Day 1 - Escape the rain at Epcot

Now, we had planned to go back to the room before heading to Epcot, but in all of our running and hiding, we ran to the express monorail instead of the resort monorail and certainly did not feel like running out around security to the resort loop (it is quite inconvenient how you have to exit the park to get to the resort loop). So, we rode the monorail to TTC and transferred to the Epcot monorail.

Rachel called Mom and let her know what we were doing. Apparently she was quite in a daze. She didn't even know that we were at Magic Kingdom. She figured we had gone to the pool or something. Rachel told her that she had an umbrella in her bag if she wanted to bring it. Mom asked, "Do I need it?" "Look out the window, Mom... it's pouring!" I had Rachel tell mom to bring the ADR confirmation sheet that I had laid on the table on top of my Unofficial Guide.











Lucky for us, it stopped raining just as we got off the monorail.



Rachel and I checked the queue times at that central board. We wanted to ride Soarin, and they still had FPs, but we weren't sure when Mom and Dad would get to Epcot and whether or not we'd want to FP anything with them. The queue time was only 45 minutes, which is actually pretty good for Soarin, but we didn't have that much time - our dinner reservations were in an hour.

So, we went to the Living Seas with Nemo and Friends.


Yeah, after this picture, I decided it wasn't worth wasting my battery life and memory trying to photograph this ride.







Rachel didn't want to spend much time in the aquarium. She doesn't do well in aquariums or museums. She doesn't have the attention span for that sort of stuff.

Rachel wanted to drink Cokes. (This is all she ever wants to do in Epcot ) So, we headed to Club Cool and tried out the different Cokes. I decided that the only ones I liked were the Mexican soft drink and the Ginger Ale from Mozambique. Everything else was too sweet or too bland. I am a Diet Coke drinker... I don't like a lot of sugary-taste.

After I coaxed Rachel out of Club Cool (I swear she could live in there), we went to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Normally, we sing along on this ride, but we were sitting behind an elderly couple, and I didn't want to ruin their experience with my not-quite lovely singing voice.







We had about 20 minutes until our ADR at San Angel Inn, and Rachel and I decided to cut it close by doing Mission:Space (though it only had a five minute wait). However, I forgot to factor in the 10 minutes of instructional junk, so it was 7:30 when we actually boarded the shuttle.

I think I freaked out the other people in our spaceship. As soon as we got started, I grabbed the barf bag and started muttering, "Oh no, oh no." Ahh... and then we were pushing all of the buttons, and I didn't follow the directions. I always push my buttons too late, and autopilot takes over.

We got off Mission:Space and raced over to the Mexico Pavillion. Mom and Dad were already at the check-in booth.

Day 1 - Off to the Magic Kingdom!

Mom and Dad wanted to rest, since they had gone so long without sleeping, and apparently they couldn't do it with us in the room goofing around. So, Mom told us to go exploring.

Rachel and I decided that exploring would best be done at the Magic Kingdom, so we grabbed our keys and our tickets and walked across the Skyway bridge to get to the Contemporary.


View of the Contemporary Marina from the Skyway Bridge


Grand Canyon Concourse




Ah, the Grand!!! My heart really sings when I see it.





We were excited to see Magic Kingdom all dressed up for Halloween. It's been quite a while since we've been there in the fall. Ten years, to be exact.



















Now, neither of us knew what we wanted to do. We were just happy to be in the Magic Kingdom. The attraction didn't matter. I finally suggested that we go to the Haunted Mansion, since we were veering in that direction.

Unfortunately, the Haunted Mansion was closed due to technical difficulties, so we headed over to Frontierland in hopes of a short line for Big Thunder Mountain. It was 40 minutes, but we didn't feel like waiting that long, so we went on to Pirates of the Caribbean where we walked right on.



After PoTC, we decided to walk through Fantasyland to see if maybe we could ride it's a small world or the teacups. it's a small world had a 20 minute wait, which is quite outrageous for this attraction. Fantasyland was pretty packed. We realized that most of the families here right now had young children.

So, we headed to Tomorrowland. Rachel was more upset about TTA being closed than Space Mountain (this was actually the first attraction she wanted to do upon entering the park). About now it began raining. We were going to get in line for Buzz, but the line was out the door, and we decided we should just head on to Epcot. So, we made it to Main Street. We would run a distance, then stand under the cover, then run some more. We did this about three or four times before we finally made it out of the park and to the monorail.

Day 1 - BLT Studio

The room numbers were a wee bit confusing at first... we were on the twelfth floor, yet our room number started with an 8. I found out that this is because the BLT rooms range from 7100-8599 because it is an addition to the Contemporary.








We thought it was odd that the vanity and the kitchenette were in the same "room."


Table already covered in our junk.

Now, for the view...

If you looked straight out the glass door, you saw...


But stand on the balcony and look just a little to your left, and....

A theme park view!!!




Tennis court below


Using zoom.


Using super zoom.









For us, the studio didn't work out that great. There was only one vanity with one small mirror (this room was also designed for tall people, and with the exception of my father, none of us are taller than 5'2"... I had to stand on my toes when using the vanity) and another small mirror in the living room. I didn't like how the vanity was enclosed by the kitchen... it made it very difficult to get by one another as we were preparing for the day.

Rachel and I slept on the pullout together. It was still pretty stiff. I suppose it will get a little softer as it is more used, but when I first laid down, I thought I'd be just as well off sleeping on the floor. However, when I woke up in the morning, I had gotten used to the stiff mattress (I actually prefer stiff mattresses, but this one had no bounce). I think because it was so stiff, we rolled around less in our sleep.

There was plenty of storage, though. We just lived out of our suitcases since it was only a two-night stay, but there were lots of drawers that we could unpack our belongings into if needed.

Now, I could totally see this layout working for us alright when Rachel and I were younger, but since we're old enough to be fixing our hair and make-up every morning, we had to fight over the vanity/mirror space. I think the designers focused a little too much on the appearance of the room, in turn sacrificing function. I really wish they had larger mirrors (no matter how "contemporary" the one looks), and a full-length mirror would be great. I also wish there had been two bathroom sinks in front of this larger mirror, and I would move the counter top down a good 4-6 inches. I'm only five feet tall, but the counter was only a few inches below my chest, which makes me wonder how families with small children would function.

Here's a diagram of the studio layout, courtesy of DVCNews.com



As you can see, the kitchenette and bathroom vanitiy are back-to-back, which was a little awkward.

The one-bedroom villa appears to have a better layout, though:



The two-bedroom is actually an adjoined studio/one-bedroom.

And, just for kicks, the lovely three-bedroom Grand Villa:



Ah, a stay in a Grand Villa with a Magic Kingdom view would be just magical.

Day 1 - Disney's Bay Lake Tower

Upon check-in, Dad was told that we could watch the fireworks from our balcony. This was exciting, and I wondered if we had by chance lucked out and ended up with a Magic Kingdom view.













Our room was in the north wing on the twelfth floor.


View from the window by the north wing elevators.




View from the hallway looking down onto the pool