Let me cut right to the chase - WOWOWOWOWOWOW!!! I was highly impressed and had a wonderful time.
Checking into two studios on Sunday afternoon about 4:30. There was one person in line in front of me and I was checked in to 2 rooms within 5 minutes. The ressies were linked as I had requested, so we were assigned to Building 26 and plenty close together. The rooms were also non-smoking and perfectly clean and nice. Not the first gripe about the rooms from us, but our guests in 2626 did comment they could hear the buses at night (but not enough to keep them from sleeping so not really a gripe, just a comment). The bus stop was right at the end of our building and we were close enough to HH to walk to the pool, breakfast, Community Hall, etc. Our balcony was overgrown a bit (as many people have said about the studio balconies at OKW), but I thought it was perfect. You could see just enough of the golf course, and it was cool and nice to sit out there and my boys got a HUGE kick out of watching the birds and squirrels play.
Sunday night @ 5:30, we headed over to the Boardwalk for dinner and to check it out. WOW! What a great place and it was simply beautiful for walking around and stretching our legs after a long car ride. Had dinner at ESPN club and boy did we time it perfectly as we were the only people in line and then about 15 minutes after we were seated, there must have been 50+ in line waiting (and the line just got longer as the night went on). Good service, good food - a nice place to start our trip.
Monday, off to MK and an introduction to our 2 year old niece to the real Disney World as my boys call it (the 3 year old kept checking in with me "are we still at dineywor?" he would ask at the different places we visited
so I guess it won't all be the Magic Kingdon to him). Most days we ate breakfast in our room and back to the hotel for lunch and naps, then back out for dinner out and some nighttime fun. Had dinner at Crystal Palace with Pooh and lets just say I have never seen the characters run by a table so fast lol The 2 year old was NOT amused by characters 
Back to the hotel for a dip in the pool (bbrrrr - do they turn the heaters off April 1 maybe? The water didn't feel heated to me but was fine except for getting out)
Tuesday, off to the AK for a visit. Such a nice day. The weather never got super hot which really made things nice. Took the boat over to DTD for dinner at the Rainforest later that night and it was such a nice ride! We will definately be using the boats a little more our next trip for getting around. Decided to head to MK for Wishes, so went to catch a bus to a monorail hotel and somehow ended up at Fort Wilderness, which we had never seen before, so even our mistakes took us to fun places we didn't expect to find! I would love to stay here at some point
and the boat ride to the MK got us there just in time to grab a spot at the end of Main Street for our friend's first viewing of Wishes. Always makes me cry thinking of my mother when I see this show. I am glad we got to see it and the 2 year old loved it (I was afraid she would be scared of the fireworks - but finally we found something she liked!!)
Wednesday, we had breakfast at BOMA. Drove over from OKW in a flash and were seated and munching on a very nice breakfast in no time (I wish I could have enjoyed the food more on this trip, but still in my first trimester, so food is just something to keep me from feeling icky right now) and everyone said it was wonderful! Thanks to all of you that recommended it. Wednesday afternoon, hubby and friend's hubby took off for the Richard Petty Driving Experience. We let the kids sleep, so we missed our friend's ride along (his birthday present from us) but made it in time to see hubby sitting in the car ready to go. He LOVED it. Any of you that have a fan of speed in your house would do well to book this. They run specials and there is a DVC discount (errr 10% I think). Another dip in the pool this evening completed the day (we never made it over during "lifeguard" hours to try the slide. I believe it closes at 6 pm)
Thursday was MGM and sadly both Bear and Lil Mermaid were closed (Bear being painted, Lil Mermaid was having techinical difficulities), so we didn't really do much there that day for the kids (but did see Indiana Jones, the Muppets, rode Star tours and my boys got tattoos that THEY picked out - 5 year old got a Stitch head and the 3 year old got a Goofy tattoo...they LOVED it and they were $5 each and still are in place and look new in case anyone has considered them in the past). That evening was dinner at Tony's (always yummy) and we wanted to see Illuminations, so we originally parked at EPCOT and rode the monorail over. They made us get off at the TCT (which I expected) but only had the boat running as they were working on the monorail to the MK. No biggie - just took a bit more time, but still made dinner. VERY bad weather rolled in, so instead of trying to get back to EPCOT, we stayed and enjoyed lots of rides with no wait time and also got to enjoy Wishes again. The kids got to "co-pilot" the monorail back to EPCOT which they loved!
Friday morning (check out day - boo hiss!!!) we FINALLY made it over to Olivia's to eat. FYI - the 10% DVC discount is no longer good on breakfast - only lunch and dinner. The food was very good and I was surprised at the prices which I felt were not so bad either. The DDE card IS good for breakfast, which definately made the meal reasonably prices. We saved about $150 this trip and its our 2nd trip using the DDE. DEFINATELY worth it! One last walk around OKW and then we headed over to SSR to look around. Had an ice cream at the AP and I can see how many of you think it will not be big enough. I was surprised at its size, but at 11:30 on Friday, it was virtually empty. I just love this resort and can't wait until we "go home" there in December.
The only real blight on our trip was the 11 hours that our normal 7 hour trip home took. For those of you traveling up through Valdosta, be warned, they are doing some massive road construction and the deleys are pretty awful. We were tired, but after such a wonderful week, it was not the worst thing.
So once again - wowowowowow! I loved OKW and will look forward to staying there again!
