There's a Chipmunk Eating Your Head !! (Day 6 - Part 5 -updated 1/1)

[jecskc]

Hey Everyone !! Welcome to my trip report !! We went to Walt Disney World from November 22 thru November 27 and we stayed in a one bedroom villa at Boardwalk. This is the first time we had gone to Disney during Christmas and we were really excited to see the decorations and experiencing the atmosphere at the Boardwalk.

Cast of Characters:

Me - 43 yr old Irrigation Designer, my DH, my DS12 and my DD9. Here's a picture of us on this trip.

Give me a bit to edit some photos and I'll get started.

And I would just like to say, for those of you reading, please feel free to stop in and say hello. I just love seeing everyone's comments and sharing experiences.

 

[winkers]

I have to ask....how do you get into irrigation design? It never occured to me that someone has to design them.

 

[jecskc]

I have to ask....how do you get into irrigation design? It never occured to me that someone has to design them.

I work for a Landscape Architect. About 20 years ago, our main irrigation designer left for greener pastures. He had taught me some things about irrigation, but I saw it as an opportunity to make myself more valuable to my company so I took several classes and have been designing systems for about 18 years now. They can be very complex. Huge University projects, big churches, softball and baseball complexes and high end homes are among our many projects. I am the main designer for our firm. Here's the link to our web site http://www.grimballcotterill.com. I am so fortunate to work with the best people. I really enjoy it. Thanks for asking.

 

[jecskc]

Let's get this thing started shall we ?? So we bought into DVC this past June and we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it already !! This is our third time staying DVC (we rented points in June before we bought in) and we absolutely adore it. I have lots of photos to share and there will be food porn !!

Here was our plan:

Nov. 22 - pick up the kids early from school and head south. Arrive at Boardwalk in the evening.

Nov. 23 - Breakfast at the villa, Make AK rope drop at 7:00 AM (yes, that says 7:00 AM). Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ. Dinner at Captain's Grille at the Yacht Club.

Nov. 24 (Thanksgiving) - Breakfast at Whispering Canyon, Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Garden Grille in Epcot.

Nov. 25 - Breakfast at the villa. Make rope drop at Epcot. Lunch at Via Napoli. Quick service dinner.

Nov. 26 - Breakfast at the villa. Make rope drop at HS (8:00 AM), lunch at the park, dinner at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club.

Nov. 27 - Breakfast at Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom, lunch at the park. Head home.

 

[jecskc]

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Day One - Part 1

We got the kids picked up and left the house about 1:15 PM.

DH was good to go !!

DS was ready !!

DD was picture shy for some odd reason.

That's a little better

Because of the holiday, there was a good bit of traffic and some storms once we got to Florida, so driving was stressful for DH. We made pretty good time on the road until we got to Jacksonville and then we hit really bad traffic and drove about 20 MPH for about an hour. So, a trip that usually takes us about 6.5 to 7 hours took us about 8 hours.

Another thing to note, there were a TON of slow people in the fast lane that WOULD NOT move over. We found this to be especially bad in Florida. So we had to do A LOT of passing on the right. Very frustrating. Near the end, the kids were fighting and we were all hungry and grouchy. We finally arrived at Boardwalk around 8:45 PM.

We checked in and got bell services to deliver our luggage. Turns out this is free - YAY !! We tipped well, though !!

Anyway, here was our room number.

Some photos of the villa before we made a huge mess.

Foyer

Kitchen

Living room

Cute Lamp

Artwork

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Closet

Washer and Dryer.

 

[jecskc]

Day 1 - Part 2

Here are some lobby photos I took when we checked in. We loved all of the Christmas decorations.

Light fixture in the hallway

Hidden Mickey in the carpet of our villa.

One more thing to say about our villa. Our location was VERY ideal. We were about 100 yards from the actual Boardwalk. We just walked out our door, went down the hallway a short distance,

took a few turns

and then we were right in the middle of the action.

