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:

airport.JPG


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
IMG_1599.JPG


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

plane.JPG

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:

Phil pool.JPG

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.

bloodbath.JPG

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

Here is the tasteful outfit
Phil cali.JPG
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 Grill.JPG

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

Attachments

  • bloodbath.JPG
    bloodbath.JPG
    50.6 KB · Views: 225

BJones82

Well-Known Member
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.

Lol, we went to the Grill for the first time and I knew it was fancy (it was a surprise for my Fiancée) so we got there after a medium day at the parks in t-shirts and shorts... I will never eat there again without a nice shirt at least lol... So we were that couple everyone hated but we stopped feeling awkward after we were seated lol...

Loving the trip report :) Hope you had a great trip!!
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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 bar
Cali bar.JPG
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:

Phil shushi.JPG


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

I didnt like it.JPG


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:

lot of cali wine.JPG


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

cali napkin.JPG



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:

Phil wishes fireworks.JPG



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!!

last one at cali.JPG


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.
:)
 
Last edited:

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
PART 2.5

This is just a quick one, so part 2.5, not 3.

We took a cab from Contemporary to Boardwalk, and it was just under twenty bucks.

We were all hyped up about the trip, so not ready for bed, so we headed over to Atlantic Dance. It is open until 2AM. And we got there around midnight. And here is bar area looked like when we arrived:

empty bar.JPG


And here is what the dance floor looked like:

empty dance.JPG


I mean, what the....?!?!?!?

It is gay days weekend ----errrrrr -- -ehhhh ----- uhhh ----sorry - I spoke the words that must not speak their name on here - please don't delete my post!!!!!!!-----I meant red shirt weekend, yeah, that's what I meant ------------- but anyway, you would think that someone running that joint would take advantage of the incredible space they have and try to get some of the red shirt attendees there. They like to drink, they have money, and they want to spend it.

When Pleasure Island existed during the red shirt week, those clubs were absolutely mobbed with the red shirt crowd. Seeing Atlantic Dance like this was such a downer after the California Grill.

But that did not stop Phil from having his own personal dance party:

dancer phil.JPG


But he wasn't done yet!!!

crazy loon.JPG


And still not done:

green phil.JPG


Note the drink that has not left his hand. Luckily for me, you cannot see the gigantic cocktails in my own hand, but that will soon change during Drink Around the World.
:)


Anyway, we finally had enough of our own private dance club and we headed over to Jellyrolls.

Jellys.JPG


It was fine, but we were done, and so we stayed for a drink and a couple of songs before stumbling back to our room, which was sooooooooo close, since we had discovered a secret back entrance right behind Jellyrolls.

After that, if I am to be honest, everything becomes a bit fuzzy, (LOL - it only took drinks on the plane, a full evening of California Grill wine, 2 rounds of Atlantic Dance drinks, and a round at Jellyrolls to become fuzzy!!), so let's begin again tomorrow, when June 5 was our Hollywood Studio day, and there are some fun things to talk about there.

Back to you soon!

:)

:)
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom