First Home Stay at BLT - Thoughts after First 12 hours

[Cherokeezebra]

Here with wife and 21yo daughter staying in a studio. We're rarely in the room so space is not going to be an issue for us. Below are my first impressions based partly on personal opinion and partly from complaints I've heard before now.

Room 8140

Pros-
- renovations completed in the studio...sink moved to bathroom, bathroom door does NOT have a gap, and it DOES have a lock on it.
- good size safe big enough for two laptops plus extras stuffed in. Safe can be utilized by using either a numeric code or a credit card
- Cafe and "grocery store" at Contemporary are all open until midnight
- being right on the monorail line is wonderful!!!
- plenty of mirrors
- almost everything is as expected
- TOTWL is fantastic. A little tricky getting to it until you can find a CM to explain what you need to do

Cons-
- Quite disappointed in "wear and tear" after only one year. The black dresser has several chips taken out already exposing the brown wood in several places. Also looks like white paint marks on the side of the dresser.
- Sliding balcony door does not lock. It appears the door is lower than the "locking mechanisms" on the frame, therefore, the latch from the door won't latch on to anything.
- overhead door above "dining room sink" rubs on the door frame when opened. Obvious cosmetic damage being done continuously.
- missing Ethernet cable. I always bring my own, but don't want to get stuck with the $10 fee for "taking" the cable.
- mostly just disappointed in what basically appears to be minor details overlooked from fast and/or lazy contractors during construction. However, none of the above issues would in any way keep me from staying here again.

 

[shellspb]

Thanks for sharing your opinion. My family is in the process of planning a trip there next October and we have been wondering what people thought of BLT. I will continue to read other reviews as well since I haven't been on this site for quite a while, but your info was very helpful.

 

[dwelty]

There is a reason Formica is out of vogue, it chips easily.

 

[Cyndibear]

We stayed there in September and I have to agree with you on the furniture quality. Lots of bumps and bruises showing but overall we totally enjoyed our stay there. Love the ability to walk to MK and hop on the monorail for EPCOT. We stayed in a one bedroom so I can't comment about the studio changes but I'm glad they did it.

Have fun and enjoy your stay!

Cyndi

 

[Disneypirate85]

Thanks for the report...Shawn

 

[DizGirl20]

Thanks for sharing... looking forward to more updates if you have more info to post!

 

[Bad Llama]

Thanks for sharing, we are thinking of adding on and it is between BLT and AKV, so always interested in hearing feedback

A.

 

[disneynutz]

We are also at BLT now prior to our DCL adventure on Saturday. Compared to other BLT units that we have stayed in before, this unit has very little wear and the Mousekeepers did a great job.

I wish that they would add some additional holiday decorations. A small tree outside the elevators would be nice.

Bill

 

[Native NYer]

We noticed similar chips in the black furniture during our August stay. Black is probably not the best color choice. It shows everything.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Call Maintenance if your patio door won't latch. They will fix it. We had that problem at BCV and they were at our door in less than 30 minutes and had the door fixed in ten.

 

[hopare]

I agree with you about the furniture. We did a split stay in Nov at AKV and BLT and I could not believe the quality of the furniture at BLT. The fixtures seemed cheap also. The light color in the rug also seemed dirty. I thought the quality of the furniture was much nicer at AKV. Oh how we LOVED the location of BLT though

 

[habg1]

It's nice to know that at least one room is done. Bathroom door and sinks. I'll have to admit, the bathroom door got to me...

 

[DisneyBelle99]

Have a great vacation Love the GF at Christmas, maybe next year!

Found the same furniture issues during our inagural BLT stay.

 

[Cherokeezebra]

Update after Day 3-

- 11th floor lake view, same as backside of Contemporary would see, but it's very nice.
- boat horns going all day long tend to be annoying if you're looking for quiet time in the room. If you're pre-occupied, you really don't notice it anymore. HMMM (correction?) the horns could be the monorail as it approaches the station??? Still hearing them at 1:00am as I write this.
- toilet seat won't stay up. a small challenge for the men trying to be considerate.
- LOVE the time saved daily by not needing to ride the bus everywhere we go. I figure we spent at least a combined 1-2 hours a day on buses when staying at other resorts. Now we're generally 10-15 minutes to either MK (by foot or rail) or to Epcot. And from Epcot you can get to Hollywood by boat, even less bus time. HOWEVER....
- Do NOT like the bus situation from BLT/Contemporary/Polynesian to Animal Kingdom. TOO many people at one bus stop combined for BLT/Contemporary. Not only have I twice seen an empty bus fill up and not be able to get everyone on who was waiting, but then the full bus had to drive past Polynesian without stopping. You know that makes them happy to finally see their bus only to have it drive right past them because it's already full. I'm sure they call in for another bus, but who knows how long that takes. Another alternative would be to either go to MK or Epcot and catch a bus from there.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Update after Day 3-

...- Do NOT like the bus situation from BLT/Contemporary/Polynesian to Animal Kingdom. TOO many people at one bus stop combined for BLT/Contemporary. ....

Now you know how the Epcot resorts feel about their bus situation for AK and MK.

 

[cchron]

Please, please, please post pictures of the bathroom/kitchenette redesign.

 

[lizziepooh]

Can you give us some detail on what they did with the bathroom sink? Did they actually move the wall or is the original sink still there with a smaller one added to the bathroom? Thanks.

 

[Cherokeezebra]

Can you give us some detail on what they did with the bathroom sink? Did they actually move the wall or is the original sink still there with a smaller one added to the bathroom? Thanks.

It appears they moved the wall. there is still the small "kitchen sink" on the other side of the room, and with the current design there is no way to have two sinks in the same room. I'll try to post bathroom pictures later after we get back from watching the fireworks at the TOWL.

Also, the constant horns are definitely from the boats that run between resorts from 6:55am-11:00pm. Every time they arrive or depart, they blow their horn. I guess I'm getting more used to it as it doesn't sound quite as annoying today.

As for entrance into the lounge tonight...all outer doors to BLT are locked this evening and require key card access. Once inside the main lobby, there is a hostess behind a desk to answer questions with a sign that says "Top Of The World Lounge available to DVC members and their guests staying at Bay Lake." However, she wasn't stopping anyone coming in with others to know if they were staying at BLT or not. Once inside the building, they prefer you "sign in" if you intend to go to TOWL for the fireworks so they will have a headcount. However, you can only get there from the North elevators on the ground floor, and only the elevator on the far end. Therefore, they have someone at that elevator checking DVC membership and then they will let you go up to TOWL. Having said that, she only asked for one of our cards and we all went up. Coincidentally, my key worked in the elevator and allowed us to get to the TOWL the first night without following the process. Tonight it didn't work and we had to go through all of the above. Thoroughly enjoyed the show, and was pleasantly surprised the hear the audio from the fireworks show piped in at the lounge so we could hear. Then, coincidentally again, the electric parade on the lake was going by on the other side of the lounge so we ran across to that balcony to see that show too.

 

[Cherokeezebra]

Sorry, can't figure out how to post pics here. Help me out, it wants an email address???

 

[dclfun]

Do you feel the room size in your studio is adequate for your party size? I've only seen the larger villas but I've heard the studios are small. Thanks for taking time out of your vacation for the detailed report!---Kathy