RweTHEREyet
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 4, 1999
- Messages
- 6,642
Just arrived home this evening after spending a week at WDW.
We left after work on Friday and made it to Hilton Head, called Member Services on the way and there was a studio available. I have only stayed there one other time, early January a couple of years ago, only about 20 people in the whole resort, and they gave me in the handicapped studio right around the corner from check-in. Well, guess what they tried to give me again !!! When he said, your room is really, really close, I said not the one around the corner on the right, he said yes, I said no thank you, and he found me another one in the lodge building. Arrived late and left early the next morning, so nothing more really to report there.
First night in WDW, Saturday, we spent at Pop Century. I loved it. I cannot tell you why, but it is very different than AllStars to me. I would not hesitate to stay there again, and I really cannot stand the AllStars any more.
Sunday we checked in to OKW around 8:30 or so in the morning and the room was ready, yeah, and we were in room 5426. I loved this location. It is close to a quiet pool and laundry and ice and just a building away from a bus stop. We had our own transportation and did not mind being away from HH. I have decided this is my new favorite spot at OKW. The room was clean, looked like a new refrigerator and new drapes and we had no complaints, except that there seemed to be a tremendous amount of maintenace of sorts going on and the very early morning noise was annoying. Also, the room was a lockoff and I heard the folks on the other side try to open the connecting door several times.
Friday night we checked into the Wilderness Lodge for one night. Not the Villas, but the Lodge. Nice room, very close to lobby. Loved walking into the lobby of that grand hotel. However, I truly disliked the SMALL room, compared to OKW. I heard every commode in the building flush at one time or another and the children running and screaming up and down the hall were a real annoyance. Not sure where the parents were, but it was very inconsiderate of them to allow the kids to be making this kind of noise at 11:30 at night.
We have always stayed at moderates and/or the budgets on weekends when we were trying to save points, but I can tell you this, if the Wilderness Lodge is a deluxe resort, I will take my DVC over the Wilderness Lodge any day of the week and will gladly spend the weekend points to do it from now on. Except for the location of the Wilderness, I think that Port Orleans has nicer rooms.
Oh, while at OKW, I asked to see any infomation on the slide, and I was told that nothing was available. Looks like Doc had some inside connections to get his pictures.
We tried out the new Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney and we really liked it. Enough so that we ate there 3 times during the week. Once we got our order and took it back to OKW so we could eat in our studio.
Also, one afternoon we toured around to see Saratoga by driving to the Golf Club. When we were leaving, the gates to the pool were open, so I had hubby stop so I could take pictures. Mind you, I didn't take long and was expecting to get kicked out in the process. The pool looked completely finished and has water in it. It looked very, very nice. Looked like there will be a bus stop right there at the pool for those not staying close by. It does not look as nice as SAB, of course, but nicer than other DVC resort pools. I will get hubby to post them tomorrow. Promise.
That's all for now, have laundry to do and bags to unpack and need to reflect on the past week. Hard to believe that this morning I was standing in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge and now I am back to reality.
More later.
Adding link to the SSR pictures we took. Just a few. There were more, but 9 of them just turned out totally white, and I was very disappointed. The pool pictures were taken when we road back to the Golf Club house. The other shots were taken from a pontoon boat on Friday. Enjoy. Sorry there aren't more and that I don't know exactly what everything is on here.
http://www.dotphoto.com/MemViewAlbum.asp?AID=1404298
when you get to the log in screen enter jwm6780 and then Saratoga for the password.
We left after work on Friday and made it to Hilton Head, called Member Services on the way and there was a studio available. I have only stayed there one other time, early January a couple of years ago, only about 20 people in the whole resort, and they gave me in the handicapped studio right around the corner from check-in. Well, guess what they tried to give me again !!! When he said, your room is really, really close, I said not the one around the corner on the right, he said yes, I said no thank you, and he found me another one in the lodge building. Arrived late and left early the next morning, so nothing more really to report there.
First night in WDW, Saturday, we spent at Pop Century. I loved it. I cannot tell you why, but it is very different than AllStars to me. I would not hesitate to stay there again, and I really cannot stand the AllStars any more.
Sunday we checked in to OKW around 8:30 or so in the morning and the room was ready, yeah, and we were in room 5426. I loved this location. It is close to a quiet pool and laundry and ice and just a building away from a bus stop. We had our own transportation and did not mind being away from HH. I have decided this is my new favorite spot at OKW. The room was clean, looked like a new refrigerator and new drapes and we had no complaints, except that there seemed to be a tremendous amount of maintenace of sorts going on and the very early morning noise was annoying. Also, the room was a lockoff and I heard the folks on the other side try to open the connecting door several times.
Friday night we checked into the Wilderness Lodge for one night. Not the Villas, but the Lodge. Nice room, very close to lobby. Loved walking into the lobby of that grand hotel. However, I truly disliked the SMALL room, compared to OKW. I heard every commode in the building flush at one time or another and the children running and screaming up and down the hall were a real annoyance. Not sure where the parents were, but it was very inconsiderate of them to allow the kids to be making this kind of noise at 11:30 at night.
We have always stayed at moderates and/or the budgets on weekends when we were trying to save points, but I can tell you this, if the Wilderness Lodge is a deluxe resort, I will take my DVC over the Wilderness Lodge any day of the week and will gladly spend the weekend points to do it from now on. Except for the location of the Wilderness, I think that Port Orleans has nicer rooms.
Oh, while at OKW, I asked to see any infomation on the slide, and I was told that nothing was available. Looks like Doc had some inside connections to get his pictures.
We tried out the new Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney and we really liked it. Enough so that we ate there 3 times during the week. Once we got our order and took it back to OKW so we could eat in our studio.
Also, one afternoon we toured around to see Saratoga by driving to the Golf Club. When we were leaving, the gates to the pool were open, so I had hubby stop so I could take pictures. Mind you, I didn't take long and was expecting to get kicked out in the process. The pool looked completely finished and has water in it. It looked very, very nice. Looked like there will be a bus stop right there at the pool for those not staying close by. It does not look as nice as SAB, of course, but nicer than other DVC resort pools. I will get hubby to post them tomorrow. Promise.
That's all for now, have laundry to do and bags to unpack and need to reflect on the past week. Hard to believe that this morning I was standing in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge and now I am back to reality.
More later.
Adding link to the SSR pictures we took. Just a few. There were more, but 9 of them just turned out totally white, and I was very disappointed. The pool pictures were taken when we road back to the Golf Club house. The other shots were taken from a pontoon boat on Friday. Enjoy. Sorry there aren't more and that I don't know exactly what everything is on here.
http://www.dotphoto.com/MemViewAlbum.asp?AID=1404298
when you get to the log in screen enter jwm6780 and then Saratoga for the password.
!
I might mention that there was no lack of service or anything, and the lobby is great, and it was nice having the restaurants and gift shop right there, but the room kind of negated all those things. I may be wrong, but we stayed at Caribbean Beach last fall, and I felt the rooms there were bigger than Wilderness Lodge. Oh well, at least I know not to book a Wilderness Lodge room again.
