A Salute to Food & Wine but Mostly Wine..12/21 FINAL THOUGHTS...a Solo Trip Adventure

[ILuvCrush]

Welcome back Christine!!!!

I hope the good stuff outshined the gloomies! I can't wait for your trippie.... are you sure you can't start now

I know laundry is fun and all but I missed my buddy

Soon we'll get to compare notes.... I ended up posting day 2 while you were gone, but I've been dragging my feet til you can join in

Paula

 

[Lady Lallie]

I can't wait to hear all about it!!

My skipping a park must be catching!

I am dying to know if you went to Brown Derby and if you liked it!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Welcome back! I know what you mean about time flying in Disney. It always seems to end too soon. Anyway, I'm glad you had a good time and I am looking forward to reading all about your adventures!

 

[Circusgirl]

Welcome back!!! I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip. The time does go by so quickly, especially compared to the time spent planning! Fortunately the trip report will probably keep this trip going until it is time for the next one!

 

[retiredkid]

wel come back Christine !!

 

[Donald is #1]

Welcome back!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about it!

A park you didn't hit at all? Lots of champagne? Sounds interesting!

Allyson

 

[brookelizabeth]

Welcome back!! I can't wait to read all about your trip.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Welcome back!!! I am so looking forward to reading about everything that you did!!!

 

[askelton]

Glad you're back. I can't wait to hear about all the good, and maybe some of the bad.

 

[castmemberb4]

I've been looking for a food & wine fest. TR

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Whew. I finally caught up. I missed your whole pre-trip report but I'm in for the trip details! I can't wait. I wish I would have found you sooner so I could (maybe) have helped calm you down about your solo trip. Better late than never? Ok, forget about work and get writing so I can hear about your food and drink!

 

[ILuvCrush]

Alright Christine.... we gave you 2 WHOLE days to do laundry

Where's the start of the TR????

I'm NOT patient!! But I'm trying

Paula

 

[cdotla]

Welcome Back!

Now let's get this Party started!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all the details! I agree about time flying in Disney-it always does and of course no matter how long your vacation is, its never enough.

Thanks! Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Welcome back Christine!!!!

I hope the good stuff outshined the gloomies! I can't wait for your trippie.... are you sure you can't start now

I know laundry is fun and all but I missed my buddy

Soon we'll get to compare notes.... I ended up posting day 2 while you were gone, but I've been dragging my feet til you can join in

Paula

I missed you too! I still have to make it over to your trip to catch up on what I missed. But I will this weekend! Can't wait to compare notes!

I can't wait to hear all about it!!

My skipping a park must be catching!

I am dying to know if you went to Brown Derby and if you liked it!

And I am dying to tell you... but I will make you wait. Lucky for you it happens (or doesn't happen ) on day 2.

Welcome back! I know what you mean about time flying in Disney. It always seems to end too soon. Anyway, I'm glad you had a good time and I am looking forward to reading all about your adventures!

Thanks for reading! Yes it sure does go by quickly! Can't wait to share my adventures.

Welcome back!!! I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip. The time does go by so quickly, especially compared to the time spent planning! Fortunately the trip report will probably keep this trip going until it is time for the next one!

:: The planning time is definitely disproportionate to the actual WDW time but it is all so much fun! I ran into so many people on this trip who had no plans whatsoever. Checking out the Le Cellier menu saying to eachother, want to try this for dinner? Oy. Thank goodness for the DIS. I am really enjoying your TR, by the way!

wel come back Christine !!

Thanks. Wish I could say happy to be back. But I am happy to be back with my DIS friends!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Welcome back!

Thanks! Not so happy to be back but thank goodness I have December to look forward to! I will be a sorry mess after that trip with nothing else planned. Is it wrong that I'm already worried that I will have no ticker in my signature? Only one way to fix that!

Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about it!

A park you didn't hit at all? Lots of champagne? Sounds interesting!

Allyson

Copious amounts of champagne. And some very cute men pouring it.

Welcome back!! I can't wait to read all about your trip.

Thanks! You are getting close now! Every time I caught a glimpse of WL I thought of you and Jackie (Charleston Princess). I can't wait to stay there one day! But in the mean time I will live through TR's!

