AKV 6 night stay with unexpected Kidani preview

[JESW]

Wasn't it a great week to be at Disney?? We were there the 19th - 27th and the weather was gorgeous and the crowds were very manageable. We were also at AKV for a while in room 5318 - a 2-bedroom savanna view. Wonderful. We especially loved the younger giraffe.

We also went to the Kidani Open Mouse and have many of the same pictures you have - very nice! Dh was having fun taking many panorama shots the entire week.

Enjoying your report!

Jil

 

[oakmanner]

Great TR! Thanks for taking the time!

 

[TSMIII]

Glad you are all enjoying the TR & pics. Thank you for the comments.

JESW - yes, it was a great week to be there especially after we had been bracing for the worst. Also, it seemed to us that the giraffes were sticking around a lot longer than our previous trip. Back in November, we'd see them for 10-15 mintues and then they'd amble off elsewhere out of view. It was nice to get prolonged viewing of them and the zebras.

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

Thanks for the great TR and wonderful pictures. Makes me hope we didn't make a mistake buying BLT instead of AKV.

 

[kbeckstrand]

I appreciate the TR.

 

[TSMIII]

Day 4 found us getting to EPCOT following our visit at Kidani Village. Now at the end of the last post for the Kidani Preview, I said next up was Magic Kingdom - and that's what I had thought too on that day! However, after we left Kidani, DW mentioned that while we had planned to go to MK, we were already late since we didn't finish our tour until almost 10am. She suggested we do the rest of EPCOT during the remaining daylight hours and then head to MK via monorail for dinner (we had an ADR at Crystal Palace for 7pm).

Well, that sounded like a good idea to me so we changed plans on the fly. BUT, there was another member of the group that was not in agreement with this plan - DD7 immediately expressed her displeasure with this turn of events. She was anticipating being at MK the whole day and was not happy for the further delay in getting there on this trip. As things exist in our little family, we all have our most favorite and least favorite parks. For DW, AK is tops with EPCOT a close 2nd. For me, it is almost a tie between MK & AK for first but with an edge to MK (history, nostalgia and tradition trump uniqueness in my book). And DD7, as you can imagine, places MK at the top with AK her next favorite - and EPCOT comes in somewhere between having to eat all of her vegetables and having to go to bed early!

So off to EPCOT we went. Another great day weatherwise with clear skies and temps in the 80s with little if any humidity. Crowds were again very manageable and the only ride/show with any substantial wait was Soarin at 65 minutes. Many were 10 min. or less. DD softened up once we got into the park (as she always does) and she was excited when we stumbled upon Minnie's Magnificent Butterfly Garden and the Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden that was part the F&G Festival near Test Track. We explored both areas and then DD got to do a coloring activity near the Fairy Garden.

DW & DD

DD really perked up when she got to do the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. IMHO, whoever creatd this came up with a brilliant idea! My daughter always gets bored in WS when DW and I start taking in the culture, the unique shops and, well,....the alcohol! This really kept her engaged and she kept wanting to do more of the countries. She got so wrapped up in it she would go and hide behind pillars and door casings so no one could overhear her next mission clue!! Here are a couple of pics of her (and me, her faithful sidekick!) on the France mission:

We toured the rest of WS and DW took some pics of the F&G Festival flowers and topiaries throughout the park:

We finished up with a ride on Spaceship Earth - a ride that is a favorite with all of us. This was the first time we took any photos inside and we were amazed at how much more detail can be seen when you have a still picture to look at instead of trying to take it all in under dim lighting and while in motion.

After that, we left the park and headed to MK on the monorail. We got to Crystal Palace in plenty of time and there was a large crowd waiting to get in, which we joined until our name was called. DD enjoyed seeing Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore and Piglet. They each passed by once and we were there long enough that Eyeore and Pooh came by a second time. We've only ever done 3 character meals. The first was with the princesses at the Akerhaus which was phenomenal as DD got to meet with each princess, including Cinderella, her favorite, and got multiple pictures with each. The second was at the Garden Grill and this was without a doubt the best of the three as far as time with the characters was concerned. However, with regard to the food, the Crystal Palace wins hands down. The food was great and it had the added benefit of being a buffet so we got to sample multiple dishes. We took the advice of the authors of the Unofficial Guide - "Go hungy and fill up!".
One thing we did not know before going but unfortunately found out once there - it is FREEZING inside the restaurant. I was fine, but DW & DD were huddling together for warmth. I'd recommend if you go there and are easily chilled by AC, bring a sweater or sweatshirt, regardless of how hot it is outside. Some pics from the CP:

DD got those Minnie Ears on our first trip. When we bought them I figured they were going to be used for the rest of the trip and then abandoned once home, never to be used again. But she keeps them in a safe place on top of her bureau and they are the first thing she packs when we go to WDW and then wears them most days we are in the parks!

