I just booked a lake-view studio room at BLT. I’m having a hard time figuring out which lake-view studio rooms will have the best view of the Electrical Water Pageant. Any suggestions? Will any room on the inner crescent work? I was thinking about requesting the 5th floor for easy monorail access, but are the views better from the upper floors? Also, how do I formulate a request for Reservations to get that good view? Thanks!
First of all to be clear, lake view means a clear view or a view that you can barely see the lake. That’s how Disney classifies them. As far as a request goes it is just that, a request with NO guarantees. On Unofficial Guide Dashboard you can find a feature that let’s you see a view from any room you are considering. After deciding what view and room you like the best within your room category, You create a fax via the Dashboard and 5 days before you are scheduled to arrive, Unofficial Guide sends your fax to Disney Housekeeping asking for that room for you. If your very lucky you will get it. Most often though I have noticed that this is not the case. It’s worth trying though as you never know.
Thanks, DocHopper.
I do understand that the “lake view” classification includes both great and not-so-great views of the lake, and that a request is not a guarantee. However, I am paying for a “lake view” room and I figure my chances of getting a room that I would prefer are a lot better if I ask for it properly (via the fax tool) than if I just leave it to chance. The Bay Lake Tower room-view tool is nice, but it doesn’t tell the whole story for me. I do know the Electrical Water Pageant goes through Bay Lake, but I don’t know the exact path…
To the point, the particular wisdom I’m after is whether anyone on this board knows of any specific rooms that allow for good views of the Electrical Water Pageant? I assume that too low of a room could be blocked by trees or the slide into the pool. But what floor is high-enough? Thanks!
The rooms on the inside of the curve would all work as long as you are above about the 5th floor I guess… The pageant comes across from left to right as you look at the lake.
What you don’t want are the rooms that have a partial view of MK and a lovely view of the secluded north(?) part of the lake, which many people love! I missed the EWP on our last stay, as lovely as the view was!!!
Also be aware, DVC ado keep saying every so often that room requests should be phoned or emailed into MS, not faxed. If you really want that view, personally I would follow their advice. The TP room request feature is great - but DVC have their own systems and will most likely action the requests to MS first,
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Thanks, Nickysyme. That is very helpful! Studying the map a bit, it appears that any odd-numbered studio (odd = pool-side, inner curve) on an upper floor ought to have a very nice view of the EWP. Worst-case, if they can’t accommodate my request, the lovely view you describe of the secluded area of the lake and the partial view of MK still sounds very nice. 
I am intrigued by DVC’s statement that MS actually is the way to go for room requests. The UG states that the resort staff CMs are the folks who actually put you in a particular room, and that generally happens right around the time you arrive at the resort. (Unless it’s different at a DVC-only property like BLT? 
Interesting… 
) So whatever the best way is to get a room request that is right in front of them–at the time of check-in–would seem to be most prudent. I guess itdoesn’t hurt to both fax and call or email. I was planning to call the resort a couple of days after the TP fax anyway, but I’ll plan a call or email to MS as well. I’m not going to stress about it, but I will follow-through! 
Sorry, what’s UG?
Since DVC accomodation is separate from the Disney resorts, I just assumed they are the ones who do the room allocations for any DVC property. I know it’s been in the Disney Files magazine a couple of times, and in some emails I get from them - “please make any room requests through member services”.
But in any case, room allocations are usually made a few days ahead. The CMs can move people around if there’s availability, but DVC usually operates at 95 - 100 % occupancy so there’s little room for switching people. Even though you may check in at the same place, the systems are different.
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Apologies, UG = “Unofficial Guide” to Walt Disney World. There’s a section called “4. HOW TO GET THE ROOM YOU WANT” that describes the Disney Resort Reservation process in some detail–especially the steps required to (most expediently) request a particular room. How or whether this process differs at a DVC property is not discussed, and since DVC properties are lumped in with the other Disney hotels in the book, it never occurred to me that there would be a substantive difference. Based on the statements you report from DVC and Disney Files, it does make me wonder…
I have gotten to the front desk at PoNR and found the room I requested wasn’t even close. The CM must get a hold of the head of House Keeping who assigns the rooms to make a change. I put up enough of a stink that they finally got a better room for me. I think my problem is that I had a 11 night stay and the room I wanted was booked for a couple of those nights. They decided to move the two night reservation to another room and give me my request. They do try hard to accommodate at least at the front desk. I didn’t mean to be rude but I was staying for a extend period and didn’t want to be stuffed around the back corner of a building and section I had not requested.
I can’t believe I didn’t work out UG lol!
It won’t hurt to use the fax as well as call/email. Just make sure they both say the same thing, and avoid negative requests. I think sometimes those get mixed up, e.g.: if someone says “not on 3rd floor” it’s easy for that to get entered as “on 3rd floor”.