MBELSANTI
Mama Mia, Mangia Mangia!!
- Joined
- Sep 17, 1999
- Messages
- 1,228
HI All!
We are back from our soggy 8 night trip to WDW staying at BCV, BWV and Pop.
Day 1 at BCV in Studio
We arrived via ME around noon and a wonderful CM
(I cannot remember his name, but he was from the University of Indiana) checked us in. I asked if a villa was ready and he called and there was a studio ready for us. It was an accessible room. We went over to Bell Services and had one of the guys there help bring up our bags. We had 3, but we also had an empty Owners Locker and a few bags of groceries from Garden Grocer waiting for us. He loaded everything up and walked us to our villa. We gave him $10 tip (already gave $4 to MW driver for unloading our 3 bags) and he even went and filled our ice bucket for us! We were in room 328 which was nice and close to the main elevator. The room was clean except there were some hairs in the bathroom sink and shower area. Also the fold down seat in the roll in shower had a lot to be desired. I didn't use it, but I did look it over and avoided touching it because I wondered how they even clean it. 
There were some large stains on the sofa cushions and carpet. Other than that, no complaints about the room. We were only there for the evening. I should add we had lunch at Beach's and Cream- yum! We both had burgers and I had onion rings with mine. We also split a No Way Jose...I think I died and went to heaven, LOL 
. Also dinner was at Captain's Grille at Yacht Club. Now this was a very nice dinner. I had the baked scallops in garlic covered with panko breadcrumbs. I wanted to lick the casserole dish clean! 
DS had the tenderlion and it was good too. We were not allowed to get smoothies on the DDP as other restaurants later in our trip allowed us to. I asked and was told they were not included. This is definitely a great place to go for a nice dinner if you are staying at BCV.
Day 2 move to BCV 1 Bedroom
The next morning, at 10:30am we got everything ready and had bell services move everything back to storage again( $6 tip) while we checked out and into our 1 bedroom for 4 nights. We asked if a room was available, and there was another accessible room, but I declined it to wait for a regular one as I really didn't like the roll in shower. We then went down to Stormalong Bay to swim. I think my son really enjoyed this pool, but I really didn't like the feel of the sand under my feet.
Our room was ready early again, about 2. We went up and called Bell Services for round 3 and another $6 tip. Ok let me tell you, I was spoiled when I saw the 1 bedroom!
We were in room 374 down the hall from the last villa and closer to the pool elevator. We were very pleased with the cleanliness of the room except for the drinking glasses. OMG practically every one had dried white lip marks on them! It was gross! 
I went through almost all of the small juice and larger drinking glasses looking for some clean ones. I promptly put the dirty ones in the dishwasher and ended up running them through 2 cycles. What was the person who put them away thinking? Anyway, no other issues here. I ran hot water through the jacuzzi for about 15 mns before we used it. No issues there. I loved the fact that there was access to balcony from bedroom and living areas, but didn't like that they were seperate.
Day 6- Move to BWV 1 Bedroom
Ok this moving thing has gotten old now LOL. We packed up and at 10:00 had BS come and get luggage and groceries and OL to move to BWV ( another $6 tip). We went down to have the photo shoot done. I almost cancelled due to Fay and the fact that it was raining and there would be no pics on the lovely grounds or beach outside. They guy that helped us took DS around the hotel to the Solarium and to the public rooms in the Villas and got some really wonderful pictures of DS. I will have a hard time picking which will be our Christmas card picture! I felt this was well worth the price. I pre ordered the CD for $99 and then paid $25 sitting fee for 1/2 hr and came back with 30 nice photos. I read that a few days later, they changed this service and it will no longer be available for the amount I paid. I guess they must really have had a high demand for it. After another lunch at Beach's and Cream ( no dessert this time!) we took the ferry to BWV. We went to check in and no rooms available, so we headed to the clown pool. The pool was nice although I thought it was small for the size of the hotel and villas. The pool bar never opened while we were there. We also never got around to checking out the Villas quiet pool or Community hall. Our room was ready about 4 and we headed up there. We were in room 4471. Now I know what you guys mean about the long hallways LOL. Our room was great though, although set up very different than the BCV. It seemed to be older than BCV. I did like the french door leading to the very large shared balcony that could be accessed from bedroom to living area. The dryer was ready for replacing as the door wouldn't shut properly and kept opening mid cycle. The oven also looked old compared to BCV. The glasses were fine. We called Bell Services again and $6 later, we had everything moved in. Oh I want to add this night we had a lovely dinner at Spoodles. I had the Lemon shrimp with linguine and counted 13 shrimp and DS had the steak kabobs. Needless to say we both had leftovers which we brought to the room.
