“If you have stayed at Disney’s Old Key West resort in the past, how have you
enjoyed your stay(s) there? What are the strengths of this resort compared to
the other DVC resorts? What (if any) are the downsides of staying there? What
about OKW do you think can be improved?”

Lisa writes:

Old Key West was the resort that we stayed at when took our oldest
children, then ages 3 and 4 now 17 and 18, to Disney for their first trip. It
was
a most magical trip in part due to the resort. We love all the resorts,
but OKW will always be first in my heart.

Strengths: spacious rooms, full size washer/dryers, spacious
dining/kitchen area, spacious patios, multiple bus stops with constant bus
service,
location near the “World” but far enough away to help with the relaxation
portion of the trips, ability to park close to your unit, nice main pool area
with a reasonable snack bar, point costs are reasonable and due to the size
of the resort, it can be reasonably easy to obtain a reservation.

Weaknesses: spacious rooms spoil one for the other resort room sizes, not
as close to the parks as some of the other resorts, the size of the resort
can also be a drawback if you are not located near the area you would like
to be at or if you do not have a car to take you to the main pool
area/eating area/check in area.Not quite as many shopping/eating opportunities
that
other resorts have.

========

Laurie writes:

We were introduced to OKW back in 2002. We had booked a vacation package (3
night cruise and 4 night WDW package) at Port Orleans. Well they were
remodeling the resort and moved us over to OKW in a studio. How dare they!
: ) After our stay there we decided to take the tour and then purchased
direct on the spot. We have not regretted that decision but did learn to
purchase via resale after for our next purchase.

Pros – love the room size, full size washer/dryer, outside rooms vs.
interior halls, parking close to your room, laid back atmosphere vs. rush of
other resorts, boat ride to DTD, easier to reserve than other resorts

Cons – further away from the resorts, buildings are very spread out, no
elevators expect in a couple of buildings

We also own at BCV but prefer to stay at OKW instead.

========

Michele writes:

I have been staying at OKW for 20 years… Love the size of the rooms. I
really like that the studio has 2 queen beds in it. I hate having someone sleep
on a sofa bed. Plus I like that it is not attached to a hotel like the other
ones. Love taking the boat at night to Downtown Disney. Plus the castmembers
are great there. Most of them have been there from the begining. It has a very
warm feeling compared to the other ones.

The one thing I would change is the buses. They need to have more buses in
service. That is the only problem that I have seen. It would be nice if you
could rent golf carts to get around the property since it is so large.

=======

Another writes:

OKW pluses: Large rooms well maintained. close to epcot and HS.
OKW deltas: the food options are very limited. The Goods quick service is the
worst of the DVC options. The turtle shack is only convenient if you are near
it and then very limited. Resort is very spread out so you will not go anywhere
but what is near you. Therefore it is important to specify where you want to
be.

========

Karrilynn writes:

We went to WDW in July 2011 and had a split stay at BCV and OKW. We really
enjoyed our stay at OKW. It started the moment we drove through the gate and the
guard called me a princess. He totally made my day from that moment! When we
went to check-in the level of service was far superior to any other DVC resort.
We really felt like family and owners of DVC. We’ve stayed at AKV (our home) BCV
and SSR in the past, but have never felt more at home than at OKW. It’s kind of
funny, in all the times I’ve read posts on this board and heard people saying
that would only stay at OKW, I didn’t understand until we stayed at OKW for
ourselves. We did have some trouble with our rooms because our reservations were
linked and this caused numerous problems with dining and room assignments, but
the OKW staff was wonderful and handled everything quickly and thoroughly.

We spent a lot of time at the pool area and did eat at Olivia’s twice during our
stay. Olivia’s food was great and it’s now one of our favorites. We all loved
the pool and thought the bottom of the pool was the easiest on your feet because
of how smooth it was. My four boys (12,10,9 and 6) loved OKW’s pool just as much
as Stormalong Bay! The slide was fast and a lot of fun. The staff that handled
the activities were a lot of fun too. A few times we walked to the quick service
by the main pool and got lunch and really like eating on the picnic tables. The
rooms were amazing with tons of room for our family of 7. Loved the layout!! We
had a water view/green view in building 64 (I think) and we woke up and watched
the golfers putting to make their shots. The building had an elevator which made
it easier for the my mom because she rented a scooter during our visit. The
villa also had a separate laundry area, which was great so laundry wasn’t in the
middle of the villa.

