Celebrating 2007 with two weeks at the World...with pics; updated:a Day at MGM!

[DisneyJo]

What a lucky boy, that is such a cool dream, love his creation too

 

[slk537]

Oh, we are sooooooooooo going to Goofy's Candy Co! I want those pretzel rods you made. Except, did they have dark chocolate there? And, I guess I'll let the kids create their own Mickey rice krispie treats!

Goofy's Candy Company looks like a blast! We are so there. This is such a fun report.

What a lucky boy, that is such a cool dream, love his creation too

Thank you all!

Goofy's Candy Co is SO MUCH fun! They can customize the following:

apples, huge Oreos, 3 pretzel rod (can do each one different if you want!), Mickey Rice Krispy treats, marshmallow kabobs on Mickey straws...

You pick what chocolate you want them dipped in: milk, dark or white

Then you pick what candy/nuts you want them rolled in: oreo, nuts, chocolate chips, all kinds of candy bars, M&M's, etc.

Then you can have them drizzled with more chocolate or caramel.

Everything except the apples are snacks on the DDP

You put your name on an order form and then check off what you want. They confirm it with you and make it. Then they refrigerate it so it's solid, pack it in a cute little box and tissue and seal it with a Mickey sticker.

 

[DisneyJo]

Thank you all!

Goofy's Candy Co is SO MUCH fun! They can customize the following:

apples, huge Oreos, 3 pretzel rod (can do each one different if you want!), Mickey Rice Krispy treats, marshmallow kabobs on Mickey straws...

You pick what chocolate you want them dipped in: milk, dark or white

Then you pick what candy/nuts you want them rolled in: oreo, nuts, chocolate chips, all kinds of candy bars, M&M's, etc.

Then you can have them drizzled with more chocolate or caramel.

Everything except the apples are snacks on the DDP

You put your name on an order form and then check off what you want. They confirm it with you and make it. Then they refrigerate it so it's solid, pack it in a cute little box and tissue and seal it with a Mickey sticker.

OMG I'm going to be in there for ages using all our 56 snack credits

 

[Blue Skies]

Thanks again for a great TR!

It sounds like Max had a great time at the Goofy Candy Co.! It sounds even better than the cookie "cooking" at the GF! I know you can not plan on being chosen at Goofy's, but I would rather try for that then pay $30 to decorate cookies!

 

[princessjv]

Do you go by Jenn/Jen or Jennifer?

Jen

Once done with this, we went to Target to pick up a knee brace for Goofy, more sf flavored water for me and more sunblock.

M U S T G O T O T a r g e t...c a n ' t s u r v i v e...

Now we have a Lego store at the MOA, but they sure don't have that cool wall of legos!

YUMMO!

What fun! I bet he felt really special!

 

[slk537]

OMG I'm going to be in there for ages using all our 56 snack credits

HAA!!! I can tell you from personal experience that the CM's there are very patient in helping you with that daunting task

Thanks again for a great TR!

It sounds like Max had a great time at the Goofy Candy Co.! It sounds even better than the cookie "cooking" at the GF! I know you can not plan on being chosen at Goofy's, but I would rather try for that then pay $30 to decorate cookies!

Same here!!! I would rather have him do two different Pirate Cruises than the cooking again.

They really did a great job of making him feel special at Goofy's - and for that I love them!

And I have one more magical moment at Goofy's coming up in a day or two.

 

[slk537]

Now we have a Lego store at the MOA, but they sure don't have that cool wall of legos!

Hey Jen!

Max LOVES the MOA Lego store!!! We head up there at least every 6-8 weeks or so and it's on our list of must stops. Last year we spent the day up there for his birthday and gave him his own money to spend to pick out a few special things. He chose the Disney Store (that's my BOY!!), Barnes and Noble and The Lego Store. He picked out a bunch of the loose Legos in the containers, but you are right - no where near as cool as the DTD store's "wall of legos".

Next time we go to the MOA (or "star mall" as DS calls it, thanks to the outside decorations) I think he may just be using some of his allowance for another $10 Star Wars kit.

