Our Magical 2 Week Vacation at the Beach Club Villas

[PrincessJasmine08]

Okay, this is my first attempt at a trip report, so I make no promises. I really enjoy reading everyone else's reports, so I thought it was time for me to make a contribution. So here goes...

The Cast:

Has anyone ever done the "What Disney character are you?" thing at the end of The Magic of Disney Animation at MGM? Well, first they take a picture of you and then you answer a few questions and then the computer tells you which Disney character you are most like. If you haven't done this, go. It is almost creepy how accurate it is. We did it on this trip and this is how I determined what our names will be for this trip report. So, on with the cast.

First there's me. I'm Belle according to the computer. I am a 20 year old College Junior, early childhood Montessori education major. I love all things Disney except thrill rides. I consider Big Thunder Mountain Railroad a thrill ride, I'm that much of a wimp. I dance ballet with a pre-professional performing company and I also teach ballet to help me with those college expenses (you know, like when you need a pizza at 2am when you're pulling an all-nighter).

Then of course there's my parents. My mom at least would KILL me if I posted her age on an internet forum, so let's just say they are middle aged. My mom is Cinderella and my dad is Jiminy Cricket. My dad is a doctor in labor and delivery and my mom is a nurse. Much to my enjoyment my parents are Disney Vacation Club members and this finances all our wonderful trips to the World. However, as much as they love Disney, my parents equally hate doing any Disney planning. As you can probably tell by the fact that I am on the DIS, I LOVE planning Disney trips. Therefore they pass this responsibility to me. I do all the planning, they do all the financing. I got the good deal on this one, huh?

Then there is my older sister, Tinkerbell. This name fits her perfectly as she is quite dramatic. She is 22 years old, and just graduated from college. I will get into more detail about this further on, but the purpose of this trip was to help her move to Orlando. Even though she and I are 18 months apart, everyone thinks we are twins. We look identical and we do everything together. We have shared a bedroom since we were kids. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to. We tell each other everything and finish each other's sentences. During our 2 years of overlapping time at college we shared a dorm room. Picture 2 people as close as they could possibly be. That's us. My sister also loves all things Disney, especially thrill rides.

And last but not least is my younger sister, Nala. She's a lot like Nala, sweet, but with a little bit of an edge! She's 15, soon to be a Sophomore in high school. She's at that age where she's too cool for Disney in front of us but we can all tell she secretly likes it!

Coming up next: The pre-trip planning (my favorite part!)

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Okay, on to the planning. I promise the actual report will be coming soon enough. But to me this part is almost as good as the trip itself, so I can't skip it!

This trip started as a trip to Disneyland. We have been to Walt Disney World quite a few times, as you can tell by my signature, but never Disneyland. It seemed practically sinful to me that I have never visited the original, never paid homage to my mecca. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but really, it seemed like it was time. So a little talking with Cindy and Jiminy and they agreed. We would do a 2 week California trip this summer with 5 nights at Disneyland. I booked us 2 rooms at the Grand Californian and my little WDW oriented brain almost went into overload trying to plan a Disneyland trip. Then Tink decides to throw me for a loop. Classic Tink. She was graduating from college but really had no big plans for her life. So she comes up with the idea that she would like to attend the Walt Disney World College Program. This is a 6 month internship in Disney for students. The student lives in apartments, pays rent, and works a 40 hour week. My parents agreed it would be the perfect transition for her into the "real world" and so in her application went.

A few weeks later she got a letter that she was accepted into the program, yay!!! However, her move-in date was August 2nd in Orlando. We were scheduled to be in California on August 2nd touring Disneyland! Jiminy and Cindy plot a bit and tell me I need to change the trip to Disney World instead of Land. Alas, I will not be seeing my mecca yet.

Once again, my little trip planning brain almost exploded. My parents told me they wanted to try to stay at the Beach Club Villas but I should just book a 2 bedroom villa wherever I could get it. I dialed up DVC with sweaty palms. You see, the Beach Club Villas are not easy to get into, they are a hot commodity with DVC. However, I must have had some pixie dust sent my way and before I knew it we were booked into a 2 bedroom villa at the Beach Club for 11 nights. Everything seemed to be coming together. I was a little sad that the California trip was being postponed, but hey, there's always next summer.

