bigsmooth
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2004
- Messages
- 269
We bought into SSR back in 2004, well last week marked our very first trip using DVC points. We stayed for 5 nights at SSR and 2 nights at BCV.
The following is part 1 to my trip report. I'll add more as I get time.
This was also the first extended trip with the family to WDW (took the kids for 1 day a while back, went just my wife and I 3 years ago). We bought into DVC mainly because we were excited about going to WDW roughly every 2 years or so, prefer on-site accommodations and really prefer the extra space (not a fan of a week in a hotel room with two sets of beds). Got many great tips from everyone on this board (frequent reader, infrequent poster) that really helped to plan our stay.
Left Sat Oct 28th from Seattle to Orlando. I have way too many frequent fl yer miles from way too many business trips, so treated DD 5, DD 8 and DW to first class upgrades, which made the trip out even more special. Flew Alaska, which offers the only direct flight from Seattle to Orlando as far as I'm aware. Going direct is very nice, saves quite a bit of time. Factoring in the 3 hour time change plus the 6 hour flight, the direct flight still allows an arrival time that is not too late. We rented a car at the airport to allow for a grocery trip (we elected against the dining plan, be interesting to figure out our costs with the groceries included, may have been cheaper to do the plan. However, we decided that since this was our first trip we'd do a combination of table service venues and eating in vs. stopping very much at all at counter service locations, I'll reevaluate the dining plan on our next trip). We also stayed the first night off site, mainly because we knew we'd be getting in fairly late and I'd rather not spend the Sat night points when I know I won't be enjoying the room or the parks that day.
Checked in to SSR at 11am on Sun Oct 29th. Room was not ready, but that is OK since that is what I was expecting. Was great to be back to SSR almost exactly 2 years after the purchase. I could tell the difference in the additional vegetation growth (which was nice to see some of the plants filling in) as well as nice to see the finished buildings. When we bought, only Congress park was complete. DDs and DW headed out for some Bibbidi Bobbidi action at DtD (they loved it). I headed out to do some grocery shopping. Called periodically on the room, was not ready until 3pm. At 3pm loaded the groceries into our 2 BR unit. Was on the ground floor in the far right building of Congress park. I was not that excited about getting the ground floor but I had forgot to make that request asking not to be on the ground floor. I had instead requested Congress park with a 2 BR lockoff, and that is what I got. But we got a unit with a great view of DtD facing the House of Blues. We got a 2 BR unit because my Mom & Stepdad were arriving this day from Seattle, and they were staying in the lockoff. They were set to arrive in the evening, and we were going to meet them at the Hoop de Doo (which would be new to all of us). Returned the car at the Alamo desk at the Buena Vista Palace (I keep thinking of it as the Wyndham), which was nice. Literally took me 10 minutes to return the car and walk back to the condo. We were set, headed out to the Magic Kingdom at about 4:30pm. We had tickets to the 9:30pm Hoop de Doo, so about 8:45pm caught the boat to Wilderness campground. We met my parents at the Ft Wilderness dock in time to watch the MK fireworks and then headed into Hoop De Doo. What a great show, great food, fun all around. Was only about 1/2 full. We did the 9:30pm show mainly because of the 20% DVC discount, and also figured since we were on West Coast time, it would not feel that late to us. Considering daylight savings occurred Sat night, we were really only 2 hours off our normal clock. So it ended up feeling very late for my DDs with all the travel and running around. But they still really enjoyed it. They had transportation right at the show back to the resorts. We ended up on a bus that stopped at Port Orleans and OKW first, so took a while but not too bad. I'd recommend the 9:30 show because of the discount and the fact it was not that crowded. However, I'd recommend against it if your kids are fairly young.
