Trip Report 10/17 - 10/23 AKV Kidani...LONG

[eporter66]

I posted a brief report about AKV's Kidani and let me just say it was awesome!! We loved the resort, we had a 1 Bedroom Standard View, Rafiki Building, Room 7911. I will post the full report here, and again if you have any questions - feel free

Saturday October 17th We arrived at MCO @ 12:10 and we had great luck with Thrifty Car rental. I went to get the bags while my wife went to get in line. She was done before I met her with the bags, so it was right out to the car and off to WDW. It was a bit cloudy and the temps were in the low 70's, but coming from NY - it was very nice
We always stop at Albertson's (Exit 11) to pick up groceries. We hope to save a little money by eating in the room, so we get breakfast items, bread, Mac-n-Cheese, Sandwich meat and some snacks. Back on the road to Disney and we arrived around 2:15 and our room was ready! What an awesome space, nice kitchen, loved the dining table and flat screen TV's. The bed was very comfy too! The bathroom was great (except the little closet toilet) - the shower and tile were very impressive, and of course the tub is awesome. We went down to the pool, we like to take it easy on our first day. DW and I had a cocktail to toast the start of our vacation. Our only issue was the toilet off the bedroom was not flushing correctly, so we called the front desk before dinner to let them know. By the way, we loved the parking underneath the building, I am sure that is great during the heat of the summer!
We had dinner reservations for BOMA at 6:00. Wow, simply awesome. What a great buffet, all the meat was very tasty, my favorite was the ancho ribs. The beef was excellent as was the durbin chicken and the nut crusted salmon. Let's just say we ate very well at BOMA and would definitely go back. We sat by the fire pit and relaxed and talked to the CM's for awhile before heading to the room.

Sunday - Disney's Hollywood Studios Sunday was cold - high was in the mid 60's and windy. We had a problem with the toilet again, so before we went off to the park we called the front desk again. This was the last time, as it worked fine the rest of the trip. We went downstairs to see the animals and learned they are usually in in the morning for breakfast.
HS had extra magic hours (7-10) so that is why we came. This was the busiest of any of the parks that we experienced for the rest of the week. Wait times were anywhere from 20 - 60 minutes for TOT, 45 for Aerosmith, and up to 90 minutes for TSM. We got a fastpass for TSM as our daughter had not done that before. We went to Playhouse Disney and then down to TOT for my wife and I. We then got fastpasses for Aerosmith. We also did the Backlot tour and just walked around the park. We left the park around 3:30 and went back to the room to have a little dinner (frozen pizza). We went back a little after 6 to see Fantasmic at 7. Wow - it was amazing. We had not gone before because our daughter was younger and was usually tired. She loved it. I got to do TOT 2x once the 9:00 showing started, the extra hours worked great for us in the evening. We all got home and crashed quickly.
Monday - Magic Kingdom Hrs 9-10 Extra Hours 10-1 We could not pass this up, and were surprised that the park was not overly crowded. The morning was a little cool, but the temps got into the 70's which was fine for us. Our daughter was big enough to do some rides she had not gotten to do before. My wife took our daughter to Dumbo, while I got fastpasses for Splash Mountain. Haunted Mansion was only a 5 minute wait, so I got a quick solo ride in and met them back at Dumbo. DD wanted to do Haunted Mansion, so back for a second time. No waits again. We hit Splash Mtn and she loved it, and then over to Pirates. We did have about a 20-25 wait there, but it was not bad. Then Jungle Cruise and the magic carpet ride. We proceeded to the Dole station to get a Dole Whip (a yearly tradition). Then over to the teacups and toon town for some character pics and a few more rides. We went back to the resort around 3:30 again, and planned to return for wishes. Got back to MK @ 7:00 got in a ride at the speedway, the over to Monsters Inc. We watched the fireworks (about the only time it felt crowded). Then off to It's a Small World and back to toon town as DD5 loves the Coaster.
Tuesday - EPCOT - Daddy's Day Well - this is the one I look forward to the most, I love the Food & Wine Festival. We did the Princess Breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet. I liked this place, and our DD5 got to see Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel, and Aurora. She really enjoyed this, and it was much better than the one at the Castle (though the kids love being in the castle). Breakfast was 8:05 and we were out by a little after 9. We went over and got fastpasses for Soarin', then over to Mission Space. 5 and 10 minute waits for green and orange, so both my wife and I figured we would just do the lines. No problem, and then over to Test Track - our DD5 did this one and loved it. It was only a 10 or 15 minute wait at that time. Back to Soarin - she loved that one so much we got another fastpass for later. Down to Nemo and Crush - over to Spaceship Earth. A little more exploring and then time for F&W fest. Here were my favorites :
Argentina - Beef Empenada & Grilled Beef Skewer
Canada - Cheddar Cheese Soup
Mexico - Corn Tortilla with Chipotle Chicken
New Orleans - Gumbo
Beer Hop - We tried 4 : Hacker-Pschorr Octoberfest, Peroni, Murphy's Irish Stout & Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale. Other than the Peroni (decent) the others were very good. Also - the Sam Adams Festival beer was like a blackberry, my wife liked it a lot.
Greece - Spanakopita
Italy - Pizza (I thought was lousy this year, different than the sausage pizza I have had the last few years). Our daughter however loved the veal meatballs and Cannelloni.
The park started to fill up after 6. We had been there since 8 for the breakfast, so after another walk through we left around 7:30. We also had to make our annual stops to see Off-Kilter and The British Invasion. We did not stay for the fireworks this time.
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom Again, we did great with the rides. Our daughter wanted to do Dinosaur, so we hit that first, no wait at all. My DW took DD to Nemo show, and I went to get fastpasses for Everest. I got 3, and it was only 10 minutes, so I hopped on to that and did two rides while waiting for them. Met them after the show, and wife did everest twice and I went once more with our fastpasses, DD was too short for the ride, and too young yet. The we went to Kali River Rapids to get fastpasses, then over to the Kilamanjaro. Only 15 minute wait - so we got in line and did that one, always a great ride. Then we walked through the Gorilla section and always enjoy that. Took the train over to Rafiki's planet watch, and did the petting zoo, and explored a bit. Back over to Kali and did not really get too wet (we were lucky). Today was in the low 80's so it would not have mattered. Saw the tree lady on our walk through, very cool. Over to a Bugs life, and then off to the Character area. We always have great luck in Animal Kingdom with Character photos - and again we did good. We decided to just walk around and see the animals a bit and left before the parade. We went over to DTD and had dinner at T-Rex. Very similiar to Rainforest, but our DD loves the atmosphere so who cares. Got sundae's at Ghirdelli's and walked around. Our last park day, so we took it all in.

Thursday - Last full day We like to relax on the last day, so again we had breakfast in the room then off to the pool. Spent most of the day at the pool, a little cloudy but in the 80's so all was good. I did go down and spend about an hour watching the animals on the savannah - how great it was to see the Zebra's, Giraffe's and all the other animals wandering around. Got back to the room for lunch, back down to the pool until 4. We went to the Earl of Sandwich for a light dinner - and then a little gift shopping. Around 7 we went over to the Boardwalk (another ritual) to take in the acts and atmosphere, and grab an ice cream over at Beaches and Cream. We went out and sat by the fire pit and relaxed before heading off to the room.

A great week - ended all too soon. We loved Animal Kingdom Kidani Village. All the CM's were friendly and nice, they did a ton of activities for the kids, and the pools and atmosphere throughout the resort are just relaxing.

[LindaBabe]

Lovely trip. Thank you for writing!

[ua1992]

what a fun trip -- thanks for sharing

[Brave teacher]

It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Thank you for sharing.

[Crystal_27]

Awwww, sounds like a perfect trip. Thank you so much for sharing.

[MinnieFan4ever]

Looks like you and your family had a wonderful vacation.