mbhoxsie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2002
- Messages
- 801
For those interested here's a "brief" trip report of our stay at OKW.. We travelled with friends and their DC... Total of eight in our party...
6/23 (Monday) - We arrived in Orlando... Decided to fly this time... Last couple years we have driven... Magical Express was great as always... We arrived at OKW at around 11:00am... When we checked in, the CM offered to take my cell phone # to call me when the room was ready... I was suprised at the offer, but gave her my number... We then went to Olivia's for lunch, and hit the pool... After hanging by the pool for a few hours, DW called housekeeping and the room had been ready for quite some time... Never did get that call that the room was ready... Not sure how long we waited, but with four kids under 8 in our party, we couldn't get it soon enough... Also, we had Wegoshop deliver groceries... Service there was great.. Our room wasn't ready when she delivered, so they left everything w/Bell Services. Everything worked out smooth.
6/24 (Tuesday) - Much to our friends' shegrin, we went to MK.. I usually want to hit the MK within the first few days just to make sure we get it done.. MK was nice though we were all tired.. With a party of 8, we were always stopping by every bathroom we passed. I warned our friends that DW and I were not the "commando" types and did not want to rush through every attraction... Our friends, understandbly so, wanted to hit EVERY attraction... (This would have been tough years ago before we had kids... It's soooo much tougher now...) We stayed at MK until the park closed and saw Wishes and the 2nd showing of Spectromagic.. Good day overall.
6/25 (Wednesday) - We took this day for some R&R... Woke up at 11:00am. Hang out by the OKW Main Pool... Got a little sun... Kids played in the CH... Had some drinks from the Gurgling Suitcase
.. My son got to see Eddie.. (One of the OKW CH CM's that he loves to hang out with..) Most of the meals were ate in room... Tried to get to bed early because Epcot was the next day...
6/26 (Thursday) - We got to Epcot at about 9:30am. I booked it over to Soarin' with all of the room keys to get FP's... (Even with getting the FP's at 9:30am, our time to go back was 12:30-1:30...) We did Spaceship Earth, Under the Seas w/Nemo, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Soarin'. By the time we finished all of those it was time to head over to the World Showcase. Once we got into the United Kingdom, it started to storm and downpour. Most of the street performers headed for dryer ground, but we kept perserving through the countries and enjoyed the shops and some food... One bummer though is that it stormed for three hours...
We had expected the traditional Florida rain where it shows up in the afternoon for an hour or so and disappears... no dice.. Anyways, it finally slowed down a bit by the time we got to Mexico and we stopped for a bit to eat. As we were getting ready to find a spot for Illuminations, we bumped into a CM who pointed out that EMH was at Epcot that night. 
We got our bracelets and setting in for the show. EMH gave us much needed time to hit Mission Space, the Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin' one last time. We got home last again, but all in all the day still went well despite the weather..
6/27 (Friday) Vero Beach - DF's wanted to take their kids to see the ocean... They wanted to rent a car to go to Cocoa Beach or Daytona... I came up with the idea early on of driving a little longer to take them to VB. I had contacted the VB front desk on Wednesday and got the ok to drive down to the resort for the day and pool hop. For those of you considering doing this, make sure you have your WDW Parking Pass for your car, your room key showing that your are currently staying on property at Orlando, and your DVC Member card to show that you are a member. They did ask if I was staying on points (which I was). The drive was pleasant and took about two hours.
The VB guard shack was supercourteous and waved us through after checking my parking pass and asking a few questions. I walked into the front desk, gave them all my info, and the CM disappeared and then came back five mins later with a temporary white room key that I needed to return upon leaving. The key allowed us to access the beach and the pool. I even was able to check out life jackets for DD and DF's DD. VB was awesome as always, and visiting the resort for a single day left me wanting more. We had dinner at Shutter's, left the resort and stopped by Super Walmart in Sebastian for a quick grocery run before heading back to Orlando. This was a great day...
6/28 (Saturday) - Very lazy day in the morning... Again, we hung out by the OKW pool in the mid afternoon. Eventually, we made it back to the room and decided to do our shopping at the DTD Marketplace. We made it to the Marketplace around 8:00pm or so.. Shopping was good, though busy as heck... Probabily due to the weekend/upcoming holiday. At about 11:00pm, we made it back to the OKW bus stop at the Marketplace. What preceeded next was crazy...