So, accomodations were taken care of. Next order on the agenda: dining reservations! This is where I go crazy. If I told you how many times I debated, hashed, rehashed, and changed my ADR's you might think I had lost it. Or maybe you would just think I was a DISer. Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but I made 8 dinner reservations. I was told no dinners on the last 2 nights as we would be moving Tink in and Cindy and Jiminy didn't want to have to be worrying about getting to dinner on time. I was also told no dinner on the first night as we didn't know when we would arrive. Our 8 ADR's included 6 repeat restaurants: Tony's, 50's Primetime Cafe, Sci-Fi, Hollywood Brown Derby, San Angel Inn, and Olivia's, and 2 new restaurants: Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki, and L'Originale Alfredo di Roma.

On to transportation....Since this trip was to move Tink in for the College Program (CP), it was deemed by Jiminy and Cindy that we would be driving. Tink doesn't travel light to say the least and there was no way we would get all her stuff down to Orlando on a plane. Also, Tink would need her car down in Orlando, so we would need to take 2 cars. Luckily we have 4 drivers among us, so this didn't appear to be a problem. We decided to take the drive in 2 days. We are from Cincinnati, Ohio and it is about a 16 hour drive so we planned to stop in Atlanta. Once again I was put in charge of booking a hotel for our stopover in Atlanta. Jiminy and Cindy are very picky about where they stay. Jiminy said to me "you can book any hotel in Atlanta as long as it is a Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons." Alrighty then. Ritz-Carlton it is.

About a week before the trip I went to AAA and got 2 triptiks to make sure we didn't get lost! I also commissioned a friend to watch our 3 cats, and did a massive amount of shopping for junk food. We would definitely not be without snacks for this trip!

The night before the trip I did laundry and packed. I also had to take my little fur baby to my aunt's house where she would be staying. My little fur baby is spoiled to say the least. Okay, I'll admit it, she's spoiled rotten. She's a 4 year old black and white Shih Tzu. Believe me, if you saw her face, you'd spoil her too. It is my humble opinion that she is the cutest dog alive. I think I'm getting a little sidetracked....anyway, I had to take my fur baby to my aunt's and say goodbye to her. A few tears were shed on my part as I kissed her goodbye and told her I would see her in 2 weeks.

Finally, it was the night before the big trip. I had been packing for weeks, remembering every little thing when Nala strolls into my room around 11 and casually says "hey, what all did you pack?" I about spazzed. Okay, I did spaz. Nala was given strict instructions on when and what to pack and here is was 11:00 the night before the trip and she had packed nothing!!! Before thinking about what I was saying I just screamed at her, "what, did you miss orientation or something???!!!!" She burst out laughing at the risk of me beating her. You see, there is an orientation for every Disney trip I plan. I figure if I do all the work the least these people can do is cooperate. So I tell them things like when to pack, what to pack, and what we're doing at WDW. My family makes endless fun of me for orientation. They call me Monica (from the tv show "Friends.")

So Nala and I went into her room and I went into all-out packing mode. We were done in about an hour and we loaded her suitcase into the car. After I calmed down a bit Nala turns to me and says "wow, that was intense." We both just started cracking up. Leave it to Nala to get me all worked up!

After that little bit of stress we all went to bed around 12 with our alarms set for 7:00 so we could get up and head to THE WORLD!!!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

I'm loving this trip report already!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[Jules76126]

Just saying Hi, loving the report, and waiting for the next installment.

 

[Ji||s]

subbing this sounds like fun

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Alright, here we go!

Day 1: July 22nd, 2006

This morning the alarm rang right at 7. I am far from a morning person, but I sprang out of bed. The big day was finally here!! Everyone was rushing around getting dressed and packing up last minute items. We had to finish packing up the 2 cars. My dad had his Mercedes SUV with a rooftop carrier and my sister had her new contvertible that she got for graduation. My dad's car has 3 rows. The third row was folded down and it along with the trunk was piled high with luggage. Nala got one seat in the second row and the other seat was also piled with luggage. The rooftop carrier had no space to spare and my sister's back seat and trunk were packed to capacity. Just to give you an idea of how much stuff Tink brought with her to Orlando!!

I rode with Tink and Nala rode with my parents, who we followed. As we were driving away from our house and out of the neighborhood it was kind of bittersweet for Tink. We have lived in this home for 16 years and for she and I knowing that she wasn't coming back at the end of the trip was hard. We watched the house fade in the rearview and said goodbye to our old lives. I know it sounds corny, but it really was hard leaving our bedroom and home that we have shared for 16 years.

