Mini TR - 9 nights at OKW

[momof2disprincesses]

Our family has had many, many wonderful stays at WDW (32 now to be exact). When we went this past Christmas, I wrote a lengthy trip report because for many reasons, it was one of our most magical trips ever. Here's a link to that report:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3041567

We just returned from 9 nights at OKW. This too was a wonderful trip with many happy times, but I just don't have the energy (or the photos) to do a full-fledged trip report, so here's a mini version.

We are a family of 4 - DH, me, DD21 and DD17. This trip was added because of that amazing PAP offer last year to DVC members (I know many of you added trips because of that). So it was sort of "last minute" and we were able to book 9 nights in a studio at OKW (our second favorite resort - our favorite is our home resort AKV).

DH, me and DD17 drove from Appleton, WI. DD21 lives in MN and since she had 3 jobs she had to take time off work from, we flew her down and back so she wouldn't have to "waste" time in the car.

Us drivers left Appleton around 4pm on Thursday, June 13. Our intent was to drive until we were tired and stop for the night. Well, we wound up doing a really good job of sharing sleeping and driving time and we wound up making it straight to Orlando in 24 hours. So I called CRO and got 1 night at Pop Century with an AP discount.

On Saturday, June 15, we checked in at OKW. We had requested a first floor room by a pool. Boy did they grant that request. We were put in room 5610. We were on the 1st floor and could see the pool from our balcony! It was an awesome location and very quiet "back" there.

Here are some photos of the studio room:

 

[Checkers]

Tagging along. Will be there in Oct. What pool was nearby? Thanks for sharing!

 

[momof2disprincesses]

Monday, June 17 was mine and DH's 24th wedding anniversary. We actually had a plan to do 4 parks in 1 day (something we've never done before). We started out with early EMH at AK. We rode the safari, DH and kids rode Everest, we had breakfast and watched FOTLK. We got a special treat at FOTLK. A CM saw our Anniversary buttons and gave our family a front row seat for the show. It was really cool watching it from that perspective. One highlight was when one of the Tumble Monkeys picked bugs from DH's hair!

Here we all are in the front row!

After only a few hours at AK, we were all hot & tired and decided to go back to OKW for a quick swim before keeping on with our plan.

Well, I think most of you can guess what happened from there. The pool was wonderful. After the pool, the beds were so comfy. So pool time & nap time won out over our "plan". I think we'll have to try the 4 parks in 1 day thing when it's NOT June! It was just too darn hot for that to happen on this day.

DH and I had even picked up an anniversary cake at Publix ($19.99)! It was absolutely delicious!!!! It was chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and vanilla custard filling. IMHO, just as good, if not better, than any Disney cake we've had and it was so much cheaper! We would definitely do a special event cake from Publix again!

DH and I had a special anniversary dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel. Our ADR was for 7:45pm and we waited a little extra to get a table by the windows so we could watch Illuminations.

DH at our cozy table for 2 by the window:

We shared the La Hacienda - Mixed grill offering New York strip, chicken al pastor, chorizo and vegetables, served with beans and fresh salsas $49.95

This was delicious but it was too much! We brought about half of it back to the room and DD21 ate some of it and the rest got thrown out later in the week.

And of course started with the chips & salsa. These were good! I loved the green salsa.

Here's the dessert menu:

We chose the Empanada de Manzana. We actually were almost too full for dessert but we were trying to buy some time staying at our primo location table to watch Illuminations and dinner didn't take as long as we had hoped.

It wound up raining (pouring really) right at 9pm, so we waited about an hour and finally at almost 10pm, Illuminations started. The manager was so sweet. We were going to leave because we didn't know what was going on and he caught us as we were exiting and said if the torches are still lit, they usually will still do Illuminations. He even brought us drink refills while we waited. By the time it did start, because it was so late, many other diners had given up. We basically had a private Illuminations show from our table. As far as we could see, there was only one other family in our section who stayed.

I would highly recommend watching Illuminations from here! It was awesome and a very special way to end our anniversary! It was also a little romantic as we walked through the WS to the International gateway to leave. There was virtually NO ONE anywhere so we had a romantic stroll through and almost empty WS.

Our daughters were sweet enough to come pick us up at the Boardwalk Resort and we were back and in bed by 11pm at OKW.

A few more photos and comments coming up soon.

 

[momof2disprincesses]

Tagging along. Will be there in Oct. What pool was nearby? Thanks for sharing!

The one by the South Point bus stop, near buildings 55 & 56. It was an awesome location!

 

[momof2disprincesses]

Here are just a few more photos of our front row seats at FOTLK:

We were in the elephant section

One other highlight of the week was the day we spent in Clearwater, FL. We specifically went there to ride the Seascreamer. I had read it about it on the internet. It is a 100 passenger speed boat. Dolphins like to follow the boat and jump it's wake. We saw about a dozen dolphins in all on this boat ride, including one that was a baby (about 6 months old). He was so playful. Although it was sweltering hot on this day, this boat ride was awesome!!!

Unfortunately I didn't get very many good pictures because as we saw our first dolphins, my camera showed the memory card was full! So between DH and I, we quickly tried to erase some pictures so we could take some. YIKES!

Here's what we managed to get.

Before the boat ride (the Seascreamer is in the background).

The boat itself (it seats 100, but there were maybe 25-30 people on our ride, so plenty of room to move freely about).

My beautiful girls! You can see the wake in the background. That's what the dolphins LOVE!

The dolphins!

After this great boat ride, we walked across the street to the a public beach area and did a little swimming in the ocean. It was a fun day trip!

I would highly recommend the Seascreamer and Clearwater in general.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along.

 

[SpectroMan71]

Thanks for the great OKW studio pics. Staying there for the first time in Sept - do you know if any studios have King beds?

 

[Checkers]

Thanks for the great OKW studio pics. Staying there for the first time in Sept - do you know if any studios have King beds?

No studios at OKW have king beds, all have two queens. Enjoy your stay!

 

[catherines_mama]

Sounds like a great trip. I adore Publix cakes. They did out wedding cake and I look forward to having the same flavors done on a smaller for our anniversary when we celebrate our 5th. We moved from FL to NC 2 yrs ago but Publix is slowly following us- so thankful!!