Yet another August 12-22 trip report.

So, the last couple of days I've been debating on whether or not I was up for the challenge of completing an entire trip report. Well, I've decided I'm going to give it a shot.

On this trip was my mom, dad, brother (14), sister(9), and then there was myself (21)

We stayed for 10 days at the Beach Club. The Beach Club is one of my favourite places, we have stayed here our past 4 visits. New to this trip was that we got the length of stay pass and the dining plan. I found both to be great calls, although now my stomach is so used to eating a ton of food that it's hard being back home.

So, stay tuned for day 1, there will be pictures! I hope i do not disappoint!

 

[slacker]

After Everest we lined up for the Finding Nemo musical. We were almost an hour early for the show so my parents decided they would wait and we could go ride Dinosaur. My dad can't do Dinosaur because it hurts his back, so we went. Dinosaur is a great ride! The picture at the end showed my sister with her hands clutching her face. I don't know how she can go on that ride and not hold on, but she did it!

After Dinosaur we went back to Finding Nemo only to find that the front of the line had loaded so my parents got out of line. We lined up again, now pretty close to Dinorama. While in line, cast members started telling us there was a problem and there would be a delay in the show's starting time. I'm not sure what the problem was, we were told no one was hurt so that's good. We stuck it out in the heat and were finally let into the theatre. We wondered if air conditioning was the problem because there was very little relief inside.

This musical was incredible. I loved it. The costumes make the whole show, it's amazing. The songs are quite memorable too. I had Crush's song stuck in my head the entire day. I also bought the song off itunes a couple of days ago.

Anyways, it was around lunchtime and my family had ice cream instead of lunch. The breakfast was so huge that an entire meal seemed unnecessary. I had a craving for a big pretzel so we started the quest for that too. Mind you, the quest for pin backs still has not come to a close!

The heat seriously gets to me at the Animal Kingdom. I remember it doing the same thing on our previous trip. We fastpassed Kilimanjaro Safaris and my parents and brother went to Kali River Rapids. I remembered this queue being super hot, so my sister and I continued the quest for my squishy pretzel. We found them at a booth that sold fruit and stuff, but the man in front of me took the last squishy pretzel!! We left the line, a little down, and went into some stores. Mostly just to get out of the hot. We also saw a steel drum band play Bob Marley's No Woman No cry. That was awesome, I am a huge reggae fan!

When we were done our store hopping, we went back to the booth selling the squishy pretzels. I finally got one, Hooooray! It was delicious, I had it with mustard. Sorry, no photo. For whatever reason there were not many pictures taken on this day.

We rode Kilimanjaro Safaris and it was time to head out. We had a 3:30 appointment with the Disney Vacation Club at the Saratoga Springs. We had to meet the DVC van at 3:15 outside the Animal Kingdom. Leaving the Animal Kingdom this early meant we barely did anything there at all, but oh well. We got to take in the 2 new things, so we were happy.

I'm really sorry about the lack of pictures on this day. When we get to Day 8 there will be more!! Day 7 isn't over yet though, so stay tuned!

 

[slacker]

What's that? Yes, i could also go for some more Day 7.

So, the day before, my parents had made arrangements for us to do a whole Disney Vacation Club information session. The gentleman they made the appointment with told them the whole family had to go, so we all went. Ohhhhhh my gosh, was i ever bored.

Anyways, We were here for a very long time. I'm going to say about 3 hours. We did get to visit the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villa they have at Saratoga Springs. That villa is absolutely beautiful. We've been putting serious thought into the vacation club and think that if we buy, we're going to buy at Animal Kingdom. My only thing is I'm not a fan of it's location. I love being able to walk to Epcot and MGM. If anyone has any comments on the DVC I'd love to hear them!

When we completed our interview thing, my siblings were given a free sundae and the whole family was given VIP fastpass things. Those were super cool. No matter what time fastpasses are being distributed for, when you used the special fastpass cards it would spit out the time you were there. So, even though this interview was quite boring, I'm very happy we did it. I would love my family to join the Vacation Club.

