A Disney Veteran and a Disney Newbie take on WDW- Updated (5/7)

[ememtingle]

Day 4 pt. 6: October 16

After we were stuffed with butter chicken and a delicious desert, we decided to walk around the resort since we didn’t have any other plans for that evening. It was such a gorgeous night out! We went outside to the viewing area to see the animals. There were giraffes, zebras, all kinds of different ones roaming the savanna.

I just think that the AKL and the Villas are so beautiful! They’re very unique.

Just in time for the sun to be setting. Really really gorgeous!

The lobby to the Villas overlooking the savanna, I love the structure of this building and how open it is.

And of course we had to get a panoramic view!





Yes please, I would love to stay here!
After looking at the animals, we went back inside to the lobby to look around a little bit more. And of course, we had to stop in the gift shop and look around. We didn’t buy anything, we just love to window shop.
We both wanted to go over to the AKL to look around there so we decided to take the walk over. It’s not a bad walk at all! It was really nice out so we took advantage of it. It probably took 10 minutes or so but we wanted to work off all of the food we had just eaten.

The sunset on the walk over.
The lobby at the AKL is jaw dropping! The decorations and the theming is absolutely perfect. I have never stayed here before, but we had visited once or twice for dinner when I was younger. It’s a resort that we kind of overlook because it’s so far away but I highly recommend going just to look around.

Oh, if I haven’t apologized before I will now. Sorry my pictures are a little dim, I’m planning on getting a new one this summer so we had to settle for my older one on this trip! But when we go back in December or when I go on my cruise, the pictures will be better!
Anyways, back to the TR.

I love this big window overlooking the resort.


And here it is outside. We walked all around the resort, we looked into Boma and Jiko, walked down to the pool and back around, went upstairs, downstairs, you name it. We of course ended at the gift shop. I got a key chain and Eli tried on all the different Mickey ears.

After walking around the resort we went over to the bus stop to catch a bus. We didn’t have plans to do anything we just wanted to figure out the easiest way to get back to Pop. And the first bus that came was for Downtown Disney.
We were at Downtown Disney for maybe 30 minutes; we wandered around World of Disney for the most part.
Eli wanted to go back to the hotel and swim, so we caught the bus and headed back to Pop. Changed into our bathing suits and got in the pool. It was still really warm out and the pool wasn’t crowded at all it was perfect! We swam for about an hour and Eli had a long island iced tea before we went back up to the room. I was worn out! We had such a long day.
That’s all for now, check back later to see what kind of tour we went on the next day!

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[ememtingle]

Day 5 Pt. 1: October 17th

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I would've liked to. School just ended, so I'm officially a senior in college!! I can't believe it! Well, in other news...Me and Eli will be going back to WDW the week before Christmas! December 14th-December 21st and we're going to be staying at Coronado Springs. We are both so excited because we will get the free dining plan, which is awesome and that's why we upgraded to a nicer hotel. And we will also be going to MVMCP which I have never been to before!
Also, my 21st birthday Disney Cruise is about 6 months away and I am so excited for that too! I will be sure to take lots of pictures and also do a trip report for both of these upcoming trips. Oh how I wish it was October and December now...

Anyways..Back to the Trip Report!

Back tracking to our first night, when we stayed in the Hilton, we went to Downtown Disney for the night. During our visit, we went up to the DVC kiosk because Eli has always been curious about it. My nana has been a DVC member since '93 and we always use DVC points to coming to Disney or her favorite, DCL. After talking to a really nice cast member at the kiosk, he convinced us to take the DVC tour which is at Saratoga Springs Resort (my nana's home resort actually). Well we decided to get up early and go on our Hollywood Studios day. So we made the reservation, he told us a van would pick us up at Pop and we would be taken anywhere we wanted to go after the tour.
We got up pretty early, around 7:30 and went down to eat breakfast. Eli, of course, had the bounty plate. And I got a couple of snack stuff from the kid area. Told you, not a big breakfast eater.
Around 8:15 the DVC van picked us up, and we were on our way!

I tweeted "Record highs today.......oh god. #immelting" while we were on the bus going to Saratoga Springs.​

We arrived at Saratoga Springs and it was beautiful! I loved everything about this resort. I had never stayed there before, but I stayed at whatever was there before SS opened. That was the time it kept snowing up in NC and we couldn't get home. So we stayed 15 nights at WDW. Oh, not a bad thing at all!
We arrived at the DVC tour area and we waited in the lobby for our tour guide for only a few minutes. They had refreshments available too. I think I had a cup of OJ while we waited.
The DVC tour guide was really really nice and very informative. He knew that me and Eli were still in college and he gave us the basic rundown and how everything works. He definitely did not try to connivence us to buy into it, even though we know we want to sometime in the future.
We got to see all of the Villas they have: AKL, Aulani, the new Grand Floridian villas, etc. My favorites were the AKL villas and the GF Villas. They were both gorgeous, stunning all around.
The tour lasted about 45 minutes and he got our address so he could send us a points booklet with even more information. We had a lot of fun on the tour, and it was kind of interesting to look around and see the villas in person (even though they're models) instead of trying to visualize them from pictures or videos.
After the tour we got a card for 3 FREE INSTANT FASTPASSES each!! Whooo!! I was so excited for that!
We finished up the tour and got back on the van to take us to Hollywood Studios. The guy who drove our van was amazing, he gave us all kinds of information about the park, cool things to look at, and he tried to connivence me to go on ToT. Nope...
We arrived at the park around 9:30. ​