Our resort only 1 night, no wait, 1 night 1 park, no wait, 2 night 1 park, no wait 2 park 2 night...

Our resort only 1 night, no wait, 1 night 1 park, no wait, 2 night 1 park, no wait 2 park 2 night...oh good grief trip report!

Hi all!

So we can get this out of the way...on the count of three...one, two, three....I told you so! That is what all of you are currently screaming at computer screens!

Here's the history....the DH and I are visiting my parents on Hilton Head and to get away (we lived there for 2 1/2 years so yes, getting off the island is necessary) we decided to head to WDW for one night/2 days and we are staying at Beach Club and since we had so little time at the resort back in September, we decided to do a resort only trip. I was very excited, love the YC/BC pool and made dining ADR's for Cape May to see some characters and get that fix. and we got a great rate - Lagoon View - with a AAA discount. So it was settled...one night, two days at a resort. Ahhh....bring on the lazy river.

Well....my amazing DH surprised me 4 days ago and told me that we are going into a park! I was shocked! He told me I could pick the one and of course, I "NEED" to see the new Fantasy Land so I picked Magic Kingdom. So it was settled...again. One night, two days at resort and one park. Yeah!!!! Get to see Fantasy Land!

Well....my amazing DH suggested, we are going to be so tired so why don't we stay at like Art of Animation or some where if we can get a great rate. So I hopped on the computer, took a look see and got a great rate at Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid room. So it was settled...again. Two nights, three days, at resort and one park. Whew! I'm really just shocked with how this has changed and yes...very excited!

Well...after a bit of a ruckus, a ker-fluffal if you will, which included getting locked out of our room, with every bit of ID and proof we were who we are locked in the room, b/c they deactivated our keys and spending almost an hour with the concierge getting everything sorted out...we got comped tickets to a park ... for an evening. Like the old school half day tickets or the convention tickets you can buy. So....you guessed is....We went into a park...to Epcot...tonight! So there you have it....2 parks, 2 resorts, 2 nights, 3 days, totally random and spontaneous "resort only" trip.

 

[disneygirl76]

Great report! I'm loving your style of touring. Sounds like my husband and I prekids.

I think the line at Be Our Guest was people waiting for the Quick Service lunch. Dinner ADR wouldn't start until 4:00

Thank you for mentioning this bc I was SO confused! Okay - so there is a QS for lunch! Foolish of us not to ask! UGH! Okay - again - another reason to go back! This was totally my fault - I should have been more prepared which is actually so unlike me. My DH does not like lines so he tells me just now that he would have like to do that!! Oh man! Missed it! So to be clear - you just stand in that line, go up to the counter, and then eat in the Castle? And its Quick Service. Okay. Next time! Oh well - I guess this means I have to go back! hee hee

 

[disneygirl76]

Agreed. We were there the week of True Love and in MK on the first day the 11th. We did get a pic with Mickey and Minnie but nothing special or different. We asked multiple CM at different stores and no one could show us anything worth purchasing. We were looking for the limited pin.

I'm sorry you didn't get your pin. Boo. I was really surprised. I asked several cast members about where the characters were for True Love and they said " throughout the park". That was just not the case. We also saw Minnie and Mickey. The wait was only 5 mins. We got the Valentine signed card. BUT - they were not just passing them out. You had to ask. They were giving them out in place of signing autograph books.

 

[disneygirl76]

LM's backside of water....LOVE IT!!!

Hee hee I couldn't resist!

 

[Computer Magic]

I'm sorry you didn't get your pin. Boo. I was really surprised. I asked several cast members about where the characters were for True Love and they said " throughout the park". That was just not the case. We also saw Minnie and Mickey. The wait was only 5 mins. We got the Valentine signed card. BUT - they were not just passing them out. You had to ask. They were giving them out in place of signing autograph books.

Thanks, but I''m not sure there was a pin. I have not seen one on the Internet or Ebay. I did get a Mickey and Minnie Valentine signed card w/our picuture with them. Like I stated on another thread, I wished they were dressed more like Valentine instead of traditional outfit. But like you stated on with the magic. We did get into quick service Be our Guest.

 

[disneygirl76]

Thanks, but I''m not sure there was a pin. I have not seen one on the Internet or Ebay. I did get a Mickey and Minnie Valentine signed card w/our picuture with them. Like I stated on another thread, I wished they were dressed more like Valentine instead of traditional outfit. But like you stated on with the magic. We did get into quick service Be our Guest.

That's great! Was it delicious? I wish I had just gone up to ask! I don't think my wonderful DH would have agreed to it but he seems eager now. He is so funny, he's all about everything until he gets there and then wants no lines. So there was a lot that I wanted to do and could have kept on doing, but I didn't want to hijack our vacation since we were there only for one day. I don't think there was a pin. I don't think anything said Valentine's Day 2013.

