Flowers and Gardens -- Part 1

[faline]

Saturday May 3, 2014 Magic Bands +

Well, here we are - relaxing on a Saturday evening. Except for a few last minute things, the bags are packed - in fact, the checked bags are already in the trunk as is one of the carry on bags. We have an 8:00 a.m. flight in the morning and should be in Disney by lunch time.

For this trip, we will be staying at Villas Wilderness Lodge for the first time. We have stayed at Wilderness Lodge many times but never before in the Villas. This resort is a favorite of ours so we are really looking forward to this stay. We have booked a one bedroom villa - love having the washer/dryer right in our room.

We did not rent a car this trip and we didn't even book town car transportation so will be traveling via Magical Express. It's been a while since we've done this - we'll see how this goes. Since we don't have a car or a grocery stop, we've ordered some basic supplies via Strollers & Groceries. Delivery is slated to be between 1 and 3 tomorrow.

Dining - we've booked some dinners and left other days up in the air. We know we'll be dining at California Grill, Citrico's, and Rose and Crown. We were not terribly impressed by Be Our Guest before but, just for ha-ha's I checked for reservations a couple of times - well after our 180 day mark - and, surprise, surprise, a reservation for Mother's Day evening popped up so I booked it. Hope I'm more impressed this time around. We are also scheduled to dine at Victoria & Albert's. We had booked this for our trip last December but I came down with a cold on the trip. You do NOT want to be under the weather when you dine here so we rebooked that reservation for this trip. And, yes, despite it being pricey, we sprang for the new after hours offerings at Epcot where we booked Tutto Gusto - we'll see whether or not we think this is worth the cost after we've been. Actually, Gene doesn't even really know I've booked this though he can see what we're scheduled for when he looks at My Disney Experience.

Fast Pass+ - This was in transition for most of our planning. I followed the plan wherein my fastpass+ reservations are mostly booked for afternoons. After all the planning was done, Disney announced the availability of additional fastpass+ bookings after using up your first 3 so it might have made more sense to book morning fastpass+. In any case, by that point, I was DONE and was not going to go back and change all the plans so we'll see how this all works out.

As to the heading of this report - Magic Bands+, we now have a total of 9 magic bands. Here's how it has all worked out. On our trip last December, which is the first time we had the magic bands, we customized 2 and 2 were shipped to our home prior to our arrival. When we got to Disney World, two more were presented to us at check-in (basic grey). For this trip, I customized two bands which were shipped to us. I got another notice to customize my bands. Okay, I'll play. I customized two additional bands. These arrived shortly after the first set. These are annual passholder bands and came with an additional little adornment we can slide on our bands noting our status as passholders. Then I received notice of an additional band - for some reason this one was only addressed to Gene and not to me. I did not customize this one. So band number nine was recently shipped to us. This box only had the one band for Gene only and included an additional adornment for being a vacation club owner. Why this could not be coordinated in some way, I do not know.

We are also greatly looking forward to summer like weather - it's been a very long winter here in the Northeast. This is also a favorite time of year for us to visit - especially for Epcot's Flower & Garden show. Weather forecasts for this week in Florida are mostly favorable; however rain is predicted for our last two days - Sunday and Monday of next weekend. That's still a ways out so the weather predictions may change. Still, if it rains, it rains - we'll deal!! The weather is the weather - nothing you can do to change it.

I suspect I will not sleep well tonight as I rarely do when we are about to travel. I blame that on the movie - Home Alone - you know, how everyone overslept when they were supposed to be up and going to the airport? That's always my fear - I'll sleep right past when I am supposed to get up and will miss my flight - so, consequently, I'm always waking up and checking the clock to be sure I can sleep more before it's time to get up and leave for the airport.

We really need a vacation - and now it is here!!! Excited!!

[yjgirl32]

What a lot of waste(bands). Hope they get that sorted out. Your plans sound great. Hope you have a magical trip.

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[wildernesslady]

Have a wonderful trip. The villas wilderness lodge is our home resort. I hope you enjoy it.

[KylesMom]

I've sooooo been looking forward to your return and subsequent reports, Linda. It truly has been a brutal winter, and I need to share in your Disney sunshine

[cer]

Yay! I cannot wait!

[princessgirls]

A fabulous trip awaits you Linda!

I am excited to read your reports when you return!

Enjoy!
Julie

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Love your reports, hope WLV lives up to your expectations

[DisneyBarb]

I'm so excited to be reading your reports, you write them well! It has been a long winter here in the Northeast, I'm glad you are got away! I hope you like BOG, we went for lunch in November and loved it! Onto the next report!

[hauntedmansiongirl]

I love reading your reports! Thanks so much for sharing! Weird about the magic bands!!!

[DisneyorBust]

I know that I am late in following your reports but I always enjoy reading them, so it's time for me to join in your fun.

[emerzmom]

I always love your reports! Can't wait to read all about your trip. It sounds like you have a lot of wonderful things planned.

Julie

[Tigerinvestigator]

I haven't been on Intercot as much since we moved to Georgia, but I felt like reading some trip reports today and was so excited to see you had a fairly recent report on here. My all time favorite Intercot Trip reporter!

I understand the magicband stockpile. We are annual passholders again and make at least one trip a month to WDW now that we are so close. We now have 16 magicbands including the dull gray that we keep getting at the resorts, our colorful annualpass bands, and DD9's Darth Vader limited edition band. We keep telling them we don't need them, but they keep giving them to us. Looking forward to reading the rest of the reports!

[MrPeetrie]

Faline, I love your "pre-game" report. You're building the excitement and anticipation of an impending Disney vacation very well. (It makes me even more excited for my own trip this September.) I always enjoy your posts and eagerly look forward to your reports. Thanks and enjoy.