SWW, BCR & Technically, we were literally on Mars! New - 8/31 - Final Update

[Angeejoe]

Thanks for sharing your trip & stories of your mom. I love the BC & plan to follow along!!

 

[lsenquiz]

Awesome update!

Thanks so much for following along.

We stayed at Beach Club this trip too and I must say the responsiveness to us pulling up surprised us as we were swarmed at the door. We had a totally different experience with the bell hops and entry than you did. Maybe it depends on when you arrive and who is working? What a shame that you didn't have good help with the luggage.

Loved your mom story.

I think you might be right about the time as the line was very long at check in when we got there which probably meant that all the baggage guys were tied up. There was also a ME bus out front that may have contributed.

Great update! I'm glad you were able to get a full balcony

So sorry I think I forgot to welcome you in so and thanks so much for following along.

Thanks for sharing your trip & stories of your mom. I love the BC & plan to follow along!!

I love sharing my trip details but love even more sharing my mom memories so thank you for taking the time to read.

 

[JenCin78]

Loving your TR and the stories of your Mom. I definitely believe that our loved ones are still here with us after physically leaving this world and I love hearing stories like yours. We check into Yacht Club on Saturday-we are SO excited to swim in SAB!

 

[natebenma]

home!

Glad you listened to the advice and ended up with a full balcony.

Good job getting the shopping that you needed done!

I look forward to finding out what your room is like and where you end up for lunch. I fear that B&C may have a long wait for a table by the time you are ready to eat...

The stories about your mom are a really nice addition to your report.

 

[lsenquiz]

Today = Saturday May 25th

Day 2 – Beach Club check in – Part 2​

When I left off last we were trying to decide what to do for lunch. We walked over to Beaches and Cream and were told the wait was over 1 hour (Dee – you were right). About that time (12:58pm) we got a page letting us know that our room was ready. So we decided to go check that out first and then decide on lunch.

On our way to our room we noticed these:


DSC03183 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I thought these were very clever especially since I always have a hard time keeping the battery on my phone from dying when I am at Disney. I made a mental note to keep my charger with me at all times.

We had reserved a standard view room and got room 3718. There were only about 4 rooms that could have been farther away from the elevator than this room. The walk was very long so I can see why putting close to the elevator might be an important request for some people.

I did take some pictures when we first arrived:


DSC03192 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC03188 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC03187 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC04443 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC04444 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC04445 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Not sure if this is allowed but I thought it would have been a great idea to bring a shower rods/curtain that you can hang without damaging the walls and hang it here.


show rod by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
I added the red line to give you an idea of where I think the shower rod would go.

It would add some privacy while one person was getting ready and the rest of the family was in the bedroom area.

This was our view:


DSC04354 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC04353 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Not the best view but my expectations were extremely low so I was not disappointed.

Our towel animal. This is the one we always get at BWV too.


DSC03186 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
I think Gabriel may have taken this picture.

We called for our luggage and it came in less than 10 minutes so that was awesome. I had a nice long talk with the bellman who had worked there for over 20 years. He even apologized about how long we had waited for someone to get our bags when we first pulled up. Since I did not complain to anyone his apology was a nice surprise.

At this point we were all really hungry and I was anxious to unpack. I am the type of person that needs to get settled in before I can really start enjoying vacation. So we called for room service while we started to unpack. It only took about 20 minutes for the food to get there. I did not remember to take pictures.

I did bring a shoe rack and IMO it was a must in this room.


DSC04355 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr
This did block the full length mirror but did not bother us.

We also called for a microwave which came while we were still waiting on room service.


DSC04442 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Once we were unpacked and fed we decide to walk over to guest services in EPCOT to get our APs. I had purchased AP vouchers from AAA before we left so I just needed to exchange them. I was relieved to see that there was only one person at the guest services window and she was already being taken care of. Sadly my relief was short lived as I waited and waited and waited for them to finish up with her. I have no idea what the problem was but she was getting very frustrated and eventually so was I. You could tell there were two people in the Guest services booth and they were both trying to resolve whatever the problem was. Finally (No lie – over 1 hour later) the woman said (pretty loudly) just charge me whatever you need to I do not care anymore. After that she had her tickets and was on her way in about 2 minutes.

