ErinC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2000
- Messages
- 2,622
We started our 1st DVC vacation with a 4 day cruise. The wonder was great. We had really never cruised before (DH and I did a 2 Carnival cruise in March, yuck, yuck, yuck). I was nervous about cruising, and wasn't sure it would be for us. We loved the cruise. It was me, DH, DD6, DD2. There was so much family activity on the ship. My only complaint was the weather (which Disney cannot control), it rained on us everyday. Castaway Cay was a total wash, it never stopped raining the entire day. I was dissappointed, no one's fault of course, I had just looked forward to it for so long. Only our family could go to the Bahamas for 3 days and it rain everyday. We had a great time anyway, and I would love to go back sometime in the next few years. We got off the ship Thursday and headed toward Orlando. We stopped at what appeared to be a new Super Target somewhere in the area, and got a few groceries, and some film developed. We arrived at VWL around 11:00. I went in and checked in, our room was not ready, we had noted it on the reservation so that maybe we could check in early, but it was not to be. ( I wasn't upset, just hoping.) I was welcomed home and the cast member was very nice that checked me in. We purchased ultimate park hoppers dropping the first and last day with no problem. I went back out to the car, and we went on to DD to get some lunch. We ate at Fulton's. I tried to check on the DI project, but saw what looked like, they were doing repairs on the villas. The villas were empty, but it looked as though they were replacing hand rails on the balconys. Strange. Even the cast member thought that is was weird. After lunch I called to check on the room, still not available, so we went shopping at the Bass pro Center on international Drive. (What an awesome place) We left there around 4:00 and proceeded back to VWL. I began to think about the charges for my tickets, and thought that they were not correct so I called the front desk again, and sure enough I had not received my DVC discount (which amounted to $45) on the tickets. She refunded the difference. We walked toward the villas and were greeted with another welcome home from the lady at the desk in the villas. My DH is not the Disney freak that I am, so I was really hoping that this was going to be a good experience for him. He made a comment about her saying Welcome Home, at first I thought he was being sarcastic, but he said "no, this is really awesome."We arrived to a studio room (rm 4543) with views of the trees and pool if you looked to the left. I was impressed with the size of the studio. We have stayed at most of the moderates prior to DVC so the studio seemed large to us. When we opened the balcony door and stepped out, we were looking a 2 deer outside our room. My two DD's were so excited. We loved VWL and had a great 4 day stay. My only other complaint was that the frame on the sofa bed was bent. It was really hard to open and close. I called and reported it, and a maintenence man came up pretty quickly. He said that it would have to be replaced, and commented that this was a common problem with this brand of sofabed. He said the new ones that they were replacing them with were more heavy duty. It was never replaced during our stay. We were supposed to receive our trash and towel on Sunday. I called on Friday to request it for Saturday instead, and the lady at housekeeping said she would make a note of it. We arrived back in the room Saturday around 4:30, no trash and towel. I called and someone came after we left the room again to take care of it. Then housekeeping showed up before we left the room Sunday morning to do our trash and towel. These were minor complaints and nothing that upset our stay. We had a great time. I thought the crowds were really heavy (Memorial Day weekend), which we are not used to, but now that we have a school aged child, we will have to for the majority of our visits. We would have really used early entry this visit if it were still available. I think that disney will have to rethink this whole issue in the near future if park attendance continues through the summer. I think they should offer some generic Fast passes for your group at check in when you are staying at their hotels. Some sort of plus for being a disney guest. I just refuse to wait 70 minutes to ride anything without a FP. All and all the service we received was great, my DH was impressed with DVC and I am happy that maybe I have "Disneyfied" him a little more! Now I am just thorougly depressed that it's probably going to be over a year until we can make a trip again. On an end note, we drove over to look at BCV, and thought they looked really pretty from the outside. I don't think the views will be that great, but I liked the look of the villas. We didn't get out of our car, we just drove around them. They looked to fairly complete. Sorry this is so long. I just wanted to share my thoughts with the people that make up this great board. I wouldn't know half of what I know without you! Thanks, Erin
