Trip Reports

Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: OKWR, BWR, Vero Beach Resort
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie, DVC Member
Comments: Jim and his wife spent several days checking out their new "home" at the Disney Vacation Club resorts at WDW and Vero Beach. This trip was a scouting preliminary for an upcoming family trip in November...now all I have to do is get Jim to write another report for that trip...

Introduction:

These reports cover our trip from 5/10 through 5/18. My wife Cathy and I are brand new DVC members that bought into the program sight unseen. This was possible due to all of the research I was able to do on r.a.d.p., plus Brian Bennett's DVC page. Thanks to all that helped. As you'll see, we are two satisfied customers. We have a big trip planned in November with the whole family (son, daughter, son-in-law, 3 year old granddaughter, and a newborn grandchild, gender to be determined). But because we purchased the points via resale, and the package came with points carried over from 1996, we were able to take this early trip with just the two of us.

Cathy and I last visited WDW in 1982 or so, when construction of Epcot was just beginning. So we'd never been to either Epcot or the Studios before. Plus, we didn't stay onsite on our previous trips. So in many ways we were newbies (although I did *loads* of research to prepare). Couple the newness of everything with the fact that I'm pretty wordy by nature, and you can expect some looong reports.

Since this was our initial DVC trip, we decided to use this trip to do as much DVC exploring as possible. So, we booked studios at OKW (3 nights), Boardwalk (2 nights), and Vero (3 nights). Also, since our trip in November will no doubt revolve around Kayla, our granddaughter, we decided to use this trip to do more "adult" stuff. This meant we spent most of our time at Epcot. We also ate better on this trip than we will in November.

I decided to put this trip report together in bite sized pieces. I'll have one post for each day until the Vero days, which I'll lump into one post. Plus, I'll probably add some kind of summary on to the end.

Everybody neat and pretty? Then on with the show!

The Cast:

Jim and Cathy, DVC newbies. Haven't visited WDW since the pre-Epcot days.

The Purpose:

Besides trying to have a good time, we want to learn as much about the DVC as we can. We also want to do stuff we probably won't get to do when we take the whole family in November.

Day 1:

We each had enough miles accumulated to earn a free ticket on Northwest. This meant we had to fly when space was available, which forced us to fly to Orlando from Milwaukee by way of Minneapolis. Our trip was long, but the flights were pretty uneventful. We arrived in Orlando at 3:30 in the afternoon, picked up our luggage and got our Plymouth Neon from National. What a pleasure to rent from someone on the premises. We were on our way in no time.

We found OKW easily enough, but apparently didn't have the check-in procedure figured out. We pulled up in front of the Hospitality House, and a CM told us we couldn't stop there and had to park the car. So I found a spot at the other side of the lot and parked. We then lugged our luggage (hey, those words go together!) to the front desk. We checked in, and then had to turn around and drag our luggage back to the car. We drove to our building (#39) and unpacked.

Our first impressions of our studio was that it was very roomy. We had been expecting a typical hotel room, but it was bigger than that. It was spotless and showed great attention to detail. Our deck looked out on to a quiet pond, and there was plenty of space for all of our overpacked luggage. Very nice!

We had our park passes set to activate the next morning, so we had nothing to do until our dinner reservations at 7:30 at the California Grill. We used the time to find the bus stop and the closest pool. Building 39 was about midway between the two.

We drove to the Contemporary a little early in order to look around, and then went up to dinner. We were seated at a window table after about a ten minute wait. We were in no hurry, so we took the Unofficial Guide's advice and decided to order one course at a time to avoid the "bum's rush." We split a pizza as an appetizer, and each of us ordered fish entrees. Mine was halibut in a Thai broth, and Cathy had salmon. Both were excellent. I had their signature dessert, the chocolate wave. Everything, including service and presentation, was first class.

After dinner, we nursed coffees in the lounge until it was time for the Magic Kingdom's fireworks, which we watched outside. All in all, it was a perfect start to our trip. Tomorrow was EE day at the Studios, so we headed back to OKW and turned in.

