"Look at all these sunny balls!" - WDW/Uni TR Feb 17-26th 2018 (6/18 Wrap-up and DVC review)

[skier_pete]

Day 6 continued

So while touring the site a little bit, we enquired about whether they would be doing DVC tours of the new cabins. Turns out that they had a tour scheduled for 4 PM. We met the guide in the lobby at 4 PM. We were the only ones on the tour, except there was a Disney PR person in the lobby, and she asked if she could tag along. We told her she could be our cousin Mary.

For those that don’t know – as part of the Copper Creek DVC – they are building 26 2-bedroom cabins on the lake around Wilderness Lodge. These cabins are super expensive per night, though not QUITE as expensive as the Poly Bungalows. We could stay one or two nights in one of these, instead of our usual 10 nights a year. I suppose if we won the lottery. The entranceway:

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Here’s the kitchen / living area

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The screened in patio includes its own hot tub.

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I can’t remember if this is the master bathroom or the 2nd bathroom – but it’s nice:

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Oh Wait – this must be the master bath:

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Master bedroom:

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Second bedroom:

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We also got a tour of the standard studios and the one bedrooms at Copper Creek. A much more modern look than the rooms we were currently in. Our guide was fantastic, we talked to him for close to an hour and he was very candid about a lot of things – knowing that he wasn’t selling us on DVC as we were already owners. (We implied that we had bought direct – not resale though.) We talked about the cabins as being a potential issue for studio availability. (The average DVC buyer is not buying enough points to stay in the cabins, but the distribution of owners at CCV are assuming that a large fraction of owners there will use the cabins. Because of this, a very small percentage of points at CCV are allocated to studios, so with the normal concentration of owners wanting studios, the studios will be in higher demand compared to the number available. In short – if you own at CCV you are going to have a hard time getting a studio and there’s going to be a LOT of upset owners regarding this.)

On the other side, we talked a lot about Riviera and the next steps for DVC. He didn’t really know where it was going after Riviera, and I told him the rumors I’d heard, but nothing concrete. There’s a part of me that’s very tempted by Riviera – though again I can’t afford the current Disney Direct price point. Wish I could though! In the end, we gave him a Cast Compliment on twitter when we got home, and he was given an acknowledgement.

Once the tour was done –we got back to our room and the luggage was being delivered.

Until next time!!

 

[tonga]

Enjoyed the pictures of the cabin. The living area looks small - is it a good size in real life?

I don't think I like the base on the beds. I could see myself whacking my legs on those wooden corners a lot!

 

[skier_pete]

Enjoyed the pictures of the cabin. The living area looks small - is it a good size in real life?

I don't think I like the base on the beds. I could see myself whacking my legs on those wooden corners a lot!

Well, I wouldn't say it is huge - I think the pictures represent it pretty well - one side is the table and the kitchen and the other side is the sofas but you also have to include the patio area as part of the living area I guess. The cabins are listed to be 1737 square feet versus a standard 2-bedroom villa is 1105 square feet, so relatively large. It must be said that the cabins are a little more than twice the cost of a 2-bedroom villa, so really you are paying for the exclusivity and the isolation I guess. (Personally the Poly Bungalows and the CC Cabins are both (a) completely unaffordable and (b) not practical.)

 

[rteetz]

Your WL room looks very nice. I have always wanted to stay there. I love the lobby.

I would love to stay in the cabins or bungalows some day but of course like you I would have to win the lottery.

 

[skier_pete]

Your WL room looks very nice. I have always wanted to stay there. I love the lobby.

I would love to stay in the cabins or bungalows some day but of course like you I would have to win the lottery.

I didn't mention it, but one of the conversations we had in the Cabin with the CMs that were there is that if you were there at one of the lower point seasons, you could rent the cabin for a single night during the week for 87 points (Jan 1—31 Sep 1—30 Dec 1—14) or 94 points (Oct 1—Nov 26, Dec 15—23). If you just count the annual MF - that's about $600 for the night and for us more than a 1/3 of our annual points (we have 235 per year). In theory this could work as a fun "party" scenario so it isn't completely impossible concept.

That said, the idea of using the equivalent of about 5-6 nights worth of points on a single night seems way too impractical to me. For the exact same time period, I can get a 2-bedroom unit for 37/38 points a night, so less than half the price and sleep the same number of people.

 

[tammy]

Thanks for another awesome update. I love the Wilderness Lodge. Enjoy!

 

[SweetSerenity]

I love the pictures of the new cabins at WL! We wanted to stay at WL this year but nothing was available. Someday we'll get to stay there!

