Wow! Just … just WOW!!! 
I’ve never really wanted to stay at Riviera – a friend of mine gave me a big pitch for it and showed me her villa in 2021 – but those views are spectacular. All that good karma you’ve been spreading around is coming back for ya!
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I stayed at YC on cash, with the big discount making it more affordable than ever. I had two nights booked to close out my trip in a resort view room which offers views of the garden, rooftop, or parking areas. I did want a king bed, and said so in my request; this is one resort where king bed is not a bookable category, but with the many layouts available there are plenty to offer. Naturally I wanted garden. But I was also hoping for a sneaky view of the water and requested room 4097 which overlooks the gazebo and peeks at the marina.
I got a room ready request that gave me room 4237
Not fantastic, and also, per the room comments “wicked fah” away from everything. Hard pass.
I reached out to guest services via chat. I pleasantly told them that I had hoped for something nearer to 4097, and didn’t press for the gazebo thing. If had been in front of a person I might have but via chat it seemed complicated enough to be clear about what I wanted.
I had to be connected to someone else in chat, fill out a form for them, submit that, and then wait. I suppose it was worth the trouble but it wasn’t as easy as I expected it to be.
I ended up with room 4174
(oh how cute, a DME bus
)
My pic is just like that but without the bus.
It was a fine enough view and it is enjoyable to watch people coming and going at the porte cochere. But I wish I had been on the other side of the hallway. Still, I was “wicked close” to everything here - the elevator, the ice machine, and ultimately the lobby with boardwalk access and very close to the dining venues. It was a relatively quiet room, but there was a large group of older teens/young twentysomethings there together and I could hear them in the hallways coming and going. Not a big deal, but this room was definitely the least quiet of my three stays.
Also, for my wins/losses I came away 2:1. Not bad!
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- Resort: All Star Music
- Class of room booked: 2 queen standard view
- Method used: TP request
- Room requested: 9403, a standard room in the Calypso building
- Additional circumstances (anything that may have affected your request): I copy and pasted the recommendation from TP.
- Result: 1st floor in the Broadway Building 8.
Story: We arrived at 8:30am to check in, expecting to drop our bags and head to the waterpark. Instead, as I was standing in line for the concierge I received a text that our room was read. I was shocked. Spoke to CM and the room was in County Fair, my least favorite building. Reqeusted something closer to the front. Was offered Broadway Building 8. Was told that I could potentially wait for something in Calpyso, but woudl forefit the early access to the room. We decided to keep the room at Broadway so that we could get set up and leave for the water parks.
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I’ve never tried through MS but have generally failed miserably with touring plans email requests. I didn’t even know you could request this way. Do you just call and choose existing plans? I will normally bend over backwards to not have to talk to somebody but if it means not being on top of a smoking area for the many-th time (migraine trigger for DD14) I would totally suck it up!
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I usually only do it when I am calling memeber services for something else. Either merging seperate stays into one or buying one time use points. We’ll go through and add a request to any stays I have. I have done everything from requesting a specific room (which I got at Aulani), savannah view room when staying in a Jambo value studio, a specific range of rooms (when I want a certain wing of the hotel) or simply “near the lobby”. That is a common one. My family hates walking! They have never minded!
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You can do it right through the chat feature!
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Does DVC have a chat?
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Yes!
I can screen shot it for you in the morning. The option isn’t there now probably because it’s 2am. But they definitely have one!
The first time I used it - to merge to stays into one - it freaked me out that they knew all my details without me telling them anything, presumably because I was logged in. I’ve used it to merge stays (as mentioned), to request a room, to add a guest to a reservation, and to inquire about OTU points. It’s wicked convenient! And often easier for me to use while at work than making a call and waiting on hold.
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I use chat for everything I can, usually merge requests or to change the contract for a waitlist request. I didn’t know it could be used for OTU points and (again) didn’t know we could make room requests at all.
Super good to know, thank you both!! And sorry for derailing the thread…
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I don’t think it can be used to actually purchase the OTU points unless they can somehow take payment via chat?
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For clarity I didn’t purchase them I was inquiring about them via chat. I had to call when I was ready to purchase them
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Not at all derailing - you were asking about room requests 
Totally on topic!
