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

[MEK]

Love your most recent updates. You sure got a lot done at MK. Plus, you are the second person who just posted how awesome the Mainstreet bakery is.

BTW -The man in the green behind you on Splash Mountain does NOT look like he is having a good time!

 

[DWGal210]

So much to tell on such a FABULOUS trip! We had sunny weather every single day and temps in the 90s and absolutely NO Florida thunderstorms. I think that's the first time ever I've been to Walt Disney World and not had at least one rain shower. We had a surprise FREE upgrade to Business Class seating thanks to Air Tran which made our flight down even more fabulous. We may be spoiled for Business Class forever now! Beach Club Resort was wonderful...our room was practically right next to the walkway to EPCOT, though we didn't take advantage of that on our one day and night there. The kids LOVED the Beach Club Pool and I can finally say we have eaten at Beaches and Cream and it lived up to the hype, though I was unable to get the Kitchen Sink this time. There is always next time.

Kidani Village was AWESOME! I can't say enough great things about the resort and the staff there. The Savannah View room was totally worth it to be able to sit on the balcony and view giraffes and zebras every day. The pool and play area at Kidani get TWO THUMBS UP and the slide I daresay rivals that of the slide at Beach Club Resort, not for height but for the speed and fun factor! I'll return soon to give a daily recap of our vacation...PROMISE!

Oh, I am so glad to hear this!!! We have a savannah view room at AKV in December and from everything I've heard, I think we'll love it! Back to reading your TR!

 

[manntra]

Great update and pictures! I met the stepsisters and Lady Treamaine during my January trip and they cracked me up! They made the funniest faces and poses for the pictures. My niece that was with me has red hair and the stepsister with red hair kept touching hers and saying that it was not nearly as nice as hers! It was so funny! Prince Charming was cute!!! Might have to go there for dinner in October!

 

[kittylady1972]

Love your most recent updates. You sure got a lot done at MK. Plus, you are the second person who just posted how awesome the Mainstreet bakery is.

BTW -The man in the green behind you on Splash Mountain does NOT look like he is having a good time!

Yep, we were just talking to the in-laws a few nights ago and we have all agreed a return to that bakery is a MUST for our December trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

Great update and pictures! I met the stepsisters and Lady Treamaine during my January trip and they cracked me up! They made the funniest faces and poses for the pictures. My niece that was with me has red hair and the stepsister with red hair kept touching hers and saying that it was not nearly as nice as hers! It was so funny! Prince Charming was cute!!! Might have to go there for dinner in October!

Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the entertainment in that restaurant was really good and the food was good as well, but it's probably not someplace we MUST return. It was a great experience though.

 

[kittylady1972]

So after dinner at Tutto Italia, we decided to do a little bit of exploring of EPCOT as well as some drinking 'round the World. I can't remember our first stop, but it was most likely Italy where the adults all purchased Italian Margaritas to try. These were really yummy but I also should mention, really not strong at all for those concerned that we are cruising around the world with three young children!

We stopped at this awesome temporary Flower and Garden Festival climbing structure for the kids to play:

So we enjoyed our drinks and the kids got some playtime in while we relaxed. They loved it.

We hopped a quick ride on Maelstrom after this, and after staring at the mural for the longest time trying to find the hidden Mickey's that DH insisted were there, we asked a CM there who pointed them all out to us. Cool!

Next we moved along to Mexico and yet another frozen drink of some kind. Of course, we had plans to ride the boat ride in Mexico because FIL loves The Three Caballeros...did you see the tshirt I designed?

Here are the characters I chose for MIL and FIL:

So we are sitting right next to the steps to Mexico, finishing off our drinks while the kids wait impatiently and run around. At one point DS9 Nicolas asks me about the "kid leashes" that he sees and wonders why people put those on their kids. We explain that it's for people who worry about their kids running off or getting lost but that we do our best to keep track of our three kids WITHOUT the use of leashes and have done just fine thankyouverymuch. At this point my DS says "Thanks Mom and Dad for not putting us on a leash" and hugs us. Some girls sitting near us start to laugh at that and then we have a little talk about the kid leashes and how absurd we think they are and Hey we control our kids just fine without those and have done a pretty good job so far...and now CUE the HAHAHAS!

