Short Recovery Recap: Great Grand Villa & Missing Bungalow

[kristenabelle]

Just got home Saturday night from a weeklong trip and wanted to share a few notes:

• Our first time in a 3BR GV at our home, BWV, and it didn't disappoint. 4037 - a single story GV with amazing views, perfect for our family of 7 to spread out and enjoy. We had a great dinner from Trattoria al Forno to go one night at the massive dining room table, and really enjoyed watching fireworks from the balcony.
  • I requested a single-story GV via chat a few months in advance, and it came through thankfully
  • We didn't use the built-in speakers/fancy remote to control the speakers (?) because we didn't know how. Maybe a guide would be helpful for future guests?
  • Two issues, one minor and one not so minor - the dryer was pretty busted; it would take two long cycles for towels to dry. More importantly, the main double doors weren't functioning as they should. The door without the entry sensor should've been bolted in place (and had fixtures to the floor/ceiling to do this), but wasn't. Imagine both doors bowing forward when you entered, instead of one being rigid. My Dad was convinced you could open the doors without a key if you were pushing hard enough (and maybe he was right? But thankfully no one tried). Even a visit from maintenance (who said "this isn't my specialty, we'll need a carpenter to come in and look") didn't help. I slept in the main living space and we didn't have any issues, but my Dad was nervous about it for the five days we were there. We told the front desk a few times, including on check-out day for the next family
    
• The second leg of our stay was supposed to be in a Poly Bungalow, after I stalked and stalked the site for two months and was able to snag a couple of nights. Unfortunately, I got a call on check-in day (as we were eating lunch at Galaxy's Edge) telling me that our assigned bungalow was having "maintenance issues," and we wouldn't be able to check in (as they were fully booked otherwise)
  • Things happen, and there are only 20 bungalows - I get it. But this was a huge bummer. We planned meals at 'Ohana during our stay, and a relaxing day on our personal porch before a Universal event at night. I was personally gutted after stalking the website multiple times a day for weeks, and hyping up my family about the bungalows. We don't have monster points to burn every year, and it'd be a waste to try for one again (especially since all 7 of us probably won't be back together for a while).
  • They offered us a 2BR Suite on the Hotel side of GF, with concierge level access, as a replacement
    • I don't know how much this would cost in cash, and I'm not sure if I want to know
    • No kitchen/kitchenette, and the aesthetic isn't really our style, but the staff was lovely and club service at the Grand is probably something I'll never experience again, so a memory for sure
    • We had the bungalow sleeping arrangements plotted out due to a mix of heavy snorers and light sleepers, and this threw everything into wack since the bed arrangements were different. GF kindly let us use the standard bedroom next to our suite (which was totally above and beyond, and really kind of them)
    • More above and beyond, they comped our Ohana breakfast and gave us back 100 points. This was after I asked if the GF room had a theme park/fireworks view (something we were looking forward to at the bungalow), and they confirmed it was only partial. I saw this morning that the points were indeed returned to us, for this use year (Sept 21 - 22).
    • We did get a tour of the Bungalow from a DVC sales rep after breakfast. Definitely bittersweet for us, but worth seeing it in person.

Maybe we'll make it back to the Bungalows another time...until then, looking forward to planning out those 100 points we didn't have before.

 

[Dizzydizney]

Glad you loved your BW grand villa except for the door and dryer issue. That’s kind of scary with the dryer.....I wonder if it was packed with lint in the exhaust hose? Happened to us at
home.

Too bad about the bungalow, but sounds like they really pulled out all stops to accomodate you. I looked at another site and that room you had (just the 2 bedroom) goes for between $3,600 and $3,999/nite. To have access to club level....wow, I’d probably never leave.
The bungalow for that date for cash reservation is between $4,300 and $4,500/ night. So considering you received your points back plus you breakfast plus club level you did pretty good! Although I can imagine the disappointment about not getting the bungalow. They look really fun and roomy.

Have fun figuring out what to do with your “extra” points.

 

[kristenabelle]

Glad you loved your BW grand villa except for the door and dryer issue. That’s kind of scary with the dryer.....I wonder if it was packed with lint in the exhaust hose? Happened to us at
home.

Too bad about the bungalow, but sounds like they really pulled out all stops to accomodate you. I looked at another site and that room you had (just the 2 bedroom) goes for between $3,600 and $3,999/nite. To have access to club level....wow, I’d probably never leave.
The bungalow for that date for cash reservation is between $4,300 and $4,500/ night. So considering you received your points back plus you breakfast plus club level you did pretty good! Although I can imagine the disappointment about not getting the bungalow. They look really fun and roomy.

Have fun figuring out what to do with your “extra” points.

I'm the type of person who will usually accept whatever recovery anyone offers, no questions asked, so I was floored (in a good way) with what we ended up getting. Definitely sent out some nice emails complimenting CMs!

 

[syansick]

We just had a similar “maintenance issues” occurrence on 3/28/22 but our outcome was far from satisfactory. To celebrate our 50th Anniversary, We had reserved the only one bedroom accessible with roll in shower on the Club Level at AKL. There is another accessible, but it has a tub and would not work for me. Anyway, when the room is booked, it is removed from inventory as there is only one.
When we checked in, we were told the room was not ready. We waited around for hours, and when we checked at the concierge desk, we were told that they had left us a voice mail the day before telling us that due to maintenance issues our room was not available. BUT, we saw, sitting in the concierge lounge, that there were people staying in that room. Evidently, the maintenance issues, if indeed they even existed were not in that room .
When we questioned the situation, we were told the room was double booked, impossible to do with DVC. They assigned us a room on another floor exceedingly far away. Too far for us, in our seventies and not in the best of health, to take advantage of Club level privileges. There were no other rooms in AKL we were told. They sent us to a standard view room at Boardwalk, whose staff knew nothing about it when we showed up to check in. To date, we have not received any points back. In fact, we have been charged the 50 points per night for the AKL room instead of the 31 points per night for which the Boardwalk room is listed. Very disappointing way to celebrate our 50th anniversary.