jcvalenti
Epcot OG
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
So I'm a Disney Veteran but - strangely - not a resort veteran. We rarely stay on property, and when we do, it's usually at Swan or Dolphin during Food & Wine, so it's not the "usual" Disney process. We've got a somewhat hurridly trip planned for 11/25 to 12/2, and we're splitting the stay between a DVC rental of a 1 BR villa at Boardwalk with a Pool/Garden View, and a Standard View Room at Polynesian (which I've been dying to stay at since I first went to Disney in 1982). The wife and I decided we'd sacrifice a 20th Anniversary trip to surprise our High School Senior son (a crazy Walt Disney history fanatic who wants to study Hotel & Restaurant Management and work at Disney) by breaking him out of school for a few days and taking him to go stay at his two favorite resorts.
Anyway, there's so many threads and so many differing opinions, I'm having trouble organizing all the information - so I'm hoping people can share some insight on the specifics of resort checkin and requests. Normally when I check into a hotel (I travel a fair bit), I do a pretty good job chatting up the front desk, and I often end up with a nice view or an upgrade, just because I'm pleasant. Basically all I want from these rooms is (a) something far enough from the elevator that I don't hear all the guests from the floor coming and going all night, (b) a balcony or patio and (c) a view of anything other than a dumpster or parking lot.
Here's the questions I have:
1) Is it worth calling and having some requests added to our reservation ? Do they even pay attention to those ? Is it worth noting what you're celebrating ?
2) Is it worth getting a Touring Plans membership and having them fax a room request ? Does that really work ? Does anyone use faxes any more ? I mean, I had a client ask to send me a fax the other week and I had to check with IT to make sure our fax server still worked - I haven't gotten a fax in at least 5 years.
3) Anyone have any magic language they would suggest for requests ?
4) Is it worth doing Online Checkin ? Does that override any requests you've made ? Can you even do Online Checkin if you made a reservation renting DVC points ?
and finally
5) Does any of this matter ? Can you still get good results by just showing up and talking to the front desk person ? Are we all overthinking things just a little bit here
Thanks for reading this post which is roughly 300% longer than I anticipated. Sometimes I think obsessing about details and planning like this is just a way to make those Disney trips last longer - still strangely fun though !
Anyway, there's so many threads and so many differing opinions, I'm having trouble organizing all the information - so I'm hoping people can share some insight on the specifics of resort checkin and requests. Normally when I check into a hotel (I travel a fair bit), I do a pretty good job chatting up the front desk, and I often end up with a nice view or an upgrade, just because I'm pleasant. Basically all I want from these rooms is (a) something far enough from the elevator that I don't hear all the guests from the floor coming and going all night, (b) a balcony or patio and (c) a view of anything other than a dumpster or parking lot.
Here's the questions I have:
1) Is it worth calling and having some requests added to our reservation ? Do they even pay attention to those ? Is it worth noting what you're celebrating ?
2) Is it worth getting a Touring Plans membership and having them fax a room request ? Does that really work ? Does anyone use faxes any more ? I mean, I had a client ask to send me a fax the other week and I had to check with IT to make sure our fax server still worked - I haven't gotten a fax in at least 5 years.
3) Anyone have any magic language they would suggest for requests ?
4) Is it worth doing Online Checkin ? Does that override any requests you've made ? Can you even do Online Checkin if you made a reservation renting DVC points ?
and finally
5) Does any of this matter ? Can you still get good results by just showing up and talking to the front desk person ? Are we all overthinking things just a little bit here
Thanks for reading this post which is roughly 300% longer than I anticipated. Sometimes I think obsessing about details and planning like this is just a way to make those Disney trips last longer - still strangely fun though !