Our 2nd Time Home (BCV) Very Rainy May Trip Report (FINAL UPDATE 7/29!!)

[TigerLaw]

Introduction

So this trip report is for our second tim home at BCV! This trip report also details the wettest trip we have ever had at WDW. It rained more on this trip than during all our other trips combined! (Actually, the only rain free days we had were at the end of the week, friday-sunday) I wish I had some better pictures to show just how bad some of it was. Having said that, we still had a great time on vacation, we just had to be flexible with some of our plans. Here’s some introductory info on our trip:

The Cast:

Michael, twelfth visit to WDW (Disney fanatic for years)

Melissa, wife of the fanatic, fellow lover of WDW, just nowhere near my level. This will be her eleventh visit (eleven visits together)

The Time:

Saturday, May 23, 2009 to Sunday May 31st

The Resorts:

Polynesian Resort (first three nights of the trip, using AP discount)
Beach Club Villas – studio room (remaining nights of the trip)

The History:

Melissa and I first went to WDW in September, 2000. Since then we have gone every year at least once. Highlights of the different trips include Melissa surprised me with a mini-vacation to WDW for my 30th birthday and going to Disneyland for the 50th anniversary festivities. In the fall of 2007, I achieved a life-long dream (OK, it was a recent dream really) and talked Melissa into us buying into DVC. Unfortunately, various circumstances led to us not being able to use our points right away, and so this is only our second trip using DVC points.

The Planning:

In September, 2008, the plan was originally was to make that trip sorta like a big blow out and then to do some other stuff for awhile. Having said that, life led us back to WDW in both good and bad ways, which I won’t go into here. We originally started to plan for a trip in February and I have to say, planning the trip is ALMOST as much fun for us as actually going! It took a lot of calls into member services at DVC, but eventually, I got us a studio on points for most of the trip. (At various times, we had DVC room on cash instead of points). A couple new wrinkles in planning th trip included booking Airtran fo the first time (having previously always used American) and getting a rental car through Dollar (as we had always used Budget in the past, but no one could beat the deal I got at Dollar)

Here is a quote from my last trip report: “For the purposes of this report you also need to know that while I obsessively plan, Melissa will just come up with ideas just out of nowhere - things that I never think of.” Once again, it was true. For awhile, we were going to stay the whole trip in a BCV studio she decided one day that we should stay at the Polynesian instead and given the AP discount, it wasn’t a huge hit. She also planned “date nights” for the first and last nights of the trip.


COMING UP - THE PLAN OF ATTACK

 

[TigerLaw]

THE PLAN OF ATTACK

Sat 5/23
arrival day
dinner at narcooses (sp?)
Try to get back to watch fireworks from poly (wishes 10pm)

Sun 5/24
Epcot EE morning (8am open)
take time to check out flower festival stuff (get topiary location list)
lunch - lotus blossom
afternoon - pool and nap
dinner - ohana (5:15 - 55327764), then leave for MK (7:30ish?)
MK EE night (park closes at 2am!) (spectro 9 & 11, wishes 10, EMH 11-2)

Mon 5/25 (memorial day)
MGM EE morning (8am open)
lunch at sci fi (mike may stay at MGM after lunch-mel pool?)
AK EE night (6-9pm) dinner at AK’s rainforest
then go to DTD?

Tues 5/26
MK EE morning (8am open)
Breakfast at ohana 10:45
HOTEL SWITCH IN AFTERNOON - ask for late check out just in case - DTD??
dinner at brew house OR ESPN, then get table in england for fireworks (stay later?)
Epcot EE night (park closes at midnight) (illuminations 9pm)

Wed 5/27
MGM morning (9am)
Lunch - ESPN or Trex
cape may dinner, then drive to MGM
MGM EE night (8-11)

Thur 5/28
MK EE morning (8am open) chef mickeys
(mike may stay at MK after lunch)
Dinner ??? then to epcot for drink around the world
Epcot added EMH that night (9pm-midnight)

Fri 5/29
MGM EE morning (8am) (star wars wkd SWW), then mike stays for SWW,
mel has pool morning, and then late lunch together (12:30ish?) beaches & cream
MK (MK has EMH for 10-1am) (wishes 9pm, still no spectro?)
crystal palace dinner

Sat 5/30
AK EE morning (8am open) donald’s breakfast
Maybe check out Kadani village afterward
maybe DTD to kill time in afternoon (lots of time for pool)
epcot le cellar
then leave time to drink, then find spot for fireworks (9pm)

Sun 5/31
Epcot EE morning (8am - get a couple hours in before leave for airport)
cape may breakfast 11am?

