Kittylady Family does Kidani May '09 - updated 10/16 FINALLY

[kittylady1972]

THE CAST MEMBERS
Dina - (Age 37) Self-proclaimed Disneyholic and Tigger-lover.
Claim to fame: Introducing my husband AND his parents to Walt Disney World for the very first time...they are now officially hooked and the in-laws go with us on every family trip

Frank - (Age 38) Devoted Husband of Dina, Thrillseeker and Kid-at-heart
Claim to fame: He has introduced the kids to many of the thrill rides for the first time as they've reached the minimum height limits and most of those introductions have been successful

Nicolas - (Age 9) - Mr. Impatient - "Another line??? I don't wanna wait!"
Claim to fame: He once was responsible for STOPPING the Snow White ride all on his own at age 5

Noelle - (Age 6) - The Princess of the family
Claim to fame: Only member of the family to have her first Walt Disney World visit before she could even walk - at age 11 months. Also the only one that LOVED the characters from the first time she met them, unlike the boys' first character experiences where they couldn't get far enough away from many of the characters. At age 14-months she walked right up to Genie of all people and hugged him without hesitation

Noah - (Age 4) - Cars-a-holic
Claim to fame: Last trip in November 2007 we waited in the freakishly long line to meet Lightning and Mater and while waiting he fell asleep in my arms. I almost could not wake him up! When it came time for the meet-n-greet, he clung to me for dear life as I had the cast members take photos. As we left the park that day, he was disappointed that none of the Cars characters signed his t-shirt and I had to explain they HAD NO HANDS!

Frank Sr - (60-plus-ish) - Father of Frank, devoted Grandpa to the kids
Claim to fame: Speedster of the group; we know where Nicolas gets his impatience; he has been known to leave all of us in the dust walking around the parks

Lois - (60-plus-ish) - Wife of Frank Sr, Mother of Frank, devoted Grandma
Claim to fame: Breaking land speed records while renting her first scooter during the last Disney trip in November of 2007

Our Story: Since the very first time Dina introduced Frank to Walt Disney World, they have been returning as much as possible. In 1999, when Dina was pregnant with Nicolas, they brought Frank's parents on their first Walt Disney World to trip and they have been hooked ever since. We have returned about every-other-year with the kids AND the grandparents, sometimes more often. We once made two trips in the span of about 4.5 months because Lois became sick during a trip and returned home only two days into the trip. We decided to return about 4.5 months later, this time renting DVC points for the first time to stay at a 2BR Villa at Boardwalk and I think that's when we really started considering buying into DVC, though it would take another few years before Dina could be convinced by Frank. We became owners in December of 2006 and have not regretted it.

Our last trip was in November of 2007 where we rented a Grand Villa at SSR and were joined by Frank's parents AND Dina's parents, and we used additional DVC points to rent another room for Dina's brother and his girlfriend. It was a great trip during Thanksgiving week and seeing the parks decorated was truly magical. It has convinced Frank Sr to return to Disney to see those decorations, and so this trip in May will be one of TWO trips this year. We will return in early December for another week after this trip. That should help us recover from the post-Disney-Vacation letdown after this trip when we have another one to look forward to just 7 months later!

We will fly to Walt Disney World on Friday May 1st, taking the younger two kids out of school for 6 days. Our first night will be spent in two different rooms at Disney's Beach Club Villas. Dina and Frank stayed there in October of 2008 (AKA the 10-year-Anniversary-No-Kids-Trip) and just LOVED it so thought it would be cool to introduce it to the rest of the family. We love the fact that we can walk to EPCOT from there and LOVE the pool and proximity to Boardwalk as well.

On Saturday May 2nd, we will check into a 2-bedroom Savannah View room at Animal Kingdom Villa's BRAND NEW Kidani Village. We are a bit nervous, finding so little information about the progress of the resort, but hope staying there during opening week won't be a major mistake. The kids are going to love seeing the animals from our room! We will stay here for 7 nights, checking out the following Saturday to fly back home.

Goals for this trip are to try and relax a bit this time. We also just go-go-go because the kids are all thrillseekers (the whole family actually) but with a second trip planned, we hope to make more time for downtime this trip. There are definitely a few things we'd like to try to see and/or do for the first time or first time in a long time, as well as introduce to the kids. Noah has reached that magical 40-inch mark so this will be the first trip that he will get to experience many rides for the first time, such as Test Track, Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, BTMRR and Dinosaur. Dina is happy she does not have to sit out and wait with anyone for these rides as she has done on many previous trips.

