So, here’s a pro tip: before you check out of your hotel room, do yourself a favor and check the drawers to make sure you have all your belongings. And I mean all your belongings.  I say this because checking out of Bay Lake Tower earlier this month, we were diligent to check all the drawers, but of course missed one cabinet near the television. A crucial mistake. Contained in that cabinet was a camera lens, my favorite hairbrush, a pair of my prescription glasses, and….my trip notes.  The good news is, all of the valuable things were returned to me after a quick call to the Contemporary’s Lost and Found. All except my trip notes. So….in spite of my best efforts to give you a day-by-day recounting of our 72-hour trip to WDW earlier this month, it’s not gonna happen.

That said, this trip saw me trying out a new lens that I rented from Kingdom Camera, so the good news is that the 1000+ pictures I took should help me hit the high points. (And give you lots of pretty things to look at.)  While we’re on the subject, I had a fantastic experience with Kingdom Camera Rentals and highly recommend that aspiring and pro photographers alike keep them in mind on future trips. I found it a great way to try out a lens I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy (of course I do want to buy it now!), and I’ll definitely be using them again in the future. </end uncompensated and totally independent plug>

If you’re wondering about the origins of the title, you may recall that on a previous trip CP and I got sucked into doing a DVC tour.  We left the tour feeling surprisingly enamored with DVC, but the biggest issue (besides money, of course) was the question of where we would want to buy.  I’d be happy with buying in at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for many reasons, but both of us – CP in particular – couldn’t shake the feeling that Bay Lake Tower might be our best bet. So, this trip was both a trial run to give BLT a chance, and also a celebration of our 10th anniversary. (Say it with me: awwwww.)

Friday, February 1st

Oh good lord what a day. Not only did I cram in a full day’s work and only manage to pack about an hour before we left for the airport, I was dealing with an overactive thyroid that was giving me crazy anxiety and near-constant heart palpations. This is just what a nervous flier needs before heading to the airport. (In case you’re curious, I have an underactive thyroid, but in trying to find the perfect dose of medication to normalize it there are sometimes bumps in the road. Not fun, but easily correctable.)  Ironically, then, I’ve really never been so happy to collapse into jetBlue’s comfy leather seat and just *sit.*  It had been a crazy few weeks at work, and I was totally ready for 72 hours of escapism, even if it meant I had to fly to get to it.

The flight was fine, and we landed in Orlando around 9:30 p.m.  It was taking forever for our baggage to appear, so I had CP wait for the suitcase while I ran to the National Emerald Aisle to pick out our car. I ended up with a 2013 Nissan Altima that I loved; it got great gas mileage, which was a bonus considering I drove over 1400 miles that week. (A long story I’ll cover in an upcoming post.)  I swung by the Arrivals level and picked CP up, and we were soon off to Bay Lake Tower.  The Disney security guard informed us that it was too late to check in at BLT, so we headed to the Contemporary’s main building for a very quick online check-in.

I’ll cover this in a separate review, but suffice it to say, our first responses to BLT were very positive. The lobby was smaller than I had expected, but it was very warm and modern.  Our room number was 7009, a lake view studio nearly at the furthest end of the tower.  I took a few arrival pictures, we did some minimal unpacking, and then it was off to bed – it had been a long day.

Saturday, February 2

Although we are usually up for rope drop anyway, today we were up a bit earlier in order to meet the representative from Kingdom Camera Rental who was to drop off my lens.(For those of you who are into this sort of thing, I rented the Nikon AFS 18-300mm f3.5 – 5.6 VR zoom and, for the most part, absolutely loved it! Not as great at night, but as a walkaround lens during the day, it was perfect.)  The handoff made, CP and I walked to the Contempo Cafe at the Contemporary to grab a quick breakfast of Mickey waffles before heading to, if you can believe it, the Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom tends to be a park we only visit on longer trips, but for some reason we were both in the mood on this trip. CP in particular wanted to catch Flights of Wonder, and I thought the wildlife would be great to photograph with a different lens.

If memory serves we arrived just a few minutes after rope drop, and while it was definitely busier than we’d seen it in September/December, it was nowhere near packed. We ambled in leisurely and stopped to admire and photograph the birds, browsed some shops to pin trade, and headed back to Dino Land to take pictures. Oddly, neither of us were in the mood to ride anything, so we mostly soaked in the wonderful sunshine and did some people watching before the 10:30am Flights of Wonder show.  Since I can’t give you lots of details, how about lots of pictures?

I know this is some pathbreaking journalism and all, but really, we must move on. There are more birds!

As planned ,we managed to catch the 10:30 am Flights of Wonder show, and we were both glad that we did. It was entertaining, the birds were cool, and it was nice to sit in the shade for half an hour. I recommend it! How about a few more pictures of birds? (I promise this is going to pick up soon. Hang in there!)

Seriously, it’s an entertaining little show; don’t let the world’s most disjointed trip report entry dissuade you from seeing it.

Moving on!

Animal Kingdom is neither of our favorite parks, so following Flights of Wonder we decided to walk through the back of the park before heading out to continue on with our day. Animal Kingdom is a decidedly nicer park in the winter months, when it’s not 95 degrees outside with 90% humidity. We actually quite enjoyed our stroll:

So, that should give us our fill of Animal Kingdom for at least another three years!

All of this bird watching had left us with an appetite, so we piled into the Altima and headed over to Downtown Disney.  On the docket? A requisite sandwich from the Earl, some window shopping, and some pin trading. For a Saturday it was pretty busy but not nearly as bad as it could have been, so our wait at Earl of Sandwich was only three hours long. We split an All-American and a Cannonballs, and then wrapped up with some pin trading before heading back to Bay Lake for a nap.

I’ve said previously that even on a short trip, it’s hard for us to give up afternoon naps. Yes, we’re just like overtired toddlers, and we require a crucial restart by late afternoon. And so that’s what we did, after taking these delightful shots of Bay Lake:

As this is already getting long I’m going to put a pin in this report for now. Up next: CP and I give Be Our Guest a try for dinner, and I make not one but two serious food-related mistakes. (Oh, and lots more pictures, some even without birds in them!)