Concierge Level Here We Come! - Index added

[SunnieRN]

I'm so glad that Raglan Road was good and entertaining!
This isn't the first time that your friend has finished your meal. I am used to people doing that to me, but if you are not used to it than it can be quite annoying!!
I'm glad that it was good though and I'm looking forward to more pictures and entries!!!

 

[ang38]

Imagine, we sat across from each other for a pretty long time w/o realizing who we all were! It was our last day and we were waiting for our ride so we weren't too talkative. And the weirdo was really weird. He struck a conversation with us about golfing...out of nowhere. When we saw him approach you we were very concerned for your safety : ) or sanity, whichever came first!
He was a very talkative person who finished off 6 beers in the hour we were sitting there and there was no end in site. We were so happy when I found you here and you were safe and sound

OK, after wandering around the resort taking pictures, I was getting rather hot and thirsty. Hmmm, what to do? Let's head to the concierge lounge! So I went back to my room, dropped my stuff off and headed out to the lounge. I found that one of the couches was empty so I settled down to enjoy a diet coke (I think -- it could have been a beer ). Anyways, without realizing it until about a week ago, ang38 and her husband are sitting across from me. We have both decided that we will need to bring our LGMH's to the lounges in the future so that we can recognize each other. Anyways, back to the story. So, I am sitting in the lounge and a man approaches me and asks if I am the woman with the camera. I say yes and he starts to ask me questions about camera lenses. I end up going to my room and getting my camera bag and we talk about Nikon lenses for a while. However, he did seem to go just on and on. Towards the end of the conversation, he mentions that his room is on the second floor. This really confuses me because all the posts that I had read on the DIS stated that the AKL concierge rooms were on the 4th floor. Now I get a little paraniod. Is he really who he says he is? It doesn't bother me too much this night, but the next night when I noticed that he spent almost the entire evening in the lounge downing beers makes me wonder.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I am currently up-loading pictures. So assuming that they finish soon (before 9 or 9:30) I should have another update tonight.

AKL is our next resort in 5/09 so I am really enjoying this! The animals pictures were wonderful.

Thank you! Are you going to book a savanna view room? I just loved seeing all the animals off my balcony during my first AKL/AKV trip last year.

Okay, I have to ask it -- WHAT'S UP WITH MARGE? It seems like she's being kind of a pill. I know you said you'd traveled with her in the past. Is she always like this?

It's been a couple of years since I haev traveled with her and no although our traveling styles are different, I didn't notice it as much. Our last trip was a long weekend in Rome back in '05 and the only real difference that I noticed in our styles was that I prefer breakfast, lunch, and dinner while she perferred a large breakfast and then a meal 1/2 way through the afternoon.

Maybe she is a closet eater and since you had to share a closet she was starving!

Great report though. Take me next time!

The funny thing is that we get together for dinner every few months and this never happened before. Besides of course the normal sampling of the other person's dish.

I've never had a friend finish up my food, but I am used to family members doing it. I can't eat anything anymore without my nieces polishing most of it off!

Excellent point! If it was one of my sisters, my niece or nephews, I probably wouldn't have even noticed! Actually I am sure I wouldn't have noticed unless it was my niece since I would be in shock that she (extremely picky eater) actually wanted to try whatever it was that I was eating!

I am really enjoying your Trip Report!

Thank you!

Thanks for another great update! Love your animal pics!

Thank you! There will be more to come.

I'm so glad that Raglan Road was good and entertaining!
This isn't the first time that your friend has finished your meal. I am used to people doing that to me, but if you are not used to it than it can be quite annoying!!
I'm glad that it was good though and I'm looking forward to more pictures and entries!!!

This was my second trip to Raglan Road and I loved it both times. Of course as Princess Power will attest to, I love Irish folk music so I am in seventh heaven there.

Imagine, we sat across from each other for a pretty long time w/o realizing who we all were! It was our last day and we were waiting for our ride so we weren't too talkative. And the weirdo was really weird. He struck a conversation with us about golfing...out of nowhere. When we saw him approach you we were very concerned for your safety : ) or sanity, whichever came first!
He was a very talkative person who finished off 6 beers in the hour we were sitting there and there was no end in site. We were so happy when I found you here and you were safe and sound

Thanks for watching out for me! I didn't see him down all those beers until the next night or two. I think that it was on Saturday night when I noticed him there for hours and hours! We spent that evening at the resort so I was back to my room multiple times and everything I went by, he was sitting there with at least 1 beer in front of him.

 

[Villainess]

I'm joining in - great TR so far and looking forward to reading more. I stayed 1 night at AKL a few years ago so I wasn't able to explore much. Hopefully I can get back there to stay or visit on the next trip!

 

[Donald is #1]

Unfortunately, Marge woke up not feeling well this morning. So, I ended up going out to breakfast myself. Have I told you too many times yet on how I loved the breakfast in the CL? The breakfast selection was basically the same every day, but there was enough stuff to choose from so I didn't get bored. OK, let's be honest, I ate basically the same breakfast everyday. If you prefer eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc for breakfast then the CL breakfast is not for you. However, if you tend towarads cereal, fruit, bagels, pastry, etc. then it is a good breakfast!

Well after making sure that Marge felt good enough to head to a park, we headed off towards MK. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes for a bus and we got to MK at just about 8:45. We just made it through the turnstiles in time to see the opening show. I was pysched because I don't think that I have made it to MK for opening in years! It seems that on my recent trips that I jsut miss opening by 5-15 minutes.

After opening, we stopped at City Hall and we were able to get a lunch reservation for Liberty Tree Tavern. Yes, Marge was feeling much better by now. So what was our first stop? Well Space Moutain of course! We were able to walk right on with at most a 10 minute wait. We then headed across the park and went to Pirates of the Carribean. Again, we had basically a walk on! This is an awesome sign for the day.

Along the walk from Space Mountain to Pirates of the Caribean, we of course stopped for some castle pictures.

We noticed that we had about 20 minutes or so before the pirates tutorial. So we headed over to Thunder Mountain Railroad to pick up a FP though the standby line was short and then headed back to the Pirates Tutorial. Marge really wanted to see this since she and her husband have a pirate party every year and since I had never seen it, I also wanted to see it. We were the first ones waiting for it and had spots right at the rope. While we were waiting, Marge saw a friend of hers from work walk by! Talk about a small world! Now I got a little annoyed because Marge stepped back a few steps to talk to her friend (not the part that annoyed me). As she was talking more people came up to watch the tutorial which hadn't started yet. Just before it was about to start, Marge finished talking to her friend and turned back to watch the show. A teenage (?) girl had taken her spot and Marge asked the girl to move since it was her spot. This annoyed me a little because my feeling was that Marge had given up her spot when she went to talk to her friend. I didn't say anything but it annoyed me a bit.

Anyways, the Pirates Tutorial was great! Here are some pictures, but I didn't get too many pictures of Captain Jack because he never stayed still!

After the tutorial, we still had time before our FP. So we headed over to the pin shop in Frontierland. Well the mystery pins here were Donald Duck!!! So of course I had to buy a few packages and I then spent the next couple of days trying to find the last pin or 2 that I needed to complete the set of 5.

Next we used our FPs for Big Thunder Moutain Railroad. This is my kind of roller coaster! Lots of fun but it doesn't have big drops. By now it was warming up. So we decided to go to Splash Mountain. The stanby line was only 20 minutes, so we decided to ride standby. This was the longest line that we were in the entire time! I love the theming of this ride, but since I don't like big drops, I need to be in the right mood to do it. The ride was run and yes, I survived the drop!

We still had a little time until our ADR, so we slowly headed over towards Liberty Tree Tavern. We stopped for a little while to listen to a Frontier band and as we were walking towards Liberty Tree Tavern, this big water bird swooped down to land on the path and almost hit Marge on the head!

We checked into Liberty Tree Tavern about 5-10 minutes early (12:10) and we only had to wait about 5 minutes before we were seated.
Marge ordered the Pirate's Punch and I tried to order the Patriot's punch. Unfortunately, they were out of Patriot's Punch so I ended up with a Diet Coke. I ordered Declaration salad as an appetizer and Marge ordered the French Onion Soup. The salad was very good but had a little too much dressing. Marge thought that the French Onion Soup was excellent. For entrees, I ordered the Pot Roast and Marge ordered the crab cake appetizer as her entree. I thought that the Pot Roast was very good though it was a bit light on the vegetables. Marge thought that the crab cake was good, above average, and that the corn succotash was excellent.

Overall, we rated this meal as a 4 out of 5. It was a very good meal and since it was getting hot out, a nice way to relax and get out of the heat.

After lunch we headed to the Haunted Mountain but the line was very long so we decided to skip it since we had already been on it earlier in the trip. We decided to go on the Riverboat. I haven't been on the Riverboat since probably 1999 and this was nice and relaxing! It was great to stand at the rail and just enjoy the scenery going by. Of course, I took some pictures.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I had too many pictures in my last post. So here are the pictures from the riverboat.

After the riverboat, we wandered towards Fantasyland, but the crowds were definitely picking up so we decided to do some shopping and then headed towards the bus. The bus was waiting when we got to the bus stop so we had no wait and we were back at the hotel by about 2:20.

 

[SkyGirl]

Great TR! I'm really enjoying it and the pictures.

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for more!

