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.

 

[LAKid53]

PART 4 - Saturday, June 6, Magic Kingdom

So as you guys have obviously figured out by now, we are not exactly morning people. Which makes the fact that we had a Saturday morning reservation at Chef Mickey's pretty hysterical. The fact that we actually thought we were going to get there from the Boardwalk Villas for a 10:20 reservation is absolutely insane. We kind of figured this out as we were rolling into bed at 2AM the previous night ---- that it was never going to happen ------- but of course the reservation line was not open to try to cancel.

I somehow bolted up wide awake at like 6:45 AM and tried calling reservations to cancel. They were not yet open. I tried again just at 7, and they picked up. I told them that we weren't able to get there, and the reservation person said "Thanks for letting us know - we are going to go ahead and waive the penalty fee."

Hurray!! I was prepared to pay twenty bucks to sleep in, but I'll take a free cancellation if they are willing to offer it.

I went back to bed, and a few hours later, I was hearing Phil puttering around the kitchen. Today we had cereal and juice. Even he was not in any condition to cook after the previous night's frivolity.

We proceeded to put on our red shirts and get ready for the official red shirt day in the Magic Kingdom, which looks a little something like this:

View attachment 97444



View attachment 97449

So as you see, it was completely and totally packed. It was sardines in a can, honestly. We had a fast pass at Space Mountain, and we almost missed it because we could not get through the crowd. But we did make it, and the standby line was about a few hours long. Again, I've never seen it like this, ever.

After Space, we figured we would do WEDway Peoplemover, because that never has a line. Well, today, it was a 20 minute wait! Argghhh. But we waited and rode it, and then it was time for our Be Our Guest lunch:

Here is Phil, very happy that we found a table after 15 minutes of looking for one:

View attachment 97450

His red shirt is "Something Rotten", from the new Broadway musical.

And here is me, happy to be in the ballroom:

View attachment 97451
Phil was a little traumatized by this restaurant. It may be called Be Our Guest, but Phil thinks a better name for it is Land of 10,000 Carts. There are carts everywhere, running in every direction, sometime colliding, and it is basically just a mood of total chaos. I am talking about lunch service only - not dinner. Luckily, we had some bottled water with us. Um...errr.......I cannot tell a lie. This is not water but at least it mixes with orange juice and other liquids very nicely:

View attachment 97452


Annnyway........we enjoyed our lunch as much as possible in a very hectic environment, and on our way out, these two nice women offered to take our picture, and here is what they came up with:View attachment 97453

Yeah, yeah, so we queened out for 15 seconds. It happens from time to time. What are ya gonna do?

So annnnnnnnnnnnnnyway - Phil then insisted that we head to Tom Sawyer's Island because he has never been there, and because he felt that a storm was coming and we could hang out on Aunt Polly's porch and watch the storm, sipping on , ahem, (dasani) lemonades.

In theory this was fine, until we arrived at Aunt Polly's porch, claimed seats, and seconds later heard this from an approaching cast member:

"Excuse me everyone, but we are evacuating the island. A storm is coming, and we cannot have anyone on the island during this storm. Please proceed back to the raft immediately."

Huhhhh????!!

So, we'll be safer from some sort of approaching storm out in the open of Frontierland than under a porch roof???

Anyway, we evacuated, and they had also evacuated and closed down Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. Frontierland was basically closed.

We made our way to Haunted Mansion instead, and to make a long story short, this dreaded storm never came at all.

We did one last fast pass on the Dwarfs Coaster, and here is a pretty bad pic of Phil and I in front of Snow's house, on the line cue:

View attachment 97454

After that, it was pretty much time to head back to the resort and take a break, watch the Belmont Stakes, go in the pool, and get ready for our dinner at Ohana. Of course what actually ended up happening was a bit different, but I'll get to that in the next section.

Never thought of the clear liquid in a water bottle trick. Ummm, silver tequila is clear. Just might work.

 

[LAKid53]

I'm guessing the cocktails and wine cost almost as much as the 2 entrees. Why oh why do they make alcohol so darn expensive? Too bad it's not BYOB!

Well, you could try the clear liquid in a Dasani bottle.....

