>A View to a Dream

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Today’s Saturday Matinee is one of the Unknown reasons that I LOVE the Disney Vacation Club* in Disney World. Enjoy!

The Answers to yesterday’s Where is this? fotos are as follows:

A. Out the back lobby doors of the Boardwalk Resort.

B. In the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella Castle.

C. This is a game you can play in DisneyQuest.

D. Inside the Sci-Fi Café.

E. These are the lighting fixtures outside the Castle.

F. Inside Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.

G. This is above the front Desk in Le Cellier.

H. This is found in Winter Summerland.

I. These are the clothes holders in the World of Disney fitting room.

J. This is Osprey Ridge Golf Course decorated for Christmas.

Thanks for Playing.

*To read more about the DVC, check out my articles at http://www.wdwfanzone.com/
 
 

>A Step Back in Time

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Many years ago, I went to a bar at the Jersey Shore with some friends. It was different than any bar I had been to up to that time. There was a downstairs area that had a main bar and an area for a band and it was your average bar. But, there was an upstairs that made this bar different. There was a complete room upstairs that had sofas and overstuffed chairs and end tables and coffee tables. It was if you were in a huge living room that overlooked the downstairs bar. It was really a great place to enjoy an evening with friends, have a few drinks and listen to some live music. What made this such a great place to be was that it was so comfortable.

In Walt Disney World, there are a few places to get an adult beverage that are like this. One of them is in my favorite resort, the Boardwalk. Now, this lounge is actually inside the resort. It is down the hall from the main lobby and is called the Belle Vue Room. The Belle Vue Room is a small living room

area (kind of like the room I described above), with overstuffed chairs and a few sofas, a large coffee table and some end tables. The Walls are lined with book shelves. The shelves hold books and board games for your reading and family enjoyment. There is also a large old time radio. And over in the back corner of the room, there is a bar. The bar has maybe three or four stools at it, as most people that come to this lounge, sit on the sofas and chairs. Disney’s Website calls it a “1930s sitting room.”

The bar is a full service bar, they offer a few different beers and have mixed drinks, I actually had a few gin and tonics the last time we were there instead of my normal drink (beer). The bartender the evening we were there was a very pleasant gentleman that we enjoyed talking with. We actually stopped into the Belle Vue Room, because we had dinner reservations in Epcot and as we were getting ready to leave the resort, a thunder shower started. We figured we’d have a drink and wait for the storm to blow over. After we sat down the bartender got us our drinks and we got to talking about our plans for the evening. He agreed that the storm would be gone in 45 minutes. At the 45 minutes mark he refilled our glasses and asked what time our reservations

were for. As we told him about an hour and fifteen minutes from that time, he said we should be ok, it couldn’t last much longer. 45 minutes later again, he asked if we were going to brave the rain (at this point it had been raining very hard for 2 ½ hours) or if we were just going to stay there. We decided to try it and stopped in the gift shop for an umbrella. As we got outside and started walking, the rains stopped and the sky started to clear.

We laughed about the fact that we spent almost three hours sitting in the lounge waiting out a thunder storm and that we could have done something else with our time, but the truth is, we had a great time in the Belle Vue Lounge. We sat and read the newspaper, listened to the radio (they play old time radio serials from the years before television) and played some board games. We laughed and talked and really enjoyed our family time in this wonderful place.

So, for a quiet little bar, with a nice relaxing feel to it; someplace where the family can spend some time and enjoy some refreshments, step back in time and try the Belle Vue Lounge.

*The Belle Vue Lounge is also open at breakfast for some coffee and pastries, which is a nice way to start your day.

>A Few of My Favorite Things…

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>So, Where is Home?

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As mentioned in previous posts, The Walt Disney Company believes that everything they do is a show. For this reason, their workers are called Cast Members. The Walt Disney World Cast Members are unbelievable people. In my many travels to Disney World, I have come in contact with probably thousands of Cast Members and 99.99999% of them have been wonderful people that made our trips Magical Experiences. I’m sure I’ve had one or two here and there over the years that I thought was having a bad day, but most of the time, actually almost all the time, you never know if they are having a bad day. On the whole, the Cast Members are really great at helping to

create the magic. People like Andy at the Boardwalk or Dallas at the Hoop De Doo Revue, are just a couple of examples of Cast Members that know what
the Magic is and actually make sure you Experience it.

Last year when we were eating in Le Cellier in the Canada Pavilion in Epcot, we were waited on by a very nice young lady that was from Nova Scotia. My son who is a big Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins fan, made a comment about Crosby being from Nova Scotia. Our waitress started talking hockey with us and actually told us she

not only knew Crosby, but is good friends with Marc-Andre Fleury, The Penguins goaltender. Then she shared with us her experience of when the Penguins won the Stanley Cup last year. If it weren’t for her name tag saying her name and where she was from, we would have missed out on a Very Special Experience.

That is today’s Unknown Magic. Every Cast Members’ name tag lists where they are from. This is pretty neat when you see people that are from your area of the country and also maybe from your state. We were in the Conservation Station (in Animal Kingdom) last summer, and it seemed like most of the Cast Members working there seemed to come from the Philadelphia/New Jersey Area. Being from New Jersey, we talked to a lot of these people about “home.”

