Spring Break 07 at the BWVs

[tkd lisa]

Yes I'm BACK! I'm out of town on travel, and have been having computer problems. But I got one of the installments done. Here it is!

I have now inserted photos throughout, so I hope you enjoy them!

As a quick reminder, our travelers include:

Me, Lisa, 42, single mom, regular WDW visitor since moving to FL 18 months ago.
DM, Helen, late 60s. Has joined us on many of our WDW trips. Widened her horizons this trip!
DD, Kaylie, turned 15 right after we returned. Loves thrill rides, Stitch, Japan, and exploring World Showcase.
DS, Casey, 13 ½. Enjoys his “alone” time at WDW. Favorite WDW activities include: animation studio, Innoventions, and Space Base Alpha at Mission Space.

When: 19-23 March
Where: BWV, 1 Bedroom Std view (requested end of hall)
Why: Spring break, and DD’s birthday celebration


We started the day at church, and were headed out by 12:30. It was just me and the kids. My mom had company and they were flying home Monday. My mom lives about 2 hours south of my house, so she was going to head up there after the visitors left, and either spend Monday night there, or head over to WDW then depending on how things worked out. Weather today started out clear and a little chilly. It was in the high 60s when we got to WDW, and ended up in the low 60s and breezy at the end of the day once the sun was down.

We stopped to pick up some lunch at the I-4 entrance. After a fairly long delay, we were actually on the road by 1:15, and were at check in by 2:30. I had left the car at valet (love the DVC free valet parking perk!), and they were going to hold our bags until our room was ready. We only had 2 suitcases, but there was also a cooler, a Rubbermaid box of food, 3 cartons of sodas, a sleeping bag and an air mattress. Plus a bag of toiletries and kids stuff! I felt sorry for that bell man!

At the counter, I was pleasantly surprised to find that our room was ready! I sent DS out to tell the bellman before they put the stuff in storage, and headed up to our room (3101). This was a dedicated 1 bedroom. It was three doors down the second hallway, so it didn’t really meet our room request. But since DD wasn’t sleeping by the door this time, the hallway noise didn’t bother her. I snapped a few pictures of the room, plus some of the view overlooking the valet area. Here's the photos of the room, and the view off our balcony.

The kitchen. Notice the cabinets above the microwave.

This is one of the new sofa beds. It was pretty comfortable and I liked that the pillows are tucked into their own slot in the sofa.

The walk in closet that DD slept in most of the week. I moved all the stuff out of it so she had the whole thing.

I don't have a king sized bed at home, so I always feel overwhelmed in one!


We waited about 15 minutes for our bags. DD headed down to Community Hall to see what DVDs they had available. She’s become fascinated with “Nightmare on Elm Street”, and she was hoping they had some of them. She came back about the time I finished unpacking and they didn’t have any of them available. I had plenty of room to store our stuff. There isn’t a huge amount of grocery storage space except above the refrigerator and microwave. My family is pretty short, so I put the snacks up above the microwave and just slid over a chair when I needed to get them.

We were out of the room headed toward EPCOT by 3:30. We didn’t have any plans and expected that most of the FPs would be gone by that time. DS headed out on his own (he took a cell phone), while DD and I headed over to Japan. She wanted to try a marble soda as her afternoon snack. My general approach is to budget for a morning and afternoon snack for each of us. We usually split meals, so the snacks are the thing that each person doesn’t have to agree on. DD generally ends up with something from the Japan pavilion as her snacks. She had been eyeballing the sodas when we were over in early March, but hadn’t tried it. She settled on the strawberry soda ($3.xx), and once we figured out how to deploy the marble (you have to push pretty doggone hard!) she really enjoyed it!

We met back up with DS outside China. He was really enjoying the juggling sticks they have there. He had about $40 to spend, and he was considering the sticks, but wasn’t ready to lay out the money yet. Then we headed over to Innoventions for a first for us. I have a Disney Visa, and they’ve had a promotion for about a year where you can get a free 5x7 character photo each day. But they only take them in the afternoon, and we are usually in EPCOT in the morning. But today, I headed into Innoventions (I get east and west confused, but it’s the one with the fire truck). There was a line of about 5 or so groups of people. We were behind a group of 4 twenty somethings, and they were asking how often you could get the pictures. They were really surprised to hear you can get one each day!

DD and I finally made it into the room, where we found Pluto and Mickey dressed in their Year of a Million Dreams costumes. DD had been grumping about waiting in line, and how she was too old for characters, etc. But once we were inside, she was all smiles! She started scratching Pluto’s ear, and he was soooo in character! He sat down and started thumping his “leg” just like a dog does. I told him that he used to be DD’s favorite, but that she really likes Stitch now (she was wearing her Tower of Terror/Stitch hat). Boy did that set him off! He quite clearly communicated that Stitch was taking over way too much, and that he thinks Stitch is after Pluto’s bone! It was amazing how fun that was. We got some very cute pictures. Here are the two best ones on my camera.

We headed over to ride test track single rider, then we went on Spaceship Earth. I had gotten the kids the Hidden Mickey book for Christmas, so we looked for the hidden Mickey’s throughout the ride. I found the one on the monk’s tablet, and the ones in the boy’s bedroom, but missed the one on the entrance mural. We then stopped over by the camera center to pick out our picture. It was very quiet in there, and a couple of CMs spent quite a bit of time with us. One lady told us that DD and I act more like friends than mother and daughter. I took that as a compliment! We picked out our picture (we were able to add embellishments to it), and had it sent back to the resort.

I called DS and found out that he had migrated back to China after spending some time at Mission Space. I sent him and DD back to the room, while I made a stop by the bakery in France to pick up a French baguette ($2.xx) to go with our evening meal. The kids each enjoyed a nice bath in the Jacuzzi tub while I fixed our dinner (spaghetti, asparagus and French bread). After dinner I went down to Community Hall and picked up a couple of video as well as a schedule of activities for the week. They offered about 4-5 craft activities each day. Usually 2 of them were free, and 2 or 3 had a minimal cost for supplies. Examples included: make a long sleeved t-shirt ($10.61 for members), make a picture frame (Free), Make a CD case ($6.xx for members), Pin trading, make your own jigsaw puzzle (free), etc. They also had a ping pong table, an air hockey table, a couple of arcade style video games, a couple of video game systems (PS 2 or something similar), plus a big TV that was usually playing the radio Disney channel. You can check out life vests, DVDs, board games, and grill tools at no charge for DVC members. They also rent bikes for a fee (I think it was $6 for a half hour, $12 for an hour, or $18 for the day). They had a wide variety of videos, including a fair selection of PG-13 and R movies (they had Halloween as an example). Of course, they didn’t let the kids check those out, only a parent.

Back at the room, the kids decided to stay in and watch movies, while I headed over to watch Illuminations. I was in the park (at the little pathway outside Morocco) about 8:30 and got a good seat at the railing. I chatted with my aunt and uncle until it was time for the show to start. I got some EXCELLENT photos, if I do say so myself!

My favorite fireworks picture I've ever taken!

Unfortunately, these were the last good fireworks pictures I got this week, but some is better than none, which is what I’ve gotten before!

Once back in the room, I got things set up for the next day, and tried to set DD up for the night. I had brought the air mattress for her because she doesn’t like to share a bed with anyone. The airmattress was too big to fit in the walk in closet, so I set it between the bed and the balcony door. DD didn’t like that because too much light was coming in. She ended up climbing in the king bed with me about 11. I don’t know why she won’t share a bed. She definitely scrunches right over against anyone else in the bed with her! We were all asleep by 11:30, after I made DS turn off the TV in the living room (he was on the pull out couch).

 

[tkd lisa]

Monday, 19 March.

Plans for today included: Breakfast in the room, AK for EMH, Lunch and break in the room, MGM late afternoon and evening EMH (counter service for dinner), followed by the late Fantasmic.

What actually happened? An addition to our party, and the first dream granted. I will also apologize in advance because there aren’t many pictures today. Don’t know why, I just didn’t take many.

I was up at 5:00 (I usually am an early riser, but especially on vacation). This is where the extra space in the 1 bedroom really pays off. I was able to have my coffee and devotions without bothering anyone else. I fixed my breakfast, then about 6:30 started to rouse the kids. While they were waking up, I made French toast for them. Temps were in the high 50s, and it was very sunny. We were at the bus stop about 7:20 and had just missed an AK bus. While we were waiting, there was a CM at the bus stop who had maps of the parks, and celebration buttons. She made a birthday button for DD, and took our info to get a birthday surprise in our room. DD decided to put her Japanese name on her button. It’s Keirii (pronounced Key-ree). This caused difficulty for people all week, because the I’s looked kind of like Ls.

Anyway, the bus arrived at 7:35, and we stopped by the Swan and the Dolphin, ending up with a full bus. We arrived at the park just after opening. DS headed off on his own and headed over to EE and Dinosaur. I picked up EE fast passes (good at 9:15, but another was available immediately) and met DD at Dinosaur. We walked onto the ride, then headed over to pick up a FP for the Safari (valid for 10:20). We shopped a bit in the store by the Safari entrance. I picked up a safari coffee mug on clearance ($6.38 with tax) and had it shipped to the resort. We used our EE fast passes (picking up another set valid for 11:40), then stopped on the Asia trail to get a cup of hot tea. It was still only in the low 60s, and it was pretty chilly. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to grab out jackets, so we did have on long pants, but we were in t-shirts. DD and I split a honeybush tea ($2.50) and it was VERY nice. This location doesn’t take cards of any kind so you need cash or travelers checks. Across from the tea stand is the new table service restaurant that’s under construction. The title on the signs is “Yak and Yeti” which I think is kind of cute. DD browsed the store that’s near Kali. She had seen some dragon kites there, and was thinking of putting one up in her Asian themed bedroom. The kite was $40, and that was more than she wanted to spend. About this time, DS called and asked us to meet him in dinoland. He had spotted what he wanted to buy with his money. DD wanted to play the carnival games, so I left her there while I met DS. He had picked out a Rapto-reptile-robo thing. I said “You know you don’t have that much money!” It was $138, so needless to say, he didn’t get it! I gave him his $45 in cash, and he headed off to find something in his price range. DD had played 2 games and lost both. $4 was her spending limit, so we headed out towards Africa to use our Safari FPs. We met a very nice family in line. They had a little girl named Megan who was 7 years old. She was dressed in a Pocohantas costume, and talked to DD about pins, and DD’s birthday celebration. I was wearing a shirt we had made for our 04 Christmas Disney cruise, and her parents asked me all about the cruise. While we were on the Safari, Megan was whispering to her mom. Then she told DD “I want to give you a birthday gift.” She gave her a pin of the Euro Disney castle, which was very sweet! We did see lots of animals on the Safari, but I didn’t take any pictures. I could cheat and insert some from previous safaris if you want!

Once done with the Safari, DD and I headed to Rafiki’s Planet watch. We haven’t done this in a very long time (Jan 03 to be exact). On the way, DS called and said “Guess what Mom? I went out to Rainforest Café to buy something in the gift store, and when I came back in, someone tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a dream fast pass!” Here's a picture of him wearing it. He only got one, and he decided not to use any of the FPs and keep it as a souvenier.

DD and I enjoyed our time at Rafiki’s Planet watch. I wanted to see a veterinary procedure, but unfortunately, they were just doing a transfer physical for two pea fowls. That wasn’t particularly interesting, but at least I stayed warm! DD spent some time in the petting area, while I searched for Hidden Mickey’s in the mural.

We headed out, calling DS to meet us at the bus stop (about 12:00). On our way, we handed the FPs to a family to use, since the kids didn’t want to ride again. DD bought a bag of licorice wheels as her snack ($2.93). DS didn’t want anything. We walked onto a waiting bus, and were pleased to have Dave, who had driven us last spring break. He is bus driver 18 out of the 1100 drivers they have at Disney. He gave DD a little bottle of bubbles for her birthday, and sang to her over the intercom. There was one other family on our bus. The grandpa of the group was a school bus driver, so Dave kept telling jokes, and saying “You can use these on the high school kids. They’ll love em!” That family got off at either the Swan or the Dolphin. We pulled up to the next stop, and my family got off the bus. I looked up to realize that this sure didn’t look like the front of the Boardwalk! Dave waved at me out the windshield, and opened up the doors. He said “I was going to see how long it took you to figure it out!” We were at the Yacht Club! Finally we got off at the right stop, and said a very sincere thank you and goodbye to Dave. His tag line “If you enjoyed your ride, my name is Dave. If not, I’m Wanda.”

I'll write the rest of the day as a separate post.

Up next: "Where did all these teens come from?"

 

[tkd lisa]

After our morning at AK, I fixed a light lunch, then the kids went down to community hall. DS played ping pong and air hockey, and DD checked out another movie. I took a well needed nap! I woke up at 2:50 when my mom called to say she was going to head on over from my house. DS decided to head on over to MGM about 3:45. Mom arrived at 4:15 and we got her settled in. She needed to renew her pass, so we went over to Guest Services to take care of that. DD went into MGM with a goal of riding TOT By the time we made it into the park, the lines for TOT and RnR were ridiculous. I pulled FPs for ToT which were good for 8-9, but all the RnR FPs were gone. The last Indiana Jones show was already in progress. We headed to Great Movie Ride which had a 40 minute wait! So we headed to the animation studio. You might remember from our MLK Day trip that DD had gotten a drawing of Stitch from an animator named Timy. He was good friends with my DS, and we had a nice chat with him that day. Well, he was the animator who was in the movie room (the one who interacts with Mulan). We chatted with him for a bit. I assured him that DD had the Stitch drawing framed and on her wall. No e-bay for this family! He told us he’d be doing the drawing classes at 8 and 12 pm, and invited us to come back then. The characters were already gone by this time. We spent a little time playing with the voice over programs, then headed to the drawing class. DS joined us there, and we ended up drawing an Angry Donald. I've misplaced the drawings, so no scans of them! Mom did better than last time, but she’s decided that Donald is not her favorite character! Here's a snapshot of Mom posing in "Radiator Springs" though.

We all left the animation studio, and walked past GMR. It was still posting waits of 30 minutes, so we decided to get some dinner instead. We had never tried the ABC commissary, so that’s where we headed. It was a fairly long wait, but we ended up with a veggie stir fry for DD, a burger for DS, and a Cuban for Mom and I. The kids each got a soda, and our total was $24.66. We had a nice conversation with one of the custodial CMs about his favorite horror novels. DD was reading her Nightmare on Elm Street book while she was waiting for the food. We finished our food about 8, and headed toward ToT. DS headed back to the animation studio to take Timy’s classes. The 8:30 Fantasmic was full, so DD and I used our ToT FPs DD picked up a jollipop (the jawbreaker lollipop) for a snack, then she and my mom headed back to the room.

The park was scheduled to close at 10:00, but it was evening EMH. By this time, the park was flooded with teens and young twenty somethings. When we were at WDW last year at this time, many sports teams (high school and college) were having tournaments, and our resort was overridden with loud kids. The park this evening was bringing back some pretty ugly memories. I realized that since many of these kids are at their games during the day, the only park time they get is at the evening EMHs. I decided then that we wouldn’t go to any park that had EMHs the rest of the trip.

I called DS who had finished all three of Timy’s drawing classes. He said they let him use the clicker to count the number of students. I told him we wouldn’t be staying for late EMHs, which he didn’t want to hear. We ended up going to Sounds Dangerous, then left the park and walked back to the Boardwalk. DS was interested in some sort of snack, but didn’t know what he wanted. We went into the sweet shop which was very crowded. DS decided nothing looked good there, so we headed to the Bakery. After a fairly long decision process, he ended up picking a cinnamon crumb cake for $2.98. This was a pretty good deal by Disney standards. It was a small mini-loaf size but was more than enough for a good breakfast. We went out and watched Bill perform on the Boardwalk. He rode a unicycle and juggled. We were back at the room by 11. DD had set up in the walk in closet. I put cushions down for her, and she cuddled up with the sleeping bag. This worked really well since it was dark and quiet in there. Everyone was asleep by 11:30.

Up next: EPCOT morning EMH, lunch at Le Cellier, and “I thought the forecast for today was 75 and sunny?”

 

[averill94]

Sounds like a great trip~
Looking forward to more!

 

[tkd lisa]

Tuesday, 20 March

Plans for the day. Morning EMH at EPCOT. Break midday. Lunch at LeCellier at 2:00. Evening at MK for Spectromagic and Wishes. Weather prediction: 75 degrees and sunny.

