It's our Date-A-Versary with Deluxe Dining, DVC and MNSSHP!! 11/13 UPDATE!

[ariel1025]

Today was the day in our trip that I think I was most looking forward to; this was the day we were going to Blizzard Beach Candi, however, wasn't too excited about it so we made a compromise .... he would go to the water park if I would let us sleep until our "natural alarm clock" woke us up. I was more than willing to agree and, of course, I woke up looooooong before the Hubby did

In keeping with my promise I decided to wander around the resort taking pictures with the plan of buying breakfast on our my back. Getting ready that morning was great - ponytail, no make-up, shorts and t-shirt - no need to be pretty when I was gonna be gettin' wet I wrote a quick note to Candi, in case he woke-up while I was out, and headed out on my adventure.

Upon leaving our room I saw the saddest thing ever

Do you see it?

Ok, now you definitely can't miss it! But, no worries, we aren't leaving Disney we are just switching resorts the next day After leaving the room I make a photographic journey of my explorations.

ENJOY

We were on the third floor and this was our aerial view of the lobby when we were waiting for the elevator each day. I absolutely love all the details of the wood work and the chairs and the fireplace and the chandeliers .....

Even the elevators fit into the theme!

Once downstairs I spent some time exploring the lobby of the Villas. I'll be honest, it isn't as grand as the main hotel, but it is definitely charming in it's own right. I absolutely loved all the seating areas they had everywhere

The fireplace was always going whenever we were around and I loved how it made everything seem so peaceful and relaxing.

Off in one corner of the lobby or main area of the villas

Around the corner on the opposite side from the last sitting area.

An entire row of game tables - they had checkers and chess and some other games that I'm not sure of the names of?!? I wish we would have made time to come down here and play one night, but, we never did. Guess that's for next time!

Right as you walk in the main doors of the villas.

And of course, a "welcome home" right beside the doors on the outside of the villas!

I just think this is one of the cutest signs ever and another piece of Disney detailing!

Outside the gift shop in the main lobby at Wilderness Lodge - don't forget to rub his nose as you walk by!

A look at just a portion of the grandness of the main lobby - it is absolutely breathtaking in person!

It made me feel happy inside when I saw the American Flag by the massive fireplace.

The sitting area in front of the fireplace

And, of course, a look at the whole fireplace in all it's beauty!

More hotel detailing - on the way to Roaring Forks

The hot springs - it starts inside the lobby and then flows outside, turning into a waterfall that flows into the pool.

The bridge over the hot springs and a look at where it starts its way outside.

The pathway that we took each day to get to the villas - I truly felt like I was walking into a whole different world each time we came back. It is completely wooded and beautiful ........

 

[ariel1025]

After enjoying my morning adventure I took the pathway back to the villas and made it back to the room to see ........ Candi was still sleeping I came into the room and looked up the water park times online and started to get situated to eat my breakfast when the Hubby opened his eyes. I may have also said (not so) softly "if you don't wake up I'm eating the pastry and leaving you the muffin" to help encourage that eye opening

We enjoyed a quick and easy breakfast purchased with snack credits.

We still had about a bajillion snack credits left and since we were switching resorts the next day we had to start the meal plan over again for that reservation. That meant we had to use up all of our meal and snack credits for this reservation before the next day at midnight.

After our tasty breakfast we made our way to the bus stop for a day full of fun and sun and slides

Good Morning duckies - I loved seeing them every morning!

This was probably the longest we had to wait for a bus our entire stay at Wilderness Lodge. Then again, it was one of the only times we used the buses too However, once we boarded the bus it didn't take too long to make it to Blizzard Beach. I have to say though, the walk from the bus drop off to the entrance was rather lengthy Oh well, we were still there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first plan of action was to find out where to rent a locker and so our quest began. But then I spotted it ....... a lonely photopass photographer

Ok, picture fun out of the way. Let's continuing searching for the locker rental stand. Oh, look over there. No, it's not the locker stand it's another photopass photographer

Alright, now let's go lock up our stuff! We figured out that you pay for the locker rental inside one of the gift shops. We got our key and they let us know that we would receive a portion of the payment back when we turned the key back in. We had brought a small bag with sunscreen, KTTW and a change of clothes; we also needed to lock up our shoes and the clothes we had on over our swim suits. Candi had brought water shoes with him and they were allowed on almost all of the slides without any problems.

