I've been lurking here and other boards for well over a year and have gotten so much information from all of you that I felt I had to share with you the highlights of our wonderful trip!! This was our longest stay, first time at OKW and the first time we've shared DVC with others. My sister, BIL and 2 nieces, 2.5 and 5 (nieces first visit !!) came with us. We had a BLAST. As usual, it went way toooo quickly.
OKW 3/16 - 3/22
2 bedroom, building 26, room 2630. Room was in good shape. Carrying all the groceries and bags up the 3 flights of stairs was tough, but hey, you only have to do it once right? I guess the room was rehabbed, but we still had a VCR. One wierd thing happened... Thursday morning we went to breakfast at Olivia's (yum) and when we came back the dishwasher was running yet none of us remember setting it and it was nowhere near full. We just turned it off. Later when putting some things in, I noticed that there was a non sick frying pan in there! Our original frying pan was no where to be found.... then, in the silverware drawer there were 3 new non stick type utensils... hmmm... seems that they came to the room, exchanged the pan and were running it through the dishwasher when we came home. It's such a pleasure having the nonstick type, I HATE that other one!! Figures it was our 2nd to last day. lol
We did our shopping at Winn Dixie, thanks to great tip from someone here - much better prices than Goodings!! We had breakfast in the room all but the one morning mentioned above, a big time and $$ saver.
We got a big "Welcome Home" everytime we came in. It was great.
Spent time at the OKW pool, very nice. Didn't miss a slide at all. Some SpringBreakers at the pool. They were very nice and well -mannered. Some even played with the little ones.
Weather was HOT. 88 - 90 degrees everyday until Saturday. Humid too. We're calling this the "bad hair trip."
Transportation was great , every time we took the bus it appeared within 5 minutes of us arriving at the bus stop. We drove some days too, and that was nice. One bad bus trip story - we made the unfortunate decision to go to the Boardwalk which meant a bus to DTD then change to a Boardwalk bus - well, it was the time (5pm)Typhoon Lagoon closes and there was bumper to bumper traffic in front of DTW all the way down to Typhoon Lagoon where we picked up people and sat in crazy traffic of people in cars leaving there. It took us 1.5 hours to get from OKW to the Boardwalk. Even then, we got off the bus a the Swan and Dolphin and walked to the Boardwalk, we couldn't take it anymore. That was our only bad trip though.
Visited Typhoon Lagoon for the first time. It was crowded but very nice. Did the lazy river and stood in the wave pool for a while. My sister raved that the kiddie area was terrific and my nieces had a wonderful time. The men did a lot of the slides and proclaimed them, "excellent."
Hubby and I got away and went to PI - it's been a while since we've been there. There was a great band at the Beach Bar or Beach Club Bar... anyway, excellent band. They were doing an hour of 80's music at 8Trax, I was in heaven.
We had PS's at:
O'Hana - great!! So much fun for the kids. Way too much food cousin !! The staff there were wonderful. Really enjoyed this meal.
Rose and Crown - food here isn't the primary objective, although it's good. It's the IllumiNations view. We had an 8pm PS but didn't end up with an outiside table. They were very nice though and let us go outside along the walkway past the PS desk and watch though, it was still terrific. Big niece loved the show, little one was scared.
Princess Storybook Breakfast at Norway - this was fantastic!! The food was only "good" but the characters and the time to spend with them was wonderful. After meeting Belle, my 5 year old nieces said, "I have your movie, you are really good in it!" To which Belle replied, "Oh, then you know everything about me!" It was priceless. My BIL loved Jasmine (lol) and had his picture taken with her. Classic.
Cinderella's Gala Feast at 1900 Park Fare - again, not a fan of the food (plenty of it though) and IMO, the place was much too hectic and loud, although our server, Chris was terrific, very attentive and pleasant. The breakfast didn't seem this crazy and there were more characters present. When you enter the Fairy Godmother is in the lobby (she is excellent!!) and poses for pics. Then inside the restaurant the two lady mice and Prince Charming (who looked about 15!!) and Cinderella circulate the tables. Cinderella was beautiful. She's my personal favorite and this was the first time I've met her in person. Oh yeah, the nieces loved her too!! lol She spent time speaking with all of us, signed our books and posed for pics (BIL got one again, he has a Princess problem!!) and kissed each niece on the cheek, leaving her lipstick mark. Well, 5 year old niece thought this was the coolest thing ever. She was completely mesmerized. A blast for everyone.