I was up at 6:15 and had my standard devotions and breakfast while everyone else was still sleeping. My mom was up shortly after 6:30, but the kids slept in. Neither one wanted to go to EMH, so Mom and I took the boat over. We were at the IG at 8:00, but took a very leisurely stroll over to Soarin. I picked up FPs for 9:40. Standby line was already 40 minutes. Mom said she wanted to ride test track, so we headed over there next. Wait time was listed as 30 minutes, but we were in a car within 20 minutes. My aunt and uncle are considering replacing their Escalade with a Buick, so we spent some time talking to the marketing rep, and getting some promotional material mailed to them. I actually went to college at GMI, which used to be fully owned by GM. My mom seemed surprised that the guy was a marketing expert, not an engineer.

Anyway, as we were finishing up with that, DD called and said she was coming over to meet us. DS had finally woken up, but planned to stay around the room and community hall. While we waited on DD, Mom and I browsed the gift store. They had some of the test track merchandise on clearance. I ended up getting shirts for both kids (total of $15.96 for both), and my mom got a test track bandana which she gave DD with her birthday gifts. Shipped them back to the resort. While I was checking out, I chatted with a man who had a passporter pouch. He said he hadn’t been on the boards in quite a while. I put in a shameless plug for my trip reports, so if you stop by to read it, please say hi!

We met up with DD on the way to the Living Seas. By the way, they have the path that runs by Mousegears over to the walkway closed while they are building the butterfly house. We walked right on to the clammobiles, then waited about 15 minutes to see Turtle Talk with Crush. This was my first time in the show, and it was really neat. Now that they’ve opened the new theater, they don’t have you in a queue line. It’s a general holding area, but they do close it off once the theater reaches capacity. By the time we went into the theater, there were almost enough people on the other side to fill up the next show. I’d advise getting there early if you want to see this show! It was really neat, but other people have described it better than I could. Here's the best picture I got.

Once done with that, mom and I went over to use our Soarin FPs, while DD rode Figment. They still haven’t finished the new FP entranceat Soarin, so we went in the exit again. They have set it up so the FP is on the right side, and the exit line is on the left, so you don’t have to cross over as you exit (the first of March it was reversed, and there were some traffic problems as a result). We then went on Living with the Land and headed over to World Showcase. I had talked to DS. He had finally decided to leave the room, and was headed over to Community Hall.

Mom wanted to watch O Canada. We must have JUST missed a show because we waited about 20 minutes before entering the theater. DD called while we were in the show, and I held the phone up so she could hear the music. This is one of her favorite songs. We walked out of the theater about 11:30 to find POURING rain! Thankfully, I am a Girl Scout, so I had rain ponchos in my backpack! Unfortunately, the temperature was still handing about 65 degrees so it was pretty uncomfortable! We called to see where DD was, and she’d had a seagull incident and was heading back to the room to change her dirty shirt! Mom wanted to get a pastry in France, and we told DD we’d meet her in the room since we really didn't want to slosh around in the rain.

As a quick aside, I was so grateful to have a washer and dryer in our villa. I had packed mostly shorts and t-shirts, because the weather was supposed to be mid 70s to mid 80s all week. I ended up washing at least 4 loads of clothes just so we could keep re-using our long pants. So even though I’m wearing the same pair of capris in most of the pictures, I promise they were clean!

The rain was still a steady drizzle when we got to the bakery. We bought a cream horn (it has some very fancy name that I’m not going to attempt) and a hot chocolate. Mom paid for that, so I don’t have the receipt. I think it was just over $5 for both. We went over to the indoor seating but all the tables were full. I set our tray on a trash can, and we ate standing up. Most of the other diners were eating full meals or had small children, so we were perfectly happy letting them use the limited number of tables. I did get food envy watching people eating those hot ham and cheese sandwiches, or the pizza bread looking things!

It had slowed down to a drizzle by then. Mom wanted to watch the movie in France, so we walked in there just as it was being seated. By the time we were done, the rain had stopped, so I put our ponchos back in the backpack. It was nearly 1:00 by this time, so we decided it wasn’t worth a trip back to the room. We stopped by the wine shop and bought a flight of wine to share. Neither of us are big drinkers, but I thought a little wine might get us in the mood for our upcoming steak dinner! It was $6 for three 2 ounce glasses, one white, one red, and one rose. Mom liked the red the best, and I liked the white. She ended up drinking most of the rose. As we were sipping our wine, DS called and said he was on his way into EPCOT. He met us in the tea garden in the UK. He was really grumpy about the smell of the wine, and he wanted to spend the rest of his money. I couldn’t get DD to answer her cell phone (it was set on vibrate and she didn’t know it was ringing), so I sent DS off to Japan to shop, set mom up outside Morocco to finish up the wine, and I headed down to the DVC booth near America to try to call DD. I think I’ve now figured out that I need to enter the resort phone number into my cell phone when I check in so that I can just call the resort directly. But I have been able to do this at the DVC booths, and today was no exception. I was still carrying the glass of white wine, and the guy at the booth told me I needed to pay some sort of tax to use the phone. I told him I needed to get my DD to head over for our Le Cellier reservation, and he said he’d take either a glass of wine, or a strip steak from Le Cellier! DD answered right away, and headed over to meet us. She said “I thought you and Grandma were coming back to the room to meet me!” It wasn't a wasted walk, because I took my favorite EPCOT picture on the way back!

I picked up DS in the shop at Japan. He ended up deciding on a Japanese transformer. He’s at the difficult age where he’s really too old for toys, but too young for most other souvenirs. He loves taking things apart, so that’s why he ended up with the transformer. He almost bought a model car, but the one he wanted was more than he had left to spend.

We picked Mom up in Morocco. She had taken some nice pictures there.

Then we met DD at the International Gateway entrance, and headed over to our reservation. Mom took this picture while we were waiting briefly to be seated.

We were seated almost immediately. Lisa was our servers’ name (easy for me to remember!) She was very efficient and nice, but not really friendly. The first surprise was that they don’t serve salmon on the lunch menu. I’m not sure if this is a recent change or if I just didn’t notice it when I was browsing menus. DD and my mom really enjoyed the salmon at the food and wine festival and were really looking forward to it. They do have a salmon salad, but DD doesn’t usually eat salads, and my mom has some digestive problems that salads can affect. They ended up splitting the salmon timbale appetizer as a substitute. DD loves smoked salmon (basically lox), but my mom ended up having some problems as a result of eating it.

Our lunch choices were:

Mom and DD split: salmon timbale appetizer and Seared Beef tips over udon noodles for an entrée. DD had a chocolate raspberry shake, while Mom had water.

DS and I split: Cheese soup appetizer (everyone had a little of this) and the 10 oz NY strip entrée. DS had a cappuccino shake, and I had water. The kids liked the pretzel bread the best, my mom preferred the sourdough, and I liked the multi-grain.

We ate every bite, and really enjoyed the meal. The strip steak was better than the beef tips, but Mom and DD liked the noodle combination and the flavoring. It didn’t knock O’hana off as our families’ favorite restaurant though. Total was $57.54 after DDE discount. I left a nice tip since we split food and ended up right at my budget of $70 for this meal.

We all headed out of the restaurant at 3:00 to find that it was raining AGAIN! Mom and I put on our slickers, and the kids just got wet. We headed back to the room where I put in a load of laundry, then took a nice nap while the kids got baths. It’s so cool to have teenagers who can take care of themselves!

Up next, a Mother/Daughter evening at MK.

 

[tkd lisa]

Tues, 20 March evening

As promised, a mother/daughter evening at MK. But the daughter is me, along with my mom. Once I was up from my nap, the kids decided they wanted to stay at the resort. DS headed back to Community Hall for some scheduled games and DD wanted to watch a movie. Mom and I left at 5:40 and just missed an MK bus. While we were waiting, I ran up to the front desk and asked them to send up some toothpaste to our room, since I hadn’t packed a regular sized bottle and we were running low. I made it back in time to catch the next bus. It stopped by Swan and Dolphin on the way over, and we were in the park by 6:30. We headed to Tomorrowland, and I pulled FPs for Buzz, which were good at 7:10. While we waited, we rode Carousel of Progress. Here’s where my mom embarrassed me pretty good. The theater was probably about 1/3 full, and when we sat down, Mom said “Oh look. Someone dropped some money.” She ran over a few seats and reached under the next row to pick up a penny. Then she said “There’s a nickel under there too. I can’t reach it. Lisa, come over here and help me get this nickel!” I wanted to melt into my seat. I said “Mom, I’ll GIVE you a whole dime if you’ll just SIT BACK DOWN!” She wanted to stop on the way out of the theater to try again, but I just kept her moving! I did spot the hidden Mickey in the final Christmas room this time.

