An Instagrammable and Dole Whippy 4th of July Trip Report!**UPDATED 3/4

[TheMaxRebo]

I really have no recollection of this but apparently after Splash we went on Haunted Mansion. I have a picture from it next so I guess we went on it! I think I remember it being dead

Well, I should hope so ... otherwise they would need to find a whole bunch more happy haunts stat!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Bahaha, Haunted Mansion was "dead"!! You did that on purpose... right??

Ha, looks like you had the train AND the bus all to yourselves. VIP's!!!

 

[cheekypoppins]

somehow I feel like i missed one of your trs somewhere( I think with another diser???) Anyways i'm glad i found this one!
Sorry you got stuck with the snotrocket princess on your way to WL
I like your Illuminations pics
LOL @ Corey leaving with Belle
I feel like this is the year of the river boat,everyones either trying it for the first time (myself included) or revisiting after a huge hiatus.
That potroast looks amazing!
Even with the Jolly green giant your wishes pics are fantastic!!
Lobster roll looks yummy too!

 

[elphie101]

Great Vinyl pulls! I agree Mrs. Potts is one of the best in that series!

Can't wait to see AKL!

 

[rustyanchor]

i can't believe that you went to crystal palace & didn't have breakfast lasagna! i LOOOVE IT!!!

your splash pics have made me so excited. during our last trip (february) it was down for refurb, which was so depressing. i seriously can't wait to ride it again (in just 2 weeks)!

my boyfriend & i have also NEVER ridden dumbo. actually i probably rode it when i was little and just don't remember, but he definitely hasn't since he never went as a kid. i was telling him just the other day that we are for sure riding dumbo on our upcoming trip.

 

[jecskc]

All caught up again !!! I just love the vinylmations and we traded some on our last trip, but didn't buy any. Sometimes I wish we could see what is in the box. Not being able to see them actually keeps me from buying them sometimes.

I didn't mind the daily rain showers too much. It did help cool things down.

Susan

 

[Miss Potts]

LOVE the Mrs Potts!! (Obviously!) That's the one I want from the series but I wouldn't be so lucky to get it!!

 

[rachel09985]

Hi Rachel.... getting caught up.

CP had holiday pricing for the meals because I checked our sign and the prices were $4 cheaper. Good to know how much they spike up during the holidays. I see your point about the newness of some Disney restaurants give you rose colored glasses that make everything appear better than what it is. I happen to like CP but I'm too distracted by the characters to get all the dishes that I really want to try.

Cute photo of Corey in Dumbo. You an totally tell him that too.

So how many vinylmations do you have? I can say that I've been warned.

Ahh that holiday pricing! Trying to suck more money out of people! lol. Yeah I really like Crystal Palace too but I just haven't loved the food. I am hoping december is better! Lol I will tell him about it. I think I have like 55 vinylmations. I will definitely be collecting them in december. they are so fun!

Well, I should hope so ... otherwise they would need to find a whole bunch more happy haunts stat!

Haha I didn't even mean to do that at first.

Bahaha, Haunted Mansion was "dead"!! You did that on purpose... right??

Ha, looks like you had the train AND the bus all to yourselves. VIP's!!!

Well I truthfully didn't mean to when I first wrote it. But, after I realized the pun I left it there!

somehow I feel like i missed one of your trs somewhere( I think with another diser???) Anyways i'm glad i found this one!
Sorry you got stuck with the snotrocket princess on your way to WL
I like your Illuminations pics
LOL @ Corey leaving with Belle
I feel like this is the year of the river boat,everyones either trying it for the first time (myself included) or revisiting after a huge hiatus.
That potroast looks amazing!
Even with the Jolly green giant your wishes pics are fantastic!!
Lobster roll looks yummy too!

Lol on the snotrocket, that was funny. It was sooo gross!! Corey leaving with Belle was so funny. Haha about the jolly green giant too!! You are cracking me up.

Great Vinyl pulls! I agree Mrs. Potts is one of the best in that series!

Can't wait to see AKL!

