Susiequsie60
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2013
- Messages
- 385
OK, so I've been asking questions here for the past few months, now it's time for a little payback (on my part.)
We just arrived at about 2:30 pm today (Saturday, February 1.) Here's the scoop on our first day here (so far.)
We pulled up to the Boardwalk Inn (being told "Welcome Home" by the guard at the gate who checked our reservation) and unloaded our luggage. While my husband self-parked our car, Molly met me right outside the doors and brought me in to have a comfy seat in the lobby while she finished-up my checkin on her tablet. Took about 5 minutes and then she handed me my welcome package and I went to find my husband - who seemed to have disappeared! It seems that self-parking is quite a distance and it took him a little time. We would never pay the $15 a day that he said valet parking costs. Don't know if he got that detail right, but we actually self-park all the time rather than valet. We walked up to our room, which is 5278. I was immediately happy because I'd asked for a high floor on my self check-in.
All in all, the check-in process was unbelievably quick and simple. Having only stayed at moderate hotels and always during busier times, I can't comment on if the check-in here at the BWI is always this easy. I do know that compared to what I'm used to, it was a breeze. I said to my husband that this must be how the other half lives!!! One other point: I made a point of telling Molly that we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on this trip. She didn't seem to know that, even though I had called before to make a note of it on our reservation. She, of course, got us the lovely Anniversary Pins.
I'm super thrilled with the room. I seems like we'll have a beautiful view of the the fireworks from our balcony (I won't know for sure for another 90 minutes or so.) But I can tell that we can see the Eiffel Tower and Spaceship Earth very clearly. It's great. (Note: Our Magic Bands worked beautifully opening our room door.)
We got our luggage delivered and enjoyed one quick little vacation cocktail in our room before heading out to the Boardwalk. We walked straight over to Epcot because I had booked our 3 FP+'s there for our first evening.(Note: Our Magic Bands worked beautifully getting in to the park.)
We hit San Angel in Mexico for a late lunch. We've only eaten dinner there in the past, and I felt like the lunch menu was so much more limited. We shared a shrimp cocktail, and each got a frozen margarita and a strip steak entree (we got 2 different entrees - but they were both strip steak.) Honestly, this wasn't our favorite meal in Mexico - usually we enjoy it much more. And of course, it wasn't cheap. With the tip it was almost $90 and that was the lunch menu. But it's OK - we're on vacation, right? (Note: Our waiter didn't really know how to use our Magic Bands to charge our meal to the room. He tried both mine and my husband 3 or 4 times, even using another waitress's little machine, each time saying it didn't work. Then the other waitress did it herself, said something to him him Spanish, and it seems it was working all along. I guess I was just a little surprised that he didn't seem to know how to do it. Aren't lots of people using the bands to charge things? I doubt that my husband and I were the first guests he had encountered. He seemed to just want to give up and have us pay some other way, which we would have done. The waitress sort of decided to help on her own. This wasn't a big deal, but I think that CMs probably need a little more training with the Magic Bands. Note: I didn't really have any major opinion on this waiter, but my husband wasn't crazy about him for some reason. Just didn't seem that "in to" his job.)
So we headed over to Test Track for our first FP+ (4:25-5:25 pm). Scanned our bands and walked in at around 5:00 pm. The standby line was about 90 minutes I think. Once inside we waited a few minutes before getting in to design our vehicle. The ride was a blast!!
Then we headed over to Mission Space to use our second FP+ (5:30-6:30 pm). We got there at around 5:20 pm so we hung around and killed 10 minutes. FYI: When we scanned and entered, the CM there told us you can always enter your FP+ 5 minutes before the time. Good piece of info to have. The standby line here was about 30 minutes. Again, once inside we waited a few minutes before entering our "ship."
Our third FP+ was for Spaceship Earth for 7:05-8:05 pm. Since it was barely 6:00 pm at this point, we walked over to check it out. There was a standby line of 10 minutes, and we saw that the FP+ people were really just entering the line right where we would enter. So, we just rode at that time. Spaceship Earth is a sentimental favorite of mine, so I enjoyed it. The wait wasn't even 10 minutes.
After Spaceship Earth we walked back to the Boardwalk area, checked out Luna Pool, and headed up to our room to chill. My poor hubby had done the bulk of the driving down from NJ, so he was definitely feeling a little beat. He's napping as I type.
Hopefully I'm going to discover that I'm correct about being able to see the Epcot fireworks from our balcony. I'll know a little later in the evening. I'm also going to try to post some pix I took when we arrived.
My plan for tomorrow is to let my husband sleep in a little, then maybe head over to Hollywood Studios. It's a 2 on the crowd calendar, so I figure how bad can that be? Plus we'll have plenty of time later in the week and some FP+'s for the Studios anyway. MK has an evening extra hour, and we have our 3 FP+ for tomorrow evening there. It's a 4, which is as low as it gets all week at the MK.
So far it's kinda fun to not have to worry about "what do the kids want to do" and tour in a more relaxed way - just the two of us. Although, full disclosure: we've sent multiple messages and photos to both of our kids already from the hotel and Epcot!!
