JAMBO! The UN-official AKL Thread ~ UPDATED(short film/pg 8 & slideshow/pg 12) Part 3

[kimmar067]

..... jes' checkin' out my countdown thingie......

 

[d4est]

Hey there! We returned from Orlando late last night. We had a great stay...the weather was beautiful with the exception of our last day, 12/17, when it was windy and only 55 degrees.

Our surprise, for those of you who remember, came off without a hitch. We got to the airport and my son asked why we were there. I asked "what would you say if I told you we were going to Disney today?" He says "yeah, right!" He wouldn't believe me. We had to get out of the car and literally start removing the luggage before he would believe me! Then he was jumping up and down and screaming. I joined right in. The rest of the vacation it was our little thing to whisper "hey, Cody, we're at Disney!"

The resort is beautiful and looked splendid for the holidays. We were in complete awe of the tree in the lobby! Amazing... My son loved the pool and would have stayed in it for our entire stay.

Our room was nice, a bunk bed Savannah view. We had 4467 on the Zebra Trail. We were overlooking the Savannah that had very little action. ?We also saw a lot of people smoking on their balconies. A little further away from the lobby than I would have liked or requested, lol. My only request was to be near the lobby due to a bad knee. I know requests are not guaranteed, but I thought they would take something like that into consideration...so I was not impressed with the "room selector."

My only other disappointment was the bus service. We ended up waiting A LOT! My only other experience, for comparison, is at Coronado Springs. There we never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes. This trip it was the norm to wait 15 to 30 minutes. There were times when we'd see buses come and go and come again for other resorts...

I will post pics after I have them developed...yep...took the old fashioned kind.

 

[kimmar067]

I prefer to think of it as getting a slight edge over your competition!!

.....as far as I'M concerned, all you need to know is where the ZEBRA DOMES are located!

 

[RachelTori]

..... jes' checkin' out my countdown thingie......

It's lookin' mighty good!

Are ya dancin' yet?

 

[RachelTori]

.....as far as I'M concerned, all you need to know is where the ZEBRA DOMES are located!

True - Thankfully, those are always in the same location and served every night. (unlike some of my favorite soups. )

 

[pilferk]

I download mine to photobucket and they limit your size, and then I post in my report. Not sure if that's the route you want to go, but that's what I do. Anyone else?

Yup, that's what we do to. Upload em to photobucket which makes them a little more manageable when posting them.

 

[kimmar067]

....Our surprise, for those of you who remember, came off without a hitch. We got to the airport and my son asked why we were there. I asked "what would you say if I told you we were going to Disney today?" He says "yeah, right!" He wouldn't believe me. We had to get out of the car and literally start removing the luggage before he would believe me! Then he was jumping up and down and screaming. I joined right in. The rest of the vacation it was our little thing to whisper "hey, Cody, we're at Disney!"...

......
[...how heartwarming.... ]

....My only other disappointment was the bus service. We ended up waiting A LOT! My only other experience, for comparison, is at Coronado Springs. There we never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes. This trip it was the norm to wait 15 to 30 minutes. There were times when we'd see buses come and go and come again for other resorts...

I will post pics after I have them developed...yep...took the old fashioned kind.

....wow, I am quite shocked about your misfortune with the bus service. I have stayed at DxL, CSR, CBR, S/D, and WL and found AKL bus service to absolutely THE BEST! [of course, with the exception of buses to DTD, but that was so with ALL the locations...]

 

[CJsMom]

I download mine to photobucket and they limit your size, and then I post in my report. Not sure if that's the route you want to go, but that's what I do. Anyone else?

Hmm, I used photobucket too. I wonder if there's a setting for picture size?

 

[CJsMom]

Hey there! We returned from Orlando late last night. We had a great stay...the weather was beautiful with the exception of our last day, 12/17, when it was windy and only 55 degrees.

Our surprise, for those of you who remember, came off without a hitch. We got to the airport and my son asked why we were there. I asked "what would you say if I told you we were going to Disney today?" He says "yeah, right!" He wouldn't believe me. We had to get out of the car and literally start removing the luggage before he would believe me! Then he was jumping up and down and screaming. I joined right in. The rest of the vacation it was our little thing to whisper "hey, Cody, we're at Disney!"

