pistonfan32
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2005
- Messages
- 265
Just returned from our trip to DW and stay at OKW. We just bought into OKW and first stayed in a studio in January 2006. This time, we had five of us (wife, 4 year old son, 12 year old son and 13 year old friend of son) so we got a 2 bedroom. I was a little skeptical after reading recent posts about housekeeping, maintenance, etc. I even thought about switching to SSR. in September 2005. I am glad I did not change because everything was great.
We arrived on Friday, 1/12/07 from Detroit at 5:45pm. We took Magical Express to the resort. Our luggage was already there before we even showed up because we were on stand by for an earlier flight but did not make it, but our luggage did. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the almost full bus to leave, but I understand that some people waited around 30 minutes. That seems too long. The first stop was OKW so that was nice.
I went to check-in. I requested a location near the HH. The gave me building 21 which is on Miller's Road and seemed kind of far away. The only building they could change me to was building 20 which was one building closer. I wish I was a closer but no big deal. It turns out I loved building 20. It was close to the Miller's Road bus stop which is the 2nd to last stop before leaving OKW. We could just jump on the bus to go to the HH which was the next stop. But it gets better. Our back yard was one of the satellite pools. Now that was convenient. I will definitely request building 20 the next time I return.
We had groceries delivered by gardengrocer.com. They were great. I asked for delivery b/w 7pm and 9pm. They were waiting in the parking lot for us when we arrived. Perfect and I will use them again without a doubt.
Our kitchen was appropriately stocked. The condo was perfectly clean. No housekeeping or maintenance issues. The bedrooms are huge. At first, my older son walked in and saw the family room/kitchen area and said this place was not very big. They he walked to the bedrooms and said "holy ****, this place is huge". It ws a dedicated 2 BR. The 2nd BR is down the hall from the first BR so we could not hear the kids at all. One night, I moved to the sleeper sofa in the family room because my 4 year old was just too loud (he was sleeoing in our room on an Aerobed). The sleeper sofa bed was not too bad--the mattress was very thick and stiff, just like the furniture.
We had three days to spend at the parks. The first day we went to Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Very little lines throughout both parks. We went to Blizzard Beach the second day. Again, no lines to speak of. It felt to go to BB on Sunday because there was ice in Detroit and the only ice we saw was the fake ice hanging from the buildings. The third day (MLK day), we went to MGM and then Magic Kingdom at night. Again, there were virtually no lines--the longest was Tower of Terror for 15 minutes. And this was with Rock n Roller Coaster being closed. My kids were really bummed out that it was closed. Other attractions are turning over to new ones. No more Millionaire game. We were going to watch the new Extreme Stunt Show because it seems really good but we were getting pretty hot and decided to go back to OKW and swim for a couple of hours. We went to Magic Kingdom after dinner. We arrived at 7pm. We were unhappily surprised to find out that it closed at 8pm with no extra magic hours. This was my fault that I did not check this out in advance but I figured it would be open later because it was MLK day--not your typical Monday. Most people were waiting for the electric parade and fireworks, so we got on a few rides very quickly.
The bus service from OKW was fine. Sometimes, it seems like we had to wait longer than I expected at the parks to return, but not too bad. We had dinner one night at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe in DD and it was great. You get a DVC 10% discount there. One night, we went over to SSR just to check it out. The pool looks great but I felt no love to SSR. To me, it did not have that Disney feel. I really like OKW's direct entrances with a condo feel. SSR is huge and just appears like a bunch of big buildings.
I read a lot of complaints about OKW in the past few months. We have no complaints. I think some people have had legitimate complaints and some people complain about very small things--like the seam of a carpet not being down properly. Let's be honest here-OKW is great, relaxing, quiet, huge rooms, etc. Our next trip will be back to OKW or possibly Beach Club because of the pool.
Questions? I would be happy to answer them.
We arrived on Friday, 1/12/07 from Detroit at 5:45pm. We took Magical Express to the resort. Our luggage was already there before we even showed up because we were on stand by for an earlier flight but did not make it, but our luggage did. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the almost full bus to leave, but I understand that some people waited around 30 minutes. That seems too long. The first stop was OKW so that was nice.
I went to check-in. I requested a location near the HH. The gave me building 21 which is on Miller's Road and seemed kind of far away. The only building they could change me to was building 20 which was one building closer. I wish I was a closer but no big deal. It turns out I loved building 20. It was close to the Miller's Road bus stop which is the 2nd to last stop before leaving OKW. We could just jump on the bus to go to the HH which was the next stop. But it gets better. Our back yard was one of the satellite pools. Now that was convenient. I will definitely request building 20 the next time I return.
We had groceries delivered by gardengrocer.com. They were great. I asked for delivery b/w 7pm and 9pm. They were waiting in the parking lot for us when we arrived. Perfect and I will use them again without a doubt.
Our kitchen was appropriately stocked. The condo was perfectly clean. No housekeeping or maintenance issues. The bedrooms are huge. At first, my older son walked in and saw the family room/kitchen area and said this place was not very big. They he walked to the bedrooms and said "holy ****, this place is huge". It ws a dedicated 2 BR. The 2nd BR is down the hall from the first BR so we could not hear the kids at all. One night, I moved to the sleeper sofa in the family room because my 4 year old was just too loud (he was sleeoing in our room on an Aerobed). The sleeper sofa bed was not too bad--the mattress was very thick and stiff, just like the furniture.
We had three days to spend at the parks. The first day we went to Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Very little lines throughout both parks. We went to Blizzard Beach the second day. Again, no lines to speak of. It felt to go to BB on Sunday because there was ice in Detroit and the only ice we saw was the fake ice hanging from the buildings. The third day (MLK day), we went to MGM and then Magic Kingdom at night. Again, there were virtually no lines--the longest was Tower of Terror for 15 minutes. And this was with Rock n Roller Coaster being closed. My kids were really bummed out that it was closed. Other attractions are turning over to new ones. No more Millionaire game. We were going to watch the new Extreme Stunt Show because it seems really good but we were getting pretty hot and decided to go back to OKW and swim for a couple of hours. We went to Magic Kingdom after dinner. We arrived at 7pm. We were unhappily surprised to find out that it closed at 8pm with no extra magic hours. This was my fault that I did not check this out in advance but I figured it would be open later because it was MLK day--not your typical Monday. Most people were waiting for the electric parade and fireworks, so we got on a few rides very quickly.
The bus service from OKW was fine. Sometimes, it seems like we had to wait longer than I expected at the parks to return, but not too bad. We had dinner one night at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe in DD and it was great. You get a DVC 10% discount there. One night, we went over to SSR just to check it out. The pool looks great but I felt no love to SSR. To me, it did not have that Disney feel. I really like OKW's direct entrances with a condo feel. SSR is huge and just appears like a bunch of big buildings.
I read a lot of complaints about OKW in the past few months. We have no complaints. I think some people have had legitimate complaints and some people complain about very small things--like the seam of a carpet not being down properly. Let's be honest here-OKW is great, relaxing, quiet, huge rooms, etc. Our next trip will be back to OKW or possibly Beach Club because of the pool.
Questions? I would be happy to answer them.
