McLarenblog

Old Key West, Disney World, Florida (April 6 through to the 14th, 2007)
2 bedrooms

Our family, of four, got a chance to go to Disney World near Orlando Florida as part of a time-share with the help of a family member. This person, Janice Edwards, met us for this visit and acted as our tour guide. I should call her Tinkerbelle Tours because the first day she wore a jeans jacket with Tinkerbelle’s image in color on back and she acted as our guide throughout the vacation. She has been going to Disney World for years and has a number of time-shares in this resort. She has a darn good reason, a stressful job, that makes this resort a counter, a solution, to the dredge she has to face during her work day. The apartment we stayed in is a dedicated two bedrooms, which means, second bedroom is a bedroom. It cannot be converted to a one-bedroom studio. The, per day, cost during the season we attended was, $745 a day! We stayed during spring vacation, which is expensive, and I would not go to this location again at this time of the year, as the crowds were very large. But, the apartment we got to stay in for 9 days saved the experience for me. This brings to mind the viewpoint that there are a number of factors for setting a value for a resort. One value is the room. Another value is the entertainment. Another value is the eating establishments. I think one should evaluate each major factor separately.

I will next describe the apartment we stayed in.

First impressions of the apartment:
Damned impressive! Damned impressive for a lot of reasons.

Trying to describe this apartment is a challenge because lists don’t give the gestalt, the total, experience. Put succinctly, the apartment worked for us and was enjoyable.

The apartment was spacious, very interesting interior at the component level, very good well functional lay out (clever layout), filled with natural light, and located in a pleasing environment.

Now let me describe what one finds when one enters into this apartment if you are interested. Keep in mind that every room is large in size including the hallways. The bathrooms and kitchen areas were ceramic tiled and all other areas were carpeted. Also over each sleeping area is a ceiling fan. There is no sense of crowding the user which, in my case, is more relaxing. Typically a hotel room has large beds but narrow walk areas around the bed as the cost cutting factor. This apartment has fire sprinkler system

Now lets take a walking tour. The front door entry opens up into a hallway with a closet to one side. My son used it as he was going to sleep in the fold out sofa bed in the living room. This hallway then has a hallway to the right which leads to the laundry room first and the master bedroom last.

The laundry room has a full separate washer and dryer, as well as a ironing board and iron. We found soap for one load in the room when we arrived. Janice Edwards told me that that same box would cost about $3 so she brought fabric softener and more soap to save money. She packed for 5 days for a 10-day vacation because she knew the laundry room was offered. When we used the washer we discovered that the water level would not go as high as we expected and thus we overloaded the washer as a result.

The hallway was so long that I had to put a night-light into a wall outlet to allow my son to find easily his way into our bathroom. (The first night he was locked out of both bathrooms). A door that can be locked opens up to the master bedroom with a bed that was queen or king size and a passageway into the Jacuzzi room, which also held a large closet and sink with mirror.

This Jacuzzi room had a window over the Jacuzzi, which opens up, into the bedroom with French shutters. My wife thinks this offers more natural light to enter this room, which is far away from the bedroom windows.

I think this is a cute portal for a friend to pass a beer or wine to you while your cooking inside the tub. Beyond the Jacuzzi room is the main bathroom that holds a very large shower and beside it is a very large sink and mirror with hair dryer.

We think this area should have a hair dryer, which we will explain later. The shower is large enough for two or three. Don’t get any pervert ideas. A frosted window is over the sink mirror and at night this acts as a night light for anyone making a trip into that room because outdoor lights shone through with a light glow. Storage is provided under the sink in the form of one drawer and three doors opening up to open storage.

Getting back to describing the master bedroom, this room offers a TV in a cabinet where it is obscured from view when the doors are closed. Below the TV are three large drawers for clothes. Beside the TV cabinet is a chest for storage of large items and perfect to place luggage upon. The standard side tables are located on each side of the bed with table lamps, one telephone and clock. A chair with a matching ottoman was to the outside of the table closest to the wall with windows. A floor light is close to this chair. The windows had drapes that could be pulled shut and blinds that could regulate how much light passed.

The door from this room to the patio had adjustable blinds too help regulate how much light could pass and offered privacy. The door had two locks.

Going back to the main hallway leading from the front door, as one walks further down the hall the second bedroom door opens from the left side. This bedroom is spacious but a bit inferior (but darn impressive) as to what is provided in the master bedroom.

Two beds both double are against one wall with a single night stand in-between. The lights for both beds are mounted on the wall over each bed. The nightstand holds a telephone and clock. In front of one bed is a closet and in front of the second bed is a small round table with two chairs. Adjoining this bedroom is a makeup area with sink and mirror.

Opposite the sink and mirror is a second, even larger closet. Further in this space is the door to the bathroom. This door has, for all practical purposes, a full-length mirror. We regret that this area does not have a hair dryer. We will find one inside the bathroom but we contend that the first person out of the shower could dry their hair in the makeup area while the second person is showering, not a big deal, just a matter of practicality.

Inside the bathroom one finds a frosted window that allows some outside light to come in even at night due to outside building lights. This might act like a night-light to aid a person making safe entry in and out of the room at night for some rooms but not ours as there are no building lights nearby. The normal commode, sink, mirror and shower but this shower is a tub combination. Under the sink is a lot of storage, drawers and doors. Getting back in the bedroom area, we were most surprised to find the room ringed with AC outlets. We counted at least five outlets.

The kitchen shares space with the living and dining area so this is the community space. Seating in this community space, I counted to be 10 or 11 seats that work out to be close to the following.
• Two sofas 2 & 3 seats.
• Two chairs with foot stools.
• Dining table with 4 chairs.

In the kitchen area there is a dishwasher, garbage disposal, refrigerator, microwave, stove coffee maker, blender, and oven. Full compliment of dishes, glass ware, cooking pots, pans, silverware, cooking utensils, paper towels, dish washer soap, and more. We lacked nothing for our meal cooking. The kitchen counter space was quite adequate. There was an island for the kitchen but where it faced the couches, inside there was a large TV set and DVD player with doors so it would go out of sight at will. A floor lamp, coffee table with table lamp fitted into the room.

The living area has two sofas. One can be made into a double bed. This area is full of windows with blinds.

To one side of this room is the dining area with a large round table and four chairs. Behind the table against the wall is another counter area which appears that one can easily convert into a bar. There is lots of storage below the counter. We used this counter as a battery charging area for iPods, cell phones computers, and ham radio. One outlet is above this counter but I bring an AC strip for multiple chargers. Beside this table are two full-length windows with blinds. Between the dining area and the sofas is a door to the same patio mentioned when describing the master bedroom.

The wood porch deck has a round table with four chairs and appreciable deck space. Our deck overlooked a very close pond with a vertical spray fountain, a geyser type device, quite pleasing image.

Criticisms
Not very many as this apartment is close to being perfect. Here is our list:
• Not enough hangers.
• Not enough towels.
• We mentioned the location of the hair dryer, but that is a pale criticism.