September 17th.
Because of the long day and late night, we were lazybones on Saturday. I was under the impression that Robert was both watching the time AND knew what time checkout was. Whoopsie, NO, he didn't.
My sudden realization of the time caused a panic. Enough said.
Thankfully the housekeepers were flexible, but you are REALLY not supposed to be in your DVC room after 11, and we were.
A bigger tip than normal was left.
The conversations about what was best to do next were akin to the highest level of calculus. Confusing. At some point my aunt decided that she wanted to just go home for the night, which meant that no one had to have too many people in their Dolphin room OR share a very small room with family they don't see all that often. But she was worried about things at home, and hadn't brought the right shoes (she has very persnickety feet), and she said she really WANTED to do that.
But they wanted to be part of us checking into the Boardwalk, so we did that. And that all on its own was FAR too confusing. So I'll skip it. Except that we got the chance to hang out in the lobby for a bit, where I started to fall madly in LOVE with the Boardwalk.
And this was absolutely not expected or anticipated in any way!
The front is beautiful. The lobby reminded me of something in my head, or maybe of some book I read years ago, I don't know, I just felt at home there. This chair didn't hurt (except perhaps to sit upon), as it really reminds me of the art and whimsy at the
McMenamins B&Bs in Oregon and Washington.
Our room was actually available, so we headed down there and eventually met the Bell Services guy there with our bigger bags.
Side note: there is no short term parking area there for guests to drag their bags inside. And the parking lot is approximately 18 miles away. And the walk to the hotel is all uphill. AND the people who take the bags out of your vehicle if you bring it up are NOT the same people that delivery your bags to your room (you can't just have one person follow you on down), so just prepare your wallet for double the tips, and drive on up! Don't bother to even try to carry your bags, unless it's chilly OR you're from the South, and you have light, rolling bags and no children who might whine. End of side note.
As we trudged up the hill, I noticed the rooms to the left, which were sort of basement-looking. I thought "our room is so cheap I bet it's there!". And I was right. If we were rule-breakers, we would have hopped the hedge and walked down the grassy hill to enter our room from the patio. Since we're rule-followers, however, we took the long, long walk.
Our little patio, that I wanted to spend some time on.
OK, so we all crowded into the little studio. Almost as SOON as we'd shut the door after the last person, there was a huge sound! Fire alarm! Ack! Ack! Ack!
Everyone else headed right back to the door, like good humans. I, however, ran around grabbing wallet and camera...what a dingbat I am. As soon as I touched the door handle to leave, the family had found a maintenance CM who said it was just a test, and then the alarm stopped. WHEW.
After they checked out the room, the family went on over to the Dolphin to check in, and my aunt went back home (1.5 hours away). We were given the opportunity to wait for our luggage and to change into swimsuits.
The room!
I took a picture of this door (to the toilet/tub/shower area) because I was madly in love with it. However, the picture does not show me why.
It was wider than a typical door, and I loved the knob/handle. I just LOVED this door. It's possible I was a bit tired by then?
Here is the vanity area, and you can see the "studio kitchenette" area in the reflection.
I loved just everything about this place! I went to the Boardwalk because of a lack of points to just stay at the OKW 1 bedroom another night, and felt strongly that I would just be dealing with the place, but found myself wanting to sell all our Bay Lake points and buying scads of Boardwalk resale points, so that we could stay there for all of our well planned trips.
I loved the cabinet.
This closet was actually quite large; large enough for me to, you guessed it, LOVE it enough to take the picture!
OK obviously I didn't take all of these pictures when we first got there.
As we headed out the next day (we'll just skip ahead for a moment b/c it's a picture of the room), I snapped this shot of the mirror and shelf next to the door, thought "oh I have to grab my Tea rose", then forgot about my rose. That was the last time I saw it! Sniffle sniffle.
Usually because I'm tired and a little run down, so sitting around and reading a book or something sounds really great.
