She's Adding All The Extras, a January 2022 Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge Split Stay Trip Report (Updated 4/24)

[princessbelle2015]

Following! Great arrival day! The chilli dogs look great!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Great report so far! You definitely make me want that limo for our arrival in August at the Beach Club. Can you say one more time what company you used? Your driver looks very nice too. Also, we were in "The World" last June and specifically went over to WL to try an orange gummy creamsicle cupcake you'd written about in a previous report. Yes, you didn't lie, it was fabulous. That Minnie cupcake looks good too, this time around. Thank you for taking us along your journey, excited to read more!!!

The limo company we used was Black Diamond Transportation. We were able to get prices and book everything on their website. We were scared by reviews of another company, but we’re very happy with them.
We are glad that you enjoyed that cupcake. The Minnie one wasn’t that good, but was enjoyable. We are glad you are here and following along while you get ready for your trip.

I'm really looking forward to hearing about your trip. The limo looks very elegant and Marshall loved it, so it was a big success. We arrived at Yacht Club today and had a great experience with Mears Connect. There were five people on our bus and it only stopped at Yacht Club and Beach Club. We are going to have cool weather this week, too, but not as cold as your trip was.

I love the artwork for your office.

Have a great trip, and we are glad you took the time to join in. I am also glad to hear that Mears Connect worked well for you. We almost did it, but with four of us the private cars weren’t much more expensive.
The elevator print is just perfect, and we are glad to have it.
Have a great trip and we will chat more here once you get back.

Following! Great arrival day! The chilli dogs look great!

They actually were better than they looked. This is one area where BC beat WL, because I didn’t enjoy any of the items at Roaring Fork as much as that chili dog. I’d have one right now if I could. Thanks for following!

 

[clapton]

Love your trip reports! I just read the May trip with you and your daughter. So great to spend one on one time together. I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to the January one!! We were there in Nov. and will be heading back in May. Can’t wait!!

 

[KPeterso]

Joining in. Would love to know more about the Mears Connect experience that Jon and Brandy had. I am torn what to do (Mears Connect vs Sunshine Flyer vs Uber/Lyft) when I go next month.

 

[tara595]

Joining in - I LOVE Wilderness Lodge but have only visited BC. Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I need to go there during festival of the arts one year! Except id spend every ounce of money i had on artwork lol

 

[starousse]

Joining in.....WL is our favorite and "home" resort but we were thinking of doing split stay between WL and Yacht Club this summer just for a different scenery and to check out Stormalong. Would you recommend?

 

[snikki]

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

That artwork is perfect to be in your office. My favorite ride is ToT so I of course love it.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Love your trip reports! I just read the May trip with you and your daughter. So great to spend one on one time together. I really enjoyed it! Looking forward to the January one!! We were there in Nov. and will be heading back in May. Can’t wait!!

Welcome, and thanks for the kind words. Hopefully we will help you pass the time before your trip. It was great to have the one on one trip, but was great for all of us to be back together as well.

Joining in. Would love to know more about the Mears Connect experience that Jon and Brandy had. I am torn what to do (Mears Connect vs Sunshine Flyer vs Uber/Lyft) when I go next month.

Jon and Brandy arrived 45 minutes after us to MCO, and then walked down to the buses and didn't have to wait too long to get on a bus, but then they sat on the bus longer than usual. Once they left they had five stops before BC, so they arrived to BC right at two hours after we did. On the way home they had an early pickup (from WL) and a direct trip, so it is still luck of the draw.
If you have four or more people in your party I would highly recommend Black Diamond Transportation for an SUV, which for us was $133 each way. The limo was a splurge, but fun to do for the kids. Sunshine Flyer hadn't started yet for us, but Marshall saw video of it and is quite interested in trying it sometime.

Joining in - I LOVE Wilderness Lodge but have only visited BC. Can't wait to keep reading!

We also had only visited BC before this trip, and had wanted to stay in the Epcot area since our Honeymoon in 2007. It was a great resort to stay at and we all really enjoyed it. For us it still isn't WL though, which just feels like home.

I need to go there during festival of the arts one year! Except id spend every ounce of money i had on artwork lol

Your dilemma foreshadows the rest of our trip... We brought home a lot more art than we had planned on... We do love the festival though, and meeting the artists is awesome, albeit a little expensive at times.

Joining in.....WL is our favorite and "home" resort but we were thinking of doing split stay between WL and Yacht Club this summer just for a different scenery and to check out Stormalong. Would you recommend?

