Old Key West

[PRNCSAurora]

What can you tell me about it? My family and I are thinking of getting a one room villa for a week in summer 2014. It will be my parents (early 60's), myself (30), my husband (28) and our daughter (20 months). I know nothing more about the resort than what I have read on disneys site. Any reviews would be greatly appreciated. The othe possibility may be AKL-Jambo house but OKW works better financially.

 

[bethymouse]

Never stayed @ OKW, but I have heard it is quite nice. Have you looked at Saratoga Springs as well?

 

[Spikerdink]

OKW was the first DVC resort...and as such Disney did things that they have both improved on, and diminished with the newer resorts...

The plusses - the rooms are ginormous. A one bedroom has a very spacious master bedroom (with great jacuzzi tub!) plus the living room/kitchen combo is like a small apartment. With the four adults and baby, you will have plenty of room. The tv is tucked in the small island that seperates the kitchen from the LR. There is a full size couch (this pulls out to comfy bed), a love seat and a small chair. To the side there is a full size table. The balcony and table is large enough for all 4 adults to sit comfortably.

Adding a crib to the room will not make the room seem small - it will fit with ease.

If you are planning on bringing in groceries for your stay, another benefit is that OKW has the most cabinet space so you can organize your groceries easily and not wonder where to keep them.

Depending on where your room is, you can have a great water view of the canals or the golf course....

Olivia's - the main restaurant - is excellent....

The boatride between OKW and Saratoga and Downtown Disney is a nice, enjoyable ride....

The negatives - the resort is sprawling and depending on where your room is located it can be a pretty far trek to the hospitality house/main pool. (of course you can take the bus, but that tends to be a negative too).

Where the other DVCs have a pretty expansive quick serve food choices, OKW is very limited. For breakfast, your choice is eggs or eggs. The food is good, but definitely not a food court like over at AKL, SS....

The main pool has been upgraded with a slide, but it more closely resembles a quiet pool from some of the other resorts.

Along with SS, OKW is pretty far from MK, AK and Epcot. You will need a bus for everything other than Downtown Disney. You will need to build in travel time for all your trips to the park and depending on where you are in the resort, the bus can be a pain.

All that being said, I love OKW. It is very relaxing, and the theming is excellent. I would stay there again in an instant without hesitation. Some considerations for you are how comfortable your group is with possibly walking a long way to the hospitality house...how much you will be spending at the resort and how important the pool area would be to you...

(If you want to see pics of the room, drop me a private message and I can email them to you.)

 

[RonAnnArbor]

I assume by your post that you are a member of DVC? OKW does make some suites available to non-DVC members, but it is primarily DVC.
Here's my one and most important note about OKW: it will only work for you if you have rented a car. The resort is very spread out, and it is geared for people staying prolonged periods of time and driving everywhere (including to their room). The bus-service to all of the parks is subpar. While they do have it, your not going to have that every-15-minute experience you will get at the non-DVC resorts.
That is my one and only negative comment about this lovely resort.

 

[mrscricket]

I thought OKW was a great place to stay, although it was my first time staying in a disney property. There were 5 adults in our 1 bed villa and we had plenty of space.

 

[zero creativity]

We stayed at OKW with a 7 month old and a 3 year old. We did not like it at all. It is a huge resort and our room was at the other end of the resort from main building. The rooms were nice and big and had plent of amenities, we did not like the size, transportation or the dining options. The lack of a food court was definitely an issue for us.

 

[erasure fan1]

The bus-service to all of the parks is subpar. While they do have it, your not going to have that every-15-minute experience you will get at the non-DVC resorts.

This would be my biggest complaint about the resort as well. There is nothing worse than a long day at the parks, then watching 3 buses come and go for the other stops while you wait for the first for 40min.

I would say the biggest plus is definitely the space. The 2 bedroom works great for 2 families like the OPs situation. I like the fact that after 5 or 6 days of being with another family, you have enough space to be separate and don't feel like you are crowding each-other the whole time. My best suggestion for this resort is to look at a map of the resort and plan what building to stay in around the bus stops and pools. If you plan right you can request a building that you can still walk to a pool and the bus stop is right out your door.

 

[Plowboy]

You should check out the fact sheet and photo slideshow over at allears.net. It will give you a lot of insight into OKW. We stayed there several years ago and loved it.