2400 pictures! Beach Club, Universal, and Bay Lake Tower Grand Villa-COMPLETE!

[hstrickland]

Okay, now I have finished reading your TR! I really liked the IOA pictures. We have thought about taking the kids, but thought they were too young....perhaps they aren't. If we do go, we will certainly take advantage of their hotel. Do you know if they will allow 5 people in a room? I know y'all had 5, but one was a baby. Didn't know if their rules were the same as Disney. Was there plenty to do for younger children?

[dr&momto2boys]

Originally Posted by Mona503

I just got caught up. I love your pix! They are really good ones. All the kids are so cute. I like that group shot of Avery pouting. haha! That face painting looks neat, and the tattoos too! I am so allergic to everything that I can't do face paint. I will never forget the time I dressed up for halloween as a witch, complete with green face paint. Talk about a horrible rash!

Thanks! The face painting really amuses the kids, so I'm sure it is a tradition now! They'll probably always associate Animal Kingdom with face painting.

Originally Posted by MadiMouse

I love the face painting and tattoos. I thought eggrolls were on the menu as well. Hmmmm...

Can't wait to hear more!!

I was surprised about the eggrolls. I don't know what the word is on the restaurant board now. Maybe it was just a temporary thing?

Originally Posted by Buckeye Princess

Just found your trip report and am loving it! I have a DD who is currently 16 months. I keep looking again and again at the pictures of Bella because she looks so much older than my daughter Carrington. She has so much beautiful hair!!! haha. Carrington is not only small for her age but she has very short whipsy white blond hair so she looks quite young. We actually did a big multigenerational trip like yours back in Jan for her first birthday with my husband's family. I'm so jealous of the Grand Villa. They were all booked for our stay so we did a 2 bedroom and a 1 bedroom instead at Kidani. Doing a Grand at some point is definitely on the to do list though, especially after seeing those pictures.

Looking forward to more!

Thank you! Ella was born with a ton of dark brown hair. She never lost any of it and it is gradually turning blond. Everyone thinks she is older because of all the hair even though she is pretty little for her age too.

Originally Posted by hstrickland

Now I'm reading your TR! Really enjoying it....only on page 4 though. Beach/Yacht Club is where DS8 wants to stay next time...DD4 wants the GF...we will see who wins I was reading your post about wishing there was a plan with 2TS instead of 3. That really would be nice, wouldn't it? 3 big meals is too much food. We ate in the CL lounge most mornings and used our credits for Signatures and dinner shows which worked out well for us. And like y'all, we didn't use all of our snack credits so we bought loads of candy, rice crispy treats, cotton candy, etc. on the last day.

Looking forward to reading more. By the way, nice pictures!

I'm still throwing out candy we brought home from our trip last September! (A little bit at a time so the kids don't miss it!)

[dr&momto2boys]

Originally Posted by hstrickland

Okay, now I have finished reading your TR! I really liked the IOA pictures. We have thought about taking the kids, but thought they were too young....perhaps they aren't. If we do go, we will certainly take advantage of their hotel. Do you know if they will allow 5 people in a room? I know y'all had 5, but one was a baby. Didn't know if their rules were the same as Disney. Was there plenty to do for younger children?

Thanks! I think four is the maximum occupancy for the hotels, but they may have suites with greater occupancy. Not sure. I definately recomend both IOA and US for little kids. There was plenty to do! DH and I usually take turns going on rides that the kids are too small for as well, which is very easy with express access! It doesn't leave anyone waiting too long.

[janloz]

Great TR! Just found it and spent too much work time reading it.

[dr&momto2boys]

Originally Posted by janloz

Great TR! Just found it and spent too much work time reading it.

I don't how you're expected to get any work done with a WDW trip coming up in a couple of months anyway!

[dr&momto2boys]

I think we left off with the whole group heading over to the Safari. Here are a few pictures along the way...






How is it that there are always so many people in the stand by lines? Do some people not know about Fast Passes? Used strategically, we hardly ever waited at all! Sometimes I feel badly walking by everyone else.






The Safari ride is always a nice relaxing break.




We had a giraffe that stuck to our car like glue for the first part of the ride. Once we finally got past it, it met up with us again later!






I told you that the ride is relaxing!...


We had done and seen everything that we really wanted to for the day, so we scoped out a good spot to watch the parade. We also sought out some ice cream. Everyone was hungry and hot!

[dd50]

Nice pictures. The picture is so cute of your daughter sleeping. To tell you the truth I have fallen asleep in a few of the shows towards the end of the week last year.

[Antigua08]

Hi great trip report! Your kids are all so cute, and especially loving all the food pics! I'm currently thinking about ADRs for our trip and l have to say that this report is certainly giving me a few good ideas over where to go. Loving your DHs food rating system too

[hstrickland]

Originally Posted by dr&momto2boys

I'm still throwing out candy we brought home from our trip last September! (A little bit at a time so the kids don't miss it!)

Glad to know I'm not the only one that does this!!! Halloween, Easter, school parties,.....Disney World!!

[dr&momto2boys]

Originally Posted by dd50

Nice pictures. The picture is so cute of your daughter sleeping. To tell you the truth I have fallen asleep in a few of the shows towards the end of the week last year.

Thanks! I always get sleepy on TTA and Spaceship Earth. We always use rides like these and shows to get our babies down for a nap. Just like taking a ride in the car.

Originally Posted by Antigua08

Hi great trip report! Your kids are all so cute, and especially loving all the food pics! I'm currently thinking about ADRs for our trip and l have to say that this report is certainly giving me a few good ideas over where to go. Loving your DHs food rating system too

Thank you! I'm sorry I quit taking food pics after my IL's joined the trip.

Originally Posted by hstrickland

Glad to know I'm not the only one that does this!!! Halloween, Easter, school parties,.....Disney World!!

They're happy just having it! They don't need to have their candy and eat it too!

[dr&momto2boys]

We just returned from a pretty impromtu trip to Mall of America. Did I mention we're from near Chicago? My DH loves road trips. We drove 3 1/2 hours or more each day for 4 days going there and back. We stopped and did things everyday too.

We left Thurday night after work and drove to Wisconsin. We got to our vacation house at around midnight. We spent Friday morning at a beach on a small lake all by ourselves. That was fun! Then we drove to Minnesota and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe that night. We looked around a little that night and let the kids see what was in store for them Saturday. We had a free night stay at the Hyatt Regency which is what prompted this trip!

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel. They had a pretty good buffet and kids 5 and under ate free so that's a great deal for us! (All our kids are 5 and under!) We got to the mall just before it opened at 10am and bought all day wristbands for unlimited rides at the theme park in the mall called Nickelodian Universe. It's amazing how many rides they have in there! We spent until about 6pm mostly at the theme park. We did spend a little time shopping. We HAD to go to the Disney Store of course! We bought Jake and Max Toy Story (Woody and Buzz) pajamas for the Fall/Winter. We drove back toward Wisconsin and stopped at an Old Country buffet for dinner. We got to our Wisconsin house at about 10:30pm

I made everyone get up early this morning to get back home relatively early. We got home at about 12:30pm. Not bad. We're all just tired and sick of the being in the car! Crazy DH! He was bummed that the giant ball of twine was too far from the Mall of America to justify going to see it! He's nuts!

[dd50]

What fun. My kids have wanted to go to the Mall of America for years but we have never been.

[dr&momto2boys]

I can't believe I let my TR get to page 4!

I haven't forgotten about it, but am going to the boonies (no internet) tomorrow for a week, so it will be a while before another update. Sorry!

[dr&momto2boys]

Okay! Back from up north! I'm working on an update! I hope I haven't lost all my readers!

[dr&momto2boys]

Here's a nice AK picture to get me back on track.


Where was I? Oh yes, time for an ice cream break and the Jammin' Jungle Parade! I consider myself a WDW expert (maybe not to some here on the DISboards, but certainly compared to the general public) and we have never taken the time to see the AK parade! It's about time!

We found an ice cream cart and sat down for a couple minutes. While we were there we determined it wasn't a bad place to watch the parade--we had seats and were in the shade--so we just stayed put! We had a while before the parade started though, so I took Jacob into the nearby store as he was still on the lookout for a souvenir for Grandma to buy him. He tried on this reversable hat (try to stop him!), but ended up not selecting anything here. Did I mention he likes to keep his options open? He needs to see everything first to make sure he doesn't miss out on the best thing.


For the readers who may be interested in nursing facilities...we were also right next to nursing station so Ella took advantage. This was the only place we had to wait to nurse. Normally these places look abandoned! Here they had individual stalls/rooms and they were full. I think there were two or three rooms. There was another lady waiting also who said she'd been wainting for a while, so Ella and I left. Ella would rather be out socializing than waiting to nurse.

Here's the bunch waiting for the parade to begin...


And finally...












This is just a sampling of pictures of the parade. There were lots of characters, huge animals pulled and animated by a single Cast member, and floats including some with families that got to ride on them. My favorite was Donald's pulling his boat that had sprung a leak and was squirting water out of it. I love the detail! It was a good parade and I'm glad we finally saw it!

After the parade though it is a mass of people swarming to the exit! Since AK closes early, most people leave right after the parade. We did too! See the birds pointing to the exit?


We took the bus to The Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Here are the kids waiting. They play so nicely with their cousins! It keeps everyone occupied. I don't know why we ever travel without them!