Dh and I just returned from out 3 night stay at BWV last night. We had an awesome trip. We feel so fortunate to own DVC. It is definitely something we would never have done without DVC.
Fri 9/5. Left Midway-Chicago at 8a and had a great flight. I have to admit that prior to leaving I lost a ton of sleep worrying about the trip. We have 2 and 5 yo dds and we have never left them for more than a night. I hate flying, and the thought of dh and I both being on a plane together was enough to give me an ulcer. I know it is unreasonable, but I'm a mom and have the right to be a little crazy at times. Anyway, we made it home safely, and the girls had a blast with family while we were away.
We got to MCO around 11:30, hopped right on a ME bus and was at the resort around 12:30. Unfortunately, the room was not ready so we split a sandwich at Boardwalk bakery and went to look around BCV. We are trying to decide if we want to stay there next time around in May, and we will definitely try. I think our girls would love the pool, and the location can't be beat.
We checked back around 3 to see if our room was ready, but the front desk lady wouldn't even check and said that none of the villas would be ready until after 4. We were a bit bummed but understood. We were going to MNSSHP, and were hoping to settle in for a bit and rest prior to going. I changed into a shirt that dh made for me for the party, and we set off to MK.
We got there around 3:30 and waited and chatted with a nice family to get into the park around 4. Can you say walk on rides. We always go during slow times, but this was the absolute slowest we have ever seen MK. We went to CP for dinner and loved it. We then went on PotC, HM, the fantasyland rides and Buzz. Being 6.5m pregnant, I didn't get to do SM which was a bummer, but I'll make up for it in May. Every ride we literally walked right to the front and got right on. Especially during that time when the day people were leaving and the party people where coming in. We watched the fireworks and rode Buzz again. The fireworks were good, but I am in the minority that thinks that the Pirate and Princess party had better fireworks and overall theme. We aren't really halloween people, so that may have had a lot to do with it. Sadly since we were up since 4a, we decided to leave around 11p and got back to BWV. We had some major pixie dust when we returned. I got our room number and we walked in to find we were on the 5th floor right above Wyland Galleries. We booked a preferred view at the end of July. I don't know if this was considered a BW view or preferred view, but we had a view of BCV, half of the boardwalk, and EPCOT. We got totally spoiled and would hate having any other view at BW.
Sat 9/6. We were up early to make it to EPCOT for ropedrop. Dds don't love EPCOT, so we wanted to spend the day there. We were at the rope, and there were dozens of people there with their pins. There must have been a pin trading event. Man I have never seen so many people run as fast as they could to get to their event. Dh and I took a leisurely walk to Soarin and walked on twice. They were actually letting people back on without leaving the ride since there was no line.
We spent some time in the Land, and then headed over to Ellen's energy adventure. We got about 5 min into the film when they said the ride broke down and we had to leave. Oh well, maybe next time. Dh then road test track twice with zero wait. He decided it was his favorite new ride. We then walked to WS and had lunch at the CS in Mexico, not that I can remember it's name. It was average at best, and we decided we probably would not go back. We spent some more time in WS and decided to go back and rest at the resort and swim some during the hot part of the day.
That evening we went back to EPCOT and ate at Tappen Edo. We LOVED it. We sat with three other very nice couples. I heard the couple across from us discussing DVC, but it was too hard to have a conversation with them across the big table. We spent the rest of the night in WS. I got Kaki gori form Japan and decided that we would have to go back the next day to get another. Before illuminations, dh got fish and chips in England. Nothing like having two dinners in one night. Gotta love being at Disney. We loved Illuminations. Dds have been afraid of fireworks until our very last trip, so we had never seen it. There was no globe, but it was still amazing. We hung out on the boardwalk and called it a night.
Sun 9/7. Again we decided to get up early for ropedrop at DHS. We got pastries from BW bakery and walked to the ferry. We were about 15min early but the lines were already long waiting to get into DHS. We went straight to TSM as did most everyone else. We waited about 5min to get on the first time. I'll say that I was expecting to be underwhelmed about the ride since there has been so much hype. Well, I was wrong. It was a blast. We walked out and decided to wait in the standbye line and go again waiting about 30min this time. We then got FP to go again later. We went off to Muppet vision and then Indian Jones. Baby needed a Mickey bar and we were treated to a freebie since the cart's computer was down. Dd3 was very happy with her first Mickey bar in utero. The show was good and we headed over to use our FPs for TSM. On each ride, my score improved, but dh doubled my score each time. We don't love DHS, so we decided to head to AK.
At AK we had lunch at the Yak and Yeti CS and we both thought it was good. It was a lot of food, and we decided that 2 meals would easily feed our entire family plus some. Dh wanted to do Kali, but the wait was 40min, so we decided to head to the safari ride. I sat near the front so it wouldn't be too bumpy, and it was fine. An ostrich decided to walk in front of our truck, and we had a good view of many animals including 2 giraffes that were right next to the truck. We walked around the park for a bit, and then went to Bugs life. We had never been before since our girls are afraid of bugs. We were right in never taking them. They would have been majorly freaked out by the show, but dh and I thought it was a blast. Definitely a favorite.
