SuAnne
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 9, 1999
- Messages
- 415
Today was our last full day before going and home and was to be our shopping day at Downtown Disney. We hadnt been to downtown Disney in years and since we only had 5 day hopper passes for our 8 day stay, it gave us the opportunity to do some things we normally dont take the time to do.
I was up at the crack of dawn as usual, and since we werent going to Downtown Disney until later in the morning I let the girls sleep while I went out on a photo taking expedition of AKL.
The Lodge is so peaceful early in the morning. The hallway by the elevator to the pool has a beautiful spa like smell; you can hear the birds chirping by the pool with quiet African music playing in the background, the lobby seems even more grandiose in the quiet of the early morning.
I went to the stairwells at the end of each of the wings of the Lodge to take some pictures of the animals and sat out in the big rocking chairs on the outlook area on the Arusha Savanna and then made some notes of room numbers that seemed to be in areas with really fabulous views (for the next time!)
By the time I came back to the room, Hayley was up so she quickly got dressed and I took her to show her where I found the giraffes hanging out that morning. Alli was up when we came back so we had our breakfast out on the balcony and then headed to the bus for Downtown Disney.
The first store on my list to go to was the Days of Christmas store. One of my Christmas trees at home is totally done in Disney from the ornaments that I have picked up over the years. I was disappointed though that they have stopped making the dated ornament that I have collected for the past five years. I did find a couple of really cute ornaments though and an adorable stuffed Christmas Eeyore. I could spend all day there.
We then discovered the "Basin" bath shop. The smell in there was heavenly. They had all sorts of homemade soaps, shampoos, bath salts etc.. You could even make your own candle with wax beads and I found some that smelled exactly like the spa smell at AKL.Yes, we come all the way to Disney and spend a bucket of money in a bath shop!
We had lunch a MacDonalds, took a walk over to the West Side, sauntered back where we had some free samples of Ghiradelli chocolate and Hayley bought some pins then we were on our way.
The bus on the way back stops at Typhoon Lagoon which was enough to cause Hayley to start whining that she wanted to go there for the rest of the afternoon. It was already 2:30 and threatening rain so I said no, which caused a major sulk for the rest of the bus ride back (even when it started to pour rain!)
Back at the hotel we sadly stared to pack, and then got dressed up to go for our last nights dinner at the California Grill and to see Wishes.
One last time we took the bus to EPCOT and then the monorail to the MK and the Contemporary. Our PS was for 7:30 and we arrived at 7:10 , checked in on the second floor and were taken right up to the restaurant. We were seated at a great table about three tables over from the window looking right toward the MK and I knew we would have a great view of Wishes.
Our waiter was very attentive and professional and explained that we would have time for dinner before Wishes and since they stopped serving during the fireworks he suggested we have our dessert after Wishes. Sounded perfect to me!
To start we had a flatbread ( good but again cant beat the ones at Jikos) and for our main course I had the chili rubbed chicken which was excellent, Alli had the steak which melted in your mouth, and Hayley well she had her pizza one last time.
At 8:30 they dimmed the lights for Wishes. The girls went outside to the observation deck, but it seemed too crowded out there for me so I just stayed at the table. They piped in the music and the view was perfect. Again I was teary eyed. Wishes was so beautiful, but I felt a bit sad that my baby was out on the deck and not with me to hold my hand and watch them.
After the fireworks the waiter brought out our dessert. We shared two orders of the Warm Valrhona Chocolate Cake, which was sinfully good. So good I had to make that at home last night for dinner along with the Boma Carrot Ginger Soup!
After dinner we all decided we just HAD to go back to Downtown Disney to Basin to get some of their sugar body scrub. We tried a sample of it earlier in the day and it makes your skin SO soft. So we took at bus from the Contemporary to Downtown Disney did our last minute shopping and then took the bus back to AKL.
Before they went to bed the girls gave themselves facials with the fresh facial masques that they picked up at Basin. They had a great time with all the goop on their faces.
