DVC member event at Typhoon Lagoon
From my recollection we left the room around 7:30 to get a bus to Typhoon Lagoon. We waited and waited for a TL bus and when none came I asked the DTD bus driver, the TL stop used to be connected to the DTD bus. The driver said he thought we needed to get a bus to Epcot and transfer there. WHAT??? As soon as I turned to mom to tell her what he had said I noticed an Epcot bus driving away, it had pulled in ahead of the DTD bus I was talking to. While we waited for another Epcot bus I noticed a sign at the bus stop, that after 2pm to take the Epcot bus to get to TL. How much sense does that make??? This was the middle of summer and the water parks were open until 8pm. And this was at SSR. TL is just around the corner from SSR. We hadn’t even noticed it when we were at Beach Club, but on recollection we did have to get an Epcot bus when going back to the resort. And when we got to Epcot the bus stop for BC was the stop immediately next to it. The SSR stop was nowhere near close. Finally another Epcot bus came and we got on it at 7:54.
At Epcot the TL bus was quite a walk from where we were dropped off but at 8:09 a TL bus was pulling up.
Bad thing is it was as cold as the arctic tundra! Mom wrapped herself up in a very thin wrap she had brought and we huddled together for warmth. Finally at 8:30 we were at Typhoon Lagoon…. The absolute waste of time going to Epcot and then another 20 minutes from Epcot to TL had me very frustrated.
We had to check in before we were allowed in the park. They checked my DVC card and our names. You did have to register for this event, I suppose so they would know how much food/beverages to have on hand. I believe the event officially started at 9pm, but you could get into the park at 7:30 without water park passes. I somehow forgot to write times down so I could be slightly off.
Neither of us had been to TL at night before and thought it was very pretty,
Our first order of business was food. We had not eaten since the fries at SAB earlier that day and I was starving! I knew they had gluten free pizzas at Leaning Palms and thankfully that was one of the restaurants open during the party. The party had not officially started yet but people were asking where the ice cream and cookies were. I overheard several CMs tell people patiently that the treats would be put out at 9:30. They had a special map set up around the park that had the treat station locations, and where the meet and greats were going to be.
Leaning Palms only had a limited menu listed so I asked if they could do the gluten free pizza and the CM had to ask the cooks. No problem they said and I was so pleased! It took probably 15 minutes to come out, which it usually does since they have to cook it special but it’s worth the wait not to have tummy trouble.
And man oh man was that pizza delicious!!! They put so much cheese on it and the crust was just perfect.
At 9:15 I checked us in for our Southwest flight the next evening and then we went to explore the park. We were impressed with the turnout. There were tons of members there and it was really fun to see.
They had a DJ set up at the clock tower by the wave pool. We watched for a little bit and then headed off to find some treats.
They actually had things out before 9:30 and the lines were massive! I completely forgot to get pictures of the items offered, but they had lemonade and water for beverages, an array of chips, Nacho Cheese Doritos, Lays regular, and Lays baked chips, then they had sugar cookies, and of course ice cream. The ice cream was brought out at different times. At first they had Mickey bars, then Mickey ice cream sandwiches, then the strawberry fruit bars. I was excited to have my very first Mickey bar ever. Until I bit into it. Mom was enjoying hers immensely so after a few bites of mine I asked, ‘are these supposed to be icy?’ she took a bite of mine and said I had gotten one that must have melted and been refrozen. She told me to go get another. I didn’t bother, I was disenchanted with the idea of a Mickey bar. For years I’ve been hearing of how magnificent the things are, and the very first one I ever had is icy? What are the chances??? Oh well.
The chips ended up going home with us and we ate them at the pool the next day.
Dinner eaten, flights checked in for, we decided to go have some fun in the water. Sad thing is it was a bit on the chilly side… but we were at a special after hours party and we were going to do at least a few things! First we did a ride down the Storm Slides, they are body slides. Mom hadn’t done them before and they are quite fun. And the dark adds an extra fun touch as well. Then we went in the lazy river, because we LOVE the lazy river. I couldn’t do more than half a lap, I was so cold. At that point we felt like we had a fulfilling experience and were ready to leave. If it had been warmer I’m sure we would have stayed a few more hours.
We passed Lilo and Stitch doing pictures. Neither of us felt the need to have our pictures taken in our bathing suits so we passed on. We had also seen Minnie and Mickey somewhere else in the park. I thought it was a really nice touch that they had characters out.
We left the gates at 10:41. Two hours of fun was worth it in our minds. We praised the event to the CMs that were there. The DVC CMs absolutely glowed when we told them how much fun it was. I hope they have more events like this. I think they only did 4 last summer which I think is a shame. Hopefully the turnout showed them that it was a big success. And it was only for members that were staying onsite, not for members who happen to live in Florida or be in the area. I thought that was interesting.
They had big busses to take us all home. We did not have too long a wait and we were off to OKW first and then the Carriage House. We were at The Springs so had a very short walk and we were back in our room.
This was the bus when it dropped us off at the Carriage House
We were walking up to our building at 11:05
We had a very fun evening and both of us were glad we went. We ended up staying up until the wee hours of the night watching The Village. I forgot to mention that earlier when we got creamer and laundry detergent we also picked up The Village. Mom had never seen it before and loved it. I enjoyed seeing it again as well. We went to sleep a little before 2am.