Trip Report: 06/06 - 06/13, Staying at the Boardwalk

[DH-2-mamaduck]

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Disney World Vacation Trip Report June 6 - 13

Day 1: Saturday, June 6, 2009:
It's 7am, we are all up and ready to go. Brother + wife and Kids drove to our house Friday night and stayed. All 10 of us will drive down to the airport.

8am, time to go drop off Nilla Bullboxer, my dog, at the neighbor's house. She is the white/fawn one in the middle. We'll miss her

My son and I on the plane.

...and he fell asleep.

Yay! We landed in Orlando! On the Tram to the Magical Express

On the Magical Express:

Woo Hoo - We arrived at the Boardwalk!

Trip to WDW went well, all 10 of us survived, kids were all good, as expected. A person from the Bell desk brought us up to the Inkeepers Club. My brother and I sat with Pete to check in, while someone else took DW's and the kidlets down to the Lounge to relax. Check-in was nice sitting on a chair at a desk vs. standing in line.

Hallway to our rooms:

Our Room:

Coffee Machine, few drawers, and Mini-Fridge in the bottom cabinet:

View from our balcony:

Oh look! A rainbow!

We relaxed in our rooms for a little bit then went down to the boardwalk for supper. We ate at Big River Grill & Brew Works and watched the Fireworks over Epcot. I ordered the Beer sampler, was ok beer.

 

[mickeystoontown]

What an adorable group you guys are! I'm looking forward to reading all aboutyour trip!

 

[3lilpiggies]

Can't wait to read more. You kids are adorable.

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 2: Sunday, June 7, 2009

Today's agenda is to go to Epcot for Lunch and make our way to Magic Kingdom. I didn't sleep well the first night, but that is ok, I was ready to go this morning. The kids were still sleeping.

Alex on the day bed / couch:

Saige on the other Queen bed:

Kalyn - yeah, that is her, the blob of blankets on the floor, where she slept all week, between the two queen beds:

Once the kids were up, we searched for hidden Mickey's in our room and on the way to the lounge:

Back of the chair:

Desk legs:

Desk lamp:

Light scones above beds:

Mirror:

Light fixtures above sinks (they need to be cleaned):

Painting in room:

Even the shower curtain!

In the hallway, they were in the carpet as well:

We made it down to the Innkeepers Lounge for breakfast for the first time. I emailed Boardwalk IPO in advance, and they have chocolate and vanilla Silk soy milk boxes ready each morning for two of my kids. The

Breakfast every morning included:

• Cold cereal (Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran, and Frosted Flakes)
• Fresh fruit (sliced strawberries, sliced pineapple, grapes, sliced cantaloupe, grapefruit, bananas, and apples)
• Yogurt
• 4-5 different Pastries and Plain & Cinnamon raisin bagels
• Milk, Orange juice, V8, Coffee, Espresso machine

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 2: Sunday, June 7, 2009 (cont.).

It's ~8:30am, we wander outside and first thing the kids want to see is the pool of course.

Boardwalk Inn Luna Pool:

Me and my fam in front of the Boardwalk Luna Pool:

We take the ferry from the Boardwalk dock over to Epcot. Nice from the Boardwalk that we can take Ferry to DHS and Epcot, or take the walking path. Both parks only a few minutes away. Coming in to Epcot by England in the World Show Case is nice, virtually no line to wait at to get in the park.

We start with Honey I Shrunk the Audience - not that fun, and work our way round the park, getting FP's for Test Track and Soarin.

We did the Extreme version of Mission Space and the kids loved it. Take off was the best along with the sling-shot around the moon. I tell you what though, I am not one to get queasy on rides easily...but boy I'm glad the X2 didn't go over the cliff when we landed...

By now, we were plenty warm and ready for lunch. We decided to head to the Coral Reef cafe early to cool down and have better chances at seating for the 12 of us.

Coral Reef was nice. The 4 girls sat down at their own table right up against the tank, the rest of us w/ the two boys sat accross looking over at the tank.

