Our Drama-Filled May 2010 Bay Lake & Beach Club Trip Report(OMG-ITS MY FINAL UPDATE!)

[heathers4um]

cant wait for more!

 

[TigerLaw]

cant wait for more!

Thanks! Hope to have a new update up either tonight or tomorrow morning!

 

[momtotanmanandraerae]

Great trip report so far! I leave in 34 days and am getting so excited! We always stay at BCV...it is an amazing resort. This time we will have my MIL and my mother with us so we are staying in the treehouse villas. I am very nervous that I will miss BCV. Love your pictures...can't wait to see more!

 

[momoflizandains]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Tinks "SS"]

Wonderful trip report and love the pics!! hopeing to go during F & G next year but depends on when my mom and BFF and her mom can go. Can't wait to see more!

 

[TigerLaw]

Great trip report so far! I leave in 34 days and am getting so excited! We always stay at BCV...it is an amazing resort. This time we will have my MIL and my mother with us so we are staying in the treehouse villas. I am very nervous that I will miss BCV. Love your pictures...can't wait to see more!

Good luck w. the villas - hope your family like it there!

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for reading!

Wonderful trip report and love the pics!! hopeing to go during F & G next year but depends on when my mom and BFF and her mom can go. Can't wait to see more!

This is probably b/c I went to the F&G two years in a row, but this year, it wasn't as big a thrill - I think alot of it was b/c they reused so many topiaries - I know there will always be topiaries of the fab five for example , but most of the ones I saw this year, were the same as the year before!

 

[Kewz1]

Enjoying your report! Your pictures are incredible!

Kristen

 

[TigerLaw]

Sunday, May 16th (cont.)

So after I got back to BLT, I took a nap (and if I recall right, Melissa was already back from the pool and napping). From there, our plan was to go to MGM, maybe get a couple fastpasses, but mostly just have dinner and bum around a bit (my thought was b/c MK was closing early and MGM was having an EMH night, it would be way crowded).

Before we left, we got a call from disney food services asking to stay in the room, as they were making a delivery to us - turns out, we got chocolate-covered strawberries and a bottle of wine, supposedly for our anniversary from the hotel, but we both thought it was b/c of the problems we had experienced the day before. Melissa figured out that the room service bill for this would have been over 70 dollars! Regardless, it was a nice gesture.

Anyway, when we got in our rental to drive over to MGM around 5pm or so, we noticed right away the tire air pressure warning light was on! I drove us over to the gas station by the Petty speedway and after looking at all the other tires and trying to put more air in them, I looked at the front drivers-side tire and IT WAS FLAT in bad shape - the rim was only a few inches off the ground and there was no air pressure cap on the tire! I called Dollar (who I had the rental through) and they sent someone out to put on the spare w/in an hour or so after we got back to BLT from the gas station. The problem was that the old tire took up a large portion of the trunk so we wouldn’t be able to use it for luggage storage on our way back to the airport, so at some point, we would need to get a new rental. Unfortunately, it being Sunday night, there was no dollar locations open, so that would have to wait until Monday.

Given how fast (relatively speaking) we got the spare on the rental, we decided to head over to MGM anyway and salvage our night. When we got to MGM, I headed over to Toy Story Mania to see if I could use my DVC fastpasses, and sure enough, a machine was open just for that, so I got two sets of TSM fastpasses. Then, we headed over to Star Tours and I got a FP for that using my annual pass, as I wanted to ride it one more time before they made the changes to it this fall. Once we were armed with some fastpasses, we headed over for our Mama Melrose’s ressie. We had to wait 15 minutes or so (they were refusing all walk ups). Dinner was nothing special - we both got caesar salads, Melissa got one of their flatbread pizzas (roasted chicken pizza I believe) and I got the chicken parm. which was nothing special at all - oh well!

After dinner, I went and did Star Tours - totally didn’t need the fastpass - ride was a walk on - I asked to sit up front b/c in the past I got motion sickness on the ride, but for some reason, it didn’t bother me much at all this time. I hadn’t gone on Star Tours for years, and it did feel a bit dated to me, but I guess it will be brand new next time I ride it! From there, I met up with Melissa and we headed over to Muppetvision 3D. It supposedly had just reopened from a rehab with a new digital print and new show and flat screen in the queue room, but I didn’t notice any changes. Next, used our Toy Story Mania fastpass sets - I scored 130,000+ the first time and 160,000+ the second time, so didn’t beat my personal best of 170,000+. Once we used up our two sets of TSM fastpasses, Melissa did some shopping and I took some night pictures around the park - take a look:



I love this picture of the Great Movie Ride!









