WDW Trip Report Part One

 My recent trip to WDW took place from January 1- 11, 2015. It was myself and two family members on the trip. I will divide each day of my trip to explain the highlights.

Day 1

Airport Tree

We had an 11:30 a.m. flight to MCO. We stayed at The Beach Club Resort, as you may know from my review of the room here, and took advantage of the Disney Magical Express. If you're not familiar with Magical Express, it basically allows you to skip waiting for your bags and provides a bus to all Disney resorts (except Swan & Dolphin because they're operated by Starwood).  You receive a luggage tag before your trip, allowing people from the airport to know where to bring your bags. The luggage gets to your room about three hours later. We usually go to the park by then, so they deliver our luggage in our room while we're gone. We bring a few carry-on items just in case we need a change of clothes or if the luggage gets lost, which has never happened.

Magical Express loading area

Magical Express was a good ride. We checked in to our room and were given a renovated room on the fourth floor. We had a great view of the Epcot Resort area. We spent the rest of our day in EPCOT. We did Seas, Imagination, and Test Track. For dinner we went to the newish Spice Road Table in Morocco. I know it serves small portions but I enjoyed what I got.

Our table was inside next to a window by the water. We got calamari, a hummus plate, two chicken harissa rolls (like chicken in a springroll-like pastry), and lamb burger sliders. I loved the lamb burgers at Kouzzina, and these are a pretty good substitute. They came with hummus fries...these were really good, and they had a little kick to them. From there, we watched Illuminations and got to see the new lasers, which definitely add a lot to the show. I didn't get any pics because I wanted to enjoy my first viewing of them, but I managed to take some pics every time we saw them after that.

 Day 2

January 2nd, we spent most of the day in Disney's Hollywood Studios. I didn't take many pictures on this day. I paid my last visit to the sorcerer hat icon before the view is restored to its former glory of The Chinese Theater. We got a late start and ended up eating lunch first at Catalina Eddie’s on Sunset Blvd. We got two hot Italian Subs with Caesar salad. I know DHS is known for having few good quick service restaurants but this ended up being much better than expected! It had a good pesto sauce on top of cold cuts on crispy bread. The Caesar salad was good as well, and had enough dressing.

Last time seeing the hat

New Starbucks being added

We went to the ABC theater next where they had an improv comedy show playing for the holiday season. They had five different comedians and had the audience give them situations to do. They asked someone about their occupation and wrote a song about them. They also did a skit where they had someone from the audience on stage to finish their sentence when they pointed to them. They also did a game show where they asked the audience for categories. I thought it was a pretty good show, and got a few laughs out of it.

 We had a Fastpass for Toy Story Midway Mania next. After that we went into the Sound theater where they were playing Mickey's Christmas Carol cartoon. It was a quiet spot to relax and people were definitely relaxing. I saw quite a few people asleep in there. Others used the outlets to charge their phones. We were greeted at the entrance by a cast member and were told we could leave whenever we wanted. We went to The Great Movie Ride where there was a long wait so we decided to come back later. I decided to take a few pics while we were there. 

This view will soon be of Hollywood Blvd all the way to the park entrance

We had a fastpass for Muppet Vision 3D, but the show was closed for technical difficulties and we were told to come back later. We got a new fastpass redeemable for most attractions as compensation. We did Star Tours next with a fastpass...this ride was good as always. We decided to go to the Animation Studio where we looked at a few exhibits. It was pretty crowded so we didn't stay very long. I did see some previews for Big Hero Six playing on the monitor in there.

We had dinner at the 50's Primetime Cafe. I always like it here, the wait staff can be strict as they're supposed to be your family or whomever serving your dinner in a 50's style kitchen while classic show snippets play on an old TV monitor near you. Our waitress was nice though for the most part.  I tried the famous PB&J shake, it was good. I tasted mostly peanut butter and little jelly, though. I got the sampler with fried chicken, pot roast and meat loaf, with mashed potatoes, green beans, and collard greens. I ate everything- even the collard greens, so i wouldn't "get in trouble". I had the s'mores for dessert. It didn't have enough chocolate for my liking, but it was good. We went on the Great Movie Ride after that and then went to see The Osborne Spectacle of Lights. I always love seeing this. We've been coming in January for the last five years and I have to see these lights each time we go.

