EVC question

[snowwite]

I worked with a Physical Therapist who had both knees done at once. He figured since he was a PT and was very familiar with rehab after knee replacement, it would be no problem. He figured, one time getting put under, one surgery, one rehab period.
He later told anyone who would listen that if you have 2 of any body part, never get them both operated on at the same time!

One thing to keep in mind - even without a request for first floor, there is about a 50% chance you will end up with first floor anyway. Some people actually request 2nd floor because they like the view up higher. So, hopefully everything will work out fine.
When you get there, just talk to the desk CM and make sure they know you need first floor and would like handicapped accessible room if possible. When you get your room assignment, the number will be something like 2014 or 2024. The first 2 numbers are the building number - in this case, building 20. The second 2 numbers are the room; 19 or less is first floor. Anything in the 20s is 2nd floor.
OKW is our DVC home resort, we do get an accessible room with either roll in shower or tub with grab bars because our daughter is a full time wheelchair user. It's not always easy, even at 11 months out to get an accessible room we need without going on a wait list for at least a day or 2. When our daughter was little, we didn't book an accessible room, but always got first floor for mobility reasons.
Good luck and hope you have a good trip

Thank you. It’s my first time there. I’ve been to Olivia’s but the tips about rooms etc is great. I tried to switch to HA but there are none for my dates. I’ll be fine with first floor. I’m just scared there won’t be any. I tried to cancel and rebook at SSR but would lose the $768 I paid down. I’m arriving early and my only request will be first floor so I’m hoping they will help me. I wish I never used this company. It’s just so stressful. We usually stay offsite in a house with a private pool but I’ll be on my own and will feel safer in the Disney bubble. Thanks so much for your advice.

 

[Selket]

I worked with a Physical Therapist who had both knees done at once. He figured since he was a PT and was very familiar with rehab after knee replacement, it would be no problem. He figured, one time getting put under, one surgery, one rehab period.
He later told anyone who would listen that if you have 2 of any body part, never get them both operated on at the same time!

I LOL'd at this. Seems many who have bilateral are happy with it...in the end at least..haha! I've become so unable to walk that I'm concerned about recovery. I tried PT to build some strength and was dismissed because it made it so much worse. My HMO made me wait until I was closer to 60 to do TKR and I think it was too long.

Thank you. It’s my first time there. I’ve been to Olivia’s but the tips about rooms etc is great. I tried to switch to HA but there are none for my dates. I’ll be fine with first floor. I’m just scared there won’t be any. I tried to cancel and rebook at SSR but would lose the $768 I paid down. I’m arriving early and my only request will be first floor so I’m hoping they will help me. I wish I never used this company. It’s just so stressful. We usually stay offsite in a house with a private pool but I’ll be on my own and will feel safer in the Disney bubble. Thanks so much for your advice.

When my son booked CBR I just didn't have a thought in my head about the elevators - even tho I knew it didn't have them. Wasn't until about 2 weeks before my trip that the lightbulb turned on - lol! A lot of people like the second floor because no one is above them (for noise), so don't underestimate all the requests for that as well!

 

[Lewisc]

. I tried to switch to HA but there are none for my dates

A PP said a HA room was available for the last 6 nights. I suggest taking that, if still available. You might get lucky and get the first night when you check in

 

[snowwite]

A PP said a HA room was available for the last 6 nights. I suggest taking that, if still available. You might get lucky and get the first night when you check in

I tried. I would have to cancel the DVC store reservation and lose the 25% deposit which is nearly $800! I also tried to pay more, I tried to swap resort. They are incredibly unhelpful. Never ever again.

 

[robinb]

Yeah, DVC rentals can be problematic. There are many moving parts to a DVC reservation including availability, point ownership and the willingness of owners to make changes. Most companies simply avoid the whole thing and make changes difficult or impossible. It isn’t just the DVC Store, it’s all of them.

I would contact them one more time and ask if they would be willing to modify your reservation if a HA studio comes available. It’s the same resort and same number of points but it would require the owner to call DVC and make the change. Availability changes all the time, especially as your check-in date gets closer and closer so there may be a availability later.

If they say “yes” then you can occasionally check. There is a website that shows availability but I’m not sure if it covers HA rooms. I’ll dig it up once I’m on my laptop and not on my phone. (Edited: here it is and unfortunately it doesn't show handicapped rooms:
https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator )

If they say “no” then you can request a ground floor or one of the few buildings with elevators for medical reasons. You are very likely to get your request, especially if you are there early and they can swap someone else arriving later out of a room you’ll need.