Note this is the line for the SECOND SHOWING of fantasmic that night (so was taken around 10pm I would guess) I would say the line was nearly to the tip board - that’s how far it went! NO THANK YOU!

Once we met back up, we left the park for the night. For some reason, we ran into a huge traffic jam trying to leave, but otherwise, that was it for the night.

COMING UP - ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DRAMA!

 

[Crystal_27]

Another great installment (I really enjoyed your night shots at DHS). YIKES about the rental car flat -- what a mess! As to your question, I'll answer below:

one thing though was that it was hard to get the number down real low, so maybe I need to do something else with it?

Well, at some point, you will become limited by your lens, which has a maximum aperature. If you look on your lens, you will see an f__.__ number which denotes your maximum aperature (meaning you cannot dial down any wider than your maximum number). Usually the wider the aperature, the more expensive the lens (for example, my f2.0 lens was about $500, but it was worth every single penny). The scene modes might get you close (they will use a "median" range, but are still limited because the camera is making the judgment call as to what it thinks you want), but you shouldn't rely on them to get you the shot you want every time -- its always better to manually manipulate your aperature and shutter speed settings, if possible.

 

[TinkOhio]

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. LOVE the pics! They're the type of pictures that I always hope to wind up with, but rarely achieve. Maybe Santa will have to bring me a camera for Christmas.

Can't wait to read more...

 

[Luckymommyx2]

You have a wonderful disposition by not allowing any of your dramas to fill your vacation (and TR) with negativity.

Chocolate covered strawberries... ....the Poly sent those to us for our 10yr anniversary and they were delicious!!!

 

[TigerLaw]

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. LOVE the pics! They're the type of pictures that I always hope to wind up with, but rarely achieve. Maybe Santa will have to bring me a camera for Christmas.

Can't wait to read more...

I guess it depends if you end up on the naughty or nice list this year!

You have a wonderful disposition by not allowing any of your dramas to fill your vacation (and TR) with negativity.

Chocolate covered strawberries... ....the Poly sent those to us for our 10yr anniversary and they were delicious!!!

Honestly, I gotta tell you, I must be faking the "wonderful disposition" thing - I have tried to keep out of the report all of my yelling, swearing, etc. that I did - mostly at the CR front desk about the luggage and other issues I haven't even gone into here and you'll see more when I get to what happened the day after the flat tire.

Bottom line - who wants to read a negative trip report anyway? Besides, a crappy day at disney is still a DAY AT DISNEY!

Another great installment (I really enjoyed your night shots at DHS). YIKES about the rental car flat -- what a mess! As to your question, I'll answer below:

Well, at some point, you will become limited by your lens, which has a maximum aperature. If you look on your lens, you will see an f__.__ number which denotes your maximum aperature (meaning you cannot dial down any wider than your maximum number). Usually the wider the aperature, the more expensive the lens (for example, my f2.0 lens was about $500, but it was worth every single penny). The scene modes might get you close (they will use a "median" range, but are still limited because the camera is making the judgment call as to what it thinks you want), but you shouldn't rely on them to get you the shot you want every time -- its always better to manually manipulate your aperature and shutter speed settings, if possible.

Crystal, thanks for the scoop - I will defintiely check it out - given my camera is really nothing more than a very fancy point and shoot, I would guess this may be the answer to my question - let me see, and I'll get back with you on it!

 

[iluveeyore]

Came across your trippie this morning and can't wait to read more!

 

[mrsR123]

Thanks so much, TigerLaw; I've really enjoyed your report and especially your pictures. You're definitely helping me bide my time until I get to go on the 18th!

 

[disney1474]

I'm jumpin' in on this TR. Awesome pictures

 

[TigerLaw]

Came across your trippie this morning and can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much, TigerLaw; I've really enjoyed your report and especially your pictures. You're definitely helping me bide my time until I get to go on the 18th!

I'm jumpin' in on this TR. Awesome pictures

thanks everyone for the kind words - I never knew how much work a trip report was when you had decent pictures to add in it!

