No Day But Today- FINAL post on page 40!

[PrincessV]

What a beautiful morning you had! It's so haaard, but totally worth the effort to get there early, no?

Aaah, I miss the Haunted Mansion. DS won't let me in anymore.

Looking forward to more!

 

[flying_babyb]

It looks like you're in a parking lot....and uh....being frightened? By music?

Shes in a parking lot. Its cool out. (clothing) The one lane is for buses. And the one there standing near has a number 4. Humm I think someone may have a waterbottle due to the two spots on the ground. I belive that there going somewere due to the fact they have keys out and money in hand.

Im in a criminal profling class, cant you tell

 

[MomofCKJ]

Signing on!

I love your writing and am really curious to hear about how a solo trip goes. My DH the other day believe it or not told me he had no problem with me taking a long weekend somewhere by my lonesome. Where did that come from? Anyway, I thought Disney but I have so many questions about doing the Dis alone.

Anywho, excited to read your story and you have such great pics! 3500, whoa baby! And River of Filth, I had no idea! Love those little tidbits!

Allyson

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Part 3- The One With All The WL Photos

First of all, am I breaking some kind of epic trip report history by finishing writing day 1 of the report within a month of my return?

I really wasn’t expecting my WL room to be ready at 11am. I figured I’d go check in, grab a brownie from Roaring Forks, and kill some time just wandering around the Lodge. Well, low and behold, my room was ready! I didn’t get the name of the lady working the front desk, but she was awesome! And remember the surprise I mentioned? I had booked 2 nights standard view, and 2 nights woods, but they went ahead and upgraded me to all 4 nights in woods, and I wouldn’t even have to switch rooms! Hooray! I got $60 worth of tree viewing for free!

This was my first stay at the Lodge since the rooms were redone, so I was excited to see how it looked. I had a great, convenient room- 5112, which was close to the main elevators.

Okay, let me tell y’all- I am in LOVE with the new rooms! I wasn’t sure if I’d like them or not, but it is really beautiful! I always liked the old rooms, but this is even better!

The photos really don’t do them justice. I thought they looked a little bleh online, but trust me, in person, it’s beautiful!

Snazzy new flat screen TV and cute dresser!

Cute new table and chairs- You can also see the new carpet here. It makes you feel like you’re walking on the pine needle covered forest floor. Love it!

The posts of the new beds have super cute carvings on top! It sort of mirrors the animals carved into the posts in the lobby.

The light switches for the lights near the beds are actually built into the bed posts- pretty nifty! And very handy to not have to get up to turn out the lights when you’re falling asleep!

My view was of the VWL and the little pathway that runs between those and the main Lodge building. Here’s one quick photo for now- again, photos don’t do it justice!

(More WL room photos coming up on Day 5, btw!)

I went down to Roaring Forks to get one of my beloved brownies- these things are SO good! The entire price of the trip is worth it for the brownie frosting alone! Don’t miss these, chocolate lovers! (And milk is much cheaper from the gift shop than from Forks, if you need it to go with your brownie!)

I wish I had one of these right now!

Oh, I also got a pizza, but that is nowhere near as exciting.

Back in the room, I settled down to relax with my big ol’ chunk of chocolate goodness, and flipped though the TV channels for something to watch.
I came across something very…interesting!

It was an exercise show, and well… all I can do is let the photo speak for itself.

Look! It’s your mom/grandma/that nice lady that works at the bakery in SPANDEX!

So, dear DIS friends, if you’re on vacation and feel the need for a little extra exercise, be sure to tune in! Apparently she’s on around 1pm.

Just watching the lady must have worn me out, though, because I ended up taking a two hour nap! I almost never actually NAP on my afternoon nap break, so I was surprised that I totally crashed!

When I woke up, I decided to take an hour or so to just explore the Lodge. I’ve stayed here many times, but there are a lot of parts of the Lodge I’ve never seen.

I decided to just walk down every hallway, just wandering around. Let me tell you guys from experience (at two different resorts on this trip, actually, but that’s for later!), you really can’t appreciate how HUGE these resorts really are until you try to walk the entire place! I spent an entire hour walking the hallways, and still only saw about half the inside of the resort!

I could try to find a way to make describing my adventures walking down hallways an exciting story, but instead, I’m just going to post a bunch of photos, with a little explanation here and there- I think that will be easier on us all!


Let’s start out with some photos of the lobby!

You’ll hear more about this nifty floor design on day 2!

The lobby! Who doesn’t love the lobby? Again, photos don’t do it justice!

Looking down into the Whispering Canyon Café.

Love those lights!

One of many, many comfy areas to relax in the lobby.

One of the carvings in the lobby- this is what the new room beds remind me of!