 

[SunnieRN]

Your lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern sounds yummy!!
Thank you for all the pictures! The pirate tutorial looked great! Man the actors they get look SO much like Johnny Depp, it's neat!
Looking forward to more!

 

[mindondisney]

As many times as I have been to WDW, I have never tried the Riverboat. Sounds like a great break in the day.

 

[bizeemom4]

Wow. I'm so enjoying your trip report and the photos. When we stay at AKL next year, it would be nice to try concierge....hmmm, maybe I'll have to register one of my kids in someone else's room to stay under fire code though since there are six of us.

The picture of the baby giraffe was THE cutest thing ever!

My DD bought some of those "mystery" pins at MK on our trip and didn't want to trade them.

 

[Donald is #1]

Callouts first, then I promise that I will get another post up tonight.

I'm joining in - great TR so far and looking forward to reading more. I stayed 1 night at AKL a few years ago so I wasn't able to explore much. Hopefully I can get back there to stay or visit on the next trip!

Welcome! If you get a chance to stay at AKL again, definitely go for it, especially if you will have some time to enjoy the resort.

Great TR! I'm really enjoying it and the pictures.

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for more!

Thank you!

Your lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern sounds yummy!!
Thank you for all the pictures! The pirate tutorial looked great! Man the actors they get look SO much like Johnny Depp, it's neat!
Looking forward to more!

I was pleasantly surprised by Liberty Tree Tavern. It has been years (Dec 2000 maybe? ) since I have eaten there and I had read some mixed reviews. It was a very nice meal and a great way to relax in the middle of the day. The pirate tutorial was a lot of fun! You are right. The captain does look just like Johnny Depp.

As many times as I have been to WDW, I have never tried the Riverboat. Sounds like a great break in the day.

I can't remember the last time that I was on the Riverboat. I am so glad the Marge suggested it because it was a nice break from the normal chaos of the park. I am going to have to remember to do it more often.

Wow. I'm so enjoying your trip report and the photos. When we stay at AKL next year, it would be nice to try concierge....hmmm, maybe I'll have to register one of my kids in someone else's room to stay under fire code though since there are six of us.

The picture of the baby giraffe was THE cutest thing ever!

My DD bought some of those "mystery" pins at MK on our trip and didn't want to trade them.

If you think that you can take advantage of it (breakfast, snacks, etc) then definitely check it out. On the mystery pins, I only traded the duplicates that I got. I ended up with complete sets from MK, EPCOT, and DTD. I didn't finish the AK set and for whatever reason, I didn't buy any at DHS.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I think that I left off with Marge and me getting back to AKV after spending the morning and early afternoon in MK. I also think that I mentioned that Marge hadn't been feeling well that morning and had woken up early. So when we got back, Marge decided to take a nap and ended up sleeping for almost 2 hours. Looking at my notes, this was the day that I went off in search of the baby animals at AKV, not day 2. So just pretend, that I posted all of those pictures here.

Well, at about 5, we did our daily ritual of hors d'oeurves and wine in the concierge lounge. As we were talking about our plans for the night, we decided to stay at the lodge sot that we could check out some of the activities at the resort. Again, the hors d'oeurves were excellent. For once, I actually wrote down what the hot choices were ; tonight they had Curry Chicken Soup, meatballs and ribs. Everything was excellent, but I think that the ribs were some of the best that I have ever had! They were a bit spicy but I loved them. We then decided to head down to the hot tub for about an hour. We went to the one to the left of the pool and while it was busy, it wasn't too crowded and there really weren't any kids. It was a great way to re-juvenate our achy feet and legs! I decided to head upstairs to change while Marge decided to stay in the hot tub a little longer. We met up about 15 minutes later at the story telling. We got to the story telling about 10 minutes early so it was easy for us to get a couple of seats. First, our story teller taught us to say 2 words in his language but I can't remember the first word. The second word was thank you which was "gan gans" in his language. Then he went around the circle and had each of us use the words and say where we were from.

Here are a couple of pictures of our story teller.

As he was walking around the circle telling the story, I of course had to check out the pins on his lanyard to see if there were any that I wanted to trade for! The story was great and was definitely appropriate for all ages. The story went for 30 minutes. As soon as it ended, he gathered everyone to head up to the lobby for the musical instrument parade. However, since it was 8, Marge and I headed up to the concierge lounge to check out the desserts. For the dessert bar, they had rice krispie treats, brownies, cookies, a chocolate mousse, a pyramid shaped dessert, and a small tart. They also had a selection of after dinner wines. For whatever reason , the cookies served at the dessert time did not look as good as the ones served in the late morning. They were smaller, maybe 1/2 the size.

