Just got back from a quick 4 day BWV trip with DW, two DS, and my M and D- a std 2BR at the BWV. Things that may be of interest to those who will follow:
Here goes--
First time seeing the new carpet. (You can still see the old "boardwalk" carpet in the DVC office along the halls to the model rooms) The carpets in front of the elevator and the hallway carpets have some cute features, hidden Mickeys and other surprises that my kids discovered. (I will save details for below so those that don't want to know don't read the end of this message)
I think one Welcome Home(security gate guy) and one Welcome back(?)Room ready at 12:30 check-in. STD 2BR- 4105/07-good condition but we did discover a few minor things broken/damaged while we were there and passed on a list to the management. View of the bus-stop/driveway/porte cochere, canal. Very nice. We loved the room. Would be fine with std view for the future.
No salt and pepper in the room but they brought it up when we asked for it.
Weather- It could have rained and been horrible, but otherwise it was pretty bad. 32-58 F on Fri, Sat and Sunday. The cold weather pretty much cancelled any of the usual fun and action on the Boardwalk---Waiting for a bus in the cold is not fun and when we went to ride the boat from VWL to Contemporary with the wind and cold it was out of the question- miserable...thankfully there was a somewhat closed in and slightly warmer boat to the MK...but by way of Ft Wilderness. That is silly making WL guests go to FW before the MK....They really ought to run the boats like they do at the Epcot resorts..MK-WL-FW-WL-MK...This would give the Deluxe VWL guests two chances to catch a boat to MK and the direct to MK route (or direct to FW for HDD) that the WL guests should get given the money they are paying compared to the FW guests....
Speaking of Deluxe guests- the package delivery to the resort gift shop at the BWV is not exactly close or convenient- it is out on the Boardwalk - at the Character Caravan store--you have to go outside to get there...in the cold it is no fun and in the rain it would be worse- really bad with a lot of packages...They should consider restoring delivery to your ROOM for Deluxe guests or if not possible at least deliver it to an area actually IN the hotel, not down the block, outside....
The Inn side garden area with the little Cottage Suites is so charming and beautiful. Thursday, before the weather froze them, the roses and plantings were gorgeous.
The Parks- CHARACTERS EVERYWHERE! I mean EVERYWHERE! They really have listened and responded to the demand for more characters, too bad my kids could not care less about characters.
On Friday at MK there was no FP running for several attractions despite some modest waits-HM (20 -30 minute waits, JC- 45 minute waits, SM 30 minutes) BL had no FP but the wait was 3-5 minutes...BTM FP was working.
At MGM TOT -5 to 10 minutes wait. Millionaire was filling up every show, so we did need fastpass to avoid the lines. (Oh yeah I got in the hot seat!-2nd time- went out on the 125,000 level question- let my son trade away all my pins with CM's for other pins...he really got into the pin trading thing- lots of fun..)
Dinners at Boma, 50's PrimeTime, Rose and Crown all were fun and great. Meal in our room one night was good fun, too!
My Mom's B-day was Sunday and the CM's made it really special including a Birthday pin to wear so others would know, a call from Goofy, lots of Happy B-day wishes, a ride in the front of the monorail, a Boardwalk B-day card and signed picture with balloons from Mickey, and a serenade of Happy B-day to You in the Great Britain store where Eeyore dragged my mother up to a CM to get the singing started for her!
Epcot Sunday was just a little more crowded than I expected--the Land ride broke down...no FP for Maelstrom available despite waits of 20-25 minutes...Single rider line at TT was maybe 20- 30 minutes. The new Space building is gorgeous. JIY-NO WAIT at all -nobody was doing this ride....my first time doing this and frankly to me it's as good as the original which I never really thought much of anyway...the kids liked it okay except for the end-too scary for the littler one. Reflections of Earth was a spectacular way to end our trip.
Transportation by Disney was fair and the cold weather made those 20 minute waits seem every bit of 20 minutes and then some...and a few times it was more than 20 minutes...Sunday I waited in the cold as a family scout with my walkie talkie for the MK bus for EMH at 7:45. They waited inside in the warmth until I radioed the bus was coming.... The Bus arrived at 8:10 and while we waited for the wheelchair guest to be loaded into the back, a bunch of people came down and lined up at the front door of the bus...5-10 minutes later there were so many people lined up for the bus that we could not get on to that bus -it was too full..(advice- queue up at the front door loading area asap and stay there if you want to be sure to make the bus- we just never got that aggressive about getting on the bus before-...the driver did radio for another bus and in 2 minutes a bus came, it filled nearly completely with the people left behind from the first bus...apparently it was borrowed from the Swan/Dolphin route because instead of going from BW to MK directly, as BW buses usually do, it stopped first at the both S and D resorts -By the time we got to the MK our EMH was down to EM20-25 minutes.
Walkie talkies were great fun and very helpful for the occasional need to split up briefly....
Speaking of briefly, I see that this has gone on and on and I really meant to be brief and have yet to talk about a lot of things...Anyway- most of those other things have to do with the little magical details that made for a great trip...for the aforementioned carpet details, read below my signature. That is enough for now...
PAUL
SPOILER-ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!
In front of the elevators in the carpet, the "hidden Mickeys" are pretty big and obvious, less obvious are the squares in the patchwork pattern that include, Donald's hat and foot prints, Plutos Paw prints, Goofy's hat and footprints. Minnie's bow etc.
