Bringin' the HAPPY back! A (do-over) Spring Break TR!

[michellem1118]

(remember, I'd noticed at MK that the camera battery was almost dead, so very few pictures for this update )

After leaving MK, we debated what to do next. Since we were staying at an Epcot-area resort, we decided to take the monorail over to Epcot, rather than taking a bus back to our resort. Once on the monorail, I sent a text to wigd to see where they were at, but they had just headed out of Epcot, and her phone was dying. DH & I debated what to do. I decided that, since we were in a photopass share, I wanted to get as many photos as possible... so once we got through the turnstiles, we stopped for pictures, of course. We may have headed over to Club Cool for a refreshing drink, or we may have headed straight to the Character Spot, but in any event, we ended up in line at the Character Spot. This was probably the 2nd-longest line we waited in all week - it took about 30-40 minutes to get our turn with the Fab 5. I'll add the photos when the photopass cd makes its way to me.

While we were at the Character Spot, wigd texted me that they were heading back to Epcot! So, after we finished with the characters, I quickly texted wigd and we made plans to meet. DH & I sat down right outside the butterfly garden, outside Mousegear, to wait, and soon, wigd, shocker, and jewjubean showed up! It was my very first ever DIS meet!

The five of us walked around the World Showcase, chatting about life in general, for a while. Jewjubean had to be at work at 5 or so, so she had to leave Epcot by 4ish. While we were walking around, we saw something that I've never seen at Epcot in all of my previous trips:

The drawbridge was up!

They were bringing in the barges for Illuminations!

Traffic in the WS was at a stand-still, obviously... there was no where to go. We thought it was so neat, since it's not something you see every day. Soon after this sighting, jewjubean left to go to work, and the rest of us continued on to France, stopping to explore the American Pavilion while DH got a beer! It was time to officially launch the "Slushie Lushie Club"! (If you're not familiar with the Slushie Lushie Club, check out wigd's December trip report)

After we finished our delicious Grey Goose slushies, the four of us headed out of Epcot. We all walked over to the Boardwalk, and wigd & shocker were nice enough to show us their beautiful 1-bedroom villa. I'm not going to give anything away, though since wigd will likely tell you about the room in her TR. We spent a little while with them, and then left them to unpack their villa after their luggage was delivered.

It was just about dinnertime. What to do next?

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

May I join the club if I bring my own slushie

 

[michellem1118]

May I join the club if I bring my own slushie

LOL! Of course, new members are always welcome! PM me your email address if you'd like me to personalize the club logo for you (I made bag tags for myself, wigd, and jewjubean before our trip )

 

[MeMom]

wigd, shocker, and jewjubean showed up! It was my very first ever DIS meet!

The five of us walked around the World Showcase, chatting about life in general, for a while. Jewjubean had to be at work at 5 or so, so she had to leave Epcot by 4ish. We all walked over to the Boardwalk, and wigd & shocker were nice enough to show us their beautiful 1-bedroom villa. I'm not going to give anything away, though since wigd will likely tell you about the room in her TR. We spent a little while with them

You couldn't have done better for yourself on your very first DIS meet.

 

[KathyRN137]

Congratulations on your first DIS-meet! Aren't they fun? Now you will be hooked!!


Kathy

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh my gosh, we had our first grey goose slushie this trip and fell in love!

 

[michellem1118]

You couldn't have done better for yourself on your very first DIS meet.

I agree, MeMom!

Congratulations on your first DIS-meet! Aren't they fun? Now you will be hooked!!


Kathy

You're probably right, Kathy!

Oh my gosh, we had our first grey goose slushie this trip and fell in love!

The grey goose ones are amazing... I'm not a fan of the Grand Marnier orange-flavored ones, though!

 

[vamassey1]

I'm late but I'm here. I followed you over from Wigd's report.

Sorry for you hassled start but sounds like thing got much better after hitting the parks.

 

[michellem1118]

I'm late but I'm here. I followed you over from Wigd's report.

Sorry for you hassled start but sounds like thing got much better after hitting the parks.

Glad to have you! Things did improve considerably after we finally made it to WDW, thank goodness.

 

[MHTeacher]

YAY for a DIS meet!

I've never seen the drawbridge up either. That would be fun seeing the Illuminations' barge getting moved into place---the crowd, not so fun!

 

[CW4DW]

Glad you had your first dis meet - that is great! I'm going to have to check out wigd's report to check out the villa! Can't wait for more!

 

[michellem1118]

YAY for a DIS meet!

I've never seen the drawbridge up either. That would be fun seeing the Illuminations' barge getting moved into place---the crowd, not so fun!

The crowds never really seemed that bad, except when there was something blocking the path. For the most part, it seemed much less crowded than the week after Christmas.