So now it was my turn to get our very first APs ever! I was so far beyond excited as I handed the CM my vouchers. In less than 5 minutes she handed me back 3 plastic cards. A Mickey, Minnie and Goofy and that was it. Wow, wow, wow what a HUGE let down. Honestly, I do not know what I thought should happen (maybe bells and whistles go off in the back ground? A Band starts playing? Confetti drops from the ceiling?) at a minimum a simple congratulations and maybe a lanyard to put the card in????

O-well that is what happens when you let your expectations get out of control. So, with APs in hand and EPCOT right there staring us in the face we decided to head in for a while. First we entered using the Mickey Head (I am sure that is the official name) for the first time ever. There was no line, it was very easy and everyone came up green. You could tell right away that EPCOT was very crowded so we decided to just complete a quick Agent P mission since there is a kiosk right when you enter. Gabriel chose Japan (we did France and the UK on our last visit).


DSC03208 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I only took a couple of pictures while we were completing our mission. I just love the signs they put up when they are doing construction. I find Walt so inspirational and took a picture of this one to use in a PowerPoint deck I needed to complete for work when I got back (I am in IT so this is a good motto for us):


DSC03210 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I also took a picture of this fellow just because I thought he was cute.


DSC03209 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

One other thing we noticed (because you could not miss it) was about 100+ people walking through the world showcase with the drink around the world shirts. Let me tell you that these people were doing a darn good job of checking things off the list as many of them were struggling to walk. There were people actually sprawled out of the ground passed out. I will admit that I am not a teetotaler. I had at least two cocktails per day while we were on vacation. However, I could have definitely done without having people stumble into me and more importantly my 8 year old because they could not walk a straight line.

Once we completed our Perry mission we went ahead and headed back to the room to swim a bit more.


DSC03182 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Our initial review of the pool at the end of the night was that it was just too much for our family. We just had Gabriel(8) with us (we have two more children but they are 25 & 21 and could not come). I felt like one of us had to be with Gabriel every minute as he was anxious to explore the whole pool. This was especially true when he wanted to go down the slide as you have to walk out of the pool area to do that. It was also very easy to end up in a part of the pool that was over your head without really meaning to do it. Gabriel is an ok swimmer but not a really strong swimmer.

Our review would probably be different if Gabriel was younger and willing to just stay in the 2 foot shallow pool, or older and a stronger swimmer or even if he had a sibling/cousin/friend with him as I would have felt more comfortable with sending two of them off on their own instead of just Gabriel by himself. However, for now, it felt like a pool where we could see everything from one lounge chair would have been better for our family. Stay tuned to see if we still felt the same way at the end of our trip.

We were so exhausted after swimming that we just ended up getting a pizza from Boardwalk Pizza for dinner and taking it to the room. We were all asleep by 10pm as we had to be up very early for our plans the next day!

Up next; our first SWW day at DHS!

 

[lsenquiz]

home!

Glad you listened to the advice and ended up with a full balcony.

Good job getting the shopping that you needed done!

I look forward to finding out what your room is like and where you end up for lunch. I fear that B&C may have a long wait for a table by the time you are ready to eat...

The stories about your mom are a really nice addition to your report.

I feel 100% confident that if I had done online check in we would not have gotten a balcony even though it was the only request on my reservation so it is definitely good advice.

You were completely right about B&C the wait was over 1hour.

Thanks for reading my Mom stories

 

[indimom]

Other than the hour wait for the APs (: See, I know how to celebrate a grand occasion. ), it sounds like you had a pretty relaxing "settling in" day.
I can completely understand how you feel about the pool. I would have been the same way. The pool sounds awesome for a kid, in theory, but a worried mom is a whole other beast.

