I’m just going to head right to the apologies for not posting for weeks….Life gets in the way! Now for the excuses… Papa and Buszia were here the last three weeks (they left Sunday) and while they were here we were BUSY! Sports or some other activity each evening, weekend trips to National Parks, and so on and so forth. But things are settled down now, and we have narry a weekend excursion in sight. And a whole week of no sports for the girls! Woo Hoo! Ok. Enough with the excuses. On with the report.
Day 2: Sunday, June 4th, 2017 – Resort: AKL and BCV – Parks: Epcot
The day dawned grey and bleak after a full night of rain. Luckily, it seems the clouds had spit out all their precipitation. Caz and I rose early to put a breakfast casserole in the oven. We thought we had given Buszia the delicious recipe from their Christmas visit earlier in the year, but apparently not. In any case, it still turned out well and when the kids finally rose, they gobbled it up.
The animals were out again, much to the children’s delight:
And then it was time to pack up. On the upside we didn’t really unpack so it didn’t take long, but packing and organizing in general can raise tensions, and Brie and Buszia had a bit of a spat over what little Brie did have to pack. Another downer was how poorly Brie was feeling. She was already feeling blue because she had that appendectomy surgery just weeks ago and was bummed about how restricted she would be in terms of rides, then on top of that she was pretty sure she was going to pass a kidney stone! EEK! So needless to say she was in pain and pretty cranky. Poor thing. In the end I believe she went with my Dad over to BCV to check-in to our new digs and then took a rest as our Studio was ready. I know this sounds pretty serious, but don’t worry, Brie will be alright… More later...
In the meantime, the rest of us went down to the pool for one final dip. The sun was not cooperating today, but it wasn’t raining. And honestly, can you complain when you’re enjoying yourself here:
The kids enjoyed the pool and then we had lunch at the Mara. Papa returned from bringing our stuff over to BCV, and since we were officially checked in, our Deluxe Dining Plan kicked in. I can hear you thinking, “Gosh, the DxDDP, that’s a lot of meals, and a lot of money for 10 people…” Well, we worked Disney’s rules to our favor here. If you recall, we have a studio and a two-bedroom villa for five nights at BCV. We put one adult, Clara and Ryan in the villa, and the rest of us in the two-bedroom, but only “on- paper.” Anyways, with the DxDDP, adult and child credits are indistinguishable, and you can share your credits with anyone. So for just under $1K (one adult and two kids pricing), we were able to get 3 x 3 x 5 = 45 dining credits, 3 x 2 x 5 = 30 snack credits and three refillable mugs. When we did the math we were pretty amazed as this saved us a ton of $. We actually called Disney multiple times to ensure that we could share credits and that kid and adult credits were interchangeable. So for the next five nights we were eating on Disney’s dime. Win! Back to report...
After our lunch we headed towards the busses. Can I say that I love the monitor that updates you on when your bus will arrive? It was nice to know, and with that knowledge we took a few minutes to browse in the AKL store. Before the bus arrived the kids joined Caz outside for a little hack-sack:
While we waited, Brie sent us this image of the line for Figgie as she headed to hang and relax at the DVC Member lounge:
Yikes! It would be one of those crazy busy days that makes me grateful for FP+, but more on that later. Brie was feeling much better as she already passed her kidney stone. Yes, you read that right. A bit TMI here, but Brie’s body unfortunately produces kidney stones at an alarming rate, so although passing them still sucks, she handles it like a champ as she does it all the time (like multiple times per year). Can you imagine passing a stone in the morning and then touring Epcot later that afternoon? Well Brie did. Rock star.
So while Brie enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the DVC lounge, most of us took the bus to join her, aside from Andrea and Papa as they took the car back over to BCV and entered in through the back door. We strolled in, and took the first Photopass pics of the trip:
Funny faces pic (except for Caz - apparently he's too cool):
We stopped and said “hi” to Gramps (Buszia’s dad who passed in 2006) as per the tradition:
We all regrouped at Spaceship Earth where the line was CRAZY!
And with that, here is my ode to Fastpass+. Before this wonderful innovation, you would need to be in the park as soon as it opened (on a busy day like this day) to be able to get Fastpasses to big ticket rides like Soarin’ or TT as they run out pretty early in the day (again, on a busy day). But with FP+ we were able to spend the morning at our resort and then begin riding rides with almost no wait in the middle of the day. When lines for rides like SPE are 45 minutes long, that is a gift! And with that we took a journey through time, learning about communication, smelling great smells and making silly faces:
Here’s a video of Clara and Ryan’s future:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZUPm91bJHeiiEJSL2
After SPE we used our bonus FP+ from the magic band challenges Caz dealt with the night before for Soarin’, bypassing a 75 minute line. Our family loves Soarin’, especially the pre-show with Puddy from the show Seinfeld. Smiles were abundant:
Selfie time!
And now a non-selfie:
For some reason we love to take pictures in the queue of Soarin’. It’s kind of a tradition. Anyways, we requested B1, and waited an additional cycle to get front and center. After a tour of the world, it was time for our FP+ for TT where the kids enjoyed making cars:
Followed closely thereafter by Mission Space, which was the day before it closed for its recent refurbishment. These three kiddos went for the Orange side:
And with that we were done with rides for the day… But for a super crowded day, four rides with no waits between the hours of 2:30 - 4:30 is pretty epic! The weather was still pretty grey and the radar showed that a storm was quickly heading our way.We decided to hightail it over to our first ADR of the trip, Les Chef de France. On the way we paused for a moment for our first full group photo:
We arrived in France just after 5 pm and were seated promptly despite the fact that our ADR wasn’t until 5:30 pm. As if orchestrated, it started raining almost right as we entered the restaurant. Win!
With the DxDDP we were all able to get appetizers and many of us had the onion soup which had lots of bread and not many onions. I ordered the duck… It was delicious!
Everyone found the meal to be top notch, and Josh in particular enjoyed eating as an adult:
As we checked out, my mom and I held our breath as they handed us the check… Just as Disney promised, we were able to share the dining credits with no problem. Whew. With dinner under our belts (literally), it was time to head to the second resort of the trip. I will wrap up day 2 with my next offering which will include a tour of our rooms! Thanks for reading and…