puntagordabob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2008
- Messages
- 708
8/4 and 8/5/09 Grand Opening of the BLT....and we were the first to check in.
We live 2 hours and 20 minutes from WDW here in Florida and had studio standard view reservations for the grand opening..... My wife worked until 1am at her job, so upon her arrival home, we jumped into the car (including my 86 year old Grandma who we wanted to share the experience with!) and headed out. We arrived at the CR guard station a little after 4:15am and she asked us "if we were there for BLT", we were then informed Gratz you are the First to arrive. Upon arriving inside the CR lobby we were warmly greeted at the counter by some Cast Members who were apparently notified by the guard post that we were coming inside. They also notified us that "you are the first" which shocked us, we truly figured a bunch would arrive earlier like they did at Kidani Village (12:01 am in fact the first arrival came to there we have heard)...
Anyways they wrote down our names and said the computer would be online at 6am and invited us to lounge around either the Convention floor or the main concourse floor on some of the nice chairs and couches they have. My wife fell asleep, but my Grandma and I stayed awake. I photographed some neat pics of the Grand Concourse being totally empty...
At 6:00 am we were checked in and everyone was happy to be allowed to proceed to our rooms right away... we were in our 1st floor room by 6:30am and settled in.
The studios are nice...the sink setup is a little unusual, but we already knew that from the models...it was not really that bad for us. Our view was of the shuffleboard courts, the fountain, and the bamboo groves in the courtyard.
We, for the most part, stayed around the CR/BLT resort....we did go to MK for a little while in the early am on the 4th. We had lunch at the Contempo Cafe (great hamburgers IMHO) and later had dinner at Chef Mickey's. At around 9 pm we proceeded to the TOW lounge and had some drinks (non-alcohol as none of us drink). My wife had a Pina Colada (sorry if I mis-spelled that...she opted for no alcohol in it), my Grandma (Mom to us) had a Mickey Mouse (Disney's name for a Shirley Temple), and I, the daredevil, had lemonade
lol. The lounge is really nice...everyone's pictures truly do not do it justice! The Cast Members up there are great, of course ALL Cast Members are, but I still wanted to point that out.
We also had an opportunity to tour a Grand Villa...guess one of the windows were malfunctioning so they didnt rent it....the Cast Member said we were very lucky to get to tour one... we took some pictures.
Almost everyone walked out onto the observation deck for Wishes! and it was great viewing! The sound system is also really nice.... all and all Salutes to the Imagineers, they did a nice job on the TOW and the Obs deck!
Immediately afterwards we went to the Bay Lake observation deck (small, but its there!) and watched the Water Pageant...it was neat and we are probably one of the few who have gone to WDW since 1971 and never REALLY seen that (other than maybe as we were leaving on a monorail lol but that hardly counts)... Thank you to those on DIS Boards here who had posted the tip that this show is pretty close to Wishes! timeslot....
On the 5th we went to EPCOT and eventually to Welcome Home Wednesdays....seemed to be a lot more people there than the last time I remembered...everyone got a DVC hat for attending...
Ok Ok...a lot of people asked if Disney did anything special for us for being the first to check in. To be honest JUST THE HONOR was enough...but Yes they did send us some nice things (thank you to Disney will be leaving here in a few short days). A dozen yellow roses in a nice vase (with a Mickey shaped gem) that made my wife and grandma very happy...all I could think of was WHO is going to hold the vase all the way back home in the car! lol ...... The second was a gift basket that had a walnut framed artwork from BLT, a limited edition BLT pin, three DVC coffee mugs and some coffee, three BLT shirts, a wrapped mysterious present (they said it was something to with the CR, wife wants to be home to open it, so we wait unti l saturday), and some other items. They also provided us with a certificate to be framed stating we were the 1st DVC members to ever check in to the Bay Lake Tower. They also took our pictures (with their camera) for what I assume in the archives or perhaps they post this kind of stuff in a magazine or something (no idea)....
Also about the shirts my wife & I were wearing, we had some custom made airbrushed shirts made by our cousin Tom from Michigan for the BLT Grand Opening.
I had never done one on here before, but some people at the resort (met some Dis Boarders!) asked me to post the pics and stuff especially of the basket....
Anyways hope everyone enjoyed our report...
