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Mr.Grumpy · 04-10-2002, 07:37 PM

Date: March 22 – April 2, 2002
Adventurers: Grumpy (Joel) & Pooh (Jeanne)
Resort/Hotel: Boardwalk Villas & Walt Disney World Swan
Celebration: Spring 2002, Easter, Grumpy’s Birthday (34)

Monday, March 24, 2002

It is 6AM. Time to get to it. We were up and ready in record time. Now, for the first excitement of the day. I packed the knapsack that we would carry with us through the parks and made certain that the Annual Passes, Camera and Wallets were securely in the bag. That is when I unzipped the section where we store the passes and found $125 in cash. I asked my wife if she put it there before leaving NY and she said NO. So, all we can figure is that it was leftover $$ from our trip to Disney last July. What a surprise! We will justify some of our non-essential spending throughout the upcoming week because of this found money.

The Fairfield Inn serves a free Continental Breakfast so we opted for a quick bagel and juice before heading over to the Boardwalk. Check-in was very fast and the CM was very nice. They treated us like actual Vacation Club Members since we had purchased someone else’s points for our four-day stay. We left the luggage in the car because it was early and we knew that the room would not be ready. Another awesome perk! A parking pass to park anywhere on property for FREE. We decided that we would utilize the pass and head over to the Animal Kingdom. On our way, we noticed that Blizzard Beach’s parking lot was empty. SO, we made a quick U-turn and pulled in. This would be a first for both of us. We were very excited. Since we left the luggage in the car, the bathing suits and rubber sandals were quickly found in the back and off we went. I was in awe at the details at this park. We love to ski and thought the charm of a melting mountain was up our alley. We rented towels and a locker and made a quick change into the appropriate attire. Now what? We have always had an idea of where to go and what to do in all the other parks. We stood and looked at each other and said….”What do we do now?” I have heard about some of the highlights of the park but did not know what to do first. So, we started to walk around and made our way to an entrance to the Lazy River AKA Cross Country Creek. This was as awesome as I thought it would be. We entered across from just before the Tike’s Peak Bridge and came upon the first adventure… The Cave! Now I noticed some people trying not to get wet by heading toward the center of the entrance. I commented to my wife that I would head right for the falls and get the full effect. I got it all right. Jeanne tried very hard not to get her hair wet at first and soon realized that there was no way to survive the day without getting soaked. She enjoyed the river more than I thought at first. As I went through the cave, I began belting out the words to Yo, Ho! Yo, Ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me. Others began to join in as I moved on my journey around the park. We lazily floated along in the warm Florida sun. Remember it was 30 degrees back in NY when we left a day and a half ago. I loved the touches to the landscape along this river such as the Sneezing House and the huge bubbles that float up from under the river. Then we began to smell the most wonderful aroma…It was those warm cinnamon sugar donuts that we have discussed on the boards. We knew that we would be trying these babies before the day was out. We made it back to our starting point and decided that we were ready to explore the park a bit further. So we went up the mountain to Teamboat Springs. They gave us a whole raft to ourselves. This was nice. We headed down and thought it would never end. This is the longest water ride that I have ever been on. It was terrific and not too adventurous for my wife that was weary at first due to the fact that she had back surgery a few years back. This ride did not bother her in the least. We enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain as well. We saw the Tree of life at AK and some bright orange things that we would later identify when we toured that park. We were also able to see Spaceship Earth and Tower of Terror. We knew that this was a great choice of parks to visit first. The anticipation was growing to experience everything again.

Anyway, we went over to Runoff Rapids. This was a great ride as well. We noticed that at the top everyone was going to the middle and the far right. The lines were congested, so we opted for the far left. Terrific ride. Again, Jeanne was a bit leery of riding but found this to be a good choice as well. We rode again and then I decided that I needed to find out if the right side was different. It wasn’t any different in my opinion. However, I realized why everyone was lining up to ride the middle tube. It was enclosed and dark. I loved this ride. There are small amounts of light that illuminate parts of this ride. It reminded me of the flashing tube that you travel through at the beginning of Space Mountain. Awesome.

