Spending Our Inheritance with Our Parents

[Amy]

I saw online last night that Duffy on a stick has been joined by Perry the Platypus on a stick as well. Not crazy about either option, but I guess they aren't really for my age group anyhow ~ sigh
Wow ~ I know it can be pretty hot and miserable in Florida just about any time of the year. It sounds like you got some super crazy weather yesterday I like December/January because I would much rather put on a few layers than be hot and cranky!
A day at the beach in Florida. Hmmm, that's something we almost never do. When we go, we go to Disney We went for my Mom's high school reunion a few moons ago and it felt so weird to be in Florida and not go to Disney But we did get to the beach which was nice
Enjoy your last day cy1229!!

[cy1229]

Same Day Report, Day Seven: I Won't Say Goodbye, But See You Later

About 23 hours ago my sister, her two kids, and my family and I were all sitting on the banquette around my laptop, laughing our fool heads off at some of the photographs we snapped. Let's just say National Geographic Traveler Magazine has nothing to worry about. Today we ate at Chef Mickey's and then checked out of BLT. Did a little shopping at Downtown Disney (I found a great bag that I'm going to convert into a bag for my work laptop! Yay me! I"ll take pics and post.) then picked up the rental car and drove to Cocoa Beach. We're not ON the beach, but our balcony has a good view of the ocean and right now Ellie is on the balcony watching the lightning in a distant storm over the ocean.

It's always sad to leave someplace we truly love, isn't it? We've already discussed where we would like to stay "next time," and the things we would do differently. In fact, one of our topics of conversation on the way over here was what theme park would be "next" for WDW. I came up with a fantastic idea that my family thought would be great, too. Felt kind of proud of myself. Hubby wanted to know if I would want anything in return from Disney for my great idea, and all I could come up with was a DVC membership and lifetime annual passes. What can I say, I'm easy to please.

I don't want a huge pile of money (although a small pile might be nice, TYVM), I just want time to spend with my family, making memories. This week, I got that wish.

I will edit photos as I am able, and will get a full trip report going ASAP. But now, Ellie wants to use the laptop so she can go on Facebook and chat with her boyfriend.

[NaCler]

Awesome job cy. Can't wait to see the pics. But I won't pressure you like some people.

Amy - I don't know, I seem to remember getting one of those Duffy's on a stick in the mail from somebody. That somebody took valuable park time to decorate their DOAS, carry it around the park and then take time to mail it to me. So, they must have enjoyed doing it.

[Amy]

...We've already discussed where we would like to stay "next time," and the things we would do differently. In fact, one of our topics of conversation on the way over here was what theme park would be "next" for WDW. I came up with a fantastic idea that my family thought would be great, too. Felt kind of proud of myself. Hubby wanted to know if I would want anything in return from Disney for my great idea, and all I could come up with was a DVC membership and lifetime annual passes. What can I say, I'm easy to please....

Ummm, gonna just leave us hanging?!

...About 23 hours ago my sister, her two kids, and my family and I were all sitting on the banquette around my laptop, laughing our fool heads off at some of the photographs we snapped. Let's just say National Geographic Traveler Magazine has nothing to worry about. ...

Yeah, gonna have to see those photos to determine that

...I just want time to spend with my family, making memories. This week, I got that wish. .....

That's a great memory to have made on your trip!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of your trip report and photos! And I'm curious to see what you are going to transform for your work laptop ~ it might inspire me to do the same

Awesome job cy. Can't wait to see the pics. But I won't pressure you like some people.

Whooooo??? Meeeeee???

Amy - I don't know, I seem to remember getting one of those Duffy's on a stick in the mail from somebody. That somebody took valuable park time to decorate their DOAS, carry it around the park and then take time to mail it to me. So, they must have enjoyed doing it.

Hmmm, I don't know who that someone could be, but I'm sure they didn't spend valuable park time to decorate him I bet they let Duffy ride around like a hood ornament on someone's ECV, proudly letting the wind swish past his cute little bear ears, let him take a photo journey around the World Showcase, and then gently placed the golden (well, pasty white since he wasn't decorated) bear in their suitcase so he wouldn't bend, brought him home and colored him with glee thinking of the great surprise and wonder on someone's face when they received such a thoughtful gift! To quote Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella in a "Lovely Night", of course, "I do not know that this is so I only just suppose..."

[NaCler]

Hmmm... that is true. I do remember seeing pasty bear pics around the world. It is amazing what information you deduced with the events of the DOAS without direct involvement. You're like Sherlock Holmes.

[Amy]

Hmmm... that is true. I do remember seeing pasty bear pics around the world. It is amazing what information you deduced with the events of the DOAS without direct involvement. You're like Sherlock Holmes.

Hey! That's what they call me..but it's normally proceeded by the words No sh*t Sherlock...hmmmm, I wonder why that is?!

[NaCler]

Hahaha... I'm sure they don't say that! Hahaha...

[cy1229]

Good Trip Report, Day One: "Culture" Shock

My day started at 4:45 am. I already told you about our airport / plane / delay ordeal, so I'll skip to the good stuff. I didn't really relax until we were on our plane to Orlando and I saw our bags being loaded into the cargo hold. At that point I knew I was in good hands (not that I wasn't to begin with, just this is when I FELT it) and I started to enjoy the trip. I don't mind flying, but it doesn't excite me anymore the way it used to. Anyway, we got to Orlando just fine, and walked (and walked and walked and walked) to the Magical Express line.

Bus ride was uneventful, but we were on it a LONG time. This route goes to Polynesian, then Grand Floridian, then Wilderness Lodge, and THEN Contemporary (our stop). Yikes. No matter, we're on the front end of a Disney trip, and we're still excited!

Got to our condo in Bay Lake Tower (separate report, below) and got our room keys from my parents. Our party was My mom, stepdad, sister, nephew (12), niece (6), daughter Meghan (17), daughter Ellie (14), husband (Jeff), and me. After a little bit of hellos, hugs, and freshening up, it's off to the Magic Kingdom!

This is how we know we're in WDW - we get off the Monorail, walk down the ramp, hear the music, and see the train station. And the smells! They never struck me before but after our "How does it smell" thread on the WDW page, I noticed the smells of Disney much more this trip. The Magic Kingdom was decked out in all kinds of autumn splendor:



This year, I had made some trip plans on TouringPlans.com. Well we started to stick with those, and that lasted, oh, about 25 minutes. NaCler was right, it was too ambitious, and in spite of asking my sister for her opinions and input, she didn't really chime in until we were IN the parks. So, it was pretty much a whatever-comes plan after that.

For some reason, we always walk up Main Street and then into Tomorrowland. We decided to ride the Peoplemover (or Tomorrowland Transit Authority, as it might be known ) so that's where we headed first. Here's my lovely sister on the attraction:



Next, we snatched up fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, and headed into Monsters, Inc. Laughfloor, where my stepdad was "That Guy." I'm not sure he enjoyed that... he didn't wear his sticker of honor afterward. By this time it was our time frame for Buzz so off we went. My mom and I rode together, and let's just say no one's high score was in any danger from either of us, or even the two of us combined! Jeff and Meghan did better but I honestly don't remember their scores. Somewhere in the 55k range, I think.





Next, it was over to Space Mountain to snag some fast passes.

[ We interrupt this trip report for a medical update. It's important to remember my age of almost 45 years. My head likes to think that I can still do the things my girls do. But they're teenagers, and athletes (swimmers), and I'm neither. Therefore, my body doesn't respond to extreme experiences as favorably as it once did. We now return you to your regularly scheduled trip report, already in progress. ]

Next, the kids decided to ride Mad Tea Party (which we call simply "Tea Cups" in our family). My niece didn't want her picture taken, and who knows what my nephew was doing. Maybe he was impatient for the ride to start.



Yes, we totally made fun of Meghan for holding her arms up on the tea cup ride.



Then, it was on to Jeff's absolute favorite attraction, Philharmagic. I have to say I love this one, too. We listen to it as often as possible at home via Subsonicradio. My niece wanted to ride the carousel after that, and Jeff and I took photos of the stroller parking.



