We are back from our trip 12/26/07 to 1/5/08 at VWL. We had a great time in spite of the insane crowds. We kept the kids out of school for 3 extra days, hoping that the crowds would drop off after the 1st, but that never happened. We had one morning at MK (1/2/08) which was practically deserted for a couple of hours, but it became extremely crowded in the afternoon that day. That was the first day of a real cold snap, so I guess a lot of people waited until it warmed up a little bit to come out to the parks.
We got to the parks early every day and used FastPass, so we got to do everything we wanted to do. Our first night (12/26) was our anniversary, so we celebrated by attending the Candlelight Processional, one of our favorite things at WDW. We had decided not to go to the parks on NYE, since we did that 2 years ago and the crowds were a nightmare. We spent a little time at Downtown Disney that day, and had dinner at Narcoosee's. We've never eaten there before, and we really enjoyed the restaurant. They had a DJ, and someone there making balloon animals for the children. We saw Holiday Wishes as we were arriving at the restaurant before our seating, and then Fantasy in the Sky at midnight from the porch at Narcoosee's. It was a very nice and relaxing way to spend NYE.
We really enjoyed spending the holidays at VWL, our favorite resort. Our room was ready when we checked in at about 11:45 a.m., which was a very nice surprise. We only experienced one issue while we were there, with housekeeping. We always request daily trash and towel service when at WDW. This has never been a problem in the past. I make the request when I make the reservation, but it has been my experience that Member Services does not always pass this along to housekeeping at the resort. Therefore, I always call housekeeping when we check in to confirm this request. I did this as soon as we checked in this time, and was told "no problem" by housekeeping. They even called me back to be sure that I knew there was an extra charge for this service, and I told them I was aware of this. Well, when we returned from the parks the following day, no trash and towel had been done. It was late at night at that point, so I called housekeeping and asked them to do it the following day. Next day, same thing. I called housekeeping again and spoke to the manager of the department, who said that they would be sure we received trash and towel for the remainder of our stay. The following day was our regularly scheduled full cleaning, then after that we did receive the trash and towel for two days. However, after those two days, it was not done for the remainder of our stay, even after more calls to housekeeping. I did not want to get a reputation as a DVC member who complains too much, so I gave up and ordered an extra set of towels and washed towels for the rest of the stay.
This is probably not a very big deal, and it did not by any means ruin our stay, but it was not up to the level of service that we have received in the past and have come to expect at VWL. It may just be that the staff was overwhelmed by the number of guests at the resort while we were there. We stayed at BWV in February 2007 and found the housekeeping service there to be superior to that at VWL. I think I may send an e-mail to DVC to make them aware of this.
All in all, we had a wonderful time and will still return to our home away from home as soon as possible!
We got to the parks early every day and used FastPass, so we got to do everything we wanted to do. Our first night (12/26) was our anniversary, so we celebrated by attending the Candlelight Processional, one of our favorite things at WDW. We had decided not to go to the parks on NYE, since we did that 2 years ago and the crowds were a nightmare. We spent a little time at Downtown Disney that day, and had dinner at Narcoosee's. We've never eaten there before, and we really enjoyed the restaurant. They had a DJ, and someone there making balloon animals for the children. We saw Holiday Wishes as we were arriving at the restaurant before our seating, and then Fantasy in the Sky at midnight from the porch at Narcoosee's. It was a very nice and relaxing way to spend NYE.
We really enjoyed spending the holidays at VWL, our favorite resort. Our room was ready when we checked in at about 11:45 a.m., which was a very nice surprise. We only experienced one issue while we were there, with housekeeping. We always request daily trash and towel service when at WDW. This has never been a problem in the past. I make the request when I make the reservation, but it has been my experience that Member Services does not always pass this along to housekeeping at the resort. Therefore, I always call housekeeping when we check in to confirm this request. I did this as soon as we checked in this time, and was told "no problem" by housekeeping. They even called me back to be sure that I knew there was an extra charge for this service, and I told them I was aware of this. Well, when we returned from the parks the following day, no trash and towel had been done. It was late at night at that point, so I called housekeeping and asked them to do it the following day. Next day, same thing. I called housekeeping again and spoke to the manager of the department, who said that they would be sure we received trash and towel for the remainder of our stay. The following day was our regularly scheduled full cleaning, then after that we did receive the trash and towel for two days. However, after those two days, it was not done for the remainder of our stay, even after more calls to housekeeping. I did not want to get a reputation as a DVC member who complains too much, so I gave up and ordered an extra set of towels and washed towels for the rest of the stay.
This is probably not a very big deal, and it did not by any means ruin our stay, but it was not up to the level of service that we have received in the past and have come to expect at VWL. It may just be that the staff was overwhelmed by the number of guests at the resort while we were there. We stayed at BWV in February 2007 and found the housekeeping service there to be superior to that at VWL. I think I may send an e-mail to DVC to make them aware of this.
All in all, we had a wonderful time and will still return to our home away from home as soon as possible!
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