We finished dinner and headed back to the hotel but not before snapping a pic of the castle and letting DD know that the next day we'd spend all day in MK!

Next post will be Day 5 - MK all day including Wishes!

 

[TSMIII]

Thanks for the great TR and wonderful pictures. Makes me hope we didn't make a mistake buying BLT instead of AKV.

I don't think you'll regret having bought BLT. The location can't be beat, the MFs are low and you'll likely need the 11 month HR priority to get MK view many times during the year.

I think once all of AKV is finished it will not be difficult to reserve at the 7 month mark unless you'll be looking for a very specific type of room - GV, Concierge, Value. So you'll have plenty of opportunity to mix it up and stay at both places if you want.

 

[TIGGERmetoo]

Thanks TMSIII. I remember when my boys were young they didn't like Epcot either. They're in their 20's now and they both really like Epcot now. The Kim Possible Mission sounds great for kids. I'm glad it helped you. Can't wait to hear about MK.

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for posting such a detailed report of your preview. You really were able to get some unique pictures that others hadn't captured. The picture you took inside of Sanaa looks professional. (Oh, that reminds me. I thought the same thing when I saw your Sci-Fi pic a couple of days ago. It may be the best picture inside Sci-Fi I've ever seen.)

The Standard view looks nice -- we'll have one when we visit in June and I think I can live with that! We're saving points and will splurge a little more next year when all of the savanna's should be open.

 

[Splat25]

Great pics and reports, thanks! We like AKV so we got that and then thought how awesome BLT would be as well - so we have both!

 

[TSMIII]

Thanks for posting such a detailed report of your preview. You really were able to get some unique pictures that others hadn't captured. The picture you took inside of Sanaa looks professional. (Oh, that reminds me. I thought the same thing when I saw your Sci-Fi pic a couple of days ago. It may be the best picture inside Sci-Fi I've ever seen.)

Thank you for the comments about the pictures. However, just to be perfectly clear - the only credit I deserve for those pictures is that I am physically able to depress the shutter button on the camera!

We started this trip with a brand new camera -by brand new, I mean purchased just two days before the trip!

For some time, DW had been reminding me of how much she hated our 4 year old digital camera. She complained mightily, and with good reason, about the crummy pics it took, the low battery life, the inability to focus close-up, the terrrible auto exposure setting, etc.

Several weeks prior to the trip, she reminded me that I had previously promised to research and purchase a better camera. She further informed me that if she had to put up with the same camera again, for another Disney trip, that the camera might have an accident and be dropped into the World Showcase Lagoon - with me attached!

So I researched a bunch of digital cameras. She did not want one of the SLR types that you can do all sorts of manual adjustments with and fit with various lenses which of course take excellent photos - Just too complicated and large for her. She wanted a point and shoot for the most part and it had to do far better than our old camera in all those areas I mentioned she had complaints about, plus not be so bulky that she couldn't put it into her purse.

I wound up spending more money than I ever expected to on it, but I wanted to insure that she would not suffer the same frustrations with this new camera. I will be the first to admit, I know next to nothing about cameras and photography, so I read as many reviews as I could and looked for as many features that fit her criteria as possible and wound up getting the Canon Powershot G10. We tested it out for a couple of days before we left and learned some of the basic shooting modes it offered and then went with it.

All of the Kidani pics were taken by me, and the Sci-Fi pic, but almost all of the others were taken by DW. Generally speaking, unless she is going to be in the picture, she wants me as far away from the camera as possible!

 

[manntra]

Thanks for sharing your pictures and memories of your great trip! Loved the Kidani pics of course!! Haven't been to CP for dinner, only breakfast but I might try it this October for the night we will be there for MNSSHP.

