Sorry about the "teaser" but unfortunately work sometimes gets in the way of vacation stuff
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First to try and answer the questions,
Rolo,
We were in building 6 on the 4th floor (the buildings are 5 stories tall). The units have paper towels, tissues, liquid dishsoap, dishwashing detergent, and soap for the bathrooms. The only thing that I can think of that most lodging places may have that VV did not provide was shampoo....we bring our own so that was no biggie. I also did not see any potholders but we just used the dishtowel folded over for the couple times that we used the oven. There were salt and pepper shakers but we just picked up some packets at Wendy's .
There are 2 pools and 2 large hot tubs. One pool is referred to as a quiet pool and it is a decent size pool. It is on an upper level away from the main pool. It has a about 8 or so large tent cabanna type things with tables and chairs inside each tent. They are really cool. The pool is a bit warmer than the main pool probably due to the smaller size. There are plenty of deck chairs around the pool. It is really a very peaceful setting.
The main pool is HUGE. It has a large zero entry area that goes up to a foot or so in depth before you come to a rope dividing that area from the remainder of the pool. In the middle of
this shallow area are about 2 dozen vertical spray thingies that is on a raised circle area for little ones or anybody else for that matter to jump around in. The remainder of the pool depth varies from 3 foot up to around 5 feet or so. There is a banking of rocks that have waterfalls dropping off into the pool in one area. Really pretty and very refreshing. There is a lane area for lap swimming of about 6 lanes wide. There is a large volleyball area in the pool, also. And with all that I have described, there is still tons of room for just messing around and not getting in anyone else's way. For those used to many of the Disney hotels, there is no slide. My 4 year old water bug didn't seem to mind but he loved the waterfalls splashing down on him. This pool is also heated and we swam everyday but one and felt that the temperature was more than adequate. Not to rub it in but our daytime highs were from 78 to 85 everyday with all but 3 days in the 80's. The evening temps never dropped below 60. We didn't have to take the kids "cold weather clothes" out of the drawers.
Tons of deck chairs and an endless supply of pool towels. There is pingpong table on the pool deck and, believe it or not, a decent billiards table.
As far as a preferred building, I am by no means an expert on this. We loved our building because we overlooked beautiful waterfalls on the manmade lake. The resort is very compact with all of the building arranged in elongated circle around the lakes or the pool area. We had a 2 minute walk to the pool but it was in sight of our unit. I felt like that our unit was about as good as you could get. I would opt for a higher unit just for the view and to eliminate ground noise. We did not request a particular floor or building. We had done an on-site visual of the 1 and 2 bedrooms of this resort back in October when we were staying at OKW on property. They just gave us the numbers of the units of the 2 models so we could take a look. When we saw the property, knowing that due to our stay being in January and therefore not that crowded we just decided to take our chances and it worked out fine for us.
Lorix2,
This resort is on the south end of International Drive. You turn left out of the property. You can go about 1 mile , hang a right onto Vineland, go about a 2 miles, this brings you out to 535 between the Landry's Seafood House and The Bahama Breeze restaurants. Hang a right onto 535, not even a 1/4 mile, turn left onto I-4 West. You don't even have to get out of the on ramp lane, it is about 3/4 mile till you exit bringing you on Disney property under the "Welcome to Disneyworld" sign in the area near to the Downtown Disney, MGM, Epcot resort area ramps. Trust me it is very simple. You can proceed to onward to the MK and AK. There are other ways to go also. I would say from the resort to the parking lots of MGM and Epcot are about 10 to 12 minutes. MK about 13 to 15 minutes. AK about 15 minutes. You go down one more exit on I-4 to get to AK. It was an exit that was built a few years ago specifically for AK, DIsney World of Sports, etc. I may have made this seem more difficult than necessary and my times might just be a bit too long. Trust me you are a very short trip away with very little traffic. We tend to drive to the parks even when we stay on-property and we had annual passes so our parking was complimentary on our trip. The trips to the parks were a breeze. You can also turn left onto International Drive and go down to it T's into 536 and go in that way. That is usually the way that we came back. It is also a breeze. We did not use the bus service but I could attempt to provide details if needed. It is complimentary for cash paying guests. There is a charge for "owners" or timeshare exchanges to use the bus service. It is nothing like Disney's service but what is?
We did hear the folks above us some, nothing major but when a jacuzzi tub is being filled above you with its jets late at night you will hear it no matter where you are staying. The master bedrooms are on the inside of the units away from the entry to the units. If I was afraid that I would have a problem I would request a top floor unit. We found the beds to be wonderfully comfortable. We both remarked that we did not even experience the normal first night hotel room sleeping adjustment.
The waterfalls on the lake were turned off at around 7 or so in the evening and turned back on at about 8 in the morning. We could not hear them when our patio door was closed, The rooms darkened quite well with the available window treatments.
We have 2 little boys-- 4 and 22 months. They had a blast. Our family vacations are such wonderful times. Being with them for 10 days is so wonderful. The older one is a water bug to the max. He loved the sprinklers and waterfall. The younger one roamed all over the shallow area. There is a jungle jim fenced-in area near the pool. It is anchored in sand. It is one of those multi-colored jobbies. We flew down so the we were unable to bring any large pool floats. There were rentals available at the pool and also some for sale. We usually found one floating that someone had rented and left for the day. We used it for a little while and moved on. THe rentals were about $5 a day and our pool stays were usually from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours (the shorter park hours of winter impact our stay times) so we felt that the $5 dollar charge was more than we wanted to pay. The floats were huge and we have fun when we did play on them. We took our 4 year old's life jacket in our luggage and I did not see any for rent similar to what is offered complimentary at the Disney pools. They may be available but I did not see them.
Hope this helps. I will post more on our overall impressions and experiences a little later as time permits. The spouse needs the computer.