When you are in Epcot’s World Showcase, you will notice that all the Cast Members working at the different pavilions are from those countries. A lot of them are part of the Disney International Program. Everyone of the Cast Members that we have come in contact with in Epcot, have always been very eager to talk about their home country, and share their culture with us. It is very neat to discuss with someone their home town, and ask questions about how Disney has designed the buildings and areas in Epcot, as compared to these hometowns.

These experiences can be had all over Walt Disney World, You can meet and talk to people from places that you know or just want to know more about. The Cast Members are normally friendly outgoing people, but when you start talking to them about their hometowns, they seem to be even more Excited and Talkative.

So, now you know, when you come in contact with a Cast Member, read where they are from, You might be in store for a Magical Experience you might never have seen coming.

>“The Pools, the Different Pools.”

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Welcome to Tips from a Teenager Tuesday. My co-author on Tuesdays is my son John. For those of you that have a 15 year old, you will understand some of the answers, those of you that don’t; I will say these are his real answers.



The question I pose every week is this “Tell me something you like about Disney World that everyone needs to know about.” This is today’s conversation. Enjoy.

“Tell me something you like about Disney World that everyone needs to know about.”

“The Pools, the Different Pools.”

“Why should they know about them?”

“Because there are a great variety of different themes and they are enjoyable.”

“At every resort there are different pools?”

At this point he answered yes, no, yes and then told me I confused him, so I asked the question a different way.

“At each resort the pools are different?”

“Yes, wait, yes.”

“And they have different themes?”

“Yes,”

“What do you mean?”
“They have small pools and the main pools, they have slides and more kids and there is a place to eat and they have a bar.”

Let me interject here about the Resort Pools in Walt Disney World. All the Resorts have a main pool that is themed to match the Resort. Then there is usually at least one other pool that is located at a different place around the resort and this is considered the “Quiet” pool. The quiet pools don’t have slides or lifeguards and mostly have less people at them. The Main pool has the slide, a snack bar/bar, a children’s play area and a toddler pool, a hot tub, and are guarded by more than one life guard. When I asked the question about the different pools, I was asking him if the pools in one resort were themed, they are not.

“So, they really don’t have different themes,”

“More so they have different atmospheres.”

Meaning the quiet pool is quiet and the main pool has a lot of activity

“Do all the resorts have the same kind of pools?”

“I would say. They all have a slide.”

“You said before they all have themes, which one is your favorite, theme?”

“The Sand pool at the Beach Club.”

The Pool at the Yacht Club Resort is shared with the Beach Club Resort. It is called Storm-along Bay and is a little water park of its own. There is a lazy river, with water jets that push you along, and the bottom of the pool is sand. This is one of the pools on the Disney property that you must be a guest at the resort to use.

“What are your favorite 3 pools in Walt Disney World?”

“1. Beach/Yacht Club 2. Boardwalk 3. Polynesian.”

“We haven’t yet stayed at the Polynesian yet, why do you like the pool?”

“There were a lot of people there, but it seemed relaxed, I guess because of the Resort.”

I thought he was going to say because it is cool looking. They actually have a Volcano that erupts every so often and a water fall that dumps water right into the pool from a rock over hang.

“What are the best 3 things about the pools in Walt Disney World?”

“1. Slides, the kids always love the slides, (his exact words) 2.Usually the snack place is good. 3. All the pools are within walking distance.”

“Do you have any suggestions for people using the Disney pools?”

“Don’t go in the middle of the day, that’s when everyone is there.”

“Anything else?”

“Be prepared to have some good family fun.” Once again his exact words

“Would you like to add anything else that people need to know about the Disney pools?”

“There’s other things to do besides swimming, there are active activities that you can do, like tennis courts, volleyball, sometimes basketball, and near some you can rent bikes. You can buy things at them also.”

What I think he was trying to say here is that besides just swimming there are other activities that you can participate in if you want to. Some of the Resorts have tennis courts, some have Basketball courts and others still may have a volleyball court. Some of the resorts also have bicycles you can rent. The reason I think he added this in, was because some of these activities are located near the pool at some of the resorts. The pool at Old Key West for example has basketball and tennis courts adjacent to the pool area. There are sand volleyball courts across from the pool at the Beach Club, so I think this is where he added this from. As for the bikes I’m sure he tied in the bike rentals with a pool somewhere. And as for buying things, I’m sure he was talking about swim gear and drinks and stuff that the snack/pool bars sell.

(As I said before the mind of a 15 year old.)

“Well, thank you John,”

“You’re Welcome.”

>Christmas on the Boardwalk

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A few years back I visited the Boardwalk Resort around Christmas. These pictures are of the decorations inside the lobby, the tree is out the back of the resort.The Roller Coaster scene is the Boardwalk’s Gingerbread display. I hope you enjoy today’s Friday Fotos.

>Saturday Matinee

>Saturday Matinee is a new feature we are doing here on Unknown Magic Within Walt Disney World. Each Saturday, I will present a short video from Walt Disney World. I hope you enjoy them.

Today’s Saturday Matinee is a video from one of the rooms in the Boardwalk Villas that helped my family to enjoy many Magical Experiences. I loved this view. I hope you enjoy it also.