It was pretty hot and sunny, so we headed back to the resort to rest and swim around 4p.
We had dinner reservations for Spoodles, but were not hungry so we cancelled them and decided we would just snack around the world at EPCOT. I got another Kaki gori, and we shared some food at Germany. Dh rode test track again twice with no line. And we walked on to Soarin twice. It was EMH at MK so we decided to do all 4 parks in one day since it is something we would never do with the kids. We saw Wishes and rode a few more rides. By this time, my pregnant back and knees were giving out so we called it a day.
Mon 9/8. Today was non park day. We slept in, and relaxed around the resort. I hung out on the balcony and enjoyed the view. We then headed over to AKL for a late breakfast. I love the lodge. The reason we did not buy into DVC 4 years ago was because we stayed there on our very first trip and fell in love with Disney. We decided that if we couldn't stay there being DVC members it wouldn't be worth it. Well when we heard that that was changing, we bought in. The lodge however, was a bit of a mess with the construction and painting. There are fences up and men painting along the Arusha savannah. I think we only saw some of the pelicans in the Arusha savannah as they were doing landscaping and cutting the grass. The sunset savannah was a mess too, and we agreed that we were glad we were not staying here on this trip. Maybe when Kidani is completely done, we will give it a try, but for now I don't like all of the construction. We were suprised that Kidani will be open in May. It doesn't seem like it will be ready, but I guess they plan to be so they must be moving along on the parts that are set to open. We had a great breakfast and then headed to the bus stop to get on a AK bus to transfer to a BWV bus. We sadly waited over 40min for an AK bus. There were 4 EPCOT, 3 MK, and 2 DHS buses during that time. There must have been some kind of problem, b/c eventually then took and EPCOT bus to take us to AK. We hopped off the bus and walked onto a BW bus so it only took a little over an hour for the trip. We relaxed at BW for a bit and then got on our ME bus. The plane ride home was a bumpy one, as it was rainy and cloudy in Chicago. Thankfully we got in safely and were very excited to see our girls.
Overall a great trip. We won't be having a parents only trip for many years again, but we really enjoyed our alone time together for the weekend. It was tough to do, but I'm glad we did it. Plus it was fun to look at each other every time we saw a kid having a meltdown and say, it's not our problem!
I'll post some pictures after they are down loaded. Funny as we didn't take nearly as many since we didn't have our kids along, but we got a few.
Thanks for listening, and let me know if you have any questions.
Fri 9/5. Left Midway-Chicago at 8a and had a great flight. I have to admit that prior to leaving I lost a ton of sleep worrying about the trip. We have 2 and 5 yo dds and we have never left them for more than a night. I hate flying, and the thought of dh and I both being on a plane together was enough to give me an ulcer. I know it is unreasonable, but I'm a mom and have the right to be a little crazy at times. Anyway, we made it home safely, and the girls had a blast with family while we were away.
We got to MCO around 11:30, hopped right on a ME bus and was at the resort around 12:30. Unfortunately, the room was not ready so we split a sandwich at Boardwalk bakery and went to look around BCV. We are trying to decide if we want to stay there next time around in May, and we will definitely try. I think our girls would love the pool, and the location can't be beat.
We checked back around 3 to see if our room was ready, but the front desk lady wouldn't even check and said that none of the villas would be ready until after 4. We were a bit bummed but understood. We were going to MNSSHP, and were hoping to settle in for a bit and rest prior to going. I changed into a shirt that dh made for me for the party, and we set off to MK.
We got there around 3:30 and waited and chatted with a nice family to get into the park around 4. Can you say walk on rides. We always go during slow times, but this was the absolute slowest we have ever seen MK. We went to CP for dinner and loved it. We then went on PotC, HM, the fantasyland rides and Buzz. Being 6.5m pregnant, I didn't get to do SM which was a bummer, but I'll make up for it in May. Every ride we literally walked right to the front and got right on. Especially during that time when the day people were leaving and the party people where coming in. We watched the fireworks and rode Buzz again. The fireworks were good, but I am in the minority that thinks that the Pirate and Princess party had better fireworks and overall theme. We aren't really halloween people, so that may have had a lot to do with it. Sadly since we were up since 4a, we decided to leave around 11p and got back to BWV. We had some major pixie dust when we returned. I got our room number and we walked in to find we were on the 5th floor right above Wyland Galleries. We booked a preferred view at the end of July. I don't know if this was considered a BW view or preferred view, but we had a view of BCV, half of the boardwalk, and EPCOT. We got totally spoiled and would hate having any other view at BW.
Sat 9/6. We were up early to make it to EPCOT for ropedrop. Dds don't love EPCOT, so we wanted to spend the day there. We were at the rope, and there were dozens of people there with their pins. There must have been a pin trading event. Man I have never seen so many people run as fast as they could to get to their event. Dh and I took a leisurely walk to Soarin and walked on twice. They were actually letting people back on without leaving the ride since there was no line.
