Try Everything! A Hotel Extravaganza! Updated 07/04

[Raeven]

Little did I know that would soon turn into 5 Disney hotels, 1 other non Disney hotel (shhh its a secret) and 1 little old OKW stay...oh and the airport hotel...so 8 different hotels total.

Isn't that how it always is?

Like I said I have a teeny tiny problem making up my mind!

Me too!

I of course was very helpful...

I'm about as equally comforting when someone is sick

It was very posh, the seat turned into a fully flat bed, with a mattress part built into the seat so at the push of a button the whole thing flipped over and turned into a bed.

That does sound very posh. It reminds me of those (I think they're Emirates Airlines maybe) commercials with Jennifer Aniston where she's talking about the bar/showers/beds on the plane.

Oh just DM coming to join me for lunch!

so fancy!

 

[alrushton]

So glad you are back. Looking forward to the fun in your TR!!

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Hopping in to join along! As the DC of a single DM, I'm the indecisive trip planner too!

Thanks for joining in! It always makes me feel better knowing I'm not alone in my indecisiveness!

also, Potter AND AVPM???? new best friend!

Wow, that is really exciting! Maybe one day I'll get a great deal like that, one can always hope!

It was a crazy good price! I doubt I'll get another one like that, which is gonna be tough as we are a little bit spoiled by in now!

Glad DM was feeling a bit better, and always comforting to have verification that she is not a drug mule!

Yes is it is a comfort to know she's not a drug mule! You never know!

Wow. Just wow. It's like you are the star in a movie!

I may have utilized that onboard bar once or like, fifty times!

Ugh, very unhelpful. Non magical.
Thank goodness the next cast member actually did her job!! Yay, onto AKL!!

I really regretted not getting a rental car at that moment!
Luckily we only have two more less than magical CMs the whole trip so really we didn't do too badly!

What an amazing trip. I can't even imagine being at Disney for that long.

You will be making such wonderful memories with your mom. I look forward to reading along.

It really was a great trip. It wasn't actually my longest ever Disney trip, once when I was alot younger we spent 6 whole weeks at Disney! Thanks for following along!

Yea! The Queen of Gif's is back!!! I'm going back to start reading but just wanted to say I'm so excited for this!!

Kelly!! You found me!

And I would like Queen Of Gifs printed on a T-Shirt for me to wear now! I have seen you have your TR going and I am going to get over to read it as soon as I can!

Isn't that how it always is?

It's crazy how that just seems to happen isn't it?

I'm about as equally comforting when someone is sick

Oh good! I'm glad I'm not the only one!

That does sound very posh. It reminds me of those (I think they're Emirates Airlines maybe) commercials with Jennifer Aniston where she's talking about the bar/showers/beds on the plane.

Yes! I think Emirates must be slighty laughing more expensive as we didn't have a shower
But really how weird would it be to actually take a shower on a plane?!

Oh don't mind me plane full of strangers! Just off to take a shower!

I'll just wait till I get off the plane!

So glad you are back. Looking forward to the fun in your TR!!

You're here! My PTR gang is almost all here!
I'm so happy you are joining me on this TR adventure

 

[Raeven]

Yes! I think Emirates must be slighty laughing more expensive as we didn't have a shower
But really how weird would it be to actually take a shower on a plane?!

Oh don't mind me plane full of strangers! Just off to take a shower!

I'll just wait till I get off the plane!

I think it would be so awkward what happens if you hit turbulence while in the shower....

 

[sunshinetree]

4 weeks??? Holy crap, that sounds like a dream haha. I can't wait to read more!

 

[tinkerbell1991]

I've not had a lot of laugh out loud moments when reading trip reports but your whole bit about the liquids your mum tried to take into the plane is so funny, it's exactly what my mum would do!

Cant wait to read more.

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Day 0, Part 3: Can We Join This Club?

I left off with us just arriving at AKL, and look it’s a very rare Animal Kingdom Lodge security man in his natural habitat!



I feel his name was Arnold. So Hey Arnold!

No? I’m just show myself out….

Anyways we made it through the security gate and the next thing I knew we saw the Lodge for the first time!

<insert awe-inspiring photo of Animal Kingdom Lodge here>

Ummm...yeah maybe you might have guessed that I totally forgot to take any photos of the front of the resort. You can blame the 9 hour flight...or that I have a sucky memory...or just blame the 9 hour flight. Yeah that sounds better. But it was finally it was time to get checked in to our first resort! Animal Kingdom Lodge!

Well...if we can get to check in! I'm sure this will surprise many of you new readers but sometimes I don’t always think things all the way through. Case in point: our stupid amount of luggage. In hindsight taking advantage of our larger luggage allowance on our flight wasn't the wisest move, at least not logistically. Trying to navigate three very large suitcases, two reasonably sized carry-on wheely bags, two handbags and two shoulder bags was surprising tough!

And of course as we have never used DME or stayed at AKL before I had no idea that the bus dropped you off quite a way away (across the driveway and up some steps) and my brilliant plan of tying the carry on bags onto the suitcases was a total fail. I have to say I was slightly disappointed that the bell service CMs pretty much ignored us (even after I dropped two of our bags in the middle of the driveway nearly getting run-over by a taxi) but whatever, sometimes you just gotta accept your fate.

We finally made it, looking very attractively red and sweaty, I left DM to sit in sitting area with the bags went to check in. And was promptly told I couldn't check in.

Oh good this again!

Apparently I had to go to the Club Level Lounge in order to check in. Which was fine and all but I had no idea how to get there and the CM at the front desk do not seem to want to tell me. Thanks a bunch lady. Luckily a very nice CM overheard my check in conundrum and said she could get my sorted. I grabbed DM and gave our bags to bell services, thanking all the luggage gods that I didn't have to cart them around again until we had to manhandle them to check-in for our flight home.

We took the lift...or should I say elevator to the 6th floor where another lovely CM whose name...had letters in it...checked us in. He commented on our MB choices (fun fact we ended up with 6 sets in total or a bakers dozen...if you minus one) we had yellow and orange bands which read Hakuna Matata, original I know, and told us all about the Club lounge, give us our room number and our map and we were off!

Well sort of...now again having never stayed either Club level or at AKL I had no idea where our room would be in relation to the lounge, the answer it turned out was pretty darn far! In my misguided youth as I planned this trip I was under the woefully wrong assumption that our room, while not on the same floor as the club lounge (I knew that at least) I thought we would be within easy distance of the lounge.

In fact to get to our room from the lounge we had to go back to the lobby, cross to the other side of said lobby, take another elevator to the fourth floor then walk 187 miles (or some number in that ballpark) before we finally got to our room.

Look I get it, to have the savannah and the savannah view rooms the resort is spread out but I didn't think that the CL rooms would be that far out. It didn't really feel like we were CL at all (geez talk about 1st world problems there Lu!). I did end up booking CL mainly due to the fact it was only a few of our British Pounds more than a normal savannah view room and well why not right?

Which meant that having the club lounge wasn't the whole reason to book CL, so I wasn't totally mad about it but if I had booked it planning on really utilising it then I might have been a wee bit peeved.
But AKL is a beautiful resort, I’m not hating on it at all...just the CL rooms could be a closer to the lounge.

As we had just got into our room at AKL, with a savannah view, we all know what the FIRST thing we had to look at was right?!



The bathroom of course!! (And me!!)

I'm just kidding! It had to be the beds!!




No? That wasn't it either! Oh I know!



Me!! Wait! What do you mean no?! Well what could it be...



Hang on! I got it! It was to see this guy:

Yep that's the ticket! I call him Earl. Cause he told me “My name is Earl.”

You though I had left the puns but you were wrong! He may had another name but I don't care to me he shall forever be Earl.



This was one of the coolest views I have ever had out of a window.

As I gazed out at Earl as he chowed down on his corn, DM called down to bell services to get our bags sent up.



We sat out on our balcony and watched as Earl as his other assorted animal pals roamed around. It was so nice.

After about 20 minutes we heard a knock at the door and we found our bags sitting outside...oh and a bellhop of course! Bags safety ensconced in our room we decided to go exploring. When I was making plans for this first day I did have an ADR for Sanna for this night and I'm so glad I cancelled it. Neither of us was really all that hungry and the thought of curry after a 9 hour flight in the humid Florida weather did not really sound appetizing.

