We're Baaaaack!! **The WLV's groupies & Trivia Thread chapter 3

[DisneyNutzy]

I am doing a Photo pass CD share with other disboard members for our trip in 2 weeks. This allows your group to get a free 30 minute one on one session with a PhotoPass Photographer. We had planned on doing our shoot at the Grand Floridian but when I called to make our appointment I was very happy to hear the Wilderness Lodge is now one of the locations you can choose for this session.

I'm sure most of you already knew this but just in case some of you are in the dark like me I thought I would post.

Edit to add - They just called back and made the appointment. This service is no longer free. $70 sitting fee with the purchase of the photo cd instead of the usual $149

 

[Anal Annie]

If your daugther loves looking for hidden Mickeys you have to get this book...Hidden Mickeys:A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept Secrets. It's written by Steven M. Barrett. I bought it for my hubby as a Christmas present. I found it at Chapters. It is so much fun. It it's a scavenger hunt throughout all the parks and resorts. We all loved searching for them.

We have that book too. I check 'em off as we find 'em and take pictures of them. We are making our own Hidden Mickey photo album. When I upload them to Shutterfly I put where they were found in the description so it prints on the backs when I order the prints. I haven't counted lately but we have documented well over 100 now. Probably somewhere between 125-150! There are a lot of good ones at VWL! When we stayed there last January we had one evening that turned NASTY with a thunderstorm. We were cold and soaking wet so we went back to the villa to shower & dry off and then we spent the rest of the evening hunting for them. It was a fun thing to do for a cold, rainy night and was a great opportunity to explore the lodge.

As far as cruises go...the longer the better for us!! We first did a 7 n on the Magic in 2005 (the Mexican Riviera) and hated when it was over. LOVED it. When we decided to book for summer of 2008 and they announced they were doing that same itinerary we opted to book back-to-backs on the Wonder so we could still have 7 n on the ship. That worked out OK...but I think we prefer the Magic and 1 longer cruise vs the B2B's. They are a bit pricey for our pockets tho so we re-booked onboard for the 10% discount and OBC and are planning to walk the ressie forward until the new ships are available. Hoping they will give details about their plans for both of them at the same time so we can decide if we'll go in 2011 or 2012...But I want to do at least a 7 nighter next time.

 

[mickeymorse]

Hello All. Boy I tell you, go away for a week and I'm 15 pages behind. Took me a while to get all caught up.

Just have enough time to say that we had a fantastic trip, albeit a busy one. I am certainly one happy camper er.... VWL owner. It surpassed all of my expectations.

The weather couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it that way myself. ( sorry to all those who had to deal with snow and such )

We were given room 5537 which is the 1st dedicated 2 bdrm lake side going down the long hallway. Absolutely perfect. I loved having the full length balcony. We could even see the higher fireworks from Wishes.

Here was our view straight out from the balcony

and to the left

We also got to have a nice little chat with Ranger Stan who told me to say hello to you Jimmy and Tammy and also Muushka ( he says with a loving chuckle in his voice ) Seems he loves that name. What a pleasant man to talk to. I certainly hope to get to see him again but he might be all done in June.

A big WELCOME to all the new groupies, and I see a couple are from my neck of the woods. Hi GA and Oshawa.

Will have more later.........

 

[Oshawa]

We have that book too. I check 'em off as we find 'em and take pictures of them. We are making our own Hidden Mickey photo album. When I upload them to Shutterfly I put where they were found in the description so it prints on the backs when I order the prints. I haven't counted lately but we have documented well over 100 now. Probably somewhere between 125-150! There are a lot of good ones at VWL! When we stayed there last January we had one evening that turned NASTY with a thunderstorm. We were cold and soaking wet so we went back to the villa to shower & dry off and then we spent the rest of the evening hunting for them. It was a fun thing to do for a cold, rainy night and was a great opportunity to explore the lodge.

As far as cruises go...the longer the better for us!! We first did a 7 n on the Magic in 2005 (the Mexican Riviera) and hated when it was over. LOVED it. When we decided to book for summer of 2008 and they announced they were doing that same itinerary we opted to book back-to-backs on the Wonder so we could still have 7 n on the ship. That worked out OK...but I think we prefer the Magic and 1 longer cruise vs the B2B's. They are a bit pricey for our pockets tho so we re-booked onboard for the 10% discount and OBC and are planning to walk the ressie forward until the new ships are available. Hoping they will give details about their plans for both of them at the same time so we can decide if we'll go in 2011 or 2012...But I want to do at least a 7 nighter next time.

