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Trip Report Completed - Relaxation, Stress, and everything in between - an August 2014 trip report
- Thread starter gwhb75
- Start date
Day 3 continued
We had a FP at the Character Spot, so we got pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy
And some selfies
and one "making of the sefie" (the photpass photographer took a picture of me taking a picture)
After that we wandered over to Test Track for our 7:50 FP. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled through and they had to close the ride so we didn’t get to ride it. We headed to the front of the park and it just started pouring. We rode Spaceship Earth and hoped the rain would stop before we got off.
We spent some time in the arcade at the end of SE, and then headed out. It was still lightly raining, but not as bad as it was when we started the ride.
After SE we headed out (and got another picture at the entrance).
The monorail ride back resulted in one of our “typical” on-going jokes that lasted the rest of the trip. The resort loop monorail was packed when we got on at the Transportation Centre. I told Tammy that I was pretty sure that everyone would be getting out at the MK. “Trust me” I said. “Why would everyone be getting off at the MK?” Tammy asked. “Wishes” I said. “WISHES???” she replied in a disgusted voice, doubting that my theory was correct. Well…”WISHES???” got extrapolated into a bunch of different things that weren’t intended by her original comment (We decided to make it into a “snobby” thing … “WISHES??? You mean that thing that wakes us up at 10:30 every night”…”WISHES??? You mean that thing we saw from our balcony”… etc). Tammy is a good sport (which she kind of has to be since I can just beat a joke to death).
To be continued
We had a FP at the Character Spot, so we got pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy
And some selfies
and one "making of the sefie" (the photpass photographer took a picture of me taking a picture)
After that we wandered over to Test Track for our 7:50 FP. Unfortunately, a big storm rolled through and they had to close the ride so we didn’t get to ride it. We headed to the front of the park and it just started pouring. We rode Spaceship Earth and hoped the rain would stop before we got off.
We spent some time in the arcade at the end of SE, and then headed out. It was still lightly raining, but not as bad as it was when we started the ride.
After SE we headed out (and got another picture at the entrance).
The monorail ride back resulted in one of our “typical” on-going jokes that lasted the rest of the trip. The resort loop monorail was packed when we got on at the Transportation Centre. I told Tammy that I was pretty sure that everyone would be getting out at the MK. “Trust me” I said. “Why would everyone be getting off at the MK?” Tammy asked. “Wishes” I said. “WISHES???” she replied in a disgusted voice, doubting that my theory was correct. Well…”WISHES???” got extrapolated into a bunch of different things that weren’t intended by her original comment (We decided to make it into a “snobby” thing … “WISHES??? You mean that thing that wakes us up at 10:30 every night”…”WISHES??? You mean that thing we saw from our balcony”… etc). Tammy is a good sport (which she kind of has to be since I can just beat a joke to death).
To be continued
Day 3 continued
We headed back to BLT and decided to do something that has been on our “to-do” list for the past few years….We went to Top of the World Lounge (ironically, to watch “WISHES???”).
TotWL is a really neat place. You check in at the lobby of BLT (you have to either have a DVC card or be with someone who does (I believe one person with a DVC card can bring up to 10 people up with them). We got up and grabbed a table. The kids both got a drink called “Little Orange Monorail”.
Liam liked it…Steph not so much. Tammy and I aren’t drinkers (and we already had a "beverage" earlier in the day - we aren't sure what would happen if we have two), so we just had water. At around 10:30 the lights dimmed and the Wishes soundtrack started. It was neat to be able to see them from up high.
We left just before the end of Wishes to avoid the mad rush back down, and got back to our room at a good time.
I called down to the front desk and requested, for a second time, the additional blankets and pillows we had asked for the night before. This time they sent someone straight up. As the door was closing I yelled to the kids “Now we can finally finish that fort”…hope the person who brought them up had a laugh at that. So that’s it for Day 3. Tomorrow the plan is Hollywood Studios.
