WDW Boardwalk, Disney Dream Cruise, Animal Kingdom Villas an aliens report & photos

[MrsJobba1]

Sunday 14th August

Shopping & Lobster

Ok Can I start off by saying I’m sorry I did not do an instalment yesterday. School started and it’s been manic!

OK where was I …

I feel I first of all need to start with a confession – I love shopping ok I especially love shoes and well when it’s a bargain what more can I say!

For the past two years, since my last visit I have been signed up to the Premium outlets mall vip club – this means I get an email through when offers occur and it also entitles me (when I print the voucher) to an additional voucher book that you pick up from the guest services (normally a $5 charge fro this).

Well you can imagine my delight when two weeks before we go , an email comes through saying that between the 12th -14th Aug it was the back to school weekend and that clothes and shoes were TAX FREE – Yep more savings. Normally we do a shopping day at the end of our trip – the lets see what money we’ve got left and blow it day – However I could not let the tax free shopping go a miss (well it would be rude to say no)!

So Sunday we got up and sat and worked out what money we had that we could shop with- over the bagels we had gotten from the bakery with our snack credits. Then around 9.40am we set off to SHOP!!!

We got a taxi from boardwalk and it cost us $20 with tip. Straight away I headed to the Guest services where I promptly handed over my voucher and received my coupon discount book. First start was the character warehouse – which is the Disney outlet. I told DH I’d meet him at star bucks in 30 mins as I knew this shop was going to need my full concentration. (Hope none of my friends are reading this as quite a lot of my gifts I bought them came from here).

First off I picked up a lovely brown tapestry with Mickey heads on it – Park price $65 the price I paid $15!! (It looks fab on my mam’s brown sofa), My Dad got a lovely embroidered WDW Polo shirt (was $55) I paid $20 – Well I wont list all my bargains – but needless to say I had 3 huge bags 30 mins later sitting beside me at star bucks while I tried not to get brain freeze from the mango slushy I got.

Next item on the agenda was shoes – or in particular trainers. DH and I visited the Reebok outlet next. They had a buy 1 get 1 half price offer on all trainers – well it would be rude not too. DH got 3 pairs of his running trainers and I got 1 – along with a couple of T-shirts and 24 pairs of socks! Also as well as the shop discounts (B1 G1 half price), there were no tax on them and I also got another $10 off from the voucher booklet.

Then came the shop I love – Sketchers – can you believe I got 2 pairs of sketchers California’s for under $20 (all sandals were 70% off) and all shoes had the buy 1 get 1 half price – I must say we struggled a little with carrying the 4 more pairs of trainers we bought here too!!!

We also went into other shops but I don’t want to reveal exactly what was bought in case the customs man is reading this! Around 2pm we couldn’t carrying anymore so we went and got a taxi back to the boardwalk. After dumping our purchases we grabbed a sandwich from the bakery and headed to the pool to cool off.

After the pool we headed back to the room and chilled for a bit, before getting ready and leaving for our first signature dining experience. We had a7.45 ADR for Narcossees. We took a cab to the Grand Floridian and loved the elegance of the resort – this was our first time here. We were greeted when we pulled up and given directions to the restaurant – we enjoyed the scenic walk.

We arrived at the restaurant at 7.30 and checked in at the booth. Ten minutes later we were shown to our table. We were lucky and had a window seat – it had a great view over the water. Our server was Chevy (yes as in chase) and he was great – one of the best servers I’ve had at wdw. He had a great balance of knowing when to come over and not too much as to stalk you. He was also a good laugh! I loved my meal there – I had a starter of scallops, flowered by the whole lobster then to finish I had chocolate – with a couple of mojtos I was in food heaven! DH had the lobster spring rolls, surf and turf and a strawberry desert – he too thought it was well worth it. Judge for your self as here are some pics of the meal.

DH cocktail had the flashing ice cubes in it!

