First DVC stay - Boulder Ridge Villas

As a kid, I was obsessed with the way the Grand Floridian looks on the outside but the inside always seemed "meh" to me. Though the more I see, the more I'm starting to like it. I can find reasons to like/dislike pretty much all of the Disney resorts though and my opinion is constantly changing. The Polynesian, for example....I've always seen it as kind of cheesy and kitchy so I never had any desire to stay there. But looking at the pictures of the current studios...I really like them. If there's a room available at the 7 month mark next time, we might consider trying it out. Though I don't see us liking it over BR, as far as theming goes, anyway. But the monorail to Epcot would be nice since it's our favorite park.



Next time, I think I'm going to request to be closer to the lobby. Not sure if I'll put other requests or not even though I really did like being on the 1st floor.

Yep, we made it to all 4 parks. I plan to write up more about my thoughts on everything when I get around to it. I took notes so I wouldn't forget what we did each day. We had park hoppers so we started each day at 1 park and then took a break back in the room for a while before hopping to another park. The time was split like this...

Day 1 - Epcot/Hollywood Studios
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom/Epcot
Day 3 - Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom
Day 4 - Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Day 5 - Magic Kingdom/Epcot

For pictures/videos - I just clear my phone off before I leave so I have plenty of space. While I'm there, I post to Instagram a lot for the few people who want to follow me...ha! And when I get home, I plug my phone into my laptop to copy all the photos over. (Then I eventually back them up on OneDrive too.)
It’s a point chart hog, but the villas in the original DVC wing…. so nice….
 
Yep, I really enjoy taking a break & hopping as well. The opposite of how we do DLR, where we just go hard all day long until jumping in whatever rides we can in the last hour and finally the longest line at 5min to close. lol
Perfect example I left Epcot at 6:30 ish tonight instead of hopping to DHS just because I am tired (not like my to tap out so easy. lol) I know tomorrow is going to be a late one with EEH at MK till 1am, so I’ll start at DHS & at some point make my way over (possibly a break between)
I definitely did like hopping AK to Epcot the same day I transferred from AKV to Boardwalk. I actually would like to plan my trip that way for the future, but I’m not sure you can know the dates that far in advance.

Before we had our son, we almost never took breaks at Disneyland or WDW. But now...it's basically a requirement. Not because he gets tired though. He has so much energy. But he's autistic and it's something we did when he was younger and now it's just the routine. I have no desire to break the routine though because I find that I really need the break to recharge a bit. Especially if the weather is warmer.

It’s a point chart hog, but the villas in the original DVC wing…. so nice….

I'll have to check them out. I know next to nothing about VGF. I just know there's the building of DVC rooms and then 'resort studios' elsewhere.
 
Enjoying reading along. Hopefully we make our stay in April. It has been 12/13 years since we stayed here. Did you watch the fireworks from the lake? Music is piped in, yes?

I did not make any requests - I am thinking now maybe close to lobby. :) - thank you
 
We didn't watch the fireworks at all. But the first night we were eating dinner outside of Roaring Fork and I'm pretty sure the music we were hearing was the fireworks.
 


It looks just like the Pacific Northwest….

Not where we would go because it’s what I see outside my house everyday…. but it’s pretty incredible they can do that in Orlando, FL!
DW is from PDX and she agrees that WL is like PNW!
We have stayed at WL twice now and two more booked.
She loves eating the Tillamook products at WL.
 
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It looks just like the Pacific Northwest….

Not where we would go because it’s what I see outside my house everyday…. but it’s pretty incredible they can do that in Orlando, FL!
DW is from PDX and she agrees that WL is like PNW!
We have stayed at WL twice now and two more booked.
She loves eating the Tillamook products at WL.
Yep, I live in the Sierra Nevadas so it’s going to feel similar to me as well.
I almost think Poly or BLT could be a better choice for me because of that, but I’ll wait till my stay to see how i really feel about it.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about BLT. The walk to MK seems really long. And we like a QS breakfast and it's my understanding that's a decent walk from BLT too. I've never actually visited the Contemporary but when our bus would pull up there...it just didn't give me warm fuzzies, I guess.
 