So off we set to find the Mara, which after several detours we did! We grabbed our first gourmet meals of the trip, don't worry you will see by our choice we are true, true foodies!

<insert astonishing food porn photo here>

Oh wait...maybe you can’t see from our choices as I forgot to take a photo! Again!

See that whole I have tons for photos for this TR thing is off to a great start! Okay folks it’s time (and I'm pretty sure this won’t be the last time) to use our imaginations again! Get in touch with your inner Figment and let him get inside you, wait that sounds creepy, and picture two cheeseburgers and fries and BOOOOOM! You just saw a mind photo of our choices.

Yep that’s right ladies and gents you were looking for the TR with the true foodie experience and you got...well this. Good choice!

We decided to take our delicious food back to our room to dine with Gus and his crew, but first we thought we would stop by and see what desserts they had out in the club lounge.




Any ceiling in WDW is incomplete without a Disney balloon forever stuck to it.



They had some cookies, and some mini desserts out so we grabbed some cookies (way to be adventurous Lu) and some milk from the fringe because why not! And we took off back on our hike back to our room. We scoffed...I mean ate our food in a very ladylike fashion while watching whoever was visible on the savannah.

We stayed until it started to get dark and we couldn't make out any animals any more. Another of my oh-so-optimistic plans had included heading to Animal Kingdom that night, to ride EE and see the Jungle Book does Rivers of Light or something that had been going on as it was the last night it was running. Well that did not happen. We both decided to an early night was in order as we were still running on UK time. And that my friends was our first day at WDW 2016!


Click here for the next post​

 

[Glam]

Excellent TR. Love your writing style. I can tell this is going to be fun.

And, yeah, I would have had to make an early night of it after that long flight.

Your AKL room and Savannah view are awesome.
​

 

[pktbMouse]

Loving the trip report so far

 

[Raeven]

I feel his name was Arnold. So Hey Arnold!

I have to say I was slightly disappointed that the bell service CMs pretty much ignored us (even after I dropped two of our bags in the middle of the driveway nearly getting run-over by a taxi) but whatever, sometimes you just gotta accept your fate.

They should have helped! I feel like normally they ask.

Which was fine and all but I had no idea how to get there and the CM at the front desk do not seem to want to tell me.

You have just had to deal with the most unhelpful people so far!

In fact to get to our room from the lounge we had to go back to the lobby, cross to the other side of said lobby, take another elevator to the fourth floor then walk 187 miles (or some number in that ballpark) before we finally got to our room.

Yuck I feel like CL rooms should be closer to the lounge too. I'd expect them to be or else what's the point of CL?

Hang on! I got it! It was to see this guy:

Wow he's so close! We saw a giraffe first thing too, but we didn't have a lot of animal activity during the day on our savannah....I guess that's why they call it the sunset savannah

insert astonishing food porn photo here>


Oh wait...maybe you can’t see from our choices as I forgot to take a photo! Again!


See that whole I have tons for photos for this TR thing is off to a great start! Okay folks it’s time (and I'm pretty sure this won’t be the last time) to use our imaginations again! Get in touch with your inner Figment and let him get inside you, wait that sounds creepy, and picture two cheeseburgers and fries and BOOOOOM! You just saw a mind photo of our choices.

​

Ooo I can help with this one! I recently ate a cheeseburger and fries at The Mara.

Now if you want to picture 2 of these you still have to let Figment inside you though

 

[pkondz]

I think the actual question is:

Of course it is.
I'm trying to be polite.

Never done that before. It's very strange.

Thanks P-man! It's good to be back! I'm sure you missed me!

Actually.... I really did.
You haven't read that on my TR yet, but... pretty sure I mentioned that I lamented the fact that both you and Katie were missing... and I was missing you both.

That's what she said.

Actually... it is. But... there was this look of disappointment in her eyes.

That's what he said.

Not that often. Once or twice a day, tops.
Well, maybe three times.

Ah man! You always have to ruin my fun!

