Room Assignors?

[Aprilnjosh]

Is there a number you can call to request a room location besides the reservations department?

 

[maelstrom]

You can fax your request to the resort you're going to be staying at. Some people have been saying that resorts are going to stop accepting requests made in this manner, but what harm can it do.

 

[RedGear]

The unoffical book says to call the hotel directly later at night because they aren't as busy, but I've never done this myself but was thinking about doing it. They also suggest calling back not long before you leave to see if they have your request still. Good luck!

 

[JPVonDrake]

Is there a number you can call to request a room location besides the reservations department?

Let me be of some help...

We have been instructed at the Reservation Center that ALL of the Disney Resort Hotels will no longer accept or consider any room request faxed or mailed to them. If you try to call the resort directly before you check-in, the switchboard is instructed redirect your call to the reservation center, not the front desk.

The best time to make requests for specific rooms, buildings, bedding (i.e. a king bed, bunk beds), smoking or non-smoking, ground-floor, connecting rooms, etc. is when you first book the reservation or as early as possible after your reservation is made. Every request that is noted on a reservation is now time stamped with the date the request is made. Please note, we at the reservation center have a VERY limited space to enter in room request, so please limit your requests. Also note, package bookings do have more space to enter requests then room-only bookings.

The resort room coordinators will do their best to honor as many request as possible, but will factor in the date of the time stamp and also the number of request made. For example if you have 10 different request and another guest made 1 or 2 requests, you may get some of the 10 honored, and the other guest may get all of their request honored. Although the Resort may start pre-assigning rooms up to 2-3 days prior to your arrival, your room assignment is never finalized or guaranteed until you have arrived and are checked-in to your resort. No one at DRC or the Resort itself will be able to disclosed what (if any) pre-assignments have been made, so please don't ask.

Please also try to be general in your request. If you simply request room 1004 (because you know it is the closest to the bus stop) and it is not available, the resort does not know how to honor it. If you request a room close to the transportation, and room 1004 is not available, the resort may assign you room 1005 next door, honoring the general request you made.

Be sure to ask your reservation agent to check to see if what you want is even possible. For example, if you are booked in 2 standard (parking) view rooms at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, and you want connecting rooms, it cannot be honored, as there are no connecting standard view rooms at the lodge. Also some room categories are all non-smoking, and some are all smoking optional.

Also please keep in mind, rooms such as the Preferred Rooms at the Value Resorts are charged a preferred priced because they are the closest to the main hall with the Food Court, Bus Stop, Front Desk, etc. Please do not request to be near these locations if you are booked in a standard room. These type of request can not be honored or even considered as it is essentially asking for a free upgrade.

Do keep in mind nothing will guarantee you get your request, that really will always depend on what rooms are scheduled to be vacant on the date you check-in. Sometimes there are only a few of rooms in your room category for the room coordinators or front desk cast to choose from.

I hope this help! :sohappy:

 

[Yellow Shoes]

As always, JP, it is good to get the word "straight from the Mouse's Mouth," so to speak.

We have been instructed at the Reservation Center that ALL of the Disney Resort Hotels will no longer accept or consider any room request faxed or mailed to them.... The best time to make requests for specific rooms, buildings, bedding (i.e. a king bed, bunk beds), smoking or non-smoking, ground-floor, connecting rooms, etc. is when you first book the reservation or as early as possible after your reservation is made.

I hope that the word gets out on this. I keep finding posts that recommend the fax-to-the-resort tactic.
While this WAS true at one time, it will get you nowhere these days.

Thanks for spreading the truth.

 

[wannabeBelle]

As always, JP, it is good to get the word "straight from the Mouse's Mouth," so to speak.
I hope that the word gets out on this. I keep finding posts that recommend the fax-to-the-resort tactic.
While this WAS true at one time, it will get you nowhere these days.

Thanks for spreading the truth.

