July Trip Sprinkled Pixie Dust: Twins, Minivan & DVC 10/4 - The last day!

I am so loving the dollar an hour trick!!! I will be remembering that for future road trips!!!

Poor DH does not look comfortable on the floor of the van.

I can't believe you were able to drive straight through!!! We were about to come out of our skin after just an eight hour drive!

Hurray for arriving at AKL! How I love that resort!!!
 

I am so loving the dollar an hour trick!!! I will be remembering that for future road trips!!!

Poor DH does not look comfortable on the floor of the van.

I can't believe you were able to drive straight through!!! We were about to come out of our skin after just an eight hour drive!

Hurray for arriving at AKL! How I love that resort!!!

I tried laying like DH and couldn't stand it- I don't know how he did it!

Wow, 18 hours, that takes stamina....good for you guys....you definitely had your eye on the prize!

With switching off, it really wasn't bad.
I love all the pictures from the trip down! Looking forward to reading more!!!!

It was good that I switched between the SLR and the point and shoot! (Told you I had a lot of pictures. :laughing:

Subbing! I'm really enjoying your TR and can't wait to read more!

Welcome! I am glad you're along for the ride! :goodvibes
 
Wow, I am SO impressed you guys made it with out stopping at a hotel. You're my hero.:worship::laughing:
 
Dh pulled up to Jambo House and the girls and I went in.



Do you need to know that I took that pic a different day? I was way too excited to take pictures. I did online check-in ten days prior, so up to that counter we went. I was so giddy!

The CM was luke warm - I wish he would have acted a bit excited for me, but he wasn't bad. Does that make sense? He gave us our packet with room keys and told me I was in 50--. He said he couldn't give me the room number yet. I opted for the text to alert us.

Meanwhile, DH parked the car and came inside. He was all giddy too. We walked around a bit.











We learned that each savannah takes the animals in for two hours a day. They alternate so that animals are at the other savannahs. The savannah nearest the lobby was without the animals - which is why I only have bird pictures for you.

We decided to go over to Kidani's pool (Samawati Springs) to swim since we knew we had plenty of time. We walked to the car and picked up the pool bag. The restroom and changing facilities at Kidani were LOVELY. (I didn't take pics - sorry).

After swimming a bit, dds and I went to check out the water play area. It was very cute and they enjoyed it. I think that it might be more fun for kids who don't love to swim/ don't want to, etc. I didn't take too many surrounding photos; I focused on my kids, but here are two with a little bit of the playground.





You can see in the background that maintenance was there. If it wasn't in the photo, I wouldn't have remembered!

At 11:15, the text arrived! "Your resort room is ready! Your room number is 5006. Have a magical day!"

We walked back to Jambo's 5006 (with a stop at the car for half of our stuff); it isn't a terrible walk, but not really one worth treking to the pool area everyday.



















So what was the room view? Did you think we had one of the two parking lots? Because we booked a DVC Value Studio (rooms that are slightly smaller than others) I knew there was a possibilty of 8 pool, 8 savannah, and 2 parking lot (one can learn so much from disboards!). I knew we didn't have parking lot - 5131 and 5133.

We had a pool view:









haha- maybe it was a pool view, but I think they should establish a new "garden view" category.

Coming up: which park do we visit first?
 
Yeah for the "pool" view!:cool1: I am curious about renting DVC points. Never done it and am hearing alot of good about it. I am not sure how it all works so I am interested in your "take" on it.;)
 
Jumping on board! I am very impressed you made it to WDW without stopping and looks like you made good time. I am originally from the East Coast and lived in MD for a while so was realy impressed how quickly you made it through the Balt. VA border area.

I am also impressed that you got pictures of your girls smiling at the various stops during the trip.

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more pictures.
 
Yeah for the "pool" view!:cool1: I am curious about renting DVC points. Never done it and am hearing alot of good about it. I am not sure how it all works so I am interested in your "take" on it.;)

I think there are tons of wonderful DVC members to rent points from. I have read a couple of horror stories, but I think there are flags to help avoid shady dealings. The Dis Moderators have recently (this week) made some changes also to help protect renters. Renters now must have a minimum number of nonrent posts to post on rental board. You should read the stickies on the DVC rent/trade board. I've never rented or rented out points, so I don't know anything from first hand experience. However, I have read a fair amount about it. If you have specific questions, I'd love to try to answer them.

Jumping on board! I am very impressed you made it to WDW without stopping and looks like you made good time. I am originally from the East Coast and lived in MD for a while so was realy impressed how quickly you made it through the Balt. VA border area.

Sunday evening was a perfect time to fly through. We hit a bit of traffic coming home. More on that days from now. :rotfl:

I am also impressed that you got pictures of your girls smiling at the various stops during the trip.