 

[betsywdw]

How awesome that Max was picked to be a candy maker!!! His rice krispy treat looked pretty good! I am really enjoying your TR. We recently joined DVC and I am looking forward to our first DVC stay. I like that you take time to enjoy everything and it sounds so fun to rent some movies and just relax and spend some time at the resort.

 

[belle8306]

I can't wait to go to Goofy's Candy Co. to make a treat! Your discriptions were excellent. What a special day for your son! I love the picture of him with the huge straw.

 

[wilma-bride]

Wow Jenn, what a great day it turned into. Thank you for the warning about the peanut butter BTW

I thinkt hat Lego Store at DTD has goot be every little boy's dream - I know it would certainly be Daniel's

What a great experience for Max at the Candy Company - and his treat looked yummy - as for yours, well you know what I think about them

Whispering Canyon sounds like fun - we are kind of the same in that I don't think we'd enjoy too much full-on attention but I'd like to think we could try it one day.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Hi from a fellow Wisconsinite! Just found your trip report and I love it! How cool you got to stay at the Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge! My family just joined the DVC last year, and I'm sooooo excited to hopefully stay at some of the other DVC resorts some day!

Also...great pictures. I especially liked the ones of the pirate cruise...so cute!

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow, a great trip report! It took me ages to catch up, but am very much looking forward to the next installment! Hope you havea a great start back at work after your lovely 4 weeks off!

 

[slk537]

How awesome that Max was picked to be a candy maker!!! His rice krispy treat looked pretty good! I am really enjoying your TR. We recently joined DVC and I am looking forward to our first DVC stay. I like that you take time to enjoy everything and it sounds so fun to rent some movies and just relax and spend some time at the resort.

I know it sounds sacriligious to some, but it's one of the perks of DVC to us: we'll be back. It makes for a lot of fun family time that doesn't necessarily mean park time

I can't wait to go to Goofy's Candy Co. to make a treat! Your discriptions were excellent. What a special day for your son! I love the picture of him with the huge straw.

Thank you - he had a blast!

Wow Jenn, what a great day it turned into. Thank you for the warning about the peanut butter BTW

I thinkt hat Lego Store at DTD has goot be every little boy's dream - I know it would certainly be Daniel's

What a great experience for Max at the Candy Company - and his treat looked yummy - as for yours, well you know what I think about them

Whispering Canyon sounds like fun - we are kind of the same in that I don't think we'd enjoy too much full-on attention but I'd like to think we could try it one day.

It was fun - not too over the top though...that would drive us crazy!

Hi from a fellow Wisconsinite! Just found your trip report and I love it! How cool you got to stay at the Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge! My family just joined the DVC last year, and I'm sooooo excited to hopefully stay at some of the other DVC resorts some day!

Also...great pictures. I especially liked the ones of the pirate cruise...so cute!

Thank you! You will love the DVC resorts so much...they are all wonderful in their own way!

Wow, a great trip report! It took me ages to catch up, but am very much looking forward to the next installment! Hope you havea a great start back at work after your lovely 4 weeks off!

Thank you!! I am trying not to be in mourning tonight since I have to go back to work tomorrow. But I tried to log in to read all my emails and my login password expired so I guess I have to wait until tomorrow

 

[slk537]

Well it's back to work for me tomorrow so I wanted to get one more update in before Real Life comes flooding back in. Tomorrow will be a big catch up day and then the rest of the week we have management training so I won't get back into the swing of things until next week.

Argh....!

So back to Disney World Trip Reporting!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

This morning we slept in and talked about what we were going to do and where we were going to go. You see I am a psychotic planner. I love my DIS, I love my WDW books, I love my Travel Channel shows. My best friend calls my planning obsessing my hobby and she’s right. I plan the resorts, I scour the internet looking for coupons and deals on the rental cars, I budget, and I plan our ADR’s. Sometimes I plan itineraries for the days. And I really, really enjoy the planning. But in the end, what we do day to day really comes down to what we feel like doing on that day. We have our hotel and ADR’s set – our daily plans? Nope.

So this day we had breakfast in the room and talked about where to go and decided on the MK since we could just take the boat over. I had the beginnings of a headache, so I grabbed two Excedrin Migraines and then Max and I began the walk to the boat while Goofy returned the movies. Once we all got together outside it was just hot and humid and sticky. We sat down to reevaluate our plans.

