Who Invited My Mother In Law? A Moderately Deluxe TR All New X 3 & PTR Link 2/3 !!

[tralin]

Thank you for the reveiw of H&V. I was waffeling on cancelling that one (mornings are not a friend in our family) and only held onto it because you insisted that I would like the review. Kaitlin is also a Disney Jr. nut so I know she will enjoy it. She snuck up on me while I was reading your reviews and was fascinated by the pictures. We had to look over them for about 5 minutes before I was allowed to move on. "Who is that girl mommy and why does SHE get to meet Jake? Oso? Handy Manny? " I asked her who she would like to meet and the answer was "Captain Hook". I don't think that was one of the options but oh well. You had suggested that just Kaitlin and I do this breakfast while the others could sleep so I brought that up and the response was "What, but I want a good breakfast too. Why should I get left out?" I guess like you, getting up in Disney shouldn't be a problem! 18 days to go, but whose counting?

 

[KatMark]

Originally Posted by shan23877

Awesome info! Thanks. It's a relief to know that you had a good experience with David's. I'm still a little nervous, but I'd be a lot more comfortable using a business than a stranger. Did you like OKW? I love the look of the resort, but the location scares me. My wishlist would be BCV, BLT, then BWV. What one will you try next?

This is our first year using a stranger (although a DIS member) for our DVC rental (we've never used David's; last year, a friend sold us some point and another friend gave us the rest of his because they were expiring). We have had nothing but a delightful, easy experience with the person we are renting from. He split up our payments in two, we have already received our Magical Express paperwork, etc. I would NOT hesitate to use him again.

We LOVE OKW and, as you know, will be back there in 19 days. I was a little worried about the distance too, but we never had an issue and it never seemed to take the bus long to get anywhere (and we loved the boat to DTD).

We've never stayed at the three you mention. Of the three, BCV is the only one I want to stay at and hope to do that maybe in 2014 for our trip with the kids for their first anniversary. BLT reminds me of buildings downtown where I work and I do NOT like that clown pool at the BWV at all.

 

[afwdwfan]

I'm glad you had such a great experience at H&V. I've been one of the people who absolutely rips that place. I know DS would love to have breakfast with Jake, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get DW back through the front door there.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Wow, your empty DHS entrance photos made me jealous! Not often you get to see that.

Glad you enjoyed H&V! Never been there, so it was an interesting read to see what goes on. I do think my patience would have been tested with Special Agent Oso. That show drives me nuts. But the others are cool.

Hope the first day of school went well! Too bad she couldn't take Cooper with her.

Nice Wrigley pics! My boys and I took a tour there last summer. It was cool to see the stadium in person!

 

[Bethislucy]

Love the real life updates. I love your wrigly field ones too. One day I'm going there it's my dream vacation. (Yes I said that on the disney board) I've been a fan of the Cubs since i was a kid like 6 or 7 in a world full of Braves fans or a world here we are 4 hours from atlanta so you know.

 

[ladylyons]

Thought I'd stop by and say "WE SURVIVED THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!" Tear free!!! YEAH US!! There were a couple times though I thought my DD would start crying because she had to give him that one last hug and kept telling him she'd miss him. It was the sweetest thing. Now if they could just get along like that all the time!!

He had a great day today and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Here are a couple pictures from today:

This one is from the meet and greet yesterday but I had to post the door picture.

 

[shan23877]

Aw that's so cute Maddie meeting her hero Jake!

She was soooo excited to meet him!

I, too, love the pose.. with the one foot up on the toe. what a cutie.. ok, about 15 years, then we intro duce Maddie to our grandson Jackson...!

maybe by then she'll be over jake.. how cute is that?

Thanks Smidgy! I agree-they can meet and date once they're in college. Hopefully the Jake phase will have passed by then.

Fun first day of school pictures!! Ony 3 more days then my baby starts!! Let the tears begin!!

You'll be fine!

I have a LOT to catch up on!

But I just have to say you have the most gorgeous family!!

Alrighty, back I go to read!

I'm just glad that you're here!


And saying such complimentary things...

You've got plenty of time to catch up! It seems as though it takes me a very long time to update.

