Jingle Bells....AKL....Disney for 10 Whole Days! ** Updated June 2015: Videos Added**

[cstorm65]

I'm enjoying your report. The dessert party is really one of our favorite things. A reserved table for Wishes is just a special thing...and the desserts don't hurt either!!

 

[thornton0511]

Don’t Stop Till Ya Drop

After our amazing fireworks party while hopefully others were ending their evening at MK we still had a few hours in us with EMH. The park was open for us until 1am! Because we had stayed later than planned in Epcot and had the laundry episode to deal with on top of that we had missed our first two FP+ and our third was not until 10pm. No worries though!

And since we were already in Tomorrowland we decided to start our evening with Buzz Lightyear.

He looked really surprised to see us although I am not sure why? Okay so as far as this ride goes I suck. It’s the same as with TSM. At least with TSM I can kind of get things but I have no clue with astro blasters. I have no idea how anyone knows what the heck they are shooting at. How do you know that your aim is right?! Still I do really enjoy this ride a lot and usually I spend more time taking pics and video and spinning our car around as much as I can without ticking off my fellow passenger. This is why most of the time I choose to ride with DD because she is just as clueless as I am lol. At some point during our experience the ride stopped.

Now for some reason when my kids are exposed to extra magic hours at night it causes them to transform into silly crazy kookoo banana children. I don't know why. But it's fun to watch. Everytime.
After our ride we went to check out our ride photos.

Apparently DH has the same condition as the children during EMH and I am so clueless about what I am supposed to be doing that I am pretty sure I do not even know what ride I am on at this point.

DMIL was trying really hard to focus on her shooting. Poor dear…..
And then there's the children…..

It was now 9:45 and we had Space Mountain FP+ that started at 10pm so we wanted to stay close to that location. That's when we came across a dance party…..yes please! So we boogied on down for a bit.

That was fun! Now at this point I have no idea why in the world we walked over to Monsters Inc Laughfloor but that's what happened.

While waiting in the queue before they let you on to the laughfloor I got really tired. And just standing in a crowded room watching the monsters on the little TV's was not helping. I was at that point where it hurts to keep your eyes open. You know what I mean? And to top that off I was getting cramps in my legs. When I was little I got these a lot. It's like a dull throbbing pain that seems to start in my knees and runs down to my ankles. Doctors told my parents it was probably growing pains. Well I am 32 and pretty sure that I am no longer growing. I don’t get them often but it seems show up more often when I am on my feet for a really really long time. The only thing that will help, other than Advil, is for me to fight the urge to move them and try to keep still. Eventually the pain leaves but usually I am lying down and I end up falling back asleep before the pain subsides. Since we were at a park and lying down to sleep was obviously not an option at this point in time I opted for some Advil in my bag. Finally the doors opened and we chose our seats.

I really enjoy this show but I get so anxious and scared that the cameras are going to stop on me or I am going to have to talk. Activate the turtle shell on my back for hiding. Thankfully it did not happen but DFIL did pop up on the screen for something, unfortunately not to be "that guy" though.

And many may not agree with me but Roz drives me crazy! Her voice and the way she talks is like fingernails down a chalk board! Can't stand it….ugh!

Okay so after Monsters Inc. we made our way back over to Space Mountain. DD is still not at the point where she is ready to brave this ride yet, and I don't blame her. We explained the ride to the in laws and they decided to pass. So it was just DH, DS, and myself. It was now 10:40 at night.
We blazed through the FP+ line and were on our rockets within no time as we traveled on a fast bumpy ride through space. Soon enough we had landed and exited the ride to see our ride photo. DH reached for his iphone off his belt clip to take a pic and realized it was not there! He quickly ran over to the ride CM to try to stop our rocket but it was too late. He was worried because it's his work phone and they pay for it. He has to be "reachable" at all times with his job so that was his worry. Meanwhile I am more worried about all of our pics that we had stored on his phone over the last 5 days of our trip that I had not had a chance to move over to his laptop at the resort. Priorities people. I was under the impression that he had lost his phone during the ride itself and was prepared to have the ride shut down and evacuated and all the lights turned on, but DH reassured me that he had it the whole time and it must have fallen in the seat of the rocket when he got off his seat to exit. I don't know how they do it guys but the CM's managed to locate our rocket and retrieve the cell. They are amazing and my heroes! There was no damage, thankfully, and other than the phone resetting itself everything seemed okay. When in a rocket flying through space hold on to your stuff! Life lessons here people….life lessons!
For some reason I took a picture of myself taking a picture of myself on our escalator ride up….

