The Search for Mickey sprinkles (or, a July 2010 Bay Lake Tower 20th Anniversary TR)

[courtneylauren]

Hey yall! Welcome to my trip report - The Search for Mickey sprinkles (or, a July 2010 Bay Lake Tower 20th Anniversary TR)! I started one last year and didn't finish it, but I'm determined to finish this one!

We just got back last night, and had a GREAT time! Best ever!

So, on to the details!

WHO:
Me, Courtney - 16
My sister, Megan - will be 13 tomorrow
My mom, Bonnie
My dad, Neil

WHEN:
July 11-23, 2010

WHERE:
Bay Lake Tower - our first DVC stay

WHY:
Cause we WDW! And for my parents' 20th anniversary - July 14

This was our 10th trip.
We flew Southwest and used Disney's Magical Express.

We were on the Regular Disney Dining Plan. I'll be reviewing each restaurant in here too.

Now, last year the reason I didn't continue my TR is because I didn't have many readers. So please, let me know you're reading!

I'll post the first update soon!

 

[nickjonasluvr]

Here!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Looking forward to more

 

[MickeyLover20]

Can't wait to hear all abou your trip!

 

[dancer4life22]

Im in!

 

[ScotsMinnie]

I'm in too!!!!

 

[courtneylauren]

Yay I have readers! First update tonight.

 

[courtneylauren]

It was a long night trying to get everything packed. I don't think I got to sleep until around 1? Our driver was supposed to pick us up at 5:15, but by 5:25 he wasn't there. We called him, and he said he thought he was supposed to pick us up at 6:15! A little stressful, but we made it to the airport with plenty of time. Our flight left at 7:20, and we were supposed to get in at 10:50, but got in 10 minutes earlier.
We had an uneventful flight (that seemed to take forever!!)
We had a 5 minute wait for our DME bus, and then another 5 minutes once we were on the bus.

Before long, we saw this wonderful sight!

Then this!

Then (after a quick stop at WL) finally this!

We checked in at the Contemporary, and were told we were randomly selected as Family of the Day! We got balloons, buttons, a certificate, and they took our picture. The next day, our name was on the screens in the Contemporary lobby, and we got a card with a picture of Mickey and our picture.

Then we went to check out our room! We were in room 8434, on the 14th floor. It was a 1 bedroom lake view. It was an AWESOME view! We could see Downtown Disney hot air balloon, Spaceship Earth, the Sorcerer Hat and Earful Tower, Everest and Tree of Life, Contemporary, monorail, CR marina and pool, and the Grand Floridian - along with Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. I took pics later in the trip.

The room itself was amazing. None of the furniture was worn down like I had read, and there were no problems with the gaps in the bathroom doors, or any of the problems I'd read.

We went to the MK after that.

We had lunch at El Pirata y El Perico. We love the taco salads there.
Then we saw Pirate Goofy and rode PoC with a very short wait. I think it was like 6-8 minutes.
Did Stitch, Monster's, and TTA. Megan's joke was put up in Monster's.

"Do you want to hear a joke about a pencil? Nah...it's pointless!"

Then we went to MS Bakery to use our first snack credit. Ice cream cookie sandwich! YUM!

Went back to the hotel room to chill and get reading for the evening.
I'll leave you with this... we went to dinner somewhere on the monorail path. Where? You'll have to wait and find out!

 

[Queenofallthings]

What a nice surprise to be chosen as Family of the Day....congrats!! Can't wait to hear where you went for dinner and most definitely can't wait for pics of that view from your room!!

 

[courtneylauren]

It was a great surprise!

I'll post the room pics soon! It was an amazing view. It's something to be able to see all of WDW (except MK) from your hotel room!!!!!

I'll try to post the next update today!

 

[Greta]

Hi Courtney! Just joining in! Looks like it's going to be a great trip report! Family of the Day! That's awesome!!

 

[dancer4life22]

delete

 

[courtneylauren]

Hi Courtney! Just joining in! Looks like it's going to be a great trip report! Family of the Day! That's awesome!!

Thanks! More to come!

omg your mom looks exactly like my math teacher!

and how lucky! you were chosen to be family of the day!

and post some pictures of your room i wanna see it!

Haha well she's a preschool teacher!
I'll post them soon!




Today is Megan's birthday! Not sure if I will get an update posted or not, if not today than tomorrow.

 

[DisneyRockstar]

TR is looking good so far! Can't wait for more!

