ArnyVee
Former OKW Owner
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2003
- Messages
- 669
Well, I needed a couple of days to recover from the first days of the work that piled up while I was away on our 4-day mini-vacation. But, I am finally able to give a trip report from our first trip home at an OKW 1BR unit this past weekend!
DAY ONE
********
CAST: Myself (wearing my new DISboards shirt
) , DW, DD (1.5 year old)
We left at approximately 4:30am in order to arrive early at WDW. We arrived around 8:00am Thursday morning (10/23) and as soon as we hit the security gate of OKW, we got our first....WELCOME HOME!! Ahh...what a feeling! Then, when we checked in, room was not ready, but received a couple more WELCOME HOME well wishes! This place is great already!
After having the courteous OKW folks put away a few of our perishables while we went to the parks, we headed off to the Polynesian for our character breakfast at OHanas. Great character breakfast with a lot of interaction between Chip, Dale, Goofy, and of course, Mickey! Our daughter was a bit scared at first, but started to warm up to the big versions of the cartoons by the end of the breakfast. Great food served family style in one big serving platter and the pineapple/coconut bread they serve for starters was fantastic.
After leaving our breakfast, we went straight to the Magic Kingdom to hit all of the attractions that we know my daugher would enjoy. We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (always decent food at a decent price) and hit a couple of personal favorites, including the Carousel of Progress! Yay, it was open! I hadn't seen that show in a few years.
After a full day of the Magic Kingdom (more like 3/4 of a day), we decided to head 'home' to OKW and check in. We were assigned our 1BR at building 23 (yay!) 2nd floor (boo). We walked into our room and....WOW!! The 1-BR units that I had discussed in the chat rooms and had seen pictures of still exceeded our expectations! What a great amount of space....might've even been a little more than we needed! But, it's always better to have more than not enough. We set our things up and got settled a bit. Then, we decided to grab a little nibble at Downtown Disney....so, off to the Ferry boat we go! We had a great trip over to Downtown Disney on the Ferry and grabbed a little something at the walk up window of Bongos Cafe (personal favorite) because of the long waits at the restaurants (2 hours for Rainforest Cafe? Sheesh). But, we needed to get some rest before heading off to Epcot and the Food & Wine Festival the next day...so, we decided to head back to OKW and rest up.
DAY TWO
*********
We woke up in the comfort of that King sized bed! Nice and soft, yet not too soft of a matress. I'm lovin' OKW, did I mention that?
So, we finally start to take a look outside from the balcony and we are overlooking a portion of a small lake and to the right it's the main road coming into OKW. With a nice shot of Olivia's and the Ferry dock as well. Take in a couple of deep breaths and start to get ready for our first ever Food & Wine festival at Epcot!
We get ready and head out to Epcot. We make it into Future world, hit one of our family favorites SpaceShip Earth and then head on over to The Land for some treats from the bakery. We get some lovely pineapple cream cheese muffins for me and the wifey and the baby drinks her breakfast and eats a little from our muffins as well. We are now ready to continue to explore Future World (F & W doesn't start until 11am), but before leavin' The Land we went on Livin' with the Land. After walking around a bit and passin' the time by going on Journey into Imagination w/Figment, we were getting ready to begin to tour the world.... showcase, that is.
We begin by headin' to the left and we see the first of many Food & Wine stands...Greece. To make a long story short, we took pictures at each of the stands, but stopped in at the Mexico pavilion to have some lunch. Had never eaten there, but will again in the future. Good food, decent prices and great ambiance. We head on towards Norway and stop in at a couple more Food & Wine stands. We make it to the American Adventure and watch that great show and feed the baby outside the American pavilion as The Spinners take the stage for the Eat to the Beat series of concerts. After the baby finishes and we finish a funnel cake (must have for us), we continue on for more of the World showcase. We make it as far as Morroco and decide to finish off the World the next day as we want to make a quick run over to The Boardwalk.
So, we jump on one of the Friendship boats and make our way to the Boardwalk area. We are planning on staying at either the BWV or BCV in the near future as we really enjoy this area of Walt Disney World. At any rate, we walk around a bit and decide to rent one of the multi-seater bikes and head off for, what we thought was, a leisurely bike ride around the lake. Well, there are a couple of hills which turn the leisurely ride into a gut bustin', leg thrashin' event! We called it the Tour De' Boardwalk! Holy mackerol. So, after sweatin' like I had been to a gym, buyin' a new shirt over at the ESPN store (nice excuse, huh?) we walked a bit more and then decided to head back to the resort, via Epcot of course.
