Sleepy and Grumpy visit Tatooine–A SWW TR! - The End - All done and Link to new TR

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

And now our plates.

This was my first plate.



And Fran started off with either some strawberry soup or mushroom soup. Whichever one it was she had finished it by the time I got back to the table. Must have been the strawberry because her second bowl of soup was the mushroom. She said it was the same she had at lunch.



Then the characters began to come to our table. Prince Charming and me.



Cinderella and me.



Fran moved on to another bowl of the strawberry soup.



My main course.



And Fran’s main course



Then the evil stepsisters came by. They were quite a hoot!



Fran made a comment to this one about taking a picture of two redheads together, and she looked at me and said, “You’re a Redhead?”

I made some kind of remark about “well before it all went gray”. And she was appropriately rude.



I don’t remember what the interaction with this one was, but I think Fran was dissing Cinderella or something like that.



I don’t remember who picked up these desserts.



Then the Step Mother came around, she promised we’d play bridge at Gaston’s Wednesday night.



I finally made my way around to the strawberry soup.



And then I finished off my meal with this delicious Bread Pudding and Apple Crisp.



What next? Did we go back to the room and rest up for our early day at SWW? Or were we evil like the stepsisters that we had just encountered?

 

[Pinkocto]

Fabulous update. I've booked that restaurant twice and canceled twice. Looks pretty good. The character interaction looks like great fun.

Glad you went for the mine train. It's just too short. For this long making it it should have been longer, in my opinion anyway.

Love the room. Sorry about the tub though. And no that does NOT look like a HA friendly shower. Did they have the stall as well? In the regular 1BR it's a huge jacuzzi tub. I was disappointed it didn't have claw feet but the CM said it had to be flush to the floor for the jets. That's why I was confused when you were telling me about it at Epcot.

 

[jedijill]

Glad you got to ride the Mine Train but too bad its short. I've never eaten at 1900PF but that strawberry soup looks great! The room is gorgeous but the tub is a disappointment!

Jill in CO

 

[PrincessInOz]

AARGH!!!

I've missed out on all these updates. Darn e-systems!!! I don't know what happened. I subbed in but I haven't been getting any notifications.


Anyway....all fixed now and I'm back on this gold mine train now.


Fantastic updates.
I was interested to hear your views of CSR. It's a lovely resort but I'm the same. I can take or leave it.
But that room at the VGF! WOW! WOW! WOW! If that's the standard of the new rooms at WDW now, I don't think I'd ever leave the room.

Fantastic food pictures. I'm licking the screen here. Looks like great interactions with the characters.

Excellent DisMeet.

Love the jewellery.
And that's a great score with the HM bags. Talk about timing! Well done.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

The transportation guide assured us that another bus was on it’s heels and it would have room for us. This is was not the first time we made this compromise, but we were happy to do it. There is nothing worse than making people get up out of their seats, and then you have to take yet another seat because they won’t let you stay on the scooter. The glares that you get are awful.

I've said it before, but Disney needs a better system in place as far as buses/scooters go.

After waiting half an hour in the full sun, we were done. We decided to head over the Grand Floridian and see if the room was ready. It was an easy monorail ride over there (have I mentioned that I really LOVE staying at a monorail resort?), and lo and behold our room was even ready! Score!

So la la la, we come rolling into the store, I come around the corner and this woman is staring at me. And she looks strangely familiar. A little befuddled and definitely taken off guard the only thing I could come up with was, “Is that YOU?”

So we made it to the room, and just WOW! These rooms are gorgeous!

I have to agree!

I didn’t take any pictures because I just wanted to experience the ride on my first time. It was a fun little coaster. There were some good turns and the way that the coaster swayed back and forth, helped to mellow out some of the pull of the banked turns. Almost as soon as it started it was over again. They had some great touches in there. It was a very cute ride, but I would not wait more than 20 minutes for it. Later in the trip, I did take pictures so I will post those later in the report.

Sounds like fun! Can't wait to ride it someday.

What next? Did we go back to the room and rest up for our early day at SWW? Or were we evil like the stepsisters that we had just encountered?

One could even say you joined the dark side...

 

[skylizard]

I love all of your TRs, especially when you visited Washington DC (my hometown ).
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[ajf1007]

You changed your Avatar! Long time no see! I'm glad you made it. I'm just barely getting started. Haven't even finished the first full day.

