AKL and Pool Rehab - Suggestions!

[jerseygal]

FWIW, that pool is much smaller and less convenient to those staying at Jambo. And anyone with a "pool view" is going to be overlooking a construction zone. I honestly sympathize with the guests who booked AKL for the fall. It's a big disappointment which is only made worse by Disney's lack of communication on the matter or their "use the Samawati Springs Pool" response to guest concerns. Jambo guests can use that pool anytime, anyway. This is not an added value or compensation for the loss of the feature pool at their own resort.

I had a short DVC stay booked at Kidani for September. I was able to change the reservation when I first read about the pool closure at Jambo. I wanted to be able to relax at Samawati Springs. I didn't want to have to fight for a lounge chair because it's the only alternative being offered to Jambo guests.

I hope that Jambo guests register their disappointment and press for some sort of compensation. They are paying a lot for their vacations.

Great that you were able to change your reservation in September during F&W. Unfortunately, doubt that MS will do ANYTHING! I have already written an e mail, spoken to 4 different levels of CM's within DVC satisfaction team to no avail. No compensation, no concessions. All DVC said was "we will convey your suggestions to management and sorry for your inconvenience". Disappointed in lack of customer service. Feel very strongly that due to the difficulty of making reservations at 7 months at non home resorts, DVC should be more transparent and post refurbishments of pool and resort well in advance, that being a minimum of 7 months, ideally 11 months in advance. I communicated that most members want rehabs/refurbishments, that is not the issue. The issue now is communication so that we can be INFORMED when booking vacations, don't blindsight members!

 

[Marionnette]

Yeah it’s a bummer it’ll be closed. Guess Disney could have communicated better, but there is still a pool available to guests staying there and Kidani really isn’t that inconvenient.

I guess you and I will just have to accept that we differ in what we consider to be a mild vs major inconvenience. Guest at both Jambo and Kidani are losing access to a pool with no compensation (they could normally choose between the two pools and now there will only be one for the whole resort complex). The Samawati Springs Pool will be very crowded and less enjoyable due to the lack of any alternative. It's not just the lack of communication, it's the lack of a reasonable alternative.

 

[Marionnette]

Great that you were able to change your reservation in September during F&W. Unfortunately, doubt that MS will do ANYTHING! I have already written an e mail, spoken to 4 different levels of CM's within DVC satisfaction team to no avail. No compensation, no concessions. All DVC said was "we will convey your suggestions to management and sorry for your inconvenience". Disappointed in lack of customer service. Feel very strongly that due to the difficulty of making reservations at 7 months at non home resorts, DVC should be more transparent and post refurbishments of pool and resort well in advance, that being a minimum of 7 months, ideally 11 months in advance. I communicated that most members want rehabs/refurbishments, that is not the issue. The issue now is communication so that we can be INFORMED when booking vacations, don't blindsight members!

I only had a 2-night stay in a 1-bedroom villa, so it was easier for me than it would be for a member who has their entire trip booked at AKV. And I find that sometimes Member Satisfaction really means "we'll listen to your complaint and do what we want anyway." Disney has our money already. People staying on cash have more leverage.

 

[motherof5]

In October my husband and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. We came to Disney for our honeymoon, and we've been a few times since. Last year we rented DVC points and stayed at AKL and fell in love, but we didn't have a whole lot of time to use the room, as we were there for Star Wars Celebration and Parks!

This year, after much painstaking saving $$ and realizing yes, we can do this, we booked AKL Jambo House through Disney, with a main goal of 5 full days of relaxing at the resort, by the pools, at the bars, enjoying Disney Springs and the Boardwalk and Monorail loop, one day at the parks (I have a cast member who is gifting us tickets for our anniversary!), the Halloween party (our first time!), but always having AKL Jambo House to come back to and just unwind.

It sounded like heaven for us, as we've had a really hard year (my husband lost his job, his father is terminally ill and in another state, my grandmother passed, just a tough one on us).

THEN WE GOT THAT DARNED EMAIL

Uzami Springs pool is closed while we are there!

We are open to adjusting dates in the fall, but it's closed from 9/4 - 12/4! I called to ask if there would be any compensation, but they said no (this is fine, I didn't expect any).

We really aren't happy about cramming into Kidani Village's pool (half the size for 2 full resorts) for 5 days - that does not sound relaxing!

But AKL was the only real Deluxe we could afford, after saving (it was only $361 a night, and I'm sure a discount would have come out and helped!).

So we said... ok... let's see about a moderate.

CBR is under MAJOR renovations and has minimal dining available...

CSR's pool will also be closed from September - December...