What we found for the weekdays on this trip that the parks were not crowded at all. We did pull our kids out of school this week. I agonized this decision, but felt better because 1) our teachers had no problem with it and 2) my Mom was with us, and as a retired school teacher she made sure that my DDs completed their homework assignments that were sent with them. Going this past week paid off, since we did not wait in line over 20 minutes ever. We rarely used fast pass because it really was not necessary. It also shortened our stays in the park because we felt that we did not need that much time each day to see what we wanted to see. We hit MK again on Monday the 30th. Went to Liberty tree tavern for dinner and was surprised with an 'unbirthday cake'. The staff got a kick out of my reaction. Since they came up to our table and asked if it was my birthday. I looked shocked, looked around to see if they were really talking to me and then said no, they must have the wrong table. They laughed and told me it must be my 'unbirthday' and proceeded to sing me my happy 'unbirthday' song. Once I turned back to a normal shade (from the abnormal shade of red I had been), I proceeded to enjoy a very tasty 'unbirthday' cake (it really was very good). Oh the magic of Disney. We had tickets to the halloween party this night, which was really fun. The park felt crowded for the party, but the waits for any of the rides were virtually non-existent. We had our only real hiccup with the bus service this day, and a decidedly un Disney experience. Left our unit to see the MK bus pulling up. We jogged to the bus to see that there was no one at the bus station nor anyone on the bus. Made eye contact with the bus driver, he waited until we were literally in the bus stop shelter before leaving with an empty bus. My daughters were incredulous that someone would do that. The MGM Studios driver pulling up behind witnessed the whole thing and called the bus driver to turnaround and of course the driver was not answering his radio. So we waited 20 minutes for the next bus. Really nothing serious, but annoying.
Went for a run Tuesday morning before heading out. Started at Congress park, went all the way up to the new Carousel section (looks like one of the two buildings was actually open for people to stay), went back down to check in and looped around by the golfcourse and DVC preview center and back to Congress park. My pedometer tracked this at 1.6 miles, which is what I expected after seeing Caskbill's maps. We hit AK on Tuesday the 31st. Saved Expedition Everest for the end of the day. Rode it 3 times in 20 minutes, walking right up to the ride each time. Had to let people pass us in line so we could actually enjoy the queue. DD 8 at this stage had ridden every thrill ride in MK and boldly exclaimed she was ready for anything UNTIL we rode EE. After this she decided she'd play it more cautious going forward (she didn't like the whole going backwards experience). AK is such a beautiful park. Would have liked more time to just explore, but the whole party was feeling pretty tired and ready to head back. We took the kids trick or treating around SSR that night, gave them another chance to put on their costumes (they wore them to the party the night before). There were not many kids out which had the SSR CM's giving out piles of candy to each trick or treater (which obviously thrilled the kids).
Anyways, this is turning out to be longer report than I thought, I'll end part 1 right now and add part 2 later on.
The following is part 1 to my trip report. I'll add more as I get time.
This was also the first extended trip with the family to WDW (took the kids for 1 day a while back, went just my wife and I 3 years ago). We bought into DVC mainly because we were excited about going to WDW roughly every 2 years or so, prefer on-site accommodations and really prefer the extra space (not a fan of a week in a hotel room with two sets of beds). Got many great tips from everyone on this board (frequent reader, infrequent poster) that really helped to plan our stay.
Left Sat Oct 28th from Seattle to Orlando. I have way too many frequent fl yer miles from way too many business trips, so treated DD 5, DD 8 and DW to first class upgrades, which made the trip out even more special. Flew Alaska, which offers the only direct flight from Seattle to Orlando as far as I'm aware. Going direct is very nice, saves quite a bit of time. Factoring in the 3 hour time change plus the 6 hour flight, the direct flight still allows an arrival time that is not too late. We rented a car at the airport to allow for a grocery trip (we elected against the dining plan, be interesting to figure out our costs with the groceries included, may have been cheaper to do the plan. However, we decided that since this was our first trip we'd do a combination of table service venues and eating in vs. stopping very much at all at counter service locations, I'll reevaluate the dining plan on our next trip). We also stayed the first night off site, mainly because we knew we'd be getting in fairly late and I'd rather not spend the Sat night points when I know I won't be enjoying the room or the parks that day.
