On Friday morning, there was no alarm to wake to. Instead, our eyes opened on their own, which happened to be around 9:30! We only had a couple things planned for today, so there was certainly no need for a rush!
After we'd gotten our showers and were ready for the day, our first order of business was to head over to the Business Center at the Contemporary as I had to fax some paper work for my new job. The business center is actually located in the convention area of the hotel, so I had no idea that it even existed, and goodness knows we never would have been able to find it without directions. Thankfully Mike lead us right to it and we were in and out in just a matter of minutes. I did have to take a picture of the clocks on the wall that gave the time for all the different parks, which I thought to be really cool!
Once we were done there, we headed out to the bus stop to head over to Downtown Disney. It was a good thing we weren't in a hurry as we ended up waiting for 30 minutes before the first DTD bus ever arrived! 3 Hollywood Studios buses came, followed by 2 for Animal Kingdom before the DTD one ever came! We were so glad to finally see it!
Our first order of business was lunch as we were definitely hungry since we'd skipped breakfast. So of course we headed straight to our favorite DTD eatery--Earl of Sandwich. I had a birthday coupon for a free sandwich, so that made it even better! Mike headed inside to order while I grabbed us a table outside. I think this was the first time in a while that it wasn't crazy busy, but that was probably because it was well after the lunch rush.
I had my usual Ham and Swiss, and I cannot remember what Mike had. He usually goes with the Full Montagu, but sometimes changes it up. He also surprised me with something new...macaroni and cheese. I had no idea that it was on the menu, and since Mike knows how much I love mac and cheese, he was really thoughtful and got us an order to try!
It was all yummy as usual, which is why it's our favorite place in DTD. The mac and cheese wasn't too bad either and it was nice to have something other than chips.
After lunch, it was time for dessert, and anyone who knows us knows exactly where we were heading and what we were going for...
The Nob Hill Chill at Ghirardelli is our absolute favorite dessert, ever! It's not unusual for us to make mutiple visits in one trip!
With our tummies all full, it was time to do some shopping. The first place we headed was pin traders. We don't actually pin trade, but we do collect pins for each year that we visit as well as the resorts than we stay in, our favorite rides and the such.
Next, we headed into another one of my favorite stores, Basin! I am in love with the different bar soaps, especially the ones with the Mickey heads inside. There are 3 different scents that I love the most, so I made sure to stock up on those.
Our last stop was the World of Disney. Oh, how I adore this store. I could spend hours and hours just browsing here. And boy could I really do some damage to the pocketbook! We did end up buying a good bit. Mike got a new t-shirt and a hoodie that he'd been wanting for while but didn't want to spend the money on. Thankfully I finally convinced him to splurge and go for it! I picked up the most awesome pair of socks and some kitchen items as well as a 2013 magnet and ornament, which is another tradition for us. Here's what we ended up with, including the pins that we'd gotten at Pin Traders...
Finally, we realized what time it was and knew that we should probably be heading over for our appointment time for the DVC tour. A couple weeks before we left home, we received an e-mail from DVC stating that they were holding an open house for the dates that we would be in the World. We were given the opportunity to schedule a time, if we wished to do so. Of course we knew that this was done to try and sell the new GF Villas, but since Mike and I were actually already interested in adding on, we decided to go for it. Plus, we really, really wanted to see what the model rooms looked like. So, we headed over to the boat dock to try and catch a boat over to SSR. What we didn't realize is that particular boat doesn't actually stop at SSR. Mike and I both were really bumfuzzled as we could've sworn that we did the last time we were there, but the very not nice CM told us we were wrong. So, we decided to just head for the bus stop since it wasn't that far away. Our appointment time was at 4, and it was now 3:15. I figured we'd still have plenty of time to make it. I mean SSR is just across the lake, right? Surely it wouldn't take 45 minutes to get there. Normally, we couldn've just walked over, but they had the walking path closed, so that wasn't an option. So, we waited and waited at the bus stop. And we waited and waited so more. Finally, about 30 minutes later a Saratoga bus finally showed up. But of course we weren't going straight to the resort...oh, no, we had to make a stop at the Westside and Blizzard Beach first. By then, we realized that we were going to be late, so Mike called to let them know and to make sure that we could still come. They re-assured us that we were fine and not to worry. In hindsight, we could've just walked over to the Westside bus stop, but I don't think our wait would've been any shorter of a wait.