Hi Alison!!!!! Yes, I changed my Avatar - new Avatar, new beginnings right? Your pictures of the room at GF are amazing. That room is so elegantly decorated, I just love it! It looks like your off to a great start on the TR too, I loved the pictures with the wicked stepsisters, that would be probably one of my favorite meets!

Ohhhhh, just for the record, I did NOT raise my hand with regard to the handicap bathtub - that was the oddest thing I ever saw and fail to see how that would be easy to get into. Just sayin

 

[Leshaface]

Is that the 1 bedroom?! I'm so excited! I haven't said anything yet, but we were able to snag a few nights in a 1 bedroom during our trip and made 2 waitlists for the remaining days of our trip. It's absolutely gorgeous! I doubt that DS would use it, but is the murphy in every 1 bedroom?

Boo, I was afraid you were going to say how short the ride was. I purposely have not watched videos or read articles on the ride because I knew some of my DIS friends would be checking it out soon.

That is a pretty good buffet spread. But I would definitely go more for the characters. I love their snarkiness. I've never met them but from reading about their interactions on the boards, I really want to meet them!

 

[wdrl]

Thanks for posting all your photos! Coronado Springs Resort is our favorite moderate resort at WDW and we have stayed there several times when we don't enough DVC points available. Its a big resort, but we've always had a car with us so we've been able to keep some of the walking to a minimum.

Lots of people are interested in seeing the modifications made in a handicap accessible villa. I'm going to put a link to your VGF photos in the VGF Villas and Views thread on the DVC Resort board.

We recently stayed in a VGF studio and really liked it. I like that the VGF studios and one-bedroom villas have large walk-in showers in addition to tubs. I'm surprised your HA villa did not have a walk-in shower.

. . . is the murphy in every 1 bedroom?

Yes, the murphy bed is in all VGF one-bedroom villas and studios. The murphy beds in the 1BRs have Mary Poppins artwork, while the murphy beds in the studios have Dumbo artwork.

 

[Leshaface]

Yes, the murphy bed is in all VGF one-bedroom villas and studios. The murphy beds in the 1BRs have Mary Poppins artwork, while the murphy beds in the studios have Dumbo artwork.

Thank you!

 

[Pinkocto]

Is that the 1 bedroom?! I'm so excited! I haven't said anything yet,but we were able to snag a few nights in a 1 bedroom during our trip and made 2 waitlists for the remaining days of our trip. It's absolutely gorgeous! I doubt that DS would use it, but is the murphy in every 1 bedroom?

Awesome news!

 

[rentayenta]

Great update Alison.

Glad you went ahead with the Mine Train. Worth the hype?

Your villa is beautiful. I'm sorry you didn't have your jetted tab. Liking the full pantry and fridge!

Your meal looks delicious. The stepsisters are some of the Disney's best!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Loved the update! Lush room at VGF. Shocking about the 'handicap tub' I would need a winch to get in there! Obviously not tested by a disabled person. Also I don't think they consider who else travels with disabled person. Reason we would get a 1BR is so Jo can use the spa tub and me the walk in shower. Jo would be gutted at no spa tub! We have a studio so see how that is!

Glad to see your cupboards stocked! Did you find not enough clothes space at VGF? We looked around because we don't use murphy bed thinking where are the drawers! The guide said under the bed but I can't bend down. However it is such eye candy it makes up for it and that wonderful monorail! Love that you could just pop to do the mine train!

Agree cute ride but too short also I couldn't see very well into Snow Whites cottage. Maybe just me.

1900 Park fair looks fab both breakfast and dinner. Great line up of characters and food! Lol re ugly sisters they sound great fun

We are trying AoA next year for a couple of nights filler between saving DVC points. LM accessible room. I heard good things about it.

 

[afwdwfan]

It was a really cushy plane, the seats had a buffer between the rows of seats so that whatever the person in front of you did with their seat didn’t affect your personal space. There was a big pocket in front to fit puzzles, lap tops or whatever you wanted.

I didn't know planes like this existed...

While we didn’t hate the resort, we weren’t as impressed with it as it looked a lot like home. I mean not “our” house, but palm trees and rock sculptures in the yard are fairly common as they are water saving and many people have converted their yards to look like this with city incentives to save water.

I thought the resort was beautiful... but our experience was soured by other guests. We might give it another chance someday, but it isn't high on our list, for sure.

We decided that since it was close to rope drop, maybe we should go to Fantasyland and see if the line for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train was manageable. Well the ride was down, and the wait was already up to 90 minutes. Forget that!

That's disappointing. I know that is the first thing I want to do when I get there!