After 45 mins of waiting for a bus (and seeing six Port Orleans buses go by), everyone at the stop started to get a bit impatient. Kids were tired, crying, and wanted to get to bed. What made it worse was that the WDW Busses would pull up in the Marketplace driveway, sit for ten minutes, and then wait to be dispatched by Bus Central. I personally walked over to more than one bus, knocked on the door, and asked multiple drives to radio into dispatch and get a bus sent out.. Other DVC'ers were calling the OKW front desk and asking them to contact WDW Transportation. At 12:10am, a Port Orleans bus pulled up and I swear ten people boarded it, threatening to take it over. That bus driver had told us that we needed to walk over to the PI bus stop to catch the next bus... Everyone pretty much lost it since we had been at the Marketplace since wayyy before the cutoff. Finally, one of the PO busses finally stopped, and thought on his feet. He asked if any of us were going to PO.. We all responded "NO!!!"
, and told us to get on the bus, and contacted Bus Central, and drove everyone back to OKW. The most frustrating thing was that during that whole time, we must have watched at least forty busses, drive up to that drive-way, sit idle, and then drive off empty. None of the drivers (expect that one) thought on his feet and decided to take action. It was obvious that something was wrong as that our stop had 40+ people waiting, while all of the other stops were vacant. The other drivers seemed like they were content with being cogs in the great Disney machine. Anyways, this was the one major hiccup in the whole trip.
6/29 (Sunday) MGM... errr.. Hollywood Studios.. Morning came early... The kids were all tired from the bus dibacle the night before, so we actually didn't get to the park until 10:00 or so... It was the last day for Star Wars weekends, and so we had to go since DS and his friend were huge SW fans.
We started going through the park, and then realized that DD5 was acting more tired than usual. She didn't want to stand in line, and just wanted to sleep. She wasn't running a fever, but it was obvious she had hit her limit. We pretty much had to carry her the rest of the day. We did most of the big attractions at the park.. Star Tours, Indy Show, Muppetvision, Great Movie Ride, etc... We decided to try the new Toy Story ride... We waited in line for 65 mins, and were two families from getting into a car, when the ride broke. The CM's gave us FP's that were good for two weeks, and so we went to Pizza Planet for dinner... On the way back, we FP'ed our way back into the TS ride and got into a car in about 15 mins. The ride was fun, and the kids enjoyed it... We then went over to get our seats for Fantasmic.. 
We sat for 45 mins... Two mins before the show was supposed to start, it rained w/some lightning. The show was cancelled, but on the way out of the theatre, the rain let up, the clouds disappaited... A little frustrating, but I understood Disney's reasons.
6/30 Monday - Probabily the most relaxing day... We had booked a "Pirate Cruise"
for DS7 and DF's DS7. The boat left the GF marina at 9:30am, and so we had to haul to get there via the busses on time. We got the boys there on time, and they were off for a two-hour tour. We hung out by the GF pool for a few hours, and then at 1:30, DD5 had a tea party w/Alice and the Mad Hatter at 1900 Park Fare (at GF). The table setting looked awesome, but I can't tell you what they did since the Mad Hatter shoed all of the parents away at the start of the party. DD5 had a great time at the party, and we hung out at the pool until the sky started to cloud over... We eventually made it back to OKW for dinner in the room.
7/1 Tuesday - We had Priority Seating at Cape May at BCV for a Character B'fast. As usual, the buffet was awesome, and the characters were great. I think our DF's had some sticker shock with the bill, but all in all it was a good way to start off the morning. We then pool hopped over to BWV to enjoy the pool and Leaping Horse Libations
. While hanging out in the hot tub, I met another DVC'er who lives 4 miles from my house in MI. That was pretty cool.. The kids enjoyed the 3:00pm Pool Party at Luna Park, and then we heading back to the room... Time to pack up..
7/2 Wednesday - Time to go home... Our flight left at 3:38pm... I was quite suprised to see that our ME shuttle pick up time was 11:50am... ME went smoothly though.. DS unfortunately developed a 24 flu bug, and had a hard time travelling...
DW took him in the Community Hall while the rest of us were at the pool getting in that last swim.. Eddie saw him lying on the bench, and spent quite a lot of time sitting next to him trying to perk him up.... I can't say enough about that guy, he's awesome! 
All in all, it was a good trip..
Busier than most... Usually DW and I will only hit one (maybe two) parks in a ten day trip, this time we did three. Add on a day trip to VB, a day at GF for kid's activities, and a character b'fast at BCV, and you get a full vacation...
