BrerGnat
06-01-2011, 12:04 PM
May 23, 2011
Cast:
Me
My Sister, C
Resort:
Boardwalk Inn
Here we are. Trip report time! Some of you may have read my LIVE! trip report, but this is the full on, detail heavy report. :D
So, C and I are both flying in from California. Me, from Orange County. Her, from San Francisco. I left my house late on Sunday night to spend the night at my other sister's house. I would be flying out of LAX, and her place is about a mile away. She offered to let me crash on her couch AND park on her street for free for the week, since I had an early flight Monday morning. So, around 8pm, I left home and drove up to L.A. About a block from her house, it hit me that I forgot my camera! DOH!!! I called DH and he agreed to FedEx it to me. I needed it, because at the tail end of this trip, I'd be heading up to northern VA to see our new house, and I wanted to take lots of pics and video for DH and the kids. However, my sister's husband graciously offered to lend me his camera. I took him up on that, called DH to let him know, and then tried to go to sleep. Tried. She has a 5 month old baby. He woke up a lot, and it's a small house. ;) I slept a grand total of maybe 3 hours. No matter, I had a long flight ahead and I was going to WDW. What's a little fatigue?
I arrived at LAX very early for my 8am flight on Virgin America. Check in and security was a breeze, due to the early hour. My flight was very nice. I had a whole row to myself AND I was in an exit row, so extra leg room. I really enjoyed flying on Virgin America. The t.v. was WAY better than Jet Blue's (no annoying ads!), and they had actual, GOOD food onboard to purchase with a cool touch screen ordering system. Whenever you wanted a drink, snack, or food, you'd order it via the touch screen and the flight attendants would bring it right to you. Cool! I was able to catch a pretty good nap, about 90 min worth, which felt great.
I arrived on time at MCO, and met up with C in the terminal (she flew Southwest, and our gates were in the same section). She was starving, so got a salad from Au Bon Pain. As she was eating, she mentioned that her throat was feeling scratchy, and she hadn't slept much at all the night before either. I sensed a bad omen...
We made our way to DME and were on our bus in no time. We sat for awhile, sort of frustrated that we appeared to be in a "dead zone" for our cell phone's 3G service. So, we chatted while we waited for the bus to leave. Soon, we were off and after a brief stop at POR, we arrived at Boardwalk. The DME driver called out "anyone for Boardwalk?", and we simultaneously yelled "YES!", and then he proceeded to ask again. We yelled again, and he pulled in. :rolleyes:
As we made our way into the resort, I was taking it all in. To my recollection, I've never been inside this lobby, although C had visited with our friend during our last trip when I was laid up sick in bed. We were helped immediately by a VERY friendly CM who was earning her ears. :mickey: She proceeded to say, "okay, we have you in a standard room, 2 queen beds, a daybed...and Concierge level." Excuse me? What did you say??? I must have looked like a deer in the headlights, because she quickly said "It's a Magical Upgrade! Congratulations!" Sweet! I looked at Cynthia, and she was like, "What does that mean?" So, I replied, "Free beer!" That was enough for her. The CM showed us where our room was, settled our outstanding charge (room only reservation), and then directed us to the elevators "to your left". So, we thanked her, turned around, and walked to the elevators on the left. We went up to the 4th floor, and walked, and walked, and walked. Our room number, 4244, did not appear on any of the signs. :confused: A quick glance out a hallway window showed red and yellow siding. Uh...oops, we were on the villas side! We realized that the CM meant the elevator on our left as we were facing HER at the front desk. We made our way back to the lobby, crossed over, and took the correct elevator this time. ;) We got to the Innkeeper's Club door and were buzzed through. That was odd...all the Club Levels I've stayed at in Disney have had a dedicated floor, but not this one. We found our room, which was only 2 doors down from the lounge, and dropped off our stuff, then headed to the lounge for a drink and snack. It was close to 6:30 by this point, so we had some of the appetizers, C had a beer, and I had a glass of wine. The food was very good, but it seemed there wasn't much of it. I noted NO child friendly food selections except for some sliced green apples with caramel dip.
