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...

 

[mishel635]

We only had a very short wait once we checked in at CRT, and quickly went inside and waited in a short line to meet Cinderella!

The kids were able to talk with her for a few minutes before their picture. It was a very nice interaction, but this picture cracks me up. Not sure why Claire looked scared, but Cinderella had spoken to Calvin about slaying dragons now that he was a knight so I think he was going for intimidation here. Waited a few more minutes and then we were called upstairs to our table...


I loved the windows in the castle!

We were brought up to our table and could already see Claire's favorite princess, Snow White! She was so excited!!! I loved the décor and all of the windows and candles. First up was a visit with Snow White...

The kids were pretty excited at this point, they had just announced (with a royal trumpet no less!) the arrival of a visiting princess Jasmine! This was just such a neat atmosphere and a lot of excitement.
By this point we had ordered our appetizers. I really wish I would have paid more attention and gotten pictures of our meal because I remember everything being plated very nicely. I had chosen the cheese platter which had some little crackers and sauce with it and it was all very good. I believe Kevin got a salad. The kids were eating their cheese, carrots, celery and grapes.

Around this time we had a visit from Princess Aurora...

Next up was Princess Jasmine and the kids had a great interaction with her. I had put stickers of a lot of characters and princesses on each page of a little index card notebook with the kids names on the front for an autograph book. Jasmine was on the magic carpet on the sticker so she and the kids had a conversation about magic carpet rides and safety tips while riding a magic carpet. Very cute.

Jasmine was definitely the kids' favorite princess of the night!


I believe our food had come out at this point. Claire said "Mom, we're in a castle. We need to put our napkins around our neck like "Blumiere" says in Be Our Guest" It cracks me up the things that kids remember.

Kevin and the kids had ordered the beef tenderloin and I had ordered the chicken for something different. Everything was delicious. The kids' portion was pretty big so I ended up eating some of their beef and it was very good. My chicken came with asparagus and rice and it was all very good. Very flavorful.

Dessert came out - my favorite part of any meal! The kids had Jaq and Gus' cones of frosting, which I thought was odd, but they loved them. Kevin and I shared the Clock Strikes Twelve dessert and the Chef's Trio. They were both amazing. The Clock dessert was white chocolate with a dark chocolate ganache . Very good. The trio had a chocolate cake, a custard and a cake with raspberries in it. They were all delicious.

After this the lights dimmed and we were informed there would be a "Wishing Ceremony" and the kids were given "wishing stars". Claire received a magic wand and Calvin received a sword. Then the kids were told to close their eyes...

and make a wish!! They loved this.

Overall, it was a wonderful (although very pricey) experience and I was very glad we did it. It was pretty late at this point and the MK was extremely crowded, so we decided to skip the electrical parade and Wishes tonight and come back for it later in the week. We grabbed a bus back to our resort and called it a night!

Coming up next- Day #3- Hollywood Studios and some afternoon Stormalong Bay / Beach Club time!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I'm wondering if Claire picked the style that Sammie got in 2012. Sammie got the pop princess and I swear...it took FOREVER! Kendall got the easy fairytale princess and she was done so fast. Glad they enjoyed CRT...definitely not cheap, but so fun to be in the castle

 

[mishel635]

I'm wondering if Claire picked the style that Sammie got in 2012. Sammie got the pop princess and I swear...it took FOREVER! Kendall got the easy fairytale princess and she was done so fast. Glad they enjoyed CRT...definitely not cheap, but so fun to be in the castle

It WAS the Pop Princess!!!! Now I don't feel so bad... I thought it was just me thinking it was taking a long time!!! We still had a great night, I just felt bad that she didn't enjoy Bibbidi Bobbidi.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

It WAS the Pop Princess!!!! Now I don't feel so bad... I thought it was just me thinking it was taking a long time!!! We still had a great night, I just felt bad that she didn't enjoy Bibbidi Bobbidi.

Not only does that style take a long time...it takes a long time to take it all apart. It was a bit painful as well. Not sure why...but I took this close up of her scalp to just show how tightly in place the whole thing was...



So, but thankful that you didn't have to deal with this aspect either. It's too bad she didn't enjoy it...but maybe give her a couple of years and she may totally love it.

 

[MerMom1981]

Having a great time following along!

Such a bummer she didn't get her hair finished, but I'm glad it didn't spoil the evening. Way to bounce back!

 

[mishel635]

I snapped this pic as we were leaving... I still couldn't believe we were actually there!!!!!

I almost started crying when I took this... so excited to be there with my family!!!!!



The next day we were up bright and early to take the boat to Hollywood Studios!!!!! The kids rushed to the door to find their note...

Needless to say, they were bouncing off the walls when they realized they would be meeting Jake, Sofia and Doc McStuffins! Claire dressed up as Sofia for Halloween, and their favorite show on TV is Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so excitement was high this morning!!!!

We went to wait for the 8:00 am boat (the earliest one), and since we had an 8:15 am ADR at Hollywood and Vine, we were cutting it close!

After bussing it to Magic Kingdom and back twice yesterday, Kevin loved that we didn't have to break down the stroller for the boat!


"We're on a boat!!!!" They loved this!

Got to Hollywood Studios and there was a MOB of people just waiting for it to open at 9:00! Luckily there was a special line for people with breakfast reservations so we were quickly inside!!!

Stopped for a quick photo op!

Took a quick left and we were at Hollywood and Vine. Walked into the restaurant and found a dance party with Handy Manny going on! Definitely a fun environment!

We were seated and headed up to the buffet. Lots of options for all of us. The kids obviously had their Mickey waffles! Just like at The Crystal Palace there was also a great selection of fresh fruit as well. I also remember there was a really good breakfast casserole here and the baked French toast was really good!

Shortly after we arrived we had a visit from Doc!

The only complaint I had about this place was how long it took us to see all of the characters. I hate to coimplain but the characters were always stopping visiting the tables to dance in the aisles with kids, which was really cute, but we ended up being here for almost an hour and a half just to meet Sofia! Now, meeting the characters was what my kids were most excited about while we were at Disney, so I didn't mind really but it definitely took a lot longer than I had thought it would to have breakfast here. We were done eating, and waited awhile to meet Jake.... but the kids were so excited it was worth it. They were just staring him down as he was meeting other tables, and I didn't think he would ever get to our table!!!

And thus began the wait for Sofia... the kids snacked on some more fruit and we talked about all the fun things we were going to do that day. Although as I watched the wait time for Toy Story Midway Mania creep up, I was getting a little nervous. I had just figured we would do that first and didn't get a Fastpass. Looked like that was not going to happen since the wait time was already up to 50 minutes at about 9:30. Rookie mistake I guess!


FINALLY, Sofia came back out and eventually made it to our table... The look on Claires face made it worth the wait. She started talking to Sofia when she came up to us, and when Sofia didn't answer she looked at me and said "But Mom, Sofia is a princess. All the other princesses last night talked to us. Why can't Sofia talk?" Ummmmm....
I just told her Sofia doesn't have that magic and maybe when she's older she will have it. She seemed okay with this.

 

[meeskamickey]

Loving your trip report! Can't wait to read some more!

 

[SusanAnne]

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!!!

We are heading to the Beach Club on Friday and this is really getting me excited to go!!

 

[mishel635]

It was a little after 10:00 by the time we were done at Hollywood and Vine. The wait for TSMM was up to 75 minutes and I knew my kids would probably not enjoy waiting in line that long.

We stopped by the sign up for Jedi training but I figured it would be booked by the time we got there. It wasn't booked but they were taking sign ups for 5:00, and since we were only planning a half day at DHS and some afternoon pool and resort time, we passed.

Headed over to Star Tours for our 10:30 fastpass and got right on. We are all HUGE Star Wars fans (In fact, I'm hoping to someday come for a Star Wars weekend) so we were all looking forward to this ride. The kids loved C3PO in the line and wanted to stop to watch him. I didn't think the people behind us would like that, so we kept going.

We LOVED this ride!!! I got a little nervous when it really started moving that the kids may not like it but they LOVED it!! It was our new favorite ride!!!

