At OKW now..

[shellybelly72]

We finally arrived on 2/14- we called ahead and told them about all our flight troubles and they checked us in over the phone. ME brought our luggage directly to our room, while we were still in boston! It was great arriving and having the room & luggage immediately available. The room was very clean,although the bathrooms were pretty grimey- I cleaned the bathroom myself,there was hair on the floor and the countertops had some sticky stuff on it. not a big deal..

Thats the good part--

now the bad part,

Olivias is disgusting- and a ripoff..lol I guess while I was in the bathroom, our waitress took our order, I told my DH what I wanted.. then she asked the kids- a 5yo & 7yo. She had an accent, and I guess the kids didnt understand her, and the rest of the grown ups were talking to each other and not paying attention. they said they wanted Pasta and the tinkerbell juice.
and that all she brought them, she didnt ask follow up questions.. They were suppposed to get an appetizer, meal and desert-- and all she brought them was pasta and a $6.49 EXTRA cup of tink juice,it was expensive because it had a light up tinkerbell.. Still no biggie, the other grown ups should have been paying attention.
If the grown up food was great, I probably wouldnt have cared. But it tasted like a lunch you would eat at the school caf. not impressed at all..
After eating a few bites of her pasta, my sister called the waitress over and told her it was really dry and tasteless, she apologized and walked away.. ??

At the end of the meal, I almost passed out! She charged me full price for all the kids, although NONE were given an appetizer or desert, I didnt realize she did not even offer my 11 year old DS desert. She said he declined it?
I asked him and he said she never asked him.. my 11 yo NEVER turns down food.. I should have called over a manager, but didn't want to make a big deal. As we were treating my FIL and my Sis & BIL and their DD(5) and did not want to draw attention to the check...

Ok, now the busses.. holy moly! The bussing situation is crazy. I guess we must have crappy luck, because every bus we were waiting for took forever to get to our stop, and once we were on the way home, ours was always the last stop as well..

once we got on a bus, it doesnt take too long to get to the parks. and the bus drivers are always pleasant..

We are so far away from the feature pool, and honesly I dont want to wait for a bus to get to it, so we wont be visiting the pool, which was one of our reasons for staying here.

one more negative, holy animals above us!! It is bad!!!
These kids upstairs have not stopped! All we hear is jumping @ 5am most of the day, then it stops, then starts up again at 7pm until 9-10pm. and with the vacation being the one where everyone has gotten sick( yes we got the stomach thing) sleeping was very important..

The rooms are very large, and comfortable...but with all the negatives we wont stay here again..

We have 3 more days and hopefully these kids upstairs and their family go home, so we can sleep. If not I may have to complain, I have never done that on vacation. I know kids get rowdy and excited. Heck we are in Disney! I have 4 kids and they were all small once, but also its another thing to not be respectful of others.

BTW- Crowd levels are also pretty bad. But its hit or miss, we walked by expedition everest and it had a 80 minute wait, then about 2 hours later, walked by and had a 20 minute wait..

 

[sajetto]

Sorry that you're having such a bad experience, but it sounds like the bulk of the problem at Olivia's was your server and YES you should have asked for a manager. You won't get results without doing so. We've always had a good meal and good service there, but if there is a problem we don't hesitate to make it known so that someone can make it right.

Your room location also has a lot to do with your bus troubles and your displeasure with the proximity to the Hospitality House. Did you make any requests on your reservation?


One last thing, we had a terrible neighbor for our last stay at OKW. It was a family in 1 bedroom next to our studio that fought constantly, but that wasn't the worst of it. They did all of the EMHs at the Parks and would get to their room at 1am and immediately start fighting. The kids couldn't get along and the parents would start a screaming match with their kids (real effective ) Anyway, this went on for 3 days in a row until I finally decided to do something about it. I went to the front desk and they told me they would note it and for me to call if it started again the following night.....Well it did and they immediately sent security to their room. That stopped the problem and we were glad to have some peace and quiet for the rest of the trip, BUT the lesson I learned is to address situations when they happen, not to wait until I become completely miserable.

 

[DisDaydreamer]

Well.... sounds like it can only get better

I would ask the desk to make the occupants aware of their intruding noises. I'm sure they deal with this all the time.

 

[spruce]

For us, a bad day at Disney is better then a good day at work.

 

[AKLFan3]

I'm sorry you're not having a very good time. I definitely would have complained about your experience at Olivia's and the noisy neighbors. I hope your vacation improves! Which building are you staying in, or which stop is your closest bus stop?

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Ok, now the busses.. holy moly! The bussing situation is crazy. I guess we must have crappy luck, because every bus we were waiting for took forever to get to our stop, and once we were on the way home, ours was always the last stop as well..

And then this

We are so far away from the feature pool, and honesly I dont want to wait for a bus to get to it, so we wont be visiting the pool, which was one of our reasons for staying here.

I'm curious, exactly what area were you staying at in OKW ? The two statements above taken together don't make sense. As an owner I have stayed at OKW many times over the years and the bus route for the resort is : Peninsular / South Point / Turtle Pond / Millers Rd / Hospitality House, in that order. It's hard to be staying at the last stop - HH - and be far away from the main pool that is located there.

I hope your next vacation will be illness-free. That plus your less than considerate neighbors will put a damper on anyone's trip.

