Operation Big Thunder: the Dole Whip Conspiracy COMPLETE

[Poolrat]

Yay, I finally got a chance to read the chapter! Great job on pulling off the covert operation! And there was much rejoicing.

See aren't those fun????

 

[thedonduck]

Coming out of lurkdom! Awesome reveal!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Well.....she WAS the Tooth Fairy.....(spoiler warning)

Hey! Stop giving away TR secrets!

Ummm.....no. Pictures to come.

What did I just tell you?! Now I know where the kids get it from.

Sneakers!!! (And I get another one of those extra bonus points for being cute!)

+1 That was an obscure quote. Wasn't sure if anyone would spot it.

And if I keep giving bonus points, people are going to accuse me of favoritism.

Hmmm.....it was awesome. The days in the parks were pretty cool too. The reveal was great though....yeah....best day of the year.

I am not associated with C.R.A.P.

You sure about that?

Well, I guess that does make sense. Julie gets the important responsibilities like the Budget committee, and Mark just gets all the C.R.A.P.

Dad is always low man on the totem pole.

You know I was thinking if these 2 fine institutions in image reproduction ever merged I bet the combined name would be something like:

Scenic Holographic Art Reproduction Technologies

How long were you working on that one?

Just got caught up on your amazingly awesome TR! Your week at the beach sound lovely!! So relaxing!

I can't even get over that you were able to pull off the surprise driving past all the billboards! That is super impressive!

Thanks for reading along! We still love re-living that day.

Coming out of lurkdom! Awesome reveal!

Thanks! I appreciate you popping in to say hi! Please, stick around. We won't bite. Except for middlepat.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Up-to-date standings...

GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes 81
glennbo123 46
FreezinRafiki 22
eandesmom 12
afwdwfan 11
MEK 10
shan23877 5
Cinderella's Fella 5
FauntleroyFAN07 4
Mrs. Knowitall 3
marvali 2
Wherem I Now 2
Poolrat 2
vdub322 1
JESSketeer 1
vamassey1 1
TarzansKat 1
PrincePluto 1
chloe770 1

 

[alexxussss]

OMG!!! That is awesome! Great way to pull it off!!! Can't wait to read more

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

We still had one more surprise to spring on the kids. In our previous trips to the Happiest Place To Spend Your Money On Earth, we’d primarily stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. This was mostly due to the fact that it remains the cheapest place for a family of 5 to stay on-site. And my love for POR has been well-documented; we’ve loved the place and never regretted staying there. We were also fortunate enough to cross an item off of our bucket list when we got the chance to stay at the Wilderness Lodge for a couple of nights before our cruise in 2009. That has long been my favorite resort on property, and my love for the Wilderness Lodge has also been well-documented (are these the subtlest shameless plugs for past TR’s of all time or what?).

On this trip, however, we were out to cross another item off the bucket list. We wanted to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Julie and I had wandered over to see it back in 2006 and were stunned by the scale of the building and the exotic, detailed African theming…not to mention the animals right outside the window. Given that it was designed by the same guy who designed the Wilderness Lodge, it’s not surprise that it became a favorite of ours as well. But, with a maximum occupancy of 4 in a standard room (stop me if you’ve heard me rant about that before) and suites running several hundred bucks a night, it always seemed out of reach to us. We knew the kids would love it, but we figured it wouldn’t happen anytime in the near future.

Enter the Mysterious Benefactor.

At some point during our planning, I was having a conversation with him about our plans for the Disney surprise, and he had asked where we would be staying. I told him I wasn’t sure yet, but most likely it would be POR again, as that was what we could afford. But I did mention that our dream would be AKL.

He started doing this:

Or at least, that’s what I imagined him doing. The conversation was online, so he could have been clipping his nose hairs for all I know. Anyway, the Mysterious Benefactor sent back a message that said: we might be able to help each other out. He had DVC points he wasn’t going to be able to use for some silly reason and that they would expire in August of this year. And he’d be more than happy to rent them to us and set us up in a 1-bedroom savannah-view suite in Kidani Village.

I think I broke an Internet Speed Record in typing my affirmative response.

Once our Mysterious Benefactor got clearance from his own Budget Committee, the deal was struck and the reservation was made.
We drove up to the gates and told the security guard we were there to check in. I think the kids were still processing the fact that we were at Disney World, because there wasn’t much reaction from the backseat. If they’d woken up with their heads sewn to the carpet, they wouldn’t have been any more surprised than they were right now. After giving us directions, the guard asked if we were going to have a good time. “I hope so,” I said.

He stopped me and said, “You’re at Disney World. Of course you’re going to have a good time. Welcome home.”