Yes she is! I love when vinyls have clear material.

i can't believe that you went to crystal palace & didn't have breakfast lasagna! i LOOOVE IT!!!

your splash pics have made me so excited. during our last trip (february) it was down for refurb, which was so depressing. i seriously can't wait to ride it again (in just 2 weeks)!

my boyfriend & i have also NEVER ridden dumbo. actually i probably rode it when i was little and just don't remember, but he definitely hasn't since he never went as a kid. i was telling him just the other day that we are for sure riding dumbo on our upcoming trip.

You know, I tried that lasagna before and didn't like it but maybe I had a bad batch. I will try it again. That is a bummer about splash being down. It is our favorite ride!! Now I don't feel so bad about not riding dumbo with him before. I never wanted to wait in that long line before when there was one, but now with two it is better.

All caught up again !!! I just love the vinylmations and we traded some on our last trip, but didn't buy any. Sometimes I wish we could see what is in the box. Not being able to see them actually keeps me from buying them sometimes.

I didn't mind the daily rain showers too much. It did help cool things down.

Susan

I didn't mind the daily rain either surprisingly!! It was nice. I love the blind vinylmations because it is so fun. But, it does stink when you get a double or one you don't like. I have heard eventually they will only have blind boxes and will be getting rid of the ones where you can see them.

LOVE the Mrs Potts!! (Obviously!) That's the one I want from the series but I wouldn't be so lucky to get it!!

I know you would love the Mrs Potts!! Surprisingly I actually got two of them!! I traded one of them on instagram but I am pretty sure I got screwed because I haven't got mine yet.

 

[rachel09985]

Next up was one of the greatest moments of my entire trip! I can't explain the feeling of finally being able to afford a deluxe hotel and knowing we were moving up in the disney world! We got a great deal for the 4 nights we were staying here so I was excited. I mentioned before we really wanted to relax at this hotel so we crammed as much as possible in the POP portion of our stay.

When we got off of the bus this was waiting for us in front of the door.



Ahh, that made me happy!



I just love the lobby of AKL. I have been there probably about 4 times before but this time I could actually call it home (at least for 4 nights). I have come to realize that every deluxe hotel lobby has a smell. And the AKL smells like meat! Probably because of Boma down below. I still like the smell though.

We didn't really have to wait too long and the check in process took a short time. I was really hoping for an upgrade since we just booked the standard view but we didn't get upgraded. She said we were in the sunset savannah section. I wondered what that mean.

So off to our room we went!



And then we opened up the door and walked into this!

Yes, we got a king bed!







So excited to have a couch!!



Gorgeous bathroom!!!





Here is Corey taking pictures to send to his mom



Finally have the deluxe shampoo!







The best part was our VIEW!!! I was expecting to face another building or the parking lot but we actually faced the side of the savannah.







More room pics





Loungin!



Ahh, I was in heaven! It was just so nice to have a nice room where you can relax. I will always love the value resorts but whenever I am in those I always just want to leave to get to the parks. Having the deluxe was nice because I actually just wanted to be in our hotel.

I couldn't help but love our view too! I didn't know if we would see any animals but I didn't care. I was just happy to have a partial savannah view!

We planned today to go in the pool so since I had our suits we put them on and got ready. I had a small tube of sunscreen so I put that on as well.

 

[MissDisney121]

I'm subbing. I love your trip report so far. I know exactly what you mean about moving up to a deluxe. A few years ago for my college graduation I was able to move up to a deluxe for the first time and it was amazing. We definitley lounged more there than any other trip. can't wait to hear more about your trip. AKL looks amazing.

 

[jecskc]

Ooooo - I LOVE AKL !! Yay for a king bed AND a partial savannah view !! The pools at both AKL sections are amazing !! I assume you stayed in Jambo?? Always nice to be close to the Mara and the gift shop !!

Can't wait to read more !!

Susan

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wow, pretty nice! Maybe it was a non-upgrade upgrade

 

[KatMark]

Welcome home! Isn't that wonderful to read or see even if you don't own DVC.

Although we only had two nights at AKL in 2011, we fell in love with it and hope to take the kids for their one year anniversary and stay there.

You got a great room, and I hope later I the week you do see animals.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[marDgreen88]

So so so awesome that yall got to stay at AKL! I want to stay there SO BADLY. It looks perfect! I love the smell there, to me it smells like a campfire and that's one of my favorite smells ever.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[scholastica]

I am loving your TR! Can't wait for the rest.

