1st trip home to OKW (July 7-14, 2007)with pics..

[OhMari]

I love your DVC resort. Your doing a great job posting your TR. I'm late for work, cause I thought there would only be a few posts, Not! LOL! Love the green shirts.

 

[tink_about_it]

This is just a perfect report for me! We are headed to OKW for our first trip home in SIX days! We bought at SSR, but I booked OKW back in March. It's funny, I really meant to say SSR, but it came out OKW, so I guess that is a sign or something.

Your family is absolutely beautiful, and their pictures are just fun to see. You can see the magic.

Thanks for "introducing" me to our home. Looking forward to more.

I think you'll love it! It was a beautiful resort!

 

[tink_about_it]

Plan: MGM morning/OKW evening

We stayed pretty late at MK last night so we weren't too worried about being at MGM too early. We got to MGM that morning around 9:30. We had never seen the sky writers before and we saw them twice while here...As soon as we arrived at MGM, we saw "Jesus loves you" in the process of being written.

We had an ADR for 11:15 at SCI-FI. We headed over to watch Playhouse Disney again because of Lainey. She is so excited in here. Here's Lainey at Playhouse Disney...

Jo Jo was with Goliath this time so we went for a quick pic before seeing Little Mermaid.

After PHD and VLM, we decided to go see some characters so we headed down where they normally are. We were just there on arrival day...but today there was a wall up with "Excuse our dust" on the wall. You couldn't go that way at all. I know they are doing some major renovations to MGM. We asked a CM where we should go to see some characters and they told us inside that shop by PHD. We didn't have to wait long to see the Incredibles. Lainey wanted nothing to do with them. Mr. Incredible stamps his name hard...Lainey was like
So here are the other 3 with Mr. & Mrs. Incredible...

We saw the set to Rat-a-tooie so we did some poses...

The kids played a little with the interactive games and we got in line to see Remy. We were first in line. I think Lainey was a little afraid here because of the Incredibles because she says rat-a-tooie so plain! It's so funny! She can't say Mickey,but rat-a-tooie is as plain as day! She had seen the movie, but wouldn't get her picture...Here I am holding her to get Remy's autograph.

Lainey wouldn't allow me to get to close so here are the other 3 posing with Remy.

It was time for our reservation at Sci-Fi so we headed over there. None of us ate breakfast today since we were eating early and had woke up later than usual.

James and I ordered burgers and onion rings with milkshakes.

They split milkshakes for the girls. They all ordered hotdogs and fries.

Their meal came with small sundaes or fruit cups. Jadyn chose fruit and the rest had sundaes.
All of our meals were very good.
Here we are in Sci-Fi how we were seated.

LAINEY HAD SOME MILKSHAKE ON HER FACE!

I LOOK TIRED!

The girls wanted to play at Honey I shrunk the Kids playground so we headed over there....
We stopped for some pictures along the way at the Streets of America...

We finally arrived at the playground...

We headed over to see more characters at Al's Toy Barn when we found the Singin' in the Rain umbrella...

We saw Buzz and Woody at Al's Toy Barn. Again..Lainey kept her distance.

The heat really was getting to me today. I said I needed a break. We had gotten FP's for Star Tours so James took the older 2 while Lainey and Jadyn and I found some shade. We headed out of MGM around 1:00. I slept until 4:00! I was exhausted!

We took it easy tonight and went to the pool at OKW.

 

[tink_about_it]

So we wanted to take it easy tonight. We headed over to the Hospitality House to tour a Grand Villa. James had set this up yesterday since we'd be staying in one next year. He wanted to make sure it was going to be big enough for everyone...It is huge! I'm sorry to say, but we didn't take a single picture. I guess you'll have to wait until next TR for that!

These pictures were taken right outside of Olivia's while we were waiting on the CM to take us to the GV.

Lainey trying to be funny....

Don't I look tired?

We swam and played for a couple of hours at the main pool.

Lainey is a little fishy!

James even caught me going down the slide...

We had a ball here...

We stopped by Community Hall to rent a movie for the girls. This was a neat place.

We met some nice employees here too. One guy talked like Donald Duck to the kids. They thought it was hilarious. The girls picked Cinderella 3 and we headed to Good's to Go and picked up a couple of chicken tender meals.

Here's the view of the marina standing near Good's...

The breezeway ...

I heated up left-over pizza and the rest of the gang ate the chicken tenders. They all got their baths and watched Cinderella 3 in the living room...

