No Fancy Title - Just My Report from 10/2 - 10/7 w/photos!

[Corryn]

Aaahh......
Okay,
Here I sit all broken hearted, tried to....
Wait, wrong place
That's right, I've finally got a moment and I'm actually sitting down to tell anyone who wants to know how our trip went.
My DH has been asking every day, did you do it yet? Between getting back into the groove at work and school (I missed a test while in Disney, had to get a make-up) I haven't had time.

Well, here goes:

We left on Saturday morning, 9/30, after I got out of class. What a great flight. I'm telling ya, medication helps!!!
We flew into Tampa because me and DH have family there. First stop:
Dunedin......
But unfortunately, my family wasn't there waiting with bells on like they said they would. What was I thinking? At least my kids now know firsthand what I dealt with while growing up and I hope they now appreciate my sob stories. Oh, well.... We'll chalk that up to four hours of wasted time...

Next stop: Father in law's condo. I had posted something about planning our vacation and my DH's father "inviting" himself. We were supposed to stay four days on the West coast at his dad's condo and then scoot over to Orlando for the next half of our trip. Well, we shortened that and stayed two nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

My SIL/BIL's best friend and his dad work for Disney and they were able to get us the CM's price which was, I think, $189 per night for a Savanna view with Bunk Beds.
Very Nice, but the last time we spent that much money on a hotel room was on our honeymoon when we paid $350 per night for a timeshare overlooking Mallory Square in Key West. That was awesome.

Anyway, we left the West Coast at 7:45. Arrived at AKL a little after ten. DH immediately went down to Boma to see if we could get a table for their Delicious Breakfast Buffet. While he did that, me and one of my daughters went up to check in.
Effortless! We were on line waiting about two minutes and we were on our way to breakfast in ten. We were busy chatting with the CM about different things. CM said that we most likely wouldn't get into our room until after 2:30.
That's fine.
When we pulled up, the valet took our luggage and told us that if we needed it, we could just go over to the valet's desk and he would let us get what we needed.
BTW, Spend the Extra $7 per day for the Valet Service. Whenever you want your car, you call down to the valet and they'll have it waiting for you when you exit the resort. It is valid at All Disney Resorts. It was great, felt really "special"

My other DD came up to see what we were up to, and then all three of us went down to wait for our Light Up Buzzer to go off. Within minutes (without a ressie, mind you) we were seated at our table and ready to eat; boy, were we hungry! What a delicious buffet, very complete with a wide variety. Buffets are great to sample foods, and my kids took advantage of that.

After breakfast, we went up to the valet's desk and the CM lead us through a set of doors to a large luggage room. I thought he would have just brought the luggage out, but we went in. It was a nice set-up: All the luggage is sorted according to family or room. So we had two shelves just with our luggage.
Me and the girls went through the suitcases and took out our suits.
Next Stop: The Pool.

We girls got changed while DH watched the stuff. When we came out of the dressing room, I was happy to see that DH scored the best seats: Right in front of the zero-entry area. He went to change and I hung out and got some sun. When he returned, he went straight to the bar and got us all a drink.
The girls are in the pool and we're relaxing, but not for long: The Love Bugs were out in Full Force!!!
My DH purposely asked me before leaving for Florida to check the DIS and see how the Love Bug situation is going. According to my fellow DIS'ers, the "season" was subsiding and it wasn't such a problem. It was a different story for us, because they were everywhere. DH asked the bartender what was up, and he said that the week before was much cooler and that was what most likely prompted their disappearance, but the warmer weather brought them back out.
Well, hey, I'm on VaKay and I'm not going to let a bunch of flying bugs get me down! The bartender gave DH coasters to cover the drinks, and I just closed my eyes and listened to the Sweets Sounds of Tropical Paradise at AKL.....

The girls loved the pool slide. It looked good, so I gave it a try. There was a lady at the bottom of the slide, and when she saw me come down, she laughed her A*# off!!! I said, what were you expecting? She said, My daughter! I guess you had to be there.....

