Trip Report Completed: SUCCESS!! I did NOT get locked out of our room naked again! Boardwalk Villas June 2015

Hey all!

Well, I am back. Sigh.

Yep, I'm playing a good game of "last week at this time".

Last week at this time, I was on the veranda of the California Grill watching Wishes. (It is 10:11 as I type this)

Tonight, I am sitting in my sweltering 90+ degree apartment in NYC procrastinating putting my air conditioner in the window. Does anyone have a time machine I can borrow? I prefer last week instead.

We had a really absolutely amazing trip, and there is not too much drama in it, so I hope I can make this interesting somehow.

Before I start, let me address the elephant in the room about getting locked out of the room naked.

Yes, that happened. In 2013. Luckily, no photographic evidence exists, but what happened is that it was a day with a lot of cocktails. We saved and sprung for concierge, and the wine up there was flowing like the River Jordan.

We went back to the room and I hurled all my clothes off and threw myself into the bed.

Cut to several hours later.

I woke up. The room was pitch black. I had no idea where I was, or, to clarify, my mind was not yet awake at 100% functionality. I stumbled through the darkness toward the bathroom, following a pattern that matched my own NYC apartment. Unfortunately, there is a different pattern at Disney hotels, and I quickly opened a door and said "woaaahhh - noooo!!!!" - and as soon as I said that, the door behind me slammed shut, and I was locked out of the room, naked.

It was such a ridiculous, surreal situation. There was nothing to be done, so I just huddled there by the door like Gollum and eventually Phil came back to the room.Let's just say that I was in the doghouse for the rest of the trip.

But that is soooo 2013. There is no getting locked out naked in 2015. So, onward!

June 4, 2015:

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Our plane was on time! No issues.

Phil had to go buy some reading materials, which left me some time to take a non-selfie-stick-selfie
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Soon we were in the sky. I made Phil do a selfie with me against his will.

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Yeah, well, no one looks that good when you do a selfie. Anyway, we flew the friendly skies to Orlando and when we got there, Quicksilvertours was freaking incredible. They picked us up, gave us a 30 minute grocery stop, and then deposited us at the Boardwalk Villas.

We had done pre-check in. We had a standard view one-bedroom Boardwalk villa. I did not expect anything but that, but when we got there, a check in hostess grabbed us and spent 20 minutes on a phone and then told us "Good news! You have been upgraded to a renovated room!!"

Hurray!!

And so here is the video of the renovated room. I am sorry that my phone ran out of gas toward the end, so this ends unexpectedly:




I cannot believe the room we got. I never wanted to leave. But we had to. So we went and explored the pool:

Here is Phil, looking very happy:

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and here I am:
What the heck was I thinking wearing an orange tee-shirt - -- ----this theme will come up again and again:
pool orange.JPG


Well, it was time to go to a few fast passes in EPCOT before going to our $300 dinner at the California Grill.

Let me back up briefly.

We are NOT rich at all. The results of the Boardwalk stay is the result of saving for about a year, and as for California Grill, I figured out that we were not getting out of there for under $300, so we put $20 a week in an envelope until it reached $300 and then we had it! That might seem a bit tragic to some, but it made the California Grill amazing for us rather than a situation where we were trying to figure out how to pay.

So anyway, prior to the trip, I went shopping for some new Disney clothes, and anyone who knows me knows that i am fashion incompetent. But I specifically was looking for a California Grill outfit.

Everyone here always complains about badly dressed people so I wanted to do what I could to make sure i was dressed for a fireworks dinner in the clouds.

The day before the trip, I went shopping, and I somehow thought this shirt was good.

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wow, this looked great on the mannequin but on me, it looks like Carrie White exploded!!

Here is the tasteful outfit
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that Phil decided to wear:


So on we go. We rode a few rides in the future section of EPCOT and then it was time for our $300 dinner at California Grill:

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Cali was just great. Here is Phil standing in front of 10,000,000 bottles of wine as you
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walk in:

Well, it just said I'm not allowed to upload anymore files to this message (limit of 10) so I'll get back to this soon.

Coming soon - dancing in an empty Boardwalk dance-hall, a pretty underwhelming Trader Sams, a Rebel Hangar that had no rebels in it, an Ohana that was awesome, and a drink around the world that was as awesome as always.
 