Are the Agent P missions exactly the same (at least the same surprises) as Kim Possible? I love Phineas and Ferb so I wouldn't mind trying one - if I could convince the family - but they probably wouldn't be interested if they are exactly the same as the KP ones.

Love reading about your mom. Double rainbows are also close to my heart. We saw a rainbow, on a clear day, the day my grandfather was buried when I was 13. My grandmother passed away almost 20 years later (and boy did she miss him for all those years). On the day of her funeral (dark and rainy) we saw huge, bold and beautiful double rainbows in the sky. We all took it as a sign they were together at last.

I can't wait to read more.

 

[lsenquiz]

Other than the hour wait for the APs (: See, I know how to celebrate a grand occasion. ), it sounds like you had a pretty relaxing "settling in" day.
I can completely understand how you feel about the pool. I would have been the same way. The pool sounds awesome for a kid, in theory, but a worried mom is a whole other beast.

Are the Agent P missions exactly the same (at least the same surprises) as Kim Possible? I love Phineas and Ferb so I wouldn't mind trying one - if I could convince the family - but they probably wouldn't be interested if they are exactly the same as the KP ones.

Love reading about your mom. Double rainbows are also close to my heart. We saw a rainbow, on a clear day, the day my grandfather was buried when I was 13. My grandmother passed away almost 20 years later (and boy did she miss him for all those years). On the day of her funeral (dark and rainy) we saw huge, bold and beautiful double rainbows in the sky. We all took it as a sign they were together at last.

I can't wait to read more.

Our first day was pretty great and really set the stage for the rest of our trip. There were some bumps and bruises along the way but nothing could overshadow the overall awesomeness of the whole trip.

Sorry, we never did the KP missions so I can not say if they are the same. Perhaps someone else reading along will know ?

I love hearing about other peoples stories of ways their loved ones managed to communicate with them after they passed. Your story is beautiful .

 

[BridgetR3]

Some of the Perry missions are the same as the KimPossible missions. We had completed KimPossible's mission in Japan about the baby BeBe's a couple years ago and they did the Perry Japan one this year which uses the same props. Some props have definitely changed but obviously not all of them.

Like Kimpossible, I find you have to watch quite a bit of the show on the "phone".

Great update! We upgraded to AP's this trip too and sadly no horns, confetti, marching band for us either.

We fell in love with the SAB pool!! I completely agree with you though that it is SOOO hard to keep track of your kids out there.

 

[lsenquiz]

Some of the Perry missions are the same as the KimPossible missions. We had completed KimPossible's mission in Japan about the baby BeBe's a couple years ago and they did the Perry Japan one this year which uses the same props. Some props have definitely changed but obviously not all of them.

Like Kimpossible, I find you have to watch quite a bit of the show on the "phone".

Great update! We upgraded to AP's this trip too and sadly no horns, confetti, marching band for us either.

We fell in love with the SAB pool!! I completely agree with you though that it is SOOO hard to keep track of your kids out there.

Thanks for the info on Kim Possible. I knew someone would know

I had to laugh at myself later in the day when I realized how dissapointed I was in the AP process

I can totally see how someone could fall in love with SAB. It is an awesome pool. I just think Gabriel fell into a small minority of betweens that it might not be a good fit for (although Gabriel would totally disagree with me as he loved the pool ).

 

[natebenma]

You had a pretty full first day!!!

That is neat about the outlets on the lamp posts. I haven't seen that or heard about those, so thanks for sharing!

I appreciate all the info about the room... in fact, I have a BC room view thread in the resorts picture subforum. One of the questions we get the most on the FAQ thread is "What will my view be" and the best way to show people is by a sample of actual views. Your view is classic SV of rooftops. Would you mind adding your two roof view pictures (or giving me permission to post them) to this thread?

Beach Club Room Views


What a great idea about the curtain rod! I don't see why it wouldn't be allowed! If you had one that was easy to put up and take down, you could remove it from the walls before you left in the morning.