I won't bore you with my move to Pop as it was much of the same. I would however never do this so many times again. We did plan a relaxing rather than commando trip, so having to hang at the resort pool waiting for rooms to be ready wasn't a problem. The tipping really cut into the budget. We spent a total of $51 in tips to BS/ME drivers.
I also wanted to tell you about a few other things we experience for the first time.
Garden Grocer was good. We ordered bagels, cream cheese, butter, milk, a wheel of gouda, some 2L bottles of pop and a case of water. Everything was waiting for us with perishables in the cooler. We didn't use up the whole case of water as temps were not that bad with Fay rolling through. I would use them again.
Owner's Locker
Filled this puppy up right away. Even left unopened bottles of water in there for Dec trip. Great idea and I think when I go to pack for Dec. trip, I am going to love it even more! I was hoping to meet the guys on 8/21 at Epcot, but we waited and never saw anyone come up to the France Wine kiosk. Maybe the storm forced them to cancel?
DDP
Once again used this although if you order an appetizer or 2 like I did each night, plus tip, it added another $30 each night to the budget. I always gave at least 20% tip for each night. We will do this again in Dec.
AP
This allowed us to just take it easy each day. No need to feel like I needed to get the most of using a park day on a MYW ticket. Some days we hung at the pool all day and then walked to Epcot through International Gateway for dinner in the evening.
Met tons of really nice peeps..all of whom had no clue what the DIS site is. Ha maybe a few new ones will be signing up?? Fay didn't stop us one bit from having a great time. I will be downloading pics of the rooms as well as doing a DDP report sometime this week as well. Thanks for reading!
We are back from our soggy 8 night trip to WDW staying at BCV, BWV and Pop.
Day 1 at BCV in Studio
We arrived via ME around noon and a wonderful CM
(I cannot remember his name, but he was from the University of Indiana) checked us in. I asked if a villa was ready and he called and there was a studio ready for us. It was an accessible room. We went over to Bell Services and had one of the guys there help bring up our bags. We had 3, but we also had an empty Owners Locker and a few bags of groceries from Garden Grocer waiting for us. He loaded everything up and walked us to our villa. We gave him $10 tip (already gave $4 to MW driver for unloading our 3 bags) and he even went and filled our ice bucket for us! We were in room 328 which was nice and close to the main elevator. The room was clean except there were some hairs in the bathroom sink and shower area. Also the fold down seat in the roll in shower had a lot to be desired. I didn't use it, but I did look it over and avoided touching it because I wondered how they even clean it. There were some large stains on the sofa cushions and carpet. Other than that, no complaints about the room. We were only there for the evening. I should add we had lunch at Beach's and Cream- yum! We both had burgers and I had onion rings with mine. We also split a No Way Jose...I think I died and went to heaven, LOL . Also dinner was at Captain's Grille at Yacht Club. Now this was a very nice dinner. I had the baked scallops in garlic covered with panko breadcrumbs. I wanted to lick the casserole dish clean! DS had the tenderlion and it was good too. We were not allowed to get smoothies on the DDP as other restaurants later in our trip allowed us to. I asked and was told they were not included. This is definitely a great place to go for a nice dinner if you are staying at BCV.Day 2 move to BCV 1 Bedroom
The next morning, at 10:30am we got everything ready and had bell services move everything back to storage again( $6 tip) while we checked out and into our 1 bedroom for 4 nights. We asked if a room was available, and there was another accessible room, but I declined it to wait for a regular one as I really didn't like the roll in shower. We then went down to Stormalong Bay to swim. I think my son really enjoyed this pool, but I really didn't like the feel of the sand under my feet.
