OKW Just Back Thoughts/Observations

[Little E]

Hi Disfriends!

I've just returned from OKW with DH and DS 22 and DS 19. We flew in from the midwest last Sunday 3/10 and stayed until Friday 3/15. Yesterday I walked off my Disney "hangover" and today I'm ready to share a quick trip review before I start forgetting stuff.

We stayed at OKW back in 2014 with my parents, so this wasn't a new-to-us resort. We didn't have enough points to stay at our home resort (GF) but we wanted three sleep surfaces and two bathrooms (a must with young adult kids), so that's what drove the decision to stay at OKW. However, because it had been 10 years since our last stay, we forgot how friggin' huge the resort is. While our two bedroom villa was great...the perfect amount of space, separate sleep areas, terrific balcony, complete with a washer/dryer, it just was such a pain to get around the resort. It was roughly half a mile to get from our room in building 39 to the lobby. We found it was more efficient to walk to the lobby than sit at the Turtle Pond bus stop and wait for a bus to get us to the front, but it meant that we did a lot of walking on top of the walking we did at the parks. DH and I decided OKW would be lower on our list of DVC resorts and if we stayed here again, we'd definitely need to book the preferred room category.

We always get groceries delivered using Shipt. We've never had a problem, until this trip. I had crafted a shopping list days in advance and pulled the trigger on a delivery when we got into our room. We waited and waited and waited for our order to be picked up by a shopper. It wasn't ever picked up on our first day. Ugh! After multiple calls to Shipt, it was finally picked up mid morning on our second day at Disney. Pro tip: I learned that Shipt shoppers have to have some sort of special certification to deliver to Disney resorts, if there is booze in the order. (DH wanted some beer for the villa.) Currently there is only ONE certified Disney shopper for Shipt...gah!! So, it took til the second day for that certified shopper to be able to shop for our order. He was great, but it was a drag to not have groceries. I think I will investigate other delivery services for our future Disney trips, as I don't want that to happen again.

We found the quiet pool near our villa to be delightful. It was busy, but definitely quiet and it had the Turtle Shack snack bar which had the same menu as the snack bar connected to the main pool by the lobby. CMs everywhere at OKW were great as well, and we loved being able to take a chill boat ride to the Disney Springs.

We heard a lot of complaining from other guests about how crowded the parks were; we also met up with friends for dinner at DS who felt like the parks were crazy. However, we felt like the parks were manageable and not insanely crowded. We went into this week knowing it was spring break season. Our boys like to sleep in, so we went to the parks mid to late morning, left for a mid day break, and returned to the parks at night. We felt like this "formula" worked well for our family. We also weren't trying to ride every single thing. We are DVC and AP holders, so we've been many times before and we know we'll be back, so it was nice to just go with the flow and do things at a slower pace.

The temps were perfect for this trip. It never rained for the duration of our time there, and the temps were in the mid 70's/low 80's with a light breeze and very low humidity. It was weather we would order out of a catalogue if we could. Note to self...go back in mid March!

We tried the Yachtsman Steakhouse for the first time. We are Steakhouse 71 lovers, and we felt like our experience at YS was wonderful and on par with our past SH 71 experiences. Lucretia was our server and she was excellent. We also did Sci Fi Dine In, which we've enjoyed many times in the past. We found the food to be "meh" and we waited forever to be seated. So, we've decided to revisit YS in the future, and we probably won't be back to Sci Fi soon. Our boys had a Space 220 reservation while we met up with friends at Homecomin'. They said their experience was fantastic. We had never been to Homecomin' before and enjoyed the fried chicken and moonshine with friends. We also tried to get into the Trader Sam's bar with no luck. It's still on our list to try. We enjoyed the Trader Sam's Terrace instead, and then rounded out our lounge experiences this trip with a drink at Enchanted Rose. Mark, our server, recommended a "French Martini" at the Enchanted Rose which was fantastic. It's now a must do when we go back.

My one truly stressful experience this week had nothing to do with the parks and everything to do with RunDisney. March 12 was registration for the Food and Wine races and I spent two hours in a spinning wheel of doom "you have over an hour" registration queue. I was on speakerphone with a friend and between the two of us, we had 10 tabs open and no movement in to register. Thanks to the lovely folks on the Disboards who were kind enough to share links to register, I was finally able to register two husbands for the 10k and my friend and myself for the 5k. I think I made it into Epcot around 1 pm to meet up with my family. So stressful, but so amazing to have the support of Disfolks!

All in all, we had a great spring break trip with our kiddos. We are so thankful that our guys still like doing Disney with us; we'll take whatever time they are willing to spend with us at Disney!

I know this isn't a highly detailed trip report...my apologies! If anyone has questions about the parks or OKW, feel free to reach out! We can't wait to go back to run the Food and Wine races at the end of October/beginning of November!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Thanks for the report! Do you remember which general area you stayed in for your 2014 trip to OKW? If so, which area did you prefer? What was your view? We've only stayed in the Turtle Pond area twice, and one of those times we were really bothered by loud road noise (Buena Vista Parkway?).

 

[Little E]

@Simba's Mom I totally didn't remember where we stayed ten years ago, so I had to go back and look in my old Disney records. We were in room 3232 in May of 2014...same Turtle Pond area. Our view in 2014 was way better; we had a balcony over looking the golf course. This time, we overlooked the expressway. I don't remember excessive noise back in 2014, and for the trip we just finished we literally didn't see ANYONE ever, coming and going from our building. It felt like we had the building to ourselves.