That is totally annoying about the wait for you AP (and lack of appropriate celebration when you finally got the cards ) We once experienced a non-moving line at Guest Services in MK. We were coming back from Kona, had rented a locker and were in line to get our deposit back. Like in your situation, both CMs were trying to resolve an issue for the same person. Well, turns out the person behind us wanted to rent a locker, and we had paid cash for ours, so we just "sold" our key to her for the price of the deposit.

Cute squirrel!

That is really sad about the people Drinking Around the World. But hopefully, it served as a good lesson for your son about how stupid the people who were falling-over-drunk looked. We stayed at an all inclusive resort in February, and my son witnessed some people who had over-indulged and it served as an opportunity for us to explain to him that these people were not making good decisions.

 

[lsenquiz]

I appreciate all the info about the room... in fact, I have a BC room view thread in the resorts picture subforum. One of the questions we get the most on the FAQ thread is "What will my view be" and the best way to show people is by a sample of actual views. Your view is classic SV of rooftops. Would you mind adding your two roof view pictures (or giving me permission to post them) to this thread?

Beach Club Room Views

I added them to your thread. They are in post #30. However, please free free to use any of my pictures anytime!

What a great idea about the curtain rod! I don't see why it wouldn't be allowed! If you had one that was easy to put up and take down, you could remove it from the walls before you left in the morning.

Our next stay is in September at the BW so I am hoping they have the same setup as I will be bringing my shower rod. It is a tension rod that goes up and down very easily.

That is totally annoying about the wait for you AP (and lack of appropriate celebration when you finally got the cards ) We once experienced a non-moving line at Guest Services in MK. We were coming back from Kona, had rented a locker and were in line to get our deposit back. Like in your situation, both CMs were trying to resolve an issue for the same person. Well, turns out the person behind us wanted to rent a locker, and we had paid cash for ours, so we just "sold" our key to her for the price of the deposit.

I was thinking it should work more like McDonalds drive thru. If one customer is going to take too long you move them to the side and help everyone behind them. Although I was the only other person in line at GS when the whole wait stared there were about 5 people behind me by the time it was my turn.

That is really sad about the people Drinking Around the World. But hopefully, it served as a good lesson for your son about how stupid the people who were falling-over-drunk looked. We stayed at an all inclusive resort in February, and my son witnessed some people who had over-indulged and it served as an opportunity for us to explain to him that these people were not making good decisions.

I agree about using it as a teaching moment. Honestly. Disney would be the last place I would want to be drunk. I want to remember every moment of our time there and walking through the park in the heat is hard enough sober.

 

[lsenquiz]

Today = Sunday May 26th

Before I get started I just wanted to make a couple of comments on the room:

1) The beds were very comfortable
2) There was a strange noise at night (kind of like a moaning sound) that was there the entire trip. Usually I was so tired that I slept right through it but DH had to wear ear plugs most nights
3) If you leaned out over the balcony rail and looked to the right you could see some of the fireworks from Illuminations. This prompted me to think that it would be a good idea to fence in the roof top so people could go out there where they would have an awesome view!

Day 3 SWW @ DHS Part 1

I was up by 6am this morning because I wanted all of us out the door and on our way to DHS by 7am. This was going to be our first of three scheduled SWW days for this trip. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it. We had last been to SWW in 2011. If you read my PTR you know that I got a little stressed out over the way they handle the character met and greets. If you did not read my PTR the bottom line is that most character lines for SWW have 4 characters associated with them. When you get in line you have no idea which of the 4 you are going to get. This is fine the first time you get in line but becomes irritating when you get in line again and again and keep getting the same character. I learned some tricks after our last trip so was hoping that using them would keep the stress level down.

We had gotten bagels and eggos at the store so that was our breakfast that morning. We managed to be out the door by 7:00am so I was happy. I was kind of bummed to see a boat pulling away right as we walked out the door. We debated trying to run to Swan and Dolphin to catch it but ditched that idea pretty quickly. I was glad we did because we could already see another boat on its way by the time we got over to the dock for the yacht club. As information the boats run in this order:

To DHS: Boardwalk, YC/BC & Swan and Dolphin
From DHS: Swan and Dolphin, YC/BC and Boardwalk

I will go ahead and say now that the transportation to and from DHS for our entire stay was awesome. We never waited more than 10 minutes for a boat even when we knew we had just missed a boat.


