.

 

[tinkerpsu]

We put in a request with disney and did a fax through tp. We requested three rooms, two connecting and we got all three we requested! I would absolutely use tp again for this feature.