allie5
<font color=blue>WARNING! DHL men should be cautio
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Part 4. Crystal Palace, MK, Wal-Mart & Boma.
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Guest Appearances In Todays Report
Pooh, Tigger, Piglet & Eeyore
Friday December 10th 2004
After yesterdays incredibly early start and long day I had optimistically expected both kidlets to sleep like the proverbial log tonight. Ha.
Daniel is never good with anything new however and whinged all night about his surroundings. Every hour there was a new reason to get Mummy up 11am another blanket, 12am more milk. 1am cuddles, 2am dirty nappy, 3am a bit more milk. By then Daddy has had 5 hours of Zzzzz so takes over the hourly duties. Being a man, this lasted for one go, when it was decided it would be easier to get up and watch the weather channel with him instead.
Apparently (I was enjoying some proper sleep by then so was blissfully oblivious to what went on between the hours of 3am and 6.30 am) mum and Jessie woke around 4.30. Mum bathed both kids, got them dressed and gave them a small breakfast. You see why she is with us? What a treasure! Neil sat helpfully watching the weather channel for 3 hours I am told .
I awake at 6.30, a bit groggy, but the lure of the Magic Kingdom puts a spring in my step this morning. Quick shower and I am ready to go. We are all in the car by 7am. Neil is able to tell us that today will be hot, therefore we are all dressed in shorts and T shirts. Little did we know that our shorts and Ts would spend much of the following 20 days in the drawer at the villa.
In my opinion, there is NOTHING like your first morning on holiday in Florida! The whole trip spans before you with the stress of the journey well and truly behind you .pure magic! All load into the car with big smiles!
Brief Interlude #1 : The Car. We were a little disappointed in the car this year. It LOOKED OK and fit us in, but it had a few foibles which drove us nuts over 3 weeks. Firstly, the fan rattled alarmingly, rather like the one on my Dads old 1976 Hillman Imp. Strangely enough, the rattle could be cured in the same way as it could on the Hillman (by giving the fascia a hearty kick). Second, every time the engine was switched on, a little bleepy tune played and the on board computer would chime excitedly Your Vehicle is due a service. This was pretty cute the first time but by day 4 we were ready to rip the thing from its socket and smash it into very small (and silent) pieces. We did manage to cure it by resetting the service intervals using the back of a Disney Pin on about day 7. Also, the tracking was out, so we would be bombing along in the fast lane, Neil could remove his hands from the wheel and we would drift automatically into the slow lane. In hindsight, we should have taken it back, but there were never enough hours in the day. We did down grade it though as its title of Jeep GRAND Cherokee we felt was not deserved. We re-Christened it Jeep Distinctly Average Cherokee for the duration of our trip
.
Spot the usual sights on route this morning Orange trees in the groves growing next to the villa complex, hot air balloons delicately swaying in the first light of dawn, eagles soaring above us, the smell of coffee and crispy bacon that wafts over the 192 between the hours of 7am and 10am! Decide not to go the back way this morning, but to drive down to enter on World Drive into Disney so the kids could see the big sign in daylight! Whoops of joy from the back and even little Daniel shouts Mickey, Mickey when we pass through!
Pass MGM and Daniel spots one of his favourite characters Bear (from Playhouse Disneys Bear In The Big Blue House) on the billboards - more squeals of delight! Getting nearer MK, the monorail track appears and with excellent timing Monorail Blue glides past us. Hastily teach Daniel the word monorail (something we lived to regret, as he would have happily spent the entire 3 weeks riding this and nothing else! Every other word uttered is now monorail since that morning. Now we are home in Essex with Monorails a very rare sight, it is becoming tiresome
).
Particularly happy to report that we secure a spot on the very front row of the Magic Kingdom car park! A very brief walk is required to reach the TTC where we need to activate mums Fun In The Sun pass. There is no-one at the ticket desks so we march up confidently. Hmmm, that was short lived. CM picks up FITS pass as if it is a piece of radioactive waste. Examines it and declares he has no clue what to do with it. Fortunately, senior CM is hovering in the background and steps in to save the day. The correct buttons are pressed and voila! A shiny new (cardboard) Disney hopper is produced for mum. The CM redeems himself a bit by helpfully explaining a bit about whats happening at MK today. I smile sweetly and dont let on Ive just spent every single second of my spare time in the last 8 months researching this trip and could probably manage to find Cinderellas Castle by myself (even blindfolded, spun around and dropped from a great height). Still, he was so nice, I let him ramble on for at least 5 minutes! Assuring him we wouldnt miss the parade and yes, we knew where Splash Mountain was, we leave at last!