We are also hoping to attempt a water park for the first time with the kids. We have been pre-kids so our last water park visit was probably 1999! This time around, all 3 kids can swim and the weather should be conducive to spending a day at a water park which I think the kids will enjoy. There are a few other first experiences that I'll try to keep track of here so that we can see how many I get to this time, such as:

Visit to Tom Sawyer Island - preferably early in the morning, 1st boat launch, look for a paintbrush

Candy Lady in Japan (??)

View a Daytime Parade - Tough once since Frank despises crowds and is not thrilled with Parades; we have seen the MK one once in passing, and during our adults-only trip in October we caught the tail-end of the parade at HS and LOVED it...the kids would really like to see that one; we also have never viewed the one at Animal Kingdom Park EVER

Flights of Wonder - Animal Kingdom Show that we have never seen

Finding Nemo Show at Animal Kingdom - Kids have never seen it

Dole Whip - I don't think we've introduced the kids or grandparents to this one yet, though Frank and I get one each time we are there without kids

I think that's about it. Hopefully I'll remember to update this at a later date. I'll try to post our ADRs very soon. There are many return-visits to restaurants and a few first-time tries in there as well.


If you are now ready to skip right to the Trip Report instead of reading all the pre-trip stuff, use the link below:
Kittylady Family May 2009 Trip Report

 

[Crisgw]

I'm in We'll arriving shortly after you leave. The Candy Lady in Japan really irked me last time as we watched her show from the FRONT row 3 times in one day and she never once called on my sons to get a candy creation (she did however pick two kids from the same family who's father lied about them being not related-boy that's a whole other story!!!)

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[summermac]

Looking forward to reading your plans.

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm going back and forth on whether or not to get the dining plan for this trip. We'll have annual passes so the TIW card might be the better way to go and I'm thinking about packing lunches for the kids since they tend not to eat much anyway and would be happy with PB&J every day. We'll see though.

Now the ADRs for the trip:

Chef Mickey's (Breakfast) - Chef Mickey is a MUST do for us each and every trip. We usually do breakfast, but have done dinner twice. We always get a family picture there.

Spoodles (Dinner) - New for us for dinner, though DH and I had breakfast there on our last trip. We wanted a place we could walk to from Beach Club Resort, so this fit the bill. We may do Captain's Grill instead, though we already have that planned for dinner later in the trip

Boma (Dinner) - Never tried dinner here, but we've done breakfast twice and loved it. We're staying at AKL so on the day we check into our room we'll head here after unpacking

Brown Derby (Lunch) - DH and I ate there last trip and just LOVED the Cobb Salad so much we were tempted to return a second time during our 5 days there...but we head back this time and bring the family

Cali Grill (Dinner) - This was our anniversary restaurant choice in October and we just loved it, though it helped we had a nice table right by the window with a great MK view. We did come back that evening and view the fireworks too...just great.

Kona Cafe (Dinner) - A longtime favorite, we've done this for dinner a few times on past trips and have never been disappointed

Cinderella's Gala Feast (Dinner) - On our last trip we had a reservation here for dinner for all of us...it was set for 5:30pm and I made an appointment for my daughter at the BBB at 3:30pm that day. They were running an HOUR behind and even though we called when she finished up around 5pm, they told us they would NOT hold the table for us. We ended up driving around trying to find a place to eat before heading the HS and doing counter service and seeing Fantasmic! but I was still upset about missing this one so we'll try again this time with NO BBB appointment

Captains Grill (Dinner) - Ate here also for the first time last trip in October without family and really enjoyed it. We will try it again.

Tutto Italia (Dinner) - My FIL is 100% Italian, first one born in this country so Italian food is a must. We used to love Alfredos so hope this will be as good. This is the main reason to consider the dining plan because I know how expensive this meal will be.

Garden Grill (Dinner) - I just wanted one last reservation to fill the week and we used to love the characters here back when the kids were younger and we just had two of them. We may end up skipping this one if we can find something better since it's on our last night of the trip. I picked it because it's in EPCOT and that night is Extra Magic Hours evening night there.

So that's our plan, always subject to change but I haven't changed them in two weeks so that's a good start. I'm always rethinking them and reviewing menus though.

 

[kittylady1972]

Amazingly I think last week was the first time I did not make ANY changes to our Disney plans. We've paid for our first night's hotel now and our Annual Passes since we'll be returning in December. I think my FIL is looking more forward to the December trip than this one! I'm really excited not only about spending some more time at the Beach Club pool but also seeing our great room at Kidani Village and being able to view the animals. The kids are going to be so excited.

