eyeheartgoofy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Messages
- 2,041
Just got back from our first stay at BWV. To give you a little background, we have stayed at VWL three times (studio, 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom) and OKW once (1 bedroom). We are a family of 4 (Myself, DH, DD7, DD5).
We own at VWL, but this trip was made with transferred OKW points ... so we were working with a 7 month window for Spring Break. We picked BWV b/c there was availability and we liked the idea of walking to Epcot and DHS. We picked a studio to conserve points. We booked a "preferred view" b/c that was all that was available, but made no requests.
Anyway, on to the summary:
We arrived around 4:00pm via Magical Express. We were second in line at the check in (the other BWV family on board the ME bus was quicker
) and were checked in fairly quickly. We had a stroller waiting for us from Orlando Stroller Rental ... so, we waited for Bell services to hand us that and we were off to find our room.
Room 2066 was our assigned room. As it turns out, it was just around the corner from the lobby. Literally, make a right at the elevators and it is the first door on the left. So, none of those long BWV hallways for us. To my delight, the room was a dedicated studio with one of those daybeds (Bishop's Bench???). The location had some positives and negatives.
The biggest positives were the daybed and the convenient location. The daybed worked perfectly for my average sized 5 year old, but my taller than average 7 year old would have been cramped (the patterned cover on the bench is actually a slipcover that hides a made up bed). The location was super convenient for everything.
The biggest negative was also the location - the noise from the Luna Park pool was skull splitting during our daytime rest periods. The afternoon games and music were so loud - they played Bingo, did the chicken dance, etc. with a DJ - it was like one big and loud wedding reception every afternoon ... and we could hear it and the thumping bass through the balcony door very easily. The pool noise during the night wasn't so bad, just some normal kids yelling, etc. It was that LOUD music and the DJ during the day that was not pleasant. Also, we got quite a bit of noise at night from the elevator area - people are very noisy when they congregate around the elevators and the sound carried very easily to our room. Also, our view was pretty limited from the room - there was a big tree right outside the balcony, so we had a partial view of Leaping Libations and the pool, but not much else.
The room quality was okay. I did notice a lot of the peeling/chipped paint on the furniture. The bathroom mirror had definately seen better days and was missing some of the reflective surface near the bottom. It reminded me a lot of our VWL rooms of the past - tired and sort of worn. Nothing glaring that yelled at me.
Transportation from BWV was okay. I was worried b/c I'd read horror stories about MK transportation, but I worried for no real reason (yes, VWL is much more convenient to MK ... but BWV wasn't that bad). It did take a while to get to the MK - we made it in time for our 7:00am rope drops, but found that we had to be at the bus stop a solid hour in advance. Transportation home from MK was fine. We walked to DHS for rope drop and took a boat for a dinner at 50's Primetime ... walking was much faster and actually made for a pretty nice stroll in the morning. The walk to Epcot's entrance was easy ... but I would recommend driving yourself or taking a taxi to the front entrance if you want to be among the first to get to Soarin' - they did not open the IG entrance until 9:00am, so we were really behind the game by the time we made it through the turnstiles and to Soarin' (this was peak season ... Soarin' was out of Fastpasses for the day by 11:45am). We had dinner at Le Cellier after our afternoon break and returning to Epcot through IG was very nice for that though. We didn't go to AK, so I don't know about that transportation.
I'm glad we stayed in the Epcot area, but I don't think we will be back. It was fun and we tried to make this a very Epcot and DHS-centric trip b/c of the location ... but I think we are more of the OKW or VWL types. I like to feel removed from the action when at the resort ... BWV is definately in the thick of the action!
Oh, and it wasn't so bad going from a one bedroom to a studio. I prefer the space of a one bedroom and I missed the washer and dryer a bit (didn't miss the kitchen a bit!) ... but the studio worked fine for our family and I would book one again if we were short on points.
We own at VWL, but this trip was made with transferred OKW points ... so we were working with a 7 month window for Spring Break. We picked BWV b/c there was availability and we liked the idea of walking to Epcot and DHS. We picked a studio to conserve points. We booked a "preferred view" b/c that was all that was available, but made no requests.
Anyway, on to the summary:
We arrived around 4:00pm via Magical Express. We were second in line at the check in (the other BWV family on board the ME bus was quicker
) and were checked in fairly quickly. We had a stroller waiting for us from Orlando Stroller Rental ... so, we waited for Bell services to hand us that and we were off to find our room.Room 2066 was our assigned room. As it turns out, it was just around the corner from the lobby. Literally, make a right at the elevators and it is the first door on the left. So, none of those long BWV hallways for us. To my delight, the room was a dedicated studio with one of those daybeds (Bishop's Bench???). The location had some positives and negatives.
The biggest positives were the daybed and the convenient location. The daybed worked perfectly for my average sized 5 year old, but my taller than average 7 year old would have been cramped (the patterned cover on the bench is actually a slipcover that hides a made up bed). The location was super convenient for everything.
The biggest negative was also the location - the noise from the Luna Park pool was skull splitting during our daytime rest periods. The afternoon games and music were so loud - they played Bingo, did the chicken dance, etc. with a DJ - it was like one big and loud wedding reception every afternoon ... and we could hear it and the thumping bass through the balcony door very easily. The pool noise during the night wasn't so bad, just some normal kids yelling, etc. It was that LOUD music and the DJ during the day that was not pleasant. Also, we got quite a bit of noise at night from the elevator area - people are very noisy when they congregate around the elevators and the sound carried very easily to our room. Also, our view was pretty limited from the room - there was a big tree right outside the balcony, so we had a partial view of Leaping Libations and the pool, but not much else.
The room quality was okay. I did notice a lot of the peeling/chipped paint on the furniture. The bathroom mirror had definately seen better days and was missing some of the reflective surface near the bottom. It reminded me a lot of our VWL rooms of the past - tired and sort of worn. Nothing glaring that yelled at me.
Transportation from BWV was okay. I was worried b/c I'd read horror stories about MK transportation, but I worried for no real reason (yes, VWL is much more convenient to MK ... but BWV wasn't that bad). It did take a while to get to the MK - we made it in time for our 7:00am rope drops, but found that we had to be at the bus stop a solid hour in advance. Transportation home from MK was fine. We walked to DHS for rope drop and took a boat for a dinner at 50's Primetime ... walking was much faster and actually made for a pretty nice stroll in the morning. The walk to Epcot's entrance was easy ... but I would recommend driving yourself or taking a taxi to the front entrance if you want to be among the first to get to Soarin' - they did not open the IG entrance until 9:00am, so we were really behind the game by the time we made it through the turnstiles and to Soarin' (this was peak season ... Soarin' was out of Fastpasses for the day by 11:45am). We had dinner at Le Cellier after our afternoon break and returning to Epcot through IG was very nice for that though. We didn't go to AK, so I don't know about that transportation.
I'm glad we stayed in the Epcot area, but I don't think we will be back. It was fun and we tried to make this a very Epcot and DHS-centric trip b/c of the location ... but I think we are more of the OKW or VWL types. I like to feel removed from the action when at the resort ... BWV is definately in the thick of the action!
Oh, and it wasn't so bad going from a one bedroom to a studio. I prefer the space of a one bedroom and I missed the washer and dryer a bit (didn't miss the kitchen a bit!) ... but the studio worked fine for our family and I would book one again if we were short on points.
