I saw Mickey's face...now I'm a Believer! UPDATED: Final Thoughts/directions to PTR!

[shordiebecka]

Hey Everyone! Welcome to my Trip Report. I have never done a trip report before, just a pre-trip report, but I am looking forward to it! We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Savannah View, from July 25-August 2. We had park hoppers and last minute decided to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan!

The main purpose of this trip, for me, was to make my boyfriend, Jon, love Disney World (so we could go back of course). Also, one of my friends from college got married in Orlando and asked for me to be a bridesmaid, so of course a trip to Disney was in order! For some background, check out my PTR...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2102486

...Long story short of my PTR: It took serious scheming to get Jon to come to Disney, and our 4 day mini trip turned into a 9 day super vacation. My OCD trip planning habit came out in full force, in various ways including power point presentations about places to eat and obsessive lists. Thanks to the few who followed me along my PTR!

I will be starting my TR soon enough. For now, I have to upload the 1,011 pictures I took to photobucket and my computer...coming soon..

pictures, the good, the bad, does Jon love or hate disney now?, will it ever stop raining?, why do I have such bad luck with lines and buses? and more!!!

 

[Vallie]

im heree! and im first! yayayay!

cant wait to see if he loved it!

 

[NorweJenNY]

will it ever stop raining?, why do I have such bad luck with lines and buses?

I was just reflecting on my trip earlier in July, and I couldn't believe how we kept missing every rain storm (indoors every time it rained) and we kept getting in line or to a bus stop at just the right moments!

I'm so sorry it didn't happen that way for you! You do know what that means though... you'll have to keep going back so you can finally experience a trip without much rain & with better luck on lines and busses!

Happy next-trip planning!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Welcome back!! Can't wait to hear if Jon liked it or not. Sorry to hear about the rain!! Oh my gosh I can't wait to see the pics, especially of AKL, I love that hotel!! Start those updates soon!!

 

[shordiebecka]

I'm afraid the first day doesn't have a lot of pictures. I'm a very nervous and anxious traveler, so I opted out of taking a lot of pictures when we first got to the lodge. I apologize in advance, this update will not be full of pictures!

Friday, July 24: Disney Eve!


I left to go to Jon's from my house (it's about 45 minutes away) at around 5:15. I still had tons of last minute things to do. On my way up to his house, I called Disney Dining and canceled all my old ADR's (I had made some at multiple times because I wasn't sure of some things). I spoke with a VERY nice lady on the phone who helped me with all my reservations! It was at this point I started to get really excited!

When I got to Jon's house, he informed me he hadn't started packing yet. I knew this was the case, but he claimed he would have no problem getting packed in half an hour, so we went out to grab some dinner, and came back. I helped him pack (it took much longer than a half hour ), and then we drove our cars to his mom's house. The plan was to pack up his mom's car (she was driving us to the airport) so we didn't have to do it in the morning, leave my car there then drive his back. He lives in a kind of not so great neighborhood so we didn't want to leave our cars unattended for so long, so we opted to keep them at his mother's house. Anyways, we got that done, got back to his house, and went to bed around 11:00.

Saturday, July 26: Travel day!

We woke up at 5:00 am...groggy and not fully rested, but excited! We did some last minute things, and got on our way to his moms house. By the time we got there and got on the road, it was about 6:05. Our flight was set to leave at 8:30 AM, the airport is only half an hour away from his mom's house, so we were doing great on time! When we got to the airport, we encountered the first of many annoying lines: The southwest kiosk was outside, and the line was sooo long all the way down the drop off area! We got in line, and waited about 20 minutes to check our baggage. The whole process went smoothly. I love Southwest, they are so friendly!

By this time, it was after 7. We went through security successfully..Jon hates taking off his belt at security so he griped about it..then we got ourselves back together and decided to eat some breakfast. We found a TGIFridays in the airport that did sit down breakfasts, so we had our first meal of the trip. I had French Toast with a side of wheat toast, he had an egg sandwich. It was pretty good, nothing spectacular. We ate, then got to our gate right as the boarding was starting.

I hate plane rides, because my ears don't pop and it hurts! We made it to Orlando around 11:15 am, touched down and I did a happy dance to with Jon automatically proclaimed that I was not allowed to dance in public . We stopped at a bathroom, then made our way to the Magical Express booth!

 

[shordiebecka]

July 26 continued!

We finally made our way to the ME desk (boy that's a haul from the southwest terminal). I didn't even have to wait in line (there was barely any), they just had me go to the people at the beginning of the turnstiles. I gave them our ME passes, and we got into lines. Our bus shared with Coronado Springs, but there was no one in the line! we were the first.

