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:

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

Soon we were in the sky. I made Phil do a selfie with me against his will.

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:

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

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.

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

Here is the tasteful outfit

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:

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

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.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Oh my goodness that is so many people!! I wonder if people not in the group were like "why is everyone wearing red today?!"

Also, I'm glad to hear your thoughts on BOG. I've been trying to get lunch reservations because I have that whole FOMO thing going on about it after reading everyone's trip report. But honestly, it's never been a big draw for me, so maybe I should just skip it until reservations aren't as hard to come by.

 

[worldfanatic]

I 100% agree with your concept of 'why pay for an expensive, magical Disney resort room and then constantly try to walk out the door as quickly as possible to hit the Parks?'. Of course, like you we're often recovering from a very fun, very late night of WDW hijinks.
Fastpass+ has been a wonderful development for those of us who don't desire hitting ropedrops. You now don't get stuck with the "leftover" late attraction visit times.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Fabulous TR!!!!!!!!!!!!'d love to take you 2 on vacation with us as you seem to get so much out of your time at Disney! I just can't wait for the next installment! BTW I like the drink around the monorail shirt better shhhhhhh !

LOL - I'll pretty much drink around anything.

 

[Figgy1]

LOL - I'll pretty much drink around anything.

I'm taking you with me on my next trip and we're going to leave our better halves at home to sit around like old men! LOL A girl can dream can't she?

 

[NCO91590]

Vodka roadies!?!?!?!? Genius! I've only done chardonnay in my water bottles. That way I can sneak some vodka into a Le Frou's Brew!

Heading to Disney with DH for our 10 year anniversary in Feb. First time without kids since our Honeymoon. I shall aspire to party as hard as you guys. I need a list of "must try" cocktails.

 

[catmom46]

I'm taking you with me on my next trip and we're going to leave our better halves at home to sit around like old men! LOL A girl can dream can't she?

Oh, can I join you guys? Please???

 

[MinnieM123]

Entertaining report as usual! Talk about a mob scene in the MK; I don't know how you guys could stand the crowds. Yet, you two seem to always find fun no matter what the circumstances!

I got such a kick about the evacuation of Tom Sawyer's Island (due to an oncoming thunder and lightening storm)--but only to board a raft in the open water? To safety??!! I had a good laugh over that one!!

 

[cfry06]

Fantastic report! Having so much fun 'traveling' along with you through the commentary.
Crowds look nuts!
Wonderful water bottle .
TS Island story was great.
Boardwalk is my fave resort! Enjoying the look of the new room and looking fwd to more stories!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[polynesiangirl]

This is a really enjoyable trip report. You guys look like fun people!

...And I really want some wine now.

 

[BuddyThomas]

This is a really enjoyable trip report. You guys look like fun people!

...And I really want some wine now.

We are too fun - that is the problem!

Thanks for reading, and for the likes!!

 

[BuddyThomas]

PART 5 - Saturday, June 6, 2015 - evening

Okay, so first of all, thanks once again you guys for all the great comments, likes, and general interest. I was thinking we would get one like and maybe two comments total, so I really am blown away by all your enthusiasm. That just goes to show why I always say how much I love this board. So anyway, thanks again, and onward:

Once almost everything was declared closed due to a coming storm that never came, we left the park and headed back to Boardwalk, although, true to my shirt's title, I was ready to "drink around the monorail". I'll drink around anything. A monorail. A Christmas tree. The world. The clock. But no. Unfortunately, "Something Rotten" was "not having any fun" and demanded to go back to the resort.

Fine.

We did so. On the way back, Phil remembered that it was the Belmont Stakes and we should watch that when we got back to the room. (Sidebar - feel free to ignore - but - So you know, Phil lives about 20 minutes away from the Belmont Stakes Stadium, so it was pretty exciting for us. Phil lives on Long Island, and I live in NYC, and we see each other on weekends. I always say that this is the exact reason we have been together for over 15 years. You know the expression - absence makes the heart grow fonder - I think there is something to that. - Sidebar ended)

So we get back to the room, and guess what happened: The "mousekeepers" had done a turn down service, complete with salt water taffy left by each pillow in each room. Not only that, they had turned down the sofa in the living room, into the pullout bed.

Huh??

But oh well. Phil dived right into that bed.

I was hoping he would throw all his clothes off, fall asleep, and get locked out naked, after all the years he has made fun of me for that.

But noooooo. He just fell asleep totally, and that was that.

Which left me in a late afternoon hotel room with nothing to do.

So I decided I was going to take myself to the pool. To hell with Sleeping Beauty on the Sofa Bed. It was my vacation too,


So I slapped on a bathing suit and off I went to the pool.

Well, as it turned out, the pool was packed and I mean PACKED with little kids, and I did not really feel comfortable strolling into the middle of the pool as an adult male, all by myself, in that situation. Just felt weird. What did NOT feel weird, however, was bellying up to the bar at Leaping Libations and ordering something that was the equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea. There were a bunch of people there and they had the Belmont Stakes turned on, ready to go. The people next to me were trying to figure out where Belmont was, and I told them that it was in NY, and we ended up having a fun conversation.

The race finally commenced, and American Pharaoh made history by winning the Triple Crown. That was amazingly cool to see at Leaping Libations of all places , and of course it called for another Long Island Iced Tea, especially since the event had taken place on Long Island!

Okay so somehow, I accidentally posted this without finishing, so I'm just going to call this the end of this part and I will come back to the report momentarily in a new chapter.

 

[BuddyThomas]

PART 5.5 Back to the report.

So I went back to the room, told Phil to wake up, because it was time to make our way to Poly for our Ohana reservation at 9:20.

He's usually pretty difficult about getting up, but he did with no problem this time, and here is his tropical Ohana outfit. Note the cool roller coaster picture in the living room of Boardwalk that he is sitting under:

And off we went to Ohana.

Here is a trick that I strongly advise everyone use if you want to go to Trader Sams and the wait times continue to be insane:

As soon as we got to Poly, we went to Sams and asked how long the wait was. They said two hours. We said okay, we'll put our names on the list. They gave us a beeper and then we went up to Ohana for dinner.

Ohana was a lot of fun and here are a couple of shots, although they are very dark, and honestly, that is how dark the restaurant was:

That thing I am holding (not the drink) is my Trader Sam's beeper! Anyway, Ohana was great. We saw the water parade, and also Wishes again, although it was obviously completely different from on top of Cali Grill.

Almost the split second that our check was delivered, our buzzer for Trader Sams rang. We paid our bill as quickly as possible and ran down to Sams. Here is the table that we got:

It was basically a bench with a little coffee table in front of it. I think they may have changed the policy since we were there, because they were not letting in any standees. If there was not an available seat, you were not getting in.

So anyway, it was a little hectic in there, and in my very humble opinion, the shtick gets old very fast. But we ordered a couple of zombies and we had a good time anyway:

Now here is a little tip for you. While they "encourage" you to buy the souvenir glass, you are not required to do so.

Phil and I had one Zombie each, and the bill was less than $30.00. That was cool, especially since, if I am to be honest, those were a couple of the weakest Zombies I've ever had in my twenty million years of drinking.

The whole experience was still fun, but I do not recommend any sort of wait to get in this joint.

Up next, and probably not being posted until Monday - Drinking Around the World at EPCOT!!!

 

[catmom46]

Awww, we have to wait until Monday??

<heavy sigh> I suppose I can get other things done in my life until then.

And your modesty just makes your appeal that much more appealing! One or two likes/comments - you underestimate your charm (as well as your Sleeping Beauty's).

PS: I love that you two have been together for so long without actually having to live together. I'm currently in the process of getting a divorce (I know, TMI) and now thinking an independence-focused relationship is probably more my style. Live and learn, right?

 

[Figgy1]

Awww, we have to wait until Monday??

<heavy sigh> I suppose I can get other things done in my life until then.

And your modesty just makes your appeal that much more appealing! One or two likes/comments - you underestimate your charm (as well as your Sleeping Beauty's).

PS: I love that you two have been together for so long without actually having to live together. I'm currently in the process of getting a divorce (I know, TMI) and now thinking an independence-focused relationship is probably more my style. Live and learn, right?

^^^^ THIS

 

[Figgy1]

THNX for the tips about Trader Sam's! I was considering going there but now may rethink my plans. I hope you have an absolutely fantastic weekend with Phil but please hurry back as I can't wait for more. Forget that party on. I'll keep til Monday. BTW I'm loving everything you wore so far.

 

[MinnieM123]

First of all, I love Phil's tropical shirt! The picture on the wall behind him is fun; again, I really like how they decorated that villa. As for the swimming pool, was that the Stormalong Bay one? That's supposed to be very popular; I'm not sure--but does the Boardwalk also use that one along with the Yacht and Beach Club guests as well? I can only imagine how crowded it must get, especially with kids. Actually, it's been my own experience that all of the hotel pools all over WDW get very crowded. I've stayed at various hotels; and so many times there has not been one available beach chair at the pool, regardless of the resort.

I was surprised to see how dark Ohana was. I'm all for nighttime atmosphere, but that was dark!! Glad your dinner was great, though. Smart thing you did with getting your names in at Trader's and then going to dinner. Talk about perfect timing!

 

[BuddyThomas]

First of all, I love Phil's tropical shirt! The picture on the wall behind him is fun; again, I really like how they decorated that villa. As for the swimming pool, was that the Stormalong Bay one? That's supposed to be very popular; I'm not sure--but does the Boardwalk also use that one along with the Yacht and Beach Club guests as well? I can only imagine how crowded it must get, especially with kids. Actually, it's been my own experience that all of the hotel pools all over WDW get very crowded. I've stayed at various hotels; and so many times there has not been one available beach chair at the pool, regardless of the resort.

I was surprised to see how dark Ohana was. I'm all for nighttime atmosphere, but that was dark!! Glad your dinner was great, though. Smart thing you did with getting your names in at Trader's and then going to dinner. Talk about perfect timing!

The Boardwalk doesn't get access to Stormalong Bay. They get the pool with the creepy giant clown head slide that basically gives the illusion that this giant spooky clown is vomiting little kids out of his mouth.

 

[Sans Souci]

The Boardwalk doesn't get access to Stormalong Bay. They get the pool with the creepy giant clown head slide that basically gives the illusion that this giant spooky clown is vomiting little kids out of his mouth.

What makes it worse is that the whites of its eyes are illuminated at night.

Did you use any of the quiet pools? They're nice for some chill time.

 

[jjbuster2]

OMG your bill at Cali Grill was how much?! I thought party of 3 at Boma for $170 was insane for me. What are the drinks at the Rebel Hangar...they look yummy. We were there Thanksgiving 2014; it was crazy but it looks like your crowd might have been double what we had

 

[catmom46]

The Boardwalk doesn't get access to Stormalong Bay. They get the pool with the creepy giant clown head slide that basically gives the illusion that this giant spooky clown is vomiting little kids out of his mouth.

What makes it worse is that the whites of its eyes are illuminated at night.

OK, I was actually thinking of pool-hopping to the Boardwalk and I already had a fear of clowns to begin with but now you two have exacerbated it to complete paralysis.