We Stuffed our Faces and Searched for the Tronorail, It's Trip Report Time! *11/3

[courtneylauren]

subscribing. We'll be at BLT soon!

 

[jc040404]

signing on! Your title totally got me. I kept calling it the "tronorail" and my son(3) would nearly have a fit. "It's the TRON MONorail, Mommy!"

 

[Bridora]

subbing i like finding trip reports that are fairly new!!

hope you didnt get sick from that frappacino!! ugh....

and what did that sky writer write??

cant wait to read more!

Hi! Welcome aboard! I did not get sick, thankfully! I didn't get to drink much of it.

The sky writer ended up writing God =

You're there! You're in Walt Disney World! Ahhhhh, the Disney archway.....it's hard to imagine a prettier site. I can hardly wait to see your room.

And I wish I was still there too!

Love the Contemporary pics!

Thanks! It was our first time to ever go there.

OMG!!! What a teaser!!!! lol I CAN NOT WAIT to read about more and more!!! Mom really wants to stay at BLT next christmas, but I don't know if we will be able to since we are transfering our RCI into DVC, but she keeps saying ya know it might be worth it just to pay OOP lol She really wants to stay there obviously... 95 for a week vs a couple thousand for the week lol thats determination... anywhoo... I can't wait for more!!! How far was it from ocalo? We stayed at savannah the last time, but I think we may going into fl the next time before we stop. We visited paula deen on our trip down last year.

You'll have your answer in just a moment...

I hope you get to stay at BLT!

I'm going to say it's about 1 - 1 1/2 hours from Ocala to Disney. We like to do most of the driving the first day so we don't have much to do the second day!

joining in

I'm glad you're here!

Cool! I like the pics driving up to Disney property! As you know from my TR, we've never stayed on property, so there are many other signs that you got to photograph! The view of the Contemporary and BLT looks different from the car perspective as opposed to the monorail ones and the other shots that others post. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome! You'll go on sign picture overload when you do stay on property!

YAY! You made it!! We saw a bunch of sky writing when we were there, too!! I took pics as well!!

yay! The kids were really impressed with the sky writers!

yay! you've arrived! I love your arriving pics so exciting! can't wait to see more pics of BLT!!

Thanks! It was sooo exciting! I've got more pics to post, so don't worry!

Woo hoo! Don't you just love pulling up to the resort for the first time?! Great BLT pictures.

Yes, and that was our very first time to pull up there! I already can't wait to do it again!

subscribing. We'll be at BLT soon!

Hi! Ooooh--you're going to have the best time at BLT!

signing on! Your title totally got me. I kept calling it the "tronorail" and my son(3) would nearly have a fit. "It's the TRON MONorail, Mommy!"

Thanks! What your son said is funny! Sounds like something mine would say, too!

 

[Bridora]

Ahhhhhh, Bay Lake Tower--we are here!

And very early, I might add. I can’t remember the exact time we pulled up here, but it was surely around 10:30 am!

We pull up to the guard house and Max gives the attendant his name and ID and says we are checking in. The attendant scans the list in preparation of marking our name off. Then he asks, could it be under another name? “No….” Max says casually. He checks his list again and still doesn’t see our name. But he says it’s no problem, to just go on ahead to check in and they will print out our parking slip there. Max rolls up the window as we pull through. That has never happened to us before, is it a bad omen? I wasn’t too worried about it because I had just read Lisa’s (mickeystoontown) trip report where it had happened to them and everything worked out ok.

We pulled around to the front of the Contemporary, parked, and jumped out to go check in.

I noticed two things right away:

The kids’ check in book!

The absence of anyone at the Online Check In desk.


I forgot to mention that either Monday or Tuesday we finally got around to doing online check in for both our reservation at Bay Lake Tower and Boardwalk. (Remember we extended our stay by one night & one park day. We had just enough points leftover to book a 1 Bedroom at Boardwalk)

We happily joined the normal check in line…so excited to be there! The lobby area was very pretty.

