Spectrum Moms Take on The World! Our Last Day...Multiple Posts!

[KathyRN137]

Wow! There was a whole lot more blue sky at MK than when we saw it the following morning! So glad you were able to catch some fun shows and watch them in peace...


Kathy

 

[disneyfan61]

I loved hearing about all your arrival days.

Mryppns I am so used to sleeping with a fan that I bring mine with me in my luggage. I have a hard time getting to sleep anywhere else so my fan goes into my suitcase. Both of my sons also sleep with a fan in their rooms also.

Love the MK pics. I have been thinking about MK all day.

Cannot wait to read more.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Wow Heidi - Those are some beautiful pictures!! Some views that I haven't seen before.

I haven't been replying to comments but wanted to welcome all of our new readers & say hello to those who have been with us all along.

 

[All7OfUs]

Awesome morning, Heidi!! I had a morning VERY similar to this and must say, alone, with an EMH wide open before you is a wonderful feeling. Catching the little seen shows was so fun for me too; so glad you could just stop when you wanted. I must say, you took some really lovely pictures all over the place!!

 

[KathyRN137]

Now you have two tickers???

Do tell!!

Well, the December Trip you already heard me talking about... I decided to scrap the original plan of a family trip during Christmas week... the crowds would be way too much sensory overload for Billy. It will be a Mommy-and-Me trip in early December. Tricia is fine with it; she'd be way, way more upset if I suggested she miss school.

The Birthday weekend is just pie-in-the-sky dreaming right now... it will either be a Mom & Dad trip or perhaps solo if I can swing it!

It's the post-Disney Blues that makes me want to make tickers, I suppose!


Kathy

 

[MEK]

I love AK EMH, although I have only been twice and only one time in the real dark. My goal is to ride EE in the dark, so kudos to you for getting to ride it 3 times (well - I suppose the glitter wasn't too fun).

I Love the MK pictures. It looks so beautiful and peaceful.

KIDANI - Here come the moms!

 

[KathyRN137]

I'm so excited that my first article(s) for www.wdwfanzone have been published today!

If you're interested in reading about some special Faces you might see in the Queue, please click!

http://www.wdwfanzone.com/2011/01/faces-in-the-queue-meet-bill-2/


In related news: Today I booked a Mommy & Billy trip for the first week in December! Booked at SSR in my 11-month home resort booking window (because that time of year is very popular with DVCers) But I most likely will try to switch resorts at 7 months.

Perhaps BLT? It would be lovely to stay so close to the MK... Then again, I do love OKW... Of course, I've yet to try BC or BW... (!)


Thanks for reading; hope to get a "real" update done later today...




Kathy

 

[eandesmom]

2 articles!!!!!!!!!!!!! And one about Bill. How entirely cool is that! I had so much fun reading

 

[KathyRN137]

/

Kathy:

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Departure


As you may imagine, it was relatively easy to shake the sleep out of my eyes that morning; despite the fact that it was 4:00am. I was going to Disney! Aimee, our dog, heard me rustling around and came downstairs to keep me company while I showered and dressed. All the while I kept an ear pricked for any sounds upstairs indicating that Billy was awake. Half of me desperately wanted to run upstairs and give him one last hug and kiss, but I refrained. He had truly seemed at peace with my leaving when he fell asleep the night before. Well, at least that’s what I told Aimee.


Ed normally works until 7:00, but was leaving early to drive me to the airport. I never get stressed out when I travel but my husband sure does! His plan was to pick me up at 5:30 and drive the twenty minutes to Newark Airport so that I would have plenty of time to make my 7:45 flight. Of course, since it was only me traveling and I had already checked in online, I wasn’t too worried about being late. In truth, I never worry about being late, but that can be extremely annoying to a person who believes that you should always arrive fifteen minutes early for every appointment and two hours before every flight! Since I was dependent on said person for my ride, I did best to assure him that I would be ready on time.


Nevertheless, at 5:20 I received a text: “On my way home, be ready!” That was my cue to go upstairs and wake Tricia for school. I was more than a little nervous leaving her alone with Billy, but a) we were only leaving them alone for about 45 minutes and b) he would be sleeping the entire time. Tricia normally gets up for school by a quarter to six, but she planned ahead and opted to go to bed earlier the night before and shower that morning instead. I had just kissed her goodbye when I heard Ed come in the front door. He was rarin’ to go and wanted to know why I wasn’t there to meet him at the door! He hadn’t even turned off the car engine! I begged for two more minutes to do one last thing. (Hey, didn’t your mother always tell you to use the bathroom one last time before leaving the house?) He grabbed my bag and mumbled something under his breath about me “being late to my own funeral,” then went back outside to wait for me.


