Good morning groupies. I am writing this note from room 3935 in the villas at wilderness lodge. Only two days remaining on our trip. Flying home on Sunday if Lord is willing. Weather in Illinois is terrible with more snow today. We feel the effects here. Chilly at night, but comfortable overall. I got heaping mound of pixie dust on the day of arrival. Post it when I have keyboard.
i have noticed LOTS of helicopters overhead. Yesterday at HS there were three overhead at one time. Not a pilot, but it appeared that they were all flying in similar pattern. Nothing for awhile then I would see one on same flight path. Then another. Soon after another. Same experience at Epcot but it was late afternoon (went to candlelight) and it did not attract my attention much. Did any of you that were early December see or notice this? Seemed like they were watching or searching. Am I crazy or do you have thoughts about this?
I noticed the helicopters too. Flying over DHS & Epcot all the time during our stay.
Wow three hours to get out of the garage at Disney Springs today
. I heard they closed MK at 11:30 AM today. Now explain to me again why people want to be at WDW on New Year's Eve?
Well we were there! I purposely booked BCV so we would not have to leave the resort & deal with any traffic. We did MK on 12/30 for the preview fireworks which was a bit of a bust. Fireworks themselves were incredible (what we saw of them). By the time we got off HM & started making our way towards the hub CMs weren't letting anyone else into the hub (even though it seemed to me there was plenty of room). They herded us shoulder to should over the bridge between Liberty Square & Adventureland towards Main St. & kept telling us keep moving, keep moving.
There really was nowhere to move to & by that time the fireworks had started. We didn't get a good view of the beginning & by the time we finally got close to Crystal Palace I finally just stopped. There was no place we could have gone & I at least wanted to see the grand finale. Finale was everything I heard it would be, but I just wish we could have seen the entire show without looking over our shoulder & trying not to step on people. Had I known the hub would be closed we would have gone around the back of the castle instead.
NYE at Epcot was interesting. We had 5:15 ADR at Via Napoli. Wasn't too bad crowdwise then. We finished dinner just as holiday Illuminations was ending. We watched from Italy & then Whoa Nelly! The crowds came out of nowhere! It was packed but at least manageable to walk until we got to about China. By Norway we were shoulder to shoulder the entire width across the WS walkway. One lane of traffic was getting through going in the opposite direction of WS. Of course we had FPs for TT so we had to go in that direction. It was a bit scary being that packed in. The woman next to me started to freak out a little. Thankfully when we arrived at Mexico they were shuttling people around the back of the pavilion which comes out at TT. We waited close to 45 min. in the FP line to ride TT. By 8:30 we were done. There was no point in fighting the crowds. People were already staking out spots on the grass around the lagoons (small ones near the entrance to WS). People had blankets & clearly planned to be there until midnight. I had no idea people did that as this was our first NYE trip. It was cold & I didn't want to sit on the grass doing nothing for hours so we headed out. We watched the fireworks from the YC boat dock. That turned out to be a really good idea because as the Epcot fireworks were just getting to the finale the fireworks started at DHS & DS as well. We had fireworks going off all around us. It was pretty cool. So now we know if we ever do another NYE trip stay at BCV & don't bother going to Epcot or bring a blanket, food, & plan to hang out for a long time. All in all it was fun & I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again but it wouldn't be something I do every year. I have a bucket list item to see the NYE fireworks over Sydney harbor. I anticipate that will get crossed off my list within the next few years.
Someone may be walking Villas Wilderness Lodge Studios the first day of booking is blocked. What you want is not a slam dunk.
I found that out today. Checked a few days ago for a standard view studio at BLT for 12/8-12. It was available but the nights before it were not. Walkers. Logged in exactly at 8:00 today & the night of the 8th was gone. It was too early to book 9-12 so I waitlisted 8-12 & then figured I'd check tomorrow for 9-12 & then waitlist the single night of 12/8. Lake view was available but it would have meant borrowing 15 points vs 3. VWL was available for 61 points for all nights but I would have needed to borrow all of those. Checked again about an hour ago. Nights of 12/8 & 9 are now gone at BLT for standard studio & the night of 12/8 was gone for a studio at VWL.
