July 2010 BCV Trip Report

[GoofyGirl68]

Day 1, July 17

Left home shortly after midnight for the drive down from KY. Target departure time was 12:00AM on the dot. Pulled out at 12:11AM. DH had the song "Waiting on a Woman" playing. Cute. After several hours of driving in the dark, we finally saw the sun and soon it was breakfast time. Back on the road and by 1PM we made it to BCV! Our room wasn't ready but the CM said it was being cleaned at the time. So the four of us (DH, me, DD14, DD9) checked out the resort. By 3PM, our room (#309) was ready and we were into our 1BR home for the week. We brought up our bags ourselves. The hallways were a little confusing as we hauled in our stuff from out in the afternoon heat. With all four of us, it only took a few trips.

Ready for some park time, we made our first walk into Epcot. Wow! In just 5 minutes, we made it from our room to the IG. How cool! DD9 had Test Track at the top of her must do list so that was our first stop. Then we squeezed in Maelstrom before our dinner ADR. This was mostly a joke between DH and me. In December, we rode for our first time. Not really our kind of ride. Anyway the past few weeks, DH would pull up the wait time on his wait time app on his phone and email it to me. We pretended it was a "must do" for us. For dinner we ate in Italy--a nice meal. Then we went to FutureWorld to get in a few rides. We fit in Spaceship Earth (DH took a nice nap as soon as his car started moving.) The girls enjoyed the activities at the end of ride. We enjoyed not rushing them to the next ride. We wanted to make this trip more relaxed than previous ones. Next it was over to Soarin' with a 65+ min wait. DH was fading fast after driving all night. Finally we got on and had a fun ride. We intended to stay for Illuminations but were worn out and opted to head back to the room. We got settled into our rooms and got to bed ready to get up early. After months of planning and waiting, we were glad to finally be "home".

 

[El&Asmom]

Sounds like fun. Dh and I are doing a parents only trip to BCV in Jan. Can't wait to walk to IG at night.

 

[Sandisw]

Sounds great and almost identical to our plan this Friday. We check in to BCV (studio) for 3 nights before heading to BLT for 3 nights in a 1 bedroom.

I am so excited at how close we will be to walk to Epcot!!! I am thinking I may be finding my 2nd favorite home.

I can't wait to hear more about your week!

 

[GoofyGirl68]

Day 2, July 18

DH and I got up at 6AM. We began the day with a morning walk towards HS. Since this was our first time at BCV, we weren’t familiar with exactly where the path was and how long it took. We took the walk at a leisurely pace about halfway, enough to tell that we could make the trip from our room in 15-20 minutes. Then it was back to the room to get the girls up and moving. We left the room at 7:50AM with plenty of time to walk into Epcot for 8AM EMH. (Loved being so close to the park.) We like to take advantage of EMH in the AM. The parks are fresh and not crowded or hot, and we can pack so much into a couple of hours. We started out on Soarin’ riding it standby and grabbing a FP for later. Ditto for Test Track. The girls and I rode Mission Space which posted a 20-minute wait but ended up being 30+ mins. DH passed on this one; his last couple of “missions” left him feeling not so great. We had an ADR at Captain’s Grille in the Yacht Club for 10:30AM so we headed out of the park. We enjoyed a nice buffet and ate way too much. After our late breakfast, we headed back to the room to hang out. I did some prep for dinner fixing a marinade for some chicken and we donned our swimsuits for our first visit to SAB. The water was perfect for me. I hate to be cold and love bath-temp water. I thought the sand “beach” was neat but the girls didn’t care for the sand in the pool. Otherwise, we all liked the pool with all its "currents" and "whirlpool".
At breakfast we decided to go to MK after dinner. DD9 told us she didn't feel like vacation had begun yet since we hadn't been to MK. Typically we spend our first night at WDW in MK so I guess she was missing that. So after pool time, naps and dinner of fajitas in the room, we headed that way. We went through Epcot using the FP's we got earlier in the day and riding Soarin' and Test Track. Then we boarded the monorail heading for MK. We stopped in the ice cream store on Main Street for ice cream before catching some rides. We got in POC, picked up a BTMRR FP and rode HM. By this time it was almost 9PM, the time for that evening's fireworks. We tried to make it over to the Adventureland side of the castle to catch some of the show. However, we ended up going through Liberty Square and were STUCK. The crowd just stopped. We saw a few fireworks but had trees blocking our view. When it was over, some in the crowd were trying to move but others were parked waiting for the 10PM parade. It was crazy. Finally we made it out. I asked DD14 if she could see anything in the fireworks. She told me "No, not much. There was a little girl on someone's shoulders blocking my view but that's okay. She probably hadn't seen the fireworks before." How sweet from our normally grumpy teen. We made it back to BTMRR to use our FP only to find it was closed for the night but we were able to use it on another ride so went over to Splash Mtn. We rounded out the evening with Space Mountain and a nighttime trip on the Jungle Cruise. Our first full day was great, a nice combination of park time and relaxing at our DVC home.