JP Is just the absolute cat's meow as far as stuff like this is concerned!!! Some people just refuse to believe this information despite the fact that this is as official as it gets!!!!!!! We can but try................. Belle

 

[YankeeMouse]

Room request

We just got back from Wilderness Lodge last night. In more than 40 trips, this was the first time I forgot to directly call the resort a few days before arrival, and this was the first time they did not have a record of my room area request, that I had made through Central Reservations. Don't believe in coincidences, so next trip, I'll make the request through reservations, then call the Wilderness Lodge again directly a few days before arrival. That has always worked for us. Luckily, it was not too crowded, so we got our room in the general area that we had requested.

 

[Peters_Shadow]

My wife and I stayed at Coronado Springs back in October. I wanted to request a specific building, as I had read it was a good location. I read on teh forum that they were no longer accepting faxes for room requests, and that you had to note your request with a reservation center rep. So we did that. I made very few requests. I only requested a non-smoking room and I requested that particular building. When we got to the resort, they saw no notes for our requests and we had confirmed them with the reservation rep. The front desk cast member said he could see other reserved rooms for other people, but there was nothing specifically reserved for us, which was frustrating. He said we should talk to concierge to see what we need to do next time to get our requests in the system correctly next time. Luckily, thanks to Disney Magic, he was able to get us pretty close to our requested building, it was even an upgraded room. Was the new method of making requests new at that time? Is it possible there were kinks in the system? Is that why our requests were overlooked? Or does making requests with the Disney reservation agent not work at all? We are considering staying at the Contemporary Resort in Feb 07. I want to request a room (non-smoking) in the north garden wing. We only want to stay there though if we can get in the north wing and if we can get a newly renovated room. Does anyone know if the north wing has been renovated yet?

 

[JPVonDrake]

My wife and I stayed at Coronado Springs back in October. I wanted to request a specific building, as I had read it was a good location. I read on teh forum that they were no longer accepting faxes for room requests, and that you had to note your request with a reservation center rep. So we did that. I made very few requests. I only requested a non-smoking room and I requested that particular building. When we got to the resort, they saw no notes for our requests and we had confirmed them with the reservation rep. The front desk cast member said he could see other reserved rooms for other people, but there was nothing specifically reserved for us, which was frustrating. He said we should talk to concierge to see what we need to do next time to get our requests in the system correctly next time. Luckily, thanks to Disney Magic, he was able to get us pretty close to our requested building, it was even an upgraded room. Was the new method of making requests new at that time? Is it possible there were kinks in the system? Is that why our requests were overlooked? Or does making requests with the Disney reservation agent not work at all? We are considering staying at the Contemporary Resort in Feb 07. I want to request a room (non-smoking) in the north garden wing. We only want to stay there though if we can get in the north wing and if we can get a newly renovated room. Does anyone know if the north wing has been renovated yet?

I do apologize that you were not able to receive the request you made. There may have been a challenge with the download of your reservation, or you may have had a new Cast Member at either the Reservation Center who did not note the request correctly or at the front desk who was not able to read the request properly.

Note, not all reservations are preassigned in advance. Depending on the number of Guest scheduled to arrive on any given date, sometimes only large groups or Grand Gatherings will be preassigned more then 1 day in advance with the remain Guests assigned by the Front Desk the morning of your arrival. Also, you normally will never be told the reason why any given request could not be honored.

The best way to ensure your request have been properly noted on your reservation, is to call back once you receive your confirmation and your deposit is paid. Simply ask us to read to you which requests were listed on your reservation. We would be happy to re-cap your reservation to ensure accuracy. Note you will only be able to call us if you booked your reservation directly with Disney. Unfortunately, if you booked your reservation with a Travel Agency, Wholesaler or any other third party, we at the Reservation Center cannot retrieve, modify, verify or even confirm your reservation exists. All requests would need to go through your original booking agent only.

For your future trip in Feb 2007, there will be no way to ensure your requests can be honored until you arrive in person at your resort. Also, there currently is no official completion date for the North Wing. Like I stated, there is not any way to guarantee your request can be honored. This will always depend on what rooms are scheduled to be vacant on the date you check-in. Very often there are only a few of rooms in your room category for the coordinators or front desk cast to choose from when assigning your room location.