DSC03221 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC03218 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


We arrived at DHS by 7:30am (the park was scheduled to open at 8am) and got in line to go through the ticket scanners. They had not started letting people through yet and we were about 30 people back. All the entries were set to open. We waited about 5 minutes and they started letting people through. However, Rope Drop is alive and well for Star Wars weekends so we were all stopped at a rope right before we get to the part where you can take the road to the left that leads you past Echo Lake. They did a cute little Star Wars show with the Stormtroopers and dropped the rope right at 8am.

Our plan (which is the same plan we have used for every visit to DHS for the past 4 years SWW or not) was for Kenny to run to get FPs for TSM and Gabriel and I to run to get him signed up for Jedi Training and then we all meet at Star Tours. I knew because of the DIS that signup for Jedi training was held in a different place during SWW than it is normally held. However, I do not think you could have missed it even if you did not know because the crowd heading that way was huge. We followed the crowd and ended up about 200 people back in line to get Gabriel signed up. They used the Indian Jones line for the sign up process.

Gabriel and I had a great time in line and made friends with two families. One of them heard me talking to the other one and realized that I had been to Disney before so I answered questions for both families while we waited since it was both their first visit.

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the front and get our class assignment. We ended up in the 1pm class with the two families we made friends with. One of the families had a little boy that was 5 years old but honestly looked about 3 so I knew he would be so cute to watch in the show. Our best experience was when Gabriel did it the first time when he was 4.

With our class time locked down we headed out to find Kenny who was waiting for us by Star Tours:


DSC04405 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

The stand by wait was just 5 minutes so we went ahead and got into line since this is Gabriels absolute favorite attraction. Gabriel got picked as the Rebel spy . Before we got on he insisted that he knew a trick to getting picked (and said it was not waiting to put your glasses on). He would not tell me what his trick was but he was quick to gloat when he did get picked.

After that we needed to get some character meet and greets in so we headed to that area. The line for Chewy was already about 1 hour long but these fellows were right across from him with almost no wait:


DSC03228 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

While we waited for Chip and Dale I asked Kenny when our FPs for TSM started and found out they opened at 9:10am. Our FPs were open by the time we finished up with C&D so we headed over to:


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

This is a traditional picture we have been taking of Gabriel when he gets off the ride since TSM opened:


DSC03230 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

We headed back to the character meet and greet and ran into this guy on the way:


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

These guys just roam around and you walk up to them for a picture. Since this was a good guy it was easy to get him to stop for a picture. That would not be true of the bad guys (insert foreboding music here)

Up next was the character line for Commander Cody, Captain Rex, Ventress and Ahsoka. I honestly did not care who we got since this was our first time through the line. We ended up with Commander Cody:


DSC03237 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

While Gabriel and I were waiting in line Kenny ran over and got in the line for Anakin, Mace Windu, Shaak Ti and Kit Fisto. I know some would think this is cheating but since Kenny and I rarely get into the picture and we only have one child we feel like we are trading one for one when Gabriel gets into line with Kenny.

Kenny was just two from the front by the time we got over to him and Gabriel got to see Mace Windu and Shaak TI (It is awesome when you get two characters at once ):


DSC03242 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I know Gabriel looks bored in this picture but I think he was trying to make a serious face

Next we got in line for a picture of these two favorites:


DSC03244 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Honestly, we probably would have skipped it excepted there were exactly zero people in line to see them so Gabriel felt sorry for them.

Next we let Gabriel do something he has always wanted to do but we have never let him do. Get his face painted. I always felt like he would be miserable for the rest of the day. However, this was really important to him so I let him do it.


