Lots of Characters, Lots of Firsts but Lots of Drama: Why We Say NEVER AGAIN!! 3/21

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Merry Christmas,
Caught up on your amazing updates, Love the pictures from the Character connections...loved the picture with Donald.

 

[klacey1]

Aww, great afternoon! Universe of Energy is loud, but I think some kids (and adults!) still manage to snooze through it. We really like it!
I love the pictures of Lillian playing in the fountains-- that's what I love most about Disney, the unplanned fun!

 

[annmarieda]

I am all caught up!! Yay I have been so behind on all my subscriptions... One by one I am getting caught up though.

I love your updates. I have let my daughter play in those fountains before too...and not had a change of clothes either. I too would do it again. (assuming weather was warm enough )

You seem to be very lucky on wait times. Good for you!!! I hate to hear when people wait forever in the lines.

Very neat you got the pics with the characters. I have NEVER gone into that building. Next trip, I think I will have to do that.

Happy Holidays!!!

 

[loganpaulsmom]

it took me almost 3 hours but I am completely caught up and I can't believe we are only on day 2?? can't wait to read more..

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great update! you can really see the joy in Lillian's face playing in the water....I did not let Ashton play and have felt bad about it since, I kept saying we would come back to it and never did...Oh! well not like we don't play in the water jets all summer at home...

I wish the FP's would not put the hour window and would only list the return time; so many people do not understand that you can use it ANYTIME after the return time that day.

hope you guys had a Magical Christmas!

 

[irish dancer]

Just caught up on the latest installment. Belated Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to you!!

I had a fountain moment on one of our trips too! DH and DD13 were riding MS and the two younger ones were not interested. I am SO not one of those moms that would normally let them play in the fountains in their clothes but I did that day and they had a blast! I had a small towel in our backpack so I stripped off their socks and shoes and off they went. They were shocked that I let them.

LOL on the FP "moment", isn't it funny how something so trivial can be an argument when you're hot and tired!

 

[dismagiclover]

Love all of the pictures of Lilian playing in the water! I don't think you are crazy at all. My kids are always getting wet at the theme park. They aren't lucky enough for me to buy them new clothes though. They just have to walk around soaking wet. That doesn't stop them though

 

[Charlefours]

was just sitting down to have a bite to eat and see if anyone had posted anything... love the EP updates I was suspicious you wouldn't have left...kuddos to you and letting Lillian get soaked in the fountains...I am so not that Mom

we ALL love SSE too and my Dad snoozed on Ellen's ride I don't remember much noise past the dinosaurs though

hope your dinner is good and for the upcoming drama....

Merry Christmas too!

Nope, we sure did not leave. Too much Disney magic I guess to keep us going. It was so hot and she had not taken a nap so Lilian needed some good old fashion kid fun.

I will catch up on on the updates later. I just wanted to stop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you Kathy! Merry Christmas to you as well!

Loved the updates. I cant wait to hear if you made it to F. about the tiff you had with dh over fast passes. Yes the heat and fatigue sets in and the silly arguments begin.

I hope you had a very merry christmas!!!!!

Thanks Lindsay! Yup, we can laugh over it now too. Didn't you had some silly tiffs on your trip too?

Thank you--I hope you had a Merry Christmas too

 

[Charlefours]

Merry Christmas,
Caught up on your amazing updates, Love the pictures from the Character connections...loved the picture with Donald.

Thank you

Aww, great afternoon! Universe of Energy is loud, but I think some kids (and adults!) still manage to snooze through it. We really like it!
I love the pictures of Lillian playing in the fountains-- that's what I love most about Disney, the unplanned fun!

We really like it too but I thought perhaps Lilian would not so much that the dark would lure her to sleep. I really want to do a more spontaneous trip next go around, with the exception of ADRs of course.

I am all caught up!! Yay I have been so behind on all my subscriptions... One by one I am getting caught up though.

I love your updates. I have let my daughter play in those fountains before too...and not had a change of clothes either. I too would do it again. (assuming weather was warm enough )

You seem to be very lucky on wait times. Good for you!!! I hate to hear when people wait forever in the lines.

Very neat you got the pics with the characters. I have NEVER gone into that building. Next trip, I think I will have to do that.

Happy Holidays!!!

I am so far behind too on my subscriptions but I am trying to get caught up on them and be more consistent in my own updates. The only reason why I was concerned with her being all wet is because it was right before dinner at BC. I didn't want their seats to get all wet and her too cold because of the AC. Otherwise, she could have air dried.

