rocketriter
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2003
- Messages
- 2,316
We stayed at the BCV for 7 nights, October 9-16, traveling with our DD 8, DS 11, my wife and myself, and my wife's brother and his long-time partner. The occasion was my brother-in-law's 45th birthday, so we invited the uncles to stay the week with us and we took a 2-bedroom to give everyone space and privacy.
At the BCV, we were greeted by many Welcome Homes. Even Housekeeping, on the phone, said Welcome Home when they answered our call. All our requests were met: non-smoking, non-handicapped, non-dedicated (so the uncles could come and go without waking our children) and a quiet location. We were given 243-245 on the 2nd floor, overlooking woodlands. Our suite was immaculate. I'm not usually the inspecting type but, stimulated by postings on the DIS board, I gave the place a critical look. Shining a flashlight deep under the center of the king bed I did find (the horror!) one goldfish cracker. Outside of that and a couple of minor nicks on the kitchen table, the place was spotless and gleaming. I didn't check the kitchen equipment against a printed inventory, but I know that every time we reached for something we found it.
I did discover something about the supposed "water pressure problem" at BCV. There's actually plenty of pressure. Water gushes out of the hot tub tap rapidly enough to fill it in a trice. However, the shower is an annoying trickle, which is why people complain. I suspect that at the time the building went up, somebody (a municipal authority?) insisted on flow-reducers in the showerheads as is commonly done in areas where water is scarce or difficult to purify.
Now for the trip narrative. We arrived at WDW on Saturday afternoon and our rooms were ready by 3:00. After we checked in, we didn't go to the parks, but simply strolled the boardwalk and then swam at SAB, ending with a nice Cape May clambake.
We started Sunday with Magic Kingdom EE, an excellent Crystal Palace breakfast and the Cinderella lunch--the only time that we had 2 PS in a single day. This was the uncles' first visit to WDW and we thought we should start out with the great old icons. By mid-afternoon, when the crowd became unbearable, we scooted back to SAB to relax and we ended the day grazing for supper at F&W in Epcot.
Monday rain poured on Orlando as hurricane Matt moved over Louisiana. Most of the family braved AK and had a good time. I went to Epcot alone and tried to do more F&W grazing. However, none of the food booths have overhangs, so it's impossible to find an inch of shelter in the rain. I gave up after a drenched lamb chop and a drenched stroganoff. I went back to the room, climbed into the hot tub with a glass of wine, and suffered nobly until the rest of the family returned. Everyone gathered for supper at Alfredo's, and they had to tolerate my bragging about the time in my childhood when my family went to Rome and we had the fettucine made at our table by the old man himself, up to the elbows in buttery pasta just like in the photos. I remember Alfredo telling us that he invented the dish because his wife was pregnant but was losing weight, so he tried to invent something that would be both delicious and very nourishing (or fattening in modern terms). Then Alfredo brought out a gold fork and spoon given to him by silent movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and invited my mother to eat a few bites with them. The restaurant at WDW still uses an imported parmesan that tastes better than anyone else's fettucine anywhere. We ended the evening with IllumiNations, and then strolled back to BCV.
Tuesday was my DBIL's birthday. We spent the morning at MGM, and had lunch at the Prime Time Cafe. When I didn't finish my green beans, the waiter asked everyone else in the dining room to make airplane noises while he "flew" a forkful of beans into my mouth. DBIL didn't finish his either, and he got them back for dessert covered with whipped cream and a cherry!.
That evening we celebrated his birthday with our only bad meal during the entire visit. DBIL invited some old friends who live in FL, and we had a lousy dinner for 11 at Mama Melrose. It took 75 minutes to get to the main course. When they put my pasta in front of me it had obviously sat under a heat lamp for almost an hour and had congealed into a soggy lump. The other main courses were similarly unappetizing. Even though we had booked the Fantasmic package, the meal ran so long that we had to cancel our coffee or else miss the show. Ah, but Fantasmic was great fun, so the evening ended well.
