nzdisneymom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2003
- Messages
- 6,083
We had our last-chance-to-use-our-season-passes-before-they-expire trip to WDW this weekend. We stayed at OKW in a 1-BR villa (#5411). Our travel party was me, DH, DS1 (age 11) and DS2 (age 10).
We arrived at OKW at 8 p.m. on the dot. There was just one person ahead of me at registration but the wait was minimal as there were at least four CMs working the check-in desk. The boys and DH went over to watch the new Hannah Montana episode while I checked us in. Check-in went smoothly and quickly - fastest I've ever had - and I had our keys and packet in under 5 minutes.
We were assigned villa 5411 so we were down by the South Point bus-stop toward the end of Peninsular Road. We usually stay up in 23 - 26 with one time being off Turtle Pond, so we were anxious to see how things would be "in the back" of the resort. We loved it! Of course we were there for only a short period of time and were not needing / wanting to use any of the services up at Hospitality House.
Our 1-BR villa was in very good condition. I checked over everything and it was obviously clean. There was a little bit of mildew along the metal part of the shower door but other than that, I didn't notice anything. The floors were clean and didn't make my socks dirty, and the patio furniture was also clean / wiped down. Everything was in working order and ready to go.
We drove over to the outlet mall to the Character Premier store to see what they had in stock. We were hoping they would have some Med. cruise items in but they haven't gotten them yet, but I did find a few other things I couldn't leave behind
Saturday morning, DH went out for a run. He loved staying where we did because he had easy access to the pathway that leads to SSR and on over to DTD, so he had a nice run. After he got back, the boys and I headed over to the Magic Kingdom where he met us later. We only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus. I will say that I'm glad we were not in the buildings where the buses turn around in the parking lot, although others who stayed there said you can't hear them. I think I'd be more concerned about a bus making a wide turn and clipping the back-end of my car.
The Magic Kingdom wasn't too busy for a Saturday morning. We stopped for muffins at the Bakery and that's where DH caught up with us. We walked on to Buzz Lightyear and then rode the TTA (DS1 is doing a school paper about the TTA so he had to do some "fact checking" - ha ha). Then we got fast passes for Big Thunder (25 minutes later so we rode the train around the park to pass the time). We let the kids use all the FPs so they got a double-ride while DH and I waited.
As we were heading up to Casey's Corner for lunch, we passed the DVC kiosk in Fronteirland and recognized the DVC-guy -- it was Kurt. He had been on the Med. Cruise we were on in the summer, so we stopped to say hello. He had just been skiing last week and had his arm in a sling. Oops.
After "Casey Dogs" we went back to OKW for a rest. The villa is so comfortable that we stayed longer than we had thought - DH took a nap while the kids and I watched some Disney channel. I also put all the glasses, plates and silverware through the dishwasher even though we weren't going to be using them just so they'd be sure to be clean for the next guests. It was funny that we had a 1-BR unit and the only thing we had in the frig were some diet cokes, sprites and water bottles. We had the 1-BR because there were not any studios available anywhere when we made the reservations. But I'm glad we did it because it was so comfortable for us and spacious.
We went to Epcot next but had a 20 minute wait for the bus - we must've just missed it as we saw a bus for every other park come by while we were waiting. I wanted to see the decorations and experience some of the special holiday activities at Epcot, so we went up to the World Showcase after I picked up our Disney Dining Experience card from Guest Relations. We walked through Mexico but the timing was off, but it was exactly right for Norway, so we got to see the storytellers there while waiting for our FP time to do Maelstrom (which we haven't done in ages).
We continued our trek around the world until we got to America where the crowd started getting pretty heavy because of the Candlelight Processional, but at least the restaurant wasn't busy, so we had a quick dinner before heading over to Disney Studios to see the Osbourne lights. They were fun like we had remembered from last year, but as we were leaving the area, the exit was jammed up so a CM told everyone to go a different way which just jammed things up even more as people were trying to go in and out through the same area. We witnessed a dad with a stroller and a man on an ECV get into an altercation about who rammed whom. Ay yi yi. We were glad to be done with the crowd.
The boys wanted to go over to the MK to see the castle at night and do some rides we hadn't done in the morning. So we went back to OKW to drop off a package and then head over to MK. We arrived just after the fireworks were over (it was open til midnight), worked our way through the crowd, and got FPs for Big Thunder since DH and I prefer to ride it at night. We went to the Haunted Mansion while waiting for our FP return time. While in the stretching room, I noticed a CM tour-guide with three women. I asked him about how you get tour guide services so he told me, and then the women told us that they had gotten picked at Soarin' that morning to stay in the Castle that night. How cool is that??? The tour guide is part of the deal. They were grinning from ear to ear -- literally!
We got back to the room around 11 p.m. to discover that we needed to do laundry as I had not packed sufficiently for the warm weather of the weekend... so it was so nice to have a washer and dryer right there in the room. We stayed up late doing laundry but that was fine as we didn't have anywhere to be until Sunday morning for a late breakfast at Whispering Canyon over at Wilderness Lodge.
We met our friends at WL for a 9:50 breakfast (checked in at 9:35) but didn't get seated until 10:45. We laughingly asked for a lunch menu I don't know why they were so backed up but the place was busier than I've seen it in ages. Of course we were a party of six so I know that makes a difference for seating.
The Lodge was beautifully decorated for the holidays - I am in awe of the tree. I think WL is my favorite lobby of all the WDW resorts. Our friends stayed in a studio at WL. In fact, part of why we had breakfast was that they bought into DVC after we did and used us for their referral - so we told them we would take them out to breakfast with some of the $200 we got for the referral And even though we were having a later-than-expected breakfast, it was really good!!
The boys and I decided that we should just skip going to the parks for the day since we were so late with breakfast and the reality of school projects due Tuesday and such would still be facing us when we got home, so we shocked DH by telling him we wanted to just skip the park and go home. But of course we had to take a side-stop in the Mercantile at the Lodge - it is my favorite of all the resort gift shops - although the one at the Contemporary is a close second.
We had a nice uneventful trip home and got a lot of work done on DS1's geography project. I had thought it wasn't due until Dec. 18th (because I mis-read his assignment sheet) so I hadn't worried about us going to WDW over the weekend because I thought we had an extra week. Oops. Oh well.
DH's favorite part of the trip was the room. He said he could have stayed another week. My favorite part was getting to have all my favorite WDW food in one day -- blueberry muffin from the Bakery, popcorn, a Casey's hot dog, Rice Cream from Norway, roasted almonds from Epcot, and a Dole Whip float... all followed by a Whispering Canyon skillet breakfast the next day! Aahhh.... good thing we weren't staying a week
The boys enjoyed the few rides that we did and seeing the Castle in her ice-glory. And the light-up swords I bought them at the Outlet store.
Thanks for reading.
We arrived at OKW at 8 p.m. on the dot. There was just one person ahead of me at registration but the wait was minimal as there were at least four CMs working the check-in desk. The boys and DH went over to watch the new Hannah Montana episode while I checked us in. Check-in went smoothly and quickly - fastest I've ever had - and I had our keys and packet in under 5 minutes.
We were assigned villa 5411 so we were down by the South Point bus-stop toward the end of Peninsular Road. We usually stay up in 23 - 26 with one time being off Turtle Pond, so we were anxious to see how things would be "in the back" of the resort. We loved it! Of course we were there for only a short period of time and were not needing / wanting to use any of the services up at Hospitality House.
Our 1-BR villa was in very good condition. I checked over everything and it was obviously clean. There was a little bit of mildew along the metal part of the shower door but other than that, I didn't notice anything. The floors were clean and didn't make my socks dirty, and the patio furniture was also clean / wiped down. Everything was in working order and ready to go.
We drove over to the outlet mall to the Character Premier store to see what they had in stock. We were hoping they would have some Med. cruise items in but they haven't gotten them yet, but I did find a few other things I couldn't leave behind
Saturday morning, DH went out for a run. He loved staying where we did because he had easy access to the pathway that leads to SSR and on over to DTD, so he had a nice run. After he got back, the boys and I headed over to the Magic Kingdom where he met us later. We only had to wait 10 minutes for the bus. I will say that I'm glad we were not in the buildings where the buses turn around in the parking lot, although others who stayed there said you can't hear them. I think I'd be more concerned about a bus making a wide turn and clipping the back-end of my car.
The Magic Kingdom wasn't too busy for a Saturday morning. We stopped for muffins at the Bakery and that's where DH caught up with us. We walked on to Buzz Lightyear and then rode the TTA (DS1 is doing a school paper about the TTA so he had to do some "fact checking" - ha ha). Then we got fast passes for Big Thunder (25 minutes later so we rode the train around the park to pass the time). We let the kids use all the FPs so they got a double-ride while DH and I waited.
