This will likely be more of a collection of random thoughts as opposed to a true trip report, and I'm far too lazy to include pictures, but I offer you the following humble report, such as it is.
The cast of characters...
Main cast:
Myself, 36
My lovely wife, also 36
My precocious daughter, turning 5 during the trip
My rambunctious son, 3 years and some change
Second unit:
Mother-in-law (grandma age)
Father-in-law (grandpa age)
My Mom (grandma age)
My brother, 40
The trip was Friday, December 2nd to Friday, December 9th, 2011*and we were all staying at Bay Lake Tower with cash reservations. *My crew and my in-laws in a 2 bedroom villa and my Mom and brother with their own studios.*
Although my wife and I are road warriors with hundreds of trips under our belts, this was our first time flying with the kids - and our first visit to Disney World in 12 years - so I was a bit apprehensive. *We live in Chicago and are fortunate enough to have access to a full size airliner exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, so we made a few "dry run" visits with the kids to get them used to the idea and what to expect/how to behave on an airplane. Very helpful!
Day One, Friday - Arrival
We got going bright and early Friday morning and*made it to Midway airport with plenty of time to spare. *The flight was on time and the kids loved every minute of the flight - it honestly couldn't have been smoother.*
We ended up with all three rooms on the 12th floor - our two bedroom was #8229 and the studios were #8238 and #8240. Our two bedroom was pretty much dead center on the inside of the "C" layout of BLT, looking due east across Bay Lake. And let me tell you, the view was fantastic. Frankly, I'd take that view every time over the theme park view. *I thought the theme park views were underwhelming, as they are mostly parking lot and with the castle being so far away. Sunrises over Bay Lake where gorgeous. The two studio rooms were more south-easterly views...mostly Bay Lake, the Contemporary marina, and the Contemporary itself. *Pretty nice views, I thought, especially as you could see Spaceship Earth on the horizon!
A few overall impressions of BLT:*
- I love the Contemporary, so the theme, style, furnishings, etc were all right up my alley. *Disney absolutely nailed the floor plan and amenities in the one and two bedrooms. Tons of space, three full bathrooms, the full laundry and storage room, the kitchen, and even the nice entry hallway which doesn't open directly onto the living room/kitchen space were just fantastic. *We felt totally spoiled.
- The rooms looked totally worn. *Worn carpets, plenty of wall dings, some stains on the furniture, etc. *It wasn't that big of a deal, and I realize these rooms get a ton of traffic, but I was pretty surprised that the rooms looked like they needed renovations just 2 years after they were built.
- Mousekeeping kind of sucked. I left a few very healthy tips up front to prime the pump and received mediocre service in return. *Several times our garbage wasn't emptied, towels replaced, etc. *We were on a cash reservation, so we were receiving daily service. *I began to wonder if the housekeepers there are so used to the every 4 day service of DVC members and were just mailing it in for us. *Disappointing.
- The complimentary wifi performance was solid. I expected it to be unusably slow, but it was actually pretty good.*
- I forgot how funny the tap water smells down in Florida. *Funky.
- The lighting in the master bedroom is atrocious. The bulk of the light provided is from the two bedside sconces and it's just super bright and a very harsh shade. I've almost never thought twice about hotel lighting in the past but this was super annoying.
- The layout and overall floor and site plan of BLT makes sense in a vacuum, or simply to service the views of the MK and lake, but other than that is a bit goofy. *The long curving hallways with just two elevator banks on either end always seemed inconvenient. *Going in and out of the main entrance always felt like you were going out of your way, and having an equal number of elevators in the north and south banks make sense in theory, but is silly when you consider that 90% of all elevator traffic is running through the south bank (due to the walkways to the Contemporary) while the north bank sits relatively unused.*
- I'm not sure if this was mostly due to the time of the year, but once it hits about noon, the BLT pool is entirely in the shade. Even when it was over 80, it was almost too cold to swim because it was in the shade. The Contemporary pool is much better sited in this respect, and gets almost constant sunshine prior to sunset. *But the Contemporary pool has no zero entry! *Didn't they just renovate this pool in 2008?! *A huge miss in not adding zero entry there...I really hope they do so sometime soon. *The big slide and the kiddie slide at the BLT pool were awesome.*
With our 5 and 3 year old we decided to rent a stroller. *We got the City Mini double from Orlando Stroller Rentals. Totally easy process - bell services brought it up to our room and we dropped it off at Bell Services after we checked out. *The stroller was clean, compact, mobile, and easy to use. *The huge name plate they strap to the bottom was great for identifying your stroller in the vast stroller parking areas. *Our only quibble was they put two note cards with stroller operation instructions in the included packet and I only looked at one - the wrong one - and couldn't puzzle out how to collapse it for a full day. Boy, I felt pretty stupid when I figured that out, especially as the collapse straps have "PULL HERE" or something like that in huge letters written on it.*
The only discount we could finagle for a cash reservation at BLT was Free Dining. *I'm not personally a fan of the dining plan but was going to take whatever deal I could get and that's all that was available. At the end of the day I found keeping track of credits to be a hassle I would rather not have had to deal with and the sheer amount of paper that gets pushed your way when doing a table service meal is absolutely comical - its like the waiter delivered you a small novel when they brought your check - but the waiters, everyone one, were awesome about dealing with everything. Two of our group were not on the dining plan so we often had split checks, and our attitude was we ordered whatever we wanted and paid out of pocket for whatever wasn't covered by the dining plan, and each waiter handled it all perfectly without even batting an eye. A huge round of applause to all of the waiters we had!
