Trip Report Our BWV Holiday TR -

Hi everybody, hope you enjoy! Its been over 5 months since our visit (feels like eternity) but I figured better late than never. I always have the best intentions to write a TR upon returning but never find the time. Well, I just imported pictures to the computer so I thought it this was a good opportunity since Ive done all my Saturday chores and the wife wont be home for a few hours. First, A brief story of how our trip came to fruition.

It was a sultry night, (bonus points if you get that reference) on a late June evening of 2014. 4 months had passed since our last visit to WDW and we had decided to take a year off from visiting for various reasons. My wife had seen me lurking on the Disney website several times and warned me if I booked a trip she would be very upset. Shes Italian and trust me, you dont want those problems, lol! One reason was that some work on our home needed to be done and as much as she loves Disney she wanted to use our vacation money for some upgrades. She urged me to hold off for one year and while I hated the idea, I obliged.

So, she had just returned home from running errands and I was preparing diner. I waited a few minutes for her to get settled in and as she sat down at the bar in our kitchen I told her I had a surprise. She got a big smile on her face and said, "you got dessert for after diner!!??" I laughed and told her to open the laptop. As she did she was met with the Disney confirmation screen showing a 6 night stay at Boardwalk Villas for December. She looked up at me and said, "is this real"? (she knows I can use photoshop ). I said yes, its real. Her jaw slowly dropped and her head slightly tilted... and I prepared for the battle that was sure to ensue. She quickly turned back to the computer screen and was scanning over the information. My hands got clammy and I could feel the sweat beginning to surface. To my complete amazement, her facial expression slowly turned into a grin, then morphed into a huge smile as she looked back up at me. She hopped out of her chair and began dancing around and singing. I had a whole defense prepared in the event she rejected it, but no worries... she was happy, and as the saying goes, "happy wife, happy life". So let the fun begin!

Just a small cast of my wife and I for this trip. We dont have children (yet)

The trip was 7 months out from the day I surprised her so we had plenty of time to research all the great Christmas offerings we could experience. We always leave Atlanta around 3 AM because its not like we can sleep the night before and it usually puts us in Orlando by 11 am at the latest. We were all packed up, had extra clothes for the crazy December weather in Florida, double and triple checked the house, a large cup of coffee for me, the driver, or, the "Transporter" as I like to call myself (Jason Stathem accent of course), and it was time to hit the rode! This was a much needed trip as our truly beloved cat, Jazzy (the cat in my avatar) had passed away just a month before the trip. He was a great friend and it hit us both very, very hard. A year prior, we had rescued a little cat from a parking lot, (whom we named Ruxin) that was virtually Jazz's identical twin and we had smothered him with so much love after Jazz passed that I think he needed a break from us constantly showering him with affection, lol.

So we hit the road and drove off into the night on our way to Orlando! We never take any pics on the way down because its mostly dark and my wife sleeps the whole way until the sun rises. I always bring a few stand up comedy CD's and a few paranormal podcasts to keep me company for the drive. Smooth sailing to Orlando with a quick stop at Publix for supplies and before you know it we were driving under the arch.

Never gets old! Day 1 continued in next post...

 

[wdisney9000]

We had finally arrived and the excitement was setting in. Even though we have been a bazillion times to WDW, once we get on property everything from the outside world just seems to melt away and it is just the BEST feeling.

For this trip we started something new. Since we had 6 nights booked for Boardwalk we decided to add an extra day so our first day didnt blow past us. The first day always feels short after settling in a unpacking. So we booked a night at Wyndham Bonnet Creek so we could relax and unwind for day one and still have a full 6 days ahead of us. We will definitely do this again as it was great to have that extra day and also experience something new. I got a great deal on Priceline and we were excited to experience a new, non Disney resort. WBC is on property so we figured it would be easy to leave the big bags in the car and we just packed a small bag with clothes for the day. As we pulled up to the resort we very impressed. I didnt snap a pick of the entrance so heres one I took from google. Its a very nice entrance with great landscaping.

Check in was a breeze and we headed up to the room. They even upgraded us to a suite. Bonus! FYI for anybody considering Bonnet Creek, they charge for parking even if you park yourself. It was $10 or $15 if I remember correctly. The room was awesome. Great decor and the view was very nice. We were on the fifth floor. My wife loved the place and I earned a little smooch in the elevator for picking a nice resort.

Allright... lets check this place out!

Thats the Waldorf Astoria. Great view.

The only down side to the room was that there was no Stacey and the must dos to watch. All in due time though. So we got settled in and showered up. Theres nothing like being fresh and clean and ready to go explore. We decided to head down to the lobby and check out the rest of the resort.