Also, I just booked Chefs de France thanks to your great review!

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks for another awesome update. I love the Wilderness Lodge. Enjoy!

We really enjoyed the resort. I have a soft spot for Arts and Crafts style though. I actually will talk about the resort specifically towards the end and give a ranking of the DVC/Deluxe resorts we stayed at so far. I would never object to staying here.

I love the pictures of the new cabins at WL! We wanted to stay at WL this year but nothing was available. Someday we'll get to stay there!

Also, I just booked Chefs de France thanks to your great review!

I think the studios are pretty hard to get into. We actually bought points from a friend who owned here, so we had no problem booking.

That's a heavy burden to put on me that I am responsible for your meal choice. But I think you'll enjoy - we've never had a bad experience there except as I said the Tables being crowded in really badly.

 

[khertz]

WOW those cabins look amazing!! I'm not a "cabin" kind of girl, unless they all look like that lol Very cool that you were able to tour that afternoon.

 

[Majordis]

Wow CdF looks amazing. The last time we were there Remy was still a thing. The new Soaring drives me crazy too and DH always asks for the middle. Love the balcony pictures - did you ever eat at Big River Grille? We would love to be DVC members but we are Canadian, and well, the dollar just sucks right now. Ok that's me caught up lol. More please

 

[skier_pete]

WOW those cabins look amazing!! I'm not a "cabin" kind of girl, unless they all look like that lol Very cool that you were able to tour that afternoon.

Yeah - for me roughing it is a full-size bed and having to go down the hall to take a shower. This is definitely not that kind of Cabin.

Wow CdF looks amazing. The last time we were there Remy was still a thing. The new Soaring drives me crazy too and DH always asks for the middle. Love the balcony pictures - did you ever eat at Big River Grille? We would love to be DVC members but we are Canadian, and well, the dollar just sucks right now. Ok that's me caught up lol. More please

We haven't been since Remy either. Really was kind of too long.

We didn't eat at BRG this trip, but have tried it once and thought it was pretty good. Thought it was nifty that they don't take reservations, so even if you don't have ADRs there's always that place to fall back on!

I am not sure I could even afford DVC right now. From 2014 to 2017 prices for resale were pretty stable - but in the last 12 months prices have gone up 20-30% with a particularly good reason. Well, Disney raise direct prices significantly for some of the resorts in June, and beyond that I suspect it is supply and demand. WE paid $74 a point for AKV in 2014 - and right now seems to be going for $100+ per point. Our 75 point BWV contract I bought for $105 last year and I just saw a 75 point contract selling for $130 per point. I could sell that contract today and pocked $2000 never having used it. (Our first trip on the contract is in October.) I personally would sit on the sidelines right now - when prices inflate out of control they usually have to come back to reality at some point when the economy breaks down. And especially as you say with the Canadian dollar being weak vs the US.

 

[skier_pete]

Once the tour was done –we got back to our room and the luggage was being delivered. We had a dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon to get to.

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We had eaten here for my 40th birthday in 2009 and for breakfast back in 1997. I was sort of disappointed in the lack of antics when we went for my birthday. (Like we even got a cake and they just barely sang happy birthday.) Tonight, they ended up sitting us at a table waaaayyy in the back. Literally a small area with like 6 other tables, only one of which was occupied. Is that something about me that screams “I don’t like antics”? I debated about complaining about it, but I really felt like we would give it a chance, maybe they would be moving people into the section. Nope, we say pretty much by ourselves the whole night – hearing the occasional scream from the front room. We ordered the BBQ platter, even though I am not really a fan of “all-you-can-eat” since I get full way too easy now, but it had a lot of stuff we all like, so we figured we’d try it.

Start with a salad but who wants to get filled up on that. It was quite good though.

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I have a weakness for corn bread – but again only had one slice because saving room for the meat.
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And here it is. We essentially ate some portion of what was here, and got a little bit of seconds on a couple things. I do have to say, all the food was delicious, especially the ribs and the flank steak. (I think that was our seconds.) Is it worth the price? Not sure – if you really like BBQ I guess so. I have to say we wouldn’t come back here in a hurry. While the waiter was pretty good and tried to jest with us a bit and threw straws at us, but overall not the fun playfulness that the restaurants reputation has. It's funny as I post this there are lots of rumors going around about the end of antics - but based on our experience we've never actually seen the antics. I have been twice wanting to get involved and twice not been involved, so I am done either way. Sorry WCC.



Our plan had us heading to MK tonight for the fireworks. DD doesn’t like staying up late, and often doesn’t seem to like the nighttime shows, but she hadn’t seen HEA and we knew we should see it, so we boarded the boat for MK.