My crew and my Mom and brother arrived at MCO within an hour of one another (around noon), walked over to the car rental level and had our minivan rental and booster car seats for the ankle biters in no time. *I've rented a lot of cars in my lifetime and was pretty impressed with the speed and efficiency of the operation. *Most of the folks on the boards here seemed to think it was a crazy idea using the rental companies car seats, but they seemed clean and in perfect operating condition to me. *I'd use them again without a second thought but they were boosters and therefore only suitable for older kiddos like mine.*
My wife and I had a good time arguing over whether to follow the signs to the airport or trust the phone GPS...in the end I think we followed half of the instructions each way and took as long and circuitous of a route as humanly possible. *Unload and check in took the usual strangely long time but we were in our room with our luggage, stroller rental, and grocery delivery with minimal hassle!
We grabbed a bite to eat at the Contempo Cafe while we waited for my in-laws to arrive. *I really liked the touch screen ordering system - it seemed like it sped up the ordering process considerably - and my club sammy was solid - the multigrain bread they are using for sammies on property is really, really tasty. *At first I thought the chips were delicious and a little "spicy", until I realized they were really just incredibly over salted and I could only choke down a couple.
Once the in-laws arrived and got settled we made a brief foray into the MK right around dusk. *I had totally forgotten how Main Street is engineered with sights, sounds, and smells and it was just overwhelming. It was the first time for my children, and having so much family there was just an incredible experience.
We decided to ride the Jungle Cruise and just walk around a little. *I think the JC is waaaaay better at night because all of the old effects and run down appearance is way less noticeable but my 3 year old totally freaked and buried his head in my chest for the entire ride. *Whoops! *Unfortunately, he was somewhat scarred for rides the rest of the way....and my application for "Worst Dad in America" hadn't even been submitted yet. *More on that on Day Four (Monday)!
To be continued with...
...two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and one raging case of pneumonia!
The cast of characters...
Main cast:
Myself, 36
My lovely wife, also 36
My precocious daughter, turning 5 during the trip
My rambunctious son, 3 years and some change
Second unit:
Mother-in-law (grandma age)
Father-in-law (grandpa age)
My Mom (grandma age)
My brother, 40
The trip was Friday, December 2nd to Friday, December 9th, 2011*and we were all staying at Bay Lake Tower with cash reservations. *My crew and my in-laws in a 2 bedroom villa and my Mom and brother with their own studios.*
Although my wife and I are road warriors with hundreds of trips under our belts, this was our first time flying with the kids - and our first visit to Disney World in 12 years - so I was a bit apprehensive. *We live in Chicago and are fortunate enough to have access to a full size airliner exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, so we made a few "dry run" visits with the kids to get them used to the idea and what to expect/how to behave on an airplane. Very helpful!
Day One, Friday - Arrival
We got going bright and early Friday morning and*made it to Midway airport with plenty of time to spare. *The flight was on time and the kids loved every minute of the flight - it honestly couldn't have been smoother.*
We ended up with all three rooms on the 12th floor - our two bedroom was #8229 and the studios were #8238 and #8240. Our two bedroom was pretty much dead center on the inside of the "C" layout of BLT, looking due east across Bay Lake. And let me tell you, the view was fantastic. Frankly, I'd take that view every time over the theme park view. *I thought the theme park views were underwhelming, as they are mostly parking lot and with the castle being so far away. Sunrises over Bay Lake where gorgeous. The two studio rooms were more south-easterly views...mostly Bay Lake, the Contemporary marina, and the Contemporary itself. *Pretty nice views, I thought, especially as you could see Spaceship Earth on the horizon!
A few overall impressions of BLT:*
- I love the Contemporary, so the theme, style, furnishings, etc were all right up my alley. *Disney absolutely nailed the floor plan and amenities in the one and two bedrooms. Tons of space, three full bathrooms, the full laundry and storage room, the kitchen, and even the nice entry hallway which doesn't open directly onto the living room/kitchen space were just fantastic. *We felt totally spoiled.
- The rooms looked totally worn. *Worn carpets, plenty of wall dings, some stains on the furniture, etc. *It wasn't that big of a deal, and I realize these rooms get a ton of traffic, but I was pretty surprised that the rooms looked like they needed renovations just 2 years after they were built.
