The Official Riviera Owners & Info Thread

[Hubie]

Thank you for your insight. I'm not sure I want to go now. It looks like everybody has the same idea and the place will be packed. I have to use 50 points I carried over by March 2022. Guess I'll wait until my 7-month window opens in June and see if I can get something for this November or wait until later. It's too bad Disney doesn't waive the expiration dates for points people had to carry over due to COVID.

 

[vinmar4]

Welcome Home! to all our new neighbors! We bought sight unseen too and have no regrets except not buying infinite points. We did a 3-way split last trip and Riviera completely felt like home.

Our next trip is in coming up in April. I can't wait to be back poolside, enjoying the view and getting to the parks by silently flying over it all. When do you all have trips?

Hey would people like if I started a Be Our Guest list with everyone's travel dates if you want to post them?

@jamesweikamp, would you mind if I linked to your grocery photos in the first post? I don't have any of those and would love to add them? Thanks!

Also, if there have been any other photos people think should be linked to in the first post, just let me know.

I would love to be on that list!

 

[dez1978]

This will be my 1st dvc stay. What kind of Coffee pots are in the studios, and do I need to bring my own or can I request more?

 

[jamesweikamp]

This will be my 1st dvc stay. What kind of Coffee pots are in the studios, and do I need to bring my own or can I request more?

Studios have regular drip Mr. Coffee machines (towers have Keurig). They will replenish your coffee/cream/etc. if you ask for more.

 

[dez1978]

Studios have regular drip Mr. Coffee machines (towers have Keurig). They will replenish your coffee/cream/etc. if you ask for more.

Thank you. I couldn't remember if you could ask for more as a dvc stay vs cash stay

 

[jamesweikamp]

Thank you. I couldn't remember if you could ask for more as a dvc stay vs cash stay

I am not sure what the "rules" are but I have never had them say no.

 

[mdonald]

Does anyone know how hard/easy it is to get a deluxe studio at the 7 month window? Is it booking up quickly at the 7 month window? Is there one view that is more easy to get?

Hey! Also newer owner here! We purchased 380 points direct in May 2019 (thank god we loved it Jan 2020) as we bought sight unseen. Any how, I think studio avail. will improve over time as Disney release more inventory as point sales increase. This has not been quick as direct sales have been low. While I don't have exact numbers I think they have sold over 20% and almost 40% of inventory has been released/bookable to DVC members. If you can imagine, standard view studios there are 9 in the whole resort and 58 with lock-off ability. So if at the time you posted your message only 10% of the inventory was out there then 1 standard view was available and around 5-6 which could be taken for 2br lock off bookings. That beings said I think with resale owners not being able to book at this resort and when inventory is fully available booking will be fairly easy for owners and non-owners. Lets say out of all 15 resorts there are about 53 000 000 points total. One resale site noted they sold 3700 contracts in 2020. If you stretched that out amount the various brokers out there I think you are safe to say 5000 contracts changed hands. If each contract averaged 200 points then 1,000,000 points per year are taken out of the "can book riviera" pool. Now, next year or so we won't see a difference but unless they let up the resale restriction then we are looking at big changes in 5-10 years WRT booking riviera on both sides. I think you will see the opposite effect where resale buyers of Riviera will book at 11 months just to have something where they may not have before (for fear of not being able to book anything) and may make it harder for owners to book at their home. Should be interesting!

 

[terri33inne]

Just wanted to post about our recent stay at Riviera. We were booked in a standard view studio for March 3-7.

PROS;

• We arrived about 1, and they were able to get us into a room right away after a quick call to the reservations center. The CM who checked us in was super friendly, and nice, and a great kick-off to our stay.
• Our room was clean including items in plastic bags.
• We were on the 5th floor near the elevator so easy access to lobby, pool & skyliner.
• It is awesome having 2 showers in the studios. Makes it so much easier for everyone to get ready.
• The full size queen Murphy bed is also such an improvement over the pull out sofa.
• Only ate at the resort 2x. Once was take out from the QS which was very good. The other was Toppolino's for breakfast which was also very nice with a great view.
• On Saturday when arriving back from Magic Kingdom Pluto & Goofy were out on a balcony waving to guests... that was a nice treat/surprise.

CONS;

• I had done online check-in, and requested our room be serviced every other day. This did not happen. We had to call down for towels, and to have our trash emptied. By Saturday I just left the trash in a bag in the hall.
• Upon check-in we discovered that the freezer in our fridge was broken. The freezer compartment didn't have a door, and had defrosted filling the inside with water. It was concerning to me this was not discovered when the room had been cleaned prior to our arrival. On a positive note they did replace it in a timely manner. We did have concerns about loosing our perishables though waiting for the fridge to get up & running.

TRANSPORTATION;

• The skyliner is a game-changer for 2 parks, and overall it worked out great for us;
  • One night leaving Epcot the line for the skyliner went past the slide at the Beach Club pool area. We ended up taking a cab back to the resort from the Beach Club lobby. The line length was not due to social distancing either, as groups were quite close together. The wait had to be at least 90 minutes.
  • Going to HS one morning we had a wait once we arrived at the CBR station, but the line moved, and we were on our way in about 20 minutes.
• Leaving MK Saturday afternoon about 1:30pm we waited 45 minutes for a bus.

Overall this was a great stay at a great resort. Can't wait to go back!

 

[pixieprincess925]

Yikes! So how did you get back? What a pain!

We were sent to an unused bus stop and waited there for 70 minutes. They finally sent along a bus to take us back to Riviera... If I had known it would have taken so long, I would've caught a Lyft or something. Honestly, the whole event was very badly managed on Disney's side...

 

[pixieprincess925]

Studios have regular drip Mr. Coffee machines (towers have Keurig). They will replenish your coffee/cream/etc. if you ask for more.

Coffee machine in Riviera studio use the angled coffee filters, not the flat bottom filters found in many other studios

 

[pixieprincess925]

I am not sure what the "rules" are but I have never had them say no.

You can request more coffee as needed

 

[CarolynFH]

Coffee machine in Riviera studio use the angled coffee filters, not the flat bottom filters found in many other studios

Cone shaped filters? Was this a Tower studio (I thought they had Keurigs) or a regular Deluxe studio (I thought they’d have the DVC-usual Mr. Coffee type, taking flat bottom filters)?

 

[SpaceYeti]

BREAKING NEWS: I am officially an owner at Riviera! Fell in love with the resort on my 2020 trip and couldn't resist buying in any longer. Previously owned 125 points at Copper Creek and doubled that with the Riviera purchase. Hello neighbors!

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

BREAKING NEWS: I am officially an owner at Riviera! Fell in love with the resort on my 2020 trip and couldn't resist buying in any longer. Previously owned 125 points at Copper Creek and doubled that with the Riviera purchase. Hello neighbors!

GREAT NEWS!
Welcome, neighbor! And Congrats!

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

BREAKING NEWS: I am officially an owner at Riviera! Fell in love with the resort on my 2020 trip and couldn't resist buying in any longer. Previously owned 125 points at Copper Creek and doubled that with the Riviera purchase. Hello neighbors!

YAAAAAASSS Welcome to the neighborhood! .

 

[Philsfan77]

anyone there this week able to update on how crowds are and how the pools are? We usually do Spring Break during normal times (always chaotic, and crowded, but we are both teachers), so we are prepared for crowds and some waits, I'm just curious about if the pool area is getting over crowded/are there waits to get in?

 

[polynor]

Cone shaped filters? Was this a Tower studio (I thought they had Keurigs) or a regular Deluxe studio (I thought they’d have the DVC-usual Mr. Coffee type, taking flat bottom filters)?

2bdrm lock off coffee filter:

 

[pixieprincess925]

Cone shaped filters? Was this a Tower studio (I thought they had Keurigs) or a regular Deluxe studio (I thought they’d have the DVC-usual Mr. Coffee type, taking flat bottom filters)?

This was a deluxe studio. Not too big of a deal, we just folded up the square filter.. then realized the coffee down at Le Petite Cafe was super good and just got coffee from there the rest of the trip!

 

[TinkB278]

This was a deluxe studio. Not too big of a deal, we just folded up the square filter.. then realized the coffee down at Le Petite Cafe was super good and just got coffee from there the rest of the trip!

The cafe and being able to buy a cold brew right in the hotel is one of the reasons we bought riviera!

 

[CarolynFH]

This was a deluxe studio. Not too big of a deal, we just folded up the square filter.. then realized the coffee down at Le Petite Cafe was super good and just got coffee from there the rest of the trip!

Ah well, this is a change from the other DVC resorts! No problem, DH makes the coffee and has no problem making one style fit the other type basket. We bring our own coffee as well as filters. I don't think he'd like having to dress and go down to the Cafe every morning just to turn the grumpy bear back into his sweet wife!