9 Days of Singin, Snorkelin,Soarin & Safari'in! APRIL/MAY @ AKL ! UPDATE 6/2

[andrews1ma]

It is time to get this show on the road!

I will give you a quick recap of the details just in case you didn't get a chance to read through my PTR.

The who:

Me: apparently the dorkiest mom on the earth who goes way overboard with planning!
DH: aka Grumpy
DS: my currently 10-year-old but soon to be 11-year-old little man. He still loves his Disney but thinks he may need a break.

The where:

Animal kingdom Lodge – this was our first time staying there

The when:

April 23rd- May 2nd

The how: I seriously have no idea how this trip came to be. After our trip last April, all I heard was “we are taking a break from Disney and we are definitely not going back in 2010!

We always drive as it takes about 9 hours door to door. DH is not really a fan of flying and we just like having our car there. It is nice to be able to pack liquids over 2oz!

Let me go back a bit and give you the packing scene. I had been shopping for weeks and getting all of the necessities for this trip. I knew that we all needed some new clothes and had mentioned to Grumpy on several occasions that he should check through his summer things and see if he needed anything. He kept telling me that he was good to go and not too worry. I had packed DS’s suitcase and myself early during the week, as we were to leave Friday morning at 6:30 am sharp. Fast forward to the day before we were leaving. I got off of work at 1:00pm and headed over to get a mani-pedi. DH was getting off of work at his normal 5:00pm time. He plays on a hockey league and he had a game that night at 7:30. Guess what, he had still not finished packing! He called me from the car to tell me he was heading over to Old Navy after work because he needed some shorts- I wanted to kill him! About 20 minutes later he calls me to ask me to come to Old Navy because it was Stuff and Save and if you use your ON card you can save 20% off. Well the card is in my name so guess what… I had to get in the car and drive over there to meet him- ugh! Anyhow he ended up getting 3 new pairs of shorts for $12 bucks each, which was an awesome score since they were originally $24.50, on sale for $15, less 20%. The time was now 6:30, which meant that he couldn’t pack until after his game. I tried so hard to remain cool because sometimes I think he does these things just to get a rise out of me.
The game was uneventful, I think his team won and we got home around 9:00pm. He still couldn’t finish packing cause he had to shower first..ugh, I was soooo stressing at this point. I had originally planned on packing the car that night but decided that at this point it would be better to just move all the cases downstairs and load up the car in the morning.

DS fell asleep pretty early because he was really excited about this trip. I think I finally got to bed around midnight and slept pretty good. We woke up around 5:00 am and I headed down to the car to pack up. I love that feeling! Everything fit in nicely and we were on the road around 7:00am. We stopped for bagels, a road trip tradition and we were officially on our way to Disney at around 7:20 am.

Here are some of the token car ride pics:

Here is DS- very involved with with his PSP. Gran bought him a new game for the car ride down which worked out great!

he also watched 2 movies, Avatar, and The Simpsons movie. he is such a good traveler, he barely made a peep!

Me- just trying to stay awake cause DH does all the driving but likes to have company.

And last but not least, our lovely driver who by the way is not flipping me the bird, although it does look like it!

We had a great ride, the only thing that freaked me out was as we were passing through Georgia, on the other side of 95 heading North, the traffic stretched for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles! Seriously those poor people were just stuck, engines off and out of their cars. There was construction going on and I think there was an accident too. There was nowhere for them to go. I really felt bad for them, they were probably sitting there for a good 2 hours and it was HOT! I should have taken a pic to show you but I didn’t think of it ( and you will here that a lot during this TR, I feel like I missed a lot of great photo ops, but I did take 1100 pics, so I must have not done too bad!)



Thank goodness we did not hit a stitch of traffic and then we saw this:

so we made a potty stop there, but did not stop for OJ this time.

And then a few hours later we saw this:

woohoo!

we followed this little sign:

which led us to our home for the next 9 days

It was officially 4:15 when we arrived, and check in went really smooth. Our room was ready and we were sooooo excited to see it!

I am sorry to have to leave you here but I have to go bring Andrew’s friend back home.

I can tell you that we were beyond thrilled when we saw our room and can't wait to show you pics of our view!

