First Trip Report June 4-11 @ The Beach Club

[defendthehill]

Setting: Family of 5 from North Central Indiana. Mom, Dad, and three princesses. Ages 7,5,3. 7 nights at the Beach Club Resort. Standard View Room. June 4-11, 2009

Travel Arrangements made directly with Disney including Airfare, Magical Express, and Resort Check In on the way home.

ADR's made at Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner, Coral Reef for lunch, Cape May for Breakfast, Crystal Palace for lunch, Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch, Chef Mickey's for Breakfast.

Day 1: Flight left Indianapolis at 3PM. We arrived in Orlando on time and ready to roll. We made our way to they Magical Express where there was no line....none whatsoever! We walked through all the check in points and right on to our bus. We did wait 15 minutes or so for more ME customers to arrive. We soon left with a bus half full. After a short bus ride we were unloading at the Beach Club. There was no line to check in. I walked up gave my name and we had the area of the resort we had requested and were off to our room in a matter of minutes.

I stopped by bell services to get a couple of packages we had waiting...they said they would bring them to us. We walked to our room and three minutes later a knock on the door. The Bellman had our packages and our luggage that may take up to three hours later to arrive. After a quick refresher we were off on Disney Transport to the Magic Kingdom for our ADR with Cinderella. Then it started to rain....no big deal....it is Florida in June. We pulled out our Poncho's bought at Target prior to departure. Plasticed up and entered the park. We had our photo taken in the rain and ponchos on Main Street. We proceeded to the Castle, checked in, walked in, got pics taken with Cinde were escorted to our table. As a dad of three daughters I was more than pleased with the opportunity for my little princesses to meet THE princess of all time. Dinner was excellent from my wife's point of view. She had the prime rib and loved it. I had the lamb and it was slightly above average. Kids all ate....but they didn't care...they were in the castle!!! The show with the fairy godmother and two of the mice was cute and my girls enjoyed it all.....so I did too.

The rain continued through dinner which was awesome because when we were done the park had emptied a bit. We walked on the Carousel and then waited 5 minutes to ride Dumbo. By this time it was more than enough for our first day. Travel, transfer, check in, dinner and a couple of rides. It was 9:15PM and my 5 year old daughter was ready for bed. So home to the Beach Club we went. Where we all slept on the wonderful beds till morn!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! I love reading about other disboard members' vacations. Hope you'll be posting pictures so we can put a face with the name.

 

[MinnieNurse]

I'm in!

 

[defendthehill]

Friday June 5, 2009
Day 2

We were up early with the energy of the first full day of our trip to The World. We ate breakfast in the room from the supply of groceries that were delievered from GardenGrocer (would certainly do that again!!!) Milk, Juice, Poptarts and fresh fruit were on the menu. We wanted to get to the park as close to opening as possible and I believe it was around 9:15-20 when the bus arrived in the Animal Kingdom drop off area. We had gotten involved in a stroller swap, which was awesome, and had the stroller in had and rolling.

We went straight to Africa once we entered the park. We stopped along the way for some PhotoPass pics. But once we hit Africa we went to Kilimanjaro Safaris where the standby wait time was 15 minutes so we jumped right on. My kids absolutely loved this ride. The animals were so close, the views were amazing. When the bridge "nearly" fell my girls all screamed! It was hilarious. They loved the ride so much they wanted to ride it again. So I got Fastpasses to ride it again so we could do some other things. Next we went to The Festival of the Lion King to try to catch the next performance. When we got there we had a bit of time until the next show. So we walked over to Camp Minmie-Mickey to meet the crew. They were just opening up. We were the first people of the day to meet Minnie (timing was impeccable!) Minnie and her handler walked out right as we were walking up. We met Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. The longest wait we had for any of them was 5 minutes. After 30 minutes or so of Camp Minnie-Mickey we went to the Lion King. What a show!! We all loved it! The monkey crew was AWESOME. We sat in the Giraffe section about row 4.

Lunch was next...Flame Tree BBQ..I would eat there again in a heartbeat! (Eat before 11:15 In any of the parks....it saves so much time in line!!)

After that we walked around the Tree, took some pics and found DeVine. I had read about her and when we found her only a couple of other people were there. My kids(and me) were very entertained....to watch her walk, and pose was something to be seen. A very worthy stop in your day at Animal Kingdom. We also did the Maharaja Jungle Trek......I don't really recall if that was before or after DeVine.....it was days and many memories ago...

My girls spent a lot of time looking at animals...talking to cast members. We even tracked a Rhino with a cast member. She was fantastic and my girls are still talking about that experience.

We took the train to the conservation station, got to take a pic with an owl, help a CM measure out food for some of the animals, and generally look around at the things there. This stop was absolutely worth our time as well.