After locking up our stuff we headed out to figure out where we wanted to start first. Well, actually, I knew where I wanted to start first, I just had to figure out where it was. I had been to Blizzard Beach way back in the day, when I came to WDW with my family. My Dad and I had spent almost the entire day there and had a blast. When Candi and I were deciding which water park to visit I kept wanting to say we should try Typhoon Lagoon, but in the end I really, really wanted to go back to Blizzard Beach.

Our first stop of the day was to Teamboat Springs - the family raft ride. I absolutely love this type of water slide and was secretly hoping we would get all adults in the raft with us. The "heavier" the raft the more thrilling the ride is. We actually got paired with a set of parents and their little boy. No big deal, it was still a super fun ride and the little boy was so cute. He clung on to the handles so tight his poor knuckles where solid white; but you could tell he was having a blast - laughing the whole way down.

After leaving Teamboat I didn't have a real preference where we headed next. I knew I wanted to try everything and that included Summit Plummit I had chickened out when I came with my Dad and was determined to conquer my fears this time. Candi suggested we do it right away so that I didn't have time to psych myself out during the rest of the day. It was a rather long line and each flight of stairs that we had to climb made me more and more nervous. At one point I really wanted to turn around and go back, but then I started listening to this younger boy in front of us. He was maybe 9 or 10 years old and kept making his Dad convince him that he would have fun on the slide. I knew there was no way I could chicken out and be a bad example to that little boy. We finally got to the top and he insisted his Dad go first "to make sure it was safe" It took a little encouragement but he did go right after his Dad. It was so funny to watch him - I swear he hadn't even come to a stop at the end of the slide when he ran off and declared "never again" I'm not laughing because he was scared, I'm laughing because he ran so fast at the end. After his go, I decided to go next. I wanted to watch Candi come down and I knew it would help me to have him up there when I went.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I don't think I took a single breath the entire way down, but it was a ton of fun. I must say though, it kind of hurt. The pressure of the water pushing back towards you hits your thighs and bum rather intensely.

After getting off I turned around to watch Candi go and got a little freaked out.

I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to ride the side of the slide like that

He couldn't stop laughing at the end of the slide; he clearly had a great time. I think at this point he realized that going to Blizzard Beach was a great idea!

The photopass people gave us a card, but it was way better than the ones you get in the regular parks. It was a smaller version attached to a rubberband type wrist strap. We ended up using this for the remainder of the trip. It is much more convenient than getting the credit card sized one out of your wallet all the time

After conquering my fear we decided to just start riding everything we came across. I was able to get a good starting push on the Downhill Double Dipper and ended up beating Candi which made me super happy! I wasn't so lucky on the Toboggan Racers though; I came in dead last out of all the racers Our most favorite area of the park, by far, was Runoff Rapids. It has three different water slides you can go on. One of them is a closed-in water slide and you go down solo and the other two slides are open and you go down in pairs. You get your raft of choice at the bottom of the slides and then climb a million steps to get to the slides. Our thighs were seriously burning from the climb at the end. But we endured the climb 6 times to enjoy the rides. Without a doubt, the double rider slide on the far right (if you are facing the slides at the top) was the most fun. We rode that one 3 times and loved it every single time. We had ridden all the slides in the park, with the slides of Runoff Rapids being at the end. We were tired and starving from our fun day and decided to go grab a bite to eat at the counter service. However, while walking back to the front I noticed Candi was getting pretty sun burnt and we decided to head back to the hotel. The only things we didn't do were the lazy river and the wave pool and I was more than satisfied with that. On the way out we helped a poor guy figure who was super lost find where to get a key for the lockers and grabbed a snack on the way out. I had an ice cream sandwich - one of the best ever since it was shaped like Mickey While Candi enjoyed a frozen lemonaded - both purchased with more snack credits!

