Who/When/Where:

Who: Sue (64), DVC Member
SB (65), my husband
Chris (36), my son
Amanda (34), my daughter-in-law
Ari (6), my grandson
Dates: November 10 – 14, 2022
Resort: Disney’s Beach Club Villas Resort
Experience: Very Experienced – 57th stay at BCV

INTRODUCTION:
This was booked as an extra trip – for Food & Wine purposes. Our main Food & Wine trip ended up being at Old Key West due to being planned with friends from Massachusetts (who later backed out), so I knew my time at Food at Wine would be more limited and not convenient. I booked a dental appointment for Thursday morning and Friday is a work holiday since 11/11 is Saturday, so this trip won’t cost me much vacation time. The main Food & Wine trip (late October) didn’t include any full weekends, so bringing Chris’ family up then didn’t make sense. However, with this trip Ari has no school on Friday, so they can come up Thursday after school and I’ll actually get to spend time in the parks with them Thursday night and Friday. Saturday they can do a park and we booked lunch at Terralina together, then Sunday they’ll do a park before heading home while I’ll enjoy the pool & then do something at a resort or Disney Springs. Normally including SB on a trip in a studio is not something I’d consider, but in this case since his days off are Thursday & Friday I invited him to meet me there Thursday and spend Thursday/Friday at Food & Wine. Ari being here is the sole reason he agreed to come, and that’s fine. If it wasn’t for him getting to spend time with Ari I’d prefer to have the studio to myself the entire time.

So all of the above was thrown into chaos with the expected arrival of hurricane or tropical storm Nicole! The last thing we need is another freakin’ storm!!! Plus, I don’t like driving in the rain, driving in traffic, or driving in the dark – call me a fuddy duddy if you will, but it is what it is. To get from my Gainesville home to SW Florida it’s 4 hours minimum, assuming no traffic or weather issues. From there to get to Disney it’s 3 tough hours, having to deal with potential traffic on I-75 and a greater risk on I-4. I decided to reschedule my dental appointment (to the following Thursday) to eliminate having that portion of the drive during crappy weather. Changing the Disney portion of the trip is not possible, since BCV studios have been booked up for at least 7 months now and both rooms were booked with banked points. It sucks that lots of rain & wind are expected Thursday & Friday, which are the only days I have access to the parks (only interested in Epcot, for Food & Wine). I’d planned on Saturday & Sunday to have time by the pool but now Sunday is expected to have a high in the low 70’s. Sometimes plans just don’t work out, and this trip is a classic illustration of that!

Besides SB & Chris’ family, my cruise buddy Fran was supposed to be here at Beach Club Villas with her daughter and son-in-law from NJ so I’d looked forward to seeing her and having her meet Chris & family. Unfortunately, Nicole ruined that. Her daughter & son-in-law’s flight was canceled due to the airport closing, so she canceled the entire trip..

On September 28th hurricane Ian roared ashore and destroyed much of the area near my home in Ft Myers. Amazingly, mine seems to be the only street for miles that didn’t flood, meaning our homes didn’t flood even though so many others (many without flood insurance – I have carried flood insurance since buying there in 1986) suffered great losses. Of the 30 homes in our homeowner’s association there was serious damage to around a third of them, but not mine. That said, the costs (building exteriors, non-home structures) not covered by insurance will be passed along to all of us, so I opened a claim with my insurance and FEMA to hopefully cover some/most of what I’ll eventually be hit with. Still, I’m thankful to have my home and only experience very minor damage to my place. It’s heartbreaking to see entire neighborhoods devastated, places we enjoyed wiped away, etc.

Back to this trip - generally, the weather should have been nice in November, which is another big reason in booking this trip. I hate Disney when it’s hot or hot & humid – if I’m going to sweat in the parks I don’t want to be there. November is usually pretty ideal in terms of weather, except when a hurricane/tropical storm is blowing through. Given that Thursday is supposed to be rainy & windy to the point Epcot makes no sense I looked for a lunch reservation to satisfy SB. Beaches & Cream would have been his pick (I’m just “eh” on that one) but nothing was available. Instead, I booked Ale & Compass since we can get there without going outside. The latest lunch reservation I could get was 1:35 so that’s what I booked. Hopefully our studio will be ready by the time we finish lunch – ideally it will be ready when we arrive (haha). Chris’ family won’t get in until later that evening – my guess would be close to 9pm. The big unknown at this point is whether the storm causes me to delay the drive down – I keep hoping a window of better weather will open up but that’s probably not likely.

After tracking hourly weather both in Gainesville and Orlando I wasn’t seeing any obvious “best” window of travel. I’d canceled the Ale & Compass reservation when SB thought the Beach Club Marketplace menu was better, so without having to arrive by any specific time we’ll play Thursday by ear. There’s obviously a big benefit to arriving when the studio will be ready, and when the forecast has dropped from “rain” to “showers”. It looks like Food & Wine may be on the table for Thursday evening, so Beach Club Marketplace will be the backup plan.

Friday may still have a shower or 2 in the morning but for the most part it looks like a mostly sunny, comfortable day. I really would like to enjoy Food & Wine one last time this year.

I have $25 birthday credits from a couple restaurant groups. One includes Terralina and Amanda also has the same credit since her birthday was 11/1. I booked lunch for us there on Saturday. My other one is with Landry, which is Rainforest Café, T-Rex and Yak & Yeti at WDW. I’ll plan to use that on Sunday either at the bar in T-Rex or at Lava Lounge (outside Rainforest Café).

The plans so far are:
Thursday 11/10: Drive to BCV, Food & Wine
Friday 11/11: Epcot, Food & Wine
Saturday 11/12: Pool/Beach, Terralina lunch
Sunday 11/13: Pool/Beach, T-Rex or Lava Lounge
Monday 11/14: Drive to Gainesville

Sue/WDW1972