Why did we do this, you ask? Well I was absolutely ASTOUNDED by the number of people in the park! Granted, it was a Saturday, and granted, the weather was quite warm, but seriously, I don't remember ever being at WDW when it was this busy! It seemed like every family had either a stroller or scooter, or sometimes both! And no, I've never been in the busiest times of spring break, mid-summer, or horror of horrors, over the Christmas holiday. So this was a bit of a shock for me, and after being up for 12 hours +, a source of frustration.

The MK was pretty, though, in spite of the crowds. At least, above all the heads it was.









After the carousel we headed to Cosmic Ray's for dinner. We found a few tables clustered together on one of the terraces outside, and relaxed and lingered over our dinner. I know the food here is generic, but we always have a good meal and love to come back every time we're in the MK. We started making jokes about the ubiquitous chocolate dessert, which seemed for the first time to not be chocolate mousse! Did they drop this (finally)? The carrot cake aboundeth, though.

After supper it was our time for a spin on Space Mountain, wherein I re-discovered that I should probably think twice about riding this coaster. I was dizzy for quite awhile after getting off! I know I'm getting old because I'm not even upset about maybe not riding it again.

The rest of the evening is a little blurry, both literally and figuratively. I know we rode "Small World" for my mom (her favorite, and if I had to be honest, I would tell you that I love it, too). I don't remember if we did anything else, and the notes I took only mention Space Mountain and Small World after supper. So, here's some of the mind-melting fun from Small World:

This is my sister, and my daughter, Ellie, on Small World:



Sister and niece, in a not-blurry shot:



Mom and Meghan:



Stepdad and Jeff, humoring me (barely):



Some generic Small World photos (including my favorites, the geese):























At that point, we were pretty tired and decided to call it a night.

[Amy]

Cool! Your report had pictures and everything!!
Sounds like a nice first day. You managed to fit a lot in even with traveling so long in the morning. Love all the family shots. The one in the tea cups is awesome And the one where your daughter has her arms in the air, the next tea cup over seems to be laughing at her too And I rather like the one of your sister and daughter on It's a Small world with the blurry lights ~ that looks neat!
More, more, more!!

[cy1229]

Resort Review: Bay Lake Tower

I've mentioned this before, but I'll repeat it for those who don't remember - we traveled on my mom and stepdad's DVC points. Because of the exorbitant number of points required for a grand villa at BLT, we were booked in a 2-bedroom plus a studio. The plan was to have my parents, sister, and her kids stay in the condo and my family and I stay in the studio. Should have worked... right?

Nope.

First, if you book a 2-bedroom at BLT, and you insist on a dedicated 2-bedroom, you're going to be stuck on the second floor. All the other floors have units that are 1-BR with an attached studio, rather than a dedicated 2-BR. So we were on the second floor, on the pool side. That actually wasn't that bad because there was a lot of lush greenery growing in front of our balconies and there's a fountain near the building that diminishes the noise. You can definitely still hear the music from the pool, though. So if you're needing someplace that's QUIET in the afternoons (such as a child's nap time, or your own for that matter ) you should make absolutely certain your room does not overlook the pool / courtyard. An even-numbered room should do the trick. The studio was even-numbered and overlooked the parking area toward the Contemporary.

Ok back to the sleeping arrangements. The studios at BLT are VERY VERY SMALL. There's a queen-sized bed, and a pull-out sleeper sofa that's technically a double but it's a small double. There's a small oval-shaped table with 2 chairs, but the table is just about big enough for a laptop computer and mouse to be set up, and not much more. The space around the queen bed is tight, and if the sleeper sofa is opened up, I don't know how one would navigate the room very well. There's a kitchenette with smallish fridge (a little bigger than a dorm fridge, smaller than a standard apartment fridge) and a microwave. Small sink. And while the glasses and cups are "real," the plates and bowls are paper. Bathroom is small, too, with a rather tiny vanity.