The drive to Atlanta was fairly uneventful. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. Tink and I took turns driving and we listened to Disney tunes the whole way. We arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta around 4. We were still following dad, so when he drove his car toward the parking garage, we of course followed. As he approached the garage we realized his car wasn't going to fit under the clearance with the rooftop carrier. Tink and I started honking the horn and waving our arms madly at my dad. No response. Now we have the windows down and we're screaming. No response. Tink is dialing my parent's cellphone, but there's no avoiding it. There it is, the horrible scratching noise. Yep, dad drove under the clearance and now he's stuck. It just wouldn't be a family vacation without this moment. You see, every time we travel we have to have a rooftop carrier. There are 4 girls in our family, there's just no avoiding it. And every time we travel dad forgets the carrier is on the car. Our family vacations really just wouldn't be the same without it.

He's got the car in reverse, but it's not budging. Eventually Jiminy does get the car unstuck, but it was questionable for a minute there! Jiminy went off to valet his car and Tink and I continued into the parking garage. I think Tink almost wrecked the car about 3 times because we were laughing so hard. We were thinking about how silly we must have looked trying to get my parent's attention and then we were thinking about how dumb my parents must have looked driving right under the clearance! We definitely had some good laughs.

We got our duffel bags out of the car and met the rest of the family at check-in. Before we could say anything, Jiminy just turned to us and said "I didn't want to disappoint you on our vacation. I did that on purpose." Cue the laughter again. Anyway, Jiminy and Cindy got everything settled at the front desk and up to the room we went. It was a nice room, a little cozy for 5 people, but there was a rollaway bed and for one night it was just fine.

Jiminy, Cindy, and Tink had done most of the driving, so they wanted to lay down for a few minutes so Nala and I went off to explore the hotel. Or I guess I should say I explored the hotel and Nala text messaged her friends. What is it with text messaging? Does anyone else find it to be amazingly annoying? Nala is obsessed with "texting," if Nala is nearby, so is that annoying little clicking noise that her phone makes as she types away. Nala is reading this and wants to add that the keyboard is making quite an annoying noise as I type away on this trip report. So I guess we're even. I get my DIS, she gets her text messaging, call it a wash.

Nala and I checked out the gym and the spa and then we found the business center with free internet access. Nala facebooked away while I checked up on the DIS. I also called my aunt to tell her we were in Atlanta and ask her how my puppy was doing. Nala and I then headed back up to the room to try to get everone up, we were hungry!

Everyone got up and freshened up a little and we went off to dinner. We had seen an interesting looking restaurant on our way to the hotel called EatZi's, so we headed there. It turned out to be very strange. There are several stands that you order your food from. It is all cold. Then you pay for your food and take it to a microwave and heat it up. It was interesting to say the least. The food was decent though, and it was close to the hotel, so there was no complaining.

Back at the hotel we decided to go swimming. Tink and I swam while Nala sat on the pool deck texting. Believe me, you don't want to see our cell phone bill. We also spent some time in the hot tub, sauna, and steam room. The indoor pool and hot tub were very nice and it felt great to be in the water relaxing after the 8 hour drive. After our mini spa experience we went back to the room to shower and were in bed by 10. I wanted to set a wake-up call and leave really early to get to Disney but I was outvoted four to one. So, much to my dismay no wake-up call was placed and we were all asleep by 11.

 

[exwdwcm]

enjoying your adventure and can't wait to hear more!

your sister will love the WDWCP, it was one of the best experiences of my life and looks great on your resume, employers respect the disney name and values.

 

[BbearRosenfeld]

I agree with my sister, who just responded (she is exwdwcm). I love this trip report and can't wait to hear the rest! Sounds like your family is as close as our family is.

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Day 2: July 23, 2006

This morning Jiminy, Cindy, and Tink got up around 7:30 to go work out. Nala and I took one look at each other and rolled over and went back to sleep. They can work out all they want, I'm sleeping in! I think I need to take this moment to do a quick disclaimer: when we do Disney we don't do it commando style. We are very-laid back, some days we don't even go to the parks. Some days we go to the parks just to stroll around. We aren't there to try to do and see everything. We are there to relax and spend time together as a family. That said, this will not be a trip report that includes a ton of time in the parks!

