After 7 Trips We're Finally Staying At the BC! May 2012 PTR: New TR Started!

[disney<333]

So many fun Disney nights! I can't decide which one I like best!! You've definitely inspired me to start doing Disney nights again.

 

[earthfaries]

Hi! I just found your trip report and I'm very excited to start reading it! What a wonderful and fun filled trip you're going to have .

Beach Club? Awesome! It's such a gorgeous resort

 

[cinderella crazy]

LOVE your choice of resorts!!! I'm in!

If you haven't checked out the FAQ forum for the Y&BC yet, I formally invite you to come on over. We are a fun, friendly bunch and there is a ton of information on the first page to satisfy any obsessive planners who may be lurking around here. You can click on the link in my signature.

I love your countdown calendars- so creative! Your theme nights sound like a lot of fun, too.

My favorite picture that you posted is the two kids in front of the fountain at the poly. Too cute!

My DH and I just got away for the first time without our boys (ages 13 and 10) last week, to celebrate our 25th anniversary in Puerto Rico. Anniversary trips are fun. BTW- my DH is an EE, too.

Look forward to reading more!

Dee

Thanks Dee! I'll be sure to check out the FAQ! The kids always like to stop at waterfalls. I have a ton of pictures of them in front of waterfalls.

I'm just sad that we won't be stopping in Ashburn, GA again this year.
The hotel there was near the Zaxbys, after all.

You and Zaxby's. Too bad Disney doesn't have any.

I just found your trip report from the resorts board! We are in Maryville, so we are just down the road! love the countdown calendar! We are fast approaching 70 days (75 today) out. We are at Wilderness Lodge for the first time (yes, my ticker says AKL, but we switched at like halfway there, and I couldn't stand to move it back to the beginning!!)

I may have to break the Cricut out and do a countdown calendar, too!!

Yay! How neat that you're from Maryville (Maravull)! Thank you! I know what you mean about the ticker! Before our last trip we switched resorts 4 times and I kept chaning my ticker even though we eventually ended up at the original resort we started with. So my final ticker didn't countdown for very long.

 

[cinderella crazy]

I always enjoy reading about your Disney nights. My favorite part is always Mickey, sitting down at the head of the table, all dressed up in character for the evening!

Thanks Michelle! The kids are always laughing at Mickey with his hats and masks.

 

[cinderella crazy]

Your Disney nights sound like so much fun!

Thanks! We went around the whole night talking about our Hoth Chocolate and how it was "Hoth! Too Hoth!" (Instead of Hot! Too Hot!). We need help at my house.

 

[cinderella crazy]

Love love LOVe your Disney nights! We might have to do some of those when DD is a little older. So much fun!

Thank you! Your little one is absolutely adorable!

So many fun Disney nights! I can't decide which one I like best!! You've definitely inspired me to start doing Disney nights again.

Thank you! I had forgotten how time consuming they can be to put together since it had been almost 2 years since I had planned one. But it's worth it when I see how excited the kids get and how much Mike and Mom enjoy the food!

Hi! I just found your trip report and I'm very excited to start reading it! What a wonderful and fun filled trip you're going to have .

Beach Club? Awesome! It's such a gorgeous resort

We can't wait to stay there! It's been a long time coming!

 

[earthfaries]

It's such a gorgeous resort . We got to stay there for my birthday weekend in the Club Level at the Beach Club. It was truly an unforgettable and magical experience.

I LOVE your Disney nights! How fun!!! Your countdown calendars are nice too, we used to do that for our upcoming vacations. The kids really had fun decorating the mickey icon shapes.

BTW ... I think funnest should be a word too . I use it frequently and my teenage son hates it .

 

[cinderella crazy]

Disney Night #9 – Animal Kingdom Night

So now that I’m caught up on my Disney night posts I’ll start going into more details in the new Disney night posts.

I started doing Disney Nights before our 2010 trip. I had each person pick what they wanted to do for their Disney nights. Since there were five of us and one night was our kick-off and the last was the resort night, each person got to pick two theme nights (for a total of 12 nights). I can’t remember if they were every other week or every three weeks but they weren’t every week.

This time around we’re doing them every week. Crazy? Yes! Did I forget how much work went into them that would cause me to agree to do one every week? Yes! When we originally started our Disney nights Mom wasn’t sure if she was coming with us. So the Disney themes are split up between Mike, Alex, Lauren, and me. We had a kick-off night (Chef Mickey’s night) and then we’ll have a Beach Club night. When it’s all said and done, we’ll have 18 Disney nights. Yes, I said 18. I didn't really think about that when I agreed in January to start doing Disney nights...But everyone really does like them so that makes all the work that goes into them worth it!

