A memorable trip 9/30 - 10/06 Just back! NOW WITH PICS!!

[chanty]

Hi friends!

Wow...I surely missed the board this week!!
We just arrived in Ottawa at 6:15pm tonight... how sad!
BUT... we have to say - it was by far our best trip to date!

I will give you a general overview of our day and complete it with pics and all tomorrow.

Cast: Me & DH, our first anniversary trip

We arrived on Saturaday (09/30) in the afternoon...bright sunny day!
We stayed at the All-Stars Sports Resort for one night. It was better than expected... I didn't have high expectations and I guess it turned out great!
We had a room in building 8 and our room faced the pool. Great view.
We didn't get a chance to enjoy the amenities very much since we arrived at 3pm and headed out straight to the parks (MGM that night).

The next day, we took a taxi out to the Beach Club Villas(we didn't feel like waiting for our luggage.. cost us $10 with the tip - not bad at all).
We had a great room... fell TOTALLY in love with the BCV. We finally found our 2nd home

Overall...it was a very magical trip. The weather was gorgeous...no rain at all! It's a first for us in 3 years...usually, you get the odd rain here & there. NONE this week... We SOOOO enjoyed the pool (I got a really nice tan...)
Everything was perfect.

Where we ate?

Cape May Cafe - Breakfast : Although the reviews weren't too good, we loved it.

Alfredo's - Dinner: We were a bit disapointed this year with the Fettucine Alfredo... but the rest was ok. We didn't get to see accordeon player... no napkin swinging either - we missed that this year. Oh well...

Spoodles take-out window - Dinner: Got some pizza slices and ate on the Boardwalk... it was very pleasant and we loved it.

Sci-Fi - Dinner: As usual, it was great!!

Beaches & Cream - Lunch: It was great! We got burgers and fries. We took it as take-out since Hannah's Grill was closed at the pool.

Hannah's Grills (not sure if the name is right...) - Lunch: This was a quick and easy grab for lunch at the pool. Loved it!! (did I mention that we LOVED the pool???)

Cinderella's Royal Table - Dinner: This was an awesome experience and we'll surely do it again next year. (yes... next year!! Can you imagine that I need to plan next year's vacation???? how exciting!)

Bakery in France - Breakfast/Snacks: We went here for breakfast 2 mornings in a row. It was great...love the chocolate croissant

ESPN - Dinner: As always, we love this place...lots of food and we like the sporty ambiance (well....mostly for DH but I like it too!)
That's all that I can think about for now...

The Marketplace - Lunch: Not a lot of variety here... a bit disapointing. We ate some sandwiches once for lunch and they were good.

Overall, it was an awesome vacation. We did get some magic but none of that Year of a Million Dreams promo stuff. Just regular magical things that CM's do on a regular basis.

Magical "events":
1- We got a really neat certificate from Sci-Fi that said Congrats for our 1st anniversary.
2- At the CRT (Cinderella's Royal Table), we got really neat champagne flute... The Godmother came to our table too and told everyone it was our First anniversary. Our seating location was incredible... we had the only for 2 table at the window... decorated with glitter and stuff. We had an awesome time! When we went for our pic with Cinderella, the CM that was there gave us a paper for our 1st anniversary (since paper is the symbol for the 1st year)... OK - It was just a piece of paper, I agree...but it was so thoughtful of her. I really appreciated it.
3- We got a really neat "certificate" from the Beach Club in our room saying Congrats for our 1st year anniversary.
4- We went to Leave a Legacy at Epcot...after our picture session, the CM says "you have a phone call"... It was Mickey wishing us a Happy Anniversary.
Again - how thoughtful of him to take the time to do this!!!
5- We rode the front of the monorail twice. This was an amazing experience. We loved it!!

The only thing I can say...is that I was really disapointed that the new celebration wasn't really present in the world. No items or I should very limited items for the new celebration... People were still talking about the Happiest Celebration on Earth...which for me, was old news.

Oh well...

That's it for now! Gotta go to bed... sooo tired.
We'll write more tomorrow. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate!

Chow for now!

 

[pumba]

Happy Anniversary to you both.......sounds like you had a magical time and enjoyed everything.....thanks so much for your report and anxious to see your photos too

 

[lookingforward]

So glad you had a wonderful trip and congratulations on your one year anniversery! (great picture!). Part of the fun of a disney vacation is the planning so have FUN doing that and have fun looking forward to the next adventure.