 

[andrews1ma]

I left off at check in. We were handed our room keys and packet of information and the CM told us that our room was located on the same floor as the lobby. No elevators! Woohoo! And the nice thing is that the lobby is located on the third floor so I knew that we were going to have a great view and location.
We headed down the hallway towards the Giraffe Trail side of the resort.
We shortly arrived at our room # 3024:

Here is our room # and door:

Once we were inside I went straight to the balcony and saw this:

and this:

Our view was breathtaking! Another perk of this location was that there were a set of elevators close to our room that led right to the pool, so getting to the pool from our room was a breeze!


Here are some pics from inside the room.

Bunk Bed, although we wanted the 2 queens, but all they had were the bunk bed rooms.

Happy to be in Disney face :

I have lots more of the room that I will save for later on.


Our luggage showed up right away so I told the boys to quickly unload and get ready because we had a 6:00pm ADR for Raglan Road in DTD. I had never been to Raglan Road before and was looking forward to this meal. I had read great reviews and was told that there was live entertainment that started around 8:00pm. There is and Irish band that plays as well as an Irish Dancer. How fun! Also I had read about a great appetizer and dessert there, which is coming up shortly.

We hurried out the door and got to Raglan road at about 6:05 pm. We had to wait a while as the place was pretty packed, which I had a feeling it would be as it was a Friday night.

Here we are passing time outside waiting for our table:

We were seated around 6:40 in the main dining room right by the little stage that the Irish dancer would be coming out and performing, how exciting!

I thought I took a pic of the stage area- but again another missed photo op on my part but at least you can see our table.

I knew that I wanted to order a specific appetizer that I had read about on the dis called the Scallop Forest. Grumpy loves scallops and these sounded really yummy, plus the presentation from the pics that I had seen on the boards looked too cute.

We ordered the above-mentioned appetizer- and here is the good and the bad:

The bad: the presentation. I am all about the presentation.

This is what it was supposed to look like:

Photo Credit- Borrowed this from MickeyWanaBe

Instead they were brought out in a bowl with the sauces on the side. The waitress said that they had run out of the forks. Well about 5 minutes later the table next to us got a Scallps Forrest delivered, and you guessed it…it was a true Scallops Forks Forrest. Oh well!

The good- they were delicious- so I guess that is all that matters. They are battered and fried and come with 2 yummy sauces. OOP cost was $14 for these babies!

For dinner I ordered a chicken pot pie type of meal and Grumpy had the Shepherds pie. Mine was ok, grumpy said his was good but could have used more gravy. I really wont be mentioning Andrew’s meals much as they mainly consisted of Pizza wherever available, chicken nuggets or a burger. They were all good in his opinion! No food pics here- again…sorry.

Now onto dessert- it was about 7:45 and we saw the bad warming up- well 2 guys were there anyway. I figured this is working out prefect for staying and watching the entertainment. Andrew wasn’t too keen on this idea as he was excited to move onto to our next destination, Disney Quest. He had never been there either and was getting antsy. I told him to let me watch the band and dancer for a few minutes and then we would get going.

For dessert we ordered the Ger’s bread pudding, I had read on the boards many times that this was one of the best desserts.

It came out very quick- here is a pic:

It was soooooooo good! I highly recommend this if you like bread pudding. It came with a vanilla type sauce as well as a caramel banana sauce. The only problem was that we were pretty full from dinner and really couldn’t eat more than a few bites of this. The other problem is that you couldn’t really take this to go, especially since we weren’t going right back to the resort, so we had to leave quite a bit of it.

By now it was 8:00pm and all I had seen for the past 15 minutes were the 2 guys from the band pick up their instruments, tune them up and put them back down. We waited and waited an waited and now I was upset because it was about 8:20 and still no band. I kindly asked the waitress if she knew why they hadn’t started yet and she told me that one of the members was ill and they were trying to find a replacement. At that point I looked at Andrew’s face and new I had to suck it up and move on. It gives us a reason to go back!

This will be the first of many mishaps and missing things on this trip. I will keep a tally of these during the TR and highlight them for you at the end.

We paid our tab and headed over to the ginormous house of video games also known as Disney Quest. Since this was our first time we didn’t know what to expect. We were taken into our elevator and once the doors closed the coolest thing happened. One of the walls of the elevator turned into a 3D type show starring the Genie from Aladdin-ahh the magic of Disney is everywhere!. He did a little welcome type skit and then we arrived at the main hub type area. There are 5 floors of insanity here and I seriously felt overwhelmed. Thank goodness we had grabbed a map so we could get our bearings. I told Andrew that we only had about 1-½ hours as they closed at 10:00pm that night. We explored a bit and he found some basketball game that he played for over an hour! Then we went over and did the Jungle Cruise simulator ride. This was the most fun! You sit in a raft with a big screen ahead of you and it feels like you are going down rapids. We laughed so hard, Andrew ended up falling into the raft and and struggling to get up, but it was all safe fun and had Grumpy and I in hysterics. We also did the POTC game, which is a 3D virtual reality type thing where you have to shoot and blow up the bad pirate ships. Very cool if you are into that type of stuff.

No pics from Disney quest


At this point it was closing time and we were all shot! We headed back to our beautiful and passed out within minutes of lying down.

That was our first day done.

Missing:

One scallop forest
One Irish Dancer
One Irish Band

Be back soon!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I'm here!!!

Sigh! How I adore seeing your photos from AKL! What a perfect place to stay for nine days!

What a shame about the Scallop Forest and the Irish band!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[kristin t]

Enjoying your TR so far. Your view at AKL was breathtaking!! We were there the exact same time as you (April 21-May 2). I hope you didn't get caught out anywhere in that horible storm we had on Sunday night!

 

[andrews1ma]

I'm here!!!

Sigh! How I adore seeing your photos from AKL! What a perfect place to stay for nine days!

What a shame about the Scallop Forest and the Irish band!

Of course you were first! You are my loyal and faithful reader- I love it!

ahhh isn't it though! and I love how your view was almost identical so you know exactly how we felt the moment we drew back the drapes!! I am now torn on my favorite resort as I really thought nothing could top the Beach Club.

And as far as scallops, they were truly delicious so I shouldn't complain. I was really looking forward to the band as I love when I can incorporate music and entertainment with food! Don't worry as I will make up for it later on in the trip.

joining in

Hi and welcome!!!!! I hope you enjoy it!

Enjoying your TR so far. Your view at AKL was breathtaking!! We were there the exact same time as you (April 21-May 2). I hope you didn't get caught out anywhere in that horible storm we had on Sunday night!

Ooohhh welcome!!! Where did you stay??? Thankfully we did not technically get caught out in the storm but I will get to that story later on in the trip. Were you guys at a park when that happened?

 

[jenniferkeala808]

hello! I'm here! We were also there around the same time as you! april 26-may 6! Enjoying the pics and TR so far! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[andrews1ma]

Heyyyyy Jennifer welcome back!!!! ( I forgot to click on the quote button) I just saw that you were back as well so I cant wait to read up on your trip! I wonder if we crossed paths at all. My son kept saying "wow it's a small world" because he kept seeing the same people at different parks on different days. We even sat next to the same family at 2 different restaurants in 2 different parks on 2 different days! So I am sure that we had to have crossed paths but just didn't see each other. I hope you had a fantastic time- wasn't the weather amazing - at least the dates that we had were. We only had one rainy evening, so not too bad for Florida.

 

[andrews1ma]

Day 2- Saturday, April 24th:

Today was one of our Epcot Days. I initially thought we would get up early and get there when the park opened but my guys were just exhausted. I let them sleep in and I went down and got breakfast for Andrew from the Mara. He basically ate the same thing every day, which was a bagel with butter and a bowl of cereal- lot’s of carbs!

We had ADR’s for Tutto Italia’s at 6:25 so I knew we had the whole day to explore EPCOT. The last time we were there we hardly did any of the countries, unless you count 2 Kimpossible Missions, so I promised DH that we would do them all. Since we were coming back to Epcot later on in the trip we figure we could do all the other things that we wanted to do then.

The boys finally got up around 8:30 ish and we were out the door by 9:30. We arrived at Epcot at 9:50 and it was crowded! I figured it would be since it was a Saturday and the Flower and Garden festival was going on. The one thing that made the crowds more bearable was the fact the weather was perfect! It was 81 degrees, sunny and not a stitch of humidity. I seriously could not believe how beautiful it was, it definitely made walking around the countries much more pleasant. Last year it was 94 degrees, and felt like a sauna. We spent more time back at the pool last year than at any of the parks!

