Pre-Anniversary Trip April 17-22 (Day Five Part Two)- Updated 5/28/04 About This Page:

[luvnwdwgal]

Awesome surprise for your DH!! Looking forward to more!!

[lvstitch]

Day One – Part Two



We were finally at the WL. When we pulled up to valet we handed them the special paper the guard gave us for concierge. They told us that our room was ready. It was 8:30 in the morning. That alone was worth the upgrade to concierge. I was so excited; I thought I would have to wait to at least 3pm to check in. You can not get up to the concierge level without a key so you need to have a bellmen help you. I really don’t like waiting for bellmen (as I am sure you can all tell by now that I am very very impatient) and usually just take the bags to the room myself, however because of the whole concierge thing you are priority for a bellmen. We maybe waited 2 minutes. The bellmen took us right up. The concierge desk is located as soon as you get off the elevators. They were waiting for us and asked if we wanted a Courtyard view (pool area) or a Magic Kingdom view. I couldn’t believe that not only could we get into our room at 8:30am but we had a choice. Also, it was nice because all the concierge rooms are non-smoking with two queen beds so I knew what type of room I was getting. I was unsure of which view I wanted because I had read that you really can’t see the Magic Kingdom because of the trees. But before I could make my decision my husband said he wanted the MK view. I asked if it was a good view and they said you could see the fireworks but I was a little skeptical. They took us to our room before we had even checked in. We passed the food table and grabbed a few small croissants. We were right around the corner from the food which was great. After we dropped our bags off in our room we had to go back to the concierge desk to give them our CC and License. By this point we were starving and every time we passed the table we took more food. Besides the croissants they had assorted mini muffins, bagels and a toaster with butter and cream cheese, two types of berry pastries and assorted cereals along with milk, coffee, tea and hot chocolate. It was nice because they had sippy cups (Styrofoam to go) so you could get your morning coffee and take it with you on your way to the parks. They had the same breakfast food every morning. It was about 9am and we were ready to go to bed but we went to MGM instead. We had a noon PS at 50’s Prime Time and I was not going to miss it. We drove to MGM and were there by 9:30. We wanted to hit ToT and RNRC before we ate but when we entered the park we realized that would not happen. It was very crowded. So we FP ToT and went on the GMR which had a 10 min wait (this is one of my husband’s favorites). This was a great ride to relax on. After that our FP for ToT was up so we FP RNRC and went on ToT. I love the new drop sequence. I am always so scared on this ride but I love it. It was now about 10:45 and we were starving. I had not eaten a full meal since noon the day before. I figured we should try to see if we could eat at 50’s earlier. We got lucky. It does not open until 11:00 so we got there before the masses. We were the third people to be seated. We had already looked over the menus before we left so we knew what we wanted as soon as we sat down. We also told them we were starving so they hurried with the food. I have become accustom to Disney food not always being the highest quality however, this place is better than most. We started with the Fried Boursin Cheese (this was one of the best things I had the entire time. In fact, I want it now). It is deep fried Boursin cheese, which makes it creamy; they serve it with toast points and a raspberry sauce. I don’t really like raspberry sauce so I tried to scrape it off but once I got a little taste of it I could not believe how good it was with the cheese. I wanted to order another one of these instead of my entrée but they brought the food so fast I didn’t have time. My husband had the pot roast, which he liked and I had the fried chicken, which was good but I thought it was a little salty. My husband however loved the chicken and has already decided the next time we go back he is getting it. We also had two lemonades. The total bill including tip was $50. We were so hungry and ate so fast we were out of there in a ½ hour. That is one thing I like about eating at Disney, they get you in and out. We still had a little time to wait for RNRC so we walked around some shops. I really wanted my picture taken with Fantasia Mickey so we went looking for him. We stopped by the new hat, which by the way is pretty cool and saw a lot of characters: Lilo & Stitch, Goofy, Donald and Timon. There is just nothing like seeing characters. It was my first real dose of Disney magic. I just love watching kids’ (and adults’) faces light up when they see them. Throughout the trip I watched my husband and he smiled and waved at every character he saw. Anyway, the search was on for Fantasia Mickey. We went down the alley to the right of the GMR and there was a small movie theater building that said starring Mickey I still wasn’t sure if that is where he was because there was no line. I don’t think most people realize that he is in there. There was only one family waiting in front of us.



With our picture taken it was finally time for RNRC. My head was starting to really hurt. Now I know what happens to you when you are awake for 28 hours. We were really looking forward to RNRC so nothing was going to stop us. This is our favorite ride of all time. Great ride as usual except by the end I had a full blown headache and needed to go the sleep. We left the park about 1pm and headed back to the hotel for a very long nap.



Next Up: How much more can we do in one day?

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Christine What a room your scored It must have been fabulous!!

Can't wait to hear more about your adventures

[Coinbeach]

Wonderful update....So how was the view of the MK from your room???????

[buckysmom]

Great TR!
Thanks so much for describing concierge (for those of us who only dream and read about it!) and the 50's PTC-I'm hoping to go on my next visit and your review made me that much more impatient!

Thanks again and hurry back to your computer

[statelady01]

Another great update- thank you!

[Mel & Richard]

Great update. I'm also curious about how your view turned out.

Mel

[Waltismyhero]

Great start to your trip report, Christine. I'm so glad that you liked Wilderness Lodge. It's my fave Disney resort - there's just something about the atmosphere there that can't be equalled anywhere else.

[Jennifer2003]

Sounds like fun!! can't wait for more!


Jennifer

[luvnwdwgal]

Yep, concierge is awesome!!! Hope you were able to see the fireworks from your room! Looking forward to your next installment!!

[dsnytina]

OOooooh! This is so good - hurry back with more tales of WL Concierge Level!
Tina

[lvstitch]

Day One, Part Three



I told you it was a long day.



We slept for about 5 hours. When we woke up we were hungry and my husband could not wait to get to the concierge table and see what they had while I finally unpacked; I usually unpack as soon as I get in the room. I finally had a chance to check out the view.



Basically you see a lot of trees. You could see Space Mountain ok and if you looked real hard and stood on your toes you could see the top spire of the castle. However, if you looked down you had a wonderful view of the engineering building and a swamp. It was an ok view at best; at this point I would have preferred the Courtyard view. When my husband came back he had some marinated mushrooms, some kind of cheese and bread. I asked if that was all they had, he said it was all he could carry. So I went back with him. It was a very nice spread. Beside the mushrooms they had marinated veggies (don’t know what kind because I don’t eat them) and several kinds of cheese. There was also a hot dish which was Sausage and Peppers; this was the only thing that changed each night. There were three different types of wine: Red, White and Zinfindel. The red was gone almost as soon as they brought it out. They did refill it but not very quickly. If you like red wine, get there at 5pm and get a couple of glasses. They also had cans of soda for the kids; this was another thing they ran out of very quickly. People must wait there for them to bring the stuff out. We did take a couple of cans of soda each night for our room because a refrigerator is included in the concierge price. They did have water but it was in a large glass bottle. I would have liked small individual bottles. It was about 7:30pm and we were a little more awake. The MK was open until 11pm so we decided to head over there. I was really excited; I usually don’t go to the MK until the 3rd or 4th day of my trip because of crowds. We decided to take the boat from our hotel over. This is great if you don’t care about time. I would say it took about 30 minutes. After they picked us up we stopped over at Ft Wilderness than headed to the MK. It was very relaxing and a little chilly but you can get some great pictures.







We hit Main Street and once I turned the corner I just stopped and stared; it was beautiful. I had a few tears in my eyes. It’s times like this that I realize how blessed I am and thank God. That castle is amazing. I could just sit all night long looking at it. Just thinking about it as I type brings tears to my eyes. Anyway, my husband needed some espresso (4 a-day habit) so we stopped in the bakery. I love the smell in there and the ice cream shop next door. While I am walking down Main Street I always have to just poke my head in there. It's amazing how certain smells just make you think of Disney.



Sorry I keep going off track, it’s just as I type this I feel like I’m there again. This is my first trip report and I love writing it. OK now back to the report.



My goal for tonight was to take it easy (very difficult for me) all I really wanted to do was see Philharmagic and the Fireworks. It was about 9pm and we headed towards Fantasyland. There was no wait at all for Philharmagic, except for the people who would not move to the back of the waiting area. If you like to sit in the back of the theater, push through all of the people (which is allowed) and wait at the far right doors. I didn’t particularly like the seating in the theater because if someone tall sat in front of you, you could not see. They should have done stadium seating so everyone has a good seat. I was filled with anticipation for this show and was worried that I would be disappointed. I was not. I can not find the words to describe this show. I loved every part of it. How hard is it not to reach out to Ariel? Again, I had tears in my eyes. After this we decided to look for a spot to watch the Fireworks. Spectro was still on so I knew we could forget about Main Street. As we walked out of Tomorrowland I noticed Tink’s cable and we thought it would be cool to be right under her. I thought the Fireworks started off a little slow but by the end I could not believe what I had just seen. They were unbelievable. Our spot was good, you didn’t get the castle effect but seeing Tink so close was great. They had fireworks in there that I had never seen before. Again, tears in my eyes. I didn’t want to leave with everyone else and the park was still open for another hour so I wanted to go on some more rides. At this point my husband was convinced I was just trying to torture him (maybe a little). Of course there was no wait on the Peoplemover so we jumped on that. When we got off the wait for Buzz was only 10 minutes so we jumped on that. I did not do so good only 2400 points; there must have been something wrong with my gun. My husband did much better he got 50,000. It was now 11pm and time to leave. There didn’t seem to be that many people waiting to take the boat back to the hotel but we had to wait for three of them. They can only take 120 people on each boat and the boats come every 9 minutes. It took us over ½ hour to get back to the hotel. Finally we were asleep by midnight.



Next Up: Random pictures of the WL

[lvstitch]

Thanks for all your comments. I am glad you are ejoying it.

Pictures of the WL: Which by the way I loved. My husband and I agreed that it made our trip.





View from concierge food table





Looking down from 7th floor













Our room



Next: Are we going to take it easy...NEVER

[Jennifer2003]

Thanks for the update and pictures! I can't wait to see this all again!!!

Jennifer

[buckysmom]

Awesome pictures!
Thank you so much for this great trip report, I'm enjoying every installment so much!