1st time F&W, MNSSHP, Africa Trek & no kids! (Updated 5/11/14)

[nat1234]

Thanks so much Natalie for the kind words. This was our first F&W / MNSSHP so stayed tune for more!

It was our first food & wine and MNSSHP too. Love the pictures of Chef Remy. I have never seen him. I'm so glad you and your wife were able to before he left.

 

[MEK]

I found you! Yay! I didn't even know you had this TR started.

Now back to read. Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[saintstickets]

Woohoo MEK! Come on in...pull up a chair...sit a spell...you already know most of this TR story but I'll be glad to share it with you again! Don't ask people...you'll have to read MEK's TR or all the way until the end of mine to find out how she knows!

 

[MEK]

So I am all caught up! I didn't know you had bought and sold so many DVC contracts. You're good. Once I buy one there is no way I'm going to sell it!

That PAP deal was really a good one. I still have one more trip to go on mine (well one full trip and a couple extra days).

I am shocked that you were greeted so poorly on your arrival. I've only stayed at BCV once and the one thing I remember is how well Cynthia and I were greater. It was really cool.

Sounds like your first day was excellent and I love the food rating system.

Cute PP pictures.

And for the record - I can't tell you how many times I cracked up over your college dorm story. I am still chuckling now as I type this.

 

[saintstickets]

So I am all caught up! I didn't know you had bought and sold so many DVC contracts. You're good. Once I buy one there is no way I'm going to sell it!

It was VERY difficult to sell those two contracts, especially the 1st one at OKW. Both the OKW and the VWL were 50 point contracts. If it were just the two of us going all the time, 50 pts is fine but with DS, DDiL, DD and DSiL going every other year, we needed to concentrate the points at one/two resorts instead of four to take advantage of the 11 month window.

That PAP deal was really a good one. I still have one more trip to go on mine (well one full trip and a couple extra days).

We are doing the same. We will end up with 3 trips using the PAP deal for a total of 19 days so it was a great DVC perk!

I am shocked that you were greeted so poorly on your arrival. I've only stayed at BCV once and the one thing I remember is how well Cynthia and I were greater. It was really cool.

We were shocked as well. I know it was an anomaly but one of the nice parts of owning DVC is that after the build up of anticipation for the trip, it's nice to get that "Welcome Home" to start off the vacation.

And for the record - I can't tell you how many times I cracked up over your college dorm story. I am still chuckling now as I type this.

The things we do in college....that we hope our children NEVER find out about!!!

 

[saintstickets]

On a side note....As I mentioned in my previous post to MEK, we are making 3 trips using the annual pass deal offered to DVC members. This TR is the first one. Originally we planned on going in late May, 2014 for the second trip and then in Sep, 2014 for the third. DD, DSiL, DS and DDiL were to join us on the 2nd trip and DW and I planned on our first Disney cruise before the 3rd trip. DD is in her first year of medical school (proud father here!) and when she got her spring semester schedule, going in late May, 2014 is cutting it too close in case there were any make up days needed for something like a hurricane or snow. Snow in south Mississippi, right!?!? So we decided on the 1st week in June. It's a good thing because guess what, we had snow!! Well....it was more like 3 inches of ice with a dusting of snow on top but regardless, schools were closed for 3 days. Being south Mississippi, it was 60 degrees a few days later and then for the first time in my life, it snowed again 2 days later! Two snows in less than 10 days? It barely snows once every other year here!! South Mississippi, the only place you can get frost-bite and sunburn in the same week!

So we had our reservations for a 2br and a studio at BWV for the first week of June with 2 of our three children and their spouses. Then we made reservations in early October for a 1br at BCV for DW and I that is preceeded by a cruise on DCL's Dream. A cruise, F&W and MNSSHP all in one trip? I don't know if I can stand it!! The cruise has me a bit anxious though. You see all these stories about couples on a cruise and mysteriously one of them disappears overboard. I can see it now, DW coyishly asks me if I want to take a midnight stroll on the lido deck and as we are gazing at the moonlit ocean....splash....man overboard!!! A husband has to take precautions when the first thing his wife asks after booking a cruise is how much life insurance do I have! I contacted our agent and asked if I could temporarily suspend my life insurance for the duration of the cruise! That'll stop those ideas!!

