The New Lizard Lounge

[MinnieSummer]

Hello out there -- is anyone around? I miss you all. I need your advice.

I am currently booked at AKL for christmas and have two rooms reserved as DM will be with us again. However, I've been playing with the numbers and I can stay at OKW or SSR in a 2 bedroom suite for $100.00 less than what I am paying for two rooms at AKL. As much as I love AKL at Christmas and I know I vowed I would only stay there for Christmas this year I can't get past the price difference in comparison to the space. What it comes down to is which is more important: the view or the space. If we stayed at OKW is there a boat that takes you to DTD? Are the decorations at either OKW or SSR as breathtaking as at AKL?

 

[Traveliz]

Hello out there -- is anyone around? I miss you all. I need your advice.

I am currently booked at AKL for christmas and have two rooms reserved as DM will be with us again. However, I've been playing with the numbers and I can stay at OKW or SSR in a 2 bedroom suite for $100.00 less than what I am paying for two rooms at AKL. As much as I love AKL at Christmas and I know I vowed I would only stay there for Christmas this year I can't get past the price difference in comparison to the space. What it comes down to is which is more important: the view or the space. If we stayed at OKW is there a boat that takes you to DTD? Are the decorations at either OKW or SSR as breathtaking as at AKL?

To be honest I have not every stayed at AKL (and only really desire to do so once for the concierge safari) but I have stayed at both SSR and OKW (but not at Christmas).

First off a two bedroom at OKW is absolutely huge and yes there is a boat to DTD.

The two bedroom at SSR is nothing to sneeze at either.

Good luck
Liz

 

[VAgal76]

PM Disbug, she may have stayed or seen the two resorts around Christmas and can give some insight.


Today's Challenge: Space Versus Atmosphere

It's going to be neck and neck.

If space is more important to you then you might be happier at OKW. How long will you be looking at the decorations each day? The decorations can even be seen during a visit to AKL. BUT if it's been a long time fantasy to stay at AKL during Christmas and totally immerse yourself then by all means stick with your original rooms. It's going to be worth giving up the extra space in the end for you.

 

[MinnieSummer]

We stayed at AKL for Christmas several years ago and absolutely loved it. Since then we have been trying new resorts but have yet to find the WOW factor we felt when we stayed at AKL. However, I'm worried that, with the construction and all, they might not do as much for the holidays as they have in the past. I'm also worried that the ECV may not fit in the room and then what do we do with it? But if I change our reservations to OKW I'm so afraid I will be dissappointed. I may actually leave it up to my DH and DD. Let them take the responsibility for this decision then I can always blame it on them (although my DH just might say to stay at CSR and then what would I do?). If any of you read back through last years posts you'll see that I agonize over this decision every single year.

 

[VAgal76]

We stayed at AKL for Christmas several years ago and absolutely loved it. Since then we have been trying new resorts but have yet to find the WOW factor we felt when we stayed at AKL. However, I'm worried that, with the construction and all, they might not do as much for the holidays as they have in the past. I'm also worried that the ECV may not fit in the room and then what do we do with it? But if I change our reservations to OKW I'm so afraid I will be dissappointed. I may actually leave it up to my DH and DD. Let them take the responsibility for this decision then I can always blame it on them (although my DH just might say to stay at CSR and then what would I do?). If any of you read back through last years posts you'll see that I agonize over this decision every single year.

Keep w/AKL and ask for a handicapped accessible room w/the other next to it.

 

[MinnieSummer]

Keep w/AKL and ask for a handicapped accessible room w/the other next to it.

That's what I ended up doing. I just couldn't give up AKL no matter how I justified it. I also wrote to WDW Guest Relations about the pricing and how I wasn't getting the discount for the second day of my trip even though the PH rate went through that day. They got back with me yesterday and everything worked out -- we're booked in two Savannah View rooms, connecting, one is HA. We got the discount for the first two nights of our trip and are paying rack for the second two nights as they are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It's not the price I would have wanted but it will have to do.

We're going in September and staying at BC for two nights.

And guess what -- we're going this weekend, but we're not staying on property. We actually got a WDW view tower room at the Grovesnor for $112/nt. We've stayed there before and as long as we drive everywhere its not too bad.

 

[VAgal76]

Awesome, Minniesummer!

I'm pretty jealous...I have no idea when I'll be back in the world. I'll have to live vicariously through other people's trip reports. *sigh* I'm trying to work a quickie weekend to coincide with a business trip, but I don't know how that's going to hash out. I've not done a solo trip and I'd certainly think it's more fun with at least one buddy. KWIM?

