First DVC Trip Report- October 2014

The Journey

We worked until noon on the Wednesday the 15th. After a quick lunch we loaded up the car and headed out. We were only going as far as Niagara Falls, ON which is about 4.5 hours. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then finished it off with a Hershey milkshake from the Hershey store. I love those milkshakes
We were on the road by 10am the next morning. The man at the border was pretty rude but we got across with no hassle. Stopped at a Subway for lunch then finally stopped for the night in Princeton West Virginia. We grabbed some Big Macs for dinner and rested up for more driving in the morning.
Back on the road by 8:30am and stopped at a DQ for lunch. Even though I work at one I couldn't resist! I wanted to try the Apple Pie Blizzard since we don't have them in Canada but they were out I settled for M&M instead (which we also don't have). We actually made it to Orlando this night! We stayed at the Ramada in Kissimee. It's a Good Neighbor hotel for WDW. We stayed there before and it seemed nice but we had been in the main building. This time we were in one of the buildings in the back and our room definatley needed some work. One of the beds was kind of broken, the toilet kept running, the faucets were loose and the walls seemed very thin (you could hear the people in the next room very clearly). Ah well. We were only there to sleep for the night so it wasn't a big deal.

Highs: Starting our Disney trip! Hershey milkshake
Lows: Rude guy at the border, room at the Ramada

Sorry no pictures from the travelling

Day 1

When we were checking out of the Ramada, I saw a women strolling around the lobby with one of those strollers you put your pets in. I was expecting to see a cat or little dog inside but instead it was a SKUNK! Very random
We checked in to Art of Animation around 10:30am so of course our room wasn't ready. We hopped a bus to DTD to pick up our PAP and Tables in Wonderland card. After spending about an hour in DisneyQuest we headed to Earl of Sandwich for lunch and snapped some pics of 3 of the food trucks. Lunch was tasty. I had the chipotle chicken avocado and Erik had the philly cheesesteak. On the way out we stopped at the pin trading store and bought a Pascal pin. Since this was our only night (possibly ever) at AOA we wanted to get back early enough to explore the resort. When we got back we asked at the front desk if our room was ready (never got the text) and it was so we grabbed our luggage and took a long, hot walk to the very back of the resort. We were in the Little Mermaid section which is the farthest away from the lobby. When we got to our room neither of our magic bands would open the door Rather than haul the luggage back, I stayed with it while Erik went back to get it fixed. When he returned they worked and that was the only issue we had with the bands all trip! Our room was beautiful and I was a little sad to leave it the next morning (any sad feeling was forgotten once we checked into BLT though )

After wandering around the resort taking pictures we went to Landscape of Flavours for dinner. Erik had pierogis and keilbasa which he quite enjoyed and I ordered tandori chicken but was given butter chicken. I didn't bother saying anything because I knew they'd throw it out and I didn't want to waste it plus we had been wondering what butter chicken was so I thought it was sign to try it. It was ok but not something I'd order again I don't think. However, the acorn squash I had as my side was amazing. I should have just asked for a plate of that! We finished off our meal with an "everything" brownie which was good. I was hoping to try the 7 layer bar but they didn't have any After dinner we headed back to the room and watched Harry Potter 7 (part 2).

Highs: AOA! I loved this resort!
Lows: Butter chicken and the issue with the magic band (which wasn't that big of a deal)

More pics from Day 1

We have M&M in Canada just not a Blizzard. Instead we have Smarties which are similar chocolate coated buttons. I don't think you guys have Smarties at all in US or at least not the same ones.

Day 2

We were quite sad to be checking out of AOA this morning. We've never done a split stay before so it kind of threw me off and made me feel like our Disney trip was over rather than just beginning We were however really looking forward to checking into BLT. That would have to wait until later in the day though!

Our first stop was Epcot. I had tried to book the "Sunday Morning with Buddy Valastro" aka Cake Boss when tickets went on sale a few months ago. It took me almost 20 minutes just to get through to be put on hold and then I was on hold for another 50 Minutes All that just to be told it was sold out! The CM said we could try and show up and see if there were any cancellations or no shows but there were none. Now having never really attended the F&W festival before I assumed this event was in a closed off area (as in a separate room). Nope. You could just watch from the sidelines. For free.He was also going to be doing a book signing that we could have got in line for. Not having known this and assuming we wouldn't get in, I had booked a FP for BOG lunch. We decided to use the FP and hopped the monorail to MK. We just made it in time but still ended up waiting in line for about 15 min. Erik had the carved turkey sandwich which he said was good and I had the croque monsieur. I was not a fan of my sandwich at all. I did not care for the cheese that was on it We also split the masters cupcake with the greystuff on it. It was good but nothing special. The themeing was great, it's beautiful restaurant.

