Walking distances around OKW

[Caskbill]

In January while at OKW I did more GPS measurements, this time measuring some of the distances around OKW.

The following are from the bus stops to the flagpole at the Trumbo Ferry landing.

Miller's Road: 0.26 mile
Peninsular: 0.12 mile
Turtle Pond: 0.46 mile
South Point: 0.48 mile

Some distances from the furthest building in a complex to the respective bus stop:

Bldg 22 to Miller's: 0.14 mile
Bldg 42 to Turtle Pond: 0.11 mile
Bldg 49 to South Point: 0.14 mile

From the bus stops to the beginning of the pathway that goes to Downtown Disney. (Near Bldg 55)

Miller's Road bus stop: 0.77 mile
Flagpole at Trumbo Ferry: 0.57 mile
Peninsular bus stop: 0.45 mile
South Point bus stop: 0.09 mile

Old Turtle Pond bus stop: 0.39 mile traveling via Old Turtle Pond Road & Peninsular Rd.

Old Turtle Pond bus stop: 0.49 mile via Old Turtle Pond Road, the walking path between Turtle Pond and South Point, and then South Point Road.


If going from Turtle Pond, Bldg 42 or nearby, it's closer to follow the Turtle Pond/South Point pathway: 0.38 mile versus going out to Peninsular road which would be 0.49 mile.

In May we'll be at SSR. Oh boy, can't wait to measure everything...

P.S., just to be fair, when I measured the length of the hallways at BWV (See this Thread) the distance from the furthest room at BWV to the doorway going outside to the front balcony was 0.15 mile, or in other words somewhat similar to the respective walks from the furthest buildings at OKW to their respective bus stop.

So I would speculate that on average, the walks from the BWV rooms to the front door are similar to the walks from the individual OKW villas to their respective bus stops. Some rooms are closer to the BWV entrance, some further away, and some OKW villas are closer to their bus stops, and some further away.

 

[jaysue]

Thanks for the info

cheers
jaysue

 

[Beth]

Thanks very much for these measurements, Caskbill, as well as for <i>all</i> your contributions to our board!

I always look forward to my walks when staying at OKW - thanks for the info!

 

[WDWMom]

Caskbill,

If I understand you right, you measured from room to front door of building at BWV and room to bus stop at OKW. If I am right, the folks at BWV still have to walk to the bus stop from the building so their walk is even farther.

We have stayed in one of the farthest rooms from the elevator at BWV (plus it was the top floor) and the walk is much farther to the bus stop than any OKW room we have had to a bus stop.

 

[dianeschlicht]

The GPS wizard strikes again! Thanks Bill!

 

[mbb]

Originally posted by Caskbill
In January while at OKW ...

Aha!! Caskbill, did you get in to Hot Seat at Millionaire??

Thre reason I ask is...one afternoon, while I took the kids to SAB, DH decided to try his luck at the fastest finger...when he comes back he asks if there's a gentleman on the Dis who has a business in manufacturing caskets...

(He *TOLD* me that the Caskbill DVC Planning CD got scratched 'cause "one of the kids must have dropped it...now I know the truth...he's a closet planner!! )

Anyway...could this have been you???

Inquiring minds would like to know!!

 

[dvc_john]

mbb:

Yep, that was caskbill in the hot seat.
He tried not to go into too much detail, but the host just kept on asking....
What do you do for a living?
I'm retired.
Retired from what?
Quality assurance engineer.
What kind of company?
After caskbill answered that, the host really got interested.

BTW, the question he missed was kind of a toughie.
What was the first Disney movie that combined live action and animation? Song of the South, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Three Caballeros, or Mary Poppins.
He asked the audience, and they picked Mary Poppins, the S of the S, B and B, and Three Caballeros last. He answered S of the S, but the answer was Three Caballeros. Looked it up, and Three Caballeros was 1945, and S of the S was 1946.

 

[BWVDee]

Thanks for the info! I measured the distance once from fartherest building in OKW to the HH while driving my car and it was a tad shy of 1 mile. We are big ones for always stopping in the store, going to the pool bar, going to the snack bar etc., so the times we have stayed at OKW, we request a room close to HH. The walk is a little too far by foot and driving the car to get to the HH gets old fast, so we prefer the HH location.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I would love to know the distance around the world showcase, how do you do this?

 

[Caskbill]

Originally posted by mbb
Aha!! Caskbill, did you get in to Hot Seat at Millionaire??