We live 2 hours and 20 minutes from WDW here in Florida and had studio standard view reservations for the grand opening..... My wife worked until 1am at her job, so upon her arrival home, we jumped into the car (including my 86 year old Grandma who we wanted to share the experience with!) and headed out. We arrived at the CR guard station a little after 4:15am and she asked us "if we were there for BLT", we were then informed Gratz you are the First to arrive. Upon arriving inside the CR lobby we were warmly greeted at the counter by some Cast Members who were apparently notified by the guard post that we were coming inside. They also notified us that "you are the first" which shocked us, we truly figured a bunch would arrive earlier like they did at Kidani Village (12:01 am in fact the first arrival came to there we have heard)...
Anyways they wrote down our names and said the computer would be online at 6am and invited us to lounge around either the Convention floor or the main concourse floor on some of the nice chairs and couches they have. My wife fell asleep, but my Grandma and I stayed awake. I photographed some neat pics of the Grand Concourse being totally empty...
At 6:00 am we were checked in and everyone was happy to be allowed to proceed to our rooms right away... we were in our 1st floor room by 6:30am and settled in.
The studios are nice...the sink setup is a little unusual, but we already knew that from the models...it was not really that bad for us. Our view was of the shuffleboard courts, the fountain, and the bamboo groves in the courtyard.
We, for the most part, stayed around the CR/BLT resort....we did go to MK for a little while in the early am on the 4th. We had lunch at the Contempo Cafe (great hamburgers IMHO) and later had dinner at Chef Mickey's. At around 9 pm we proceeded to the TOW lounge and had some drinks (non-alcohol as none of us drink). My wife had a Pina Colada (sorry if I mis-spelled that...she opted for no alcohol in it), my Grandma (Mom to us) had a Mickey Mouse (Disney's name for a Shirley Temple), and I, the daredevil, had lemonade
lol. The lounge is really nice...everyone's pictures truly do not do it justice! The Cast Members up there are great, of course ALL Cast Members are, but I still wanted to point that out.We also had an opportunity to tour a Grand Villa...guess one of the windows were malfunctioning so they didnt rent it....the Cast Member said we were very lucky to get to tour one... we took some pictures.
Almost everyone walked out onto the observation deck for Wishes! and it was great viewing! The sound system is also really nice.... all and all Salutes to the Imagineers, they did a nice job on the TOW and the Obs deck!
Immediately afterwards we went to the Bay Lake observation deck (small, but its there!) and watched the Water Pageant...it was neat and we are probably one of the few who have gone to WDW since 1971 and never REALLY seen that (other than maybe as we were leaving on a monorail lol but that hardly counts)... Thank you to those on DIS Boards here who had posted the tip that this show is pretty close to Wishes! timeslot....
On the 5th we went to EPCOT and eventually to Welcome Home Wednesdays....seemed to be a lot more people there than the last time I remembered...everyone got a DVC hat for attending...
Ok Ok...a lot of people asked if Disney did anything special for us for being the first to check in. To be honest JUST THE HONOR was enough...but Yes they did send us some nice things (thank you to Disney will be leaving here in a few short days). A dozen yellow roses in a nice vase (with a Mickey shaped gem) that made my wife and grandma very happy...all I could think of was WHO is going to hold the vase all the way back home in the car!
lol ...... The second was a gift basket that had a walnut framed artwork from BLT, a limited edition BLT pin, three DVC coffee mugs and some coffee, three BLT shirts, a wrapped mysterious present (they said it was something to with the CR, wife wants to be home to open it, so we wait unti l saturday), and some other items. They also provided us with a certificate to be framed stating we were the 1st DVC members to ever check in to the Bay Lake Tower. They also took our pictures (with their camera) for what I assume in the archives or perhaps they post this kind of stuff in a magazine or something (no idea)....
Also about the shirts my wife & I were wearing, we had some custom made airbrushed shirts made by our cousin Tom from Michigan for the BLT Grand Opening.
I had never done one on here before, but some people at the resort (met some Dis Boarders!) asked me to post the pics and stuff especially of the basket....
Anyways hope everyone enjoyed our report...
I suppose eventually we will get some pixie dust and have a stellar view! In either case, I love the 
She reminds me of my grandmother - always wearing a sweater in August in Florida!!
