Bumps, bruises, too many teenagers & swimming with sharks! NEW 11/17 pg. 32

[Native NYer]

Joining in!
Great intro!

[DisMomAmy]

Originally Posted by EastYorkDisneyFan

Can I sneak in too?

Of course!

Originally Posted by MeMom

Great picture! Looks like a certain back seat passenger thinks the car is going a little too fast, though.

Mickey bar smeared on one's face - that's smile worthy.

I am looking forward to reading all about this nice, long trip!

MeMom!

Alex always has trouble with a natural looking smile! But you're right - he looks like he's afraid the car is going to speed away!

Originally Posted by natebenma

And cheated! I didn't read your intro until just now- got to get in on the first page and all.

Did I post a picture of my son who looked strikingly like your son on a previous report of yours?

I am also a SAHM, who recently "retired" as treasurer/VP of the PTA after 7 years when my youngest moved to middle school. My husband is a software engineer, too.

And I must say that I love your taste in resorts!!!

We so have to get together!

Well you get to be the first person to post twice!

I think you've mentioned some of the similarities before but I didn't realize there were so many! We'll have to talk with Doreen and work on that DISmeet!

Originally Posted by Charleston Princess

Here!!!

[DisMomAmy]

Originally Posted by Native NYer

Joining in!
Great intro!

You snuck in too! Thanks for reading!

[DisMomAmy]

On Thursday, April 19th I woke before the alarm (is anybody shocked), which was set for 4am. I got myself ready and sent Tim to the shower. Then it was time to wake the boys & tell them they weren’t going to school. We went into Alex’s room first and he sprung up and looked at his clock, then proceeded to yell at us for waking him up. We asked him if he wanted to go to Disney. He said, “Are you joking?” with a scowl on his face. Once he knew we were serious, he was more than happy to get up. Next we moved onto Zach. I rubbed his back and he slowly woke up. We told him about Disney and, still half asleep, he smiled and stretched.

Once we loaded up, we hit the road & headed to the Manchester, NH airport. We love that airport! We ran into some friends in the Southwest check-in line and it turned out they were going to be on the same flight. They too were headed to Tampa, but wouldn’t be at Disney until Sunday. We made it through the line, ditched our big bags and got through security. Once at our gate we ran into Heidi (MRYPPNS) & her family! We knew we’d be seeing them & had been texting back and forth on our way to the airport. We had just enough time to grab some breakfast from Dunkin Donuts.

Zach & Liam (MRYPPNS DS):






Alex & his new sticker book:


After some donuts it was time to board the plane. The flight was fairly uneventful aside from Alex’s ears hurting a little bit when we landed, ahead of schedule, in Tampa. We made it to our rental van & said good-bye to Heidi’s family until Sunday. Next stop was the Beach Club!

After a quick drive-thru at McDonald’s we were on our way to Disney. Along the way I received a text message from Doreen (disneyfan61) letting us know they had arrived at the BC & were upgraded to club level! She gave me their room number & we hoped we’d be able to catch up later. Before long we were seeing this:






We made it to the Beach Club in about an hour. The weather forecast wasn’t great for today and we encountered a few sprinkles on our way to Orlando. We hoped the weather would hold out for us since our only plans for today were to enjoy SAB until dinner at 'Ohana.

We passed through the security booth and found a concierge CM waiting for us to pull up.







We unloaded & Tim went to park the van. The boys & I were escorted upstairs to be checked in up at the 5th floor club level concierge. Tim joined us in no time. Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready so Tim went down to get our day bag from bell services. Before he even made it down there, the CM said our room was ready! Yay! I called Tim & he came back up in time to be escorted to our room. We also got to have a peek at the lounge. Our room was 5667 which was funny because Doreen was in 5677 just around the corner. Changing our reservation back to the BC only a few days before arriving, I wasn't optimistic that we'd get our room requests but I made them anyways. I requested to be away from the lounge & other stairs/elevator noise. I also requested a view of SAB. We were several doors down from the lounge so noise was never an issue. We didn’t get a view of SAB but I’m really happy with our view & would request it again! It was a great spot to people watch. We looked right out over the back entrance at the lagoon & Boardwalk area.

Room photos:




















Continued...

[DisMomAmy]

We hung out in our room for a little bit until our luggage arrived. We checked out the lounge too. Once our bags arrived, we changed and headed right to the pool! We had signed up for a noodle share on the BC/YC FAQ thread but I forgot to bring down any money so I didn’t want to pick them up yet. I wanted to be able to tip. The boys LOVED the slide & we all took a few turns going down. I also explored the sandy area with Zach and took a dip in the hot tub. The pool looked great after it had been partially closed for repair. The upper deck/gazebo area was closed (just on Thursday) for some paint work. Hopefully all the wet paint didn’t wash off in the rain that came through. There was still one area that looked like they were working on it but it didn’t affect us at all.













After about an hour, the sky started to turn black so we headed back upstairs to have some snacks from the lounge & relax. When we got back to the room we found something for each of the boys for their celebrations. They each had a bundle of balloons tied to three large candy bars. I think they had Twizzlers, Starburst & PB Cups. I think I have better pictures somewhere that I’ll post when I find them. They also each had a congratulations card signed by the fab 5 PLUS Daisy! Alex was very excited that Daisy was included – he hates how she is always left out.


I got a snack from the lounge & sat on the balcony watching the storm clouds roll in.




Delicious Beach Club kettle chips:












You probably didn't need to see so many rain photos, since they are all pretty much the same picture!

Continued...

[DisMomAmy]

Eventually it was time to get ready for our dinner ADR at ‘Ohana. This was a new restaurant for us so I was anxious to give it a try! I had wanted to go over the International Gateway this afternoon to get the boys’ Guest Assistance Cards taken care of so we wouldn’t have to stop and deal with that the next morning at DHS (we were hoping to make it into one of the early Jedi training classes) but the pouring rain wasn’t cooperating! I had packed ponchos but hadn’t brought an umbrella – we’d never used it in the past. Tim wanted one to be able to run out to the parking lot for the car so we stopped at the Marketplace to buy one for $10. Tim pulled the car around and picked the rest of us up & we drove to the Poly.


Since we have a Tables in Wonderland card, we valet parked at the Poly. The resort was very pretty.






Zach got a camera for Christmas and was really enjoyed taking pictures here. He had us posing for shots in front of the fountain. I’ll download his camera soon & post those separately. Here is one of him with his new camera:






We checked out the BouTiki. There was a shirt Tim wanted but he ended up not buying. It was over $100 and linen… I don’t know about you, but I hate washing (and ironing) linen!


Once we figured out where to go, we headed upstairs. I was shocked to find an extremely LONG line to check in for our ADR! I don’t know if that’s normal at opening time but it was very long & really made things congested in that area. After finally making it up to the podium, we got our buzzer & only waited a few minutes to be seated. The restaurant was very cool!


Unfortunately, Tim was the only one who liked the food. Zach ate a bunch of shrimp but didn’t like the spices on the noodles, broccoli & other meats.


Alex gave it an OK but he only at chicken nuggets!


We all enjoyed the dessert… except Alex. He wanted a popsicle. I knew they sold them in the shops at the resorts so we tried to get one on our way out of the Poly but didn’t find one. We drove back to the BC and the sun had come out so we tried to cut through the BCV side of the resort to get to the IG for the GACs… but we got all turned around and couldn’t figure out how to get out of there and ended up back in the BC lobby. Zach was actually pretty happy about this because he now had his pins with him. Earlier in the day, on our way to or from SAB, he had spotted a pin trading board at the DVC desk. He really wanted to make his first trade of the trip & now he finally got to do so. He got a grape soda pin from Up!

We checked the Marketplace for a popsicle but they didn’t have any either – it looked like they normally did but were all out. We continued on to the IG & got that taken care of. Tim took Zach back to the room to get ready for bed. It was around 7:00 but having gotten up at 4:30, Zach was exhausted. I took Alex over to the BW area to see if we could find a popsicle. Again, no luck! He was not happy with me! He asked if he could eat some of the candy (from the celebration surprise) and was satisfied with that when I told him yes.

On the way back, I got a text from Doreen that they were headed to the ESPN club. We figured we must have walked right be each other because we had just come by there on our way back to the BC. I have no idea how that happened & we didn’t see each other!

A couple pictures from my walk with Alex:




After getting the boys settled in bed, Tim & I enjoyed sitting out on the balcony. Doreen texted again that they weren’t able to get into ESPN so they were back at the BC & planned to get snacks in the lounge at 8pm. I headed down there around 8:00 and after a few minutes, she and her DH arrived. It was so nice to finally meet her! We only live about 30 minutes apart from each other here in NH! We nearly met last year but it didn’t happen. The BC lounge is a great place for a DIS meet!

After snacks (which were very yummy), Tim & I headed to bed too. It had been a long day & we wanted to make rope drop at DHS the next morning.

Up next: Day 2

[disneyfan61]

I'm here!! Now I have to go & read.

[DisMomAmy]

Originally Posted by disneyfan61

I'm here!! Now I have to go & read.

Just in time!

[disneyfan61]

Great start!! I wish we had taken a picture of our meet but after getting up at 2:00 am that morning maybe it was a good idea to not get a pic.

It's so funny how we probably walked past each other.

Glad to finally meet you in the lounge.

I think the boys are looking more alike as they get older!!

[DisMomAmy]

Originally Posted by disneyfan61

Great start!! I wish we had taken a picture of our meet but after getting up at 2:00 am that morning maybe it was a good idea to not get a pic.

It's so funny how we probably walked past each other.

Glad to finally meet you in the lounge.

I think the boys are looking more alike as they get older!!

I know... I thought about a picture but figured we'd do it later. You know how that works... I also realized you never met Tim or Alex, did you?

And how we walked right by each other? That will always remain a mystery!

[ddluvsdisney]

I'm joining in Amy!
Looks like a great first day. Glad SAB worked out and you got a swim in before the rain. This was like our 4th or 5th April trip and I think this was the rainiest one.
Can't wait to hear more.
If you do a DIS meet with Dee let me know I don't live to far away

[disneyfan61]

Originally Posted by DisMomAmy

I know... I thought about a picture but figured we'd do it later. You know how that works... I also realized you never met Tim or Alex, did you?

And how we walked right by each other? That will always remain a mystery!

No I did not meet Tim & Alex. Oh well. Hopefully we can set up a Disney Store shopping day & I can pick you up. Or we might be at Disney again at the same time.

That was so strange how we must have walked right by each other. I was taking lots of pictures though so I am going to chalk it up to that.

[JPFamilyMom]

What a fun first day, looks like the boys had a great time in the pool. Sorry they didn't like the food at Ohana, was the food spicy or just different type of flavors? Hooray for a DISmeet
Can't wait to read about your DHS day

[MRYPPNS]

Mr. Tim was nice enough to get Liam a donut. It was his first time with a chocolate frosted!



I'm so glad that Amy told me about flying into Tampa because it's such an easy drive to Orlando. It's nice to have that option for flight times and prices.
We stopped for lunch at Steak n' Shake, yum!

And thank you again Amy for the 20 pounds of gifts you gave the kids at the airport

[Angies1274]

I'm here!

Sounds like a fun first day!! Love your pictures of the BC! You had a great view!

Sorry that Ohana's wasn't a hit for you guys. I'm a little nervous my boys won't like it either. But, DH and I are still anxious to give a try.