Back to the report...I eventually got up around 8:15 and started getting ready and packing up. I tried to nudge Nala awake, but no progress. Waking Nala up is almost as difficult as trying to get her to put her cell phone down for 10 seconds, it ain't gonna happen! She's 15 though, I guess it makes sense. So, I continued puttering around until everyone came back to the room around 8:30. At that point it was too crowded in there for me. I need my space and the 5 people/1 bathroom thing just wasn't working for me. So I got out of there!

I headed down to the lobby to wait for everyone. As I went to sit down on a couch a middle-aged man on a cell phone turned to me and asked me how old I was. When I said I was 20 he just looked at me and in a disgusted tone said "I thought you were about that age." It seemed a little strange, but I figured everyone would be downstairs soon so I just scooted away from him and kept waiting.

When he got off his phone he turned to me and said, "boy, do I have a story for you." I was a little confused at why this stranger had a story for me, but I figured I'd give his story a chance and in the worst-case scenario I could always run away screaming! He then proceeded to tell me his story...he and his wife and his 2 teenage daughters were in Atlanta for a family reunion. They were from Texas. This morning they were supposed to fly home to Texas. However, when he knocked on his daughters' hotel room door only one of them was there and she didn't know where her sister was. The one girl had snuck out during the night and she still wasn't back. He had just gotten ahold of her and was sending a cab to go bring her back to the hotel. It cost him $2,000 to change their plane tickets since they missed their flight. He had just bought his daughter a brand new Infiniti and rented her an apartment near the college she was to attend this fall. He said she would now be going to the local community college, living at home, and he would be driving the new car. Man did she blow it! He said it would be all he could do to not take his belt off on her when she walked through the door. Yikes!!

About 5 minutes later she walked through the door. He just looked at her and said "go up to your room and get your stuff." He followed her a few minutes later. As he was going toward the elevator I saw dad so I waved to him. The man turned to dad and said, "Is that your daughter?" When dad said yes the man said "you may think she's perfectly innocent, but you know nothing. Just wait, she'll turn on you too." He then just kept walking. Dad looked baffled, and I guess rightly so! I told him the story and reminded him that he should be ever-so-greatful for his wonderful daughters who never do anything wrong! He of course agreed and thanked his lucky stars.

Eventually everyone made it downstairs. I practically started running toward the car, but I was outvoted again! I wanted to get on the road and stop at a McDonald's for breakfast. Everyone else wanted to go have a sit-down meal at the hotel. It crossed my mind that whoever thought of voting on these kinds of things was really dumb. Then I remembered it was me. Oh well, off to breakfast we went. Why anyone would want to spend time at a hotel in Atlanta rather than get to the Beach Club is beyond me, but what do I know.

Maybe it was just because I was so anxious to get to the World, but the service seemed to be really slow. I had a waffle, which was very good. After breakfast we had to go back up to the room to grab a couple of our bags. Tink and I then went to get our car while Jiminy checked out and had his car pulled up. We were on our way to the Mouse House by 11!!

Tink and I rode together for most of the time. About 2 hours North of Orlando it started pouring down rain. I mean pouring! The kind of rain where you can't see 2 feet in front of you with the wipers going full speed. We probably should have pulled over, but we just kept on plugging, wouldn't want to be late for our appointment with Mickey!

Then the triptik abruptly stopped because we had arrived in Orlando. It was now that I realized my mistake: when you go to AAA to get a triptik, tell them you are going to DISNEY, not Orlando. Oops! We called dad on the cell, frantic. He said not to worry, he would just "follow his nose" and we'd get there. Dad has an amazing sense of direction so on we went. Now if mom and I had been in charge, we would still be driving in circles around Orlando to this day. I swear I could get lost trying to find the bathroom in our house, I am horrible with directions.

Disney needs to get a lot more signs. It seems like there were plenty of signs for Universal but a severe lack of signs for Disney. However, eventually Dad's nose came through! And there it was...THE ENTRANCE!!!! Tink and I clapped and screamed like little girls-we had made it!

We followed the signs to the Epcot resort area and before we knew it we were pulling up to the Beach Club. It felt so good to tell the security guard we were checking in. We arrived right at 6:00. As we were telling the Bell Services guy what bags to take the Magical Express bus arrived and people literally started flowing out of it. So mom and I left everyone to continue unloading and we went to beat the crowds at check-in!

