Just back from a poor trip

[Lesley]

Oh, its was Lisa F's trip report I was referring to I think.....was that you Lisa F? With the awesome trip and glowing reports from VWL?

And I guess now's not the time to bring up my dh's two word description of OKW...

 

[Muushka]

Dittos to what JonHM said, Lisa F. Great post. Well said.

Rich, are you laughing at us?????

 

[Richyams]

Actually, I am. I think that it is a riot that so many are so worked up about BWV bashing.

Compared to OKW, the units are tiny. Compared to the 12 second walk from your car out front, the TREK to your room at BWV is awful.

WHere is the bashing?

Methinks some doth protest too much......

 

[Muushka]

I choose not to respond!

 

[stephcm]

I have to say that we checked into the Dolphin on Wednesday night, the 24th, and were at the Boardwalk by 9:00. It was deserted!!!!!
Thursday we went over to MGM at about 10:30, and had no more than a 10 minute wait on ANYTHING including ToT, and RnRCoaster! Several times we commented on the lack of people.
In 3 hours time we did, RnR, ToT, Great Movie Ride, Muppets, Star Tours, Indy, shopping.
The Dolphin seemed empty, as well. We would look out our window every morning and see practically no one at the boat launches or walking the Boardwalk.
On Saturday, Epcot was crowded, but in general, I have never seen WDW as empty as it was this trip.

 

[raidermatt]

Hey Rich- I usually don't get involved in these little bash/not bashing fests.

I mean, we all know that compared to the action at BW, OKW is BORING.

I'm with you. How a statement like that could be interpreted as bashing, I'll never know....

 

[Richyams]

Except that "boring" is a judgement or opinion.

The size of the units and the distance traversed to get to them are indisputable facts.

 

[raidermatt]

Ahhhh, yes. The smaller size and greater distance are indisputable.

But the words tiny and trek are subjective. Just because a room is smaller, it is not necessarily tiny. Just because a walk is longer, even significantly, it is not a trek. (trek could possibly be an objective term, but certainly you used it subjectively).

Its also indisputable that BW has a more "active" atmosphere. To be truly objective, we could count stores, restaurants (and square footage and patronage), pool size, numbers of "bright lights", etc, etc. Those would lead to indisputable differences in numbers of options for activities, and the atomosphere surrounding them. But as I'm sure you agree, even if OKW came up short in these counts, whether its boring or not is up to the individual.

 

[Lisa F]

Sorry, Rich, I just had to dispute some of your "indisputable facts."

When the pull out is pulled out, there is ZERO room left.

Next time I go I will take out my tape measure and measure the actual square footage, but somehow I suspect that no matter what your perception is, there is actually a non-zero amount of space left in the room when the pull out is pulled out. I think this statement would be more accurately labeled "hyperbole" than "indisputable fact."

The hallway and its marathon length

26 MILES?!? Wow, I am in much better shape than I thought! Able to walk 26 miles back and forth several times a day without getting out of breath, breaking a sweat or tiring. Well, if I have two measurements to take with my tape measure it might make it worth taking! Again, I am disputing your "indisputable fact" and putting it in the catagory of hyperbole.

Unless, of course, you are just trying to say that it's too long for you. In that case, you could just say that it's too long for you. To say that it's too long for everyone is a judgement or opinion that not everyone shares with you. Just like for some people, OKW is boring and for others OKW is relaxing.

Lisa

 

[Blake]

I feel your pain!!! I don't see how any compassionate person would expect you to take that looooooong walk to and from your room when you have a full day of walking planned. The injustice!!!

So I'm going to let you in on a big secret that only us BWV owners know about. It's listed in the special BWV addendum to the ownership contract.

Just ask at the desk for a "Puler's Chair":

Two CM's will gladly carry you to and from your room. And if the end of the hall is just a blur, a third CM will come along to give you a complimentary eye exam.

Now you know why our dues are a bit higher.

 

[AnnK]

Raidermatt and Lisa you both make some excellent points.