We decided we just wanted to go back to the hotel afterwards. We got chicken caeser salads from the Beach Club Marketplace. If you're in the Yacht and Beach and looking for good counter service, the Marketplace has such good salad! mmmm, we ate them in the hotel room and it was nice. When we got back to the room, before eating, we discovered a message on the telephone. It was the Beach Club informing us that the big inflatable screen on the beach would not be playing Pirates of the Caribbean, but High School Musical 2 instead. You can imagine my sister (and mom's) excitement!

They headed down around 7:30 for that and I stayed behind and had a nap. My brother came back up to the room after a bit, and my dad went to ESPN for a beer and to watch whatever game was playing. At 9, my brother woke me up so we could watch Illuminations from the balcony again. I loved that, it was so cool. When High School Musical 2 ended at 10, my family came back and my brother and I left. We were going to take on the Magic Kingdom until 2am.

Tiny Magic Kingdom post in a minute, then Day 8!

 

[slacker]

Last post from Day 7, I promise.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 10:30ish. We got our wrist bands and headed off. Once again we looked all over Main Street for locking pin backs with no luck at all.

I bet you can guess where we went first, that's right, Tomorrowland. We did our favourites, Laugh Floor, Buzz, and TTA. My brother was disgusted that I beat him on Buzz.

After tomorrowland we headed over to Adventureland. We went on the Jungle Cruise. I have always wanted to do it at night and we finally got a chance to. I mostly just wondered how it would be lit up to see. The lights are on the boat which is really cool.

After Jungle Cruise we went over to Pirates, but it was having some sort of technical problems. We went over to Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain a couple of times. The first time we went on it, we were waiting at the bottom of the staircase. The second time there was absolutely no line at all. For the second time in our trip, Splash Mountain was just walk right on. I love Splash Mountain.

Anyways, while we were in line for Splash Mountain we decided we'd run over to Tomorrowland and go see the Laugh Floor one more time before leaving for the night. We figured that if we went at 1:30 in the morning, there was a better chance we'd be featured in the show. My brother really wanted to be. Well, we were not disappointed, after the traditional 20 minutes wait, we went inside. 2 seconds later there was my brother on the screeen!! Underneath it said "smile, you're on monstervision". sure, he wasn't one of the funnier ones but it was still really exciting!

It was now a bit past 2 and we were making our way out of the park. This is a great Extra Magic Hour time. It's busy until around 12, but not many people stay for the whole thing. So much fun.

Well, that concludes day 7!! Day 8 will be up later!

 

[minnie2000]

Great report! Can't wait for the rest!

 

[One Lil Spark]

Fabulous trip report! Can't wait to see more pictures and how the trip ends.

 

[slacker]

thank you both!! I love that people are still reading!! It's taking me forever to write!!

Day 8.

We slept in a bit on day 8. We were heading to Epcot again, and having been a few times already, decided we didn't need to get there for opening. My dad woke up really early every day to take advantage of the gym. He would then get a coffee and sit on the balcony with the newspaper. So, on days where we would take it slower in the morning, he would get antsy and wait for us in places like the lobby. Here's where we found him on this day..

I'm not sure what time we arrived in the park, I would guess around 11. I'm pretty sure the World Showcase was open when we went in. Anyways, our goal for the day was to do Future World, so we headed over to the land first. We really wanted to try out our VIP fastpasses, so we thought we'd give them a shot at Soarin'. We arrived here around 11:30? (again, that could be wrong. The longer i take writting this, the foggier the times get). By the time we arrived at Soarin', it was distributing 3:15-4:15 fastpasses.. but when we used the special cards, the fastpasses we got were from 11:35-12:35. It was really cool.

