"Now That's What I'm Talkin' 'Bout!"- Our 1st DVC stay-May 2010-Wrap Up 9/23

[leamom2princesses]

WOW!! What a beautiful room with a beautiful view!! I'm eager to hear about the Spirit of Aloha dinner!

Thanks Becky! It was a very nice room and location. We were close to everything. Spirit of Aloha review will be up tonight!!

The room was so gorgeous, one of the best I have ever seen! I my girafffe pic!!! There were a couple of booty shots in those pics I cannot feakin wait to stay there in Dec

Glad you like your pic! You will love AKL!!!

AWESOME pictures of Kidani and your room! It looks amazing!

And you know I love those giraffe pictures.

Thanks Sarah! Mary loves giraffes as well. Joe took extra pics just for her. I will be sharing the rest later in the TR so stick around K?

 

[leamom2princesses]

I'm in! Love the view from your room! Hope to stay here one day...Can't wait to read more

Thanks so much for joining in!! I hope you get to stay there; you will absolutely love it!

 

[leamom2princesses]

Leanne - You started!!!

First - you look AWESOME!!!!!!! I LOVE your hair!!! It is shorter and lighter and looks awesome. I LOVE the picture of you and Joe! So cute!

The girls are just so adorable. I also cant believe how much older they look since last May trip!!

That room- Oh my- it is so nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to hear more!!!!!!

Hi Nickie!!! So glad you made it!

Thanks for the kind words. I'm liking my shorter hair. It feels so good in this really hot weather. Lindsey took the pic of us right outside AKL on our first day. I thought she did a pretty good job.

You will have to try out AKL on one of your adventures. The boys would probably love the animals and the neat pool and play area.

 

[leamom2princesses]

Wow! That was one nice room! I love the lobby too!

It was a really great room. We are a bit spoiled now I suspect. We are staying in a studio in a few weeks. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully we aren't completely ruined.

I see you have a new ticker! Yay!!!!

 

[leamom2princesses]

After we looked around a bit, we decided to put our clothes up and store the luggage in the closet. We had a message waiting for us when we entered the room so I pushed the message button and found out that we had to go to Concierge to pick up our luau tickets.

We headed downstairs with the plan to check out the pool and then catch a bus over to MK to turn in our AP vouchers. Picking up the tickets didn't take long. We were quickly headed over to check the pool out.

The pool was the busiest we saw it all week.

Here are a few pics..

After fighting off the girls (who wanted to go swimming the very minute they saw the pool), we went over to the bus stop to find a ride to MK. AKL has different waiting areas depending on where you are headed. Since we were going to MK, we got to wait in the first area.

Here's a couple of pics from that area...

After about 5 minutes of waiting, Josie started fussing that she needed to go to the bathroom. Shoot. So I quickly headed back to the lobby with her. While we were in the restroom, the MK bus came and went. When we got back the bus had just left and we ended up waiting another 15 minutes for a bus to arrive.

On the bus ride over to MK, I took the pictures of the girls that are on the front page of this TR. Joe also spied the blue Tron Monorail, and took this..

We got to MK pretty quickly and the bag check was a breeze. I stopped for a second to take this...another beautiful sight right?

We went over to Guest Relations and turned our vouchers in! It was a very big moment for us-our first AP's!!! Hooray!!

Since we were already there and still had about an hour and a half to burn, I suggested that we just take a peek at Main Street. We headed down and I coulnd't believe how quiet it was.

I did manage to get a look at one of my favorite structures...Josie's castle! (Well if you ask her that's what it's called. )

The show was going on so we watched it. There wasn't hardly anyone between us and the show. I couldn't believe it!

After watching the show, we decided to make our way to the resort monorail so we could get over to the Poly for the luau. We had about an hour to spare. Let me say now that you are going to hear a lot of fussing from me on the speed of the monorail's this trip. Normally, it is the fastest way to go anywhere but not this trip. It took FOREVER to get a monorail and get to the Poly.

We got to the Poly with about 5 minutes to spare. We made our way downstairs and outside so that we could get over to the luau check in area.