And out back, we were within spitting (no I didn't spit) distance of the Luna Park Pool and Leaping Horse Libations. Here's some photos from our veranda. We were on the first floor.

looking left

Forward

And right

After dumping our stuff and checking out the room, the kids were hungry and even though it was late (about 9:00 PM), we headed out to see what was available.

 

[jecskc]

Day 1 - Part 3

So we scoped out our food options and the kids spied hot dogs so we took a look at the menu.

I got a hot dog basket

DD got mozzarella sticks

DS got some nachos

And DH got a foot long hot dog which he loaded up with toppings.

We also got a diet coke and a Powerade to drink. All of this cost about $26. We did get the dining plan, but I don't think this stand took it as CS.

It was a really pretty night and we grabbed a table and enjoyed our food. It was really good. DS still talks about the nachos. They weren't anything special, but it isn't anything that I buy at home. so he really enjoyed them.

Some Boardwalk photos

We decided to get some pastries at the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast the following morning since RD at AK was at 7:00 AM

Then we went over to the gift shop which was called the Screen Door. It was really big and had just about everything.

The kids had each gotten a $50 gift card to spend and they just HAD to go see if there was anything they could buy. DS found this pin for me.

It is from the movie Up. I saw this on our last trip and experienced souvenir regret, so I HAD to buy it. The kids conned DH into buying them candy. DS got a Mickey Mouse Pez and DD got a Twix. They had a lot of Christmas merchandise out and we enjoyed looking at it. I didn't want to buy too much too early, so we just browsed. It was about 10:30 or 11:00 PM by this time and we needed to get some sleep because we had to get up EARLY the next morning for 7:00 AM rope drop at AK.

We went back to the villa and I got a shower and we unpacked everything and then went to sleep.

Up next - Animal Kingdom day !!

 

[Pixie Princess]

I am soooo jealous of your Ellie badge pin! I meant to get one this last trip, and completely forgot about it. I realized it while I was sitting on the turnpike. I hope your trip home went better than the trip down. I wish I could say mine did, but no. It took me 9.5 hours to get home. NINE and a HALF HOURS!!!! We got home at 1:00 a.m. We were stuck in hellacious traffic on the turnpike. I was very close to turning the car back around and spending the night in Orlando.

Boardwalk looks lovely! I definitely want to stay there one day.

 

[jecskc]

I am soooo jealous of your Ellie badge pin! I meant to get one this last trip, and completely forgot about it. I realized it while I was sitting on the turnpike. I hope your trip home went better than the trip down. I wish I could say mine did, but no. It took me 9.5 hours to get home. NINE and a HALF HOURS!!!! We got home at 1:00 a.m. We were stuck in hellacious traffic on the turnpike. I was very close to turning the car back around and spending the night in Orlando.

Boardwalk looks lovely! I definitely want to stay there one day.

Yes. Love the Ellie pin. I so should have bought you one. So sorry I didn't think of it. We are amassing quite a pin collection. And now with the kids into the Vinylmation. I wasn't into them at first, but they are really growing on me. Oh, and my prediction was right. The dog got a hold of one before we had been home for 48 hours. We got it away from her before she did too much damage though. She's a bad dog.

We made excellent time going home. Got there in 7 hours. Much better than the trip down. 9 and half ... whoa ..... that is brutal. What time did you leave ??

 

[IheartDDuck]

Joining.

I love the Boardwalk. Definitely one of my favorite locations.

 

[jecskc]

Joining.

I love the Boardwalk. Definitely one of my favorite locations.

YAY!!! We loved it too. We felt like we were right in the middle of the action. Can't wait to stay there again !!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Joining in!!! I never knew the Boardwalk had such adorable lamps!!! I love the Screen Door, it's such a cute store to walk around. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[jecskc]

Joining in!!! I never knew the Boardwalk had such adorable lamps!!! I love the Screen Door, it's such a cute store to walk around. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Hey Sara !!! Thanks for stopping by. Glad to have you aboard for this TR as well !!