As we were heading up to Casey's Corner for lunch, we passed the DVC kiosk in Fronteirland and recognized the DVC-guy -- it was Kurt. He had been on the Med. Cruise we were on in the summer, so we stopped to say hello. He had just been skiing last week and had his arm in a sling. Oops.
After "Casey Dogs" we went back to OKW for a rest. The villa is so comfortable that we stayed longer than we had thought - DH took a nap while the kids and I watched some Disney channel. I also put all the glasses, plates and silverware through the dishwasher even though we weren't going to be using them just so they'd be sure to be clean for the next guests. It was funny that we had a 1-BR unit and the only thing we had in the frig were some diet cokes, sprites and water bottles. We had the 1-BR because there were not any studios available anywhere when we made the reservations. But I'm glad we did it because it was so comfortable for us and spacious.
We went to Epcot next but had a 20 minute wait for the bus - we must've just missed it as we saw a bus for every other park come by while we were waiting. I wanted to see the decorations and experience some of the special holiday activities at Epcot, so we went up to the World Showcase after I picked up our Disney Dining Experience card from Guest Relations. We walked through Mexico but the timing was off, but it was exactly right for Norway, so we got to see the storytellers there while waiting for our FP time to do Maelstrom (which we haven't done in ages).
We continued our trek around the world until we got to America where the crowd started getting pretty heavy because of the Candlelight Processional, but at least the restaurant wasn't busy, so we had a quick dinner before heading over to Disney Studios to see the Osbourne lights. They were fun like we had remembered from last year, but as we were leaving the area, the exit was jammed up so a CM told everyone to go a different way which just jammed things up even more as people were trying to go in and out through the same area. We witnessed a dad with a stroller and a man on an ECV get into an altercation about who rammed whom. Ay yi yi. We were glad to be done with the crowd.
The boys wanted to go over to the MK to see the castle at night and do some rides we hadn't done in the morning. So we went back to OKW to drop off a package and then head over to MK. We arrived just after the fireworks were over (it was open til midnight), worked our way through the crowd, and got FPs for Big Thunder since DH and I prefer to ride it at night. We went to the Haunted Mansion while waiting for our FP return time. While in the stretching room, I noticed a CM tour-guide with three women. I asked him about how you get tour guide services so he told me, and then the women told us that they had gotten picked at Soarin' that morning to stay in the Castle that night. How cool is that??? The tour guide is part of the deal. They were grinning from ear to ear -- literally!
We got back to the room around 11 p.m. to discover that we needed to do laundry as I had not packed sufficiently for the warm weather of the weekend... so it was so nice to have a washer and dryer right there in the room. We stayed up late doing laundry but that was fine as we didn't have anywhere to be until Sunday morning for a late breakfast at Whispering Canyon over at Wilderness Lodge.
We met our friends at WL for a 9:50 breakfast (checked in at 9:35) but didn't get seated until 10:45. We laughingly asked for a lunch menu
I don't know why they were so backed up but the place was busier than I've seen it in ages. Of course we were a party of six so I know that makes a difference for seating.The Lodge was beautifully decorated for the holidays - I am in awe of the tree. I think WL is my favorite lobby of all the WDW resorts. Our friends stayed in a studio at WL. In fact, part of why we had breakfast was that they bought into DVC after we did and used us for their referral - so we told them we would take them out to breakfast with some of the $200 we got for the referral
And even though we were having a later-than-expected breakfast, it was really good!!The boys and I decided that we should just skip going to the parks for the day since we were so late with breakfast and the reality of school projects due Tuesday and such would still be facing us when we got home, so we shocked DH by telling him we wanted to just skip the park and go home. But of course we had to take a side-stop in the Mercantile at the Lodge - it is my favorite of all the resort gift shops - although the one at the Contemporary is a close second.
We had a nice uneventful trip home and got a lot of work done on DS1's geography project. I had thought it wasn't due until Dec. 18th (because I mis-read his assignment sheet) so I hadn't worried about us going to WDW over the weekend because I thought we had an extra week. Oops. Oh well.
DH's favorite part of the trip was the room. He said he could have stayed another week. My favorite part was getting to have all my favorite WDW food in one day -- blueberry muffin from the Bakery, popcorn, a Casey's hot dog, Rice Cream from Norway, roasted almonds from Epcot, and a Dole Whip float... all followed by a Whispering Canyon skillet breakfast the next day! Aahhh.... good thing we weren't staying a week
The boys enjoyed the few rides that we did and seeing the Castle in her ice-glory. And the light-up swords I bought them at the Outlet store.
Thanks for reading.
