Staycation Rewind

Last Friday night, as every Friday night, Sean and I were sitting on the couch, tv on, laptops on, cell phone in hand, and boredom nesting itself into our current state of mind. Like so many times I ask Star Wars God Sean "What do you want to do this weekend?"; his answer, "I don't know, what do you wanna do?". I have become less and less flustered about the "I don't know" answers to my questions because I realize I do it too, just maybe not as often. So anyway, as my mind is always thinking, I went onto the DVC Member webiste (for those of you unfamiliar, it is the Disney Vacation Club website) and wanted to see if any rooms are available on such short notice at one of the resorts at WDW. After entering the date, which was Saturday to Sunday, I waited for the page to load and, sure enough, never fails, the rooms that were available were the same ones we had stayed at oh so many times before; Old Key West Resort or Saratoga Springs. I really did not want to use my points on these rooms so I clicked "search again". I was not expecting any different results, however when Boardwalk Villas, or BWV for short, came up as being available I had to snag it. And I did!

Let me start off by saying how difficult and unlikely it is to have availability at BWV on such short notice. I mean, before we would need to book, especially on a weekend, at least 3 to 4 months in advance. With the room reservation done, I couldn't contain my excitement and started dancing and yelling out "Woohoo, Boardwalk, baby!" (don't ask lol).

As we really didn't want to spend a ton of money on our 24 hour excursion, I decided to cook Sloppy Joes and pack it up to take with us on our stay. This way we eliminated one restaurant meal, or about $50.00. I also told Sean that we will eat the Sloppy Joes for dinner and then eat lunch at the resort directly, which is, besides breakfast, one of the cheaper overall meals.

At 7am I heard the soothing sound of waves wake me up; yes, waves (thank you BlackBerry alarm for being so kind). I got up, made breakfast and woke Sean up. We ate breakfast, packed our overnight bag, and headed to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We got there at 9:03am, perfect timing. We walked around the park and, for the first time, were able to catch The Lion King show, which was awesome! Very Cirque Du Soleil-y! By the time the show ended it was already 11am and we decided to ride some more rides. We bought a snack, 2 eggrolls and a drink and by 1:00pm I told Sean we should go to the resort to see if our room is ready yet, although check-in is not until 4pm. Luckily, it was!

As we made our way through the Boardwalk resort I could not wait to get to the third floor to see our room; boardwalk view, of course. We got into the room and it was a lot more spacious than I though and the view was phenomenal. We were right about the Big River Grille restaurant and were able to see the entire boardwalk from our room. We chilled out on the balcony for a while, people watching, and then decided to have the Sloppy Joes for lunch and find something "cheap" for dinner. After that, as we did not have any place to be, I decided it was time for a nap! After a 2 hour nap I rolled over and saw Sean was still sleeping. I stepped back out on the balcony and enjoyed the scenery. Once Sean woke up, we went downstairs to explore.

The Resort has so much to offer; from games, to recreational activities such as tandem bike riding, shopping, and dining. As the sun was setting we decided to take a stroll to the other side of the lake where the Yacht Club and Beach Club Resorts are located. At the Beach Club Resort, they offered complimentary S'more making on the beach and UP! playing under the stars.

We decided to get dinner at the Germany Pavillion at Epcot because we could walk there from the resort. After downing a Brat and what seemed like a half gallon of soda we headed back to the resort. To finish the night, we went to the Atlantic Dancehall also located at the BWV resort. There we had a couple of drinks and, by midnight, made our way back to the room. The next morning we grabbed some breakfast treats at the Boardwalk Bakery and enjoyed our last few hours before check out while sitting on the pier and watching the boats go by.

For those of you wondering, here is a breakdown of the money we spent:
(1) bottled soda - $2.59
(2) Eggrolls (as snacks at the Animal Kingdom) - $5.12
(2) Brats with Sauerkraut and (2) sodas - $20.19
(1) Egg and Cheese croissant - $4.19
(1) Bagel with Cream Cheese - $2.69
(1) Latte - $3.39
(1) Mickey Mouse Oreo Cupcake - $5.12

Total: $43.29
Not bad for a trip to the happiest, and sometimes, most expensive place on earth :)