Escape to Our Home Away from Home After Three Years - A July 2021 Trip Report (**Updated 6/26**)

[Counting Stars]

Thanks for taking the time to share. What a great trip, and you got so much done! Everyone seems to be having a good time. You found a mix of park time, meal time, and swim time that works really well. Congrats on that! Looking forward to week two.

 

[cstorm65]

Thanks for taking the time to share. What a great trip, and you got so much done! Everyone seems to be having a good time. You found a mix of park time, meal time, and swim time that works really well. Congrats on that! Looking forward to week two.

Thanks for reading along with us! We had a great time for sure. We love taking those longer trips in the summer so we can take it slow and not get too exhausted.

 

[flowergirl45]

I’m loving your report! Such a good dad and husband! I can’t tell you how much that makes me smile. Thanks for sharing!

 

[cstorm65]

I’m loving your report! Such a good dad and husband! I can’t tell you how much that makes me smile. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading along!!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 8 Part 2 - That Was the Best Photopass Shoot Ever!

We continue around through Canada towards the place April and I dream about all year long and got us some of these:

The fish and chips were fantastic as always. Well, they may have been better than fantastic! Even Braxton got in on the party and enjoyed some of it!

We got done and headed back out into the park. We had noticed a pretty short wait posted for Soarin, so we headed that way. Not before a lightsaber battle in the UK.

We got over to Soarin’ and the posted wait was only like 25 minutes and it took us about 15. I think I snapped a quick picture of Braxton an I while we were waiting in line.

We got off Soarin’ and headed over towards Nemo at about 1:50. It was about a 10 minutes wait on this one today and then we spent some time looking around in The Seas. We were just doing whatever we wanted until our 4:00 check in time at the new resort.

We stayed inside looking around until about 2:30 and headed over to visit our friend Figment!

We walked on FIgment and then spent a little time letting the boys play in the post show before heading upstairs to the DVC Member Lounge.

This was our first time using the member lounge since joining DVC on our last trip and it was a great way as we still had about an hour to waste until check in time since we hadn’t gotten a room ready text message yet. This is a nice benefit of DVC for sure and we spent 30 minutes or so relaxing and having some drinks and as you can see in the pics, an arm wrestling competition!

We left the lounge at about 3:30 to head and grab a bus to the new resort. On the way we found a lonely looking photopass photographer on the walkway towards the front of the park. There were construction walls everywhere, but the boys wanted some pictures with their lightsabers. Well, these turned out to be some of our most favorite photopass pics ever. The photographer spent a long time with the boys and even got me in a couple of pictures. Despite the construction walls, but these are still a great memory.

Up Next: Preparing for a Hurricane at Disney​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 8 Part 3 - Preparing for a Hurricane at Disney

By the time our lightsaber photoshoot was finished it was time to head off to the bus stop.

We made it to the bus stop and by 3:40 and a bus came for us about 10 minutes later. These boys were ready for our new place and to get a little rest. The heat really took it out of us today!

About the time we got on the bus we got the text message that our room was ready! We were so excited as this was our first stay as DVC owners and we were headed to Bay Lake Tower!! We had originally been booked at our home resort, Copper Creek, but when Bay Lake had availability at 7 months and we had enough points to cover it after COVID we jumped on the opportunity.

I got to looking at our room and it was the exact opposite of what we had requested. By the time we booked there were only standard rooms available, and we wanted a north facing room as those have a side view of the Magic Kingdom. Well, we got a south facing room that looked at the Contemporary. We would have been fine with that, but watching the fireworks from the balcony was just on our minds. So, when we got to the resort we did stop at the front desk just to see. A sweet lady named Maureen greeted me and I told her that we had requested a north facing room and is there a way she could check on one of those. I told here it wasn’t a big deal, but if there was a way to get that we would love it!

Well, she came through and by 4:30 we were walking into our room!

I took the pictures from the balcony a little later, so those are coming, but we did like this room. It is a little different than some studios because of the little galley kitchenette area, but we did like this because all of the food and supplies you have to have isn’t visible from the actual room area.

I headed down to start some laundry while April set up the room. We were in need of some clothes for the second week of our trip! What a view from the elevator lobby:

After a couple of hours of setting the room up and doing laundry we headed over to the Contempo Cafe for a quick dinner. Another great view.

We had a quick dinner, but I failed to get any pics. I had the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, it wasn’t great. I didn’t even know it was going to be grilled chicken, and the chicken was dry and hard to bite through. April got the Contempo Burger and she liked it. We would definitely get that over the chicken. Braxton got chicken noodle soup…I know, why would you want that in the summer, but he likes chicken noodle soup, and he liked their version. Brooks got the kids spaghetti and he enjoyed it, but it was a huge portion, so Braxton ended up helping him finish it.

