Our 4th of July, My Bday, 1st Time at OKW Trip Report (Updated 8/23 - FINAL UPDATE!!)

[TigerLaw]

The Cast:

Michael, thirteenth visit WDW (Disney fanatic for years)

Melissa, wife of the fanatic, fellow lover of WDW, just nowhere near my level. This will be her twelfth visit (twelve visits together)

The Time:

Thursday, July 2, 2009 to Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Resorts:

Old Key West - One Bedroom Villa

The History:

Melissa and I first went to WDW in September, 2000. Since then we have gone every year at least once. Highlights of the different trips include Melissa surprised me with a mini-vacation to WDW for my 30th birthday and going to Disneyland for the 50th anniversary festivities. In the fall of 2007, I achieved a life-long dream (OK, it was a recent dream really) and talked Melissa into us buying into DVC. This was our third trip using our DVC points.

The Planning:

At the time a July trip was first discussed, we were still in the planning stages for our May, 2009 trip. Melissa first suggested a brief July trip mainly b/c (without getting into a long sob story) my mother passed away on 7/5/08, two days before my birthday of July 7th. Obviously, my birthday was a non-event last year and Melissa thought it would be a good idea to get me out of town for the July 5th anniversary and to do something for my b-day. The trip was originally supposed to be from the 2nd to the 6th to lessen days off from work, but given this year’s birthday promotion, we pushed it out to the 7th.

As far as where to stay, we originally were trying to get Kidani Village but just could never get it to work, so having just stayed our home resort (BCV) in May, we wanted to try something different and try to save on points, so we ultimately chose Old Key West. For a long time, we thought we wanted to stay in the Turtle Pond area, but about a week or two before our trip, we asked to be as close to the main pool area as possible, and luckily, we got a great spot. With respect to airfare, we originally had the same flight times we had for our may trip w. airtran, but after they changed the times for a second time, we switched to a really cheap flight on American. Car rental was done through dollar rent a car again, but given the holiday time period, cost us a quite a bit more than our may trip even though it was for less days.

The Plan of Attack:

7/2

arrive at 12:30 - hopefully in room by 2:30 (eat fast food on way to WDW)
7:15 ressie at Paradiso 37
after dinner, walk around DTD

7/3

MGM EMH morning (8am open)
lunch at olivia’s (11:55)
dinner Ohanas 6:45
mk holiday fireworks at 9pm
Maybe go back into MK for EMH night (11-2am) (note spectro is at 10:30)

7/4

MK regular morning (special open time- 8am)
move It Shake It Parade 10am, Snowglobe Parade - noon
Mike to park, mel at pool
EPCOT fireworks 10pm
rose & crown - 7:50

7/5

Epcot EMH morning 8am
lunch at seasons fast food (see if san angel inn is open)
MK evening (now its EMH night (11-2) w. spectro 9 and wishes 10)
dinner - Olivia’s 7:00 pm -
dessert party -check in at 8:45-9pm

7/6

MGM EMH morning
lunch - MGM’s pizza planet
6pm AK rainforest
AK EMH night - 7 to 10 pm -dinner at flame tree
OR Epcot - cape may 5:50

7/7

MK EMH morning 8am
10:15 - crystal palace

Finally, allow me to close this report with a BIG TEASE!! - At some point in this trip, we saw a major A-List celebrity, so to find out who it was and all the details, you are going to have to come back and keep reading!!!

 

[Checkers]

The Cast:

Michael, thirteenth visit WDW (Disney fanatic for years)

Melissa, wife of the fanatic, fellow lover of WDW, just nowhere near my level. This will be her twelfth visit (twelve visits together)

The Time:

Thursday, July 2, 2009 to Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Resorts:

Old Key West - One Bedroom Villa

The History:

Melissa and I first went to WDW in September, 2000. Since then we have gone every year at least once. Highlights of the different trips include Melissa surprised me with a mini-vacation to WDW for my 30th birthday and going to Disneyland for the 50th anniversary festivities. In the fall of 2007, I achieved a life-long dream (OK, it was a recent dream really) and talked Melissa into us buying into DVC. This was our third trip using our DVC points.

The Planning:

At the time a July trip was first discussed, we were still in the planning stages for our May, 2009 trip. Melissa first suggested a brief July trip mainly b/c (without getting into a long sob story) my mother passed away on 7/5/08, two days before my birthday of July 7th. Obviously, my birthday was a non-event last year and Melissa thought it would be a good idea to get me out of town for the July 5th anniversary and to do something for my b-day. The trip was originally supposed to be from the 2nd to the 6th to lessen days off from work, but given this year’s birthday promotion, we pushed it out to the 7th.

As far as where to stay, we originally were trying to get Kidani Village but just could never get it to work, so having just stayed our home resort (BCV) in May, we wanted to try something different and try to save on points, so we ultimately chose Old Key West. For a long time, we thought we wanted to stay in the Turtle Pond area, but about a week or two before our trip, we asked to be as close to the main pool area as possible, and luckily, we got a great spot. With respect to airfare, we originally had the same flight times we had for our may trip w. airtran, but after they changed the times for a second time, we switched to a really cheap flight on American. Car rental was done through dollar rent a car again, but given the holiday time period, cost us a quite a bit more than our may trip even though it was for less days.

The Plan of Attack:

7/2

arrive at 12:30 - hopefully in room by 2:30 (eat fast food on way to WDW)
7:15 ressie at Paradiso 37
after dinner, walk around DTD

7/3

MGM EMH morning (8am open)
lunch at olivia’s (11:55)
dinner Ohanas 6:45
mk holiday fireworks at 9pm
Maybe go back into MK for EMH night (11-2am) (note spectro is at 10:30)

7/4

MK regular morning (special open time- 8am)
move It Shake It Parade 10am, Snowglobe Parade - noon
Mike to park, mel at pool
EPCOT fireworks 10pm
rose & crown - 7:50

7/5

Epcot EMH morning 8am
lunch at seasons fast food (see if san angel inn is open)
MK evening (now its EMH night (11-2) w. spectro 9 and wishes 10)
dinner - Olivia’s 7:00 pm -
dessert party -check in at 8:45-9pm

7/6

MGM EMH morning
lunch - MGM’s pizza planet
6pm AK rainforest
AK EMH night - 7 to 10 pm -dinner at flame tree
OR Epcot - cape may 5:50

7/7

MK EMH morning 8am
10:15 - crystal palace

Finally, allow me to close this report with a BIG TEASE!! - At some point in this trip, we saw a major A-List celebrity, so to find out who it was and all the details, you are going to have to come back and keep reading!!!

Count me in! I'm anxious to see how you liked OKW, our home resort.

 

[TigerLaw]

Thursday, July 2nd

Parks Visited: None
Meals: Paradiso 37

Flight down to Orlando was no problem (but no upgrade to first class like our last flight in May) The flight wasn’t full for a change, so we actually were able to spread out in a three seat row. After arriving in Orlando, I went to the dollar express stand BEFORE even going to luggage pick up and got our rental keys before our luggage was even out. Ultimately, we were on the road by 1pm making great time, as the flight had arrived at the gate around 12:20 p.m.

On our way to OKW, we stopped at a wendy’s drive thru for a quick lunch and then drove over to check in. No one was at the check in area in front of us, so it was super easy and we got exactly the building we had requested building 62, directly across the street from the hospitality house. Our room was on the first floor (room 6207 I believe) and oh my god the place was SO HUGE! WHY CAN’T ALL DVC VILLAS BE THIS BIG?!? LOVED IT!!! Here are some pics:

Our villa was on the bottom right in the last picture. Everything seemed to be in good shape, condition-wise. I know people have complained about how hard the beds were, and as a soft bed kind of guy, I was worried, but they didn’t really bother us all that much. Great a view of the lake. Once we got settled, Melissa took a nap while I walked around and took some pics of the hospitality area. Saw the min pool for the first time and thought it was really crowded. Here are some other OKW pics:

I was supposed to be going to the grocery store, but I first drove over to the miller road pool to take a look at that and saw no one there. I also looked at the turtle pond pool area and saw it being much more crowded also. After I completed my pool tour, I drove over to winn dixie and got some groceries for us.

Unlike past trips, we decided to make date night for us our first night of the trip, so that evening we headed over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the new Paradiso 37 restaurant. We had originally planned to take the DVC ferry over, but I saw that it was open aired and there was a chance for rain, so we just drove over. The dinner was OK. The place was just loud, first with a loud guitar player and then he went on break, a loud DJ. I had a burrito which wasn’t that bad, but Melissa didn’t like her chicken enchiladas.

After dinner, we headed over to the marketplace. I couldn’t get over how many people were actually walking inside of pleasure island given there really isn’t anything there all that much anymore. We looked at the portabello yacht club menu and decided we might try that sometime in the future. T-rex looked like it was a zoo and so was world of disney, which we just walked in and out of basically. We next went over to the 365 days of christmas, as our plan was to use my birthday gift card on x-mas ornaments. We found a couple we liked and wanted to keep our eyes out for at the xmas store in magic kingdom. After I got a photo album in the art of disney, we got ice cream at Ghirardelli’s - I got cookies n’ cream in a waffle cone (I can’t remember what Melissa got).

Once we were done w. DTD, we came back home and headed over to the main OKW pool. It was an easy walk from our room to anywhere in hospitality area. I wanted to do the slide, but they closed it down right before I was able to try it as the lifeguards went off duty. We didn’t stay all that long and finally came back and passed out for the night.

Here are some DTD and other nighttime pics:

COMING UP - WE FINALLY HIT THE PARKS

 

[GGOOFY1]

Hi TigerLaw wow I feel like I just finished your rainy May TR... Glad you found OKW in good shape. It has been our "Home" since 1993 and we feel like we are traders when we don't go "Home" to OKW. Miller's Road and Turtle Pond are my two favorite locations. Can't wait to hear your review of the slide.
Also,

 

[katmittens]

OKW is our home resort, and in Jan we are staying at VWL. I am still torn, but the plans are made. We love the roominess at OKW, but the beds are too hard for me. I know I can get egg crates for the beds, but we are going with VWL. Good report so far. I will be waiting for more.

 

[TigerLaw]

Count me in! I'm anxious to see how you liked OKW, our home resort.

Right now, OKW would be the place we would go if our home resort, BCV, was unavailable for whatever reason. We loved the size of the villas and the beachy feel. Having a rental, it was never too far from anywhere, and we loved using the MK shortcut (the road to fort wilderness was a shortcut to us anyway). We did miss stormalong bay and being able to walk in and out of epcot, but given the point values as well, OKW was a hit for us!

Hi TigerLaw wow I feel like I just finished your rainy May TR... Glad you found OKW in good shape. It has been our "Home" since 1993 and we feel like we are traders when we don't go "Home" to OKW. Miller's Road and Turtle Pond are my two favorite locations. Can't wait to hear your review of the slide.
Also,

Goofy, the slide was interesting to say the least - adults my size aren't really the target slide audience, so let's just say while the slide was fine, I landed in the water sideways somehow and was a bit disoriented! While I would not want to stay in the "preferred" hospitiality house locations, I LOVED where we were at and that would be our choice again in the future

OKW is our home resort, and in Jan we are staying at VWL. I am still torn, but the plans are made. We love the roominess at OKW, but the beds are too hard for me. I know I can get egg crates for the beds, but we are going with VWL. Good report so far. I will be waiting for more.

I will probably try for the egg crates next time - my question is that if they know the beds are too hard for lots of people (which they must if they have the egg crates ready to go), why not do something about it?

 

[jess98ac]

I'm in, can't wait to read more!

 

[christa112]

Great pictures!!!!!

 

[katmittens]

I think they are replacing mattresses, with the new harder ones. I believe some people like hard mattresses. I did talk to a manager at OKW/SSR and she assured me egg crates would be available and that alot of people do not like the beds, and she could not understand why these mattresses were purchased. She sort of made a comment that the people doing the ordering are incorrect in their purchases.
We will be back at OKW, because we do love many things about it, but for now we are at least trying different DVC's which is also alot of fun.

 

[AlaskaMOM]

looking at your pics made me *sigh* with longing.
Our next trip we're going to BWV, hoping I won't miss OKW too much.

What do you think about the balconies; aren't they awesome?

Can't wait to read more.

 

[TigerLaw]

I'm in, can't wait to read more!

Hope to have more up by the end of the day!

Great pictures!!!!!

Thanks - this actually is the fewest amount of pictures I have ever taken on a trip, but I still have some good ones! (at least I think so!)

I think they are replacing mattresses, with the new harder ones. I believe some people like hard mattresses. I did talk to a manager at OKW/SSR and she assured me egg crates would be available and that alot of people do not like the beds, and she could not understand why these mattresses were purchased. She sort of made a comment that the people doing the ordering are incorrect in their purchases.
We will be back at OKW, because we do love many things about it, but for now we are at least trying different DVC's which is also alot of fun.

