Kick'n It at Kidani (aka Am I Becoming a Resort Snob?)Final Update 8/20 p.54

[MEK]

I have a few more people that I neglected to repond to. I promise I will return soon!

 

[LovintheLodge]

I really enjoyed your trip report! You are one terrific aunt too! Honestly I can't imagine LJ choosing Dutch Wonderland over Dorney Park. Based on his WDW experience, I think he's ready for the thrill rides at Dorney Park. Maybe there's still a chance...

 

[Charleston Princess]

Liked reading about all of your final thoughts!

I have to agree that CSR is a very pretty resort -- I love POFQ best of all the moderates though -- maybe I will change my mind after I stay at CBR in October.

Teppan Edo and the Mara definitely deserve their stars!

 

[MEK]

I hear you on the pain of flying out of the Philadelphia airport...-it's our home airport but we're spending a day in NYC and flying out of Newark this time...we always wind up circling when its time to land in Philadelphia and I confess it makes me nauseous... (I'm not a big fan of the Phila-Orlando flight-although short I've found it to be a little rough...)

LJ it quite the cutie and he is very lucky to have you as an aunt (& the opportunity to go with you to DW...and he seems to have been a delightful travel companion...- I wonder if his parents realize yet that his constitution is a little hardy than they had perhaps thought...

Your photos of the CSR were simply wonderful...

Great trippie...

Hey 3 P's....

Thank you......I have never just landed in Philadelphia. I always have to circle. I live over a flight path and some nights all I see are airplanes lined up in the sky waiting to land.

I do hope that LJ's parents start to realize that he is pretty darn sturdy!

Poor LJ! I keep thinking about him having to go back to his "delicate" lifestyle! You proved that he can keep up with the best of 'em!! Good going Auntie!! This will give him wonderful memories for the rest of his life!!

I hope you don't mind, I am the one who posted a link to your trip report on the CSR thread by KatMark! You took such beautiful shots and I figured the die hard CSR fans would love to see them.

Have fun at the fair!

"Delicate lifestyle" I like that term! I hope I helped break that mold!

I don't mind you posting the link at all. I appreciate the compliment and I'm glad that people enjoy the pics. I know I always look for pics before I stay somewhere new.

MEK - reading lurkyloo's anniversary TR......was just thinking find those pics, but now I am reading (she is staying at BCV, so you know I am hooked!), so, sooner or later I will come across those lounge pics. Only on page 3 right now, so, might be a while!!!

Sucked into Lurkyloo's TR are ya' now??? I could have predicted that! Her TR's are the BEST. She is so freak'n funny cause she writes for a living. Hope you find those pics!

I really enjoyed your trip report! You are one terrific aunt too! Honestly I can't imagine LJ choosing Dutch Wonderland over Dorney Park. Based on his WDW experience, I think he's ready for the thrill rides at Dorney Park. Maybe there's still a chance...

Hey LovintheLodge,,,,, I love that name! I can't imagine LJ chosing Dutch wonderland either, but maybe he's thinking about his younger brothers. Oh well. I'm not going to try to talk him out of it. Although, I know he would love DP. I just hope I can find some discount tics because I really don't want to pay full price!

Liked reading about all of your final thoughts!

I have to agree that CSR is a very pretty resort -- I love POFQ best of all the moderates though -- maybe I will change my mind after I stay at CBR in October.

Teppan Edo and the Mara definitely deserve their stars!

Thanks CP. I have some more final thoughts, if I could just get them organized. Didn;t get much sleep last night. Took an hour nap today, but really need to go to sleep now to catch up on some ZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I think you will like CBR. The nice thing about having a car there is it will feel like Valet Parking. The resort is really lush with foliage. It's got a great island feel. I haven't been there since 05 so I miss it. Would not mind going back at all.

Glad you agree with me on TE and the Mara.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I just spent my entire afternoon reading your whole TR and I enjoyed every moment! LJ is such a cutie...this picture is pure Disney Bliss:

What a great kid, and what a great trip you had!

I loved all your CSR pics, we are staying there in September, and then in a Kidani 2 bedroom in December, so this TR gave me lots of tips - thank you!

 

[MEK]

I just spent my entire afternoon reading your whole TR and I enjoyed every moment! LJ is such a cutie...this picture is pure Disney Bliss:



What a great kid, and what a great trip you had!

