Touring the Tower of Terror and other Ghoulish Delights! Sept 13 TR | FINALx2 4/17!!!

[eb021]

Loving the trip report so far. I've been lurking since the beginning of this one and finally decided to say hi.

I've always thought the vinylmations looked cool, but had no idea what there were really all about. I feel like I've just learned so much about them that now I want to start collecting.

 

[APears]

I found your TR from Fantasyland Mom's TR...and now I'm HOOKED reading all of your others!
I got so excited when I realized that you were at WDW the same time my bf and I were last year (Jan 2013)...and I have to admit I tried to find myself in your pictures because we actually did the same exact parks at about the same times for the first 3 days. We even ate at BOG at the same time as you...crazy small world!
Anywho, thank you for explaining Vinylmation, I've never fully understood it but obviously as a Disney fan I am always intrigued. Can't wait to read more!

 

[danimaroo]

Chapter 24: Gio remembers me and Vinylmation trading galore!
Day Five: September 15th, 2013

After everyone else was let in at 9:30, I headed back for the trade box lines from the game line, where I got separated from the mom and daughter but instead made friends with other people around me. I would say about 95% of the people in the lines were amazingly nice and very friendly! It made me feel welcome since I was doing this alone.

Unfortunately you had a few bad apples who were there to just try to make money (by trading for higher value Vinylmation to sell on eBay later). These are what people call "sharks". You have these people who will prey on people who don't know Vinylmation well and will try to trade with them in an unfair manner (offering a lower-end common for someone's variant when a person doesn't realize they have a variant). These people can really try to ruin the hobby, but luckily, most traders don't fall into this category and want to help one another out.

I needed a break from the trade box lines, so I stepped aside to check my phone and see if Matt had texted me at all. He had, and told me that there were issues with our MagicBands, that he couldn't get into our room with his, BUT that he had gotten us checked in and our room was ready that morning! I was really happy to hear that our room was ready, and he said it was on the 5th floor facing Epcot, basically RIGHT above our room from January, hahaha. We just couldn't escape that room!

As I might have mentioned (I can't remember), we were not able to use our MagicBands until this day. Wilderness Lodge was not part of the MB testing, so ours were not activated until we moved to Beach Club. Needless to say, our first few hours with them were not going well (or should I say, Matt's first few hours).

I was a little bummed out that we were having issues with the MagicBands. Matt had gotten to the room and couldn't get in at all, not even with the actual room key. So he had to go all the way back to the front desk to get it sorted out. They said they had fixed it, and he went back up to our room... where the MagicBand STILL didn't work, but the room key did. Soooo he finally said the heck with it, headed over to Epcot, where his MB did not work to get into the park, wompwomp.

We texted back and forth for a bit, and he said he was going to head over to meet up with Jenn and her family, who were also in Epcot that morning, and I told him I'd check in with him in a bit to see if he wanted to get some lunch.

After I finished texting with Matt and grabbed myself some water, I decided to go and head over into the trading tables area to see what people had and maybe to make some trades of my own with fellow traders!

I stopped by a few people's tables who had made their own custom Vinylmation, and I have to say, some of the artwork was really impressive! I also met some people from this Vinylmation Facebook group I'm a part of called the Vinylmation Exchange. It was really awesome to meet some of the people I'd chatted or traded with through the mail finally in person. I finally walked around a bit and checked out everyone's traders they had displayed on the tables...

I made some trades with people, then finally decided to take a break and sit down at a table and display my Vinylmation in case anyone was interested in anything I had with me.

More than anything, it was just nice to sit for a while and people-watch.

There were a lot of people who just brought their pins with them, which I thought was kind of weird since this was the Vinylmation-trading day, but whatever!

My biggest trade of the day was getting a Red Pascal variant from the Animation 3 series! I traded away my extra Park 1 Red Monorail (Park 1 is the first Vinylmation series EVER, so a lot of them are extra valuable) and the guy was super excited about it. I was happy to trade for a variant, as I knew having an extra Red Pascal (I already had him in my collection at home) would potentially help me in finding one of the Haunted Mansion variants that I needed.

Look at Angry Pascal, isn't he adorable?!

The regular "common" version of Pascal is him looking happy and adorable and green.

After sitting for a bit and doing some more trading, I texted Matt who said he was up for some lunch over in England, and Jenn would be coming over with Sawyer, as well (Brandon and the girls were doing a tour). I was really excited to take a break and see how their day was going, so I headed out to meet up with them.

I walked out of the event area and it was funny how many people in the park were stopping and asking what the event was all about since there was a sign outside. The CMs told them it was a paid event, etc., but I even had someone ask me since they saw me come out of it, so I gave them a quick rundown. It's funny how you can have no idea that Disney has these types of events unless you're a pin or Vinylmation collector!

Anyway, Matt and Jenn and Sawyer were right outside waiting for me, and we headed over to get some lunch in England!

I went and found us a table, surprisingly with ease, and soon enough we were all sitting down for some Fish 'n Chips.

Haaaave I mentioned how much I love the Fish 'n Chips here?! SO GOOD. It was nice to catch up with Matt and Jenn about their day so far. Jenn will have greater detail in her next TR updates on what they were all up to, so I'd suggest checking out her future TR updates in case you're a curious cat about Matt's day.

While we were eating, and enjoying our lunch with the umbrella open and shielding us from the sun, a CM came over and told us he had to close the umbrella because there was a storm coming. NOOOOO. So we had to eat in the sun, but thankfully we were more than half way through our lunch when he closed it.

Sawyer made sure to remind me that he heard me scream on Space Mountain the night before throughout lunch, and it was hilarious and adorable. He then REALLY wanted to get a picture of a duck with Jenn's iPad, so he went after a duck who was trying to mooch food from guests in the area.

We finished our lunch and headed out, and Jenn got Sawyer prepared for the potential storm that was rolling in... Spoiler: No storm ever rolled in, just a light rain.

Matt and Jenn weren't sure what they were going to do, but I wanted to head back into the trading event for a little more trading, so I said goodbye to them and let Matt know I'd text him once I was done.

On my way back inside to the event, I saw my "friend" from Friday, Gio, the cast member who works in Vinylmation... and he actually waved at me! I told him I was surprised he remembered me, and he told me there was no way he could forget me! It was kind of adorable.

We chatted for a bit about my day, and we talked about the DHS Villains event on Friday night, which he didn't get a chance to go to. I then told him I needed a photo with him because of how much I just loved chatting with him! Seriously, he was the NICEST CM ever and was super happy to take a photo with me.

I told him I was going to head back inside, but that I'd come back and make sure to say goodbye before I left the event later on.

Now, part of the registration for the event, everyone was given a $15 gift card to be used on whatever you wanted, which was pretty awesome. They were also selling a new Nightmare Before Christmas Series at the event (which has not been released to the public yet). So I figured I'd buy a couple of blind boxes and use my gift card on that!

I know, I'm lame and didn't take a photo of the actual ones I opened, but I WAS super excited one of them was Teddy because I adore his role in the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay in Disneyland during Halloween/Christmas time.

Anyway, I continued to trade for a while longer with people and in the trade boxes.

The trade boxes were somewhat disappointing, as it seemed like most of what they were refreshing the mystery boxes with were just outlet/BOGO non-Disney stuff. In fact, I had more luck trading with people in line than I did at the boxes, haha. But I came away with a few chasers, so really, there was nothing to complain about!

It was around 4:30, and I was pretty much done dealing with the trade boxes, and unfortunately I couldn't work out a trade for my Red Pascal for a Haunted Mansion variant, so I decided to head out of the event to go find Matt, Jenn and the fam.

But don't worry! After we returned home from Disney, I ended up selling my Red Pascal variant and used that money to pay for the Haunted Mansion variant I needed. I actually ended up collecting the ENTIRE Haunted Mansion series soon after (I was only missing two final variants), which I'm pretty proud of.

This is just a little photo of my Haunted Mansion collection to date, along with some of my Park series Vinyls (just so you guys can see how I display some of my stuff, though there is a LOT more I own, haha. If there's enough interest, I'll post more of my collection in my next update):

This is the entirety of my Haunted Mansion collection. It's my most valuable one I own.

These are the three Hitchhiking Ghost "variants". As you can see in the photo above, the common version of them is a clear blue. The variants are white and glow in the dark.

The Haunted Mansion series itself was VERY hard to find. It was only sold in the parks and sold out extremely quickly, which is why it today remains was one of the more valuable collections... plus with so many people loving the Haunted Mansion, it is a very popular one.

The next two photos just show off my Park series displays I have up right now, though more will be added here soon. I love these little display cases, as it's a nice alternative to putting my stuff on shelves.

Anyway! On my way out, I said goodbye to Gio and thanked him again for being so awesome and fun to talk to. He told me that during his meeting on Monday, when they talked about the event, I was the one person who he would talk about because he just enjoyed meeting me so much. This just made my day!

I don't know if you ever meet people who you just click with in a genuine way, but he was one of them. I even wrote to Guest Services after the event to leave a nice email, just saying how much I really enjoyed talking to Gio and how he really made me feel excited again about the future of Vinylmation.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed my first Vinylmation trading event. There were a couple of bad eggs here and there, but the majority of the people that I met were amazingly friendly and very helpful.

Would I do it again? Hm, this is kind of tough. The ONE thing I didn't like about this day was that it kind of felt like a wasted Disney day for me. I'd spent 8 hours at the event, and as much as I absolutely love Vinylmation, it's hard to give up park time for a trading event.

I think because we live so far away from Disney World and that we only get there typically once per year, it's tough to give up a day for trading. But all that being said, I definitely enjoyed myself and ended up coming away with some GREAT stuff to add to my collection (which is coming up in my next update).

Continued in next post​

 

[katt789]

I definitely just read the “very quiet” as Elmer Fudd….

Aw man, I got SO into Vinylmations this past trip, trading and buying and even found the Anna and Elsa ones at DTD! I wish Olaf wasn’t so hard to get!!

Ahahahahahah oh man awkward waiting for the cab adventure!! WOW THAT LINE!

Looks like you had a pretty decent day, lots of trading and even a nice break for lunch with some friends!! Yay!! Ah! That HM collection is amazing!! So awesome!!

 

[danimaroo]

Loving the trip report so far. I've been lurking since the beginning of this one and finally decided to say hi.

I've always thought the vinylmations looked cool, but had no idea what there were really all about. I feel like I've just learned so much about them that now I want to start collecting.

Aww thank you for commenting and saying hi! Vinylmation are SUPER fun to collect, but be warned, it's addicting! If you know the right places to trade and buy, it can make it even better! Let me know if you ever have any questions about it!

I found your TR from Fantasyland Mom's TR...and now I'm HOOKED reading all of your others!
I got so excited when I realized that you were at WDW the same time my bf and I were last year (Jan 2013)...and I have to admit I tried to find myself in your pictures because we actually did the same exact parks at about the same times for the first 3 days. We even ate at BOG at the same time as you...crazy small world!
Anywho, thank you for explaining Vinylmation, I've never fully understood it but obviously as a Disney fan I am always intrigued. Can't wait to read more!

