Why Not Just Queue Up Another Disney Trip? Link to New TR 6/24 p136!

[Pinkocto]

Originally Posted by MEK

Four More Weeks Until Our June Trip!!!!!!!!


.

Due to your lovely review of OKW I'll be going in December, do you know if they have internal buses like SSR, or am in for a long hike if I'm not near the Hospitality House?

[MEK]

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

Due to your lovely review of OKW I'll be going in December, do you know if they have internal buses like SSR, or am in for a long hike if I'm not near the Hospitality House?

I think you will love it there, especially with the December decorations.

Honestly, I don't know if there were internal buses, but every bus stops at the HH last so you can get on any park bus and get off at the HH. Shouldn't be a problem except going back. However, there is a bus stop not to far from the HH which is the first, I think, and you could walk there to go back.

Hopefully you requested the HH location because it really WAS convenient. But there is also another big pool with a bar (because hey - what else do you REALLY need) further back in the resort.

Enjoy!

[Pinkocto]

I would have if possible, but they now have hospitality house rooms as a separate booking availability even though they're the same points. And that was not available for the whole trip. After asking you I went in search of a map just to see the layout of the place and there are bus stops in each area. I'm excited

Happy Mothers Day!

[eandesmom]

four HOURS! OMG you are both saints for surviving that. Jeff would have gotten ugly at some point, I just know it. The rest of the trip looks absolutely lovely though and that sunset, WOW!

[HockeyMomR]

Happy Mother's Day! Four more weeks - that is fantastic. I am so jealous, can't believe it will be 2 years in July since we have been to the World. Longest time ever between visits. We are hoping for October, but will look forward to reading your June report when you return.

Also, love your W&M pictures. No engineering there so neither son looked or is planning to, but I have heard wonderful things about the school.

[brookelizabeth]

Originally Posted by MEK

Four More Weeks Until Our June Trip!!!!!!!!




Hope All You Moms Out There Have a Great Mother's Day!!!!!!!

[MEK]

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

I would have if possible, but they now have hospitality house rooms as a separate booking availability even though they're the same points. And that was not available for the whole trip. After asking you I went in search of a map just to see the layout of the place and there are bus stops in each area. I'm excited

Oh there is definitely a bus stop in each area.

I didn't know it was a separate booking category. Wait - maybe I did. Let's just say I totally got it by accident.

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

Happy Mothers Day!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

four HOURS! OMG you are both saints for surviving that. Jeff would have gotten ugly at some point, I just know it. The rest of the trip looks absolutely lovely though and that sunset, WOW!

I went into it knowing it was going to be bad and Wilbur really was so nice. It was hard to get angry. I was more fried than anything. I can tell you one thing - if you overload my brain with too much useless info I am never going to buy anything. Nada. Nothing!

Originally Posted by HockeyMomR

Happy Mother's Day! Four more weeks - that is fantastic. I am so jealous, can't believe it will be 2 years in July since we have been to the World. Longest time ever between visits. We are hoping for October, but will look forward to reading your June report when you return.

Thanks!

Yeah - two years IS a long time. I hope that October works out for you. After my October visit I am going to wait a year before returning. I usually go every 5 - 8 months, but I'm going to take a break for a bit longer. There are some other things I want to do.

Originally Posted by HockeyMomR

Also, love your W&M pictures. No engineering there so neither son looked or is planning to, but I have heard wonderful things about the school.

I noticed that. I think they probably have one of those 3/2 programs which I really wonder about. One article I read said that most kids never do the engineering part. They just finish the original major.

Nick is going to look at University of Md and is now starting to express an interest in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. On a whim I sent his SAT scores there so now he is getting info from them. We are going to one of those open houses this summer.

[HockeyMomR]

Originally Posted by MEK

I noticed that. I think they probably have one of those 3/2 programs which I really wonder about. One article I read said that most kids never do the engineering part. They just finish the original major.

Nick is going to look at University of Md and is now starting to express an interest in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. On a whim I sent his SAT scores there so now he is getting info from them. We are going to one of those open houses this summer.

LOL - we visited University of Delaware last month as Connor is interested. Connor will also be looking at U of MD. Older DS received a nice scholarship to U of MD, they have an excellent engineering program. However, he decided Lehigh as a smaller private university was a better fit.

Maybe we can do a residency exchange if Nick decides on Maryland and Connor decides on Delaware!

Rebecca

[MEK]

Originally Posted by HockeyMomR

LOL - we visited University of Delaware last month as Connor is interested. Connor will also be looking at U of MD. Older DS received a nice scholarship to U of MD, they have an excellent engineering program. However, he decided Lehigh as a smaller private university was a better fit.

