Just Back From First DVC Trip! Very Long!!

lovespugs

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DH and I got home last night from our first DVC trip. We stayed at BWV in a Boardwalk view studio #5031 from 10/4 - 10/12. Our home resort is BCV, but by the time we purchased in April there was no availability there for this trip. We bought DVC without ever taking a tour, so we were happy to find that everything was better than we expected. We're thrilled with our purchase!

We checked in around 1:30 pm on 10/4 and the room was not ready. Next time I will wear "Florida clothes" so we can hit the parks until we can get into our room. Alas, we were wearing jeans and were burning up after walking around on the Boardwalk for a while. So, we sat in the lobby and called every 30 minutes or so to check on the room. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready until about 5:30. If we hadn't been sitting and waiting for the room it wouldn't have bothered us, but after all the anticipation I was just ready to see the room! The CMs were very apologetic and when we got into our room it was just perfect.

I had read about the long walks to the room from the elevator, but I really was not prepared for it! I imagined one very long hallway, but in reality it was about four really long hallways! If we wouldn't have been on the fifth floor we would have taken the stairs.

I was surprised that we got a full cleaning instead of just trash and towels on day 3. I thought maybe we would only get trash and towels on day 7, but we got a full cleaning then too. Not sure how that happened, but it was nice :)

Thanks to the refurb on the Luna Park slide, we were able to pool hop to SAB. It's awesome! We're not usually pool people, but we just loved it.

All in all a great trip. We got to see a taping of the Wayne Brady show. No advanced tickets, we just happened to be walking by when they were getting ready to start and there were extra seats. His guests that day were Carrot Top and Monica. We went to MNSSHP, which was fun. I got my picture taken with Art from the Beach Club Travel Channel special, and saw Jennifer and Dave, the Passporter authors, while waiting for a bus. I wanted to say hi to them but unfortunately the bus filled up and they didn't make it on. I was in the top 10 for fastest fingers on WWTBAM twice (we went three times) and once I was #1 when time ran out, but DH made it into the hot seat and got to 32,000 points, which was very exciting!

I rode Mission Space which was fun but made me a little sick. Not ruin my day sick, just sit down and drink a Sprite before riding anything else sick. I was test riding it for DH and decided that he wasn't allowed to ride it. He was okay with that and played the games at the ride exit instead. We saw Wishes when it debuted on Thursday, and it's awesome! The fireworks are so perfectly timed to the music. We lucked into seeing it again on Saturday night. We decided to have dinner at 'Ohana and after they tried to seat us at a table that was already full, we ended up with a table next to the window with a perfect view of the castle. Our server brought us the check at exactly 7:30, and the lights dimmed and Jimminy Cricket started the narration. She acted surprised and said that they were told that there were only going to be 10:00 fireworks that night. It was very magical to get to see the fireworks again on our last night, especially since we hadn't planned it that way.

We definitely like the weather better when we normally go in December or January. This was just too hot and crowded for us. The best thing about DVC is that since we know we'll be back, it was okay to skip the rides with the long lines. We can always ride them next time!

I can't wait until the next trip! Let me know if you have any questions!
 
We prefer the January/December weather too, but then, we are from the frozen North!:tongue:

Great trip report!
 
We are also considering joining DVC "sight unseen" at Saratoga Springs. We will not be able to make a trip until next summer. How did you feel about your purchase without a tour? Any advice!
 
Thanks for the report! We also saw Wayne Brady that weekend....doing some sort of musical number on Main St. that was being taped. We happened to be in the area unexpectedly because of a death in the family and decided to cheer up by spending the weekend at WDW.

So, it was no problem hopping to SAB because of the slide rehab? My dh was thinking that we'd better take the letter they sent us to be sure we'll be allowed to hop there when we take our vacation at the end of the month. We already booked BCV for the first weekend of our stay...but if we get a bad run of weather, it will be nice to have not missed out. I'm not the biggest fan of SAB, but I know my kids will enjoy it much more than BWV. The little kids area at SAB is great...and my 8yo swims much better now than he did last time we were there so he'll probably enjoy it more too!

