I think using David's is much more secured than an individual. Although, since I've done home exchanges, I would be okay with dealing with an individual. Just easier to use David and certainly fast with booking. I would love to try Wildness Lodge or BWV, but since you probably have to book so far out to get a studio, I probably won't be able to do this. When booking with David payment in full needs to be done at the booking. The dinning plan can be added at a later date, which helps with spreading out the cost. Although, I would love the convienence of BLT, but they have small studios. OKW was nice, very quiet and certainly convenient, especially since I always drvie. Nice thing with OKW is that they have two queen size beds in the studios. They are the only DVC studio with two queen size beds. The counter service was small with limited selections. I did like being able to do laundry at no charge. Our room was by the quiet pool which made it nice. The location was fine. Since we had a car, it was an easy drive to the parks and on occasion we did take the bus. The bus was no problem, but we did find using our car to be a bit faster and too convienent. The nice thing about the buses is that all the buses stop at the hospitaliity house, so if you needed to go there, you could just jump on the first bus that came by. And, sometimes the mousekeepers would even give you a ride in their carts!
Probably, our biggest problem is that the first trip in 2010 we stayed at The Polyensian. I had booked PORS only to get a 40% off pin, so switched to The Polyensian. It really spoiled us! We loved it! When we went in 2010, I really didn't expect that we would be going every year! And, now I'm not sure if we will be going next year.
This year we stayed at PORS in a royal room and love this too! Although, my dgd has stated her favorite resort is the 'volanco pool'!
Loved the first day of school picture! Looks like she was dancing out the door!
Enjoy! Karen