Miami, Key West, and Disney..Oh My! The January 2024 Girls Trip – Day 7 – Disney World
When we originally planned this trip, Cara booked her flight home on Thursday night, and Sara was staying until Saturday. However, a couple of days ago, Cara found out her Thursday evening flight had been canceled, so her choices were to either fly home on the early flight on Thursday morning or not get home until Friday evening. Since she had clients on Friday, she chose the Thursday morning option, leaving only two days in Orlando. The initial plan before this change-up was to get to Orlando and see how we felt Monday evening; then, they were going to purchase either two or three-day hopper tickets, which would give us either two days in the parks and a resort day or three days in the parks (with long afternoon breaks). But, after our long weekend and being in the car all day yesterday, we decided to make today a low-key resort-hopping day and spend one long marathon day in the parks on Wednesday.
January 16, 2024 – I was awake early, so I decided to get dressed and take a walk. I absolutely love to explore this resort early in the morning because it is always so peaceful. Disney’s Boardwalk Inn and Villas are actually two resorts in one. On one side is Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, one of the Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels, and on the other is Disney’s Boardwalk Villas, A Disney Vacation Club Resort, which features studios, one, two, and three-bedroom villas. All the DVC rooms, except the studios, have full kitchens, washers and dryers, and separate living and sleeping spaces. A lobby connects the two sections, which share all the amenities, such as restaurants, a fun feature pool, two quiet pools, and access to the Boardwalk, which has restaurants, shops, and nightly entertainment. We are staying in a studio on the DVC side of the resort.
After my walk, I stopped at Carousel Coffee to pick up a latte and took it back to the room to enjoy it on the balcony while the other two slept in a little bit….I’ll take this view any day!
Once everyone was up and ready, we set out for a fun day of resort hopping. We walked along the Boardwalk and headed to Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club for our first stop, at the Yacht Club.
The lobby of the Yacht Club is always a fun stop, and I love taking people there to check it out. This beautiful lobby has a nautical theme, with a giant globe and a ship’s wheel. We didn’t want to spend too much time here, so we only visited the Yacht Club and didn’t make it over to the Beach Club side.
Disney’s Beach Club Resort and Villas is another resort similar to Boardwalk, where part of it is a resort and part of it is Vacation Club Villas. I have stayed on the Beach Club side, in the Vacation Club Villas, multiple times but never at the Yacht Club. At the end of this girl’s trip, Marc is joining me for another eight nights in Florida. After spending most of it in South Florida, we will be staying here on our final night before heading back to Kansas, so I am super excited and will share more details about this resort then.
Fun Fact: Disney’s Boardwalk Inn and Villas, Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club and Beach Club Villas, and the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin (which are not owned by Disney but enjoy most of the same perks as a Disney Resort) are all nestled around Crescent Lake. This resort area sits just outside the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. This “back” entrance to the park is located in Epcot’s World Showcase between France and the United Kingdom. A walkway starts at this entrance and connects all the resorts mentioned above, then continues along the waterway to the entrance of Hollywood Studios. If you don’t feel like walking, a boat also connects Epcot to each of these resorts and Hollywood Studios. In addition, the Epcot Skyliner Station is located at the International Gateway of Epcot. It has a direct flight to Disney’s Riviera and Caribbean Beach Resorts, where you can transfer to the Hollywood Studios Skyliner or the Art of Animation/Pop Century Skyliner. These reasons alone are why I love staying at any of the resorts in this area.
After exploring, we headed to the boat dock to catch the boat to Hollywood Studios, where we planned on taking a bus to one of the Magic Kingdom resorts. One thing on all three of our must-do lists was to go to Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto at the Polynesian. However, it didn’t open until 3 pm, so we decided to jump on whichever bus for that resort area came first and figure out where to eat lunch, depending on what resort we ended up at.
