Since I valued so much the review and information that I received on this forum, I knew I would have to reciprocate in gratitude an honest review for WBC after researching everything you all helped me choose WBC. So I will do my best in giving a review, and remember a lot of this is just my personal opinion and you know what they say about opinions
Pros:
Huge savings-saving primarily in home cooked meals.
Pools put Disney's to shame in my opinion. However, I think Disney is rather cheap when it comes to their pools, I think even the Values should have at least a slide, even though I have never stayed value. (except Storm a long bay)
Luxurious room it was great to tell my DD's to go to their room when they were driving me crazy!
Loved the Jacuzzi tub
Bed was comfy and was so glad there were no horrible Disney comforters...Yuck, I always am highly suspicious of those bedspreads at POR and will not sleep with them...yet I am someone who has to have a blanket to sleep. At WBC they had clean white bedding, and it felt clean. KWIM?
Because we stayed longer, we even got maid service once I was a tad embarrassed though
, because I went into DD's room before we left for RD and threatened them all that it need to be cleaned because it was a pig sty and that there would be no pool time until it happened...only to come home to it being cleaned
My DD's acted like they hit the lottery
as this meant straight to the pool
Never had a problem parking, although I had read other have had problems with this.
Driving, buying souvies off property and not fighting for a seat on the bus for my kids on late night/show rides home to resort.
WBC is the kind of resort that you really want a few "serenity" days of just enjoying the resort and its activities.
The savings of cooking meals.
Laundry in the room, I put a wash on every day, so all my clothes were clean when I came home.
A pro was having knowledge I had gained by reading here and on the DIS[sm=worthy.gif], I knew the dryer would take forever, so I strategically timed my laundry(2-2 1/2 dryer cycles), the override for the AC was very handy. When they gave me a room I did not want because I was not an owner, I knew I could advocate for a better room and I knew it was a slower season. I knew to bring beach towels to not have to deal with the return policy of the WBC pool towels(personal choice.)because I really did not want to find a 25. charge for a towel not returned, when it was just as easy with a washer and dryer to bring 5 personal disney beach towels that were different from all the rest. Honestly, I would just throw the immediately in the dryer when we got back to the room. In the morning on my way to waking up the kids for RD I would turn the dryer on for a second cycle. Also, please note the dishwasher, washer and dryer all really loud...it did not bother my family running these machines at night, but I could see it bothering some people.
Shopping at Wal-Mart (please not my GPS did not recognize the address WBCs address for Wal-Mart. They gave me a whole list of places to shop for food when I mentioned I would food shop.
I was lucky to be able to check in at 10 am! Easy check out!
Cons:
Keys got demagnetized...PITA
but this could happen at Disney too.
Parents not reigning in their kids when needed for over the top behavior in the pools, this happened several times when there were no floats kids using 3 or 4 at a time. Missed life guards[8D] or whipping floats or really unsafe behavior. Maybe because I work with kids the last really bothered me. [&:]
Driving- I hated my GPS some addresses did not computer, sometimes could not locate a satellite when needed. Hated having to use the TTC to get to MK. HATED getting lost and messing with my RD touring! Note when leaving Wishes, remember not to be sheep and that you have the option of taking the resort monorail to TTC too.
Cooking meals(yes, I know that is a choice but for us it really was not as one I did not want to get lost finding restaurants, and it was just easier to cook in the long run for us)
The Disney magic just cannot be duplicated
Doing housekeeping stuff I do at home. This one is for the ladies...at home I am the primary maid...I cook, I clean, I do laundry...when I am on site, I do none of these things...off site I had to do ALL of these things...now yes, I could have not cooked, or done laundry but as a Mom it just was too hard for me not to do it for all the reasons I do it at home too. KWIM? So not a true vacay for me and there was a piece of me that resented this role...even though it was somewhat self-imposed.
mother's guilt/get off the cross we need the wood...kind of feeling sorry for myself
I do not have to be rational in this one; it is just how I felt.
Would print out MapQuest directions for everything, to counter any GPS unreliability.
Universal was super easy to get to, got lost going to MK and AK
Remember, go left when exiting WBC for MK and HS
yes, I am sure I could get give you more info, but for me this was the most important thing to remember to me.
