glennbo123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 10, 2008
After our very enjoyable walk on the beach, it was time for the not-so-enjoyable, yet inevitable and unavoidable, packing and departing. When we got back to the suite we got the kids up and moving. I would have liked to have stayed for as long as we were allowed before check-out, but Gram and Poppy got an early flight into Orlando and I didn't want them sitting around Kidani waiting for us for very long. Their flight departed at 6am and would get them into MCO at 8:30am! Even with their "leisurely" pace, they'd have plenty of opportunity to see Kidani before we could get to them. I'd even gotten a text from my sister at 4:25am saying, "Airport drop off a success. Enjoy."
While we were packing up, we realized that mousekeeping had thrown out our bag of bags, all of the plastic grocery bags from our shopping excursion, which had been hanging on one of the cupboard handles. That made it very difficult to pack up our remaining groceries, but somehow we figured out some work-arounds. That's something to file-away in the ol memory banks -- hide the grocery bags if you plan to re-use them. Anyway, with a lot of whip-cracking (figuratively, of course) we were able to get the van loaded and on the road by 9:20am.
On our drive out, we kind of reminisced about our few days at Vero Beach. I was very surprised to learn that my kids decided that they're not really beach people and while they liked it okay, they weren't really that eager to come back again. They didnt have any complaints about the resort, but just preferred the excitement and entertainment of the DisneyWorld resorts to the laid-back pace of Vero. I think it might have been different if I had planned better and put the Vero portion after the WDW portion. It's hard for a kid to get all geared-up for a vacation, and then get directed to take it easy on a chaise lounge. Conversely, after getting worn out running around DisneyWorld for a week, it might be a welcome break. Well, despite them, Judy and I liked it a lot, and with her sister in the area, the Vero Beach resort might be in our future on more occasions. Time will tell.
I don't really have any stories from the drive, other than it's not really a fun trip. It's pretty boring for a long way, and then you hit mega-commercialization as you approach Orlando. James wanted to stop for fast-food, but we just wanted to get "home".
Judy was very proud of the sign picture that she got as we approached.
We tried calling my parents' cell phone as we approached Animal Kingdom Lodge, but it just went to a message saying that my party couldn't be reached. Around 11:30 we got to Kidani, parked in front of the lobby and walked in. We looked for Gram and Poppy on the seats there in the lobby but didn't see them. I got in line to check-in while Judy and the kids started looking through the gift shop and animal viewing areas for them. A little while later Judy came over to tell me that they couldn't find them anywhere. I wanted to finish checking-in and then we'd expand our search.
My sister who'd dropped them off at the airport was wondering too. She texted me, "I assume Poppy and Gram arrived safely?? Haven't heard from you." I replied, "We just got here and their phone isn't on. Will let you know."
When I got up to the front desk, I found out that my good fortune with room locations ended with Vero. Our suite was going to be way around the horn, towards Jambo House. I was sure it'd be fine view-wise, but I didn't want my parents to have to walk that far so I asked if they could look for anything closer to the lobby, which was the room request I'd made. Nothing was available or even scheduled to become available later that day; we were stuck. I don't know if online check-in would've helped me, but not doing it certainly didn't help me get a good room this time. Oh well.
We expanded our search for Gram and Poppy, with Judy heading out to the pool, the girls to some of the other animal viewing areas, and James and I went down around Sanaa. Of course I tried calling again, but still no luck. I did pause long enough to take this phone picture of a tortoise through the window near Sanaa. At first I didn't think it was real, but James saw it move ever-so-slightly and called my attention to it.
We met back up with Judy in the lobby. She didn't find them at the pool either. We decided to ask the concierge if he could find out if they had in fact, gotten on Magical Express. His response to Judy was, "Ma'am, I assure you. Magical Express has never lost a passenger! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
To be honest, I dont remember what he looked like, but in my memory he looked like this:
Not the best time for jokes, dude. Judy was having trouble restraining herself from choking the guy right there in the lobby, but he redeemed himself a little bit by offering to look to see if their flight had been delayed. It was a beautiful day, so I never considered that that might have occurred. He looked up their flight info. and sure enough, their flight was in the air now, and they should be landing at 12:50. I texted my sister that and she said that they'd be tired -- they had gotten up at 3:30am. Oy vey.
Then we said, okay let's go to the room at least, and Judy and the kids started heading for the elevator. I started that way but then said, "wait, Ive got to move the van from in front of the lobby." I was a little peeved that they were all running off to the room while I had to move the van, and at that very moment, with all of the confusion, and with me saying something like "Fine! You go that way and Ill get the van", I heard a voice say, "Hi Glennbo", followed by a little wave from a nice, smiling young woman passing me in the hallway with her husband and little son. I said something profound like, "Uhhhh, the Disboards?" And she said, "Yes, I'm Jiminy 78". She had posted on my Pre-Trip Report saying that she would be at Kidani the same time as we were. I explained that she caught me at a very inopportune time, as we were all a little frazzled since my parents hadn't arrived as planned. We spoke briefly as we walked toward the lobby, but unfortunately didn't get a picture.
Jiminy 78, let me apologize again that our meeting wasn't under better circumstances. It was really nice to meet you though, and I wish we could've spent a little more time talking. I hope your trip was great!
Anyway, driving around to the underground parking area at Kidani, I found that our van with cartop carrier on top fit just fine under the covered parking. No issues with that, like at Vero. When I got to the suite everyone was checking out the awesome view from the balcony. I joined them for a minute and then we started a little human-caravan to bring all of our stuff up to the room. We temporarily put all of our stuff in the living room so that I could take pictures of the second bedroom area. Being a dedicated 2 bedroom, it had the exact same layout as the 1 bedroom we've stayed in before, (pictures of which can be found here), but with an additional bedroom and bathroom. The entrance to this bedroom was to the right after you entered the suite, just past the laundry closet. Since I have pictures of the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom from a 1 bedroom unit already, I decided to just take pictures of the additional area of a 2 bedroom. Here goes.
Closet area, you enter from that little area on the right. There was a lot of empty space in front of the big closet, which was a nice place to put our park bags and other stuff.
The closet closest to me in that last picture.
The bigger closet.
The Bathroom
The Bedroom
The Balcony. Yeah, we had the whoooooole length of this sucker.
The Savanna, looking right.
The Savanna, straight ahead.
The Savanna, looking left.
We'd decided ahead of time that we'd give my parents the master bedroom. It was a nice way to honor them, but it also worked out better since Judy's sister and son would be joining us overnight later in the week and that way they could just stay in our room and use the extra bed. Close quarters, but it'd work out, and we'd still be within the occupancy limits!
Once we got settled, James made a bee-line for his favorite amenity of Kidani -- Community Hall. A little bit after 1 oclock I walked down to the lobby to fill my mug and tried my parents' phone again on the way. My dad answered and said that they were in the airport, walking to the tram. When I tried to explain what they needed to do to get to Magical Express, he immediately said, "let me give you to your mother." Thats classic Poppy. He didn't even want to know, he's just along for the ride.
I found out later that their plane had mechanical problems. They all boarded (so it wasnt something that a check of the airlines website could have helped them avoid going to the airport so early), and then had to de-plane. Their phone was in their carry-on luggage in the overhead bin, so they couldn't call anyone to let us know that they were running late, and I guess they didn't want to look for a payphone to call. And hey, they're adults so why would anybody be worried about them?!
When I got back to the room we had a quick sandiwich and then Judy and I made a run to Publix since we needed some more groceries for the week ahead and the additional people.
Gram and Poppy finally arrived at Kidani at about 3 oclock and Lauren met them in the lobby. Judy and I returned from Publix about 15 minutes later. I was a little bummed that I missed seeing their reaction to seeing the suite and the savanna, but hey, what're you going to do? They took a little siesta, while the rest of us watched TV, unpacked groceries, and settled in. The day hadn't gone exactly as planned so far, but they said they were up for doing something after they rested, so maybe we could get back on track after all. At least everyone was here now. Let the adventure begin!
Up next: Our "first Disney night" tradition
Link to next chapter
While we were packing up, we realized that mousekeeping had thrown out our bag of bags, all of the plastic grocery bags from our shopping excursion, which had been hanging on one of the cupboard handles. That made it very difficult to pack up our remaining groceries, but somehow we figured out some work-arounds. That's something to file-away in the ol memory banks -- hide the grocery bags if you plan to re-use them. Anyway, with a lot of whip-cracking (figuratively, of course) we were able to get the van loaded and on the road by 9:20am.
On our drive out, we kind of reminisced about our few days at Vero Beach. I was very surprised to learn that my kids decided that they're not really beach people and while they liked it okay, they weren't really that eager to come back again. They didnt have any complaints about the resort, but just preferred the excitement and entertainment of the DisneyWorld resorts to the laid-back pace of Vero. I think it might have been different if I had planned better and put the Vero portion after the WDW portion. It's hard for a kid to get all geared-up for a vacation, and then get directed to take it easy on a chaise lounge. Conversely, after getting worn out running around DisneyWorld for a week, it might be a welcome break. Well, despite them, Judy and I liked it a lot, and with her sister in the area, the Vero Beach resort might be in our future on more occasions. Time will tell.
I don't really have any stories from the drive, other than it's not really a fun trip. It's pretty boring for a long way, and then you hit mega-commercialization as you approach Orlando. James wanted to stop for fast-food, but we just wanted to get "home".
Judy was very proud of the sign picture that she got as we approached.
We tried calling my parents' cell phone as we approached Animal Kingdom Lodge, but it just went to a message saying that my party couldn't be reached. Around 11:30 we got to Kidani, parked in front of the lobby and walked in. We looked for Gram and Poppy on the seats there in the lobby but didn't see them. I got in line to check-in while Judy and the kids started looking through the gift shop and animal viewing areas for them. A little while later Judy came over to tell me that they couldn't find them anywhere. I wanted to finish checking-in and then we'd expand our search.
My sister who'd dropped them off at the airport was wondering too. She texted me, "I assume Poppy and Gram arrived safely?? Haven't heard from you." I replied, "We just got here and their phone isn't on. Will let you know."
When I got up to the front desk, I found out that my good fortune with room locations ended with Vero. Our suite was going to be way around the horn, towards Jambo House. I was sure it'd be fine view-wise, but I didn't want my parents to have to walk that far so I asked if they could look for anything closer to the lobby, which was the room request I'd made. Nothing was available or even scheduled to become available later that day; we were stuck. I don't know if online check-in would've helped me, but not doing it certainly didn't help me get a good room this time. Oh well.
We expanded our search for Gram and Poppy, with Judy heading out to the pool, the girls to some of the other animal viewing areas, and James and I went down around Sanaa. Of course I tried calling again, but still no luck. I did pause long enough to take this phone picture of a tortoise through the window near Sanaa. At first I didn't think it was real, but James saw it move ever-so-slightly and called my attention to it.
We met back up with Judy in the lobby. She didn't find them at the pool either. We decided to ask the concierge if he could find out if they had in fact, gotten on Magical Express. His response to Judy was, "Ma'am, I assure you. Magical Express has never lost a passenger! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
To be honest, I dont remember what he looked like, but in my memory he looked like this:
Not the best time for jokes, dude. Judy was having trouble restraining herself from choking the guy right there in the lobby, but he redeemed himself a little bit by offering to look to see if their flight had been delayed. It was a beautiful day, so I never considered that that might have occurred. He looked up their flight info. and sure enough, their flight was in the air now, and they should be landing at 12:50. I texted my sister that and she said that they'd be tired -- they had gotten up at 3:30am. Oy vey.