I know it's going to be boring but I want to write up a more detailed report of our trip so that I can basically re-live it. So here goes....

Day 1 - January 20th - Saturday
We left our house at about 9:30 AM. Got to the airport around 10:00 or so. We checked our bags and were able to get pre-board status for our son. Asking for this always stresses me out! We went upstairs and had an early lunch but none of us ate very much. I honestly hate flying so I'm basically a ball of nerves all day. We used TSA pre-check for the first time. The Omaha airport isn't too crazy so it probably only saved us about 5 minutes. But not having to empty liquids/electronics or take our shoes off was really nice! Our flight started boarding at 11:45 and the lady at the gate was kind of pissy that my husband and I both wanted to pre-board with our son because rules state only 1 parent. However, on all our previous flights, they let all 3 of us together so our son wouldn't freak out. She relented but was annoyed. Oh well. Not sure why it was such a big deal as the 3 of us take up 1 whole row together and none of us had bags for overhead bins. Whatever. We took off at 12:15.

Our son did really well on the flight. He was a bit unsure during take off as we started to go fast but he was okay. For about 2/3 of the flight, he was happy to just sit and hang out so that was nice. He got antsy at that point so we pulled out the ipad. Without internet, he just looked through all of the photos we have on there and was happy.

We landed a little early in Orlando, just before 4:00, local time. This next part was probably my least favorite portion of the travel day. We went down a level for our bags, which took a while. Then we had to go back up and over to the other terminal. Wouldn't have been a big deal except there were only a few elevators and a LOT of people waiting. The elevators never seemed to be going the direction people needed. In hind sight, we should have just jumped on any of them and rode until it got where we were going. Then after cutting across, we had to go back down two levels. Once on that level, we had to travel to the far end of the building. At this point we were sweating and getting annoyed with lugging our bags all over.

We were finally in line for our Mears bus at 4:30. We didn't get on the bus until 4:50. Once we got moving...the bus had to stop at the other terminal. Finally got on the road. Had to drop people off at the Contemporary before our hotel. I don't know what time we finally go to our hotel. Maybe 6-ish.

I talked about checking in/our room in the post earlier. At about 7:00 we were in our room and placed a mobile order for dinner at Roaring Fork. The mobile order took FOR-EV-ER to be ready. We just sat outside to wait. It was a bit chilly but at least we had some freak air after being masked on the airplane all day. We ordered our son a pulled pork sandwich but he wasn't into it. I tasted it and thought it was pretty good but I had a turkey sandwich and it was perfectly fine.

After eating we stopped at Bell Service to grab our Walmart order that had been delivered. The guy brought it out on a luggage cart but we didn't want to have to bring it so we opted to just carry stuff. I think my husband ended up regretting that since he had to carry the big case of water. Ha! Oh, we tried to tip the guy that handed our stuff to us but he said he wasn't a tipped position and couldn't take it. Oh well.

We were finally in our room by 8:15pm. It was a LONG day but we made it!
 
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I'm not sure how I feel about BLT. The walk to MK seems really long. And we like a QS breakfast and it's my understanding that's a decent walk from BLT too. I've never actually visited the Contemporary but when our bus would pull up there...it just didn't give me warm fuzzies, I guess.

The walk to MK from BLT is not bad at all. I think it is shorter than the walk from the Grand Floridian.

The security lines along the walking path are usually pretty short.
 
The walk to MK from BLT is not bad at all. I think it is shorter than the walk from the Grand Floridian.

The security lines along the walking path are usually pretty short.
It’s 0.5 miles, some of which is going through security.

Disneyland Hotel to Disneyland is 0.6 miles.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about BLT. The walk to MK seems really long. And we like a QS breakfast and it's my understanding that's a decent walk from BLT too. I've never actually visited the Contemporary but when our bus would pull up there...it just didn't give me warm fuzzies, I guess.
Agree, BLT is at the bottom of my list for now (not a big fan of tall towers), but I haven’t been there yet either, so can’t say anything for sure. It just seems like CCV, or Poly might have a better feel.
I will be visiting Poly tomorrow and transferring to BRV tomorrow as well so I should have some better vibes soon.

