Glad to hear you loved the walking tour. I would love to take my kids out of school, but they give us a hard time about it. Lines are not as long during the off time as they are during school vacation.
It's getting harder and harder to take them out of school honestly. I think this will probably be the last time. The school district is great and they don't mind, but Lauren is getting older and has so much more work to make up when we get home. We went to WDW last August and although it was HOT there was no school to worry about and the lines were short!!
You family is precious! You look amazing for having 3 little ones. Hopefully I can be that way.....The one so far has taken a toll on me!
I LOVE BLT!!! Stayed there during Christmas last year. Watching Holiday Wishes snuggled up from the balcony was the best feeling....But we were not able to go to the pool becaue oit was freezing.
Thanks so much! We actually just had another baby! She is 6 months old and her name is Leah! I love having 4 kids and I'd like another one, but Phil thinks I'm NUTS!
I love BLT too!!! I've never been to WDW during xmas...I bet that was amazing!
I love park hoppers!! It is so much fun to just hop on a bus or monorail over to another park (my record is only 3 in one day). Loved your hungry pic at Animal Kingdom
I was looking forward to Saturday May 15th for months! My brother lives in Orlando and I haven't seen much of him over the past 10 years so we made plans to meet up while we were down there!! I suggested Jellyrolls at The Boardwalk Resort after reading such good things about it on the disboards. He talked to his girlfriend and they agreed that it sounded fun. Since we were staying in a 2 bedroom villa we offered for them to stay the night in our living room rather than driving home after drinking. The fact that BLT has a third bathroom was perfect since they had it all to themselves! The biggest and most important tip I read on the DIS about Jellyrolls was to GET THERE EARLY IF YOU WANT A TABLE! I made reservations at The Sandcastle Club for Ashley and Darren at The Beach Club Resort for 9 pm. We planned on getting to the Boardwalk by 8 and having the guys get a table at Jellyrolls while the girls walked the kids to the beach club. It didn't work out quite as planned.....
When we got back to BLT from The Animal Kingdom there wasn't a ton of time before Bill and Angela were supposed to arrive. Phil took the kids to the pool and I did some laundry and cleaned up the villa. After about 20 min they came back to the room to get changed. He was going to take them to MK for a little bit and use the Space Mountain fastpasses. I said ok that's fine since Bill wasn't quite to WDW property yet. I reminded Phil that the kids needed to use their counter service credits for dinner and to stop at community hall so Lauren could pick out DVDs to watch while we were at Jellyrolls. They walked out the door around 5:30.
Bay Cove Pool
Within no time Bill and Angela arrived and we got them a parking pass at CR. We walked over to BLT and they thought it looked really cool! We went into the main doors which was a first for me! The lobby was awesome and beautiful! I brought them up to our room and we sat in the living room and talked for a while. It was so nice to see him and to meet her! I liked Angela right away, she was so friendly and seemed really cool! So time was starting to tick and I still needed to jump in the shower. I asked if they wanted to wait at the Top of the World Lounge and they said sure! We went down to the podium and the CM actually asked for my blue member card which surprised me! It was no problem since I had it with me. We took the elevator up and WOW! The view from up there is STUNNING! No matter which way you look there is something to see! They took a seat at the bar and I took the elevator back down to get ready. By 7:45 Phil and the kids still weren't back. I texted him a few times and finally he called me. Instead of walking they took the monorail to MK which took a long time. Then waited in some long standby lines or something ...never ate and were in the process of taking the monorail back which was taking forever! DUH! He didn't believe me when I said walking is faster! I reminded him that the kids needed to eat dinner still and to please take them to Contempo Cafe to eat quickly! After a while they walk in the door..WITH THEIR FOOD! He didn't have them just sit and eat real quick! UGH! So we still couldn't leave until Ash and Darren finished eating! He took Lauren to get her DVDs finally. So now it's 8:15 and we are way behind schedule. I told Lauren to eat her dinner, get a shower and watch her movies and that by the time she's done all of that we'd be walking in the door! She was all set and we left. We walked over to the Beach Club bus at MK and got in line. It was getting so late! By the time we finally got to the kids club it was 9:30. Any hopes for a table were long gone so we just took our time walking to the boardwalk. It was a beautiful night!!! Neither Bill or Angela had ever seen the Epcot Resorts and they were in awe!