Daniel is MOST excited to realise that we are about to board one of those cool looking monorail things and leaps up and down with glee. Its Monorail Black this morning. In we get and off we go except we dont. Monorail stays motionless. We sit and sit a bit more. Jessie is getting restless and asks if she should go and have a word with the driver as we will be late for our breakfast with Pooh! An announcement is made that they are busy bringing some more monorails out from the sidings and we will be underway as soon as they are out on the track. Its 15 minutes before we get moving and we are now well and truly LATE for our breakfast at the Crystal Palace. Arrive at the gates of MK to find the park open, although it shouldnt be for another 45 minutes.
Proceed through security purleeeze, this is a joke, but I guess they think it does some good. As with every single year previously, the ginormous baby bag under the stroller is ignored and we breeze in armed and dangerous with nappies, wipes, 2 beakers of juice and some very dodgy marmite sandwiches.
Moment of truth when we see if all our passes work YES, they do and we are IN! Not much time to admire the scenery as we are now 15 mins late for breakfast. Do glance admiringly at the big Christmas tree and all the festive decorations though! It looks wonderful and we cant wait to see it all lit up at night.
Scamper as quickly as we can round to the Crystal Palace and find a massive line. Dont admit to ANYONE that I have forgotten to bring my PS number and silently pray that it wont be needed. As Planner In Chief I do find myself stressed that any of my planned events should go belly up. Naturally enough the CM couldnt understand a word of my very nicely spoken introduction: Martin, party of 5, 8:05 so I made a lunge for her clipboard and found my name on it. Handily, there was a pen at the top so I ticked myself off for her. Helpful soul arent I??. In return I was told to stand by the door and wait for our name to be called.
Whilst we are waiting, the kids pressed their noses up against the glass to see if they could spot the characters. They are rewarded big time, as Piglet spots two little faces waving at him through the glass and comes over to play Patty Cake with them! Our first great Disney moment and we have been in the park less than 10 mins! I love it here!
We wait about 10 to 15 minutes for our names and are seated in quite a good spot (near the food ). Our waitress is Sami and she is very friendly and helpful. Takes our drinks order and explains a bit about whats on the buffet. She recommends we try the Breakfast Lasagne and to save room for a muffin!
I nip up to the buffet to get a small selection for Daniel. There is an excellent choice of food eggs, bacon, sausage, bread, fruit, cereal, plus some more unusual things like the breakfast lasagne, cheesy potato hash and lovely sliced gammon. Take Daniel back some sausage, bacon and eggs. He eats 5 sausages but nothing else. Hope his OJ will prevent the onslaught of scurvy setting in! Jessie is a much better eater than her brother and has a good breakfast of bacon and eggs followed by fresh strawberries and a Pooh waffle.
Everyone enjoys the food here and I would rate it 8/10. Although, I have to say the breakfast lasagne wasnt QUITE what I expected! Im sure I had read that this was a savoury dish with sausage egg, bacon and cheese inside. To collaborate this story, it was also beside the savoury dishes on the buffet, however when I took a big bite I was most surprised to find a filling of fruit! The binding was like a sweet Yorkshire pudding and it must have contained around 17 vats of sugar (in my one slice alone). Not really my thing and the rest of the family agreed. Still, the muffins WERE very nice!
The characters here were very slow to arrive and we had pretty much finished eating before any had appeared (not a bad thing I guess). The kids enjoyed them, but I felt they were very rushed they snatched up the autograph book, leant down for a photo then off. We had much better interaction when we ate here for lunch last year. The kids were a bit disappointed as the characters just didnt want to interact all with them. A shame. Jessie did get up and do Eeyores Conga round the restaurant and that improved things a little. Granted the restaurant was busy, but I think even another 30 seconds at each table would have given everyone a much better experience.
We did have a great time with Piglet on the way out. He was in the lobby area and you had to go to him for pictures. Daniel was a little sleepy by then and when he landed in Piglets arms, he snuggled down ready for a nice cosy nap! Piglet didnt mind and gently rocked him. Rescued Daniel before Piglet had to spend the rest of the morning with my son fast asleep in his arms!
