The Murphys Are Live Again!!! Okw ~ Akl ~ Poly ~ 7/27-8/1

[Debs Hill]

Have a fab trip...............thanks for posting the OKW pictures, I am so home sick!!!! We have never stayed in that area before..........how long to walk to the main pool and HH? What is the quiet pool there like?
Debsx

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Good Morning everyone!

Last night we had an OK dinner at the GF Cafe. At first we were very disappointed to see they got rid of the Land and Sea entree as well as the Prime Rib... but we had a pretty decent NY Strip, so it wasn't all bad. AllEarsNet will need to update the menu so other people aren't disappointed.

After our meal we took the monorail to MK and spent a short amount of time there. Wishes was just getting started, so we caught part of that, then did Buzz Lightyear (5 minute wait) the TTA (walk-on) and Haunted Mansion (walk-on). The park was very dead. I think the rain and strong thunderstorms kept people away. During the second Spectromagic there wasn't a single person lined up to watch in Liberty Square or Frontierland... just a few people on Main St and at the hub.

We headed back to our room around 11:30... we were really tired after a long day of traveling. The bus back to OKW was waiting for us, so we hopped right on and came straight here. Old Turtle Pond was the second stop.

We are heading out soon to check out the Village Pool (near the Turtle Shack) because it is closer to our building. I'll be sure to take along my camera to report back what it's like. We might also head to the main pool later.

Tonight is Le Cellier! YUM!

 

[rpbear]

Good Morning Erika,

I am enjoying your live trip report. I have been reading your posts for many years and really enjoy them. Keep them coming.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Checking back in! We just spent about 3 hours at the main pool... had breakfast and lunch at Good's To Go. The pool is small but clean. We both liked the slide, it shoots out really fast. We came back to take a short break and now we're heading over to the other pool. According to weather.com it looks like storms are headed this way so we probably won't be gone long. We didn't really take many pictures at the pool... it wasn't anything spectacular, no zero entry, one slide, and a splash area for kids. Oh, and a hot tub and sauna. We did enjoy the Buffett music that was playing and a few cold *beverages* while we relaxed.

Here are a few pics from the pool....

The slide exit...........

A pic of us... I had to take it by holding my arm out as far as I could and guess where we were.... so it's not really centered and I look terrible, but oh well! LOL

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Have a fab trip...............thanks for posting the OKW pictures, I am so home sick!!!! We have never stayed in that area before..........how long to walk to the main pool and HH? What is the quiet pool there like?
Debsx

We timed the walk this morning from here (building 35) to the main pool at 9 minutes. To the quiet pool, 2 minutes. (we are only two buildings from the Old Turtle Pond pool (quiet pool) and snack area. Which also has a huge playground, hot tub, arcade, and shuffleboard. The water at the quiet pool was too warm for me, we didn't stay long, and it started raining anyway, so we are back in our room now.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

We are back and had a great evening! After swimming again and taking another break we headed to MGM for bit just to walk around the new Pixar area and check to see if they had a stuffed WALL-E we could buy for our youngest DS. Surprisingly we didn't see much WALL-E stuff so we took the boat to Epcot. First we stopped off in France for a yummy Grey Goose slushy... yummmm then walked towards Le Cellier for our dinner. We were approached by a very nice CM who saw our anniversary buttons and asked us if we would like to come to a special Illuminations viewing spot later after dinner. We of course said YES and were excited!

We arrived at Le Cellier about 10 minutes before our ADR time and got a table pretty quickly. They were offering a new special paper menu insert that gave appetizer/entree/dessert all at one set price and it WAS available for the Dining Plan. Super cool!!!! So DH and I both got the cheese soup (which we love and were super excited it was included with the DP without extra cost). For our entrees DH had Prime Rib and I had Salmon. They food was very good and of course the PRETZEL bread was my favorite and what I always look forward to. For dessert we both had the chocolate MOOSE moussee. All in all it was a fine dinner, the atmosphere was quite loud, lots of kids and crying babies, but we have come to expect that with the single table service restaurants. Also our table was very small and crammed right next to two other couples... I felt like we should say HELLO and talk with them we were so close. But it was OK. No big deal.

