*Wish*Upon*A*Star*
Mommy of an Angel
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2001
- Messages
- 490
Sunday, April 4th.
WHAT WE PLANNED ON HAPPENING:
We'd set our wake up call for 6:30am. We'd wake up, shower, get dressed, and pack all of our things to be transferred over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We'd be down at Everything Pop and eating breakfast at 7:00am. After breakfast, we would drop off our luggage with baggage services and we'd be on a bus headed for the Animal Kingdom by 7:30am. At 7:45am, we'd be dropped off at the Animal Kingdom, and we'd hop on the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and arrive at the lodge by 7:55am. We'd hop in line and check in to the lodge by 8:05am, and we'd be back at the bus stop and hopping on a Typhoon Lagoon bus by 8:15am. We'd arrive in time for park opening (9am), and spend the rest of our day just relaxing and swimming. By 2:45pm, we'd catch a bus back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we'd find our room, retrieve our luggage, and by 3:40pm, we'd be on another bus - this one headed to the Disney-MGM Studios. We'd have dinner at Mama Melrose at 4:20pm (we had the Fantasmic dinner package PS). After dinner, we'd tour the studios, and be in the Fantasmic theatre for Fantasmic at 8:30pm. After Fantasmic, we'd catch a bus to Downtown Disney, where we'd check out Pleasure Island and DisneyQuest.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:
Since we weren't planning on going to Typhoon Lagoon AND the studios today, we decided that we'd sleep in a little bit. We set our wake up call for 9:00am. Once we were up and ready, we finished our last minute packing (how did we fit everything into our suitcases??? LOL). We said one final goodbye to our room, made sure we weren't forgetting anything, and headed down to Classic Hall.
We had to ask one of the cast members at the front desk where the luggage services desk was, and they showed us. We walked over and asked if they could please transfer our luggage to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course they said yes, and we were told that it would arrive at the lodge sometime around 4pm or so. No problem.
When we were done with our luggage drop off, we headed over to Everything Pop for one last breakfast.
We were sad that this part of our vacation was over (even with some of the "issues" we had at Pop Century), but we were EXTREMELY excited about our stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had a blueberry muffin and Alex had a breakfast sandwich. We both had frozen coke. Nice breakfast, huh? LOL
After our breakfast, we headed out to the Animal Kingdom bus stop. We hopped in line (there were about five people in line ahead of us...) and we waited about five minutes before the bus pulled up. Not bad! We were at the Animal Kingdom in no time at all, and from there, we found the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and hopped on. The bus driver looked at us kind of strangely (the Animal Kingdom had just opened a short while ago, and he had passengers GOING BACK already?) LOL As we pulled up to the lodge, I was so excited!
We were dropped off at the bus stop and we found our way to the entrance to the resort. Once we went through the doors, the first thing that I noticed was how dark it was in there! I thought with the HUGE window looking out on the savannah, it would have been lighter in there. I didn't find that to be the case... It was beautiful, nonetheless. Alex and I never thought we would be able to afford to stay in a place like this and it was AMAZING! LOL We made our way over to the check in counter and hopped in line. It was about 10:30am and there was quite a line already! I think we had about seven other people ahead of us... We waited in line a good twenty minutes or so until it was our turn to check in. While we were waiting, I snuck out of line (Alex held our place) and found the restroom. They are pretty well hidden! But, it was fun to explore the lobby area while I was looking! LOL
When I was done with my potty break, I went back in line with Alex. Finally, our turn came to check in. We walked up to the counter and gave the cast member our name and our confirmation number. He pulled us right up in the computer and said that he had a room available! At 11:00am!!! Yay! I asked if it had a king size bed in it (that was one of our requests) and he said no. He said that he had one available, but the view wasn't as nice, and that room wasn't ready. I looked at Alex and he said that this one sounded great, so we decided to take it. The cast member explained to us how to get to the room... it was on the third floor (same floor as the lobby) and we needed to walk to the hallway on the left hand side of the lobby, near the savannah.
We found our room and excitedly opened it with our new room keys. The first thing I did was to run out to our balcony and check out the savannah! LOL Alex laughed at me because he knew I was going to do that...
Our balcony was awesome! We were in a "corner" room (sort of). Our balcony afforded us a wonderful view... at that point in time, there were about five or six ankole cattle right outside of our room. Awesome! There was another balcony on our left (partioned off, of course), and on our right, it was an open area. There was a patio on the second floor (the floor below us) on the right hand side. But, we had a wonderful room. It was just fantastic.
Once I was done scoping out all of the animals, Alex managed to drag me back into the room and I admired all of the African artwork. There was even a hidden Mickey made out of African baskets hanging on the wall! Very cool. The TV was housed in a beautiful wood armoire, there were two queen sized beds with very colorful bedspreads. When we turned on the television, we were surprised to find that there was an ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE TELEVISION CHANNEL! Awesome!
The bathroom was much bigger than the bathroom at the Pop Century. There were two sinks in a large marble counter. There was tons of space for all of our toiletries. There was a basket with the Mickey soaps, shampoos, and shower caps. Next to the sink area, there was a door which led to the commode and the shower. The shower was quite large - we were pleasantly surprised! In fact, once we were in our room, we didn't want to leave! This seemed to be a recurring theme until the day we had to check out! LOL And, even then it was very difficult making ourselves leave! The resort itself is just beautiful.
Alex wanted to take a quick shower before we left, so I told him that I would go and fill our mugs down at the Mara. (I know - shame on me, we didn't buy Mara mugs...) It took me quite a while to FIND the Mara! I didn't realize you had to go outside to get to it! LOL Once I found it, I filled us up and then headed back to the room. It was about a five minute walk, once I figured out how to get there! Not too bad.