Turns out there were three of them on display in this store. Fran asked the gentleman who was helping us with the jewelry how he came to have three HM purses in his store, and he replied, “Because I started the day with nine of them.”

A little befuddled and definitely taken off guard the only thing I could come up with was, “Is that YOU?”

To which she answered, “yes”. Well of course, but she knew what I meant! Finally it came to me, Lisa or Lisaviolet.

Nice surprise!

So we made it to the room, and just WOW! These rooms are gorgeous!

Wow. That room is great!

I believe that our FP window for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train was about to open. Fran decided that she would rather extend her nap than experience the ride, so I hopped on the monorail and headed over to the MK and Fantasyland. My first try at FP+ worked like a charm and I was on the ride in no time.

You really should have taken her band and tried to ride it twice.

 

[mvf-m11c]

The villa looks very nice. I could easily enjoyed the outside view of your room seeing the Monorails go by.

The food at 1900 PF looks very appetizing and the characters pictures were great.

Nice to hear that you were able to ride the Mine Train. I am also curious of your take on the Mine Train.

Great update.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Your villa looks amazing. I am glad that you got to ride the mine train. Dinner looks very nice and I am glad that you had a good character interaction.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

Fabulous update. I've booked that restaurant twice and canceled twice. Looks pretty good. The character interaction looks like great fun.

You really should try it. We love the place. This was our first time for dinner and we think that we liked it even better than breakfast. The food was spectacular and that's something to say about a buffet. I loved the things with meat, but there is plenty there for both you and your mom.

Glad you went for the mine train. It's just too short. For this long making it it should have been longer, in my opinion anyway. .

It was short, especially the dark ride part. I really wanted that to be longer, but there really were some cute effects.

Love the room. Sorry about the tub though. And no that does NOT look like a HA friendly shower. Did they have the stall as well? In the regular 1BR it's a huge jacuzzi tub. I was disappointed it didn't have claw feet but the CM said it had to be flush to the floor for the jets. That's why I was confused when you were telling me about it at Epcot.

There was no stall shower, which made it a challenge for Fran to use it. She would have been better off in a regular room, and I would have had my Jacuzzi tub. By the time I realized that it was a "soaking" tub, the other Villas were sold out for part of our stay. I should have waitlisted it, but next time. We'll be back for SWW in two years and we'll book there again

Glad you got to ride the Mine Train but too bad its short. I've never eaten at 1900PF but that strawberry soup looks great! The room is gorgeous but the tub is a disappointment!

Jill in CO

For as long as it took to build, you'd think there would have been a little more to it! They did really pack in some cute effects, you'll see when I post pictures. I love the strawberry soup, I have a recipe for it that is much healthier, but doesn't taste nearly as rich. On our last visit the CM gave us the recipe and no wonder it tastes so good. Heavy cream and all.

AARGH!!!

I've missed out on all these updates. Darn e-systems!!! I don't know what happened. I subbed in but I haven't been getting any notifications.


Anyway....all fixed now and I'm back on this gold mine train now.

I was sort of wondering what happened to you. I hate when that happens. At least you weren't reading along and forgetting to comment like I always do!

Fantastic updates.
I was interested to hear your views of CSR. It's a lovely resort but I'm the same. I can take or leave it.
But that room at the VGF! WOW! WOW! WOW! If that's the standard of the new rooms at WDW now, I don't think I'd ever leave the room.

We might stay there again, but we still have POFQ, AoA, CBR and the other values to hit first. I'm waiting for the DVC at the Poly to open to tick that off my list. Then there's the Swan and Dolphin too. So many resorts, so little vacation $'s.

Fantastic food pictures. I'm licking the screen here. Looks like great interactions with the characters.

Excellent DisMeet.

Love the jewellery.
And that's a great score with the HM bags. Talk about timing! Well done.

Thanks! The characters were a lot of fun and the food was great.

I really like the jewellery! and we need to get that bag to it's new owner!

I've said it before, but Disney needs a better system in place as far as buses/scooters go.

Sentiments of a true transportation engineer!

.

I have to agree!.

Sounds like fun! Can't wait to ride it someday..

Hopefully you'll be able to get your crew back there again. Drew hasn't seen the place yet.

One could even say you joined the dark side...

Actually I preferred the "Force", but Fran really liked the "Dark Side". More on that later!

 

[franandaj]

I love all of your TRs, especially when you visited Washington DC (my hometown ).
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

Wow! You've been lurking for quite some time!