It was such a relaxing night. You could see some of the fireworks from our veranda. Not well..but it was nice sitting out there in the evening. We all got to bed at a good time. Tomorrow was an early day at the hottest park...Animal Kingdom.

 

[scottny]

great update. I tried to find the umbrella from "Singing" and I could not. Now I know where to look. Thanks for the update.

 

[tink_about_it]

We were decently rested from our break so we made it to the bus stop right around 8:00. We must have just missed the bus because it took forever before another bus came. I almost drove...then another bus came. Well, by the time we stopped at Blizzard Beach (which no one was going to...), we didn't get there until 8:45!!!!!! We grabbed maps and proceeded to the rope. We were behind a decent amount of people (stupid bus) so I put Lainey on my shoulders, James did the same for Jadyn, and the older 2 stood on the strollers to see the opening ceremony. We stopped really quick for a photo in front of the Tree of Life...

Doesn't Lainey look tired?

We went to ride Triceratops ...

After that we headed to Kali River Rapids...Since my oldest is Kali, she wanted to get a tshirt with Kali on it! We made the mistake of saying we'd come back later and get it...

I decided after my Splash Mountain experience, I'd wear a poncho...Good decision because I would have been soaked. The water landed on my head again...but this time I was covered!
I took pictures of James and the girls on Kali...

We headed over to ride the safari, but stopped to watch the monkeys..

Also stopped for another photopass...

PHOTOPASS PEOPLE SEEM TO ALWAYS FOCUS ON LAINEY...

We finally made it to KS...

A baby giraffe...

After the safari, we decided to eat at Pizzafari. We ran into Flik on the way...

Pizzafari wasn't busy yet. Kali and I got the food while James and the girls went to a table. We were picked as the special guest of the hour and given a cupcake.Jadyn had already stolen a bite before I was able to snap a shot of it. It was a very large cupcake.

I had the italian sub...(sorry I also forgot and ate some 1st)

Lainey and Jadyn had the cheese quesidillas. (Neither of them ate them well.)

Everyone else had pizza.(didn't take a photo)

We headed out of there and went to play at the Boneyard until we could line up for Nemo The Musical. James ran for FP's to Dinosaur.

We got in line for the 1:00 Nemo show at 12:15 and were seated probably around 12:30. Here are the girls in line...

We were thankful for the air-conditioned theater at Nemo!

This show is amazing! Really! We all loved it!

When the show was over, Kali, Madi, and I rode Dinosaur. Madi didn't do it last year and wanted to this year. I don't think she opened her eyes once. She was so far ducked under that you couldn't see her in the pictures they take.

Since we said we'd go back to get Kali a Kali t-shirt, we headed there regretful that we didn't just get this shirt earlier. We wanted to get out of this park! It was 2:30! We had it cool in Nemo, but it wasn't cool anymore! We finally got the tshirt and headed back around to the exit. We saw where Yak and Yeti will be..

We made it back to the room somewhere around 3:15 or so. We took a much needed break. James was taking Kali and Madi to EMH at MK tonight, and I was taking Jadyn and Lainey to Boma at 7:30 and to see the animals through the night vision goggles.

 

[tink_about_it]

We took a decent break and got cleaned up. Here's James relaxing on the couch.

Jadyn, Lainey, and I headed out to AKL around 6:00. I drove the van. Here we are before we left.

We wanted to look at AKL's gift shop for tshirts because we hadn't found ones yet for Jadyn and Lainey so that's why we left early for our 7:30 reservation. The gift shop there is much larger and had a wider selection of t's, so it was a good choice. Each of them also got a bracelet and necklace with Ariel (Jay) and Cinderella (Lainey). The lodge was beautiful. All the pics I took were way too dark to even post. We waited a short time at Boma before we were seated right next to the buffet! Perfect for a mom with 2 little ones! We headed to the buffet to get the kids' plates first. There was a good selection for kids. Each of them had mac n' cheese, chicken tenders, fries, and fresh fruit.

You can see Lainey's Cinderella necklace and bracelet in this picture also.
Here's Jay..sporting her Ariel necklace also...

I enjoyed nearly everything I got from the buffet with the exception of anything with seafood. I thought the salmon and the crab soup tasted nearly the same...and more of a strong spice that I didn't care for much.
Here's my first plate:

That was the best potato salad ever!
Another plate that I picked from...

