Latte Lover
<font color=green> in charge of the credit cards a
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2003
- Messages
- 1,335
Saturday 29th October 2011
We were up early to get organised, have showers and pack our hand luggage as we had to vacate our stateroom before breakfast and take our hand luggage with us. We saw Beverly, our stateroom host, and gave her the tip envelope, said goodbye and then headed to breakfast.
As we had late dinner seating, our final breakfast was at 8am and in the restaurant we ate in last night –Parrot Cay.
Breakfast was a bit disorganised. Our servers were late, the table wasn’t laid and Joh’s breakfast was completely wrong. The choice of pastries was dismal – there were no cinnamon rolls and not even enough for us to have one pastry each. Our assistant server redeemed himself by going to the kitchen and sorting it out and came back with the correct food. One of the other servers very kindly tracked down some pastries too. We said goodbye to our servers and gave them their tip envelopes. They were both very nice, just not particularly good servers!
We left the ship around 9am and went through immigration after finding our cases easily. It pays to be from the UK at this point as the non-US line was very much shorter than the US one.
We said goodbye to Joh, Nat and the children and grabbed a taxi with Gary to go to the Dollar car rental office ($15). This is worth it as we got there 15 minutes before the shuttle bus arrived and were therefore at the front of the queue. Unfortunately, we had problems with Dollar again and it was another 30 minutes before we were ready to go. They upgraded us again to a luxury car, a big white Chrysler 300, which was very comfortable. We said farewell to Gary and were soon on our way to Orlando.
Our car:
We arrived back in Orlando around 10.30, and as it was too early to check in to The Beach Club Villas, we drove to Downtown Disney. It was very busy, which surprised us. We thought it only got busy in the evening. We bought some lego keyrings for my sister and then left as it was so crowded. We completely forgot to buy the peppermint bark from Ghirardellis.
From there, we drove down the 192 to our favourite Walmart. We bought loads! Mostly food to take home, plus I found a Christmas music cd I had been looking for. We discussed buying a bigger suitcase and throwing out the old smaller one, but decided to see if it would all fit in first. We really did have a trolley full!
Time for a late lunch for Tony and I. After the huge amount of food we had eaten in the last two weeks, we only wanted something smallish, so went to the nearest IHOP, which we really like. I had a half pot roast sandwich and a bowl of potato and cheese soup, which was delicious and Tony had a Colorado omelette. We couldn’t resist sharing our favourite dessert afterwards – the crispy banana cheesecake with strawberries.
Next, it was time to check into The Beach Club Villas. Joh had suggested renting DVC points which is something we had never thought of doing, in fact I don’t think we even realised it was open to non-DVC owners. So we rented some points from Tam and Kev, and Tam booked it for us. It was all very easy and such a great way to stay in lovely Disney accommodation for a very reasonable price. (A big THANK YOU to Joh for the suggestion and to Tam and Kev for renting to us)
We checked in and it was all very efficient apart from a problem with the suitcases that we had left with Disney while on the cruise. They had disappeared. Several conversations and phone calls to and from bell services took place and we left it in their hands and headed to the main pool, which is a lovely winding river with a deep and shallow parts and sand on the bottom. There is also a quiet pool at the villas, but we didn’t have time to use it. That’s the problem with staying just one night – you don’t really get enough time to use the facilities.
After a couple of hours the sun started to go down so we went back to our room to find a message waiting for us – our case had been found – they had been sent to Old Key West by mistake and were on their way.
They arrived soon after and we packed all our Walmart goodies and weighed the cases. All four were just less than 23kg each! How good are we at shopping and packing!
Our room:
We thought the windowless corridors and low lighting made it look like the Tower of Terror:
We got changed and went out for a stroll around the Boardwalk, then went back to Beaches and Cream for a late dinner. It was a 35 minute wait so we were given a pager and we went back out to the Boardwalk to see if it was possible to view Illuminations from there. We didn’t see anything though.
Back at Beaches and Cream we ordered a veggie burger and fries for me and a bowl of chilli and crackers for Tony. Both were huge, and very nice, and we shared a No-way Jose sundae afterwards.
We watched a “Kitchen Sink” being prepared. We had a very chatty server who didn’t mind us videoing him as he made it.
