Trip Report Our BWV Holiday TR -

Hi everybody, hope you enjoy! Its been over 5 months since our visit (feels like eternity) but I figured better late than never. I always have the best intentions to write a TR upon returning but never find the time. Well, I just imported pictures to the computer so I thought it this was a good opportunity since Ive done all my Saturday chores and the wife wont be home for a few hours. First, A brief story of how our trip came to fruition.

It was a sultry night, (bonus points if you get that reference) on a late June evening of 2014. 4 months had passed since our last visit to WDW and we had decided to take a year off from visiting for various reasons. My wife had seen me lurking on the Disney website several times and warned me if I booked a trip she would be very upset. Shes Italian and trust me, you dont want those problems, lol! One reason was that some work on our home needed to be done and as much as she loves Disney she wanted to use our vacation money for some upgrades. She urged me to hold off for one year and while I hated the idea, I obliged.

So, she had just returned home from running errands and I was preparing diner. I waited a few minutes for her to get settled in and as she sat down at the bar in our kitchen I told her I had a surprise. She got a big smile on her face and said, "you got dessert for after diner!!??" I laughed and told her to open the laptop. As she did she was met with the Disney confirmation screen showing a 6 night stay at Boardwalk Villas for December. She looked up at me and said, "is this real"? (she knows I can use photoshop ). I said yes, its real. Her jaw slowly dropped and her head slightly tilted... and I prepared for the battle that was sure to ensue. She quickly turned back to the computer screen and was scanning over the information. My hands got clammy and I could feel the sweat beginning to surface. To my complete amazement, her facial expression slowly turned into a grin, then morphed into a huge smile as she looked back up at me. She hopped out of her chair and began dancing around and singing. I had a whole defense prepared in the event she rejected it, but no worries... she was happy, and as the saying goes, "happy wife, happy life". So let the fun begin!

Just a small cast of my wife and I for this trip. We dont have children (yet)

The trip was 7 months out from the day I surprised her so we had plenty of time to research all the great Christmas offerings we could experience. We always leave Atlanta around 3 AM because its not like we can sleep the night before and it usually puts us in Orlando by 11 am at the latest. We were all packed up, had extra clothes for the crazy December weather in Florida, double and triple checked the house, a large cup of coffee for me, the driver, or, the "Transporter" as I like to call myself (Jason Stathem accent of course), and it was time to hit the rode! This was a much needed trip as our truly beloved cat, Jazzy (the cat in my avatar) had passed away just a month before the trip. He was a great friend and it hit us both very, very hard. A year prior, we had rescued a little cat from a parking lot, (whom we named Ruxin) that was virtually Jazz's identical twin and we had smothered him with so much love after Jazz passed that I think he needed a break from us constantly showering him with affection, lol.

So we hit the road and drove off into the night on our way to Orlando! We never take any pics on the way down because its mostly dark and my wife sleeps the whole way until the sun rises. I always bring a few stand up comedy CD's and a few paranormal podcasts to keep me company for the drive. Smooth sailing to Orlando with a quick stop at Publix for supplies and before you know it we were driving under the arch.

Never gets old! Day 1 continued in next post...

 

[catmom46]

Haha, sorry for the teaser, I hope its not too anticlimactic in the end. Thanks for following along!

Hee-hee, you said "anticlimactic" - no pun intended, right?

 

[Nubs70]

Where is Day 5???

 

[Nubs70]

Haha, sorry for the teaser, I hope its not too anticlimactic in the end. Thanks for following along!

It was a horse??!!!?!!

 

[wdisney9000]

Hee-hee, you said "anticlimactic" - no pun intended, right?

Ohhh, it was definitely intended, lol

 

[catmom46]

Oh, and that dessert looks so yummy! I hope it's there when we visit in July.

 

[Tuvalu]

This is a coconut macaroon.

 

[wdisney9000]

Where is Day 5???

I will be working on it. My wife is seriously jonesing to catch up on Game of Thrones. Im only even typing this because she is cutting up chicken for the cat to eat at the moment. Maybe i'll slip a benadryl in her beer so she goes to sleep early, just kidding, I wouldnt do that.....she does it to herself (im kidding). Seriously though, I wasted the better part of my day snipping out music from "Tomorrows Child" and the Soarin' soundtrack for my brother. Priorities...

 

[catmom46]

This is a coconut macaroon.

Ah, I thought it might be, but the cream filling threw me off.

 

[Tuvalu]

Ah, I thought it might be, but the cream filling threw me off.

It's not so much cream as it is a coconut filling. Hard to tell from the picture.

 

[catmom46]

Coconut filling, even better! I am so having this dessert when we're there.

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 5

We had a great night sleeps and woke up feeling refreshed and energized from finally not being awoken in the middle of the night from the cringe inducing melody our neighbors enjoyed creating. I skipped my usual solo trip down to the Boardwalk for coffee because we were both up and at em and ready to get the day started. We showered up, loaded our bag with snacks and water for the day and we were out the door. Surprise, surprise, we were headed to Epcot! The weather was great that morning.

We really just went through Epcot to get to the Monorail so we could get to MK. Why go that route, you ask? Well, for one we enjoy the walk from the International Gateway to the front of the park, but also because we can hit Starbucks on the way. The buses to MK in the morning tend to be a bit crowded as well, so this way allows to start the day without jockeying for position on a crowded bus.

Does anybody else have a guilty pleasure they allow themselves at WDW that they wouldnt normally do or eat when at home? Well I have several and one of them is an iced caramel macchiato from Starbucks. I only get them when we visit WDW. Mostly because they have like a million calories but it also is that much more enjoyable when I havent had one in several months. So we entered Epcot and made our way towards the front. Strolling through WS in the morning before the park gets busy is amazing. Very few people enter from the International Gateway side. Most of the time the streets are empty and you have the entire area to yourself. You can definitely get to MK faster by the buses but if your not in a rush I highly recommend giving this way a shot.

As you can see, the park was pretty much empty. It was tempting to hop on a ride real quick but we resisted the urge.

From here we headed to the Monorail and we were on our way to MK. As we pulled into the TTC we were greeted by a sea of people jamming up the entire area. It was a complete madhouse. The main line was down and they were ushering people to the buses or fairy's. We opted to take the resort line (which was operational) because the crowds for bus and fairy were INSANE.

We arrived at MK and were ready for some fun! We were in the mood to actually ride some attractions so we got right to it. First stop, Space Mountain. More dorky on ride photos for me. My wife is scared of Space Mountain for some reason and no matter how many times she rides it and knows that the photo is taken before you even go up the lift, she braces as if we are going 100 mph, lol

From here we went over to Buzz. The queue for BLSPRR is annoying to me because of the non stop military drum music and it always seems to be messy. I love the ride though. MY wife doesnt use the laser gun, she enjoys looking at the scenes and watching me get all serious when attempting to get a high score.

Next we started making our way over to Frontierland. We walked all the way to BTMRR so we could make the rounds to the usual suspects (POTC,HM, JC). It may sound silly to walk all that way but we dont mind, especially when the weather was as nice at it was that day. Plus, all the years of legacy FP taught us to appreciate the better aspects of criss-crossing the parks. Many people state their love for FP+ because it eliminates this and they tell tales of "sprinting" through the parks while their family was off enjoying themselves. Thats hilarious to me. No offense to anyone who likes FP+ as we appreciate some of what it offers, I just think some people seriously exaggerate the woes they experienced with legacy. But I digress.

There are so many wonderful details to experience as your walking around and we play a fun little game we call "Melt Down" as we make our way around. Its quite simple to play. We basically look for parents or children who are having melt down and point them out. The three categories are MMD (morning melt down), MDM (mid-day melt down) and LNM (late night melt down) and we label each melt down as minor or major. Bonus points if you spot a parent and child simultaneously having a melt down, (SMD). They are rare, but they do happen. Seems cruel, but its make the sound of a screaming child or parent a bit more tolerable and often times laughable. From a child screaming with a red face to a parent yanking on a kids arm like a Wookie pulling a droids arm from its sockets, we try and make the best of it.

Back to the trip... We hit BTMRR and then on over to POTC. We didnt take any photos during this time. As much as I love documenting the trip, sometimes its just good to put the camera up for awhile. The higlight of this part of the day was a story that I posted on the POTC thread a few moths ago.

We were behind a mother and father with their son in line for Pirates. As we reached the loading the area the ride went down for about 15 minutes. When they made the announcement it was resuming there was a loud cheer from everybody in line. It immediately went down again and the crowd moaned. The mother and father began talking about how people should quit complaining and that Disney does an amazing job of keeping the ride in good shape (lol). Im not gonna bash Disney too much but Pirates has been due for a quality refurb for years now. The couple continued to discuss all the amazing features of the ride and were telling their son all about the mermaids that swim by the boat and Black Beard in the fog. So another 5-10 minutes pass and they finally announce the ride is resuming and the crowd goes go wild. The wife made a comment about how people are ridiculous for getting so excited and they should just deal with the ride breaking down. My wife looked and me and knew I was holding my tongue. She knew I wanted to make a smart a$$ remark, but I held it back.

