Who/When/Where:

Who: Sue (63), DVC Member
SB (65), my husband
Tiana & Jonell, friends
Dates: October 24 – 28, 2022
Resort: Disney’s Old Key West Resort
Experience: Very Experienced – 61st stay at OKW

INTRODUCTION:
Despite this being my 61st stay at Old Key West, this is one of my least favorite resorts and I’m really hating that we’re not staying at Beach Club or Boardwalk like we’ve always done for Food & Wine Festival. There are things I like about OKW but there are too many things I really dislike. Back when Pleasure Island was open, I spent my evenings at Comedy Warehouse, and that’s where most of those 61 stays came from – it was a great choice for those trips. Other than a couple grand villa stays I generally don’t bother with this resort any more – it’s pretty, but the 5 bus stops is a huge negative and spending time in World Showcase at Epcot from here frankly is a big pain in the ass. I am not a fan. However, sometimes things you’re not crazy for become the best choice of what’s available at the time.

This trip was originally planned for 2020 Food & Wine Festival. For Food & Wine I’ve ALWAYS stayed at either Beach Club or Boardwalk. It makes no sense to me to be anywhere else. Unfortunately, 2020 was the initial year of covid, and my childhood best friend (she & hubby were joining us) Linda was much more nervous about covid than I am. They were not comfortable getting on an airplane (from Boston) and I also knew they’d be nervous being around other people so when they decided to not come down, I wasn’t surprised. 2021 was a year we were doing Food & Wine with Pete & Judy, and I’m glad we had that time since Pete unexpectedly passed away in January of 2022. We’d set Food & Wine 2022 for Linda & Wiston and my plan was to book Boardwalk Villas – 1 bedroom for SB & me for 5 nights, separate studio for Linda & Wiston for 4 nights (they’d add on at Swan/Dolphin or at a Marriott property somewhere nearby to extend their trip).

When the 11-month window opened I was online right at 8am and was unpleasantly surprised to find that even with borrowing points from the next year I was 1 point short!! DVC had this stupid temporary rule in place at the time (stupid because there’s no backlog of points after the first year since they reopened in summer 2020) that only let members borrow 50% of their points. That made sense for the first year after reopening, but not after that. I could buy the point, but not until the 7-month window, and there would not be any rooms at Boardwalk by then. So, I ended up booking a 2-bedroom villa for all of us at Old Key West.

I never would have put the 4 of us in a 2-bedroom at Boardwalk, as it’s just too small. However, the one plus to Old Key West is the villas are huge compared to Boardwalk & Beach Club. Unfortunately, you give up the location, and have to accept ridiculous bus rides, long walks through Epcot to get to where you want to be, etc. But I knew Linda & Wiston wouldn’t be interested in spending every day at Food & Wine (that would be my plan if I didn’t have other people with me, lol) so having crappy access to Epcot was a little less of an issue. Plus, this trip was about spending time with them.

About 2 months before the trip Linda started emailing about her foot problems – bad heel spur, might need surgery, wears a clunky boot when walking, and she felt with her weight it wasn’t right to ask Wiston to push her in a wheelchair. I researched and sent her info from the Disney site, recommending a regular wheelchair rental from Scooter Bug (delivered to the resort, picked up from there after she would be done with it). At this point she’d already booked and paid for our Cirque tickets, which aren’t cheap but ARE non-refundable. They also fly for free (standby), and the lodging was covered by me, so it didn’t make sense to not come down even if it meant we only spent the 2nd part of the day together. SB was looking forward to the parks, and I wasn’t going to deny him that since he doesn’t get to come on every trip (and I don’t want to bother with the parks when it’s disgustingly hot & humid).

A week or so later she texted me to say they weren’t coming – grrr. I understand the mobility issue making it “not worth it” for them, but now they’ve screwed up our Food & Wine trip.. There’s nothing available in the dvc resorts so we’re stuck with a 2-bedroom villa at a location that absolutely sucks for Food & Wine. Never again will I book lodging that would be shared with them – if they decide to come down at some point I’ll tell them where we’re staying and leave it at that. If I can book them a studio for some of the nights without having to borrow points I’ll do that, but our lodging will be completely independent of theirs – and we’ll be doing what we want, with an invitation for them to join us if they’d like. It seems every dvc member who tries to be nice to family or friends gets burned at some point. I’ve actually had a long run of good luck!