You sound like... everyone who's ever met me.

You are right. You are in fact weird.

Correct.

Obviously only the complete and total truth makes it into my TR!

Obviously!

Wait a minute! I didn't write that!

Of course you did. I quoted it and only the complete and total truth makes it into your TR.

Ha! That was just a trap to see if you were planning on skipping my wonderful witty banter! Caught red handed!

Why is your hand red?

 

[pkondz]

Ha! You thought this was going to be the start of the TR didn’t you?

You're such a tease, Lu!

Welcome to my TR everyone, it’s basically just one big disappointment!

Kind of like when you met me?
Oh, Lord! This is going to be that bad?!?!?!?

Man I know how to sell this don't I?

Doing a great job, hon.

Click here if you want to skip ahead to the actual start of this TR! I won't mind at all...

If I did, you'd never know!

Wait... do you have a counter on that thing, or something?




crap



<keeps reading>

Well it was crazy amount of years like that...I have such a wonderful memory don't I?

I don't remember.

I should mention I have an older brother who doesn't like Disney

What? Is he an alien?

Then DM and my father divorced and the SADDEST thing ever happened: we sold our DVC!

Notes scale of sadness between said events.

We stayed for three weeks but shock horror only two weeks at Disney! What was I thinking?!

What is wrong with you??????

Our first week we stayed three nights (or maybe it was four? Meh you weren't there so I'm going to make it up and say three!)

Sure! I buy that! It's obviously three.

ate room service every night! Rebels!

Noice.

we had our first Universal experience (let’s just say it didn’t make us wanna join the dark side!)

Uh, oh....

The last four days we drove down (or is it up?) to St Pete’s Beach

Down.
See???

The monorail goes through the hotel what's not to love??

Yeah, but you do know that people sleep better in CR because all the diesel fumes from the monorail seeps into the resort, right?

After this trip I got some SERIOUS PDB.

Sorry. PDB? Post... something Depression?

I ran, again totally just for fun, the number by her and BAM! She said book it.

Smart woman.

(who doesn’t love a little Siwon?! Anyone know what I’m talking about? No? Just me then?!)

Just you.
Then again. I'm like, super old.

1 other non Disney hotel (shhh its a secret)

Oooohhh.... secret hotels.

Congrats on the award!

And did I mention DISmeets? Cause I had one! Or I guess two...and with DIS Royalty no less: @TheLittleKatie (who seems to be MIA too) and @pkondz ! So even if you don’t care about the parts of the trip with just me in them surely I hooked you all in with that right?!

Or lost pretty much all your readers.

 

[cinderkelly]

Look at you and your posh airplane seats! Glad your Mom started feeling better, whew. That would have stressed me out!

I've always wanted to fly upper class to London, maybe someday... but the dollar to Pound exchange rate is totally not in our favor

I can't believe the bell services CM's didn't even offer to help you guys with your luggage once you got off the ME!
How rude!

Love your AK room view though, but I also think they should make all CL rooms closer to the lounge. Silly that you had to walk 500 miles from the lounge to your room.

Did I mention that I'm so happy you're back!!!

Loving your TR so far

Oh and yes, you must have a "Queen of Gif's" t-shirt!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

What a nice view! So sorry it was so far away from the club lounge but seeing that cute little giraffe looking at you makes it worth it.

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

.

 

[pkondz]

Travel day posts are usually pretty boring (no offence to all you TR writers but we call all agree on that right?)

Yup.
Except for that one trip to Hawaii.....
But that's another TR. My first, actually!

I once got a not so pleasant comment about a travel day post, actually.

We live a few hours from the airport we fly from (which is Manchester if anyone is interested, UK not...wherever Manchester is in the US)

There are 31 Manchesters in the US.

1.New Hampshire
2.Connecticut
3.Iowa
4.Massachusetts
5. Missouri
6.Pennsylvania
7.Tennessee
8.Marshall, Alabama
9.Walker, Alabama
10.California
11.Georgia
12.Illinois
13.Dearborn, Indiana
14.Montgomery, Indiana
15.Kansas
16.Kentucky
17.Louisiana
18.Maine
19.Maryland
20.Michigan
21.Minnesota
22.Montana
23.North Carolina
24.Adams, Ohio
25.Summit, Ohio
26.Oklahoma
27.South Dakota
28.Red River, Texas
29.Vermont
30.Washington
31.Winsconsin.