After lunch we headed back to Epcot. I was really regretting not sticking around for Cake Boss (especially since my food was a bust). We decided to go back to the festival centre to see if he was still signing books. I just wanted to get a glimpse of him in person. Well he was still there! He was just finishing up and signed maybe 2-3 more books when we got there. Then he went through the line posing for pictures with people so we immediatly got in line and I got my picture taken with him. I MET CAKE BOSS! It was very brief, just a hug, hello nice to meet you, snap picture and move on. But I MET CAKE BOSS! That was a huge highlight for sure

We had a FP for figment next. Right near the end the ride broke down and we were stuck there for about 10 minutes. Some sort of technical difficulties. Once we were freed we hit up club cool so Erik could get his dose of Beverly. We then wandered over to Ellen's Energy Adventure. We've never done this before so we thought we'd give it a shot. It was actually pretty good. I'm a big Ellen fan! It didn't feel like it was 45 minutes long. Next up were Spaceship Earth and Test Track. We ended our day at Epcot with a frozen smores from the Desserts and Champagne booth. It was really good especially in the hot sun!

We decided to head to Publix to pick up some groceries before heading to check in at BLT. I am in love with that resort The theme is lacking (especially after being at AOA) but the location was perfect. Even the location of our room was great. We were on the 5th floor and just a little way down the hall from the elevators and walkway to the Contemporary. We had lake view which was really nice and we could see most of the Electrical Water Pageant. Now, we just found out that pageant existed earlier this year even though its been around since opening day. As we were just planning on staying in the room tonight (we had dinner at Contempo Cafe), we figured we would try and watch it. As we were sitting on the balcony with our tea, we could hear the music (though it was pretty faint) and we could see a bit of it. It was at an odd angle though so it was hard to see (we realized later that we were too early and it was going by WL). The fireworks soon drowned out the music. Is it just me or do the fireworks seem louder from BLT then at MK?! Anyways, we climbed into bed and weren't there more than 10 minutes when all of a sudden we heard this really loud music! And I mean loud! We lept from the bed and ran to the balcony to see that the music belonged to the water pageant. That's when we realized we had been too early before so we watched it, or at least most of it. Some of it was cut off due to the location of our room. We caught the full one later in the trip from the beach. Back to bed for an early morning that would start with breakfast at Boma!

High: Meeting Buddy
Low: Lunch at BOG

Bay Lake Tower

Day 3

Another nice thing about staying at BLT is convenience of getting to other resorts. All you have to do is walk over to the MK bus terminal! So that's what we did this morning to get to AKL. This was our first time at Boma and it certainly will not be our last The jungle juice was awesome (I could use a glass right now). There was so much food! They had lots of different pastries, bacon, sausage, turkey, ham, fruit, cereal, bagels, oatmeal, omelet station, you name it! Everything we had was delicious an we were beyond stuffed when we left.

Once we rolled ourselves to the bus stop, we headed to AK. We had FP for the safari, Everest and It's Tough to be a Bug. We also road Dinosaur and watched the Festival of the Lion King. The new theatre seemed basically the same to me. Once we had some more room in our tummies, we split a Dole Whip. The park seemed pretty busy today but it may have just seemed that way since there are a bunch of walls up and walkways are condensed. We decided to head back to the room around 4:30pm.

We relaxed on the balcony for a while before walking over to MK. We had dinner at Cosmic Rays. Erik had a tortellini pasta salad and I had a BBQ pork sandwich. Everything was good except for the green beans I had for my side. They were WAY to salty! After our extreme sodium intake we rode the People Mover, Buzz (Erik beat Mister), and the Speedway. We decided to head back as the fireworks would be starting soon. They seem to have some sort of backstage exit set up behind the Plaza which was pretty sweet. We made it back in time to make some tea and head to the walkway to the Contemporary to watch the fireworks without the crowds I love that they pipe in the music! We returned to our room to watch the water pageant again.