When I got back to the room, Alex was just finishing up and we finally decided that we'd better head over to the Disney-MGM Studios. Today was our last day with park passes, so we'd better use them! LOL
We made our way down to the bus stop. I had wanted to stop at the Zawadi Marketplace, but Alex reminded me that we could do that tomorrow, so onward we went. The bus was pulling up right as we reached the bus stop, so we hopped right on. It was nice not having to "share" bus stops with other resorts. (This was also nice at the Pop Century resort.)
Shortly thereafter, we were dropped off at one of the closest stops to the studios (yay!) and we walked up to the turnstiles and then into the park. We didn't bother grabbing any guide maps, we pretty much know our way around. I had wanted Alex to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but he didn't want to without me (I think he felt bad leaving me alone), so we headed towards MuppetVision 3D. This is such a cute movie, and there was no wait, so we walked right on in.
After the movie, we decided that we would stop at the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre and see if we could get a table for lunch. We had a PS for this restaurant for yesterday afternoon, but we were at Typhoon Lagoon. We didn't bother to make another PS for lunch for today, we figured we'd play it by ear. We walked up to the host station at the restaurant around 11:55am or so. I figured we'd have a long wait because it was lunchtime, but we were able to be seated in about ten minutes, which was great. Once we were led into the dining area, we both noticed that it certainly was not a full restaurant. Hmmm. I had heard mixed reviews about the food here...
We were led to the backseat of what looked to be a blue 57 Chevy. I could be wrong here... definitely. The host who led us to our table told us what kind of car it was, but I can't remember for the life of me. Sorry! There were two "benches" in front of us in the car... they were occupied by a family of four. Mom and Dad were in front of us, and the two kids were in the front seat. There were old "b" movies playing on the big screen in front of us. Alex, surprisingly, knew a lot of the movies! I don't think I'd seen any of them, but I'm not really "into" the old sci-fi movies. Alex and his Dad enjoy watching them together.
Shortly after we were seated, our server came by and took our drink orders. Alex ordered a coke and I ordered an orange soda. Our server was VERY pregnant. Poor thing - she has to be on her feet all day long! When she came back with our drinks, we were ready to order. I ordered onion rings for an appetizer and a burger for the entree. Alex ordered the 7 bean beef chili for an appetizer and a burger for the entree. We thought the food was very good. Maybe if you are too "adventurous" with the food, it's not so good, but the burgers were fine for us. For dessert, I ordered the Big Bang (an ice cream sundae), which I ate probably four bites out of! Alex ordered the Warm Apple & Pecan Crisp, which he devoured. He said it was very good.
Now, I made a mistake here. We used our "magical wishes" to pay for this meal, and according to my "plan," we were supposed to pay "cash" for this meal. This goof up will cost us LOTS of time tonight at dinner at Mama Melrose... (more on that later)
After lunch, we headed outside into the warm sun. I had wanted to do the Great Movie Ride, so we headed over that way. The line was pretty long, much to our surprise! We waited probably 35 minutes before we were in our "car" for this ride. The ride was as fun as ever. We got the gangster side this time - a first for us! So, that was great
After the Great Movie Ride, we headed over to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! We grabbed a fastpass for the next show and just sat down on a bench and relaxed. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. When it came time for our fastpass return, we walked over, handed in our fastpasses, and walked into the lobby area. Boy, do they pack everyone in! It's crazy! We must have waited in the lobby area for a good fifteen minutes and then we followed the crowd into the theater. Our seats were in the first row above the fastest finger seats, so that was nice. There was a woman in the fastest finger seat in front of us and boy, was she disappointed when she found out that EVERYONE got to play - not just the people in the fastest finger seats!
Neither of us got into the hot seat, we didn't even make it onto the board, but we had fun anyway. Alex really liked the host of the show, though. He kind of looked like Will Ferrell, and he really kept the crowd into it. It was great.
After we tried to become Disney millionaires, we decided to head over to One Man's Dream. This is such an awesome exhibit. We really took our time looking at all of the models and memorabilia. It's really cool to learn about Walt Disney himself. What a genius that man was.
When we were done with One Man's Dream, we decided to do a little bit of window shopping before it was time for our dinner PS at Mama Melrose at 4:20pm. While we were eating lunch at the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre, Alex noticed a woman wearing a guitar pin. It had flashing led lights, red and blue. We figured that she probably got it at the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster store, so we decided we'd head that way and check it out.
We made our way down Hollywood Boulevard. I have to admit, once I was right next to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror, I WANTED TO RIDE THEM!! But, this baby is so worth having to wait. Next time we're there, I'll get to do it.
We walked into the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster store and Alex found the pin right away. He decided to purchase it, so while he was paying for his pin, I just browsed around the store. Aerosmith is one of my very favorite bands, and they had some neat Aerosmith stuff in there. It was fun watching all of the kids rush out of the store excitedly because they "want to ride it again!" So much fun.
We took a leisurely walk back down Hollywood Boulevard, looking in all of the stores. I just love Disney merchandise. The way they can take virtually ANYTHING and somehow make it Disney. It's so cool. Alex had been admiring a watch for himself. It was in one of the stores here and I was almost ready to buy it for him, but he decided it was too much money. (It did have a hefty price tag - $175, but he is soooo worth it!) LOL So, we just kept window shopping. Alex ended up buying me a Mickey head ring, which I LOVE! I wear it EVERY DAY! LOL
We finally made our way to Mama Melrose's and we put our name in with the hostess. We were given a pager and I found a bench in the restaurant's lobby, where Alex and I sat and waited. Our pager went off about five minutes later, so we got up, handed it in, and then we were led to a small table near the front of the restaurant. We hadn't eaten here before, but Alex and I both LOVE italian food, so we were looking forward to this meal.
Our server came out shortly after we were seated and he started to explain what we *had* to order on the menu for the Fantasmic dinner package. After his little spiel, we told him that we were planning on using our "magical wishes" to pay for this meal, and he told us to forget everything he just said - we could order whatever we wanted to off of the menu... weird!
We put our drink orders in and we both decided to order a caesar salad for our appetizer. They were VERY quick! We couldn't believe how fast our food came out... makes us wonder if it had been pre-prepared, if you know what I mean. Well, we were kind of surprised when he brought out the restaurant's version of a caesar salad... Basically, it was half a head of lettuce (cut exactly that way - in half, not pulled apart or tossed or anything) and caesar dressing drizzled over the lettuce. I ate a little bit, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I couldn't force myself to eat any more, so I had the server take it away. Alex did much better... he said that he didn't care for it either, but he did eat at least 3/4 of it. Good for him! LOL
For our appetizer, we both ordered the chicken parmesan. Now, we are both what you would call chicken parmesan conossiers! LOL We LOVE chicken parm, and we were so excited that they made it here! It looked delicious when our server brought it out, but once we started eating, I have to admit, we were a little disappointed. The sauce was extremely bland. And, I'm not one to talk, because I usually like my sauce to be on the bland side. But this was way too bland. Bummer. We both ate about half of our meal and then had our server take it away.
While we were eating dinner, we talked about what we wanted to do between now (about 5pm) and 8:30pm (Fantasmic). We both decided that it would be nice to go back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a little bit and relax on our balcony for a while. The way the service at dinner was going, we were going to be in and out of the restaurant in no time at all! Very quick!
So, we ordered our dessert - I ordered the New York style cheesecake and Alex ordered the cannoli. I didn't taste the cannoli, but Alex said it was just okay. It had chocolate chips in it and he is not a chocolate fanatic, so his opinion was a little biased. The cheesecake was good.
When we were done with dessert, our server brought out our bill. (It was about 5:15pm). We told him that we wanted to use our "magical wishes" to pay for the meals, and he took our room key (the Pop Century one). He came back a few minutes later and said that there was a problem. There was only one "magical wish" left on our card. That baffled us. We were supposed to have two "wishes" left. Hmmm. So, he said he would check with his manager and then let us know what happened. So, off he went to find the manager. During this time, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. While I was gone, apparently, the manager came to our table and asked Alex where we were staying. He, of course, said, "the Animal Kingdom Lodge." When, obviously, we didn't have the Dream Maker Silver package with the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it was through the Pop Century. So, about ten minutes later, the manager comes back (I'm back from the bathroom by now) and says, "the Animal Kingdom Lodge doesn't show you as guests..."
I explained to her that the Dream Maker Silver package was through the Pop Century, not the Animal Kingdom Lodge. She says that she needs to go and make another phone call. So, off she goes. By now, it's 5:45pm. We have to be at the "reserved" seating at Fantasmic by 8:00pm at the latest. I think, we won't have time to go back to the lodge now...
The manager comes back, again, at 6:05pm, and says that she talked to the cast members at the Pop Century and they listed what we used our "wishes" for. They were as follows:
Alex - parasailing - 2 wishes
Hoop Dee Doo Revue - 2 wishes
Rainforest Cafe - 2 wishes
ESPN Club - 1 wish
Sci Fi Dine In Theatre - 2 wishes
Spirit of Aloha - 2 wishes
We had a total of 12 wishes, so if you add those up, there really is only one wish left. Then, it hits me... We weren't supposed to use our wishes for the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre lunch! But, we really were baffled, because at the ESPN Club, we really did order two complete meals. They should have subtracted two wishes from our account, not just one. Weird. So, we ended up just paying in cash for the one meal at Mama Melrose and using our last wish for the second meal. It was totally my fault and I was so mad at myself. Not because we had to pay for the extra meal, but just because we had "wasted" so much time figuring this out.
Oh, well.
We finally left Mama Melrose at 6:15pm, and I looked at Alex and asked him what he thought we should do... He thought we would be okay to go back to the lodge for a little while, so we could get changed (we were planning on going to Pleasure Island after Fantasmic). So, we headed out of the park, making sure we got our hands stamped. (By the way, Alex couldn't understand why we had to keep getting our hands stamped every time we left a park... none of the cast members ever checked our handstamps upon re-entry... Oh, well.)
We headed out to the bus stop. There was a man and what looked to be his daughter waiting for the bus. They were sitting on the sidewalk, so we just stood behind them. The bus pulled up about two minutes after we got there (great timing), so we hopped on and rode back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was a nice relaxing ride back - I almost fell asleep! LOL
We were dropped off at the bus stop and we walked to our room. We both decided to change out of our shorts and into jeans. It certainly wasn't cold by any means, but our legs would have probably gotten a little chilly come nighttime. We also filled out the room service card for breakfast tomorrow morning and we left it outside of our door. We had a couple of minutes to go outside and check on the savannah... this time there were zebra out there! Yay! I was so excited! LOL
When Alex finally managed to drag me off of the balcony and out of our room, we headed back down to the bus stop where we waited on a bench until the Disney-MGM Studios bus pulled up. I glanced at my watch - our server told us that we needed to be at the gas station area to go to the Fantasmic area by 8pm at the latest. When I glanced at my watch, it was 7:42pm! I have to admit, I was a little panicky. I didn't think we would make it, and I knew with the crowds being the way they were, we probably wouldn't have been able to get a seat in the "general" seating area.
