Ian
06-02-2011, 10:18 AM
Saturday, May 21st continued:
DD9 already knew this because I had accidentally let it slip the day before, but my Mom (her Grandmom) was joining us on this vacation. It was kinda supposed to be a surprise, but I blew it. :blush:
Anyway, she was flying in Saturday morning and had already texted me that she'd landed at MCO and was on her way via Magical Express over to BW to check in. We agreed to meet at Epcot, so we also headed over to the Boardwalk to check-in. I was pretty happy, because Bell Services at AKV agreed to move our bags over to BWV for us. I know other people have done this many times, but the couple times I've asked previously I was always told it couldn't be done.
We arrived at BWV around 10AM or so and waited in line a tad longer than I would have liked. I'm not sure why, but I often have the experience of waiting in line in Disney World while staring at two, three, four, and five CM's all hovering over a computer, staring at a screen, instead of actually helping guests. I try not to let it bother me, but it does. To me, guests come first. Whatever idiocy you're dealing with on the computer can wait.
Anyway, the wait actually ended up not being too bad and Doris, the CM who checked us in, was very friendly. Naturally at this early hour our room wasn't ready yet, so she took my cell number for a text message later and we headed off to Epcot.
If you've never stayed at one of the Epcot area resorts, let me just tell you that you're missing out. Being able to stroll over to Epcot in a matter of minutes is just fantastic and I love the ability to come and go via International Gateway. Great benefit of staying there for sure.
Grandmom/Mom met us on the bridge between UK and France and I decided on the spur of the moment that I wanted to go see Impressions De France. Mel had been gushing about how good the remastered film looked and sounded, so it seemed like a good time to check it out again. She's right ... it looks awesome! Very beautiful and perhaps a new must-do for me on future trips.
We moved on and browsed around in Morocco for awhile. The kids wanted to color Duffys (the new version of what used to be the WS masks), so they sat in Morocco coloring for awhile while I wandered around, shopped, and took some pics. I have to say, that the little cutbacks here and there are really starting to mount up for me. One of the cool things they used to do in WS when they had the masks for kids was in each country they'd attach a little cutout symbol that was appropriate for the country you were in ... maybe a gondola for Italy, a panda for China, etc. Now they don't do that ... they've cut back to just stamping the handle (which they used to do, too). Kind of a bummer and not the only time I noticed little touches that had gone the way of the dodo.
After we finished in Morocco we headed up to America, colored Duffy a bit more, and then saw American Adventure. I was texting with Cara Goldsbury, of Luxury Guide to Walt Disney World fame, trying to meet up with her but we just missed each other. She left Epcot right after we went in to see AA.
After the show, we grabbed some food in the American quick serve place and then the kids decided they wanted to do the Kim Possible thing. Ours turned out to be in Japan, which was pretty cool. We had to restore nature to Japan by returning balance to the four elements of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. If you've never done a Kim Possible, they're really a lot of fun and very inventive. The Imagineers did a cool job integrating the game with elements of each of the pavilions.
Right around now I got a text that room 5051 in the Boardwalk Villas was ready for us to move in, so we started back to the resort. Mom's room wasn't ready yet, so she opted to hang in the park for a bit longer. The walk back was H-O-T hot and the kids were begging to go swimming, so once we got settled and our bags were delivered Dad agreed to take them down to the pool for a bit. Before that, though, we checked out the room that would be our home for the next 10 days and really liked what we saw. We had a great view of the Boardwalk area and could immediately tell we'd be able to see a good bit of IllumiNations from our balcony. The room was definitely a bit older looking and not nearly as modern as the one at AKV, but it was still in pretty good shape and more than adequate for our needs.
After what turned out to be a very refreshing dip in the Boardwalk pool (which is really nice, btw), we cleaned up and got ready for our dinner ADR's at Via Napoli. We'd never eaten there before but had heard good things from friends, so were pretty excited to try it out.
I have to say first impressions were a bit disappointing. I guess because we had so many kids, they sat us in quite literally the worst table in the place. It was over on this glassed in terrace they have along the side, all the way in the very back, next to a drink station of all things. It was also HOT. I actually had to ask our server to turn on the AC it was so uncomfortable, but they did and it actually cooled down pretty quickly.
I decided to order an appetizer of fried risotto and boy was I glad I did. It was delicious!! We all ordered pizza for dinner and let me tell you ... My Mom, who had just recently been in Italy and declared American pizza "ruined" for her, actuallyk raved about the pizza at Via Napoli. In fact, she declared it almost as good as the real thing! I'd have to agree ... Natalie (BrerNat) referred to it as the best pizza she'd ever had and, while it might sound like hyperbole, I think I'd have to agree. It was out of this world!
Dessert was also great. I had the Zeppole Di Catarina , which are these little fried balls of ricotta cheese that you dip in melted chocolate and whipped cream. They were delicious! DW and the kids had gelatto, which also drew raves. Overall a great meal and one we would choose to repeat later in the trip.
We walked around the rest of WS and checked the line for Maelstrom. It said 10 minutes, but was actually a bit longer than that. In addition, the queue had more than a few folks who had clearly attempted drinking around the world showcase (aka drunks!) who were pretty loud and obnoxious. I have to say that that's one aspect of WS (especially on weekends) that annoys me. When I'm trying to have a family vacation, I don't really need loud, obnoxious, visibly intoxicated people disturbing me. Wish Disney would police that a little better.
After we finished Maelstrom (and did the required browsing in the Helly Hansen store) we staked out a spot on the bridge and watched IllumiNations. I decided to torment my friend Emily with some text messages including audio snippets of the show. She was actually supposed to join us for this trip, but work committments derailed her plans. She was very appreciative of my efforts to try and include her in our vacation lol. ;)
After RoE ended, we walked back to the Boardwalk and sat out on the balcony for a bit just soaking in the atmosphere. Around 10PM we discovered something else kinda cool about our view ... we had quite a good view of Wishes! The kids and I sat and watched the fireworks for awhile before turning in for the night.
Stay tuned for day three!
DD9 already knew this because I had accidentally let it slip the day before, but my Mom (her Grandmom) was joining us on this vacation. It was kinda supposed to be a surprise, but I blew it. :blush:
Anyway, she was flying in Saturday morning and had already texted me that she'd landed at MCO and was on her way via Magical Express over to BW to check in. We agreed to meet at Epcot, so we also headed over to the Boardwalk to check-in. I was pretty happy, because Bell Services at AKV agreed to move our bags over to BWV for us. I know other people have done this many times, but the couple times I've asked previously I was always told it couldn't be done.
We arrived at BWV around 10AM or so and waited in line a tad longer than I would have liked. I'm not sure why, but I often have the experience of waiting in line in Disney World while staring at two, three, four, and five CM's all hovering over a computer, staring at a screen, instead of actually helping guests. I try not to let it bother me, but it does. To me, guests come first. Whatever idiocy you're dealing with on the computer can wait.
Anyway, the wait actually ended up not being too bad and Doris, the CM who checked us in, was very friendly. Naturally at this early hour our room wasn't ready yet, so she took my cell number for a text message later and we headed off to Epcot.
If you've never stayed at one of the Epcot area resorts, let me just tell you that you're missing out. Being able to stroll over to Epcot in a matter of minutes is just fantastic and I love the ability to come and go via International Gateway. Great benefit of staying there for sure.
Grandmom/Mom met us on the bridge between UK and France and I decided on the spur of the moment that I wanted to go see Impressions De France. Mel had been gushing about how good the remastered film looked and sounded, so it seemed like a good time to check it out again. She's right ... it looks awesome! Very beautiful and perhaps a new must-do for me on future trips.
We moved on and browsed around in Morocco for awhile. The kids wanted to color Duffys (the new version of what used to be the WS masks), so they sat in Morocco coloring for awhile while I wandered around, shopped, and took some pics. I have to say, that the little cutbacks here and there are really starting to mount up for me. One of the cool things they used to do in WS when they had the masks for kids was in each country they'd attach a little cutout symbol that was appropriate for the country you were in ... maybe a gondola for Italy, a panda for China, etc. Now they don't do that ... they've cut back to just stamping the handle (which they used to do, too). Kind of a bummer and not the only time I noticed little touches that had gone the way of the dodo.
After we finished in Morocco we headed up to America, colored Duffy a bit more, and then saw American Adventure. I was texting with Cara Goldsbury, of Luxury Guide to Walt Disney World fame, trying to meet up with her but we just missed each other. She left Epcot right after we went in to see AA.
After the show, we grabbed some food in the American quick serve place and then the kids decided they wanted to do the Kim Possible thing. Ours turned out to be in Japan, which was pretty cool. We had to restore nature to Japan by returning balance to the four elements of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. If you've never done a Kim Possible, they're really a lot of fun and very inventive. The Imagineers did a cool job integrating the game with elements of each of the pavilions.
Right around now I got a text that room 5051 in the Boardwalk Villas was ready for us to move in, so we started back to the resort. Mom's room wasn't ready yet, so she opted to hang in the park for a bit longer. The walk back was H-O-T hot and the kids were begging to go swimming, so once we got settled and our bags were delivered Dad agreed to take them down to the pool for a bit. Before that, though, we checked out the room that would be our home for the next 10 days and really liked what we saw. We had a great view of the Boardwalk area and could immediately tell we'd be able to see a good bit of IllumiNations from our balcony. The room was definitely a bit older looking and not nearly as modern as the one at AKV, but it was still in pretty good shape and more than adequate for our needs.
After what turned out to be a very refreshing dip in the Boardwalk pool (which is really nice, btw), we cleaned up and got ready for our dinner ADR's at Via Napoli. We'd never eaten there before but had heard good things from friends, so were pretty excited to try it out.
I have to say first impressions were a bit disappointing. I guess because we had so many kids, they sat us in quite literally the worst table in the place. It was over on this glassed in terrace they have along the side, all the way in the very back, next to a drink station of all things. It was also HOT. I actually had to ask our server to turn on the AC it was so uncomfortable, but they did and it actually cooled down pretty quickly.
I decided to order an appetizer of fried risotto and boy was I glad I did. It was delicious!! We all ordered pizza for dinner and let me tell you ... My Mom, who had just recently been in Italy and declared American pizza "ruined" for her, actuallyk raved about the pizza at Via Napoli. In fact, she declared it almost as good as the real thing! I'd have to agree ... Natalie (BrerNat) referred to it as the best pizza she'd ever had and, while it might sound like hyperbole, I think I'd have to agree. It was out of this world!
Dessert was also great. I had the Zeppole Di Catarina , which are these little fried balls of ricotta cheese that you dip in melted chocolate and whipped cream. They were delicious! DW and the kids had gelatto, which also drew raves. Overall a great meal and one we would choose to repeat later in the trip.
We walked around the rest of WS and checked the line for Maelstrom. It said 10 minutes, but was actually a bit longer than that. In addition, the queue had more than a few folks who had clearly attempted drinking around the world showcase (aka drunks!) who were pretty loud and obnoxious. I have to say that that's one aspect of WS (especially on weekends) that annoys me. When I'm trying to have a family vacation, I don't really need loud, obnoxious, visibly intoxicated people disturbing me. Wish Disney would police that a little better.
After we finished Maelstrom (and did the required browsing in the Helly Hansen store) we staked out a spot on the bridge and watched IllumiNations. I decided to torment my friend Emily with some text messages including audio snippets of the show. She was actually supposed to join us for this trip, but work committments derailed her plans. She was very appreciative of my efforts to try and include her in our vacation lol. ;)
After RoE ended, we walked back to the Boardwalk and sat out on the balcony for a bit just soaking in the atmosphere. Around 10PM we discovered something else kinda cool about our view ... we had quite a good view of Wishes! The kids and I sat and watched the fireworks for awhile before turning in for the night.
Stay tuned for day three!