They find rest rooms rather interesting. :confused3 They are good about smiling for pictures. (They might have been fighting less than five minutes before the picture, however. ;) Really, they were very good in the car - only a couple of bumps in the road.

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more pictures.

Thanks!!!:thumbsup2
 
Room looks great! The value studio doesn't look any smaller than a standard studio.
 
The Kidani pool seems like a lot of fun!

Your room was ready pretty early! How nice!

I have to agree with you -- that is like no pool view I have ever seen. :laughing: I bet it was a short walk to the elevators, though. :thumbsup2
 
Great update....garden view seems much more appropriate :lmao:

Beautiful pictures....I love the lobby at Jambo House....we have the same pics of us in the rocking chairs last year! You have a beautiful family
 
WOW! I cannot believe you drove non-stop! The picture of your husband on the van floor cracks me up! :rotfl:

And, what did you use to decorate the windows? I'm stealing that!
 
Room looks great! The value studio doesn't look any smaller than a standard studio.

I could tell the difference, but for the points we saved, we would (and probably are) do it again!

The Kidani pool seems like a lot of fun!

Your room was ready pretty early! How nice!

I have to agree with you -- that is like no pool view I have ever seen. :laughing: I bet it was a short walk to the elevators, though. :thumbsup2

I was excited by the early room! The kidani pool was much quieter, but it could have been the time of morning too. The walk was short. :)

Great update....garden view seems much more appropriate :lmao:

Beautiful pictures....I love the lobby at Jambo House....we have the same pics of us in the rocking chairs last year! You have a beautiful family

Thank you. I look forward to sitting in on of the rockers with a coffee or slushie someday and just "being." While we were at Jambo, we were park commandos. :)

WOW! I cannot believe you drove non-stop! The picture of your husband on the van floor cracks me up! :rotfl:

And, what did you use to decorate the windows? I'm stealing that!

I couldn't believe hit fit!? He is 6'1. :rolleyes: I used Crayola window markers. Please glean any idea that you can!!! I am a teacher and it is how we survive!
 
After we made our room look a bit more lived in... ate some lunch from Mara (DH ran down and brought it back to our room)

I had the chix flatbread - YUM!!! DH had chix caesar salad, and the girls had chix fingers. Of course, we had zebra domes too! DELISH!

This pic was from a different day- I didn't take many on arrival day??!!




We showered and headed to



We were at AK ten minutes after arriving at the AKL bus stop!!!

Our first stop was guest relations to secure our APs. I had our DVC discount and our GAD vouchers. Buying the APs ended up only costing us $200 more than the 10 day tickets. The lady behind the counter presented us with our APs - Minnie for DH (he was disappointed), Donald for Hannah (she was disappointed), Goofy for me (I so didn't care) and Mickey for Emma (she thought she was the luckiest!)

It was now 3:00 and a bit hot. We headed in! DH went to see if there were any FP for Everest left and we met him in Dinoland. No FP. We rode Primeval Whirl (this ride is evil, btw), Dinosaur, and Everest each had a wait time posted of 30-35 minutes, but except PW, the others were much less. I didn't do Everest. I went off- maybe to check for Kali fp? I wondered over in Africa and saw the "Taste of Africa" venues. The DJ on the roof was cool. I picked up the pamphlet for DH to see beer selection.

We had a 5:30 reservation for Yak and Yeti, but I wanted to see if we could eat early (it was 5:00). They took us right away. (Yeah! It was hot - and I was a bit worn.) We had a table upstairs next to the overlook to the downstairs.

Here is pic from ORLANDO ATTRACTIONS MAG from SMUGMUG since I didn't take many that day.



We paid for this one out of pocket with a 10% discount for DVC. The total was $64 (without tip). I had the honey chix (yum!), dh had Mahi Mahi (he enjoyed) and my girls had the mini burgers from the kids menu. DH had a specialized beer or two...

We did the safari - no pics - now, I remember that I didn't bring my SLR with me - and the girls had Mickey bars.

We left the park right at 7 (when hoards of people were entering for evening EMH.)

It was an early night for us in order to get up for EMH at MK 8.

Coming up - Bright and early and I took more pictures! :wizard:
 
Zebra Domes...yum yum. Looks like a good afternoon at AK. Looking forward to seeing how your day the MK went.
 
We really enjoyed Yak & Yeki when we went last year....everything was really yummy. We only ate at Mara once I think and that was arrival day! I did, however, purchase zebra domes and put them in our fridge:love:
 
Was the honey chicken really good? I kind of want to eat in the Yak and Yeti but the only thing I would get would be the honey chicken and you can get that at the CS location for waaaay cheaper!
 












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