 

[helenk]

Sounds like a great start to your vacation. I love the walk from the BC to DHS and back its my favorite place to walk.

 

[GoofyGirl68]

For his birthday, DH chose to take the Segway Around the World Tour. While the girls had a morning to sleep in, DH and I made the short trip to Epcot for our tour. I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do the Segway, would run into something or fall off and break something. Fortunately, all went well. Our group of eight began with some basic training. We learned how to properly mount and dismount our Segways, how to move forward and how to turn. Then we went through several exercises to practice our skills before heading out into the park. We even practiced our waves for the crowds because our CM’s told us that everyone would be watching us. They also cautioned us that if anyone asked us questions while we were out to direct the questioner to the CM. Sure enough, we had barely got outside and someone asked the CM for directions to Soarin’. Guess they didn’t notice we were in the middle of a tour. We made our way from Future World back to the countries which weren’t open yet. We stopped in several countries where our CM shared facts about that country and even showed us a couple of hidden Mickeys. I was pleased that the Segways were easy to maneuver. We had a great time on the tour and at the end we received Segway pins exclusive to tour participants.

[/IMG]
When we returned to the room around 11AM, the girls had just started moving around. We took in a little time at the pool, had a little to eat in the room and then returned to Epcot where DD9 wanted to go on a Kim Possible mission. We were assigned to the UK. We tried to get DD14 to do her own mission but she declined. She preferred to fight with her sister. At one point in our mission, we were instructed to go into the tea store and say the code phrase to the clerk “Danger’s my cup of my tea.” DD9 who’s quite outgoing and full of drama was too shy to approach the clerk. She kept trying to get DH or me to do it. Finally, she told the clerk her phrase but with less than stellar acting. The clerk then pulled out a tea bag and pointed to the tea’s name which we would use to complete this part of the mission. DD14 was being grumpy so DH continued with DD9 while I took DD14 to France to look around. On her next mission, DD9 chose France where she met back up with us. We really like the Kim Possible missions. So cute!

For dinner, we ate at Les Chefs de France. It was okay. DH and DD14's meals seemed nice. Mine was fine but nothing special certainly for the price. The ambience would have been nice if it hadn't been so noisy. We had a family seated behind us with five young children and lots of crying. We saw Remy but it was so loud I could barely hear him. DH seemed to like it so that's what mattered.

After dinner, we strolled through the countries catching a performance in China and doing another ride on Maelstrom. Well, DH and DD14 went; once in line, DD9 suddenly had to go to the bathroom.

We returned to the room and later finished the evening watching the Illuminations fireworks from the Boardwalk bridge. Another great day!

 

[SusieBea]

 

[bobbiwoz]

I'm enjoying your trip report and pictures!

 

[mouseaider]

It sounds like the perfect vacation to me ! Keep them coming. I'm loving your reports !

 

[lauriegs]

we'll be checking into BC in just 2 weeks! So do you recommend taking a walk to Hollywood studios, or taking the boat over for rope drop? can you see Illuminations pretty well from the bridge?

 

[BeesKnees]

Your TR has given me a sudden burst of inspiration. My wife and I are horrible about birthdays. We don't exchange gifts and usually the "birthday meal" either gets forgotten or is weeks later. My own birthday was about a month ago and we still haven't had done anything because we have been so busy.

While I was reading your TR I was thinking now Disney would be a great place to celebrate a birthday. We are relaxed and there are tons of options. So why not? This November I will pick something special for my birthday and the wife can do the same. It doesn't have to be on the exact day and celebrating at Disney would be tons better than celebrating it here on the correct day.

I think this is going to be a new thing for us. We will have birthdays every trip so instead of one crappy birthday we will average 2 a year. Happy Birthday To Us! I am loving this idea.

Thanks.

 

[Mahusky]

Enjoying your report ... can't wait to be there in 48 shorts hours!

 

[mouseaider]

I think this is going to be a new thing for us. We will have birthdays every trip so instead of one crappy birthday we will average 2 a year. Happy Birthday To Us! I am loving this idea.

We were at WDW in May for my *cough, cough* 60th birthday and we had an absolutely wonderful time. I highly recommend it !