We finished our meal – which was amazing around 9.25 and we walked out along the bay – the electric night water display started and it finished our meal off perfectly – Around 10pm we took a cab back and settled down in front of the TV and watched the most un-Disney DVD ever. Being DVC members you can get free DVD rentals and before we left DH had chosen a film. Well we settled down and watched ‘TRAINSPOTTING’!!!

A great film. A great day!

 

[DISWolves]

What a great day! Glad you got some bargains
We also made full use of the tax free weekend, going to both Premium Outlets and Florida Mall.
Narcoossee's is a great place in a beautiful setting. What a lovely place the Grand Floridian is.
We were dining there just after you on 17th August.
For those of us on the DDP, this has to be one of the best 2 credit meals.
Together with GF cafe - it was our best meal by far.

 

[Chilly]

Excellent shopping day!

 

[crabbie1]

Just caught up.Great TR.

 

[Linda67]

I'm really enjoying your TR

We are staying at BWV for the first time next month so it's great seeing the pictures and hearing more about it

Do you mind me asking a quick question about the refillable mugs? where can you re-fill?

I know that BWV doesn't have a counter service place so wasn't sure where you purchase the mugs or top them up

 

[Tink2312]

Loving the TR
Particularly looking forward to your take on the Dream and AKV as we're doing both in the next year.
Linda67- you can fill your mugs at the BW bakery (to the right when you come out of the back entrance of the BW lobby) - not sure if there's anywhere else to fill up.

 

[MrsJobba1]

I'm really enjoying your TR

We are staying at BWV for the first time next month so it's great seeing the pictures and hearing more about it

Do you mind me asking a quick question about the refillable mugs? where can you re-fill?

I know that BWV doesn't have a counter service place so wasn't sure where you purchase the mugs or top them up

Hi,

Yes you can get get refills at boardwalk bakery and also the carousel pool bar.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Monday 15th August

After a late night we finally managed to have a lie in and did not rise until 9am. I went along to the bakery and grabbed a couple of bagels and refills of coffee and had our breakfast. We decided to head down to Downtown and have a look around.

To be honest it was quite sad, my favourite shop was gone, Pooh corner and there was no comedy club or adventurers club. We still had a great time but there was something missing. I was really disappointed when Disney decided to close Pleasure Island. Having no children it was great to have an adult night out. Some of our happiest 'Disney experiences' were over a kongalush!

As we had used 2 table service credits at Narcossees all we had left were 'cs' credits. It was not a problem however as one of the best CS places is at downtown. Around 1pm we headed to Wolfgang Puck Express. We ordered the half rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes. It was so good.but again it could of done with some veggies. I had a chocolate brownie as my dessert.

After Lunch, we went back to the boardwalk and hung out by the pool. I was desperate to finish my book as I was beginning to fret about how we were going to pack everything into our cases - including all the bargains that we bought. Now this summer I noticed a change round the pools. There was a timetable and lots of entertainment e.g. 2pm trivia comp, pool party etc. It was mainly for children but a few adults were joining in too.

It started to rain but luckily I'd finished my book. It was nearly 5 so I went back to the room and started the job I'd been dreading all day - PACKING .
Now this year it was made a little harder a dh had insisted on packing his own case and I was told to go no where near it. It was my birthday when we were on the Dream and he had packed a present in his luggage. I was very excited as this was quite a romantic jester.

It took just over two hours but eventually we were all packed up. Whilst I was sorting Dh had walked round to the beachclub and got me a flatbread pizza and he got a salad for himself using our cs credits we had left. We sat ate our meal and double checked all our paper work for the cruise. I was very excited

Since we missed not being able go to PI we decided to try a different night out. Well we've been DVC owners at Boardwalk since 1999 but we'd never been to JellyRolls. As everything was packed and ready to go we decided to let our hair down and have a night out!. So round 8.30 we walked down to the club.

