OKW lovers thread !!!

[soulmates]

I think you will enjoy OKW very much. It is one of our "homes" and we always have a relaxing enjoyable time there. We stayed in the HH area in March and, yes, there is parking in front of your villa so no problem. The Gurgling Suitcase is excellent for "refreshments" and Goods to Go offers sandwiches, salads, etc. Olivia's is also excellent for lunch and dinner. We find that we just love the boat to Downtown Disney as well.

I'm not sure if OKW is still offered to buy through WDW but I can't believe it would not be even though they are pushing their newer resorts. You just have to be adamant that OKW is what you want. There are also many OKW contracts on the resale market.

Have a great time!

Thanks Paula. We KNOW we're buying into DVC next Spring but after learning about OKW, we REALLLLLY like what we see.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...2. Are they still selling new contracts at OKW through Disney?
...

Why not just look at a resale? You'll save a lot doing that instead of purchasing through DVC.

 

[soulmates]

Why not just look at a resale? You'll save a lot doing that instead of purchasing through DVC.

I thought about that...but I'm 6 years out of a messy divorce and my credit took a big hit. I'm just now getting my score to a decent place. I'm better off going through Disney direct.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I thought about that...but I'm 6 years out of a messy divorce and my credit took a big hit. I'm just now getting my score to a decent place. I'm better off going through Disney direct.

Figure up the difference in price before you do that. You may be amazed.

 

[soulmates]

Figure up the difference in price before you do that. You may be amazed.

I will!

 

[saintstickets]

We have a few questions.

1. Since we're booked at the HH, do we still get to park by our room?
2. Are they still selling new contracts at OKW through Disney?
3. We plan on staying at the resort during the day, pool side and drinks in hand how is the CS there? We have our car but really don't want to leave just for lunch. We'll be doing the parks in the evenings to avoid most of the heat. This is the first trip we're doing the parks at night and we're excited about that too. DP LOVES the resorts at DW so she could stay there allllll the time. This works out great for us. Looking forward to this trip more than you know!

Thanks,

Chris of Chris & Christy

Not too much of an OKW vet but here are some answers to your questions as I understand it...

1. Parking is great at OKW. You're never more than a few steps away from your vehicle.

2. Currently, new member purchases direct from Disney for OKW are a 160 point minimum at $90/pt. This is the extended years contract to 2057. Most of the contracts thru resale are to 2042. Disney will sell you the extended time to 2057 on a current 2042 contract for $25/pt.

3. This is the only downfall, IMO, to OKW. CS is minimum. However, the full service restaurant, Olivia's, is one of the best kept secrets in WDW. It is really good and the CM's are fantastic.

The bus service to the parks is some of the best at WDW. Since you have requested HH area, you will be very close to a bus stop. Here is a map of OKW

Hope you enjoy your trip to OKW as much as we have.

 

[Breyean]

Last I heard, from a bout a month ago, Disney was selling OKW direct for $90/point, which includes the extension until 2057. So maybe you can compare that with the resale prices to get an idea what you can manage.

Good luck.

 

[BlackRock]

I do not have any pictures but we love OKW

BlackRock

 

[soulmates]

Not too much of an OKW vet but here are some answers to your questions as I understand it...

1. Parking is great at OKW. You're never more than a few steps away from your vehicle.

2. Currently, new member purchases direct from Disney for OKW are a 160 point minimum at $90/pt. This is the extended years contract to 2057. Most of the contracts thru resale are to 2042. Disney will sell you the extended time to 2057 on a current 2042 contract for $25/pt.

3. This is the only downfall, IMO, to OKW. CS is minimum. However, the full service restaurant, Olivia's, is one of the best kept secrets in WDW. It is really good and the CM's are fantastic.

The bus service to the parks is some of the best at WDW. Since you have requested HH area, you will be very close to a bus stop. Here is a map of OKW

Hope you enjoy your trip to OKW as much as we have.

Thanks SO much for the awesome info!

Last I heard, from a bout a month ago, Disney was selling OKW direct for $90/point, which includes the extension until 2057. So maybe you can compare that with the resale prices to get an idea what you can manage.