Winnie the Pooh Buffet at the Crystal Palace at MK - didn't have PS's for this, just ended up walking in. I wasn't there, it was the night hubby and I broke away and did our own thing and Sis and BIL took the girls to MK. Sis said she just walked in and they had availability. They said it was very good, the food was excellent and the characters very friendly.
We also ate at the Mexico "take- out" cantina thing at Epcot one night. Very good!!
ESPN Zone at the Boardwalk was just fine. Andy Pettite from the Yankees was there doing an interview - cool!!
Wolfgang Puck at DTD - YUM!! Definitely going back.
Rainforest Cafe - the food is fine, the wait is insane. If it weren't for the kids, we wouldn't have waited this time. We had the "Volcano" dessert. Worth the wait. That thing is crazy.
Beaches and Cream - it's even busier now with BCV open. SAB was mobbed. No, we didn't pool hop. Love this place. Especially the Lime Rickey.
Parks were the most crowded I ever recall in March but manageable. The worst day was Wednesday at MGM, it was mobbed. RnR was down for the day so that was disappointing. Got to go on TOT and see the Beauty and the Beast show. Hubby never wants to see the shows, but traveling with the kids, he was more flexible !! So, it was a great trip for me too. lol MK, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom the crowds were better. The girls had a great time, got to get on every ride in Fantasyland with little wait the day we were there. Didn't do the whole park in one day though, they went back another evening to finish up.
Overall, we used FastPasses to our advantage - a CM told me that you can get a second FastPass 1 hour after the issue date of your first one, which was news to me. I had read that you can a 2nd one at the beginning of the hour of your return time on the first one but not this, which is definitely better. It worked too. Try it.
Sadly, on Friday morning it rained quite a bit so we were in the room when the "Shock and Awe" bombing of Baghdad started. Really puts things in perspective. We considered ourselves very fortunate to be where we were and that we were all together. Bless our troops.
Overall, we were all very impressed with OKW (our home is VWL and we usually stay at BWV) and the spaciousness of the rooms and friendliness of the CM's. It felt more like "vacation" too. Very relaxing. It'll be tough to choose a resort next trip....
Seeing my nieces see the World for the first time was wonderful. They were so good. Sis and BIL were very impressed with our DVC arrangements but we couldn't get them to buy - they said, "hey, that's what we have you for!" Looks like we'll be traveling together again someday.
BTW - we didn't steal any towels but we did find quite a few golf balls, and we KEPT them.
Thanks to everyone here who has shared their advice and experiences, it really helped add to ours. Please ask if you have any questions. Trying to figure out how to post some pics.
Sheryl
OKW 3/16 - 3/22
2 bedroom, building 26, room 2630. Room was in good shape. Carrying all the groceries and bags up the 3 flights of stairs was tough, but hey, you only have to do it once right? I guess the room was rehabbed, but we still had a VCR. One wierd thing happened... Thursday morning we went to breakfast at Olivia's (yum) and when we came back the dishwasher was running yet none of us remember setting it and it was nowhere near full. We just turned it off. Later when putting some things in, I noticed that there was a non sick frying pan in there! Our original frying pan was no where to be found.... then, in the silverware drawer there were 3 new non stick type utensils... hmmm... seems that they came to the room, exchanged the pan and were running it through the dishwasher when we came home. It's such a pleasure having the nonstick type, I HATE that other one!! Figures it was our 2nd to last day. lol
We did our shopping at Winn Dixie, thanks to great tip from someone here - much better prices than Goodings!! We had breakfast in the room all but the one morning mentioned above, a big time and $$ saver.
We got a big "Welcome Home" everytime we came in. It was great.
Spent time at the OKW pool, very nice. Didn't miss a slide at all. Some SpringBreakers at the pool. They were very nice and well -mannered. Some even played with the little ones.
Weather was HOT. 88 - 90 degrees everyday until Saturday. Humid too. We're calling this the "bad hair trip."
Transportation was great , every time we took the bus it appeared within 5 minutes of us arriving at the bus stop. We drove some days too, and that was nice. One bad bus trip story - we made the unfortunate decision to go to the Boardwalk which meant a bus to DTD then change to a Boardwalk bus - well, it was the time (5pm)Typhoon Lagoon closes and there was bumper to bumper traffic in front of DTW all the way down to Typhoon Lagoon where we picked up people and sat in crazy traffic of people in cars leaving there. It took us 1.5 hours to get from OKW to the Boardwalk. Even then, we got off the bus a the Swan and Dolphin and walked to the Boardwalk, we couldn't take it anymore. That was our only bad trip though.
