VWL Groupies & Lovers Thread (Special Collectors Edition 2.0) updated 21 June 2023

I think I have to stick on the baseball and championship talk for a moment @Granny , @sleepydog25 and @jimmytammy . I have plenty of recollection of St. Louis Cardinals doing just fine in what I'd call fairly recent years. Yes, 8 years since they won their last WS and another 5 years I think before that. With 30 teams that ain't so bad. IMO. Braves are not too far ahead of us though Jimmy!

So let's talk Minnesota:
Hockey Stanley cups? Zero Hockey. In Minnesota. Zero. At one time I think half the NHL players came from Minnesota!
Football Super Bowl Championships? Zero.
Basketball? One has to go back to the Lakers before they headed for sunny So. Cal.
For Twins fans - 28 years.
Who wants to one up me on these?! (I guess we'll probably lose to someone on this too! :rotfl:) :eeyore:

Yay for the Minnesota Lynx though!
 
I think I have to stick on the baseball and championship talk for a moment @Granny , @sleepydog25 and @jimmytammy . I have plenty of recollection of St. Louis Cardinals doing just fine in what I'd call fairly recent years. Yes, 8 years since they won their last WS and another 5 years I think before that. With 30 teams that ain't so bad. IMO. Braves are not too far ahead of us though Jimmy!

So let's talk Minnesota:
Hockey Stanley cups? Zero Hockey. In Minnesota. Zero. At one time I think half the NHL players came from Minnesota!
Football Super Bowl Championships? Zero.
Basketball? One has to go back to the Lakers before they headed for sunny So. Cal.
For Twins fans - 28 years.
Who wants to one up me on these?! (I guess we'll probably lose to someone on this too! :rotfl:) :eeyore:

I will never whine about the Cardinals not winning. We've been very spoiled by them. But I agree that is a pretty long drought for Minnesota in the "big four" sports. I'll happily cheer them on in future playoffs! :banana:



Yay for the Minnesota Lynx though!

I'd say so! The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. So since this is an odd year, I guess they're due again! :)
 
I will never whine about the Cardinals not winning. We've been very spoiled by them. But I agree that is a pretty long drought for Minnesota in the "big four" sports. I'll happily cheer them on in future playoffs! :banana:





I'd say so! The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. So since this is an odd year, I guess they're due again! :)

Thank you Granny! We need all the cheers we can get!!!

That would be awesome for the Lynx but like all good franchise runs they have had their top stars aging and retiring. Never say never but odds are very much against them to continue that streak. It was fun while it lasted though!
 
I think I have to stick on the baseball and championship talk for a moment @Granny , @sleepydog25 and @jimmytammy . I have plenty of recollection of St. Louis Cardinals doing just fine in what I'd call fairly recent years. Yes, 8 years since they won their last WS and another 5 years I think before that. With 30 teams that ain't so bad. IMO. Braves are not too far ahead of us though Jimmy!

So let's talk Minnesota:
Hockey Stanley cups? Zero Hockey. In Minnesota. Zero. At one time I think half the NHL players came from Minnesota!
Football Super Bowl Championships? Zero.
Basketball? One has to go back to the Lakers before they headed for sunny So. Cal.
For Twins fans - 28 years.
Who wants to one up me on these?! (I guess we'll probably lose to someone on this too! :rotfl:) :eeyore:

Yay for the Minnesota Lynx though!
True enough! I've been around long enough to know who started for them in the mid-60s and to totally dislike the name Denkinger. :headache: However, it's the standards to which one grows accustomed. I do wish Tarkenton had won a Super Bowl as I liked him a lot.
 




True enough! I've been around long enough to know who started for them in the mid-60s and to totally dislike the name Denkinger. :headache: However, it's the standards to which one grows accustomed. I do wish Tarkenton had won a Super Bowl as I liked him a lot.
KAT, I was a Tarkenton fan too growing up. I have a soft spot for the Vikings(until, they play the Skins or the Panthers:teeth:). I got the pleasure of seeing them against the Panthers final game of the season a few yrs back when Brett Favre was the QB. It may as well have been played in MN as it was a very cold night, by NC standards. But a thrill to see an old school NFL team, along with the Gunslinger in action!
 
Been checking in on the groupies. I guess I really need to brush up on hockey. No idea what you people are talking about! :teeth: Congrats to Granny on his team though! Happy Belated to Father's Day to all the groupie dads. DH had a pretty good day. I always struggle with what to get him, because he tells me he needs something and then promptly goes out and buys it! I did pull a big surprise off though this year. We have been saying for years that our home office needed help. It was a hodgepodge of furniture and other assorted junk. I secretly ordered an entire office set, a desk, 2 bookshelves, and printer stand online. My middle DD helped me pick it out. It was delivered on Thursday while DH was at work. Of course it ALL had to be assembled. We moved all the boxes into two of my daughters bedrooms and assembled most of it on Thursday and Friday while DH was at work. Saturday while he was completing a bike race, we pulled everything out of the office and put all the new stuff in. He had no idea and was so surprised. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out too. Of course, it's sort of my office too. At least I won't rush to shut the door every time company comes to the house.

