Grendel
Where ever you go, there you are.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2003
- Messages
- 680
Ok ..I know.. how can you have a Day 0? Well I wanted to include a description of the trip down and our 1 day at magic kingdom since that was the precursor to our cruise...while not actually being part of the cruise but didnt want to use Day 1 since im not talking about Day 1 of the cruise...make sense? confused.?? yeah me too...anyways here goes.
The Cast.
ME - 37
DW - 35
DD - 13
DD - 7
Well as you can see from my signatrue we have been going to WDW faithfully for the past several years. Being a firm believer in Disney Karma I was afraid to at least not stop into Magic Kingdom to pay my respects before embarking on our magical sea voyage. So since we were only going to go for the one day we thought it would be a great opportunity to sample a Disney Resort we hadn't had the pleasure of staying at. And through the magical savings that is MouseSavers.com our 2 night stay in a Savannah Room at Animal Kingdom Lodge was born. Well at least the booking was...I haven't said how we got there yet. So having spent countless ours of research( yeah Disboards...ok some of it was at work..but shhh dont tell my boss ) and armed with our PassPorter, Birth Certificates, Way too much clothing, enough snacks and drinks to feed and army( or a hungry Disney Cruiser ) and my own personal pharmacy to rival any Walgreens, we packed up the mini van for our 24 hour road trip. Ok..i know...there are a whole group of people reading this that are going..."Are you nuts? Why don't you fly...trapped in a car with kids for that long...no way!" and then theres the other half of you who are silently nodding at your computer right now with that knowing look on your face. So why are we driving?....I don't know...sometimes we fly sometimes we drive..this year were driving. I know I know your all stunned by my well thought out arguments. Ok..anyways.. the trip...I wont bore you too much with details of the trip....unless anyone wants to hear the wonderous details of the many .35 cent tolls on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway...or how many hours does it take for you too lose total sensation in your butt. The trip down was fairly smooth and uneventful...in other words..boring...no really it was nice...the nice thing about driving from up north( NH ) is to see the weather change...plus the growing anticipation of where your going makes the trip exciting( the trip home is whole other thing...driving off bridges seem like a good idea ). We have a DVD player in the car....this is the best thing that has EVER happened to us in family travel.....i mean we have tried everything...the cute games, travel bingo, travel games of all sorts, art supplies, I Spy...you name it weve done it...but then the miracle of home entertainment in your car came along...i know everyones kids are different but for our kids this is the best thing since Ritilin....I couldn't get them any quieter if i "mickeyed" there drinks with valium at the start of each day. What I do is go to Walmart or some such where they have sales like 2 for $11 and i buy a ton of movies they have never seen or heard of. I buy enough to satisfy each childs likes( and hopefully some they both like ) and make them take turns choosing a movie. There is the occasional .."It's my turn to pick" or the occasional bargain being struck in the back seat but for the most part the only time I hear them is when they need a break because there ears hurt from having the headphones on so long...( trust me its a good problem to have ). So....2 crappy hotels, a case of diet coke, a handful of sandwhichs and a bag of Krispy Kremes later we arrive in happy place....Orlando. We made pretty good time and arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge right around lunch time on 4/22. We were really excited as we were viewing this as our warm up to the cruise. As I worte earlier this was our first trip to AKL, were avid Beach Club goers so we didnt know what to expect. Walking into the lodge defintely takes your breath away and puts you into the right "disney" frame of mind. Not quite as good as walking into the atrium at the "Magic" but good none the less. We were too early for our room so we explored the resort a little, shopped( this should just be assumed...if we stop we shop ), and went to the pool. It's a nice pool...defintely geared towards a more younger crowd... the pool bar is very nice and all in all it was pleasant...( but im still way biased towards the beach club pool ). At the magical hour of 3pm we got our room( weve never had to wait that long for a checkin but it was worth it ). We had a beautfiful Savannah View room with bunk beds for the girls( thank goodness...i didnt want to hear one more arguement on who was hogging the covers until our drive home ). I viewed the balcony as our warm up to our verandah on the magic. I had to say it was very relaxing to sit out and watch all of the animals. Everyone was mesmerized by the whole thing...imagine Wildebeasts right there staring you in the eyes!! Interesting fact that I didnt know until I talked with a CM there. The Savanah grounds there do not border the real Savannah at Animal Kingdom. The lodge has its own private Savannah with its own animals. Well we put in for a priority seating at Boma..animal kingdoms buffett restaruant..but couldnt get one until almost 8pm...so off to downtown disney tooooo
a.) soak up the atmosphere.
b.) goto the movies.
c.) shop!
those of you who said "c" good job you've been paying attention.
Downtown Disney was a test....and we failed! It defintely was a sign of things to come...lets just say If we had spent more than 1 day a WDW I think they would have confiscated my KTTW card and cut it up in front of me...as it was it was just slightly melted from all of the use. All of you Creative Memory Scrapbookers know what I mean..so dont play dumb. Well after our shopping jaunt it was back to Boma. I know people have raved about this but I found it to be ok...dont get me wrong I liked it..but if you dont like alot of spices in your food its not really for you. But at least it was a Buffett and that meant I could stretch my stomach a bit in prepartion for the Cruise. After that it was back to the room for some animal viewings and some needed sleep.
hmmm guess im going to need a Day 0.5 ..stay tuned
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=564316
The Cast.
