dianeschlicht
<font color=blue>DVC-Trivia Contest, Apr-2006: Hon
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- Nov 22, 2000
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- 36,449
Well, we are back home, and I must say, I thought there were some significant things missing at WDW for this holiday time compared to other years. We really thought there was something missing in the holiday decor at all of WDW this time. It was noticeably sparse in the parks and even at the resorts. We went to see all the gingerbread offerings around property, but skipped BWV, since we never made it over that way. All of the resorts (including WL) seemed to have much less decor than other years. OKW didn't even have their poinsettia tree this year. The missing Lights of Winter at Epcot left that park with little more than the holiday topiary at the entrance and the tree between FW and WS. They did add poinsettia trees to the little area in front of the fountain the last day we were there.
We had a great time, but we seemed to pack too much into a week's trip. We're used to 10-12 day trips, and a week seemed way too short. We stayed the first 3 nights at AKL/Jambo house in concierge level. We were only in a studio for this portion of the trip, and that was a bit of an issue for us. First of all, the studios in Jambo House are small, and I just can NOT get used to how dark these rooms are! There are only the two sconces on either side of the bed for light in the main room, and with all the dark decor, that is NOT enough. Oh, and the switches for BOTH lights are on one side of the bed, so if the person on the other side wants to read, you have to hope your mate will turn the light on for you! Then there is the issue of the bathrooms at AKL. They are DARK, the sinks and mirror are set far back in the counter, and there is no way to get close enough to the mirror for makeup application if you are near-sighted. The entry hallway has a mirror too, but it's way too dark in there to be of any use. I kept running into the coffee table, because it was too dark to see exactly where it was! Sure, it's nice to have the turn down service/chocolate on your pillow thing, but frankly, I'd rather be able to see! Then we had the very corner room of the savanna view side of concierge, and it mostly looked out onto the road, and the roof line obscured any view of the animals. It didn't matter though, because we were rarely in the room during the day to watch animals anyway.
While at AKL, we went to the concierge Wildlife Discovery Tour at AK. I usually really like doing the extra tours available, but this one wasn't worth the extra money this time. We hardly saw any animals, and certainly weren't any closer to them than the regular ride vehicles are. Our docent for the tour wasn't very informative either, but the driver of the van had more information than she did.
We did have a wonderful dinner at Jiko our first night there though, and all the little kids there with free dining were much less of an issue than they had been in May when we were there.
We checked out of AKL on Friday morning and headed out early to our Nature Inspired Design Segway tour at Epcot. As usual, the Segway tour was great! We have done all of the Segway tours WDW offers, and they are always well done. Not a great deal of new information on this one, but we got to ride the Segways off road and do some hill climbing with them etc.
Friday is also the day we checked into OKW. I had requested building 23 at Penninsular Road in the Hospitality House booking catagory, but when we arrived they had us in building 26. I asked if it was 1st floor, and it was, so I rejected that room knowing it would be under a 3 bedroom grand villa. Being under a GV can be very loud, since those are hard wood floors above you. We did that once, and thought the occupants upstairs were a bunch of elephants dancing a jig! We settled for a 1 bedroom in building 14 across the street from Hospitality House. We have stayed in that building several times before, and while it's not my favorite, it is okay as long as we aren't on the road side of the building. I doubt I'll book HH catagory again. It is NOT my favorite area of the resort. Our room, even though it is one of the first buildings built at OKW, was in GREAT shape and very clean. OKW is scheduled for major rehabs next year, so that will be nice.
We had no other specific plans during the week other than dining reservations. I am one of those people who hates that we have to make reservations 180 days ahead of the trip. It really spoils the spontenaity of travel for me. Besides Jiko, we had ressies at Teppan Edo twice, Artist Point once (where we met up with internet friend Bobbiewoz), Yak and Yetti, and Turf Club at Saratoga Springs. We also had a ressie at Le Cellier, but blew it off, since we were in Animal Kingdom and didn't want to trek over to Epcot just for a midday meal.
As usual, we missed a couple of attractions that we we intended to see, but we always figure there will be another time to do them. Hey, and I even got Dick on ONE roller coaster! About every 5 years I can talk him into going on Thunder Mountain, and he went with me on it this trip. I didn't do the new Space Mountain because there is no fun in doing those things alone. Roller Coasters are best shared with a friend or two!
