When a work conference turns into a full fledge Disney Trip (June 2021)

[emcarle27]

Alright, here we go. I don't even know if this belongs here or what but reading trip reports for the last year has been super helpful to me since I have become the Disney planner in our relationship. Basically my fiance was scheduled to go to Disney last year for a work conference at the Beach Club but because of the state of the world, it got put on hold. I've been on the edge of my seat since January 2021 hoping that they would not cancel the conference but we are now 25 days out and I can't wait. We haven't flown anywhere in over a year and I cannot wait to arrive at the Beach Club and plant my behind at the pool on the first day.

Here's our schedule of events:
June 6th: Leave the lovely state of Massachusetts and arrive at Beach Club
June 7th: Conference Day for DF and Islands of Adventure for me
June 8th: Conference Day for DF and Universal Studios for me
June 9th: Final Conference day for DF and pool/Disney Springs exploration day for me
June 10th: Epcot and move over the Carribean Beach
June 11th: Hollywood Studios
June 12th: Magic Kingdom
June 13th: Animal Kingdom
June 14th: Travel Home

Mostly because I didn't think this trip would happen, I was not as on top of it as I would have liked to been. Basically, we were supposed to get married October 2020 and the plan was to go to Disney September 2021 as our 1st year anniversary (close enough). Well, after the hell of the world last year, we pushed out wedding to this October so when this work trip for my fiance came up, we jumped on it because it will be a few years until we get to go back. Also, I am fully prepared to melt at Disney in June but I digress.

Okay, back to my lack of planning. My fiance is a very laid back person. He's very go with the flow, whatever I want to do, we usually do. Well, the one thing he wants/wanted to do on this trip was Savi's Workshop. And I dropped the ball. And I happened to mention that this past weekend, and he was pretty let down about it. He's big into Star Wars. Anyway, I woke up either yesterday or Monday and someone on here was dropping their reservation for the day we would be at Hollywood Studios. I don't know if it was fate or what but I jumped on that so fast. I haven't told my fiance yet, I may wait until the day we arrive. I just don't know yet.

Up next: dinner reservations. Again, the plan was do quick service but the more I thought about, we could probably fit in a few table service ones. We snagged Crystal Palace for our Magic Kingdom Dinner and Mama Melrose for our Hollywood Studios Lunch.

I am hoping to snag Teppan Edo for Epcot Day but not holding my breath and it's not hugely necessary since Flower and Garden is going on. I've also heard amazing things about Hollywood & Vine so if by some miracle I could snag that, I'd drop Mama Melrose.

Anyway, about us: I'm Erika, 28 and this is our first Disney trip as adults. Ryan, my dear fiance is 33 and pictured below is our rescue dog, Darcie who came up from Tennessee about 3.5 years ago now. (Nevermind...couldn't get the picture to stay)

 

[DL1WDW2]

I think you should keep it a secret and surprise your fiancée.
We promise we won’t tell anybody your secret.

 

[emcarle27]

Alright! We are 2 weeks out exactly today.

We haven't been on a plane in two years and I am just so excited to go somewhere.

Latest update: We ended up dropping our reservations for Mama Melrose and Hollywood& Vine on our HS day. But I did snag Sanaa for our Animal Kingdom day. Still holding out hope for Oga's for my dear fiance but not sure if we'll be able to snag that one. And since my last post, I snagged Teppan Edo for our Epcot day.

I'm excited for the Beach Club pool, I've heard great things!

 

[KMarston]

Erika, have you tried any of the reservations alerts? There’s also a Facebook page where people help with reservations.

My DH and I stayed at YC for my 55th birthday and our first trip without kids and for Food and Wine. We ended up canceling all of the Epcot dinners I had reserved to stay in the pool and ate at Ale and Compass most nights! We loved the sandy bottom and the lazy river! You’re really going to enjoy it!!

 

[emcarle27]

Erika, have you tried any of the reservations alerts? There’s also a Facebook page where people help with reservations.

My DH and I stayed at YC for my 55th birthday and our first trip without kids and for Food and Wine. We ended up canceling all of the Epcot dinners I had reserved to stay in the pool and ate at Ale and Compass most nights! We loved the sandy bottom and the lazy river! You’re really going to enjoy it!!

That's actually how I got Teppan Edo and Sanaa. I've been close for Oga's a few times but I realize how popular it is. I know people have mentioned having luck as it gets a little closer.

Good to know about Beach Club! I'm very excited for it, especially the lazy river part!

 

[emcarle27]

Alright friends! We are 4 days out and I've gotten that pre-trip anxiety like, what am I forgetting?

Let me just say how much I LOVE the people on here. Thanks to this message board, I was able to snag Savi's Workshop for my fiance and Oga's Cantina on our Hollywood Studios day!

Since my initial post, I was able to snag Teppan Edo as well. I did drop Mama Melrose and Hollywood & Vine. Let's be real, I'm mostly excited for those Totchos at Woody's lunchbox.

We also have Sanaa for our Animal Kingdom day, which I'm not sure I'll keep. Is it too much of a hassle to start off at the park, go to Sanaa for lunch and then come back to Animal Kingdom? Someone give me some words of wisdom. I've had alerts on for Yak & Yeti but nothing so far.

Our vacation technically starts Saturday as we'll be staying at the Hilton near Logan Airport because due to Covid, it's been hard to find Uber/Lyft so early in the morning. I didn't realize this when I made our flight for 6am. Whoops.

 

[WDWNan]

Sounds like you have an awesome trip planned! Looking forward to hearing all about it when you get back!

 

[footballmouse]

 

[emcarle27]

We are home! I am going to recap day by day but I figured I would recap our resorts and just give an overview of our week.

It was HOT! Which I knew going into it it would be but I don't think you're really prepared for until you get there. I had been to Disney in August about 10 years ago but this was our first Disney trip as adults. The only day it really felt unbearable was Thursday, our Epcot day. It felt like Epcot had little no shade. It honestly could have been my imagination. All of our other park days were not as bad in terms of heat like Epcot was.

Bring the damn ponchos and umbrella. We got stuck in a rainstorm at Hollywood Studios and it poured. Then on our last park day, it rained/stormed off and on which prevented us from riding Everest and I'm still bitter about it. LOL But I'll save that for my review of Animal Kingdom.

Use the dining alerts. We got all the dining we wanted at really good times. Some sought after stuff like Oga's came through while we were there so don't give up.

Onto the Resorts. Beach Club. It has ruined me forever. It's probably one of my favorite resorts ever. We got to check in at 1pm on our day of arrival which I honestly was floored by. I had read here that our room wouldn't be ready until 3pm-4pm so I told my fiance to not even bother checking. He did anyway and we were off to our room. We were on the third floor, a good walk away from the lobby. I don't remember what room exactly but there was a small elevator on our floor (not the main one) and when we took that one, it brought us out to the small beach club pool. The lazy river with the sandy bottom was amazing. Even if you're not a pool person, go at least one day. My fiance is not a big pool person, unlike myself who could live at the pool, and even he was in the pool 2-3 days during our stay at Beach Club. Staff was amazing. I had never been anywhere where everyone was so nice. We did order some water, sodas, snacks from Amazon Fresh on the 2nd day and Bell Services received them and even brought them up to our room. Ale & Compass food was amazing. I placed a to-go order one afternoon for lunch and it was just so delicious. Back to the pool, the only day I thought it was really busy was our first day on Sunday. Other than that, I didn't think it was overwhelmingly busy. Beds and pillows were comfortable and it was just an amazing stay.

By day 2, I was trying to find where I could get iced coffee at the resort. We had the Keurig in our room with Joffrey's but I was on the hunt for iced coffee. Found out that Marketplace on Yacht Club side does specialty beverages but over on our Beach Club side they only do hot coffee. I just thought it was odd.

Once the conference was over, we moved over to Caribbean Beach Resort on Thursday and stayed there Thursday until we checked our yesterday morning. The resort is massive! Which I knew going into it as I had read that was a lot of people's complaint. Skyliner was such a huge draw. And we never had any crazy wait times at the skyliner either. I had requested through our Travel Agent to be in the Aruba section but we ended up in building 46 at Jamaica. It worked out great for us because it was just a short walk to Skyliner hub and an even shorter walk to Jamaica bus stop. Also Jamaica is one of the first pick ups and drop offs at the bus stop, or at least that was the case when we were there. We were on the second floor, and there are no elevators. So if you have accessibility concerns, definitely request first floor.

We had our bags sent over from Beach Club so after we returned from our day at Epcot, we headed to the front desk to check in. Apparently if they bell services staff available, they will shuttle you over to your building and assist with your luggage. We had Mike and he was great. And honestly, I was so happy we wouldn't have to walk from OPR to Jamaica with our luggage after being at Epcot all day. Mike brought our bags up to second floor and I was so thankful. We had cash on us so we gave him a tip as we were just so relieved. We were in room 4664 which once you come up the stairs, and take the left, its right on the corner. I didn't request a corner room but we got one so that was a perk. We never made it to the main pool at CBR, as we were doing resorts during our stay. But our last night, we took a quick dip in the Jamaica pool before it started to rain. There were a few other families there but definitely a nice quiet pool.

