Fun, Food, Fantasmic!

Day 7 and we headed to Hollywood Studios at 8:30am for 9am opening. It's such a nice walk from the Beach Club to this park and we always arrive before a servicing boat. We had just a few must do's to accomplish on our last day at this park so we planned our schedule and got to it! We saw Muppet Vision 3D, Beauty and the Beast live show, The Great Movie Ride, and Lights Motors Action before heading back to the room to freshen up for our dinner reservations in Epcot. Ally passed out for a nap on the walk back so we let her sleep and walked to Epcot for a cocktail in France since we had a little extra peace to enjoy it. The view from World Showcase Lagoon was amazing, and the added drink was fantastic.  Jace kept occupied with a sucker. We forgot to grab pants for the kids for the evening since it gets cooler and Ally is sensitive to cold (aka, complains a lot about being cold if it's less than 75 degrees), so we walked the 5 minutes back to the resort to take care of that.

 Ally wanted her picture taken with Ariel in front of our Villa building

 View of Hollywood Studios on our walk from the Beach Club

 Back alley area of Hollywood Studios

Jace asked for "more more" so Ally helped him get some applesauce. She can be so sweet when she feels so moved!

 Napping for 2 hours and NEVER letting go of the ever-important sucker

 The sucker monster mess

 View of Epcot's France as we come to the back entrance, from Beach Club.

 Pretend smile and the beautiful Grand Marnier Slush

Ahhhh, the good stuff


Our dinner reservation was at 5:50pm at Les Chefs de France and we knew we'd be cutting it close to get to Fantasmic's 8pm show at Hollywood Studios. We got there at 5:15 and they sat us IMMEDIATELY. Thank goodness because I always forget how leisurely that restaurant experience is. No complaints, we love how relaxed it is and we never feel rushed to turn the table and it never feels like a long time (for us...we like slower meals). Our food was wonderful, as always here and our server, Baptiste, was probably the best server we'd had all week. He was totally engaging and interactive with the kids. I had the shrimp and scallops like I always do and Ryan did the 3 course option. He chose the french onion soup, the macaroni gratin, and I had his dessert option, profiteroles. YUM all around!

 Ally: "Take a picture of you and me Mommy!"

Oh. My. Gah.

It was 7 when we left Epcot for the walk to Hollywood Studios and again we beat the boat coming from the same location. We walked right in to the Hollywood Hills Theater and found seats on the far left side of the set. There really isn't a bad view in that theater, except maybe the standing only area in the back. Ally talked all the way through the show and pointed out every single character based on the music she heard before seeing them. The woman sitting in front of us turned to her pre-teen girls and said, "She's a professional." HA! We're so proud. ;-) Ally gets so excited with the characters and points them out, then waves...so cute! Jace slept through the entire event. We waited on the bleachers to let the crowds thin a bit. No sense it trying to hurry out when we had Fast Passes for Toy Story Midway Mania still and Extra Magic Hours had just begun! Not leaving the park just yet!

Ryan and I have a running competition on both this as Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. He beat me, we think (not sure if we recalled the numbers correctly since they were so drastically different), on Buzz Lightyear so we'd been trash-talking all week about Toy Story. This ride is regularly an 80-90 minute wait even in lighter crowds so this was our only chance to catch it. No do overs for this, unfortunately. Final scores, Ryan: 151,400, accuracy 37%; Tara: 146,000, accuracy 36%. Poop. Next year, baby, next year. I guess I'll have to play our Wii version a little more and train for the next rematch!

We wandered to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights and this was pure Christmas bliss! I've been saying all week that I've been really underwhelmed by Disney's Christmas decor. It's just not what I pictured WDW to look like during the holiday season. I expected it to look almost as thought Christmas threw up all over The World, but tastefully Disney-done. This light display was so in-your-face, over-the-top, Christmas-awesomeness! Not acceptable Resort wide but absolutely invigorating for a couple blocks worth! Ally insisted we dance while the dancing lights soundtrack played all around us and Jace wasn't about to miss out on some shakin' so he got in on it too!

 No detail overlooked!

If you're not familiar with this lighting display, Google it. The story behind it is fascinating. It's inspired by a real family with this type of show on their house/lawn!

The day done, the kids out for the count and our moving day tomorrow. Epcot and then to the Polynesian we go!

The Good, The Bad, The Sickly

Here I am, Day 3, sitting on what has been officially named "The Awesome Balcony", deciding to give in and call this day a bust. *sigh* Long story short, both kids have been throwing up since 5am yet acting absolutely normal. All very bizarre. Ryan had a bout of it at midnight but has been fine since that one time, and I seem to have been spared...so far. Not sure if it was the food at dinner last night or a bug wreaking havoc but our day hasn't gone well.

Ryan and I had breakfast of School Bread we picked up at Norway in Epcot last night, and coffee on The Awesome Balcony while the kids slept in. This was about the highlight of the day.

The kids seemed fine by about 9am when they woke up so we decided to be risky and head out for a walk to Hollywood Studios and see how it went. Made it there and through the Great Movie Ride and that was it. Walked back to the resort with the sickies and have been hanging out ever since. Ryan and I had some not awesome counter service flat bread pizza and the kiddos are now napping. I sure hope this passes soon. Stomach issues in Disney World is probably my worst vacation nightmare. The saving grace here is, the kids aren't acting like they're miserable (no good when my babies feel yucky) and, this was a calm day on our plans. We only anticipated a half day at Hollywood Studios and dinner reservations at Via Napoli tonight in Italy at Epcot but I'm going to venture a guess that will be canceled. Oh well. At least we have 6 more full days and lots of fun still to be had. It has to get better from here, right?

No exciting pictures from today but still super cute.

While I have very little to share from today, I figured I'd talk about our thoughts and opinions on Disney's Beach Club Villas and a few other things we've noticed since arriving.

Ryan and I agree we prefer the Wilderness Lodge, and it took a lot for us to admit that. It's not that there's anything wrong with the Beach Club, it's unrelated to the theming or rooms but more just feeling we aren't getting. We love the location but the resort seems to be lacking something special. Not sure what that is or how to describe it. We also find the counter service options to be sub par and minimal. While we aren't the owning members of this Vacation Club Resort, we did kind of expect to still hear "Welcome Home" from Cast Members; they don't know we aren't members, only that we are Disney guests. Hasn't happened. We really haven't gotten much in the general friendliness area from Cast Members. The gal at our concierge desk and the gal that did Jace's haircut seemed downright unhappy to be where they were. The nicest people we've spoken to have been from Mousekeeping. On the up side, the rooms are much quieter than we anticipated. I'd read reviews that you can hear every single noise through the thin walls and we haven't noticed that at all. The beds and pillows are surprisingly comfortable, even the fold out sofa sleeper. Our room is an appropriate size but it doesn't fit our family of 4 as well as it would fit 4 adults. We have the sleeper sofa out for Ally and a Pack n Play style crib for Jace and those take up the majority of the room. A major observation is the lack of storage. I always unpack our suitcases since we're here for a full 8 or 9-day week and suitcases take up too much space. There are only 4 small drawers under the TV that barely fit my clothes and the kids'. Ryan's clothes ended up on a high shelf in the closet and on top of the TV stand. The foyer/entry area seems to be a terrible waste of valuable space but the rest of the studio is a nice layout. Lastly, for some reason, I expected to have double sinks in the vanity area and it's only a single. Maybe I had the 1 bedroom stuck in my head. Not a big deal since I'm almost always ready before anyone else needs it but it would be nice.

The other odd and not-like-Disney thing we noticed was the large number of twinkle lights that were burned out on the buildings in World Showcase in Epcot. We've never known Disney to let such a detail slide! We have also seen trash on the grounds which is unheard of in our experiences. Flukes? Maybe. I hope so. We know how much Disney prides itself on unwavering customer service and having every detail just so; it's one of the silent pieces that make Disney such a magical place.

Sorry for the negativity in today's report...some days are just like that. Send us some good vibes if you've got any to spare. ;-)

Tomorrow will be better! We'll be off to Epcot for the first part of the day and Magic Kingdom for the evening!