Sorry it's taken so long to catch back up!
The trip was wonderful!
Oct 4 and 5
My bff stayed the night at my house and the next morning we got up and picked up the other bff (she's on the way to the airport). She was running late so we ended up parking at the airport instead of using the shuttle service on Groupon that I had bought. We checked in, got our tickets, turned in our luggage, made it through security and walked up as they were saying "last call" whew- that was TOO close! The flight wasn't crowded so we all ended up sitting together.
We landed at MCO, picked up our luggage and got on Magical Express. My other friend realized that we were going to AKL instead of CB. I told her that I was surprising everyone and using points to upgrade us. While Gina was super thrilled to be staying there, Loralea just said "well I would have rather stayed in one place so I could have unpacked". Oh well! So much for trying to do something nice for everybody.
As we pulled up to AKL, my son, who is in the CP right now, was standing at the benches waiting on us. It was awesome to see him. It reminded me of how much I miss him. I dropped him off in July. Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be REALLY REALLY hard this year.
I talked to my daughter, who is going to college in Georgia, to confirm that they made it to the airport and were on their way too. At this point I'm just counting down the minutes to having my ducklings close by...lol
We checked in at AKL and made our way upstairs to drop off our suitcases. Because of our trip in December I only had 9 points available to use at AKL. When the room opened up in the reservation system it was listed as a standard view. I had to "rent" 5 points from Disney to make up the difference. I was a little bummed that I didn't have a savannah view but AKL is AKL so I wasn't going to be too disappointed. I mean a day at AKL in a standard view room is better than a day at work any day!! When we got to the room though it was a corner room, and it overlooked the savannah. It wasn't the greatest of views but it was still amazing. Even when I say it wasn't the greatest of views I am in no way complaining. Disney magic again! If I had the extra 4 points that it would have taken to upgrade I would have been satisfied that it was a savannah view. So, having the balcony and seeing the animals was a wonderful surprise! We "ooohed" and "awed" for a few minutes and then headed down to Boma. They gave us a pager and told us it would go off when the restaraunt opened in a bit. About 10 minutes later it went off. On the way to the desk I noticed that nobody else's were going off, just ours. Turns out we were chosen to be the family that got to open the restaraunt for the evening. They played drums and lined us up in a parade and we marched through Boma like we owned the place. It was really neat. We even got a certificate. Awesome way to start a vacation!
After dinner my two friends and I left to
MNSSHP.
I gave my son the room key so he could relax while his sister's plane landed. After a bit, he took a few busses and went over to Pop to pick them up. I gave him the $60 fare for Mears to get the three of them r/t to and from Pop to US so they could do HHN. My son is 22, daughter is 20 and her bf is 20. They had bought the HHN tickets and front of the line passes. They said it was awesome. My son and daughter's bf aren't very close (I think it has to do with him being a protective big brother) so I was excited that the three of them could do some bonding doing something very cool like HHN. I really like the bf, he's a good kid. I think that my DS just wouldn't like anybody for his little sister though. It turned out well because when they made it to breakfast the next morning they were talking very animatedly about the night before. On a side note: I had made the reservations for Mears for the kids. Mears schedules the time and place that they pick you up (based on when you want to leave and where you're at). For the return trip though, you have to call them two hours ahead of time and let them know you're ready. They run shuttles until some crazy time like 4 am or so. I explained to each of the kids- here is the number "###-###-###", call when you are two hours out from being ready to head back. I made eye contact with each of them as I said it. You guessed it.. at like 2am my DS calls.."hey mom- how are we supposed to get back to the hotel?" lol
That night when my bff's and I got back from MNSSHP to AKL we stopped at Victoria Falls and shared a bottle of wine. Three friends sitting around relaxing and sharing a glass of wonderful wine. Perfect ending to a great day!
Oct 6
The next morning we packed up the few things we took out of our bags and rolled our suitcases down to the lobby to send over to CB. They took them and sent them to a storage area. No fuss, no big deal.
By this time the kids' busses had arrived at the Lodge and we went to Mara for breakfast. I ended up buying breakfast for everyone and it was a little over $40. We shared 3 plates and then got a bowl of pineapple and another of grapes. I had to look at the ticket to make sure everything was accounted for because I didn't think that was right, but it was.
My daughter, my bff and I had tickets left over from previous stays. I had bought no expiration on them thinking of it as an investment. My son can get 3 people in a day on 6 occasions while he is a CP.
Day one- my bf and I use our passes. My son uses his CP card to get my daughter, her bf and my other bff into the park. He gets in free of coarse. They checked his card and issued them a paper ticket.
We started off at Epcot, went over to Hollywood and ended the night at MK. After the parks closed we took the bus over to CB and checked into our room. We had upgraded to a Pirate Room. It was really cool. I'll post pictures soon. The carpet is even themed to be wooden planks. The refrigerater is inside of a wooden barrel. The dresser is wooden crates and the divider curtain from the room to the bathroom has the skull and crossbones from the Pirates movie. The beds are ships. All in all, very cool! If you have young boys who are into the pirate thing then this is your room!
Bed:
Headboard:
Floor:
Bedspread:
Mickey towel:
Dresser- looks like crates:
Dresser with tv:
Refrigerator in barrel:
Privacy Curtain:
Bathroom vanity:
Bathroom shower curtain:
Closer up:
Oct 7
The next day we go to Epcot because we have reservations at Akershus. We arrived a bit early and are told to come back within 5 minutes of our reservations. No problem, we stroll through the countries while we're waiting. Finally it's our time to go back. We stand in line for a few minutes, and it's hot, really hot. We get to the front and our names aren't on the reservation list. Turns out when I changed the party size from 4 back down to three (since my son's gf wasn't going) that it changed the date. Somehow I missed that. Oops. Our reservations are for tomorrow.
