Birthday Cakes, Trip on a Lake, DIS Meets&More-Christmas Time 09 TR! UPDATE 12/20!

[tinkgurl]

P.S. we saw the "Speed Hump" sign but I couldn't get a picture of it!!!

Yay you saw it! Aw darn it. At least you saw it though.

 

[xoktenox]

oh the cliff-hanger!! I can't take it!!

AKV Look soooo pretty!!

haha, you should find out the outcome later today, after I do my review sheet and project for school AKV was beautiful!!

Well, I'm happy to hear that you tipped the ME driver. I am always apalled at the number of people that get off the bus without tipping the poor guy. Woohoo you're at Kidani!! Looks awesome with all the decorations. Can't wait to see the upgrade you get LOL (I'm the glass half full type on person!) Oh- and I'll be in WDW in 13 days!

Yeah, only because we had hernia causing luggage he had to pull out. Honestly we wouldnt have tipped him otherwise...personally, I don't think its necessary! Of course, everyone has their own opinion on it We were sooo happy to be at Kidani! (in case you couldnt tell by my face in the pictures lol) So you probably have about 10 days now until you're in WDW...sooo jealous!!!

I can see the excitement in your last update! Kidani looks awesome! I can't wait to see if you got the upgrade. (yes I am popcorning you!)

Patiently waiting for your next update.

My picture with the NOT missing tooth shows how excited I was LOL Look back later to see the upgrade outcome. Thanks for popcorning me haha

Wooo hoo for making it to Kidani!!!! You know I'm like bursting with excitement to see more pictures!! I can't wait to get there next month!

OMG I'm heading out east and jumping in your suitcase in Jan...I want to be there again sooooooo bad

Can't wait to see if you got the upgrade!
Thanks for letting me know there are two LaQuintas at the airport....
I had a really nice CM at Kidani check in....her name was Kat and she was super nice!
Funny how you are dropped off last from ME but then with the Disney bus you are picked up first and dropped off first and that worked for me!

Tracy

Check back later for that upgrade answer! No prob about the LaQuinta info...check out reviews for both, I'm pretty sure ours was cheaper though so probably dirtier haha Our CM was ok, she seemed to get a little annoyed when I asked about the upgrade! I loved getting dropped off first at night from the park bus! I could have done without getting picked up first although it did usually guarantee us a seat!

Oh, I've been meaning to tell you, my cousin and her husband and her four girls live up in Endicott!!

Wooo hoooo! The man who turned 50 has made it to Kidani!

Oh jeez I'm a ditz sometimes!

omgoshhh.. somehow I missed this completely! I even missed you TR... being busy with school is causing me to lose connection with my disfriends. I am sooo sorry and I promise I will catch up! I've missed you!

Hey Jen!! Long time no "see!" School is crazy, trust me I know so I'm glad you made it over here. I've missed you too! Good luck with finals and everything!

Great TR so far! I love all the pics!!!!! God I miss the World! I think when I go in April for Spring Break with my Mom we might stay at AKV We were planning on resort hopping so we might add that one Keep up the good work!

Thank you!!! I miss the World so badly too. Thats really cool you're going for Spring Break in April! We went in April 09 and it was great weather! Definitely add AKV to your resort hopping, you won't regret it

I'm subscribing. I just love your enthusiasm and writing style . I agree nothing compares to a Disney hotel. The lobby pics of Kidani are amazing. Hoping you got an upgrade! We were in Disney for some of the same days, guess our trips overlapped. Looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

Nichole

Welcome Nichole! thank you so much for the compliments, glad you've joined in. Disney hotels are in a class of their own. Kidani was out of this world marvelous. Check back later for upgrade info Thats funny we were in WDW some of the same days...what days were you there and where were you each day?

Hey! Kristen,
I'm finally back on DIS too much going on to even tell. But I have to go read now! It was so nice meeting You and Chris KI just read up what a great start and I know the feeling of those purple signs especially after driving 16 hrs! AKV was amazing! We loved it! I'm already second guessing my FDPbb for summer Love all the pics I took some of the same pics lol! Well I haven't been on here in awhile but I have to go I'll try to get back tommorrow. I can't wait for your next update!

Hey Colleen! So great to meet you and your beautiful kids and niece!! The purple signs just make me feel better. I think they would have the same effect even in real life LOL Forget the free dining, remember how its not even worth it for you guys anyway?! (the convo from the gym, lol) You have your little kitchen in a villa, switch it up!

Beautiful place! I'm looking forward to seeing more in your pictures, and I would really love to visit over there in person when we go in a couple of weeks.

