VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.0) updated 21 June 2023

[KAT4DISNEY]

I’m sorry that you have to go through this, Kat4 Disney.

Thanks Bobbi!

 

[jimmytammy]

KAT
When we 1st replaced our oil heater with Natural gas, we were lucky as the gas lines were being run up our little street(at the time, we were still very much in the country)that same month. So we went with a Trane conventional nat. gas central HVAC. We since have had to replace it with another HVAC and went with an American Standard(same thing as Trane)but we went the route of a dual fuel system. What that means is its a heat pump initially, but when the temps deep to a certain degree, lets say 32* for the sake of a reference point, the gas kicks in to help keep the house warm. Old heat pumps had a bad reputation in the early days of not keeping house warm. They have improved vastly, but if you live in a could be frigid area, say getting down below freezing and staying there for days, maybe consider a dual fuel system. We love ours!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

KAT
When we 1st replaced our oil heater with Natural gas, we were lucky as the gas lines were being run up our little street(at the time, we were still very much in the country)that same month. So we went with a Trane conventional nat. gas central HVAC. We since have had to replace it with another HVAC and went with an American Standard(same thing as Trane)but we went the route of a dual fuel system. What that means is its a heat pump initially, but when the temps deep to a certain degree, lets say 32* for the sake of a reference point, the gas kicks in to help keep the house warm. Old heat pumps had a bad reputation in the early days of not keeping house warm. They have improved vastly, but if you live in a could be frigid area, say getting down below freezing and staying there for days, maybe consider a dual fuel system. We love ours!

Great info Jimmy - thank you!!!! One of the places that is going to get us the quote on Monday was mentioning electric heat strips would be part of the system for the really cold times and when I brought up propane as a replacement instead of oil had mentioned that could be used as the dual system with the heat pump instead of the heat strips. You explained it much better in about 4 sentences!!!

 

[Lakegirl]

KAT
When we 1st replaced our oil heater with Natural gas, we were lucky as the gas lines were being run up our little street(at the time, we were still very much in the country)that same month. So we went with a Trane conventional nat. gas central HVAC. We since have had to replace it with another HVAC and went with an American Standard(same thing as Trane)but we went the route of a dual fuel system. What that means is its a heat pump initially, but when the temps deep to a certain degree, lets say 32* for the sake of a reference point, the gas kicks in to help keep the house warm. Old heat pumps had a bad reputation in the early days of not keeping house warm. They have improved vastly, but if you live in a could be frigid area, say getting down below freezing and staying there for days, maybe consider a dual fuel system. We love ours!

Very informative! I had never heard of them before reading this. Another reason I love this group!! Enjoy your Sunday everyone!!

 

[sleepydog25]

Our oil beast had me up a few chilly nights over the years too although thankfully it was in a room I could walk into! It had been doing something new and we had or repair guy out twice during the past month so it was trying to tell me. I just was hoping to finish out this winter so I didn't want to listen. We have natural gas at the corner of our property but it's so rocky here the cost to bring it in is crazy high! Considering propane, replacing the oil or leaning a bit towards a heat pump but still investigating that to learn more.

Might not work for your needs, but when we lived in the mountains of southwest Virginia in a drafty house, we wound up putting in Mitsubishi, ductless, wall-mounted heaters/air conditioners. They are cost efficient, quiet, and ductless. They can even be programmed to cut on and off at various times. Set them for heat during the cold months and for cool in the warm months. They worked well for our needs.

 

[jimmytammy]

Might not work for your needs, but when we lived in the mountains of southwest Virginia in a drafty house, we wound up putting in Mitsubishi, ductless, wall-mounted heaters/air conditioners. They are cost efficient, quiet, and ductless. They can even be programmed to cut on and off at various times. Set them for heat during the cold months and for cool in the warm months. They worked well for our needs.

We use these in the attic/bonus room spaces a lot at the retirement community we do renovations for. They are great units! We have one in our bonus room/theater room at our house. We will leave it on very low in the winter, higher in the summer, then turn it lower/higher depending on the need about 10 mins. before we start to watch a movie. Works great and relatively easy to use.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Might not work for your needs, but when we lived in the mountains of southwest Virginia in a drafty house, we wound up putting in Mitsubishi, ductless, wall-mounted heaters/air conditioners. They are cost efficient, quiet, and ductless. They can even be programmed to cut on and off at various times. Set them for heat during the cold months and for cool in the warm months. They worked well for our needs.

We use these in the attic/bonus room spaces a lot at the retirement community we do renovations for. They are great units! We have one in our bonus room/theater room at our house. We will leave it on very low in the winter, higher in the summer, then turn it lower/higher depending on the need about 10 mins. before we start to watch a movie. Works great and relatively easy to use.

Also good info! We had gotten some info on those units from one of the companies but I had kind of dismissed since we already have ducts in place. I'll have to look at it again.

 

[Corinne]

Hi Groupies,
Hope everyone is doing well! Kathy, sorry about your issues! Dana is a plumber and was working on our son and dil’s system yesterday! Their‘s was just a simple part replacement though.

We are back from a much needed 10 day vacation. The weather in Sarasota wasn’t great the first few days. We had an overnight visit to Sanibel Island and drove over to Captiva as well. Both lovely and would like to visit again.