So this marks the halfway point for our Disney nights!

This was one of Mike’s choices. Some of our Disney nights are repeats from our last trip (I do try to add some new things to those though to keep them interesting) but this one is a new one. When I first thought about what to do for this night I thought of Flame Tree Barbecue. I went with it. Our food was all items you’d find on their menu (except for the dessert). I made our bbq ribs in the crockpot and they were sooooo good!

Here’s the invitation:

Here’s what the table looked like:

For dinner we had bbq ribs, rotisserie chicken, baked beans, baked fries, and cornbread muffins:

For dessert I made a chocolate cake that I renamed Lion’s Mane Chocolate Cake for the night. Mom’s birthday is today so we celebrated her birthday last night. She was a little surprised!

Earlier in the afternoon we watched “The Lion King” and after dinner we went on a safari. Mike hid some of Alex’s jungle animals around the house and the kids took pictures of them after they found each animal.

Our last activity was to color, cut and wear tiger masks.
Alex’s

Lauren’s

Mike’s

Mom’s

Mine:

It was such a fun night! Now on to the next one which will be Splash Mountain Night.

 

[racefanof88]

I am so glad you came to my PTR because it lead me to yours . I love reading all about your Disney nights. You are just so creative!!!!

The countdown calendar is just too cute. I wish we were going to be there at the same time, but Dale couldn't get the week of Memorial day off.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Yay! How neat that you're from Maryville (Maravull)! Thank you! I know what you mean about the ticker! Before our last trip we switched resorts 4 times and I kept chaning my ticker even though we eventually ended up at the original resort we started with. So my final ticker didn't countdown for very long. [/QUOTE]

Yep, Maravull people here! . Love all of the theme nights!! You are inspiring me to write a pre-trip report! Loving yours!!

 

[MHTeacher]

I love the Animal Kingdom night. I'll say it again--You have the best Disney nights!

 

[cinderella crazy]

It's such a gorgeous resort . We got to stay there for my birthday weekend in the Club Level at the Beach Club. It was truly an unforgettable and magical experience.

I LOVE your Disney nights! How fun!!! Your countdown calendars are nice too, we used to do that for our upcoming vacations. The kids really had fun decorating the mickey icon shapes.

BTW ... I think funnest should be a word too . I use it frequently and my teenage son hates it .

So glad you liked the BC! I'm still pinching myself about staying there. I can't believe it's rally going to happen this time!


Thank you! We have a fun time with both the Disney nights and countdown calendar.

Maybe the both of us should plead to Webster to include funnest in their next edition of the dictionary.

I am so glad you came to my PTR because it lead me to yours . I love reading all about your Disney nights. You are just so creative!!!!

The countdown calendar is just too cute. I wish we were going to be there at the same time, but Dale couldn't get the week of Memorial day off.

Hi Dana!! Glad you found me! Thank you! I'm glad you figured out that your sling was on wrong and that your not in as much pain!

Yep, Maravull people here! . Love all of the theme nights!! You are inspiring me to write a pre-trip report! Loving yours!!

Thank you! You should start a PTR! Let me know if you decide to start one and I'll hope on over.

I love the Animal Kingdom night. I'll say it again--You have the best Disney nights!

Aww, thanks Michelle!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Day 2: May 25th - Let's go see Mickey!

After spending the night in Oakahlah, we’ll make the short voyage to WDW this morning. (I keep laughing at the fact that my spell check keeps underlining Oakahlah.) I’m sure we’ll wake up early since we’ll be so excited that we’re going to Disney World!!! Thankfully this hotel has a continental breakfast. The hotel we’ve been staying at in Gainesville didn’t have one and Mom and I were having to make an extra trip to McDonald’s for some decent coffee. So hopefully we can have some breakfast and coffee at the hotel. The goal is to make it out of the hotel between 7:30 and 8:00.

After filling our bellies we’ll make the long, hard journey from Oakahlah (underline all you want spell check! I’m not changing it!) to WDW. From what I can tell it’s about 70 miles from Oakahlah to Disney. Knowing how both Mike and I have lead feet, we should make it there within an hour. So hopefully we’ll make it on Disney property by 9:00 at the latest.

We usually come into Disney by Western Way. We always chuckle when we see the street sign. Back story time!