Visited Typhoon Lagoon for the first time. It was crowded but very nice. Did the lazy river and stood in the wave pool for a while. My sister raved that the kiddie area was terrific and my nieces had a wonderful time. The men did a lot of the slides and proclaimed them, "excellent."
Hubby and I got away and went to PI - it's been a while since we've been there. There was a great band at the Beach Bar or Beach Club Bar... anyway, excellent band. They were doing an hour of 80's music at 8Trax, I was in heaven.
We had PS's at:
O'Hana - great!! So much fun for the kids. Way too much food cousin !! The staff there were wonderful. Really enjoyed this meal.
Rose and Crown - food here isn't the primary objective, although it's good. It's the IllumiNations view. We had an 8pm PS but didn't end up with an outiside table. They were very nice though and let us go outside along the walkway past the PS desk and watch though, it was still terrific. Big niece loved the show, little one was scared.
Princess Storybook Breakfast at Norway - this was fantastic!! The food was only "good" but the characters and the time to spend with them was wonderful. After meeting Belle, my 5 year old nieces said, "I have your movie, you are really good in it!" To which Belle replied, "Oh, then you know everything about me!" It was priceless. My BIL loved Jasmine (lol) and had his picture taken with her. Classic.
Cinderella's Gala Feast at 1900 Park Fare - again, not a fan of the food (plenty of it though) and IMO, the place was much too hectic and loud, although our server, Chris was terrific, very attentive and pleasant. The breakfast didn't seem this crazy and there were more characters present. When you enter the Fairy Godmother is in the lobby (she is excellent!!) and poses for pics. Then inside the restaurant the two lady mice and Prince Charming (who looked about 15!!) and Cinderella circulate the tables. Cinderella was beautiful. She's my personal favorite and this was the first time I've met her in person. Oh yeah, the nieces loved her too!! lol She spent time speaking with all of us, signed our books and posed for pics (BIL got one again, he has a Princess problem!!) and kissed each niece on the cheek, leaving her lipstick mark. Well, 5 year old niece thought this was the coolest thing ever. She was completely mesmerized. A blast for everyone.
Winnie the Pooh Buffet at the Crystal Palace at MK - didn't have PS's for this, just ended up walking in. I wasn't there, it was the night hubby and I broke away and did our own thing and Sis and BIL took the girls to MK. Sis said she just walked in and they had availability. They said it was very good, the food was excellent and the characters very friendly.
We also ate at the Mexico "take- out" cantina thing at Epcot one night. Very good!!
ESPN Zone at the Boardwalk was just fine. Andy Pettite from the Yankees was there doing an interview - cool!!
Wolfgang Puck at DTD - YUM!! Definitely going back.
Rainforest Cafe - the food is fine, the wait is insane. If it weren't for the kids, we wouldn't have waited this time. We had the "Volcano" dessert. Worth the wait. That thing is crazy.
Beaches and Cream - it's even busier now with BCV open. SAB was mobbed. No, we didn't pool hop. Love this place. Especially the Lime Rickey.
Parks were the most crowded I ever recall in March but manageable. The worst day was Wednesday at MGM, it was mobbed. RnR was down for the day so that was disappointing. Got to go on TOT and see the Beauty and the Beast show. Hubby never wants to see the shows, but traveling with the kids, he was more flexible !! So, it was a great trip for me too. lol MK, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom the crowds were better. The girls had a great time, got to get on every ride in Fantasyland with little wait the day we were there. Didn't do the whole park in one day though, they went back another evening to finish up.
Overall, we used FastPasses to our advantage - a CM told me that you can get a second FastPass 1 hour after the issue date of your first one, which was news to me. I had read that you can a 2nd one at the beginning of the hour of your return time on the first one but not this, which is definitely better. It worked too. Try it.
Sadly, on Friday morning it rained quite a bit so we were in the room when the "Shock and Awe" bombing of Baghdad started. Really puts things in perspective. We considered ourselves very fortunate to be where we were and that we were all together. Bless our troops.
Overall, we were all very impressed with OKW (our home is VWL and we usually stay at BWV) and the spaciousness of the rooms and friendliness of the CM's. It felt more like "vacation" too. Very relaxing. It'll be tough to choose a resort next trip....
Seeing my nieces see the World for the first time was wonderful. They were so good. Sis and BIL were very impressed with our DVC arrangements but we couldn't get them to buy - they said, "hey, that's what we have you for!" Looks like we'll be traveling together again someday.
BTW - we didn't steal any towels but we did find quite a few golf balls, and we KEPT them.
Thanks to everyone here who has shared their advice and experiences, it really helped add to ours. Please ask if you have any questions. Trying to figure out how to post some pics.
Sheryl