The resort is beautiful and looked splendid for the holidays. We were in complete awe of the tree in the lobby! Amazing... My son loved the pool and would have stayed in it for our entire stay.

Our room was nice, a bunk bed Savannah view. We had 4467 on the Zebra Trail. We were overlooking the Savannah that had very little action. ?We also saw a lot of people smoking on their balconies. A little further away from the lobby than I would have liked or requested, lol. My only request was to be near the lobby due to a bad knee. I know requests are not guaranteed, but I thought they would take something like that into consideration...so I was not impressed with the "room selector."

My only other disappointment was the bus service. We ended up waiting A LOT! My only other experience, for comparison, is at Coronado Springs. There we never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes. This trip it was the norm to wait 15 to 30 minutes. There were times when we'd see buses come and go and come again for other resorts...

I will post pics after I have them developed...yep...took the old fashioned kind.

I'm glad your surprise went well! Now that is weird about the bus service - because we were there at the same time as you (for the most part) and we thought the busses were excellent! I kept seeing these huge lines for other resorts but we got on each time with very short waits - and twice we had busses all to ourselves. I think the longest we waited for a bus might have been 15 minutes, and that only happened once.

My boys loved the pool too and they must have gone down the slide about 100 times! They weren't even that interested in seeing the animals. If we had free time at the resort, they wanted to be in the pool. They did like the night-vision goggles though. We didn't do any of the other kids' activities - because all they wanted to do was swim in the pool!

 

[MsStinkerBelle]

My only other disappointment was the bus service. We ended up waiting A LOT! My only other experience, for comparison, is at Coronado Springs. There we never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes. This trip it was the norm to wait 15 to 30 minutes. There were times when we'd see buses come and go and come again for other resorts...

Sorry to hear you had such long waits. I'm hoping this doesn't happen during our stay.

And glad to hear the 'surprise' went off without a hitch.

 

[Cinderella1122]

My only other disappointment was the bus service. We ended up waiting A LOT! My only other experience, for comparison, is at Coronado Springs. There we never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes. This trip it was the norm to wait 15 to 30 minutes. There were times when we'd see buses come and go and come again for other resorts...

I'm surprised that the buses took that long as well. I was at the lodge the first week of December and we never waited more than 10 minutes for any of the buses. Your surpise sounded so exciting. I just recently changed my reservations from 2 rooms at All-Star movies to a 1 bedroom villa at AKV. My parents can't afford anything but a value, so my siblings and I decided to chip in and pay the difference to move our reservation. We are going the week of my parents anniversary, so it's a surprise gift to them for being such great parents. In the next few months, my brother is going off to his first college, my sister is continuing her college education at another school out of state, and i'm possibly moving out of state for a job offer. So, a surpise upgrade where we can all stay in one room will definately be a big surprise for them. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can surprise them with the news?

 

[kimmar067]

I'm surprised that the buses took that long as well. I was at the lodge the first week of December and we never waited more than 10 minutes for any of the buses. Your surpise sounded so exciting. I just recently changed my reservations from 2 rooms at All-Star movies to a 1 bedroom villa at AKV. My parents can't afford anything but a value, so my siblings and I decided to chip in and pay the difference to move our reservation. We are going the week of my parents anniversary, so it's a surprise gift to them for being such great parents. In the next few months, my brother is going off to his first college, my sister is continuing her college education at another school out of state, and i'm possibly moving out of state for a job offer. So, a surpise upgrade where we can all stay in one room will definately be a big surprise for them. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can surprise them with the news?

....that is such a wonderful thing you are doing for your parents ...personally, I would spring it on them as I were driving up to the entrance gate - but that's ME.... are you driving there or taking ME??

 

[Cinderella1122]

....that is such a wonderful thing you are doing for your parents ...personally, I would spring it on them as I were driving up to the entrance gate - but that's ME.... are you driving there or taking ME??