If you don't mind a split stay, I would highly recommend YC or BC paired with WL. Some people don't want to break up their trip, and that was the only down side we experienced is we didn't get to settle in to a single room for 9 nights. The resort didn't have the "homey" feel that WL does for us, but the location was great. Epcot is our favorite park and being able to just walk in was great. We planned our schedule to focus on Epcot and HS when we were at BC, but we did MK (and Epcot) from both resorts.
As for Stormalong bay, we aren't the biggest pool people during our WDW trips, but the kids do enjoy it. The quiet pools were great for the girls trip in May, and they preferred them to Stormalong Bay for most of their pool time. In our opinion it doesn't quite live up to the hype, and the lazy river is just a loop in the middle among a series of other pools, but it is massive and deserves recognition as the best resort feature pool. The slide is big and fun, but it is weird to have to exit the pool area completely to get on it. Our kids were big enough to go do it on their own, but for Marshall it was just barely, and we were watching him closely. Depending on the ages of your kids and how involved you are in their pool time it could be fun or a bit of a pain.
Overall it is a great resort and we wouldn't hesitate to stay there again or recommend it.

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

That artwork is perfect to be in your office. My favorite ride is ToT so I of course love it.

Thanks! I took the Tower of Terror print in to the office today and got comments on it in the first few minutes. Everybody loved it. We are looking forward to sharing the trip with everybody too.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[KPeterso]

Jon and Brandy arrived 45 minutes after us to MCO, and then walked down to the buses and didn't have to wait too long to get on a bus, but then they sat on the bus longer than usual. Once they left they had five stops before BC, so they arrived to BC right at two hours after we did. On the way home they had an early pickup (from WL) and a direct trip, so it is still luck of the draw.
If you have four or more people in your party I would highly recommend Black Diamond Transportation for an SUV, which for us was $133 each way. The limo was a splurge, but fun to do for the kids. Sunshine Flyer hadn't started yet for us, but Marshall saw video of it and is quite interested in trying it sometime.

Thanks for the additional info on Jon and Brandy's trip on Mears Connect. It seems all options can be kind of hit or miss. In March, I am solo, so does not make sense to go with a limo. I might consider it in September when we will be 3 adults.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I always enjoy reading your trip reports and I look forward to this one as well.

 

[dmbcanada]

Really want to stay at BCV, have to save some $

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Welcome, and enjoy the show...

Thanks for the additional info on Jon and Brandy's trip on Mears Connect. It seems all options can be kind of hit or miss. In March, I am solo, so does not make sense to go with a limo. I might consider it in September when we will be 3 adults.

Yeah, just like Disney buses, it seems to depend on your luck. Overall, any way to get to Disney is a good one.

I always enjoy reading your trip reports and I look forward to this one as well.

Thanks so much for the kind comment, and for joining in once again.

Really want to stay at BCV, have to save some $

It is a great resort. For this stay we did the BCV portion with a point rental from David's Vacation Rentals. It helped compared to the Disney direct pricing, and allowed us to save our points for the WL stay, since we were limited by the 50% borrowing restriction.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

So after the insanely long arrival day I was not super eager to get outta bed.

I on the other hand got up just after 6 AM and took a shower then left the room about 6:30 AM. I got some pictures around the resort, and walked all around the convention center to Yacht Club, where I arrived in time to take sunrise pictures of the Boardwalk.






He took a TON of pictures, even some of me sleeping, I won't be sharing those.





I caught the sunrise from the transportation pier / boat dock.





Then I walked over towards Epcot and got some more shots.




I then walked back toward the room and got there by 7:50. I had already done quite a bit of walking.


Since everyone was still asleep I started uploading some pictures, and I decided to try and call for a Fireworks Cruise reservation. The regular recreation line said the wait time was 90 minutes, so I called the DVC number and it said the wait was 37 minutes so I stayed on hold.
When I got through they had availability for the next day, which was my birthday. Everyone slowly got up and ready, and then we left the room about 10:15.

We were headed for a morningish at Magic Kingdom.


We got to the bus stop at 10:30 and a bus came at 10:34, then we got to MK at 10:51. We walked hapily down Main Street and looked for the castle Dooney, but had no luck.


Ugh, that bag is so pretty. It was the second thing of the trip I was looking forward to that was sold out. I have no desire for a popcorn bucket though. Our first ride stop was Pirates. The line was kinda long but the crowds were out in force. A big difference from our January the previous year.

We continued on towards Pirates, and got in line at 11:10 and then on the ride at 11:38.
Fortunately the line moved pretty fast, since the queue was pretty full.


