OKW DisneyWorld Trip Report 12/9-12/14

[MarriedAtDisney]

Hi everyone. Just a quick trip report with a few comments to share.

Spent five nights in a GV at OKW. Loved the GV. I just wasn't prepared for how BIG it is. Our unit was available at noon on Sunday and was in great shape. It's obviously not new and could use some updates but nothing to really complain about. If I could wave a wand I'd probably change the sofa to something a little more comfortible to sit in and change out the master shower from the Pink single unit walls to a nicer tile or stone, but neither are critical. I just think the SSR and AKW units are so nice it makes these look/feel very early 90's.

Spent most days at the parks. Had a lot of fun. Attended the Christmas Party at MK. Positives: the parade was great, some of the shows were very entertaining. Negatives: it just seemed WAY to CROWDED. There were times when we simply couldn't move. Based on the crowded issue, I'm not sure we'll do this event again. I can't justify the price for how much time we spent crowded around people.

The osborne lights at Disney Hollwood Pixar MGM or whatever it's name is now was extremely cool. Since there is no additional entrance fee it was a nice bonus.

Attended a Character breakfast at the Poly and have to say I think it's the best I've attended so far. I think the fact that they bring the breakfast to your table reduces the feel of anxiety and "rush" that we have felt at other events. We did the AK Breakfastasaurus in May and had a horrible experience. Rushed into the event.. the Characters spent literally 15 seconds at our table.... we barely got a picture taken and then they ran out. We also did the Chef Mickey event and it's much better.

Crib rental from A babies best friend. I can't say how wonderful that worked for us. I'm all thumbs and was expecting the setup to be a lot of work - it wasn't.... it took 5 minutes. I wish Disney had these included in the room rental but since they don't - rent them from ABBF. (I'm not a paid sponsor! )

The only bad experience we had was on checking out with Magical Express. I had purchased four tickets on Jet Blue and had two Suitcases to check. Turns out you cannot check overweight bags. My two suitcases weighed 52 and 56 pounds. I was more than happy to pay an overweight fee to avoide lugging a third suitcase - but they will not checkin overweight bags. That little tidbit is not in any of the ME documentation. So i had to sit there, open them up and throw away some heavy items. Thankfully i could throw away a few cheap heavy things and it wasn't a huge deal, but I was furious. By the time we did this and got back in line, I was three parties back. The ME staff had five people standing around, joking, dancing, etc.. and it took 20 minutes to get checked-in. Then after not helping with the overweight issue, wasting 20 minutes of my time the guy starts into a speach about how one of the five is " your bell captain and will ensure your bag makes it to the plane". The funny thing is the ME people had the luggage cages right behind this person and so they wanted me to tip her to pick my bag up and sit it on a shelf behind her. I was so mad I didn't..... This needs to get fixed.

One other thing I noticed, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like there is an explosion of people using the electric scooters in the parks. And most of these do not seem to be handicapped. They seemed to be using them because they are overweight. I was constantly being run into from behind by people. Then they'd pull up, park the scooter and walk into line... Not sure how I feel about that, but it was painful on more than one occasion.

I may add more later.... but that's my 2 cents..... Merry Xmas!

 

[scootch]

I too found the christmas party too crowded. I went on Thursday Nov 15th, which should have been a light night. THere was more than double the number of people there when we went in 05.

may have to try the poly breakfast, thanks for the tip.

 

[SueM in MN]

One other thing I noticed, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like there is an explosion of people using the electric scooters in the parks. And most of these do not seem to be handicapped. They seemed to be using them because they are overweight. I was constantly being run into from behind by people. Then they'd pull up, park the scooter and walk into line... Not sure how I feel about that, but it was painful on more than one occasion.

I may add more later.... but that's my 2 cents..... Merry Xmas!

My DH had been reading comments like this on the boards, so our last 2 trips, he did little surveys every time he was waiting for me to take our DD to the bathroom (she is disabled, so he had time to wait). What he saw was that people using scooters who came by were no more likely to be overweight than people who walked by where he was sitting. In fact, sometimes, the overweight walkers outnumbered the overweight people using scooters.
When you consider that nearly 2/3 of Americans are overweight, the chance of seeing anyone (using a scooter or not) who is overweight in one of the parks is pretty high. Chances are that you are not noticing the equally overweight walkers because there is nothing about them (like a scooter) that attracts your eye.

People seem to expect that those who use scooters can't walk, but most can, they just may not be able to walk the long distances involved in a trip to WDW. Many choose to walk in lines because they need to stretch occasionally - and to avoid things like muscle cramps or DVTs (blood clots) that can come from sitting in the same position for too long.
Others get up and walk in lines because they are afraid that people will see them in line and think they got the scooter for special treatment (and for the record, there is little 'advantage' to using a wheelchair or scooter in line since most of the lines are wheelchair accessible).
A lot of the people using them are like the poster named JenniBugInPink in post #41 of this thread who avoided using a scooter as long as she could because she was worried about what people would think about her.

 

[Cee]

We were in a studio at OKW from 12/7-12/14. What a great week! Boy was it
hot! I wasn't expecting such great weather. One of the beds was very squeaky
but other than that, we had a great experience. We had no problems with the
ME check-in on our departure. I don't know if we had the same staff as you.
We were there around 8:30 in the morning on Friday the 14th. Was one of the
ladies pregnant? They seemed efficient enough but we didn't have any glitches
with overweight suitcases. Our driver was awesome. His name was Erving
Mayorga. He was totally into it. It made going home easier. All in all a great
trip.

