We left Hilton Head at 9:15, bidding farewell to the leisure part of our vacation. We made two stops along the way - a quick bio break and a dessert break at a Dairy Queen just before we reached I-4. I was anticipating a six-hour trip and we hit it right on the money, when we reached the Boardwalk Villas at 3:15 in the afternoon. There is no sight to please the eyes like that of the Main Gate as you drive through it.

    The CM who checked us in was James, a trainee. I’m always glad to get a trainee, because I get a certain pleasure out of helping them earn their ears. James was having some problems with the computer and was getting flustered, so I told him to relax, we weren’t in any big rush. When he gave us our rooms, he commented that we were the first guests he checked in who got a boardwalk view. When I made my reservation, I had requested a view, going one step further and requesting certain rooms that I’ve seen other DVC members recommend. One of those rooms was 4011/4013, and we almost nailed it, getting the same room one floor below. Just as we were finishing up, with perfect timing, my folks showed up. They drove up from Boca Raton to spend the week with us.   Between the two cars, We needed three bell carts with all the stuff we had - I guess the one disadvantage of driving. You tend to over-pack and don’t consolidate things as well as when you’re flying.

    We went up to the room and checked out the view. And what a view it was. We really lucked out. These rooms were as perfect as you can get. We were right over Big River Brewery. You could see Spaceship Earth clearly, through the Yacht Club, and we had a clear view up and down the boardwalk. While the rooms are smaller than Old Key West, there is still plenty of room. I especially like the wide deck that goes from the bedroom to the living room. Noting recent comments about room conditions, I couldn’t find any fault with our rooms.

    While checking out the view of the boardwalk, Seth saw two CMs at Big River below me wearing lanyards. While Judy unpacked, I went downstairs to trade pins. I got a Big River 2000 pin, which the CM told me was being retired.

    This was the only night we didn’t have dinner plans, so we decided to try and get a priority seating at Restaurant Marrakesh. We managed to get a 6:15 seating and left the room at 3:30 to head towards EPCOT.

    We grabbed the boat over, since it was there and after taking care of my parents’ new AP tickets, we headed toward Morocco. We got a table just to the right of the open area where the belly dancer performs. Judy and the kids ordered the vegetable cous cous, my folks got the lamb cous cous and I ordered the Roast Lamb Meshoui.

    After dinner, we went to the Millennium Village. My eye caught the pin cart right near the entrance and I went over there to check it out. I have to give a lot of credit to the rest of my family, since I drove them crazy all trip stopping to check pins out whenever I saw them. I became a real pin addict. As I was checking out the pins, Off Kilter started playing, so I went over to listen for a while. Then I went back to the pin cart and bought my first batch of pins.