Trial Run for Dogs in Resort Rooms

[Disneylover99]

Do families just show up with their dog without making an accommodation ahead of time?

We go to a dog-friendly beach motel that's 1 1/2 hours from here. I would never just put my dog in the car and drive there to stay overnight if I didn't reserve it first.

I have no idea. But since it's not a bookable category, they could do that, couldn't they?

 

[Disneylover99]

You may be right but I would think the issue might just be the opposite. Disney may have less requests for dog friendly rooms than anticipated and a resort that is looking to be sold out. Do they then assign people to the empty dog friendly rooms without regard to their possible health issues?

Unless someone stated they have allergies or absolutely did not want a designated dog room at check in, yes, I believe they would.

 

[agavegirl1]

Thanks @HopperFan for the advice on a room only backup. I currently have a package. Will they substitute my FQ room only into my package at POR?

 

[KrazeeK120]

People leave their dogs every day while they go to work, go to events and appointments, etc. Not sure how this is different. Every dog owner I know understands the impacts fireworks have on their pets. There won't be fireworks going off in the hallways all day of the 4 resorts listed as dog friendly.

It's different because they're being confined to a single, unfamiliar room for long periods of time. No dog owners I've ever known have confined their pet to a single room of the house all day long, and many go home at lunch to let the dog out.

Dogs are used to their home. They're not used to a hotel. It's borderline cruel to leave an animal in a single, unfamiliar room for 7 hours.

 

[Madame]

People leave their dogs every day while they go to work, go to events and appointments, etc. Not sure how this is different. Every dog owner I know understands the impacts fireworks have on their pets. There won't be fireworks going off in the hallways all day of the 4 resorts listed as dog friendly.

I already posted this on the BC thread but, those dogs are in a familiar, safe environment with or without their humans there. Some are likely to be more nervous, more likely to urinate, defecate & be destructive.

Like when you take your kid into a new situation & their reaction isn’t what you expected.

How long, btw, until all hotel prices are raised to cover the cleaning & the extra deep cleans & the accidental destruction. If we all start paying for the 14% is that ok?

 

[JerseyJanice]

Smoking inside the rooms will set off the smoke detectors and sprinklers, I bet.

I doubt that the smoke detectors are that sensitive. And I really think it would take a lot more than some cigarette smoke to set off sprinklers.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I already posted this on the BC thread but, those dogs are in a familiar, safe environment with or without their humans there. Some are likely to be more nervous, more likely to urinate, defecate & be destructive.

Like when you take your kid into a new situation & their reaction isn’t what you expected.

How long, btw, until all hotel prices are raised to cover the cleaning & the extra deep cleans & the accidental destruction. If we all start paying for the 14% is that ok?

We can agree to disagree. I think there is a lot of overreaction to this dog friendly hotel business. As I said earlier in this thread I couldn't care less either way. I'm not a dog person, either, but I honestly do not see WDW resorts being overrun with thousands of dogs every day. I'm actually pretty shocked at how angry people are.

 

[mexi]

Maybe everything went peachy with pets during the Irma evacuation. Maybe that's why Disney decided to go dog friendly. IDK, but I am not going to make those assumptions.

So why can't everything go " peach" now? Let's just give it a chance.

 

[Three cats]

anyone else get a phone call from Disney? I just received a random phone call and she asked if there was any questions she could better answer she mentioned that they have been told only certain rooms at the AOA its the cars suits (which we are staying at ) and the little mermaid rooms
at Port orleans riverside its the stand view rooms and the garden view rooms which we are also staying at she mentioned that i can call restorations and asked to be switched to which i said there are other rooms but they cost way more and all she could say is i see

so has anyone else had a call? i did not ask for a call nor did i leave my phone number in my email

Yes, I just did. Same thing. I didn't leave my phone number and I didn't ask for a call - just simply emailed them to tell them how lousy I thought it was to spring this on us at the last minute when there aren't any other resorts available to switch to.

I asked her which buildings at POR would be "pet friendly". She replied "Standard and Garden View rooms". I asked again, "Which buildings?" - she said she didn't know.

She went on to say that maybe I should call the "reservation line" and see if there was another resort I could switch to if I wasn't going to be happy at POR. I told her there wasn't and hasn't been any other resorts available for our dates for a very long time.

