1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 kids - Will we be sane? - Updated 2/3

[WDisneyWforMe]

another great installment, that room was fantastic!! Hope you are enjoying your stay now. We leave for WDW in 4 days! Can't believe it. Save some magic for us, please!!

 

[CJsMom]

Ooh - that Indaba looks awesome! The kids must have loved it. Fun Chef Mickey's pics - sorry to hear that the food wasn't great though. We must have hit it on a good night last year - I remember the food being pretty good. Oh yeah, and the room is beautiful too!!!

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone! Thanks for all of the great comments!

My current trip is going well! I guess that I will have to have 2 trip reports going at the same time once I get home.

I really love the rooms at AKV and I am so glad that I bought in there. I have now stayed at AKV, OKW, SSR, and BWV and AKV is still my favorite resort. I did check out the model of the BLT rooms yesterday and they just didn't do anything for me.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

WOW! The room is gorgeous!!! And those cookies/brownies/chocolates look quite yummy!!

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone, remember me? Well, with my December vacation and Christmas over, it is time for me to get serious with this trip report.

So let's get started:

Day 3 - Saturday - DHS

Well, since Saturday is morning EMH at DHS, our plan was to get to the park at opening and then go straight to TSM. Well because of EMH, the park opened at 8 AM! That meant that we were up at 6. This was probably our most efficient morning for getting ready. By 6:50 we were at Maras for breakfast. Since they weren't serving hot breakfast until 7, we all ended up with a continental breakfast. We got:
Me : Chocolate croissant -- yum yum
DSis : Bagel and cream cheesse
Pluto : Cheese danish
Belle : Raspberry danish
plus we all shared a cinnamon roll.

This breakfast was very good. I always love breakfast at Maras.
Next one of us (I think it was me) went back to our room to drop off the mugs and then it was off to the bus stop. Well as luck would have it we just missed the bus. However, the next bus was only 10-15 minutes later and we were at the park at about 7:50!

We then went to wait for park opening with the rest of the crowd.

Note the matching shirts. This was the first time that I ever had matching shirts and I have to say that I really liked it because it made it very easy to find each other! It also helps that these t-shirts I think hid a bit of my pooh-shape. We also got lots of comments on them and I can't remember how many people commented on how well they came out. Of course at that point, I had to admit that I bought them on ebay.

So, we were far enough back in the crowd that we couldn't see any of the opening ceremony. But once the park opened, we went along with everyone else over to TSM. Our first stop was the FP machines and I had a few people in front of me (maybe 5?). We ended up with FPs for 9:30. Remember: the park opened at 8 so it was probably 8:10-8:20 at this point. We decided to ride standby and I think that we had about a 30 minute wait. If you get a chance, definitely ride standby of the line isn't too long because the queue area is awesome!

We let the kids ride together and DSis and I rode together. Well everyone loved the ride!

After riding standby, we still had some time before our FP, so we went over to TOT. DSis and Belle got FPs for TOT while Pluto and I shopped. We also stopped to get a picture taken.

OK, FPs in hand, we headed back to TSM for our second ride. Our wait using the FPs really wasn't that bad. Again DSis won with me coming in second. By the end of the second trip, my arm was starting to protest.

We still had time until the TOT FPs, so we headed over to Star Tours with a stop at the pin station in order to by some pins. While we were at the pins station, the HSM3 show was going on and I was really surprised that Belle didn't ask to watch. Actually I was silently glad since we really didn't have time, but it did surprise me. So, pins bought, off to Star Tours. We basically walked on so since the wait time was still short, we let the kids go on by themselves without us. We waited in the gift shop. This was their first time on a ride without an adult and they loved it.

After Star Tours, it was time for the TOT FPs so DSis and Belle headed for TOT while Pluto (he didn't want to ride TOT) and I went to Muppets. Here I got surprised again because as we were walking to Muppets, the Jedi Training Academy was going on and Pluto didn't stop or ask to stop!