You will have to go and visit the Character Spot--at least once.

 

[Charlefours]

it took me almost 3 hours but I am completely caught up and I can't believe we are only on day 2?? can't wait to read more..

to my TR. I am happy to have you hear. Yup, I'm only on day two--I have been so crazy busy that I have not had much time to update.

Great update! you can really see the joy in Lillian's face playing in the water....I did not let Ashton play and have felt bad about it since, I kept saying we would come back to it and never did...Oh! well not like we don't play in the water jets all summer at home...

I wish the FP's would not put the hour window and would only list the return time; so many people do not understand that you can use it ANYTIME after the return time that day.

hope you guys had a Magical Christmas!

Hi Connie! I'm so happy Lilian jumped in and played in the fountains. She is so tentative at the splash park here in town that I was loving watching her play. There is always next trip to let Ashton play in fountain--I'm sure he would still want to play in them.

It was a silly argument. Your solution would lead to less arguments among fried adults.

Merry Christmas to you!! I hope you had a great one as well.

Just caught up on the latest installment. Belated Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to you!!

I had a fountain moment on one of our trips too! DH and DD13 were riding MS and the two younger ones were not interested. I am SO not one of those moms that would normally let them play in the fountains in their clothes but I did that day and they had a blast! I had a small towel in our backpack so I stripped off their socks and shoes and off they went. They were shocked that I let them.

LOL on the FP "moment", isn't it funny how something so trivial can be an argument when you're hot and tired!

I am so glad I let Lilian. It cooled her off better than the AC had been doing all day. If it were not for the dinner ADR at BC I would have let her air dry but I did not want to get their seat soaked.

It was so uncharacteristic of us to have such a tiff. We can laugh over it now but it was not so funny at the time. It really showed us how we needed to be more aware of drinking water and taking breaks in the heat.

Love all of the pictures of Lilian playing in the water! I don't think you are crazy at all. My kids are always getting wet at the theme park. They aren't lucky enough for me to buy them new clothes though. They just have to walk around soaking wet. That doesn't stop them though

Thanks Jenny! I could not imagine walking into BC with a soaked child for an ADR. My DMIL was concerned she would get sick from being in wet clothes in the AC. It worked out though--they wanted to get Lilian something from Disney so they did the first full day.

 

[Charlefours]

I haven’t had the opportunity to mention but I LOVE Epcot-WS!! Prior to the trip, I was really looking forward to exploring WS. We would have our day in WS tomorrow, so this was a teaser of what to expect tomorrow.

Lilian decided she wanted to walk (I think it was because she knew if she sat still long enough she would pass out ). She wanted to walk with DMIL and I just had to snap this picture:

Very soon we were at the International Gateway. Luck was with us again because a boat was there waiting for us. We did not go on the Friendship Boat on our last trip, so I had never seen any of the resorts over in this area. I took some pictures but because of the boat and shooting through the window, they were not the greatest. I have to say though, I definitely want to try out a couple of the resorts over here—Boardwalk and Beach Club specifically.

See the dark, ominous clouds looming over Boardwalk? I sure hoped they would not open up and start pouring over us. We had clouds throughout the day but these were definitely more along the lines of rain/storm clouds.

Those threatening clouds had not made their way over to BC yet so we had a gorgeous view of it!

We started to walk over to BC so we could check into our ADR. I just fell in love with BC!! It is so gorgeous. I took some pictures but I was messing with my manual settings and walking at the same time so not all of them came out so clear.

When we walked into BC, the rest of the group were already there waiting on us. I was happy to see this since we split earlier in the day (remember, before Chip and Dale meet n greet). I had the ADR number so I went up to check us in—great CM at CMC. They told me it would be just a minute. I look down at Lilian and see this:

I told you she needed a nap!! Well, after conferring with the group we elected to stay despite Lilian being asleep. It was our first TS of the trip (at least as the full group). Within a couple minutes, we were seated. We pulled Lilian to the head of the table and I slid into the booth. The next thing I know DGM is pushing her way to sit next me saying loudly that her and DGP were going to sit with DH and I.

Major Drama Moment—the second worse moment of the trip
Remember how we separated from the four (DGM, DGP, DBF and DBFDH)? The four them went off into WS to eat lunch at Morocco TS using one of their extra credits. They enjoy it. Carol sits down and YELLS at me for not calling them let them know we had elected to stay. Evidently she felt that DMIL was bragging to her about everything she got to do with Lilian that she missed. I didn’t know what to do—there were other guests turning their heads and starring at us because they could here DGM getting so upset with me. I just froze!! I didn’t know what to do. I was fried; I was tired and hungry so I just froze. I apologized to her and said it was never my intention to leave her out. We were all set to go back but by the time we went to meet Chip and Dale and the Fab Five, it was just so late that we felt it would be a waste of time to go back to CSR.

She apologized to me later in the meal but I felt like I was sitting on egg shells but I answered her honestly about what we did. After getting something cool to drink and eat, she had calmed down considerably and apologized again for yelling at me. It may not seem like a major drama moment to you all, but for me being right there in it, it was horrible! I just wanted to cry because this was our first full day and at that moment I really felt the crunch of trying to appease everyone on the trip. Luckily, Lilian slept during the whole incident.

Since DGM sat beside me and could not get up and down easily (she used an EV all week whenever she could and a cane to support her when she could not use her EV), DH got me food. I asked for a salad to start:

When I first told DGM about this ADR, she was not thrilled. She had tried it about four years ago and hated it. I told her it had been getting good reviews and it had gone under a refurb so she was willing to give it another go. Here is the first plate of food DGP brought for her:

Here is Lilian during our first TS meal:

Poor thing! The heat and the excitement really just caught up to her. She slept most of the dinner, waking up at the tail end of the dinner. Our server (Dynasty) was super kind—she decided not to charge us for Child’s TS meal since Lilian slept through most of the meal. Despite her sleeping, she also brought out Lilian a birthday treat:

Lilian woke up and was in a great mood luckily! She decided she was hungry so she ate her one plate of chicken, mac and cheese and corn on the cob.

She blew out the candle in her special birthday dessert:

Lilian wanted to sit on my lap while eating so I asked DH to take a picture of Lilian and I:

Continued in next post......

 

[Charlefours]

After finishing up eating, I took some pictures of CMC and took a look around since I had not gotten up the whole meal. I like the sandcastles:

I also took a few snapshots of the buffet (yeah, I got a few weird looks ):

We had:
• DH: Crab Legs, Corn on the Cob and Salad
• Me: Roasted Chicken, Corn on the Cob, potatoes and salad
• Desserts: Lava cake (very rich—too rich for me), Oreo bon-bons and Raspberry Cream Tart

Overall, this meal was fantastic (if you exclude the drama moment)! I would highly recommend it and it will be on our list to go back to again. The marinated chicken and Oreo bon bons were my favorites. DGM said it was MUCH better and she really enjoyed it too. DH, DBF and DBFDH enjoyed the crab legs. So what did it cost us?

2 Adult Buffets (included beverages): $73.98
Gratuity (automatically added because of the party size): $16.73
----------------------------------

$90.71 (plus an additional cash tip because Dynasty was wonderful)​

After finishing dinner, I had to go to the bathroom so I walked across to the lobby to it. On my way back, I took some pictures of the inside of BC:

 

[Charlefours]

We talked about what we wanted to do at this point. We were all exhausted so we decided to forgo F! Despite being sad, I knew it was the best decision because we were all so tired (well, maybe except for Lilian since she took a brief nap). I really feel that we would have made it to F! had we taken our intended break this afternoon but, we would have given up the opportunity to do SSE, Ellen’s and Lilian playing in the fountain. The last, I would not give up even if given the chance for a do-over. Our plans changed to going swimming and getting a good night’s sleep. We decided instead of walking back through Epcot, we would take the boat over to DHS and then hop onto a CSR bus. After meeting the group outside, I see DBF has made a new friend:

She wanted to scoop it up and take it home with her (I should say she runs a not-for-profit animal rescue network). After checking my camera settings, I was ready to try to take some more pictures of the outside of BC:

I just love the view these resorts have:

I’m looking forward to trying out the slide one of these days:

Goodbye for now BC—I will hopefully be seeing you soon:

**

YC: haven’t really thought too much about it since I am been leaning towards BC. Anyone have experience with it?

We had to wait probably 10 minutes for our boat. We were soon at DHS:

Lilian decided she wanted to spend time with her aunt and uncle while waiting for the bus:

We were traveling back at an off time (6:45 by this point) from DHS, must have been because other guests were sticking around for F! We pretty much had the bus to ourselves—just one other couple. Lilian decided she wanted to sit with DBIL on the way back:

They had fun blowing and making faces at each other.
We headed up to our rooms to change into our bathing suits. When we walked in, I heard the TV I thought that is weird—I could have sworn I turned it off. Then I saw the chair and I just started laughing. Mousekeeping had played our game with us. Lilian scolded her bear for leaving the TV on

Here is a close up—you can see in the background also that she laid out Lilian’s blanket and pillow:

We finished up our night by heading to the pool. The slide was closed but that was fine with us. The water felt great. DBF and I walked up to El Centro to get beers for the guys, a Powerade for me and apple juice for Lilian. Our drinks cost us (DBF paid for the beer) $5.98 but we used 2 snack credits. We talked on the way about how DGM was feeling left out and how she knew I was not trying to do it on purpose. I said to her that I am aware of how she is feeling and I would do my best to make sure Lilian got plenty of time with her Grammie during the rest of the trip.

For the most part, it was an excellent day. We were able to ride/experience four rides, met nine characters, played in the fountain and ate a wonderful meal at BC.

Daily Breakdown:
Souvenirs: $21.15 (I did not count what both Grandmas bought Lilian as a birthday present)
Food costs: $0 OOP (besides cash tip we left at CMC)
Food credits used: 4 QS ($44.50 if OOP)

2 TS ($90.71 if OOP)
7 Snack Credits ($18.03 if OOP)​

Favorites of the Day:
DH: Seeing Lilian meet and interact with the characters and her reaction to Soarin’
Lilian: Swimming :upsiddow
Me: Same as DH

Up Next: Day Three Finally Begins!! Our Awe-Inspiring Breakfast

 

[TinksThree]

Epcot is my favorite park and mostly due to WS so I am anxiously awaiting how your visit to WS turns out!

That stinks about the drama. I am a people pleaser and always feel torn when trying to accomodate several people. I can definitely emphathize with you!! I could not imagine going with two seperate grandparents at the same time with my crew!! I know there would be drama!!

I am thinking of taking a break at BC. I have seen pictures on several TRs and I really want to check it out in person! I love Boardwalk and I dream of staying there now so it may really not be a wise idea to visit!

I am really enjoying your TR so far!!

 

[klacey1]

Besides the drama moment, sounds like you guys had a great dinner! It must have been hard for everyone wanting time with Lillian-- especially for you to try to strike the balance and make everyone as happy as possible!

 

[MaryAz]

All caught up. Looks very fun so far-minus the yelling. You got some great pics!!

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

I love all the pictures you took! Great ones of BC! I've really not seen much of that resort, and now the buffet is intriguing me for our April trip......

The pictures of Lilian playing in the Epcot fountain are wonderful! I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough to do that! Right now, she isn't even old enough to walk, so it'll be a while!

I am sorry your DGM did not have the wherewithal to privately talk to you instead of making a big scene. My mother can be that way and it can be very embarrasing. Sometimes the filter just isn't there. I am glad that she apologized and the evening ended on a good note. I love that mousekeeping took the bait to play!

 

[jenny105]

Drama moment aside, it sounds like you had a great day. I've been lucky enough to stay at BCV. It's gorgeous and that is no doubt the best pool & slide in all of WDW. I hope you get to stay there one day

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

wow that was quite an awkward drama moment. Im glad you didnt let it ruin your evening. Its sounds like otherwise a wonderful day. too bad about F but it was probably for the better. You can catch that next time. We missed it too on our last trip. Im glad DGM at least apologized....she probably realized how silly she was being. The heat and fatigue does wonders to people. I cant wait to hear more.

 

[annmarieda]

I am sorry you had the moment you did. Believe me, I understand. From the outside looking in it may not seem so bad, but when you are right in the middle of it... it is horrid. I am glad dinner turned out well though.

I love all the pics. On the first trip staying on property at WDW, we were granted some and got upgraded from Pop to YC. It was amazing. It has a distinct smell to the resort. Occasionally I will come across a candle that is similar and it will trigger memories of the resort. The pool is amazing. BC shares it with YC...but it is right AT YC. The sandy bottom is very fun. The flow of water around the pool is awesome. The bed there was the most comfortable I have EVER, EVER EVER slept in. Nice big closest.. entry way into the room. The sinks are not set at the end of the room like many of the resort rooms are, but rather up against the same wall that the headboards to the beds run. The ONLY thing I would complain about is that the bath is teeny tinny.. and that unlike at the moderate and value I have stayed at...I never saw a food court. I know the Yachtsmen restaurant is there...but I never actually saw it. Oh and another thing I loved. The SIZE!!! It is not spread out like most of the resorts..has interior corridors. It was wonderful. Can you tell I would love to go back? It is quite a jump in price though between that and a value. Maybe some day though...