A Sister & Brother Return! The Trip Report! Updated 10/31--Page 23!

[TCKK]

Love your pictures of everything!! Your room view was awesome and the picture of your room looks really cool too. The Tink hat cracks me up. I need that one for our youngest DD.

 

[pooksma]

Yes it was but i would take the Savanah view without a complaint.

The problem with that upgrade is that some of us our now spoiled.

I can't IMAGINE to whom he is referring but that's a whole other thread.

Great update Nicole. We are still trying to decide between AKL and WL for our week. Your photos and our visit there (with an unexpected DIS encounter ) are swaying us toward AKL.

 

[declansdad]

I can't IMAGINE to whom he is referring but that's a whole other thread.

Declan of course.

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

Congrats on the upgrade!! I can't wait to see the upcoming pics. I bet you could get David to agree to anything if you promised him a Dole Whip. Kona looked fabulous. I never knew I would enjoy food porn so much Did you buy any cool souveniers from AKL?

 

[LaNina72]

Your TR is getting me so excited for my own trip in a few short days. Thanks so much for preparing me and my brother for the magic.

So... little brothers do whatever you ask, as long as there is a Dole Whip. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Awww, I love your pictures of AKL! It makes me want to go back so badly.

 

[Nicole786]

I am LOVING all your photos of AKL!!! How many nights did you stay there?

What a great view from your room!!!

We stayed there for 6 nights

Great pictures! Isn't that bridge on the top floor of the AKL the best?! I love just hanging out up there. And I'm so glad you liked the Kona Cafe! It was my favorite back in 2006 - the food coupled with the atmosphere is just AMAZING!! Great pictures from the MK. I'm glad you had a good time - your pictures of the princess statues are so pretty!

The whole resort is just georgeous I can't wait to go back!! Kona's food and atmosphere is just amazing!! I really love the poly and it has the best food!! Thanks for the comments on my pics

Great update! Isn't the Zawadi gift shop just awesome? I love shopping there! I love shopping anywhere, but I enjoy shopping there for some of the unique things they have.

Yay for the rockin' bread and rockin' chicken. We have not tried Kona, but man, that steak looks so good. It was one of the places I was thinking we might go for our first evening kick-off meal.

I'm glad you got a good room. David looks pretty happy in the pictures.

I enjoy the video clips a lot. I am so glad that you are thoughtful enough to take those and share them with us.

I love shopping anywhere too! lol Zawadi was really great, we saw it every day because its a "shortcut" to the buses! David was really happy, we were both very excited

Yum! Kona looks deeeelicious!!!!

Yay for an upgrade to Savannah View!

I love Dole Whips also. I plan on having quite a few in November!

You must check out Kona if you ever get a chance!!

Kona was my favorite last time too and in about 44 hours I will be there eating again.

great pics and on the room.

Have the best time, Scott!!!

I ate at kona as well this trip and it was great!!!!!

Awesome update, what great luck on the room!!!! I can't wait to see animal pics from your room!

I couldn't believe our luck I was so excited!!

Great update Nicole! Love all the pictures and videos. I laughed a bit when I saw David come flying out of the slide at CSR.

You have to love when you get those unexpected room upgrades. That happened to us last year at the Poly (fantastic view of the entire lagoon from the concierge longhouse).

I know about your Poly upgrade, maybe one day for me

That is one awesome upgrade!

Oh yes it was!

I don;t like Spectro either.

I like it but i'm not Craaaaazy about it

Yes it was but i would take the Savanah view without a complaint.

The problem with that upgrade is that some of us our now spoiled.

Haha i think thats the side effect of the awesome, because now I envision upgrades all the time!

Love your pictures of everything!! Your room view was awesome and the picture of your room looks really cool too. The Tink hat cracks me up. I need that one for our youngest DD.

If they had that in a tee it would have been bought!

I can't IMAGINE to whom he is referring but that's a whole other thread.

Great update Nicole. We are still trying to decide between AKL and WL for our week. Your photos and our visit there (with an unexpected DIS encounter ) are swaying us toward AKL.

Well those are the only 2 deluxed i've stayed at and just so you know you can't go wrong. I still haven't figured out if i like one over the other but I know I'd rather stay standard at WL if I couldn't get savannah at AKL, now im spoiled like someone you know lol

Congrats on the upgrade!! I can't wait to see the upcoming pics. I bet you could get David to agree to anything if you promised him a Dole Whip. Kona looked fabulous. I never knew I would enjoy food porn so much Did you buy any cool souveniers from AKL?

