Been There, Done That and ThenSome:Timandlesley Do Disneyfor18days!11/2 TR IS UP!pg79

[SunnieRN]

You know, I've been thinking about it and I have never, ever, seen an unattractive princess at Disneyland. On our April trip, my daughter and I were talking about the difference in some of the face characters at wdw in comparison. We were thinking that the difference may be in the fact that there are so many people trying to be stars in the Los Angeles area.

 

[timandlesley]

I know this doesn't count for most bus riders, but if you saw two of my big strapping boys sitting down, you would have said they should get up and stand. But I always made them sit down as one had weak knees due to previous chemo (he eventually had surgery on one knee due to an ACL injury) and the other has JRA. It was actually a fight to get them to sit since they did not want to be "different" than us, especially since the youngest was able to stand!

So sorry for your sons conditions. Yes, I'm not saying that everyone who is sitting doesn't have a right to be, but on this night there were at least 10 males seated around this poor gentleman who was STRUGGLING to stand and hold his toddler as the bus whizzed along - certainly one of them could have gotten up and let the poor man sit down.

You know, I've been thinking about it and I have never, ever, seen an unattractive princess at Disneyland. On our April trip, my daughter and I were talking about the difference in some of the face characters at wdw in comparison. We were thinking that the difference may be in the fact that there are so many people trying to be stars in the Los Angeles area.

Interesting, I guess they need to send some to Orlando.

 

[Sooze]

Can you tell they were a LITTLE intense throughout the missions : )

Yep! I totally can!

The door is VERY interactive. The phone tells you to pull on it, which Luke did but there is a resistance and the door pulls shut real fast and you hear “bad guys” yelling at you, etc.

That sounds so cool, but I can see how it could scare some little ones! I'll remember not to take Shae near there for quite a while!

GOTTA LOVE DISNEY AND THEIR TECHNOLOGY!!! The kids and I thought that was REALLY cool!

Ok, I will definitely be scoping out the KP missions next time we are there with the kids. I kind of pushed it aside on our Spring Break trip, because Ty did a mission with our friends. I didn't really get to experience it at all. Next time...

(even though I’m realizing now it doesn’t look like it in this photo):

Aww, she's such a trooper, tho. Look at her pulling out a smile for you once again!

 

[Sooze]

Kids in front of Mexico

It looks like you guys had a wonderful Mommy and kids time that morning!

Luke for SOME WEIRD REASON wanted to try to Beverly.

He's brave, that Luke!

Mezo Mix is my FAVORITE- YUM!!!

Do you remember what country that is from ? Mine is the on from Costa Rica.. but I don't remember the actual name!

When we got back Tim had a big smile on his face, he had REALLY enjoyed his lazy morning of coffee and laundry. I REALLY enjoyed coming back to a spotless room and folded laundry- WIN WIN!!!

Great plan, guys!

Here was Tim checking things out:

I dont' know why, but Tim's face cracks me up in this picture!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE!!!! Definitely my new favorite!

Can't wait to experience it for myself!! Your report and pictures definitely have me excited!

 

[cherbear]

what a fun time with just you and the kids. I can't wait to try a KP mission! Now I'm looking forward to China for sure...I want DH to see the door with the "men" behind it.

I wonder if that's June heat and crowds that does that to people on the buses. In September when we've gone the past couple years, I've seen many people get up for women and children to sit down. I don't recall much bus rudeness (except for one incident where a woman in an ECV actually got OUT of her ECV once she was rolled on, sat down in a regular seat...actually she was rather large and took up 2 seats -- so she took up a total of 5 seats on that bus!!)

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

The Hoop De Doo looks like so much fun! It is definitely on our list for future visits.

I loved your review of Kim Possible. Jeremy is sooo excited about doing this when we go. I think we will all have a blast with it.

I am glad you enjoyed your Epcot morning with the children and Tim got to relax. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun.

Did you see that the Christmas Carol Train is coming to Louisville in September? We are going up that Saturday. It looks really neat. I think that was the closest stop near Cincy.