 

[rachel09985]

It was off to the pool next! We felt like bums in our bathing suits walking across AKL. Luckily we found a path where we didn't have to walk in the lobby. We just walked through the bottom floor to the pool. I didn't take any photos because I didn't have my phone or camera, so I apologize that this will be quite boring.

When we got to the pool we were both blown away! It was so nice. I loved the zero entry walk in pool. It was soo pretty!

We found some chairs but they were a little far away from the pool but that is okay.

I went right in the pool and wow it felt so good! When you have been at the parks for three straight days from open to semi close it feels so good to be free in the water! Haha!

After swimming around for a bit I went right up to the slide.

It was a little slide where you could slide down when the light flashed to green. Here is me waiting in line with little kids to go down a little slide, lol! I feel like a loser. So, next it was my turn and it was soo much fun! I never wanted it to end!!!! It felt so good going down the slide because my body was so sore from the parks. It like aligned my back going down that slide. When I landed I completely went under but it was nice. Corey was in the water too so I begged him to go on the slide with me. So there we were waiting with little kids, haha. He went down first and then I went down.

It was soo much fun again! So much fun again that we both went down it another 4 times after that! Haha, we spent a little bit more time in the pool and then we got out to dry off.

Once we were dry we walked around the pool area and looked at the viewing areas for the animals. We really wanted to get some kind of snack because we had our ADR at Le Cellier so we looked in the Mara for food.

Corey wanted PB&J again but they didn't have packets of PB out so it took us like 10 minutes to find someone and then they had to look for it but they found it. I was contemplating getting a cupcake but decided to stick with some hummus dip, carrots & celery, and zebra domes. They gave us a nice bag to take back to our room.

Once we got to our room our luggage still wasn't there so I went out on the patio to eat my food. It felt so hot but at the same time felt so good! It was so peaceful out there.







View







It was a really good snack. Perfect way to tide me over. I loved the zebra domes this time but really wished I would have ate them first since they were warm by the time I got to them. It even started to rain when I was out there. Now that was peaceful!!

While I was outside I noticed the curtains had Lion King characters displayed on them! How adorable.









I called to check on our luggage but it still wasn't there so I just layed in bed and watched tv. I didn't fall asleep but I felt like I was going to.

A little while later I checked on our luggage again and it was here!!

I only had a 20 for a tip so I asked them to bring change and when he got there I could give him change.

As soon as we got our luggage I hopped in the shower. Man, that shower hurt!!! That was my only complaint. There was way too much pressure in that shower.

Next it was Coreys turn so once again I just laid in bed while he showered!

When he was getting ready I looked outside and i saw GIRAFFES!!!!! Three giraffes to be precise!!! They were soo close to our window!!! I started freaking out and ran outside on the balcony with literally just my towel around me(TMI haha) and started snapping away with my camera!!! I didn't know how long they were going to be out there so I didn't want to change.









There was this little guy too





We figured out that the animal care takers put food out in our section so that was why they were here



















Oh my gosh it was literally a dream come true to see these giraffes outside my window. Considering I didn't pay for a savannah view because I couldn't afford it, and then to have a savannah view anyways with animal viewing was amazing!!! I couldn't have been happier. Corey and I were both ecstatic! You may be thinking I am over excited about this but I can't help it. I was just so excited!

 

[jecskc]

Yay for giraffes !! I just LOVE them !! We went down the slide, too !! I love the slides at the deluxes. I haven't been down one in a while due to the ankle injury. But I'm never embarrassed to stand in line for one and neither is DH !!

Susan

 

[cheekypoppins]

I love that i could make you laugh ,I guess i'm good for sumthin LOL.So happy for you that the room situation turned so well that's great and i would ran door to door tellin random strangers that I saw giraffes so trust me you're excitement would be welcome with me!! I get super pumped about those kinds of things

 

[Miss Potts]

I love the deluxe hotels! Everything is just more comfortable! Your room at AKL is so nice... How awesome for a king bed and the view!!!! I stayed there once and never noticed the lion king characters on the curtains! So cute!!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!