faline
02-25-2011, 11:17 AM
Weather: Temperatures were below normal for all of our trip though they were inching upwards by time we left. We began our trip with really chilly, cloudy, and damp weather. Although it stayed chilly for another day or so, the sun appeared and every subsequent day was sunny. Actually, I think we got a shower on our first day in the parks though we were indoors and only knew it had rained due to the wet pavement when we emerged from an attraction. By time the trip ended, the afternoons were quite warm though mornings and evenings were still on the chilly side.
Accommodations: This was my first stay as a DVC owner so this was a completely new experience for me. I was very excited, upon check-in, to pull out my DVC owner card! We had booked a dedicated two bedroom at Bay Lake Tower. We certainly had room to spare for our party of two. Still, it was nice to have the space – particularly the separate bedrooms which suited our different styles well. My daughter is one who needs a lot of preparation time. I spend less time on this so having our own bathrooms worked. Plus, since Carolyn wasn’t feeling well for part of the trip, having her own bedroom to go to worked. I especially enjoyed having the washer and dryer. The full size refrigerator with ice maker was also a plus. I didn’t realize I had an ice maker until I had made a trip down to the ice machine. It was then that I noticed I only needed to turn on the ice maker!!! By the end of the trip, it was overflowing with ice cubes!
I saw posted recently that the bathroom sliding doors do not have locks but they, in fact, do have locks. They are hard to find and it was a couple of days before I found them. One of my bathrooms at home has a pocket door. When open, there is a little section to press that flips out the handle you use to open the door. The locks look similar to this. Press the top and the bottom pops out which then prevents the door from sliding open.
Never having stayed DVC before, we weren’t familiar with exactly how the towel and trash service works. Well, I didn’t read the instructions left in the room. I knew we would receive trash and towel service on day 4. I clearly count days differently. We checked in late on Thursday. I was expecting trash and towel service on Monday. However, they count Thursday as day one so trash and towel service was on Sunday. Given that we had three bathrooms and a jetted tub, and only 2 people, we had plenty of bath towels. However, there weren’t all that many hand towels available. So, we washed and dried all the towels and bath mats and put them on the shelves in the laundry room on Saturday. On Sunday morning, the housekeeper knocked on the door and asked how long we would be there so she could do the towel and trash. She said she would come back in the afternoon. When we returned later that day, we found that all the towels had been replaced AND all the clean towels in the laundry room had been left right where they were. We had MORE than enough towels for the remainder of the trip!
Flaws in the accommodations: We had a lake view and we were placed in a unit on the 9th floor overlooking the pool with the lake beyond. I had no issue with the view. However, I like to sleep in a really dark room and the lights that were on all night in the courtyard left my room much lighter than I like for sleeping. Two safes (one in each bedroom) would have worked better. The toilet tissue holder in the master bedroom bathroom was broken – it looked like someone had tried to use it as a handle and had put too much weight down on it. My daughter reported that they need weights or magnets to hold the shower liners down. She said they tended to float up and touch her while she was in the shower. The master bath had a walk-in shower with a door that opens so I didn't deal with shower curtains.
What’s with the sliders between the master bedroom and the area with the sink and jetted tub? You can lock the door that leads into that area but someone can easily slide open the partition?
Parks: Busier than I expected them to be for the time of year we were there. Still, we managed to do what we wanted to accomplish while only rarely taking advantage of fast passes. There were still quite a number of tour groups there. The tour groups were a non-issue. Only once did I suggest we quicken our pace a little to get to a ride before a large group got there. On a couple of occasions, we found ourselves passing by a large group or a large group passing by us. If a member of that group happened to step in our way, the person was invariably polite and apologized.
There is a lot of construction going on the Magic Kingdom. I will be happy when it is done.
Scaffolding was up over the Tower of Terror and a large crane was there as well. The crane appeared to be right in front of one of the “openings”. I guess we chose the “best” side for our ride as we did not see the crane when our door opened.
Transportation: We had terrific luck with the buses and rarely had to wait for longer than a few minutes. For the most part, everyone on the buses and monorails were polite and were quick to offer seats to those who seemed to need them more.