I did check my Disney Visa Rewards status and I have just over 300 Disney Rewards Dollars, so I've ordered my rewards card and hope to see that soon. I have a few new sweatshirts for the kids that I've purchase from the local Disney Outlet Store and I'll surprise them with once we are there.

Since my MIL will be recovering from hip replacement surgery (just had this done in February) she has requested a wheelchair rental for the trip. I've received quotes from a few places and just need to sit down and figure out which one to use. We definitely want to rent from somewhere else so the wheelchair is available at our resort. Last time in Disney we rented a scooter for her to use (since her hip was really bad pre-surgery) and that worked out very well. It's especially nice to have the wheelchair in the parking lots too since we tend to drive to the parks and not use Disney transportation too often unless we split up during the day, which has happened a few times.

So that will be next on my agenda...to finalize the wheelchair rental. Nothing too exciting.

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok, so I'm VERY VERY tempted to change one of our dining reservations. I really don't see us doing the Garden Grill on our last full day of Disney, but I don't know what else we will do, what park to visit, so I managed to resist the temptation to change that reservation...so far. I did put together a spreadsheet of our Dining Reservations and approximate costs and more and more I'm feeling like we will probably go ahead and get the dining plan. We LIKE to eat. Even though there are a few places where I am thinking I may get just appetizers, there are still plenty of other places where I know we'll order meals. Right now it looks like my approximate costs of meals where I would use the dining plan is about $700 and for $790 we'd get the dining plan for seven nights. My estimates include only dinners and one breakfast and lunch table service...that does not even include the counter service meals or snacks and I am pretty sure we'll spend more than $90 for the week on those. So we'd come out ahead getting the dining plan. I think we'll have to go with it.

The other thing I did yesterday was put together a brief summary of each day's plan of attack. So here it goes:

Day 1 - Arrive at airport, pick up rental minivan, drive to Beach Club Resort for check-in. Our DVC room has never EVER been ready before 4pm but we have 2 different regular rooms this time so maybe we'll get lucky. Since we arrive around lunchtime, I'm thinking of hitting Beaches and Cream for lunch...how I'd LOVE to try a kitchen sink! Then we'll hang out at the pool for the rest of the day, have dinner that evening at Spoodles around 7pm, then if we are up for it maybe we can hit EPCOT in the evening, even if only to catch Illuminations.

Day 2 - Early morning checkout of our room, see if our rental stroller is ready for pickup. It's early entry for Hollywood Studios so we'll hop the boat over there and hit Toy Story Mania at rope drop. Lunch that day is at the Brown Derby. We'll catch the 3pm Block Party Bash because the kids want to see it even though DH does not enjoy parades. We'll also try to get in line for photos with the Cars characters as my youngest LOVES them (anyone know if you still have to line up a good 30 minutes for that?) We'll leave around 4pm, boat back to Beach Club, drive over to Animal Kingdom to check into Kidani Villas. Boma for dinner that night.

Day 3 - Leave hotel bright and early for breakfast at Chef Mickey's and spend the morning at the Magic Kingdom, hopefully getting there close to opening and heading to Tom Sawyer's Island first thing. Spend most of the morning there, back to the hotel for a light lunch and rest if we need it. If we can withstand, we can stay all day and go right from there to the CA Grill for dinner if we don't feel a need to clean up first. After dinner, catch Wishes from the CA Grill. If we are up for it, MK is open until 1am so we could head there for a little bit.

Day 4 - If we aren't out too late the previous night, we can plan to hit Animal Kingdom by 8am for EMH and do the Safari first thing. Ride all we want to do here, catch Flights of Wonder and maybe Nemo; kids to the playground there if they are up for it (we never miss it). Back to the room in the early afternoon for some pool time and cleanup before dinner that evening at the Kona Cafe. Catch monorail over to MK after dinner for 9pm viewing of Spectromagic.

Day 5 - Drive to the TTC, park and monorail over to the Poly to hit Capt Cooks and get some Tonga Toast for breakfast! I just didn't want to schedule another Kona Cafe meal for the sake of saving time. Monorail over to EPCOT afterwards and spend some time there, try the Kim Possible Mission with the kids. Leave EPCOT and back to the hotel for rest and cleanup before our dinner at 1900 Park Fare that night. I'm still worried about this one. Never done it for dinner, but reading increasingly bad reviews about it. Maybe some mini-golf this evening?