She replied "Oh, that's too bad. Well, Disney has always allowed service dogs so this shouldn't be a problem. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Basically, no help whatsoever.

 

[skyp4WDW]

anyone else get a phone call from Disney? I just received a random phone call and she asked if there was any questions she could better answer she mentioned that they have been told only certain rooms at the AOA its the cars suits (which we are staying at ) and the little mermaid rooms
at Port orleans riverside its the stand view rooms and the garden view rooms which we are also staying at she mentioned that i can call restorations and asked to be switched to which i said there are other rooms but they cost way more and all she could say is i see

so has anyone else had a call? i did not ask for a call nor did i leave my phone number in my email

Yes I got a call too. I was pretty sure I would because I sent emails to George Kalogridis, Robert Chapek, and Bob Iger as well. (They don't like that... the "worker bees" are supposed to deal with this sort of issue. ) My call came almost as soon as I sent the emails. I purposely did not include my phone number just to see if they'd email or look me up... A young man from Guest Services tried to smooth things over. He sounded as though he was reading from a script and I told him so. They knew most people wouldn't like this change; that's the reason it was kept quiet until the last minute.

Kalogridis made this happen and he's the one who can reverse it. Send your opinions directly to him.

 

[mexi]

It not just that you are going against people's opinions, you by supporting this new dog policy are putting a serious negative on many people's vacations so you can put dogs over humans, and yourself over others. So you get to bring your dog, and in exchange many people will now have to say no more Port Orleans Riverside (or other dog friendly Disney hotel). That is the reality. Not an even trade: benefits accrue solely to entitled dog owners, downside born entirely by people who don't want to vacation with other people's dogs. But hopefully this new Disney dog policy will be very temporary.

Please don't try to put blame on someone who has a different opinion than yours. Not nice.

 

[tomlinson]

Our of sheer curiosity, as I've only become active on this forum this year, when was the last time Disney launched something new that caused such a spark in debate - and what was the ultimate result? For example, if the last big change was that all hotel rooms would only have 1 ply toilet paper and not 2 ply (I am making this up, guys), people complained... what did Disney do about it if anything?

 

[TheFloatingBear]

People leave their dogs every day while they go to work, go to events and appointments, etc. Not sure how this is different. Every dog owner I know understands the impacts fireworks have on their pets. There won't be fireworks going off in the hallways all day of the 4 resorts listed as dog friendly.

Dog lover and have had dogs most of my life, but to me I do feel it's different than being left at home when a dog is left in unfamiliar surroundings. I truly can't speak to whether another person's dog could manage or not, but at the risk of repeating myself in this thread (sorry, folks!), our last dog would have been an anxious mess, even if we curtailed our usual Disney schedule. Anyway, I saw an interesting piece on the author Alexandra Horowitz last year about her book "Being a Dog". I haven't read the book, but in the t.v. segment, they talked about how dogs "tell time" by smell. They gave the example that there's a certain level of "owner smell", when you leave your house and your pet in the morning, and it dissipates throughout the day, and the dog can tell by the level of "owner smell" (my term, I can remember what they exactly said) roughly what time you should be home in the evening! And some of course might get anxious if you're late! Anyway, I just think it speaks to how dogs navigate the world and being in familiar surroundings versus being in an unfamiliar hotel room with strange noises and smells.

Kind of on the same note...my neighbor has the most wonderful dog. Generally, he only barks at deliveries and out of excitement when you knock at the door. Except when she goes on vacations....she leaves him at the house, and a neighborhood teen walks and feeds him daily (and we go visit too). When they are away, I hear him barking and crying for extended periods of time every day, and I feel terrible about it. I have told her on multiple occasions about it, but she said that she doesn't believe me and that he is fine. I am always surprised by this response, since she is generally a good dog mommy and she is not there to see and hear this behavior when she is on vacation.

 

[mikejs78]

anyone else get a phone call from Disney? I just received a random phone call and she asked if there was any questions she could better answer she mentioned that they have been told only certain rooms at the AOA its the cars suits (which we are staying at ) and the little mermaid rooms
at Port orleans riverside its the stand view rooms and the garden view rooms which we are also staying at she mentioned that i can call restorations and asked to be switched to which i said there are other rooms but they cost way more and all she could say is i see

so has anyone else had a call? i did not ask for a call nor did i leave my phone number in my email

I got a similar call - basically the same as what you describe. Probably got my phone # because it's linked to my email in MDE.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I have no idea. But since it's not a bookable category, they could do that, couldn't they?