I'm glad you spoke up! That trip to DC was a lot of fun, but looking back the things I remember most were spending most of our time in Smithsonian Museums and eating oysters every other day!

Hi Alison!!!!! Yes, I changed my Avatar - new Avatar, new beginnings right? Your pictures of the room at GF are amazing. That room is so elegantly decorated, I just love it! It looks like your off to a great start on the TR too, I loved the pictures with the wicked stepsisters, that would be probably one of my favorite meets!

Good for you! New beginnings are awesome when you need it. Been there, done that! Not only is it elegantly decorate, but it was so spacious. Maybe that's because it was the HA room, but it was really nice, especially compared to our old house which was so cluttered there were only "pathways" and no open spaces.

Ohhhhh, just for the record, I did NOT raise my hand with regard to the handicap bathtub - that was the oddest thing I ever saw and fail to see how that would be easy to get into. Just sayin

I know, right. I thought it was totally strange too. Not what we have had at the BCV or VGC.

Is that the 1 bedroom?! I'm so excited! I haven't said anything yet, but we were able to snag a few nights in a 1 bedroom during our trip and made 2 waitlists for the remaining days of our trip. It's absolutely gorgeous! I doubt that DS would use it, but is the murphy in every 1 bedroom?

Congrats on the VGF. Probably DS wouldn't use it this trip, but in a couple more, definitely! Plus they have them at the VGC and I've heard they are pretty comfortable.

Boo, I was afraid you were going to say how short the ride was. I purposely have not watched videos or read articles on the ride because I knew some of my DIS friends would be checking it out soon.

I watched some YouTube videos, but you really don't get the gist of it. It was definitely fun, but way too short.

That is a pretty good buffet spread. But I would definitely go more for the characters. I love their snarkiness. I've never met them but from reading about their interactions on the boards, I really want to meet them!

I saw it on bangzoom (Bonnie's) TR when they had the strawberry soup at breakfast. I made sure that we went on our next trip, and now Fran has made sure we go on every trip since then! She goes for the Strawberry soup, if you weren't counting, I think she had three bowls full!

Thanks for posting all your photos! Coronado Springs Resort is our favorite moderate resort at WDW and we have stayed there several times when we don't enough DVC points available. Its a big resort, but we've always had a car with us so we've been able to keep some of the walking to a minimum.

Thanks for coming out of lurkdom! We are working our way through all the WDW resorts and trying the Moderates and Values for a night or two prior to our DVC stays

Lots of people are interested in seeing the modifications made in a handicap accessible villa. I'm going to put a link to your VGF photos in the VGF Villas and Views thread on the DVC Resort board.

Thanks! If my report can help someone out to know what they're getting into that would be great. I loved seeing your floorplan maps of where the various rooms were. It was nice to know that we would be in one of two rooms. Next time we stay we will have a wider assortment of rooms since we won't be getting an HA room.

We recently stayed in a VGF studio and really liked it. I like that the VGF studios and one-bedroom villas have large walk-in showers in addition to tubs. I'm surprised your HA villa did not have a walk-in shower.

I was really surprised that there was no walk-in shower as well.

Great update Alison.

Glad you went ahead with the Mine Train. Worth the hype?

It's worth a 20 minute wait in my opinion. I enjoyed it, but it's not something that I will have to hit every trip like RnRC. As long as I have FP+ or the line is manageable it's a fun ride.

Your villa is beautiful. I'm sorry you didn't have your jetted tab. Liking the full pantry and fridge!

Your meal looks delicious. The stepsisters are some of the Disney's best!

Yeah, at least I have one at home, even though it leaks still. You know I love my full pantry!

We liked it so much we're trying to figure out how to squeeze it into our dinner rotation next April. We had planned breakfast, but now we like dinner better.

Loved the update! Lush room at VGF. Shocking about the 'handicap tub' I would need a winch to get in there! Obviously not tested by a disabled person. Also I don't think they consider who else travels with disabled person. Reason we would get a 1BR is so Jo can use the spa tub and me the walk in shower. Jo would be gutted at no spa tub! We have a studio so see how that is!

I almost DID need a winch to Fran in there! That's exactly why we do 1 BRs is for me to have the Jetted Tub. Now it is better since I have one at home, but what kind of vacation is that without a jetted tub. Boy has DVC spoiled me!

Glad to see your cupboards stocked! Did you find not enough clothes space at VGF? We looked around because we don't use murphy bed thinking where are the drawers! The guide said under the bed but I can't bend down.