We all love Muppets so Pluto and I had a great time.

On TOT, Belle was apprehensive about going on but once she got on the ride, she loved it! Neither of the kids wanted to go on RRC.

By this time it was getting close to lunch, so we meet up after the rides and headed over to our noon reservation at 50's Prime Time Cafe. We got there early and checked in but it was pretty busy and we didn't get seated until about 12:15. We had Cousin Michael who was a lot of fun but didn't get into the entire act. We did get to watch some of the tables near us who did have a cousin that was really into it. Both of the kids were glad to have Cousin Michael but they did make sure to look at the color of the soap when they went to the rest room just in case.

We had:
Everyone : onion rings
Me : Pot Roast
DSis : BBQ Chicken Sandwich
Pluto : Fish Sandwich
Belle : chicken nuggets (kids menu)

For dessert:
Belle : kids sundae
rest of us: Brownie sundae.

I would rate this meal at a 3 out of 5 at best. I enjoyed my pot roast but everyone else was sort of ambivialent about their entrees. The desserts were excellent. Service was also very slow.

After lunch we headed over to Indiana Jones which was just about to start and then did the Great Movie Ride with only a 10 minute wait. We then went over to the Animation Courtyard where we played around for a little while and got our picture taken with Sorcerer Mickey.

Finally, we went off to Muppets again so that DSis and Belle could also see it and then it was time to head to MK.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I don't know how I've missed your trip report so far, but I'm glad I found it.

The matching shirts look great. Weren't the comments you get the best? I was amazed at how many people commented on the shirts when we wore them.

The pics of the resorts are beautiful. The shots of the WL make me really look forward to staying there next year.

 

[Donald is #1]

I don't know how I've missed your trip report so far, but I'm glad I found it.

The matching shirts look great. Weren't the comments you get the best? I was amazed at how many people commented on the shirts when we wore them.

The pics of the resorts are beautiful. The shots of the WL make me really look forward to staying there next year.

Welcome aboard! I had forgotten how much I love WL. After this trip, I think that I am going to have to plan a trip maybe in '10 to stay at VWL.

 

[CJsMom]

Happy New Year!!
I love the matching tie-dyed Mickey shirts! They look great! Sounds like your day at the Studios was good so far - I can't wait to go back and ride TSM!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Glad you started up again! Great update. The matching shirts really do look great. Don't you just love Toy Story Mania? Looking forward to more.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Happy New Year!

I had a few comments throughout the couple of updates I had missed - let's see if I can remember them all!

I LOVE the AKV rooms...they are so beautiful. I can't wait to go there and enjoy it! So so pretty, thank you for spoiling us with the pictures.

The matching shirts are really great. I like the idea of buying them on eBay instead of making them, since I am very non-crafty.

The cookie/brownie plate looks soooooo yummy. In 2010 we will probably be doing a stay with friends at AKV in a 2 bedroom, I think I'm going to take your idea and surprise everyone with this treat! Yummmmm!

We had really slow service at 50s too, but the Pot Roast made up for it. And our waitress apologized for how slow it was-which was really nice that she recognized it.

What is with the soap at 50s? I've never read about that before...

We loved TSM too! So much fun!

Looking forward to more....did you start your other TR already too?

 

[Donald is #1]

Happy New Year!!
I love the matching tie-dyed Mickey shirts! They look great! Sounds like your day at the Studios was good so far - I can't wait to go back and ride TSM!

You definitely have to try TSM on your next trip. However, make sure that you get to the park before opening and head to TSM right away.

Glad you started up again! Great update. The matching shirts really do look great. Don't you just love Toy Story Mania? Looking forward to more.

Thanks! I think that TSM has become my favorite ride at DHS. Of course that means that Star Tours has now fallen to #2.

Happy New Year!

I had a few comments throughout the couple of updates I had missed - let's see if I can remember them all!

