First time staying at BLT (had stayed before at the Contemporary in a Garden Wing but a LONG time ago) and we're hoping to like it....read lots of mixed reviews though so were ONLY hoping for "like" mainly for convenience to the MK.
BUT -- we all absolutely LOVED it. No it does not have the over the top theming like you'd find at the Wilderness Lodge or AK Jambo but the location, overall amenities at the combined resort, fireworks viewing on the top deck, walk to MK, 3 bath rooms, sleeping for 9 with 3 in the living area and not a small pull down bed.....WOW, it was perfect. Front desk and resort staff were also top notch. I travel 3 weeks of every month for work so have lots to compare with -- it is clear that the BLT staff are trying to give you a 4-5 star resort experience. Have to put my notes together and might do a review and recap of the week -- LOTS of little surprises that the staff did for us that were over the top. They did make some mistakes on check-in day but recovered VERY well and fixed things quickly.
Then we moved to OKW on the last night since we didn't have enough points (we had a trip to Jambo for 5 nights in Dec 2017 which left us short). Night and day. Friendly staff but we were in an old room -- and it looked like it. Lots of technical problems with our room keys, were sent to a room that was "ready" only to find that our keys didn't work -- so baggage staff member (Randy who was TREMENDOUS) let us in -- to then find that neither side of our 2 bedroom lock-off had been taken care of by housekeeping yet. OKW is a beautiful property but.....NOTE: the front desk management also really bent over backwards to make things right and did a very nice thing to ease the inconvenience and rough start with our resort transition.
BLT may have spoiled us for future stays. Thankfully our DVC sales rep didn't reach out to us while we were there......he probably wouldn't have had to work too hard to sell me on another contact (or at least wait listing) at BLT.
So for all of you with BLT as your home resort -- enjoy....what a great place.
BUT -- we all absolutely LOVED it. No it does not have the over the top theming like you'd find at the Wilderness Lodge or AK Jambo but the location, overall amenities at the combined resort, fireworks viewing on the top deck, walk to MK, 3 bath rooms, sleeping for 9 with 3 in the living area and not a small pull down bed.....WOW, it was perfect. Front desk and resort staff were also top notch. I travel 3 weeks of every month for work so have lots to compare with -- it is clear that the BLT staff are trying to give you a 4-5 star resort experience. Have to put my notes together and might do a review and recap of the week -- LOTS of little surprises that the staff did for us that were over the top. They did make some mistakes on check-in day but recovered VERY well and fixed things quickly.
Then we moved to OKW on the last night since we didn't have enough points (we had a trip to Jambo for 5 nights in Dec 2017 which left us short). Night and day. Friendly staff but we were in an old room -- and it looked like it. Lots of technical problems with our room keys, were sent to a room that was "ready" only to find that our keys didn't work -- so baggage staff member (Randy who was TREMENDOUS) let us in -- to then find that neither side of our 2 bedroom lock-off had been taken care of by housekeeping yet. OKW is a beautiful property but.....NOTE: the front desk management also really bent over backwards to make things right and did a very nice thing to ease the inconvenience and rough start with our resort transition.
BLT may have spoiled us for future stays. Thankfully our DVC sales rep didn't reach out to us while we were there......he probably wouldn't have had to work too hard to sell me on another contact (or at least wait listing) at BLT.
So for all of you with BLT as your home resort -- enjoy....what a great place.
Bill