We finally made it to SSR at 4:15 and hoofed it over to the DVC preview center. There was a short line to check in, and a brief wait before we were ushered inside. This was the first time that we'd ever been inside the preview center, but it was very nice. They had a buffet set up, but Mike and I weren't hungry...we just wanted to see the rooms. We were gived a card and told that when we were ready for the tour to take it to a podium that was set up. So, we had a glass of water and then visited the restrooms before we checked in at the podium. Thankfully our guide, Hubert (who is awesome, by the way) was working that night, so he was able to escort us over and do the tour himself. The first model that we were able to see was a studio of Aulani, which was beautiful! Then we moved on to the studio for the Grand. I have to say that I was immediately blown away! Mike and I both were totally impressed. But when he took us into the one bedroom, I knew that we HAD to add on here! There were just so many impressive things! I think the thing that we loved the most were the two bathrooms in the studio as well as the "murphy" bed which will be great for us when we travel with our niece and nephew again! I knew before we even finished the tour that we would definitely be adding on here! I wish I could've gotten some pictures, but I wasn't brave enough to ask since I didn't see anyone else taking them.
After we were finished with the tour, Hubert took us back over where we sat down in an office and talked numbers. We let him know that we were for sure going to add on, it was just a matter of figuring out exactly how many points we wanted to go with. We talked and discussed for several more minutes before we told him that we just needed time to decide on the number of points and that we would think about it, but we had dinner to get to at 'Ohana. And that's what I love about DVC--there was no pressure to even buy in to begin with--we were the ones who initiated the discussion and when we told him that we were all in with the exception of figuring out the number of points, he was totally fine with that!
We arrived back at Bay Lake with plenty of time to spare! We hopped the monorail over to the Poly and ended up checking in at 6:20 for our 6:50 reservation. Mike and I were both very excited about this meal as 'Ohana is one of our very favorite restaurants on property. He loves all the meat and the fact that you can have as much as you want while I love going for the potstickers, the noodles and the bread pudding!
It only took about 20 minutes before our buzzer was going off and we were being escorted to our table! I know the food here is always the same, but I have to take pictures anyway!
Of course we stuffed ourselves silly like we always do! It's pretty much impossible not to!
We rolled ourselves out and decided to take a peek in some of the shops while we were there. Our first stop was Boutiki, where I found an awesome hoodie that I fell in love with.
But of course after I had to talk Mike into splurging earlier in the day, now he was having to talk me into it! I really did love it, but $65 was a lot to spend on one piece of clothing. But it did fit perfectly and was just so warm and cozy when I tried it on. So, I went for it after all and am so glad I did!
After I made my purchase, we wandered a little more before we decided to head back to the monorail. Our plan was to take another spin around Epcot, but I wanted to head back to the room to drop off my bag and grab the camera first. And while we were there, I went ahead and called to cancel our Chef Mickey's breakfast that we had scheduled for the next morning. It was going to be an out of pocket meal and since we had just stuffed ourselves at 'Ohana, we figured it would be best to cancel.
With that bit of business being taken care of, we headed back to the monorail where we hopped off at the TTC and transferred to the Epcot line. We hadn't visited Epcot since our trip last May, so Mike thought it would be nice to just ride through and at least get a good view of the World Showcase and Spaceship Earth, and that's just what we did. I attempted to get some pictures of our view, but between the monorail moving so fast and the windows being dirty, it didn't work out.
We made it back to the Contemporary, but decided to make one last stop in Bay View gifts before we headed home for the night. We made our last souvie purchase of the trip as I picked up the Monorail shirt that I'd been wanting forever, Mike got another Mickey bar antenna topper to replace the one that he "lost" and I picked up a birthday pin for myself.
Finally, we made our way across the bridge and back to Bay Lake. But, we weren't done yet. We decided to do one last tour of the resort where I could get lots of pics of all the awesome details that made us love the place so much!
We finally headed up to the room where I updated my TR journal and then tucked into bed around midnight.
Just listen to that phrase...oh how I wish all birthdays (and regular days) started off that way. 
They look delicious!