Checked in to SSR at 11am on Sun Oct 29th. Room was not ready, but that is OK since that is what I was expecting. Was great to be back to SSR almost exactly 2 years after the purchase. I could tell the difference in the additional vegetation growth (which was nice to see some of the plants filling in) as well as nice to see the finished buildings. When we bought, only Congress park was complete. DDs and DW headed out for some Bibbidi Bobbidi action at DtD (they loved it). I headed out to do some grocery shopping. Called periodically on the room, was not ready until 3pm. At 3pm loaded the groceries into our 2 BR unit. Was on the ground floor in the far right building of Congress park. I was not that excited about getting the ground floor but I had forgot to make that request asking not to be on the ground floor. I had instead requested Congress park with a 2 BR lockoff, and that is what I got. But we got a unit with a great view of DtD facing the House of Blues. We got a 2 BR unit because my Mom & Stepdad were arriving this day from Seattle, and they were staying in the lockoff. They were set to arrive in the evening, and we were going to meet them at the Hoop de Doo (which would be new to all of us). Returned the car at the Alamo desk at the Buena Vista Palace (I keep thinking of it as the Wyndham), which was nice. Literally took me 10 minutes to return the car and walk back to the condo. We were set, headed out to the Magic Kingdom at about 4:30pm. We had tickets to the 9:30pm Hoop de Doo, so about 8:45pm caught the boat to Wilderness campground. We met my parents at the Ft Wilderness dock in time to watch the MK fireworks and then headed into Hoop De Doo. What a great show, great food, fun all around. Was only about 1/2 full. We did the 9:30pm show mainly because of the 20% DVC discount, and also figured since we were on West Coast time, it would not feel that late to us. Considering daylight savings occurred Sat night, we were really only 2 hours off our normal clock. So it ended up feeling very late for my DDs with all the travel and running around. But they still really enjoyed it. They had transportation right at the show back to the resorts. We ended up on a bus that stopped at Port Orleans and OKW first, so took a while but not too bad. I'd recommend the 9:30 show because of the discount and the fact it was not that crowded. However, I'd recommend against it if your kids are fairly young.
What we found for the weekdays on this trip that the parks were not crowded at all. We did pull our kids out of school this week. I agonized this decision, but felt better because 1) our teachers had no problem with it and 2) my Mom was with us, and as a retired school teacher she made sure that my DDs completed their homework assignments that were sent with them. Going this past week paid off, since we did not wait in line over 20 minutes ever. We rarely used fast pass because it really was not necessary. It also shortened our stays in the park because we felt that we did not need that much time each day to see what we wanted to see. We hit MK again on Monday the 30th. Went to Liberty tree tavern for dinner and was surprised with an 'unbirthday cake'. The staff got a kick out of my reaction. Since they came up to our table and asked if it was my birthday. I looked shocked, looked around to see if they were really talking to me and then said no, they must have the wrong table. They laughed and told me it must be my 'unbirthday' and proceeded to sing me my happy 'unbirthday' song. Once I turned back to a normal shade (from the abnormal shade of red I had been), I proceeded to enjoy a very tasty 'unbirthday' cake (it really was very good). Oh the magic of Disney. We had tickets to the halloween party this night, which was really fun. The park felt crowded for the party, but the waits for any of the rides were virtually non-existent. We had our only real hiccup with the bus service this day, and a decidedly un Disney experience. Left our unit to see the MK bus pulling up. We jogged to the bus to see that there was no one at the bus station nor anyone on the bus. Made eye contact with the bus driver, he waited until we were literally in the bus stop shelter before leaving with an empty bus. My daughters were incredulous that someone would do that. The MGM Studios driver pulling up behind witnessed the whole thing and called the bus driver to turnaround and of course the driver was not answering his radio. So we waited 20 minutes for the next bus. Really nothing serious, but annoying.
Went for a run Tuesday morning before heading out. Started at Congress park, went all the way up to the new Carousel section (looks like one of the two buildings was actually open for people to stay), went back down to check in and looped around by the golfcourse and DVC preview center and back to Congress park. My pedometer tracked this at 1.6 miles, which is what I expected after seeing Caskbill's maps. We hit AK on Tuesday the 31st. Saved Expedition Everest for the end of the day. Rode it 3 times in 20 minutes, walking right up to the ride each time. Had to let people pass us in line so we could actually enjoy the queue. DD 8 at this stage had ridden every thrill ride in MK and boldly exclaimed she was ready for anything UNTIL we rode EE. After this she decided she'd play it more cautious going forward (she didn't like the whole going backwards experience). AK is such a beautiful park. Would have liked more time to just explore, but the whole party was feeling pretty tired and ready to head back. We took the kids trick or treating around SSR that night, gave them another chance to put on their costumes (they wore them to the party the night before). There were not many kids out which had the SSR CM's giving out piles of candy to each trick or treater (which obviously thrilled the kids).
Anyways, this is turning out to be longer report than I thought, I'll end part 1 right now and add part 2 later on.
glad it didn't ruin your day.
Thanks for starting your review. Sounds like it will be a good one.
A complete surprise sounds much more magical!