We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our bus. We got on the bus, and now that my travel anxiety had decreased, I started to get really excited. We had 10 days of Disney Fun ahead of us! It took us about 45 minutes to get to the Lodge. We watched the cute movie they show on the way there. I love that movie! Either way, we arrived at the lodge around 1:00. I didn't take any pictures of the lodge this day, I just wanted to get to my room!

We went to do online check in, and the front desk lady said she could just do it for us. I gave her my name and photo ID. At this point, I asked if we could stay in the same room our entire trip. She wrote down our room number (which drove me crazy because I had no idea where our room was), and went to check. She came back and said we could stay in the same room so we could unpack as soon as our luggage arrived

So the time came..where we found out where our room was. I requested the Arusha Savannah, 3rd floor. I actually just really really wanted the Arusha Savannah in general because it had zebras. Our room number was 2453..so I knew it was on the second floor. Bummer...then she took out the map and showed us where it was...

Uzima Savannah, 2nd floor. I was a little upset because I didn't get either of my room requests. Here is a Map of AKL, the red lines on the right side of the page show where my room was:

Anyway, I figured, If I really don't love it, its fine. So we set out to find our room. It turned out to be a short walk to our room. We opened up our room, and went out to the balcony, and we had 3 adult Giraffes and a baby! I asked Jon if he liked the room, and he was so excited about the animals that he said of course he did. So, our room location wasn't what we wanted but we LOVED the location, everything about it. I do wish we had Zebras, but the baby giraffe made up for it. I didn't take any pictures of the room, again, I was too excited. I took tons at the end though, so they will come! For now, here are the two pictures I took:

Our Savannah

Our Giraffes

Bed

Up Next... the rest of our first day!

 

[shellywalker]

Love Love Love your view! Can't wait to hear more about your trip

 

[shordiebecka]

Side note: my post disney depression has me binge eating on gummy worms right now and other various things I really need to get back on track with dieting..I only gained a pound over vacation but I am still 21 down... gah! I need to go throw away the gummy bears...just a few more and i will...

 

[Vallie]

loving the TR so far! so jealous of your resort and what a sweet view

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

oh my god, I am so jealous of your room and the view and that you got to stay at AKL!! I loved it whe I stayed there!! It's so beautiful. I'm also jealous that you had giraffe's outside and a baby one at that!! Giraffe's are one of my favorite animals!! Glad everything went smoothly so far. Seems so far so good with Jon liking Disney, hey he likes the room so that's a start!! haha! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[WanttobeaCMagain]

Hooked Keep it comming

 

[heaven2dc]

I'm glad you guys got such a great view! Second floor doesn't seem so bad after all - can't wait to read more

 

[shordiebecka]

July 26 (Day One) Continued!

I left off with us being happy with our room view. After we looked through our welcome stuff, we decided to go to the Mara to grab some lunch. I didn't take any food pics this trip, didn't want to freak Jon out too much! We ate so much because we were all starving, it was all very good. I might add that this is the point where I bought some zebra domes, and shared them with Jon..and we both fell in love..mmm..so good...

Anyways, after we ate and explored a bit, we went back to our room and our luggage was there We unpacked and got things organized, relaxed, then headed off to our first disney park: epcot!

Now as those who followed my PTR know, i was hoping we would be able to get our park hoppers a day early, as our package deal didnt start until the next day. We went to the guest services at Epcot, and they were able to do it. It took awhile, and we ended up having ot use paper tickets our entire trip, but to save over 160$ it was worth it. So we got our paper tickets (mine was pluto, his was goofy), and headed into Epcot.

This is the point where the pictures start!!

WARNING: ALL MY PICTURES ARE HUGE BECAUSE I DONT HAVE THE TIME TO RESIZE THEM ALL

This was the crowd at Epcot, at 5:00 PM on Saturday, July 25:

Exactly what i thought...WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYONE? I was expecting wall to wall people with max wait times! We had ADR's at Coral Reef, but time to kill before them, so we jumped on to this lovely ride:

We loved the new part at the end. Jon hadn't been on this since it had been updated, and he loved it. By the way, we walked right on to that ride. So then we headed for Nemo, which we also walked right on. It was super cute and Jon loves sealife so we explored that for a bit. After that we had some time before our ADR, so we jumped on Living with the Land, and were really into it because we have a garden at his house, so it was cool to see everything they did! I was still so excited I didn't take many pictures. We headed to our ADR at Coral Reef.

This was our first of many long encounters with lines, waits, and more lines. We waited about half an hour before we were seated, and we were starving! Either way, we were patient and we had a lovely meal. Sorry, don't remember what I had, but it wasn't our favorite meal of the week. It was okay though, not horrible but not great.

