The BEST DVC perk.

[starbox]

Here's a picture from one of my favorite moments of last week's vacation:

I signed up DS11 and my dad for the Behind the Magic Steam Train tour. This means getting to the MK by 7 am and had until 11 am before I met them at the end of the tour. I drove them there while the rest of the family slept and then took the monorail to the POLY.

Not many people are up at 7 am, so I had a very quiet breakfast by myself at Kona and then read in a Hammock on the POLY beach. It was completely quiet and serene. A little after 9am, I took a boat to the MK (I was the only one on it) and then just walked around and watched all the families arrive at MK for park opening. Since I was alone, I offered to take pictures for some of them.

Then, I went and read my book in the shadow of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse until I got the call that the boys were finished with the tour and ready to met up with the rest of the family at EPCOT.

Now, I am a reader and spending a morning by myself with a book at Disney was pretty much as close to bliss as I think I can get on this earth. I actually had the thought that I needed to stopand remember what it felt like to be 100% content and grateful.

To me, that's a priceless perk of being a DVC member and knowing you have years and years of vacation so you can just SLOW DOWN and experience the parks at your own pace.

 

[WDWLVR]

I agree! I have a bad ankle that sometimes after too much walking will lock up on me and make it very painful to walk. Last December my DH and I did the Segway tour at Ft. Wilderness and then lunch at the Poly and a tour of the monorail hotels as well as Beach Club and Yacht Club. By the time we got back to the room (around 2 pm) my ankle was really acting up. Got a cold drink and my book and went and sat out on the balcony of my Boardwalk View room. I spent a couple of hours out there reading and people watching. That night instead of going back out we had leftovers for dinner and watched Illuminations from our balcony.

I knew with DVC I'd be back and having this afternoon/evening downtime felt great and I really didn't feel like I was missing the parks at all.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Great post! And the Magic Behind the Steam Train tour was one of my and DH's favorite parts of one of our vacations! DH actually did it twice, once with a very DUnc!

Bobbi

 

[disneynutz]

Here's a picture from one of my favorite moments of last week's vacation:

I signed up DS11 and my dad for the Behind the Magic Steam Train tour. This means getting to the MK by 7 am and had until 11 am before I met them at the end of the tour. I drove them there while the rest of the family slept and then took the monorail to the POLY.

Not many people are up at 7 am, so I had a very quiet breakfast by myself at Kona and then read in a Hammock on the POLY beach. It was completely quiet and serene. A little after 9am, I took a boat to the MK (I was the only one on it) and then just walked around and watched all the families arrive at MK for park opening. Since I was alone, I offered to take pictures for some of them.

Then, I went and read my book in the shadow of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse until I got the call that the boys were finished with the tour and ready to met up with the rest of the family at EPCOT.

Now, I am a reader and spending a morning by myself with a book at Disney was pretty much as close to bliss as I think I can get on this earth. I actually had the thought that I needed to stopand remember what it felt like to be 100% content and grateful.

To me, that's a priceless perk of being a DVC member and knowing you have years and years of vacation so you can just SLOW DOWN and experience the parks at your own pace.

Great picture. You should submit it to the Disney Files magazine. Do you mind if I post it on my website?

 

[brittsmum1998]

I totally agree w/ the slow down process. I've sometimes based how good DVC vacations are based on how many books I get read during the week on the balcony w/ a cold glass of wine. The perk of being a member is not rushing through anything. If you see me on the hammock on an early morning try not to tip me over

 

[Corinne]

Oh man, I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DeeCee735]

DH and I spent a wonderful relaxing time in Animal Kingdom Park, we had a leisurely (and yummy) lunch at Tusker House, we didn't have to "run" anywhere to make any attractions, we just leisurely strolled into Flights of Wonder, leisurely strolled through Pangani Trail and spent time watching the silverbacks, and leisurely strolled through Maharajah Trek watching the tigers. It was something I have wanted to do for a long time but never had the chance, always running around with the family. This was so awesome to be able to pick a thing we looked forward to and just enjoy it at our own pace. No more commando park touring, just one thing at a time! And eating......no more rushing, now we take the time to enjoy a restaurant or a snack - another reason to love DVC.

 

[RLRDA]

Totally agree with taking time to "smell the roses" - or in this case "read the book"! DVC definitely gives you the peace of mind to experience Disney at a slower pace.

So, what book are you reading in your picture? Anything worth recommending?

 

[starbox]

Great picture. You should submit it to the Disney Files magazine. Do you mind if I post it on my website?

Not at all - feel free to post away.

Totally agree with taking time to "smell the roses" - or in this case "read the book"! DVC definitely gives you the peace of mind to experience Disney at a slower pace.

So, what book are you reading in your picture? Anything worth recommending?

It was The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver - It was Entertainment Weekly's top book of 2007. I liked it very much.

I also read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult on the trip - which I thought was okay.

My favorite summer read is The Time Traveler's Wife. That gets my highest recommendation.

 

[goofydad99]

I agree! We just came home from an eleven day trip. We were inside the parks for most of the mornings. Most of our evenings were spent in the resort relaxing and **gasp** catching up on movies we haven't seen.