 

[footballmouse]

I like Beach Club too and my kids love the pool.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I am following along. Both resorts are some of our favorites.

 

[emcarle27]

Pre Trip and Day 1
Our vacation really started on Saturday, June 5th. As we came to learn, finding an Uber/Lyft in our area has become more difficult due to the pandemic as well as our state getting rid of surge pricing. We knew this ahead of time so we decided to stay at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport to be close to the airport as me in my infiniate wisdom thought it was a great idea to book a 6AM flight. Note to self: let's not do that again.

We got a great rate on the hotel so it was worth it. We had made reservations for Rosa Mexicana in Boston's Seaport District and the food was phenomenal. I am already dying to go back. We got a pitcher of Blood Orange frozen margaritas and to say we definitely felt it is an understatement. I had their Carne Asada quesadilla and it was delicious.






Anyway, I think we slept maybe 3-4 hours that night. We were wide awake at 2:30AM, laid in bed until 3:30 and caught the shuttle at 4am to head over to the airport. So quick backstory about the flights, we booked through American Airlines but the plane was operated by Jet Blue. And I couldn't check in online 24 hours prior for whatever reason. When we arrived at the airport, I went to the Jetblue kiosk and of course it said, see assistance. We got in the special assistance line and I kid you not, there had to be at least 30 people ahead of us. Most of them were on their way to Santa Domingo and the flight was leaving soon so they let those people go first. Everything turned out to be fine, we got our boarding passes and they took our luggage. I had booked a direct flight because we're weirdos and we think they're going to lose our luggage. Well, joke was on me because they changed our flight. We flew Boston to JFK then JFK to Orlando. Both flights were uneventful.

We arrive at Orlando and we didn't know that you had to take the tram type thing to get to baggage claim so that was interesting. Boston doesn't have that sort of thing in their airport so it was different. We got our luggage and off to find Disney Magical Express we go. We had booked the Disney Magical Express because we knew this was our only opportunity to take it at it's current state since we won't have a Disney trip planned for a few more years. (We get married in 4 months and then hoping to find a house in the next few years) And I prepared myself, I knew the line could be long depending what time you landed. And that was the case for us. We found the line for the Magical Express and it went all the way down to where the car rentals are. Below is the line behind us



It really looks worse than it actually was. We got in line at 11:15AM on Sunday and were seated on a bus by 11:55AM. Because of COVID (I think), you have to pick up your own bags at baggage claim and bring them with you.



I snapped this picture of my dear fiance. I was just excited that Mickey was welcoming us. We had been waiting for this trip for so long and I was just excited to be there.

We got on the bus and they had COVID protocols in mind. They gave us assigned seats before boarding the bus, and they left a row empty between each party. Once we were all on board, it was off we went. I am pretty sure we stopped at POP first and the majority of people got off there. Next was our stop: Beach Club Resort!



We arrived at the resort around 1pm and I thought checking in was dead in the water. I was ready to grab my bathing suit from the luggage, drop my luggage off at Bell Services and go explore the pool. I thought 4pm checkin was standard so I told my fiance to not even bother. But when does he ever listen to me? Off he went to the check in line, and a wonderful cast member got us checked in and off to our room we went.

I want to say we were in 3552 (I'll check my resort map and report back). It seemed that it was pretty far away from the lobby but we found if we took the small elevator up to 3, near the Beach Club pool, it would put us right near our room.

And whenever we got to our room and I saw Mickey as a towel, I knew the Disney magic had arrived. It is a simple and small gesture but I was just so happy to see it.



After we dropped our bags, explored the room, I decided I was going to go explore the pools. I went to the main pool with the lazy river and it seemed quite busy and honestly, I was just trying to get my bearings of the resort. My fiance headed over to the Yacht Club Conference Center to pick up his credentials. We met back in the room around 4pm and at this point, the early start to the day was catching up with me. The conference was having a welcome dinner for attendees and their families on the beach so I took a little cat nap for an hour and felt more energized when I woke up.

We headed down to the beach area where some cast members let us know they would be starting the dinner reception at 6:30pm due to the rain storm that just came through. We were both napping so we must have missed it. We just hung out by the beach area until it was time for the reception.



If you look closely at the Mickey pin my fiance has on his lanyard, apparently it was a cast member pin that is no longer made. So according to the people at the conference, it's pretty rare now.



Day 1 was a success!

Next up: Day 4 (Character Warehouse) Day 2 and 3 were my Universal/Islands of Adventure Days so at some point, I'll make my way over to that thread.