Don't wanna stay there anymore

[Anthony1971]

The only resort we have not been back to is BLT. we liked CR before we bouts DVC (over 20 years) But BLT was more like an apartment complex.
SSR has grown on us. The bus stops are just so close to the rooms and there is always a close pool most with food and a Drink station. Yes depending on where the internal bus loop can feel long one way or the other but the convenience of everything else more than makes up for it.
GF while I am not a fan of the resort itself the food we are.... We much prefer the Poly and WL either side is fine.
BW/BC is love hate.... Love being able to walk to EPCOT and HS - we are people who like to walk- there is just little other appeal to the area and everything else is boarder line inconvenient.
AKL have not stayed in a while but stayed no less than 7 times all at Jambo except one trip. Would like to go back but reading this makes me wonder is something changed. OKW is another we have not stayed it looong time but also enjoyed when we did stay there.
RIV we just have no desire to stay there visited the resort 4-5 times I guess it reminds of the feelings of BLT although CR has an amazing lobby and RIV just does not. Although I would greatly enjoy the Pancakes at the QS at the RIV a few or more mornings.

 

[Girlstar30]

TV's are both good size for the living room and the actual bedroom. In the future I don't think the TV's in the living rooms of OKW, VH and HHI can get much bigger though. The living room tv's are built into island of the kitchen.

The studios/2nd bedroom have the TV mounted to an angled wall above the dresser that is just past the second closet (dedicated) or outside door (studio/lock-off).

As far as awkward layouts it won't really affect you since you are only 2 but the 1 bedroom / 2 bedroom bathroom situation is interesting.

Some units the people sleeping in the living room have to enter through the bedroom to access it, while other units you can enter through the laundry room so you don't disturb the folks in the bedroom.

That would be really annoying if people had to enter the bedroom to use the bathroom

 

[eticketplease]

Maybe it’s because we had just been at the Caribbean Beach pool the day before but it just felt a little lackluster/boring to me. It was just a first impression though. Maybe if we stayed there I would feel differently. (I can forgive BLT of the lackluster pool because of the proximity to MK.)

I think that is pretty accurate. The feature pool is just blah imo as well at RIV

 

[cvjw]

After spending 5 nights in a 2 bedroom Savannah view at Kidani a couple weeks ago, we won’t ever stay there again. The buses were just too bad. We wasted so much time waiting for buses and then the long bus ride back to Kidani from everywhere but AK.

 

[Girlstar30]

After spending 5 nights in a 2 bedroom Savannah view at Kidani a couple weeks ago, we won’t ever stay there again. The buses were just too bad. We wasted so much time waiting for buses and then the long bus ride back to Kidani from everywhere but AK.

Were they long at night or during the day or both? We were super late to our DS dining reservation at night from Kidani. The DS bus never came and the front desk manager was gracious enough to order us an Uber free of cost. We were only there for 1 night so that was definetely concerning. No issues at Jambo. I'm glad we're going to be owning at multiple resorts, I don't want to stay at AKV kidani for park days

 

[sndral]

We always have bad bus karma w/ Disney Springs irrespective of where we’re staying, so much so that it’s a running joke w/ us.
I own at AKV & love my stays there every other year. We prefer Jambo, although for those who have a car (we don’t) the under the building parking at Kidani is great & that extra bathroom in the Kidani 1 & 2 br. villas is great for larger parties.
Since we do one longer stay 1x per year, we aren’t park commandos & go w/ the flow w/ the buses. At the VGF I’m not a fan of sharing buses w/ the Poly & the long ride to AK. The BR/CCV buses share w/ BLT/The Contemporary. We budget for an uber/Lyft/Minnie Van for when time matters or we don’t want to hassle w/ multiple modes of transportation. Usually we aren’t in a rush. This Jan. my son & I ‘raced’ from the MK to dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot - I did the monorail hop to the front of Epcot & walked to Canada, he took the BC bus from the MK bus stand & entered through the international gate at Epcot & walked over to Canada. He won .
We’ve been lucky w/ our last several AKV stays for buses to/from the parks & really lucky w/ our VGF stay this past Dec/Jan - in an 11 day stay we never waited longer than 10 minutes for a bus to/from AK or DHS/GF. I wondered if they were running more buses than normal because the Poly tower had just opened. My worst bus experience in recent memory was trying to catch an MK bus after a meal at Riviera mid day - it was a 40 minute wait. I also recall the long rides from YC/BWV stays were mid day buses were shared w/ BWV, Swan, YC, BC. Now that Disney buses no longer stop at the Swan/Dolphin I’ve read that the BWV bus stop is more crowded because Swan/Dolphin folks use the BWV buses. Bus service varies through time & is very much impacted by how many buses are in service, whether they’ve all been dispatched to cover a park closing, etc., so great bus karma one trip is no guarantee that you’ll not run into long waits next time IME.