By the time we got back around to the rest of the family it was 11:00. We explained. All was well.
At this point we were really running on fumes, which is a shame because we love evening EMH at MK. This is always a highlight from our trips and this would be the only one this week. Usually we stay until they kick us out but we knew the smart thing would be to call it quits soon. And my legs were killing me at this point.

So we took a quick ride on the teacups.

Then took a minute to walk though the Tangled area at night. It was just as beautiful with the lanterns lit. This is my favorite!

And then rode BTMRR one time (an absolute must do at night no matter what the situation).
The last thing we had to do was get some pictures of Cinderella Castle with the amazing holiday lights.

We then headed out of the park. Goodbye Magic Kingdom. Goodbye pretty Cinderella Castle. I love you.

By the time we got on an AKL bus (that took forever to get there lol) it was 12:35am! I was surprised it was so late. I guess we did almost make it all night long. Poor DD fell asleep waiting for the bus.

We were now on our way back to our Animal Kingdom home for the night. It was another AMAZING day in the world, and we were super exhausted too!

​

 

[thornton0511]

Nice pics of Osborne Lights.
We stay in grandstand all the time. Easy walk to the main building.
Oh no. Not the walkway. It was closed while we were there. We took the boat to DTD each time. Oh that isn’t the main walkway you took. The main one which is closed brings you to the bus stops by the Christmas Shop. Sounds like you took the golf course.
Love the balloon. It does go high. Highly recommend it right around 9pm so you can see the fireworks.
YUM! Love WPE.
Bummer about the Crocs.
Living with the Land is so fun. Have you ever done the tour? It is great and cheap.
Oh my! You never rode Soarin’? Glad you finally got on it. Front row is the best but hey any row will do. LOL
It always nice to split up a little when you are with others.
Woohoo! You got your Crocs.
WOW! Excitement on Maelstrom. Poor lady. People can be so rude.
Those guys on the chairs scare me every time.
The dessert party looks good. Glad you got good seats.
All caught up again.

Scott where were you when I needed you lol?! You could have saved me from walking down the scary golf course trail

 

[thornton0511]

Well done Jenn keeping the Dessert Party a secret. That has to be tough to do. So glad it all paid off. One of these days I'm going to do this, and I think during a party season whether it be Christmas or Halloween would be the best time.

And yup, I was right there in the middle of Main Street at that exact time.

So close that is unreal. Yes holiday would be awesome! As much as you enjoy Wishes you should definitely do the party....ooohh or maybe if a lot of us find each other in the world at the same time again we can have a dis meet wishes party!

 

[thornton0511]

Hi Jenn. I have been lurking for a while and thought I would hop on to say hi from Toronto! I am loving your TR so much that I have begun reading your PTR. Backwards, I know, but I find your planning skills awesome and wanted to go back and read how it all happened. Don't think I could have handled your whole departure/storm/flights thing as well as you did. We stayed at AKL on our first trip to WDW in 2010 and I'm afraid it spoiled us. Next trip was 2012 and budget dictated a mod, so we chose CSR. Very nice, but DH will only return if we go deluxe. We'd love to try WL next time and I will definitely look into renting points. DH and even DS are not the Disney lovers I am, so we have to chose different vacation destinations each year. I don't think I'll get back until 2015. But like you, I love the planning and the more I read, the more I learn, right? Oh, and my DS's name is Philip, so I feel a kinship!