I loved all your CSR pics, we are staying there in September, and then in a Kidani 2 bedroom in December, so this TR gave me lots of tips - thank you!

Hi brooke:

I've been stopping by your TR from time to time. It's really good, but I am so far behind that I'm a bit overwhelmed with following it.

I'm glad you like the CSR and Kidani pics. I really wish I was going back to CSR in September, but I'm not. boo! You are going to LOVE the 2BR villa at Kidani. It is just gorgeous!!!!!!!!

Also - I agree ....that pic of LJ is priceless!

 

[MEK]

On Friday I posted some final thoughts. Here it is, two days later, and I am finally getting around to finishing my final thoughts. I had a lot of music to do this weekend....a wedding yesterday, the state fair, and two masses this morning. The wedding was not one of my best. I played my flute with the organ and the organ was incredibly sharp. This organ was ancient, built originally in 1820. Anyway, there was no way I could tune my flute to the organ. I can make the flute play flater, but pulling out the mouth piece, but I could not make it sharper. The fact that we were so out of tune was distracting to me and I played like crap. Oh well. These things happen. Anyway, after all that running around I needed to take a nap this afternoon and it took FOREVER to upload my Niagara Falls pictures to photobucket. Really not sure why.

So when I left off I mentioned that we had:

1. Stayed in two new resorts
2. Eaten at three new table service restaruants
3. Eaten at two new CS restaruants
4. We also swam in FOUR NEW POOLS!

As far as new attractions....well, when this is your 10th trip its hard to do a lot of new things, but I did manage to do a few......

At Animal Kingdom:

Perhaps the coolest new thing I did was FINALLY attend EMH at AK. Unfortunately, I did not ride EE at night. That would have been da bomb, but it will have to wait until who knows when. We are missing EMH at AK again in September, because our trip is so short.

As far as new attractions, well I didn't really do anything new but I did go into the boneyard for the first time since 2002, so that was "semi-new". I also went on Tricera-top spin for the first time since 02. So that was cool!

At MK:

The only really new thing I did was ride Aladdin's Magic Carpet. Yup...never been on that before. So, the only other things I haven't done are the speedway, goofy's barnstormer, the merry-go-round, and dumbo. I guess I will have to pick one of those babies for my next trip. I do regret that we never made it to Philarmagic. I know LJ would have liked that. I am glad we spent more time in Mickey's house than usual. It was fun taking pictures in there.

There is one other new thing I did in the MK....I tried to watch Wishes from the trainstation. That was new for me, although the experience was hampered by my dead batteries and the lady with the 'tude. But next trip, I will position myself plenty early!

At HS:

American Idol. That was new. And fun. I definately recommend the finale for those of you who like singing. I just wish it wasn't so "fixed". I read on someone else's TR that they even pick the songs for the contestants. I don't know if that is true or not. But if it is....don't pick "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" and then tell the contestant the song didn't have a wide enough range.

At Epcot:

The fire safety game at Innoventions (I think it was called "Where's the Fire?")Next trip - Stormchasers!

So, a good time was had by all, despite the heat, humidity, missing tickets/room keys, and the meltdown on spaceship earth. I thought about calculating what the older boys tickets cost me per hour, but decided it would be too depressing. DS16 and his friend still joke about how they barely went into the parks and how they wasted their ticket. Nice.

So have I changed my mind about going next summer?....Nope.....not gonna do it. Maybe the following summer, but not next summer.

So have I changed my mind about taking the teenagers back? ....Nope....not gonna do it. If DS 16 really begs to go one more time before college then...maybe.

Up next..... a little diversion.... a trip to Niagara Falls and then some september pre-trip highlights!

 

[MEK]

Since our quick trip to Niagara Falls fell on the heels of our Disney trip, I thought it would be fun to give a quick recap. After all, in one weeks time, we went from central Florida to Northern NY and the Canadian border. The purpose for our trip....our nephew's wedding in Buffalo, NY.

We got home from Florida late on a Monday evening, worked the rest of the week, and then headed to my BIL/SIL's house in Allentown, Pa on Friday night. On Saturday morning we caravaned to Buffalo. We left very early....around 6:30am ....and arrived in Buffalo shortly after noon. Nick went with us, but DS16 stayed home. His ODP team advanced to the semi-finals and he was cleared from his stress fractureon Thursday and allowed to play on Saturday.

