BigredNole
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2007
Our trip is not complete, but the WBC leg has been done.
Party: DW, DD, and myself
Where: Wyndham Bonnet Creek 1BR Dlx for Week 1; Orange Lake Resort West Village 2BR for Week 2
What: Disney in the mornings, resort in the afternoons, and whatever in the evenings
When: June 17 - June 30
Day 0 and Day 1:
We started our drive down on June 16th. Made it into Jacksonville for the night. I was skeptical because it was more of a motel, but only deal I could get cheap enough. All nicer hotels between Daytona and Jacksonville wanted more than $100 per night. Days Inn worked out perfectly for us near the airport. We got in, dropped off our stuff, and headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Completely forgot about Happy Hour. Server told us we just made it, so I ordered 2 beers . Dinner was great, spent about 90 minutes there just relaxing from the drive. Went back to the room, crashed. Woke up a little earlier than planned and made it to WBC by 8:30AM.
Our room was not ready and we asked what we could do if we wanted to go grocery shopping. They have refrigeration and freezer facilities, told us by all means to go shopping, and we did. Off to Wally World at about 9AM. We gather all of our stuff (and over spent like crazy). Dropped it off with Bell Services and still no room yet. We head to Disney Springs because we need activate our APs anyway. Boy has this place changed. It is slam packed with a giant shopping mecca. For those that like it, great. For people like me, it is a complete waste. Regardless, it is what it is. It is nice, but not my thing. We get our APs activated, walk to the pin station to see the new Hidden Mickey sets, look at the pins, and then explore the Disney stores only. We start to head back towards our parking garage area, stop at Blaze for lunch, and our room is ready at 12:15. Blaze was excellent. With AP discount, it is extremely reasonable. We had 3 pizzas and it was $25.
Off to WBC for the 3rd time. We get our requested Tower 5, but parking lot view. We were in room 992. It was over the tree line so we could see parts of Disney Springs. We do not use the balcony for sight seeing anyway. The room location and Tower are perfect. We have everything so close, except Tower 3 where many activities are happening throughout the week. We could not have been more pleased with what we had available to our room location.
4PM rolls around and off to DHS. I was expecting insane crowds and it is not even close to my fears. We head to use our Star Tours FP. No line. We walk on Standby 2x and then use our FP for 3 rides. Now our RnRC FPs are good. We walk over, get right on. Convince DD to try Single Rider line. She had always been afraid and she is only 11. We assure her it is easy. We go right on, she sees what it is, and we are full go. Now it starts raining and huge thunderstorm. ToT is our next FP. They did not close it, so we went and went and went and went. Because of the rain, people were not riding. They ride kept going so we looped on it 4x.
It's about 8PM, time to start eyeing where to watch Star Wars Galactic Spectacular. Come up to the best CM we have run into...all CMs have been very friendly, but this is the only one that has stood out. At the moment, I cannot recall his name, but I have it written down. He is the crowd control CM. He tells me where the best place to be is at. Front row on the corner of where the walkways are when the show starts. Unobstructed view, no one to push their way into it, and since I am pretty big it is easy to see where the edge is. For the hour, he kept everyone entertained. He had jokes, Disney facts, a bunch of trivia questions. It made the hour wait go by so much faster. Definitely a CM that loves his job. The show was excellent. I want to see it again, but may not be able to squeeze it in. Rain kept us from the Castle show and RoL dinner package shows. We still have to get to those.
After a quick exit, we were back at WBC before 10PM and crashed before 10:30.
Next up Day 2!!!
Party: DW, DD, and myself
Where: Wyndham Bonnet Creek 1BR Dlx for Week 1; Orange Lake Resort West Village 2BR for Week 2
What: Disney in the mornings, resort in the afternoons, and whatever in the evenings
When: June 17 - June 30
Day 0 and Day 1:
We started our drive down on June 16th. Made it into Jacksonville for the night. I was skeptical because it was more of a motel, but only deal I could get cheap enough. All nicer hotels between Daytona and Jacksonville wanted more than $100 per night. Days Inn worked out perfectly for us near the airport. We got in, dropped off our stuff, and headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Completely forgot about Happy Hour. Server told us we just made it, so I ordered 2 beers . Dinner was great, spent about 90 minutes there just relaxing from the drive. Went back to the room, crashed. Woke up a little earlier than planned and made it to WBC by 8:30AM.
Our room was not ready and we asked what we could do if we wanted to go grocery shopping. They have refrigeration and freezer facilities, told us by all means to go shopping, and we did. Off to Wally World at about 9AM. We gather all of our stuff (and over spent like crazy). Dropped it off with Bell Services and still no room yet. We head to Disney Springs because we need activate our APs anyway. Boy has this place changed. It is slam packed with a giant shopping mecca. For those that like it, great. For people like me, it is a complete waste. Regardless, it is what it is. It is nice, but not my thing. We get our APs activated, walk to the pin station to see the new Hidden Mickey sets, look at the pins, and then explore the Disney stores only. We start to head back towards our parking garage area, stop at Blaze for lunch, and our room is ready at 12:15. Blaze was excellent. With AP discount, it is extremely reasonable. We had 3 pizzas and it was $25.
Off to WBC for the 3rd time. We get our requested Tower 5, but parking lot view. We were in room 992. It was over the tree line so we could see parts of Disney Springs. We do not use the balcony for sight seeing anyway. The room location and Tower are perfect. We have everything so close, except Tower 3 where many activities are happening throughout the week. We could not have been more pleased with what we had available to our room location.
4PM rolls around and off to DHS. I was expecting insane crowds and it is not even close to my fears. We head to use our Star Tours FP. No line. We walk on Standby 2x and then use our FP for 3 rides. Now our RnRC FPs are good. We walk over, get right on. Convince DD to try Single Rider line. She had always been afraid and she is only 11. We assure her it is easy. We go right on, she sees what it is, and we are full go. Now it starts raining and huge thunderstorm. ToT is our next FP. They did not close it, so we went and went and went and went. Because of the rain, people were not riding. They ride kept going so we looped on it 4x.
It's about 8PM, time to start eyeing where to watch Star Wars Galactic Spectacular. Come up to the best CM we have run into...all CMs have been very friendly, but this is the only one that has stood out. At the moment, I cannot recall his name, but I have it written down. He is the crowd control CM. He tells me where the best place to be is at. Front row on the corner of where the walkways are when the show starts. Unobstructed view, no one to push their way into it, and since I am pretty big it is easy to see where the edge is. For the hour, he kept everyone entertained. He had jokes, Disney facts, a bunch of trivia questions. It made the hour wait go by so much faster. Definitely a CM that loves his job. The show was excellent. I want to see it again, but may not be able to squeeze it in. Rain kept us from the Castle show and RoL dinner package shows. We still have to get to those.
After a quick exit, we were back at WBC before 10PM and crashed before 10:30.
Next up Day 2!!!