3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again"

Hi,

Followed you over from the BC thread to your TR. Love all your pics and happy to say that we will be at the BC for the 1st time in 33 days. :banana: Can't wait to meet Teena and stay on CL, your TR is getting me so excited to be there.

Hi!!! So nice to see someone I "know" over here. Very exciting to have your trip so close! I remember my head felt like it was getting ready to explode from excitement as our trip got closer and closer.
 
This trip report is not really meant to document our July 2009 vacation, so I am not going to discuss that trip in great detail. Besides, a lot of what we did last year was very similar to this year’s trip, so I don’t want to repeat a lot of the descriptions. I did want to give the background about our introduction to the Beach Club and I promise there will be more Beach Club in upcoming posts. There are a few things that were unique to the 2009 trip and I will write about those briefly before heading back to this year.

Upcoming installments from July 2009:

A Quest or Two

Hey, Tara, I’m headed to my FOURTH park of the day!

Racing the Hollywood Studios Boat, Part I

Dude! (Warning: This post contains startling revelations about Tinkerbell)

Food Porn

I know, I’ve been doing a lot of yakking! I’ll make sure I throw a few photos into the coming updates.

See you in the morning!
 
Hi!!! So nice to see someone I "know" over here. Very exciting to have your trip so close! I remember my head felt like it was getting ready to explode from excitement as our trip got closer and closer.

Glad to be here, the BC thread is so friendly I hardly make it to any others lately. We are very excited, we received our disney mail today with ME tags, luggage tags, coupons etc. which make it all seem so close. I started my countdown at over 400 days so 33 is nothing. We have a county fair that the kids enter and start of school before our trip so I have plenty to keep me busy. :thumbsup2 One question: I forgot if I sent you pics for Teena's book or not?
 
@ OhioDisneyLover

Welcome!!! Looks like you have stayed at the Dolphin a few times. How is it? I remember visiting EPCOT after the Swan and Dolphin were built and thinking how awesome it would be to stay at a resort so close to our favorite park. That is one of the big draws of the Beach Club for us.

We have stayed at the Dolphin a few times. We love it there. Getting to Epcot and DHS is so easy and convenient. I love the rooms there and the beds, especially the beds!

I have been able to get great rates there too with either my Sheraton points, the AAA rate or the Entertainment Book Rate. I think it's a great place to stay. :thumbsup2
 


Glad to be here, the BC thread is so friendly I hardly make it to any others lately. We are very excited, we received our disney mail today with ME tags, luggage tags, coupons etc. which make it all seem so close. I started my countdown at over 400 days so 33 is nothing. We have a county fair that the kids enter and start of school before our trip so I have plenty to keep me busy. :thumbsup2 One question: I forgot if I sent you pics for Teena's book or not?

Yeah!!! I love Mickey Mail! We have suitcases in our dining room almost year round to remind of us trips we have planned and keep them filled with things we don't need in "real life".

Yes, you did send me photos! Various family members at Cape May breakfast and the whole family in front of a bridge. I sent those to Teena, and I will reminder her by e-mail with photo attachment that you are coming as your trip gets closer.

You know, I have contacted so many people, I started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of who I contacted, when, screen name/family name, when photos received, when photos sent, e-mail address. But even with this my head spins!
 
We have stayed at the Dolphin a few times. We love it there. Getting to Epcot and DHS is so easy and convenient. I love the rooms there and the beds, especially the beds!

I have been able to get great rates there too with either my Sheraton points, the AAA rate or the Entertainment Book Rate. I think it's a great place to stay. !

@OhioDisneyLover- sounds great! The Swan and Dolphin buildings are both beautiful and I hear nice things about some of the dining choices. We have never priced out the Dolphin because we are pretty committed to the Beach Club, but definitely great to hear the positive reviews.
 
Yeah!!! I love Mickey Mail! We have suitcases in our dining room almost year round to remind of us trips we have planned and keep them filled with things we don't need in "real life".

Yes, you did send me photos! Various family members at Cape May breakfast and the whole family in front of a bridge. I sent those to Teena, and I will reminder her by e-mail with photo attachment that you are coming as your trip gets closer.

You know, I have contacted so many people, I started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of who I contacted, when, screen name/family name, when photos received, when photos sent, e-mail address. But even with this my head spins!

We just returned from our "summer" vacation so the suitcases are still out and DD said last night "we should just leave them out and start packing for Disney." :thumbsup2 I have taught her well. ;) I have to find my "disney" stuff like the rain ponchos we bought last time, light up stuff & glow sticks, lanyards, etc and get those in the suitcases. We are flying Jetblue so we get 4 suitcases free. Everyone will get one that isnt full so we have room to pack the purchases at Disney on the way home.

Yes, that's our pics. Thanks for doing that, I am sure it is nice for her to put a face with screen name. I organize a fridge swap at POP (we stayed there in 2008) and have an excel with all that info too, it can be very confusing some times.
 


