VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.5) updated 2 February 2025

[Granny]

Sly...thanks for making us easier to find on this board!

Beautiful weather here in the Happiest Place On Earth. Mid-80's but no rain yet and cooling down in the 60's at night. So we are glad we packed hot and cool weather garb.

Parks were not quite as crowded yesterday...we were at MK and while nothing was a walk-on, wait times were more normal (25 minutes for HM, 40 minutes for Space Mtn, etc).

Hoping to get together with Rich & Di and Maria before the trip is over.

Speaking of HM, they have converted the little shop that you see when you exit HM to now selling Haunted Mansion exclusive merchandise. The store is well attended and has a lot of cool new stuff. Also, they have a photo room set up and they take your picture and then create one of the pictures that changes into a scary face like they have in the attraction. It is very cool and we got one of my daughter. We'll have one for each of us before we're done...they are lenticular so as you move the picture you go from normal to monstrous. Lots of fun!

We were talking yesterday about how long it has been (3 years) since we stayed at VWL. And it will be at least another year as we plan on trying out VGF in April. Still, we look forward to a future trip at our heart-home.

On the other hand, it's hard to beat the Epcot resorts like BWV when it comes to F&W time.

 

[horselover]

Oh boy am I having WDW withdrawals & I was just there 2 weeks ago! I've been stalking the SW & JB sites in the hopes there could be a cheap day to fly down for 2 days & fly back before F&W is over. Alas no luck. Looks like I'll be sucking it up until Dec. Wah!

Thanks for the pictures Granny!

 

[jimmytammy]

Happy Anniversary brobrosmom!!!!

 

[Nicoal13]

Morning groupies!

Love all the photos of you all meeting up

Planning a trip for the first week of Feb. Was trying to wait until Dec. 2015 but I'm sure I will want to escape winter. So next year will be a 2 trip year I have the points, might as well use them!!

One kind of dumb question....I have a Feb UY. So if I want to check in on Jan 30 or 31st, there is not a weird rule about using your points at the very end of a UY is there? I actually would be borrowing points for that night or two from my Feb 2015 UY. I think that it is fine, just would lose those points if I had to cancel. But thought I should just double check.

Nicole

 

[Granny]

Morning groupies!



One kind of dumb question....I have a Feb UY. So if I want to check in on Jan 30 or 31st, there is not a weird rule about using your points at the very end of a UY is there? I actually would be borrowing points for that night or two from my Feb 2015 UY. I think that it is fine, just would lose those points if I had to cancel. But thought I should just double check.

Hi Nicole!

Never a dumb question when it comes to using our DVC points/contracts. There is no rule about using your points at the end of a UY. So Jan 30 and 31st will be reserved with Feb 2014 UY points. Feb 1 and beyond will be using Feb 2015 UY points.

And you're right, if you cancel, you won't have much chance to use the points which will go into holding. So just make sure you go on that trip!

 

[Nicoal13]

Thanks Granny. That is what I thought but had a moment where I doubted myself Now to decide if we want to fly in on Friday night or Saturday morning....

 

[sleepydog25]

Thanks Granny. That is what I thought but had a moment where I doubted myself Now to decide if we want to fly in on Friday night or Saturday morning....

Friday, Friday, Friday. . .

 

[Nicoal13]

Friday, Friday, Friday. . .

The flights are cheaper that day....

 

[Nicoal13]

Booked the trip! Jan 30-Feb 7th. Arriving Friday night, so we will be all ready on Saturday morning to start at the parks Right now we're booked at OKW which we do love. However, I did wait list BLT lake view. I'll never spring for one or two bedroom there. Since my son and I are the only ones traveling we are trying for the studio. Half the week is available, so if it comes through we will be excited. If not, we do love OKW and the Turtle Pond area

 

[Lisann]

Don't see how that pool will ever be finished in November.

 

[horselover]

Thanks Granny. That is what I thought but had a moment where I doubted myself Now to decide if we want to fly in on Friday night or Saturday morning....

Friday, Friday, Friday. . .

Booked the trip! Jan 30-Feb 7th. Arriving Friday night, so we will be all ready on Saturday morning to start at the parks Right now we're booked at OKW which we do love. However, I did wait list BLT lake view. I'll never spring for one or two bedroom there. Since my son and I are the only ones traveling we are trying for the studio. Half the week is available, so if it comes through we will be excited. If not, we do love OKW and the Turtle Pond area

I was going to say I agree with Sly but you've already taken his advice. Nice call! I'm regretting now not booking Fri. night for our arrival in Dec. instead of Sat. morning. That would have given us a full 10 nights. Oh well too late to change it now since I booked the tickets on JB & not SW. It's not worth paying a $150 pp change fee over.

 

[ottawagreg]

Hello my friends at VWL Groupies. I have not been here in a long while. I offer this pic of the lodge to show that I still love WL and I am still a groupie. I can't recall that last time I posted. Life overwhelmed me and never made to our thread. I finally have a little free time tonight.

I tried to go back and see what I have missed, but there are too many pages! Although I did find the wedding video Jimmy. VERY nice indeed. My favorite was your daughter talking to her groom at the door before their vows. And the little guy running around the center aisle was very nice too. Celebrating the institution of "family" makes weddings special. I hope the newlyweds are doing well.

It is going down to 27* F. tonight. Winter seems to be closing in on us. The harvest here is nearly done. November is starting out like it will be a long winter. At least that is the scuttlebutt. If we can get through November without any major issues, we will be approaching our first Christmas at the Lodge. It is a little exciting for me to be honest.