The bill was $75 + tip and I would rate the whole experience 7/10. We forgot to use mums FITS pass breakfast voucher (another recurring theme!), still the credit card was young and fresh, it being the very beginning of our holidays so we picked up the tab for this one!
Right, its time to do some STUFF! Now, those of you with under fives wont need much in the way of guesses to work out exactly where we headed first .yes Fantasyland of course! En route, Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was about to start so we thought we would catch this first. After waiting for 10 minutes or so, there was an announcement that this show had been postponed so we moved on. Maybe Cinders had a minor spat with Prince Charming over whose turn it was to polish the Coach or something.
Its now spitting with rain, but still hot so we arent too bothered. Do the Teacups as its a walk on. Jessie wants to do the Indy Speedway as every other time we have been at MK, whatever the season or time of day there has ALWAYS been a humungous queue. Today, its a walk on, so daddy offers to take our budding Michael Schumacher out for a spin. I set myself up strategically to film them coming round the bend near the end. Mission accomplished and Jessie is well chuffed that she got to ride this today.
Ooooh, its so QUIET here this morning! Lovely! Do Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan in a row with no waits for anything! When we come out of Peter Pan, its now not even spitting. No, its absolutely chucking it down. Refuse to buy ponchos when I have perfectly good ones already (albeit they are 10 miles away at the villa), so use the next option go on an indoor attraction! We sprint into Mickeys Philharmagic just as the doors are closing!
Not a great success as Daniel screams through the entire show and Jessie refuses to wear her 3D glasses. However, as mummy had strategically sat herself far away from the kids as she was able, she managed to enjoy it immensely. What a wonderful show! Will return without the kiddiewinks next time though! Nanny Sylvie also rates this as one of her top attractions!
When we exit the show, the rain has abated a little. Take Jess and Daniel on the Carousel and then over to Tomorrowland and Buzz! No wait here either so leave Daniel with Nanny Sylvie whilst the rest of us do Buzz. Neil is on Spinning Duty and Jessie and I have the guns. Now, surely I will beat a 4 year old wont I? No, I flipping dont. Daddy takes over Jessies gun whilst Im not looking, hits the spinning Emperor Zurg and gets about a trillion points. Grrrr, one day, yes ONE day I will win this!
Meet up with Nanny again outside and Jessie spot Buzz doing photos. Buzz is one of those elusive characters whom we have never captured on film, so me and Jess head over quick sticks to get in the line. Not long to wait and we are proud owners of a Buzz stamp and photo!
The crowds are now getting heavier so we decide to leave. As you will learn from my Trip Reports, we are not slaves to the parks and will leave if things get too busy. We figure we will be back quite a bit in the future, so there is no point fighting our way through the masses to do stuff we have either already done or are happy to do again another time.
As we wander back there are festive singers on Main St which adds a nice atmosphere to the place. Being a woman, I make sure we make our way back through the shops (to keep out of the rain you understand?) but miraculously dont buy anything today!
Once outside, people are coming in in droves, so we use the Resort Monorail on which there is not a soul. Ask CM if we can ride upfront, but he says they are doing maintenance in the cab and we cant . Just as we board, the maintenance man leaps out and says he is all done, so does anyone want to ride upfront?? YES! WE DO!!! Mum didnt get a turn upfront last year, so Neil stays with Daniel (no strollers allowed in the cockpit!) and I go with Jess and Nanny Sylvie. Driver is quite chatty and lets us in on lots of monorail trivia! Today we are riding monorail coral (sort of a pinky peachy colour) and it is one of twelve.
Get a nice long go as we pass the Grand Floridian, Poly and lastly the TTC. This makes me think how much easier a WDW holiday would be based at one of the monorail resorts. I realise this a dangerous thought to have and keep it to myself for now!
Back in the Jeep, we decide to head home and see if Daniel will have a nap. Fortunately, he does which allows Jess to have a little swim. Daniel only has an hour, so we decide to try out the newly opened Wal-Mart just a little north of us on US27. Only takes 5 minutes to get there, so thats a bonus, even though its a bit smaller than our usual ones (Sandlake Rd or the one near Medieval Times). It is more than adequate for an afternoons entertainment!
