May 2011 Yo Ho Ho! Let Down Your Hair! (New 10/9 Lessons Learned #550)

[betsywdw]

WOW! The decorations and invitations are amazing! You have such a creative talent!!! I can't wait to see pics from the party! I think the kids are going to go crazy over the awesome theming!!!

 

[Marshay]

WOW! The decorations and invitations are amazing! You have such a creative talent!!! I can't wait to see pics from the party! I think the kids are going to go crazy over the awesome theming!!!

Thanks! I sure hope so! I recognize that I love to decorate and such so I am doing this for me, too ... but I can't wait to see the girls' faces as they look around and see that they were Rapunzel for a day!

 

[swwake]

Joining in, quite late, Marsha. I saw your pics on FB and had to seek out your TR!

 

[Marshay]

Joining in, quite late, Marsha. I saw your pics on FB and had to seek out your TR!

Welcome, Susan!!! Glad to have you here. I went to WDW in May but interrupted this TR to post more about Rachel's 6th birthday party on Saturday.

And if you go back a few pages you'll see that I got to meet Carrie while in Disney! (kigerkat)

 

[WDWCP96]

I love all the pictures from Epcot. The Russell fan is so cute and just looks so happy in this picture.

I love the color matching in your pictures and I am going to have to steal this idea for our next trip.

Too funny that you met up with another DISer at the parade. It makes me wonder how many other DISers live in our county.

I love all the party decorations. I am in awe of your amazing talent. I hope you will post pictures of the party room especially with all your hard work.

 

[cherbear]

Brilliant, Marsha!!!

I can't wait to see everything else, and the final product. You have passed on your talent to Rachel. I LOVE that she made her own invitations. Bravo!!

 

[Marshay]

I love all the pictures from Epcot. The Russell fan is so cute and just looks so happy in this picture.

I love the color matching in your pictures and I am going to have to steal this idea for our next trip.

Too funny that you met up with another DISer at the parade. It makes me wonder how many other DISers live in our county.

I love all the party decorations. I am in awe of your amazing talent. I hope you will post pictures of the party room especially with all your hard work.

The Russell 'fanatic' was really cool. Now I personally wouldn't pick Russell as my Disney hero but to each their own!

Yeah, I like the color matching too! Makes the pics so much more coordinated. Jerry is so trained now...he'll even ask when we go out around here to a parade or restaurant...what color?

Thanks for the compliments! Yes, I'll definitely post pics! Jerry put up the streamers and made pseudo braids around the room and even did the "hidden entrance" into the room like how Flynn Rider went through the bushes to find the tower.

Brilliant, Marsha!!!

I can't wait to see everything else, and the final product. You have passed on your talent to Rachel. I LOVE that she made her own invitations. Bravo!!

Thank you! I'm thrilled that Rachel enjoys crafting, too. I can't wait until she can really help do even more -- imagine what she and I together can do in the future!

 

[Marshay]

Happy belated 4th of July.

Rachel and I all dressed up in Red, White and Blue

And here is Clarice -- VWDIVA on Dis. She is the pretty, young lady that came up to me at the 4th of July parade to tell me she knows me from DIS!

It's a small/Dis world after all!

 

[Trentmom]

Great decorations

Cute party favors

 

[Marshay]

I last left you opening the door to our 2BR villa overlooking ...​

Giraffes, zebras and wildebeests!!

Yee ha!! We had animals and they were like RIGHT there!!

Ok, before I show you the animals, here are some pics of the room ... before we invaded it!

Here is the kitchen area, part of the living room and you can see through the door into the master bedroom.

The dining table and recessed tv + drawers

I know there is a LOT of wood but they add just enough color, too, to really make the room pretty. We stayed at AKV-Jambo house 2x in the past and each time I remember at first feeling really closed in b/c of the low lights and all the wood ... and then just relaxing into the room. It is so peaceful and makes you feel like one with nature.

Looking out the door -- the curtains, the patio

The sofa bed which we just kept as a bed for the girls

Another view of the kitchen area

This is the 2nd bathroom in the 1br portion. Kidani Village has 2 bathrooms in their 1 bedrooms. Although we only used the 2nd bathroom toilets a few times, I imagine as the girls get older, they'll be "primping" in there a lot!

We just stored the strollers in here.

The king size bed and a look into the bathroom. The bed was very comfortable for me.

Ok, now we are talking some serious Disney magic. Yes, I am in love with the bathroom!! (take that! Tag Fairy!) The bathrooms at Kidani (and Jambo house) are soooooooooooooooooo cool!! They are h-u-g-e. When my family is all in there, we have room!

I know it's hard to see just how big this was but it was great. There is a shower seat, room to dance! and the tiles just made me feel like I was taking a shower in the outdoors (which was a neat feeling).

This was part of the mural in the bathroom, above the whirlpool tub

This mural is from the shower

Elizabeth and Rachel enjoyed sliding down into the tub ... until one of them got hurt! Then we banned that activity.

More continued in next post

 

[Marshay]

One more view into the kitchen, dining area, living room and out the windows

The chest of drawers, desk and tv in our room

Now we go over to the deluxe studio side. After seeing all the room in a 1bd, it's hard to go over to the studio. but it was certainly nice. The studio is smaller than over at BC or Bdwalk my parents said.

Their bed

The studio bathroom. It was nice but nothing like I rave about in the 1br side...

The view to our left on the balcony

I'm on one end of the balcony...my family on the other. I loved the balcony since it was one long one covering both the living room and the bedroom.

Ok, what animals do we see? There are at least 7 animals in this pic -- 3 giraffes (one is behind the tree), 1 ostrich, 2 birds and 1 'gazelle/deerlike creature' which I forget the name.