Day Two: Disney Studios and the Magic Kingdom

We expect to spend a lot of time in November at both the Studios and the Magic Kingdom, so our plan was to only spend a half day at each this time. Since Sunday was an early entry day at the Studios, we decided to go for it right away. BTW, the last time we visited WDW, the Studios had not yet been built, so this was all new for us.

We caught a bus to the Studios, arriving about 7:20. Upon entry, we headed for the Great Movie Ride. We were on the Western side. We both thought it was OK, but nothing special. The Oz part was our favorite. I thought it was kind of a stretch to have a 20-year old girl portraying a bank robber in the Old West.

Next, we did Star Tours. I thought it was a fairly good simulator ride, but definitely not in BTTF's class.

Our next stop was Muppet*vision. Cathy is a HUGE 3-D fan. She's dragged me to some really awful movies just because they're in 3-D (Anybody remember Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone? Didn't think so.), so she was pretty up for this one. And the Muppets didn't disappoint us. We loved the preshow, and the main show itself was outstanding. This should be a big hit in November.

The line at Voyage of the Little Mermaid was pretty long, so we took the Backstage Tour instead. After that, we only had about a 5 minute wait for VotLM. We both thought this was a pretty good show, much better than we were led to believe. Kayla (our granddaughter), will love this one.

We tried to get into the Indiana Jones show, but it had already filled up, so we went to the Prime Time Cafe for an early lunch. The food is pretty mediocre, and it's horribly over-priced ($13 for meatloaf!!), but it's still worth a stop. Favorite thing: You look at the dessert menu through a Viewmaster. Second favorite thing: When our table was ready, they called out "Ford kids! Time for lunch!" Funny stuff.

After lunch we strolled over to the Animation Courtyard and checked out the characters. We walked into the Animation Tour, but snuck out when we heard it was a 45 minute *walking* tour. Our lower bodies were already giving out, and it was only about 1:00!

We walked over to Indy, but once again it had filled up. So we went over to BatB instead. I thought it was a wonderful show. Belle was excellent, and Gaston was a hoot, plus the costumes are spectacular. Sitting down was appreciated as well.

I noticed that the Tower of Terror had no line, and walked right in. Cathy agonized over it for a while, but couldn't pull the trigger. What a GREAT ride! All of the detail and spookiness before the drop are great, not to mention the drops themselves. I was so pumped afterwards that Cathy agonized all over again, but still couldn't do it.

We watched the Toy Story parade from afar, and took a bus back to OKW for a nap. Our place already felt like home to us.

We got up around 5:00 or so, rubbed the sleep out of our eyes, and caught the bus to MK. This was the only one of the parks we'd visited before, so we thought we'd hit a few rides of the new rides plus a few old favorites.

We first went to Fantasyland, and took pictures of the Castle, Dumbo and the Carrousel. We'd promised Kayla we'd come home with some. Then we went to the Haunted Mansion, a favorite of Cathy's. We were able to walk right on.

We then went over to Splash Mountain, a new ride for us. The line appeared to be about 20 minutes long, but just about the time we were getting close, they had a breakdown. We gave them about 5 minutes, and then bailed out.

Next, we walked to Adventureland and got in line for the Jungle Cruise. I'd been on this a long time ago, but it was new for Cathy. The line wasn't long, but for some reason it was moving extremely slow. I started getting antsy, because we had been at MK for a fairly long time and had only ridden HM. Eventually, though, the pace picked up and we got on. Our CM did a nice job with the droll jokes, and we both liked it very much.

It was starting to get dark, and people were lining up for Spectromagic. We're sure to catch the parade in November, so we hoped this would be our chance to bypass some lines. Sure enough, we were able to walk right into Alien Encounter. SIR and Skippy put on a great preshow. AE itself, though, didn't do much for me. As far as I concerned, they do the equivalent of turning out the lights and saying BOO. Not much craft there. Cathy, OTOH, was scared bigtime, but in a good way. This was about her favorite ride of the trip.