What I wonder about is you would think the "bed ordering" would be somewhat centralized such that there is a CM who knows what types of beds get complaints and what don't - I'm sure people who like hard beds have issues w. other resorts, OKW is the only place I have ever read about though.

looking at your pics made me *sigh* with longing.
Our next trip we're going to BWV, hoping I won't miss OKW too much.

What do you think about the balconies; aren't they awesome?

Can't wait to read more.

TOTALLY forgot to sing the praises of the balconies! LOVED THAT TOO!

 

[TigerLaw]

Friday, July 3rd

Parks Visited: MGM and MK
Meals: Olivia’s (lunch) and O’hanas (dinner)

Friday morning was EMH morning at MGM. We drove there and from OKW is was an easy drive. I actually overestimated badly how much time we would need, so we ended up being like the second car in the parking lot! Here a picture of the crowds before the rope drop:

Actually, despite the picture, the crowds weren’t that bad at the beginning of the morning. At the rope drop, I did the race walk over to toy story mania to get us fastpasses. It was more like as race crawl so it made it more difficult as the slower pace made it so that I kept getting walked on from people behind me. Eventually, got the passes and met Melissa in the stand by line. We had decided beforehand only to do the one stand by ride and then head back to RnRC. I can’t remember what Melissa scored, but I only did a 130,000+ score, so still not past my 165K high score. At RnRC, I was worried b/c there was already a line, but it moved really quickly, so we got on within like 15 minutes or so and then did a second ride using the single rider line w. no wait. At 9:00 am, we got a FP for RnRC and then we split up, with me heading over to tower and Melissa hitting the shops. I did tower twice, the first time as essentially a walk on to the library and the second time it took about 10 minutes to get inside. From there, we met back up by the picnic tables and we did great movie ride. I can’t recall how long the line was, but it was outside the trailer room. I do remember we had a horrible guide. Next, we used our FPs for toy story, and once again, I didn’t get anywhere close to my best score. Concluding the FP march, we headed back over and did RnRC a couple more times.

By that time, it was around noon and it was getting hot, really hot, so we came back and went to Olivia’s for lunch. I couldn’t find a parking spot in the main area, so I ended up dropping Melissa off, parking the car at our villa, and then just walking over - gotta love being that close to everything! Our hostess knew of my upcoming birthday, so she gave me a birthday button (b/c I had left my original one at the villa) and Melissa one too (for some reason, Melissa refused to wear it, see below:

While the menu was limited, Melissa really liked her turkey sandwich and my bacon cheeseburger was fine. I also got free ice cream and chocolate cake, so that was nice (thank god, no staff singing happy birthday though!). After lunch, Melissa decided that the main pool was too crowded, so we walked over to the miller rd. quiet pool and stayed there for an hour or so. It rained a bit (nothing too major), so we just left and took a nap, as we had a long night ahead of us.

COMING UP - 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS ON JULY 3RD WORKS FOR US!!

 

[Tinks "SS"]

Thank you for the lovely OKW pics! They are awesome! Enjoying your TR. read your may one also.

We too are looking forward to OKW as our first DVC trip to celebrate our oldest sons bday! Thanks for all of the pics and so glad you had a great time!

 

[Greyhound22]

We were at Kidani Village at the same time. My wife is a huge celebrity "lover". She is dying to know who we missed. BTW - we went to MK three years ago on the 4th of July (our first disney trip). We walked in a little after opening and they took us around the "side" and we actually walked into the park around the Space Mountain area. When we were in the "back area" we walked by Lee Greenwood and Gloria Estefan. I think that what actually hooked her (not the mouse). We became DVC members a little later. DO TELL!

 

[katmittens]

Yes, do tell us the celebrity that you saw. We have stayed in the same hotels as many of the soap opera stars and we met them in hallways and elevators and have some pictures with them. We met Scott Simpson (a professional golfer) got an autograph, and had a nice conversation with Dick Vitale at the Contemporary, and saw Keith Jackson at dinner, both of them are sportscasters. One nite at California Grill we say Joe Roh(can't remember his last name) who was the designer of Animal Kingdom. I was going to go over but he was with a large group of people.
So my list is not too great, but please give us a hint.

 

[TigerLaw]

Thank you for the lovely OKW pics! They are awesome! Enjoying your TR. read your may one also.

We too are looking forward to OKW as our first DVC trip to celebrate our oldest sons bday! Thanks for all of the pics and so glad you had a great time!

thanks - I'm sure someof the DVC pros didn't need OKW pics, but for the newbies, I thought they would be helpful.