I grabbed the lake view studio at BLT. I didn't really want to borrow but I didn't want to risk not getting anything. This is my first time booking early Dec. It's harder than Christmas!
@sleepydog25 can you add me to the vacation list for 12/8-12 at BLT? Thanks!
5th floor is indeed a lock-off. We were in 5519 - the 1-bdrm side was enormous! The studio side seemed to me to be smaller than a regular studio.
And we've been in 5517 twice! Loved that room so much.
Sleepy - please add DiznyDi & I to the list for VWL Dec. 7th thru the 14th.
Hooray we overlap!
Happy New Year groupies! Took me awhile to catch up again. We had a mostly good trip with a few hiccups. See my review of 12/30 & 31 above. On our arrival day (28th) we had planned to head to DS for a mid afternoon lunch, but DH wanted to see the final version of construction so we drove over to VWL. It was easier to do it this day as we only had the car for a one day rental. Didn't work out so well. Guard refused to let us in. We really were there to eat & spend money but he said no not without a reservation. My reply was they don't take reservations at GP to which he replied well I guess you're not coming in then.
He was kind of rude. So we had to U-turn & head to DS anyway. Drove out of our way to VWL & then couldn't get in. We did make it back there on on 2nd MK day 1/2 & I was so sad the tree was already down.
So DH never got to see that which was a bummer since he hasn't been to the Lodge at Christmas in 2 years. GP was closed because it was cold & windy. The entire trip was cold & windy. We had 2 decent days the entire week which was disappointing especially after it had been so cold during my earlier in Dec. trip. So overall our trip(s) to the Lodge were kind of a bust. DH did say he thought they did a nice job with GP & the overall landscaping, but he agreed with me the new pool is awful. Stupid boulders.
Our room at BCV was in good shape but on the road side a few doors down from the loading dock. Not a great location for me as I'm a very light sleeper. Didn't get a good night's sleep all week. Our dryer barely worked. What is up with the dryers in DVC units? This happens to us all the time. I called maintenance & they did come, but even after they came it still took 3 cycles to dry a load. Not acceptable. Also had very low water pressure in the shower & had to turn the faucet all the way up as far as it went to get hot water. We did get a full cleaning on our T&T day. No idea why. I think the maid just made a mistake. WiFi at BC was the worst I've ever experienced & I think it was just BC because it seemed to work fine other places. We also got stuck & couldn't fly out on Thu. because of the storm. I rebooked our flights for Wed. night to get out ahead of it. Watched the flight all day (9 pm flight). It was delayed 15 min. all day. 2 min. from turning into the rental return car at MCO we get a text flight is cancelled. No explanation just cancelled. Thank goodness for the traffic around the airport because if there hadn't been traffic I would have returned the car & we would have been stuck. Luckily we had a room to go back to at BCV, but there wasn't a room to be found anywhere on property for Thu. night because of the marathon. I ended up booking a room at the Hyatt since our 2nd rescheduled flight for Fri. was 7:40 a.m. We spent most of Thu. just hanging around. DH had no park tickets left so we played pool, went to the movies, then had dinner at Homecomin' before heading to the airport. Hyatt was nice enough & certainly very convenient to just get up & walk downstairs but once again not great for a light sleeper.
That probably sounds like we had a terrible trip, but we really didn't. DH loved FOP & we had planned to go again on Wed morning but it was raining pretty hard so that was a no. Crowds overall (except NYE) were what we have come to expect from our many trips over Christmas so manageable for us. We had so much good food! Went to tea at GF, light dinner at Cali Grill, excellent dinner & visit with my bartender friend at Flying Fish, tried Morimoto for the 1st time (OMG the ribs!), lunch at the Boathouse bar (get the filet mignon sliders a bargain!). Met some friends at Jellyrolls Fri. night. So much fun (and too many drinks I won't lie!). DH was doing shots at the bar with my friends from another board. Who are you & what have you done with my husband?!
He really is not a big drinker so that was pretty funny. He said my friends are crazy & he can see why I like them so much.
I have definitely come to see, if I didn't know already, Disney is all about the food & visiting with friends for me now. The parks are fun but I'm more into the food. DS is a foodie destination now. They did a great job there. Can't wait until Wine Bar George opens.
So that was our trip & I head back again in 46 days. I've got 46 days to lose the weight I gained.
