Smiles, Sand and Sunstroke!! A May 2012 Beach Club Trip of a Lifetime

[donnaf516]

I can't wait to try the golf ball thing! Love that you were able to stay in your seat and ride again.

Sounds like a great night!

 

[Max & Sam's Mom]

I am completely stealing that golf ball idea, DS will flip!!

 

[georgiasmom]

I am loving this report Feckless. Can't wait for my trip in 95 days!

 

[Feckless]

Did you notice if the lounge is 24/7? Meaning if you came home from the park at midnight could you grab a drink? That is one of my fave memories from last summer at YC. Sitting in the lounge at 3 am from MK emh....I sure hope it is the case this summer....

As far as I could see, it was always open for soft drinks and seating. However, the one drawback was that there wasn't any water.

I can't wait to try the golf ball thing! Love that you were able to stay in your seat and ride again.

Sounds like a great night!

I am completely stealing that golf ball idea, DS will flip!!

I heard about the golf ball on the DIS - also heard about the red gem for Philharmagic. Didn't do the red gem, but the golf ball was a total highlight. You really should do it!

I am loving this report Feckless. Can't wait for my trip in 95 days!

Oooh, single digits now! So jealous!!!!

 

[Feckless]

Go Feckless, Go feckless!
Nice job sweetie, keep it coming!!

Thanks, NM!! I'm really enjoying writing this. It's like I'm reliving the holiday. I'm actually not looking forward to finishing this report!!!

 

[natebenma]

What a great night! I hope the other family was all for your planning.

I haven't eaten at Tutto so I enjoyed reading about your meal.

I didn't know about Soarin' staying open late until you posted about it.

And I have not read about the golf ball trick! Thanks for sharing.

So I guess I need to spend a little more time on the Theme Park boards, or hope that you get in a few more updates before I leave. Can't wait to see what I will learn!

 

[Feckless]

What a great night! I hope the other family was all for your planning.

I haven't eaten at Tutto so I enjoyed reading about your meal.

I didn't know about Soarin' staying open late until you posted about it.

And I have not read about the golf ball trick! Thanks for sharing.

So I guess I need to spend a little more time on the Theme Park boards, or hope that you get in a few more updates before I leave. Can't wait to see what I will learn!

I can't believe that you have learned something from ME!!! You can be the queen of the world with all those teenagers if you can get them to ride Soarin' without a line!

 

[Max & Sam's Mom]

I'm following in your footsteps, I started a PTR. Need something to do right now to keep me busy! LOL
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44949395#post44949395

 

[JanetMom]

Thanks, NM!! I'm really enjoying writing this. It's like I'm reliving the holiday. I'm actually not looking forward to finishing this report!!!

I find I'm always sad when the trip report comes to an end. It is like the vacation stopped all over again.

Loved your latest update. Fantastic job with Soarin and the golf ball. That was great!

 

[disneyfan61]

I missed quite a few updates!

Wow you had a LONG arrival day. It must have felt good to get into bed that night.

Laila is the perfume in Norway. It is great. I bought some in Oct. last year. I put a little on once in a while. I am trying to make it last!

We love Teppan Edo. It can be expensive though if they order the steak.

I did not know about Soarin being open later. If I had known that!! We love the first row but did not get it on this past trip. So cool you had a golf ball!! I love it!!

So Tutto Italia was open when you were there. It must have closed shortly after that because it was closed when we were there. Glad you enjoyed it so much. We loved it there in the past so glad to hear it is still wonderful.

 

[Feckless]

I'm following in your footsteps, I started a PTR. Need something to do right now to keep me busy! LOL
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44949395#post44949395

I just stopped over there! Great start!

I find I'm always sad when the trip report comes to an end. It is like the vacation stopped all over again.

Loved your latest update. Fantastic job with Soarin and the golf ball. That was great!

I'm glad someone else understands my insanity.

I missed quite a few updates!

Wow you had a LONG arrival day. It must have felt good to get into bed that night.

Laila is the perfume in Norway. It is great. I bought some in Oct. last year. I put a little on once in a while. I am trying to make it last!

We love Teppan Edo. It can be expensive though if they order the steak.

I did not know about Soarin being open later. If I had known that!! We love the first row but did not get it on this past trip. So cool you had a golf ball!! I love it!!

So Tutto Italia was open when you were there. It must have closed shortly after that because it was closed when we were there. Glad you enjoyed it so much. We loved it there in the past so glad to hear it is still wonderful.

I wonder if I can get that perfume anywhere else... Off to search the interwebs!

Tutto Italia had just opened a few days before we got there, I think. We didn't go back so I don't know if it closed again...

Thanks for following along! Another installment today. It's sunny and 24 degrees so I am hitting my front stoop at lunch time and posting from my porch swing.

