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

[courtneylauren]

Alright, here's what yall have been waiting for! Here we go with the photo tour of our gorgeous view! My mom has a great Nikon camera with two lenses -- a closer one and a big zoom one. These pictures are with the zoom lens

On the left, Downtown Disney. You can see the Characters in Flight Balloon and the Cirque tent.

Epcot- Spaceship Earth and you can see the Imagination pavilion too.

Wilderness Lodge, and in the background on the very left, you can see the Earful tower at DHS. I don't think have a better picture, or a picture of the hat.

Animal Kingdom -- Everest on the left and Tree of Life on the right.

Contemporary with double monorails going through

CR pool and garden wing (where we stayed in 04)

CR Pool slide

Walkway between BLT and CR

GF

I miss this so much!

We had an amazing view. It was truly spectacular!!!!

 

[dancer4life22]

deleted by poster.

 

[courtneylauren]

I will PM you

 

[ScotsMinnie]

Fabulous views!!!! One day I would love to stay there!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Now that's what I call a view....stunning! Thanks for sharing

 

[courtneylauren]

Fabulous views!!!! One day I would love to stay there!

Now that's what I call a view....stunning! Thanks for sharing

It was great!!!!!! I have to admit, I was a little upset when I heard our room # at check-in, because I'd researched on here - the lake view rooms that have a MK view as well, and we'd requested that through member services and called the hotel and everything - but this just goes to show that everything happens for a reason, because it was perfect!

 

[courtneylauren]

Hi yall,

Sorry for the hold up...trying to wait until my photopass CD is in. It should be in tomorrow or Thursday!

Speaking of Photopass CD..... click on the link to the Dis Photopass List in my signature, and add to it!

 

[lklasing]

I'm loving your TR! We are about to book our first trip to BLT (1BR, LV) and I am so excited! The pictures of you and your sister are so cute. My girls are 12 and 14, so I love to see sisters having fun together.

Love the view from your room! That's the exact view I'm hoping for.

Looking forward to reading more!

Leslie

 

[courtneylauren]

Our photopass CD came in today! I'm going to get the pictures uploaded and try to post another update tonight! Sorry for the hold up.

 

[Jersey Cinderella]

I love the t-shirts, where did you get them? We are going in early November and my daugher we love that t-shirt.

 

[MickeyLover20]

Can't wait to hear more and see the Photopass pics!

 

[courtneylauren]

I love the t-shirts, where did you get them? We are going in early November and my daugher we love that t-shirt.

My mom and I went to NYC this summer for my 16th birthday (which was back in Feb). I actually saw a post on here about a store with tons of Mickey / Disney shirts - called UNIQLO, so we went there specifically because of that.
http://www.uniqlo.com/mickeyby/us/
http://www.uniqlo.com/us/

They had tons more designs than what is on the website. Maybe if you call the store, and send a picture, they can ship it to you? Or maybe you can find someone on here that lives in NYC and could get it for you. Or maybe your daughter will like one of the ones online. Good luck!

Can't wait to hear more and see the Photopass pics!

Uploading to Photobucket as I type!

 

[courtneylauren]

Alright, thanks for being patient! Photopass CD is in! We ended up with 506 pictures from 13 days (10 days at the parks).

So we started off our second morning at our favorite waterpark - Typhoon Lagoon!

Lilo was waiting to see us.

Then, after renting our locker - we headed to our favorite, the wave pool! We love the waves!!! We also like to have a photopass photographer take our picture as the wave is coming over is. It makes for a great picture!

We spent lots of time in there, and then went to the family raft ride - Gangplank Falls. It's a short (ok, VERY short) ride, but still fun.

Now here's where I have something to really report. Anyone that's been to TL knows that the lazy river is a nice, bright blue. Well...not today.... The water was a yucky green, like a lake water color. We asked the lifegaurds what was up and they had no idea.

I do have to give props to the photopass photographers for trying to hide it in the pics they took, but my dad took a picture that shows the water.

Photopass'

My dad's

(We went back to TL at the end of our trip and the water was the normal color.)

After that, my dad, Megan, and I rode Crush n' Gusher - which we love!!!!!!

We are lunch at Leaning Palms, which was fine... your typical Disney counter service food.
We headed back to our home sweet home to get ready for our activity. What activity? Well, when we had arrived at BLT yesterday, we saw the schedule of activities in our room, and signed up for one for this afternoon. Which one?? Come back and find out!

 

[Queenofallthings]

[COLOR="Blue]Great pictures from TL! I love the pp picture of the wave hitting you guys....we have one of those and it cracks me up![/COLOR]

 

[SurfinTX]

Joining in kinda late...or is it?

