Pudge Controls the Weather-A Land and Sea TR Apr 6-Apr 15 ( Last Day new 5/26)

[jecskc]

I can empathize with your DD, because I too get emotional when I'm hungry.

Love that you got so much accomplished in such a short period of time.

The straps on Soarin' crack me up. I gave my friend Farrell a hard time and told her that she didn't come up to the red mark, so that meant she had to put it on.

Wow ... she must be short ... I mean, fun-sized. LOL. This what I tell people when they call me short. I am 5'-3", which is kinda short. but I have cousins that aren't even 5' tall. Yes, DD and DS hate the strap and get all upset when they have to wear it. It's stupid.

 

[marDgreen88]

AHHHH I can't believe how late I am!!! I just saw that you started the new TR... but I'm here! I'm excited about this one!

KIDANI VILLAGE IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! Wowowowowow! The rooms are amazing! It looks like you've had an awesome trip before! You got some awesome pictures at Animal Kingdom and Epcot! The Flower and Garden festival looks like it was beautiful!

 

[jecskc]

AHHHH I can't believe how late I am!!! I just saw that you started the new TR... but I'm here! I'm excited about this one!

KIDANI VILLAGE IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS! Wowowowowow! The rooms are amazing! It looks like you've had an awesome trip before! You got some awesome pictures at Animal Kingdom and Epcot! The Flower and Garden festival looks like it was beautiful!

Hey Marissa !!

I was hoping you would make it over to read. Kidani WAS amazing. We absolutely loved it there. We really love the F&G at Epcot.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I love your festival blooms photos. Those beds are probably my favorite part of the whole festival. I remember the first time we went, it just didn't sink in that the topiary and flower beds were part of a festival. Imagine my surprise when we returned and they weren't there. LOL!

Anyway, my pics were pretty sad of the festival blooms. I tried to get one from the monorail. Didn't work out.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Your F&G pictures are so pretty!!! Awww I totally sympathize with the kids, I'm not exactly the happiest camper when I'm hungry either!

 

[jecskc]

I love your festival blooms photos. Those beds are probably my favorite part of the whole festival. I remember the first time we went, it just didn't sink in that the topiary and flower beds were part of a festival. Imagine my surprise when we returned and they weren't there. LOL!

Anyway, my pics were pretty sad of the festival blooms. I tried to get one from the monorail. Didn't work out.

I like the little floating planters. They make me happy.

Your F&G pictures are so pretty!!! Awww I totally sympathize with the kids, I'm not exactly the happiest camper when I'm hungry either!

Thanks !! I haven't met anyone who's happy when they are hungry.

 

[jecskc]

Day 2 – Part Three

After that sampling the soda at Club Cool, we went to Electric Umbrella to get some lunch.

The weather was gorgeous so we snagged a table outside.

DH got the Chicken Caesar salad.

DD and DS got Chicken and French Fries.

I got the Black Bean Flatbread which was different but pretty tasty.

DH had the strawberry cheesecake for dessert, DS and I had cookies which were icky. DD had the sugar free brownie which, surprisingly, was really good.

Just as I ordered our food, the soda machines went down. So I rushed over to the counter to trade our cups in for water. There was a gathering of grumbling customers at the drink machines and I wondered how that day was gonna go for them since the lunch rush was just starting. We were on the dining plan, so we got a drink anyway, but the counter was still selling sodas and people weren’t going to get them. What a mess. I hope for their sake, that the drink machines got fixed fast. After eating we went back over to Test Track to ride with our fast passes.

And then DD saw the Fairy Garden so she had to go see that.

DD loves the fairies. I really like them, too. Then we headed out for some pool time. DH snapped some photos on the way out.

We checked on Spaceship Earth, but the line was waaayyy too long, so we decided to skip it for now since our plans were to head back to the resort for some pool time and then come back to Epcot later for World Showcase and dinner at Via Napoli. We hoped that there wouldn’t be that big of a line when we came back later.

 

[pooksma]

Great photos! I have now bookmarked the Bonsai drink site. Might need that later...

 

[jecskc]

Great photos! I have now bookmarked the Bonsai drink site. Might need that later...

Thanks !! Yes, that drink was very good.

 

[marDgreen88]

I can't get over how beautiful the festival looks! I've heard the pool at Kidani Village is awesome so I'm excited to hopefully see pictures of that!

 

[MissPrice]

Hi There I'm really enjoying your report so far. The fairy garden looks so cool. EPCOT is my favorite park too. Looking forward to next update. -Amanda

 

[jecskc]

I can't get over how beautiful the festival looks! I've heard the pool at Kidani Village is awesome so I'm excited to hopefully see pictures of that!

The pool at Kidani is amazing. Especially the splash area. I do have several photos of that coming up !!

Hi There I'm really enjoying your report so far. The fairy garden looks so cool. EPCOT is my favorite park too. Looking forward to next update. -Amanda

Amanda !! The fairy garden was really cool. There were a bunch of things we didn't take pictures of, that now I wish I had. Little fairy houses and Tink's balloon and some boats.

 

[kyirish25]

Our day at Epcot was almost the same! No wonder we ran into each other. IL's got the Soarin FP's while we rode Test Track but then we hopped right back on with FIL which is when we ran into you. Mission Space was next which I saw you as we were leaving. Then we hit the fairy garden and butterflies before going to Soarin. I'm surprised we didn't run into each other again at Soarin.