 

[lynn46356]

Is it too late for me to join in? We'll also be staying at BC CL in a few weeks. I've planned and spend too much time here on the Disboards reading!!!! Ask the DH! We'll be traveling with our youngest DS14 and he's looking forward to being on his own a bit. I'm freaking out. I need to breathe and tell myself Feckless did it so can I! Do you remember if they have glazed donuts in the BC lounge? I know years ago they did, well 11 years to be exact. They were either Krispy Kreme or similar. It would make our DS very happy. Looking forward to more updates. Have you started planning your next trip?

 

[Feckless]

Is it too late for me to join in? We'll also be staying at BC CL in a few weeks. I've planned and spend too much time here on the Disboards reading!!!! Ask the DH! We'll be traveling with our youngest DS14 and he's looking forward to being on his own a bit. I'm freaking out. I need to breathe and tell myself Feckless did it so can I! Do you remember if they have glazed donuts in the BC lounge? I know years ago they did, well 11 years to be exact. They were either Krispy Kreme or similar. It would make our DS very happy. Looking forward to more updates. Have you started planning your next trip?

Hey Lynn! I wish I was planning our next trip! I think we are doing an Italy trip next spring so it may not be until 2014 at the earliest. Of course, there could be a miracle!! Your son will be FINE. It is a great place for kids to spread their wings.

I dont recall the glazed donuts, but there were tons of pastries there. Im sure he will find something that he will love.

 

[Feckless]

Day 3 - the Rest Day with no Rest

Today was scheduled to be a “laze around the resort” day. I had made ADRs for our first character meal - Cape May Cafe breakfast - for 9:20 a.m. with the whole family and planned on playing lunch and dinner by ear. Unfortunately I had the worst night sleep I can recall the night before for some unknown reason (probably 1-2 hours only the whole night) and because of that I didn't enjoy the breakfast as much as I should have. My favourite on the buffet were the Mickey waffles. They were to die for! The service was really terrible, I have to say. We had a lovely older lady, who was struggling to keep up with the number of people and the number of tables. Unfortunately it meant that we didn’t get coffee until we were almost finished, and then once we got the coffee there was only cream (I had asked for milk) and we had to wait again for the milk. She was such a nice person, and was trying so hard, that I certainly didn’t have the heart to complain. If she had been a young person, then I would probably have asked to reduce the tip. We had mandatory 18% tips on every meal. Since in Canada 15% on pre-tax amount is the normal tip, I was thinking that I would begrudge this mandatory tip. However, with very few exceptions, the service was so good that we added to the tip on occasion, and certainly felt the tips were well-earned.

Here are some pictures of our character interaction.

Goofy sneaks up on DS:

LOVE this picture:

And this is what happens when you let your DS take a picture of you and Donald:

He did get one! Here I am with the original Angry Bird:

Minnie was indeed mini. She was so teeny!!

I couldnt believe how much I wanted to get my pictures taken with the characters. LMAO.

Heres one where I couldnt control myself. What can I say... I like my men goofy.

Minnie noticed that the other little girl was colouring a picture of her, and she signed it. She was thrilled!!

Then Goofy signed DDs drawing. He wrote A++ on it, which was sweet.

So I tried to suggest to the kids that we should chill at the resort after breakfast but none of them were having any of it. We were all interested in seeing what the same or similar money would buy you at BCV, so after breakfast we went over to the villas and saw the one bedroom suite that the other family had. It was amazing! The balcony was huge, and it overlooked the quiet pool. The room was enormous, with a large king bed in a big separate bedroom, large kitchen, laundry and seating area with a sofa bed. I loved the bathroom being in sections and the separate jacuzzi tub. Despite being super-impressed with the room, it wouldn't work for us since our kids refuse to sleep in the same bed and I'll be damned if I'm sleeping on a sofa bed! LOL. Plus as I’ve mentioned before, I did not want a kitchen and it just seemed like more space to tidy up. As it turned out, we used the lounge so much and what time we spent in our room was perfectly comfortable, so we were happy with our decision. The only thing I really coveted was the laundry facilities, although the other family would have happily shared theirs with us. I just couldn’t bear the thought of schlepping laundry over there on vacation so we bought extra t-shirts and sucked it up!

The kids wanted to spend the day at Typhoon Lagoon, which was OK with me. Since we didn’t have the Waterpark and More option on our tickets, I went to Concierge and asked for the tickets, which we had in minutes. We ended up getting the bus at about 11 or so. I knew it was going to be a long ride, and it sure was! The bus was SO FREAKIN SLOW. I know that it took over a half hour, but I don’t know exactly. We stopped at Boardwalk, I think Swalphin (but I’m not sure about that now thinking back) and the two stops at Downtown Disney. I just know that it was a pretty brutal bus trip and would have been awful had we not had seats. Given that it was our first bus experience, the novelty hadn’t worn off for them which was good. Finally we arrived! I was looking forward to a Photopass picture at the entrance like we got last time, but there were no photographers there. We were told by a CM that it was seasonal. We brought towels from our rooms so we wouldn’t have to rent, but if I had my time back, I wouldn’t probably have bothered and would have just paid the $10 for the towels there. The kids went directly into the wave pool. The other mom was a bit more worried about her kids, who are smaller and not strong swimmers, so the dad went out with them. We found lounge chairs no problem and relaxed for the afternoon.