Also, definitely keep posting up your trip reports. That’s what it’s all about!!
I think I deleted a bunch of good pics, so not sure if I’ll be able to post much.
 
Agree, BLT is at the bottom of my list for now (not a big fan of tall towers), but I haven’t been there yet either, so can’t say anything for sure. It just seems like CCV, or Poly might have a better feel.
I will be visiting Poly tomorrow and transferring to BRV tomorrow as well so I should have some better vibes soon.

Also, definitely keep posting up your trip reports. That’s what it’s all about!!
I think I deleted a bunch of good pics, so not sure if I’ll be able to post much.

Oh no! That sucks about the pics! Most of mine have my son in them. I used to post pictures of him on the forum here, I think. But in recent years I have been more hesitant to do so. Though I feel like this section of the board isn't super populated so I may consider posting some and I can always delete later. You just never know what kind of creeps could be lurking, I guess. I have a few scenery ones in the parks though honestly not a ton and I always wonder if anyone even cares to see those since they have been there too. Ha! (I, personally, love to see all the photos from everyone because it's just fun!)

Can't wait to hear what you think of Poly and BRV!

I agree about tall tower-type hotels. I'm afraid of heights, for one thing. So that makes them lower on the list for me. I also hate elevators!
 
Day 2 - January 21st - Sunday

I woke up at 7:00 so I could book my husband an individual LL for Guardians. This wasn't a ride I wanted to try because I'm worried it might make me feel sick. We finally got up and moving and put in a mobile order for breakfast at Roaring Fork. I hit that we were ready as we were walking down the hall since the night before it took FOREVER. Literally seconds later, it said our order was ready. We ordered the breakfast platters so I'm guessing they already had some pre-boxed up. We found a small table in the hall but it wasn't a great place to sit. And the food wasn't great either (I think I already talked about this.) After we ate we stopped back at the room to get our water bottles and whatnot and headed for the bus stop.

There were only 2 other people on the bus and the ride wasn't too bad. We got to Epcot around 9:40am. First stop was Nemo. Maybe not the most exciting first ride of the day but there was no wait so why not? Our son was just "meh" about it. The queue is so big. Does it ever actually fill up with people??

We wandered the aquarium a little. I had to spend some time with the manatees because I adore them.

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Next up with Figment with our advanced DAS return time. This was the first time my husband has been on this because on our previous trip, we didn't even know it existed. Though I'm pretty sure I went on it as a kid and just forgot. Anyway - we loved it.

We walked over to Mexico next to go on the boat ride. (Sorry, I never remember the actual ride names.) There was no line at all. I love the inside of this pavilion so much!

I also loved the Festival banners. So cute.

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Our DAS return for Frozen was finally up so we went to Norway. Our son LOVES this movie. He also has watched the ride on youtube a lot. He definitely enjoyed the ride but was a bit unsure of the drops. Next was my husband's LL for Guardians. This took longer than I would have liked but we found a bench to relax on while we waited.

At 12:15 we used our advanced DAS for Spaceship Earth. I still LOVE this ride so much. At 12:45 we put in a mobile order for lunch at Connections. I kept getting errors on the app but it finally went through. We found a table inside but it was crowded!

After lunch we backtracked and went toward Canada to take some pics outside. This area is very pretty.

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We had picked up a DAS return for Remy after riding Frozen and were waiting on that. The ride had been down but we thought we'd head that way just in case it opened. And I'm glad we did! It reopened just before we got there so we used our DAS before a million LL people returned. Phew! Our first time on this ride and it was so great! Our son laughed a bunch.

After that we backtracked because my husband had seen maple popcorn earlier and wanted some. Also at this point, our son was wanting a break. So we headed toward the bus stop. We got back to the hotel a little after 3, I believe. We bought some things at the gift shop and then relaxed in the room for a while.

