OKW lovers thread !!!

[kid-at-heart]

We just returned from our first OKW stay and I am hooked on the resort. We will return. We experienced a beautiful room, beautiful grounds, friendly and helpful CMs, nice pool and life guards, fun community center... We did not wait long for buses or boats. The room was very clean, the beds very comfortable, the sheets nice and soft. I wish all DVC studios were the size of OKW studios.

My 13 year old daughter now thinks OKW is the best DVC resort because - boys, boys, and more boys. According to her, the cutest teen boys on earth were there. We generally travel during the school year (conferences) so she has not experienced the summer crowd which contains many children and teens. I did not tell her that all the resorts are filled with young people in the summers. I do not want her to start complaining that we always travel off-season.

I have only a couple of complaints which I am posting on here to find if others have experienced any of these problems or if it was just me and this particular stay.

Each night, in the middle of the night, the AC would go off and I would have to get up, reset it and then toss and turn for an hour waiting for the room to cool back down. Is this a common problem or did I end up with a faulty AC?

Also, our room had very dim lighting. The bathroom lighting was great, but I could barely see in the bedroom and kitchen area (studio) without opening the blinds. At night I could not see, I kept bumping into things and could not find items lying on the table/dresser, etc. Maybe my eyes are just old but I have not had a problem at other DVC resorts, no even AKL. I did call the front desk to ask for brighter lights but the lights were not replaced.

Even with those issues it was a great visit and I look forward to our next OKW visit.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

OKW is my home resort and also my favorite, it's nice to hear you enjoyed your stay there!

As far as the A/C, we were there in June, 3 seperate bldgs. and we had no issues with the A/C's other than in the 2br where 78 felt like 70! I never stay in studios so I cannot judge the lighting, it's not been an issue in the GV, 2br or 1br!

 

[dvczerfs]

We just returned from our first OKW stay and I am hooked on the resort. We will return. We experienced a beautiful room, beautiful grounds, friendly and helpful CMs, nice pool and life guards, fun community center... We did not wait long for buses or boats. The room was very clean, the beds very comfortable, the sheets nice and soft. I wish all DVC studios were the size of OKW studios.

My 13 year old daughter now thinks OKW is the best DVC resort because - boys, boys, and more boys. According to her, the cutest teen boys on earth were there. We generally travel during the school year (conferences) so she has not experienced the summer crowd which contains many children and teens. I did not tell her that all the resorts are filled with young people in the summers. I do not want her to start complaining that we always travel off-season.

I have only a couple of complaints which I am posting on here to find if others have experienced any of these problems or if it was just me and this particular stay.

Each night, in the middle of the night, the AC would go off and I would have to get up, reset it and then toss and turn for an hour waiting for the room to cool back down. Is this a common problem or did I end up with a faulty AC?

Also, our room had very dim lighting. The bathroom lighting was great, but I could barely see in the bedroom and kitchen area (studio) without opening the blinds. At night I could not see, I kept bumping into things and could not find items lying on the table/dresser, etc. Maybe my eyes are just old but I have not had a problem at other DVC resorts, no even AKL. I did call the front desk to ask for brighter lights but the lights were not replaced.

Even with those issues it was a great visit and I look forward to our next OKW visit.

hi kate, glad you guys had a great time!!! when you said you had to reset the a/c, what did you do to reset it? ill be down in september and i also design a/c systems and i just want to be prepared.

 

[Mrs Hobbes]

So happy our 7 month window opened up today and I got us a studio in the hospitality area for Feb 2012. This will be our first stay at OKW this is a little trip that we are squeezing in on low points. We have to have a studio so I wanted one with space and storage! Hope I won't be disappointed we are really looking forward to our trip so its good to hear all the good points in this thread.

I have requested a third floor room should I have added a building request or are all the hh buildings on a par?

 

[kid-at-heart]

hi kate, glad you guys had a great time!!! when you said you had to reset the a/c, what did you do to reset it? ill be down in september and i also design a/c systems and i just want to be prepared.