Erika

 

[Sooze]

We watched as tons of people complained to the manager about their seats, one family actually left because they were behind a pole.

Oh my... really!? Was it that bad that they SHOULD'VE complained and/or left? Or were they just being picky?

Of course he took drink orders too and Tim and I took advantage of the free beer and wine, YEAH!

Good thing you weren't driving home!

Dolly kept coming up to our table, she was a RIOT

I want to work at Disney so bad... what a fun job!!

He followed their directions great, played like he was shooting them up and saving the day

How cool that he was willing to get up there. I showed this to Tyson and asked if he would do what Luke did. He very quickly shook his head "NO WAY"! Too bad. Was Lauren upset that Luke got to do it and not her?

Tim had me cracking up, he wanted me to take this one to show you his washboard abs:

Holy cow! He is SOOOO hilarious!

 

[Sooze]

Tim and Luke decided they didn’t want to see the fireworks and would rather ride rides, so they went in one direction and Lauren and I headed towards the castle to find a spot quick.

Dontchya love being able to do that? I always wonder what people with many kids and many different opinions do?! We are very lucky to be able to accommodate our kids!

GREAT pictures of Wishes and Spectro! Makes me ache to see them again...

I was on cloud nine, I got to see WISHES and SpectroMagic and didn’t have to fight crowds for a spot, WONDERFUL NIGHT!!!

You guys have MAXED this day OUT!!

What I can’t understand is why people don’t give up their seats sometimes. Now, me and my kids are older and we’re perfectly capable of standing, no problem, it happens

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I so totally agree with this rant, Lesley! Sometimes I have to bump Matt on the arm and remind him to give up his seat. I honestly think that most of the time, they just don't consciously think about it... It's a man thing!

I was expecting a disappointment from Saratoga, but HEY LESLEY we were in DISNEY, who am I to complain right!?!

Anxiously waiting to hear what you guys thought! It's SO different from AKL!

 

[Cinderella16]

I am a little late in the game, but all caught up.

We were at Disney the same as you (June 23-July 1), but man, you are so lucky that you got to stay 18 days!! How amazing!

I have loved all your other reports, and this one is no exception! Cannot wait for more.

 

[timandlesley]

Day 8 June 28th.
So the day had finally arrived, our time at Animal Kingdom was coming to a close, time to move to Saratoga Springs today. Tim and the kids slept in until 9:30 after our late Magic Kingdom night. I woke up a little earlier and headed downstairs to the gift shop because I wanted to get one of the African drums for my dad as a souvenier. I was just taking in the beauty of the resort and took these pictures as I walked around:
This was on our floor by the elevators looking down, they have these little kiosks with African artifacts by the elevators, such a nice touch:

Looking out that window by that elevator looking down was this savannah watching spot:

Another spot to sit and watch the animals, this one is close to the lobby- looks so peaceful here doesn’t it?

Entering the lobby from our side of the resort, walking towards the gift shop I took this picture, it is the firepit that sets off of the lobby area:

The gift shop:

This is behind the register, so beautiful:

After I had the drum in hand for my dad I headed towards the savannah one last time to snap some photo’s.
View of the lobby:

Then you walk down the stairs to head out to the savannah and they have another pretty seating area:

Walking outside you see the firepit:

BEAUTIFUL!!!

View of the savannah:

Then I headed back towards Boma and the lobby. Downstairs as you walk towards Boma it is so beautiful and there are water falls, etc.:

Looking down at
Boma (I just love how the restaraunts are tucked away at this resort):

Tim to head back up to the room. I went back up to the room and packed up and called Bell Services to come and get our bags. They explained to me that they transferred luggage to other resorts between 1-3 and for us to call Bell Services at Saratoga at 3 o’clock and then our luggage would be sent up to our room there. We headed down to Mara for our breakfast:

We had saved the business card from our nice cab driver that took us to Hoop De Doo and we called him to transfer us over to Saratoga, it was a cheap cab ride and way worth it. We headed out after breakfast to get the cab, time to say goodbye to our beautiful home away from home:

My handsome man waiting for the cab:

Tim’s knee was KILLING him at this point, he was hobbling and in a lot of pain so I was super worried about what location we would get at SSR.
We pulled up and Tim hobbled in:

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Pretty lobby shot:

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I was very nervous at this point and was dying to see where we would end up. The kids headed over to the t.v. area while I checked in – there was a nice CM there that helped them make cute Mickey magnets.
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I had originally requested Grandstand or Springs. When I walked up I was informed we were assigned to Carosel. WHAT!?!?! That just really wasn’t going to work. I put on my best Disney smile and basically begged the lady by pointing to Tim with his leg brace on and explaining the situation, that we were there for 10 more days and the impossibility of him walking that far every day. She was super nice and got on the computer and found us a spot in Grandstand but it was the furthest most point from everything. Again, I put on my best Disney smile and asked if there would be anything better if we were o.k. with waiting. She was awesome and got a young manager to come over who was very helpful and proud of himself to be able to “save the day!” We ended up in a great Grandstand location right by the pool and the buses. Actually it was the same building Diane and her family were in so we were super excited. We headed outside to get to our room. It was about to POUR down rain so I already missed our indoor corridors at AKL. Although on the map it looked close and in perspective of this resort it was, it was still a 5 minute walk over to our room which was hard on Tim. We got there and here was our room:

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Luke lounging on his new couch/bed for the week:

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The view from our balcony ( a golf course and a street) although it was pretty I was desperately missing our AKL view, it was just so pretty there:

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CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

Here is the kicker for me. For those of you wanting my HONEST SSR to AKL comparison, here it goes. At AKL people complain that there isn’t enough room for your clothes which I found totally adequate, at SSR it’s plain ridiculous. Look at this:

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Looks like an entertainment center right!?! Well, sure it is but it’s also the ONLY place to store you clothes, don’t know why they wouldn’t put a normal dresser in there. We ended up putting the clothes in the empty spaces next to the television, and the kids lived out of suitcases which I had to strategically place in the room. The space is super tight when the pull out couch is out because they put a huge ottoman in the room which is pretty but with the bed just not functional. Space was REALLY tight for those ten days.
Then I was missing my double sinks at AKL:

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Just single ones at SSR. The kitchenette area was pretty:

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The room was nice, I’m not complaining but in my honest comparison of AKL to SSR … AKL wins hands down. We loved the beauty of SSR, it is a gorgeous resort, pools are great, but overall AKL wins. To us it was as if we were at Port Orleans, the walk was about the same to get food, same outdoor corridors, etc. It just didn’t seem too “deluxy” to me if that is a word but it was very nice and it was DISNEY!!!
Our proximity to the buses was INSANE. Just a short ride downstairs in the elevator, step outside the building and the bus stop was THIS CLOSE!

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We grabbed a bus to Downtown Disney. We LOVED that we were there in 10 short minutes, shortest ride we’ve EVER had to DTD from the resort hotels, nice perk! We had T Rex ressies on this day but it was SUPER hot and we didn’t feel like walking over there or spending all of that money out of pocket so we saved about 60 bucks and just bought some sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich (we actually asked the kids and they were cool with it too) We’ll experience that another time. Here are the kids eating at Earl:

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We hit Once Upon a Toy first, Lauren ended up buying one of those Little Pony kids with a TON of Disney dress up outfits shoved into the box:

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The kids enjoyed some pin trading:

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Then we headed to Tren-D, LOVE THIS STORE!!!!