We are taking ME. I was thinking about telling them the morning that we leave. However, I am not a good secret keeper. I'm already dropping hints by accident. Today my mom, who has a torn tenden in her heel, was complaining about how walking a lot in the parks may hurt her foot. So I told her that taking breaks at the hotel hot tubs will be great for her foot. My mom was surprised that the All-Stars had hot tubs. It's a good thing my mom hasn't done any disney research yet, or she would of told me that the values do not have hot tubs.

 

[kimmar067]

We are taking ME. I was thinking about telling them the morning that we leave. However, I am not a good secret keeper. I'm already dropping hints by accident. Today my mom, who has a torn tenden in her heel, was complaining about how walking a lot in the parks may hurt her foot. So I told her that taking breaks at the hotel hot tubs will be great for her foot. My mom was surprised that the All-Stars had hot tubs. It's a good thing my mom hasn't done any disney research yet, or she would of told me that the values do not have hot tubs.

...pret-ty sneaky.....

 

[RachelTori]

Hmm, I used photobucket too. I wonder if there's a setting for picture size?

In Photobucket, under "Image Options; Basic Dimensions" I select "message board 640x480)" then I click on the "IMG Code" under the picture I want to copy.

When you post a picture here, are you using the little yellow box with a mountain ("insert image") that appears in the gray area at the top when you're creating a post or replying to a thread? That's the way I do it and, so far, I haven't had any problems with picture size.

Sorry, I hope that didn't confuse you - I know I didn't explain very well!

Edited to Add: Here's a thread from last month "how to easily make your photos smaller to post": http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1644975

 

[LWcalif]

We are taking ME. I was thinking about telling them the morning that we leave. However, I am not a good secret keeper. I'm already dropping hints by accident. Today my mom, who has a torn tenden in her heel, was complaining about how walking a lot in the parks may hurt her foot. So I told her that taking breaks at the hotel hot tubs will be great for her foot. My mom was surprised that the All-Stars had hot tubs. It's a good thing my mom hasn't done any disney research yet, or she would of told me that the values do not have hot tubs.

What a nice surprise for your parents. I can't imagine keeping a secret like this! I'm always so excited about our trips and love talking about the details with everyone.

Maybe you could wait until you are ready to board ME. Have the other siblings distract them as you are heading to the bus line that says AKL so they don't notice. Then one of you speaks to the bus driver over to the side before you leave to explain your surprise, so when he talks about where the bus will be stopping, he adds All-Stars into the list. Then when you arrive at AKL you spring the surprise.

 

[Cinderella1122]

What a nice surprise for your parents. I can't imagine keeping a secret like this! I'm always so excited about our trips and love talking about the details with everyone.

Maybe you could wait until you are ready to board ME. Have the other siblings distract them as you are heading to the bus line that says AKL so they don't notice. Then one of you speaks to the bus driver over to the side before you leave to explain your surprise, so when he talks about where the bus will be stopping, he adds All-Stars into the list. Then when you arrive at AKL you spring the surprise.

That is a fun idea. Keeping a secret for 7 months is going to hard. I even thought about telling them on Christmas Day, but my siblings said it's way too soon. My next choice is telling them on the night of my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, since my parents will be celebrating their 27th anniversary the week we will be in Disney. I just have to run that I idea by my siblings. I"m sure they will say no though and i'll have to try and keep my big mouth shut for 7 months.

 

[kimmar067]

Cinderella1122 ~

That sounds like a good idea....

 

[Cinderella1122]

Cinderella1122 ~

That sounds like a good idea....

I convinced my siblings to let me spill the beans on christmas morning. I made a little box filled with Animal Kingdom Lodge maps, newsletters, room layouts, etc. and I wrote a little note from a special mouse saying that he wanted to make my parents christmas wishes come true.

 

[CJsMom]

In Photobucket, under "Image Options; Basic Dimensions" I select "message board 640x480)" then I click on the "IMG Code" under the picture I want to copy.

When you post a picture here, are you using the little yellow box with a mountain ("insert image") that appears in the gray area at the top when you're creating a post or replying to a thread? That's the way I do it and, so far, I haven't had any problems with picture size.

Sorry, I hope that didn't confuse you - I know I didn't explain very well!

Edited to Add: Here's a thread from last month "how to easily make your photos smaller to post": http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1644975

Testing:

Well, I guess I still need to work on this! Thanks for the info!