Now around 8:30pm, we headed to the General store at OKW, picked up a couple of things and decided to call it an evening. We took some baths and rested for tomorrow morning and the MGM Studios/Finish Epcot tour.
DAY THREE
***********
Well, we awoke to the voice of Mickey Mouse tellin' us to get "Up and at 'em!" which is always so great!
The three of us got ready and hopped into the rental SUV towards our family favorite...Disney/MGM Studios! I think that this park is underrated. You have a few good things for the baby (ie Disney Playhouse, Little Mermaid, etc) and for the adults (ie backlot tours, Great Movie Ride, ToT, etc) with some very good places to eat as well. We had PS at Sci-Fi Diner (wifey's personal favorite), so we had to plan things out a bit early on. We sat on a bench on the main street and finished off a muffin and some juice as we detailed our plan of attack. We started out by going to the Little Mermaid show and then Disney Playhouse. By the time we were done with those, we hit the Great Movie Ride and we were ready for our PS at Sci-Fi Diner...which is a fun place to eat with the sitting in the cars as if you were at a drive-in.
After our meal, we walked down New York (soon to be San Fran & Chicago Streets as well) and headed towards the backlot tour. The backlot tour is completely different and somehow less fulfilling without the movie set houses not being there. They have torn down the houses (Empty Nest, Golden Girls, Ernest Films) and are in the process of building a big stunt show back there. At any rate, we were starting to think about the great stuff at Epcot and the Food & Wine festival that we hadn't been to yet, so we were planning on now making our way back to Epcot. We took some pictures with Mickey Mouse and I jumped into the quick Haunted Mansion set mini-narration thingie and we went on our way to the World Showcase.
Upon arriving, we made our way counter clockwise so that we wouldn't have to walk through all of the countries and food stands that we had already been to (too tempting with some!) so, we hung out in Canada for a while, went to France, Morocco, and a few others. By the time we were done, we had some darkness kickin' in and I wanted to get back to the resort to watch the Marlins taken on the Yankees in what turned out to be the final game of the series! Go Marlins!
So, we got to the resort, walked around Olivias and the general store a bit, took in some fresh air and headed back to our great unit at OKW! Now, we just have a 1/2 day at Animal Kingdom and the road back!
LAST DAY OF FIRST TRIP HOME!
**************************
Well, we awoke with the sounds of Mickey givin' us that energy pep talk in the mornin'. We thoroughly enjoyed stayin' in the 1BR unit and were kinda sad to leave. The wifey took some pictures of the place with her lovely model (our daughter) posing the whole time and we packed up and headed on out to our last 1/2 day of Disney enjoyment.
We took a little ride around the OKW grounds to check out some of the other units and how they were situated and then headed out towards Disney's Animal Kingdom! We arrived at about 9am and got a decent parking spot so we just strolled to the park entrance and headed towards my wife's favorite stand off to the right of the entrance for her Hot Chocolate and we split a big muffin. Boy, we've had more muffins on this trip. But, they are filling and can be shared without spending a lot of money.
So, we headed into the park, straight towards the Kilimanjaro Safari, grabbed a fastpass and then headed towards the Festival of the Lion King show since we had about an hour to wait for the Safari. The show building has now been fully enclosed and is still fabulous. When the show ended, we finished up with some character pictures outside in the Camp Mickey/Minnie area and headed back to the Safari. Great Safari with many animals roaming around causing the truck to slow to a stop several times. Well, once we were done with the Safari we stopped in at the Tough to be a Bug show and finished off with some strolling around the park. We could only spend half of the day there because we had to head back home (3.5 hour trip back) and return the rental car and get ready for work.
In conclusion, I think that the DVC bug has definitely left an itchy feelin' on the wifey and we are already plannin' a trip for this coming January with some additional family members. I'm tellin' you, no one can escape the Disney magic! As soon as I pay off this initial investment into DVC (should be another month or two), then I'll start to get some of those add-ons. Maybe 25 points at a time here and there. Don't want to shock the misses!
