Day 7 - Return to Port and Off to Magic Kingdom!!!!!

Since we had second dinner seating we also had the later seating for breakfast at 8am in Parrot Cay. It was a fast breakfast but gave us some time to say good by to "J" as well as Nikola and Nicole. Then we were off. None of us got caught up by customs. The bummer about going to the resorts versus straight to the airport is luggage handling. When you are going to the airport they handle your luggage for you. You put it outside your room by 11pm the last night and don't see it again until you land at home (assuming you flew on a participating airline). But when you are going to the resorts you have to collect your luggage at the port terminal and bring it to the bus with you. Not a big deal for me since I had just the two smaller bags and my Get Carried Away Tote. But still not as nice as them handling it the entire way. We got over by the resort buses and were put on a shuttle van instead of a large motor coach - they told us it would be faster. It was super cramped (not sure HOW he got everyone's luggage inside!) but Boardwalk was the first stop so it probably was much faster than going on a motor couch.

We headed into Boardwalk (our first time staying there) and went to the on-line check in desk. We really wanted a room right away since I didn't want to leave my iPad and souvenirs with bell services when we left for the park. Because of this it took a little while for them to find us a room. I hit up the little shop for some OTC drugs I wanted and then bought my 1 day park pass (to be used the next day) at the Guest Services desk while mom waited at check in. Eventually mom got checked in (we did get a room). Donna got checked in, but not with a room yet. And they both got their park passes. Then we headed up to our room to drop our stuff off before heading off the Magic Kingdom.

I know some of you were interested in our thoughts on our Boardwalk Villa. We got a studio, same as at Bay Lake Tower, Beach Club (last year) and Old Key West (many years past). From a BED perspective I would rank my preference as Old Key West, Bay Lake Tower, Boardwalk, then Beach Club. Old Key West is at the top of my list because they are the only DVC that actually has two BEDS in the studio versus a bed and a sofa bed. Bay Lake Tower would be next, because as the one who has to sleep on the sofa bed - it had more of a foam type mattress, didn't seem/feel like a sofa bed at all. Boardwalk and Beach Club have the same sofa beds. Not particularly comfortable to me, but the Boardwalk one seem slightly better than Beach Club. From a space/room perspective I'd probably order my preference as Old Key West, Boardwalk, Bay Lake, then Beach Club. Old Key West has a different layout on their studios that is VERY roomy. We also were impressed with how roomy Boardwalk was. Bay Lake was smaller, but adequate. The bathroom sink in the kitchenette area didn't really bother us. Nor did the pocket door on the bathroom. Beach Club felt very small to us (plus not well maintained and rather dirty when we stayed there. From a resort LOCATION standpoint this becomes harder. But since I like being at the Epcot resort area a lot (perhaps even more so than being on the monorail) I'm going to say Boardwalk, Bay Lake, Beach Club, Old Key West. Although it seemed like our room was really far at Boardwalk - it probably wasn't any further than our Beach Club Villa was to get to Epcot, and catching the boat if need be is on the way versus at Beach Club where you would go out of your way to get the boat. I also like that you can boat or walk to DHS from Boardwalk pretty easily. Being on the monorail did seem nice...but we were only there one day so its hard to say for sure how much I liked it. And since there were many monorail issues the weekend we were here....I can't say being on the monorail was particularly convenient! Anyway...those are my thoughts on the DVC Studio Villas - now back to my report!

We headed off to Magic Kingdom after dropping our stuff in our room. Originally we were ONLY going to go to Epcot using our Give a Day free days. But when I saw that the Magic Kingdom was open until 2am this day we decided we could still get a full day in despite getting to the parks late. So off we went. I've been listening to the WDW Today podcast for some time, and am an avid reader of the Unofficial Guide. So I had a strong desire to test out the Touring Plans. Mom said she was okay with this..but she kind of mocked it the entire time and didn't really want to adhere to the plans. Donna and I tried to sneak peaks at them to move on..but she was onto us. The nice thing was, the park wasn't particularly crowded (Touringplans.com had it as a 4 out of 10). It seemed like there were a lot of people there, but none of the lines were particularly crowded. We lunched at Pecos Bills after hearing so many great things about it. Mom and I both had pulled pork. Donna had a burger. Next time I think I might try the taco salad, but everything was delicious. We also enjoyed sitting even though we'd only been in the park an hour so by then. It was SOOOOOOOO hot and humid in Florida last weekend things were really uncomfortable. We definitely found ourselves looking for ways to try and cool off.

I won't go thru the blow by blow on the rides we did during the day. I will say that every time we tried to go on Big Thunder Mountain it was broken. We finally got on that around 1am. Space Mountain also went down right when we were going to get fast passes for it. Took nearly an hour to get it up and running again. This was much later in the day (around 9-10pm I think). Once it was up and running again, the line was LONG...over 60 minutes. I wanted to wait and come back later since the park was open until 2am. I figured if we knew the line would be much shorter later we should do other stuff and come back. Mom insisted on getting in line. So we did. We waited 75 minutes. By the time we got off the ride it had a 15 minute wait. I was not pleased. By then I decided I was done and didn't want to be the parks anymore. That's when we did Big Thunder and left just after 1am. The other thing we did that we don't normally do, is spend a bit of time in ToonTown. Since ToonTown is going away we wanted one last chance to see it and say good-bye, and I took LOTS of pictures!

We did leave the parks for a while to go to the Polynesian for dinner at Ohana. I hadn't eaten there in YEARS and spotted potsickers on the menu so it was a must do for me. Mom and Donna were happy to go along. Dinner was WONDERFUL. We got seated quickly despite showing up nearly 30 minutes late due to the monorail issues that day. My favorites were the potstickers and the noodles. But the beef was also super yummy.

The BAD thing about this day, and probably contributing to my crabbiness as the day wore on were my feet. Last time we were on vacation - I wore my crocs exclusively for the 1 week at WDW and the 1 week on the Magic. I did have my socks on much of the time then, but definitely not all. So this time I went with my crocs again. But it was raining, so my socks came off before we even left the Boardwalk. And unlike last time it was super hot and super humid. I finished the day with blisters in places I didn't even know I could GET blisters. By the time I realized I was going to HAVE issues...I couldn't find socks in my size in any of the stores I went into! So by the end of the day I had a good 5 blisters in various places on my feet making it incredibly painful to walk anywhere. No fun!

We were back at Boardwalk and I was in bed by 2am.