Welcome back!!! I am so looking forward to reading about everything that you did!!!

Thanks. Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Glad you're back. I can't wait to hear about all the good, and maybe some of the bad.

Thanks. You will hear it all. Thank goodness for DIS friends who want every gory detail! Although remember "bad" is a relative term... it IS Disney...

I've been looking for a food & wine fest. TR

:: Thanks for joining. I hope you enjoy. I LOVED F&W. I think it may be a new tradition.

Whew. I finally caught up. I missed your whole pre-trip report but I'm in for the trip details! I can't wait. I wish I would have found you sooner so I could (maybe) have helped calm you down about your solo trip. Better late than never? Ok, forget about work and get writing so I can hear about your food and drink!

:: to you too! Thanks for joining. I'm starting to write as we speak. It doesn't take long to get to the food and drink, believe me. They are the centerpiece of the trip. Although I should confess right now that as it turns out I am not a food porn star. Just couldn't do it.

Alright Christine.... we gave you 2 WHOLE days to do laundry

Where's the start of the TR????

I'm NOT patient!! But I'm trying

Paula

Coming right up, my friend!

Welcome Back!

Now let's get this Party started!

Thanks and ::. Your wish is my command.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Well… my goodness I guess it’s time to get this thing started. Last weekend at this time I was in WDW with so much fun still in front of me. Today I have the Disney blues. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Y’all know what Disney Eve was like. It basically consisted of me DIS’ing and procrastinating packing. I finally buckled down and packed around 9pm and hit the hay around 11:30pm. Despite all of my best laid plans in the PTR I was woefully unprepared. I don’t know… somehow I went from having hundreds of days to prepare to having no time at all! And it’s not like I was unaware of the countdown for goodness sake!! No LGMH. No printed itinerary. No custom iron-on shirts. But I figured there was nothing I could do about it at that point and went to bed. Alarm set for 4am. Yes… that’s right… 4am. Flight at 7am; boards at 6:40. Need to leave the house at 5 in order to park the car and get shuttled over to the airport. I expected to wake up with Disney adrenaline but I couldn’t scoot myself out of bed! I hit snooze ‘til 4:30 and finally motivated. It was a mad rush from there on but I did make it to the airport on time.

Flight was on time. I sat next to two very nice women who were traveling w/ a larger group of women who were all participating in the Tower of Terror 13K walk/run. One of the neat things about a solo trip is that it gave me the opportunity to chat with a lot of different people and one thing I noticed is that the “girls weekend” seems to be quite a trend. There were several groups of girlfriends I ran into who were in WDW for either the walk or Food and Wine or both. Something for us to keep in mind, DIS’ers…

So we landed a few minutes ahead of schedule and thankfully passengers were able to disembark quickly. I’m one of those who gets so annoyed when people dilly-dally getting off the plane. MOVE people!! I was in line for Magical Express by 9:50; the line looked long but I got through that and was in line for my bus in 20 min. One thing about Disney – you wait in line to wait in another line and you’re happy about it! Another aside here. There was an, I’m sure, very nice family in line with me. BUT the father was using one of those walkie talkie cell phones for a long conversation with a guy back at work. I get the convenience of the walkie talkie, particularly in the park, but what in the world makes people think that the rest of us want to hear the entire conversation??? I just don’t get it. But I was in Disney and quite happy about it.

Luckily, I was sitting on the bus by 10:10. We pulled out of the airport 10 minutes later at 10:20. The driver was very nice but had such a thick accent that everyone on the bus was saying to eachother, “what? What did he say?” Luckily we could make out the name of the resorts otherwise who knows where I would have ended up! One other confession – the video they play on the bus made me teary. They’re playing the YOAMD music and the video shows all these kids in normal situations being magically transported to WDW. So there’s a little girl opening what seems to be a regular door and when she walks through it she’s a princess. Kids jumping on the bed and suddenly they’re flying through the air with Peter Pan. I was just so happy to have arrived and on my way that I got choked up. You understand.

