Room Report - OKW Disappointing

kathleena

<font color=FF99FF>Because everyone needs a Fairy
Joined
Jan 27, 2001
Messages
2,216
We just got back from a stay in a 2br at OKW. Although the room size is still the same as usual ;) some of the condition of the room on arrival, the service during the week and ultimately the location was disappointing. No - it did not make my entire week miserable - but my expectations for a "peaceful and relaxing" OKW resort were certainly not met.

First - because I know this is important to some, although not so much to me - no "Welcome Home" at the check in desk. Although consistently spoken at the guard's entrance all during the trip.

We received our golf course view request in Room 1613 - right off the 6th green. Would have been a perfect location except for the GV up above us. The noise was unbearable at times. Ihad to leave our villa a couple of time to get away from it. The hardwood floors conducted sound throughout our villa - stamping feet, scraping chairs, toddlers running, parents yelling - and later in the week they were joined by Spring Breakers trying to out shout, out run, and out party each other. It was constant from 6am until late at night. I have never had such noise at BW or BC or previously at OKW. For those of you who think the BW is noisy - try spending a week under an apparently full GV!

The room was missing a lot of kitchen items - including almost the entire set of pots and pans. This villa has been refurbished, so I just can't understand why it was left with one old small fry pan and one small pot. We had to call and they brought a whole new set and we requested an inventory of the entire kitchen.

The drain in the second bedroom bath was awful - the tub would fill up 3-4" during showers. The hair dryer was broken on arrival. The circuit breakers in the bathroom and the sink outside kept tripping. Yes, we reported everything. I only wish other people would - maybe it would all get fixed sooner!

On the full clean day - they left only two sets of towels in each bath. When I called to ask for more, housekeeping sounded annoyed. Them: "Do you need more?" Me: "Well, shouldn't they have left 8 sets?" I don't really understand why they asked that question - should have apologized for the oversight, not ask if we needed more. Duh? Why would I be calling?

On the upside - the rest of the unit appeared to be clean (although I didn't go into the master bed and bath) and the bus service for picking up in the resort was always under 20 minutes. But picking up at the parks was another story. We would see 2-3 buses for other resorts (i.e. AKL) and none for us. Talking with a driver, he said that all of them check in right before arriving at the parks to see which resort bay they should stop at. Given that dispatch is monitoring it by bus, and not just having them loop back to the same resort, I just can't see why it is so inconsistent.

We also took a look at the slide drawings and it looks nice. I think it will be a nice addition to the pool. Looks like there is a double loop in the castle - much like the Luna Park slide.

My husband manages a golf course so he was closely watching the morning routines on the green, fairway and sand trap. He said that they must have a lot of dampers on the machines, as they were fairly quiet. It was nice having coffee on the deck watching the maintenance crew and golfers in the AM.

And I had a pair of ducks visit me every AM so I gave them some bread and got some pellets for them on the MGM dock a few times. She would eat from my hand. He would always hang back a bit, and I thought maybe he was shy. But by the end of the week - the seagulls were noticing us (mine, mine, mine) and coming over. Then I realized he hung back for protection as he would fight the gulls off while she ate. When the gulls started coming over, I would go inside as I didn't want to cause a disturbance to other guests.

I miss the ducks. Not the room. From now on - Not under a GV will be my first request.
 
Thanks for the report. Sounds like you were a casualty of a rowdy spring break crowd!

Maybe not having GV's at VWL is not such a bad idea after all! :p (That's a joke, folks) :p

That's strange about the missing items in the kitchen. I would think that housekeeping would inventory everything as part of a departure clean up!

But glad to hear that you didn't let these problems ruin your trip. Thanks for sharing your comments with us! :)
 
While we have heard noise from adjoining units from time to time, I have never considered it to be that excessive. Hopefully it was just because of the wood floors in the GV.

Glad to hear that you did have a good experience with both the course maintenance folks and the ducks (we love them too).

Hope that your next trip is a better one.
 
I could not believe the wood floors when we stayed in the GV at OKW. What happens to often now is that people rent these units and have way too many people in them as was probably the case with the GV. The wood floors coupled with way too many people can make for a very bad vacation for people under them.
 

