The 100% Original POFQ FAQ

[lissiesmum]

You'll receive 2 separate mailings. One will be your itinerary and stuff. The other will be a separate Disney's Magical Express mailing that has a DME bookelt and your DME luggage tags; DME luggage tags are yellow sticky paper that's pre-printed with your necessary personal information. Like I said, they will arrive separately, but will both come 4-6 weels (or so) before your trip.

Did you book yourself or through a travel agent? If though a TA, he/she will receive all the documents, and then will get them to you (or you'll need to go get them).

To request a building? Call 407-W-DISNEY if you booked yourself, or contact your travel agent if you used one. If you used a TA to book your resort, Disney won't discuss your resort reservation with you, and won't permit you to make any changes, since the TA "owns" the reservation until you actually check-in at the front desk.

Thanks Cleverocks! I did book it myself so I will be sure to call WDW. Should I request now, or closer to my arrival?

I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times, but is there a central building that's close to bus stop, food court and pool? Now that I've finally booked my vacation, I promise to pay closer attention to all this stuff

Could someone post the time to get to each park from POFQ by bus, and how far to DTD by boat? I'm figuring out my ADR's now and trying to figure in my travel time (this is so cool to actually be planning my vacation for real instead of dreaming it in my head!)

I was also wondering if they put a new shampoo and conditioner in your room every day, and if you could ask for extra if you need it? I have really thick curly hair and I'd rather not have to pack my own for only five nights, but I usually need two bottles of conditioner when I go to a hotel...

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Thanks Cleverocks! I did book it myself so I will be sure to call WDW. Should I request now, or closer to my arrival?

I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times, but is there a central building that's close to bus stop, food court and pool? Now that I've finally booked my vacation, I promise to pay closer attention to all this stuff

Could someone post the time to get to each park from POFQ by bus, and how far to DTD by boat? I'm figuring out my ADR's now and trying to figure in my travel time (this is so cool to actually be planning my vacation for real instead of dreaming it in my head!)

I was also wondering if they put a new shampoo and conditioner in your room every day, and if you could ask for extra if you need it? I have really thick curly hair and I'd rather not have to pack my own for only five nights, but I usually need two bottles of conditioner when I go to a hotel...

Disney will automatically send your packet about 30 days prior to your arrival. You shouldn't have to call unless it hasn't arrived within that time frame.

I don't know about a central building, I haven't stayed at POFQ yet.

We always allow at least 1 1/2 hours travel time for any ADR's, becasue you never know what will happen. If we arrive early, they usually take us in early, so it doens't hurt to be early.

We don't use the shampoo/conditioner in our room, but we do stick it in our toiletry bag and mousekeeping will leave more when they come.

Suzanne

 

[skipperkim]

Thanks Cleverocks! I did book it myself so I will be sure to call WDW. Should I request now, or closer to my arrival?

I'm sure this has been asked a thousand times, but is there a central building that's close to bus stop, food court and pool? Now that I've finally booked my vacation, I promise to pay closer attention to all this stuff

Could someone post the time to get to each park from POFQ by bus, and how far to DTD by boat? I'm figuring out my ADR's now and trying to figure in my travel time (this is so cool to actually be planning my vacation for real instead of dreaming it in my head!)

I was also wondering if they put a new shampoo and conditioner in your room every day, and if you could ask for extra if you need it? I have really thick curly hair and I'd rather not have to pack my own for only five nights, but I usually need two bottles of conditioner when I go to a hotel...

There is not an exact schedule for buses. You can see estimated time travel at ourlaughinplace. There is a transportation wizard where you enter your starting point and ending point. By all means get those ADR's booked ASAP.

As far as closest building to the bus stop and food court that would be building 4. But none of the buildings are that far really. The furtherest building to the bus stop would be building 1 and it's 5 min from there. But what you need to decide is what you want to be close to. The pool is between buildings 2 and 5. There is a map on page 36 of this link if you need one.

