-
Registered User
Dawson Family-Beach Club March 6-12, 2011
Just back from the Beach Club and wanted to do and short TR!
Sat. March 5-Sunday March 6
I added these days together as we started our drive from NY Saturday at 6am. It was uneventful (thankfully) and we checked in our hotel in Jacksonville 930pm. We always do the Crowne Point on Duvall Rd. for those of you that may drive I95 as well. It is a clean and wonderful rest stop with a cofee shop and full service restaurant.
Sunday 9am we hit the road and landed at The Beach Club around 1130. Our room was not ready so we left the luggage and ran like heck over to Epcot. The feeling you get when you first arrive and hear the music is one of the best feelings there is. I was so happy to be there. 
We ate lunch in Germany immediately as we were starved and I found the selections to have changed. No more Black Forest Cake nor Potato Leek Soup (my favorite). They also cut back on showtimes in afternoon so we missed the show this day.
After filling up we did Nemo and The Land (walk ons) and headed to Mexico and rode the boat ride. After seeing Mexico inside I decided it was best we did not dine there as the tables were closer together than I remembered. At 330 our room was ready to so went over and unpacked. I had a 5pm for Coral Reef and DH was not hungry because he overate at lunch but I had to go as I was looking forward for months. We were seated n the first level in a booth directly center facing the tank. AWESOME! We had the best server and the food....well 
. I had the Mushroom Phyllo Crisp. It was ok. The sause was Ragu tasting. DD had the Scallops and they were ok and the sauce tasted like Cambells Soup-mind you a 15 year old said this. DH had the appetizers of Crab Cakes and Mussels. He said they were ok but he only got 2 cakes and said it was not enough for the money they charge. Oh and the bread they serve I thought was awful..Sorry Coral Reef fans. But hey what a view!
After eating we rode the monorail over to MK.
Next up MK EMH!
-
03-15-2011 06:46 AM
# ADS
-
Registered User
Last edited by dawz1026; 03-15-2011 at 05:20 PM.
Kathy
-
Registered User
Monday March 7
We started off with our ADR at Cape May Cafe. It was for 8am. We were seated in the back section next to the back door area.The place was packed but we had wonderful character interaction. Goofy signed DD's Goofy hat with a "Gwarsh Love Goofy" it was awesome. Food was great..short on Mickey waffles though. They went like hotcakes lol (ok that was dumb)
We headed to the boat at Epcot to head over or DHS. They were actually waiting when we got there which is always a pleasure. When we arrived we split up so we could sign up for Jedi Training and get FP for Toy Story Mania..both a success. We were not able to cover Indiana Jones or Stunt Spectacular on this day as they both ran at the same time as our lunch ressie and FP time.We knew we would be back. We made rounds on Great Movie Ride and Walt Disneys Every Mans Dream..did not catch the movie as DS was not interested. I never saw this attraction before as it was always closed.I loved it though! Very cool seeing how it came together.
Mama Melrose was lunch...incredible lunch at that! I had goat cheese ravioli with calamari sans onion and pepper.This was the only item I said it was just good not great. NY serves it up more crunchy. Anyway the Ravioli was great and DH had clams and the Spaghetti Vongole which was insane! IMO..of course.DD opted for a flatbread thinking it was a panini...don't ask.She is on honor roll some how.. lol oh and the warm bread with oil....yummmmmm!
After eating as much as we possibly could lol
no exagerration..we were off to TSM! I love this ride. And shockingly enough DS rode with DD and I got to get my butt kickedin points by DH. Fun! There were no FP left so we had about 10 minutes before Jedi Training and I wanted to get coffee at the Writers Shop as I never did before and the line..oh the line..it was very long so once again no coffee.
Jedi Training-This was the high point of our trip. DS had recently began watching Star Wars.He really got into it quick and it is a big deal that he do this attraction. I was nervous as I have never seen what happens here and he was so scared on some rides this trip that I thought he would run and hide. Well to my surprise when Darth Vader came out he had a look of anger in his little face and he went up there and kicked butt lol. How entertaining and comical the Jedi Master was..an awesome experience!
It was now 530 and we decided to walk around and catch a street show and shop a bit. We headed out around 6is talking of how much we missed and needed to come back..