The 2 BR that we had wasn't much bigger, but it was bigger. The master bedroom has a king bed and a chair, with a small writing table and chair, plus a console with drawer space and a flat-screen TV. There's a sliding panel between the room and the bathroom. There isn't a ton of room to move around the bed. The bathroom is disproportionately large, with a big jet tub, large vanity, lots of wasted floor space, and a separate room with the toilet and shower (with rain shower head!). Given everything else in the studio, it seems like a lot of effort was made to impress the socks out of people with the master bathroom. The second bedroom was quite spacious, and had a pretty standard bathroom. Off the entry of the condo is another full bathroom with a quarter-circle-shaped vanity. All the counter surfaces in the suite are granite of varying hues and look nice. Laundry area has a set of shelves and a little storage, which my sister took advantage of.

So back to our original plan, my parents, in their selflessness, took the studio and gave all of us "kids" the condo. That meant that Jeff and I took the master bedroom, my sister and her kids took the second bedroom, and the girls would sleep in the living room. Wait, back that truck up, the girls took the second bed in the other bedroom, and my niece and nephew slept in the living room. Christian, age 12, was NOT thrilled about sharing a queen-sized bed with his sister, even though they still do "sleepovers" all the time at home. For sleeping it was absolutely perfect. For storing everyone's suitcases, not so much.

There are plenty of drawers in the condo, just not much place to put a suitcase. So, if you're the type that unpacks into the furniture in a hotel, that's great until you have to shove your bags someplace. However, we don't typically do that, and with 4 suitcases in the master bedroom, plus the laptop, plus the camera bag, plus our carry-on bags, it was crowded. And, the girls would have had to put their clothes in the drawers in the living room if there was going to be enough space. The closet in the master bedroom is TINY. As in minuscule. Itty bitty. And there's a super-small "safe" that's mounted on a huge chunk of something hard (concrete? metal?) on the floor, so no hopes of putting a bag in there.

The living area isn't much bigger. This is a view of the living room from the banquette:



When the sofabed is opened, the wooden armchair, lamp, and curtains are completely out of reach (unless you crawl over the bed).

This is a view of the living room from the kitchen:



So in the corner you can see the arms of the wooden chair. It's not a very large space. The ottoman, with tray, came in handy when my niece had to do her homework, but has to be slid next to the kitchen island when the bed is opened up. The door leads to the balcony that is also connected to the master bedroom.

This is the banquette / eating area of the kitchen. That's my niece hiding behind something on the table. She does not like me to take her picture!!



It's comfortable for 4 or 5 people, but no more. That stool at the end does slide out of the way, so it adds seating for one person, but doesn't have a back on it.

This is the kitchen, from in front of the TV:



The island is nice, but it's not very big. It became the "dumping ground" at the end of the day. And it's definitely a one-butt kitchen. Get 2 or 3 people in there trying to fix breakfast and it's impossible. The pull-out pantry next to the stove is a nice feature. The plates they chose for these suites are standard white, but they also come with a full set (6) of orange triangle-shaped plates that quickly became my kids' favorite.

The BLT suites are pretty generic. They could be literally anywhere. If you're looking for something that is really Disney in its feel, stay somewhere else. There is some nice art work that I actually really like, that is very Disney-esque:

Over the banquette:



Over the sofa:



But if you take these paintings out, and the ones in other parts of the condo, it's just a contemporary 2-bedroom apartment. Don't get me wrong - it's very nicely, tastefully done, and more "grown up" than other resorts (especially Pop Century and All-Star Movies). But that's just it - it's more "grown up" and most things Disney aren't necessarily adult. I hope I'm making sense.

Technically, all nine of us could have been accommodated in the 2-BR. But there's no way I would ever do that. You could fit nine people in this place, if five of them were children smaller than adult-sized (so all under the age of 10). Then it would work. Otherwise, it's just not going to be comfortable for more than a day or two.

Would I stay here again? Sure. It's a 15-minute walk to the MK (but at the end of the day, it seems like a VERY VERY LONG WALK). Getting to the Contemporary is easy. The pool is nice, the kids loved the water slide (but it didn't replace Typhoon Lagoon, I found out). But our next "try it" place is Boardwalk or Beach Club. For the $$ or number of points required to stay in Bay Lake, I wouldn't do it again.