I also want to say that I have personally dealt with DVC Store aka The Timeshare Store twice as a DVC owner. I bought a contract from them and I sold a contract through them and they were wonderful and professional in every way. They are not evil, they are likely just stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to accommodate you and keep their DVC owner happy.

 

[Lewisc]

Changing to a HA room doesn't change the number of points. I'd forget about switching resorts. For the moment don't talk about your scooter. As a result of changes to your health, subsequent to making your reservations, you need grab rails in the bathroom.
Send the broker an email, maybe a letter certified mail. Say something like I am requesting an ADA accommodation. I need grab rails in the bathroom. I need a HA room. Please notify the resort of my needs. Confirm as many nights as possible and wait list the rest.
IF THEY SAY NO consider contacting the owner directly. Skip the scooter. I need grab rails in the bathroom. As a courtesy please see what member services can do for me. I'll change rooms if necessary. If anyone asks how you'll manage the nights in a regular room...I won't shower those nights.

Last option. Contact disability services. Ask if you arrange to borrow temporary grab rails. I'M ALMOST 100% sure they won't want to do that but they might be able to get you a HA room. Normally the member has yo make requests but you're not changing the resort, room type or dates. The point requirements is the same. I don’t know if they have any wiggle room regarding who has to make the request.

Last. Arrive early. Fly in the night before if necessary. Getting you at leastna 1st floor unit should be doable.

 

[robinb]

@Lewisc, do you know how HA rooms work in regular Disney reservations? Do you have to specifically book a HA room from the start or do you book first and call to ask for your room to be HA?

 

[lanejudy]

@Lewisc, do you know how HA rooms work in regular Disney reservations? Do you have to specifically book a HA room from the start or do you book first and call to ask for your room to be HA?

HA rooms are a specific booking category, whether you are making a cash reservation or using DVC points.

The PP's issue is they are renting DVC points and therefore the PP doesn't technically "own" the reservation until they check-in. The DVC member owns those reservations. Added to the mix is the fact they used a broker as a go-between, and therefore I don't think the PP even knows who the member actually is because communication goes through the broker.

IF the PP could ask the DVC member to make a reservation change, that might be possible to accomplish (at least for the 6 nights someone mentioned were available). However the broker has a policy of no changes and therefore won't allow the communication to go through. They would lose a significant deposit if they outright cancel and try to make a new reservation.

At this point, the PP really has little options other than to take the cancellation penalty or to hope that a first floor room is available when they arrive. It's an unfortunate lesson in researching both the resort features (elevators) and the cons of renting points. There are pros of renting points as well, but there are some downfalls and one is that you don't actually "own" the reservation and cannot make contact for requests or changes.

 

[SueM in MN]

@Lewisc, do you know how HA rooms work in regular Disney reservations? Do you have to specifically book a HA room from the start or do you book first and call to ask for your room to be HA?

I can answer that.
Handicapped accessible rooms are booked at the time you first book your room for DVC or any hotel. It is a reservation for that room type, not a request.
A change a few years ago to the ADA required that guests needing an accessible room be able to book it the same ways other guests are able to book rooms (i.e. Website, phone). At the time of booking, an accessible room is to be taken out of inventory and saved for that guest - that's to avoid overbooking of accessible rooms, which was an issue.
It's always possible that an accessible room could go out of service before the guest checks in, but if one was booked, the hotel/resort is responsible for providing a room that meets the guests' needs

If you find out later that you need an accessible room, you can request your regular room reservation be changed to an accessible room. But, there may be none left. For resorts with more than 1 room type (views or preferred), there may be no accessible ones left in the type the guest had originally booked.

 

[robinb]

HA rooms are a specific booking category, whether you are making a cash reservation or using DVC points.

The PP's issue is they are renting DVC points and therefore the PP doesn't technically "own" the reservation until they check-in. The DVC member owns those reservations. Added to the mix is the fact they used a broker as a go-between, and therefore I don't think the PP even knows who the member actually is because communication goes through the broker.

IF the PP could ask the DVC member to make a reservation change, that might be possible to accomplish (at least for the 6 nights someone mentioned were available). However the broker has a policy of no changes and therefore won't allow the communication to go through. They would lose a significant deposit if they outright cancel and try to make a new reservation.

At this point, the PP really has little options other than to take the cancellation penalty or to hope that a first floor room is available when they arrive. It's an unfortunate lesson in researching both the resort features (elevators) and the cons of renting points. There are pros of renting points as well, but there are some downfalls and one is that you don't actually "own" the reservation and cannot make contact for requests or changes.