Now, when my kids were younger, they loved making new friends....I guess now that they're 12 & 13, they've become a little more self-conscious. There were a bunch of kids all around the same age, but no one was really clicking, you know? I guess they all wanted someone else to make the first move. So here goes mom: We're in the hot tub *they kept asking me to go in with them *there were other kids in there * and mom makes friends.
We met some kids from Boston who were also there with their friend who moved to FL from Boston. Then there were two girls, but didn't catch where they were from. So the girls felt a little more comfortable frolicking around the pool area.

At about 2:30 we called guest services and they told us our room was ready.
Ready? We sure were.
We called the valet and asked that our luggage be delivered.
We get up there and the luggage came very quickly.
We were in room 4467 overlooking the Uzima Savanna.

It was a beautiful view, especially in the morning!

I took a video of the room and I'm posting it on my Photobucket site, along with all my photos.

So we're up in the room, we shower and get ready for dinner.
We had ressies at the Beach Club's Cape May Cafe. I love that place:
All You Care To Eat Seafood Buffet! We go down to the pool around 4:30 and meet SIL/BIL and BIL's best friend. We had a couple of drinks and hung out until around 5:00, then went over to the Cape May Cafe.

Like I said before, it is one of our favorite places to eat. But when we went last year, there was a larger selection of food. My husband loves Crab Legs and this time there were none; there also wasn't any cold peel and eat shrimp. They did have shrimp, but it was hot. I guess the majority thinks hot peel and eat shrimp is better - I can't think of another reason why they wouldn't serve it cold. But oh, well.
Like I said, I'm on VaKay and Hakuna Matata. I'm in one of my favorite restaurants, and if they want to serve it warm, then I'll enjoy it warm!
We wound up having a very satisfying dinner. I wish I were back there right now Here's some desserts....Stop drooling!
Flan:

After dinner, we met back up with SIL/BIL/BF. They went to Boma for dinner. We hung out for a while (at the bar, of course). I told my nephew that they have night vision goggles to see the animals and said that we would go see them in a few minutes.
BIL's BF came back from the bar inside, Victoria Falls, (the bar outside had just closed) with two paper cups tied together with little holes in the bottom. They make some jokes about their "special" night vision goggles. Then nephew came over and asked me and SIL if we would take him to see the animals. Having a buzz on, I brought our "special" goggles. The real night vision goggles were being used at that moment, so I tell nephew, hey, here are the special goggles and I handed them to him. He puts them up to his eyes and starts looking around!!!!! Then dryly, with an annoyed tone, informed us that The GOGGLES DON'T WORK!!!!!!
Oh, God, I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't!!!
He's 11 BTW....Very smart kid, though
I laughed my butt off!

We were exhausted and decided it was time to retire.
We get upstairs and I noticed that the bathing suits weren't dry.
We're real used to staying in timeshares with washers/dryers, so I hoped for the best for the morning.
We get to bed and wake up bright and early the next day.

Day 2: October 3, 2006

DH took a trip down to the gym and me and DD's decided that we should dry the bathing suits in the dryer downstairs before we put them on for our trip to Blizzard Beach.
The suits were cold and wet and I didn't want to sit in them while eating breakfast.

So I take two dollars in quarters out of my pocketbook, get my key card and we're off to the laundry room. It's on the first floor right by the pool area.

We get downstairs and I feel so refreshed. I figured I would stick the suits in the dryer, sit down and read the newspaper while watching the morning newscast on TV. I even brought down a water with us. Well, we get down there, I take four of the quarters and purchase the dryer sheets from the machine. Then I walk over to the dryer and place the suits in along with a dryer sheet.
Then I look down and I notice it says $2.00 to use the dryer.
Uh-oh. Okay, Mommy's gonna run back up to the room and get more money.
Did I mention we were in our pajamas??
I get back up to the room and I place the key in the door.
Why is it flashing red?
I try it again. Still red. Uughh!!! This damn card doesn't work!!!
I truck on down to the front desk where I get another key. Then I run back up to the room - the key works - and this time I bring my whole wallet.
I get back down to the laundry room and I tried to use the machine that breaks the dollar bills into change.
Would you believe it if I told you that machine ate two of my dollars?
I still don't have change for the dryer!!!
So now me and the girls run over to Zawadi Marketplace. I tell the girl what happened and I asked her for a refund and for change for the dryer. She looked at me kinda funny, but being a Disney CM, she "trusted" that I was telling the truth. She hands me two $1 bills. I tell her that I'm not lying, I really do need the change for the machine. I guess the fact I needed the change proved to her that I really did need change for the machine.