Thre reason I ask is...one afternoon, while I took the kids to SAB, DH decided to try his luck at the fastest finger...when he comes back he asks if there's a gentleman on the Dis who has a business in manufacturing caskets...

(He *TOLD* me that the Caskbill DVC Planning CD got scratched 'cause "one of the kids must have dropped it...now I know the truth...he's a closet planner!! )

Anyway...could this have been you???

Inquiring minds would like to know!!

Yep, that was me. Gosh, now I almost feel like a celebrity.

dvc_John, who is my brother, was there with DW and myself, and he pretty much explained it in his answer.

Missed the 16,000 point question, but don't feel too bad. I polled the audience for the answer and only 8% said the correct answer, so I guess nobody really knew.

 

[Caskbill]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
I would love to know the distance around the world showcase, how do you do this?

The walk around the World Showcase is exactly 1 mile. American Adventure is at exactly the 1/2 mile mark. I had previously measured this and posted the result but that thread is no longer on the boards. That thread, along with a MK and MGM walking distances thread were in the 'Resorts Board' and were deleted. However, there are still some threads about DVC walks that were originally posted on the DVC board and they are still there.

You can get to them by Clicking Here which will take you to the walk from OKW to DD thread and from there you can find the others.

Note the photographs are no longer active as the DIS discontinued the user's web site a long time ago and that's where I had the photos stored.

As to how it's done, here's a brief description: The GPS (Global Positioning System) is based on 24 satellites in orbit around the earth. Each of these satellites broadcasts a signal with a very accurate time code. The handheld GPS receiver picks up these signals, and using the time codes it calculates the distance to each satellite it's receiving. It then uses some very fancy mathematics to calculate (triangulate) it's position on the earth. It requires a minimum of 3 satellites to get a position, and a minimum of 4 satellites to also obtain altitude. Normally I will receive anywhere from 7 to 10 satellites at a time. The more satellites being received the more accurate the report.

The receiver has numerous features besides just knowing your location. These includes maps, waypoints, tracking, speed, altitude, distance traveled, etc.

For example suppose you were going hiking in the woods. You park your car. You can make a waypoint (record) the position of the car. Then no matter where you went, the GPS will show you the exact position you are relative to your car and you could get back to the car no matter where you were at. You wouldn't have to follow the same path back that you took out.

At WDW I use a feature called tracking. In this mode the GPS measures the distance I travel (walk), my speed, direction, etc. On the display I show a breadcrumb trail on the map. This will actually show the path I walked. At any point during the walk I can check the distance traveled.

Save the information or write it down, and then make a report on the DIS.

For the OKW walk I simply zeroed a start point, then walked from one area, bus stop, etc to another, and recorded the distance at each. Then simple math reveals all the other distances. (If A to B is 0.25 miles, and B to C is 0.12 miles, then A to C is 0.37 mile.)

Since I'm just a 'gadget' kind of guy, this is simply fun for me to do. Being able to share the information for others is even more fun.

In more practical terms, the GPS will also connect to the laptop computer. On the computer we run a program called Street Atlas USA and the computer screen shows a map with an arrow and breadcrumb trail showing our travel. This will really come in handy when you get stuck in traffic, say on the interstate, and you can see that a nearby exit will lead to a side road that you can use to bypass the stopped/backed-up traffic. We've been able to use that feature several times.

Also, it's useful to see interesting roads to take other than the interstate. One trip to Florida, we decided to come back to Indiana (1000 miles) without taking any interstates at all. We took about a week getting back, driving only 2-lane roads that took us through some beautiful countryside and interesting towns. We'd go through a small town and see a small, locally owned restaurant, and stop there to eat. I don't think we ate any fast food or in any chain restaurants that whole week. It was a lot like I remember our family vacations were when I was growing up in the 50's.

If anyone has anything they would like 'measured' at WDW just let me know.

 

[BWVDee]

If anyone has anything they would like 'measured' at WDW just let me know.

Well since you offered and since it has been mentioned here.... The next time you are at BWV, could you measure the distance from the fartherest room to the bus stop? A previous poster pointed out that your measurement was not the actual distance to actually board a bus. It got me curious to see just how far the walk out the lobby door and down the path to the bus stop will add to your calculations. Then we will have the measurements for those using buses and those using valet parking.
A measurement from the fartherst BWV to the self parking lot using both the front entrance and side entrances would also be interesting.
What a unique hobby!

