Frenchman's Cove - St Thomas

[flyboy0681]

I'm just trying to confirm something that I heard recently and whether it's true or not.

Someone mentioned to me that this property is no longer sending out building requests a few weeks prior to arrival. I always requested, and received, a room in the Van Dyke building.

 

[Fasttr]

I was there in late May, staying on DC points, and received the pre-arrival email about 3 weeks prior.

It was one of the more detailed pre-arrival emails I have seen, but for the topic of villa placement, here is what it said.

Villa Location Preferences
Marriott's Frenchman's Cove experiences a higher than normal volume of resort Owners coming on their ownership weeks. Because of this, preferences for villa locations are prioritized to these Owners and requests for specific buildings, floors or views cannot be guaranteed. We would also like to remind you that Interval International only confirms room size and does not confirm any specific view designations.

As a reminder, the resort team is unable to provide any upgrades on property.

Now I am not sure if owners get a different one, and are able to select specific building, but there was no specific area on this request that enabled you to make specific villa location requests, which seems to be the trend at all resorts.

That said, in one of the text box areas, likely where you would list multiple reservations, I put in a pretty specific villa location preference request. A few days after submitting, I received an email back, listing my my villa preference requests so that I knew that they had them, but yet again, making no promises. About a few days prior to my arrival, I received a call from MFC indicating that they were able to meet 3 of my 4 preference topics....so in the end, I was very happy with the way they treated my request.

 

[curbysplace]

We were there late May too. We had DC point reservation(s) to hedge our "request first" trade. The II trade came through timely. We received the same room request email. I called MFC with our room preferences and was told on the phone the same thing that was in the email.

We ended up on the third floor in the St Johns building. Wow what a view! After all, this was St Thomas, one of my favorite places!!! It was our second time in St Johns trading our one bedroom Streamside Birch. When we booked MFC with DC points four years ago we were in Jost Van Dyke.

 

[saxman]

I was there in late May, staying on DC points, and received the pre-arrival email about 3 weeks prior.

It was one of the more detailed pre-arrival emails I have seen, but for the topic of villa placement, here is what it said.



Now I am not sure if owners get a different one, and are able to select specific building, but there was no specific area on this request that enabled you to make specific villa location requests, which seems to be the trend at all resorts.

That said, in one of the text box areas, likely where you would list multiple reservations, I put in a pretty specific villa location preference request. A few days after submitting, I received an email back, listing my my villa preference requests so that I knew that they had them, but yet again, making no promises. About a few days prior to my arrival, I received a call from MFC indicating that they were able to meet 3 of my 4 preference topics....so in the end, I was very happy with the way they treated my request.

fasttr,

That's interesting, I'm at the Cove now and had received the same email asking about the villa preferences and the same follow up email about having those preferences but never received a phone call. Maybe the phone call is based on the "status" a person has in the Marriott system. That being said, they were still able to give me a villa in Tortola with a great view.

 

[jimf41]

That being said, they were still able to give me a villa in Tortola with a great view.

Actually there are very few units at MFC that have a bad view. Some are better than others and there are a few where a direct water view is blocked but generally everyone can sit on the balcony and look straight at the water.

Compare that to Ocean Pointe where about 30% of the units have no water view at all even if they are designated ocean front. When they built Oceana Palms they really got it right as I don't think any units are blocked from a water view.

 

[DKT]

We were there early May for 2 weeks so we missed both of the late May people. We are owners and have been there using weeks and also enrolled points. When we are there using enrolled points we get the email that doesn't give you an option to select a building so I just put in the notes :whoopie:.

We have stayed in almost every building and have always enjoyed our room. twice we received corner rooms which I loved because of the balconey. So we always mention what we prefer, high floor but have never requested a different room at check in.

I do try and get there early in the day just in case.

 

[MPERL]

Why wait for them

Call them 4 weeks out and make your request. We asked for Tortola or Van Dyke, and got 5th fl Van Dyke. Fabulous view.