Your humbled narrator, who’d rarely stayed this close to scenic waters in past vacations.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
Each year Anne and I take one (1) road trip to a different part of the United States and see attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. One thing we rarely do is fly. We’d much rather drive than be flown unless we absolutely have to…or are given some pretty sweet incentives to do so. Fast-forward to December 2022 and a most unexpected opportunity: The Powers That Be at Anne’s rather large place of employment recognized her and several other employees nationwide for outstanding achievements in the field of excellence. Their grand prize was a Disney World vacation! We could at last announce to friends and family, “THE GOLDENS ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!”
For Anne it was officially, legally a business trip. Much of the time, she’d have to work. Not ME, baby…
After 90+ minutes of going stir-crazy on the convention center’s patio despite free snacks, we were at last escorted to our room in Boca Chica, the building at the Grand Floridian’s eastern edge on the bank of Seven Seas Lagoon. Renovations were completed in fall 2022 to upgrade the rooms to a Mary Poppins theme, apropos of the resort’s Victorian-chic ambiance. Fortunately we weren’t required to wear Sunday suits or hoop skirts.
Their overhauled lobby, as seen from our second-floor perch.
Mary Poppins art in the lobby.
The second-floor carpet.
In terms of square footage, we’ve stayed in bigger hotels. Fairfield Inns routinely have pretty spacious accommodations for us middle-class ragamuffins. But the bathroom was appreciably spacious, and there were the cutesy animals and floating nannies in the details. Boca Chica was a vast improvement over our 2007 Orlando matchbox.
Disney beds, one of each of us for value-added sprawling space, which is something we each crave. I just realized I left my pill organizer on the nightstand.
Birdie chandelier.
Flowery closet doors.
Bonus mirror outside the bathroom.
Closer look at the birds next to the mirror.
Mary Poppins diptych.
Mary Poppins lumbar pillow.
Amenities included Disney brand K-Cups, the most free coffee I’ve ever had in a hotel room. Now that I’ve recently gotten into using K-cups at work, I wish I’d taken a few home with me.
Disney toiletries! I took the cooling gel home because it worked like magic. Months later I tried to order more online only to learn it’d been discontinued.
Disney cleaning fluids! Or course there were!
The room’s real star was the balcony view.
On the balcony was our first look at Seven Seas Lagoon, adjacent to the main park and other Disney World resorts. A monorail surrounds the lagoon.
Soothing lagoon ripples and oceanesque sounds abounded even though we were nowhere near the ocean. In the distance is Disney’s Contemporary Resort, our backup option if the Grand Floridian had been full.
A happy Disney ferry full of guests who got to start having Disney fun before we did.
On the lagoon’s north banks, Disney’s Magic Kingdom beckoned.
COMPUTER, ENHANCE IMAGE. Voila: our first-ever in-person glimpse of the iconic Cinderella Castle. Alas, our first footsteps in its presence were still a full 48 hours away.
East of the Castle lay what looked like a billion-dollar futuristic indoor agricultural complex. On Thursday we’d learn this was Tomorrowland.
Lest our exotic getaway feel too idyllic, exiting Boca Chica’s back door brought us to this sobering reminder of that time in 2016 when an alligator mauled a 2-year-old to death right around here.
ANYWAY, WELCOME TO FLORIDA, YOU CRAZY KIDS!
On the brighter side, this was sunrise Wednesday across the lagoon.
Most importantly, more so than any Disney-classic Easter-egg-deco flourishes: all our luggage was safely in our room, waiting for us as promised. Everything else was extra credit. Lots of extra credit.
As of March 2023 a stay on our own dime would’ve run $900 a night. This is not who we are. For three nights we could escape into a temporary fantasy that this was real life.
Unfortunately the next step on our itinerary was to go our separate ways.
To be continued!
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[Link enclosed here to handy checklist for other chapters and for our complete major trip history to date. Follow us on Facebook or via email sign-up for new-entry alerts. For further signs of life between entries, wave hi to me on . Thanks for reading!]
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