*NEW 11/20*26 Days & We're BACK! Family Trip! Boardwalk & DCL 10/25-10/31 - HS

[budafam]

Putting the finishing touches on my September trip report... time to begin the next one!

Our first family trip since May 2011! We stayed at a studio at the Boardwalk from 10/25-10/31 then on Halloween we sailed on the Disney Dream for a 3 night Bahamas cruise. I will begin our trip report here and finish it over at the Disney Cruise Line forums.

Follow along! I have pictures.....

 

[AshBriSmi]

Putting the finishing touches on my September trip report... time to begin the next one!

Our first family trip since May 2011! We stayed at a studio at the Boardwalk from 10/25-10/31 then on Halloween we sailed on the Disney Dream for a 3 night Bahamas cruise. I will begin our trip report here and finish it over at the Disney Cruise Line forums.

Follow along! I have pictures.....

I'm here! I am hoping to get on that Disney boat SOON!

 

[budafam]

I'm here! I am hoping to get on that Disney boat SOON!

I did not expect to love the boat as much as I did. Thanks for following along

 

[budafam]

We had an early flight. We used a park & ride for the first time at the airport and absolutely LOVED the service. Our flight was great...

Our wait time for Magical Express wasn't too bad at all. We boarded the bus and got ready for a great vacation!

We were the second stop... the Boardwalk was beautiful!!!

Check in went great... we were given our room number and we headed straight there. I was worried about being really far from the lobby... I didn't even realize it at first but we were just about at the end of the corridor with our room. It didn't seem like a far walk at all and we found a few shortcuts to get to the Boardwalk even quicker. Our room was on a corner... I want to say it was handicap accessible but the bathroom was not. It just seemed like the entrance way was really, really big.

Unfortunately we found a deceased friend hanging from the counter piece on the sink...

Yucky yuck!
We also found quite collection of cobwebs on the lamps above the headboard on the bed. The room was nice but definitely could use a little sprucing up. The tiles by the kitchenette could use some new caulking... they were awful dirty looking. I'm really not a complainer so this didn't warrant a phone call to the front desk for me but others it might have. I did email Disney when we got home and let them know (with photos)... hopefully they clean it up a little bit.

We had a lunch reservation to make it to so we headed over to the Beach Club. What better way to kick off this trip than an ice cream lunch?

Up Next: The Kitchen Sink!

 

[budafam]

I have GOT to get to work on this! 2 months is too long to take a break. 99 days till our next trip!
Our walk over to the Beach Club... we already fell in love with the Boardwalk.

The tables at Beaches & Cream are so darn cute! I want one!

We attempted to check in early but we were told that we would need to return in about 20 minutes before we could actually check in. We did some exploring of the Beach Club... a little shopping and checked out the arcade. By the time we got back we were able to check in. We received a pager and took a seat outside.

The sky writing was in full swing
Everyone was in a great mood... we were on vacation!

But soon our "little" wait turned into 20 minutes... then 30... then 45. We were 45 minutes past our reservation time by the time we decided to go up and ask what on earth was taking so long. They said that all of the tables were still taken but there was room at the counter if we didn't mind sitting there. I wish they had asked us earlier... we GLADLY took any seat.

The inside was very small... we just wanted some ice cream!!!
We ordered the Kitchen Sink with no chocolate ice cream or syrup (DS does not care for much chocolate). We watched one of the workers make a kitchen sink and then he had to dump it because he had put the brownies in it. Oops!
Eventually ours was brought out with sirens, an announcement and a balloon

It was time to get to work! This was so much fun and just what we needed to get off to a great vacation!

We didn't finish it but we sure tried... that thing is huge.
Afterwards we went back to the resort to rest for a little while.

We did some exploring...

It was finally time to head to the parks!

Up Next: Magic Kingdom & 'Ohana!

 

[budafam]

We arrived at Magic Kingdom and turned down Main Street just in time for this shot:

Of course we took the "We've Arrived" photo...

We made our way to our very first fastpass+... the Mine Train!

DS's 3rd time on this ride and his face just cracks me up... they all loved it. We made our way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad then Pirates... it was a great start to this trip!
We made our way over to Tomorrowland and saw a Laugh Floor show. We were up on the big screen for "family that had their shirts made by Monster's Inc." A guy from Wisconsin also got picked on in the audience.

We took a ride on Space Mountain... tried to do "I Love You" but the camera was opposite what we thought, lol...

We took some night photos...

Then started making our way to the Polynesian for our late night dinner at 'Ohana.

I had to have a habanero lime margarita as we waited...

We were seated in the middle near the fire

Our server was excellent. She brought DH plenty to eat and kept us fed very well... I wish we could request her every time.

DD did some hula dancing..

and then dessert came. This was an excellent meal and a great way to kick off our fun vacay!

Up Next: Does Tink know the Tooth Fairy?

 

[jandlinz]

Your family is darling. Great t-shirts. I love all the photo pass pictures of your family on the rides.
-Lindsey

 

[budafam]

We were a little late moving this morning... normally I would've been up and gone but I figured out with DH along, this was going to be a very different speed for us (which was fine). We finally got out the door and we were walking down the hallway when DS announced that he lost a tooth! We were closer to the lobby than our room so we stopped by the concierge desk to see if they had something we could put the tooth in. We also thought maybe there would be a little extra pixie dust for losing a tooth in Disney but no, nothing. To be honest, we waited to put it under our pillow till we got home. We were worried the tooth fairy wouldn't find us in Disney.

We took a boat to HS this morning... DH was wearing a sweatshirt and one of the CM's commented that he has one of those in his closet. Must be nice!!!

HS wasn't horribly crowded (although this picture looks like it).

We headed straight to Toy Story Mania and we stood in line for 10 minutes before they announced that the ride was broken down. They had no idea when it would be up and running again so we quickly took the opportunity to get some character pics in.

The wait for Buzz & Wood was around 20 minutes so we did that... the last time we did this meetngreet was on our very first trip to Disney in 2011.

Buzz was dancing with DD.

Then we had breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. As we were waiting outside we met up with another lady that we would be cruising with... she had bought an Olaf shirt from me. We were called within a few minutes and brought in for our breakfast.

I love the burrito station here!

The characters were great... lots of fun! Jake missed DD so he had to come back around again.

We got our first anniversary dessert!!!

We had timed this breakfast just perfectly so that we got a taste of the lunch buffet as well... that salmon was fantastic!!!

Up Next: Frozen, Coasters & Cars (not in that order)

 

[budafam]

Not sure why we planned it this way but following our meal at Hollywood & Vine, we had fastpasses for Rocknrollercoaster...

DS & I did it and yup, that's my GoPro!!! I do not know how DS can always put his head down like that... but he manages it every single time we ride this.

A last view of the hat...

We got our picture in front of it even though we didn't know it was really going to be going anywhere.

Also, our last time seeing the setup for Osborne Lights...

As you can tell by the boys' faces... we were at the Frozen Singalong!!!

DD was thrilled!

It was a nice break... and cold

Then we saw something for the boys...

They really enjoyed this.

We even got to meet one of the drivers!

We left mid-afternoon so that we could get ready for MNSSHP that night!

DH was excited, we ordered a cheese pizza.

Once again, we were a little later heading to MNSSHP than I would've preferred... the kids were excited!!!

Next Up: Halloween Party Time!

 

[alizas3figs]

Loving your trip report! Hollywood & Vine Disney Jr. characters are so cute!