 

[Bojo]

Caskbill,
I am also a gadget geek and am interested in your GPS/Laptop setup. Any recommendations on GPS? How do the devices connect (USB, Firewire, IR, other)?
TIA

PS Howdy neighbor!

 

[Caskbill]

Originally posted by Bojo
Caskbill,
I am also a gadget geek and am interested in your GPS/Laptop setup. Any recommendations on GPS? How do the devices connect (USB, Firewire, IR, other)?
TIA

PS Howdy neighbor!

I use a Garmin GPS III, I purchased about 6 years ago. You can Click Here to see information. This model has been discontinued, but I think their latest model is the GPS V.

The unit is about the size of a cell phone, runs on 4 AA batteries or optionally a car adapter. It has a removable antenna that is used during hand held mode, but I also have a magnetic antenna on a 8-foot cable that will plug in also. On the road we'll use this antenna and place it in the back window. When you really want accuracy you can place the magnetic mount right to the top of the car.

I have a single cable assembly that plugs into the car cigarette lighter and splits into two separate leads, one going to the GPS itself and the other to the computer's COM port. I'm pretty sure today most if not all of the GPS's now connect to a USB port. The car's 12 volts power the GPS only and do not go to the computer. This power part of the cable does not need to be plugged in at all and the data part of the cable will still operate so you can run the GPS off it's own batteries and still use it with the computer.

You can see my accessories HERE (010-10165-00 and 010-10052-04). <i>Note this link is for descriptive information only about my setup only and is not an endorsement of any kind for any manufacturer's products.</i> There are lots of accessories and you can really pick and choose things that you might like.

For a brand new GPS you first have to initialize it so it can basically find where you are on the earth. It will do this automatically or you can help it by using it's built in map and telling it approximately where you are. You must also reinitialize it any time you've moved 500 miles or so with the unit turned off. Initialization can take 3 to 10 minutes, but if you haven't moved since it was last turned on, it will find the satellites immediately.

To use with the computer you have to go to the GPS's setup menu and set the output. Basically that's a 9600 baud serial connection. I suspect the newer ones with USB will not require a setup.

I also had to set up the computer to read the GPS, simply using the mapping software's options menu to tell it what kind of signal it will be receiving. Or you can have the program automatically detect the GPS itself.

My favorite software program is DeLorme's Street Atlas program. I've tried others but think DeLorme's is the best. I'm currently using version Street Atlas 2004. When operating the program simply checkmark the GPS box and the program will use it. Couldn't be easier.

If you plan a route on the computer, where it calculates all roads to take to get to your destination, and you are using GPS, the computer will alert you to all turns, announcing (voice output) about a minute ahead of time and showing a turn arrow on the computer screen. This is a great guy thing as we never have to ask anyone for directions.

Currently our laptop is a Compaq 2190 Presario, but I think this model has been replaced also. Most laptops don't have COM ports on them anymore, only USB ports.

The two major manufactures of GPS are Garmin and Magellan. You probably wouldn't go wrong with either. There are numerous models to choose from with so many different features it's almost like selecting a cell phone. There are special GPS's for Aviation and also for Marine, some with some pretty large map displays so they don't even need a computer. We like the handheld because it will connect to the computer, or we can use it just for hiking (or measuring WDW paths.

If you're really interested in the GPS/Computer combination, I'd first purchase the mapping software. DeLorme's is about $50 and it's a great planning tool in it's own right without even using GPS. Then check the list of GPS's the program will easily communicate with and select your GPS from that list. (Otherwise you would have to go with a generic connection and the program might not be able to use all the features of the specific GPS you have.)

Then go get the GPS that meets your requirements, price range, etc.

Guess we are neighbors. We live only about 50 miles to the Kentucky border. (Covington, KY)
Have fun

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Thank you Bill.

 

[mbb]

Originally posted by Caskbill
Yep, that was me. Gosh, now I almost feel like a celebrity.

dvc_John, who is my brother, was there with DW and myself, and he pretty much explained it in his answer.

Missed the 16,000 point question, but don't feel too bad. I polled the audience for the answer and only 8% said the correct answer, so I guess nobody really knew.

DH didn't know it either!! We've always thought there should be an E Option...I Don't know - for the audience poll...I guess no one realizes they just shouldn't vote!!

You ARE a Celebrity...EVERYONE uses your planner!!

...a DVC Celebrity

 

[Bojo]

Thanks CB! Sent you a PM.