OKW Lovers Thread. Part 2

[southerngirl528]

We never book that category.

Me neither! I want as far away from HH as possible. I can hop on any bus going anywhere and the last stop is HH, so it's super easy to get to HH, regardless of where our villa is.

 

[bit413]

We used the Minnie Van service in January at OKW. They picked us up right outside our villa.

I am considering using a Minnie Van or Uber to just take us straight over to AKV in the morning when we want to check out. Can they come directly to our building or must they pick us up at the Hospitality House?

 

[mickey&minniealways]

Have never had trouble getting a ground floor room. Just tell them that you have someone in your party that can't do stairs. I don't have mobility issues but I do have a REAL phobia of heights and cannot do an open staircase.

 

[SheilaHeartsDisney]

Can anyone tell me if the turtle pond pool area is finished yet?

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Can anyone tell me if the turtle pond pool area is finished yet?

I checked out on June 24th and it was not.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

We used the Minnie Van service in January at OKW. They picked us up right outside our villa.

We used Uber multiple times last week and they picked us up in front of our villa each time.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

We had a great week at OKW (19th-24th). We had a fabulous ground floor one bedroom villa in building 64. I loved that we were able to stay in a unit that hadn’t been renovated yet, so we had one last stay in the “old” rooms.

We had two minor issues during our trip. One was our arrival night. At 11:00 PM, someone from housekeeping knocked, said “housekeeping,” and then keyed into our villa, scaring the crap out of my mom and sister who were sleeping on the pull out. Luckily we had the door bolted so he/she couldn’t come in all the way. Was this one of those security checks? At 11:00 at night?! The next day I stopped by the front desk and just let them know that we have small children with us and go to bed by 9 or 10. They apologized and said all room checks were to be done earlier and assured us it wouldn’t happen again.

Our other hiccup was 3 day later on Friday morning. There were extra magic hours at the magic kingdom, so we got to the hospitality house at 6:55 am for an 8 am opening. I’ve stayed at OKW many times at various times of year and I’ve never had trouble getting on a bus at the HH an hour before opening. I guess a lot of people had the same idea because at 7:55 we were still waiting for a bus and a large crowd had formed with us - a crowd that was getting angrier by the minute. After multiple people went to the front desk to let them know what was happening, by 8:00, a cast member came out to take room numbers at the same time a bus (with space) was finally arriving. We were given 3 bonus fast passes to be used at the magic kingdom that day with no restrictions. That was awesome, and honestly better than extra magic hours. My 4 year old got a couple bonus rides on mine train and was thrilled.

That afternoon we came home to a gift bag from OKW with two Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals and bunch of treats from the gift shop. It was my first experience with Disney handling a problem, and it was really nice, if not over the top. The question is, which “issue” was the gift bag in response to? Was it an “I’m sorry we tried to come into your room late and night and scared you” gift bag, or an “I’m sorry you missed extra magic hours” bag?

I’d love to send an email to the resort just thanking them for handling things in such a generous manner. Anyone know where I would direct such a comment?

 

[Nancyg56]

We had a great week at OKW (19th-24th). We had a fabulous ground floor one bedroom villa in building 64. I loved that we were able to stay in a unit that hadn’t been renovated yet, so we had one last stay in the “old” rooms.

We had two minor issues during our trip. One was our arrival night. At 11:00 PM, someone from housekeeping knocked, said “housekeeping,” and then keyed into our villa, scaring the crap out of my mom and sister who were sleeping on the pull out. Luckily we had the door bolted so he/she couldn’t come in all the way. Was this one of those security checks? At 11:00 at night?! The next day I stopped by the front desk and just let them know that we have small children with us and go to bed by 9 or 10. They apologized and said all room checks were to be done earlier and assured us it wouldn’t happen again.