We headed back to our room to wait for our bags from DME. As we waited, C tried to get her Zoom wireless modem (which uses her cell phone's SIM card) hooked up, but it wasn't getting a signal. Hmmmm... I explored the room a bit, and unpacked my carryon. I noted that the room seemed a bit shabby. It had an old style thermostat, and the room was pretty warm. I slid the switch all the way to Cold, set the fan to HIGH and hoped for the best. The carpet was pretty worn and looked dirty, but that may have been the coloring of it. It was a blue and pale yellow pattern, and it just looked...I don't know...faded and dirty, although my socks weren't dirty from walking on it, so it must just need replacing. The armoire holding the tv had a textured surface, and in the recessed areas of the texture, it was dark and grimy looking. SInce the piece is yellow, it shows and makes it look dingy. The bathroom was clean, but there were several white scuffs on the dark blue paint. Thankfully, the toilet wasn't a "power flusher". The room was very clean, but just seemed old and worn. The handle to pull the sheer back was broken off and sitting in the corner. None of this was enough to really bother me, but this was a Club Level room. I'd expect better upkeep. Since we paid all of $269/night (tax included) it was fine, but I'd have been very disappointed to pay rack rate for a room of this condition. The public areas of the resort and the hallways were immaculate, and looked brand new. So, not sure if it was just our room, or all of them are like that.
C and I were starting to feel hungry, and a bit bored waiting for our bags, so we headed down to the Boardwalk to check things out. We browsed all the shops, and C bought cookie in the Seashore Sweets shop for later. We decided to do pizza slices from the Boardwalk Pizza window. We had 9:55pm 'Ohana reservations, but we were both too tired to make it out that late. The pizza was surprisingly decent, and filling. After eating, we headed back up to the lounge for dessert. It was very good: cookies, cheesecake, brownies, and some tarts. We enjoyed that, and on our way back to our room, the DME guy was dropping off our bags! Yay!!
We unpacked our bags, showered, and were in bed embarrassingly early, for being on West Coast time. :blush: We made plans to go to DHS the next morning and hit the sack, with no alarms or wake up calls set for the next morning.
Oh, and C did manage to get wifi going, so we were able to do that for free. She had an ipad, and I had an ipod touch, so it was cool to have free wifi in our room. I need to get one of those Zoom thingies.
Cast:
Me
My Sister, C
Resort:
Boardwalk Inn
Here we are. Trip report time! Some of you may have read my LIVE! trip report, but this is the full on, detail heavy report. :D
So, C and I are both flying in from California. Me, from Orange County. Her, from San Francisco. I left my house late on Sunday night to spend the night at my other sister's house. I would be flying out of LAX, and her place is about a mile away. She offered to let me crash on her couch AND park on her street for free for the week, since I had an early flight Monday morning. So, around 8pm, I left home and drove up to L.A. About a block from her house, it hit me that I forgot my camera! DOH!!! I called DH and he agreed to FedEx it to me. I needed it, because at the tail end of this trip, I'd be heading up to northern VA to see our new house, and I wanted to take lots of pics and video for DH and the kids. However, my sister's husband graciously offered to lend me his camera. I took him up on that, called DH to let him know, and then tried to go to sleep. Tried. She has a 5 month old baby. He woke up a lot, and it's a small house. ;) I slept a grand total of maybe 3 hours. No matter, I had a long flight ahead and I was going to WDW. What's a little fatigue?
I arrived at LAX very early for my 8am flight on Virgin America. Check in and security was a breeze, due to the early hour. My flight was very nice. I had a whole row to myself AND I was in an exit row, so extra leg room. I really enjoyed flying on Virgin America. The t.v. was WAY better than Jet Blue's (no annoying ads!), and they had actual, GOOD food onboard to purchase with a cool touch screen ordering system. Whenever you wanted a drink, snack, or food, you'd order it via the touch screen and the flight attendants would bring it right to you. Cool! I was able to catch a pretty good nap, about 90 min worth, which felt great.
I arrived on time at MCO, and met up with C in the terminal (she flew Southwest, and our gates were in the same section). She was starving, so got a salad from Au Bon Pain. As she was eating, she mentioned that her throat was feeling scratchy, and she hadn't slept much at all the night before either. I sensed a bad omen...
