Just got back last night..

[keriannhoward]

We just got back at 11 pm last night from 3 days at WDW. Here are some things to think about that we learned this time:

We stayed at the HI Nikky Bird resort because there was absolutely nothing on property at any price. My inlaws stayed at Coronado Springs so I was able to compare the rooms. We paid a total of $219 for 3 nights, including tax and resort fees. We had a standard HI room, including a very small fridge and microwave, with 2 double beds. We met my inlaws in their room in the mornings and their room was a tad smaller than ours, without the fridge and microwave. Although ours was older and shabbier and didn't have a Disney wakeup call, we were perfectly satisfied with it, since we don't spend much time there. My inlaws paid $88 a night plus tax for their room and another $10 a night for high speed internet a day. If I'm going for several days and plan to spend time relaxing in my room, I'd definately spend the extra money for a deluxe resort, but I think our rooms were fairly comparable sizewise.

I brought packets of instant oatmeal and grits, bagels and cream cheese and precooked 2 pounds of bacon at home. I packed all the perishables in a cooler, along with 2 gallons of milk (I get milk for $2.19 a gallon at BJ's) and utilized the fridge. It was small but did fit 2 gallons of milk and 3 2 liters of coke as well as the bacon and cream cheese with no problems. I used the coffeemaker to get hot water in the mornings to make the oatmeal and grits for my sons and dh. I figure we saved easily $60 at least, if not more by eating just that one meal in the room. It also gave them something to do while dh and I got ready.

I bought one children's lunch for $3.49 plus tax and got the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The meal was a Smucker's Uncrustable sandwich still in the package, a small bag of Lay's chips and a drink. Since I'd already brought sippy cups with milk in a thermal cooler for ds and a ziploc bag of goldfish, all I needed was the sandwich. Next time I'll buy my own Uncrustables and throw them in the diaper bag and save that money.


We used the Florida resident play 4 days passes and felt they were more than worth the money. We still have 1 day left on our passes, so we'll use that and then the purchase price of our pass will be applied to a Florida resident seasonal pass for just dh and I.

 

[Ozymoe]

<I>We still have 1 day left on our passes, so we'll use that and then the purchase price of our pass will be applied to a Florida resident seasonal pass for just dh and I.</I>

...you ARE aware that the purchase price of your 4-day pass will be applied to the "seasonal resident pass" ...dating from the first date you used the "play for 4"?...

...which still sounds like a good bargain..yes?

 

[keriannhoward]

Yes, we knew that I guess I didn't word it very well. We're going to use our one last day remaining on our pass and then we'll upgrade that day at guest services to the seasonal pass!

 

[WDWisTheBest]

Originally posted by keriannhoward
Yes, we knew that I guess I didn't word it very well. We're going to use our one last day remaining on our pass and then we'll upgrade that day at guest services to the seasonal pass!

Would you please give more input about the Nikky Bird? The reason for this is that there are many posters asking about it.
You may provide information that could help them in making a decision whether to use it on their next visit. Thanks.

 

[keriannhoward]

Would you please give more input about the Nikky Bird? The reason for this is that there are many posters asking about it.
You may provide information that could help them in making a decision whether to use it on their next visit. Thanks.



I'll post this on the Orlando hotels board as well


We checked into the HI Nikky Bird resort on Friday, Feb 6th. I made the reservations through HI so I had requested a room facing the pool with 2 double beds. Check in was really fast, it took less than 10 minutes for us to be in our room and unpacking. Our room was upstairs and faced the smallest heated pool. Our pool was an average hotel sized pool, with a separate wading pool for children and a hot tub located to the side in a gazebo type open building. Even though it was 10:30 pm, there were about 8 people swimming already, but every one was very quiet. The water was heated, but not very warm considering it was about 60 degrees, so we couldn't put my baby in for long before he was shivering. There are towels poolside that were replenished while we were swimming.

Our room was a little bit larger than the rooms at the moderate resorts on property, but not more than probably 5 sq feet larger. The fridge and microwave are all one unit, so the fridge is pretty small with a tiny freezer. We only used the freezer to freeze the gel packs for my son's thermal cooler so we weren't disappointed, however I don't think you could keep meat or juice frozen in it. The fridge fit 2 gallons of milk sideways and 3 2 liters of coke sideways, as well as a tub of cream cheese. We got it all in but it was packed. The microwave is also small, one of the travel sized microwaves, but it worked well enough for us to heat bacon and bagels.

The carpet was old, but clean and the beds were harder than we like, but that could also have been because we're used to a queen sized bed at home and we had 2 double beds. Dh and I felt cramped in the bed together, then when the baby wanted to sleep with us, we were miserable. Next time we'll request a king bed and a rollaway bed and I think we'll be much more comfortable.


There is a Pizza Hut onsite that dh ordered pizza from on Saturday night. There is an 18% delivery charge so he walked over and picked it up, the lobby and restaurant were right across the pool from us so it wasn't a long walk. We didn't eat at the restaurant onsite, which is Angels, however they do have a breakfast and dinner buffet.

We weren't able to use the automated checkout on the tv for some reason, we had to go down to the lobby to check out. The desk clerk couldn't give us a reason why the automated checkout didn't work, either.

We got a good rate and since we were with the kids we didn't spend much time in our room, so I wasn't unhappy with the hotel. If I had paid more than what we paid ($61.99 Fri and Sat night and 56.99 for Sun night) I probably would have been a little disappointed. I wouldn't call it a resort, just a decent and cheap hotel for sleeping. If you're watching your budget, it's more than adequate with the pools and hot tubs, game room, playground and fridge and microwave.