We decided to have lunch before Soarin'. Everyone was hungry and we had our whole hour window to use the fastpasses. We ate at Sunshine Seasons. I know I raved about the Beach Club Marketplace's counter service food, and it IS really good. However, Sunshine Seasons is my absolute favourite counter service place to it. It may even beat out some table services too! I'm not sure what this sandwich is called, but it is turkey on foccacia bread. Sooooo good.

My mom loves the noodle bowls, and my dad and sister had some rotisserie chicken with really good mashed potatoes. Seriously, best counter service place on property.. in my opinion, of course. For fun, I'll throw in a picture of the desserts.

mmm, the key lime pie was really good.. I got the butterfinger brownie. All 3 ended up in front of my brother before the meal had ended, he's a big dessert fan.

After lunch we rode Soarin'. My mom is such a Soarin' fanatic. She absolutely loves it. Best thing about the ride on this day was we were given section B, row 1! It really is the best spot to ride Soarin', all the spots are amazing, but that one truly is the best.

We skipped Living With the Land, having already done it and not wanting to wait in the half hour line. So we headed straight for the Circle of Life. That movie is so Epcot.

More from Epcot tomorrow.

 

[minnie2000]

Slacker, how do you like the Beach Club? Do you have any photos of your room? I only ask, because we have just booked for next year with free dining, we were going to book the Beach club, but changed our minds and booked the Polynesian. I am wondering if we made a mistake.

 

[slacker]

Ohhhh my gosh. Minnie, I love the Beach Club. We are putting serious thought into the Vacation Club, which means we probably won't be going to the Beach Club anymore.

I have always wanted to try the Polynesian, but I know I will always like the Beach Club more. It has the best location and pool. Oh, I love it.

When I'm done the report, I'll post all the pictures I took of the hotel. I'm afraid I don't have any of the actual room though. If I were you, I would change and do Beach Club instead... although Polynesian fans would probably fight me over saying that.

 

[slacker]

Let's keep going with Day 8.

After the land we went over to the Seas with Nemo and friends. We wanted to take our time looking around the pavillion, rather than just going on the ride and leaving. This time we had to stand in a bit of a line for the clammobiles, rather than just walk right on. Once that ended, we took our time in the observation deck and checking out the manatees. Who doesn't love the manatees? My goodness those are cute. You just want to squish them.

My brother and I spent a good amount of time looking at the cuttlefish. Not only did that line from the 3rd pirates movie keep coming to mind, but they're actually really awesome. Check them out next time you're in the Seas if you haven't seen them already.

We skipped Turtle Talk. I really like Turtle Talk, but once is enough for me.

When we were done with the fishes, we went over to the Imagination pavillion. We skipped Honey, I shrunk the Audience and just went right on Imagination. I don't even know what this ride is called anymore. The words "Imagination" and "Figment" I believe are in the title... also maybe the word "journey". I'm not a huge Imagination fan anymore. I think it was because when I was younger, and a big wimp when it came to most things, Imagination was my favourite ride. They destroyed the original attraction.

After the ride, we joined the fight for a Kodak picture email thing. I love sending my friends emails from here. I don't even do anything fun to the photograph, I just use it to send free emails to my friends. It's really hard to type on those keyboards though, most of the letters are all rubbed off. When I was satisfied with my Kodak picture email, I gave up my computer and went to find the rest of my family writting their own emails.

My dad was waiting for us on a bench outside so I decided to go out and join him. On the way out I stopped to take a quick look at the little store they had and what do i find? Locking pin backs!!! Hoooooray!! The quest was a success!! I got one of the only two remaining packs and head outside to find my dad. We sat for awhile trying to figure out how the pin back worked. Finally my dad realized that they work with a key and we managed to get my pin secured onto my bag. As soon as we attached my pin to my bag, my mom and siblings came out of the pavillion with a purchase of their own. What was it? The other bag of locking pin backs!! My sister had the same idea as me and found them in the store. Luckily, my mom was able to return the backs with no problem.