Wednesday the uncles went off to Clearwater for a day with their friends. We bummed around Epcot enjoying the rides. The Japan store must have gotten water damage during the hurricanes, because it smelled of mildew. However, my DD had wonderful fun buying a pearl-in-an-oyster--a real treasure for an 8-year-old! Supper was at Marrakesh. We were attracted because of the 20% DVC discount, but we'll happily eat there again on another trip. Everything was delicious, and our picky kids liked one new food after another. My daughter danced with the belly dancer--just the sort of thing to make a father laugh and worry at the same time...
Thursday we did MNSSHP. My wife dressed as Cruella deVille. She painted black spots on T-shirts for the other 5 in our party and the uncles brought 5 dalmation hats, so we all followed Cruella around and attracted a lot of attention. During the parade, the Cruella CM broke out of her dancing to come chat with us and try to catch a couple of our "dalmations."
On Friday, the kids begged for some time alone with the uncles. They spent time on the boardwalk and in Epcot (another pearl-in-an-oyster!) and thoroughly indulged each other. It was exactly the sort of bonding experience that we had in mind when we planned this trip a year ago. In the meantime, my wife and I indulged ourselves at MGM, ending with our favorite WDW "date"--supper at the Brown Derby. The cobb salad was fabulous as always, prepared the original way: chopped as fine as grains of rice. We had tuna and rack of lamb, and of course we ended with grapefruit cake. A lovely and romantic last evening for our trip.
Saturday (good grief, that's today!) while checking out I discovered that I had lost the key to the safe in which I'd hidden keys, a bit of cash and some credit cards. Engineering knocked on our door 5 minutes after I called for help and immediately drilled the safe for us. Um, yes, we did get charged for that. But we were grateful for their quick response, since it enabled us to run over to MGM for a last Indiana Jones SS. My wife was chosen as one of the participants! There she was, wearing a middle eastern headdress and whooping around in front of a thousand tourists. A former actress herself, she hammed it up hugely and gave our trip a terrific final act.
Well, we're home now. We swore we'd unpack before going to bed. Yeah, right. We also swore we'd send the kids to Sunday school first thing tomorrow morning. Yeah, right again. We're going to sleep in late, and then unpack each and every souvenir one by happy one. Good night!
At the BCV, we were greeted by many Welcome Homes. Even Housekeeping, on the phone, said Welcome Home when they answered our call. All our requests were met: non-smoking, non-handicapped, non-dedicated (so the uncles could come and go without waking our children) and a quiet location. We were given 243-245 on the 2nd floor, overlooking woodlands. Our suite was immaculate. I'm not usually the inspecting type but, stimulated by postings on the DIS board, I gave the place a critical look. Shining a flashlight deep under the center of the king bed I did find (the horror!) one goldfish cracker. Outside of that and a couple of minor nicks on the kitchen table, the place was spotless and gleaming. I didn't check the kitchen equipment against a printed inventory, but I know that every time we reached for something we found it.
I did discover something about the supposed "water pressure problem" at BCV. There's actually plenty of pressure. Water gushes out of the hot tub tap rapidly enough to fill it in a trice. However, the shower is an annoying trickle, which is why people complain. I suspect that at the time the building went up, somebody (a municipal authority?) insisted on flow-reducers in the showerheads as is commonly done in areas where water is scarce or difficult to purify.
Now for the trip narrative. We arrived at WDW on Saturday afternoon and our rooms were ready by 3:00. After we checked in, we didn't go to the parks, but simply strolled the boardwalk and then swam at SAB, ending with a nice Cape May clambake.
We started Sunday with Magic Kingdom EE, an excellent Crystal Palace breakfast and the Cinderella lunch--the only time that we had 2 PS in a single day. This was the uncles' first visit to WDW and we thought we should start out with the great old icons. By mid-afternoon, when the crowd became unbearable, we scooted back to SAB to relax and we ended the day grazing for supper at F&W in Epcot.