After Pirates we walked towards Haunted Mansion, but the line was really long so we didn't have enough time to ride it before lunch. Instead we hopped on the river boat.



Marshall was loving the boat, I think Allie enjoyed it too. We let her just go whereever she wanted but told her to get off when the boat stopped.

I walked all around the boat with Marshall, and we played king of the world up on the bow and checked out the engine room area.


It was a fun time, and is something we don't usually take the time to do. WHen the ride was over the timing was perfect for us to walk over to Liberty Tree Tavern for our ADR.


It didn't take long for our table to be ready. They seated us in the Thomas Jefferson room.

We really debated this ADR but the food is solid, comforting, and something everyone loves.


Plus Marshall can get all of the mac and cheese he can eat.


The food here is always a favorite, and it seems to be a great fit for the first day. Our waiter this time was a little slow, and we had to clean up a Marshall drink spill on our own, but the food didn't disapoint. My favorite thing here though is the dessert, and we all had as much Oohey Gooey Toffee Cake as we could fit after a big lunch.


Ah yes I forgot about the spill. I asked for extra napkins because we had a spill and he brought two and then left again. Super helpful.

Overall it was a minor annoyance as part of an otherwise great meal. I do think it was the worst service of the trip, which means we were well taken care of later...

Check out the rest of our first full day in the next update.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

https://kastlephotography.zenfolio.com/p473244208/h17580204#h17580204
This picture stands out to me as exceptionally well-composed! Nice job.

Did you use the Genie service on this trip?

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Loving this report! I forgot if you mentioned in your here right now report if you used Genie+ and lightning lane at all? If so what were your thoughts?

 

[rdkeim]

Love the early morning pictures! Must have been nice for you to have different scenery to capture. A relaxed start to your day. I love LTT - we have a reservation there for our early March trip. I think it will be a hit for our group! I also wonder if you used Genie +? I purchased it for our trip but am not happy about it.....

 

[GrandCalifornian]

https://kastlephotography.zenfolio.com/p473244208/h17580204#h17580204
This picture stands out to me as exceptionally well-composed! Nice job.

Did you use the Genie service on this trip?

I liked that one too. Everybody has their favorites, and it is fun to get up and go take them. Later days weren't as good since it was more cloudy and overcast.

We did use Genie + on two days and were generally not impressed. The regular Genie service didn't seem to offer us anything of value, since we know what's there and what we might want to do. I will cover it more later, but the Genie + did not work as well as Fastpass did for us, because we don't tend to spend all day in the park, and it requires that you make decisions quickly and early, but you can't schedule out a day like you used to be able to, you have to wait to see what you can get once you use your first lightning lane or after two hours passes. It was a scheduling pain for us.

Loving this report! I forgot if you mentioned in your here right now report if you used Genie+ and lightning lane at all? If so what were your thoughts?

Thanks, we are glad you joined in. We will discuss Genie + more when we got to the days where we used it, but like I mentioned above we generally were not impressed. It is more similar to the old Disneyland paper Fastpass system where you can only hold one (or maybe two with the 2 hour rule) at a time, and it didn't work well for us. You have to be up, online and and lucky at 7AM to get your first one, and then it is a race to see what you can get after that. We did not feel we got our money's worth out of it, but others who do parks differently may be able to optimize it.

Love the early morning pictures! Must have been nice for you to have different scenery to capture. A relaxed start to your day. I love LTT - we have a reservation there for our early March trip. I think it will be a hit for our group! I also wonder if you used Genie +? I purchased it for our trip but am not happy about it.....

Thanks, and yes it was fun to be somewhere else early in the morning. I don't think it is quite as pretty as WL, but it is still very nice and there's lots to see in the early morning when it is still quiet.
LTT should be wonderful, and everyone should enjoy the food. You can't go wrong with quality comfort food, especially when it is all you can eat.
Yeah, we are not happy with Genie + either. It seemed like a lot of money to get you just a few "fastpasses" that you can't even schedule out ahead of time. I felt extra pressure having to make quick decisions at 7AM that affected the whole group for the rest of the day. We did not wind up paying extra for any single attraction Lightning lanes, because they were already booked out into the late afternoon when I looked at them shortly after 7AM. We still got to ride most of what we wanted and never waited too long, but we had much better luck with getting to the parks early and taking advantage of the extra half hour for resort guests in order to make it on rides without an insane wait.

 

[nascargirl]

So loving your report. Beach Club and BWI are our favorite 2 resorts.