We took some time taking pictures with the jumping fountains while my mom returned the purchase. While we were playing with the fountains, Figment came out of his picture spot to get people into it. Well, we followed and took this picture.

I told my siblings that when I was younger, my Figment picture had the dreamfinder as well. I got a reply that was somewhere between "I know" and "I don't care". Whatever, they were just jealous.

Now we stopped for a washroom/ice cream break, not at the same time of course. While my mom went to get the ice cream, a monorail stopped right beside us for a good couple of minutes. It was there long enough for my brother to get a couple good pictures with it.

It was now time to make our way over to the other side of Future World. On the way we went through Innoventions. Almost as soon as we set foot in there my mom went "Oh my gosh, you can try the Segway!!". So, she fulfilled a dream on this day. My brother was extremely jealous, not being 16 he didn't get to try. My mom and dad went and watched the video and my siblings walked around the rest of the building. After about 10 minutes we returned so i could get some pictures of the Segway excitement. The cast members working there let us stand on that ramp to take pictures. While we waited, my brother struck up conversation with a cast member who gave him a segway postcard. The informational video ended and they were off!

There they are. My dad motored on that thing, my mom was a little more cautious.

After Innoventions, we went into Club Cool to taste the different sodas. I know how much everyone loves the beverley, so here's a picture of my sister showing her love for it too.

The other half of Future World in a minute!

 

[WDWFigment]

Sounds like you had a great trip--was half hoping I'd see Sarah and myself in some of your pics (no luck)!

 

[slacker]

Day 8 some more!

Once we had tried all the different beverages, we went to Test Track. We used another one of our fancy fastpasses and got right on the ride. Nothing exciting to report here, it was about the 3rd time we'd been on it in the trip and there was nothing new about this ride.

So it was off to Mission:Space. My dad and I are, or should I say were, big Mission:Space fans. It was my sister's first time on the attraction and we gave her the option of going orange with my dad and I, or Green with my mom and brother. She decided to be brave and chose orange. However, she was extremely nervous. I like that they report how intense the attraction is so people know, but I think it added to my sister's fear of the ride. I was assigned Navigator for the ride. I have never been given a spot other than Navigator. It's good though, if not for my practice, how would we be able to use the moon for a lunar assist?

Now, it's probably in my Imagination, but did they make the orange side more intense after they opened the green side?? I have never experienced the ride like that before. I don't know how to word what I'm trying to say. It really seemed to pull on me more than I ever remember it doing before. On the bright side, my sister started playing along with the ride at the part with the joysticks. She liked it. I don't know if I'll be able to go Orange again and that makes me sad.

When we got off the ride, I mentioned to my mom how much crazier the ride was and my dad agreed. It was really g-force-ish... ?

Now it was time for Universe of Energy. This is one of my Epcot favourites. My mom, sister, and brother had to go to the washroom, so my dad and I went into the preshow area to wait for them. We were in there throughout the whole preshow video and there was no sign of the rest of the fam. So, the preshow ends and we go to see where they are, turns out they stopped letting people in and got stuck in line outside. So, my dad and I had to watch the preshow video for a second time. That's cool though. 45 minutes later we were done and Future World was complete.

Now we went in the direction of Canada for our Le Cellier dinner. When we arrived in Epcot, my sister got one of those World Showcase passports. We took some time getting a few stamps. The only ones we got on this day were Canada and UK. Now it was time for dinner. We checked in and waited for a few minutes before being seated.

I am shocked at how small the restaurant is. Our waiter was really nice. I love how they greet themselves as "your canadian waiter". We of course had the traditional "we're canadian too conversation" and went on to ask lots of questions about the international program. If anyone has any comments about the program, I would love to hear them!!

I had a Torontopolitan and all I have to say is Disney likes booozey drinks.

Here's what I had for dinner. Cheddar cheese soup.

The 8oz filet and cream cheese mashed potatoes. So good. I am not a meat and potato meal fan at all, but i cleaned my plate here!

