Where have you stayed?

[Keith]

Glad you agree ...it means we have similar tastes..so I should like the Swan as you did

Oh I've not a doubt in the world that you'll love it!

[Debbie2]

Oh I've not a doubt in the world that you'll love it!

Music to my ears, Keith

[Rosie0610]

I've stayed at:
WDW
Beach Club
BW
BWV
All Star Sports
POP
Dolphin

Off Site
Raddison PKWY
Hampton Inn( I think) by US
Royal Pacific

My absolute favorite is the Royal Pacific. US really has the edge on hotels and themeing and quality. That hotel is so nice and usually you can get a pretty decent rate to stay there. Can't beat the FOTL access!

Favorite WDW resort (besides the Dolphin which would win hands down for the beds alone!) is BW. I love the easy walk to EPCOT and that whole area. That being said it really is too expensive for me to stay there without my parents paying any longer

[Slowhand]

Seeing as we have a villa in Davenport, that`s where we normally stay.
Having said that sometimes we use our DVC points for a bit of luxury at the GF where we have stayed loads of times.
Other than that we`ve stayed at Sheraton World [near to Seaworld], The Hilton at DTD, Wilderness Lodge, OKW, Vero Beach, and at a couple of places in the Keys.

[Keith]

Has anyone stayed at the hotel in the Florida Mall?

I know it may sound daft, but we love to have a really good shop and quite tempted.

How about Gaylord Palms? We were given a tour around it in May and the rooms look really nice, great restaurants etc

[Tink]

My first full visit to WDW was a stay at some "suites" near Old Town. Can't quite remember the name? They were ok, getting shabby, but the price was so ridiculously low we couldn't complain ($99 for 10 days)!

We stayed for weekends and overnights at some of the really inexpensive places on 192. Again, can't remember the names, but the last time we did that the place was so nasty we left. We went to relatives in the area (thank heaven) and haven't done the "cheap hotels" since.

So, for the good experiences.

We've stayed at All Stars (Sports and Music). Loved them both. Love the food courts there and the pool bartenders who can make the BEST margarita on the rocks!

The Pop Century. Stayed here because it was new. We really liked the resort, but didn't like the food court so well.

The Beach Club. Our all time absolutely favorite deluxe resort. Love its proximity to EPCOT our favorite park, the decor, the pleasant staff... the pool, the restaurants, the lounge, Beaches and Cream... you name it and we love it here. We've stayed in the hotel proper and at the villas.

The Wilderness Lodge. What a beautiful resort. This one runs a close second to our first choice Beach Club. I love the lobby and the artifacts there. The pool is wicked neat as are the entire grounds. The whole place has that "cabin in the forest" feel and we love it! We talk about staying there at Christmas, but haven't done so yet. One day. It is a long haul from the parking lot to the villas with all your stuff though. But that is the only real drawback about this resort! If you go, look for the animal tracks in the walkways. Neat!

The Boardwalk. We just don't like this place. It's miles to the room/villa (at least anyone we've ever been given). The car park is not convenient for those of us who carry our own luggage. You have to schlepp all your stuff from the lower parking area up (yes, as in up hill) to the resort lobby, then haul it all down some forever long corridor to the villa. Then if you are as lucky as we are, your key card won't work and you get to schlepp all the way back to the lobby to have the CM behind the desk tell you that it's you and not the key. (It was the key). The rooms are sometimes not as clean as they should be. This resort has had HUGE problems with construction and the quality of building materials, and in my opinion it shows. The carpets alone are icky and need replacing. It's totally a personal thing, but I can't stand the garish pool area. I'm so not a clown person and that thing reminds me of something from Stephen King's "IT."
Also, we don't like that there is no self contained restaurant for this resort. There have been real problems with the CMs there too. We were some of the guests who were bothered with repeated early morning (as in starting at FIVE am) calls the day of check out asking us when we were planning on leaving. Although they no longer allow them to do that, it really ruined the place for us. We've also found this place very noisy. We once had a room over the boardwalk and it was really bad. Seth was with us and we spent all night coaxing him back to sleep as the noise rising from the boardwalk kept waking him. Not a good stay. We stay there only if there is no other available DVC, and then only for the shortest time possible.

Vero Beach. LOVE this resort! It's wonderful for a seaside peaceful few days. There isn't a huge bunch of stuff to do here, but we love lounging on the beach, strolling on the beach... you get the idea. Now that they have a great chef for Sonya's the food is nice too.

And our all time favorite that we've stayed at too many times to count: Old Key West. It was the first DVC so we feel like part of the history. It's huge, sprawling and beautifully kept. The buildings are sturdy and you don't feel like they are about to collapse around your ears! We love the ability to walk all over the resort (we love to walk) and we really enjoy the stroll from the back of the resort along the canal to DTD. Trumbo Ferry to DTD is fun, and so are the rental water craft. We've rented bicycles there too.

We love being able to park directly in front of the villa. It makes for easy unloading. We've gotten to know many of the CMs there, so it really is like coming home.

The villas are the largest of the DVCs which is wonderful, especially when you have extra guests with you.

We've had one incident with poor service, but that's not terrible given the years and number of times we've stayed there! Olivia's is a serviceable restaurant, but not one that you'll want to take all your meals in. That is the one drawback of this resort. It doesn't have the variety of restaurants like the other DVCs. I think that is because as the first, folks were expected to make more use of the kitchens in the villas than they were expected to dine out.

We call OKW our home, as well as our favorite DVC.

[Slowhand]

Hey thanks for that post Tink.
I forgot about OKW [how could I?]....just edited my post accordingly.

[Tink]

LOL! Because we are so familiar with it, we don't think of it as a resort as much as we consider it our "default Disney mode!"

[ukwdwnut]

sunridge woods *2
esprit
calabay parc

all villas

never stayed onsite

[Tink]

I fogot! We've stayed at SSR too! Lovey place. Nice proximity to DTD and now with a true full service restaurant, it has all the amenities.

It allows you to park close to your villa too. That's a big deal to me, isn't it?