Here goes my first trip report. DW and I came down for a quick trip to do F&W and some shopping sans kids.
Day 1
Finally arrived around noon after a delay at BWI (seems to be the norm there lately).
Our room was ready as we were driving to the resort. Made a quick stop at Publix for some essentials. The guard was great at BWV, energetic and genuinely excited. Got to our room 3051. This is a Boardwalk view room. Its in the lobby entrance area so we were only able to see part of the Boardwalk and lake due to a tree. It's still a great view though. Dropped our bags and headed to Epcot. Epcot wasn't too busy so we were able to get everything fairly quickly. After about 5-6 hours we headed back to the room to relax a little bit. It was a long day after catching a 6 AM flight. At 8:30 we went down to the boardwalk for a margarita night cap and some pizza. It was perfect timing as we caught the MK fireworks and then the Epcot fireworks. Did some browsing at the Screen Door and Wyland Galleries. After that we decided to call it a day.
Day 2 Check out day
Made coffee and enjoyed the patio. "The best part of a DVC vacation"
Went down to the Screen Door again to pick up some last minute souvenirs. Got back to the room and started packing and received a knock on the door. It was housekeeping just asking if we needed anything. I thought this was great. To me it's that little bit extra. I made sure to mention her in my survey comments. We finished packing, loaded up the car, then took the Skyliner to Riviera for breakfast at Primo Piatto. I had the lemon blueberry pancakes and DW had the French toast. The service was excellent, friendly CMs everywhere. The food was excellent. We wanted to see the rooms at Riviera so we went to the lobby and checked in at the DVC desk. One of the CMs there is from a town close to where we live so that was great. Love that part of Disney. You can immediately make a connection with CMs that way. We looked at the two bedroom lock-off and tower studio. DW loved the size of the rooms. We own at PVB resale so Riviera. We're strongly considering a small contract at Riviera for our short adult only trips and/or every other year trips or something in between. We love the Boardwalk area but the length of contract left doesn't make sense financially.
After that we went back to the car and headed to Disney Springs. Checked out World of Disney (of course) and a few of the other shops in that area. Then went to The Boathouse for a late lunch. We were still pretty full from the late breakfast. We went straight to the outside bar out back. If you've never done that, check it out it's worth it. We had a couple drinks and split the sliders. We told them we were going to split it and the served it on two separate plates for us. Another great service moment. After lunch we made our way back to the car and headed to the airport.
Cast Members on this trip were absolutely amazing. I haven't experienced this kind of service at Disney in a long time. It was better then our February trip. I hope it continues. I couldn't tell if it was less crowded or just that now things were open. We only went to Epcot, it wasn't ever overly crowded there. It lightened up mid day but got busier again as it got into the evening. I'm sure that's because of park hopping. The Boardwalk was definitely busier then our February trip there. More things were open and open later. Still not crowded by any means. We'll be back in November so it will be interesting to see how crowds are then with the 50th celebration in full swing.
Day 1
Finally arrived around noon after a delay at BWI (seems to be the norm there lately).
Our room was ready as we were driving to the resort. Made a quick stop at Publix for some essentials. The guard was great at BWV, energetic and genuinely excited. Got to our room 3051. This is a Boardwalk view room. Its in the lobby entrance area so we were only able to see part of the Boardwalk and lake due to a tree. It's still a great view though. Dropped our bags and headed to Epcot. Epcot wasn't too busy so we were able to get everything fairly quickly. After about 5-6 hours we headed back to the room to relax a little bit. It was a long day after catching a 6 AM flight. At 8:30 we went down to the boardwalk for a margarita night cap and some pizza. It was perfect timing as we caught the MK fireworks and then the Epcot fireworks. Did some browsing at the Screen Door and Wyland Galleries. After that we decided to call it a day.
Day 2 Check out day
Made coffee and enjoyed the patio. "The best part of a DVC vacation"
Went down to the Screen Door again to pick up some last minute souvenirs. Got back to the room and started packing and received a knock on the door. It was housekeeping just asking if we needed anything. I thought this was great. To me it's that little bit extra. I made sure to mention her in my survey comments. We finished packing, loaded up the car, then took the Skyliner to Riviera for breakfast at Primo Piatto. I had the lemon blueberry pancakes and DW had the French toast. The service was excellent, friendly CMs everywhere. The food was excellent. We wanted to see the rooms at Riviera so we went to the lobby and checked in at the DVC desk. One of the CMs there is from a town close to where we live so that was great. Love that part of Disney. You can immediately make a connection with CMs that way. We looked at the two bedroom lock-off and tower studio. DW loved the size of the rooms. We own at PVB resale so Riviera. We're strongly considering a small contract at Riviera for our short adult only trips and/or every other year trips or something in between. We love the Boardwalk area but the length of contract left doesn't make sense financially.
After that we went back to the car and headed to Disney Springs. Checked out World of Disney (of course) and a few of the other shops in that area. Then went to The Boathouse for a late lunch. We were still pretty full from the late breakfast. We went straight to the outside bar out back. If you've never done that, check it out it's worth it. We had a couple drinks and split the sliders. We told them we were going to split it and the served it on two separate plates for us. Another great service moment. After lunch we made our way back to the car and headed to the airport.
Cast Members on this trip were absolutely amazing. I haven't experienced this kind of service at Disney in a long time. It was better then our February trip. I hope it continues. I couldn't tell if it was less crowded or just that now things were open. We only went to Epcot, it wasn't ever overly crowded there. It lightened up mid day but got busier again as it got into the evening. I'm sure that's because of park hopping. The Boardwalk was definitely busier then our February trip there. More things were open and open later. Still not crowded by any means. We'll be back in November so it will be interesting to see how crowds are then with the 50th celebration in full swing.
Regarding housekeeping, it's common for housekeepers to knock on your door well before checkout time, in order to hurry you up so you check out early.