We stayed next door to that GV unit a couple of years ago. The first couple of days, the GV was empty. Then a family moved in and we could here their every move and toilet flush (well at times it seemed that way ;) ). I think the noise was caused by the wood floors. The family themselves were not noisy (no loud voices, running, etc.). The reason why we heard the noises: we had our 16 mo. DD and we were in the room a lot.

Overall, we haven't had a noise issue while staying at OKW.:)
 
Nancy--

Thanks for the trip report. I'm sorry for the disappointment you experienced. I have always thought about trying a stay at OKW to see what those units are like (we've always only stayed at our home resort -- BCV), but think I'll hold off for a while. Here's hoping your next stay is a little more peaceful.

Nancy :earsgirl:
 
Thanks for posting

The bad attitude of the HK staff is not very good at all

Also, odd at the OKW front desk on the welcome homes, that is where we have always received the loudest and most sincere welcome homes

thanks
jaysue
 
We returned from an 8 day stay at OKW 3 days ago. We got a big Welcome Home at the front desk when we checked in as well as from the guards at the front gate every time we drove in!
(Didn't get even one Welcome Home at BWV last year.)

When we checked in this year we noticed that there was no tea kettle and as tea drinkers we wanted one. A qucik call to housekeeping and they explained that the old tea kettles did not work well on the new stoves and they hadn't received the new ones yet. They offered us a brand new, still boxed coffee pot to use for making hot water. (That CM must be a tea drinker and knows that heating water in a previously used coffee pot just doesn't cut it for tea drinkers.) The coffee pot was delivered promptly and worked well for us.
I always check the unit supplies, light bulb etc. when we check in and report any problems promptly. If everyone reports problems promptly they can be taken care of in a timely manner and save tiem and aggravation for everyone.
Last year at BWV our shower did not drain well. When we showered there was always several inches of water in the bottom. I reported the problem to the front desk, house keepimg and maintenace for 4 days before someone fixed it. However they responded quickly to a clogged toilet at 7:00 Am one morning. When I returned home I contacted the resort manager with my concerns and received a prompt reply including a phone call.

We received great service from housekeeping this trip-towel animals when we arrived, a note welcoming us home and wishing us a great stay and wondeful full clean on the 4th morning. Our towel and tidy took place the day before we left and they did not leave any additional toilet paper (which we needed). A quick call to housekeeping and they delivered some right away.

As for the noise during our first trip 'home' we were under the GV that was being used as a model for tours. They cleaned that unit, including vacuuming before 7:00 AM! My sister was sleeping on the pull out sofa and told me the second or third day. A quick call to the front desk anf that GV was cleaned later in the day!
On another trip we had new neighbors who moved into the connecting studio. they (or their kids kept trying to get into our one bedroom unit by jiggling the door handle and banging on the door. We called the front desk who called them to explain that they did not have access to our occupied unit! Some folks are not used to living in an aprtment situation and have no idea how heavy footsteps can sound from below, especially on wood floors. Whe we are in a second or third floor unit we take off our shoes to lessen the noise.

"Our" ducks this triop were a very 'territorial" pair (male and female) who chased off the "bachelor" group nearby. They also would get very demanding whenever we opened the blinds in the morning-"You're up, we know you're in there."

Thanks for your post.
 
Sorry about your experience.
It's one reason why we always request the top floor in any OKW unit. The sound conditioning "above-to-below" is pretty poor. When we used to stay on lower floors, it always sounded like a herd of elephants when there was a family with kids in the room above ours.
 