We just returned from our "summer" vacation so the suitcases are still out and DD said last night "we should just leave them out and start packing for Disney." :thumbsup2 I have taught her well. ;) I have to find my "disney" stuff like the rain ponchos we bought last time, light up stuff & glow sticks, lanyards, etc and get those in the suitcases. We are flying Jetblue so we get 4 suitcases free. Everyone will get one that isnt full so we have room to pack the purchases at Disney on the way home.

Yes, that's our pics. Thanks for doing that, I am sure it is nice for her to put a face with screen name. I organize a fridge swap at POP (we stayed there in 2008) and have an excel with all that info too, it can be very confusing some times.

Oh, Oh, Packing Tip!!!

When we use multiple suitcases on a trip, I make sure that we spread out our clothes between the suitcases instead of having a suitcase assigned to each person. That way, if a suitcase is lost in transit, everyone will have something to wear. Well almost everyone. My husband doesn't follow this advice, so all of his clothes are in one suitcase. But I pack for me and the kids, so our stuff is spread out.
 
I talked in a previous post about our first full day, Sunday. We started off with EPCOT. It was early opening, so we arrived around 8 AM through the International Gateway. We hit the Future World biggies: Soarin’ standby, Test Track standby, Mission Space standby, Spaceship Earth.

At that point it was around 11, so we had lunch at Sunshine Seasons. We love this place!!! So much variety, there really is something for everyone to eat here. One of my all-time favorite meals is their Goat Cheese and Roasted Beet Salad. Yum!!!


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Nate, who is a very picky eater, loves loves loves the pork chop. Even though it isn’t steak.


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After lunch, we rode Livin’ with the Land and then used Fast Passes we had collected earlier in the day for Soarin’ and Test Track.

We returned to the Beach Club for the swim I described earlier.

Around 3:30, we headed to Downtown Disney. I have two tween boys (ages 11 and 8 at the time), so I think a trip to the mother of all arcades was inevitable. We started out at Disney Quest, then did a little browsing and shopping at the Lego Store before our dinner reservation at T-Rex.


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This was the first time we had visited Disney Quest. I have to say, I’m not really a fan. But it’s not my fault. I was just born with the wrong chromosomes. It’s noisy. Overstimulating. And chaotic. There isn’t really any control on how long you stay and play a game, and I wish I could say people use their manners and let others have a turn after they play a game for awhile, but they don’t. I also had to stop a family who tried to “steal” a flight simulation game that my son had been waiting for more than 15 minutes when the guy (adult) playing it finally stopped. I just don’t find this to be fun.

We tried the virtual Jungle Cruise game. It was ok, but the kids had a lot of trouble steering the raft.


The virtual Pirates of the Caribbean game is awesome though!


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Ben was too small to ride the Buzz Lightyear themed Astroblaster, so Daddy took him to play different arcade games.


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Nate and I waited in line around 25 minutes for Astroblaster. It was pretty dark, so I don’t really have a good photo of the vehicle. You ride and try to suck up balls and then shoot them at the others on the course. We didn’t really score that well. It was fun, but very whiplash-y.


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Mercifully, we left Disney Quest and walked to one of the boys‘ most favorite attractions: The Lego Store. This place is like a shrine to their pastime of choice. We have a room in the house called “The Lego Room”. We have a Lego building table and cabinets with 12 drawers where the Legos are supposed to be put away by color. I won’t say whose idea that was.:rolleyes1 I will admit with defeat that it has been years since our Legos have been properly segregated.


We enjoyed seeing all of the amazing Lego creations and of course left a substantial amount of our money behind.


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We had a great meal at the T-Rex restaurant, but I think I will save that for another post. Lots of pictures that I haven't uploaded to Photobucket yet.

Here is the first of my tips that will be sprinkled through this report. Do NOT attempt DQ followed by T-Rex without a full bottle of Extra-Strength Excedrin. Mark and I had such bad headaches from the overstimulation from these two places by the end of the night!

One of the things we really love about a Disney vacation is that we don’t have to drive anywhere. We rely almost exclusively on Disney transportation and we have no complaints. Well, just one. Downtown Disney buses, especially the ones from DTD to resorts. Never had an enjoyable experience. The bus stop is always crowded. The people waiting for buses are tend to be grumpy. We usually don’t have seats. The buses stop at Typhoon Lagoon to let yet more people onto the bus. This was the one Beach Club bus that made stops to other resorts first (Boardwalk Inn, Yacht Club) before depositing us “home” to the Beach Club.


Tip Number Two: We find it much more pleasant to take one of the resort boats from Downtown Disney and from there take a bus to EPCOT and then walk to the Beach Club. Double bonus score if you visit EPCOT earlier in the day and pull a Fast Pass for Soarin’ before leaving the park.

After dinner, we took a boat ride from DTD to Old Key West. The boat ride was long but it was really peaceful and we passed by beautiful scenery. Didn’t wait too long for the bus to EPCOT.


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We had fast passes for Soarin’ in hand and strolled over to the Land. As we were on the incline to the entry doors, we found ourselves in a sea of yellow shirts. Ack! A Tour Group! But I’m sure they don’t have fast passes! Then we spot the pieces of paper in their hands. We are sunk! They are ahead of us. And then, they zigged! They took a right to get to the escalators. We went left and beat them to the FP entrance.


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There was a group of people waiting for their FP time to come due. Boy, they were not pleased to see the Tour Group approach and get in front of them!

We could not believe our luck. And to put the icing on the cake, we were top row on Soarin’. Triple bonus score!
 
Thanks for the review of disneyquest. I apparantly have the same genetics as you, I hate loud, overstimulating environments way too much for me to handle. I think we will skip it. We've never been to DTD.


Looking forward to more!!!
Jill
 
DQ is something I thought I'd like my boys to try but they are more into online gaming now so unless they cough up the money to go, I'm not paying :rotfl2: The virtual games look fun though.

Great idea about taking a bus from DTD to Epcot to avoid all the stops on the way to BC. We may try that this trip. (we are staying at BWV but this would work out perfectly on the day we are eating at Planet Hollywood and then heading back to Epcot for the evening - thanks for the tip!)
 
I'm kinda sorta with you on Disney Quest. I am so not a gamer but I had fun there. I agree that people shouldn't hog the games for so long and let other people have a try.

We ate at T-Rex when we were at Dowtown Disney and really enjoyed ourselves.

Great job zigzagging around the tour group and beating them to the Fastpass entrance.:thumbsup2
 
Thanks for the review of disneyquest. I apparantly have the same genetics as you, I hate loud, overstimulating environments way too much for me to handle. I think we will skip it. We've never been to DTD.


Looking forward to more!!!
Jill


Thanks! We had WPF&M tickets, so we thought we would check it out. Actually we returned later in the week and my review was a combination of the two visits, each equally "enjoyable".
 
DQ is something I thought I'd like my boys to try but they are more into online gaming now so unless they cough up the money to go, I'm not paying :rotfl2: The virtual games look fun though.

Great idea about taking a bus from DTD to Epcot to avoid all the stops on the way to BC. We may try that this trip. (we are staying at BWV but this would work out perfectly on the day we are eating at Planet Hollywood and then heading back to Epcot for the evening - thanks for the tip!)

We have taken the boats to both OKW and Saratoga Springs then hopped to EPCOT. I think the boat to POR would be a quicker way to accomplish this. We wait at the boat dock and when the captain pulls in he asks where we are going and we say "We don't care, wherever you are going". We get a look then explain what we are doing.
 
I'm kinda sorta with you on Disney Quest. I am so not a gamer but I had fun there. I agree that people shouldn't hog the games for so long and let other people have a try.

We ate at T-Rex when we were at Dowtown Disney and really enjoyed ourselves.

Great job zigzagging around the tour group and beating them to the Fastpass entrance.:thumbsup2

I uploaded the 2009 T-Rex photos, so I will try to do a quickie update later tonight or tomorrow morning.

We still talk about how lucky and amazed we were that the tour group went the other way! I'll be writing about another race to Splash Mountain with a tour group this year. It'll take me awhile to get there, though, so you'll have to wait and see how that turned out.
 
I'm enjoying your report! I grew up in Danvers! Great area to live in! Thanks for all your help and info on the BC! We'll be there in 45 Days! :cool1:
 
I'm enjoying your report! Just wanted to let you know that even tho I'm now in NH, I grew up in Danvers! Great area to live in! Thanks for all your help and info on the BC! We'll be there in 45 Days! :cool1:

Hey Dee. Came over from BC thread and loving your TR. Agree with you about DTD transportation. It's the only place on property that the DW will 'let' me drive. She actually enjoys meeting and talking to other people on the buses and boats. Anyway keep up the good work on the reports.
 
I'm enjoying your report! Just wanted to let you know that even tho I'm now in NH, I grew up in Danvers! Great area to live in! Thanks for all your help and info on the BC! We'll be there in 45 Days! :cool1:

Hi Linda! Welcome and thank you for reading!!!

I am the opposite- My DH and I both grew up in Dover NH and our families are still there. We now live just over the border in MA. I still consider myself a NH native, which gives me the justification for shopping tax-free in Seabrook and Newington.

The BC is so wonderful! And planning for the trip is so much fun for me! And I'm not ready to enter into the real world yet, so I am hanging out here and on the BC club board to avoid everything else I should be doing. :rolleyes1
 
Hey Dee. Came over from BC thread and loving your TR. Agree with you about DTD transportation. It's the only place on property that the DW will 'let' me drive. She actually enjoys meeting and talking to other people on the buses and boats. Anyway keep up the good work on the reports.

Hi Mike- thanks for following along! We are so much happier traveling to DTD now knowing that we do not have to get on the bus on the way back to the BC.
 
I'm enjoying your report! Just wanted to let you know that even tho I'm now in NH, I grew up in Danvers! Great area to live in! Thanks for all your help and info on the BC! We'll be there in 45 Days! :cool1:

I grew up in NH and now live in Massachusetts! I will be at the BC in 44 days so I'll see you there!
Jill
 

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