Hey all - just back! We got into Reagan last night around 9pm to find a wonderful gift - dead battery!! Took AAA 45 mins to show up and jump the battery and we were on our way home. But I'm grateful we had AAA, especially at that time of night!!
Some thoughts from our trip...
I requested a courtyard view as close to Bay Lake as possible, hoping for one of elusive front facing CL rooms. It wasn't to be but we had a great location. We were in room 7051 and were farther down than last time.
I really feel like we did CL right this time. No dining plan and we didn't plan a bunch of dinner ADR's, we decided to do a few lunches this time. We took advantage of the CL offerings at dinner time and then when we went to the evening park we were able to pick up a snack or share something. I didn't feel as full at night. The evening foods were awesome this trip. We had the Angus Beef stew twice, Salmon stew once, different styles of chicken skewers (my son's favorite), bacon wrapped scallops one night and the best - pulled pork mini sandwiches with slaw and a really tasty BBQ sauce. I even got my son to try one, he loved it.
Somethings I noticed this time, compared to last time - it seemed like there were ALOT of families with LOTS of kids on the CL floor. Not a bad thing - but - why don't parents watch their kids?? One morning there were three little boys in the food area just open pouring the juices out of the containers! Really?? Pretty much every morning we were awaken by a family running through the halls, yelling! Disney is for all types of families - we have a son who is 11 and we are able to stay at the parks until close and then sleep in a little in the morning. Our son sleeps till 7:30/8:00, we are not rope drop people!! I don't understand why people don't understand that they are not the only ones in the hotel. It wouldn't have been a big deal if I happened one morning, but it happened every morning and it wasn't always the same family. AND parents were encouraging the behavior - yelling in the hall "I'm gonna get you! You can't beat me!" Which was followed by yelling, running, screaming...
Bonnie was awesome on the club floor. She must have been off our last two days because we didn't see her but I really appreciated her attentiveness and kindness.
We had an amazing housekeeper - Sam. She worked so hard and our room showed it. It was spotless everyday. She left really cute animal towels - a bunny, an elephant...
Speaking of housekeeping - interesting story. Sunday night we were sitting on the far side of the lounge, where the comfy chairs are, relaxing. I just happened to look up and there were a ton of cobwebs on the very tippy top windows of the lodge. I showed my husband and we just remarked how high those windows are and that it's probably hard to clean them. The next night, my husband was sitting out there in the same area around 11/11:30, reading - he's a night owl and he hears this whirring noise. He looks out towards the lobby and there is a guy, on a crane, coming up to the top of the lodge! He cleaned the windows and ALL of the exposed beams!!!
I got to run - planning meeting... will come back with more later.
To answer the question of the tree in the lobby - it must be going up soon. We saw them wheeling chairs out of the lobby yesterday morning and it the furniture looked a little sparse. I asked when we checked in last Friday (11/2) when the tree was going up and the CM told me it would probably be up by the end of the following week (11/9).
Debbie
I'm not sure I'll figure it out, but I'll try. I'll use yours to make things easy!
Look what I did, KOOK!! (with your help) 
I guess you start think of next trip to get you over the hump 
