The night before BWV, on them...

[CK1]

Family will be joining us on our next trip. Thanks to all this talk of early bird getting the reservation requests "worm", we have decided to stay somewhere other than our BWV ressie for our first night (a Sat night) -- then switch over to BWV the next day.
Family will fly in (2 adults, 1 child age 5, one infant); we will drive in (8 hr drive, 2 adults, 3 kids aged 9,8,and 4).


So what do we go for?

On-site? If so, when are the best deals on a 1-night, room only accommodation to be had? 6 mos out? Or closer to the date? (We don't currently have an AP owner in the bunch.) I like the idea the WDW would move our "stuff" over to BWV for us... (and correct me if I'm wrong in that thought!)

Is this a good chance to try BC or BCV for one night and test SAB?

What about off-site? My BIL travels quite a bit and has Marriott rewards pts, so that's an option. (I should note that they have offered to foot this night of the trip.) I'm open to anything in Orlando, although I will say that it will require us to make shuttle runs (or hire a taxi) to get their family and their stuff to the next resort if we're off-site. (Won't all fit in our van!)

The size of our group further complicates things (8 plus infant).

Any advice?

TIA

 

[KNWVIKING]

This probably won't work for you, but on this up coming May trip to OKW, instead of checking in to OKW Saturday morning around 9:00 am like we usually do, we are going to stay at Royal Pacific over at US/IOA. We will have head-of-the-line priviledges all day Saturday and Sunday. Sunday morning we will run down to OKW, checkin at the front desk and then head back to US/IOA. Sometime after 4 pm we'll head back to OKW and move in. This will save us one weekend day's worth of points.

 

[tinksmom]

You are right on the luggage transfer. It's wonderful we started our vacation out at WL and moved to BCV. The morning we moved WL bell services picked up our luggage. Later in the day, after we checked in at BCV, we called BCV bell services and our luggage magically appeared in our villa.

 

[CK1]

BIL is wondering about Marriott over by Sea World. If we stay there, how hard will it be to load up all our stuff, one of us transfers it all to BWV in the early am and goes through check-in, then hustles back to Sea World, then we leave Sea World and "officially" check in to BWV later in the day? (And what chance do I have of not getting the "leftovers" in the BWV rooms department?) It almost sounds like we would need 2 nights to make that do-able -- one night for arrival, one night for "post-Sea World", then leave the next morning to start our WDW adventure.

We've never done Sea World, so we're clueless here... always stuck close to the WD World instead!

 

[joepoe]

We are staying at the Marriott Grand Vista by Sea World. 2BR. I think we got 179/night. The plan is to check out early, go over to OKW, check in and leave our stuff with the bell staff while we go to MK. I say if you or one of your party can get over early to check in, even if everyone else is sleeping in, do so.

 

[Boardwalk III]

We'll be staying at HRH at Universal the weekend before we check in to BWV for a week in early December. One of us will drive over early Sun am to check into BWV, then we'll stay at Universal til mid-afternoon before returning to BWV to move in - does anyone know how early we can check-in under the new policy?!

 

[spiceycat]

check in has not change it is still 7:00 am - they will do it early but they are complaining the whole time....

the Marriott Cypress Harbour is closer to SW and is a beautiful resort - although I also loved Grand Vista - this resort reminded me somewhat of OKW....better design though - this is a much taller resort than most of WDW - 7 stories - so if someone in your party does not like heights (like me) - make sure the resort know this before you arrival.

both times we stayed at the GV they put us on the first floor - very nice people.

 

[Disney Doll]

I'd probably try and stay on site somewhere, even though you have the offer of the payment for the first night. It will just be easier all around(especially with a fairly large and varied group) to have WDW bell staff transfer luggage form your hotel to the DVC resort, especially since it doesn't sound like oyu'll be renting a car. If you were renting a car, I'd say stay at the Marriott, throw all the stuff in the cra the enxt day, check in, go to a park, and unload later on when you went back to the resort.

 

[CaptainMidnight]

I'd recommend checking out the deals on the DIS site for the Swan or Dolphin, which sometimes are at $129 per night. Still right on Crescent lake, wonderful pool area, and a great Disney feel when checking in. Also when moving to BWV, it won't seem like such a big move, it's right across the lake. We've done it a couple of times, and I recommend it to others. It's also nice to see what restaraunt options and 24hr store options are available in the Dolphin given the close proximity to DVC resorts. There are some nice alternatives there.

Good luck.

 

[SnowWitch]

In the past we have stayed Fri/Sat nights at the AKL or Poly to just recover from the drive. Both are great resorts and nice to just relax at. Then on Sunday morning we pack up, move to the BWV's and start fresh and rested,

 

[CarolA]

I would not do this just because I was afraid of my room assignment. You could easily still wind up with a room you don't consider ideal. I think that all this arriving at 7 am to get the room of your "dreams" is just setting people up for even MORE disappointment. (As in...l got here at 7 and still am not next to the Elevator!!!) No matter what you may not get everything you want, it is not like ALL the rooms empty out every night so you have the whole resort to choose from.

 

[CK1]

Originally posted by CarolA
I would not do this just because I was afraid of my room assignment. You could easily still wind up with a room you don't consider ideal. I think that all this arriving at 7 am to get the room of your "dreams" is just setting people up for even MORE disappointment. (As in...l got here at 7 and still am not next to the Elevator!!!) No matter what you may not get everything you want, it is not like ALL the rooms empty out every night so you have the whole resort to choose from.

I agree... of course, for us it's not just a "room position / view" thing (if we were that concerned, we would be going for PV of BW... instead, we're just cheapo std view folks!!) View or how far down a hall we are is a non-issue, really. I like to walk... I like elevators. It's all good. (Not that I wouldn't make a choice, if given one, but it's low on my priorities). Getting a NS and non-HC room for our long 10 day stay is our only big "room" priority.

This one extra night pre-BWV is also way for BIL/SIL to add a day to our vacations and reciprocate somewhat, and we don't have to pay those LOVELY sat nt pts!

Key issues for deciding WHERE to do the pre-BWV stay are:

(1) Party size (lots of folks makes room arrangements trickier)
(2) Ease of transfer from one spot to next (bags and people... got one car that won't hold 'em all)
(3) Still getting something "unique" and vacationy (if that's a word) out of the 1 nt experience
(4) The Chaos Factor (I am not keen on running back/forth, back/forth... also not keen on just leaving things undecided!) If I were going to SW, I would have to most likely leave desk not knowing if bags made it to room, what room we have, etc. Just soo not me.

I've just about convinced myself to steer BIL towards on-site at either BC/YC or BCV on cash (let family eat next day in Cape May...then use SAB all day. I can LEISURELY check us in... family could even walk down to room when ready!) Other choice I'm toying with is AKL for a night -- not somewhere we would normally go, but for a night it could be fun, and kids could enjoy that pool (like SAB, it's NHZ-- a "No-Hop-Zone"). If anyone in our group still wants to go swim wid da fishies at SW, they can do it later in the stay! DH has already decided thanks but no thanks... too much in WDW to do & see. He just doesn't even feel a need to go elsewhere once he's there!