The Trip: This trip was a long time coming. I enjoyed being able to spend time with my daughter and am glad we were able to create some fond memories. Not everything went perfectly but we were flexible and went with the flow. We had fun and I’m glad we went.
Accommodations: This was my first stay as a DVC owner so this was a completely new experience for me. I was very excited, upon check-in, to pull out my DVC owner card! We had booked a dedicated two bedroom at Bay Lake Tower. We certainly had room to spare for our party of two. Still, it was nice to have the space – particularly the separate bedrooms which suited our different styles well. My daughter is one who needs a lot of preparation time. I spend less time on this so having our own bathrooms worked. Plus, since Carolyn wasn’t feeling well for part of the trip, having her own bedroom to go to worked. I especially enjoyed having the washer and dryer. The full size refrigerator with ice maker was also a plus. I didn’t realize I had an ice maker until I had made a trip down to the ice machine. It was then that I noticed I only needed to turn on the ice maker!!! By the end of the trip, it was overflowing with ice cubes!
I saw posted recently that the bathroom sliding doors do not have locks but they, in fact, do have locks. They are hard to find and it was a couple of days before I found them. One of my bathrooms at home has a pocket door. When open, there is a little section to press that flips out the handle you use to open the door. The locks look similar to this. Press the top and the bottom pops out which then prevents the door from sliding open.
Never having stayed DVC before, we weren’t familiar with exactly how the towel and trash service works. Well, I didn’t read the instructions left in the room. I knew we would receive trash and towel service on day 4. I clearly count days differently. We checked in late on Thursday. I was expecting trash and towel service on Monday. However, they count Thursday as day one so trash and towel service was on Sunday. Given that we had three bathrooms and a jetted tub, and only 2 people, we had plenty of bath towels. However, there weren’t all that many hand towels available. So, we washed and dried all the towels and bath mats and put them on the shelves in the laundry room on Saturday. On Sunday morning, the housekeeper knocked on the door and asked how long we would be there so she could do the towel and trash. She said she would come back in the afternoon. When we returned later that day, we found that all the towels had been replaced AND all the clean towels in the laundry room had been left right where they were. We had MORE than enough towels for the remainder of the trip!
Flaws in the accommodations: We had a lake view and we were placed in a unit on the 9th floor overlooking the pool with the lake beyond. I had no issue with the view. However, I like to sleep in a really dark room and the lights that were on all night in the courtyard left my room much lighter than I like for sleeping. Two safes (one in each bedroom) would have worked better. The toilet tissue holder in the master bedroom bathroom was broken – it looked like someone had tried to use it as a handle and had put too much weight down on it. My daughter reported that they need weights or magnets to hold the shower liners down. She said they tended to float up and touch her while she was in the shower. The master bath had a walk-in shower with a door that opens so I didn't deal with shower curtains.
What’s with the sliders between the master bedroom and the area with the sink and jetted tub? You can lock the door that leads into that area but someone can easily slide open the partition?
Parks: Busier than I expected them to be for the time of year we were there. Still, we managed to do what we wanted to accomplish while only rarely taking advantage of fast passes. There were still quite a number of tour groups there. The tour groups were a non-issue. Only once did I suggest we quicken our pace a little to get to a ride before a large group got there. On a couple of occasions, we found ourselves passing by a large group or a large group passing by us. If a member of that group happened to step in our way, the person was invariably polite and apologized.
There is a lot of construction going on the Magic Kingdom. I will be happy when it is done.
Scaffolding was up over the Tower of Terror and a large crane was there as well. The crane appeared to be right in front of one of the “openings”. I guess we chose the “best” side for our ride as we did not see the crane when our door opened.
Transportation: We had terrific luck with the buses and rarely had to wait for longer than a few minutes. For the most part, everyone on the buses and monorails were polite and were quick to offer seats to those who seemed to need them more.
The Trip: This trip was a long time coming. I enjoyed being able to spend time with my daughter and am glad we were able to create some fond memories. Not everything went perfectly but we were flexible and went with the flow. We had fun and I’m glad we went.