I had the Grilled Mahi Mahi and was very good:
Grilled Mahi Mahi - served with spiced pineapple chutney over cashew-jasmine rice finished with coconut rum beurre blanc

DW had the Chicken (a bit salty, but good):
Seared Chicken Breast -served over spaetzle finished with applewood smoked bacon-chicken broth

For desert:
I had the Tropical Fruit Mango Sorbet - finished with a sea horse tuile and it was great!

DW had the Butterscotch Creme Brulee - with seasonal berries and was very light, so just ok.

Around 5pm we were on our way back to the Boardwalk. We made our way to the lounge for cheese, crackers, pita, hummus, appetizers, wine, beer... and of course, the kids want to go swimming. After a hour in the pool, we get ready to leave for Magic Kingdom around 7pm. We ate QS at Cosmic Ray's and made it on a few rides, skipping the fireworks. MK was very busy that evening. We got the kids to bed around 11:30pm - they had a long 16 hour day and it is much hotter and humid than we are use to.

Monday's adventure is scheduled for Animal Kingdom...

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

Your family is adorable! Your TR is great so far, I can't wait to read about AK!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks for the fabulous pictures and the updates. I am looking forward to reading more.

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 3: Monday, June 8, 2009

It's Monday morning, we slept in a little. It is 10:30 and on our way to Animal Kingdom. It is late and we made this mistake last time going to AK - got there after the park opened, but at least tonight, there is EMH from 7pm to 10pm. We arrive at the park - it is busy, and HOT and humid outside.

We wander our way back hoping to get on the Kilimanjaro Safari. The wait was long, so we grabbed a FP for it and hopped on the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

We hung out in the Conservation station cooling off and watched one of the staff members talk about snakes as pets and about the couple who had a snake and didn't do the research and is not at AK because they let it go because it was too big. I think it was 14 ft now and will get to 24 ft long.

They had a Ball Python for the kids to go pet.

It was now time for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe for our 1pm ADR. We ate a light lunch and Rainforest is always good. I had the Rumble in the Jungle Turkey Wrap, which was just ok. DW had the Bamba's Barbecue Wrap which was awesome (I at the other half for her .

Lunch was over, it was hot outside, the park was packed. We made our way to use the FP's on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is like a mini version of the Wild Animal Park out in CA. The kids enjoyed the ride and seeing the animals.

After the ride, we made our way to It's Tough to be a Bug. Always fun spotting the animals in the tree while waiting in line. I'd have to say this is one of my favorite attractions at the WDW. Way better than the other 3D/4D movies.

By this time, all the FP's for Dinosaur and Expedition Everest were gone, we were very hot and crabby and I'm thinking "What a horrible day, we have not done anything yet..." We split up and DW + our 3 kids left for the nice 10 minute bus ride to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our ADR at Jiko, one of Disney's Signature Restaurants.

Wow, AKL is very nice place! I heard the rooms are smaller than BWI though. We checked in for dinner early as the restaurant was dead - hardly anyone there.

Jiko's

It was suggested that I try the Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - with Macaroni & Cheese and Red Wine Sauce. To be honest, I didn't see anything fancy about the steak. It was good, but wouldn't say great. I tried the African beer, Tusker. It tastes just like all the other Lagers I have tried at WDW. DW had the Maize-crusted Pacific Halibut - with Vegetables of the Moment and Tomato-Butter Sauce, and it was awesome. The kids loved the sauce. Alex kept dipping his food in it.

Desert was Pistachio Creme Brulee and I can't recall the other. The kids had the Fondue, which they enjoyed.

Kids Fondue

After dinner, we took our 10 minute bus ride back to AK. We were feeling better now. Fed, cooled down, and ready to ride Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. We ran in to the rest of the family as we were entering, they were leaving. It had cooled down a bit and the line for Dinosaur was good. It was 25 mins by the time we got in line til we got off.

We made our way to Expedition Everest, and 30 minute wait. This ride is 100x better in the Dark than daytime!

We are now exhausted, still hot, but not as bad. We skip'd Kali River Rapids and THANK YOU popcorn vendor still being open so Alex could get a box! We head to the bus to wait in line for a while. It took some time to get back to the Boardwalk tonight.