Awww AWESOME! So glad you're here from Jenn's TR and I hope you're enjoying reading them!

That is so funny that we were at WDW at the SAME time and in so many spots together! I kind of wonder if you were like, secretly standing next to us at some point, haha. You never know!!

And no problem on the Vinylmation. They're really fun to collect!

I definitely just read the “very quiet” as Elmer Fudd….

Aw man, I got SO into Vinylmations this past trip, trading and buying and even found the Anna and Elsa ones at DTD! I wish Olaf wasn’t so hard to get!!

Ahahahahahah oh man awkward waiting for the cab adventure!! WOW THAT LINE!

Looks like you had a pretty decent day, lots of trading and even a nice break for lunch with some friends!! Yay!! Ah! That HM collection is amazing!! So awesome!!

Hahaha I love wthat you read it that way... because then I had to, of course. Veeeewy quieeeet.

Vinylmation are so addictinnnng! I bought the Anna and Else Vinylmation from the Disney Store website at midnight, haha. AND I ordered two Olaf blind boxes and I GOT A SUMMER OLAF VARIANT! I was so freakin' excited about it:

That was my first time I've ever pulled a variant from a blind box, and of course, it was Olaf, who is my favorite little guy in Frozen! It was such an awesome moment. There were only 250 of him made (out of 2500 total).

That morning was AWKWAAARD but it was fine, just hilarious, hahaha. I had a great day trading, it was fun and I learned a lot. And thank you! I'm proud of my HM collection. In fact, tonight is the online release of the Haunted Mansion Stretching Portraits set! I'm so excited to get that one and add it to my collection!

 

[Miss Potts]

I love those fish and chips! Yum! What a perfect little lunch break.

I totally understand what you are saying about not wasting a day a Disney at a trading event. Last Feb, I ran the Princess half marathon and even doing an event like that cut into a lot of Disney time. Wasting isn't the right word, because it's not a waste... It's just not the same as riding splash mountain and eating a Mickey premium bar!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Yeah, they removed SO much of the trading spots! It's insane. There's 1 place per park now to trade, which is a bummer. I do a little trading in the parks, but most of it is online! It's weird that they removed the trade boxes though, especially since trading is such a HUGE part of the hobby! What characters is your son looking for? I might be able to help out!

He still needs 1/2 of series 1. Chewy, R2, Darth Vader, C3PO, Lea, and the Chaser. (Obi-Wan?)
Thanks for the offer, or even if you can send us to a site where he could maybe online trade? That would be fun, too. He has 3 Han Solos, 2 Yodas and then 1 of each of the others.

Heading back to catch up on the updates now.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

I love your little collections and how you have them displayed in the shadow boxes.
Your HM collection is very cool.
I feel like I'm wasting a day when we spend it at a water park! I am usually chomping at the bit to leave by 3, but the kids are just getting into it and really don't want to go to a park by then.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Aww gee, there's always those "sharks" in everything that's fun that could potentially ruin the whole experience. So glad it's a small percentage.

God I am so sorry to hear about your MB issues. I had some minor ones (all related to FP+), but to have room and park access issues would have been annoying.

WOW, Vinylmation is some serious business.

OMG Dani, that Haunted Mansion display is AMAZING!!! Just Awesome!

That is just so incredibly sweet with the CM Gio and actually talking about you in meetings. How wonderful!!

 

[jecskc]

I loved reading about your vinylmations stuff - wow. And I LOVE you HM collection. I was so disappointed when they took a bunch of the trading boxes out of the parks. We have some really cute ones, nothing really valuable, I am sure, but I would love one of those display boxes. Is that something I can google ?? Easy to get ?? Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

Susan

PS - I hope Matt liked his hat, and you liked yours !!

 

[khertz]

It sounds like a fun event for the most part! My DH is the Vinyl trader among us (I just looked and he's in that FB exchange group too...along with 3,000+ other people, but still! ). He is definitely not as into it as he was when he first started now that they have pretty much eliminated trading in the parks except for a couple of locations. He would probably love an event like this, had we been in the parks at that time! It can be hard to give up that kind of time though on a Disney trip when you already feel like your time there is so limited!

 

[Jennifer48]

Thanks for including so much detail in your Vinyl trade day. Lots of information for a non-trader like myself

Its nice to see them all displayed in your house too! Glad with all the work you do to trade, they aren't just all sitting in a box somewhere!

 

[gracer9977]

Love all the pictures of the Vinylmation event. So cool that you got to be part of that experience. I know what you mean though about giving up a park day to be part of it. Although it's great that you did it once, even if that was a one time thing.

Your HM display is so awesome!!!!! I love the cool glow in the dark variants that you have.

I love that little Olaf that you got and so totally awesome that you go the variant in the blind box. I am so bummed that I didn't know about the Frozen LE set coming out and missed out on them. I usually only buy the on sale Vinyls but I love Frozen. Oh well, maybe they will come out with another set in the future.

Those display boxes that you have on the wall are really cute and such a great way to display parts of your collection.

Bummer about the MB not working for Matt and all the trouble he had getting into your room and then into Epcot. Hopefully from then all they worked much better.

Going over to read Jenn's TR now to see what is going on with them while you were at the event.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!

 

[danimaroo]

I love those fish and chips! Yum! What a perfect little lunch break.