Glad you had your first dis meet - that is great! I'm going to have to check out wigd's report to check out the villa! Can't wait for more!

wigd & shocker are very nice people! We'll likely be seeing them again on our June trip... we have a few overlapping days.

I'm going to try to get the next installment up this weekend... but our Homeowner's Association has been sending emails about weeds & lawn care, so since it's finally not raining, I have a bit of yard work to do first.

That reminds me, I better go find my allergy medicine before I head out into the pollen...

 

[michellem1118]

(still short on pictures, camera battery was still dead; all pics in this post were taken with my phone)

After leaving wigd and shocker, we were beginning to get hungry. We wandered around on the Boardwalk and debated getting a slice of pizza, but ultimately decided against it... I wasn't in a pizza mood. So, we headed back towards the Beach Club. We talked about going to Beaches & Cream, and decided that we would go drop off our things in the room before heading over there. As we walked through the lobby, though, the aromas from Cape May Cafe began to overwhelm us. DH checked to see what the wait time was without a reservation, and was told 20 minutes. I left him in the lobby with the buzzer, and ran to our villa to drop off our stuff. By the time I got back to the lobby, maybe 10 minutes later, our buzzer had already gone off!

If you're not familiar with Cape May Cafe, at dinner time its a clam bake buffet. DH ordered a beer:

and I ordered something called an Eco-tini. It was a martini made with some sort of organic vodka, and came with a really cool bracelet made out of some sort of seed from a rainforest plant.

After we placed our drink orders, we headed up to the buffet. I really enjoyed the salad selections and the crab claws. DH seemed to enjoy everything. This was a really good meal, but I'd forgotten how expensive Disney buffets tend to be at dinner time... and I don't usually eat enough to make the buffets worthwhile. By the end of the meal, my stomach was feeling a bit off as well, so we basically skipped dessert and headed back to the room to rest for a bit. I think this is when I remembered to plug the camera battery in to charge. After resting for a few minutes, we decided to head out to DTD for the evening. I wanted to do a bit of souvenir shopping.

We got on a bus pretty quickly, and arrived at DTD shortly. We got off the bus at the Marketplace stop, and headed over to the pin store. We wanted to preview the AP & DVC exclusive pins, because our annual passes were set to expire the next day... we needed to decide ASAP about the AP-exclusives. We looked at the pins a bit (didn't really like the exclusives available at DTD, but we saw the F&G festival exclusives in a display case, so we knew we had to hit Epcot for at least a few minutes the next day to pick those up) and then headed to World of Disney.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

I've never seen WoD so crowded before. We didn't even make it halfway into the store before deciding that we'd had enough. As we headed back outside, it had cooled off quite a bit, so we decided to just go back to the resort. We didn't wait long for a bus, but we learned an important lesson at this point: the bus ride back to the Beach Club from DTD takes FOREVER. We got on the bus at the marketplace, then had to go to the West Side/Pleasure Island stop... and the bus is shared, so we made stops at Swan, Dolphin, and Yacht Club before finally returning to Beach Club. I think it took over 45 minutes!

After making our way back to the villa, we quickly got ready for bed. We had another rope drop to make in the morning. I wonder where we were going?

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Mmmmm, clambake! Love that buffet!
Crazy how crowded WOD was that night, wonder what was up with that? I know it was Spring Break and all but still....

 

[michellem1118]

Mmmmm, clambake! Love that buffet!
Crazy how crowded WOD was that night, wonder what was up with that? I know it was Spring Break and all but still....

WoD was crazy that night! Even the week after Christmas, at night, with my mom navigating in the ECV, it never felt THAT crowded. My only thought was that maybe a lot of people were going home the next day? But it was a Sunday, so that doesn't seem to work...

 

[micandminforever]

Cape May Cafe Clambake is one of my favorites. I think it is one of the undiscovered places of Disney.

 

[michellem1118]

Cape May Cafe Clambake is one of my favorites. I think it is one of the undiscovered places of Disney.

It was very good! I just can't eat $35 worth of food in one sitting so Disney buffets don't work well for me...

 

[MHTeacher]

WoD-----I love that place, but I totally have a nervous breakdown everytime I'm in that place. It's just soooooooo HUGE, I can't keep up with my posse of kids (and 1 husband too!)

 

[michellem1118]

WoD-----I love that place, but I totally have a nervous breakdown everytime I'm in that place. It's just soooooooo HUGE, I can't keep up with my posse of kids (and 1 husband too!)

I can't even imagine trying to keep track of kids in there! On our Christmas trip, it nearly killed me to keep up with my mom (in an ECV, you'd think she'd be harder to lose ), DH, MIL, and BIL. As soon as I'd find one of them, another one would disappear. It's definitely a much more manageable place without a whole group of people.

 

[michellem1118]

psst..... I added a new ticker to my siggy...