drusba
I went to Iowa once, and it was closed.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
We were at BWV June 10-20 with a 2BR boardwalk view:
-- Check-in: did not do on-line check-in because we had a linked reservation. Used some points from one use year for some nights and from another use year for the rest. Rooms were not ready when we arrived about one but they did send text message as requested about 3:45 to state they were ready. They now have an entourage of CMs that are there to greet you at the front entrance. I am not sure I care for that much attention. For time of making reservation, we called and got boardwalk view at about nine months out.
-- Room: we had what I consider to be one of the ideal two bedrooms, 3015 (studio) and 3017 (1br), above Big River with the large, reddish, "wooden" (which are made of metal siding) porches. The key to this particular 2BR is that the railing is a see through rather than a solid one which exists with some of the other "wooden" porches, and thus you get both a large porch and can see through the rails when sitting. View was excellent and you are high enough that there is little boardwalk noise. As city dwellers, we are used to some noise anyway. We made no additional room requests with our reservation.
--Room issues: room was in good shape but had a couple of things for which we called maintenance. When we arrived the exhaust fan in the master bath where the shower is was out. They came and put in a new one. Later one of the pull rods on the curtains came off, again fixed quickly. Cable now has more channels including Fox News and when you turn on the TV you get a new presentation for Disney World on a new channel (I believe it is it is 22 or 23). Still the same woman but she now looks at least 15 years older and she is still shrill. In other words, it is remains something we wanted to get rid of quickly every time we turned on the TV but it seems now that you actually have to listen to her for about 20 to 30 seconds before the set allows a channel change. In other words, they have built in a minimum pain and suffering time.
-- Internet: still sucks, has speeds ranging from slow to extremely slow to virtually non-existent depending on time of day. Ours actually did not work when we arrived and we had to call whatever nefarious outfit that is in charge and they had to "reset the modem" over the line which would took about an hour. The "suits" who decided to put in this inferior system which is far slower than the wired system that existed before and is now gone, should be fired, or, preferably, summarily executed.
--Disney's New Computer System: Disney proved once again that "Disney Computer System" is an oxymoron. In old days when we used two use years for same room and linked reservation, we would get a set of card keys and a parking pass at beginning that were good for the whole trip. We were informed on arrival that the new computer system on which many millions was spent cannot do that. It treats each reservation as separate even if they have been linked and won't link them and apparently no one can figure out how to get it to stop doing that. We did not have to change rooms but 7 days into the trip we had to change room keys and parking pass. They told us the new room keys would be delivered under our door between 8 and 9 on the day of the changeover and the old keys would no longer work on the room. By the time the day came, we had forgotten about the change occurring that 7th day and left before 8. When we returned, we could not get into the room so I went to the front desk and, of course, they told us our new keys where placed under the door. There was a somewhat brief, surreal conversation to which I might have added a curse word during which i was informed that the keys were available in my room and i could get them there. The front desk then finally gave me another key which took about 10 minutes for the computer to regurgitate. I then returned to the room and found our new keys. However, there were a few additional things that we apparently forgot. We did not check the new keys closely and it was later that night at dinner that we learned the new keys did not have charging privileges because we had to re-register our credit card on the room. Fortunately, we had a credit card with us. And it was the next day, when driving to Animal Kingdom, that I realized that i still needed a new parking pass (which they did not put under the door) because the one on the car window had expired and thus had to return to hotel to get it so we could get into the park for free. Somewhere in the world there is an evil computer scientist who created this new system who either does not have any practical sense to know that the system should not require guests to keep replacing keys and parking passes while staying in the same room or instead is laughing at us.
--Resort: there was no real construction going on at the resort except that in the morning they twice replaced a few boardwalk boards on the boardwalk. The boards look like they have lost all their coating and probably it is getting close to the time where they will refurbish the boardwalk itself again (last time was about 9 years ago). They must be paying more attention to maintenance because I did not see any of the lights out on the boardwalk this time.
-- Parking: not too difficult this time as they were apparently preventing, at least during the day, persons not staying there from entering the main lot. Also, we used valet parking some days.
-- Boardwalk: there were large crowds at night; watched the end of the Open at ESPN Club, one of my favorite places. We had dinner at Kouzzina's one night which was good as usual (lamb shank here, which was very good). Since we had seen all of the street entertainment before we watched only a little which was good as usual.