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Oh that is much easier. I never knew!
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Yeah I just checked for it now and it’s not available so it’s definitely not all the time. If you click on Help & Contact it says “chat with us” but this morning it reads “email us” under that. I’ll look again in a bit to see if I can identify when it becomes available.
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This one I know! The chat bubble appears at 9am Eastern Time.
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They open at 9, so I’ll check then.
Edit - thanks @4ljs for confirming!
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Resort: Caribbean Beach Resort
Class of room booked: 2 queens w/ 5th sleeper, standard view
Method used: TP request
Room requested: using the TP room finder, I requested “5222 or similar” (I picked that one because it has an obstructed view of Aruba beach and the CBR lake, despite officially being a standard view). I added a note that I would really like to be in Aruba buildings 52-54, and if possible an upper floor and corner room.
Result: 5207. This was a ground floor standard view room in Aruba building, so the exact building/overall location that I requested (though it was neither an upper floor nor a corner room).
This was our first time staying at CBR and while it was only two nights, we loved the resort! We arrived around 11am and left our bags at bell services since the room was not ready yet. We had a short wander at Port Royale (where my 8-year-old thought we’d arrived at the water park when she saw the Fuentes del Morro pool)! The kids had a quick game of ping pong outside, and explored the pool that evening (overall our favorite pool at WDW so far). We also had a lovely dinner at Sebastian’s that evening. The grounds of the resort are beautiful and I loved all the little seating nooks and hammocks, though we did not get to take advantage of them after dinner as planned because it started raining right at that moment. The room I got was a bit dated, with some wear and tear, but otherwise comfortable and the kids loves the pull-down 5th sleeper. While we enjoyed strolling around the resort, the sprawling size does come with some drawbacks (I forgot something in the room at check out, and had to ask bell services to call a car to take me back there, as I was worried about running late to head to the airport).
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Yeah the rooms need some serious love. I felt the same when I stayed last summer. The resort was fabulous, but the room was a bit of a letdown.
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- Resort - All Star Music
- Class of room booked - Preferred 2 Queen (2 rooms)
Method used - Touring Plans & online check-in - Room requested - 1654. Noted our priorities were an upper floor, away from elevators, and having rooms near each other on TP. On online check-in, put Calypso as first choice then higher floor as second.
- Result - 1463 and 1464. Right building and rooms next to each other, but ground floor. We were only here one night and arrived at 11:30pm, so these worked perfectly fine for us. If we had been here longer, would’ve preferred a higher floor because you could hear people walking by in the morning. Very convenient though for arriving late and leaving early.
- Resort - Boulder Ridge Villas
- Class of room booked - Studio (2 rooms)
- Method used - DVC Member Services & online check-in with no requests
- Room requested - No specific room requested but order of priority of requests: Murphy beds, rooms close together, upper floor, courtyard facing
- Result - 2561 and 2563, which are the 2nd floor (so they had Murphy beds) and were next door to each other, so all of our requests were met. However, these rooms are all the way at the end of the hall so it’s a looong walk to the elevators:
Stairs are right next door, but you still have to walk to same direction as the elevators would be to get to the buses or main building anyways. The caveat to that is they are very quiet. 2563 (on the end) is next to a loading area, but there wasn’t any noise from it. View was just of the trees and if we squinted hard enough, you could see one speck of light from the EWP. We loved the rooms themselves though!
- Resort - Gran Destino Tower @ CSR
- Class of room booked - 2 Queen Water View (2 rooms)
- Method used - Touring Plans & online check-in
- Room requested - 9410 & 9412. Noted our priorities were rooms close together, upper floor, and away from elevators. Chose higher floor on online check-in.
- Result - 9264 and 9268, 12th floor and one room apart from each other (I believe 9266 in between is a king room from the TP map). 9264 is connected to 9266, but no connecting doors on 9268. We were 2 floors down from the rooms requested, but every other request was met, so can’t complain! Plus our rooms were ready by 9:35am.
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I wonder why they didn’t put more elevator banks in some of these resorts. BWI/BWV is really bad for this, also.
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