Quick visit to Old Key West

**Tink** · 19-10-2010, 01:33 PM

Herself and I spent the past weekend at Old Key West. Staying on property for the Food and Wine Festival is one of our "traditions."

We arrived at the resort around 10:00 am. The Guard at the gate greeted us with warmth and wished us the obligatory, "Welcome Home!"

There was not much of a line for check in at that hour, so we were taken quite quickly. The one bedroom villa was not ready yet, but we were given our building number (34) and asked if we preferred a text message or voice mail notification for when the villa was ready. We chose text.

We moved our car to the parking lot for building 34 (on Turtle Pond Rd) and went to the bus stop and boarded the first EPCOT bus!

It didn't seem like long (just a bit after noon) when our text arrived telling us we had villa 3411. We returned to the villa around 2:00 pm to unload the car and settle in before heading back out.

We had a newly refurbished villa, but were surprised to see that we'd been given a handicapped access.

The wooden floors were nice. Tile remains at the entry, which is a good feature for damp feet returning from the pool. The interior decor was mostly teal, which to be honest didn't seem to "Key West," but was nice for all that. The granite countertops were nice, but the kitchen sink (double stainless) seemed quite shallow. That could have been a feature of the HC room though, not sure.

The refrigerator was a double door with ice maker, again due to the HC room? The dishwasher was lined with stainless steel. NICE.

The room felt warm so we lowered the AC. We learned upon return to the room much later in the evening (around 10:00 pm) that apparently the AC was not working properly. Had we been staying longer, or had it been hotter, we'd have had to call for maintenance. As it was, we just turned on the overhead fans and dealt with it. Not a huge issue.

The view was of the end (or if you prefer beginning) of the canal system. Pretty enough, but the end of a canal can be rather unlovely what with algae growth, ect. Not a big deal. A view from another window featured a spraying water fountain.

All was peaceful at OKW. No loud parties, no loud early morning golfers... no loud buses... one of the many reasons we love this resort.

We did have our "traditional" drink at the Gurgling Suitcase, but not first off as we usually do (10:00 am is a bit too early for us)!

After unpacking we went to the little pub and instead of the usual kickoff Bud with lime, we had a blood orange martini. I'd not call it a martini by any means, but it was NICE!

We did our usual nosey around the little shop too. There were no surprises for merchandise, the basic few clothing items, gifts, food, beverages, and the like. A handy little place!

We never did get a chance to get in the pool, but we did use the clothes washer! LOL.

So, all in all a nice (albeit very brief) stay, with nicely redone villas. We'd not choose an HC room again, and will be sure to request we NOT have one, but that's just our preference. (We really didn't care for the shower set up, and the shower head didn't work properly, spraying water all over the place.We found it very odd that the control for the hand held option was at the very top of the wall mounted shower. No one in a WC would be able to reach it at all)!

It's always nice to "go home" to Old Key West whenever we get the chance!

**DisneyFreak** · 19-10-2010, 01:52 PM

Thanks for the report Tink. We will be checking into OKW in a couple days!!

**Slowhand** · 19-10-2010, 01:55 PM

Reading your mini trippie brought back some happy memories of OKW for me Tink.
Although it`s our Home Resort, it`s been ages since we were last there. Ever since we bought our villa, we tend to get our Disney "fix" nowadays by spending a few days at the GF which also gives my DW a break from doing her household chores.

Having said that we do love OKW and we MUST go back again some day if only for a short stay.

**daveann** · 19-10-2010, 02:06 PM

do you know ive never set foot at OKW we really must go and have a look around

**Tink** · 19-10-2010, 02:56 PM

It really is a lovely place. The resort itself is set on immaculate grounds (most of which are a golf course) and has a lovely walk (along a "forested" area) along the canal to DTD, not to mention all sorts of opportunities to walk throughout the resort.

The canal to DTD provides a nice opportunity for a ferry boat ride too. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Trumble Ferry was not running to DTD for the daytime hours on Saturday as there were the Dragon Boat Races going on at DTD.

The Ferry was running to SSR, where you could then walk over to DTD. We didn't do this as we were there for the FWF, and didn't want to take time from it, but we "heard" that a great time was had by all who attended.