 

[erin.w]

We are still in the "newlywed" position, and have tons too see/do, but I do look forward to trips where things are less planned, and we can just relax.

 

[oakmanner]

That is one of the main reasons we joined DVC. More trips to WDW less stress with having to see everything. Now we just take it slow and easy. If we see something fine if not oh well we'll see it next time.

A far cry from being at AK at rope drop and sprinting across the park to Kilimonjaro Safaries (spelling).

Dennis-

 

[kimberh]

I love not being a Park Commando anymore. We have a whole different type of trip now.

 

[disneymom8589]

On our last trip, DH and I took things at a much slower pace and it was so relaxing. That's one of the beauties of DVC.

 

[DVCRob]

What an awesome pic! This sums up the slow-down DVC attitude that I am learning to live with. For a former commando-style Disney fan, this was a huge change for me - still one I'm totally learning to live out.

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

That sounds like a great morning ! It is so nice to be able to slow down and not run around, and then do the running around if you wish !!

Our family is very busy back home and really likes to take vacation slow. Expecially on our fall trip when the kids stay home. One trip we brought dvd's of a favourite tv show that we never had the time to watch at home. For a few of the mornings we got up early, made coffee and went back to bed to watch an episode or two. Sounds crazy but we never have that down time at home and this felt like a luxury. It was just for an hour or so and we had the rest of the day to explore....or just move to the pool !!

 

[marvali]

Great Pic Amy!

You are absolutely correct. I know when we go down to WDW this summer the kids will still be in the "commando" mode somewhat, but DW and I plan to take it much slower than usual now that we are DVC members.

I made a list of attractions we didn't do last summer, and some we have never done, and plan to get to as many of those as possible, but the funny thing is that most of them are places where you just slow down and experience them. We were too busy in the past trying to get to all the big rides and shows to take in so much of what WDW has to offer. DW and I plan to take a lot of time this trip to just explore the WS, which in the past got a very limited amount of our time.

I am normally an early riser, so thanks for adding one more thing to my list to look forward to. I will still take in the major rides, but now I have a new way to relax and unwind so it feels like I actually took a vacation when we get back home.

 

[starbox]

Great Pic Amy!

You are absolutely correct. I know when we go down to WDW this summer the kids will still be in the "commando" mode somewhat, but DW and I plan to take it much slower than usual now that we are DVC members.

I am normally an early riser, so thanks for adding one more thing to my list to look forward to. I will still take in the major rides, but now I have a new way to relax and unwind so it feels like I actually took a vacation when we get back home.

I actually still like getting up early enough for rope drop because it always seems so exciting - plus the heat/crowds are not bad. I usually inisit we do rope drop and then leave around lunchtime - the only problem is, even with a break mid-day, we don't end up staying late and I am the only non-night-owl in the family.

This time we did something that worked well - we hit rope drops the first half of the trip, then went to Vero, and when we came back we flipped our script and slept late and did parks at closing. We still avoided heat and crowds doing it that way and saw some cool things we'd never seen before.

On the last night of the trip - my kids got to be the last riders on space mountain - and that was pretty cool.

 

[shortypots]

Since we are doing the Dis thing like 5 times in a year, we are gonna try to go relaxed for 2 of the trips. We have friends coming with us on the Oct trip, but we are trying for 2 more exchanges through II for 2 more weeks that are just DH and I. I can picture him with his book on that same hammock. We said that on one of the trips we are gonna take a day or two and drive to each of the DVC resorts and truly see which one would be our favorite. He is kinda wondering what all the fuss is about in regards to BCV and BWV.

In the future, we plan on taking our entire family with us. First trip is planned for 2 AKV SV 2 bds for June 2010. Probably will only do 6 nights to save us 160 pts, but since it is free accomodations to the fam, I do not think they will complain. Our intention is to let them go gangbusters and we might join them on occasion, but our idea is to relax.

 

[marvali]

I actually still like getting up early enough for rope drop because it always seems so exciting - plus the heat/crowds are not bad. I usually inisit we do rope drop and then leave around lunchtime - the only problem is, even with a break mid-day, we don't end up staying late and I am the only non-night-owl in the family.

This time we did something that worked well - we hit rope drops the first half of the trip, then went to Vero, and when we came back we flipped our script and slept late and did parks at closing. We still avoided heat and crowds doing it that way and saw some cool things we'd never seen before.

On the last night of the trip - my kids got to be the last riders on space mountain - and that was pretty cool.

We are not the most experienced Disney family there is, and certainly not the least, but we have never done rope drop. We have talked about it a lot for our upcoming trip and everyone is geared up for it. We will still be doing the early in, midday break, and back for the evenings for at least part of this trip, mainly due to the August heat and crowds, and because we missed some of the fireworks and late shows like Fantasmic that we want to catch this time.

I don't plan for that to be our daily occurrence the whole trip though. I expect that we will also do a couple of days of sleeping in, taking in a leisurely early part of the day, and then staying late at a park with EEMH.

It's amazing how much DVC membership can get into your psyche so quickly.