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Dates - 12/7-12/14
Where - Beach Club Villas 2 bedroom Room 453
Who - Me (Lori), 32, DH 34, DD 7, DD 6, DS 2 and Mom 53
Experience - Very little (My 3rd trip, everyone elses 2nd trip)
We just returned from a great trip. The weather was pleasant, with a couple days of extreme rain. We lucked out because it did not rain the night of MVMCP (12/10) and the night of our Illuminations Cruise (12/11). The rain made our hair look bad, lol, but did not dampen our fun. Only one day in the parks was a washout (12/9) and we had planned on taking a day off anyway, so we took it early.
It was our first DVC trip. I am grateful to DVC, because we were able to get a 2 bedroom and bring my mom along. She has never been to a resort - and it was nice treating her for a change. She always liked Disney, but now she is hooked and can't wait to go back! She was like a little kid!
Housekeeping was great. My DS caught the stomach flu, so we needed all new bedding. They brought it right down and even brought me a can of disinfectant so I could spray the room. Apparently, they are not allowed to give the disinfectant to guests, so they had to get approval. Thankfully, it only lasted one day and no one else got it.
We liked BCV and really liked its location. It was great being a 5 minute walk to Epcot! We could see the Illuminations fireworks from out balcony every night we weren't there. I was amazed that they even did Illuminations in the pouring down rain! It was a much farther hike to Beaches and Cream than I expected. Took us a while to find it.
We learned that we should bring paper plates for the Villa and plastic pop bottles to bring into the parks for the next trip.
Characters were everywhere and not just the usual ones. On NY Street in MGM, we saw tons of villains, but my kids were too scared to approach them. Jafar was really intimidating! The lines to see them were usually no more than 10 minutes. It was great!
This was our 2nd family trip and we decided to introduce our daughters to pin trading. We had stocked up at TDS when they were $2. My 7 yo was kind of shy and nervous at first but was totally into it by trip's end. My 6 yo loved it from the start. We only let them ask to trade with CM's this trip. Since CM's will trade any pin for any pin - it seemed easiest for all of us. By the end of each day, many CM's had half their lanyards filled with those horrible Dwarf pins. It was frustrating, because those pins are absolute garbage and no one wants them. I hope Disney is throwing them out as they collect them. How many of them are out there??? At least TDS pins are attractive (usually). Most of the kids are not trading for collections, but for the fun of trading, but they did not even want the Dwarf pins. It was obvious that no one wants them or the CM's would not have so many of them by day's end. My 6 yo made the mistake of trading for an American Express White Glove pin. She didn't really want it, but could not get rid of it, because every CM had one already. Oh well - maybe next time.
MVMCP was magical! We were able to walk on rides. Had great seats for the parade and Mickey's Christmas show. The fireworks were awesome. My dds were even surprised to see their favorite musical group, Jump 5, on stage during the party. We also saw some of them later in the week being escorted to the front of every line at the park through the CM entrances. They were so excited! We never did make it for a picture. The lines were too long (even at the end of the party) and we would rather spend the time riding rides. We also looked like heck from the rain earlier in the day! We bought 2 MVMCP pins. They were cute! They were starting to let people in for MVMCP by 4:30pm, so those who came early got the most for their money. The park closed at 6pm, so the party people were corralled near the castle stage from about 6:15-6:40, but after 6:40 they opened everything up again. We were there all day and ate dinner at Liberty Tavern, so we walked out about 6:35 and they were directing us to the crowd area, but before we got there, they let everyone go, so we were right in front of the castle for the opening show.
The Illuminations Cruise was nice. We had a fill-in captain and he was
great! He entertained the kids while we waited for Illuminations to begin. Our friends went down with us, so we were able to split the cost of the cruise. It was nice not to have to fight the crowd and have an unobstructed view. It was probably a once in a lifetime thing for us. $120 (+$25 tip) is pretty steep. It was fun though.
The security checks weren't too bad, but they varied widely by park. We had a diaper bag for ds and some guards wanted to see the bottom of the bag, so we had to take everything out and others just peaked in. Then we went to the AK without any bags and they would not let me through the "no bag" line because I had my Passporter pouch with our tickets and room key around my neck. That was the only park that even mentioned it and I had it on at every security check.
Overall it was a terrific trip and we are looking forward to going again in October!
Lori
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