 

[Disney Princess]

I love your change of plan from MK to Epcot. That sounds like a conversation that would have taken place in my family. I HATED Epcot as a child. Of course, when I was a kid they didn't have the new kid-friendly features that they do now. We of course were relentless to my poor dad who wanted nothing more than to explore this park. We kept bugging him to take us to the park with "rides". Of course when I was a kid MGM/DHS and AK didn't exist. Now, Epcot ranks a very close 2nd with me, so I've grown. Dad would be proud.

I think it is great that they've added the new Kim Possible mission. It looks like fun. I wonder if they'd let adults play.

 

[TSMIII]

I think it is great that they've added the new Kim Possible mission. It looks like fun. I wonder if they'd let adults play.

I don't know if they'd let adults play but I'll tell you this - we witnessed several teenagers - 15-17 yr old range - playing this!

It's really quite interesting as the cell phone the kids get has a card attached to it that registers in certain areas of WS where things have been hidden among the common areas, and it downloads the next step of their mission. The cell phone plays video with the Kim Possible characters on it telling the "secret agent" where to go next, what thier next clue is, who the bad guys are and things to watch out for.

Well thought out and well executed in our opinion - oh, and regarding your other comments about bugging Dad to go where the rides are - DD has already mentioned that next trip, she wants to make sure we go back to EPCOT so she can do more missions!! To which DW commented - I love that Kim Possible!

 

[Disney Princess]

I don't know if they'd let adults play but I'll tell you this - we witnessed several teenagers - 15-17 yr old range - playing this!

It's really quite interesting as the cell phone the kids get has a card attached to it that registers in certain areas of WS where things have been hidden among the common areas, and it downloads the next step of their mission. The cell phone plays video with the Kim Possible characters on it telling the "secret agent" where to go next, what thier next clue is, who the bad guys are and things to watch out for.

Well thought out and well executed in our opinion - oh, and regarding your other comments about bugging Dad to go where the rides are - DD has already mentioned that next trip, she wants to make sure we go back to EPCOT so she can do more missions!! To which DW commented - I love that Kim Possible!

Maybe I'll try and play while I'm there. After all, I am a kid at heart! I'm so happy your DD enjoyed her time at Epcot. I bet my parents would have loved a Kim Possible for us.

 

[tn4mickey]

I'm planning a trip with my sister in September and she wants to stay ar AKV (not too difficult to twist my arm!) She may or may not buy a park pass ( I have AP) to save money however we will go to Epcot on her birthday since it will be free. That being said my question is for those that toured Kadani Village. Would you choose Jambo House or Kadani Village (standard view studio)?

If this all comes together I'll be driving down from SC with my sister 9/20-9/26 and then back with DH 10/2-10/10 staying at BCV for F&WF!

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for the camera info. I'm going to take a look at that one. I got a completely manual one back in high school, a Pentax K1000, so understand how an SLR works, but you can't beat the automation when they take nice pictures like you're getting.

 

[TSMIII]

It's been a couple of days since the last update due to work.

Much to DD's delight we spent the fifth day at MK.

We started off in Fantasyland and DD got to ride all of her favorites - Dumbo, Cindy's Carousel, Peter Pan and It's a Smallworld. We participated in a survey outside It's a Smallworld asking what we thought about it. We gave it 10s and commented it was one of our traditions to do the ride. It was noticeably warmer and more crowded this day. It was MK so I was already expecting higher crowd levels but I noticed a larger than normal amount of teenagers, predominantly girls. Based on the logos on some of the shirts they were wearing, DW speculated that there might be some kind of cheerleading event going on. Later on, she asked a CM and sure enough, we found out that during the coming weekend there was a cheerleading competition scheduled. I was worried that we would have a lot of long waits for rides as a result but that situation didn't seem to materialize. Some pics from Fantasyland:

Next we headed to Liberty Square and Frontierland. We took a ride on the Liberty Belle and then went to the Haunted Mansion which had a wait of about 10 minutes. We then headed to the Country Bear Jamboree - another favorite for all of us. DD is especially fond of Liver Lips and when he appeared she let a loud "YESSSS!" to which several people in the audience chuckled.
Some pics from that area:

From there we headed to lunch at Cosmic Ray's - probably our favorite counter service restaurant. And we saw one of our old friends while there:

Adventureland followed with a ride on the Magic Carpets and Pirates, and we noticed that the tiki statues that spray water didn't seem to be in operation for some reason - it was certainly hot enough for them and more than one person stood next to them for several minutes waiting to get wet. No Jungle Cruise for us, it's OK in my book but DW & DD cannot tolerate the bad, corny jokes and the plastic looking animals - AK has really spoiled them in that regard. We walked right on Pirates and waited maybe 7-10 minutes for the Magic Carpets.