The kids arrived at the Kidani lobby just like their father: giddy as a schoolboy. We couldn’t resist taking a picture as we made our way to the door.

The lobby is beautiful. It doesn’t have the stunning scale of the Jambo House lobby, but it still has the African feel and beautiful artwork that magically transports you to the African wilds. I used to come to Disney for the rides. Now I come for the atmosphere.

I had checked in online, so I went straight to the online check-in desk and moved smoothly through the process. While I was doing that, Julie ran around the lobby with the kids like it was Christmas in July. Which it kind of was.

Once checked in, we got our room assignment: 7548, in the wing closest to Jambo House. It was a long walk from the lobby, but we didn’t mind. The room was spectacular.

Julie and I couldn’t get over how big the bathroom was. We have 2.5 baths in our house, and I think you could have fit all of them inside this one.

The Lion King tile work was amazing:

The view from our room:

Scotty started trying to rob the hotel room. We usually don’t do that until departure day, Scotty.

We had a letter waiting for us in the room. It came from our Mysterious Benefactor’s children (at the time), Madison and Evan. They’ve been keeping up a Pen Pal relationship with our kids ever since we got together with them in Chicago last summer (man, these subtle plugs just keep coming), and they had decided to surprise us with a letter in our room. Or at least their parents had decided this for them. They should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers. Anyway, we learned from an illustration by Evan that this Ankole Cow is named Darth Vader.

When we went back to check out the lobby and main viewing area, we found the giraffe that Evan had named Coach Tom (after his t-ball coach, of course):

I’m still getting used to the fact that there were giraffes and zebras and all sorts of other animals right outside our window.

We explored the pool area. Sadly, we didn’t get to make much use of it on this trip (spoiler warning).

After moving our van, unpacking, exploring the resort and enjoying the views, it was getting to be time for dinner. We had another meet with a DIS Dad arranged for the evening. It was our good friend Christopher (stopher1 on the boards) and his lovely family, who we’d met in Indianapolis last summer (subtle!) and happened to have just finished a stay in Kidani on the very day we were arriving. They had moved over to Saratoga Springs for an additional 2 nights on their trip. We had exchanged some text messages during our drive (which on our pay-as-you-go dumbphone amounts to tapping out messages in Morse Code) in order to arrange the meet-up, and they had graciously agreed to make the trip back to AKL to see us since we’d just spent the whole day in the car and weren’t in the mood to go out anywhere else. We told them we’d eat dinner at the Mara in Jambo House and would see them over there. So, we made the short hike over to Jambo.

Like good tourists, the first stop was naturally the gift shop, so we could search for overpriced t-shirts, knick-knacks, toys, or the headpiece to the staff of Ra. Scotty couldn’t resist giving us a couple of Stupid Hat Pictures®.

You Americans, you're all the same. Always overdressing for the wrong occasions.

The kids then discovered the pins display. And fell in love like never before. Suddenly, we could see that we were going to have a new expensive habit to feed. Sigh. Once again, we see there is nothing I can possess which they cannot take away.

It took a while to figure out how to get to the Mara. We finally found the way, down the stairs and then outside. Here’s the pool outside of Jiko.

We got into the Mara and made our orders. For the life of me, I can’t remember what exactly Julie ordered, but I know she had some sort of vegetable mix and couscous that she was raving about. I took a look at the menu, swallowed, took a deep breath and… did not order a burger. Instead, I saw they had a special on a half-rack of bbq ribs, and that was calling my name. I chose...wisely. For the most part, they were pretty good, except they didn’t come off the bone easily and the plastic-ware was useless. So I just got messy eating them with my hands. Naturally, that’s when Stopher and family showed up. Christopher, his wife (also named Julie) and 2 younger kids greeted us warmly (his oldest didn’t feel like making the trip back to Kidani).

These guys are wonderful people. It was great to see them and catch up, even for just an hour or so. They’ve been through some tough times in the last year or two and are starting to emerge victorious on the other side. They’d been in an extremely busy summer and this week had been the only time when all five of them could be together, and it seemed like they were very thankful they’d carved out the time to spend it in one of their favorite places as a family.

As always, pictures or it didn’t happen.

We had one more mission that evening: night-vision goggles. As some of you know, the AKL provides a station with night-vision goggles every evening so you can see the animals on the savannah—get this—at night! The only problem was, we couldn’t find any signs directing us to the right place. We went through the lobby to the main animal viewing area only to find that we were digging in the wrong place. At least I got a cool shot of the outside of the main lobby.

We were directed back to the pool area. After fruitlessly searching around, we went inside the Mara again to ask a CM for help (and, being a guy, you know how much this hurt to have to ask for directions). The CM not only gave us directions, he offered to walk us over there himself. Gotta love Disney customer service.

With the night-vision goggles, we stepped up to the fence, surveyed the vast plains of the savannah and saw…one antelope. I guess the other animals knew where the peeping toms were and avoided that part of the savannah. Nevertheless, we were not disappointed, because we were using night-vision goggles for the very first time and that’s just really freaking awesome. I’m putting these things on my Christmas list.

No pictures here, though. I figured it might not be a great idea to be firing a flash in front of people wearing night-vision goggles.

We made our way back to the room to get our kids in bed and ready for Rope Drop in the morning. Julie and I went out on the balcony once more. And I know what you’re thinking, but no, there was no "coffee on the verandah". The signs make it clear that every square inch of that place is under surveillance. But that’s ok, there was still some magic to be found: just over the roof of Jambo House, Wishes was visible in the distance. Sorry, the crappy blurry picture doesn’t do it justice.

Still, it was a wonderful ending to a purely magical day.

Coming Up Next: It’s time to hit the parks!

 

[afwdwfan]

the bucket list.

The Bucket List

If they’d woken up with their heads sewn to the carpet, they wouldn’t have been any more surprised than they were right now

Christmas Vacation

 

[glennbo123]

Headpiece to the staff of Ra = Raiders of the Lost Ark reference

 

[Bridora]

You Americans, you're all the same. Always overdressing for the wrong occasions.


Coming Up Next: It’s time to hit the parks!

Raiders of the Lost Ark!!!!!!

 

[glennbo123]

Nothing you can possess which.... = another Raiders reference

 

[glennbo123]

You chose wisely = Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

 

[glennbo123]

Firing a flash at people wearing night vision goggles = Patriot Games (not a quote, but a scene!)

 

[glennbo123]

Darth Vader = several Star Wars movies (yes, perhaps even all of them)

 

[glennbo123]

Mysterious benefactor = Judge Dredd

 

[glennbo123]

The coffee on the verandah reference was howl-out-loud funny!

 

[twokids0204]

Awesome update... The view looks spectacular.

Great meet up with the king of DDC.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

I had checked in online, so I went straight to the online check-in desk and moved smoothly through the process. While I was doing that, Julie ran around the lobby with the kids like it was Christmas in July. Which it kind of was.

im calling this as a lie as i dont think she would leave the check in process to just you. or that it was not 100% smooth.

 

[afwdwfan]

Well, luck was finally on my side to allow me to play the movie quote game... then work interfered and Glenn showed up.

That's still better than Rob getting them all though.

This was mostly due to the fact that it remains the cheapest place for a family of 5 to stay on-site.

And that is a valid reason for staying there.

We were also fortunate enough to cross an item off of our bucket list when we got the chance to stay at the Wilderness Lodge for a couple of nights before our cruise in 2009. That has long been my favorite resort on property

I can't wait until I can stay there again... I don't know when that will be, but I can't wait. I think my budget committee even enjoyed it enough she'd be willing to blow the budget to stay there.

After giving us directions, the guard asked if we were going to have a good time.

Does a bear $#!^ in the woods?

He stopped me and said, “You’re at Disney World. Of course you’re going to have a good time. Welcome home.”

Oh, so it wasn't a serious question. That's a relief. I'm glad to see Disney is hiring security guards with more than 1 brain cell.

I used to come to Disney for the rides. Now I come for the atmosphere.

Says the guy who doesn't like Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain.

It came from our Mysterious Benefactor’s children (at the time), Madison and Evan.

Ok, the "at the time" is throwing me off here. Did he lose a kid since then or something? I realize you aren't mentioning Ryder, but I'm pretty sure he was around before your trip.

They should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

We had exchanged some text messages during our drive (which on our pay-as-you-go dumbphone amounts to tapping out messages in Morse Code)

I hope Julie was handling this task...

Instead, I saw they had a special on a half-rack of bbq ribs, and that was calling my name.

Disney actually does ribs pretty well in most cases. I'd have had to make the same call there.

we were digging in the wrong place

Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark

The CM not only gave us directions, he offered to walk us over there himself. Gotta love Disney customer service.

You told him about the bridge in Charleston, didn't you?

Nevertheless, we were not disappointed, because we were using night-vision goggles for the very first time and that’s just really freaking awesome.

No pictures here, though. I figured it might not be a great idea to be firing a flash in front of people wearing night-vision goggles.

I think it would actually be kind of funny.

But that’s ok, there was still some magic to be found: just over the roof of Jambo House, Wishes was visible in the distance.