I read many times how close DTD is and it is but honestly, DHS seemed even closer and when doing DTD remember there are a lot of parking lots
some are far from all of the shopping so be careful or you will have a lot of walking.
Highly recommend Wal-Mart for food shopping, it was easy for me to navigate because it was the same set up and COST of home and great priced souvie shopping area too. The written directions from WBC got us there my GPS did not recognize the address I gave it.
I wished I had never told my kids about all the resort activities
as we really did not have time for them
we had just enough time to fit in pools and even that time was not enough for us. My husband and I discussed how we could stay at this resort for a week with no parks, like when we rent a house on Cape Cod or a time share in New Hampshire. The cooking and cleaning part made me feel like it was that kind of a vacation
a getaway for everyone, but 2/3 get away for me. KWIM? [8D]
I read about the coffee filters for the coffee machines, but did not need them as there was a reusable con filter in our coffee maker that you just lift out and fill and clean, not sure if this was a fluke or not and just our coffee machine?
O.K. bear with me on this one
the breakfast bar chairs are EVIL[sm=117.gif] I tell you[sm=859.gif]. I must have banged into the part that stuck out a dozen times and few times I thought I would lose ummm how can I say this... my breast area region. Maybe it is because of my height
I am 5 ft., but I hit my shoulder arm areas and I even got a bruise. So although it may seem silly, I am putting this in there for all us short people.[sm=whistling.gif]
Never heard a peep from other rooms until our last two nights, I could hear a Mom yelling at her child in a foreign language and from what I can tell the kid deserved it with all of his continual banging. I even woke up out of sleep to go and yell at my little darlings for making all the racquet, but when I opened their bedroom door, I realized mid-rant[sm=icon_eek.gif] that the rant was not deserved[sm=icon_redface.gif], LOL[sm=icon_rofl.gif]
in my defense, I do not do not handle well, being woken up from a deep sleep
as my children well know and we all cracked up later how the scene unfolded.[8D]
If we stayed again, I would really want to schedule down days just to enjoy the resort and relax, I would request a lake view, and I would request building #5 as we really liked the lazy river and pirate pool. I Jacuzzi/hot tub hopped made it to 6 different ones, would have liked them to be a tad hotter as I tend to like to be a lobster. This resort is beautiful and would never hesitate to recommend, for quality or location.
Bottom line if I could I would stay at Disney, but that is more a personal choice rather than a result of what WBC has to offer.
I had read that there were torn couches in some of the rooms in building #5 this really did not concern me because for me even thought I would not be pleased to see shabby furniture, it would not make me request a different building because being near the pools I want to be near was more important to me in making my choice for a building request. For everyone this is different
for us building 5 was perfect. However, I am finally getting to the observation
one day we heard a knock at our door, the gentlemen said he was there inspect all couches in building in 5 and said sometimes they need to be replaced within a months time. This seemed weird to me since a month is not that long of a life for a couch, and I chalked this up to exaggeration on his part.
One day we came back and our room door was not totally closed[sm=icon_eek.gif][sm=faint.gif][sm=faint.gif][sm=faint.gif], we assume it was our mistake but are not a 100% on this and although this caused a serious few minutes of panic, nothing was missing so it ended up not being a big deal. We then triple checked every time we left the room that our room key worked and that the door was locked.
Trash bins, although I never brought the trash down, DH said you could not fill the rubbish bags too much or it would not fit down the chute. This was only an issue on our departure day as I was cleaning out our fridge.
Now although the space is a lot compared to Disney the kitchen is a bit tight and really only one cook can be here at a time in my opinion and I had to take the garbage can out and put it by the sofa table by the dining room table. Oddly we never used the dining table, even though we are a family of 5 just the couch and breakfast bar chairs.
I also bought easy to cook items and bought lots of treats that I would not at home. I let kids have ice cream for breakfast, and never really short changed them in the name of saving on having specail treats. Now I would never do this at home...but my phillosophy is it is different at Disney...it is magical...and what happens at Disney stays at Disney.
The deck had good amount of space, but when my 3 older DDs were out there I felt a tad uneasy (they were on an ice cream sugar high, it made me realize I would have been really nervous if they were younger. That being said the door was supper heavy and took a bit of effort to open , so I do not think a toddler could open it themselves as my 11 and 10 year old had a difficult time opening it.
Warning: the following you are about to read, try not to judge...as I do not have one of these tubs so was completely ignorant of its operations and I am usually a quite intelligent person...I got a 4.0 GPA in college. [sm=048.gif] Just, sayin[8D]...
Loved the Jacuzzi tub, learned you cannot put bubbles in this
. Yikes! but boy did it look awesomely cool to see the explosion of bubbles
in a scairy fantastic way. And also J-tub turns on by itself 15 minutes later and you are supposed to leave it alone
. I however, did not see the sign clearly posted on the tub counter
whoops, but did not try to interfere with this process again
lesson learned. I was even thinking of using the same brand of Jacuzzi tub when I do over our master bath, because obviously these tubs in WBC must get some abuse with idiots like me using them
so they must be good. Weird self-observation I know, but thought it was worthy to write anyways. Although, by this point you may be questioning if any of my opinions are worthy to note
So you decided to read on anyways?....well interesting notes, while getting a parking pass, I checked unmarried and lowest income(even though I am, because I read that if you are unmarried they will never bother you with timeshare appeal?) the lady was watching what I wrote as I was filling out the form and did not even have me complete the parking pass form[sm=icon_eek.gif][sm=icon_rolleyes.gif]
and I never got a call.[sm=fing02.gif][sm=icon_rofl.gif] This cracks me up, especially the single part, because before i got married my money was just a good...just saying[sm=048.gif]
I never used my parking pass in my car. We always kept one room key in our car for driving to enter and exit WBCs gates.
At check-in they asked if I wanted a key for everyone in my party, I said just two in retrospect I wish I had said 4, one for the car and one in case a key got demagnetized. Note, keep all phones away from room keys, ATM cards and Park tickets, just to be on the safe side. One more note on this subject, if you put the key in fast and pull it out fast it will not work, put it in hesitate for at least a second before pulling the key out. It took my DH a bit, to learn this
we thought another key had demagnetized but knew it could have not been, since I just used it and we had no cell phone. We had truly demagnetized one room key though.[
]
When checking not sure I went to the right desk because it had a VIP mat, and the girl checking me in was a bit snobby about me not being the true owner. They were going to give me a ground level room in building 1 or 2 but advocated for myself and got my request. Of course when I advocated I was polite, respectful yet, firm and let them know I would not care if I had to wait to check in.
Would highly recommend renting from 5 Star Resort, got immediate replies, confirmation, easy payment with PayPal.
When using the Wi Fi, I could not figure out about the password, but then found it later that day in the tiny orange booklet they gave me in check-in. I did not recall reading about needing a password, I could have but I just did not remember reading it. So I am putting this in my report, the password is WYNDHAMBCR.
I also did not know until 6 days in that we had HBO.
We went away for 9 park days, arrival and departure day for a total of 11 days. If I went again it would be for a minimum of 14 days to build in a few serenity days.
Summary, My DH loooooooved WBC and would stay there again in a heartbeat. It was kind of funny of how my family reacted to WBC as they must have been expecting something not so great.
Which is funny since I showed them videos of WBC on YouTube, yet they really had very low expectations for the resort and ended up being very happy about my choice. I would stay again as I saved an average of $1,000 in total for our trip. If I get free dining I would stay on site, no free dining WBC. My number one complaint of staying off site, had nothing to do with WBC but more to do with my family dynamics. I hated driving off site with DH and fighting over directions and the GPS[sm=starwars.gif]
sucked the fun out of Disney for me. The things I liked best was the savings off site, I had so much money left over from my budget that I splurged on a beautiful Dooney and Bourke bag and bought more souvenirs than I ever have, loved my kids having a room of their own and two bathrooms(this is very important with a larger family).
Bottom line if I could I would stay at Disney, but that is more a personal choice rather than a result of what WBC has to offer.
I think I have covered it all, and please note I did like the resort and in no way am bashing it, just think it is best to have honest perspectives rather than blowing smoke/people pleasing reviews when making a decision about your family vacation. I am the kind of planner that does not like surprises and I try to make very informed decisions as I am a big believer in the adage knowledge is power in all that you do. This is why this thread was invaluable to our family vacation that we scrimp and save for. So a sincere thanks to you all, for helping me to plan a wonderful vacation for me and my family.
and did not see this asked. Do they have RAC (resort airline checkin) like they do on Disney property?