Both myself and Nanny Sylvie are like kids in a candy store and leave Neil with the kids and a trolley! Rendezvous an hour or so later laden with stuff! Mum buys clothes, scrap booking supplies, fabric and Christmassy bits. Neil and I buy a 3 foot fibre optic tree to jazz up the villa, some big red bows to put up outside and a few baubles. Neil also gets some Walkie Talkies and clothes. I get clothes, some toys for the kids for Christmas and a bit more food and other essentials that I forgot at the Publix last night. I think mum spent $80 and our bill was $165.
Back home to give kids some dinner. Cook spaghetti bolognaise, which both eat at home, but refused to touch here. They have yoghurt and banana each to ward off hunger pangs. Put Daniel to bed at 6.30pm and he is so tired he cant be bothered to whimper about the injustice of sleeping in a wardrobe and crashes out immediately. Mum says Jessie can stay up to make Christmas decorations with her for an hour.
Neil and I have a PS for Boma tonight, and as Nanny Sylvie is known throughout the developed world as the BEST baby sitter EVER(grovelling pays big baby sitting dividends!) we are allowed out ALONE!
Decide to try out the Walkie Talkies, and as they proudly boast on the box that they are good for up to a 5 mile range, we think that we may be able to stay in touch with base camp from AKL. The 5 mile range turns out in reality to be about 1/5 of a mile and we lose contact at the end of the villa complex. So much for that! Admire the big Christmas tree that is up at the entrance to Highlands Reserve. They have also decorated the palm trees with lights and it all looks lovely!
We are only 10 minutes from Animal Kingdom Lodge, so are soon pulling up at the security hut. I remembered to bring my passport, (which I did need to show at every WDW resort this year) and we are waved in straightaway.
Now, we have actually booked to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge in October, so we intend to be incredible nosey and check out its every nook and cranny tonight! We have been here before, but this time we are on a mission to make sure we REALLY want to stay here for two weeks!
The Christmas tree in the lobby is wonderful, and the whole ambience is actually very Christmassy, which I didnt think they could achieve here. Disney manages to make even the least likely places festive with amazing displays ot lights and assorted floral creations. We also checked out the sugar made African Village down near Boma which was stunning!
Checked in at the podium and told we had a 5 minute wait Im not sure it was even that, we were seated in what seemed like seconds! Boma was as noisy as I remembered it from last year (though Daniel had been creating most of the noise then, so I didnt feel I had much cause for complaint). Our server was Ben and he asked if we had eaten here before (we had) . He was very friendly and extremely efficient, bringing drinks as soon as our glasses were empty.
Now, we werent OVER keen on Boma last year, but felt it deserved a second chance, and boy, are we glad we did. The food was excellent and we tried many of the dishes on offer, all of which were fabulous. Our favourites were the flank steak, African breads and dips and salmon. Of course, the desserts are the main attraction here and once again they were all delish! Zebra domes, cheesecake, mousse cake, pecan tarts all of them were amazing!
We felt this meal was one of the best of our trip and brilliant value at $53 +tip. Rating 9 ½ / 10! Only the noisiness of the restaurant loses it that ½ mark and this time it wasnt my son causing it, so I feel I have legitimate cause for a whinge.
Time for a good old snoop round the hotel. I love the gift shop here and spend quite sometime here browsing. Another miracle to report no purchase was made tonight! So, what is our general feeling about AKL? I ask Neil what he thinks and am quite surprised by the answer Yeah, its OK, but it would MUCH better to be on one that had the monorail link wouldnt it?
Oh, yes, dear husband of mine, it would indeed.
Back home and sad to see Dead Mans Curve (the exit ramp off the 192 to US27) had claimed another victim tonight. Car had rolled over and was in the ditch. WHY has this not been improved? Over the 10 years we have travelled to Florida, we have seen on average 3 cars per holiday rolled over in this spot. Incredibly dangerous.
In bed by 10pm. Tomorrow Animal Kingdom.
A quick note about the pictures. Due to my extreme laziness, the sharp eyed among you may note that the photo of our Jeep Distinctly Average Cherokee has been swiped from the Dollar website. As have the pictures of our villa (well not from Dollar that time, but from the villa website). I promise that the rest are original and from now on are fully Taken By Me!!