We went over to Timekeeper, and walked right in again. We both thought it was moderately entertaining, but were both ready for it to end before it did. After the show we split a turkey leg, since we hadn't eaten since the Studios. A pretty good meal for $3.

The parade had already started by this time. With the streets clogged and our sore feet, we took the Skyway over to Fantasyland. I was hoping it would go over the parade route, but no such luck. As long as we were in the neighborhood, we took Peter Pan's Flight, another one of Cathy's faves.

We found a fairly decent spot in Liberty Square and watched the second half of the parade. When it ended, we avoided the crowds and followed a wooden path along the lake and walked right on to Splash Mountain. Besides us, there were only two people in line, so we snagged the front row. Cathy was under the impression that this was just a flume ride, so the Brer Rabbit stuff caught her by surprise. We loved it, and asked if we could go around again, but the said they were shutting down.

On the way out, we were shocked at the lines for the Monorails and Ferry boats. The park didn't seem that crowded. We were pretty shot by this time, and really appreciated having a bus waiting for us. The end of a really long day (and long trip report too!).

Day Three: Epcot

The last time Cathy and I had visited WDW was 1982, when Epcot was in the process of being built. So the whole park was brand new to us. Our plan was to devote two days to the park, since we doubt that we'll do a proper job of it when the whole family comes down in November.

We took the bus from OKW and arrived just before opening. Once the rope dropped, we went straight to Body Wars (per the Unofficial Guide). We both thought BW was an OK simulator ride, but nothing really special at all. I thought the whole story line was jumbled. Apparently they really take splinters seriously in the future, or something. I thought the motion sickness warnings were overdone (and I'm somewhat susceptible).

We moved on to Spaceship Earth and got on with about a 5 minute wait. I thought it was a pretty enjoyable ride, but Cathy's speaker didn't work so she was less excited about it. Still, we agreed that it was worth a shot for everyone.

Next we went off to HISTA and got in to the next preshow, with no more than a few minutes wait. If you read my prior post you know that Cathy LOVES 3D, and this show is the best when it comes to 3D. We loved every second of it, right down to the surprise ending (which shall remain a surprise).

We walked over to Living with the Land and got right on to the next boat.

It was a nice combination of education and entertainment, we thought.

Plus, it gives you some hope for the future.

We decided to head off to the World Showcase at this point. We first stopped at the Espresso place (the name escapes me) next to the big fountain, and had coffee and some delicious pastries. We enjoyed them while watching the fountain put on an absolutely spectacular display, choreographed to music. I couldn't believe that so many people could walk past and ignore what was going on. Their loss, I guess. On the way to the World, we spent some time at the hilarious little fountain beyond Innoventions. That's the one that shoots random squirts of water around. We'll be sure to bring a change of clothes for Kayla in November and let her go nuts here. Over the two days at Epcot, we killed a lot of time at the two fountains. I'm just a sucker for fountains, I guess.

We started our world tour at Mexico. We took their boat ride (El Rio del Tiempo?), and thought it was pretty cute. We travel to Mexico occasionally, so we were particularly fond of the part where vendors follow you along a series of movie screens, hawking their wares. Anybody whose ever been to Mexico has to get a big laugh out of that. Cathy bought a cheap pair of silver earrings, much like she does in the real Mexico! By this time it had started raining, so we bought ponchos.

Norway was next. We got on Maelstrom with about a 20 minute wait, which was about our longest wait of the whole trip. I had done all of the research for this trip, so I knew what to expect, but Cathy was clueless. She was enchanted by it, and wanted to get right back on. I said we'd ride it again later (we never did, tho). BTW, we skipped the movie, as did about 75% of the people. In one of the gift shops I spotted a display of passports, and bought one and had it stamped. By this time it had begun to rain pretty hard, and kept raining for the rest of the day.

