Category — q. Reviews

This is the fourth page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort. For the first page, see this.

MORE ON DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

There are currently 8 official Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World.

However, I have come to count them as ten, because two of the resorts–Saratoga Springs and the Animal Kingdom Villas–have two very different areas.

In order of their appropriateness for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World, they are:

1. The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Jambo House
3. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas–Kidani Village
4. Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
5. The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
6. Disney’s Beach Club Villas
7. Disney’s Boardwalk Villas
8. Disney’s Old Key West Resort
9. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa, main resort
10. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, Treehouse Villas area.

These resorts are available to anyone to reserve through the regular Walt Disney World website or resort reservations phone number at 407-939-7675.

They also are available to the general public at great discounts through renting points from a Disney Vacation Club member. (They are also of course available to these members themselves.)

All Disney Vacation Club resorts have studio rooms, One-Bedroom Villas, and Two-Bedroom Villas.

Most have Grand Villas as well.

Old Key West floor plans of all four room types, which were all renovated in 2011-2012,  are below.

At Old Key West, Studios sleep 4 and have a microwave and a mini-fridge.

See the second page of this review for multiple photos of a Studio--disguised as the second bedroom of a Two-Bedroom Villa!

The One-Bedroom Villas sleep 5, including three on fold-out beds in a full kitchen/dining/living space.

See the second page for more images of the master bedroom, and the third page for images of the combined kitchen/living/dining space.

They also have large porch or balcony, and a separate master bedroom.

Two-Bedroom Villas add a second four-person bedroom (similar, or identical, to a Studio) to the amenities of a One-Bedroom, and sleep 9.

Functionally they combine the amenities of a Studio and a One-Bedroom Villa, so the images on pages 2 and 3 all apply to Two-Bedroom Villas as well.

Grand Villas sleep 12 in almost twice the space of a Two-Bedroom Villa, in three bedrooms plus sleeper sofas. At Old Key West, Grand Villas are two-story spaces.

Grand Villas hold three more people in space almost twice as big a the 9-person Two-Bedroom Villas.
The extra space downstairs comes from doubling the already commodious size of the kitchen/dining/living area, and moving the second bedroom the the upper level–where it is joined by a third bedroom, also sleeping four.

These spaces are also about twice as expensive as Two-Bedroom Villas…

You all haven’t found the sponsors of this site quite appealing enough yet for me to have been able to afford to stay in a Grand Villa, but I’m sure they are quite nice!!  And a fellow can dream…look for a review of one here within the decade…

(To each of the capacity figures above, you can add one more kid under 3 at time of check in who sleeps in a crib.)

THEMING, AMENITIES, AND CHOICES AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

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This is the third page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort. For the first page, see this.

PHOTO TOUR OF A TWO BEDROOM VILLA AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT, CONTINUED: THE LIVING/DINING/KITCHEN SPACE

The living/dining/kitchen space at Disney’s Old Key West Resort is the same in both the One and Two-Bedroom Villas.

These spaces are astonishingly large, much larger than at the other comparable DVC resorts.

See the Two-Bedroom Villa floor plan.

The kitchen is full-sized, and the living room nearly as big as you’ll find in many homes.  The dining area, while not large, is much larger than at any other comparable DVC resort except the Treehouse Villas, and the Treehouses are also the only DVC resort with a comparably large balcony.

As you enter the Villa from outside, you’ll find an entry foyer, with a closet on one side with a high chair, vacuum, etc…

…and beyond it a mirror and a shelf occupied, on our visit, by a mystery towel animal. We think (since it was early December) that it was a snowman…

Down the entry hall you’ll find the entry to the master bedroom area on one side, and if in a Two-Bedroom Villa, to the second bedroom on the other.

Here’s the entry hall from the other direction, from near the kitchen island.

On the way to the master bedroom you’ll find the laundry room with a washer, dryer and a single use box of Tide.

The rooms with a second entry to the bath access it through the laundry room.

Back to the main space…as you enter the main kitchen/living/dining space, the 5 corner windows surrounding the living room space immediately attract your attention. See the image at the top of the page, above, and below.

Most comparable DVC spaces have a small couch and a chair, and really seat only 4.  This space sits 6 comfortably, and eight of slender hips–and even more by grabbing chairs from the dining area.

