summerskye
Ears Earned, What's Next
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2009
With all the excitement about the pixie dust, I hope it didn't involve any hot towels. I don't think your son would have been happy...
Oh no you didn't! But... yeah. Agreed, lady. I'm already sad.Artist Point for dinner before they ruin the food by changing from a signature to a character meal
with the common folk to jump on the monorail
Oh man that’s so exciting! I would have been freaking out and probably making a fool of myselfAs we approached the entrance with our fellow ME riders, the greeter caught my eye since he was coming towards us. He approached us and said, "Ah, The DeVizio Family!" Still gets me how they know when you arrive lol.
Back to the greeter: as soon as he said this my heart started pumping because I KNEW. I knew we'd been upgraded to club level! Then he added, "I see you're in the Main Building". Not really, but OK Some of you may know and some may not, but when you're staying CL you're greeted and escorted up to the concierge desk (usually). And that's really the only reason you'd be greeted unless maybe there was something else super special going on for you!
Hey Susan, glad you're here! I need to get my butt back over to your TR and catch up!I'm in! Can't wait to read all about it!!
Aw thanks, I'm glad you're here for this oneLooking forward to another report!
I hope Ariane does ok with this one, thanks for joining!Excited for a new Ariane trip report!
I remember you saying that before It's hard to convey just how much it's affected him, and all of us, because it COULD be so much worse. And we all know that. But basketball was every single part of his life and then it was gone. To a 15/16 year old it doesn't matter that it could be worse.I’m glad to hear that. I come from a big sports family & I know how heartbreaking his injury must have been for him & your family. I hope his recovery continues to go well.
Hey Su-Lynn! Thanks for joining! I'm sorry you'll have to sit through some repeat pictures but I appreciate you following alongI'm here! Looking forward to the Mountain of Pixie Dust!
Well I got to the "how" real quick and there wasn't much too it! I don't really know exactly why we got the upgrade, we tried figuring it out but then just stopped questing it and soaked it in The nice thing was, the "dust" kept settling even after the the first day!I have been waiting too long to hear how this came about! Don't keep us in suspense too much longer!
Yay, thank you for coming over! I'm just so sorry about the troubles you had on your trip We did have a trip like that a few years ago and I know how bad it sucks when things don't go as planned, and being sick is really pretty much the worst. I hope you can plan another trip soon to make up for it!I'm here, can't wait to read about your adventures
, thank you for joining!!Joining in!!
thanks for following along again, I'm glad you're here!Hi Ariane, I'm looking forward to reading about your latest trip!!!
LOL can you imagine standing in front of them? The anticipation is extraodinary!Following along... I gotta see what's lurking behind those doors.
, and again, I'm so happy you liked my last one enough to come back!Woohoo, I’m joining in for another one of your TRs. I loved reading your last one!
Thank you, I hope I do a good enough job to keep you interestedLooking forward to hearing about your trip!!
Right? Luckily we didn't get any hot towel pixie dust lol but rest assured if we did I would have been texting those pictures to ChrisWith all the excitement about the pixie dust, I hope it didn't involve any hot towels. I don't think your son would have been happy...
Hey Lesley, thanks for joiningI'm here too!
I purposely started this to make you look bad It doesn't matter, everyone is used to you starting your reports 9 months after the fact so you'd throw people off if you start it in 2018!Ugh you are making me look bad as I haven't even started my report yet. I did at least go through picture finally. Baby steps. Anyway while I'm still monumentally upset that I missed you in August I'm gonna follow along nonetheless!
I purposely started this to make you look bad It doesn't matter, everyone is used to you starting your reports 9 months after the fact so you'd throw people off if you start it in 2018!
Wow, thank you everyone for joining me! As I said to some of you in my comments, I think I'm more excited to share this trip than any of my previous ones I've done reports for. So if you're all ready, you can come andOur story begins on Thursday, Sept. 13th, with a smooth and uneventful plane ride from Westchester County, NY to Orlando. Kids were in school, mom would be over after work to take Ricky to p/t and stay for the weekend. We landed 30 minutes early (yay!!!) then sat on the runway because, being so early, there was another plane at our gate. We still made it to ME around when I expected and things started off right when not only was our bus waiting for us, it left about 7 minutes after we sat down! Steve considered this a big helping of good luck to begin with because, as some of you may know, he's NOT a fan of ME. We normally either wait forever, or get right on and then sit for 25-40 minutes. We also got one of the new buses so I had this gal was smiling at me from my window:
Greet Me at the Grand:
arrival day, part 1
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The ride was smooth, driver was slow. FINALLY we went through everyone's favorite arches, and after a quick stop at the Poly were pulling in to our "home" for the next 4 nights, the GF!