We finally boarded and thus began the most annoying time we have ever had on POTC. We were seated directly behind them and before the boat even took off the mother and father were absolutely bombarding the poor kid with the amount of excitement they wanted him to have. "This is gonna be the best ride ever", "This is the coolest ride ever", "Your gonna have the best time ever". Individually, these statements are perfectly fine, but they were firing them off one after another and every sentence ended with the word "ever". The boat took off and then every sentence ended with the word "cool" from here on out. "Look at the rocks, theyre so COOL!", "Look at the boat ahead of us, its so COOL!", "Here comes the Pirate in the fog, its so COOL!". As we rounded the first bend, Black Beard in the fog was not working. Even the fog was off. You could hear him though. The parents were a bit stumped as to what to say. So the mom says something like, "Well, hes not there, but you can hear him, isnt it COOL??!!!". Mermaids were a no show as well but that didnt stop them from telling him that when they are there, "ITs so COOL!!!!". At this point I was wishing the boat had barf bags so I could relieve myself. I felt bad for the boy because it was his first time riding and the effects were not working and on top of that he wasnt even able to take it all in due to his parents non-stop gushing. Everything from the lift hill to Captn Jack hiding in the background and every single pirate AA garnered a "look, isnt that so COOL!" from either mom or dad. When I tell you it was non-stop, Im not exaggerating..., it was NON-STOP.

I finally couldnt take it anymore and I began saying to my wife, "Look, its water, isnt that COOL!", Look, that pirate has hands, isnt it COOL!" I did this in part because I was annoyed but also in an attempt to get them to shut up and allow their son to enjoy what was left of the ride without ridiculous outside influence. It did not phase them one bit as they continued spewing "COOL!" every nano second. As we were exiting the ride I could hear the mom complaining about how too many people complain about effects not working. I found this odd, as not one single person in our boat complained about anything. I was just glad the ride was over and we could return from Bizzaro "COOL" World and get back to reality.

After shaking off the experience at Pirates e went to Jungle Cruise. Luckily our boat was filled with parents who actually let their kids experience the ride for themselves. The skipper was ok but what we really enjoyed was the holiday dressings for the ride. The holiday jokes were good too.

Afterwards we hit HM and then made our way back to the Monorail to head over to Epcot and make our way to the room. Ill continue the rest later....

 

[worldfanatic]

all the years of legacy FP taught us to appreciate the better aspects of criss-crossing the parks. Many people state their love for FP+ because it eliminates this and they tell tales of "sprinting" through the parks while their family was off enjoying themselves. Thats hilarious to me. No offense to anyone who likes FP+ as we appreciate some of what it offers, I just think some people seriously exaggerate the woes they experienced with legacy.

I agree that traversing through the Parks is a true joy, one that most park commandos don't even realize they're missing out on.
I also agree that many visitors complained way too much about the old fast pass system.

However, I for one am thrilled with FP+. I am now able to criss-cross the Parks (like you) because that's what I "want" to do, not because it's what I "have" to do.

Love the report......waiting on your next cocktail/beer.

 

[catmom46]

I love that you play the melt down game! I think I've learned to turn a deaf ear on a lot of that stuff, mainly because I've had to deal with many melt downs with our daughter, I don't need to hear anyone else's!

How annoying for you on POTC, though! I understand wanting to be enthusiastic, but when it's overkill, no one has any fun. Bad enough you had to deal with the ride's deteriorating state, but to keep hearing the opposite would definitely be maddening!

 

[BuddyThomas]

This is an extremely entertaining trip report. And I can't wait to play Meltdown in two weeks!

 

[FlaggNL]

A more than great TR!! Thanks for the share!!

 

[wdisney9000]

I love that you play the melt down game! I think I've learned to turn a deaf ear on a lot of that stuff, mainly because I've had to deal with many melt downs with our daughter, I don't need to hear anyone else's!

How annoying for you on POTC, though! I understand wanting to be enthusiastic, but when it's overkill, no one has any fun. Bad enough you had to deal with the ride's deteriorating state, but to keep hearing the opposite would definitely be maddening!

Ya, it was annoying, but in retrospect my wife and I agree that it was definitely a lesson in how to NOT let a child experience a ride for the first time.

This is an extremely entertaining trip report. And I can't wait to play Meltdown in two weeks!

Meltdown is very fun. MK is where we see it happen the most but the other parks are just as fun because there is booze, lol! Cant wait to read your trip report (if you do one). Judging by your shirt in your avatar Im sure it will be chalk full of good stories and adult beverages!

 

[wdisney9000]

A more than great TR!! Thanks for the share!!

Than you, sir. Ive been reading your pre trip report when I have spare time and it is awesome too. What a great story and Im glad you got the resort you wanted!

