We just returned from a short "bonus" trip to wdw -- APs expired yesterday. This was our first stay at FW -- we have previously stayed at yc, poly, csr, po-r, cbr and as-sports. We paid $144 ap rate.
Positives: We loved the cabin itself. It was much nicer than I expected it to be, actually -- not sure what I was expecting. It was larger and not quite as rustic. Very comfortable for five people, and having a full-size refrigerator was great. We didn't really use the kitchen except to stash our breakfast stuff on the counters and to make coffee. And having the van parked right in front of the room was really convenient since we arrived in a rainstorm. I also found FW to be very beautiful and lush -- really was like entering a different world. There seemed to be lots of activities, but, of course, we didn't take advantage of them on a short trip.
Now, for the negatives. The front desk did not seem to be adequately staffed. We arrived on Friday evening in the middle of a thunderstorm. We had planned to go to e-night and were still on the fence at check-in. As luck would have it, the computers went down while we were checking in. We got no room keys (except one master one to use to unlock the door to the cabin) and the cm said he couldn't sell me e-night tickets. He had no ideas (or concern, really), either. I'm guessing we could have gotten e-night tickets at guest services at MK (my idea, not his), but we just decided not to go since it was still raining. He told me he would bring the room keys to the cabin as soon as the system was back up. This did not happen. Since we didn't do e-night, we wanted to do emh Saturday. I called the front desk before I went to bed Friday night and could not get an answer. Kept getting their "Howdy, someone will be with you shortly" recording. I called again on Saturday a.m. and got the same thing. We had to go by there in person. If you haven't stayed at FW, keep in mind that this is NOTHING like going down to the front desk in a hotel -- not at all convenient. Once we got the room keys, one of the adult ones was "not valid for charging" and, of course, I ended up with that one! On Sunday morning, we did not get our bill and I called the front desk and got someone in only about 5 minutes, who said we were not set up for express check out. Never happened to me before in many Disney trips. Again, this was an issue b/c we were trying to get to emh.
The other big issue at FW is transportation. In my opinion, this is just not a good place to stay if the primary emphasis of your Disney trip is the theme parks. I think it would be a fun place to stay, if you were going to take lots of time off and just do the parks a little bit. We also like to get to parks early, but seem to always be running behind. At FW, you have to ride the internal bus, then transfer to either a bus or boat to the park. You also have to ride a bus to get to the store, the restaurants, etc. This is not awful, of course, except that there are all those resorts where you don't have to do it! Our pace at Disney just isn't suited for FW. One transportation plus, though, is that it's easy to get directly to another resort in the evening b/c of the Hoop-dee-doo.
I also learned the hard way that things close up earlier at FW, too. I went to the store about 10 p.m. to get milk and some sort of dinner (We had planned to eat at MK at e-night). Oops -- it was closed. Ditto for Trails End (10 p.m. F and S, and 9:30 p.m. the other nights). We had to get in the car and zip over to the Contemporary for milk and food from the snack bar. I believe ALL the other resort stores close at 11 p.m.
All in all, I thought FW was beautiful and the cabin comfortable and would be thrilled with it if it were somewhere other than Disney!
Positives: We loved the cabin itself. It was much nicer than I expected it to be, actually -- not sure what I was expecting. It was larger and not quite as rustic. Very comfortable for five people, and having a full-size refrigerator was great. We didn't really use the kitchen except to stash our breakfast stuff on the counters and to make coffee. And having the van parked right in front of the room was really convenient since we arrived in a rainstorm. I also found FW to be very beautiful and lush -- really was like entering a different world. There seemed to be lots of activities, but, of course, we didn't take advantage of them on a short trip.
Now, for the negatives. The front desk did not seem to be adequately staffed. We arrived on Friday evening in the middle of a thunderstorm. We had planned to go to e-night and were still on the fence at check-in. As luck would have it, the computers went down while we were checking in. We got no room keys (except one master one to use to unlock the door to the cabin) and the cm said he couldn't sell me e-night tickets. He had no ideas (or concern, really), either. I'm guessing we could have gotten e-night tickets at guest services at MK (my idea, not his), but we just decided not to go since it was still raining. He told me he would bring the room keys to the cabin as soon as the system was back up. This did not happen. Since we didn't do e-night, we wanted to do emh Saturday. I called the front desk before I went to bed Friday night and could not get an answer. Kept getting their "Howdy, someone will be with you shortly" recording. I called again on Saturday a.m. and got the same thing. We had to go by there in person. If you haven't stayed at FW, keep in mind that this is NOTHING like going down to the front desk in a hotel -- not at all convenient. Once we got the room keys, one of the adult ones was "not valid for charging" and, of course, I ended up with that one! On Sunday morning, we did not get our bill and I called the front desk and got someone in only about 5 minutes, who said we were not set up for express check out. Never happened to me before in many Disney trips. Again, this was an issue b/c we were trying to get to emh.
The other big issue at FW is transportation. In my opinion, this is just not a good place to stay if the primary emphasis of your Disney trip is the theme parks. I think it would be a fun place to stay, if you were going to take lots of time off and just do the parks a little bit. We also like to get to parks early, but seem to always be running behind. At FW, you have to ride the internal bus, then transfer to either a bus or boat to the park. You also have to ride a bus to get to the store, the restaurants, etc. This is not awful, of course, except that there are all those resorts where you don't have to do it! Our pace at Disney just isn't suited for FW. One transportation plus, though, is that it's easy to get directly to another resort in the evening b/c of the Hoop-dee-doo.
I also learned the hard way that things close up earlier at FW, too. I went to the store about 10 p.m. to get milk and some sort of dinner (We had planned to eat at MK at e-night). Oops -- it was closed. Ditto for Trails End (10 p.m. F and S, and 9:30 p.m. the other nights). We had to get in the car and zip over to the Contemporary for milk and food from the snack bar. I believe ALL the other resort stores close at 11 p.m.
All in all, I thought FW was beautiful and the cabin comfortable and would be thrilled with it if it were somewhere other than Disney!
