All Aboard! The Happiest TR That Ever Sailed ~May 1-9~ Ice cream for dinner! 6/20

[autumnpalm]

Ugh! A cliffhanger!!!
The YC looks fantastic! I LOVE that pool! We were definitely spoiled last year, the Poly pool was just too small! You had a great view! Last year there was a wedding on the gazebo when we were there and it was beautiful! We're thinking about BLT or YC for next year!

We didn't get to see any weddings while we were there, but we were mostly at the parks mid-afternoon. I think after staying YC once, I'm a YC girl all the way now! If only the monorail could be extended, it would be the perfect resort!

The YC looks lovely, and glad you were happy with your room/view ooh what a end to the update, i want to know what the bad news is now ....

I've got the next update coming right up!!

Im so glad you werent disappointed with your room and the view! Yay! Stormalong Bay looks so awesome! Your YC pictures are really great. It seems you never really hear too much about YC but it looks like a friendly resort to stay at. It will be exciting to see what kind of refurb plans they have for it!

I hope the UH OH is not too bad!

I know, the YC seems to kind of fly under the radar but it is a gorgeous resort and the location is just awesome.

I am loving your report! Can't wait for more!!!

Just getting ready to post the next update once the pictures are loaded up!

Oh c'mon a cliffhanger?!

The room looks so nice.

Okay, my parents have to laugh at me when I get really cold in WDW buildings, but it's because they have the A/C on full blast! Oh well.

I know!!! Disney buildings are always freezing cold, especially in the warmer months. I have goosebumps just about the entire time I'm indoors.

The Yacht Club looks like such a great place to stay. I hope your bad news isn’t too bad.

I’m currently working as a Marketing Analyst for a software company.

It was an amazing place to stay. I would love the chance to stay there again! And marketing seems like an interesting career... I am SO not business-minded though, I would be awful at it LOL.

I already see aproblem with YC for me. The resort is so beautiful I'd have a hard time leaving for the parks

I could honestly spend an entire vacation at the YC without even visiting the parks. It's beautiful!

Very cool. I'm loving the pictures. We are staying in the yacht club in less than two weeks standard view. So now I know to request a gazebo view. Very cool, I can't wait to be there.

Oh, definitely request a gazebo view. You will love it!! I'm so excited for you staying there soon, I hope you have an absolutely wonderful vacation.

Ah, Yacht Club. I would LOVE to stay there. We stayed at the Beach Club once, a million years ago, just as a treat, not on a Disney trip. This had to be...ah, 6th or 7th grade, ('97, '98) so it was been quite a while! The room looks great, and Stormalong Bay is so fun! Does it still have a sandy bottom? That is what I remember the most about staying at the Beach Club!

Yep, it still does! Not in all parts of the pool, but in a majority of the sections. I hope we can stay at the YC/BC in the future because it has me totally spoiled. The pool is amazing.

Oh my goodness! The YC is absolutely gorgeous!!! So, so pretty. I'm glad you got a nice, relaxing nap in. I can't wait to hear all about the night!! Teppan Edo is so yummy. Oh no for bad news... Hope it's not too bad!

I know, I sure needed that nap! They are lifesavers in the middle of hot, busy days. And I've got the first part of our evening all typed up and ready to go...

Great update - can't wait for Teppen Edo... That is one of our favorites!

I think it is my favourite WS table service restaurant. The food is so good and it's like getting dinner and a show. Plus it's so fun to chat with the other families eating there.

We'll be doing Teppen Edo in a few weeks so I can't wait to hear how that went!

Mmmm you will love it! It is so amazing. I think my favourite menu item is the filet... better steak than Le Cellier IMO! And the atmosphere is so much fun there.

Hello, I just found your TR and I am loving everything so far I love all the pictures you include (I am a bit obsessive when it comes to taking pictures) and I definitely have moved the Yacht Club to the top of my list of resorts to stay at in the future....woah super run-on sentence there

Can't wait for the next update!!