And a few outdoor shots…

Up next- a discovery I made during my explorations, and my favorite shots of the WL!

 

[slk537]

Yayyy!!! A new Crystal trip report! I love your photos and reporting - and I share your love for the WL...

The Appliance Direct guy kills me. DH will sit and watch him for what seems like hours and just giggle. I swear to God, he wanted to tape the commercial and bring it home. I just made him go to the website instead...something about the Appliance Direct guy speaks reminds me of the way Dora the Explorer talks. "You....make...the...germsss....really....wet....and....MAD!!!"

But I digress....

LOVE the report and happy to be subscribed to it!

 

[blue_river]

Hi! I have just finished reading your pre-trip report and first I want to say Happy Belated Birthday and secondly, my sympathies for the loss of your BIL.

I've subscribed to the thread and I'm really looking forward to reading your trip report.

 

[Belle Amy]

I decided to just walk down every hallway, just wandering around. Let me tell you guys from experience (at two different resorts on this trip, actually, but that’s for later!), you really can’t appreciate how HUGE these resorts really are until you try to walk the entire place! I spent an entire hour walking the hallways, and still only saw about half the inside of the resort!

And that is what I love about Disney resorts. You could spend days looking around....and I love WL because it has so many hidden balconies around the property, and they are almost always empty...

You're making me wish I was there right now!!!

 

[Hedy]

1. I love your writing-PIN number is my ATM machine.
2. Awesome report.
3. Dagnabbit, your WL pics are making me what to shell out the monies to stay there in Dec.

 

[Linzybrooke]

Great start Crystal! I was sad not to run across you on this trip. Perhaps the next one!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

3. Dagnabbit, your WL pics are making me what to shell out the monies to stay there in Dec.

Dooooo it! WL is so pretty at Christmas!

Great start Crystal! I was sad not to run across you on this trip. Perhaps the next one!

I was really surprised that I didn't run into any DISers (except for the ones I planned to run into!) Maybe next trip!

 

[kristinanderic]

Great trip report, I was there a few days before you (jan 3-9).

Your trip report is great...maybe one day I will start mine!

 

[newholidayx2]

Crystal - thanks for the WL pictures. VWL is our "home" - cant wait to return w/DS in August. So you hinted that you took the WL tour? Did you have the pleasure of meeting Ranger Stan?

 

[PrincessV]

Ooo ooo ooo - I just booked my May trip to the WL and now I get to look at your WL pics! Thank you so much for your comments about the new rooms. They do look a tad drab online, so I'm glad to hear I'll love them in person! Smae thing happened at POR. The pictures just don't do them justice at all, for some reason.

Question: did they re-do some of the lobby furnishings? I haven't been there since Dec. 2005, but the colors and patterns seem a little more vibrant. Or I may not be remembering right!

Good stuff - looking forward to more tales!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Crystal - thanks for the WL pictures. VWL is our "home" - cant wait to return w/DS in August. So you hinted that you took the WL tour? Did you have the pleasure of meeting Ranger Stan?

I did indeed! Stan the Man makes his appearance on Day 2. I've also got a few VWL photos later on! (I really need to figure out which pair of pants I left my spare $15k in so I can join DVC!)

Ooo ooo ooo - I just booked my May trip to the WL and now I get to look at your WL pics! Thank you so much for your comments about the new rooms. They do look a tad drab online, so I'm glad to hear I'll love them in person! Smae thing happened at POR. The pictures just don't do them justice at all, for some reason.

Question: did they re-do some of the lobby furnishings? I haven't been there since Dec. 2005, but the colors and patterns seem a little more vibrant. Or I may not be remembering right!

Good stuff - looking forward to more tales!

The whole WL has that great low light atmosphere that's breathtaking in person, but makes pictures turn out a little drab (AKL is the same way!) I'm not sure about the lobby furnishings- my favorite sitting places were all the same, but who knows? The whole lodge looked really beautiful while I was there- all of the refurb they've been doing really shows!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Part 4- More WL and the end of day 1!

Welcome back!

Okay, I lied in the teaser for this part of the report- I actually made TWO discoveries on my explorations! No, wait 3!

1) There are THREE elevators at WL! I never knew about one of them! (That’s the discovery I just remembered. Not very exciting, but there ya go.)

2) While I was outside taking photos, I discovered a little problem with one of the rocks:

They’re hollow! I never realized that! I mean, this is Disney, and I guess I always knew they were fake, but I’m really good at suspending my disbelief, I guess. I never expected them to be hollow!

And 3) My big discovery- up on the 5th or 6th floor (can’t remember which!), I came across this:

There’s a little window in the hallway where you can look down into the restaurant!

How nifty is that? I never knew this little window existed! It makes me wonder how much stuff there is in the resorts that I’ve never seen! (Thus the exploration!)

I also found a window that looks out into the service area of the resort. This is what a lot of the standard view rooms overlook:

I had tried to call bell services for my bags right after waking up for my nap, but there was no answer, so I stopped down at the stand as I finished my walking tour. (Well, not so much “finished”, since I missed about three floors, but more “got really tired of walking around”!) The CM there called back to the luggage room, and shortly after I got back to my room, my bags arrived! The guy who brought there had worked at the Contemporary for a long time, but this was his very first day at WL!

Around 5 I finally decided to go to MK, and headed down to the bus stop. While I was waiting for the bus, I thought I’d kill some time by walking up towards the front of the Lodge for a picture or two. Now, after over an hour purposely spent taking WL photos, I stumbled upon what became my favorite photos!

You can see the scaffolding (which is totally worth it, btw, because the outside of the Lodge looks BEAUTIFUL now- the fresh coat of paint and whatever else they’ve done has made a huge difference!), but otherwise I really like these pictures!

The MK is always really pretty at night, and once again, there were no crowds! I got there about 5:45, and my plan was to watch Wishes later at 8.

My first stop was Tomorrowland, since I hadn’t made it there this morning. I rode Buzz (about a 5 minute wait), and got a pretty sad score (164,400). Then I took a ride on the TTA, which I video taped (you’ll get to see that later!). Well, I should say I tried to video tape it- the people behind me were VERY loud, and seemed to really enjoy screaming “HELLO!” to everyone down on the ground. I finally shut the video camera off because they were driving me nuts!

I thought I’d go catch the Hall of Presidents- (I am one of the people who actually likes it!), but when I got there, I found I’d just missed the show, but I didn’t really want to sit around for twenty minutes to wait for the next one, so I made my way over to the Tiki Room, passing the Liberty Belle on the way, which was very pretty at night:

It turned out that the Tiki Room was already closed for the night, though. Boo! I decided to go drop in on my favorite pirates again, but the wait there was 40 minutes. No way!

So, now I had a dilemma! It wasn’t even 6:30, so I still had a whole hour and a half before Wishes, and I’d already done pretty much everything I wanted to do at MK that day. I was getting hungry, and remembered the new food court had just opened (well, reopened!) at the Polynesian.

So did I skip Wishes for pizza?

I totally did.

But I took this pretty castle photo to make up for it!

The new food court at the Polynesian is really nifty. There are touch screens to order on, which are really easy to use, a bakery section, a grab-n-go section, a new seating area, and most importantly, a Dole Whip machine! Yummy!

I decided to get one of the new flatbread pizzas, and take it back to WL to eat. Really good in *theory*, but by the time I took the monorail to the MK and then the bus to the lodge, my pizza was cold! (Still really yummy, though! And SO much better than the icky new Disney pizzas!). I settled in bed to watch a rerun of Gilmore Girls, and called it an early night.

And guess what? Thanks to all of my breaking in of my Crocs before my trip, I FINALLY made it through my first day at WDW with no blisters! Celebrate!

Stay tuned for day 2!

 

[mlill]

2) While I was outside taking photos, I discovered a little problem with one of the rocks:

They’re hollow! I never realized that! I mean, this is Disney, and I guess I always knew they were fake, but I’m really good at suspending my disbelief, I guess. I never expected them to be hollow!

Crystal! Don't give away too many secrets about the Disney magic. The rocks ARE REAL - they ARE NOT HOLLOW!

This picture could be an official WDW postcard. It's THAT good.

You skippped Wishes for Pizza?!? My family would be right there with you - but nothin' can tear me away from fireworks! LOL!

Just waitin' for more...

-Michelle

 

[kristinanderic]

Just wondering why you took the bus to the MK instead of riding the boat?

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Just wondering why you took the bus to the MK instead of riding the boat?

It was cooooold! I actually wore my coat that night instead of just a sweatshirt!

Luckily, things warmed up a lot as the trip went on!

 

[MomofCKJ]

But I took this pretty castle photo to make up for it!

What a beautiful pic, frameworthy for sure!

Allyson

 

[newholidayx2]

Crystal - I agree - that picture would make a very beautiful postcard!

where are the 3 elevators at WL? 1 down by the bridge, 1 over by Roaring Forks and the other? down a hallway on the right/where the U turns out? (if that makes sense)

where on WL property did you see the fireworks? beach? 5th (6th?) floor? out by the front parking lot? ppl say to go to the end of the employee parking lot but I dont trust going out that far by myself
did you take the boat over to the Contemp and go to the observation deck?