We all went to bed and chatted and giggled in the dark with the moonlight from the savanna lighting up the rooms on our last sleep there. Tomorrow we had to go home.
I was up at the crack of dawn as usual, and since we werent going to Downtown Disney until later in the morning I let the girls sleep while I went out on a photo taking expedition of AKL.
The Lodge is so peaceful early in the morning. The hallway by the elevator to the pool has a beautiful spa like smell; you can hear the birds chirping by the pool with quiet African music playing in the background, the lobby seems even more grandiose in the quiet of the early morning.
I went to the stairwells at the end of each of the wings of the Lodge to take some pictures of the animals and sat out in the big rocking chairs on the outlook area on the Arusha Savanna and then made some notes of room numbers that seemed to be in areas with really fabulous views (for the next time!)
By the time I came back to the room, Hayley was up so she quickly got dressed and I took her to show her where I found the giraffes hanging out that morning. Alli was up when we came back so we had our breakfast out on the balcony and then headed to the bus for Downtown Disney.
The first store on my list to go to was the Days of Christmas store. One of my Christmas trees at home is totally done in Disney from the ornaments that I have picked up over the years. I was disappointed though that they have stopped making the dated ornament that I have collected for the past five years. I did find a couple of really cute ornaments though and an adorable stuffed Christmas Eeyore. I could spend all day there.
We then discovered the "Basin" bath shop. The smell in there was heavenly. They had all sorts of homemade soaps, shampoos, bath salts etc.. You could even make your own candle with wax beads and I found some that smelled exactly like the spa smell at AKL.Yes, we come all the way to Disney and spend a bucket of money in a bath shop!
We had lunch a MacDonalds, took a walk over to the West Side, sauntered back where we had some free samples of Ghiradelli chocolate and Hayley bought some pins then we were on our way.
The bus on the way back stops at Typhoon Lagoon which was enough to cause Hayley to start whining that she wanted to go there for the rest of the afternoon. It was already 2:30 and threatening rain so I said no, which caused a major sulk for the rest of the bus ride back (even when it started to pour rain!)
Back at the hotel we sadly stared to pack, and then got dressed up to go for our last nights dinner at the California Grill and to see Wishes.
One last time we took the bus to EPCOT and then the monorail to the MK and the Contemporary. Our PS was for 7:30 and we arrived at 7:10 , checked in on the second floor and were taken right up to the restaurant. We were seated at a great table about three tables over from the window looking right toward the MK and I knew we would have a great view of Wishes.
Our waiter was very attentive and professional and explained that we would have time for dinner before Wishes and since they stopped serving during the fireworks he suggested we have our dessert after Wishes. Sounded perfect to me!
To start we had a flatbread ( good but again cant beat the ones at Jikos) and for our main course I had the chili rubbed chicken which was excellent, Alli had the steak which melted in your mouth, and Hayley well she had her pizza one last time.
At 8:30 they dimmed the lights for Wishes. The girls went outside to the observation deck, but it seemed too crowded out there for me so I just stayed at the table. They piped in the music and the view was perfect. Again I was teary eyed. Wishes was so beautiful, but I felt a bit sad that my baby was out on the deck and not with me to hold my hand and watch them.
After the fireworks the waiter brought out our dessert. We shared two orders of the Warm Valrhona Chocolate Cake, which was sinfully good. So good I had to make that at home last night for dinner along with the Boma Carrot Ginger Soup!
After dinner we all decided we just HAD to go back to Downtown Disney to Basin to get some of their sugar body scrub. We tried a sample of it earlier in the day and it makes your skin SO soft. So we took at bus from the Contemporary to Downtown Disney did our last minute shopping and then took the bus back to AKL.
Before they went to bed the girls gave themselves facials with the fresh facial masques that they picked up at Basin. They had a great time with all the goop on their faces.
We all went to bed and chatted and giggled in the dark with the moonlight from the savanna lighting up the rooms on our last sleep there. Tomorrow we had to go home.