Checking into two studios on Sunday afternoon about 4:30. There was one person in line in front of me and I was checked in to 2 rooms within 5 minutes. The ressies were linked as I had requested, so we were assigned to Building 26 and plenty close together. The rooms were also non-smoking and perfectly clean and nice. Not the first gripe about the rooms from us, but our guests in 2626 did comment they could hear the buses at night (but not enough to keep them from sleeping so not really a gripe, just a comment). The bus stop was right at the end of our building and we were close enough to HH to walk to the pool, breakfast, Community Hall, etc. Our balcony was overgrown a bit (as many people have said about the studio balconies at OKW), but I thought it was perfect. You could see just enough of the golf course, and it was cool and nice to sit out there and my boys got a HUGE kick out of watching the birds and squirrels play.
Sunday night @ 5:30, we headed over to the Boardwalk for dinner and to check it out. WOW! What a great place and it was simply beautiful for walking around and stretching our legs after a long car ride. Had dinner at ESPN club and boy did we time it perfectly as we were the only people in line and then about 15 minutes after we were seated, there must have been 50+ in line waiting (and the line just got longer as the night went on). Good service, good food - a nice place to start our trip.
Monday, off to MK and an introduction to our 2 year old niece to the real Disney World as my boys call it (the 3 year old kept checking in with me "are we still at dineywor?" he would ask at the different places we visited
so I guess it won't all be the Magic Kingdon to him). Most days we ate breakfast in our room and back to the hotel for lunch and naps, then back out for dinner out and some nighttime fun. Had dinner at Crystal Palace with Pooh and lets just say I have never seen the characters run by a table so fast lol The 2 year old was NOT amused by characters Back to the hotel for a dip in the pool (bbrrrr - do they turn the heaters off April 1 maybe? The water didn't feel heated to me but was fine except for getting out)Tuesday, off to the AK for a visit. Such a nice day. The weather never got super hot which really made things nice. Took the boat over to DTD for dinner at the Rainforest later that night and it was such a nice ride! We will definately be using the boats a little more our next trip for getting around. Decided to head to MK for Wishes, so went to catch a bus to a monorail hotel and somehow ended up at Fort Wilderness, which we had never seen before, so even our mistakes took us to fun places we didn't expect to find! I would love to stay here at some point
and the boat ride to the MK got us there just in time to grab a spot at the end of Main Street for our friend's first viewing of Wishes. Always makes me cry thinking of my mother when I see this show. I am glad we got to see it and the 2 year old loved it (I was afraid she would be scared of the fireworks - but finally we found something she liked!!)Wednesday, we had breakfast at BOMA. Drove over from OKW in a flash and were seated and munching on a very nice breakfast in no time (I wish I could have enjoyed the food more on this trip, but still in my first trimester, so food is just something to keep me from feeling icky right now) and everyone said it was wonderful! Thanks to all of you that recommended it. Wednesday afternoon, hubby and friend's hubby took off for the Richard Petty Driving Experience. We let the kids sleep, so we missed our friend's ride along (his birthday present from us) but made it in time to see hubby sitting in the car ready to go. He LOVED it. Any of you that have a fan of speed in your house would do well to book this. They run specials and there is a DVC discount (errr 10% I think). Another dip in the pool this evening completed the day (we never made it over during "lifeguard" hours to try the slide. I believe it closes at 6 pm)
Thursday was MGM and sadly both Bear and Lil Mermaid were closed (Bear being painted, Lil Mermaid was having techinical difficulities), so we didn't really do much there that day for the kids (but did see Indiana Jones, the Muppets, rode Star tours and my boys got tattoos that THEY picked out - 5 year old got a Stitch head and the 3 year old got a Goofy tattoo...they LOVED it and they were $5 each and still are in place and look new in case anyone has considered them in the past). That evening was dinner at Tony's (always yummy) and we wanted to see Illuminations, so we originally parked at EPCOT and rode the monorail over. They made us get off at the TCT (which I expected) but only had the boat running as they were working on the monorail to the MK. No biggie - just took a bit more time, but still made dinner. VERY bad weather rolled in, so instead of trying to get back to EPCOT, we stayed and enjoyed lots of rides with no wait time and also got to enjoy Wishes again. The kids got to "co-pilot" the monorail back to EPCOT which they loved!
Friday morning (check out day - boo hiss!!!) we FINALLY made it over to Olivia's to eat. FYI - the 10% DVC discount is no longer good on breakfast - only lunch and dinner. The food was very good and I was surprised at the prices which I felt were not so bad either. The DDE card IS good for breakfast, which definately made the meal reasonably prices. We saved about $150 this trip and its our 2nd trip using the DDE. DEFINATELY worth it! One last walk around OKW and then we headed over to SSR to look around. Had an ice cream at the AP and I can see how many of you think it will not be big enough. I was surprised at its size, but at 11:30 on Friday, it was virtually empty. I just love this resort and can't wait until we "go home" there in December.
The only real blight on our trip was the 11 hours that our normal 7 hour trip home took. For those of you traveling up through Valdosta, be warned, they are doing some massive road construction and the deleys are pretty awful. We were tired, but after such a wonderful week, it was not the worst thing.
So once again - wowowowowow! I loved OKW and will look forward to staying there again!
)
Hope you will be enjoying your pregnancy soon!