Needless to say, now that we are back, we are already planning our next trip. A 7 day Eastern Carribean Cruise on DCL...
6/23 (Monday) - We arrived in Orlando... Decided to fly this time... Last couple years we have driven... Magical Express was great as always... We arrived at OKW at around 11:00am... When we checked in, the CM offered to take my cell phone # to call me when the room was ready... I was suprised at the offer, but gave her my number... We then went to Olivia's for lunch, and hit the pool... After hanging by the pool for a few hours, DW called housekeeping and the room had been ready for quite some time... Never did get that call that the room was ready... Not sure how long we waited, but with four kids under 8 in our party, we couldn't get it soon enough... Also, we had Wegoshop deliver groceries... Service there was great.. Our room wasn't ready when she delivered, so they left everything w/Bell Services. Everything worked out smooth.
6/24 (Tuesday) - Much to our friends' shegrin, we went to MK.. I usually want to hit the MK within the first few days just to make sure we get it done.. MK was nice though we were all tired.. With a party of 8, we were always stopping by every bathroom we passed. I warned our friends that DW and I were not the "commando" types and did not want to rush through every attraction... Our friends, understandbly so, wanted to hit EVERY attraction... (This would have been tough years ago before we had kids... It's soooo much tougher now...) We stayed at MK until the park closed and saw Wishes and the 2nd showing of Spectromagic.. Good day overall.
6/25 (Wednesday) - We took this day for some R&R... Woke up at 11:00am. Hang out by the OKW Main Pool... Got a little sun... Kids played in the CH... Had some drinks from the Gurgling Suitcase
.. My son got to see Eddie.. (One of the OKW CH CM's that he loves to hang out with..) Most of the meals were ate in room... Tried to get to bed early because Epcot was the next day...6/26 (Thursday) - We got to Epcot at about 9:30am. I booked it over to Soarin' with all of the room keys to get FP's... (Even with getting the FP's at 9:30am, our time to go back was 12:30-1:30...) We did Spaceship Earth, Under the Seas w/Nemo, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and Soarin'. By the time we finished all of those it was time to head over to the World Showcase. Once we got into the United Kingdom, it started to storm and downpour. Most of the street performers headed for dryer ground, but we kept perserving through the countries and enjoyed the shops and some food... One bummer though is that it stormed for three hours...
We had expected the traditional Florida rain where it shows up in the afternoon for an hour or so and disappears... no dice.. Anyways, it finally slowed down a bit by the time we got to Mexico and we stopped for a bit to eat. As we were getting ready to find a spot for Illuminations, we bumped into a CM who pointed out that EMH was at Epcot that night. We got our bracelets and setting in for the show. EMH gave us much needed time to hit Mission Space, the Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin' one last time. We got home last again, but all in all the day still went well despite the weather..6/27 (Friday) Vero Beach - DF's wanted to take their kids to see the ocean... They wanted to rent a car to go to Cocoa Beach or Daytona... I came up with the idea early on of driving a little longer to take them to VB. I had contacted the VB front desk on Wednesday and got the ok to drive down to the resort for the day and pool hop. For those of you considering doing this, make sure you have your WDW Parking Pass for your car, your room key showing that your are currently staying on property at Orlando, and your DVC Member card to show that you are a member. They did ask if I was staying on points (which I was). The drive was pleasant and took about two hours.
The VB guard shack was supercourteous and waved us through after checking my parking pass and asking a few questions. I walked into the front desk, gave them all my info, and the CM disappeared and then came back five mins later with a temporary white room key that I needed to return upon leaving. The key allowed us to access the beach and the pool. I even was able to check out life jackets for DD and DF's DD. VB was awesome as always, and visiting the resort for a single day left me wanting more. We had dinner at Shutter's, left the resort and stopped by Super Walmart in Sebastian for a quick grocery run before heading back to Orlando. This was a great day...
6/28 (Saturday) - Very lazy day in the morning... Again, we hung out by the OKW pool in the mid afternoon. Eventually, we made it back to the room and decided to do our shopping at the DTD Marketplace. We made it to the Marketplace around 8:00pm or so.. Shopping was good, though busy as heck... Probabily due to the weekend/upcoming holiday. At about 11:00pm, we made it back to the OKW bus stop at the Marketplace. What preceeded next was crazy...