Coming up...PM at Epcot
-
Registered User
Monday Night -Epcot
After having to cancel LeCellier due to timing with Jedi Training we took our time changing and preparing for the vening at Epcot..warmer clothes.Very comfy it is going prepared. When we got to the gateway I actually recognized many of the cast members working that night. I thought to myself wow-I am a regular now lol . After a few jokes at the entrance we made our way past Mary Poppins..whom DS had no interest in seeing wahtsoever as he said she was for girls lol..so we wandered down to find some dinner and ended up trying LeCellier and La Hacienda both with no luck as they were booked solid.We ended up at The Cantina for tacos and nachos.We sat outside overlooking the lake. We could have stayed for fireworks here but DH said we were there all week and we needed to get moving and walk around. We went to test track and it was an 80 minute wait and I decided to walk through Mousegears then grab cofee and a spot to catch the rest of illuminations. DD was wearing a Rangers hockey jersey which brought some New Yorkers over to say hi..so nice meeting neighbors at the World!
I decided to head back to the resort with DS as I had to do some work and he was exhausted. DD and DH made their way to the Boardwalk and arcade..zzz good night.
Tuesday...Animal Kingdom
-
Registered User
-
Registered User
Tuesday Night-Epcot
Out of breath after running to make my 610 ADR. DD went into kidcot as my DS was acting out and I needed to breath. She must have saw the look in my eye and took him quickly away..DH was far behind stopping at the resort room before coming. He finally arrived and not with a minute to spare.We were seated against a wall that had a booth seat against the wall and 2 chairs facing the wall. It was perfect as ds sat in a corner so he would be safe from the urge of harrassing any fellow diners. Once again dd wore a NY Ranger shirt which found us another neighbor at the table beside us..
This gave me the opportunity to kind of glaze over at their appetizers 
. I noticed the cheese soup and knew right away not to do it to my belly lol..So I ordered the lobster salad and it was quite good.DD had it as well and dh had a cesar..he said it was fine. I had the signature filet. It was good but soo salty.DD had salmon and loved it and dh had a steak..not sure which but he was a bit ill after. If it was the meal or he just generally didn't feel well I don't know but it came on as soon as he ate it. No dessert here as we were full and it was getting late. On to some rides! We hit Spaceship Earth and good some good pics and were finally able to email them home..lol too funny.We also hot Test Track by riding single rider..yeah baby walk on! Then we finished up Future World and proceed to walk around a few countries until it was time for Illuminations..my memory is going blank as to where we watched lol..after the show I was exhausted and had work to do so I took ds to bed and dd and dh..hot the boardwalk..
Wed. Clearwater Beach/Boardwalk
-
Registered User
Wed. Clearwater Beach and Boardwalk
This day we decided to do the beach and since dh grew up going to Clearwater and visiting his Grandparents for years we thought a break at the beach would be nice. WELLLL. Little did we know that Clearwater was now a pretty popular spring break destination. We found a spot on the sand that looked calm so we plopped down and dh took ds to the water to play while dd and myself got to watch the antics. Fights,drugs,people passing out and getting carried away..yep..time to go.
We went to Sand Key and decided maybe a nice lunch on the water and some ice cream would be great.And it was! It was already getting close to 5pm so we thought if we drove back we would do DTD. As we started getting closer the rain started so we went back to our room for a bit and then when it stopped we walked on the Boardwalk for pizza and rested. I decided to go back early as the next day was EMH at MK.
Dh and dd went to ESPN for the Ranger game and later we all had a good sleep.
Thursday-EMH MK.....or not?
-
Registered User
-
Nice little trip report, waiting for the exciting conclusion...
-
Registered User
Thursday-MK
The clock was set for 645 and when it went off I could hear the rain pouring down...back to bed and no EMH at MK
We woke around 8 and had breakfast at the Marketplace. As soon as the doors opened in the hall I could feel the arctic breeze (ok it wasn't THAT cold) blowing in and knew we would lose a bit oif the day. After eating we drove to DTD and did some shopping. oops I forgot I did check out Coronado first..it was ok IMO. While at DTD the sun was peeking through and warming up and I said lets go...we drove and we parked at the Poly and took the monorail over to MK. This was great as we had a 5pm at Ohana so great! We were able to all get on Space Mountain with no wait. I have not rode this in about 5 years and lets just say Mommy will not be riding it again. It is a bit too good for this gal lol....my bad back was really mad at me for a while. We got on pretty much everything without waits. It was time for dinner so we monorailed on over Ohana and had the first seating. I love this place but I did enjoy it more the last trip because we were seated against a wall in the back and had more privacy from the show. This time we had a MK view but it was sooo loud and crowded with the show around us and with parents taking pics that it was hard to enjoy OUR meal. Food awesome as ever!!! I did not like the noodles but all else yummy. We headed back over to MK and man do I love MK at night! There is nothing like riding Big Thunder when the fireworks are going off..so cool! We watched the electrical parade from my favorite spot in front of the General Store next to Pecos Bill cause you can snack and sit and relax there and get great pics too! After the parade we wandered on more rides and tried to stretch the night as much as we could..off to Poly for car around 1130...