When SB & I renewed our park passes we went with the cheapest option for FL residents – basically Monday through Friday access. That suits me just fine! Weekends are busier in the parks and frankly they’re just not fun anymore. It means I won’t be able to go in with Chris/Amanda/Ari on Saturdays or Sundays but being able to do that 2-3 times a year for a couple of hours wasn’t worth an extra $500 each.

Initially I booked our arrival for Tuesday 10/25 but when I learned Billy Ocean was performing 10/23 & 10/24 (we’re blocked out 10/23) I got online and changed the reservation to add the night of 10/24. SB loved seeing Billy Ocean in Epcot years ago and our dates have not aligned for several years so I knew he’d like this. After Linda canceled out I dropped the last 2 nights, so we’ll be here Monday through Thursday nights.

Linda’s 65th birthday is 10/29, which is Saturday. She wanted to do some restaurants this trip and I knew she’s interested in the Boathouse at Disney Springs. SB has never been there, so that was a good choice. In late July Linda & I were tossing ideas around and settled on the 8pm Cirque Drawn to Life show over at Disney Springs! I booked dinner earlier so we wouldn’t be rushed at all. When she canceled their trip she called Cirque and they refunded her money for the ticket – I was surprised, but happy for her. I changed the Boathouse from dinner for 4 on Saturday to lunch for 2 on Friday. SB & I can head there after leaving OKW and have lunch before driving home.

I reached out to our friends Tiana & Jonell, offering the 2nd bedroom to them. We enjoy touring Disney with them, especially Food & Wine. Unfortunately, they can only join us for the first night – due to not wanting to board their dog. So, SB & I will enjoy the big villa the final 3 of 4 nights. Our priority is Food & Wine – but Flight of Passage is a must do for us so I booked Animal Kingdom park reservations for one day and Epcot for the other days. I don’t care about Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom. I’ll try to buy the lightning lane thing for Flight of Passage – that’s the only attraction that’s really worth it to me. Genie+ pisses me off to no end, so we’re not buying that.

We might do a few other things – perhaps lunch at Steakouse 71 or dinner at Splitsville, maybe check out the dvc lounge at BLT, but we’ll see. At the dvc lounge (Villians Lair) they reserve much of it for people paying $55 for a drink, appetizer and dessert – if you don’t do that you show up at 5:45 and go on a waiting list to see if you’ll be let upstairs to buy overpriced appetizers and drinks. I don’t see us traveling over from OKW to sit around the lobby waiting to find out if we make the cut to go upstairs. I want to enjoy Food & Wine Festival and that’s hard to do if you’re eating big meals, so Boathouse might end up being our only restaurant meal. Also, getting to Food & Wine from OKW is a huge pain in the rear, so the inconvenience may leave SB grumbling that he doesn’t want to bother. Thank goodness I booked another trip in early November when I’m staying at Beach Club Villas to do Food & Wine right!

The plans so far are:
Monday 10/24: Drive to OKW, Epcot, Billy Ocean
Tuesday 10/25: Epcot/Food & Wine
Wednesday 10/26: Animal Kingdom
Thursday 10/27: Epcot/Food & Wine
Friday 10/28: Disney Springs, Boathouse lunch, Drive to Gainesville

Sue/WDW1972

Sue, couldn't you just drive from OKW to Epcot?

Steve S.

On Monday, October 24, 2022 at 5:36:29 AM UTC-5, Steve Soares wrote:
> Sue, couldn't you just drive from OKW to Epcot?
>
> Steve S.

Chicago is littered with battery powered scooters. I can imagine some fancy version from Imagineering laboratories available for rental.

On Monday, October 24, 2022 at 6:36:29 AM UTC-4, Steve Soares wrote:
> Sue, couldn't you just drive from OKW to Epcot?
>
> Steve S.
Yes, but the issue is I can't stand the front entrance to Epcot and when we're only going to World Showcase prefer to not have to walk through the long construction zone coming and going. Tomorrow we'll enter that way because it'll be morning and we'll knock out what attractions we care about before Food & Wine starts. If we return later I'm more likely to drive over to Boardwalk.

Sue/WDW1972