Walked off and right into my son and husband's dream... an entire store devoted to Star Wars! I had promised Calvin that he could spend one of his gift cards here, and after debating over another Star Wars lego set, or another Star Wars figure, we spotted the motherload!!!

MAKE YOUR OWN LIGHT SABER!!!!!! (or as Claire would say- lifesaver)

My boys were in heaven!!!!!


After doing this, Calvin of course wanted to go back to the resort to have an epic light saber battle, but we convinced him that we would have a lot more fun here first.

Left Star Tours and walked around a bit. The map of this park was SO confusing to me!!! I don't know why but I could not figure it out, and I am the map reader of our marriage so it was pretty frustrating. I was really wishing I had brought the personalized maps that Disney had sent us because I studied those before we left and that DHS one looked NOTHING like this one.

But I figured it out and after a quick stop at the Writer's Stop for a carrot cake cookie (OMG, that was MY heaven for the day. YUM!!!!) and a stop to make some pressed pennies (with a crank this time... YAY!) we made our way over to Disney Jr Live on Stage for our next fastpass. We were a little early so we checked out a little store in that area. It was getting really crowded already and I was glad that we had a fastpass for this show because the line was really long!

This show was SO cute. The kids loved it and so did I, minus sitting on a hard floor for 30 minutes!!! Definitely glad we did it. The snow, and the bubbles and the gold dubloons coming down were such a neat touch and had all the kids going crazy! Definitely a fun show for the younger kids.

By this point, it was very crowded and the wait times were pretty long, so we made the decision to skip our 1:30 fastpass for the Beauty and the Beast show and head back to the resort for some pool time! We figured we could come back to DHS on Friday morning if we wanted to, instead of spending the whole day at the pool before heading to Downtown Disney like we had planned. I went onto My Disney Experience to see if we could get a fastpass for TSMM on Friday, and the earliest I could get was 3:30!!!! Not looking good, but I figured we would worry about it on Friday.

Headed out to catch the boat....

The kids were half asleep by the time we got back to the resort so they took a short nap and then it was POOL TIME!!!!!

 

[mishel635]

Let me just put this out there...

THIS. POOL. IS. AMAZING!!!!!!

I couldn't get over it. I told Kevin we could have realistically just stayed at the resort for the week, went to Downtown Disney once or twice, the Boardwalk and the kids wouldn't have known the difference because it would have been so much fun!!!!

We spent a few hours at the pool....

The kids LOVED the beach area and spent most of their time there, except for a few laps around the lazy river and swimming in the pool with the waterfall. We would have stayed even longer but the kids really wanted to check out the campfire and make some smores!!! We had a 6:30 reservation at the Cape May Café for the dinner buffet so we headed back to the room to get ready for the campfire and dinner.

May have thrown a light saber battle in there real quick....

I mean hey, priorities, right?? We're on VACATION!!!!!!


Headed down to the Marketplace store to grab the fixings for S'mores, and then headed out.

What a great idea to do this every night!!!! They hand out marshmallows and we brought graham crackers and chocolate bars and the kids were so happy!!!

Trying not to start them on fire.... (FYI - they ALL started on fire. LOL)

Teamwork!

Had a few S'mores and still had some time to kill, so the kids played on the beach for awhile...

Made some new friends....

 

[party like it's 99]

I've wanted to stay at this hotel for a while because the pool has sand, but I didn't realize they have a lazy river too! That's too perfect!

 

[stevehousse]

I hate the new layout of the map for DHS! All the other maps r fine but for some reason someone thought is was a good idea to put this map backwards???

 

[mishel635]

Played on the beach for a few more minutes...

And then headed inside for dinner at Cape May Café!!!! Got our "blinker/buzzer" and Claire decided to watch some old school Mickey cartoons...

The kids LOVED these. Some of them had my kids laughing hysterically. Yet another brilliant Disney idea!!!!


Waited a few minutes and then were seated for dinner. The kids LOVED that the table was covered with white paper that they could write on. Kevin and I really liked this buffet. The clams and mussels were very good, the crab legs were good as well. Pretty much everything we tried was really good. I had another delicious glass of Sangria and Kevin had a beer... We all ate well that night!

