lawgator
Pixie Dust Catcher
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
We only live 2 hours away from Disney and decided Friday to go down for an overnight trip on Saturday. We are DVC members, but there was no last minute availability, so we booked into the Hilton Lake Buena Vista on Hotel Blvd. using our HHonors points. We checked in the hotel around 10am on Saturday morning and a room was actually ready and available for us, but we decided to leave our cooler and luggage in the car for awhile and immediately drove to EPCOT so we could be there at rope drop for the 11am opening of the World Showcase. Since we have a Disney Chase Visa card, we hurried over to the Chase Lounge on the 2nd floor of the America pavillion and enjoyed a cool drink and got our free wristbands for priority seating for Sister Hazel (a rock band from my hometown in Gainesville, FL) and Illuminations viewing in a reserved area across from Italy. The wrist bands are distributed starting right at 11am and do run out, so get there early if you want one. You can't pick them up for other family members, either, as each person who wants one must be present to get it. We opted for the middle show time because we felt we would be waiting too long in the hot sun for the first show. The Chase lounge is very nice and offers free non alcoholic drinks as well as wine and beer you can purchase. There is free wifi there, too. You can have access to the lounge with any Chase card and also get the priority concert seating wrist bands with any Chase card, but must have a Disney Visa Chase card for the Illuminations wrist bands.
I was surprised that we were able to get any fast passes the day before (we have annual passes), but we did get them for Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Nemo and Friends, as well as a late lunch dining reservation at Chef de France. After using our fast passes and enjoying a lovely lunch (20% discount with our Tables in Wonderland card) we went back to the room to rest and cool off (it was 90 degrees outside) and decided to catch a bus back over to EPCOT from the hotel for our 6:45pm show at EPCOT. If you have one of the priority seating wristbands they let you in and escort you to your seating area exactly 30 minutes before the show, and we arrived just as they were escorting the Chase wristband holders to their seats which are located in rows 5 and 6, close to the stage and enjoyed an awesome concert. It is a really nice free perk from Chase to sponsor these wristbands.
After we got back to the room that night we considered, although only briefly, taking a bus to the MK for the extra magical hours until 3am, but were just too darn tired. The Hilton near Downtown Disney is the only off site hotel in that area that offers extra magical hours. The only downside to the trip was the horrendous traffic near downtown Disney that is so congested and it took a very long time (an hour or more) to get back to the hotel on the bus Saturday night, but overall the trip was fantastic for a quick and fun Disney fix.
I'm already looking forward to our next short trip next month and seeing the Osbourne Family Lights.
I was surprised that we were able to get any fast passes the day before (we have annual passes), but we did get them for Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Nemo and Friends, as well as a late lunch dining reservation at Chef de France. After using our fast passes and enjoying a lovely lunch (20% discount with our Tables in Wonderland card) we went back to the room to rest and cool off (it was 90 degrees outside) and decided to catch a bus back over to EPCOT from the hotel for our 6:45pm show at EPCOT. If you have one of the priority seating wristbands they let you in and escort you to your seating area exactly 30 minutes before the show, and we arrived just as they were escorting the Chase wristband holders to their seats which are located in rows 5 and 6, close to the stage and enjoyed an awesome concert. It is a really nice free perk from Chase to sponsor these wristbands.
After we got back to the room that night we considered, although only briefly, taking a bus to the MK for the extra magical hours until 3am, but were just too darn tired. The Hilton near Downtown Disney is the only off site hotel in that area that offers extra magical hours. The only downside to the trip was the horrendous traffic near downtown Disney that is so congested and it took a very long time (an hour or more) to get back to the hotel on the bus Saturday night, but overall the trip was fantastic for a quick and fun Disney fix.
I'm already looking forward to our next short trip next month and seeing the Osbourne Family Lights.