We headed over to France next, since we had a 1:00 reservation at Chefs de France. I treated myself to some snails, but I don't remember what our entrees were (for reasons that will soon become clear). I do remember that we enjoyed our meal and the surroundings. We browsed through some of the shops in France, and sampled a couple of glasses of wine in the wine store. We watched the Impressions of France movie, which we both enjoyed. It was still raining after the movie, so once I got my passport stamped (this had quickly become an obsession with me), we went back to the wine store and picked up where we left off. Cathy wandered into the perfume store and bought a bottle of Boucheron. She also got a lecture from the matron who ran the store on how one should apply French perfume. Apparently, the women was appalled at Cathy's technique. We decided to move on, but first stopped at a wine tent. With the wine we'd had over lunch, we were starting to get pleasantly buzzed.

The next country was the United Kingdom. We did quite a bit of browsing in their shops. I found a store that sells Regal Crown sour candy. This candy was a big favorite of mine when I was growing up, but I can no longer find it in the Midwest. I didn't want to miss my chance, so I bought 10 rolls. The salesperson said that a lot of people do the same thing. Cathy bought a Scotland baseball cap, since she's got a lot of Scottish blood in her. I was inexorably drawn to the Rose and Crown, where I quaffed a couple of pints. It's really a friendly, fun pub. It wasn't too crowded either, considering it was still raining. As long as we were here, we made dinner reservations for the next night.

We left Epcot and poured ourselves into a bus back to OKW. It had stopped raining finally, so we took the bus all the way to the Hospitality House and hopped on the next boat to the Marketplace. We sat in the bow, and killed a huge number of bugs with our faces during the trip. We thought we'd eat at the Rainforest Cafe, since I got 4 of the "go to the head of the line" passes before they stopped giving them out. Unfortunately, our pass was safely back at the room. D'oh! We put our name on the list anyway, and were told there'd be a 90 minute wait. We passed the time at the big Disney store, buying lots of stuff for the family. One thing we noticed, however, is that there was no Pocahontas merchandise of any sort. When we asked about this, we were told that they stopped carrying it after the movie faded from popularity. This is sort of a problem, since Kayla is absolutely in love with John Smith. She's convinced they'll be getting married, and no one had better try to tell her differently. We may have to do some legwork to get her some John fixes in November.

We went back to RFC and were seated promptly at the time they'd given us. The place is pretty cool, but the wonder wears off over the course of the meal. I mean, how many times can you watch the gorillas put on their show? Still, the food was OK and the portions were huge, so we'll come back in November. Here's hoping we remember the pass this time.

We got on the OKW bus to come home. We were the only people on the bus, and when we got to PI and no one was there either, the driver had us get off the bus and into a nearby van. He then drove us right to our door. It had been a REALLY long day, so we appreciated not having to do any more walking. We were moving to Boardwalk Villas the next day, so Cathy did a quick pack job. The next day was also to be our early entry day at Epcot, so we crashed around midnight.

Day Four: Boardwalk Villas and Epcot again

Our plan was to drive to Boardwalk, and then go over to Epcot to do early entry and use the last day of our passes. Our plans were slightly thrown out of whack when we got out of bed at 9:19. Whoops! Well, we earned the sleep. Time to go to Plan B. Actually, time to make up Plan B. While Cathy was getting ready, I drove to the Hospitality House to take a bunch of pictures of the grounds. I also visited the model and toured a two bedroom. We had bought into DVC sight unseen, as I've said, so this was my first chance to see what kind of place we'd have in November. It looks great! Plenty of room and all the amenities we could ask for. Lastly, I stopped in at the front desk to go over a discrepancy on our bill. We had been charged twice for our dinner at CG, with the second charge $4 higher than the first. The person I talked to removed the smaller of the two. I had lost the receipt, so I let it go.

