First time coming home to BCV trip report w. lots of pics!!

[TigerLaw]

Your TR is still Awesome Tigerlaw! thanks for the tip to upload pics! I'm definitely going to try it when we return in Dec. Your pics are awesome!

No problem - let us know how it works out for ya!

 

[TigerLaw]

Thursday, October 2nd

Parks Visited: Magic Kingdom
Dining: Crystal Palace (breakfast) Tony’s Town Square (dinner)

Thursday morning we did the MK extra magic hours morning. We had good luck w. the bus, so we got there within plenty of time. One of major budget cutbacks we saw (or maybe it was just b/c it was off-season) was the park opening event in front of the train station. It was scaled down big time - almost to the level of animal kingdom’s. Anyway, at opening, everyone, including us, rushed through onto main street. We got our picture taken w. the castle as a backdrop (see below) and then tried to hit all the fantasyland rides. We did in order Dumbo, Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan and (for the first time in a long time) It’s a Small World, all within like 45 minutes. We then waited by peter pan for the official park opening rope drop, and headed over to splash and big thunder. I tried to get us splash FPs, but the machines weren’t open, so we went on Big Thunder instead three times in a row, all walk ons. After that, we headed over to splash. After we rode it once, I asked if we could stay on and they said no (even though no one was in line in our row). It turned out to work for the best b/c after we went around and rode Splash a second time, WE WON DREAM FASTPASSES!!!

Now for most people, that would be great, and it was. However, we had a problem - none of the rides needed fastpasses b/c the park was dead! Oh well, just our luck! After splash, we went over and did Pirates (again, total walk-on). From there we went across the plaza and got our pictures taken w. Caption Hook and Mr. Smeee (sp?) and watched some of Caption Jack’s Pirate Tutorial.

Finally, we did a late breakfast (10:30 am) crystal palace. I think b/c it was the last seating, it wasn’t as crowded, so we got to spend even more time with Pooh and his friends (and finally saw Tigger too!). Once we were done eating, I took some pics around the hub and main street and then we came back home, where the afternoon was spent swimming and then napping.

Coming Up: Halloween party time!

 

[Lexxiefern]

Thanks for sharing your report and pictures! I have really been enjoying them!

 

[Donald is #1]

Dream Fastpasses are great! Too bad you can't them for another day when it is more crowded.

 

[lingber]

Wow! You actually won! I always wonder who is winning because I never seem to be one of those people. But no sad faces here. I am lucky in lots of very important ways! Just don't ask me to pick lottery numbers!

That must have been awesome even if the park was quiet! Congrats!

 

[tksbaskets]

Fun update! I want to hear about Tony's. We are eating there in December for the first time.

TK

 

[SunnieRN]

Really enjoying your report and pictures! Looking forward to more!

 

[TigerLaw]

That night (around five pm or so) we came back to MK for the halloween party. For dinner, we went to Tony’s Town Square. Easily the worst meal of the trip. The mean had been reduced big time and the food was not even on par with your local Olive Garden. Melissa got the spaghetti and meat balls and I got the chicken parm. - both were just plain bland!

After dinner, we went over into tomorrowland and rode the people mover. During our ride, we saw the inside of space mtn. with the lights on! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any real good pics of it. We tried to do the monsters inc. laugh floor next, but it had just seated, so we did buzz instead first, then went back over monsters. ( I love roz, so of course, this sign is one of my favorites:

The problem we had was that we couldn’t get to Toontown Fair for its party rode drop, so by the time we got out of monsters and got over there, it was like 7:10 and the lines to see mickey and minnie in their costumes was too huge, so I gave up on that. We did go through the mad hatter candy lines, and along the way, Melissa started to get into the whole trick or treating thing and liked doing the candy lines. We did see tigger and eyeore across from the pooh ride, but we never saw snow white and the seven dwarfs out together. We also did see Chip and Dale at their dance party by dumbo.

During all of this, we tried to see philharmagic twice, but both times it had just seated. We gave up on that for awhile and went over to do haunted mansion a couple times, which was cool as the workers were in full makeup. We also did splash once and big thunder twice after HM as well.
From there, we went over to watch the special halloween fireworks. we sat in front of the castle, which was a mistake, as it blocked a lot of the fireworks - we should have known better but oh well. Here some pics of the fireworks.

After the fireworks were over, we finally did philharmagic and then found a spot to watch the halloween parade across from liberty tree tavern. Here are some parade pics:

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After the parade, we left for the evening.

Coming up: Will Melissa FINALLY get her water park day in?!?

 

[tksbaskets]

That night (around five pm or so) we came back to MK for the halloween party. For dinner, we went to Tony’s Town Square. Easily the worst meal of the trip.

Yikes! Time to change our reservation. I'm glad I'm reading your report. TK

 

[dallastxcpa]

Great trip report. Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[TigerLaw]

Yikes! Time to change our reservation. I'm glad I'm reading your report. TK

TK, in all honesty, it might be a good idea. The menu has shrunken big time since the pre-DDP days. So the food isn't the greatest, then, if you get stuck in the sun room, its one of the most ear-piercing places you'll ever eat a meal. For what its worth, we were actually surprised with how much we liked our dinner at crystal palace and if not there, there are great choices off the monorail!

 

[tksbaskets]

TK, in all honesty, it might be a good idea. The menu has shrunken big time since the pre-DDP days. So the food isn't the greatest, then, if you get stuck in the sun room, its one of the most ear-piercing places you'll ever eat a meal. For what its worth, we were actually surprised with how much we liked our dinner at crystal palace and if not there, there are great choices off the monorail!

We switched to the Plaza. At least we can anticipate having a good meal

 

[Buckeye Fan]

GREAT trip report!

BCV is the one resort (on property) that we haven't stayed at yet! If you could post any pics you have of the lobby, grounds, pools, etc., I would love to see them. We're thinking of trying to book this summer.

Thanks for sharing, as I always like reading these while I'm waiting for my next trip. Unfortunately, our next trip isn't until April!!!

 

[TigerLaw]

GREAT trip report!

BCV is the one resort (on property) that we haven't stayed at yet! If you could post any pics you have of the lobby, grounds, pools, etc., I would love to see them. We're thinking of trying to book this summer.

Thanks for sharing, as I always like reading these while I'm waiting for my next trip. Unfortunately, our next trip isn't until April!!!

I think the site that has the most BCR/BCV pics is the resorts pages on allearsnet.com but check the resort pages here on wdwinfo.com as well. You';ll love staying there - great pool area, walking into epcot, the boardwalk area, it can't be beat!

 

[TigerLaw]

We switched to the Plaza. At least we can anticipate having a good meal

I have never eaten in all my years, you'll have to let us know how it works out for ya!

 

[PocahontasLookALike]

TigerLaw - Your nighttime pics are amazing. What camera/settings do you use? I noticed earlier you mentioned using a digital P&S, but I've never seen digital P&S nighttime photos turn out that crisp!

 

[TigerLaw]

TigerLaw - Your nighttime pics are amazing. What camera/settings do you use? I noticed earlier you mentioned using a digital P&S, but I've never seen digital P&S nighttime photos turn out that crisp!

I am doing this from work (so I don't have my camera in front of me) but I use a panasonic tizzy (dm-tz3 I think is the model) I think its already up to t a tz5 model edition.

I love it b/c it has one of the biggest zooms for a P&S, something that's comes in handy at WDW. its funny that you like the nighttime pics, for its a constant battle for me. the tizzy is actually not known for its nighttime pics (its like its one downfall) trust me, if you saw ALL of my parade pics, you would know what I mean - I think its always going to be a battle between having a camera you can pocket or dragging around a DSR camera.

hope this helps!

 

[vicki_c]

Great report -- I'm enjoying it and getting primed for our BCV visit in December!

 

[TigerLaw]

Great report -- I'm enjoying it and getting primed for our BCV visit in December!

Thanks - I know I'm getting behind in my updates, but hope to get back on track in the next day or so!

 

[TigerLaw]

Friday, October 3rd
Parks Visited: Typhoon Lagoon
Dining: Cape May Café (breakfast) and O’hanas (dinner)

The weather Friday was much better than on Tuesday, so we made the right call in terms of switching our water park day. The park didn’t open until 10am, so we had breakfast first at cape may café. It was pretty empty. Donald was a new character, taking the place of chip and dale (so now only three characters instead of four). We had a really nice waitress who was oriental in origin. She was hard to understand sometimes, but super nice.

After breakfast, we came back up to the room, gathered our stuff, and headed over to TL. I think we got there like 25 minutes before hand, but we still parked in the first row. Almost as soon as we got passed the ticket booths, they opened up the ticket machines, so we waited at the main bridge into the park for like 15 minutes - hitting around a beach ball and stuff. Once the park opened, Melissa found a place she wanted to sit with a full umbrella off to the right side of the wave pool. Once we got situated, I went and did Crush N Gusher twice in a row with no wait (one ride on each of the two slides where you could go on it by yourself) I have to admit that I was a bit scared at first (something about water slides I worry I am going to fall off the slide somehow), but it was a pretty short ride and once I did it the first time, I got some water slide confidence going!) After that, I headed over across the park and did the two single rider tube slides, again with no wait. From there, I came back to Melissa, and for the next few hours, we laid out, read our books, got into the wave pool, did the lazy river a few times. I also walked around and took some pictures. By mid-day, the park got pretty full (I think this had a lot to do w. blizzard beach closing down earlier than usual this year). I went over and looked at the sharf reef area and couldn’t figure out the thrill at all. We left the park around 3pm. Here are some pics:

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After we took a nap, we got dressed and drove over to Ohana’s. Because we are DDE members, we got free valet parking. We got there about an hour before our ressie time, but I was able to talk us into w/o much of a fuss. This is usually one of my favorite places to eat anywhere (Beef! its what’s for dinner!) We knew that they had brought back the shrimp, but didn’t know they had taken off the au gratin potatoes. Needless to say, I ate a lot. I also love their dessert - its the best bread pudding and ice cream combo I have ever had. Once dinner was over, we went down to the beach, had a couple drinks and watched the fireworks.

Coming Up: Our last day at the parks