On the bus ride back we talked about our plans for the rest of the day. We had a dinner reservation at Artist Point for 8:00 pm and it was around 4:00 pm when we left Blizzard Beach .....

 

[ariel1025]

After returning from Blizzard Beach we were both completely pooped and decided to take a nap. With the exception of Blizzard Beach and our Artist Point reservation, we didn't have any plans for today. Water parks are definitely draining and I'm pretty sure we both fell asleep withing 30 seconds of laying our head on our pillows! I woke up about an hour later, but Candi was still snoring away. We were about halfway through our trip, he had worked tons of overtime before we left home and now he was slightly sunburnt .... all a combination for major exhaustion.

While Candi continued to sleep I decided to look and see if we could trade our Artist Point reservation for our "free night" we had planned later in the week. Sure enough there was a reservation available for the exact same time we were supposed to go on this night! I know it sounds kind of silly, the reservation was in our own hotel, but we were tired and, truth be told, I didn't feel like getting all dressed up.

With a new reservation made and this one canceled I decided to run down to Roaring Forks to grab a snack while I worked on a new game plan. I, once again, wrote a quick note in case Candi woke up and ran to the main hotel. I refilled our refillable mugs and grabbed a bowl of chili and a bowl of chicken noodle soup - both covered with snack credits. Candi was awake and watching ESPN when I got back. I filled him in on changing the reservation and asked if he wanted to stay in tonight or try to head out somewhere. After discussing everything for a little while we decided to head over to the Beach Club to see if they had any seating at Beaches & Cream. This is one of the places that was on our "wish list" and this seemed like the perfect night to make it happen!

Since we love the boats so much we decided to grab the boat to the MK and then take the bus from there to the Beach Club.

I had to grab a picture of the sign since we would be going later in the week to the party!

The bus stopped first at the Yacht Club and then next door to the Beach Club and I immediately started to fall in love with the resort.

It seemed so simple and charming and relaxing and I told Candi we definitely had to stay here some day. He reminded me that we weren't coming back next year and I agreed that we would stick to our commitment of going somewhere new for vacation in 2010

Candi did, however, agree that it seemed like an amazing resort and we took our time making our way inside.

These are the shots that I wished I would have bought a tripod before the trip so I could have set the timer and got both of us in the shot.

Once we got inside I was a little bit confused as to why Candi was rushing through the hotel to go outside. He didn't even slow down to stop and ask where the restaurant was I decided to just go with the flow and follow him to see what he was up to. We began walking away from the Beach Club and although I was confused I didn't say anything. We were about halfway between Beach Club and Yacht Club when we saw a photopass photographer and asked him to take our picture. Although we meant with his camera, he though we were asking him to take it with our camera, and we just went with it.

Next to the picture down by the lake the night of our Narcoossee reservation, this is my favorite of the whole trip. I love how you can tell we are just relaxed and enjoying ourselves!

After the picture we made our way over to the Yacht Club

and I finally asked Candi where we were headed; to which he said the boat over to the Boardwalk because he was starving. Ok, no biggy, so I asked him where he wanted to eat and he said "I thought we were eating at Beaches & Cream?" I said "so did I, but it's at the Beach Club;" and then he says "are you kidding? I thought it was at the Boardwalk and you were just making me tour Beach Club to get me to stay there"

With that we turned around to make our way back to Beach Club.

Backside on our way back into the lobby

We finally stopped to ask somebody where the restaurant was because we couldn't find it. They were super friendly and actually took us outside and pointed us in the right direction. Thank goodness we finally asked, it was over by the pool and I never would have thought to look over there!

We made our way over to the podium and were seated immediately!

I love the retro feel of this restaurant and was immediately glad that we changed our plans. This was definitely the type of night we were in the mood for!

We were both thrilled when we saw that you could add "fresh flavoring" to your cokes - so I had coke with vanilla syrup and Candi had coke with cherry syrup. Both were delicious!