We were at Kidani Village at the same time. My wife is a huge celebrity "lover". She is dying to know who we missed. BTW - we went to MK three years ago on the 4th of July (our first disney trip). We walked in a little after opening and they took us around the "side" and we actually walked into the park around the Space Mountain area. When we were in the "back area" we walked by Lee Greenwood and Gloria Estefan. I think that what actually hooked her (not the mouse). We became DVC members a little later. DO TELL!

Yes, do tell us the celebrity that you saw. We have stayed in the same hotels as many of the soap opera stars and we met them in hallways and elevators and have some pictures with them. We met Scott Simpson (a professional golfer) got an autograph, and had a nice conversation with Dick Vitale at the Contemporary, and saw Keith Jackson at dinner, both of them are sportscasters. One nite at California Grill we say Joe Roh(can't remember his last name) who was the designer of Animal Kingdom. I was going to go over but he was with a large group of people.
So my list is not too great, but please give us a hint.

OK, we are still a couple days away from the part of the report where we actually saw the celebrity, so I will start with this hint - he or she has been nominiated twice for an oscar and has won one golden globe.

 

[AnnaS]

Thanks for sharing. Great pictures and a great report too. Looking forward to more.

 

[BigEeyore]

You are a TR machine! I enjoyed your last one, so I'm in for this one as well. Hope you had a good b-day, sorry about your mom.
Since folks are throwing out their celebrity sightings...last Oct we rode Soarin with Matt Lauer and his family. It took all I had to leave him alone!

 

[TigerLaw]

Thanks for sharing. Great pictures and a great report too. Looking forward to more.

thanks!

You are a TR machine! I enjoyed your last one, so I'm in for this one as well. Hope you had a good b-day, sorry about your mom.
Since folks are throwing out their celebrity sightings...last Oct we rode Soarin with Matt Lauer and his family. It took all I had to leave him alone!

I forgot to say before, but we did see former NBAer (and most recently, I'm, a celebrity, get me out of here player) John Salley in tomorrowland a few years back - trust me, the celebrity suprise is much more major than a former athlete!

 

[TigerLaw]

July 3rd (cont.)

Dinner was at O’hanas. I was worried about how traffic would be, so I tried for the first time getting to the MK area without using the main “highway” and instead, took the roads next to fort wilderness. This made the trip super easy, and again, made it so I vastly overestimated how long it would take. Our ressie was for 6:45 (but I figured we would be a bit late for it) and we got to the check in stand at 6:30. Interestingly, given that it was a Friday night on a holiday weekend, the place was crowded, but it wasn’t full as it usually is. Dinner took well over an hour but the food was great as always. Unfortunately, I couldn’t put all that much of my favorite dessert in the world away (O’hanas bread pudding w. vanilla ice cream), but oh well! After that, we hung out in the lobby for a bit and then I went out at around 8pm and got seats on the beach for the special holiday fireworks. Even though the fireworks were over an hour away, there were many people already finding a spot (so I guess we weren’t the only ones with this idea!) the pic below was from maybe 30 minutes before the fireworks started:

The fireworks were simply awesome here are a few pics to give you an idea of the scope:

After the fireworks were over, we let the crowds thin out before trying to go anywhere. Eventually, like at 9:30 or so, we headed over to MK, which was having an EMH night. From the time we got off the monorail to when we got to the hub, it was really hard to move b/c a lot of people were trying to leave the park after the fireworks. We headed over to the Hall of Presidents, which wasn’t supposed to be open officially until July 4th but had soft opened a couple days prior. Honestly, after the first viewing of the new show, I didn’t really love it as much as I did the old one, but maybe it will grow on me. After hanging out with President Obama and his friends, we headed over to the haunted mansion, where it was actually was fully using all its possible lines. It took about 20 minutes or so to get in - no big deal except for the room where you get on the ride was wall to wall people, all pushing to get onto the ride. From there, we did Philaharmagic and had to wait for a full show circle (so we must have just missed the prior show b/c there was no one hardly in the main waiting room when we got there). Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of a line for jungle cruise, so we did that with a 10-15 minute wait, but didn’t enjoy it all that much b/c we sat on the back of the boat and could neither really hear nor understand the skipper. Next, we did pirates as a walk on. After pirates, we called it a night and was in bed by 1:30 am, so I at least got a couple hours sleep before getting up at 6am to go back to MK, but that’s a story for later!

COMING UP - COULD THERE REALLY BE NO CROWDS AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM ON THE FOURTH OF JULY?!?