Day 6 - Weather permitting, this will be a water park day for all. We'll spend most of the day at the water park, return to the hotel for rest, and then dinner that night at Captain's Grill. We'll drive over to the Y&BC or Boardwalk. After dinner, either walk around Boardwalk or head to EPCOT. Mini-golf if we haven't squeezed it in yet.

Day 7 - Alternate water park day if the previous day was not a good one. Otherwise, return to Hollywood Studios or maybe Magic Kingdom for the morning. If choice is MK, we'll do another early entry day there and do Tom Sawyer's Island if we didn't do it before. Sometime late afternoon we'll head over to EPCOT and remain there until dinner at Tutto Italia.

Day 8 - Our last full day. Our stroller will be returned this morning. We have our choice of parks or shopping or whatever we want to do with this day. This is the day I have Garden Grill for dinner. We'll see if that sticks.

Day 9 - Our last official day. Check out of our villa, drive to either EPCOT or Hollywood Studios since both parks make for an easy and quick exit. Leave park by 3pm at latest, drive to airport for flight back home!

So that's the plan...we'll see how it goes!

 

[sneadae]

I'm following along! You have a beautiful family. Looks like your one month away...how exciting! We still have about 7 weeks, but I hope it goes by fast.

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm following along! You have a beautiful family. Looks like your one month away...how exciting! We still have about 7 weeks, but I hope it goes by fast.

Thanks so much! We are SOOO excited! The 4.5 year old is already counting the days...4 weeks mommy, then 3 weeks, then 2 weeks then 1 week and we are there right? YES!

 

[summermac]

Sounds like you've got a great plan of attack. I need to start working ours up too.

 

[kittylady1972]

I still can't believe it. Our trip will be here before we know it.

I don't remember if I mentioned it here, but we've been keeping a behavior chart at home for the three kids. Each day they do well they can earn a smiley face, and each smiley they earn is worth ONE DOLLAR to be paid to them so that they can spend it at Disney. So far, with just over 2 weeks to go, they have each earned between 27 and 30 dollars. We all know that won't go all THAT far in Walt Disney World though. Over the weekend for Easter, they also each got cards from the grandparents and each card had money that we were told was for Disney...$25 more dollars. I think they will be all set now for Disney! They are so excited.

It's funny to hear even my 4-year-old talk about stuff he wants to see in Walt Disney World. His last trip there was November 2007, so he was about 3.5 at the time, and yet he remembers things from that trip that are NOT on the many videos we've watched of our trips. The other day he started talking about the Jungle Cruise for some reason, though he didn't know the exact name of the ride. He was talking about the boats, and the elephants that squirt the water at you and it was just funny to hear. It's quite obvious that my kids are well on their way to becoming total Disneyholics just like their parents and grandparents!

Eighteen more days and we'll be there!

I am even slightly contemplating a THIRD trip within the year but I have to be honest...I don't think we could ever do Walt Disney World during Easter break, and that's when this trip would take place. It's tempting, knowing that our passes would still be good for March/April of next year though. I'm wondering if it is possible to just stay at a Walt Disney World resort and spend very little time at the parks though? Could I do it? I somehow doubt it.

The thing is, I just learned last week that my kids will be out of school for an entire week plus a day next year around Easter. This will be the first time EVER that this has happened. They have always just been give the Thursday before Easter, Good Friday and the Monday after Easter as days off...but not next year. Next year they will get the entire WEEK before Easter off as well as the Monday after Easter. I know if I'm going to have to take a week off from work, I'd much rather go somewhere and preferable somewhere WARM. Florida is the obvious choice of course.

We could swing another trip using our DVC points, but we could not book it until December 1st when we would get the points in our account to use, as we'd be borrowing future points. I figure the chances of me actually being able to book a room during the week before Easter with just less than 4 months notice would be pretty slim though. So we may just look into a Disney cruise or just a trip somewhere else in Florida instead. I'm thinking about maybe the Tampa area, doing Busch Gardens and other parks, or maybe even the Universal parks but I'm thinking they will probably be just as crowded the week before Easter, huh?

I've seen a few threads posted about the crowds last week and I have to say...I'm afraid of that level of crowd. As much as I love Disney, I don't think I could tolerate that high crowd level. It looks pretty close to the crowds that we saw in 2007 when we decided to hit the Magic Kingdom on Thanksgiving Day! My husband swore never again to be in the parks during high crowd times. I think I'm with him on that one!