We had great weather on our one Jan. trip...but last Dec. was downright cold some days. We're still trying to decide what time of year we like most....but it seems like each month has its advantages and disadvantages. I was surprised by how crowded it was the weekend of the 4th...and I'm hoping its not that bad later this month! If that's how it is this time of year, I probably won't be returning in October.

Glad to hear you had a good trip! Sorry you learned the hard way about waiting for your room to be ready...I bet you were quite hot! I can't wait for our real vacation!
 

I love to hear first impressions! Glad to hear you had a great trip. While the weather is generally warm, the crowds were unusually high this year due to the press events surrounding Mission Space, etc. If you want to try it again in the future, the crowds should be smaller.
 
Originally posted by Madhatter266
We are also considering joining DVC "sight unseen" at Saratoga Springs. We will not be able to make a trip until next summer. How did you feel about your purchase without a tour? Any advice!

We really didn't have a problem purchasing DVC without the tour, but our expectations were probably different than most. The only places we had stayed on site before were the All Stars. We didn't mind the All Stars, we just wanted a better location. We love Epcot, so we wanted to stay somewhere within walking distance. We figured that DVC had to be at least as good as the All Stars ;) and being within walking distance of Epcot sold us on it. When we finally admitted that we have a Disney "problem" and would probably be returning yearly for the forseeable future, we decided to go for it. We did take the tour while we were there this trip and got to see the one bedrooms, which are awesome! I'm excited to be staying in a one bedroom in January with DH and my brothers.

Originally posted by Lesley
So, it was no problem hopping to SAB because of the slide rehab?

No problem at all. They asked for our room key when we picked up towels and commented on how many people from the Boardwalk were taking advantage of the opportunity to pool hop. I packed the letter we received in the mail with my other trip documentation, but there was another letter in our welcome packet when we checked in saying the same thing.

Originally posted by PamOKW
While the weather is generally warm, the crowds were unusually high this year due to the press events surrounding Mission Space, etc. If you want to try it again in the future, the crowds should be smaller.

I figured the crowds had to be because of the press events, but having never been this time of year before we had nothing to compare it to. I wouldn't have minded the heat if we could just move from ride to ride, but there's no way I'm waiting for 90 minutes in the blazing sun to ride anything! (I know, I've been spoiled by the January trips) We walked around Epcot yesterday before we left, and there was a 40 minute wait for Spaceship Earth! I've never seen Spaceship Earth with anything more than a 5 minute wait, so I was shocked!
 
/
DOH,

I should have figured that out. Didn't even try. Saw a long string of letters and chose against thought. LOL Lazy me.
 
Originally posted by disneyinthedesert
What is the expected check in time?

I believe 4:00. When we checked in the CM said she couldn't tell when exactly the room would be ready, but it would definitely be done by 4:00.
 
This post is for Lesley,
<<We happened to be in the area unexpectedly because of a death in the family and decided to cheer up by spending the weekend at WDW. >>

I am glad to see I am not the only person who goes to WDW after a funeral.
We had a family member who passed away in Daytona Beach. Since we are from CT we came down for the funeral and took a few days to visit the park to cheer us up. It was my live in friends brother so he was very upset. I think that being in the parks helped cheer him up, especially since we did all the things his brother used to enjoy on our trips together.
We still hear about how we went to a funeral ONLY so we could go to WDW. We know it is not true, and don't feel the need to explain to those non-believers.
Hope your family is well and your next visit to the parks is truly enjoyable all around. Peggie
 
Lesley & Peggy,

We too went to DW (for one day afterward to unwind) during a trip to Florida when my MIL died. We also bought DVC at this time. You can't imagine what DH & I heard!
 
Originally posted by PKS44
How did SAB handle the crowds? Was it hard to get a chair?

Paul

It really wasn't too bad. We went in the mid-afternoon, and while it was crowded, we were still able to get a chair without too much trouble. I think that SAB is so huge that it can absorb the extra capacity without too much trouble.
 



















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