Towels, Trash, and other new owner ins-and-outs concerns during stays

[Straulin]

Prior to buying I watched tons of You Tube videos, read tons of articles and learned a lot from the fine folks here at DISBoards. I was confident when we first purchased that I knew what we were getting into. We have thus far had two DVC trips. One split stay, two nights in a 1BR at AKL and 4 in a resort studio at VGF. Then a recent 1BR stay at BRV.

I am the one that really dove into DVC with her happy to take the vacations. My wife asked what everyone says about towels, trash, etc regarding the ins and outs of an actual stay.

1 Towels & washcloths - We will normally reuse towels but not wash clothes. When we were at VGF we noticed they left carts out in Big Pine Key halls that had dirty laundry spots and fresh towels and wash clothes. At AKL we didn’t see them. At BRV we saw them out and about when the cleaning folks were doing their thing turning over rooms. Are these generally out for folks to trade out their towels and washcloths? In a one bedroom is not a big deal to do a load of towels and washcloths, but when in the studio we are out of washcloths the first day.

2 Trash: we’ve never had our trash overflowing before they happen to come and take it. What do you do if you do need to take the trash out before housekeeping takes care of it?

3 How extensively do folks normally use the kitchens? We have done some minimal stuff, mostly stuff that we could do with a toaster and microwave.

 

[Best Aunt]

Originally, there was a trash room on every DVC floor. If you wanted your trash out and it wasn't a cleaning day or a trash & towel day, you took it to the trash room yourself.

Then after the big shooting in Vegas, Disney instituted daily room searches. They tried to pretty it up for DVC by saying that it was a new perk of having your garbage taken out each day.

Before your next trip, you can ask on here for the location of the trash rooms at whichever resort you will be staying at.

Originally, you were not supposed to be able to just get clean towels if it was not a cleaning day or a trash & towel day for you. If you requested them, you would get charged for them. Then they dropped the fee. If you are in your room when they do the room search, they sometimes ask if you want anything and will bring you more towels if you ask, but that can depend on the person who is doing the search. I don't know what they're doing where the new VGF resort studios are. I don't recall every seeing a dirty laundry spot and fresh towel spot on any DVC floor, but I haven't stayed at VGF.

There have been other threads about cooking in DVC rooms. Here are a few:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/cooking-in-the-villas-favorites.3850722/
https://www.disboards.com/threads/cooking-in-a-studio-where-is-the-thread.3795670/

 

[CarolynFH]

Towels & washcloths -

If you don’t see them in the hall, call via the Housekeeping button on the room phone, or try Chat via MDE. You’ll probably get a stack of washcloths.

Trash

As above, there should be a trash deposit location on each floor. However, now that they do daily “trash pickup” i.e. security check, it’s been pretty rare for our trash to pile up.

kitchens

We cook breakfast in the 1BR - oatmeal alternating with bacon & eggs, mostly. Actually, DH cooks breakfast while I get ready. And now that we spend more time in the room, we have more snacks there, and if we’re there in the summertime we keep sandwich fixings so we don’t have to leave the room until sundown. We rarely stay in studios because we have a hard time being “deprived” of a nice breakfast every morning!

As above, there are many threads about cooking, including one that popped up again recently from a family who spent a month in a studio and cooked all their meals! If I can find it I’ll link it.

 

[CarolynFH]

Found it!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/four-weeks-in-a-studio-using-the-kitchenette-and-survived.3703922/

 

[Skywalker3]

welcome!!
Before the daily trash service, we often used the trash rooms at the resorts. not sure we found them all though, but I do remember using the ones at BLT and BWV. Now , unless we have large to-go containers/lots of leftover food, the daily service has been good, although this last trip, one day, they missed us one day at AKL.
we have used the stove and oven on occasion. We've mostly stuck to microwave meals/foods when we do cook in the room. What we ALWAYS make great use of is the full sized refrigerator. We have lots of frozen snacks/ice cream, sometime pizza, or microwavable things, and always have milk, and lots of beverages in the fridge: water, soft drinks, beer, juice, box of wine, or whatever. and can keep leftovers, sometimes eggs, lunchmeat, etc. We also use a LOT of the dishes. bowls for cereal, larger bowls for soup (or my DS's new favorite thing: ramen,) plates for lots of stuff, etc.
I know I left a note/asked for extra washcloths on one trip, but I think a call to housekeeping, if you can't catch someone in the hall, should be good.

 

[Sandisw]

We just call for extras when we need but since we usually split stay, we move before needed..plus always in a larger unit there are plenty.

We just take trash to trash room if needed and pretty much use micro and toaster.

 

[Straulin]

Thanks all!