It cost $10 per person to gain entry . We walked in and there was only about 10 people sitting in the club. Dh is a shy person was a bit nervous and felt a bit uncomfortable by the lack of people. He was worried he would be 'targeted'. Well as soon as we sat down the guys at the piano shouted over 'hiya, and where do you come from?' Dh froze but I happily chatted back . Anyway when the guys started playing they were great. Around 9pm more people arrived and as the drinks were flowing we both relaxed and really enjoyed pianos . There were four guys who worked in pairs and they swapped over every hour. All were great and we laughed so hard .

We rolled out of Jellyrolls around 11.30pm and crashed excited for the next day as we were heading to the DREAM

 

[wickesy]

Another great day Helen. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of staying at BWV and going to Jellyrolls this trip - I don't think I've ever read a bad review of it. Dad and I are quite shy as well but I'm sure we'll be OK.

 

[jockey]

really enjoying your reports looking forward to more

 

[MrsJobba1]

Tuesday 16th Aug!! The Dream.

The day had finally arrived after 2 years of waiting – today we were boarding the Dream and I was beyond excited!

OK so I was up bright and early despite not getting to bed till after midnight. I walked to the bakery and used up our remaining snack credits and the one cs on bagels and a cheese & ham croissant. On returning however it took a bit of time eating as I was bouncing round the room. Lol

We called bell services around 9am to help us get all of our bags to the front desk. It’s a good job there was not a weight limit like on an aeroplane! I tipped the guy $10 as I felt sorry for him as our cases were heavy (all the shoes). We were sitting in the lobby at 9.15 and our town car was due to pick us up at 9.45.

I waited with all the bags while DH wondered around (as usual) He exchanged some travellers chq’s and went for a coffee. I didn’t mind waiting as I was beyond eating or drinking anything else – I was just about managing to breath. Well 9.45am and no town car??? This was unusual as we have used Southern Elegance quite a few times and never been let down – well I was having palpitations on no my cleverly worked out schedule was failing at the first hurdle. I went to the bell service desk and asked if the CM would be able to call the tc company – He did and they apologised the driver had been waiting for us at AKV (where we were after the cruise) and had realised the error and was on the way. 9.55 A very flustered and apologetic driver arrived – she’d been at AKV since 9.20. We recognised her as we had ridden with her before and we chatted. In no time we were sat in the back of the car sipping the bottles of iced water she’d given us and dreaming of our arrival at the port.

Now IM not sure if you are aware of all the controversy over the port arrival times. Aug 2nd DCL changed the port opening times – noone was allowed to get there before hand. When you completed your online checkin you had to select an arrival time and then they asked you not to arrive until that time. Well I did our checkin at the 105 days out being a gold cc member and got the earliest port arrival time 10.30am-11am. Now since the change to the port opening some of the people on our dis cruise thread had had their 10.30 arrival time put back by DCL. Since I had printed all our documents already I played ignorance and never looked to see if our time had been altered.

We arrived dead on 11am and our town car waited 3 minutes or so to drop us off at the curb. The port was very busy, We left the car and a porter took care of our luggage. Next we joined the line to enter the port. Once we had told our cabin number and showed our passports we then had to line up to get through security. This took about ten minutes (it felt longer though). Once through security we head up the escalator to the terminal – which was packed.

THIS IS WHERE BEING AN ALIEN REALLY WORKS WELL!

There was one long line that you had to go to before you lined up to get to the counters to check in. Having cruised before I knew which counters were for non-Americans and they looked pretty empty. – It seemed silly to have to line up in a line when the counters I wanted were empty. So I approached a CM that was checking over peoples documents in the line. I explained that I needed to checkin at the NON-US counter which was empty – well she led DH and I past all the people in the line and round to the empty counter !!!! YIPEE.

It was around 11.35 at this point. At the counter we checked in and had our id photo’s taken. We were then given our boarding card number and it was NO.3 WOOHOO. It was at this time they announced 3 so as soon as we had finished we were able to walk through the ears.

