A tale of wonder on land and sea! About This Page:

[mikki]

I have now uploaded some of the pictures from our trip - some to Yahoo: http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/mikki_young and some on our web site: www.familyoung.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[DVC_Don]

Thanks for the pictures. Now I know who you are from the Intercot Board. (DonLefNY here) [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] Thanks for the DVC pictures and this should get me going on setting up an online place for our pictures.

[mikki]

Wonder on land - the room that never was!

The next morning we were due to leave and check in to the Beach Club Villas for the last part of our vacation. I also had another Intercot meet at noon. Everyone was up late so we were later leaving Mary’s than I had intended. We got to the Beach Club at 11.45 and left the car to be valet parked. I left Andrew to check in while I rushed off to Epcot and the Rose and Crown for the meet. When I got there Jeanne (Piglet822) and Ron (WDWDriver) were already there and that turned out to be it – high on quality if low on quantity!

In the single rider line for Test Track, I recommend the ride to a child who said he did not know it was bumpy and was having second thoughts about going on the ride. I ended up in the same car as him and his parents and the child loved it. "I screamed the loudest" he happily told his parents. I was quite relieved! We went on the Mexico ride and twice on the Maelstrom as there was no queue. It was a fun couple of hours and I then decided to go and check on Andrew – hoping that he had not had to wait for a room all this time! He had not, but it had been a close thing. Initially they would not let him check in because he did not have photo ID on him (our passports were both in my fanny pack). Fortunately he remembered that we had had to show photo ID at the gate and he got reception to ring the guard to confirm he had seen ID. They did and Andrew was allowed to check in. When I got to the Beach Club I asked if Andrew had checked in and was told he had. I asked where and was told that they couldn’t tell me. I guess this is normal but I wonder what they would have done if I had asked to check in myself!

Fortunately Andrew was in the room and said he would meet me by the lift. When we got there I understood why – according to all the signs our room did not exist! Andrew had searched all the corridors for it and was on the point of giving up when he saw a cast member and asked them where the room was and they pointed to the room that they were standing right by! What a piece of luck! Later in the week we saw that someone had handwritten the number on the sign at the end of the corridor! There are niggly little problems with the room like doors that don’t shut properly but we decide that the location is good, even though it was not what we requested. The length of some of the corridors is amazing!

We go wandering, looking at options for eating. The Flying Fish looks good but it is more than Andrew fancies so we go into Epcot and I try a few foods from the Food and Wine Festival. We then arrive at the American Adventure just in time for the last Sam Adams tasting of the day. This was a mistake. The presenter invites the drunken reactions by saying the only rule is that everything poured must be drunk. The talk was interesting but not enjoyable thanks to large portions of the audience. We wished we had spoken to each other because we would have both been willing to leave if the other had said something. We are still not communicating at our best because I see that the parade is due to start soon and there is a clear space outside the pavilion where we could watch but I think Andrew wants to move on. Outside Japan he says he will sit and watch the parade if I want to go in the shop and we then realize that we both want to watch the parade and look for a spot – none available as good as the one I had seen before! We still enjoy the parade!

Back in the room we think about the advantages and disadvantages of the Beach Club Villas one bedroom:
Advantages
+ Location, location and location (Epcot boardwalk etc)
+ Facilities of Yacht and Beach Club (room service etc)
+ Separate toilet
+ Bench allows up to 5 to sit round table
+ Side tables good height and accessible
+ High speed washer
+ Jacuzzi fills and drains quickly
+ So many doors - the flexibility is tremendous

Disadvantages
- Space, space and space
- Lack of storage space and impression everything just a little small
- Having to share check-in and quest services staff with the rest of the Beach Club
- Bath towels kept in the toilet (lack of wall space elsewhere?)
- Poor space planning with vestibule
- No large mirror - or even a small one Andrew can get close to
- Long walk to bus stop (that one may surprise you)
- Jacuzzi will not take 2
- So many doors - the result is ludicrous
[img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[mikki]

Wonder on land - all over the World

Tuesday and we take the car back then walk to the marketplace and take a bus to the Polynesian Resort. The menu does not thrill so we wander round and take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We lunch at Colombia Harbour House and ride Big Thunder Mountain, TTA and Buzz Lightyear.

Back at the hotel and I again take advantage of Stormalong Bay and go swimming before the rain starts and we then go to "Martha's Vineyard" for a drink. We both take Sam Adams Ale. Andrew has the "Winter Lager". We suspect it is not a lager – it is very dark – but a later check says it is technically. The ambience suits us and the server gets more than 15% because he is knowledgeable and helpful and brings us spare paper mats.

Back in the room and we take a long telephone call from Elaine and Keith. (BertandSully) It quite made the evening!

The next morning we think of walking to the Studios but find a boat waiting and take that. The pier at the Yacht Club always seems so long it would be frustrating to walk along it only to have to go back. We arrive at the Studios about 8.50 and are glad we can bypass the lines to get in as we have another booking at the Hollywood and Vine. We get straight in to breakfast and put out all three kittens. Minnie and Pluto firmly recognise us and where we were sitting when we visited two weeks earlier. Minnie is not quite as excitable as the last time - lol. Pluto writes us a message to say he 8 Figaro B4 [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] .

