Family of 5 take on Disney! Lots of PICS! Updated 7/13

[ohboyx3]

Let me start off with this question: Is there any rule against re posting a trip report? You see..... we got back from our trip way back in January. I am still,sadly enough, hooked on the DIS! I gave a brief, condensed version of this trip when we got back. I have been lurking around on the boards enjoying and being entertained by other peoples trip reports. I've started scrapbooking all the pics and decided that I want a more detailed version to go along with my scrapbook! I left out so many details the first time, plus I figured out how to post pictures! Cool! Anyhow, if no one obejects here goes with the pre-trip:

Cast: Me (27) HUGE disney fan
dh (28) New disney fan! I converted him on this trip
ds1 (7) Celebrated his b'day on this trip. Loves bugs, animals and adventure
ds2 (4) loves Buzz Lightyear and the power rangers. He either loves you or hates you depending on his mood that day.
ds (18 mos) along for the ride but ends up enjoying it a lot more than I thought!

Travel dates: January 21-27th 2006

Lodging: 6 nights @ AKL

Transportation: Driving about 9 hours from Chattanooga (what were we thinknig?)

Dining plan: YES!!!

Here’s where our story begins……
I have wanted to take “that special Disney trip” since our first child was born! My husband had never been to Disney before and I had been twice, once when I was really little (I only remember being scared to death on the snow white ride, floating across the park on the sky way and looking at the submarine from 2000 leagues from some restaurant we were eating at) and again when I was 17 with just my Mom and Dad.(That trip was great we were there during the 25th anniversary celebration and got to be the guests of honor and open up Epcot that day. We got into the park for free, got our pic taken and a cool certificate!) Nonetheless, on my previous trips, I had never stayed Onsite, nor for very long. I also had never been to DS or to AK. I always told myself that I wouldn’t got to DW until my kids were old enough to remember. My dh agreed too. Well, I got the itch to go…… BAD! I started watching the commercials, TV specials, Disney movies. I decided after talking to a lot of people that we should just go with it. So what if they won’t remember…. I WILL! Not to mention I’ll have lots of pictures. Right? So, I started planning without dh knowing. This was back in November. I bought the unofficial guide, the official guide, the kids official guide, Fodors guide to DW with kids, subscribed to TGM and got the planning DVD. Did I mention I'm a bit obsessive compulsive? LOL. Meanwhile I found the DIS! I have found that you can NEVER have too much Disney literature. Now came the fun part, telling (ahem, asking) dh! We’ve NEVER taken a family vacation (except to visit family, but that doesn’t count! Anyone agree?) We have been married 9 years and have never splurged and gone anywhere. My husband is a General Contractor and he has his own business. I am lucky enough to be a sahm. Anyways, money can sometimes be tight. He used to work for another contractor and then branched off on his own. Needless to say, the first few years were stressfull! Last year he had a good year and in October we purchased some property to build our house. We have been living in 1300 sq. ft. with 3 kids. NOT FUN! I knew that once we got started we’d be hard pressed to leave, So I approached dh. Christmas was coming up and I asked him what he thought of having a “light” Christmas this year and go to Disney in January instead. I told him we could stay for 6 nights and 7 days in the Pop with park hoppers and the dining plan! He was all for it!!!! Score #1, but he said he wanted to stay in a “nicer” resort. After all, this is a vacation! Score #2! Woo hoo. Now, I got to research the deluxe resorts. I had never looked at the deluxes, because I thought they were out of the question. We decided between AKL and WL. We couldn’t decide, so I enlisted the help of DS1. He would be turning 7 on our trip. He is a huge animal lover. Seriously, he watches Animal planet all the time, and he just couldn’t get over the fact that Zebras and giraffes would be right outside our room, so AKL it was! A few phone calls later and we were booked! We got a savanna view room at AKL on the dining plan. We also got the park hoppers and water parks and more option for free! Got the codes here. DH was excited, because he really wanted to do a water park! Christmas came and went. DS2 got Buzz and Woody as some of his toys and DS1 got some star wars stuff! I also threw in some Disney movies my boys haven’t seen in order to get them ready for the trip. We watched HISTK and A bugs life, among others. We were all praying for good weather! I got us packed up, ds1 checked out of school for the week, and someone to feed the cat and gecko while we were gone. I got the DVD player ready with ONLY Disney movies and a bagful of snacks. Phew! We were ready! We packed the car up the night before since we would be leaving EARLY the next morning. The kids were in bed and dh and I could hardly stand it! We really were like that commercial, not being able to sleep for the excitement ahead. We somehow managed, and at dark and early the next morning, 4:30 am to be exact, we shuffled the kids in the car and were off to the most magical place on earth. I think the only other time I've ever gotten up that early for something and not minded was when my water broke at 3 am the day I went into labor with my son! The kiddos slept all the way til we were outside of Atlanta (about 3 hrs) They would've slept longer but dh had to get A SPEEDING TICKET!!!!!!! DS1 was practically in tears saying "Do we still get to go to Disney World?" I think he thought dh was going to jail. LOL. Nope, but we were $150 poorer right off the bat. Ugh. You would think the cop would've been a little nicer, but nope..... they have no mercy in GA. Be careful if you drive through there! It was his first ticket, by the way, in case you were wondering. Back on the road, the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We stopped twice for gas and once to eat at McDonalds. Thankfully I didn't have to eat there for the rest of the trip. My boys are always happy with nuggets though. DH too, although it's a big mac for him. Yuck. Anyways, we put on another disney movie and continued on our way. It felt so good to be passing palm trees and orange groves! I loved watching the temp increase on our car thermometer as we got closer. It got all way up in the 80's while we were there. Beautiful! We started seeing the signs for DW and that kept the boys entertained. Soon enough we were pulling up to our home away from home, the AKL.