We made it back to the room and find the blankets turned down, some salt water taffy, the kids stuffed animals arranged on the bed, and a little note. The hot crabby morning/early afternoon turned nice after dinner and we all went to bed satisfied. Good night.

Tomorrows Adventure: Magic Kingdom

 

[kindra657]

awesome trip report!! what an adorable family!!

 

[gibsi53]

This is a GREAT Trip Report!
Thank you for taking the time to share with us!

Also- one question... when does the lounge open for breakfast/ snacks and hors devors and cocktails?

Never stayed at CL but am SO excited to this December.

Have a great rest of trip!

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 4: Tuesday, June 9, 2009

7:00am, we are up and getting ready to go to Magic Kingdom. Wasn't sure if we were giong to make it up to take advantage of the 8am - 9am EMH after yesterday's adventure.

We make it to MK just before 8am and get through the gates. Wow! There are a lot of people here already. We make our way back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We grab our FP for Splash and get in line for Thunder Mountain for the 20 minute wait.

We then made our way to Haunted Mansion as Frontier Land was not open yet. After haunted Mansion, we head to Frontier Land, being sure to get spit on by the Camel in from of Magic Carpets. We get on Pirates of the Caribbean with ~10 minute wait (would of been 5, but slight problem).

We make our way to Peter Pan's Flight, grab our FP, then jump on It's a Small World. When we get off, we can get our next FP, so we grab one for Winnie the Pooh and BONUS! - it prints one for Mickey's PhilharMagic (though there usually isn't a line for that anyways). We jump on Peter Pan's Flight just before 10am.

By 1:30pm, we made it on Winnie the Pooh, watched PhilharMagic, and ate QS at Cosmic Rays, and grabbed FPs for Buzz Lightyear. Woo Hoo! All that done by 12:30, sailing past the 60 - 90 min waits. So what's next? How about we use our Splash Mountain FP. All 12, that's right, all 12 of us went in the boat.

Boy did we get wet. I never got this wet before on this ride. My wife, front row, was drenched. I was in row 3 and got pretty wet. So now we are soaking wet and it is not too comfy to walk in, so we hop on the Train around to Main Street, then hop on the bus and head back to the Boardwalk to relax and get the kids to take a nap and relax.

6pm, back at MK

We hop on the Train taking it around the park to Toontown. Nephew Austin wanted to go see Mickey Mouse, so we wander through his house, and garden, and wait. (1, 2, and 4 Left-Right are mine, others are my Bro's)

We make it in the Judges Tent and wait some more, and some more....Eventually all 10 of us get in to see Mickey & Minnie! Why we waited, not sure, since we are going to Chef Mickey’s tonight.

We wander around some more, making our way on to Buzz Lightyear. Bummed I only scored 180,900...missing the money shots

We hopped on the Tram, the little mans were able to ride with Uncle Greg in the front on the way to the Contemporary for our 9pm ADR at Chef Mickey’s.

I'm not sure if it was because of the late Dinner...but the food was HORRIABLE! Well, let me take that back. The Tomato Bisque soup, Mickey Ravioli, and Blueberry Cheesecake Tart were good. Everything else was lousy. We have ate at Hollywood & Vine and Crystal Palace buffets and the food was good, so maybe late night problem? Not sure, cause the Salmon, Prime Rib, and Turkey were even horrible and they just brought it out. Besides the food, we enjoyed the characters.

DW & I

My Bro's

My 3 kidlets

When getting ready to head back to the Boardwalk, 3 of us asked 3 different people and all received the same answer (and yes, told them I needed to make it back to Boardwalk): take the Monorail to the TTC and grab your bus there. So we did, and guess what! You CAN NOT get on any Disney Bus to a resort! Grrrr....that didn't make us very happy. We jumped back on the Monorail to MK and grabbed a Disney Bus to our Resort. I did learn you can go to the TTC and walk to the Polynesian.

We made it back to the Boardwalk, tucked the kids in, and went to bed. It was another good day!

Tomorrows Adventure: Disney Hollywood Studios.

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 5: Wednesday, June 10, 2009

8am, bye by Boardwalk, on our way to DHS via the Ferry. Snapped some shots leaving, and over at the Beach Club, Yacht Club, Dolphin, and Swan.

We arrive at DHS and run back to grab FPs for Toy Story Midway Mania and head over to Rock'n Rollercoaster. The two boys didn't make the height requirements, so they went to go ride on Tower of Terror. We did grab FP's for it to do later.

We made our way over to Star Tours which was pretty boring simulator. We snapped a few photos of the kids on the Speeder and made our way to Indiana Jones which was good. Not near as good as Lights, Motor, Action - that is an awesome show.

The 12 of us split up, we go grab some ice cream and relax under the Hat.

Time to go meet up to use our FP's for Toy Story. This is a GREAT Ride! Much better than Buzz Lightyear, though I like that one a lot too. We went to see what Narnia was about - what a waste of time that was. We wandered back to Muppet Vision - it was ok.

Oh, guess what? I forgot to mention that we were able to get ADR's for Sci-Fi Dine-In! I checked the day before with the Concierge and booked a 2:30pm reservations. I was trying and trying to get in and thankfully someone canceled. Onion Rings and Shakes were good. Sandwich and desert were not bad either.

After lunch, we were pretty hot and tired, so we decided to head back to the boardwalk to relax. I took the kids swimming for an hour then back up to the room and relaxed in the lounge.

The girls wanted to get their hair done on the Boardwalk. We ended up just haning out on the Boardwalk for the entire evening. Saw 4 different street performers and rented a Surrey bike to ride around the resort. They wouldn't let the kids pedal, so DW and I did the work - and there was some work going up two hills. We made two loops around the resorts, catching the fireworks over Epcot over by the Yacht Club.

We never did make it back to DHS for the EMH. Rest of the fam did spend evening at DHS and got back around 10pm and met on the Boardwalk. They said it was so busy there, and trying to catch the ferry, the line was so long, they decided to just walk back. So we grabbed some ice cream, played in the arcade, then turned in for the night.

Tomorrow’s adventure: Epcot (Kim Possible Mission).

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 6: Thursday, June 11, 2009

Good morning WDW, its ~8:00am, kids are waking up. No hurry to get going this morning. Today's agenda: Kim Possible mission at Epcot as the kids wanted to do. We eat breakfast in the Lounge and on the way out, my DD snaps a photo of the flower arrangement on the 3rd floor that you could see from the balcony above outside the Inkeepers lounge.

Photo at the stairs down to the boardwalk, just off the elevators and by the Belvue lounge.

We hop'd on ferry to Epcot. We stopped at the KP stand in England right were we come in at to sign up. They printed a ticket and were told to check in at the KP booth in Norway at 11am. We decided to run over to Test Track and grab FP's, then went to do Turtle Talk with Crush. That was a lot of fun. The kids all sat down in front on the floor and parents sat behind on the benches. "Yeah Dudes!"

It was not time for our FP mission. We made our way to Norway, and of course, have to go through Mexico on the way. And you can't go through Mexico w/o grabbing a Margaritas, can you?

We get our Kimunicator and start the mission, but with a slight detour to take the boat ride through Norway. We start the mission back up, but quickly are starting to overheat and the kids are getting hungry. We make our way next door to Japan for QS lunch. After lunch, we make our way back to Norway to complete the Mission. DW's and the two youngest head back to the Boardwalk as we are very hot. We complete the KP mission and run over to grab more FP's to Test Track and make our way to the Ferry, grabbing a pint of Bass ale in England on the way.

After we had a chance to cool down at the Boardwalk, DW and our 3 kidlets head to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping. We are enjoying playing with the mirror in Goofy's candy shop.

After an hour of shopping, we grab the bus back to the Boardwalk to get ready for our ADR's at Akershus.

We run in to my brother and his fam on our way up to our room. We quickly get ready to go, but miss the Ferry (they made it) to Epcot. So we hang out on the dock waiting for the next one.

We make our way to Norway, 5 mins late, and I check the 12 of us in. (6:50pm ADR) 5 more minute wait and we are brought in for our picture with Belle.

