Six nights at BLT with our two little princesses (5 and 2)

[BuffaloJason]

First day back at work after another magical week in Walt Disney World. This was trip #13 for me, going all the way back to my first visit as a child in 1981. This was our fourth visit as a family, my wife and I and our two daughters who are now 2 and 5 years old (trip report from last years visit: http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=197710). Our previous stays as a family were at the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. This time we tried a 1BR villa at Bay Lake Tower using points we rented with help from The Timeshare Store.

The villa was absolutely wonderful. It's easy for me to see why its tough for people to think about going back to a standard hotel room after experiencing DVC. We did breakfast in the room every morning which made for a much more leisurely start to the day with the two little ones, and probably saved us quite a bit of money. While I'm on that subject I should put in another plug for Intercot Sponsor Orlando Strollers and Groceries. This was our third time using their service which was excellent as always. I'm glad to report that we were able to use the lounge on top of BLT with no problem on rented points. In fact we even got the DVC member discount on our dinner at Biergarten in Epcot. I'm not sure its supposed to work that way but our reservation showed up as a DVC member reservation in the Disney system and we seemed to be eligible for all the "rights and privileges". I don't think I'd give serious consideration to buying DVC, the long term commitment is not for us, but I will definitely try renting again.

As far as BLT itself goes, I can see the criticisms that it doesn't really feel Disney themed, especially compared to a place like the Poly. For us, again especially with young kids, the location made it well worth that sacrifice. It took us 15 mins to walk from our room to bag check in front of The Magic Kingdom, including elevator time. Super, super convenient since that's where we spent most of our time. Also, to my very pleasant surprise, despite the fact that we paid for a lake view, we had a spectacular view of the Magic Kingdom, castle and all. I don't think we got upgraded per say; our primary view was of the lake. But we were on the extreme north end of the park facing side (room 8004, 10th floor). Here's a link to an iPhone panorama I made from the balcony: http://sdrv.ms/1gGxvCL
If I had paid for a theme park view, I probably would have been disappointed, since it was off to the side, but given that I didn't we were thrilled and spent several nights watch the fireworks from the patio.

Lots more to share, but I've got to go try to get some work done. To be continued...

[mickclub1955]

Sounds like the beginning of a wonderful trip. Can't wait to hear the rest.

[emerzmom]

BLT definitely has some good points! Glad you had a great vacation with your family. Looking forward to hearing more about it.
:tink:
Julie

[disneymom15]

How funny, we were in that exact room "8004"
Jan 19th thru 26th, and yes, it is a lake view room. We love BLT, its our Home resort. Glad you enjoyed your stay.

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[faline]

Perfect location for a trip with two little princesses!!

[BuffaloJason]

How funny, we were in that exact room "8004"
Jan 19th thru 26th, and yes, it is a lake view room. We love BLT, its our Home resort. Glad you enjoyed your stay.

Wow, what a coincidence! We checked in right after you on the 26th.

[BuffaloJason]

This was our first trip with the full magic band / fastpass plus / my-magic-experience-plus-fast-magic-blah-blah-blah-nextgen fully implemented. I have to say, the magic bands themselves were a great enhancement to our experience overall. It felt really good before we left for the airport to take off my watch and put on my magic band and feel like I was instantly in full-on vacation mode. The bands felt more convenient to me than the previous cards for everything from opening the room to park admission. I agree with many previous comments that the ergonomics associated with the door locks could stand to be improved, but it didn't feel like a "deal breaker" to me by any means. The only issue we had was some intermittent problems with the fingerprint reader at the entrance not recognizing my wife. I'm not sure that was magic band related really per se.

Where I thought the magic band made the maximum positive impact was with the touch to pay feature. They seemed to have worked most of the bugs out of that system relative to last year when we had RFID enabled key to the world cards that worked only occasionally. It was great not to have to reach for my wallet (almost) the whole trip, the only exception being some of the souvenir vendors like the one in Epcot France that we bought my 5 year old daughter a parasol from. They were still cash or credit card only. I'm sure this is because they are a non-Disney outside vendor, but this seems like something Disney ought to find a work around for eventually.