We look at other things in the Studios. We are pleased to find an "E for Eeyore" pin which Elaine wants. The only attraction we enter is "Millionaire". The million point prize is now a 3 day cruise - perhaps connected with the show now being on NBC. We each get on the leader board at some stage.

We boat over to Epcot where we take pictures in Wonders of Life. We ask permission and go into the roped area reserved for the character bus to take pictures of the lagoon. In the UK, we find ourselves chatting to two cast members - one from UK on duty and he other, American, apparently not. The British girl will be happy if only they would let her stay in the sun, greeting guests, blowing soap bubbles and swapping pins for kids. This is wonderland. She first wrote to the company when 16 (addressed to "Mickey Mouse, Orlando, Florida": Mickey replied). She was invited to write again when older and she kept her dream through university. She is here on the one year programme and dreams of working the cruise line as a way of continuing.

We take an afternoon nap and then I head for my daily swim. As I go back to the room I notice what appears to be a supervisor checking the villas and point out the "phantom room" sign and the hand written addition. The reaction - to clean off the addition.

We smarten up and set off for Bistro de Paris. We take "night time" pictures by the Christmas tree. We are in Epcot by 6.45. The food is good. The wine cost rises from the normal extortionate to the genuinely outrageous: $52 for "vin de pays d’oc"! I found the same bottle of wine for sale in our local supermarket at $9. This place is well worth a visit but would be much better value if you can stand to have the fine food without the not so fine wine! [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img] After a delicious meal we stay to watch Illuminations before walking back to our room.

[tikibird]

Great reporting on land and sea! Love the pictures, too! More please.... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[AKLRULZ]

Super report!

[mikki]

Wonder - nearing end

Our last full day and I sleep in till 8am! We visit the Beach Club shop where they offer to get us a padded envelope to send the Eeyore pin. We set off to Epcot. We have a relaxing time in Epcot, visiting and enjoying both parts of "Imagination" and stopping at "The Land". We have a breakfast wrap at the "Fountain View Expresso and Bakery" and eat it in the empty space where the pasta restaurant was. Are the best bits of the new Epcot the bits they have not yet got round to developing/wrecking?

We tour both sides of "Innoventions", riding "Spaceship Earth" in between. It is the first time we have seen the Motorola film. We do some of their product surveys. Back at the Beach Cub, we collect the padded envelope. The man who got it offers to take our package to the post office and weigh it, getting a receipt for what it costs. We ask reception if they have a scale. They do not but between us we decide 5 stamps should cover it nicely. We have a nap before Andrew goes out to take pictures. We start packing. Seeking bubble wrap, we find the Beach Club store is out but the Yacht Club one gives us a nice roll. I buy the Thanksgiving Mickey that Andrew calls "Big Chief Big Cheese".

At "Martha's Vineyard", I have the red wine taster ‘flight’. We continue packing until almost 10 when we return to "Martha's Vineyard" and get a beer each just before it closes. We decide it is a gem. It is softer than its equivalent in the Yacht Club. It appears isolated because the original adjoining restaurant ("Ariel's") is not in regular use.

It is the day we leave. We rise about 7.00 and are packed and out of the room by 9.30. Beach Club check-in redeems itself (a little) by making no charge for our 1 local phone call. Art is on duty and we say hello and goodbye. We are in Epcot by 10am and hear a clock strike the hours. We check out restaurants like Coral Reef to decide where to have our last meal.

We go through Innoventions East and collect fastpass tickets for Test Track. We take pictures of the outside of the Mission Space pavilion - which look impressive - and ride Body Wars with a zero line. On World Showcase, there are an abundance of characters. We arrive as the 11.15 bus is arriving and I see Jiminy Cricket so we meet the bus and take pictures. Later, we find Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco and Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore in UK. Mary Poppins is outside in the UK street. Between times, we have a "taste of China" sampler in Nine Dragons as our meal. This was pretty good and got us to try some things we might not otherwise have done. They were willing to bring refills of any of the dishes but we decided just two extras would more than fill us up!

We are back at the hotel at 2.35 and on the airport shuttle to the gate at 4.30. The Town Car and the resort close to a park together transform the final day into something very good. The flight was overbooked and they were asking for people willing to stay an extra day – this was the first time I had seen British Airways do this. We were relieved to see many people join the queue behind us – as the queue in front was so long we were slightly worried we might not get a seat! In the event we were on the 3 seats in the middle with Andrew in the middle seat. Unfortunately a very large lady got in the seat next to him (and incidentally into quite a chunk of Andrew’s seat!) which was not terribly comfortable for him. I had trouble sleeping as well so by the time we got home to a wet and foggy morning in London we were glad of a cheerful cab driver waiting for us to take us home.

It has been a wonderful trip with some great new experiences and some old favourites. Now all we have to do is look forward to the next trip!

[Bert & Sully]

As usual great trip report and BEAUTIFUL pictures Mikki [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] .

[tikibird]

mikki,

Loved hearing all about your adventures on land and on sea - thanks for sharing with us!