We just returned from our second DVC stay at the Polynesian Village Resort and I must say once again I was disappointed with one particular but to me major thing. For the second time we spent the extra points for a “lake view” room. Let me interrupt myself briefly and add that I do not understand why DVC calls these rooms “lake view”. There is no lake in front of the Polynesian resort, however there is a lagoon. It is a man-made lagoon. It was dug out by Disney in 1970 and 1971. It is named the Seven Seas Lagoon, not the Seven Seas Lake. But yet everywhere you look on any official DVC charts the rooms are referred to as “lake view”. I wish DVC knew the history of this resort better than I do. But I digress.
As I said this is the second time we have spent extra points for a lagoon view room. It is also the second time we have requested the third floor. It is also the second time we have not gotten the third floor. I requested the third floor so our view would be of the water (whether they call it a lagoon or a lake, it is still water). We are paying to see the water not the bungalows. So there we were on the first floor staring right at the bungalows. Now you have to understand that we used to stay in this exact building (it was called Tahiti then, now it’s called Moorea) back before DVC took it over. Every time we stayed there I requested the third floor and every time we were granted that request. At the time of course there were no bungalows to deal with but still we liked the higher floor and those trips were very special to my wife and me. This is why we were so excited when DVC took over that part of the Polynesian Resort, we thought we could continue to get our favorite view but use points instead of cash to book it.
I want to explain that when we were assigned the first floor room we of course asked to be moved to a higher floor. We were told there was no availability. I said how about tomorrow? We had booked a five night stay and we were actually willing to move after the first night to get the higher floor for the rest of the trip. The person at the front desk explained requests are not guaranteed but he made a few phone calls and pushed quite a few buttons on his keyboard. Then like magic he said “sorry nothing is available”. Well it wasn’t exactly magical but you get the idea. So I said we will move ANY of the upcoming four nights, even the last one, and once again he sprinkled his pixie dust…and said no. Now I find it hard to believe that NOBODY was moving out of any of the third floor rooms over the next few nights. I began to wonder if the requests not being guaranteed applied only to us because Disney apparently decided they could not move anyone else to accommodate our request.
So here is my point. I understand that due to the bungalows blocking the view of the lagoon many people may be requesting the higher second and third floors in Moorea. And I also understand that all requests may not be able to be filled. But assuming that approximately 1/3 of the rooms are on the first floor that means 2/3 of the lagoon facing rooms are on the higher floors. Now this is where I am at a disadvantage, I have no way of knowing the numbers. Only Disney knows how many requests they get. And I am sure some people actually request the first floor so you would think it would even out a bit. However if Disney is really getting more than 66% of room requests for the higher floors then they must be disappointing a lot of people. I think it would only make sense to adjust the points chart accordingly if that many people are requesting a higher floor. It would seem logical in that case to charge more points to guarantee the higher floor view. But I have to say I really doubt this is the case. I think they just didn’t want to bother accommodating us even after we made it clear at the front desk that this room request was really important to us.
Just to be fair I will say that we were able to see the fireworks from our patio but what made me the maddest was when the Electric Water Pageant came by at 9:00. We could hear it, but we couldn’t see it. The bungalows blocked it. Now I do understand we could have walked down towards the west side of the resort to see the water pageant but that is not the point. The point is we paid a premium to have a water view and it was awfully disappointing not to have it. Disney is expensive, points are expensive, I hate to waste them. I am not going to say it completely ruined our trip but I will say we were really disenchanted this time.
As I said this is the second time we have spent extra points for a lagoon view room. It is also the second time we have requested the third floor. It is also the second time we have not gotten the third floor. I requested the third floor so our view would be of the water (whether they call it a lagoon or a lake, it is still water). We are paying to see the water not the bungalows. So there we were on the first floor staring right at the bungalows. Now you have to understand that we used to stay in this exact building (it was called Tahiti then, now it’s called Moorea) back before DVC took it over. Every time we stayed there I requested the third floor and every time we were granted that request. At the time of course there were no bungalows to deal with but still we liked the higher floor and those trips were very special to my wife and me. This is why we were so excited when DVC took over that part of the Polynesian Resort, we thought we could continue to get our favorite view but use points instead of cash to book it.
I want to explain that when we were assigned the first floor room we of course asked to be moved to a higher floor. We were told there was no availability. I said how about tomorrow? We had booked a five night stay and we were actually willing to move after the first night to get the higher floor for the rest of the trip. The person at the front desk explained requests are not guaranteed but he made a few phone calls and pushed quite a few buttons on his keyboard. Then like magic he said “sorry nothing is available”. Well it wasn’t exactly magical but you get the idea. So I said we will move ANY of the upcoming four nights, even the last one, and once again he sprinkled his pixie dust…and said no. Now I find it hard to believe that NOBODY was moving out of any of the third floor rooms over the next few nights. I began to wonder if the requests not being guaranteed applied only to us because Disney apparently decided they could not move anyone else to accommodate our request.
So here is my point. I understand that due to the bungalows blocking the view of the lagoon many people may be requesting the higher second and third floors in Moorea. And I also understand that all requests may not be able to be filled. But assuming that approximately 1/3 of the rooms are on the first floor that means 2/3 of the lagoon facing rooms are on the higher floors. Now this is where I am at a disadvantage, I have no way of knowing the numbers. Only Disney knows how many requests they get. And I am sure some people actually request the first floor so you would think it would even out a bit. However if Disney is really getting more than 66% of room requests for the higher floors then they must be disappointing a lot of people. I think it would only make sense to adjust the points chart accordingly if that many people are requesting a higher floor. It would seem logical in that case to charge more points to guarantee the higher floor view. But I have to say I really doubt this is the case. I think they just didn’t want to bother accommodating us even after we made it clear at the front desk that this room request was really important to us.
Just to be fair I will say that we were able to see the fireworks from our patio but what made me the maddest was when the Electric Water Pageant came by at 9:00. We could hear it, but we couldn’t see it. The bungalows blocked it. Now I do understand we could have walked down towards the west side of the resort to see the water pageant but that is not the point. The point is we paid a premium to have a water view and it was awfully disappointing not to have it. Disney is expensive, points are expensive, I hate to waste them. I am not going to say it completely ruined our trip but I will say we were really disenchanted this time.
