Trip Report **COMPLETE** The "SURPRISE!!! We're not going to Pittsburgh... We're going to Disney World!!" TR

Hi everyone! My family and I just got back from an amazing week at the Beach Club Villas and I'm going to try my best to do a trip report, because I learned SO much by reading everyone else's on here.

First off, for full disclosure, I realized as I was looking through our pics after we got back, that other than one Lapu Lapu and several Mickey Bars, I didn't take one. single. food pic. My only excuse is that I was so excited to eat all the delicious food that I didn't take the time to photograph it. So if you read trip reports for the food pics, you will be sorely disappointed with my TR.
I did, however, eat a TON of delicious food, and kept good notes, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of pics.

This was our first family trip to WDW. This is our family-

Kevin and me

Calvin and Claire


I (Michelle) went to Disney World in 1994 when I was 14 with my family to the MK, Epcot and MGM Studios. I also went to the MK for one day trips in 1998 and 2005. My husband (Kevin) went to the MK in 1978 as a 5 year old and remembers nothing. This was the WDW experience between the two of us.
I am, however, a huge lover of all things Disney and have been dreaming of taking my kids to Disney World since before they technically existed.
So last summer, I told my husband "That's it. Claire is three and Calvin is five. They are the perfect age for Disney magic. We are going to Disney World next February break". Since I do all of our vacation research, planning and prep (a mutual choice, not because I'm some control freak ), he basically nodded and went along with it. And I'm pretty sure he loves me and knew how important this trip was to me.

So after much research and planning, we decided to rent points through David's to stay at the Beach Club for a week. We also decided to keep it a secret from our kids and to tell them the day before we left. We live about an hour south of Buffalo NY in a frozen tundra called Lakewood. Seriously though, it has been flipping freezing this winter, more so than usual, and I was beyond ready to escape the cold. We told our kids about two weeks before we were set to leave, that we were going to a hotel in Pittsburgh (we were flying out of Pittsburgh) with an indoor pool. They were so excited about this. I couldn't WAIT to tell them we were actually going to Disney World.
But based on my son's reaction when we told them, I think I may have gone a little overboard with the Disney jug we kept on the counter and saving our money up for our "someday in the very far off future" trip to Disney World. Next up is their reaction when we told them...

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

Come on don't leave me hanging! And for the record, I live an hour south of Pittsburgh - I'd take a trip to Disney any day! Especially after this awful winter!

 

[joshsprincess921]

Can't wait to see more!

 

[mishel635]

So we got a room at the Courtyard Marriott near the airport with the airport shuttle and free weekly parking. We got there around 3 PM on Valentine's Day, swim for a few hours and ordered some dinner. We have only ever stayed in vacation homes, never a hotel so the kids were beyond excited about the hotel and the indoor pool. My son is in kindergarten and is just learning to read so we told them that we had a card to tell them about something fun we were going to do in the morning. I also had a box that had their backpacks for the airplane in it that I wrapped for them to open after they read the card. Here's the video that I took of them-



Calvin proceeded to go crazy til he finally passed out around 9:00. I don't think Claire really understood that Disney World was a real place, not just on the TV, and that we were ACTUALLY going there, until we got on the plane. Here's our "We're going to Disney World" picture I took right after they found out.

 

[mishel635]

So after a long night of very little sleep (I think we were all just so excited!!) we got on our airport shuttle and were on our way to the airport... It had been snowing all night and I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about our flight being cancelled. The ride to the airport was not relaxing. A shuttle van slipping and sliding on the highway is not what I really wanted to be experiencing at 6:00 am on the day I am supposed to be flying to Florida, but we made it there in one piece.

The kids were tired but so happy that we were going to Disney and everyone on the shuttle with us (another family who was going to the Atlantis resort) was so excited for them. They kept asking them questions about Disney World and their favorite Disney movies and characters and it got them even more pumped about going.

We got to the airport and Calvin and Claire had never flown before so everything was so new and exciting for them. After some luggage rearranging to get us under 50 lbs, we were on our way! The people mover was a big hit.

\

And before we knew it we were boarding!

After about 20 minutes of de-icing the plane, we were up, up and away to one of my favorite places on Earth. I have to be honest, my kids were excited, and my husband was happy we were going, but I'm pretty sure I was the most excited of all of us!!! And I'm completely okay with that! Disney World is my happy place and it had been EIGHT YEARS since I'd been there! And I was even more excited to see Disney World through my kids eyes.

We flew Southwest, so we decided that Calvin would sit with my husband and Claire would sit with me. We had a nice young man sit next to us whose wife was sitting solo somewhere on the flight as well. He was very friendly and we realized we had a lot in common as his wife's family is from Buffalo and he is also a long suffering Bills fan like myself. Go Bills!

