Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Great photos Alison. Yum re mushrooms and the meat looks divine glad you all enjoyed!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Luved the ones about the Owls.


Just seeing the eye expression of that Owl (those big eyes just a glaring back at me) = PRICELESS.




ALL CAUGHT UP ON YER TR.






T.T.F.N.
&
CHEERS Y'ALL

Hi Kris! Nice to see you checking in again. Hope you've been well.

Those owls were amazing. And I'm with you....such expressive eyes, aren't they?

What a lovely Dismeet! And I did try your fried rice recipe back when you first posted it; DH and DS loved it!

Thanks. Glad that you tried the recipe and the family loved it!

Love the photo of you and safari Mickey!

What a wonderful dismeet and your fried rice sounds yummy! Sticky and yum just the way it should be. Love soy sauce so that soy sauce sounds the best.

Yum re the meat! That's one hunk of goodness right there. Drooling on the screen. How nice re getting a birthday cake for DH. Agreed the Disney cakes are on steriods! Massive Jo and I joke one cupcake would do us lol.

But you know what I am thinking now...Carvel

Lovely photos and sounds like a very special night.

Alison and Fran were incredibly generous with the pieces of meat. There was plenty to go round that night.

And yes....Carvel ice cream cake.

Oh what a night that was!. Thanks for the great report and pictures!

Bobbi

Thanks Bobbi. I've been looking at the pictures as I've been writing this TR and wishing we could do it all over again.

That was a night that will forever be etched on my heart old friends new friends. I have been waiting for this post to snag the info on how to make the fried rice. In anticipation I have a nice big bag of cooked shrimp in the freezer.

Ah the cakes, that day it was extremely hot. I was so afraid I would be arriving with 2 boxes each containing a chocolate puddle. It almost happened too when the security CM at the kiosk started to give me a hard time about entry. I forget what was going on that day but the resort was on a hard close ( only residents allowed in ) Ludicrous if I recall correctly some of our friends were actually turned away and told alternate ways to get back. Weren't they DVC owners too? That just adds insult to injury.

This stuck in my craw and I acted like a dog with a bone that wasn't about to give it up, so I did speak to someone after the fact. Later of course the CM was informed she was totally misinterpreting how to enforce restricted entries....for goodness sakes it would have be easier that day to visit someone in jail

It was one of the best Dismeets I have ever experienced. I know we took very little pictures but that just shows how much fun we had. It was sad when the night ended.

I remember you having issues getting into the BCV. That was not a good thing to happen on this particular night.

Thanks for picking up the cakes for me. I hope the second cake was just as lovely on the Monday.


Yup. This was definitely one of the best DisMeets.

What a great Dismeet! The food looked amazing!

Jill in CO

It was good food and good company = great DisMeet.

Very nice pictures of you, DH and DS with Mickey and Minnie at AK.

What an amazing DISMeet that day and it must have been great. I really enjoyed reading your latest trip report update.

Thanks Bret. Shame you couldn't make it to this one.

Dang! Now THAT is a meal worth coming to WDW for! Wow!



Jud

It was a meal that was months in the planning!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Here's that view in 04...





Jud

We were there in 05 and I think Everest was a lot higher than that.

What a fun dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great friends, good food, gorgeous location!

Impressed that Allison managed that over charcoal. I had never heard of that sauce, I am going to check it out. I seem to go back and forth on what sauce I use in my friend rice and none are quite exactly "it".

I was super impressed that Alison managed to cook the meat over the charcoal too.
Hope you find the sauce and like it.

This may win for best meet meal ever!

Smart getting the rice from Yak and Yeti!

Lovely company, good food, what more could a girl ask for? Looks perfect.

Cute pic of the family with Safari Mickey and Minnie.

It was a really good meal and I was really thankful I got the rice from Y&Y. The rice that I cooked was okay but it would have ended up with a rather starchy looking fried rice.

Thanks!

Love your view pics! And great work getting the rice from Yak & Yeti too

I love that you had a picnic BBQ as a DISmeet Looks like great fun!