Here is a good shot I got walking out of Epcot (we called it a night early so we could be ready to go the next day)

We headed back to our resort, and we had a special surprise. I didn't take any pictures (yet again..this was the only day i promise)...Mickey and Minnie left us a gift with complimentary turndown and a card from them wishing us a happy anniversary. We also got some chocolate and other goodies Thanks Mickey and Minnie!

After that, we went right ot bed to rest up. The next day, day 2: Animal Kingdom, Ohana and Wishes!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

What a nice day!! I hope the lines stay that way for you but from you're little teaser I don't think they're going to! Everyone's PTR/TR says they're going to Coral Reef and now I want to go there!! I guess I'll have to try next trip!! I love that last pic of the golf ball!!

 

[shellywalker]

Awesome luck with the crowd! Hopefully it stays that way...but I have a feeling it doesn't I always wanted to try Coral Reef, mostly because of the atmosphere...but neither DH or myself like seafood Can't wait to see more pictures...and what DBF thinks of the AK!

 

[MickeyisBeast]

I'm in! What a wonderful view! Can't wait for more!

 

[shordiebecka]

Hello to my new readers! Sorry it's been a few days. Life gets in the way of the Disboards too much!

So, we left off after our first day at Epcot, which was wonderful.

Sunday, July 26 2009

I woke up bright and early at 7 AM! I was so excited to be in Disney I wasn't even tired. I jumped in the shower then woke up Jon, and went and got him Coffee in our refillable mugs. I drink diet soda in the morning (weird I know, but it's the same as coffee except carbonated, and it has the same caffeine). This is the point where Jon decided he hated Disney coffee. It is gross! Anyways, we went down to our first breakfast at the Mara, then were at the Animal Kingdom bus stop by 8:15.

**This entire trip, I had the worse lines with lines and buses! If we were going to Animal Kingdom, we would see every other bus come multiple times. If we were going to Epcot, we would see the Animal Kingdom bus come twice. Either way, it was so annoying! I just had the worst luck! Also, whatever line I got in always had a problem! just a side note!**

We got to Animal Kingdom, and I was again surprised about the crowd! This is the crowd at the turnstiles before they let us in:

The did their little opening thing, which was super cute and I loved it, then they let us in up to the Tree of Life. This is where it started to get RIDICULOUSLY hot and I got up on a bench (there were tons of others on the benches) and saw this behind me:

What happened to my low crowd day!

Anyways, so then Minnie and Pluto and Goofy came out on a jeep explorer type thing, and opened the park! It was such a cute show.

At this point, I was so HOT I just wanted to move out of the crowd! They let us in, and we went straight to get FP for Killimanjaro Safaris. My plan for this day was to not do any rides, and just focus on the animals because we are such huge animal lovers!

We got to Killimanjaro safaris, and to my surprise, no one was at the fast pass kiosks yet. We quickly got there, and got fast passes for 9:35 AM. Yay!

After this, we headed on the Pangini forest exploration trail. We were the first ones on the trail, and this was the crowd behind us:

So the huge crowd at park opening wasn't so huge! There was no one behind us, and we didn't see anyone else on the trail until about halfway through. We explored the trail, which we LOVED.

These are African Cichlids, Jon has a 50 gallon tank of them at his house. They are freshwater fish and he was so excited that he saw them in such a mass amount!

We also saw:

So we finished the trail, and it was about 9:30 at this point. We were going to go use our KS fastpasses, but the line was crazy, even the FP line. the CM told us that they got held up because there were some animals blocking the way so the line was long! Instead, we opted to catch the first train for Rafiki's planet watch.

I wanted to get to Rafiki's planet watch early in the morning, because I heard that was when they did surgeries and whatnot. We caught the first train, and took the ride down there. We loved the train ride!

Once we got there, we were informed that they don't usually do surgeries on Sundays. Well, DUH..I should have thought of this..so we were a little disappointed about no surgeries we really liked Rafiki's Planet watch though, and we did get to see this guy:

So after we explored that, we headed on the next train back to AK.

Up next..the rest of day 1!!!

 

[shellywalker]

Hello to my new readers! Sorry it's been a few days. Life gets in the way of the Disboards too much!

So, we left off after our first day at Epcot, which was wonderful.

Sunday, July 26 2009

I woke up bright and early at 7 AM! I was so excited to be in Disney I wasn't even tired. I jumped in the shower then woke up Jon, and went and got him Coffee in our refillable mugs. I drink diet soda in the morning (weird I know, but it's the same as coffee except carbonated, and it has the same caffeine). This is the point where Jon decided he hated Disney coffee. It is gross! Anyways, we went down to our first breakfast at the Mara, then were at the Animal Kingdom bus stop by 8:15.