Good luck.

VERYYYYY good to know, thanks~

 

[GGOOFY1]

I was a Millers Road pool yesterday - it wasn't closed. Some of the buildings right next to the pool are under renovation yet.

Thanks Deb I read on another thread that Millers Road pool was closed. We are going in August and I requested Millers Road. How far are the renovations?? I thought they were complete???

 

[soulmates]

I thought they were too?

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Well, I'm in love all over again! Finally spent a week at OKW in a reno. GV & Studio and though somewhat apprehensive about the many changes, I have to say, I think the villas look fantastic. I don't mind the dark wood, I loved the wood floors, the decor and paint colors are beautiful. I even appreciated the sleeper chair, doesn't look so brown in villa! The only complaint, those ridiculous plastic pulls to raise the patio/balcony door and window blinds/fabric panels. What a nuisance, each panel takes 10 minutes to crank up and then crank back down at night! I once thought the original blinds on the door were a pain but these are by far worse! The decorator who picked these obviously lives life as a mushroom, never needing to open the panels!

Great week at Disney & OKW!

and dmoore, I stopped by the Gurgling Suitcase, and upon seeing the blowup doll on a patrons lap, I had to quickly move along since I had 6 (14 year old boys) with me, asking me all sorts of questions about Blow Up Barbie! I had to sneak back for my Pina Colada after they were in the pool!

 

[dmoore22]

and dmoore, I stopped by the Gurgling Suitcase, and upon seeing the blowup doll on a patrons lap, I had to quickly move along since I had 6 (14 year old boys) with me, asking me all sorts of questions about Blow Up Barbie! I had to sneak back for my Pina Colada after they were in the pool!

We just returned this past Saturday after spending 12 wonderful nights in a HH Studio (Building 14). We totally missed the inflatable Barbie (A new Disney Princess?). I agree with your assessment of the Roman Shades. Not only do they take forever to roll-up/roll-down, I nicked up my hands pretty good from the plastic ribbing in the shades each time I tried to open pull them up, they are so close to the plastic pull chain. It got so, and since the weather was relatively mild, that we just left the shades down and opened the French doors partially. That way we could let in light and still have, and give, privacy to our adjacent OKW neighbors due to the angle that the door opened out onto the balcony. The old faux wood blinds are looking really good now.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We just returned this past Saturday after spending 12 wonderful nights in a HH Studio (Building 14). We totally missed the inflatable Barbie (A new Disney Princess?). I agree with your assessment of the Roman Shades. Not only do they take forever to roll-up/roll-down, I nicked up my hands pretty good from the plastic ribbing in the shades each time I tried to open pull them up, they are so close to the plastic pull chain. It got so, and since the weather was relatively mild, that we just left the shades down and opened the French doors partially. That way we could let in light and still have, and give, privacy to our adjacent OKW neighbors due to the angle that the door opened out onto the balcony. The old faux wood blinds are looking really good now.

I agree with you on the roman shades. I really like them, but the mechanism to raise and lower them is horrible. All they really needed was a cord that was open on the end so a small child couldn't strangle on it. But as high as it is (to keep it out of the kids' reach) and as short as it is, it takes forever to raise.

And I wish they had wands instead of cords on the blinds. It's hard reaching over the sofa or love seat to grab it to open the blinds up.

 

[OKWisthebest]

I love Old Key West. I always feel at home there. And the castmembers are the best and the rooms are always clean. The new hardwood floors in the 2 bedroom suites are very nice. I was used to that in the Grand Villa, but now all the 2-bedrooms have them -- What a plus!

This trip we made breakfast each morning and dinner each night. The rooms have everything you possibly could need.

Boo hoo, now I have to wait until October/November to go again. Only 4 more months.

