I am so glad I’ve found this site and these forums! We’re going for our very first ever stay next month and I didn’t even know you could make room requests, even generalized ones. I’d been looking at the map wondering where we might be put (paid for a lagoon/queen room at GF), now I have a better idea of everything!!
And thanks to @dolphin18 for the pic of room 8413…that’s one of the rooms I’m now requesting!
Of course I’ll update with results (and pics!)
Thank you!!
VERY delayed reply to your question, @spoerlx3 - sorry about that! No, for that trip in March of this year we had NOT made any requests to Disney directly. Just used the TouringPlans feature.
Just wondering, @jonmck or @len, about using this feature for OKW. We used it in March for Pop and it worked decently well (didn’t get quite what we wanted, but it was relatively similar to our request). For Pop, I could use the room finder feature, put in search parameters, and have several buildings/rooms pop up. When I try for OKW, leaving all search features blank, it returns 0 search results. Am I doing something wrong? I’d love to see TP picks for 1 bedrooms; we aren’t in the HH section. Thanks for any help you can offer!
Hey @melindamouse, just wanted to follow up on this - I actually did a lookup on your fax with our fax service, and it did indeed get sent according to them. (We had a misleading message in our database about it, but it was still marked as a success is why I checked with them.)
Disney does make a big deal about it being a “request only” and if you got put in the same hallway I strongly suspect someone saw it and made an attempt to accommodate even if the CM who checked you in didn’t know anything about it (a fairly common thing, often the checkin person or even the manager doesn’t know about the fax specifically - I’ve had that response even when I was in the exact room I requested!). Anyway, thanks for letting us know how it worked out and I’m really glad you ended up in a decent room. Thanks for the input!
Sarah
So My fax was sent for Caribbean Beach across the bridge and I just saw that its closed so I really dont want those rooms anymore 
Should I call or just put different rooms on my online check in?
thanks @sarah, glad to hear the system worked as it should and I greatly appreciate having had the support from you guys for this trip!
@drbeck, we may not have TP picks for OKW. If you remove that, do rooms show up?
Sorry for the short text - on a cruise w/limited wifi.
You could call, put different rooms in online, or delete your fax and send another. Let me know what happens, please.
I was a bit disappointed that Pop did not receive/honor my fax request for my August 17-19th stay. I say receive because I wasn’t able to confirm with the CM checking me in that they actually got the request.
My request: first floor, close to parking, building one. I got top floor, building 5, about as far from parking as you can get. This was a “preferred room”. When I asked about the request, the CM apologized and said because the resort was sold out, they were unable to change my room.
Are room requests less likely at value than at deluxe? I couldn’t risk the fax not working for my upcoming Poly stay so I called and had the request added to my ressie instead.
I don’t think it is because it is at a value. I believe somewhere in this thread they talk about the success rates and they are equally successful in the values as they are in the moderates or deluxe. Maybe @len or @sarah or one of the other facilitators of this thread can chime in with the success rate.
If you read back on several posts, there are a couple of conversations about the Poly (one success and one not), there are also other success and failure posts at other mods, deluxe and values.
IMHO, I believe that there are several factors when it comes to getting the room you requested no matter which resort/level. First and foremost, how booked the resort is. Like the CM mentioned, the resort being sold out. It appears that many others requested the same thing. I know that 50’s & 60’s, ground floor and top floor are the most popular requests at POP. It would always depend on how many guests checked out that day to what available rooms they have available to even assign to guests coming in. Sounds like there weren’t many rooms available at all. Were you booked preferred? Or did they upgrade you to preferred to get you a room? Getting a 60’s, top floor preferred room sounds like a pretty sweet room since that is a top requested spot but with you needing/wanting to be close to the parking lot, it wasn’t too sweet/convenient for you.
We had a similar situation during our last trip. We had requested connecting rooms (our most important request), lake view, 4th floor. We were assigned ground floor in building 2 on the opposite side of the lake view rooms. When I spoke to the CM, they searched and then explained that these were the only connecting rooms available at the time and it was September slow time. I was thankful for the connecting rooms but building 2 was a loooooong hike back after a full day at the parks. Just keeping in my mind that these are all request only, helps me enjoy my room 
I hope you still had a great trip and pixie dust for the perfect Poly room on your upcoming trip.
I think @spoerlx3 outlined the reasons. If the values are, say, 98% full, there’s a good chance that someone is already in the room you want, and can’t be moved. That’s got to be the #1 reason why a correctly-formed fax doesn’t work.
For what it’s worth, the Disney resorts’ average occupancy is above 80%, and for values I’m pretty sure it’s above 90%.
Hi Len. I wanted to report back on my experience with the fax service. We stayed at the Polynesian Villiage from 8/18 to 9/1. I requested Fiji room 3314. I indicated in the fax that we wanted a balcony room in Fiji or Aoteraoa. If this was not possible, we would like any other balcony room not facing the East Pool construction. I received confirmation that the fax was sent.
At check in, we were assigned a second floor room in Raratonga facing the east pool, which did not meet any of our requests. The very helpful desk clerk called to find out if any other rooms were available. We ended up with 3204 in Aotearoa, monorail view, which we loved.
So, the fax service didn’t work for us, but we got a great room anyway. I will definitely try the fax service again.
Suzanne
I have two reservations. 1 night only for pop followed by 5 nights at the poly. I received emails for both reminding me that the faxes would be sent, however I never received follow up emails. There is a notification on my dashboard messages that the Pop fax was successfully sent. The one for the poly has been saying it’s “processing” for 2 days now. So I’m assuming no confirmation it was received by Poly. Anybody know where I can find the fax# so I can try and send fax myself? TIA
My dashboard now says the fax was successful:) Thanks PrincipalTinker.
FYI. We just got back from our stay at the Beach Club, 8/27-9/2. We booked 2 rooms, garden views. Our request was for rooms like #2361, adjoining. We ended up with rooms #2546 and #2544 - connecting rooms, but not quite where we wanted to be. A little disappointing, and the views were nothing to write home about. I should have specified close to lobby, as the rooms were quite a distance from the lobby, transportation, marketplace. But, it was very quiet as it faced the woods, not gardens, and away from any possible walking traffic. It was also beautiful, clean, and ultimately comfortable. It was also a plus when walking back from Epcot or Hollywood Studios, that we were close to the side entrance by the laundry room, and the walking was shorter than initially thought.
Just checked in at AKL. Unfortunately our room request fax was not met. All is good though. We asked at the desk if something closer to our request was available even if the room was not ready yet. Thankfully that worked!! We requested 4486, 4485, 4484, 4483 or 3486, 3485, 3484, 3483. They gave us 4402 which is a lobby roof view. I think they may have ignored our request in favor of a room that was ready.
If I am using the automated fax request feature, should I also contact Disney now (60 days prior) to enter the same rooms requested with my reservation? I fear if many others requested same rooms at the 5 day mark, that I may not get it.