 

[Computer Magic]

That's great! Was it delicious? I wish I had just gone up to ask! I don't think my wonderful DH would have agreed to it but he seems eager now. He is so funny, he's all about everything until he gets there and then wants no lines. So there was a lot that I wanted to do and could have kept on doing, but I didn't want to hijack our vacation since we were there only for one day. I don't think there was a pin. I don't think anything said Valentine's Day 2013.

I wish I could say you didn't miss anything but it was very good. Hopefully the place will settle down and everyone gets to enjoy it.

 

[disneygirl76]

I wish I could say you didn't miss anything but it was very good. Hopefully the place will settle down and everyone gets to enjoy it.

Yes, hopefully! I thought it might be delicious! See, people always tease me about my planning! But seriously, I wouldn't have missed this if I had more then 4 days to prepare. Next time!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Thanks so much for sharing!!

 

[disneygirl76]

Since we had eatten "breakfast" around 10: a.m. and had a dole up for snack, by 4, we were hungry for lunch. We decided to hit up Casey's!

And we took in the sites and sounds of Main Street! My most favorite place!

We ordered some hotdogs and listened to the piano man playing some tunes at Casey's!

As I states - I like drippy cheese!

We headed back to Jungle Cruise with our fast pass.

We had a really great Captain! I actually heard some jokes I had not heard before!

There was a bit of a back up - which led to more jokes.

We went back and rode pirates and then grabbed a fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain.

 

[disneygirl76]

At this time though - now its coming on 6 pm - we saw the clouds roll in. We had been watching the weather before we came and knew there was a 50% chance of thunder storms. I had ponchos but we had been there since 9:30 and we were getting tired. And we had gotten terribly soaked in September. So my DH said, why don't we go and check in to AOA. I'm not sure why or what happened - but I agreed. I said, lets go see Mickey and the Princesses before we leave on Main Street. He agreed and we hopped on the train.

I totally FORGOT about going back to Gaston's for a brew. I totally FORGOT about meeting Gaston. I totally didn't think about riding Haunted Mansion one more time. And, I agreed to miss WISHES! I really don't know what happened!! I had been checking Belle all day and she was now up to 75 minutes. But we hopped on the train and headed to Main Street. That's when we saw it. Now I mentioned in my little rant earlier about the True Love week. But this is when I figured out where the "special" meet and greets were. A clear indication was the fact that to see Mickey, it was a 5 minute wait. But to see the princesses...it was an 85 minute wait and ALL the fast passes were gone. They had started putting the ropes up for the parade and I asked one of the cast members and she said, "yes, this is where the true love meet and greets are. Its the princesses with their princes!" I was SOOOOO upset. And I never really get bent out of shape but I knew this was a special opportunity and I couldn't ask my DH to stand in that line. This is why it bothered me so much that there was NO indication that they were only at the theater and rather, was told, throughout the park. I don't even know how many and which princesses/princes there were. Does anyone know? If I would have known, I would have grabbed a fast pass when we entered the park and that would have been that! But I believed what they said when they said "throughout the park". UGH! I'm still bitter about this.

Anyway...we hopped in the very short line to see Mickey and we were told Minnie is there too.

(do you see we are both in pink for Valentine's day? ahhhhhhhhh )

We got the Valentine from Mickey and Minnie and we decided to shop and stroll Main Street.

We got some treats to bring back to AOA and then said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom!


We stopped and the Candy/Bake shoppe. I wanted to get a candy apple which I had missed on our last trip!!! I will never make that mistake again! This thing was AMAZING!!! Here are some other treats! This is where we found some special treats for Valentine's Day!

I got this one!

Cake Pops!

cupcakes

Cookies

 

[blackthidot]

Pro

This is when the ruckus began. Again, no pics but here is what happened. Sit back, pour a drink and let the shinanigans begin.

So DH and I headed to the concierge desk. As I stated originally, my DH surprised me by saying that he thinks we should go to any park on Wednesday. And I picked the MK to see the new Fantasy Land. So our intention of going to the concierge desk was to buy these tickets. We were going to buy a 1 day MYW ticket by charging them to the room key. Pretty straight forward. Pretty simple. As we approached the desk we just had the feeling that this wasn't going to go well. We have all done this - where you judge a book by its cover - but the girl at the concierge desk just didn't convey confidence so I distractedly lingered around the desk waiting for another person to become available and then it happened - I made eye contact. So now I was sucked in. Now let me say....she was so nice and sweet. And what happened we said could have happened to anyone.

