SW:GE opening guess Dec 4 - DVC related

[shaunacb]

I should add too that he said it was only the value studios at this time. He did not mention anything about the 1 beds...

Interesting that the value 1-beds are out of inventory too. Must be both? Did he mention a specific date that they would be available for booking again? I was planning for 2 nights in early Feb... Hard to plan points without knowing dates for this (unnecessary?) hard goods refurb. Thanks for posting!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I should add too that he said it was only the value studios at this time. He did not mention anything about the 1 beds...

The other thing that doesn't make sense is that it should not take that long to refurb those value rooms. Something still isn't making sense.

 

[Greg36]

Interesting that the value 1-beds are out of inventory too. Must be both? Did he mention a specific date that they would be available for booking again? I was planning for 2 nights in early Feb... Hard to plan points without knowing dates for this (unnecessary?) hard goods refurb. Thanks for posting!

I know what you mean. Not really. He had said the second week of Feb, but when I asked him about it just to confirm he kind of downplayed it saying that with these types of things you really don't know and they like to give themselves lots of latitude on both ends just so they don't end up with rooms booked that are not available... Hopefully it will go quicker so you can get what you want.

 

[Greg36]

The other thing that doesn't make sense is that it should not take that long to refurb those value rooms. Something still isn't making sense.

Yeah, it's true, there is only a small #. He did make a comment about not wanting to be in the rooms as water could be cut off or electricity as well so perhaps the rooms surrounding the value rooms will also be getting work done which could extend the need for the rooms to be out. As I just mentioned too, he did indicate they were giving themselves time on both ends so maybe some of that availability will eventually come back...

 

[CarolMN]

I also think it has to do with the refurb the hotel rooms are getting. Suspect resort doesn't want to deal with unhappy guests in the middle of the areas in which they are working. It's not uncommon for entire wings/hallways to be closed off during a complete refurb.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Just got a call back from DVC about the value rooms. They are saying that there is a hard goods room refurbishment going to happen early Dec through mid Feb and this is why rooms have not been put into inventory... The CM who called me indicated they just found out about it last night...

No way they would start one in the busiest month with GE opening. No way. He was either BSing or that was the line they've been told to recite.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I also think it has to do with the refurb the hotel rooms are getting. Suspect resort doesn't want to deal with unhappy guests in the middle of the areas in which they are working. It's not uncommon for entire wings/hallways to be closed off during a complete refurb.

Except here's what the best info I can find on the Lodge refurb -

"Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House room refurbishments are taking place from August 2018 through fall 2019. Guests may see or hear construction, but noise should not be heard from guest rooms between dusk and 9:00 a.m"

The entire lodge to be done between August and Fall - so let's say even mid-December. And I doubt they'll stray to far from that to hit the Christmas season - likely the plan is for earlier completion. There's zero need to have 2 small hallways and what would be a tiny percentage of the rooms blocked for 1.5 months - most of it after the time the refurb is supposed to be occurring when the entire resort is to take 4-4.5 months.

The explanation does not make sense for the Values especially since there's just a handful of hotel rooms in those halls that they ought to be able to knock out in a couple of weeks tops.

 

[Greg36]

Except here's what the best info I can find on the Lodge refurb -

"Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House room refurbishments are taking place from August 2018 through fall 2019. Guests may see or hear construction, but noise should not be heard from guest rooms between dusk and 9:00 a.m"

The entire lodge to be done between August and Fall - so let's say even mid-December. And I doubt they'll stray to far from that to hit the Christmas season - likely the plan is for earlier completion. There's zero need to have 2 small hallways and what would be a tiny percentage of the rooms blocked for 1.5 months - most of it after the time the refurb is supposed to be occurring when the entire resort is to take 4-4.5 months.

The explanation does not make sense for the Values especially since there's just a handful of hotel rooms in those halls that they ought to be able to knock out in a couple of weeks tops.

I agree that does seem strange. Who knows I guess. The CM that called definitely seemed genuine and seemed to be checking the information that he was sent as he was telling me about it. I certainly believe that he belived what he was telling me was accurate. Hopefully we will learn more soon...

