Whirlwind OKW Trip Report

BigredNole

DIS Veteran
Joined
Aug 17, 2007
We returned last night from a week stay at OKW. We had a ton of fun considering. I will detail all that went on and what put a massive damper on the trip as well.

First, lets get the ABSOLUTE WORST PART OF A WDW VACATION...the 100% broken bus transportation system. I will be escalating this issue through complaints until I get someone in charge again. This is the reason we stopped flying down and ultimately the reason we stay offsite. In 6 years nothing has changed. From room door to park entry, we spent over 20 hours in a week vacation through transportation. When you consider that to "waking hours", that is 1.25 days of a 7 day trip. Below is a door to park entry comparison for offsite with a car vs OKW w/ buses

Note: These are averaged commute times. This was based off our 2-week offsite stay over the Summer vs this past week at OKW.

MK: Offsite 45 minutes; OKW 65 minutes
Epcot: Offsite 18 minutes; OKW 50 minutes (we had 2 waits of 75 minutes)
AK: Offiste 17 minutes; OKW 36 minutes
DHS: Offsite 12 minutes; OKW 32 minutes

It is absolutely atrocious the amount of money they charge to make you wait on their transportation. When you complain to the Bell desk the amount of time waiting, they say "One will be here shortly". Nothing is worse than a canned answer. The answer should be: "I'm sorry the wait has exceeded or estimates. I am calling the dispatch center to have a bus immediately dispatched or altered." While waiting at the Hospitality House at the 60 minute mark after about 10 families complained about the wait, they said they could not provide vouchers for taxis for everyone. At this time 3, yes 3, buses were queued at the Hospitality House with NOT ONE PERSON on any of them for Disney Springs. They could have easily stopped one, talked to the driver, gotten with Dispatch, and altered the destination of that bus to Epcot. Nope, they could not do that. They asked us to see who deserves a taxi the most. Really!?!?!?! You want your guests to discuss among themselves who deserves a taxi voucher more than the other one? No!!! Dispatch a fleet of Minnie Taxis to handle the situation. There were 5 of them sitting right there in the parking lot to begin with.

Some people may not care for how much time of their life someone else wastes, but it does to me. 20 hours at WDW is about $250 per person between resort, tickets, and everything else. I know how much of my disposable income a Disney vacation takes and it is no small amount. To have almost 15% of it thrown away by Disney is ridiculous.
 
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With my major rant done with, lets get on with the positives. Taking out the main issue, the vacation was incredible. Disney over Xmas time is great. The decorations, lights, atmosphere, and actually CHRISTMAS. None of the Happy Holidays stuff. Plain old Christmas. They did not ignore the other observances either. It was just not as overly done. I liked being wished Merry Christmas for a change.

Let me backtrack a little to Day 0 and a few prior. DD had been running distance at school for gym, soccer, practices, and games leading up til we left. The night before, she had a game, took an awkward step, and came up lame. She toughed it out, but there was something wrong. It was definitely sore, but did not appear to be a torn ligament, at least we hoped. Ice, wrap, and a little rest most of the leaving day helped.

Day 1: We arrive at OKW and start our trip at AK to go to FoP. Excellent as always. Meander around the park using FPs and Standby for the rides we wanted to see. Everything was great. We stop for lunch at Flame Tree BBQ and DD starts to complain her knee really hurts. She is able to make it back to the buses and eventually to our room. We ice it down and it is still very sore. I head to the Hospitality House to see if they sell ace bandages. Unfortunately, they don't. They do carry the self adhesive athletic wrap, but that is only good once and has no real support. Wait for the internal shuttle (yes, another very long wait) and finally get back to the room. We get Uber and off to a drugstore to get a ace bandages and a knee brace. So much for saving time and money with grocery delivery. Had to run out anyway.

Day 2: We head to MK for the morning and night. We go to the rental station to inquire about a wheelchair. I am sure it may have been less elsewhere, but not dealing with the hassle. $10/day was worth it. I had to wheel DD around the entire week. She was fine walking short distances, but nowhere near Disney distances. A wheelchair is an interesting beast at WDW. The front is an ankle biter and looks you get from idiots that push their way in front of one then stop is a funny thing. We enjoy MK all morning and head back to OKW for the afternoon pool activities. Being in a pool and taking pressure off her knee can only help. It was a lot of fun for her. After 3 hours at the pool, it is time to head back to MK for our FPs and finally see the knew Castle show. People are occupying spots for the fireworks at 5PM already. This is 4 hours before the show starts. I talk to a CM that had finished taping the wheelchair section. She put the wheelchair in the section, taped it off, and told us to enjoy our FPs and our little spot would be reserved. Wow!!! We didn't have to sit there and she sure enough put us right back in that little spot. I showed her we had FPs for 5:30, 6:30, and 8:15. At 8:30 we were right where she said we would be.

All I can say is the HEA show is excellent. I still think Wishes was better, but this is a solid replacement. DD was tired after and we were not going to make it late at night. We go with the flow out to the buses. All I will say here is another long bus wait. Not because there were a ton of people, just because there must be something with my Magicband at WDW that says do not dispatch a bus to this person.
 
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We returned last night from a week stay at OKW. We had a ton of fun considering. I will detail all that went on and what put a massive damper on the trip as well.

First, lets get the ABSOLUTE WORST PART OF A WDW VACATION...the 100% broken bus transportation system. I will be escalating this issue through complaints until I get someone in charge again. This is the reason we stopped flying down and ultimately the reason we stay offsite. In 6 years nothing has changed. From room door to park entry, we spent over 20 hours in a week vacation through transportation. When you consider that to "waking hours", that is 1.25 days of a 7 day trip. Below is a door to park entry comparison for offsite with a car vs OKW w/ buses

Note: These are averaged commute times. This was based off our 2-week offsite stay over the Summer vs this past week at OKW.

