Our first and last stay at BC was in October. We do love staying on-site and when it's just myself and DD traveling I book us at either a monorail resort or POFQ, but when extended family decides to join us we venture off to get more bang for the buck.
The Good:
* For the price you cannot go wrong. Our 2 bedroom cost a little over $800 for the week when we booked with Ken Price / VU.
* While it isn't a Disney resort, it is on Disney property so it felt like we were staying in some hidden deluxe for 1/8 of the cost. Transportation time, especially to EP, was just mere minutes. Keep in mind that's traveling in a car as my aunt who lives in a West Palm Beach suburb joins us on our trips to The World and brings her Lexus SUV.
* The unit size was decent but although it was larger than the 2 bedroom at Sheraton Vistana (where we normally stay if going off-site) it for some reason felt smaller.
The Not So Good:
* While free WDW transportation is included in the price, you cannot bring a stroller on board. Most resorts are crawling with little ones who utilize a stroller (mine still, at 3, does while we're on vacation) and the fact that you can't bring one on the bus isn't mentioned anywhere until you check in. Even then, you have to read the teeny tiny font at the bottom of the bus schedule to learn that. So, unless someone either drove or rented a car they'd be left with 2 options: paying cab fare each day or renting a stroller in the park, both costs that most people don't budget in.
* On the 2nd, 4th and 5th nights of our stay all of us were woken to a pounding on the door. Each and every time it was "maintenance" because "we called about an air condition problem". We never placed such a call and when we called the front desk to see what the issue was we were informed that none of their employees had been dispatched to our room. Needless to say, it scared the crap out of us.
* We initially had a 7-night stay which was extended to 10 because of Sandy and our inability to get a flight out. For a 7-night stay, housekeeping will thoroughly clean the unit on day 4 (I believe) but because we're just neat freaks and germaphobes, we paid an extra $99 (per cleaning) to have housekeeping in every other day. The first time they were supposed to clean, they didn't. I called the front desk and was assured they'd be in the next day. They weren't. I called again and asked to speak with a manager ("not available, call back in the morning"). That morning happened to be the morning of our 2nd scheduled (and free) cleaning. I didn't call because it was the housekeeper's regularly scheduled day. We returned late that evening, the unit wasn't cleaned. I called and demanded a manager, he was located and called me a liar: "I don't believe you. They have schedules and follow them." I then used the ever-so-popular "seeing is believing!" and requested he come look at our unit. He did, 45 minutes later, and grumbled that no housekeeper had been in. He promised a thorough cleaning for the next day. Guess what? It didn't happen! By that time I was so disgusted I called and demanded the housekeeping manager, a lovely woman who actually called us back on her cell phone as she had gone home for the night. She was appalled and said the unit would be cleaned first thing in the morning. Not only was there an 8am "Housekeeping!" knock on the door, but her manager was WITH her and stayed for the duration of the unit being cleaned. She also removed all of the $99 (3) fees from our bill.
Made my night!!!