Finally, I had the chocolate moose. This dessert was almost too cute for me to eat.

After our tasty meal, we went out and got a spot for Illuminations. It wasn't the best location, but we could see! Not only could we see, but I kept getting pelted by firework debris.

On the way back to the hotel I took a few more pictures of the Boardwalk. It's so pretty at night.

 

[slacker]

Alright, so it's Sunday September 2nd at 10:43.. and my goal is to finish this tonight. I'm not making any garauntees, it takes me a long time to shrink down all the pictures, load them, etc. Well, let's see what happens.

Day 9.

We got to the point in the vacation where we had nothing planned in the days. We woke up later again and had to decide what we were going to do. My mom and I decided we would go shopping in Downtown Disney again and my dad could take the kids swimming.

So, off we went. I'm going to say that we arrived at around 11. We went to the Art of Disney store first again. My mom bought some pens for the ladies she works with, I bought nothing. After the Disney store we went over to the Christmas store since we hadn't had a chance to visit it last time. I found a ton of Nightmare Before Christmas stuff in here, which was great because my cousin loves that movie and I needed to find her a birthday present. After a long debate over what to buy, I bought her the headband with the bobbing jack skellington and zero on top. It was really cute. The debate was whether or not I also wanted to buy her the squishy Jack skellington pillow... this will be important for day 11! take note!

We went over to the $15 and under store and the Winnie the Pooh one, we didn't spend much time in either.

Next up with Goofy's Candy Co. where we made plans to get my brother some fudge on the way out.

We were pretty hungry and decided to just get Earl of Sandwich again. We split the meatball sub and some sort of salad. It was delicious. After lunch we went to Once Upon a Toy, where I bought a friend lots of pirate stuff. The rubbery handcuffs were hilarious, the woman at the checkout made lots of funny, racey comments about them.

We shopped the World of Disney store where I bought another friend some Mickeyroni and cheese.. then we left. We obviously spent a great deal of time in here, but I can't remember allll the details.

We arrived back at the hotel and got ready to go over to Epcot all together. We had bought my sister the passport the day before and planned on getting it all stamped today.

My sister and I were ready to go before the rest of the family, so we went down to the lobby to play with Lilo and Stitch. This was cute, they had Lilo and Stitch playing games in the lobby. Here's my sister playing duck, duck, stitch.

Once the family was ready, they met us in the lobby and we were off. When we arrived at Epcot there was Baloo and Louie without a line, so we stopped for a picture.

The British Invasion were playing when we got there, so we stopped to watch and get more food. My mom is a huge fan of the Harry Ramsden fish and chips, so that's what they got. My sister and I got some McDonald's french fries instead. After the British Invasion ended, we went over to France.

We took a few minutes looking in the stores in France. After the stores, my siblings got their picture with Marie and then my sister got her picture with Princess Aurora.

We got the France stamp and it was off to Morocco. We looked in the stores here too and took some pictures of the elaborate buildings.

When we were heading out of Morocco, my mom saw the henna tattoos and decided she wanted to get one. After looking in the book she decided to get the tattoo that meant kind done on her ankle.

Here it is all finished.

oooooooh.

Now off to Japan! On the way over there we saw Abu out taking pictures, but the line was so big we didn't wait around.

more soon! (I really don't think this will be completed tonight, but we'll see)

 

[slacker]

More from day 9!

Japan was my favourite World Showcase pavillion on this trip. I loved the store!! This is another one of my favourite pictures!

When we were done looking around this awesome store again we headed over to the American pavillion. We looked in that store which also had a lot of cool things. I really liked the bendy presidents and the old Fisher Price toys! We lost my dad either in here or in Italy, so we stopped for more pictures!

We continued to get the stamps in the rest of the countries. Italy, Germany and China.

In Norway, we checked out the line for Maelstrom, which was at about 40 minutes so we didn't wait. Instead we went over to Mexico. We had already done the Gran Fiesta Tour and didn't do it again. I got another great picture though!

When Mexico was complete, we walked over to Canada and the UK to take one more quick look around before leaving Epcot. We watched a bit more of the British Invasion and headed out. On the way out we went to the World Traveller store yet again. My parents were looking at a watch so my brother sat on a bench outside.

I took that picture thinking my parents were still in the store.... which they weren't. We ended up finding them back in the hotel room.

Now it was time to change and get ready for our 9:20 reservation at the California Grill. We made the reservations when Wishes was still scheduled at 9. Lucky for us it was rescheduled for 10 so we got to see it!! Not so fun for everyone who had expected it at 9 though...

California Grill soon!

 

[LoriMistress]

Read through it all. Great trip report. Love the pictures.

 

[Canadian Dragon]

Wow! This is a really a good report "slacker" Cant wait to keep reading. Your brother reminds me of myself, this report reminds me of my trip to WDW in august. Maybe i will see me in some of your pictures!:ROFLOL:

 

[slacker]

My gosh, it's been a long time.. but i am NOT quitting! My computer has been broken for awhile, but it's back up and running so let's see if I can remember the rest of the vacation.

Continuing Day 9.

We headed over to the Magic Kingdom to catch the monorail to the Contemporary. I think we arrived at around 8:45ish. The reservation was for 9:20. When we got there we requested a table facing out towards the Magic Kingdom. The gentleman working at the front desk told us the wait either way would be about 40 minutes, so we were able to get our table no problem. Once we had checked in we were able to board the elevator up to the top.

My parents had been to the California Grill before, it was the first time for my siblings and I. My mom and dad went to get drinks and I took the siblings out onto the observation deck. The wind up there made my brother nervous. We were on the deck farther away from the Magic Kingdom. Not long after we stepped out there we saw both Fantasmic and Illuminations going off in the distance. I tried to get some pictures but they don't really look like anything.

I took a few more pictures and it was time to sit down.

This dinner was nice. I'm not a huge fan of fancy dinners, so it wasn't really one of my favourites. The flatbread appetizers were so good though. I had the four cheese one.

After the appetizers came, it was almost time for Wishes so we headed out to the observation decks again. Just as it began I realized I'd left my camera inside, so I was unable to get any pictures at all. This was the only time we saw Wishes the entire trip.

When dinner was finished (around 11) we headed over to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours. My parents and sister were super tired and whiny. Seriously, so whiny.

We started our Extra Magic Hours in, you guessed it, Tomorrowland.

I love how all my nighttime pictures have my camera resting on something. This one was a weird wooden rail in the middle of the bridge into Tomorrowland.

After going on the TTA, Buzz and Laugh Floor, we headed over to Frontierland for Splash Mountain. Only my brother and I were going and we, once again, walked right on. Not only that, we got our own boat with no one in the one in front of us or behind us. It's always a bit creepy being on rides alone.

At this point, the rest of the family's whining got to an extreme and we decided to call it quits. As we approached the bus stop, we saw the Yacht and Beach Club bus leaving. The Boardwalk bus was still there though, so my brother and I took that. My mom, dad and sister didn't want to walk from the Boardwalk to the Beach Club so they stayed and waited.

We got to the Boardwalk a bit after 1 and once again found ourselves alone.
Empty Boardwalk..

We passed the quiet pool on our way into the Beach Club and stopped for another picture. Well, I took a picture of my brother debating whether or not to just jump into the empty pool.

We went to bed after that. Day 9 was another very long day.

Gosh, I hope people are still reading, I still have 2 more days!!

 

[NewfieFan]

I'm still reading - more, more, more!!!

 

[LoriMistress]

Love the report! Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

 

[sissa216]

still reading :wave:

 

[MotoDisney]

The trip report is wonderful! Can't wait for the rest of the days. Very nice job on writing it up.