Help deciding which resort

[oceanwave]

We currently have a reservation for a 1 bedroom villa at BWV. We have stayed here twice before and love the resort and area.

I am thinking about changing our reservation to a 1 bedroom at OKW. It would cost less and we could add an extra night and still come in under what BWV would cost. The size of the villa would give us some extra space and the atmosphere looks very relaxing. Also looks like there a 3 playgrounds and there is sand to play in. If we do stay here where would be the best place to request?

We have stayed at SSR before, how does the size compare with OKW with walking times?

There will be 3 of us, my husband, myself and our 3 year old. I will also have an ecv. We have been to Disney a number of times and we do not do the parks all day long. We like morning in the parks and resort in the afternoon. Also we will not have a car. I would love your opinions on which resort we should stay at.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Only 3 of the buildings at OKW have elevators, so I'm always nervous about staying there, now that I use an ECV. We always request first floor or elevator building, and always gotten first floor but I'm still nervous-what if some time we get upper floor. However, besides that I do love everything about OKW-the most relaxing resort at WDW.

 

[MilesMouse]

DW and I stayed at OKW over marathon weekend this past year because we rented points and it was the only thing available at the time we booked. We were a little disappointed but we were so surprised after day 1 and loving it as much as we did. You feel like you're inside a whole other bubble inside the WDW bubble. It's got a great community feel and so relaxing. We stayed pretty close to the hospitality house and was about a 3-4 minute walk. We didn't really know how big the property was until we took the bus for the first time. We were stop 1 and it took somewhere around 10 minutes to make it around every stop. There's not a very good chance I'd be walking from one of the back properties to the front. The one night we stayed at SSR it seemed like a mile walk from where we were to the front...probably similar to what it would be like from the back of OKW to the front without using the internal bus system. My advice would be to request near Hospitality house. We looked at a map of the property online and made our requests based on what was closest to the front. The boat to and from Disney Springs was also pretty cool and we did that a couple times.

Like Simaba's mom pointed out, it's pretty much all stairs so hopefully you can get ground floor and close to HH.

Edited to add that if I was picking between only SSR or OKW, I'd pick OKW every time.

 

[oceanwave]

Only 3 of the buildings at OKW have elevators, so I'm always nervous about staying there, now that I use an ECV. We always request first floor or elevator building, and always gotten first floor but I'm still nervous-what if some time we get upper floor. However, besides that I do love everything about OKW-the most relaxing resort at WDW.

The lack of elevators do make me nervous, but hearing you always have gotten the first floor helps. Thanks!

DW and I stayed at OKW over marathon weekend this past year because we rented points and it was the only thing available at the time we booked. We were a little disappointed but we were so surprised after day 1 and loving it as much as we did. You feel like you're inside a whole other bubble inside the WDW bubble. It's got a great community feel and so relaxing. We stayed pretty close to the hospitality house and was about a 3-4 minute walk. We didn't really know how big the property was until we took the bus for the first time. We were stop 1 and it took somewhere around 10 minutes to make it around every stop. There's not a very good chance I'd be walking from one of the back properties to the front. The one night we stayed at SSR it seemed like a mile walk from where we were to the front...probably similar to what it would be like from the back of OKW to the front without using the internal bus system. My advice would be to request near Hospitality house. We looked at a map of the property online and made our requests based on what was closest to the front. The boat to and from Disney Springs was also pretty cool and we did that a couple times.

Like Simaba's mom pointed out, it's pretty much all stairs so hopefully you can get ground floor and close to HH.

Edited to add that if I was picking between only SSR or OKW, I'd pick OKW every time.

Thanks for this info. It's good to hear you liked it more than you thought you would.

 

[The Jackal]

The walk from the furthest villa to HH is a little over 10 minutes. It is not bad. This May I did the Southern Most 3K fun run there. It started at the tennis courts and went to the furthest villas and back, with some extra turns to for more distance. 3K is about 1.8 miles. Lots of sand for the little ones to play in. The closer you are to the HH the busier it gets. Lots of buses and golf carts. The resort is in great shape and it takes a lot of constant work to keep it that way. SSR is much, much quieter then the HH area.