The dining area is right next to the living area, and adds three more floor-to-ceiling windows (for a total of 8 large windows in this space) which also double as balcony access.

Here’s a closer view of the dining table. Compared to almost all other DVC resorts this table and the space it occupies is huge.  It seats 6 easily, and more in a pinch (there’s four more chairs at the table on the balcony you can bring in, and, if you have a Two-Bedroom Villa, two more chairs in the second bedroom).

In the back corner of the dining area there’s a counter and set of cabinets–extra storage space you don’t see in the other comparable DVC rooms, begging for a Monopoly or Axis and Allies boxed game…

Behind the window shades beyond the dining table are doors to the balcony, with a second table and four chairs.  This space is so large it really serves as another room–except during the hot summer months.

Different people will have different favorite parts of these wonderful rooms–but I like the kitchen the most.

All the DVC One and Two-Bedroom Villas have the basic kitchen stuff–fridges, ranges, microwaves, toaster, coffee pots, and all the pots, pans, utensils and service items needed to support it.

What distinguishes the Old Key West Kitchen is its large size and vast sweep of counter space. The most complicated things we’ve made here are scrambled eggs and grilled cheese…but in this kitchen, you really could put together a full meal for 9 without being cramped…

THE FOLD-OUT BEDS IN DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

Two-Bedroom Villas at Old Key West sleep 9, and One-Bedroom Villas sleep 5.  In each case, three of those are allocated to the fold-out couch and chair in the living room.

As always, I both slept on and carefully measured each of these beds.  The smaller bed is ~29 inches wide by ~78″ long (it sleeps a little shorter than that, because of the configuration of the head).

The larger bed is ~59″ wide and ~70 inches long.

I wouldn’t put an adult on either of these.  The smaller bed has the better mattress-about 5 inches of foam.  But what I will obfuscatingly call my hips were not sufficiently padded.

The larger bed has a mattress that nominally measures about 4.5 inches wide, but it’s really a cover with a mattress inside that’s thinner.  This bed provides little support for adults, or even heavier kids.

(Note: we did not paint the couch–this image is from my May 2013 trip…when I went back to get the measurements I lost after the December 2012 trip…)

The little Christmas tree in the corner of the second-to-last image is not supplied by Disney!  We grabbed that for $20 at the Walgreen’s on Apopka-Vineland Road…below is a shot of it in another space in our room.

MORE ON DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

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This is the second page of this review of Disney’s Old Key West Resort. For the first page, see this.

A PHOTO TOUR OF A TWO BEDROOM VILLA AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

Disney’s Old Key West Resort has four room types–Studios, One-Bedroom Villas, Two-Bedroom Villas, and Grand Villas.

You can see the bones of each of the first three room types in a Two-Bedroom Villa, and that’s what this photo tour covers.

See the Two Bedroom floor plan.

At the lower right you’ll see a space with two beds.  That’s basically the same as a Studio, and the rest of the spaces are the same as a One-Bedroom Villa.

Some Two-Bedroom Villas are literally the combination of a Studio and a One-Bedroom, with locking doors between, and two entrances–one to the Studio and one to the One Bedroom.  These are called “lockoffs.”

Other Two-Bedroom Villas are designed as single units, and thus don’t have the second outside door.  Instead they have a second closet where the outside door is shown in the above floor plan.

My photos are from a Two-Bedroom Villa designed as a single unit. Our unit also was the mirror image of the floor plan, with the second bedroom/”Studio” on the left of the entry, rather than the right.  This almost certainly will confuse me, and perhaps you too…

THE SECOND BEDROOM/ “STUDIO” SIDE OF A TWO BEDROOM VILLA AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

The second bedroom/”Studio” side sleeps 4 in a spacious room with two queen beds.

Also in this space is a good-sized table with two chairs…

…a TV and dresser…

…and at least one, and depending on the room type, as many as two closets. One closet is in the space just outside the bath…

And the other closet, if present, is in the space where in a Studio, or lock-off Two Bedroom, you’d find the outside entry door to the Studio/bedroom.

In addition to the first closet, just outside the bath you’ll find a sink. In lockoffs/Studios you’ll also find here a microwave and mini-fridge. (My rule, in case you were wondering, is “No microwave, no focus!)

The bath in the second bedroom is fine.

True Studios have their own balcony–unless a Two-Bedroom Villa is a lockoff, the second bedroom won’t have this balcony.

