Just Booked OKW for Feb 2012...A few Questions

[Merry120]

Hi all! We're heading to Disney from Calgary, AB Canada in Feb of 2012. There will be 5 of us: Me, hubs, 13 yr old boy, 11 yr old girl & 4 yr old boy. We booked a 2 bedroom at OKW. A few questions:

- Is there a specific building I should request (and when can you do that)? We will be using the buses to the parks so I would like to minimize the bus times as much as possible.
- We bought the Disney Basic Dining Plan so I am making reservations. Are there any places that I should know are really far away? I am thinking of booking Ohana but I really don't know how far it takes to get from Ohana to OKW.
- We are planning to use the buses but do you think renting a car would be better?

Any other "must knows" or "tips and tricks" from OKW alums?

[faline]

Is this your first trip to Disney World?

I can't answer your question about where to request at Old Key West. Busses for Old Key West stop at several locations before heading out of the complex and going on to its destination at one of the parks or Downtown Disney. There is also a boat to Downtown Disney. I only stayed at Old Key West once and that was for a long weekend. We are staying there for our next trip and have requested a location close to Hospitality House where the restaurant, boat launch, main pool, and lounge are located.

You'll find that, unless you are dining at the restaurant at Old Key West, you will likely be doing some traveling when you dine.

O'Hana is located in the Polynesian resort which is located in the Magic Kingdom area. You don't say what meal you want to eat there or what your plans are for the day (park you are visiting etc). If, for instance, you were spending the day at the Magic Kingdom and dining at O'Hana in the evening, you could simply exit the Magic Kingdom, get on the monorail or a boat to the Polynesian and go directly to your dinner reservation. To get home from there, you could take the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom (If it was still open) and take a bus back to Old Key West from there; or take transportation to any open park and transfer there. If it's later in the evening and no parks are open, you could take a bus to Downtown Disney and transfer to a bus back to your resort from there.

Whether or not you should rent a car is a personal choice. Many folks prefer to drive themselves to the parks and/or resorts they are visiting. Others, like us, rarely use a car even when we have one available and, instead, rely on Disney transportation to get to and from where we are going. On a few occasions, we've used a cab which are plentiful within Disney World.

[Merry120]

Thank you for your answer! I always try to include all the info needed but I always miss some! I have been to Disney many times. My family has been one other time in 2007 when we stayed at Animal Kingdom.

Generally I will be reserving dinner reservations after a day in the parks. From your description, I think Ohana will be doable because we will try to dine early. Then it will be easy to go back to Magic Kingdom & then catch the bus back to OKW.

We are leaning towards buying non-park hopper passes because last time we never used the park hopper option. The only downside is that I have to determine the days we will be in which park in order to make reservations.

[faline]

We are leaning towards buying non-park hopper passes because last time we never used the park hopper option. The only downside is that I have to determine the days we will be in which park in order to make reservations.

Personally, I like the flexibility of being able to park hop - even if I only plan dinner in a park that is different than where I spent most of the day. But, I understand making a decision to not park-hop, especially when you have so many tickets to buy! On the other hand, I took a trip with my daughter a few months back and bought her a park hopper pass (I had an annual pass) and we never ended up using the park hopper feature at all (made me wish I had waited to upgrade it, if it were needed)!

[Merry120]

We bought the Park Hopper on our last trip and used it maybe once (but I'm not really sure we used it at all). I was glad to see that we could upgrade it if we wanted to after purchase.

[mydisneygirls]

Also, the Transportation Center is a 5 minute walk from the Poly. You can easily get a bus there if you don't head back to the park. I don't get the park hopper either. I think a full day in one park is good, especially if it's going to be still hot in 2 weeks when we go. I just plan what park we go to around the dinner reservations I made. I'd rather spend the money I save on something else.

[MstngDrvnDsnyLvr]

We park hop every trip. We never spend all day in one park. The park hopper has always paid off for us. But we pick and choose what we ride, where we eat, etc. and like the freedom to go to the parks as we wish.:mickey:

[Mammabruski]

:welcome:

OKW is pretty special - you'll love it! So relaxing... I only wish they had a true counter service restaurant.

I thought the buses were great, and we were there at a very busy time. We only had to stand once and that was at park closing time.

Enjoy!

[Janmac]

I think the room request procedure has been changed to when you made your reservations. I'd still ask when I checked in tho.

We stayed in the 63 building, in a 2 bedroom. It was a short walk to the Hospitality House for the bus. This bus stop is the last one before the bus leaves the resort. And it's the last stop when the bus brings you back to the resort.

With that in mind, if/when we stay at OKW again we'd like to try for building 23, if it has 2 bedrooms. When arriving back in the resort from a park, the plan would be to get off at the bus stop by building 26. When leaving for the parks, the plan would be to walk the short walk to the bus stop at the Hospitality House. This plan would result in the least amount of time spent riding the bus in the resort.

We enjoyed the supper we had at Boatwrights, up at Port Orleans Riverside. We didn't enjoy our supper at Olivia's there at OKW. Perhaps we hit it on an off night. We spent considerable time waiting for our server to put in appearances.

OKW 2 bedrooms are wonderful. You'll be spoiled for any other resort, at least as far as the roominess goes. We do love the Villas at Wilderness Lodge ambiance and the MK area dining opportunities.

Jan