 

[andersonsc]

Tell me what I'm missing or if we just had bad luck. We just got back from a split stay at Animal kingdom, Kidani and OKW. Kidani was beautiful and clean. A little tight with all 6 of us. We had a 2 bedroom but the kitchen/living area was small for us. We then went on a cruise and then went to OKW. Upon check in we were told we were in bld 63 but by the time we got back there in the afternoon, they had given our room to someone else and had us in bld 37. I was very upset, as we had booked a room near the HH. After much "conversation" we finally got a room in bld 13. We stayed at OKW in 2007 and really liked it then. This time we liked the wood floor, sleeper chair and of course all the space. Our view was great too. The unit was dingy and dirty though. Even my son, who doesn't really notice if things are clean, made a comment about how dirty their bathroom was. I think we may have been in a "hotel room" not DVC. Could that have been the difference? The dishwasher was installed in a way that it wouldn't stay open and the bottom pull out wouldn't stay out to load. The DVD player didn't work. There are many great things about OKW but I was really suprised that if the rooms were recently upgraded with new floors, furniture, why are they so dirty?

 

[dmoore22]

Tell me what I'm missing or if we just had bad luck. There are many great things about OKW but I was really suprised that if the rooms were recently upgraded with new floors, furniture, why are they so dirty?

We had some issues with housekeeping on our most recent trip. We called the direct line to housekeeping and explained the situation. When we returned that afternoon from a day in the parks all was corrected in the Disney/OKW standard we've come to expect. It was really a user friendly process and the CMs seemed to appreciate that we called it to their attention.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Tell me what I'm missing or if we just had bad luck.

The unit was dingy and dirty though. Even my son, who doesn't really notice if things are clean, made a comment about how dirty their bathroom was.

I think we may have been in a "hotel room" not DVC. Could that have been the difference? The dishwasher was installed in a way that it wouldn't stay open and the bottom pull out wouldn't stay out to load. The DVD player didn't work.

There are many great things about OKW but I was really suprised that if the rooms were recently upgraded with new floors, furniture, why are they so dirty?

I can only answer from my experience at OKW, and as far as luck, I can't say it's luck that I've had great villas, well stocked, and clean for over 30 visits (since 1998). Luck for me is once or twice, 30+ times isn't luck, it's the standard for me at OKW! This visit, with the rehab, made me love OKW even more, everything freshly painted and clean (yes even the bathroom), new coffee pot and toaster still in the box!. The only thing I did was scrub the jacuzzi tub, but only because it's a hang-up I have!

I thankfully have never had a dirty room, a broken down room such as many have described at OKW, nor at any other DVC resort for that matter. Wear & tear, sure, like scuffed floors or possible glass rings on the table, couple of dirty cups or glasses, just minor stuff like that! I think the worse I've had as far as wear and tear was at the BWV, only one out of the 4 burners on the stove worked, and I cook in my villa!

andersonsc I'm sorry you didn't have the "wow" experience at OKW that I've been having since 1997, it's the reason I bought in 2000!

 

[Deb & Bill]

...The unit was dingy and dirty though. Even my son, who doesn't really notice if things are clean, made a comment about how dirty their bathroom was. I think we may have been in a "hotel room" not DVC. Could that have been the difference? The dishwasher was installed in a way that it wouldn't stay open and the bottom pull out wouldn't stay out to load. The DVD player didn't work. There are many great things about OKW but I was really suprised that if the rooms were recently upgraded with new floors, furniture, why are they so dirty?

There wasn't any renovation to the bathrooms, so they didn't really clean the grout very well. My complaint for the "complete" renovation. No hotel rooms at OKW, all are DVC. With the DVD player, you had to connect the wires to the front of the player and then get the right channel. The directions we found in the kitchen (we were in a GV last week) were not that good for the DVD player, but I was able to make it work. When I tried to go back to TV from DVD, I only got Picture in a Picture until I disconnected the wires from the DVD player again.

None of the appliances were replaced with the renovation either.

 

[andersonsc]

Thanks for the comments. No renovation to the bathrooms makes sence now. I thought the whole units were redone so couldn't see how the grout, tile was so dirty already. As I said, we do like aspects of OKW and will stay again, but I think the fiasco with our room made me a bit more critical this visit. We had a little black slithery visitor 2 days in a row that we could see from our balcony. The boys loved that!! We also went to the campfire one night and roasted marshmellows. The young man leading the group in singing and storytelling was very funny and I'm glad we went.