We are here Live Report

[Cyrano]

Reid Disney Report

Thursday 21 June
Had a day off work but the rest were at school and work.
We had a last minute change of plan and everyone finished at lunch-time
This allowed us to visit a sick uncle in the oncology ward.

We went out for a carvery supper and dropped off the car.

At 9.30pm I received a voicemail saying our Aberdeen - Paris flight had been cancelled.
Could not get anyone on the phone but the Air France agents were already on the task.
An email later told us that our Aberdeen - Paris - Orlando itinerary was now Aberdeen - Amsterdam - Detroit - Orlando.
After an initial OMG we enjoyed the bonus of Delta rather than Air France and Immigration at Detroit which was 20 mins rather than the scrum of Orlando.
The wi-fi connection at Old West West was extremely slow...could not even iMessage.

By the way OKW is just perfect. We are in building 62 which is across the road from Hospitality House. On-line checkin was a dream and we took 10 mins from arrival to heading to our home for the next 2 weeks.
We last until 9.30pm local time before hitting the hay. Given we had been up since 10.00pm Florida time on Wednesday we had lasted quite well.

Friday 22 June
First laugh of the holiday was we had set an alarm for 7.00am on Jack's iPod Touch.
I was thinking I had not slept long but was prodded by Diane to get up for a shower.
Then got dressed. It was then that Diane noticed on her watch that it was 2.00am.
Someone had not changed the time This kept the rest of the party in good humour throughout the day

After some further sleep and breakfast in the room we were off to EPCOT.
Lunch today was 4 CS in Sunshine Seasons. 2 Pork, Roast Chicken and Turkey/Ham salad.

We came back to the room later in the afternoon after a stop off at Walmart for wine, breakfast items, fruit juice and water. Listed in order of importance!

We took the ferry over to DTD and had supper at Earl of Sandwich. All the cookies, brownies etc were taken to go and will no doubt be added to throughout the week.

I phoned ICT support and the wi-fi has improved a little.

 

[stoneyloon]

Enjoy your holiday.

A bit of a pain with the flight but as a fellow NE DIS, I much prefer going through Amsterdam than Paris.......

 

[CAROLINE4]

Sounds like your holiday has got off to a great start once the flights were sorted! can't wait to hear more

 

[Samaya]

Good to hear that your cancelled Paris flight had a very positive outcome, just 20-minutes to get through immigration. When we landed back in February on the second Virgin flight of the day we had to stay seated for 15-minutes before they would let us off, first time that's ever happened to us. Immigration being backed up was their excuse and when we walked into the arrivals hall the queue (just one long line) was quiet depressing, we had landed at 5:15 and cleared customs at 7:10pm.

Staying close to Hospitality House is a real benefit, sounds like you've settled in (wine and all) and it's the start of a great holiday, best wishes for a wonderful time from a cold, windy and rainy UK.

 

[RDP]

Looking forward to the next instalment, hows the weather?

 

[irongirlof12]

Your food shop list is just like mine we loved OKW, glad you do

 

[gemmybear83]

Glad you finally got there! Keep on at Disney about the wifi connection, ours was fab at ssr last month.

Have your return flights changed as well?

 

[laura_<3]

Sounds like a great start

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[orangetiggs]

Looking forward to hearing more

 

[crabbie1]

Sounds great. We were in building 16 which I think is on the same side as urs but a bit further down. Still weird numbering.
We also had a 90 min wait through customs. The later va flight seems to be like this a lot.
Anyway a great start love a live TR. keeps our spirits up

 

[disneyholic family]

hey Reid!!! you visited my hometown!!! well the airport anyway...
i really like Detroit's airport - very easy to navigate...
and they don't get many international flights, so immigration/customs is usually very speedy...

i've flown that amsterdam-detroit route a lot - on northwest and now on delta...certainly much better than flying air chance..

so.....why are you in orlando and i'm not?????? didn't you have any room in your suitcase for me????

have a wonderful time!!! i know you will (loved the 2 am wakeup story!!!)