MK: Offsite 45 minutes; OKW 65 minutes
Epcot: Offsite 18 minutes; OKW 50 minutes (we had 2 waits of 75 minutes)
AK: Offiste 17 minutes; OKW 36 minutes
DHS: Offsite 12 minutes; OKW 32 minutes

It is absolutely atrocious the amount of money they charge to make you wait on their transportation. When you complain to the Bell desk the amount of time waiting, they say "One will be here shortly". Nothing is worse than a canned answer. The answer should be: "I'm sorry the wait has exceeded or estimates. I am calling the dispatch center to have a bus immediately dispatched or altered." While waiting at the Hospitality House at the 60 minute mark after about 10 families complained about the wait, they said they could not provide vouchers for taxis for everyone. At this time 3, yes 3, buses were queued at the Hospitality House with NOT ONE PERSON on any of them for Disney Springs. They could have easily stopped one, talked to the driver, gotten with Dispatch, and altered the destination of that bus to Epcot. Nope, they could not do that. They asked us to see who deserves a taxi the most. Really!?!?!?! You want your guests to discuss among themselves who deserves a taxi voucher more than the other one? No!!! Dispatch a fleet of Minnie Taxis to handle the situation. There were 5 of them sitting right there in the parking lot to begin with.

Some people may not care for how much time of their life someone else wastes, but it does to me. 20 hours at WDW is about $250 per person between resort, tickets, and everything else. I know how much of my disposable income a Disney vacation takes and it is no small amount. To have almost 15% of it thrown away by Disney is ridiculous.
 


We were also at OKW this past week. My biggest complaint was the buses. But, it sounds like you had it better than us! We had several waits from park to resort that were over an hour. We ended up using Minnie Van several times, after long waits. It is frustrating waiting to go home from a resort, and watching the 3rd or 4th bus come for the other resorts around you---while the OKW people just waited and watched.
 
Yes, the buses were insanely horrible. The worst was going from the Hospitality House to Epcot. After talking to Bell Services and then the front desk with nothing happening, they did offer a taxi. The problem was the time that finally showed up was the same time a taxi would get there. What's worse is that we missed our FP times (twice) because of it. When we got to Mission Space, finally, they said we had to go to Guest Relations. Off we trekked to Guest Relations and they made an update and we trekked back to get on. Then, we missed Test Track which we talked about at Guest Services also and they were suppose to fix that one. Nope. Off to Guest Relations, get it fixed with the nice and apologetic CM again and then trek back to TT. Believe me, if you could draw a line on acceptable wait times, then take a couple giant leaps to the its way too long line, Disney overstepped even that one by about 10 miles.
 
Yes, the buses were insanely horrible. The worst was going from the Hospitality House to Epcot. After talking to Bell Services and then the front desk with nothing happening, they did offer a taxi. The problem was the time that finally showed up was the same time a taxi would get there. What's worse is that we missed our FP times (twice) because of it. When we got to Mission Space, finally, they said we had to go to Guest Relations. Off we trekked to Guest Relations and they made an update and we trekked back to get on. Then, we missed Test Track which we talked about at Guest Services also and they were suppose to fix that one. Nope. Off to Guest Relations, get it fixed with the nice and apologetic CM again and then trek back to TT. Believe me, if you could draw a line on acceptable wait times, then take a couple giant leaps to the its way too long line, Disney overstepped even that one by about 10 miles.

I agree with you on the busses 100%.

Our last stay at Poly we waited an hour for a bus to HS. Unacceptable.

We decided at that point internal transportation was not going to be used as a "perk" of on site stays anymore.

Our last visit was offsite, and our future ones will be too. If I'm going to drive, might as well save money while doing it!
 


Our last visit was offsite, and our future ones will be too. If I'm going to drive, might as well save money while doing it!
Exactly. When transportation is a "perk", it should be better than the alternatives. Even if you don't drive, Uber is still cheaper. We will only be staying offsite. I just couldn't pass up the $700 for 7-nights deal at OKW. With transportation gone, the only real perk is 30-day FP window. With APs, that is easily managed with a throw-away campsite. Book the campsite during your stay and you can enjoy EMH on those 2 days as well. It gives you the 60-day window for FPs for all 7 days with an AP. The AP + 14-day trip was the same as 6-nights and passes for Pop Century. I'll take the 2-weeks and APs any day. Plus, the staff at the 2 resorts we stayed at were at worst as good as the staff at Disney. In fact, most of them were better than Disney and bend over backwards like the use to at Disney.
 
Exactly. When transportation is a "perk", it should be better than the alternatives. Even if you don't drive, Uber is still cheaper. We will only be staying offsite. I just couldn't pass up the $700 for 7-nights deal at OKW. With transportation gone, the only real perk is 30-day FP window. With APs, that is easily managed with a throw-away campsite. Book the campsite during your stay and you can enjoy EMH on those 2 days as well. It gives you the 60-day window for FPs for all 7 days with an AP. The AP + 14-day trip was the same as 6-nights and passes for Pop Century. I'll take the 2-weeks and APs any day. Plus, the staff at the 2 resorts we stayed at were at worst as good as the staff at Disney. In fact, most of them were better than Disney and bend over backwards like the use to at Disney.

We just got back from a long weekend stay at Universal's Royal Pacific Resort. I was comparing it to the Poly, since they have a similar theme. But for a 1/3 of the cost, RPR was 3 times better! The service was amazing and they offer a much better resort experience, IMO. WDW hotels are slipping. It makes you wonder if one day they will go 80% DVC or something crazy like that.

I'd much rather book a $80 throwaway campsite, since I have AP's, and stay at the RPR than stay on site at WDW.
 

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