Wow, I just typed out a HUGE post and then lost it! No, I didn't copy it either, so I have to start all over! Ugh!
We just got back from 5 nights at BWV and 4 nights at OKW. Arrived home around 2:00 a.m. Thursday 6/16. Came home to no AC downstairs, but luckily fixed by Thursday afternoon.
Arrived at BWV around 11:00 or so on Sunday 6/5. Room wasn't ready. Went to Costco to load up on things for the villa - some ready-to-bake type meals, snacks, Diet DP, bottled water, beer, wine. Also Panera for bagels for breakfasts. I had $20 GC for Panera from My Points, so about $25 out of pocket for 36 bagels and 5 tubs of cream cheese.
I wasn't able to do online check-in, so I hadn't put any room requests in. Our room was on the third floor, 3113 and 3115, and pretty far from the elevators. We quickly realized that we liked this location, though, because it was right by the stairs that led to the quiet pool, the walkway to DHS and the parking lot. (We had our car.)
Apparently we were never in our room around 9:00 on any night until the last night... and we realized we could see fireworks from our balcony! Well, the 3115 balcony, not 3113, which was obstructed by a huge tree. (3113 was the studio and 3115 the 1-bedroom).
We spent a little time on the BW but not nearly as much as we should have.
Kids loved the pool and pool-side activities. DH and I loved the pool-side bar.
Friday we checked out of BWV and into OKW. Our oldest (17) and her friend left Friday, so we moved to a 1-bedroom at OKW. I had read about the size of the OKW villas, but WOW! Very roomy!! Kids didn't even pull out the sofa bed - just slept on the sofa, love seat and pull-out chair. We did request building 30 or higher for the extra room into the bathroom and we were in building 46, room 4625. We walked up to a bunch of trash outside our door. Housekeeping also left the doors into the studio next to us unlocked. Didn't appear that anyone was in there YET. We made sure to lock our side from then on. Balcony is also huge. We could see the boat going to DTD from our balcony. Very peaceful. Kids also enjoyed the pool and poolside activities at OKW. They also went to community hall for the first time after we decided they needed a break from the sun and heat. They loved it!! Wish we had tried that sooner!
Weather was HOT. It was nice in the evenings when the sun went down and even nice if the sun was behind clouds. But when that sun was out, it was BRUTAL. We never stayed in the parks past noon and never went back until at least 5:00 or so, mostly later than that.
The ONE time we had rain was on Thursday when we went to Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon. Not much rain, though, so not a big deal. We didn't get to TL until about 2:00 or so. Lockers at that time were only $1.00 ($6.00 with $5 refunded when you turn in your key) instead of like $8 normally. Oh, it also rained on our last day as we were driving to DTD for one last shopping trip before heading out. It poured for a little while and then stopped. Then you could see steam on the pavement. It was super humid after that! More than it had been. It also had gotten way hotter by the end of our trip. I think close to triple digits by that point.
We did late night at MK one evening (Friday) with EMH until 2:00, I believe. After midnight, the park really starts clearing out! It was NICE! We had fastpasses from the morning anyway. I got some great nighttime pics down Main Street with not a lot of people in the way! Saturday was one of our "off" days, so we slept in after that. We had 10 days there but only 8-day park tickets. We also took Monday "off" and went to Blizzard Beach and Margaritaville.
That Friday, we told the kids to NAP and anyone who didn't NAP wasn't going back to MK. Well, ONE kid never slept. Of course, our youngest, 9, so we couldn't leave her by herself in the villa. Well, she quickly learned her lesson when she fell asleep up against the trash can waiting for us to ride BTMRR. (She's a big chicken when it comes to rides. She has ridden BTMRR but didn't want to ride it this trip.)
Wine walk at EPCOT - For $20 you get six 2-oz wine samplings - 2 from France, 2 from Italy and 2 from Germany. You don't have to do them all at once or even all in the same day. I was told they never expire, so I guess not even all in one trip! I did it on two different days. Staying at BWV, it was easy to walk into the WS, so I finished my wine walk our last evening there while DH got the kids fed in the villa. (Yes, a great man my DH is!!)
Star Wars Weekends - we went the last day of this. Hyperspace Hoopla was a blast! We didn't wait for any characters or anything, though, because it was HOT! We went in the morning, gathered fastpasses and went back in time to use our fastpasses and catch the Hoopla.
Kids discovered Vinylmation. Wish they hadn't, but they did. What we didn't realize until our very last moment at DTD was that you can TRADE unwanted ones. Certain places at DTD (maybe parks? I have no idea) have ones you can trade for. Art of Disney has a thing that has 24 boxes. You pick a number and trade for the one behind it (so still a surprise). I'm sure you could trade again somewhere else or another time if you still got one you didn't want.
We ate a lot in our villa because it just made more sense with 7 people (5 after the teenagers left, but still.) But we did eat at:
'Ohana BF - a tradition for us.