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Guest Appearances In Todays Report
Pooh, Tigger, Piglet & Eeyore
Friday December 10th 2004
After yesterdays incredibly early start and long day I had optimistically expected both kidlets to sleep like the proverbial log tonight. Ha.
Daniel is never good with anything new however and whinged all night about his surroundings. Every hour there was a new reason to get Mummy up 11am another blanket, 12am more milk. 1am cuddles, 2am dirty nappy, 3am a bit more milk. By then Daddy has had 5 hours of Zzzzz so takes over the hourly duties. Being a man, this lasted for one go, when it was decided it would be easier to get up and watch the weather channel with him instead.
Apparently (I was enjoying some proper sleep by then so was blissfully oblivious to what went on between the hours of 3am and 6.30 am) mum and Jessie woke around 4.30. Mum bathed both kids, got them dressed and gave them a small breakfast. You see why she is with us? What a treasure! Neil sat helpfully watching the weather channel for 3 hours I am told .
I awake at 6.30, a bit groggy, but the lure of the Magic Kingdom puts a spring in my step this morning. Quick shower and I am ready to go. We are all in the car by 7am. Neil is able to tell us that today will be hot, therefore we are all dressed in shorts and T shirts. Little did we know that our shorts and Ts would spend much of the following 20 days in the drawer at the villa.
In my opinion, there is NOTHING like your first morning on holiday in Florida! The whole trip spans before you with the stress of the journey well and truly behind you .pure magic! All load into the car with big smiles!
Brief Interlude #1 : The Car. We were a little disappointed in the car this year. It LOOKED OK and fit us in, but it had a few foibles which drove us nuts over 3 weeks. Firstly, the fan rattled alarmingly, rather like the one on my Dads old 1976 Hillman Imp. Strangely enough, the rattle could be cured in the same way as it could on the Hillman (by giving the fascia a hearty kick). Second, every time the engine was switched on, a little bleepy tune played and the on board computer would chime excitedly Your Vehicle is due a service. This was pretty cute the first time but by day 4 we were ready to rip the thing from its socket and smash it into very small (and silent) pieces. We did manage to cure it by resetting the service intervals using the back of a Disney Pin on about day 7. Also, the tracking was out, so we would be bombing along in the fast lane, Neil could remove his hands from the wheel and we would drift automatically into the slow lane. In hindsight, we should have taken it back, but there were never enough hours in the day. We did down grade it though as its title of Jeep GRAND Cherokee we felt was not deserved. We re-Christened it Jeep Distinctly Average Cherokee for the duration of our trip
.Spot the usual sights on route this morning Orange trees in the groves growing next to the villa complex, hot air balloons delicately swaying in the first light of dawn, eagles soaring above us, the smell of coffee and crispy bacon that wafts over the 192 between the hours of 7am and 10am! Decide not to go the back way this morning, but to drive down to enter on World Drive into Disney so the kids could see the big sign in daylight! Whoops of joy from the back and even little Daniel shouts Mickey, Mickey when we pass through!
Pass MGM and Daniel spots one of his favourite characters Bear (from Playhouse Disneys Bear In The Big Blue House) on the billboards - more squeals of delight! Getting nearer MK, the monorail track appears and with excellent timing Monorail Blue glides past us. Hastily teach Daniel the word monorail (something we lived to regret, as he would have happily spent the entire 3 weeks riding this and nothing else! Every other word uttered is now monorail since that morning. Now we are home in Essex with Monorails a very rare sight, it is becoming tiresome
).Particularly happy to report that we secure a spot on the very front row of the Magic Kingdom car park! A very brief walk is required to reach the TTC where we need to activate mums Fun In The Sun pass. There is no-one at the ticket desks so we march up confidently. Hmmm, that was short lived. CM picks up FITS pass as if it is a piece of radioactive waste. Examines it and declares he has no clue what to do with it. Fortunately, senior CM is hovering in the background and steps in to save the day. The correct buttons are pressed and voila! A shiny new (cardboard) Disney hopper is produced for mum. The CM redeems himself a bit by helpfully explaining a bit about whats happening at MK today. I smile sweetly and dont let on Ive just spent every single second of my spare time in the last 8 months researching this trip and could probably manage to find Cinderellas Castle by myself (even blindfolded, spun around and dropped from a great height). Still, he was so nice, I let him ramble on for at least 5 minutes! Assuring him we wouldnt miss the parade and yes, we knew where Splash Mountain was, we leave at last!
Daniel is MOST excited to realise that we are about to board one of those cool looking monorail things and leaps up and down with glee. Its Monorail Black this morning. In we get and off we go except we dont. Monorail stays motionless. We sit and sit a bit more. Jessie is getting restless and asks if she should go and have a word with the driver as we will be late for our breakfast with Pooh! An announcement is made that they are busy bringing some more monorails out from the sidings and we will be underway as soon as they are out on the track. Its 15 minutes before we get moving and we are now well and truly LATE for our breakfast at the Crystal Palace. Arrive at the gates of MK to find the park open, although it shouldnt be for another 45 minutes.
Proceed through security purleeeze, this is a joke, but I guess they think it does some good. As with every single year previously, the ginormous baby bag under the stroller is ignored and we breeze in armed and dangerous with nappies, wipes, 2 beakers of juice and some very dodgy marmite sandwiches.
Moment of truth when we see if all our passes work YES, they do and we are IN! Not much time to admire the scenery as we are now 15 mins late for breakfast. Do glance admiringly at the big Christmas tree and all the festive decorations though! It looks wonderful and we cant wait to see it all lit up at night.
Scamper as quickly as we can round to the Crystal Palace and find a massive line. Dont admit to ANYONE that I have forgotten to bring my PS number and silently pray that it wont be needed. As Planner In Chief I do find myself stressed that any of my planned events should go belly up. Naturally enough the CM couldnt understand a word of my very nicely spoken introduction: Martin, party of 5, 8:05 so I made a lunge for her clipboard and found my name on it. Handily, there was a pen at the top so I ticked myself off for her. Helpful soul arent I??
. In return I was told to stand by the door and wait for our name to be called.Whilst we are waiting, the kids pressed their noses up against the glass to see if they could spot the characters. They are rewarded big time, as Piglet spots two little faces waving at him through the glass and comes over to play Patty Cake with them! Our first great Disney moment and we have been in the park less than 10 mins! I love it here!
We wait about 10 to 15 minutes for our names and are seated in quite a good spot (near the food
). Our waitress is Sami and she is very friendly and helpful. Takes our drinks order and explains a bit about whats on the buffet. She recommends we try the Breakfast Lasagne and to save room for a muffin!I nip up to the buffet to get a small selection for Daniel. There is an excellent choice of food eggs, bacon, sausage, bread, fruit, cereal, plus some more unusual things like the breakfast lasagne, cheesy potato hash and lovely sliced gammon. Take Daniel back some sausage, bacon and eggs. He eats 5 sausages but nothing else. Hope his OJ will prevent the onslaught of scurvy setting in! Jessie is a much better eater than her brother and has a good breakfast of bacon and eggs followed by fresh strawberries and a Pooh waffle.
Everyone enjoys the food here and I would rate it 8/10. Although, I have to say the breakfast lasagne wasnt QUITE what I expected! Im sure I had read that this was a savoury dish with sausage egg, bacon and cheese inside. To collaborate this story, it was also beside the savoury dishes on the buffet, however when I took a big bite I was most surprised to find a filling of fruit! The binding was like a sweet Yorkshire pudding and it must have contained around 17 vats of sugar (in my one slice alone). Not really my thing and the rest of the family agreed. Still, the muffins WERE very nice!
The characters here were very slow to arrive and we had pretty much finished eating before any had appeared (not a bad thing I guess). The kids enjoyed them, but I felt they were very rushed they snatched up the autograph book, leant down for a photo then off. We had much better interaction when we ate here for lunch last year. The kids were a bit disappointed as the characters just didnt want to interact all with them. A shame. Jessie did get up and do Eeyores Conga round the restaurant and that improved things a little. Granted the restaurant was busy, but I think even another 30 seconds at each table would have given everyone a much better experience.
We did have a great time with Piglet on the way out. He was in the lobby area and you had to go to him for pictures. Daniel was a little sleepy by then and when he landed in Piglets arms, he snuggled down ready for a nice cosy nap! Piglet didnt mind and gently rocked him. Rescued Daniel before Piglet had to spend the rest of the morning with my son fast asleep in his arms!
