Can Grumpy get Happy on a Disney Family Vacation? AKL CL 1/09 PTR

[west&east]

Happy New Year! I have become a DIS board addict in the last few months and decided to feed my addiction by writing a Pre Trip Report. I also hope that my report and post trip reviews can be helpful to others!

My family is headed to WDW on 1/21 for 5 nights. I have been teasing DH that he is Grumpy. He has never been a huge theme park fan and says he only goes because the children enjoy it. My mission this trip: To turn Grumpy into Happy and prove that adults can have fun on a Disney family vacation! We will be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, Club Level! Read along and discover what surprises I have planned along the way.

First the introductions. I am Karen, age 39, and a self-employed professional. We moved to Charlotte, NC about 6 months ago, so my work is slow right now. I often procrastinate from work and other chores by getting on the DIS. My husband Harv just turned 40 last week! He works in manufacturing and travels every week for 4 or 5 days. So our family time is quite precious.

Our 15th wedding anniversary was about 2 weeks ago. So, when asked "What are you celebrating?" I have answered, DH's 40th and our 15th anniversary! We are taking our children, DD9 and DD 5 (turning 6 on Feb 28).

It took me a little while but I have finally figured out how to get pictures to post. Sorry picassa/google, you don't work. I had to move over to photobucket! Here is the last good picture of DH and I taken almost 2 years ago on a family cruise:

and here is a pic of our silly wonderful children:

Next post: More background on our family and our trip!

 

[west&east]

I have been planning this trip for approximately three or four months, although I have been thinking about it for about six months. My inlaws used to live just outside Disney in Windermere, FL. I had never been to Disney as a child, so my first visit was with my DH not long after we were married. When my daughter was about 6 months old, my inlaws kept her overnight one night while DH and I stayed at Grand Floridian. That was my only onsite stay. I almost resented my inlaws for living in Orlando because I wanted the whole Disney resort experience!

We moved to the Tampa area in 2001 when DD was not quite 2 years old. That was a magical time because we became Florida Annual Passholders!! It is such a luxury to visit DW knowing that you will be able to return anytime. I have great memories of Father's Day at Ohana's and taking my DD for her 4th birthday to CRT for breakfast. I just dug up an old pic of Cinderella and DD from that day (probably some of the first digital pictures I took). Wow, I am getting weepy seeing how she has changed:

My husband and I also enjoyed several beautiful delicious meals at California Grill. Unfortunately, we moved all the way across the country to Washington state in early 2003, just after my son was born. My inlaws moved out of Florida soon afterwards and we haven't been back. We have had several nice family vacations- Hawaii (great trip when we were on the west coast), Carnival Cruise (we love to cruise!), but off Disney until we felt our DS was at a good age. DH is not exactly a huge Disney/ theme park fan, so he hasn't been clamoring to go. We moved back to the east coast in June and I began thinking of our trip to Orlando!

Next up: surprising the kids!

 

[west&east]

We are a family of various beliefs and traditions. We are officially raising our children in the Jewish tradition, but we celebrate Christmas with our in-laws. Santa comes to visit at Grandmama and Papa's house. This year, the first night of Hannukah coincided with the first night of our trip to my inlaws. They have owned a beautiful menorah for some time and bought beautiful candles for this year. The kids knew that they might be getting some very small presents and a "big present" for Hannukah this year. They thought their big present was Nintendo DS. They never guessed the surprise coming their way! Their Hannukah gifts contained little clues. They received Disney Cars and Disney Princess shirts, Disney themed tattoos (one of my son's favorite gifts!), a Princess charm bracelet, and Mickey/ Minnie PJ's and slippers. They got this last item on Xmas eve! Here are some pics of the kids in their new PJ's:

(Yes it was a bit strange celebrating Hannukah and Xmas all at once!)

Santa brought them Nintendo DS so then they were really curious about the big Hannukah Surprise. They would have to wait until we returned home for the last night!

 

[Mike2023]

Great read. Looking forward to reading more.

Me and DW stayed at AKL last April for her first on property stay, and our 3rd trip to the world together. Needless to say, we wont be staying off property anymore.

Next trip back to AKL in May with our DD, her first trip to the world. Cant wait.

 

[west&east]

Thanks to tips from the DIS, I planned a scavenger hunt to tell the kids about our trip to Disney. We held it on the last night of Hannukah. They were so excited that we were even having a scavenger hunt, I think the final gift at the end could have been a box of crayons and they would have been happy. Each clue led them to a puzzle piece and the next clue. The puzzle pieces together formed a Guess Who's Going to Disney World poster I got from the boards. For more about the scavenger hunt, see this post:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29353284

 

[west&east]

Great read. Looking forward to reading more.

Me and DW stayed at AKL last April for her first on property stay, and our 3rd trip to the world together. Needless to say, we wont be staying off property anymore.

Next trip back to AKL in May with our DD, her first trip to the world. Cant wait.

Thanks for reading, Mike! This is obviously my first attempt at a ptr. I just changed my title to see if it attracts any more interest. How old is your daughter?

 

[Mike2023]

My DD will be 4 in march. We where going to wait till she was 6, but I don't think I could stay away that long. We booked in late Aug next year, but with the 4 days 3 free deal we could bump it up and save some money.

Don't be discouraged, keep the reports coming.

 

[west&east]

So Grumpy (aka DH, Harv) and the kids know we are heading to Disney on 1/21 and that we are staying at AKL. There is so much they DON'T know!!!! This trip is so full of surprises. Thanks to the DIS and to the 2009 UG, I think I have a great trip planned.

The first surprise is our accomodations. We are finally staying on property. Grumpy loves animals and was in favor of AKL. So that was an easy decision. I also knew we would want a Savanna View room. I then discovered that Club Level was only $40 more a night! I am so excited to have the convenience of a quick breakfast at the club which will save us time and money. If we ate on our own, I am sure we could easily spend $40 each morning alone, and we would eat more than we need or want. Grumpy will be happy to enjoy a beer or glass of wine in the evenings, and we both will enjoy an after dinner drink as well. The IPO services have been amazing as well. I have done the "planning" in so far as I chose the restaurants, general times, activities, etc. They have done the tedious job of actually booking the adr's so I have more time to work (yeah right- more time to surf the net!). I was also able to book using the 4/3 deal. We are only staying 5 nights but we have a 6th night reserved. This way, we can keep the room as long as needed on our last day and it isn't costing us a dime extra. We were originally planning on only 4 nights, but the 4/3 deal allowed us to fly down Wed night evening (arriving around 6pm) instead of Thu morning. More time to enjoy AKL and WDW!

We should land in Orlando at around 6pm. We are renting a car because we will get 3 free days thanks to Grumpy's status with Avis (there are a few benefits to his constant work travel). My plan is to arrive at AKL and check in. Then, I plan on getting some dinner at Mara (the club dinner offerings will probably be gone by then), and bringing it up to the club to enjoy with their complimentary drinks. We usually aren't too hungry after flying, but if we are, we will try to get into Boma instead. I hope we can enjoy the night vision goggles on the safari and take in the resort. We might have a quick dip in the hot tub before going to bed.

Next up: Surprises for our first full day!

 

[west&east]

My plan for Thursday is to arrive at DS at Rope Drop and stay through mid-afternoon. We'll then return to AKL for a rest and head over to Epcot. We have a 5:30 ADR at Biergarten. DH loves a good beer and fondly remembers his high school trip to Germany, so this should be fun. I think the kids will enjoy dancing around to the band. My only question is whether I will be able to find an enjoyable adult beverage there- I don't drink beer! Any good
German wines or do I need to get a slushie in France before dinner??

After dinner, we should have a bit more time before the big surprise of the day, maybe the week. I booked an Illuminations Cruise!!!!!!!!! I learned about this on the DIS and used the IPO services to book this. (Huge perk of a CL room!) Again, thanks to the DIS I was able to share the magic and have two other groups of DISers that will be joining us. I am a little nervous that it will be too loud for DS5 but I hope the wonder of it all will overcome that.

On another note, I was unpacking more boxes last night (still have boxes to go through after our move 6 months ago) and found more pics of our DD from Disney 5 to 6 years ago. I am going to see if I can scan some so I can have digital copies.

 

[momatater]

Hi Karen!

Loving your pre trip report! For some reason, your pics of you all in the first few posts aren't showing up, but I now know what your kids like, so I'm sure I can find you in the lounge!

I'm sure Grumpy will enjoy himself, AKL CL is great, so hopefully he will turn around for you!

I was going to write a pre trip report as well, but decided on doing a live report while we are there.

Can't wait to read more and we will see you all soon!!

 

[west&east]

Hi Stephanie!!!!

Glad you found me! Strange that you can't see the pics on my first post. They show up fine when I get on. I'll try on another computer.

Anybody else out there having problems seeing the photos?

 

[momatater]

Of course I found you, I'm as addicted as you right now!!!!!!

I tried logging on to my desk top and I can't see the pics there either. I hope it's just me having a problem viewing!

 

[west&east]

I am seriously addicted. I have been working on the Animal Kingdom Index Thread (see my signature) and combing through lots of posts about restaurants, etc.

Have I mentioned that I love good food? I consider myself a "foodie" in that I enjoy good food (from fine dining to ultra casual as long as it is good quality), love to cook (when it is on my terms- not every day family cooking) and I love to read about food and restaurants. I have read a bunch of nonfiction about the restaurant and food world (most recently, Waiter Rant, and I love reading the dining reviews on this board. My daughter is also following in my footsteps. She is trying to cook more things herself (this morning was scrambled eggs with goat cheese), and loves Food Network especially the challenges. We watched a few Disney themed cake challenges this week- what fun!

I am going to tear myself away from the computer. I find myself having a lot of excessive energy lately, so I am going to put it to some good use and exercise. When I return I will post my dining ADRs!

 

[west&east]

I think I fixed my pictures so that everyone can see them now. Stephanie or anybody else- can you see them?

 

[Iggipolka]

Yup. Your pictures look great!

 

[momatater]

Great Pics! Glad you were able to fix them. Your DH looks amazingly like my Uncle Gary....like they could almost be twins. I'm sure I won't miss you now!

 

[west&east]

Great Pics! Glad you were able to fix them. Your DH looks amazingly like my Uncle Gary....like they could almost be twins. I'm sure I won't miss you now!

Just don't be looking for him in formalwear!


My PTR made it to Page 2!!

My DH (aka Grumpy) leaves tomorrow to go back to work. We have been spoiled having him with us for the last two weeks. This week will be lonely but I can feel less guilty about feeding my DISboard addiction.

I'll return to post my ADRs...

 

[momatater]

I feel your pain! DH leaves at 4am after he's been home for 2 weeks as well. The only good part, 19, (almost 18) more days, and I get him all to myself at Disney!! Can't wait!

 

[west&east]

We survived the first day back to school. I have had so much energy lately- very much NOT like me at all. I exercised again this morning just to do something with all the agitation. Maybe it is a pre Disney buzz! I didn't even need much coffee today.

So, dear reader, (is there anyone in fact reading this?), you might be asking yourself, how could Karen possibly improve upon her Disney trip from here. After all, she started with club level and proceeded to a rip roaring dinner at Beirgarten followed by heart stopping fireworks on a beautiful Illuminations cruise.

Well, there are still a few more things that tend to put a smile on Grumpy's face. (and mine for that matter!) Sushi and "adult time." To that end, following a magical day in Magic Kingdom on Friday, we will be entrusting our dear children to the care of Simba's Clubhouse. We will be allowing some time to return to our room without the children to umm-hmmm, get ready for dinner. We then have ADRs at California Grill right at fireworks time. We have been to California Grill a few times years ago, but our visits were before I was much of a sushi eater. Now, I love sushi and I have read on the DIS that the best sushi in Disney may be at CG. We may make a meal of sushi alone from what I've seen followed by a scrumptious dessert... At the restaurant of course! What were you thinking??

 

[Mike2023]

hehehe, thats great.

You will have to post a review of simba's club to let us know how the kids liked it. I plan on doing the same thing with my DD 4 so DW and I can have our "night out".

Also you should love CG. Best sushi I have ever had.