On our May 2009 trip both Alex and Lauren had a stomach bug episode. Lauren’s hit one night while we were dining at Biergarten. You can read all about it here: A Reunion, A Short Dinner, An Argument, And A Whole Lotta Towels We wanted to try to find a place that sold chicken noodle soup so Mike called down to the CBR front desk. He asked the CM if there was someplace on property that she might know that sold can soup. She responded she didn’t think so. Mike then asked her “Would there be any place off near the Western Way?” She replied that there was no such road. Mike’s reply “We arrived to Disney from that way.” Her reply “I’m sorry sir, but you must be mistaken. Have a magical day!” She was nice but Mike said you could tell she thought he was funny for thinking there was such a road. So on our 2010 trip Mike took this picture:

So we will arrive by the very real Western Way. We’ll make our way through Disney property to the BC and check in. We’ll have some time to kill before our Chef Mickey’s ADR so maybe we’ll explore the lobby and pool area since I’m sure our rooms won’t be ready.

After exploring for a little while, we’ll get back into the van and head to Chef Mickey’s for our 10:45 ADR.

Hello Monorail!

If I’m not mistaken, the only trip we have not gone to Chef Mickey’s is our October 2010 trip (since it was only Mike and me). I was a little sad that we didn’t get to go but I figured I could go one trip without it. It will be interesting to see how Lauren reacts. Her first experience at Chef Mickey’s (2007) wasn’t too bad. She did allow Goofy to give her some juice from her bottle:

But when Mickey came around she let him know she wanted nothing to do with him. By 2009 we thought she might be okay. WRONG! Her screaming was almost ear splitting! She kept screaming “Don’t let Mickey get me!” the only thing that calmed her down was sitting on my lap away from any characters:

So us being the crazy people we are, we decided to give it another go in 2010. We made progress. She got her picture made with Minnie and Pluto but didn’t want any part of the other characters. And this time she sat on Mom’s lap. No screaming. Just simply said I don’t want to have my picture made with them.

Here’s my yummy plate of food:

She says she’s going to take a picture this time with every character. We’ll see…


After Chef Mickey’s I’m sure we’ll look around the Contemporary gift shops. The kids love to do this. I’ve never seen children so interested in shopping (they must get that from me). We’ll then make our way back to the BC. Hopefully our rooms will be ready. We’ve requested that we have adjoining rooms so hopefully that will happen. We’ll be in a standard view room which I’m fine with. As long as we get to stay at the BC!

We’ll probably hit the pool for awhile. On our last trip the kids would beg to go to the pool. We’d be at MK and they’d ask “Can we go to the pool when we get back to the resort?” Like it was a must do attraction! So I can only imagine their excitement about going to the BC pool! We may never leave!

If we can get the kids to leave the pool, we’ll get ready to go to Downtown Disney. Once there we’ll hit these stores:
Lego store:

And of course the World of Disney (which I can’t seem to find a picture of!)


Then we’ll head to T-Rex for our 4:00 ADR. This is one of Alex’s favorites! We’ve been going to T-Rex since our 2009 trip. As a matter of fact, this day’s schedule hasn’t changed since 2009. It’s become our first day ritual: brunch at Chef Mickey’s/pool at resort/dinner at T-Rex/MK.

After T-Rex we’ll head to MK. And then we’ll see this sight:

Sigh. Is there a better sight than that? Makes me feel all happy inside.

We’ll hit a couple of rides (POTC, HM, Buzz, Aladdin’s carpets) and then head back to the resort for our next day of fun.


Up next: Day 3 - AK/Epcot (Aka our attempt to get Alex to ride EE and our first dinner at Teppan Edo)

 

[PixieMama]

Ok, if my PTR has you constantly singing "Just the Two of Us"... yours has me saying "Oakahlah"!

As a matter of fact, this day’s schedule hasn’t changed since 2009. It’s become our first day ritual: brunch at Chef Mickey’s/pool at resort/dinner at T-Rex/MK.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Ok, if my PTR has you constantly singing "Just the Two of Us"... yours has me saying "Oakahlah"!

I'm just afraid that I'm going to say Oakahlah to a native and they're going to look at me like I'm crazy.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That's exactly how I see it too!

 

[MHTeacher]

Here's hoping that Lauren will really want to have her picture taken with everyone at Chef Mickeys! I love that breakfast there!

Warning: You may not ever get your kids out of SAB. Fact is-you may not want to get out of SAB!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Here's hoping that Lauren will really want to have her picture taken with everyone at Chef Mickeys! I love that breakfast there!

We looked at having breakfast at Cape May this time but Chef Mickey's won out again.

Warning: You may not ever get your kids out of SAB. Fact is-you may not want to get out of SAB!

That's what Mike and I are afraid of.