You're welcome.

Now I should mention we were flying Upper Class with Virgin Atlantic

Nice!!! I've always wanted to do that.

I shall live vicariously through you.

For DM and all our your sakes all I will say is that what followed involved a train door, a train window and DM...and it wasn't pretty.

Oh....

Appreciate you not going into great detail.

First hotel of the trip! Oh right...technically we stayed at 8 hotels if you include this one! Which I have a total of zero photos of because I am a terrible TR writer!

Terrible! Abysmal!!

DM turned to me and said "Should I have packed my shampoo in my check bag?"

Oh, no.....

It actually worked out CHEAPER both ways than an economy seat!

How the heck does that happen!?!?!

security did not throw us out for not being posh enough to be in Upper Class! Fooled them!

You were wearing sunglasses, right?
That always works.

We ended up throwing away a conditioner, a body wash, a face wash and a deodorant that wouldn't fit into those little plastic bags you get now.

I shouldn't laugh... but I am anyways.

Turns out she had her medication (she is in remission for breast cancer) which was fine, but also a hand gel, another deodorant and a perfume still in her bag.

Oh. My. God....

And... another deodorant? How stinky is your mom???

Have you ever watched those boarder control shows where they stop really suspicious passengers and swab all their bags for drugs and explosives?

After a quick nip into Boots to replace the face and body washes, oh and get another deodorant

Or two... or three... or...

Yes, you guessed it, we should have stayed in the lounge! We ended up waiting over an hour before they finally let us on the plane!

But if you'd have stayed in the lounge, the flight would've left long ago.

 

[pkondz]

First up: why it’s us!!

I'm sorry... who?

See we really did go to Orlando and on this very plane no less!

Nah. Not buying it. I saw where you were really going...

so at the push of a button the whole thing flipped over and turned into a bed.

"sending the occupant of the chair tumbling to the floor. Unless of course you have your seatbelt fastened, in which case you will find yourself suspended in the air underneath the seat, helplessly trapped until the plane lands.

Also there was a table which pulled out for meals (which came in courses!) and a nice little foot stool/seat for entertaining guests.

Well, of course! People are always popping in when you're on a plane.

It had another little table thing for your drinks

Please. What kind of barbarian puts drinks on the dining table.

And an entertainment centre with a TV unit thing that pulled out fully so you could watch it!

If it didn't pull out, you couldn't watch it?

Oh, right. Pulling out isn't very effective.

Cute nails.

Oh did I forget to mention the most important feature: ON BOARD BAR!!

You forgot to mention it.
Now we'll never know.

This had...stuff in it..most importantly alcohol! I think it was a passion fruit mojito, just don’t quote me on that. Take off was smooth

As was the drink?

I only thought we were all going to die once the whole flight!

Not bad! That's almost none at all!

It's that fancy table I was talking about. And who's that?!

Someone who's gonna use that foot stool/seat.

It also took a long time to for DM to figure out how to use my phone to take a photo of me, so here is my frustrated daughter face! Enjoy!

This also helps to explain all the liquids in her carry-on.

Nah. You look cute. As always.

And it came with bread! Which looked like this!

That looks very bread-like.

Okay. Just gotta say... those things are adorable. You should have stolen them.

Can we just talk about how adorable these salt and pepper shakers are?! I was very tempted but I didn't actually steal them.

I just said that!!!

Hey look! Clouds!

Rain below them. Thank goodness you're leaving all that behind you!

I do remember that I watched The Boss with Melissa McCarthy

Did she sit on that little foot stool/seat?

The cabin crew gave out Love Hearts before we landed which I thought was cute.

I am happy to report that we were in fact allowed to enter the US of A!

They'll let anyone in these days.

and proceeded to wait very patiently and not at all panicky waiting for the bags to arrive.

I hate that feeling.
Every. Time.

(stupid Disney not shipping MBs to the UK, but that is another rant for another day...)