After waiting a bit, a manager came over and took us to the Concierge Desk and told us we could do our check in there. They had bit of trouble finding our name in the system, which worried us. We told them we had done online check in, but I don’t think that was the problem. They put together our “welcome folder” and told us our room was not ready yet. When we made the reservations, Max put in a request to be on a high floor…the cast member on the other end of the line acted like that was no problem and even acted like we could get top floor. We were hoping that would still be the case even though we seemed to be lost. We then purchased our 6 Day Park Hopper tickets and went ahead and added the Water Parks & More option after a quick discussion right there at the desk. Max & the kids really wanted to do a water park this year, but I didn’t think we’d have enough time. We decided by getting the Water Parks & More option instead of a 1 day water park admission we could go whenever we had the chance, even if it was just spending a couple of hours at a time over a couple of days. With all that taken care of, we gathered Allison & Luke from the TV area and went off to park in the Bay Lake Tower lot and to do a bit of exploring!


We circled back around and this time, went straight to Bay Lake Tower. I snapped a picture of this sign as we passed:

We went in the main doors to BLT. I didn’t take a picture of the lobby then, but it is beautiful! We walked to our right, and past the desk where you check in to go to the Top of the World Lounge. (There is a special elevator requiring a key in order to go up!) Down the hallway beyond that we found the Community Hall. We checked out their calendar of activities and saw several things that sounded like fun!

We then walked out the other side of Bay Lake Tower toward the pool.

It was a bit bright!

Love that tall tall bamboo!

We walked past the pool and found some little grilling pavilion area things overlooking Bay Lake.

We watched some parasailers:

After that we walked over to the Contemporary. We passed this along the way:

We went up to take the skywalk back over to Bay Lake Tower.

I love these mats:

…continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

Here is some art hanging in the area where you wait for the elevators:

And a hidden Mickey in the elevator door!

We wandered down a hallway and looked out the windows from the end of Bay Lake Tower closest to Magic Kingdom. We could not wait to get our room with its Magic Kingdom View. Squuueeeeaal!


We were getting hungry and were ready to head to Downtown Disney. We decided to leave the car in the parking lot and went to the bus stop (which is at the Contemporary, but still a short walk) to catch a bus.


Up next: How was our 1st bus ride of the trip? Where will we have lunch?

 

[wdwgirl03]

How cute there is a kids' check-in book! I want to sign it even though I guess I'm not technically a kid. LOL.

Awesome pictures of BLT! And that monorail print near the elevator is awesome. I bet my sister would love that.

 

[Leleluvsdis]

Sorry there was such confusion at check-in, but BLT looks amazing thus far... that's awesome that they have a kids check-in! Please don't tell me you ate at EoS... I can't wait until Sept to have some of their WONDERFUL sandwiches!!!

 

[teacher1717]

Great trip report! I can't wait to read the rest

 

[ladybugmom]

I hate that you had issues checking in! But I hope it all paid off in the end! LOVE the kid's check-in book!! Too cute!! BLT looks very nice!!

 

[RachelNinja]

Such great pics! We've seen pics of the other resorts quite often on DIS, but BLT is still new! And that Activities board looks really fun. I like that they put the samples of the arts and crafts on the board. Our place just tells you what they're doing on a list, but we won't know what it looks like until we get there. Sometimes how it looks makes a difference!

 

[leamom2princesses]

I got a little behind but I'm all caught up now! Love the updates B! BLT looks really nice. Sorry there was some confusion at first. I'm looking forward to more!!

 

[Bridora]

How cute there is a kids' check-in book! I want to sign it even though I guess I'm not technically a kid. LOL.

Awesome pictures of BLT! And that monorail print near the elevator is awesome. I bet my sister would love that.

I know! I wanted to sign it, too, but it was almost as fun just watching the kids do it!

Sorry there was such confusion at check-in, but BLT looks amazing thus far... that's awesome that they have a kids check-in! Please don't tell me you ate at EoS... I can't wait until Sept to have some of their WONDERFUL sandwiches!!!

BLT is amazing! I really liked the kid's check-in book! I'm sure all the kids do too...

Our lunch was soo soo yummy! It's almost my lunchtime now & I wish I could just to DTD!

Great trip report! I can't wait to read the rest

Thanks!

I hate that you had issues checking in! But I hope it all paid off in the end! LOVE the kid's check-in book!! Too cute!! BLT looks very nice!!

Yeah, Max was a little upset about it, but I was just so happy to be there! The kids were excited to sign their names in the book!

Such great pics! We've seen pics of the other resorts quite often on DIS, but BLT is still new! And that Activities board looks really fun. I like that they put the samples of the arts and crafts on the board. Our place just tells you what they're doing on a list, but we won't know what it looks like until we get there. Sometimes how it looks makes a difference!

Thanks! I really liked how they had the craft project samples in there, too!

I got a little behind but I'm all caught up now! Love the updates B! BLT looks really nice. Sorry there was some confusion at first. I'm looking forward to more!!

Thanks! We really liked BLT. Don't you worry, I've got more, but not just now...

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Hi!!!

I am here to read your Trip Report. All caught up and ready to read further installments

Great start

 

[mickeystoontown]

As you said, we have had a castmember at the guard station say they couldn't find us on the reservation list. Kinda freaked me out a little too.

The resort and resort grounds look beautiful. I can't wait to see what your room looks like.

 

[amyrella]

yay you are home!! the grounds look very nice!

not going to lie.. i'm a very impatient person and i'm dying to see your view!

 

[racefanof88]

I'm here, I'm here!!!! WOW, your pictures of the BLT have made me want to buy into the DVC there. The courtyard pix bring back memories of my first visit at Disney for some reason . We are going to buy in a few years and I, of course, am the one who has to make the decision about which resort.

 

[Bridora]

Hi!!!

I am here to read your Trip Report. All caught up and ready to read further installments

Great start

Yay! I'm glad you're here!

As you said, we have had a castmember at the guard station say they couldn't find us on the reservation list. Kinda freaked me out a little too.

The resort and resort grounds look beautiful. I can't wait to see what your room looks like.

Freaky, freaky! I still don't know what happened......but it wasn't too too bad of a deal...

It is beautiful there...makes me want to go back!

yay you are home!! the grounds look very nice!

not going to lie.. i'm a very impatient person and i'm dying to see your view!

Yay! Uh-oh, I've got another installment ready to go, but there aren't any pictures of our view yet......please forgive me!

I'm here, I'm here!!!! WOW, your pictures of the BLT have made me want to buy into the DVC there. The courtyard pix bring back memories of my first visit at Disney for some reason . We are going to buy in a few years and I, of course, am the one who has to make the decision about which resort.

Welcome, Dana! Wow, that's cool that they bring back those memories....must be similar to somewhere you went that trip...We saw the DVC van at BLT everyday while we were there so I'm sure you can go over there for a tour when you are ready to buy. That will make it even more desirable, I'm sure! (seeing it in person) Tough decisions...

 

[jenniferkeala808]

WOW! Those are great pics of BLT! Makes me want to go there! Can't wait to see the view from your room! So exciting!!

 

[Bridora]

After doing our little bit of exploring at Bay Lake Tower, we walked right over to the bus stop at the Contemporary. I can’t remember if the bus was just pulling up then or if it was already there, either way we didn’t have to wait for it! At 11:30 am we were on our 1st Disney bus of the trip on our way to Downtown Disney!

I think there was one other group of people on the bus with us. We swung by the Polynesian to see if anyone wanted to go with us, but no one got on. Our bus driver told them they were missing out, closed the door, and drove on. She was great! I didn’t get her name, but we chatted all the way to Downtown Disney with her. She asked us where we were from. She was raised in Louisiana, she said, so she knew where Arkansas was. She told us about a road trip she & her husband had taken from Florida all the way up to Washington State. We then talked about winning the lottery and the things we’d do with the money. Max promised to split the money with her if he won the lottery, but she said he wouldn't even be able to find her again. By 11:55 we were at Downtown Disney. Hooray! We bid our awesome driver farewell, Max took another good look at her so he could remember what she looked like, which made her laugh, and we ventured out in search of lunch.


But really, we knew exactly where we were going:

Earl of Sandwich!


It’s pretty much our tradition to have our check-in day lunch at Earl of Sandwich. Yum yum! I also need to mention that we were on the Dining Plan for this trip. It was our first time using it, too. That's where the "We Stuffed Our Faces" part of my title comes in. We got in line, which wasn’t too long, but then Luke needed to use the restroom. Max took him, but just after they rounded the corner, Allison said she needed to go too. I almost sent her running off after them, but thought better of it and abandoned our place in line. I sent Max a text letting him know where we were, but I don’t think he got it because when we got back to EoS the boys were back in line with puzzled looks on their faces. Ok, maybe not, but I still don’t think he got my text. The line was a bit longer by that time, but there was a friendly cast member chatting with the people in line, asking if anyone had questions. She was happy to explain to us our choices on the Dining Plan. We ordered our food and were lucky enough to find a table inside. And guess what? I took pictures of our food! If you read my “Prius and the Poly” trip report you will know that this is a big deal! The people at the table next to us didn't know that it was a big deal. I saw them looking at me like, "what in the world is that lady doing?!?" That was something I was just going to have to get used to because those looks kept coming at me all week long!

Luke’s Pizza Sandwich - Mozzarella & Marinara sauce (descriptions from allearsnet.com)




Since Allison is 10, she was on the Adult meal plan. While I was a bit worried about this, it was never really a problem.

Allison’s “Best BLT” minus the “T”. I guess that’s a “BL”! - Applewood bacon, lettuce, Roma tomatoes and seasoned mayonnaise

My “Hawaiian BBQ” - ham, grilled chicken, Hawaiian BBQ sauce, Swiss cheese and pineapple

Max’s “The Full Montagu” - roast beef and turkey with cheddar and Swiss cheese, romaine lettuce, tomato and Earl's mustard


Max must have forgotten to say “no tomato” !

Allison’s dessert.


I can’t remember how that worked, but I think I remember Luke getting a dessert, too…but I know I didn’t give him mine because at EoS I could substitute dessert for a side and I chose chips. I remember that because I posed my meal nicely for a picture:

Or maybe I got chips and dessert? Didn’t write that much down!


After lunch we went to the pin store and the kids picked out some new pins. This year was their first year to actually do any pin trading. They had each brought along pins just for trading. Luke got a new lanyard there, too.

After the pin store we went to Once Upon a Toy and spent quite a while looking at everything.

like the Build your own Lightsaber

and the My Little Ponies


The kids have recently gotten interested in Legos. Luke got quite a few sets for Christmas and then Allison asked her Granddaddy for some for her birthday. She got the cutest little house, but we haven’t had time to build it yet…So you know where we went next!

Allison’s shot of Lego people behind the registers.

Looking for just the right piece…

You can’t go to Downtown Disney without going to 2 places: World of Disney and Ghirardelli. The samples at Ghirardelli were soooo good, as always. Plus, Allison gave me hers because it had caramel in the middle and she doesn’t like it. Crazy, I know, but I wasn’t complaining!

We thought the Cinderella Castle in World of Disney was neat!

Allison took a picture of these guys…we thought all the rounded characters were cute!

I liked this keychain, but never went back for it.


…continued in next post…

 

[Bridora]

We spent some quality time with these guys:

By that time it was close to 4:00 pm. We decided it was time to head back to Bay Lake Tower to see if our room was ready!

Will our room be ready when we get back? What about our grocery order from Garden Grocer?