That is a great ideal. I never thought of taking pictures of the hidden Mickeys. We will start that on our trip to California in August. We bought that book for my hubby this Christmas. It gets addictive!!

 

[Oshawa]

Hello All. Boy I tell you, go away for a week and I'm 15 pages behind. Took me a while to get all caught up.

Just have enough time to say that we had a fantastic trip, albeit a busy one. I am certainly one happy camper er.... VWL owner. It surpassed all of my expectations.

The weather couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it that way myself. ( sorry to all those who had to deal with snow and such )

We were given room 5537 which is the 1st dedicated 2 bdrm lake side going down the long hallway. Absolutely perfect. I loved having the full length balcony. We could even see the higher fireworks from Wishes.

Here was our view straight out from the balcony

and to the left

We also got to have a nice little chat with Ranger Stan who told me to say hello to you Jimmy and Tammy and also Muushka ( he says with a loving chuckle in his voice ) Seems he loves that name. What a pleasant man to talk to. I certainly hope to get to see him again but he might be all done in June.

A big WELCOME to all the new groupies, and I see a couple are from my neck of the woods. Hi GA and Oshawa.

Will have more later.........

Love the pictures and a big back at ya!! Is it snowing your way today? The weatherman lied said we were suppose to get 3cm but it's more than that and has been snowing for about 6 hours now.

 

[mickeymorse]

Nothing down here in the banana belt today. The sun was even out most of the afternoon. I haven't even seen a weather report today. I miss WDW already.

 

[Muushka]

Welcome back MM! I was wondering when you would check in. Great pics, great view.
Love the one of the fam and Stan.
Glad you had a great time and weather.

Sadly, I will go add the to your date.

 

[KeepSwimmingDory]

Welcome back mickeymorse! Great view and love the pictures. Ranger Stan is such a nice man and that's a good picture of your family with him. Glad you had a good trip.

Everybody have a good weekend and enjoy the Superbowl. Saw this funny that I thought I'd share:

 

[Muushka]

I'm with that old lady!!

I am not a fan of football, but am going to a party tomorrow. I just pray my friend will let me surf with her laptop while the game is on! Some Groupie better be on here to keep me company!!!

 

[Oshawa]

Nothing down here in the banana belt today. The sun was even out most of the afternoon. I haven't even seen a weather report today. I miss WDW already.

You guys are lucky. It finally stoped snowing here.
I am so having Disney withdrawls. My friend and I are going to Vaughan Mills Disney Outlet store to get my Disney fix.
How was your weather when you were down there?

 

[LVSWL]

I'm with that old lady!!

I am not a fan of football, but am going to a party tomorrow. I just pray my friend will let me surf with her laptop while the game is on! Some Groupie better be on here to keep me company!!!

I'm sure that I will be! I already got my sports fix last night, the Hurricanes won!! Talk to ya later!

 

[jimmytammy]

Hello All. Boy I tell you, go away for a week and I'm 15 pages behind. Took me a while to get all caught up.

Just have enough time to say that we had a fantastic trip, albeit a busy one. I am certainly one happy camper er.... VWL owner. It surpassed all of my expectations.

The weather couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it that way myself. ( sorry to all those who had to deal with snow and such )

We were given room 5537 which is the 1st dedicated 2 bdrm lake side going down the long hallway. Absolutely perfect. I loved having the full length balcony. We could even see the higher fireworks from Wishes.

Here was our view straight out from the balcony

and to the left

We also got to have a nice little chat with Ranger Stan who told me to say hello to you Jimmy and Tammy and also Muushka ( he says with a loving chuckle in his voice ) Seems he loves that name. What a pleasant man to talk to. I certainly hope to get to see him again but he might be all done in June.

A big WELCOME to all the new groupies, and I see a couple are from my neck of the woods. Hi GA and Oshawa.

Will have more later.........