This pic is on our way to Jellyrolls..Bill (my brother), Me and my hubby Phil!
Angela and Bill
We got to Jellyrolls and paid our cover charge. The place was packed!! There wasn't an open table in site. We found a nice spot at the bar with a good view of the stage so we were happy. I don't know enough about Jellyroll's to tell you who was performing that night, but whoever they were...they were great!! We were there for about 5 min when Lauren started texting us. She thought she heard thunder and wanted us to come back asap. Phil went outside and talked to her and told her we wouldn't stay out long and not to worry. She kept hearing thunder so she called my mom..awwww. My mom was so sweet and stayed on the phone with her for a long time. They both realized it wasn't thunder she was hearing..it was WISHES!
We had a couple of drinks and sang along with the crowd! Angela was so much fun. We are almost the same age and liked singing along to the same songs! Bill and Phil caught up on lost time. It was great! I had such a good time! Lauren started texting us to come back again so we said ok. We weren't at Jellyrolls for very long, but that's ok we will try to visit it again in the future!
This pic is courtesy of google images..
up next..day 2 part 3 late night snacks and swims!
It was around 11 when we picked the kids up from the Sandcastle Club. They had such a good time and would like to go there again in the future! We told Lauren we were on our way back, but since we'd possibly have to connect at DTD it might take a while.
I had read on the DIS that sometimes DTD buses at the boardwalk would take you to your resort directly late at night. I suggested we try that, but everyone said nah...they didn't feel like walking back over there! I said ok and out the doors of The Beach Club we went. As we got closer to the bus stop I saw a Magic Kingdom bus sitting there!! The driver was outside of his bus so I started running towards him like a maniac! I said.."ARE YOU GOING TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM???!" He said, "yes, but you understand it's closed, right?" I said, "I KNOW, BUT WE NEED TO GET TO BLT!!!". He said ok get on! He drove us directly to The Contemporary! We were there in no time! It was awesome! I love moments like that in WDW!
So it was late and we were all hungry! Big shocker right..haha seems like we are always hungry! The kids wanted a snack and we still had counter service credits to use. We texted Lauren and told her to meet us at The Contempo Cafe. It was my first time going there and I really liked the touch screen ordering. The place was only open for 10 more minutes so we got there in the nick of time! The kids all picked out a snack and the adults got meals. We took everything to go and went back to our room. Having the space of a 2 bedroom villa is wonderful. The table at BLT is banquette seating and offers a lot of room. I really enjoyed my turkey blt! We were just about done eating when Uncle Bill told the kids he felt like swimming! Of course my kids wanted to also...so everyone changed into their suits and we headed down to Bay Cove Pool. We were the only people there so I asked the kids to please play quietly! The adults hit the hot tub and the kids splashed around in the pool. It was FABULOUS! By about 1:15 I said ok time for bed. We went back upstairs and the kids went to bed. Bill and Angela made up their sofa bed and I packed up our suitcases! The next day we were heading to Kidani Village!!!
I love your BLT pictures. I dream of DVC and plan on renting points next trip so that I can convince DH how fantastic it would be. I am so torn between BLT and AKL.
I got a tad bit behind.....great updates!! Great pictures!! We have never stopped at The Boardwalk and walked around,...maybe next summer we will take an evening with just the adults and do that
Hi Pinkexray!
It took me a while to convince my husband to join DVC. Now he's so glad we did and wishes we had joined sooner! I'm about to start into our Kidani adventure and when it's all said and done..I preferred BLT!
Hi Cdotla and chesters420!
Thanks for joining in!
Hi Queenofallthings!
The Boardwalk is gorgeous at night! Jellyrolls is a really fun time you should check it out!
We woke up nice and early on the 16th. I had packed everything except the toiletries the night before so we called Bell Services and got ready to vacate the room! Our plan was to be at DHS by rope drop. We wanted to stockpile fastpasses throughout the day to use once Michelle arrived late in the afternoon. I used express checkout and we were saying goodbye to BLT by 8:15. We walked out to the parking lot with Bill and Angela and said our goodbyes. It was so great to see them! Just after they pulled off we realized we should've asked them for a ride to DHS! Oh well...we walked to the bus stop and waited..and waited..and waited. It seemed like the bus would never come! Finally it did and after making a stop at The Poly we were on our way. We missed park opening by about 15 min. Luckily the park wasn't too crowded and Phil was able to get TSM fastpasses with a 10:20 return time. While we waited, the kids and I stopped to get a picture taken!
