Surprised the kids, wife, and my readers w/ a 2 week trip to AoA!(*NEW* 11-7)

[VandyFan10]

LOVE IT!!

Dawn and I have talked a little and we are considering staying there the next trip. I would want the Nemo or LK suites which by the map look like a good place to be

so we just got a quick one of him and mater from the front.

Oh my how CUTE!!

But you make Radiator Springs look pretty intriguing!

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Yay! An AOA Mermaid trip report! That's where we're staying next month! We went over for a visit when we went in June, but not everything was open then. I can't wait to get out and tour that entire resort (after everyone is asleep) so we can take pics. We might just wear out that fisheye lens!

I love the way you described the bedding, then went on to say you don't use it anyway. (Neither do we) We also save up the soaps and use them at home so we always smell like Disney.

Adorable family! You guys remind me of us a few years ago. My hubby didn't get to WDW 'til age 22, after we first met. Since then he has been the mega Disney fan. The two of you would be besties for sure.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Whoops! Sorry to have posted plunk in the middle of your updates

nothing wrong with that at all, sometimes it is hard to remember what happened and when and it is easier to just post pictures...me on the other hand i have a memory that can tell you the conversations i had with others years and years ago...and what we did.

on the other hand, most of the time cant remember someones name for the life of me.


looking forward to the report...drop me a line on here when u start it so i can read along.

My husband is the same way! He'll remember stories and chat with people he hasn't seen in years about this and that from way back in the day... but ask him afterwards the name of the person he was talking to and he hasn't got a clue.

Noelle giving kisses made my heart melt and awesome pics in the Cars section! We visited there but not at night... next time for sure!

I've started my TR

 

[Millie12591]

Dang Dan!! Your a machine!!

I'm happy to find all these updates!!

The video of Candi finding out her surprise was seriously cute. The kids are always cute, but seeing Mama get a surprise is a treat.

Wish I could say I loved your pictures of AofA, but I can't look. As you know Mackie and I are going to WDW next May and she doesn't want me looking at any of the LM pictures or the new FL.
So I skipped through most your pics, but I did read all your commentary.

Looks like Landscapes of Flavor has some great choices, I'm curious to try something Tandori, not sure what yet, but something.

 

[JDUB]

Great TR so far. We were there at the same time as you and almost switched to AoA but stayed at POR. Next year will be AoA since I miss the family suite space! Looking forward to more and hope you avoided by bad storms

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

There are 4 main food stations, sadly i dont have many pictures inside the food court as it was usually a you take this kid there and get that, i will go this way and get this ready break.

Yeah, we've run that play over and over as well. It's a staple in the playbook.

somehow parker weasled me out of my desert, and he ended up with the mickey head cupcake

Did that smile have anything to do with it?

and of course loved my cupcake that little turd, at least i got one of the oreo cookies from the ears as a compromise. im thinking he still won that desert round.

Looks like a nice variety at the food court.

we head out through the gift shop to the main lobby and take a picture of the awesome chandelier.

That is truly incredible!

we head off to see cars section.
i have better day time pictures later in the report of a photo tour noelle and i did but that will have to wait. these were all taken with my good camera and no flash at night so wasnt too dissapointed in the picture quality.

This looks like a lot fun. I think we'll have to take some time to walk the grounds someday. The kids would love it.

i came home with a decent amount.

You won't have to buy toiletries for a year!

it was my turn to shower with aerial in the grotto

Not touching that one.

 

[glennbo123]

actually when i got back to the table mine was missing the chicken, when i took it back up, we found out that someone else took my order so i got theres...no big deal they quickly made me another.

It couldn't have been that you took their order.

Holy Mackerel, look at the size of that surf and turf burger!

C'mon Mom! Can't you feed me and yourself at the same time?!


Wow, the Cars section looks amazing! I loved all the pictures of the characters.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

WOW! That's a lot of shampoo and soap!

The dining area for AoA looks great. Seems like they offer different options than the normal fare. I think I would have the build your own pasta almost every night! Then I would've gained another 5 pounds LOL.

I love the smile Parker is giving you in the picture with the cupcake. It's like he KNEW he weaseled you out of it haha.

The pictures of the Cars section turned out great!

i love mickey shampoo and soap, i have bottles from when my parents went back in the early 90's on trips, that are yet to be open stored away.

it is a nice break from the normal park stuff of fried foods but you still at least have your burgers and pizza for the picky eaters.

that stinker did weasel me out of my desert oh well, even on vacation we tried to eat somewhat healthier this trip, there were many times we got the fruit instead of other deserts or fries so it was all good.


thanks i like my camera night shots even though they are not really bright, it takes the natural light and makes them more realistic for the time of day...you dont have a bright flash mark on the shiny cars stairing back at you.

Didn't you just love the Cars section ?? We took a lot of photos there as well. We didn't stay there, but went over to take a look and to have dinner at the food court. We didn't have time to see the Lion King or Mermaid section. It is a really neat resort !!!

it is a really cool themed area, probably the most thememed and detailed of them all i would say...there are so many details around the pool that i took pictures of later i will share.

hope you enjoyed the food court when you were there.

Your review of the food and the pictures are great!!

Can't wait on line check in tomorrow!!

thanks hope they helped you out some on your trip...our first breakfast there is coming up a few days down in the trip, but some of the things we had there that were good was the breakfast sandwhich was really good, it was a chicken burger(think ground seasoned chicken in the form of a patty with a mickey shaped egg on it, with a little bit of a spicy sauce, not too spicy just right...and served with breakfast potato casserol...very good i had that at least 2 mornings.

there french toast was really good according to the wife, and dont be afraid to ask to substitute the sides that come with them.

the platter was pretty good as well, came with the portugues sausage, i really enjoyed it candi didnt care to much for it.

anyway just wanted to let you know about the breakfast since i wont get to that before you go.
oohhh they also have build your own parfaits that she liked.

good luck with your online check in.

What an amazing resort. I love the cars section. Had no idea it had each car.

Food looks great too!

You have some collection of soaps. Love the Mickey heads.

Your daughter is precious. Love her with the mirror.

each and every one was there, really cool to see them, the kids loved it.

thanks

My children would be so jealous of your soap collection. They loved getting a brand new bar of Mickey soap every day.

it is sort of exciting to see the new ones sitting there nowing that you still have the day befores to use up and get to take those home with you.

You are just an updating machine, Dan.

Loved the food court (and the food looks yummy too). And the CARS section is just so cool. I bet all the little boys are going to want that section (about time they did something a little more geared to the boys).

The sheets for the pack and play are adorable...so glad you took a picture of them.

just trying to get the food pics up before a few people leave to stay there so they can see what they have to offer...i will slow down now just for you

they also get a pretty cool section with the lion king, but cars is still way cooler....lets hope now that they take out some of the boring stuff at MGM and put in a cars land like disneyland.

the sheets are really cool and apparently they are the same fit for pack and plays that we have at home.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Many of the things in the food court sound good. The create your own salad option is great. I wish more resorts had that. I like the new design of the shampoos. I hope I get them when we go next week. Can't wait to see more pictures! I would love to stay there one day.

it really doesnt take much to do it, i wonder why they dont, hopefully they will get some positive feedback and start that places...sometimes you just need a good large salad to detox all the junk you eat on vacation.

i have seen slightly different soaps at other resorts, mostly the deluxe ones so not sure what others are offering right now.

My grandson would love the Cars section and the Nemo section! It would be hard to choose one (if you got a choice, that is!)

if you are booking the suites, you can book a certain section...they dont just randomly assign you when you show up...so now you have the tough decision ahead of you.

Your daughter is so adorable kissing the "other" cute baby Your pics are really great! Love the one with you and your son standing by Lightning and Miss Sally My fav is of your wife holding Noelle with Parker looking at the pics on the wall - she looks so much like my daughter who lives 3,000 miles away from me now that I moved to CA. I am hoping they can come out for a visit next Fall so I can take them to Disneyland to see the new Cars Land.

glad it reminded you of her...and hopefully the cars land will be a good draw to get them out to visit...if they turn it down, let me know ill be there.

Great food court info!

Love the crib sheets for the pack and play. Sorry they didn't have it in your room. I had indicated that you wanted one. I really don't think they even look at stuff like that most of the time. It's annoying.

or maybe they dont put it in the room always just in case, they end up changing your location maybe...it wasnt an issue, we didnt need it right away anyway and was there when we got back from dinner...you did a great job for us we really appreciate it.

Ray and I just cracked up over these! Good grief.....score!

much cheaper than the 20 dollar bottles of the stuff they sell in the gift shop

So cute!

thanks.

HEY!!!

Dawn sent me over



Don't ya just LOVE her!??!

glad to see you here, and thanks to dawn for pimping me out.

she is good and did a great job, saved me many calls to wait on hold...although there was a few times i still called just to listen to the hold music....

Oh my word!! I LOVE IT!!! And I will have to remember this if we ever are sneaking surprise time to disney!

Can't wait to read more! Glad you are doing the TR!

go ahead and use anything we did, its fair game,when is your next trip planned for?

Food court looks awesome!!

Create your own pasta sounds great

Love all pics outside. We visited AOA one afternoon and I walked around snapping some pics. It really is so cool out there.

Love the cars area

it was really good, a nice change of pace and awesome it could provide so many possibillites

thanks, it is a very photogenic resort, a totally different from night to day in pictures.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

LOVE IT!!

Dawn and I have talked a little and we are considering staying there the next trip. I would want the Nemo or LK suites which by the map look like a good place to be



Oh my how CUTE!!

But you make Radiator Springs look pretty intriguing!

i was just going to say you might want to pick cars...i think it was the best in themeing, and the rooms are actually pretty close to the main building, some closer than lion king...even if you are in the farthest cars building, it is still a fun walk through radiator springs each morning...that would be a good space for two smaller families to split good price for each to share and from the pics the rooms seem plenty big enough.

Yay! An AOA Mermaid trip report! That's where we're staying next month! We went over for a visit when we went in June, but not everything was open then. I can't wait to get out and tour that entire resort (after everyone is asleep) so we can take pics. We might just wear out that fisheye lens!

congrats o nthe upcoming trip, you guys will love it...even with others around it didnt seem bad taking pics, people were really good about getting there pictures then moving along and letting others in, since there are so many picture opportunities. i used my panaromic function on the camera but not as much as i would have liked.

I love the way you described the bedding, then went on to say you don't use it anyway. (Neither do we) We also save up the soaps and use them at home so we always smell like Disney.

Adorable family! You guys remind me of us a few years ago. My hubby didn't get to WDW 'til age 22, after we first met. Since then he has been the mega Disney fan. The two of you would be besties for sure.

about 3/4 through te trip the maid had the spreads on the floor to change out and give us new ones, we told her to keep them as we didnt use them anyway. so we didnt have them for the end.

after our honeymoon trip, i had enough bars of soap that they lasted a full year till we went back again for our one year

your husband sound just like my wife...i bet me and him would get along great...anyone that can sit and talk disney is okay in my book.

Whoops! Sorry to have posted plunk in the middle of your updates

no worries, i took a while to type the update

My husband is the same way! He'll remember stories and chat with people he hasn't seen in years about this and that from way back in the day... but ask him afterwards the name of the person he was talking to and he hasn't got a clue.

mine usually goes something like this...

see a person in a store from high school...
they say he dan,

i say, hey you (or hey bud) hows it going...talk for a few.

leave wife says, you have no idea of the name do you...nope...but we had 10th grade math together.

Noelle giving kisses made my heart melt and awesome pics in the Cars section! We visited there but not at night... next time for sure!

I've started my TR

will be along shortly cant wait to read it....and to see what you did certain days that we might have crossed paths.

Dang Dan!! Your a machine!!

I'm happy to find all these updates!!

The video of Candi finding out her surprise was seriously cute. The kids are always cute, but seeing Mama get a surprise is a treat.

thanks, glad you are enjoying them.

Wish I could say I loved your pictures of AofA, but I can't look. As you know Mackie and I are going to WDW next May and she doesn't want me looking at any of the LM pictures or the new FL.
So I skipped through most your pics, but I did read all your commentary.

Looks like Landscapes of Flavor has some great choices, I'm curious to try something Tandori, not sure what yet, but something.

you know that isnt true, that you saw a little something when you were scrolling past to read the updates.

if you like beef stir fry go with that, it was really good, i told the CM's i wouldnt be sad if they favored the beef while scooping out the portions, this caused the ladies to pick out a few extra pieces when giving me my plate.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Great TR so far. We were there at the same time as you and almost switched to AoA but stayed at POR. Next year will be AoA since I miss the family suite space! Looking forward to more and hope you avoided by bad storms

thanks for reading along...we are talking next trip if it is hotel instead of campground that we want to try POR.

we avoided them the first week, but the second week they got us a little bit toward the end.

are you doing a TR?

Yeah, we've run that play over and over as well. It's a staple in the playbook.



Did that smile have anything to do with it?

and im sure you guys run it flawlessly the only way we know how.

that little smile did play into it a little bit.

Looks like a nice variety at the food court.



That is truly incredible!

it was, a nice change of pace on the food...it is really cool to look at all the drawings on there.

This looks like a lot fun. I think we'll have to take some time to walk the grounds someday. The kids would love it.


You won't have to buy toiletries for a year!



Not touching that one.

they would have a really good time taking pictures there im sure.

and if we run out of toiletries i guess i will just have to go back and get more...afterall free disney soap is cheaper than buying it in the store.

It couldn't have been that you took their order.

not a chance.

Holy Mackerel, look at the size of that surf and turf burger!

it was actually a surf and surf burger...crab cake patty with fried shrimp on top.

C'mon Mom! Can't you feed me and yourself at the same time?!


Wow, the Cars section looks amazing! I loved all the pictures of the characters.

i know i bet us super dads could take care of it...i have to admit with kids i have mastered the feed them with the right hand me with the left method...

i tried the feed me with right them with left..but that just left food in there ears and eyes nose, etc...much more cordinated with my right for feeding.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

congrats o nthe upcoming trip, you guys will love it...even with others around it didnt seem bad taking pics, people were really good about getting there pictures then moving along and letting others in, since there are so many picture opportunities. i used my panaromic function on the camera but not as much as i would have liked.



about 3/4 through te trip the maid had the spreads on the floor to change out and give us new ones, we told her to keep them as we didnt use them anyway. so we didnt have them for the end.

Thanks. Your pics look great. Looks like you had the place to yourself in those cute Cars pictures. That section looks a lot different than it did in early June.

The only concern I have is that food court menu. When we went in not a single person was there, other than a kid refilling his mug to carry back to the pool. I don't know if our older kids will eat anything on the menu (at WDW they're considered adults and I just can't see Mr.Picky gobbling up a surf and turf burger.)

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Thanks. Your pics look great. Looks like you had the place to yourself in those cute Cars pictures. That section looks a lot different than it did in early June.

thank you, people were good about if someone else was there getting out of the way to let them take a picture...very friendly folks.

The only concern I have is that food court menu. When we went in not a single person was there, other than a kid refilling his mug to carry back to the pool. I don't know if our older kids will eat anything on the menu (at WDW they're considered adults and I just can't see Mr.Picky gobbling up a surf and turf burger.)

im thinking because that time only nemo was open andnot that crowded then.

the food court was usually busy but never really saw the lines deeper than 5 people in them.

they had regular burgers...the normal pizza that is offered elsewhere...you could get regular spaghetti at the pasta stand, just pick out the noodles and the marinara sauce....

do they eat those sort of things?

if anything the bridge to pop is pretty close we actually went there one afternoon to eat, and had a really good burrito and nachos.

at the salad stand there is also the deli meat type sandwiches if they like those?