For dinner I had the Roast Beef Sub with melted provolone and Candi had the double cheeseburger with chili fries.

Candi was a little worried when he saw his cheeseburger, but both meals were incredibly good While we were eating there was a couple at the bar who we could overhear talking. We weren't trying to eavesdrop but our table was very close to where they were sitting. Anyway, they were talking about how glad they were that they had canceled their "fancy dinner" to come here. I had to laugh because we felt the same way and when I turned around they had my exact camera with the same camera strap. I know I'm weird, but it was such a funny thing to me how alike our minds were to these complete strangers

Although we were both stuffed from our meal we couldn't turn down dessert - it is after all the whole reason we wanted to eat here. Candi kept it simple and ordered a butterscotch milkshake and I thought I kept it simple by ordering a banana split.

Nice, easy, simple and tasty dessert ....

My simple dessert, however, required a plate

Let me tell you, this was the most amazing and delicious dessert EVER!!!!

After eating we roamed around the resort while we decided what to do next

So, did we follow them to the Boardwalk or did we choose something else .......

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Thanks for the updates! Glad you got lucky with the storm in Epcot. I live in FL, and we get some pretty bad storms.

I can't wait to try teppan edo and beaches n' cream. It's on my to do list for the next trip.

 

[brechan]

Hi,
I am new to the board and accidentally came upon your posts...I have been sitting here for over an hour reading the entire thing!! I love it! Thanks for all the great info and beautiful pictures!

We will be taking our kids for their first trip in 24 days! I have been doing so much planning my hubby thinks I'm crazy!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[ariel1025]

Thanks for the updates! Glad you got lucky with the storm in Epcot. I live in FL, and we get some pretty bad storms.

I can't wait to try teppan edo and beaches n' cream. It's on my to do list for the next trip.

I can almost promise that you will love both restaurants

Hi,
I am new to the board and accidentally came upon your posts...I have been sitting here for over an hour reading the entire thing!! I love it! Thanks for all the great info and beautiful pictures!

We will be taking our kids for their first trip in 24 days! I have been doing so much planning my hubby thinks I'm crazy!

Can't wait to read more!

Thank you for such kind words and welcome to the boards I hope you and your family enjoy the trip! Oh, and there is NO SUCH THING as too much planning

 

[ariel1025]

After our late lunch/early dinner we discussed options for the rest of the night. We were both pretty energetic and ready to do something. We decided that the choices would be between going to Disney Quest, strolling the Boardwalk or hitting whichever park had evening extra magic hours. In the end we decided to hit the park with EMH, even though it was the same park that was planned for our visit the next day.

We knew that there was a boat that took you to Epcot and Hollywood Studios so we took our time making our way to the dock.

If you can't tell, I was really falling in love with the resort and it's surroundings. Just like WL, it really felt like you were somewhere else completely. It didn't have the same romantic, peaceful vibe as Wilderness but, it had this relaxing, carefree vibe that was nice as well

The boat was pulling up right as we got to the dock and soon enough we had reached our destination. Have I mentioned yet how much I love the boat transportation option!

Tonight we would be enjoying our time at Hollywood Studios!

I really loved the way the sky was looking as the sun was starting to set. It seemed so peaceful and was the perfect surrounding for the day that we were having.

After entering the park we did what we always do and headed right .... wait just a second! Don't I mean left? Ya know towards Toy Story Mania? Nope, I really mean right

Our system is always the same at Hollywood Studios. We head right towards Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster.

We first check the wait time for Tower

If it's less than 15 minutes we hop in line, if it's more than 15 minutes we grab a fastpass and continue on our way. And, yes, I know 15 minutes is not long, but it's just what we do

Tonight the wait time was around 30 minutes so we grabbed our fastpass and continued to our next destination. This is, of course, Aersomith's Rockin' Roller Coaster ...... also known as, my favorite ride in all of the world

I could barely contain myself as we headed towards the line. I honestly turn into such a little kid when we go on this ride. I love roller coasters, especially if they have twists and turns and upside down loops. And I love, love, love Aerosmith so this ride is like pure heaven to me!!!

