We got back late Friday after a nice vacation. We were at BCV's from 11/21 - 11/25 and then Vero from 11/25 - 11/29. This was our first trip to BCV and our second at Vero. We stayed in a two bedroom at both resorts, with 7 people.
I am still undecided about BCV's, but really don't think we will stay there again. I requested an Epcot view and didn't get it. I did get my second request, a pool view. We were in room 368 directly overlooking the Villa's pool and the canal. We arrived at the resort at noon, and our room was not ready until 4, and believe me, we checked several times. I know the "official" check in time is 4, but after getting up at 4 am, getting everyone ready and to the airport, everyone was beat, and needed a room to lay down in. Seven people sleeping in the lobby wouldn't have looked good, lol. I loved the greeter Art in the lobby, he was a hoot! "Good morning, m'lady, m'lady, sir, m'lady, m'lady, sir AND m'lady" everytime.
We liked the room, but it was missing many items. There were only 6 towels in the room, and I had to call to request more. This is one of my pet peeves in any hotel room. If the room sleeps 4 for example, have four towels, if the room sleeps 8, then have 8 towels. Right? We went to open a bottle of beer, no bottle/can opener. We went to open a bottle of wine later, no corkscrew. There was not a hairdryer in the second bedroom. There were several others items missing, but I can't recall.
On a funny side note, we went to cook something and literally could not find the pots and pans. I had everyone look, I mean it was getting embarrassing "hello houseekeeping, this is rom 368 AGAIN, and we don't have a ....". But I sheepishly called, and said laughingly asked if we were supposed to have pots and pans? The woman broke out in a huge laugh, and said she gets this same call all of the time, that there is a drawer under the stove, and they are all there. Lo and behold, we check and of course they are. How embarrassing - how could 7 people have missed that drawer? I mean the kitchen is not that big
Our biggest problem, was the non-flushing toilet in the second bedroom. Our first call to maintenance, they came up and plunged it (I KNEW it needed more than that, lol). The second time, they rotted out the line. The third call, they replaced the whole bottom half of the toilet. The maint. person told my mother, who was the only person in the room, that this seems to be a recurrent problem with the new toilets from the manufacturer. When he finished he called housekeeping up to clean up his mess. The housekeeper when finished came out and made it a point to tell my mother that she had cleaned the WHOLE bathroom, not just the floor as requested by maint. My mother said it was very obvious she wanted a tip, but as she only had a $20, she just said Thank You.
Both pull out beds were very comfortable (per the kids). I guess the main thing that I didn't like about this resort was how far a walk it was to everything. It appears to me to be a big afterthought as an add on to the Beach Club. It is definately not convenient to get a refillable mug, as it is a long walk to get it refilled, for example. The hallways are long. I don't know, after a long day at the parks, it was just like "uck" now we have a long walk back to the room, even when you get as far as the elevators. Maybe I am just used to other non-DVC resorts, like the Poly, where it just seems like everything is laid out better. We walked around trying to find short cuts, and really could'nt find any time savers. To get to SAB, you had to walk down the long hallway to the elevators, down the walkway outside, then thru the Beach club, thru the lobby, down the sidewalk to the boardwalk, do a U turn, then you could take the walkway to the pool. Weird.
The alligators were a riot. Our patio overlooked the canal, and it was a hoot to watch people go by, when there was a person or two looking at the alligators. The walkers-by would want to see what they were looking at and get all flustered when they would see an alligator, shouting to their companions. The Villa pool never had more than 3 people in it at any time. I could take or leave SAB, Blizzard Beach is more our style.
My son ended up in the emergency room at Celebration hospital the last day after being rushed by ambulance from AK. Everything turned out fine, thank goodness, but boy could I tell you stories. A full documentary on people who go to WDW and end up the hospital would be very interesting. I went with him to the hospital and Disney shuttled the rest of our party first to the hosptial and then back to the BCV's for our car. Top Notch!
We got to Vero that night, later than expected due to the hospital. The ocean view we requested was not fulfilled. I know, I know, this is very limited, but I was told that the last 2 bedroom ocean view was given out an hour earlier - ouch, lol. We had the BEST ocean view room at Vero the year before, but it was a one bedroom. With the resort layout, we are thinking that maybe this will have to be the way to go from now on. We will get a nice one bedroom ocean view, and if we need more room, then we will get either two one bedrooms, or a studio also. It was hard going from a GREAT view to a parking lot/foliage view.
The room was nice, but noticed it needed some maint. For example, the master bath had some serious water damage/rust stains underneath the sink ledge, but you couldn't see this unless you were going to the bathroom, so a logical place for housekeeping to miss. One of the railings on one of the balconies had major wood rot. Both pull outs needed to be replaced. The one in the living area was missing springs and screws. Since it was late when we checked in, we just had my son sleep sideways on the bed at the top, so he wouldn't fall thru. The one in the second bedroom was very lumpy and you could feel the frame thru the mattress. My girls dealt with that but we did have the one in the living area fixed the next morning. The shower in the main bath has NO pressure with hot water. If you wanted to take a shower with cold water, it was great, however..... I just can't figure out why someone would not have called maintenance before this. This did not just happen overnight, so many people have stayed in this room with no water pressure. Don't get me wrong, a little pressure is fine, but when I can't rinse shampoo out of my daughters baby fine hair, there is a problem. It took five minutes to fix. I just hope that instead of having such a little problem fixed, people didn't go home from vacation with a bad feeling, because there was no water pressure.
It must have been our bad karma week, as Red Tide was all along the beaches. This is some sort of bacterial thing in the water, that kills the fishes and becomes airborne. It irritates people breathing passages and eyes, so pretty much everyone at the resort was coughing, or had itchy noses and eyes the first several days of our trip. It is a strange phenomena when hundreds of people are sitting around a pool, and everyone, and I mean everyone is coughing. The resort did put out an alert to everyone, notifying them what was happening. It did get better at the week went on. By Thursday, it was pretty much gone.
We had a wonderful Turkey dinner, and enjoyed them with friends who were staying in an Inn room (which they loved and HAD an ocean view, lol) ordered from Publix.
We did laundry while cooking, and wouldn't you just know it, the washer leaked, and the floor flooded, yeppers, the entire tub of water leaked out on the floor. Maintenance came within minutes and replaced the whole unit. They told us, that since the units are used so much, the tub itself wears a hole in itself! Of course, though, it happened to us, never the people staying in the room after us or before. ROFL
In summation, we had a great trip, although it sounds like I am complaining, I am not. There are bugs to be worked out at the BCV's and normal day to day maint issues to be found at any resort. The weather was great. although a bit cold the first day or so, and then again the day we left, but it still beats an inch of snow on the ground, like in Chicago any time
The people were great. The same wonderful people we met last year working at Vero were still there. Linda at the pool is incredible!
I think we are going to bank our points this year, maybe borrow next year, and possibly do a cruise. We ran into many people this trip who just kept raving out it, so we'll see. But I do think we will take some time away from Disney for a year or so, and do a Mexico trip or something. I think the next time we go to Disney, we will stay at the Boardwalk or OKW, try something different.
Best wishes,
Kelly
P.S. To the couple from Long Island, good luck with your greyhound, I can't wait to hear about him!
I am still undecided about BCV's, but really don't think we will stay there again. I requested an Epcot view and didn't get it. I did get my second request, a pool view. We were in room 368 directly overlooking the Villa's pool and the canal. We arrived at the resort at noon, and our room was not ready until 4, and believe me, we checked several times. I know the "official" check in time is 4, but after getting up at 4 am, getting everyone ready and to the airport, everyone was beat, and needed a room to lay down in. Seven people sleeping in the lobby wouldn't have looked good, lol. I loved the greeter Art in the lobby, he was a hoot! "Good morning, m'lady, m'lady, sir, m'lady, m'lady, sir AND m'lady" everytime.
We liked the room, but it was missing many items. There were only 6 towels in the room, and I had to call to request more. This is one of my pet peeves in any hotel room. If the room sleeps 4 for example, have four towels, if the room sleeps 8, then have 8 towels. Right? We went to open a bottle of beer, no bottle/can opener. We went to open a bottle of wine later, no corkscrew. There was not a hairdryer in the second bedroom. There were several others items missing, but I can't recall.
On a funny side note, we went to cook something and literally could not find the pots and pans. I had everyone look, I mean it was getting embarrassing "hello houseekeeping, this is rom 368 AGAIN, and we don't have a ....". But I sheepishly called, and said laughingly asked if we were supposed to have pots and pans? The woman broke out in a huge laugh, and said she gets this same call all of the time, that there is a drawer under the stove, and they are all there. Lo and behold, we check and of course they are. How embarrassing - how could 7 people have missed that drawer? I mean the kitchen is not that big
Our biggest problem, was the non-flushing toilet in the second bedroom. Our first call to maintenance, they came up and plunged it (I KNEW it needed more than that, lol). The second time, they rotted out the line. The third call, they replaced the whole bottom half of the toilet. The maint. person told my mother, who was the only person in the room, that this seems to be a recurrent problem with the new toilets from the manufacturer. When he finished he called housekeeping up to clean up his mess. The housekeeper when finished came out and made it a point to tell my mother that she had cleaned the WHOLE bathroom, not just the floor as requested by maint. My mother said it was very obvious she wanted a tip, but as she only had a $20, she just said Thank You.
Both pull out beds were very comfortable (per the kids). I guess the main thing that I didn't like about this resort was how far a walk it was to everything. It appears to me to be a big afterthought as an add on to the Beach Club. It is definately not convenient to get a refillable mug, as it is a long walk to get it refilled, for example. The hallways are long. I don't know, after a long day at the parks, it was just like "uck" now we have a long walk back to the room, even when you get as far as the elevators. Maybe I am just used to other non-DVC resorts, like the Poly, where it just seems like everything is laid out better. We walked around trying to find short cuts, and really could'nt find any time savers. To get to SAB, you had to walk down the long hallway to the elevators, down the walkway outside, then thru the Beach club, thru the lobby, down the sidewalk to the boardwalk, do a U turn, then you could take the walkway to the pool. Weird.
The alligators were a riot. Our patio overlooked the canal, and it was a hoot to watch people go by, when there was a person or two looking at the alligators. The walkers-by would want to see what they were looking at and get all flustered when they would see an alligator, shouting to their companions. The Villa pool never had more than 3 people in it at any time. I could take or leave SAB, Blizzard Beach is more our style.
My son ended up in the emergency room at Celebration hospital the last day after being rushed by ambulance from AK. Everything turned out fine, thank goodness, but boy could I tell you stories. A full documentary on people who go to WDW and end up the hospital would be very interesting. I went with him to the hospital and Disney shuttled the rest of our party first to the hosptial and then back to the BCV's for our car. Top Notch!
We got to Vero that night, later than expected due to the hospital. The ocean view we requested was not fulfilled. I know, I know, this is very limited, but I was told that the last 2 bedroom ocean view was given out an hour earlier - ouch, lol. We had the BEST ocean view room at Vero the year before, but it was a one bedroom. With the resort layout, we are thinking that maybe this will have to be the way to go from now on. We will get a nice one bedroom ocean view, and if we need more room, then we will get either two one bedrooms, or a studio also. It was hard going from a GREAT view to a parking lot/foliage view.
The room was nice, but noticed it needed some maint. For example, the master bath had some serious water damage/rust stains underneath the sink ledge, but you couldn't see this unless you were going to the bathroom, so a logical place for housekeeping to miss. One of the railings on one of the balconies had major wood rot. Both pull outs needed to be replaced. The one in the living area was missing springs and screws. Since it was late when we checked in, we just had my son sleep sideways on the bed at the top, so he wouldn't fall thru. The one in the second bedroom was very lumpy and you could feel the frame thru the mattress. My girls dealt with that but we did have the one in the living area fixed the next morning. The shower in the main bath has NO pressure with hot water. If you wanted to take a shower with cold water, it was great, however..... I just can't figure out why someone would not have called maintenance before this. This did not just happen overnight, so many people have stayed in this room with no water pressure. Don't get me wrong, a little pressure is fine, but when I can't rinse shampoo out of my daughters baby fine hair, there is a problem. It took five minutes to fix. I just hope that instead of having such a little problem fixed, people didn't go home from vacation with a bad feeling, because there was no water pressure.
It must have been our bad karma week, as Red Tide was all along the beaches. This is some sort of bacterial thing in the water, that kills the fishes and becomes airborne. It irritates people breathing passages and eyes, so pretty much everyone at the resort was coughing, or had itchy noses and eyes the first several days of our trip. It is a strange phenomena when hundreds of people are sitting around a pool, and everyone, and I mean everyone is coughing. The resort did put out an alert to everyone, notifying them what was happening. It did get better at the week went on. By Thursday, it was pretty much gone.
We had a wonderful Turkey dinner, and enjoyed them with friends who were staying in an Inn room (which they loved and HAD an ocean view, lol) ordered from Publix.
We did laundry while cooking, and wouldn't you just know it, the washer leaked, and the floor flooded, yeppers, the entire tub of water leaked out on the floor. Maintenance came within minutes and replaced the whole unit. They told us, that since the units are used so much, the tub itself wears a hole in itself! Of course, though, it happened to us, never the people staying in the room after us or before. ROFL
In summation, we had a great trip, although it sounds like I am complaining, I am not. There are bugs to be worked out at the BCV's and normal day to day maint issues to be found at any resort. The weather was great. although a bit cold the first day or so, and then again the day we left, but it still beats an inch of snow on the ground, like in Chicago any time
The people were great. The same wonderful people we met last year working at Vero were still there. Linda at the pool is incredible!I think we are going to bank our points this year, maybe borrow next year, and possibly do a cruise. We ran into many people this trip who just kept raving out it, so we'll see. But I do think we will take some time away from Disney for a year or so, and do a Mexico trip or something. I think the next time we go to Disney, we will stay at the Boardwalk or OKW, try something different.
Best wishes,
Kelly
P.S. To the couple from Long Island, good luck with your greyhound, I can't wait to hear about him!
