We had a wonderful time on our vacation
..and it was a desperately needed vacation!! I feel so much more human now and less of a crazed stress-monster. We got to Orlando around 11:30 am, which means we left home around 6 amI am always up for getting up early to arrive early.
We rented points to stay in a studio at the Beach Club Villas. We choose this resort mainly for the proximity to EPCOT and we were banking on really liking it because I have already booked us a two bedroom villa for the days leading up to the wedding for me, DF, and my parents and granny. Fortunately we LOVED it!! I cant even express how wonderful it is to walk in and out of EPCOT. The boat service to Hollywood Studios was really nice too. We have always had a fairly good experience with the bus system, but it was nice being able to avoid it 50% of the time.
So we hopped of the magical express and a nice lady met us and walked us into the front desk for us to check in. I thought this was really nice and although we have stayed deluxe before (at AKL) and DVC before (at OKW) Ive never had that happen before.
Side notethe lobby smells soooooo good. Whatever scent they are pumping in there, I want to take a bath in it. Seriously, I would walk through the lobby just so I could experience the smell. Not everything was a walk in the park though; we did have a few snafus.
Our room wasnt ready, which I kind of expected because we arrived at noon. We checked our bags and headed off to redeem our AP vouchers, buy a Tables in Wonderland card, and eat lunch at the FWF. It took probably 30 mins to do the administrative stuff. Mainly because we got in one line to redeem our vouchers and then they sent us over to another line to buy the TIW card. Oh, I also got a birthday button (although my bday wasnt until the following Saturday) and those buttons are AWESOME!! They make you feel so special! Ah, anways we finally make it into EPCOT and stop at the Ireland stand for some fishermans pie (yum) Adam got a beer and a cheese plate and I got some honey mead (super yum). Well, then it started raining, but not hard, so we just parked under the overhang of a concession stand for about 20 mins. We were really lucky because that was the only time it rained on us the entire trip (thank you, Jesus).
We were really anxious for the room to be ready, but it was like 4 pm on the dot when they texted us. I had requested pool view, high floor in that order and our (first) room was on the 5th floor, no pool view, but you could see Spaceship Earth and I think we couldve seen the higher Illuminations fireworks too. I say think because we noticed that the sink was broken
not a little broken, but like the hot water handle was laying sadly on the counter and a wastebasket was catching leaking water underneath!! So we call down and they were nice, apologized and said they would send someone up asap. Well, we waited around for a good hour or so, but finally we had to leave to catch Fantasmic so we thought they would fix it while we were gone.
We had a great time and came back to the room, it was around 8 pm so we knew if we stopped by the room we would be a little late for our Coral Reef dinner, but we are worrywarts and I think Adam was worried about the luggage, good newsour luggage had been delivered, bad newsthe sink had not even been touched! We didnt have time to check in with the front desk again without totally missing our Coral Dinner, so we just left and hoped it would be fixed. Our dinner was great! Although, it seemed like there were less fish than usual in the tank. I cant remember what all we had but it was delish!! We were seated next to another couple who had just had their Disney wedding a few days prior. Our waitress was super nice and the food was served super-fast, which is good because we were hungry like wild coyotes

I had my birthday button and on, and it was noted on our reservation that were celebrating our anniversary and planning our wedding. The waitress brought us two free desserts! It was a very nice surprise. This was our first time using the TIW card and that was super simple and we tipped the waitress a bit extra over the included 18%.
Ok, now we are back to the hotel, we open the door and
the sink has still not been touched. Adam went down to the front desk to sort it out although we were both super tired, because I didnt want to unpack if this was an issue that was going to take time to fix. He said the front desk was really nice and said they would send someone up to fix that night---uh, hello! It was already like 11 pm, I do not need captain plumber up there working on the sink while I sit there awkwardly waiting for him to leave. Adam expressed his concern in a more polite manner and they moved us to another room on the same floor. This room was in great shape, although the view was not as cool---it didnt really matter though because we were never in the room at fireworks time. That was the only unpleasant experience we had with the resort and I appreciated their willingness to just move us to a new room. The rest of the stay was fantastic and everyone we met was very nice.
So, that was our first day. We unpacked and then passed out
up nextAnimal Kingdom day and my MOH comes to stay for a day!
Oh and because you were so nice to read all of that text heres a picture
its our new foster dog, name TBD. He was caught in a trap, way out in the rural county area. We are working on his socialization, he is a very sweet, but scared, boy.
Oh, and we put up the Christmas tree yesterday!