Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
On the Boardwalk
We left off as we had just entered our room, a DVC Studio at Boardwalk Villas. Take a look around:
There was a pack ‘n’ play in that closet too, which we used.
In general, the room felt very large and we had no complaints.
I really liked the little nook just inside the door. It was big enough to park the stroller and store a couple empty suitcases, plus there was a shelf for tossing things on when you come in (you can also see how we rig up the carseat to the stroller when needed):
As we were exploring, I went out and sat on the balcony for a moment and Izzy followed me. Before I could really even comprehend what was going on, she had climbed up on the little patio table (so that she could see the view over the balcony wall) and immediately toppled it.
Thankfully, I reacted quickly enough to catch her and she walked away without a scratch, but it scared us both. 
The table went right to the back of the balcony after that. 
It was kind-of a bummer that the balcony had a solid wall versus rails. The view was great, but you could only see it if you were standing (and taller than Izzy). We didn’t have much time to spend on the balcony anyway, though, so it wasn’t a big deal for us.
Once we went back inside, Izzy helped herself to the Mickey towel:
She also made herself comfortable on our bed:
What was she doing, you ask? Watching Stacey’s Disney Must-Do’s, of course:
We just did a brief bit of unpacking/moving things around while she watched. I would guess maybe we had Izzy use the potty too. Can’t remember. I did bring along her cushy Minnie Mouse potty seat to leave in the room and she liked having that. However, I didn’t want to lug it to the parks, so I also brought the folding one to keep in our park bag. We discovered very early on in the trip that Izzy didn’t care for that one, though. She always just wanted to use the big potty, so that’s what we ended up doing for most of the trip. Anyway, after checking out the room and getting ourselves together, we were ready to head for Epcot around 3pm.
Looks like Dug was happy to be heading out:
We were only a few doors down from the elevator. Izzy enjoyed pushing the buttons to call the elevator (but we usually pushed the floors inside). When you head out the nearest door on the ground level, this is where you end up:
We headed for the Boardwalk:
I remember this part of the trip being really pleasant.
Just strolling along the Boardwalk, Izzy riding in her stroller (spoiler alert: that doesn’t happen often this trip 
), just enjoying the fact that we made it there and were headed to Epcot. I always like to savor that beginning-of-trip feeling when you know all the fun is ahead of you. We finally made it out of that toddler tantrum fog and were just feeling good. 
Our first order of business was getting Izzy some lunch before she took a stroller nap. We had thought we’d probably need to go to Germany for Nudel Gratin or see if we could track down a hot dog somewhere. However, you may have noticed a little stand in one of the pictures above. Well, it was for this:
How perfect! We could get her a corn dog before we even got to Epcot! (Also, I am just now noticing the "frank fact" on that sign: 80 hot dogs per year per person is average in the U.S.?! I enjoy hot dogs, but someone else must be enjoying them a lot more to bring the average up to that! 
)
We ordered a corn dog and a couple glasses of ice water to share. Izzy wasted no time getting a drink:
We were very surprised that this booth took no Disney money.
Could not use Magic Band OR Disney Gift Cards to pay. Odd. We just used a credit card, but it seemed strange to be in the Disney bubble and they couldn’t take Disney payments. 
The corn dog took quite a while to make. We checked out our surroundings while we waited. I caught a photo of a bird in flight:
We got a kick out of the window on the Boardwalk Bakery:
Reminded me of being on Main Street and checking out the names in the windows.
We finally got our corndog and it turned out to be the hottest corndog on the face of the Earth!
I carried it and blew on it while we walked to try to cool it down, but it was still scalding. Eventually, I ended up holding the ice water against it to try to make it safe for Izzy to eat:
Even after doing that for a bit, it was STILL too hot.
We were well into Epcot before I felt comfortable letting Izzy have it.
Almost there:
Yay, the International Gateway:
Our Magic Bands worked without a hitch and we were in, just after 3:30pm:
Do you happen to see a princess in a blue dress up there? She does:
Yes, it was a total surprise Ariel meet and greet, up near the bridge to France.
I asked the CM if this was common and she said it was quite the surprise to them too. Well, the line wasn’t too long, so we couldn’t pass that up. A few minutes later, we were meeting Ariel. Izzy was a bit hesitant and tired, so she wasn’t overly enthusiastic, but it was a good warm-up meet. She was willing to stand next to Ariel, but didn’t care to hug or high-five her (or talk to her, for that matter 
). Instead, I told Ariel about how Izzy thinks Nemo is her special fishy friend. 
Up until recently, Izzy was convinced that Flounder was actually Nemo. I think she’s finally starting to get it now, though. Here’s a few pictures (no Photopass there):
Just how you dream the meet will go
:
Bye, Ariel!
I always try to take video of character meets too, as I find that tells the story better than photos do. I was happy this trip to have a “new” phone (Dug’s old iPhone 5s) that allowed me to take photos while I was taking video. Dug also took photos. (Side note - between the two of us, we took 9000+ photos and 200+ videos on this trip! ) Here’s the sort-of awkward video:
(click to watch)
Up next: Time to Eat! And will my second attempt at a Cronut live up to the hype that my first one did not? All that and more, coming up!