Once we were done there, we used our Buzz FPs. By this time it was getting dark, and we wanted some supper. Mom wasn’t interested in Columbia Harbor House, or Pinnochio’s. I had thoughts of catching Haunted Mansion since it will be closing for rehab this summer, but people were already lining up for Spectro Magic. I ended up setting Mom up by a planter in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern while I ran over to Pecos Bills to grab a cheeseburger meal (plus hot chocolate for Mom, total $8.08). I put some toppings in condiment cups, and made it back about 5 minutes before the parade got there. Once again, I set our tray on a convenient trash can to keep my hands free for eating. I snapped a few pictures of Spectro Magic. None of them is spectacular, but here are a few of the best that I got.

After the parade, we walked over to the bridge to Adventureland in order to watch Wishes. The fireworks were offset from the castle, but it was still pretty. Tink did fly, but somehow I thought that she flew BEFORE the fireworks started at all. Since they had lit off the first of the fireworks, I wasn’t watching for Tink, and missed her! Again, not the best photos, but here are a couple anyway. Maybe in May I’ll take my tripod and set up early enough to get some nice pictures. I finally figured out how to use the fireworks setting on the camera. Now it’s just a matter of location, and something to steady the camera.

As we were waiting for Wishes to start, we noticed probably 6-8 of the street cleaning machines move over the bridge, and set up just behind the trees. Once the fireworks were over, Mom and I sat on a bench to let the crowds start to thin out. It was really a pleasant night. It was still in the high 60s, with very little breeze. Hmm. That’s what the weather forecast said. So how did they miss the middle of the day forecast, but hit the beginning and the end? Anyway, after about 6 or 8 minutes, all those street sweepers fired up and headed out to clean up the mess. Boy were they loud! It was a good thing DD wasn’t with us, cause she HATES loud noises.

We walked right onto the bus for our return. I think we hit the Swan and Dolphin again on the way. Once back in the room, the kids were still a little hungry, so I took advantage of that kitchen. I made a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches for DS, and a box of mac and cheese for DD. We were all in bed by 11.

Up next, morning at MGM, lunch at Mama Melrose, and the evening with friends.

 

[tkd lisa]

Wednesday, March 21st.

Plans for today included a morning at a water park, Mama Melrose at 2:00 for a late lunch, an afternoon break, then late EMH at Animal Kingdom.

This day was COMPLETELY not as planned (only thing we did was had lunch at Mama Melrose.

Again, I was the first one up and did my normal routine. About 7:30 I asked the kids if they wanted to go to a water park, and they both said no. It really hadn’t gotten warm yet, and DD is at that awkward age where she really doesn’t want to be seen in a swim suit. We all agreed that we wanted to go over to MGM. We walked down the path and got there just after they opened. DS once again headed over toward the animation studio (even though it wasn’t open yet). Mom wanted to go on Star Tours so she and I rode that, and DD went to ride Tower of Terror. I picked up a times guide and saw that Indiana Jones would be showing at 11:30 so that was a must-do for today. DD met us at the entrance to Star Tours, and we headed over to watch Muppets 3D. I don’t think my mom had ever seen that before. She and I were acting kind of silly, and she snapped this photo of me in front of the statue. DD wouldn’t pose for one though! We were dancing to the music they play in that area and totally embarrassing DD! As a side note, the kids and I made the shirts DD and I are wearing, using instructions from the Creative Dis-signs board. They didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but it was unique.

After Muppets, we had enough time to watch Sounds Dangerous, but we must have just missed a show. While we were waiting on the next one, the cars were out for photos. I snapped this photo from the Sounds Dangerous line.

After Sounds Dangerous, DD and I used the RnR fast passes I had picked up sometime earlier (I didn’t take very good notes this day in case you can’t tell!) while my mom shopped for a shirt. She had gotten a pair of orange shorts and wanted to find something to match. On the way back from RnR, DD picked up a bag of candy at the sweet store for her morning snack ($2.93 total), then we headed into the theater for Indy. We sat next to a couple from Japan. While we were waiting, DD noticed that they had a bag of mixed Japanese hard candy. Remember that DD LOVES anything Japanese, but especially their candy. She was talking with the lady, telling her all the kinds of candy that she’d tried. The lady gave DD a big handful of them, and DD thanked her in Japanese. By this time, they were picking volunteers. DD really wanted them to pick me, but she didn’t succeed.

I snapped a bunch of pictures of this show for some reason. Honestly, I think I deleted about 25 of them! Here are a few of the best.

One of the extras was a little unique. When they introduced the stunt coordinator, she ran over to him and gave him a big hug like he was a long lost friend. Either she knew him (although she said she was from Texas), or she was just REALLY friendly!

After this show, we followed the herd of people out of the stadium. I think DD watched Voyage of the Little Mermaid (for some reason she REALLY likes this one, and I can take it or leave it). Mom and I spent some time in One Man’s Dream. Mom wanted to go through the Narnia exhibit, but there was a fairly big line, so we passed. At the entrance to OMD, I asked them about the trivia challenge they had. Mom and I finished it up just as DS called and joined us. He watched the movie with us (well, in the same theater, but he didn’t want to actually SIT with us), then we met up with DD to head over to Mama Melrose for our lunch ADR.

I had mentioned in yesterday’s report that the smoked salmon hadn’t sat well with my mom. She said she was feeling well enough to eat, but wanted to go with something fairly bland. I told her she could get plain pasta at MM, so she decided to stay with us.

As we checked in to MM, my friend who lives in Orlando called and said that this evening would be a good time for us to get together. We arranged for her to meet us at the villa at 5:30. By the time I was done with the arrangements, we were seated. Our server was Barbara, and she’s been at MM for about 9 years. She was really a good server. Here’s a picture of her and DD. I didn’t mention DD’s birthday, but she was wearing a birthday button.

We ordered:

Plain penne pasta and a sprite – mom
Cheese flatbread and a sprite – DS
Calamari (appetizer size) and a coke – DD
Pasta Fagoli Soup and water – me

Everything was tasty (although there’s not much you can say about plain pasta). My soup was more like a chili than the pasta fagoli I’ve had other places, but it was very filling. As we were finishing up, DD asked for some chocolate gelato, and DS said he wanted vanilla gelato. Mom had eaten about half her pasta, and DS had a couple slices of the pizza left so we got to-go containers.

Barb came out with a really neat lava cake dessert that the chef had made just for DD. It had chocolate lettering that said “Happy Birthday” on the plate, and there was a scoop of gelato on top! She said that she had already had the chef working on the dessert when DD asked for the gelato, so she just had him dump it on top. The three ladies all shared the chocolate. DS decided he was maybe too full for his gelato anyway. The kids headed back toward the resort while I settled the bill. Total with tip was $50. Barb brought us a to-go cup which we put the gelato in.

As mom and I were heading out, we saw DS looking at some necklaces by the Indiana Jones show. I teased him a bit saying “Who’s that handsome guy over there?” He ended up taking his gelato and heading back to the room.

Mom and I were going to make a detour to EPCOT so I could get another French baguette to have with dinner. The bus was just leaving the dock as we walked out there. I suggested walking, but Mom said “Isn’t there a bus?” So the bus it was.

Unfortunately this was the LONGEST we waited all week. And I found out where some of those athletic competitors were again. We were right in the blazing sun, and it was about 30 minutes before the bus came. A group of female college weigh lifters squeezed onto the bus and it was another reminder that I was glad we weren’t at All Star Sports again. One of them saw a kid wearing a Colts T-shirt and was giving him a hard time about it. My mom said “What’s wrong with the Colts?” And the girl said “We’re from Chicago”. My mom said “Oh well, maybe next year!” which didn’t set too well with the girl.

We finally made it to EPCOT about an hour after we finished lunch. And we still had to walk through the park to get to France! Next time, I’m walking!

But Mom and I decided to stop by the Visa photo place again, since both of us are Disney Visa holders. There was no one in line, and Pluto and Mickey were there again. We took a couple of quick pictures (and I remembered to have them autograph my hat), then we went to the camera shop to pick them up. We ended up getting one of the ones from DD and my shot earlier for mom, and a single one of DD for me. Here's one of them.