Glad yall had a great trip! And good to see you saw Stan. He is a great guy.
Thanks for sharing the pics. We are hoping for a saty on 5th floor. As many times as we have stayed at VWL, never scored a 5th floor.

 

[Oshawa]

Welcome back mickeymorse! Great view and love the pictures. Ranger Stan is such a nice man and that's a good picture of your family with him. Glad you had a good trip.

Everybody have a good weekend and enjoy the Superbowl. Saw this funny that I thought I'd share:

Love it!!

 

[DisneyNutzy]

Mickey Morse - Glad to hear your vacation exceeded your expectations. GREAT pics. Thanks for sharing. 2 weeks from today I will be waking up in the lodge.

 

[blossomz]

Hi Mickey Morse! So glad everything went well! Love the family photo! Stan is terrific! LOVE the lodge photos too!

 

[KeepSwimmingDory]

2 weeks from today I will be waking up in the lodge.

Oh yea!

 

[mickeymorse]

You guys are lucky. It finally stoped snowing here.
I am so having Disney withdrawls. My friend and I are going to Vaughan Mills Disney Outlet store to get my Disney fix.
How was your weather when you were down there?

The weather was perfect. Started out on the low 70s (22C) and sunny and got as high as 81 (26C) by Wed. The only blip was Thur aft when the rain showers arrived and stuck around until about 11 AM Fri. Brought the cold with it and it only reached the low 50s on Fri (10-12C). Fortunately it made going hope a little bit easier.
Today we are looking at sunshine and a high of 37 (3C). Wow, a heat wave.

Mickey Morse - Glad to hear your vacation exceeded your expectations. GREAT pics. Thanks for sharing. 2 weeks from today I will be waking up in the lodge.

Hope your weather is as nice as ours. Have a wonderful time.

Thanks for the welcome homes from everyone. You guys are great.

 

[mickeymorse]

So we went on this trip with only 2 ADRs for Hoop-De-Doo and CRT and winged it for the rest. Here`s what we managed to get last minute. Since my MIL and her sister only bought 4 day tix for the parks I tried to work around that as well. I got a table at Boatwrights at Dixie Landings (Muush ) on Fri our arrival day and took everyone to DTD for the boat ride over. The meal was good and the wait was only about 5 minutes. The Tree houses at SSR are definitely moving along well. Didn`t bring my camera to take any pics of them.
We went to MK on Sat for the entire day ( the park was packed) and the only ressie available was for Liberty Tree at 8:10. We kept trying throughout the day for an earlier time but no luck. Out of curiosity, I called dining and checked at restaurants outside on the monorail and was able to get a 5:30 at The Wave at the Contemporary. Decided to snag this one so we wouldn`t miss Wishes. Again another good meal. Since we weren`t on the DDP it was nice not to overeat the way the dining plan usually does. My kids are now official co-pilots since they got to sit up front in the monorail. Since it only seats 4 we let MIL and Aunt take the kids. My MIL wanted to drive the monorail. Glad they don`t let you cause she doesn`t even have a drivers licence.
Sunday we relaxed by the quiet pool and hot tub before taking the boat to FW for Hoop-de-doo. Loved the show. We had a table in the front row beside the stage. Enjoyed the ribs and hadn`t had cornbread in forever. Unfortunately I overate since I really hate seeing food go to waste. The biggest issue I had with the dinner was the waitress didnn`t come around very often for drink refills. Only once during the whole meal. All in all though, I would do this again. We decided to walk back to the Lodge to work off some of the food and we found a purse on the pathway back. There wasn`t any ID inside (no wallet) but it had a cell phone and some other personal items. We left it with the front desk at the lodge but don`t know if anyone claimed it.

More to come.......

 

[horselover]

HL, going on a vacation kid-free is good for your marriage and subsequently good for the kids! Go for it!!

We have the Nikon D70. The secret to night shots is the tripod. We consider taking night pictures part of our vacation enjoyment, arguing about settings and framing!

We actually had to buy a better tripod when we got the new DSLR. That thing was so heavy it would shake the tripod when the picture went off. Now we have no worries. We always set the ISO at 200, aperature wide open (or not, depending on what we want) and use manual settings for the light meter.

I know, more info than needed, but we achieved some great pictures with our Kodak DC4800, so it has more to do with the actual picture taking (camera settings) rather than the camera.