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BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK, I think you need to revise your TR title now to mention the pig blood shirt. Something like, "I did not get locked out of our hotel room naked again, but ended up wearing a pig blood shirt!" :jawdrop:

Oh, and again you and Phil are just TOO CUTE!!
LOL - I think you are exactly correct about the title change. Thanks so much for reading and for the likes.
:)
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Love this trip report.
You're staying at my favorite Resort and seem like very fun, cool guys.
Plus I'm also part of the "naked hotel room lockout club" (mine was at the La Valencia in La Jolla, Ca).
My wife will never, ever let me forget that one.

Can't wait for more!!
LOL - I thought I was so original (and by original, I mean, originally moronic), and now everyone is doing it.
:)
Thanks for the nice comments!!!
 

Figgy1

Well-Known Member
PART TWO

Sorry for the delay, everyone. I've been swamped at work.

Before I go any further, there are a few points I wanted to mention that I didn't talk about in the initial report:

1. The weather overall for this trip was absolutely, unbelievably amazing. The temperatures were very hot during each mid-day, but I was very pleasantly amazed by how nice and cool and breezy and non-humid it was late afternoons and nights. I was expecting to sweat to death and that just did not happen at all. There were two monster storms, one of which I videoed and will post here later, but overall, it was just great.

2. Our newly renovated Boardwalk Villa did NOT have an energy efficient air conditioner!! To which I say, HURRAY!!! This was my pet peeve at Yacht Club a few years ago. The air in that place would shut off it it did not sense any movement, which meant that we woke up in a pool of sweat every night at 3AM. This new Villa had an old fashioned air conditioner, and we were able to keep it on high freeze for the entire trip.

So anyway, onward with the rest of the trip, beginning where we left off, when we were about to be seated at California Grill. They gave us one of those beeper things with all the flashing lights, and we decided to try to belly up to the barView attachment 97147 while we were waiting. Unfortunately, there was no room at the inn:

Luckily, just as we were about to squeeze in and have a drink, our buzzer went off, and it was time for our $300 dinner!!!

Let's just say that it was a really wonderful experience overall. We did not get put at the best table. In fact, if you look at the below picture of Phil eating a sushi appetizer, you will see my delightful view of the service kitchen:

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But hey, who cares when the food is this good? I had the gnocchi, and as you can see, I hated it.

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Ugh,. That shirt! I feel like I was at the prom and got a bucket of pig blood dumped on me. What was I thinking? Luckily, we had a lot of wine at Cali Grill, and so I had forgotten that I was wearing the pig blood shirt. Here is just some of the wine we had:

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I got tired of Phil taking pictures of my insane shirt, so this happened:

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And then, it was time for Wishes. Look, I'm a big cheese ball, and I have to admit that I could not believe that I was actually in the California Grill watching Wishes. Phil could care less, but if I am going to be honest, I think I shed a tear or two during wishes, especially since the weather was so stunningly and unexpectedly beautiful. Anyway, since I refused to let my tear stained cheesy face and blood stained Carrie White shirt be photographed, here is Phil enjoying Wishes. Please note his gigantic glass of wine:

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This was one of the most incredible nights of my life. And we were just getting started. Of course, as soon as the fireworks ended, almost everyone left the California Grill, and we were faced with our usual dilemma: Being the last ones in the restaurant.

Phil and I have a curse. No matter what time we go to dinner, we are always the last people in the restaurant. Which I hate. Because I was a waiter for many years, and I hate the feeling that the staff is just tapping their foot waiting for you to leave. I did not think we could possibly have closed down the California Grill, but we could have, and we did!!

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Ugghhhhhhh, that shirt!. I am going to burn it as soon as I log off. Anyway, we wandered around Cali for a while after dinner, which, by the way, clocked in (with 20% tip) at $296.00 instead of my projected $300 (hurray! We saved four bucks!!). Then we got in a cab and headed back to Boardwalk.

It was after 11PM when we got back, but we were far from done. Now was time for Atlantic Dance Palace and Jellyrolls, which I will get to in the next post.
:)
Don't burn that shirt I think it looks great.
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I had a few laugh-out-loud moments over your funny comments and some of the pictures. :happy: You two are hilarious!

