It's the snow's fault....we HAD to go to Disney so we could thaw over Spring Break at SSR!

[MelissaTnNc]

We (me, DH, DS7, DD5, DS2) had plans for Washington DC to visit family over Spring Break, but with 8 days of no school due to snow and ice and historical amounts of snow and ice in our town, when our neighbors (her, her DH, DS13, DD 7, DD5) mentioned trying to throw together a last minute trip to Disney, we first resisted as we have rented points for a stay at BLT and VGF for November. After a bit of arm twisting, we did finally give in, prompted by being able to find owners through here and the other board with expiring points and were able to stay in a 2 bedroom at SSR very reasonably. My kids and I have stayed at SSR in a studio on expiring points from David's last summer, but DH had not, our friends had not stayed on Disney property before. We started our stay at Wyndham Bonnet Creek in a recently refurbished 3 bedroom for 4 nights. WBC is really the only off property resort we will stay at bc of the location. Any other location and I find that we do not care for the travel back and forth. Plus I am pretty convinced that the CM and activities on property at the WDW resorts are hard to beat. We had a nice time at WBC and checked out Tuesday.

TUesday AM we had breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe and it was excellent as always. I think it's a great value! We then took in the DVC tour. We have rented points three times now (4th time already set up for our trip in Novemebr), have friends that are owners and after a lot of research here and other boards, DH and I are 90% sure we are going to buy...soon. Anyway, I wanted DH to hear the tour and see the models and our friends were game as well. Dropped 4 of the kids off at the play center at the DVC tour and the meeting and tour ended up being nearly two hours. Which was fine, DH really likes VGF and would be happy to buy direct, I'm much more inclined to buy resell at SSR or AKV and get twice as many points for the money, but that's a post for another day. It was interesting to hear the presentation, knowing as much as I do, but also fascinating to watch three other adults who know very little about DVC and how they responded to the guide. Anyway, we wrapped up the meeting without buying and headed off for ice cream with the kids at the end of the presentation. It's a nice touch!

Next, the moms and daughters headed off to GF for Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tea Room. It was really wonderful! It's three 'courses' with tea sandwiches and fruit and cheese and pastry and tea and really very lovely. The service was excellent, she was wonderful with the girls, bringing more peanut butter sanwhiches and ham and cheese ones since the tuna did not go over well. She helped them get their tea to the perfect temperature (bc goodness knows moms have no idea how to do this ). Oh, She gave each girl a pretty pink rose at the end at it was a perfect ending to the tea. It's definitely been added to our 'must do' list.

I had requested in the online check in to have a room in the Paddock section near the pool and that we would wait for a room to meet our requests, as opposed to getting a room sooner. DH and DS7, DS2 stayed at the main pool while the ladies were at tea and my friends DH and DS13 went and did some grocery shopping. I got the text alert that our room was ready around 3:30. DH went right over and the magic band let him right in and they unpacked. We had room 5310 and it was in the paddock, our balcony overlooked the pool--it was excellent! To be continued...

 

[MelissaTnNc]

We spent the remainder of the day at the pool, getting dinner at the pool, the food was fresh and delicious.

Wednesday AM we were at the bus stop by 7:15 and at MK and through bag check and tickets turnstile by 7:45. I was SHOCKED at the crowd levels--how low they were. We had a great morning there, finished up with lunch reservations at BOG. The quiche was very good, DH loved the French onion soup, our friends were pleased with their meals, except the roast beef sandwich--to much bread and the meat was cold, not what he expected. The roast and veggies and mashed potatoes were excellent though. We took a mid day break and we're back to MK around 7pm. Again, much lower crowds than I had anticipated. It also helped that we had three extra FP+ from the DVC tour. Had a great night and even got the girls in to see the princesses just before midnight!

 

[MelissaTnNc]

Thursday we did more pool hopping at SSR and had pizza delivery to the pool from Flippers--excellent! Good prices and promised within an hour, but it arrived within 40 minutes. The NCAA tourney has started, so the men in our group were a little more anxious to return to the room that night instead of hanging by the pool, lol.

Friday morning we headed off to ride the monorail and boats and tour resorts after breakfast at Captain Cooks at the Poly. We love the Poly and stayed there in 2013, so we wanted to see the new lobby. Spent the afternoon at the pool and then headed to Downtown Disney after dark. Again, very happy with reasonable crowds, had dinner at Wolfgang Pucks Express and it was another great meal. Pizzas were excellent, the rotisserie chicken was tender and the pasta with meatballs had great portion size. I do wish we had thought to go over there in the daylight to see more of the changes, but we will save that for November! Checked out this morning and are already half way home with a car full of sad kiddos who are counting down to November!

Just a few more thoughts and observations to share....

 

[MelissaTnNc]

We technically had three reservations in a 2 bedroom unit at SSR with three different owners over 4 nights. After the end of each reservation, I went to the lobby and checked in and out as I had read on here that I needed to do. Interestingly, each time the CM looked at me like I was crazy as I had already been automatically checked in and out. I would worry tooich about it being screwed up if I didn't do that, so would do that again, but thought it was odd that the CMs seemed confused that I was bothering with going there in person to check in and out and back in.

We purchased disney gift cards ahead of time to pay for spending at Disney in order to earn fuel points and I wish Disney would allow us to put them on the account as a credit. Instead, each night I had to go and add the gc to the account to pay the balance down to zero. Annoying.

On our MK night, we had a bit of a mix up and we ended up leaving one of our strollers with a backpack of drinks and food and shopping bags with souvenirs in Fantasyland around 11:30pm. The next morning, when stopping to check in and out and in, we filled out a yellow card about it at the front desk at SSR and the CM got on the phone with lost and found to see if they had received the night's lost and found stuff from City Hall in MK yet. She stayed on hold on the phone and sent us over by car. By the time we got there, lost and found had just hung up with the CM and had our stuff located. Everything was there, except $60 woth of food and candy from the confectionary, bc the health dept requires them to throw out food. Ugh. When we stopped back by the front desk at SSR, one of the managers credited our account the full amount from the confectionary so we could go back and replace it at Goofys Candy Co in downtown disney. Talk about spectacular service. Completely unnecessary and she made the day of six little kids.

We had reservations at Beaches and Cream for Saturday night that we were at WBC and couldn't book anything for 10. We were able to book for two parties of 4 and 1 of 2 back to back and then we arrived an hour early, I explained what we did and they say is all together. I know they didn't have to, we were very appreciative that they did!