By 10:54 we were pulling out of Caribbean Beach Resort (which looked lovely, by the way) and by 11 we were arriving at Beach Club. If there was a way for me to add sound here you would be hearing the hallelujah chorus! We pull in and there is another bus in the ME bus spot. And the driver doesn’t know what to do. So we wait. And wait. And wait some more. And I finally gather my things, go up to the driver and ask to be let off the bus; I don’t have any luggage stowed beneath so open the doors and let me walk across the lot. This probably sounds like common sense to you but I am a follow the rules, don’t rock the boat kind of girl so it was actually kind of a moment for me- nothing was going to come between me and Disney World!!!

I walked into the lobby… WOW! I’m so sorry but I have no idea why I didn’t take pictures in the lobby. It is beautiful. There was no line at check-in (since I'd forced my way off the bus full of other people wanting to check in). The CM welcomed me home (I love that! ) and started checking out rooms for me. She found a room that was ready and asked if that was “ok.” I told her I’d never stayed here and that I wasn’t really sure what a good room was. She said, “well, you’ll see Spaceship Earth from your balcony.” Giddy up! I’ll take it.

So off I go in search of my room.

Oh! I suppose I should mention the weather. As you know, the forecast wasn’t looking so good. It was pretty cloudy but warm and no sign of precipitation yet.

Up next…
I finally see my room – how’s the view?
And a fantastic cast member interaction… and a DELICIOUS lunch!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I walk into the Beach Club Villas building and it is just stunningly beautiful. There is a round rotunda with a couple of halls of rooms leading off of it, a DVC kiosk, an elevator bank and a beautiful room that I forget the name of. The details throughout the room are just AMAZING!

A light fixture that caught my eye…

Opposite wall:

Painting above the couch.

I couldn’t stand it any longer and headed to the elevators in search of my room. The beach club theme continues even in the elevators with white washed walls and hard wood floors… in the ELEVATOR!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I get in the elevator, punch the third floor and am off in search room # 350. First I go down one (long) hall and then down another (long) hall. Where in the heck IS my room?? But the CM at check-in had mentioned a view of Spaceship Earth so I was a trooper. I get to my room and the mousekeeping cart is parked in front of it. The mousekeeper was nice but somewhat less than magical. She was clearly annoyed that the front desk had sent someone up. I will say that she took pride in her job and that she had seen some miniscule spots on the carpet and had called the “carpet guy” to take care of them. But he was along in minutes and used his spray bottle to get rid of whatever spots were invisible to the tourist eye but clearly visible to mousekeeping. Again, while I thought she could have been a bit more friendly and magical I did very much appreciate that she wanted the room to be Perfect (with a capital P) before I saw it.

So what did I think of the room? Overall I loved it. A bit small. Definitely wouldn’t do a studio with a family but for a singleton or couple I think it would be fine. And the location? Walk to Epcot? Despite the long trek from the elevator to the room it is SO worth it.

Without further ado… a Beach Club Villas Studio, room 350

The entryway into the room. There was a door to an adjoining room leading off of it too. Very convenient hooks for holding the do not disturb sign, umbrella, KTTW card etc. Forgive me... haven't learned how to flip photos yet...

The studio kitchenette. Perfect for me. Stored my case of water (delivered from Staples – thanks for the tip, Allyson!), bottle of wine, and whatever leftovers I brought home or bakery goods for the next morning’s breakfast. Also a good station for charging cameras, blackberries etc.

Vanity opposite the kitchenette.

Closet—I know you were wondering. Safe very small. Too small for a laptop.

Bathroom

And the room itself:

Oh! And what about the view???? The Spaceship Earth view the CM mentioned??

Look to the left:

Look to the right:

I thought I took a shot of the straight ahead view but it appears I did not. The fact that I did not take a photo should tell you that there was nothing to be seen. NOTHING. Just some trees. And an access road. OH! I DID take one:

So no Spaceship Earth. I briefly considered going back to the CM but decided it wasn't worth it. I'm in WDW. And I'll hardly spend any time in the room. Who cares what the view is? I'm in WDW!

And with that I was off to explore the resort and have some lunch. Up next is my most magical CM interaction of the trip.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Christine it sounds like a lovely start to your vacation. Now perhaps if you had a telescope you could have seen Spaceship Earth? LOL! Oh well...like you said, who cares-your at Disney!