After dinner we headed to our special Illuminations viewing spot which was on a lower level near Yorkshire Fish and Chips. DH and I couldn't remember when we had watched Illuminations up close before... our boys get scared with the fireworks so we usually have to watch from far away. It was cool to see it together, and very romantic.

Getting the bus back to OKW wasn't too bad. We got back around 10:00 PM. We felt very lucky considering many other resorts had HUGE lines. Long enough that they'd probably need 4 buses or more.

This is our last night at OKW. Tomorrow we check-in at the AKL on CL. Which should be fun. We're going to spend most of the day relaxing at the resort, and taking it easy. Depending on the rain we might head over to AK to ride Everest.

Here are some pics from tonight!!!

Here we are in our room getting ready to go out!

Here we are enjoying our Grey Goose slushies on the bridge near France. A nice man offered to take our pictures when he noticed us trying to take a pic by hold the camera out! LOL

If you want to see all our trip pics I've been uploading them to photobucket, I think you can just go there and type in "ekmurphy12". I think?? Not quit sure though.

 

[IlovemythreeC's]

I am loving this so much ~ you are such a beautiful couple. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this with all of us

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I am loving this so much ~ you are such a beautiful couple. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this with all of us

Thank you! We are having a great time. I do really miss the kids, but it's nice to come down and just relax without running from ride to ride. We're definitely taking the laid back approach to WDW and not stressing out about anything. We've been stopped by almost every CM we've walked past to get a Happy Anniversary wish. Which is really nice... sometimes it's hard to believe how fast 10 years can go.

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Been enjoying you TR Erika, it's "Holding" me untill our trip next week

Have a great trip!

 

[shellbelle]

Yea!!! I love your live tr's!

 

[Dina]

We stayed in Turtle Pond in 2007, and really loved it. We had such a lovely view from the balcony of the golf course and the fountain. I love OKW! Glad you're having a great time. We've gone without the kids twice, so I know how tough it is, but it's also such a different experience in Disney without the kids. Love all of your pics. I had one of those slushies a few weeks ago, and it was good!!!!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Oh Erika, I am really enjoying this and so jealous! But happy you guys are having such a great time. We love OKW, I agree the pool isn't spectacular but we love it there, I really enjoyed seeing your pictures. I also think that area you are in sounds nice, both times we have ended up in the HH section but the views are not nearly as nice as what you have. Can't wait to hear about AKL!

And I wonder if that thing you got at Le Cellier (3 course, fixed price) is getting people geared up for the 2009 DDP changes? I miss the appetizer so its nice you got to have that.

Have fun and keep posting!

 

[Spartangirl]

I'm LOVING your live report and glad to hear that you're having such a great time! Looking forward to hearing about the AKL.

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

JAMBO!

We are live from the AKL and LOVING IT!

We checked out at OKW this morning and Bell Services drove us AND our luggage to AKL using a minivan from the resort. Such a nice treat! It made switching resorts a breeze and before we knew it we were here at AKL and being taken upstairs to check-in at the concierge desk on the 6th floor. We had a quick and easy check-in and then breakfast in the lounge. Muffins, bagels, fresh fruit, etc, a nice way to start the day. Our room wasn't ready yet so we headed to AK to kill some time... we did Dinosaur, Finding Nemo the Musical, and Expedition Everest. Here are some pics..........

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

We started to get pretty hot so we came back to AKL and walked around the resort checking out the animals and the new construction for the DVC villas. They are really coming along quickly!

A very nice CM in the lobby took our picture....

Around 2:00 PM our room was finally ready.... and a MAGICAL UPGRADE!!

COMING UP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[shellbelle]

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Ok, so we finally get to our room and WOW we are in a one bedroom villa and it is AMAZING!! We have taken 50+ trips to WDW and never had a room this nice... DVC has done a great job here making these villas absolutely beautiful! And we were also greeted with a lovely gift bag for our anniversary with a nice letter and two bottles of cologne... one womens and one for men. Such a nice gesture by the concierge staff!

Pics of our anniversary gift bag next...........

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

And our lovely gift bag......

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

Here are a few more pictures of our villa....

Tile in the bathroom..........

 

[shellbelle]

How exciting to be upgraded to a 1 bedroom!

Makes me want to stay at AKL next year! It is beautiful!