-
Registered User
Friday-DHS
Later wake up as we were pretty tired..Marketplace for breakfast (so convenient) and off to the Epcot boat dock to take the boat to DHS. Love the boat!!! What a relaxing method of transportation. We got to the studios around 1030 and saw there were no FP for TSM so we went over to Muppet Vision 3d and then we hit the Stunt Show. Our love for Mama Melrose drew us back for yet another awesome feast for lunch..We finished about 2ish and walked over to Voyage of the little Mermaid. I had never done this attraction so I was so excited. It was very nice. I really wanted to see Caspian but I could not remember why we hadn't..We then caught a street show and did some shops. I chickened out on TOT and FP were gone for RNR.My dd was not thrilled..we decided to make our way to Epcot as it really was the last night. We got on the boat and got off at SW/Dolphin and walked the Boardwalk on over. What a beautiful place! When we got there we started out on Paris side and made our way around the countries and shops. Boulangerie was PACKED dh was not in the mood to wait so again we missed out.. We ended up at Germany and we were hungry. Originally we planned Tutto for dinner but after Mama Melrose at lunch we could't do more Italian so Germany was it. DS had a blast during the show..it was a good choice. The herb dressing is soooo yummy. After pigging out we walked some more and dd and I rode TT single rider line yeah! We shopped in Mousegears and walked around and basically felt sad it was coming to an end..We headed out and talked about next time..
-
Registered User
Saturday-DTD and departure
A sad final day. We had breakfast at the Marketplace one final time before checking out. What a horrible feeling knowing the trip is coming to an end. We ate and checked out and headed to DTD. We went shopping and I bought an awesome sweatshirt in TREND D. I love that store. DH got a hat and dd a wallet. I usually buy a frame and am kind of mad I did not get it..DS bought all the Star Wars Toys they had pretty much and we then went over to the Rain Forest Cafe for lunch. I regre this decision. I really wanted Fultons or Raglan or even Earl of Sandwich ughhh. When all was said and done we headed out about 230 for a long ride back to NY.
Thoughts,regrets and pleasing moments:
I found out on this trip that it was time to make changes next time around. For one we need to try a new resort. We love the Beach Club and are not sick of it but we always regret not at least trying somewhere new.
ADR'S-I really made too many and did not coordinate them well at all...next time serious time will be saved and it will not be overdone.
Also I am glad I did not do Dining Plan after talking to Cast Members about it.
I am glad I did not overshop...I was able to walk away from the items I truly knew would not be worn or used at home. I was strong lol
All in all time flies and I have to plan better. We had a good time but needed more rest and time at the resort.
Disney-AWESOME....Food outstanding,clean as a whistle,friendly staff all around...Until next time..
-
Registered User
Great trip report! Thanks for taking the time to write.
Sharon
-
Great Trip report!! Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Ellen
-
What a fun trip! We also live in NY (Western NY) and I want to do a road-trip to Disney in a couple of years. Our boys would be 5 and 7 at that time - how did your four year old do on the road trip? Would you recommend renting a car for the trip again? It sounds like a great idea- saves on wear and tear, but still gives you wheels for Florida (and some of those mini-vans come equipped with DVD players).
. Kids had a blast and then it was over to my favorite Peoplemover. I get such a great feeling on this ride and wish DH would build on in my yard. He thinks I'm nuts 
. We were able to do Haunted Mansion after much crying from my ds age 4. He has been on this ride 3 years in a row yet decided to fear almost every attraction this trip aside from one..mentioned on Monday as you will soon read. So his fears made it a bit of a stressful trip for us. We then rode Pirates with a 5 minute wait yipee! and heard the parade starting so we approached Main Street and watched. I also noticed quite a bit of work in front of Tonys,The Candy Shoppe and Town Hall? being done. I also noticed the Taco place had a new name and it was OPEN!!! That was a first. I also noticed a section at Tomorrowland Terrace roped off. I suppose the dessert party area? Looked like the place to sit. I also noticed for the first time where the fireworks actually are being sent from. I had no idea it was so far from the castle..anyway just had to add that in lol. We called it a night at this point and headed back to the resort via bus along with 3 million other people..ok it wasn't that many but it seemed close 
. Next was dhs favorite time at the park.The Gorillas..we spent an hour here as they had the baby out for a while the the males were being aggressive toward each other so we have some awesome footage. They smell awful..but are really facinating to watch. 
Bookmarks