Okay – I might be the only one who feels this way, but when I walk past a pool on a hot day, I am always envious of the people who are all nice and cool and relaxed in the pool. The smell of chlorine and sunscreen makes me smile. And I want to jump in.

On the contrary – when I’m in the pool (and probably freezing) and nice dry people walk past, I envy them for being dry and clean and on their way to the fun of the parks. I guess I can’t win

So on this sticky day, as we walked with a few others to the boat we passed the pool. And we all decided we’d rather be there than the Magic Kingdom. A sign of the beginning of the end of the trip: we’d rather hang out by the pool than hit the parks.

Max and I stopped at the Mickey statue for a photo:

And he found a "Hidden Mickey" in the leaves...

Then Max ran ahead of me to the lobby:

Lunch at Artist Palette was on my Must Do list, so we decided to go over there and get some lunch and then spend the afternoon by the Hidden Springs Pool (VWL Villas quiet pool). We parked and walked through the pool area to get to Artist Palette – the smell of the chlorine and the shrieks of the kids running up and sliding down the slide reaffirmed that hanging out at the pool was definitely what we wanted to be doing.

We ordered lunch and then found a table with a sketchpad – Max’s favorite! We spilt a pepperoni flatbread (another of Max’s favorites!), a salad, two desserts and a few drinks. Goofy opted for Sprite, I wanted water and Max wanted more of the cran-raspberry apple juice. I paid OOP for the water and when I looked at the receipt, I had one of those moments where I know why I really do like SSR so much. Artist Palette, apparently, has a 10% DVC discount. Every time we’ve used our discount, we’ve always had to ask for it. Here? The CM just automatically applied it to the water purchase I charged to my room key. You know the old DVC marketing phrase? “If you believe in Magic, you Belong…?” SSR and OKW – the only all DVC resorts – really have that feeling of being part of a large family. It may sound hokey, but it’s true.

Max with his drawings and games:

After lunch we went back to the VWL to get ready for the pool and I was fighting a pounding headache. When I went to get my book for the pool, I reached on top of the TV and found the two migraine pills there – apparently I had forgotten to take them. That would explain the headache! I took them with some water and then we all went to the pool and had a fantastic afternoon swimming and sitting at a table with a drink and a great book.

Hidden Springs Pool:

I overheard someone getting off the phone and telling her DH that there was a cancellation and they now had a 1br available. I started thinking…hmmmm…I wonder if VWL is available for the rest of our trip?

I mentioned it to Goofy and he volunteered to go up and call Member Services. We had waitlisted into a standard view at BWV so it would be more points but I thought it would be worth it. I’d miss trying out BWV, but get to spend more time at my beloved VWL.

Alas, the only one of our three BWV nights available at VWL was the last night. I sighed and saw it as a sign that we were supposed to try out BWV. We swam a while longer and went up to get ready for our evening at Le Cellier. This time with all three of us at dinner.

We got in the car and drove over to Epcot. Max wanted to stop at the Mercantile and pick out his rocks – they have a stand full of polished rocks and for something like $6.99 you can fill a black velvet bag full of as many as you want. Max got these the first time we stayed at VWL and it has become one of his little traditions since. It started with him picking out all orange rocks (he LOVES orange!) and it takes him a long time to select the perfect rocks. We didn’t have time to do it on the way to dinner, so he was a little crabby since he would have to wait until after Epcot. He got better once we were at Epcot – he got a map and found Canada. He was leading us towards the restaurant when a CM stopped us and asked Max if he had met Mickey and Minnie yet today. He said no and she led us over to the Character Connection area to meet them – she mentioned she had just come from there and there were almost no lines. Max didn’t really want to but he didn’t say anything to the CM – she had a pretty strong personality and seemed to think Max needed to do the meet and greet. You may have noticed a lack of character meals and autograph sessions on this trip. Max loves meeting characters on his own terms. When he was little, he loved it and we did the Chef Mickeys, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, Cape May breakfast, etc. thing. But on the last trip he only seemed to want to meet them every once and a while. He and I got in line while Goofy ran ahead to check in. It wasn’t more than a few minutes before he started complaining about a pain in his eye. He had poked himself in the eye with his map and wanted to leave.