After the lights we decided to head to EPCOT. This was our only day we spent at Hollywood Studios. We usually go at least twice but I didn't really feel the need to this time. Plus we already had our fast passes for the other parks and we don't go on the thrill rides (Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster) in DHS. The expansion that should be coming soon is definitely needed. I love all the Disney parks but DHS is lacking, even if the Studios Backlot Tour were still running it would need more, as that attraction was getting old.

Decorations in Future World

So we took the boat over to EPCOT. We saw a little bit of the fireworks from the boat. We went on Living with the Land and then to Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico before calling it a night.

A snowman in the greenhouse of Living with the Land

Mexico decorated for the holidays

Day 3

Our Annual Pass expired on the second, so we did not go into the parks on January 3rd. We were able to get a package for January 5-11 by getting a meal plan, but we had no tickets for the 3rd or 4th. Instead we took advantage of our resort. We went around 10 a.m. to The Boardwalk and decided to see if we could get a table at the new Trattoria Al Forno for breakfast. We already had a reservation for dinner there later in the week. We were able to walk up and get a table...no advanced reservation required! I'm not sure if it's normal to be able to get in, but the place wasn't very crowded.

The menu had a lot of Italian inspired foods including a marscapone waffle, and apple caramel pancakes. I decided to go with the most traditional sounding breakfast- two eggs with a side of bacon or sausage and potatoes. I got poached eggs, and bacon for my choices. I also saw that they had a Mickey Waffle as a side for a little extra. Since this would probably be my only breakfast I decided to get it, because I got to have a Mickey waffle at least once! I also got toast with my meal, which wasn't listed on the menu. I got some jelly for my toast and ketch-up for my potatoes- I like to dip.

My breakfast

The food was great! I don't love potatoes served home fry style, but these were really good. The bacon was crisp and tasty. Toast was toasted nicely. The poached eggs- they were a little rubbery. I know poached eggs are boiled, but there was some water in my bowl, which mixed with my yolk. I think I would get a different style egg next time, like scrambled. The waffle was great as always with a nice side of syrup. Mickey waffles always taste better than normal ones, maybe it's the shape that makes it more crispy. We also had gotten their pressed coffee, it's served similar to how Kona cafe serves theirs in a special pot. I had cranberry juice as well.

Mickey Waffle

I would definitely eat here again, especially if we don't need a reservation. After breakfast we went to the Boardwalk Inn next door. I don't think I ever really went in there, it is the only Deluxe resort I haven't stayed at yet. It's definitely nice with its 1920's Jersey boardwalk theme. zit has a lot of neat artifacts and decor. It was decorated for Christmas as well.

Christmas tree from Boardwalk Inn's lobby balcony

Garland on the fireplace

Old fashioned roller coaster displayed in the lobby

After looking in there we looked around the stores on the main Boardwalk area. We looked in the Screen Door General Store, as well as the restaurants, and lounges. We decided to walk back to our resort from the Swan & Dolphin side. Since we had to go by the Yacht Club before ours, we decided to head in for a minute. They still had their Christmas decorations up as well and a little train set through a Christmas village.

Yacht Club tree

Train

From here we went swimming. The Yacht and Beach Club have, arguably, the nicest resort pool on property. It's definitely the largest. They even have a lazy river to lie on floats! They have three separate areas of the pool, the loudest is the side with the volleyball net and where the pool slide leads to. It has a sand bottom as well. The middle has the lazy river, and the other side is a shallower pool for kids. I tried the pool slide which gave me a great view into EPCOT from up there, I could see down to the American pavilion.

After swimming we got ready for our reservation at Boma in Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. We took our resort boat over to Hollywood Studios. From there we got a bus to the lodge.