Tusker House BF - new for us and YUMMY!! SOOOOO many choices!!
But those two BFs ran us around $200 for 7 people.
Earl of Sandwich - DH and I had eaten here on our last kid-less trip. I had the Caprese and he had the Full Montague. Both YUMMY! This time I had the Hawaiian BBQ (YUMMY!!) and he had the FM again. We love this place, and it's pretty reasonable. BIG sandwich for $5.99. I don't even get chips or anything cuz the sandwich is plenty for me. Easily eat for $10/person or less including soda.
Cosmic Rays - DH had to get his burger.
Big River Grill - convenient since we were staying at BWV. Signed up for their e-mails and had a free appetizer coupon, which I used as my meal (chicken quesadilla). This was okay, but the chicken seemed like canned chicken. Everyone else had burgers, which were very good. 17-yo non-beef eater had a chicken sandwich with avocado that was pretty yummy. Beer was good too.
Raglan Road - we went one night just for dessert (YUMMY bread pudding!!), drinks and entertainment. We were seated RIGHT by the stage!
Dole Whips - of course, YUMMY!
Never did get my cream cheese pretzel. I was going to get one Friday night at MK, but Lunching Pad was closed by then.
Off-site:
Giordano's - had a $35 Groupon GC for this. Got a large thin (not really thin, though) and a medium Chicago style. Didn't think we would like the Chicago style because we don't really like thick/pan pizza, but it was YUMMY! There were only 5 of us here and we had enough leftovers for lunch the next day!
Margaritaville - good drinks and good food (Cheeseburger in Paradise). DH and 12-yo dd also shared some peel-and-eat shrimp (no one else would eat them and I don't like seafood). BUT... if you go here, ask to sit in the main dining area. We were upstairs. Boring. This meal ended up as expensive as Disney, though. Of course, it is at Universal CityWalk. DH and I each had 2 drinks and I think our total with tip was about $150 for 5 people. This was my actual birthday, and they don't sing or anything. They did give me free ice cream, which I let the kids eat cuz I was stuffed.
Smokey Bones - had a $10 off $20 coupon for signing up for e-mails. GOOD FOOD!! Had BBQ chicken flatbread appetizer - YUMMY! DH and I had build-your-own burgers. Again, YUMMY!! Wish we had one of these by us! And we will definitely eat here again when we go back. Good food, reasonable prices, and always coupons floating around through e-mail list or FB.
All-in-all, a great trip. Still not long enough, still didn't do everything we wanted. Never got my cream cheese pretzel. Never saw Mickey's Philharmagic. Sorta saw Illuminations from BW (no one else in my family likes it as much as I do). Saw Tinkerbell fly and some of Wishes in Tomorrowland while walking to SM. Saw some of the nighttime parade walking to rides (Same Pete's Dragon part 2 different nights). If there are two parades, the second one is DEFINITELY the one to go to! We could have easily walked right up and sat down and watched it as it started. Lots of openings!
We saw Kurt Warner on RNRC. He had one of his groups of kids that he takes to WDW. They entered through the exit right before us. They were in the limo right before us, in the same car/stall, so we stood right next to him! That was pretty cool!! It was awesome to see him with those kids, they looked like they were having an absolute blast!
I am a huge wuss when it comes to rides, HATE big drops. Have done TOT but won't do it again. EE drop is borderline for me. Hated RNRC the first time I rode it because of how quickly it takes off. After riding it numerous times, though, I'm used to it and now I think it is my favorite ride!! Can't beat the Aerosmith music!!
I think that's about it. It did seem crowded. When we got to the parks for rope drop, there seemed to be A LOT of people, but we still managed to get our fastpasses and never waited long at all for rides. We even rode RNRC, BTMRR, etc. more than once.
And it's just DH and I.
Still, we were usually tired enough that the noise wasn't an issue. And I think there must have been a magical bus fairy with us the entire trip because only 1 time in 10 days did we ever wait more than 15 minutes for a bus. Most of the time it was just pulling in as we were walking up at both the parks and the resort. Twice I saw all four park busses at our stop-I've never witnessed that before. 
I think we started the day after getting back! Next time we'll: make check-out day a non-park day, MAKE ourselves leave for the afternoon break!, get to the marina to rent mouseboats, & try to take advantage of the resort amenities more. It's hard to stay out of the parks when you are Disney crazy 
I'm glad she took so many pic's because the photopass pictures aren't exactly magical. So glad I didn't prepurchase! When we first opened the account I was like "Wow, I didn't think they took THAT many pictures of us?!" Then I find almost one-third of the pictures are stock character photos!
We did the adult rides- Carousel of Progress and Peoplemover. We skipped Space Mountain, as the line was too long, and we had missed the chance for a Fastpass, as we were at dinner. They did do the new Castle Picture show, and the Fireworks, Wishes- but Tink couldn't jump 
