So me and my wife just got back last night from a 5 day, 4 night stay at Walt Disney World. We stayed at The Boardwalk Inn. This was our 1st trip staying at a WDW resort the whole trip, we got married in January 2014 at Disney and stayed a couple nights in the GF and a couple nights in PORS and the rest at my parents timeshare that they have in Lake Buena Vista. The reason we chose the boardwalk was bc we always wanted to be real close to Epcot since it's our favorite park and it's really convenient to travel to and from from there. This was true. We're both in good shape, so we don't mind walking, so we had no problem walking from our room to Epcot, we walked through Epcot to hop on the monorail our MK day, we took the boat our HS day and took the bus on our AK day. The only issue we had with transportation was we watched the wishes fireworks from California Grill's viewing deck, so after the fireworks we had to take the monorail to MK and wait for a bus to the boardwalk, the line was packed, so we has to wait for 3 buses until we got on, about 45min it took from the time we got to the bus station. If you're not worried about money, I'd just take a cab back from the contemporary. Bc the whole process took around 90 minutes. Besides that the transportation was great. It was great to and from the airport as well as to AK.
Now about the trip... We arrived Wednesday morning and the checking in process couldn't have been smoother. The bus took us to the boardwalk rather quickly. Soon as we hopped off the bus they greeted me by my name, not sure how they knew, but they did. This was all early too, at like 10:45am. I pre checked in so they told us our room was ready and gave us a pamphlet for any info we needed. Never even had to go to the checkin desk. Our luggage was still on the way from the airport, so we just put a few things in the room and headed straight to Epcot.
Day 1. Epcot was awesome as usual. We had fast passes for Mission space, Soarin and Finding Nemo. We did all 3 of those rides and spaceship earth all within a few hours. We had an early dinner reservation at Le Celier, it's one of our favorite restaurants at Disney. It was delicious. After that we walked around the countries shops and watched illuminations from Italy. We were pretty tired so we just walked home after illuminations.
Day 2. We woke up and walked through Epcot to hop on the monorail to MK. Surprisingly MK was very very packed this day. We thought it wouldn't be that bad being off season and a Thursday, but it was crowded like it was a Saturday. It was hot this day, but we couldn't complain bc there was like a 60% chance of rain everyday we were there, and it didn't rain all morning into late evening. Our fast passes that day were Peter Pan, Space Mountain and Seven dwarves Mine train. All were later in the day, so we rode what we could before the fast passes. We got on thunder mountain, little mermaid, pirates of the carribean and the carousel pretty easily with moderate wait times. My wife lives Peter Pan, so we did that fast pass. When then headed to space mountain. We had a FP, so we weren't in line long, but when we were about 20 people away from getting on, the ride broke and they evacuated the ride. The gave us all 1 thrill ride pass that lasted for a week at MK. Was really the only ride the whole trip I wanted to go on, but didn't get to, no biggy though. We went and used that thrill ride pass for splash mountain, bc the wait time was long earlier in the day. After that we did seven dwarves mine train, which is a very smooth ride. We liked it. Similar to thunder mountain, just smoother and a better story throughout the ride. After that we went to California Grill for dinner. His was our 1st time there. They were awesome, they asked us if we were celebrating anything and out us right in the window so we had a crew of the park. The food was delicious, actually gives Le Celier a run for their money. The told us at dinner that if we present our check a little before wishes, they let anyone who has ate dinner there that night watch the fireworks from there, but My wife wanted to watch wishes from Main Street so the plan was to after dinner go around the 3 hotels around Bay Lake and then head back into MK before wishes. We walked around the Polynesian bc I've never been the before, then we went to to wedding pavilion, it was our 1st time back since we got married 8 months ago, then we went to the GF. While at the GF it started pouring rain out. So we decided to go ahead and go to the California Grill for wishes. Wishes went on like. 40min delay bc of weather, but finally started and the view from up there was awesome. Still think right on Main Street is better, but it was something different and was nice. Plus you can enjoy a drink while up in California grill. We had to wait awhile to get back to the boardwalk after the fireworks that night like I explained earlier, but wasn't anything horrible.