Thanks!! David pretty much will do anything for a dole whip! lol

Your TR is getting me so excited for my own trip in a few short days. Thanks so much for preparing me and my brother for the magic.

So... little brothers do whatever you ask, as long as there is a Dole Whip. I'll keep that in mind.

Yes, they are great bribing tools, HAVE A GREAT TIME!!!!

Awww, I love your pictures of AKL! It makes me want to go back so badly.

Thanks I have a lot more coming up!! Lol!

I hope to have another update tomorrow night!! There's a slight possibility I'm heading to the world Oct. 8th-10th for MNSSHP and my birthday!! I booked a room yesterday but nothing is final. The MNSSHP tickets are a birthday gift, but it all depends on certain things, we'll see!! Anyone else gonna be there that time?? All I want to do is wear a darn birthday button! lol!

 

[scottny]

well I am not there.

 

[Cinderella2004]

Great report!!

I read your pre-trip last night and this morning. I'm very happy this one is only to page 16...

Your Universal pictures make me want to head there soon. We haven't been in a couple of years. I miss it!!!

What luck with AKL!! That's great!! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Nicole786]

Today was nice because it was a scheduled day off day!! We had been getting up early running around for a few days already so this was a nice relaxing day. We slept in and walked down to Boma where we inquired about breakfast. The night before I had asked them if I should make a reservation for breakfast and they said as long as it wasn't any time between 8-9 I would be okay, even if it was between 8-9 I would only wait maybe 10 minutes.

We were seated immediately and attacked!!

The breakfast offerings were really good, but the most delicious thing was the Jungle Juice!!

David really liked this, when we returned for Dinner later in the trip, he got it with his meal! lol

Typical breakfast fare, here is my plate:

Here is David's:

Yes, money well spent, David.

After that we walked around AKL to digest

We took the bus to Downtown Disney and began exploring, man was it HOT!

We started in my favorite area (of course) the marketplace!! We managed to pick up a few goodies here, including my pin I had been looking for!! (If you didn't guess it was the Mickey jeweled one!)

I want just about everything at The Art of Disney! Especially this!

I love WOD!

I do have some cool pictures from our next stop Lego!

David has never seen The West Side so we walked over there and poked into that store that has really expensive memoribilia from movies. So cool, but I can't see myself buying Harry Potters wand for $3000 unless of course it worked

We also went to the Virgin Megastore which is really cool I had never been, David found a section of t-shirts from one of his favorite show Entourage, but we never went back to get it (the line was too long at the time)

So even at DD I tried one last time to push back our Coral Reef reservations to a dinner time but I had no luck, so we got on a bus for Epcot specifically just to go to this restaurant that David had wanted and thought of very highly (Oh just wait and see! Just remember: Nicole is always right, and if you followed my pre-TR you know what i'm talking about)

Thats coming up tomorrow!

 

[Charleston Princess]

We really enjoyed our Boma breakfast this summer!

Nice relaxing day at Downtown Disney -- I love your artistic shots of the Legos!

 

[TCKK]

Great pics of DD, Nicole. We love that place, especially WoD.

Cathy

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

I bought Jake that pirate hat.

I have never gone past marketplace.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

David's breakfast plate cracks me up!!! Good thing you were on the dining plan and not paying out of pocket.

 

[The Disney Fanatic]

It was time for the AKL!!!! We were so beyond thrilled and excited when we pulled up and were welcomed home! You saw the first shots David took as we drove in, but we have so much more!! We parked the car and walked in and it was just breathtaking, it was such a great moment, we were giddy, excited...I have butterflies just remembering!

Here is a video I took of David in the lobby as we waited to check in. We told you, the kid loves his Dole Whips!!

Click here for video

Check in was a breeze, and guess what? A little bit of magic occurred!