 

[UnhealthilyObsessed]

WARNING: Reading this entire trip report end-to-end can actually make you die of thirst. Thirst for tasty, tasty alcohol.

 

[Sans Souci]

Wow. I am amazed neither of you awoke with hangovers. The water trick is hit-or-miss with me.

I need someone to cook me a veggie omelet the morning after drinking around the world.

Thanks for the fun TR!

 

[Figgy1]

Wow. I am amazed neither of you awoke with hangovers. The water trick is hit-or-miss with me.

I need someone to cook me a veggie omelet the morning after drinking around the world.

Thanks for the fun TR!

I'll make you a veggie tofu scramble if we ever get to DATW together!

 

[Figgy1]

WARNING: Reading this entire trip report end-to-end can actually make you die of thirst. Thirst for tasty, tasty alcohol.

It does! But its not even noon here! LOL It's 5 o'clock somewhere

 

[Sans Souci]

I'll make you a veggie tofu scramble if we ever get to DATW together!

Haha. Sounds like a plan. I love tofu scrambles.

 

[BaconPancakes]

As to the gay thing, they are a bit wacky about that on here. If you post any thread about gay days, the mods delete it or lock it immediately, claiming that "those threads always go downhill quickly". Meanwhile, we are allowed to argue about liquid cheese on the chit chat board for pages and pages. Oh well, what can ya do?

It's really embarrassing when you see that that other board actually has a whole section for GLBT posters. I guess this forum hasn't realized that it's 2015 yet.

 

[BuddyThomas]

It's really embarrassing when you see that that other board actually has a whole section for GLBT posters. I guess this forum hasn't realized that it's 2015 yet.

That other board is so full of know-it-all snobs, though. I was out of there after three days. I like the more down to earth vibe over here a lot more.

 

[BaconPancakes]

That other board is so full of know-it-all snobs, though. I was out of there after three days. I like the more down to earth vibe over here a lot more.

Oh believe me, I refuse to post over there. 99% of the posters there are "Honey Boo Boo" wannabes who recommend cooking hot dogs in your hotel coffee pot or making a "free salad" at Pecos Bill's.

It's just annoying that Gay Days can't even be mentioned here. Makes you wonder what the mods are hiding...

 

[Figgy1]

Oh believe me, I refuse to post over there. 99% of the posters there are "Honey Boo Boo" wannabes who recommend cooking hot dogs in your hotel coffee pot or making a "free salad" at Pecos Bill's.

It's just annoying that Gay Days can't even be mentioned here. Makes you wonder what the mods are hiding...

 

[HeatherWatson]

PART - THE END

So this is pretty much it, you guys.

We got back from Blizzard Beach, had a quick dip in the pool, and then headed back to EPCOT.

Here is Phil and guess what he felt he was entitled to right after drink around the world day:

View attachment 98326

Uh. huh. Again, I am not innocent either. I had the same in my non picture taking hand.

Now I need your help.

What is this???

View attachment 98325

They had this all gated off and all of a sudden while we were waiting for our Via Napoli reservation, they herded like 100 or more people into this pen and they all attacked this dessert thing like they were vultures. I am guessing this was some sort of Illuminations dessert party but I have not read anything about that so just asking.

Moving on - We finally got our buzzer called for Via Napoli.

I have to tell you something about this before we go there. Phil and I are really ridiculous pizza snobs- but that is only because we have discovered what we feel is the most amazing pizza in the world, and that is Salvatores in Port Washington, NY (Long Island). This pizza is absolutely, unbelievably, insanely incredible, and Phil and I can be found there pretty much every Saturday night. So if anyone wants to assassinate us for this trip report (BuzzKillington????) that is where you will find us. Hopefully you will let us live, though, and continue to ingest pizza as long as our arteries will tolerate it.

So okay, here we are in Via Napoli:

View attachment 98327 View attachment 98328


And so we ordered a large pie with mushrooms and diced tomatoes (the menu's description, not ours):

Here is the pizza that arrived:

View attachment 98329

So, the diced tomatoes, listed on the menu, were really just cherry tomatoes that were cut into halves. There was very little sauce on the pie, and when our very nice waiter followed up and asked if everything was okay, we asked for some extra sauce on the side, and he basically looked at us like we had three heads, went away, and never came back until the check was presented. Grrrrr.

