Rooms now being assigned by computer

[ppony]

Gratitude is a wonderful quality to have.

Entitlement is not.

And I DO think that answered the question, quite well. Not hard to figure out.

 

[mefordis]

And I DO think that answered the question, quite well. Not hard to figure out.

Okay, then excuse me. I do need further explanation. Who is this gratitude toward?

 

[dfarner]

Doesn't everyone who pays $600 or more a night for Disney magic deserve just as good a room as you?

Yes, and at no time did I say that they weren't entitled to the same. My point is that the Grand Floridian is not a Motel 6, and if I make a request I'd like it to be considered. The level of service should be on par with the price point. I know it's Disney, and much of what I'm paying for is Disney magic and a monorail line, but my statement was regarding guest requests in general. I used myself as an example, because that would be my expectation. I was asking for input from Rusty, as he/she is more knowledgeable on the subject than I. I am certainly not trying to start any arguments.

 

[maxiesmom]

But you didn't answer my question. Who is the gratitude directed toward?

Entitlement is something you should feel if you are paying top dollar to stay at a resort. As a paying customer you should feel entitled to a great experience and to be treated like a valued customer and not part of a herd of cattle.

Even paying top dollar you should not feel entitled to anything except that which you have purchased. And at Disney you are entitled to a room at whatever level resort you made the reservation for, and for the type of room you made a reservation for. Nowhere do they tell you that you can ask for and expect to get a 3rd floor room with two windows that face south and have a view of a palm tree that is exactly 3 feet high. And that seems to be what some guests felt entitled to.

Disney calls them requests, not guarantees. You should not feel entitled to a request and if you do you are just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

 

[maxiesmom]

Is it honestly that hard for some people to grasp the concept of a request?

 

[Colleen27]

Even paying top dollar you should not feel entitled to anything except that which you have purchased. And at Disney you are entitled to a room at whatever level resort you made the reservation for, and for the type of room you made a reservation for. Nowhere do they tell you that you can ask for and expect to get a 3rd floor room with two windows that face south and have a view of a palm tree that is exactly 3 feet high. And that seems to be what some guests felt entitled to.

Disney calls them requests, not guarantees. You should not feel entitled to a request and if you do you are just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

Then Disney really needs to make some common requests bookable - connecting rooms for larger families (not all of which have two adults, BTW; our neighbor is planning a trip for herself and 4 elem-aged kids, I'd say for them connecting is absolutely a need!), king rooms for couples without kids, first floor for people who can't manage stairs, etc.

Other resorts do these things, and other resorts allow and generally accommodate requests. We've never, not once out of several dozen trips, had a request for connecting rooms go unfilled except that once at CBR. I fail to see why I should expect less of Disney than of Hyatt or Hilton or Sheraton.

ETA: I wouldn't even object to a small upcharge for guaranteeing connecting rooms. I just want to be able to know that if we decide to stay at the moderate resorts because those are the ones that 1) best suit our vacation style and 2) best fit our budget that we won't be put in the position of me staying with the girls in one section of the resort while DH is with DS a half mile away!

 

[mefordis]

Okay, my understanding is that this thread is about Disney no longer taking room requests. There is a computer that automatically assigns the rooms and only handicapped requests will be taken. Is that not correct?

I understand that a request cannot be guaranteed but I thought I read in this thread that they will not even be taken. Maybe I misunderstood.

Even paying top dollar you should not feel entitled to anything except that which you have purchased. And at Disney you are entitled to a room at whatever level resort you made the reservation for, and for the type of room you made a reservation for. Nowhere do they tell you that you can ask for and expect to get a 3rd floor room with two windows that face south and have a view of a palm tree that is exactly 3 feet high. And that seems to be what some guests felt entitled to.

Disney calls them requests, not guarantees. You should not feel entitled to a request and if you do you are just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

 

[dfarner]

We pay that amount of money but I don't feel that the $$ we pay should give us any special right or entitlement.
There are many more resort guests that deserve the same treatment.The only thing I hate is that non resort guest sneak in ,use the pool and chairs wich they did not pay for.

