Plex
04-21-2010, 06:29 PM
Cast: Paul (that'd be me)
Lauryn (lettrip/my fiancee)
Dates: 4/11 through 4/18
Resort: Beach Club
Prologue:
We actually started out our trip by flying into Tampa and visiting with Lauryn's grandmother for a couple of days. We arrived late on Friday night and rented a convertible for the drive, which I'd definitely recommend :cool: She lives in Spring Hill, which is about an hour north of Tampa. We definitely had a good, relaxing time. Did some kayaking, lounging around, went out to dinner, sight seeing, etc. This was a valuable lesson learned as well - sunscreen is essential! We both got some nasty burns while out kayaking, which lead to an adventure to get aloe. Instead of doing the sensible thing and going to a store and buying some, we cut a few stems off of a plant growing in the garden and squeezed it onto the burns. This actually seemed to work even better than the stuff you can buy in a pharmacy! Anyhoo, We stayed until around noon on Sunday.
Day 1
We took a sort of back way to get to WDW from Spring Hill (rt 50 I think?), which lead to a detour that went onto roads that were even further off the beaten path. It was definitely a nice drive, though!
When we arrived at WDW we dropped off our things at the Beach Club and checked in. We tried asking for a 'complimentary upgrade', which would have worked, however we were told that the room we were getting was already better than what we'd get from am upgrade! We grabbed our Celebration pins for our Engagement, and I headed out to drop off the rental car, which was an adventure on it's own. Apparently there's no sign, building, or any other indication of where exactly to drop off a rental car at the Swan & Dolphin. For future reference for you guys that haven't ever done it, you leave it with the guys at the front desk at the Dolphin!
Once I made my way back to the Beach Club we headed over to MK. Touring Plans had crowd levels predicted at a 9, so we were bracing for absurd crowds. Not the case! We headed over to Adventure Land after some photos with the castle and discovered that we could WALK ON at Pirates! We proceeded to grab FastPasses for Splash Mountain and hit the standby line for Thunder Mountain - which had a standby line of about 20 minutes or so! We spent most of our time at Frontier Land and Adventure Land before dinner, hitting just about every attraction there with little to no wait.
Once our FastPass times came up for Splash, we headed up the line. I had my most unusual WDW sighting ever - 2 Catholic nuns waiting in the standby line. Not exactly what I expected to see there! Once we got on the ride I got a second new experience - getting stuck on the ride! Not only were we stuck, we got stopped right before the Laughing Place drop off, right next to the speaker with the really high-pitched singing. For about 20 minutes. However, Disney made up for it by taking us out through the back door so we got to see the back stage area where the parade floats are stored, and Fast Passes for any ride. (that's Free Pass #1 for those that are counting! :mickey:
We headed out of the park around 8:15 to head out to our ADR at California Grill. We discovered when we arrived (after some confusion as to how exactly to get there once we were int eh Contemporary!) that they had seated us in the Wine Room! (This wasn't going to be the last perk we got for celebrating our engagement either!!!) If you're not familiar, the Wine Room is a closed off area in the corner of the restaurant. We ate dinner with a view of Illuminations off in the distance! We both had phenomenal meals and headed out to the balcony for a bird's eye view of Wishes before dessert.
After absolutely stuffing ourselves, we headed back to MK for the rest of the evening. We hit the Mountains once again and eventually made our way back to the Beach Club at around 1:30am.
We arrived to a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in our room with a card congratulating us on our engagement!
Overall, a very successful first day. This was really a great start to the vacation, and really set the tone and pace for the whole trip.
Lauryn (lettrip/my fiancee)
Dates: 4/11 through 4/18
Resort: Beach Club
Prologue:
We actually started out our trip by flying into Tampa and visiting with Lauryn's grandmother for a couple of days. We arrived late on Friday night and rented a convertible for the drive, which I'd definitely recommend :cool: She lives in Spring Hill, which is about an hour north of Tampa. We definitely had a good, relaxing time. Did some kayaking, lounging around, went out to dinner, sight seeing, etc. This was a valuable lesson learned as well - sunscreen is essential! We both got some nasty burns while out kayaking, which lead to an adventure to get aloe. Instead of doing the sensible thing and going to a store and buying some, we cut a few stems off of a plant growing in the garden and squeezed it onto the burns. This actually seemed to work even better than the stuff you can buy in a pharmacy! Anyhoo, We stayed until around noon on Sunday.
Day 1
We took a sort of back way to get to WDW from Spring Hill (rt 50 I think?), which lead to a detour that went onto roads that were even further off the beaten path. It was definitely a nice drive, though!
When we arrived at WDW we dropped off our things at the Beach Club and checked in. We tried asking for a 'complimentary upgrade', which would have worked, however we were told that the room we were getting was already better than what we'd get from am upgrade! We grabbed our Celebration pins for our Engagement, and I headed out to drop off the rental car, which was an adventure on it's own. Apparently there's no sign, building, or any other indication of where exactly to drop off a rental car at the Swan & Dolphin. For future reference for you guys that haven't ever done it, you leave it with the guys at the front desk at the Dolphin!
Once I made my way back to the Beach Club we headed over to MK. Touring Plans had crowd levels predicted at a 9, so we were bracing for absurd crowds. Not the case! We headed over to Adventure Land after some photos with the castle and discovered that we could WALK ON at Pirates! We proceeded to grab FastPasses for Splash Mountain and hit the standby line for Thunder Mountain - which had a standby line of about 20 minutes or so! We spent most of our time at Frontier Land and Adventure Land before dinner, hitting just about every attraction there with little to no wait.
Once our FastPass times came up for Splash, we headed up the line. I had my most unusual WDW sighting ever - 2 Catholic nuns waiting in the standby line. Not exactly what I expected to see there! Once we got on the ride I got a second new experience - getting stuck on the ride! Not only were we stuck, we got stopped right before the Laughing Place drop off, right next to the speaker with the really high-pitched singing. For about 20 minutes. However, Disney made up for it by taking us out through the back door so we got to see the back stage area where the parade floats are stored, and Fast Passes for any ride. (that's Free Pass #1 for those that are counting! :mickey:
We headed out of the park around 8:15 to head out to our ADR at California Grill. We discovered when we arrived (after some confusion as to how exactly to get there once we were int eh Contemporary!) that they had seated us in the Wine Room! (This wasn't going to be the last perk we got for celebrating our engagement either!!!) If you're not familiar, the Wine Room is a closed off area in the corner of the restaurant. We ate dinner with a view of Illuminations off in the distance! We both had phenomenal meals and headed out to the balcony for a bird's eye view of Wishes before dessert.
After absolutely stuffing ourselves, we headed back to MK for the rest of the evening. We hit the Mountains once again and eventually made our way back to the Beach Club at around 1:30am.
We arrived to a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in our room with a card congratulating us on our engagement!
Overall, a very successful first day. This was really a great start to the vacation, and really set the tone and pace for the whole trip.