Day 4 to come
We headed back to BLT and decided to do something that has been on our “to-do” list for the past few years….We went to Top of the World Lounge (ironically, to watch “WISHES???”).
TotWL is a really neat place. You check in at the lobby of BLT (you have to either have a DVC card or be with someone who does (I believe one person with a DVC card can bring up to 10 people up with them). We got up and grabbed a table. The kids both got a drink called “Little Orange Monorail”.
Liam liked it…Steph not so much. Tammy and I aren’t drinkers (and we already had a "beverage" earlier in the day - we aren't sure what would happen if we have two), so we just had water. At around 10:30 the lights dimmed and the Wishes soundtrack started. It was neat to be able to see them from up high.
We left just before the end of Wishes to avoid the mad rush back down, and got back to our room at a good time.
I called down to the front desk and requested, for a second time, the additional blankets and pillows we had asked for the night before. This time they sent someone straight up. As the door was closing I yelled to the kids “Now we can finally finish that fort”…hope the person who brought them up had a laugh at that. So that’s it for Day 3. Tomorrow the plan is Hollywood Studios.
Day 4 to come
Yeah, we had a great time.
We did a trial with the gift cards on our last trip with a few hundred dollars and it worked great so we did it "all in" this year and covered all of our meals with them.
Thanks for the compliment on the fireworks pictures.
smk
Well-Known Member
The gift cards have me confused. So, if I buy gift cards all year, I cannot just take them to the counter at check in and plunk them all down and pay for the room? Did you have to use each and every card on a purchase and then use them? I know I am complicating the use of the cards but for some reason I cannot figure it out! Can you explain? Please?
You can use the cards to pay for anything that is on your room, but you can't put the cards on your room if you don't owe anything. If you show up on Day 1 and owe $1,500 for your room you can use up to $1,500 in gift cards to pay for that. What you can't do is show up owing $1,500 on your room and put $1,600 in cards against it.
In our case, since we booked on DVC points and had pre-purchased our tickets, we arrived at BLT not owing anything (our balance was $0). What we had anticipated doing was arriving on the first day and loading a bunch of cards onto the room right away (so, basically, it would show that Disney owed us $1,650), and then draw that balance down as we purchased things. However, Disney won't let you do that. They want you to purchase things before you can use the cards (i.e. they never want to owe you money on your room at any time, so the lowest balance on your room at any time can only be $0).
Hope that makes sense. Thanks for following along.
Thanks. We definitely had fun.
smk
Well-Known Member
We usually book room only and pay as much as we can, but there have been time when we have arrived and owed 300 -500 on the room. In that case I could use the gift cards, instead of my credit card, to pay off the room as long as I have the exact amount owed on gift cards. Right?
Day 4 – Hollywood Studios (AKA Frozen Land)
So today is August 22nd….hmmmm…..something big happened on August 22nd…..what was it again…..Oh yeah, Tammy and I got married…..That’s right…..Today is our 16th anniversary. Thankfully, Mickey and Minnie had me covered in case I had actually forgotten (which I hadn’t). We received a card from them and had a voice mail message from them too. Nice touch Disney…Nice touch.
Today was Hollywood Studios day. I wasn’t overly excited about today. In the past few years I’ve felt that HS was, at best, a half day park. However, the Frozen Summer thing looked like it could have potential, so I was at least a bit more interested than usual.
We all woke up a bit later today (I think the heat really wiped everyone out). We were out the door around 9 and at the park at 10.
We arrived just as the opening parade with Anna and Elsa was about to start, so everyone was lining up. We don’t really watch parades, so we figured it would be a good time to get on some rides. HOWEVER… I had read that the first thing that should be done is go get a ticket for the Frozen Sing Along, so we went and did that first (we got the 1:30 showing).
While we were down there (the tickets are distributed in the Streets of America area), we noticed the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet with hardly any line (since everyone was in line for the parade), so we jumped in line for that.
