Just returned from 11 day BCV stay 06/16-06/27..UPDATED 04/09/10 -COMPLETE FINALLY !

[Hunclemarco]

Wow! I dont' know how i missed this TR before. Love it. Thanks for the pics. We'll be there in a month or so...can't wait.

 

[Turtle31]

Loved your tr. We are new owners of BCV and will be travelling 10/7 thru 10/17. We are staying (5 of us) in a two bedroom villa and would love some of your expert advice about it. What accomodations did you have? Since there was only four of you, you did not need a two-bedroom. Are there washers and dryers in the units or are they out in the hall area. Any information you can give to us about our upcoming trip would be very helpful. It sounds as if your trip was truly magical. We travel to Disney every October since 2000 and are sorry we didn't buy into DVC BCV sooner. Is the deluxe dining plan worth the $$$, since my two DGDs are not big eaters and love chicken nuggets, fries, mac & cheese, hot dogs, etc.

Thank you so much for the kind words about my report. We did stay in a studio and it was perfect since there are only 4 of us and my daughter is tiny lol ! From what I have seen on the tour with a two bedroom you do have a washer-dryer of your own in a closet,so that it is hidden away. It is a stackable so not as big as the energy efficent ones in my photos.
This is our second time doing deluxe. The first time was also 11 days at POR before buying DVC. And we will not being doing it again that I can forsee. First of all with the option of 3 table sit downs a day, I had to make 33 ADR's- talk about a ton of planning. We have tried SO many wonderful resturants, and still have many to try. But it is just WAY to much food, also way to much time spent at a table that could be spent relaxing at the pool, or riding rides. With the deluxe each person recieves an appetizer and a desert at every sit down meal. This was okay at some resturants where an app. consists of 2 large shrimp on a bed of greens, but when it was a full plate of nachos or a huge plate of wings it was just over-kill. I also think it made it less special for my kids to be able to get desert,because by the end of the trip they didn't even want it.
We did this twice because my DH loved the fact that we could just pay, have three meals and he didn't even have to look at a 100 ticket and pull out his wallet. I know you still pay either way, but to him the logic was - if I had payed 100+ for this nasty buffet - I would be ticked The first trip we went I faithfully saved every receipt and added everything including the refillable mugs and 2 snacks a day. At the end we ended up with 1300.00 dollars more than the amount we paid for the Deluxe. But did we really SAVE 1300..... my answer would be no... because if paying out of pocket we would have never ordered a app. and desert at every meal. Plus I brought home 18 HUGE lollipops for my neices and nephews that were 3.50 a piece and I would have never bought those if I didn't have extra credits.
The pluses for us getting the Deluxe were that in June it was SO hot that I welcomed going into a resturant and sitting down, and being waited on. Sometimes having a family of four at a counterservice can be frustrating, one parent waits in line to order everything ( you hope he remembers correctly), the other parent takes the kids and searches for a table. And you just hope there is a place to sit inside. Because you do not want to eat a hot burger outside in the 100 degree heat. Also I did like the fact that my kids actually ate less chicken nuggets and fries because there were other heathly options. Now that my son will cost me adult price for deluxe (70.00) I will never do it. Because some of the times he will still want mac n cheese. I can handle paying 39.99 a day for the basic plan and having him eat kids meals some of the time. At the 20.00 dollar kids costs for deluxe though it is worth it for sure - just two snacks can run you 8.00 dollars.
Please let me know if you have any more questions - I would be happy to help in any way I can.

 

[Turtle31]

Day 10 Magic Kingdom


This morning we are SO dragging out of bed. I am happy that the trip is almost over, but I know we will all be so sad at the end.
We head down to have breakfast the Cape May Cafe.

I know the characters are thinking we have moved into the BCV. I am almost tired of taking their pictures every time they come by, but DH says it is rude if I don't.

After breakfast we are off to Magic Kingdom. We decide to take the train around to Toon Town immediatly so we can get in line to see Tinkerbell. The line doesn't look to terrible but once we are in it we realize it is almost not moving at all. I then find out that waiting in one spot on sore feet is SO much harder than weaving through ropes. Luckily we had a really nice man and his daughter in front of us that we started a conversation with. Our kids played nicely, and turned out they were owners at Saratoga Springs. He told DH they had stayed at almost every resort and he was jealous we were at BVC. That made DH feel good to hear I am sure. Finally, it was our turn -- we had waited just over an hour -- it seemed like a lifetime.

While we were in line my DS decided to make his shirt a sticker album and this quickly became a focus for the fairies. This area is So nicely done. They have you flap your arms and "fly" in to meet everyone.

I think this is the Water Mist Fairy:

Next we meet Tink : OML -- She was worth every minute. She got down and talked to my daughter about her hair first. Then she looks over at my son and asked my daughter if she had special permission to bring her porcupine with her !! We laughed so hard.

After Tink is done talking to Alexis she turns her attention to my son. She asked him about his stickers and put her arm on him, I think she can tell he is embrassed. And then WHAM-- she plants a kiss on him !! We almost died !! I laughed so hard, my poor son

We still joke about this even now....

The last fairy that we met tried to console Bradley and tell him it was okay to be tough and she wouldn't kiss him... but he wasn't having any of it at this point !

By the time we get done in Toon Town it is time for us to go to lunch at the Crystal Palace. We head over there and enjoy the cold drinks. My DH says this is his least favorite place and please do not ever come back here. (Noted) The food here is really nothing to write about and at times things on the salad bar lacked. The rolls were really hard and I didn't see anything worth getting as far desert besides a cookie. The characters here are still Pooh,Tiger and Piglet.

Next we ride some of our favorite rides again.

After a few rides we are just exhausted and head back to the Beach Club. We hang out in the room a little bit, hit the pool and end up eating at Clam Bake @ Cape May again -- this is one buffet Dh says he could eat at every night.


Tomorrow: The Final Park day at Magic Kingdom !

 

[RainyD]

Thank you so much for the kind words about my report. We did stay in a studio and it was perfect since there are only 4 of us and my daughter is tiny lol ! From what I have seen on the tour with a two bedroom you do have a washer-dryer of your own in a closet,so that it is hidden away. It is a stackable so not as big as the energy efficent ones in my photos.
This is our second time doing deluxe. The first time was also 11 days at POR before buying DVC. And we will not being doing it again that I can forsee. First of all with the option of 3 table sit downs a day, I had to make 33 ADR's- talk about a ton of planning. We have tried SO many wonderful resturants, and still have many to try. But it is just WAY to much food, also way to much time spent at a table that could be spent relaxing at the pool, or riding rides. With the deluxe each person recieves an appetizer and a desert at every sit down meal. This was okay at some resturants where an app. consists of 2 large shrimp on a bed of greens, but when it was a full plate of nachos or a huge plate of wings it was just over-kill. I also think it made it less special for my kids to be able to get desert,because by the end of the trip they didn't even want it.
We did this twice because my DH loved the fact that we could just pay, have three meals and he didn't even have to look at a 100 ticket and pull out his wallet. I know you still pay either way, but to him the logic was - if I had payed 100+ for this nasty buffet - I would be ticked The first trip we went I faithfully saved every receipt and added everything including the refillable mugs and 2 snacks a day. At the end we ended up with 1300.00 dollars more than the amount we paid for the Deluxe. But did we really SAVE 1300..... my answer would be no... because if paying out of pocket we would have never ordered a app. and desert at every meal. Plus I brought home 18 HUGE lollipops for my neices and nephews that were 3.50 a piece and I would have never bought those if I didn't have extra credits.
The pluses for us getting the Deluxe were that in June it was SO hot that I welcomed going into a resturant and sitting down, and being waited on. Sometimes having a family of four at a counterservice can be frustrating, one parent waits in line to order everything ( you how he remembers correctly), the other parents takes the kids and searches for a table. And you just hope there is a place to sit inside. Because you do not want to eat a hot burger outside in the 100 degree heat. Also I did like the fact that my kids actually ate less chicken nuggets and fries because there were other heathly options. Now that my son will cost me adult price for deluxe (70.00) I will never do it. Because some of the times he will still want mac n cheese. I can handle paying 39.99 a day for the basic plan and having him eat kids meals some of the time. At the 20.00 dollar kids costs for deluxe though it is worth it for sure - just two snacks can run you 8.00 dollars.
Please let me know if you have any more questions - I would be happy to help in any way I can.

Thanks Donna for all that info. My two DGDs - 11 and 13, are not big eaters and this past October we did have the dining plan and when we went to the two credit restaurants (Calif. Grille and Brown Derby) we (3 of us) used our credits for the dinners and ordered for the girls from the kids menu. They were very nice about letting them order from the kids menu, and we paid out of pocket for their meals and saved their credits and we were all able to do the Luau at the Polynesian for two credits each. I agree, the deluxe dining plan would be a lot of food :and very expensive for five adults. Guess we will stay with the regular dining plan. That's nice about the washer and dryer being in our room,so we can pack lighter than we normally do and just wash every other day. Guess that will come in handy for the towels to be washed, since we don't get mousekeeping every day. The girls will just have to make their beds every morning and we will keep the rooms tidy (whatever that means at Disney?) I'm sure I will have other questions as we get closer to our trip and I will be looking to you for help. Thanks again.
RainyD

 

[cjs123123]

thanks for the great trip report.. made me smile when you said they knew your kids names when you arrived... they did the same thing to us last week when we were there.. dh and I both looked at each other and was like did you say mackenzie(our daughters name) at all when walking up?? I was like no way I didnt.. he thought that, that was something really special.. seeing we also stayed at animal kingdom and ssr and they werent that great at greeting you! I guess when you get reconized right away at a resort it makes you feel real special! maybe that is why the bcv is our new FAVORITE disney resort!!!! thanks again!!!

oh when is the next trip???

 

[Turtle31]

thanks for the great trip report..

oh when is the next trip???

We actually just went to Disney Land from Dec 19 - 26th - Christmas at Disney was awesome ! We ended up buying annual passes and will return to Disney Land sometime June/July.
Our next BVC trip is booked for 11 nights in October - I can't wait !!

 

[Turtle31]

Day 11

Magic Kingdom

Wow am I glad I took and kept notes on this trip. Never in a million years did I think it would take me so long to complete this report. Note to self - it is so much easier to finish a report with in the first two weeks of returning home.

This morning we are all exhausted. We sleep in and decide to go the Capt.'s Grill for breakfast. When we check with the hostess she tells us that we can be seated for breakfast, but they are not serving made to order from the menu only the buffet at this point. Which we think is fine with us and we are seated almost immediatly. The unforunate thing was that all the food was very picked over and they weren't re-filling anything. I wish she would have let us know that ! But oh well, we have eaten so much food this trip we get over it.


At Magic Kingdom we finally made it over to Tomorrowland Speedway. The wait wasn't to bad.

Then we head back over to The haunted mansion

By the time we do a few rides I let my DH know that our ADR for liberty tree tavern is fast approaching. I had planned on us getting up and eating an early breakfast ( which we did not do) - so now once again we have an adr and no one is hungry.

We ride a few more rides, grab some counter service and we all take a vote - and say goodbye to The Magic Kingdom by 5:00pm. At first I was disappointed we weren't going to stay and see the fireworks on our last night - but even I didn't have it in me. And with such a relaxing pool and beach waiting who am I to argue.

We get back to the beach club and the kids go swimming until it is time for the movie on the beach. The movie on the beach was Bedtime Stories. I have to say this is my favorite movie other than Enchanted. And now everytime I watch it - it brings back even happier memories !

My DH and I lay on the comfy chairs to watch. The kids decided to go up front and play in the sand while watching the movie. It was a blast. We even had some drinks from Hurricane Hannah's. A perfect end to a perfect first DVC trip home.

Now I am just counting the days until our Oct. return !

Thanks to all who followed again on our journey - and I am sorry it took so long to complete ! If I even do a trip report again - I think it may just be a picture report


Day 12 - Was the long sad trip back to our real home !

 

[bdink921]

Donna, what an awesome TR!!! You just had my dream vacation--I could never convince DH to take an 11 night trip to WDW--he's only good for 3-4 days tops . I just love all of your pics of BCV--beautiful. Although we won't be buying into DVC, I do see renting points for a short stay in our future!! Thanks again for all the time you put into this and have a great time in October!!!

 

[podsnel]

I was so happy your TR popped back up, just in time for me to read it and get even MORE excited about my trip there in 2 weeks . It will be my first time home at BCV, although I have stayed at BC many times, just not in the villas. Thanks for sharing your trip!

 

[Turtle31]

Donna, what an awesome TR!!! You just had my dream vacation--I could never convince DH to take an 11 night trip to WDW--he's only good for 3-4 days tops . I just love all of your pics of BCV--beautiful. Although we won't be buying into DVC, I do see renting points for a short stay in our future!! Thanks again for all the time you put into this and have a great time in October!!!

I am so glad you enjoyed the report. It started out crusing really fast and then once I got back to real life it took longer and longer to complete. I don't know how in the world anyone can do a live report !
The trip became 11 days when we visited in 08'. We stayed at POR and it was great also. My DH travels for business alot and had four frequent flier tickets available. I got on-line to try and book our freebies and I was able to find four tickets going on June 16 th - I was thinking we would come home on the 24th - but as I kept looking the trip was getting longer and longer and I wasn't complaining ! So it ended up 11 days was the magic number that gave us 4 free tickets from Colorado to Orlando.
In 09' when I was booking everything - I already had it in my head that there was no way we couldn't go for at least 11 days ! Since the tickets for a family of four are pricey - I figure I am going to get my money's worth.
Or trip for 2010 - is going to be --- you guessed it --- 11 days ! And I would have made it 14 if my kids would have had like two more days off for their fall break !

Now I just have to decided : Am I going to pay for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or not ?

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Donna, I just discovered your report a few days ago and enjoyed it very much. I used to work at the Y&B, so I found your take on it interesting too.

The good point for me is that I could your trip report without waiting for the next installment .

Anyway, thank you, great job!

 

[newfamilyman]

I also enjoyed your report, since we'll be staying a week at BCV this August. Our guide also promised us some fastpasses because of some bad luck we had in closing our VGC contract. Can you explain what they gave you? Thanks

 

[es45]

Great TR; thanks for all the details!

 

[Turtle31]

I also enjoyed your report, since we'll be staying a week at BCV this August. Our guide also promised us some fastpasses because of some bad luck we had in closing our VGC contract. Can you explain what they gave you? Thanks

The fastpasses that we recieved are special ones that allow you 3 fastpasses for each card you recieve. We had 4 in our party so that gave us 12 fastpasses. The great thing is that you can go to a machine and get all three at one time. So let's say you walk all the way up the hill and into the building that houses soarin' you can go to the fastpass machine and put in your card 3 times and recieve all three at once if you choose. These fastpasses that come out are marked with the exact time you recieve them, meaning no wait to ride.
Couple things to be aware of - fastpasses must be available in order to get them. And once the cards are issued they expire 3 days later. You can use them at multi parks, on multi days.
The special fastpasses are issued to compensate guest who take the time to take the DVC tour - it's their way of giving you a little of your time back.
Make sure if your guide is not going to be in on the day you are going to the office that he/she has made note of it.

 

[dawnmichele]

Your trips sounds so fun! Thanks for writing this report and sharing it with us!

 

[CDolacki2003]

Thanks for such a great trip report!

 

[disfam2012]

We're in the middle of planning this year's vacation to the BCV, but Oct feels so far away. I still come back and re-read this trip report whenever I need a "fix"

 

[Simba's Mom]

We're in the middle of planning this year's vacation to the BCV, but Oct feels so far away. I still come back and re-read this trip report whenever I need a "fix"

I agree! After several stays at other resorts, I returned to our home, BCV, for a few nights last October. I can say I fell in love with the resort all over again-realized why we first bought points there. Unfortunately my stay there wasn't long enough (never is, though) and can't wait to return in October again.

 

[wiigirl]

Thanks for your TR...I really enjoyed it.

 

[Turtle31]

Thanks for such a great trip report!

You are very welcome !

We're in the middle of planning this year's vacation to the BCV, but Oct feels so far away. I still come back and re-read this trip report whenever I need a "fix"

We are going again in October !! This year we will buy annual passes for the first time. We are getting a rent a car for the first time (for four days), We are going over to the dark side for the first time !! Three days at Universal because DD has turned us into Harry Potter freaks lol. And for the first time ever we are getting table in wonderland and will not do any type of dining plan what so ever. And I also come back and read my trip report when I need a disney fix. One day I am going to print it and have it bound into a book.

I agree! After several stays at other resorts, I returned to our home, BCV, for a few nights last October. I can say I fell in love with the resort all over again-realized why we first bought points there. Unfortunately my stay there wasn't long enough (never is, though) and can't wait to return in October again.

We are all set for our October trip- now all I have to do is wait. This time we are going for 13 days- the longest ever. Had to add a couple more days so we have time for Universal

Thanks for your TR...I really enjoyed it.

Glad you enjoyed it !!


I have to say looking back at this trip almost three years later still brings a smile to my face. I can't believe how my family has changed though I must say. Immediatly following this trip, we all began exercising and eating healthy. This is a picture of my DH and DD on our next trip - DH is 70 pounds lighter. And my DS is in now 6 feet tall and so skinny you can't see him when he turns sidewides lol.... unfortunately, I am still a work in progress !!