Definitely go check out Kidani in a few weeks. A few weeks...OMG, you are so lucky!! I look forward to the day I'll get to go multiple times a year

 

[Native NYer]

Just found your tr. The photos of Kidani are absolutely beautiful! Can't wait to see pics of the room.

 

[xoktenox]

Yay you saw it! Aw darn it. At least you saw it though.

I always saw it on the bus, when the bus was moving lol

Just found your tr. The photos of Kidani are absolutely beautiful! Can't wait to see pics of the room.

Welcome! Glad you're joining in and just in time for an update including pictures of the room

 

[xoktenox]

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend! Mine has been pretty good. Friday night Chris and I stayed in and relaxed. Saturday we both worked and then we went to our friends apartment last night where we made quesadillas for dinner and played Taboo for two hours straight Today I've been doing a final review sheet, cleaning and plan on baking some banana bread later as well as watching my Giants (hopefully) play like they did last week and kick some butt. Chris will be over later for that since he's at work all day. My parents got our Christmas tree Friday (we get a real one) so my mom decorated today and we'll do the tree a little later too. What is everyone else up to this weekend? Oh and I want to congratulate tinkgurl on graduating from college yesterday!!
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Soooo did we get our upgrade?! The CM who was helping us looked at me and kind of looked annoyed but she said she wasn't sure, she'd have to check. She finished checking us in and had us pay for the dining plan. Then she walked off to ask her supervisor if they had any upgrades...and they didn't Sorry to disappoint everyone! haha She said they didn't have any for the length of time we were staying. We were bummed but our room was ready (good thing since we needed to shower!) so we didn't let it get us down too much. She showed us where our room was on the map of Kidani. We were room 7823, 4th floor...

Not too bad although I would have rather been on the other side of the 'E' shape since it was closer to Jambo House. Oh well, we just were happy the room was ready and it was pretty close to the lobby. It turned out we only walked between the two parts of the resort once anyway.

We headed to the elevators with our ridiculously heavy bags and went up to the fourth floor and down the hall just a little to get to our room. Along the way we kept stopping and looking out the big viewing windows at all the animals on our savannah. They were beautiful!!! Since we were just trying to get to our room, I didn't take any pictures yet. Finally we got to room 7823. Here's some pictures...
Kitchenette

Bathroom sink area

Super clean looking shower

Shower wall tile detail

Standing in front of the balcony looking towards the door

Chris already lounging on the bed

Pull out couch

Looking at the balcony

View to the right from the balcony (thats the gym, Survival of the Fittest)

View to the left from the balcony (we could see the bus stop and entrance)

View to the far right (don't think you can see it but behind the trees is the pool area)

Towel butterfly

As clear as I could get the little saying

We first thing started unpacking so we could get our suitcases out of the way. I texted [B]Colleen[/B], Erica, Heather and Lauren to let them know we had checked in and the took a picture and sent it to Dawn and tinkgurl to show them we had arrived. When we finally got all our things unpacked I looked at the clock and it was already 12:20...we had to be at DTD for our lunch reservation at 2! So I quickly jumped in the shower and once I got out, Chris got in while I finished getting ready. The weather was gorgeous so we were able to throw on some jeans and t-shirts and I even was able to straighten my hair without it frizzing out!


Continued in next post.....

 

[xoktenox]

Soon we were done (by like 1:25 which is record time for me haha) and headed down to the bus stop for DTD. While we were there the real bus stops at Kidani were having work done to extend the roofing over them so the bus stop for the week was right in front of the resort at the little drop off area. I may have gotten a picture later in the week, I'm not sure. While we were waiting I took a picture of the area where our room was.

I don't think you can see our room in this but its the 3rd floor up (since the lobby is considered the 2nd floor, we were technically on the 4th floor though) last room to the left.

The bus came super quick, you can tell by this

Bad glare but we're on our first Disney bus, yayyy!

We didn't get off at the first DTD bus stop of the Marketplace since we needed to go to the Pleasure Island/West Side. We knew we had a long week of walking ahead so we needed to rest up! haha The bus ride seemed to take forever though! We didn't get to DTD until about 2:05. We got off at the PI bus stop and saw this was up and running...sorry tinkgurl lol

We made our way over to here

I made this reservation here because when we were in the World in April, Chris fell in love with it. Although, he was a little disappointed I had made a lunch reservation here and not dinner. He really enjoyed the live music playing at HOB at night. Sorry babe, I had DISers to meet that night!!

Some pictures from inside the restaurant...to the left of our table

The bar

The ceiling had sculpture like things of all famous people carved into it

We got seated right away. We totally didn't need a reservation either because the place was EMPTY. Veryyyy empty.

