Reporting Live from OKW GV....

[sajetto]

Hello all. I'm trying to do a quick recap of what has happened for our first GV stay so far while our baby is taking a nap.


Day 1, Sunday: We did the online check in prior to arrival and got the keys and welcome packet as soon as we arrived. We have a guaranteed HA unit so I knew we'd end up in either 63 or 48. Our room was ready a little before 3pm and were assigned to building 63. I love the location and the room is really beautiful, but we probably won't book a GV again for a while. The pros are the hardwood floors since our baby loves her walker and can really move around on the slick surface. The size is great. The hallway bath is really useful and of course the HA features for my mother.
The cons for us are the 2 story layout. Our daughter is very heavy and it is a chore carrying her up and down stairs. No balconies for the upper rooms.
One thing I noticed that sort of irked me is the very poor shape of an arm-chair in the larger of the two upstairs bedrooms. The arms are absolutely filthy. OKW is our absolute favorite resort and I have always been pleased with the cleanliness of the rooms, but this is something I thought would have been noticed long ago.

 

[thepops]

I assume you are letting the front desk know so they can clean it for you.

 

[BigEeyore]

Not to be snarky - but if your baby is young enough to still be using a walker, how heavy could she be?
You should report the condition of the chair. I am guilty of not always reporting little things that are wrong with our rooms.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I'd report the chair too. The one thing we aren't too happy with in the OKW GVs is the layout of the kitchen. Not sure what "engineer" type decided it was a good idea to put the kitchen sink at a right angle to the stove and right near the corner. It makes it impossible for one person to cook and another to do clean up. It's the one REAL complaint I've ever had at Disney. Both of our last two trips in GVs we had 10-11 people, so space was important. The GV stay we have coming up in January will be with just 6 people, so it will likely be much easier to deal with.

 

[bwvBound]

Not to be snarky - but if your baby is young enough to still be using a walker, how heavy could she be?

Might 'baby' and 'daughter' be references to different children?

 

[sajetto]

Not to be snarky - but if your baby is young enough to still be using a walker, how heavy could she be?
You should report the condition of the chair. I am guilty of not always reporting little things that are wrong with our rooms.

I suppose you're blessed with fully functional knees. Good for you. My daughter is off the charts on percentile markers for weight and height and is 30lbs. Considering that I'm yet another member of the the party who is using a wheelchair in the parks and around the resort it is a real issue for me. I'm scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery next month. Since you're so able bodied maybe you could come out here and lug her around for me. I could always use a couple of extra hands. By the way, I don't have knee issues because I'm overweight (If that is what you are assuming next.) I'm only 107 lbs. It is from a life of hard athletic work.

 

[sajetto]

I assume you are letting the front desk know so they can clean it for you.

Yes, assume away. It has been reported.

 

[Cee]

I hope you have the best vacation of your life. Bad knees, heavy children and all!

 

[sajetto]

Thanks Cee!


Day 2: We hopped up pretty early to get ready for the parks, but the other members of our party had a hard time getting things together so we didn't actually make it to EPCOT until a little past noon. My husband and I are annual pass holders, but we helped the first timers in our group exchange their Give a Day vouchers and buy tickets. By the time we rolled over to the World Showcase so characters appeared in Germany. We thought it would be a perfect opportunity for baby's first character experience, but alas we found that she is terrified of costumed characters. At least we won't need to stand in any hot lines to take photos.

Since we didn't get into the park until the middle of the day it was very hot so we headed back to the resort for some rest. When we arrived we found tha our kitchen floor was covered in water so my husband called the front desk. An engineer was sent out to look at it, but said it was in need of a plumber. She turned the water off and told us to wait for the plumber to arrive, but he didn't show up until 11pm. Considering that the clanging and banging would wake up the baby we told him to come back the next day.

 

[sajetto]

Day 3: The plumber came and fixed the sink around 9am and our party divided up and headed different places. My husband, dad, went to MK and cooed over baby's first ride on the Carousel, Small World, and Pirates of the Carribean. We left around noon for more rest and returned at 7pm. We immedately grabbed a spot in front of the train station to watch Spectromagic and wishes. We made it through the parade, but the moment it was over it began to pour rain so we made a dash for the buses.