We've been to POFQ and POR and love them, but we really wanted a more relaxing vacation and since POFQ put in the large play area, it's not quite what we want, and POR is a lot of walking to get from room to food to room to pool to room, etc etc etc

So now, I'm stumped! I tried to rent DVC again but everything is full (of course, it's only a 5 month window).

Any other Deluxe is out of our price range.

I talked with an agent who suggested... the Poly (it's $892 a night for the weeks we were looking). Not quite comparable.

We just want an (affordable) resort to lounge at that isn't a value (we've stayed before and loved them, but it's just not the vacation we planned for this year). We could go back to POFQ or POR, as they're lovely, but... the closing of Uzima Springs really broke my heart.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We were looking at October 21-27, but would be open to the week before or the week after... we may just scrap this trip altogether and do something else, but because we honeymooned at Disney, this was really what our hearts desired.

I have only stayed at OKW and love it. The rooms are big and it doesn't seem crowded.

 

[jerseygal]

I only had a 2-night stay in a 1-bedroom villa, so it was easier for me than it would be for a member who has their entire trip booked at AKV. And I find that sometimes Member Satisfaction really means "we'll listen to your complaint and do what we want anyway." Disney has our money already. People staying on cash have more leverage.

Annual Maintenance fees are not cheap. You would think DVC would strive ro provide excellent customer service to preserve the reputation of the product and hope that members are satisfied enough to refer people to become new members.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Annual Maintenance fees are not cheap. You would think DVC would strive ro provide excellent customer service to preserve the reputation of the product and hope that members are satisfied enough to refer people to become new members.

There are plenty of members who already advise non-owners on becoming DVC members, just for the initial cost of points alone. They have our money, they charge a fee we have to pay.

 

[piasalady]

I am going to make a suggestion for all of those (including myself) who feel there should be something offered to those who are booked during the pool rehab. My mother has done this many times in her lifetime and it almost always does the trick. Email/snail mail the executives of Walt Disney World Resorts. Executives do not like to get mail of this sort. My mom has gotten many situations where lower employees either could not or would not help taken care of by letting executives know about her displeasure. That being said I found the names, email addresses and snail mail addresses of 2 executives at Disney. It couldn’t hurt to try. The worst they can do is say no.

Primary Contact
Jim MacPhee
Senior Vice President of Next Generation Experiences and Walt Disney World Parks
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
(407) 560-2960
james.d.macphee@disney.com

Chief Executive
George Kalogridis
CEO
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
(407) 828-2600
george.kalogridis@disney.com

 

[Haley R]

I am going to make a suggestion for all of those (including myself) who feel there should be something offered to those who are booked during the pool rehab. My mother has done this many times in her lifetime and it almost always does the trick. Email/snail mail the executives of Walt Disney World Resorts. Executives do not like to get mail of this sort. My mom has gotten many situations where lower employees either could not or would not help taken care of by letting executives know about her displeasure. That being said I found the names, email addresses and snail mail addresses of 2 executives at Disney. It couldn’t hurt to try. The worst they can do is say no.

Primary Contact
Jim MacPhee
Senior Vice President of Next Generation Experiences and Walt Disney World Parks
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
(407) 560-2960
james.d.macphee@disney.com

Chief Executive
George Kalogridis
CEO
P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
(407) 828-2600
george.kalogridis@disney.com

Where did you find these?

 

[Wild4Walt]

We're one of those that have been booked for months and did not receive the email stating the pool being closed. We only had one pool day planned and we don't mind going over to Kidani. My biggest fear though is because we booked a studio deluxe standard view that we are going to be stuck with a pool view room. This can be problematic because we are not early risers.

I called Disney and at the time there was nothing to move us to ( we are there Sept 8-19 ) with free dining. I asked them to put in a request to be away from the construction and we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I agree though, it seems like the communication on this could have been better. An email and a text message or automated call would have been helpful. AND a plan for those who want to be moved.

 

[dansdad]

Where did you find these?

Google.

 

[piasalady]

Where did you find these?

I googled them.They were very easy to find.

 

[kristenrice]

We're one of those that have been booked for months and did not receive the email stating the pool being closed. We only had one pool day planned and we don't mind going over to Kidani. My biggest fear though is because we booked a studio deluxe standard view that we are going to be stuck with a pool view room. This can be problematic because we are not early risers.

I called Disney and at the time there was nothing to move us to ( we are there Sept 8-19 ) with free dining. I asked them to put in a request to be away from the construction and we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I agree though, it seems like the communication on this could have been better. An email and a text message or automated call would have been helpful. AND a plan for those who want to be moved.