The desserts, however, were AMAZING!!!! The flan, the boston crème cakes, the cheesecake... DELICIOUS!!! After dinner, I was comfortably full, but after dessert, I was stuffed!!!!

We would definitely go there for dinner again! In fact I wish we would have made reservations here for two nights...


Headed back to our room for the night because the next day was.... ANIMAL KINGDOM day!!!!!



DAY #3- Animal Kingdom!

I was really looking forward to this day because I had never been to Animal Kingdom before and the kids LOVE going to the zoo and seeing animals, so I figured this would definitely be a good day for them...

First up- BOMA!!!!

I knew this would be different so I was pretty excited about it. We decided before our trip that we would budget for a cab ride whenever we were going from the Beach Club to another resort... so we went out to the stand in front of our resort and had a cab within five minutes... very convenient.

Got to the Animal Kingdom Lodge... WOW! Gorgeous! I tried getting a good picture of the lobby, but this was the best I could get...

I have to be honest, although nothing at Boma was bad, I really wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Maybe the dinner buffet is better, but I just didn't think it was as good as everyone made it seem in the reviews.

Some positives though- the "jungle juice" as our server called it, was delicious! I think she said it was passion fruit, OJ and guava? But whatever it was, it was good! There was also an egg dish that was good, very different. And there was a quinoa dish that was really good.

Went out and quickly got a bus to the Animal Kingdom!!!!

We had some time to kill before our fastpass for the Safari so we took advantage of some Magic Shots. The lady doing them really seemed to enjoy what she was doing and kept taking pictures of the kids. Very fun!

After this we started making our way towards Africa....

UP NEXT- Pagani Forest Trail and our Safari!!!!!

 

[mishel635]

I hate the new layout of the map for DHS! All the other maps r fine but for some reason someone thought is was a good idea to put this map backwards???

I'm glad I'm not the only one!!! I just couldn't figure it out! I said to my husband, "I know I'm not an idiot, but I CANNOT figure out this map", and I kept taking wrong turns. Epcot and MK were fine, but this map was awful! Glad it's not just me!

 

[disneygirl1]

Loving the report! We are heading back down in May and doing a split stay between BCV and AKV. This will be our 1st time at Beach Club and really looking forward to it! What time do they roast marshmallow and do you recall what time storm along bay is open to? We don't land in Orlando till 550p so trying to plan what to do on our arrival night. What stops did you make on magical express before you got to the BCV and about how long from airport to BCV? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks!

 

[stevehousse]

I completely agree with u on Boma! I never had the breakfast, but dinner was good. Not anything earth shattering like they say it is online! LOL My wife is a very picky eater an she didn't like it at all.

 

[mishel635]

Loving the report! We are heading back down in May and doing a split stay between BCV and AKV. This will be our 1st time at Beach Club and really looking forward to it! What time do they roast marshmallow and do you recall what time storm along bay is open to? We don't land in Orlando till 550p so trying to plan what to do on our arrival night. What stops did you make on magical express before you got to the BCV and about how long from airport to BCV? Sorry for all the questions! Thanks!

Thanks for following along! The marshmallow roast during February was at 5:30 and the movie on the beach was at 6:30 or 7:00 I believe. But I would think they might push the times back as it gets lighter later in the day? Maybe not, but we received an email about a week before we arrived that included a schedule of events at Beach Club and Yacht Club and all the activities at Stormalong Bay. I think Stormalong Bay was open pretty late- maybe 9 or 10 pm?
You could also walk across the bridge to the Boardwalk if you wanted. We never actually did make it there this trip, but I hear it is a lot of fun, especially in the evening.
The only stop before ours was the Yacht Club which is right next door. Not sure if it's always like that, but we were not on the DME for very long. Good luck! I hope you have an amazing trip! You will LOVE the Beach Club!

 

[FlaggNL]

Still a great great report!!!

 

[Zipadeelady]

I agree with you @mishel635!! We were excited to try Boma's when we were there in December and were really disappointed. My husband even loves to try different kinds of food and wasn't impressed but the lodge was gorgeous!!

 

[popcenturylover]

Cape May's flourless chocolate cake-AMAZING!!!!