I totally understand what you are saying about not wasting a day a Disney at a trading event. Last Feb, I ran the Princess half marathon and even doing an event like that cut into a lot of Disney time. Wasting isn't the right word, because it's not a waste... It's just not the same as riding splash mountain and eating a Mickey premium bar!

Me, too! They really are the best.

And yeah, see that's what I mean! It's fun but just feels weird to be doing something other than running around eating Dole Whips or riding Splash Mountain! I doubt I'll go again, but it was at least a pretty fun time!

Yeah, they removed SO much of the trading spots! It's insane. There's 1 place per park now to trade, which is a bummer. I do a little trading in the parks, but most of it is online! It's weird that they removed the trade boxes though, especially since trading is such a HUGE part of the hobby! What characters is your son looking for? I might be able to help out!

He still needs 1/2 of series 1. Chewy, R2, Darth Vader, C3PO, Lea, and the Chaser. (Obi-Wan?)
Thanks for the offer, or even if you can send us to a site where he could maybe online trade? That would be fun, too. He has 3 Han Solos, 2 Yodas and then 1 of each of the others.

Heading back to catch up on the updates now.

Ahh, if only I had extras of the ones he needs!

There are a few good places to trade online. TradeStreetUSA is one, and my personal favorite where I've had the most success is Vinylmation Exchange on Facebook. If you look up that name in the search you'll find it, and you can ask to be added.

I love your little collections and how you have them displayed in the shadow boxes.
Your HM collection is very cool.
I feel like I'm wasting a day when we spend it at a water park! I am usually chomping at the bit to leave by 3, but the kids are just getting into it and really don't want to go to a park by then.

Haha thank you! I have more going up here soon, just need to figure out exactly where on the wall. But that makes sense! I have to admit I like spending a lot of time at the pool, especially Stormalong Bay. It just feels like vacation/Disney to me! But I haven't been to the waterparks since I was 12, so there's that, haha.

Aww gee, there's always those "sharks" in everything that's fun that could potentially ruin the whole experience. So glad it's a small percentage.

God I am so sorry to hear about your MB issues. I had some minor ones (all related to FP+), but to have room and park access issues would have been annoying.

WOW, Vinylmation is some serious business.

OMG Dani, that Haunted Mansion display is AMAZING!!! Just Awesome!

That is just so incredibly sweet with the CM Gio and actually talking about you in meetings. How wonderful!!

Yep, it's lame, but the sharks don't concern me personally since I know what I'm doing, thank goodness.

Yeah, it got worse later on, haha, but that's a story for well.. soon, actually, since I'll be updating here shortly!

Thanks so much! My Haunted Mansion display is one of my favorites, that's for sure!

I loved reading about your vinylmations stuff - wow. And I LOVE you HM collection. I was so disappointed when they took a bunch of the trading boxes out of the parks. We have some really cute ones, nothing really valuable, I am sure, but I would love one of those display boxes. Is that something I can google ?? Easy to get ?? Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

Susan

PS - I hope Matt liked his hat, and you liked yours !!

Yeah, so many people were bummed out about the lack of trading, I have NO idea why they did that! It's such a bummer.

The display cases that you see are from Michael's! They're actually shot glass display cases. They normally cost $60, but I always buy them when they're on sale, so I can usually get them for under $30 a piece, which is great. They're sturdy, too!

We LOVED our hats, thank you again SO much. That was beyond kind of you.

It sounds like a fun event for the most part! My DH is the Vinyl trader among us (I just looked and he's in that FB exchange group too...along with 3,000+ other people, but still! ). He is definitely not as into it as he was when he first started now that they have pretty much eliminated trading in the parks except for a couple of locations. He would probably love an event like this, had we been in the parks at that time! It can be hard to give up that kind of time though on a Disney trip when you already feel like your time there is so limited!

It was a lot of fun! And that's funny your husband is in the VE group! It's the biggest one I know of, really, and I've made TONS of trades through it!

One GOOD thing I've heard is that the trade boxes in the parks are slowly getting better and have less crappy Vinyls in them, which is nice to hear.

The event was a lot of fun and I'm sure he'd love it. I made SO many trades while there that I can't just make on a daily basis or even while in the parks.

Thanks for including so much detail in your Vinyl trade day. Lots of information for a non-trader like myself

Its nice to see them all displayed in your house too! Glad with all the work you do to trade, they aren't just all sitting in a box somewhere!

Not a problem! I'm sure people are looking forward to less talking about Vinylmation, so here's hoping I can get a new update posted here before I leave work, mwahaha.

I have SOME that are just kind of sitting around and I need to put up. I've also been trying to downsize my collection a bit more and focus on things that I love/mean something to me, which is a good thing!

Love all the pictures of the Vinylmation event. So cool that you got to be part of that experience. I know what you mean though about giving up a park day to be part of it. Although it's great that you did it once, even if that was a one time thing.

Your HM display is so awesome!!!!! I love the cool glow in the dark variants that you have.

I love that little Olaf that you got and so totally awesome that you go the variant in the blind box. I am so bummed that I didn't know about the Frozen LE set coming out and missed out on them. I usually only buy the on sale Vinyls but I love Frozen. Oh well, maybe they will come out with another set in the future.

Those display boxes that you have on the wall are really cute and such a great way to display parts of your collection.

Bummer about the MB not working for Matt and all the trouble he had getting into your room and then into Epcot. Hopefully from then all they worked much better.

Going over to read Jenn's TR now to see what is going on with them while you were at the event.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!

Thanks! It was a fun time, but probably one-time thing for me!

And thanks, the glow in the dark variants are just too awesome. They were hard to get/expensive, but worth it for sure!