 

[Native NYer]

Joining in and enjoying your tr.
We're staying at BLT in a 1 bedroom LV room next month and am happy to read that you didn't encounter some of the problems reported here.
Congrats on being Family of the Day!
I love you and your sister's matching shirts. Too cute!

 

[courtneylauren]

TR is looking good so far! Can't wait for more!

Thanks!

Joining in and enjoying your tr.
We're staying at BLT in a 1 bedroom LV room next month and am happy to read that you didn't encounter some of the problems reported here.
Congrats on being Family of the Day!
I love you and your sister's matching shirts. Too cute!

Thank you!
You'll love the 1 BR LV. BLT was fabulous. We don't want to stay anywhere else! In fact, during our trip we went to the DVC center to look in to more points! More on that later though.
More matching shirts to come! At home, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same thing as her...only in Disney! We have some matching shirts as a family too.

 

[MickeyLover20]

Does it really only take 30 minutes to fly to Disney or is there a time differenceÉ(sorry my question mark isn`t working). I can`t wait to hear more about your trip. You are so lucky to get there that early and have the whole day at Disney! Can`t wait to see those pics of the view from your room!

 

[courtneylauren]

When we got back to the room, we had some surprises! I should mention that prior to the trip, I sent lots of emails to people at Disney writing about my parents' anniversary.
We found two gorgeous roses for my parents, two charm bracelets for my sister and I, and a bouquet of flowers in a DVC mug. These were gifts from DVC Member Services.

DVC Mug/Flowers

Roses wrapped in ribbons

Then a few minutes later, we had a knock on our door, with a delivery of a chocolate monorail, chocolate candies, and a special card. The card was from us, for their anniversary. We had sent the card to the restaurant manager of CR/BLT and she said she'd have it delivered and put something with it.

Monorail and our card

Later we got another knock! This time, we got a card from Mickey Mouse, with a picture of him wishing us a great celebration - and on the other side was the picture that the front desk took when they told us we were Family of the Day. Lots of great treats!

We went swimming in the AMAZING pool. The waterslide was awesome, and the hot tob was nice and big. It was so great to swim and look out and see Bay Lake! Ahh I miss it! We went up to shower and change.

Pool!

Then we got on the monorail and went to Kona Cafe for dinner.

Poly

Last year, we ate here on our last day. We hadn't seen the fireworks yet (even though we'd been there 12 days), and ended up eating in about 20 minutes to make it to MK in time! My family blames me and won't let me forget it!
So this year, we made our reservation with plenty of time to spare!

Kona

We love this place! Our server, Debi, was great. We started with the yummy Hawaiian bread. We all got the pineapple teriyaki NY strip steaks. Yum!!!!!

Steaks!!

For dessert, we kinda combined a few desserts together. My mom, sister, and I had chocolate molten cake with ice cream and cotton candy, and my dad had the Kona Kone.

Desserts

Here's where the Mickey sprinkles started. There were some on our desserts, and my mom asked the manager if he could give us a little container of them, and he did. Then our waitress said "you know that the stores have them too, right?" Well we didn't know that! 9 trips and we'd never seen them. She said to check at Goofy's in DtD. More on our sprinkle hunt later. Anyways, it was a wonderful dinner at Kona and we'll be back!!

We came back to the room, and then got ready to go to the Top of the World lounge to watch the fireworks. We were so excited to see them from up there. The lounge was gorgeous and we had a great view of the fireworks from the roof.

Fireworks

The best part? Not dealing with the crowds leaving the park! Just hopping on the elevator and being in our room a minute after the fireworks!
We also discovered that we could see the Electric Water Pageant from our balcony, and we watched that.
We were exhausted after getting up at 4:30, and being up til 11:30!

We went to a water park the next day. Which one? You'll have to wait and see!

 

[courtneylauren]

Does it really only take 30 minutes to fly to Disney or is there a time differenceÉ(sorry my question mark isn`t working). I can`t wait to hear more about your trip. You are so lucky to get there that early and have the whole day at Disney! Can`t wait to see those pics of the view from your room!

Oh no, it took us 2 hours 20 min. I meant to say our flight was supposed to get in at 10:50, but we got in at 10:40. My bad! I'll fix that!
We got to the hotel around 12:30.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Kona is one of our favorite too...we have it booked twice for our September trip...once for breakfast and once for dinner!

How wonderful to be able to watch the fireworks from the top of the building....beating the crowds is always a huge plus