LIVE from BLT!

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Thanks for the update and can't wait to read more. What are the rooms service like and is it 24 hours room service?

 

[Flametamr]

Im sure it was answered somewhere else already but do all guests have access to the lounge and observation deck or is it just for BLT DVC owners ? Thanks

 

[stitch_escaped]

so this guy wasnt the first?

from a post in the dvc forum

We live 2 hours and 20 minutes from WDW here in Florida and had studio standard view reservations for the grand opening..... My wife worked until 1am at her job, so upon her arrival home, we jumped into the car (including my 86 year old Grandma who we wanted to share the experience with!) and headed out. We arrived at the CR guard station a little after 4:15am and she asked us "if we were there for BLT", we were then informed Gratz you are the First to arrive. Upon arriving inside the CR lobby we were warmly greeted at the counter by some Cast Members who were apparently notified by the guard post that we were coming inside. They also notified us that "you are the first" which shocked us, we truly figured a bunch would arrive earlier like they did at Kidani Village (12:01 am in fact the first arrival came to there we have heard)...

Oh my gosh, how exciting to be the "first"! We went on the first presentation tour back in June and I was over the moon about even that. I'm looking forward to hearing all of your updates. Congrats!!

 

[kaffinito]

Thanks for posting fla4fun! It's really cool to get live updates from you and I hope you have a great trip!

 

[fla4fun]

so this guy wasnt the first?

from a post in the dvc forum

...

If you go back to my original post, I mentioned that puntagordabob was the first to check in and I was second. I think the intermediate poster was just commenting that it would have been exciting to be the first. I don't know that I agree. I don't know if they received any special goodies or not, but I had already settled in my room and was off to have fun and he was still hanging out with Disney "suits" talking.

As far as seeing EWP from the MK rooms, it wouldn't be a very good view if you could see it at all, because it doesn't face CR from that side. You'd be looking at a back view, which doesn't show much of anything.

As far as room service, they share the same room service menu as CR. It is 24 hours, but has limited offerings from midnight to 6am - mostly cold sandwiches and stuff like that. Prices were on par with other Disney resorts, and it said right in the menu that it would take two credits per person if using the DDP. They also had the breakfast hang tag for the door, if you like ordering breakfast that way. I didn't order room service, so I don't know how it was.

All in all, it was a great stay. I don't know how I'd like no locks on the bathroom doors if I'd been staying there with other people - on a solo trip it didn't matter. One thing I'd like them to take care of are the black birds that swarm the CR/BLT area. I had so many bird droppings on my balcony I couldn't use it by the end of the trip. I don't know what they can do about it, but it was really the only negative thing about the trip. Parking was great the whole time - there were at least 6-8 rows of parking totally empty the whole time I was there.

 

[WDWKOOK]

If you go back to my original post, I mentioned that puntagordabob was the first to check in and I was second. I think the intermediate poster was just commenting that it would have been exciting to be the first. I don't know that I agree. I don't know if they received any special goodies or not, but I had already settled in my room and was off to have fun and he was still hanging out with Disney "suits" talking.

As far as seeing EWP from the MK rooms, it wouldn't be a very good view if you could see it at all, because it doesn't face CR from that side. You'd be looking at a back view, which doesn't show much of anything.

As far as room service, they share the same room service menu as CR. It is 24 hours, but has limited offerings from midnight to 6am - mostly cold sandwiches and stuff like that. Prices were on par with other Disney resorts, and it said right in the menu that it would take two credits per person if using the DDP. They also had the breakfast hang tag for the door, if you like ordering breakfast that way. I didn't order room service, so I don't know how it was.

All in all, it was a great stay. I don't know how I'd like no locks on the bathroom doors if I'd been staying there with other people - on a solo trip it didn't matter. One thing I'd like them to take care of are the black birds that swarm the CR/BLT area. I had so many bird droppings on my balcony I couldn't use it by the end of the trip. I don't know what they can do about it, but it was really the only negative thing about the trip. Parking was great the whole time - there were at least 6-8 rows of parking totally empty the whole time I was there.

Just curious, would you book BLT for your next trip or would you prefer to stay elsewhere on-property (taking into consideration cost, views, comfort, location)?

You reported that the lower MK views did not provide good views of the MK (just the utilidors!) I'll assume there are many other views that could be less than desirable given the building's configuration. So, would you predict that in the future, when BLT is more crowded, that since the room locations/views can be of such varying degrees, some guests might be more disappointed at BLT (view-wise) than say, at the CR where you get either a definite MK view or definite BLV? (In the Tower, that is.)

TIA!

 

[michellev]

Since I was quoted, I think I need to explain myself better. I just meant the first guests to stay at BLT, not necessarily the first to arrive there. Although being first to arrive (or second ) would be cool.

 

[fla4fun]

Just curious, would you book BLT for your next trip or would you prefer to stay elsewhere on-property (taking into consideration cost, views, comfort, location)?

You reported that the lower MK views did not provide good views of the MK (just the utilidors!) I'll assume there are many other views that could be less than desirable given the building's configuration. So, would you predict that in the future, when BLT is more crowded, that since the room locations/views can be of such varying degrees, some guests might be more disappointed at BLT (view-wise) than say, at the CR where you get either a definite MK view or definite BLV? (In the Tower, that is.)

TIA!

If I could get a good rate, I would definitely stay there again - it's a little too expensive for me at rack rate! I'll be at the BC in December and a FW cabin in late January, just because I could get good deals there. I base where I stay a lot on which park I plan to spend the most time in. Since I did a lot of MK last December, I'm going to focus on Epcot and DHS - hence, staying in the Epcot resorts area. I've always wanted to stay at FW when it was cool enough to actually get out and enjoy the campground (I'm a real wimp when it comes to heat) so January sounds perfect. But I would say BLT would probably be my first choice when checking availability for a monorail resort, with CR coming in a close second.

The problem with the lower level rooms that face MK is that you get landscaping in the way of the view. There are trees in the parking lot as well as trees and a berm surrounding the park. You would see fireworks OK, maybe the tip of SM or the castle, but not a lot other than that. If fireworks are all you want the MK view for, you'd be fine. The man I was speaking with had booked his room on points, and had booked an MK view. They placed him on the third floor, and he said he didn't have what he considered an MK view and was moved to a higher floor. I don't know how much higher, because we had our conversation at the sky bridge entrance - I don't know if he was on that floor or had come up/down to cross the bridge. It may be that they will tweak their categories a little once people have stayed in the rooms and commented. It may be that some of the lower rooms that face MK will become standard view or some other view category if enough guests complain that it isn't really an MK view, while some of the upper rooms that may not have been considered MK at first could become MK, based on what people can see. But, as I said, if it's the fireworks you want to see, those should be visible from all of the MK facing rooms.

At CR, there aren't any rooms lower than 6th floor on the MK side, so even the lowest rooms would give a decent view.

Thanks for the clarification michellev - it was fun to consider myself the first "official" guest in the room. It was really hard to leave yesterday.

 

[WDWKOOK]

Thanks for your response, and I have one more question: How did BLT regulate the number of people who stood on the Skybridge to watch Wishes?

 

[3princesshome]

I also just came home from an 8 night stay at BLT (cash reservation) and it was amazing! We were in a 1 bdrm villa with Bay Lake view on the 14th floor. When i made my reservation I asked for a high floor - however, when we checked in, they had put us in a room on the 4th floor. I asked if we could be moved to a higher floor, and it did not seem to be a problem at all - we were given room 8411 on the 14th floor. The view was amazing. We could see Epcot, downtown Disney and downtown Orlando as well as Universal Studios off to the left. We could see the Epcot fireworks as well as the Universal Studios fireworks in the distance and had an excellent view of the ELP each night right after the fireworks (obviously couldn't see the fireworks from our balcony as we faced the Bay Lake side overlooking the pool, but we could hear them). Upon check-in, I inquired about the top of the world lounge and was told that the lounge was for DVC members only, but if i wanted to use the observation deck that surrounded the lounge, i could, I just wasn't allowed to go into the lounge area. In the end, we didn't use it because we liked to actually be in MK for the fireworks. Personally, if I'm going to have my young kids stay up late enough to see the fireworks, I'd rather be in the MK and let them see Spectromagic as well. On our last night, though, we did stand out on the skywalk and watched the fireworks, which was a perfectly fine spot to see them. To answer your question, there was no CM there to regulate how many people watched, but to be honest, there might have been half a dozen other people, if that. It didn't seem like a major spot - or perhaps people haven't discovered it yet.

All in all, our stay at BLT was amazing. The room was very roomy, the ensuite bathroom was amazing with a huge shower and large jacuzzi tub and the higher the floor you can get, the better the view. I would avoid the 5th floor as this is the one that is connected to the sky bridge and seemed very busy and noisy to me with people coming and going.

The pool at BLT was not huge, but never very busy. My kids (aged 10, 8 and 5) all loved the water slide. The majority of the pool is no deeper than 4 feet so it was great the age of my kids.

 

[brianheather]

I also just came home from an 8 night stay at BLT (cash reservation) and it was amazing! We were in a 1 bdrm villa with Bay Lake view on the 14th floor. When i made my reservation I asked for a high floor - however, when we checked in, they had put us in a room on the 4th floor. I asked if we could be moved to a higher floor, and it did not seem to be a problem at all - we were given room 8411 on the 14th floor. The view was amazing. We could see Epcot, downtown Disney and downtown Orlando as well as Universal Studios off to the left. We could see the Epcot fireworks as well as the Universal Studios fireworks in the distance and had an excellent view of the ELP each night right after the fireworks (obviously couldn't see the fireworks from our balcony as we faced the Bay Lake side overlooking the pool, but we could hear them). Upon check-in, I inquired about the top of the world lounge and was told that the lounge was for DVC members only, but if i wanted to use the observation deck that surrounded the lounge, i could, I just wasn't allowed to go into the lounge area. In the end, we didn't use it because we liked to actually be in MK for the fireworks. Personally, if I'm going to have my young kids stay up late enough to see the fireworks, I'd rather be in the MK and let them see Spectromagic as well. On our last night, though, we did stand out on the skywalk and watched the fireworks, which was a perfectly fine spot to see them. To answer your question, there was no CM there to regulate how many people watched, but to be honest, there might have been half a dozen other people, if that. It didn't seem like a major spot - or perhaps people haven't discovered it yet.

All in all, our stay at BLT was amazing. The room was very roomy, the ensuite bathroom was amazing with a huge shower and large jacuzzi tub and the higher the floor you can get, the better the view. I would avoid the 5th floor as this is the one that is connected to the sky bridge and seemed very busy and noisy to me with people coming and going.

The pool at BLT was not huge, but never very busy. My kids (aged 10, 8 and 5) all loved the water slide. The majority of the pool is no deeper than 4 feet so it was great the age of my kids.

Are there any studios on the 14th floor? We are leaving in 20days and I would love to have a great MK view...

 

[3princesshome]

I do know that there was a studio located right beside our 1 bdrm on the 14th floor. We were missing a corkscrew in our room, and, after two phone calls to the front desk, we still didn't get one so my husband went next door and asked to borrow theirs. Their room was a studio, and, in fact, there was an adjoining door between our villa and theirs. We later went to a DVC presentation and learned that the "2 bedroom villa" can either be a real 2 bdrm or they can give you the one bedroom with an adjoining door to a studio. This was what our adjoining door was for.
So, to answer your question - there is at least one studio on the 14th floor. If our room was 8411, I'm guessing that one was 8412.