Anyway, we Finally get back over to the laundry room and I dried the suits!!!
BTW, there's a big window in the laundryroom that has a view of the savanna. The blinds were closed, but being nosey I opened them - what a nice surprise.

So now we have dried suits and we're changed and ready for breakfast, which we had at Mara.

I love the look of Mara - I especially LOVE the Ceiling! I really felt like I was in a forest of trees....The breakfast was delicious. I had the combo breakfast - Eggs & bacon and I forgot what else. I really wanted that Mickey waffle, but I'm one of those carb addicts and I didn't want to be falling asleep an hour later. I never got my Mickey Waffle, though
Here's my AK and AKL photos:
http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m146/Corryns/Animal Kingdom/

Day 2:

Blizzard Beach. We called the valet to get our car ready and then went down to purchase our tickets at the Concierge Desk.
If you have charging priviledges on the key cards, don't bring all your cards. My husband turned the car around and made me run all the keys except his back up to the room. He said that since BB doesn't have that great security in their parking lot, he didn't want to take the chance of leaving the keys in the car or in the locker in the park. I didn't think it was any big deal, but he's a retired cop and he has good judgement. I wasn't going to fight him on it, he wouldn't have had piece of mind at the parks and it was his VaKay too, right?

We brought One Key & Cash. I purchased a disposable camera at the shop in BB. I'll go tomorrow and get the photos developed.
BB is an awesome water park. We were going to try Typhoon Lagoon, but BIL/SIL never went to BB, so that was our third trip there.
What a GREAT TIME!!!
Favorite part?
There were 9 of us at the park. We all get single tubes to go down Runoff Rapids. We're on line, and my daughter was the first to go down. She starts screaming a goofy scream and then I get on the slide and I start a goofy scream, then my nephew, my other daughter, my neice...All I hear is goofy screaming all the way down the slide!!!
Then when we're at the bottom, we hear DH, DSIL, DBIL and BIL's BF all with their goofy scream.
It may sound stupid, but really, what's more primal than screaming! It also lets off a lot of steam, and when it's done under such good-natured circumstances, it's hysterical.
that was my favorite part of that day
After BB, we went back to The Lodge, relaxed, showered and changed for dinner. It was Big People Night Out!
BIL's BF owns DVC at Saratoga Springs. BIL, SIL, nephew and neice were staying there also, so we took our girls over. BIL got Pizza for the kids, they picked out videos and they were set.
The adults went over to Bongos Cafe for dinner.
I had the fried chicken breast with the sweet plantains. I forgot what everyone else had, but all the food was delicious! The drink I got was called, I think, Babaloo - Here it is with SIL & BIL

Well, I'm tired, it's 12:35.

Tomorrow:
Day 3 - October 4th - Animal Kingdom and Food and Wine @ EPCOT!
Day 4 - October 5th - MNSSHP
Day 5 - October 6th - Universal's Halloween Horror Nights
Day 6 - October 7th - Bonus Day at MK with one of a Million Dreams!

All With Photos





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[aldisneygrl]

Great Job! Can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[pumba]

Fantastic report.......You made even the love bugs sound great.......thanks for taking the time to do this

 

[Fastcars]

Hey I like your trip report so far. Like your other pictures also. It was great meeting someone from DIS at WDW.

 

[OhMari]

I just changed my ressie from Momma Melrose to Boma. I heard nothing but great revews about Boma.

 

[Corryn]

Hey I like your trip report so far. Like your other pictures also. It was great meeting someone from DIS at WDW.

Hey Fastcars!!
I didn't get up to that part yet in my Trip Report, but while I'm at it:

Hey Everyone, We Met Fastcars and his son at Animal Kingdom!!!
He recognized my DIS button and my LGMH (lime green mickey head)!

This is me, Walter and his son, Andrew
BTW, My SIL says Boma is her favorite restaurant - there are so many different things to try, different tastes, smells; nothing like you can get at home.
Enjoy!

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

love your report..

can't wait to read more! : )

 

[happybratpack]

Anyone that posts food pics is a friend of mine..

Great report & pics!!

 

[MiaSRN62]

The Love Bugs were out in Full Force!!! My DH purposely asked me before leaving for Florida to check the DIS and see how the Love Bug situation is going. According to my fellow DIS'ers, the "season" was subsiding and it wasn't such a problem. It was a different story for us,

I enjoyed your TR and pics Corryn !
I agree 100% about the Love Bugs ! They were everywhere. We were actually there around the same time as you (Oct 4-8). We stayed at the WL. Couldn't lay out by the pool without several of them landing on you. They were in the wdw busses.....monorails....just everywhere ! Sure was hot that week ! I'm missing it now......I'm sitting here with 39 degrees in my area !

 

[aide4]

Love the report so far!

 

[Corryn]

Hi everybody, thanks for the comments
I wore a light jacket home from work tonight, and I know how you're feeling, MiaSRN!
One more comment about the Love Bugs: The afternoon we checked in and we went up to the room, I was not liking the whole "infestation". Because whomever stayed in our room before us left the savanna door open, our room was filled with Love Bugs. Like I said, I don't really mind them, but Momma tells the kids all the time: Respect the buggies when they're outside in their house, but when the buggies come into My house, look out!
I dont' generally get disgusted killing the bugs, but I killed so many in the room that day I was getting queasy
Okey Dokey: So here's Day 3 - Wednesday, October 4, 2006:

The day started off nice. We were checking out of the AKLodge and shuttling over to the timeshare I had rented.
Like I'm sure you all do, we get the offers in the mail to visit certain timeshares down in the Disney area. It's usually a great deal: $199 for four nights or something similar. I love the timeshares because the kids get their own room and bathroom and I get a washer/dryer.
So this time Marriott sent me something for their Grande Vista. We wound up staying in a refurbished Cypress Harbour condo because we wanted the two bedrooms.
For the two bedrooms I had to pay extra; I think I spent $398 or something like that for Four Nights in a two bedroom condo. What a deal!
As Eddie says, They're almost PAYING you to go!!!

We wake up a little later than usual and get everything all packed up.
BTW, there's a daily newspaper at your door when you stay at AKL.
So I picked that up and I also took our checkout papers off the door handle.
Someone from the resort places them on the handle of the doors of those who are checking out that morning. So it's a hassle-free checkout.

We used charging priviledges and the statement reflected whatever we bought with our key card. I was VERY Happy to see that it wasn't so bad!
When we did the cruise last year - Oy Vey!!!!
So that was the Good News of the Morning.
We didn't eat breakfast because we wanted to get our luggage over to Cypress Harbor and get to AK in time to meet SIL/BIL/BF at 11:00.

Very nice people at Cypress Harbour. We were able to place our bags in a locked room until there was a unit ready for us. We gave them our cell phone numbers for them to call us when it's ready and we left for AK.

Now, we're Hungry. My DH turns into a Grizzly Bear when he doesn't eat - Picture Simba trying to roar- JUST KIDDING!!! The guy is like Scar!!!!
(I hope he doesn't read this!) We looked all around the park but because we were so hungry, our eyes couldn't focus, so we went to Asia and got a Pretzel - the breakfast of Champions!
By the time we finished we waltzed over to the front gate to wait for our party. We see them, get our hand stamped and walk out the gate.
BIL's BF was going to meet his dad there. His dad also works for Disney.
It was very nice to meet him and we thanked him profusely for getting us our room at the AKL for half price!!
Then he showed me something that I was in Awe of - The Disney Silver Pass

Oh, To be in Possession of that item!!!!
We had our parkhoppers from two years ago that we still had an extra day on, so we used those...But to actually HOLD the Silver Pass (*sigh*)
We had a great morning. We went on EE twice!
I am a Roller Coaster Chicken and I LOVED IT!!!!!
Oh, I wish my scanner was working 'cause our photos from that ride are hysterical! I'll try to get that up and put that on Photobucket, too.

