my 1st ever trip report - 21 days of AKL, DCL, and loads more! Day 3 updated 12/27

[karentan]

This is my first attempt at a trip report, so please bear with me.
I wanted to be able to remember this trip, as now, 3 years on, I can't remember much of our wedding trip. So this is a bit long, it kept growing as I was writing it, I apologise for that in advance!

Cast:
Me, Karen, 28, 5th trip to the world, nuts about everything Disney.
DH, Gary, 27, 2nd trip, I've managed to convert him to love Disney too!

Holiday plans:
November 4th - 25th
first 2 nights Animal Kingdom Lodge Savannah View Club Level
3 night Disney Wonder cruise
16 nights offsite in a villa in Lindfields

day 1 = post 1
day 2 = post 4
day 3 = post 8

Day 1: Tuesday 4th November 2008

After a not very pleasant flight (read: annoying family in front) we arrived at Orlando International airport early. We managed to get through immigration relatively easily, although having to collect the baggage and then giving it back and collecting it again was quite annoying. We collected the car from Dollar, we were the only ones in the express queue but the person in front seemed to take ages. The main queue was moving quicker than ours but eventually we got called and got our paperwork sorted. We went out to the parking lot and to the dollar desk (gotta love that first smell of Florida air), we got our keys and found our Chrysler Sebring. I had to go back to the desk because of the new model of Sebring, we couldn’t figure out how to get the roof down. They have added a big plastic bit in the boot that has to be clipped in properly or the roof won’t go down. Unfortunately this severely cuts down the amount of boot space. We decided not to do what we did last time (drove all the way to the hotel with the top down and 2 large suitcases in the back seat!), and did the sensible thing instead and drove with the top up.
We drove out of the airport and headed over to Disney! Gary was still at this point under the impression that we were staying on International Drive, but I’d managed to convince him that we needed to go to Magic Kingdom before the hotel to get a cookie and go on a ride or two.
I followed the road signs to my fave place on earth, and after what seemed like an eternity, we got to the great WDW road sign.
I love this sign, it makes me realise that I’m finally home! I followed all the road signs to Animal Kingdom resort area, wondering at what point Gary would realise that we weren’t headed to the Magic Kingdom. After a while all the other road signs had long gone and we were only following signs to Animal Kingdom resort area. (I had booked the Polynesian for 2 nights as a surprise for Gary about 4 months prior to the trip, and after a lot of indecision as to which resort to choose, I changed it to the Contemporary, then again changed it to Animal Kingdom Lodge Kilimanjaro Club level. I’m still surprised that I managed to keep it a secret all that time!) At this point I thought I’d better tell him where we were staying. I told him that I’d fibbed a bit about where we were staying and that he’d find out where in a minute. He actually started paying attention to the road signs at this point and quickly realised we were staying at AKL. We drove up to the guard hut at about 6pm, checked in, and got our gold parking permit. As we drove toward the resort I heard the guard radioing ahead.
We didn’t want to do valet parking so we decided to self park, leave the luggage in the car and check in and get the luggage later. We walked up to the hotel as it was getting dark and it looked gorgeous, the photos don’t do this resort justice. We walked into the huge lobby and were in awe. Gary had visited this hotel before, he got picked up from there on our wedding day as we were staying offsite but had never stayed there, but this was my first time there. The lobby is huge, and although some people think it looks dark, I personally think the darkness of the woods and furnishing compliments the theming of the resort perfectly.

We couldn’t find where we had to go, we knew someone would meet us and escort us up to the key protected 6th floor, but we couldn’t see anyone. We asked at the bell desk then someone magically appeared behind us, it turns out she was waiting outside for us. She escorted us up to the 6th floor, our key card didn’t work the lift, but she said she would get us new cards. This is part of the reason I love Disney, our cards didn’t work the lift but we didn’t have any problem getting up there subsequently, they replaced the key cards without us noticing at all.
There was someone already checking in when we got up there so we got a drink and some nibbles from the complimentary food, can’t remember what we had but I do remember it was good! As soon as we finished eating we went and checked in, which was a smooth process, the lady checking us in got us some anniversary pins, and before we knew it we were on our way to our room, which was on the 4th floor, zebra trail, room 4511. We went in and had a gorgeous view of the Arusha savannah, overlooking the Arusha rock and a great watering hole.

In the room was a great welcome package full of information and a solid chocolate AKL logo.

We sat on the balcony for a while, revelling in the fact that after waiting for so long we were finally on holiday and for the next 3 weeks we didn’t have to worry about work or anything! I started taking the first of what turned out to be over 2000 photos....
We decided to go and explore the resort, we walked over to the pool,

Gary wanted to check out the gym, and we walked around Arusha rock, had a look in the gift shop and looked around the gorgeous lobby. We had a drink in the lounge and some dessert and just sat and chilled out and took in our surroundings.