Dessert:

I loved those strawberry thingies...yummy!

Unfortunately my camera wouldn't cooperate outside for the night vision goggles...It was too dark. I think the older 2 would have really loved seeing the animals through this. Jadyn and Lainey did, but they couldn't see well because of the fence so I had to hold them and the goggles and it was rather difficult. I let them play at the AKL playground and we were back home around 9:45. It was a fun night. I put the girls to bed and began to pack.

James and the girls had a blast at EMH. They rode everything over and over and finally got home around 1:00.Here's a pic of them in front of the castle. (Kali has on her Kali shirt.)

Only one more day to go for us....Departure Day and breakfast at Cape May!

 

[tink_about_it]

We had an ADR for 10:00 at the Beach Club. I had everything packed up with the exception of the toiletries. I loved bringing home clean clothes! (gotta love that washer & dryer!) James loaded up the van while I got the girls ready and did the final gathering of "stuff". We had a little more "stuff" for the drive from our shopping trips. We left Room 3224 at 9:30 in our van and headed over to the Beach Club.

Now, I don't know why, but I forgot about taking pictures of food for my report while we were here. There was a HUGE selection of breakfast foods from the yogurt bar to scrambled eggs loaded with cheese... I did, however, take lots of pictures of the characters...

Minnie is Kali's favorite so this picture is perfect!

Apparently Chip and Dale alternate every hour so here we are with Dale...(Chip was coming out as we were leaving)...

Lainey wanted to know "Where Doofy's hat?" (yes...doofy)

Before we left, Minnie came over again and picked Lainey up and sat her on her lap...

The whole gang joined in for a picture...

We left here full and sad to leave Disney World.

We started for home at 11:00. We hit some terrible storms. We commented that at 4:00, it looked more like 9:30. It was dark and rainy for hours. We made it back to our home around 3:45 a.m. The storms really put us behind.

We had such a wonderful vacation. We all LOVE Old Key West! We can't wait to go back!

 

[tink_about_it]

The End!

 

[scottny]

How sad it is over. that was a wonderful report. I was at MK on the night they were there for there EMH on Friday the 13th. I thought they looked familiar. Only kidding.
Thanks for sharing your trip, very enjoyable.

 

[MI mom of 3]

Great report...I'm glad I checked to see how it all ended.

Looked like you guys had a great time.

 

[dvc at last !]

thanks for sharing ---


Loved your TR/pics !


Nice family !

 

[lgcountry]

Great trip report! I showed our son Michael, 10, the pics from the playground and pool and he is so excited now.

I'm glad y'all had a great vacation. When are you headed back?

 

[IluvXU]

It looks like you had lots of room at OKW. Can't wait for more!

 

[AInWonderland]

Great trip report, you are a fast writer. I loved all the pictures of the girls. Our family stayed at a Grand Villa at OKW last year. You will love it.

 

[tink_about_it]

Great trip report! I showed our son Michael, 10, the pics from the playground and pool and he is so excited now.

I'm glad y'all had a great vacation. When are you headed back?

We're headed back June 16-25!

 

[Cory's Gal]

Loved your TR! Your girls are adorable! The pics of OKW were wonderful, I would love to buy into DVC someday!! I noticed you wearing Nike flip flops! Aren't they the best!! I can wear them all day at Disney too!! They are so comfy! Thanks for sharing your trip and pictures, I loved seeing Cape May too, I think we might try that next time!!!

 

[BeautyNBeast]

Loved the trip report. Your gals are adorable. I love the pic of them by the rose garden in the green shirts in front of the castle.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Great finish to your trip report...I know I said this in my other post, but I really love all your pictures! It looks like you all had a great time.

Old Key West looks really nice...maybe some day I'll get to stay there since we're DVC members.

I've never been to the Rainforest Cafe, but it looks like a fun place!! And that dessert you had...that looked really really good!!

 

[tink_about_it]

Loved your TR! Your girls are adorable! The pics of OKW were wonderful, I would love to buy into DVC someday!! I noticed you wearing Nike flip flops! Aren't they the best!! I can wear them all day at Disney too!! They are so comfy! Thanks for sharing your trip and pictures, I loved seeing Cape May too, I think we might try that next time!!!

Yes. I don't do Crocs. I love the Nike Celso Flip-Flops. They are so comfortable!

Thanks for the nice compliments everyone and for reading!