Welcome Back!!!! I am glad you had a great trip and did not let the room hassles get to you. Although it is a pain to have to start a vacation with getting the villa up to standard! I agree, if other guests would report missing/broken items as they occur the villa would never get to such a state. The pot & pan situtation is a total disgrace! Do the housekeepers NEVER look in the cabinets??? I could see them overlooking 1 or 2 missing pans, but not a complete set!!!
I agree with the noise issues from a lower unit. Although it is a royal pain to have to always climb the stairs at OKW to reach your villa, the decreased noise is worth the hike, imo. I have always found OKW to be very quiet and peaceful if you are walking around the resort and pathways. But in and around the villas can be quite noisy because they do not have the sound absorbers of carpeting, etc to absorb the sound. A person walking on wood or concrete makes much more noise than someone walking on carpet. OKW is not always as tranquil, as some like to proclaim.
I also really like the nice big tables on the balconies at OKW. You really have room to spread out with coffee and the newspaper, etc. Glad to hear the mowers were not too loud. Your DH is probably right, they added dampers or something because the last time I stayed there, those suckers were loud. I did not need a Mickey wake up call, that is for sure! LOL!
I am really surprised to hear about the lack of a welcome home. Usually on the whole, the CMs at OKW are much more vigilant about this than the CMs at the other DVC resorts are. I personally think the whole thing is a little corny anyway, but I have gotten quite a few welcome homes from OKW CMs, even when just going to Olivia's for lunch.
Your ducks sound adorable! We also love Disney Ducks! I always say if there is such thing as re incarnation and we come back as animals-- I want to be a Disney Duck! LOL!
Glad you had a good trip. Now you can start planning the next one!! LOL!
::MickeyMo
 
I'm glad you posted this, as we have a GV rented for 2005 for 7 adults (3 couples and a single), so I will be cognizant of the noise level for the folks below us, although none of us will probably be as rowdy as a group of "spring breakers"!!!;) We're a tad too old for rowdy now!!!!!! LOL!

 
As the OP stated, if the last person in the room had reported the drain and electrical problems, they wouldn't have been a problem for her. I don't understand why people don't report issues with the rooms. We checked into an OKW studio a couple years ago and the A/C didn't work. How can the last guest not report this ?? Did they enjoy sweating in their room ?? I just don't understand some people.

As for the missing kitchen supplies: Where'd they go ? Did the last guest just help themselves to "free" pots & pans ? From what I've been told here on the boards, housekeeping uses the units dishwasher to clean pots & pans, so it's not like they would have forgotten them at "Central Dishwashing". Granted, they when housekeeping prepared the room,they should have done an inventory and replaced the missing items, but it still doesn't answer why they were missing.
 
I have to second the noise under a GV! The GV has hardwood floors, and walking on them echos badly into the living room and second bedroom of the dedicated 2 bedroom below!
 
Originally posted by kathleena
... First - because I know this is important to some, although not so much to me - no "Welcome Home" at the check in desk. Although consistently spoken at the guard's entrance all during the trip.

... Yes, we reported everything. I only wish other people would - maybe it would all get fixed sooner!

I'm sorry you did not hear Welcome Home at the front desk. We alomost always hear it there, from the bellmen & of course the guards at the entrance.

I am delighted to read that you did report everything. It is amazing the number of guests who return home, complain &/or comment about problems on this bb & never bothered to pick up the phone to call housekeeping, engineering, front des, etc.
 
We were at OKW 2/29-3/6 and received continuous "Welcome Homes" from security guards, housekeeping, front desk, etc - it just never gets old! We got great service and had a great time as usual. Sorry you didn't experience the same.
 
Sorry about your bad experience,we've been owner's at OKW since 1992 and lucky we have never had a bad experience on our trip's home.Have never been under a GV though and sounds like we don't want to be.:wave2:
 
Thanks for the report Kathleena. Glad you were able to have a nice time despite the maintenance/inventory problems with your villa. Thanks for reporting the problems you listed---I also wish more people would take the time to do this.
As for the GV noise, that's a shame that there was so much noise. We stayed under a GV (I think) in July '02 and never noticed a sound. Then again, perhaps it was vacant or we just had really quiet neighbors. We were in a ground floor 2 bedroom in bldg 43. We enjoyed feeding the family of ducks that came up to our porch also. It was the highlight of the morning for the kids to wake up to them waiting by the porch. Didn't have any gull problems though----those birds can be nasty. One time we started a wild feeding frenzy with a flock of gulls down the Jersey shore :eek:
 












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