In the long hallways, there are "sandy' areas with footprints and the flower center's are mostly hidden Mickey's.
Here goes--
First time seeing the new carpet. (You can still see the old "boardwalk" carpet in the DVC office along the halls to the model rooms) The carpets in front of the elevator and the hallway carpets have some cute features, hidden Mickeys and other surprises that my kids discovered. (I will save details for below so those that don't want to know don't read the end of this message)
I think one Welcome Home(security gate guy) and one Welcome back(?)Room ready at 12:30 check-in. STD 2BR- 4105/07-good condition but we did discover a few minor things broken/damaged while we were there and passed on a list to the management. View of the bus-stop/driveway/porte cochere, canal. Very nice. We loved the room. Would be fine with std view for the future.
No salt and pepper in the room but they brought it up when we asked for it.
Weather- It could have rained and been horrible, but otherwise it was pretty bad. 32-58 F on Fri, Sat and Sunday. The cold weather pretty much cancelled any of the usual fun and action on the Boardwalk---Waiting for a bus in the cold is not fun and when we went to ride the boat from VWL to Contemporary with the wind and cold it was out of the question- miserable...thankfully there was a somewhat closed in and slightly warmer boat to the MK...but by way of Ft Wilderness. That is silly making WL guests go to FW before the MK....They really ought to run the boats like they do at the Epcot resorts..MK-WL-FW-WL-MK...This would give the Deluxe VWL guests two chances to catch a boat to MK and the direct to MK route (or direct to FW for HDD) that the WL guests should get given the money they are paying compared to the FW guests....
Speaking of Deluxe guests- the package delivery to the resort gift shop at the BWV is not exactly close or convenient- it is out on the Boardwalk - at the Character Caravan store--you have to go outside to get there...in the cold it is no fun and in the rain it would be worse- really bad with a lot of packages...They should consider restoring delivery to your ROOM for Deluxe guests or if not possible at least deliver it to an area actually IN the hotel, not down the block, outside....
The Inn side garden area with the little Cottage Suites is so charming and beautiful. Thursday, before the weather froze them, the roses and plantings were gorgeous.
The Parks- CHARACTERS EVERYWHERE! I mean EVERYWHERE! They really have listened and responded to the demand for more characters, too bad my kids could not care less about characters.
On Friday at MK there was no FP running for several attractions despite some modest waits-HM (20 -30 minute waits, JC- 45 minute waits, SM 30 minutes) BL had no FP but the wait was 3-5 minutes...BTM FP was working.
At MGM TOT -5 to 10 minutes wait. Millionaire was filling up every show, so we did need fastpass to avoid the lines. (Oh yeah I got in the hot seat!-2nd time- went out on the 125,000 level question- let my son trade away all my pins with CM's for other pins...he really got into the pin trading thing- lots of fun..)
Dinners at Boma, 50's PrimeTime, Rose and Crown all were fun and great. Meal in our room one night was good fun, too!
My Mom's B-day was Sunday and the CM's made it really special including a Birthday pin to wear so others would know, a call from Goofy, lots of Happy B-day wishes, a ride in the front of the monorail, a Boardwalk B-day card and signed picture with balloons from Mickey, and a serenade of Happy B-day to You in the Great Britain store where Eeyore dragged my mother up to a CM to get the singing started for her!
Epcot Sunday was just a little more crowded than I expected--the Land ride broke down...no FP for Maelstrom available despite waits of 20-25 minutes...Single rider line at TT was maybe 20- 30 minutes. The new Space building is gorgeous. JIY-NO WAIT at all -nobody was doing this ride....my first time doing this and frankly to me it's as good as the original which I never really thought much of anyway...the kids liked it okay except for the end-too scary for the littler one. Reflections of Earth was a spectacular way to end our trip.
Transportation by Disney was fair and the cold weather made those 20 minute waits seem every bit of 20 minutes and then some...and a few times it was more than 20 minutes...Sunday I waited in the cold as a family scout with my walkie talkie for the MK bus for EMH at 7:45. They waited inside in the warmth until I radioed the bus was coming.... The Bus arrived at 8:10 and while we waited for the wheelchair guest to be loaded into the back, a bunch of people came down and lined up at the front door of the bus...5-10 minutes later there were so many people lined up for the bus that we could not get on to that bus -it was too full..(advice- queue up at the front door loading area asap and stay there if you want to be sure to make the bus- we just never got that aggressive about getting on the bus before-...the driver did radio for another bus and in 2 minutes a bus came, it filled nearly completely with the people left behind from the first bus...apparently it was borrowed from the Swan/Dolphin route because instead of going from BW to MK directly, as BW buses usually do, it stopped first at the both S and D resorts -By the time we got to the MK our EMH was down to EM20-25 minutes.
Walkie talkies were great fun and very helpful for the occasional need to split up briefly....
Speaking of briefly, I see that this has gone on and on and I really meant to be brief and have yet to talk about a lot of things...Anyway- most of those other things have to do with the little magical details that made for a great trip...for the aforementioned carpet details, read below my signature. That is enough for now...
PAUL
SPOILER-ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!
In front of the elevators in the carpet, the "hidden Mickeys" are pretty big and obvious, less obvious are the squares in the patchwork pattern that include, Donald's hat and foot prints, Plutos Paw prints, Goofy's hat and footprints. Minnie's bow etc.
In the long hallways, there are "sandy' areas with footprints and the flower center's are mostly hidden Mickey's.