We left off as we had just entered our room, a DVC Studio at Boardwalk Villas. Take a look around:
There was a pack ‘n’ play in that closet too, which we used.
In general, the room felt very large and we had no complaints.
I really liked the little nook just inside the door. It was big enough to park the stroller and store a couple empty suitcases, plus there was a shelf for tossing things on when you come in (you can also see how we rig up the carseat to the stroller when needed):
As we were exploring, I went out and sat on the balcony for a moment and Izzy followed me. Before I could really even comprehend what was going on, she had climbed up on the little patio table (so that she could see the view over the balcony wall) and immediately toppled it.
Thankfully, I reacted quickly enough to catch her and she walked away without a scratch, but it scared us both. The table went right to the back of the balcony after that. It was kind-of a bummer that the balcony had a solid wall versus rails. The view was great, but you could only see it if you were standing (and taller than Izzy). We didn’t have much time to spend on the balcony anyway, though, so it wasn’t a big deal for us.Once we went back inside, Izzy helped herself to the Mickey towel:
She also made herself comfortable on our bed:
What was she doing, you ask? Watching Stacey’s Disney Must-Do’s, of course:
We just did a brief bit of unpacking/moving things around while she watched. I would guess maybe we had Izzy use the potty too. Can’t remember. I did bring along her cushy Minnie Mouse potty seat to leave in the room and she liked having that. However, I didn’t want to lug it to the parks, so I also brought the folding one to keep in our park bag. We discovered very early on in the trip that Izzy didn’t care for that one, though. She always just wanted to use the big potty, so that’s what we ended up doing for most of the trip. Anyway, after checking out the room and getting ourselves together, we were ready to head for Epcot around 3pm.
Looks like Dug was happy to be heading out:
We were only a few doors down from the elevator. Izzy enjoyed pushing the buttons to call the elevator (but we usually pushed the floors inside). When you head out the nearest door on the ground level, this is where you end up:
We headed for the Boardwalk:
I remember this part of the trip being really pleasant.
Just strolling along the Boardwalk, Izzy riding in her stroller (spoiler alert: that doesn’t happen often this trip ), just enjoying the fact that we made it there and were headed to Epcot. I always like to savor that beginning-of-trip feeling when you know all the fun is ahead of you. We finally made it out of that toddler tantrum fog and were just feeling good. Our first order of business was getting Izzy some lunch before she took a stroller nap. We had thought we’d probably need to go to Germany for Nudel Gratin or see if we could track down a hot dog somewhere. However, you may have noticed a little stand in one of the pictures above. Well, it was for this:
How perfect! We could get her a corn dog before we even got to Epcot! (Also, I am just now noticing the "frank fact" on that sign: 80 hot dogs per year per person is average in the U.S.?!
I enjoy hot dogs, but someone else must be enjoying them a lot more to bring the average up to that! )We ordered a corn dog and a couple glasses of ice water to share. Izzy wasted no time getting a drink:
We were very surprised that this booth took no Disney money.
Could not use Magic Band OR Disney Gift Cards to pay. Odd. We just used a credit card, but it seemed strange to be in the Disney bubble and they couldn’t take Disney payments. The corn dog took quite a while to make. We checked out our surroundings while we waited. I caught a photo of a bird in flight:
We got a kick out of the window on the Boardwalk Bakery:
Reminded me of being on Main Street and checking out the names in the windows.
We finally got our corndog and it turned out to be the hottest corndog on the face of the Earth!
I carried it and blew on it while we walked to try to cool it down, but it was still scalding. Eventually, I ended up holding the ice water against it to try to make it safe for Izzy to eat:
Even after doing that for a bit, it was STILL too hot.
We were well into Epcot before I felt comfortable letting Izzy have it.Almost there:
Yay, the International Gateway:
Our Magic Bands worked without a hitch and we were in, just after 3:30pm:
Do you happen to see a princess in a blue dress up there?
She does:
Yes, it was a total surprise Ariel meet and greet, up near the bridge to France.
I asked the CM if this was common and she said it was quite the surprise to them too. Well, the line wasn’t too long, so we couldn’t pass that up. A few minutes later, we were meeting Ariel. Izzy was a bit hesitant and tired, so she wasn’t overly enthusiastic, but it was a good warm-up meet. She was willing to stand next to Ariel, but didn’t care to hug or high-five her (or talk to her, for that matter ). Instead, I told Ariel about how Izzy thinks Nemo is her special fishy friend. Up until recently, Izzy was convinced that Flounder was actually Nemo. I think she’s finally starting to get it now, though. Here’s a few pictures (no Photopass there):
Just how you dream the meet will go
:
Bye, Ariel!
I always try to take video of character meets too, as I find that tells the story better than photos do. I was happy this trip to have a “new” phone (Dug’s old iPhone 5s) that allowed me to take photos while I was taking video. Dug also took photos. (Side note - between the two of us, we took 9000+ photos and 200+ videos on this trip! ) Here’s the sort-of awkward video:Up next: Time to Eat! And will my second attempt at a Cronut live up to the hype that my first one did not? All that and more, coming up!
(And it's almost impossible to anticipate and prepare for them, since you just don't know what's going to trigger the meltdown).