Hopefully someone on this board knows a way to over-ride the thermostat so you will not have to do what I did; each and every night, somewhere around 3 a.m., I had to get up, turn the thermostat up to high-70s and then turn it back down to 68-70 degrees to get it to cut back on. I had it set for 68 to 70 degrees when we went to sleep. When I awoke the temp was in the mid to high 70s each time.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hopefully someone on this board knows a way to over-ride the thermostat so you will not have to do what I did; each and every night, somewhere around 3 a.m., I had to get up, turn the thermostat up to high-70s and then turn it back down to 68-70 degrees to get it to cut back on. I had it set for 68 to 70 degrees when we went to sleep. When I awoke the temp was in the mid to high 70s each time.

thank you!!

 

[BobNed]

Hopefully someone on this board knows a way to over-ride the thermostat so you will not have to do what I did; each and every night, somewhere around 3 a.m., I had to get up, turn the thermostat up to high-70s and then turn it back down to 68-70 degrees to get it to cut back on. I had it set for 68 to 70 degrees when we went to sleep. When I awoke the temp was in the mid to high 70s each time.

See this post for instructions on how to bypass the motion sensors:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40031463&postcount=294
The rest of the thread is interesting too!

 

[kaffinito]

See this post for instructions on how to bypass the motion sensors:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40031463&postcount=294
The rest of the thread is interesting too!

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting thread!

 

[hmillerbarilla]

So we should plan on having the air conditioning issues while at OKW in a few weeks? I was hoping to not have to deal with it!

I've researched all the threads on bypassing the motion sensor and overriding the temp. I hope we can figure it out so everyone can sleep! We need it cool to sleep thru the night.

We are starting to get really excited. Today DD asked me when we can start packing!

 

[kid-at-heart]

See this post for instructions on how to bypass the motion sensors:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40031463&postcount=294
The rest of the thread is interesting too!

Thank you!!!

We are heading back in August so this info will be used very soon.

 

[dvczerfs]

See this post for instructions on how to bypass the motion sensors:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40031463&postcount=294
The rest of the thread is interesting too!

i havnt seen the door sensors yet but if you look in the door jams, im sure you will find a "switch" looking thing, a ball or a pin type switch like you find on your fridg door. slap a piece of tape over it and it keeps the switch closed,keeping the a/c running. if the motion sensor is on the tstat, there are alot of ways around that also, a wind catcher (those small plastic spinning things people hang on there porches, string with some card board by the big a/c return in the hall will move. a small osculating desk fan without the fan blade moving will keep in on. putting the floor lamp in the living room under the tstat will keep the tstat warm and keep the a/c on. i do this for a living and ive seen it all!!! people to keep the heat on will put an ice pack on the tstat. this all being said, most new commercial building now use wall sensors (preset bulbs in the wall to scense temp.) and outside bulbs to sense outdoor temp drops and these are all run back to a central program that is controlled by the owners, maintaince staff of the building. they put little white boxs with buttons on the walls to give people something to play with.

 

[BobNed]

i havnt seen the door sensors yet but if you look in the door jams, im sure you will find a "switch" looking thing, a ball or a pin type switch like you find on your fridg door. slap a piece of tape over it and it keeps the switch closed,keeping the a/c running. if the motion sensor is on the tstat, there are alot of ways around that also, a wind catcher (those small plastic spinning things people hang on there porches, string with some card board by the big a/c return in the hall will move. a small osculating desk fan without the fan blade moving will keep in on. putting the floor lamp in the living room under the tstat will keep the tstat warm and keep the a/c on. i do this for a living and ive seen it all!!! people to keep the heat on will put an ice pack on the tstat. this all being said, most new commercial building now use wall sensors (preset bulbs in the wall to scense temp.) and outside bulbs to sense outdoor temp drops and these are all run back to a central program that is controlled by the owners, maintaince staff of the building. they put little white boxs with buttons on the walls to give people something to play with.