Thanks! I already understood the situation here and, as a really, really, really long time DVCer (26+ years) *and* one who rents out her points, I know how DVC reservations and rentals work . I was also around for the great David's Rentals debates about reservations cancelled around Covid. Now, that was a nightmare!

My question was about regular Disney reservations which I am not familiar with. It appears that they are the same as the DVC rooms and booked as a HA room when the reservation is made. That makes perfect sense to me. I was kind of hoping that she could make the request now even though there is no availability for the first night, but that won't work. It seems to me that she has two options, as I said in my previous post. (1) She can request a ground floor and hope for the best with some kind of temporary grab bar, or (2) she can have a DVC member check availability occasionally and hope that they will change her reservation to a HA one if it becomes available. Availability changes constantly and especially so in the 4-6 weeks before the check in date since points become more difficult to use if a reservation is cancelled 30 days or less before the check-in date.

 

[Lewisc]

The name of the owner generally appears in the rental agreement. Locating contact information requires some detective work.
I suggest phrasing a request as request for ADA accommodation. The broker may decide it's easier and less hassle to change the reservation then pay his attorney to write a letter explaining why he legally doesn't have to do anything.

 

[snowwite]

Yeah, DVC rentals can be problematic. There are many moving parts to a DVC reservation including availability, point ownership and the willingness of owners to make changes. Most companies simply avoid the whole thing and make changes difficult or impossible. It isn’t just the DVC Store, it’s all of them.

I would contact them one more time and ask if they would be willing to modify your reservation if a HA studio comes available. It’s the same resort and same number of points but it would require the owner to call DVC and make the change. Availability changes all the time, especially as your check-in date gets closer and closer so there may be a availability later.

If they say “yes” then you can occasionally check. There is a website that shows availability but I’m not sure if it covers HA rooms. I’ll dig it up once I’m on my laptop and not on my phone. (Edited: here it is and unfortunately it doesn't show handicapped rooms:
https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator )

If they say “no” then you can request a ground floor or one of the few buildings with elevators for medical reasons. You are very likely to get your request, especially if you are there early and they can swap someone else arriving later out of a room you’ll need.

I also want to say that I have personally dealt with DVC Store aka The Timeshare Store twice as a DVC owner. I bought a contract from them and I sold a contract through them and they were wonderful and professional in every way. They are not evil, they are likely just stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to accommodate you and keep their DVC owner happy.

Thank you. I tried again but was told to try working with the resort on arrival. Beyond putting in a request they can’t help.

 

[snowwite]

Changing to a HA room doesn't change the number of points. I'd forget about switching resorts. For the moment don't talk about your scooter. As a result of changes to your health, subsequent to making your reservations, you need grab rails in the bathroom.
Send the broker an email, maybe a letter certified mail. Say something like I am requesting an ADA accommodation. I need grab rails in the bathroom. I need a HA room. Please notify the resort of my needs. Confirm as many nights as possible and wait list the rest.
IF THEY SAY NO consider contacting the owner directly. Skip the scooter. I need grab rails in the bathroom. As a courtesy please see what member services can do for me. I'll change rooms if necessary. If anyone asks how you'll manage the nights in a regular room...I won't shower those nights.

Last option. Contact disability services. Ask if you arrange to borrow temporary grab rails. I'M ALMOST 100% sure they won't want to do that but they might be able to get you a HA room. Normally the member has yo make requests but you're not changing the resort, room type or dates. The point requirements is the same. I don’t know if they have any wiggle room regarding who has to make the request.

Last. Arrive early. Fly in the night before if necessary. Getting you at leastna 1st floor unit should be doable.

Thank you.

 

[AprilsZoo]

I can’t manage stairs so I would be in a real pickle

So whether you rent a scooter or not— you must have a first floor room? What was your plan if you arrived and they had you assigned to an upstairs room?

You said several times that you were going to wait to get the scooter just in case you weren’t on the first floor… but what’s your plan to get YOU to your room?

If you can’t do stairs, whether you have a scooter or not doesn’t really change things does it? You may as well rent it and know you’ve got it for your dates.

You’re going to have to get to the resort early, and really advocate for yourself. And ask yourself: what is your plan if they tell you there are no first floor rooms?

You need to have rehearsed your calm response, explaining as many times as necessary that they need to figure it out, because without an elevator, you absolutely cannot get to a room on the second floor.

You can mention that you’ve tried for months to get them to confirm that you’d have a first-floor room. But that the call center kept telling you to deal with it after your arrival… which seemed shortsighted and ill-prepared, but what more could you do? You “must’ve called x number of times, but [you were] given the same answer time & again.”