 

[ajf1007]

Your TR has given me a sudden burst of inspiration. My wife and I are horrible about birthdays. We don't exchange gifts and usually the "birthday meal" either gets forgotten or is weeks later. My own birthday was about a month ago and we still haven't had done anything because we have been so busy.

While I was reading your TR I was thinking now Disney would be a great place to celebrate a birthday. We are relaxed and there are tons of options. So why not? This November I will pick something special for my birthday and the wife can do the same. It doesn't have to be on the exact day and celebrating at Disney would be tons better than celebrating it here on the correct day.

I think this is going to be a new thing for us. We will have birthdays every trip so instead of one crappy birthday we will average 2 a year. Happy Birthday To Us! I am loving this idea.

Thanks.

I think you'll love celebrating your birthday at Disney. My husband and I go every year somewhere between late Sept and early Oct and we do a trifecta celebration - his bday Sept, our anniv is Oct and my bday is Nov! We always make sure we have something special for each of us individually and one thing for the both of us. I think you'll love it ! Happy Bday to you guys!

 

[Disneypirate85]

Subing
DW and I will be there 12/12-12/17 for our 1st BCV stay, ADULTS only trip...SO looking forward to it...Good TR thanks for taking the time out of your trip to post, Shawn

 

[GoofyGirl68]

we'll be checking into BC in just 2 weeks! So do you recommend taking a walk to Hollywood studios, or taking the boat over for rope drop? can you see Illuminations pretty well from the bridge?

Have fun! I'm sure you're getting excited to be counting down the final days. For us, we preferred to walk to HS. If you could be there right when the boat's there, the time between riding and walking are about the same. I don't recall if there was a crowd when we went for RD. Rather than waiting for the boat, we just walked. It only took 15-20 mins. Note that we're big walkers. At home DH and I walk 5 miles most days. We did take the boat one afternoon and it was a nice, relaxing ride.

I read a thread a few days ago that there's a shorter route than we took. We were walking past the Yacht Club, over the bridge and then alongside Boardwalk. Apparently it's shorter to take the bridge by ESPN and cut through the Boardwalk pool area.

I'd go on into Epcot for Illuminations. From the bridge, you're just seeing the higher fireworks. You don't have a view of the globe or all the action right on the water. I think DH was just tired and didn't feel like getting into the Epcot crowd that night.

 

[GoofyGirl68]

Your TR has given me a sudden burst of inspiration. My wife and I are horrible about birthdays. We don't exchange gifts and usually the "birthday meal" either gets forgotten or is weeks later. My own birthday was about a month ago and we still haven't had done anything because we have been so busy.

While I was reading your TR I was thinking now Disney would be a great place to celebrate a birthday. We are relaxed and there are tons of options. So why not? This November I will pick something special for my birthday and the wife can do the same. It doesn't have to be on the exact day and celebrating at Disney would be tons better than celebrating it here on the correct day.

I think this is going to be a new thing for us. We will have birthdays every trip so instead of one crappy birthday we will average 2 a year. Happy Birthday To Us! I am loving this idea.

Thanks.

Glad to help. We plan most of our summer vacations so that DH can be on vacation on his birthday. His favorite place to be is WDW.

 

[BeesKnees]

I think you'll love celebrating your birthday at Disney. My husband and I go every year somewhere between late Sept and early Oct and we do a trifecta celebration - his bday Sept, our anniv is Oct and my bday is Nov! We always make sure we have something special for each of us individually and one thing for the both of us. I think you'll love it ! Happy Bday to you guys!

I just can't believe we didn't think of this before. It makes perfect sense (other than not actually going to wdw on our birthdays). Who cares if it is months late or early? It will be worth the wait or the earliness or whatever.

Glad to help. We plan most of our summer vacations so that DH can be on vacation on his birthday. His favorite place to be is WDW.

You just don't know. One year I got a call at around 4pm and I honestly didn't even realize it was my birthday that day.

 

[KyDVC]

Enjoying your trip report. We are from Oldham County, KY and we always like to hear reports from other KY DVCers. Where in KY do you live? Sounds like you are having a great time even if it is hot, but it has not been exactly cool here. Almost as hot as FL. Looking for more of you report.

 

[GoofyGirl68]

Subing
DW and I will be there 12/12-12/17 for our 1st BCV stay, ADULTS only trip...SO looking forward to it...Good TR thanks for taking the time out of your trip to post, Shawn

That'll be great! We did an adults trip last December and had so much fun. It'll be nice being close to Epcot and HS for all their holiday decorations and shows. Hope you like BCV.