We also didn't have any problem at all with the rapid fill system for drinks. In fact if I didn't listen to the podcast / read the message boards, I'm not sure I would have even noticed it existed. That said, I did notice some people with the refillable mugs having problems and needing help from the cast members. Perhaps still some bugs to work out there.

A little bit more of a surprise to me was how great Fastpass+ worked out for us. For our touring style, this is a massive improvement over the old paper Fastpass system. Like many on these message boards, I wasn't thrilled with the idea of picking my attractions 60 days in advance. The surprise that made it all work so well was how flexibly we were able to make changes on the fly. In a couple of instances, the night before we changed our mind about which park we were going to the next day. Every time I was able to get on the app and trade in all our fastpasses for what we wanted at the other park. Even the day of, a couple times it became clear we were going to be near an attraction that we had a fastpass for at the right time, I got on the app and slid our time out to later in the day. Two or three times I even was able to reschedule a fastpass while the return window was open. Super, super flexible and much more conducive to vacation "spontaneity" than having to run to a paper fastpass machine first thing in the morning and then be locked into using it or losing it.

I think the key is how Disney "tunes" how many fastpasses they give out in advance, how many they save for the day of, and how many guest they push into standby lines. From my perspective, it felt like they have it pretty well optimized already. The fact that only resort guest can book in advance is probably a big part of it and I suspect day guests will have a less positive experience. Also looks like a smartphone is necessary, lines for the FP+ kiosks were long an people looked frustrated.

Also, obviously we go every year either the last week of Jan or first week of Feb because it's one of the quietest times of year crowd wise. How this works during mid-summer peak time may be a more relevant test and could be quite different, but our experience was super positive. The app is definitely buggy and crash prone and the wifi strength leaves a lot to be desired, but there was no point where that stopped me from doing what we wanted to do. I also noticed the last day of our trip, Sat 2/1 in the Magic Kingdom, crowd levels were high enough that it was starting to feel packed, hard to get tables at quick service restaurants, hard to walk down mainstreet without running into people, etc. Even at that point and with E-ticket attractions down for refurb (splash mountain), the lines weren't that bad. Nothing was a walk on (we waited 25 minutes for its a small world), but neither was anything more than an hour, even in mid-afternoon. I think their plan to spread the crowds out more may just be working.

I didn't see glow with the show ears anywhere. Are those gone already or did we just somehow miss them?

[BuffaloJason]

If anyone's interested, here's a sampling of some of our Photopass Photos:
https://mydisneyphotopass.disney.go.com/slideshow/index/view/mxpkey/135594M1391363491X8382PCosLgkjQwC

We did the Memory Maker thing this time. The new website and integration with Magic Band are great. Another really big improvement from my perspective at least.

[faline]

Good to hear some postive feedback on the fastpass+ system. Hope it works better for us on our next trip than the last though I am still not a fan of being limited to 3, having all 3 need to be in the same park, not being able to pick the 3 I want due to the tiers, and having to book 60 days in advance!! I also hope that the fastpass+ we have on our next trip actually show up for both my husband and me after our arrival. Due to glitches we experienced in December, all my husband's fastpass+ times had to be rebooked after our arrival and I could no longer see them so did not want to risk making alterations that would not change both of us and/or stand in long lines for a cast member with a tablet!!!

[BuffaloJason]

Good to hear some postive feedback on the fastpass+ system. Hope it works better for us on our next trip than the last though I am still not a fan of being limited to 3, having all 3 need to be in the same park, not being able to pick the 3 I want due to the tiers, and having to book 60 days in advance!! I also hope that the fastpass+ we have on our next trip actually show up for both my husband and me after our arrival. Due to glitches we experienced in December, all my husband's fastpass+ times had to be rebooked after our arrival and I could no longer see them so did not want to risk making alterations that would not change both of us and/or stand in long lines for a cast member with a tablet!!!