Stay tuned: Did we get our room requests? What unusual friends did my boys meet right from the start? Our first night in the World. Plus: Pictures. I didn't take many of the pre trip and travel. I'm regretting it now.

 

[ohboyx3]

We're here, we're finally here!

Walking into the lobby, it truly is spectacular. At check in, I made note of my room requests. I had requested a room on Zebra trail over looking Arusha rock with bunk beds. I got all three....... if we didn't mind wait a bit, because the room wasn't quite ready. Now, we really, really, wanted to go to our room. We had been traveling for awhile and wanted to freshen up a bit before heading to the parks. We had ADR's for 5:30 @ CP. We decided to go ahead and wait as this was going to be our home for the next week and I wanted to make sure we could see some animals. We stowed our luggage and went out to explore the resort. It was just before 2 and they assured us that our room would be ready by 3. They gave us a little card with a phone number on it to call and check. I grabbed my camera and purse and we were off. We first checked out the veiwing area. It wasn't crowded at all and there were plenty of people to talk to. This is also where my boys made their first new friend from the trip. Did I mention that ds1 is an AVID lover of all things creepy crawly? We own a leopard gecko (I put my foot down at the idea of a snake) so he was ecstatic when he saw all the lizards running around. See:

He caught quite a few of these on our trip. Strictly catch and release, of course!

We checked out the pool

and then took the kids to the playground

I called right at 3 on the dot and our room was ready! Woo hoo!!!!! We were on the 4th floor very close to the elevator that takes you to the pool and food court. It was a little bit of a trip to the lobby and to meet the busses, but not bad. We got the bellman to deliver our luggage and he commented that we had one of the best views possible. Awesome. Here is the view from our balcony:

We decided to set up shop for the week. We unpacked. I ran to the gift shop to grab a 1/2 gallon of milk, (thank goodness for the fridge) and the boys admired the animals right outside the window

The boys LOVED their bunk beds. I thought there might me a fight about who sleeps on top, but there wasn't ds1 took the top bunk and ds2 got the bottom. We set up a porta crib for ds3 which he slept in fine the whole time we were there. We changed out of our traveling clothes and set off to catch the bus. We had a date with Winnie the pooh and his friends!

Up next: dinner @CP, spectro and wishes plus lots more pics!

 

[ohboyx3]

Why are my pics coming out so big??

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.

Have you tried asking on the Tech Board re the size of your piccies?

 

[MagicMe]

Big pictures or not- great trip report so far! I love the pictures from the room. Never stayed there but we did visit! Can't wait for more!

 

[ohboyx3]

Thanks for the feedback so far! I think I suceeded in resizing my pics! That makes it a lot better. I hope to get the next installment up tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

 

[MeandMyBoys]

Great report so far. I have 3 boys too!! They keep you busy, don't they??