The new systems have gotten too smart for these ideas to work. The new thermostats and senors work by sensing infrared heat from warm bodies, not motion.

The sensors on the doors aren't buttons either; just flat contacts. Nothing to push in or block.

Here is some information from the manual for the system:

The entire system is controlled through a "Room Control Unit" (RCU) – This component is the brains of the system. It gets input from all the devices of the system and makes decisions based on this input. The RCU is locked up somewhere, probably with the furnace/AC unit.

WDDC Thermostat
The WDDC consists of five buttons:
• Power On/Off
• Fan – Depending on the way the WDDC is configured, this button is used to select Auto, Low, Medium, and High fan speeds.
• Warmer – This button is used to raise the set temperature of the room.
• Cooler – This button is used to lower the set temperature of the room.
• F/C – Used to display the temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius. This button is also used to set the WDDC system into Soft Bypass mode. To do so, press and hold the button for 3 seconds until bp is displayed on the screen, indicating that the Energy Management functions have now been bypassed in the RCU for a period of 48 hours. The WDDC has a built in Passive Infrared (PIR) sensor that will sense human motion in the sensing area while filtering out motion from non-human sources such as draperies.

WDDC Motion Sensor
The WDDC Wall Unit has a built in Passive Infrared (PIR) motion sensor. The PIR detection pattern is 150° horizontal and 30° vertical down (refer to Figure 14 and Figure 15 on Page 28). The PIR senses differences in the temperature of a person in the room and the background temperature of the walls, furniture and fixtures. As a result, occupants are detected as they pass through the sensor’s zones; and, any motion from inanimate objects such as movement from the draperies will not be detected.

Soft Bypass
At times, it is necessary to bypass the energy management functions of the system. To do this, press and hold d the F/C button on the WDDC for 3 seconds and you will see bp (bypass) on the screen. The unit sends a message to the RCU changing the settings so that it functions as a normal thermostat with no energy management functions for 48 hours.

There's also a remote motion sensor in the bedroom(s).

 

[dvczerfs]

The new systems have gotten too smart for these ideas to work. The new thermostats and senors work by sensing infrared heat from warm bodies, not motion.

The sensors on the doors aren't buttons either; just flat contacts. Nothing to push in or block.

Here is some information from the manual for the system:



There's also a remote motion sensor in the bedroom(s).

intresting. we sell a simliar system from tekmar controll. all objects above absolute zero emit radiation. most infrared detectors will pick up the heat from a light bulb. alot of sensors today are going that way. we have outdoor sensors that detect temp., light , dampness etc. we use moisture indicators for snowmelt systems and carwash exit areas.turns the boiler on to heat the pad and dry it off so it dont ice up.theres so many things anymore its hard to keep up. like we say at work, we can do what ever you want, how much money do you want to spend.

 

[BUDDYBEAR]

my wife loves okw---i am a bcv person

 

[dmoore22]

my wife loves okw---i am a bcv person

Where are those snappy comebacks when I needs them.

 

[dianeschlicht]

my wife loves okw---i am a bcv person

Than perhaps you need to toodle on over to the BCV thread.

 

[dvczerfs]

Than perhaps you need to toodle on over to the BCV thread.

tell him diane!!! this is for okw lovers only.

 

[kid-at-heart]

my wife loves okw---i am a bcv person

I think you both have good taste.

 

[ABE4DISNEY]

We were there 5/29-6/10 staying in building 14. No doubt we also crossed paths as we used the HH and Peninsular bus stops. It was just my DW and DD that had just graduated from high school.

I'm sure I walked past you while you were in the Gurgling Suitcase!

 

[dmoore22]

I'm sure I walked past you while you were in the Gurgling Suitcase!

I'll drink to that!

wife loves okw---i am a bcv person

Hmmm. This gives a whole new perspective on mixed marriage? I apologize in advance for my lack of pc.