DrTomorrow
Your Disney friend from the Future!<br><font color
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2003
- Messages
- 3,498
Day 1 ( Wed 5/31 ): Descent Into Filth -or- The Stains, oh the Stains
Greetings!
Thus begins the tale of our trip to WDW. Be warned that it will contain some twisted humor, attempts at wit, and personal opinion. It will not be filled with data on costs and such - if you want those kinds of things, check with your Disney accountant.
Dramatis Personae:
DrTomorrow - that's me, a 40-something former software engineer soon-to-be high school math teacher.
MrsTomorrow - my much-better half, a work-at-home program mananger who's as nuts about Disney as I am.
We're empty-nesters with one DS(25) and two cats (Minerva and Luna) - all of us originally from Michigan but moved to The Valley of the Sun (or The Land of the Scorpions, take your pick) 2 years ago.
We own 300 pts at SSR which we bought in Fall of 2003; this will be our fifth DVC visit, our first was in May 2004 for Member Homecoming / SSR Founders Day.
OK, kids - on with the show!
Got up early for our 8:25AM SWA flight out of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (I find that a remarkably poetic name for an airport). Traffic behaved, security was quick, we were first in the 'A' line and had a good flight. Of course, I'm easy when it comes to flying: if we take off, get there and land without losing any plane parts or hearing any disturbing noises, I'm happy; I asked the FA for some extra nuts and got a handfull - woo hoo!
Arrived at MCO at about 3:30 - 4 hour flight with time zone differences (here in AZ we don't observe DST - we've got more than enough daylight already!). Picked up luggage quickly, trundled off to National Emerald Aisle (not Emerald Isle - no Leprechauns), picked up our Malibu and headed off to WDW.
We arrived at BCV at about 4:30 - that's good time for luggage, rental and drive - parked and headed to the Front Desk. We had booked 1 night at a BCV studio - we've never stayed there before - then 5 nights in a 1BR at SSR. No lines at the Front Desk and a friendly CM motioned us up. Once she found out we were DVC, we got a sincere "Welcome Home". She did the typey-typey thing, then asked "Do you mind what floor you're on, because I've got a 5th floor EPCOT view?" Well, I said "Hit that key that claims it before someone else gets it!" What a good start. We got our room (550) and packet-o-stuff and off we went. (Note: the CM had no DVC news - she'd never even been by SSR yet).
Two comments that may sound negative but I don't mean them to be so.
1. The Stains. Yes, they are there; almost every villa doorway had a half-circle of dark stains on the yellow carpet. I would not have noticed it had you folks not asked about it, but once I saw it I couldn't help but see it again and again. This had zero impact on our trip, but I do think that they need to re-think their carpet color choice.
2. It did seem like a long walk from the lobby to the room. Head down the hall, go outside by the store, walk accross the courtyard, enter the Villa building, take elevator up, go down a hallway, turn right, go down more hallway. Of course, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the total we walked on our trip - and I bet there are some shortcuts - but it isn't a 30-second trip, either.
That said, we found BCV - both our room and the entire resort - quite beautiful! Our room was quite clean: no bugs, no curly hairs, no feces. No holes in wall, no gouges in furniture, nothing broken. The view wasn't that thrilling to us: the tops of SE, Soarin' and UK(?) over trees. IMHO, EPCOT view isn't that big a deal - YMMV. But we would definitely love to stay at BCV again - a great resort!
We promptly went out to eat (all we'd had were bagels for breakfast and airline nuts for lunch) to Beaches and Cream. It was pretty quiet (a little after 5PM and only 2 or 3 tables filled) and we decided to sit at the counter. Our server was Andrea - a true credit to WDW! At first it was a little odd, just sitting there. But then I started to chat with Andrea, and found out that she's a teacher, too! She's been there for 10 years, working nights and teaching until she had her kids, now nights at B&C. Once the ice was broken, other CMs started chatting too, and by the end of the meal, we felt part of the B&C family. This is a very important point, so pay attention: Quite a bit of the 'magic' of WDW comes from the interaction with CMs and other guests. If we'd just sat there quietly, we would have eaten and left. Because we made the effort, the CMs responded and we all had a good time and a few laughs.