I was completely stoked to see that the line didn't even reach the outside

and when I made it inside, I was beyond thrilled when this was where our line began!

For those who don't know this is the pre-show area that then opens you up into the smaller portion of the inside line. I would say that after you go through the pre-show your wait time is about 5-10 minutes at the most. You also get to see all the super stretch limos take off and hear the screams of the riders .... it's pure and utter bliss I tell ya

Once we reached the CM that splits you into your ride section we requested the back of the limo and were on my favorite ride within 2 minutes. It was just as fun as I had remembered and it totally made my night!

After the ride you, of course, exit through a gift shop and I was forced to buy a new Aerosmith T-shirt. And then Candi felt left out so he had no choice but to buy himself one as well

I LOVE this shirt - it fits perfect and is super soft - it has become my "weekend wear"

This is actually the exact one Candi bought on our honeymoon, but his brother kinda sorta adopted it so he bought it again

We had our purchases delivered to our room and they ensured us that it would not be a problem that we were checking out of WL the next morning

After leaving the gift shop we headed back to Tower of Terror; it wasn't quite time for our fastpasses so we hopped in the standby line, which was now only 10 minutes. I must say that Tower is a million times more fun at night - when you get to the top and the doors open it is amazing to see everything all lit up!!! We had an awesome ride with several drops and tons of screams so once we got off we hopped back in line again and were dropping and screaming within 5 minutes. Guess we didn't need those fastpasses after all huh?

Two rounds of Tower later and we decided to give the rest of the park some of our attention. I figured it was pointless, but decided we should check out the wait time for Toy Story Mania. When we were on our honeymoon we had the chance to preview this ride before it officially opened and passed Since then we had ridden it at Disneyland and always talk about how silly we were to have passed the opportunity to preview it ......

 

[ariel1025]

Now, I had spent a lot of time on the boards before this trip and had read many, many times about the wait time always exceeding 1 hour, even on extra magic hours. So, imagine my surprise when we walked up and saw

MAJOR SCORE!!!!!!

We hopped in line which was just slightly outside and made me wonder if the wait time really was only 30 minutes.

I, of course, killed some time taking pictures

Candi wasn't feeling very photogenic

We were inside within 5 minutes and this is what we saw

Sneaky, sneaky Disney, making the line look longer than it was

We loved the theming of the line and the wait time easily felt like less than 30 minutes!

I could have sworn that I took pictures of our score, but I can't locate it I will be honest and admit that Candi kicked my booty

After our spin on Toy Story we decided to get in one more ride on Aerosmith and Tower and then call it a night. We were both getting sleepy and a little hungry and didn't want to push ourselves into the point of cranky. Both rides were amazing as always and were the perfect last rides of the evening!

As always we took our time leaving the park

We also stopped at Villians in Vogue to pick up a coke, even though it was night it was still super humid, and we had a ton of snack credits to burn through

And, a park wouldn't be complete without some Photopass Pictures

Our only option to get back to our hotel was the bus which was actually nice, as we both were in need of some air conditioning.....

 

[ariel1025]

Upon returning to the hotel we decided that since we had some spare meal credits we would order some room service. Candi offered to order while I hopped in the shower and I told him to just surprise me, that I was in the mood for anything.

Imagine my surprise when I got out of the shower and saw this sitting on our bed

Ummm, honey, are Mickey and his pals joining us for dinner or something

Apparently, Candi called down for a pizza and they told him with meal credits he had to add 2 desserts and 2 appetizers just like normal with the deluxe plan. Holy moly, we were never going to be able to finish all this food!!

Pepperoni pizza with extra cheese - obviously super cheesy which is exactly how we like it. It was very tasty and we both enjoyed it very much.

Chips & Salsa - we were told these were the same ones they serve at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I enjoyed them but they tasted too much like Pace Picante for Candi's liking

Cheese Tray - which was stated to be the same one from Artist Point. This was honestly my favorite part of the meal and may have started a small cheese plate obsession with me

Bourbon Pecan Pie, I believe from Whispering Canyon as well, and Fresh fruit and yogurt. We were both too stuffed to take more than one bite of these but were tasty and put in the fridge for later.

Candi asked for the largest bottle of water they had and this is what he received

Overall, this had been the perfect day and still ranks as my favorite day of the first half of our trip We were both glad that we had changed up our evening plans and realized even more that it's ok to break plans, and better to just go with the flow. We didn't ride a ton of rides at Hollywood Studios, but it was still the perfect choice for us

Money Spent Day Four:

Roaring Forks (muffin, danish and chocolate milk) - 3 snack credits used - $7.23 if paying in cash

Waterpark Fun & More Option Added to 2 Tickets - $104.00 - $90.00 if you just bought a one day waterpark ticket for 2 which is what we should have done since we never used the option on our ticket again ... Oh well!

Small Locker Rental @ Blizzard Beach - $20.00 deposit with $10.00 refunded upon return of key

Frostbite Freddies (frozen lemonade & Mickey ice cream sandwich) - 2 snack credits used - $7.19 if paying in cash

Roaring Forks (chili & chicken noodle soup) - 2 snack credits used - $7.06 if paying in cash

Beaches & Cream - 2 table service credits used - $44.88 if paying in cash

Rock Around the Shop (2 Aerosmith T-shirts) - $58.53

Villians in Vogue (20 oz Coke) - 1 snack credit used - $2.49 if paying in cash

WL Room Service - 4 table service meal credits used - $98.46 if paying in cash (that includes the delivery charge and the automatic 18% gratuity charge)

 

[brechan]

Wow! That was a lot of food for 2 people! That cheese plate looks yummy though!!

 

[ariel1025]

Wow! That was a lot of food for 2 people! That cheese plate looks yummy though!!

Yeah, it really was too much food. Especially since it was just meant to be a "midnight snack" and not a full meal

 

[ariel1025]

Just stopping in to say I hope everyone had a wonderful time on Easter. We had a great day with family. Unfortunately, I woke up feeling under the weather and just found out I have Strep Throat Was hoping to get an update in, but just realized that I don't have all of my next day's pictures uploaded and the Hubby has the portable memory with him Hopefully later today

 

[ariel1025]

Ok, picture problem solved and I'm ready to continue on I will have to warn you though, for some reason this day is a little bit fuzzy, and I don't have as many pictures as normal to refresh my memory

If you will recall, we had spent a late night at Hollywood Studios followed by a midnight "snack" in our room. Because of this I let Candi sleep in, and I even stayed in bed for quite a while after waking up. After about 15 minutes of laying around I flipped on the TV to Stacey and started packing up our bags. Today we would be switching resorts and I was a little surprised at how much it was bumming me out. I had been so excited about the switch leading up to the trip, and now that it was here I found myself shedding a couple of tears. This was probably due to the fact that Wilderness Lodge is starting to feel like "home" to us, it's where our Honeymoon was spent and where all of our Disney memories together were up until this point.

Anywhooo, after wiping away my tears I got out my leftover fruit bowl from the night before and started munching away while I finished up the last minute packing. I knew that we didn't have to be checked out until 11:00 a.m. and so I wasn't in any huge rush to get out. I was really starting to enjoy this newly found "go with the flow" vacation mood of mine!

I had just zipped up the last suitcase when Candi started stirring awake .... perfect timing if I might say so myself I asked if he wanted some of my fruit for breakfast and he said no, but he wouldn't mind terribly if I got his Pecan Pie out of the fridge

While he enjoyed his mighty nutritious breakfast I started getting ready for the day

You can see the combination sleepy/crying eyes in this picture

Candi absolutely HATES when I wear my hair in a ponytail so he was trying to distract me so that I would get frustrated and leave it down .... ummm, yeah, you try the Florida humidity with your hair sticking to your neck buddy

While Candi started to get ready I went down to the gift shop to pick up our packages that were supposed to be delivered (our Aerosmith T-shirts and our picture from Epcot) as well as turn in our DVD rental from the previous night. When I gave them my receipts for the merchandise they had my picture but not the T-shirts I asked them if they could please double-check and they still could not locate the shirts. They promised me they would get the issue resolved and have the shirts delivered to our new resort by this evening. I was somewhat frustrated but appreciated the CMs willingness to help out and let it go.

After I returned to the room we packed up the toiletry bag and made our way down to the Wilderness lobby for the last time this trip

I stopped for a few minutes just staring while a few tears came down my face while Candi held his arms around me. He knew how much this place means to me and I appreciated that he didn't push me along or crack any jokes about how sensitive I can be. He just got it

After I had absorbed enough of the atmosphere to last me until next time we went up to the nearest CM to find our where we dropped off our bags to be transferred. This was absolutely a piece of cake; we were directed to the outdoor valet stand where they tagged up our luggage, gave us our claim tickets and told us to enjoy our day. We were ensured that our bags would be in our room whenever we felt like checking in for the day.

We made one final trip down to the WL bus stop and waited for the correct bus

I'm pretty sure that I had barely snapped that picture when the Hollywood Studios bus showed up! We were the only people to get on and hoped that the empty bus was foreshadowing of the park crowds that day ....

 

[tlhbdm]

I can't wait to stay at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge in a studio in about a month and half. I'm glad to hear that you liked it so much. Can't wait for the rest of your TR.

 

[ariel1025]

I can't wait to stay at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge in a studio in about a month and half. I'm glad to hear that you liked it so much. Can't wait for the rest of your TR.

Thanks for reading! You will LOVE the WL

 

[ariel1025]

Within minutes we were pulling up to Hollywood Studios and from the entrance it looked "so far so good" as far as crowd levels were concerned.

On the way to scan our tickets and start our day I told Candi how sad I was that our favorite ride wasn't running

On our honeymoon we had a little bit of time to kill before our reservation at Hollywood & Vine so we decided to go to the Sounds Dangerous show. Major mistake ... on the restaurant and the show .... we laugh about it now, but my goodness we did not enjoy that portion of our trip

We walked into the park and the crowd levels still seemed minimal and I finally let myself believe that it wasn't going to be a crowded day

I absolutely loved when we would get Photopass photographers who would take several pictures. You can't tell in this picture because I have my sunglasses on, but I have a lazy eye and sometimes it gets really bad when I smile. So, it was nice to constantly have options for the pictures

After we had our "beauty shoot" we decided to find the Sci Fi Dine In, so we weren't rushing around to find it when it came time for lunch. Once we located where it was, we just took our time strolling around to see what caught our attention.

We passed by the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and made note of the future show times.

This is one of the two things that we didn't get to do last time that Candi was really hoping to do this year.

From there we made our way back across the park to follow back through with routine.

I mean, afterall, it had been like twelve whole hours since we sang along with Aerosmith while screaming our heads off

If I remember correctly we rode both, Rock'n and Tower twice apiece before we decided we should give some love to other parts of the park.

However, with the exception of those two rides, Studios just really isn't our "cup of tea" so to speak. It's not that we hate the park, but we don't necessarily love it either

After walking around for a while we decided to check out the Backlot Tour and see how many character spots we could find before lunchtime.

On our way to the Backlot Tour we ran into this guy

After dodging his bullets, we got in line for the Backlot Tour

We picked the perfect time to get into line, because we weren't qued up for too long before we were taken into the the area where you watch the special effects show

*** Oh, darn it, gotta stop the update for now .... hopefully will be back later!

 

[NYmickey]

I am LOVIN your trip report!! And I am loving your pictures.You guys are such a cute couple. My question is did you use a tri-pod when you took your night photos. My hubby and I have been considering getting the camera you have b/c ours takes terrible night/fireworks photos. Thanks a bunch and can't wait for the next installment! (Oh and if we do purchase the camera you will have to give me some tips)

 

[ariel1025]

I am LOVIN your trip report!! And I am loving your pictures.You guys are such a cute couple. My question is did you use a tri-pod when you took your night photos. My hubby and I have been considering getting the camera you have b/c ours takes terrible night/fireworks photos. Thanks a bunch and can't wait for the next installment! (Oh and if we do purchase the camera you will have to give me some tips)

