Lousy location for preferred view

[Mic]

Just got back this morning from a short Labor Day trip to the BW. After reading a few posts about crowds, I have to admit we thought they were minimal for a holiday weekend. Friends of ours who had never been before, though, almost fainted at the crowds in MK on Sunday! We were able to have dinner at 'Ohana's Saturday evening, which was very crowded, and service was VERY slow. Our Illuminations cruise was cancelled because of severe lightning later that evening, which was a little disappointing. But the biggest disappointment of all was our room! All the way at the end of the hall on the 4th floor, with a "preferred" view of the side of Community Hall. The room number is 4136, and the bellman laughed at us all the way down the hall. I should have known something was up when the clerk told me at check-in that they could not accomodate all the requests for a BW view, but that I had a "great" view of the quiet pool...NOT. Why in the world this room requires extra points is beyond me, but I will refuse it if I ever get it again. On our MGM day, we all bounded down 3 flights of steps, out a side door, and down the path to the park(we were halfway to the park from this point!). Those same 3 flights back up to our room at the end of the day can best be described as torture, and getting to Epcot took more than the usual 10 minutes. I had planned to get all of our breakfasts from the bakery on this trip, but decided after 2 trips that I wasn't making that "donut run" anymore(I'm just too old for a 2-mile hike before breakfast), so we ate off-site the last morning because it was just as far to the van as the bakery. Has anyone else been as disappointed in this location, or am I just over-reacting?

 

[dtheboys]

I didn't stay in your exact room, BUT I do agree w/ you on PREF. VIEW problems.
I think DVC should look long and hard at what they consider a PREF. VIEW room! If you notice the non pref. view rooms book up first, I believe it is also due to the fact people don't want to spend the extra points, and get a bad view like yourself. Not every room can overlook the Boardwalk, but at least give us a PREF. view(nice view) for the extra points. I had a view of the quite pool. I did not consider that a view worth the extra points. I now just book a standard view room, and save the points.

 

[Debs Hill]

How disappointing. Did you ask to change rooms when you saw what an awful location you had? I think if we get such a bad view when we go in 3 weeks time I would ask to be moved at least to a room with a nice view of the pool!

 

[deerh]

We had that EXACT room (except it was the studio) in June of this year. We were the LAST room,next to the quiet pool, next to the stairs, and it was a LONG way to the elevator, but LOVED the walk to MGM, you are as you said, 1\2 way there!! 10 min walk is great! BUT, our studio was a STANDARD room, and it was upgraded I guess to this view. In my opinion it was a preferred view, as you get a view of the pool, the canal, and the Swan and Dolphin, so I don't know what you expect a view to be of, but I for one was happy with the room. So, I had to walk a lot, big deal, I need to lose the weight, and it didn't ruin a great vacation. I hope your vacation was great too!!
Gotta love the old home resort of BWV!!!
deerh

 

[Credit Man]

We had a 1 bedroom standard view close to yours. 4129, I think. Our view was of the front entrance, parking lot, pond, and the Illuminations fireworks every night. I think I enjoyed this more than I would have a Boardwalk view. Like you said , down the steps to MGM, and the bus stop. We only went to the lobby to go to Epcot. It was a great room.

 

[DebbieB]

I don't understand why they didn't put another elevator on that end of the building. That way you could enter from the parking lot there and have an elevator instead of using the steps. Someone mentioned it in the member meeting last year and they said it's something they will consider when building future resorts. We had a preferred view last December, it was over the center of the quiet pool on the 4th floor, room 4100 I think. Not too bad, we could see MGM. I was disappointed that we did not get the Boardwalk view since I made the reservation at 11 months and they are supposed to fill the requests by order of reservation. This year we have a standard view booked, I figured we would save the points.

 

[mzzbuzzlightyear]

Last June we had a preferred view studio at BWV. It had no view
because the patio was behind a bush which blocked the view of the Luna Pool. The view we had was of people walking just about in front of our patio.

In November we are getting a standard view 1 BR at BWV. I don't want to pay extra points again and get no decent view.

June

 

[sixcats]

I don't mind spending extra points for a BW view but pool views do nothing for me. They should consider restructuring the points. Parking lot, garden/pool and Boardwalk should be the choices. The preferred views vary way too much for my tastes.

 

[DebbieB]

This was also brought up at the annual meeting. Who gets the Boardwalk views was a hot topic (supposedly they are assigned by date of reservation). Someone mentioned having a Boardwalk view category, but they dismissed the idea as too difficult to manage. From what I've heard (wasn't a member then), when BWV first opened there were no view categories (similiar to OKW). I guess there were complaints that some people got parking lot views and others got Boardwalk views for the same points, so they created the 2 categories.