We had a bit of time before we could get our next fastpasses so we decided to go trade in 2 of our Give a Day vouchers. Back in April we volunteered at the MS Walk in Wilmington, Delaware so we had 5 vouchers to use. We were going to use one at each park and let Lauren use hers for the pin set. There was no line at Will Call and we had our green fastpass cards in no time. One person's voucher was good for a fastpass card for themself plus up to 6 more cards for the rest of their group! With each card you could get 3 fastpasses from the Donald group and 3 from the Daisy group. Here's what they looked like..the orange was Lauren's card to get her pin set at package pick up (they let her keep her card!).
We walked back over to TSM and got more fastpasses, enough for us to ride with Michelle later on, plus 5 to ride right then! Then we grabbed some for Voyage of the Little Mermaid which was from the Daisy Group. We still had a little time left before we could get more regular fastpasses so we did one of our kids favorites which is The Great Movie Ride! Once again...like always..we got the gangster scene! UGH! WE WANTED THE COWBOYS! Ashley really wanted to see American Idol and the other kids weren't interested. So her and I went there and Phil took Lauren and Darren to Star Tours. Once we met up I suggested we get some lunch. We still had a counter service and snack credit to use from our BLT reservation and I knew exactly where I wanted to eat! Phil wanted to walk over to TOT to get fastpasses which was perfect since I wanted to go to Starring Rolls Cafe! The kids really wanted to try Toy Story Pizza Planet so I got my food to go. It was sooooo good! I highly recommend it!
as always I was lazy with my camera so these pics are from google images! lol
Starring Rolls Cafe is located at the corner of Sunset and Hollywood Blvds!
I had the Black Forest Ham sandwich with a bag of salt and vinegar chips and a bottle of water! YUMMMMMMY!
It came with dessert so I picked the Butterfinger Cupcake!
By the time I packed my food up Phil was back from TOT. We walked over to Pizza Planet. The place was PACKED! Phil got in line with the kids and I looked for a table. There was a nice family at a big table who offered to share it with us! I sat down and unpacked my lunch. The sandwich was HUGE and oh so good! Phil and the kids thought their pizza was just alright. We all shared my cupcake! After lunch we decided to go to Kidani and get checked in.
After loving our whole experience at BLT I was wanting to have the same feeling about Kidani. Animal Kingdom Villas is our home resort and we had never been there! When the bus pulled up to Kidani I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed with it's appearance. I guess I expected it to feel more "grand" or something. The musicians by the entrance was a nice touch though. I thought the lobby was very pretty and the kids liked that they could play the Wii while I checked in. There was no line at all to check in so I approached the counter. I gave him my name and we got started. I said that I wanted to pay for my dining plan with a disney gift card and he said that I didn't have the dining plan. I told him that I added it when I made the reservations and that Michelle's reservation should have it added also. He pulled up her info and it wasn't showing on there either. I was about to panic..we had 5 awesome meals planned!! He went to speak with his manager and came back with great news! His manager was able to override the system and add the dining plan to ours and Michelle's reservations! I had requested rooms close to the lobby and next to each other. We wound up being the last room in the 4th bead and Michelle was the first room in the 5th bead. We were basically right in the middle which was ok since we were close to the buses! We were on the same floor as the lobby which I also liked! Just like at BLT I booked standard view rooms. I did this to save on points. At BLT our standard view was fantastic! At Kidani...ugh it was total parking lot. I knew before we got there that we'd see the parking lot, but I didn't realize how much I'd hate it! I wish I had used more points for savannah view. The villa was nicely decorated, but quite dark. What I didn't like was the smell. The carpet was wet as if it was just shampooed and smelled like some sort of deoderizer. I brewed a pot of coffee to try to cover the smell! haha ..it didn't work. We had ordered some groceries together and split the delivery cost from garden grocer so I called bell services to have our luggage and the groceries brought up. I unpacked the food and separated out Michelle's stuff. I started unpacking and the kids started begging for the pool! Phil took the kids and I continued to unpack. It wasn't long before Michelle texted me to say they were on Disney's Magical Express! I finished what I was doing and walked to Johari Treasures to get a refillable mug of coffee. I took my coffee outside and waited for their DME bus to pull up. After about 10 minutes I saw Phil and the kids coming back from the pool. It was thundering so they closed it. I told them to head back and get changed because we had dinner reservations at Mama Melrose soon!!!
lazy mommy strikes again! pics courtesy of google images!
