Friday, October 9, 2009

Day 1 - Checking into Disney's Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary

Okay, so after riding Expedition Everest, we headed out of the park and drove to the Contemporary.











Bay Lake Tower is the newest Disney Vacation Club addition. It had actually opened just two weeks before our arrival. It is the first DVC resort with monorail access and has been highly anticipated.

We ended up here by luck. Our dad thought he was booking the Contemporary Tower, but realized that he had actually booked at the Contemporary's Bay Lake Tower. However, we were just as (if not more) excited by this.







Bay Lake Tower does not have its own "front desk." All BLT guests check-in at the Contemporary. Check-in was a bit confusing due to construction on the Contemporary's entrance. We had to go through the convention center to get to the front desk.






Kids can watch movies while their parents check-in

Day 1 - Expedition Everest (again!)

After Dinosaur, we headed back to Expedition Everest to use our FastPasses.






You can kind of see the Yeti... I haven't exactly learned how to time my camera just right for this photo, yet. Lack of flash and weird lighting makes it difficult.

Day 1 - Dinoland USA

After Festival of the Lion King, we headed over to Dinoland USA to ride Primeval Whirl. The stand-by wait was only 20 minutes, I believe. However, the queue was very hot, and our lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with us.


I amused myself in line by taking photos of myself in the mirror.



Primeval Whirl is your basic Cat-and-Mouse rollercoaster, except the cars spin. This part of Dinoland - Chester and Hester's DinoRAMA, was actually designed to look tacky. A lot of Disney-lovers do not appreciate the tacky design and believe that it conflicts with the rest of Animal Kingdom. I kind of like it, actually.

When loading, the CM stepped on Rachel's foot, and she let out an angry, "OWWWW!"



After Primeval Whirl, we had to escape the heat, so we went over to DINOSAUR with the nice, air-conditioned queue. Unfortunately, the queue was out the door, but at least we got to wait in the shade under fans for the most part. Still, I was sweating. It was miserably hot. However, once we got inside, the air-conditioning felt really good.