What is nice about Akershus is there is a Menu and NOT a Buffet! They do have a Salad/Meat bar that you start out with. Various cheeses, meats, salads.... As we eat, the princesses make their way over. Snow White did such a great job keeping in character as we poll her with questions.

DS didn't want his pictures with the princesses, so I had Snow White sneak behind him. Isn't this a great pic!

An of course, a toast in Norway with a Carlsberg. Skål! Notice in the pic, my brother and I almost have matching shirts. Funny thing is we also had on the exact same kind of shorts, and our shoes were also similar. Pretty odd...

After dinner, we check the wind direction for Illuminations fireworks and make our way out of World Showcase looking over the lagoon.

The show was good and we made our way to use our FP's on Test Track. After the first round, we decided not to use the extra FP's and several lucky people got to use them for us. We went to the Ferry and it was not there so walked back to the Boardwalk where we hung out for a while. Had to get ice cream of course!

Goodnight all. Tomorrows Adventure: What ever we want in the morning, then MK that night.

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 7: Friday, June 12, 2009

It's Friday and tomorrow we have to go home. So what haven't we done yet that we do want to do? We decided to cancel the character ADR, Pooh @ Crystal Place. We did it last time, and everyone was turned off really bad by Chef Mickey’s. While eating breakfast in the lounge, I check what other restaurants are available that are not in the parks, but at the resorts. I make an ADR for 12 at Kona's in the Polynesian resort.

I have been lobbying everyone for the past day that we should make it over to AK to go see Finding Nemo the Musical. So today, we will catch the 4:45pm show. This morning, we are going to MK to wander around.

Weather is nicer today. Temp was down a bit, but the humidity & dew point were down, so much nicer. The deal I made w/ Friends back in MN must of worked (I send them Sun, they send me cold). We arrive at MK and make our way back to Toon Town, stopping buy Buzz on the way and line was 45 mins for the Astro Orbiter (sorry Alex). Told DS that maybe later it will be shorter. We get in line for Goofy's Barnstormer. Snap a few photos in the boat next to it, and go to Minnies house and do some shopping. Kids were getting gifts for the neighbor kids.

After shopping a bit, we make our way back to the front gate and take the Monorail to the Polynesian for lunch at Kona's. While waiting for the others to arrive, we wander around - The Polynesian is nice looking place.

Kona's was really good. Lunch was great - no complaints from anyone. I had the Miso Mahi-Mahi and DW had the Chicken Sandwich (it was HUGE). Desert was great as well. Kids got these gigantic cones.

And the Hawaiian beer...tastes just like all the other Lagers I have been trying here. Must all use the same recipe, just a different label?

After the lunch, we grab the bus from the Poly and head over to AK for the 4:45pm Finding Nemo the Musical. We enjoyed the 45 minutes show. (Yes, I turned the Flash off...sorry for not that good pics. Some pics in my report are cell phone pics as well).

After the show, we went back to the Boardwalk to relax. The bus from AK goes to the Boardwalk last (Swan > Dolphin > Yacht > Beach > then Boardwalk), so we just hop off at the Swan, walk over to the boardwalk, and save ~20 minutes.

Again, DD's bed had a little card, salt water taffy, and her stuffies all set up.

Later, we will be going back to MK for the Parade and Fireworks....

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Day 7: Friday, June 12, 2009 (cont.)

It's 8pm, we're back at Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks. Main Street is already packed. We make our way back towards the castle and park ourselves along the fence around the circle, over by the path to Tomorrowland. It never fails, just as the parade is to start, someone has to go to the bathroom, even though we asked all and went before hand. We catch the parade and wait for the fireworks. By now everyone is hungry, so my oldest bro and I run to Pinocchio’s Village Haus and grab 6 QS's worth of pizza, water, and brownies.

After the Fireworks, we hit up Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and of course, before the night was over, had to go on Buzz Lightyear again.

What a way to end our last night at WDW. No the sad part, tomorrow adventure, we go home

 

[DH-2-mamaduck]

Video: Wishes Nighttime Spectacular


Video: Come ride Goofy's Barnstormer