-- Standard view: we don't stay standard view but be aware that those getting standard with hope of seeing Epcot fireworks should probably leave that hope at home. The trees in front of the resort where those standard rooms are located are now all full and large, blocking most views.
-- Weather: the weather was not typical for June. We arrived just after the area had gone through continuous torrential downpours lasting on some days many hours. Our first night saw two large storms, the second, third and fifth nights one nightly storm, and other days we saw almost no rain except for a sprinkle here and there. Also, though it was hot mid-day, the highs stayed just below 90, it was usually breezy,and the humidity was unusually low for this time of year, making the mornings and latter part of the evenings almost April-like pleasant.
-- Park crowds: summer heavy, Soarin' got to over 2 hours stand-by and popular rides at MK went to 90 minutes. Nothing as huge as Christmas or Easter but still very large with significant street crowds at MK to maneuver through. Crowds increased somewhat as our time there progressed. Note, it is very important in latter part of afternoon to determine actual stand-by time for a ride because we saw on two occassions where the ride time posted was very long, close to 90 minutes, which was a holdover from the early afternoon, but actual wait time was probably under 25 minutes.
-- Parks: MK had a lot of work going on. A major part of Main Street had the fake scene covers over the buildings, and you had large walls up right where they are building the new Fantasyland rides. There were also small pieces of work going on at other areas. Essentially more going on than i had seen before in mid-June, a prime summer time. At Epcot, Test Track was down (apparently through November). The question I have is when are they ever going to do something with the World of Life pavilion which seems now to have been closed forever. Studios and Animal Kingdom had little to no construction going on (including that I did not see anything that looked like work being done for the new Avatar land). I was most impressed with the street/band performances at AK which were all high quality bands.
-- Restaurants: it had been about 7 or 8 years since I had been to Yachtsman's Steakhouse and it will likely be many more before ever going again. The restaurant is fine, the food is fine. It is the prices that left me in shock after not having been there for so long, $45 to $60 for a steak and an appetizer/salad ($15 range) and vegetable ($12) was extra. The wine list averaged about $65 a bottle (and that was for things you can buy in a store for a third of that price; if you wanted just a glass it averaged $12). (We have Tables in Wonderland which decreased the pain somewhat). Over the last 5 to 7 years food prices at Disney have seem to have galloped to new heights everywhere. I remember when a buffet was well under $30 a person and now they are well over $40 but Yachtsman's was just completely off the radar because prime steak restaurants in Chicago don't charge those amounts. At least the quality of the food, particularly at the buffets, seems to be improving somewhat over what was happening a couple years ago when it seemed to go completely in the tank with the onslaught of free dining plans. We found Biergarten and Crystal Palace to be somewhat better than usual. We also tried dinner for the first time at Akershus (Norway). Amazingly good. It is part buffet (salads, appetizers, desserts) and table service (entree, I had the special of the day, cod) and the princesses are all beautiful and very kid friendly (I think kids are amazed by having characters that actually talk to them). Still, despite the prices, one of the best things about Boardwalk is being able to walk to so many restaurants (Epcot resorts and the two parks).
-- Golf: as I reported before, effective June 4, the Disney golf program has changed. I learned of it when showing up for a tee time on June 12. It was announced on the DVC site two days later. You no longer need to buy a Disney golf annual card. You just need to show your DVC member card for a discount for you and up to three guests. There is no longer a distinction between before and after 10 tee times. The summertime DVC rate is $55 dollars plus tax (regular resort guest rate is $89). There is to be about a 35% discount all year round. Like before there is no discount on top of another discount, e.g., you cannot get a discount off the twilight rate which is deemed a discount rate. Condition of courses was just OK because of recent aeration but most still good to play (and should be fine in a week); aeration likely to occur again right after the November PGA tournament). Osprey no longer has its 18th hole and you play the old Eagle Pines No. 1 as the first (temporary) hole of 18 and then do 17 Osprey holes (they are supposed to rebuild some holes as part of the Four Seasons construction). Construction is going on in many places for the new Four Seasons resort and a number of buildings look like they are getting to final stages. Unknown is what Four seasons will do with the course. The Arnold Palmer Management Company now has control of the courses in an agreement with Disney and there are discussions going on with Four Seasons for the course to remain with the Palmer company but Four seasons has the final decision in that and that decision has not yet been made.