All that morning I had been debating about whether or not to wear my fleece jacket. It was a rather balmy 45 degrees that morning and I knew it was supposed to be warm that day in Orlando. The five-day weather forecast – constantly updated and reported all week by DisMomAmy – was calling for a bit of everything: some sun, some rain, some warm temps and some cold ones. Knowing that I had a turtleneck and several layering tees in my bag, I opted at the last minute to leave the fleece at home. Hey! I’m going to Florida, for goodness sake! And so, I left the house wearing jeans, a turtleneck and a hoodie sweatshirt. (I would come to regret this decision later that weekend.)


We had absolutely no traffic on our way to the airport, which eased Ed’s mind immensely, and as we drove we talked about the usual husband and wife stuff. Ed pulled up to the drop-off area, took my bag out and placed it on the curb. It felt so strange to be hugging him goodbye! The last time he dropped me at the airport must have been about four years earlier when I went to a two-day professional conference in Chicago. (Had it really been that long since I was away from my husband and kids?) For some reason, despite my obvious excitement about going to Disney, I felt a pang of guilt as I watched him drive off. I’m sure it was because the Chicago trip had been for business and this one was for pleasure.

Oh well, guilt pang over! On with the trip!

What a carefree feeling it was to enter the terminal with only a small rolling bag, my purse and a carry-on! My psyche quickly and easily shifted from Mommy traveler to Solo traveler. What a relief to be responsible for no one but myself for a change! Normally I only get to feel that way at work -- this was infinitely better! As I pulled my bag to the escalator I passed a family with young children who were obviously headed for Orlando. A little girl pointed at the picture of Mickey and The Gang on my WDW sweatshirt, tugged on her mother’s coat and shouted, “Look, Mommy, she’s going to Disney, too!” Her excitement made me smile the entire way to baggage check.


The line at the security checkpoint was long but it moved steadily. Soon I was sitting at the gate, nibbling on a donut and blowing/sipping on an extremely HOT cup of tea from Dunkin’ Donuts. Before I knew it we were boarding. Hurray!! I had a row of seats all to myself for the flight down! I pulled out my Jan/Feb issue of Celebrations magazine that I had been saving, with much difficulty, to read on the trip. (If you’ve never read Celebrations, I highly recommend it for any and all Disney fans!) http://www.celebrationspress.com/


An uneventful takeoff soon followed, with me offering my traditional succession of Hail Marys until the engines powered down and the seatbelt sign blinked OFF. Then I settled back, closed my eyes and listened to a couple of Be Our Guest podcasts www.beourguestpodcasts that I had downloaded from itunes. I may have dozed very slightly, but I definitely could not sleep. I was too excited about meeting the other moms!


We arrived early – around 10:00 am – and immediately the texts were flying! I disembarked and cruised over toward the mini-monorail with butterflies growing in my stomach. It was hard to believe that after all of our planning, we would finally be meeting face-to-face! A quick pit stop before heading down to the Magical Express departure area and… there they were! Mouse_Scrapper and Irish Dancer, aka Julie and Ann Marie! (They had traveled together from Chicago.)


Sorry, again, there are no pictures – I was too busy hugging, laughing, and talking! We had a brief moment of concern for the other moms when the ME cast member asked for my voucher booklet. (Would the other moms need it to board the bus?) The CM didn’t think so, as long as they had their travel vouchers. (They did – I had mailed them to each mom individually.) Then off we went to….the near-empty holding area! Uh-oh! Front of the line for AKL - Kidani Village. We were itchin’ to go! How long would we have to wait??


To Be Continued….


Kathy

 

[MEK]

Great update Kathy! So glad you have a drill sargeant at home to get you to the airport on time!

Glad that everyone's flight was uneventful and that the big meet is about to begin!

BTW - I loved your article.

 

[KathyRN137]

Kathy
Thursday, January 20, 2011
MCO/Kidani Village




When I left off, Mouse_Scrapper (Julie), irishdancer (Ann Marie), and myself were first in line HERE:

​

... the only time you don't like being first in line at Disney!


In reality, there were other guests from our resort (and others) that had already been loaded onto our bus so the wait turned out to be much less than we feared. While we waited for Kidani to be called, we chatted about our flights and Julie gave me one of the Spectrum Mom's tags she made for each of our park bags. Hopefully someone else took a picture and will post later...