Our room was ready early again, about 2. We went up and called Bell Services for round 3 and another $6 tip. Ok let me tell you, I was spoiled when I saw the 1 bedroom!
We were in room 374 down the hall from the last villa and closer to the pool elevator. We were very pleased with the cleanliness of the room except for the drinking glasses. OMG practically every one had dried white lip marks on them! It was gross! I went through almost all of the small juice and larger drinking glasses looking for some clean ones. I promptly put the dirty ones in the dishwasher and ended up running them through 2 cycles. What was the person who put them away thinking? Anyway, no other issues here. I ran hot water through the jacuzzi for about 15 mns before we used it. No issues there. I loved the fact that there was access to balcony from bedroom and living areas, but didn't like that they were seperate.Day 6- Move to BWV 1 Bedroom
Ok this moving thing has gotten old now LOL. We packed up and at 10:00 had BS come and get luggage and groceries and OL to move to BWV ( another $6 tip). We went down to have the photo shoot done. I almost cancelled due to Fay and the fact that it was raining and there would be no pics on the lovely grounds or beach outside. They guy that helped us took DS around the hotel to the Solarium and to the public rooms in the Villas and got some really wonderful pictures of DS. I will have a hard time picking which will be our Christmas card picture! I felt this was well worth the price. I pre ordered the CD for $99 and then paid $25 sitting fee for 1/2 hr and came back with 30 nice photos. I read that a few days later, they changed this service and it will no longer be available for the amount I paid. I guess they must really have had a high demand for it. After another lunch at Beach's and Cream ( no dessert this time!) we took the ferry to BWV. We went to check in and no rooms available, so we headed to the clown pool. The pool was nice although I thought it was small for the size of the hotel and villas. The pool bar never opened while we were there. We also never got around to checking out the Villas quiet pool or Community hall. Our room was ready about 4 and we headed up there. We were in room 4471. Now I know what you guys mean about the long hallways LOL. Our room was great though, although set up very different than the BCV. It seemed to be older than BCV. I did like the french door leading to the very large shared balcony that could be accessed from bedroom to living area. The dryer was ready for replacing as the door wouldn't shut properly and kept opening mid cycle. The oven also looked old compared to BCV. The glasses were fine. We called Bell Services again and $6 later, we had everything moved in. Oh I want to add this night we had a lovely dinner at Spoodles. I had the Lemon shrimp with linguine and counted 13 shrimp and DS had the steak kabobs. Needless to say we both had leftovers which we brought to the room.
I won't bore you with my move to Pop as it was much of the same. I would however never do this so many times again. We did plan a relaxing rather than commando trip, so having to hang at the resort pool waiting for rooms to be ready wasn't a problem. The tipping really cut into the budget. We spent a total of $51 in tips to BS/ME drivers.
I also wanted to tell you about a few other things we experience for the first time.
Garden Grocer was good. We ordered bagels, cream cheese, butter, milk, a wheel of gouda, some 2L bottles of pop and a case of water. Everything was waiting for us with perishables in the cooler. We didn't use up the whole case of water as temps were not that bad with Fay rolling through. I would use them again.
Owner's Locker
Filled this puppy up right away. Even left unopened bottles of water in there for Dec trip. Great idea and I think when I go to pack for Dec. trip, I am going to love it even more! I was hoping to meet the guys on 8/21 at Epcot, but we waited and never saw anyone come up to the France Wine kiosk. Maybe the storm forced them to cancel?
DDP
Once again used this although if you order an appetizer or 2 like I did each night, plus tip, it added another $30 each night to the budget. I always gave at least 20% tip for each night. We will do this again in Dec.
AP
This allowed us to just take it easy each day. No need to feel like I needed to get the most of using a park day on a MYW ticket. Some days we hung at the pool all day and then walked to Epcot through International Gateway for dinner in the evening.
Met tons of really nice peeps..all of whom had no clue what the DIS site is. Ha maybe a few new ones will be signing up?? Fay didn't stop us one bit from having a great time. I will be downloading pics of the rooms as well as doing a DDP report sometime this week as well. Thanks for reading!
sounds like you had a great time. I was at SSR and had to return to my non-vacation home 3 days before Fay visited. We are also heading back in Dec. for 9 days!
