I’ll try to hit the highlights, but I’m sure I forgot something. Seven days goes by so quickly!
BoardWalk Villas; 2 garden/pool view studios; 6 nights; 6 people; 5 ADRs
Friday, 8/15: Super late flight from EWR (9:25 PM 
), but at least we’d wake up in WDW! It was actually cheaper for us to fly out Friday night and pay for the “bonus” night in cash than take the earliest Saturday flight, which is what we initially wanted to do. Luggage was first on the carousel, and our DME bus didn’t take as long to load/go as it usually did during the day. We were the fourth stop out of five, though- I felt bad for the Yacht Club family who was first to board and last to disembark! Still, we had great pool view rooms on the 5th floor and didn’t have to move between our one-night cash booking and the remainder of our trip, booked with DVC points.
Saturday, 8/16: Surprisingly quiet at the BoardWalk Bakery around 8:30 AM and in the morning at the Luna Park pool. The weather was perfect for swimming until noon, when the clouds rolled in and we left for Epcot. We had an FPP for TT, but it had been down all day. We occupied our time during the only monsoon of the trip with-what else- La Cava! TT opened around 4, and we ran to the FPP line. We had a 5 PM ressie at WCC, so we were definitely pushing it, but we figured if there were no additional technical difficulties we’d hop in a cab and be fine. After a 20 minute wait, we finally got in our model test car. None of the tests results were showing, and our car ended up stopping right before the speedometer and the wall hug. In the pouring rain. Looking back, it was really fun and ended up being a huge joke the rest of the trip. Once we got back to unloading, they let us stay and ride it again. Luckily, this time our random stop was inside, instead of out. All was well, though- my car won at the end tabulation 
and we made our reservation by 4:59! Spent the rest of the night chowing down and enjoying MK EMH. Separately- the waiter at WCC saw me on my cellphone (checking Lines chat!), stole it, and wrapped it in saran wrap. It took me about 20 minutes to unwrap the thing without using a knife. Very clever, waiter man.
Sunday, 8/17: Headed to AK for AM EMH and a later Tusker House breakfast! Enjoyed Everest a few times, definitely enjoyed my Mickey waffles, and really enjoyed FOLTK in the new theater! Was sad ITTBAB was still under refurb (I know it’s not a Liner favorite, but I really like Flik and friends!) Headed back to the resort around 2 for swimming, and left for DTD around 6:45. We had to make a pit stop by concierge to fix two magic bands. For our troubles (ten minutes or less), we got a bonus FPP for Anna and Elsa! We were able to score a lane at Splitsville (no wait, no reservation), and bowled during dinner and drinks. The sushi and tuna avocado app were ridiculously good. Fresh, colorful, and delicious. The burger/fries were meh- I’d definitely go back for sushi and apps, and pretty drinks.
Monday, 8/18: DHS all day! Rope dropped RnRC twice. Enjoyed Frozen Summer Fun, although IMHO the parade was very quiet (compared to other, more elaborate parades), and wasn’t worth baking in the heat for. My friends REALLY enjoyed Oaken’s Winter Funland, where we got to take pictures with the cute “cousin” skater, Osvald. Out ToT videos automatically showed on Memory Maker, which is pretty darn cool. Lunch at Sci-Fi was fun, especially for my friends who have never been. Probably wouldn’t go back for a bit. I was the engineer at Backlot Studios Tour, which was way less refreshing than I wanted it to be (10,000 gallons of water plus 95 degree day plus jumpsuit) We entered the gate for Fantasmic at 7:30 for the 8:30 show and got great seats in the 5th row, witch section. Afterwards, we ran back to Hollywood for Frozen fireworks and enjoyed ToT (x3), RnRC (x2) and TSMM (x1, plus our FPP from earlier in the day) during EMH.
Tuesday, 8/19: Late and lazy day. The week got hotter and hotter every day, so the pool crowd grew exponentially. Headed to Epcot for Soarin’, Maelstrom, and drinking around the world! I alternated between drinking and dessert-ing. Dinner at Tutto Italia was good, and the wine was great! We hopped the monorail at 9 (even though I love Illuminations and hated to miss it) for Magic Kingdom end-of-day mountain rush. We hit Space 1x, BTMRR 2X, and closed the night with Splash twice, as the last log of the day.
Wednesday, 8/20: MK all day all day! First ride on 7DMT, and I agree with the general-ish consensus- so cute, great audio-animatronics, wish it was longer, and glad I had FPP! Went on Stitch to waste time in the afternoon (it was the hottest day of record in the past three years! Or so a CM said, anyway), and was a big, sopping pool of sweat for Be Our Guest dinner. Finished the night with Buzz, Incredibles Dance Party (my friend was Frozone’s lady target for the show), Space, Pirates, a private Jungle Cruise at 10:45, and BTMRR to end it.
Thursday, 8/21: Airline check-in was seamless. We walked to DHS for the day in the soupy humidity. Watched Oaken’s cute cousin skate…again. Had an Elsa cupcake and LOVED the frosting- smoother and less granular buttercream than normal Disney cupcakes. More ToT, RnRC, TSMM. Tragical express at 4:15 for our 7:25 flight, and just made it home in time for a mega storm.
Today: Woke up at 5:50 AM on my last technical day of vacay to make ADRs for our February Glass Slipper Challenge trip. Promptly went back to sleep. And the cycle continues…