 

[TigerLaw]

Monday, May 17th

Parks: AK & MK
Dining: Ohana's (dinner)

Monday morning we headed out for extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom. I got us up too early as I overestimated the time it would take to get there, so even driving slowly b/c we were on a spare tire, we got to the park around 7:30am. In fact, they hadnt even opened up the parking lot when we got there! While we waited to get let in, it started to rain hard for like 5 minutes. (As a brief aside, when we watched the weather channel either Saturday or Sunday, it forecasted either isolated or scattered thunderstorms for every day of the trip - Monday morning was the only rain we experienced the whole week!) Anyway, they finally let us into the parking lot, and we saw that we were behind all the masses getting off disney resort busses. Once we got into the park, they stopped us pretty close to the ticket machines and did their version of an opening ceremony there (I liked the old place better). It started to drizzle a bit, so we got out the ponchos and put them on.

Eventually, the rope dropped and they walked us back to Everest. (One quick note here was that I think they opened the park like 5-10 minutes early!) I got as close to the front as I could and got fastpasses, but it was a minute or two before we could walk onto the ride, as Melissa somehow took a wrong turn and fell behind. No worries - we rode twice in a row with no wait. The rain had even let up before we rode! (this was important to us as last may, during the EMH night, we rode in a monsoon!). One good point here was that usually, the backwards part of Everest bothers me in terms of motion sickness, but this time, it didn’t really seem to do much of anything to me.

From Everest, we headed over to Kilo Safaris and rode that with (at most)a five minute wait. Here are some pictures from our safari:













As you can probably tell, I was fighting the camera a bit (it was my first time using it in a fast shoot situation). One helpful bit was that I had read to sit in the back row, and that did help (but the con of that was we felt like we were riding dinosaur - you really get thrown around in the last row!) . Anyway, after we came back from our two week safari, we headed back over to Everest and rode that a couple more times, so no real waits. It was still awhile from our 10:30 ressie w. Donald for breakfast, so Melissa offered to ride Dinosaur w. me to get it out of the way (she’s not a big fan of it). Again, the ride was a walk on.

Eventually, we headed over to tusker house and I called Dollar to try to get switching out the rental car set up. The drama here was that they essentially said if we didn’t come right now (to one of the downtown disney hotels where they had an office) they couldn’t GUARANTEE that a car would be available to us and moreover, we had to fill up our current one first! In the interest of keeping this from being an R-rated trip report, I will save everyone from my responses to this, let’s just say I RESPONDED!

We ended up deciding to go have breakfast and take our chances, figuring at most it would be like an hour from their “right now or else” posture. Unfortunately, I was in a bad mood and Melissa was as well, and then we got seated and got even more ticked off as we got a table in a corner that would best be described as where a child’s “time out” mat would likely be placed. (as an aside, we frequently feel that we get the crappiest table locations b/c we are a two-person reservations, to the point where we have even discussed making 4 person ressies just to trick the system!). Basically, I will admit it wasn’t “that” big a deal, but given our moods, it was just the tipping point, so we both kinda looked at each other and said screw it, let’s just leave the park and get the car issue over with, so that’s what we did (even though I had planned on riding Kali and had brought a change of clothes and flip flops in case I got soaked). UNFORTUNATELY, in so doing, I left my old P&S camera (not my new one) which I had been using for character pics at Tusker House! (SEE I TOLD YOU THERE WOULD BE LOTS MORE DRAMA THIS DAY!)

COMING UP - WILL WE GET A NEW RENTAL? WILL THERE BE EXTRA MAGIC AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM?

 

[RSHEALAND]

Awesome pictures and a great trip report

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Wow, Dollar should have driven a new rental to you instead of having to take time out of your vacation. A little extra customer service never hurts, but sadly I believe those days are gone.

Can't wait for the next installment! Hope things get better for you....

 

[TigerLaw]

Awesome pictures and a great trip report

thanks!

Wow, Dollar should have driven a new rental to you instead of having to take time out of your vacation. A little extra customer service never hurts, but sadly I believe those days are gone.

Can't wait for the next installment! Hope things get better for you....

You know, I never thought of that! All I wanted was a refund - no one would even discuss it with me, saying I had to talk to the manager at the airport drop off - when I tried to do that, the line was like 50 people deep, so I called their "customer service" number when I got home. Long story short, all they were willing to do was offer me a 20% discount off the total bill (and I had to fight to get that!)