 

[ohboyx3]

When I left you last, we were heading out the door to MK. We had ADR's at 5:30 @ Crystal Palace. We head out to catch our first bus. Sidenote: After we parked our car at AKL we never moved it until our last day. We used Disney transportation for everything. I was a bit worried about how it would work out. I had heard a lot of negative stuff about AKL and their bus transportation. Honestly, I thought it was fine. It was easier for ust to deal with their transportation every day than having to mess with a carseat and all. Anyways, we walked to the bus stop and of course rights as we're walking up it pulls away. This would become the norm. Seriously, if we were on our way to a particular park, that bus would just be leaving! It was okay though because that bus looked pretty full and another one came there shortly. Okay here comes our first and maybe only big whoops of the entire trip. Here we are the first ones there waiting in line since the bus had just pulled away, we were the first ones there. Make sense??? Apparently not to a lot of rude people. We line up where we're supposed to line up and the doors open and out comes all the passengers. Well, we usher our children onto the bus thinking we're going to follow right behind them. Guess what???? There is only one entrance onto the bus even though there are two exits. Could someone have told us???? No we're standing there with great big "L's" on our heads for LOSERS!!!! The bus driver comes screaming down the bus, the doors close and there are my boys on the bus and their idiotic parents are outside still with baby brother and the stroller. DS7 is looking out at us through the window in tears. Do you think anyone would be so kind as to let these boys stupid parents on the bus? Nope. Everyone just charges on ahead and we are the last to board. Maybe they didn't want the morons on the bus with them. Who knows? Anyways, it was not our brightest of moments. It certainly didn't help that the bus driver yelled at them (for their safety of course, he didn't want the doors to close on them. How were they supposed to know?) but I think he sensed that he had pretty much scared the life out of them and tried to smooth things over by making them honorary bus drivers for the day. DS7 didn't want much to do with it and was still pretty upset, but he had a good 15 minute bus ride to get over it.... and he did. Got our crew off the bus without incident (thank goodness) and used our passes for the first time. For some reason the biometric devices weren't working or something, so all we had to do was just swipe our cards. There were quite a few people there, as it was a Specro night. They only run it 2 times a week during the winter and it was a Saturday. We made our way up Main Street. I cannot describe what it was like for my boys to see Cinderella's castle for the first time.

Dh was even impressed! Wow, does it look beautiful all decked out and changing colors or what??? I love everything about mainstreet. The music, the smells, the people. Everything. We made our way to CP for our ADR's. We were a tad late but they didn't seem to mind. We had a seat on the park bench and caught a bit of CInderellabration.

It was great! Our buzzer went off in no time and were seated. The food was fine as far as buffets go. Both dh and I said we wouldn't do as many buffets on our next trip. The kids liked the make your own sundays and dh and I thought the prime rib was really good. We got pics with Eeyore, Pooh and Tigger.

We left before Piglet made it around to our table. We could've spent more time, but I think we were all ready to go out and explore the park. BTW- the CM were always so great about DS1. He wasn't included in the dining plan, but we always got a beverage for him and were never charged. Our bull was huge but luckily it was already paid for. This made dh happy! Off we went to attempt our first attraction. I wanted to go on something that we all could do for our first thing. We decided on Potc. It was a good choice. We only had time for one thing before we found a spot for spectro and this was it. We waited in line about 20 minutes. It moved fast and the kids did good. I was worried about how ds1 and ds4 would be. I kept telling them it was just pretend and not to be scared, etc. I had nothing to worry about. Either my kids are we adjusted or else they have no feelings. Anyway, all of them LOVED it. I mean ds1 was CHEERING and clapping his hands at the cannons and the drop. After that we found our spot for Spectro right in front of the castle. I pulled out my dollar store special glow necklaces and all of us put some on. We watched Tink's flight, spectro and Wishes. We were awestruck. I can tell you that there was no place I would rather be than right there at that moment with my family. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Shortsleeve weather and not a bit too chilly. We hung around for a bit on main street ubtill the crowds thinned out. Hopped a bus back the AKL and two out of three kids fell asleep before we got there. It had been a long day, but I couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. It was a magical start to our trip.

Next up: AK, and why we didn't like dinner at Boma (no flames please!)

 

[mousefever]

Subscribing... great TR so far!!

 

[MagicMe]

Last installment was great and the pics are working fine! Three boys - you definitely have your hands full!!! Raised two myself - loads of energy!!!

 

[ohboyx3]

Yes! They do keep me busy, but sometimes I think how fast the time is flying by with them. Hopefully there will be many more Disney trips and memories to come. I sure hope they go ahead with that toy story meal they were talking about! Boys need something besides princesses!

 

[lonegirl]

Subscribing...I have two boys, am a SAHM, and hubby is contractor!!!

 

[Harmony272]

Wow, thats a really clear pic of the castle at night.
Love your trip report so far.

 

[ohboyx3]

lonegirl- We have a lot in common! Yep, it's fun being contractors wife isn't it? Everything falling apart in your house? LOL. He;s so busy fixing everyone else's house that ours is the last on the agenda. Glad we're finally building. I have a friend who's husband fixes computers for a living, yet they don't have one that works right in their home. Go figure! Thanks for reading. I'll get the next installment up soon!

 

[wvdislover]

How fun! I love your pics! I've always wanted to stay at AKL, but DH feels like we shouldn't spend so much money for rooms we're only going to sleep in. I guess he's right, but it would still be cool. Maybe next time!

 

[mytwotinks]

We did the same thing on the bus the first day! We also got screamed at. I felt really stupid, but we are from a really small town in KS and we don't ever ride public transportation. We didn't know the rules.

Sounds like you had a great time. I am also a sahm and we are currently paying off our Sept. trip. I told the kids up front that if they wanted to go in Sept. it meant we'd get pool passes and that would be about all the entertainment we'd have this summer! I know it will be worth it though. At least we're paying for it before and not after!

 

[ohboyx3]

Wow, thats a really clear pic of the castle at night.
Love your trip report so far.

Doesn't the castle look beautiful at night? My dh takes most the pics. Mine turned out all blurry! Thanks for taking the time to read!

 

[ohboyx3]

We did the same thing on the bus the first day! We also got screamed at. I felt really stupid, but we are from a really small town in KS and we don't ever ride public transportation. We didn't know the rules.

Sounds like you had a great time. I am also a sahm and we are currently paying off our Sept. trip. I told the kids up front that if they wanted to go in Sept. it meant we'd get pool passes and that would be about all the entertainment we'd have this summer! I know it will be worth it though. At least we're paying for it before and not after!

Yep. We don't take public transportation either. I know I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but I felt really stupid. Oh well. Not like I'll ever see any of those people again anyways. We haven't had much fun this summer since we took our big trip in January. It was worth it though and my kids are still talking about the trip. I'd do it again. We go to the pool a lot too. Thanks for reading!

 

[ohboyx3]

How fun! I love your pics! I've always wanted to stay at AKL, but DH feels like we shouldn't spend so much money for rooms we're only going to sleep in. I guess he's right, but it would still be cool. Maybe next time!

It was owrth it to us since we spent quite a bit of time in the room. we probably won't go there again though. It's nice and everything, but if we were going to spend that type money again I'd rather stay at a monorail resort. We think it's be worth it just for the convenience. It wasn't too convenient to hop on a bus and travel 20 minutes back to the resort mid day. Maybe if you had older kids, but not a baby and stroller. It was great though and my kids loved it. I mentioned we may not go to that resort again and ds7 was upset. I think he'd get over it once he got to the other place though. sigh. It'll be a little while though! Thanks for reading!

 

[ohboyx3]

2 out of 3 kids sacked out on the bus enroute to AKL. Let me tell you, it’s not an easy task to get 2 adults, one 7 y.o., 2 sleeping children, a stroller, a diaper bag, a camera and a sippy cub off the bus and into the hotel room. We tried unsucessfuly to wake ds4. He can sleep through ANYTHING! We managed to get everyone in and settled into their beds with the promise that we’d find time to take them swimming tomorrow. Dh and I sat outside on the balcony for a few minutes. We saw zebras, giraffes, and Elands. Dh brought binoculars, but we really didn’t need any. There was never a shortage of animals for us to see. We drug our wearly elves to bed and everyone slept peacefully through the night. Thank goodness! I didn’t put in for a wake up call. My ds1 is my alarm clock! The rooms at AKL are really dark. When you pull the curtain shut that goes to the balcony it really keeps out the light. There full at 7 am in the morning it’s still very dark in the room. This made my kids sleep later which I wasn’t counting on.

