A parking lot view wouldn't completely bum me out if that's all they had left. It's not like cars are sitting right outside your window like at a Days Inn or something. When I made the reservations, she asked if I preferred a specific view like courtyard or garden and I chose garden at the time. Now I'm thinking I should have asked for a specific building that had a standard room IF available.
Thank you for the buildings. I'll call and change my request to a specific building and see where that takes us.
No, I didn't want to pay for a water view because I wanted more money to spend on food. It's $135.00 bucks towards a nice sit down meal. Another reason we didn't book at the WL, was spending money for food and souvies.
1.) We (actually DD11) would like to request a room close to the pool, I believe that would be building 2 or 5. We booked a standard room and are not real concerned about the view, we just want to be close to the pool if possible. What is the best way to request a building? Should we just call POFQ direct, and if so, when is the best time to do this? We are booked for the week of Thanksgiving 08 so we have plenty of time, just wondering if we should wait until a week or so before we go to make a building request, or do it now ... and should we call or send an email or what?
2.) We will be arriving late on our first night ... anybody have any experience with late arrival/check in? Depending on when we can get ready, traffic through/around Atlanta, etc. .... we could be there anywhere from 8:00 PM to 12:00 midnight (maybe later, hopefully not, but possible). Are we going to get a crappy room in the worst possible location? or should we maybe call on our way down around normal check in time (3:00 - 4:00) and let them know that we will be arriving late, would that help?
Thanks in advance for any insight/thoughts on either of these questions.
I would have it added to my ressie. I also fax my request to the room assigner.
We checked in at 11:30pm and got the most awesome location.
Building 5 facing Reveler's Row. 1st floor. Just steps to the Hot Tub and Pool. Rooms are set back from the walk way a bit so don't worry about noise. This location was also closest to the food court.
We didn't have any problems with the beds or housekeeping. Thought they were great.
Have a GREAT trip!!!
Thanks KSBelle! We would be thrilled with a room like that ... no worries about noise for us, we stay up pretty late anyway (DD11 will be DD12 by then), so no biggie there, and don't really have problems with noise sleeping anyway ... especially in disney, by the time we finally go to bed we are asleep within minutes, we "run" long and hard at disney when we go. We usually go about twice per year, usually for 3 to 5 days since we always take a 7 day Disney Cruise each year as well. So, we usually don't have a full week like many guests have, we pack in as much as we can in a short period of time. We are lucky to be just close enough to drive to Disney (and port canaveral) .... we live just north of Atlanta ... takes us about 7 hours to get to Disney and about 8 to get to Port Canaveral (that is if we time it correctly and get through Atlanta during off rush hour times). If you live in or near Atlanta, you time everything for off rush hour times!
Anyway, this will be our first stay at POFQ and we are really excited! We stay "onsite" most of the time now, but we also have stayed off site on many occasions as well. The more we go, the more we enjoy staying onsite, just to maintain that disney magic that just closes out the outside world! Staying offsite just is not the same!!
One more question ... since we will be arriving late on our first day and we have purchased DDP (first time we have tried this as well) ... we have plenty of places we want to try, but just wondering what your recomendations would be? As far as I can tell there are no table service restaurants at POFQ, but we thought we might try Boatwright's Dining Hall at POR ... what are your thoughts, and how long of a walk would it be. Maybe we will do the horse and buggy (or whatever it is called) over to POR to make it a special night. Your thoughts?
Also, since there is a shuttle boat over to Downtown Disney, we will likely do a table service there as well.
For thanksgiving day we are going to TRY to get an ADR for Liberty Tree Tavern.
We will also have an extra Table Service, Counter Service and snack since we will not be arriving until very late on our check in day ... we are considering maybe doing a "signature Dining" for one of the nights, my understanding is that at Signature Dining you need to use 2 table service tickets ... what are your thoughts on maybe doing a Signature dining experience for Thanksgiving Dinner? ... your suggestions on that would be appreciated as well.

What has everybody's experience been as far as noise goes? Especially in regards to what floor you are on? Is the first floor noisy? Is one floor better than the other?
We were moved to building two, facing the courtyard on the third floor. We were right beside the stairs, but noise was not an issue at all.
In terms of your reservation, there is no difference between a standard view and garden view. The only categories for reservations are water view, king-size bed and ... for lack of better wording ... "none of the above." Once you get to the resort, they have in THEIR computer system whether a room is a garden view or courtyard view or parking lot view or whatever (I don't know all the categories). But like I said, at time of making the reservation, Central Reservations can certainly note your request for garden view or whatever, but it goes into the Central Reservations system as a standard room.it sounds like building 5 is the most requested one. Does it have Std rooms? and is there a difference betwen Garden and Std view?