The bus pulled up at 7:45pm exactly, and we hopped on and crossed our fingers that we'd get there on time. We were dropped of at the MGM bus stop at 8:03pm. We were late! We ran and I mean ran to the gas station area. There was a cast member there still accepting the coupons for Fantasmic, so we were okay. I kept telling Alex that we were okay once we were inside the "backstage" area, but he insisted on running all the way up the hill to the bleachers! Yikes! Not was this pregnant body needed. That's for sure. I ended up getting a bad leg cramp and I started to drag my left leg. Ouch, it hurt! LOL So, once we were right at the top of the hill, Alex decided that it was okay for us to slow down now. Thanks, hon! I really appreciate it! LOL
We finally reached the bleachers and there was not much left in terms of seating. We found a small spot to the far left of the theater and we sat down. I had my pink mouse ears on (the ones that light up) and Alex had a sorcerer Mickey hat on (it also lights up). Well, the people behind us basically demanded that Alex take his hat off. We wouldn't have minded if they would have been just a tad bit nicer about it. So, Alex wasn't happy about that. And, sure enough, the same people decided to get up and leave during the middle of Fantasmic. So rude!
Fantasmic began on time, at 8:30pm. It was as great as I remembered it. I just LOVE this show. I think it's my favorite one, although Wishes is up there, too. Maybe the two of them are a tie. It was just wonderful. Seeing ALL of the characters and the water screens, it's amazing how Disney can pull things like that off. And, every night! And, sometimes twice a night! All I can say is WOW! It's just one of the many reasons why Alex and I LOVE Walt Disney World so much. It truly is a magical place.
When Fantasmic was over, we headed out of the park with the rest of the crowd. Once we were out, we decided to just take the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus back to the lodge and then catch the Downtown Disney bus from there. So, we hopped in line (if you want to call it that - there was a total of six of us waiting in line --- AT PARK CLOSING!) LOL We couldn't believe the difference - I mean, we looked at the All Stars and the Pop Century lines and they were CRAZY! So, we could not believe there was only SIX people heading back to the lodge!
Our bus pulled up very shortly after we got to the bus stop and we hopped on and rode it back to the lodge. Once we were dropped off, we just sat on a bench and waited for the Downtown Disney bus to pull up, which it did about five minutes later. We hopped on that bus and took a nice ride to the Marketplace, where the bus driver dropped off a couple of people. We stayed on and rode to Pleasure Island. There were a couple of other people who apparently had the same idea as us, because most of the people occupying the bus got off at Pleasure Island.
We walked to the turnstiles and showed the cast members our IDs. We both got hand stamped and then we went inside Pleasure Island. We decided to stop and get a drink, so we stopped over at the outside bar at the Adventurer's Club. I got a gingerale, and Alex had a beer. He was surprised because the beer he got was, first of all, in a plastic bottle, and secondly, it was an 18oz beer. I guess, normally, beer comes in a 12oz bottle. I guess I never really noticed that. Oh, well.
After we were set with drinks, we headed over to the Comedy Warehouse and noticed that the next show wasn't until 11:45pm. It was about 10:15pm now. So, we walked over towards Motion. Pleasure Island just seemed to be really "dead" tonight. I wanted to go inside the Adventurer's Club, but Alex isn't too fond of it, so we didn't. I also wanted to go to a show at the Comedy Warehouse, but we couldn't see waiting another hour and a half, so we just went down to the lower patio by the BET Club and drank our drinks and just talked. It was nice to just sit near the water and relax together. We both said that we must be getting OLD because we didn't really find Pleasure Island too exciting. In the past, we've really enjoyed it. I don't know - this time it was kind of boring. We're old farts, I know. LOL
We decided that we would head over towards DisneyQuest and check out the shops on the West Side. I thought it might be fun to go inside DisneyQuest but Alex didn't want to, so we just shopped a little bit. We spent a good amount of time in the Virgin megastore, too. We both really like all types of music, and it was fun to see what they had. We didn't end up buying anything, although I was eyeing the Kenny Chesney CD. My Mom has it, so I can always burn it. He is just SOOO good looking! LOL
We left the Virgin Megastore around 12:15am. I was kind of hungry - Alex wasn't. I told him that I could just order something when we got back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, or I could eat some of the peanut butter crackers that we had in the room. No big deal. But, nope, Alex decided that we should go to Planet Hollywood and grab a bite to eat. So, that's what we did.
I was surprised at how many people were eating there at this time of night! We didn't have to wait for a table, but the restaurant was pretty full! Our server came by and took our drink orders (I couldn't talk Alex into getting another beer - they were like $8 or something - he thought it was WAY too much!) LOL. So, we both ordered sodas. Then we looked over the menu while our server was grabbing our drinks.
Alex ended up ordering a chicken finger appetizer thing - it came in what looked to be a shrimp cocktail dish. Weird, but he said it was good. I ordered a club sandwich and I was SOOO happy I did - it was delicious! It came with fries and it totally hit the spot. I ended up eating only half of the sandwich, so we took the other half "home" with us.
Alex also did something funny when we were placing our orders... I had mentioned, earlier in the evening, that I would do ANYTHING for some dill pickles... So, when the server took our order, he ordered a plate of pickles for me! She gave him the strangest look! LOL But, they were sooo good! LOL I am so lucky to have my husband - he's wonderful.
When we were done with our late night snack, we headed out of the restaurant and back to the Pleasure Island bus stop. Our bus was there, waiting for us (LOL), so we hopped right on. The ride back was quick - at least we got seats! LOL We were dropped off at the bus stop and we headed back up to our room. And then to bed! We were both pretty tired! But, we did look outside our balcony before we went to bed! LOL Alas- we didn't see any animals. Oh, well.