 

[FlaggNL]

Than you, sir. Ive been reading your pre trip report when I have spare time and it is awesome too. What a great story and Im glad you got the resort you wanted!

Thanks for the compliment We are so lucky that we stay in POFQ..... and we can't wait..... but still 147 days to go!! But having the pre feelings and reading a lot of TR's here makes the feelings even better and bigger

 

[fractal]

The "so Cool" parents would have driven me crazy as well.

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 5 (afternoon/evening)

After leaving MK and boarding the Monorail we got to Epcot. It was time for a beer and a nice walk back to the Boardwalk to grab some lunch. Thanks to WS my wifes favorite beer is Labatt Blue (from Canada Pavilion). It use to be Abita Purple Haze which she had at Food and Wine Festival several years ago but the Canadian Pilsner has taken over. So we swung a right turn at WS and made our way to get 2 ice cold Labatts to enjoy on our walk to International Gateway.

This next picture is somewhat of a running gag my brother, sister, and my wife and I have been doing for a few years now. A quick back story. About 4 or 5 years ago my sister, her two boys and my mom and dad went to WDW. I decided to join them last minute. We stayed at Coronado Springs. Each morning we got breakfast at the food court. My mom got her coffee every morning from the same spot where the coffee machine was. On our last day they had moved the coffee machine to the other end of the counter (about 6 feet away). My mother tends to a bit dramatic, especially if my father is around as she wants him to fix any problem. When she couldnt find the coffee machine she was acting extremely lost and confused. As she was looking around for it she had her hand over her chest in the "verklempt" way from Mike Meyers SNL skit "Coffee Talk". For those of you unfamiliar, here is a picture of it-

She was doing this with a very lost and confused expression. So my mom nervously approached a CM and exclaimed there was no coffee machine. The CM just pointed it out (it was right behind her). My sister and I watched the whole event unfold and we were laughing. For the rest of the day we were teasing our mom and doing the "verklempt" pose for everything. So of course now on every trip we all take obligatory "verklempt" photos mocking my mom. Its extremely immature and we love it. My mom even laughs at it so please dont think we are horrible children. My family is just extremely odd. So we were 5 days in to our trip and I had yet to do one. There will be a few more of these for the rest of the trip so I felt it should be explained before you see them. Behold my families dumb tradition-

After making fun of my mom we exited Epcot and made a quick stop at he Boardwalk Bakery and Pizza window for some lunch to bring up to the room. She got the Mozzarella Sandwich with arugula and tomato. I I just grabbed a slice of pepperoni. The Bakery has a really great selection of sandwiches for lunch. I love the way they wrap them in the brown paper and stack them up in the display. It makes me hungry just looking at it.

We got to the room and were setting up on the balcony to have lunch and we could hear the couple next door bumbling around. Fearing the XXX show would begin at any minute we figured we should eat quickly lest we loose our appetites. To our surprise, they emerged from their room onto their balcony- Dun Dun Duuuun... lol. Judging by their appearance, they may have just finished before we got back. Good thing we lingered in the bakery for a few minutes taking photos, lol. Considering the amount of times we had heard them over the last few days and coupled with the extreme volume levels they hit, we were sure it would be a younger couple. The man emerged first. Id have to say he was in his late 50's early 60's. He had a very dark tan and was extremely hairy. He looked very much like the actor, Dennis Farina (but more hairy)

The lady seemed to be about the same age. She didnt resemble anybody in particular. When I looked at her, all I could hear in my head were the horse type noises she made. Mind you, the balconies are very close together so we were sitting about 5 feet away from them. They said hello, as did we, and that was about it. My wife and I just sort of had a quick stare at one another like, wow, that older couple made all that noise??? After going back in the room we joked about how we need to step our game up and we cant let an older couple "out-do" us (ya, pun intended). We also thought, "good for them!" To see (and hear) an older couple that "active" is impressive. Kinda gross... but impressive. And for anybody that cant quite understand the horse sound I described for the lady, here is a perfect example. Just imagine it with a bit more a human tone. It is nearly identical.


Try sleeping while listening to that combined with a headboard thumping against the wall

So after the big reveal of our randy neighbors, we got prepped for an evening at HS. We have seen the Osbourne Lights before but werent sure if this would be the last year so we wanted to make the most of it. We each poured a fresh beer for the walk over to the studios, grabbed our back pack and off went.

I wont have time until tomorrow to finish day 5 report. Just wanted to get the afternoon part posted for anybody who was waiting to read about our neighbors. Hope it was worth the wait.... Everybody have a great Friday!!!!! See you tomorrow!