I LOVE the AKV rooms...they are so beautiful. I can't wait to go there and enjoy it! So so pretty, thank you for spoiling us with the pictures.

The matching shirts are really great. I like the idea of buying them on eBay instead of making them, since I am very non-crafty.

The cookie/brownie plate looks soooooo yummy. In 2010 we will probably be doing a stay with friends at AKV in a 2 bedroom, I think I'm going to take your idea and surprise everyone with this treat! Yummmmm!

We had really slow service at 50s too, but the Pot Roast made up for it. And our waitress apologized for how slow it was-which was really nice that she recognized it.

What is with the soap at 50s? I've never read about that before...

We loved TSM too! So much fun!

Looking forward to more....did you start your other TR already too?

50's soap: Normally when a kid gets up from the table to go to the restroom. You server, i.e. your cousin, will ask the kid what color the soap was so that they know that the kid washed their hands.

No, I haven't started my other trip report yet. I finished downloading my pictures last weekend, so I am hoping to start it this weekend.

 

[Donald is #1]

Since, I tend to forget at times to comment on the weather and crowd levels, I figured that I would add a post to address these items.

Just to remind you, this trip occurred over Veterans Day weekend. Also, we purposefully picked our park days to avoid large crowds. The best example of this is that we went to EPCOT on Monday instead of one of the weekend days because it was the last weekend of F&WF and I have been to Epcot on a F&WF weekend.

Crowds:
DSis and I spent a lot of time and a couple of threads debating on when we should go. We were concerned about the crowd levels because this weekend was a holiday weekend plus it was at the end of Jersey Week. Well, in the end, the crowds really didn't seem to be that bad to me. I have seen worse crowds in May and October than these days. DSis, what did you think of the crowd levels?

Edited to add:
Except for TSM, I would say that most lines we encountered were in the 20-40 minute range with some attractions being walk-ons. We used FPs a lot so we really didn't a lot of time waiting in lines.

Weather:
Each day was about the same from a weather point of view. The mornings would start off at about 55-60 and then probably hit 60-65 by 9 AM. Mid-day and afternoon tended to be nice in the 70's. Evenings were cool. Both Saturday and Sunday evenings were quite cool. We wore light jackets and we found it chilly. I would guess that it was probably 55-60.

If you want to spend a lot of time swimming, then this may not be the time that you want to visit. Also if you like doing lots of water rides, then this probably isn't the best time unless you schedule the rides for late morning to early afternoon. This became an issue with us on Splash Mountain. Belle had picked this ride and it was the one ride that we didn't do from the kids list because DSis and I felt that it was just too cold.
For me, this was perfect weather because it was awesome walking around weather.

 

[Princess Power]

Crowds:
DSis and I spent a lot of time and a couple of threads debating on when we should go. We were concerned about the crowd levels because this weekend was a holiday weekend plus it was at the end of Jersey Week. Well, in the end, the crowds really didn't seem to be that bad to me. I have seen worse crowds in May and October than these days. DSis, what did you think of the crowd levels?

Edited to add:
Except for TSM, I would say that most lines we encountered were in the 20-40 minute range with some attractions being walk-ons. We used FPs a lot so we really didn't a lot of time waiting in lines.

I totally agree with those wait times and I think that if we did have to wait it was closer to the 20-30 minutes. I was very concerned on how the crowds were going to be but pleasantly surprised.

 

[Donald is #1]

So, I believe that I left off with us leaving DHS to head to MK. I think that it was about 5 when we headed over to MK. Anyways, we headed out of DHS and found the stop for the bus to the TTC and waited for the bus. As we were waiting, I saw a bus for the Contemporary and I almost suggested that we move over to get on that bus. But since it was a shared bus with another resort and we weren't sure that we would make it over to the bus stop before it left, we decided to stay where we were. I don't have any notes on the wait, so it couldn't have been too bad. When we were on the bus, I was contemplating whether we should take the ferry or the mnonorail over to MK. The kids all wanted the monorail. Well, when we got to the TTC, it ended up the decision was easy since the ferry was not at the dock. So on the monorail it was. It was fairly crowded on the monorail but soon we were at the MK.

