We just returned from our first stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - what a cool place!
We check in at 3PM on Thursday. After a small snag in room
assignments (the very nice CM upgraded us to a savannah view, but put us in a smoking room) we ended up in room 3421 (savannah view, bunk beds AND non-smoking). Room 3421 is excellent Zebra Trail room facing the Arusha Rock. It is SO neat to stand on the balcony and watch the cows (not your typical moo cow), zebras and giraffes eat. After settling in, we walked around the hotel, then went down to Mara, the fast food restaurant for dinner. We had MNSSHP tickets for that night. Mara is a good food court - not great, but good. I'd like to see a little more variety at the grill there. We headed to the bus top at 6:30 - wow was it crowded! My DD was a scary witch, my DS was a Jengo Fett. DD scared a few little kids I think - Oops.
The wait at the bus stop was longer than expected due to the crowds. I would have expected Disney to have more MK busses running. The busses for the other parks were empty, but the MK busses were packed! We had to wait for a second bus (about 20 minutes total wait). The bus driver was a little snippy, but I think the drivers were having a rough time trying to empty the park, then refill it in an hour. The bus dropped us off at MK depot, then we had to walk around to the "monorail side" of the entrance to get to the security check point. They were doing a pretty thorough job of searching everything, but the line still moved quickly. Once inside the park was packed! There was a pumpkin filled with treats just past the train station overpass (no CM handing out the candy) People were pushing and shoving to get to the pumpkin - what a zoo!
We decided to move to the back of the park. My DD wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion. Once we got through main street the crowds thinned a little. Maybe it was the amoount of people all entering at 7PM that caused the huge crowd at the entrance. The ride waits weren't too bad - 10 min for HM, walk on Small World, 5 min for Peter Pan, 10 min for Buzz Lightyear. The lines at some of the Treat stops (marked by glowing pumpkins) were long (especially outside of Grand Prix), other lines were short. At most Treat stops we found there were 2 CMs handing out candy. The line would form behind 1 CM, the other one would be "begging" people to come over! Usually the CM farthest from the walkways was open. We had our family picture taken at Small World, there were 3 different picture booths set up there so the lines were pretty short. The other picture booths we passed had long lines since there was a single booth setup. You can get one picture per ticket, but you have to ask, otherwise they'll just do one per family/address.
After exiting Buzz Lightyear (about 8:45), we headed towards the castle, went right, into the rose gardens and found a place just under the "witches" path from the castle to watch the fireworks. What a perfect spot! The view of the fireworks was great and the witch flew right over us. The crowds seemed to pick up afterwards - maybe I was getting tired. We rode a few more rides, then headed back to the hotel and our excellent room.
Friday we slept late - late for us is about 8:30. Breakfast was in
the room with food from home. My plans for Friday had been Blizzard Beach, but the weather was cool (for Floridians) so we decided to try Winter/Summerland Mini-golf - another first for our family. We had a blast. We arrived about 10:30. We played the Winter side first. We had such a good time we signed up for the Summer side (50% off the second round). My DD and I purchased Winter/Summerland pins as mementos. We hit the McDs for a Dollarless lunch, then back to the hotel for swimming. Dinner was at Bomas, the buffet. The food was awesome - I highly recommend it. I think I tried a little of everything (my stomach felt like it afterwards!) There is spicy,
sweet and in-between. The Pineapple upside-down cheesecake is heaven! After dinner, we rolled out to the fire-pit for the 7:30
storytelling. The CM was good. He told us about the differences in
cultures (like how it is disrespectful in his country to look an
elder in the eyes, but it's expected in America) along with the
stories.
Saturday we drove to the Beach Club's Cape May for a 9AM character breakfast. I couldn't believe I was hungry after the meal at Boma's, but I was. The characters were good - especially Goofy. He was very interactive and funny! It's hard to believe a character can be funny when they don't speak, but he was. After too much breakfast we walked around the Beach Club, over to the Boardwalk and back. We had never been to the Epcot resort area before. I was amazed at the Storm-along Bay pool. The Boardwalk pool was smaller than I expected, but I like the boardwalk area. We headed back to the DAK for swimming.
We had an appointment with the DVC at 1:40. The van picked us up and took us to the Boardwalk. We checked-in, check the kids into the playroom and met our salesman. In a word, ick. I'm sure he's a very nice guy, but he was way too pushy and condecending for me. He implied that we were stupid if we didn't buy DVC. We're not stupid, I agree DVC is a good thing, but it doesn't fit with our plans right now. I was so irritated when I left!
The van dropped us back at the hotel. We drove to Downtown Disney to eat at Planet Hollywood (another first). It was OK. The food was good, but the prices are really high. I prefer HardRock Cafe. We shopped, then back to the DAK for animal watching. The animals really come out at twilight. At one point I thought we were going to see a mating - I was wondering what the DAK animal keepers would do. One of the animals hit the electric fencing, I guess that spoiled the mood?
