Today was to be our day off to take it easy and sleep in. Well remember I booked that DVC appointment? I booked it for 9 am so they were picking us up at 8:40 am! What was I thinking? As I recall, I wasnt and apparently hadnt come down from the Disney high yet. I got up when the alarm went off at 6:30 but had woken at 5:30 because Mini Montana was lying on me trying to warm up. You see I sleep much better when Im cold under heavy blankets. So I had the thermostat set at 67 degrees and that worked great for everyone except dd4 who likes to throw her covers off. Needless to say she was shivering and trying to warm up as she flopped on me so I kindly pulled up all the covers on her and cuddled her and she went right back to sleep. I went down to Intermissions and brought breakfast back for everyone to the room so the kids could sleep in a bit. This was when I discovered that half of the food court beverage area was blocked off for construction including half the eating area. It was a madhouse! We went down to the lobby to meet the DVC van at 8:40 am. They even made sure they had a car seat for dd4 and QoaT and Jasmine came with us.
Camera too cold weather so hot.
The DVC van waiting for us
All set to go
How do I do this?
We headed over to Saratoga Springs and checked in and then got the kids set up in the kids area. Of course dd8 took off to the video game area and forgot all about her sister. Poor dd4 just stood there and looked so sad and scared at the same time because she didnt see where dd8 went. I said go on and play and she said wheres dd8. I pointed her out and she was off all happy and smiling. So we went off to the beverage and snack area. Im telling all of you who have never done this presentation it is worth it. We had our choice of fresh squeezed OJ (who could pass that up?) water, AJ or coffee or tea. They also had muffins and fruit. So first note to self dont eat breakfast before you go! Now when we signed up to go they also mentioned that we would each receive a (what we called) magic fastpass. This was a fast pass for 3 uses for any ride in any park valid for the next 4 days. They would spit out a FP for the time you were there. For example (because I cant explain this correctly) if we went to ToT at 10 am and inserted the magic FP it would spit out a FP for 10-11am for that day. Does that make sense? They said that was to make up for the time we were losing on our vacation to hear their spiel. I say woohoo!
Anyway then we met our guide and we listened and saw the mock ups at SS and then we went to the mock up of AKV! OMG this was what I really wanted to see and it didnt disappoint. Second note to self, dont go if you dont want to buy in unless you have really strong willpower. We always stay at value resorts when we go because we cant justify staying at an expensive resort because you are hardly in your room. Except this trip we really were in our room more and around the resort in the pool. We had been tossing the idea around for a while and know someone who is a member and he kept telling us we should buy in. So after we heard everything and saw everything we couldnt pass it up. WERE OFFICIAL DVC OWNERS AT AKV! We didnt say that that day we had to wait and crunch numbers and go back again to sign the multitude of papers but after we saw the AKV unit how could we pass it up?
Here are some photos.
One bedroom
One bedroom
Grand villa
Grand villa
Grand villa
Grand villa
Grand villa
Grand villa
I mean the bathroom in the one bedroom unit has tiles in the bathtub area of the silhouettes of the Lion King characters in the sunset. The bathroom alone is amazing.
AKL, one bedroom
One bedroom
one bedroom
one bedroom
After we were done our guide took us to pick up the kids and I was so relieved to see dd4 playing with other kids and dd8 was playing a different group. It was so great to know they had a great time.
Originally the DVC people said the presentation and all things included would be about 45 min to an hour. We were there longer because QoaT loves to talk so that takes a lot longer. After we were done we went to their ice cream parlor and all had ice cream. Then someone came along and took our picture. We got to take it home. The parlor even had smaller tables and chairs that matched the regular sized ones for the kids to sit at if they wanted.
After we were done we got dropped off at Downtown Disney. That was the only downer we experienced. Our driver wasnt very pleasant or talkative and when she slowed down in the parking lot we thought we would just jump out. She firmly stated you cant get out here. Ill pull into our parking space. She hadnt mentioned that at all. Anyway we ditched her and went shopping. I went over to the memory store near the entrance to
rent a stroller. I wasnt even aware you could rent a stroller at DD but I read about it somewhere? Who can remember where? The stroller there looks like a jogging stroller so I guess thats why I didnt notice it before. They also require a $100 deposit on your credit card that you get refunded when you return it. We shopped at World of Disney and they had a special on a rolling duffle bag for $20 when you spent a certain amount. Then we went over to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. This was our first visit here ever. QoaT and Jasmine had been here before. I tried the Earl Grey lemonade and it was horrible. Apparently they forgot to add the lemonade! I had the roast beef and cheddar sandwich. It was very good. After we were done I went to show dd4 the face painting and she didnt answer me when I was talking to her so I went around to the front of the stroller and the poor thing was sound asleep! By 2:30 we were on the bus back to the resort. When the bus pulled around and stopped at the West side the skies opened up and it just poured.
We were so thankful we were on the bus. Oddly enough when we got back to the resort we noticed it hadnt rained there. That happened quite a bit and I found out that it was quite common in Orlando. The kids really wanted to swim so they and dh went for a swim and I did 2 loads of laundry. It was $2 to wash and $2 to dry and $1.25 for soap. The cycles were 30 min each for washing and drying. I ended up chatting with someone from Houston.
Tonight we were heading to AKL for dinner at Boma.
I'll have to post the rest of the photos later. I had all 41 in my post. I forgot about the 25 limit. I'll be here later I promise
Pressed for time, ha ha. I TOLD you I was telling the truth.