After dinner April was going to grab the last load of laundry out of the dryer and finish with the room while I took the boys on a quick ride around the monorail. I mean it comes right inside of our hotel…why not? We didn’t really have many big plans tonight as Hurricane Elsa was making landfall and was on its way towards us, so we were just hanging out and making sure everyone was safe while the storm passed.

Off we went around the Seven Seas Lagoon!

We were back in the room by 8:15 and I helped April put away the last of the clothes and then the boys were ready for bed.We were getting up early the next morning, but we would have a few other chances to see the fireworks from our balcony!

April and I did sit out on the balcony to see the fireworks. I didn’t take any pictures of that, but here is the view I promised from the balcony. So awesome, especially for a standard view room.

We both wanted something sweet before bed, so I walked over to Contempo and brought April a cookie that she wanted and I got one of these.

They called it the Peanut Butter Pie and let me tell you, it was awesome and it wasn’t the last one I had while staying here. It was so good!! I love peanut butter and this thing was right up my alley! Such a great end to the night…haha!

I will say the hurricane was supposed to roll through overnight, but they had already said it was going to weaken considerably, which was a good thing. We were still going to get a good deal of rain throughout the night and in the morning, so we will see how things go.

Up Next: Will the Hurricane Keep People Away?​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

That peanut butter pie looks divine

 

[cstorm65]

That peanut butter pie looks divine

It was really good!!!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 9 Part 1 - Will the Hurricane Keep People Away?

I woke up at 7:00 AM and was able to secure our best Rise of the Resistance boarding group of the week, #8. The wild card for today though was Hurricane Elsa. I pulled up my weather shortly after to see what we should do about the morning and to my surprise a bulk of the storm was past the Orlando area and it had come through even a little weaker than predicted. We were still in for a rainy day, but it didn’t appear that it was going to be super heavy rain, so we decided to plow on to Hollywood Studios.

Brooks was ready at the bus stop, lightsaber in hand!

We got to the bus stop at 7:50 and a bus came at 8:04.

Hollywood Studios was already open at 8:20 when we arrived despite the 8:30 actual opening time. They were holding people in their lines at the rides until closer to 8:30. It was wet as we headed into Toy Story Land.

It already appeared to be the lowest rope drop crowd we had encountered on the trip, although I’m sure the Hurricane was playing a role in that. We were in the Slinky Dog Line after walking back to Toy Story Land and at 8:28 they opened the ride and started letting guests ride.

We were on the ride in 12 minutes and we enjoyed ourselves once again.

We came out and headed across to ride Toy Story Mania, but as we were getting in line it was shutting down. Not good when a ride shuts down five minutes after opening! So, we decided to try and get down to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, but as we started walking we checked the app and it was closed too.

We decided to split up as Brooks wanted to ride Runaway Railway, so April took him to do that while Braxton and I went to try to get on Smuggler’s Run. Braxton and I encountered the most uncrowded Galaxy’s Edge we had seen so far.

We got over to Smuggler’s Run and the posted was was just 10 minutes and it didn’t take us any longer than that.

April and Brooks got on MMRR quickly as well and then met us at Rise of the Resistance because our boarding group was ready. In Rise of the Resistance news, Brooks, who was a little scared after his first ride on it early in the trip, now declares this is the best ride ever!

We had another great ride on Rise and I think I videoed some this time instead of taking pictures. It was about 10:15 when we got off and decided to head over and watch Muppets 3D. It was entertaining as always!

What would we do next? Read on in the next update coming soon!

Up Next: This is Why We Need DVC Points at the Poly​

 

[disneyAndi14]

I love the pictures of your boys in Epcot with their lightsabers!
We had a room similar to yours at Bay Lake and we loved watching the fireworks from our balcony!
We love Rise, it is a family favorite and it never gets old!

 

[rdkeim]

How great you could get the room changed - perfect view for the fireworks. Braving the rain seems to have paid off! Love all the lightsaber pictures. I'd say that was the best money spent on your entire trip!

 

[cstorm65]

I love the pictures of your boys in Epcot with their lightsabers!
We had a room similar to yours at Bay Lake and we loved watching the fireworks from our balcony!
We love Rise, it is a family favorite and it never gets old!

Those are some of my favorite pics! They were so proud of their lightsabers!!

There is just something different about watching fireworks from your balcony. SO MUCH FUN!!

How great you could get the room changed - perfect view for the fireworks. Braving the rain seems to have paid off! Love all the lightsaber pictures. I'd say that was the best money spent on your entire trip!

I just thought I'd ask about the room and she was able to make it happen!!

It was a very uncrowded day, probably contributed to us being able to get such an early boarding group for Rise too.