Once we arrived a CM took our tickets, gave us a lei, and handed us a reciept-like ticket with our name on it. We were then coraled in a queue for picture taking. Of course Josie had fallen asleep in her stroller. We left her sleeping as there was no reason not to let her charge her battery before the show.

Shortly after our picture was taken we had to put our stroller in the designated area so we ended up waking her anyway. A CM called our name and took us to our seats. Keep in mind that this is a 2 credit dining experience and when using the dining plan you don't get the best seats in the house. The best you can do is Category 2.

Our seats were actually pretty decent. We were on the side but only on table for 2 from the front. When we were seated there was appetizers waiting for us. There were cheese cubes, tomatoes & mozzarella, salad and some other small finger foods. We ate those up pretty quickly as we hadn't really eaten since 7am. Here's a quick pic of our view from our seats...

Right as the servers were getting ready to serve us our main entree's the show started. To be honest I thought the first part of the show was kind of cheesy. They take a lot of time to establish a weak storyline that one of the extended "family" is leaving and they are throwing a party to celebrate. They do a couple of songs and dances from Lilo & Stitch then they do several dances to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, newlyweds, and children. It's fun but again cheezy.

While all this is going on our server brought us this...

This stuff was awesome! When we finished there was only a small bit of rice left on the platter. As we were eating, a CM brought over the pic they took of us earlier. They tried to sell it to us for $29.95. The picture sucked big time so I passed. It's a lot easier to pass when the pic is bad.

After the silly stuff is over and most people are done eating, the MC "Auntie" Something or Other intoduces the dessert and tells everyone about the upcoming dances which are more typical of what you would see at a luau.

Here is the dessert..it's a chocolate mousse volcano topped with a drizzle of raspberry gel. It was okay but not fantastic. I'd rather have some bread pudding from Ohana anyday!

This part of the show was very entertaining. There were many traditional dances, the men would do some and then the ladies would do a different one. They traded off by region of the Pacific.

The best was the fire knife/sword dancer. He was phenomenal and quite the showman. We have a great video of it but photobucket couldn't handle it for some reason. Here is another video of a dance performed by the men and then one by the ladies. Check it out....



Sometime during the meal the girls decided the lei's made better hairpieces than necklaces. Aren't they cute!

After the dancers finish with the traditional numbers, they do another dance that is more american and then they finish with a Lilo & Stitch song.

Overall the show is good. I don't know if I would sacrifice a meal for it if I were on the regular dining plan but if you are DxDP, it's worth seeing at least once.

Up Next: EPCOT meet and the beginning of Day 2 at AK!!

 

[wlwilliams9]

Great review of the SoA show! I thought the show was pretty cheezy too, but the traditional dancing part was excellent. The food, YUMMMMMMMMMM! I remember that being a great meal for us too!

The girls look so cute with their lei headbands!

 

[my2disneyboys]

Good Morning Leanne! Are you going for a run today? I did day 2 of week 4 yesterday and it was HARD. I think because it was so humid out and I was running through the little square in our town and everyone was out on the sidewalks having their coffee and reading newspapers. It was a very resentful run.

I love the review and the pics of the girls! I can't believe how empty the MK was- especially for that time of day!!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Hi Queen! Welcome to my TR!!!! It's so great to see you here.

More is coming up! Jas is graduating in a couple of weeks correct? I want to do something for her but I'm not quite sure what to do. Typically I would send money but I don't know what she would do with American money. How do gift cards work there? Do you have any other ideas?

With this TR and your next 2 trips to the World, I am going to live vicariously though all of you!!!

You are so sweet Leanne, always thinking of others I ordered a gift card for her yeseterday from the official WDW website! I figured we know for sure we're going next year so why not? I am going to do the same for birthday's and Christmas this year. She's getting to that age where what do I buy? I am going to tell you that you don't need to get her anything, but I have a feeling that may fall on deaf ears

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!!