Day 3. We headed out to hop on a bus to AK. The bus was timely and got us there fast. We don't like to spend a whole day at AK, bc there's only a handful of stuff we really enjoy doing there. Our fast passes that day were to Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari and dinosaur. We did all 3 of these really fast the safari we went on was awesome, the lions were out, which is rare, both the male and the female. We then headed to the lion king show, which we love. Great show. We walked around for awhile then got on the bus to Saratoga springs. We heard this was the fastest way to get to downtown disney from a park. Which is was, just was a little bit of a walk once we got to Saratoga springs. My wife did her college internship at disney and worked at downtown disney, so she loves going there every trip. She loves earl of sandwich, so we ate lunch there and did our souvenir shopping at world of disney shop, we walked around the shops after. With all the construction for disney springs it wasn't the nicest. Can't wait for it all to be done though. We hopped actually in a cab back to the boardwalk, bc there were few buses and we didn't want to wait. The cab ride was only $9. We changed and headed down to Epcot. It was kinda drizzling so the park didn't seem as crowded. It was the 1st day of the food and wine festival as well. We ate some food and had a few drinks around the countries than had a dinner reservation at the rose and crown. Which I messed up, I thought illuminations was at 9, so I made a reservation at 8:30 so we could watch it from the balcony, but illuminations was at 10, so we didn't stay on the balcony for illuminations. The food was pretty good, not great, but certainly not bad. Oddly the rain stopped just in time for illuminations. We watched it from France. Then we went to the beach and Yacht club resort. We ate dessert at beaches and cream, which was delicious. Then we headed back to the boardwalk.
Day 4. It poured all night and was still drizzling in the morning. We thought the rain might ruin he day. But oddly it stopped on our boat ride from the boardwalk to HS which was awesome. Much like AK we only like about a handful of things at HS studios so we only did a 1/2 day there. Our fast passes that day were for the new frozen show sing along, tower of terror and rock n roller coaster. The frozen show was good, some ting new and kids seemed to love it. I think they should make it more a show then just a sing along though. Tower of terror and rock n roller coaster wee awesome. We walked around for awhile after that into shops and a few other things. We're not huge on shows, so we skipped Indiana jones, stunt show and beauty and the beast. We then headed back on the boat to the boardwalk. We ate lunch at the espn zone, which was just ok, but what do up you expect from a sports bar. We then headed back into Epcot. We had no dining restore atoms this night bc we wanted to taste a bunch of the foods and the food and wine festival. We tried a bunch and they were all good. Pretty much you name a place we tried something from there and it was good. Very very impressed. We went back to the the boardwalk to shower bc we had the dessert and champagne illuminations party that night. They were calling for rain again, so they moved the party inside America rather than outdoor in Italy. It actually never rained, but it was still nice. We then headed over to Italy to watch the fireworks in the cut out area. We had a great view and got to enjoy or last nights fireworks from there. We headed straight back to the hotel afterwards.
Day 5. Checking out was a breeze. We just put our stickers on our baggage went out in front of the hotel, they gave us our boarding passes and took our bags and told us to be back at 4:45 for the bus to take us to the airport. We did Epcot again the last day bc it was close. Our fast passes were test track, mission space and maelstrom. We did test track and mission space early in the day and both were awesome. We then ate lunch in Italy at the wine cellar, we love there sandwiches for lunch. The line even for the fast pass for the maelstrom was very long since it's closing down soon to become a frozen ride. But it was nice to ride it one last time. We the. Walked around all the countries again eating and drinking at the different countries for the food and wine festival. We left the park at went straight to the front of our resort to catch the bus to the airport, the bus arrived right on time and got us to the airport in good time. Just a side note disney needs to change it's videos to and from the airport, the video back is the same as the one when arriving. So on the way back it has just arriving stuff, which really makes you not want to leave. Flight and everything was great back home.
So to sum it all up. We spent this trip a lot at Epcot bc it might be our last time at Disney with no kiddos. We did some nice dinners and were able to enjoy drinks. Things you really can't do when you have lil ones. We also liked the Boardwalk, we always wanted to stay there bc of location, but honestly if I ever want to stay around the Epcot area again, I'd stay at the yacht or beach club resort, the pool is awesome, the restaurants are good, the location is even closer to Epcot by a slim margin and we actually didn't do much on the boardwalk bc we were always so tired after being at the parks all day.
With how pricey the trip was, it got us a lot thinking about joining the disney vacation club. This trip wound up costing us around 4k and that was for only 4 night and 5 days for 2 people rather than 7 nights 8 days like we normally do, and with our park tickets for free pretty much from our annual passes from our wedding. So I'm really thinking about Disney Vacation Club and making a moderate resort our home resort and doing it that way, seems to me like it'd be cheaper. All in all it was a magical trip like always disney always seems to get it right when it comes to pretty much everything. Can't wait to go back soon.
Now about the trip... We arrived Wednesday morning and the checking in process couldn't have been smoother. The bus took us to the boardwalk rather quickly. Soon as we hopped off the bus they greeted me by my name, not sure how they knew, but they did. This was all early too, at like 10:45am. I pre checked in so they told us our room was ready and gave us a pamphlet for any info we needed. Never even had to go to the checkin desk. Our luggage was still on the way from the airport, so we just put a few things in the room and headed straight to Epcot.
Day 1. Epcot was awesome as usual. We had fast passes for Mission space, Soarin and Finding Nemo. We did all 3 of those rides and spaceship earth all within a few hours. We had an early dinner reservation at Le Celier, it's one of our favorite restaurants at Disney. It was delicious. After that we walked around the countries shops and watched illuminations from Italy. We were pretty tired so we just walked home after illuminations.
Day 2. We woke up and walked through Epcot to hop on the monorail to MK. Surprisingly MK was very very packed this day. We thought it wouldn't be that bad being off season and a Thursday, but it was crowded like it was a Saturday. It was hot this day, but we couldn't complain bc there was like a 60% chance of rain everyday we were there, and it didn't rain all morning into late evening. Our fast passes that day were Peter Pan, Space Mountain and Seven dwarves Mine train. All were later in the day, so we rode what we could before the fast passes. We got on thunder mountain, little mermaid, pirates of the carribean and the carousel pretty easily with moderate wait times. My wife lives Peter Pan, so we did that fast pass. When then headed to space mountain. We had a FP, so we weren't in line long, but when we were about 20 people away from getting on, the ride broke and they evacuated the ride. The gave us all 1 thrill ride pass that lasted for a week at MK. Was really the only ride the whole trip I wanted to go on, but didn't get to, no biggy though. We went and used that thrill ride pass for splash mountain, bc the wait time was long earlier in the day. After that we did seven dwarves mine train, which is a very smooth ride. We liked it. Similar to thunder mountain, just smoother and a better story throughout the ride. After that we went to California Grill for dinner. His was our 1st time there. They were awesome, they asked us if we were celebrating anything and out us right in the window so we had a crew of the park. The food was delicious, actually gives Le Celier a run for their money. The told us at dinner that if we present our check a little before wishes, they let anyone who has ate dinner there that night watch the fireworks from there, but My wife wanted to watch wishes from Main Street so the plan was to after dinner go around the 3 hotels around Bay Lake and then head back into MK before wishes. We walked around the Polynesian bc I've never been the before, then we went to to wedding pavilion, it was our 1st time back since we got married 8 months ago, then we went to the GF. While at the GF it started pouring rain out. So we decided to go ahead and go to the California Grill for wishes. Wishes went on like. 40min delay bc of weather, but finally started and the view from up there was awesome. Still think right on Main Street is better, but it was something different and was nice. Plus you can enjoy a drink while up in California grill. We had to wait awhile to get back to the boardwalk after the fireworks that night like I explained earlier, but wasn't anything horrible.
