H0ney227's February Family Trip (and pre-trip) UPDATED 2 MARCH

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H0ney227's February Family Trip (and pre-trip) UPDATED 2 MARCH

So it's getting really close and I can't contain my excitement any longer! So I'll let you know some of the plans. My DH and I will be meeting up with my parents and my little sister down in Disney on the 21st. We are staying in the Boardwalk Villas in a 2 bedroom. We get there around 1pm and my parents around 11am. So I'm just guestimating it will be about 2 hours each until we are at the BWV from the airport using the Magical Express.

First day plans: Arriving! We have a late night dinner ADR for Beaches and Cream. Before that we plan on relaxing and maybe going to the pool or resort hopping. I'm sure my dad and DH will be in search of beverages. wink

Second day plans: Magic Kingdom day! Plan on arriving for rope drop. Fastpass+ SDMT, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder. Dinner ADR at Ohanas.

3rd day plans: We plan on venturing to Universal Studious IOA. It will probably just me DH, my sister and I. Dinenr at Cape May Cafe. We did see that Victoria and Alberts had an opening but it wasn't until super late (9:20) and didn't want to be falling asleep at such an experience so we will try it next time.

4th Day: Hollywood Studios early at opening trying to get to the RnR first before much of the line starts. Fastpass+ ToT, Star Tours, and Toy Story Mania. Dinner ADR at Coral Reef.

5th Day: This is a relaxing and pool day. We want to mini golf and go resort hopping. Dinner ADR at California Grill

6th Day: Animal Kingdom! We plan on getter here early as well. Fastpass+ for Dinosaur, EE, and the Safari. Hoping its a warm day because its been quite sometime since I rode Kali! But I think my dad really enjoys that ride so some of us, probably my dad and sister and I will go on anyway. Back over to the Magic Kingdom for dinner ADR at Be Our Guest.

7th Day: Ending our park days with EPCOT. Fastpass+ for Soarin, Spaceship Earth, and Character Spot. This day will be my actual birthday. Dinner ADR at Chefs de France.

8th and last full day: This is our Downtown Disney day. We have a late breakfast ADR at Cape May Cafe and a dinner ADR at Ralagan Road. We leave really early in the morning the last day.

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LouisianaMike's picture
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Great plans!! Sounds like a blast.... awesome mickey

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Your plans sound great! Coral reef and chefs de France are 2 of my favourite places to eat Smile

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The one with all the birthdays Oct 14 4 Big Birthdays and a Vow Renewal thrown in
The OMG trip June 14 30th Birthday present from the hubs
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Oct 2012 TR with a cruise!big family trip featuring the beach club, AKL, the dream and a villa offsite
TR on a budget May - June 2011offsite condo
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Your plans sound fun and you don't have too much longer to wait! Yay for Disney countdowns! clapping

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Oh my gosh your plans sound fabulous! We're attempting to get a two bedroom at Boardwalk for our December trip so please take lots of pictures and come back with a full review for me! laugh awesome

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Looks pretty good hOney! We didn't even get to Animal Kingdom this trip! We were having to much fun with Ken & Jan everywhere else!!!!!!!!!! Never really missed it either.

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Thanks everyone!

Allie wrote:
Oh my gosh your plans sound fabulous! We're attempting to get a two bedroom at Boardwalk for our December trip so please take lots of pictures and come back with a full review for me! laugh awesome

I will take lots of pics for you!

MrHub wrote:
Looks pretty good hOney! We didn't even get to Animal Kingdom this trip! We were having to much fun with Ken & Jan everywhere else!!!!!!!!!! Never really missed it either.

I love Animal Kingdom! I would rather skip HS. I just hope that AK isn't too overloaded with all that construction they have going on around the tree.

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What a great way to spend your birthday

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Got back yesterday evening and having very bad post-Disney depression. Going to start working on my trip report very shortly. I had a really good time. And we got a ton of memory maker photos. My parents are already DVC members and on this trip my husband and I decided to get some DVC of our own so we now own at the Grand Floridian. Very excited to start planning our next vacation. I really want to do a land and sea. Smile

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Welcome back - sorry you had to come back, but congrats on the DVC!!! Let the planning begin! (Like it ever ends, right??)

Looking forward to your trip report.

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Congrats on the DVC & "Welcome Home!".

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Welcome home!

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congrats and "Welcome Home". DVC ownership is a great feeling. biggrin

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Congrats on DVC! Can't wait for the report and pictures! clapping

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yay congrats on the DVC yay

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Yea for DVC - welcome!

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Thank you everyone! It might take a little bit to get the trip report going because my mom had a lot of great pictures I wanted to incorporate into it.