Around 5 we went to the bus stop. Had to wait a while for a HS bus to finally show up. First thing we did when we arrived was go on Star Tours because my son is a big fan of this at Disneyland. Then we went to Docking Bay for dinner and it was just "meh" for me. The only thing our son ate was broccoli.

Next we used our DAS pass for Mickey and Minnie's Railway. Another favorite of ours. After this, I decided we should track down some churros since I was sure our son had to be hungry. Yep...he ate his entire churro.

It was almost 7:30 and was getting quite cold out. We were tired so decided to go back to the hotel. We stopped at the room for our refillable mugs and then went to Roaring Fork for hot chocolate and some snacks.

Overall, it was a really nice first day!
 
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Day 3 - January 22nd - Monday

Got up at 7 again to book some individual lightning lanes. Tron for my husband and the Mine Train for me. Decided to go back to sleep for a bit after that. We will never be rope drop people. We decided to order breakfast to-go and bring it back to our room. We liked this much better and did it every morning after.

We were finally on the boat to the Magic Kingdom at 10:00. I really, REALLY liked being able to take the boat to the park. First stop was my favorite - the Peoplemover. Line was actually a bit longer than I expected but our son did okay and he seemed to enjoy the ride!

After that we went to Tomorrowland Speedway to use the DAS return we picked up. At Disneyland, one of our son's favorites is Autopia and we literally end each night on it. He really liked Speedway but not as much as Autopia. I think Autopia is way cuter with more things to look at. Speedway was dumb.

Next up - my LL return for Mine Train. A new ride for me! The LL line was stretched to the walkway and had a switchback. Definitely took longer than I would have liked but I'm glad I made it on. Here's a pic of when I finally made it close to going inside.

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So I ended up next to a lady who seemed upset. I asked if she's been on this before. She said yes and that she's scared to death. She literally started crying on the ride. While I felt sad for her, I have to admit, it made the ride a little less enjoyable for me because I felt like I needed to stay quiet and not happy. Maybe by the time we go back it won't have ILL anymore and will just have G+ or better yet...single rider!

After this, we went on Pooh using DAS. Our son is a fan of the Disneyland version. But I think he liked this one more since it had a Tigger bouncing part.

Next was a low part of the trip. We were in line for our advanced Peter Pan DAS return and out of nowhere, our son got really sad. He's minimally verbal so we have no idea what triggered his sadness. But he seemed upset that we had a few more days of trip and weren't going home. You see, he thrives on routine. So things outside that routine, even fun things like vacation, can be upsetting for him. Thankfully, once the ride got going, he was happy again!

Unfortunately...it didn't last. We went over to Tron so my husband go ride with his LL return. My son and I stood watching, hoping to see him. But after a while, he got very sad again and was crying. I found a place for us to sit but he was just very down at this point. Once my husband finished Tron (which he enjoyed) we went to lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Our son was happy again! And he ate one of his best meals of the entire trip - salmon, rice, and green beans....and some Cheez-its.

We went over to ride Magic Carpets with DAS and our son loved it. He enjoys all the spinner rides. My husband basically hates them but since there were two rows per carpet, I made him ride. After that we decided to walk through the Treehouse while waiting for our Pirates return time. I love this movie and have fond memories of walking through the treehouse. Sadly...it wasn't a great experience. There were a lot of people so we just had to keep pace with the line. And some kid kept stepping on my heels and almost made me fall on the steps. Frustrating!

Finally time for Pirates. Our son didn't like the drop but wasn't too bothered. He's done this ride at Disneyland a few times as well. But as everyone knows, the WDW isn't great compared to DLR. Still a fun ride though. And I'm glad we don't have to ride the boat back up the hill at the end!

It was about 3:15 now and we decided to go back to the hotel for break.

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Looking at photo timestamps, it only took about 20 minutes to get back to our room. Nice!

What wasn't nice...was finding our hotel room door propped open with the latch. No staff in sight. I panicked while we checked to see if any of our stuff was missing. Thankfully all seemed okay. But I called the front desk to make them aware. They had the head of housekeeping call me so I told him as well. He said he'd be speaking with the staff to make sure it doesn't happen again, etc. etc. No harm, no foul. But it was still upsetting! Thankfully, didn't happen again during our stay.

