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

[TigerLaw]

When MGM first opened in 1989, we went and there were only 2 attractions-the Great Movie Ride and the Backlot Studio Tour. At that time, the tour was about a 2 hour tour in 2 parts-one part was the tram, catastrophe canyon, etc. The other part was inside, walking, and included the Bette Middler little movie thing and the kids riding on the big bug.

I want to think you for your trip report. This has been so enjoyable to read. So which do you like better, OKW or BCV? Just wondering because those are the two favorites in our house. DH is an OKW fanatic, while my fave is BCV.

Hands down, BCV is our favorite resort - its our home resort and we are just so spoiled w. walking to epcot, stormalong, etc. I will say that OKW is probably our second favorite place now - can you imagine if they built all the newer DVC resorts with that much room - I swear I felt like our OKW 1br was twice as big as one at BCV! OKW will now be our choice for when we need to save points or can't get in somewhere.

Great TR and pictures. Glad to hear you are not letting the rain get you down

thanks for the kind words - Its funny, but it rained so much we just kinda laughed it off for the most part!

 

[TigerLaw]

SWW parade pics:

Jedi Mickey & Princess Minnie

Donald & Jedi training academy kids

The 501st Legion

Sand people (with and without child)

[

Boba fett and other bad guys

Chewie (in and out of costume)

Ewoks and R2D2

Greedo and Vader

You talkin’ to me?!?

COMING UP - NO MORE STAR WARS STUFF!

 

[BigEeyore]

Yay for some updates! Taking a trip to WDW is a good excuse though for not updating!
I have never been for SWW - all of those costumes are just amazing. I don't understand why Disney doesn't do SW stuff year round at HS. It is so popular, and so many elaborate sets and costumes - wish it were around more!

 

[BigDogHU75]

Enjoying your report and loving the pics. Also, glad to read about BCV. We will be staying in a studio at BCV for two days in about 8 weeks. This will be our first stay so I am glad to see the pictures. I hope it does not rain during our stay so that we can enjoy the pool. I know DS would love it.

 

[Mahusky]

great report!

 

[TigerLaw]

Yay for some updates! Taking a trip to WDW is a good excuse though for not updating!
I have never been for SWW - all of those costumes are just amazing. I don't understand why Disney doesn't do SW stuff year round at HS. It is so popular, and so many elaborate sets and costumes - wish it were around more!

If I had to guess, its the costs - think about why the cancelled fantasmic over illuminations - manpower costs

Enjoying your report and loving the pics. Also, glad to read about BCV. We will be staying in a studio at BCV for two days in about 8 weeks. This will be our first stay so I am glad to see the pictures. I hope it does not rain during our stay so that we can enjoy the pool. I know DS would love it.

while we loved our first trip in a 1 bedroom room, a studio at BCV still is great!

great report!

thanks!

 

[TigerLaw]

Once the parade was over, I came back and found Melissa at the room relaxing after spending the morning at Stormalong Bay. I can’t remember what we did for lunch (I assume Beaches & Cream but just can’t recall). We did go to back to the pool, where it ONCE AGAIN BEGAN TO RAIN!!! Thankfully, this time, there was no thunder or lighting, so we actually stayed in the pool while it rained a bit. After we were done at the pool, we came back to the room and took a nap to rest up for another long MK evening.

Upon arriving at MK , I went to get us some splash FPs, but they were out, so I got a set for Big Thunder instead. The cast members at both places said they wouldn’t be restarting the machines for EMH night. Sometime on my walk back to the hub, I realized that I had forgotten my camera (hence no pictures in this update!) I met up with Melissa and we had dinner at crystal palace, which we both really liked. Our ressie was for 7:20 and we didn’t get in until around 7:40, so by the time we got out of CP, we just sat down bear the Tomorrowland bridge to watch the Wishes fireworks at 9 pm. Once the fireworks were over with, we walked over to try to finally ride jungle cruise, but the line simply didn’t move for like 5 minutes, so we left that and did pirates with no wait and then big thunder, using our fast passes. From there we did haunted mansion and philharmagic before heading back over to do splash twice, where we got drenched but the water shoots coming off the main drop. Not much of an EMH night, but we didn’t push trying to ride everything for a change.

Here a couple beach club shots. The second picture is maybe my favorite view anywhere - I stop almost every time I walk out of the villas and just stare at this for a minute - I can’t explain why I love it so much, just do!