 

[Girlstar30]

We always have bad bus karma w/ Disney Springs irrespective of where we’re staying, so much so that it’s a running joke w/ us.
I own at AKV & love my stays there every other year. We prefer Jambo, although for those who have a car (we don’t) the under the building parking at Kidani is great & that extra bathroom in the Kidani 1 & 2 br. villas is great for larger parties.
Since we do one longer stay 1x per year, we aren’t park commandos & go w/ the flow w/ the buses. At the VGF I’m not a fan of sharing buses w/ the Poly & the long ride to AK. The BR/CCV buses share w/ BLT/The Contemporary. We budget for an uber/Lyft/Minnie Van for when time matters or we don’t want to hassle w/ multiple modes of transportation. Usually we aren’t in a rush. This Jan. my son & I ‘raced’ from the MK to dinner at Le Cellier in Epcot - I did the monorail hop to the front of Epcot & walked to Canada, he took the BC bus from the MK bus stand & entered through the international gate at Epcot & walked over to Canada. He won .
We’ve been lucky w/ our last several AKV stays for buses to/from the parks & really lucky w/ our VGF stay this past Dec/Jan - in an 11 day stay we never waited longer than 10 minutes for a bus to/from AK or DHS/GF. I wondered if they were running more buses than normal because the Poly tower had just opened. My worst bus experience in recent memory was trying to catch an MK bus after a meal at Riviera mid day - it was a 40 minute wait. I also recall the long rides from YC/BWV stays were mid day buses were shared w/ BWV, Swan, YC, BC. Now that Disney buses no longer stop at the Swan/Dolphin I’ve read that the BWV bus stop is more crowded because Swan/Dolphin folks use the BWV buses. Bus service varies through time & is very much impacted by how many buses are in service, whether they’ve all been dispatched to cover a park closing, etc., so great bus karma one trip is no guarantee that you’ll not run into long waits next time IME.

The Jambo buses to the parks in the morning were excellent during our stay, constantly running. I agree that DS seems to be a mess no matter what. We took the bus from RIV to DS to get back to WL because we went to Dinner at Riv and the bus to MK was over. I will never do late dinner at another hotel again without a mode of transportation other than the bus being available or taking Uber. Omg it was torture. It took an hour and a half to get back to our hotel. Never again! Did not know about all the sharing which is pretty ridiculous when some people are paying $700+ to stay at these hotels. I really really hope that Riviera never shares buses with anyone, but I have a feeling they will once they're not trying to sell anymore. Even so, took forever to get to DS. To be fair

 

[lovin'fl]

We have been DVC since 2006, owning multiple contracts at several resorts. Had many points but resold a lot in recent years. We started off going from NC, then MD, then NC again, then PA until we finally bit the bullet and just moved to Kissimmee (@3 years ago).

In early years our trips were 5-9 nights with young kids and sometimes with extended family. Then, once kids were all off to college, we started doing long weekends for F&W as just us adults. And now that we live local we just do 1-2 night(s) here and there (@ every 4-6 weeks ish) to go and drink and not drive. Mostly for festivals at Epcot.

So our preferred rooms/resorts have changed over the years. Once 1BR, at beginning with little kids, then 2BR, with teens, then back to 1BR for just us and now studios. Years ago, we hated SSR and now it's our top 3. We can make any resort work, even our least fave (OKW). But we do have our preference and I kinda wish all our points were at our top 3. One time we owned OKW, HHI, AKV, BWV, CCR. Now we own just AKV (but only 26 pts), CCV and BWV. I would love to have a 3 way split with AKV, SSR and then I guess I am fine with BWV (thought RR was my fave resort for easy going to Epcot but recently had issue with getting gondola back at end of night that made me go back to preferring BCV/BWV for the walk back...and I do like BCV more than BWV but since we already own a big chunk at BWV, BWV it is... I Guess).

So, overall we try to avoid OKW....dated and worn out and just blah. And we also kind of skip the point eater resorts in order to make our points stretch. So no VGF, Poly, BLT and RR. I was trying to get RR as often as I could but have realized it eats the points plus we had that tough time getting back after Epcot closed one night. I really always try for standard view BWV and club level AKV and then SSR. We do a lot of SSR. They have THE best staff/service there (managed really well).

 

[Girlstar30]

We have been DVC since 2006, owning multiple contracts at several resorts. Had many points but resold a lot in recent years. We started off going from NC, then MD, then NC again, then PA until we finally bit the bullet and just moved to Kissimmee (@3 years ago).

In early years our trips were 5-9 nights with young kids and sometimes with extended family. Then, once kids were all off to college, we started doing long weekends for F&W as just us adults. And now that we live local we just do 1-2 night(s) here and there (@ every 4-6 weeks ish) to go and drink and not drive. Mostly for festivals at Epcot.

So our preferred rooms/resorts have changed over the years. Once 1BR, at beginning with little kids, then 2BR, with teens, then back to 1BR for just us and now studios. Years ago, we hated SSR and now it's our top 3. We can make any resort work, even our least fave (OKW). But we do have our preference and I kinda wish all our points were at our top 3. One time we owned OKW, HHI, AKV, BWV, CCR. Now we own just AKV (but only 26 pts), CCV and BWV. I would love to have a 3 way split with AKV, SSR and then I guess I am fine with BWV (thought RR was my fave resort for easy going to Epcot but recently had issue with getting gondola back at end of night that made me go back to preferring BCV/BWV for the walk back...and I do like BCV more than BWV but since we already own a big chunk at BWV, BWV it is... I Guess).

So, overall we try to avoid OKW....dated and worn out and just blah. And we also kind of skip the point eater resorts in order to make our points stretch. So no VGF, Poly, BLT and RR. I was trying to get RR as often as I could but have realized it eats the points plus we had that tough time getting back after Epcot closed one night. I really always try for standard view BWV and club level AKV and then SSR. We do a lot of SSR. They have THE best staff/service there (managed really well).

I am really curious to see if we like BCV or not. The thing that makes me nervous are the crowds. I'm not a fan of the more crowded resorts which is why I prefer BLT to Poly and probably why weve decided to own at AKV and BLT. There does seem to be a lot of food options at BCV we would be interested in and who doesn't like a lazy river.

 

[Girlstar30]

We have been DVC since 2006, owning multiple contracts at several resorts. Had many points but resold a lot in recent years. We started off going from NC, then MD, then NC again, then PA until we finally bit the bullet and just moved to Kissimmee (@3 years ago).

In early years our trips were 5-9 nights with young kids and sometimes with extended family. Then, once kids were all off to college, we started doing long weekends for F&W as just us adults. And now that we live local we just do 1-2 night(s) here and there (@ every 4-6 weeks ish) to go and drink and not drive. Mostly for festivals at Epcot.

So our preferred rooms/resorts have changed over the years. Once 1BR, at beginning with little kids, then 2BR, with teens, then back to 1BR for just us and now studios. Years ago, we hated SSR and now it's our top 3. We can make any resort work, even our least fave (OKW). But we do have our preference and I kinda wish all our points were at our top 3. One time we owned OKW, HHI, AKV, BWV, CCR. Now we own just AKV (but only 26 pts), CCV and BWV. I would love to have a 3 way split with AKV, SSR and then I guess I am fine with BWV (thought RR was my fave resort for easy going to Epcot but recently had issue with getting gondola back at end of night that made me go back to preferring BCV/BWV for the walk back...and I do like BCV more than BWV but since we already own a big chunk at BWV, BWV it is... I Guess).

