Old Key West Resort - useful information and photos About This Page:

[chezp]

Contained in this post is some useful information about Old Key West Resort. Now it's over to you - can you add any other helpful hints or do you have some photos you can share with us of the resort? If so, please post away with your thoughts and experiences!

Old Key West Resort
1510 North Cove Road, Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Phone: 407 827-7700
Fax: 407 827-7710

The first DVC resort on property and the first to open in December 1991 was Old Key West Resort. Located on the fairways of Disney’s Lake Buena Vista Golf Course near Downtown Disney, the resort is just down the road from the Port Orleans resort.

The resort has four heated swimming pools (the main pool, Turtle Point, Southpoint and Miller's Hall), all of which have spas. The main one, by Community Hall, is also home to a 120 feet long sandcastle themed slide, which has two 360 degree turns. The sandcastle structure is almost 32 feet high and the highest point of the slide is 18 feet.

There are also four playgrounds, along with basketball, volleyball and shuffleboard courts. A fitness centre, two lighted tennis courts, two electronic arcades and the lighthouse sauna complete the line-up.

At the Community Hall, you can find board games and arts and crafts, while nearby at Hank’s Stop, you can rent watercraft, bicycles, videos and pick up recreation equipment, such as basketballs, tennis racquets and volleyballs. Pick up groceries, film, postcards, Disney and DVC merchandise at Conch Flats General Store.

Dining options here are:

- Olivia’s which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offers home-style American cuisine with a Key West influence.
- Good’s Food to Go offers light snacks and meals.
- Turtle Shack Snack Bar, a poolside bar offers sandwiches, snacks and beverages.

The Disney Vacation Club ferry service operates to Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) and Saratoga Springs. Buses run to all the Disney parks and Downtown Disney and can also be used to get around the resort itself.

Old Key West offers studios, one and two bedroom vacation homes and three bedroom grand villas.

You can also find photos in the PassPorter photo archive.

[Wendyismyname]

A CM at Member services also told me about the new slide that will be built at OKW soon! But wasn't that also mentioned in our newsletter?

Thanks Cheryl!
Wendy

[DISNEYGOOF]

Old Key West is a wonderful, spacious resort. One thing

I enjoyed is the pontoon boat ride to Downtown Disney.(This boat takes the first 12 people so if there's too many you'll have to wait for the next one - there's 2 boats

going back and forth)

It's a beautiful, slow, relaxed ride. When you arrive

at the dock it will be at the Marketplace end(Rainforest)

and if you want to get to the West end(DisneyQuest, AMC,

etc.) you'll have to ride the other shuttle boat that picks up at this same dock. (this boat holds alot of people)Or you could walk but after a day at the parks, our crew(4 boys) just couldn't make the walk to

DisneyQuest

Back to the resort, the rooms are huge! We had a 2 bedroom

unit with washer/dryer, large living room, kitchen and a massive whirlpool bath in the masterbathroom.(a hint: you have to fill the tub 3 inches above the jets and then you can turn on the tub. Which is no easy feat. OK look for the small, silver circle on the left side on the top of the tub, just rub your hand lightly over it and it will turn the jets on.

Do the same to turn it off.) Let me tell you it took me

a long time to fiqure this out and it was the CM at the

front desk who clued me in . . . as in I was clueless. Our balcony overlooked the golf course

(I can't remember which hole, I think #5)It was so big

and had patio furniture which I used to eat my breakfast

in the morning. The unit had 3 TV's which was nice with

4 boys. We couldn't hear the boys at all b/c our room

was down the hall The room they were in had 2(Queen)

real beds(not pull out) but the living room did have a

pull out. We had breakfast at Olivias and really enjoyed

it but how can anyone dislike Mickey waffles

We had one of the first bus stops(Unit 28)so if we saw our buss but missed it, we were able to catch it in front of the hospitality house which was across the street from where our stop was.

OKW is a great way to relax after a hectic day at the "world" and

hope you have a great time.

[SuiteDisney]

BCV is our home resort, but OKW is my favorite DVC resort. I have many pictures of the villas and the resort.

1-bedroom villa - http://www.suitedisney.com/id278.htm
Studio villa - http://www.suitedisney.com/id279.htm

There are links at the top of each page that will show you around the resort.

[SuiteDisney]

I was able to tour a Grand Villa on our vacation a couple of weeks ago and I just added pix to my site... http://www.suitedisney.com/id549.htm
The villa is gorgeous, I wish I could live there. It's much bigger than my house!

[chezp]

Sorry it's taken so long, but here are some of the images I took at Old Key West in May 2004:





Olivia's Cafe, Gurgling Suitcase and Good's to Go



The main pool



The children's play area



Building 13, right opposite Hospitality House



The view across the lake to buildings 18 and 17



The marina

[chezp]

Having now stayed at Old Key West for the first time - and loved it! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] - I wanted to share some more photos, so that you know what to expect from the resort. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



One of the quiet pools

The main recreation area of Old Key West


The golf course that runs through the resort

We stayed in a studio and were very impressed with the size and colour of it. It was very big and light.



So what did we make of Old Key West? Well, putting aside the fact that it will never come close to the Beach Club Villas in our minds, it’s a very nice resort and pretty homely. The theming is good and being able to park near your home is a big bonus. It’s got a nice community feel to it and I loved the pastel colours. It feels like it’s got more to do here than at Saratoga Springs and, of the two, I would say that I prefer Old Key West. There’s also the bonus that, as it’s the oldest DVC resort on Disney property, the rooms are a lot bigger than you’re used to. Again, the theming of the rooms is very beautiful. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

On the downside, we found that our room was quite noisy, both from neighbouring rooms and the one above and from buses on the road outside. It’s also a very sprawling resort. We were lucky enough to be close to the main area, but as we drove around, we found plenty of buildings that we didn’t fancy the idea of being in, as they were just way too remote. Some were also very close to the main roads and while others had beautiful views over the golf course that runs through Old Key West, as Mark pointed out, golfers start early, so that could quickly get annoying. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] All in all, I was pleased with where we ended up and the resort as a whole. If we had to stay here again, I wouldn’t mind too much, but obviously that would only be if we couldn’t get into the Beach Club Villas. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[lauren-roxy]

Thanks Cheryl!!

[deigal]

We recently stayed at OKW this past Thanksgiving. The most important thing to remember about this resort is the size. The resort is huge. It took 15 min to walk from the HH to our room. Not bad for us but we do not have small ones. We found that walking to the HH was usually faster than taking a bus as the buses were inconsistent in making the HH the last stop before leaving the resort. OKW is a lovely resort and we would certainly recommend it as it was very relaxing.

[Luv2golf]

Great pics!
We just came back from our first stay @ OKW and I agree w/ Cheryl's assessment of the resort.
One additional note: The slide at the pool is really great. It's 2nd only to BC IMHO. We had a couple of really fun evenings where we had the pool to ourselves, which I thought was amazing since it was the week between NYE and Disney's Marathon weekend.