Who Wants to Learn the Bacon Dance? – A May 2012 TR - 6/30 - 3 Updates

[cinderella crazy]

WooHooo! I'm so excited!!!

Yay, the sign! Good job getting out on time in the morning too.

Looks like a fun summer at your house!

We did a pretty good job that day of making our time goal.

I hope our summer will be fun!

Yay! You made it to Disney! I definitely feel ya on the morning thing, I can't function without coffee, even in Disney!! I'm excited to read all about beach club!

I drink a lot of coffee while in Disney. I have to since we wake up so early. BC is coming up!

Hurray, you made it!!!
I remember when my sisters and I were younger and sleeping with my baby sister. Whoo, if she had swam before bed, she would kick and be all over the bed. I guess I just thought the whole bed should be mine and would take covers and flap my arms on them. Oh yeah. . .I guess I talk in my sleep too. . .nothing coherent, but still
Can't wait to see your room!!!

I talk in my sleep but it's rare. When I was in college though, I woke up talking and my roomate answered me back. Apparently we were having a conversation in our sleep. Strange!

Room pictures are coming up!

No feeling in the world like seeing "the sign" at the beginning of your trip!

Can't wait to see your BC room.

I love that sign! The while van cheers when we see it!

I am not a morning person, either. Though I think I'd be the first out of bed if it was to get to Disney World!

I try so hard to be a morning person when we're at Disney. Thankfully Mike usually fills my mug with coffee in the mornings.

 

[cinderella crazy]

A Case of Mistaken Identity and a Beautiful Bathroom – May 25th Continued

As we drove along we did our normal shout outs:

“I see Everest!”

“I see Disney signs!”

Once Western Way ends, we turned right onto Buena Vista Drive. And then everyone hears:

“ I SEE TOWER OF TERRORRRRRRRRR!!!!” That would be me screaming y’all. I get very excited when I see it…

We come up to Epcot Resorts Blvd. and we turn left. Past the Swan, the Dolphin, the Yacht Club. And Finally, finally we see this wonderful sign:

Hallelujah!​

I pulled up to the security guard and we spent several minutes trying to figure out which Michael or Mike (so-and-so) we were since there were several staying at the BC during the same time. We went back and forth for several minutes. We didn’t know if our travel agent had used Mike or Michael. The guard kind of thought it was humorous. I would imagine the cab and other cars behind us didn’t find it so humorous. The guard eventually gave up and told us to have the front desk figure it out. Sounded good to me!

We drove up to the front of the hotel so we could drop our bags off before parking the van. It was at this point that I realized that I drank a lot of coffee and hadn’t visited any facilities since we left our Oakahlah hotel. I figured I might as well ask Lauren if she wanted to visit the BC’s facilities. Of course she agreed!

I quickly told Mike that if they got done unpacking the van before Lauren and I got back out, that he could just pull the van forward a little and us two girls would find him when we got back out.

So Lauren and I hopped out of the van and immediately I was greeted by a woman who was holding a clipboard and was wearing a head set. She said “Welcome Mrs. So-and-so.” Absolutely floored me! These people at the BC are good! They knew my name even before I entered the resort. Wow!

Lauren and I entered the lobby and I immediately felt myself relax. What a gorgeous lobby. I could have just stood there and gawked at all the beachy stuff, but my bladder was having none of it. So I set out to find Lauren and me a restroom. We searched and we searched but I just couldn’t seem to find a restroom. Surely they had one near the lobby!? I eventually went into the Marketplace and asked a CM and she kindly pointed us in the right direction. Phew! Lauren was very impressed by the Ladies room. She commented on how pretty it was and how neat it was that they didn’t have paper towels to dry hands but instead had actual towels.

We walked back through the lobby and headed toward the van. Since it had taken us so long to find a restroom, the bags had long since been unloaded. When I got back in the van Mike told me that his step dad had called to tell him that our dryer was okay. Two days before we left home I was doing laundry when the dryer started making a terrible noise. Turns out I forgot to put the lint trap back in so a sock got sucked down. So instead of paying hundreds of dollars to get it fixed, it only ended up being $90. That’s one expensive sock!

