Guests visiting people staying onsite???

[ppete1975]

It wasn't meant to be rude to you, only to point out the mentality differences between how someone feels about WDW compared to other hotels. To stop and think, "would I be considering this if I was staying at the Hyatt down the street from me", type of thing. Most would say "no", that they would not even think of asking that, but many seem to feel different when we talk about Disney resorts. It is an observation.

If the hilton had a mickey mouse themed pool, id invite everyone This isnt a Disney problem this is a Hyatt builds boring pools issue

 

[Wilbret]

This topic comes up every year on all WDW boards, and the divide is always intense. Some people get VERY UPSET about people that do this. But I'm here to say, we do it every single time. We invite a cousin over with her 2 kids so they can play with ours. We've never had an issue at any resort yet, but we haven't stayed at YC/BC. Worst case scenario, we'd register them as a guest. We get a 2BR villa and are well under the capacity.

Oh no, 3 more people spending $60 on snacks/food and leaving after a couple hours. LOL.

Caveat for us, our family works for Disney. I certainly wouldn't do this with more than a couple people, throw a party, or do it if it was busy, etc etc.

This post doesn't endorse breaking any rules, just stating there are always gray areas especially when it concerns keeping families and kids happy at a place that depends on family and kids being happy.

 

[Skibum1970]

The only thing that ever gets in the way is availability. For instance, we were staying at Riverside and wanted to park at Caribbean and walk around. However, the resort was packed and they didn't have a lot of extra parking. So, they politely let us know that and we went to Art of Animation and parked there. Wilderness Lodge usually doesn't run short of parking but, with the refurbishment, the parking lot is partially taken up by storage bins and construction parking. Again, we did not get any pushback when we parked at WL to walk around and shop a little but just giving this small warning.

As was mentioned earlier, your guests could park at Disney Springs in the worst case scenario and take the bus to the resort.

 

[Imhere]

They don't have enough chairs around the WL pool for the registered guests.

 

[NelleBelle]

They don't have enough chairs around the WL pool for the registered guests.

Sadly this is why I bypassed choosing this resort for our trip this fall. My mom and I are big relax-by-the-pool gals for part of the day and when I noticed the lack of seating, had to give it a hard pass

 

[eliza61nyc]

Yes, the nicer resorts don't want riff-raff visiting (sarcasm -- it's ridiculous policy)

That's silly, resort pools have capacity limits, if everyone and their mother were allowed to go to "strolling bay", the people who are actually staying there could and would have problems using their accessing the amenities they are paying for. It's not a ridiculous policy

 

[eliza61nyc]

It wasn't meant to be rude to you, only to point out the mentality differences between how someone feels about WDW compared to other hotels. To stop and think, "would I be considering this if I was staying at the Hyatt down the street from me", type of thing. Most would say "no", that they would not even think of asking that, but many seem to feel different when we talk about Disney resorts. It is an observation.

Absolutely agree, a lot of these things make me wonder if people go other places. I was in a resort in cancun, no way were you allowed to use the pool unless you were staying there. On the beach there were signs in front of every resort stating the chairs and lounge beds were specifically for guest only.

Totally off topic, but this reminded me of something similar that happened when I got married. we sent out invites to our closest neighbors, one of them RSVP that they were coming with 6 additional people WTH!! Evidently her sister and family were in town and she wanted to bring them. Lol my mom shut that down quickly

 

[crawale]

My sister and niece will be coming to hang out with us on our resort day, will they be able to park in the resort lot, and hang at the pool with us? What info will they need to give the guards? Our name and room number? Also, if we pick up a car after we check in, what info should I have so I don’t get towed?

If your hotel is YC/BC where you need to be registered to go to the pool then they can't join you there. They can park in the lot and join you for a meal. When we did this our family gave the dining reservation and they were admitted with no problem. When certain pools are designated for the exclusive use of guests staying at the hotel then why would you expect guests of guests to be admitted?

 

[Prince-1]

Yes, the nicer resorts don't want riff-raff visiting (sarcasm -- it's ridiculous policy)

It is not ridiculous at all. Some pools like the Beach Club are very popular and they want the guests staying that resort to enjoy the amenities and not people from other resorts.

 

[SaucyBoy]

I never had an issue when I was local meeting my friends and family at the resorts they were staying at, if I wasn't joining them for their stay. 99% of time, if you explain to the security guard your intentions and give them any information they ask, you'll be fine. I also don't think you'll have any issues relaxing at the pool during a less crowded time, we didn't. But we're not like most people, when it started getting busy we left the pool and went to grab a drink at the bar or we'd head back to the room and chill.

 

[scottieRoss]

This topic comes up every year on all WDW boards, and the divide is always intense. Some people get VERY UPSET about people that do this. But I'm here to say, we do it every single time. We invite a cousin over with her 2 kids so they can play with ours. We've never had an issue at any resort yet, but we haven't stayed at YC/BC. Worst case scenario, we'd register them as a guest. We get a 2BR villa and are well under the capacity.

Oh no, 3 more people spending $60 on snacks/food and leaving after a couple hours. LOL.

Caveat for us, our family works for Disney. I certainly wouldn't do this with more than a couple people, throw a party, or do it if it was busy, etc etc.

This post doesn't endorse breaking any rules, just stating there are always gray areas especially when it concerns keeping families and kids happy at a place that depends on family and kids being happy.