Back to the luau! I actually read this one at my work desk one day but couldn't respond. At the time I was waffling over adding it along with Hoop even though I knew Keith wasn't thrilled with the idea. I have decided he needs to experience and then say yay or nay because we have missed out on several things and then he enjoys it in the end when we try...anyhow, I am glad I read your review when I did. I still would like to try the luau one day but it sounds like something best left for when we have a longer trip allowing other things to make up a potentially not great experience!! Maybe our girls' trip because of the eye candy!! .....

I vote for including it on a girls' trip! I'm glad that we did it, but I agree- it's for a longer trip. Short ones need to be filled with sure-fire hits.

Now to H&V: Keith saw that place and asked why we had not been there before...I told him bad reviews. I am glad you guys enjoyed it so much! It is nice to hear something good. Maddie looks like she enjoyed it so much! As I was reading I thought about how many wonderful memories she will have from this trip from the Fairy Godmother's letter to BBB and now this plus so much in between (we will not think about DTD! )

Another great post(s) as usual!!!!

I don't think that Keith would enjoy the H&V breakfast very much.

Thank you so much for saying that. I hope that she has wonderful memories from this trip--I know that her dad and I do. If I weren't writing about it, I probably wouldn't remember the DTD business.

Now you are one smart Disney planner! A leg up on TSM is soooo worth it!


It was worth it! The good food was just a bonus!

LOVE, LOVE!!! The skirt! Kadence does too, she wonders if it twirls! Thank-you so much! I told her it was for the 2nd day of school

See, I can think fast!

I'll pm you!


Yay!!! I'm glad that you like it! I mailed it Monday, so you should see it on Wednesday or Thursday. I included some laundering instructions, and marked the "back" with a safety pin. I know that Kadence doesn't like things that itch, so I didn't want to sew in a tag. I can't wait to see a picture of her wearing it!

Awww, the first day of school....pose, I shall have to post Kadence's from last year. She was so proud of her bag, it had to be shown...

Love it!!! You understand what it's like to have a princess on your hands.


I hope Maddie is enjoying school!

Great family shot! Crop out the creeper's face in the corner though, he looks confused.

Thanks! I didn't even notice him until I saw the pics so big on here! I'll have to cut him out.

 

[shan23877]

I think using David's is much more secured than an individual. Although, since I've done home exchanges, I would be okay with dealing with an individual. Just easier to use David and certainly fast with booking. I would love to try Wildness Lodge or BWV, but since you probably have to book so far out to get a studio, I probably won't be able to do this. When booking with David payment in full needs to be done at the booking. The dinning plan can be added at a later date, which helps with spreading out the cost. Although, I would love the convienence of BLT, but they have small studios. OKW was nice, very quiet and certainly convenient, especially since I always drvie. Nice thing with OKW is that they have two queen size beds in the studios. They are the only DVC studio with two queen size beds. The counter service was small with limited selections. I did like being able to do laundry at no charge. Our room was by the quiet pool which made it nice. The location was fine. Since we had a car, it was an easy drive to the parks and on occasion we did take the bus. The bus was no problem, but we did find using our car to be a bit faster and too convienent. The nice thing about the buses is that all the buses stop at the hospitaliity house, so if you needed to go there, you could just jump on the first bus that came by. And, sometimes the mousekeepers would even give you a ride in their carts!

Probably, our biggest problem is that the first trip in 2010 we stayed at The Polyensian. I had booked PORS only to get a 40% off pin, so switched to The Polyensian. It really spoiled us! We loved it! When we went in 2010, I really didn't expect that we would be going every year! And, now I'm not sure if we will be going next year.

This year we stayed at PORS in a royal room and love this too! Although, my dgd has stated her favorite resort is the 'volanco pool'!

Loved the first day of school picture! Looks like she was dancing out the door!

Enjoy! Karen

Thanks so much for all of the info! I really appreciate you guys answering all of my questions. I think I'd only want BLT for the convienience. BCV is DH's dream resort, so that's why I'd push for that one. I think that if we couldn't get one of those 3, I'd go through Disney and do a mod. I looked at a royal room at POR, and that or CBR is what we'd likely go with.

I would probably never want to stay anywhere else after I stayed at the Poly. Probably a good thing that we haven't yet.

