Just back from a week at OKW and BWV

[RoseGold]

We had a phone, but no way to get the front desk directly

You should have called security. 407/824-4777

 

[igrsod]

You should have called security. 407/824-4777

We may have called that. We called every possible number we could try initially.
Eventually when we did get to someone they said this had to be handled by 911.
Very extreme but that's what they said was protocol.

 

[Lyndylou]

OKW was our no1 resort from 1994 when we first purchased till 2017. We took our 7 kids every 2nd year for 3- 6 weeks in the summer (from Scotland)and the CMs in the rental / community hall always remembered them. That was so fun for them One guy was there for years and years He used to do a Donald duck impression and our kids loved him. We loved the ambience ,the pool, the boat rentals and the whole buzz. Last time we stayed was 2015 and we all felt that the resort had died somewhat. No rental. so no buzz about that area at all Our rooms were also a bit rundown. Having said that all our memories for those years are still awesome.

We changed to BWV in 2017 having stayed there for part of a previous stay and we all have fallen in love with it.went back in 2019 and had the best 4 weeks ever. Then covid arrived and stopped our planned 2020 trip 3 weeks before arrival We are going there for 4 weeks this July/August and here's my question . Is it still possible to walk into Epcot for dinner or do you have to book the park. In effect, do you have to book a park if you want to park hop in the afternoon ? And if yes can that be done on the day or has spontaneity completely gone?

 

[igrsod]

OKW was our no1 resort from 1994 when we first purchased till 2017. We took our 7 kids every 2nd year for 3- 6 weeks in the summer (from Scotland)and the CMs in the rental / community hall always remembered them. That was so fun for them One guy was there for years and years He used to do a Donald duck impression and our kids loved him. We loved the ambience ,the pool, the boat rentals and the whole buzz. Last time we stayed was 2015 and we all felt that the resort had died somewhat. No rental. so no buzz about that area at all Our rooms were also a bit rundown. Having said that all our memories for those years are still awesome.

We changed to BWV in 2017 having stayed there for part of a previous stay and we all have fallen in love with it.went back in 2019 and had the best 4 weeks ever. Then covid arrived and stopped our planned 2020 trip 3 weeks before arrival We are going there for 4 weeks this July/August and here's my question . Is it still possible to walk into Epcot for dinner or do you have to book the park. In effect, do you have to book a park if you want to park hop in the afternoon ? And if yes can that be done on the day or has spontaneity completely gone?

From what I understand, you have to have a park reservation to hop... it wouldn't need to be at Epcot. You could have a reservation at say AK for the day, and then after 2:00 you could go to Epcot. My understanding is that you must tap in at the park you have your earlier reservation in.

This park reservation system has squashed the spontaneity for sure. I roll my eyes a bit, as I remember the propaganda videos surrounding Genie/Genie+, saying that we the customers asked for less planning ahead and more spontaneity so that's why we now have Genie+, and yet here we are with the park reservation system and needing to plan where you want to go on each day of your trip and not being able to hop around whenever you want.

So you still can go to Epcot to dinner, just have to jump through some hoops first.

Enjoy your vacation. I'm sure it's going to be lovely. Even though things are different, it's still WDW.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Was the Fitness Center open at OKW?

OKW fitness center was open in October when we were there, so I don't think it would have shut down again.

 

[eandt]

We had a fun and adventurous week at WDW. Just got back home last night.
Just wanted to give a little bit of info from our trip.
1. Don't go out on your balcony at OKW without making sure the button isn't pushed in on the door knob.. as well don't put the lock across and the bolt on the front door unless sleeping. We got locked out on our balcony the first morning. It took a long time to get rescued because of all the locks they had to break through. What a great start to the vacation. Shout out to the staff at OKW... they were amazing. They set us up with Genie + for the day which more than made up for the time lost stuck on the balcony/ late start getting to the parks. This was a very long story with many twists in turns... made complicated by the fact that you can't actually call the front desk. We even were able to get a passerby to catch our magic band that we threw down to him to try and open our front door... this is when we learned that your magic band is useless when you have locks engaged lol. I hope they change this button lock. The manager said this happens all the time.
2. I couldn't believe how beautiful the OKW resort is, and how much fun the staff are. Really had a great time spending down time at the resort. It was our first time renting a car, and at this resort it was a great addition, as you can park right outside your room.
3. First stay at BWV, and there was a noticeable difference in the friendliness and helpfulness of the cast members here. Not nearly on the same level as OKW. Not sure why... just an observation. We had multiple issues with room charges, not enforcing mask policy in the common areas etc. While I wanted to really love this resort, it wasn't what I expected it to be. We did love the proximity to Epcot and HS, but we had to park a mile away from the hotel, which made the car inconvenient at times.
4. We loved mobile ordering and eating outdoors at OKW... you could choose from Olivia's to go or Goods Foods To Go.
5. BWV still had the individual bottles of toiletries, didn't expect that.
Our goal is to stay at every DVC resort on property... to date here is where we are ranked in order of how much we enjoyed the resort.

1. OKW
2. AKL
3. BC
4. BW
5. SSR
6. BLT

We are gonna try to stay at them all too eventually. We have stayed in studios/1br except for one time in a cash 2br. So far our rankings are:

1. Polynesian
2..Beach Club
3 Boardwalk
4 AK
5. SSR
6. CCV

 

[igrsod]

We are gonna try to stay at them all too eventually. We have stayed in studios/1br except for one time in a cash 2br. So far our rankings are:

1. Polynesian
2..Beach Club
3 Boardwalk
4 AK
5. SSR
6. CCV

We have a reservation at Poly this fall. Really looking forward to that.
What did you dislike about CCV?

 

[eandt]

We have a reservation at Poly this fall. Really looking forward to that.
What did you dislike about CCV?

Awesome, I think you will have a great time there! We didn't really dislike CCV, just didn't like it as much as the others.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We are gonna try to stay at them all too eventually. We have stayed in studios/1br except for one time in a cash 2br. So far our rankings are:

1. Polynesian
2..Beach Club
3 Boardwalk
4 AK
5. SSR
6. CCV

We have our first Poly stay in two weeks! We can't wait. We used to stay across the street at Shades of Green with my in-laws, so we spent A LOT of time at Poly...we just never actually stayed there. When we bought into DVC, Beach Club was the easy choice because that is our favorite resort and we wanted to make sure we locked up the 11 month window there. But I would be lying if I said we didn't heavily consider Poly, because that is easily our second favorite resort. If we bought a second contract it would definitely be Poly. BCV and Poly are our favorites. The next closest resort (to us) is a distant third.

 

[Pinnochio]

We have our first Poly stay in two weeks! We can't wait. We used to stay across the street at Shades of Green with my in-laws, so we spent A LOT of time at Poly...we just never actually stayed there. When we bought into DVC, Beach Club was the easy choice because that is our favorite resort and we wanted to make sure we locked up the 11 month window there. But I would be lying if I said we didn't heavily consider Poly, because that is easily our second favorite resort. If we bought a second contract it would definitely be Poly. BCV and Poly are our favorites. The next closest resort (to us) is a distant third.

I also own the BCV & love it and I also love everything about the Poly and stayed there in October......But...the room was a big turn off for my wife and i......when you walk into the room it's a long narrow corridor with two bathrooms to your left...after the baths you had your bed area.....this area seemed so small since the two baths took up about 50% of the rooms sq ft.....
This was however our only complaint about the resort as the rest was truly special....hope you enjoy....

 

[Her Dotness]

We are going there for 4 weeks this July/August and here's my question . Is it still possible to walk into Epcot for dinner or do you have to book the park. In effect, do you have to book a park if you want to park hop in the afternoon ? And if yes can that be done on the day or has spontaneity completely gone?

Yes, you must have a park reservation, check in at that park first, and only then can you park hop after 2:00 p.m. You literally can bop through the entry point, make an immediate u-turn, and leave your park-of-the-day to have activated the park reservation. You're then eligible to enter any other park after 2:00 p.m. if available. Or, return to your first park any time that day.

You could try day-of to get a park ressie but easily might not succeed depending on how busy it all is then. (Haven't been there then so can't say.) This is Disney's tool for limiting park capacity. And yes, it's a spontaneity assassin.

So, let's say you planned a resort-only day but wanted dinner in Epcot's WS. You would have to have a park reservation for Epcot to get in for dinner.

It's really annoying, IMO. We always loved going wherever, whenever with the PH.

What stinks is that we had to make several lunch ADRs in resorts because we don't want to eat lunch as late as 2:00.

We concluded we probably won't get the PH again.