I am SO glad I bought the Olaf boxes and Frozen set. This was before the movie came out, so I was gambling if I hated the movie (though I guess I could have just traded it or whatever if I did, haha)... I'm sure they'll be featured in future sets! They still need a Sven and Kristoff Vinylmation, too!

Yeah, the display shadow boxes are a new thing for me, since most of my stuff is on shelves, but I REALLY like having them on the wall. They look really awesome!

I hope you had a fabulous Christmas, as well! I sure did, and I'm excited to be back on the DIS again for updates galore!

 

[danimaroo]

Hi everyone!! I hope you guys didn't forget about me, because I PROMISE I didn't forget about you. As I suspect happened for most everyone else around here, the holidays took over for us and then we had some time off from work. I got so many fun things for Christmas that I wanted to check out, that that ended up taking a lot of my time away from the computer. Plus, it was just SO nice to be home and not worrying about work... Matt and I also watched a lot of movies and TV shows.

I'm back at work again, and life is considerably less crazy (work included, though we'll see if that lasts), so I should have way more time for giving you guys updates. We have a quick Las Vegas trip later this month for our annual company outing, but otherwise I'm hoping for less busy weekends/evenings.

Anyway, I hope I didn't lose too many of you reading along, and I will do my absolute best to keep bringing you updates way more frequently than I have been lately.

And now, onto a double-update, and finishing up Day Five!





Chapter 25: Cape May... and we're HOME again. <3
Day Five: September 15th, 2013

After heading out, I went and found Matt over by the Duffy Store, where Jenn and the fam were buying some stuff. I had a bit of a panic as I thought I'd lost my new key card to the room (which ya know, would be bad since we had room charging on that card). Buuut thankfully it was just hiding in my pocket, so crisis averted!

We went inside the store and found everyone, and I was happy to see them al! My feet and back were hurting a LOT from hauling around all of the Vinylmation all day, but we had some time to go on a ride, so we headed over to Mexico for a little Three Caballeros (or as Sawyer would call it, Donald's Boat)!

Brynn and I sat together and held hands because she was my BFF during this trip!

After a fun little trip on Donald's Boat, we took a quick bathroom break, then headed out towards Beach Club!

It began to rain a bit on our way, but nothing too awful, which I appreciated since we didn't have our ponchos with us.

Before we knew it, we were walking up to Beach Club again...

It felt SO GOOD to be walking back up there, knowing this was my home for the next 7 days. I don't think I realized just how much I had missed this resort.

I know, some of you think I'm probably weird for wanting to ALWAYS stay at the same resort, but I can't help it. I just love the feeling I get when I'm at the Beach Club. I love the smell of the lobby, I love the themeing of the resort as a whole, I love how close it is to Epcot, I love how quiet it is in the Villas area... I love how it really is home for us in Disney World. The only other resort I get this feeling with a bit is Old Key West, which I'm thinking is because I love the music and laidback feeling I get from that resort, too.

I think I just really enjoy the beachy/laidback feeling of those resorts. It just says "I'm on vacation" to me.

So yeah, that being said, I was really happy to be back here.

We walked into the lobby, then headed to the left...

It was time for some Cape May Cafe and their lovely seafood buffet, YAY! And yes, that totally rhymed.

We checked in at around 6 and were seated pretty quickly.

The crayons were busted out and it was time to get our draw on before we headed up for some delicious food.

Now, somehow, some way, Julia actually LIKES to eat lemons and doesn't think they're sour at all. So of course, this led to both Matt and me trying a straight lemon slice... and well, you've now seen that in the trip video.

I couldn't wait any longer, so we headed up to get ourselves some food.

I am OBSESSED with the mac 'n cheese there! It's SO good. Then again, Matt told me that I'm pretty much obsessed with mac 'n cheese no matter where we go, hahaha. This is the truth... unless it's like the boxed stuff, which I can pass on.

But still, the mac 'n cheese is really tasty at Cape May. I also went with their corn bread, prime rib, fried shrimp, and salad. All of it was very good!

I totally failed at getting any photos of what Matt had to eat, unfortunately... but I know it involved a PILE of crab legs. Matt LOVES crab legs. And I do as well, but not as much as he does!

Brandon and Jenn would take turns running up to the buffet to bring back food for their kids and themselves. I was impressed with the system that they had down, and it worked really well.

In the meantime, Sawyer was telling funny stories and jokes while the girls decided to create a Crayon show. I'm always amazed at how kids can keep themselves amused and happy with the simplest things, like crayons.

While we were eating dinner, unfortunately my feet were just throbbing. Wompwomp. I was in dire need of changing out of my sneakers and also some Ibuprofen, which I fortunately had with me at the table, so that helped.

Again, I was terrible with photos at this dinner, so I only got one of my dessert plate..

I still think it's a travesty that they got rid of those Oreo Bon Bons from the buffet. It's just... ugh. But good news for me, because they sell those Bon Bons at the Marketplace, I would be able to have some this trip!

But their flourless chocolate cake is SUPER tasty, and I also enjoyed their Boston Creme Pie, too.

Cape May is always a wonderful meal for us... the quality of the food is pretty solid for for a seafood buffet. That being said, I think we will probably skip it on our next trip, unless we do the Dining Plan.

Cape May has good food, but it's also kind of pricey if you're not on the Dining Plan, and I wouldn't say it's entirely worth the price... Now if they still had the Bon Bons, then maaaaaybe.

We said goodbye to Jenn, Brandon and the kids, then headed back inside to the Concierge desk to try to fix out MagicBands before going back up to the room.