Pre-Trip Planning/Information
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Six
Day Seven
WHAT WE PLANNED ON HAPPENING:
We'd set our wake up call for 6:30am. We'd wake up, shower, get dressed, and pack all of our things to be transferred over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We'd be down at Everything Pop and eating breakfast at 7:00am. After breakfast, we would drop off our luggage with baggage services and we'd be on a bus headed for the Animal Kingdom by 7:30am. At 7:45am, we'd be dropped off at the Animal Kingdom, and we'd hop on the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and arrive at the lodge by 7:55am. We'd hop in line and check in to the lodge by 8:05am, and we'd be back at the bus stop and hopping on a Typhoon Lagoon bus by 8:15am. We'd arrive in time for park opening (9am), and spend the rest of our day just relaxing and swimming. By 2:45pm, we'd catch a bus back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we'd find our room, retrieve our luggage, and by 3:40pm, we'd be on another bus - this one headed to the Disney-MGM Studios. We'd have dinner at Mama Melrose at 4:20pm (we had the Fantasmic dinner package PS). After dinner, we'd tour the studios, and be in the Fantasmic theatre for Fantasmic at 8:30pm. After Fantasmic, we'd catch a bus to Downtown Disney, where we'd check out Pleasure Island and DisneyQuest.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:
Since we weren't planning on going to Typhoon Lagoon AND the studios today, we decided that we'd sleep in a little bit. We set our wake up call for 9:00am. Once we were up and ready, we finished our last minute packing (how did we fit everything into our suitcases??? LOL). We said one final goodbye to our room, made sure we weren't forgetting anything, and headed down to Classic Hall.
We had to ask one of the cast members at the front desk where the luggage services desk was, and they showed us. We walked over and asked if they could please transfer our luggage to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course they said yes, and we were told that it would arrive at the lodge sometime around 4pm or so. No problem.
When we were done with our luggage drop off, we headed over to Everything Pop for one last breakfast.
We were sad that this part of our vacation was over (even with some of the "issues" we had at Pop Century), but we were EXTREMELY excited about our stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had a blueberry muffin and Alex had a breakfast sandwich. We both had frozen coke. Nice breakfast, huh? LOL After our breakfast, we headed out to the Animal Kingdom bus stop. We hopped in line (there were about five people in line ahead of us...) and we waited about five minutes before the bus pulled up. Not bad! We were at the Animal Kingdom in no time at all, and from there, we found the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus and hopped on. The bus driver looked at us kind of strangely (the Animal Kingdom had just opened a short while ago, and he had passengers GOING BACK already?) LOL As we pulled up to the lodge, I was so excited!
We were dropped off at the bus stop and we found our way to the entrance to the resort. Once we went through the doors, the first thing that I noticed was how dark it was in there! I thought with the HUGE window looking out on the savannah, it would have been lighter in there. I didn't find that to be the case... It was beautiful, nonetheless. Alex and I never thought we would be able to afford to stay in a place like this and it was AMAZING! LOL We made our way over to the check in counter and hopped in line. It was about 10:30am and there was quite a line already! I think we had about seven other people ahead of us... We waited in line a good twenty minutes or so until it was our turn to check in. While we were waiting, I snuck out of line (Alex held our place) and found the restroom. They are pretty well hidden! But, it was fun to explore the lobby area while I was looking! LOL
When I was done with my potty break, I went back in line with Alex. Finally, our turn came to check in. We walked up to the counter and gave the cast member our name and our confirmation number. He pulled us right up in the computer and said that he had a room available! At 11:00am!!! Yay! I asked if it had a king size bed in it (that was one of our requests) and he said no. He said that he had one available, but the view wasn't as nice, and that room wasn't ready. I looked at Alex and he said that this one sounded great, so we decided to take it. The cast member explained to us how to get to the room... it was on the third floor (same floor as the lobby) and we needed to walk to the hallway on the left hand side of the lobby, near the savannah.
We found our room and excitedly opened it with our new room keys. The first thing I did was to run out to our balcony and check out the savannah! LOL Alex laughed at me because he knew I was going to do that...
Our balcony was awesome! We were in a "corner" room (sort of). Our balcony afforded us a wonderful view... at that point in time, there were about five or six ankole cattle right outside of our room. Awesome! There was another balcony on our left (partioned off, of course), and on our right, it was an open area. There was a patio on the second floor (the floor below us) on the right hand side. But, we had a wonderful room. It was just fantastic. Once I was done scoping out all of the animals, Alex managed to drag me back into the room and I admired all of the African artwork. There was even a hidden Mickey made out of African baskets hanging on the wall! Very cool. The TV was housed in a beautiful wood armoire, there were two queen sized beds with very colorful bedspreads. When we turned on the television, we were surprised to find that there was an ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE TELEVISION CHANNEL! Awesome!
The bathroom was much bigger than the bathroom at the Pop Century. There were two sinks in a large marble counter. There was tons of space for all of our toiletries. There was a basket with the Mickey soaps, shampoos, and shower caps. Next to the sink area, there was a door which led to the commode and the shower. The shower was quite large - we were pleasantly surprised! In fact, once we were in our room, we didn't want to leave! This seemed to be a recurring theme until the day we had to check out! LOL And, even then it was very difficult making ourselves leave! The resort itself is just beautiful.
Alex wanted to take a quick shower before we left, so I told him that I would go and fill our mugs down at the Mara. (I know - shame on me, we didn't buy Mara mugs...) It took me quite a while to FIND the Mara! I didn't realize you had to go outside to get to it! LOL Once I found it, I filled us up and then headed back to the room. It was about a five minute walk, once I figured out how to get there! Not too bad.
