OKW GV at 7 months?

[ANGRebel]

Hey all, what are the chances of getting an OKW grand villa for about 5 nights in the summer at the 7 month mark?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

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[dmunsil]

Hey all, what are the chances of getting an OKW grand villa for about 5 nights in the summer at the 7 month mark?

Quite high, especially if you're not super picky about which dates, and you don't need one of the 2 that are near the hospitality house. In general, summer is lower demand for DVC so at 7 months you should be in good shape if you're not talking about July 4th or something.

Even if it doesn't come up with 5 full nights, grab the nights you can get and waitlist the missing ones, and your chances of the missing nights coming through are good.

 

[drusba]

Possibly some difficulty last two weeks of June, otherwise they are usually open throughout the summer at 7 months out.

 

[ANGRebel]

Thank you both for the input! Just curious, how is staying at OKW. Is it really important to have a car? We would be a group of 7 adults and 4 small children so if a car is a necessity then we would have to get a couple minivans or something similar. How are the GVs at OKW? We've never stayed in a GV before.

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[dmunsil]

Thank you both for the input! Just curious, how is staying at OKW. Is it really important to have a car? We would be a group of 7 adults and 4 small children so if a car is a necessity then we would have to get a couple minivans or something similar. How are the GVs at OKW? We've never stayed in a GV before.

They're really great.

Our first DVC experience was in a Grand Villa at Old Key West that my sister got for our combined families, and it was a really great trip. They're very roomy and comfortable. It feels like a very nice apartment. Heck, it is a very nice apartment.

We had rental cars and also used the buses sometimes. The bus service is good, but not fantastic. There are three bus stops around the resort plus the main Hospitality House, so it takes some time for the bus to make its way around and finally head to the park. Similarly, on the way back you may stop at several different other stops before getting to yours. When we were there the buses were not shared with any other resort, and I think that's pretty standard.

You can walk to Downtown Disney and Saratoga Springs via the golf course walkway. It's not at all obvious how to get on that walkway, but there's a real entrance that doesn't involve using a machete on the shrubberies down in the southeast corner of the map. You can also take a boat to Downtown Disney, but I gather it's a long ride.

If you mainly just want to get to and from the parks, I think the bus service is perfectly adequate. We wanted to go to some other resorts for meals, so for that we tended to use our cars. And honestly, it's faster to drive in almost every case except for Magic Kingdom, because of the closer bus drop-off there. And even then, if you walk out to the bus stop in the morning and see a bus to MK just pulling away, I tend to think turning around and heading for the car is likely to get you there faster than waiting for the next one.

So yes, if I was staying there I'd get a couple cars. In fact, we're staying this Christmas in a Saratoga Grand Villa with a group about the same size and we're getting two cars (one minivan and one standard). But we're going to a bunch of resorts for meals, and that's where it really helps a lot.

If you're going to be driving around the World a bunch and you have a Garmin or TomTom GPS, I recommend downloading the GPS POI files that I created for MouseSavers. There are some useful shortcuts from OKW to the rest of WDW that both GPSes seem to use, and it's also handy for getting to the supermarket and drugstore to stock up and so forth.

http://www.mousesavers.com/using-auto-gps-at-walt-disney-world/

Hope that helps!
Don

 

[ANGRebel]

Wow, thanks Don! I really appreciate the input. Last time we took this main group we were a little smaller. It was 6 adults and 2 small children and we stayed in a 2 BR value at AKV. We survived, but the value class room was a little small for that group. We are debating the GV at OKW or trying for a 2BR and a studio at somewhere closer to a park. It would be nice to all be in the same room though.

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[dmunsil]

Wow, thanks Don! I really appreciate the input. Last time we took this main group we were a little smaller. It was 6 adults and 2 small children and we stayed in a 2 BR value at AKV. We survived, but the value class room was a little small for that group. We are debating the GV at OKW or trying for a 2BR and a studio at somewhere closer to a park. It would be nice to all be in the same room though.