Passing through DHS

We got to Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge after a ten minute bus ride. We trekked from the bus stop to the lobby, and headed downstairs to where Boma is. The lobby still had its Christmas decorations up. It had a massive tree. I forget how huge the Animal Kingdom Lodge is...it's definitely a beautiful resort.

Christmas tree in AKL's lobby

Tiny tree in Boma waiting area

We got seated after waiting maybe ten minutes. We got a nice table close to the buffet line. The people in line were right behind us, but the line died down after a half hour there. Our waiter also gave us a tip- the soup and salad area is in the middle, and it's OK to go over there instead of waiting in the line for all the food.  The restaurant has many African inspired dishes, some similar to Indian food. I got a coconut curry chicken soup and a carrot ginger soup. They had pitas, hummus, cornbread, and my favorite appetizer- the curry pasta salad. The samosas they had were spinach filled, usually it's meat or chick peas inside. I didn't think I'd like it but it was just as good as the other samosas.They have many more items but that was all I took for appetizers.

For entrees they have a meat carving station, ribs with a tamarin BBQ sauce, mater paneer which is a cheese in a tomato sauce. They also had a really good koogle type of dish with lamb in it. For dessert they have cookies, pastries, tarts, bread pudding, and their famous zebra domes. They're dome shaped chocolate with a moose in it, they're really great.

After dinner we explored the resort a little. Since the lodge's best feature is that it's part animal reserve we had to go outside and look at the animals. It was dark but we definitely saw quite a few. We decided to head back to the resort after that. We took the bus to Hollywood Studios and then the boat again. This was our final time going by DHS.

One last look. Notice the Earful Tower- the original icon now restored with the hat gone.

We headed back to the Boardwalk where we saw some of the performers out doing their acts. One was in front of the Screen Door General Store where he was throwing something in the air with a string. Another act was by Trattoria Al Forno where he was doing a balancing act standing on a stool with rolling pins beneath him. We headed over to ESPN to watch the NFL playoffs and have a drink for a bit. After that we headed back to our room.

Stay tuned for more on my vacation. Please comment below and make sure to follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/Grndcnyncncrse.

The Beach Club Renovations

Before I discuss my recent vacation to WDW, I thought I would talk about the room we stayed in. We stayed in a newly renovated room at The Beach Club. The '90s beach resort theme is finally getting updated to a more modern look. Work began on the fifth floor in November, and has continued down to the fourth floor, which currently is being renovated. If you're unfamiliar with the old design, here's a link to a thread someone created with photos on disboards: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3025413 Although it's not exactly the same as the room we stayed in, they had a king bed and appear to be in a corner room, it's basically how the rooms used to look.

We stayed on the fourth floor in a section already redone. They began work on a hallway near ours while we were there, putting up a temporary wall with access only for emergencies. We couldn't use the main elevators, but we had an elevator close to our room, so it wasn't a big inconvenience. We would have to walk the same distance anyway. The hallways also are being redone. The hallway has a nice new carpet that fits the beach theme, with many hidden Mickeys. The "Little Mermaid" characters found on the old rugs are no more. There are two different types of rugs as you will see below. Both blend very well together:

    The beginning of the hallway has a blue rug. Notice the second star fish in a circle from the bottom has a smaller one above it, and a circular shell shape, creating a hidden Mickey.

The other new rug design

Looking down our hallway. The walls are grey now as opposed to turquoise.

Close-up of the rug. Note the Hidden Mickey bubbles.

Our room's doorway is now teal instead of white. 

The room now is completely redone with new pictures on the wall, drawers, night stands, lamps, beds, etc. The beds have a soft cushion on the headboard. Previously the headboards were wooden. The cylinder shaped pillow was white, but now is blue.

The new beds with new headboards as well as comforter.

Other bed with new picture of a shell next to it. Previously, there was a painting of a beach.

 Nightstand between beds. Note the odd highchair looking thing. I believe it's supposed to be shelves. The backboard also has outlets to charge phones, etc. This is also the best picture of the rug in the room, it's light brown with swirls. The old rug was dark brown stripes with smaller light brown stripes between.