COMING UP - OUR LAST FULL DAY AT THE PARKS

 

[TigerLaw]

Saturday, May 30th

Parks: AK & Epcot
Dining: Donald’s/Tusker House (brunch), Le Cellar (dinner)

Saturday mornings at WDW are usually a bit bittersweet for me, as most times, I know its my last time “in a park doing rides” on a given trip. For the past few vacations that I can recall, this usually took place at MGM, as they would have their EMH mornings on a Saturday. This trip however found us going to AK for its EMH morning.

At the rope drop, I race walked over to Everest and got us our first FPs of the day. We then did Everest twice in a row - first as a walk on and the second time with a 5-10 minute wait. Usually, two trips on Everest is enough for me (the backwards part gets me sick). We next went over to do the Safari ride and had a really good trip couple highlights there was (1) we were delayed b/c giraffes stopped in the road and (2) we saw the lion yawning loudly (our safari driver said he had never seen/heard that before). After that, I ran through the Exploration Trail while Melissa waited and didn’t see all that much. Here are some pics:

From there we left Africa and went back into Asia, first to use our Everest FP and then I went on Kali River Rapids first the first time in ages by myself. I didn’t get TOO wet, but wet enough that I didn’t want to take character pictures. As you can guess, we then went over to Tusker House for Donald’s character breakfast. We did this one late in the morning so it wasn’t too crowded and in fact we had more than enough time w. the characters. We had done this before when it was in dinoland, but we liked it much better over at tusker house and food was really good too (Melissa says its her new favorite WDFW breakfast) After breakfast, we left AK and came back to beach club to go to the Stormalong Bay pool one more time and a nap.

COMING UP - DATE NIGHT AT EPCOT

 

[TigerLaw]

As discussed above, somewhere along the way in our last few trips we started making the last night of our trip a “date night” which is Melissa-speak for dinner, fireworks and no running around to get to rides! On this night, we went to Epcot’s Le Cellar restaurant, where we hadn’t eaten for years. While I wasn’t a big fan of the much-hyped cheese soup, overall we both really liked it a lot and we go back much sooner on future trips. (I got the steak and potatoes and Melissa got chicken and the baked mac and cheese.) After that, we headed across the lagoon to try to catch the American Adventure, which we just missed. I ended up getting a funnel cake and we just hung out until the next showing which we went to. (One brief aside - that night tony orlando was packing them into the concert stage and we debated whether Melissa’s father looked like him or not) From there, we found that the patio area between england and france was open that night, so we dropped down and sat on the steps and had a really good view of illuminations.

Here are some random pics from our Epcot night:

Sunday was our travel day. Because of the way the flights went (and how the EMH morning worked), we were able to go into Epcot for a few rides on our travel day. Unfortunately, once again, we were let in from the Int’l Gateway area the same times as the people in the front were, so we were behind all of them heading over to soarin. By the time we got to Soarin, the Fps were already out to 9:35 and the stand by line was a 20+ wait, and when we got off, the line was over an hour! I went and filed a complaint at guest relations about how the ropelines were unfair to epcot resort guests and was told they were aware of the issue. After I got done venting, we did test track twice and headed back over to soarin for two more rides before we had to leave. We rushed back to our room, changed clothes, and had a 11am brunch at cape may café. Because of the time, as our meal went on , the room really thinned out and we had the characters coming by over and over.

After brunch, we went to the airport and (after getting lost for a bit) had the best surprise - for some reason, we were upgraded to first class! It was great having leg room, satellite radio, etc.

WELL THAT'S IT - THANKS FOR READING EVERYONE!!

 

[BigDogHU75]

Great report. Really enjoyed the pictures especially of BCV & Cape May Cafe since we will be staying and eating there.

 

[GGOOFY1]

Loved the report. We have a "Celebration Dinner" the last night of our trip also. The kids love eating in Japan, it is a tradition for us to finish our trip there

 

[BigEeyore]

Thanks for a great TR!

 

[TigerLaw]

Great report. Really enjoyed the pictures especially of BCV & Cape May Cafe since we will be staying and eating there.

Can't go wrong at cape may for breakfast or dinner!

Loved the report. We have a "Celebration Dinner" the last night of our trip also. The kids love eating in Japan, it is a tradition for us to finish our trip there

Japan is one of the few places we still have to try - maybe someday?!?

Thanks for a great TR!

thanks for reading!