Room #7337 standard view
This is exactly how our room looked plus we had a dedicated 2nd bedroom!
Next thing I knew...their DME bus was pulling up! They got off the bus and we gave each other big hugs! We went inside to get her checked in. My kids were done getting changed so they showed Jon and Tina around the lobby. They started playing the Wii of course! We took Michelle to her room and brought over her groceries. I hated to rush her, but we had to get back to DHS we had a 7:00 ADR at Mama Melrose! It had just finished raining when we got to the bus stop and that was the only rain for the whole trip!!! We got to DHS in plenty of time so we didn't have to rush to get to the restaurant. We stopped for our first group picture!
We got to Mama Melrose and I checked in. They said it would be about 15 min. This was our first experience dining as such a big party. It takes a long time to seat 9 people! We waited about a half hour. We were seated in the back of the restaurant and had a really good server. I had the ..
Spicy Italian Sausage - Served with Rigatoni pasta, peppers, onions, and a tomato basil sauce topped with Caprino cheese. - $16.99
Me and my BFF at Mama Melrose!
It was VERY good! The kids were done before us so we let them run to Star Tours. We finished up and went over to the gift shop. We got there just as they were getting off the ride! We had a pile of fastpasses to use before the park closed! It was evening EMH so we had until 1 am! Our first stop was TSM! Everyone's goal was to beat Phil's score! We stopped at The Great Movie Ride and once again..GANGSTERS! ugh! Then it was time...time for The Tower of Terror!!! I hadn't been on it since 2008 and I couldn't wait! Lauren said NOWAY she wasn't riding it again. She rode it last summer and hated it. Nick the oldest kid in the bunch also chickened out and so did Darren. Ashley was finally ready to ride it and Tina had NO FEAR! I couldn't believe this little 6 year old wanted to ride!!! So me, Phil, Michelle, Jon, Ashley and Tina took our fastpasses and got in line! We had extra fastpasses since some of the kids weren't riding so we handed them to very thankful people! We were put in the back row of the elevator. It was without a doubt the best TOT ride I had ever been on! We dropped sooo many times! When the ride was over poor Jon was crying. It scared him so bad, but Ashley and Tina were all smiles! Michelle loved it too! We wanted Jon to calm down so we went to Voyage of the Little Mermaid! They thought it was very cute. A second Fantasmic was added that night and we had planned on seeing it, but the kids really wanted to ride Star Tours again so we skipped it. The standby line was only about 10 min so they rode it twice I think. The second Fantasmic was nearly over so we decided to head for the exit to beat the crowd. A lot of other people must have had the same idea because the bus line was LONG! After about 10 min a bus pulled up and started loading. We were the next people to get on when the driver said.."I love you, but I gotta leave you..sorry". Awww.. he was sweet, but sadly we had to wait for the next bus. Well Disney's line of approx. every 20 minutes was no exaggeration! It was a long wait for sure. I was thankful though that we got in line when we did. The amount of people in line behind us was staggering. We got back to Kidani and went to the pool for about 20 minutes. Day 3 was a success!
I felt the same way when we got to AKL....we had stayed 5 days at SSR before our move....and I wanted to go back to SSR....I felt AKL was dark and SSR was bright and cheery, the quiet pool was to the left of our villa and the buses to the right. Everything was close!
I kept telling myself I would have loved it if it had been our first resort....but I'm not so sure.....I like it but I don't love it
Sounds like you had a wonderful evening at DHS....love EMH at that park, especially the view from ToT once it's dark
I felt the same way when we got to AKL....we had stayed 5 days at SSR before our move....and I wanted to go back to SSR....I felt AKL was dark and SSR was bright and cheery, the quiet pool was to the left of our villa and the buses to the right. Everything was close!
I kept telling myself I would have loved it if it had been our first resort....but I'm not so sure.....I like it but I don't love it
Sounds like you had a wonderful evening at DHS....love EMH at that park, especially the view from ToT once it's dark
We stayed at SSR last summer and I LOVED it! I thought it was bright, beautiful and relaxing! BLT really appealed to me too! I thought it was also bright and modern...clean and fresh! I had such high hopes for Kidani. The lighting is the worst. It's sooooo dark. I've stayed at many WDW resorts over the years...CR, CBR, POR, BWI, BWV, SSR....and Kidani just didn't thrill me. My husband is the total opposite though. He liked Kidani better then BLT. I also hated it's location. It felt very removed from the rest of WDW property.
Day 4 started off like every other one...with a call from Stitch! It was nice having the food from garden grocer in the villa. Everyone was able to eat before leaving in the morning, it worked out really great. We did order too much food though and wound up throwing a lot away at the end of the week. As always I was hoping to make the good morning welcome at The Magic Kingdom so Michelle and her kids could see it. We made it in time, but they did a short version of it. I had a GAD voucher with us, but didn't go to will call right away, we decided to see how crowds were first. Since it was nice and early there was barely a crowd. We went over to Frontierland to get the day started! Phil grabbed some Splash Mountain fastpasses and we got in standby for BTMR. It was their first ride in ever in the magic kingdom!
The kids were excited on the bus to MK!
After BTMR and all went on Splash Mountain!
We exited Splash and viewed our ride photo...the one above....Michelle and I decided to split the cost and buy it. When she opened her bag she realized her KTTW cards were gone. Not only that, but Phil realized he lost his AP. They both needed to go to City Hall so they ran off and I took the kids to Pirates of the Caribbean! It has always been and will always be one of my favorite rides! We met up with them at the Jungle Cruise and everything was fixed! She got new cards and Phil got his AP replaced! we got some fastpasses for the jungle cruise and headed for fantasyland. The park was starting to get a little more crowded, but still very manageable. We kept just using our regular passes for fastpasses and riding standby when the lines were short. I told Ashley she could get the pin set if she wanted with her voucher so she did! She decided she wanted to start pin trading like Lauren and got her own lanyard. We stopped at The Haunted Mansion before having lunch at Pecos Bill. I had the new Deluxe Angus Burger that comes with onion rings on it! OH YUMMMMM! I really liked it! I loaded it up with stuff from the fixins bar! They have new touch screens for ordering there which was easy and quick to use. pic courtesy of allears.net
After lunch we went back to Kidani to cool off at the pool. They were having a pool party and the kids wanted to check it out! The people who run the party are terrific. They had so many fun games for the kids to play! Although I wasn't crazy about Kidani's location I did think their pool was great. It had a lot more to offer then Bay Cove.
Ashley and Tina had a Bippidi Boppidi Boutique appointment at 5:00 so they had to leave the pool before everyone else. They were supposed to arrive at BBB with clean brushed hair so we had the girls hop into the shower after swimming. Me, Michelle and the 2 girls walked out to the bus stop to find a MK bus sitting there! Yay! What luck! We got to BBB in plenty of time! I got the girls checked in and we sat down to wait. They called Tina within about 10 minutes and Ashley and few minutes after that. Both girls were getting the Diva style with a tiara instead of the barrettes that the diva style usually comes with. BBB had some really nice photopass photographers there! One of them told me to take the girls to Castle Couture when they were done to get more pics taken!
Once they were all made up we walked over to Castle Couture. This is a really cute store near the castle that has lots of princess dresses and accessories. The store has a little portrait studio. The photographer was wonderful. He took tons of pictures of each girl, plus a bunch of them together. They were all put on our photopass card. It was great!
Phil arrived with the other kids just as the girls were finishing up their pictures. It was perfect timing! It was getting close to dinner time so we started making our way to Chef Mickey's. Of course I wanted to walk, but I was overruled! We took the monorail instead. We got to Chef Mickey's right on time at 7:05! We were seated right after they took our picture (we did not buy it). In a matter of minutes the characters started coming by!
The food was ok. We've eaten here before and I know it's just ok. We come here for the experience! The kids enjoyed the food a lot though, especially the desserts!
After dinner we walked back to MK and enjoyed evening EMH for a while. We went toon town fair and it was empty. We got to see the princesses and fairies with no wait at all. Ashley's poor feet were killing her because of her Minnie shoes so I let her walk around in her socks. We got in line for our bus and poor little Tina fell asleep on the ground!
So we got on the bus and it pulled away from MK at exactly 10:15. Now I don't know if the bus driver thought he was going to a different resort or what, but he drove us WAY out of our way. We were going to Kidani and he drove us all the way over past POR and POFQ and near DTD before cutting back over to the other side of the property. We didn't pull into Kidani unil 10:50. We were on the bus FOREVER. The bus was packed and it was standing room only. Horrible.
Day 5 started REALLY early for Phil, Darren and Jon. When we were leaving the Magic Kingdom the night before the kids wanted to swim. We were going to since it was just a little past 10, but then our bus ride took a really long time so we had them go right to bed. Phil promised the boys he'd take them to the pool at 6:30am! Well they all got up and went, I was surprised! We headed out for Epcot around 8:30. I made it a point to keep my camera handy this day. This was the park Michelle was looking forward too the most. We decided to turn in a GAD voucher on our way into the park. It was great having the GAD fastpasses that day! Between those and our regular fastpasses we rode Soarin and Test Track a couple of times! It was once again a really pretty day with no rain in sight. We toured the park at a nice slow pace. We took them around to everything in future world except the Universe of Energy. Michelle had bought Tina an autograph book so we took her to the character spot. Ashley stayed with us at the character spot and Phil took the other kids to innoventions to pass the time.
This was taken on the way to The Land
We had lunch at The Electric Umbrella. The food was ok and did it's job..it filled us up! The last thing we did in future world was Journey into Imagination. I tried to warn them it would be 5 minutes of their lives they'd never get back, but they wanted to check it out anyway! It's such a weird ride. We were ready for The World Showcase. Based on where we were we decided to start in Canada. I walked all the way to the back of Canada for the first time I think since I was a kid. I didn't know there was a waterfall back there!
On to the UK! Phil bought a beer and we started to explore. The kids decided to make a mask at the kidcot stop. We were sitting there when suddenly Alice ran into the room yelling something and ran out! It was so funny. Ashley and Tina ran after her and finally caught up!
Mary Poppins was hanging out with Alice so the girls got to meet her too!
We got to France and I took Michelle to get us an adult treat! We each got a grand marnier slushie! Yummy! It was so hot out though we had to drink it fast, it was melting! We continued our way around the world showcase. The heat was really getting to the kids. We cooled off in the Mitsukoshi store in Japan. The kids liked looking around the store a lot. I finally decided to pick a pearl! I had contemplated it a few times over the years and always skipped it. Since this trip was one month before my 34th birthday I treated myself to my birthstone...a pearl! Here's some pics of the experience...
waiting my turn...
I took Ashley's advice and picked a small oyster in hopes of a large pearl...
My first bow was terrible so she had me do it again!
She located the pearl very quickly...
She started measuring..6, 6 1/2, 7 ..7 1/2!!!
Drums!
I had my pearl made into a really pretty pendant! We were having dinner that night at Teppan Edo and it was getting close to our ADR time so we didn't go too much further. We went as far as Italy and looked around for a bit and went back to Japan. We arrived at Teppan Edo a few minutes early and received a pager. The waiting area was mobbed. The kids sat on the floor and played a game with other kids who were waiting. I went downstairs and picked up my jewelry! We waited about 20 min for our table. It was nice how they could fit all 9 of us at one table. We had the best chef! I had seen videos of her on youtube and she was just as funny in person! The meal was very good. The only thing I didn't like was the cake. The ginger was just too strong for me. We had a really great time at dinner! We missed illuminations which Michelle was sad about. We didn't realize how long we were in the restaurant for until we walked outside. The park was EMPTY! We started walking and for some reason Jon smacked his brother Nick on the back of his head...Nick's eyeglass lense popped out and flew into the bushes!!! So it was really dark and really late and we needed to get to the buses and here we were with a lost lense! Phil climbed over the railing into the bushes and started looking for it. Luckily, a cast member came to help us with a flashlight! Phil found it and we were on our way to the park exit. It was really late and I was afraid there wouldn't be anymore buses! We walked as fast as possible! We made it!
The girls looked so beautiful....I love seeing them after their princess makeovers....wish they had that when my 17 year old was little. Sleeping waiting for the bus....so many days I could have done that:lmao
We have only done Teppo once and I loved it, my daughter was ok with it but she didn't love it...that and Biergarten....we've only done once. I know I shouldn't say this, but I did laugh about the lens popping out, but only because boys will be boys and not think of consequences....so happy you found it
found your tr and now i'm all caught up... which dining plan did you have?
also with the pick a pearl... how does that work? is it a flat rate? i think i may have to do it with my daughter when we go next year! it sounds cute!
The girls looked so beautiful....I love seeing them after their princess makeovers....wish they had that when my 17 year old was little. Sleeping waiting for the bus....so many days I could have done that:lmao
We have only done Teppo once and I loved it, my daughter was ok with it but she didn't love it...that and Biergarten....we've only done once. I know I shouldn't say this, but I did laugh about the lens popping out, but only because boys will be boys and not think of consequences....so happy you found it
I wish BBB was around when I was little!!! It was a nice treat for them..a once in a lifetime moment! I ate at Teppanyaki Dining Room aka Teppan Edo as a teenager and loved it. This was the first time I'd been back since. It was such a fun, entertaining meal! We love The Biergarten too, but our oldest daughter Lauren hates it with a passion. I told her after this trip she's old enough to try new foods and we are not tailoring our ADRs around her likes anymore. I'm honestly tired of character meals and buffets!!
found your tr and now i'm all caught up... which dining plan did you have?
also with the pick a pearl... how does that work? is it a flat rate? i think i may have to do it with my daughter when we go next year! it sounds cute!
I'm so glad you took the time to read my TR! Thanks!
We had the regular dining plan for this trip. We did a split stay and originally booked the quick service plan for our BLT stay...but changed it a few weeks prior to the regular dining plan. So we had 7 awesome meals!!!
For pick a pearl the oyster was $17. No matter what size pearl comes out it costs $17! I thought that was a good deal! Then they have a jewelry counter with all kinds of pretty stuff! I choose a white gold pendant that was $32. The chain was additional so I skipped that and got a white gold chain at Wal Mart! If you want to have earrings made then you need to buy 2 oysters and hope for similar sized pearls! It was a lot of fun!
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Oh well...we walked to the bus stop and waited..and waited..and waited. It seemed like the bus would never come! Finally it did and after making a stop at The Poly we were on our way. We missed park opening by about 15 min. Luckily the park wasn't too crowded and Phil was able to get TSM fastpasses with a 10:20 return time. While we waited, the kids and I stopped to get a picture taken!
I thought the lobby was very pretty and the kids liked that they could play the Wii while I checked in. There was no line at all to check in so I approached the counter. I gave him my name and we got started. I said that I wanted to pay for my dining plan with a disney gift card and he said that I didn't have the dining plan. I told him that I added it when I made the reservations and that Michelle's reservation should have it added also. He pulled up her info and it wasn't showing on there either. I was about to panic..we had 5 awesome meals planned!! He went to speak with his manager and came back with great news! His manager was able to override the system and add the dining plan to ours and Michelle's reservations! I had requested rooms close to the lobby and next to each other. We wound up being the last room in the 4th bead and Michelle was the first room in the 5th bead. We were basically right in the middle which was ok since we were close to the buses! We were on the same floor as the lobby which I also liked! Just like at BLT I booked standard view rooms. I did this to save on points. At BLT our standard view was fantastic! At Kidani...ugh it was total parking lot. I knew before we got there that we'd see the parking lot, but I didn't realize how much I'd hate it! I wish I had used more points for savannah view. The villa was nicely decorated, but quite dark. What I didn't like was the smell. The carpet was wet as if it was just shampooed and smelled like some sort of deoderizer. I brewed a pot of coffee to try to cover the smell! haha ..it didn't work. We had ordered some groceries together and split the delivery cost from garden grocer so I called bell services to have our luggage and the groceries brought up. I unpacked the food and separated out Michelle's stuff. I started unpacking and the kids started begging for the pool! Phil took the kids and I continued to unpack. It wasn't long before Michelle texted me to say they were on Disney's Magical Express! I finished what I was doing and walked to Johari Treasures to get a refillable mug of coffee. I took my coffee outside and waited for their DME bus to pull up. After about 10 minutes I saw Phil and the kids coming back from the pool. It was thundering so they closed it. I told them to head back and get changed because we had dinner reservations at Mama Melrose soon!!! 