After resting, we decided to go to Epcot. We arrived at 6:15. So pretty! The lights are so much nicer than our trip 12 years ago!

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Spaceship Earth had a short wait so we did that first. Then we went to Connections for dinner. I had a salad that was actually really good and I'd definitely order it again. Our son only ate some cheese off of his pizza and some Cuties oranges.

We went over to Living with the Land and rode with zero wait. Such a relaxing little ride. I'd love to see it at Christmastime some day!

At 8:20 it was time for our Ratatouille DAS return. Our son was cracking up so it was clear this was probably his favorite ride here.

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We wandered through the World Showcase a little but didn't actually go into any of the shops. We did take some pictures in Morocco, which is my favorite pavilion. I love all the tile work. It's depressing how abandoned it is. And I really miss Restaurant Marrakesh!

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One of my favorite things on previous trips was getting mint tea and baklava and people watching. We did find baklava and other delicious pastries to have but they didn't have any hot mint tea. It was nice to just sit and relax and take everything in for a bit. With our son, it's hard to really take moments to sit like we used to.

Then we went over to ride Frozen. It was just after 9 so it was during the extra hours. I still have no idea if we were supposed to have wrist bands or some way to show we were deluxe. They just asked us when we got to the LL queue and asked if we were DAS. We ended up getting really wet on the ride this time but it was fun. I was glad it wasn't super cold outside. We headed toward the exit after this.

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We were at the bus stop around 9:45 and the wait for the bus wasn't too bad. This was a fairly late night for us. Often at Disneyland, we'd be back in our room by 7:30. I don't think we fell asleep until close to midnight.

All in all, a good day and I felt like we managed to get on a decent amount of rides!

(And I swear, the camera on my phone is better than it seems. They just get blurry when I add them to posts. I didn't take pictures on a camera phone from 2008. Ha!)
 
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Day 3 - January 22nd - Monday

Got up at 7 again to book some individual lightning lanes. Tron for my husband and the Mine Train for me. Decided to go back to sleep for a bit after that. We will never be rope drop people. We decided to order breakfast to-go and bring it back to our room. We liked this much better and did it every morning after.

We were finally on the boat to the Magic Kingdom at 10:00. I really, REALLY liked being able to take the boat to the park. First stop was my favorite - the Peoplemover. Line was actually a bit longer than I expected but our son did okay and he seemed to enjoy the ride!

After that we went to Tomorrowland Speedway to use the DAS return we picked up. At Disneyland, one of our son's favorites is Autopia and we literally end each night on it. He really liked Speedway but not as much as Autopia. I think Autopia is way cuter with more things to look at. Speedway was dumb.

Next up - my LL return for Mine Train. A new ride for me! The LL line was stretched to the walkway and had a switchback. Definitely took longer than I would have liked but I'm glad I made it on. Here's a pic of when I finally made it close to going inside.

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So I ended up next to a lady who seemed upset. I asked if she's been on this before. She said yes and that she's scared to death. She literally started crying on the ride. While I felt sad for her, I have to admit, it made the ride a little less enjoyable for me because I felt like I needed to stay quiet and not happy. Maybe by the time we go back it won't have ILL anymore and will just have G+ or better yet...single rider!

After this, we went on Pooh using DAS. Our son is a fan of the Disneyland version. But I think he liked this one more since it had a Tigger bouncing part.

Next was a low part of the trip. We were in line for our advanced Peter Pan DAS return and out of nowhere, our son got really sad. He's minimally verbal so we have no idea what triggered his sadness. But he seemed upset that we had a few more days of trip and weren't going home. You see, he thrives on routine. So things outside that routine, even fun things like vacation, can be upsetting for him. Thankfully, once the ride got going, he was happy again!

Unfortunately...it didn't last. We went over to Tron so my husband go ride with his LL return. My son and I stood watching, hoping to see him. But after a while, he got very sad again and was crying. I found a place for us to sit but he was just very down at this point. Once my husband finished Tron (which he enjoyed) we went to lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Our son was happy again! And he ate one of his best meals of the entire trip - salmon, rice, and green beans....and some Cheez-its.