After a while we went back out to the car, got the luggage and carted it back off to the room. I unpacked a bit while Gary was sat watching TV trying hard not to fall asleep, then we decided we were hungry. I walked down to Mara (and got slightly sidetracked as there was a cultural presentation about Africa in one of the little nooks off the lobby) and got a pepperoni pizza, and got chatting to a lovely American couple who were down with all their family.
By the time I got back to the room Gary was almost asleep but we went and sat out on the balcony and ate some pizza. Turned out we weren’t as hungry as we thought and only ate 3 slices between the 2 of us, knew I should have got the small pizza...! We watched an antelope grazing and caught some of the higher fireworks from what we think was Epcot. We fell asleep with the TV on, think I managed to stay awake until 10 ish watching family guy then succumbed to the tiredness.

 

[OhMari]

Hi
I hope you will post a picture of you 2.
I was there at the same time.
We really had some great weather.
It was a little cooler though the first few days you were there.

 

[mmmears]

I'm enjoying your trip report so far -- great photos! I'm looking forward to your future posts. Thanks for sharing your vacation!

 

[karentan]

Wednesday 5th November
We woke up at 3am, damn jetlag got the robes out of the closet and sat on the balcony for a while trying to decide what to do.

Gary decided he wanted to go the gym to try and minimise the amount of weight he would inevitably put on while on holiday, so we got dressed and walked down to the gym. It was kinda surreal walking through the lobby at 4am, it was much more serene and peaceful than the previous night’s hustle and bustle.

We went down to the gym via the internal corridors (we found out later in the day that the easier way to find the gym was to walk outside by the pool), and I left Gary to it (I’m not that energetic to go gymming on holiday at 4am!!).
I had another walk round the resort taking loads of photos, and after an hour or so met Gary back at the room. He had a shower and got freshened up, and thought he’d probably want to go the gym again so we ended up in the laundry at 6am on our first proper day of the holiday!

While we were waiting for the laundry to finish we went and played in the arcade.

At about 7am we went up to the lounge for breakfast, then walked over to the Sunset Savannah to check out the progress of the new DVC villas

We wanted to go the food and wine festival before it closed on the 9th, so we got the bus to Epcot. We were impressed with the bus system, had heard some bad things about it but we didn’t wait more than 5 minutes for any of the 3 buses we took that day.

We arrived about 8.30 ish, got our annual pass vouchers changed at guest services and went and stood in the queue. We watched the opening ceremony (I love watching them) then headed straight over to Soarin’ before the queues got too long.

Gary doesn’t like fast rides or anything where he feels like he’s not in control, and although he’d been on Soarin’ the last time we were in Disney, he still freaked out a bit when it went up! We then headed over to the other side and rode test track and mission space, then went on spaceship earth.
At 11am the world showcase opened and we headed over to check out the food offerings.

We tried a lot of things, Gary’s highlights were the escargot in brioche, the lamb slider, and the bay scallops. My favourites were the New Zealand lamb, the crawfish etouffee, the seafood gumbo, and the maple glazed salmon. I think the biggest disappointment was the chocolate crème brulee. While walking around the UK pavilion they were doing a Guy Fawkes night quiz, so we decided to give it a try and not embarrass ourselves in the process. Luckily we got 4 out of 5 questions right and we won a scarecrow on a stick! We were stuffed after about an hour and a half so we decided to head out of Epcot. On the way out we headed over to the living seas and saw turtle talk with crush (didn’t see this last time the living seas were down for refurb and only opened 3 days before we left, so the queues were huge). We loved turtle talk, and ended up seeing it 3 times over the holiday.
On the way out we went and found our Leave a Legacy tile that we got on our last visit

We decided to head over to Downtown Disney, but couldn’t get a direct bus there, so we got a bus to Port Orleans Riverside. We stayed there when we got married and loved the resort so thought we’d have a walk around and reminisce.

We had a quick walk round the resort and took some photos, and then waited for the boat.

The previous one had just left so we had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one to arrive.

The boat ride over was lovely and we got to see the progress of the DVC treehouse villas, they’re looking lovely.

On the way we saw this strange boat, if someone can tell me what it is I’d love to know!

As we pulled into dock at Downtown Disney, Gary spied the Margarita hut and decided he wanted a drink so he got a rum runner and I got a coke. We had a look around the World of Disney store, I wanted to buy a new fleece top, but couldn’t find one I liked, but Gary found a jacket he wanted. They didn’t have the right size but a Cast Member said the Magic Kingdom Emporium might have one, so we decided to head over there.
We got a bus back to the AKL, had a short wait at Pleasure Island while the drivers changed shift, and went up to the lounge for some afternoon munchies and a drink. We went back to the room and found the mousekeeper had been busy arranging my lanyard and our anniversary card from my parents into this:

We also had some visitors in our back garden!

We drove to the Magic Kingdom, and got the boat over to the park.

We went into the Emporium and Gary bought his coat. We didn’t go on any rides as the early morning was starting to catch up with us so we headed back to the AKL. We had some dinner from the lounge (again can’t remember what we ate but it was good!) and decided to go for a swim. We spent about an hour in the pool and the hot tub, went back to the room and showered then headed up to the lounge for evening drinks and desserts.

 

[buzz for boys]

Amazing photos - cant wait for more !!