U of MD is huge, so that's definitely a consideration. My personal opinion is UD does absolutely nothing to recruit in state students. I guess they don't have to and I find that annoying because they just know they are going to have more than enough Delaware applicants. My friend's daughter is going there. Excellent student and on the pit crew of a robotics team. They didn't offer her any money. I was shocked. I suspect they favor out of state students in the admission process.

I sent Nick's SATs to U o fM and UD and so far only Maryland has sent him emails.

Originally Posted by HockeyMomR

Maybe we can do a residency exchange if Nick decides on Maryland and Connor decides on Delaware!

Rebecca

Seriously - wouldn't that be great! Wouldn't it be funny if they end up picking the same school. You never know.

[MEK]

Final Thoughts

Well Everyone - I want to thank you all for sticking with me through three trip reports in one. It’s been fun. I can’t believe it is the middle of May and I am finally bringing this to a close.

So, my final thoughts... Her goes........

Resort:

This was my first stay at OKW and, overall, I really liked this resort. For this trip it was actually the perfect choice because the larger studio made it so we didn’t feel like we were sleeping on top of Nick. I felt we were comfortably far apart and that was definitely a plus. I look forward to a time when Denny and I can go back alone and splurge on a 1 BR. Denny isn’t a big splurge person, but I think I can talk him into a one BR here because the points are the lowest.

I really enjoyed the landscaping here. I loved being so close to the hospitality house and I REALLY LOVED the laid back feel to this resort. That was the thing that really drew me in. People there were truly on vacation. They were there to relax, not obsess over the best room location or the best view or the other small details that people spend too much time worrying about. They were there to enjoy. Pure and Simple!

I also noted that this resort had more disabled people working as cast members than I have seen at other resorts. I found the young CM with Down’s syndrome, who was working at the gift shop, to be an absolute delight. It makes me wonder how she would fair in the much less laid back world of the Grand Floridian.

The Gurgling Suitcase was a nice throw back to a quieter, gentler time when a small hole-in-the- wall bar was a place that made everyone happy. The pool area was fabulous and the hot tub was huge. Definitely one of the nicer pool complexes I have enjoyed!

Dining:

I often hear people say they think the quality of Disney Dining has decreased. I sort of felt that way. Normally I am pretty wowed and pleased with the food I eat at Disney, but this time a lot of it just didn’t knock my socks off. I think I was expecting too much, which happens when you have eaten at so many of the Disney restaurants.

My favorite food items were the fried green beans at Yak & Yeti, Denny’s fish at LLT, and the California Roll and Flatbread at the Cali Grill. Yak and Yeti was a new restaurant for us. I think I picked a bad time to dine there since we weren’t doing a dining plan and they don’t take TIW. I got some type of AP or DVC discount, but is was only worth about $7 of a 90 plus dollar bill. I will go back there for drinks and more greenbeans! Heaven on a plate.

My TIW paid for itself and I think between the four meals where it was used (LTT, La Hacieda, Cali Grill, and Artist Point) I probably even saved some dinero. I’ll be honest with you – I didn’t track it all that well. The good thing is I get to use it again in June and October. I am going to make more of an effort to try bars that take it and I want to pay attention to the savings a bit better.


Drinks (as in Alcohol):

My favorite drink was the Turtle Crawl with the Avocado rita and the Lost on Safari coming in at a close second. I strongly recommend a turtle crawl, should you get the chance to visit OKW. In fact, I wouldn’t mind taking a run over to OKW for another one this summer. BTW – there is plenty of parking near the Hospitality House.


Crowds:

The crowds seem to have gotten heavier as the days passed, which would make sense since we were leaving in almost peak Christmas season. However, the crowds never bothered me, probably because the weather was so great.


Weather:

Although it was cloudy about 50% of the time, I would still consider it near perfect weather. There was only one morning where I was a little cool. I love December weather. It made it possible for me to stay outside much longer than I normally would or could in the heat. I am happy we missed the rain deluges of the previous weekend. Sorry Jen (Nermel).


Christmas Season:

This is the third time I have visited Disney and have seen the Christmas decorations. To me, they were better than ever. I enjoyed all the lovely details and I can’t wait to visit during Christmas season again. The only down side was I do not like traveling this late in December. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It was perfect while we were there, but reentry was hard. REALLY hard. This is a hard time of year to leave the Disney bubble. I felt like I just mopped around for the next several days. I was so sad to be home and away from the festivities. I really didn’t cheer up until Christmas eve and that’s because I was involved in the Christmas festivities at our church. I remember doing the music for the Christmas eve services, with all these wonderful young and not so young musicians helping me, and I was so in the spirit that the funk finally lifted.