 

[pwdebbie]

We did not have a problem getting shampoos and conditioner when our room had none the first night. We called mousekeeping and a large bag with more than enough for two people was delivered within minutes. They were very generous.

We were in Building 5 at the end closest to the food court and it was a perfect location for us. A short walk for tired legs at the end of the day.

I don't think any of the bus rides to the parks took more than 20 minutes. But don't forget to add in waiting time. And if you have ADRs at another resort, then you will have to go to a park to get transportation to that resort, which will take even more time. As someone else said, if you allow an hour and a half, you should be ok. We were seated quickly most times that we arrived early.

The boat ride to DTD is very pleasant, again it takes perhaps 20 minutes, but you may also wait that long for a boat to come. And they don't run when it is lightning, so if bad weather is on the horizon, you might want to take the bus.

Have fun!

Deb
POFQ, Oct. 2007

 

[lissiesmum]

thanks to the last two posters for some great info. I will check out the map and ourlaughinplace website. That should help a bunch One answer I never rec'd was when do you call reservations to request a building? Do you call central reservations or POFQ?

 

[CharacterFan]

thanks to the last two posters for some great info. I will check out the map and ourlaughinplace website. That should help a bunch One answer I never rec'd was when do you call reservations to request a building? Do you call central reservations or POFQ?

Call CRO had have them put the request in your notes and if you want you can fax a request 10-7 days before arrival to the resort you're staying at.

 

[lissiesmum]

Call CRO had have them put the request in your notes and if you want you can fax a request 10-7 days before arrival to the resort you're staying at.

Thanks, sounds great

 

[skipperkim]

Call CRO had have them put the request in your notes and if you want you can fax a request 10-7 days before arrival to the resort you're staying at.

I've always read 4 days before arrival because the reservation doesn't reach the room assigner before then. I know my last fax to them was read because I requested a room on the top floor by the fountain betweent buildings 1,2, and 3. I was given a first floor room because you can't see the fountain from the 3rd floor. Well, I don't want to be on the 1st floor. The CM at the front desk got us in the same building around the corner, closer to the food court. Which was a better location than I had actually requested. It is so beautiful there and very relaxing.

 

[reidtgang]

Could you let me know if the POFQ food court now does a make-your-own pasta option like Riverside does? Someone asked me for confirmation (I added it to my site as it's mentioned on Disney's own info, but not sure how accurate that is). Thanks!

Andre

Sorry no pasta option.

Philly sandwich was great and my wife loved the chicken parmesan.

The pizza was ok.

 

[lissiesmum]

my questions keep pouring in! DD is very into doing everything by herself, but she's not tall enough to reach the sinks...do they have any stepstools or anything kids can stand on to brush their teeth?

 

[jennwndrlnd]

The bus queues at DTD are all identical.

It might be more to the point for you, however, that the bus stops AT the Moderate resorts are different from the bus stops at the Value resorts. s you know, the bus stops at the Value resorts have set queues, railings/bars that you must walk through in order to get to the bus entrance.

But it's not that way at the Moderate resorts. At the Mods, each bus stop is a "free-for-all."

So, in fact, if you decided never to stay at a Value resort again because of an experience at a bus stop at DTD, you actually have it backwards. The physical set-up of the bus stops at DTD are exactly like the physical set-up of each and every bus stop at each of the Moderate resorts. In other words, no matter which Moderate you stay at, when you head to any park in the morning, there is no set bus queue ... it's just a covered area where people wait for buses, and thus when the bus pulls up there is no set order as to who gets on the bus first since there is no queue set up.

For some reason I don't remember that from staying at CBR or YC. What I do remember is that there were never issues with loading or unloading at the resorts or at DTD (from the mod resorts). The problem with going from DTD to ASMR was absolutely horrible and unacceptable. Hopefully we don't encounter any of that this year. I am staying positive. Thanks for the responses everyone.

