Trip Report Our 2nd Anniversary DREAMy Boardwalk Adventure (Sept. 2015) COMPLETED

We have arrived home from our wonderful Disney vacation, and are ready to start our trip report! I say "our" because my husband has recently joined the forum as MRhappyplace, so he will add contributions (and corrections) as we go along.

We are Amber (age 36) and David (age 45). Our 2nd Anniversary was on August 31, and we honeymooned at Disney in October 2013, so it had been almost 2 years since our last trip. This is us:





Our trip began on Saturday, September 12th. I had to go to work for a few hours to train some staff, and while I was gone, DH took care of packing up the car, getting everything set up for our kitties, and cleaned out the fridge. All that fun stuff. I came home at around noon, and we did all the last-minute things and then we headed out for a couple of stops. We ultimately got on the real road (aka highway-driving from around 45 miles northeast of Atlanta) at around 2:15. Not too shabby.

We weren't heading into the bubble until the following day, Sunday. We added on a hotel stay in Bay Lake, Florida for this Saturday night, so that we could get to the World fairly early, and much less tired on Sunday. After a stop at Chick-fil-a for dinner around 5pm in Perry, GA, we got to the Country Inn & Suites at around 8pm. We were given Room 306, so were quite confused when we stepped off the elevator to this sign:



??? Turns out our room was just behind the elevator. Not a bad room at all, we would stay here again. We went to Steak n' Shake for dinner, then contemplated taking a dip in the indoor pool at the hotel, but there were three older women in there, singing at the top of their lungs, having a good ole time. We didn't feel it necessary to join them Went to bed.

Sunday, September 13th:
The continental breakfast was so-so the next morning, but we did have a bit, and were on our way.

We hit a bit of rain, and the skies were all gloomy as at 11:15, we saw in the distance, then passed under the Walt Disney World sign-no amount of rain was gonna bring me down; I did my slap-the-hubby's arm-squeal-clap-bounce thing in the passenger seat!





We pulled into the Boardwalk at 11:25!


Just a little teaser for tonight-will continue more tomorrow evening. Thanks for joining our thread!

 

[Mom@disney]

I'm loving your pictures and all the details you are capturing! The ambience of Boma is gorgeous, would you say the majority of food is spicy? Even though I come from a Portugeuse family, I cannot take spicy food lol

 

[DRD]

Great stuff so far! And yes, thanks for the photo you alluded to. I shall use that photo as a shaming example to my 2 young daughters to never, ever, ever sunbathe topless especially when zoom lenses are around!

Really looking forward to Boma even more now. I sure would love to be able to do the culinary tour but I am not sure our schedule allows...

 

[Mrhappyplace]

I'm loving your pictures and all the details you are capturing! The ambience of Boma is gorgeous, would you say the majority of food is spicy? Even though I come from a Portugeuse family, I cannot take spicy food lol

I found very little of the food at Boma to be spicy as in spicy hot, and the things that did have a bit of heat to them it was a mild heat not something that will make one's mouth burn.

If you and your family aren't afraid of trying new tastes it is a meal you should enjoy!

 

[Mom@disney]

Boma is definately on our list to try out next time!

 

[fractal]

enjoying the report; very nice job on the photos!

 

[C.FERNIE]

thank you so far for the trip report!

 

[myhappyplace]

I'm loving your pictures and all the details you are capturing! The ambience of Boma is gorgeous, would you say the majority of food is spicy? Even though I come from a Portugeuse family, I cannot take spicy food lol

I agree with what the MR said...also, for the meat station where there were I think 5 different sauces, the chef was very glad to go through them and rank them by heat. But as far as things that were already mixed, no not overly spicy.

Thanks for the picture compliment!

Great stuff so far! And yes, thanks for the photo you alluded to. I shall use that photo as a shaming example to my 2 young daughters to never, ever, ever sunbathe topless especially when zoom lenses are around!

Really looking forward to Boma even more now. I sure would love to be able to do the culinary tour but I am not sure our schedule allows...

I really was quite surprised to see that at Disney for sure!

I really think you guys will like Boma, and as I said above, I think the people there will explain anything youre curious about in lieu of the tour.

enjoying the report; very nice job on the photos!

Thank you fractal, glad you are reading along!

thank you so far for the trip report!