The lightsabers got a lot of use on this trip for sure!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 9 Part 2 - This is Why We Need DVC Points at the Poly

We finished up at Muppets at about 10:50 and the boys were ready for lunch and to swim. Yes, we are those people who come for rope drop and sometimes leave the park by 11:00 to go to the pool. We had done what we had wanted by this point though, Slinky Dog, Smugglers Run, MMRR, Muppets, and of course Rise of the Resistance.

We did stop to fill up the popcorn buck on the way out at the request of Brooks and then headed to the bus stop.

While walking to the bus we all decided we didn’t really want Contempo Cafe for lunch and April recommended we bus to the Poly for lunch at Captain Cooks, which we love! I couldn’t argue with that and then when we were done we could just jump on the monorail back to Contemporary. By 11:30 we were at the Poly:

For lunch Braxton wanted the Chicken Wings. He loved these and a little foreshadowing for our trip the next year, he wanted these more than once!

April and I both got the pulled pork nachos. These are so good. I had forgotten how good these were in our three years away. I love the combination of the pork which is a little sweet and then some spicy as well.

While we were enjoying our nachos April said, “These are why we need to own DVC points at the Poly.” I mean I would love to for this reason and also because we can get Dole Whips whenever we want. In fact, that is exactly what we did.

The boys also got the special Moana Cupcake for their dessert and they liked it. We should have just gotten one though and so we ended up carrying two halves back to the hotel with us to let them have later.

After lunch and desserts it was only about 12:15, still plenty of time in the day for swimming and some more park time tonight. Before we jumped on the monorail though we had to stop in one of our favorite gift shops:

I don’t think we bought anything, but we love looking around that shop.

As soon as we got back we had Brooks take a nap and Braxton and I went and sat in the Contemporary lobby so he could draw..

By 3:00 the clouds had kind of burned off, which meant the hurricane was almost all of the way out of our area, so we headed to the pool.

We did decide to walk over the main Contemporary pool today instead of the Bay Lake Tower pool and got this photo op on the way:

This pool was not crowded at all. The Bay Lake Tower pool had been super crowded, so this was nice. We were worrying about a hurricane 12 hours ago and now relaxing in the sunshine at the pool. It was a great afternoon!

Up Next: How Do You Mess Up Steamed Broccoli?​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

As a fellow buffalo wing lover, I approve of being a fan of the ones at the Poly.




Also messing up vegetables seems to be a thing lately at restaurants i have no clue why.

 

[MickeyReeds]

Hello! Fellow educator here! Just found your report and have enjoyed reading along!

 

[cstorm65]

As a fellow buffalo wing lover, I approve of being a fan of the ones at the Poly.




Also messing up vegetables seems to be a thing lately at restaurants i have no clue why.

Yes, they are so good. I know...vegetables don't have be made hard. Sometimes you just want some with your meal to get away from french fries at Disney, but so often they just aren't cooked well.

Hello! Fellow educator here! Just found your report and have enjoyed reading along!

Thanks for joining in!!! Thanks for your work as a teacher!

 

[cstorm65]

Day 9 Part 3 - How Do You Mess Up Steamed Broccoli?

We finished up our nice, relaxing afternoon at the pool and headed off to Magic Kingdom for dinner and some nighttime fun!

We were heading to dinner at another place that we had never been before and it was in Adventureland!

I had had reservations here on the last couple of trips, but for whatever reason we just always canceled them the day before because we just didn’t feel like a table service meal at the time. Well, it was finally time for us to try Skipper Canteen!

We were seated in the main room at 5:30. What a cool theme this place has. I wish Disney would do more of this with some restaurants, it makes it super interesting!

We started off with the Cheese Bread off of the secret menu which was suggested by our server. This was really, really good. Brooks wasn’t a huge fan of it, but the rest of us loved it. The cream cheese dipping sauce was great and I also loved the green sauce which was kind of like a verde salsa. Overall, it was a great way to start the meals.

Braxton had some fun looking at the decor while we waited for our meals. Again, I wish Disney would do more like this!

For our main courses April and I both wanted to try the steak, but there were also some other appetizers that we wanted to try. So, April ordered the steak for us to share. Irrawaddy Irma's Hanger Steak - Ginger and Soy-marinated Sliced Hanger Steak served with Potatoes, Frisée, and Pickled Onions. We both enjoyed this and thought the steak was very tasty. It wasn’t a super high quality cut of meat, so that is something to know, but the flavor was good. We also really liked the potatoes that came with them, although there were not very many of them.