I really think the only downside to the resort is transportation. Transportation
is somewhat far from the buildings, but traveling by scooter to the bus stop is
somewhat dangerous due to lack of handicap accessible curbs on each corner. We
went to either Miller’s Crossing or Hospitality House bus stops and had trouble
with both stops. Also order of pick-up was a little weird. With a resort this
big, there has to be another way to make transportation work.

Overall, we love the resort and plan on staying there next time we return to
WDW. When we stayed we had limited points and wanted the extra day, so we chose
OKW. I don’t totally understand why it’s less points to stay at OKW, but lets
not tell Disney that.

==========

Michael writes:

We first toured The Disney Vacation Club Resort (Old Key West) at the end on
1992 and bought in 1993. (we have since added on 3 times all at OKW). We love
the “look” of the resort, love parking close to the room, love the size of the
rooms and the layout. Over the years we have stayed in everything from a
Studio to a Grand Villa at OKW and have enjoyed every trip. The cast members
are friendly and we have seen several for years on our trips. We enjoy the fact
that it is further away from the “action” and is quite and relaxing. DTD is a
boat ride away and though we normally have our car to visit other resorts
restaurants the bus service is normally good. We have visited all the other DVC
resorts and have stayed at 3 others (Saratoga, Boardwalk, & Beach Club) but
enjoy OKW the most. I love the atmosphere at Olivia’s too. (While at home, my
wife gets quite tired of me answering “Olivia’s” when asked where I’d like to go
to dinner.)

As we are getting older the only thing I would like to see different at OKW is
more elevators. While far from handicapped, my wife has a difficult time with
stairs. Most of the time we get our request of a ground level room but it would
be nice to skip the steps.

The only other thing I would like to change is to add “Key Lime White Chocolate
Mousse” back on the menu at Olivia’s. It was removed several years ago. Anyone
have the recipe?

=========

Dennis writes:

Old Key West is DVC”s First, Oldest and BEST resort in my opinion.

I love the laid back atmosphere, spacious rooms and ample parking at your
villa. Olivia’s offers good home cooking while Goods to Go has a great quick
service Menu. Arlene makes the Gurgling Suitcase a friendly place to hang
out even if you are not having a cocktail and Mary Ann’s Recreation program
is the best.

Simply the BEST resort on Property!

========

Joe writes:

We have loved OKW the few times we stayed there. There a many positives
and a few negatives.

Positives:
Largest rooms in DVC – they were the original vacation club resort
and the rooms they have been built since then have been made smaller.
Love how quickly you can leave the parks and you are back home.
Have not had any issues with buses and this is considering my wife uses her
own scooter to get around.
Love Olivia’s – it truly is a great restaurant.
Also like the fact there are the buses and can also use boats to go
to different locations.

Negatives:
Do not like the fact there is no quick service location – similar to
Artist Palate at SSR. I know they have that small place on the Boardwalk,
but they only offer a couple of items when you want something to eat.
That’s it!

=========

Teri writes:

Our last vacation july 4th 2011 we stayed at OKW in 1 BDR. We loved it so much
that when we add on (saving out pennies) it will be there resale. we will be in
our 80′s in 2042 and while my other and Dh’s mother are still vibrant young
women at 84 and 86, it won’t be the worst thing for it to expire. We will still
have our SSR points for a while. Love the whole place though I do request a
ground floor if I can, near the main pool. Bot I’m open to check out the new
feature pool and whole center they are putting in. Cast can’t do enough to make
a kid smile and I just love the atmosphere of not being bombarded with mickeydom
everywhere we look. Like I said that’s where we’ll add on.

Our clients Matt and Ginny from North Carolina sent us these pictures of Maho Beach in St Maarten.  We booked them on a Celebrity Eclipse cruise that visited St Maarten as part of an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.  Maho Beach is just past the St Maarten airport and features planes flying low over the beach.  “I am a little bit of an airplane buff so I really enjoy Maho Beach,” says Matt.  “Thanks for all your help in planning this cruise,” he added.

We had one client staying on Oahu ask if she could go visit Aulani without staying there. Disney says no, “Aulani is set up for resort guests only” was the reply we received when we checked into this.

