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

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.