Art of Animation soft opening?

[Chernabog1326]

I have a reservation booked at Pop during the free dining promotion 8/25-8/31. I just got an email showing that regular rooms (not suites) will be available starting 9/15 at Art of Animation resort. Does anyone know if there will be some sort of soft opening of these rooms, and would I possibly be able to stay there on my trip?

[Strmchsr]

Doubtful. I haven't heard of soft openings for resorts. They generally just open. They really can't do soft openings as there's no way to then shut things down if something doesn't work like on a ride. They could, however, open early if things progress faster than expected. Looked at AOA yesterday and it looks fantastic.

[Polynesian Dweller]

Being a hotelier I have seen several openings. The closest thing to a soft opening is inviting family members or workers fom other hotels in the group to come for a test weekend. They can point out the problems before opening.

But there is almost never general public per-openings. You can't really have things go wrong with real guests. As pp says, what do you do if there are any significant problems uncovered. So you can be pretty much assured that there won't be a soft opening to the general public.

[TheRustyScupper]

1) There are no guest soft openings.
2) The "trial runs" are for CM's.
3) I am waiting for my invite.
. . . lots of CM's get invites to new hotels
. . . all rooms are trialled, including suites
. . . also included are Club Floors (if there is one)
. . . you get one night free
. . . you bring the immediate family for the night
. . . the only requirement is a survey at check-out
. . . the survey is very detailed from room to service
. . . changes are made from the survey results
. . . and/or repairs made
4) Usually these trials last 2-5 weeks per resort.
5) This way, every room gets tried 5-10 nights.
8) The LM rooms will be interesting.
9) But I really want to check the suites.

[Chernabog1326]

Thanks everyone. The reason I asked is that on one of my trips we were booked at AS Movies, and during check-in, they asked if I would like to be upgraded to Coronado Springs. We did it, and I swear we were the only people in that building for at least three or four days. Kind of eerie, but cool at the same time. Maybe they had had an early opening.