So, overall we try to avoid OKW....dated and worn out and just blah. And we also kind of skip the point eater resorts in order to make our points stretch. So no VGF, Poly, BLT and RR. I was trying to get RR as often as I could but have realized it eats the points plus we had that tough time getting back after Epcot closed one night. I really always try for standard view BWV and club level AKV and then SSR. We do a lot of SSR. They have THE best staff/service there (managed really well).

Curious to how you ended up with 26 points

 

[DanCali]

We've been owners for just a couple of years, but splurged quite a bit on DVC, mostly sight unseen at the time. My philosophy is that DVC timeshares are rather liquid assets and a (resale purchase) mistake is not that hard to undo, at a relatively small loss. But no regrets about any of the purchases so far - both direct and resale...

Although we probably haven't been owners long enough to rule completely out any resort, I'd say the have the following impressions and thoughts about our ownership:

AUL - loved the stay there, but would always try to combine with a split stay at the Marriott next door (we own both systems). Both are fantastic resorts, but very different vibes. Marriott is much more relaxing though - I don't think I could do more than 5-6 days at Aulani...

AKV - would keep staying there but only Club (because of uniqueness), Value (for cheap short stays, eg Moonlight Magic), or 1BR Kidani (the 2 full bathrooms are a game changer)

BLT - we actually love this one, but only the 1BRs (I already mentioned the 2 full bathrooms...!). We found the studios too small , and they only sleep 4 (disadvantage for us), and without the pluses noted above for AKV Club and Value. The proximity to MK is unbeatable.

BWV - great if trip focused on EPCOT or HS. Our only option to book at 11 months in this area.

PVB - jury still out on this one. we just had one short stay which was all rain, and we didn't like how sprawling it was when you're trying to stay dry... but the points seem very easy to rent, if it comes to that. There are too many fans of this resort for me to write it off after 1 stay...

VGF - stayed in both buildings and we liked both. Would definitely return.

BRV - we just have a small contract, but loved our stay here. Would definitely return!

Of the resorts we don't own we're stayed at RIV, BCV, and SSR (Treehouses), and Vero and would go back to all of them but no particular urge to buy at any of them. If I had to pick one to buy, it'd be BCV, but not at anywhere near current resale prices (our BWV contract was a good find at a price I could live with). We also have upcoming stays at CFW and VGC in the coming months - looking forward to those. It's probably been 15 years since we were last at DL...

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

For some background: I track availability for all my stays.

For stays where we're 100% sure we want to stay at our home resort, I track availability daily between 11mo and 7mo (plus buffers on both sides) to see when availability of our booked room dries up. I use this for annual trend tracking, but also for future knowledge of how much I need to prioritize waking up early and being ready for 5am booking, or even if I can use SAP at 7m.

For stays where we might switch resorts at 7mo, I track availability daily of all the potential rooms we might book at 7mo between 11mo and 7mo (plus buffers on both sides). I use the data for similar reasons as the home resort tracking, plus also for considering how important buying points at X resort might be.

Currently we have 10 stays booked in this limbo between 7mo and 11mo, with 5 of them where we might switch from our home resort to a different resort. All 5 are WDW trips.

While updating my spreadsheet one morning, a two-fold realization hit me:

1. There's just two resorts that aren't on the 'might switch to' list: Animal Kingdom Villas and Boulder Ridge
2. I can't think of a time of year or a 'type of stay' where we'd want to stay at AKV anymore

We've been fortunate enough to stay at all the WDW resorts, most multiple times, including 3 times at AKV (2x Jambo, 1x Kidani). None of the AKV stays were particularly bad (one time we were even bumped to a suite on the cash side), but somewhere along the way AKV lost its appeal to us. I won't make this about our misgivings with AKV, though I will say the realization was more melancholy than "good riddance".

Anybody else have this kind of realization about a resort you've stayed at? Did the pendulum ever swing back to wanting to stay at the resort?

Still prefer OKW and all contracts are there. Will never stay at SSR or BWV again if a all possible.

