schewy
Owner of The Trip Station
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2005
- Messages
- 175
My family and I just returned from a great trip to WDW (Nov 14-20). We stayed at both the AKV, Kidani Village and Bay Lake Tower. We stayed int he one bedroom at each place.
At Kidani village we had the standard view, becuase we were only staying one night. Right above the current bus transportation stop. Believe it or not, the room was surprisingly quite. I only heard the buses one time during the night. The room was large and the master bath was HUGE! It was almost half the size of a studio.
I used the online checkin feature and everything went great with the checkin. We had registered that we were celebrating a birthday and both of us received birthday pins. Our packet was complete and handed to us without completing any additional paperwork.Mickey Mouse even slipped a autographed birthday card under the door during the night.
The pool area was large and a big seperate area for the kids to play, complete with slides. I wish they had that kind of stuff when I was a kid. Two hot tubs for us older folks. The stay was great a a big difference from staying a week at the Jambo house last year.
The next day we went to Bay Lake Tower, one bedroom lake view. You check in at the Contemporary because no checkin facilties at Bay Lake. Even though I had completed the online check in (5 days prior) and had a printed confirmation page, it could not be located by member services. The CM that checked us in was great, but did not check to see if our paperwork had been completed prior to checkin, so no celebrations were offered. We requested to be on the highest floor possible. The CM gave us a choice, get a room now (lower floor) or wait until the afternoon for a higher floor. We chose to wait. We later got room 8042 which is on the 10th floor lake view.
I had read several reports from other that complained about the resort set up. I can see why people came to the conclusions they did. The intial entrance and layout does seem to resemble a hospital. It is the contemporary furniture I guess.The room had a great view. EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We could see the fireworks at Epcot and the electric water parade from the room each night. DW and DS did not care for the sliding bathroom doors with no locks. I loved the rain shower and the doors did not bother me.
The swimming pool area was smaller that other DVC resorts. There is only one hot tub. There are two shuffleboard courts and two bocci ball courts. We played bocci ball for the first time and it was fun. The swimming pool has a huge slide and people staying at the Contemporary were coming over to BLT pool and using the facilities when they were not supposed to. The occupancy was low so it did not interfere with other guests using the pool area. There are key sliders on all outside gates and doors to the building. The building key sliders worked, and you the only way to access the building was with your key. Whether you came in the front door, pool area or the skyway bridge from the Contemporary. No card to access to the building.
The key sliders did not work at the pool area so there was not stopping the pool hopping. If occupancy had been high it would have been a mess.
The Top of the World Lounge is great and a must see. Only DVC members staying at BLT can access the TOTWL. A CM from the lounge was in the lobby of the resort during the lounge open hours and would check you room key to ensure you were staying at the BLT and were a DVC member. Once confirmed the CM would escort you to the dedicated elevator and had to use a card to access the lounge area. You do not have to enter the lounge itself to access the roof observation area but it is attached.
We watched the MK fireworks twice (Wishes and Christmas Wishes). If you are a member it is a must see. You get a whole different perspective on the firworks show from the roof. They even pipe in the music from the MK for the show. I saw several people on the observation area of the Contemporary too.
The parks were not crowded at all. Space Mountain was conducting soft opening tests and we rode it several times throughout the week. Most rides had less than a 10 minute wait.
MVMCP was excellant. It had been several years since I had been to the party. I was disapointed that they stopped the free photographs though.
The Osborne lights at HS were great. The last time I saw the lights they did not dance like they do now. If you like American Idol you definately got to check out the American Idol experience. The experience was just like you see the audience on television.
All in all the trip was great. A choice between the two resorts will definately choose to stay the full week at Kidani Village next time. The resort seemed to have a "warmer" feeling and the ammenities were larger in my opinion. If you have little ones the pool area can't be beat. It is the only resort with this type of play area for the kids.
I have photos of both rooms if anyone is interested.
At Kidani village we had the standard view, becuase we were only staying one night. Right above the current bus transportation stop. Believe it or not, the room was surprisingly quite. I only heard the buses one time during the night. The room was large and the master bath was HUGE! It was almost half the size of a studio.
I used the online checkin feature and everything went great with the checkin. We had registered that we were celebrating a birthday and both of us received birthday pins. Our packet was complete and handed to us without completing any additional paperwork.Mickey Mouse even slipped a autographed birthday card under the door during the night.
The pool area was large and a big seperate area for the kids to play, complete with slides. I wish they had that kind of stuff when I was a kid. Two hot tubs for us older folks. The stay was great a a big difference from staying a week at the Jambo house last year.
The next day we went to Bay Lake Tower, one bedroom lake view. You check in at the Contemporary because no checkin facilties at Bay Lake. Even though I had completed the online check in (5 days prior) and had a printed confirmation page, it could not be located by member services. The CM that checked us in was great, but did not check to see if our paperwork had been completed prior to checkin, so no celebrations were offered. We requested to be on the highest floor possible. The CM gave us a choice, get a room now (lower floor) or wait until the afternoon for a higher floor. We chose to wait. We later got room 8042 which is on the 10th floor lake view.
I had read several reports from other that complained about the resort set up. I can see why people came to the conclusions they did. The intial entrance and layout does seem to resemble a hospital. It is the contemporary furniture I guess.The room had a great view. EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We could see the fireworks at Epcot and the electric water parade from the room each night. DW and DS did not care for the sliding bathroom doors with no locks. I loved the rain shower and the doors did not bother me.
The swimming pool area was smaller that other DVC resorts. There is only one hot tub. There are two shuffleboard courts and two bocci ball courts. We played bocci ball for the first time and it was fun. The swimming pool has a huge slide and people staying at the Contemporary were coming over to BLT pool and using the facilities when they were not supposed to. The occupancy was low so it did not interfere with other guests using the pool area. There are key sliders on all outside gates and doors to the building. The building key sliders worked, and you the only way to access the building was with your key. Whether you came in the front door, pool area or the skyway bridge from the Contemporary. No card to access to the building.
The key sliders did not work at the pool area so there was not stopping the pool hopping. If occupancy had been high it would have been a mess.
The Top of the World Lounge is great and a must see. Only DVC members staying at BLT can access the TOTWL. A CM from the lounge was in the lobby of the resort during the lounge open hours and would check you room key to ensure you were staying at the BLT and were a DVC member. Once confirmed the CM would escort you to the dedicated elevator and had to use a card to access the lounge area. You do not have to enter the lounge itself to access the roof observation area but it is attached.
We watched the MK fireworks twice (Wishes and Christmas Wishes). If you are a member it is a must see. You get a whole different perspective on the firworks show from the roof. They even pipe in the music from the MK for the show. I saw several people on the observation area of the Contemporary too.
The parks were not crowded at all. Space Mountain was conducting soft opening tests and we rode it several times throughout the week. Most rides had less than a 10 minute wait.
MVMCP was excellant. It had been several years since I had been to the party. I was disapointed that they stopped the free photographs though.
The Osborne lights at HS were great. The last time I saw the lights they did not dance like they do now. If you like American Idol you definately got to check out the American Idol experience. The experience was just like you see the audience on television.
All in all the trip was great. A choice between the two resorts will definately choose to stay the full week at Kidani Village next time. The resort seemed to have a "warmer" feeling and the ammenities were larger in my opinion. If you have little ones the pool area can't be beat. It is the only resort with this type of play area for the kids.
I have photos of both rooms if anyone is interested.