Another DIS'er had spoken of the Owl that appears at the point where the tracks are "torn up". I think it was a buzzard, though. That was great, it really was! Loved It!!

OMG, I can't believe my daughters are almost as tall as me.....que sera que sera...
Oooh!!! While in Asia we came upon....DeVine!!!!! Wow, what a sight!!!!

Then we went on our other favorite rides: Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl..We did both twice. The lines were non-existent! Except for the safari...Thank God we had Fast Passes. While on line, I met another DIS'er: Fastcars!!!
He recognized my pin, and in a low voice he told me that he's a DIS'er too.
I was so excited because my crew was making fun of me for walking around with a LGMH!
Now here's proof I'm not the only one!!!!
So I asked our friend Andy to take a photo of me and Fastcars...His son is also in the photo. I know you used your inside voice, Fastcars, but I was so excited to meet you I was just yelling - sorry if I embarrased you!!
I told him that I'd post it in my trip report, and he found me
After meeting Fastcars, our friend Andy stated, That's why I have a job, because of Disney Maniacs like you!

Here's my "pirated" photo of us on Dinosaur:

we're in the front row "shooting" the carnosaur. The kids are in the middle acting scared, but that lady in the white shirt behind our kids, she looks soooo scared!!!!!!...

Afterwards, we get the phone call from Cypress Harbour saying our room was ready. Lynette wanted to see the Lion King show, so we made plans to meet at Epcot later that afternoon for the Food and Wine festival.

 

[Corryn]

http://s103.photobucket.com/albums/m146/Corryns/FoodWine 2006/
Here's our Food and Wine Photos...
Not that many, but I tried to take photos of the menus. On the DIS page describing F&W there are a bunch of beautiful photos....
Anyway,
We arrived at Epcot and I was looking for our tiles that we had purchased in 2000 and 2005. I couldn't find them! I took pictures the last time, but next time I want to see it in person.

We met everyone at the big fountain and our stomachs were READY for some good food!!
First stop, New Zealand. We got a shrimp dish there. Then the kids were hungry too, so guess what country they stopped at:

Next we stopped in Poland. My mother is 100 % Hungarian, so we grew up with a lot of similar food. I got the Keilbasa and Pierogie and Ed got the stuffed cabbage (that's my wine in there, see big bottle below

But what Really hit the spot was this:

Then we moved over to the other countries.
But I gotta give props to my paternal heritage:

Puerto Rico didn't Represent, though....
(Notice the Lime Green trim on my sneakers??? That, my friend, was No Accident!!!!)
We got a Taste of Spain, which was olives and chorizo and we also got the albondigas, little meatballs.....

The food was Excellent, I loved it!
Epcot is normally my and DH's favorite park, but with the food and wine festival, we were in Heaven!
I can't post all the photos here, but check the link above for my photo album.

Now, this was a biggie:
Our girls are teens now, and they're spreading their little wings here and there learning to fly. DNeice and DNephew are also similar aged, so we told them that, if they wanted, they can go over to Japan and watch the
One Minute Candy For You Lady. They couldn't believe it! The girls had their cell phones, some cash and they were outta there like lightning (before we changed our minds!!!!!)
By now, I've got a buzz on
Remember, my posse is on the look-out for LGMH, and this time (due to the beer/wine) they missed a huge one, but I didn't!
I saw a stroller pass us with a big ol' Mickey Head. I was in the middle of a conversation with my MIL and I just bolted toward the carriage.
I was very happy to meet Amanda of The Disney Bunch with her husband and her two sons, one of which was just born!
She looked like she was headed out of the park. We chatted a few minutes and said good-bye. I was to see her once more before our trip was over.