A quick stop by the bakery (and $2.75 again), then we were out the IG exit. The boat was waiting so we hopped on. Both of us had a seat, but I gave mine up to an older lady who got on after us. Then a nice gentleman insisted I take his seat. As we were chatting, his family asked “Where are you from? You look familiar.” Making a long story short, they go to church with me. Since it’s a fairly big church, they only knew me because I sing in choir.

Back in the room, I cut up the chicken and put it in the oven to cook. Everything else just needed to be re-heated. My friend called right at 5:30 and the kids ran down to walk her to our room. Her DD is about 2 years younger than my DS, but they all get along really well. The kids went swimming while dinner was cooking. After dinner, we played “Disney Scene-It” which they brought with them. The grown ups went out on the balcony to talk, and the kids went down to Community Hall to play air hockey. It was a really relaxing evening, and they left about 8:30 since they both had school the next day. Here's a picture of all of them in Community Hall. You can see the big screen TV, and they are leaning on the ping pong table. Don't ask me what DS is doing! I think he's telling me to push down on the button to take the picture.

It was too late to go to AK for evening EMH, and we all just wanted a quiet evening. Mom and I went down to the Boardwalk to pick up our package from the day before. I got her a hot chocolate (it was probably in the mid 60s again), and a churro for DS (total $4.69). We were all in bed by 11.

Up next: Another change in plans comes with a COOL dream! A DVC tour and shopping.

 

[tkd lisa]

Thursday morning, 22 March

Plans for the day, morning EMH at MK. Lunch at 2:00 at Rose and Crown for the ladies, CS for DS. Evening at MGM to catch Fantasmic.

Once again, no one was ready to move in time to get to MK for EMH. DS was particularly grumpy so once again, he got left behind to sleep. Yesterday I had gotten a message from my DVC guide welcoming me home, and asking if I was interested in a tour of the Animal Kingdom Villa (new DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge) models. Mom said she’d like to see them, so once I was up, I called the DVC rep and set up an appointment for 3:30 to be picked up at the Boardwalk.

Once all the ladies were up, we decided to head over to AK. I was hoping it wouldn’t be too busy since they had late EMH the night before. I also wanted to get something for DD’s birthday gift there, and we wanted to catch the Nemo show.

Another longer than planned bus ride put us at the park just after 9. Wes Palm was outside the gate so we watched the fun and I snapped this picture.

Once inside the park, I sent DD and my mom over to get FPs for Expedition Everest. DD gave me a hard time about it, but finally headed off. When we were in the park on Monday, DD had been looking at the dragon kites. As I’ve mentioned before, she loves all things Asian. She had been wanting to paint a dragon on the walls of her bedroom, and I was pushing back hard because I knew it would be hard to paint over later. She had said she’d put the dragon kite up instead, but she wasn’t willing to spend that much money out of her spending money. I hadn’t gotten anything for her birthday yet, so that was my goal today.

I had just paid for the kite ($43.60, it's really a piece of art, not a toy), and was pin trading when my phone buzzed. It was DD calling. She said “Mom, where are you? There’s a man here, but he needs you to come here NOW.” So I finished up the paperwork to send the package to the resort (fibbing a little since we were checking out the next day, but I knew I was going to be there until late afternoon), and met them near the bus snack stand by EE. DD was about to jump out of her skin. She kept saying “I can’t believe we won!” The CM (Ben) kept saying “shhh, don’t make a fuss.” He walked us up to the exit of EE (by the single rider line) and explained our dream. He said “All of you will be going behind the scenes to the Expedition Everest control room to see how we operate this attraction. Then you can go to the front of the line and ride anywhere on the train you want.” Remember that my mom was with DD when she was tapped on the shoulder. So the three of us head over to the CM entry (mind your step, please be careful not to fall into the tracks), and waited for Ben to verify it was clear in the control room. No cameras were allowed in there.

There was a CM sitting in front of about 10 different monitors. They have a camera at each location where the ride can be held. Ben explained that the railroad began construction in 1900, and encountered a lot of difficult with damaged tracks, but was finally completed in 1928. He said that the fort at the beginning of the first hill had been abandoned, then turned into a shrine by the local people (that’s why there’s incense and prayer cloths in there, which I had never noticed before). The first switch is a standard railroad switch, but I learned something new about the 2nd switch (where you go from moving backward to moving forward). There wasn’t enough room in the tunnel for a standard switch, so they built a rotating track. The track flips 180 degrees, and resets itself every 8 seconds (maybe it was 14, but I think it was 8). It weighs as much (and is as large as) a school bus. We probably were in there about 20 minutes, then headed outside the door. Ben took this photo of us all, and wrote out a magical moments certificate.

Then we headed over to the loading zone. My mom decided that this was a once in a lifetime thing, so she wanted to go ahead and ride. But she decided she’d prefer the front of the train so she could see where she was going, especially when she learned it’s faster in the back. We were on the 2nd train that loaded. DD sat in the front seat (and was paired with a single rider), and mom and I were in the 2nd seat. I got a good look at the fort/shrine this time. And I could the rotating track do it’s thing. That was SOOOO cool! I reassured Mom that we WEREN’T going upside down, it just felt that way. Back to civilization, we found Ben supervising the unloading area. Mom went over and thanked him again for making DD’s day. It took a few minutes to get her “land” legs back, but I was so proud of her for riding!

Once we were out of the ride area, we had to call DS and let him know what he’d missed. He was a little bummed, but got over it. He was once again heading over to Community Hall. Mom and DD wandered down the Tiger Trail for a bit, while I waited in line to buy another cup of tea. I got the vanilla miracle tea this time ($2.50, cash only), then called them to meet up with me. It was probably 11 by this time, and we wanted to see the 11:30 Nemo show. It took Mom and DD almost 10 minutes to get out to meet me. I passed the time chatting with the CM who was holding one of the animal displays. We talked about different options for college degrees that would help DD work with animals, but not require too much math or science. She had just graduated and was working on an intern program.

Once Mom and DD rejoined me, we high tailed it over to DinoLand. We joined the moving line and were assured we’d get into the show. But we had to finish our tea before entering. It was still pretty hot, so we were fairly comical. I kept pouring some into the lid to get it cooled off faster. Once inside, we found 3 seats at the top of the front section, near the handicapped seats. A British family joined us. At least the mom and two little girls did. I think the Dad ended up in the standing area. We had a nice chat with them before the show started. This was a really good seat in order to see all the puppets out in the audience. We had a completely different Crush this time though. He didn’t have dreads, and wasn’t nearly as good as the other one (the other one is the one that’s on the TV show).

Once the show was over, we decided we needed to head over to EPCOT in order to not rush for our 2:00 ADR. On the way out, Mom was still looking for a shirt with orange. She found a shirt that had cheetah’s on it. I was concerned it was going to be too small (it was a medium, but it looked little). The fitting room never seemed to open up, so she bought it with the understanding she could return it at the Boardwalk if it didn’t fit. We headed out to the bus stop and saw an MGM bus there. There were about 20 people in the EPCOT line, so we figured a bus would be there soon. It was good it was cool at that stop, because we waited 20 minutes. By this time, 2 more MGM buses, 3 Pop Century buses, and 2 All Star Resort buses had come and gone. And the line was huge! When the EPCOT bus pulled up, it stopped at the MGM queue. I thought people were going to RIOT! We all started pointing up at the signs, and she moved forward to load us all up.

Up next: Lunch at Rose and Crown, DVC tour, Free $$$$ - which led to shopping, dinner in the room, and Fantasmic.

 

[tkd lisa]

Thursday, 22 March afternoon

When I left off, we had just arrived at EPCOT. According to my notes, it was 1:15. We stopped by the Visa picture stop again (hey, I’ve missed it for the last year. This year I was making up for all those missed free pictures!). We got Mickey, Minnie and GOOFY this time! There was a small line, and we waited about 10 minutes to go inside. We took a variety of pictures with them. I got Goofy’s autograph on my hat, and we headed over to the UK and checked in right at 2:00. I pin traded a bit, and Mom took a bunch of pictures, including this one of DD that looks a lot like the one from Le Cellier!