Thank you for the reveiw of H&V. I was waffeling on cancelling that one (mornings are not a friend in our family) and only held onto it because you insisted that I would like the review. Kaitlin is also a Disney Jr. nut so I know she will enjoy it. She snuck up on me while I was reading your reviews and was fascinated by the pictures. We had to look over them for about 5 minutes before I was allowed to move on. "Who is that girl mommy and why does SHE get to meet Jake? Oso? Handy Manny? " I asked her who she would like to meet and the answer was "Captain Hook". I don't think that was one of the options but oh well. You had suggested that just Kaitlin and I do this breakfast while the others could sleep so I brought that up and the response was "What, but I want a good breakfast too. Why should I get left out?" I guess like you, getting up in Disney shouldn't be a problem! 18 days to go, but whose counting?

I love it! Why does that girl get to meet them??? I hope that you weren't disappointed in the review! No Captain Hook, but I'll bet that once she's there she won't be dwelling on the people she's not meeting.

of course they don't want to miss breakfast! You try to make everyone happy...

I can't wait to hear bout the trip! It's soooooo close now! I hope that you'll do a TR-I can't wait to hear how it turns out!

Originally Posted by shan23877

Awesome info! Thanks. It's a relief to know that you had a good experience with David's. I'm still a little nervous, but I'd be a lot more comfortable using a business than a stranger. Did you like OKW? I love the look of the resort, but the location scares me. My wishlist would be BCV, BLT, then BWV. What one will you try next?

This is our first year using a stranger (although a DIS member) for our DVC rental (we've never used David's; last year, a friend sold us some point and another friend gave us the rest of his because they were expiring). We have had nothing but a delightful, easy experience with the person we are renting from. He split up our payments in two, we have already received our Magical Express paperwork, etc. I would NOT hesitate to use him again.

We LOVE OKW and, as you know, will be back there in 19 days. I was a little worried about the distance too, but we never had an issue and it never seemed to take the bus long to get anywhere (and we loved the boat to DTD).

We've never stayed at the three you mention. Of the three, BCV is the only one I want to stay at and hope to do that maybe in 2014 for our trip with the kids for their first anniversary. BLT reminds me of buildings downtown where I work and I do NOT like that clown pool at the BWV at all.

Thanks Kathy! We'd really only be doing the DVC rental for the chance to stay at BCV for an incredible price, so I don't know if we'd branch out beyond the 3 I mentioned. Now if the Poly had DVC...

We'd only do BLT for the convienience of the walking path. Otherwise I'd rather be somewhere with a cooler pool.

OKW looks so lovely and peaceful. I think I'd really love the vibe there. Maybe one of these days we'll get there-until then I'll live vicariously through your TRs.

I'm glad you had such a great experience at H&V. I've been one of the people who absolutely rips that place. I know DS would love to have breakfast with Jake, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get DW back through the front door there.

I know my review won't be swaying your family! Seriously though, it was a good meal! The food was yummy and the characters were great.

You can get Jake's photo and autograph outside the Disney Jr. show though.

Wow, your empty DHS entrance photos made me jealous! Not often you get to see that.

Loved the empty DHS! We'll do that breakfast again.

Glad you enjoyed H&V! Never been there, so it was an interesting read to see what goes on. I do think my patience would have been tested with Special Agent Oso. That show drives me nuts. But the others are cool.

For some reason I've always disliked the Lil' Einstiens more. I think it's because they talk about actual art and composers, but travel by rocketship. Oso isn't a favorite of mine, but he bothers me less.

Hope the first day of school went well! Too bad she couldn't take Cooper with her.

Nice Wrigley pics! My boys and I took a tour there last summer. It was cool to see the stadium in person!

Thanks! It's a great tour isn't it? We've done it and loved it. The stadium is amazing, it's one of my happy places. You've got to try to catch a game there someday, the energy is great.

I'd really like to visit Great American Ballpark and Wrigley North next.

Love the real life updates. I love your wrigly field ones too. One day I'm going there it's my dream vacation. (Yes I said that on the disney board) I've been a fan of the Cubs since i was a kid like 6 or 7 in a world full of Braves fans or a world here we are 4 hours from atlanta so you know.

Doesn't sound crazy to me at all. I've always said that some people go to church or on a hike in the mountains to regroup--I go to Wrigley Field. It's my happy place. It's an amazing stadium and I so hope that you make it there some day. (let me or Kathy know when you're planning the trip-we'll be able to give you lots of tips!). The first time I saw it in person I cried when I saw the marquee, and then cried again when I saw the field and the ivy. It's a special place.

The Braves have always been my second favorite NL team. I'd love to get to Turner Field someday. DH and I do plan to tour them all when we're old and gray.

Seriously-thanks for the post. Made me smile. And, there's tons more photos where those came from!

Thought I'd stop by and say "WE SURVIVED THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!" Tear free!!! YEAH US!! There were a couple times though I thought my DD would start crying because she had to give him that one last hug and kept telling him she'd miss him. It was the sweetest thing. Now if they could just get along like that all the time!!

He had a great day today and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Here are a couple pictures from today:

This one is from the meet and greet yesterday but I had to post the door picture.

Yay!!! Thanks for sharing! What a sweet moment with the kids not wanting to leave each other.

Adorable pictures. I love them.

I'm so glad that it went well for everyone!

 

[ladylyons]

Yay!!! Thanks for sharing! What a sweet moment with the kids not wanting to leave each other.

Adorable pictures. I love them.

I'm so glad that it went well for everyone!

It was such a sweet moment that it almost brought me to tears but then I remembered how my kids really act!!

Thanks glad you enjoyed them!

So am I!!!

 

[Bethislucy]

We are going to really and try for next spring (2013). Maybe you could suggest some good hotels for us.

 

[tralin]

I can't wait to hear bout the trip! It's soooooo close now! I hope that you'll do a TR-I can't wait to hear how it turns out!

Yes, I will definately do a trip report. I have a pre-trip report started but havn't had time to upload it here. I have set up photobucket and learn a few things first.

I'd really like to visit Great American Ballpark and Wrigley North next.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Ok, it's not a baseball park but I work at BC Place Stadium. The one with the new roof. We have MLS and CFL, not my fav sports by far but is sure is a fun place to work.

 

[KristinAnne]

I just caught up on your whole TR. Maddie is too cute. My DD is 22 months and I have so much fun thinking about when we can take her to Disney and she will really enjoy it like that. I hope she turns out to be a girly girl like Maddie too!

 

[Caretames1]

WE GOT THE SKIRT!!! OMG, it is awesome! She loves it and worn it immediately, of course with the shirt. She has declared it's to be worn on her 4th day of school. She really cracks me up.
She's got it on again today, just until she changes for her open house for school. I will put up her pictures as soon as I load them on photobucket.

THANK-YOU SO MUCH!

I pm'd you.

 

[Caretames1]

WE GOT THE SKIRT!!! OMG, it is awesome! She loves it and worn it immediately, of course with the shirt. She has declared it's to be worn on her 4th day of school. She really cracks me up.
She's got it on again today, just until she changes for her open house for school. I will put up her pictures as soon as I load them on photobucket.

THANK-YOU SO MUCH!

I pm'd you.

 

[amandaw]

Shannon did such a great job with the skirt! It's too cute! And your DD looks so happy to have it!!

 

[shan23877]

Thank you so much for sharing pictures Carey! She looked adorable in it! I am so so so glad that you guys love it.

Looks like it fist perfectly? I was a little worried about the length since I didn't want it quite knee length, but it looks great!!!

Yay!

 

[shan23877]

Shannon did such a great job with the skirt! It's too cute! And your DD looks so happy to have it!!

Thanks Amanda!

Add the skirt to the product line for our Etsy store. I have an idea for a new type of skirt that I'm eager to make, but the good sewing machine went down. As soon as I get it back from the repair man I'm gonna try the new one (and the Merida dress )

 

[amandaw]

Thanks Amanda!

Add the skirt to the product line for our Etsy store. I have an idea for a new type of skirt that I'm eager to make, but the good sewing machine went down. As soon as I get it back from the repair man I'm gonna try the new one (and the Merida dress )

Those skirts would sell like hot cakes in our store! And the princess dresses, too! Hmmm....I need to come up with something besides just countdown calendars to make. I could also do Mousekeeping envelopes!

 

[Cinderella909]

Thanks so much for all of the info! I really appreciate you guys answering all of my questions. I think I'd only want BLT for the convienience. BCV is DH's dream resort, so that's why I'd push for that one. I think that if we couldn't get one of those 3, I'd go through Disney and do a mod. I looked at a royal room at POR, and that or CBR is what we'd likely go with.

I would probably never want to stay anywhere else after I stayed at the Poly. Probably a good thing that we haven't yet.

Have to agree, I'd only want BLT for the convienience too. I'm not too into the styling, but the location, well, as they say in real estate, it's all about location, location, location! Maddie would love the Royal rooms. The details are so delightful. I wanted to stay in the Royal room and eat at Be Our Guest, but unfortunately BOG wasn't open in July. Even though we canceled our reservation at Akerhaus with the princesses, my DGD never seem to miss that ADR. When asked what she wants to do, all she says is 'everything I did last year!'.

Since it's my DS and DGD, we really like having the luxury of having two beds. Which is why the DVC Studios make it a little more difficult for us. Although, I'd like to try a studio at BW or BCV. Maybe even AKL.

I've looked at even the values for next year... and even looked at... horrors... shhhhh.... outside rooms. Was shocked to see what prices were outside disney. But, it's just wouldn't be the same. I'm hopelessly hooked on Disney resorts.

Time will tell!

Good luck with the choices... Karen

 

[shan23877]

After a great breakfast with Maddie’s new boyfriend, we exited Hollywood and Vine ready to make the dash to Toy Story Mania. Unfortunately, a CM stationed outside the restaurant had other ideas.

It was only 8:40- 20 minutes before the park opened- and the CM wanted us to stay put. As in stay right there with her smack dab in front of the restaurant. We politely asked if we could wander down by Echo Lake, and she agreed. Sucker!!!!

We waited by the lake and had ourselves a little photo shoot while we waited for the park to open. I had warned Bryan about the hordes of people that would be streaming towards us, and told him that he would be the one fighting the crowds to get our FP. Maddie and I would take a more leisurely pace.

I wonder why no one's called animal control about this situation...

And since I had the camera out...

​

A few minutes later at around 8:50, we saw a solitary man wandering down Hollywood Boulevard. We waited with bated breath to see how far he’d get before he was stopped by a CM. We watched in shock as he kept walking. No one was stopping him! Let’s get moving!!

You may have guessed by now that during our trip DHS had started implementing the ‘soft opening’ procedure. At the time I had no idea what was going on.

So, away we went! Unsure of how far behind the pack we may have been, I still urged Bryan to charge ahead. We’d catch up. We needed to get those Fast Passes and get our butts in the standby line before it got too long!!

We made it to Pixar Place to find empty streets, and even more startling, empty Fast Pass machine queues. While Bryan grabbed our FP (return time of 9:30), Maddie and I dropped the stroller in it’s lot before we met up with DH at the standby entrance. There was no line, so Maddie and I lingered outside waiting for Bry to join us. When he did we all made our way inside together. Just as we entered the building, I felt someone shove me out of the way. A woman was apparently very eager to join her family who were the only other people currently in line. She ignored me as I shouted “Excuse Us!” to the back of her head.

​

We walked right to the loading area where my old buddy Karma exacted her revenge on the Ms. Shovey. Shovey’s family was directed to load at the back of the queue, while we were directed to the front. So, after all that- technically we were the first ones to ride TSMM that day! And, imagine my pride when we found that Bryan had not only tallied the high score in our vehicle, but also for that hour and for the day!

We exited the ride to find that the standby time was listed at 20 minutes (it was really 10). Since we still had half and hour before our FP were good, we rode again. This time we had a chance to take photos.

​

And Bryan’s score was still holding strong…

After the second ride, I made Maddie and Bryan linger a bit longer so that we could use our FP right then. To be perfectly honest, both of them would have been happy to skip the third ride, but I insisted. By then the FP return time was already 1 pm, and I correctly assumed that our third ride would be the last of our trip. Boy am I glad that I did! TSMM was down for most of the rest of the day.

Sadly, by the end of our third ride, Bryan’s score had been bested. He did have bragging rights for 35 minutes that morning though!

After the TSMM Mania, Maddie was interested in exactly 2 things: meeting characters and seeing princess shows. The Woody and Buzz M&G already had a posted wait time of 40 minutes (at 9:30 am!!!) so we agreed to go see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

We lucked out and sat walked in just as a show was starting. We sat up front, and Mads made sure to warn our seatmates that they might get wet, and that no flash photography was allowed.

​

This is Maddie’s second favorite show in all of Disney World, so she was in heaven. And the shop outside of the ride might be her favorite place to browse and plead in all of WDW!