We loaded up the car, and were off to Boardwalk. It was kind of surprising how sad we were to leave OKW. We hadn't spent all that much time there, yet it already felt like home. Oh well, we'll be back. We did valet parking at BV, and went inside to check in. Boardwalk has a terrific lobby, with carousel horses hanging from the ceiling. The resort really does have that seaside feel to it. Our room was ready, so we went on up to the 4th floor. Our balcony looked out over the main pool, which has a rollercoaster slide that looked pretty tempting. The room itself was smaller than OKW, but the theming made up for it.

We took the boat to Epcot, and picked up where we left off. BV is certainly more convenient to the parks than OKW. We visited Canada, followed by Japan, America, Italy and China. We especially enjoyed the movie in China. We were ready to catch the next plane to Beijing by the end of it. We also liked the looks of Germany's beer garden. We're from Milwaukee, so we're pretty into beer and polka music. Cathy bought some Christmas place mats at Germany, and had them delivered to our room. Another cool perk about staying onsite.

We had now visited every country in the World Showcase, but one thing remained. We went back to Mexico and I got the last stamp in my Passport. Mission accomplished!

We headed to Future World to knock off some of the things we missed the day before. We walked on to Cranium Command just as the preshow was beginning. The preshow was a hoot, and the show was really cute. My favorite line is when the kid gets called in to the principal's office. George Wendt, as the stomach, says "I'm sending some of this food back up."

This is a really under rated attraction, IMHO.

We went to Ellen's Universe of Energy next. I followed a tip I ran across somewhere, and we sat in the front row on the far left. That lets you see the dinosaurs with no one in front of you. A really good move. The big problem with this attraction is that the high point, the dinosaurs, happens too early. IMHO it makes the rest of the show seem anti-climactic.

We went over to Living Seas next, and got on with a short wait. We both like aquariums, so we had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed by it. The aquarium didn't seem to be laid out very well, or at least it confused us. We're tentatively planning on visiting Sea World in November, and if we do we'll skip Living Seas next time.

Seeing as the fountain was so close, we hung out there for a while. Once again, I was astounded at how many people flat out ignore this thing. We also checked out the quirky little fountain for a while. We wandered aimlessly around Innoventions until 6:30, and then headed to England for dinner.

Our reservation at the Rose and Crown was for 7:15, and we got there a little early and were seated right in front of the lagoon. Our waiter came to take our drink order, and suggested the beer sampler to me (am I THAT obvious?). I'm not made of stone, so I went for it. It's a small glass of each of the four beers they have on draft. I ordered the English pie sampler, and Cathy had fish and chips. The food was OK. When it came time for dessert, I thought I'd continue the theme, and asked if he had a dessert sampler. They didn't, but our waiter suggested the Scotch sampler, a half ounce each of Macallan 12-, 18-, and 25-year old. I went for it, because you only live once, aina?

We had absolutely perfect seats for Illuminations25. We had never seen the original, so we had nothing to compare it to, but what we saw was awesome.

After the show, we walked back to our hotel. Before turning in, we toured the Boardwalk a little. We thought about stopping in at Jellyroll's, but decided not to spend the $2 for the cover charge and called it a night instead.

Days Five and Six: Boardwalk

Our passes had expired by this time, so we used this day to just hang out. We started the morning out with an excellent breakfast buffet at Spoodles. The food was delicious, and they serve coffee in these huge coffee cups. Both of us highly recommend Spoodles for breakfast.

After breakfast, we got into our swimming suits and went down to the pool. I took the rollercoaster slide into the pool a few times. I found that if you lay flat with your arms at your side, you can really build up a head of steam. The third time I did it, I came close to getting out of control, and actually scared myself.

When we'd had enough pool time, we went out to the Boardwalk and rented one of their bicycles. You rent by the half-hour, and that's enough time for two laps around the lake. Beware, though. The two hills may look harmless, but they're more work than you expect. I busted Cathy coasting through one of them, although she swears it's a lie.

We killed some time at the ESPN sports bar, and had some nachos. Typical bar food. Afterwards, we made a serious assault on ESPN's gift shop. Cathy went back to the room while I stayed at ESPN and checked out all of the sports memorabilia they've got there.

While I was occupied at ESPN, Cathy explored the Wyland Gallery store. This is the store that sells paintings and sculptures, mostly with an eco theme. She found a painting she liked, and when we got back together she took me in there to look at it. A couple of sales persons smelled blood, and before we knew what happened, we were on the verge of purchasing a $3500 painting. Fortunately, we came to our senses and ran for our lives.

We had a little more time before our 7:15 dinner at Flying Fish, so we went to a DVC open house. We checked out a one bedroom and a three bedroom. That three bedroom is awesome! I suppose they're impossible to get, though.

When we got to the Flying Fish, we noticed that they had a chef's bar, and asked to sit there. We like interacting with the chefs, and were hoping that they might slip us a sample or two (no such luck). Cathy ordered the grilled portabella mushroom appetizer. Per one of the chef's recommendations, I had Louisville Slugger-sized asparagus with a yummy sauce. Both were great. For entrees, I had the fish of the day, opah, and Cathy had potato crusted snapper. These were great too, and we ate every bite. That left no room for dessert, so we decided to split one <G>. We had the Banana Decadence, which was banana everything: Creme Brulee, bread, ice cream, and bananas themselves, all covered with banana sauce. It was probably the best dessert I've ever had. Anybody looking for a great restaurant in WDW should give this place a shot.

Speaking of shot, we were after this dinner. We had originally planned to go to PI, but there was no way. We strolled the Boardwalk a little, and called it a night.

The next morning we got some coffee and drank it while walking around the lake. We explored the Yacht and Beach Club hotels, and decided we liked the BC better. They share a great pool, and it even has a deep end. That's something you don't see much of any more. Along the way, we saw another couple struggling to make it up a hill on one of the Boardwalk bikes, which made us feel a lot better. After our walk, we took our luggage to the front, had our car brought around, and headed off to VB.

We spent a lot of the trip to Vero comparing BV and OKW. In a nutshell, we decided that OWK truly lived up to its billing as a "home away from home." VB, on the other hand, felt like a hotel. A first class hotel, mind you, but a hotel. For example, every OKW home we saw had a secluded balcony. At BV you see a long line of balconies lined up.

Now, BV feeling like a hotel is not a bad thing. There are times when a hotel is called for, and times when a quiet resort is called for. Our kids (who are in their mid to late 20s) will be blown away by the Boardwalk. I suspect that OKW suits our granddaughter's needs better. We loved them both, and the beauty of the DVC is that we can use them as we see fit. We couldn't be happier that we became members!

Days Six thru Nine: Vero Beach

We took the scenic route to VB, which meant the Beeline Highway to Cocoa Beach, and then A1A to Vero. The Beeline Highway wasn't especially scenic, although it did have an outstanding collection of roadkill. In Cocoa, we stopped at Ron-Jon's and bought everybody T-shirts. We then took A1A all the way to Disney. This part of the trip WAS scenic. When I grow up I want to be a beach bum, and there were a few towns along the way looked to be "beach bum friendly." We wound up overshooting the Disney Resort, because we weren't aware that it's actually in Wabasso, ten miles or so north of Vero. We saw it, though, turned around, and entered the resort.

We were checked into building 12 by a friendly CM, and drove over to it and unpacked. We thought our room had the exact floor plan that our OKW room did. Anybody know if that's the case? The balcony had a view of the ocean, which was nice.

Once we got unpacked, we took a tour of the place. There's a hammock just outside building 12, and I took a picture of Cathy lounging in it. We walked out onto their beach walk, which offers a stunning panoramic view of the long white beach. We toured the rest of the facilities. They were nice but limited, and I got a little worried that there wouldn't be much to do. Most of the daily activities were geared towards kids, and other than the beach and the pool, there didn't look to be much for adults. Plus, we had used the Net to do our research for this trip, but hadn't gotten much info on VB. So we stopped in to get the poop from Member Services, but they had closed for the day.