 

[cinderella crazy]

Day 3: May 26th – Animal Kingdom By Day, Epcot At Night

Where else can you go on a safari in the morning and eat dinner in Japan? Gotta love it!

This day is early entry for AK so it will be an early rise for us. This is the only early entry we’ll be taking advantage of. In the past we’ve utilized early entry every chance we could get. On our 2010 trip we started cutting back though. I think we’ve gotten to a point where we’ve been enough times to know what our must do’s are for each park and we center on those. If we do anything besides the must do’s, it’s frosting on the cake.

Count us as one of those families that likes AK but it’s definitely our least favorite of the four parks. I wish they would add some other rides to make it a little more interesting. Oh well. We’ll have breakfast in the room (we take doughnuts, cereal, milk, cereal bars, etc. so we can have a quick breakfast). And then we’ll head to the van to make our way to AK.

Now we come to the dilemma: FP Safari and go on EE or FP EE and go on Safari. Hmm…I don’t know but I can tell you Mike will be the one who runs to the other end of the park for the FP. I could pretend that I might be the one to seek out the FPs but really, that’s never happened and will probably never happen so I’ll just go ahead and give my fast walking DH the credit for it.

The biggest question of the day is whether Alex will ride EE. I think he’ll do it, but who knows if he’ll get back on it again. I just don’t think he’ll be able to let Lauren ride it while he sits on the sidelines. It’s really interesting to watch. There are rides that Alex swore he would never ride, but once Lauren got big enough to ride them, he’s changed his mind. If she can do it, he can do it.

So what are our must do’s for AK? I’m glad you asked! I’ve already mentioned two:Expedition Everest:

Me waiting to ride:

Mike waiting to ride:

Kilimanjaro Safaris:
Lauren riding:

Alex riding:

Pangani Forest Trail and Maharajah Jungle Trek (The kids are already talking about the bats…) – No pictures!!!??? I’ll have to fix that problem on this trip!

TriceraTop Spin:

The Boneyard (one of the kids’ favorites. I have so many pictures from this area):

Continued in next post...

 

[cinderella crazy]

To recap, so far our most do rides in AK are:
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Pangani Forest Trail and Maharajah Jungle Trek
TriceraTop Spin
The Boneyard

Continuing with our must AK must do list:
It’s Tough to Be a Bug:
Love the show posters you can look at while you wait:

And the carvings in The Tree of Life:

There are several maybes on our list:
Dinosaur
(Alex isn’t sure about this one but Lauren seems to be all gung-ho so maybe he’ll give into little sis’s peer pressure):

Kali River Rapids
(Might have to do this one. Both the kids used to be unsure about river rapids but they have recently come to love the one at Dollywood so it could become a must do for us):


Finding Nemo
(Which we’ve never seen. I know. It’s sad that we’ve never seen it. I don’t know how that has happened. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that we’ve never seen it)

Our lunch will be at Flame Tree Barbecue and we’re usually done with AK by mid afternoon.

We’ll head back to the BC and hang out at SAB and at somehow we’ll convince the kids to leave there so we can head to our dinner ADR at Teppan Edo. This we’ll be our official first time using the International Gateway!!! So exciting! Our ADR is for 5:00…….


Wait a minute…..I just noticed something. When we made our ADRs we didn’t know if Mom was going with us so they’re all for four people instead of five…..Uh-Oh. Well, we’ll look into fixing that. Wow, now I’m majorly stressing. Breathe….

So this will (hopefully) be our first time eating at Teppan Edo. The kids are thrilled that they will get their meals in monorails (we keep telling them they’re bullet trains but they just don’t listen to us).

After eating we’ll hit some rides. At some point I’m going to do a whole post about the crazy faces we’ve made on Spaceship Earth. There have been some interesting ones. I’ll go more into our favorite Epcot rides once I fix this ADR situation. Cause I will go nuts y’all until it’s fixed.

Wish me luck!

Coming up next: Day 4 and maybe a spring break post

 

[PixieMama]

I'm in agreement with you... we like AK, but I'd have to rank it as my least favorite park. But that is hard to admit when I love EE so much!

We have never been to the Boneyard. I didn't know about it when we took the girls back in '07... then on our next trip in 2010, I figured they were too old for that area (they were 7 and 9 on that trip).


My kids love water rides... especially my youngest. She'd go on nothing but water rides, if it was up to her! I prefer to not go on water rides, if I can help it... but most of the time I get talked into doing them. But it never fails... and I mean NEVER... when I do go on a water ride, I am always the one who gets SOAKED. I have the worst luck with those rides!