 

[chanty]

Sept 30/06
Here are some pics from the All Stars Sports: (sorry no pics of the room...forgot!! silly me!)

For those of you who were asking about the McDonald's close to the All Stars Resorts, here's a pic:

You can walk to there... if you follow the sidewalk on the side of the road.

From our room, we went straight to MGM for our dinner reservation to Sci-Fi and then, hoping to see Fantasmic.

Pics of Sci-Fi:

We split a table service here. We had: cheese & spinach dip (awesome..as always!), hamburger & fries, and a sundae for dessert. We loved it once again!

We took some pics here & there:

Now, it was time for Fantasmic! It was a first for us. We had a great time!
Got there early...maybe a bit too early! We were there when the gates opened at 6pm and finally decided to sit at the top in the middle, that way we would possibly be the first part of the crowd to get out. That said... next time, we'll get there later for sure! There was a lot of space left until about 30 min before the show. The show was great, we liked it a lot.

Here are some pics:

Went back to our hotel and all excited for the next day - Beach Club here we come!

 

[chanty]

Oct 1/06 - Officially our 1st anniversary - Part 1

Got up fairly early (9am) and called a taxi to bring us to BCV.
For those wondering... cost us $10, including the tip. Good deal

By 10am, we were at the Beach Club. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready.
Let me just say that the lady who was helping me wasn't very friendly... but that's ok. Possibly having a bad day.

I had packed a bag with our bathing suits and all so we headed out to the pool. WOW! Was I ever impressed with the pool. It's huge... and you never feel overwhelmed by the amount of kids/adults. Awesome!

The first thing we needed to do... get a strawberry daiquiri (hey...we gotta celebrate - right?) Pics below

We enjoyed the pool sooo much. The weather was great. Got a nice sunburn too... you'll see in the pics later on at our CRT (Cinderella's Royal Table). Pool pics below:

We had lunch at the pool - great service, good food. Limited menu, but it was ok. We had the chicken fingers (once again, we split a CS).

Around 1:30pm, we decided to head out to Epcot and get our anniversary gifts...but before, I wanted to check out if our room was ready. It was - happy, happy!

We were very pleased with our location and the room itself. It was very clean and comfy! The view wasn't the best but hey... who cares! I was in Disney.. how lucky am I?
Pics below of our room and view:

So now we head out to Epcot to purchase our anniversary gift. Mine, was to pick a pearl in Japan and pick a ring setting. DH...well, he wasn't sure. Let me say that we don't have the same ideas.... First, he wanted a statue in Morocco... ok, not bad but still...a statue?!? I wanted to buy him something that he would wear or at least that he could look at once in a while and remember our 1st anniversary trip.

So now, we walk in Japan. I pick my pearl and I wanted him to purchase the ring as a surprise. He wanted me to choose (because I'm picky...) so I did. We had to wait for it to set, so we were walking around and guess what he sees??? A sword!!! He actually wanted me to buy him a sword!! Wouldn't that be a great representation of our union? LOL Gotta love my husband!

Anyhow, I was able to put some sense into this man and we walked out with my ring only. I finally found a really neat bracelet for him in Italy. 18k gold with stainless steel... he just loved it! GREAT! Now we're talking

Here are the pics:

So now we walk back to our room, which is litterally 3 minutes from Epcot!!
We freshen up, unpack and head out to Epcot (again!) to take the monorail to MK for an EMH evening (a first for us - monorail & EMH at night). We got there and I ask the CM if we could right up front. Our wish was granted The view is awesome and how different from taking the bus!!

Here are some pics from the monorail:

 

[chanty]

So we get to MK and walk up to the castle. We got there just in time to see the new celebration (Dream along with Mickey). It was a great show.

Pics below:

Now, it was almost time for our CRT reservation. We went to the check-in desk a bit early, hoping to have a window seat. It certainly worked cause we got the best seat in the house!!! The only table for 2, right beside the windows. Our table was covered with glitters. Of course, before we got there, we meet Cinderella.

Did any of you notice the little mice in the waiting area?

So after a short wait, we were royally invited to our table.