Thank you so much To be completely honest, I did not use a tripod for any of my pictures. I know it would have made them look a lot better, but I just didn't want to carry it around all the time For the fireworks pictures at Epcot after our dinner at Teppan Edo, I did rest my camera on the ledge of the balcony. For the other night pictures, they were all handheld. The trick is to take lots of shots and delete the bad ones so that nobody every sees them I also do all my night/fireworks shots with the flash off. I would highly recommend my camera (Nikon D5000) to anybody who was interested in a DSLR; it is quite simple to use and does some amazing things! If you have a Costco near you or a membership to shop online they have an amazing package on the camera right now. You can get the camera, 2 lenses (they are 2 of the 4 I own), a carrying case, a memory card, a battery and an instructional DVD for around $850 - that's less than I paid when the camera came out for the body and 1 lens

 

[ariel1025]

So, I last left you with a bunch of unsuspecting volunteers getting soaked with special effects. Once the demonstration was over, we made our way over to the tram for the next portion of the tour.

I had to stop and take a picture of this from "Hannah Montana: The Movie." My sister absolutely loves Hannah and she was thrilled when I emailed it to her that night!

While on our tram ride we passed by the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show and Candi asked me to check the times for it - it was the second thing he wanted to make sure we did this time.

I know a lot of people don't particular care for the Backlot Tour, but I have to say that I really enjoy seeing all of the different props and things. I guess it's not the same since they don't actually film movies there anymore, but we still enjoy it.

From "Pirates" one of our favorite movie series!

I have a picture of this when it read "Disney's MGM Studios" from when I came with my family in 1998!

After riding this ride on the previously mentioned family trip, I bought one of those clapboards in the gift shop. I actually still have it and it is in our Disney decorated guest room!

The costume designers are such talented people - I could only dream of being so great at something!

You can never see too many pictures of Walt's plane.

Uh-oh, it's time for the scary part of the ride

This is the one part of the ride that gets a little old for me. It's kind of like the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom - it was really enjoyable the first couple of times, but you wish it would change every so often.

After leaving the tour we were hoping to get a good look at the Villians showcase but it was so darn crowded in there. Normally lots of people don't bother me, but it was a massive group of pushers and shovers ARGH!

And....that's all we looked at before hightailing it out of there....

From there we weren't really sure what we wanted to do. We had about an hour before lunch and it wasn't allowing enough time to catch the next time slot for either of the stunt shows we wanted to see. So, instead we decided to roam around and see how many character spots we could find!

The first one we stumbled upon was Monsters Inc. I absolutely adore this move - Candi's goddaughter looked exactly like Boo as a toddler, and it's just an all-around cute movie to me.

This is one of my absolute favorite character shots from the trip!

After hanging out with Mike and Sully we came across my favorite pair of vehicles. Lightning McQeen and Mater ... "The name's Mater .... like Tamater without the Ta"

I'm pretty sure we crisscrossed around several portions of the park, but we just didn't have a particular destination in mind. At one point, I shrieked like a child because I saw it ....... the infamous umbrella picture spot!

From there we strolled along and I let Candi control the camera for a while. He always teases me about my obsession with taking pictures, but boy it's hard to get that camera back once I give it to him!

Candi commented that he would like to eat here next time we come - funny thing is, when I was going over menus while planning this trip he said "ugh, I don't like Italian enough to eat it on vacation"

After this we stumbled upon the Muppets show and decided to head on in. This is another one that I know people think is outdated, but it's the exact stupid humor that makes us laugh for days!

While laughing our way around the park we started heading back towards Sci Fi

So, do I finally get my camera back before it's time to eat?????

 

[RachelNinja]

Great update! I especially loved all your Backlot Tour pictures since DBF and I missed it this past Friday. I didn't realize it closed at 7pm (park was open until 10pm), so we were all the way on the other side of the park when we saw it on the times guide.

And how cute is that pic of your hug with Sulley!