Day 1
Sept 16, 2023
We walk to
Alan’s car, it has a larger back area. I
sit in the back, they left me a semi frozen water, but I had plenty to drink on
the train.
Moderate
traffic to get into the Disney bubble.
Virginia is helping Alan driving, telling him where to navigate. We soon are heading to the main road to the
Contemporary and BLT. This includes
going underneath a famous water bridge, that connects Seven Seas Lagoon to Bay
Lake. Bay Lake is a naturally lake. Seven Seas Lagoon is Disney made. Later on you will see in some videos when
going on a boat to the Wilderness Lodge, the boat coasts over the water bridge
to make less stress on the bridge.
When I ordered the scooter, one question I asked, do you deliver directly to
BLT or to the Contemporary. They just
gave me a address, I don’t know which is which, but not really important. The important question is, is BLT its own
resort right next to the Contemporary, or is it considered part of the
Contemporary. Well, the road we are
taking, just has a sign for right turn to the Contemporary. There is another parking lot entrance past
the turn off, but when we get there, its for cast members only. So we turn around, cant make the left turn
towards the Contemporary, so we go before the water bridge, make another U
turn, head towards the Contemporary, which gets us to the gate. I am sitting in the back on the driver side,
so I open my window, give them my name and such, we are permitted to go
there. Soon after the gate, we make a
left turn towards the BLT. Knowing what
happened last time, I doubt my room will be ready.
I leave the
luggage in their car. We head to BLT,
everyone loves to say Welcome Home, the mantra of DVC. I bought DVC, Disney Vacation Club, earlier
this year. This is my Welcome Home
visit, my first planned trip.
Walking into the resort, I see my scooter, but I will get it later. Underneath the overhang, they leave scooters
and such for guests. I will walk a bit
in Epcot. Like I figured, my room isn’t
ready. They looked over my documents,
they have my cell number, and I confirm that my AP, Annual Pass, is connected
to my account. They also tell me the
bell services kiosk has the key to the scooter.
Will get it later.
Off we go to Epcot. First.. almost
unbelievable, the only camera I take is my smartphone, and my hip camera.
To get to Epcot from BLT, we will take the elevator to the 5th
floor, where there is a foot bridge over to the Contemporary. From there, take one monorail to the Ticket
& Transportation Center to catch the Epcot monorail.
Photo of the
Magic Kingdom from the Skybridge.
With no
large backpack full of cameras, I walk right through the bag check to get on
the monorail. I wont be doing this
often. We make it to TTC and just missed
the Epcot Monorail. After waiting a
couple of minutes, we board monorail green.
We make it
to the gate… and when I see….
Spaceship
Earth.. I am truly at Walt Disney World 😉 Epcot is a acronym for
Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.
Years ago, there was so much construction going on, people jokingly said
Plywood, not Prototype. Same thing
happening today. They changed the names
for the sections of the parks. What I
called Future World, they are building a Moana walk through section. That whole area is currently blocked with
tall plywood fencing.
I have DAS, I need to add Virginia and Alan to my DAS account. Walking by Guest Services, the line is very
long, they suggest us to find a blue umbrella, they can do that. There is a bit of a line here. Alan goes to find a place to sit down and
wait. Wait wasn’t too long. I explained what I needed done. She scanned my Magic Band, then Virginias and
Alans AP. We decide to get a snack, but
where? Something new for me, a new
restaurant called Connections Eatery. I
get a vaniila shake. Also first use of
my Disney Visa Reward card. I believe I
have almost $800 to use on the reward card. I seem to have a bit of a wait,
felt like they were serving others.. maybe forgetting about me?? I think the woman made the wrong flavor for
me, told someone to put it aside, then made mine.
Virginia and
Alan share some fries. Hard to find a
place to sit, but we do find three chairs near each other. At first I was sitting at a different table,
but someone left next to them, so I moved.
Interesting thing about the tables, built in cell phone chargers.
I did take a
USB charger with me, to charge my cell phone.
After our snack, we head over to Imagination pavilion, we ride Journey
into Imagination. We try to get into the
DVC lounge, but there is a line, and telling people there is a 40 minute
wait. We pass for now.
We head
towards Spaceship Earth. No scooter, so
we will use DAS and normal lightening lane line. When we enter the line queue, it wasn’t
moving. We were told the ride is
currently not working, but they expect it to be working again shortly. Once the ride was working, it was minutes to
board the ride.
Then we head
to Living with the Land in The Land pavilion.
I have a ADR (Advanced Dining Reservation) for Coral Reef at 4 pm. But its for 1. I never changed it to include Virginia and
Alan. No big deal, but I change the
amount of people from 1 to 3. We still
check in early at 3:30. We are seated
right by the tank.
Menu hasn’t changed since the last time I was here in April, no apperizers that
interest me. I just get….. well not
steak, prime rib 😉
The main
reason I eat here, is for the dessert, chocolate cake with liquid chocolate in
the middle.
While
eating, I get a text message saying my room is ready.
After
eating, we head back to BLT, first Green
monorail again back to TTC.
Then get on Peach on the resort monorail loop, getting off at
the Contemporary.
Getting off the
monorail at the Contemporary, I snap a photo of the infamous 5 legged goat.
Its always a
good sign when your magic band opens your door.
I check out the room real quick, very large, especially for one
person. We head back down, get my
luggage from Alan’s car. While there, i
bought some Coney Island t-shirts before I left new York as a present for
taking me and from the train station to the hotel. I give them the shirts. I also surprised them with a 6 pack of
Bialys. While everyone craves New York
bagels, Bialys is more of a delicacy, a cross between a English muffin and a
bagel. Alan grabs a baggage cart. Kind
of surprised, I am handling the luggage.
I place all the pieces on the cart, bring it upstairs. I also grab the
scooter. Not the type I am familiar that
I rented before. Specificly, the one I
had had led’s to indicate charge. This
one has a meter. At least it has the sunshade. On the way down, someone from bell services
sees the cart, just tells us to leave it outside by the elevator. Then we headed to the food court, Contempo
Café to get my refillable mug.
Virginia
gets one too. She also gets a soda
bottle shapped like hunchback Donald Duck.
Cute, will get it in the future.
After a bit,
we part company, I head back to the room, I will see them in a couple of days
for a dessert party. Here are some 360
photos of my room.
Livingroom
As you can
see, already semi unpacking 😊 bedroom
The bedroom
has sliding glass doors to the balcony.
There is also a door to the balcony from the living room. There is also another TV in the bedoom. There are sliding panels so you can sit in
the jet tub and watch TV. Really like
that idea. Here is a photo of the Master
bathroom
Here is the
second part of the bathroom, toilet bowl and shower stall.
Here is the
second bathroom, which I call the guest bathroom 😊
And finally
the balcony
End of day 1