When we arrived in Buffalo we were fortunate enough to be able to check into our hotel, a La Quinta Inn. Seriously, I looked for the cheapest place that was close to the reception and got decent reviews on Trip Advisor. Any place after Disney was going to be a let down, so we might as well go cheap. Room was clean. That's all I can say. We changed into our wedding clothes and then drove to the church which was at least 1/2 hour away. The ceremony was very short (20minutes) and during that time I was getting text messages about the progress of DS16's game. When the ceremony was over we went outside and were greated with pouring rain. It was almost 3pm and the reception was not until 6pm. We drove back to the vicinity of the hotel and stopped at a TGIF for a drink and some munchies. Still not able to kill enough time, we went back to the hotel and watched, "Snakes on a Plane". No, I'm not kidding......we actually watched that ridiculous movie. In fact, we got so sucked into it, we were almost the last ones to get to the reception.

Disclaimer....I am not going to post any pics of the wedding, because I do not know how the bride and groom would feel about that. I guess I could post some of DH, Nick, and I, but they are not downloaded to photobucket.....so I will move on. The reception was lovely. Very top notch. Excellent food, excellent drinks, beautiful cake (crap...should have downloaded that), and an OK DJ. I say OK DJ, because I find that the typical wedding reception music is so unoriginal. For goodness sake, hasn't someone written any songs to replace "We are Family" and "Celebrate .....Good Times, Come On". I hope I don't offend anyone who enoys those songs. I just think they are "tired" and lame after 30 some years. Twenty years ago I refused to let the DJ play them at my wedding reception and he acted like I was crazy. Oh well.

The reception ended around midnight. It was a nice time and I thought it was really nice of them to invite our whole family.

In the morning DH and I got up pretty early. I will admit, I probably had a touch of a hangover, but I went for a run and it cleared pretty quickly. We packed up, but had to wait for an eternity for Nick to join the living. We also needed to wait for a store to open to get a new memory card for the camera. We ate the continental breakfast at the hotel. It was seriously pretty decent and there were enough choices to make a meal.

I think it took us about 40 minutes to drive to the falls. As we were driving down the parkway this is what the falls looked like from a distance. You could see the spray just shooting up in the air:

Notice how calm the water looks. I don't think I could boat out there without being a nervous wreck:

We stayed at a Hampton Inn that was in walking distance to the falls. Again, I picked it based on TA reports. There were closer hotels to the falls. Note: We stayed on the American side of the falls.

We left our car at the hotel and walked over to the state park so we could see the falls up close.

Here's Nick with the American Falls in the background:

Another view from the observation deck we entered:

First thing we did was take the Maid of the Mist boat tour:

Look I spy the falls:

Here is another boat returning from its journey to the falls:

The boat basically idles near the Horseshoe Falls (canadian falls) for a good five minutes. It was very windy and wet. Then you are returnd to port. Boats depart from the US and Canadian side every 10 - 15 minutes. Basically no wait. Nicholas made a funny comment when we disembarked. He said, "Mom, if this was an attraction at Disney world it would need a FP or a 2 hour wait".

Coming back.....the canadian side of the river:

 

[Queenofallthings]

I can't believe your TR is over I get into such a routine every morning reading all the ones I've subscribed to that it makes me sad when one ends.

Great job on the wrap up and I love your report on Niagara Falls. I love it there, I have vivid memories of visiting there when we were transferred back to Canada from Germany in 1969. My dad's sisters live just north of Toronto so we all went. It's funny the things you remember from childhood.

I look forward to still talking to you on our trip report and then we'll have your fall trip to look forward to!!!!

Thank you for such a wonderful report

 

[dawnbu40]

Thanks for sharing your Niagra Falls trip with us We took Caitlin for a weekend when she was about 4 and had a nice little trip. Of course, we go to the Canadian side since we're in Michigan.

Your TR was awesome but you're not done yet since you haven't shared your plans for Sept

 

[mickeysmyboy]

very cool pictures of Niagara Falls!! I'll get there someday!

Your comment about Celebrate Good Times and We are Family cracked me up! I told the DJ not to play them at my wedding 10 years ago as well! Those and the Chicken Dance and Last Dance! Really, is there like a wedding DJ CD that has all those songs on it and they just pop it in

Anyway, can't wait to hear more of your final thoughts and findout about your eatfest trip

 

[Charleston Princess]

Great second part to your final thoughts -- I know what you mean about your teenagers -- I feel the same way about Charles!