While we talked about the dryer Mike headed toward the parking lot, but which way was self parking? Was it right or was it left? We went right. Which is parking the Villas. Oh well! We weren’t going to be there long. We figured we’d be there just long enough to check in, for them to tell us our rooms weren’t ready, and then make our way to the Contemporary for our brunch at Chef Mickey’s.

We walked back toward the resort entrance and I took a couple of pictures

Up next: Our check-in at the BC and our rooms!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Welcome to the Beach Club! – May 25th Continued


We entered the lobby at 9:20 and headed right to check in. Mom went to one CM Mike and I headed to another CM.

It was then we found out that we got the connecting rooms we requested. YES! We also got the daybed we requested. YES! And, our rooms were ready. Say what? Really?! Um…okay then. Didn’t expect that. The CM told us that they would head up to our room in 10 minutes with our bags. Wow! Talk about fast service! Our CM was really nice. I think his name was Steve. He was very helpful and when he found out it was our first time at the BC he told us all kinds of stuff about the resort. He even made a point to talk to the kids and ask them what they were going to do that day and if they were excited about going to the pool. So far I was VERY impressed with the service at the BC.

Off we went to our rooms. We got on the elevator and within 2 seconds we were on the fourth floor. I’m not kidding y’all! The elevators at the BC are super fast. Our room was 4714 and Mom was room 4716. They were amazing. Standard view rooms not with a full balcony, but I didn’t care. I was finally at the BC. I waited 7 trips to stay here and I didn’t care that I was looking partially at a roof. Who cares! I’m at the BC baby!

Once I got over the initial awe of the room, I took some pictures:

In no time at all, there was a knock on our door. Our luggage had arrived! Once again, the CM that delivered our luggage was super friendly. We had no time to unpack though since our ADR for Chef Mickey’s was at 10:30. We rushed out the door, back down to the lobby, back to the van (which we then realized was parked in the Villas parking lot. Oops), and headed off to the Contemporary. Look out Mickey! Here we come!



Coming up: Chef Mickey’s and The Bacon Dance!!!

 

[PixieMama]

I've only been inside the BC once, and that was just for our dinner at Cape May last summer. From what I remember, it's very pretty! We took the resort boat from Epcot over, so we were able to walk in the back way through the pool area... SAB looks like a ton of FUN. Maybe on my 7th trip we can stay there, LOL!

Soooo, brunch at Chef Mickey's... does this mean we'll finally get to see/hear about the Bacon Dance?

 

[mindystar]

Beautiful resort and rooms!
I know of the bathroom you speak of. I visited it before heading to catch a bus, after we dined at Cape May. There was even a CM in there unwrapping the load of fresh washcloths.

 

[Jacksonev1]

I am excited to find out how your kiddos like the pool! We want to stay there next year!

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

LOVE the updates! The BC is GORGEOUS, and your room is terrific!!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[MHTeacher]

I love those Beach Club rooms. Looks just like the room we had in 2010--very pretty, aren't they? Glad you and your mom got connecting rooms.

I can't wait to hear how the kids (and the big kids ) like the pool!

 

[kansasdisneygal]

Hi!! Sorry I am so late!!! But I'm all caught up! Sounds like your travels to Florida went pretty smoothly! I love your Beach Club pictures! Yay for getting your room requests! That is always awesome!!

Also, I SAW YOU at Hollywood Studios but it was from like clear across the Sorceror's Hat area and I did not feel like tackling through hoards of people to say hi. Please forgive me! Plus you guys looked like you were on a mission to get somewhere!!

 

[MissLiz]

Great updates!! We also thought the check-in at BC was excellent. Our room wasn't ready, but the CM actually asked us if we had any requests (I hadn't put any on our reservation). Since you can't book a certain view in the villas, I asked if we could possibly get a woods or "Epcot" view. She got us a woods view where we were able to see parts of IllumiNations.

 

[GaRain]

Oh those rooms are pretty...I want to stay there some day....

 

[mickeystoontown]

Brush fires in Ocala must be a pretty common occurrence. We've been through there several times and there were fires in the area. Once, we were even re-routed for many many miles so that we could go around it.

The room at the Beach Club looks so pretty! Oh and it sounds like the service there is amazing.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Great start to your trip ! Looking forward to more.