That was fine with me, so we took a look at his eye to make sure he was okay and then walked over to Le Cellier. Goofy was seated inside waiting for us and as soon as we got in he stood up and we were seated. We had a very nice server and Max had a ball. We ordered him his Pirates Punch with the cup and blinky Captain Hook clip (not included on DDP).

You can’t see the red light here, but this is the cup and clip. The drink is Minute Maid sugar free raspberry lemonade. He absolutely loved both the toy and the drink.

Our seat was over on the side of the restaurant - this is what was right over Max and Goofy's head:

We enjoyed another Le Cellier dinner and this time I ordered a glass of Inniskillin ice wine with dessert. It was wonderful, but after we left, I felt sick to my stomach – too much food and the wine . Max fell in love with the pretzel bread - he ate the first one so fast, our server brought him more.

(Yes, that's a knife, but Goofy was watching closely to be sure he was careful - I promise!)

After Le Cellier, we went straight over to Soarin’ - I love love love this ride! After Soarin’ we decided to go on Living with the Land again. It tickled me as to how much Max loved this ride. We were the last people on before closing. It was now 7:00 so we walked over to Mexico and went on the Gran Fiesta. Max had been enjoying the Three Caballeros on the Disney Sing Along Songs so he was looking forward to this. The line was short and we were seated in the boat. It has some really cute changes, but it was irritating to have 4 young early 20’s people sitting right in front of us who talked loudly the entire ride. And not about the ride – about their friends and what they had for dinner and their plans for later. It was like the ride interrupted their conversation and they just kept going. Max didn’t seem to notice so Goofy and I rolled our eyes and relaxed. We wandered around World Showcase for a while and then decided to go back to VWL to pack up. On the way out, Max saw SSE was open so we rode it and then left. Once back at the resort, Goofy dropped me off and I started packing while he and Max went to the Mercantile to get Max’s rocks and a drink. Max was thrilled with his bag of stones and Goofy said the CM in the Mercantile was great – when they brought it up to the register, she told them she could fit more rocks in there and took them back where she indeed stuffed even more in for them. We finished packing and then curled up late to watch another DVD – Tower of Terror.

Next up? Mother's Day and Moving to the Boardwalk!

 

[wilma-bride]

Another lovely day Jenn - as I said on your dining thread, I'm even more excited about eating at Le Cellier now

Max looks as though he was doing really well with his knife - clever boy

What a shame you couldn't finish your stay at VWL but I'm glad you are going to BWV - we love it

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Pics are awesome TFS

 

[arizonacolbys]

I'm a little late in finding this one, but I was able to catch up over the long weekend - loving your TR!! We stayed at the BWV in a Boardwalk View Studio last October & LOVED it!!

 

[jbmom]

I just found your trip report! Love it!

 

[wahoostampingirl]

Walmart on vacation, Cape May Dinner, and DTD!

After leaving DAK, we headed to Walmart to pick up a few items for the room (mostly drinks). We chose Walmart over Target for one reason only: Sonic. There is a Sonic up in the front of the store and DH and I are addicted to the Cherry Limeades. And this day was hot and humid and we were desperately in need of a couple. So I sighed and decided to forego my beloved Target this time in favor of Walmart.

No matter - we got the drinks and Goofy and I were happy. I believe Goofy and I would love a Sonic up at home solely for these cherry limeades….

:

This made me LOL because on our first trip to WDW, I was obsessed with finding the Sonic. We don't have any near us and I love, love, love the diet limeade (not cherry, just straight limeade). We kept calling the different Sonics listed in the phone book and at each one, no one could tell us how to get there. Finally, we called the one at Wal-Mart and they were able to give us directions. Thank Goodness my dh is very understanding of my need for limeade. There's a reason I keep him around.

I found this TR while reading your wonderful dining report. Thanks for the dose of Disney.

 

[missmun52]

What great installments! I am so sad that we wont be hearing from you for a while and that you have to go back to work but at least you have another trip to look forward to. Although waiting generally seems sooooooo long the planning is always so much fun!!

Cant wait to hear from you again soon