We toured the parks for a few more hours. Loralea had a friend from college who happened to be there the same time as us so she asked if it would be ok to go with her friend for a few hours to catch up on lost times. No problem there. Gina decided she was exhausted so she wanted to go back to the room. I hung out with my kids for the rest of the night. It was Magic Hours at MK. We met up at CB, went over to DTD and had sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich. It was really really good. We had four sandwiches, two bags of chips, two desserts and two drinks. I didn't realize until later that I didn't ask for enough drinks for I went back up to the counter to pay it and the guy handed me a cup and said not to worry about it. Dinner was just under $30. Wayyyy cheap for Disney standards! I had the Hawaiian something or other. It was amazing! My daughter had the mozarella and basil- it was ok. The basil became overpowering after a few bites. The boys had the turkey. Those were especially good as well. The Hawaiian one was everyone's favorite though. When we all go in December I plan on going there a few times. Especially since we are staying at OKW and can just take a boat ride over. After dinner we went to BLT to see the Top of the World Lounge. It was really impressive. Mind you, it was myself and my three young twenties kids all dressed in park attire. We weren't really dressed up for the ocassion and got a few eye brow raises. We walked through the lounge itself, which was very pretty, but then we went outside and looked out over the ledges that overlook MK. My daughter's bf decided that it was pretty amazing up there. My DD decided that she wanted to stay at BLT next time. lol I grew up in LA and have been to both DL and WDW tons and tons but I have never been a big fan of the furnishings of the
Disneyland hotel years ago or the Contemporary. (They have always reminded me of each other). I'll have to admit though that I was thoroughly impressed with the entire place. I'm with my DD on this one- I really want to stay there. Her bf started asking questions about DVC. I was trying my best to explain it all to him about points, which hotels were on the list, etc. He was like "so your DH had never been to Disney before? and after one visit he decides to just go ahead and buy into DVC? That's sooo cool!" Then he and my DD start asking questions about the CP to my DS. I think they both are very serious about applying.
The four of us....
We leave there and go over to MK. The next day (like in a few hours) my DD and her bf are supposed to fly out extra early so they can make it to class back in Georgia in time. It's like 2:30am and we realize that they are now in a time crunch to get back to Pop, pack up their stuff and make it to the airport. My DS and I walk the two out to the busses. As we are walking up we realize there's a Pop bus sitting there. Being in a time crunch and not knowing the time of the next bus, my DD and her boyfriend take off and run. We yell our goodbyes to one another as they are running away. I realize that I won't see her until December so I start running too. She gets to the stairs of the bus and a few seconds later I'm right behind her. The driver is ready to close the doors but waits while I give them each a big hug and a kiss and tell them I love them. I'm sure we looked a sight!!! lol A while later DD calls me panicking that it's the middle of the night and no one is manning the phones at ME and they have no way to the airport. She is standing at the front desk at Pop and they have told her that they can't get a hold of anyone at ME. I remind her that I have already set things up and that someone somewhere should have the time that the bus should be there to get them. From somewhere, someone comes up with a time that the bus should be coming. I don't know why the ME envelope wasn't put on their door- maybe because they were leaving so early? I don't know, but it was a very stressful few minutes while we figured things out. We hung up for a few minutes while we were both trying to get in contact with someone who would know what time the bus was supposed to be there. About ten minutes later she calls me back saying that they are actually ON the bus heading to the airport. Good grief! I don't know what it is about airports and this trip but we are on a roll!
The next day my DS gets all of us into Epcot so we can do lunch. We grab lunch, head over to Hollywood Studios buy a few last minute things. ME is supposed to pick us up at 3:30 at CB. We leave HS at 2 thinking we have tons of time to get back. Turns out that we wait for a bus at HS for over 30 minutes, then we have to go by Blizzard Beach (no one gets on the bus or gets off...ugh) and finally we make it to CB. Of coarse our room is the very last stop. By the time we get there ME has already left. When I dropped DS off in July we missed ME by 5 minutes and had to pay for a cab to get my DH and I to MCO. That was $75 for two people. I'm now worried about how much we are going to shell out for three people. I talk to the bell hops and explain that we missed it and they start calling for us. For another thirty minutes I sit there in sort of a panic as they figure out when the next bus is coming to CB and if it will be in enough time to get us to MCO so we don't miss our flight. Luckily it all worked out and just about the time they figured that there was a bus with enough room for us, it pulled up. As the driver was loading our things I said goodbye to DS. That was hard! He reached to give me a hug first and squeezed me. I know he's homesick. I can't imagine. He even knew the exact amont of days until he was heading home for good.
We get back to MCO, check in our luggage again, stop by a sandwich shop and grab some lunch and walk towards our gate. As we are nearing it I hear "last call for flight ###" I look at my friends and say "isn't that us?!??" Yep! Good grief! Here we go again!!!
The three of us in matching pj's. Everytime we go anywhere someone buys pj's for everyone else. It all started when we went to Austin and someone forgot her pajamas. We stopped for her to buy some and the rest of us thought they were so cute that we all had to have a pair. It all just evolved from there.
. They have said it for our other two stays though.
The rack rate price of the 5 days in our 2bd villa is almost as much as our purchase price. (made it justifiable in my book!, yes I know there's codes and then there's my son's CP discount yadda yadda BUT I NEED to justify it to myself so don't spoil it for me. Besides my husband thinks so too! 
)
I'm thinking of Where's Waldo actually.... except "Waldo" will be in a ginormous sombrero.