 

[dvcdudes]

I will always try and get a STD view room but if none are available and I have to take a pref view, I won't sweat the extra points because if you think about it... they are the same points as all of VWL even if your looking at the side of WL. I think DVC made a mistake with pref/std views at BWV and you wont see it offered anymore but I feel lucky to own at BWV where I can get a std view and save a few points every now and then.

 

[PamOKW]

DebbieB's history is correct. Rather than paying "extra" for the preferred view you are really paying "less" for the standard view. When BWV opened all rooms were at the higher rate. Only rooms with the parking lot view were downgraded. Maybe they should have just left everything at the higher "one size fits all" level and dealt with the complaining. I know that anything that's not the Boardwalk view is disappointing and that some views are pushing to fit into the "preferred" category.

 

[Werner Weiss]

My prediction: All future DVC resorts will be carefully designed so that no units have views that are substantially better or worse than those of other units.

Units at BWV have views that range from breathtaking to "the side of Community Hall." That's OK in a resort hotel where they can offer a tiered room rate structure. But it's not so good in a timeshare. They learned from BWV.

At VWL, all units have views of the woods and/or the quiet pool, but there are no magnificent lake views or disappointing parking lot panoramas.

From the artist's renderings and construction phots of BCV, it appears that all units will have views of a landscaped park and pool area.

And I imagine that the as-yet-unnamed DVC resort at Eagle Pines will have views that are similar to OKW, where units offer consistently pleasant views of the golf course, canal, and trees.

 

[dianeschlicht]

AAHH! Love that OKW where every view is great!

 

[Lisa F]

Not every view is great at OKW. On our first visit there, we looked squarely at the side of a transformer. Our second time there, we looked at a bunch of trees and could just see the golf course if we stood outside and hung over the rail a bit. That time I woke up one morning and looked out the window and there was a strange man in plaid pants rooting around right there (presumably for a golf ball). It was too creepy for me (the man, not the pants!)

However, we weren't staying there for a view, we were staying there because BWV was sold our for the dates we wanted and staying at OKW was better than staying at a moderate because of the in-room fridge.

I long ago became resigned to the fact that views vary at WDW resorts. As a matter of fact, I never seem to have just an average view... if there is a worst view in the entire building, I will get it (very frustrating when you are paying full rack rates holiday season for a room, less frustrating when you are paying AP rates). We spent a couple of nights at AKL with a savannah view and we were on the least active savannah in the entire place (saw animals once on our whole stay there and were very disappointed). 3 day stay at the beach club we basically overlooked the wide expanse of the roof of a low building below us (our balcony sat right on that roof so it seemed pretty ridiculous to have a balcony at all). I kept calling it the "substandard view." On the flip side, the times that we have had good views, we have had REALLY GREAT views so I guess that makes up for all of the awful views.

My point is that with DVC, it's not like this is a once in a lifetime trip to the BWV where if everything isn't just perfect, you know you'll never ever be back so you will be bitterly disappointed. You're coming back at least every other year for the next 40+ years. This helps me chill out a little when I receive a view that may not be the best in the whole building.

I don't think there is any resort at WDW where all of the views are exactly the same and all of the best stuff based on my experience with views everywhere else I've stayed (maybe slightly more equity with VWL but that is only because all of the views are nothing spectacular but at the same time nothing horrible). Personally, I'd rather have the chance at a completely spectacular view and sometimes have to settle for a medicore view than not have any chance at all at the spectacular view and be satisfied that no one else has that view either (even if I can't get it).

I usually try to get a standard view anyway, but like dvcdudes said, I don't sweat it if we have to go with preferred. We've never had a BW view in a preferred room, but we're booked for preferred for next spring break (around easter, blah, talk about a lot of points!) I have a BWV requested, but I'm not expecting it and will probably have about 30 seconds of "oh well" disappointment before we move on and enjoy our vacation.

Lisa (who has gotten more really bad views than really good ones)

 

[Mic]

I appreciate all the understanding responses about the view. While I did not complain(my husband is of the opinion that this generally makes things worse) or let it ruin my vacation by any means, I have had a standard view that I could actually see some of Epcot's fireworks from, so this "preferred" view was not very impressive to me. I have had a preferred view of Luna Park before, so I realize that "preferred" could be a view of many different things. Obviously, other members have complained about the location of this room, or the CM at the front desk would not have felt the need to "explain" the view thing to me. I would not have thought twice about a room that had a bad location but great view, or a not-so-great view, but good location, but this room had absolutely nothing going for it, in my opinion. I am glad that I have 2 standard-view rooms reserved for next month, so I won't have to worry about what the extra points will get me.