how long to WDW from Oak Plantation

[tlens]

How long is the drive from the Oak Plantation to WDW? We are booked there for August 17-24 but are considering changing to the VV since it's closer. We called the hotels and were told 20 minutes on a good day from OP and 15 minutes max. from VV. Are these times pretty accurate?
Thanks

 

[baileybrad]

Obviously to "WDW" varies with where you are headed ie., which park, resort, etc. We stayed at OP in late August over Labor Day and again in early December. Traffic was not too heavy at either time of the year. I would be surprised if it takes you over 20 minutes to get to any park from there. We were at VV in late January and I would say the time from the parking lot to the parking lot of one of the parks was between 12 to 15 minutes. If you use the 535/536 roads to get to the Disney parks from OP your times will be much better than driving up 192 the entire way. I would not switch resorts just for the travel time issue. The OP has to be much cheaper than VV at this time of the year.

 

[tlens]

Thanks. It's only $30.00 more a night through hotel kingdom. We have a 2 1/2 year old so we were hoping to go back to the room in the afternoon to nap/swim. What did you think of the VV?

 

[baileybrad]

Depending on the size of the accomodations, I would definitely opt for VV over OP for a difference of only $30 a night (I am so generous when it comes to your money ) depending on the size of the unit. Is it a 2 bedroom at both places, for example? We are right there with most folks when it comes to VV...it is a really great place to stay. Great pool, beautiful grounds, and still new enough rooms that it is in really good shape. We were in a 2 bedroom for 10 nights. We have a (at the time an almost 2 year old and a 4 year old) need for daily naps, too. When we were at OP the 4 year old was 14 months and 17 months. We had no problem with getting back to OP for the naps but as you already know VV is nicer than OP. That said we would still stay at OP if a good situation presented itself. We are members of the DVC and are used to staying nice places and OP was more than adequate. Hope this helps...if you have anymore questions, ask away and I will do my best to answer.

 

[tlens]

Thanks again for the info. We are booked in a one bedroom at VV for 86.90/night. From what I have read there are a couple different types of one bedrooms, a small one and a larger one with a balcony. I am going to fax them the week we leave and ask for a balcony to try to avoid the smaller of the one bedrooms. I really like the fact it has a zero depth entry pool so my daughter can go in as far as she feels comfortable.

 

[baileybrad]

The pool at VV is very nice. The "kiddie water area" is quite large with a little sprinkler in the middle of that particular area. OP also has a couple type of 1 bedrooms, we were lucky enough to get one of the larger units the first time there or we would not have even known. When we arrived for our 2nd stay we were given one of the smaller 1 bedroom units so we returned to the front desk and they put us in one of the larger ones. We were at WDW in October '01 staying at OKW on points and drove over to VV to look around for our Jan. '02 stay and were directed to a 1 bedroom model and a 2 bedroom model. I am not sure what size the 1 bedroom was but it was very nice. Hope you have a great stay....this is a very nice resort. We did the timeshare deal early one morning and received $100 cash. It was very low key. We did have 10 days there so it didn't take much time out of our trip.

 

[tlens]

What did you do with your kids when you were on the timeshare tour? Also, how long did it take. Since you say it's low key, I'd be inclined to do it. $100.00 takes 1/2 the cost off of moving to VV from OP.

 

[baileybrad]

Remember we were there in late January and the resort was not real busy. We did it on a Saturday morning for the first appointment we could arrange...I believe it was 7:30 am. While we were eating the complimentary continental breakfast our salesperson came over and greeted us and made some small talk. When it came time to start the presentation, we went back to sign in our 4 year old in the play room. We intended all along to keep our nearly 2 year old with us. The 4 year old was a bit hesitant (there was only 2 other kids about 10 years old in there playing a video game) to stay in the play center, nothing major but it was a strange place to him and our salesperson sensed this so he suggested that we just sit down in the play area at a large table and do it there. He was a father of 5 so he had good instincts about children. He did his presentation while both of kids played in the background. He did say that you probably couldn't do this during the busier times of the year because the room would be full of children. No other kids came in while he was doing his spill and the other 2 left within a few minutes. Our presentation did not take but around an hour and 20 minutes. We told him early on that we owned at Disney and had no intentions of buying at this time. We did say that we were interested in Sheraton's approach and would hopefully be able to refer some friends. Hope this helps. As young as your child is I would just bring her with you.