Wow! Impressive that you could see it from there.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

In our previous trips to the Happiest Place To Spend Your Money On Earth…

…we’d primarily stayed at Port Orleans Riverside.

Nice place

We were also fortunate enough to cross an item off of our bucket list when we got the chance to stay at the Wilderness Lodge for a couple of nights before our cruise in 2009.

Like minds?

Experiment-627 (A Caribbean Double with a Wilderness Chaser)


Although I doubt you’d really want to be admitting to that comparison

(are these the subtlest shameless plugs for past TR’s of all time or what?).

Far more subtle then the bomb I just dropped into a TR that was not even my own.

As a matter of fact, I wasn’t subtle about it in any way shape or form.

On this trip, however, we were out to cross another item off the bucket list. We wanted to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Ooooooh… Nice!

Enter the Mysterious Benefactor.

A guest appearance
(and from one of the boards more “modest” denizens).

He had DVC points he wasn’t going to be able to use for some silly reason and that they would expire in August of this year. And he’d be more than happy to rent them to us and set us up in a 1-bedroom savannah-view suite in Kidani Village.

Actually… that was mightily kind.
I should probably ease up on the grief I intended to give him here.





Naaaaaaaaa….

”Welcome home.”

I’ve yet to hear that turn of phrase from a CM…



Someday…

I used to come to Disney for the rides. Now I come for the atmosphere.

Me too…

Still a kid at heart, but there are some aspects that you just need a little bit of age to appreciate fully.

Once checked in, we got our room assignment: 7548, in the wing closest to Jambo House. It was a long walk from the lobby, but we didn’t mind. The room was spectacular.

I’ll say…

We had a letter waiting for us in the room. It came from our Mysterious Benefactor’s children (at the time), Madison and Evan.

Awwwwww…
Now you done went and got all mushy.

We explored the pool area. Sadly, we didn’t get to make much use of it on this trip (spoiler warning).

Must mean that y’all were marching in the ranks of General Parkus Maximus’s leigons

I took a look at the menu, swallowed, took a deep breath and… did not order a burger.

Instead, I saw they had a special on a half-rack of bbq ribs, and that was calling my name.

Whoooaa… you had me concerned for a minute there.

After fruitlessly searching around, we went inside the Mara again to ask a CM for help (and, being a guy, you know how much this hurt to have to ask for directions).

But there are things more important then pride.
Family for one.

Gotta love Disney customer service.

No pictures here, though. I figured it might not be a great idea to be firing a flash in front of people wearing night-vision goggles.

Good call…

just over the roof of Jambo House, Wishes was visible in the distance. Sorry, the crappy blurry picture doesn’t do it justice.

Still beat no picture at all.
The image is not to show us what we missed…
It’s to remind y’all of what you lived.



Mission accomplished.

Still, it was a wonderful ending to a purely magical day.

Ya’ think?



= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

OK…
I’m implementing a new policy for the next few updates. I will only identity the quotes after responding to the update itself (and I won’t be all that diligent about hunting them down)

If I get ‘em first, so be it…
If I don’t, fair enough.

Quotes in your responses, however, are still fair game though.
First one to the table gets the biggest biscuit.

Sooooo….
Here’s what I saw pop up as I was reading along:

If they’d woken up with their heads sewn to the carpet, they wouldn’t have been any more surprised than they were right now.

Christmas Vacation

giddy as a schoolboy.

I’ll take a shot at this being a reference to “A Christmas Carol”

As dickens wrote it, the line was: "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man…”

But it may just be close enough for government work.

Christmas in July.

That one actually is the title of a film.

They should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Like good tourists, the first stop was naturally the gift shop, so we could search for overpriced t-shirts, knick-knacks, toys, or the headpiece to the staff of Ra.

Some more “Indiana Jones”

You Americans, you're all the same. Always overdressing for the wrong occasions.

And still more “Indiana Jones”

Once again, we see there is nothing I can possess which they cannot take away.

And even more “Indiana Jones”

I chose...wisely.

And even more, more “Indiana Jones”

we were digging in the wrong place.

And yet even more “Indiana Jones”





Now as for the lie…
I need to read this more carefully and get back to you on that one.

 

[declansdad]

Great update!

AKL is on our dream list as well. We had it booked a few years ago but they were building something over there, something big and apparently people were complaining about the noise. Disney decided to move people and offered Saratoga Springs but we said we wanted the Poly. They agreed and then upgraded us to Club Level. It was a great way to spend the last 3 days after 7 at Pop Century.

We had some friends who had a one bedroom suite last year and we got to see it when we joined them for diner. They are amazing!