( This is an old pic, and does not show just how many people were in the building)

To be continued …

(When I get back from dog training tonight)

 

[DISWolves]

I know what you mean about the excitement!
We arrived at the terminal 3 minutes too early and was told to drive around the block s-l-o-w-l-y.
I was OK being at the front of the convoy, but Wayne who was at the back, got a few blasts from a coach behind, who didn't know what was happening
Looking forward see your thoughts on the buffet

 

[MrsJobba1]

Tuesday 16th Aug – the Dream part 2!

Right now where was I …

As we walked through the ears my tummy was doing summersaults – I couldn’t believe I was nearly aboard. NOW DH and I don’t like having our photo taken that much so when we cam across the photographers wanting to do our embarkation photo we politely declined and went ahead of the people that were waiting. We reached the doorway and spoke to the CM on the mike (who was from the UK and thrilled to have a fellow Brit on board) Ladies and gentlemen may we welcome Helen and David from England!!!

OH MY GOD SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I stood for a moment and pinched myself – I was finally on the dream. Right my schedule was started. DH and I went straight round to Guest services and got two tickets for the ‘mixology class’ ($15 per person) I also handed over two pillowcases, in a packet with fabric coloured pens and a bag of sweets. This was so the characters would sign them – I had promised them to my friend’s two boys.

After that we headed for a wander around the ship and took the lift up to deck 12 where Palo and Remy were located – I used the bathroom that was between them and talk about fancy ! Around 12.30ish we headed back down to deck two as we were going to have lunch in the enchanted garden. The reason we chose there instead of cabanas was our room was actually on deck two and we figured after lunch we could go straight there and drop our carry on bags.

We walked in to the Enchanted Garden (which was very beautiful) and the first eight tables are booths – Laura (dis member from cruise thread) and I had linked our reservations so we would be sitting together – she had joked how she wanted to sit in one of the booths. Well would you believe it as we were passing them following the server there were Laura and Marco sitting in the first booth. They shouted us to go and join them which we did. It was very grand but there was not a lot of space for us and our carry on bags LOL.

The first thing we did was to compare our key to the world cards as it had our dining table number and rotation on – this was to check our reservations were still linked – they were. A server went to fetch us drinks whilst we went and cued for the buffet. The cue took about 5 minutes and I loved the selection although there was not any children food – A family was standing in front of us and they left disappointed as they said there was nothing there children would eat. There was the usual peel shrimps, salads, carving station, some pasta dishes, veggies, chicken and salmon. I thought the choice was plenty – If they had wanted hot dog and fries they could have gone to Flo’s on deck 11.

We chatted as we ate and caught up with what Laura and Marco had been up to since the dis meet at the Poly, it was great. We finished lunch around 1.25 and we walked slowly along the corridor to our cabin 2030!

I started by decorating my door!

Our cabin was a cat 9b and it had a lovely porthole you could sit in!

The room was amazing – we carefully set our bags down in the wardrobe and we tried not to crease anything as we were going to be taking part in a cabin tour!

Instead of the usual dis-meet one of our members of the thread had an idea to do a cabin tour – it would let us nose around other categories and as we work our way down the ship – hopefully help us to navigate the ship better. Brenda did an amazing job of organising it. We had to PM her if we were willing to show a room or if you just wanted to be a tourist. She then made a list of the cabins and put them in deck order. We were all meeting on deck 13 and then working our way down. My cabin was the last on the list being deck 2.

We were meeting at 2.15 and setting off at 2.30 so we just had time to grab a cocktail from the quiet cove bar and we headed up to the meet. It was lovely putting faces to people we had been in touch with for over the years. At 2.30 promptly we all set off for the first cabin on the tour – which was in the concierge section. You know I’ve always said if I win the lottery I would love to go ‘concierge’ on a cruise. Well we were shown round the cabin (all 20 of us LOL) and you no what I liked my cabin better! The wood was too dark and it didn’t look as special as I thought it would have. As we worked our way down the ship we stopped at different categories. Brenda had one the cat 6 cabin that was right at the front of the ship. It was going to be a handicapped stateroom but there was something about he access to the room that could not allow it to be called a handicap room. Well I have never seen a room so big (it was soooo much better than the conceriege room and about 3 times as big – it did not have the split bath though. We also saw a room with the virtual porthole. I was really pleased I did this tour it was great being nosy in all the different rooms!

It took about an hour and I met back up with DH at our cabin. We headed to the spa, I’d already booked 2 rainforest passes through DCL prior to boarding – but I wanted to make sure we could use them on the sea day. We confirmed this and I also booked a frangipani scalp massage for 9.30 the day of Nassau.

It was then time for the life boat drill. This year you don’t have to wear your life vests – just show up at your place and they scan your KTTW card. This was so much better.

Once this was over we headed back down, to our room as our cases had arrived and I started unpacking them, At 4,55pm we headed back up to deck 11 for the sail away party. I must admit I cried when the horn went.

The evening passed just as quickly. We had second sitting for dinner which was 8.15pm. So we unpacked and then got dressed for dinner. We missed the show – but decided to have a pre –dinner cocktail. I suggested we go to Pink and get a champagne cocktail. We did! Mmm I enjoyed it although DH said it was a ‘girly’ bar.

Our first meal was going to be at animator’s palette. We really enjoyed this restaurant. We sat with Laura and Marco and watched as crush interacted with some of the guests. The food was lovely. Our servers were very good too; we had Christina from Canada (as assistant) and Ranzil from India. They were very attentive and wanting to please. The speed of lunch was great too – we have had second seating in the past and have still been in the dining room at 10.30 – however Ranzil worked so hard and we were finished by 9.35.

After dinner we decided to go to the club and see what was happening – although we only managed 1 drink before the tiredness and excitement of the day caught up with us. We were soon tucked up in the most comfortable bed and having our own Disney dreams on the dream!

Anyway tomorrow was my birthday!

 

[tinkerbelltwins]

Hi Helen,
I'm loving your trip report. It is super fun to remember our 8/16 dreamy cruise by reading your text and viewing your pictures!

Beth

 

[hmansure]

DIS Meet!

Around 2.30pm we got changed and headed over to the Polynesian resort. We got a taxi which cost us $15. Once at the Poly we looked around and took some photos by the waterfall, at 3pm we were having a mini dis-meet with some of our fellow cruisers.

It was great meeting up with families who we’d corresponded to over the last year and a half....

it was a pleasure meeting you guys at the Poly. Enjoying your trip report as well!

 

[uncw89]

I'm here! I need to go back and read!!! It was great meeting you and Dave at the mixology!!!

 

[MICKEY'S DREAMERS]

WOW Helen !! LOVE , absolutely love reading your report !!!
It's like "being back" in FL and "doing it all " again !!!
THANKYOU SO MUCH for writing
(and letting us know about your report !!).

I spent about half an hour
of my LAST day off work
dreaming upon your words and photos !!

All those yummy "desserts" make me recall of our BEAUTIFUL time together at dinner !!! Marco and I enjoyed so much to share with you and Dave our "adventures" !!!!
Meeting you two was one of the highlights of our trip !!!

THANKYOU !!
and can't wait for the next installment !!!

Have a great day , laura
Marco is sending a looong CIAOOOOOOO !

 

[Jordanblackpool]

Loving your trip report, its making me want to go shopping and then on a cruise!

 

[darthtatty]

Great start to the cruise, i cant wait to go on one.

 

[Woobie]

Monday 15th August
I was really disappointed when Disney decided to close Pleasure Island. Having no children it was great to have an adult night out. Some of our happiest 'Disney experiences' were over a kongalush!

I had no idea they closed Pleasure Island!!

LOVE the report. Looking forward to the rest. It was nice getting to say a quick hi to you on the cabin tour. I really wish there was more time to have gotten to know everyone better.