Right in front of us, DS4 Noah jumps off the steps of Mexico...he STICKS the landing at first...then falls forward right ON HIS FACE! This results in breaking open of the scab of the scar he had received the previous day on his lip at the waterpark and a few new bruises and black-eye looking stuff and of course the bleeding begins! So I must put DOWN my drink, stop running my mouth to these strangers, and rush my son off to a bathroom to tend to his new wounds! PERFECT!


Here is a shot of him in the distance (in yellow) as we watched the train garden...he LOVES trains!

So we get him cleaned up and hop on the Mexico ride where we remark that our next trip we may have to return and eat dinner there. There is NOBODY on the ride or waiting, so we ask to ride again and sure enough they let us go through again...but only after loading one more single rider into the back of our boat. Why he didn't want to wait for the next boat which he could have all to himself, who knows?

Anyway, we finish that ride then continue to walk around the world towards Spaceship Earth and it's now approaching closing time for the park. I'd like to catch Illuminations, but DH is not fond of the shows/parades as I may have mentioned, and besides he remarks we've seen it already. So? Anyway, instead we wander towards the park and decide to do one more ride and he and the kids choose Test Track...only Noah has no interest in riding again. Why? Because he hated that heat/cold test part of it, of all things! So Frank walks off with the two kids to ride, and I stay behind with Noah and the in-laws and as they walk into the doors they close not even a minute later...so they will truly be the LAST riders of that ride for the evening. After that, it was back to the van for the drive back to our resort!

What a view at Sunset huh?

I've just decided to return here and add on our Day 8 and Day 9 reports so that I have it all here. Sorry I didn't get around to it until just now. I am just going to tack it on here so I have a record to reference it for the future.

DAY 8- Friday May 8, 2009

This was our designated “3P” day – park, pool and pizza! After some discussion, the best plan of action was to head to the Magic Kingdom since I had already promised Noah a ride on the Rocket Ships and that is such a low-throughput ride we’d have to get there early to not have to wait forever. We drove to the TTC and then took a boat to the MK. We arrived just after the park opening and headed directly to those RocketShips which had a 10-minute wait, so the five of us got in line while the in-laws lagged behind and ended up doing the Stitch attraction since they had never done it before (only back when it was the Alien version) and knew that it was not something the kids would likely tolerate.

Once off the Rocketships, we headed to Buzz Lightyear, as this was the next repeat ride requested by the kids. That was another quick ride. The kids really wanted to do the Laugh Factory again so we hit that too. They were all hoping to be called on for it, and Nicolas even tried to sit in the same row as before but we forced him a few rows up from that one (center aisle, on the end, about 8 rows up). Noah kept asking before we went into the ride where do we live mommy, just hoping they would call on him this time too. The ended up calling on a lady 3 rows in front of us (probably our same row from the previous time) and then highlighted the man behind her and even the people behind our row, even though the kids, especially Noah,kept raising their hands to be called on. Once the show was over, we decided to hit Haunted Mansion again at the kids’ request, then circled back to Adventureland. We were going to ride Pirates and the Jungle Cruise but Noelle had another major meltdown so I sat down with her as the rest of the gang went on Pirates. When they were finished, we joined them and got in line for Jungle Cruise…about a 20 minutewait…and I got Dibs and some snacks to share in line,which helped.

Noelle and I also had a chance while the rest were in Pirates to do a bit of shopping…that always helps. After Jungle Cruise, the in-laws wanted to stop for a Dole Whip again (we got them hooked on that) and I got the kids some ice cream bars to eat as well. Then we walked out of the park, stopping to do some shopping on Main Street at the Emporium and we even caught some of the Street Party as it went down Main Street towards the castle.

We caught the monorail back to the TTC and drove back to our hotel. In the room, we changed into swimsuits and hit the pool, all of us, where we enjoyed several hours there. Noah finally ventured onto the big slide, though he insisted on wearing a free vest to do so, so he’d put it on with his sister’s help whenever he wanted to ride the slide, then would take it off to play in the rest of the pool. Noelle and I played another game of Bingo but didn’t win. Even my FIL loved the big slide…it was a huge hit and I have to say we love the Kidani pool if only for the extra fun slide. We relaxed by the pool, Frank and I split a turkey sandwich from the bar there and Frank had a few drinks. When the kids were hungry, I returned to the room fto retrieve some Uncrustables and some yogurt for them from our refrigerator.