The bill was $75 + tip and I would rate the whole experience 7/10. We forgot to use mums FITS pass breakfast voucher (another recurring theme!), still the credit card was young and fresh, it being the very beginning of our holidays so we picked up the tab for this one!
Right, its time to do some STUFF! Now, those of you with under fives wont need much in the way of guesses to work out exactly where we headed first .yes Fantasyland of course! En route, Cinderellas Surprise Celebration was about to start so we thought we would catch this first. After waiting for 10 minutes or so, there was an announcement that this show had been postponed so we moved on. Maybe Cinders had a minor spat with Prince Charming over whose turn it was to polish the Coach or something.
Its now spitting with rain, but still hot so we arent too bothered. Do the Teacups as its a walk on. Jessie wants to do the Indy Speedway as every other time we have been at MK, whatever the season or time of day there has ALWAYS been a humungous queue. Today, its a walk on, so daddy offers to take our budding Michael Schumacher out for a spin. I set myself up strategically to film them coming round the bend near the end. Mission accomplished and Jessie is well chuffed that she got to ride this today.
Ooooh, its so QUIET here this morning! Lovely! Do Pooh, Dumbo, Peter Pan in a row with no waits for anything! When we come out of Peter Pan, its now not even spitting. No, its absolutely chucking it down. Refuse to buy ponchos when I have perfectly good ones already (albeit they are 10 miles away at the villa), so use the next option go on an indoor attraction! We sprint into Mickeys Philharmagic just as the doors are closing!
Not a great success as Daniel screams through the entire show and Jessie refuses to wear her 3D glasses. However, as mummy had strategically sat herself far away from the kids as she was able, she managed to enjoy it immensely
. What a wonderful show! Will return without the kiddiewinks next time though! Nanny Sylvie also rates this as one of her top attractions!When we exit the show, the rain has abated a little. Take Jess and Daniel on the Carousel and then over to Tomorrowland and Buzz! No wait here either so leave Daniel with Nanny Sylvie whilst the rest of us do Buzz. Neil is on Spinning Duty and Jessie and I have the guns. Now, surely I will beat a 4 year old wont I? No, I flipping dont. Daddy takes over Jessies gun whilst Im not looking, hits the spinning Emperor Zurg and gets about a trillion points. Grrrr, one day, yes ONE day I will win this!
Meet up with Nanny again outside and Jessie spot Buzz doing photos. Buzz is one of those elusive characters whom we have never captured on film, so me and Jess head over quick sticks to get in the line. Not long to wait and we are proud owners of a Buzz stamp and photo!
The crowds are now getting heavier so we decide to leave. As you will learn from my Trip Reports, we are not slaves to the parks and will leave if things get too busy. We figure we will be back quite a bit in the future, so there is no point fighting our way through the masses to do stuff we have either already done or are happy to do again another time.
As we wander back there are festive singers on Main St which adds a nice atmosphere to the place. Being a woman, I make sure we make our way back through the shops (to keep out of the rain you understand?) but miraculously dont buy anything today!
Once outside, people are coming in in droves, so we use the Resort Monorail on which there is not a soul. Ask CM if we can ride upfront, but he says they are doing maintenance in the cab and we cant . Just as we board, the maintenance man leaps out and says he is all done, so does anyone want to ride upfront?? YES! WE DO!!! Mum didnt get a turn upfront last year, so Neil stays with Daniel (no strollers allowed in the cockpit!) and I go with Jess and Nanny Sylvie. Driver is quite chatty and lets us in on lots of monorail trivia! Today we are riding monorail coral (sort of a pinky peachy colour) and it is one of twelve.
Get a nice long go as we pass the Grand Floridian, Poly and lastly the TTC. This makes me think how much easier a WDW holiday would be based at one of the monorail resorts. I realise this a dangerous thought to have and keep it to myself for now!
Back in the Jeep, we decide to head home and see if Daniel will have a nap. Fortunately, he does which allows Jess to have a little swim. Daniel only has an hour, so we decide to try out the newly opened Wal-Mart just a little north of us on US27. Only takes 5 minutes to get there, so thats a bonus, even though its a bit smaller than our usual ones (Sandlake Rd or the one near Medieval Times). It is more than adequate for an afternoons entertainment!