We went over to ride Magic Carpets with DAS and our son loved it. He enjoys all the spinner rides. My husband basically hates them but since there were two rows per carpet, I made him ride. After that we decided to walk through the Treehouse while waiting for our Pirates return time. I love this movie and have fond memories of walking through the treehouse. Sadly...it wasn't a great experience. There were a lot of people so we just had to keep pace with the line. And some kid kept stepping on my heels and almost made me fall on the steps. Frustrating!

Finally time for Pirates. Our son didn't like the drop but wasn't too bothered. He's done this ride at Disneyland a few times as well. But as everyone knows, the WDW isn't great compared to DLR. Still a fun ride though. And I'm glad we don't have to ride the boat back up the hill at the end!

It was about 3:15 now and we decided to go back to the hotel for break.

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Looking at photo timestamps, it only took about 20 minutes to get back to our room. Nice!

What wasn't nice...was finding our hotel room door propped open with the latch. No staff in sight. I panicked while we checked to see if any of our stuff was missing. Thankfully all seemed okay. But I called the front desk to make them aware. They had the head of housekeeping call me so I told him as well. He said he'd be speaking with the staff to make sure it doesn't happen again, etc. etc. No harm, no foul. But it was still upsetting! Thankfully, didn't happen again during our stay.

After resting, we decided to go to Epcot. We arrived at 6:15. So pretty! The lights are so much nicer than our trip 12 years ago!

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Spaceship Earth had a short wait so we did that first. Then we went to Connections for dinner. I had a salad that was actually really good and I'd definitely order it again. Our son only ate some cheese off of his pizza and some Cuties oranges.

We went over to Living with the Land and rode with zero wait. Such a relaxing little ride. I'd love to see it at Christmastime some day!

At 8:20 it was time for our Ratatouille DAS return. Our son was cracking up so it was clear this was probably his favorite ride here.

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We wandered through the World Showcase a little but didn't actually go into any of the shops. We did take some pictures in Morocco, which is my favorite pavilion. I love all the tile work. It's depressing how abandoned it is. And I really miss Restaurant Marrakesh!

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One of my favorite things on previous trips was getting mint tea and baklava and people watching. We did find baklava and other delicious pastries to have but they didn't have any hot mint tea. It was nice to just sit and relax and take everything in for a bit. With our son, it's hard to really take moments to sit like we used to.

Then we went over to ride Frozen. It was just after 9 so it was during the extra hours. I still have no idea if we were supposed to have wrist bands or some way to show we were deluxe. They just asked us when we got to the LL queue and asked if we were DAS. We ended up getting really wet on the ride this time but it was fun. I was glad it wasn't super cold outside. We headed toward the exit after this.

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We were at the bus stop around 9:45 and the wait for the bus wasn't too bad. This was a fairly late night for us. Often at Disneyland, we'd be back in our room by 7:30. I don't think we fell asleep until close to midnight.

All in all, a good day and I felt like we managed to get on a decent amount of rides!

(And I swear, the camera on my phone is better than it seems. They just get blurry when I add them to posts. I didn't take pictures on a camera phone from 2008. Ha!)
You are a very good Mom. Your son is lucky to have you!
 
Not nice finding your room door like that.........we are all human, but still.....
 
You are a very good Mom. Your son is lucky to have you!

Aww, that's sweet of you to say. Thanks!

Not nice finding your room door like that.........we are all human, but still.....

Yeah, definitely freaked me out. And if it had happened again, I probably wouldn't have been so forgiving. And thankfully we came back for a break so it wasn't left like that all day/night!
 
Not nice finding your room door like that.........we are all human, but still.....
This has happened to me at BWI before. I think mousekeeping had something to do with our door being ajar also in this case, maybe their way of marking rooms to be cleaned. They looked surprised when we came back and questioned them if they knew why it was like that, and attempted to tell me we had left it that way. They had not yet serviced the room but did shortly after 🤦🏼‍♀️
 
















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