ME - 37
DW - 35
DD - 13
DD - 7
Well as you can see from my signatrue we have been going to WDW faithfully for the past several years. Being a firm believer in Disney Karma I was afraid to at least not stop into Magic Kingdom to pay my respects before embarking on our magical sea voyage. So since we were only going to go for the one day we thought it would be a great opportunity to sample a Disney Resort we hadn't had the pleasure of staying at. And through the magical savings that is MouseSavers.com our 2 night stay in a Savannah Room at Animal Kingdom Lodge was born. Well at least the booking was...I haven't said how we got there yet. So having spent countless ours of research( yeah Disboards...ok some of it was at work..but shhh dont tell my boss ) and armed with our PassPorter, Birth Certificates, Way too much clothing, enough snacks and drinks to feed and army( or a hungry Disney Cruiser ) and my own personal pharmacy to rival any Walgreens, we packed up the mini van for our 24 hour road trip. Ok..i know...there are a whole group of people reading this that are going..."Are you nuts? Why don't you fly...trapped in a car with kids for that long...no way!" and then theres the other half of you who are silently nodding at your computer right now with that knowing look on your face. So why are we driving?....I don't know...sometimes we fly sometimes we drive..this year were driving. I know I know your all stunned by my well thought out arguments. Ok..anyways.. the trip...I wont bore you too much with details of the trip....unless anyone wants to hear the wonderous details of the many .35 cent tolls on New Jersey's Garden State Parkway...or how many hours does it take for you too lose total sensation in your butt. The trip down was fairly smooth and uneventful...in other words..boring...no really it was nice...the nice thing about driving from up north( NH ) is to see the weather change...plus the growing anticipation of where your going makes the trip exciting( the trip home is whole other thing...driving off bridges seem like a good idea ). We have a DVD player in the car....this is the best thing that has EVER happened to us in family travel.....i mean we have tried everything...the cute games, travel bingo, travel games of all sorts, art supplies, I Spy...you name it weve done it...but then the miracle of home entertainment in your car came along...i know everyones kids are different but for our kids this is the best thing since Ritilin....I couldn't get them any quieter if i "mickeyed" there drinks with valium at the start of each day. What I do is go to Walmart or some such where they have sales like 2 for $11 and i buy a ton of movies they have never seen or heard of. I buy enough to satisfy each childs likes( and hopefully some they both like ) and make them take turns choosing a movie. There is the occasional .."It's my turn to pick" or the occasional bargain being struck in the back seat but for the most part the only time I hear them is when they need a break because there ears hurt from having the headphones on so long...( trust me its a good problem to have ). So....2 crappy hotels, a case of diet coke, a handful of sandwhichs and a bag of Krispy Kremes later we arrive in happy place....Orlando. We made pretty good time and arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge right around lunch time on 4/22. We were really excited as we were viewing this as our warm up to the cruise. As I worte earlier this was our first trip to AKL, were avid Beach Club goers so we didnt know what to expect. Walking into the lodge defintely takes your breath away and puts you into the right "disney" frame of mind. Not quite as good as walking into the atrium at the "Magic" but good none the less. We were too early for our room so we explored the resort a little, shopped( this should just be assumed...if we stop we shop ), and went to the pool. It's a nice pool...defintely geared towards a more younger crowd... the pool bar is very nice and all in all it was pleasant...( but im still way biased towards the beach club pool ). At the magical hour of 3pm we got our room( weve never had to wait that long for a checkin but it was worth it ). We had a beautfiful Savannah View room with bunk beds for the girls( thank goodness...i didnt want to hear one more arguement on who was hogging the covers until our drive home ). I viewed the balcony as our warm up to our verandah on the magic. I had to say it was very relaxing to sit out and watch all of the animals. Everyone was mesmerized by the whole thing...imagine Wildebeasts right there staring you in the eyes!! Interesting fact that I didnt know until I talked with a CM there. The Savanah grounds there do not border the real Savannah at Animal Kingdom. The lodge has its own private Savannah with its own animals. Well we put in for a priority seating at Boma..animal kingdoms buffett restaruant..but couldnt get one until almost 8pm...so off to downtown disney tooooo
a.) soak up the atmosphere.
b.) goto the movies.
c.) shop!
those of you who said "c" good job you've been paying attention.
Downtown Disney was a test....and we failed! It defintely was a sign of things to come...lets just say If we had spent more than 1 day a WDW I think they would have confiscated my KTTW card and cut it up in front of me...as it was it was just slightly melted from all of the use. All of you Creative Memory Scrapbookers know what I mean..so dont play dumb. Well after our shopping jaunt it was back to Boma. I know people have raved about this but I found it to be ok...dont get me wrong I liked it..but if you dont like alot of spices in your food its not really for you. But at least it was a Buffett and that meant I could stretch my stomach a bit in prepartion for the Cruise. After that it was back to the room for some animal viewings and some needed sleep.
hmmm guess im going to need a Day 0.5 ..stay tuned
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=564316