I did mention DD’s birthday when we checked in, since this was officially her birthday meal. DD was surprised that we were seated right by the bar. I explained that in the UK (and many other places in Europe), pubs are family restaurants, and they often have kids right in the bar. Our server was Andreia, and she was so pleasant! She was majoring in hotel management, and had worked for Club Med before doing this internship at EPCOT. She explained that the restaurant was set up like pubs from 4 different areas of the UK. One was an Irish pub, one was a country pub, one was a city pub, and I think one was a gentleman’s club. DD asked why they had big divots in the glass, and Andreia explained that with that in the glass, you can see out of the windows but you can’t see in. That way, when “gentlemen” were having lunch with women other than their wives, the wives couldn’t see inside to catch them in the act.

We decided on our orders. I had to talk hard to keep mom and DD from getting fish and chips. I told them it was the same food they had at the stand outside, and we get it all the time. DD decided on the cottage pie (after an explanation of the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie) and a coke. Mom and I split the ploughman’s lunch, and she had a sprite while I had water again. I did take pictures here, because I haven’t seen many from Rose and Crown.

cottage pie

ploughman's lunch. This picture doesn't do justice to how much food there was!

I couldn’t believe how much food there was! DD ate half her cottage pie, and Mom and I only finished 2/3 of the ploughman’s lunch. I did leave room for dessert because I had heard good things about the sticky toffee pudding. I ordered that, and Andreia came back with TWO desserts. They brought DD a strawberry shortcake type dessert as well. Here’s pictures of both.

toffee pudding

strawberry dessert. Notice the chocolate thingie. DD ate that one right up!

And even better, Andreia brought DD a birthday card that had been signed by everyone working that day. DD couldn’t believe she got all those signatures so quickly! She treasures that card. Here’s a couple of pictures of it. We ate most of the dessert. I had high hopes for the toffee pudding because I really like heath bars and expected it to be like that. It was good, but once again, didn’t knock ‘Ohana bread pudding off my favorite dessert at Disney. DD’s strawberry dessert was excellent. It was just sweet enough, and very light. MMMMM. Total bill was only $29.27 before tip. This was a real bargain, and brought me in well under my budget.

DD reading the card.

the actual card with all the signatures.

We were out of EPCOT by 3:05, and I ran up to drop the leftovers in our fridge. DS was once again at Community Hall. There was a message on our room phone that the DVC rep was there to pick us up. I was down in the lobby and we headed out of the valet area. Hey! What’s that noise??? The van driver pulled over to discover that he had run over a traffic cone and was dragging it with him. He blamed the parking valets at BW and said they don’t like the DVC vans to park there.

We met up with my guide Ricardo. He asked about how I’ve been using my points, and we all agreed that I was definitely getting my money’s worth. We went into one of the small rooms for about 10 minutes where he pulled out the points charts for AKV, and explained the different types of rooms they will have. We talked about the construction schedule. He said that the section on the existing lodge should be ready by late this fall, but emphasized that only AKV owners will probably be able to get in there. He said that there are fewer rooms there than at BCV, and it’s uncommon for anyone to get into the BCV after the 7 month window. And since AKV will be brand new, all the owners will be definitely using their home resort booking advantage.

The lowest point value rooms will be the odd-sized or slightly smaller rooms that will be created because they have to work within the existing square footage of the lodge. They will definitely be a bargain points-wise, since they are priced at OKW or BWV standard rates. The artists rendering of the new pool area looks really neat. It will have a water play area with squirt guns, etc. It sounds like the Grandstand area at SSR that just opened up.

Ricardo knew I wasn’t going to be buying, so he asked if we wanted to see the SSR models too, or just the AKV. We headed over to the AKV model area and I snapped some of these pictures. Lots of detailed description follows the pictures.

The extra bathroom in the 1bedroom. Notice it's laid out like the current studio baths.

Dining area in the 1 bedroom. There's also seating for 2 at the kitchen counter.

flip chair which provided the 5th bed.

master tub, which bumps up against the next picture.

Master shower. This is all glass, which may be tough to keep clean.

They’ve added a second bathroom to the 1 bedroom, which will give 2 bedrooms 3 full bathrooms. The studio bathroom layout is quite different from the existing studios. There’s a doorway into the sink area, then a tub/shower combination on one side and a toilet room (with door) on the other side. He said that they have gotten comments which asked for the ability to separate the toilet from the shower and this is the way they addressed it. I don’t know that people will like this option, since you have to walk through the tub area to get into the toilet room. I also asked why the plumbing was exposed in the sink area. He said he didn’t know if they planned on doors for that area or not, but I told him I thought it looked cheap.

The master bath is completely different from existing baths as well. The shower and tub are in the same room. But remember there is a second full bath in the hallway. I think I like it this way. My family is big on taking baths, and the existing one bedrooms leave the bath mostly open to the master bedroom. With a young teen boy and girl, this makes that master bedroom mostly off limits whenever someone’s in the bath. And I know both kids have wandered through when my mom was changing, which freaked the kids out. This way, the master bath door can be shut off from everything else.

Since the standard sized one bedrooms will sleep 5, they’ve made seating for 6 to dine. That’s really a nice feature, because it gives you a table big enough for a family of 4 instead of splitting between the table and counter. Here’s a picture of it.

Once we’d snapped enough pictures, we headed back out to the ice cream parlor. Ricardo pointed out that they were taking free pictures as well so we got one of those. Then he came back with an envelope with two certificates good for $50 Disney. I was surprised, because I assumed you had to buy to get that! He also had a pack of 3 of the DVC fastpasses for us. He said they were doing away with the FPs, but he had a family who didn’t take them since they were leaving.

Well, with $100 disney burning holes in our pocket, we had the driver take us to Downtown Disney for some shopping! I decided to give each child $20 to spend however they wanted. Mom decided to get a second shirt for those orange shorts. Especially since it wasn’t her money. Again, I’ll double check my receipt later, but what I remember getting at World of Disney was: an orange Mickey shirt for mom, a Stitch antenna topper for Mom (she said it was for DD to enjoy), a discounted Year of a million dreams shirt for me (pictures in tomorrow’s shots), two Mickey jibbetz for my crocs, and a license plate cover for me. With our AP discount, it ended up at just over $50. I signed both certificates, but only one of them would read, so I just paid cash for the little bit that was over. After looking at my receipt, I remembered that Mom also got a deck of cards, that had Jack Sparrow on the back. Our bill was $53.80, so I paid $3.80 in cash.

We headed over to Once Upon a Toy because Mom wanted a puzzle. We found one for $12, $12.78 with tax. and used the second check for it. I handed DD a $20 out of the change (which she never did spend), and we considered the money gone (DS got his $20 when we got back to the resort). We got a lot of stuff for less than $10 out of pocket! We caught the bus back to the Boardwalk and were back by 6:15. DS took his $20 and headed to EPCOT to spend it. I told him he needed to be back by 7:45, since we wanted to go over to Fantasmic and I wanted him back in the room before we left. The 3 of us ate leftovers for dinner. Mom finished DD’s cottage pie, DD had the leftover pasta from Mama Melrose with some of the leftover chicken we had cooked for our friends. I had alfredo sauce left from Sunday night’s pasta dinner, so she had a nice meal. I ended up finishing the ploughman’s lunch. That left us with a little bit of chicken and 2 slices of pizza from all weeks’ meals.

DS came back by 7:45. He had gotten a necklace in China, and a bag of Chinese coins. He stayed back in the room and watched a movie and ate his leftover pizza plus some soup. We walked down to MGM and found good last minute seats for Fantasmic. We had to split into two and one, but we were in the center section, about 20 rows up. Close enough that some of the water sprayed on us.

Fantasmic was excellent, but my pictures were terrible. The only one worth posting is this one of the boat at the end.

We waited for some of the crowd to leave, then walked back to the resort. It was coming down to the end of a beautiful week. DD said “Mom, we haven’t gone to MK at all!” I said “You haven’t, but Grandma and I did, remember?” We decided we’d head over there for the next morning. Back in the room, where we were all asleep by 11.

Up next: Morning at MK, and two first time foods, then back to Tampa.

 

[tkd lisa]

Friday, 23 March. Our last day. Boo Hoo!

I hadn't made plans for this day before the trip. Thursday night we had decided to go to MK in the morning, since the kids hadn't gone yet this trip. Then we'd head over to EPCOT for something to eat before heading back home.