We sat down and checked over the menu. I ended up ordering the Southwest Tuna sandwich which came with pasta salad and a pickle and then I ordered a side of french fries and water to drink. Chris ordered a bacon cheeseburger that came with fries and a coke. Neither of us were really in the mood for adult drinks yet lol
Mine

Chris's

Sorry that I had already eaten half of my sandwich before Chris reminded me to take a picture of it so he tried to set it up nice and add fries to the plate so no one would notice

Our food was really good! Its a shame more people don't go there to eat! We both really enjoyed everything and the service was quick and good. Before we had left I found a 15% coupon in the back of my Birnbaums Guide book so we used that and the meal only came to about $26. Not bad!

We headed out of the restaurant now and planned to leisurely walk through DTD. First Chris wanted to look for sunglasses so we went in here...

Uhhh lets just say those sunglasses weren't for us...they were all designer and the cheapest pair was like $150! We kept walking through PI and then over to the little area you can sit and look out over the water, next to the balloon. Like I said the weather was wonderful and we were so relaxed and content to be there, with each other.

Chris took some pictures here too but I still didn't get them on my laptop from his camera!

I was texting tinkgurl giving her updates on our whereabouts so she could deliver them to you guys here

We were contemplating going up in the balloon but the line was actually really long! Much longer then in April. Then we thought about renting a Sea Raycer but thought it would be really expensive...I later learned from stacikristine that they're not very expensive at all so thats definitely on our list for our next trip.

We continued our walk...

PI was really pretty empty, especially for a Sunday afternoon with such great weather. We then were crossing over into the Marketplace and they had this cute tree up in front of Fulton's

Have yet to go in here

Continued in next post...

 

[xoktenox]

Our first stop in the Marketplace? The Lego store which was a mob scene like usual. A woman I know had asked me to pick up Santa legos for her though if I saw them so I was on a mission.

Love these movies

I did find her one small box of Santa legos. The CM working in the store said they were sold out of all the rest of them already! It was only November 29th! I guess they go right away...

Next we walked over to World Of Disney...wow what a difference in the crowd level here as opposed to April!

Me and Aurora

Chris got in my picture lol a cute Pinnochio xmas set up

Some DISers enjoy collecting these

A princess set

For Ariel Girl, aka Brooklynn

Adorable Tink shirt

Decorations on the ceiling

Lumiere!

I think all we bought here was a mug and salt and pepper shakers for my friend Nicole since her and her boyfriend are buying a house soon. Next we went over to Basin, a store I'd never been in but heard so much about..
I went right for these

I bought three, I forget what scents though. Definitely one in this scent

We were experiencing a lot of that so far!

Next stop: Team Mickey!

Chris saw lots of stuff he liked here but it's so incredibly over priced compared to what you can get outside of the World.

Christmas deco on the ceiling

hahaha

Goooo Giants!!

Lauren's a Cowboys fan...the ONLY reason I took this picture! lol

More Christmas

Another store I'd never been in...

TrenD! What a cool store! Again, pricey but really nicely themed and set up.
I sent this picture to Dawn and then found out that Erica had sent her the same one! What does this say about Dawn?! LOL just kidding!

Game tree

My camera is terrible...of course theres shadows

A store the children in all of us like to go into

We didn't go in there yet because we wanted to go over to Guest Relations. I had called twice before our trip to get my Disney Dollars from my Disney Visa Rewards card sent to me and didn't receive them. So Guest Relations gave me a rewards card and number to call to get them put on there. The line was long though, we waited almost 20 mins but since we had nothing else to do, it was a good time for us to do it.

Our last stop was the Christmas store because we needed to get an ornament with our names on it for Chris's tree. No room in this place to take pictures because it was SWAMPED. We quickly found an ornament we liked and got on the personalization line. There were about 6 people in front of us...well it took 35 mins to get through the line!! THey had the SLOWEST CMs EVER working behind that counter. It was really frustrating!! Then some of the customers were just ridiculous. Asking 9 million questions or telling the CMs their life stories. All we wanted was "Chris & Kristen" on our Winnie the Pooh ornament! We were talking to the girl in front of us on line making fun of all the idiots, the slow CMs and the stupid customers. haha It passed the time. I promise I already took a picture of the ornament so you'll see it at the end of the TR or when I take a picture of my Christmas tree all decorated lol They said it wouldnt be ready until Dec 3rd which was fine because we had plans to go back on the 5th.


Next up::
Our Birthday dinner surprise
Meeting Lauren and Jake
Amazing moment on the beach of the Poly!

 

[tinkgurl]

Woo! A huge update! Aw thanks for the congrats!

I already knew this but...darn it- no upgrade! At least your room was ready! I loved getting that pic of your room.