I have been visiting Sarasota the same week every March for the last 5 years and it is normally a pretty quiet place to be (weekends are busier of course). It is typically not a “spring break” destination. This year, however, very different. We think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people are experiencing COVID fatigue and since Florida is basically open for business everyone is flocking there. The airport had crazy TSA lines on Saturday. So crazy, in fact, I took a pic to send to my sister, who has a place there and has been there all winter. It normally has no more than 5 people. I’m not kidding. Thankfully we have TSA precheck, and only had to wait 2 minutes. The agents at the JetBlue gate were even referencing it. Kind of a bummer, I loved the sleepy little SRQ airport. The rest of the trip the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed beach days and beautiful sunsets and man was it nice to dine outside once again!

 

[suse66]

We have our Allie! We love her so much already. Our boys are being very tolerant so far. Remy is not pleased with her and will bark at her, but he hasn't snapped. Gus just kind of ignores her and tolerates when she is around. It will just take time. They will come around. We went through the same thing when we got Gus. Ella loved him - but it took Remy a while to warm up. Now they are best buds.

Such a cutie!!!

 

[Beachmom0317]

Hi everyone! We will be back at the lodge this May so I am just trying to catch up on where they are with the refurb! We stayed in a studio in November. Will refurb be going on in May (this year)? I went back a few pages and couldn’t find much progress so I’m wondering if they started with VWL yet. Thanks!

 

[Granny]

Hi everyone! We will be back at the lodge this May so I am just trying to catch up on where they are with the refurb! We stayed in a studio in November. Will refurb be going on in May (this year)? I went back a few pages and couldn’t find much progress so I’m wondering if they started with VWL yet. Thanks!

Hi Beachmom!!! I don't know exactly where they stand with the VWL refurb. We had a report several pages ago about the new carpet "test area" for the corridors. And presumably they have put together some test rooms with the new materials. But it's hard to say how far along they are at this point. So I'm not much help, I just wanted to acknowledge your request so hopefully someone with better knowledge can give you a real answer. Thanks for stopping by!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Hi everyone! We will be back at the lodge this May so I am just trying to catch up on where they are with the refurb! We stayed in a studio in November. Will refurb be going on in May (this year)? I went back a few pages and couldn’t find much progress so I’m wondering if they started with VWL yet. Thanks!

My only input is that I have run across zero reports that any works is going on yet other than what seems to be 2 test rooms. Might they start by May? Perhaps but there's also be no date announced to start that I've seen. Sometimes DVC announces refurbs and dates from the mountain tops and other times you find out when the hallways get blocked off.

 

[Beachmom0317]

Hi Beachmom!!! I don't know exactly where they stand with the VWL refurb. We had a report several pages ago about the new carpet "test area" for the corridors. And presumably they have put together some test rooms with the new materials. But it's hard to say how far along they are at this point. So I'm not much help, I just wanted to acknowledge your request so hopefully someone with better knowledge can give you a real answer. Thanks for stopping by!

My only input is that I have run across zero reports that any works is going on yet other than what seems to be 2 test rooms. Might they start by May? Perhaps but there's also be no date announced to start that I've seen. Sometimes DVC announces refurbs and dates from the mountain tops and other times you find out when the hallways get blocked off.

Thanks! Well I will be there 5/5 so I’d be happy to report what I see!

 

[sleepydog25]

PSA~
While I fully realize no one on this thread would be so thoughtless, please pass along the following tip to any acquaintances who might be having a bad day while at the World. When the CM comes to your door to collect trash, and you're in the room, please don't react harshly if they ask you to step out of the room. She/He is just doing the task as required by corporate Disney.

Thank you, and we now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

[jimmytammy]

Happy Easter Everyone!!
He Has Risen!!!!

 

[sleepydog25]

Despite the DIS looking VERY weird after not being able to log in yesterday except to some VERY weird "hacking" thread, I'm posting to say that DHHIR is lovely right now. Low 70s, sunny, and we are booked 100%! That means busy days for yours truly. I'll post a picture if I can. This is what I did first thing in the morning: 11 "baskets" full of linens to change over a room (roughly 35-40 pounds each) and 11 white bags with corresponding blankets--about 15 pounds each. That was just the beginning...

 

[Granny]

Wow, I had no idea that our recent postings had been deleted.

Well, a day late I wish everyone a joyous and safe Easter season. Here's a video I posted that I really liked....a nice adaptation of Leonard Cohen's song which is sung by two sisters with wonderful voices. The younger one is only 10 years old! Enjoy!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Wow, I had no idea that our recent postings had been deleted.

Well, a day late I wish everyone a joyous and safe Easter season. Here's a video I posted that I really liked....a nice adaptation of Leonard Cohen's song which is sung by two sisters with wonderful voices. The younger one is only 10 years old! Enjoy!

I'm guessing they must have had to restore from a backup a day or two earlier? Anyway - I had enjoyed this yesterday prior to everything going blip!

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

Yay! Glad to see we are up and running again!

 

[Disneytrippin']

Hello all. I hope you can help me out. I found a BRV contract that I may be buying tomorrow. Offer accepted and all but haven't signed anything yet. We are going next year On Thanksgiving day for 10 nights. There are 9 of us, 7 adults and 2 kids age 5 and almost 2 by then. My concerns are that it will not be done with refurb and I don't really like the outdated theming. I don't know much about Boulder Ridge other than walking around it and I really liked the lobby, etc. I haven't seen the rooms other than on youtube. Everyone talks about how it badly needs a redo.

How long do refurbs take? Do love Boulder Ridge? How are the transportation options?

Thanks in Advance.