Did anyone see the post on instagram about the possible removal of Country Bear Jamboree? They mentioned a possible Toy Story show in its place. Not sure how I feel about it. It kind of makes me sad to see another "oldie" attraction go by the wayside, but then I couldn't tell you the last time I stopped to go in and watch the show. Same type of thing with Tiki Birds, haven't watched it in years. I have incredible memories of watching Country Bears with my family as a little girl. My favorite part was when the cute little girl bear would drop down on her swing from the ceiling. I will never walk by Tiki Birds without thinking of taking my aunt to WDW for the first time. She was probably in her 50's then. I can remember her singing along, "Let's all sing like the birdies sing." My mom and I laughed so hard at her. We still talk about it to this day. But I don't think my kids have the love for these old attractions like I do. They love the rides and tolerate some of the shows with me.

Oh and one more thing, the trip to DLP is going to happen. I haven't booked anything yet, but we'll be there the end of March.
 
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Erin...what a great Father's Day present for your husband! And going to the effort of assembling it in secret...I'm sure that was no small task! Very nice, and I'm sure you'll enjoy your new office environment a lot. :)

As for the Country Bear Jamboree...I see this article on WDW News Today site: Country Bear Jamboree going bye bye?

I'm not sure why they would make yet another Toy Story attraction. Seems like they've leveraged that movie plenty already. I guess they sat around and tried to figure out what would fit in Frontierland and could only come up with Woody & Jessie and of course old Bullseye.

I agree completely that we haven't stepped foot in Country Bear Jamboree for a few years now. It is an iconic show, but clearly very "old school". Hopefully they will do a great job with whatever goes in there. I will definitely miss their rendition of "Blood on the Saddle". :)
 
This is sad news. I love CBJ. Its a part of Disney history. I know Walt said the parks should be ever changing and if he were alive today he very well may say its time has come for the bears. But I love the history of the company, and its old school attractions in the parks. Along with the new, fascinating, thrilling attractions, the old, the cheesy, has a place too.
We frequent CBJ as its a cool spot in the heat, its always attainable and its got Big Al. What else do we need?
 
You're thinking like me JT... I'm hoping that rumor about CBJ is just that: rumor. Disney has many attractions that should be re-worked and upgraded (Journey into imagination and speedway), but CBJ is not one of them particularly in the Florida heat when families need a cool, quiet place to sit back and be entertained at the spur of the moment. Changing it up for popularity's sake goes against that.
 
I had been subscribed to the thread about the AP preview for SWGE and just went to check out all the new activitiy on that. EXPLOSION!!! Did you all see the AP price increases WDW threw up over night? $200 increase on a platinum and $90 on a Gold (or so people are saying - I didn't verify yet). And I appear to need a Platinum for the next year. :badpc:

I don't know. I had debated and finally decided to sign back up for a Universal AP in April when they had an offer for 18 months. I may start "working" things more and filter in more Universal days. Also had visited Sea World a year and a half ago for the first time in ages and ages and enjoyed it. It was always tough to add those 2 in when adding days at WDW were so cheap but I think it's evened out now and possibly swung the other direction. I guess an ultimate win for me in expanding out a bit. Definitely some reevaluating of the numbers to see how it will work.
 
We got back home on Saturday after 12 nights at the World. Our first 2 nights were non park nights. We stayed at POR for the first time. Really nice resort. We enjoyed it a lot. There were things I would have liked to do that we didn't have time for. We were only there a day and a half - not nearly enough time to fully explore and experience all it has to offer.

Then we transferred to BWV (first stay there as well). We had a really nice 1bedroom overlooking the boardwalk. We were on the 3rd floor right above the Screen Door store. It was a bit noisy a few nights when the performers were there, but they were always finished by 10pm. So it was all good.

We did early morning magic on our first park day and were able to get quite a bit done. The line for 7DMT was longer than I was expecting but we still got to ride it twice. Breakfast was better than I was expecting after reading so many reviews about it. Not it wasn't wonderful, but for what it was - it was pretty good. I thought the eggs were better than what we had in the buffet on a Disney cruise - or maybe I was just really hungry.

We also did DAH at the MK. It was the first Villians night. This we really enjoyed. Everything and I mean everything (we didn't do 7DMT again) we did was a walk on. The longest line of the night was waiting for snacks. We aren't really into all of the character stuff so I can't report on that. However seeing the dragon moving around was pretty cool. The "overlay" on Pirates and Space Mountain were more hype than overlay in my opinion. For Pirates it was just some live pirates that interacted in the line and one on the ride. I didn't go on Space Mountain but Ian and Kylie (our oldest) said it was just pitch black with some spooky laughter. All in all we really enjoyed it and would do it again.

We had some interesting FP issued this trip. We missed Rivers of Light because after about 3-5 minutes the audio just stopped. That was a bummer but we got an anytime FP to use because of it. It took us 4 times with 3 anytime FP to get a ride on Test Track. 3 times because of weather and once because the ride went down. We got an anytime FP because of weather from 7DMT and then the Laugh Floor took it instead of the FP we had booked for it. We didn't realize that until we were back in line for 7DMT and it said we didn't have a FP. The CM looked it up and saw what happened and we were allowed on.

We did try the new Storybook character meal at Artist Point. We were there for right around 90 minutes and not one - NOT ONE single character came by. We were not even told a time to go see the Queen. Our meal was finished and our server asked if we saw all the characters. When we told him we hadn't seen any he told us they would be around shortly. Well we were done and really didn't feel like sitting there waiting so we left. I can't remember what Kylie had but Ian and I both had the steak and it was good. The food was good, Service good. Character interaction - LOL well..... I miss the old Artist Point and even vocalized that to our server. He didn't come right out and say it of course, but we could tell he agreed with the words he used as we were discussing it. So to end this topic on a high note - at least the food was good!

Crowds were lighter than expected with the exception of Pandora and Toy Story land. I think if we had young kids we would have liked Toy Story land more. As is though - we didn't linger. We used our FP's and left.

All in all it was a good trip. We enjoyed both POR and BWV. Of course neither come close to touching our heart like our beloved lodge but it was a nice change. We would stay at both again.

It is nice to be home. We were gone 15 days total with travel days included. I missed my dogs and was worried about my newest hobby - my freshwater fish tanks. Both are fine. Now as I sit here I am missing WDW and I am really missing the mattress on that bed at BWV! I think in my next life I need to be filthy rich so I can afford a house in Golden Oaks. I could have my pets and Disney at the same time.
 
@DVC Jen Glad to hear you had a wonderful trip despite some snafus along the way. I would have been totally miffed had we not gotten any character interaction. To be fair, I have no intentions of ever setting foot in AP again as long as it's a character meal. It's emotional reasoning that makes me say that, but what is Disney if not overly emotional in its appeal? Glad all the other things worked out for you.

@KAT4DISNEY Yeah, read about the increases. Hmmm. I know Disney is a business, and they're in it to make money. I don't want to gripe too much, but they're price increases for darn near everything have been a non-stop assault on pocketbooks. Whereas they feel the need to earn billions in profits each year, I can tell you my wages and retirement plans can't keep up. Eventually, I think we're going to have to say goodbye. We still have another 2, maybe 3 years left of wish list trips we want to take (such as our Disney holiday cruise this year), but after that, we're seriously considering dumping Disney and exploring new adventures. How many percent has Disney raised just ticket prices the past five years vice how much have they expanded the parks? But, that's life in the business world. Like Jen, on a kinder note, we're headed to HHI in just a few weeks and really looking forward to the fresh seafood there.
 
Ok - have to be fair to Disney. Looks like the increase for DVC Platinum pass was only $150. It's $225 for non-DVC/FL.
I've been entertained (bad word?) by these changes to pricing. We all know what Disney is thinking ... Star Wars, changes to Epcot, WDW's 50th... cha-ching!
I'm curious though ... have they really gone overboard on this one? Will they be able to sustain the value for the price being demanded? Are they alienating too many AP holders with this change?

Being honest with myself here, I don't see how I'll be able to afford going into the parks for much longer, not if I plan on treating my family to passes as I always have.
I have a small handful of tickets and passes left. When they're gone I'm also in the group that may have to bid the parks adios.

Maybe the best move is to move to Florida and work for the mouse in my retirement, that way I earn benefits to be able to go in and enjoy the parks every so often.
 
Now as I sit here I am missing WDW and I am really missing the mattress on that bed at BWV! I think in my next life I need to be filthy rich so I can afford a house in Golden Oaks. I could have my pets and Disney at the same time.

LOL Jen! I would love it too...we could be neighbors! Sounds like you had a great trip!
 
Hi Groupies :wave:

I came on the boards to say that yesterday we sold our last DVC contract. Reading the past couple of posts sounds like the Mouse may be out pricing their biggest fans. Sad really. We (Mr Muush) were reminiscing last night about all the great vacations we had at VWL. I'm not sure if we will ever even see Boulder Creek or whatever they call it. I guess we are just too set in our ways! But we have all of those great memories and especially the times when we had meets down there. Remember the time we had an honored guest; Ranger Stan? That was so much fun.

Happy trails to all at the Lodge and everywhere!
 
Hi Groupies :wave:

I came on the boards to say that yesterday we sold our last DVC contract. Reading the past couple of posts sounds like the Mouse may be out pricing their biggest fans. Sad really. We (Mr Muush) were reminiscing last night about all the great vacations we had at VWL. I'm not sure if we will ever even see Boulder Creek or whatever they call it. I guess we are just too set in our ways! But we have all of those great memories and especially the times when we had meets down there. Remember the time we had an honored guest; Ranger Stan? That was so much fun.

Happy trails to all at the Lodge and everywhere!


Having been a WDW visitor since 1980 and DVC for 12 of those years, I can’t see myself giving Disney any more of my money than I have to. The times they are a changin
 

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