Been back a whole week and it seems like much longer. Sigh.....
We had a great trip, despite the 85 degree temps with 100% humidity and the possibility of impending rain much of the time. I just don't feel energetic when it's hot and humid. Only 4 mosquito bites and we were usually out at night, so they must be dying off. Truly, truly loved Wishes and Philharmagic, but both of us didn't feeling like risking it on the new space attraction. This was our first Food & Wine and we thought the food choices were great and had great fun 'dining around' for 2 lunches and 1 dinner.
We spent Saturday @ the Dolphin, nurse's rate, since our flight landed at 6PM (first time on Song --- great flight). Compulsive me, wanting to beat anyone else checking on 11/2 to the 'best' 1 BR near Turtle Pond pool, took a bus to OKW to check in at 8 AM. I'd called first and was told that even though we had a room tentatively assigned that tried to accomodate our requests, if someone else got there before us, they could take that room. In the end, DH and I decided we're complicating this too much. I truly do believe there's pros and cons to most things in life, and DVC rooms are no different.
We'd requested non-smoking, upper floor, near Turtle Pond pool. DH also mentioned to me that he didn't want to be near the bus stop or turn-around, so I kept that in mind. The room that was selected for us was upper floor, Building 40, and the bus turns around right in front of that. So, I started to worry and asked if there was something else. I promise that I was very, very polite and friendly, and the CM really tried to help me. She immediately found a 1st floor room in Building 47, where we stayed last year. I didn't really want 1st floor. She thought there was a 2nd floor, but then couldn't access it. She went in back and found a 3rd floor in a building that wasn't nearly as close to the pool. I deliberated and hemmed and hawed and finally took the 1st floor in Bldg 47 because I knew it was close to the pool. I'll be the 1st to admit now that this was all an unnecessary waste of the CMs time and my time, but thought I had to try to get the perfect room. I did thank her profusely, many times. She was probably clenching her teeth and swearing under her breath. At least there weren't people waiting.
Room ended up not being ready until exactly 4 PM --- one CM told me during the 2PM call that the carpets were being shampooed and it wouldn't be available for 4. We were directly below the great room we had last year, and just as we were unloading the car, the people who got that room above us were unloading their car. We decided right away that we didn't like them. So, even checking in at 8 AM didn't secure us the room we'd have really liked. Turned out that our room was just fine and we had a very restful stay there. It was in good shape and housekeeping had done their job getting it ready for us. We just happen to like being on a higher floor.
[DH and I drove around the area before getting into our room and realized that both the other buildings would have probably been just fine, also. He think we'd have had a view of the Illuminations fireworks, which would have been cool. And it would have probably been a 2 minute walk to the pool instead of a 40 second walk. It came as a complete surprise to us that when we're on the patio we could hear the bus at the Turtle Pond bus stop, as well as the South Point bus ---- it really wasn't a bothersome amount of noise ---- but we didn't remember noticing that last year at all.]
So...... the moral of the story (for us), is that we're going to stop fretting about where it's located and definitely not let it affect our vacation........... but some of you have already figured this out
We had a great trip, despite the 85 degree temps with 100% humidity and the possibility of impending rain much of the time. I just don't feel energetic when it's hot and humid. Only 4 mosquito bites and we were usually out at night, so they must be dying off. Truly, truly loved Wishes and Philharmagic, but both of us didn't feeling like risking it on the new space attraction. This was our first Food & Wine and we thought the food choices were great and had great fun 'dining around' for 2 lunches and 1 dinner.
We spent Saturday @ the Dolphin, nurse's rate, since our flight landed at 6PM (first time on Song --- great flight). Compulsive me, wanting to beat anyone else checking on 11/2 to the 'best' 1 BR near Turtle Pond pool, took a bus to OKW to check in at 8 AM. I'd called first and was told that even though we had a room tentatively assigned that tried to accomodate our requests, if someone else got there before us, they could take that room. In the end, DH and I decided we're complicating this too much. I truly do believe there's pros and cons to most things in life, and DVC rooms are no different.
We'd requested non-smoking, upper floor, near Turtle Pond pool. DH also mentioned to me that he didn't want to be near the bus stop or turn-around, so I kept that in mind. The room that was selected for us was upper floor, Building 40, and the bus turns around right in front of that. So, I started to worry and asked if there was something else. I promise that I was very, very polite and friendly, and the CM really tried to help me. She immediately found a 1st floor room in Building 47, where we stayed last year. I didn't really want 1st floor. She thought there was a 2nd floor, but then couldn't access it. She went in back and found a 3rd floor in a building that wasn't nearly as close to the pool. I deliberated and hemmed and hawed and finally took the 1st floor in Bldg 47 because I knew it was close to the pool. I'll be the 1st to admit now that this was all an unnecessary waste of the CMs time and my time, but thought I had to try to get the perfect room. I did thank her profusely, many times. She was probably clenching her teeth and swearing under her breath. At least there weren't people waiting.
Room ended up not being ready until exactly 4 PM --- one CM told me during the 2PM call that the carpets were being shampooed and it wouldn't be available for 4. We were directly below the great room we had last year, and just as we were unloading the car, the people who got that room above us were unloading their car. We decided right away that we didn't like them. So, even checking in at 8 AM didn't secure us the room we'd have really liked. Turned out that our room was just fine and we had a very restful stay there. It was in good shape and housekeeping had done their job getting it ready for us. We just happen to like being on a higher floor.
[DH and I drove around the area before getting into our room and realized that both the other buildings would have probably been just fine, also. He think we'd have had a view of the Illuminations fireworks, which would have been cool. And it would have probably been a 2 minute walk to the pool instead of a 40 second walk. It came as a complete surprise to us that when we're on the patio we could hear the bus at the Turtle Pond bus stop, as well as the South Point bus ---- it really wasn't a bothersome amount of noise ---- but we didn't remember noticing that last year at all.]
So...... the moral of the story (for us), is that we're going to stop fretting about where it's located and definitely not let it affect our vacation........... but some of you have already figured this out