We decided to ride the Cross Country Creek over to Lottawatta Lodge for lunch. At this point, I gave Jeanne some $$ to go get those donuts for dessert and I stood in the line for my all time favorite WDW fast food…Crispy Chicken Strips. Jeanne had a pizza. The Donuts were indescribable. They were the best and my mouth is watering as I post this report.

After lunch, we split up so I could ride some more of the more adventurous rides that Jeanne did not feel she could do without hurting her back. She shopped! I rode! I did the Snow Stormers and Toboggan Racers first. These were a lot of fun. You lay on your belly and go down headfirst. This reminded me of my childhood years, as I would go over snow jumps on my plastic snow sled. Then, I saw a line forming at the Downhill Double Dipper, so I thought this would be better than waiting in an even longer line later as the park was beginning to get crowded. This was also fun. You race another person down a slide on an inflated tube. This ride really books. I skipped across the pool at the bottom and went back up for another race. By the time I returned, the line was extremely long so I passed on a second turn.

I got back into the Cross Country Creek and looked for Jeanne. As it turned out we must have missed each other as I went around the first time but I was spotted and summoned to exit after 2 1/1 laps. I was beginning to burn anyway. I did not apply sunscreen that morning to most of my body. I had applied to my face as we first thought we would just go to one of the four major parks. Big mistake! I changed and went to return our locker key and was told that I could get our $2.00 deposit back or get a souvenir mug. I opted for the mug. What a great touch. I stopped at the phones and called to see if the room was available and it was Room 1087 BWV. We decided to go to the hotel and bring in the bags. We spent 6 hours at BB 9-3pm! What a great time.

I pulled up and had bell services bring the bags in as I parked. Before I returned to the room, the bags were in, Jeanne tipped the bellhop and he was gone. Quick and efficient! He told Jeanne that Mariano Rivera (NY Yankees) was visiting and staying in the hotel when he saw that we were from NY. I of course was on the look out for the next week but never actually saw him but we did see someone that I will mention later when we get to the part about breakfast at Boma.
We called up to the Concierge floor to see if Jackie (from NJ) was working so we could say hi. She was an integral part of making our honeymoon trip so special a few years ago. We always like to say hi when we get to Disney. She was very glad we called and told us that she would arrange for us to meet later in the week as she was very busy today (maybe Mariano was there?!?!). We told her to give us a call if she could but not to worry about it if she couldn’t. We just wanted to say hi and tell her that we were thinking of her. She is one of the most awesome parts of the Boardwalk. I hope they know that there. I think they do.

The room was beautiful. We had a king sized bed with a pale blue quilt upon it. The couch was a soft blue and white design. The mirror was oversized. The small table had two high back wooden chairs with rattan seats. Inside the armoire was the TV (which of course was immediately turned in to WDW TV). There was a comfortable easy chair near the sliding glass door that also sported a soft blue and white patchwork print. The curtains were dominated with boardwalk typical scenes including Ferris Wheels and folks strolling along. The wall prints included a framed picture of a beach chair and umbrella and then my favorite. The Disney Boardwalk from the perspective of someone sitting on a balcony near the ESPN Club looking toward JellyRolls. All this sounds wonderful and it was…except we have now been in the room for nearly two hours and the AC does not seem to be working. So we call down to Guest Services and they told us that they would get someone to our room shortly. We informed them that we would head out to a park and they could get it up and running while we were out. Sounded like a great plan. We wished! (I’ll get back to this after telling about our first night at in the parks.

We walked from the Boardwalk to the International Gateway and entered the back side of Epcot and shopped in a few stores on our way to the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Sounds like a long way to go but we love this. We feel like we are part of the action this way. As we casually strolled through Future World we discussed our adventures so far at BB and looked with anticipation to MK. We stopped at the Leave a Legacy stones to see if we could find someone that I work with but then realized that I failed to bring the location with us. So, we saved that for another day.

