laurabelle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2003
- Messages
- 4,094
We drove down from MD and arrived on Friday the 15th and got home last night. Wow, was it crowded and H-O-T and barely rained!!! We were there last July too, but it was far more crowded this July, worse than the last spring break I did there in 2004! The Brazillian tour groups were there in full force, and we didn't have a minute's trouble with them for those concerned (hope no one else did either!) By afternoon/evening the parks were packed. We never did EMH when it was available to us, as I could imagine it would have been mobbed! Even DTD was packed! Every hotel we checked into said they were full!
We started out with 8 day 5+ tix that would expire, but upgraded to 10 day non-expiry -love the new options!
because we needed a break!
We stayed in 5 (yes you read right) hotels. One night in the Fairfield Inn at LBV, since we arrived a day early, booked over the phone on the drive down. Very clean and nice, def. on par with the Disney moderates, but with inside corridors. Free breakfast too.
The next night we stayed at AKL, booked last minute when we changed from flying to driving. Reserved standard room w/AAA discount, and got upgraded to the Kudu Savanna- beautiful! We fell in love with this place, and it was one of the reasons we changed our tix becuase we wanted a day to hang out here. It is dark, low lighting, and from the minute you pull up, you feel like you're completely transported to someplace exotic and different. It's a great resort to explore! The pool is nice, but too warm, and I wish it was more like SAB, spread out with more smaller swimming areas, and water features. Loved hanging out at the balcony watching the critters!
Then we checked in for a week at the Vistana Resort. This was our 2nd stay there. We were in Cascades, 1 br. It's a great location, not far to drive to the new Walmart Superstore for supplies. We only used the pools here 2x, Cascades and Falls. The Falls has the slide, but my kids said it hurt going down, so they only did it once.
Then we spent one night at BCV, on points rented from a Diser. I only did one night as this was our first rental and hubby was nervous about spending alot on it in case anything went wrong with the deal. Well it went perfectly fine (I'd certainly do it again!). SAB is fabulous, we loved every minute of it! We all thought the resort and room was nice and SAB and the location can't be beat since we're EPCOT lovers, but all agreed AKL was tops IOHO.
On the drive home, we stopped in Richmond Hill just south of Savannah, and stayed at the Hampton Inn. Clean, safe and comfortable, and great place to stay on I-95.
Some new favs. -
Soarin'!!! Incredible! This is the whole family's new favorite attraction. I have issues with motion sickness and it did make me feel a little strange a couple of times but the scenes change quickly and I adjusted fine. I would say the warnings are overstated. The CMs said it has gotten a 99% approval rating! We rode 5 x this trip!
Crush n Gusher at TL Loved it! It's fun, and not too scary. My youngest dd does not like coasters, so she was intimidated to ride it but I convinced her to try it once and she loved it! It helps that 2-3 can ride, so she didn't have to do it herself. We got great airtime! People don't seem to know it's there though, they need to update the maps and they've included a brochure, but I'm forever getting lost in the water parks, so I can see how people would miss it. Good for us though, we rode several times in the morning with minimal waits.
Favorite buy- my Mickey Tea Kettle from World of Disney. I'm using it this morning and it's adorable! The "whistle" makes me happy! What a great way to start my day!
Now that we're home, we're planning to go back in Oct. for the Food and Wine festival! We have travel credits with Southwest that have to be used by the spring and we haven't been to F&W in years... Yes, we're hopelessly addicted!
We started out with 8 day 5+ tix that would expire, but upgraded to 10 day non-expiry -love the new options!
because we needed a break!We stayed in 5 (yes you read right) hotels. One night in the Fairfield Inn at LBV, since we arrived a day early, booked over the phone on the drive down. Very clean and nice, def. on par with the Disney moderates, but with inside corridors. Free breakfast too.
The next night we stayed at AKL, booked last minute when we changed from flying to driving. Reserved standard room w/AAA discount, and got upgraded to the Kudu Savanna- beautiful! We fell in love with this place, and it was one of the reasons we changed our tix becuase we wanted a day to hang out here. It is dark, low lighting, and from the minute you pull up, you feel like you're completely transported to someplace exotic and different. It's a great resort to explore! The pool is nice, but too warm, and I wish it was more like SAB, spread out with more smaller swimming areas, and water features. Loved hanging out at the balcony watching the critters!
Then we checked in for a week at the Vistana Resort. This was our 2nd stay there. We were in Cascades, 1 br. It's a great location, not far to drive to the new Walmart Superstore for supplies. We only used the pools here 2x, Cascades and Falls. The Falls has the slide, but my kids said it hurt going down, so they only did it once.
Then we spent one night at BCV, on points rented from a Diser. I only did one night as this was our first rental and hubby was nervous about spending alot on it in case anything went wrong with the deal. Well it went perfectly fine (I'd certainly do it again!). SAB is fabulous, we loved every minute of it! We all thought the resort and room was nice and SAB and the location can't be beat since we're EPCOT lovers, but all agreed AKL was tops IOHO.
On the drive home, we stopped in Richmond Hill just south of Savannah, and stayed at the Hampton Inn. Clean, safe and comfortable, and great place to stay on I-95.
Some new favs. -
Soarin'!!! Incredible! This is the whole family's new favorite attraction. I have issues with motion sickness and it did make me feel a little strange a couple of times but the scenes change quickly and I adjusted fine. I would say the warnings are overstated. The CMs said it has gotten a 99% approval rating! We rode 5 x this trip!
Crush n Gusher at TL Loved it! It's fun, and not too scary. My youngest dd does not like coasters, so she was intimidated to ride it but I convinced her to try it once and she loved it! It helps that 2-3 can ride, so she didn't have to do it herself. We got great airtime! People don't seem to know it's there though, they need to update the maps and they've included a brochure, but I'm forever getting lost in the water parks, so I can see how people would miss it. Good for us though, we rode several times in the morning with minimal waits.
Favorite buy- my Mickey Tea Kettle from World of Disney. I'm using it this morning and it's adorable! The "whistle" makes me happy! What a great way to start my day!
Now that we're home, we're planning to go back in Oct. for the Food and Wine festival! We have travel credits with Southwest that have to be used by the spring and we haven't been to F&W in years... Yes, we're hopelessly addicted!