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Congrats on the DVC! That will probably help keep the post Disney blues at bay knowing you are going back on a regular basis. awesome

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congrats on DVC. looking forward to hearing about your trip

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I think I'm just going to get started with the trip report without the pictures for now. Its taking a bit longer to get them all together than I thought it would.

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Arrival Day Saturday Feb 21: Lance(DH) and I were up bright and early at 3am for our 5am flight. We had a 2 hour layover at the Minneapolis airport and we got some breakfast. Then it was onto our plane which would be arriving at MCO at 1:20pm. We arrived right on time and I called my mother as soon as we landed. They had just gotten to the Boardwalk and checked in. They didn't have the room yet so they said they would meet us at the ESPN club. We had a nice ride on the DME which stopped at Caribbean Beach first and then dropped us at the Boardwalk. We went right into the ESPN club to meet my parents. For some reason we weren't very hungry and we split a cuban burger, which was very very good. My parents and my sister had some wings. After this late lunch we got the text that our room was ready, first we went to the check in counter though because Lance and I needed our magic bands connected to our credit cards because we were staying the same room as my parents. After that we went to check out the room. It was a 2 bedroom with views of the main pool. The room was a bit disappointing. I thought it seemed quite outdated and kind of sad looking. The light in our bathroom was extremely dim and the front dest said that thats how they apparently all are... We were on the 4th floor and close to the lobby and elevators which was very convenient. After this we went down to the back entrance of EPCOT to get our Disney military tickets activated. We didn't go in the park because we only had 4 day park hoppers and today wasn't a park day. Around this time it was about 7pm and we had 9pm reservations for Beaches and Cream and we were all tired and ready for some ice cream. We went to the podium and there was actually a no show and they were able to squeeze us in at about 730. Lance and I split a cuban sandwich (that seems to be the theme of the day) my dad and mom also got the cuban and my sister got grilled cheese. The cubans were alright. Then for dessert my dad had a Mickey sundae, my mom had a banana split, lance had a peanut butter brownie thing, I had a mint chocolate chip sundae and my sister had some frosty soda thing. Everyone liked their dessert except for my sister. After dinner since the weather was quite warm my sister, Lance and I decided to go back to the BWV and go to the pool. Well we tried to go into to pool. The lifeguard said the pool was heated, which was the biggest fib I heard all vacation because it literally felt like someone had went and dumped a billion ice cubes in it! So that was a bust, we couldn't even get our feet in! I had the idea to try the smaller quiet pool, so we ventured down there and thank goodness cause it was actually nice swimmable! We swam for about an hour and then we went up to go to bed because in the morning it was time for the Magic Kingdom!

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h0ney227 wrote:
After that we went to check out the room. It was a 2 bedroom with views of the main pool. The room was a bit disappointing. I thought it seemed quite outdated and kind of sad looking. The light in our bathroom was extremely dim and the front dest said that thats how they apparently all are... We were on the 4th floor and close to the lobby and elevators which was very convenient.

That's a bummer! Do you know if you had a preferred or standard 2 bedroom? 2 bedroom standards were full at 11 months out so we decided to wait until the 7 month mark (most DVC rental places now charge a premium for booking at 11 months at a lot of the resorts) and I think we've decided we're going to still try for the 2 bedroom standard again at BWV to see if anything has opened up, and if not we're probably going to try for a 2 bedroom at BCV as our second choice since it is the same price as a preferred 2 bedroom at BWV.

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Allie wrote:
h0ney227 wrote:
After that we went to check out the room. It was a 2 bedroom with views of the main pool. The room was a bit disappointing. I thought it seemed quite outdated and kind of sad looking. The light in our bathroom was extremely dim and the front dest said that thats how they apparently all are... We were on the 4th floor and close to the lobby and elevators which was very convenient.

That's a bummer! Do you know if you had a preferred or standard 2 bedroom? 2 bedroom standards were full at 11 months out so we decided to wait until the 7 month mark (most DVC rental places now charge a premium for booking at 11 months at a lot of the resorts) and I think we've decided we're going to still try for the 2 bedroom standard again at BWV to see if anything has opened up, and if not we're probably going to try for a 2 bedroom at BCV as our second choice since it is the same price as a preferred 2 bedroom at BWV.

We had a 1BR at BWV last April and a studio last August. I can't remember which one seemed more refreshed, but it did seem like one of the rooms was more updated than the other. The difference wasn't huge, but the quality of the soft goods in the two rooms was definitely not the same. There was also a wing blocked off during one of the trips, which led me to believe that maybe they are refreshing the rooms one section at a time?

