Jasminerk13
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2009
- Messages
- 405
I just returned home from a whirlwind vacation in 3 resorts over 10 days. I thought I would post my thoughts on each of the resorts and compare them to each other.
OKW
We started off our vacation in a grand villa in OKW. We stayed there for 7 days with my sister and her family. So we had 4 adults and 4 children (4, 3, 2, 3 months) in the three bedroom. I was a big dummy and forgot to take pictures of the room, but we did end up with a renovated villa. It was HUUUGE! I thought it was beautiful. The kitchen was great, the living room was big, and the kids loved it. My husband and I stayed in the master bedroom. We loooved the huge bathroom and the garden spa tub. We were in building 19, so it was a big hike from the hospitality house. However, it was right next to the Millers Road bus stop and that was a nice bonus with 4 little kids. The only drawback was that our building did not have an elevator. And being in a grand villa, it was on the 2nd floor. So, it was such a PITA carrying 2 double strollers up and down the stairs each day. Thankfully, I never heard any complaining from the husbands in the group! LOL I learned my lesson thought to ask for a building with an elevator.
Also, I thought the entire OKW resort was beautiful. I didn't see any areas that looked old or run down. I did think there needed to be a larger quick service restaurant. The little counter just wasn't enough. But Olivia's was pretty darn good. Not the best in the WDW resort, but decent enough.
AKV
After my sister and her family left, the four of us transfered over to a 1 bedroom villa at AKV - Jambo House, Savannah View. There was quite a size difference going from the 3 bedroom to a 1 bedroom. I loved the decor at AK and liked how it was more like a typical hotel all in one building. The savannah view was so neat since this was our first time there. However, I don't think we would spend the points on the view next time. It's kind of a "good to do once" thing. I would be just as happy with a regular view and when I felt like seeing the animals, I would just walk down to the back of the building to check them out.
We ate at Jiko and Boma during our stay, and I looooooved BOma. The food was freaking fantastic! I would go so far as to say it's probably my favorite restaurant in all of WDW. My husband didn't agree with me, but he did like it a lot. Jiko was okay. I really wasn't all that impressed. I mean, it was good, but not spectacular.
BWV
Then we headed over to BWV for one night. I have to say I was a little disappointed in this resort in general. I mean, the 1 bedroom was way bigger than the 1 bedroom at AKV, but it just seemed really old. And our room was sooooo far away from the elevators... seriously, it felt like we walked a mile back and forth to the elevators. And with a double stroller at that. But, I will say the location of this resort can probably only be beat by a resort on the monorail. We walked to HS and took the boat to Epcot. It was super fast and easy to get to those 2 parks. I would probably only consider going back to BWV because of the location not because the hotel was especially nice or the rooms were extraordinary. Now, we did have a boardwalk view on the 2nd floor. It was kind of cool watching the fireworks from Epcot. But it was quite noisy on the boardwalk at night. We have 2 little kids (4 and 3 months) so I was worried they would wake up from all the noise.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to say about that! LOL!
OKW
We started off our vacation in a grand villa in OKW. We stayed there for 7 days with my sister and her family. So we had 4 adults and 4 children (4, 3, 2, 3 months) in the three bedroom. I was a big dummy and forgot to take pictures of the room, but we did end up with a renovated villa. It was HUUUGE! I thought it was beautiful. The kitchen was great, the living room was big, and the kids loved it. My husband and I stayed in the master bedroom. We loooved the huge bathroom and the garden spa tub. We were in building 19, so it was a big hike from the hospitality house. However, it was right next to the Millers Road bus stop and that was a nice bonus with 4 little kids. The only drawback was that our building did not have an elevator. And being in a grand villa, it was on the 2nd floor. So, it was such a PITA carrying 2 double strollers up and down the stairs each day. Thankfully, I never heard any complaining from the husbands in the group! LOL I learned my lesson thought to ask for a building with an elevator.
Also, I thought the entire OKW resort was beautiful. I didn't see any areas that looked old or run down. I did think there needed to be a larger quick service restaurant. The little counter just wasn't enough. But Olivia's was pretty darn good. Not the best in the WDW resort, but decent enough.
AKV
After my sister and her family left, the four of us transfered over to a 1 bedroom villa at AKV - Jambo House, Savannah View. There was quite a size difference going from the 3 bedroom to a 1 bedroom. I loved the decor at AK and liked how it was more like a typical hotel all in one building. The savannah view was so neat since this was our first time there. However, I don't think we would spend the points on the view next time. It's kind of a "good to do once" thing. I would be just as happy with a regular view and when I felt like seeing the animals, I would just walk down to the back of the building to check them out.
We ate at Jiko and Boma during our stay, and I looooooved BOma. The food was freaking fantastic! I would go so far as to say it's probably my favorite restaurant in all of WDW. My husband didn't agree with me, but he did like it a lot. Jiko was okay. I really wasn't all that impressed. I mean, it was good, but not spectacular.
BWV
Then we headed over to BWV for one night. I have to say I was a little disappointed in this resort in general. I mean, the 1 bedroom was way bigger than the 1 bedroom at AKV, but it just seemed really old. And our room was sooooo far away from the elevators... seriously, it felt like we walked a mile back and forth to the elevators. And with a double stroller at that. But, I will say the location of this resort can probably only be beat by a resort on the monorail. We walked to HS and took the boat to Epcot. It was super fast and easy to get to those 2 parks. I would probably only consider going back to BWV because of the location not because the hotel was especially nice or the rooms were extraordinary. Now, we did have a boardwalk view on the 2nd floor. It was kind of cool watching the fireworks from Epcot. But it was quite noisy on the boardwalk at night. We have 2 little kids (4 and 3 months) so I was worried they would wake up from all the noise.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to say about that! LOL!