Hi there and WELCOME!! THanks so much for posting! I would definitely recommend the Yacht Club. We liked it even more than the Poly... it is my favourite WDW resort I've stayed at so far. So glad you're enjoying the TR!

What a beautiful view (so serene)! The Yacht Club is gorgeous - would love to stay there some day (if only you could rent points there).

Now what's with this cliffhanger!!?? Can't wait to find out what happens next

The wait is almost over! Oooh I wish you could rent points at the YC. That would be awesome! We will definitely consider renting BC points in the future though, because both sides of the hotel are equally beautiful IMO.

 

[autumnpalm]

So I left off with us just entering Stormalong Bay. Even though it was a fairly quiet day park-wise, Stormalong Bay was pretty hopping! We had to look pretty far to find two loungers but we eventually snagged two in a great, shady location. We filled our mugs with lemonade from Hurricane Hannah's and settled in to sunbathe and relax. It is so nice to be away from the parks for a little bit. Stormalong Bay has such a nice, resort-y feel and we were feeling absolutely thrilled to be in our happy place!

Our little corner of SAB:

This little guy was chilling out beside us:

I hopped in the pool first while my mom continued to lounge in the shade. The water was a perfect temperature and it's such a neat sensation to feel sand beneath your feet in a pool! I was just in heaven.

I checked out the slide (which is AWESOME, by the way!) and slid down a few times and kind of floated around the pool for a little while soaking in the atmosphere. Ahhhh. Eventually I could feel myself getting a little too much sun so I reluctantly got out of the water and headed back to the lounge chairs where my mom was sleeping. My view from the chair was just gorgeous!

I was feeling pretty darn relaxed!

I never fell asleep, I just kind of sipped at my lemonade, people watched and enjoyed the atmosphere. Pretty soon, a few CMs started a little pool party for kids and they were playing "Hey Mickey" and some songs from High School Musical 3 and the whole SAB just seemed so cheerful and fun. My mom woke up when they started playing the music and we watched for a little bit before returning to our room to get changed for the evening.

Eventually we packed up our towels and made our way back to the room.

Mary Poppins was on in the lobby! I thought of you, LL!

When we got back to the room, my mom was trying to get in touch with either my dad or my brother since we hadn't spoken to them since we landed in Orlando. It was strange... my brother always has his iPhone on him and my father is home most of the day. But nobody was picking up at home and there was no answer of my brother's phone. My mom was a bit worried, so she tried my brother's phone and eventually he picked up. He had set his phone to silent since he was at work, but had figured he would break the rules for a second and answer his phone while on duty because he had some things to explain to us.

It turned out my uncle had had a heart attack that morning and my dad drove to Ottawa (where he lives) to go see him in the hospital. He didn't call us before leaving, so we had no idea where he was. My brother filled my mom in quickly and then hung up, so she called my dad at my aunt and uncle's house in Ottawa. Turned out my uncle was stable, booked for surgery and resting. We sent our prayers and best wishes and hung up... there wasn't much else we could do at that point. The surgery went smoothly though, and my uncle is now back driving, golfing and even playing hockey! So even though it was an unhappy shock at the time, everything did turn out okay.

We were a little shaken, but we headed back out to Epcot anyway. We debated taking the boat from the dock, but it was a beautiful evening so we walked instead.

My mom suddenly realized that in all the commotion she didn't think had turned off her flat iron. Not wanting to burn down the entire hotel, she ran back and checked... of course, it was off all the time! LOL but at least it was one thing off her mind to worry about while we were out.

You can see her waving at me on the left. All clear!

After getting inside the gates of Epcot, we decided to use our Soarin' fastpasses first since they were burning a hole in my Vera Bradley! We walked through Canada to Future World and were able to catch the last few minutes of Off Kilter!

This Pluto topiary was so cute!