 

[Disney mac]

We have had tremendous experiences at all the resorts. We really like OKW, however......wife hated the "curtains so much" because they don't block much sunlight with the gap from the window to the curtain. I personally didn't like much about the RIV, but to each their own.

 

[cvjw]

Were they long at night or during the day or both? We were super late to our DS dining reservation at night from Kidani. The DS bus never came and the front desk manager was gracious enough to order us an Uber free of cost. We were only there for 1 night so that was definetely concerning. No issues at Jambo. I'm glad we're going to be owning at multiple resorts, I don't want to stay at AKV kidani for park days

All times. The worse was to DS. Waiting for a bus back to kidani, we watched all the hotels around us get 3-4 buses while we got none. Right after lunch once and after dinner one night. Finally, a bus that was parked off to the side took pity on us and picked us all up.

Also had issues with a bus back to Kidani after a night at the MK. Had to finally ask a cast member who called in a spare bus.

Also had issues in the morning waiting for buses to the parks. The times kept changing when the buses would arrive - adding 10 or more minutes routinely. Just such a waste of time dealing with the Kidani buses.

 

[Girlstar30]

All times. The worse was to DS. Waiting for a bus back to kidani, we watched all the hotels around us get 3-4 buses while we got none. Right after lunch once and after dinner one night. Finally, a bus that was parked off to the side took pity on us and picked us all up.

Also had issues with a bus back to Kidani after a night at the MK. Had to finally ask a cast member who called in a spare bus.

Also had issues in the morning waiting for buses to the parks. The times kept changing when the buses would arrive - adding 10 or more minutes routinely. Just such a waste of time dealing with the Kidani buses.

Yep that's what happened to us waiting for the Kidani bus it kept changing times until it changed +30 mins and we were officially going to be late to our reservation and went to the front desk for help, it was our first bus ride experience and had no idea that this could be normal, no idea when it ever came

 

[lovin'fl]

Curious to how you ended up with 26 points

Short answer is...the husband bought for a gift for me. He went with the number it took to get a studio club level for the night he was wanting (he looked at point chart and the night he was hoping to book, those points). LOL! It bugs me, the uneven number. I would have rounded up to 30. We have 301 total and it bugs, bugs, bugs me. We don't really need anymore points but I just want to add 29 AKV to even it out.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I understand the "over it" with a given hotel/resort for a while. I've gotten so trips are mostly Park or Not-Park related (although a couple half days at the park seem inevitable lol). Loved my last 6 nite trip at Jambo far more than I would have expected. With the App, I found the buses were super convenient and quick - not one single issue with a number of bus trips to the park. I kinda lost it with Disney over having no benches in the waiting area for the return buses, but that was not AKL-specific. I will note if staying at AKL I do put a couple Ubers in the budget in case I want to eat at one of the other resorts then come straight back. But I think we end up using Uber a couple times per trip no matter where we stay. I did not think I'd want to try "all" the resorts, but find I enjoy checking each out with a stay at some point.

 

[Girlstar30]

Short answer is...the husband bought for a gift for me. He went with the number it took to get a studio club level for the night he was wanting (he looked at point chart and the night he was hoping to book, those points). LOL! It bugs me, the uneven number. I would have rounded up to 30. We have 301 total and it bugs, bugs, bugs me. We don't really need anymore points but I just want to add 29 AKV to even it out.

It was triggering my ocd a bit and I needed to find out why loll

 

[TinkAgainU]

Short answer is...the husband bought for a gift for me. He went with the number it took to get a studio club level for the night he was wanting (he looked at point chart and the night he was hoping to book, those points). LOL! It bugs me, the uneven number. I would have rounded up to 30. We have 301 total and it bugs, bugs, bugs me. We don't really need anymore points but I just want to add 29 AKV to even it out.

I'm always surprised when I see an odd number (I have contracts with somewhat odd - not ending in zero - numbers too). It makes more sense with small contracts because those are the "add on" points which are bought by experienced DVC owners who frequently are not excited by the Direct prices, and want to not be buying a lot of points over what they really need for specific 11 month bookings. Rounding up a few extra points in Resale is no where near the pain of rounding up a few extra points Direct