I will probably post in sections as ideas come up, but overall the resort grew on me the longer we were there. The hotel is beautiful, especially at night, the activity is great and the amenities are much better than other moderate hotels..
In regards to PM, I asked the cashier about the 10% when we were there. The 10% is NOT added to the bill for
DDP or QSDP. (we were not charged the 10%) There is a 10% "service charge" for all other diners. I was told that from that 10%, 6% goes to the server, 4% to the food court. We left about 10% in cash on the table for the server.
The food was good and it was easy to get used to the set up with the cards and stamps.
The Rix cafe has self serve coffee, tea and soda and it worked out well with the refillable mugs. We also had the mugs filled at the pool by the bartender.
There were so much for the kids to do. There were activities by the pool all afternoon. Bingo was going on while we were there, but there were games all day. At 7:30, they roasted marshmallows by the fire pit at the pool and at 9 pm the movie by the pool started. The one night we were there, it was set up pool side and people floated while watching "UP". The next night it was set up by the playground. The kids played in the arcade, played ping pong and volleyball, played in the sand box, enjoyed the playground and loved the water slide. We checked out the pool at AKL and the slide was 1/2 the length! We also would say hi to the turtles in the lake each morning. They will swim right up to the dock by the tables on the patio and will beg for food.
When we checked in we were given the room in Ranchos 6B. I was pretty upset bc I asked for a room between the pool and food court. Then I was put in Ranchos. I was not specific with the location request, thinking it would make it easier to give me my request. I was wrong! Next time I will ask for a specific building. It was an 8 minute walk to the food court and to get to the pool, we had to walk around the swamp. They tried to tell me it was near the main pool, but it was not. It also was not near the bus stop. Overall, it was the worse location, but they told me the hotel was completely sold out and no rooms were available. I went to get coffee one morning and it took 22 minutes round trip!
But... the room was great! It was clean, quiet, spacious and the beds were the most comfortable beds we ever had in WDW. I loved the H2O products, also. I actually liked the theme of the Ranchos, it really feels like the southwest desert. With dried up river beds, rock formations and cactus, the theme is wonderful, but the location is terrible.
We were there for the passing of Hurricane Irene. We spent the day in AK and the rain was off and on, overcast and 90 degrees. For the most part, it worked OK bc it stayed cooler without the blazing sun. The sun, heat and humidity returned the next day. It was really crowded for the last week in August. We have been this week in the past, and this was the most crowded we remember. We noticed that there we many international visitors. When we were at HS and at Lights, Action, Motor, the MC asked if anyone was from out of the country and 1/2 the stadium started to cheer. It just proved what we noticed, there were many foreign visitors. We met families from France, Germany, England, Australia, Austria, Italy and Brazil. Also noticed a ton of visitors from the Northeast. At the Spaceship Earth in EPCOT, they map the location of the guests and so many were from the Northeast. School starts late and I met some families that could not get home bc of the hurricane. It was weird to come to FL in August and worry about a hurricane back at home!! The house lost power for 5 hours and we have a few tree branches down, but everything is safe. We got home today and there are surrounding towns that still do not have power.
My kids loved the CSR and I have to admit, I liked it more the longer we stayed and experienced the resort. It was a great resort for us!