It was then time for some down time so we relaxed in the shade on the benches near the bridge to Adventureland for a while and then went to Main Street to check out the shops and watch the glassblowers.

We watched the parade and the Move It Shake It street party while there having seen the stage show at Cindy's Castle earlier in the day.

Since we had some time before it got dark, I persuaded DW & DD to take the boat over to Wilderness Lodge and check out VWL to see if we would like to stay there at some point in the future. They agreed and we left the park, caught the boat and checked out the pool, lobby, gift shop, grounds, VWL atrium and VWL pool. We all thought it was beautiful and very well themed. DW however was concerned with the possible high levels of bugs, mainly mosquitoes, that may be present due to the proximity of the lake and woods (can anyone shed any light on this - are the bugs bad around the Lodge or are they under control?). We got to see the geyser erupt while there which we all thought was pretty neat and DD loved the fireplace inside the lobby. One thing that got my attention was the length of time, both to and from, it took by boat - the wait for the boat at both ends was 15-20 minutes and the ride took a little bit of time as well. It seemed that there was only one boat running the direct route to MK. For those that are familiar with WL, are these conditions normal or the exception?

After we returned to MK, we covered Tomorrowland next and we knew some time ago that Space Mountain and TTA would be down for refurb while we were there. We had just been in November, so we got our fix at that time which helped to ease the pain. DD had pleaded with us before we left that this time we would do Carousel of Progress which we did not do in Nov. We didn't realize she liked it so much. I loved it but DW could take it or leave it and now that I knew I had a co-conspirator, the odds were in my favor that we'd see it this time around. Absolutely no line for this or for Buzz Lightyear which we had previously obtained FPs for, but upon returning, found they would not be necessary.

Well by now it was dark and we started to seek out a good viewing location for the fireworks. We claimed a spot on the bridge to Tomorrowland and watched the SpectroMagic parade from there. While waiting for Wishes I snapped a couple of pics:

We love the way the castle is lit at night and really wished we had this new camera back in November when we came for MVMCP. DW tried to get pics of Tinkerbell as she flew from the castle but it was a tough shot and the pics came out as a green streak across the sky! We were successful in keeping DD awake for all of Wishes (of course the concussion from the fireworks helped us with that too!) but she soon fell asleep as we made our way with the huge crowd out of the park after Wishes.

When we got to the bus stop, we noticed incredible congestion in the area of the AKL bus stop. It turned out to be the line for the SSR bus stop which precedes AKL's stop and were thankful our line was shorter. However, our line had still grown beyond the railings but at least it was not quadrupled back upon itself like SSR's. Their line was so immense that you had only a single file line that could get by to the stops that were further down the line. I hope they had enough buses running for them to handle that throng. As for AKL, the bus arrived about 7-10 minutes after we got in line. Unfortunately for us, the bus absorbed all of the people in front of us except the last five - so we had to wait for the next bus. But, the next bus followed by less than 5 minutes and the remainder of those in line with us made it on this 2nd bus! Back at AKL, I was one of several dads carrying a sleeping child in his arms back to the room. DD slept through the bus ride, being carried up to the room and being placed in bed. We crashed about 11:30pm with plans to briefly park hop the next day to hit things we wanted to see that we had so far missed.

Next post - Day 6 The last full day

 

[TSMIII]

DD awoke this morning not remembering the bus ride or being carried up to bed. Shortly after waking up and talking about the previous night and the fireworks she began crying. DW asked what the matter was and she sobbed, "It's our last day and I don't want to go home tomorrow!" My wife tried to console her and tell her we'd be coming back again and that "If you don't leave, you can never come back!" DD was having none of this logic. She continued to cry and say, "It's not fair, why can't we stay at Disney the WHOLE YEAR!" I calmed her down and explained that she was not alone in her feelings, that when we got home, I would go on the internet and show her a website where there was a WHOLE COMMUNITY of people who felt the same way she did called the DISboards!!

