But TP doesn’t even charge for the FAX feature - at least not beyond needing to be a member, but I don’t think anyone ever signed up for TP just for the FAX. That’s pretty poor behavior by AKL management if true. That can’t make for happy customers and I’d presume TP members that FAX are more likely to be heavy DIS users so they are alienating their best customers. Smart business plan there…
Funny , I just returned from a AKL CL stay. Online check in did not allow any room requests. I made the mistake of not making a room choice. They assigned three adults to a bunk room and then said basically “too bad, so sad- no club room for you”. Oh yeah- charged me for it…Make the requests at AKL- it is your best chance.
So you didn’t get a club level room, but got to pay club level prices? 
I reasoned along similar lines. I want to be careful because I don’t want to repeat anything that might identify and harm the helpful CM I spoke to. I was really grateful for that person’s candor. Apparently there is a school of thought among the worker bees at AKL that guests are free to spend their money where and how they will, and it’s not their job to punish us for it. However, given Disney’s recent penchant for cutting hours and eliminating jobs I can’t blame a worker bee for not trying to circumvent the will of her queen. Conversely, I appreciate those cast members who are willing to assume some personal risk to provide a great customer experience, or at least mitigate a bad one that obviously should have never happened, despite the anti-magic attitude of their superiors. This incident is just the latest example of a trend I’ve been noticing for a few years, especially last year as Disney appeared to be covering its China cost overruns and ESPN losses with domestic labor cuts, particularly among first line CMs at the parks and resorts. Happy CMs make happy guests, and I’m noticing that Disney CMs are (understandably) a lot less happy these days.
It’s a wonderful world 
. I got to eat the CL food-
Wow. This really concerns me now. We had good luck with the fax request last year, but I spent extra for the savannah view room this time. I don’t need to the exact room, but I’m looking specifically at areas with a solid view and close access to the lobby and the Mara. I’d be interested for thoughts from Len or another TP representative on this issue. If the faxes won’t be viewed, I want to see if I can contact Disney in another way (phone, fax, etc.) to get a more specific request than the online tool.
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It’s probably a good idea to see if @len has an thoughts and/or contacts to reach out to AKL management to see what the problem really is.
You can always FAX directly to Disney if you wanted - on my last trip the resort’s FAX machine was down so my FAX failed and I was panicking looking for workarounds. All worked out, but if TP is the issue, maybe FAX’ing the same info directly from you would be a solid backup?
Given the food seems to be the key for club level, I guess that’s not all bad then, but I also presume it was a longer walk to get to the food making it less convenient and less likely to be fully enjoyed. I’d have been quite upset if DIS had hosed up my room like that & didn’t offer any discounts as a mea culpa…
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I responded in the other “room request fax” thread, but in short: it’s very unlikely Disney is ignoring faxes. We see room photos being sent in from Liners who requested those exact rooms at AKL, for example.
And I don’t think Disney would ignore the request of guests spending thousands of dollars on vacation, because they didn’t like the method used to communicate the request. Imagine the customer service survey results and social media feedback.
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I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I stayed at AKL the week after Thanksgiving. We had a 2 bdr suite and a regular room. I got both room requests that I sent in via TP. The suite didn’t surprise me as much since there aren’t many, but I was surprised and pleased about getting the room I requested for the regular savannah view room.
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We made a request the second week of December at AKL and got the room we requested. It was great! We had a view of the animals in a standard room and we were close to the lobby as requested. Perfect!
I left 6 rooms on my room request for Presidents’ Day week and also stated being close to the West depot at POR was most important to us and we ended up not getting any of the rooms requested and being in building 18. It wasn’t a terrible room. It was close to the dining hall, which didn’t matter to us and about equidistant to the South and West Depot. Basically it seemed like they gave us the exact opposite of what we asked for, but whatever we were still at the D.
For those that requested multiple rooms, how is the best way to do this. We have three rooms booked. All separately as I was not able to book more than one at a time online. So it is three separate reservations but I’m am managing them all under my MDE account.
Hello! I was wondering if you only used the Touring Plans fax? Did you also make the online check-in request?
I’d send one request that includes all 3 reservation numbers. It’s less work for the room assigners.
Hello, Lillyfs! Yes, I only used the Touring Plans fax to make our room request (I checked in online, but I didn’t make a room request). We went in mid-January of this year right after MLK Day and stayed at the club level of the Polynesian. We looked at the room views on the Touring Plans website and picked the room we wanted. When I made the fax request, I gave a specific room number but also gave a range of rooms that would be acceptable. We ended up with the exact room we requested!
So do personally fax it or does touring plans do it for you?
sorry for jumping in late… Just my experience on a trip from June 23, 2017 to June 30, 2017… My family, and two other families traveling together, each with our own reservation (so 3 rooms/reservations total). Kim was primary of one family, Bonnie was primary for the other family. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter.
As a Travel Agent/Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, I called the 800# and told them we are traveling together. They added a “Traveling with…” note to each reservation. If you are traveling with multiple families or multiple reservation numbers, your TA or Disney’s general 800# for reservations can add the traveling with note if you call them ( you need to have all reservation numbers when you call!)
I made TWO trips on my TouringPlans dash board. One for me, and one for Kim. Both of us completed Disney’s On-Line check-in via My Disney Experience, asking for lower floor, and near transportation. Bonnie was not doing On-Line check in because she was using an ATM card with Visa logo and was afraid for hold or anything to be put on her card. She checked-in after the Magical Express dropped her off.
For both My and Kim’s trips, I used the “click here to make a request…” when looking at Touringplan’s room info/view as outlined How to Send A Hotel Room Request to Disney – Automatically! | TouringPlans.com Blog ) for the room we wanted. I left everything as was already pre-filled. In the Additional Special Request field for both, I put “traveling with reservation number xxx and yyy. Please try to keep us together”
My family flew down earlier. We landed at 11:10am, but we didn’t get the text that our room was ready until 1:52pm. Kim and Bonnie landed around 4:30pm, their room was ready for them when they arrived.
We got the rooms Kim & I requested, with Bonnie right in between us. i.e. we got 3 rooms in a row, next to each other, right where we asked for via our Touringplans request. A success!!
EDIT: looking back at my notes, we requested 4133. We got 4135, 4136 and 4137. So VERY CLOSE… and in the end a better view of the court yard that 4133.
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Amazing! Thank you for explaining with such detail! I made online check-in request for my upcomming trip in August and I was doubting to do the Touring Plans room request, but based on your experience I will!