 

[kittylady1972]

We stayed at OKW back in 2014 with my parents, so this wasn't a new-to-us resort. We didn't have enough points to stay at our home resort (GF) but we wanted three sleep surfaces and two bathrooms (a must with young adult kids), so that's what drove the decision to stay at OKW. However, because it had been 10 years since our last stay, we forgot how friggin' huge the resort is. While our two bedroom villa was great...the perfect amount of space, separate sleep areas, terrific balcony, complete with a washer/dryer, it just was such a pain to get around the resort. It was roughly half a mile to get from our room in building 39 to the lobby. We found it was more efficient to walk to the lobby than sit at the Turtle Pond bus stop and wait for a bus to get us to the front, but it meant that we did a lot of walking on top of the walking we did at the parks. DH and I decided OKW would be lower on our list of DVC resorts and if we stayed here again, we'd definitely need to book the preferred room category.

We found the quiet pool near our villa to be delightful. It was busy, but definitely quiet and it had the Turtle Shack snack bar which had the same menu as the snack bar connect to the mail pool by the lobby. CMs everywhere at OKW were great as well, and we loved being able to take a chill boat ride to the Disney Springs.


The temps were perfect for this trip. It never rained for the duration of our time there, and the temps were in the mid 70's/low 80's with a light breeze and very low humidity. It was weather we would order out of a catalogue if we could. Note to self...go back in mid March!

We tried the Yachtsman Steakhouse for the first time. We are Steakhouse 71 lovers, and we felt like our experience at YS was wonderful and on par with our past SH 71 experiences. Lucretia was our server and she was excellent. We also did Sci Fi Dine In, which we've enjoyed many times in the past. We found the food to be "meh" and we waited forever to be seated. So, we've decided to revisit YS in the future, and we probably won't be back to Sci Fi soon. Our boys had a Space 220 reservation while we met up with friends at Homecomin'. They said their experience was fantastic. We had never been to Homecomin' before and enjoyed the fried chicken and moonshine with friends. We also tried to get into the Trader Sam's bar with no luck. It's still on our list to try. We enjoyed the Trader Sam's Terrace instead, and then rounded out our lounge experiences this trip with a drink at Enchanted Rose. Mark, our server, recommended a "French Martini" at the Enchanted Rose which was fantastic. It's now a must do when we go back.

I agree about OKW...stayed there several months ago in 3632 in a 2BR and while our view of the golf course was lovely, we did feel so far away from everything. We did enjoy the Turtle Pond pool and the snack bar was okay, but I think we like a little more active vibe around the pool. The boat to Disney Springs was nice as well, once we got to it which was quite the hike!

Your stay in March coincided with a more recent trip that me and my daughter took (March 11th - 13th) but we stayed at BLT for that one. The weather was just SOO perfect for that trip, no rain...but the crowds we felt were out there. I caved in and bought Genie for our ONE full day and we did get a few things done that way but hated being stuck to our phone constantly to try to book things.

I am with you on Yachtsman, we tried it for the first time last year, just DH and myself, and thought I wasn't feeling well that night I still recall that the lobster bisque and the wedge salad were some of the best ever. DH had steak which he did enjoy, but I think he enjoyed Topolino's more. I think our last visit to SciFi was two years ago and we agreed we don't need to return. Space 220 was fun, but was sick for that one as well, so would love to try it again when I'm 100% and can enjoy the food.

 

[Hubie]

You should try SSR next time. We really enjoy it the most of all the resorts we've stayed at over the years. The fairly new refurbishments made the rooms as nice as those at the RR, and the main lobby is centrally located so it's not much of a hike to get there from wherever you're staying except for the Treehouse area of course. Bus service has been fantastic over the past 3 years and it's only a short boat ride to DS. We love dining at SH71 & the BH at DS, but the new "Summerhouse on the Lake" at DS is now our favorite.

 

[heynowirv]

Like everything else in that area it has grown 10fold in the last 10 years. Old Turtle Pond is still my favorite area in OKW because of the pool area and snack bar .Walking to the main pool area is less than a 10 minute walk ,and we always rent a car and pick up groceries on our way into The World.

 

[Little E]

@Hubie thanks for the intel on SSR. We've never stayed there before, and I always assumed it was set up like OKW. Good to know that the refurb makes things awesome there, and it's good to know that the main lobby is more centrally located.

@heynowirv I can see where OKW would be great with a car. We typically skip a rental as we fly in to MCO from the midwest, and take an Uber to our hotel. This was the first time we ever had issues with Shipt. I'm definitely going to seek out an alternate plan for grocery delivery when we go next.

Surprisingly, we had GREAT experiences with busses the whole time we stayed at OKW. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus to any park. Transportation worked really well for us this trip.

 

[cedricandsophie]

OKW is our favorite resort. But we always reserve early to get a one bedroom across from the hospitality house. I have a disabled daughter and we always bring her friend so they can walk by themselves back and forth to the pool and comm7nity house. We rarely do the parks anymore so we love OKW for its small footprint for the recreation area, the closeness of the pool, the staff at the community house who are fabulous, the tennis courts, the boat to Disney springs.

 

[Simba's Mom]

@Simba's Mom I totally didn't remember where we stayed ten years ago, so I had to go back and look in my old Disney records. We were in room 3232 in May of 2014...same Turtle Pond area. Our view in 2014 was way better; we had a balcony over looking the golf course. This time, we overlooked the expressway. I don't remember excessive noise back in 2014, and for the trip we just finished we literally didn't see ANYONE ever, coming and going from our building. It felt like we had the building to ourselves.

Thanks. Coincidently we stayed in that building once, and that wasn't the one with the road noise. That was the one where DH and DS golfed at LBV one day, and when they were near our villa, they texted me and got to wave to me on the balcony. DS especially loved it.