Can’t wait to hear what you think of the 2BRs at Dockside. We are fellow OLer’s too, but doing this trip strictly for the meetup, and want to stay closer as well. Since the Premier hotels were already sold out of the reduced rate, I booked the Endless Summer Surfside suite. I have been looking religiously for cancellations at the others, but am actually thinking Surfside might even work out better for us. I can get 4 nights at Surf/Dockside for less than the price of 3 at a premier hotel. This lets me book a late Sunday flight home and not worry about being packed and out the door at 11:00 am after 2 late nights. Add that teenagers won’t need to share a bed and there is a Miller’s (kids’ favorite) just down the road - I’m hoping Surfside will be a win.
So we had a pretty good time at Dockside there were a few hiccups but overall we had a nice clean room and for the price can't complain too much
It was great for everyone having their own bed, we enjoyed having our own room as well. The "master bedroom" is small though, you can get around the bed, but it's tightish. The shelves on the bedsides are TINY, my dh cpap barely fit on it. There is 1 luggage rack for a 6 person suite, which can create problems. We used the kitchen table bench for the kids suitcases. I felt the beds were kind of hard, but slept okay. The mini fridge is a decent size, no freezer however. Sink and microwave were okay and a small tiny coffee maker if you need it. However we got starbucks from downstairs, but very limited hours (6am -3pm I think) though their website says til 10 pm. Don't expect a late afternoon pick me up lol
We didn't have any noisy neighbors, so I can't say if the typical thin walls are an issue overall. However when house keeping was working next door or above us, it was quite loud. The vacuuming vibrated the wall and every time they vacuumed close to the wall they hit it. That was a bit annoying. I could hear doors closing around us, meaning if you just let it close it slammed. However I didn't notice it super early or late, so it didn't bother us.
Our biggest issues were the texting housekeeping, we texted around 1pm on Friday for more towels/toilet paper so we could all shower after the meetup or super early the next morning before leaving. We left around 4pm assuming they would be at our door when we came back from the meetup. Nope. So I texted at 1:30 am and asked what happened, of course house keeping had left, but someone did bring the items up about 15 mins later. By this point, we had said forget it and would shower in the morning before checking out. So keep an eye on that if you are going to leave before they bring stuff.
Second, buses ran often during the morning/day time, but once it got closing at the parks, the bus situation went downhill. They cannot handle the amount of people staying on site at park close. They pack the buses tight, standing room only and yes people are standing, but after 3 buses left (even one being a people eater bus- the 2 bus one) there was still a huge line and probably 20 mins or more before the next ones came. Meanwhile we watched cabana bay have about 5 buses come to our 2 at that point. Just be prepared to wait, either go earlier than park close, or wait a while after park closes to go get in line.