**This entire trip, I had the worse lines with lines and buses! If we were going to Animal Kingdom, we would see every other bus come multiple times. If we were going to Epcot, we would see the Animal Kingdom bus come twice. Either way, it was so annoying! I just had the worst luck! Also, whatever line I got in always had a problem! just a side note!**

We got to Animal Kingdom, and I was again surprised about the crowd! This is the crowd at the turnstiles before they let us in:

The did their little opening thing, which was super cute and I loved it, then they let us in up to the Tree of Life. This is where it started to get RIDICULOUSLY hot and I got up on a bench (there were tons of others on the benches) and saw this behind me:

What happened to my low crowd day!

Anyways, so then Minnie and Pluto and Goofy came out on a jeep explorer type thing, and opened the park! It was such a cute show.

At this point, I was so HOT I just wanted to move out of the crowd! They let us in, and we went straight to get FP for Killimanjaro Safaris. My plan for this day was to not do any rides, and just focus on the animals because we are such huge animal lovers!

We got to Killimanjaro safaris, and to my surprise, no one was at the fast pass kiosks yet. We quickly got there, and got fast passes for 9:35 AM. Yay!

After this, we headed on the Pangini forest exploration trail. We were the first ones on the trail, and this was the crowd behind us:

So the huge crowd at park opening wasn't so huge! There was no one behind us, and we didn't see anyone else on the trail until about halfway through. We explored the trail, which we LOVED.

These are African Cichlids, Jon has a 50 gallon tank of them at his house. They are freshwater fish and he was so excited that he saw them in such a mass amount!

We also saw:

So we finished the trail, and it was about 9:30 at this point. We were going to go use our KS fastpasses, but the line was crazy, even the FP line. the CM told us that they got held up because there were some animals blocking the way so the line was long! Instead, we opted to catch the first train for Rafiki's planet watch.

I wanted to get to Rafiki's planet watch early in the morning, because I heard that was when they did surgeries and whatnot. We caught the first train, and took the ride down there. We loved the train ride!

Once we got there, we were informed that they don't usually do surgeries on Sundays. Well, DUH..I should have thought of this..so we were a little disappointed about no surgeries we really liked Rafiki's Planet watch though, and we did get to see this guy:

So after we explored that, we headed on the next train back to AK.

Up next..the rest of day 1!!!

Looks Packed I'm glad it turned out to be not so bad! I want to see pictures from your safari!!!!!!

 

[shordiebecka]

After we got of the train from Rafiki's planet watch, we checked out the line for killimanjaro safaris. It looked like it had shortened up, so we got in line. The line ended up being about 20 minutes long. We got in our jeep for our 2 week vacation and off we went!

After we succesfully saved little red from the poachers, we ventured over to place our order for picnic in the park. Here are my thoughts on the ordering process for picnic in the park:

IT SUCKS. I had no idea where to go and I got pointed in 4 different directions. Finally a not so nice vendor gave me a order form right next to the pick up location. It is not clearly marked at all where to order from! So I placed my order, and we were given at 12:30 pick up time. We headed over to do the Marahja jungle trek, with the main goal of seeing the tigers. I like the Pangini train more than the Marajha one. NOTE that I have no idea how to spell either of these names correctly Here are some pictures from the jungle trek (I did not care much for the bats)

After the jungle trek, we still had time to kill. We decided to walk over and see what the line was for dinosaur.

Jon LOVED Dinosaur. I, as usual, was scared to death and did not care for it so much. I just don't like things popping out at me

After Dino, we were both starting to feel the heat and getting hungry. We went to go pick up our picnic in the park, which is WAY easier than placing an order...it's still not clearly marked though! We sat down at the outdoor seating area by tusker house and enjoyed our picnic. Here are my thoughts on picnic in the park:

The locations to take orders and to pick up orders seriously needs to be marked clearer. I also didn't understand the ordering form, and the person I spoke to was a bit rude about it. The food was okay- the waters are mini waters, and the sides are so small it's ridiculous. The sandwiches we got were okay. I think things need to be larger and it needs to be marked better. My favorite part about it was the reusable bag.... it's green with the AK tree on it and says Animal Kingdom. I'm in love with it!

After we ate, we got out of the park. It looked like rain was coming, it was hot and we were getting grumpy. We got out right before the rain, then took the bus back to AKL.

Right when we got back, it started to pour. At this point it was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and we needed to leave for our Ohana reservations by 3:30. We decided to relax in the room for a bit. We left for the bus stops at around 3:15, and were greeted by this:

POURING RAIN. At this point, it had been raining like this for over an hour. I was nervous, because tonight was our EMH night at MK, and our night for Spectro and wishes. I started to get anxious, but tried to calm myself down and enjoy myself. Rain is rain, what could I do? It was so humid out that when I took pictures this is how they came out:

FINALLY the MK bus came. Again, we saw tons of busses for every other park except MK! We arrived at MK and it was still pouring out. We knew we were heading right to the monorail, so we made a mad dash for it. We didn't want to break out our ponchos just yet. By the time we got on the monorail, it was about 4:15. We took the monorail to the contemporary, the TTC then arrived at the Poly for our Ohana's dinner- a first for me and him!

Continue in next post...

 

[shordiebecka]

We got to the Poly, and at first Jon said "Wow, this might have AKL beat..."

We looked around the lobby, then went outside to check out the pool. After further inspection, Jon declared that our hotel was better than this one. Mainly because the longhouses are so far away from the lobby.

The Pool...love the castle in the background!

After we looked around, we decided to go to Ohana's. At this point, it was around 4:45, and the line for Ohana's was crazy already! They didn't open until 5, so they werent checking anyone in yet. Jon waited in line while I snapped some pictures..

Soon, the line began moving and we were seated. Our server took us to our seat, after telling us we had one of the best seats in the house..and that it was! Table for 2 right next to the window looking at the castle Too bad it was still rainy! Here is our view!

Anyways, the server brought us out the bread first, which we LOVED..I ate so much of it! We got our salad and noodles and everything was great. I didn't like alot of the meat they were serving, so I just filled up on bread and salad and noodles. Jon, however, determined that his shrimp was the best shrimp he had ever had and ate over 21 pieces of shrimp. He thought it was great. At this point, it was STILL raining..grrr..I was starting to get SUPER anxious. After we finished eating, we got back on the monorail to head towards the MK.

On the monorail, a very nice native floridian told me he had a sixth sense about weather and it would stop raining soon. He also said they never cancel parades or fireworks except for thunder. This made me feel a bit better, and I saw some clearing skies!

So we got to MK and it was still raining. We threw on our ponchos, and headed down main street. Here was the crowd:

Again, this is almost 7:00 on a MK EMH night! We headed towards adventure land, and walked right on Pirates. Jon had never seen it, and he loved it. Here are my new Mickey Mouse ears I bought in the Pirate gift store!

After Pirates, we went to the Haunted Mansion. On the walk over, we saw Goofy strolling through frontier land with his "security guard". This poor guy was trying to keep goofy from being friendly towards everyone and kept saying "no pictures" "no interaction" and Goofy completley defied him and was skipping around people and tapping people on shoulders and giving hugs. The security guy was getting so mad at him, but Goofy was having the time of his life. I think the security guard needed to loosen up a little!

Anyways, we had to wait for about 10 minutes for haunted mansion. When we got out of the holding room, it was packed! the line hadn't moved, so it was a huge cluster of people trying to get into those two lines. Jon LOVED Haunted Mansion also. This is a pivital point in our trip: it's the point where Jon started telling me all the things he wanted to do at MK, and why hadn't I scheduled more time there? Well it's because he said he didn't need a lot of time there! Anyways, this is where it became evident to me that Jon was a big child at heart and just was tough on the inside..anyways..

After Haunted Mansion, we decided it was time to hunt out a spot for Wishes/Spectro. Around 8:00, we got a spot right on the road across from the Mickey statue, on the corner. We settled in for what would be a long wait. We sat next to a nice lady from england who asked me to watch her "buggy" while she got a picture.. meaning her carriage..and at first i thought she asked me to watch her baby!

While we waited, I went and got two cookies from main st. bakery. I had been on a diet for 5 months prior to this, so these cookies were like heaven! I also got some pictures of the beautiful sunset:

So we waited and waited until spectro magic started! Now I have never seen spectro before, and I loved it so much! Jon had seen it before, but he liked it the second time around. No pictures-- i just wanted to enjoy it! The spot we had was perfect for wishes also, which I always love. Jon loved it also

I took one picture, then decided to settle and enjoy it, which I did. After the fireworks, we hung out around the Crystal Palace area to avoid the crowd. It was EMH at MK, but we had decided to come back another day in the week- we were tired and had a long day! We made it back to AKL, and passed out.

So far, Jon has loved Disney World. He has enjoyed the food and the entertainment. Will it stay that way? You'll have to keep reading to find out