I agree with you, and that is why I only ask that the CM look at my request (if I even make a request) and consider it. I made the statement in the original post that I understand that people pay for a room in one booking category, but expect a room in another booking category for no upcharge, and I am not one to do that. If I want a garden view room then I pay for that category, and I don't expect to receive a lagoon view room upon check in. I'm not quite sure how me making a request and asking for consideration has anything to do with entitlement.

 

[dfarner]

From what I understand . . .
1) The CM at the desk can still look for room changes.
. . . CM's always have a view of what is available in the resort
. . . they can tell at a glance if rooms are open/available
. . . if no rooms are open, it is up to them if they want to swap rooms
2) But, those depend upon room availability, and the CM.
3) As for Pixie Dust upgrades, they are still available.
4) But, more at the discretion of the CM than pre-assigned.
. . . by computer assignment, it lessens the chances of double-bookings
. . . this eliminates a large amount of upgrades due to room overbooking
. . . thus, when upgrades do happen, it is less of an assignment nature
5) With computer assignment, however, there will be less and less of them.

NOTE: There is no animosity. It is simply that Disney has allowed requests to go on for so long that now it now an entitlement. When people can't get exactly what they want they know they can complain to a Manager and usually get a room change. With the new system, this is less likely. Very few other hotels or resorts have allowed this to such a degree, and Disney is just coming into conformity with others.

Walt believed that all guests should be treated identically regardles of money or status (that is why Concierge can't accept tips), and this actually reinforces his principles. Now, room assignments within a category are more fairly distributed. I like fairness and equal treatment, and I think this goes a long way toward that end.

Thank you for taking the time to reply and explain the new system Rusty. I have seen people complain about the silliest things, knowing that they will be compensated in some way. It seems that other posters took my post the wrong way, and I certainly didn't mean to start any debates. I was asking for your input, and I appreciate what you've said.

 

[verticalchaos]

Okay, then excuse me. I do need further explanation. Who is this gratitude toward?

It is gratitude in general. It doesn't have to be directed TO anyone or anything.

Those who truly are grateful get it.

Those who aren't... Well... The results speak for themselves.

 

[mefordis]

It is gratitude in general. It doesn't have to be directed TO anyone or anything.

Those who truly are grateful get it.

Those who aren't... Well... The results speak for themselves.

Okay, now what does that have to do with making room requests?

 

[KellyNY]

Okay, my understanding is that this thread is about Disney no longer taking room requests. There is a computer that automatically assigns the rooms and only handicapped requests will be taken. Is that not correct?

I understand that a request cannot be guaranteed but I thought I read in this thread that they will not even be taken. Maybe I misunderstood.

You misunderstood. They will not take advance requests and base room assignment on those. However, they will take requests right at check in if you do not like the room assigned to you, they will do their best to change your room. As you can see it is basically same thing. You had same chances of whatever you wanted before as you would have now. Just instead of playing Tetris every day trying to accomodate as many requests as possible they will take their chances to offer you something else first.

 

[Snape]

I, for one, am going to make my requests as I always have. When I check in, if I don't get what I want, I'm going to ask for something that matches my requests.

If the desk clerk lies and says, "No, nothing else available" I will request a manager and won't move until I get one! Note that a pp admitted that the desk clerks do, in fact, lie. Nice. Real nice.

We didn't get the high floor we asked for when we checked in a month ago. I asked for something higher and we were easily and very nicely accommodated with one of our favorite rooms on the top floor.

So, everyone can plan that if you're behind me in line, you're going to have a wait!

You going to cross your arms and stomp your feet too?

 

[twooley2]

Actually, DVC is no more friendly to larger families than the rest of Disney's properties. At all but AKV and BLT - both of which seem to book up very quickly, and are the most expensive to buy into for the home-resort advantage - a family of 5 has to bump all the way up to a 2 bedroom unit. For all the extra space in a 1 bedroom compared to a studio, there's no increase in occupancy limit. That's been one of our big hesitations about buying in - for us to have enough points to stay at any of the DVC resorts that appeal to us for the one week or so a year that we go, we'd be looking at about $25,000 worth of points on the resale market (or over 30K if for some reason we bought direct from Disney).

