The drive from the resort to the parking lots of the various parks was about 15 to 20 minutes. It does not seem very long because you are moving fairly quickly. The resort is basically laid out like a series of 2 story apartment/condo buildings with about 4 to 8 units per building. Bear with me I am doing this going back 6 vacations ago. I would suggest that the best way to get to Disney property is to go down 192 about 4 miles till you get to the 535 turn on your right. You take that for about 3 miles until it intersects with 536. You turn left onto 536 and you are on Disney property in about 2 1/2 miles coming into the Epcot area. You can then just follow all of the Disney signs to MGM, MK, and Epcot. You will be using the back entrance to MGM. This is much quicker than going down 192. To get to the AK you can go the same way and just follow the signs or while on 535 look for the Osceloa Pkwy (this is toll road, will cost you all of 50 cents and zip down this following the signs to the AK. This may sound complicated but trust me it is not. We know our way around the area quite well and moving about the roadway system surrounding WDW is fairly easy. 192 construction is over or it appears to be but there is really very little reason to travel all the way down 192 with all of its traffic lights. We only had 1 child when we were there (one was on the way) and he had just turned 2 and was about 26 months the second time. We went back and forth for his naps. We were right next to one of the pool gates on the ground floor on our September trip and were on the second floor right behind the kids water spray area for the December trip. The 2nd location was much quieter. We could hear the pool gate slamming up till about 11:00 pm and sometimes the volleyball games in the pool were a bit loud. The resort was much more crowded during our September stay because we were there over Labor Day weekend. Our second stay was in the first week of December, both in '99. The jacuzzi overlooks the lake and is in the center area of the pool. A baby monitor would still be okay if you were in a building near the pool. We didn't request anything in particular, just took what they gave us. We did not cook using the oven. There is one and there were utensils but I honestly don't remember the details. We used the fridge and microwave. The washer and dryer were most useful, also. My take on this property is that it was originally an condo community and became a timeshare property later. We found it to be a 7 or 8. It was in good repair. The grounds are fairly neat. We felt as though the units that we had were clean. My memory is that the sofa in the 1 bedroom makes a sofa and the bed in the unit is a king. Not sure of your sleeping set-up with DDs. Our son slept in his pack and play the time we drove and I think that the resort provided a crib for our September trip that we flew down for. We really enjoyed the pool area of this resort. It is also much better than having a 4 wall hotel room. We love the Disney moderates but we would stay here instead of a moderate in most instances. We own at the DVC and are used to nice accomodations. I think that you will find the extra room, the washer n dryer, the nice pool area and the fairly short trip to the parks, along with your excellent rate, a great bargain. You guys should have a very nice time at this resort. It is not the same as staying in a Disney resort with the bus service. But with EE gone, we stayed at OKW in October and really did miss it (EE) with our now 2 kids. I am rambling abit but feel free to ask anymore questions. One other thing, we enjoy dining off-site and staying away from Disney makes this much easier and helps keep dining costs down. We just returned from VV after a 10 night stay in late in January and it was also great.