It was fun planning it and fun doing the BBQ.

Thanks.

Great pics of the night. If I did get over there and join everyone there would have been no way I could have run the Tower of Terror 10 mile event. I think by the first mile I would have said that is it. Take me back to the resort

I know I tried hard to get you to the DisMeet but I do know that you were pretty focussed on the ToT run. In the end, I think you were right not to come. I was so full from dinner this night that I was falling asleep at the table.

Lovely family pictures with Mickey and Minnie at AK. The EE views are beautiful too.

That's great you were able to pull off such an awesome DISmeet for dinner. Congrats to all of you!

Thanks Angela. We had a great day at AK and the DisMeet was just icing on the top.

Tuning in to read your TR. I started backwards and read your last post first. Your rice looks so yummy. Thank you for posting the recipe!! Looks like you had a great dismeet!

Welcome to the TR.

Thanks for tuning in. I think you're pretty smart reading the last post first. There's a LOT of this trip to go through....feel free to just jump right in..

What a night! Great food, great company, and at WDW.

Great pictures at AK. Loved the giant lily pads, I don't think I've ever seen them there before.

You know.....I'm not sure I've noticed the lily pads either. I know I was in that area; I'm just not sure that I paid much attention to that water feature area.

WOW! That was really fantastic. I just never would occur to me to do something like that at WDW. I know the villas exist and all, but to get people together and just relax and have a good time. That doesn't seem like a Disney vacation, but it also really feels like it would be a great part of one. Now I'm extra sorry we didn't move around our dates to join you!

I remember us having a discussion in the PTR when I posted our DisMeet plans. At the time, we wondered if there was going to be too much time spent on the DisMeets at the expense of park time.


This was such a great meet that it didn't matter that we weren't spending time in the park.

In hindsight, whilst I traded off Saturday night in a park for this DisMeet, I don't think I would have changed the arrangements. We'd pretty much covered as much of the parks as we wanted to and both DH and DS were more than happy to just come back and chill out at the resort.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yay for the cookout night! That was a lot of fun and one of the best meals that we had on that trip! Forgive me if I post a few more pictures. Your DH wins for getting shots of the attendees, I think he got more than all of us combined!

Here is the summer salad that I made. Bobbi brought watermelon which was also very tasty!



Here is PIO in the kitchen making her Fried Rice.



We also made some Bacon, Chicken and Pineapple sausages and smokies.



Here's the Portabellos on the Grill.



I happen to like my meat still mooing, so it turned out fine for me. Boy did it take a few trial runs at home to figure out how to make it on an uncovered charcoal grill.



And Birthday cake



Great update! I hope that sometime there can be another DISmeet with a similarly yummy cookout!

Thanks for sharing, Alison. I missed taking pictures of the other dishes; especially that delicious cucumber and tomato salad of yours. I completely missed taking Bobbi's watermelon as well...but it was way too dark by that stage.


If I recall, I think I might have been the only person to take my piece of meat back to the grill and leave it on there for a few more minutes.

I sure hope we have more DisMeets like this in the future.

 

[franandaj]

Alison and Fran were incredibly generous with the pieces of meat. There was plenty to go round that night.

This is where our thrifty nature pays off. We got these TriTips over either 4th of July weekend or Memorial Day. Maybe we got some on both holidays. Either way each piece of meat cost just under $10 if I remember correctly which made our protein contribution to this meal far less than a TS meal at a WDW restaurant.

Substantially less than the F&W special event prices that Fran and I were paying for the booze events we were doing!

I remember you having issues getting into the BCV. That was not a good thing to happen on this particular night.

I remember TifffanyD and her DH being turned away and Leshaface asking me, "are you sure we need to take the bus over there?" That guard was one tough cookie and off the DIS I would say something else!

It was good food and good company = great DisMeet.
It was a meal that was months in the planning!

Totally! I think we even planned parts of it a year out. I know I was looking for the queso recipe the Winter before and I made at least 2-3 Tri Tips as practice. I don't make those more than once every six weeks.