Now back to the two upcoming trips. We had everything all set with ADR's for our June trip at Kouzzina's, Sci-Fi, Be Our Guest and Coral Reef. Do you know how hard it is to get a reservation for 6 at BOG for dinner? I called at the earliest possible date and the best I could get is two tables for 3 each. Then this week, DS informs us that due to Obamacare, the hospital he is employed by is having layoffs and since he just started there, he is one of the casualties. He can find a job easily enough; he has two offers already. He is a RN with years of ER, ICU and Cath-lab experience but we were worried about him not being able to get off so soon after starting a new job. Soooooo...cancel the BWV studio in June and change the BCV 1br in October to a 2br so DS and DDiL can join us then. Believe it or not, it worked like a charm. Then the excellent DVC CM changed all of our dining ADR's from a party of 6 to 4 and to add to the pixie dust experience, we were able to get a table for 4 at BOG!! Now I have to figure out how to change the theme park tickets assigned to DS and DDiL on My Disney Experience.

After I made all those changes with DVC and received confirmation, DS called and told me that the doctors pitched a fit at the hospital he was layed off from and the hospital called and offered him his job back. He's not sure what he's going to do but I'm NOT going to change everything back now. My reservoir of pixie dust is very limited and I think I used it all up already!

So.....that is the update on our upcoming trips.....now we shall continue with the TR on the most recent one.

 

[saintstickets]

Today (Sunday, October 20th) we will visit Magic Kingdom. We have few plans today except for FP+ reservations and to return to Cape May Clam Bake tonight for a 6:30pm reservation. This will be one of those days that had some not-so-magical moments. We planned to get to MK early in order to see the opening show. We had only a few minutes wait for the bus to MK but the 1st of annoyances/problems happened. The bus was full since it stops at the Yachtsman Club before stopping at BC. Sooooo, I had to stand for the ride, but wait, someone felt sorry for the old, fat man and got their kid to sit in their lap to make a space for DW and I. Bless their little ole heart!

A little background info might help here. A large factor in when we schedule our WDW trips and even which park we visit each day is influenced by various crowd level sites. We absolutely refuse to go to WDW when the park levels are 8 out of 10 or above. The crowds are just tooooo much for my limited patience with crazy behavior. Any psychologist or sociologist could do their PhD dissertation on human behavior by observing people at WDW (or any other park) during peak attendance times. I LOVE to people watch but not so much when they are in line in front of me! Lol Back to my original point…I have used Touring Plans website for crowd levels in the past and found it very accurate so naturally we did again this trip. TP had today at MK as its “Best Park” to visit with a 1.1 out of 10.0 crowd level! Practically empty, right? WRONG!




We arrived at 8:55am hoping to catch the pre-rope drop show. Here I will allow for my incompetence…when does the opening show begin? If it is when the park opens (at 9am today), then they did not have a show today. If it is earlier, we just missed it. Oh well….the main point I will eventually make, the crowd level today was at least a 6, not a 1.1. There were thousands waiting to get in the gates. To make matters more difficult, many people either did not have the right cards to get in or their magic bands were not working. Once we finally got up to the entrance, our magic bands worked fine.

This was our first time to WDW during this time of the year. The Fall/Halloween decorations are so great











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[saintstickets]

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We were able to take a ride on the Main Street Transportation Company after their show










I never get tired of this view





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[saintstickets]

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We have not done any character meets in many, many years but this trip we stopped to meet the main mouse using one of our FP+ selections made online 2 months ago.