-- Check-in: did not do on-line check-in because we had a linked reservation. Used some points from one use year for some nights and from another use year for the rest. Rooms were not ready when we arrived about one but they did send text message as requested about 3:45 to state they were ready. They now have an entourage of CMs that are there to greet you at the front entrance. I am not sure I care for that much attention. For time of making reservation, we called and got boardwalk view at about nine months out.
-- Room: we had what I consider to be one of the ideal two bedrooms, 3015 (studio) and 3017 (1br), above Big River with the large, reddish, "wooden" (which are made of metal siding) porches. The key to this particular 2BR is that the railing is a see through rather than a solid one which exists with some of the other "wooden" porches, and thus you get both a large porch and can see through the rails when sitting. View was excellent and you are high enough that there is little boardwalk noise. As city dwellers, we are used to some noise anyway. We made no additional room requests with our reservation.
--Room issues: room was in good shape but had a couple of things for which we called maintenance. When we arrived the exhaust fan in the master bath where the shower is was out. They came and put in a new one. Later one of the pull rods on the curtains came off, again fixed quickly. Cable now has more channels including Fox News and when you turn on the TV you get a new presentation for Disney World on a new channel (I believe it is it is 22 or 23). Still the same woman but she now looks at least 15 years older and she is still shrill. In other words, it is remains something we wanted to get rid of quickly every time we turned on the TV but it seems now that you actually have to listen to her for about 20 to 30 seconds before the set allows a channel change. In other words, they have built in a minimum pain and suffering time.
-- Internet: still sucks, has speeds ranging from slow to extremely slow to virtually non-existent depending on time of day. Ours actually did not work when we arrived and we had to call whatever nefarious outfit that is in charge and they had to "reset the modem" over the line which would took about an hour. The "suits" who decided to put in this inferior system which is far slower than the wired system that existed before and is now gone, should be fired, or, preferably, summarily executed.
--Disney's New Computer System: Disney proved once again that "Disney Computer System" is an oxymoron. In old days when we used two use years for same room and linked reservation, we would get a set of card keys and a parking pass at beginning that were good for the whole trip. We were informed on arrival that the new computer system on which many millions was spent cannot do that. It treats each reservation as separate even if they have been linked and won't link them and apparently no one can figure out how to get it to stop doing that. We did not have to change rooms but 7 days into the trip we had to change room keys and parking pass. They told us the new room keys would be delivered under our door between 8 and 9 on the day of the changeover and the old keys would no longer work on the room. By the time the day came, we had forgotten about the change occurring that 7th day and left before 8. When we returned, we could not get into the room so I went to the front desk and, of course, they told us our new keys where placed under the door. There was a somewhat brief, surreal conversation to which I might have added a curse word during which i was informed that the keys were available in my room and i could get them there. The front desk then finally gave me another key which took about 10 minutes for the computer to regurgitate. I then returned to the room and found our new keys. However, there were a few additional things that we apparently forgot. We did not check the new keys closely and it was later that night at dinner that we learned the new keys did not have charging privileges because we had to re-register our credit card on the room. Fortunately, we had a credit card with us. And it was the next day, when driving to Animal Kingdom, that I realized that i still needed a new parking pass (which they did not put under the door) because the one on the car window had expired and thus had to return to hotel to get it so we could get into the park for free. Somewhere in the world there is an evil computer scientist who created this new system who either does not have any practical sense to know that the system should not require guests to keep replacing keys and parking passes while staying in the same room or instead is laughing at us.
--Resort: there was no real construction going on at the resort except that in the morning they twice replaced a few boardwalk boards on the boardwalk. The boards look like they have lost all their coating and probably it is getting close to the time where they will refurbish the boardwalk itself again (last time was about 9 years ago). They must be paying more attention to maintenance because I did not see any of the lights out on the boardwalk this time.
-- Parking: not too difficult this time as they were apparently preventing, at least during the day, persons not staying there from entering the main lot. Also, we used valet parking some days.
-- Boardwalk: there were large crowds at night; watched the end of the Open at ESPN Club, one of my favorite places. We had dinner at Kouzzina's one night which was good as usual (lamb shank here, which was very good). Since we had seen all of the street entertainment before we watched only a little which was good as usual.