We check in at 3PM on Thursday. After a small snag in room
assignments (the very nice CM upgraded us to a savannah view, but put us in a smoking room) we ended up in room 3421 (savannah view, bunk beds AND non-smoking). Room 3421 is excellent Zebra Trail room facing the Arusha Rock. It is SO neat to stand on the balcony and watch the cows (not your typical moo cow), zebras and giraffes eat. After settling in, we walked around the hotel, then went down to Mara, the fast food restaurant for dinner. We had MNSSHP tickets for that night. Mara is a good food court - not great, but good. I'd like to see a little more variety at the grill there. We headed to the bus top at 6:30 - wow was it crowded! My DD was a scary witch, my DS was a Jengo Fett. DD scared a few little kids I think - Oops.
The wait at the bus stop was longer than expected due to the crowds. I would have expected Disney to have more MK busses running. The busses for the other parks were empty, but the MK busses were packed! We had to wait for a second bus (about 20 minutes total wait). The bus driver was a little snippy, but I think the drivers were having a rough time trying to empty the park, then refill it in an hour. The bus dropped us off at MK depot, then we had to walk around to the "monorail side" of the entrance to get to the security check point. They were doing a pretty thorough job of searching everything, but the line still moved quickly. Once inside the park was packed! There was a pumpkin filled with treats just past the train station overpass (no CM handing out the candy) People were pushing and shoving to get to the pumpkin - what a zoo!
We decided to move to the back of the park. My DD wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion. Once we got through main street the crowds thinned a little. Maybe it was the amoount of people all entering at 7PM that caused the huge crowd at the entrance. The ride waits weren't too bad - 10 min for HM, walk on Small World, 5 min for Peter Pan, 10 min for Buzz Lightyear. The lines at some of the Treat stops (marked by glowing pumpkins) were long (especially outside of Grand Prix), other lines were short. At most Treat stops we found there were 2 CMs handing out candy. The line would form behind 1 CM, the other one would be "begging" people to come over! Usually the CM farthest from the walkways was open. We had our family picture taken at Small World, there were 3 different picture booths set up there so the lines were pretty short. The other picture booths we passed had long lines since there was a single booth setup. You can get one picture per ticket, but you have to ask, otherwise they'll just do one per family/address.
After exiting Buzz Lightyear (about 8:45), we headed towards the castle, went right, into the rose gardens and found a place just under the "witches" path from the castle to watch the fireworks. What a perfect spot! The view of the fireworks was great and the witch flew right over us. The crowds seemed to pick up afterwards - maybe I was getting tired. We rode a few more rides, then headed back to the hotel and our excellent room.
Friday we slept late - late for us is about 8:30. Breakfast was in
the room with food from home. My plans for Friday had been Blizzard Beach, but the weather was cool (for Floridians) so we decided to try Winter/Summerland Mini-golf - another first for our family. We had a blast. We arrived about 10:30. We played the Winter side first. We had such a good time we signed up for the Summer side (50% off the second round). My DD and I purchased Winter/Summerland pins as mementos. We hit the McDs for a Dollarless lunch, then back to the hotel for swimming. Dinner was at Bomas, the buffet. The food was awesome - I highly recommend it. I think I tried a little of everything (my stomach felt like it afterwards!) There is spicy,
sweet and in-between. The Pineapple upside-down cheesecake is heaven! After dinner, we rolled out to the fire-pit for the 7:30
storytelling. The CM was good. He told us about the differences in
cultures (like how it is disrespectful in his country to look an
elder in the eyes, but it's expected in America) along with the
stories.
Saturday we drove to the Beach Club's Cape May for a 9AM character breakfast. I couldn't believe I was hungry after the meal at Boma's, but I was. The characters were good - especially Goofy. He was very interactive and funny! It's hard to believe a character can be funny when they don't speak, but he was. After too much breakfast we walked around the Beach Club, over to the Boardwalk and back. We had never been to the Epcot resort area before. I was amazed at the Storm-along Bay pool. The Boardwalk pool was smaller than I expected, but I like the boardwalk area. We headed back to the DAK for swimming.
We had an appointment with the DVC at 1:40. The van picked us up and took us to the Boardwalk. We checked-in, check the kids into the playroom and met our salesman. In a word, ick. I'm sure he's a very nice guy, but he was way too pushy and condecending for me. He implied that we were stupid if we didn't buy DVC. We're not stupid, I agree DVC is a good thing, but it doesn't fit with our plans right now. I was so irritated when I left!
The van dropped us back at the hotel. We drove to Downtown Disney to eat at Planet Hollywood (another first). It was OK. The food was good, but the prices are really high. I prefer HardRock Cafe. We shopped, then back to the DAK for animal watching. The animals really come out at twilight. At one point I thought we were going to see a mating - I was wondering what the DAK animal keepers would do. One of the animals hit the electric fencing, I guess that spoiled the mood?