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It is so pretty inside, the merchandise they have is so unique and amazing, I could blow a LOT of money in this store:

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I bought a few pairs of earrings for myself and a bracelet for my mom. I almost bought a purse (they had so many cute purses) but decided to save my money.
Then we headed to the World of Disney Store. Kids got splashed by Stitch on the way in:

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We had fun looking around there for about an hour- you can just get lost in there.
Then Lauren had to go to the bathroom and Luke was dying to go to the design a t shirt store, so he and Tim headed that way. By the time Lauren and I got there Luke had already designed his T shirt so I missed that part.:

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Luke made his shirt all on his own, what he choose was HALARIOUS (pic of it to come). They told us it would be a little over an hour for the t shirt or they could ship it, Luke REALLY wanted to wear it to dinner at OHana’s so we said we’d wait. We headed over to Goofy’s Candy company to kill some snack credits. On our way out we took this picture:

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Then we arrived at Goofy’s:

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At Goofy’s you can get 3 of their yummy chocolate pretzel sticks with only ONE snack credit, so we each did that. We choose our toppings and filled out our sheets:

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Then the lady went to work making our yummy creations:

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The kids enjoyed the funny mirrors as they waited:

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And Lauren drooled over this baby (it cost 45.00!!!)

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Luke LOVES that this sign is made entirely of jelly beans:

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CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

Then our pretzels were in hand, we paid the nice lady and headed over to Design a T to see if Luke’s shirt was ready. It wasn’t so we waited inside the store for a while. I couldn’t wait to see what he had made.
DRUMROLL PLEASE……………………. Here is Luke’s COMPLETELY original (totally his idea) shirt (too funny!)

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He was SO proud of his creation. They gave him a cute bag for it and we were on our way:

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We headed back to the buses and were back at Saratoga super quick. The Grandstand was an awesome location because it was the first to be picked up and first to be dropped off – nice perk!
The kids headed mmediately to the balcony to eat their creations:

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I swear, for the rest of our time there it looked like a CSI chocolate crime scene on our balcony, it was a disaster, CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE! But they sure were tasty.
Then we called down to Bell services and our luggage was there so they brought it up right away. Then I had another problem, where in the world was I going to put our suitcases??? At AKL you could slide them under the bed, not so at SSR, it was a TIGHT fit but I got it done! (Thank God for the closet).
We had dinner at OHana’s so we showered and got all pretty for dinner; )
We caught the bus to Magic Kingdom:

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Then we headed to the monorail station there:

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And we took the monorail to the Poly:

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My beautiful girl on the monorail:

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Tim took this of the kids and I when we entered the Poly:

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We had to wait a while for our table, Lauren enjoyed lounging in the chairs as she waited:

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We ordered the kids some light up slushies – only ones of the trip then we saved the lights and I took them out to put on their cups at other meals which they thought was cool.
CHEERS!

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When we were seated we were a bit disappointed because we had “cousin Greg” as a waiter. We had him before when my parents came down for my 30th birthday. Cousin Greg just doesn’t have any personality. Oh well, food was good. Tim and I ordered drinks. He got his favorite Backscratcher!

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I had the Pina Colova (YUM!)

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They brought out the first round of food, wings, salad, veggies, and noodles, all delicious!
Lauren REALLY got into the wings this time:

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Then they brought out the pot stickers with the dipping sauces, YUM!!!! Sooze had told us to try the peanut dipping sauce, I did an YUM YUM DOUBLE YUM!!! Great suggestion (thanks Sooze). Tyson and Shae enjoyed their light up drinks too:

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Time for coconut races! (I was sad to see our normal SHAKA lady wasn’t there, it was a guy this time, sure did miss her and her personality – oh well, still had good times):

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Then we went back to our tables and the scewers of meat began. Yummy steak, pork, sausage and shrimp (my favorite by far is the shrimp). Here is a happy Luke enjoying his steak:

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Tim finished his drink ; 0 )

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And apparently Lauren found a REALLY long noodle : )

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Then it was time for the limbo. Luke was chosen to hold the limbo stick (lucky guy this trip). Here he is holding it and you can see the new guy entertainer in this pic as well:

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Then they brought out the desert, the bread pudding and ice cream, the warm caramel sauce they pour over top of it really makes this desert, we didn’t eat too much of it because we were so full:

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After dinner we headed back to Saratoga, we got a text from Diane that they were at the Grandstand pool swimming, sounded like a plan! We headed up so the kids could get their suits on and met them at the pool. It was so cool staying at the same resort with friends, great to just hang out. When we got there I realized I needed a life vest for Lauren and Diane told me you had to get them from Community Hall at the Springs, being the awesome friend that she is, she volunteered to walk over there with me. (just so you know she also told me you needed a room key for this and I almost hiked all the way over there without one, so if you are staying there and want a life vest: Community Hall and bring your room key!).