When I take my dog to the beach, I call ahead and reserve the room to let them know I'm bringing her.

We take her to the bay beach that is designated dog friendly and picnic there. We think she has enough fun that it's worth dragging her away from her job of guarding our house and yard.

 

[Jafar30]

We can agree to disagree. I think there is a lot of overreaction to this dog friendly hotel business. As I said earlier in this thread I couldn't care less either way. I'm not a dog person, either, but I honestly do not see WDW resorts being overrun with thousands of dogs every day. I'm actually pretty shocked at how angry people are.

That's kind of where I come down on this. I said it's actually not fair to the dog. But I don't think every dog owner is all of sudden going to book a WDW vacation with the intent of bringing their dogs. But hey reason and logic don't always live on the internet

 

[Designed4dis]

Our of sheer curiosity, as I've only become active on this forum this year, when was the last time Disney launched something new that caused such a spark in debate - and what was the ultimate result? For example, if the last big change was that all hotel rooms would only have 1 ply toilet paper and not 2 ply (I am making this up, guys), people complained... what did Disney do about it if anything?

The last huge uproar I remember inthe commounity was the change to the disability access card rules, people complaint, some tried to sue.... nothing happened

 

[Madame]

We can agree to disagree. I think there is a lot of overreaction to this dog friendly hotel business. As I said earlier in this thread I couldn't care less either way. I'm not a dog person, either, but I honestly do not see WDW resorts being overrun with thousands of dogs every day. I'm actually pretty shocked at how angry people are.

I find it bizarre actually that anyone would want their pet on a Disney vacation, not a vacation in general b/c lots of people view their pets as family.

All my cats were my babies before I had my twins & discovered one was allergic. I never took them on vacation & had to give the cat to my mother. & why aren’t cats included - that will be the next question, no?

WDW though can be hot & frenetic & tempers can flare & transport to & from the parks can be irritating. Adding dogs that most won’t spend a lot of quality time with is baffling.

Don’t think that this is a small number who will take Disney up on their offer or try to skirt the rules. It seems to be the minority here, but there are many (seriously) who are for this & ready to sign up on the FB groups I’m in.

 

[Sarahraegraham]

anyone else get a phone call from Disney? I just received a random phone call and she asked if there was any questions she could better answer she mentioned that they have been told only certain rooms at the AOA its the cars suits (which we are staying at ) and the little mermaid rooms
at Port orleans riverside its the stand view rooms and the garden view rooms which we are also staying at she mentioned that i can call restorations and asked to be switched to which i said there are other rooms but they cost way more and all she could say is i see

so has anyone else had a call? i did not ask for a call nor did i leave my phone number in my email

I didn’t leave my phone number in my email either. I assume they looked it up in MDE. I received the call 3 hours after I emailed.

 

[KrazeeK120]

Yes, I just did. Same thing. I didn't leave my phone number and I didn't ask for a call - just simply emailed them to tell them how lousy I thought it was to spring this on us at the last minute when there aren't any other resorts available to switch to.

I asked her which buildings at POR would be "pet friendly". She replied "Standard and Garden View rooms". I asked again, "Which buildings?" - she said she didn't know.

She went on to say that maybe I should call the "reservation line" and see if there was another resort I could switch to if I wasn't going to be happy at POR. I told her there wasn't and hasn't been any other resorts available for our dates for a very long time.

She replied "Oh, that's too bad. Well, Disney has always allowed service dogs so this shouldn't be a problem. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Basically, no help whatsoever.

Ugh. This type of response is bothersome. I can't believe they're comparing a typical family pet to a service dog. First of all, service dogs are very uncommon. Second of all, service dogs are WITH THEIR OWNERS at all times, not left for 7 hours alone in a hotel room! Third of all, service dogs are trained to be very obedient - no barking (unless working and the owner needs to be alerted), peeing on furniture, etc. Family pets and service animals plain and simply aren't the same thing and it's ridiculous that Disney is acting like they are.

I realize that service animals could cause allergy problems. They are so few and far between, though, that you're unlikely to be assigned to a room where one just left. And if the resort is pet-free, it shouldn't be hard to move an allergic person to an acceptable room should they find themselves in that unlikely scenario.