 

[MEK]

Congrats on your upcoming trip! We are staying at Kidani village in early June and I can't wait to read about it, so please make sure you post lots of pics and get right to your trip report. Unfortunately, we only have points for 5 nights and we decided to stay non savannah to save a few more points. When I visited AKL in December I was really impressed with the general viewing areas, so I am hoping I will not be disappointed. I am really looking forward to this resort. Still waiting for AP rates to be released since we still need two more nights somewhere!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[kittylady1972]

Congrats on your upcoming trip! We are staying at Kidani village in early June and I can't wait to read about it, so please make sure you post lots of pics and get right to your trip report. Unfortunately, we only have points for 5 nights and we decided to stay non savannah to save a few more points. When I visited AKL in December I was really impressed with the general viewing areas, so I am hoping I will not be disappointed. I am really looking forward to this resort. Still waiting for AP rates to be released since we still need two more nights somewhere!

Looking forward to reading more!

Don't worry, I tend to take LOTS of photos and will definitely take plenty of the resort, since those are so scarce around here right now. I'm hoping to try to squeeze in a LIVE trip report while there as well, even if it's just a short daily update with a few photos that I can expand upon later.

We bought points from another DVC owner in order to expand our reservation and have Savannah View. When DH and I stayed at this resort back in 2006 we had a standard room view...of the parking lot and ended up upgrading it after one night. It was soooo worth it!

We used our AP to book an AP rate for our first night which is at the Beach Club Resort. Those are just standard rooms for us, then we'll all combine in a 2BR unit at Kidani the next night. We are SOOO excited!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

I read that you ate at California Grill for your 10th anniversary. That's where we are planning on eating when we celebrate our 10th anniversary this October.

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi!! How cool you guys are going to try Kidani Village. I can't wait to go check it out when we go there. I'm looking forward to seeing the pool.

We're staying at Jambo House in May!! Can't wait. It's our first time staying at AKV.

All your plans sound great!

 

[summermac]

Wow, less than a month to go now!

How much did that mini van rental set you back? If you don't mind...

 

[shordiebecka]

I'm so jealous...AKV..the new ones! Oh I wish I could buy into DVC....

Anyways, my thoughts on your easter plans...Easter is insane at Disney. I would suggest something else....a Disney cruise might be a great taste of Disney without being in the parks!!

Everything is so close for you!

 

[ekball]

Just popping by to say 'hi neighbor'!! We check into Kidani on May 1 for a quick 3-night stay, and we can't wait!!!!!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Wow, less than a month to go now!

How much did that mini van rental set you back? If you don't mind...

Those trip reports scroll away so fast that I'm just getting back. Our minivan is costing us about $350 for the week I believe. I found a discount code to use for Dollar (we always use them) in order to get that rate. Originally I was looking at rates of about $800 or more for the week...YIKES!!

 

[kittylady1972]

I can't believe how close we are to our trip. I finally have the wheelchair rented for my MIL, though I'm really hoping after a day or two of us pushing her we can convince her to upgrade to a scooter instead!

Over the weekend, I went through all the kids' clothing and learned what would not fit them and what would and then I packed their stuff too! I have a bag to check at the airport for the three kids and then a smaller bag with just a change of clothing and bathing suits for our first night's stay so we don't have to unpack everything.

Everybody is getting very excited! It's been nice that the weather here in Maryland has been in the 80s and 90s for the last three days (instead of our normal 60s) so it's been a nice preview of the weather we'll get to enjoy next week. Of course, on Wednesday it is supposed to get back to the 50s/60s and rainy here, so that trip on Friday morning to leave behind that weather will be GREAT!

We did online checkin on Friday for our Beach Club Resort stay. My only request was a room close to transportation, due to my MIL, but honestly that's okay if we don't get that. We don't plan to be there that long anyway.

I made shirts for everybody over the weekend as well. I bought some t-shirt iron-on transfers and have a shirt for everybody in our party, MIL and FIL included though I haven't clued them in on it. The theme is Hollywood Studios-ish so I'm thinking we'll wear that our first day of touring Hollywood Studios park, right now planned for Saturday. I'll try to post a photo of them here if I get the chance!

 

[kittylady1972]

As promised, here are the shirts I created for everybody for the trip. This is a sample of the woman's shirts - 2 of these in pink for me and my MIL. Noelle also will get a pink tshirt and the boys and men will both be wearing shirts in blue.

FRONT: The image has "<LASTNAME> Family Trip" at the top, and the year 2009 in the middle of it.

BACK:

Each member of the cast has their own image. My FIL loves the Three Caballeros, so of course he and MIL get the ducks:

Nicolas is just always thinking and plotting and can be quite serious, Noelle is our Cheerleader, Noah loves trains:

Then there is myself and the hubby: