Fred, Wilma and Family - A Graduation is Cause for Celebration - Day 6 (Moving Day)

[wilma-bride]

Saturday 25th August

Rea and I were up early this morning so we took the opportunity to video call Sian on FaceBook Messenger. She had a bit of a hangover so was still in bed. I took her out on the balcony to show her our bus stop view!

We were messing about with the filters on messenger and all of a sudden she became this weird dog/wolf thing. It was hilarious and Rea and I could barely speak, the expressions on her face were so funny. We were laughing so much we woke Daniel and Gary – oops.

This filter represented how much she was missing us.

So, today we were moving to a new resort – Boardwalk Villas. This is one of my favourite resorts at Disney World (the other being Villas at Wilderness Lodge) so I was very much looking to staying here. We had finished packing up last night so, after leaving our bags in the capable hands of Bell Services, we boarded a bus to Disney Springs, where we were meeting Kim and Terry. This was the first time we had any real issues with wait times for the buses, and we ended up waiting about half an hour.

I know there are many who don't like Disney Springs now and feel it's not very 'Disney' but, personally, I love what they have done with the place. It feels so much more spacious and parts of it are truly beautiful.

The first job of the day was to renew our Annual Passes and upgrade Rhiannon and Daniel’s 14-day Ultimate tickets to Annual Passes. With hindsight, the decision to upgrade at Disney Springs was probably not the best as it appears to be one of the most expensive places to do it. For some reason, there is no hard and fast cost, it is whatever you get quoted on the day. We paid $184.46 to upgrade Daniel’s ticket to a Gold Annual Pass. Rea upgraded hers at the same cost. Then Gary and I paid $1065 to renew our Annual Passes (we downgraded from Platinum Plus to Gold at the same time, this wasn’t an issue at all).

After this was done, since it had been more than 12 hours since our last meal, we were all starving so made our way over to Chicken Guy! for lunch. While we were sitting at the table, Rhiannon came over to take a straw (her, Daniel and Ben were at a separate table). As she went to pick the straw up, Terry looked up and said “That’s mine”. Quick as a flash, Rhiannon said “Is there something wrong with the other 5 straws there”, to which Terry pointed at the straw in her hand and replied “But I want that one!” So Rea removes the paper, licks the straw all down the length of it and offers it to Terry “Still want it?” Kim turns to me and said “Yep, she’s definitely your child”

After lunch, we wandered around the shops. In February, Gary had spotted a watch he liked in Luxury of Time. He dragged me into the shop so he could look at it again, so I decided to look at diamond rings. The salesman wandered over and offered to show it to me closer. I told him I wasn’t looking to buy. He proceeded to tell me all about the quality of the ring and the clarity and cut of the diamond. I told him to cut to the chase and just tell me the price lol. $10,000! I told him if I won the lottery I would come back and buy it. He told me that if he won the lottery, he would buy me the ring. For a laugh, I took off my ring and asked him to value it. He inspected it thoroughly and I laughed and told him it cost me 6. “6000?” he asks. “No, £6”. I found it hilarious, him probably not so much

Next, we popped into Sephora. Terry managed to put lipstick on Daniel, thinking it was plastic. World of Disney was a complete disappointment. I hope it’s just the fact that it is still under refurb, but it just doesn’t seem to have as much merchandise as it used to, and nothing really out of the ordinary. While we were here, I picked up the free Toy Story Band that came with Rhiannon’s 14-Day Ultimate ticket.

Gary did find a t-shirt he liked.

We were still full so, for the first time probably ever, we didn’t go into Ghirardelli for the free chocolate, however we then went into Amorette’s and ended up eating cakes

Rea and Ben had been off exploring on their own, but at this point we met up with them again. After Daniel bought a pin for his girlfriend, we decided to head back to the resort and try to get some pool time so we hopped on a bus back to Boardwalk.

We checked in and got our Magic Bands. Our room wasn’t ready but we had brought swimming stuff with us so it wasn’t a problem. We did ask if it would be possible to be allocated a room near Kim and Terry though. As she was looking, she managed to find a room that was ready and on the same floor as them (rooms 3080 and 3082 – a 2 bedroom lock-off). So we hurried up to the room to change and made our way down to the pool. Unfortunately, just as we got there, they shut the pool down and so we went back to the room. We decided to go for a drink, but first I called down to see if our luggage had arrived from Animal Kingdom Villas. It had and the lady said she would get it sent up right away. While we were sat in the room, we noticed it was looking quite tired. Boardwalk Villas had a refurb only about 3 years ago, so we were surprised how scruffy it looked. And there was a noticeable lack of USB sockets, plug sockets and mod cons, compared to Animal Kingdom Villas. As I opened the door to the laundry cupboard, it came off in my hand. Gary managed to refit it, but it was very rickety. It was still a beautiful villa though, despite the minor issues.

The sofa seemed comfortable for two people

And we had a nice view of the pool area and the back of Leaping Horse Libations.

Forty minutes later, we were still waiting for the luggage so I called again and spoke to the same person, who couldn’t remember me calling before and started asking me if it was an Amazon delivery I was expecting. Eventually, I made myself clear and a few minutes later, Bell Services arrived with our bags. By now it was raining so, with the pool definitely out, we made our way down to the Boardwalk and into Abracadabar.

A little while later, my friend Julie messaged me to say she had just arrived at Boardwalk and a few minutes later our other friends Mari, Jeff and their children, Jonathan and Carmen, arrived. We had all met on the Westbound Panama Canal cruise in 2015 so it was nice to catch up, although we had seen them all individually since then.

Just before 8, we parted ways as we had a dinner reservation at Beaches and Cream. We took a slow stroll over. Just love this area of Disney World, it is so peaceful and relaxing, and I finally felt like I was ‘home’.

I took this lovely picture of Rea and Ben on the bridge between Boardwalk and International Gateway.

We left the restaurant full and happy and walked back to the Boardwalk. Unfortunately, when we got to the room, some of our bands wouldn’t open the door to room 3082 and nobody could open 3080, so we decided to stop by the front desk the next day to try and get it sorted.

After unpacking, Gary and I pulled out the sleeper sofa in the lounge area for Daniel and we all hit the sack!

[mick]

Another good day

Joan

[Cinderella]

Ahh I do love the Boardwalk 👍

[Floridaagogo]

Loving the straw licking 😂😂

[dixonsontour]

Boardwalk room looks lovely.