Hi Minnie & Lisabelle - thanks for watchin!
We have arrived
As we approach the entrance to Disneys Beach Club, we have the standard discussion of valet/self-park, bell hop/lug-it-ourselves. On this day, we have decided that we will valet AND bell hop. Yes my friends,
we have arrived. We have met the day that we would utilize services that just a few years prior were considered only for the spoiled or wimpy. We decide that I will go inside to check in, and the rest of the family will wait in the car in the event the room is not ready. The cast members must witness this plan quite often, because the kindly greeted me without swarming the vehicle as if to say Well leave you alone until you come back.
As I walked into the Beach Club, it was as if I was seeing it for the first time, which as a guest I was. When I was a cast member I was fortunate enough to have a behind-the-scenes tour of this resort, but for some reason that all left me and I saw it just as I should, amazing. I was greeted by the friendliest gentleman who pointed me in the right direction. There was no line at the check in counter, and the process was painless. Now I am never one to make requests. Other than non-smoking, the room location/view is not important to us (or so I thought), so I never even thought to look or ask where the room was. I was handed my Welcome Home packet of information, and with resort map & room keys hand I practically skipped out the door to my awaiting family.
The handful of documents must have been the tell-tale sign to the bellman that we would indeed be staying. He promptly asked if we needed assistance and I replied with a healthy Yes please! While everything was being unloaded I informed the man of our package that was here waiting for us. He said he would check on it and get it right to our rooms. Now in this moment of vacation excitement & insanity I handed over a very hearty tip to this man. For some reason in my head I was thinking that he would park the car, take our bags from the car, run to the storage are to retrieve our package, and then wheel it all himself to our Villa. In my normal state of mind, I know that this is not how things go
but I was excited, reasonable thinking had escaped me. Of course as we turned over the keys to another cast member it dawned on me
the error I had made. With all the excitement of arrival, my clear head had been momentarily clouded. Of course I tipped the valet, and again tipped the friendly bell person that delivered our luggage, and again tipped the other bell person that delivered our package. All told, Im not sure exactly how much this particular check-in cost us but Im sure that were talking a bit more than a couple Mickey bars & turkey legs. These cast members were friendly, kind, prompt so Im going to chalk this error up to they deserved it, and I could afford it, so be it.
Now I mentioned earlier, this is Tuesday. And for some strange reason, things seem to work a bit differently for our family on Tuesdays; including room assignments. With all of our visits we have never had a bad room assignment, and really quite honestly I questioned if there really could be a bad room assignment on Disney property. Now I know and believe that one mans trash is another mans treasure, and this room is case in point. If you wanted to be super, super close to your car in the parking lot, this was the room for you. We were the very laaaaaaaaaaaast room on the second floor, 278 to be exact.
Here are our girls at the entrance to the villa buildings:
I was very thankful that we brought enough stroller seating for all three of our kids, because at the end of a long day
.that last leg of the journey to rest would be agony for little feet. It would not have been my first choice of rooms, but thankfully we were prepared to handle the extra walking and I will admit the easy access to the parking lot was nice.