The CM reset the bands for us and we chatted about the Villains event from Friday. Apparently she had gone to it, as well, and agreed it was absolutely insane! She also told us (though said she wasn't supposed to) that she heard that Disney was expecting around 18,000 guests to show up for the event, but instead, 50,000 people showed up.

I am pretty sure this was right, based on the lack of boats that had running. the horror stories of people stuck in traffic, and the crazy amount of people that showed up! I think they'll be better prepared if they decide to do it again next year, that's for sure.

But she was super nice, and told us to stop by if our MagicBands still didn't work.

We left the Concierge desk and headed back to the Villas area.... needless to say, I was REALLY excited to be back.

And you know how I roll... need a picture in the elevator at the Villas, as always!

We got up to our room and... surprise, surprise, our MagicBands didn't work to let us in the room, wompwomp. Fortunately our room keys did though, which was good because I just wanted to get to our room and relax for a little while.

Our room was PERFECT! We were on the top floor, and even had a nice little view of Spaceship Earth.

Matt wasn't joking though, the room was seriously right above our room from the previous 2 trips! We just could not escape that area of the Villas, and I'd even requested to be facing the pool this time, haha. But I was VERY happy to be on a higher floor, right near the elevator, with a nice little view of Epcot.

So I am a total failure because I didn't take any photos of the room, but I also skipped that part because it's the same room that we've had our past two trips. So if you want to know what the room looked like, just go back to one of my previous TRs and you'll get the picture!

The ONLY difference was that at Beach Club Villas, they had officially made the switch from the old comforters to the new white down comforter, which I was super happy about. We always threw the comforter off first thing in the past since it's scratchy and just... not really a comforter.

Matt and I relaxed for a bit, and I organized all of my Vinylmation I'd picked up at the event through trading. I made out pretty well, all things considered!

(Let me know if you're curious about any of the Vinylmation in the above photo, haha).

While we laid in our bed and celebrated the fact that we were in our lovely room at our favorite resort... we discussed what we wanted to do for the rest of the night.

Magic Kingdom was open until 1am, but we were both kind of pooped and swimming sounded like a good time. Matt said if I looked up the wait times at MK and they weren't bad, we'd go there, and if things were looking busy, we'd just stay in for the night.

The park was basically DEAD. This was kind of surprising because it was Extra Magic Hours that night and the crowd calendar said it would be pretty busy up until around 10:30-11, but we weren't seeing very long wait times at all. So off to Magic Kingdom we went!

Continued in next post​

 

[danimaroo]

Chapter 26: "EAT IT, EVERYONE!" and this is when I angry cry in front of a stranger, YAY!
Day Five: September 15th, 2013

I switched from my sneakers into my Crocs flip flops... and my feet were SO much happier! Oh my gosh, it was like night and day... which is weird since flip flops aren't supposed to be good for your feet. But these ended up being the BEST thing for my feet, at least out of my choices. Those stupid green Crocs had really set my feet up for failure throughout our trip, so any time my feet weren't in pain, I was going with that foot wear.

On our way to the bus stop, I wanted to stop by the Marketplace to grab a Vitamin Water. I can't remember the exact amount, but I think it was like $4.50 for the stupid thing! I know, it's Disney, prices are way higher but for some reason, this up charge just struck me as insane. Maybe because I can get a Vitamin Water for $1 here, but yeah.

The GOOD news is, my MagicBand decided to actually work when I went to pay! YAY progress made in getting our MagicBands to work.

We headed out, and decided to stop by the Concierge to let them know that our MagicBands were still not working to get into the room, but it did work to pay. We told them we'd try them out at the park and we'd return if they still didn't work.

Finally, we got to the bus stop and were on our waaay!

A bus showed up within about 10 minutes of us waiting, and when we arrived, crowds were leaving the park, hooray!

Unfortunately for us, our MagicBands were still not letting us into the park, AND when I looked at our My Disney Experience account on my phone, EVERYTHING WAS GONE.

All of the FP+ reservations I'd made, our Annual Passes that were linked to the account, everything. I was so annoyed at this point, that I marched us over to Town Hall because that's where they can try and fix MagicBand issues.

The CM there kept insisting that basically because we had Premier Annual Passes, the MagicBands weren't working with them and wouldn't link up.

I told him he was wrong because prior to our trip EVERYTHING was linked and fine, but then suddenly today everything got wiped off our account. He called their IT department, and after about 10 minutes, they finally got it sorted and our APs magically reappeared on the account, as did our FP+ reservations for later in the week.

He told us that our Bands should now work without any problem, thank God... I was basically already fed up with the MagicBands and we'd only been using them for not even the whole day.

Anyway, we left the Town Hall and decided to look at ear hats! We were both on the fence about whether or not to get ear hats on this trip since we'd already gotten some during our January trip... that is, until I laid eyes on the Ariel ear hat that had JUST come out.

Matt told me I absolutely had to get it, and so I did! We also found an adorable ear hat for Matt, the pumpkin one, which he tried on, but wanted to hold off on buying since he'd seen another hat he liked.

We bought my ear hat and the CMs started chatting with us. We got on the topic of the Villains event from Friday, and the CM mentioned something about another event happening on the following Wednesday? I found that kind of odd, but took it with a grain of salt.

Funny enough, while I don't think they had another separate event, SOMETHING happened over at Hollywood on that Wednesday night (spoiler alert, we weren't there), because we saw fireworks going off there from the Boardwalk area... It was weird!

Anyway, we thanked the CMs and headed over to the Confectionary.

