I stayed there. I was very leery of staying in a condo owned by people of whom I knew nothing. Would it be clean? Would there be bugs? Would it look anything like the photos?
But I saw it posted on the DIS and figured the guys who run the site wouldn't be advertising something horrid. Took a chance.
Very pleasantly surprised. It was as clean as anywhere I've stayed and cleaner than many of them - including Disney. It's big. Not gigando, it's a condo, but big enough to not feel at all cramped.
Lots of Disney touches - more than many Disney rooms.
Close enough to the parks. There is a little booklet thingy in there that gives you like 8 zillion ways to get to the parks. We did the easier way first (because who doesn't like easy?), but it took forever. Once we figured out that the toll road was quickest, we did that. It wasn't like it was hard. Went from the front door to being parked in the Epcot parking spot in 17 minutes (I timed it). The fifty cents or whatever it is to take the toll road is totally worth it.
It was well stocked with soap and crap.
It's a really cute little area. The pictures are accurate.
The pool isn't crowded and we were close to it. The pool isn't open all night. And they actually lock it up, so you you can't just ignore the posted hours and swim at six in the morning, if you happen to be a pool rebel who does wild stuff like that.
It's very homey. You kind of get the sense of that in the pics, but much more so when you're there. The towels aren't Standard Issue Crappy White like in most hotels. They're regular towel towels, like you'd get at Wal-Mart or whatever. I think they were tan.
The bedroom had a bookshelf in it with real books on the shelves. There were DVDs - mostly kid ones, I think. There was a small cork board with push pins on it in the kitchen. Came in very handy when I had to leave and wanted to post a note!
The furniture is real. It's a bed, not a headboard bolted to a wall. Furniture was on the cheap side, but solid enough and
real furniture.
Everything about the place was non-hotel, which was really nice and relaxing. I honestly felt like I was house-sitting for someone rather than staying in a hotel. It was good.
You park right at your door. I think that was the best of all. You get there after traveling and being all tired and you just drive up to the door and go in. You don't have to stop to valet the car, go to a check-in desk, traipse all over God's creation, call for the luggage, all that crap. Drive up, park, go in. Bring the bags in when you're damn good and ready.
Oh, and FREE GIFTS!!!! Not "buy this and we'll give you an extra", but real gifts. And not shabby party-favors, either. We saw the stuff there and immediately thought that other people might still be there, lol. Never even thought that anyone would leave that stuff as gifts for us! I was calling out, "Hello? Hel-loooo?" Then we read the booklet thingy and realized what it was.
We were thrilled. Everything is like 10 times better when it is free.
The one and only problem we had was trying to figure out whether or not the flippin door was locked. It was probably us being too stupid to figure it out.
When you're there, you'll understand. (My advice - don't leave the place without the key.)
We got so much for so little that I'd stay there over and over if my trip were at least 7 days long.
. We're booked for there in November 2010. Can't wait! I'm going to John and Kevin's House!! (if you listen to the Dis Podcast you'll know what I'm talking about!)