All in all, a great trip and I will always recommend OKW as a place to stay! Thanks to everyone on the boards for helping me through the initial research and purchasing phase and then givin' me tip and pointers once I set up my first ressie!
DAY ONE
********
CAST: Myself (wearing my new DISboards shirt
) , DW, DD (1.5 year old)We left at approximately 4:30am in order to arrive early at WDW. We arrived around 8:00am Thursday morning (10/23) and as soon as we hit the security gate of OKW, we got our first....WELCOME HOME!! Ahh...what a feeling! Then, when we checked in, room was not ready, but received a couple more WELCOME HOME well wishes! This place is great already!
After having the courteous OKW folks put away a few of our perishables while we went to the parks, we headed off to the Polynesian for our character breakfast at OHanas. Great character breakfast with a lot of interaction between Chip, Dale, Goofy, and of course, Mickey! Our daughter was a bit scared at first, but started to warm up to the big versions of the cartoons by the end of the breakfast. Great food served family style in one big serving platter and the pineapple/coconut bread they serve for starters was fantastic.
After leaving our breakfast, we went straight to the Magic Kingdom to hit all of the attractions that we know my daugher would enjoy. We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (always decent food at a decent price) and hit a couple of personal favorites, including the Carousel of Progress! Yay, it was open! I hadn't seen that show in a few years.
After a full day of the Magic Kingdom (more like 3/4 of a day), we decided to head 'home' to OKW and check in. We were assigned our 1BR at building 23 (yay!) 2nd floor (boo). We walked into our room and....WOW!! The 1-BR units that I had discussed in the chat rooms and had seen pictures of still exceeded our expectations! What a great amount of space....might've even been a little more than we needed! But, it's always better to have more than not enough. We set our things up and got settled a bit. Then, we decided to grab a little nibble at Downtown Disney....so, off to the Ferry boat we go! We had a great trip over to Downtown Disney on the Ferry and grabbed a little something at the walk up window of Bongos Cafe (personal favorite) because of the long waits at the restaurants (2 hours for Rainforest Cafe? Sheesh). But, we needed to get some rest before heading off to Epcot and the Food & Wine Festival the next day...so, we decided to head back to OKW and rest up.
DAY TWO
*********
We woke up in the comfort of that King sized bed! Nice and soft, yet not too soft of a matress. I'm lovin' OKW, did I mention that?
So, we finally start to take a look outside from the balcony and we are overlooking a portion of a small lake and to the right it's the main road coming into OKW. With a nice shot of Olivia's and the Ferry dock as well. Take in a couple of deep breaths and start to get ready for our first ever Food & Wine festival at Epcot!We get ready and head out to Epcot. We make it into Future world, hit one of our family favorites SpaceShip Earth and then head on over to The Land for some treats from the bakery. We get some lovely pineapple cream cheese muffins for me and the wifey and the baby drinks her breakfast and eats a little from our muffins as well. We are now ready to continue to explore Future World (F & W doesn't start until 11am), but before leavin' The Land we went on Livin' with the Land. After walking around a bit and passin' the time by going on Journey into Imagination w/Figment, we were getting ready to begin to tour the world.... showcase, that is.
We begin by headin' to the left and we see the first of many Food & Wine stands...Greece. To make a long story short, we took pictures at each of the stands, but stopped in at the Mexico pavilion to have some lunch. Had never eaten there, but will again in the future. Good food, decent prices and great ambiance. We head on towards Norway and stop in at a couple more Food & Wine stands. We make it to the American Adventure and watch that great show and feed the baby outside the American pavilion as The Spinners take the stage for the Eat to the Beat series of concerts. After the baby finishes and we finish a funnel cake (must have for us), we continue on for more of the World showcase. We make it as far as Morroco and decide to finish off the World the next day as we want to make a quick run over to The Boardwalk.
So, we jump on one of the Friendship boats and make our way to the Boardwalk area. We are planning on staying at either the BWV or BCV in the near future as we really enjoy this area of Walt Disney World. At any rate, we walk around a bit and decide to rent one of the multi-seater bikes and head off for, what we thought was, a leisurely bike ride around the lake. Well, there are a couple of hills which turn the leisurely ride into a gut bustin', leg thrashin' event! We called it the Tour De' Boardwalk! Holy mackerol. So, after sweatin' like I had been to a gym, buyin' a new shirt over at the ESPN store (nice excuse, huh?) we walked a bit more and then decided to head back to the resort, via Epcot of course.