Huge lobby with a Starbucks and an Ice Cream spot.

The pool area is very nice as well. A little too chilly to take a swim though.

After soaking in the resort we decided to drive to DTD for the afternoon and check out all the new construction and have a few drinks. Ive got to run to the store so Ill post more when I return. Continued in next post...

 

[myhappyplace]

Following along....looking forward to your Boardwalk pictures! I've never visited, but am staying there in september.

 

[FlaggNL]

Following along! Thanks for the share!

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 1 afternoon/evening contd...

We headed off to DTD. Driving our own car there was another first for us. In all of our trips to WDW, we park the car upon arrival and dont see it until we leave. We were prepared for bad traffic and had embraced the fact that parking would be a hassle. It took about 10 minutes total to get through traffic and find a decent parking spot. Not too bad. We started off by grabbing a drink from the walk up bar at House of Blues. We each ordered a beer.

As you can tell it was a bit chilly but nothing too bad. Beers in hand we strolled around making our way towards Ragland Road. We had never been and were looking forward to checking it out. A short stroll and we were there.

Great atmosphere and the show was fun as well. All my photos here came out blurry because those girls move around quicker than my phone could keep up. Most impressive performance though. We had a drink and decided we werent hungry enough to eat yet so we headed back out to stroll some more.

she was particularly fond of the Dwarves lego display

Hung out with Buzz..

We were starting to get hungry but most of the restaurants had a bit of wait time so we walked over towards Earl of Sandwich thinking there wouldnt be a wait but there was. We arent against waiting in line but it was getting a little more cold out, and crowded at DTD and we started leaning towards a nice sit own spot to eat.

We figured since we actually used our car to drive there that we should try another "first" and eat off property which is something we have never done in all the years we have visited together. Like I said, we usually park our car at the resort and we dont leave property, but this was a day of "firsts" for us so it seemed like a good idea. The Christmas tree in front of Earl of Sandwich was pretty cool so we got a picture while we there. We have a ton of pictures from over the years so now we dont usually bother people to take a picture of unless someone offers to. There was nice lady who saw us taking photos and asked if we would like one together.

We knew we would not return to DTD for the rest of the trip so we figured we could hold off our hunger a little longer and we grabbed a drink at Rainforest Cafe. We walked around to the back bar that over looks the lake. It is ver nice and comfortable ack there and they have heaters on the bar/patio area. We almost gave in and ordered food but decided to stick to the plan of eating off property. We just ordered a beer each and she got the souvenir glass.

We headed back to the car with a quick stop at Sosa Family Cigar. I figured I would be cool and enjoy a cigar after diner. They were extremely friendly and helped me pick out a nice choice of an after diner cigar.

As we left the property we were starving and we literally drove to the plaza across the street and after a little back and forth we decided on Uno Pizzeria. We both agreed after diner that it was an excellent choice. MAybe it was because were so hungry, but the pizza and the service was great. We ordered mozarella sticks as soon as we sat down.

 

[wdisney9000]

contd...(couldnt upload more than 10 pics per message so started new post)

and this was the scene about 2 minutes later, lol

The pizza was out in no time though. We really loved this place and will definitely be back.

After diner we went back to our hotel. I realized that we kept referring to it as "the hotel" or "the room". We always say "home" when we refer to our Disney resort room. I guess since it wasnt officially a Disney Resort it had not earned the privilege of the title "home". So we headed back and the wife was pretty tired but I still somehow had a little energy so I visited the bar downstairs. They had a piano player in the lounge area and the bar was very nice with good service.

Being at a bar late night really makes me appreciate that I have a wonderful woman in my life who I love more than anything. The bar consisted mostly of older guys dressed up in flashy jeans with rhinestones and blazers and patent leather shoes. I think jeans with dress shoes is very tacky and dont get me started on older guys who wear "bedazzled" looking jeans. They were all flirting their hardest with the three female bartenders. It was like a contest to see who could impress them the most with stories of job title or tales of cool things they do or boats they own, etc, etc. It was good entertainment and The bartenders played their part well. I made my way up to the room and crawled in bed for a good nights rest because in the morning we were finally gonna be at Boardwalk!!!! I will say again that it was really nice adding that extra first day. We decided to do it last minute and it was worth it. That extra time to unwind and get in vacation mode really helped set a relaxing tone for the rest of the trip. It was total shift from the usual first day experience which always seems to fly by due to excitement of arrival and getting into the parks quickly. The only reason we didnt book a Disney room for the night was to see if we would enjoy staying at a non Disney resort. Ill get to how e felt about it in the next post.. Day 2 and arrival at the Boardwalk.