So, if anyone has any questions that I can possibley answer while I'm here, please let me know.
We just arrived at about 2:30 pm today (Saturday, February 1.) Here's the scoop on our first day here (so far.)
We pulled up to the Boardwalk Inn (being told "Welcome Home" by the guard at the gate who checked our reservation) and unloaded our luggage. While my husband self-parked our car, Molly met me right outside the doors and brought me in to have a comfy seat in the lobby while she finished-up my checkin on her tablet. Took about 5 minutes and then she handed me my welcome package and I went to find my husband - who seemed to have disappeared! It seems that self-parking is quite a distance and it took him a little time. We would never pay the $15 a day that he said valet parking costs. Don't know if he got that detail right, but we actually self-park all the time rather than valet. We walked up to our room, which is 5278. I was immediately happy because I'd asked for a high floor on my self check-in.
All in all, the check-in process was unbelievably quick and simple. Having only stayed at moderate hotels and always during busier times, I can't comment on if the check-in here at the BWI is always this easy. I do know that compared to what I'm used to, it was a breeze. I said to my husband that this must be how the other half lives!!! One other point: I made a point of telling Molly that we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on this trip. She didn't seem to know that, even though I had called before to make a note of it on our reservation. She, of course, got us the lovely Anniversary Pins.
I'm super thrilled with the room. I seems like we'll have a beautiful view of the the fireworks from our balcony (I won't know for sure for another 90 minutes or so.) But I can tell that we can see the Eiffel Tower and Spaceship Earth very clearly. It's great. (Note: Our Magic Bands worked beautifully opening our room door.)
We got our luggage delivered and enjoyed one quick little vacation cocktail in our room before heading out to the Boardwalk. We walked straight over to Epcot because I had booked our 3 FP+'s there for our first evening.(Note: Our Magic Bands worked beautifully getting in to the park.)
We hit San Angel in Mexico for a late lunch. We've only eaten dinner there in the past, and I felt like the lunch menu was so much more limited. We shared a shrimp cocktail, and each got a frozen margarita and a strip steak entree (we got 2 different entrees - but they were both strip steak.) Honestly, this wasn't our favorite meal in Mexico - usually we enjoy it much more. And of course, it wasn't cheap. With the tip it was almost $90 and that was the lunch menu. But it's OK - we're on vacation, right? (Note: Our waiter didn't really know how to use our Magic Bands to charge our meal to the room. He tried both mine and my husband 3 or 4 times, even using another waitress's little machine, each time saying it didn't work. Then the other waitress did it herself, said something to him him Spanish, and it seems it was working all along. I guess I was just a little surprised that he didn't seem to know how to do it. Aren't lots of people using the bands to charge things? I doubt that my husband and I were the first guests he had encountered. He seemed to just want to give up and have us pay some other way, which we would have done. The waitress sort of decided to help on her own. This wasn't a big deal, but I think that CMs probably need a little more training with the Magic Bands. Note: I didn't really have any major opinion on this waiter, but my husband wasn't crazy about him for some reason. Just didn't seem that "in to" his job.)
So we headed over to Test Track for our first FP+ (4:25-5:25 pm). Scanned our bands and walked in at around 5:00 pm. The standby line was about 90 minutes I think. Once inside we waited a few minutes before getting in to design our vehicle. The ride was a blast!!
Then we headed over to Mission Space to use our second FP+ (5:30-6:30 pm). We got there at around 5:20 pm so we hung around and killed 10 minutes. FYI: When we scanned and entered, the CM there told us you can always enter your FP+ 5 minutes before the time. Good piece of info to have. The standby line here was about 30 minutes. Again, once inside we waited a few minutes before entering our "ship."
Our third FP+ was for Spaceship Earth for 7:05-8:05 pm. Since it was barely 6:00 pm at this point, we walked over to check it out. There was a standby line of 10 minutes, and we saw that the FP+ people were really just entering the line right where we would enter. So, we just rode at that time. Spaceship Earth is a sentimental favorite of mine, so I enjoyed it. The wait wasn't even 10 minutes.
After Spaceship Earth we walked back to the Boardwalk area, checked out Luna Pool, and headed up to our room to chill. My poor hubby had done the bulk of the driving down from NJ, so he was definitely feeling a little beat. He's napping as I type.
Hopefully I'm going to discover that I'm correct about being able to see the Epcot fireworks from our balcony. I'll know a little later in the evening. I'm also going to try to post some pix I took when we arrived.
My plan for tomorrow is to let my husband sleep in a little, then maybe head over to Hollywood Studios. It's a 2 on the crowd calendar, so I figure how bad can that be? Plus we'll have plenty of time later in the week and some FP+'s for the Studios anyway. MK has an evening extra hour, and we have our 3 FP+ for tomorrow evening there. It's a 4, which is as low as it gets all week at the MK.
So far it's kinda fun to not have to worry about "what do the kids want to do" and tour in a more relaxed way - just the two of us. Although, full disclosure: we've sent multiple messages and photos to both of our kids already from the hotel and Epcot!!
So, if anyone has any questions that I can possibley answer while I'm here, please let me know.
