October 2012 - Spooky, Wild, Exotic and a lot of food!

[disneybarbie]

October 2012 - Spooky, Wild, Exotic and a lot of food!

When: 7th - 14th October

Where: Disney's Boardwalk Villas

Who: Me Emma lifelong thing of all things Disney!
DH not as much of as fan as me, but he does enjoy Walt Disney World

This trip was planned after our honeymoon at WDW last year. I had hoped the new Fantasyland would be open by October (which unfortunately it wasn't... or.... was it?! ) and we wanted to visit during the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot as we'd really enjoyed it in 2008.

After booking this vacation, we were then invited to go to Orlando in August with family so we went to the Disney parks a few times then too! Although for that trip we were staying offsite and with a much larger group, so it was a very different experience to just being the two of us again at our DVC 'home'.

We spent a week at Disney, and then a few nights on the Gulf Coast of Florida with my parents. It was nice to have a two-centre trip as it felt really long and relaxing. Plus we were really fortunate with the weather, no rain or thunderstorms and every day it was around 85-90 degrees!

While at WDW we spent time in all four parks, as well as doing some extra events which made this trip really special

 

[disneybarbie]

Day 1 – Sunday 7th October 2012

We woke up at 6am, very early for a Sunday, but it was easy to get up because it was finally time for our holiday!

Suitcases ready...

Pretty sunrise...

After getting ready and putting the suitcases in the car, we were on our way to Gatwick airport. We were parking the car onsite and had checked in online the day before, so we didn't have to be at the terminal too early.

We dropped off our bags and were soon through security and into the terminal, I bought some perfume & a box of chocolates (for the cabin crew... tip from my sister who used to work for an airline!) and we got some breakfast at Cafe Rouge.

Our flight was on time, so at 10am we went to the gate and soon it was time to board!

Virgin Atlantic recently refurbished their 747 fleet with much nicer seating and entertainment systems. One big change is that they have put a few rows of economy seats in the upstairs 'bubble' section – and I was able to move our seats to these!

Luckily there was no one in the window seat next to me, so we had room to spread out.

I gave an air hostess the chocolates, she was really pleased and offered us a glass of champagne!

Soon we were in the air and on our way to Orlando – the flight time was about 8 hours and was pretty smooth most of the way.

(This is the Isle of Wight – small island in the South of England – it was fun to be able to see it from the air!)

Lunch was chicken supreme or sausage & mash – the air hostess gave me the slightly better white wine (due to the chocolates!) and also a big bottle of chilled water for the flight which was really nice to have.

During the flight I watched Brave (loved it), Madagascar 3 (quite cute), listened to some podcasts and watched a few episodes of Modern Family and Phineas & Ferb.

Very soon, we were landing!

Immigration was quick and we didn't have long to wait for our bags and get through customs... then it was on to our first ride... the monorail!

We headed for the Magical Express desk, there was no line at all for our bus – in fact we were put on a different bus to fill it up. We did wait about 20 minutes for more guests to get on the bus, but by 5pm we were on route to Walt Disney World.

The first two stops were Port Orleans Riverside and Caribbean Beach (I have never been to the latter so it was quite fun just to drive through on the bus!)

And finally we reached the Boardwalk, this is our DVC home resort and I love how familiar and welcoming it feels when we arrive!

The Cast Member that checked us in was from New Zealand, she was on the college programme, and she was asking us about our journey – apparently it takes 20+ hours to get to Florida from NZ.. and you arrive on the same day that you leave home because of the time zones!

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[disneybarbie]

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We headed to our room, it was on the fourth floor (4061) – it wasn't too far from the elevators and there was a staircase nearby which was right behind the store on the boardwalk.

We hadn't booked a Boardwalk view so I was expecting a room on the Swan/Dolphin side of the resort ... so was really surprised when I saw this from the balcony!

Video here

This counts as a 'garden view' as it overlooks the lawn area, but also has a beautiful side view of Crescent Lake and the other resorts... as well as Epcot in the distance.

We had a studio villa which is a great size for two people...

Stacey!

I unpacked our suitcases, we had quick showers to freshen up and then headed out for the evening!