 

[mrdrift]

Great start to the trip report. All of the food and beer look really delicious. Following along.

 

[Tuvalu]

Thats the Waldorf Astoria. Great view.

Correction...that's the Hilton. We've stayed there several times. Awesome pool and great views of 3 of the 4 theme parks.

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 2 arrival at BWV (finally)

We were up very early after a great nights sleep. We showered up and prepared to head downstairs and check out. As I was packing our bag they slipped the bill under the door. I had booked the room on priceline for around $110 (i cant remember exactly, but it was close to that). The bill total was around $150. There were several silly charges for things like *resort fee, parking, and two or three other random charges. It wasnt a big deal but I felt they should just tell you when you check in rather than surprise you at the end. It really shifted or opinion from, "this was a great choice", to, "this was nice". Oh well, I didnt care, we were on our way to Boardwalk!

I somehow managed to take a wrong turn somewhere and we had to loop back on to the property which meant....

Driving under the arch again!!! It was like vacation 2.0, lol. After my wife finished making fun of my manhood and driving skills we celebrated the official beginning of our Disney trip. We arrived at the resort around 9:30 am and we fully expected that our room would not be ready so early. Lady luck was with us though and we checked right in. We had booked a water/pool view villa and got a room right along the walkway to HS by the smaller pool. This was PERFECT for us because we love the walk to Epcot and HS and it was never too loud at the smaller pool. We took a quick picture of our view from the patio and headed out for Epcot

and at the Boardwalk, can you tell Im excited?

We had an ADR for Biergarten around 1:00. It has become my wifes favorite place to eat and we like doing it early so we can walk off all the food we eat. We headed over towards Test Track after a casual walk through World Showcase.

Not sure why I was making that face?
We try and make a very inefficient car in the design center, it's just more fun. This time we went for a police car. Surprisingly, this design did better than we thought

We headed to World Showcase to make our way towards Germany. We stopped at La Cava de Tequilia because my wife loves the cucumber margarita. And so began our drinking for the day, haha.

We stopped and paid our respects to Maelstrom then headed on over to Biergarten. As usual, it was a blast. The show never gets old and neither does the food. We sat with some really good people and had a great time.

Took me a few extra minutes to finish the humongous hefeweizen but I managed.

After lunch we strolled around WS for awhile and made our way back to the room for a break. On the way back there was a wedding at the Boardwalk so we snapped a few pics as we walked by. It looked like a very nice ceremony. Ill upload the pics of that and the rest of the day when I return later. Hope Im not boring anybody with our rather slow day, lol. We take our time.

 

[Mom@disney]

Great start to the trip! I agree with a slow transition to vacation mode. I find it is less tiresome...especially with kids. We arrived a night earlier on our last trip and just ate dinner and went to sleep. We were so refreshed and ready to start in the morning. Looking foward to reading more. How was the weather during your trip?

 

[LizC]

Great start! We are going this Dec and looking to stay at the BW Villas.

Following along.

 

[wdisney9000]

Great start to the trip! I agree with a slow transition to vacation mode. I find it is less tiresome...especially with kids. We arrived a night earlier on our last trip and just ate dinner and went to sleep. We were so refreshed and ready to start in the morning. Looking foward to reading more. How was the weather during your trip?

Hi there, glad your enjoying it. It was mid-December so the weather was all over the place. Warm in the afternoon and jacket weather after 5 pm. Definitely love the early day arrival. Even without kids that first day can be tiresome.

We always wonder how parents manage. We babysit our 2 year old nephew for 4 hours and we need to rest lol. Kudos to all the parents out there for not passing out by mid day on a Disney vacation. I seriously don't know how you do it.

 

[FlaggNL]

Great start! Thanks for the share and love to see more!!

 

[mrdrift]

Interesting looking car from test track. The food looks really good along with the beers. Following along.

 

[Zipadeelady]

I was going to say cold but excited works too.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Day 2 arrival at BWV (finally)

We were up very early after a great nights sleep. We showered up and prepared to head downstairs and check out. As I was packing our bag they slipped the bill under the door. I had booked the room on priceline for around $110 (i cant remember exactly, but it was close to that). The bill total was around $150. There were several silly charges for things like *resort fee, parking, and two or three other random charges. It wasnt a big deal but I felt they should just tell you when you check in rather than surprise you at the end. It really shifted or opinion from, "this was a great choice", to, "this was nice". Oh well, I didnt care, we were on our way to Boardwalk!

I somehow managed to take a wrong turn somewhere and we had to loop back on to the property which meant....

