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

[sleepydog25]

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

 

[horselover]

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

Have a great trip!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

Safe travels and have a great trip Sleepy and Luv!

 

[Flossbolna]

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

Have a safe trip and lots of fun at WDW with the other Groupies!

 

[Granny]

The pool work was moving along. They had the posts set for another cabana (just off the VWL bend) and I did not notice this before, but the tops of the cabanas have brown corrugated steel with the "Boulder Ridge" name and mountain logo on them.

That makes the cabanas better themed than the refurbed rooms at VWL!!!

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

Sleepy...Godspeed for your travels and see you in a week!

 

[ArielSRL]

The real kicker is the increase in the insurance premium until the next fender bender

Tell me about it. I'm no teenager (43 to be exact) and had an accident last April where my SUV flipped and was totalled. They claim it was my fault, which maybe technically it was as I was turning left while someone was coming straight, but the light had turned red (he didn't see me turning and gunned it to make it through the light), so it probably should've been classified as no fault, but whatever. To make a short story long, my insurance premium went up 50%. Rough on the old pocketbook....

Oh, and I remember that my younger brother got kicked off our family insurance when we were in college, but its because the doofus got TWO DUIs. Glad he learned his lesson early on before he hurt anyone, but geez, I really thought he was smarter than that.

We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight

Wave if you go anywhere near Gwinnett County on the way down! And have a great trip!

 

[bobbiwoz]

One last check-in before heading off to the World later this afternoon! I've got things set at work for the person sitting in my seat for the next week, and Luv is packing while I work the last few hours before hitting the road. We'll get to Brunswick, GA, later tonight, then onto Disney Saturday morning. Safe travels to all who will be heading that way, as well, and can't wait to meet some of you on the 5th!

Good morning! Hope your room is ready at check in!

 

[jimmytammy]

Have a great trip Sleepy and Luv!! Safe travels

Julie, so glad your DS is OK!! Its a scary thing for sure when we send our young ones out into the world, then to put them behind the wheel, tell them be careful, only to have someone else not be careful. God had His hands on your DS for sure. On a lighter note, Capt. D(Casey, our DS)had a bad wreck where someone plowed him on the drivers side. It totaled his Chevy S10 truck and had to be towed as the wheel was bent badly, and his door wouldn't open. 1st, I was glad he wasn't hurt, though he did feel some pain for a few days. Like you say, the car can be replaced, the people can't. So Mom tells me as we are going to meet him where tow truck is dropping him off, don't get mad or start being judgy on him. As I said, relief hit me 1st since he was fine. So I get walk up to him and in my best John Candy voice, I say In Planes, Trains and Automobiles fashion, " thats not bad, we can buff that out" and he just smiles

Ariel, Gwinnett Co. huh, you by chance aren't a Braves fan are you? We drive through there on 20 OTW to see the Braves a few times each season. We stay in Alpharetta to keep out of the Atlanta mess as best as possible

 

[Corinne]

Have fun Sleepy & Luv!!!

 

[ErinC]