I was booked in a standard view studio at Jambo House (booked at 11 months out!) for our October stay. I am an early riser and my daughters sleep in so I was planning on either sitting out on the balcony or heading out to the pool until they woke up. They are 13 and 15 so I am OK with leaving them in the room while I go down to the pool, but I wouldn't be OK with going all the way over to Kidani. I prefer Jambo for the studios because we do laundry quite frequently and the standard view locations are SO convenient for everything (transportation, food, etc), but Kidani is my favorite for 1BR's.

When I found out (here) about the construction, I was miffed to say the least. This would put a damper on my plans all the way around since it would really restrict what I could do with myself in the morning while I wait for the girls. (Background: I get up at 2:30am for work so "sleeping in" for me is getting up at 5-6am. The girls won't get up until 8am at the earliest). By some miracle, I was able to switch our 4-night reservation over to Kidani. I'm not looking forward to the potentially long walks to the room, but at least we will not have to deal with the construction. It's funny...every time we've stayed at Jambo and gone over to Kidani, I've always said to myself, "Shoot, this place is so pretty....I wish we were staying here". For this trip, I guess we are going to try something "new". Hopefully, the pool won't be too packed. If it is, we may just opt to take advantage of our DVC pool hopping privilege and try out a pool somewhere else.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

I had the same thing happen when I had WL booked a few years ago, I got the email and then spoke with a CM who was able to offer me a discount at AKL which at the time was more expensive. It wasn't exactly the same rate as at WL but it was a substantial savings. I would try speaking to a CM again and see if they'll give you a discount to move. WL is quite similar.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Disney routinely just does whatever they want, and they shut down whatever they want. It IS true that they try to let people know, as early as possible, but that often isn't early enough AND many people never check the press releases or news reports and it never occurs to them to go to the Disney pages and look at the things that are closed. But Disney doesn't care. From their point of view, they MUST do these things, and if you can't go to a favorite ride or do some favorite activity, they figure you will just find some other ride or activity to take its place, even though sometimes NOTHING can take its place.

I guess I am just ranting, but I have heard people talk about 'compensation' from Disney, but I have never seen it in cases like this.

 

[jerseygal]

Kind of amazing. Many companies have "social media employees" that monitor social media, travel forums, etc. SO MANY disappointed guests in this situation, but apparently either Disney or DVC doesn't have social media employees. Maybe they do, but they just DON'T CARE ENOUGH! Disappointing for so many of us. This is not an "isolated incident". This situation will happen again and again if policy of notification and transparency is not changed.

 

[anna0513]

We rented DVC points. I've emailed and spoke to everyone and their brother about it at Disney and was told on each occasion "Disney is not offering any compensation for this". They don't care period.

 

[jerseygal]

We rented DVC points. I've emailed and spoke to everyone and their brother about it at Disney and was told on each occasion "Disney is not offering any compensation for this". They don't care period.

FIRST time in 10 years as a member that I have been extremely disappointed as a member with their customer service, notification, and transparency. DVC obviously doesn't monitor or care about social media. In my 3 or 4 discussions with DVC, they told me 3 weeks ago that I would be getting notification very soon. Really??? As of today, NOTHING in mail at all! NO offer to do anything. Going in October, IMPOSSIBLE now to book an alternative, Food and Wine is booked solid. My comment to DVC was that members absolutely want renovation/rehab of properties. Given that fact AND the fact that it is near impossible during many times of year now to book anything inside of 7 months of arrival date, DVC should revise the policy of notification...members should be aware at least 7 to 11 months in advance so that proper decisions can be made when booking reservations.

 

[MinnieMommyof2]

We are so bummed too. We were so excited to switch from WL to AKL and save $ plus get the all the features of AKL. We just got our email this morning about the pool. I called and tried to switch to the Villas to at least eliminate the shuttle rides to and from, but there was nothing available. I tried to switch to the Savanah room to avoid seeing the construction and it was $1000 difference. I want to maybe change resorts but DH is too excited about the animals and scenery and wants us to just look for other pools to go to. So disappointed in this.

 

[jerseygal]

We are so bummed too. We were so excited to switch from WL to AKL and save $ plus get the all the features of AKL. We just got our email this morning about the pool. I called and tried to switch to the Villas to at least eliminate the shuttle rides to and from, but there was nothing available. I tried to switch to the Savanah room to avoid seeing the construction and it was $1000 difference. I want to maybe change resorts but DH is too excited about the animals and scenery and wants us to just look for other pools to go to. So disappointed in this.

i understand your disappointment! What month is your trip? Ours is in October still haven’t received notification yet.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

OP, have you priced out the Waldorf? It’s in the Bonnet Creek area and may price out in the AKL range.

Have you considered looking into renting points for a studio at CCV or BRV at WL?