While there’s nothing special about these second bedroom/Studios, they are large, spacious, and quite livable.

THE MASTER BEDROOM IN ONE AND TWO BEDROOM VILLAS AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

The master bedroom, with a king bed, easy chair, and associated bath, is the same in both One and Two-Bedroom Villas.

On the floor plan above it’s on the left; in our room, it was at the right of the entry.  See the images above for shots of the king bed from both sides.

Also on the bed side of the room is an easy chair.

On the other side of the master bedroom you’ll find a door to the balcony…

…drawers with a TV behind doors above them…

…and further along a padded bench with a couple more large drawers.

This bedroom also has a spectacular divided bath, with a whirlpool tub and pedestal sink…

…a closet nearby…

…and a separate space with a toilet, large shower, and sink.

As noted on the first page of this review, in a major design error, many One and Two-Bedroom Villas, have no entry to this bath from the central living/dining/kitchen area.

This means access to this bath for those sleeping on the fold-out beds in the central space is directly through the master bedroom…which kinda defeats the purpose of having a private master bedroom…

THE CENTRAL LIVING SPACE OF ONE AND TWO-BEDROOM VILLAS AT DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT

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OVERVIEW: DISNEY’S OLD KEY WEST RESORT FOR FIRST TIME VISITORS

Disney’s Old Key West Resort (a Disney Vacation Club (“DVC”) Resort) is a wonderful place for returning visitors to Walt Disney World to stay.

It’s the most spacious, most livable, and least expensive of the DVC resorts, and is my personal favorite among them.

For typical first-time visitors, I don’t recommend the Disney Vacation Club resorts.

That said, these “DVC” resorts can be a great choice for first time visitors with large families, needing extra sleeping spaces, or looking for a more comfortable place to stay.

Among the Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Disney’s Old Key West Resort ranks eighth overall for first time visitors, with its particular strengths being livability and value for money.

OLD KEY WEST AND THE DISNEY VACATION CLUB RESORTS

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LOEWS PORTOFINO BAY HOTEL AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

Loews Portofino Bay Hotel is one of three deluxe hotels in the Universal Orlando resort. (The other two are the Royal Pacific, reviewed here, and the Hard Rock Hotel.)

This site’s Instructions for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter suggest that families wishing to visit Harry Potter that can afford it book a room at at one of the Universal hotels.

This is because the Universal hotels give terrific perks at Universal Orlando to hotel guests.

Most relevant to Harry Potter is that the Wizarding World opens to guests of these hotels one hour before it opens to the general public.

(If you are staying just one night, this is true both your day of check-in and your day of check-out.)

This makes it particularly easy to fit in both Ollivanders and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey without hours of waiting.

Another great perk is that Universal hotel guests can use their room key as the equivalent of a FASTPASS for many rides at any time.  This does not apply to the Forbidden Journey or Ollivanders--the only perk that applies to them is the early entry.

All three hotels are nice, convenient to both parks at Universal Orlando, and expensive. Loews Portofino Bay is the most gorgeous (and expensive) of them, but its village theme will go over the head of most kids.

We had the chance to stay at Portofino Bay in early March. Our stay wasn’t long enough for a full review of the hotel and all its services, so this is really just a review of our room (though as you’ll note there’s photos of the rest of the place above). [Read more →]

FAVORITE COMIC ATTRACTIONS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Welcome to those coming from Capturing Magical Memories and those of you just hopping aboard.

I am the 2nd stop on our Magical Blogorail. Enjoy the ride as this month Magical Blogorail Teal discusses April Foolishness–our favorite comic shows, attractions and such at Walt Disney World!

TURTLE TALK WITH CRUSH AT EPCOT

There’s lots of places I could have gone with this, but for comedy and drop-dead cuteness, nothing else at Walt Disney World can hold a candle to Turtle Talk with Crush.

This site’s Comprehensive Guide to Rides rates all the rides from the point of view of both little kids and older kids and adults.  There’s one group of around twenty rides ranked both as “Best-Loved” for little kids, and “Favorites” for older kids and adults.

Turtle Talk with Crush is one of the rides that’s top ranked for all age groups. 

And it’s both quite funny and quite cute–with much of the comedy coming from reacting to the cuteness…

REVIEW: TURTLE TALK WITH CRUSH AT EPCOT

[Read more →]