After dessert, we headed back downstairs for the 8:30 cultural safari. This activity takes place in the small room off of the lobby with the overlook to the sunset savannah. There were only 4 of us there for the presentation. The one we attended was on South Africa and was a 30 minute slide show on the culture, cities, and animals of South Africa. It was a really nice presentation.

Next, we headed back downstairs to the Uzima Savannah for the night vision scope. This is definitely a neat activity but it isn't something that you can do for too long. There are only 2 scopes so basically, two groups at a time can use them. But it is definitely neat for those of us who haven't used night vision goggles or scopes.

Finally we headed back to the room and on the way, I noticed that they now had Zebra Domes in the lounge. So I got a zebra dome for each of us plus got a beer to take back to our room where we relaxed and watched TV.

 

[Avojeo]

I made my way over from the December Waitlist thread. Thank you by the way for doing that for us.

Great trip report!!! I am taking notes on which resort activities I need to do in Dec. Also it looks like we will be there the same time in Dec. Are you doing the MVMCP or CP??

 

[Donald is #1]

I made my way over from the December Waitlist thread. Thank you by the way for doing that for us.

Great trip report!!! I am taking notes on which resort activities I need to do in Dec. Also it looks like we will be there the same time in Dec. Are you doing the MVMCP or CP??

Welcome and thanks! Yes, I am hoping to do both MVMCP and CP. I have booked MVMCP for 12/11 and I am just waiting for Disney to open up the dinner packages for CP. I think that I will be doing CP early in my trip but I won't for sure until I book. I am currently leaning towards 12/4 since that is already an EPCOT day and of the three narrators during my trip, this one sounded the best. Broadway star supposedly - I had to ask on one of the threads. I had no clue who any of the narrators during my trip were.

Are you planning on doing either event?

 

[If U Had Wings]

I love that you really go to enjoy the activities at the AKL. I'm really enjoying hearing about all the resort happenings. I've had DVC on the brain lately and enjoying hearing all about it!

 

[Disney Brat]

Just found your TR, & I am loving it!! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Donald is #1]

I love that you really go to enjoy the activities at the AKL. I'm really enjoying hearing about all the resort happenings. I've had DVC on the brain lately and enjoying hearing all about it!

Doing the activites at the resort is a very happy departure for me. It was great to actually enjoy the resort. Now that I am going more often to WDW, this is definitely a change in approach that I am going to keep doing.

Just found your TR, & I am loving it!! Can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks & Welcome aboard!

 

[Donald is #1]

When I was going to bed last night, it dawned on me that when I wrote my post last night I didn't update you on Daisy in the post! Bad owner!

I don't remember if I posted a picture, but here are a couple of Daisy.

On the couch in the basement:

A close up --> Yes she really is that wide!

So, when last I left the Daisy saga, I had the concierge lounge staff send what I thought was the key to door chain overnight. So, on Saturday night, as we are doing the various activities at AKL, I get a couple of voicemails from my cat sitter. First, she calls and says that the key never arrived! As soon as she mentioned it, I figured out what happened. I asked the CL staff for next day delivery so that it would arrive on Saturday. But, I bet that they never checked off the Saturday delivery box! The second message said that she went to the hosue and just for the **** of it, tried the second key on the key ring that I gave her. Well that key worked! So we are both very confused. This key looks just like my mailbox key and I could swear that it came with my new mailbox keys that I got back last fall. Well no matter what happened, she was able to get in the house.

And yes, the cat was fine!

The key did arrive on the following Monday but we were getting home on Tuesday anyways.

So the good news is: she was able to get in the house and the cat was all safe & sound. I am still a bit annoyed at myself for leaving the chain on to being with.

 

[Avojeo]

Welcome and thanks! Yes, I am hoping to do both MVMCP and CP. I have booked MVMCP for 12/11 and I am just waiting for Disney to open up the dinner packages for CP. I think that I will be doing CP early in my trip but I won't for sure until I book. I am currently leaning towards 12/4 since that is already an EPCOT day and of the three narrators during my trip, this one sounded the best. Broadway star supposedly - I had to ask on one of the threads. I had no clue who any of the narrators during my trip were.

Are you planning on doing either event?

We are doing Dec. 9th MVMCP and we had thought about doing CP on 12/4 but supposedly there is a shuttle launch and we both would love to do that. So now our 1st choice for CP is 12/1 with Patti LeBelle and 2nd is 12/5 with the other guy. Hopefully we get one of these times!! Maybe we can get up while we are there!!!

Another great update on the cat!!! I am glad the cat sitter was able to get into your house.

 

[SunnieRN]

Woo Hoo!! Hooray for daisy! Man alive she is cute!! She doesn't look like she likes the camera too much though...lol.
What a nice relaxing evening you had! The storytelling sounds like a lot of fun and the food in the lounge sounded yummy!!
Looking forward to more!