Once on board we settled in and waited a little more. AM and I sat together; behind us was a family with two very talkative children who we learned (among many other things) were here for their first visit to WDW. They kept us quite entertained as the DVD played - for instance, we learned that their mom and dad had surprised them with the trip, just like in the DVD, and so of course, we had to hear that story. When Chip and Dale appeared on screen, the little boy kept referring to them as "squirrels" ... neither of them really knew who they were. Not surprising, really, given the age of the children. I told them the story about telling Chip from Dale by the color of their noses (Chip's is black, like a chocolate chip) and it seemed to amuse them....


We stopped first to drop guests at Pop Century, so naturally we began wondering about MRYPPNS (Heidi). Around that time she texted saying she was leaving the MK to meet us at AKL! DisMomAmy (Amy) also texted that she had landed at MCO. Everything was coming together nicely!


We next stopped at Caribbean Beach -- which had been our family's resort on our very first trip to WDW -- and which will always hold a special place in my heart. We laughed as Amy sent multiple texts with her every move. "At Magical Express." "No problem getting through (without booklet.)" "Boarding the bus." "Just stopped at POP." Seems she was right behind us. Finally, our bus turned in to Animal Kingdom Lodge.


We had decided ahead of time that we would all meet at The Mara, the food court at AKL-Jambo House, for lunch but the three of us decided to get off at Kidani Village so we could drop our carry ons at Bell Services. I was also keeping my fingers crossed that our villa would be ready... Thursday is a big check-out day at DVC resorts... perhaps we would get lucky!


Animal Kingdom Lodge now has two resorts within one -- not unlike how Port Orleans has Riverside and French Quarter. The original AKL is now known as Jambo House and the DVC building is Kidani Village. Park buses stop at Kidani first... nice in the morning when you want a seat and nice in the evening when you just want to get the heck back to your room! The DTD bus loop goes the other way: Jambo first and then Kidani. So, if you want to go from Kidani to Jambo you jump on any park bus, if you want to go from Jambo to Kidani you catch the DTD bus. Got it? Good!


I could feel my excitement build as the bus neared the Kidani entrance and I spied lanterns that spelled welcome to all:

We were home!! And there to greet us, at the front door, was a rep from Check In... our villa was ready!! He handed us our folder and our resort map and KTTW cards before we even set foot inside the lobby! How's that for a magical arrival?!




To be continued,



Kathy

 

[DisMomAmy]

Having arrived at MCO with my two traveling companions (Jolene & Sarah) that I bumped into in NH, we were all on our way to the Magical Express. They were also staying at AKL (but at Jambo House) so we were on the same ME bus. I was furiously texting Julie ever since I landed and discovered she, Anne Marie & Kathy were just ahead of me, probably on the ME bus right before me. I kept them well informed of my whereabouts! I got past the ME CM without any trouble. I didn’t have to stop at the desk, but the CM at the podium was a bit confused, took my voucher & and handed me a different slip of paper. Jolene, Sarah & I were the only ones in the AKL line for a few minutes. A CM asked us if we were just three and sent us along to a bus, only to be stopped and turned around. Wrong bus! They had us sit inside on a bench to wait. Then the same CM sent us out to another bus with the All-Star resorts. Jolene, a DVC member & frequent ME user, knew this was wrong but we followed the line only to be turned around again. The CMs were laughing and very apologetic as they had us now sit on a bench outside by the buses. Finally after some more laughing we were sent to our correct bus with guests from Pop Century & CBR. We were the first to board so there was a bit of a wait. The front row was being saved for an older gentleman who had difficulty walking so I grabbed the second row with hopes of getting a good shot of “the sign”. While we waited I received a text from Jessica that she had landed & was on her way to the bus. I hoped she would come walking up the steps of our bus but itw wasn’t to be… we’d meet up later. I considered getting off the bus to ride with her, but I was afraid I’d mess things up and was of course very anxious to get to Kidani. After the bus finally filled up we were on our way. I was lucky enough to get these shots:

After quick stops at Pop & CBR we rolled up to AKL (Jambo first) and I tried to take a few pictures:

I said good-bye to Jolene & Sarah and hoped to bump into them again. They were on an earlier flight home Sunday but had some similar touring plans for the weekend. (I did bump into them at lunch at MK on Friday!)

Finally we were on our way to Kidani!! Within just a couple minutes we were there!!

I knew our villa was ready so the plan was now for me to meet Julie, Anne Marie & Kathy there. I snapped a few shots on the way:

I finally made it to our villa & had butterflies in my stomach as I knocked on the door. Hopefully somebody took a picture of our door because it was beautifully decorated by Julie so there was no way I could miss it. Julie opened the door and I was greeted by hugs from not only Kathy, Julie & Anne Marie but Heidi was there too!! Five of us had arrived safely, now only two more to go!