Man, it gets dark FAST! I wish we had entered the park much much earlier.
We trolled the vendors searching for something good, stopped, ate, talked, etc.
When we got to America, it was Crowded!
The kids found us and they wanted some snow cones, so I had to run to the cash machine and get some money. When I came back, Tori (DD) was so excited to show me the set of pins a CM gave to her as part of YOMD!
How exciting!! Of course, who to give the other one to???? What to do what to do.....Cousin or sister?????
Well, I guess Sister has A LOT of Ammo, so Sister it was!!!

While in Japan, Kyra (DD) Discovered Monchichi....Guess what's on her Christmas list???
We were just leaving America when Jefferson Starship started Rockin' Da House!
BTW, America had A Lot of Beer.....
We made our way around the other half of the countries, drinking eating drinking eating....
The champage that I purchased was $10 A Glass!!!!
Whoa!
But we were talking and it seemed to us the amount of money we spent on food, we could have had a dinner at Victoria and Alberts
$3.50 here, $5.00 there, between four people it all adds up!
Here's my Father inlaw at the ready...He's a retired cop, but now, instead of guns in his holster, he's got a knife and fork at his sides!

He kept that knife and fork in his pockets the whole night.....
What's that called when you get to stay late in the parks when you're a resort guest?
Anyway, they had that at Epcot that night. Even though we checked out that morning, they let us stay late at the park. The lines were LOOOOONGGG so we purposely waited until around 9:00 to get the wristbands.
Father and Mother Inlaw said their goodbyes and we were off to some rides.

We did Soarin (before doing the whole Food and Wine thingie) and I thought was was so nice.
Everyone talks about the Orange smell, but I really enjoyed the Pine!
I lived in CA for five years.....One thing I miss is looking at the sunrise and sunset over the mountains. I lived in the SC Valley and I loved it. I miss it now and watching that "movie" brought back great memories.
One thing I remember: I lived in the foothills and when me and my friends would go walking around, we would always come upon bobcat tracks. Even when we were younger, we knew how dangerous they were and we were always aware of our surroundings. So that was a story I got to tell the kids, it was cool growing up for a while there...
(sob sob) Then I moved back to The Bronx.....

So anyway, the lines for Test Track were LONG. What should we do?
SIL said that when they rode, they went into the single rider line. My DD is a nervous nelly, but it's her favorite so she agreed. I was able to ride with her, though. DNephew rode with another family. It's so funny to split up, I've never done it before
When we take those ride photos, I always like to look at goofy as possible.
Well, the group we were riding with likes to act goofy too!

We rode that twice that night. Our last ride was at 12:55 pm!

One thing I absolutely Love about Epcot: Illuminations.
I listen to the cd just about every morning on the way to work. While I'm sitting in the car, I imagine that I am there, feeling the percussion of the fireworks exploding. I got chills so many times while watching the show I love Illuminations

Another tradition we have when we're at Epcot:
Over at Innoventions West there are special concrete floors with lights in them. I love that!!! So space agey!!
I usually get great photos of the girls laying down on the lights, but for some reason, my new camera won't take the pictures. I usually stand on the bench and aim my camera down for an airel (spelling?) effect. They usually come out great, but not this time.

I also LOVE the music in Future World. When I'm listening to Live 365 and it comes on, I crank up the volume and sit there with my eyes closed. Horizons music? Love Dat Too!!!

By now, our blisters are multiplying and we're exhausted.
Tomorrow is another day, and we're going to MNSSHP!!!!!!!
BTW, I hope you guys don't think I'm a big drinker, getting my buzz on every night of our trip!!! I rarely drink because I'm the designated driver all the time. It was nice to enjoy the liquid part of the Festival!

 

[Fastcars]

Keep up the suspence

 

[happybratpack]

LOVED your day at Epcot! It looks like you guys had a great time and would be a blast to drink around the World with!!