What would you change?

[ReneeQ]

I would like:
1. Washer and Dryer in Studios.
2. For trips less than 8 nights, Trash and Towel should be at the halfway point of the trip, not necessarily on Day 4. If you're there only 4 nights, checking in on Sun, trash and towel is on Wed, and you check out on Thurs. (I know you can request to move your T&T day, but it should be automatic).
3. Some sort of system where extra bath towels are available as needed, on request, within reason. We often run the washer for just a few towels and washcloths. I can't believe running all those individual washers and dryers is as cost effective as Disney can launder mass amounts of towels. In the long run it seems DVC providing more towels AS NEEDED would come out cheaper.
4. Still begging for some type of quick service mini food court with self serve refillable mug station (ala Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge) at the Boardwalk. This would fit nicely in the old Harbor Club kid's club site under the stairs on the Boardwalk. This would be a total money-maker for Disney.
5. Availability to book your actual room OR a guaranteed room category, like on a cruise.
6. More ticket options, like those offered to Florida Residents! Like the Epcot after 4 PM ticket, so we could go to Epcot for dinner.

 

[Starr W.]

I too prefer no maid service. We were at the Marriott Aruba Surfclub until today which had a mid week exchange much like DVC. However, on 3 additional days they knocked on our door to give us additional towels, after the first time I just said no thanks. They did have a towel exhange options which we've seen at many resorts and really like. We checked in today to a resort that has daily maid service. I plan to not allow that to happen other than possible a towel exchange ONE day since there are no W/D in the units and there is a cost. Basically everything I posted above I've seen one place or another.

I was going through your list and on most of your comments could figure out what TS system you were referring to.

Well you can see what I do in my free time.

 

[Dean]

I would like:
1. Washer and Dryer in Studios.
2. For trips less than 8 nights, Trash and Towel should be at the halfway point of the trip, not necessarily on Day 4. If you're there only 4 nights, checking in on Sun, trash and towel is on Wed, and you check out on Thurs. (I know you can request to move your T&T day, but it should be automatic).
3. Some sort of system where extra bath towels are available as needed, on request, within reason. We often run the washer for just a few towels and washcloths. I can't believe running all those individual washers and dryers is as cost effective as Disney can launder mass amounts of towels. In the long run it seems DVC providing more towels AS NEEDED would come out cheaper.
4. Still begging for some type of quick service mini food court with self serve refillable mug station (ala Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge) at the Boardwalk. This would fit nicely in the old Harbor Club kid's club site under the stairs on the Boardwalk. This would be a total money-maker for Disney.
5. Availability to book your actual room OR a guaranteed room category, like on a cruise.
6. More ticket options, like those offered to Florida Residents! Like the Epcot after 4 PM ticket, so we could go to Epcot for dinner.

IMO, FL resident type benefits should be offered to members, shame on DVC for not negotiating that benefit. There's really no way to do a W/D in a studio without making them a fair amount larger. I did suggest some upgrades to studios in my list earlier. What they could do, like many resorts have done, is to have smaller and larger 1 BR rather than a studio and 1 BR as lockoff's. It'd take making the full 2 BR (at least the lockoff ones) full size at 1270-1400 sq ft though. You could't retrofit the studios for a W/D. But what you could do would be to add one of those units that washes then dries. They are small, require only a water line with no vent. They take forever (like 4 hours plus to complete a load) but it'd be much better than what there is now, NOTHING. They would have to change the detergents, at least for those units because apparently they require the HE versions.

You can change your T&T day if you want and your Full cleaning day if applicable. As for reservations priorities, that would have been easily doable but would have required adding a layer of complexity to the system. There are many forms it could take but something like having a 1 week or 1 month priority for say a 2 BR Magic Season followed by a 3 month window for other units or seasons at your home resort. It also would have likely necessitated fixing the contract sizes to fit those breakd downs where you could only buy points packages that match up to an entire week in that unit type. The other way to approach it is to give priority based on how many points you own. The latter is likely the only one that could be changed going forward and you can bet a lot of people wouldn't like it, esp if they made it developer only purchases (possibly also if you added on) as they almost certainly would if they were to make such a change. Like EVERY change that benefits someone, there is someone else that is disadvantaged so it becomes a trade off. A trade off between DVD and the members and a trade off between what's best for a given set of members without too much negatives to everyone else. They could also book rooms directly or actually put an effort to requests as I noted earlier.

Going forward, DVC could make any changes they wanted to for a new resort or new phase of an old resort including selling fixed weeks if they wanted. I don't see that happening but it would be their choice.

 

[bobbiwoz]

In view of the popularity of AKV concierge, I would like there to be an exception to the "no staying for points at a resort that has a DVC" rule. Perhaps something could be negotiated, so you can book a regular AK concierge room with your points.

Bobbi

 

[Dean]

I was going through your list and on most of your comments could figure out what TS system you were referring to.

Well you can see what I do in my free time.

That's mainly how I can up with my list. Went through my mind and though about resorts that did things I liked better, many of which seem like no brainers to me and both easy and cheap for DVC to do. And to a degree, some things I don't like about DVC and some other resorts we've visited also triggered my thoughts. I ignored things I thought DVC did well and things no one has been able to arrive at a good solution that I'm aware of. In some of the areas, like activities, all the good ones do better than DVC but then DVC does have WDW for most of their resorts and I understand that in some aspects, they'd be competing with the parks. The one area that I wish someone could come up with a good and workable solution is pool chair savers. Short of a daily execution by the pool, not a bad approach I might add, I'm not sure how to work this short of a coin fed meter at each chair. What I am sure is that it would be a lot better if people really thought they were at risk for losing the pool towels and being charged $25 each for them. Maybe a chalk marker like the meter maid. IMO, saving chairs for hours later is a very low life despicable thing to do but the problem becomes if everyone else does it then you can't get a chair. My wife and I refuse to do so but then we do suffer consequences for those actions. I'm not adverse to removing one's belongings if it's truly obvious this is the issue as it often is but I hate to be in that position as it has the risk of creating conflict.

I do realize there is no one perfect solution and what I see as great, someone else may see as bad. There is also a cost to everything, even the easy things. As I noted earlier, I also look at things from a developer point of view. Hopefully without some of the biases that we see here such as "the saleperson promised" or that it would create "ill will" if they changed things or "that's not the DVC I bought into". I also realize that DVC and DVD have access to a host of info that we don't have, case in point, the change in how reservations are made with one phone call. To me that was a no brainer but it took them quite a few years to make that change. Unfortunately there is always the law of unintended consequences such as the "walking" of reservations issue though that is easily fixable if need be, it appears it won't be needed since there are few if any problems with the change so far.

 

[Dean]

In view of the popularity of AKV concierge, I would like there to be an exception to the "no staying for points at a resort that has a DVC" rule. Perhaps something could be negotiated, so you can book a regular AK concierge room with your points.

Bobbi

The choice has always been DVC's. My guess is they mainly do it as a sales promotion, buy if you want to stay here. Given the exchange rate is so poor, I don't see any problem with allowing it for those that want to. I just think it's too ingrained in DVC to see a change now.