When I got back to the room, Alex was just finishing up and we finally decided that we'd better head over to the Disney-MGM Studios. Today was our last day with park passes, so we'd better use them! LOL
We made our way down to the bus stop. I had wanted to stop at the Zawadi Marketplace, but Alex reminded me that we could do that tomorrow, so onward we went. The bus was pulling up right as we reached the bus stop, so we hopped right on. It was nice not having to "share" bus stops with other resorts. (This was also nice at the Pop Century resort.)
Shortly thereafter, we were dropped off at one of the closest stops to the studios (yay!) and we walked up to the turnstiles and then into the park. We didn't bother grabbing any guide maps, we pretty much know our way around. I had wanted Alex to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but he didn't want to without me (I think he felt bad leaving me alone), so we headed towards MuppetVision 3D. This is such a cute movie, and there was no wait, so we walked right on in.
After the movie, we decided that we would stop at the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre and see if we could get a table for lunch. We had a PS for this restaurant for yesterday afternoon, but we were at Typhoon Lagoon. We didn't bother to make another PS for lunch for today, we figured we'd play it by ear. We walked up to the host station at the restaurant around 11:55am or so. I figured we'd have a long wait because it was lunchtime, but we were able to be seated in about ten minutes, which was great. Once we were led into the dining area, we both noticed that it certainly was not a full restaurant. Hmmm. I had heard mixed reviews about the food here...
We were led to the backseat of what looked to be a blue 57 Chevy. I could be wrong here... definitely. The host who led us to our table told us what kind of car it was, but I can't remember for the life of me. Sorry! There were two "benches" in front of us in the car... they were occupied by a family of four. Mom and Dad were in front of us, and the two kids were in the front seat. There were old "b" movies playing on the big screen in front of us. Alex, surprisingly, knew a lot of the movies! I don't think I'd seen any of them, but I'm not really "into" the old sci-fi movies. Alex and his Dad enjoy watching them together.
Shortly after we were seated, our server came by and took our drink orders. Alex ordered a coke and I ordered an orange soda. Our server was VERY pregnant. Poor thing - she has to be on her feet all day long! When she came back with our drinks, we were ready to order. I ordered onion rings for an appetizer and a burger for the entree. Alex ordered the 7 bean beef chili for an appetizer and a burger for the entree. We thought the food was very good. Maybe if you are too "adventurous" with the food, it's not so good, but the burgers were fine for us. For dessert, I ordered the Big Bang (an ice cream sundae), which I ate probably four bites out of! Alex ordered the Warm Apple & Pecan Crisp, which he devoured. He said it was very good.
Now, I made a mistake here. We used our "magical wishes" to pay for this meal, and according to my "plan," we were supposed to pay "cash" for this meal. This goof up will cost us LOTS of time tonight at dinner at Mama Melrose... (more on that later)
After lunch, we headed outside into the warm sun. I had wanted to do the Great Movie Ride, so we headed over that way. The line was pretty long, much to our surprise! We waited probably 35 minutes before we were in our "car" for this ride. The ride was as fun as ever. We got the gangster side this time - a first for us! So, that was great
After the Great Movie Ride, we headed over to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! We grabbed a fastpass for the next show and just sat down on a bench and relaxed. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. When it came time for our fastpass return, we walked over, handed in our fastpasses, and walked into the lobby area. Boy, do they pack everyone in! It's crazy! We must have waited in the lobby area for a good fifteen minutes and then we followed the crowd into the theater. Our seats were in the first row above the fastest finger seats, so that was nice. There was a woman in the fastest finger seat in front of us and boy, was she disappointed when she found out that EVERYONE got to play - not just the people in the fastest finger seats!
Neither of us got into the hot seat, we didn't even make it onto the board, but we had fun anyway. Alex really liked the host of the show, though. He kind of looked like Will Ferrell, and he really kept the crowd into it. It was great.
After we tried to become Disney millionaires, we decided to head over to One Man's Dream. This is such an awesome exhibit. We really took our time looking at all of the models and memorabilia. It's really cool to learn about Walt Disney himself. What a genius that man was.
When we were done with One Man's Dream, we decided to do a little bit of window shopping before it was time for our dinner PS at Mama Melrose at 4:20pm. While we were eating lunch at the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre, Alex noticed a woman wearing a guitar pin. It had flashing led lights, red and blue. We figured that she probably got it at the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster store, so we decided we'd head that way and check it out.
We made our way down Hollywood Boulevard. I have to admit, once I was right next to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and the Tower of Terror, I WANTED TO RIDE THEM!! But, this baby is so worth having to wait. Next time we're there, I'll get to do it.
We walked into the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster store and Alex found the pin right away. He decided to purchase it, so while he was paying for his pin, I just browsed around the store. Aerosmith is one of my very favorite bands, and they had some neat Aerosmith stuff in there. It was fun watching all of the kids rush out of the store excitedly because they "want to ride it again!" So much fun.
We took a leisurely walk back down Hollywood Boulevard, looking in all of the stores. I just love Disney merchandise. The way they can take virtually ANYTHING and somehow make it Disney. It's so cool. Alex had been admiring a watch for himself. It was in one of the stores here and I was almost ready to buy it for him, but he decided it was too much money. (It did have a hefty price tag - $175, but he is soooo worth it!) LOL So, we just kept window shopping. Alex ended up buying me a Mickey head ring, which I LOVE! I wear it EVERY DAY! LOL
We finally made our way to Mama Melrose's and we put our name in with the hostess. We were given a pager and I found a bench in the restaurant's lobby, where Alex and I sat and waited. Our pager went off about five minutes later, so we got up, handed it in, and then we were led to a small table near the front of the restaurant. We hadn't eaten here before, but Alex and I both LOVE italian food, so we were looking forward to this meal.