 

[CarolMN]

Do we know that those refurb dates are accurate? Wouldn't surprise me if the dates have slipped since the August - Fall 2019 dates were published, especially since those are near the end of Disney's fiscal year. IIRC, it hasn't been uncommon for refurbs to start later than initially promised and/or take longer than originally anticipated. FWIW, I doubt SWGE opening is given much weight by AKL resort management, and early December is not historically a busy time for the parks & resorts.

I've said this before: More likely to be plain old incompetence rather than malice aforethought. YMMV.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Do we know that those refurb dates are accurate? Wouldn't surprise me if the dates have slipped since the August - Fall 2019 dates were published, especially since those are near the end of Disney's fiscal year. IIRC, it hasn't been uncommon for refurbs to start later than initially promised and/or take longer than originally anticipated. FWIW, I doubt SWGE opening is given much weight by AKL resort management, and early December is not historically a busy time for the parks & resorts.

I've said this before: More likely to be plain old incompetence rather than malice aforethought. YMMV.

But Christmas is VERY important. And the values removal runs right over that time so then Jambo refurb would have to be running smack over that time.

 

[cel_disney]

But Christmas is VERY important. And the values removal runs right over that time so then Jambo refurb would have to be running smack over that time.

There other option I guess would be to stop refurb for the holidays and pick it back up again after? If this is true - I wonder if jambo management focused on getting their own rooms done for cash before Christmas and left DVC to take the hit...

 

[robinb]

But Christmas is VERY important. And the values removal runs right over that time so then Jambo refurb would have to be running smack over that time.

Right. You would think that they would postpone any kind of refurb over Christmas/New Years as all resorts run at full capacity.

 

[gillep]

I am going to email DVC this weekend and ask about this. All of the AKV rooms were refurbished in 2016, so they should not be up for anything this soon. If they are refurbishing that is an expenditure of our dues (AKV owner) and I would like to know what they think is so important to fix in these rooms that they must be out of commission for months at a time, but not important enough to start immediately, and not important enough to inform owners of. I don't exactly like the idea of them spending our dues on refurbishments so close to the last one and with no notice at all, it wasn't even mentioned at the meeting when the other resort refurbishments were announced.


There has been at least one report on the resort thread that the resort room refurbishments have already started, so, if anything, it sounds like they are ahead of schedule, not behind, although they could just be test rooms.

I also emailed Kent (AKL GM) to let him know how great our last stay was and someone from his office replied leading me to believe that Kent may also reply once he is back in the office, if he gets back to me I will to slip in a question about these refurbishments since someone from another board said that it was a person from the GM's office who told him/her about them.

I don't really expect anything to come of these efforts to be honest but I would like to formally voice my concern even though I never book value studios.

 

[gillep]

I am going to email DVC this weekend and ask about this. All of the AKV rooms were refurbished in 2016, so they should not be up for anything this soon. If they are refurbishing that is an expenditure of our dues (AKV owner) and I would like to know what they think is so important to fix in these rooms that they must be out of commission for months at a time, but not important enough to start immediately, and not important enough to inform owners of. I don't exactly like the idea of them spending our dues on refurbishments so close to the last one and with no notice at all, it wasn't even mentioned at the meeting when the other resort refurbishments were announced.


There has been at least one report on the resort thread that the resort room refurbishments have already started, so, if anything, it sounds like they are ahead of schedule, not behind, although they could just be test rooms.

I also emailed Kent (AKL GM) to let him know how great our last stay was and someone from his office replied leading me to believe that Kent may also reply once he is back in the office, if he gets back to me I will to slip in a question about these refurbishments since someone from another board said that it was a person from the GM's office who told him/her about them.

I don't really expect anything to come of these efforts to be honest but I would like to formally voice my concern even though I never book value studios.

I am now officially replying to myself like a crazy person, but I just dug out all of the paperwork from my January visit to Jambo house, and the informational sheet from Kent Mitchell the GM says: 'In order to help you better plan your stay with us, please be aware that we are conducting work to refresh our Guest rooms...' So this, plus the report that I saw on the main resort thread leads me to believe that the resort room refurbs are well ahead of the initial posted schedule.

I tried to post a picture of the full letter but it was blurry and unreadable no matter how many times I tried at a lower resolution, or too large to post at a higher resolution.

I sent off my email to DVC while it was on my mind, I will let you all know if I hear back.

 

[robinb]

I am now officially replying to myself like a crazy person, but I just dug out all of the paperwork from my January visit to Jambo house, and the informational sheet from Kent Mitchell the GM says: 'In order to help you better plan your stay with us, please be aware that we are conducting work to refresh our Guest rooms...' So this, plus the report that I saw on the main resort thread leads me to believe that the resort room refurbs are well ahead of the initial posted schedule.

I tried to post a picture of the full letter but it was blurry and unreadable no matter how many times I tried at a lower resolution, or too large to post at a higher resolution.

I sent off my email to DVC while it was on my mind, I will let you all know if I hear back.

We were at Jambo in early January and they were doing some work outside the rooms on the Sunset Savannah on the horseshoe. We were in a Concierge studio.

 

[keishashadow]

As one who is waitlisted for first week in Dec. for the AKVJvalue studios, am starting to think i’m ‘Wasting’ it. If the rooms were removed from service or allocated to cash reservations, it’s my opinion they shouldn’t have accepted any waitlist requests. We do have standard studio booked, now wondering if there will be annoying refurb/construction in place.

I recall receiving a letters from DVC as to refurbs as in the past at other (most recently twice over the long BVW one, two or three years back?)

Using the 8/18 thru fall ‘19 info above as to refurb info @ Jambo, had/have 3 trips planned there. Don’t recall receiving official DVC notice, but did read pool construction info here. Have they stopped routinely informing members with bookings via snail mail/email notices?

 

[gillep]

As one who is waitlisted for first week in Dec. for the AKVJvalue studios, am starting to think i’m ‘Wasting’ it. If the rooms were removed from service or allocated to cash reservations, it’s my opinion they shouldn’t have accepted any waitlist requests. We do have standard studio booked, now wondering if there will be annoying refurb/construction in place.

I recall receiving a letters from DVC as to refurbs as in the past at other (most recently twice over the long BVW one, two or three years back?)

Using the 8/18 thru fall ‘19 info above as to refurb info @ Jambo, had/have 3 trips planned there. Don’t recall receiving official DVC notice, but did read pool construction info here. Have they stopped routinely informing members with bookings via snail mail/email notices?

Well, I was in Jambo in mid January and there was obviously work being done on the balconies at both Jambo and Kidani and we received no notice, and when I posted about the Kidani work (I didn't notice the Jambo work until our last day) no one said that they had received advance notice. The flyer in my room clearly described work on Guest Rooms, although I guess that could be for the balcony work and just very poorly worded.

Since you have a waitlist set up for a value studio, you may want to email them to ask your question, if they have no plans of opening them then you should release your waitlist, although I agree that they never should have allowed you to waitlist if they had no intention to have the room available.

 

[cel_disney]

Well, I was in Jambo in mid January and there was obviously work being done on the balconies at both Jambo and Kidani and we received no notice, and when I posted about the Kidani work (I didn't notice the Jambo work until our last day) no one said that they had received advance notice. The flyer in my room clearly described work on Guest Rooms, although I guess that could be for the balcony work and just very poorly worded.

Since you have a waitlist set up for a value studio, you may want to email them to ask your question, if they have no plans of opening them then you should release your waitlist, although I agree that they never should have allowed you to waitlist if they had no intention to have the room available.

I suspect that if this story is true or at least what is believed - they might say that they have blocked the rooms for longer than needed and they might release waitlists when it gets closer and they know more...but I think this is still all suspect - why have Cash rooms?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I don't think anything CMs tell you about the Value units can be held as accurate.

1. If Disney is doing anything sketch, it's not like they're sending all-hands emails to all the CMs about it.
2. Disney culture is that a CM is not supposed to say "I don't know." This is also why you ask 3 CMs a question, you get 3 answers, 2 in conflict with each other.

If there is something sketch going on, a GM is unlikely to say so.

 

[kristenrice]

Well, if they have taken the value inventory offline for member booking due to planned refurbishments, then why are they offering the same rooms up for rent through CRO? If they are truly going to be down for refurbishment, why should they be booked AT ALL??

I call BS on this one...