Here is the one pic I took entering the park with the ball in the background:

Our first mission though was to score a FP for Test Track; I know what you are thinking, why not Soarin but but the boys voted and TT was the first FP to be had. I figured I would go get the Soarin FP as soon as we were allowed to get another FP, I already had the plan in my head and was not the least bit worried……


We got our TT FP’s and headed to innovations for a few just to check out some of the neat stuff in there. I figured once we got into the world showcase that we would most likely not leave until it was time for TT. I forgot what time our return was but I figured we would do it after dinner anyway, along with the Soarin FP’s that I would be getting. (Apparently you can use your FP’s any time after the return time, just not a minute before).

While we were in Innoventions Andrew wanted to check out this….


oh wait CP you may want to scroll down past this, seriously, this is not for you….











ok Andrew wanted to check out STORMSTRUCK, which is a tornado simulator movie type thing. Think Honey I shrunk the audience. Andrew is slightly obsessed with weather so I knew he would love this. He actually used to be petrified of storms but has since gotten over that and now wants to learn all about them. This attraction was pretty cool if weather is your thing. It goes through ways of weather proofing your home to make it more storm ready, but it would be a bit frightening for little children, or big children that are afraid of tornadoes!

Here are some pics:

After Innoventions we headed in the world. We immediately saw signs of the Flower and Garden festival and had to pose with these two:

Aren’t they the cutest!

We decided to go right and start with Canada. We went right in to the O’Canada circle film and as always we loved it. We did some browsing through the store in Canada and I so wanted one of these:

Grumpy said we would come back later on and buy some but we never got around to it.

We took a few pics:

and moved right along to the UK.

Where we took a few more pics.

And tried on some fun hats

so silly

Where I would like to live one day:

In one of those cute little thatched roof houses on the coast of Ireland somewhere


I was bummed that the Beatles cover band was not playing – I looked at the schedule and we would have to wait around for a while and Grumpy and Andrew wanted to keep going. Oh well, maybe next time.

Next up was France. DH and I wanted to see Impressions de France because we had not watched that film since the first time we went to Disney together which was in 1996! Andrew had never seen it so we thought this would be a nice break from the heat and get a little rest, since you get to sit in this movie. OH MY GOSH- we were cracking up ( silently) during the film because I don’t think they have updated this film since the park opened! There was one scene on the train where I swear it looks like something out of the National Lampoons European Vacation Movie. I could have sworn I saw the Griswolds on that train!!!! The scenery was beautiful but it is definitely due for an update!

After the movie we did a bit of shopping, and posing for pics. Andrew was feeling very Artsy and French at this point

and even purchased a mini Eiffel tower with his money.

At this point we were eligible for another FP so I left the boys over by Morocco and I jumped on the boat to head back over to Soarin to score our FP’s.

Here are some pics I took on my little journey.

I tried to get a good pic of the Tron-o-rail, but no luck. This was the best I could do!

As I got off the boat and was hurrying along I realized that it was getting a bit warm and my back was starting to hurt. Well wouldn’t you know I brought the backpack! I haven’t mentioned the back pack yet have I. I am the designated carrier of the back pack for the most part ( Grumpy will carry it but I do most of the time). Well this day it was loaded down with about 7 bottles of water. Oh man I was so mad at myself cause here I left the boys on a nice shaded bench while I hoofed it over to soarin- which is a challenge in itself because you are always going against the traffic for some reason. Plus it was crowded and hot. Then when you get in the building you need to navigate your way up the maze to the entrance!

Anyhow, enough complaining, I was back in a flash with the coveted FP’s which I think had a return time for 8:30pm. I knew that would work out perfect because the park closed at 9:00pm so I figured we would have dinner at 6:25, hit TT and then end the day at Soarin, ahhhhh!

We skipped Japan, America and Italy ( we new we would be back to Italy later on ) and did Germany next because it was about 1:00 and we were getting hungry. We decided on the CS at Germany. Andrew and I had the Pretzel, DH got a Brat and we split an Oktoberfest beer. So of course I had to bust out my retro Stacy impression and do “Pretzels un Beer” Yummy, yummy, yummy! ( As annoying as her perky little skits were, I really wish they would bring that one back, I don’t like the new frumpy Stacy. She is so cute and they made her look horrible in this newer version.)

Grumpy let me taste the Brat and oh man did I regret not getting one of those! They were sooooo good, and since we were on the dining plan we were able to use the CS for his, and snacks for our pretzels. The only thing OOP was the beer, but it was worth it!Ok again- no pics here , I think it was because we were really enjoying our food and it was hot and sunny where we were sitting. We did some browsing through the stores in Germany but didn’t buy anything there.

Continued on next post........

 

[andrews1ma]

Continued........


Next up was China. Grumpy loves the little Ancient Tomb Warrior guys. I was able to find mini statues for him as a Christmas gift. He said in the 15 years we have been together, those were the best gift I could have ever bought for him!!!! Go figure! So I knew we were going to be spending some time here at this exhibit. We read up on all the history, took some pics:



Where Grumpy would like to live one day:

and decided to go in and watch “ Reflections of China”.

Andrew made friends with this guy while we were waiting for the film to start

We all agreed that we liked this film as much as O’Canada,we are such dorks! I was really happy that Andrew was enjoying all the learning, this was the first year that I think he actually did!


Once we were done exploring China we moved right on to Norway. This is my favorite country of all! Grumpy and I have always wanted to go to Norway. Maybe one day, who knows, but for now, Disney’s version will do just fine! We grabbed FP’s for Maelstrom as I believe our time to get new ones had just passed. The wait was over 40 minutes and the FP return was just about the same time, so no point in standing around when you can get a fp and get right on! We decided to have my favorite snack in all the world ( showcase that is) the school bread. Mmmmmmmmm. I wish I had one of those babies right now!



Here is a pic:

Sorry it is so bright- ugh my camera! I am currently shopping for a new one so this was the best I could do.


For those of you not familiar with this little heavenly treat here is a description: is it a donut type cake filled with a Boston crème type filling and coated with icing and coconut. The only thing I am not too happy about is it used to be just shredded coconut, now they use toasted coconut. Still tastes good to me.


Andrew got his favorite cookie from Norway:

Chocolate Chip with a chocolate medallion on it.



It was now time to ride the Maelstrom, I love this ride! “Yew are not de furst to pahss dis vay, Nor shall you be de lahst” we quote that thing all the time!


One pic was taken and what a good one!

I could so torture Andrew with that one when he gets older.


The time was now 5:00pm and the boys decided that they were done with the countries and since we were near the front we could head over and do TT since our return time had passed a few hours ago.


More tries at snagging a pic of the Tron-o-Rail:

We rode TT and had a blast as usual. We all love this ride. Here are a few pics:

I always manage to sneak one of these in, it usually has both boys in the pic and they never realize it!

After the ride Andrew had fun playing with the cars, boys and their cars!!!

He was fascinated with this one:

It was just about dinnertime so we headed back over to Italy for our ADR.
Grumpy ordered the Lasagna, I had the Cavatelli Pasta dish with sausage and Andrew had just plain old pasta with butter. Dinner was good, not great, but I also wasn’t really that hungry so it is hard to say. We probably wouldn’t eat there again since there are so many other place in EPCOT that we enjoy.


I took one pic at the table:

We all had canollis for Dessert- which I did take a pic of:

Now these were to die for!!! And look at the cute presentation. I would probably come back for the dessert!

After our dinner we made our way back towards the front to ride Soarin….ahhhhhh…
( I think the name of the ride should officially be changed to Soarin….ahhhhhh). It was beautiful, magical and a wonderful way to end a wonderful day!


Here are the boys on line:

At this point we were beat, exhausted, knocked out, punch drunk silly. It was time to head back to our home for the next 8 days.


Continued again...on the next post- I told this one was a doozy of an update!

 

[andrews1ma]

Continued from last post.......



When we got back to the resort Grumpy and Andrew got their second wind and wanted to look around the gift shop for a few. I will never pass up an opportunity to shop!

Here are some pics of them playing around with the instruments:

I bet anyone who has ever visited AKL has the same exact pics, who can resist playing with these fun instruments!


Cute shirts that I wanted but unfortunately did not purchase:

After playing for a bit we headed back to the room and passed out!

Up next... Our Magic Kingdom Day, with a minor wrench in the plans..those of you that were there on Sunday, April 25th know exactly what I am talkin about!

 

[Melknor]

Great TR! Can't wait to read about your MK adventures on the 25th. We were at Epcot on that day/evening. I hope you faired better than we did.

Awesome view from your room. I would love to stay at AKL sometime. DS requested that resort for our next trip.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey There! found you!
now let me go back and read! be back...

I'm baaacckkk!
Great start!!! I love the AKL; that is my dream resort and what an awesome view of the pool area.
sounds like you guys got alot accomplished at Epcot on Saturday...I have not done the countries since 2001. we do a few but not all of World Showcase (I look forward to visiting another time to go through the countries again--something to look forward to)...

great and fun pictures of you guys traveling around the world!!

 

[kristin t]

Ooohhh welcome!!! Where did you stay??? Thankfully we did not technically get caught out in the storm but I will get to that story later on in the trip. Were you guys at a park when that happened? [/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Thanks! We stayed at CSR for the the first time. We really enjoyed it.

We were also at MK on the 25th, and I have a feeling I know what the minor wrench in your plans for that day was!!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about it. Can't believe I caught you still on page 1.

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

Once we were inside I went straight to the balcony and saw this:

I see the balcony I was on just yesterday. It is the top floor in the left corner. It was definitely an amazing view!

 

[andrews1ma]

Great TR! Can't wait to read about your MK adventures on the 25th. We were at Epcot on that day/evening. I hope you faired better than we did.

Awesome view from your room. I would love to stay at AKL sometime. DS requested that resort for our next trip.

I will say this about sunday- our adventures on Sunday probably weren't as bad as others - we got lucky in that respect.

I truly loved AKL!

Hey There! found you!
now let me go back and read! be back...

I'm baaacckkk!
Great start!!! I love the AKL; that is my dream resort and what an awesome view of the pool area.
sounds like you guys got alot accomplished at Epcot on Saturday...I have not done the countries since 2001. we do a few but not all of World Showcase (I look forward to visiting another time to go through the countries again--something to look forward to)...

great and fun pictures of you guys traveling around the world!!

Doing the countries with little ones really is hard. Mainly because of all of the walking, then you have to be so careful in all the stores because there are so many delicate things to touch and break! Plus it can get a little boring in the ones with no attractions. I promised Grumpy that this year we would do all of the world showcase. Last year we were there for 10 days, stayed at the beach club and walked to epcot every night, ate at 5 different countries but hardly toured any of them! Grumpy was sooo ...well Grumpy about that, that I promised him this year we would do all of them!

Ooohhh welcome!!! Where did you stay??? Thankfully we did not technically get caught out in the storm but I will get to that story later on in the trip. Were you guys at a park when that happened?

Thanks! We stayed at CSR for the the first time. We really enjoyed it.

We were also at MK on the 25th, and I have a feeling I know what the minor wrench in your plans for that day was!![/QUOTE]

It was minor though I am sure compared to others, that was a scary storm! I hope to do another update soon while I have the time.

I'm here and can't wait to hear all about it. Can't believe I caught you still on page 1.

I have lots of lurkers out there- so yeah for you on making it on page one!! Thank you for posting. i am sure you exhausted from your travels. your mishaps sound like something I would do! Glad to see you guys finally made it home and in the home as well .

I see the balcony I was on just yesterday. It is the top floor in the left corner. It was definitely an amazing view!

Wasnt it dreamy!

See....if we were there at the same time we could have waved to each other from our balconies. Our original dates were to include this past weekend that you guys were there . Oh well, but I do have tentative plans for Oct 2011 and I hear that there is a pretty large dis meet in the making so we'll see![/SIZE][/COLOR]

 

[stace208]

I'm joining in! Great updates so far. The AKL looks beautiful!!

 

[mermaid764]

I'm joining in too and loving your report so far. You got some awesome pics, and the food looks so yummy lol. I can't wait to hear more about it

 

[MeMom]

I see that my awesome daughter managed to close out page one and start out page two. Kind of hoggish, don't ya think???

Anyway, I am glad I saw your new trip report had started, so although my ears are listening to morning announcements, my eyes are skimming through your TR. I'll be back to read in more detail later.