Thanks everybody for contributing! I really appreciate it. No, I am not in the category of people who try to stop in as many places as possible in order to make a "postcard" picture. That's why we want to do only one island for the whole 8 days. (Some people try to hop 3 in the same amount of time.) However, we do not consider spending the whole week in the chair by the pool looking at the fake lagoon and trimmed bushes as ultimate fun vacation either. We can do the same in my neighborhood pool without flying 5 throusand miles across the globe. Heck, I can even bring my cooler with beer..

I guess I would have to personally experience HWV to really understand why so many different people provide such polarizing opinions about this place. I've read a lot of reviews and still feel I am missing something. People who rave about HWV are uniformly mentioning "great pools" and "beautiful grounds". Is that all that HWV have going for it? If yes, it is very hard to believe... There must be something else that make people at ease at this place. And people bashing HWV mostly refer to "Disney-like" grounds and crowds (both at the pool and everywhere else.) Again, is it the only negative thing about this property? Somehow I can not reconcile those two opposite points of view. I guess because I've never been there... But I am trying to determine if we are going to have fun there or if we are going to be be irritated by the crowds and other stuff people complain about. Though we are far, far from being high-maintenance. And we actually like going to Disney from time to time... Go figure! Sorry for random rambling