We got her calmed down by asking her what it was she wanted to see that day. We do this every trip - we use the last full day to return to those parks where any one of us feels we have missed something we really wanted to see. So this day we headed back to AK to the Festival of the Lion King, the parade and Triceratop Spin. After that, we headed back to MK to ride the WDWRR and see Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toontown Fair.

A shot of the monorail from the train station:

The back side of BTMRR from the train:

Heading back to the train after seeing Mickey and Minnie's houses:

For all of you BLT owners, a shot of your new home from the train after passing Space Mountain:

We left MK and took the monorail to the TTC to go to DTD so DW could look for scrapbooking items and hit the shops. It was fairly busy in DTD and the crowds were moderate to heavy. On our way out, we witnessed a mob of teenage girls get off the busses and come into DTD. This is what I referred to as "The Invasion of the Teenage Cheerleaders!" I could not believe how many kids there were in this one pack. I said to DW, "I'm glad we're leaving now because you won't be able to move in this place in a few minutes, especially since they're tearing through here without even looking where they're going or who's in their way!" To which my wife replied, "Yeah, that's the look you get in your eyes as a teenage girl when you're on the lookout for cute guys!"

We headed back to the hotel to pack and relax. Earlier in the week we had noticed a photographer in the lobby taking pics of families in a more professional setting than the Photopass CMs in the parks. DW had asked about it and found out that it was part of the Photopass program. So on our last night we sat for some pics in the lobby. The photographer informed us that they were doing it in only 5 lobbies - AKL, GF, Poly, WL and I can't remember the fifth one. He also said that if you wanted to, you can arrange an appointment with one of the Photopass photographers who will meet you in any park or hotel and be your private photographer for pics wherever you want - they will even follow you around to different locations for different shots of what you like. We did not know of this before and figured there must be an additional cost but it's something we'll consider in the future.

We got dinner at Mara and took it back to the room where I snapped some final pictures of our view:

Next post - Day 7 Heading back to our Other Home

 

[TSMIII]

We had an 11:15am flight and were going back to the airport by DME so we had a scheduled departure from the hotel at 8:05am. I went down to the airline check in desk about 7am and there were only 3 people ahead of me in line. There were two people checking bags and issuing boarding passes and while they were not slow, they were not fast either. One poor woman in line in front of me had been told erroneously by the front desk staff the night before that she did not need to have her checked luggage with her to get her boarding pass! She was understandably upset when she found out otherwise and had to leave the line and go back upstairs for her bags.

I got our bags checked and while we had BPs for myself and my wife, I needed to get one for my daughter. There were no issues with this and I went back upstairs, got the ladies and we went down and hit the gift shop one last time before catching the DME bus which showed up right on time. We had one other stop at Pop Century and headed for MCO with only about half the seats filled on the bus. We arrived in plenty of time so we got another Krispy Kreme donut and DW & DD went to some of the airport shops.

The line for the TSA security checkpoint was very busy and so we waited for it to empty out some. While waiting, DD wanted pics with Snow White & Mickey outside the Disney store. In this one she's whispering to Mickey that we're making her leave even though she doesn't want to (DW told me the pic was DD's idea and that she said not to show it to me until we were home!):

It took a good 30-35 minutes to navigate through security but we made it to the gate and waited to board:

The plane was delayed by about 20 minutes taking off as they had to replace some fasteners for the underseat life vests - our plane was new, only 3 months old, and Airbus had changed the fasteners from the old metal version to plastic. Well apparently the plastic doesn't hold as well and they needed to replace several before we could fly. They made up the time in the air and we got to Stewart Intl in Newburgh, NY right on time. Extremely easy getting out of there. We got the luggage off the carousel and while DW & DD waited at the curb, I walked the 50 yards to the LT Economy lot, paid my $40 for a full week of parking and picked them up. We were on the highway 5 minutes later and home by late afternoon. My wife was ecstatic that the weather back home was now in the 80s which is what we had left in Orlando.

Many of you undoubtedly can figure out what happend next - within an hour of returning home - talk turned to when our next visit would be...for how long...which park would we hit first...should we bring any other family members?....what other restaurants should we try....didn't you like the 1BR more than the Studio - what do you think about an add-on?.....What were the discount incentives for more points?!...maybe we should try one of the other DVC resorts next time...or more than one!....etc., etc. etc.