Yeah, I agree that the limit of three is pretty limiting. There weren't actually any cases where we wanted more, but that's mostly because we can't do the thrill rides with the little ones anyway. That said, obviously the more FP+'s they allow us to have, the longer the standby lines are going to be, so it has to be a delicate balance. Like I said, for late January they seemed to be balancing it really well. I'll be curious to hear what open minded visitors have to say about how it works when spring break roles around in a few weeks.

[PETE FROM NYC]

Glad you enjoyed your vacation.
DW and I own at BLT, stayed twice so far in 2010, in rm 7912, and in 2012, rm 8012, both handicapped rms. Lake view, w/ a partial MK view. We also could watch the fireworks.
We would do breakfast in the room, and also pack sandwiches and cans of soda to pack lunch in, then we could afford a decent sit down supper.
We are heading back for 13 nights in September.
Watch for our trip report then.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Love the trip reports and pics. I thought your view was wonderful, would love to have a theme park view one day:blush:

[Lindsey310]

First day back at work after another magical week in Walt Disney World. This was trip #13 for me, going all the way back to my first visit as a child in 1981. This was our fourth visit as a family, my wife and I and our two daughters who are now 2 and 5 years old (trip report from last years visit: http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=197710). Our previous stays as a family were at the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian. This time we tried a 1BR villa at Bay Lake Tower using points we rented with help from The Timeshare Store.

The villa was absolutely wonderful. It's easy for me to see why its tough for people to think about going back to a standard hotel room after experiencing DVC. We did breakfast in the room every morning which made for a much more leisurely start to the day with the two little ones, and probably saved us quite a bit of money. While I'm on that subject I should put in another plug for Intercot Sponsor Orlando Strollers and Groceries. This was our third time using their service which was excellent as always. I'm glad to report that we were able to use the lounge on top of BLT with no problem on rented points. In fact we even got the DVC member discount on our dinner at Biergarten in Epcot. I'm not sure its supposed to work that way but our reservation showed up as a DVC member reservation in the Disney system and we seemed to be eligible for all the "rights and privileges". I don't think I'd give serious consideration to buying DVC, the long term commitment is not for us, but I will definitely try renting again.

As far as BLT itself goes, I can see the criticisms that it doesn't really feel Disney themed, especially compared to a place like the Poly. For us, again especially with young kids, the location made it well worth that sacrifice. It took us 15 mins to walk from our room to bag check in front of The Magic Kingdom, including elevator time. Super, super convenient since that's where we spent most of our time. Also, to my very pleasant surprise, despite the fact that we paid for a lake view, we had a spectacular view of the Magic Kingdom, castle and all. I don't think we got upgraded per say; our primary view was of the lake. But we were on the extreme north end of the park facing side (room 8004, 10th floor). Here's a link to an iPhone panorama I made from the balcony: http://sdrv.ms/1gGxvCL
If I had paid for a theme park view, I probably would have been disappointed, since it was off to the side, but given that I didn't we were thrilled and spent several nights watch the fireworks from the patio.

Lots more to share, but I've got to go try to get some work done. To be continued...

Looking forward to your trip report! Question for you: did the timeshare store give you a hard time when renting points? How did you inquire about it and how far in advance did you book? Only reason I asked is bc I inquired about renting by first emailing (no answer) and second by calling and the guy that I talked to was kind of rude, asking my how I knew they rented points bc they don't advertise and they are more of a resale place vs a broker. He also said people usually call about 3 months before??? Sorry but I like to book my vacation at least 6 months out. :mickey:


3 days til I'm back at AKL!!!!' :cloud9:

[BuffaloJason]

Looking forward to your trip report! Question for you: did the timeshare store give you a hard time when renting points? How did you inquire about it and how far in advance did you book? Only reason I asked is bc I inquired about renting by first emailing (no answer) and second by calling and the guy that I talked to was kind of rude, asking my how I knew they rented points bc they don't advertise and they are more of a resale place vs a broker. He also said people usually call about 3 months before??? Sorry but I like to book my vacation at least 6 months out. :mickey:


3 days til I'm back at AKL!!!!' :cloud9:

Hi Lindsey,
I have to say my experience with The Timeshare Store was quite a bit more positive than that. I sent an inquiry through their website back in June, so I was more than a full 6 moths out. I got a same day reply from one of their agents named Scot Decker. I wouldn't say that he went out of his way to be overly friendly, but he was extremely responsive and professional and definitely didn't make me feel like I was asking for something they don't do. They do actually have a webpage about their point rental service. I'm not sure how to find it from their main homepage, but I think it's OK to give you a direct link here:
http://www.dvconly.com/

Anyway, maybe call back and ask for Scot or email him direct at [email protected]. That's what I would plan to do for us next time.
Jason

[BuffaloJason]

So Moving on to more of the "meat" of our trip... We used the Magical Express from MCO and arrived at the Contemporary resort around 1130a. I had done the online check-in from home but the person at the check in desk offered to move us to a room that was ready for us right away. That sounded great, but caused some kind of major problem with her computer system and I ended up spending more than half an hour at the front desk before getting the OK to head over to our room. Only a minor hiccup in the overall scheme of things but it was kind of frustrating at the time. Fortunately, all the CMs we encountered were very friendly and apologetic and both daughters were covered from head to toe in free Mickey stickers by the time we got to the room so that cushioned the blow.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Contempo Cafe and carried it back to our Villa. The food from Contempo Cafe was surprisingly good. I'm going to borrow denygold's rating system and say the Grilled Mahi Sandwich and Green Bean Salad were both A-, atmosphere is a solid B+ by counter service standards. Tables are pretty spread out and the monorail going by is fun to watch. Unfortunately, the only disappointment was the kids cheese pizza (D) which looked like frozen microwave stuff. Even my pizza fiend 2 year old wouldn't eat it. Oh well...

Off the the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. Loved the short 15 min walk. Weather was decent and crowds weren't too bad. We stopped at Castle Couture to have pixie dust put in my 5 year olds hair, which she got a big kick out of and yay, something free at WDW! Then our family traditional first ride on "It's a Small World" which all four of us really, really love. We also did the Carousel, Voyage of the Little Mermaid (with a FP+), Dumbo. I'm still amazed at what a great job WDI did with the new queue at Dumbo. Waiting for Dumbo not only now takes half as long as it used to but it's infinitely more pleasant. Not a bit of whining out of either kid :)

We then stopped to see Cinderella and Aurora at Princess Fairytale Hall (with FP+), which was new for us this trip. Not an E-ticket by any means but very nicely done and a definite improvement to standing in line outside to meet them.

We headed back to Contemporary for a 530 reservation at Chef Mickeys, which is another annual tradition for us. We had a great experience there as always. Character experience, A+, Atmosphere, B- (man, it's loud in there). I have to say the food exceeded my memory from a quality standpoint and I'll give it a solid B. It's run of the mill buffet fare, but pretty well done. I'm not sure if Disney is making improvements or my standards have somehow been lowered but I felt more satisfied than I have been in a long time with the food this trip.

Overall, on a personal note, I found myself really being able to relax and enjoy the trip more this time than the last couple. Travelling with little kids is so much different than our pre-kids trips from the perspective of which and how many attractions you can do and how many hours is reasonable/advisable to try to spend in the parks. A least for me, moderating your expectations is such a key to enjoying your trip. Ex: I love riding haunted mansion, haven't got to do it since 2003. So what... we'll get back to it again at some point and it'll be that much more special. I don't know at least that's working for me at this point. A couple trips ago I was really frustrated at "how little we were doing". Age has made it easier to enjoy going with the flow I guess.

So we tucked the kids in early Monday night (they got a big kick out of the fold out beds in the villa's living room) after a long day of travel and my wife and I watched the fireworks from our balcony. Tomorrow, Epcot...