The first appetizer that I ordered for us to share as part of our meal was Orinoco Ida's Cachapas - house made corn pancakes, beer-roasted corn, Fresno pepper salsa, and avocado cream. These were great and they had that same awesome verde salsa that had come with the cheese bread. The corn pancakes were so good on the bottom of this and they also had pork on them, which I don’t know why that isn’t in the description I pulled off the website. Anyway, April and I both loved these!

The other appetizer we got was the Falls Family Falafel - A secret recipe of chickpea, garlic, onions, lemon juice, and Herbs served with House Made Edamame Hummus and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. These were super tasty as well. I would definitely order them again and the sauces and hummus they had with them were good too.

Braxton got the kids steak, which I forgot to take a picture of, but he really liked it. Like I mean he ate every bite! For his side it came with broccoli and he was so excited. This kid loves broccoli. He will eat it every night at home if we fix it, so he was excited! Well, he ate about one bite and said “this is awful”. We tried it as well and come to find out it was indeed awful. How do you mess up broccoli? It isn’t that hard. At home we buy the cheap frozen steamer bags from Sam’s and cook for six minutes in the microwave. Add some salt and it’s delicious. How does a restaurant with a professional chef mess this up? Some things at Disney never cease to amaze me.

Brooks got the kids fried chicken and ate most of it. I tried it and it was actually pretty good and there was a sweet and sour type sauce with it that was pretty good too.

We did order dessert because I had been wanting to try the Kungaloosh, mainly just because of the name! We enjoyed this a lot! Would totally order it again!

Braxton ordered some kind of chocolate cake as his kids meal dessert. I remember he didn’t love it and that it was a little dry.

Brooks ordered the other kids dessert that was called Monkey Bites or something like that. It was pretty simple, but the boys ended up sharing it!

Overall this was a fun meal with good food and honestly we were surprised how much we enjoyed the food. We were very glad we tried it finally on this trip and we will definitely be back.

With dinner out of the way, it was time for some fun after dark at the Magic Kingdom!

Up Next: The Hurricane Kept Them Away​

 

[cstorm65]

Day 9 Part 4 - The Hurricane Kept Them Away

We finished our great dinner at Skipper Canteen and it was time to head out into the park and see if the hurricane had kept some of the crowds away from the Magic Kingdom like they had Hollywood Studios that morning. The only negative was there was currently some lightning in the area so the outdoor rides were down, but it didn’t appear it was going to be around for too long.

We ducked into one of my favorite sports to pass about 20 minutes and see if the lightning cleared out:

If you’ve read any of our reports you know I am pretty nostalgic about Country Bear Jamboree. I would watch this on every trip to the Magic Kingdom if April would let me!

When we came out it was about 7:15 and the lightning had just cleared the area and we jumped in line for BTMRR.

We were on the ride in only about 5 minutes! Crowds were good so far!

After a great ride there the boys wanted to head around and do the speedway. I don’t know why they were so into it on this trip, but they were! On the way we did drop in Philharmagic, which is one of April’s favorite attractions!

We made it over to the Speedway by 8:20 and the wait was only five minutes there as well. It didn’t appear as though too many of the crowds were coming back to the park today.

I rode with Brooks and got some cool pics of Space Mountain, the castle and of the Tron construction.

After the Speedway Brooks wanted to go on the TTA, but Braxton wanted to go on the Speedway again. April drew the short straw and got to ride with Braxton!

Me and Brooks took a spin on the TTA.

Next up it was about 8:55 and we jumped in the Space Mountain line and only waited about 20 minutes. It was only posted as a 30 minute wait. It was a fun ride and Brooks continued to be a big fan!

When we came out the fireworks were going off and we snapped a quick pic before heading out of the park.

I think the park was only open until 10:00, but we were planning on rope dropping the MK in the morning, so we wanted to get the boys in bed. We walked out at about 9:20 and the boys were in their bed by about 9:40. That may be the best part about staying at Bay Lake or the Contemporary.

Up Next: The Morning Planned by Kids​

 

[rdkeim]

An excellent night in MK! Nice dinner and plenty of rides. The style of the Contemporary isn't my taste but what a perfect location. That alone would make it worth staying there.

 

[cstorm65]

An excellent night in MK! Nice dinner and plenty of rides. The style of the Contemporary isn't my taste but what a perfect location. That alone would make it worth staying there.

It was a great night! The location of the Contemporary and Bay Lake is certainly the selling point. I do agree about the theme of the hotel and Bay Lake probably needs a minor refurb in the rooms here pretty quickly. It will be interesting if they go with the Incredibles stuff like they did in the Contemporary or not. I also think the monorail in the hotel is a great part of the theme that sometimes gets overlooked. It is so easy to get to GF or the Poly in just a few minutes. Now, if they would only bring back the boat that connects Contemporary to Wilderness Lodge & Fort Wilderness.