We waddled back to our room, very full, and went to bed.
As we split up today, here is Joh's report of how they spent their day:
Meanwhile, back at the cruise terminal, we were (impatiently) waiting for Gary to get back and pick us up. We were desperate to get back to Disney and make the most of what was left of our holiday. Gary finally arrived and we piled in. Unfortunately the weather was not great at this point and our plans of an afternoon spent by the pool were scuppered.
Instead, we decided to head to Old Key West and check in, then do a final bit of shopping and have some lunch in the hope that the weather might improve a bit later.
We had also decided to head to Walmart, followed by lunch at Bob Evans.
We ordered some cheddar cheese bites to start and shared two portions between the 6 of us.
The food was delicious, as always, and very reasonable.
Meanwhile, back at Old Key West, our rooms were ready and we went to get settled in.
We had tickets for Cirque du Soleil that night (we had bought the tickets for Nat and the kids as Birthday/Christmas presents) so decided to get showered and changed and head to Downtown Disney to do a final bit of shopping and have an ice cream before the show.
We tried to get our cases brought to the room (we’d had them transferred to Old Key West when we checked out of Wilderness Lodge) but, for some reason, Bell Services weren’t answering the phone so we walked over to pick the cases up ourselves.
We were going to catch the boat to Downtown Disney but the boys noticed a bus turning up so we hopped on that instead. After a couple of hours wandering around Downtown Disney, we walked down to West Side. We were very excited. We had got great front row seats and we could even touch the stage.
The show was amazing. I wasn’t sure if it would prove to be a mistake, sitting so close to the stage but we really felt like we had a connection with the performers and many of them smiled and waved at the kids. We had seen La Nouba before but Daniel, Nat and her kids hadn’t. Everyone really enjoyed it. All too soon, it was over and we were heading back to Old Key West. Back in the room, we started packing and did online check-in. I suddenly decided it would be a good idea to do Downtown Disney check-in the next morning, so we could drop our cases off before heading to Hollywood Studios to enjoy our last day at Disney. I popped round to Nat’s room to let her know and she was all in favour so we agreed to meet early the next morning.
Tomorrow: A bit of shopping for us and Hollywood Studios for the others, then time for our flights home.
We were up early to get organised, have showers and pack our hand luggage as we had to vacate our stateroom before breakfast and take our hand luggage with us. We saw Beverly, our stateroom host, and gave her the tip envelope, said goodbye and then headed to breakfast.
As we had late dinner seating, our final breakfast was at 8am and in the restaurant we ate in last night –Parrot Cay.
Breakfast was a bit disorganised. Our servers were late, the table wasn’t laid and Joh’s breakfast was completely wrong. The choice of pastries was dismal – there were no cinnamon rolls and not even enough for us to have one pastry each. Our assistant server redeemed himself by going to the kitchen and sorting it out and came back with the correct food. One of the other servers very kindly tracked down some pastries too. We said goodbye to our servers and gave them their tip envelopes. They were both very nice, just not particularly good servers!
We left the ship around 9am and went through immigration after finding our cases easily. It pays to be from the UK at this point as the non-US line was very much shorter than the US one.
We said goodbye to Joh, Nat and the children and grabbed a taxi with Gary to go to the Dollar car rental office ($15). This is worth it as we got there 15 minutes before the shuttle bus arrived and were therefore at the front of the queue. Unfortunately, we had problems with Dollar again and it was another 30 minutes before we were ready to go. They upgraded us again to a luxury car, a big white Chrysler 300, which was very comfortable. We said farewell to Gary and were soon on our way to Orlando.
Our car:
We arrived back in Orlando around 10.30, and as it was too early to check in to The Beach Club Villas, we drove to Downtown Disney. It was very busy, which surprised us. We thought it only got busy in the evening. We bought some lego keyrings for my sister and then left as it was so crowded. We completely forgot to buy the peppermint bark from Ghirardellis.
From there, we drove down the 192 to our favourite Walmart. We bought loads! Mostly food to take home, plus I found a Christmas music cd I had been looking for. We discussed buying a bigger suitcase and throwing out the old smaller one, but decided to see if it would all fit in first. We really did have a trolley full!
