There is currently a fairly extensive thread going on about the WP. I am sure if you read that you would get a good feeling for the resort. That being said I will tell you about my experience.
We were there last month. We did not have the time share rate so we didn't have to do the tour. I had found a great discounted rate for a two bedroom on hotel Kingdom and paid around $80 a night. Check in went very smoothly. Our room was great. Very roomy and spacious. One of the best things with staying in a property such as this (which I am sure you appreciate since you are DVC members) as opposed to a normal hotel is that you are not constantly tripping all over each other. The only complaint we had was that our air conditioner stopped working and flipped a breaker so we had to have someone come up to fix it. Also the air conditioner automatically turns off when you have the sliding glass doors to the porch open (this didn't have anything to do with our air conditioner problem, just noting it). The master bath tub was
very nice!! The second bedroom did not have a clock/radio, so if you need one in that room make sure to bring a travel one from home.
The pools were small and not themed, but nice. They had relaxing tropical music playing, and had ample seating. Not once when we used the pool was there any other people in it, and we used it at various times including middle of day, early and late evening. We did not take advantage of the free breakfast on weekdays, nor did we participate in any of the scheduled events (they gave you a schedule at check in, many activities for children and such). Our building was located near the front of the resort, but due to the winding road system was a bit of a drive to either the pool, the main office, or the gate. Our room was on the second floor, and although our building seemed very full of people (based on the cars in the parking lot) we didn't hear any of our neighbors.
We are Wyndham By Request members so we had our snacks (cheese and crackers and wine) waiting for us with a note from Wendy the WBR manager for the Palms. She also called during our stay to make sure we were doing well and had everything we needed. We received a paper on weekday mornings from WBR. The resort doesn't have scheduled maid service, unless you pay extra, but they will bring you anything you run out of (tissues, tp) and they have a scheduled time to put your garbage by the front door for pick up every day. The Palms doesn't have high speed internet, so if you plan on connecting through the data ports (which I was in need of doing for work) you will need to have a dial-up providor account and access numbers. A word of warning if you dial-up through AOL. The access numbers in the area are
horrible. We have Road Runner at home, but also have an AOL account to use through a high speed connection. I am not complaining based on the speed of dial-up as compared to high speed, but the access numbers for the area through AOL were bad, bad, bad, so my suggestion is use a different providor if you need to hook up while on vacation.
The Palms was a quick 5-7 min drive to the 192 entrances of WDW. There are many restaurants located near the resort. There is also a restaurant onsite and room service, with an onsite Pizza Hut delivery.
That is about all I can think about, although by now I am sure you are sorry you asked!!
If you can think of any specific questions I would be happy to answer them for you.
Have a great trip!