 

[cinderella crazy]

I've only been inside the BC once, and that was just for our dinner at Cape May last summer. From what I remember, it's very pretty! We took the resort boat from Epcot over, so we were able to walk in the back way through the pool area... SAB looks like a ton of FUN. Maybe on my 7th trip we can stay there, LOL!

Soooo, brunch at Chef Mickey's... does this mean we'll finally get to see/hear about the Bacon Dance?

Here's hoping number seven is lucky for you!

Yes, the Bacon Dance is coming up next!

Beautiful resort and rooms!
I know of the bathroom you speak of. I visited it before heading to catch a bus, after we dined at Cape May. There was even a CM in there unwrapping the load of fresh washcloths.

That bathroom is hard to find! tucked behind a corner. But it is one beautiful bathroom!

I am excited to find out how your kiddos like the pool! We want to stay there next year!

To say that the LOVED it would be an understatement. There were a couple days where we didn't get to go to the pool and they were very upsetl.

LOVE the updates! The BC is GORGEOUS, and your room is terrific!!! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Should be an update or two coming up!

I love those Beach Club rooms. Looks just like the room we had in 2010--very pretty, aren't they? Glad you and your mom got connecting rooms.

I can't wait to hear how the kids (and the big kids ) like the pool!

The only time our connecting doors were closed was when we were sleeping at night. It was like having one giant room!

Hi!! Sorry I am so late!!! But I'm all caught up! Sounds like your travels to Florida went pretty smoothly! I love your Beach Club pictures! Yay for getting your room requests! That is always awesome!!

Also, I SAW YOU at Hollywood Studios but it was from like clear across the Sorceror's Hat area and I did not feel like tackling through hoards of people to say hi. Please forgive me! Plus you guys looked like you were on a mission to get somewhere!!

You saw us? Yeah, that sounds like us. Always on a mission to get somewhere. Wonder where we were going...

Great updates!! We also thought the check-in at BC was excellent. Our room wasn't ready, but the CM actually asked us if we had any requests (I hadn't put any on our reservation). Since you can't book a certain view in the villas, I asked if we could possibly get a woods or "Epcot" view. She got us a woods view where we were able to see parts of IllumiNations.

That's great! We never saw Illuminations but we heard it every night.

Oh those rooms are pretty...I want to stay there some day....

Highly recommend it. It's a wonderful resort!

Brush fires in Ocala must be a pretty common occurrence. We've been through there several times and there were fires in the area. Once, we were even re-routed for many many miles so that we could go around it.

The room at the Beach Club looks so pretty! Oh and it sounds like the service there is amazing.

I feel bad for the people in Oakahlah then. I can't imagine having to deal with that. It smelled horrible.

I was more than satisfied with the service at the BC.

Great start to your trip ! Looking forward to more.

Hoping to get sseveral updates up shortly.

 

[cinderella crazy]

Oh my dear Disfriends! I ask for forgiveness for my prolonged absence! I could go on and on about what has been happening since I last talked to you, but instead, I'll give you some highlights..or lowlights...which reminds me, I need to make a hair appointment...

Anyway, we've been really busy with our summer of fun! One of the things we did was go camping. We had a great time! Then we came home...

Our upstairs air conditioner wasn't working. Thankfully an repair person came out and fixed the unit. On that same day, our contractor started replacing the siding on our house. You see, a little over a year ago we had some bad storms in the East Tennessee area. Storms that produced hail and tornados. We actually had a tornado hit around our area of town. Some of our siding was damaged in that storm so we got to have most of our siding replaced.

That's what we've been having fun with this past week. But I have to tell you, the outside of the house looks wonderful!

Fast forward to tonight. The downstairs air conditioner stopped working. And wouldn't you know it, we record breaking day for heat here. We were over 100 degrees today. Hopefully the repair person can get out here soon.

Fun stuff, huh? In the meantime, I've been typing away trying to get some more updates ready. All that's left is to put some pictures in them and post them. And the very first one will have the Bacon Dance.

While you're waiting, can you fan some air conditioning this way? It's getting a little toasty here.

 

[cinderella crazy]

“The Force Is Strong With This One” and The Bacon Dance – May 25th Continued

As we came to the intersection of Epcot Resort Blvd. and Buena Vista Drive, I saw this beautiful sight:

Love it!


We then made our way to the Magic Kingdom resorts and saw another wondrous sight:

After a nice drive over to the Contemporary, we pulled up to the guard station and I was surprised by what greeted us. A man with a British accent! I could have talked to him for hours (you know, with my slight obsession with the Royal Family and everything British), but we needed to go eat breakfast with Mickey and friends. So I pulled the van into the parking lot and we walked into the Contemporary. We noted how much slower their elevators were than the BC. I’m telling y’all, those BC elevators are fast!


We got off the elevators, walked a couple feet and saw this:

Yay! This is the moment for me when I really feel like my Disney trip has started. In the 7 trips that Mike and I have taken together, we have gone here for breakfast 6 times. Five of those times have been on the first day of our vacation. So this is kind of a tradition for us.


We checked in, were given our pager and went into the picture taking line.


While we waited, Alex decided to start doing a dance that he called the “Chef Mickey Dance.” Here’s him in mid dance:

I don’t know where he gets this stuff. Makes for some funny times though. When it was our turn to pose with Mickey, the two CMs had a fun time getting Lauren to smile:

Once our picture was taken, we went over to the seating area so the kids could enjoy watching some Disney Jr.

On our 2010 trip, I was holding the pager and I waved my hand over it while saying “poof.” Wouldn’t you know, it went off! This year, Mike was holding it and he commented on how he wished it would go off. I jokingly told him that if I had it, it would go off. He hands me the pager, I say “poof” and it starts flashing and I jokingly commented on how “The force is strong with this one.”


Are you ready for it folks? Are you ready to hear about the Bacon Dance? Cause this is where it first happened. I don’t know if he was so excited that he was finally going to eat some bacon (since he didn’t get any bacon at the Comfort Suite’s hotel) or if he just decided that eating bacon deserved a dance. Whatever the case, while we were walking up to hand in our pager, the following happened.

“Hey Mommy, look at this.”

“This is the bacon” – motioning with his left hand over his right arm.

Alex thrusts his arm forward while whispering “bacon.”

“What in the world is that Alex?”

“It’s called the bacon dance!”

We all died laughing. And wouldn’t you know it, there is no picture of the bacon dance. Even though it was done many times by many people, no one ever got a picture of it. Never fear! I will teach it to you.

All you do is stand up straight.

Move your left hand back and forth over your right arm while saying “This is the bacon.”

Then thrust your right arm forward at the same time that your right foot steps forward while you whisper “Bacon.”

Yup. That’s it. The Bacon Dance. Not much to it. Everyone can do it. And I have to tell you it makes eating bacon a whole lot more fun.


After we stopped laughing we handed a CM our pager and we were shown to our table. Our table was in the section that’s behind the cereal/pastry area. We were seated in the corner right next to the kitchen door. When the CM seated us she told us that our table was the first table the characters come to in that section. Cool! We sat down and immediately Pluto came to our table. Here was the test, was Lauren going to get upset or get her picture taken…surprisingly, she got up with Alex:

The kids sat back down and right after Pluto came Goofy:

And then Donald:

And then Mickey:

I even got my picture taken with Mickey!

It was like a whirlwind! Just one right after another!


Minnie had made her way into the room but Mickey was with us so she went around the other way. Which was okay because we were hungry and Alex was wanting some bacon!


While we were getting our first plate of food, Alex started doing a pancake dance too. Child cracks me up! We saw the pancake dance a couple of times during our trip too.

Here’s my first plate (I didn’t take a picture of my second):

Lauren was really enjoying her hot chocolate:

Alex and Mike were enjoying watching the characters:

Mom was enjoying her food:

And then Minnie came to the table:

We had pictures with all the characters before anyone got their second plate. Mike and I commented on how it felt like a whirlwind day. We got to Disney, found out our dryer didn’t need to be repaired, checked in, our rooms were ready, our luggage was delivered, we arrived at Chef Mickey’s, learned the Bacon Dance, had our pager go off, sat down at our table, got pictures taken with characters, had some yummy food, and now had the remainder of the day to enjoy Disney. We started to wonder if this was an omen of good things to come… a little foreshadowing for y’all.