Cool pics from your Niagara Falls trip -- one year my mom decided she wanted to see the Falls in winter -- so we went in January! I can honestly say I have never been as cold as I was on that trip! Brrrr!

 

[MEK]

I can't believe your TR is over I get into such a routine every morning reading all the ones I've subscribed to that it makes me sad when one ends.

Great job on the wrap up and I love your report on Niagara Falls. I love it there, I have vivid memories of visiting there when we were transferred back to Canada from Germany in 1969. My dad's sisters live just north of Toronto so we all went. It's funny the things you remember from childhood.

I look forward to still talking to you on our trip report and then we'll have your fall trip to look forward to!!!!

Thank you for such a wonderful report

I know what you mean about getting addicted to different TR's. I get like that with PTR's and then when the person actually leaves on their trip I go into mourning.

I hadn't seen the falls since I was about 7, so it was pretty impressive. The maid of the mist wasn't nearly as impressive as what we did the following day.

Thanks for sharing your Niagra Falls trip with us We took Caitlin for a weekend when she was about 4 and had a nice little trip. Of course, we go to the Canadian side since we're in Michigan.

Your TR was awesome but you're not done yet since you haven't shared your plans for Sept

Thanks Dawn. I'm glad we were both writing our TR's at the same time so we stumbled upon each other's. And we'll probably be writing our Sept TR's at the same time.

I wish we could have gone to the Canadian side, but beginning June 09 we needed passports to get back into the US. Because I was so busy with planning the Florida trip, I did not bother to get passports. Oh well.

very cool pictures of Niagara Falls!! I'll get there someday!

Your comment about Celebrate Good Times and We are Family cracked me up! I told the DJ not to play them at my wedding 10 years ago as well! Those and the Chicken Dance and Last Dance! Really, is there like a wedding DJ CD that has all those songs on it and they just pop it in

Anyway, can't wait to hear more of your final thoughts and findout about your eatfest trip

Yeah....I can't get that song out of my head right now....Celebrate good times, come on....blah, blah, blah, ugh! Chicken dance - check. Last dance - check. I dislike them all.

You must get to Niagara falls, especially since you probably live closer than I do and it really wasn't a bad drive. It is very cool to see. You really need to see it up close!

Great second part to your final thoughts -- I know what you mean about your teenagers -- I feel the same way about Charles!

Cool pics from your Niagara Falls trip -- one year my mom decided she wanted to see the Falls in winter -- so we went in January! I can honestly say I have never been as cold as I was on that trip! Brrrr!

CP - you could calculate how much you spent per hour on Charles' ticket and I will calculate Brian's and then we can see who really bought the most expensive ticket!

Niagara Falls in January sounds excruciatingly painful. Sounds like the polar opposite of Disney in June. Brrrrrh. As you can see by the sweatshirt, it wasn't even that warm in June. In fact, it felt downright arctic (but in a good way) after the florida heat!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great ending and beautiful pix of the falls! I can't believe how close LJ lives to me!!! And, I agree...I'd take a Steel Force ride at Dorney over Dutch Wonderland any day! My aunt and uncle and a couple cousins live in Lancaster also!!! Small world!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm loving the falls pictures. So very pretty.

I love your wrap up too. I'm sad to see it end but I know your other trip is just around the cornerr!

 

[wsushocker]

Teppan Edo and the Mara definitely deserve their stars!

I refuse to eat at Teppan Edo unless I know all the people who will be at the table with me!

Even the Biergarten is a little risky...

 

[wsushocker]

Anyway, after all that running around I needed to take a nap this afternoon and it took FOREVER to upload my Niagara Falls pictures to photobucket. Really not sure why.

I found one of your Niagra Falls pictures on my Photobucket.....

 

[Charleston Princess]

I refuse to eat at Teppan Edo unless I know all the people who will be at the table with me!

You'll really feel that way after I get to that part of my TR!

Hmmm, pretty sure you have a big enough group going in December to score your own table! You need 8 people for your very own table.

 

[MEK]

Great ending and beautiful pix of the falls! I can't believe how close LJ lives to me!!! And, I agree...I'd take a Steel Force ride at Dorney over Dutch Wonderland any day! My aunt and uncle and a couple cousins live in Lancaster also!!! Small world!