 

[Queenofallthings]

I posted before I had read today's installment

Great update! That pool looks amazing! We stayed at Jambo House last summer and we never took the time to go and check out Kidani Village! I remember when Jasmine was little, the pool was all she cared about....now that's all Aladdin talks about for our next trip....boys

I have contemplated the Luau for many years and have never done it. I am going to take your advice and do it if we're ever on the deluxe dining.

I noticed in January that the monorails were super slow...I wondered if they are taking extra time for security since the accident, it was the only thing I could think of.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

What a fun way to start your stay at WDW! a view of "Josie's" castle, a great show for entertainment while dining on a great dinner... I hope the crowds are an indication to the crowd levels for you guys for the week.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! and have a fantastic Birthday!
Connie

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Joining in on your report!
Your girls are adorable
Your room looks great, lovin the view!

 

[Brave teacher]

I have never done the luau, so thanks for the review of it! We had monorail issues as well. I can't believe the back ups it had that week!

 

[bouncycat]

OH wow, the luau looks like fun!! I might have to do that next year with Chris's Niece!!

 

[ladybugmom]

GREAT update!! Nice pool!! And YAY for APs and a quick stop at MK! That's strange that you had such issues with the monorail. We didn't have any problems and got places pretty efficiently!? Thanks for the details on the luau! The girls with the leis on their head--that is too cute!!

 

[lynnlee]

I love your pictures.

 

[MHTeacher]

Thanks for the review of the luau, Leanne. Even though we've stayed at the Poly a few times, we've never been to the show.

 

[mom2mek]

The luau looks like so much fun! It's been on my list of things to try! We like cheesy! Fire dancers are always fun to look at too!

Your room looks great! I'm sure it was nice to have all that space!!

Yay on the APs!!!

Sara

 

[MaryAz]

Great update!! thanks for the review on the luau. Not something I think we would do. The dx dining was not the best deal for us. Especially the kids. More cute pics and I like the new tickers!!

 

[leamom2princesses]

Great review of the SoA show! I thought the show was pretty cheezy too, but the traditional dancing part was excellent. The food, YUMMMMMMMMMM! I remember that being a great meal for us too!

The girls look so cute with their lei headbands!

The food was definitely the best part for us. We did enjoy the traditional dances though.

Thanks on the girls!

Good Morning Leanne! Are you going for a run today? I did day 2 of week 4 yesterday and it was HARD. I think because it was so humid out and I was running through the little square in our town and everyone was out on the sidewalks having their coffee and reading newspapers. It was a very resentful run.

I love the review and the pics of the girls! I can't believe how empty the MK was- especially for that time of day!!

I did run; actually, I ran twice yesterday. I ate way too much for dinner so I decided to run again. I will be starting week 2 this week. My neighbor decided to go with me yesterday...don't know if she will be back. Week one really kicked her butt.

I was shocked how empty MK was for that time of day. It was really odd.

 

[leamom2princesses]

With this TR and your next 2 trips to the World, I am going to live vicariously though all of you!!!

You are so sweet Leanne, always thinking of others I ordered a gift card for her yeseterday from the official WDW website! I figured we know for sure we're going next year so why not? I am going to do the same for birthday's and Christmas this year. She's getting to that age where what do I buy? I am going to tell you that you don't need to get her anything, but I have a feeling that may fall on deaf ears

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!!

Yep, I didn't hear anything on that last part. I'm so glad you suggested that as that is exactly what I was thinking about.

I posted before I had read today's installment

Great update! That pool looks amazing! We stayed at Jambo House last summer and we never took the time to go and check out Kidani Village! I remember when Jasmine was little, the pool was all she cared about....now that's all Aladdin talks about for our next trip....boys

I have contemplated the Luau for many years and have never done it. I am going to take your advice and do it if we're ever on the deluxe dining.

I noticed in January that the monorails were super slow...I wondered if they are taking extra time for security since the accident, it was the only thing I could think of.

Thanks Queen! I'm wondering if they slowed things down a bit because of the recent accidents as well. I only know of one Monorail accident but there have been several with buses. Maybe they've decided to slow it down and be more careful.

You should check out Kidani on one of your upcoming trips. It's a great place to sit back and unwind.