We havent spent nowhere near that bought direct and have enough points to go every other year taking 8 people and more if we watch where we spend the points and and we do not own at AKV or BLT and we are staying at AKV with 5 people with more room available up to 9 people and still have points for Next year and during the highest peak season. this is also for over a period of 50 years+ not one vacation

 

[lovethattink]

I wouldn't even object to a small upcharge for guaranteeing connecting rooms.

Uh oh!! Don't go giving them ideas on how to make more money

 

[twooley2]

You going to cross your arms and stomp your feet too?

Too funny. Really I dont care what people do if this makes them happy. I just see where energy can be better spent.

 

[DebbieB]

Not necessarily since that would end up creating much smaller sets of comparable rooms, and some of the categories you outlined would create very small sets. That, in turn, would result in a lot more cases of guest disappointment - there being insufficient rooms to satisfy the reservations for these smaller sets of room - where, due to mechanical problems or the aforementioned problem of folks not checking out on their check-out date.

They'd effectively have to have more ROH reservations, which essentially are "you take your chances" reservations. They'd be priced a little higher than what they'd have charged for the lowest class room, if there weren't ROH reservations, and would guarantee you at least that class of room, but you might be "upgraded" (which sometimes feels like a downgrade, if you were really hoping for the characteristics of the lower class room) if the lower class category is full. And since they'd effectively be building into the system the providing of "better" rooms to folks paying lower rates, at least some of the time, that'll boost the room rates for folks who do want a specific category. Sounds complicated? Yeah; I think so too. And for what? No good reason imho. Though to be fair, if it was better off for Disney that way, then they'd probably do it more often.

There were changes to resort room categories in 2011 to create smaller sets of rooms and to charge more for the most popular. For example, at AKL, Arusha savannah view is now a separate category and costs more. At the moderates, there are preferred rooms, which are the ones most requested and cost more now. So it looks like Disney set this up in preparation for this change and they will make more money from people who want the most popular requests.

 

[goofyfordisney]

Talked with a CM today. One of the new enhancements is that the rooms are now being assigned by computer. The computer doesn't see any room requests that are noted. The CM at check in will see the notes then and can try for any requests.

It will not make a difference if you fax in your requests because the computer will not see it.

Also if you have more than one room you need to have them do a "travel with" on each reservation so that the computer will assign rooms close to the other. If you don't do this your rooms could be scattered around the resort.

This is exactly what happened to us. We arrived on 12/2 at CBR to be told that we would be 'guinea pigs' for the new reservation system. It was not a great experience, let me tell you...

We had 2 reservations that were 'linked' as 'traveling with'. We were assigned to two different areas of the resort and on the 2nd floor. We had requested to be in the same building and on the ground floor (my mom has mobility issues).

It took us about an hour to be re-assigned to new rooms with our two requests. The CM's were really nice and very frustrated that they were not fully up-to-speed with the new system. I felt really bad for them...hopefully enough people will take the time to write to Walt Disney Guest Relations to communicate their (bad) experiences.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

Even paying top dollar you should not feel entitled to anything except that which you have purchased. And at Disney you are entitled to a room at whatever level resort you made the reservation for, and for the type of room you made a reservation for. Nowhere do they tell you that you can ask for and expect to get a 3rd floor room with two windows that face south and have a view of a palm tree that is exactly 3 feet high. And that seems to be what some guests felt entitled to.

Disney calls them requests, not guarantees. You should not feel entitled to a request and if you do you are just setting yourself up to be disappointed.

So when staying at the Beach Club, do I have the right to expect a large room and 2 queen sized beds? (what I'm paying for). What happens when I'm assigned a room the same size as a moderate room with 2 double beds? Is Disney going to give me my money back or do I have "entitlement" to ask for a different room?

I don't see why requests are such a hard thing? Other hotels - even ones that let you book online - let you "request" near elevators, high floor, low floor, etc. Why can't disney at least let you check off what you hope to get?

 

[cm8]

Uh oh!! Don't go giving them ideas on how to make more money