Time for a late lunch for Tony and I. After the huge amount of food we had eaten in the last two weeks, we only wanted something smallish, so went to the nearest IHOP, which we really like. I had a half pot roast sandwich and a bowl of potato and cheese soup, which was delicious and Tony had a Colorado omelette. We couldn’t resist sharing our favourite dessert afterwards – the crispy banana cheesecake with strawberries.
Next, it was time to check into The Beach Club Villas. Joh had suggested renting DVC points which is something we had never thought of doing, in fact I don’t think we even realised it was open to non-DVC owners. So we rented some points from Tam and Kev, and Tam booked it for us. It was all very easy and such a great way to stay in lovely Disney accommodation for a very reasonable price. (A big THANK YOU to Joh for the suggestion and to Tam and Kev for renting to us)
We checked in and it was all very efficient apart from a problem with the suitcases that we had left with Disney while on the cruise. They had disappeared. Several conversations and phone calls to and from bell services took place and we left it in their hands and headed to the main pool, which is a lovely winding river with a deep and shallow parts and sand on the bottom. There is also a quiet pool at the villas, but we didn’t have time to use it. That’s the problem with staying just one night – you don’t really get enough time to use the facilities.
After a couple of hours the sun started to go down so we went back to our room to find a message waiting for us – our case had been found – they had been sent to Old Key West by mistake and were on their way.
They arrived soon after and we packed all our Walmart goodies and weighed the cases. All four were just less than 23kg each! How good are we at shopping and packing!
Our room:
We thought the windowless corridors and low lighting made it look like the Tower of Terror:
We got changed and went out for a stroll around the Boardwalk, then went back to Beaches and Cream for a late dinner. It was a 35 minute wait so we were given a pager and we went back out to the Boardwalk to see if it was possible to view Illuminations from there. We didn’t see anything though.
Back at Beaches and Cream we ordered a veggie burger and fries for me and a bowl of chilli and crackers for Tony. Both were huge, and very nice, and we shared a No-way Jose sundae afterwards.
We watched a “Kitchen Sink” being prepared. We had a very chatty server who didn’t mind us videoing him as he made it.
We waddled back to our room, very full, and went to bed.
As we split up today, here is Joh's report of how they spent their day:
Meanwhile, back at the cruise terminal, we were (impatiently) waiting for Gary to get back and pick us up. We were desperate to get back to Disney and make the most of what was left of our holiday. Gary finally arrived and we piled in. Unfortunately the weather was not great at this point and our plans of an afternoon spent by the pool were scuppered.
Instead, we decided to head to Old Key West and check in, then do a final bit of shopping and have some lunch in the hope that the weather might improve a bit later.
We had also decided to head to Walmart, followed by lunch at Bob Evans.
We ordered some cheddar cheese bites to start and shared two portions between the 6 of us.
The food was delicious, as always, and very reasonable.
Meanwhile, back at Old Key West, our rooms were ready and we went to get settled in.
We had tickets for Cirque du Soleil that night (we had bought the tickets for Nat and the kids as Birthday/Christmas presents) so decided to get showered and changed and head to Downtown Disney to do a final bit of shopping and have an ice cream before the show.
We tried to get our cases brought to the room (we’d had them transferred to Old Key West when we checked out of Wilderness Lodge) but, for some reason, Bell Services weren’t answering the phone so we walked over to pick the cases up ourselves.
We were going to catch the boat to Downtown Disney but the boys noticed a bus turning up so we hopped on that instead. After a couple of hours wandering around Downtown Disney, we walked down to West Side. We were very excited. We had got great front row seats and we could even touch the stage.
The show was amazing. I wasn’t sure if it would prove to be a mistake, sitting so close to the stage but we really felt like we had a connection with the performers and many of them smiled and waved at the kids. We had seen La Nouba before but Daniel, Nat and her kids hadn’t. Everyone really enjoyed it. All too soon, it was over and we were heading back to Old Key West. Back in the room, we started packing and did online check-in. I suddenly decided it would be a good idea to do Downtown Disney check-in the next morning, so we could drop our cases off before heading to Hollywood Studios to enjoy our last day at Disney. I popped round to Nat’s room to let her know and she was all in favour so we agreed to meet early the next morning.
Tomorrow: A bit of shopping for us and Hollywood Studios for the others, then time for our flights home.