COMING UP - OUR FIRST BATTLE WITH THE RAIN

 

[apurplebrat]

 

[bobbiwoz]

Ok...I'm waiting to read the rest! We were at BCV during the week before you...the rains just kept going I agree, there was more rain on that trip than the total of whenever we had been there before, and we're lots older than you are!

Family left on Memorial day and got stuck on the runway/airport that afternoon (5-7?), but it was a gorgeous day before the skies opened up. They had a great time at Kidani pool. We left in the AM so we missed that day of mostly sunshine.

Bobbi

 

[TigerLaw]

Ok...I'm waiting to read the rest! We were at BCV during the week before you...the rains just kept going I agree, there was more rain on that trip than the total of whenever we had been there before, and we're lots older than you are!

Family left on Memorial day and got stuck on the runway/airport that afternoon (5-7?), but it was a gorgeous day before the skies opened up. They had a great time at Kidani pool. We left in the AM so we missed that day of mostly sunshine.

Bobbi

Bobbi, from what I heard and read, I can only imagine what it was like the week before we got there! I might have been ready to sell my DVC points by the end of the week!

 

[TigerLaw]

Sat. May 21st

Park Visited: None
Dining: House of Blues (dinner)

Saturday was our travel day. Due to cutbacks, the number of nonstop flights from St. Louis to Orlando had been cut back pretty hard. Usually, we took a 6-7 am flight out on American, which of course meant that we had to get up at 3-4 am, thus making it hard to actually do anything on our travel day. Because of this (and the costs of flights on American at the time we wanted to book) we decided to take a later flight in the day with Airtran (11:05 take off STL time and 2:20 arrival Orlando time). It was the first time either of us had used Airtran, which doesn’t have much of a presence in the STL market. The flight down was uneventful. It did take FOREVER for our luggage to come out and we had some trouble figuring out how to pick up our Dollar rent a car (a dodge avenger), so we left the airport a bit behind my desired schedule but no biggie. On the way to WDW, we stopped at a wendy’s to get something to eat (we hadn’t eaten since around 8am) and eventually made it over to the Polynesian for check in.

Last fall, we had stayed at the Poly for a night before moving over to BCV and had gotten an upgrade to a water MK view so I had hopes given we were celebrating our anniversary and Melissa’s birthday, we would get some kind of upgrade, but no luck - they were sold out. The room we got on the third floor of Tokelau was just fine. While Melissa started to unpack and get ready to go out to downtown disney, I headed over to MK to pick up our annual passes and to buy our disney dining experience/tables in wonderland card. The latter issue was no big deal, but for whatever reason it took them awhile to process the APs. I eventually made it back to the hotel, moved our car to the closer, side parking lot and got ready to go out for our fist night date night.

We had originally planned to go to Narcoossee's for dinner, but Melissa decided about a week beforehand maybe we should do something less pricey, so we headed over to House of Blues, which we hadn’t been to in years. After a brief wait to get seated, we both had the shrimp & cornbread appetizer, which we both really liked, and then Melissa had the chicken fried chicken and I had the jambalaya. We also split chocolate cake and ice cream for Melissa’s b-day). Neither of us were “wowed” by our dinners, but we would definitely go back there again in the future (service was really good).

Here’s a couple HoB pics:

Now comes our first of several rain stories. As many know, in mid-May, Orlando got hit hard with days of heavy rain. I had heard that before we even got down there, they had already broken their record for most rain in the month of May! Our forecasts had thunderstorms and rain forecasted for every day we were there, so I just hoped for the best. Well... while we were eating at HoB, it starts thundering and raining pretty hard, so we hoped it would be a typically Florida storm that would blow out in like 15 minutes... NOPE!! I wish I had pictures to show this, but basically the rained cleared out all the pathways of DTD except those running for cover. This was the type of rain that would completely drench you in seconds. We had brought ponchos, but they were really of no use, as by the time we got to the car, we were soaked, our shoes were soaked, everything was soaked!! By the time we made it back to the poly, it had let up to become a normal level of rain, so we dried off in our room, watched some TV, and then got up and went to the main pool area to watch Wishes from the beach (which had been our plan all along, just with the bar open and with fruity drinks in hand!)