Now lets move on to the desk in the right corner of the room, opposite the beds. The desk has another smaller desk under it in case more room is needed. The desk is similar to the old desk, the main difference is that the desks used to have white legs and a darker top, but now it is all wooden. The chair used to be completely different. It was a white wooden chair with a cushion on the seat. Now the whole chair has a cushion. The lamp is different as well. Continuing the trend of The Grand Floridian Resort and Spa replacing their Mickey shaped base on the lamp with a more standard lamp, we have a glass lamp. It used to have a base that looked like a lifeguard chair with Mickey Mouse sitting on top.While the old Mickey lamp was a nice touch of Disney, the new lamp really doesn't bother me

 The entertainment center next to it is a lot bigger now. Like the old desk, it was white with a dark top. It had four tiny drawers and one cabinet door. Now we have three large drawers in the middle, with three smaller drawers on the right, and one drawer with a cabinet door below it on the left. The TV also used to hang on the wall above the desk on a wooden base that was completely separate from the desk. Now the base is built into the drawer. The drawer knobs look like sea shells.

Close-up of the drawer knobs

 Although the room in the beginning link only shows a bare wall next to the doorway in the entry hall, I see in other pictures online that rooms had this drawer area too. It had the same motif as the old desk and drawers; white with a dark top.

The picture on the wall above the drawers: a photo of a beach with Mickey and Minnie cartoons flying kites added to it.

The cabinet has a mini fridge inside

The fire escape plan is usually found on the back of the door, but now has been moved to the right of the door on to the vent.

The bathroom area is redone as well. Our bathroom is across from the desk with the coffee maker and Mickey and Minnie beach picture above it. The bathroom has two sinks outside an open area. The room in the link above had only one sink. The toilet and bath tub are in a separate room on the left, with a door so someone can use the bathroom while someone else uses the sink.

The old design had a large seashell in the in the middle of the front sink area, now it has six octagons. The beige wallpaper with sailboats is now a grey wallpaper. The oval mirror with a seashell on top is now a rectangular mirror. The bottom shelves are lower to the ground, so you can fit more in there. It's also natural wood color instead of painted white.

The bathroom appears to have a new toilet and tub. The tile behind the tub is new as well, the old design was a beige-ish color square tiles. The floor is grey wood, which kind of evokes a boardwalk to me. Before it was tile the same color as the old shower tile. The wood also goes out to the sink area, while before it was the rug the rest of the room had. The old shower curtain had sailboats matching the wallpaper in the sink/ bathroom area. It's hard to see in the picture, but it now resembles bubbles and has hidden Mickeys and Mickey shapes around it.

We had a very large balcony in our room, I believe most rooms have smaller ones. We had a door with a window to the side as opposed to a sliding door. I'm not sure if it was always like that or if it was redesigned. Probably the former. The link shows brown and blue striped curtains in the old design. Now it's a tan color. The curtains also slide down now as opposed to shutting from the side. One problem we had was that the curtain sticks out, leaving the outside light to get in. It wouldn't be a problem, but we had a light right outside our room that was on all night, so it shined into the room. We told the front desk, but they said there was nothing they could do. We got some fastpasses for our inconvenience though. That was the only real problem we had at the resort.

Patio furniture looks the same as it was in the old design

Our view of the quiet pool. We could see The Swan & Dolphin hotels and the Boardwalk across the way. We could also see the Tower of Terror in Disney's Hollywood Studios behind the Boardwalk.

So that's the renovated room! I think it was a nice redesign, the old look was a lot more 90s' looking and this look finally brings the resort into the 21st century. Some touches are gone, such as the Mickey Mouse Lifeguard lamp, but new ones were added; the Mickey and Minnie painting, hidden Mickey shower curtains, etc. There's still a long way to go in this renovation. Only one and a quarter floors are done, so there's still three and 3/4s to go. I don't know if they are going to be redoing the Beach Club Villas either. The Yacht Club should be redone after the Beach Club is finished, though. Please share your thoughts or ask questions about the renovation below and follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/Grndcnyncncrse.