If we can DREAM it, we can do it! ..... another 30 day vacation Update 02/07

[dizneeat]

Day 9, August 19

Goodbye Contemporary and Welcome Home to Old Key West - Part 1


It was time to move. We woke up around 6.30 and walked right to the balcony. There were just a few more hours left to enjoy the wonderful view and we wanted to take in as much as possible. Then, after having taken showers, we headed over to the lounge for breakfast.
This time it was much fuller there, but we easily found a table after picking up tea,

coffee and

orange juice. Drinks put on the table we went back for some food. Tom got

a bagel, which he toasted, cream cheese and some melon slices and I picked up

a croissant, some marmalade and some pineapple. We sat, enjoyed our breakfast and went even back for seconds but far too soon it was time to give up our table with a view again and head back to our room.
All that was left to do was to pack up the rest of our stuff. That didn’t take very long and after having checked everywhere we called bell services. We took turns sitting out on the balcony, so not to miss bell services knock and enjoyed the location and view to the fullest.

About 10 minutes after our call, there was a knock at the door and we asked to have our luggage transferred to Old Key West, which was happily agreed to.
Luggage gone, we picked up our little gift bag for the concierge and walked to the door, turned back and one more trip back to the balcony before it really was time to say goodbye. Once we had finally closed the door behind us we walked to the concierge desk, thanked them for their services and handed over our little gift bag, filled with European chocolates and got into the elevator.
On the first floor we headed over to our self parked car, got in and sadly said goodbye to the beautiful Contemporary resort. It was around 10am and we were sure that our room would not be ready at Old Key West, but we drove over to check in and start our Free Dining stay.
So, within a few minutes we heard that friendly “Welcome Home” at the gate and parked the car in front of Hospitality House. Walked over to the front desk and since we had done Online check in, everything was ready and waiting for us. As we had thought our villa was not ready, but we received our Key to the world cards and were told to call back for the room number, but our request of Turtle Pond Road had be granted and we knew we would be on a higher floor.
Our Keys to the World were loaded with our dining plan credits and since we were both thirsty, we walked over to Goods to go and picked up our Resort mugs, rinsed them out and got some soda. We sat down at the tables right outside and enjoyed being back at our new home away from home. Thirst quenched we headed back to the car, but not without a visit to the General Store, where we found a lot of neat new resort specific items. We didn’t want to buy then, so we just headed outside to the car and off we went to do some exploring. We drove over to the new Art of Animation resort, which had opened a short while ago, to check it all out.


To be continued ............

 

[podsnel]

As you know, we had to cancel our DISmoms cruise and switch it to a resort stay (one of us had a work conflict) so when we did that, we decided to add one more night to our 3 night stay at AKV Concierge- of course, that was not available (nor did I have enough points for it) but OKW HH was available, and I am REALLY looking forward to going back there! The CMs are wonderful, and we plan to take full advantage of the proximity to DTD. Also want to FINALLY try that Olivia's breakfast I have heard is so nice.

Nice update!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I like pineapple and I like chocolate, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about chocolate covered pineapple

It must have been hard to leave the CR - I don't think that I could ever get sick of that view. SO beautiful

 

[WDisneyMom]

Hard to leave CR but at least your vacation was not over!!

I really want to try OKW...mostly thanks to you and Kathy

 

[michelle9343]

I was finally able to catch up today, it only took 2 HOURS!!!! Your view from the Contemp was AMAZING. I love the lounge up there. We had friends that would stay there for a couple of week twice a year and would love to visit with them in the lounge and watch the MK fireworks!!

 

[KatMark]

Beautiful last pictures of your stay at the CR, but personally glad to see you going back "home." I do LOVE OKW...thanks to you (and the friend who gave us his points)...it's now "our home."

 

[englishrose47]

Beautiful pix of your last view Karin!!! Yea for Free dining , can't wait to hear what you ate for free !!!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Hi, Karin! I have a lot of catching up to do! The CR photos are amazing!! The highest floor we've been on at CR was the 8th, which was plenty high enough for me...but we could not have gotten photos like yours - fabulous!

LOVE the Aloha Pork Sandwich - which seems to be found at various parks under appropriate names.

 

[jenseib]

Are you using the regular site, Jen, or a special one for TAs? I read a lot about the site being bad, but I had a lot of time to look around lately and it worked just fine for me.
I even made a few dining reservations (which I let go right away again ) to try it out and it worked just flawless!
The only bug I see all the time is that when you book dining - you need to book the following day for it to show the correct day. Now, that sounds pretty confusing. Let's say you want to to book February 1, then you need to select February 2, for the first to show up in the reservation.


The offerings in the lounge were SO good! And they were refilling all the time. I think we would not have needed any other food while there.

The regular site. I have seen that with the dining too, you have to put in the wrong date and wrong time. LOL Many times it has been stalling out and says the server is busy too, but we found if you hit back and try again it will sometimes go through. I'm sure the site is going to be great once the bugs are worked out.
I also heard that the day the new promotion went live, that many people were quoting trips for themselves, only to have them be not a correct price. I think some were lucky enough to get it to go through and got an even better discount. LOL

Your view was just stunning. I love all those morning pictures (and firework shots) you got there.

 

[dizneeat]

As you know, we had to cancel our DISmoms cruise and switch it to a resort stay (one of us had a work conflict) so when we did that, we decided to add one more night to our 3 night stay at AKV Concierge- of course, that was not available (nor did I have enough points for it) but OKW HH was available, and I am REALLY looking forward to going back there! The CMs are wonderful, and we plan to take full advantage of the proximity to DTD. Also want to FINALLY try that Olivia's breakfast I have heard is so nice.

Nice update!

Ellen, if canceling your DISmoms cruise means you will stay at OKW, then at least there is some "good" in it.
I am really looking forward to staying there again in the summer and believe me, the breakfast is yummy ..... may I recommend to start it all off with some strawberries topped with brown sugar and whipped cream on top! The perfect start to any vacation or day!

I like pineapple and I like chocolate, but I'm not sure how I'd feel about chocolate covered pineapple

It must have been hard to leave the CR - I don't think that I could ever get sick of that view. SO beautiful

Maybe you should try the chocolate covered pineapple - they were actually very tasty.

You are right, it was not easy to leave the CR. We really loved our room up there and as you can see, did not spend much time anywhere else.

Hard to leave CR but at least your vacation was not over!!

I really want to try OKW...mostly thanks to you and Kathy

The only soothing thought about leaving the CR was, that we were moving on to OKW, which we love so much.
And we still had most of our vacation ahead of us, including a back to back cruise.

I was finally able to catch up today, it only took 2 HOURS!!!! Your view from the Contemp was AMAZING. I love the lounge up there. We had friends that would stay there for a couple of week twice a year and would love to visit with them in the lounge and watch the MK fireworks!!

2 HOURS to catch up? Poor girl! But it won't take long and you make your first appearance in this trip report.

We loved every minute we spent in the CR and in the lounge. It was awesome not to have to fight the crowds, but sit out on the balcony, drink in hand and watch the fireworks blast off at the MK!

 

[dizneeat]

Beautiful last pictures of your stay at the CR, but personally glad to see you going back "home." I do LOVE OKW...thanks to you (and the friend who gave us his points)...it's now "our home."

We never got tired of the view and were really sad to have to leave, but happy on the other hand to go back home to OKW.
Glad to hear that you love OKW too! I really hope you get to experience a 1 bedroom there soon - the size is just amazing.

Beautiful pix of your last view Karin!!! Yea for Free dining , can't wait to hear what you ate for free !!!

I wish I could have "packed up" the view in one of our suitcases.

We had one of those awesome British deals that gave us 40% off of OKW, plus FD, plus a $100 gift card. What else could I want to make me stay there.
Hm, I wonder if you could guess where that first meal was? I have fond memories of eating there in your company.

Hi, Karin! I have a lot of catching up to do! The CR photos are amazing!! The highest floor we've been on at CR was the 8th, which was plenty high enough for me...but we could not have gotten photos like yours - fabulous!

LOVE the Aloha Pork Sandwich - which seems to be found at various parks under appropriate names.

Christine, I hope you are all caught up by now.
We just loved the 12th floor! So awesome. The view was just unbelieveable. I could have moved in there.

We just love the Aloha Pork Sandwich, it's a bit different to your usual pulled pork sandwich. The slaw that comes with it, is just devine and so are the Poly chips.

BTW, Christine, I started my PTR for our summer vacation - just in case you missed it, it's in the PTR section and it's called "We invite you, if you dare ...."