Now around 8:30pm, we headed to the General store at OKW, picked up a couple of things and decided to call it an evening. We took some baths and rested for tomorrow morning and the MGM Studios/Finish Epcot tour.
DAY THREE
***********
Well, we awoke to the voice of Mickey Mouse tellin' us to get "Up and at 'em!" which is always so great!
The three of us got ready and hopped into the rental SUV towards our family favorite...Disney/MGM Studios! I think that this park is underrated. You have a few good things for the baby (ie Disney Playhouse, Little Mermaid, etc) and for the adults (ie backlot tours, Great Movie Ride, ToT, etc) with some very good places to eat as well. We had PS at Sci-Fi Diner (wifey's personal favorite), so we had to plan things out a bit early on. We sat on a bench on the main street and finished off a muffin and some juice as we detailed our plan of attack. We started out by going to the Little Mermaid show and then Disney Playhouse. By the time we were done with those, we hit the Great Movie Ride and we were ready for our PS at Sci-Fi Diner...which is a fun place to eat with the sitting in the cars as if you were at a drive-in.
After our meal, we walked down New York (soon to be San Fran & Chicago Streets as well) and headed towards the backlot tour. The backlot tour is completely different and somehow less fulfilling without the movie set houses not being there. They have torn down the houses (Empty Nest, Golden Girls, Ernest Films) and are in the process of building a big stunt show back there. At any rate, we were starting to think about the great stuff at Epcot and the Food & Wine festival that we hadn't been to yet, so we were planning on now making our way back to Epcot. We took some pictures with Mickey Mouse and I jumped into the quick Haunted Mansion set mini-narration thingie and we went on our way to the World Showcase.
Upon arriving, we made our way counter clockwise so that we wouldn't have to walk through all of the countries and food stands that we had already been to (too tempting with some!) so, we hung out in Canada for a while, went to France, Morocco, and a few others. By the time we were done, we had some darkness kickin' in and I wanted to get back to the resort to watch the Marlins taken on the Yankees in what turned out to be the final game of the series! Go Marlins!
So, we got to the resort, walked around Olivias and the general store a bit, took in some fresh air and headed back to our great unit at OKW! Now, we just have a 1/2 day at Animal Kingdom and the road back!
LAST DAY OF FIRST TRIP HOME!
**************************
Well, we awoke with the sounds of Mickey givin' us that energy pep talk in the mornin'. We thoroughly enjoyed stayin' in the 1BR unit and were kinda sad to leave. The wifey took some pictures of the place with her lovely model (our daughter) posing the whole time and we packed up and headed on out to our last 1/2 day of Disney enjoyment.
We took a little ride around the OKW grounds to check out some of the other units and how they were situated and then headed out towards Disney's Animal Kingdom! We arrived at about 9am and got a decent parking spot so we just strolled to the park entrance and headed towards my wife's favorite stand off to the right of the entrance for her Hot Chocolate and we split a big muffin. Boy, we've had more muffins on this trip. But, they are filling and can be shared without spending a lot of money.
So, we headed into the park, straight towards the Kilimanjaro Safari, grabbed a fastpass and then headed towards the Festival of the Lion King show since we had about an hour to wait for the Safari. The show building has now been fully enclosed and is still fabulous. When the show ended, we finished up with some character pictures outside in the Camp Mickey/Minnie area and headed back to the Safari. Great Safari with many animals roaming around causing the truck to slow to a stop several times. Well, once we were done with the Safari we stopped in at the Tough to be a Bug show and finished off with some strolling around the park. We could only spend half of the day there because we had to head back home (3.5 hour trip back) and return the rental car and get ready for work.
In conclusion, I think that the DVC bug has definitely left an itchy feelin' on the wifey and we are already plannin' a trip for this coming January with some additional family members. I'm tellin' you, no one can escape the Disney magic! As soon as I pay off this initial investment into DVC (should be another month or two), then I'll start to get some of those add-ons. Maybe 25 points at a time here and there. Don't want to shock the misses!
All in all, a great trip and I will always recommend OKW as a place to stay! Thanks to everyone on the boards for helping me through the initial research and purchasing phase and then givin' me tip and pointers once I set up my first ressie!
