Trip Report Our 2nd Anniversary DREAMy Boardwalk Adventure (Sept. 2015) COMPLETED

We have arrived home from our wonderful Disney vacation, and are ready to start our trip report! I say "our" because my husband has recently joined the forum as MRhappyplace, so he will add contributions (and corrections) as we go along.

We are Amber (age 36) and David (age 45). Our 2nd Anniversary was on August 31, and we honeymooned at Disney in October 2013, so it had been almost 2 years since our last trip. This is us:





Our trip began on Saturday, September 12th. I had to go to work for a few hours to train some staff, and while I was gone, DH took care of packing up the car, getting everything set up for our kitties, and cleaned out the fridge. All that fun stuff. I came home at around noon, and we did all the last-minute things and then we headed out for a couple of stops. We ultimately got on the real road (aka highway-driving from around 45 miles northeast of Atlanta) at around 2:15. Not too shabby.

We weren't heading into the bubble until the following day, Sunday. We added on a hotel stay in Bay Lake, Florida for this Saturday night, so that we could get to the World fairly early, and much less tired on Sunday. After a stop at Chick-fil-a for dinner around 5pm in Perry, GA, we got to the Country Inn & Suites at around 8pm. We were given Room 306, so were quite confused when we stepped off the elevator to this sign:



??? Turns out our room was just behind the elevator. Not a bad room at all, we would stay here again. We went to Steak n' Shake for dinner, then contemplated taking a dip in the indoor pool at the hotel, but there were three older women in there, singing at the top of their lungs, having a good ole time. We didn't feel it necessary to join them Went to bed.

Sunday, September 13th:
The continental breakfast was so-so the next morning, but we did have a bit, and were on our way.

We hit a bit of rain, and the skies were all gloomy as at 11:15, we saw in the distance, then passed under the Walt Disney World sign-no amount of rain was gonna bring me down; I did my slap-the-hubby's arm-squeal-clap-bounce thing in the passenger seat!





We pulled into the Boardwalk at 11:25!


Just a little teaser for tonight-will continue more tomorrow evening. Thanks for joining our thread!

 

[myhappyplace]

Whoa definitely need to size down on the pics...

 

[lostpro9het]

Whoa definitely need to size down on the pics...

Nah, they look good. Following along as well as feeling the pressure to get going on my TR..

 

[Mrhappyplace]

Nah, they look good. Following along as well as feeling the pressure to get going on my TR..

Are you sure? This trip report will likely contain a couple of hundred photos so I hope people won't find it bothersome to scroll through the whole thing.

No pressure but I look forward to reading it.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I agree that the picture size is fine! Can't wait to read more and see all of the pics!

 

[lostpro9het]

Are you sure? This trip report will likely contain a couple of hundred photos so I hope people won't find it bothersome to scroll through the whole thing.

No pressure but I look forward to reading it.

POSITIVE! Mostly because mine will be as big or bigger! Final photobucket tally for me: 792! This includes a few I have of "Team HappyPlace" at our tasting class.

Bring it on!

 

[myhappyplace]

Lol! I have some of you making the first margaritas too!

 

[fractal]

The bigger, the better.

 

[Mrhappyplace]

The bigger, the better.

 

[myhappyplace]

Alright then, continuing on with big pics!

Just as a note -we upgraded my camera around Christmastime. I used to have just a point and shoot, Nikon p500. We ended up getting me a Canon EOS Rebel T5. I practiced during the summer at various functions, but this was the main purpose for the upgrade. We had a lot of fun, DH included (I am usually the photographer), learning about the camera and experimenting with our shots this trip.

So, we unloaded our luggage, and though we had done online check-in, headed in to see if our room was ready yet. It was not. So DH took the car to self-park, while I explored the lobby.

I had never even visited Boardwalk, let alone stayed there. I found the decor and theming to be charming.















I am sure I looked like an absolute idiot, walking around with a goofy grin on my face. DH met me in the lobby, and even though it was raining, we figured we would walk around. We had a 4:45 ADR at Raglan Road, and we would need to clean up before then anyway, so what's a little rain??

 

[myhappyplace]

We headed out into the rain-




I thought the wet wood of the Boardwalk looked so pretty, and the pastel buildings too!



We walked around the whole loop, by the Beach and Yacht Clubs, and back to the Boardwalk, all in the pouring rain. We were drenched, but it didn't bother us. It did mean I kept the camera put away for the most part, but we would have opportunity to revisit the Yacht and Beach Clubs for pics later.



We did some looking in shops and the art gallery. DH insisted we needed some of the huge dolphins in our living room. Pretty amazing stuff in there. In the shops, we were interested in pins. DH's stepmother came across a lanyard with some pins on it at the charity she works for, and bought them for us before our last trip. We never did anything with them, but thought we might see what pin trading was all about. Our goal is to stay at several different resorts, and we thought a resort-specific pin each trip might be a nice souvenier.



With plans to buy a Boardwalk pin later in the week (and we did), we continued our walk and finally found the pool.



Finally between 2 and 2:30, we got the text that our room was ready-we were in 3235, Boardwalk view.