Claire was hilarious on this plane ride and made the wait on the runway a little more bearable. We were all a little antsy with the de-icing taking so long, and she kept saying (loudly enough so the people right around us could hear her) "Mom, are we going to blast off soon? Mom, when are we going to blast off?" Everyone was laughing whenever she said it and she couldn't figure out what was so funny. And I was enjoying it too much to tell her we were actually going to "take off" not "blast off"

Before long we were at the Orlando International Airport! It is one of my favorites- so open and light with the palm trees and the fountain. Love it. We followed our directions to Disney's Magical Express, and got to use our Magic Bands for the first time! Found the line for the bus to the Beach Club, and after about two minutes on the bus, I looked down and saw this-

He slept the whole way there. Had to try and not jump up and down in my seat when I saw this beauty-

Made it to the Beach Club and was greeted by a lovely young girl with an ipad who got us online checked in and informed us our room wasn't ready yet (which I expected at 11:30 am). We gave our carry ons to bell services and after shedding our jackets and switching from long sleeves and pants to short sleeves and shorts, started our walk over to Epcot for Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush fastpasses and lunch at the Coral Reef!

 

[mishel635]

Of course on our way there I couldn't help but take some pictures... And my husband and I were trying to figure out what the smell was in the lobby... I said tropical drinks and cotton candy and he said Kramer's fragrance "The Beach". Smart .

Couldn't get over how beautiful the resort and the Boardwalk were...

There's the wonderfully charming gentleman who greeted us in the lobby... one of several "Captains" as my family called them that week.

The beautiful and delicious smelling lobby.... after a long walk or a bus ride back to our resort at night, it smelled heavenly when we walked through those doors!!

Out the back door to see this..... so gorgeous.

And our beach and the boardwalk across the lake... which we never actually made it to during this trip.

Took the short walk over to the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. Rode the Nemo ride, which we all loved (despite it breaking down a few times while we were on it for a few minutes each time). At least they have a cute little message that plays when it breaks down.

After Nemo we did Turtle Talk with Crush which my kids loved and was really cute.

We then walked over for our 1:30 ADR at the Coral Reef. I only have one picture while we were there and this is why-

Claire crashed while we were waiting in the lobby area for our "blinker/buzzer" (as my kids so aptly started calling them that week) to go off. Considering that she had been up since 5:00 am and had barely slept the night before, I let her sleep on my lap until she finally woke up as they were bringing our entrees out.

We had an outstanding server named Johnny who went above and beyond explaining to us the dining plan ins and outs as we had the deluxe dining plan and I wasn't 100% sure what it all entailed. He also recommended the Mahi Mahi with shrimp when I couldn't decide and it was so good! I also had the crab cake for an appetizer and that was really good as well. It came with a fennel slaw that I didn't think I would like since I'm not a cole slaw fan, but it was actually really good.
Kevin had the shrimp for an appetizer and the New York strip steak and he said they were both really good too. Calvin had the fried shrimp and Claire had the mac and cheese and they both liked their meals as well.

For dessert, we decided to get them to go as we were STUFFED!!!! This became a common occurrence that week! I got the vanilla caramel flan, Kevin got the chocolate wave, and the kids each got a cupcake.

After that we took in a few of the sights around Epcot, saw a few REALLY long lines for Fastpass+ Kiosks, and actually felt bad for everyone who didn't do them before they arrived that day... and then headed back to the Beach Club Villas as I had received a text that our room was ready....

 

[stevehousse]

Great report so far! I wanted to ask you how renting points worked out? We are considering doing this to try and stay at the Villas at Grand Floridian! It seems like such a deal to do this!

 

[FlaggNL]

Great great report! And what a nice suprise for your kids Can't wait for more!!

 

[officialtom]

One of my favourite reports on the site lately! Can't wait for more. We're going in 27 days and reading these is getting me beyond pumped!!!

 

[Disney Shib]

This is wonderful!

 

[mishel635]

Great report so far! I wanted to ask you how renting points worked out? We are considering doing this to try and stay at the Villas at Grand Floridian! It seems like such a deal to do this!

Renting points was wonderful! We went through David's and everyone I dealt with there was very helpful and friendly. They even pulled some strings with one of their members to get us in the Beach Club when we didn't think we would be able to book it. They set up the Magical Express for us and the dining plan. We will definitely book with them for our next trip! (And I just to my husband that I would LOVE to stay at the Grand Floridian someday. Just a gorgeous resort!

Great great report! And what a nice suprise for your kids Can't wait for more!!

Thanks! I'm having fun writing it and reliving our trip!