We left the main entrance of Epcot and boarded the monorail. Por favor man tengan, se allejados de las puertas. Now I am really here! We listened and recited the speech played on the monorail. Switched over to the MK train and arrived soon there after. We got our bags searched rather quickly and entered to the left of the train station. We made it up to the castle in time for the new Cinderella Surprise Celebration. This was a terrific show. We loved the number of characters that were included and the depth of the story. I loved the use of the castle as a stage. I have never seen character come out up on the castle. Cinderella, Peter Pan, Captain Hook… awesome touch. Donald Duck was very funny during this show as well. I am gaining a new found appreciation for him. We walked on to Liberty Square after the show and noticed that Hall of Presidents was closed already for the night. Haunted Mansion had a 50-minute wait. It’s a small world was packed so we opted for leaving and finding a place to eat. Maybe a MK Resort restaurant? We stopped at City Hall and could not be seated at Narcoossee’s, California grill or Citrico’s….so we took a PS at Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge. We missed the boat to the WL so we had to wait for the next one. We chatted with the CMs that were on the dock. One of the CMs was especially funny.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare so we checked out the lobby as usual and checked out the store. We checked in early and were seated almost immediately. Now everyone that we talk to tells us how much they love this restaurant. We have tried to eat here in the past and have never found anything on the menu to be appealing. We were determined that this would be the trip to go and we would “find” something. I loved the wine list. We loved the bread and the garlic butter. I got adventurous and tried the Corn Chowder, which was ok but not something I would order again. Jeanne had a shrimp appetizer that she thought had a “strange” spice on it. Oh no! Appetizers that we were not overly pleased with. What would our meals be like? We discussed that we should keep an open mind as Tim and Cruella love it here and so does Lois a former colleague. I ordered the filet mignon, which was very dry, and Jeanne’s scallops had the same “strange” spice on them that the shrimp appetizer did. The service was ok but not the best. When the bill came we decided that we could have enjoyed similarly priced meals at our favorite Disney restaurants. Now just to set the record straight, we are VERY Picky eaters. Don’t let our impression sway you if you have never tried it. It is a beautiful restaurant and has received all the awards. We caught a boat back to the MK with a quick stop at FWC.

We went over and caught a bus to the Boardwalk and fell asleep on the way back. This was one long day. Now for the really bad news… the AC was not fixed and it was 10:30PM. Jackie had sent us a nice tray of fruit and had our table set for a nice little romantic snack….but it was stifling in there. We immediately called downstairs to tell them of the problem. They transferred us to Engineering, who told us that they just fixed it and we needed to wait a bit for the cool air to fill the room. We waited 45 minutes and there was still no relief. I called the front desk again. I was a bit upset and annoyed at this point but did not want it to ruin our vacation. I talked with Alisha (manager) and she assured me that Tony would be up immediately. Tony arrived and did not leave until 1:30 in the morning. Luckily the Oscars were on TV so we wanted to stay up or this would have gotten really annoying. Still no fix. They were going to move us to the Boardwalk Inn for the night but told us that we would have to move back to the Villas in the morning. We were already unpacked and did not want to do that. We wanted to be moved for the remainder of the trip but this would not be possible. They offered to give us a smoking one bedroom—however, we had to decline based on the fact that my allergies were already flaring due to the flowers. AHHHHH! They brought up two floor fans and we slept on to p of the blankets. Tony told us that there was a big problem with the AC and that they would need to work on it the next day. Not a great way to end the day, however, it was better than being in NY in 30 degree weather. We slept soundly because exhaustion soon set in. The room situation will get better tomorrow. For now though, I am going to sign off and hope that I can sleep while I have all this on my mind.