Both myself and Nanny Sylvie are like kids in a candy store and leave Neil with the kids and a trolley! Rendezvous an hour or so later laden with stuff! Mum buys clothes, scrap booking supplies, fabric and Christmassy bits. Neil and I buy a 3 foot fibre optic tree to jazz up the villa, some big red bows to put up outside and a few baubles. Neil also gets some Walkie Talkies and clothes. I get clothes, some toys for the kids for Christmas and a bit more food and other essentials that I forgot at the Publix last night. I think mum spent $80 and our bill was $165.
Back home to give kids some dinner. Cook spaghetti bolognaise, which both eat at home, but refused to touch here. They have yoghurt and banana each to ward off hunger pangs. Put Daniel to bed at 6.30pm and he is so tired he cant be bothered to whimper about the injustice of sleeping in a wardrobe and crashes out immediately. Mum says Jessie can stay up to make Christmas decorations with her for an hour.
Neil and I have a PS for Boma tonight, and as Nanny Sylvie is known throughout the developed world as the BEST baby sitter EVER(grovelling pays big baby sitting dividends!) we are allowed out ALONE!
Decide to try out the Walkie Talkies, and as they proudly boast on the box that they are good for up to a 5 mile range, we think that we may be able to stay in touch with base camp from AKL. The 5 mile range turns out in reality to be about 1/5 of a mile and we lose contact at the end of the villa complex. So much for that! Admire the big Christmas tree that is up at the entrance to Highlands Reserve. They have also decorated the palm trees with lights and it all looks lovely!
We are only 10 minutes from Animal Kingdom Lodge, so are soon pulling up at the security hut. I remembered to bring my passport, (which I did need to show at every WDW resort this year) and we are waved in straightaway.
Now, we have actually booked to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge in October, so we intend to be incredible nosey and check out its every nook and cranny tonight! We have been here before, but this time we are on a mission to make sure we REALLY want to stay here for two weeks!
The Christmas tree in the lobby is wonderful, and the whole ambience is actually very Christmassy, which I didnt think they could achieve here. Disney manages to make even the least likely places festive with amazing displays ot lights and assorted floral creations. We also checked out the sugar made African Village down near Boma which was stunning!
Checked in at the podium and told we had a 5 minute wait Im not sure it was even that, we were seated in what seemed like seconds! Boma was as noisy as I remembered it from last year (though Daniel had been creating most of the noise then, so I didnt feel I had much cause for complaint
). Our server was Ben and he asked if we had eaten here before (we had) . He was very friendly and extremely efficient, bringing drinks as soon as our glasses were empty.Now, we werent OVER keen on Boma last year, but felt it deserved a second chance, and boy, are we glad we did. The food was excellent and we tried many of the dishes on offer, all of which were fabulous. Our favourites were the flank steak, African breads and dips and salmon. Of course, the desserts are the main attraction here and once again they were all delish! Zebra domes, cheesecake, mousse cake, pecan tarts all of them were amazing!
We felt this meal was one of the best of our trip and brilliant value at $53 +tip. Rating 9 ½ / 10! Only the noisiness of the restaurant loses it that ½ mark and this time it wasnt my son causing it, so I feel I have legitimate cause for a whinge
.Time for a good old snoop round the hotel. I love the gift shop here and spend quite sometime here browsing. Another miracle to report no purchase was made tonight! So, what is our general feeling about AKL? I ask Neil what he thinks and am quite surprised by the answer Yeah, its OK, but it would MUCH better to be on one that had the monorail link wouldnt it?
Oh, yes, dear husband of mine, it would indeed
.Back home and sad to see Dead Mans Curve (the exit ramp off the 192 to US27) had claimed another victim tonight. Car had rolled over and was in the ditch. WHY has this not been improved? Over the 10 years we have travelled to Florida, we have seen on average 3 cars per holiday rolled over in this spot. Incredibly dangerous.
In bed by 10pm. Tomorrow Animal Kingdom.
A quick note about the pictures. Due to my extreme laziness, the sharp eyed among you may note that the photo of our Jeep Distinctly Average Cherokee has been swiped from the Dollar website. As have the pictures of our villa (well not from Dollar that time, but from the villa website). I promise that the rest are original and from now on are fully Taken By Me!!
Oh well, there's always October!