Basically, I had requested to be close to the lobby when I made the reservation because we booked a standard room, and the resort is quite large, and I pretty much said to myself "well If I can't see the animals, i'd rather look at the parking lot as long as we were close to the lobby." So we checked in, and our room was ready!! yeah!! The woman checking us in said, "I notice you wanted to be close to the lobby" Which I was surprised at because i've never heard them mention any requests. She continued, "We tried our best to accommodate that" and I went yay! We would be pretty close! Than she said "The view is of construction as long as you dont mind" And like I said earlier, I didn't care what the view was, I knew it was standard, I just wanted to be close...So I said okay and she smiled and went great, We finished everything up, got our room number, keys and were on our way!!

So we got to our room, you won't believe this location!! (video in a later chapter) did I mention we were on the lobby floor?? no elevator!! And I immediately ran outside to see the view, I think its pretty much what everyone does. Well boy was I surprised when I went out there and we had a SAVANNAH VIEW!!!! I yelled for David, because not only did we have the view, we had animals people!!!

Oh and another kind of animal!

We were beyond excited!!! We couldn't believe how lucky we were!! We called for the luggage and it was there within minutes, and with that it was time to explore! We wanted to head to Mara to get our mugs, and do some brief exploring.

AKL was so awesome, I am now very spoiled by deluxe hotels!

We ended up at Mara and kind of just relaxed and soaked in while sitting there, it really is a cool place. The woman ringing us up took note of our key card and went "Oh you guys just got here! You'll definitely get use out of these" I KNOW!!! I was beaming. So was David!

So we retreated back to our room and just relaxed for a little while. I looked at the activity sheet and noticed that at 3PM "Kingpin" would be at the gift shop trading pins. I thought that might be cool and was just too excited to lay down. David wanted to relax but he gave in and we went to the gift shop to check it out...this was a lot of fun! Every day he would have a big turn out but he was just the sweetest guy!! I usually feel pretty weird trading pins at my age, but he was just so nice about everything and really encouraged the kids around him to trade with eachother, it was such a treat! I suggest if you're around the AKL at 3pm during a week day go check him out! (and don't tell your kids, but he's also a gift shop CM and really nice)

After that we decided to go to the top floor to some of the viewing areas that are around

Finally it was time to relax! We had dinner at Kona that night and Wishes at MK!! We needed our rest! We didn't have much time, but just laying down soaking it all in really helped.

I love, love, love this Trip Report! This has been a great Disney Fix but now I am missing home ......The AKL!!!!!

P.S. You take awesome pictures!

 

[MeMom]

What a marvelous Lego creation this is!

Everybody talks about the good juice at Boma. I want to go there someday, and I think breakfast is the way I'm going to have to play that card, since Jill is a little afraid of the dinner menu.

Drew loves to go to DTD, since there are so many different kinds of shops. He likes Virgin Megastore and Team Mickey and other stores that don't carry just stuff with Mickey slapped all over it.

Is that really all David ate for the whole meal? Your plate is looking like the better choice to me. But, where's the fruit?

You have to meet up with Jill and Brooklynn in October. They'll be there the 4th - 11th. As soon as you know where you'll be on what day, let us know so she can make arrangements.

 

[declansdad]

Here is David's:

Yes, money well spent, David.

Great update Nicole! I have 2 questions for you. What exactly is that egg roll looking thing on David's plate and you forced him to put on that hat didn't you? Be honest.

 

[princessjv]

Seems to be going all so well. Love the pictures of AKL. What luck to be upgraded!

 

[Nicole786]

We really enjoyed our Boma breakfast this summer!

Nice relaxing day at Downtown Disney -- I love your artistic shots of the Legos!

Boma was good for breakfast I agree!! It was fun taking those Lego shots!

Great pics of DD, Nicole. We love that place, especially WoD.

Cathy

I can kill a day at WOD!

great update and pics.

I bought Jake that pirate hat.

I have never gone past marketplace.

Don't worry you're not missing much

David's breakfast plate cracks me up!!! Good thing you were on the dining plan and not paying out of pocket.

This meal I paid OOP, but that was David's plates on or off the DDP! lol!

I love, love, love this Trip Report! This has been a great Disney Fix but now I am missing home ......The AKL!!!!!

P.S. You take awesome pictures!

Thanks, I really enjoyed your TR last year!!

What a marvelous Lego creation this is!

Everybody talks about the good juice at Boma. I want to go there someday, and I think breakfast is the way I'm going to have to play that card, since Jill is a little afraid of the dinner menu.

Drew loves to go to DTD, since there are so many different kinds of shops. He likes Virgin Megastore and Team Mickey and other stores that don't carry just stuff with Mickey slapped all over it.