I remember us having a discussion in the PTR when I posted our DisMeet plans. At the time, we wondered if there was going to be too much time spent on the DisMeets at the expense of park time.


This was such a great meet that it didn't matter that we weren't spending time in the park.

In hindsight, whilst I traded off Saturday night in a park for this DisMeet, I don't think I would have changed the arrangements. We'd pretty much covered as much of the parks as we wanted to and both DH and DS were more than happy to just come back and chill out at the resort.

Even though we didn't do many rides on this trip, this meet was so much fun, I didn't care that we weren't in a park. Spending time with friends in 3D in a relaxed setting enjoying the night air and a great dinner was so much fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Besides no one wants to be in a park on Saturday night.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Just have to add I have had many Dismeets and by far the best are the ones planned outside of a park. When you can talk, get to know each other, determine if there is more of a connection besides the love of Disney. Disney of course is the foundation but other things in common are the building blocks.
I feel immensely blessed for the friendships.

and of course it doesn't hurt to add TriTip, fried rice, and wine to the mix

 

[dolphingirl47]

Great! I'll look forward to seeing if Graham knows what the bird is. And I'll look forward to seeing your pictures of the birds in your next Florida TR.

That would have been fantastic to handle a Gyrfalcon.

The oracle has spoken. This is a king vulture, which is native to central and south America.

I have never actually seen the whole of Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade. I have however seen Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade, which I enjoyed.

The view from Pizzafari is absolutely stunning.

The food looked delicious and the company sounded great.

Corinna

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Lovely BBQ-looks like wonderful food and company. I am with DH - I really liked Avatar-loved the concept with the symbiotic relationship between the land and the people and animals -not sure about creating a whole land based on this though.

 

[PrincessInOz]

This is where our thrifty nature pays off. We got these TriTips over either 4th of July weekend or Memorial Day. Maybe we got some on both holidays. Either way each piece of meat cost just under $10 if I remember correctly which made our protein contribution to this meal far less than a TS meal at a WDW restaurant.

Substantially less than the F&W special event prices that Fran and I were paying for the booze events we were doing!



I remember TifffanyD and her DH being turned away and Leshaface asking me, "are you sure we need to take the bus over there?" That guard was one tough cookie and off the DIS I would say something else!



Totally! I think we even planned parts of it a year out. I know I was looking for the queso recipe the Winter before and I made at least 2-3 Tri Tips as practice. I don't make those more than once every six weeks.



Even though we didn't do many rides on this trip, this meet was so much fun, I didn't care that we weren't in a park. Spending time with friends in 3D in a relaxed setting enjoying the night air and a great dinner was so much fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Besides no one wants to be in a park on Saturday night.

That was a bargain for the TriTips.

I hope we have a few more DisMeets like this in the future. Fun planning, fun execution.

Just have to add I have had many Dismeets and by far the best are the ones planned outside of a park. When you can talk, get to know each other, determine if there is more of a connection besides the love of Disney. Disney of course is the foundation but other things in common are the building blocks.
I feel immensely blessed for the friendships.

and of course it doesn't hurt to add TriTip, fried rice, and wine to the mix

Here's to more building blocks other than Disney in our friendship.

The oracle has spoken. This is a king vulture, which is native to central and south America.

I have never actually seen the whole of Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade. I have however seen Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade, which I enjoyed.

The view from Pizzafari is absolutely stunning.

The food looked delicious and the company sounded great.

Corinna

Welcome back Corinna. I wish I could have seen the Jingle version of this parade. Oh well. I guess it'll just go on that list of Could Have Been's now.

Lovely BBQ-looks like wonderful food and company. I am with DH - I really liked Avatar-loved the concept with the symbiotic relationship between the land and the people and animals -not sure about creating a whole land based on this though.

Thanks Wendy.

I'm prepared to wait to see what the Imagineers come up with. Avatarland could end up being really cool.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Around the Boardwalk at Night



After we had cleared and washed up the CookOut, I got a bit ant-cy. It was our second last night at WDW and with a big park night ahead of us tomorrow night, this was going to be my last chance of grabbing some night shots around the Boardwalk.


Hard to believe that we've been here for 7 nights already and this was my first opportunity to spend some time exploring the resort.



I think we've spent about 2 or 3 afternoons enjoying SAB. All of which were without camera. Time to remedy the hole in my collection.







Without a doubt, the drawcard for us staying at this resort is SAB.







The pirate ship waterslide had been a great hit with my family. All of us have spent a lot of time climbing up to the Flying Jib.







The Boardwalk looked beautiful with the twinkly lights.







I was heading in that direction.







Walking around, I stopped by the lighthouse. I'd been pretty happy with the sunrise shots earlier in the week. I was to be equally as happy with the night shots.







Maybe I'll stay on this side the next time, but it might just be a little bit too formal for me. I prefer the more relaxed feel of the Beach Club.







The reflections on Crescent Lake kept me company on the walk round.







Three visits to WDW and I had yet to make it into Jelly Rolls. I've always been fascinated with the concept of duelling pianos and just having fun in there. If there is a next trip, it will be #1 on my list of must-do's.







Let's head down this way, shall we?







The Boardwalk Resort has always been another resort that I've been interested to stay at. The resorts here are conveniently located to Epcot and within walking distance of DHS.








Time to keep going. It was getting late.







By the time I'd gotten here, it was way past midnight.







It had been another great day. And I was really looking forward to another magical day. It was going to be my last full day at WDW.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Walt Disney World - Epcot and Magic Kingdom 05 October 2013




A Not So Early Morning Wake Up: Around the Boardwalk in the Morning




It's our last full day at WDW.


Whilst I might have been tempted to cram in as much as possible on the last day, I was conscious that we'd been on this vacay for over 24 days. Neither of my boys were keen for the Mad Dash that I normally subject them to.



So, on this last morning on-site, we slept in. Well....the boys slept in past 8 am. I think I got up early enough to be out and about to grab shots of an empty resort.








It was only a couple of mornings ago that we kick started the Dis-Gamers meets here.













SAB was still closed at this time of morning.










































There was at least one other early bird out.








Time for some Beach Club details.















It was a great morning for smelling the flowers.



































After the late night stroll last night, I decided that I needed to walk around the Boardwalk.









I did enjoy the aimless wandering around the resort but I did have a destination in mind for this morning. I headed in and made a number of selections.









I found a table right on the edge of Crescent Lake and decided to sit and enjoy the quiet of the morning.








Eenie, meenie, minie, moo....








I decided to go with the chocolate croissant option. The rest went back home for the boys to eat for breakfast.








It was a rather interesting half hour. Shortly after I sat down, another couple came out of the bakery and pulled up in the table next to mine. As you do, we struck up a conversation. Turns out that this couple were retired and I had a fascinating discussion with them on their retirement plan. They had decided early in life that they wanted to travel when they were retired so they went about collecting vacation points. They owned timeshare across all the major timeshare companies and spent a large chunk of their time travelling. I'd known about this retirement model but this was the first time where I'd really spoken to anyone who was truly livin' the dream.




(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


Enjoying the Beach Club and SAB One Last Time



The boys were keen to have a very lazy morning and wanted to enjoy SAB for one last time. I took some time to do a complete pack-up as this morning was going to be the last opportunity I would have to pack without staying up to the wee hours of the morning. And after I finished, it was time to go play.

This time, I made sure that I took my camera with me.













The lazy river. We certainly enjoyed sitting in those tubes and letting the current take us round.







I love the windmill. It's a great touch to this pool.







It's a great pool, isn't it? I know some people don't like the sandy bottom; but we love it.







And the Flying Jib slide is one that my whole family loves.







I have to admit that SAB is the main reason why I love coming to stay on this resort. It really is hard to pick another resort when SAB is so high on our 'enjoy' list.







One final look at the Beach Club.
















All good things have to end and all too soon it was time for us to get ready for the rest of the day.

 

[jedijill]

I cooked a tri tip today on the grill and thought of you guys!

I really want to stay and try SAB some of these days....it looks so inviting. I can't believe the trip is almost over!