 

[snowwite]

So whether you rent a scooter or not— you must have a first floor room? What was your plan if you arrived and they had you assigned to an upstairs room?

You said several times that you were going to wait to get the scooter just in case you weren’t on the first floor… but what’s your plan to get YOU to your room?

If you can’t do stairs, whether you have a scooter or not doesn’t really change things does it? You may as well rent it and know you’ve got it for your dates.

You’re going to have to get to the resort early, and really advocate for yourself. And ask yourself: what is your plan if they tell you there are no first floor rooms?

You need to have rehearsed your calm response, explaining as many times as necessary that they need to figure it out, because without an elevator, you absolutely cannot get to a room on the second floor.

You can mention that you’ve tried for months to get them to confirm that you’d have a first-floor room. But that the call center kept telling you to deal with it after your arrival… which seemed shortsighted and ill-prepared, but what more could you do? You “must’ve called x number of times, but [you were] given the same answer time & again.”

I have never stayed at OKW before and from my 25 trips to WDW I never came across a resort with only stairs. I had already booked and paid thousands of dollars for a week at OKW through DVC rental store. I did try to change it, cancel it and modify it but discovered that cannot be done. I did go ahead and book the ECV since I need it to get around. I don’t have a plan if there are no first floor rooms because I will be there on my own and am physically unable to get up stairs. I’m arriving at 11am for a 4 pm check in. I asked the DVC owner to put in a request for either the elevator building or first floor anyplace in the resort.
Now I have answered your questions so I have one for you. Why are you coming off like you are attacking me rather than offering helpful advice like every other person has done?

 

[DisneyOma]

I have never stayed at OKW before and from my 25 trips to WDW I never came across a resort with only stairs. I had already booked and paid thousands of dollars for a week at OKW through DVC rental store. I did try to change it, cancel it and modify it but discovered that cannot be done. I did go ahead and book the ECV since I need it to get around. I don’t have a plan if there are no first floor rooms because I will be there on my own and am physically unable to get up stairs. I’m arriving at 11am for a 4 pm check in. I asked the DVC owner to put in a request for either the elevator building or first floor anyplace in the resort.
Now I have answered your questions so I have one for you. Why are you coming off like you are attacking me rather than offering helpful advice like every other person has done?

I don't read AprilZoo's post as an attack - it's a script for what you need to say/do when you get to the hotel. And there was some restating of the obvious, which is that you can't access a second floor room without an elevator. Glad you've got an ECV reserved for your use - and I'm wishing you the best of luck that you get a first floor room without any hassle!

 

[snowwite]

I don't read AprilZoo's post as an attack - it's a script for what you need to say/do when you get to the hotel. And there was some restating of the obvious, which is that you can't access a second floor room without an elevator. Glad you've got an ECV reserved for your use - and I'm wishing you the best of luck that you get a first floor room without any hassle!

I took the barrage of questions as her coming at me.
There is nothing I can do at this point but pray that they can help me at the resort. We are not rich so I can’t lose that kind of money. I will not ever rent a DVC again.

 

[SteveMouse]

I don't read AprilZoo's post as an attack - it's a script for what you need to say/do when you get to the hotel. And there was some restating of the obvious, which is that you can't access a second floor room without an elevator. Glad you've got an ECV reserved for your use - and I'm wishing you the best of luck that you get a first floor room without any hassle!

To clarify: A Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is not a hotel and may staffed//serviced very differently.

Edited to add: DVC operates at or very close to full capacity. There are not many options available to staff to relocate owners who are unsatisfied with their unit, if it is what they reserved. I would not expect maintenance to add a handrail. At Disney hotels, housekeeping may provide shower chairs and/or elevated toilet seats on request, if available.. I do not know if DVC provides similar service.

If the request for first floor were noted as a medical need, it MAY get prioritized. There are times, however when Disney seems to rely solely on the HA room category as a method of meeting all accommodations (which they don't, and isn't really in line with the law).

I wish the OP the best of luck and that a suitable room can be assigned.

 

[Oldie13]

My mom has always used Scooterbug and has always been just fine. Once we had one that was losing its charge fast and they brought a replacement to the front of the park we were at.

 

[AprilsZoo]

I don't read AprilZoo's post as an attack - it's a script for what you need to say/do when you get to the hotel. And there was some restating of the obvious, which is that you can't access a second floor room without an elevator. Glad you've got an ECV reserved for your use - and I'm wishing you the best of luck that you get a first floor room without any hassle!

Thanks, Oma. You’re right, no attack. I tend to write a lot, so I *try* to be super clear.

Sorry for any offense Snow. Good luck.