Me and Goofy. Notice my hair has gone a little wavy now from the pool water! I didn't feel like fussing with it at all.

This shot just seemed so peaceful to me. I love quiet moments in the middle of all the hustle bustle of the parks.

A Mickey topiary with one of the temporary playgrounds in the background:

Pretty flowers:

The second monorail shot of the day:

And I was stopped in my tracks on the way to Soarin'... I had seen my first pretzel cart and was determined to get one. I am a huge Disney pretzel fan... especially the cheese sauce!

Finally, we had arrived at Soarin! It was only 4:14 as you can see from the clock, so we still had over 3 hours of Epcot fun before our Teppan Edo ADR. Woohoo!

The Fastpass line for this attraction always seems so long! I swear, even with FP we always wind up waiting about 10-20 minutes.

Soarin' has one of the only pre-ride videos I don't mind... mostly because I feel like I'm watching some strange episode of Seinfeld where David Putty is pretending to be a pilot LOL.

We got to ride in the front row, YAY!!! And Soarin' was amazing as always. It definitely ranks up there as one of my top rides at WDW. I could stay on that thing for hours and hours.

Even though I had just eaten a pretzel... I couldn't walk by Sunshine Seasons without getting my favourite dessert in Epcot: strawberry shortcake!!!

Mmmm. Best. Strawberry. Shortcake. EVER.

Up next: Meeting Mickey!

 

[WDWRocksMySocks]

So glad to hear your uncle made a very smooth recovery!

Ha, I feel the same way about that Soarin' pre-show/video thing. DH and I are both huge Seinfeld fans.

Oh, and aren't the WDW pretzels awesome? The only thing better is the popcorn. Disney popcorn is far superior to all other popcorn.

 

[LilAnn]

I just came across your TR and just got all caught up. It's great! I love all the happiness and enthusiasm you have for Disney! It makes me even more excited for our trip in August. I always get all giddy and excited when I see the castle for the first time or get my first glimpse of WDW! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Sarah84]

Great update, that strawberry shortcake looks yummy

Glad to hear your uncle recovered well

 

[jewels1916]

Great update! I am glad they still have the sand bottom pool! I am going to have to get me some of that strawberry shortcake next time I am there. It looks sooooo good!! So my favorite pre-show video is probably the one for Mission:Space! Gary Sinese is one of my favorites. (CSI:NY)

 

[autumnpalm]

Continued...

After licking the plate clean of Strawberry Shortcake, we wandered around Future World. The Character Spot CM said the wait for Mickey and Friends was only about 15 minutes so I jumped at the chance to meet my favourite mouse! The line went quickly and I always enjoy waiting in the air conditioning and watching the little cartoons. The line was actually about 10 minutes so we were quickly next in line for the characters! We got some good Photopass shots, but I'll post these ones taken with our own camera for now.

Me and Mickey! I pointed out the fact that my polo shirt had little embroidered Mickeys and he leaned in really close as if he could barely see and then held his fingers up as if to say "too small!" It was really cute.

Pluto was next. I have to say, I think Pluto is my least favourite of the Fab 5 but shhh! Don't tell him I said so!

Minnie Mouse was next in the lineup:

I am a big, big Donald fan so I was excited to see him. He made a big fuss over my mom when I told him that her husband's name was Donald! He got pretty flirty with her LOL.

And finally, Goofy. I got a big hug from him and was laughing because there were two college aged guys ahead of us and Goofy shook one of their hands while they were leaving. The guy who's hand he shook turned around and yelled "I'M NEVER GOING TO WASH THIS HAND!!!" and it was pretty funny. Maybe you had to be there?

The interaction at the Character Spot was pretty good, so it was almost 5:30 by the time we were out of there! I love it when characters really take time for lots of pictures. Even though we don't have any children in our party, we still really appreciate it! My mom didn't want to ride Mission:Space because she felt awful after riding it last trip, so we went to Test Track. The single rider line had practically no wait and the standby line was at about 25 minutes so we just did the single rider line.