[Amy]

So you were in the newest part of that hotel/DVC then. It looks like there is quite a bit of wear on the kitchen island corners. Sounds like it was cramped, and you really did have 4 children in your group. I did notice the Space Mountain artwork over the banquette ~ and your niece trying to avoid being in the photo Did you stay in this place the whole time you were at WDW? How far do you have to go to catch the monorail at the Contemporary? Is it far?
Yay!! for more photos

[cy1229]

So you were in the newest part of that hotel/DVC then. It looks like there is quite a bit of wear on the kitchen island corners. Sounds like it was cramped, and you really did have 4 children in your group. I did notice the Space Mountain artwork over the banquette ~ and your niece trying to avoid being in the photo Did you stay in this place the whole time you were at WDW? How far do you have to go to catch the monorail at the Contemporary? Is it far?
Yay!! for more photos

Glad I'm keeping your hunger for visual information satiated, Amy.

Yes, we stayed here all 6 nights. We didn't eat any meals except breakfast in the condo, but my parents came down to the condo for breakfast and coffee in the mornings, so we were really all on top of each other. A couple of times two of us went on the balcony to eat and drink coffee. Ellie, who likes her "space" and to be left alone most of the time, retreated to the balcony quite often to read or just decompress.

There is a lot of wear showing in some areas. The carpet is a nice subdued sage green (that's medium grayish-green for all the men out there ) with a pattern of lines and ellipses sculpted into it. The high-traffic areas are already starting to be matted down, and a single-depth carpet would probably have been a better choice. There are dings and other things but with as tight as the spaces are, it doesn't surprise me that they've been knocked into by a lot of people.

The walkway to the Contemporary isn't very long, and leaves the fifth floor of BLT to connect with the Grand Canyon concourse of the Contemporary. So getting to the monorail wasn't bad at all. The one time we really wanted to take the monorail back to the hotel, it wasn't running any longer (after 11 pm it quits!) so we had to walk. I don't know the actual distance but I can tell you it was similar to walking from Space Mountain to Splash Mountain. Took awhile. And at 11:30 at night, we weren't exactly thrilled with that walk. That was the night of the horrifying blisters for Jeff.

[Amy]

So the studio wasn't even on the same floor as the condo? That seems a little inconvenient for larger families traveling together.
It did look like there was some wear already which seems odd in something relatively new. And the points aren't small change for the BLT I'm guessing either.
The walkway from BLT goes right to the level of the Contemporary to catch the monorail ~ that seems handy! Too bad it doesn't run later than 11. I suppose that is to keep the noise down for those rooms in the Contemporary?
I walked the walk from the Contemporary over to the Magic Kingdom when I took the Train tour very, very, very early in the morning. It was a pretty good walk ~ at least 10 minutes ~ and I can only imagine how much longer it seems when you are walking it back at the end of a long day...with blisters Are those the only transportation options from the MK? Walk or monorail before 11? No WDW bus?

...Glad I'm keeping your hunger for visual information satiated, Amy. ....

Yes, I'm feeling quite Disney-deprived at the moment So extra photos help
And just in case, before you say anything Wizz, I said deprIved, not deprAved

[cy1229]

There are buses from Contemporary to the parks and v/v. The big drawback is that they always went to at least the Poly, and sometimes the Grand Floridian, too, so it took even longer to get where you wanted to go. We found monorail or bipedal locomotion to be the most efficient, if not the most desirable. I think if I was to stay at one of the resorts on Bay Lake or Seven Seas Lagoon again, I would definitely rent a car. It adds an expense, but the trade-off is not waiting a long time for transportation to someplace that's not the MK.

Also, my parents' studio was just down the hall from our 2-BR, but on the opposite side of the hallway and on the other side of the elevators. They had 7232 and we had 7229. Not far, really, probably just far enough to have them removed from the kids' craziness.

[Belle1082]

Can I ask how busy it was at the END of your trip?? I get to DW on Saturday and I am concerned that it is going to be more crowded than I thought! Last January when we were there, we were expecting it to be quiet and it was crazy busy! Fingers crossed that it won't be starting this saturday for 8 day! haha