After eating, we took a walking tour of the grounds; the pool is indeed quite spiffy, but we just weren't in the mood to swim. So, after years of reading "Location location location" we headed off to the International Gateway. Color me impressed - it's, what, 3 minutes and you're in EPCOT! Our primary goal was the Tony Orlando Flower Power show, we actually made the 7PM show instead of the 8:15 we'd planned on. The line was long, but that theatre holds a lot, so we got in under cover and waited for the show. Hmmmmm....., who's that? Oh, Tony seems to have put on a few pounds. Also, the audience seemed to be 70's-based: not the 1970's, but they were in their 70's. Tony asked how many had been at the first show, and almost half the audience raised hands. The show was great, but a little odd: while he did cover his hits (Knock 3 Times, Yellow Ribbon, Candida, etc) he also indulged the band a little (one keyboardist did Led Zep - "Whole Lotta Love"). He ended with an absolutely wonderful tribute to Veterans; while singing Neil Diamond's "America" he announced a war then had vets from that war stand up to be thanked and applauded. Very, very nice.
Since we were ahead of schedule, we walked back to the BCV boat dock and took the boat to MGM. It was an EMH night (open 'til 1AM, I think) and we wanted to check out the second (10:30) Fantasmic. Well, folks, it was a ZOO! The place was busy Busy BUSY! At 8:50, ToT was 60 min, RnRC was 60; even GMR was 50 minutes! Cra-a-a-a-zy! We were starting to fizzle a bit, so we sat down to catch our breath; I read the EMH guide for MGM and saw that there was a 9:30 Indy show. We haven't seen this in years - it's such a time-suck during the morning touring times - so we walked right in. This is a great show; a lot more fun than the new Motor Car show. Indy ended at 10 and we walked over to Sunset Blvd to join a hot & humid mass of people waiting for Fantasmic. I know it was later, we were tired and it was humid (hey, we're from the DESERT, OK?), but Fantasmic was almost unpleasant. Crying children, really loud sound system and some pretty disturbing villian imagery - ick. We got up to watch the end right by the exit and headed out to beat the crowd. (I still had my sense of humor, though - as we exited, I told the CMs there that "there might be a few people behind us"; they thought this highly amusing and started cracking up.) We beat the crowd to the boat dock (walk home? - not tonight!) and our timing paid off. By the time our boat left, the crowd filled up the dock and a good part of the sidewalk from the entrance to MGM. Captain said "that's about 4 boatloads up there...." This was the first of 3 EMH nights we experienced, all unpleasant - my advice, avoid EMH-PM like the plague!
Got back to BCV, went straight to our room and went right to sleep, ending a long but enjoyable travel day.
Stay tuned, folks - there's more to come!
Greetings!
Thus begins the tale of our trip to WDW. Be warned that it will contain some twisted humor, attempts at wit, and personal opinion. It will not be filled with data on costs and such - if you want those kinds of things, check with your Disney accountant.
Dramatis Personae:
DrTomorrow - that's me, a 40-something former software engineer soon-to-be high school math teacher.
MrsTomorrow - my much-better half, a work-at-home program mananger who's as nuts about Disney as I am.
We're empty-nesters with one DS(25) and two cats (Minerva and Luna) - all of us originally from Michigan but moved to The Valley of the Sun (or The Land of the Scorpions, take your pick) 2 years ago.
We own 300 pts at SSR which we bought in Fall of 2003; this will be our fifth DVC visit, our first was in May 2004 for Member Homecoming / SSR Founders Day.
OK, kids - on with the show!
Got up early for our 8:25AM SWA flight out of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (I find that a remarkably poetic name for an airport). Traffic behaved, security was quick, we were first in the 'A' line and had a good flight. Of course, I'm easy when it comes to flying: if we take off, get there and land without losing any plane parts or hearing any disturbing noises, I'm happy; I asked the FA for some extra nuts and got a handfull - woo hoo!
Arrived at MCO at about 3:30 - 4 hour flight with time zone differences (here in AZ we don't observe DST - we've got more than enough daylight already!). Picked up luggage quickly, trundled off to National Emerald Aisle (not Emerald Isle - no Leprechauns), picked up our Malibu and headed off to WDW.
We arrived at BCV at about 4:30 - that's good time for luggage, rental and drive - parked and headed to the Front Desk. We had booked 1 night at a BCV studio - we've never stayed there before - then 5 nights in a 1BR at SSR. No lines at the Front Desk and a friendly CM motioned us up. Once she found out we were DVC, we got a sincere "Welcome Home". She did the typey-typey thing, then asked "Do you mind what floor you're on, because I've got a 5th floor EPCOT view?" Well, I said "Hit that key that claims it before someone else gets it!" What a good start. We got our room (550) and packet-o-stuff and off we went. (Note: the CM had no DVC news - she'd never even been by SSR yet).
Two comments that may sound negative but I don't mean them to be so.
1. The Stains. Yes, they are there; almost every villa doorway had a half-circle of dark stains on the yellow carpet. I would not have noticed it had you folks not asked about it, but once I saw it I couldn't help but see it again and again. This had zero impact on our trip, but I do think that they need to re-think their carpet color choice.
2. It did seem like a long walk from the lobby to the room. Head down the hall, go outside by the store, walk accross the courtyard, enter the Villa building, take elevator up, go down a hallway, turn right, go down more hallway. Of course, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the total we walked on our trip - and I bet there are some shortcuts - but it isn't a 30-second trip, either.
That said, we found BCV - both our room and the entire resort - quite beautiful! Our room was quite clean: no bugs, no curly hairs, no feces. No holes in wall, no gouges in furniture, nothing broken. The view wasn't that thrilling to us: the tops of SE, Soarin' and UK(?) over trees. IMHO, EPCOT view isn't that big a deal - YMMV. But we would definitely love to stay at BCV again - a great resort!
We promptly went out to eat (all we'd had were bagels for breakfast and airline nuts for lunch) to Beaches and Cream. It was pretty quiet (a little after 5PM and only 2 or 3 tables filled) and we decided to sit at the counter. Our server was Andrea - a true credit to WDW! At first it was a little odd, just sitting there. But then I started to chat with Andrea, and found out that she's a teacher, too! She's been there for 10 years, working nights and teaching until she had her kids, now nights at B&C. Once the ice was broken, other CMs started chatting too, and by the end of the meal, we felt part of the B&C family. This is a very important point, so pay attention: Quite a bit of the 'magic' of WDW comes from the interaction with CMs and other guests. If we'd just sat there quietly, we would have eaten and left. Because we made the effort, the CMs responded and we all had a good time and a few laughs.
After eating, we took a walking tour of the grounds; the pool is indeed quite spiffy, but we just weren't in the mood to swim. So, after years of reading "Location location location" we headed off to the International Gateway. Color me impressed - it's, what, 3 minutes and you're in EPCOT! Our primary goal was the Tony Orlando Flower Power show, we actually made the 7PM show instead of the 8:15 we'd planned on. The line was long, but that theatre holds a lot, so we got in under cover and waited for the show. Hmmmmm....., who's that? Oh, Tony seems to have put on a few pounds. Also, the audience seemed to be 70's-based: not the 1970's, but they were in their 70's. Tony asked how many had been at the first show, and almost half the audience raised hands. The show was great, but a little odd: while he did cover his hits (Knock 3 Times, Yellow Ribbon, Candida, etc) he also indulged the band a little (one keyboardist did Led Zep - "Whole Lotta Love"). He ended with an absolutely wonderful tribute to Veterans; while singing Neil Diamond's "America" he announced a war then had vets from that war stand up to be thanked and applauded. Very, very nice.
Since we were ahead of schedule, we walked back to the BCV boat dock and took the boat to MGM. It was an EMH night (open 'til 1AM, I think) and we wanted to check out the second (10:30) Fantasmic. Well, folks, it was a ZOO! The place was busy Busy BUSY! At 8:50, ToT was 60 min, RnRC was 60; even GMR was 50 minutes! Cra-a-a-a-zy! We were starting to fizzle a bit, so we sat down to catch our breath; I read the EMH guide for MGM and saw that there was a 9:30 Indy show. We haven't seen this in years - it's such a time-suck during the morning touring times - so we walked right in. This is a great show; a lot more fun than the new Motor Car show. Indy ended at 10 and we walked over to Sunset Blvd to join a hot & humid mass of people waiting for Fantasmic. I know it was later, we were tired and it was humid (hey, we're from the DESERT, OK?), but Fantasmic was almost unpleasant. Crying children, really loud sound system and some pretty disturbing villian imagery - ick. We got up to watch the end right by the exit and headed out to beat the crowd. (I still had my sense of humor, though - as we exited, I told the CMs there that "there might be a few people behind us"; they thought this highly amusing and started cracking up.) We beat the crowd to the boat dock (walk home? - not tonight!) and our timing paid off. By the time our boat left, the crowd filled up the dock and a good part of the sidewalk from the entrance to MGM. Captain said "that's about 4 boatloads up there...." This was the first of 3 EMH nights we experienced, all unpleasant - my advice, avoid EMH-PM like the plague!
Got back to BCV, went straight to our room and went right to sleep, ending a long but enjoyable travel day.
Stay tuned, folks - there's more to come!
I can see how that would be a long walk. We usually enjoy our morning coffee in the solarium and see many people coming and going from the villa area. Looking forward to the rest of your report.
. 