The ride was fun, as usual. I like the high speed loop at the end, but I find it otherwise a teeny bit lackluster. I'm glad we did it, especially with only about a 5 minute wait, but it isn't something I would line up more than 20 minutes for. Still though, I do love flying around that track!!

I saw another peaceful little duck swimming around and took his picture too... how wonderful the life of a duck at WDW must be!

Since it was around 6:00 at this point, we walked into the World Showcase via Mexico. And who did we see but Donald all dressed up in his Fiesta costume! I was really happy, I've never seen him in Mexico before but have always wanted to after seeing pics on the DIS. The line was a little long but I was prepared to wait! It was really worth it, he was such a fun Donald!

Isn't he adorable?!

We didn't stop in Mexico, we continued on to Norway. We had an entire WS planned for the 5th so I wasn't overly concerned about getting to every country at this point. There was a Kimmunicator station in Norway and we decided to sign up for a mission. The little card we got said to come back in 45 minutes so we lined up for Maelstrom. Holy cow there was a long wait! It took us about 30-40 minutes to get on the ride. Didn't make sense to me since the crowds were so low that day... guess everyone was looking for a Maelstrom fix?

Ooh, the back of my mom's head! LOL

And her with the fountain in Norway.

Okay, I find this troll topiary EXTREMELY creepy. Eep.

And suddenly, it was time to pick up our Kimmunicator! We were hoping for a mission in a country nearby and lucky us, the mission was for Mexico.

Okay, now I won't go into detail about the Kim Possible mission in case one of you guys reading gets it on an upcoming trip... don't want to spoil anything! But there isn't much to spoil anyways since our Kimmunicator froze after the first clue. Huh. Oh well, we returned it to the station and let them know it wasn't working properly but instead of trying a new mission at that point, I really wanted to head to China because the acrobat performance was about to start. Somehow we lucked out and got a seat on a bench and even though our view was slightly blocked my bamboo, we were just very grateful to have a place to sit!

I am always so impressed by these girls... and they look so young, too! Unfortunately we didn't have time to stick around for the rest of the performance because suddenly I looked down at my Tinkerbell watch and realized... we were late for our Teppan Edo ADR!!! How quickly time passes at WDW!

 

[meanmom121]

Glad your Uncle is doing okay
Great Epcot pics. Ooooohhhhh, I so can't wait to get there

 

[autumnpalm]

So glad to hear your uncle made a very smooth recovery!

Ha, I feel the same way about that Soarin' pre-show/video thing. DH and I are both huge Seinfeld fans.

Oh, and aren't the WDW pretzels awesome? The only thing better is the popcorn. Disney popcorn is far superior to all other popcorn.

You know, I actually don't like popcorn! *ducks* It's the weirdest thing. In high school I worked at a movie theater for a while so I got incredibly sick of movie theater popcorn, but I've never really been a fan. I'm a weirdo!

Great update, that strawberry shortcake looks yummy

Glad to hear your uncle recovered well

It is soooo good. I am already looking forward to my next piece of shortcake!

And thanks!

Great update! I am glad they still have the sand bottom pool! I am going to have to get me some of that strawberry shortcake next time I am there. It looks sooooo good!! So my favorite pre-show video is probably the one for Mission:Space! Gary Sinese is one of my favorites. (CSI:NY)

I never realized the Mission:Space guy was from CSI but I thought I recognized him from somewhere! Thanks for jogging my memory!

And you totally have to get some strawberry shortcake!!

Glad your Uncle is doing okay
Great Epcot pics. Ooooohhhhh, I so can't wait to get there

Thanks! How much longer until your trip?

 

[meanmom121]

You know, I actually don't like popcorn! *ducks* It's the weirdest thing. In high school I worked at a movie theater for a while so I got incredibly sick of movie theater popcorn, but I've never really been a fan. I'm a weirdo!