We had lunch from the quick service restaurant there, and I had the best experience with the CMs there. I thought I could handle our lunch order by myself, but it was too much to carry. I asked if I could leave the tray of drinks and come back for them, and a CM named Angela, who was working in the kitchen, would hear none of it. She insisted on coming out from behind the counter and helping me carry my food. She was so friendly and personable, and was a real standout. She had socks and sneakers on, and we came to the small little river that we had to cross to get to the beachy spot by the wave pool where we had set up camp. I told her to stay there, and I would come back and get her tray so she wouldn’t have to get her feet wet and again she would hear none of it. Over my protests, she crossed the river and brought all of our food right to our spot. She said she had just started there, and I was so impressed with her friendliness and helpfulness, I wrote Disney as soon as we returned to tell them about how awesome she was. She was the only CM that I felt moved enough to do that for! Strange, hey, where you can find the standout people - this one in the kitchen at the Typhoon Lagoon quick service!

When my DS got out of the wave pool, he took one bite of his cheese pizza and dropped the whole thing in the sand by accident. I went back to get him another one, and I happened to mention to the CM that my son dropped his pizza, and she left and went straight in the back and got me another one, free of charge. She told me that you never have to worry about dropping something or ruining food accidentally at Disney! It was so lovely. Too bad that the CM that I came across in MK didn’t get that memo! More on that later... I was back with his replacement pizza in well under 5 minutes.
I managed to figure out how to get my chubby self into an inner tube (tip: use the stairs and fall in) and then floated around the lazy river with the kids and DH a couple of times. Loved the water falls along the way! It was really nice. Then we all hit some slides, which were fun, if a big climb for short rides in some instances. Didn’t do Humunga Cowabunga because I did that one last time and wasn’t in the mood a free colonoscopy. The kids gravitated back to the wave pool and then DH and the other dad took the two girls to snorkle on Shark Reef. DS is not a fan of salt water (hilarious considering where we are from! But the water is too cold to swim in here) so he and the other boy stayed in the wave pool, heading straight out to the rope and then body surfing back in.

Heres a picture of the girls in the shark tank:

DS got some road rash from the very rough bottom of the pool (it really is like concrete sandpaper, and the current and waves are extremely strong - I lost a pair of goggles and got tossed around last time so there was no way I was trying it again) but he didn’t complain too much. DD had scraped the front of her toes and was complaining a bit when she went snorkling, but she ended up being pretty seriously scraped up during her last run of the day in the wave pool. She completely tore up her lower back and shoulder and she was very upset. The long tiring day, didn’t help I’m sure. I took her to get changed, and realized that it was 4:30 p.m. and the park closed at 5, so we all got everything together and made our way to the exit. I had dried off by this point, so I threw on my cover up dress and just went as I was.

The ride home was terrible... We waited forever for a bus and we were not aware that because it was after 4:30 there was no bus directly back to the resort. So, the bus took us to DDT and we had to wait forever again for another bus! For example, at least two busses came by for Saratoga Springs before any for BC. The kids were tired and thirsty and we had no cash for the vending machines. I was still in my swimsuit and feeling very uncomfortable. The kids were complaining and squabbling, and DD was in a lot of pain from the really bad road rash. I think it took us at least an hour and a half to get back, and in retrospect (and had I had a cent in cash on me!) we should have gotten a taxi, not that I could see any at Typhoon Lagoon.

When we got back, neither family was interested in another quick service, and we all really wanted a sit down meal. I went to Concierge and asked the lovely CM (can’t recall her name!) if there were any sit down meals available for our party, in Epcot, the Boardwalk, anywhere. I couldn’t do Cape May unfortunately because DD since she was a little girl gets sick to the point of vomiting with the smell of seafood. She actually walked outside every time to get to SAB just to avoid Cape May during suppertime. Although I normally don’t cater to such things, I know that it is involuntary with her and that she WILL throw up, which doesn’t make for a relaxing dining experience! LOL The CM was able to score late reservations for Captain’s Grille (8 p.m.) which was great. With a party of 8, you surely will take what you can get! I had reservations for there for after our Universal Day, but given that I didn’t know if we would make them, I was happy to try the Captain’s Grille after all the good reviews that I have seen and we weren’t disappointed. I had the steak and cheesy bacon mashed potatoes and it was heaven. The kids enjoyed their meals, and the other dad had the fish special, which he really enjoyed. We had a great waiter, who would drive to work for hours back and forth to work there, and was also enrolled in medical school (unless he was lying! LOL) He gave us phenomenal service and even when the restaurant was obviously shutting down he didn’t make us feel rushed at all. The kids went out to the lobby while we finished up, and looked for the Hidden Mickey in the globe and played a spy game. I found the lobby to be much quieter than the BC and more of a formal look, but the CMs were very friendly. I prefer the BC lobby (smell, obviously, but also the busier feel is better for our more relaxed family. However, I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at the YC.