One of my favourite reports on the site lately! Can't wait for more. We're going in 27 days and reading these is getting me beyond pumped!!!

Thanks for reading! Reading other people's trip reports and watching Disney movies with my kids was pretty much all I did when I wasn't working or packing the month before our trip!!!

This is wonderful!

Thank you so much for reading along!

 

[Weather_Lady]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! We live east of Rochester, but I went to grad school in Buffalo and am well-acquainted with the "frozen tundra" you describe! What a great way to surprise your kids. I've always wanted to surprise ours with a Disney trip, but I get too excited and can't keep the secret.

We're also renting points through David's for the first time, for our upcoming trip in May. Glad to hear that yours was such a good experience.

 

[mishel635]

Got back to the resort and I was still just trying to take a moment and realize that we were actually and really HERE! After months of counting down, we were finally at DISNEY!

Arrived at our room - 106 in the Beach Club Villas - which was perfect because I had requested a ground floor room near the main building which this one was exactly that. Found our luggage and this cute little thing waiting for us -

The kids thought this was so cool. We only opted for towel and trash service while we were there so this was the only one we got though! Just didn't feel the need to pay for someone to keep up our room when we could easily do it ourselves. The kids were loving our room and I was loving the space. We opted for a studio suite, and we had planned on having Calvin sleep on the pull out bed, and had brought a child size air mattress that Claire uses when we stay overnight at my in laws house. I had been worried there would 't be enough room but it worked out perfectly. We stayed and checked our room and building out for about a half hour. We had a patio that faced the quiet pool. Here's a few more pics -

The Ariel statue at the entrance to our building. She received many hugs and kisses from my kids throughout the week....

The entrance to our building

I LOVED this room. It was right down the hall from our room, and I wish I would have had more time, because it seemed like the perfect place to curl up with a good book and a tasty beverage and just relax.... Didn't happen though. Maybe next trip.

This is our patio... "We love the Beach Club!!!!"



Got washed up and changed after our crazy travel day because we were heading back to Epcot for dinner at Garden Grill!!!!! I figured we may as well stay within walking distance on our first day and I was really excited about this ADR. It was one of the ones I was most looking forward to and the kids were DYING to meet some characters!!!!

We walked over through the International Gateway into Epcot. Immediately saw a young boy feeding a squirrel OUT OF HIS HAND. My kids were mesmerized so we stopped and watched for a minute. This led to one of the catch-phrases of the trip from one of our favorite movies "Up". I'm sure you can guess.....

Yup, SQUIRREL!!!!! So pretty much anytime we saw one (which was often) we rushed to be the first one to yell "SQUIRREL". (After a few days of this, Claire started using the quote from one of the mean dogs in the movie "I hate squirrels". She thought was clever and hilarious and would laugh every time she said it. )

After a moment we moved on to hear some amazing music coming from the United Kingdom (I believe the first night we heard The Who) and also to see a long line of people waiting to meet one of my favorites- Mary Poppins!!!! Of course the kids wanted to meet her, but I just explained that we were having breakfast with her later in the week and we moved on. I REALLY enjoyed all of the live music we heard coming from the UK that week. We heard everything from the Beatles to Queen to Led Zeppelin to the Stones. Lots of great music. Next trip we are going to sit and listen longer. (Wow, that list of things we are doing on the next trip to Disney is already getting long! )

Made our way over to The Land after stopping to admire the fountain with the upside down waterfall. The kids were amazed by it. Got our "buzzer/blinker" for Garden Grill and noticed our first penny machine. I showed the kids that I had gotten them each a Mini M&M's container filled with quarters and pennies so they could start collecting some flattened pennies. I did notice that this machine didn't have a crank, which is how I remembered them from when I was younger, but they still loved picking out which one they wanted. I think they actually each got two.

Only waited a few moments and our "buzzer/blinker" was going off. The kids were so excited that our restaurant was going to MOVE while we were eating and they had already caught a glimpse of the big cheese himself, Mickey Mouse, so excitement levels were running high!!!!

Our waiter was very nice but I can't remember his name. He explained how the meal worked and brought us out some bread and maple butter. We all agreed it was delicious, and each had a slice. The salad came out next and that was very good as well. The kids ate some of the lettuce and cucumbers and our waiter explained that a lot of the produce from our meal was grown right there at The Land. The kids loved that because I am a big "Buy Local" supporter and the kids and I are always going to farmers markets and local farms for produce, meat, eggs, etc....

Just as the next course arrived, we noticed someone coming to see us -

We had some pretty happy kids at our table!!!!


Within minutes we had another visitor and he was hilarious!

Calvin couldn't stop laughing that Chip had given Mickey Mouse the bunny ears!!!!

Claire was in love.

Kevin and I were really enjoying this meal. I had ordered a glass of red sangria and Kevin had ordered a beer. I really liked that sangria and had it several times that week. I tried it on a whim when our server mentioned it and I was so glad I did. I'm usually more of a Riesling or Pinot kind of girl but that Sangria was so refreshing!

My favorite was the stuffing and the fish and Kevin's was the fish and the turkey, but really everything was good. The sweet potato fries were really good and the kids really liked them too, as well as the chicken and the mac and cheese. The vanilla cake with fruit and whipped cream was SO good!!! I definitely did NOT have room for dessert, but I still managed to put away a few bites of that cake. Delicious!!

 

[mishel635]

The kids wanted to head back over to The Seas and everything in the Land was closed except Soarin which had a long standy line, so we figured "Why not!" I had gotten us 8 day park hoppers so that we could basically do whatever we wanted and not worry about fitting as much into one day as possible. We checked out The Seas and saw Turtle Talk with Crush one more time since there was no wait...

Fish are friends! Not food!!!

After this it was about 8:15 or so. The kids were doing really well and we thought about sticking around for Illuminations, but to be honest, Kevin and I were beat!!! So since we had an 8:00 am ADR at Crystal Palace, we decided to head back to the Beach Club.

I had set up the kids little treasure from Tink before we had headed out so they were really excited about those when they found them. (Most things were just small trinkets, light up things, bean bag plush toys from disneystore.com, things like that. They each got one thing each night that "Tink" had left for them.)

I got the kids bathed and in bed and by the time I set my alarm and got things ready for tomorrow, they were out for the count!!

I put their morning letter down by the door so they could find it in the morning. I had done this in Pittsburgh that morning as well but I forgot to put it on here. Here is the one that had been in Pittsburgh that morning by the door-

And here's the one I put out for the next morning-

I had found a lady on Etsy that made these for me for .50 apiece!!!! I love little touches like this, and the kids went running to the door every morning to find them.



Next up- Magic Kingdom day!!!!!!!

 

[mishel635]

The kids were SO excited that we were going to Magic Kingdom that day!! (and to be honest...... SO WAS I !!!!!!)

Claire had to study the map on the bus ride over....

We arrived just in time for Rope Drop which I had never seen before and LOVED!!! After a short wait in the bag inspection line, we were on our way up Main Street! The kids found the first thing they wanted to take a picture of with their cameras from their Grandma and Papa.... (and can you blame them? Gorgeous view!)

After a quick Photopass shot....

We headed over to Crystal Palace for our breakfast ADR. Got our blinker/buzzer and then just looked around for a few minutes...

After a few minutes we were seated for breakfast. We didn't see any characters when we first sat down, so we hurried up and went through the buffet line. What a spread!!! The kids got their first ever Mickey
waffle!
Everything I sampled here was great, except for the breakfast lasagna..... great doesn't begin to cover how delicious that stuff was. Not sure what all they put in there, but I had to force myself not to get seconds. I didn't want to be uncomfortably full at the Magic Kingdom, especially since this was our busiest day of the week!!!

We had breakfast at CP, lunch at the Beast's castle (with a Fastpass thank goodness!) then we were heading back to the Beach Club for a short rest before heading back to MK for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and dinner at CRT! I get tired just reading that!!!!

So anyways, our breakfast here was delicious, and the characters again were great!!!! I was definitely feeling some validation for the deluxe dining plan already. Even though we were only doing two 2 credit meals, we were doing tons of character meals since that is what the kids were most excited about, and we were going to stretch our 7 day dining plan over 8 days.

 

[stevehousse]

Those little letters are adorable! That's a really cute idea, I might have to steal!?!

 

[mishel635]

Those little letters are adorable! That's a really cute idea, I might have to steal!?!

You definitely should! The kids were so excited every morning to read their letter. Let me know if you'd like the name of the lady I used on Etsy.

 

[Duckberg]

A very NICE trip report from a really HAPPY family!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Great report so far! I literally gasped when I read that everything was great at CP except the breakfast lasagna, then I read the rest of your sentence and laughed! I felt the exact same way when we had it in November. Best stuff ever!! I would love to have the name of the lady on Etsy who did your letters for you. We are going back to WDW and on a DCL cruise in June with my parents and my brother's family, and I think my 3 kids and my 2 nieces would love something like that! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Great Report!! I'm going to try to wait patiently for that Lapu Lapu pic. We went last December and that was on my must do list that I didn't do. I will get a chance this September on a one day kid free trip to MK. I'm making a point to run to the Poly just to get one!!!!