First DVC stay with DS's 16 and 3

[Dennis_D]

This post will contain links to the other posts.

Me - graying father
DW - graying wife
DS16 - tentative on roller coasters. Enjoys spending some time touring parks alone
DS3 - Celebrating his 3rd birthday on the trip. Full of energy and loves playing in the water

 

[Dennis_D]

We came last year for 5 days with my mom (82) and we stayed at the Beach Club. I had a so-so time, the worst I have ever had at WDW. So we made some adjustments this time around.

1 BR suite at Beach Club Villas
Our youngest sleeps best when the room is pitch dark. Last year, that meant someone had to be bored crazy while he was napping and sleeping. The rest of us typically hung out in the Solarium. This time, we got a 1 bedroom DVC suite at the Beach Club Villas so we can have the bedroom pitch black while the rest of us putter in the other room. I bought a 178 point reservation from someone at DISboards.com

Longer stay
5 days was just too short. I felt like I had to go, go, go to try to see everything and it didn't work. This time we went with 7 days, 6 nights.

Have table service lunches instead of breakfasts
When our oldest was little, I think the parks opened at 8 and EMH was at 7. My recollection was that we would get up at 6, get to the park at 7 and then we were ready for a break at 10:30. Last year (and this year), the parks open at 9 and EMH was at 8, so taking a break at 10:30 was just too soon. This year, we made our table service reservations for 11:30 lunches.

Left my mom at home
It was just too hard on her trying to keep up with us as we zipped around the parks. We got wheelchairs at every park so she wouldn't have to walk, but they were a hassle to deal with. Also, her snoring worsened everyone else's sleep.

 

[Dennis_D]

Here are some mistakes we made before we left:

Joined TourGuideMike too late
I should have done it when we made reservations 6 months ago. That was when I made the meal reservations. After reading TourGuideMike.com, I realized that my original plan for which park to go to wasn't very good, but by that time I couldn't change the meal reservations.

Waited too long to order food from GardenGrocer.com
We waited until a few days before our trip to order from GardenGrocer.com and we couldn't get a delivery date until close to the end of our stay. At that point, it wasn't worth having food delivered. We could have tried some other sites, but we just ran out of time.

 

[Dennis_D]

We woke up at 5 am (Dallas time, which is our home) to catch our 7:30 flight. The trip went smooth. We had three wrapped presents for DS3 to open on the 2.5 hour flight and he was kept amused. We took the Magical Express and we were sent to the bus as soon as we got to the end of the line. Last year if I remember correctly, there was a "Welcome to Disney World" video for the last half of the bus trip. This year, they ran cartoons the whole trips, mainly Chip and Dale (DS3's favorite Disney characters). Once we got checked in, we had lunch at the Marketplace at the hotel - decent sandwiches. I stayed in the room with DS3 as he napped. DW and DS16 went to MK. We had a 5:10 reservation for Chef Mickey's. DS3 normally naps 2-2.5 hours, but his nap this time was closer to 3 hours. When I woke him up, he screamed for ~15 minutes and was miserable until we were on the bus to MK. In the meantime, DW asked a cast member which monorail to take to get to the Contemporary and the CM gave her directions that soon had them whisking towards Epcot (she had been on the right monorail before asking directions). They got to Chef Mickey's right at 5:10 and joined the long line to reach the hostess. I hiked from the MK bus depot to the Contemporary at got there just as the hostess. We got a family portrait taken (we decided to buy the set) and were seated. DS3 was so excited to see the "chefs"! All the characters were great with him. Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Minnie came by and we decide the wait for Donald was too long and left. We took the monorail back to MK and took the bus back to the hotel.

We changed into our swim suits and swam at the Beach Club's pool, Stormalong Bay. An awesome pool and their kiddie pool was ideal for DS3. Last year, he wasn't big enough to swim into the center of the pool, so he had to play along the edges. He played in the wading pool and the play set as much as the pool. This year, he could go everywhere in that pool and loved it. We played, played, played there. We eventually left, did wind down time and then bedtime.

 

[OhMari]

I'm enjoying your different approah to a TR.

Where you nervous renting poiints from a member?

I do it too, this is my 2nd time with the same owner.

Your wife and son should have just walked over to the the resturant. 10 minutes. I hope they enjoyed the ride.