The regular site. I have seen that with the dining too, you have to put in the wrong date and wrong time. LOL Many times it has been stalling out and says the server is busy too, but we found if you hit back and try again it will sometimes go through. I'm sure the site is going to be great once the bugs are worked out.
I also heard that the day the new promotion went live, that many people were quoting trips for themselves, only to have them be not a correct price. I think some were lucky enough to get it to go through and got an even better discount. LOL

Your view was just stunning. I love all those morning pictures (and firework shots) you got there.

I play around with the site daily to see if it acts up for me too and for the first time today it "locked me out" today. But signing out and signing in again did the trick.
I think it will take a while to get it running without any hickups (if that is even possible ) but once they have managed that, it will be an awesome site.

It's a shame we cannot make it work to go back to the CR this summer, but the CR CL is something we can save again for another "celebration" year.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 9, August 19

Goodbye Contemporary and Welcome Home to Old Key West - Part 2


We drove over to the new Art of Animation resort, which had opened a short while ago, to check it all out. We parked the car in front of the check in hall and headed over.

First off, it was nice to get out of the heat and into the air conditioned building.

The front desk looked slightly familiar having stayed at some value resorts before, but the theming was awesome. Next up was the shop.

There were a lot of resort themed items too and a lot of things to check out. Our next stop was the restaurant. We both weren’t hungry, but we checked out the different stations and were sure to be back there, to give it a try. Then we walked outside.

First stop was the Nemo section,

which was so awesome and cute with the larger than life icons.

We were stunned that the had decided on having inside corridors instead of the outside, motel feel ones and we headed inside and even inside the theming continued and it all looked really nice.
Once we had finished our walk through we headed over to the next section,

the Lion King buildings.


To be continued ............

 

[Minnie&Nana]

AOA looks so bright and colorful! Sophia, Mia and Michael will be spending 2 nights in a LM room later this month - by her request for her first WDW visit. .

By the way, I was having problems with the Disney site as well - it would not recognize my ID or password even though both were correct..I did some pricing but did not save anything because it wouldn't recognize me. Did not try the TA site.

 

[Linda67]

Ooh thanks for the little guided tour of AoA

We are staying there for three nights at the end of the year

 

[jenseib]

I never even made it inside one of the corridors. I swear we just didn't have enough time to see it all this time around.

 

[englishrose47]

Great pix of AoA !1I too loved the theming !!!

 

[dizneeat]

AOA looks so bright and colorful! Sophia, Mia and Michael will be spending 2 nights in a LM room later this month - by her request for her first WDW visit. .

By the way, I was having problems with the Disney site as well - it would not recognize my ID or password even though both were correct..I did some pricing but did not save anything because it wouldn't recognize me. Did not try the TA site.

AoA is an awesome new resort. If only they had offered a discount in February we would have stayed there.
Sophia is really going to like it.

I only had a problem with the new site once. I received an error code and then it did no longer recognize either my username or password. I signed out, closed the site and started from scratch and it worked like clockwork!
Hope that works for you too!

Ooh thanks for the little guided tour of AoA

We are staying there for three nights at the end of the year

There are more pics to come, Linda. They did an awesome job with all the icons and the theming. We were really impressed!
Lucky girl, staying there!

I never even made it inside one of the corridors. I swear we just didn't have enough time to see it all this time around.

It is so cute inside as well. Some of the room doors were open for housekeeping and we even peeked in (from the hallway!) and the rooms are just amazing. Once Disney starts to give discounts on them, I guess we will stay there, too!
We spent quite some time there and could have stayed and discovered lots more, but it was SO hot that day and we needed some shade in the end.

Great pix of AoA !1I too loved the theming !!!

It is awesome, isn't it? We were so impressed with how well the theming was done. The cars section is just too cute!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Thanks for sharing your AoA pictures! I love them We were going to take a little visit over there in December, but we didn't have enough time. Maybe next trip!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Love the pics of the AOA! Thank you for sharing. I love the way the buildings are themed. I can just imagine driving up to it with children and seeing their reaction when they get to stay THERE!

 

[eandesmom]

This is the first CL lounge post, on any thread, that has actually made me even consider it. Typically I am not impressed with the food I see in the pictures. I'm seeing lovely, unique options in your update, seriously yum! It made me want to go make a plate of cheeses and pate to go with my wine. But since we had the Boma Coconut Curry Chicken Stew simmering on the stove, I didn't. And that verandah, yes, I could live out there!

It's funny, I love the fact that AoA has inside corridors, I can't stand outside ones unless the room has a balcony of it's own but it seems a lot of people aren't happy about the inside corridors. I wouldn't mind staying there someday for a night.