Now we had a major decision to make. Pluto's ride list was in Tomorrowland while Belle's ride list was in Frontierland. They couldn't make it easy on us. Since they had rides on the opposite side of the park, I decided that we would do one person's rides the tonight and the other person's ride tomorrow night. Well since it was fairly chilly and Belle had chosen Splash Mountain as one of her rides, we decided to do Pluto's rides tonight and then Belle's tomorrow night when hopefully, it would be warmer. This decision resulted in a meltdown of Belle. But after a few minutes, she calmed down enough to continue on.

Pluto was out, so we stopped for a picture with him.

Plus we got a picture of the 2 kids together.

We then headed over to Tomorrowland. First I went and got 4 FPs for Space Mountain and then since Buzz had a 20 minute wait, we decided to go on Buzz standby. The wait may have been 20 minutes but it didn't seem that long to me. We let the kids ride together and DSis and I rode together. We all love this ride!

After Buzz, we headed over to Cosmic Rays for dinner. It was busy but we were able to find a table. We ended up getting:

DSis : Bacon Cheeseburger
Me : Bacon Cheeseburger
Pluto : Chicken nuggets
Belle : Chicken nuggets

One of the strange things about Cosmic Rays is that they have chicken nuggets at 2 bays: sandwcihes and chicken. However, you can only get them with french fries at one of the bays??

Anyways, we all love Cosmic Rays so this was a great meal. With the fixin's bar and everything for us this was a 4 out of 5.

We still had time before our SM FPs, so we headed over to Toon Town and first stopped at Goofy's Barnstormer. It had probably a 5 minute wait so we all went on once and then DSis and I sat out the next ride and let the kids go back on by themselves. Next we headed over to both Minnie's and Mickey's houses to see them. I don't think that anyone but me had been through them before so we had a great time.

Now it was time for our FPs, so we took the back path between Toontown and Tomorrowland. Belle didn't want to go on Space Mountain at all! So, DSis took Pluto for his first ever ride on SM while I took Belle on the TTA. Belle loves the TTA so we had a great ride. She wanted to ride a second time but I didn't want DSis and Pluto to be waiting for us so we went over to meet them. We only had to wait for a few minutes before they got off Space Mountain. Pluto loved it! Belle still didn't want to go on. So Pluto and I went on Space Mountain while DSis and Belle went on the TTA again. With our FP, Space Mountain was basically a walk-on! So we were through very quickly! Our next stop was Monsters Inc. I think that we had about a 10 minute wait and soon we were sitting inside. Well, it ended up that DSis got picked for the mind-reading portion and it was hilarious! Pluto, Belle and I were laughing so hard that we were crying!!!

By the time that we got out of Monters Inc, it was 9:45 and since Wishes was only 15 minutes away, we decided to stay for it tonight in case we don't get the chance tomorrow night. We were able to get a spot right in front of the castle and it was awesome as usual! The kids were really amazed by all of the fireworks.

By now, we were dead tired, so it was time to head back to AKV. The crowds didn't seem that bad and by some stroke of luck, we were able to get on the first bus!

 

[CJsMom]

You got some great pictures of the kids - especially the one with the Walt/Mickey statue! Sounds like it was a fun night at MK !

 

[Donald is #1]

You got some great pictures of the kids - especially the one with the Walt/Mickey statue! Sounds like it was a fun night at MK !

Thank you! Yes, MK was a lot of fun that night.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hopefully another update tomorrow night! I am uploading my pictures now.

