A newbie Treehouse experience.............

[bom_noite]

Short Version: Six day stay the week before the storm came. We really liked it!

Our situation:

• We are OKW members and my wife loves it there.
• We originally had a OKW GV and friends and family members started dropping out.
• I found we could get 6 nights in a Treehouse for only a few more points more then our original 5 day OKW GV ressie.
• Finally we wounded up with 4 adults and our 7 month Granddaughter.
• Living in Atlanta - we took two cars down.
• I started having a problem with my legs which came-up the week before we left. Working with the DR. on that now. But, was having problems I had to bear down and get scooters at the parks.

The Good:

• We found the room very, very clean. I watched the Mousekeepers and that has to be a tough resort to work.
• The decor was really nice. The lighting was way cool.
• The deck was great.
• Plenty of privacy.
• Kitchen was very nice.
• I napped a few times in the Bunk Beds (lower berth - LOL!) - quite comfy.
• I tend to spend lots of time on the deck and I can tell you the internal bus ran constantly - I saw they went about every 15 minutes from 6 AM to 2 AM (and am certain they adjust depending upon park hours and special events).
• The best TV's I have ever seen in any hotel or resort. They were huge.
• My SIL is a work-out dude and liked the idea he could jog to the Spa before and after his workout.
• Local pool was nice. Of course my granddaughter loved the baby area up at the main pool.
• An extremely chill atmosphere. All of the folks around us were fantastic. As I was having my coffee on the deck I saw many families venturing to the parks. Everyone would say Good Morning. They did the same at the end of the day when they walked home. While secluded, you could always here kids playing in the distance.
• The folks next to us brought bikes and rode up to the main SSR area every morning for coffee - they would stop and chat each day. One morning I told them we had a bag of Duncan Donuts coffee - why not come up and enjoy it with us. Which they did. Turns out they lived 5 miles from us - so we had a nice chat.
  
• I would call this the most family friendly resort I have seen at WDW.

The Not so Bad (as I do not want to bring this resort down! anything below should be viewed as minor minor issues):

• The parking was not an issue for us. As you may know you only are allowed to park one car at your unit - all others must be parked at SSR. We talked to a friend of my son's who worked as a College Program front desk host at SSR and she told us "It is not like anyone is monitoring it! - if it get's busy you should honor it. But, if it is not busy there is no issue". All week long there were 4 to 5 open parking slots. It made our life easier. We kept it to 2 cars - we had multiple visitors and we told them to park over at SSR and went and picked them up.
• I guess I found the entire unit a bit smaller then I imagined. It was totally fine for 4 of us and a baby for certain. On the last night we added my son and my daughters friend (who were all sleeping over). In addition two of my sons friends who live in Orland and were hanging out for the night. Then it gets a bit tight on room. My take on it - it can certainly accommodate 8, but, you have to gauge that on the 8 coming. Only two bathrooms / showers, bunk beds make it difficult - imho. If you are bringing younger kids - they need room to play and there is not alot of it.
• The Bunk Bed room is very small and not very adult friendly. They have this huge TV but difficult to watch from the beds. No desk, no chairs.
• I had no idea the Villa's were like 83 feet up there - ok 20 feet? It was difficult due to my legs to make it up those stairs 3 or 4 times a day. Luckily my SIL was there who could do the heavy lifting. I understand they have Handicap rooms - I just had no idea I needed one.
• To add to that - some of the Villa's are 100 feet from the parking area. That coupled with the stairs and the weaker will have an issue. I am certain SSR Bell staff can help out there - we did not check.
• Goofy, but, one afternoon my wife and I were out on the deck and I had a drink with ice and it was shaking. I asked her 'am I shaking?" she responded - it appears so. We went back inside and I was still shaking. Then the drier stopped.
• Our area was equal distance to both Bus Stops there are no sidewalks from the villa. I noticed how the Bus drivers really make a point of taking it slow in these areas. Cars - not so much. So, I would recommend supervision for kids on this section of road - especially at night.
• We tend to eat in the room allot. Even with 4 adults we had to run the Dishwasher every night - just not enough plates, glasses. Paper plates and plastic cups / utensils would have helped.

Synopsis: In the end my wife / daughter / sil asked ourselves: Would you come back? We all said - ABSOLUTELY! We enjoyed our stay.

We find ourselves in a Points hole and will probably opt out or go small in 17. While THV will not be our go to resort, but, in the upcoming years and depending on the family demands we will never rule out the THV and probably will go back within the next 3 years. I would not have told you that would have been an option 4 weeks ago.

I was honest with my observations - but please do not read too much in to anything you feel could be construed as a negative comment. I feel anything which could be construed as negative were extremely minor and have a simple work-around.

Viva THV!