I am confused. What is the grey area? Disney says the pools are for registered guests only. If they are not registered guests, then they are not permitted to use the pool. There is nothing grey there.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I am confused. What is the grey area? Disney says the pools are for registered guests only. If they are not registered guests, then they are not permitted to use the pool. There is nothing grey there.

It can be a bit confusing....contradictory responses from Disney's own site...

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/bring-friend-enjoy-day-pool-us-staying-disney-resort-453843/

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/friends-staying-disney-resort-visit-us-disney-resort-pool-466327/

 

[Wilbret]

I am confused. What is the grey area? Disney says the pools are for registered guests only. If they are not registered guests, then they are not permitted to use the pool. There is nothing grey there.

Gray area is defined as an area between black and white. This is pretty common in life.

Speed limit may be 65, but cops typically allow 5-10 over no problem.

Policy may say one thing but practice is different. Resorts can manage the issue as they see fit. They obviously allow it to some degree, or they’d tell people to bug off at the gate.

And as stated, we pay for a room that accommodates 8-9 people, and are a family of 5. I’m not going to grief about having one child in the pool as a guest and we could easily just add them. If the pool was wildly crowded, we wouldn’t be there… the pools are rarely crowded when we’ve had guests. In reality, I’d say more like they have never been crowded.

We don’t stay at BC/YC or value resorts that may have crowding issues. We are DVC, so your experience with crowds may vary.

No reason to get angry. We will never make your visit less enjoyable.

 

[Henry Mystic]

Gray area is defined as an area between black and white. This is pretty common in life.

Speed limit may be 65, but cops typically allow 5-10 over no problem.

Policy may say one thing but practice is different. Resorts can manage the issue as they see fit. They obviously allow it to some degree, or they’d tell people to bug off at the gate.

And as stated, we pay for a room that accommodates 8-9 people, and are a family of 5. I’m not going to grief about having one child in the pool as a guest and we could easily just add them. If the pool was wildly crowded, we wouldn’t be there… the pools are rarely crowded when we’ve had guests. In reality, I’d say more like they have never been crowded.

We don’t stay at BC/YC or value resorts that may have crowding issues. We are DVC, so your experience with crowds may vary.

No reason to get angry. We will never make your visit less enjoyable.

Exactly. I think the policy is more to prevent abusers from you know, abusing.

But if someone legitimately is staying at a resort and they are visiting a friend/family member then I see no reason why there wouldn't be some discretion in most cases. It's generally up to the lifeguard.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Exactly. I think the policy is more to prevent abusers from you know, abusing.

But if someone legitimately is staying at a resort and they are visiting a friend/family member then I see no reason why there wouldn't be some discretion in most cases. It's generally up to the lifeguard.

So I am in total agreement, not a big deal if not abused. But how is it up to the lifeguard? They are there to make sure people aren't drowning and following the safety rules of the pool. They certainly aren't enforcing who is there unless they happen to be at the gates when a guest is coming in.

 

[nickys]

So I am in total agreement, not a big deal if not abused. But how is it up to the lifeguard? They are there to make sure people aren't drowning and following the safety rules of the pool. They certainly aren't enforcing who is there unless they happen to be at the gates when a guest is coming in.

There have been reports in the past that when a feature pool is crowded the CMs sometimes do check magic bands. But I haven’t seen anything recently.

 

[Henry Mystic]

So I am in total agreement, not a big deal if not abused. But how is it up to the lifeguard? They are there to make sure people aren't drowning and following the safety rules of the pool. They certainly aren't enforcing who is there unless they happen to be at the gates when a guest is coming in.

I was more referring to Cast Members that attend pool entrances like Stormalong Bay at Yacht & Beach Club, or the ones that check pools at say, Poly.

Many are lifeguards and just rotate positions.

 

[Wilbret]

Somewhere, some Disney exec sees... guests that are amazed by amenities and will book their next stay at this place. Or, they see a tiki bar tab that went from $100 to $100 lol.

I don't know why it is, but in the it's-almost-too-embarrassing-to-state 43 times we've gone since 2012 (I'm a nerd, I have a spreadsheet), I think we've seen a really crowded pool only once or twice. Never at AKL, maybe at CBR and maybe CSR. We often book an extra day so we can actually enjoy the pool on the last day without worrying about sprinting to checkout.

 

[Wilbret]

So I am in total agreement, not a big deal if not abused. But how is it up to the lifeguard? They are there to make sure people aren't drowning and following the safety rules of the pool. They certainly aren't enforcing who is there unless they happen to be at the gates when a guest is coming in.

One of us could ask the next time we are there. One theory is if the pool seems abnormally crowded, they could alert their supervisor, who might have some SOP to refer to such as checking magic bands at the gate or even making an announcement. I dunno. I tend to think for the most part this is self-policing.

 

[jaklgreen]

Somewhere, some Disney exec sees... guests that are amazed by amenities and will book their next stay at this place. Or, they see a tiki bar tab that went from $100 to $100 lol.

I don't know why it is, but in the it's-almost-too-embarrassing-to-state 43 times we've gone since 2012 (I'm a nerd, I have a spreadsheet), I think we've seen a really crowded pool only once or twice. Never at AKL, maybe at CBR and maybe CSR. We often book an extra day so we can actually enjoy the pool on the last day without worrying about sprinting to checkout.

I feel like you can never get a chair at the POFQ pool. Every time I stay there, if you don't get there early, you are out of luck for the lounge chairs until close to dinner time.