Agreed, but its not gonna happen. I will have to deal with Dutch Wonderland. I guess the bonus is I can stop at Kirklands (my new favorite home interior store) at the Lancaster outlets on the way home. I'm sure I can find something in there I absolutely must have.

LJ actually lives in Collegeville, but my BIL/SIL live in Allentown and my other BIL/SIL live in Scranton.....so, yes it is a small world. DH and I are both from Pa originally but ended up working and meeting in DE.

Glad you enjoyed my TR.

I'm loving the falls pictures. So very pretty.

I love your wrap up too. I'm sad to see it end but I know your other trip is just around the cornerr!

You said it LL....my trip is just around the corner and it is now officially paid for, so there's no turning back now! I just wish I was staying OKW or POR, but I'll manage!

I refuse to eat at Teppan Edo unless I know all the people who will be at the table with me!

Even the Biergarten is a little risky...

OMG Shocker.....you are too much!

I found one of your Niagra Falls pictures on my Photobucket.....

Shocker....This is so funny......this picture is of Annie who actually went over the falls in a barrel. She survived the trip and did it so she would get famous, which she never did.

You'll really feel that way after I get to that part of my TR!

Hmmm, pretty sure you have a big enough group going in December to score your own table! You need 8 people for your very own table.

Oh no......that doesn't sound very good!

 

[MEK]

After we rode the Maid of the Mist we walked on a path below the observation tower that took us close to the base of the American Falls. The weather was kind of weird. When the sun came out it was pretty warm, but as soon as the sun went behind the clouds it got chilly again.

Here are some folks out on the paths leading to the American Falls:

The view up to the observation deck:

A close up of the falls:

The boys still in their blue plastic bags:

O Canada:

Rainbow Bridge, which is used for pedestrian and automobile travel to and from Canada:

More Falls:

DH took most of these pictures. He took over 300, so I really am only posting a fraction of them.

After we toured below and on the observation deck we visited the visitor's center. They show a 50 minute movie about every hour on the history of Niagara Falls. Before we watched the movie we walked to a nearby Denny's to grab lunch. It was nice to be able to walk to everything. We used the pedestrian mode on our GPS to find it.

After lunch we bought tickets for the movie and had to wait about 1/2hour for the next showing. The beginning of the movie was a tad boring. It was all about the history of the area. Honestly, I fell asleep for the first 10 or 15 minutes. You know the drill...cool, quiet, dark.......'nuff said. The remainder of the movie was about all the foolish people that have gone over the falls.....many lived, some died. Some went over intentionally, others by accident. That was interesting. Shocker posted a picture of Annie and she really was the first woman to go over the falls. According to the movie she stuffed pillows in the barrel to use them for padding. She took a kitten with her. I don't know if that's true or not.

There is a convenience store located near all the tourist attractions that houses the "daredevil" museum. I wish I had taken pictures of some of the contraptions people used to go over the falls. Quite interesting.

After the movie we walked over to goat island to get an upclose view of the Horseshoe falls.

It was hard to get a good picture of the Horseshoe Falls when we were right on top of them.

Here's me and DH:

And me and Nick:

A cool distance pic of Rainbow bridge and the American falls:

After we had our fill of goat island we headed back to the hotel to officially check in. Our room was recently refurb'd and it smelled a bit like paint. It was a perfectly acceptable room and the people at the Hampton Inn were friendly and the free hot chocolate was nice. We chilled in the room for a while and then got fast food. It was Father's Day and we should have taken DH out to dinner, but none of us felt like it. So we got my favorite Fast food of all time....Taco Bell. Ironically, one week before we were eating Taco Bell in Orlando. Talk about a coincidence.

After TB we headed up the northern part of the parkway and stopped at another state park (whirlpool state park). It was 8:30pm and it was still very light out so we visited the walking paths and actually saw a whirlpool that was downstream from the falls. Then we drove out to the power plant because we were thinking about touring it the next day. Finally, we returned the car to the hotel and walked back to the observation deck to watch the sunday night fireworks.


Twilight:

Here is the night time city view:

And as my usual luck would have it......dead batteries at the start of the fireworks!

Up next.....day 2 of Niagara Falls and booking ADRS. Yeah, you heard me right. My 90 day ADR window opened up while I was in Niagara Falls!