Thanks Muush! Not too much info since I'm a big photography buff. I've never brought my tripod with me since it's so bulky. I did get one of those Joby flexible tripods for Christmas. I brought it with me during the last trip to use for the fireworks, but then we didn't end up catching them. It's so small it probably wouldn't work very well around the Lodge at night. I may have to bring the bigger one the next trip in May. I've decided to go for it. My niece talked me into it. Now the hunt for good airfare is on!

I am doing a Photo pass CD share with other disboard members for our trip in 2 weeks. This allows your group to get a free 30 minute one on one session with a PhotoPass Photographer. We had planned on doing our shoot at the Grand Floridian but when I called to make our appointment I was very happy to hear the Wilderness Lodge is now one of the locations you can choose for this session.

I'm sure most of you already knew this but just in case some of you are in the dark like me I thought I would post.

Edit to add - They just called back and made the appointment. This service is no longer free. $70 sitting fee with the purchase of the photo cd instead of the usual $149

Who did you call to book this? I might want to do this in Dec.

We have that book too. I check 'em off as we find 'em and take pictures of them. We are making our own Hidden Mickey photo album. When I upload them to Shutterfly I put where they were found in the description so it prints on the backs when I order the prints.

What a great idea! I just told DH I want that book for Valentine's Day. I'd rather have the book than candy. It's much better for my waist line!

Hello All. Boy I tell you, go away for a week and I'm 15 pages behind. Took me a while to get all caught up.

Just have enough time to say that we had a fantastic trip, albeit a busy one. I am certainly one happy camper er.... VWL owner. It surpassed all of my expectations.

The weather couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it that way myself. ( sorry to all those who had to deal with snow and such )

We were given room 5537 which is the 1st dedicated 2 bdrm lake side going down the long hallway. Absolutely perfect. I loved having the full length balcony. We could even see the higher fireworks from Wishes.

We also got to have a nice little chat with Ranger Stan who told me to say hello to you Jimmy and Tammy and also Muushka ( he says with a loving chuckle in his voice ) Seems he loves that name. What a pleasant man to talk to. I certainly hope to get to see him again but he might be all done in June.

Welcome back MM! Glad you had a great trip. Beautiful pics! I wish we had had the weather you did. I hope I can catch Ranger Stan when we go back in May. We missed him during the last trip.

Muush I should be online tonight with you! No offense to Steelers & Cardinals fans, but I'm in denial about the Super Bowl since my Pats didn't make it this year.

Have a good day all!

 

[Muushka]

Dixie Landings (Muush )

Too funny

Thanks Muush! Not too much info since I'm a big photography buff. I've never brought my tripod with me since it's so bulky. I did get one of those Joby flexible tripods for Christmas. I brought it with me during the last trip to use for the fireworks, but then we didn't end up catching them. It's so small it probably wouldn't work very well around the Lodge at night. I may have to bring the bigger one the next trip in May. I've decided to go for it. My niece talked me into it. Now the hunt for good airfare is on!



Who did you call to book this? I might want to do this in Dec.




What a great idea! I just told DH I want that book for Valentine's Day. I'd rather have the book than candy. It's much better for my waist line!



Welcome back MM! Glad you had a great trip. Beautiful pics! I wish we had had the weather you did. I hope I can catch Ranger Stan when we go back in May. We missed him during the last trip.

Muush I should be online tonight with you! No offense to Steelers & Cardinals fans, but I'm in denial about the Super Bowl since my Pats didn't make it this year.

Have a good day all!

Pats fan! I forgot you were a MA gal. My sister's family has season's tickets to their games, they must be sad.

More photography! You really don't need the tripod for fireworks. And if there is something I really want a picture of and don't have it with me, I just up the ISO settings to 1600 take it. Better that than nothing!

I am rethinking asking my friend for her laptop during the game, could be perceived as rude, right?

MM, your meal plan sounds wonderful. You mentioned eating at The Wave. Someone on this thread was asking about it. So you liked it? Good food? We walked by it last time we were there and it looked like a great place.

Were the parks pretty crowded (other than MK on a Sat)?
We were so surprised when we were there 3 weeks ago and how crowded it was.

Don't these people know that there is a recession on?? Don't these kids go to school???

Good luck on the airfare hunt!