We thought the little show they do was pretty neat. We had the pleasure to meet the Godmother, who wished us a happy anniversary!

For dinner, we had:

Myself - Salad (which I didn't really enjoy...but I have to say that I'm not a big leaf lover LOL), Cheese Tortelini - which was great, and had the chocolate mousse cake.

DH - Salad (he loved it...go figure!), beef - which he loved and the chocolate mousse cake.

The fireworks started just as we were having dessert.

We stayed around to do Pirates of the Carribean (it's so great!) and tooks some pics.

Can you tell that Donald is DH's favorite character:

 

[chanty]

Oct 2 - Relax day & some shopping!

We started our day by going out to Epcot. Our main goal was to Leave a Legacy & send an email to our family from Innoventions. Let me warn you that from now on... we went with flow and enjoyed our vacation TOTALLY. No commando touring for us...and this is the way to go for us from now on.

We met our fellow friends on our way in Epcot:

As we were walking, we saw that Honey I Shrunk the kids was just playing in 5 minutes... not many people in line, so why not! We saw it for the first time and it was pretty neat.

Then, we went to the Innoventions in order to find that place where you can send pics via email, which I thought had different backgrounds from WDW... well, the only one we could find was the one at IBM...no backgrounds of WDW but of planet mars and fireworks... etc. This guy tells us that we need to go to... the pyramid place... what's it called again! Where Figment lives!
Anyhow, we get there... again, the stations that you can send an email a pic has no background of WDW!! We decide to take pics and just send them off! LOL

Then, we walked over to Leave a Legacy and saw that my DH's favorite ride is clearly not busy... so we went to Spaceship earth.

See how excited he is??

From there, we go directly to Leave a Legacy. We can't wait to see it next year!! Here, we had one of our magical moments. The CM tells us that he has a phone call for us.... It was Mickey wishing us a Happy Anniversary!!
How awesome is that??

We go back to our room in the afternoon and here is what we found:

Again, this made our trip a bit more magical and special!!

So then, we decide to head out to....

We like to do our shopping ahead of time, that way I can better prepare our luggages and all

Here's DH... he's always getting himself in trouble!

Of course...our favorite shop has to be:

We buy an ornament every year and this year we got a new tree topper - Tinker Bell (on special too - try and beat that one!! )

We did some shopping here & there...ate at McDonald's (Dh's addiction!) and then... we made a treat at Goofy's Candy Store.

I got the marshmallows in Chocolate with Chocolate chips coting with a drizzle of white & milk chocolate. DH got a large cookie in chocolate with oreo crumbs with drizzles as well. This will become a ritual I think...

 

[chanty]

Oct 3 - Another relaxing day!

Our day started with our breakfast reservation at Cape May Cafe.
The reviews weren't that great on here...but I gotta say, the food & service was great - no complaints!

After having breakfast/lunch, we decide to enjoy the beach and then later on, head out to Epcot (again....I know!! That park is addictive!) We decide to visit:

Can you imagine that we'd never been there in 3 years?

Here's hubby again... never seem to learn his lessons!!

Then, we came back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap. I wasn't sleepy so I left hubby in the room and I went around the resort to take some pics.

That night, we ate at ESPN and then relaxed at the hotel.

Another great day!

 

[chanty]

Oct 4 - Epcot again!!

Our day started in Epcot..yes, once again!
We went in France to have breakfast. Hmmm a good chocolate croissant!

Then, we decided to walk around the world (Advice: get there at 11am... there's no one!! By 1pm, it starts to get crowded).

We saw some of our friends around the World:

Some pics of the World.

We rode, once again, the Viking boat in Norway.

We went back to our resort to enjoy the pool and the great sun!
We were back in Epcot for our reservation at 6pm at Alfredo's. On our way, we met Belle.

We had a great time at Alfredo's..but we've seen better. The food was ok... i was a bit disapointed in the Fettucine Alfredo.

Then we stayed around, thinking we would see the Fireworks.

Hubby was looking at a Turtle in the lake.

Here are some pics of the sunset in the World.

40 minutes before the fireworks, we decided to walk around the world (after sitting in the same place for 1 longgg hour - go figure!).
We then have the same brilliant idea.... skip the fireworks (which we've seen before!) and head out to Soarin'. May I say that this was the most brilliant idea we had in a long time We walked right on Soarin'.