 

[jecskc]

Our day at Epcot was almost the same! No wonder we ran into each other. IL's got the Soarin FP's while we rode Test Track but then we hopped right back on with FIL which is when we ran into you. Mission Space was next which I saw you as we were leaving. Then we hit the fairy garden and butterflies before going to Soarin. I'm surprised we didn't run into each other again at Soarin.

It just goes to show you how well we both plan ahead . It was great to see you all of the times we ran into you

 

[Pixie Princess]

I don't know how I do it, but the handful of times I've been to Flower and Garden Festival I have managed to miss the fairy garden all but once. I did it again this year. Grrr! I think I was so focused on seeing the Chimpanzee sand sculpture that I let the fairies slip my mind. Compared to the African Cats one from last year, I felt the Chimpanzee one was pretty under whelming. I am glad I have your fairy pictures to live vicariously though.

So, your cookies at the Electric Umbrella, did they taste like someone forgot the sugar? We've had that experience with those same cookies ,but we got them at the CS place at the America pavilion. We went back later that same trip and I got the cookies again (I can't remember why), but they were fine that time. I assumed they must have just messed up a batch of them, but if you had that same sugarless experience, then seems they mess up the batches pretty consistently.

So sad news today...June trip canceled. *sigh* It is probably all for the best. I was really concerned my SIL wasn't going to have the strength to make it in the parks, not to mention the whole dehydration issue. Oh well, now I have to figure out when to squeeze a few extra park days in. We are only at 13 days on these APs, and still have 4 plus months before they expire.

 

[jecskc]

I don't know how I do it, but the handful of times I've been to Flower and Garden Festival I have managed to miss the fairy garden all but once. I did it again this year. Grrr! I think I was so focused on seeing the Chimpanzee sand sculpture that I let the fairies slip my mind. Compared to the African Cats one from last year, I felt the Chimpanzee one was pretty under whelming. I am glad I have your fairy pictures to live vicariously though.

So, your cookies at the Electric Umbrella, did they taste like someone forgot the sugar? We've had that experience with those same cookies ,but we got them at the CS place at the America pavilion. We went back later that same trip and I got the cookies again (I can't remember why), but they were fine that time. I assumed they must have just messed up a batch of them, but if you had that same sugarless experience, then seems they mess up the batches pretty consistently.

So sad news today...June trip canceled. *sigh* It is probably all for the best. I was really concerned my SIL wasn't going to have the strength to make it in the parks, not to mention the whole dehydration issue. Oh well, now I have to figure out when to squeeze a few extra park days in. We are only at 13 days on these APs, and still have 4 plus months before they expire.

We have missed it in the past as well. It was SUPER crowded on that day, though. We missed the playground this year and DD saw it right after Illuminations and bemoaned the fact that we missed it. But it was roped off and we couldn't go in. I bet when it was open it was mobbed anyway.

I am not sure what was wrong with the cookies. They just weren't that good. We brought home several packs of them after Thanksgiving last year and they ended up in the trash. I will have to remember not to get them any more. Ironically, DD's brownie was actually supposed to be sugar free and it tasted great. Go figure.

Bummer about the June trip, I am so sorry your SIL is not well. Maybe we can both squeeze a weekend trip in before your AP's expire. Ours expire in September, I think.

 

[jecskc]

Day 2 – Part 4

So we headed back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the kids and I changed into our bathing suits while DH got some quiet time and some rest. And we headed down to the pool.

Some “fossils” in the pavement.

This is the Kidani pool and it is called the Samawati Springs pool. Here is the exit to the big slide.

I rode it and it was super fun. A nice long slide.

The little slide

Zero Entry

Here are pictures of the splash area which was pretty big with lots of fun things to play with.

Finding a lounger was quite the challenge and I finally found one right at the entrance to the splash area. On either side of the entrance, there was a column and one of the columns had a motion sensor and when people would pass by, they would get sprayed. Just a little mister, but it was very amusing to watch everyone’s reactions to it. So, a magazine and this mister were my afternoon’s source of entertainment. The kids played for a couple of hours and then we headed back to the room to get dressed and head back over to Epcot.

Of course we took some photos from the balcony of our room to document all of the animals we saw.

Here is a panoramic view

More giraffes.

I just love them.

They left us a guide in our room so we could tell what the animals were.

Front page.

The back side

So then we headed back to Epcot.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Ha, I would totally find that mister entertaining too! People getting unwittingly sprayed with water is totally fun to me.

 

[Pixie Princess]

DD and I agree- the pool area at Kidani is better than Jambo.Would love to burn some weekends with y'all. I think we may try to go Memorial Day weekend. Gotta get my SWW merch. I love me some Duck Maul.

 

[jecskc]

Ha, I would totally find that mister entertaining too! People getting unwittingly sprayed with water is totally fun to me.

It was immensely entertaining. Some of the reactions were seriously priceless. There was an older gentleman a few loungers away and we shared a few chuckles about it. He said that no matter what, Disney always puts on a good show.

DD and I agree- the pool area at Kidani is better than Jambo.Would love to burn some weekends with y'all. I think we may try to go Memorial Day weekend. Gotta get my SWW merch. I love me some Duck Maul.

I think our kids actually have school that day - Memorial Day. Seriously, it is so stupid. They have all these holidays throughout the year that mean nothing and they go to school on Memorial Day ?? If they would just keep them in school for more than two weeks without giving them a half or full day off, we would get out in mid-May. Don't EVEN get me started. We should really look at mid-June though. We have water park passes that we could use. It is a hard sell for DH for the whole week, but I may be able to talk him into a long weekend. I thought the Kidani pool was better, too.