View attachment 92636

Driving under the arch again!!! It was like vacation 2.0, lol. After my wife finished making fun of my manhood and driving skills we celebrated the official beginning of our Disney trip. We arrived at the resort around 9:30 am and we fully expected that our room would not be ready so early. Lady luck was with us though and we checked right in. We had booked a water/pool view villa and got a room right along the walkway to HS by the smaller pool. This was PERFECT for us because we love the walk to Epcot and HS and it was never too loud at the smaller pool. We took a quick picture of our view from the patio and headed out for Epcot

View attachment 92634

and at the Boardwalk, can you tell Im excited?
View attachment 92640

We had an ADR for Biergarten around 1:00. It has become my wifes favorite place to eat and we like doing it early so we can walk off all the food we eat. We headed over towards Test Track after a casual walk through World Showcase.
View attachment 92642
Not sure why I was making that face?
We try and make a very inefficient car in the design center, it's just more fun. This time we went for a police car. Surprisingly, this design did better than we thought

View attachment 92655

We headed to World Showcase to make our way towards Germany. We stopped at La Cava de Tequilia because my wife loves the cucumber margarita. And so began our drinking for the day, haha.

View attachment 92656

We stopped and paid our respects to Maelstrom then headed on over to Biergarten. As usual, it was a blast. The show never gets old and neither does the food. We sat with some really good people and had a great time.

View attachment 92657

View attachment 92658

View attachment 92659
Took me a few extra minutes to finish the humongous hefeweizen but I managed.

View attachment 92660

After lunch we strolled around WS for awhile and made our way back to the room for a break. On the way back there was a wedding at the Boardwalk so we snapped a few pics as we walked by. It looked like a very nice ceremony. Ill upload the pics of that and the rest of the day when I return later. Hope Im not boring anybody with our rather slow day, lol. We take our time.

You and your wife are people after my own heart. This is exactly the way we tour the parks: casual, relaxed, no kids (not that there's anything wrong with them) , and liberal amounts of booze.

Great report!

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 2 (afternoon/evening contd)...

So we caught a wedding at the Boardwalk on our way back...

We didn't want to be disrespectful and take photos too close so I snapped a few after we passed. This was the best one. A good example of how charming the Boardwalk Resorts can be. You can be heading back to your room from Epcot and pass by a couple saying their vows to one another. Not as big as a wedding at the Grand Floridian but just as distinguished and intimate.

After a little afternoon break we headed back to Epcot for our ADR at La Hacienda. We basically go here for the queso fundido and the Orange Mango Fire Margarita. We were still pretty full from Biergarten so it was a perfect fit. We met a great couple sitting next to us who just got engaged. Epcot had EMH so we took our time before getting back to riding some attractions.

The Orange Mango Fire margarita is very good if youve never tried it. We have occasionally just walked in and ordered one and they will make it to go. Its about $13 but worth it.

The queso fundido is definitely worth a try as well. You can tell my wife thinks its #1

We had a FP for Soarin but first made our way over to The Seas with Nemo. This attraction catches a lot of flack but we enjoy it. I miss the old Sea Base Alpha but we love Nemo mostly for the Big Blue World song at the end. I love when Dory says, "Hey, Im blue!"

From here we headed over to Imagination since we had a little time to spare.

She also thinks this hidden mickey is #1 lol.

It was time for Soarin so we walked over to The Land.

She was starting to get sleepy but shes a trooper.

I was giddy as a school girl.

Soarin to tower...

After Soarin I knew my wife wouldnt last much longer but the crowds were thinning out since the temperature had dropped and TT did not have a long wait so we walked over for one last ride before calling it a night.

As I said before, I usually go for an inefficient design but my wife was so tired she was blazing through the design process without trying to make it slower. I think this was fitting because the star pattern makes it look like its wearing pajamas and I took it as a subtle suggestion to recognize she was very tired at this point, lol. It was about 11:30 after we exited TT and we made our way back home to BW. It was pretty chilly by this point so we just b-lined it back for a good nights sleep to prepare for HS in the morning.

 

[lostpro9het]

The Orange Mango Fire margarita is very good if you've never tried it. We have occasionally just walked in and ordered one and they will make it to go. Its about $13 but worth it.

Yes it is! They had a Mango-Habanero Margarita during F&W two years ago that reminded me of this one, really good too.

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 3 -MGM Studios (ya, I know)

A good nights rest and we were up and ready for HS. For anybody reading along for info on the Boardwalk I will say that one thing we love are the mornings. Yacht Club is our favorite resort of all but the Beach Club and Boardwalk are just as amazing. We have stayed at the Boardwalk Inn twice in the last 3 trips and while Yacht Club remains our fav, BW is really growing on us.