 

[KathyRN137]

Yay Amy! Nice shots of the WDW sign... mine stunk! We do have "door pix" coming real soon!


Kathy

 

[mrsksomeday]

Heidi, so happy for you about Liam. What great news to find out while in WDW.

I am LOVING this trip report, reading it I can just feel the happiness from all of you. Sounds like everyone was arriving safely and ready to have an adventure. The pictures are great. It is wonderful that we get to see everyones perspective of things through their pictures.

Oh and I wanted to thank Kathy again for asking Bill to be her first Face in the Queue. The article was so lovely, I am still amazing at what a wonderful writer you are .

 

[oOJulieOo]

I love this TR because there are so many updates! And all wonderful updates at that!

 

[mousescrapper]

As Amy and Kathy so nicely told 5 of us made our way to Kidani and we were starving…we knew Jess was coming and we were also checking the status on Tracy’s flight via Anne Marie’s phone…before we get to our lunch at Mara I must share a few more laughable moments…

Back to the DME bus…

Kathy and Anne Marie ready to go...

I did feel like the information gal…after getting in touch w/ Heidi and then the multiple hysterical texts from Amy…the anticipation of all us of meeting was most fun. As Kathy said when her, Anne Marie and I got to Kidani it was like the welcome home mat was laid out just for us.

It was very cool to have a CM host greet us as we walked up to the entrance. Right behind came our other welcome party –HEIDI! We did a round of hugs and then Kathy stayed behind in the lobby to have our GG order (that already arrived) sent up to our room. I texted Amy our room number and Heidi, Anne Marie and I made our way to our room…or so we thought. We got quite turned around as we tried to navigate the map and signs after realizing we were on the wrong floor and going the wrong way, we made it to room 7321. Kathy was already there and wondered what had happened to us.

We quickly started taking pictures of our wonderful room:

This little fellow greeted us on the counter as we walked in:

the living space (and Amy and Heidi's bedroom) and the kitchen:

The Master (and Kathy and Tracy's bedroom)

The 2nd bedroom (Anne Marie, Julie and Jess's room)

another special friend was in this bedroom:

Here are the pretty towel clips at work:

we didn't have a spectular view...but it served it's purpose:

this was our bus stop...I teased we could make a zipline from the balcony into the little window...
These are multiple pictures taken from many of us throughout the 4 days…

And I got the sign I made for our door up too:

the sign came in very handy for our next 4 days, we always knew which room was ours, toward the end of our trip as we were heading out, another guest asked us what the sign was for and what were the Spectrum Moms? this would be a happily repeated answer through out the rest of our stay!

I was still receiving Amy’s location texts and finally a knock on the door, as I peeped out the door and saw her, I first joked as if she was a saleslady “we don’t want any!” I opened the door and another round of hugs occurred. It truly was like we were all old friends uniting together at our happy place. After Amy took in our surroundings we made our way to the bus stop to catch one over to Jambo house (as Kathy described) and it was time to eat!​

 

[KathyRN137]

Kathy
Thursday Jan 20

Kidani Village



As Julie mentioned in the above post, I stopped at the desk to check in... a breeze since I had done it on line a few days before. I also checked on our order from Garden Grocer and was told that I would get a text when it arrived. (They give about a one-hour delivery window and we were early.) I had given the others their KTTW cards, so imagine my surprise when I hurried to the villa and discovered that they had not yet arrived!


Oh well, I figured they had taken a scenic route and were looking at animals or something, so I proceeded to run around the villa snapping pix of the room before it became "inhabited!"


Pictures truly do not do it justice... Kindly indulge me; I just love these rooms!

From the door:

Dining area... love those colorful baskets on the walls!

Detail on chair:

Detail of table leg:

Detail of drawer, entertainment center:

Sleeper Sofa:

Master Bedroom:

Close-up of bedspread:

"Ostrich Egg" Bedside Lamp:

Carpeting... complete with Hidden Mickeys:

Detail on lace curtains in all the rooms: characters from The Lion King, of course!

It was a hop, skip, and a jump to the bus stop each day!
(Or a quick ride on a zip line, if you prefer!)

​

To Be Continued...

Kathy

 

[MEK]

I think I stayed in that exact same villa.....

I loved that villa. Sure it wasn't the greatest view, but it was a good location!

So great that everyone is arriving safe and sound!

 

[disneyfan61]

Enjoying all the updates!

 

[oOJulieOo]

I love that ostrich egg lamp!