The cast member at check-in was very helpful. She got everything taken care of very quickly and efficiently. Before we knew it we had our keys! We went back outside where everyone else was and drove our cars over to the villas parking lot. We raced up the stairs to see our room for the next 12 nights. It was on the 5th floor with a pool view, close to the elevators-perfect! The 2 bedroom DVC units have a family room with a full kitchen, sofa, tv, etc., and a washer and dryer. Then the master bedroom (for my parents) has a king bed, and a bathroom with a shower and whirlpool tub. Then our room had 2 queen beds and best of all, our own bathroom! The unit was perfect, very clean and best of all lots of space to spread out, just what our family needed!

I was so excited to be at Disney that I wanted to do everthing at once. I wanted to go swim in Stormalong Bay, I wanted to go to a park, I wanted to go walk around the Boardwalk! I may have had to be told to calm down a few times and we began to devise a dinner plan. We wanted to get our park passes squared away so we decided to walk to the International Gateway (IG) entrance of Epcot and take care of that and then find something to eat in Epcot. Mom and dad still had valid annual passes. Nala and I were going to be getting DVC annual passes ($100 off) and Tink was going to get a 10 day hopper. Since she would soon be a Disney employee and get into the parks free there was no reason to get her an AP.

So, off to the IG we went. This is one of the best parts of the Beach Club, walking to Epcot! Walking toward the IG, and hearing the music and seeing the World Showcase (WS), I definitely had an "I'm here" moment. You know, that moment where it finally hits you that you are actually in DISNEY!!

We quickly got the passes taken care of and it was off to the first bag check of the trip. Getting into the park was easier said than done. It seemed like every time we tried to enter a park the biometric finger scan didn't work for one of the 5 of us. This time it was Jiminy and the CM eventually had to override the scan and just let him in.

We were pretty hungry, so we made it no farther than the UK where everyone wanted fish and chips. I will now point out that I am a very picky eater. I am a vegetarian and I am allergic to bell peppers and squash. Therefore I wasn't pleased with the dinner choice. The only vegetarian option was an uncrustable, so that's what I had. For peanut butter and jelly it was pretty good. We ate on the steps of one of the "houses" back in the little garden area of England where British Invasion plays. It was very peaceful back there and we enjoyed just sitting and relaxing.

After dinner we worked our way around the WS a little. We stopped in Morocco to get a picture with Aladdin. When we got to China it was really starting to look like it was going to rain. We had never seen the circle vision movie in China so in we went. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for it to start. It was nice to see this once, but definitely not something I feel the need to see every trip.

After the movie when we came outside we saw tons of soaking wet people. We must have just missed a huge downpour! We were all pretty tired and it was starting to drizzle again so we walked back to the room. We were asleep by 10:00 after a wonderful first day in the world!

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

enjoying your adventure and can't wait to hear more!

your sister will love the WDWCP, it was one of the best experiences of my life and looks great on your resume, employers respect the disney name and values.

I'm glad to see that you still love Disney! This is going to sound silly, but one of my sister's big concerns was that after working for Disney, she wouldn't want to vacation there. She thought it would lose its magic. Seeing as how you've been back quite a few times since your CP I guess that didn't happen for you!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

We need to stay at the Beach Club one of these days!
Looking forward to more!

 

[PrincessJasmine08]

Day 3: July 24, 2006

This morning Cindy and Jiminy got up around 7. I forgot to mention that my dad was attending a meeting the first 4 days we were in Disney. He loves these things. They sound terribly boring, but he trys to go to one on every vacation we take! Hey, whatever floats his boat. My mom thought the topic that was on the agenda for today sounded interesting so she went along. My sisters and I just reveled in the glory of having our own room and not having to hear them waking up!

We eventually did wake up at 9. Actually, Nala woke Tink and I up! This is unprescedented. For example, today I worked from 9-1. When I came home, Nala was still in bed. Nala can sleep! She must have been pretty darn excited to be in WDW to get up before noon by choice. We had some granola bars in the room and watched some tv before heading down to the gym at about 10:30. The gym at the Beach Club is very nice. Kind of small, but adequate. I worked out on the elliptical machine for an hour before we all headed back up to the room.

We rinsed off and then changed into our swimsuits. It was time for Stormalong Bay, the hilight of the Beach Club!! We had to get wristbands to get into the pool. Dad had left us some money, so we decided to stop at Hurricane Hannah's for some lunch. My sisters had some kind of chicken wraps. I had another uncrustable. Once again my pickiness came into play and this was all there was on the menu that I was interested in. We also got our refillable mugs filled. Sitting and eating lunch we could tell we were in for some hot weather. It was our first taste of Orlando in July and it wasn't pretty!