High: Breakfast at Boma
Low: Higher crowds at AK

Oops! Hit save instead of adding picture! Here they are

Yeah sure! I think they told us that was a DVC Member pool though but I can't remember 100%. We didn't end up using the pools. Here's some pics of the one close by at Contemporary. The last pic is a splash pad I think

We were in a Studio as well. The balcony was a good size . However, this was our first time staying in a room with a balcony so I have nothing to compare it too.

Day 4

We started this morning off with breakfast in the room then we were on our way to Typhoon Lagoon. It's been quite a few years since I was last here and Erik has never been. After a bus ride featuring two screaming kids (with the parents basically doing nothing about it) we arrived! We started off slow in the lazy river and then hit the slides. We did most of them and hit the wave pool for a bit. Neither of us are big water people so we only last a couple hours at a water park, so we were soon on our way back to the room.

We had a dinner ADR at Trails End over at Fort Wilderness so we hopped a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge thinking we could walk over. You either can't do that or the CM didn't understand what we wanted when we asked how to get to Fort Wilderness . Disappointed at not being able to walk (I wanted to look for deer), we got back on the boat. Since the boat was faster than walking would have been, we were pretty early for our reservation so we walked around a bit. Some of the RV's were decorated for Halloween. We saw a few turkeys walking around and some crazy looking golf carts. Then it was time for dinner And what a great dinner! The food was amazing and plentiful (mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, baked beans, salads galore, fried chicken, baked chicken, roast beef, sausage etc etc) and so were the desserts (apple crumble, chocolate cake, vanilla cake, red velvet cake, ice cream, bread pudding, pecan tarts, brownies, cookies)! We will be returning on future trips. The only downside was the service which wasn't really bad. Our server was nice and all and everytime we returned to our table our drinks had been refilled. However, he just seemed like he preferred it when we weren't around almost like he wasn't comfortable dealing with people face to face. Wrong profession He was nice and friendly though. We found the price to be reasonable too. $45 for both of us for all you can eat

After dinner we had to squeeze ourselves into our costumes for our first ever MNSSHP. We loved this event and are planning on going again next year! I dressed as Rapunzel with Erik as Flynn Ryder and Mister as Pascal. Mister was the hit of the night with the CM's especially Rapunzel herself. She loved him As a side note, she was a fantastic Rapunzel! She even had the laugh! We did a bunch of trick or treating and were surprised at how much candy we ended up collecting. The fireworks and parade were both awesome. We had a pretty authentic looking Jack Sparrow in front of us. Even the real Captain Jack was amazed. The only ride we ended up doing was Haunted Mansion as it seemed fitting. It was almost midnight when we left.

Highs: Trails End and MNSSHP
Lows: screaming kids on the bus, no walking to FW

more pics

Day 5

Slept in a bit this morning before hopping on the monorail to Epcot. Our first stop was Captain EO which we actually enjoy because it's just so cheesy Next up was our lunch ADR at Via Napoli. We had the Eat to the Beat dining package. The package got us each an app, entree and dessert. I had the beef tortellini in broth, pepperoni pizza and apple cake with almond sorbetto. Everything was great but dessert. The cake wasn't the type of cake I was expecting. It was hard like fruit cake. I was not a fan. Erik had the dry cured sausage with imported provolone cheese, spicy sausage pizza and riccotta cheese fritters. He liked everything he had. As much as we enjoyed our lunch, it was WAY more than we like to spend. It came to $110 Joann advised us earlier that she cancelled her dining package and used TIW instead and still got a good seat at her concert and we should have done the same. We ended up running late for the show and arrived seconds before it started so seating was a free for all and we got great seats. Dining package turned out to be a waste. Not only would the TIW have made lunch cheaper with the discount, but we also would not have gotten apps and probably no dessert. Ah well. Lesson learned. I would however return to Via Napoli for a pizza

After lunch it was time to ride Soarin and the less intense version of Mission Space. After that we had to run back to catch our 5:30 show for Smash Mouth. They were great but it was very loud. After the show it was WDWFGU meet up time We met Joann, Mandy, DisneyDee and her wife, and luvalldisney and her husband. What a great group of people! We really enjoyed chatting and hanging out with you all! Afterwards, we went our separate ways and we watched Illuminations before heading back to the monorail. When we got to the TTC the line for the resort monorail was massive so we decided to take the ferry to MK and then walk from there. We just missed the boat but didn't mind because Wishes was starting. We saw about half the show from the TTC then caught the rest from the ferry. Two fireworks shows in one night

High: Meet up of course!
Low: Dining package

Day 5 pictures