04-10-2002, 07:37 PM	#4 (permalink)
Mr.Grumpy Community Rank: Traveler Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Poughkeepsie, NY, USA Posts: 391	Re: Many Adventures of Grumpy and Pooh Date: March 22 – April 2, 2002 Adventurers: Grumpy (Joel) & Pooh (Jeanne) Resort/Hotel: Boardwalk Villas & Walt Disney World Swan Celebration: Spring 2002, Easter, Grumpy’s Birthday (34) Monday, March 24, 2002 It is 6AM. Time to get to it. We were up and ready in record time. Now, for the first excitement of the day. I packed the knapsack that we would carry with us through the parks and made certain that the Annual Passes, Camera and Wallets were securely in the bag. That is when I unzipped the section where we store the passes and found $125 in cash. I asked my wife if she put it there before leaving NY and she said NO. So, all we can figure is that it was leftover $$ from our trip to Disney last July. What a surprise! We will justify some of our non-essential spending throughout the upcoming week because of this found money. The Fairfield Inn serves a free Continental Breakfast so we opted for a quick bagel and juice before heading over to the Boardwalk. Check-in was very fast and the CM was very nice. They treated us like actual Vacation Club Members since we had purchased someone else’s points for our four-day stay. We left the luggage in the car because it was early and we knew that the room would not be ready. Another awesome perk! A parking pass to park anywhere on property for FREE. We decided that we would utilize the pass and head over to the Animal Kingdom. On our way, we noticed that Blizzard Beach’s parking lot was empty. SO, we made a quick U-turn and pulled in. This would be a first for both of us. We were very excited. Since we left the luggage in the car, the bathing suits and rubber sandals were quickly found in the back and off we went. I was in awe at the details at this park. We love to ski and thought the charm of a melting mountain was up our alley. We rented towels and a locker and made a quick change into the appropriate attire. Now what? We have always had an idea of where to go and what to do in all the other parks. We stood and looked at each other and said….”What do we do now?” I have heard about some of the highlights of the park but did not know what to do first. So, we started to walk around and made our way to an entrance to the Lazy River AKA Cross Country Creek. This was as awesome as I thought it would be. We entered across from just before the Tike’s Peak Bridge and came upon the first adventure… The Cave! Now I noticed some people trying not to get wet by heading toward the center of the entrance. I commented to my wife that I would head right for the falls and get the full effect. I got it all right. Jeanne tried very hard not to get her hair wet at first and soon realized that there was no way to survive the day without getting soaked. She enjoyed the river more than I thought at first. As I went through the cave, I began belting out the words to Yo, Ho! Yo, Ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me. Others began to join in as I moved on my journey around the park. We lazily floated along in the warm Florida sun. Remember it was 30 degrees back in NY when we left a day and a half ago. I loved the touches to the landscape along this river such as the Sneezing House and the huge bubbles that float up from under the river. Then we began to smell the most wonderful aroma…It was those warm cinnamon sugar donuts that we have discussed on the boards. We knew that we would be trying these babies before the day was out. We made it back to our starting point and decided that we were ready to explore the park a bit further. So we went up the mountain to Teamboat Springs. They gave us a whole raft to ourselves. This was nice. We headed down and thought it would never end. This is the longest water ride that I have ever been on. It was terrific and not too adventurous for my wife that was weary at first due to the fact that she had back surgery a few years back. This ride did not bother her in the least. We enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain as well. We saw the Tree of life at AK and some bright orange things that we would later identify when we toured that park. We were also able to see Spaceship Earth and Tower of Terror. We knew that this was a great choice of parks to visit first. The anticipation was growing to experience everything again. Anyway, we went over to Runoff Rapids. This was a great ride as well. We noticed that at the top everyone was going to the middle and the far right. The lines were congested, so we opted for the far left. Terrific ride. Again, Jeanne was a bit leery of riding but found this to be a good choice as well. We rode again and then I decided that I needed to find out if the right side was different. It wasn’t any different in my opinion. However, I realized why everyone was lining up to ride the middle tube. It was enclosed and dark. I loved this ride. There are small amounts of light that illuminate parts of this ride. It reminded me of the flashing tube that you travel through at the beginning of Space Mountain. Awesome. We decided to ride the Cross Country Creek over to Lottawatta Lodge for lunch. At this point, I gave Jeanne some $$ to go get those donuts for dessert and I stood in the line for my all time favorite WDW fast food…Crispy Chicken Strips. Jeanne had a pizza. The Donuts were indescribable. They were the best and my mouth is watering as I post this report. After lunch, we split up so I could ride some more of the more adventurous rides that Jeanne did not feel she could do without hurting her back. She shopped! I rode! I did the Snow Stormers and Toboggan Racers first. These were a lot of fun. You lay on your belly and go down headfirst. This reminded me of my childhood years, as I would go over snow jumps on my plastic snow sled. Then, I saw a line forming at the Downhill Double Dipper, so I thought this would be better than waiting in an even longer line later as the park was beginning to get crowded. This was also fun. You race another person down a slide on an inflated tube. This ride really books. I skipped across the pool at the bottom and went back up for another race. By the time I returned, the line was extremely long so I passed on a second turn. I got back into the Cross Country Creek and looked for Jeanne. As it turned out we must have missed each other as I went around the first time but I was spotted and summoned to exit after 2 1/1 laps. I was beginning to burn anyway. I did not apply sunscreen that morning to most of my body. I had applied to my face as we first thought we would just go to one of the four major parks. Big mistake! I changed and went to return our locker key and was told that I could get our $2.00 deposit back or get a souvenir mug. I opted for the mug. What a great touch. I stopped at the phones and called to see if the room was available and it was Room 1087 BWV. We decided to go to the hotel and bring in the bags. We spent 6 hours at BB 9-3pm! What a great time. I pulled up and had bell services bring the bags in as I parked. Before I returned to the room, the bags were in, Jeanne tipped the bellhop and he was gone. Quick and efficient! He told Jeanne that Mariano Rivera (NY Yankees) was visiting and staying in the hotel when he saw that we were from NY. I of course was on the look out for the next week but never actually saw him but we did see someone that I will mention later when we get to the part about breakfast at Boma. We called up to the Concierge floor to see if Jackie (from NJ) was working so we could say hi. She was an integral part of making our honeymoon trip so special a few years ago. We always like to say hi when we get to Disney. She was very glad we called and told us that she would arrange for us to meet later in the week as she was very busy today (maybe Mariano was there?!?!). We told her to give us a call if she could but not to worry about it if she couldn’t. We just wanted to say hi and tell her that we were thinking of her. She is one of the most awesome parts of the Boardwalk. I hope they know that there. I think they do. The room was beautiful. We had a king sized bed with a pale blue quilt upon it. The couch was a soft blue and white design. The mirror was oversized. The small table had two high back wooden chairs with rattan seats. Inside the armoire was the TV (which of course was immediately turned in to WDW TV). There was a comfortable easy chair near the sliding glass door that also sported a soft blue and white patchwork print. The curtains were dominated with boardwalk typical scenes including Ferris Wheels and folks strolling along. The wall prints included a framed picture of a beach chair and umbrella and then my favorite. The Disney Boardwalk from the perspective of someone sitting on a balcony near the ESPN Club looking toward JellyRolls. All this sounds wonderful and it was…except we have now been in the room for nearly two hours and the AC does not seem to be working. So we call down to Guest Services and they told us that they would get someone to our room shortly. We informed them that we would head out to a park and they could get it up and running while we were out. Sounded like a great plan. We wished! (I’ll get back to this after telling about our first night at in the parks. We walked from the Boardwalk to the International Gateway and entered the back side of Epcot and shopped in a few stores on our way to the monorail to Magic Kingdom. Sounds like a long way to go but we love this. We feel like we are part of the action this way. As we casually strolled through Future World we discussed our adventures so far at BB and looked with anticipation to MK. We stopped at the Leave a Legacy stones to see if we could find someone that I work with but then realized that I failed to bring the location with us. So, we saved that for another day. We left the main entrance of Epcot and boarded the monorail. Por favor man tengan, se allejados de las puertas. Now I am really here! We listened and recited the speech played on the monorail. Switched over to the MK train and arrived soon there after. We got our bags searched rather quickly and entered to the left of the train station. We made it up to the castle in time for the new Cinderella Surprise Celebration. This was a terrific show. We loved the number of characters that were included and the depth of the story. I loved the use of the castle as a stage. I have never seen character come out up on the castle. Cinderella, Peter Pan, Captain Hook… awesome touch. Donald Duck was very funny during this show as well. I am gaining a new found appreciation for him. We walked on to Liberty Square after the show and noticed that Hall of Presidents was closed already for the night. Haunted Mansion had a 50-minute wait. It’s a small world was packed so we opted for leaving and finding a place to eat. Maybe a MK Resort restaurant? We stopped at City Hall and could not be seated at Narcoossee’s, California grill or Citrico’s….so we took a PS at Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge. We missed the boat to the WL so we had to wait for the next one. We chatted with the CMs that were on the dock. One of the CMs was especially funny. We arrived with plenty of time to spare so we checked out the lobby as usual and checked out the store. We checked in early and were seated almost immediately. Now everyone that we talk to tells us how much they love this restaurant. We have tried to eat here in the past and have never found anything on the menu to be appealing. We were determined that this would be the trip to go and we would “find” something. I loved the wine list. We loved the bread and the garlic butter. I got adventurous and tried the Corn Chowder, which was ok but not something I would order again. Jeanne had a shrimp appetizer that she thought had a “strange” spice on it. Oh no! Appetizers that we were not overly pleased with. What would our meals be like? We discussed that we should keep an open mind as Tim and Cruella love it here and so does Lois a former colleague. I ordered the filet mignon, which was very dry, and Jeanne’s scallops had the same “strange” spice on them that the shrimp appetizer did. The service was ok but not the best. When the bill came we decided that we could have enjoyed similarly priced meals at our favorite Disney restaurants. Now just to set the record straight, we are VERY Picky eaters. Don’t let our impression sway you if you have never tried it. It is a beautiful restaurant and has received all the awards. We caught a boat back to the MK with a quick stop at FWC. We went over and caught a bus to the Boardwalk and fell asleep on the way back. This was one long day. Now for the really bad news… the AC was not fixed and it was 10:30PM. Jackie had sent us a nice tray of fruit and had our table set for a nice little romantic snack….but it was stifling in there. We immediately called downstairs to tell them of the problem. They transferred us to Engineering, who told us that they just fixed it and we needed to wait a bit for the cool air to fill the room. We waited 45 minutes and there was still no relief. I called the front desk again. I was a bit upset and annoyed at this point but did not want it to ruin our vacation. I talked with Alisha (manager) and she assured me that Tony would be up immediately. Tony arrived and did not leave until 1:30 in the morning. Luckily the Oscars were on TV so we wanted to stay up or this would have gotten really annoying. Still no fix. They were going to move us to the Boardwalk Inn for the night but told us that we would have to move back to the Villas in the morning. We were already unpacked and did not want to do that. We wanted to be moved for the remainder of the trip but this would not be possible. They offered to give us a smoking one bedroom—however, we had to decline based on the fact that my allergies were already flaring due to the flowers. AHHHHH! They brought up two floor fans and we slept on to p of the blankets. Tony told us that there was a big problem with the AC and that they would need to work on it the next day. Not a great way to end the day, however, it was better than being in NY in 30 degree weather. We slept soundly because exhaustion soon set in. The room situation will get better tomorrow. For now though, I am going to sign off and hope that I can sleep while I have all this on my mind.