Around 5pm or so we finally headed back to the room to get cleaned up and start packing our stuff. Frank and I ran out to find a pizza place while Nicolas worked on some more homework. We easily located Giadonis on 192 and ordered an appetizer platter and 2 pizzas…well we thought we ordered 2 pizzas but when the order came up about 15 minutes later and we found only one pizza, we realized we had to order the cheese one for the kids again and wait.

The $18 appetizer sample was HUGE with calamari, chicken fingers, mozz sticks, fried zucchini and fried mushrooms….it could have been a meal for all of us. The thin pizza was very good as well. We were back to the room about 6:30pm to finish dinner. Then I finished packing myself and the kids and around 8:30pm we headed over to Jambo House to do the Night Vision view of the animals, something we had promised Nicolas he’d see. The bugs were biting out there so we did it quickly and then returned back to our room to retire.


Day 9 - Saturday May 9, 2009

Our last day…always a sad time for us. We were up early and ate some leftovers for breakfast, cleaned out the last of our food, returned the wheelchair and then hit Hollywood Studios. We were there around 8:30am, which was well before the 9am opening for the “regular” folks so we had to show our keys to enter the park for early entry. We sent the boys to Toy Story Mania to check on Fastpasses for all of us, but the return time was after 2pm and we didn’t plan to be there that long. The girls then hit Tower of Terror while the boys were there and as we came out Noah got his tshirt in the store there. Then the men and Nicolas hit Rock N Roller Coaster while we headed over to Animation with the little kids and MIL. Unfortunately, it did not open until 10am but there was a showing of Playhouse Disney and as there was no line I asked Noah if he wanted to go in and he said yes, so I took him into that while MIL waited with Noelle outside Animation.

The show ended after about 20 minutes and when we came out it looked like everybody was inside Animation but instead of going into the show first we entered the gift shop and headed to the studio bypassing the show and Noah did some interactive stuff there as we waited for the rest of the gang. The kids had wanted photos with Bolt and the Hamster but we learned they would not be out for another 30 minutes or more and there was already a line forming, so we bypassed that and headed out of the park instead. We drove over to EPCOT.

First for EPCOT was Spaceship Earth (AKA The Big Ball) so the 20 minute wait for that went quickly. When we got ouf of that, we thought about hitting Soarin but Fastpass times for that, at just after noon, were up to 4:30pm so that wasn’t happening. We had some lunch then headed to Finding Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. During the show they called on a girl in a purple shell with a butterfly on it and brown fur and it ended up being Noelle, who asked what do turtles eat? And was quite happy that she got to talk to the turtle. Now Noah was the only one who had not had an interactive experience at Walt Disney World but hopefully he’ll get his turn soon enough.

After that, we just walked through Mousegear and did some shopping, after Noelle stopped for her photo with Chip and Dale. We left the park around 2:45pm, arrived at the airport around 3:30pm and checkin wasn’t as smooth as possible due to some kind of accounting glitch on our account that took a while for them to clear up. The security line was HUGE as well, and once again the alarms were set off for MIL’s hip so she was ushered into a back room to be wanded and Frank stayed with his dad while I took the kids off to the gate. We stopped at Burger King on the way to the gate for for some dinner, since I knew they would not get food on the flight, and as I’m in line waiting with the three kids for chicken tenders that I paid for to be cooked Frank is constantly calling me to find out where I am, they are seating us, they may give up our seats, etc.

I finally get there about 25 minutes prior to our flight time, we don’t’ get upgraded to Business Class, Frank is in a mood because I was so late and did not get him food (or food for myself because I didn’t want to have to wait longer) but the flight went well and we arrived in Baltimore on time, but then waited nearly 30 minutes for the luggage, so long I took the kids on the shuttle to get the car and everybody else stayed behind to get the luggage we checked…including the carseats. We were home by about 8:30pm and then put the kids to bed as Frank headed to Subway to get us dinner and we chilled at home with a movie to wind down.

 

[scottny]

great updates and pics.

I loved Tutto Italia. The food was so good.

I saw a lot of the leashes but hey if it keeps the kids controled and safe I say use them.