We stopped at the refurbished Main Street Bakery/Starbucks to grab a bite. I had a sausage, egg and cheddar sandwich with an orange/mango smoothie and DW had the bacon and gouda sandwich with a white chocolate mocha Frappuccino (at least I think that’s what it’s called). All of it was very good and we must have been hungry because there are no food porn pics! Beware though…there are NO tables inside so you’ll have to eat on the run or do as we did and use the top of a trash bin as our table! ewww

Next it was a walk through Adventure Land and a ride on the Pirates of the Caribbean. My dark ride pics are terrible so I don’t have any worth posting. I need MEK to give me some pointers!

Our next ride was on Splash Mountain



DW lost her hat but thankfully the people behind us caught it! Oh...and be prepared for crazy face ride pics...it's become a thing of ours!

We decided to see if we could take advantage of a temporary glitch in FP online reservations. FP online will only allow you to make 3 FP+ selections per day. Those selections are recorded through My Disney Experience on your magic bands. So, we decided to try our actual KTTW room keys to see if the old fashioned way of getting a FP would still work. It did!! We got a FP for BTMRR in addition to our 3 FP’s online for today. Score!

Then for another activity that we have not done since 1997. Can you guess?

 

[jojosam]

We were at WDW at the end of September and also experienced our first MNSSHP and the first day of F&W. I dream of the day I can freely visit WDW multiple times per year (a mere 8 hour drive away), but currently the kids keep on insisting that they come with us, so we are reduced to going when school is out of session. I have already told DH that I will eventually be getting myself an annual pass!

Love the photos so far, and I get the feeling that you will have me giggling through your TR (brother and sister shouldn't kiss )

Looking forward to more!

 

[saintstickets]

We were at WDW at the end of September and also experienced our first MNSSHP and the first day of F&W. I dream of the day I can freely visit WDW multiple times per year (a mere 8 hour drive away), but currently the kids keep on insisting that they come with us, so we are reduced to going when school is out of session. I have already told DH that I will eventually be getting myself an annual pass!

Love the photos so far, and I get the feeling that you will have me giggling through your TR (brother and sister shouldn't kiss )

Looking forward to more!

So glad you could join us for this trip down memory lane from last October.

I wasn't sure the CM would be embarrassed by the brother/sister kissing gag or if he was from a small back-woods town and would understand!

Enjoy taking your children now for they will grow up so quickly. We were able to take ours only once before they graduated high school but we are making up for it now using DVC. Fortunately, they still want to hang with us but it might be they just want to go to WDW!!

 

[MEK]

Best Splash Mountain ride photo EVER! So many possible captions. Look at those faces - yours, DWs, and the kid behind her. Awesome! And the best part - no ponchos. You guys rock!

Wowsa - talk about some major opening crowds. Yikes.

Your poor DS - I am glad he got his job back, but what a pain for you with all the arrangement juggling. All your upcoming tips sound great. Our PAP expires in early June, but we did get a lot of use out of it. I am thinking about getting the new offer but it is like $80 more than the old one. They are getting crazy expensive.

 

[ElenaJane]

Hey! You were there when we were! You had the same TouringPlans experience I did. What started off to be an expected really low crowd day (Yay!) turned into wall to wall park-goers (boo!). I blamed free dining. That brings everyone out in droves!

Can't wait to keep up with the rest of your trip! Hope you mess with CM some more "you shouldn't ask a brother and sister to kiss". Teehee. Reminds me of our 12/13 trip, where we felt like every single cast member we ran into asked us "And what are we celebrating!!???" and we would reply "nothing", which was true, it was not a birthday or anniversary, we were just there on vacation...isn't that enough?!?! Finally, slightly annoyed after the 50th CM asked us what we were celebrating, my husband said he had finally made parol and had been released early. Classic CM smile and congrats, but they did walk away pretty quickly.

 

[saintstickets]

Best Splash Mountain ride photo EVER! So many possible captions. Look at those faces - yours, DWs, and the kid behind her. Awesome! And the best part - no ponchos. You guys rock!

I agree...the possible captions are endless! My evil plan is to tell everyone I was making a face when we both know it looks just like me!!

Wowsa - talk about some major opening crowds. Yikes.

I was shocked...it makes me question some of these crowd calendar predictions now.

Your poor DS - I am glad he got his job back, but what a pain for you with all the arrangement juggling. All your upcoming tips sound great. Our PAP expires in early June, but we did get a lot of use out of it. I am thinking about getting the new offer but it is like $80 more than the old one. They are getting crazy expensive.

DS is being stubborn (I wonder where he got that from?). He hasn't decided if he is going back after the way they handled the layoff. At least he has several offers to fall back on. Another by-product of it all is that we now have 70 points to use, lose or rent before 7/31/14. You think I can talk DW into going in late April/early May for a F&G trip when we will be going back the 1st week of June? The park tickets are covered under our current PAP so I think it's a grand idea!

Hey! You were there when we were! You had the same TouringPlans experience I did. What started off to be an expected really low crowd day (Yay!) turned into wall to wall park-goers (boo!). I blamed free dining. That brings everyone out in droves!

We've relied on TP for several years now with great success so I'm not sure what has happened to their prediction models. It makes one wonder if they've been to weather forecasting school recently! Weather forecaster is the only profession where one can be right less than 10% of the time and still keep their job!

Can't wait to keep up with the rest of your trip! Hope you mess with CM some more "you shouldn't ask a brother and sister to kiss". Teehee. Reminds me of our 12/13 trip, where we felt like every single cast member we ran into asked us "And what are we celebrating!!???" and we would reply "nothing", which was true, it was not a birthday or anniversary, we were just there on vacation...isn't that enough?!?! Finally, slightly annoyed after the 50th CM asked us what we were celebrating, my husband said he had finally made parol and had been released early. Classic CM smile and congrats, but they did walk away pretty quickly.

Your DH's response is GREAT!! I told DW about it and she said, "You're not going to do that too, are you?!" Of course I am!! Knowledge is useless unless used and now that I have the knowledge of your DH's fantastic comeback, it would be a shame not to use it!

 

[saintstickets]

What? No guesses as to where we went next? The Country Bear Jamboree of course!! Here are a few pics (I warned you this TR would be pic heavy)



Gomer


Henry


Five Bear Hugs - Zeke, Zeb, Ted, Fred & Tennessee


Liver Lips McGrowl


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[saintstickets]

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Wendell


Trixie


Terrence (aka Shaker)


Sun Bonnet Trio - Bunny, Bubbles & Beulah


The hardest to take a picture of is Teddi Barra


And my personal favorite - Big Al

 

[saintstickets]

Next up was a staple that we MUST do every time we’re at WDW...











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[saintstickets]

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I think I saw her at Aulani








And as you are leaving....

 

[saintstickets]

It was time for a quick bite again. We had originally planned on going to Columbia Harbor House or Tony’s but instead of walking that far, we thought about going to Pecos Bill. Instead, we walked into Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Big mistake. It was PACKED!! But the A/C was working and we were hot so while DW found us a place to sit, I stood in line…and stood in line…and stood in line. Finally, I got the meatball sub sandwich and DW had the Caprese flatbread. We were so ready to get out of this madhouse that I forgot to take food porn pics AGAIN! Sighhhh

Food rating - C+
The food was okay but it was soooooo crowded and being where it is located, it is kid HEAVY! We will probably try somewhere else next time.

We walked around a bit and then used our “extra” FP for


Is there any truth to the rumor that Disney is going to make this a photo ride during their next refurbishment?


We did a quick walk through the new Fantasyland.



I've got to try this place soon


We didn’t spend much time here because we will be back to MK another day for an ADR at Be Our Guest and tickets to MNSSHP.

 

[saintstickets]

We did take time to see the Enchanted Tales with Belle




Getting volunteers to assist



And who is that on the mantle?



Why it's Lumiere!



And now for the star of the show



Don't play hard to get Belle



Oh yeah...you're friendly with Mrs. Potts and Chip



Now who does Belle have her eyes on?



This little showboat



Picture time



This was a really good show, especially if you have little ones that aren't shy. A few adults can get involved as well so make sure you take time to see this.