-- Standard view: we don't stay standard view but be aware that those getting standard with hope of seeing Epcot fireworks should probably leave that hope at home. The trees in front of the resort where those standard rooms are located are now all full and large, blocking most views.
-- Weather: the weather was not typical for June. We arrived just after the area had gone through continuous torrential downpours lasting on some days many hours. Our first night saw two large storms, the second, third and fifth nights one nightly storm, and other days we saw almost no rain except for a sprinkle here and there. Also, though it was hot mid-day, the highs stayed just below 90, it was usually breezy,and the humidity was unusually low for this time of year, making the mornings and latter part of the evenings almost April-like pleasant.
-- Park crowds: summer heavy, Soarin' got to over 2 hours stand-by and popular rides at MK went to 90 minutes. Nothing as huge as Christmas or Easter but still very large with significant street crowds at MK to maneuver through. Crowds increased somewhat as our time there progressed. Note, it is very important in latter part of afternoon to determine actual stand-by time for a ride because we saw on two occassions where the ride time posted was very long, close to 90 minutes, which was a holdover from the early afternoon, but actual wait time was probably under 25 minutes.
-- Parks: MK had a lot of work going on. A major part of Main Street had the fake scene covers over the buildings, and you had large walls up right where they are building the new Fantasyland rides. There were also small pieces of work going on at other areas. Essentially more going on than i had seen before in mid-June, a prime summer time. At Epcot, Test Track was down (apparently through November). The question I have is when are they ever going to do something with the World of Life pavilion which seems now to have been closed forever. Studios and Animal Kingdom had little to no construction going on (including that I did not see anything that looked like work being done for the new Avatar land). I was most impressed with the street/band performances at AK which were all high quality bands.
-- Restaurants: it had been about 7 or 8 years since I had been to Yachtsman's Steakhouse and it will likely be many more before ever going again. The restaurant is fine, the food is fine. It is the prices that left me in shock after not having been there for so long, $45 to $60 for a steak and an appetizer/salad ($15 range) and vegetable ($12) was extra. The wine list averaged about $65 a bottle (and that was for things you can buy in a store for a third of that price; if you wanted just a glass it averaged $12). (We have Tables in Wonderland which decreased the pain somewhat). Over the last 5 to 7 years food prices at Disney have seem to have galloped to new heights everywhere. I remember when a buffet was well under $30 a person and now they are well over $40 but Yachtsman's was just completely off the radar because prime steak restaurants in Chicago don't charge those amounts. At least the quality of the food, particularly at the buffets, seems to be improving somewhat over what was happening a couple years ago when it seemed to go completely in the tank with the onslaught of free dining plans. We found Biergarten and Crystal Palace to be somewhat better than usual. We also tried dinner for the first time at Akershus (Norway). Amazingly good. It is part buffet (salads, appetizers, desserts) and table service (entree, I had the special of the day, cod) and the princesses are all beautiful and very kid friendly (I think kids are amazed by having characters that actually talk to them). Still, despite the prices, one of the best things about Boardwalk is being able to walk to so many restaurants (Epcot resorts and the two parks).
-- Golf: as I reported before, effective June 4, the Disney golf program has changed. I learned of it when showing up for a tee time on June 12. It was announced on the DVC site two days later. You no longer need to buy a Disney golf annual card. You just need to show your DVC member card for a discount for you and up to three guests. There is no longer a distinction between before and after 10 tee times. The summertime DVC rate is $55 dollars plus tax (regular resort guest rate is $89). There is to be about a 35% discount all year round. Like before there is no discount on top of another discount, e.g., you cannot get a discount off the twilight rate which is deemed a discount rate. Condition of courses was just OK because of recent aeration but most still good to play (and should be fine in a week); aeration likely to occur again right after the November PGA tournament). Osprey no longer has its 18th hole and you play the old Eagle Pines No. 1 as the first (temporary) hole of 18 and then do 17 Osprey holes (they are supposed to rebuild some holes as part of the Four Seasons construction). Construction is going on in many places for the new Four Seasons resort and a number of buildings look like they are getting to final stages. Unknown is what Four seasons will do with the course. The Arnold Palmer Management Company now has control of the courses in an agreement with Disney and there are discussions going on with Four Seasons for the course to remain with the Palmer company but Four seasons has the final decision in that and that decision has not yet been made.
Glad your trip was so magical 