And thank you for reading along too

 

[myhappyplace]

Tuesday, September 15

DH and I were up early with our alarm, and ready to head to DHS for rope drop. We had a learning curve with the early morning humidity/ foggy lens thing, so forgive some slightly foggy morning pictures.







Off we go!


I would guess the walk was only about 10 minutes, no trouble at all, and a very pleasant walk at that. In no time we could see in the distance-







DH'S idea-




Frozen topiaries


DH'S vision-




Waiting at the entrance gates, we were second in our lane, behind a nice family who gave us photography pointers (I expressed interest in getting a wide angle lens, wish I could remember what he suggested...oops)




We've moved up to the intersection of Sunset & Hollywood


Since we were visiting DAK later in the day, and had gotten our FP for there, we were off to....

 

[myhappyplace]

Results--Winner, me! Though DH had better accuracy and almost bypassed me at the last stop




Priority #1 taken care of, on to Priority #2-


Oh yes, you know where this is going....


Annnnd there's the one!


For me, anyway. DH went with the M& M brownie, but regretted it, both because he forgot he shouldn't do sweets with his morning medication, and because it was too goopy for him-he doesn't like messy foods. So he only ate ~1/3 of his.


Then, after our "breakfast", DH encouraged me to ride ToT, and RnRC. He didn't have interest in riding either, so I wasn't going to worry about it, but he insisted because he knows I love them. So he operated the camera, and wandered around getting photos while I started with ToT, which was a 20 minute wait.







Then, I got in the single rider line for my favorite ride, RnRC, which was a walk-on. I paired up with a man whose wife can't do roller coasters. He hadn't ridden in years, and forgot the details, so I answered his questions. We laughed the entire way through, fun as always.









After I rode both, we walked toward our lunch destination...50s Prime Time Cafe. This is my favorite restaurant on property and I hadn't eaten there in several trips.

 

[Mom@disney]

Thanks to both of you for your advice on Boma. Now to convince the hubby for a trip...

 

[myhappyplace]

We were a bit early for our ADR, but we went inside and hung out in the A/C and had a drink of water. Took some photos of the decor-brings back such memories of my Grammy's kitchen!!





My Grammy had this yellow vase...


And this clock...


I spy the waitstaff having a meeting of some sort-




We were seated by the SWEETEST older gentleman, Phil. He called me pretty! Our server was Zoey, she was so-so. I was actually wanting a bit more of the shtick than she was giving.






I had no doubts about what to order, I LOVE the pot roast (with fries not mash)


DH chose the meatloaf, which he said was good, but he wished he had picked the pot roast too. I shared.


This is sweet Phil...


I remember taking this pic because I realized I didn't have a full phot of my Disney fingernails...


So overall, great meal, I just wish the schtick was done more...I miss it.

 

[myhappyplace]

We stopped on the way out of the park to watch these guys for about 15 minutes. Good times. They were doing feats of "prestidigitation", which if you continue on with this report, you will see my husband imitate this in several photos...









And we watched these guys for a couple of minutes


And that was it for DHS for us this trip. We went to the Animal Kingdom bus stop from there...where there is NO shade!! DH sat out in the heat, but I found a small tree to stand under...


Coming up tomorrow, Animal Kingdom and Beaches & Cream...

 

[Mrhappyplace]

for the meat station where there were I think 5 different sauces, the chef was very glad to go through them and rank them by heat. But as far as things that were already mixed, no not overly spicy.

I forgot about the sauces, yeah you can certainly make things spicier if you like.

50'S Primetime was a very good meal but we did not get any of the shtick at all, we had elbows on the table, cellphones being used and I even had a little bit of vegetable not entirely hidden by my napkin. Nothing at all. I initially didn't want to eat there cause I thought the act could annoy me but since we were there I felt like we should get at least a little. This may have been because we were there right as they opened and got the first meals out of the kitchen. I do wish I got the pot roast though, I had intended to but with the way my stomach was feeling I thought meat loaf would be the safer bet.

For the record I don't imitate prestidigitation, I prestigitate!

 

[Mom@disney]

I'm pretty sure my grandma had those same poodles by the TV. great read, looking foward to your AK afternoon. I love that Park!