This was an experience in itself...WOW. I can't believe it. At first, I was freaking out, cause I'm afraid of heights and all...and to have my feet dangling in the air - I really don't like that feeling!!! It was an amazing ride and we LOVED it!!

At about 10:50, we walked back into the World Showcase - total desert!!
No one in sight... we walked for a bit and then decided to grab a bite in France, once again!

Then, we called it a night. Tomorrow is our last full day.

 

[chanty]

Oct 5 - Our last day

It started...once again with Epcot! We went back for a breakfast in France.
Can't you tell we love the pastry there??

We walked around the world for a bit...trying to find Donald!! (guess for who???) My feet was really sore so we decided to take it easy and enjoy the sunny day!! DH was feeling a bit strange...as if he was coming down with something.

We enjoyed the pool, he went back to the hotel after an hour cause he wasn't feeling well. He slept for a part in the afternoon. I went back to the hotel around 3pm, had a nap with him. Woke up around 6pm and we decided to have dinner on the Boardwalk, possibly use our CS with pizza from Spoodles. That's what we did. We had a great time on the Boardwalk and it was the perfect way to end our vacation!

DH having our last Strawberry Daiquiri

Around 8:30pm, I bought a Funnel Cake (my first time...wow, that's good stuff!!) and we decided to sit on the Beach at the Beach Club and see the Fireworks from there.

The view isn't quite the best, but we enjoyed it very much!

That's it for the Roy's. We had a magical trip... and now, I'm planning our next one!

Hope you enjoy my report.

Cheers!

 

[cndncruiz]

Chanty,

I really enjoyed your report. One of the better ones. We are going to many of the places you reported on and I found your information very helpful and to the the point.

Your pictures are just EXCELLENT! Do you do that for a living? If not, I think you should.

We will be at WDW for Christmas.

Thanks again for a great report!

 

[happybratpack]

What a great report and your pics were just what I needed for a little pick-me-up today. Looks like a great time!

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[chanty]

Your pictures are just EXCELLENT! Do you do that for a living? If not, I think you should.

No, I don't unfortunately but it's becoming a hobby. Just bought a new camera (Nikon D50) and I really love it. I need to take a course in order to better understand all the functions it has.

Thanks again for the nice compliment
I'm very happy you guys enjoyed my report...it was the first one in 3 years and I loved it!

 

[Cass]

Hi Chanty, I loved your photos, thank you for sharing them with us here. Your ring is very pretty and what a terrific shot of the fireworks through the window at Cindy's.

Happy Anniversary and many happy returns to Disney.

 

[JoAnnPan]

Happy Anniversary!
Thanks for sharing your trip; the pictures were fabu; I love the ones from "different" angles in MGM, etc. Looks like you both had a great time; just have to love that Disney magic!
I have one question....I have never seen that many character's at Epcot before...where did you run into them? I know Belle is in France but have never seen Rabbit, etc.
Thanks!

 

[meeko_33785]

Awesome report so far. Your pics from Fantasmic and the Castle Show are amazing. Thanks for posting.

 

[chanty]

I have one question....I have never seen that many character's at Epcot before...where did you run into them? I know Belle is in France but have never seen Rabbit, etc.

They came out near United States (beside the sitting area where you can eat... if you look there's a wooden fence). Anyhow they came out there and they were in Italy (well close by). Mickey & Goofy stayed close to US.
They came out around 12:15pm. We saw that they came out around 1hour after opening...so between 12-12:30.

Hope this helps!!

 

[mommic32]

Wow.... Your pictures are gorgeous! Can you tell us what kind of camera you used?

I loved the report,, what a nice trip for your anniversary!

 

[chanty]

Can you tell us what kind of camera you used?

Thanks!! My camera is a Nikon D50. Love it! Still getting used to it....but the pics are amazing. I'm sure they'll be getting better with practice

It was an amazing trip...our best ever and we did all the things we wanted to do. We did what we wanted...didn't get to go back to MK, which was on our itinerary but we know we'll be back next year or the year after. We did whatever we wanted.

 

[Mouse511]

Happy Anniversary! What a great way to celebrate. Awesome pictures!