Once again, I was up early (5:15, darn that internal alarm clock!) and had my breakfast and devotions. It was nice to have that quiet time by myself. I only wish it had been a little warmer so I could have done this on the balcony. I expect to get my wish our next trip (just recently slid a week to the 1st week of June).

Anyway, I got everyone else moving around 6:30. We fixed french toast and eggs to finish up the stuff in the fridge. I had everything packed out by 8:15 and called Bell Services to store our things. We had one less total bag than when we checked in, even with mom's stuff since we had drank most of the soda, and the remnants went into the rubbermaid container, along with most of the souveniers.

Mom tried on the shirt she bought at AK, and we decided that it just wouldn't work for her. It was that clingy kind of material, and it hugged all the bumps. And my mom is pretty skinny, so I can't imagine what a normal person would look like in it! She went down to return it at the screen door and we all met up at the bus stop. The buses worked well this morning, and we were there at 8:45. We caught the tail end of the opening show, and got a couple of pictures.

Once we were inside, DS headed off to spend time at VMK. I sent mom and DD over to Pirates of the Caribbean, and I went to pull FPs for BTMRR (good for 10:10), then headed over to meet them at POC. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on the way.

These guys at the barber shop were so funny! The guy in the pink shirt kept teasing the barber that the only reason the camera didn't break was because the he was there to balance out the barber's ugliness. You could tell they were very old friends.

This picture was actually taken a little later when we were on our way to tomorrowland. Notice my clearance YOMD shirt.

It was absolutely beautiful out today. It was already 75 degrees, and so crystal clear! I was just looking at last year’s spring break report, and the Splash Mountain photo is nearly identical. Anyway, I waited in the dump shop for mom and DD to finish the ride. They were about the 5th boat for the day. Mom wanted to ride Jungle Cruise (DD didn’t), so DD headed over to BTMRR, while we headed toward the Jungle Cruise. It didn’t open until 10, so I used our DVC pass to pull FPs, which were good at 9:40. Since the ride didn’t even open until 10, I figured I’d just explain that if they argued with me. Mom and I then headed over to It’s a Small World. While we were there, DS called and asked me to join him at VMK. They had some sort of pin set, and he was sure he wanted to buy it but he was out of money. DD met up with us and she and Mom went into Philharmagic while I met up with DS. It turned out that the VMK set was something like 3 pins and 7 cards, and it was $20. DS didn’t want to go that far into debt to me, so he passed.

I wandered over to Tomorrowland where I rode Buzz as a walk on, and used our passes to pull FPs which were good for 10:50. I’ve now got 3 sets of 3 FPs in my pocket. Time to start using them up! I met up with mom and DD and we used our BTMRR passes. DD griped a little since she’d already ridden it this morning. Mom decided that since she’d ridden this before, she could go again. I hadn’t ridden this since last Spring Break, so I kind of forgot how bumpy it is and how much it throws you around. We were lined up next to a couple who was from Miami, and was celebrating their first anniversary. They had their wedding pictures on their t-shirts, and the CM made a big deal about it. He then teased DD about her birthday too. We were in the last seats in the train, and headed out.

This next part needs a little addition from yesterday. I forgot that when mom and DD went over to the tiger trail, DD decided to spend that $20 she got yesterday from the Disney Dollars. She bought a stuffed bat, and carried it around in her bag or wrapped around her neck the rest of the trip. Back to Friday. After BTMRR, we went to use our Jungle Cruise FPs (it’s about 10:45 now). They didn’t say anything about the return time. While we were waiting in line, a CM named Harmonie Lee started teasing DD about her bat. She said things like “Kind of a strange thing to cuddle with, isn’t it?” Turns out Harmonie is into dark things, just like DD so they had a nice conversation. When we finally got to load into our boat, Harmonie was our skipper! She had a very dry sense of humor, which made this pretty neat. She had a couple “guest skippers”. One little boy turned to look at her while she was talking and she said “Oh my gosh, what are you doing?? You’re supposed to be DRIVING the BOAT!” After we got off, Mom created a little boat logjam because she insisted on taking Harmonie’s picture. Here it is!

After this, DD wanted a snack. She actually had stopped by the McDonalds’ fry stand on the way to JC, but it wasn’t open yet. I handed her a $5 and told her to meet back up with us. Mom and I headed over to my favorite MK snack spot to get ….. a Dole Whip Float! They had JUST opened up and only had one window open. It took about 20 minutes and I was the 3rd person in line, but I had my tasty treat ($4.25). Then we headed over to Tomorrowland to use our FPs for Buzz. I had called DS, who was watching the glassblower on Main Street. I truly can’t remember if DD joined us on that round of Buzz or not. She had ended up at Pecos Bills for her fry fix, since the stand still wasn’t open. She got it with cheddar cheese (I don’t think they charged her this time) and a coke for a total of $4.88.

Mom noticed that the laugh floor was open, so I made DS leave the glassblower to come join us. I pulled another set of Buzz FPs before we headed into laugh floor. Another good show in Laugh Floor, then over to Buzz. The kids each wanted to ride separately. I hit something big in the first room, so ended up beating both of them (even adding both the gun scores up). We made a stop by the glassblowers again on the way out. He’s in a little shop near the Main Street Bakery. Not a place for little ones, but they had some beautiful things in there! The process of making those statues takes an awfully long time. We were there about 20 minutes, and he had only gotten the head and one ear done (he was making a skating Goofy). I can understand why they’re so expensive given the amount of time it takes.

We headed out as the Family Fun parade was starting, and monorailed over to EPCOT. The front car was full, so we just rode with the masses. I still had two DVC FPs left, and they were good for 3 FPs each. There was a guy sitting there who looked kind of hot and grumpy, so I asked him “Are there 3 people in your party?” I thought he was with the two young ladies who were on that seat too. He said “yes, his wife was feeding their son in the parking lot”. So I asked him if he wanted these FPs, since they were good for 3 each. He said “How much?” I said “Nothing, I just can’t use them and I want someone to get good from them.” He took them, and I spent some time explaining how FP works. Another person who hadn’t done any planning and didn’t read the info available. Hopefully I helped them enjoy the day. He was definitely griping that they had only gone on one thing and waiting 90 minutes to do it.

Anyway, over to EPCOT, we decided to split up to get something to eat. DS didn’t know what he wanted since the China CS was closed. I did point out the Electric Umbrella had just reopened, and gave him a $10 and instructed him to bring me a receipt. DD kind of wanted Mexican, so we headed that way. I waited about 20 minutes in line and got a combination plate, a lemonade for Mom and a coke for DD (total $13.78). I had a nice conversation with a guy from the western part of Canada. They hadn’t made any meal reservations, so I tried to give him some ideas and encouraged him to make reservations for the rest of the week.

DD took one look at the platter and said “YUCK!” The quesadilla (which she was planning on eating) was basically a folded over small corn tortilla with a glob of monteray jack cheese inside that was deep fried. Mom ate the beef burrito and I had the chicken taco. It was okay, but not great. DD thought lo mein sounded good, so we went to see if the small stand in China sold it. Well, they don’t. They only had BBQ chicken or some sort of beef dish, along with egg rolls. Thankfully, I thought DD might like something from Norway, and I wanted to take a look at their school bread. There was a very short line there, and DD decided on the salmon sandwich. The display case was out of school bread, but when I asked, they brought out more. The family behind us decided to try it too! Total for this was $8.93. The school bread is only $2.49 which is a huge deal by Disney standards.

I’ve seen many pictures of the school bread, but never heard it described, so here goes. Of course, this is my opinion, so your mileage may vary! It was like a large cinnamon sweet roll with a sweet cream (think yellow custard donut) filling in the middle, overflowing on top of the donut. Then the whole top is covered with coconut. Now I’m not a huge coconut fan, and I really like the rice cream they have there, so that’s why I’ve never tried it before. Well, this one is a pretty doggone good snack! It’s really rich and filling though. The three of us shared it, and I was still over-full when we were done. While we were eating, an older couple saw it, and asked about it. I explained it, and just as we were done, I saw them come out with one of these for each of them. I hoped they were HUNGRY! As an aside, I do think that the bakery in Norway would be a very good use of a CS dining credit! You get a sandwich, a pastry, and a drink. It’s something very unique, and tasty.