After that we headed towards Wandering Oakens, but passed the Cars meet and there was no one in line at all, so we did that one too.
We got to Wandering Oakens….and loved it.
The place is absolutely amazing. We downloaded the Aurasma App that they recommend you download outside of the place (It’s a cool app that has characters show up in your pictures in certain areas of the park) and then took some pictures:
We also saw the skating rink and the snow play area. The kids want to try skating, but we’d come back another day to do that. We left Wandering Oakens and went to TSMM (which had over an hour standby) and used our FP. I still love this ride/game. After TSMM the kids wanted to go back to Wandering Okens, so we did. They both got slushies in a collectable cup.
To be continued...
So today is August 22nd….hmmmm…..something big happened on August 22nd…..what was it again…..Oh yeah, Tammy and I got married…..That’s right…..Today is our 16th anniversary. Thankfully, Mickey and Minnie had me covered in case I had actually forgotten (which I hadn’t). We received a card from them and had a voice mail message from them too. Nice touch Disney…Nice touch.
Today was Hollywood Studios day. I wasn’t overly excited about today. In the past few years I’ve felt that HS was, at best, a half day park. However, the Frozen Summer thing looked like it could have potential, so I was at least a bit more interested than usual.
We all woke up a bit later today (I think the heat really wiped everyone out). We were out the door around 9 and at the park at 10.
We arrived just as the opening parade with Anna and Elsa was about to start, so everyone was lining up. We don’t really watch parades, so we figured it would be a good time to get on some rides. HOWEVER… I had read that the first thing that should be done is go get a ticket for the Frozen Sing Along, so we went and did that first (we got the 1:30 showing).
While we were down there (the tickets are distributed in the Streets of America area), we noticed the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet with hardly any line (since everyone was in line for the parade), so we jumped in line for that.
After that we headed towards Wandering Oakens, but passed the Cars meet and there was no one in line at all, so we did that one too.
We got to Wandering Oakens….and loved it.
The place is absolutely amazing. We downloaded the Aurasma App that they recommend you download outside of the place (It’s a cool app that has characters show up in your pictures in certain areas of the park) and then took some pictures:
We also saw the skating rink and the snow play area. The kids want to try skating, but we’d come back another day to do that. We left Wandering Oakens and went to TSMM (which had over an hour standby) and used our FP. I still love this ride/game. After TSMM the kids wanted to go back to Wandering Okens, so we did. They both got slushies in a collectable cup.
To be continued...
Last edited:
Day 4 continued
We left there and just wandered the park for a bit, taking pictures along the way. At 1:00 we got in line for the Frozen Sing Along. We got into the theatre around 1:20 and had seats off to the side. This show is AMAZING. It’s a great addition to the park, and I hope it stays (the last I heard was that it was moving into the American Idol building, and will be extended to 2015). If you go to the show, during “Love is an Open Door” take a look at the guys in the sound booth. There are three guys in there, and they have full choreography to the song. It was actually hilarious to watch them.
This historians of Arendell - they were both really good and very funny
Kristoff
Elsa arrived at the end
Big finale
After the great show, we headed out to Hollywood Blvd. We had FPs for ToT so we all rode that (one of the cool things they do now if you have Memory Maker is they include a video of your ride as well as your on-ride photo)
Steph, Liam and I rode it once, and then Steph used Tammy’s fastpass to ride again.
While she did that Liam and I went to Rock N Rollercoaster. As mentioned earlier, having older kids is great, because it meant that Liam and I could do the single rider line. We each rode twice in the span of about 25 minutes (and got on the same coaster both times).
It was a long day at the park....
Liam had a bit more energy (and apparently a blue tongue)
To be continued...
We left there and just wandered the park for a bit, taking pictures along the way. At 1:00 we got in line for the Frozen Sing Along. We got into the theatre around 1:20 and had seats off to the side. This show is AMAZING. It’s a great addition to the park, and I hope it stays (the last I heard was that it was moving into the American Idol building, and will be extended to 2015). If you go to the show, during “Love is an Open Door” take a look at the guys in the sound booth. There are three guys in there, and they have full choreography to the song. It was actually hilarious to watch them.