We really wanted to get a Halloween treat, but we couldn't decide between a Ghost or Pumpkin cupcake. I mean, they were both so adorable.

The winner ended up being....

The Pumpkin Cupcaaaaake! And it had a little white chocolate pumpkin in it. We ate our cupcake pretty quickly, and it was REALLY good! Typical vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting, but super delicious. I suspect part of this is just because we're in Disney eating a cupcake, but I will take it.

Main Street Electrical Parade was happening down Main Street, so we weaved through the crowds leaving and headed over towards Tomorrowland.

When we arrived, we thought it'd be fun to go on Buzz since it said it was a 5 minute wait. But it was definitely way longer, so we hopped out of line and instead went on the PeopleMover!

I think we just put up our feet and enjoyed the ride. I was tempted to just stay on, since they let the people in the vehicle in front of us stick around, but we wanted to go do some other fun stuff, so we headed off! Lucky for us, Buzz Lightyear had gotten a bit less busy, so we hopped on that.

Matt and I were pewpewing and doing our best, went suddenly Matt exclaims after I think the Volcano area that he had hit the MAX SCORE.

WHAT?!!!? I couldn't believe it! I was trying my hardest to get to the max score, and Mr. Non-competitive Matt just happens to hit it without even really trying.

So it's kind of funny, since I'm competitive and he isn't. He usually doesn't care if he wins or loses, but this time he was genuinely excited he had hit the max score. So what was his response? Turning to me and others saying "EAT IT, EVERYONE!"

OH MY GOD I DIED. Here is Matt, really pumped over his high score (as he should be), just saying EAT IT, EVERYONE over and over again. We were both laughing uncontrollably, because it was just so out of the blue. He was obviously joking around, but coming from him, it was hilarious.

My measly score just could not compare to Matt's max score:

And I was just so sad, frizzy hair and all, that I'd lost to Matt... if you couldn't tell in this photo.

HAHAHAHA that photo cracks me up. It's just so perfect. Matt and Dani's epic poses strike again!

We left Buzz and decided to head over towards Fantasyland. Of course, Matt couldn't help himself when he saw the ball with water and ran over and spun it around. It's hard to see, I know, I was dealing with phone pictures tonight.

So while we were strolling through Fantasyland, I commented to Matt how we needed to go on the Tea Cups at some point... and Matt saw that there was no line, and said let's just do it!

I was actually really excited since I'd NEVER been on the Tea Cups before in Disney World. Last time I'd been on any sort of spinning Tea Cup ride was at Funtown USA in Saco, Maine. I was pretty young, and my brother (same brother who cried on IASW the entire time) thought it'd be fun for us to go on the Tea Cups 5 times in a row. Let's just say by ride 5, he hadthe throw up face and he was looking pretty green, hahaha.

Anyway, Matt and I got into our little Tea Cup and started laughing because Matt's long legs took up a lot of the space below... BUT we made it work!

This was the funniest ride though because I thought it'd be cute to take photos. Well, number one, no, that was not happening on my phone, because photos turns out like this:

THEN I thought it would be fun to take video.

OHHHH MY GOSH.

Matt took video of me spinning the tea cup and commented "um, I don't think we're going to want to use this video... We both look really awful." Instead of a video of each of us looking happy and smiling and laughing on the Tea Cups that you see in Disney commercials... you see each of us making the most HIDEOUS faces while using all of our might to turn our Tea Cup as fast as possible, hahahaha. Needless to say, I made sure to squeeze in some Tea Cups footage in our video because it was just so funny.

I got a bit dizzy, but survived and we headed on over to Winnie the Pooh, since there was no line.

I still maintain the opinion that Winnie the Pooh is the cutest ride ever. It just is. It's a fact, so please don't try to argue with me on that one.

We headed on over to New Fantasyland, where we hopped right onto the Little Mermaid. I love that area at night, it's beautiful! Look at this beautiful cell phone photo I took, isn't it great?

I seriously don't know why I was insisting on not using my nice camera that night. I'm a weirdo.

After a lovely ride on the Little Mermaid, we headed back out of New Fantasyland... and as you can see, there weren't many people around!

No night at Magic Kingdom is ever complete without a ride on the Haunted Mansion! And while we were on it, we got stuck in front of the ballroom scene.

This next photo is kind of creepy. I mean, if you didn't know what it was from, you'd be totally convinced that this was a legitimate granny ghost just hanging out in a chair, no?

After we got off of the Haunted Mansion, we decided to wait outside and watch the Haunted Mansion from the outside. Matt wanted to see the people walk past the lit up windows on the Mansion, which only happens every few minutes. I also think it's super creepy when you see the person walk through the Conservatory area.

We finally left and both got Dole Whip Swirls! I'd always gotten a Dole Whip in the past, but I really wanted to try it swirled with vanilla. IT WAS SO GOOD. I didn't know what I was missing all these trips! I'm definitely a swirl convert now, and so was Matt!

It was pretty warm out, even at midnight, so our ice creams started melting pretty quickly.

We slowly made our way towards the front of the park, enjoying our Dole Whips with a total lack of people around. It was perfect!

We stopped at the Confectionary on our way out to grab some Rice Krispy treats for ourselves. And while we were there, we also spotted the Oswald mug that Matt wanted, so we bought our treats and the mug.

We got back at around 12:20 or so, we hopped off at the Yacht Club so we could walk back that way to our room...

GAH I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE STORMALONG BAY! The best pool in the history of pools... or at least, the pools at Disney World.

We finally got back to our room at around 12:30, and I REALLY had to pee, so I was happy to finally see our door.