After dinner, we went straight home as the next day was our 8:05 a.m. Crystal Palace ADR. I spent some time with my iPad checking out the American Netflix selections (conclusion: Canadian Netflix SUCKS) I was concerned about the WiFi after reading so many bad reviews, but it's fineI had no problem streaming Netflix. The only problem I had was that I seemed to get booted out easily and sometimes had to restart the iPad in order to get it to reconnect. My iPad is a bit picking with WiFi networks (I’ve had problems connecting at most airports) so I wouldn’t read too much into that.

The kids had been getting up later and later each day, and it surprised me how quickly they were adjusting to the time difference. I was expecting no troubles for rope drop and early ADRs but they were loving the EST. LOL I set the alarm for the next morning and told the other family that we should meet at the bus stop at 7:30 at the very latest. They sleep later than we do all the time, so I was concerned about whether or not we would all make it.

Coming up: Do we make our ADR? Why were we singing the Rocky theme at the bus stop at the top of our lungs??? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

 

[Susan121302]

Thanks for pointing me over here from the BC thread! I am LOVING your TR so far..... can't wait for more!

 

[333disneymom]

We sure did love and enjoy our view! We loved looking up at our room as we came from SAB or the boat dock. We were pretty close to the lounge and elevators too. So where's your trip report??

No trip report here. Maybe some day, but right now I have too many end-of-the-year school activities to do a good report. So, I'll just enjoy yours.

We were stuffed when dessert came around, but not too stuffed for canolli. Never too full for that! Yuummmmm...

I think that is the only picture I took of food the whole trip! Sorry to disappoint those here for the food porn.

During supper, we had told the other family about Soarin’.

Tutto was one of our best meals last year. If you had to take only one food pic, that's a good one. We missed Soarin' this year, as it was down the two times we tried to get on it.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

whew finally I'm all caught up!!
We love Tutti Italia so I'm happy to hear you had a great time there (shame your meal was lacking but yum for dessert). Totally agree about the buses to typhoon lagoon being a right pain. Think its even worse than dtd transport
So glad to hear you all had a great time together-I find it's always a wee bit nerve-wrecking holidaying with another family at first in case their ideas are too far away from mineSo glad it all worked for you.
I have a bit of a clue where you're headed because I read all your live reports but I still cant wait to hear all

 

[Max & Sam's Mom]

You have cemented our decision to rent a van for our trip, with kids our ages, there is no way I would survive the buses! Maybe when they are a bit older I will brave it but not yet!

 

[cmcadoo66]

Thank you for the report on Typhoon Lagoon! We are actually planning a water park trip for the first time this year. We bought the Premium APs so we definitely want to check it out. I will just try to remember to leave a little early and hope transportation back to BC won't be so bad!

 

[Feckless]

whew finally I'm all caught up!!
We love Tutti Italia so I'm happy to hear you had a great time there (shame your meal was lacking but yum for dessert). Totally agree about the buses to typhoon lagoon being a right pain. Think its even worse than dtd transport
So glad to hear you all had a great time together-I find it's always a wee bit nerve-wrecking holidaying with another family at first in case their ideas are too far away from mineSo glad it all worked for you.
I have a bit of a clue where you're headed because I read all your live reports but I still cant wait to hear all

It wasn't 100% sunshine and roses with the other family, but only because of the little monsters (more on that coming up!) We came back liking each other as much as when we left (although I can only speak for me and DH, not the kids or them!) which was the goal. We are getting together to watch their video soon.

You have cemented our decision to rent a van for our trip, with kids our ages, there is no way I would survive the buses! Maybe when they are a bit older I will brave it but not yet!

People did have quite a time with strollers on the buses. The only time I really noticed it was of course to MK. But you will have to take extra trams from the parking lot and load the strollers on the trams as well... We were very happy with our decision to not rent a car - no reason to leave "the bubble" and it was a highlight of the trip for DH not to have to drive since he hates driving in unfamiliar places (and hates being driven by me even more! LOL!)

Thank you for the report on Typhoon Lagoon! We are actually planning a water park trip for the first time this year. We bought the Premium APs so we definitely want to check it out. I will just try to remember to leave a little early and hope transportation back to BC won't be so bad!

I wish we had planned this better, but again, this was more of my unexpected spontaneity, which had good and bad parts.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Next installment this afternoon or tomorrow.