Oh, I should state....we only had one room key - no other ID, proof of existence, or proof we were staying there at the Beach Club.

So she scanned our KTTW card with the RFID reader at the desk. She asked to confirm the room number. We did. And she said "oh, we have you in a first floor room." I said no, that was the first room we were given but they moved us to a third floor. We gave her the number and she said "ma'am, that shows it is to someone else." I told her that I didn't know why b/c all of our stuff was in that 3rd floor room and we had been in and out several times. After a few clicks of a button, she said she sees the room as vacant but we were in the first floor room. At this time, another girl came available and came over to see what was happening. The first girl picked up the phone to deal with the room number issue and the second girl was handling the tickets. She said that if we didn't mind, we could just charge with a separate card the tickets and they can issue us separate tickets. I really didn't care either way so I said that we would go up to the room and we will be right back. So up we headed, leaving one girl on the phone and another girl waiting for us to return. We got to our room...locked out.

So we headed back down and explained we were locked out.

The girl was on the phone still and started to deal with us being locked out. And while we were waiting - ie. determining if security would have to be called since we had no proof of anything - and while I was waiting I said to the girl helping us with the tickets, "can we take advantage of convention ticket prices?" While standing there, they were moving things out of the way, one item being a placement looking item with convention ticket prices on them. You could tell that she wanted to and said that she would check once we got the key situation all set. So we stood there...and stood there...making chit chat...talking about pinterest and my manicure...and stood there. Finally, the girl hung up the phone, reissued us keys with the correct room number and now everything was all set so we could charge the tickets to the room key. Total time standing there - over an hour. The 2nd girl then picked up the phone and asked OZ - who I named the person on the phone since they were magical and knew all - if we could buy convention tickets. OZ said that due to very specific codes with those tickets and needing to be associated with a convention code resort confirmation number. Since we had none, she said no we couldn't buy the convention tickets. HOWEVER...and this nearly knocked my happy butt to the ground...she said they have something else they can do for us. Since we were going to buy the 1 day MYW ticket, OZ said to buy a 2 day. I said that was beyond our budget. Oh, but OZ said...we will credit their account the amount of the 2nd day tickets for almost the whole amount. We ended up getting a better deal then the convention tickets - by a large margin, a better deal. After OZ was off the phone, I was so thankful and kept going on and on and was so happy and I asked...my DH has no idea why I asked this...I asked them why did they do that for us! And the 2nd girl who was helping us said that they wanted to help us because we were patient and kind and never once got upset or even irritated that all of this was happening. That they did it bc we had been standing there patiently for over an hour of our limited time there and they just wanted to help out. I could have cried!!!

So DH and I dashed back up to our room, changed clothes, and 30 minutes later, we were entering Epcot through the International Gateway! We were stunned! For the first hour, we just kept asking, What just happened! How did we get here!!!! See Magical Wishes do come true at Walt Disney World!!!

Our very spontaneous Epcot adventure is up next!

Proof that when you don't act like a moron...people want to go the extra mile to help you out. Good job guys!

 

[disneygirl76]

Pro


Proof that when you don't act like a moron...people want to go the extra mile to help you out. Good job guys!

Thanks!!

 

[Tuvalu]

And then we sat in our favorite spot to watch our favorite thing - we sit on the ledge looking at the camel to watch people get spit on by the camel. Its cruel, its hilarious, it brings us much happiness.

We do this every trip too!! We must share the same warped sense of humor, haha.

 

[Tuvalu]

For your next visit to Fantasyland ~

Visit Enchanted Tales with Belle the first thing in the morning, when the line is shortest. We did and still waited 30 minutes, but we enjoyed going through Belle's cottage and Maurice's workshop, and the AMAZING way you get into the library. The "storytime" part is great for families, as all children get to participate, but even my adult daughter and I were captivated...especially by Lumiere!

Gaston is a fine fellow to meet And his Tavern is worth a look, even if you don't purchase anything. (Be warned, LeFou's Brew can give one a cold headache!)

I can't say enough about Be Our Guest. We waited for lunch on two separate days, all the way down the bridge towards Little Mermaid, but we were inside the restaurant both days in under 30 minutes. The ordering experience was fun, the food was very reasonably priced and delicious, and all three dining rooms were unique. We will definitely be back.

And we also loved the Little Mermaid ride...rode it 4 times!

 

[disneygirl76]

And then we sat in our favorite spot to watch our favorite thing - we sit on the ledge looking at the camel to watch people get spit on by the camel. Its cruel, its hilarious, it brings us much happiness.

We do this every trip too!! We must share the same warped sense of humor, haha.

Hee hee Isn't it the best!!! I'm glad there are others!

 

[disneygirl76]

For your next visit to Fantasyland ~

Visit Enchanted Tales with Belle the first thing in the morning, when the line is shortest. We did and still waited 30 minutes, but we enjoyed going through Belle's cottage and Maurice's workshop, and the AMAZING way you get into the library. The "storytime" part is great for families, as all children get to participate, but even my adult daughter and I were captivated...especially by Lumiere!

Gaston is a fine fellow to meet And his Tavern is worth a look, even if you don't purchase anything. (Be warned, LeFou's Brew can give one a cold headache!)

I can't say enough about Be Our Guest. We waited for lunch on two separate days, all the way down the bridge towards Little Mermaid, but we were inside the restaurant both days in under 30 minutes. The ordering experience was fun, the food was very reasonably priced and delicious, and all three dining rooms were unique. We will definitely be back.

And we also loved the Little Mermaid ride...rode it 4 times!

Yes, this is exactly what we need to do! We got in the park at 9:30, and it opened at 9 a.m. Belle was already 50 mins. Wow! I am thinking we have to go again in the fall. I like the little day or two trips! Its easy to link it in with a trip to my parents. Maybe for my birthday or something.

 

[Tuvalu]

I would definitely wait for cooler weather (like a day trip in the fall) before visiting Enchanted Tales with Belle. We were there in December so standing outside (many times not moving) in the queue for a half hour wasn't bad. HOWEVER, come the warm temperatures and humidity, I expect the wait to be brutal...much of the queue isn't even covered. So if a hot time of year is your only option, wait til it gets dark!!

 

[disneygirl76]

I would definitely wait for cooler weather (like a day trip in the fall) before visiting Enchanted Tales with Belle. We were there in December so standing outside (many times not moving) in the queue for a half hour wasn't bad. HOWEVER, come the warm temperatures and humidity, I expect the wait to be brutal...much of the queue isn't even covered. So if a hot time of year is your only option, wait til it gets dark!!

We are lucky and can go whenever.

 

[disneygirl76]

Okay, so we left off - we were leaving the park with Valentine Treats in hand.

We hopped on the monorail, then the tram, and as we were on the tram to Simba 18 where we were parked - the rain started to fall hard and sideways! Luckily - I had my trusty ponchos in hand and we threw those on and avoided getting too wet. Of course, we were parked the very last car in the row so we ran to the car and headed to AOA.

We checked in at AOA. Okay, I will state the obvious, I am biased to Deluxe Resorts so I tend to be critical of Value but honestly, it was really nice. The theme was the best yet for Value! Really great job there. And check-in was fast and easy (until later ). We had given our luggage to the bell hop and checked in and then headed to our section for parking. This I didn't like bc my DH got soaked on the way back to the car after parking it while I was checking in. If I had known/remembered that we don't just have one place to park like at a Deluxe, that we have to drive to our building, I would have changed the order of doing this, including, not giving luggage to the bell-hop as it took quite awhile to get the luggage dropped off and we were wet from the rain. So if doing it again - I would have had DH stay in car, I would have handled check in myself and then together we would have driven to our section - which was Little Mermaid, all the way at the one end of the resort. Then when raining stopped, we would have brought our luggage up ourselves. Oh well - you live and learn!

We got our room and overlooked the Little Mermaid Pool Here are loads of pics of the room.

This under the sea themed "curtain" seperated you from the bathroom area

The lights over the bed were made to look like port holes.

The table had printed song lyrics. This is similar to at PORS Royal Letter with a letter from Tiana. The chairs are plastic sea shells.

Bathroom area

This is the tile on the wall in the shower to look like Little Mermaid collections

Shower curtain - honestly - this was a bit freaky - she is SO big when you are sitting there doing your business! And she is looking at you.

window curtains. I felt there were a lot of curtains in this room.

And now - dessert!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Wow!!! Great experience with getting those tickets! Bonus! And a nice budget saver. I think I also would have freaked if I saw Bert in the parks with Mary. I mean, there are just certain character experiences that turn us all into giddy silly people...in the good way, of course.

I'm curious how you felt about the small balcony at BC. It honestly was the sole reason I rejected the resort for our previous trip. We really appreciate a full balcony or patio so we opted for YC, but we preferred everything else BC. I'm also glad to see the pics of the AoA room and will have to show them to my girls. We had this great discussion about rooms and resorts today and the Little Mermaid rooms actually beat out the Royal Rooms for them... but I think it's those larger than life details like the Ariel shower curtain. The only thing that got a similar wow reaction from them were the bunk bed rooms at WL.

OK- well, now I want a Mickey apple, but sadly all I have are a bunch of plain old apples.