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

We hiked over there together, so nice to have someone to walk and talk with. Then we returned, the kids had a great time swimming together:

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Then things got silly and funny. The kids found SOMETHING (who knows what ) at the bottom of the pool. They were obsessed with “investigating” what it was and getting out and reporting to us with the details. One minute they would get out and announce “it has hair” next minute another kid would emerge and get in Diane’s face and say “it has beady eyes and a tail!” It was halarioius. Here is Lauren checking in with a report:

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Here is Matthew giving Luke instructions on how to investigate it a little closer:

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Then they had a “meeting’ about the creature in the pool:

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Then they convinced Luke to go back in and get another look:

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It was so funny and really occupied their time. Well, it was such a nice night sitting there chatting it up with Diane and Bryan and having the kids occupied- we didn’t want it to end. We headed up around 11:00 with them in the elevator. Diane asked what dates we were looking at for our June trip next summer, and if we’d be interested in coordinating our plans. Tim and I went back to the room and it took us 2 seconds to decide we would love to do that – so it turns out we are going to AKL at the same time as Diane and her family again next year – can’t wait!
Well, we signed off for bed since it was such a late night ready for more Disney fun tomorrow!!!

To See Day 9 of our Adventure Click here : http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2224335&page=38 go down a bit past comments and read day 9 - enjoy!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Great update! Luke's shirt is just too funny, and Lauren looks so sweet in her sundress. Glad to hear your positive review of 'Ohana. Even though SSR could not live up to AKL, it looked like it was fun to be there with people you knew.

 

[ILuvWishes!]

After I had the drum in hand for my dad I headed towards the savannah one last time to snap some photo’s.[/COLOR]

It will not be THE last time. You own DVC now. You will take many more pictures. (But I know what you mean ).

I also love AKL. We stayed there last Oct, but we paid for the room. It was well worth the $$.

Being DVC owners, too, we usually stay at Old Key West because the points are lower and the rooms are much bigger. And because it is our home resort. I can't wait to stay at the new portion of AKL, hopefully soon....

 

[Trentmom]

What a great update!!!

Glad you were able to get a nice close room to help Tim out


Luke's shirt is hilarious


How fun u were in same building as Diane and her family and got to spend the night together.

So looking forward to another TR from both you and Diane next year...so fun to read them both together

 

[wdwgirl03]

Luke's t-shirt is so funny! Very creative.

I love the pictures of Tren-D and our "home" (we have points at Saratoga Springs...we love it there!). It's definitely very different from AKL.

 

[cherbear]

I LOVE Luke's shirt! It makes me want to create one for our September trip. I actually was against this before and he changed my mind!

Bummer on that small "dresser"...thank goodness you weren't there for the whole trip, right?

I'm SO looking forward to Ohana now! What does the backscratcher have in it? Looks like something DH would like (I'll stick with my Lapu Lapu)

those kids crack me up..."it has HAIR!"

and every time I hear you talk about Matthew and Luke it gives me a chuckle...two famous disciples...

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

WOW, just WOW! So much fun you guys had! Two words - MEZZO MIX!! I grew up on this stuff in Germany and I also love it eventhough I don't drink sodas much. Can you believe we couldn't find Club Cool last time? We'll have more time there so we'll find it!!

Thanks and I'm enjoying the ride with you guys...

Heather

 

[disneymomof1]

Love your report, it is fantastic, we love the AKL, too. It is our absolute favorite. Love Lukes' t shirt, so adorable !! Can't wait for the next update.