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view from the CL lounge
This was our first stay at the GF, and I'd booked an outer building, standard view with my work rate. We'd been here numerous times for dinner but that's it, so we were both pretty excited. Originally we were booked at the BWI, the Epcot resorts being Steve's favorites. But when the GF became available we decided to make the switch as the rate was so good!
As we approached the entrance with our fellow ME riders, the greeter caught my eye since he was coming towards us. He approached us and said, "Ah, The DeVizio Family!" Still gets me how they know when you arrive lol.
Back to the greeter: as soon as he said this my heart started pumping because I KNEW. I knew we'd been upgraded to club level! Then he added, "I see you're in the Main Building". Not really, but OK Some of you may know and some may not, but when you're staying CL you're greeted and escorted up to the concierge desk (usually). And that's really the only reason you'd be greeted unless maybe there was something else super special going on for you!
Steve had absolutely no idea anything had happened because he never pays attention to anything I say, so was unaware of the CL check in process. We'd stayed CL once at Wilderness Lodge but didn't arrive on ME, so we didn't get greeted and escorted up. As we walked towards the elevator I tried to mouth to him, "we got upgraded to CLUB LEVEL"!!
Finally he got it.
We arrived on the 4th floor and sat down with one of the concierge CM's on duty, John, and began getting checked in. He had to fix our MB's so they'd unlock the elevator . It was around 2:30 now and he eventually said, "hmm, I'm so sorry, your suite isn't quite ready yet". We played it cool, like, "that's ok man, no worries".
But inside we were freaking out! If I knew how to put gif's here I would totally have some awesome ones lol. We figured maybe a room with a sitting area, or a 1 bedroom suite, 2 bathrooms, something like that. Offhand I didn't have the GF rooms memorized and I wanted to be surprised so instead of looking it up we just decided to be surprised, and took a stroll down to floor 3 to visit the lounge where afternoon tea was being served!
This post has gotten really wordy so I'll just move on to pictures:
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I took these kind of fast; we were both still a bit in shock, we were hungry, and even though I was excited for the upgrade I was anxious to get on with our day! After all we only had 4.5 of them! I was impressed with the lounge area though and especially love the table above as I love Victorian era furniture. Yeah it's BIG and can be gaudy, but I like it. As you can see, this was the tea set up. I also liked that the lounge was very bright as opposed to the WL lounge (no hate for anything WL though, you guys know it's my favorite!) The GF lounge was just always so bright and airy. Snacks during afternoon tea are light as expected.
The view from the lounge was neat too, and you got a close up of the pretty chandeliers:
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Believe it or not, as usual I DID shrink my pictures but they're still huge! As much as we wanted to sample the snacks we had a Food and Wine Fest to get to!
Speaking of Food and Wine, let me mention here that every day got switched around except our last day, and that's ok. It happens more often than not with our trips as some of you know, and I like that we can go with the flow and aren't stuck hard and fast to our plans.
Here was our plan for today:
-hit some booths at F&W
-move to HS for FP's including Alien Swirling Saucers
-Artist Point for dinner before they ruin the food by changing from a signature to a character meal
We were delayed a bit with our first round of so by the time we left for F&W we determined that HS was going to be out. Since our SUITE wasn't quite ready we took the elevator down to level two with the common folk to jump on the monorail, but first we stopped to check out the Halloween decor in the store windows:
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So cute!
I promise the suite pictures will start soon but up next:
Our First Stop at F&W
We also got one of the new buses so I had this gal was smiling at me from my window:
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As I said to some of you in my comments, I think I'm more excited to share this trip than any of my previous ones I've done reports for.
Back to the greeter: as soon as he said this my heart started pumping because I KNEW. I knew we'd been upgraded to club level!
Artist Point for dinner before they ruin the food by changing from a signature to a character meal
Luckily we didn't get any hot towel pixie dust lol but rest assured if we did I would have been texting those pictures to Chris