We made our way to DME and were on our bus in no time. We sat for awhile, sort of frustrated that we appeared to be in a "dead zone" for our cell phone's 3G service. So, we chatted while we waited for the bus to leave. Soon, we were off and after a brief stop at POR, we arrived at Boardwalk. The DME driver called out "anyone for Boardwalk?", and we simultaneously yelled "YES!", and then he proceeded to ask again. We yelled again, and he pulled in. :rolleyes:
As we made our way into the resort, I was taking it all in. To my recollection, I've never been inside this lobby, although C had visited with our friend during our last trip when I was laid up sick in bed. We were helped immediately by a VERY friendly CM who was earning her ears. :mickey: She proceeded to say, "okay, we have you in a standard room, 2 queen beds, a daybed...and Concierge level." Excuse me? What did you say??? I must have looked like a deer in the headlights, because she quickly said "It's a Magical Upgrade! Congratulations!" Sweet! I looked at Cynthia, and she was like, "What does that mean?" So, I replied, "Free beer!" That was enough for her. The CM showed us where our room was, settled our outstanding charge (room only reservation), and then directed us to the elevators "to your left". So, we thanked her, turned around, and walked to the elevators on the left. We went up to the 4th floor, and walked, and walked, and walked. Our room number, 4244, did not appear on any of the signs. :confused: A quick glance out a hallway window showed red and yellow siding. Uh...oops, we were on the villas side! We realized that the CM meant the elevator on our left as we were facing HER at the front desk. We made our way back to the lobby, crossed over, and took the correct elevator this time. ;) We got to the Innkeeper's Club door and were buzzed through. That was odd...all the Club Levels I've stayed at in Disney have had a dedicated floor, but not this one. We found our room, which was only 2 doors down from the lounge, and dropped off our stuff, then headed to the lounge for a drink and snack. It was close to 6:30 by this point, so we had some of the appetizers, C had a beer, and I had a glass of wine. The food was very good, but it seemed there wasn't much of it. I noted NO child friendly food selections except for some sliced green apples with caramel dip.
We headed back to our room to wait for our bags from DME. As we waited, C tried to get her Zoom wireless modem (which uses her cell phone's SIM card) hooked up, but it wasn't getting a signal. Hmmmm... I explored the room a bit, and unpacked my carryon. I noted that the room seemed a bit shabby. It had an old style thermostat, and the room was pretty warm. I slid the switch all the way to Cold, set the fan to HIGH and hoped for the best. The carpet was pretty worn and looked dirty, but that may have been the coloring of it. It was a blue and pale yellow pattern, and it just looked...I don't know...faded and dirty, although my socks weren't dirty from walking on it, so it must just need replacing. The armoire holding the tv had a textured surface, and in the recessed areas of the texture, it was dark and grimy looking. SInce the piece is yellow, it shows and makes it look dingy. The bathroom was clean, but there were several white scuffs on the dark blue paint. Thankfully, the toilet wasn't a "power flusher". The room was very clean, but just seemed old and worn. The handle to pull the sheer back was broken off and sitting in the corner. None of this was enough to really bother me, but this was a Club Level room. I'd expect better upkeep. Since we paid all of $269/night (tax included) it was fine, but I'd have been very disappointed to pay rack rate for a room of this condition. The public areas of the resort and the hallways were immaculate, and looked brand new. So, not sure if it was just our room, or all of them are like that.
C and I were starting to feel hungry, and a bit bored waiting for our bags, so we headed down to the Boardwalk to check things out. We browsed all the shops, and C bought cookie in the Seashore Sweets shop for later. We decided to do pizza slices from the Boardwalk Pizza window. We had 9:55pm 'Ohana reservations, but we were both too tired to make it out that late. The pizza was surprisingly decent, and filling. After eating, we headed back up to the lounge for dessert. It was very good: cookies, cheesecake, brownies, and some tarts. We enjoyed that, and on our way back to our room, the DME guy was dropping off our bags! Yay!!
We unpacked our bags, showered, and were in bed embarrassingly early, for being on West Coast time. :blush: We made plans to go to DHS the next morning and hit the sack, with no alarms or wake up calls set for the next morning.
Oh, and C did manage to get wifi going, so we were able to do that for free. She had an ipad, and I had an ipod touch, so it was cool to have free wifi in our room. I need to get one of those Zoom thingies.