Our server came out shortly after we were seated and he started to explain what we *had* to order on the menu for the Fantasmic dinner package. After his little spiel, we told him that we were planning on using our "magical wishes" to pay for this meal, and he told us to forget everything he just said - we could order whatever we wanted to off of the menu... weird!
We put our drink orders in and we both decided to order a caesar salad for our appetizer. They were VERY quick! We couldn't believe how fast our food came out... makes us wonder if it had been pre-prepared, if you know what I mean. Well, we were kind of surprised when he brought out the restaurant's version of a caesar salad... Basically, it was half a head of lettuce (cut exactly that way - in half, not pulled apart or tossed or anything) and caesar dressing drizzled over the lettuce. I ate a little bit, but it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. I couldn't force myself to eat any more, so I had the server take it away. Alex did much better... he said that he didn't care for it either, but he did eat at least 3/4 of it. Good for him! LOL
For our appetizer, we both ordered the chicken parmesan. Now, we are both what you would call chicken parmesan conossiers! LOL We LOVE chicken parm, and we were so excited that they made it here! It looked delicious when our server brought it out, but once we started eating, I have to admit, we were a little disappointed. The sauce was extremely bland. And, I'm not one to talk, because I usually like my sauce to be on the bland side. But this was way too bland. Bummer. We both ate about half of our meal and then had our server take it away.
While we were eating dinner, we talked about what we wanted to do between now (about 5pm) and 8:30pm (Fantasmic). We both decided that it would be nice to go back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a little bit and relax on our balcony for a while. The way the service at dinner was going, we were going to be in and out of the restaurant in no time at all! Very quick!
So, we ordered our dessert - I ordered the New York style cheesecake and Alex ordered the cannoli. I didn't taste the cannoli, but Alex said it was just okay. It had chocolate chips in it and he is not a chocolate fanatic, so his opinion was a little biased. The cheesecake was good.
When we were done with dessert, our server brought out our bill. (It was about 5:15pm). We told him that we wanted to use our "magical wishes" to pay for the meals, and he took our room key (the Pop Century one). He came back a few minutes later and said that there was a problem. There was only one "magical wish" left on our card. That baffled us. We were supposed to have two "wishes" left. Hmmm. So, he said he would check with his manager and then let us know what happened. So, off he went to find the manager. During this time, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. While I was gone, apparently, the manager came to our table and asked Alex where we were staying. He, of course, said, "the Animal Kingdom Lodge." When, obviously, we didn't have the Dream Maker Silver package with the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it was through the Pop Century. So, about ten minutes later, the manager comes back (I'm back from the bathroom by now) and says, "the Animal Kingdom Lodge doesn't show you as guests..."
I explained to her that the Dream Maker Silver package was through the Pop Century, not the Animal Kingdom Lodge. She says that she needs to go and make another phone call. So, off she goes. By now, it's 5:45pm. We have to be at the "reserved" seating at Fantasmic by 8:00pm at the latest. I think, we won't have time to go back to the lodge now...
The manager comes back, again, at 6:05pm, and says that she talked to the cast members at the Pop Century and they listed what we used our "wishes" for. They were as follows:
Alex - parasailing - 2 wishes
Hoop Dee Doo Revue - 2 wishes
Rainforest Cafe - 2 wishes
ESPN Club - 1 wish
Sci Fi Dine In Theatre - 2 wishes
Spirit of Aloha - 2 wishes
We had a total of 12 wishes, so if you add those up, there really is only one wish left. Then, it hits me... We weren't supposed to use our wishes for the Sci Fi Dine In Theatre lunch! But, we really were baffled, because at the ESPN Club, we really did order two complete meals. They should have subtracted two wishes from our account, not just one. Weird. So, we ended up just paying in cash for the one meal at Mama Melrose and using our last wish for the second meal. It was totally my fault and I was so mad at myself. Not because we had to pay for the extra meal, but just because we had "wasted" so much time figuring this out.
Oh, well.
We finally left Mama Melrose at 6:15pm, and I looked at Alex and asked him what he thought we should do... He thought we would be okay to go back to the lodge for a little while, so we could get changed (we were planning on going to Pleasure Island after Fantasmic). So, we headed out of the park, making sure we got our hands stamped. (By the way, Alex couldn't understand why we had to keep getting our hands stamped every time we left a park... none of the cast members ever checked our handstamps upon re-entry... Oh, well.)
We headed out to the bus stop. There was a man and what looked to be his daughter waiting for the bus. They were sitting on the sidewalk, so we just stood behind them. The bus pulled up about two minutes after we got there (great timing), so we hopped on and rode back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was a nice relaxing ride back - I almost fell asleep! LOL
We were dropped off at the bus stop and we walked to our room. We both decided to change out of our shorts and into jeans. It certainly wasn't cold by any means, but our legs would have probably gotten a little chilly come nighttime. We also filled out the room service card for breakfast tomorrow morning and we left it outside of our door. We had a couple of minutes to go outside and check on the savannah... this time there were zebra out there! Yay! I was so excited! LOL
When Alex finally managed to drag me off of the balcony and out of our room, we headed back down to the bus stop where we waited on a bench until the Disney-MGM Studios bus pulled up. I glanced at my watch - our server told us that we needed to be at the gas station area to go to the Fantasmic area by 8pm at the latest. When I glanced at my watch, it was 7:42pm! I have to admit, I was a little panicky. I didn't think we would make it, and I knew with the crowds being the way they were, we probably wouldn't have been able to get a seat in the "general" seating area.
The bus pulled up at 7:45pm exactly, and we hopped on and crossed our fingers that we'd get there on time. We were dropped of at the MGM bus stop at 8:03pm. We were late! We ran and I mean ran to the gas station area. There was a cast member there still accepting the coupons for Fantasmic, so we were okay. I kept telling Alex that we were okay once we were inside the "backstage" area, but he insisted on running all the way up the hill to the bleachers! Yikes! Not was this pregnant body needed. That's for sure. I ended up getting a bad leg cramp and I started to drag my left leg. Ouch, it hurt! LOL So, once we were right at the top of the hill, Alex decided that it was okay for us to slow down now. Thanks, hon! I really appreciate it! LOL
We finally reached the bleachers and there was not much left in terms of seating. We found a small spot to the far left of the theater and we sat down. I had my pink mouse ears on (the ones that light up) and Alex had a sorcerer Mickey hat on (it also lights up). Well, the people behind us basically demanded that Alex take his hat off. We wouldn't have minded if they would have been just a tad bit nicer about it. So, Alex wasn't happy about that. And, sure enough, the same people decided to get up and leave during the middle of Fantasmic. So rude!
Fantasmic began on time, at 8:30pm. It was as great as I remembered it. I just LOVE this show. I think it's my favorite one, although Wishes is up there, too. Maybe the two of them are a tie. It was just wonderful. Seeing ALL of the characters and the water screens, it's amazing how Disney can pull things like that off. And, every night! And, sometimes twice a night! All I can say is WOW! It's just one of the many reasons why Alex and I LOVE Walt Disney World so much. It truly is a magical place.
When Fantasmic was over, we headed out of the park with the rest of the crowd. Once we were out, we decided to just take the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus back to the lodge and then catch the Downtown Disney bus from there. So, we hopped in line (if you want to call it that - there was a total of six of us waiting in line --- AT PARK CLOSING!) LOL We couldn't believe the difference - I mean, we looked at the All Stars and the Pop Century lines and they were CRAZY! So, we could not believe there was only SIX people heading back to the lodge!
Our bus pulled up very shortly after we got to the bus stop and we hopped on and rode it back to the lodge. Once we were dropped off, we just sat on a bench and waited for the Downtown Disney bus to pull up, which it did about five minutes later. We hopped on that bus and took a nice ride to the Marketplace, where the bus driver dropped off a couple of people. We stayed on and rode to Pleasure Island. There were a couple of other people who apparently had the same idea as us, because most of the people occupying the bus got off at Pleasure Island.
We walked to the turnstiles and showed the cast members our IDs. We both got hand stamped and then we went inside Pleasure Island. We decided to stop and get a drink, so we stopped over at the outside bar at the Adventurer's Club. I got a gingerale, and Alex had a beer. He was surprised because the beer he got was, first of all, in a plastic bottle, and secondly, it was an 18oz beer. I guess, normally, beer comes in a 12oz bottle. I guess I never really noticed that. Oh, well.
After we were set with drinks, we headed over to the Comedy Warehouse and noticed that the next show wasn't until 11:45pm. It was about 10:15pm now. So, we walked over towards Motion. Pleasure Island just seemed to be really "dead" tonight. I wanted to go inside the Adventurer's Club, but Alex isn't too fond of it, so we didn't. I also wanted to go to a show at the Comedy Warehouse, but we couldn't see waiting another hour and a half, so we just went down to the lower patio by the BET Club and drank our drinks and just talked. It was nice to just sit near the water and relax together. We both said that we must be getting OLD because we didn't really find Pleasure Island too exciting. In the past, we've really enjoyed it. I don't know - this time it was kind of boring. We're old farts, I know. LOL
We decided that we would head over towards DisneyQuest and check out the shops on the West Side. I thought it might be fun to go inside DisneyQuest but Alex didn't want to, so we just shopped a little bit. We spent a good amount of time in the Virgin megastore, too. We both really like all types of music, and it was fun to see what they had. We didn't end up buying anything, although I was eyeing the Kenny Chesney CD. My Mom has it, so I can always burn it. He is just SOOO good looking! LOL
We left the Virgin Megastore around 12:15am. I was kind of hungry - Alex wasn't. I told him that I could just order something when we got back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, or I could eat some of the peanut butter crackers that we had in the room. No big deal. But, nope, Alex decided that we should go to Planet Hollywood and grab a bite to eat. So, that's what we did.
I was surprised at how many people were eating there at this time of night! We didn't have to wait for a table, but the restaurant was pretty full! Our server came by and took our drink orders (I couldn't talk Alex into getting another beer - they were like $8 or something - he thought it was WAY too much!) LOL. So, we both ordered sodas. Then we looked over the menu while our server was grabbing our drinks.
Alex ended up ordering a chicken finger appetizer thing - it came in what looked to be a shrimp cocktail dish. Weird, but he said it was good. I ordered a club sandwich and I was SOOO happy I did - it was delicious! It came with fries and it totally hit the spot. I ended up eating only half of the sandwich, so we took the other half "home" with us.
Alex also did something funny when we were placing our orders... I had mentioned, earlier in the evening, that I would do ANYTHING for some dill pickles... So, when the server took our order, he ordered a plate of pickles for me! She gave him the strangest look! LOL But, they were sooo good! LOL I am so lucky to have my husband - he's wonderful.
When we were done with our late night snack, we headed out of the restaurant and back to the Pleasure Island bus stop. Our bus was there, waiting for us (LOL), so we hopped right on. The ride back was quick - at least we got seats! LOL We were dropped off at the bus stop and we headed back up to our room. And then to bed! We were both pretty tired! But, we did look outside our balcony before we went to bed! LOL Alas- we didn't see any animals. Oh, well.
Pre-Trip Planning/Information
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Six
Day Seven
