Who/When/Where:

Who: Sue (63), DVC Member
SB (64), my husband (Friday 3/25)
Tiana & Jonell (50’s & 60’s), friends (Friday 3/25)
Dates: March 24 – 28, 2022
Resort: Disney’s Beach Club Villas Resort
Experience: Very Experienced – 56th stay at BCV

INTRODUCTION:
This was booked as a solo trip, but when Tiana started talking about wanting to go to Disney I agreed to designate Friday as a day for other people. SB can drive down to their place, and then ride to/from WDW for the day with Tiana and Jonell. I booked
a studio this trip, which is not ideal for trips with SB. We do better with more (separate) space than a studio can provide!

My only priorities for this trip were to relax by the pool/beach and wander around Flower and Garden Festival. Thankfully Tiana and Jonell were interested in Epcot, so that’s what we booked for Friday. My park reservation every day id Epcot. Frankly
I have no desire to go to the other 3 parks and prefer to relax around the resort vs stand in line for attractions in theme parks. I stay at Beach Club Villas for the proximity to World Showcase and honestly have no interest in seeing/doing anything
else at this point. That’s the beauty of solo trips – I can do what I want and don’t have to do what someone else wants <g>.

My last trip here was last November, which may be the longest I’ve gone between trips to WDW. I did spend 1 night at Saratoga Springs on my way to a HAL cruise in February, but don’t count that trip (no parks). Since the reopening I’ve gotten
more and more disgruntled with the changes in Disney. I miss fastpass and don’t want to have to pay $15/day for Genie+. I don’t like the crowds. We’ll see how this trip goes – the next ones (late May, over 4th of July & over Labor Day weekend)
are booked as solely resort stays (no parks). Between the stupid-ass crowds and the horrific Florida heat/humidity, going to a park is not on the list of things I’d like to do. Hopefully by late October it will be bearable for Food & Wine Festival!

The Flower & Garden Festival pretty much takes care of my dining on this trip, but every once in a while I’d play around on the My Disney Experience site to check menus to see if there was anyplace I wanted to book for this trip. I ended up planning a
few things for the 4th of July trip, when my park pass will be blocked out so parks are completely off the table. I’ll be at Bay Lake Tower for that trip and it’s been years since I stayed out that way, so I’ll enjoy the new 71 Steakhouse and a
couple other places during that trip.

For this trip the only thing that caught my eye was the new Space 220 Lounge. I am NOT interested in the restaurant at all – not even if Disney gave it to me for free. However, the lounge menu has smaller items and one of them is short rib sliders.
I love sliders – they’re the perfect size/meal for me! I never order an actual burger or sandwich because too much would be wasted, so I quickly booked lunch at the lounge for 2pm on Sunday. It’ll be nice to see the inside of this new restaurant,
too. Overall Epcot has so many options for food, but with the festival going on I didn’t want to book any more reservations at restaurants.

This year the concerts are back, but the big-name groups are only Friday through Monday. The other days they have local bands – from my experience some are very good and some are pretty bad (not to my taste at least). The “big” group this weekend
is from ELO (Electric Light Orchestra), so that should be worth checking out. I think I may have seen them once before. I just hope the new/increased crowds don’t make it impossible or miserable.

Part of me would like to try for the virtual queue at Gideon’s, but seeing how busy WDW has been for the past month or so I don’t know that I want to waste time going over there to learn the virtual queue is 4 hours (or more) long! That said, my
arrival day the weather forecast is thunderstorms. Assuming my room won’t be ready when I arrive, I might head to Disney Springs first and see how it goes – worst case scenario I decide not to stick around and head to the resort. If it’s raining,
I wouldn’t be wandering around Epcot, and the rain should be ending by evening. Of course if it’s raining I don’t want to be trudging around Disney Springs either, or standing outside Gideon’s when it would be my time to get in line. So, most
likely I’ll be skipping Disney Springs and Gideon’s.

Thursday (arrival day) is supposed to be horrible weather-wise, with thunderstorms and rain pretty much all day. I’m hoping by evening it dies down, but we’ll see. After that it looks really nice, although mornings will be cool. Checking to see
when Epcot would be opening (expecting 10 or 11 am) I was shocked to see it opens at 8:30! As a resort guest that means 8am! Based on that SB and the others will be heading down at 6am to get here before 8.

The plans so far are:
Thursday 3/24: Drive to BCV, Epcot
Friday 3/25: Epcot
Saturday 3/26: Pool/Beach, Epcot
Sunday 3/27: Pool/Beach, Epcot, Space 220 Lounge
Monday 3/28: Drive to Gainesville

Sue/WDW1972

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