DebIreland
ಠvಠ
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
We're almost certainly joining DVC next year and I'm very interested in OKW as one of our contracts so I was reading lots of reviews on it and came across this doozie on Trip Advisor. It's not just about OKW but all things Disney! (Apologies if I'm not allowed to post extracts from other websites. I couldn't resist). Hope you laugh as much as I did. (Of course the humour was unintentional - I just can't get over what a whiney person this reviewer is! But mostly, I can't imagine how horrible it was for the DVCers kind enough to put her up for FREE!)... I've emboldened the parts I particularly enjoyed. 
[My own comments are in red italics]
--------------------------------------------------------
"We stayed in a Grand Villa with family who were Disney Vacation Club members.
First the property: The Villa was nice, but nothing more. I would not have paid $400 plus per night in a million years. I would pay maybe $200 per night.
The Grand Villa was on the second floor. There are no elevators so if you have handicapped people they are out of luck. Likewise, heavy luggage is a burden.
The room was not clean by any standard. The floor to out bathroom was sticky and when I walked across my feet were black. The kitchen was also very dirty.
The check in was long and irritating and the staff at the customer services desk were rude and impatient. We were trying to ask questions and the girl waiting on us was clearly irritated.
The resort is big and spread out and nothing was easy to get to, so be prepared to walk to everything. Not my idea of fun. It was only okay. I didn't pay to stay there so I would not have complained. [That's good of her, eh?] But they don't treat their club members very well.
The first day we were there they DVC sales people called to say "welcome home" and by they way, now is the time to upgrade your points.... so in other words, even though you paid about $15,000 to be a member we are going to interrupt your vacation to try to deliver yet another sales pitch. Not for me. [Do DVC sales staff really call to your room asking you to upgrade your membership??]
Fulton's -- Great service, average food, outrageous prices. Go someplace else and pay way less, it was not worth it.
Ragland Road -- We got a free meal out of the deal because the staff was very rude to us and they seated us near a wedding party that kept dancing into our table in the middle of our meal. [
] Since we did not get the actual bill, I can't say if it was overpriced. [But you can tell she's just dying to say that!! 
] But service was terrible. Skip it and go off property instead.
Earl of Sandwhich, was terrible. Skip it. I got sick.
Ohana's -- Overpriced, the meat was dry and overcooked, wait staff was very rude. Took me an entire meal to get one glass of water and never got a refill on my coke. My husband literally went to the bar and bought a drink there to have with his meal. So the Disney places were a bomb in my opinion. We went up to International Drive for a meal at that Ming Court and the food was perfect and the prices were half of Disney's overpriced places. There was not as much of a crowd and they treated us better than we got at any Disney place. Also, there are so many places up there to eat that you literally could go there every night and pick a different place. You can get reservations through opentable.com at most of the resturants up there.
The Parks: I hated Magic Kingdom [what??
] and if you were considering breakfest at Cinderella's Castle, skip it. The meal was terrible and the interaction with characters was very limited. We went to Animal Kingdom. That was nice but they do a horrible job with line managment.
We went to Universal and had a great day at the parks. I'd prefer these to the Disney Parks without a doubt. We had a great dinner at Bubba Gumps on City Walk and the prices and service were great. We did have a non-family member of our party start something with the people at the next table, which was unfortunate, because nobody in our group even wanted to be with this person as she was drunk, rude and obnoxious. But, the staff handled the delicate situation nicely and so even though they had every right to ask us to leave, they made the meal pleasant anyway. [The magic of Universal - allowing drunk troublemakers to stay. Meanie Disney would never do that.]
We flew Airtran. I didn't care for them and will never fly that airline again. They mixed up the seats, althought I'm not sure if our group coordinator didn't do that on her own, but in the end there was a lot of confusion and we almost got split up. In addition, they ruined my husband's suitcase and would take no responsibility for doing so.
Finally, we rented from Alamo at MCO and they did provide a very reasonable rate and a very nice car. [thank the Lord, something positive happened]
So in short if you can stay off property you'd be better off with a marriott or hilton. If you want less expensive go with a comfort Inn. Don't spend money on Old Key West, not worth it. Eat off property to save money and get better meal quality and table service. Do Universal if possible. Plan to stand in horrible lines in the Disney parks. [No lines at all in Universal?!! Sure!]
Two other things. Most of our group bought the meal plan and it was not worth it. They all ate exclusively on Disney property and on the last day they were scrambeling to spend counterservice and table service meals galore. They took home 16 sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich. [Even though it made the reviewer sick. lol!] We didn't buy and probably spent half as much as the cost of the plan on eating. The plan does not include beverages other than soft drinks and that's what the most expensive part of our meal was anyway. They lock you into their resturants and the counter serivce places have the same three options, chicken tenders, greasy cheesburger or hot dog. Not worth the value.
Also, avoid the Wishes Cruise. It was cold, mosquito's bit, it took way too long, and the girl driving our boat did nothing but complain about Disney and tell us how she "make's up" stuff to tell the tourists just to have something to say but most of her stories are not true anyway. What a waste. [Yeah, right
]"
[My own comments are in red italics]--------------------------------------------------------
"We stayed in a Grand Villa with family who were Disney Vacation Club members.
First the property: The Villa was nice, but nothing more. I would not have paid $400 plus per night in a million years. I would pay maybe $200 per night.
The Grand Villa was on the second floor. There are no elevators so if you have handicapped people they are out of luck. Likewise, heavy luggage is a burden.
The room was not clean by any standard. The floor to out bathroom was sticky and when I walked across my feet were black. The kitchen was also very dirty.
The check in was long and irritating and the staff at the customer services desk were rude and impatient. We were trying to ask questions and the girl waiting on us was clearly irritated.
The resort is big and spread out and nothing was easy to get to, so be prepared to walk to everything. Not my idea of fun. It was only okay. I didn't pay to stay there so I would not have complained. [That's good of her, eh?] But they don't treat their club members very well.
The first day we were there they DVC sales people called to say "welcome home" and by they way, now is the time to upgrade your points.... so in other words, even though you paid about $15,000 to be a member we are going to interrupt your vacation to try to deliver yet another sales pitch. Not for me. [Do DVC sales staff really call to your room asking you to upgrade your membership??]
Fulton's -- Great service, average food, outrageous prices. Go someplace else and pay way less, it was not worth it.
Ragland Road -- We got a free meal out of the deal because the staff was very rude to us and they seated us near a wedding party that kept dancing into our table in the middle of our meal. [
] Since we did not get the actual bill, I can't say if it was overpriced. [But you can tell she's just dying to say that!! ] But service was terrible. Skip it and go off property instead. Earl of Sandwhich, was terrible. Skip it. I got sick.
Ohana's -- Overpriced, the meat was dry and overcooked, wait staff was very rude. Took me an entire meal to get one glass of water and never got a refill on my coke. My husband literally went to the bar and bought a drink there to have with his meal. So the Disney places were a bomb in my opinion. We went up to International Drive for a meal at that Ming Court and the food was perfect and the prices were half of Disney's overpriced places. There was not as much of a crowd and they treated us better than we got at any Disney place. Also, there are so many places up there to eat that you literally could go there every night and pick a different place. You can get reservations through opentable.com at most of the resturants up there.
The Parks: I hated Magic Kingdom [what??
] and if you were considering breakfest at Cinderella's Castle, skip it. The meal was terrible and the interaction with characters was very limited. We went to Animal Kingdom. That was nice but they do a horrible job with line managment. We went to Universal and had a great day at the parks. I'd prefer these to the Disney Parks without a doubt. We had a great dinner at Bubba Gumps on City Walk and the prices and service were great. We did have a non-family member of our party start something with the people at the next table, which was unfortunate, because nobody in our group even wanted to be with this person as she was drunk, rude and obnoxious. But, the staff handled the delicate situation nicely and so even though they had every right to ask us to leave, they made the meal pleasant anyway. [The magic of Universal - allowing drunk troublemakers to stay. Meanie Disney would never do that.]
We flew Airtran. I didn't care for them and will never fly that airline again. They mixed up the seats, althought I'm not sure if our group coordinator didn't do that on her own, but in the end there was a lot of confusion and we almost got split up. In addition, they ruined my husband's suitcase and would take no responsibility for doing so.
Finally, we rented from Alamo at MCO and they did provide a very reasonable rate and a very nice car. [thank the Lord, something positive happened
]So in short if you can stay off property you'd be better off with a marriott or hilton. If you want less expensive go with a comfort Inn. Don't spend money on Old Key West, not worth it. Eat off property to save money and get better meal quality and table service. Do Universal if possible. Plan to stand in horrible lines in the Disney parks. [No lines at all in Universal?!! Sure!]
Two other things. Most of our group bought the meal plan and it was not worth it. They all ate exclusively on Disney property and on the last day they were scrambeling to spend counterservice and table service meals galore. They took home 16 sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich. [Even though it made the reviewer sick. lol!] We didn't buy and probably spent half as much as the cost of the plan on eating. The plan does not include beverages other than soft drinks and that's what the most expensive part of our meal was anyway. They lock you into their resturants and the counter serivce places have the same three options, chicken tenders, greasy cheesburger or hot dog. Not worth the value.
Also, avoid the Wishes Cruise. It was cold, mosquito's bit, it took way too long, and the girl driving our boat did nothing but complain about Disney and tell us how she "make's up" stuff to tell the tourists just to have something to say but most of her stories are not true anyway. What a waste. [Yeah, right
]"
your editing job! 
