• Sue's 2021 F&W Trip - Day 4 of 9

    From Sue/WDW1972@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 9 17:15:25 2021
    DAY 4 – Tuesday 11/9/21
    Who: Sue (63), DVC Member
    SB (64), husband
    Pete & Judy (60’s), DVC friends
    Bonnie (60’s), Judy’s friend since kindergarten

    Plan: Move to Boardwalk, Pool, SB arrives, Food & Wine

    Actual: I slept well once again, waking up around 4:30 but not getting up until 5. I enjoyed my cappuccino in bed, and after 6 called SB to remind him to bring his magic band(s). I noticed my personal cell phone was indicating an update needed to be
    installed, so I ran that. I had my usual breakfast and finished the apple crumble tart.

    I packed up most of my stuff, and at 8:30 did my meeting with my team at work. It ran long today, so I let Pete know. Shortly after 10 I was out the door and drove over to Boardwalk. There was no traffic and I didn’t to stop for any snacks, meals or
    bathroom breaks along the way <g>. I parked in self-parking and brought my cooler and suitcase up the hill. It’s so easy rolling the suitcase on hard surfaces, but a bit more challenging on carpet. Still, it wasn’t too bad. I did wish their room
    wasn’t almost at the end of the very long hallway. I hope when I get mine it won’t be so far.

    Pete, Judy & Bonnie were all in the villa. I dropped off my stuff and asked about their plans. Basically everyone was feeling lazy, lol. I left and drove to Disney Springs, hoping for success at Gideon’s. The Orange garage had lots of empty spaces,
    which was a good sign. I parked very close to the entrance and walked over to Gideon’s. The virtual queue had been started, and when I checked the current return time was around 40 minutes. I joined the queue, then wandered around Disney Springs
    for about half an hour.

    I returned to the Gideon’s area to deal with some work stuff, and right at 35 minutes got the notification it was my time. The return queue wasn’t terribly long, and before I knew it I was ending my work call because it was my turn at a register. I
    got a pistachio toffee chocolate chip cookie for me, the limited edition (chocolate w/dulce de leche filling, cinnamon & touch of cayenne pepper) for SB and a bag of the bites.

    From there I headed straight back to Boardwalk, and tried to access the stairwell under their room but the door is locked and my magic band wouldn’t unlock it because I’ve never gotten my villa. I trudged back up the hill and decided to stop at the
    front desk to make sure my magic bands would actually work. Of course, there was a line of people there – sigh. Pete & Judy were passing by and stopped to say hi on their way to pick up some supplies from the local gas station.

    I chatted with a lady in line, and she’d also had a horrible experience checking in here – actually arriving late (due to a flight delay) at 8pm and being told they were “working on” finding her a room. An hour later they put her in the Inn, way
    at the end of the hall (she’d booked a studio). Thankfully it was only 1 night before she moved to a 1br villa for the rest of the trip.

    When it was my turn the cast member confirmed the magic bands should work. The villa still wasn’t ready. I went up to Pete & Judy’s room, where Bonnie was relaxing. I abandoned my original plan of the pool, since time was running so short. I have
    a 1:30 call I need to do (work), and learned I need to be on a 2pm Teams meeting tomorrow but don’t have Teams set up on my computer. Since upgrading to Windows 11 the laptop runs so slow, so it took forever to get that done. Much later it looked
    like my work account was working – this is so confusing, and so frustrating. Bottom line, I’m not shutting down the laptop. When I move my stuff to my villa I’ll carry the laptop over without signing off in hopes it’ll all just be there when I
    need it tomorrow.

    Pete & Judy returned, and we sat around talking. I ate some of my crackers & cheese, while they had chips, salsa and shrimp cocktail. Nobody wanted a real meal since we have our dinner reservation. At 1:30 I dialed in to my COVID team meeting, which
    lasted until 2:30. I got my room ready text at 2:20 and I’m just a few doors down from Pete & Judy. After my call ended I grabbed a couple things and went to see if my magic band worked. It did! The others were out on the balcony during this time.
    I made another trip or 2, then let them know my room was ready. Bonnie helped me with the last transfer.

    I went to my villa to unpack and put stuff away. Around 3:20 I called SB to see when he was getting on the road and he said he did about 20 minutes ago. I gave him the room number, not knowing he was already in the damn elevator at the resort. A bit
    later there was a knock at the door and I assumed it was Pete, Judy or Bonnie, but it was SB! He’d gotten out of work at 1 after all.

    He only had to bring his toiletries & electronics, so once those were dealt with I poured a glass of wine and texted Pete to say I needed ice from them (to get my wine cold). He didn’t answer, so we walked down there and SB hid around the corner while
    I called Pete to say open the damn door and give me ice. They were all still outside on the balcony, so Judy came in to open the door. SB jumped out to greet her, then we went inside.

    I got my ice cube, and told SB how to find Pete on the balcony, and it was a nice surprise. We sat around out there for quite a while. At one point SB tried my wine and said he liked it, so I went back to our villa and poured him a glass. Since we
    were all here and our dinner reservation wasn’t until 6:15 we agreed I should call to try to move it up. I moved it to 5:15. Around 4:45 SB & I were back in our villa to get ready for dinner, which mean long pants, shirt, jacket since it cools off
    quickly once the sun goes down.

    I worked on updating the report a bit until Pete, Judy & Bonnie came to pick us up. We went downstairs and outside and walked over to Big River Grille. Although there were a couple empty tables they were both 4-tops and the employee explained Disney
    didn’t allow them to move tables because umbrellas were attached to each one. The 3 bigger tables were all occupied, so basically we’d be waiting for someone to leave. We went over and sat on a bench on the boardwalk where we could see the
    restaurant. I thought the party directly ahead of us (but behind a shrub in a box) were the likely ones to leave, but after a while their food arrived! The next big table had people still eating, and beers that were ¾ full, so they weren’t leaving
    any time soon. The other party at the far end didn’t seem to be close to finishing either, so I went back up to the host stand and told the person we’d prefer to be crammed into a 4-top vs waiting for people to finish.

    She was very apologetic, and said the last party had been seated during her 30-minute break (in other words – throwing a coworker under the bus, lol). She brought an extra chair and we arranged ourselves around the square table. Pete’s chair was
    wobbly, so he said something and they sent someone over with something to put in one of the legs to make it stable. Thankfully the table was very steady.

    We looked at the menu, and our server was terrific. We started out with drinks – seltzer for Pete, diet coke for SB, iced tea for Bonnie, and pinot grigio for Judy and me. The server came back to say they were out of tea (?????) so Bonnie switched to
    water. Then she returned to say they were out of pinot grigio – with many apologies, saying their orders were getting cut down by the suppliers and it was hard to get what they needed. Judy & I switched to the sauvignon blanc.

    Pete & Bonnie had been looking forward to the meat loaf, but that’s no longer on the menu. This was getting almost comical. We were starting to joke about how lucky we were to have a knife and fork – they weren’t out of those yet! For food SB
    had a cup of the cheese soup and the club sandwich. The sandwiches here come with house made chips. Bonnie ordered a regular cheeseburger, but asked if they had fries instead of chips. The server said no, lol – and I explained that they’ve never
    had fries here, so they weren’t out of them. The server explained that Disney doesn’t allow them to have fryers because of the “apartments” upstairs. Makes sense that if I’m staying in a villa over Big River Grille I don’t want to be
    smelling grease! Judy ordered the chicken quesadilla, Pete got the black & bleu burger and I got a bowl of the cheese soup.

    When SB’s soup arrived Pete decided that looked really good and ordered a bowl “to go” later. It was very good. When the main food arrived, it was wall excellent. SB loved his club and said the bread was especially great. Bonnie’s burger
    disappeared quickly. Pete said his burger was the best he’s had in a long time. Judy made a dent in her chicken quesadilla and took the rest home, along with half of Pete’s burger. My cheese soup was great. When I finished Pete took my bowl and
    scraped up the couple bites that were left – liking it also. Pete’s birthday was just before this trip so I followed the server inside and arranged to have a single check brought to me rather than the 3 checks originally requested. I did get 10%
    off the food for dvc/passholder.

    After dinner Pete suggested walking around the lake, but SB & I were headed into Epcot. SB had insisted earlier that YES he’d be up for Epcot. I knew better, but didn’t say anything. Now that we’d eaten, he was having second thoughts, lol. The
    other bailed on their walk around the lake, and went to Screen Door to buy eggs before going up to their villa. SB & I continued into Epcot and just walked a short distance (to Japan) before turning around and walking back to Epcot. It was either enter
    the park or cancel the park reservation, and a little walking didn’t hurt either one of us after dinner.

    We were back in the villa shortly after 7 but it felt so much later. I returned a work call (had left the phone in the room since we headed out at 5), and we got settled in. I showed him his Gideon’s cookie and broke off a small piece (at his request
    – he was full but not too full for a taste) and he liked it. I took a small piece of mine, too. At this point we’re settled in relaxing – him in the living room with sports on tv and me in the bedroom where it’ll probably be HGTV.

    Today was a kind of odd day. I didn’t get my lay by the pool day, but I still had a very nice time. Work occupied over 4 hours, and unfortunately there will be some tomorrow too but hopefully not as much and nothing significant the rest of the week.
    I do have a lot of time off scheduled, so this work time helps offset the need to use vacation time. I’m glad Gideon’s was a success this morning, and I enjoyed wandering around Disney Springs for a half-hour. Relaxing out on the balcony with
    everyone was great – such fun, so relaxing. Dinner was excellent despite the outages, and Epcot was busy but so pretty for our evening stroll.

    Tomorrow the others have changed their plans from Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom. SB & I are sticking with Animal Kingdom, as it will be our only chance to do Flight of Passage and the safari. I definitely need pool time tomorrow!!! I’ll need to be
    getting ready by 1:30 for my 2pm Teams meeting (and will watch General Hospital at the same time…shhhhh). Later we’ll all meet back up for dinner/evening at Food & Wine in Epcot. Should be a great day!

    Sue/WDW1972

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