Julie, sorry about the wreck. So glad he is okay. Can totally relate to teenage wrecks. DD (almost 21 now) has been a magnet for car issues. When she turned 15, she got her permit and 4 days later (on my 40th Birthday) she ran a stop sign and hit a brand new Nissan Rogue. It was the 1st time that she had driven "her" car. We own a body shop and DH had bought her car wrecked and had spent the last few months before her birthday repairing it when he was slow at the shop. So, right back to the body shop it went. When she turned 16, DH was adamant that she get a job, which she did at Chick-fil-A. Her second day of work, someone decided they didn't want to wait in the drive thru and pulled out of line sideswiping my daughter. It was not her fault, but she was so upset about it. Back to the body shop it went. She has been hit 3 times in the parking lot of her college campus (never her fault), only one of those students even left a note. Every time she comes home from school for a break, the car usually spends a few days at the body shop! The worst was last year when she was driving back to college in Arkansas 6 hours from us, but still 2 hours from campus. A semi lost a tire and she hit it. Tore up much of the underside pieces of her car. She was on the side of the rode in nowhereville Arkansas bawling her eyes out to her daddy on the phone. Talk about feeling helpless as a parent. Some Good Samaritan stopped in his church clothes and somehow tied up the loose pieces with an electric extension cord so she could limp back to campus. DH and I had to travel to Arkansas a few weeks later so he could crawl underneath the car and strip out all the loose protective pieces and order all new ones for her car so that he could fix it again over thanksgiving! It really is a family joke now. That poor car! Thankfully DD 17'so far is having much better luck. Praying it stays that way!
Tried to get on the member website this morning, it's not working. Monday is my 11 month window for Easter and our spring break next year. Gonna go ahead and book a one bedroom for VWL and may change later at the 7 month window. the peak points requirements are a killer. Really need a 2 bedroom but can't stand the thought of using that many points at one time. It's sort of a senior trip for DD17. I may end up getting them their own studio and getting us a studio instead. Not sure how much cheaper I would come out that way. I guess I need to go study some points charts.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Thanks for welcome, I am a wandering BCV owner. (have not stayed there on 10 years or something). We "only" have 200 points, and I have been using them at VGC, BLT, etc. We have stayed at WLV (and WL) several times over the years. My future DiL is on this trip, and fell in love with WL 3 years ago. It is our pleasure to share a CC 2BR with them for part of our trip in October. They arrive in the mid afternoon, and we decided no parks that day, just enjoy WL and CC. I think that will be easy.

Looking forward to reading some reports in July from the first bunch who stay at CC.

 

[tea pot]

Hello Groupies
Hope all is well
Just stopped in to say that I'm so excited to be seeing
all of you at the groupie meet next week!
Its been too long since Mr teapot(aka the Big Guy)
and I have been able to attended one.
We'll be checking in at our happy place (now called Boulder Ridge )
on the 4th and an early check out on the 6th.
Can't wait !

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

So as usually happens once family arrived things got busy and no more posting during the trip but I do have a few pictures I took on my phone. On Friday after the 5K race we rested a bit from the early 3:30 am alarm and later had lunch at GF. I had booked a FP for Frozen over at Epcot late afternoon so what did I suggest for the free time before that? Monorail from GF to MK and boat to VWL of course!

Right away when leaving the boat dock at WL we noticed the new branch of board walk heading off towards the northern cabins. They will have a nice, short walk over to the boats......and a very long walk to the buses! That got me to thinking about what my request would be should we ever end up booking a cabin. There should be some decent to good firework views from those cabins but some are going to be pretty remote. Of course the southern cabins won't have the fireworks views and some may be closer to FW than WL () but for the moment that is where I'd choose for my request - it's the section that feels like "home" at WL. As there's no trip planned for the cabins at the moment I have time to think and see pictures and change my mind.

We walked over to see Geyser Point - setting aside my wish for what was there before - both my cousin and I liked the building. This was perhaps around 2:30 and most of the available seating was at the bar though - it's woefully lacking the general comfy seating IMO. Oh - and the little tables out on the sidewalk by the lake were empty and in the full blazing sun. I remain a little confused over the design in that climate but it is a beautiful building and of course a nice view of Bay Lake. Here's a few pictures from the walk around.

Some of the larger trees that have been planted. I'm glad things grow well in FL!

Looking towards the line of south cabins and some of that new grass.....

Looking towards the cabins and the new pergola entry to them:

Back over by the main pool looking up towards the south wing:

And from inside everything is still blocked off:

At this point we walked thru the gift shop and I found my other reason for visiting - the Magic Bar!!!! Yay!!! These are in a little display case at the end of the check out counter in the middle of the store - right next to where they have the DVD's for check out.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

After purchasing my magic bar (which the CM shared always sells out!) we walked over to VWL and hopped in an elevator up to the 4th floor. There I had to wait for several minutes to view out the more northern window as a housekeeping CM also was very interested in the work. Eventually another housekeeper came and he went off to help and I took the following pictures. It was a definite hive of activity going on! I'd say they are pushing to get things finished up. They were working on the "cabana" roofing and landscape irrigation as well as some planting:

In this picture you see the work on the tin roof of the "cabanas" I guess and past that some of the landscaping that has already been put in:

The restrooms are going to be in the small building going in towards the northwest side of the pool (zooming on the phone lost quite a bit of quality) - or at least there's a mens room You also see some trees waiting to be planted around the pool:

And looking towards the rock wall and cabins:

It appears there's going to be 5 or so sluices with water running down them. I shall not be sitting on that side unless Disney does something unusual and provides a good amount of umbrellas - instead I'll be trying to edge into whatever shade the little tiny trees might provide on the west side. And past the "rock" formation you can see the pergola entry for the cabins:

My last picture at VWL. The crumpled looking poster in the elevator proclaiming you are at Boulder Ridge. I think they wrapped it around a boulder and rolled it down the hill before putting it up .........

We then took a couple of minutes for a quick game of checkers and then headed to the bus stop for Epcot!

 

[horselover]

"My last picture at VWL. The crumpled looking poster in the elevator proclaiming you are at Boulder Ridge. I think they wrapped it around a boulder and rolled it down the hill before putting it up".........

Kathy I'm dying! Too funny! Thanks for the pictures. I'm sorry my judgment is in on the pool. I hate it.

 

[ErinC]

Why does the pool have that design? I would have thought curving edges and less of a boxy look would have matched the area much better. I love the look of the main pool, why wouldn't they make it match?

Kathy thanks for sharing the pics. I'm with you on the magic cookie bars. Love those things. I found the recipe and I make them occasionally. Glad to know they are still around even though roaring forks is not open.

 

[Strikan]

So we officially are now DVC members having bought our first points ever at CCV. We even have a first trip booked for next year. Very excited. Thanks for all the advice from people on this thread and the DVC boards generally. It was so helpful.

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Did anyone see Humphrey's photos of the windoors? I'm thinking they must be in the grand villas because they appear wider that the regular sliding door. These fold open to make a wall open up to the outside. It looks pretty neat.

Horselover sorry to hear about DS. Glad he is ok. I had a client's daughter get in two back to back accidents shortly after getting her accident. And by back to back I mean left the scene of the first and got into another.

Sometime yes, sometimes no. The real kicker is the increase in the insurance premium until the next fender bender, when they drop your kid from the family policy and refuse to entertainm a separate one for them. Then it is the adventure in high risk insurance you get to experience. Our DD was rear-ended and the other guy was cited, but the insurance company still increased the premium. Because they can. I wish my business had the same casual abilities to raise prices anytime to maintain profit margin. Ever notice your insurance person never drives a car of lesser value than yours? (Wow, this must be the p*ss and vinegar running out of me this morning. Good Thing. I want to be all calmed down when I get home from work for DiznyDi.) Sorry if I have offended any of our wonderful insurance representatives out there. I owe you a beverage at GP. See you there.

Yay I win a free beverage! Although While I somewhat disagree with you, I'm not offended. I think you are confusing insurance agents with company executives. I have several teenage drivers with nicer cars than I have. Plus we don't determine when the company raises rates and many agents are negatively affected compensation wise when their claim ratios are too high. Of course this doesn't make the fact that rates go up all the time any better.

 

[momtwoboys]

I have a question for all the Groupies since this applies to my next trip. We always have been doing our annual WDW family trip in Spring..since our May 1997 honeymoon. We used to do first week of May for many many years. Then moved it to 3rd week of April when the boys got older. We just got back from our April trip with youngest son, as our oldest is now a Freshman in College. We were toying with the idea of trying Feb vacation but wonder if that is a mistake? Weather too iffy? We plan on next april using a 5 day hopper, and resort time. Dates tentative are April 13-20th and can book that May 13th. Would Feb 17-25th be a bad choice to try for a winter getaway? Sorry for the longwinded post. Nice folks on this thread, and I figured I could get your opinions! Thanks,

Jenny

 

[jimmytammy]

momtwoboys
We went a couple yrs back in Feb late. We went to Daytona qualifying race which seems like around the 22nd. Stayed at WDW. Crowds were not bad, weather was nice. We have also been many times in early March and I don't recall a time of weather being even remotely cool. Seems like Dec and Jan are when temps can be iffy. So, I think you are relatively safe