 

[sajetto]

Day 4: Everyone in the villa woke up early to enjoy the pool before the heat became unbearable. Of course we carried the underwater camera and took about 50 pictures of baby's first swim. We spent more time hanging around the resort and then went to MK around 6pm to meet up with some friends who also happened to be vacationing at the same time as us. We managed to squeeze in a ride on Winnie the Pooh before waiting for the parade and fireworks. Yet again, it poured rain before Spectromagic even began. The masses fled the park and we stayed under cover behind the Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street. Luckily the sky cleared up at 9:40 and we had an excellent view of Wishes with plenty of standing room. The baby didn't cry once and even clapped a couple of times during the show. Looks like we have a brave one

 

[RadioFanatic]

I suppose you're blessed with fully functional knees. Good for you. My daughter is off the charts on percentile markers for weight and height and is 30lbs. Considering that I'm yet another member of the the party who is using a wheelchair in the parks and around the resort it is a real issue for me. I'm scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery next month. Since you're so able bodied maybe you could come out here and lug her around for me. I could always use a couple of extra hands. By the way, I don't have knee issues because I'm overweight (If that is what you are assuming next.) I'm only 107 lbs. It is from a life of hard athletic work.

I don't have bad knees and my 35 pound 2 year old tires me out when I carry him!

 

[sajetto]

Day 5: We started the day at the HH pool, rested, ate, and then went to DHS at 4pm with some friends. We managed to ride TOT one time while one person watched the baby then gave our farewell to our friends since they were checking out the next morning. Since there aren't a lot of activites at DHS I thought the baby would be interested in, we went to EPCOT to shop and watch Illuminations. Since it was magic hours and the baby went to sleep in her stroller after the fireworks. We walked all the way around the World Showcase and sipped on a margarita before leaving. We made it back to the GV at 11:15 without the baby making a single stir in her sleep.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Since it was magic hours and the baby went to sleep in her stroller after the fireworks. We walked all the way around the World Showcase and sipped on a margarita before leaving. We made it back to the GV at 11:15 without the baby making a single stir in her sleep.

How did you get so lucky to have such a cooperative baby?

 

[sajetto]

How did you get so lucky to have such a cooperative baby?

I think that she's been getting the relaxed vibe of OKW since being in the womb and it has made her one laid back baby


DAY6: It was an overcast morning and the temperature was tolerable so we went over to AK. That is a park I usually shy away from during the summer because the heavy vegetation seems to hold the intense heat and humidity downward. The conditions seemed perfect and we were very lucky to have an enjoyable half day over there. We took photopass pictures as soon as we reached the front of the tree, walked right on to Kilimanjaro Safari, Walked through the expedition trail and saw and adorable baby gorilla, took a tour all the way around the park since my dad had never seen it before, and then made our way over to Camp Minnie Mickey to see Festival of the Lion King. The baby fell asleep while waiting for the show, but the moment it started she was wide awake and clapping. However, it was obvious she was still exhausted after it was over so we headed back to the resort for a nap.

At a little after 8pm the baby was still sleeping so her grandfather volunteered to watch her while my husband and I took advantage of MK magic hours. We managed to ride Splash Mountain, Watch Philaharmagic, and see the fireworks before making back just before 11pm.

 

[dianeschlicht]

It's wonderful to have built in babysitters along!

 

[sajetto]

Day 7: We didn't do a lot for the 7th day of our trip. We went into EPCOT around 10am and got fast passes for Soarin'. We also took our Disney Visa photo with Minnie and Goofy. Our daughter cried as soon as she glanced at Minnie, but was very interested in Goofy. She showed the same interest in him at MK in front of Pirates of the Carribean. However, we were afraid to press our luck so we didn't get her too close to him. We then ate a great lunch at the Electric Umbrella and met the grandparents to leave the baby with them a few minutes before we road Soarin'. After riding Soarin' we walked around the World Showcase again to meet the grandparents, pick up the baby, and get a Margarita. We made out of the park around 5:30 then napped from 6:15 to 11:00! Considering that it was already so late we made plans for the next day and turned in.

 

[sajetto]

Day 8: We started out in EPCOT and stopped in the UK to pick up some Fish and Chips for our daughter. Of course I removed all the fried part for her, but she LOVES fish! We fed her the plate in France and then strolled over to the International Gateway to catch a picture with Donald (Unfortunately, the photopass photographer must have loaded them on someone else's card because they are the only pictures that did not load on the website) We then got on the bus at Beach Club to MK. We then ate OUR dinner at Cosmic Ray's and our daughter wanted to eat yet AGAIN! She ate nearly half of the chicken on my plate. After her second meal we grabbed a spot in front of the Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street to watch the debut of the Electrical Parade and SummerNightTastic. In a word it was AMAZING!!! It was totally worth the wait and the crowd to see. It was the latest that we kept our daughter up for the entire trip and it really took its toll on her. She passed out on the bus and stayed asleep when we got her in the bed at our villa.