 

[rigsby25]

I agree totally. We went for Christmas the first time ever Dec 2 - 7. We couldn't believe how crowded the parks were. And we went to MVMCP on a Tuesday - and it was still too crowded. We usually go in May, October, and/or January, so we are totally unused to crowds. And I agree totally about the scooters. I know there are more overweight people walking than on scooters, but how many scooter people are overweight? Almost all I'd say. Its the overweight people who could use the walking the most. But if they have stamina issues because of their weight, and they can afford the scooters, more power to them I guess. Just be considerate of the crowds.

 

[dianeschlicht]

My DH had been reading comments like this on the boards, so our last 2 trips, he did little surveys every time he was waiting for me to take our DD to the bathroom (she is disabled, so he had time to wait). What he saw was that people using scooters who came by were no more likely to be overweight than people who walked by where he was sitting. In fact, sometimes, the overweight walkers outnumbered the overweight people using scooters.
When you consider that nearly 2/3 of Americans are overweight, the chance of seeing anyone (using a scooter or not) who is overweight in one of the parks is pretty high. Chances are that you are not noticing the equally overweight walkers because there is nothing about them (like a scooter) that attracts your eye.

People seem to expect that those who use scooters can't walk, but most can, they just may not be able to walk the long distances involved in a trip to WDW. Many choose to walk in lines because they need to stretch occasionally - and to avoid things like muscle cramps or DVTs (blood clots) that can come from sitting in the same position for too long.
Others get up and walk in lines because they are afraid that people will see them in line and think they got the scooter for special treatment (and for the record, there is little 'advantage' to using a wheelchair or scooter in line since most of the lines are wheelchair accessible).
A lot of the people using them are like the poster named JenniBugInPink in post #41 of this thread who avoided using a scooter as long as she could because she was worried about what people would think about her.

Excellent post! Just an aside here as well. I needed to use a scooter on two trips. I had a long term illness that left me with huge stamina issues. I looked totally normal, but could never have done Disney those two trips without it. I DID walk onto rides, because it was easier than jumping in line ahead of others on the scooter. I am NOT obese. I can tell you that I never once bumped into anyone, but I can also tell you that it is not easy, because folks jump in front of you like you don't exist, and it is difficult NOT to bump into them sometimes.

 

[HFC1969]

We were there at the Dec 14 Christmas party... it was pretty full.. but we were given the advice to stay for the later parade instead of the first... That helped a bunch..

There were a bunch of the scooters everywhere, maybe it was just the crowd that night...

Awesome weather though..

 

[VrBchJ]

I was at MVMCP on Dec. 11. It was so crowded that it was not really enjoyable for us. I think I will skip this in the future. It's not worth the money and the aggravation.

 

[MarriedAtDisney]

I didn't intend any disrespect to those that use the scooters. It just struck me that there seemed to be a much higher number in use than i've seen in recent years and that an increasing percentage of use seems to be weight related. (purely subjective observation by this not-so-skinny guy). I had this vision of everyone riding around in golf carts.....

"CEE" I was on the same bus! I started our check-in around 7:20AM though as we wanted breakfast at Olivia's before taking the bus - and they told us to check in at 7:30 for an 8:40 bus to catch an 11:50 flight.... ugg.

I forgot to mention that we had dinner at the "Flying Fish". It was an ok dinner but I thought it wasn't worth the price considering other deluxe restaurants on property.

We also had dinner at the (i'm blanking on the name) boat restaurant at downtown disney. Great service, excellent food! Surf and Turf for me and my wife had the Grilled Shrimp.

By the way, for those with young kids, the Disney Playhouse "show" is being changed and Bear and a few of the others are being "retired". I'm kind of bummed by that. My daughter LOVES Bear and the crew and it's actually my favorite show that the kids watch.

Two other things about ME. On both trips the monitors didn't work. Kind of dissappointing on the way to DW. The last time we did ME the video's got my kids pumped up. This time they were so tired from the early flight they fell asleep.... Kind of a missed opportunity for some "magic".

The second thing.... the ME line at the airport. Why do we have to line up (we waited about 30 minutes in line) to have our tickets "stamped" and then have to wait in a second resort specific line? Two Lines? I didn't get it. The tickets are barcoded. Why not just put a bar code reader at the front of the line, scan the tickets and then break into the resort lines. (I can't help but want to fix things.).

Ahhh something else.... and believe me I don't put much value in it, but wanted to pass along anyway. I was in AK one day with my son asleep in a stroller while the rest of our group went to the lion king show. I started talking with the DVC guy. I asked about Hawaii. I said "I hope you really build it". He said "we will", that they "learned to not publically release unless it was firmly committed to DVC". I said yeah, kind of learned a lesson from that Eagle Pines release huh. He said "yeah". I said "so when are you going to announce Contemporary?". He smiled and said. "like i said, we learned our lesson...." I wasn't quite sure what he was trying to say but that was that anyway.....

 

[byoung]

There from the 2nd thru the 7th what a great week!

 

[Judy WI]

I was at WDW Dec 4 - 8 and have to say it looked like it would not be long and the power chairs will equal the strollers. I was there also in August and was going though chemo so I used a wheelchair, should have gone with the power ones but husband wanted to save the money and he pushed.

 

[simzac]

A 3rd positive OKW trip report in the past week. Things are really looking up for our favorite "home".