By this time, I called DS to check on him. He had gone to Japan and gotten a marble soda ($2.67) and a teriyaki chicken meal ($6.38). He figured out how to deploy the marble with no problem. I swear that boy’s going to be an engineer, and he’ll probably be much better at it than I am! DD headed over to Japan to join DS in getting their last snack. I sent them with the Visa rewards card to finish it off.

Mom and I sat down at the rotunda in America to wait for Voices of Liberty. But I stepped outside to use the phone and saw the Fife and Drum group performing. I’ve never been in the right place before, and I really enjoyed this. They performed all the service songs, and I snapped this picture while they were performing the Marine Corp Hymn.

By this time, the VOL were starting. The kids joined just after they started. I noticed that the young soprano who I really enjoy looked like she was expecting. We enjoyed the usual excellent show, then I asked the soprano when she was due. She said in a couple of weeks, so she may be a mom by now! I can’t imagine hitting those notes when I was 36 weeks pregnant!!!! Here’s a shot of them performing.

This was the director for this performance.

After this, we all headed towards to Boardwalk. I stopped by the screen door to pick up DD’s birthday gift. DD decided to ride back with mom, and I would wait for the luggage and take all of it. We were all on the road by 3:45 and home by 7. Another excellent week at Disney!

 

[tkd lisa]

Thanks to all of you who've followed my saga. I recently gave the links to my old reports to friends who are visiting this summer. So I went back and re-read them to refresh my memory. It's really nice to have this kind of permanent record of our family trips.

Final Thoughts:

I’m going to split this up into categories.

Accomodations:

We had a standard one bedroom (3101) at the Boardwalk Villas. I had requested end of the hall, which I really didn’t get. We were probably 1/3 of the way between the elevators and the MGM end of the 3rd floor. That wasn’t a big issue. The main reason I had requested this was that during our December trip in a studio there, the hallway noise REALLY bothered my DD. Since she was way in the back of the room this trip, the noise wasn’t a factor.

Location, location, location. To me, this is the best feature of BWVs. MGM and EPCOT are our favorite parks. We like to walk, and the freedom to know exactly how long it will take you to get somewhere is invaluable to me. Bus service was a bit of a hassle, since we shared with the other resorts. It makes me glad we don't have little ones and go to MK all the time.

BWV does show some affects of it’s age and high occupancy rate. I mentioned several things in my trip report, but there were other things that were just nuisances. When the oven was used and the cooling fan kicked on, it sounded like a dying cat. When we cooked dinner for our friends, they asked about it too. The oven worked, it was just noisy. It was similar with the washer. Noisy but functional. These are the kinds of things that people don’t report, so I understand why it’s not fixed. It didn’t bother me, but some people might hate it, which is why I mention it.

We also really enjoyed the amenities of the Boardwalk itself. DS really enjoyed Community Hall. I’m not sure how I will feel about this at OKW and SSR, where the Community Hall isn’t just out the door at the end of the hallway. We also went down to watch the entertainment on the Boardwalk almost every night. I didn’t mention it in the report because I didn’t take notes. In case you didn’t figure it out, I’m a morning person! It was always bustling though. One evening, Mom and I even saw Sergio, who usually performs in Italy. I missed the beginning of the show, so I’m not sure if he identified himself that way, but it was definitely the same guy.

Oh, another thing about BWV that I discovered this trip, but forgot to write about. Mom and I finally found out what the Attic is. I had mentioned it in my Christmas report when I went on my 4 am stroll. One day while we were at our mid-day break, Mom decided to go down and check it out. The door was closed, but she looked through the crack and said “I think it’s a playground. I see a merry go round horse!” Then she tried the door! I kind of freaked out, sure that we were going to get in big trouble! We went inside, and it’s just a small meeting area (with decorations based on a sea-side amusement park, which is what the horse was). There’s a small service prep room where they could serve light refreshments from. It is on the corner right across from Atlantic Dance Hall, so it must be on top of Jellyrolls. There were a few nametags on the tables, like someone had had a team building session in there. We were out of there before anyone found us, so don’t tell anyone we did it, okay????

Overall, I really enjoyed our accommodations. I have to say that this may lead to a critical case of add-on-itis. I didn’t buy points to support staying in a one bedroom on a usual basis, since we’ve never spent much time in our room before. Staying in a standard view room helps conserve the points, and I still had some carry over from our matching use year points I got when I bought. The additional space was priceless for me. Remember that my DD has to have complete dark and quiet to sleep, and my DS is a nightowl who likes to sleep with a light and a radio. I think I only heard “Turn it DOWN, and turn off that light!” twice the whole week! I also took advantage of the in-room washer and dryer. It wouldn’t have been nearly as easy with a studio, since I usually threw the wash in at bedtime, and dried it when I got up in the morning. I couldn’t do that in the public laundry room. We’re staying in an OKW studio for food & wine festival, so we’ll see how that goes before I make any decisions about more points.

I think I’ll always try to get the BWVs for our spring break location, as long as I can get standard view.

Food:

We tried several different places this time. My ratings below:

- Tea stand in AK
o We bought: A cup of tea, two different times
o Rating: Excellent! But bring cash because that’s all they take
- ABC commissary in MGM
o We bought: Burger combo, veggie lo mein, and Cuban combo
o Rating: Okay. It was typical cafeteria food. If it was hot outside, I might be convinced to go again for the a/c, but probably not.
- Le Cellier in EPCOT (Canada)
o We bought: Cheese soup, salmon timbale, strip steak and beef tips over noodles.
o Rating: Very good, almost excellent. It’s probably our number 2 favorite now for quality of food (behind Ohana). If they’d had the salmon at lunch, I would have probably given it an excellent.
- Mama Melrose in MGM
o We bought: Pasta Fagoli soup, calamari, plain pasta and flatbread pizza
o Ratings: Good to very good. Food was better than average, but not knock-your-socks off. We had GREAT service here though. And the price was very fair. We’ll probably try this one again.
- Rose and Crown in EPCOT (UK)
o We bought: Ploughman’s lunch and cottage pie.
o Ratings: Very good. I thought this was a huge amount of food for the dollar, and everything was very fresh. Again, we had GREAT service. A defnite re-do for us.
- Counter service in Norway (EPCOT)
o We bought: salmon sandwich and schoolbread
o Ratings: Excellent! The sandwich was a little pricey, since DD pretty much just eats the salmon itself, not the bread. But the schoolbread was a whole lot of yummy goodness, and less than my $3 snack limit (and even a better value to realize that no way would one person in my family eat a whole one!) Definitely I’ll get this again.
- Counter service in Mexico (EPCOT)
o We bought: Combo platter
o Ratings: okay. The quesidilla was really pretty icky, but the rest was okay. It's better than Taco Bell, but not as good as Moes in my opinion. Probably won't do this again, especially once China CS opens back up.

Parks:

Overall, they weren’t as crowded as I feared. We’ve got a good touring plan down, and flexibility is our key. The joys of annual passes and living in FL really ease the feeling that you have to go go go, and fit everything in.

We got to re-do some things I hadn’t done in a long time, and Mom and I had some quality time together, which is really nice.

I have to say that I think the Laugh Floor in MK will just be an okay attraction. It’s certainly better than Stitch, but it’s not a must do for us (although you couldn’t tell by the number of times we visited this time). I’ll probably be kind of sick of it after our next two trips (going with people who haven’t been in YEARS!, so we’ll do a lot of things they haven’t seen).

Nemo the Musical doesn’t knock off Lion King as the best show in my opinion, but I can see how other people would think it’s better. I think it’s probably better for the younger set, since it’s not as loud, and the movie is newer. This will be a fairly regular stop for my family.

Receiving two wishes was a really cool part of this vacation. Especially the EE one! I can’t count the number of people I’ve told about it, so Disney definitely got some free marketing from my family!

DVC tour:

I really like the low-keyed approach of DVC. I truly didn’t expect to get the Disney Dollars. I just wanted to see the AKV models. This approach encouraged me to suggest other people take the tour. I emphasized that it’s low to no pressure, and I’m confident that they won’t get a rude surprise. And I got a Disney shirt out of it!

Thanks for reading. Our next trip will be in early June. We’re currently in a one bedroom at SSR, but are waitlisted for OKW (bigger room, lower points). Then we’ll be camping at Ft. Wilderness right after July 4th. Yes, I know I’m nuts. Stand by for pre-trip reports, about a month before the June trip (I won’t have time to do the July one once I get back from the June one, so I’ll post them both together).