This was my second later season pre Christmas trip. I told myself the first time that I would never do it again, but that was because I was woefully behind in getting decorated for Christmas and had to do it all when I got home. This time I had decorated super early, so I didn’t have that excuse. It didn’t matter, I still felt rushed and out of sorts being so close to Christmas. I think I either need to go in early January or late November. Too close to Christmas throws me for a loop.


Negative Experiences:

Thankfully there were very few. The first that comes to mind was the unfortunate incident in the phone booth in England. I really don’t care for random strangers accusing me of being drunk in the middle of the day. (not that this has NEVER happened, but you know) Not very magical.

The second was coming home to a mess in my house. That just added to my pre Christmas funk.

The third is something I didn’t even mention. For those of you that have DSLRs you know how your lens cap fits on that small rim around the lens. I guess many cameras are like this now, not just DSLRs. Anyway – I must have put my camera in my bag with the cap of the distance lens not on properly. Then something must have lain on top of the lens because that little ridge broke. I got super glue and tried to glue to back on, but there was still a piece missing. The long and short of it is, my lens cap will never be secure again and its going to be such a pain to have that thing falling off all over Disney world this summer. I am going to have to keep a hand on it when its not in the bag. Bummer, yet I have only myself to blame for not being careful enough.

So that's its. My final thoughts, but before I close this update I do have some more Williamsburg pictures to show you.

Wait,.......Are you getting tired of Williamsburg Yet?????? Good, I didn't think so.

I took the rest of these on my girls trip. I went back with 3 of my GF's the weekend of April 21st and we stayed at the Powhatan for two nights. We had a blast.

SEE......

We start here at the New Kent Winery













Some of the recycled beams





Pre dinner drinks



Post dinner treats







This brings new meaning to the song "Red Solo Cup"



This reminded me of stingbean and wingnut



Williamsburg visitor center the next morning to pick up tickets



Getting off the bus in the Colonial District



My Citizen's passport



Entrance to the Governor's Palace







Our guide who stayed in character from beginning to end



An early map of the first colonies



On the wall in the main entrance



One of the bedrooms



How they heated the main room where they entertained guests



Continued in Next Post.........

[MEK]

pianoforte



The main room



The food room (Doris - help me out here - this room has a name - )



The back of the palace



The gardens



Hey - those are MY initials









Behind the gardens was this cool maze





We set off to explore the rest of the colonial district. We said hello to these ladies







The shoemaker



Making an actual colonial shoe



For sale





Deciding on the King Arms Tavern for lunch





The menu





My drink - chardonay and something. I forget.



Continued In Next Post.......

[MEK]

Continued......

The upstairs of the restaurant.





The pennywhistle player





The Capitol Building



Our guide



Inside







Next stop - the Apothecary





The Silversmith shop











Because one of my GFs was in a boot because of foot surgery we decided we had probably enough walking for the day, so we went back to the resort and hit the........





For dinner we decided to go back to Merchant Square and order sandwiches from the Cheese shop. They also had wine to go. Perfect!





The next morning we woke to rain - Lots of it!!!! At my suggestion we toured the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum.

This was also a little area designated to a old mental hospital.



This is a restraining chair, not an electric chair



In the folk art museum







Continued in Next Post.......

[MEK]

Continued......





















Please note: All of these pictures were taken with my phone. I forgot my camera. LOL!

One more update after this - Future Trips!

[IheartDDuck]

Those red solo "cups" are so cool. Everyone needs one of those I think. Then, you can say you drink out of a red solo cup, but you're still classy.

I'm glad you enjoyed OKW overall. I agree, the one thing I love about it is the fact that the studios are so roomy. And I'm cheap too! We very rarely splurge on anything bigger than a studio.

Can't wait to hear about the upcoming trips! I can't believe you're leaving so soon already.

[MEK]

Originally Posted by IheartDDuck

Those red solo "cups" are so cool. Everyone needs one of those I think. Then, you can say you drink out of a red solo cup, but you're still classy.

I know - for the rest of the weekend I kept walking around saying......"Red Solo Cuuuuuuup". Believe me, I was tempted to get one.

Originally Posted by IheartDDuck

I'm glad you enjoyed OKW overall. I agree, the one thing I love about it is the fact that the studios are so roomy. And I'm cheap too! We very rarely splurge on anything bigger than a studio.

I'm sure I will stay there again in the future. I especially loved the Christmas theming! Great place!

Originally Posted by IheartDDuck

Can't wait to hear about the upcoming trips! I can't believe you're leaving so soon already.

I've got a few up my sleeve. Nothing quite as exciting as Europe, but fun none the less!