We both decided to try our MagicBands on the door to get inside... aaaand they STILL didn't work. UGH.

So then Matt pulled out his room key to get us in the room... and THAT DIDN'T WORK. Then we tried both my MagicBand and room key... nothing.

To say that I was angry is an understatement. Our day had been full of ridiculous glitches with both our room keys and MagicBands, and to be locked out of our room at 12:30am when I REALLY had to go to the bathroom/I was totally exhausted... needless to say, I wasn't a happy lady.

Matt was amazing and told me he'd go head down to the front desk to take care of everything, so I decided to plop myself on the floor across from the door while I waited... and waited... until Matt texted me and told me he was still sorting everything out, but a CM was going to come upstairs to let me inside the room.

A half hour had passed from the time we'd arrived back at the room, and the CM showed up to let me in. I just totally lost it... Well okay, not LOST it, but I just told him how ridiculous this was, how it's 1am and not being able to get into our room is ridiculous, that all we've had are problems all day with the stupid MagicBands and room keys, etc. He apologized and just said they were still working everything out with the MagicBands testing. I told him I understood but the amount of time we'd spent throughout the day dealing with these problems was really unacceptable, and that I wanted to speak to a manager. He told me I could speak to one the next day, and I told him that would be fine.

My exhaustion and need to go to the bathroom had just caught up to me at this moment and I was DONE. I even got to the "I'm so exhausted and so annoyed and frustrated right now I can't contain my emotions" level and totally cried in front of him before I closed the door. It was embarrassing, hahaha. But at the same time, this was just ridiculous and was totally the last straw. Matt and I had been really patient (ESPECIALLY Matt) throughout the entire day of dealing with all of these issues, really trying to be understanding, but I hit my limit.

I decided to take a shower because I was feeling icky and frustrated. Matt came back upstairs while I was in the shower and said everything had finally been sorted out.

Apparently when Matt checked us in, they somehow managed to give us room keys to the wrong room. Our keys somehow got linked to room 263 or something.

Then when they discovered their error and went to fix this issue, whoever did it accidentally put us in the system for checking out on 9/15. This is why our keys were working all day on 9/15, but as soon as it was after midnight, and technically 9/16, we were completely locked out of our room.

I was still in angry Dani-Hulk mode, and Matt and I disagreed with how it should be handled with the manager. I told him I wanted to speak with a manager, while he just wanted to let it go and felt like he'd handled it.

After I cooled off a bit, I told him I understood but at the same time, this wasn't okay and he had to put up with a lot of wasted time trying to sort this out during the day. Matt got into the shower and while I was getting ready for bed, the front desk called us.

It was the man I'd cried in front of/kind of yelled at, and he was letting me know that they'd spoken with a manager and that they were going to issue us a $100 room credit for all of the problems we'd had to deal with throughout the day. I thanked him and told him I appreciated it, and then apologized for being so upset and not pleasant. He was very understanding and nice about it, so that made me feel like less of an idiot.

After our exciting ending to the evening, we both finally got into bed at around 1:30. I don't think I ended up falling asleep until after 2 because I wanted to make sure I took some notes about our day, even though I was super exhausted.

Tomorrow we finally get a fun morning in at Hollywood Studios, try out the FastPass+ system, and spend some time with friends in Downtown Disney!

Continued in next post​

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Mmm fish & chips! Those are definitely the best ones around. YUM!

Wow! I never realized just how BIG the who Vinylmation thing is. That's neat you got to go to a huge trading event. Your HM collection is spectacular!

 

[roxy72]

Wow, what a rough night! I'm sorry you had so much trouble getting into your hotel room that night. It's understandable that you would cry and get angry-- I would too, especially with sore feet, the hot weather, being exhausted, etc!

My Magic bands sounds like a huge stinker. Could you have gotten rid of the bands and just stuck to the traditional room key and paying w/credit cards at kiosks, etc?

 

[kgoodb00]

Love your updates the beach club=my one true love! I always want to try out new resorts but I just keep going back to the BC! The lobby, the smell, the pool, the location, and the decor are just amazing!!! So I completely understand why you enjoy staying there. I love your Ariel mouse ears! So cute!! Also, the swirl dole whips are my fave. I'm glad you have converted lol I can't wait to read more about your awesome trip

 

[katt789]

I have to agree with loving the feel of Beach Club and the area, getting to stay at YC, even just for the one night, was amazing and it’s so pretty and gorgeous. I find the deluxe resorts have the feeling of “vacation” and “relaxing” much more than say, Pop or other values!

I NEED to eat at Cape May! It looks so good! Possibly next time I’m using the ddp! Glad you guys enjoyed it, and got to spend so much time with Jen & family!

Nice vinyl trades!! There’s some awesome ones in there!

Vitamin water is pricey!! MAN! I know they’ve just raised the price of the smart water up 50 cents, not much, but it pushes it too high for me to get it instead of Dasani now, it’s insane!

Thank goodness that the magic band stuff finally hopefully, got sorted out! I have to say I was impressed with the minimal amount of problems we had with ours!

LOVED the teacup portion of your video! Man, I’m going to have to go back and watch it again, it was awesome!

Haunted mansion, such a classic go to! And I also LOVE pooh, it’s so cute! I have to say, I like the dole whip swirl better, the original is just too pineapple for me!

Wow what a freaking headache over the magic band and ticket situation, that REALLY sucks and I’m really glad a manager got talked to, I would’ve talked to one, that’s for sure, and yay for a credit on the room, that’s a nice bonus! I’m glad that cm took initiative of the crappy situation and did something about it!