 

[wayneg]

Hope we get a good connection next month. Can you still pay for wired connection? I would rather pay $10/day for a faster connection than a slow WiFi connection.

Glad you like OKW and your location, we prefer being on Millers Rd and near the small pool, don't like the large main pool.

Look forward to next update.

 

[Tony Toon]

Great to hear you've arrived. Can't imagine how panicked I would have been after you got your first message that your original flight to Paris had been cancelled. Good outcome in the end though. We've done the Delta route via Amsterdam ourselves a few times and it's a good route. Great to hear you're enjoying OKW. We're due there ourselves a week on Wednesday. Must look into how to do the on line check-in - will ask for helpful hints if I can't work it out myself!

Thanks for the updates. Looking forward to your updates. Have a fantastic time.
Mrs TT

 

[catherine]

Have a magical trip! Thanks for posting, looking forward to hearing more from you!

 

[Samaya]

Sounds great. We were in building 16 which I think is on the same side as urs but a bit further down. Still weird numbering.
We also had a 90 min wait through customs. The later va flight seems to be like this a lot.
Anyway a great start love a live TR. keeps our spirits up

The weird numbering is down to buildings 62, 63 and 64 as being a late addition to OKW in 1999. When OKW opened in December 1991 it was the first of the Disney Vacation Club Resorts and I think was originally called the Disney Vacation Club Resort.

Where building 62 now sits once stood the original DVC sales centre called Commodore House and when the sales centre moved to BWV, Commodore House was torn down and buildings 62, 63 and 64 added, hence the weird numbering and also these 3-buildings are the only ones at OKW with elevators.

 

[zippy99]

Reid Disney Report

We came back to the room later in the afternoon after a stop off at Walmart for wine, breakfast items, fruit juice and water. Listed in order of importance!

Made me laugh - priorities right there!

Have a fab time! look forward to the updates.

 

[crabbie1]

The weird numbering is down to buildings 62, 63 and 64 as being a late addition to OKW in 1999. When OKW opened in December 1991 it was the first of the Disney Vacation Club Resorts and I think was originally called the Disney Vacation Club Resort.

Where building 62 now sits once stood the original DVC sales centre called Commodore House and when the sales centre moved to BWV, Commodore House was torn down and buildings 62, 63 and 64 added, hence the weird numbering and also these 3-buildings are the only ones at OKW with elevators.

Ah now I know. Thankyou. U ought to be the DVc guru. Uv answered all my questions and more. I'd like to stay this area again but when I booked it wasn't specific to HH. They had all gone. Do u know what buildings are classed as HH? Stayed in 25 as well tht was good location.

 

[dixonsontour]

Glad you made it safely, sounds like you got a great location.

Made me laugh about the 2am start.

On one of our first trips I woke with a start on day 1, looked at my watch and thought it was 9am. We showered and got ready..then opened the curtains and it was pitch black - it was 3am

Checked out (had only been in the hotel for a few hours) and got a head start on our drive down to Miami. Have never lived it down.

 

[Claire L]

Sounds like you had a good start after a quick change of flights! Hope you have a great time

 

[Samaya]

Ah now I know. Thankyou. U ought to be the DVc guru. Uv answered all my questions and more. I'd like to stay this area again but when I booked it wasn't specific to HH. They had all gone. Do u know what buildings are classed as HH? Stayed in 25 as well tht was good location.

Happy to help, thank you.

Back in 2008 a new category was added for DVC members so they could not only request but also guarantee a room in one of the buildings near to Hospitality House.

So your room could be in any one of buildings 11 to 14 and 23 to 26. Therefore members would normally fill those buildings first and so for a non-member to get one of those rooms, well they would be very lucky.

Usually buildings 62 to 64 are first set aside for use by guests with special needs, but again you could still be lucky and end up with a room there.

You just need to add to your reservation the building numbers you would like to be placed into and if your lucky you might well end up there.

You probably still have the map of OKW you received at check in but if not check it out at..... http://www.wdwinfo.com/resortmaps/okwmap.htm