Elizabeth was mesmerized by the animals

It was so cool for her to just look out and see all the animals

I think this is the baby giraffe

This is Elizabeth doing the baby sign (she also used her words) for the word "baby". When she saw the baby giraffe, she turned around and told me, "Mommy, baby!"

 

[Marshay]

We unpacked and then opened up cans of Dinty More Stew for dinner. This was nice and comforting after walking around in the rain earlier in the day. I put pjs on the girls and then we 3 decided to walk around the resort. My parents and Jerry were too tired.

Kidani is incredibly, incredibly detailed. There are nooks and crannies everywhere with African art.

We came across the CMs who set out drums for the kids to play. Too bad they were just finishing but they let my girls play for a bit.

The black mark on Rachel is Mickey tattoo that we put on here back at home.

This was a small little library/conservatory room -- perfect to duck into and sit and relax

We walked around the pool, the restaurant and then back again. Here is a pic of the Kidani lobby. For those of you who have been to Jambo House, you can see the similarities

Of course there are hidden Mickeys in the carpet

Another small detail of Kidani -- the first floor is actually where you park your car. So as you are walking toward your room from the inside, there are all these great windows looking outside. And look what they did to the roof of the 1st floor -- it looks like a little river, the way they painted it. I mean where else do companies paint the top of the parking garage area to blend in with the theme of the resort.

I was so impressed! Yeah, the lobby is stunning and all but this one feature just truly shows how much Disney cares about theming.

The shield on the doorway. Ours was the only one that I saw that was in bright yellow -- loved it (I didn't decorate our door this time...)

Rachel and Elizabeth were going to sleep in the same bed for the very first time. I was curious how it was going to go. They were a little wound up at first since they could look over and see each other 'right there!' but then they fell asleep.

Then I remembered to organize my park bag the night before. It's so much better to do it at night...even if I am tired.

I took a shower (ahhh) and then went to bed.

I'm not sure how many showers I took this week -- sometimes it was 3x a day! But I'm tellin' ya, that shower just made me want to do it again and again!

 

[Marshay]

Jerry decided to play with his camera outside and got these great photos. Now remember it is nighttime and very dark outside, even though these photos look like daytime. Jerry had to play around with shutter speed, settings, ets until he got it just right

So how do zebras sleep at night?

Sitting down of course!

G'nite!

 

[Marshay]

Great decorations

Cute party favors

Thanks! I'll have to get a picture of all the goodie bag items we are giving out!

 

[WDWCP96]

The 1 bedrooms at Jambo house are similar to the 1bedrooms at Bay Lake Tower. I loved having 2 bathrooms when we stayed there it will definitely come in handy when the kids are older. All the details at Jambo house are amazing. Disney definitely does a great job at theming their resorts.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

What a great room! I would love to stay in a one bedroom suite, there is so much room and having a kitchen is great. It would also help with the snoring/sleep disturbance issue in my family.

I can see why you love that bathroom, gorgeous!

 

[kaoden39]

Oh my gosh that is so gorgeous. I think that from all the resorts I have seen this one attracts me the most.



Your paper lanterns are adorable!!

 

[Marshay]

The 1 bedrooms at Jambo house are similar to the 1bedrooms at Bay Lake Tower. I loved having 2 bathrooms when we stayed there it will definitely come in handy when the kids are older. All the details at Jambo house are amazing. Disney definitely does a great job at theming their resorts.

We actually stayed at Kidani for this trip. We had stayed at Jambo house too and they do not have the extra bathroom and there is a hallway separating the bathroom from the master bedroom. But other that that, they are mostly the same.

I remember dancing in the bathroom (literally) at Jambo house and yes, I did it again at Kidani.

We loved BLT, too! That's probably our #1 resort for both room and location. But Kidani is now our 2nd choice for room and culture/animals.

What a great room! I would love to stay in a one bedroom suite, there is so much room and having a kitchen is great. It would also help with the snoring/sleep disturbance issue in my family.

I can see why you love that bathroom, gorgeous!

Yeah, it really is terrific! I was so used to just staying in a room that when we first went to DVC, I was stunned. Now, we are so used to traveling and having a 1bd that I admit we are spoiled. When we go somewhere else, it's too cramped for us!

Yeah, you guys really need to separate out -- that snoring would absolutely drive me batty! I don't know how you stand it.

Looking at the pictures, all I can say is that I want to be back in that bathroom!

Oh my gosh that is so gorgeous. I think that from all the resorts I have seen this one attracts me the most.

Your paper lanterns are adorable!!

Thanks! That's 2 origami projects in one year (paper cranes and now paper lanterns!)

Yeah, I'm really surprised by how much we really liked AKV-Kidani. It's just such a different resort. You don't feel like you are at a hotel or even in Disney...but you start to believe you are on a savannah in Africa.

 

[Vwdiva93]

I love our picture! I hope you don't mind if I steal it to use on my TR too!
Wow, your villa looks amazing. I would be super excited over a bathroom like that too! I love the Lion King tiles, I wish they sold those at Home Depot because I would redo my shower with those in a heartbeat The view of the animals from the balcony is breathtaking too, that must have been so awesome seeing them up close all the time!

 

[Marshay]

I love our picture! I hope you don't mind if I steal it to use on my TR too!
Wow, your villa looks amazing. I would be super excited over a bathroom like that too! I love the Lion King tiles, I wish they sold those at Home Depot because I would redo my shower with those in a heartbeat The view of the animals from the balcony is breathtaking too, that must have been so awesome seeing them up close all the time!

Definitely, please use!

The room was really, really neat and we saw animals every day!! I had read some trip reports prior to going where people complained that they paid the extra $$/points for a savannah view and hardly saw anything. That was not the case for us!