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

I had an experience while I was waiting for Gabriel's face paint to be complete that still bothers me today. While we were waiting for Gabriel to be done I struck up a conversation with another mom also waiting on her daughter. While we were talking another mother walked up and the mom I was talking to told that mom thank you again for what you did. The new mom said no problem happy to help we are now headed to see some characters. I piped in and said you might want to check out Mater and McQueen as they have no wait. The moms response was my son has ADHD and believe me I take full advantage of that so we do not wait in any line then she walked away. Ok no problem. Then the original mom I was talking to says to me that lady was so sweet, she got a special pass for both her sons so they would not have to wait in line then realized she only needed one so she gave me her extra one to use. Isn't that awesome we can bypass the line for every ride while we are here!. I just about bit my tongue off trying not to say anything. I did ask if her child was special needs and she said no. After that I just kept telling myself it was none of my business (which it wasnt). However, it did shock me that first a mother with a special needs child would give the pass away and second a mother that did not have a child with special needs would take it.

With face paint in place (and Gabriel already telling me it itched) we continued our quest to meet every Star Wars character.

We were lucky enough to get Ahsoka on our first try. She is very hard to get because she helps with Jedi Training so she is only out for a couple of 20 minute segments per day:


. by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

Next up we found some of the band roaming around. These guys are very funny and we really enjoyed interacting with them.


DSC03250 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr


DSC03247 by Disneyalwaysn4ever, on Flickr

After the band we decided we better get some lunch before it was time for Gabriels Jedi training. We ate at the ABC Commissary which I have no pictures of.

Up next Jedi Training, an unpleasant surprise and an evening on the beach.

 

[BridgetR3]

Looks like you got some great pictures of Star Wars Weekend characters!

I can't believe that those ladies shared a GAC card!!! People who take advantage of it are going to ruin it for those who really need it.

Anxiously waiting to see what the unpleasant surprise is....

 

[lsenquiz]

Looks like you got some great pictures of Star Wars Weekend characters!

This is just the first batch of many awesome pictures. Now, if only I had creative bone in my body I could turn the pictures into a really special scapebook for gabriel.

I can't believe that those ladies shared a GAC card!!! People who take advantage of it are going to ruin it for those who really need it.

I agree. IMO this is very black and white subject and there is just no grey when it comes to using a GAC. I wanted to ask the Lady who took the GAC to use if she believed is Karma at all? However, it upsets my DH when I do things like that so I just continued to bite my tongue.

Anxiously waiting to see what the unpleasant surprise is....

My updates will be coming fast so you will not have long to wait. I am anxious to get this TR completely done for fear I start forgetting things.

 

[natebenma]

I added them to your thread. They are in post #30. However, please free free to use any of my pictures anytime!

THANK YOU so much for posting the room and view photos and permission to use others (I will let you know if I do).

I really appreciate it!

 

[natebenma]

Great update!!!

Glad you could see some of the Illuminations fireworks from your room. We have stayed at the BC twice. The second room we had was standard view- we could see some of the Illuminations fireworks, but we had an awesome view of the Magic Kingdom fireworks (Nightastic)!

Sounds like you had a really effective, productive, fun morning at SWW! Great pictures!

That's nice that you struck up a friendship with the people in the JTA line. We did that once in the TSM queue- my son Ben 9 at the time, and I talked with Paul, a 4 year old boy, the whole time. It is such a nice memory for us and it was a great way to pass the time.

Less impressed with the other family using a GAC pass when not needed!

Love the pictures with the band members.

Ruh-roh with an unexpected surprise!

 

[Kitkat6595]

I love everything so far!!!! Great pictures. The Beach Club is BEAUTIFUL. Oh my goodness.

I cannot believe that mom gave the card and the mother mom just took it. That drives me bonkers.

 

[tinawv]

Your son is adorable. Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

 

[indimom]

Sounds like you got off to a great start on those character photos! Love the face paint. I've seen Star Wars, but I'm not a huge fan, so I have to ask, is the face paint a particular character? It looks a bit like Darth Maul (sp?), but different too...
Yikes on the GAC sharing. That's just crazy/sad/shocking. Hard to believe that people are completely okay with doing that.
Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day. But, an unpleasant surprise? Uh oh.