We’ll be happy to give you a price quote on an Aulani stay. In addition to checking prices from Disney, we have other ways to book the resort (for a resort stay only or an air-resort package) that may be less than Disney’s prices.

• More Disney info! You will notice on the front page we have icons for the five major Disney products (Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, Aulani, and Adventures by Disney).  If you click on one of these icons a new page will come up with the latest up to date information about that vacation destination.  We are a Disney Earmarked Agency, a special designation given to us by Disney, due to our Disney expertise and volume of Disney sales.  Thanks to that, Disney has provided us a special page for each of these destinations with loads of useful information.
• Videos! All the videos on our site are from the Family Travel Gurus team, taken on our own trips.  You’ll see ship videos, tour videos, and more.  We often find the best way to tell someone about a vacation is to show them – we hope you find value from these videos.
• More trip reviews! We have always written up trip reviews on our own travels.   We also receive some wonderful trip reports from our clients.  On our new site you’ll continue to see our reports, and more reports from our clients.  We always ask permission before posting any of your trip reports to our website, and we thank those clients who have shared their experiences.
• Our Team Is Growing! For many years the Family Travel Gurus site was a work of love for founders Tim and Anne Larison.  We are adding travel agents to work for us, agents with the same passion for family travel that we have.  If you look under “About Us” and “Meet Our Travel Consultants” you will read the bios of our agents.
• Interviews! We will from time to time feature interviews with family travel experts on our site.
• Return of our Blog and Snapshot Stories! We took a break from blogging for a few months as we reworked our website.  We are back blogging on topics related to family travel.  We also are re-starting our “Snapshot Stories” feature (look under the Reviews heading).  These are pictures shared by our team and our clients, with a short one paragraph story as to why that travel photo is special to them.
• Newsletter signup – we send out our own newsletter once a month highlighting one or two vacation destinations.  We also use our newsletter list to send out the very best of vacation offers we come across.  If you sign up for our list you’ll get the newsletter and occasional special offers (you won’t be bombarded by email – on average you’ll receive one to three emails a month)

We hope you will consider us to book your next family vacation.  You will be well taken care of.  But even if you have other ways to book your vacations, we hope you will find our new website a good resource in your vacation planning.

According to a July 2010 article in the Denver Post, here are some of the best pools in Las Vegas. They are listed by category:

Best All-Around
The Mirage Resort & Casino
Highlights: Tropical setup with lagoons and soothing waterfalls, plenty of palm trees for shade, terrific family and adult offerings.

Best For Families
Mandalay Bay Beach at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay
Highlights: Three laid-back swimming pools, a lazy river and a large wave pool, reasonably priced food at the Beach Bar & Grill.

Best Mom Getaway
Sunday mornings at Flamingo’s GO Pool
Highlights: Over 21 only, entry to over-21 GO pool for women free and male hotel guests – $15 daily.

Best Pool Party
WET Republic at MGM Grand
Highlights: Underwater speakers boost an amazing sound system, rotating roster of some of the best DJs in the country, excellent drink roster, good food, clean pool (over 21 only).

Best Cabanas
The Golden Nugget
Highlights: Comfy, well-cushioned chairs and loveseats, as well as lamps, end tables and groovy art in spacious cabanas, which also sport mini-fridges, a stereo system and flat-screen TV; situated at The Tank pool in the over-16 Hideout area.

Best Beach
HRH Beach Club at the Hard Rock Hotel
Highlights: The sand actually leads right into the water, swim-up blackjack and a little island pool within the pool that is always about 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding water.

Best Chairs
Garden of the Gods at Caesars Palace
Highlights: Sturdy metal loungers topped with velvety soft cushions that absorb water and hold their shape. Spring for a day bed or cabana which are topped with half foot-thick cushions covered with the same plush fabric.

Contact us for a no-obligation price quote on your next Las Vegas get-away!

(photo of the hard rock pool area by Tim Larison)

If viewing this in facebook click here to see the video

Castaway Cay is our favorite cruise line “private island” and the Pelican Plunge promises to be a good addition!

If viewing this on facebook click here to see the video

We love the pictures of Castaway Cay, and the Disney Wonder sailing away. Castaway Cay is one of our favorite spots on earth!

If viewing this on facebook click here to see the video

This week Disney came out with a video showing how Animator’s Palette will have a new, fresh look on the Dream. See the video here:

If viewing this on facebook click here to see the video.