2400 pictures! Beach Club, Universal, and Bay Lake Tower Grand Villa-COMPLETE!

[dd50]

She looks so cute in Minnie's house. I bet you had a hard time getting her out of there.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

She looks so cute in Minnie's house. I bet you had a hard time getting her out of there.

She loved it so much that even when I just showed her this post, she wanted to look at the pictures again and again!


Okay, I finally got all the pictures added to the above post. Does anyone else have problems with photobucket? It's driving me nuts!

 

[dd50]

Just saw the rest of the pics. Glad they liked barnstomer. My grandson loves it but my granddaughter hates it. Don't think she will like rollercoasters to my daughters dismay.

 

[ReneeDisney]

What a wonderful trip report! Great pictures and adorable children. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Just saw the rest of the pics. Glad they liked barnstomer. My grandson loves it but my granddaughter hates it. Don't think she will like rollercoasters to my daughters dismay.

I'm worried Ella won't like rollercoasters either. Although right now she acts like a brave little girl, I just know that I didn't like them until I was in my teens.

What a wonderful trip report! Great pictures and adorable children. Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you! Thank you!

 

[onelilspark]

When I bought ears for my boyfriend, my parents waited for me at the checkers table. I swear I could have left them there all day!

 

[Mona503]

Very much enjoyed reading through your trip report. I have never seen pix of Universal so that was neat. Your kids are adorable! No pictures of you though...not even one.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Very much enjoyed reading through your trip report. I have never seen pix of Universal so that was neat. Your kids are adorable! No pictures of you though...not even one.

Thank you! I wondered when someone would mention that! The camera was always in my hand! If you look carefully, you can see me in the teacups. Oh, wait a minute, there's one coming up of all of us at 'Ohana for dinner. It's the same day as the one I'm working on, so I will actually post one soon. I also have some from our photopass CD.

All of our vacation albums are the same way. Very few pics of me!

 

[AGPrincess]

Really enjoying your trip report! Your little ones are adorable, and I love the pics of BLV -- it sounds awesome!

 

[MouseTriper]

I just went through your entire TR so far and am loving it. I can't wait to read more. You have a beautiful family!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Really enjoying your trip report! Your little ones are adorable, and I love the pics of BLV -- it sounds awesome!

I just went through your entire TR so far and am loving it. I can't wait to read more. You have a beautiful family!

Thank you so much! With any luck, I'll add more this afternoon.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Now, where was I? Oh yes, we took the monorail from the Magic Kingdom back to the Contemporary. It's pool time!

The pool at Bay Lake Tower was nice. One side of it was zero entry. There was a kiddie slide and a big twisted slide for older kids and adults. The smaller Mickey head you can see in the picture is a splash area. It was nice. There was a bar there which had very limited snack/lunch items. If you wanted hot options or any desserts, you had to walk to pool at the Contemporary. That's what my DH did and brought lunch back for us.

SIL, BIL, Kyle, and Avery were already at the pool, remember? Kyle was having a good ol' time going down the huge waterslide. He was even pretending to be a surfer. As he rounded the last curve, he'd bend one knee up so his forward foot was flat on the slide (while still sitting) and pose his arms like a surfer about to stand on his board. It was cute. Jacob, 18 months younger than his cousin, is always trying to be like him. It was all the incentive he needed to go down that big slide too. Even Max (18 months younger than Jacob) tried it once, but backed out at the top.

Kyle and Avery went back to the room to get a nap in before dinner. My kids aren't nappers, so we went back a little after they did to just rest for a little bit. Ella did go down for a little nap and then Max conked out on the couch just before it was time to go to dinner. Fortunately he was already dressed for dinner and DH carried him for a while until he woke up.

We were going to 'Ohana. MIL had bought matching shirts for all the guys--big and small. She also bought matching dresses for the little girls. MIL, SIL, and I just planned to wear pink shirts to match the girls' dresses. On our group trip 2 years ago, we matched one night and MIL really liked it, so we did it again this time. We headed to the monorail to get to the Polynesian.

I think it's cute that Kyle and Jacob are still young enough that they hold hands while they are hanging out.

Here's a not-the-best picture of the girls, but they're still too cute together to skip it. And then a not-so-good picture of the boys, but that was on purpose!

Next up: Review of 'Ohana

 

[dr&momto2boys]

'Ohana:

We checked in at 'Ohana and decided to get drinks at the bar. (DH and I split that pineapple drink. I think it was pure alcohol! ) We hung out around the bar for about 20 minutes before I asked DH to inquire about how much longer we would have to wait to be seated. When he checked, they had forgotten about us! How do you forget about a table of 11? We were seated shortly after.

Our table was near the area they cooked the meat. (Second picture above.) 'Ohana serves their food family style starting with appetizers (potstickers and wings) and salad. Yum! The kids can order whatever they want off the kids menu and/or enjoy the regular offerings brought to the table. Everything is included at no extra charge. Max was "starving" so he ordered a hot dog with fries AND chicken nuggets. Jacob ordered macaroni and cheese.

Ella like the noodles and various other items from the regular offerings. The meal consisted of noodles and broccoli? as side items. (I'm not sure about the broccoli. And I'm not doing the menu justice. See allears.net if you want to see the description. The food IS delicious!) You were offered meats (turkey, shrimp, steak, pork) off of large skewers by servers circulating around. There were sauces to complement the meats on the table. People (on DISboards) often rave about the turkey, but my favorite was the steak.

SIL and Kyle have food allergies/sensitivities so the chef always came to the table to accomadate them. Disney does an amazing job with that! The chef made Kyle a special plate that really pleased him! I'm sure there are many instances in life, where Kyle feels left out due to his allergies, but at Disney he feels special! His meals (or the presentation there of) were often the most exciting!

Several times during dinner, they had activities for the kids. The first was rolling coconuts. All the kids in the restaurant were invited to push cocnuts with brooms down the main isles of the restaurant. The kids liked it and having them get up to do activities occasionally kept them happy all the way through dinner. Ella liked watching too.

Another activlity was dancing/parading around the restaurant and playing morracas.

Dessert is banana bread pudding and vanilla ice cream. I'm normally not a bread pudding fan at all, but this stuff is to die for! They served it family style too and brought an extra bowl of vanilla ice cream scoops with Mickey sprinkles for the kids. (You can see a little bit of the bread pudding sitting in front of Max, but I stopped taking most food pictures so I wouldn't look weird in front of my IL's!)

SIL and Kyle's desserts were the envy of most though...the chef out-did himself!

One last activity...They learned a hula dance and received leis. Then we were out of there and on our way to the Magic Kingdom.

 

[mermaid764]

I was excited to see that you'd posted several new updates! Your daughter is so adorable in her fairy costume..too cute! Your dinner at Ohana looks so good and the matching outfits was an awesome idea! Looking forward to hearing more

 

[Me&3]

Great TR so far. Can't wait to see and hear about the rest. I'm really enjoying the pic. Love the shirts and autograph books you made.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I was excited to see that you'd posted several new updates! Your daughter is so adorable in her fairy costume..too cute! Your dinner at Ohana looks so good and the matching outfits was an awesome idea! Looking forward to hearing more

Thank you! I wish we would have gotten pictures of her with the faries while she had it on. Oh, well!

Great TR so far. Can't wait to see and hear about the rest. I'm really enjoying the pic. Love the shirts and autograph books you made.

Thank you so much!

My next update will probably be Wednesday! My DH says he can't believe I'm only on day 6 and "It's all I've been doing for a month!" It does kinda feel like it! He's anxious for me to make our photobooks! At this rate I'll be lucky to get the photobooks done before our next trip! I put off doing one for a Hawaii trip and that was two years ago now.

 

[oboedm]

great pictures of ToonTown! We didn't really explore it when we went last year, but want to check out a few things this year since many things will be gone due to the Fantasyland changes.

Everything looks so cute! I want to get a picture with the sewing machine like you did with Ella. I fancy myself a seamstress, so that will be so much fun! =)

 

[dd50]

Great update! Love the pics. Love the one with the dessert and the expressions on everyone's face.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

great pictures of ToonTown! We didn't really explore it when we went last year, but want to check out a few things this year since many things will be gone due to the Fantasyland changes.

Everything looks so cute! I want to get a picture with the sewing machine like you did with Ella. I fancy myself a seamstress, so that will be so much fun! =)

I didn't even notice until you wrote this, that it looks like Ella is trying to sew!

Great update! Love the pics. Love the one with the dessert and the expressions on everyone's face.

A picture says a 1000 words!


I can't believe this thread has had over 10,000 views! I'm feeling the pressure to get it done!

 

[onelilspark]

I love your outfits at 'Ohana. Made such a nice family photo!