We finished our meal and then decided to check out some of the shops at the Contemporary.



It was at this store:

that Lauren spotted some “Brave” figurines. I told her to wait and we’d purchase them at either the Emporium or Mousegears since surely if the contemporary store had it, those stores would too. A little more foreshadowing for y’all…

This is also where I started seeing all kinds of cute cups/mugs. I’m a sucker for cute cups and mugs y’all. It took me most of our trip to narrow down which ones I would get.

After the kids both purchased notebooks and Lauren got some pens, we headed out of the resort so we could go back to the BC. We really needed to check out Stormalong Bay!


What will we think about Stormalong Bay? Will our good fortune continue? Stay tuned….

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Love the update!! I am so sorry about your air-conditioner!! It's been SO stinkin hot here, I know you need it! I hope they get it fixed tonight!

The Bacon Dance has me cracking up. I love the instructional photos. . .tell Alex I practiced!

Chef Mickey's is so great. . .I'm hoping to get back there for breakfast soon (we've done the dinner the past few trips)! Can't wait to hear more about the rest of your day!

 

[cinderella crazy]

“Burn, Baby Burn! Concrete Inferno!” – May 25th Continued

After Chef Mickey’s we headed back to the BC and our rooms to unpack. It’s amazing how fast our room becomes disorganized once stuff comes out of bags and kids start playing with toys. I tried many times to keep it somewhat organized but wouldn’t you know it, someone would come right behind me and mess it up again!


Once we unpacked we decided to get ready to go to the pool. Not just any pool. Stormalong Bay. The pool we’ve been dreaming about going to ever since we booked our rooms at the BC.


As we started changing, I heard Mom in her room upset. Apparently her toilet wouldn’t flush properly. She called down to the front desk and within minutes someone was in her bathroom unclogging the toilet. Once again, fast and friendly service.


We finished getting ready and headed down to the pool. We headed to The Marketplace to get our refillable mugs which the kids loved having their own this trip.


Once we were outside, we found an area where they check your room keys. This is the only resort pool that I’ve seen this at. We showed our room keys and got a wristband.


We got to the pool around 1:20 and we tried to figure out our way around. This was slightly confusing for us. We weren’t very familiar with the pools layout and since it’s so big we didn’t know where we were going. We didn’t mind so much since the pool is beautiful!

We really wanted to go to the section that had the sand. After walking over three bridges, we found it. This was our favorite area at the pool. Look at all the fun we had:

After a while, we noticed that there was smoke coming up from what looked like the direction of Epcot. At one point, most of the people in the pool were looking at the smoke coming up. Mike and I started to wonder if they were testing some fireworks for Illuminations and something went wrong. It wasn’t till after we returned home that we found out that it was a brush fire outside of Disney property.

At some point, we decided to go check out a different area of the pool that was closer to Beaches and Cream. We set our stuff down and took off our shoes. Umm…to say the concrete was hot is an understatement. Let me just say this, it was so hot that two days later I realized that I had blisters on the balls of my feet. Ouch!! Talk about concrete inferno!

At about 2:40 we decided we needed to get back to the room and get ready for our 4:00 ADR at T-Rex.

When we return: A lot of traffic, some yummy food, and our first view of the castle.

 

[PixieMama]

Yay for the bacon dance! And eating bacon totally deserves a dance party! Bacon is awesome. I could eat it at every meal.

I love cups and mugs, too! I have zero room in my cabinets for any new ones, though. I'll have to weed some of the old ones out before my October trip!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Are You A Hero Or A Villain? – May 25th Continued

At 3:40 we left the BC to head to Downtown Disney. As we turned onto Buena Vista Drive, we realize that there is a ton of traffic. I mean really bad traffic. We couldn’t imagine what was causing all this traffic. Well, it turns out that little brush fire we saw burning while we were in the pool was causing backups. We were starting to get concerned that we would not be at the restaurant by 4:00 for our ADR. So I suggested to Mike that he drop Mom, Alex, and me outside of T-Rex and we would check-in while he parked the van (Lauren had fallen asleep on the way so Mike was going to carry her).