......

 

[kitcat1]

Good tip about the chocolates, I'm going to try that next week!!

Loving all your pictures in the report too. Thanks for sharing.

Cath

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

Yay Emma - you have started your trip report. Can't wait for more updates!! I can't wait to read about your Animal Kingdom Adventure as we want to do that next year xx

 

[monica23535]

Hi Emma!


Glad you had a good trip, we got back a few days ago and can even spot our room at the Beach Club in your room view picture.

Can't wait to read more once you've finished your exams - good luck!

 

[Leshaface]

I didn't even get to say goodbye, but welcome back!

Saving my place here to read later!

 

[Dugette]

I'm here! Sounds like a good start; looking forward to hearing about the rest! Good luck with exams!

 

[ronnmel]

Hi Emma!

That sunset almost looks like a rainbow! Very pretty. You really seem to have gotten a great room! I have read about Boardwalk only having one set of elevators, so that's good that you were close to it AND that you got a side view of the lake. Bonus!

 

[jwwi]

Hi Emma,
Love your garden view from your villa. I remember reading your honeymoon tr, and can't wait to hear your food reviews.

 

[MissPrice]

Great Start

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[missx0xdelaney]

Followed your link over from your PTR where I've been lurking! You guys had a great trip planned, can't wait to see how it panned out!

 

[xkaittloveex]

Joining in!

 

[Leshaface]

Um, over 20 hours?! Guess you won't hear me complaining anymore about my measly 5 hour flight

Love the view from your room. Will find out in about 28 days if we'll be staying at BWV or BLT! Secretly hoping to keep BWV but hubby will be happy if the waitlist goes through on BLT.

 

[scottny]

Came upon your tr and read it and now am hooked. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[disneybarbie]

Good tip about the chocolates, I'm going to try that next week!!

Loving all your pictures in the report too. Thanks for sharing.

Cath

Hi! Thanks for reading - hope you have a great trip

Yay Emma - you have started your trip report. Can't wait for more updates!! I can't wait to read about your Animal Kingdom Adventure as we want to do that next year xx

Hi Sara! Thanks for reading so far, the Wild Africa Trek was incredible, can't wait to share it - we are awaiting our photo cd from it in the post so I should have lots of pictures too

Hi Emma!


Glad you had a good trip, we got back a few days ago and can even spot our room at the Beach Club in your room view picture.

Can't wait to read more once you've finished your exams - good luck!

Hi! Thanks for reading, hope you had a great trip to WDW too I will really get going with updates once this exam is done, two weeks to go now lol

I'm here! Sounds like a good start; looking forward to hearing about the rest! Good luck with exams!

Thank you so much revision is going ok but I cannot wait for it to be over

Hi Emma!

That sunset almost looks like a rainbow! Very pretty. You really seem to have gotten a great room! I have read about Boardwalk only having one set of elevators, so that's good that you were close to it AND that you got a side view of the lake. Bonus!

Hi Mel, thanks for reading! I'm so glad I took that photo of the sunrise, the sky was so pretty! Yes the Boardwalk Villas only has one set of elevators which is often a criticism people have about the resort - however we have found on our trips there that there are a lot of staircases along the corridors that can be really useful; they're just not always easy to find!

Hi Emma,
Love your garden view from your villa. I remember reading your honeymoon tr, and can't wait to hear your food reviews.

Great Start

joining in

Joining in!

Thank you all for joining in

Followed your link over from your PTR where I've been lurking! You guys had a great trip planned, can't wait to see how it panned out!

Hi! Thank you for reading so far, it was such a fun trip

Um, over 20 hours?! Guess you won't hear me complaining anymore about my measly 5 hour flight

Love the view from your room. Will find out in about 28 days if we'll be staying at BWV or BLT! Secretly hoping to keep BWV but hubby will be happy if the waitlist goes through on BLT.

Hi Lesha! Thanks for reading along. Excited to find out which resort you guys get next month, BWV is special to me as it's our DVC home and we love being walking distance from Epcot and DHS
That CM's journey was so crazy - I think she said she left New Zealand at 8am on a Saturday and landed at 10am the same Saturday in Florida?!