 

[bluenosemickey]

ScottOKW2K:

Just wondering about the busses, if you don't mind, does it pass back to the peninsular stop before going on to millers rd? I've beent trying to get a mental picture of the route and came across your post. On the resort map, there doesn't appear to have a road to get to millers rd from the turtle pond stop without going past the peninsular stop again.

Thanks, with 3 small kids, I find if I understand the bus system at each resort, I am much better off.

 

[shellybelly72]

we are 2nd to the last-- not at the HH.. I always forget that stop...

The pool is only a 15-17 minute walk, but after a long day, nobody here wants to walk.. the bus stop is not too far from our actual room, but once again nobody wants to wait for another bus, because we are not having any luck in that department.. I guess its pure laziness and not actually a flaw of OKW.

Today we went and played mini golf- We had a great time! We must have just missed the bus back to OKW from epcot(you can't go to winter summerland directly from the resort, because blizzard beach is closed) so we had to wait 20 minutes for the bus and then once we hit OKW another 10 minutes to get to our stop..
I am sure our bad time is based on not having all the information before we stayed here. We are not used to staying at a DVC..

 

[shellybelly72]

ScottOKW2K:

Just wondering about the busses, if you don't mind, does it pass back to the peninsular stop before going on to millers rd? I've beent trying to get a mental picture of the route and came across your post. On the resort map, there doesn't appear to have a road to get to millers rd from the turtle pond stop without going past the peninsular stop again.

Thanks, with 3 small kids, I find if I understand the bus system at each resort, I am much better off.

Peninsular has been the 1st stop for our trip.. it doesnt pass by it again.

 

[garnet1240]

OKW is home for us, we love everything about it...except..Olivias. I have had nothing but bad experiences last 3 trips. The last time my DD and I were turned away for breakfast one thursday morning at 9am, saying they were booked solid....six tables occupied, two families waiting.I counted, only because it was empty! I did tell a manger, fell on deaf ears. No more for us.

I hope the rest of your vacation is wonderful!!!

 

[DVC Mike]

Hmmm, we've had nothing but good experiences at Olivia's. We've only had breakfast and lunch there when we stayed at OKW or SSR, but it was nice.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

In my opinion, OKW buses still beat what I could do in my own car. Only once did we have to wait 45 minutes to get back from Typhoon Lagoon, and I was tired and cranky but other than that the travel has been more than satisfactory throughout the years. As far as Olivia's, I'm in full agreement, the server makes or breaks it. The food I find is quite good, but like most Disney food (other than the very expensive) it's not going to be exceptional. OKW cleanliness etc., well I guess we've been extremely fortunate, no problems other than a problem toilet and they repaired it within the hour.

We only use the HH pool when we have more down time; When we go to the pool after a day at the theme parks we do the smaller pools.

However, one thing is true, if you don't have a car and don't like walking, you might want to ensure that you are near HH or book another resort. We love to walk at night and in the am, so we find that to be one of the charms of OKW! Good luck to you!

 

[dianeschlicht]

I'm really surprised about your bus experience. First of all, I'm confused. If you were at the last bus stop, why were you far from "the main service area"? The Hospitality House IS the last bus stop! Also, most of your other complaints were not the fault of OKW, but the fault of your traveling partners and or neighbors. Did you call to complain about the upstairs neighbors or in any other way try to rectify the situation? We have had noisy kids about us sometimes too, but I've always found a well placed broom handle to the ceiling usually does the trick! If it doesn't, the next time I call or go down to the desk. I'm not shy, so I might even go up to the offending neighbor's door. Nothing can change about that situation unless YOU make it change. A nicey worded note or a pleasant voice with the admonition of "could you please keep the noise down"? works wonders in most cases.

As for Olivia's, if your food wasn't good, that IS a legitimate complaint, but to walk away and NOT speak to a manager puts the fault back in your court. If your children didn't order, that should have been the responsibility of the adults present. Speaking with a manager would have greatly helped as well.

 

[dcamdad]

You can hop on any bus in the resort to get to HH and the main pool. Given all the stays we have enjoyed at OKW at various times of the year I find it hard to believe that any bus is more than 5 - 10 minutes apart. I'll just bite my tongue now and say I will trade your "bad experiance" at OKW for my "good" day at work in cold temps any time.

 

[dhluvsDisney]

Really sad to hear of your mishaps at OKW. I honestly think it is one of the best DVC resorts going. We avoided staying there for years, and what a mistake. Yeah, we have some housekeeping issues and bus issues, but for the most part it is such a wonderful resort. The space, the quiet from park "madness", etc. Can't say we've ever eaten at Olivia's as I do all the cooking when there, but maybe on another try you'll have a better experience.

 

[spiceycat]

at any WDW restuarant if you don't get excellent service definitely complaint.

I can't believe the waitress didn't offer to get your sister something else.

mother was one for picking strange things off the menu - when what she order arrived - she didn't like it - and starts eating mind.

at Kona Cafe, Olivia, Garden Grill - the CM always asked if they could get her something else.

So that is not the normal way that Olivia's handles problems.

sister or no - you should have asked for the manager.

 

[SusieBea]

We stayed at OKW for 6 nights between Christmas and New Year's and ate at Olivia's 3 times, 2 dinners/one lunch. Our food was fine or better each time, but at one meal we did have a server who was inattentive. She was also serving another table that had a large party and that was her reason for ignoring us. You think there are some ongoing management issues there now?