zanzibar138
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2007
- Messages
- 5,917
Thought I would put up some further thoughts on the resorts and our rooms in case it's helpful for anyone.
We spent 7 nights at BLT in a standard view studio (via rented DVC points) - moved from the Poly on 31 Jan, then moved on to AKL on 7 Feb. I had put in a request for any room on the outside of the horseshoe, with a higher floor preferred, hoping for glimpses of MK. To my dismay, we were given room 7209, the exact opposite of what we'd requested, a second floor room on the inside of the horseshoe, with a view of the pool. Our main concern was the potential for noise given the proximity to the pool and outdoor games area, but decided to give it a chance, knowing that room availability was probably limited with a large chunk out of action for renovations.
To our surprise, noise wasn't a major issue with the door closed. We were pretty impressed with the sound proofing of all our rooms really. The biggest noise disturbance was when the Electrical Water Pageant passed by, although we were able to get glimpses of it from our balcony, so that was a bit of a bonus.
The main issue in the room actually turned out to be the wifi. It wasn't working when we arrived, to the extent that the Disney assistant wasn't even working, and we couldn't stream to the TV. We also weren't able to get a mobile phone signal in the room, so weren't able to access internet that way either. Being international guests, it could have been an issue with our roaming (although we are on different networks at home), but it was a pretty big problem. We put in a complaint, and in the meantime, the wifi did eventually work well enough for us to at least be able to connect to MDE, but not for any kind of facebook updating or anything. Coming back in from our second night out, we put in another complaint at the front desk. The response was that the wifi signal wasn't as good at the ends of the horseshoe due to the curve of the building, and it was something they are hoping to rectify with the renovations. In the meantime, they offered to see if they could move us to a more central room the following day.
The following day we received a notification that we had been moved to room 7514, which is the exact room that I had initially wanted, so we were pretty happy with that. From there, we were actually able to connect to the wifi in the main tower, which was far stronger than that at BLT, and supported all the photo updates we could manage. As a bonus, we also had an improved view (as far as we were concerned), over the carpark and a utility area to MK, and looking the other way over the lake.
The rooms themselves were pretty similar, both unrenovated. We noticed the size difference after the Poly, but it wasn't a major issue just for the 2 of us, and we were generally pretty happy with both rooms. The biggest problems we had with both rooms were a lack of USB charging points (which was probably an even bigger issue for us as international travellers with only 2 power adapters) and no privacy curtain - only a light blocking curtain which made the room very dark, even with the lights on. That wasn't so much of an issue with the second room, where it was private enough to keep the curtain open most of the time.
As for the resort itself... we chose BLT as a compromise of location and price. We had been planning to spend a lot of time at MK, and the ability to just walk there was absolute heaven! It was also pretty convenient to catch the monorail to EPCOT, with just one stop to the TTC (although not as great on the way back). There was only one time where we couldn't fit and had to wait for the next monorail. We liked the kind of out of the way feeling of BLT - it felt quiet and relaxed. We didn't use either pool but neither looked ridiculously crazy when we were walking past. The skybridge would have been very handy (especially when we were moved to level 5), but the walk to the main tower wasn't too bad (although we had pretty good weather).
We ate most of our meals at Contempo Cafe. The food wasn't a highlight for me, but it was quick and easy and relatively inexpensive. It wasn't ever crazy busy and was always pleasant to sit there and eat. We also splurged on breakfast one morning at Chef Mickey's, which was a lot of fun. We didn't find either restaurant to be overly loud.
Overall, we were happy with our decision to stay at BLT, particularly once we were in the new room. The highlight was definitely the easy walk to MK and relatively easy transport to EPCOT. The low points were probably the small room and lack of theming - although the atmosphere made up for the lack of theming at the main tower, BLT felt a little generic.
We spent 7 nights at BLT in a standard view studio (via rented DVC points) - moved from the Poly on 31 Jan, then moved on to AKL on 7 Feb. I had put in a request for any room on the outside of the horseshoe, with a higher floor preferred, hoping for glimpses of MK. To my dismay, we were given room 7209, the exact opposite of what we'd requested, a second floor room on the inside of the horseshoe, with a view of the pool. Our main concern was the potential for noise given the proximity to the pool and outdoor games area, but decided to give it a chance, knowing that room availability was probably limited with a large chunk out of action for renovations.
To our surprise, noise wasn't a major issue with the door closed. We were pretty impressed with the sound proofing of all our rooms really. The biggest noise disturbance was when the Electrical Water Pageant passed by, although we were able to get glimpses of it from our balcony, so that was a bit of a bonus.
The main issue in the room actually turned out to be the wifi. It wasn't working when we arrived, to the extent that the Disney assistant wasn't even working, and we couldn't stream to the TV. We also weren't able to get a mobile phone signal in the room, so weren't able to access internet that way either. Being international guests, it could have been an issue with our roaming (although we are on different networks at home), but it was a pretty big problem. We put in a complaint, and in the meantime, the wifi did eventually work well enough for us to at least be able to connect to MDE, but not for any kind of facebook updating or anything. Coming back in from our second night out, we put in another complaint at the front desk. The response was that the wifi signal wasn't as good at the ends of the horseshoe due to the curve of the building, and it was something they are hoping to rectify with the renovations. In the meantime, they offered to see if they could move us to a more central room the following day.
The following day we received a notification that we had been moved to room 7514, which is the exact room that I had initially wanted, so we were pretty happy with that. From there, we were actually able to connect to the wifi in the main tower, which was far stronger than that at BLT, and supported all the photo updates we could manage. As a bonus, we also had an improved view (as far as we were concerned), over the carpark and a utility area to MK, and looking the other way over the lake.
The rooms themselves were pretty similar, both unrenovated. We noticed the size difference after the Poly, but it wasn't a major issue just for the 2 of us, and we were generally pretty happy with both rooms. The biggest problems we had with both rooms were a lack of USB charging points (which was probably an even bigger issue for us as international travellers with only 2 power adapters) and no privacy curtain - only a light blocking curtain which made the room very dark, even with the lights on. That wasn't so much of an issue with the second room, where it was private enough to keep the curtain open most of the time.
As for the resort itself... we chose BLT as a compromise of location and price. We had been planning to spend a lot of time at MK, and the ability to just walk there was absolute heaven! It was also pretty convenient to catch the monorail to EPCOT, with just one stop to the TTC (although not as great on the way back). There was only one time where we couldn't fit and had to wait for the next monorail. We liked the kind of out of the way feeling of BLT - it felt quiet and relaxed. We didn't use either pool but neither looked ridiculously crazy when we were walking past. The skybridge would have been very handy (especially when we were moved to level 5), but the walk to the main tower wasn't too bad (although we had pretty good weather).
We ate most of our meals at Contempo Cafe. The food wasn't a highlight for me, but it was quick and easy and relatively inexpensive. It wasn't ever crazy busy and was always pleasant to sit there and eat. We also splurged on breakfast one morning at Chef Mickey's, which was a lot of fun. We didn't find either restaurant to be overly loud.
Overall, we were happy with our decision to stay at BLT, particularly once we were in the new room. The highlight was definitely the easy walk to MK and relatively easy transport to EPCOT. The low points were probably the small room and lack of theming - although the atmosphere made up for the lack of theming at the main tower, BLT felt a little generic.