Or anywhere else outside the US.

this CM just looked at me and said "You can’t get on a bus without a MB or reference number" and then just turned away.

You're kidding.
Should've got her name and emailed Disney how 'wonderful' she was.

Thankfully (and just before I lost it) another CM opened another podium and she was much more helpful. She listened to what I said, took my surname, checked the system and told me where to get on the bus.

That's what's supposed to happen.

Good job she came on duty as otherwise I probably would have need to get a taxi...or maybe a police car...one or the other.

Probably the latter.

It was raining pretty hard

oh.

Never mind that previous comment about leaving the rain behind.

 

[pkondz]

look it’s a very rare Animal Kingdom Lodge security man in his
natural habitat!

Nice capture! That's almost unheard of!

I feel his name was Arnold. So Hey Arnold!

Arnie! Dude!

Wait... that's not... the Arnie.... nah.

<insert awe-inspiring photo of Animal Kingdom Lodge here>

Oooohhhh.... ahhhhhhh.....

Ummm...yeah maybe you might have guessed that I totally forgot to take any photos of the front of the resort. You can blame the 9 hour flight...or that I have a sucky memory...or just blame the 9 hour flight. Yeah that sounds better.

Actually... pretty good excuse. Jet lag. It's a wonderful thing.

Trying to navigate three very large suitcases, two reasonably sized carry-on wheely bags, two handbags and two shoulder bags was surprising tough!

Odd. You'd think it would be so simple.

I have to say I was slightly disappointed that the bell service CMs pretty much ignored us

You are not having much luck with Disney CMs.
But I'm sure it will be wonderful from now on!

(even after I dropped two of our bags in the middle of the driveway nearly getting run-over by a taxi) but whatever, sometimes you just gotta accept your fate.

Your fate was getting hit by a taxi?

I left DM to sit in sitting area with the bags went to check in. And was promptly told I couldn't check in.

Um.... Of course.

Apparently I had to go to the Club Level Lounge in order to check in. Which was fine and all but I had no idea how to get there and the CM at the front desk do not seem to want to tell me.

Disregard previous well wishes with the CMs. Put it here instead.

We took the lift...or should I say elevator to the 6th floor where another lovely CM whose name...had letters in it...checked us in.

I know her! She's awesome!!

In fact to get to our room from the lounge we had to go back to the lobby, cross to the other side of said lobby, take another elevator to the fourth floor then walk 187 miles (or some number in that ballpark) before we finally got to our room.

So, you basically walked back to the UK.

OMG! She can dislocate her leg to turn off the alarm!!!!

As we had just got into our room at AKL, with a savannah view, we all know what the FIRST thing we had to look at was right?!
The bathroom of course!! (And me!!)​

Look at you? Sure!!!

Actually... that's a really nice room.

Hang on! I got it! It was to see this guy:​

Cool!!! That is a cool shrub!!

This was one of the coolest views I have ever had out of a window.

This I believe.

Man, there are a lot of critters out there.

So off we set to find the Mara, which after several detours we did! We grabbed our first gourmet meals of the trip, don't worry you will see by our choice we are true, true foodies!

You didn't get zebra domes? You were right there?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

fail

Get in touch with your inner Figment and let him get inside you, wait that sounds creepy

Yes it does. Pass.

and picture two cheeseburgers and fries and BOOOOOM! You just saw a mind photo of our choices.

Those look good. But the picture's never the same as reality.

Any ceiling in WDW is incomplete without a Disney balloon forever stuck to it.

We both decided to an early night was in order as we were still running on UK time.

Yep. Jet lag. It's a thing.

 

[sunshinetree]

That view is absolutely beautiful!! I looove AKL.

Any ceiling in WDW is incomplete without a Disney balloon forever stuck to it.

Poor guy never had a chance. Rest in peace to all the abandoned Disney balloons out there.

 

[KathyM2]

Hey I'm excited to have found your TR! I followed most of your PTR!! Love the view at AKL - how awesome to be able to see a giraffe right outside. I'm sorry that the trip started out with your mom not feeling great, I hope that was the end of that. Also, I want to hear what you have to say about the CR because I will be staying there in August.