Brilliantly enough, Tink and Nala had both forgotten sunscreen. I hit them each over the head and begrudgingly let them use my sunscreen and then we were off to find seats, not an easy task, the pool was crowded! We finally staked out some seats at the far end of the pool, but it was way too hot to sit in them, so into the pool we went. Stormalong Bay has to be one of my top ten favorite things to do in WDW, it is absolutely wonderful. It's just the best pool ever, I love it. We went down the slide twice, spent some time in the whilrpool, and sitting under the waterfalls. I was in the pool from 12-3 without getting out, it was great! Eventually mom and dad arrived at the pool and we all enjoyed swimming together.

However, right around 3 a huge cloud covered the sky and it was evident that a storm was coming. The storm did of course come and we had to get out of the pool due to thunder. Cindy, Jiminy, and Nala headed to the lobby to wait out the storm and Tink and I headed back to the room. We sat out on the balcony just watching the storm. It was absolutely pouring! We were just sitting there in our swimsuits watching the rain fall when Tink turned to me and said "hey, I'm getting cold, let's go run in the rain!" So, off we went! First we ran down to the beach and turned cartwheels in the sand. One of the Friendships was pulling into the dock because of the storm and the captain was just standing there laughing at us!

We ran all the way around the front of the Beach Club and into the quiet pool. We saw quite a few soaking wet people rushing back to their rooms from Epcot. All of them were completely drenched yet they were still sprinting. Go figure. We were eventually back by our room and we just laid on the pavement by the quiet pool. The ground was so hot, we called it a hot stone massage, it felt great!

Eventually we came back to the room. Jiminy, Cindy, and Nala were back, they had given up on waiting out the storm. We all started showering and getting ready for the Magic Kingdom (MK), we had dinner reservations at Tony's Town Square. Once everyone was ready we debated driving versus taking the bus to the MK. Eventually we decided to just take the bus so we headed out to the villas bus stop.

We only had to wait about 10 minutes before a MK bus came. We got right on and before we knew it we were headed to my favorite park! We worked our way through bag check and into the park. Walking down Main Street and seeing Cinderella Castle for the first time on every trip is always magical. I think it looks so beautiful with all of the golden decorations. I know a lot of people don't agree, but I wish they would leave the Happiest Celebration decor on the castle. This was Nala's first time seeing the castle all done up since she didn't join us on our last family Disney trip so we just stopped for a moment to let her take it in.

We then decided to head back to Adventureland to check on the wait for Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC). Tink and I were both really excited for this ride. We both have seen the first movie countless times and the second movie 3 times. The first time we saw it was at the midnight showing when it was first released and we were all decked out like pirates! Back by PotC they were doing pirate lessons with Captain Jack. They had a man who looked like Captain Jack Sparrow teaching kids how to be a good pirate. The guy playing Captain Jack was so dead-on, it was insane! He wasn't bad on the eyes! We watched for a few minites, but there were so many people crowded around that we really couldn't see too good. We made plans to come back and see the show some day and get there early so we could be in the front. Unfortunately this never happened.

We checked the wait for PotC and it was 30 minutes. We really wanted to ride so we got in line. The line started way back outside the ride. I don't think I have ever waited more than 10 minutes for this ride and having to wait about 20 minutes in those dark tunnels was quite claustrophobic. And it was HOT in there. You would think Disney would have the A/C blasting, but they didn't and with all the people it was really hot and smelly. Not a fun wait.

We eventually got up to the front and got into a boat. I am now going to tell my experience on the new ride. There are spoilers ahead, don't read if you don't want to hear about the new ride!!!! The first new effect we saw was the fog. At the very beginning there is almost a waterfall of fog and Davy Jones appears on it warning you of what lies ahead. The effect of Davy Jones appearing on the fog as if it was a screen was so cool. Definitely a good addition. The next change we noticed was that the big ship that you see in the very beginning is captained by Barbossa. Then, there are three places where Captain Jack has been added: in the dunking scene, the wife chasing scene, and then finally in the room at the end amongst all the treasure. The Captain Jack anamatronic was amazing, really life-like. Other than that the ride remained exactly the same. I had been kind of on the fence when they had annouced the rehab of this ride. It's such a classic that it didn't seem like it should be changed. I think it was definitely the right thing to do to just add a few elements. It just enhanced the ride, but kept it pretty much the same. I was pleased with the rehab. END SPOILERS