 

[CharacterFan]

I've always read 4 days before arrival because the reservation doesn't reach the room assigner before then. I know my last fax to them was read because I requested a room on the top floor by the fountain betweent buildings 1,2, and 3. I was given a first floor room because you can't see the fountain from the 3rd floor. Well, I don't want to be on the 1st floor. The CM at the front desk got us in the same building around the corner, closer to the food court. Which was a better location than I had actually requested. It is so beautiful there and very relaxing.

Normally when I send my request at the 7 day mark I get exactly what I want. I forgot and in May sent it in at the 4 day mark, and couldn't have gotten further then what I requested.

 

[CleveRocks]

Normally when I send my request at the 7 day mark I get exactly what I want. I forgot and in May sent it in at the 4 day mark, and couldn't have gotten further then what I requested.

It's been happy coincidence for you.

The Central Reservations Office/Disney Reservations Center doesn't even transmit reservations data to the individual resorts until 4 or 5 days in advance. The "rooms" person can't possibly assign any rooms before he/she knows all of the information for a particular time-frame.

 

[andrewilley]

The other complication on the whole room request situation is that over the past few years Disney have been switching more to the "Ready Room" allocation system.

Although rooms can still be blocked out in advance for specific reasons, if you just arrive at the front desk to check in, the resort's DPMS (Disney Property Management System) screen will check to see which rooms are available to be occupied at that moment (i.e. the system has been notified that a room has been vacated and fully cleaned). This system means that you may be able to get into a room earlier than the official 3pm time.

However, the downside is that the pool of 'Ready' rooms at any one time may be quite a bit smaller than the number of rooms which will finally be available by the end of the day. If you are checking in on the early side, you may get a better choice of rooms if you say that you are prepared to wait until later in the day for a specific room location, rather than just accepting what they've got listed on the system right now.

Andre

 

[pwdebbie]

One answer I never rec'd was when do you call reservations to request a building? Do you call central reservations or POFQ?

Our TA took care of that. She decided that we wanted a garden view (not a water view that costs more and could be overlooking the pool) and that Building 2 or 5 would be best for us. Our room was perfect. As a first-timer, I had no idea what resort would be best or where in that resort we should be. She got everything for us absolutely perfectly.

Deb
POFQ, Oct. 2007

 

[skipperkim]

Our TA took care of that. She decided that we wanted a garden view (not a water view that costs more and could be overlooking the pool) and that Building 2 or 5 would be best for us. Our room was perfect. As a first-timer, I had no idea what resort would be best or where in that resort we should be. She got everything for us absolutely perfectly.

Deb
POFQ, Oct. 2007

Buildings 2 and 5 do overlook the pool, it's between them and Disney has charged more for "water" view rooms regardless what type of water it is. I'd rather not have a view of the pool, since people will swim in there all night long and keep you up. Well, I've heard that about other resorts. I've never experienced it at POFQ. Still, I'm not willing to take that chance.

 

[pwdebbie]

Buildings 2 and 5 do overlook the pool, it's between them and Disney has charged more for "water" view rooms regardless what type of water it is. I'd rather not have a view of the pool, since people will swim in there all night long and keep you up. Well, I've heard that about other resorts. I've never experienced it at POFQ. Still, I'm not willing to take that chance.

Only a portion of buildings 2 and 5 overlook the pool. We could not see or hear the pool from our room. We did look out over the hot tub, but we did not hear any noise from that area. I think the rooms that face the river would be very nice rooms to have, but I would be afraid to pay extra hoping for those rooms and then end up overlooking the pool instead. Imo, they should charge less if your room faces the pool, not more.

Deb
POFQ, Oct. 2007

 

[Linzybrooke]

Getting ready for my first trip to POFQ in October. Can't wait!!!

 

[Lorettainny]

We are going in October too. I can't wait. Looks like a great resort.

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Also going to be there in Oct.