After 45 mins of waiting for a bus (and seeing six Port Orleans buses go by), everyone at the stop started to get a bit impatient. Kids were tired, crying, and wanted to get to bed. What made it worse was that the WDW Busses would pull up in the Marketplace driveway, sit for ten minutes, and then wait to be dispatched by Bus Central. I personally walked over to more than one bus, knocked on the door, and asked multiple drives to radio into dispatch and get a bus sent out.. Other DVC'ers were calling the OKW front desk and asking them to contact WDW Transportation. At 12:10am, a Port Orleans bus pulled up and I swear ten people boarded it, threatening to take it over. That bus driver had told us that we needed to walk over to the PI bus stop to catch the next bus... Everyone pretty much lost it since we had been at the Marketplace since wayyy before the cutoff. Finally, one of the PO busses finally stopped, and thought on his feet. He asked if any of us were going to PO.. We all responded "NO!!!"
, and told us to get on the bus, and contacted Bus Central, and drove everyone back to OKW. The most frustrating thing was that during that whole time, we must have watched at least forty busses, drive up to that drive-way, sit idle, and then drive off empty. None of the drivers (expect that one) thought on his feet and decided to take action. It was obvious that something was wrong as that our stop had 40+ people waiting, while all of the other stops were vacant. The other drivers seemed like they were content with being cogs in the great Disney machine. Anyways, this was the one major hiccup in the whole trip.6/29 (Sunday) MGM... errr.. Hollywood Studios.. Morning came early... The kids were all tired from the bus dibacle the night before, so we actually didn't get to the park until 10:00 or so... It was the last day for Star Wars weekends, and so we had to go since DS and his friend were huge SW fans.
We started going through the park, and then realized that DD5 was acting more tired than usual. She didn't want to stand in line, and just wanted to sleep. She wasn't running a fever, but it was obvious she had hit her limit. We pretty much had to carry her the rest of the day. We did most of the big attractions at the park.. Star Tours, Indy Show, Muppetvision, Great Movie Ride, etc... We decided to try the new Toy Story ride... We waited in line for 65 mins, and were two families from getting into a car, when the ride broke. The CM's gave us FP's that were good for two weeks, and so we went to Pizza Planet for dinner... On the way back, we FP'ed our way back into the TS ride and got into a car in about 15 mins. The ride was fun, and the kids enjoyed it... We then went over to get our seats for Fantasmic.. We sat for 45 mins... Two mins before the show was supposed to start, it rained w/some lightning. The show was cancelled, but on the way out of the theatre, the rain let up, the clouds disappaited... A little frustrating, but I understood Disney's reasons. 6/30 Monday - Probabily the most relaxing day... We had booked a "Pirate Cruise"
for DS7 and DF's DS7. The boat left the GF marina at 9:30am, and so we had to haul to get there via the busses on time. We got the boys there on time, and they were off for a two-hour tour. We hung out by the GF pool for a few hours, and then at 1:30, DD5 had a tea party w/Alice and the Mad Hatter at 1900 Park Fare (at GF). The table setting looked awesome, but I can't tell you what they did since the Mad Hatter shoed all of the parents away at the start of the party. DD5 had a great time at the party, and we hung out at the pool until the sky started to cloud over... We eventually made it back to OKW for dinner in the room.7/1 Tuesday - We had Priority Seating at Cape May at BCV for a Character B'fast. As usual, the buffet was awesome, and the characters were great. I think our DF's had some sticker shock with the bill, but all in all it was a good way to start off the morning. We then pool hopped over to BWV to enjoy the pool and Leaping Horse Libations
. While hanging out in the hot tub, I met another DVC'er who lives 4 miles from my house in MI. That was pretty cool.. The kids enjoyed the 3:00pm Pool Party at Luna Park, and then we heading back to the room... Time to pack up.. 7/2 Wednesday - Time to go home... Our flight left at 3:38pm... I was quite suprised to see that our ME shuttle pick up time was 11:50am... ME went smoothly though.. DS unfortunately developed a 24 flu bug, and had a hard time travelling...
DW took him in the Community Hall while the rest of us were at the pool getting in that last swim.. Eddie saw him lying on the bench, and spent quite a lot of time sitting next to him trying to perk him up.... I can't say enough about that guy, he's awesome! All in all, it was a good trip..
Busier than most... Usually DW and I will only hit one (maybe two) parks in a ten day trip, this time we did three. Add on a day trip to VB, a day at GF for kid's activities, and a character b'fast at BCV, and you get a full vacation...Needless to say, now that we are back, we are already planning our next trip. A 7 day Eastern Carribean Cruise on DCL...