We are very blessed and hope everyone is well too.

greg

 

[jimmytammy]

Hello my friends at VWL Groupies. I have not been here in a long while. I offer this pic of the lodge to show that I still love WL and I am still a groupie. I can't recall that last time I posted. Life overwhelmed me and never made to our thread. I finally have a little free time tonight.

I tried to go back and see what I have missed, but there are too many pages! Although I did find the wedding video Jimmy. VERY nice indeed. My favorite was your daughter talking to her groom at the door before their vows. And the little guy running around the center aisle was very nice too. Celebrating the institution of "family" makes weddings special. I hope the newlyweds are doing well.

It is going down to 27* F. tonight. Winter seems to be closing in on us. The harvest here is nearly done. November is starting out like it will be a long winter. At least that is the scuttlebutt. If we can get through November without any major issues, we will be approaching our first Christmas at the Lodge. It is a little exciting for me to be honest.

We are very blessed and hope everyone is well too.

greg

Thanks for the comments on the video. Kristian and Paul wanted to have a moment of prayer before the wedding and chose to do so without seeing each other this way. It was a very special day indeed

 

[Granny]

Greg...thanks for the photo, a very nice angle to shoot from!

After every day here at WDW being warm with a high in the mid-80's, today will only get up to 61 degrees! [insert Frozen emoticon here].

Crowds have definitely been more manageable during the week days...weekends are still jammed. And we've been able to go to F&W Festival several times so the samplings have been numerous...and almost all of them wonderful!

After 9 days here, we are planning our first trip over to DAK today. Clearly not a family favorite but FOTLK is worth the trip itself, IMHO. Then down to Downtown Disney for dinner at Paradiso 37 (never been there) and then over to BLT to meet up with Rich & Di and family, with any luck.

It sure has been quiet on this thread for several days. Everyone doing okay?

 

[sleepydog25]

Well, we're recovering from 2-3" of snow that fell overnight here in the mountains, so I've got little sympathy for your 61 degrees. Actually beginning to see some blue sky late in the day, but temps will remain in the low 30s overnight and low 40s tomorrow with winds gusting to 30 mph. Guess it's November, eh?

 

[Granny]

Yep Sleepy, you don't hear me complaining about chillin' in the 60's when we're at the Happiest Place On Earth.

Especially when we can meet up with such wonderful folks as DiznyDi and DiznyDad.






What a lovely visit we had with such wonderful folks. As always, the time flies by and the meet is over all-too-soon. We met at TOWL at BLT and are especially grateful to Richard and Di for making the time to meet with us when they are leaving tomorrow.


A very chilly, windy evening out on the balcony at TOWL, but you just know we had to have a little photo session!

Our own trip is winding down, and it has been a very nice one indeed. The Halloween festivities are over and the holiday decorations are going up, and holiday goods are in plentiful supply in all the shops. So for those Groupies heading down in the next several weeks, have a magical time!

 

[twinklebug]

Just heard there was a fire over at the 7 Dwarves Mine Train, videos show it's pretty big. Hope everyone got out fine.

 

[Granny]

Just heard there was a fire over at the 7 Dwarves Mine Train, videos show it's pretty big. Hope everyone got out fine.

After our mini-meet at TOWL, we walked over to MK to grab a bus back to our resort. On the way out, three fire trucks came past lights a-blazing. We wondered what that was all about, but I guess now we know.

It sounds like everyone made it out safely according to reports. And we re-routed our FP+ for Monday to another park entirely (we had a 7DMT FP).

It also sounds like that ride may be out of commission for several months if the fire is as extensive as the first hour of reports indicates.


UPDATE (12:35 a.m.): Okay, now I'm seeing reports that the fire was mostly superficial and the fire department has already cleared it to re-open tonight for EMH at MK! So I guess it wasn't much of a fire? I can't believe that it was already cleared for people to use again. On the other hand, isn't the Reedy Creek Fire Department basically a part of the Disney empire?

 

[sleepydog25]

Apparently the fire was superficial, though if you read some of the early posts on the DIS about it (like I did), a few were posting the entire structure was "collapsing." lol The ride re-opened shortly after midnight. Supposedly, the early culprit is considered debris from Wishes as it was windy. However, that's not been confirmed.

Happy for the mini-meet, and though it looked chilly up on TOWL, the smiles clearly show it was a special time. Safe travels to all in the coming weeks!

 

[horselover]

Happy Sunday groupie friends.

Great picture Granny! Thanks for sharing.

Question for the experts. Christmas trip is on my mind & I'm starting to realize we may have a bit of a problem with shipping our tree home. Last time we were there 2 years ago we tried to ship the tree home from WL. Concierge said the only option was FedEx I believe & it was crazy expensive. We wanted to use UPS but they said no we'd need to go to the business center at CR if we wanted to do that. Good thing we had a car. So now I'm thinking about this year & the fact Christmas falls on a Thu. I hate taking the tree down the day after Christmas plus that's a park day for us. Problem is our flight home is on Monday at noon. No way we'll have time in the morning to go to CR & deal with shipping the tree. I'm kind of thinking the business center won't be open on the weekends which leads me to my first question.

Does anyone know if the business center at CR is open on Sat.?

Question #2. Anyone know who WL uses for shipping these days? Is it still FedEx? I'm wondering if we did a pre-paid return shipping label from FedEx before we left home if we could just drop that at concierge the morning we leave.

I'm not quite sure how to go about finding the answers to these questions but figured I'd start here.

Thanks!