Our overall inpression is that WDW was cleaner than the last time we were there, but there were significantly less street type acts and things to see and do than other times. The only act on Main Street was the Dapper Dans, and at Epcot's FW, there was just a visiting choral group at the fountain...no Jammators or any other acts there at all. We also thought the food had been further dumbed down. Maybe that's because it was free dining again while we were there, but even some of our favorites had a very limited menu and "standardized" fare.
We had a great time though, and we'll be back in March!
We had a great time, but we seemed to pack too much into a week's trip. We're used to 10-12 day trips, and a week seemed way too short. We stayed the first 3 nights at AKL/Jambo house in concierge level. We were only in a studio for this portion of the trip, and that was a bit of an issue for us. First of all, the studios in Jambo House are small, and I just can NOT get used to how dark these rooms are! There are only the two sconces on either side of the bed for light in the main room, and with all the dark decor, that is NOT enough. Oh, and the switches for BOTH lights are on one side of the bed, so if the person on the other side wants to read, you have to hope your mate will turn the light on for you! Then there is the issue of the bathrooms at AKL. They are DARK, the sinks and mirror are set far back in the counter, and there is no way to get close enough to the mirror for makeup application if you are near-sighted. The entry hallway has a mirror too, but it's way too dark in there to be of any use. I kept running into the coffee table, because it was too dark to see exactly where it was! Sure, it's nice to have the turn down service/chocolate on your pillow thing, but frankly, I'd rather be able to see! Then we had the very corner room of the savanna view side of concierge, and it mostly looked out onto the road, and the roof line obscured any view of the animals. It didn't matter though, because we were rarely in the room during the day to watch animals anyway.
While at AKL, we went to the concierge Wildlife Discovery Tour at AK. I usually really like doing the extra tours available, but this one wasn't worth the extra money this time. We hardly saw any animals, and certainly weren't any closer to them than the regular ride vehicles are. Our docent for the tour wasn't very informative either, but the driver of the van had more information than she did.
We did have a wonderful dinner at Jiko our first night there though, and all the little kids there with free dining were much less of an issue than they had been in May when we were there.
We checked out of AKL on Friday morning and headed out early to our Nature Inspired Design Segway tour at Epcot. As usual, the Segway tour was great! We have done all of the Segway tours WDW offers, and they are always well done. Not a great deal of new information on this one, but we got to ride the Segways off road and do some hill climbing with them etc.
Friday is also the day we checked into OKW. I had requested building 23 at Penninsular Road in the Hospitality House booking catagory, but when we arrived they had us in building 26. I asked if it was 1st floor, and it was, so I rejected that room knowing it would be under a 3 bedroom grand villa. Being under a GV can be very loud, since those are hard wood floors above you. We did that once, and thought the occupants upstairs were a bunch of elephants dancing a jig! We settled for a 1 bedroom in building 14 across the street from Hospitality House. We have stayed in that building several times before, and while it's not my favorite, it is okay as long as we aren't on the road side of the building. I doubt I'll book HH catagory again. It is NOT my favorite area of the resort. Our room, even though it is one of the first buildings built at OKW, was in GREAT shape and very clean. OKW is scheduled for major rehabs next year, so that will be nice.
We had no other specific plans during the week other than dining reservations. I am one of those people who hates that we have to make reservations 180 days ahead of the trip. It really spoils the spontenaity of travel for me. Besides Jiko, we had ressies at Teppan Edo twice, Artist Point once (where we met up with internet friend Bobbiewoz), Yak and Yetti, and Turf Club at Saratoga Springs. We also had a ressie at Le Cellier, but blew it off, since we were in Animal Kingdom and didn't want to trek over to Epcot just for a midday meal.
As usual, we missed a couple of attractions that we we intended to see, but we always figure there will be another time to do them. Hey, and I even got Dick on ONE roller coaster! About every 5 years I can talk him into going on Thunder Mountain, and he went with me on it this trip. I didn't do the new Space Mountain because there is no fun in doing those things alone. Roller Coasters are best shared with a friend or two!
Our overall inpression is that WDW was cleaner than the last time we were there, but there were significantly less street type acts and things to see and do than other times. The only act on Main Street was the Dapper Dans, and at Epcot's FW, there was just a visiting choral group at the fountain...no Jammators or any other acts there at all. We also thought the food had been further dumbed down. Maybe that's because it was free dining again while we were there, but even some of our favorites had a very limited menu and "standardized" fare.
We had a great time though, and we'll be back in March!