Here was our view:

 

[myhappyplace]

Some room details-loved the decor!



We didn't notice until days later that the castle is in this picture behind the carousel...








And, what we're celebrating

 

[Mrhappyplace]

We did some looking in shops and the art gallery. DH insisted we needed some of the huge dolphins in our living room. Pretty amazing stuff in there.

We do need those dolphins. And some of the sharks and oh probably a dozen or so other pieces we saw in there. We probably should have taken the camera out I just did some searching for images of some of the sculpture we saw inside Wyland Galleries and found very little results.

Guess we will have to plan on visiting the boardwalk again in the future and having the camera (and a few thousand dollars) ready.

 

[myhappyplace]

Continuing on...we had just gotten to our room, and got ourselves dry and re-did my hair (I looked like a drowned rat), and headed to the Boardwalk bus stop to Downtown Disney/ Disney Springs. We ended up waiting around 10 minutes. Downtown Disney was pretty busy. We looked in the Christmas shop, and World of Disney, and the pin shop. Mostly we just wandered. DH was somewhat disappointed with the Marvel shop, though he didn't have high expectations going in. Wandering around...

 

[myhappyplace]

We were a wee bit early for our Raglan Road reservation, but checked in anyway. If you read our Pre-trip report, we originally had this cheduled for 2:15, but decided to push it back to 4:45 so we could see the dancers. They got us in right away. We were somewhat disappointed in our seating placement, as it was not right in the main area, though it was pretty empty. But we were near the bar, which was very handsome.



The menu and my choice:




Bread service was delicious! We had heard the Guiness reduction tasted like honey, and it did! We also thought that there was no way that there was enough, but there was. Just.


DH ordered the Ham Schnitzel. He is still trying to learn how to behave in front of a camera (before he married me he hated having his picture taken; now he has no choice). After taking this shot, I said "could you possibly look ANY more bored?"

and so I tried again. This next photo has been making me crack up since!



Our food pictures (I should have warned y'all that we took pics of every meal but one on the cruise, so there are tons of food pics)

My Bangers n Booz (I got fries instead of the mash that is normal underneath) It was delicious and I devoured every bite.


DH liked his choice, though he didn't finish it all...we had Bread & Butter Pudding to save room for!!

 

[Tiggerish]

Looks like you are staying at Boardwalk Inn side, one of my very favorite places. Since we bought DVC, I've only stayed at the Villas side (still quite nice, but not the Inn).

I was drowned by that same rainstorm, but I was at MK at the time! Lovely to meet you both at the Poly!! (That's yet to come, I know!! Spoilers!!)

 

[myhappyplace]

I stood up and went into the main stage area to watch the dancers:




Then they brought the kids up on stage:






Then it was time to visit heaven. The best dessert ever. Bread & Butter Pudding!


We had originally toyed with the idea of each getting our own, but thankfully better sense prevailed, and we split one. SO. FULL. I was in some pain, stuffed tummy pain. Good but bad. Bad but oh so good. By the time we walked back to the marketplace bus stop, I was better but oof.

This pic was actually taken before we checked in.
[Side note- I bought much of my clothing for this trip from an online styling service called Stitch Fix, and so made sure to have a pic taken everytime I was wearing one of their items, so that I could enter their monthly photo contest]

 

[myhappyplace]

Looks like you are staying at Boardwalk Inn side, one of my very favorite places. Since we bought DVC, I've only stayed at the Villas side (still quite nice, but not the Inn).

I was drowned by that same rainstorm, but I was at MK at the time! Lovely to meet you both at the Poly!! (That's yet to come, I know!! Spoilers!!)

Yes, Inn side, it was lovely! We did get mixed up one morning, and ended up walking around the Villa side. We also took a dip in the quiet pool one morning. Quite beautiful over there, quaint

Yeah, there was a bit of rain each day but I think that was the worst. Glad it wasn't a park day for us. It was so fun to meet you, and everyone! That part is coming up soon!

 

[myhappyplace]

After our meal at Raglan Road, we headed by bus from DD to the Poly. DH had a goal of trying a Lapu Lapu, and we were going to see if we could meet Tammy and the LOL ladies, who were staying in one of the Poly Bungalows Before their cruise the next morning.

Overhead monorail






We texted Tammy @Disneyfalcon to tell her we were there, as the LOL were just finishing their meal at Ohana. We all had a great little chat; it was so nice to meet everyone in person! @Tiggerish and @sweetpee_1993

Instagram by Tammy of our meeting!

Grrr can't get this to post!

Then we walked down to the Poly beach to take in the views




Beautiful sunset happening there...




Couldn't decide which I liked better, the lights in focus and the castle blurry, or the other way around:

 

[myhappyplace]

A couple of flower shots as we walked back up to the lobby for that drink...




We decided to go back up to the bar outside of Ohana, and shared a Lapu Lapu. Quite yummy, though don't know if it was worth the price.





Phone selfie:




Then, we rode the monorail to MK, and took the bus to the Boardwalk.

Night views from our window: