We're looking forward to staying here in early December '13, but in case we are unable to get reservations for our chosen dates, can anyone recommend the other Wyndham resorts in the area to look at as our second choice?
If you own Wyndham points, You should have no problems as someone else mention if you make your reservation at the 10mo mark from your desired stay. Depending on when in December, and what type of room you'd like, There is a decent chance you may be able to get what you want even a few months prior to your trip. (2bdrm Deluxe units are the most common at the resort, so are going to have better availability than any other type.... and the resort is pretty big).
If however you can't get what you want there, there are 3 other Wyndham Resorts in the area you might be able to get into. Wyndham Orlando is off I-Drive and Sand Lake (Near the "Mega Playplace" Mcdonalds if you know where that is) and I've heard decent things about it. There is another at Star island (off 192 east of the Parks).... And The Wyndham Reunion Resort looks decent. (South of Disney down I-4). I'm not as familiar with the other Wyndham resorts in the area, so i'm not sure how they would exactly "compare" to WBC. Wyndham Orlando and Star island are both older that WBC, and Reunion is more of a Golf resort than one aimed towards the theme park crowd. You would also probably want a Car if you stay at one of the other locations since they aren't going to offer the same level of Disney shuttle service as WBC.
Is it possible to request a room prior to check-in? We would like a room were you could watch Illuminations & Wishes from our balcony or bedroom windows? We are going to be there the beginning of June
It's possibly to place a room request, however there is no guarantee you will get what you requested.
Honestly, I've personally found that the water/pool view rooms are nicer to have for a couple reasons.
1. You can enjoy the pool/water view all day long... such as first thing in the AM or after a day visiting the parks. the Fireworks however will only go off once a day, and often I'm still at the parks when they do.
2. Illuminations has a lot of low-level fireworks and the whole fire barge/video globe are very big parts of the show. As a result, the fireworks above the tree-line aren't nearly as impressive or often as you may think they would be. Wishes fireworks also have a lot of lower-level fireworks involved (the ones on top of the Fantasyland buildings), and the bigger shells are fired off behind the park. With the distance between the resort and the MK, While you can see them from some places on property, they are pretty far off on the horizon.
Wouldn't everyone like a room like that?
Many people have reported calling ahead and making requests, but does it give you and advantage? I don't think so.
I say the time to make a request is when you check in and talk to the agent. I don't think I've ever stayed in the room the computer and pre-assigned me to in my last 10 visits.
Someday Wyndham may figure out a way to charge extra for these "view" rooms like Disney does, but they haven't yet.
Bottom line, nothing is guaranteed.
I highly doubt Wyndham will ever charge extra for the "view rooms" at the timeshare resort. Because ownership points are deeded as a percentage/fractional ownership of the individual buildings, The total point value for each building cannot be changed without seriously impacting every deed/contract sold on the buildings. They MAY be able to do some point shifting where they lower the value of some rooms to raise the point value of others (somewhat similar to what DVC did at AKL), The complexity of managing the inventory by the creation of new room classifications and ensuring that those new view classifications (which would impact all the towers) don't cause deed issues for any of the towers (Each contract is based off a specific tower, and not the resort as a whole) would be prohibitive.
....And that's assuming that there isn't anything in the deeds or HOA paperwork that would prohibit any changes in individual room values.
That being said.... I'd be surprised if Wyndham didn't charge extra for views at the Wyndham Grand Resort which as a hotel doesn't have any of these concerns to deal with.
Could someone tell me if all the buildings at WBC have been remodeled?
Technically... No. For example, Tower 6 is only about 2yrs old at this point.
They have however been going thru the older Towers and refurbing them. i've heard reports that Towers 1 and 2 have been refurbed, and Tower 3 was supposed to be finished with it's refurb in the spring. That leaves just Towers 4, 5, and 6 which are the newer towers and not nearly as old as Towers 1, 2, and 3.