The YC side is very serene and great to sit and have a quiet moment. Mornings on the BW side have a little bit more buzz. Nothing overwhelming, just slightly more activity between all the prep work happening. I love seeing the Friendship boats docking while the landscaping crews are watering the over sized terracotta planters that line the pathway from the lobby to the walkway. You can hear the faint hum of a leaf blower and maintenance crews finishing up while Cast Members are moving about getting ready for the day to begin. As you stroll along and get closer to the bakery the aroma draws you in. I always make a stop at Boardwalk Bakery for a pastry while wife is getting ready.

The view across Crescent Lake towards YC.

I grabbed a Jersey Crumb Cake for us to split and made my way back up to the room.

We tore into before I remembered to get a picture. Heres what was left after about ten seconds, lol.

We had a coffee maker in our villa but there were no filters that we could find so we headed back down to the bakery when we left and grabbed some coffee for the walk to HS. Another great thing we love about the BW side is the access to the pathway to HS. Its only about a 10-12 minute walk and not much longer than the boats take.

So we strolled along with our coffees enjoying all the little ducks and turtles you see along the path. As we got to the Studios it seemed a bit crowded. Of course we had problems with our magic bands at entrance too. I know some people have "flawless" experiences but for us there is at least one issue per day. Mostly minor problems at park entrance or not working on the room door. Nothing crazy, but we never had any of these issues prior to magic bands. The most annoying thing is the park entrance and the mickey head turning blue. What drives me nuts is the procedure you have to go through. They make you scan it three times and then ask "is that the same finger you used before?", then they ask, "is this your first time using this band"? Then they call over the Ipad person who has you do THE EXACT SAME THING and asks THE EXACT SAME QUESTIONS. Its gotten to the point where we just answer the questions before they even ask them. Then when they "fix" it I ask what the problem was so we can tell the next CM if it happens again. Its never the same answer and when we have the problem again and tell the CM what happened last time they say it was a different problem this time. I think they have no idea what theyre doing and they just tell the system to let you in. Who knows, anyway, sorry for the rant, back to the trip...

We got down Hollywood Blvd making our way to Star Tours. We were strolling past TGMR and found a humongous leaf on the ground. At first we thought it was fake or some sort of thing like the brush on Tom Sawyer Island at MK. She picked one up and we realized it was a real leaf. It was huge.

In all our trips we had never seen these. Pretty cool. Once we looked around more we saw several on the ground. So we headed to Star Tours taking the walk through Pixar Place so we could finish our coffee. I saw an old childhood friend on the way.

I didnt take any pics at Star Tours because the line was very short and we breezed right in. We ride Star Tours a lot so we will see some pics later. We walked over to TSMM for our FP. Ive been getting better at achieving the easter eggs but still have a ways to go to get that really high score.

We moseyed on over to Writer Stop for an iced coffee. I was craving one for some reason. I dont thik there is anything at Writers Stop that is not 100% awesome. The Carrot Cake Cookie is our favorite but we were saving that for when we saw the Osbourne Lights.

We got the small iced coffee so we wouldnt be full for an afternoon snack. We planned on walking over towards 50's Prime Time in hopes we could get a seat at Tune in Lounge. We had not been lucky on our last 2 trips and had high hopes that the third time would be a charm. We have eaten at 50's Prime before but never sat at the bar. As we approached we could see all the people waiting out front and though for sure the bar would be full. Right as we peeked in there were several people leaving the bar and we snagged two seats!


After looking over the menu we decided to keep it light since we also wanted to have a few beers as well. It was a little after 1 pm so we figured it was high time for a drink! We ordered the onion rings and Yuengling. The onion rings were a perfect size snack for 2 people and the dipping sauce was great.

They do the same routine at the bar as in the restaurant as far as the 50's style lingo. Our bartender was very good at playing the role. The bar is close to the kitchen as well so you can hear the wait staff yelling all the crazy stuff they say like, "Ma, we got two orders of fried chicken"! It was very fun and we cant wait to try it again. Some of the specialty cocktails looked good as well.

After Tune in Lounge we browsed around the shops for awhile and watched some of the street acts. We wandered over to RnR and the wait was actually not too long so we got in line. We decided after RnR that e would head back to the room for a break. Ill continue the rest of the day in my next post. Thanks so much for all the comments and following along. We are having a lot of fun writing this TR and remembering all the little moments while looking at the pictures.

 

[wdisney9000]

Yes it is! They had a Mango-Habanero Margarita during F&W two years ago that reminded me of this one, really good too.

Thats sounds gooooooooood!