We picked what I thought was a near perfect spot – just south of the hub, and just in front of a walkway so that we wouldn’t get too smushed. A LOT of people watching the fireworks as usual:



So we had again been in contact with our friends and told them that we had staked a good spot. They were in Fantasyland, and eventually made their way through the crowds to us. However, when they got there – the grandparents did not like standing in the crowd, so they told the kids that they were going to wander off down main street “where it’s less crowded” (see the picture above). So of course the couple starts to panic that they’ll lose their parents, and goes chasing after them dragging the kids. They had that haggard “we’ve been on the go for 3 straight days” Disney look on their face. Glad we are past those days. We probably waited about 45 minutes for the fireworks. This is our second time watching the show – and while I don’t find it quite as emotional as Wishes, it still gets me when Tinkerbell flies from the castle. I also love the way they work the projections and the fireworks together.































Whew – great show. Love it!

And the park wasn’t closing just yet, so rather than fight the crowd to get out, we decided to hit a ride. It just so happens we were here the last week that the “we wants the redhead” scene would be running. We didn’t know how “in demand” the Pirates ride would get over the weekend, so we figured we’d get a ride in before then. The wait was only about 15 minutes after the fireworks. Anyone know the significance to the date on here? 1643?

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And there’s the scene that is no more…

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Here’s our ride photo. Don’t know when they added this – it’s right before the drop, and we really weren’t prepared.

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Not to get into a PC discussion on here, but at first I was with many people thinking: “Why do we need to change this scene. It’s not like we don’t know that pirates didn’t kidnap/rape/sell women into slavery.” But after I thought about it for a while, then I though. “No, the problem isn’t that they are showing women sold into slavery. The problem is they are treating it as a gag.”, and I could see this could be upsetting to certain people. Sure, it’s still a PC move, but in the end, it doesn’t fundamentally change the ride. So it’s certainly not something I’m going to complain about.

After the ride DD was complaining she was tired, so we headed out to the boat dock. When we got back to the resort, it was coming up on 9:30 PM, and the Electric Water Pagent was had started. We could actually see it from our balcony, though not very well.

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The EWP is kind of a throwback to the old days of Disney. It’s fairly simple, just some floats lit up with lights, but it’s still neat to see. We decided before the end of our stay we would try and catch it down at the shore.


With that, an end to our broadcast day....up next - can we finally ride an Avatar ride?

 

[tammy]

I loved the WL...we had a very entertaining dinner at WCC once...thanks for another great update.

 

[vicki's mom]

Enjoying your report. Great pictures.

 

[skier_pete]

I loved the WL...we had a very entertaining dinner at WCC once...thanks for another great update.

Thank you!

Enjoying your report. Great pictures.

Thanks Vicki's mom - you got it going on!

 

[skier_pete]

Quick overall update - I have been very lacking in updating the Table of Contents at the beginning - in fact it's been blank this whole time. Well, I finally rectified that, so if you prefer to use a TOC to get to the posts quicker, then feel free to start using it. In the meantime, I've actually complete finished writing this report - so while this is only Day 7, I am complete through Day 9. Remaining posts should go up at rate of 1 or 2 a week, and I would expect it to be all done within the next month.

So - here we go onto Day 7.

This day we had yet another “Take it easy” morning. Really I have to say that once we left Universal this has to be one of the most “chill” Disney trips we’ve ever planned. But honestly, no one was complaining about it! We spend the morning chilling in our room and also heading out to the swimming pool for a while. We also got some breakfast in our room as a treat. We got waffles for DD, and I got a bear claw as well.

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We had planned today to allow us to head over to Animal Kingdom so see what we still wanted to see. With both the Bird show and the Nemo show being closed, the park was a little on the thin side even with the Avatar stuff. We had decided to have lunch at Tusker House. We hadn’t eaten here in a few years, and It used to be one of our favorite buffets. Lunch was planned for like 1 PM.

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DD refusing to smile.

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We had to wait maybe 10 minutes for our table.

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This is also a character meal, and while we’ve outgrown the characters and don’t really need the autographs, we still always take the pictures. I was talking to Donald about the Safari and what animals he was expecting to see today. He pantomimed a few things…I remember elephants coming up. I am not sure what got DD to crack a smile, but I’m sure it was an accident.

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Daisy came around again shortly after.

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The food here is pretty good, but one of our favorites – the samosas – were taken away. You have to be a fan of Indian derived food, but there is some really good stuff. The pork tenderloin was excellent I think I got 3 pieces of that.

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DDs very boring plate.

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Less than thrilled with Goofy.

