The 10 Days Of Christmas From December Newbies, Day 8

[CamColt]

The Cast- Myself, turned 32 on the trip, DH 35, Cam 7, Colt almost 4. We've been to WDW quite a few times, but this was our first Christmas trip. My main concern was to take in the holiday events, but in the end we got a lot more done than we had planned.

Saturday, 12/27
Today started off with breakfast at the Kona Cafe. We had PS for 8:40 but ended up arriving around 8:20 and were seated right away. It was fairly empty.

After breakfast my plan was to go to AK, take a break to check out Animal Kingdom Lodge, then go back to AK for the 3:45 parade. I also wanted to get to Downtown Disney in the evening to do some shopping. But, since we had done so well at AK on Monday, we really had nothing left to do there. Plus I noticed on the in room tv channel(the one with park hours & events, recreation, weather, DTD, etc...) that DTD stores opened at 9:30. I don’t know why, but I thought it was 11:00. I should add here I love that channel. I have a routine of turning it on as soon as I get out of the shower every morning before anyone else is up. I know, I’m a Disney nerd. Usually I know what’s on there, but sometimes, like today, I learn something.

So, I rearranged the schedule and after breakfast we went over to DTD. I shopped and the boys complained, just like at home. Only here, thank goodness, you can get your packages sent to your room. We would have been in trouble if we couldn’t have.

After shopping, we went to check out AKL. This was my big surprise of the trip!!! Up until now I have always thought AKL would be one of the last resorts I would want to stay at. I’m not a big animal person and the Africa theme didn’t appeal to me much. Well, we walked in the lobby and I thought, "gee, this is pretty nice". The kids were greeted by a CM who had them coloring on the floor( there are grate type things that you color over and the image appears on the paper...pretty neat). While they did that, I went exploring a little. Boy was I impressed. This is really a beautiful resort.

We then wanted something to eat so we went to the food court and ate outside at the pool area. Again, this was very nice. The pizza from the food court was very good, and DH & I got frozen drinks(Nyami Nyamis) from the pool bar which were delicious. I never thought I’d say this, but I would consider staying at AKL sometime.

After our visit here, we went to AK. It was still early, probably around 2:00. We have been talking about wanting to do Kali River Rapids since our trip last summer, but I don’t like to be wet so I’ve sort of nixed the idea a few times now. Here we were in AK with time to kill and only a 20 minute wait at KRR. Somehow the kids agreed to it (Cam doesn’t like thrill rides, but we found out it wasnt much of a "thrill" ride after all, and Colt is usually too small but he did make the 38 inch minimum here), and somehow I agreed to the possibility of getting soaked. Before I knew it, we were in line. Why we don’t do this when its 95 degress out in August yet we do it in 65 degree weather in December is beyond me, but we did it. The boys all stayed dry, and just my right side got wet. It wasn’t too bad. The couple to my right got completely soaked twice. I guess those were the seats to avoid.

Since we survived KRR, we then went to find a spot for the parade. We finally did sit down across from the Island Mercantile shop. The kids got snacks and then we saw the parade. I was a bit disappointed in this. I had expected more. However in my saying this on the boards a CM mentioned that over the holidays you may not get the full parade because CMs are spread pretty thin in AK. So maybe parts were missing.

Once the parade was over, we now had a free evening with no plans. Yes, the psychotic planner didn’t have a plan here...WHAT were we going to do? We started back to the Poly thinking of a few ideas. Cam had really liked the surrey bikes at the Boardwalk and asked a few times to rent one. He was thrilled when he saw they had them at the Poly, so, we decided we would rent one. After stopping in our room, we went to check it out. We arrived exactly at 5:00 and saw they close at 5:00. See what happens when you dont plan? No more laughing at my obsessive planning, thank you very much . After more discussion we decided to go to the BW to rent one. We took the monorail to MK then a bus to BW.

Upon arriving at the BW we checked out the bike situation. We were able to rent one where DH and I could drive and the kids sat in the front "basket" type thing. I never thought Cam would fit in there but he did (with a little trouble getting his legs out ). *Tip For Today...These bikes are supposed to be fun, but they aren’t when you have to pedal up hill, with the 2 kids in front"*. A couple times we didn’t know if we were going to have to get out and push up those hills. It was tough. We made it around the lake 3 times before our 1/2 hour was up, and all in all it was a nice experience. We then returned the bike and went back to the easy way of getting around, walking.

Now we were ready for dinner. Since we hadn’t made it to Beaches & Cream yesterday we decided to try tonight. The walk around the lake at night was very nice. We put our name in at B&C and were told there would be about an hour wait. While checking out the area we found the Lounge and decided to grab a drink. During this time Colton fell asleep. By the time we were finally called, Cam was acting very tired which is not like him. We decided since we were there and already waited an hour, we would eat fast, then get the kids right home to bed.

We took the bus back to MK, then took the boat to the Poly. We got on the boat right as Wishes was starting which was nice, however the boat got held up due to the Electrical Water Pageant. We finally made it back to our room and as usual we all crashed.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

That is what I used to think about AKL, but check out my new tag <-- Staying there is even better-lots of fun activities for the kids. Love that savannah view balcony!
Did it "seem" like Christmas when you were there? Did you have a Christmas at home when you returned? Just curious!
Glad you are having fun!

 

[IloveDMB]

Another great day! The trips almost over . Well there are 2 more days to read about. Can't wait.

 

[CamColt]

I know, this is getting depressing. Even with 10 days, I still could have stayed longer(well, under different circumstances, as you will see). But even with a longer than usual trip this time, the last couple days did give me that end of a trip depressed feeling.

LOL, BBB! So Im not alone?
As for seeming like Christmas, thats tough to answer. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didnt. Like while watching the special holiday shows, and the tree lighting ceremonies, etc... it did. And of course the decorations made it feel Christmasy. The first night it sure felt it, LOL! But other times, like while sitting in a lounge chair in a bathing suit, with a frozen drink in hand, it sure didnt feel like December. In fact on 12/22 I happened to look down at the digital date on my camera. My first thought was oh, this is wrong, then I realized, no it really IS 12/22!
I have to admit I was a little bummed about missing our tradtitional Christmas at home with my family, but not too upset that I wouldnt do it again. I wouldnt want to do it every year, but somewhere down the road I would. Since I usually host Christmas Eve at my house, this year I arranged to do it on New Years Eve instead. We did all the kids family presents then, so we sort of had a Christmas.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

We went over Thanksgiving and missed our tradition too, but enjoyed the Christmas decor and going to the parks instead! T'giving is not as much a "tado" for us as Christmas is, so I was just curious. Thanks!
AKL was a great place to stay over the holidays-so pretty and great to relax. Animals were out a lot with the weather in the 70's. You need to stay there!
Keep them coming.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

We rode the Kali River Rafts five (yes five) times in a row last summer ... it was the end of the day and the CM just let us back in line since there wasn't a line .... mmmm, that wasn't very clear was it.

Anyhow it was me, my 28 y.o. daughter, and grandkids (6&8) along with another couple ... we *clicked* on the first trip and kept getting back on together.

I made the first trip through w/o getting wet, but my daughter got drenched ... after the 5th trip we were all soaked, but had figured out that there are two drenching spots during the ride ... if your seat has spun to that position look-out your going to get WET!!!

Don't think we'll be riding it later this month ... unless our AK day is super-warm then we'll do it before leaving the park. And hopefully I'll remember to put towels in the car ... the seats got kinda wet, LOL!