- Mousekeeping kind of sucked. I left a few very healthy tips up front to prime the pump and received mediocre service in return. *Several times our garbage wasn't emptied, towels replaced, etc. *We were on a cash reservation, so we were receiving daily service. *I began to wonder if the housekeepers there are so used to the every 4 day service of DVC members and were just mailing it in for us. *Disappointing.
- The complimentary wifi performance was solid. I expected it to be unusably slow, but it was actually pretty good.*
- I forgot how funny the tap water smells down in Florida. *Funky.
- The lighting in the master bedroom is atrocious. The bulk of the light provided is from the two bedside sconces and it's just super bright and a very harsh shade. I've almost never thought twice about hotel lighting in the past but this was super annoying.
- The layout and overall floor and site plan of BLT makes sense in a vacuum, or simply to service the views of the MK and lake, but other than that is a bit goofy. *The long curving hallways with just two elevator banks on either end always seemed inconvenient. *Going in and out of the main entrance always felt like you were going out of your way, and having an equal number of elevators in the north and south banks make sense in theory, but is silly when you consider that 90% of all elevator traffic is running through the south bank (due to the walkways to the Contemporary) while the north bank sits relatively unused.*
- I'm not sure if this was mostly due to the time of the year, but once it hits about noon, the BLT pool is entirely in the shade. Even when it was over 80, it was almost too cold to swim because it was in the shade. The Contemporary pool is much better sited in this respect, and gets almost constant sunshine prior to sunset. *But the Contemporary pool has no zero entry! *Didn't they just renovate this pool in 2008?! *A huge miss in not adding zero entry there...I really hope they do so sometime soon. *The big slide and the kiddie slide at the BLT pool were awesome.*
With our 5 and 3 year old we decided to rent a stroller. *We got the City Mini double from Orlando Stroller Rentals. Totally easy process - bell services brought it up to our room and we dropped it off at Bell Services after we checked out. *The stroller was clean, compact, mobile, and easy to use. *The huge name plate they strap to the bottom was great for identifying your stroller in the vast stroller parking areas. *Our only quibble was they put two note cards with stroller operation instructions in the included packet and I only looked at one - the wrong one - and couldn't puzzle out how to collapse it for a full day. Boy, I felt pretty stupid when I figured that out, especially as the collapse straps have "PULL HERE" or something like that in huge letters written on it.*
The only discount we could finagle for a cash reservation at BLT was Free Dining. *I'm not personally a fan of the dining plan but was going to take whatever deal I could get and that's all that was available. At the end of the day I found keeping track of credits to be a hassle I would rather not have had to deal with and the sheer amount of paper that gets pushed your way when doing a table service meal is absolutely comical - its like the waiter delivered you a small novel when they brought your check - but the waiters, everyone one, were awesome about dealing with everything. Two of our group were not on the dining plan so we often had split checks, and our attitude was we ordered whatever we wanted and paid out of pocket for whatever wasn't covered by the dining plan, and each waiter handled it all perfectly without even batting an eye. A huge round of applause to all of the waiters we had!
My crew and my Mom and brother arrived at MCO within an hour of one another (around noon), walked over to the car rental level and had our minivan rental and booster car seats for the ankle biters in no time. *I've rented a lot of cars in my lifetime and was pretty impressed with the speed and efficiency of the operation. *Most of the folks on the boards here seemed to think it was a crazy idea using the rental companies car seats, but they seemed clean and in perfect operating condition to me. *I'd use them again without a second thought but they were boosters and therefore only suitable for older kiddos like mine.*
My wife and I had a good time arguing over whether to follow the signs to the airport or trust the phone GPS...in the end I think we followed half of the instructions each way and took as long and circuitous of a route as humanly possible. *Unload and check in took the usual strangely long time but we were in our room with our luggage, stroller rental, and grocery delivery with minimal hassle!
We grabbed a bite to eat at the Contempo Cafe while we waited for my in-laws to arrive. *I really liked the touch screen ordering system - it seemed like it sped up the ordering process considerably - and my club sammy was solid - the multigrain bread they are using for sammies on property is really, really tasty. *At first I thought the chips were delicious and a little "spicy", until I realized they were really just incredibly over salted and I could only choke down a couple.
Once the in-laws arrived and got settled we made a brief foray into the MK right around dusk. *I had totally forgotten how Main Street is engineered with sights, sounds, and smells and it was just overwhelming. It was the first time for my children, and having so much family there was just an incredible experience.
We decided to ride the Jungle Cruise and just walk around a little. *I think the JC is waaaaay better at night because all of the old effects and run down appearance is way less noticeable but my 3 year old totally freaked and buried his head in my chest for the entire ride. *Whoops! *Unfortunately, he was somewhat scarred for rides the rest of the way....and my application for "Worst Dad in America" hadn't even been submitted yet. *More on that on Day Four (Monday)!
To be continued with...
...two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and one raging case of pneumonia!