Anyways, we got to AK just after opening and guess what? We made it on the bus without incident! LOL. We had to wait in line for a bit to go through the turnstiles. We had eaten a lite breakfast in our room planning on an early lunch. We did this often throughout the trip and it made foe a very enjoyable lunch! Now according to every piece of literature I read prior to the trip, Sunday was supposed to be a perfect day to tour AK. I didn’t account for one thing. Cast member previews of EE. It was crowded today! I think everyone who worked there and their friends showed up! We decided to head straight for Dinoland. I grabbed a baby swap pass while dh took ds4 and ds 7 on the ride. I noticed this lady that had twin boys on baby leashes trying her best to talk the cm into letting her boys ride. They had to have been about 3 or so. She was explaining to the cm’s that they were twins but one was shorter than the other. They kept explaining to her about safety etc, but she wouldn’t have any of it. Meanwhile, the boys on their leashes were tangling themselves up around her legs just like a dog would. It was funny. My husband draws the line at baby leashes. I’m not allowed to get one thought it’s tempting. LOL. I waited by the exit and browsed the gift shop. I was worried about ds4 being scared. Did I mention my kids have no fear??? They both loved it. I asked if they wanted to go again with me, but we decided to come back later and tour the rest of dinoland while it wasn’t crowded. I never did make in on Dinosaur this trip. :^( Nextime. Dh said it jerked him around a bit, he has some back problems, but overall he thought it was good. DS7 decided he wanted to give Pimeval whirl a try. Dh hates anything that spins (he gets sick) si I jumped in line with him. We had a pretty short wait and were on it in no time. Ds7 was regretting getting on this ride already and didn’t want to go back on it. He barely made the height requirement. It was okay, but not my favorite. Is it just me or do you get squished? By this time we were hungry and I really wanted to try Flame tree bbq for lunch. On the dining plan we got: hot dogs, b. beans and corn on the cob for the boys and 2 bbq sandwiches for us adults. We also got 3 pieces of choc cake, and a slice of key lime pie and 4 drinks. We got an order of fries to split. This wasn’t on the dining plan and was charged to our room. It was a dumb thing, because we really didn’t need the fries. I don’t know hwy they weren’t include anyways, but we got smarter with the dining plan by the end of the week. We found a nice quiet spot by the water with a good view of EE. We could hear everyone screaming and it sure seemed like they were having a great time. It’s on my list to do next time. With full tummies we were ready to attempt another attraction. We decided on Kali river rapids. It was hot today. It was a high of 81 which is high for January! We opted against the ponchos and I regretted it later. Dh took ds4 and ds7 on first while I grabbed a baby swap and waited at the exit. They had maybe a 10 minute wait and when they got off ds4 had gotten the worst of it! Him and dh were soaked with ds7 barely wet! They were grinning ear to ear and wanted to go on again with Mommy, so we used the baby swap and were able to get right back on. Boy, some people give you an evil look when you get in front of them. Hey, it’s legal! I sat next to ds4 and ds7 took a seat next to someone else. Ds4 had to have the captains chair since he’s just 40”. Well, ds4 again got the worst of it, as did me since I was sitting next tom him. Ds7 barely got a drop like the last time. Some nice people took our picture.

Soaked to the bone, we headed off to see the tigers and such. Here’s some of what we saw:

Drying out pretty quickly, we made our way to Camp Minnie and mickey, stopping along the way for a mickey bar!

They were on the dining plan of course. It’s so nice to be able to say “yes” to your kids when they want ice cream, knowing it’s already been paid for! We wanted to watch fotlk but had a little bit of a wait so me were able to meet mickey, Minnie, Donald and goofy without any wait!!!!!

Then we got in line for fotlk, while I took ds7 to the potty. Why is it that when you’ve been waiting for 30 minutes for them to open the doors, someone has to go to the bathroom RIGHT THEN! Ugh. Oh well, we found the potty and made it back to find dh and our seats. Woo hoo. What a great show! We were in the warthog section. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Those people can really sing! I was impressed! Next we got fp for KS and then watched ittbab. I read in every book NOT to take your kids under three to this attraction. What did I do? I did what every sensible mother would. I took him on it. LOL. I was really worried about this one with ds1, but he didn’t make a peep. They all loved it. This was right up ds7 alley seeing as he loves bugs and all. This was one of dh’s favorite attractions. After my boys got through that without incident I chilled out for the rest of the trip. There wasn’t anything that scared them. Thank goodness! It was time to use our fp for KS. We saw lots of animals though I thought our guide was a bit dry.

Ds7 still talks about saving the baby elephant from poachers and how he wants to go on it again next trip since this one was interrupted by mean poachers. Ah, the magic of Disney.
By this time we were hot and ds1 needed a nap. We played some drums

and followed the parade out of the park and caught a very uncrowded bus back to AKL. The bus driver said the parking lot looked like holiday season. That told me it wasn’t my imagination, but that it really was busier than normal. I put ds1 down for a nap while the boys changed into their swimming trunks. Dh took them down to the pool and I stayed behind with ds1 and sat on the balcony to watch the animals. I called just about everyone I knew and said “I’m sitting here on my balcony at AKL watching the Zebras and Giraffes, what are you doing.” I HAD to rub it in, didn’t I? DS1 took a good nap and after he woke up I met dh and the boys at the pool and told them to come and get ready. We had ADR’s for Boma.

Coming up: Why we didn’t like boma. I know, I know. I said that in the last installment, but I really will write about it next time!