Hi All. I wanted to share with you my experience speaking with a guest services Cast Member. We had a reservation for Yacht Club for three days at the end of an 8 day trip in early December. I sent an email to the Guest services Resort and reservation option. I expressed my concern with allergies, etc, in the email, and asked for it to be escalated to management at the Yacht Club for clarification of rules, rooms near dog, etc.
I received a call back later the same day, and was able to have my issues resolved fully and satisfactory. I was not pushy, and did not ask for anything except to be away from the dogs area, but the cast member offered to move our resort, so we excepted. When the Cast Member explained the situation at the Yacht Club that I was not going to be in anyway guaranteed a room away from dogs, it seemed logical to except the move, even though we were looking forward to being at Yacht Club for the location and Storm Along Bay. We had two dining reservations at Yachtsman and Cape May, two at Epcot Le Cellier and Tutto Italia and an Epcot tour in those three days, so it was impractical to move further away.
The reason the Cast Member could not guarantee me a room in the non dog section is because, according to her there is no non dog section of Yacht Club. This Cast Member told me that dogs can be assigned to any Garden View, Woods View, Water view or Pool view, so basically scattered around the resort. I was looking at the touring plans Yacht Club room finder map as she was explaining the categories to me, and I could pick a pool view room and look and see that it was a few doors down from a garden view. I asked her specifically about the rumor that rooms would be only on the first floor, and she stated that this was inaccurate. She also stated that the only rooms that were not pet friendly were the standard rooms, which she could have moved me to, but I would have the same issue with them being near by. So if I wanted an entirely dog free (except for service dogs) area, I would have to move resorts. The Cast Member offered to move me to Coronado Springs, since this is where my first 5 days were, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, Beach Club or Boardwalk. We accepted Beach Club, when she reassured me that the dogs are not to be in the Beach Club side. Basically, the dogs need to be in the room or in the pet grass areas, and nowhere else. I asked about the pools, the walkways to Boardwalk, the Boardwalk itself, the beach area, the Beach Club side of the resort, restaurants, and she said that they were not to be in any of those areas, and guests who do bring their dogs there will be asked to leave, and guests can report this to a Cast Member if they see anything like this. This should also be explained explicitly at the resort to guests checking in with pets.
I cannot speak to the layouts at the other pet friendly resorts, because I was only inquiring about the Yacht Club and general area around this resort. The Cast Member I spoke to was very nice, and going out of her way to assist me. She suggested that anyone who had issues with this new policy to contact them, and reminded me that this was only a trial run, and that based on the feedback so far, many people are not happy about this policy. I hope this helps someone else. I never have complained formally to any Cast Member in the past three years we have been coming regularly. I've stayed over 40 nights at Disney resorts in three years, and have 20 more days planned for the next 8 months. I felt this issue warranted an explanation from Disney and I was pleased with the response.