My advice is to get the GV if you can. Having everyone together is nice, and an OKW GV is a lot of room. You get a real dining table that you can actually fit most of the people around, a large living room area, plenty of actual beds that aren't pull-out, significant kitchen space, etc. It's a serious upgrade in terms of room space and comfort over a 2-bedroom.

And when I say the bus service isn't fantastic, I just mean the bus service in general at WDW. It's not really any worse at OKW than anywhere else. It's just that at, say, BWV you can walk to two parks. In fact I'd say OKW and SSR are a little better in some ways than AKV for bus service, since they're a little more centrally located so the bus rides aren't as long.

But resort-wise there are tradeoffs. OKW is not as action-packed as some of the other resorts. The main pool is nice and has a good slide, but it's not as fancy as the ones at AKV, for example. You can walk over to the Saratoga pools, which are plenty fancy, but it's a bit of a hike. The restaurant is good, but it's not as interesting as Boma, Jiko, or Sanaa. Which might be good if you prefer less exotic food. On the other hand, you're close to Downtown Disney, which has a ton of good food.

I tend to think that once you stay in an OKW Grand Villa, you'll start thinking about staying in a AKV, BWV, or BLT Grand Villa, which leads to add-on-itis.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thank you both for the input! Just curious, how is staying at OKW. Is it really important to have a car? We would be a group of 7 adults and 4 small children so if a car is a necessity then we would have to get a couple minivans or something similar. How are the GVs at OKW? We've never stayed in a GV before.

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The OKW GV is pretty nice. Upstairs there are two bedrooms, one with two queen beds, the other with two double beds. Each with it's own bathroom (but they are a bit small). Downstairs is the master bedroom with the king bed. You have one queen sleeper sofa in the living room, plus the twin sized sleeper chair. There is another smaller bathroom for the living room sleepers so you get the master bathroom to yourself. You actually have sleeping spaces for 13, but occupancy is still only twelve. The dining area is large with plenty of space around the table.

We had one two years ago and had nine new HS grads, plus the two of us. Girls had the upstairs, boys downstairs and we were in the master.

The boat to DTD is nice as is the walk over to DTD from the South Point area. The path isn't lit at night and you have to stay off the cart paths and the golf course. But you can walk over to DTD on this path along the Trumbo Canal. You also have the Community Hall with lots of activities and the marina where you can rent boats.

It is really easy to get around OKW. If you want to catch a bus from any stop over to the Hospitality House area, just make sure you get any theme park bus. They stop last at HHA. And you can walk over to Peninsular Road (just across the bridge from HHA) bus stop and catch a bus back to your area. But the longest walk is probably only ten minutes from the furthest area. I'd say the buses at OKW are among the best at all the resorts. We've never had a problem with buses at OKW.

They also rent the surrey bikes at OKW and they are much easier to pedal at OKW than the Boardwalk. No hills to go up.



OKW is a very comfortable resort. We've stayed there maybe 10-15 times (I've lost count) in every sized villa there. We'll be back there in October and again in May or June.

 

[stmize]

Wow that's a lot of bathrooms. I thought there was only 2 1/2

 

[Deb & Bill]

Wow that's a lot of bathrooms. I thought there was only 2 1/2

Nope, four.

 

[stmize]

Nope, four.

Wow that's great.

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[Pirate Granny]

We rented points in 2011 for OKW GV and loved it so much we bought resale shortly on our return...we are getting ready for our 2014 OKW GV...we love it...we never have a car, and we find it convenient to rely on the buses as everyone can come and go as they please..

 

[ANGRebel]

Sounds good, this would take two years worth of points, but I think it'll be worth it for the space for everyone. Plus I'm interested in trying out OKW anyway!

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[Pirate Granny]

Actually for us since we only have 220 OKW points it takes 2-1/2 years of points...which is why we added some BCV and VWL for our 'other' trips. But my favorite has to be OKW!