Then we said, okay let's go to the room at least, and Judy and the kids started heading for the elevator. I started that way but then said, "wait, Ive got to move the van from in front of the lobby." I was a little peeved that they were all running off to the room while I had to move the van, and at that very moment, with all of the confusion, and with me saying something like "Fine! You go that way and Ill get the van", I heard a voice say, "Hi Glennbo", followed by a little wave from a nice, smiling young woman passing me in the hallway with her husband and little son. I said something profound like, "Uhhhh, the Disboards?" And she said, "Yes, I'm Jiminy 78". She had posted on my Pre-Trip Report saying that she would be at Kidani the same time as we were. I explained that she caught me at a very inopportune time, as we were all a little frazzled since my parents hadn't arrived as planned. We spoke briefly as we walked toward the lobby, but unfortunately didn't get a picture.
Jiminy 78, let me apologize again that our meeting wasn't under better circumstances. It was really nice to meet you though, and I wish we could've spent a little more time talking. I hope your trip was great!
Anyway, driving around to the underground parking area at Kidani, I found that our van with cartop carrier on top fit just fine under the covered parking. No issues with that, like at Vero. When I got to the suite everyone was checking out the awesome view from the balcony. I joined them for a minute and then we started a little human-caravan to bring all of our stuff up to the room. We temporarily put all of our stuff in the living room so that I could take pictures of the second bedroom area. Being a dedicated 2 bedroom, it had the exact same layout as the 1 bedroom we've stayed in before, (pictures of which can be found here), but with an additional bedroom and bathroom. The entrance to this bedroom was to the right after you entered the suite, just past the laundry closet. Since I have pictures of the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom from a 1 bedroom unit already, I decided to just take pictures of the additional area of a 2 bedroom. Here goes.
Closet area, you enter from that little area on the right. There was a lot of empty space in front of the big closet, which was a nice place to put our park bags and other stuff.
The closet closest to me in that last picture.
The bigger closet.
The Bathroom
The Bedroom
The Balcony. Yeah, we had the whoooooole length of this sucker.
The Savanna, looking right.
The Savanna, straight ahead.
The Savanna, looking left.
We'd decided ahead of time that we'd give my parents the master bedroom. It was a nice way to honor them, but it also worked out better since Judy's sister and son would be joining us overnight later in the week and that way they could just stay in our room and use the extra bed. Close quarters, but it'd work out, and we'd still be within the occupancy limits!
Once we got settled, James made a bee-line for his favorite amenity of Kidani -- Community Hall. A little bit after 1 oclock I walked down to the lobby to fill my mug and tried my parents' phone again on the way. My dad answered and said that they were in the airport, walking to the tram. When I tried to explain what they needed to do to get to Magical Express, he immediately said, "let me give you to your mother." Thats classic Poppy. He didn't even want to know, he's just along for the ride.
I found out later that their plane had mechanical problems. They all boarded (so it wasnt something that a check of the airlines website could have helped them avoid going to the airport so early), and then had to de-plane. Their phone was in their carry-on luggage in the overhead bin, so they couldn't call anyone to let us know that they were running late, and I guess they didn't want to look for a payphone to call. And hey, they're adults so why would anybody be worried about them?!
When I got back to the room we had a quick sandiwich and then Judy and I made a run to Publix since we needed some more groceries for the week ahead and the additional people.
Gram and Poppy finally arrived at Kidani at about 3 oclock and Lauren met them in the lobby. Judy and I returned from Publix about 15 minutes later. I was a little bummed that I missed seeing their reaction to seeing the suite and the savanna, but hey, what're you going to do? They took a little siesta, while the rest of us watched TV, unpacked groceries, and settled in. The day hadn't gone exactly as planned so far, but they said they were up for doing something after they rested, so maybe we could get back on track after all. At least everyone was here now. Let the adventure begin!
Up next: Our "first Disney night" tradition
Link to next chapter
most older people still eat dinner at 4 right?
just kidding....marv how about you?
Too bad your concierge was so unhelpful I just saw on 20/20 that they never say no - guess they haven't been to AKL. 
+1 
, but that was the best I could find.
hmmm, yes. "Disney, how could you lose a couple of octogenarians?!"
I thought I'd lost you. I can see why you've been busy -- you were in WDW for some of November! I'm glad to see that you've started your trip report...it's a great read!