The California Grill dinner and the Wishes fireworks looked like a real highlight of your trip.

By the way I was glad to read that you had a good air conditioner in the Boardwalk villa. (Those other energy efficient ones just don't make it in the Florida heat and humidity.)
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I had a few laugh-out-loud moments over your funny comments and some of the pictures. :happy: You two are hilarious!

The California Grill dinner and the Wishes fireworks looked like a real highlight of your trip.

By the way I was glad to read that you had a good air conditioner in the Boardwalk villa. (Those other energy efficient ones just don't make it in the Florida heat and humidity.)
Thanks so much! Yeah, I thought the old timey air conditioner in the brand new room was so bizarre but I loved it. The whole place was cool all the time!
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
PART 3 - Friday June 5 - Hollywood Studios

First of all, thanks to everyone for your nice comments and likes, especially about my insane Carrie White bloodbath shirt which I have not yet burned, but which is probably taking a trip to the Goodwill very soon.

So onward.

What happens when you stay awake until 2AM at Disney? Free answer - you do not want to wake up the next day!

We are not rope drop people, and the way we feel about it is that if we are spending a good gazillion dollars for a room, then the room is just as important to experience as the park. Why drop more than $200 a night for a room just to run out of the room as fast as possible at every moment? That is just us, and I know others feel differently, and all opinions are legitimate.

So, we rolled out of bed at around 9:30. Or should I say Phil did that. I was still comatose.
To make a long story short, Phil made an amazing breakfast of a tomato, spinach, and cheese omelette, yogurt with berries, and mimosas. He's the best. Sorry but I was a bit hungover, so I did not think to take pictures of this.

But soon it was on to Disney Hollywood Studios!!!

Okay. This was the first time that I got a little concerned.

We arrived around noon, and the park was MOBBED. I had never seen so many people there before. I wish I took pictures, but when I am hot, and in a mob situation, I shut down a bit. Little did I know that tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom, it was going to make this crowd look like nothing at all.

We had fast pass ressies for Tower of Terror and as we approached, it was like a 2 hour stand by line. I have never seen the line that long before. What is going on in this place?!?

The fast pass line moved fast enough and we were on and off pretty quickly. The drop sequence was pretty long and terrifying, and very fun.

Then, it was time for our lunch reservation at Brown Derby.

I objected to this reservation and wanted Prime Time instead, but Phil insisted. He does not like the shtick of the waiters screaming at you. So Brown Derby it was. Here I am trying on a brown derby, even though it is a light fixture:

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We both ordered Cobb salads, and wine tastings. Here is the wine tasting that came to Phil:

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And I'm not so innocent either!
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Phil decided that he was a hidden mickey:

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Those are the spoons to toss the cob salad in case you are wondering.

And then, of course, as I have already mentioned, Phil and i are always the last ones in a restaurant, and this was no exception. I guess the lunch service had petered out, and so please to experience- the last one at lunch in the Brown Derby on June 5, 2015!!!

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errr.... there "might" be one person directly behind me, but believe me, this place was empty.

Anyway, we meant to have the grapefruit cake for dessert, but the salads were so filling, and we had a reservation for Rebel Hangar at 4:30, so we paid, left, and went to a fast pass at Toy Story.

It was about a 20 minute wait, even with fast pass, and then we were on to the Rebel Hangar.

Okay.

I'm sorry you guys, But I think this place was a complete cynical cash grab. There was barely any theming at all. They just put "dolls" on each table. I thought "rebels" were supposed to be seen walking around, if not interacting with tables - nothing. Not one single character was seen. It started off totally empty, even though it was said to be sold out:
empty hangar.JPG

But then, the skies opened up and Phil and I got trapped in the Hangar for about an hour. And the place filled up with people who were caught in the rain. Here is a very badly filmed video. I held the camera the wrong way too. But hey. I'm not Spielberg, and this is not Jurassic World, so please to enjoy this very brief video:



We had another round while we waited for the rain to stop:

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And then we headed out. It looked like the skies were going to open up again, so we headed back to the Boardwalk.

That night, we went to EPCOT for Biergarten and extra magic hours, and that will be in the next post.

:)
 

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