However, complaints aside, this is very good pizza. It might not be exactly what you are used to or what you expect, but it is quality pizza and I am glad we went there.

So then, we headed back to the Boardwalk Villas for the last time. Here is our grainy shot of the Dance Hall as we approached:

View attachment 98335

And on our way back to the room, Phil decided to have a conversation with a chair:

View attachment 98337

And, that's pretty much it, folks. If you want, here is the depressing morning picture while we waited for our car service to arrive the next day:

View attachment 98338

But I am not complaining about anything. This was a truly amazing trip that came together only because of a number of unexpected things, including an unexpected bonus at work, and a couple of other things too boring to discuss. There was great weather, we got upgraded to the most amazing suite ever, and it did NOT have an energy efficient air conditioner --------and although the parks were was a little more crowded than I was expecting, it was still incredibly fun. I cannot possibly imagine when we would ever be able to get back and do Disney the way we did it here, but one never knows, and so I have hopes to be back before too long.

As an epilogue, I might just add that this little guy was not too happy that we left him alone for five days - He had a cat sitter, but he did not appreciate it at all, and when I went to pet him, he slashed me right across the arm - clearly, he did not appreciate being left alone with a cat sitter while we were riding Space Mountain:


View attachment 98342


As you can see, he's a drunk too!




In the meantime, thank you to each and every one of you who has read this crazy report. As a playwright who has not written a play in quite a few years, your likes here have actually inspired me more than I was expecting, and maybe I will finally get to work on a new play. Again, I really appreciate all the great comments.

Have a great rest of 2015 everyone, and I am sure I will see you on other threads until the next trip.

I read this TR with baited breath! It makes me so happy hearing that you've been inspired by the positive responses to stretch your talents again! I find you to be an engaging writer, and I hope you'll share more with us in the future!

 

[BamaDisneyFan]

Buddy Thomas, you are a hot mess!!! I loved the Trip Report!! Glad you and Phil had a Magical Time!!

 

[catmom46]

That other board is so full of know-it-all snobs, though. I was out of there after three days. I like the more down to earth vibe over here a lot more.

Oh believe me, I refuse to post over there. 99% of the posters there are "Honey Boo Boo" wannabes who recommend cooking hot dogs in your hotel coffee pot or making a "free salad" at Pecos Bill's.

While I have to agree that it's mostly a better vibe here (aside from debates about hot cheese, appetizers, and lighting ) and I spend infinitely more time on this board, I still check out the other board because I've found some nice people there as well (shocking, I know ). In fact, I'm hanging out with a couple of them next month at WDW, as I'll be going solo part-time and I wasn't able to find anyone on this board. So it was good for something for me.

 

[HeatherWatson]

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:

View attachment 96607

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-selfieView attachment 96618

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

View attachment 96620
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:

View attachment 96621
and here I am:
What the heck was I thinking wearing an orange tee-shirt - -- ----this theme will come up again and again:
View attachment 96622

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.

View attachment 96625
wow, this looked great on the mannequin but on me, it looks like Carrie White exploded!!

Here is the tasteful outfitView attachment 96626 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:

View attachment 96627
Cali was just great. Here is Phil standing in front of 10,000,000 bottles of wine as youView attachment 96628 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.

California Grill is the special place we've been saving for too! Bit-by-bit!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

LOVED your report. You have made me want to binge drink this weekend and pass out on my couch. Also, I've been craving eggs... Thank you for sharing. I laughed out loud for real. Hope you get back to Disney soon.. and would totally love to join you on your drinking around the world, the monorail, the airport.. etc.

 

[AliceJaina]

Awesome report and great writing! I'm so sad it's over.

 

[catmom46]

Awesome report and great writing! I'm so sad it's over.

We all are. I think we need to start a new thread entitled "Buddy's TR Withdrawal Support Group."

 

[BuddyThomas]

We all are. I think we need to start a new thread entitled "Buddy's TR Withdrawal Support Group."

You guys are too sweet. Thanks again for the nice comments.

 

[englanddg]

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.

"That's one huge tour group!"