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Everyone loves Disney’s pomegranate Lemonade!

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The desserts were all quite good as well.

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We had to wait quite a while for Mickey to show up. When he finally did though he was smiling!

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Overall, it’s still a good meal, but it was a bit disappointing they had removed the Samosas. The rest of the meal was plenty filling and tasty, and the character interaction is fine. Like most buffets the prices are completely out of whack to get the character interaction, but if you can stomach the prices, the food is just fine.

We headed over for our first FP of the day – the semi-wasted FP for Festival of the Lion King. Not really wasted in that we only had two others we wanted, so figured we might as well use it for this. We were actually right in the front of the FP group, maybe 25 people in front of us. One of the great thing about DAK is all the details – this stuff is just from the FP queue.

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Still trying to figure out what this is supposed to represent.

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So we really ended up with good seats. This is easily my favorite show at any US Disney park.

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Next up...Flights of Passage finally??

 

[khertz]

I guess your meal at WCC was to prepare you for the removal of the antics that is happening! What a disappointment, though. I don't feel like there's really anything else to draw you to that restaurant now except for the convenience of location if staying at WL.

Those crowd pics for the fireworks are so crazy!! It's incredible how many people they can pack in on Main Street each night.

Glad you got to see the OG red head scene one last time before it left.

I love the Lion King show too! The music and dancing and acrobatics are so fun!

Side note, we are looking at buying a DVC re-sale contract soon! DH keeps going back and forth between Saratoga & AKV (Saratoga only for the price and # of years left). I'm on Team AKV and I think that's where we may end up trying to purchase.

 

[skier_pete]

Side note, we are looking at buying a DVC re-sale contract soon! DH keeps going back and forth between Saratoga & AKV (Saratoga only for the price and # of years left). I'm on Team AKV and I think that's where we may end up trying to purchase.

@khertz have you and @DDuck4Life STAYED at Saratoga? If you haven't stayed there I would seriously consider staying there before buying there. I considered SSR because it was a little cheaper when we looked at buying in and certainly cheaper for the MF - but decided on AKV. The length of contracts are very similar for both of them. Personally, we love, love, love AKV. In the end - the difference in MF comes out to like $120 a year, and we just felt like we would be happier owning AKV.

SSR was the first place we stayed at as DVC owners because we had < 5 months to book and it was all we could get. It was nice enough - but it reminded me more of a non-Disney timeshare than the other Disney deluxe resorts. A very large / spread out property, nice grounds but nothing that made it feel particularly Disney. I was very glad that I had chosen not to buy there.

Now admittedly if you are mostly traveling at DVC-friendly times of year, then owning SSR and staying elsewhere isn't a problem, but if you book in say mid-September through Dec, and you want to stay in a studio (and that STUDIO word is key), you are most likely going to have to book your home resort in advance at > 7 months in advance (and in general 9+ months in advance). So from my point of view - that we do like to travel sometimes in the fall, we are very happy that we own at AKV.

If you want to understand the popularity of certain resorts and booking window, check out my availability charts. Not to toot my own horn too much - but I get a lot of positive responses from DVC members old and new about how much can be learned from these. They are being updated as well - but new version won't be out for about two months. (Spoiler alert: The update shows that studios have gotten HARDER to get at 7 months than in 2015.)

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...tudios-some-1-bedrooms-prepared-2015.3419112/

If you have any questions about ownership, please feel free to PM. Also, at the end of this TR (in a couple of weeks) I'll be rating/ranking the DVC resorts we've stayed at. If you want to see THAT sooner - let me know I've already written it just not posted.

 

[khertz]

Thanks so much for the input!! We have not stayed at Saratoga but have stayed at AKV once and absolutely loved it. My point of view is similar to yours...I’d want to be totally happy with my home resort so that if we can never stay anywhere else, we are happy with where we get to stay! So I think we are leaning more towards AKV for that reason. Still looking & researching but I will definitely direct him to your thread. He has been researching like crazy!

 

[skier_pete]

Thanks so much for the input!! We have not stayed at Saratoga but have stayed at AKV once and absolutely loved it. My point of view is similar to yours...I’d want to be totally happy with my home resort so that if we can never stay anywhere else, we are happy with where we get to stay! So I think we are leaning more towards AKV for that reason. Still looking & researching but I will definitely direct him to your thread. He has been researching like crazy!

Well, as I said, any questions I can help you with, let me know. I certainly did my research as well, though there were a couple of things I might have done differently had I known - though honestly at this point the main thing I wish I had done was buy a few more points...prices for resale have gone up a LOT in the last 12 months.