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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Allie wrote:
h0ney227 wrote:
After that we went to check out the room. It was a 2 bedroom with views of the main pool. The room was a bit disappointing. I thought it seemed quite outdated and kind of sad looking. The light in our bathroom was extremely dim and the front dest said that thats how they apparently all are... We were on the 4th floor and close to the lobby and elevators which was very convenient.

That's a bummer! Do you know if you had a preferred or standard 2 bedroom? 2 bedroom standards were full at 11 months out so we decided to wait until the 7 month mark (most DVC rental places now charge a premium for booking at 11 months at a lot of the resorts) and I think we've decided we're going to still try for the 2 bedroom standard again at BWV to see if anything has opened up, and if not we're probably going to try for a 2 bedroom at BCV as our second choice since it is the same price as a preferred 2 bedroom at BWV.


I'm really not sure. It was a two bedroom lock off. And we booked it at 7 months.

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Day 2!
Today was our MK day. We were up bright and early and out at the bus stop at 8:00 because we really wanted to make the opening show as everyone besides Lance and myself have never saw it. Welllll... when we got there we were told by the lady who was working at the bus stop that the MK buses would be dropping off at the ticket and transportation center because of the princess half marathon! Oh no! Well we got on the bus and we were stuck in traffic around the MK for quite some time. The bus ended up dropping us off at the MK bus stop! But alas it was 8:52 and we just missed the show! Oh well we are in the vacation club, my mother will see it one day!
We headed right to Adventure Land and walked right onto Jungle Cruise. My dad kept saying that he hasn't been on this ride in years... of course we havnt cause we never get to MK this early and he never wants to wait in the line for it! We walked right on Pirates and the mist thing in the beginig was actually working, but a lot of the other features were not (this summers refurb will be a much needed one). We also walked right onto Haunted Mansion. And then we went to walk right onto Splash Mountain. My mom didn't go and my dad ended up loosing his hat on the ride! He was pretty bummed after that. We went on other things like my dads favorite, It's a Small World. We had fast passes for Big Thunder .
After this we decided we needed some lunch. The Diamond Horsehoe was actually open! So we ate there. Everyone has a turkey sandwich and it was actually very good, I would recommend it. Later on we tried Lefou's Brew. Lance, my mom and I were very impressed. It was a very hot day, 80 degrees and sunny, and the brew was just perfect to cool us off. We went on some more rides, waited in line for for Buzz for about an hour because it kept breaking down. Then it was time for our Seven Dwarves Mine Trian fast pass! None of us have ever been on it and I was very impressed! It was so cute and it was a lot if fun. MY dad bought a new hat at the big top place in the Toontown area.
We also saw the parade. I love this new parade so much! It makes me cry every time! My mom cried too. My mom and I watched it from a different area than my dad, sister and Lance. Lance also had a bad experience around this time... He was watching the parade and heard a squabble behind him, it was a young girl, around 8 and she was fighting with her parents about something. Well she apparently got so mad and threw her full drink cup right at Lance! It spilt all down his back and his legs with soda! The parents never said anything at all to Lance and he didn't say anything (which I find surprising) and my dad missed the whole thing or else he definitely would have said something! At least the soda was cold and he got to cool off a little wink
After the parade my dad and sister wanted to head to the room for some reason. BORING. Lance, my mom and I hung back cause we still had a Space Mountain Fastpass! We weren't going to skip that! After we hit up uptown jewelers on the way out and they had a Haunted Mansion Dooney but it was about 400$ and it was bigger than I would ever need so I didn't get it.
Now the three of us were off to EPCOT cause we wanted GRAND MARINER SLUSHES! They are our favorite things lol. All three of us love them. While I was trying to buy them we ran into a little problem and my band wasn't working but either was Lance's, they wouldn't let us charge! So my mom had to buy them! We went back to the hotel through the international gateway and went to talk to the check in people. They were very helpful and said that for some reason our account on our bands went back to $0 so they fixed it. It was pretty easy. Now we could officially charge like adults! We went back to the room and hung out a little bit before dinner.
Time for dinner at Ohanas. We took the bus back to MK and the boat over to the Poly, well my parents and sister took the boat to the Poly. Lance and I got off at the Grand Floridian and walked over. It's such a nice walk. After we checked in we went to the bar and guess what?! No pineapples for Lapu Lapus! So my mom got a back scratcher and it was super cute because it comes with an actual back scratcher! I forget what I got but I remember not being very impressed. Dinner was good as usual, except the service was actually a little slow. I really miss the pork though! Idk why they had to take it off the menu like a week before I got there. Then it was back to the Boardwalk for bed cause we were all very tired.

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This was a view from our room.

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.

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Sorry but I'm having trouble uploading my pictures...

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