That is where I a) would not have selected Pool View when making my reservation and b) would have selected a room in an area that doesn’t face the pool to reinforce that I did not reserve Pool View (preferred or otherwise). BUT not including anything about pool view in the request. Since Pool View is a specific category at Pop, choosing Standard or Preferred without the Pool View additional category you shouldn’t even have to put anything about facing the pool in your request.
And if that is what they assign you, you can go by the front desk and request to be downgraded into the category you booked. I did it at CBR when they “pixie dusted” me into a Pirate room on Goofy weekend. Big NOPE. But I went and politely asked and they moved me. It would never have occurred to me to put “not a Pirate room” in a request since that is not the category I had booked. It still wouldn’t if they existed since I didn’t book that category.
I think this is where some room requests go astray. People check in early - maybe even about 2 pm, don’t like their room, go to the front desk demanding to switch. CM gives them an available room. And on down the line.
At DVC, SSR in particular, we’ve gotten our request - which is building only in Paddock - every time except the one time we were very late and one of our reservations had been cancelled. We eventually wound up in the Springs which was ok but were glad to be back at the Paddock next trip.
The time that my room couldn’t have been further from my request was when I was staying at POFQ and didn’t get there until like 1:30am. I’d simply requested a room close to the main building as I knew I’d be arriving late and was traveling alone. I literally had the furthest room from the main building - building 7, third floor back corner. I felt like I was closer to POR than the POFQ main building.
I strongly suspect that someone didn’t like their room, complained, and got assigned to the one that was supposed to be mine - probably why they don’t display/email/text room assignments until much later in the day so they can change people who whine. It was a King Bed and had a River View and I’d booked a Standard View, so I guess they thought they were upgrading me. Whether it had been assigned to someone who said they didn’t care if they had to go to 2 queens but they didn’t want a room that far or whether it wasn’t assigned so it was open when someone at the front desk moved me I don’t know. But I don’t think that was my initially assigned room.
Funny this just reminded me. When I went moblie checknin for our resort staybatbthebend of the month, they no longer gave me options to pick a specif8c time before 4:00. So my options were every hour starting at pm and “before 4”. Has anyone else seen this recently?
On another note my resort request via TP have been about 25% but I never get even close to my requests when staying at a dvc villa. Much better luck with moderate resorts or deluxe non dvc. 100% @ CSR ( stayed 3 times) 100% at POR (stayed 2x), 100% at CBR (stayed 1x) 50%YC ( stayed 2x) and 100% at AKL jambo non dvc. No luck at BCV, SSR and AKL kidani so far
I noticed that change when I booked rooms for March and May and checked in for them in January. You used to be able to chose the exact time if arriving before 4:00 Now it’s before 4:00.
For an October 2022 room when I checked in months ahead of time, I was able to pick my early arrival time.
In March, my options were the same. I can’t remember if it was 2pm, 3pm or 4pm but the only options were before or after. It was @ Pop. For some reason I want to say 2pm but that could be my fuzzy memory, lol. 4pm makes sense.
This to me suggests that although reservations are done centrally, maybe the DVC resort assignments are done by a DVC specific team. Were these rooms booked through DVC ie: as a member? I remember they always said to put in your request through Member Services. It could be that more of the DVC CMs tend to ignore the TP requests.
That said when we stayed at OKW on a U.K. package stay we got exactly what I asked for through TP.
At least with DVC, from what I’ve seen here, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised that TP requests are considered, along with other requests and the variance is mostly attributable to individual CM adherence to policy. Most adhere, a few do not.
I don’t think this is it. Like you we have gotten our request (not necessarily specific room but definitely location) a good percentage of the times we have made a TP request.
What may be the case - and interestingly my stays are at OKW a fair bit as it’s my home resort - is that many of the DVC resorts are small so the Tetris game is harder and it makes it more difficult to honor requests. OKW is not small so there is may be easier to do. AKL is not particularly small either, another frequent stay for me.
No they were cash through disney. Always discounted. Honeslty made me think that room priority was given to actual dvc members? Could also be toatlly random and I just didnt have any luck when it came to room requests at those resorts.