Is that really all David ate for the whole meal? Your plate is looking like the better choice to me. But, where's the fruit?

You have to meet up with Jill and Brooklynn in October. They'll be there the 4th - 11th. As soon as you know where you'll be on what day, let us know so she can make arrangements.

Boma was good for breakfast you should check it out. There was fruit added on the second go around! AS it stands right now, I will be in disney the same time they are (8th-11th) so we'll see if we can meet up!

Great update Nicole! I have 2 questions for you. What exactly is that egg roll looking thing on David's plate and you forced him to put on that hat didn't you? Be honest.

I think its french toast! Actually he put the hat on himself he just wanted to look mean like a pirate! lol

Seems to be going all so well. Love the pictures of AKL. What luck to be upgraded!

The upgrade at AKL was really awesome!

 

[Nicole786]

So when we last left off we were headed to Epcot on a day off because SOMEONE in our party so desperately wanted to eat at Coral Reef and the other SOMEONE couldn't get a proper ADR and had to settle. Well if we must go, lets arrive in style! To the buses!

We decided to take the bus to the Beach/Yacht Club and walk. This bus stops at all the Epcot resort area hotels, but the yacht club was first and that was a hotel I had never seen, so we departed! What a pretty hotel! I really liked being greeted, that was nice!

Onwards to Epcot! The ants go marching 1 by 1, hurrah, hurrah....

We can't be in future world and not stop at Club Cool! David's fave spot was closed our first time at Epcot, and this brief visit was perfect!

Perfect for a little beverly surprise! Here David, try this...Muahahaha!

Time for Coral Reef!!

We sat down to wait about 10 minutes and while we sat down I handed David a menu so he could look at it.

In the meantime, while David is looking that over, let me take this time to provide a little excerpt from the pre-trip report segment on Coral Reef.

Now if you remember, David really wants to go back to coral reef and is upset that "we aren't going" (we are, just during BC days) and I couldn't remember why. What I do remember is david ordering chicken, and being the extremely picky eater he is, flipped out when the chicken was on the bone and not cutlet and ready to go. This year, he's more into steak so I'm hoping we can avoid another dining fiasco like what I remember of this one, and our primetime cafe chicken issue last christmas. So i'm still thinking to myself why does he want to go back? and he said he ended up ordering something else that he really liked, and i'm not going to argue it.

and the link to the post

So needless to say, I saw the next parts coming. David doesn't like fish, David only likes chicken on the bone, David only likes certain steaks, and I was prepared to do the "I told you so" dance, from Will & Grace, which goes a little something like:

"Told ya so! Told ya so! Told ya, told ya, told ya so!"

This one works well too.

So when he finished glancing the menu, surprise surprise! He didn't see anything he liked, and he sat for the next 10 minutes in angst and worry about his lunch. He wished we could go back to Le Cellier and that maybe we should leave. Well just as i was about to respond our table was ready. Third tier put us far from the tank but still a nice view, and when David agreed to try the NY Strip things were looking up, so photographs were taken!

I ordered the lobster bisque, which was delicious as usual!

And I too ordered the NY strip because I remember from last time how good it was!

When we got our steaks, David took a few bites and seemed to enjoy it, it looked good!

But at the 4th bite, the NY strip was no more, he didn't like it one bit. Our waiter was so good, he told David not to feel embarassed and he would get him something else, so David opted for the pizza on the kids menu.

Things were looking up!

But not for david. David also denied the pizza and this is when I got mad. I forgot my I told you so dance, and it was a good thing we were on the DDP or else I would have gotten really mad, I was tired, hot and frustrated. So after sending the pizza back, David refusing anything else we sat in silence until the dessert came. If i remember correctly David liked dessert (praise the lord) but there was still silence between us and so no pictures of his dessert, but I ordered the chocolate wave and it was good!

Silence broke when I offered him a peice of my cake. Once he heard it had alcohol in it he wanted to try it, and we moved past our frustrating lunch. Thankfully! He even made mickey!

*Cue I told you so dance*

We poked around innoventions for a bit

and than went on Spaceship Earth!! I love all the new additions!

than it was time to head back to the room! After this exhausting 'morning off' we were ready for some RnR before night time, but BOY were we in for a treat when we got back to our room! Video coming up next!