We spent some time in the Land, and then headed over to Ellen's energy adventure. We got about 5 min into the film when they said the ride broke down and we had to leave. Oh well, maybe next time. Dh then road test track twice with zero wait. He decided it was his favorite new ride. We then walked to WS and had lunch at the CS in Mexico, not that I can remember it's name. It was average at best, and we decided we probably would not go back. We spent some more time in WS and decided to go back and rest at the resort and swim some during the hot part of the day.
That evening we went back to EPCOT and ate at Tappen Edo. We LOVED it. We sat with three other very nice couples. I heard the couple across from us discussing DVC, but it was too hard to have a conversation with them across the big table. We spent the rest of the night in WS. I got Kaki gori form Japan and decided that we would have to go back the next day to get another. Before illuminations, dh got fish and chips in England. Nothing like having two dinners in one night. Gotta love being at Disney. We loved Illuminations. Dds have been afraid of fireworks until our very last trip, so we had never seen it. There was no globe, but it was still amazing. We hung out on the boardwalk and called it a night.
Sun 9/7. Again we decided to get up early for ropedrop at DHS. We got pastries from BW bakery and walked to the ferry. We were about 15min early but the lines were already long waiting to get into DHS. We went straight to TSM as did most everyone else. We waited about 5min to get on the first time. I'll say that I was expecting to be underwhelmed about the ride since there has been so much hype. Well, I was wrong. It was a blast. We walked out and decided to wait in the standbye line and go again waiting about 30min this time. We then got FP to go again later. We went off to Muppet vision and then Indian Jones. Baby needed a Mickey bar and we were treated to a freebie since the cart's computer was down. Dd3 was very happy with her first Mickey bar in utero. The show was good and we headed over to use our FPs for TSM. On each ride, my score improved, but dh doubled my score each time. We don't love DHS, so we decided to head to AK.
At AK we had lunch at the Yak and Yeti CS and we both thought it was good. It was a lot of food, and we decided that 2 meals would easily feed our entire family plus some. Dh wanted to do Kali, but the wait was 40min, so we decided to head to the safari ride. I sat near the front so it wouldn't be too bumpy, and it was fine. An ostrich decided to walk in front of our truck, and we had a good view of many animals including 2 giraffes that were right next to the truck. We walked around the park for a bit, and then went to Bugs life. We had never been before since our girls are afraid of bugs. We were right in never taking them. They would have been majorly freaked out by the show, but dh and I thought it was a blast. Definitely a favorite.
It was pretty hot and sunny, so we headed back to the resort to rest and swim around 4p.
We had dinner reservations for Spoodles, but were not hungry so we cancelled them and decided we would just snack around the world at EPCOT. I got another Kaki gori, and we shared some food at Germany. Dh rode test track again twice with no line. And we walked on to Soarin twice. It was EMH at MK so we decided to do all 4 parks in one day since it is something we would never do with the kids. We saw Wishes and rode a few more rides. By this time, my pregnant back and knees were giving out so we called it a day.
Mon 9/8. Today was non park day. We slept in, and relaxed around the resort. I hung out on the balcony and enjoyed the view. We then headed over to AKL for a late breakfast. I love the lodge. The reason we did not buy into DVC 4 years ago was because we stayed there on our very first trip and fell in love with Disney. We decided that if we couldn't stay there being DVC members it wouldn't be worth it. Well when we heard that that was changing, we bought in. The lodge however, was a bit of a mess with the construction and painting. There are fences up and men painting along the Arusha savannah. I think we only saw some of the pelicans in the Arusha savannah as they were doing landscaping and cutting the grass. The sunset savannah was a mess too, and we agreed that we were glad we were not staying here on this trip. Maybe when Kidani is completely done, we will give it a try, but for now I don't like all of the construction. We were suprised that Kidani will be open in May. It doesn't seem like it will be ready, but I guess they plan to be so they must be moving along on the parts that are set to open. We had a great breakfast and then headed to the bus stop to get on a AK bus to transfer to a BWV bus. We sadly waited over 40min for an AK bus. There were 4 EPCOT, 3 MK, and 2 DHS buses during that time. There must have been some kind of problem, b/c eventually then took and EPCOT bus to take us to AK. We hopped off the bus and walked onto a BW bus so it only took a little over an hour for the trip. We relaxed at BW for a bit and then got on our ME bus. The plane ride home was a bumpy one, as it was rainy and cloudy in Chicago. Thankfully we got in safely and were very excited to see our girls.
Overall a great trip. We won't be having a parents only trip for many years again, but we really enjoyed our alone time together for the weekend. It was tough to do, but I'm glad we did it. Plus it was fun to look at each other every time we saw a kid having a meltdown and say, it's not our problem!
I'll post some pictures after they are down loaded. Funny as we didn't take nearly as many since we didn't have our kids along, but we got a few.
Thanks for listening, and let me know if you have any questions.
Also, you mentioned "late breakfast." When we stayed there a few times, I did notice late in the morning there were people out on the savannah doing pick up work, so maybe that was part of the reason for "no animals" I hope so!
well actually we are going to Maui in early Dec for 5 days without the kids so what am i talking about??
