snowbunny
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2005
- Messages
- 2,792
Returned from our first trip to BWV yesterday 10/31 - five nights in a grand villa to kick off our ownership!
Bottom line, the accomodation and staff were fabulous. And I'm not just saying that because of the GV, it was almost too big for us. But what a beautiful resort. Sparkling clean, you could smell the fresh paint.
High points: ** staff helpfulness (yes, I washed my park passes in the pocket of my shorts - THANKS to whoever it was on this board that said to always make a photocopy of your passes, that probably saved me an hour). The concierge printed me up new room cards with our passes right on them, it took only a minute. The valet parking attendants were awesome, made sure we knew where we were going and repeated directions with supreme patience as many times as we asked.
** Accomodation - I was amazed at how quiet it was in the villa, even right over the boardwalk. We were in 5047. Heard the boat horns fairly late but that's about it as long as we closed our balcony doors.
** Luna park pool - kids loved it. We walked over and took a look at SAB, it so crowded. I guess I was expecting nirvana but we came away from the BC happy to be returning home to BWV. We did enjoy the burgers at B&C but it was so crowded, despite a very nice waitress it took forever.
** Parade at MNSSHP 10/30 - lots of fun. The Pirates float was great, the Captain Jack guy really is a dead ringer for Johnny Depp, at least in his pirate getup. We also saw part of his show outside Pirates one day.
** Dinners at Flying Fish and Artist Point. GREAT servers (thanks Gary!) and cuisine, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves both nights. I missed dinner at Le Cellier to hang out in the suite with my 9 year old, he needed some down time, but my relatives said it was really good.
** Surf lesson at Typhoon Lagoon. The 12 and 24 year olds in our party had a great time with this, neither had ever surfed, and we got some awesome video, it justified the $$$ price. Both of them were able to get up on their boards and surf.
** Barbershp. First time we did this - both gut cuts, and my DD also an updo and gel streaks. We enjoyed talking with the stylists and hanging out there.
** General ambience - I really did not see much un-magical behavior. One lady accidentally drove in front of us on her ECV and she turned around and apologized profusely, which wasn't necessary as we had seen her coming. People seemed really nice everywhere we went.
Lower points: ** California Grill - an absolute zoo. I'm glad we did it once, but we won't be returning. Some of the dishes were excellent, but overall the quality was uneven. I don't need stone quiet - Flying Fish was also bustling, an enjoyable bustle - but it was too frenetic IMO. The server was excellent.
We enjoyed ourselves so much at Artist Point and so much less at CG, it colored our whole view of the two resorts. We all agreed we'd love to stay at VWL sometime, and - justifiably or not - the idea of CRV is not as thrilling anymore.
** MNSSHP - we had a good time, but perhaps because we were exhausted from getting up at 6:00 for the surfing lesson, we couldn't do it justice and left before the second parade. It was crowded - not horribly so - but the levels seemed similar to those we'd experienced during the day. I'm just not sure it was worth $42.95.
Now back to the grind!!
Bottom line, the accomodation and staff were fabulous. And I'm not just saying that because of the GV, it was almost too big for us. But what a beautiful resort. Sparkling clean, you could smell the fresh paint.
High points: ** staff helpfulness (yes, I washed my park passes in the pocket of my shorts - THANKS to whoever it was on this board that said to always make a photocopy of your passes, that probably saved me an hour). The concierge printed me up new room cards with our passes right on them, it took only a minute. The valet parking attendants were awesome, made sure we knew where we were going and repeated directions with supreme patience as many times as we asked.
** Accomodation - I was amazed at how quiet it was in the villa, even right over the boardwalk. We were in 5047. Heard the boat horns fairly late but that's about it as long as we closed our balcony doors.
** Luna park pool - kids loved it. We walked over and took a look at SAB, it so crowded. I guess I was expecting nirvana but we came away from the BC happy to be returning home to BWV. We did enjoy the burgers at B&C but it was so crowded, despite a very nice waitress it took forever.
** Parade at MNSSHP 10/30 - lots of fun. The Pirates float was great, the Captain Jack guy really is a dead ringer for Johnny Depp, at least in his pirate getup. We also saw part of his show outside Pirates one day.
** Dinners at Flying Fish and Artist Point. GREAT servers (thanks Gary!) and cuisine, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves both nights. I missed dinner at Le Cellier to hang out in the suite with my 9 year old, he needed some down time, but my relatives said it was really good.
** Surf lesson at Typhoon Lagoon. The 12 and 24 year olds in our party had a great time with this, neither had ever surfed, and we got some awesome video, it justified the $$$ price. Both of them were able to get up on their boards and surf.
** Barbershp. First time we did this - both gut cuts, and my DD also an updo and gel streaks. We enjoyed talking with the stylists and hanging out there.
** General ambience - I really did not see much un-magical behavior. One lady accidentally drove in front of us on her ECV and she turned around and apologized profusely, which wasn't necessary as we had seen her coming. People seemed really nice everywhere we went.
Lower points: ** California Grill - an absolute zoo. I'm glad we did it once, but we won't be returning. Some of the dishes were excellent, but overall the quality was uneven. I don't need stone quiet - Flying Fish was also bustling, an enjoyable bustle - but it was too frenetic IMO. The server was excellent.
We enjoyed ourselves so much at Artist Point and so much less at CG, it colored our whole view of the two resorts. We all agreed we'd love to stay at VWL sometime, and - justifiably or not - the idea of CRV is not as thrilling anymore.
** MNSSHP - we had a good time, but perhaps because we were exhausted from getting up at 6:00 for the surfing lesson, we couldn't do it justice and left before the second parade. It was crowded - not horribly so - but the levels seemed similar to those we'd experienced during the day. I'm just not sure it was worth $42.95.
Now back to the grind!!