LOVE the pics from your balcony. Very cool you could see the entrance/bus stop! That's hilarious- "Survival of the Fittest".

DTD! Ugh, there's that stupid balloon again! I am bound and determined to go up in that once in my lifetime!

Wow, the House of Blues looks good. The sculpture things in the ceiling kinda freak me out though!

Oh boy, the Lego store. B/F always has to check out that!

Woo! World of Disney store...Team Mickey...and Tren-D! All great ones. LOVE the pic of you with the helmet on.

I still need to check out that Basin store! We did go in the one at the GF though!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Aww, you took that picture of the Cowboys hat just for me?! I feel so special!

I remember texting you throughout that day seeing what yall were up to and getting excited about meeting up on the Poly beach! WOOO HOOO!

Def looks like you & Chris had a fun time in Downtown Disney. I only stepped foot in DTD for like an hour that whole trip!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Wow, that was a big update! Sounds like you had a great start to your trip.

That stinks about having to wait so long at the Christmas store. I can only imagine some of the things people ask...I have another part-time job in retail (yes, I have 2 jobs ) and some customers are a pain in the you-know-what! Whoops, did I just say that?! haha

Can't wait to hear about what happened on the Poly beach.

 

[Native NYer]

The room at Kidani is BEAUTIFUL! I love the studio set up and the whole color scheme. It looks extremely relaxing.

Gotta get some of those bath bombs from Basin.

 

[punkin413]

love the room! the decor there is beautiful.

ray and i were supposed to have lunch at house of blues in april 2008 but when we got there for our ADR their fryers were broken. the main reason i had made a reservation there was for the fried artichoke hearts so we decided to go to wolfgang puck express instead. i wanna go back though!

hahaha

great picture! i think you should make this your FB picture.

I sent this picture to Dawn and then found out that Erica had sent her the same one! What does this say about Dawn?! LOL just kidding!

seriously!!!! am i really that wicked? that's fine....the villians are more interesting anyways.

 

[Charleston Princess]

What a nice, long update! The room at Kidani is gorgeous! I love the animal tiles in the shower! I have always wanted to try House of Blues! I am glad it didn't disappoint -- I can keep it on the list now. I think the Christmas shop is always busy -- it was crowded when we were there in June.

 

[redlight]

Love the picture of you in the helmet! I'm brunette, but I have many "blonde" moments.

 

[VandyFan10]

Gotta love seeing that!

Siena .....never good for a Vanderbilt fan too see

you're there, you're there! i love seeing those purple signs everywhere.

I love seeing those purple signs too, but does anyone agree with me that they are sometimes STUPID!! Try to find your resort off of those and you may just be out of luck, unless you are staying at a deluxe resort.

Dawn, you had told me how to get to Pop....I was looking at it on a map and knew exactly where we were going.....we get to Buena Vista and I'm telling Mel to take a left and it says right.....it sent us south to Osceola Pkwy to the other side of Victory way. I think Mel thought I was crazy telling her to go the wrong way, so we went their 'out of the way' route......oh well it got us there....guess I shouldn't complain

This lady checked us in, she was semi-friendly

We had some of those 'semi' people too...I was a little disappointed with the 'guidance' we had on our trip in several different situations.

What does this say about Dawn?! LOL just kidding!

That is funny

THey had the SLOWEST CMs EVER working behind that counter. It was really frustrating!!

Haha! We had a few of these too

Great start to your TR......can't wait to read more

 

[joy13]

All caught up! AKL is gorgeous!!!

 

[heath-and-javens-mom]

Bummer on the no upgrade. Not that you needed it- that room looks super nice.
I didnt get a chance to visit the marketplace this year, so I loved seeing your pics.
The helmet pic is toooo funny!!! Heath wanted some COLTS stuff from in there but that didnt happen.
Cant wait to see the ornament!

 

[that's nice]

It does seem like DTD was pretty dead. Hurray for that!!

I like the game tree... really cool!

I just finished watching the Giants lose. BTW nice helmet!! LOL

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Hey girlie! We're back. No TR for us but I'm still reading along with you. Had a great time with you guys! Time to add borders to your photopass pics!!!!

 

[MeMom]

For Ariel Girl, aka Brooklynn

Lumiere!

I bought three, I forget what scents though. Definitely one in this scent

Game tree

I will send Brooklynn over here to look at the picture you got for her.

I love going in Basin, but boy could I spend a bunch of money in there! I will probably bring home some Florida Sunshine this time.

Lumiere is looking quite festive.

The game tree is one of my favorites.

It does look like you were having a beautiful day and a great start. The room looks fantastic.