When we got to the Hollywood Studios bus stop, the first bus that came was the one that stopped at both the Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge Resorts. I recommended we stop at Wilderness Lodge, explore the resort, and grab lunch at Geyser Point Bar and Grill. After a quick look at the menu, Sara and Cara thought it sounded good, so that became our next destination. Disney’s Wilderness Lodge is another fun resort themed after the American Northwest National Park Lodges. It has a majestic lobby filled with totem poles, fireplaces, and a stream that starts in the lobby and continues to the pool. I really like this resort but have not stayed here since January 2006, so I need to try to get back here soon.
Next, we headed to Geyser Point for lunch. This open-air Bar and Grill is the pool bar located next to the Boulder Ridge Pool. We all got drinks, and Cara and I got the Multigrain Salad with Chicken while Sara went for the Turkey BLT Sandwich. We had a lovely relaxing lunch, enjoying our view of Bay Lake.
Fun Fact: Wilderness Lodge has not one but two different Disney Vacation Club Resorts attached to it. The original property, Boulder Ridge Villas, opened in 2000 and is in a separate building connected to the lobby by a covered walkway. The newest addition is Copper Creek Villas and Cabins, which opened in 2017 and occupies the southwest wing of the main building. There are also 26 waterfront stand-alone two-bedroom cabins that accommodate up to eight people. The resorts share all their amenities, such as restaurants, transportation, and pools. These resorts also have a Friendship Boat that runs all day to the Magic Kingdom and a separate line that goes to the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness Campgrounds, but that route does not start until 3 pm.
After we ate, we needed to head to the Polynesian to get our names on the list for Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, so we took the boat to Magic Kingdom, then transferred to the resort Monorail to take us to the Polynesian.
Trader Sam’s is a fun little Tiki Bar that opens at 3 pm and is super popular. They only admit around 50 people at a time, so there is always a waitlist to which you can add your name at 2 pm. People usually start lining up anywhere from 60-90 minutes before this time to be one of the first groups admitted for the day. If you get there later to put your name on the list, sometimes it can be a couple of hours before you get a table since they don’t admit new guests until someone leaves, and this bar is so fun some parties will stay for quite a while. Once you add your name to the list, you do a little shopping, grab a bite to eat, or have a drink at one of the other bars around the resort.
We finally got to the Polynesian a little before 2 pm to get our names on the waitlist. We knew we would have a bit of a wait, which was OK with us as it allowed us to check out the resort. After checking out some of the shops, we headed upstairs to grab a drink from the Tambu Lounge. The seats at the bar were full, but there was a walk-up section to get drinks to go, so we ordered and then found a spot to relax in the seating area just outside the bar.
Then we walked outside to check out the pool and beach area, where we stopped at the Barefoot Pool Bar for our next drink.
Shortly after 4 pm, we received the text that our table was ready, so he headed back inside. There are only a few tables inside, so unless you get seated at the bar, expect to share a table with another party or two. Also, this bar is very interactive, so plan to get involved with all the fun antics to make the most of your experience. I have now been here three different times, and every time has been a lot of fun. Each visit has been a different experience, as all the different antics depend on what drinks are ordered by guests, as well as how much guest involvement is happening.
We ordered drinks and appetizers and stayed for almost two hours. We also enjoyed talking with our table mates and the other parties around us.
After we left Trader Sam’s, we took an Uber back to our resort, where we dropped our stuff off in the room. Then Sara and I went to the Belle Vue Lounge for our next round, while Cara called her daughter and joined us a little later. This cute little lounge, located just off the lobby, has a 1930s theme and is a great place to relax. We grabbed tables outside, as it was a little less crowded and was a great place to people-watch.
Our final stop for the night was at Abracadabar, located on the Boardwalk. This unique bar allows guests to step back in time to the golden age of magic, to a cocktail lounge where famous magicians, illusionists, and their assistants used to spend their time. This place is small and usually packed in the evenings, so we were lucky to find seats inside. They also have outside seating along the Boardwalk if you can’t find a table inside or at the bar. We ordered a charcuterie board to share and one last round of drinks before calling it an early night since we had a long day planned for tomorrow.
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