13 days?! I guess you have just begun really. We stayed at the Poly in early June just across the lake from you. I guess the Contemporary blocks the view in that direction.

We had a 5 minute wait for our DME bus, and then another 5 minutes once we were on the bus.

That's a really short wait!

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.

Now that is the way to get a magical vacation started! We stayed at the Club Level so there were nice touches during our stay but nothing like that!

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.

Any more pictures of the rooms would be great if you have them. I always like to see the layout.

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.

Wow! DVC Concierge really went all out!

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.

Your parents are so lucky! Only if my children did as much research as you did. I was the primary planner for our trip so not many surprises for us!

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!

Actually I did recieve a nice card from Donald wishing me a happy birthday and a nice Polynesian decorated chocolate. You guys at this point must have been going crazy with Disney Magic!

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

Now we are getting to familiar territory!

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!

We enjoyed watching the fireworks from the Poly our last night.

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!!!!!

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

That ice cream with cotton candy looks exactly like what my kids would love!

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.

Wait! You went back to the Contemporary? I was hoping you could have watched them from the Poly Beach! It's so nice there watching it from across the lake.

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!

No doubt. It was nice to just walk in the Poly as well. We saw the fireworks from inside the park the second day they changed shows to the Spectacular and it was a madhouse!
[COLOR]

Alright, here's what yall have been waiting for! Here we go with the photo tour of our gorgeous view! My mom has a great Nikon camera with two lenses -- a closer one and a big zoom one. These pictures are with the zoom lens

Thanks for the views from the BLT. It looks like an amazing place to stay.

So we started off our second morning at our favorite waterpark - Typhoon Lagoon!

We went to TL as well!

Then, after renting our locker - we headed to our favorite, the wave pool! We love the waves!!! We also like to have a photopass photographer take our picture as the wave is coming over is. It makes for a great picture!

The wave pool was our favorite as well. The kids spent hours in it.

Now here's where I have something to really report. Anyone that's been to TL knows that the lazy river is a nice, bright blue. Well...not today.... The water was a yucky green, like a lake water color. We asked the lifegaurds what was up and they had no idea.

I do have to give props to the photopass photographers for trying to hide it in the pics they took, but my dad took a picture that shows the water.

What in the world? It was very clear water when we went. I guess someone messed up a filter earlier? I'm glad you were able to get pictures around TL. I was always afraid my camera would get wet.

After that, my dad, Megan, and I rode Crush n' Gusher - which we love!!!!!!

We missed out on Crush n' Gusher. We did however do the Reef swim which I don't see in your report. That was really fun for me but the kids didn't like how cold and salty it was.

We are lunch at Leaning Palms, which was fine... your typical Disney counter service food.

We ate at Typhoon Tilly's. To us everything tastes good when your outdoors and swimming a lot!

We headed back to our home sweet home to get ready for our activity. What activity? Well, when we had arrived at BLT yesterday, we saw the schedule of activities in our room, and signed up for one for this afternoon. Which one?? Come back and find out!

I'll be waiting for your next update then!

Oh and a shameless plug for my trip report in my sig.

 

[courtneylauren]

Great pictures from TL! I love the pp picture of the wave hitting you guys....we have one of those and it cracks me up!

Thanks! We have a better one from last year, but this one's great too! They're such fun pictures!

Joining in kinda late...or is it?

13 days?! I guess you have just begun really. We stayed at the Poly in early June just across the lake from you. I guess the Contemporary blocks the view in that direction.

Not late at all - thanks for joining!
Would have loved to have seen them from Poly beach, but with it being our first night at BLT, wanted to see them from the roof! Someday we'll make it to Poly beach!!

I'll post pictures of the room soon.

Yes, the water in the lazy river at TL was very... yuck. It was back to normal the next time we went to TL though!

Nope, no shark reef. Megan is a very fearless girl - except for sharks and boats. We went to WL later in the trip for dinner, and she wouldn't ride the boat from WL to CR. She did ride one boat - more on that later.
We went to the shark reef to check it out though.

Also - I see you're in Dallas! We're in Houston.

 

[Jersey Cinderella]

Thanks for the info on the t-shirts. My daughter and I checked out the website and we will visit the store. We are enjoying your trip report and looking forward to your next report. We go in less than 3 months.

 

[ppoe65]

I have been reading your blog and its great. You guys pack a lot into a day. Your dining chioces are some of my favorite. I'm interested in how your tie-dye shirts came out. Do you have any pics? We have been trying to get them right with no luck. We would like to all wear matching shirts on our trip this fall. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jenniferreich]

I'm glad to have found your trip report and look forward to reading it!

 

[MickeyLover20]

Loving your report! The pic of the wave hitting you guys is awesome! I wish we would have gotten one of those when we were there. Can't wait to hear what your activity was!