Hi all! I just got back from my honeymoon (July 10-17 at WDW and 17-24 on the Carnival Legend), and I'm realizing that I didn't take nearly enough photos to make a trip report that anyone would care to read, but I made a few observations and I figured I'd throw them together and see if anyone has some thoughts on the stuff I noticed. The trip was bittersweet in a way, as I'm now sitting in my new apartment in Orlando, so it was likely the last time I'd do an all-out, week+ long WDW vacation.
Pre-trip report here.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=740130
First, I'll start with a few wedding photos, as a few people had requested to see some when I wrote the pre-trip report.
Okay, enough of that. The morning after our wedding in South Bend, IN, Sarah (DW) and I rented a car and drove to Chicago for a 6:00 PM flight from Midway to Orlando. We checked a bag, which we rarely do, and it weighed 67 pounds, so we spent about half an hour at one of the scales at the airline counter trying to shuffle our stuff around into the carry-on bags. We got it down to 49 pounds, but it resulted in some permanent damage to one of our carry-on bags. When we landed in Orlando, we took DME for the first time to Old Key West.
We were absolutely thrilled with OKW for the duration of our trip. Bell services, the front desk, and the staff at the store were all fantastic. Our only complaint is that Olivia's is a bit pricey for what you get, but the prime rib was quite good. We had never stayed in a DVC unit before, and our one bedroom villa was enormous. I might even go so far as to say it was too large for just a couple, but it only had one bed so it might have been too small for families with more than one child (who would sleep on the pull-out). It also kind of sucked not having full housekeeping services, but we weren't too messy. Just would have been nice to have the bed made every day.
As a side note, tons of people have been speculating that resort-specific merchandise was on the way out, but the OKW gift shop had at least three different styles of resort shirts for men and women, in addition to trading pins, lanyards, mugs, glasses, etc.
We had dinner on the first night at Paradiso 37. DW got the ribs and I got some kind of sampler plate with kabobs and other meats. Both were very good but the portions were a bit small. The Tres Leches for desert was excellent, and their drink special that night was amazing (a margarita with a sangria base).
Pre-trip report here.
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=740130
First, I'll start with a few wedding photos, as a few people had requested to see some when I wrote the pre-trip report.
Okay, enough of that. The morning after our wedding in South Bend, IN, Sarah (DW) and I rented a car and drove to Chicago for a 6:00 PM flight from Midway to Orlando. We checked a bag, which we rarely do, and it weighed 67 pounds, so we spent about half an hour at one of the scales at the airline counter trying to shuffle our stuff around into the carry-on bags. We got it down to 49 pounds, but it resulted in some permanent damage to one of our carry-on bags. When we landed in Orlando, we took DME for the first time to Old Key West.
We were absolutely thrilled with OKW for the duration of our trip. Bell services, the front desk, and the staff at the store were all fantastic. Our only complaint is that Olivia's is a bit pricey for what you get, but the prime rib was quite good. We had never stayed in a DVC unit before, and our one bedroom villa was enormous. I might even go so far as to say it was too large for just a couple, but it only had one bed so it might have been too small for families with more than one child (who would sleep on the pull-out). It also kind of sucked not having full housekeeping services, but we weren't too messy. Just would have been nice to have the bed made every day.
As a side note, tons of people have been speculating that resort-specific merchandise was on the way out, but the OKW gift shop had at least three different styles of resort shirts for men and women, in addition to trading pins, lanyards, mugs, glasses, etc.
We had dinner on the first night at Paradiso 37. DW got the ribs and I got some kind of sampler plate with kabobs and other meats. Both were very good but the portions were a bit small. The Tres Leches for desert was excellent, and their drink special that night was amazing (a margarita with a sangria base).