 

[Donald is #1]

Since we had an early morning/late night yesterday, we slept in today and didn't get up until 7. We weren't quite as efficient this morning getting ready so we didn't get down to Mara for breakfast until about 8:30.
This morning, most of went for the Mickey waffles. We had:

Me, DSis, Pluto = Mickey Waffle with sausage
Belle = Bagel and a banana
Everyone = fruit cup

We all enjoyed our breakfast though it was definitely a lot busier at 8:30 than it had been at 7.

Since it was just about 9, we decided to drive to AK instead of taking the buses. Of course, it was a very easy drive and we were in the first customer parking lot. We ended up getting into the park at about 9:15 so we didn't miss opening by that much.

Our first stop was EE to get FPs. During their last trip, Pluto rode EE and loved it, but Belle didn't want to. Well for this trip, all she could talk about was going on EE. Once we got our FPs, the standby line was only about 20 minutes, so we rode standby.

Yes that is me hanging on for dear life! That is the way that I ride roller coasters. Well both kids loved the ride. But since we rode standby, that meant that DSis would get to ride twice later since about once per trip is my limit for EE. Now, do you remember my post about the previous night? Belle wouldn't ride Space Mountain, but she liked TOT and EE?

After EE, we still had time before our FPs, so we walked over to Kali and it had a 10 minute wait, so we rode standby. I should say that it wasn't that warm, maybe high 60's, but since Belle didn't get to ride Splash Mountain, we figured that we would suck it up and get wet here. At Kali we paired up like we did on EE. For anyone who has never been on Kali, if you are a bit pooh sized, you are better off pairing a kid with each adult because the lap belt goes across both of you. Both Pluto and I got pretty wet here, but we all loved the ride.


By now it was time for our FPs, so DSis and Pluto went to use 2 of the FPs, while Belle and I headed over to the safari to get FPs for it. When Belle & I got over to the safari area, the line for the FPs was all the way over to Tusker House! I have never seen a FP line this long here! Anywahys, we got our FPs and we headed back over to EE. Along the way, we got to see DeVine! Sorry, the one picture that I took wasn't very good.

When we got over to EE, we didn't have to wait too long before DSis and Pluto finished the ride. So now DSis and Belle went on while Pluto & I went off to do some pin trading and look for DeVine. We didn't see DeVine, but we did get to trade some pins.

Next we took a few pictures and then off to lunch.

For lunch, we decided to eat at 2 different places: Flametree BBQ and Pizzafari. So I stopped at Flametree BBQ and got my meal, plus onion rings, fries, and a corn muffin for us to share while DSis took the kids to Pizzafari. Once I had my food, I met them over at Pizzafari and we all ate inside. So our meal ended up being:

Me: ribs
DSis: Chicken Parm sandwich
Pluto: Cheese pizza
Belle: Cheese pizza
Everyone: onion rings, french fries, and corn muffin

This was a very good lunch for us. I would rate it at 3.5 to 4 out of 5. It was also nice to have 2 adults so that we get food from 2 different places without any hassle.

After lunch it was time to use our FPs for the safari. This attraction is always one of the highlights of the park for me. We saw lots of animals, but didn't succeed in getting too many pictures tough.

 

[Donald is #1]

After the safari, our first stop was at the Gorilla exhibit right at the exit of safari.

Next we headed off to my other 2 favorite parts of the parks: the 2 animal walks. First the Pangani Forest:

The gorillas were awesome! I have never seen them so active.

On our way to the animal trail in Asia, we stopped to do some shopping and Belle decided that she wanted to get her face painted.

Now, time to head over to Asia with of course some Tree of Life pictures.

The highlight of the Asia trail is of course the tigers!

The kids had never been on the Asis trail before so I was psyched that they could get to spend some time on it. After the trail, it was time for ice cream!

I got a mickey bar, DSis and Pluto got ice cream sandwiches, and Belle got a strawberry bar.

We stopped for some more pictures and shopping.

By now it was about 4 and we decided to head back to our room to relax for a little while.

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Donald, it looks like you had a lot of fun at AKL!! I love Belle's expression on EE! She looks really scared but at the same time loving it!