Blake I am still laughing about "puler's car" Oh the wondeful options of DVC. ( Yes I was wondering why we were paying those higher dues) too funny!

 

[Blicker]

Hey guys cut Rich a break about his whining about the long walks at BWV. Remember he does have a heart condition where he had to be hospitalized.

 

[PKS44]

For my fellow BWV owners (and lovers of same):

Shhhh!
As I alluded to in my earlier post. If someone likes OKW better than BWV that makes more of our home available to those of us that want it. And we (BWV lovers) all know that easy availability is really the only "bad" thing about our home. Let the OKW people snipe all they want. Let them even encourage others to stay anywhere but BWV. That will be fine with me. I was not too thrilled that I could only get 2 of my days at my home on short notice. We had to spend the rest of the time at OKW, which does have all that wonderful availability.

Paul

 

[BillM]

Seems like we've been down this road before. Why don't we hang it up.

 

[DeeP]

Paul,
I agree 100% with your post! It always amazes me that the inferior BWV is 99% of the time so hard to get reservations at short notice yet the superior OKW is always available at very short notice! Hmmmmmm somebody must be filling those tiny rooms with the long treks to get to them. I must admit, as a BWV owner who goes to WDW 3-4 times a year so therefore I do not always plan my visits 11 mos ahead, it does get annoying to call member services and be told BWV is all booked or else that I can get 2 out of 9 nights at BWV and then be told "But there is plenty of availabilty at OKW". Grrrrrr, if I wanted to stay at OKW, I would have bought at OKW! I am really, really hoping with the opening of BCV it will be easier to get reservations at BWV in a shorter booking window, like OKW is. Many people must obviously like the location, the tiny rooms and the long trek to the BWVs, because they certainly book up fast!

 

[ripleysmom]

Must be those devious DVC sales reps faking everyone into thinking that they want long trudges to tiny rooms....

 

[Sammie]

It does interest me that some really believe that Disney is not experiencing a drop in crowd attendance.

Certainly you can't think one Sat and Sunday in Oct give you a true picture of the situation. Attendance has been down for months, even during the summer. Also I see no reasoning behind the belief that Disney can make more money in fewer hours and closing resorts. If the attendance and room bookings would support full hours and full resorts, Disney would provide them.

Weekends in the Fall especially Oct have always been the most crowded days of the week. Disney is doing a huge marketing campaign to attract visitors within driving distance to spend the 3 day weekend.

I have too many friends that work there in hourly and salary positions to not know how serious the situation truely is.

Also I find it interesting that everyone wants the parks to be less crowded, but they don't want Disney to cut any services due to lack of attendance. Exactly how does that work?

 

[CaptainMidnight]

On the CNN website, there's a story titled, "Some Disney World actors get pink slips" including a layoff of over 180 actors from cost reductions, including reducing the number of shows, like going from 8 Indiana Jones shows to five. Lots of people are loosing thier jobs given the economic hardship September 11th has caused. Given that, I can certainly put up with the temporary unavailability of EE or a few other cost reduction strategies.

It is ceratainly time to pull together.

 

[mkkim]

I saw that announcement on the CNN scroll last night. Can't believe they actually posted it. We leave in three days. I am a little disappointed but I am sure we'll still have fun. I feel sorry for all those in Disney that have been laid off. We know how it feels. Been in that situation for the past three months.

 

[SueM in MN]

My DH and I were at WDW in mid-July for a 5 day trip and found it to be much less busy than we expected. We walked on most of the rides with less than a 10 minute wait. The only exceptions were the "Mountains" and Test Track, but we used the singles line and walked on quickly. This was not what we expected from our past July experiences. Parts of the parks seemed almost deserted.
Now for the resort part, we had to stay at OKW (our home resort) since our choice for this trip, BW, was booked. Since it was just the 2 of us, we wanted the "apartment in the city" atmosphere more than we wanted the "big house in the country" feeling, but, alas, we had to put up with all that extra space and a view of the golf course.