Our other hiccup was 3 day later on Friday morning. There were extra magic hours at the magic kingdom, so we got to the hospitality house at 6:55 am for an 8 am opening. I’ve stayed at OKW many times at various times of year and I’ve never had trouble getting on a bus at the HH an hour before opening. I guess a lot of people had the same idea because at 7:55 we were still waiting for a bus and a large crowd had formed with us - a crowd that was getting angrier by the minute. After multiple people went to the front desk to let them know what was happening, by 8:00, a cast member came out to take room numbers at the same time a bus (with space) was finally arriving. We were given 3 bonus fast passes to be used at the magic kingdom that day with no restrictions. That was awesome, and honestly better than extra magic hours. My 4 year old got a couple bonus rides on mine train and was thrilled.

That afternoon we came home to a gift bag from OKW with two Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals and bunch of treats from the gift shop. It was my first experience with Disney handling a problem, and it was really nice, if not over the top. The question is, which “issue” was the gift bag in response to? Was it an “I’m sorry we tried to come into your room late and night and scared you” gift bag, or an “I’m sorry you missed extra magic hours” bag?

I’d love to send an email to the resort just thanking them for handling things in such a generous manner. Anyone know where I would direct such a comment?

wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

I always take some time to share my experiences with these folks. They will be sure to send your comments to the proper leadership team.

 

[MeridaMonkey]

I'm a new DVC member and I'm going to be running the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. I've currently got two of my 4 nights booked at my home resort (CCV) and the other two nights waitlisted, but I'm going to try to switch into a studio at OKW at the 7 month mark since I'll be traveling with a friend and we'd both like actual beds to sleep in.

Does the race transportation only pick up at the main building, or does it go around to the various bus pickups? Given that we'll be getting up and leaving for the starting line at a positively obscene hour, what would be the best building(s) to request our reservation be in?

I've never been to OKW so I'm flying blind

Thank you!!!

 

[Chuck S]

Honestly, I don't know about the race transportation. If it only picks up at the main building, you should probably be able to get a NEAR Hospitality House studio (it is a booking category) at OKW at 7 months. If not, then your next closest buildings will be 62, 63, 64, 15, 16, or 27, all a convenient walk to the main Hospitality House area.

 

[MeridaMonkey]

Honestly, I don't know about the race transportation. If it only picks up at the main building, you should probably be able to get a NEAR Hospitality House studio (it is a booking category) at OKW at 7 months. If not, then your next closest buildings will be 62, 63, 64, 15, 16, or 27, all a convenient walk to the main Hospitality House area.

Thank you!!!!

 

[southerngirl528]

Does the race transportation only pick up at the main building, or does it go around to the various bus pickups?

I am entirely unfamiliar with race day transportation, but I am betting that even if you are not close to HH they will either have internal buses running to bring you up to HH or some other good suggestion. Good luck!

 

[Deb & Bill]

I'm a new DVC member and I'm going to be running the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. I've currently got two of my 4 nights booked at my home resort (CCV) and the other two nights waitlisted, but I'm going to try to switch into a studio at OKW at the 7 month mark since I'll be traveling with a friend and we'd both like actual beds to sleep in.

Does the race transportation only pick up at the main building, or does it go around to the various bus pickups? Given that we'll be getting up and leaving for the starting line at a positively obscene hour, what would be the best building(s) to request our reservation be in?

I've never been to OKW so I'm flying blind

Thank you!!!

Race transportation only picks up at the Hospitality House. They are charter buses and not Disney buses so they don't know the route around the resort. Sometimes they don't even know the way to the race. My husband, son and a friend wound up headed to the airport instead of the race start line until they got the driver straightened out.

There are no internal buses at 3AM to pick up to go to the HH. You'll either need to get someone to drive you to the HH or walk there.

We've stayed at OKW many times for Run Disney events.

 

[southerngirl528]

Race transportation only picks up at the Hospitality House. They are charter buses and not Disney buses so they don't know the route around the resort. Sometimes they don't even know the way to the race. My husband, son and a friend wound up headed to the airport instead of the race start line until they got the driver straightened out.

There are no internal buses at 3AM to pick up to go to the HH. You'll either need to get someone to drive you to the HH or walk there.

We've stayed at OKW many times for Run Disney events.

Thanks for that, Deb & Bill! I knew the transportation for the race was not Disney, but am surprised you have to hike up to HH yourself as popular as the races are.

 

[MeridaMonkey]

Race transportation only picks up at the Hospitality House. They are charter buses and not Disney buses so they don't know the route around the resort. Sometimes they don't even know the way to the race. My husband, son and a friend wound up headed to the airport instead of the race start line until they got the driver straightened out.

There are no internal buses at 3AM to pick up to go to the HH. You'll either need to get someone to drive you to the HH or walk there.

We've stayed at OKW many times for Run Disney events.

Thanks for the info!! I've done two RunDisney races (2017 & 2018 Dark Side Half Marathon Weekends) and stayed on property both times so I am familiar with the race transportation. Both prior stays were at value resorts (ASMusic and AoA), which are much smaller so the walk to the bus was well under 10 minutes. I never had issues with race transportation, fortunately; each bus I took knew exactly where to go, and I rode them all OVER Disney property in 2017 (I was at ASMusic and I had family staying at Poly, and race weekend buses were quicker then the regular buses).

I'll be driving down to WDW in February, would I be able to drive myself up to HH for race transpo and leave my car there until the race bus brought me back? Or am I limited to parking my car only by the building that my room is located in?

Thanks again!! This is awesome info

 

[southerngirl528]

I'll be driving down to WDW in February, would I be able to drive myself up to HH for race transpo and leave my car there until the race bus brought me back?

I know of no problem for you to leave your car at HH for the morning race. Deb & Bill may know of something I'm not aware of.

 

[Chuck S]

There shouldn't be any problem leaving your car in the parking lot near the HH.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks for the info!! I've done two RunDisney races (2017 & 2018 Dark Side Half Marathon Weekends) and stayed on property both times so I am familiar with the race transportation. Both prior stays were at value resorts (ASMusic and AoA), which are much smaller so the walk to the bus was well under 10 minutes. I never had issues with race transportation, fortunately; each bus I took knew exactly where to go, and I rode them all OVER Disney property in 2017 (I was at ASMusic and I had family staying at Poly, and race weekend buses were quicker then the regular buses).

I'll be driving down to WDW in February, would I be able to drive myself up to HH for race transpo and leave my car there until the race bus brought me back? Or am I limited to parking my car only by the building that my room is located in?

Thanks again!! This is awesome info

At 3AM there should be plenty of empty spaces in the HH parking lot. Just don't park in the 30 minute spaces.

 

[sgtdisney]

Just wanted to mention to be aware that sometimes when you request a first floor room for mobility issues, it doesn't always work. On our recent trip we did mention the mobility issues. We were in a dedicated 2 bedroom, and didn't need a HA room, but we had some older parents who can walk fine, but the stairs can be a little difficult. Plus my wife hurt her ankle 2 months before, and was recovering and needed a ECV. I am not sure if it's because I did online check-in, but didn't choose any options, or just dumb luck but when we got the "room ready" text we were assigned a room in building 46 on the 2nd floor. We love building 46 but just couldn't do the stairs this year so we had to go into the lobby and ask to change rooms. They were very accommodating, but had to find us a first floor room. They did, but it wasn't cleaned so we had to wait for about 3 hours, which is fine we know that can happen.

The room, though appeared to be cleaned in a rush. We were missing a bunch of things, most importantly the bedding for the couch and chair in the Living room. Of course we didn't realize it until midnight when everyone wanted to go bed. We called Housekeeping and told them, and they were not paying attention. They came, over an hour later with blankets, no sheets, no pillows. We called again and they said they would send someone over right away with Pillows and sheets. We waited until 230AM and they still never came. Should have complained when we were there but didn't. Kids went to sleep on blankets and we had to share the extra pillows from the other beds. That wasn't the last issue with Housekeeping either. We had a 10 night stay, so when they came to do trash and towels on day 8 we were still in the room, it was maybe 1030 and a down day for us. I asked them to come back and they really, really acted like they didn't want to. I told them we really needed towels, etc., and she told me she would just give them to me now... Um, ok. Not sure if they are having issues with Housekeeping lately or not. This has NEVER happened to us in 25+ years of visits to OKW.

 

[mlnbabies]

We are thinking of staying here on points in 11-19. Will all of the rooms be updated by then? I'm not thrilled with most of the buildings being without elevators.