It is soooo good. I am already looking forward to my next piece of shortcake!

And thanks!



I never realized the Mission:Space guy was from CSI but I thought I recognized him from somewhere! Thanks for jogging my memory!

And you totally have to get some strawberry shortcake!!



Thanks! How much longer until your trip?

45 more days til our trip - this will be my kids first trip

 

[autumnpalm]

45 more days til our trip - this will be my kids first trip

Oh, that is so exciting!! How old are your kids?

I find as soon as you hit the 30 day mark, the last month just FLIES by! Where are you staying? You must be so excited.

 

[meanmom121]

DD is 9 DS is 11. We'll be staying at POP. I'm driving them crazy at work telling them how many days til my vacation every day. I'm already half way packed and my husband is concerned that the DIS board is a cult It can't get here fast enough.

 

[autumnpalm]

Those are such great ages! They're old enough to be able to ride all the rides and do everything but still young enough to really believe in the Disney magic! We stayed at the POP last July and I really liked it. I think it's my favourite value. The food court is awesome and everything is so new and clean! It's a really fun resort.

 

[wlwilliams9]

Ahhhh, I wish I were floating around in SAB right now! How refreshing! I'm so sorry about your Uncle, but I'm glad he has had a speedy recovery. Heart attacks are so scary!

I'm right there with you on Test Track. It's fun only if I don't have to wait in line for it! Soarin' however, I could spend all day on too! It's so relaxing!

Thanks for the double update, I was getting antsy! Can't wait to see more!



By the way, you and your Mom must have stopped at every Photopass photographer in every park! You guys have a million pictures! I love it!!

 

[autumnpalm]

Ahhhh, I wish I were floating around in SAB right now! How refreshing! I'm so sorry about your Uncle, but I'm glad he has had a speedy recovery. Heart attacks are so scary!

I'm right there with you on Test Track. It's fun only if I don't have to wait in line for it! Soarin' however, I could spend all day on too! It's so relaxing!

Thanks for the double update, I was getting antsy! Can't wait to see more!



By the way, you and your Mom must have stopped at every Photopass photographer in every park! You guys have a million pictures! I love it!!

He was really lucky.

I feel like I'm going so slowly on my TR... can't believe I'm still only on Day 2! And I have the June one coming up! I think the two of them might last me until my February trip!

And yeah, I was a tiny bit obsessive with PhotoPass. You should see our card from when we paid the full $99! I was so concerned with getting our money's worth that we spent practically the entire trip going from CM to CM! I promised my dad no PP in June because it bugged him so much.

I just realized I haven't sent you my address yet, PMing you right now!

 

[MyMuse]

Wow! We are updating at the same time with pratically the same days!

The YC looked great! I'm hoping to try a deluxe in the near future; I'm trying to drown the "frugal me" out.

I wanted to go in Character Spot/Connection(?), but we ran out of time. Plus, I didn't want to push it on my niece. If you are reading my TR, you'll understand why.

It must be nice to go to the parks with another lover of the Disney magic! My two were grumblers.

I love your pics so far! I can't wait for you to continue. Hmm, do we run into each other at Epcot on the 5th? Only time (& TRs) will tell!

I'm also glad your uncle is okay; that must have been a little worrisome, especially with no one picking up the phone.

 

[tinkgurl]

Ahh the pool looks relaxing.

Love all the character pics! Sometimes I don't know what to say to them and it's hard because they can't talk back.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Such a full day already and you haven't even had dinner yet. Time does fly in Disney somedays doesn't it?

 

[stacikristine]

Wow! The pool looks SOO relaxing. And I absolutely have to try the strawberry shortcake at Sunshine Seasons!!! It looks incredible I still can't get over the fact that it's just you and your mom there--I really want to go on a girls only trip with my mom and sis sometime!

 

[rentayenta]

I can't believe I just found this. I have so much catching up to do. Congrats on the suite upgrade!! Going back to read more.