Day 3. We headed out to hop on a bus to AK. The bus was timely and got us there fast. We don't like to spend a whole day at AK, bc there's only a handful of stuff we really enjoy doing there. Our fast passes that day were to Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari and dinosaur. We did all 3 of these really fast the safari we went on was awesome, the lions were out, which is rare, both the male and the female. We then headed to the lion king show, which we love. Great show. We walked around for awhile then got on the bus to Saratoga springs. We heard this was the fastest way to get to downtown disney from a park. Which is was, just was a little bit of a walk once we got to Saratoga springs. My wife did her college internship at disney and worked at downtown disney, so she loves going there every trip. She loves earl of sandwich, so we ate lunch there and did our souvenir shopping at world of disney shop, we walked around the shops after. With all the construction for disney springs it wasn't the nicest. Can't wait for it all to be done though. We hopped actually in a cab back to the boardwalk, bc there were few buses and we didn't want to wait. The cab ride was only $9. We changed and headed down to Epcot. It was kinda drizzling so the park didn't seem as crowded. It was the 1st day of the food and wine festival as well. We ate some food and had a few drinks around the countries than had a dinner reservation at the rose and crown. Which I messed up, I thought illuminations was at 9, so I made a reservation at 8:30 so we could watch it from the balcony, but illuminations was at 10, so we didn't stay on the balcony for illuminations. The food was pretty good, not great, but certainly not bad. Oddly the rain stopped just in time for illuminations. We watched it from France. Then we went to the beach and Yacht club resort. We ate dessert at beaches and cream, which was delicious. Then we headed back to the boardwalk.
Day 4. It poured all night and was still drizzling in the morning. We thought the rain might ruin he day. But oddly it stopped on our boat ride from the boardwalk to HS which was awesome. Much like AK we only like about a handful of things at HS studios so we only did a 1/2 day there. Our fast passes that day were for the new frozen show sing along, tower of terror and rock n roller coaster. The frozen show was good, some ting new and kids seemed to love it. I think they should make it more a show then just a sing along though. Tower of terror and rock n roller coaster wee awesome. We walked around for awhile after that into shops and a few other things. We're not huge on shows, so we skipped Indiana jones, stunt show and beauty and the beast. We then headed back on the boat to the boardwalk. We ate lunch at the espn zone, which was just ok, but what do up you expect from a sports bar. We then headed back into Epcot. We had no dining restore atoms this night bc we wanted to taste a bunch of the foods and the food and wine festival. We tried a bunch and they were all good. Pretty much you name a place we tried something from there and it was good. Very very impressed. We went back to the the boardwalk to shower bc we had the dessert and champagne illuminations party that night. They were calling for rain again, so they moved the party inside America rather than outdoor in Italy. It actually never rained, but it was still nice. We then headed over to Italy to watch the fireworks in the cut out area. We had a great view and got to enjoy or last nights fireworks from there. We headed straight back to the hotel afterwards.
Day 5. Checking out was a breeze. We just put our stickers on our baggage went out in front of the hotel, they gave us our boarding passes and took our bags and told us to be back at 4:45 for the bus to take us to the airport. We did Epcot again the last day bc it was close. Our fast passes were test track, mission space and maelstrom. We did test track and mission space early in the day and both were awesome. We then ate lunch in Italy at the wine cellar, we love there sandwiches for lunch. The line even for the fast pass for the maelstrom was very long since it's closing down soon to become a frozen ride. But it was nice to ride it one last time. We the. Walked around all the countries again eating and drinking at the different countries for the food and wine festival. We left the park at went straight to the front of our resort to catch the bus to the airport, the bus arrived right on time and got us to the airport in good time. Just a side note disney needs to change it's videos to and from the airport, the video back is the same as the one when arriving. So on the way back it has just arriving stuff, which really makes you not want to leave. Flight and everything was great back home.
So to sum it all up. We spent this trip a lot at Epcot bc it might be our last time at Disney with no kiddos. We did some nice dinners and were able to enjoy drinks. Things you really can't do when you have lil ones. We also liked the Boardwalk, we always wanted to stay there bc of location, but honestly if I ever want to stay around the Epcot area again, I'd stay at the yacht or beach club resort, the pool is awesome, the restaurants are good, the location is even closer to Epcot by a slim margin and we actually didn't do much on the boardwalk bc we were always so tired after being at the parks all day.
With how pricey the trip was, it got us a lot thinking about joining the disney vacation club. This trip wound up costing us around 4k and that was for only 4 night and 5 days for 2 people rather than 7 nights 8 days like we normally do, and with our park tickets for free pretty much from our annual passes from our wedding. So I'm really thinking about Disney Vacation Club and making a moderate resort our home resort and doing it that way, seems to me like it'd be cheaper. All in all it was a magical trip like always disney always seems to get it right when it comes to pretty much everything. Can't wait to go back soon.
No pictures taken?