We did the Pagani Exploration Trail. This was great as well. Lots of animals, up close and personal. When we finished with this we hit the Safari with our Fastpass. Our second Safari experience was better than the first. A thunderstorm had rolled through and cooled things off a bit. It was still a sprinkle in the air as we got on our Jeep. As we traveled though the lands the animals had been cooled off and were up and more active than our morning encounter. We actually saw Rhinos running....really running. Even our guide was amazed. We had to stop the jeep so the Running Rhinos had plenty of room to cross the road. It was very cool. We also so Cheetahs up and moving, a pair of horned antelope (no clue on the real name) up and butting each other with their horns. Pretty cool stuff.

After our safari we found a spot to watch the afternoon parade up in the front of the park near the exit. We found a spot on the front row...parked mom and kids and I headed off for some popcorn and drinks. We waited 20 minutes or so until the parade came by. But in the 20 minutes of wait time a CM asked for volunteers to come out and play Pictionary to entertain the crowd before the parade. My eldest was the first one picked to play. I missed all of that waiting in line for popcorn....but my wife said my daughter was eating it all up. After she was done they gave her a certificate for helping.

The Parade....was great! Many of the people came by for high fives and hand shakes from my girls. When the parade was over we hit the busses and went back to the BC for some pool time. Which was well received by my kids and wife!

Dinner: Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club. The best burger I ate while in The World!

Day 2....was outstanding!

 

[defendthehill]

Signing on for more! I love reading about other disboard members' vacations. Hope you'll be posting pictures so we can put a face with the name.

How do I post pics?

 

[defendthehill]

We started Day 3 with breakfast in the room. And then headed off very quickly to EPCOT for the day. We also met my mother in law today as well. We all headed over to Soarin' for the first event of the day. Since my youngest daughter is very small and does not meet the 40 inch requirement for many rides my wife took her on the boat ride in The Land...I don't know the name of it. The rest of us rode Soarin' and absolutely loved it. It was incredible. Much more than I could have imagined! The sensation of flying through the air...the wind...the smells.....just amazing! Our standby wait time was only 15 minutes or so. We did grab fastpasses on the way out since the girls wanted to ride again. After Soarin we headed over to The Sea. We did the Little Mermaid ride and Turtle Talk with Crush. The ride was certainly good for the younger kids. Turtle talk was fabulous. The way Crush interacts with the kids and adults in the room was hilarious! We laughed all day about it. And Crushed reminded the kids that they are supposed to say "dude" as much as they can the rest of the day. Parents, he said, your welcome! In his surfer dude voice. I enjoyed Turtle Talk as much as my kids. We also explored The Sea area a bit....checking out the tanks, and coloring at the Kidcot station, which we also did in The Land as well. My girls enjoyed doing all of this.

Probably one of the funnier things that happened was they were having a dolphin viewing in one of the tanks while we were there. The trainer was in the water and we could only see the trainer and the dolphins through a small door on the other side of the tank. They were trying to get the dolphins to enter the smaller tank so we could all get a good look. However, the dolphins were having none of it. They would take a peek in the door and then just swim away. It was really kind of funny. The CM that was inside with us just laughed about it saying things like the dolphins are going to do what they want to do.

After this time we headed to the Coral Reef for our ADR. This place was a favorite of the adults but the kids thought it was just ok. They ate the food and all but our seats were not close to the tanks so the atmosphere was not quite as exciting as it could have been. My wife, her mom, and I certainly enjoyed the food. Mahi Mahi, Tilapia, and steak were our choices and all three were found to be very good.

After lunch we headed back to the BC for some rest and relaxation at the pool. Staying at the BC was a huge benefit for seeing EPCOT. We did not return until dinner time used our fastpasses for Soarin again. And in our entire week at WDW the only meal that I ate that was not good was this one. We walked back through The World Showcase just checking things out. We did ride the Maelstrom (5 minute wait) We finally stopped to eat in America. I don't recall the name of the establishment, which is ok because the food was like a school cafe. It certainly was not grade A....maybe grade E for edible. The restaurant was just to the left of Liberty Hall (while facing it) and faced the main walkway of The World Showcase. Don't go there!

After dinner we went and got a spot on the bridge going back to the International Gateway to watch the fireworks. We waited for 30 minutes or so before the show began. The fireworks were as billed......awesome! The entire family enjoyed the show and the great thing was when the fireworks were over we were back in our room in less than 10 minutes. It was a late night but we thought that would be ok since day 4 would start with ADR for breakfast at Cape May in The Beach Club and a late arrival at Hollywood Studios!

 

[dd50]

Sounds like you are all having a great time. Love to read the TR on people that have never been before.

Sorry, don't know how to post pics. Hopefully someone will come along and help.

 

[jerrifox]

How do I post pics?

You can upload the pics to photobucket or similar and copy/paste the image code here. Resize the images to "website/blog" size and go from there! It sounds like you had a great time and can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[defendthehill]

Here are my three daughters waiting for the SpectroMagic Parade at Magic Kingdom. Yep, I bought them the Minnie ears...nothing more cute than my girls in Minnie ears!

This is the whole family at Camp Minnie-Mickey. We met all the characters that day in less than 30 minutes!

 

[defendthehill]

From The Boardwalk looking back at The Beach Club

View of The Castle from my flying Dumbo

The family with Minnie

 

[MyBuddyBaloo]

Enjoying your report. Nice pictures.

 

[defendthehill]

Day 4 was supposed to start with letting the kids sleep in a little since we were up late the night before watching the fireworks at EPCOT. The sleeping in thing has always been tough for my kids. They all seem to be fairly early risers which made getting to the parks a lot easier but getting a little extra rest more difficult. Anyway, we made our ADR at Cape May which was very easy since we were staying at The Beach Club. I should tell you that I love breakfast food so when making comments about our meals that is important to remember. But breakfast buffets are great. I love eggs and sausage. I love breakfast potato dishes. The ladies in my life love fresh fruit. So Cape May breakfast buffet gets rave reviews from my family. My kids had to eat 5 pounds of strawberries and I had 5 pounds of sausage (only a slight exaggeration).

After a quick stop back at our room we headed for the Studios for the day. We didn't get there until 10:30 or so. Which is the latest we hit any park while at WDW. I won't do that again. Showing up late, which we thought would allow us some extra rest, which we didn't get, and a more relaxing morning, only lead to a crowded park (Star Wars Weekend). I ran to Toy Story to get fastpasses. When I got them the fastpass time was 4:15. So we did the Muppet 3D movie, Playhouse Disney, met Handy Manny, and Quincey from little Einsteins. We also hit the Disney Animation attraction. My kids did enjoy that. We didn't really have lunch since we ate a large breakfast but by noon or 1 the park was big time crowded. We watched some of the Jedi Training Academy which was a lot of fun. We never hit it at the right time to try to get one of my girls on stage but that was ok. They enjoyed watching. We also stopped for some icecream during the heat of the day as well. We found a bit of shade an at Mickey ice cream bars. Those things melt fast in the heat......only slightly slower than the multi colored popsicles we had at Magic Kingdom.

We hit Star Tours on fastpasses and when we got off that ride which I thought was just ok....nothing compared to Soarin! We made a family decision to head back to the beach club. My kids had hit the wall. They were hot, tired, grumpy, and their father was going to have one of those Disney moments that no one was going to enjoy. So we decided to leave.

On the way back to the boat I was looking for a family to give my fast passes to. It was pushing 3PM and the fastpasses were for 4:15 and I couldn't let them go to waste. So as I walked out I saw what appeared to be a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and two kids. Perfect! I walked over to the dad, they had just entered the park. I asked him if they had seen the Toy Story show..he said not yet. So I explained that my kids were done for the day and we had these fastpasses. I handed them to him and he was grateful. He thanked me several times. I walked away thinking that they would have a great time! Obviously he had walked over to his wife and explained what had just happened and the wife, now from 30 yards away, yelled back to us and said THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH! I waved and smiled and enjoyed that moment as much as any ride I was on all week!

When back at the Beach Club a nap was required! All kids in bed and asleep. Which they all did. When the woke up we decided we would go to Downtown Disney for dinner and a bit of shopping!

Downtown Disney was busy that night as well. We walked around and took in the sights. Let the kids shop and pick out a plush Disney toy. They all wanted Disney Babies. So we are the proud owners of two baby Minnies and one baby Pooh! Dinner was at The Earl of Sandwhich which was pretty good really. I had a BLT which was quite enjoyable!

Day 4 was a bit rough at times but overall not too bad.

At Cape May

Jedi Academy at Hollywood Studios

Mickey Ice cream bars.....ohhhh so good.

 

[kpipkin]

Your girls are adorable! Love the castle picture from Dumbo too. Enjoying reading your trip report. Thanks!

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

That was a great fastpass story, I love little momens if magic like that! Your first trip sounds lovely, I can't wait to read more! Your family is so cute!

 

[defendthehill]

Thank You to all of you. I am a proud daddy of all my girls....including my wife. I couldn't have it any better than I do!

I also felt I owed it to this board to write a trip report. Being a first timer I was overwhelmed by the planning of our trip. We have several "Disney" friends that helped us out a bunch. But I also spent endless hours reading other people's trip reports. I found them helpful on many levels. So I hope this report can be helpful to others!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yeah! We have pictures since I last posted. You are quite a cute family. I love the Fastpass give-away story. I've done this several times over the years and it gives me a warm tingly feeling knowing I just gave a family a "surprise".

 

[defendthehill]

My youngest playing in the fountain while waiting to met Ariel. She was soaked!! But had an absolute blast!

Two of my daughters with a Cast Member that helped them track a Rhino. The CM was fantastic and all three of my girls loved the experience!

 

[defendthehill]

Day 5 and our first full day at Magic Kingdom. We got up early and made it to the park just shortly after rope drop. We probably were there at 9:10. Now we had already rode Dumbo one time on our first day in The World but I have a 7, 5, and 3 year old and we promised to do Dumbo again. So we made a fast walk to Dumbo.....wait time....40 minutes. Wow! I had hoped for less. Well, as we waited, I ran to Peter Pan and got fastpasses. When Dumbo was over we went to Philharmagic and waited just 5 minutes or so before we were seated. Philharmagic is a great show! It was a bit loud for my 3 year old but the rest of the group loved it! I thought it was much better than the Muppet 3D movie. My 5 and 7 year old liked Philharmagic better but the 3 year old liked the Muppets. Anyway, after that show we fastpassed for Peter Pan. The standby line was not real long but the fastpasses let us walk right to the front and wait only one or two minutes before we were on the ride. Next we walked on to It's a Small World. Now this is an interesting part of the story. Many people that I heard talking thought Small World was closed. The very bland looking outside of the building and the small doors to enter made people think that. I told several people that they were mistaken and the ride was open. Anyway, we waited less than 10 minutes for Small World. Alll my kids liked the ride but my three year old loved it!! We had grabbed fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh for later and stopped at the ice cream snack shop right next to Pooh.

Then we made our way to the front of the Castle to watch the noon parade. We had a great view of the floats with the Castle in the background. It was a very entertaining parade with great music! After the Parade we then hit The Crystal Palace for our ADR lunch. The entire group loved eating at the Crystal Palace. The food was outstanding! Meeting Piglet, Pooh, Eyore and Tigger was a blast as well.

After lunch we hit the train, took one lap and grabbed a bus back to the beach club for more swim time.

When we returned to the park we went directly to Peco Bills for dinner. The adults loved this stop...the kids not so much. I do need to suggest that the self ordering kiosks are great. We walked up and ordered and only waited a couple of minutes to pick up our food. It was smooth sailing except for the fact that my three year old had to make an emergency potty run. Then I was stuck trying to carry food for 5 people. My 7 year old did help greatly and we made it to a table to eat.

After dinner we went back to Pooh to use our fastpasses from earlier. We had stopped by earlier in the day but the ride had shut down for some unscheduled work. Pooh was a nice ride that the kids all enjoyed. Then we headed over to The Haunted Mansion. This ride was fun and my 5 and 7 year olds liked the ride. The first room was a bit much for the three year old but after that she was totally fine. We may have hit the Mansion then Pooh or Pooh then the Mansion I don't recall at this point but none the less it all worked out very well.

We then wanted to find a spot to watch SpectroMagic from. We picked Frontierland to watch from instead of Main Street hoping that we could find a front row spot easier than Main Street. This plan worked out perfectly. We found a spot and I made a popcorn and coke run. After I delievered that I then went and bought the Minnie ears that my daughters are pictured in in a previous post. My three year old was heard to say after the parade, "Mommy, I like that Magic!" How cool!

When the parade was over we trekked back down Main Street trying to escape the park prior to Wishes. Which we did. Barely. We stepped onto our Disney bus back to The Beach Club after the fireworks had already started. We made the decision that the mass exodus that would happen after Wishes would be too much for our family. It was already late and the kids were doing well to this point so the fireworks would have to wait until another trip. So home we went. The next day was an Extra Magic Hour day and we discussed trying to get to the park by 8 but we really knew that 8:30 was probably more realistic!

Magic Kingdom....was magical!

 

[thechesters420]

I love your pictures. They are sooo clear and crisp looking.

 

[defendthehill]

I love your pictures. They are sooo clear and crisp looking.

Thanks for the comments on the pictures. I bought a new point and shoot Canon A1100. I had used it for a couple of weeks before our Disney trip but I was very happy with it and the quality of the pics. It also takes nice video as well. The only problem I had was taking pictures at night. Especially of SpectroMagic. Many of my pics were blurred. Also, our first night when we ate dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, when we met Cinde for pics it was dark and a few of my pics were blurry from that as well. No biggie because we got a photo package with our ADR.