When Mom, Alex and I walked into the T-Rex entrance at 4:05, we saw something we’ve never seen at this restaurant, a line. When the lady and boy in front of us got to the check-in desk, the employees informed her that if her whole party wasn’t with her, she couldn’t check-in. I’ve never heard this before. I was starting to panic since we didn’t have Mike and Lauren with us. But they came in right as we moved to the front.

As we walked towards a table we started joking about how funny it would be if we sat at the same table that we’ve already sat at two times before. And as the girl lead us to the table we all started to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” she asked

“It’s just the fact that this will be our third time sitting at this table. We’ve never sat anywhere else.”

“Is this okay? Would you like to go to a different one?”

“No, it’s absolutely fine. It’s just what are the odds that you go to a restaurant three times and sit at the very same table all three times.”

The last two times everyone has sat in the same seats. This time we switched it up a little (Well, Mike and Mom did).

Our server came to the table and we ordered our food and drinks. Soon we were eating some yummy food.

Mom and I had the Tribal Tacos (my favorite):

Mike had the Cretaceous Chicken Fried Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Cinnamon Apples :

Alex had Mac and Cheese and Lauren had a Cheese Pizza but I didn’t get pictures of those.


For dessert we got the Meteor Bites:

After we ate, we headed to the Lego store.

It’s so fun to look at the stuff people can build with Legos.

How do people figure out how to build these things?


After each of the kids bought a Lego set, we headed out of Downtown Disney. First we took a picture of the kids in front of the T-Rex waterfall:

At 5:40 we were pulling out of DTD and on our way to MK. We got to MK at 6:00 and then I saw the castle:

We were able to ride several things before leaving:

Pirates
Haunted Mansion
Small World
People Mover


It was our first time riding Haunted Mansion since they changed the queue line so we opted to go the cemetery route since there was no line. The kids enjoyed playing with some of the new things:

We did look at the line for Aladdin’s Magic Carpets but the line was longer than we like to wait in and we knew that we could ride it one morning with very little wait.

When we were done we hopped on the monorail to the TTC so we could drive back to our resort. We were still flying high from the great day we’d had. We had a pleasant ride on the monorail and then we started walking to the tram pick up area. I remember as we were exiting the gates that I saw a sign for Hero’s and another for Villain’s. I had no idea what they meant so I didn’t mention it to Mike. As we approached the tram area we saw a tram waiting to take people to the parking lot. Woohoo! No wait! So we hopped on.

We’re riding along and we get to the Aladdin parking area and I hear Mike say “Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We got on the wrong tram.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are two different parking areas. One is Hero’s and one is Villain’s. We’re going to the Hero side and we are parked on the Villain’s side.”


Guess we should have looked harder at which tram we were getting on…


At this point, Mike thought it wouldn’t be that far of a walk if we got off at the Hero’s side and walked to the Villain’s side…If you ever find yourself in this situation, let me offer you some advice: ride the tram back to the front of the TTC and get on a Villain’s tram. Because the walk is LONG, LONG, LONG. My ankles were killing me by the time we made it to the van.


We found the van, pilled our tired and hurting bodies in, and headed back to the BC. Once we got there we decided to stop at the Marketplace and get some drinks. While we were waiting to fill our mugs, Mike accidentally spilt Coke on top of Lauren. He already felt bad about the tram mix-up and now he had just dumped Coke on his daughter. Wasn’t having a good night. There was already a Wet Floor sign sitting out and I later joked that:

Wet Floor Sign = Mike Was Here​

That seemed to get Mike smiling a little.


We got back to our rooms and the kids decided that they needed to argue about who was going to sleep in the daybed. Not because they both wanted to sleep in it, but because they both didn’t want to sleep in it. Mike and I were so tired by this point, we made the decision for them. Alex slept in the bed, Lauren slept in the daybed. They were asleep within 5 minutes.

It was now 9:30 and I don’t know if it was all the walking we did or the fact that we had so many snack credits but I needed a snack. So Mike went downstairs and got me an Uncrustable. We stayed in Mom’s room until about 10:00 and then Mike and I went into our room, we said goodnight to Mom and closed the connecting doors.



What will the next day bring? Has our luck taken a turn for the worse? What will we think of our first dinning experience at Teppan Edo? Will I be brave and ride Kali River Rapids? Check back soon to find out the answers.