trip report- BLT

[clc053103]

Just back from a week at BLT! We are DVC owners and that is our home resort. Will keep it brief as to not bore you all!!!!

DVC: this was our first DVC trip- actually, we think we were treated better as cash paying guests. When having a few issues getting in our room, the guy at the front desk actually said "is this your home resort?" and when I said yes, he said "Do you own anywhere else?" like I was not important enough to help just being a dvc member. Nope, we didn't feel the "Welcome Home"!!!

BLT: this was our second stay in 2 br villa. Love the location. Love the ammenities. The furnishings are ugly modern and already falling apart- most of our drawers didn't function right, there were scrapes and burns and marks all over all the furniture. But we can deal with it for the location!

DINING: dinner favorites- Narcoosees, The Wave, Portobellos (at DTD, this was our favorite and the kids too!) Cali Grill
lunch favorites: Coral Reef, Le Cellier- both of these were surprises as we were not impressed with previous dinners. The Plaza
breakfast favorites: The Wave, Kona Cafe.
NEVER EVER AGAIN: Via Napoli- it's a pizza place, essentially. We were served 3 courses in 35 minutes. It was very unimpressive and I am convinced that those reporting this is the "best pizza anywhere" live somewhere that doesn't have good pizza!!
Kouzzina- bad, slow service. Small portions. Food not good. Cat Cora should be embarrassed. Such a letdown, as we loved Spoodles!
Marakkesh- happy to have tried it, but we wouldn't go again. Food wasn't that great, they don't have seafood which is wierd, and the show was about 5 minutes long if that.

Something new: Ridemakerz at DTD west side- kids can design their own remote controlled vehicles. It's expensive but the kids loved it. The cars are so cool.

overall is was a great trip, only rained one day! Crowds were heavier than last Sept but not bad at all- many rides had a 5 min wait. Had a drink with Jen (emilygraces_mama) at the top of the world lounge on the last night as our trips overlapped- my only "Real life" BBB friend!

Feel free to ask questions!

[egoldber]

Thanks for the report!


DVC: this was our first DVC trip- actually, we think we were treated better as cash paying guests. When having a few issues getting in our room, the guy at the front desk actually said "is this your home resort?" and when I said yes, he said "Do you own anywhere else?" like I was not important enough to help just being a dvc member. Nope, we didn't feel the "Welcome Home"!!!

Wow! We've stayed at our home resort many times and never had that experience.


We were served 3 courses in 35 minutes

On our last trip, we felt very rushed at the restaurants we were at that were not buffet. Honestly, I really feel like the DDP has been a terrible thing for the WDW restaurants. I think the quality of the food and service has gone down steadily as the DDP has gotten more popular. :( And I too was very sorry to see Spoodles go. We loved that one.

But I'm glad overall you had a good trip.

[WatchingThemGrow]

The drink with emilygracesmama sounds fun. LarsMal, are you up for going out one night?? I guess we're only there one night, though...argh..

What did you get to drink? (you said feel free to ask you any questions;) )

[clc053103]

Thanks for the report!



Wow! We've stayed at our home resort many times and never had that experience.



On our last trip, we felt very rushed at the restaurants we were at that were not buffet. Honestly, I really feel like the DDP has been a terrible thing for the WDW restaurants. I think the quality of the food and service has gone down steadily as the DDP has gotten more popular. :( And I too way very sorry to see Spoodles go. We loved that one.

But I'm glad overall you had a good trip.

I don't know how to multiquote- some day I should learn! Anyway, yes, we were surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for DVC'ers. We heard "welcome home" once- at the Community Hall (which our kids really enjoyed in the afternoons!). It may not be just a DVC thing, but a BLT thing. Overall, we found that we were always treated better at BWV. Our kids were greeted in the lobby with balloons every day, CM's interracted with you- it's just less personal at BLt. It's like BLT is the ugly stepchild of CR, so they pretend you aren't there. When we finally got a room, this really nice CM from the front desk escorted us to make sure all was well- she stayed about 10 minutes touring the place- talking about how nice it was, ooh look by the pool there are grills out there, etc- turns out, despite being the CR front desk staff, she had never even been in BLT.

I definitely agree that the DDP and the constant free dining offers have really "dumbed down" the restaurants- the quality of the menu, the food and the service have all been affected. We used to do DXDP and we were eating so much food we didn't really want or need, then paying the tip on all that food. We bought TIW this year, and only ordered what we wanted- and weren't so stuffed!!! TIW really fit our style of dining, and we ended up making breakfast in the villa many days (thanks to a Garden Grocer delivery), which gave everyone a little more sleep.

[clc053103]

The drink with emilygracesmama sounds fun. LarsMal, are you up for going out one night?? I guess we're only there one night, though...argh..

What did you get to drink? (you said feel free to ask you any questions;) )

A superfruit martini for Jen, a corona Lite for me (I would have had the martini, but I had already had one earlier!) Good question!! ;-) They have a nice specialty drink menu at CR (saw it at Wave and Cali Grill too). My mother can personally recommend the mojitos, I vote for the Key Lime and Superfruit martinis! I wished our trips overlapped more as it would have been fun to hang out at the pool too!

[alien_host]

It sounds like a nice trip overall. I'm sorry they didn't make you feel that welcome. I thought overall the front desk service at CR was a bit "lame". No one seemed terribly chipper. It was my first time there so I thought maybe it was an anomaly or something.

ITA that the furnishings are ugly and already in disrepair...kind of sad I think, but the location is fab!

[liz]

Something new: Ridemakerz at DTD west side- kids can design their own remote controlled vehicles. It's expensive but the kids loved it. The cars are so cool.

Thanks for the trip report! We are going in a few weeks. Can you tell me anything about the remote control cars? Do you know prices, etc?

[clc053103]

Well, they aren't cheap but nothing in disney is!

First you pick a body- say 22-40 depending on the style and size (monster trucks are more). Then you can go with stock hubcaps or pick your own (just a few bucks there). then you can get the remote control engine- the other option being a "model" car. That's $40ish. Last, they assemble and you add any other accessories (spoiler, bumpers, stickers). All said and done, I think about $80. They do give an AP discount. Also, there's a $10 off coupon on facebook- the easiest way to print it is to cut and paste it to a word doc, then hit print. They were happy to accept it but it has to be printed out, can't just show them your phone! ;-)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes.php?id=15613577714&notes_tab=app_2347471856

[liz]

Well, they aren't cheap but nothing in disney is!

First you pick a body- say 22-40 depending on the style and size (monster trucks are more). Then you can go with stock hubcaps or pick your own (just a few bucks there). then you can get the remote control engine- the other option being a "model" car. That's $40ish. Last, they assemble and you add any other accessories (spoiler, bumpers, stickers). All said and done, I think about $80. They do give an AP discount. Also, there's a $10 off coupon on facebook- the easiest way to print it is to cut and paste it to a word doc, then hit print. They were happy to accept it but it has to be printed out, can't just show them your phone! ;-)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes.php?id=15613577714&notes_tab=app_2347471856

Awesome, thanks! The price is a bit steep, but both older kids got disney dollars for their birthday. We will definitely check it out.