After PotC it was time to head to Tony's for our ADR. We made our way back to Main Street and were seated immediately. We had a server who had done the college program and now worked full time as a waiter, so Tink talked to him for a bit. For dinner I had a salad and then Tink and I split the spaghetti. Between the 2 of us we couldn't even finish it-it was a huge amount. If you're interested in reading dining reviews, the link is in my signature. We opted to skip dessert and have Mickey bars later in the park.

After dinner we decided to ride the train. I love riding the train. Jiminy and Cindy don't mind it, but Nala and Tink make endless fun of me for it and barely tolerate my addiction. We had a nice ride around the park and got off in Toontown. Cindy absolutely loves the characters houses in Toontown. I swear if left to her own devices she could spend hours just looking at every little detail. So, we worked our way very, very, very slowly through the houses. Eventually we made it out of Toontown and into Fantasyland. All the rides had about 60 minute waits!

Eventually we came across Philharmagic and that only had a posted wait time of 10 minutes so we headed in. The wait was only 5 minutes. As we were filing into a row, we weren't really paying attention, we were just following the crowds. Of course we chose a row with only 3 seats left. So, Cindy and I went off to find 2 seats elsewhere. I absolutely love this show. My two favorite parts are the Peter Pan scene and the Aladdin scene. When you're in the Aladdin scene you really feel like you are flying through Agrabah on a magic carpet, it is really cool!

After Philharmagic, Cindy and Jiminy were ready to go home so we headed out of the park and to the bus stop, stopping at an ice cream stand for Mickey bars. However, at the bus stop Tink, Nala, and I decided we weren't quite ready to call it a night. So, Cindy and Jiminy headed back to the Beach Club. I proposed that we ride the monorail over to Epcot. Nala and Tink were in agreement so we headed over to the monorail station.

We got right on a monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC), but then we had to wait a few minutes for the monorail to Epcot. At the TTC the CM directed us to go to the side of him and wait behind a railing. We thought it was a weird place for him to tell us to wait, espcially since he wasn't directing anyone else over there. But, we're obedient, so we complied. At one point while we were waiting for the monorail we overheard a man come up to the CM and ask if his kids could ride up front. The CM said "no, there are no spots left, we have some VIP's up front for the next leg." Hmmm....interesting....who could the VIP's be?

Eventually the monorail came and the CM came over to us and told us to follow him, we were riding up front!! We were so excited, we had never ridden in the front before!! He told us he picked us because we looked like such enthusiastic Disney fans with our headbands and pins. We were each wearing a pin and the headbands with the bobble glitter Mickeys on them. We thanked him profusely and he said to us, "this is why I am a Disney CM, I get to see the looks on the faces of happy guests every day." He was just the cutest little old man, you could tell he loved his job and making guests happy, what a wonderful CM!!

The captain was very friendly. He told us what it is like "driving" the monorail. He said we were lucky because the leg from the TTC to Epcot is the longest leg the monorail travels! It was so cool when the monorail went right through Epcot and we got a bird's eye view. Overall, it was just a wonderful moment of Disney magic! At Epcot we said goodbye to the captain and had someone take our picture with him.

Once in Epcot, the first thing we did was to go to the Land and check out the wait time for Soarin.' Once again, since Nala hadn't come on our last trip, she had never ridden Soarin.' The wait time was posted at 45 minutes. Since Nala really wanted to ride we got in line. The wait ended up taking only 25 minutes. We got a seat in the second row. I like the first row better because you don't have to see people's dangling feet, but it was better than the 3rd row. Nala loved this ride, she was laughing the whole time. It is easily one of my new favorites.

As we were exiting the ride the CM told us we could stay and ride again if we wanted. They had someone doing a baby swap so they had to run the ride again anyway. We jumped on that opportunity! We found seats in the front row center and had another great ride. When we came out the park was closed and the IllumiNations crowds were swarming toward the exit. Trying to get back to the IG was like swimming upstream. We made it back to the room around 10 and watched some tv. I went down to the Beach Club Marketplace and filled my mug and sat out on the balcony updating my trip report notes. We all went to bed at 11:00.