In the 1 BR there was plenty of space. We hang most of our clothes in the closet, but we only used three of the six drawers in the dresser in the bedroom. I think it's only the studios with the storage problems.

However it is such eye candy it makes up for it and that wonderful monorail! Love that you could just pop to do the mine train!

Agree cute ride but too short also I couldn't see very well into Snow Whites cottage. Maybe just me.

It was so easy to just pop over to MK and back! I couldn't see very well when I was in the front seat, but much better when in the back of the train.

1900 Park fair looks fab both breakfast and dinner. Great line up of characters and food! Lol re ugly sisters they sound great fun

We are trying AoA next year for a couple of nights filler between saving DVC points. LM accessible room. I heard good things about it.

We love the place! I'll be looking forward to your report on the room!

I didn't know planes like this existed...

This was my first experience too! We didn't get a cool plane like this on any other legs of the journey.

I thought the resort was beautiful... but our experience was soured by other guests. We might give it another chance someday, but it isn't high on our list, for sure.

That's too bad when other guests spoil a trip. People are so rude sometimes.

That's disappointing. I know that is the first thing I want to do when I get there!

Make sure you have FP+!

Nice surprise!

It was great to meet her even if it was only a couple minutes!

Wow. That room is great!

I can't wait to go back now!

You really should have taken her band and tried to ride it twice.

You know, I should have. We had used the band for entrance into the park once that day. Who is to say that I left the park and she didn't stay in there? I did do that later in the trip!

The villa looks very nice. I could easily enjoyed the outside view of your room seeing the Monorails go by.

I did mean to take a picture of the monorail going by, but I don't think I ever did!

The food at 1900 PF looks very appetizing and the characters pictures were great.

Nice to hear that you were able to ride the Mine Train. I am also curious of your take on the Mine Train.

Great update.

The food was great. Basic take on the Mine Train: Fun, too short, nice theming.

Your villa looks amazing. I am glad that you got to ride the mine train. Dinner looks very nice and I am glad that you had a good character interaction.

Corinna

Thank you!

 

[franandaj]

We had just finished dinner with the Stepsisters and what were our plans next? What I failed to mention earlier was that when I made my FP+ plans two months ago, I had done that from the comfort of my house in Long Beach located just blocks from beach where the cool ocean breeze keeps the temperatures civilized. What I hadn’t taken into account was that Orlando was nowhere near the ocean and certainly not civilized in temperature!

I had used the same strategy for FP+ as Cynthia (eandesmom), but her trip was over NYE and mine was during the blazing hot time of year. Most of our FP+ were for the middle of the day, the time when you want to be back at your resort in the pool or taking a nap. Earlier I had moved all of our FP+ but the Seven Dwarves Mine Train (no other times available) to the late evening.

So off we headed to the MK! Little did we realize that the MSEP was in full swing and as soon as we entered the park we were faced with crowds everywhere. So we just decided to do our best with it and see if we could see anything over the heads of all the tall people in front of us.

Well look at that! I did get a few glimpses of the parade.















We had FP+ for the HM and tried heading in that direction, but the crowds were just too thick. Half the people in the park were headed out and the other half were headed to the hub. We were almost down Main Street to the hub when our clump of people pretty much stopped moving. We were stuck in the middle of the street with people all around us, so we just decided to go with the flow and wait like everyone else. Pretty soon the castle show started. Here are a few of the pictures I took. I think I would put my readers to sleep if I posted every picture I took, plus my bandwidth at photobucket would be through the roof!



















[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Then came the fireworks. I will add a disclaimer, since I have only been back at really trying to take quality pictures (rather than documentation pictures) for a month (at the time of these pictures), I didn’t have a tripod, nor did I even think I might be taking fireworks pictures. I know that these are nothing in comparison to Bret’s or PIO’s fireworks pictures, but perhaps you will all come with me on my journey as I learn to improve upon my long exposure nighttime photography.





































Due to the fireworks delay we were about 20 minutes late for our HM FP+ but it still worked and we were on the ride in no time. Fran wanted to do the interactive queue, but you bypass that with FP+. Oh well next time. I tried to take as many pictures as I could to help us with decorating our Media room (whenever that gets put back on the table), but unfortunately I need a lens that will open wider, as most of the pictures didn’t come out.

We need to figure out how to do cobwebs like this.









We’re on a slab, so I doubt we’ll be able to incorporate the stretching room feature into our HM room.



We do have at least three rolls of this wallpaper.



[Continued in Next Post]