Monday rain poured on Orlando as hurricane Matt moved over Louisiana. Most of the family braved AK and had a good time. I went to Epcot alone and tried to do more F&W grazing. However, none of the food booths have overhangs, so it's impossible to find an inch of shelter in the rain. I gave up after a drenched lamb chop and a drenched stroganoff. I went back to the room, climbed into the hot tub with a glass of wine, and suffered nobly until the rest of the family returned. Everyone gathered for supper at Alfredo's, and they had to tolerate my bragging about the time in my childhood when my family went to Rome and we had the fettucine made at our table by the old man himself, up to the elbows in buttery pasta just like in the photos. I remember Alfredo telling us that he invented the dish because his wife was pregnant but was losing weight, so he tried to invent something that would be both delicious and very nourishing (or fattening in modern terms). Then Alfredo brought out a gold fork and spoon given to him by silent movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and invited my mother to eat a few bites with them. The restaurant at WDW still uses an imported parmesan that tastes better than anyone else's fettucine anywhere. We ended the evening with IllumiNations, and then strolled back to BCV.
Tuesday was my DBIL's birthday. We spent the morning at MGM, and had lunch at the Prime Time Cafe. When I didn't finish my green beans, the waiter asked everyone else in the dining room to make airplane noises while he "flew" a forkful of beans into my mouth. DBIL didn't finish his either, and he got them back for dessert covered with whipped cream and a cherry!.
That evening we celebrated his birthday with our only bad meal during the entire visit. DBIL invited some old friends who live in FL, and we had a lousy dinner for 11 at Mama Melrose. It took 75 minutes to get to the main course. When they put my pasta in front of me it had obviously sat under a heat lamp for almost an hour and had congealed into a soggy lump. The other main courses were similarly unappetizing. Even though we had booked the Fantasmic package, the meal ran so long that we had to cancel our coffee or else miss the show. Ah, but Fantasmic was great fun, so the evening ended well.
Wednesday the uncles went off to Clearwater for a day with their friends. We bummed around Epcot enjoying the rides. The Japan store must have gotten water damage during the hurricanes, because it smelled of mildew. However, my DD had wonderful fun buying a pearl-in-an-oyster--a real treasure for an 8-year-old! Supper was at Marrakesh. We were attracted because of the 20% DVC discount, but we'll happily eat there again on another trip. Everything was delicious, and our picky kids liked one new food after another. My daughter danced with the belly dancer--just the sort of thing to make a father laugh and worry at the same time...
Thursday we did MNSSHP. My wife dressed as Cruella deVille. She painted black spots on T-shirts for the other 5 in our party and the uncles brought 5 dalmation hats, so we all followed Cruella around and attracted a lot of attention. During the parade, the Cruella CM broke out of her dancing to come chat with us and try to catch a couple of our "dalmations."
On Friday, the kids begged for some time alone with the uncles. They spent time on the boardwalk and in Epcot (another pearl-in-an-oyster!) and thoroughly indulged each other. It was exactly the sort of bonding experience that we had in mind when we planned this trip a year ago. In the meantime, my wife and I indulged ourselves at MGM, ending with our favorite WDW "date"--supper at the Brown Derby. The cobb salad was fabulous as always, prepared the original way: chopped as fine as grains of rice. We had tuna and rack of lamb, and of course we ended with grapefruit cake. A lovely and romantic last evening for our trip.
Saturday (good grief, that's today!) while checking out I discovered that I had lost the key to the safe in which I'd hidden keys, a bit of cash and some credit cards. Engineering knocked on our door 5 minutes after I called for help and immediately drilled the safe for us. Um, yes, we did get charged for that. But we were grateful for their quick response, since it enabled us to run over to MGM for a last Indiana Jones SS. My wife was chosen as one of the participants! There she was, wearing a middle eastern headdress and whooping around in front of a thousand tourists. A former actress herself, she hammed it up hugely and gave our trip a terrific final act.
Well, we're home now. We swore we'd unpack before going to bed. Yeah, right. We also swore we'd send the kids to Sunday school first thing tomorrow morning. Yeah, right again. We're going to sleep in late, and then unpack each and every souvenir one by happy one. Good night!
And so important to teach them to be comfortable with diversity at an early age.
