Hello, all! My family just returned yesterday from 7 days at VWL! We were in #5541, a dedicated 2-bedroom villa. In brief, here's my "review":
The Good: the new color scheme of soft buttery yellows, muted olives, brown, orange, celery and cream is really lovely. The fabrics in each room are totally different, but they share the same color palette and blend nicely. Bed scarves have been newly added -- heavy, woven ones -- which cozies up the bedrooms. The furniture was all very comfortable, everything worked flawlessly, the new carpet in the bedrooms is very soft underfoot and even the throw rug looks better in person (more nubby and less jarringly contemporary) than in photos I'd seen. There is storage absolutely everywhere (far more than the 6 of us needed), and the new coffee table is on wheels, which makes it very easy to move it out of the way if the sofa bed needs to be unfolded. The stainless steel appliances look terrific (and seemed to work well -- my Aunt even baked muffins in the oven for breakfast), and we were grateful to discover that the coffee maker not only brews speedily and well, but turns itself off automatically if you forget to switch it off before leaving for the day (which we did a time or two.) The villa was also quiet -- we had no noise from neighbors and the beds and pillows were very comfortable, so we all slept well every night. The bigger TV was great for watching classic Disney cartoons, and we made daily use of our balcony (with a distant view of the lake, and the sunrise peeking through the trees) for our morning coffee.
The new Craftsman-style drapery rods from which the drapes in each room are suspended are attractive, and I am delighted that they got rid of the old pin-tucked valences that used to hang across the windows. While the old valences screamed, "HELLO! I COME FROM THE 80's!," the new drapery rods look timeless. (Confession: While I know that many here loved the old decor, I found the photos I'd seen of it to be a total turn-off: dark and dingy, with clashing patterns as far as the eye could see, and more of a 1980's Adirondack/Navajo vibe than a Little House on the Prairie one. While the "new look" does not hearken back to the proper time period any better than the old, it's fresher, cleaner, and even more "woodsy." Had we stayed there with the old decor, it would have been in spite of the decor, rather than because of it. Obviously, those who loved the way it used to look are unlikely to be thrilled by the changes.)
Also, there were early complaints about the fact that the villas were refurbed with shiny chrome bath hardware, which clashed with the dark patina of the light fixtures, etc. Either Disney responded to those complaints, or the shiny chrome was just temporary, because when we returned to the room on the afternoon of Tuesday, 5/6, after part of a day at Hollywood Studios, we discovered that all of the towel bars and racks and toilet paper holders in our villa had been magically switched out in our absence (including spackling/painting of the holes where the old ones had been installed) and replaced with rustic fixtures with a dark silver, hammered iron-type finish. The faucets are now the only shiny chrome/nickel items. We also used the soaking tub, which filled quickly and was wonderful for soothing sore muscles and achy feet at the end of the day. I felt like I was in a Calgon commercial.
The Bad, and the Ugly: As other reviews have suggested, the new flooring (I couldn't figure out if it was a convincing vinyl or a rubbery laminate) looks nice and woodsy but is already beginning to be scratched and scuffed in places. Also, the paint on the kitchen cabinets, master bathroom vanities and villa doors is bubbling up and peeling here and there (and
not in a way that gives them a fashionable "aged" look). The breakfast bar in the kitchen/living area was of little practical use, given the close proximity of the entertainment center and the big supports underneath it (just the right height and width for banging your knees no matter where you sit). Still, overall we were absolutely delighted with our room and remarked on more than one occasion that we felt we were discovering "how the other half lives."
In no particular order, here are some pictures of our villa:
