The Mominater: DM (Abbreviated TM) 50ish (too many trips to count) loves thrill rides that pretend to move, but not moving rides. (there will be a few exceptions) Always ready to talk to strangers and enjoys walking down the streets of WDW pretending we Are the parade.
Me DD 25 convinced mom to get annual passes this year so this is our third trip. HA! Lover of Rollercoasters, Muppetvision 3D and would enjoy living in MGM
As the sun shone through the clouds a beam of light landed on the car, our car. A brand spanking, so fresh it needed to be slapped Buick Century. Reminder for those just joining us it was supposed to be $20 including tax Thrifty Compact. I felt like we had won a game show, TM put the key in and the engine turned over. YAY we won a fabulous upgraded car. Then I looked over at the gauges and saw that the car had 4, FOUR!!!! miles on it. IT was newer than new, then I looked up at my mom who was silently having a nervous breakdown since she hadn't taken out the insurance. Dear Lord in heaven, I thought, please don't let anything happen to this car or for the rest of my life she will say. "Remember when you told me not to take the Insurance?" We lightly tossed our luggage in the trunk, which could house a small family and drove away from thrifty before we found out we were on candid camera.
Hit Goodings on the way for some soda, toothpaste and those dorky cords for glasses so they don't fall off on rides. I got an athletic elastic loop to keep my glasses on my head during the RnR RC. I should have brought the contacts. Oh well. Then we drove to our hotel for the first night. The AKL . This was a new one for us, we usually stay at the ALL Stars or PO.
Thanks to emily at TMFL we got a passholder rate of around $120. Check in was a breeze. The lobby was all decorated for Christmas. We dropped our luggage off in the room, which had a lovely view of the parking lot. No matter, we didn't expect animal view for that price. We wanted to do one thing and one thing only that evening. Go in the hot tub!
First we decided to eat though. The Mara was terribly cute with a really neat all chocolate sculpture of the lion king under glass (well plexi really) They brought our food when it was cooked. Kids Chicken for me ( I love kids meals just enough food) and TM had a burger. While passing the dessert bar I saw the Famous all over the internet Zebra Domes. I just had to try them. So I did, and I was completely and utterly dissapointed. Sorry guys, I don't get it. The chocolate mousse that accompanied it wasn't too stellar either. It's much better in France (Epcot of course)
Ok so now we could hit the hot tub. That is as soon as we could find it. We made a few circles before we found one. Turns out it was the smaller one, but it still sits 7 at least. Met a lovely family who had arrived, but unfortunatley no ones luggage on the entire plane did. The woman told us that they started up the luggage belt and one suitcase came out on it. Those poor lost luggage desk people at the airport. I don't want that job.
After TM and I had sufficently turned into prunes we decided to get out of the tub. We grabbed our clothes and headed back to the lobby. Smart one that I am I see if we can cut through inside since I am kinda chilly walking around in my bathing suit. So we go inside to a hallway that seems like it goes somewhere, and there are some elevators yay! We took the elevator, Ok Here's a problem I didn't know that the lobby is on the 2nd or was it 3rd floor. I was really confused. Our room was on the 4th so that's where we got off. Unfortunatley we couldn't get there from here. A lovely CM, who probably thought we were insane for running around this lovely hotel dripping everywhere, told us we had to go back down stairs and cross the lobby. I was not walking across the bridge in my bathing suit. Strangely crossing the lobby didn't bother me too much though. Memo to self grab more than one towel when at pool!
The AKL had tons of activities posted on the board. Got dressed and headed out to see the animals through the Night Vision goggles. Long line full of kids made we decided to just walk around and see them anyway. Lots of Zebras and Long Horned things. Nice roaring fire and rocking chairs too, darn it no smores! Went back to the room, put every single piece of paper and bar of soap in my luggage and hit the hay. Oops forgot the Mickey wake up call. Roll over, knock over my glasses and the remote. TM is asking what's wrong, but since I haven't taken the earplugs out I don't hear her so she starts yelling (just talking loud) at me while I am taking the plugs. Then I tell her to calm down and she realizes that no one is dying or breaking in, I just need to use the phone. So she proceeds to roll over and snore. Thank god for earplugs since TM snoring sound like a generic horror movie killer has just gone bezerk on the room with a chainsaw. Stay tuned for day 2. It'll be fun I swear
