OKW not starting off well

In 19 years of ownership, when I’ve made a request, a very general request (higher floor, Turtle Pond etc) I’ve always gotten it, lucky I guess, there’s a 1st for everything. What torcs me, I arrived at 1:15 and apparently the room was ready, yet no text, e-mail or smoke signal was sent. This happens 4 out of every 5 stays, so what’s the point of doing online check-in. Going back on 10/01 but it’s Kidani and I always get the text there, but I Nov for OKW, I want see if the app will show me the room number, that would be the true test, if it’s been assigned and just the function of texting is the problem.

YES!! I always check-in online. One text once. The last 3-4 visits - I requested top floor - assigned ground floor upon arrival - (save the request lecture) because they ALWAYS have a top floor when I mention it at check-in. ALWAYS. I called MS two days before scheduled arrival to request an extra day - the CM was awesome - she said she would call to see if they had blocked out the rooms already - she said they had not so it would not be a problem to get top floor and one room for the entire stay. We checked - together - MDE and the regular site to make sure only one reservation number was visible (not two for the original stay + 1) - verified I was checked in online. Still no text. Still ground floor upon arrival - still surprise at front desk that anyone would want top floor - "a plethora" of 2 beds available. First room had a problem - switched to second. They were very apologetic. I do appreciate the extra mile but so wish their system could just do it right the first time.
 
I notice this happens a lot. I'll do check in and put arrival time and then months later it's done and says midnight as arrival. Also, can't select any room location requests anymore. What's up with that? But when I fix and then weeks later I'll check again and my details are gone again. Seems like their online check in is faulty.


They have really, really bad IT.
 


And funny thing is...I have booked OKW like 3 times for my MIL and FIL and always put in ground floor request due to medical reasons (bad knees) and am ALWAYS told the 'it's not a guarantee' bit. First 2 times they got 1st floor and then last time they get 2nd. We want 1st floor and others want top floor and we get opposite. I think they just don't look at requests anymore. I usually call the OKW ground floor for inlaws in to MS.
 
And funny thing is...I have booked OKW like 3 times for my MIL and FIL and always put in ground floor request due to medical reasons (bad knees) and am ALWAYS told the 'it's not a guarantee' bit. First 2 times they got 1st floor and then last time they get 2nd. We want 1st floor and others want top floor and we get opposite. I think they just don't look at requests anymore. I usually call the OKW ground floor for inlaws in to MS.

That’s what I don’t like at OKW. I can’t climb stairs either (also bad knees), yet they refuse to make first floor a medical necessity. I even tried contacting MS-no luck
 
That’s what I don’t like at OKW. I can’t climb stairs either (also bad knees), yet they refuse to make first floor a medical necessity. I even tried contacting MS-no luck
Yep. Because of that my inlaws requested I book them elsewhere the next time and I booked them BCV and that's their new fave. (they have stayed SSR, AKV, OKW and now BCV).
 


That’s what I don’t like at OKW. I can’t climb stairs either (also bad knees), yet they refuse to make first floor a medical necessity. I even tried contacting MS-no luck
They will but you have to do a HC room. Otherwise it's just a request though they often will meet the request.
 
Yes, funny BUT much appreciated (from one who has listened to various herds when staying below top floor). :teeth:

Amen!!! :thumbsup2

creepy crawly's....lol......i dont let trivial things like that bother me.

I live right here in central FL and I can tell you that "creepy crawly's" freak me out! Not lizards, they don't bother me at all, I just don't like them in the house because I can never catch them to put them back outside and then they starve to death and I find their pitiful little bodies later. :sad1: But we have SNAKES here and plenty of 'em! And they can climb trees too btw! But for me, the REAL big deal with a door being left open late at night is the MOSQUITOs. I have a sensitivity to their bites and it makes for many miserable days and nights of popping Benadryl along with the subsequent drowsiness of the meds. That does NOT make for a good start to anyone's vacation.

And not always easy to get. I waitlisted for okw hosp house and my efforts were a waste of time.

I find that because so many DO want HH and I do NOT want that area at all, that my odds of getting my requests (Turtle Pond, high floor, etc.) are greatly increased and more often than not I get those 2 requests. :cutie:
 
I believe that the later you arrive, irregardless of online check-in, the more apt you are to have a less than stellar accommodation. And some resorts, OKW being amongst the guilty, don’t give you a room assignment for that very same reason! Last year, one of my F&W weekends, I arrived at midnight, had done online check-in, but still had to go to the lobby, no text, no e-mail, hard to know where your villa is. 1st time I ever landed by the noisy bus turnaround by the highway. BLT, AKV, always get texts, OKW never!
So agree, with any resort, DISNEY or elsewhere , late arrivals get the last rooms in the house. Sometimes can’t be avoided, but that’s the reality I have to believe.:eek::scared1:
 
So agree, with any resort, DISNEY or elsewhere , late arrivals get the last rooms in the house. Sometimes can’t be avoided, but that’s the reality I have to believe.:eek::scared1:

Not in my experience. We come from the west coast and unless we're doing a split stay we're a late arrival. I really have no complaints about the number of times my requests have been met. I haven't charted it out but the worst (ie, not met at all) have been our early in the day split stay changes.
 
And we arrive early most of the time...like 10AM-12PM time frame. And usually have to wait for a room and only get our requests 1/2 the time. I even try to skip the requests to see if we can get a room quicker and nope, not really. We do split stays 80% of the time and arrive to second resort around 11:30 and never have a room ready.
 
Was your room not ready or did you just not get the text? The former would be an issue, the later just an aggravation at 10 pm. Room assignments are not guaranteed, unreasonable to be moved for that reason alone.
a woman , traveling alone with 3 doors open ? I want to know what was going on in there? yeah, I would have moved too, and raised hell about no room at 10pm. check in is 4pm. and for what we pay... I want what I paid for. I have had problems like this at OKW many times and found out it it used as a training center( one of the many), I love how big OKW is, plus the newer pool is amazing, however it's location stinks and the busses used to be the slowest in the DVC chain. I have heard that was fixed?
 
a woman , traveling alone with 3 doors open ? I want to know what was going on in there? yeah, I would have moved too, and raised hell about no room at 10pm. check in is 4pm. and for what we pay... I want what I paid for. I have had problems like this at OKW many times and found out it it used as a training center( one of the many), I love how big OKW is, plus the newer pool is amazing, however it's location stinks and the busses used to be the slowest in the DVC chain. I have heard that was fixed?
That wasn't the issue I responded to. My question was whether the room wasn't ready or they just didn't get the text. As for the doors being open, I agree it's an issue but there are potentially better ways to handle it than moving rooms as I addressed in my second post on this thread.
 
a woman , traveling alone with 3 doors open ? I want to know what was going on in there? yeah, I would have moved too, and raised hell about no room at 10pm. check in is 4pm. and for what we pay... I want what I paid for. I have had problems like this at OKW many times and found out it it used as a training center( one of the many), I love how big OKW is, plus the newer pool is amazing, however it's location stinks and the busses used to be the slowest in the DVC chain. I have heard that was fixed?

The OP just didn't get the text with the room info. The room was ready when they arrived at 10PM. They did not like the assigned room though and asked for a different one - that ended up having the slider left open.
 
Non issue until it becomes 4pm. But 10 PM is later than 4 p.m.



<rolling stones> once said "you can't always get what you want"



Dont understand the issue



I think thats just crazy to expect to have a new room because someone left a door unlocked. Unless you are saying this is hours after you checked in.

Not just unlocked - the door over the canal was wide open for hours and hours assuming housekeeping finished by 4.
The boat captain explained about the snakes in the canal. on video. I have it. The front door could not lock at all. Engineerig spent 45 minutes with 2 guys to fix it. We both had work equipment with us.

you need a drink and need to relax
 
Ummm...if she checked in at 10PM-- doesn't that mean its an issue since its after 4PM???

Also...the point wasn't getting another room because the door was unlocked...it was left wide open. It is now 10pm at night in Florida. Lord only knows what creepy crawly's came in. I wouldn't want a room either if the door was wide open for who knows how long. That was careless on Disney's fault for leaving the door open like that.
ROFL, I like the lizards, but having woke up looking at one next to me on my pillow, I want a new room as well, YIKES!
 
I may have inadvertently discovered a cause for some of your check in issues...

I was checking our online check in for an upcoming stay and on the surface everything seemed okay. We've done online check in dozens of stays previous... This time, at a first glance everything said "you're all set!" implying that our previous information was there.

On a whim I hit the little "display more information" button.

The notification telephone number / text number was blank and the status said "not enrolled."

Our arrival time was listed as "after midnight."

We've never manually chosen 'after midnight' as our arrival time. And I know I have entered our cell phone number in the past. So where this new information / missing information came from is anyone's guess.

Morale of the story, check the details I guess.
we go a lot, and I can tell you Disney does many things extremely well, their computer system, not so much. Since the beginning of magic bands, I have been there maybe 6 times. most recent a few weeks ago. we have NEVER not had at least two issues with magic bands. NEVER! however, this visit we noted they are getting better at resolving them faster. we always carry hard copies of tickets, or pictures of receipts on our phone. Also, we have the concierge double check our bands for next days tickets and stuff fast passes included. It catches a couple things a trip doing that and is so worth NOT waiting in the parks, with excited, anxious Kids. I have a love hate relationship with my bands.
I check all that before we leave, and if I can't I call and have them check. maybe one time we have had room texted to us. normally, I hang at the desk, so we can take whatever comes up and requests be damned. They want to move you out of the hotel lobby and into a park or pool, so if you're there, you get a room before someone who's not.
 
The OP just didn't get the text with the room info. The room was ready when they arrived at 10PM. They did not like the assigned room though and asked for a different one - that ended up having the slider left open.

OP - It was the Master bed door - left wide open.
 
I'm going to do this speech to text so forgive the grammatical errors

number one arrived at 10 p.m. still no room assignment

number two went to desk they had me on ground floor even though every single time I stay in every single time I spoke to them and we're talking about what 18 hours ago I still reiterated my request for the top floor

number 3 they didn't need anything for me to check in I had indeed done it online I'm a pro I've been at this for a long time number for they gave me one of my favorite rooms in the entire Resort I climbed up here dragging all of my luggage -.my choice.- before anybody flames me - to be on the top floor I traveled alone this evening so I hauled it all up

number 5 I did my regular room check because I do travel alone as a female and I want to know what's in the room and was horrified to go in the bedroom and find the balcony door wide open at 10 at night so now I'm waiting for bell services to come to move me to another room in another building because they don't have any others in this building

PS Deb if you see this it is horrible the decor is beyond words it's looks like they took the bed from Polly and the top of the Hope Chest from Grand Floridian clearly the rug and pillows are meant for The Yacht & Beach Resort the rainbow chairs are filthy in the kitchen the granite is from some cheap motel somewhere and it doesn't match so it's one kind on the island and a different kind in the kitchen it really looks disjointed and bad oh it looks like Animal Kingdom valances and shades it looks like they took all the leftovers from all the other Resorts and shove them into here sorry to be such a drag I am thrilled to be here


Sorry you had to go through all of that. I travel quite a bit and stay in hotels more than I would like. Always always check the room. If a window is open don’t even enter the room.

And what was number 4?
 

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