GREEN APPLE. A November Anniversary TR with too many photos! *update 12/19*

[JDailey]

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU STARTED THE T.R. AND I MISSED THE SEND OFF AND EVERYTHING!!!! I hope you guys had a great trip. I can't wait to hear all about it!

[-Hope-]

The food and drinks all look amazing! I was laughing to myself that you knew which meat dish Rey should get. Also, very cool to have the restaurant practically to yourselves.

Too bad about the zoom lens but honestly, it would have been a pain to drag one more lens and worry about switching it out. You'd have been constantly wishing you had the other lens on because the best lens changes moment to moment not day to day, or even hour to hour. You'll have your zoom on another trip and having the wide angle for this trip was great for those savanna and 4 AM lobby shots.

I'm glad you saw the LM section and issues with the walk now instead of getting there next spring and seeing it- now you can make a decision with all the facts (which I already saw on FB when you were chatting with MA, so I won't spill the beans).

I won't complain about waiting or demand more this time- but only because I'll see you this afternoon and pump you for all the good stuff then.

Oh, and the pics are a little large. Not terribly but a little, I have to scroll a little on my laptop to see the bottom of them. I'm guessing that when photobucket updated it changed any settings you had back to default settings.

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Originally Posted by JDailey

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU STARTED THE T.R. AND I MISSED THE SEND OFF AND EVERYTHING!!!! I hope you guys had a great trip. I can't wait to hear all about it!

Yay! Glad you are here!!

Originally Posted by -Hope-

The food and drinks all look amazing! I was laughing to myself that you knew which meat dish Rey should get. Also, very cool to have the restaurant practically to yourselves.

Yup, but only b/c it's Disney related and I had read reviews on the Butter Chicken!

Too bad about the zoom lens but honestly, it would have been a pain to drag one more lens and worry about switching it out. You'd have been constantly wishing you had the other lens on because the best lens changes moment to moment not day to day, or even hour to hour. You'll have your zoom on another trip and having the wide angle for this trip was great for those savanna and 4 AM lobby shots.

Oh but I DID go through that! I cannot imagine how worse it would be with THREE lenses, but I had the prime, so I was CONSTANTLY switching out and it started to drive both myself and Rey crazy! At one point I told him not to let me switch out and then 5 minutes later I begged him to hand me the lens b/c I just HAD to get a wider shot!

I'm glad you saw the LM section and issues with the walk now instead of getting there next spring and seeing it- now you can make a decision with all the facts (which I already saw on FB when you were chatting with MA, so I won't spill the beans).

I won't complain about waiting or demand more this time- but only because I'll see you this afternoon and pump you for all the good stuff then.

So looking forward to chatting you up!

Oh, and the pics are a little large. Not terribly but a little, I have to scroll a little on my laptop to see the bottom of them. I'm guessing that when photobucket updated it changed any settings you had back to default settings.

Hmmmm...I'll have to go see. Photobucket totally changed everything, so maybe they changed my size as well. I might not go back and change the ones I already posted if it's too much of a hassle, but I can change them from here on out!

[disneychic2]

Your pictures are amazing! I love AK Lodge. I've never stayed there, but we eat at Boma most trips and just love hanging out in the lobby and looking around the grounds. Can't wait to see more pics of your room. Did you find AK to be a bit remote? How was the bus service?

The food at Sanaa looks fabulous. Good you knew what to order. I love all your pics. Even your first one on ME was neat. I've never been able to get a shot of that Welcome sign.

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Originally Posted by disneychic2

Your pictures are amazing! I love AK Lodge. I've never stayed there, but we eat at Boma most trips and just love hanging out in the lobby and looking around the grounds. Can't wait to see more pics of your room. Did you find AK to be a bit remote? How was the bus service?

The food at Sanaa looks fabulous. Good you knew what to order. I love all your pics. Even your first one on ME was neat. I've never been able to get a shot of that Welcome sign.

We drove and stayed offsite on our first family trip with Rey's parents, so I have some pretty good shots of the entrance b/c we were in a car. It was nice to have a different perspective!

Sanaa is seriously on the top of my list now, my favorite WDW restaurant! We LOVED AKL, loved the room, loved the balcony...Rey didn't like the bus service. BUT...and it's a big one, he really hasn't dealt with the buses at all. In January when we stayed onsite, it was his first time onsite and we had a CAR! He rode the buses mid-day with the boys a handful of times, so he had no idea what solely depending on them meant. I'll give LOTS more detail on the buses, promise!

[RachelNinja]

I'm so glad you enjoyed Sanaa! It really is a great restaurant with unique flavors as compared to many of the other restaurants in the park. The bread service is the greatest. When I'm hungry back at home, I wish I had some bread to rip into and some dips to use!

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey subbing on... I love your TR title... Green Apple... It's also one of my favorite flavors...

You can't have too many pictures imho...

Wow... awesome picture of AKL and of Sanaa... hmmm... seriously changing our reservation from Yak & Yeti and considering going over there the day we go to Animal Kingdom......ate there once before and your pictures of the food are killing me...

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Originally Posted by RachelNinja

I'm so glad you enjoyed Sanaa! It really is a great restaurant with unique flavors as compared to many of the other restaurants in the park. The bread service is the greatest. When I'm hungry back at home, I wish I had some bread to rip into and some dips to use!

We really love "exotic" flavors and less Americanized food, so it was right up our alley. I had wanted to go there last trip, but decided to take the kids to Boma because I thought they would like it more...but we will definitely go next time as well!

Originally Posted by PracPerfPatricia

Hey subbing on... I love your TR title... Green Apple... It's also one of my favorite flavors...

You can't have too many pictures imho...

Wow... awesome picture of AKL and of Sanaa... hmmm... seriously changing our reservation from Yak & Yeti and considering going over there the day we go to Animal Kingdom......ate there once before and your pictures of the food are killing me...

You have come to the right place if you think you can't have too many pictures!

It is TOTALLY worth it, and actually would be the perfect way to end an AK day. It's so relaxing and beautiful at AKL, feels worlds away from the parks, so serene and being able to see the animals right out the window is fantastic!

[DsnyMama]

Lovin' it! Sanaa looks *amazing* and I can not WAIT for that to be our very first meal this trip!! And the savannah is gorgeous as always - ohhh I just can't wait! SO happy I was able to get a Savannah View for our upcoming trip!

[Tink-erin-belle]

Aww, that's such a cute picture of you in the People Mover, Karen! That's a funny picture of Rey with his mouth full of food! Great pictures of Sanaa! The restaurant is beautiful and that Mango Margarita looks yummy! I love mangoes! Thank you for not leaving us hanging for the food! It looks delicious! The kids and I may have to go there. That's too bad about your zoom lens, but now you have an excuse to go back The picture of that bird is so cool, though. It looks like you had a great start to your trip

[SeptemberGirl]

LOVE the update!

You know what I would adore? A breakdown of costs - do you do that? I love when people do budget trips and break it down - tickets, food, lodging, presents for the kids...it is so inspiring! Also, I am so all about drink tallies! Yay drinks!

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Originally Posted by DsnyMama

Lovin' it! Sanaa looks *amazing* and I can not WAIT for that to be our very first meal this trip!! And the savannah is gorgeous as always - ohhh I just can't wait! SO happy I was able to get a Savannah View for our upcoming trip!

You are going to LOVE it!

Originally Posted by Tink-erin-belle

Aww, that's such a cute picture of you in the People Mover, Karen! That's a funny picture of Rey with his mouth full of food! Great pictures of Sanaa! The restaurant is beautiful and that Mango Margarita looks yummy! I love mangoes! Thank you for not leaving us hanging for the food! It looks delicious! The kids and I may have to go there. That's too bad about your zoom lens, but now you have an excuse to go back The picture of that bird is so cool, though. It looks like you had a great start to your trip

Erin, I need another trip like I need a kick in the head! I actually have some guilt that I'm going back so soon, I feel like I'm overindulging. I'm sure I'll get over it. The margarita was fantastic, Rey found me another later on in the trip, too!

Originally Posted by SeptemberGirl

LOVE the update!

You know what I would adore? A breakdown of costs - do you do that? I love when people do budget trips and break it down - tickets, food, lodging, presents for the kids...it is so inspiring! Also, I am so all about drink tallies! Yay drinks!

That's a good idea! We did save ALL our receipts this time, too. I thought it would be a good idea and help me for future trips as well, in budgeting. I went back and added what we spent at Sanaa already. At the end of the TR, I will do a list of what we paid for each thing on the trip.

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I left off with us very stuffed and finished with dinner. We passed on dessert because it was early yet and we knew we would get something sweet later!

We walked out to the overlook for Kidani and I took some photos. Again with the frustration of not being able to zoom. I messed around with some HDR shots. This just means I was taking three different exposures of stuff so I could put them together during editing. Most of them didn't come out b/c you need a tripod, but a few did.

Ugh, Photobucket has totally changed and I cannot figure out how to resize the upload size. I can resize each shot individually, but there are just too many, that would take me hours! Large pictures it is.











We headed back to Jambo, I took a few shots of the Kidani lobby as we went out.







We went back to the room so I could change. The new dress I got was just too low cut, I had pinned it, but it was still uncomfortable and I felt like I was falling out, so I changed into my OTHER new dress! Here's a shot of the first dress, just for fun (Rey does not work my camera that well, however, so not the greatest quality shot!) As you can see, I tried to cover my exposure with my hair!


This is the dress I put on, I liked it a lot more and got quite a few comments on it that night. So much so that I hung it up and wore it the following night when we went out!


I know, I seem pretty vain posting pictures of myself, but, for those of you that don't know, I have lost quite a bit of weight this year and I'm just overjoyed to be comfortable in my own skin. I wish I had a comparison pic from our Jan trip, but I knew how to trick the camera and make my angles look better, so I don't have a lot of bad pictures of myself from before. I guess I could post one... this is a picture of me in January, right after I got my hair done for our Disney trip. I was 30 pounds heavier, but more important than the weight, I couldn't run at all and was feeling super unhealthy. I feel so much better now! Anyway, I thought this was a fantastic picture of me, so like I said, I don't have any "bad" pictures to share.


OMG...I TOLD YOU that I can go off on rambles and tangents!

So where was I? Oh yes, changed my dress and then I wanted to get a few shots of the room too! We LOVED our room. I thought having a couch would be the best part, but honestly, with the balcony and chairs, I only sat on the couch once or twice! I was always out on the balcony. PERFECT for me since I wake up so early too! I thought the bed was comfy, Rey thought it was too hard.









I loved how they gave you a paper with all the animals and their descriptions, so you could identify them! See the two guys down there? Those were Roan Antelope. It was really cool to not only see them, but to see them each day. You noticed their habits and felt like you "knew" them. Hard to explain!


and of course, an attempt at catching EE in a shot WITHOUT A ZOOM LENS.



Off to DTD we headed! We walked up, I snapped this shot (AHHHHH...HOME!)



and a bus to DTD pulled right up! What luck! Or not...hmmmm....

[-Hope-]

You look so great! It's too bad about the issues with the first dress because it's also super cute. Maybe a thin tank top would make it more comfortable?

Love all the pics of the room and also that they gave you descriptions of the animals. I'm so glad you enjoyed the balcony- I'm sure that would've been my favorite as well.

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Originally Posted by -Hope-

You look so great! It's too bad about the issues with the first dress because it's also super cute. Maybe a thin tank top would make it more comfortable?

Love all the pics of the room and also that they gave you descriptions of the animals. I'm so glad you enjoyed the balcony- I'm sure that would've been my favorite as well.

You wouldn't have wanted to leave the balcony! I know I didn't! We seriously could have gone and not hit the parks at all, the resort was that fabulous!