Hi there glad to have you out of lurkdom lol I do the same thing with TR's and PTR's sometimes too! My PTR is a bit of a mess I'm afraid. I have to tell you I was a complete mess the days leading up to our trip, it was insane. Yes AKL can spoil you for sure. Heck staying deluxe can spoil you! Oohh CSR! We actually had that resort booked for our May 2012 trip and I called last minute and had us changed to pirate rooms at CBR for the kids. I really do want to stay there at some point though. It looks so pretty! I have been in love and dreamed about staying at WL for years and then this year we hopped over there just to get a peek and while the grounds and the lobby were spectacular the hallways gave me a weird hospital hallway vibe that I did not really like. A tad disappointing but not sure if that would keep me from wanting to stay there. We rented points though David's DVC and they are amazing! That's funny with your DH and DS. I don't know how you do it I feel like I have to go at least once a year one way or another...gotta make it happen. If my family does not want to go then I will lol! Thankfully we are not quite to that point yet. Yes if there is one thing I learned on this trip it's that you always have more to learn lol! That is cool that you have a son named Philip! I have to ask because I noticed that it's Philip with one "I" does he correct people when they get it wrong? My DH makes sure that people know its Philip with one "I" when they need his name for something lol. Very happy to have you follow along and I hope I can keep things interesting for ya

 

[thornton0511]

I'm enjoying your report. The dessert party is really one of our favorite things. A reserved table for Wishes is just a special thing...and the desserts don't hurt either!!

Yes it is for sure and I am happy you are enjoying

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Haha, I feel the same way about Buzz. Just loads of red dots peppering the landscape like it has the measles. I tend to just hold down the trigger (I found out recently that you can just hold it down) and hope for the best.

I haven't been to the laugh floor in ages. It's just not as much fun solo. Though on this evening I wasn't solo, but I think we were on the other side of the park a lot.

Oh WOW about the phone. That's some scary stuff. I know they check each vehicle right after people depart for things left behind, so thank goodness they found the phone. Haha, I panic when I leave my sunglasses so my phone would have been physically painful. Then again, after you lose your wallet, everything else is easy.

If it's any consolation, I did indeed close the place down, sauntering out around 1:20am.

You know it was a good and full day when you the kids are passed out on the drive "home".

Oh and incidentally, I not only did one party but two!!

 

[thornton0511]

Haha, I feel the same way about Buzz. Just loads of red dots peppering the landscape like it has the measles. I tend to just hold down the trigger (I found out recently that you can just hold it down) and hope for the best.
Lol I would just have more fun I think if I knew what I was doing
I haven't been to the laugh floor in ages. It's just not as much fun solo. Though on this evening I wasn't solo, but I think we were on the other side of the park a lot.
ooh can't wait to see your report from this night and who you were with! Another dis meet?!
Oh WOW about the phone. That's some scary stuff. I know they check each vehicle right after people depart for things left behind, so thank goodness they found the phone. Haha, I panic when I leave my sunglasses so my phone would have been physically painful. Then again, after you lose your wallet, everything else is easy.
Did you lose you wallet? Oh my goodness that must have been awful!
If it's any consolation, I did indeed close the place down, sauntering out around 1:20am.
Well if it could not be me then I am glad that it was you Rob!
You know it was a good and full day when you the kids are passed out on the drive "home".
for sure!
Oh and incidentally, I not only did one party but two!!

Wow someone was a busy little bee.....

 

[we3travellers]

Hilarious pics of TSM! We 3 always look SO serious on TSM, as if we are on a "real" mission or something. Too funny! Yes, my DS thinks there is only one way to spell Philip. Anything else is just plain wrong! His teacher even spelled it with 2 l's once and he went on about that for a while. We have visited WL and fell in love with it, but I never saw the hallways, just the main public areas. Strange about the hallways. I have to ask you if the lack of housekeeping ever bothered you. I know it sounds silly, but it's one thing that makes me hesitant about a DVC rental. I don't want to make beds on vacation, know what I mean? Also, are all of the DVC units in another building, or can you get just a regular room in the main building. Sounds like you were in the main building at AKL. (I get Jambo and Kidani mixed up!)

 

[thornton0511]

Hilarious pics of TSM! We 3 always look SO serious on TSM, as if we are on a "real" mission or something. Too funny! Yes, my DS thinks there is only one way to spell Philip. Anything else is just plain wrong! His teacher even spelled it with 2 l's once and he went on about that for a while. We have visited WL and fell in love with it, but I never saw the hallways, just the main public areas. Strange about the hallways. I have to ask you if the lack of housekeeping ever bothered you. I know it sounds silly, but it's one thing that makes me hesitant about a DVC rental. I don't want to make beds on vacation, know what I mean? Also, are all of the DVC units in another building, or can you get just a regular room in the main building. Sounds like you were in the main building at AKL. (I get Jambo and Kidani mixed up!)

Yes we stayed in a studio room in Jambo house. As far as I know all of the studios in the main building are DVC rooms and they are all on the 5th floor. This is also where the DVC laundry room is located. You can do laundry for free but you will need your room key (or magicband I suppose) to have access to the laundry room. The actual DVC portion of AKL is Kindani Village which is right next to Jambo House. This area is new compared to the neighboring Jambo and built specifically for DVC. I know they also have studios as well as one and two bedroom units. I really do not know how we ended up with Jambo and not Kindani to be honest. We did not specifically request either one. Like I mentioned earlier we went through David's DVC rental and they were fantastic. They can probably answer any questions you might have. Also I found a lot of information on the AKL thread and the DVC threads here on the disboards. As far as giving up the mousekeeping for our stay I too was a little leery about not having it but in our experience it was fine. The hardest part was not having clean fresh towels everyday. I know that you can pay to have mousekeeping come and clean and give you fresh towels/linens for certain price each day. We never did but I could see it being useful. The amount of money you save to go this way and stay deluxe was worth not having the housekeeping service as far as our family was concerned but its not something I would want to do without on every stay either. Hope that helps. If you have any other questions I would be happy to try to answer them for you

 

[thornton0511]

A New Day with a Late Start….and That Was Fine with Me
Today was Tuesday Dec, 10th. After our very late evening at MK we had decided to change our plans for rope drop at AK and instead not set our alarms at all and just sleep in. We had been going very strong since last Thursday and our bodies were tired. So tired in fact that I was the first to wake up this morning at 11:15am! I don't think that I have slept that late in the day since I was a teenager guys….we were tired. Eventually I was able to get everyone up and going with breakfast and we went through our daily routine of checking in with our animal neighbors.

We had giraffes again! After breakfast we just kind of hung out around the resort a bit. Afternoon approached and it was time to leave the kids with their grandparents. DH and I had a lunch date scheduled at 2:15 for Sanaa. We decided to walk over to Kindani Village.


We were still quite early for our ADR so we decided to wander around the resort a bit and take some pictures.

I really thought that Kindani was very nice but I liked the vibe of Jambo house better. It just seemed kind of off by itself and quiet. However it was equally beautiful and definitely has that wow factor. It was now time to check in for our lunch. I made sure to request a table by the window and was told the wait for that would be a while. No worries we would wait. Being able to sit by a window was the whole purpose for eating lunch here as opposed to a dinner and since we had changed our plans to have a more relaxed day today there was no rushing anything. We took our buzzer and proceeded outside to see the animals while we waited.

In addition to giraffes and a baby giraffe, we also had the chance to see Zerbras and a new born baby zeba too! She was so incredibly adorable. I instantly loved her.

Within only a few minutes our buzzer went off. The long wait was not long at all. Yay! It was now time to eat lunch at Sanaa. So excited!
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[thornton0511]

Lunch at Sanaa

We returned our pager to the desk and were escorted to our table. I was really hoping that our request for by the window was granted. They did not seem too busy at this time of day.

We got our table! Woohoo!! I was so stoked to be eating here you guys. The décor was amazing.

Since we were on the DDP our meal was covered but there was a very important appetizer that we wanted to pay extra for. The bread.

We went with all Naan. I was not even messing with the other choices. Normally this comes with a choice of 3 but we paid the extra $2 to get all nine…why not?

I am not even going to pretend to remember what they all were. Some were really good, some were meh, and a few were not so great. But oh my goodness overall it was fantastic! I could have easily just had this for my meal. Speaking of our meal we both went with the pick three slow cooked entrees and decided we would share.

DH ordered the beef short ribs and spicy Durban chicken with five-grain pilaf

I went with the butter chicken and spicy Durban shrimp with Basmati rice.
The entrees were okay. I guess I really do not have a taste for Indian food. DH has a Thai restaurant close to his work that he walks to for lunch quite often so I knew he would enjoy eating here more. And I was right he loved it! So I was happy.

We both got the Dessert Trio for our dessert. It had Coconut Cheesecake, Chai Cream, and Tanzanian Chocolate Mousse. And yes the spoon on the chai cream was chocolate and edible. This was so good! The Chai cream was AMAZING!!!

Btw this is Jamal in case you were wondering. I found it interesting that all of the servers who work here have to know the names of all of the animals who walk around. They are all tagged for this purpose. It was pretty amazing that they can point them all out to you.

Our lunch date was complete around 3:30pm and it was so much fun. I really did enjoy having the opportunity to eat here and would do it again, especially for the bread service and the dessert. We signed for our bill and headed out, stopping first for a restroom break. That is when I found these…

Yes I took a picture of the sink in the restroom. It was beautiful and I loved how the water just poured out of the faucet. I know that's a little weird but it was so cool! Anyways. It was now time to head back and meet up with the rest of the family. With our change of plans where would we end up now?
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[thornton0511]

An Evening at my Favorite
By 3:45pm we had made it back to Jambo house. We were meeting everyone else at Epcot since there were a few things that we had missed out on earlier. When we had decided that this is where we would be going after our lunch date, I had attempted to change our FP+ selections from AK to EP rides. Since they were now enforcing tiering the only one I had made that we even cared about was soarin. We waited at the bus stop for an Epcot bus.

Fifteen minutes later we were Epcot bound. It was now 4:15. We got to the park around 4:30. I of course had to get a picture with the icon of my favorite park.

We met up with the kids and the in laws and made our way to Soarin.

DH and his parents wanted to try out the front row this time around. Not me. Nope. The row closest to the ground will be perfectly okay with me. And so the kids and I got in line for row #3.

After surviving another parasailing adventure we made our way to the World Showcase area so that Sydney could meet her friend Duffy.

Santa brought her Duffy for Christmas the previous year and she was excited to meet the larger than life version.

The line was not too bad and we did not have to wait very long at all. I thought it was neat that they had pages of the book displayed for you to read as you progress in the line explaining the story of Duffy.

Soon enough Sydney was getting bear cuddles from her favorite Christmas Disney bear.

And since I secretly love him too I wanted bear cuddles of my own. And he was so soft too!!

It was now 5:30pm and we made our way to the front of the park. We had a ADR scheduled this evening in DTD at 7:30 but there was at least one more thing we wanted to do. On the way there we were distracted by these things….

We were attracted to the Epcot fiber optic ground lights like a cat with a laser.

Somehow we managed to break our hypnosis and make our way here

We had promised the kids a few days ago when we were here that they could have a few minutes to play the video games right outside the meet and greet area. Its beyond me how anyone can be in Disney and want to play video games

After a few minutes of this it was time for us to meet some Disney characters. Last time we got Mickey and Goofy, so who would it be this time?

Mickey….and….Goofy….again lol. Ah well, the experience is really quite good so no worries! We then proceeded to the pick up area for our 5x7. After picking up our picture we all took our turn with a potty break and apparently a few selfies.

It was now nearing 6:00pm and with our track record I knew that we needed to head toward the location of our ADR very soon. But something else had caught our attention too. Something that we had not done at Epcot yet. Would we risk getting somewhere on time again or be responsible and leave now giving us plenty of time. You will have to wait to find out!
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[DisneyKid4Life]

WOW, I guess you were tired. But giving yourself a little break is not a bad idea at all.

With all the animals, certainly not a bad way to wait for a table.

So glad you got a little alone time for lunch. I imagine that is so helpful over a long trip.

YAY Soarin' again!!! Despite not adventuring to the front (i.e top) row, this is still a good thing.

Awww I love Duffy and I especially love Santa Duffy. He holds a really special in my heart. And OMG isn't he ridiculously soft???

Oh man, those Epcot "Street lights" are totally hypnotic.

on video games in Disney. When I was a kid, the Contemporary had a MASSIVE arcade. And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE!!!!!! GINORMOUS! And that was where you could always find me whenever I "wandered". So yeah... I get it.

 

[cstorm65]

Great update. Having grandparents with you is awesome. We did that on our last trip which allowed us to go out to dinner one night. Disney World dates are the best! Can't wait for more!

 

[thornton0511]

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

So when I left off it we were debating leaving Epcot to get to our ADR at a reasonable time or doing one last thing. If you have been keeping up with this report you know by now that time was never on our side and we had spend a lot of time "rushing around" so far. Ahhh but then there was Spaceship Earth right in front of us in all of its glory begging us to get on. And it was 6:00 now…and our ressies were not until 7:30….that's a whole hour and a half people. Sigh. So we went….

On Spaceship Earth….obviously!
The kids each picked a grandparent to sit with which meant that once again DH and I would ride together….which of course meant we were once again five.

Oh dear….here we go

I really did try to get some good pictures in here but once again my camera is horrible in dark places. Sigh. We finally started to make our decent back to the bottom of the ball. I am so glad that they have the video for you to watch now because that is a steep backwards decent and I hate it so much. I remember this part of the ride from when I was a teen and I had nightmares because of it. Bleh.

And once again DH and I were reminded that when in Disney we are five. Good Grief.

So after this it was now 6:35pm and we were waiting for the Epcot monorail. We still had about an hour to check in for our dinner. The children were thrilled….well one was in good spirits anyway.
At this point I am going to warn everyone that I have no idea why we did things the way we did them. It makes absolutely no sense so do not try to reason an answer…and I will not try to justify. I don’t know what we were thinking. For some reason after we caught the Epcot monorail we got off at the TTC.

Then we hopped over to the resort monorail. To go to GF…..because at this very point in time we just had to see the gingerbread house. It was suddenly very important. I don’t know why. It was now 6:50 and not like we had a dinner reservation to get to or anything…..in DTD! Are you kidding me? Geez what were we thinking?

Well at least we seemed happy at the time…no one had a care in the world lol. We got off the monorail and walked into GF. However at this point I have no pictures of the Grand….or the gingerbread house. That's because I snapped out of lalaland and realized crap! We have to get to DTD! Duh. Did not even catch a glimpse of the gingerbread house. Epic failure. And sudden once again I am the white rabbit running around saying hello goodbye I'm late, I'm late, I'm late…..boo. We waited at the bus stop for a DTD bus. It was not looking good guys. Finally a bus did come but man that was a long drive. At some point after failing to change our ADR to a later time on my lovely smartphone app, DH graciously called the restaurant personally to let them know that we were running behind. Eventually we got there and we were off the bus quicker than a cat on a hot tin roof. We had to get all the way from Marketplace to Pleasure Island….and it was nighttime at DTD so bobbing and weaving was a must. I don't know how we did it but we finally arrived…
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[scottny]

Scott where were you when I needed you lol?! You could have saved me from walking down the scary golf course trail

A lot of people do it.

Always nice to start with Buzz.
Monsters Inc is so much fun. I was the “cannot smile guy” once.
Glad he was able to get the phone.
I agree about Jambo House to Kidani.
Ooh! Sanaa. My favorite restaurant there. I love the spicy shrimp and chicken.
I have to laugh. We were that day at Sanaa but at 6:15 for dinner. Missed you by a few hours.
A cliffhanger. Can’t wait to find out.

 

[thornton0511]

A Magical Evening at Raglan Road Pt1

And it was 7:45! Only 15 minutes late. We were apparently getting good at this little game. Thankfully it was no problem still getting our table and we did not have to wait long at all.

Our table was located in a far room away from the main area but no one seemed to care. Hey, when you are late to your reservation just be happy that they are still able to accommodate you right?!

Once our orders had been taken we took to wandering around a bit.

There were some dancers in the main dining area so we watched for a bit. Riverdancing is so awesome! You have got to have some strength and control to be able to do this for sure….total respect for these guys!

continued next post....
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[thornton0511]

A Magical Evening at Raglan Road Pt2


We headed back to the table but I noticed Cory's eyes kept wandering back to the main room where the Irish girls were dancing. Boys. He seemed entranced so much that eventually I tried to distract him by turning him into a hidden Mickey

Very funny mom. I know. Within no time at all the food started to arrive. Ahhh the feast of nom noms.

Up first was the bread. It was delicious!

Sydney had the Silly Steak with Irish Chips

And everyone else went with the Serious Steak lol. Adventurous Crew tonight weren’t we?!
After we were finished with our entrees and waiting for dessert a few of the dancers came into the room where we were dining to dance for us. Yay! Then they asked our kiddos to participate. DS declined immediately but after some coaxing we were able to talk Sydney into joining.

Awww you guys she was so adorable up there! And the girls were so amazingly sweet and patient with her! We were having such a great time here. They even gave her this for participating…

And so now it was time for dessert. Other than the incredible atmosphere this was the whole purpose for me wanting to eat here so we will start from the bottom and work our way up.

Sydney got the vanilla ice cream with butterscotch….yes BUTTER FREAKING SCOTCH to drizzle on top! Sorry about that but I love love me some butterscotch and you usually do not see that served with ice cream so….

DFIL went with the Dunbrody Kiss which meant lots and lots of chocolate lol

DH got some kind of Strawberry Apple Crumble thing. It was not really what he was expecting and I think his reaction was meh. Meanwhile I am over there shaking my head at him saying, "see this is why we google image Disney food before we leave but no you didn't see the point in that did you?" Do I have to even say it? Life lessons. Do your research. There are like a bazillion pictures of every kind of food in WDW. No need for food surprises lol. How's that apple irony tasting honey? Just kidding guys it wasn’t that bad and I did not give him too hard of a time. Just had to rub it in a bit because he is always making fun of me when he catches me looking at pictures of Disney food on my IPad. And then we move on to my choice, and my very smart DMIL who caught on fairly quickly that if in doubt order what Jenn is ordering cause she spends countless hours looking at Disney food on her IPad right? I give you….drum roll please….

Ger's Bread and Butter Pudding. Oh my freaking goodness are you freaking kidding me?! NOM NOM NOM. Say what you will but this stuff kicks Ohana's bread pudding's butt by like a million. And I LOVE Ohana's bread pudding y'all. Hands down the best dessert in all the land, I mean world. IMO of course. Seriously everyone should try this. Like now. Why are you still sitting there? Get up, hop on a plane to Disney, and go eat this at Raglan Road immediately. It will change the way you look at every bread pudding for the rest of your life. And yes the serving size is MASSIVE and after seeing DH staring at my dessert with those sad little puppy dog eyes I gladly shared with him. And with one bite he proceeded to push the crumble to the side and devour the pudding with me. It's that good.
So after dinner my DD started acting a little kookoo crazy bananas, much like she does at an evening EHM, and I began to think there was something more in her scotch topping other than butter…just kidding. She started playing some kind of guess the animal game on her grandpa's phone and well just see for yourself.

Yeah I am not sure if anyone knew what was going on but we were there for awhile and no one seemed to even worry about how late it was getting or anything. We were just having a wonderful evening in our little room off in the corner in Raglan Road on a Tuesday night. Every trip has that one moment, or series of moments that turn into the best memory of the trip. And it always seems to be the not so obvious ones too. Last year it was the four of us at MK during evening EMH just sitting on a porch in frontierland sharing a box of Disney popcorn and just taking it all in. For this trip it was here, at Raglan Road. I love Disney, did you know that?
At some point we knew it was time to call it a night so the in laws were kind enough to take a family picture for us

Wait we are missing one

That's better. We made our way out and back on the bus to our resort.

And within a few minutes of being on the bus the kids found a comfortable spot with their Nana to fall asleep for the ride home. After all Nana's are the best snuggle pillows for a kid.
We made it back to Jambo house around 10:30pm. Once again it had been a wonderfully magical day in the world, and someone even managed to talk their mama into an uphill piggy back ride too.

Have a magical evening you guys!

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[thornton0511]

WOW, I guess you were tired. But giving yourself a little break is not a bad idea at all.

With all the animals, certainly not a bad way to wait for a table.

So glad you got a little alone time for lunch. I imagine that is so helpful over a long trip.

YAY Soarin' again!!! Despite not adventuring to the front (i.e top) row, this is still a good thing.

Awww I love Duffy and I especially love Santa Duffy. He holds a really special in my heart. And OMG isn't he ridiculously soft???

Oh man, those Epcot "Street lights" are totally hypnotic.

on video games in Disney. When I was a kid, the Contemporary had a MASSIVE arcade. And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE!!!!!! GINORMOUS! And that was where you could always find me whenever I "wandered". So yeah... I get it.

Ha! Why does that not surprise me Rob? Lol I can totally see you as a kid wandering off to play video games. I just wish that they would make the arcade areas at the resort so not Chuck E Cheese like. Bleh. And yes I wanted to kidnap Santa Duffy and take him home with me to snuggle with....that's not strange or creepy at all is it lol?!