Jill in CO

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice pictures from the nighttime to the daytime. I really enjoyed the long exposure shots at the SAB that night & the Boardwalk. The one with the windmill at the pool was very nice.

Having breakfast right at Crescent Lake is a nice way to start a morning and watching the boats go by.

 

[zanzibar138]

Great pics from the Boardwalk and SAB How do you get the twinkly light effects?

Sad that you've come to the end of the holiday, but what a great trip it has been!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I love the night shots from around the Boardwalk area. The early morning shots are very nice, too. We have stayed at both the Boardwalk Villas and Beach Club Villas and love them both. I am hoping to spend two nights of either of those in May and can't make up my mind which I would prefer. I think it may come down to where I can get availability at 7 months out.

We love SAB and it looks like it was as quiet for you as it was for us in December.

Corinna

 

[Luvchefmic]

Oh the winding down of this TR such mixed emotions I hate to see it end
As always the photography is awesome! If anyone at the Disney CO ever sees it they will offer you a job no doubt. I'm not talking Photopass I'm talking in their advertising department. Your shots put theirs to shame

Hoping you take us along with this report right back home to Oz

 

[tiggrbaby]

Lovely night shots!

 

[Pinkocto]

Beautiful shots around the resorts, both nighttime and daytime

I like the sound of that retirement plan!

Last days are always hard, but after that length of trip I bet it's worse. Or were you ready to go home?

Fun that you got in one last SAB swim.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I cooked a tri tip today on the grill and thought of you guys!

I really want to stay and try SAB some of these days....it looks so inviting. I can't believe the trip is almost over!

Jill in CO

I'll always remember the DisMeet when we have tri tip myself.
I hope you make it to SAB one of your trips. It is going through a refurb; so it might move up the list?

I still have the rest of today.....and then another 4 days to cover.

Very nice pictures from the nighttime to the daytime. I really enjoyed the long exposure shots at the SAB that night & the Boardwalk. The one with the windmill at the pool was very nice.

Having breakfast right at Crescent Lake is a nice way to start a morning and watching the boats go by.

Thanks Bret.

A couple of the lifeguards looked at me funny when I was taking the shot of the windmill. I was pretty much right at the edge of the pool and all the way down at ground level.

I really enjoyed the breakfast view.

Great pics from the Boardwalk and SAB How do you get the twinkly light effects?

Sad that you've come to the end of the holiday, but what a great trip it has been!

I think your current camera is a point and shoot? You will need to find out what the smallest aperture setting the camera can go to. You'll need at least f/16 for the twinkly lights and I'm not sure the point and shoots go to that setting.

I've come to the last day at WDW. I still have 4 days to cover on this never-ending TR.

I love the night shots from around the Boardwalk area. The early morning shots are very nice, too. We have stayed at both the Boardwalk Villas and Beach Club Villas and love them both. I am hoping to spend two nights of either of those in May and can't make up my mind which I would prefer. I think it may come down to where I can get availability at 7 months out.

We love SAB and it looks like it was as quiet for you as it was for us in December.

Corinna

That's a hard choice between BWV and BCV. Maybe it will come down to what is available but I know that the BCV was being refurbed this year. So, maybe it will be more popular for people to stay.

Oh the winding down of this TR such mixed emotions I hate to see it end
As always the photography is awesome! If anyone at the Disney CO ever sees it they will offer you a job no doubt. I'm not talking Photopass I'm talking in their advertising department. Your shots put theirs to shame

Hoping you take us along with this report right back home to Oz

Thanks Ruthie. I'm not quite at the end yet.
I still have to finish up this last full day at WDW.....and there's still another 4 days to cover. I'm hoping to finish by September.

Lovely night shots!

Thank you.

Beautiful shots around the resorts, both nighttime and daytime

I like the sound of that retirement plan!

Last days are always hard, but after that length of trip I bet it's worse. Or were you ready to go home?

Fun that you got in one last SAB swim.

We were definitely ready to go home by the time we got back to LA.

Thanks.