Hope this helps! :sohappy:

 

[carenyllie]

Is the same true for DVC?

Is that the same reservation center? Do I make my requests with DVC or do I then need to call the main res number? Thanks!

 

[JPVonDrake]

Is that the same reservation center? Do I make my requests with DVC or do I then need to call the main res number? Thanks!

You always must contact your original booking agency to make any requests, modifications, add DME, or to cancel. If you booked with DVC Member Services, you must call DVC, if you booked with Disney Cruise Line, you call DCL, if you booked with Group, Convention or Wedding Reservations, you call them, etc.

Hope this helps! :sohappy:

 

[mousermerf]

My advice has always been:

Book what guarantees what you find important.

If you want to be close to everything - well the Contemproary Tower rooms are only an elevator ride away from everything. You want a view? Get Savannah at AKL or something similiar.

I don't want to sound harsh, but if you're booking a standard room you're risking be anywhere, and especially if you're at a moderate or value resort.

The fact that could end up most anywhere, far away from everything, with a window facing a highway (rare, but there are a few resort rooms at Pop that actually do this) is calculated into the cost of the room. You want guarantees then you gotta pay for it.

 

[tigger1968]

I too have been the victim of missing requests on more than one trip. I keep my requests limited, typically a N/S room and king bed. Some trips I have requested adjoining rooms for when we travel with others. The last two trips, I have called back after getting my confirmation, only to be told I don't have any requests. It can be very frustrating to have to ask for all that over again. Generally the CMs are very apologetic and accomodating, and ultimately it's not a big deal. From a consumer standpoint, and from someone who's in retail management, however, it's a little dissapointing to know that I need to call at least once, if not twice, to make sure my requests are even in, let alone being honored.

I have to agree with Merf on the "you get what you pay for" theory. I have found that I tend to get a much better level of service at higher priced resorts when it comes to issues such as this. On the two trips I have stayed at Pop Century, I was placed in a double room when I requested a king (twice), placed in a smoking room, received four rooms in three different buildings for a Grand Gathering that should have had four rooms together, and typically wait 15 to 20 minutes just to check in, then come back for another 15-20 minute wait to attempt to resolve all the issues. On my last trip ( the Gathering ) the manager would not even come out to try to help. The CM made 6 trips to the back trying to resolve our problems before another CM stepped in and simply fixed things. And that was on top of several other service based issues we encountered there. Needless to say, I won't be back to Pop anytime, ever. On my last trip, we stayed at AKL. I was traveling with my extended family for a wedding, and I had booked four rooms with various requests for beds, adjoining, etc. Upon arrival, we were scattered to the winds, with no adjoining rooms, one had bunk beds, etc. All around not good. No problem! The CM worked quickly to get us in the same wing, with the right room arrangements, and was even able to get my parents close to the lobby, as my mother has a mild heart condition that limits her mobility. All in all it was a completely different level of service. Lots of "No problem, we're going to get you guys taken care of!" statements, that sort of thing. At Pop it was more like a "Sorry, can't really help you here...."

Hmmm....I seem to have ranted a bit...:lookaroun

To sum up...lol.....It has been my experience that yes, call back and verify your requests more than once. Having stayed in Pop, ASMu, ASMo, CBR, CS, PO/FQ, WL, AKL, and CR, I would agree that the more you are paying, the more likely it seems your requests will be honored, and the more accommodating the CMs seem to be in helping resolve issues surrounding them.

 

[lewisc]

My trip last December was booked through AAA. My building request at CSR was never passed on to the resort. The CM had no problem finding me an acceptable room. I understand requests aren't guaranteed, I was just surprised the request vanished into thin air.

Requests that can only be honored with a very small number of rooms, such as a GV room with a partial LV at POLY, border on being rude. Just my opinion.