This historians of Arendell - they were both really good and very funny
Kristoff
Elsa arrived at the end
Big finale
After the great show, we headed out to Hollywood Blvd. We had FPs for ToT so we all rode that (one of the cool things they do now if you have Memory Maker is they include a video of your ride as well as your on-ride photo)
Steph, Liam and I rode it once, and then Steph used Tammy’s fastpass to ride again.
While she did that Liam and I went to Rock N Rollercoaster. As mentioned earlier, having older kids is great, because it meant that Liam and I could do the single rider line. We each rode twice in the span of about 25 minutes (and got on the same coaster both times).
It was a long day at the park....
Liam had a bit more energy (and apparently a blue tongue)
To be continued...
Day 4 continued
After all the rides and attractions, everyone was feeling hungry. We didn’t want a big meal as we had something special planned for dinner, so we decided on some quick snacks from Hollywood Scoops.
Liam and Steph split an ice cream sandwich,
and Tammy and I split the Apple Crisp sundae. Both were pretty good.
I finally found a Joffrey's coffee cart that knew what the DVC coffee was (I had tried to get one at Blizzard Beach and when I asked at the Joffrey's kiosk if they had the DVC coffee, the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was an idiot. She said, while speaking very slowly due to my apparent stupidity, " No, we are Joffrey's coffee. We're the only coffee company in the parks "(something I'm sure Starbucks would disagree with. I explained that it's a drink that Joffrey's makes to which she pretty much insisted I was wrong).Anyways...I got it iced.
We also got a few more "FROZEN" pictures
After the ice cream and the pictures, we called it a day for HS (but we’ll be back). We headed back to BLT and got dressed up for dinner. Tonight, given it’s our anniversary, we decided we’d do a signature, so we had the California Grill booked.
To be continued
After all the rides and attractions, everyone was feeling hungry. We didn’t want a big meal as we had something special planned for dinner, so we decided on some quick snacks from Hollywood Scoops.
Liam and Steph split an ice cream sandwich,
and Tammy and I split the Apple Crisp sundae. Both were pretty good.
I finally found a Joffrey's coffee cart that knew what the DVC coffee was (I had tried to get one at Blizzard Beach and when I asked at the Joffrey's kiosk if they had the DVC coffee, the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was an idiot. She said, while speaking very slowly due to my apparent stupidity, " No, we are Joffrey's coffee. We're the only coffee company in the parks "(something I'm sure Starbucks would disagree with. I explained that it's a drink that Joffrey's makes to which she pretty much insisted I was wrong).Anyways...I got it iced.
We also got a few more "FROZEN" pictures
After the ice cream and the pictures, we called it a day for HS (but we’ll be back). We headed back to BLT and got dressed up for dinner. Tonight, given it’s our anniversary, we decided we’d do a signature, so we had the California Grill booked.
To be continued
Last edited:
Day 4 continued
We headed back to BLT and get "dressed up" for our big anniversary dinner
We checked it at the Contemporary (the 3rd floor if I remember correctly), and were escorted up to the top floor. We were seated quickly, and had a great view of the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom from our table (which has been sprinkled with confetti).
The bread came quickly as did the menus.
We looked through them and decided on what we wanted (and, while I was trying to help Steph decide, spilled a glass of water all over my suit…Man, you can dress us up but can’t take us anywhere). We decided to start with the ravioli (we split it),
and for dinner Tammy and Steph had the scallops,
and Liam and I had the Oak-fired filet.
Both the dishes were good. For dessert Liam wanted the Crème Brule, while the rest of us decided we didn’t want anything (we were pretty full from dinner). However….when they brought Liam’s Crème Brule, they also brought one for Tammy and I as a “congratulations” on our anniversary.
I thought that was a nice touch. We also took some pictures from the Contemporary roof
After dinner we decided the night was still young, so we went back to our room, got changed and headed back out to the MK. We got 3 FPs from the kiosks (for Jungle Cruise, HM and Buzz). We had a great time. Steph decided that for her dessert she wanted to try one of the cupcakes in a cup from the Cheshire Café.
She got the chocolate Mocha one. She enjoyed it, but it was very rich (so rich that she couldn’t finish it).
After Steph finished her cupcake we decided to leave…as did everyone else since Wishes had just finished. It kills me how rude people can be when they get tired and overheated. We saw a few things on the way out…One was a man who ran into the back of a teenager with the stroller he was pushing. The kid turned around and told the guy he just hit him, and was met with “just keep walking”. Classy. Then Liam, who kind of has a split personality (either extremely reserved or totally outgoing) was in his outgoing mood and started singing “WISHES” at the top of his lungs, to which someone else in the crowd yelled back to “SHUT UP” (and not in a joking manner). Liam was not deterred and continued to sing it all the way down Main St, until someone else joined in with him, at which point I guess he figured “Mission Accomplished” and stopped singing.
We got back to the room exhausted at around 11 and pretty much went straight to bed. The plan is MK tomorrow, with the hope of hitting rope drop.
We headed back to BLT and get "dressed up" for our big anniversary dinner
We checked it at the Contemporary (the 3rd floor if I remember correctly), and were escorted up to the top floor. We were seated quickly, and had a great view of the Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom from our table (which has been sprinkled with confetti).
The bread came quickly as did the menus.
We looked through them and decided on what we wanted (and, while I was trying to help Steph decide, spilled a glass of water all over my suit…Man, you can dress us up but can’t take us anywhere). We decided to start with the ravioli (we split it),
and for dinner Tammy and Steph had the scallops,
and Liam and I had the Oak-fired filet.
Both the dishes were good. For dessert Liam wanted the Crème Brule, while the rest of us decided we didn’t want anything (we were pretty full from dinner). However….when they brought Liam’s Crème Brule, they also brought one for Tammy and I as a “congratulations” on our anniversary.
I thought that was a nice touch. We also took some pictures from the Contemporary roof
After dinner we decided the night was still young, so we went back to our room, got changed and headed back out to the MK. We got 3 FPs from the kiosks (for Jungle Cruise, HM and Buzz). We had a great time. Steph decided that for her dessert she wanted to try one of the cupcakes in a cup from the Cheshire Café.
She got the chocolate Mocha one. She enjoyed it, but it was very rich (so rich that she couldn’t finish it).
After Steph finished her cupcake we decided to leave…as did everyone else since Wishes had just finished. It kills me how rude people can be when they get tired and overheated. We saw a few things on the way out…One was a man who ran into the back of a teenager with the stroller he was pushing. The kid turned around and told the guy he just hit him, and was met with “just keep walking”. Classy. Then Liam, who kind of has a split personality (either extremely reserved or totally outgoing) was in his outgoing mood and started singing “WISHES” at the top of his lungs, to which someone else in the crowd yelled back to “SHUT UP” (and not in a joking manner). Liam was not deterred and continued to sing it all the way down Main St, until someone else joined in with him, at which point I guess he figured “Mission Accomplished” and stopped singing.
We got back to the room exhausted at around 11 and pretty much went straight to bed. The plan is MK tomorrow, with the hope of hitting rope drop.
Chernaboggles
Well-Known Member
Really enjoying this report so far! Thanks for sharing. 
Thanks for reading. Glad you're enjoying it.Really enjoying this report so far! Thanks for sharing.
Are you driving to WDW or flying out of Buffalo?
Glad you're enjoying it. Hope to get another day or two posted today if time permits.Loving your report! I like the "finish building the fort" comment.
Rude people to suck - we seem to run into a few every trip. Thanks for the review on the Frozen sign along.
Yeah, rude people suck. We normally just ignore them as much as we can.