The DVC had an open house in one of the beach cottages at 6:00. The cottages are three bedroom units with all of the bedrooms on the lower level. The second floor has everything else, along with a spectacular view of the ocean. We had a drink and received a DVC badge and ribbon, which is now hanging in my office at work.

Later, we had a drink on the deck outside the lounge. Once again, this area features a beautiful ocean view. We had a crab cake appetizer, which was enough for us, and turned in early.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and walked over to Member Services to find out what activities were available. The conversation went something like this:

Us: We're wondering what activities are available?

MS: Oh, there's tons of stuff to do.

Us: The itinerary mostly has stuff for kids.

MS: There's lots for adults to do here as well.

Us: Like what?

MS: There's so much that it would take me hours to tell you about it all.

<pause>

Us: OK. Thanks for your help.

We picked up a map of bike trails from her desk, but the map mostly had you biking down A1A. We're not very good bikers, so we didn't want to do that either. Now Cathy was bummed, and started talking about going back to OKW.

At this point, I had a thought. We've taken quite a few cruises in our day, so I decided to do what we do on cruises, using the resort as our cruise ship. That would mean doing a little sightseeing in town, hitting a beach, laying around the pool, having a late dinner and turning in. So, armed with my new plan, we went into Vero. I found a nice cigar store and bought some things I can't find at home. We went to Hale's and bought fruit. We also got free passes at Hale's for the Dodgers-Cubs minor league game that evening, although we never got around to going to the game.

Back at the resort, I rented a beach chair and spent a few hours on the beach. It was overcast, and I made the rookie mistake of not putting on sunscreen. I had a great time, and got a great sunburn as well.

We had a nice dinner at Shutters, the more casual of their two restaurants. We took our coffee on the deck outside the lounge, and agreed that things were looking up. I think the biggest problem is that we came from WDW with our motors running full speed, and it had just taken a little time for us to adjust to the slower pace.

The next morning, we both woke up with serious sunburns. Actually they looked worse than they felt. We reserved a couple of chairs around the pool (in the shady part), and spent most of the day laying around. VB has another corkscrew slide into their pool. I used my "lay flat" technique, and very nearly flipped out on the last turn. What fun! Cathy thinks my bulk is an asset on these slides. We had lunch around the pool, then played their little miniature golf course ($1 for members). Later in the afternoon, I spent some more time playing on the beach and in the ocean. Even though we hadn't actually *done* much, we'd had a really good day.

Before dinner, we hit our usual spot outside the lounge. After about an hour, Cathy had to get inside because of the bugs. I wasn't having any problems (I thought). We went to Sonya's, the nicer of their restaurants. In reality, the two places share a kitchen and for all intents and purposes are identical.

The next day, I got up to find my arms, hands and legs had lots of little red bumps on them. I was the victim last night of the dreaded No See Um bug. I'm writing this a week later, and those bumps are still there and itch like crazy. So, be warned. Pack some insect repellent! Cathy did the packing chores, as usual, and I raced around the complex taking last minute pictures of the resort. One thing I hadn't noticed at checkin was the elevators next to the front desk. They each have a Mickey hand above the door to point out what floor the elevator is on. Cute! We loaded up the car and we were ready to go.

By this time we were sorry to leave VB. We realized that we were just in the wrong frame of mind for the first 24 hours. Next time we'll do VB first. Also, I suspect that there are more activities available when school lets out, so maybe early May isn't the best time to go. But our kids have never seen the ocean, and VB will be a nice way to introduce them to it.

We took the scenic route back to Orlando's airport. Dropping off our Neon took just a minute. Love National's onsite facilities! Our trip home was uneventful. The first thing I did when we got home was boot up my PC and update the countdown software with November's date. Right now, we've got 169 days to go!

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