Came upon your tr and read it and now am hooked. Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you for joining in!



Little update coming up....


Emma x

 

[disneybarbie]

....

Once we were ready we headed out – we were both quite hungry so decided to walk to Epcot... there was a little food festival going on

It was nice to be strolling along the Boardwalk – it was cloudy but very warm

Very soon we were at International Gateway and into the park!

We could hear Starship playing in the America pavilion (as part of the Eat to the Beat concerts), I'd just heard the song on the radio the day before so it was funny to hear it live!

The park was pretty busy but not too bad, so we decided to turn right and go to France first.

I wasn't quite brave enough to try the snails, so we got a coq au vin to share and two pomegranate cocktails to toast the start of our vacation.

We stood near the lagoon to eat our dish and it turned out the box we'd perched on was part of the Agent P adventure game – so several kids came along looking for a little Perry the Platypus on the box!

Next we strolled over to New Zealand, and ordered one of each of the dishes – lamb meatball and scallops.

I like being able to see into each booth and watch the dishes being prepared and served up.

Many of the booths had pots of plants next to them – I was jealous as our attempts at growing vegetables this summer were ruined by the poor weather we had lol.

Both of these were really good, I love scallops so that was probably my favourite.

We saw Aladdin and Jasmine heading backstage!

Next DH stopped at Singapore to get the beef rendang curry and a beer – I didn't get a photo of the curry but did taste it, really enjoyed it! It was one of our surprise favourite dishes of the festival.
While he was getting the food, I stopped in one of the little festival shops to buy a wrist-band gift card – I'd read about these and definitely recommend getting one, it was so much easier to wear one of these than keep getting my card or cash out of my purse.
I also bought a F&W Festival pin (Mickey in the cranberry bog), and a little tray to use while we were at the festival...

I got so many compliments about this tray – from guests and cast members! It was only $4.95 and easy to carry in my bag on days we were at Epcot.
The Cast Member in the gift shop was also really nice, she was from Holland and on the college program. Just as she started serving me, Starship started playing 'Don't Stop Believing' and she was dancing around to it!


Next we stopped at Japan for a sushi roll (I think it was the Karaage chicken) and a Sukiyaki Beef Pan. We also got a Kirin beer each, I don't drink a lot of beer but I really like this one as it's quite light.

We sat on a low wall in the Japan pavilion for a little while, and then strolled back towards the International Gateway – we still had drinks left so we wandered around the UK pavilion and took some photos.

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[disneybarbie]

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It was about 8pm at this point so we wandered out of the park and back to the Boardwalk. DH wanted to watch his NFL team (New Orleans Saints!) play – because of the time zone difference he doesn't get to watch a lot of football games when we're at home.

We'd thought that the ESPN bar would be too busy to try and watch it there, however as we walked by we noticed that they'd set up televisions outside and there was a temporary bar too.
So we got some seats and I got us two drinks (another beer for me – unusual! We don't get many light beers at home so I enjoyed trying a Corona Light).

After a while we noticed that the bar was much emptier, so we went inside – we sat at the bar and DH got talking to another Saints fan.

I didn't think we'd watch the whole game, maybe just the first two quarters and then go to bed... however, we ended up watching the whole game!!

We got back up to our room at nearly midnight – 5am in England, which meant we'd been up for nearly 24 hours!

I noticed the voice message button was flashing on our phone, and it turned out to be a 'happy birthday' message from Mickey and Minnie for me! (It was my birthday the week before we went on vacation so I'd listed it as our celebration ).

We fell asleep very easily – it had been a long but fun day; and I couldn't wait to wake up the next day for our first full day in WDW!


Emma x

 

[Leshaface]

I don't think i've ever seen one of those F&W trays before! Such a great idea and a marvelous price. Is that a wine cup holder in the corner?!

I, too, get so jealous when I see other peoples gardens flourishing and mine doesn't. At least you have an excuse to use! Our weather was perfect and my garden still didn't grow great at all!

Wow, 2 beers in one day for you? I feel like I know you well enough now that this is quite unusual for you.

Can't wait to hear your next update!