 

[OhMari]

I forgot to post the other evening, that I am following along. I always wondered who was behind your Username.

I know I will never get my dh to stay at AoA, but I'll get him to go over there and walk around and eat at the food court.

 

[punkin413]

glad to see you here, and thanks to dawn for pimping me out.

One good pimp deserves another.....

(Didn't you refer me to someone who's supposed to call me about a cruise or something? I think so but my memory is failing with age. )

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

I forgot to post the other evening, that I am following along. I always wondered who was behind your Username.

I know I will never get my dh to stay at AoA, but I'll get him to go over there and walk around and eat at the food court.

woohoo moderator in the house...lets party. but not to hard or we will get in trouble...dont worry ohmari, ill keep everyone in line

glad to have you on board and

sorry you wont be able to convince him to stay ther,e but maybe if you show him some of the pictures he might change his mind.

One good pimp deserves another.....

(Didn't you refer me to someone who's supposed to call me about a cruise or something? I think so but my memory is failing with age. )

i did pimp you out to my aunt, but she isnt ready yet so she said that she will let me know when she is.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

Didnt have time for any updates today, but do have this parting thought i will leave you with. I plan to throw in some of the things i have learned since our second child was born in this report.

I have learned some differences between little boys and little girls. (besides the obvious)

Little boys, it is okay to suggest to the wife that when the hair gets over the ears, that you can get the scissors and "trim" them up.

Little Girls, it is NOT however okay to tell the wife that your little girls hair is starting to grow over her ears, and you are going to get the scissors to "trim" her up a little.

Apparently hair over the ears is okay on them.

Till next time have a good weekend everyone, we are going to record over all 6 hours of vacation video to DVD

 

[VandyFan10]

glad to see you here, and thanks to dawn for pimping me out.

I'm glad she told me too! Been a long time since I've been on a TR!

she is good and did a great job, saved me many calls to wait on hold...although there was a few times i still called just to listen to the hold music....

The music is good, I agree, but is great to have someone else do it all for you!!

go ahead and use anything we did, its fair game,when is your next trip planned for?

We are going the week after thanksgiving with the parentals. Then Matt, Will, and I have a trip planned the 2nd week of Jan. Dawn has it booked for us at Pop, but I started looking at AoA last week and have considered. But we would be doing it to stay in a suite and I just don't know if we want to fork over the extra cash! Also we have the possibilty (through my parents) getting an off-property condo for very cheap! So it's hard to pass up

i was just going to say you might want to pick cars...i think it was the best in themeing, and the rooms are actually pretty close to the main building, some closer than lion king...even if you are in the farthest cars building, it is still a fun walk through radiator springs each morning...that would be a good space for two smaller families to split good price for each to share and from the pics the rooms seem plenty big enough.

Well, I just showed will the 3 rooms (on the Disney site) and then your pics of the pool, pride rock, and the cars and he said....Cars please. Lol! We'll see...

One good pimp deserves another.....

, maybe I need one too!

(Didn't you refer me to someone who's supposed to call me about a cruise or something? I think so but my memory is failing with age. )

Did Elizabeth ever call you? I hope she will!

 

[OhMari]

woohoo moderator in the house...lets party. but not to hard or we will get in trouble...dont worry ohmari, ill keep everyone in line

glad to have you on board and

sorry you wont be able to convince him to stay ther,e but maybe if you show him some of the pictures he might change his mind.

I always enjoy a TR with zillions of pictures.

My dh needs the peace and quiet-he is more of the POR kind of person.

 

[dancin_princess]

Checking in late night, planning to catch up tomorrow. So awesome that you got to stay at AoA, all I can say is I ate breakfast there in June. I can't wait to read more of your TR.