 

[jecskc]

Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - Day 2 – Part 1

So we wake up EARLY – about 6:00 AM – we can get up and get breakfast and get to rope drop at Animal Kingdom by 7:00 AM. There was much complaining and whining about how early it was and it was rough going getting everyone up. We had our treats from Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast. DH and I each had a Blueberry muffin.

I had wanted a chocolate croissant, but they were out when we bought them the night before. DS had a cinnamon bun

And DD just had some Special K. All of it was good and still fresh even though we bought them the day before. And we used snack credits for them. We made coffee in our kitchen.

We piled into the car and took off for Animal Kingdom. We pulled into the parking lot right at 7:00 AM and parked right up front. Not a lot of people were there and either they didn’t have a rope drop show or we just missed it. I took some photos of the Christmas tree while DH cruised through bag check.

We enter the park and hoof it over to the Safari to grab some FP’s.
Because it was so early, the lights were still on in some of the more shady places.

I was snapping lots of photos on the way. I just love animal kingdom and the themeing so I wanted to get a bunch of photos with no people in it.

So we get back to the safari and we encounter this LONG line of people stretching all of the way back to Tusker House.

It turns out that they don’t open the safari until 7:30 AM. Which I thought was strange because the park opened at 7:00 AM. Maybe it had something to do with the animals or something. Anywho, we grabbed some fast passes. Our return time was 8:25 AM. So we then hiked over to Asia to ride Expedition Everest.

 

[donnaf516]

I want to stay at the Boardwalk soooo bad! Hope you were able to schedule in some resort time. Looking forward to reading your report

 

[jecskc]

I want to stay at the Boardwalk soooo bad! Hope you were able to schedule in some resort time. Looking forward to reading your report

We were really excited to stay at the Boardwalk and it fulfilled our expectations. We definitely spent some time there and have lots of photos to share. Thanks for stopping by !!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

The lanterns in the shadier areas are so pretty! That stinks about Boardwalk Bakery being out of the chocolate croissants, those are my favorite treat from there! Hopefully you got another chance to get one!

 

[jecskc]

The lanterns in the shadier areas are so pretty! That stinks about Boardwalk Bakery being out of the chocolate croissants, those are my favorite treat from there! Hopefully you got another chance to get one!

They were pretty and AK had a lot of Christmas decor which was fun to see. You know I didn't give up on my chocolate croissant. After trying one at Pop during our last trip, I was hooked. Such a nice accompaniment to my gallon of coffee in the morning. The blueberry muffin was very good though.

 

[jecskc]

Day 2 – Part 2
I left off when we were headed over to Asia to ride EE. Here are some photos I took on the way.

You see how empty the park was ??? Rope drop. Be there. I know it is early and it is hard to get up, but the amount of things you get done is amazing.

More photos.

So when we got to EE it was walk on so we rode it right away.
DH and DD won’t ride it so they took some photos while DS and I rode.

After our awesome ride on EE – I just love it – we made our way over to Dinoland.

 

[jecskc]

Day 2 – Part 3

On our way to Dinoland, I snap some more photos.

We practically had Dinoland all to ourselves. It was awesome.

DS and I decide to ride Primeval Whirl

While DH and DD ride Triceratop Spin.

See how empty it is ??? This is the day before Thanksgiving. One of the busiest times of year.
While DS and I were riding Primeval Whirl, we noticed it was different. The ride had really been slowed down. It used to be really fast and bumpy, but when we rode it, it was noticeably slower and definitely not so bumpy.

We then went over to the Boneyard – and besides a couple of other people, we had it all to ourselves. The kids really enjoyed playing here without the crowd.

DS wanted to take a photos of us.

Annnddd …..I look huge. I’ve been on a weight loss program and have lost over 17 pounds, but obviously, I still have a long way to go. My DH says I am not really this big that it just the angle of the camera. But still, it is discouraging. An endless struggle for me. My clothes did fit better this trip and I had more endurance. So that is a plus. So I will continue and see if I can shave off 17 more pounds. Obviously, I took a break during our Disney trip, but since I‘ve been back, it was right back on the diet. It sucks and it is hard, but I am getting results, so that is good.

Up next – Dinosaur !!