Travel dates: 9/14/2014 thru 9/20/2014
Travel method: Delta to the Gulf Coast, then personal car to WDW.
Resort: Beach Club Villas
Accommodations: Deluxe Studio
Ages Represented in Group: 54, 55
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: Very experienced especially Jean.
Comments: In gratitude to all those who have posted trip reports before.
Cast of characters: Chuck, late comer to the Disney mania and Jean, unofficial tour guide and Disney fanatic.
Introduction:
Hoping this trip report is as enjoyable as many of yours have been for us. It is a great way to get a little bit of Disney magic while on breaks at work.
A little bit of background on how we came to be Walt Disney World fanatics. We love Disneyland and it is much closer to where we live, but WDW is our awesome place. After all this time and visits it is still our awesome place.
Jean grew up in the northeast and her parents became snowbirds to Florida and that is how she came to get to know and love WDW. She has been there over 25 times. Nine times staying on Disney property with Chuck.
Chuck grew up with very little Disney experience. No trips to Disney, no real affinity for Disney outside of watching Walt's old black and white TV show. Didn't care about Mickey and Minnie one way or the other.
Boy met girl and in 1999 we got married and started our life together. First marriage for both of us and no kids either. After we had been married a couple years, Jean suggested we visit her Mom on the Gulf Coast in Florida and make a side trip to WDW. I had never been to Florida before and I said sure. I had just got laid off from a great job and it sounded like a good way to lift my spirits. We had a great time at her Mom's, she is the best mother in law in the whole world, and then we made our way to the All Star Sports at WDW. As we drove into the park, I was completely and totally awestruck. It was an incredible feeling of awe. We made our way to the hotel, ( I am a complete believer in staying on Disney property), and found out that it was spring break week. The place was absolutely packed. And I hate crowds. Cannot stand them. We went to the park and it was wall to wall people, a nightmare for me. But, even with all the people, with all the screaming kids at All Star Sports, with the muggy weather, I had an absolute complete blast. It was so much fun. Incredible time. I was hooked. It was great to be able to go with someone as experienced as Jean, so that really helped, but even with all the negatives, I had a fantastic time. It was a learning experienced for me and we have changed our approach since then but overall I was enthralled with Walt Disney World. And at that time I was a 42 year old male with no prior Disney experience. My life has not been the same since. So far we have been to the All Star Sports, Coronado Springs, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Grand Floridian, The Beach Club, and then as DVC members to the Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village, Old Key West, Aulani, and now back to the Beach Club in a Deluxe Studio. One mistake we made was not joining DVC sooner. We did not join until our 6th trip, and that was an error. We knew we were going to come every other year at least, but for some reason we held off on buying into DVC. We do believe we get treated a little bit different as DVC members, and we hope that is going to get better as time goes on. The savings we have gotten by being DVC members is substantial, even on park tickets. It really is the only way to go for people like us who have the WDW bug.
This year we decided to go back to the Beach Club mainly because we like how close it is to Epcot. We love being able to walk in through the back door. We enjoy Storm A Long bay and being close to Hollywood Studios also. We also really, really love the waterparks. It is a toss up between Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. They are so much fun. Laugh out loud fun, fun, fun. This time we are going to do the Backstage Tour at the Magic Kingdom and have dinner at Cinderella's Castle which we have never done. We have done one Princess meal before at Akerhaus Castle which caught us off guard but this time we will be prepared. We have additional ADR's at a few places we haven't ate at before, including the Rose and Crown and the Yachtsman Steakhouse but we are also going to play some things by ear. We do some planning but also enjoy serendipity too. Leaving for Florida in 11 days with 2 nights at my Mother in Laws, 6 nights at WDW, and then 2 more nights at MIL's before we leave for home. We did have some negative experience with our Magic Bands and My Disney Experience, but we think we have that all worked out and we should be good to go. I do wish Disney wouldn't but people on hold for so long and would shorten up the menus we have to go through to talk to a human being.
I will be posting more when we get to the parks. Thanks again to all of you that post trip reports. I have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of them.
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