 

[natalielongstaff]

What a great trippie

 

[The Fetherstons]

Excellent Karen, great photos

 

[karentan]

Thursday 6th November
Again due to the jetlag, we woke up at 4.30am. We sat on the balcony for a while watching the early morning sights and the antelope that Gary decided to affectionately call “Tom”. I had rearranged the suitcases the night before into stuff we were taking on the cruise and stuff we weren’t, so all that was left was to take all the luggage down to the car. We packed up the car and then went and sat in the lounge. Needless to say there were no other people up there, so we just sat and watched TV for a while. Gary found a Mr Potato Head in the cupboard so he made some strange creation, and then insisted he put it next to the TV for all to see, so if you were in the lounge that day and saw a strange looking Mr Potato Head, that was due to us! Eventually the lounge CMs started putting out breakfast, and more and more people started to turn up, as it was the morning of the sunrise safari. We checked out with the CM at the desk as we needed a copy of the room bill so Gary could claim back the cost of the internet usage from work.

We left the AKL at about 8.30am, and drove towards Port Canaveral. There was very little traffic and we got there about 9.20am.

The terminal doesn’t open until 10am, so we parked the car in the day visitors car park and went across the road to have a closer look at the ship.

At 10am we were allowed in, we checked in with a CM just inside the gate, then dropped off our one, but very heavy, suitcase. We went back across the road and parked in the car park, and then walked back across the road to the terminal.

We went through the airport style security at the bottom of the escalators then went up into the huge terminal building. We stood in the queue to board, got boarding group number 2, and after no time at all we were checking in, which was a nice easy process, as I’d already done the online check in.

Gary decided he was somewhere between holiday mode and child mode, so sat and watched Donald Duck cartoons while I checked out the terminal. A young girl (about 9 or 10 years old) kept going over every so often to find out what Donald Duck was getting up to, so they were having conversations about how Chip and Dale kept stealing Donald’s food, and how it wasn’t very nice of them!
I had a look around outside and the gift shop, and now regret not buying one of the memory boxes, as it seems WDW no longer sell them.

At about 11.45am boarding started and we entered the gorgeous atrium.

We were hungry at this point so decided to head up to Beach Blanket buffet. A lovely French guy called Guillaume (this wasn’t the last we saw of him, he turned out to be one of our servers) called a lift for us (I’d love to have one of those cards he had which lets you go direct to your floor without stopping at others). Turns out BBB was closed until 12.30pm, so we headed back down to Parrot Cay, which was a good thing because the buffet was amazing! After lunch we headed up to deck 9, Gary got a lounger next to the Goofy Pool and watched Lilo and Stitch on the big screen, while I went and explored and took photos.

On a side note, they were cleaning the adult pool when we first boarded, it was strange seeing it empty, and even weirder seeing the green water when they were filling it back up! Luckily the water cleared later in the day and it looked much more inviting!

At 1.30pm the stateroom corridors opened so we headed down to deck 2 and our upgraded room! We had originally booked a category 12 but ended up in a category 9! The room was lovely, much more room than I was expecting.

We headed back up to deck 9 for a bit of sun. The luggage showed up at 2.30pm so I unpacked. I put up my door magnets, and I had signed up to do a Disboards gift exchange, I managed to deliver 3 of the 4 gifts on the first day!
Somewhere between getting on the ship and the lifeboat drill we went exploring, we saw the fitness centre with the best view from any treadmill I’ve ever seen:

We checked out Aloft teen club and both decided that the teens possibly have the best bit of the entire ship,

Plus the gotcha game sounds awesome! I love section 3, especially A! I wish I was a teenager again just for this game!

After the lifeboat drill, which seemed to take ages as there were quite a few people that were really late, I headed up to the sailaway party.
Gary wasn’t in the mood to go the party so he went and had a swim in the adult pool while the party was going on. A Carnival ship left port just before us, then we headed out to sea.

A pod of dolphins escorted us out of the port, and we got to see the space shuttle on the launch pad. That night we were on the late dinner seating and our dining reservation was Parrot Cay, Tritons, then Animators Palate. We saw the Golden Mickeys show at 6.15pm,

Where we were introduced to our cruise director Clayton, who did the funniest Carlton dance since Fresh Prince of Bel Air!

watched Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer at 7.30pm, then went to dinner at 8.15pm. We were sat with 2 other couples, a UK couple on their honeymoon, and a US father and daughter, he had won the cruise as a work incentive.
Our servers were the amazing team of Arnel from the Phillipines (server), Guillaume from France (assistant server),

and Tektas (head server). Tektas came over halfway through the meal to introduce himself and to ask if we were celebrating anything, and came back at dessert with 2 cakes for us and the honeymoon couple, and anniversary pins for us.

Guillaume packed up the cake for us so we could take it back to the room (we were way too full to eat it then!), and we headed back to the room about 11pm, and back to this lovely creature

 

[wickesy]

Sounds like a great day Karen, I can't wait to do our Disney cruise in 2010.

Just one thing you might not have noticed - you have got the photo of the Gotcha rules up twice, I presume the second one should be a picture of the sailaway party.

 

[buzz for boys]

Amazing - I can dream about cruising !!

 

[ScotsMinnie]

Really enjoying your report!!!! Keep them coming!