COMING UP - OUR FIRST DAY IN THE PARKS

 

[oakmanner]

Nice TR so far, can't wait to read more.

 

[TigerLaw]

Nice TR so far, can't wait to read more.

thanks, I'll have more for you soon!

 

[Hunclemarco]

looking forward to hearing more.....
Am i right to say the first picture at the beginning of your post was taken at Le Cellier???

 

[TigerLaw]

looking forward to hearing more.....
Am i right to say the first picture at the beginning of your post was taken at Le Cellier???

You are correct! We went to le cellier our last night of the trip (we always try to do a "date night" the last night of the trip). Thanks for checking in, I'll have an update soon!

 

[bobbiwoz]

I really like the idea of a date night. DH is able to come with me for most of my trip next week, which was going to be solo. I do have table service for three meals, and I think I'm going to somehow surprise him with something special.

Bobbi

 

[BigEeyore]

Looking forward to more!

 

[TigerLaw]

I really like the idea of a date night. DH is able to come with me for most of my trip next week, which was going to be solo. I do have table service for three meals, and I think I'm going to somehow surprise him with something special.

Bobbi

"date night" was my wife's idea , but really, its a good idea as it starts the vacation winding down process as you aren't running around a park when you have to fly out the next day.

Looking forward to more!

I should have more posted shortly w. lots of flower festival pics!

 

[TigerLaw]

Sun. May 24th

Park Visited: Epcot & Magic Kingdom
Dining: Seasons (lunch), O’hanas (dinner)

Sunday morning was early entry day at Epcot, and the weather looked good. I woke up first ( as always) went over to Caption Hook’s to get Melissa coffee (it is a family tradition that I get coffee for my wife every morning at disney - don’t know how I ended up w. this duty other than its how I get her up, but she loves it) and ended up buying one of the refillable mugs for my morning soda. One the way back to the room, I saw a family of ducks in the main pool and then some more right by our building, so I gave that second family of ducks some of my muffin. Anyway, we eventually walked over to the TTC and there was a monorail just sitting there, but it was having issues, so it was maybe like 10 minutes before we could get on it. As we did the loop around Epcot, I took some pics of an empty future world:

Once we got off the monorail (maybe 20 minutes before opening), there was already a large line but I think it was b/c they had “herded” all the guest to only use like the most central ticket machines (something I had never seen before). Anyway, once they let us in early, we saw that there wasn’t going to be a character-driven opening (b/c it was an EMH day) and that the character spot wouldn’t be opening early, so we headed over to Soarin (along with everyone else!)

Once we got to Soarin, I ran ahead to get some FPs, but had problems with a couple of the machines, so by the time we got in line, it was a 25 minute posted wait (actual wait more like 20 minutes) and then a 15 minute wait the second time we went through the stand by line. After soarin through California twice, we did Living with the Land (a family favorite). I thought there was supposed to be something new at the end, but I didn’t see anything really (and they didn’t have any mickey pumpkins either!). From there, we got a second set of Soarin FPs and then we went and signed up to do a Kim Possible mission once world showcase opened at 11am and then headed over to Test Track. We often ride TT using the single rider line and this morning we did so twice with no waits (despite the fact that the standby line was out the door). After TT was done, we walked through Minnie’s Butterfly Garden, but didn’t see that many butterflies and so we also went into mouse gears and bummed around there for a bit. Next, we were trying to kill some time, so we went over to Spaceship Earth. It had only a 20 minute or so line, but we had never seen it so crowded before, as the lines were out on both sides of the “V” entrance. We actually enjoyed it more this time than in past trips, as we often have trouble hearing the narration for some reason.

Now at this point (10:30-11am), it was hot and sunny, so we ended up making a change in plans and decided to blow off the KP mission so we could finish the morning and get back to the Poly’s pool. We went over to the land and eat at the Seasons food court - Melissa got a turkey sandwich and I got a mix chinese plate of beef and chicken with rice and noodles. Once we finished our lunch, we used our two sets of Soarin FPs and headed back to the Poly.

Here are some pics I took from the flower festival:

COMING UP - ONE OF OUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS AND OUR FIRST TRIP TO THE MAGIC KINGDOM

 

[TigerLaw]

Sun. May 24th (cont.)
After getting back from Epcot, we hit the Poly’s quiet pool for a bit and then we took a nap before our long MK night (but not before I walked around the grounds and took a few poly pics - I love the first two in particular):

We went then went over for dinner at O’hanas. We had like maybe a fifteen minute wait, so Melissa got one of those fruity drinks in a pineapple at the bar. (One side note - we sat at the bar next to a british guy eating wings with a martini - thought that was an odd combination!)

Once we got seated we got stuffed eating all the good stuff that makes this one of my favorite restaurants anywhere! Melissa loved the pot stickers and I the BBQ chicken wings. One of the funny things to me at least is that while I love all the different meat skewers, my favorite thing about O’hanas is the banana bread pudding dessert! Its always a fine line to leave enough room for dessert at O’hanas, but I do it!

The service was great at the beginning, but then just died off for some reason. By the way, this was our second dinner in a row where it monsooned while we ate (again no storm pics). At least this time, by the time we left dinner, the rain had let up, so we didn’t get soaked. After dinner, we went back to the room to rest for a bit (Melissa’s great idea to not go straight into a park after pigging out) and then headed over MK for the extra magic night.

If I can digress for a bit, if you’re reading this report, then you are a likely a disney groupie like me. As a WDW fan, you might snicker or even outright laugh when you hear people ask basic questions like “what is fastpass”? You might even look down a bit on “them”. Well, this Sunday night at MK, I didn’t feel like a WDW “expert”, I felt like them - I just couldn’t get much going right in terms of a plan of attack. The park was open until 2am, and I was dying to try to see how long I could stay in a park. This was one of the only times there was going to be two spectros, so I know there would be crowds, I think I just didn’t hit the lines right.

Coming into the park, I thought I had a good luck sign, as we saw a rainbow! (the second pic shows just how weird the skies loked after the dinner-time storm):

After going down main street, we ignored those lining up for the first spectro parade and got a FP for buzz, did haunted mansion with like a five minute wait and then did pirates as a walk on, so I thought we were off to a good start. Our trouble started when we went to Big Thunder which had a 40 minute wait - we passed. Splash was down and the water was drained out of it. We tried to do jungle cruise, it had a 40 minute wait, so we tried to then do philharmagic, but it was closed too! We eventually headed over and did the monsters, inc. laugh floor after about a one room wait, with one of my favorite characters:

ROZ IS WATCHING, ALWAYS WATCHING!!

After the monsters show, we watched Wishes from our usual place on the tomorrowland bridge.

(The last picture is one of my favorites from the trip). After the fireworks were over, we tried to do Big Thunder again, but the wait was now up to 60 minutes (splash had water in it, but was just cycling empty boats). We ended up deciding to just rest for a while and stake out a place for spectro right in front of the partners statute. This was one of the best places we ever saw spectro at and here are some pics:

After the parade was over, we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel, so of my dream to stay in a park past midnight, I still haven’t been able to pull it off!

COMING UP - MEMORIAL DAY, MGM STYLE!

 

[BigEeyore]

Great pics! I love the sunset castle pic and the peacock Spectro one as well. The Poly looks so beautiful as well! If you have any Poly pool pics, could you post them?

 

[TigerLaw]

Great pics! I love the sunset castle pic and the peacock Spectro one as well. The Poly looks so beautiful as well! If you have any Poly pool pics, could you post them?

I think I have some back on my home computer, so check back later today and I will try to post some!

 

[TigerLaw]

BigE, all I have are pics of the main pool in the morning before it opened if you're still interested.

 

[christa112]

I love the picture of Cindy's Castle!!! Beautiful shot

 

[TigerLaw]

I love the picture of Cindy's Castle!!! Beautiful shot

thanks - the post-storm sky color was definitely unique that day