 

[myhappyplace]

And, we are off to Animal Kingdom! First, the obligatory pics:





We turned right and headed to


We had a FP for Dinosaur. We were a little too early, so we shopped around for a bit.


DH demonstrating some of his prestidigitation....and he has also decided he wants to buy this hat next trip.


And because I not-so-secretly wish I had long luxurious hair like Rapunzel


After a bit, our time rolled around, or at least got close enough, that we went over and stood closer to Dinosaur. Under a very dark sky. With some wind kicking up. And then the rain started. We were positioned under trees, so we were fine, though just darting 20 feet or so to the FP return lane got us a bit wet. We enjoyed the ride, which I hadn't done in several trips, and DH had never done. When we came out, it has stopped raining! We headed to Everest, both of us as single riders.





I kept my camera out!






Then we walked the path between Asia and Africa. We had a Safari FP coming up, though we had time to wander and take in the sights.


We saw these lovely ladies performing, and they had with them a man in Steelers (whoop whoop!...sidenote: we saw SO many Steelers, Pirates, and Penn State fans this trip-my peeps!) colors dancing right along with them, almost perfectly! He was really into it!




So colorful on that pathway!

 

[myhappyplace]

And then lo and behold, we came across an area I didn't expect. Except I should have because I keep up with all things Disney through this site, and I knew it was here, just completely slipped my mind. Oh, hello, Harambe Market!



So of course I had to snap a few pics






Love this!


Such great detail!








So, now it's time for our Safari FP, only when we get near, there are CMs out front, stating that it is closed indefinitely, and they are not sure when or if it will be back up. We were wanting to try out Flame Tree this trip anyway, so this became our opportunity-that's where we headed.

First, the Tree of Life from a different angle


We split a half rack of ribs:


Such a pretty little seating area back there! We sat in a pavilion with a couple of other families...one of which was feeding the birds, near a sign asking people NOT to feed the birds....oy. The CM working out there struck up a conversation with and we ended up chatting a bit about cruising with him.





While sitting there, I checked, and Kilamanjaro Safari was back up! No clue what caused the downtime, but super glad we didn't have to miss ot!

Coming up, never-before-seen safari pictures!!

(Just kidding, I know they've been done, but we still take them, don't we?)

 

[myhappyplace]

Safari pictures! It seemed like the animals were pretty active, though we saw neither hide nor hair of any lions.










I love the positioning of these two giraffes...








Don't know if these two elephants were playing or fighting, the guide didn't comment on them, but they were definitely doing something!










Cheetah not moving too much...




Then it was off to our last FP, my favorite attraction on property, my #1 must do...


Loved the new building! My first time seeing it...

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Obsessed with your trip report! The details you captured are amazing! I am loving this.. thank you so much for sharing!!!

 

[myhappyplace]

Continuing on...







This picture isn't the greatest, but I was fascinated, as always, with the ASL interpreters. As someone who took a couple of ASL courses and Deaf Studies in college, and uses some sign daily with my class full of toddlers, I love watching interpreters. I got very emotional watching them, they were so beautiful, especially during "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" And then I started thinking about my mom, who passed away last year and how much she loved this show when we visited WDW, and yeah. I was sort of a mess. But I pulled myself together and had a great time, as always.







When we headed out and toward the front of the park, it started raining again. I hadn't met any characters as of yet, and saw Tarzan with no line. Well, whaddya think a girl's gonna do in that situation?!

You can see how much it was raining by my lovely hair. The remainder of the week I stuck a headband in my bag for any potential rain.

Tarzan noticed my anniversary pin, and asked if DH bought me bananas for my birthday (that's why he is pointing, he's calling DH out!). When I assured him that yes, he did, then we got the normal picture together. Good to know Tarzan is on my side! I love the way he sort of bounces from foot to foot.



That wraps up Animal Kingdom for this trip! It was different for me to only do a half day at a park, but for this trip it what worked best for us, and we did all of our must do's, so we were satisfied.

Up next, dinner at Beaches & Cream and a spur of the moment Illuminations!

 

[myhappyplace]

Obsessed with your trip report! The details you captured are amazing! I am loving this.. thank you so much for sharing!!!

Thank you so much! I've enjoyed all of yours, too! Thanks for reading