 

[MinnieSummer]

I've not done a solo trip and I'd certainly think it's more fun with at least one buddy. KWIM?

Prior to our adopting we used to go to WDW alot. My husband would go for business and I would tag along. I LOVED going to the parks by myself. It's a wonderfully freeing experience. There's no one else that you have to make happy, no schedule that you have to keep, no one to answer to. I'd just hit whatever park I wanted and roam around all day. I even ate alone, many times having lunch with the Characters. It was a blast. In fact my husbands favorite memory is finding me asleep on the planter in front of the Chrsitmas store at DTD. I had told him to meet me there about 6:00 when he dropped me off at MGM at 8:00 that morning. I got there about 5:30 and I was exhausted so I laid down and I guess I went to sleep. Next thing I know my husband is waking me up. So my point is don't be afraid to do WDW alone. It really is wonderful.

 

[MinnieSummer]

Are there any Lounge Lizards left? I just realized that noone has been on this thread since August. WOW.

Christmas has come and gone and I didn't stay at AKL. We ended up at SSR. The space was great and worked out wonderfully for my family but the resort itself was rather blah. You could barely find any holiday decorations. However, they did have holiday movies at the pool each night for the families staying there. That was kind of cool -- even in the cold. I've stayed at SSR before and I would stay there again just not for the holidays.

I didn't make last years New Years Resolution. Off by the Poly and YC. So I'm hoping to make it this year. With all the changes to the pricing policy though I doubt it. We used to be able to take advantage of the AP rates on the weekends but they aren't giving them and since that is when we usually go I don't see us getting there all that often. In fact, we may no even renew our AP's. My husband thinks we should get AP's to Universal but I want to wait one more year. My DD will be ten next year and her meals will no longer price out at the childs rate. Since she doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive I really can't see paying adult rates for her.

Anyway, I hope all of you are having a wonderful New Year. Tammi, if you are out there, how is your son's skating going? I keep looking for him at the few televised competitions but I don't know what level he is these days. I would think he would be close to if not at Senior level. Let us know. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is curious.

Take care everyone. I would love to see us all back in the lounge.

 

[steveanddonna]

Hey MinnieSummer - there are some Lizards around, but a lot of us haven't posted here in a while. I haven't been on any of the boards in over a year due to various family issues and such. I do keep in touch with some of the Lizards via e-mail, but I too miss the old Lounge.

I hope you get to stay at the Poly this year - it's my favorite resort and the only one we've ever stayed at. A lot of the concierge CMs have become like a second family to us. Every time I make up my mind to try a different resort I start thinking about the wonderful laid-back atmosphere, the incredible view as you look out over 7 Seas Lagoon towards GFR and MK watching the monorail glide around the tracks, and I chicken out and book the Poly yet again.

 

[Angel16]

Hi guys, I'm a lounge lizard! I was so happy to see people posting in the lounge again. I haven't been on the boards too much either. Life just kept getting in the way I have popped in and out during my lunch whenever I had some time.

So here goes a promise. I will be here on the DIS at least weekly if not more often. I really miss the wonderful friends I have made here in the lounge. Perhaps we (Minniesummer & Steveanddonna) should send out some invitations to the lounge? What do you all think?

Anyone reading this please feel free to join on and visit about our love DISNEY. Most of us have stayed in many different resorts including the value resorts. We all just love WDW and dream about our furture trips and share our knowledge and experiences.

We have been very busy this last year. Saddly we have not been back to WDW since our super fantastic family trip in Nov/Dec of 06. Last night we watched the travel channel with its WDW three hour show. Really got us both thinking about planning our next visit. We both want to go back to the Poly. They treated (all 10 of us) so wonderfully during our trip. My kids really became concierge lovers. Course Mom was footing most of the bill. The CM's in Hawaii were SO very wonderful to our entire family. I can not thank several of them enough (even a year later) our memories are so wonderful and vivid.

Well, I got to run, look forward to hearing back from you ladies. Take care

Angel

 

[GoofyJoofy]

Hey guys,

It's good to see some of you are still active here in our favorite lounge. It has been almost a year since we were at WDW. But our last visit in April 2007 we hit three resorts!
We started at the Grand Floridian, moved on to the Beach Club, finally finishing a great trip at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We only did concierge at the AKL, mostly do to the short planning time we had.

The AKL staff treated us royally. In the same week both my DD and DW had birthday's. The staff had 2 cakes sent to our room (along with plates, forks, napkins) for our celebration. Unknown to them wifey's sister and her boyfriend joined us for a couple days. So we had plenty of cake to go around.

Our first time at AKL and it was wonderful!
So relaxing watching the animals from our window.

Not sure how often I'll (or DW - Goofy's Muse) will be back to either the world or this lounge, but here's hoping for both!

 

[MinnieSummer]

It's so nice to see people coming back to the lounge.

So does anyone have a trip in the planning stages? OR the dreaming stages? You know what I mean, there's really nothing coming up but you sit there and dream about your next trip. I'm permanently in that mode. Although I also have a trip coming up for DD Adoption Day. I've almost got my DH convinced that we're doing Poly. It might actually happen as we didn't use our points from our Visa card for Christmas (DH forgot to call and have them transferred to rewards card) so we have lots of points that we can use for this trip. I'm also thinking about possibly doing a one bedroom Villa at BCV or BWV as this will be during the Flower and Garden Festival and it would be cool to walk on over to hear the concerts.

If you could choose between Poly or BW/BC Villas during the Festival what would you do? Keep in mind that it is my DD's Adoption Day trip and she really wants to stay at Poly but she also wants to spend time at the Festival.

 

[Nancyg56]

Good Morning Everyone! It is nice to see people popping in here, I have often wondered how everyone was faring. We just returned from WDW in October for a week long trip to celebrate my DGD's 6th birthday and stayed at CBR. I wanted to stay at AKL, my favorite resort so far, but was uneasy due to the construction. We are beginning to plan a trip for the end of November and have reservations at the Poly. I have been looking for some for the specials that I see some have been offered but so far I am not one of the lucky ones.

I have been checking for alternate vacation packages and have found that a Disney vacation package is at least comparable or in many cases less expensive than summer vacation destinations closer to home in CT.

 

[Angel16]

It's so nice to see people coming back to the lounge.

So does anyone have a trip in the planning stages? OR the dreaming stages? You know what I mean, there's really nothing coming up but you sit there and dream about your next trip. I'm permanently in that mode. Although I also have a trip coming up for DD Adoption Day. I've almost got my DH convinced that we're doing Poly. It might actually happen as we didn't use our points from our Visa card for Christmas (DH forgot to call and have them transferred to rewards card) so we have lots of points that we can use for this trip. I'm also thinking about possibly doing a one bedroom Villa at BCV or BWV as this will be during the Flower and Garden Festival and it would be cool to walk on over to hear the concerts.

If you could choose between Poly or BW/BC Villas during the Festival what would you do? Keep in mind that it is my DD's Adoption Day trip and she really wants to stay at Poly but she also wants to spend time at the Festival.

Hi there. So good to see you here. I would go for the Poly. It is where you really want to be from your post above. I really gives you the best of all worlds. You are so close to the castle and Magic Kingdom, but only a monorail ride from Epcot. We stayed there with the family last year and LOVED it. Would you be staying concierge or should I say club level? Either way you will have a fantastic time. We have stayed in both. How old is your DD? If you would like or need any suggestions just let me know.

Hello everyone! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Angel

 

[MinnieSummer]

DD is 9 and ever since we visited friends who were staying at the Poly she has wanted to stay there. We will be going sometime in April, hopefully after spring break. Having never stayed at Poly I'm not sure what areas are better but I know I want a Lagoon View room. My DD loves to watch the Electric Boat Parade from our room which she got to do from WL, CR Tower and GF. She doesn't really care if she gets to see the castle though. My husband really wants to stay at one of the Epcot resorts as he loves being able to walk back to the resort at the end of the day --that's because he's not carrying all the junk we accumulate during the day I am..

Does anyone else have that problem? I go to the park in morning and there's hardly anything in my bag. By the end of the day I feel like I'm carrynig a concrete block around and my bag is overflowing. On our Christmas Trip this year I realized that my DD uses by bag as a garbage can. Anything that she needs to throw away she just stuffs in there. She also insists on getting the Park Guides is every language just in case she needs to tell someone where something is in a different language (not a normal child, I know) and these also get stuffed in the bag. We have to have a few extra napkins for our trip through the park so these get shoved in as well as everyones water bottles. I've even found the little plastic plates that are shaped like Mickey in by bag (OK I'll admit I save those as they are great for cheering her up if she's having a hard time at school -- dinner in one of those ans she's smiling again). And then of course there are the souvenirs that we just have to have and always seem to small to bother with package delivery to the resort. Boy do they add up.

What's the strangest thing you've found in your bag after a long day at a WDW park? Mine would have to be the leaves that DD picked up while we were eating at Flame Tree Bar-b-que in AK. She gathered up all the leaves that weren't brown but were on the ground, put them in her water bottle and, unbeknownst to me, put the whole thing in my bag. Unfortunately, she didn't put the lid on and there was still water in it. Of course 10 minutes later a little boy who was standing next to us in line tapped my arm and said "Hey lady, did you know your purse is peeing" Sure enough there was a steady stream of water coming out of my bag. Apparently I had put something else in by bag causing the bottle to shift and pour out. Everything in there was soaked. But the little boy was so amazed that a purse could pee it was hysterical.

Well, I've got to work now. Have a great day everyone and enjoy the lounge.

 

[Nancyg56]

Minniesummer- you are going to love the Poly! We stayed there in January and now I have a few Island snobs on my hands . We stayed at CBR in October and I liked it but all I heard from DD and DSIL was how much they missed the Poly. I gave them Mom words of wisdom....We can go more often if we stay Moderate.....and was met with deaf ears!

I can't believe how fast your DD has grown up! Nine years old is such a fun age for a girl. I know that if she enjoys the view you won't regret Lagoon View. I was a little sorry that we chose Garden View even though we loved our location. I could not justify two rooms with that price but still wish that I had just done it. How pretty and restful it is going to be.

Have you stayed at the BC? We are booked at the Poly in November but now DSIL and DD are wondering how the BC is. I think Kady would like the pool but since we are relying on Disney transportation I am a little concerned as I have heard the bus situation leaves something to be desired. What do you think? We also thought about BCV because it would be that or two rooms and I have no idea how the rooms are. I am looking for feedback before jumping in.

 

[MinnieSummer]

We loved the Beach Club -- the rooms were a nice size and very bright and airy feeling. The pool was really cool and my DD and her friend (we were there for my DD's b-day and brough a friend along) thought the slide was incredible. Actually, my DH and I enjoyed it as well. I really liked being able to walk to Epcot and MGM, although I road the boat back from MGM. We did the Halloween Party at MK and used busses to and from with no problems, about a ten minute wait when leaving the party after the parade and fireworks. That was the only time we took the busses though so I can't really say to much about them. I really think, once I get the Poly out of my DD"s system, she will prefer the Epcot resorts as she is really into those parks right now. The BC also had some cool things for the kids to do and adults as well -- Bingo on the patio was fun, and the movies they show at night on the sand was cool.

My only warning is location. Our room looked out over a flat asphalt roof with vents and other unattractive roof things. If we looked beyond that the view was very nice but that was just unpleasant. However, we did book a standard view since we didn't anticipate being in the room to often.

 

[Nancyg56]

Would you have any recommendations about a view to request and what do you think about the villas? I think the pool would be fun and we do spend time at the resort, my days of going all day every day are long gone by, I'm afraid

 

[Angel16]

Hi everyone!

Nancy - I haven't stayed at BC or the BCVilla's. However, I believe Elizabeth has. Perhaps you can PM her. I did notice looking at their map that the Villas look to be on the parking lot side of the resort, however you do have a private pool area. You made me curious so I did a little research and found this information http://www.allearsnet.com/acc/faq_bcv.htm to be helpful. Perhaps a stay at BCV will be our future. It looks like either the Poly or BCV will be very nice for your trip. How many will be in your party? Have you looked into a stay at AKV?

Nancy, what are your dates in November? We were there after Thanksgiving and loved, loved, loved staying at the Poly. It was perfect for us to take that short monorail ride to GF for dinner and tour the Christmas decorations, gingerbread house and such. We also all attended the MVMCP, what a fantastic time we all had. My grandkids had a super good time. They were 3 1/2 & 1 1/2 here we are over a year later and they still talk about it. How many days will you be staying?

Minniesummer - you ask about those of us with trips in a "dreaming stage". Me, me me I seem to dream about being a WDW. My DH and I were talking about taking another trip with our children and grandchildren. We would love to hit the lottery and buy into AKV. Now since it would be lottery money (which we all know in dream world is a HUGH sum) we would be purchasing a two bedroom villa. We also would be planning a stay at one of the Epcot resorts. That would be a new experience for us.

Minnie, you said you haven't stayed at the Poly before. We have stayed there twice, once in Hawaii with a lagoon MK view. They placed us in the Tiki*** room (second fifth floor, straight acroos from the castle). Our first visit they had the Hawaii longhouse closed for remodel so we requested Tahiti with a hope for a lagoon view. (which they gave us) We loved it there, you are so close to the transportation area. We enjoyed taking the ferry over to the MK, it was so relaxing and beautiful on the water. The monorail is right around the cornor to either Epcot/MGM or the MK circle. The Tahiti rooms are a bit larger and have double sinks which make it nice if you have more then two in a room. April is right around the corner.