Two weeks at AKV

[dpuck1998]

Day 9:

We are really starting to feel like this trip could go on forever, in a good way. We have had such busy days and quiet down time that it has been great.

Grammy is coming today but not until later, so we sleep in and hit some more bead activities in the morning. A cold spell is rolling in so it is a little chillier today than days past. Lily and I head over to Jambo house for a flamingo activity then back to Kidani for an hour then back to Jambo, the van driver gets to know us pretty well by the end of the day.

After running around all day gather beads, we meet up with grammy for a late lunch at Sanna. I left my camera hanging on the back of the chair, but they call my cell phone before I even leave the lobby area. Whew, this is another in the string of things I've forgotten...ugh.

After lunch we decide to meet up with some family friends at the MK for a couple hours. The place is packed, this is why we don't go in the late afternoon usually! We take a ride on the TTA(Wedway) and wait for Buzz fastpasses. We wait in line for stitch and then Tamra and I head out for dinner while grammy gets the kids back to the hotel. We have California Grill ressies so we head there early to check in.

We have a great meal, although we are seating in a back room without a view or the normal hustle and bustle of the california grill. We split an app, meal and dessert so we aren't stuffed, but it was nice to get away for a meal during a two week family vacation.

Time to head back and call it a night so we can be up early for DHS, heard a rumor we can get in a half hour early.

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 10:

DHS with Grammy

Brrrrr, we are up bright and early and waiting on a bus to DHS by 7:45 for a 9am rope drop. Didn't really plan to get going so early, but it just worked out that everyone was ready. So at the bus stop we wait....and wait...for the second time I walk over to pick up the house phone on the wall to see why every other bus has gone by twice and no DHS bus, right as I pickup the receiver the bus shows up. That thing has magical powers I swear.

We get past security quickly and wait in line. About 8:30 they start letting people past the turnstiles and we walk down the street. I'm still thinking they will have us roped off for the show, but nope. Off we go to toy story mania without stopping. Awesome, love it! But how long can that last before people catch on that they are open 30 mins early and thus the point of no rope drop loses its effectiveness. Don't care, we are in 30 mins early and get fastpasses and ride toy story with no wait.

A great morning collecting fastpasses, riding star tours, seeing muppets, great movie ride, etc. At noon we have ressies for perhaps my favorite disney restaurant, 50's primetime. Our server is average, she has a little fun but not over the top like Uncle Tom or Tim. The food was great and like most sit down meals I eat way too much.

Shortly after lunch grammy heads back to relax before meeting us for dinner. We of course push on and hit the lesser attractions and experiences. Lily need face paint of course.

We head over to Tower of Terror and Rock'en Roller coaster to use up fastpasses. I'm finally able to talk Brady, our 11 yo to go on RnR. It costs me 25 bucks, but he goes! Had Lily talked into it also, but well her mama wouldn't go so she didn't either.

We have to make the boxing pose for a friend back home, we try to pull it off on every photo opportunity.

As we are wandering down sunset blvd, we walk into a streetmosphere show. The sanitation workers I think, Lenny, Spark and...other? Brady volunteers to do the bucket toss game with them and several other kids. It was hilarious, one of those great disney unexpected fun times. His team won so he got his solid gold colored trophy.

It is about time to head to dinner so we start the 'walk-out' again. It leads us past the osborn lights, I know not on the way, but we have to see it again for the last time this trip. We wait around next to the switch to watch them turn it on.

We meet up with Grammy in front of the DHS xmas tree and hop the boat over to the Yacht/Beach Club for dinner. Yachtsman steakhouse tonight, YUM! I'm still not real hungry from the big lunch, but I'm able to force myself to eat anyway. The boys pour over the menu and decide on steak, but at least they decide to split the most expensive steak on the menu.

We call it a night and head to the room, tomorrow........

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 11:

You are open how long? for how much?

Another somewhat chilly morning, but by the end of the day it warms up and is a great day out.

We make the approx 1 hour drive to legoland at around 8:45ish and arrive just before 10 after stopping for a quick bite.

The place is empty, I don't me quiet empty but there are 5 families in the park empty. We grab a map and try to figure out the best rides to hit early. No idea what to expect, but off we go. The park is laid out horribly with lots of back tracking and no 'hub and spoke' system. We hope on the coasters, which are all small kiddie coasters little bigger than the local fair rides. We are the only people on the first several rides so we are able to go a couple times. I'm so glad we waited until later in the trip to go, if we had gone during a busy time I would have been very unhappy waiting in line for 30 mins prior to going on a fair coaster.

Some of the rides were unique at least, fun for the small kids, but anyone over 10 or 11 wouldn't really enjoy this park in my opinion. We hit the boating school, driving school and flying school.

After hitting some coasters and rides we can enjoy the beauty of the park. We hurried through mini-land earlier so we grab lunch, which was awful. Top of the list for worst park food I've eaten. We head back to mini-land and give Brady the camera. He is the lego junkie and this was his pick on the trip. He wanders around and takes a couple hundred photos. Some pretty good ones.

The last picture appeared in the latest orlando attractions magazine, not his photo but the same exact scene. We hit the cyprass gardens area for a walk around the old park. Very pretty area, the kids weren't real excited but I'm glad we walked around.

We hop on a couple more rides, which again are just fresh paint on fair rides.

A stop off at the imagination station where the kids can play with legos, build cars and test them. The last 30-45 mins of the day we spend there until its almost park closing time. Did I mention they are only open from 10-5. For 7 hours they charge 75 bucks for admission. I was able to get a Buy one get one free tickets so the kids got in free. When I purchased online they only charged me for two adults and credited all three kids for free. So we only paid 150 for all of us. If I paid full price for legoland I would have been very upset. They are charging almost as much as dinsey for 7 hours in the park. Outrageous in my opinion. Glad we were able to get in so cheaply. One the way home we stop in a local quick mexican restaurant for dinner and head back to the AKL.

I always use the GPS on my phone now and it seems like the route is never the same. We took some back roads back to AKL and right when i was sure we were going the wrong way, we were at the gate.

tomorrow....family magic tour at MK

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 12:

Today is the last day in the parks for us, even though we had planned to go to AK tomorrow it didn't work out.

We are up at a decent hour to hit MK, we have the family magic tour booked. Our arrival at MK is an hour or so after EMH rope drop, but the lines are short to get in. The park isn't overly busy yet, but it does get busy while we are there. I'm not sure there is a non-busy time at MK anymore, seems those days are gone. But I still think that with a good plan and early arrival you can do anything you want during the day.

Grab a few fastpasses and head to city hall to meet up for our tour. It is us and another family taking the tour and our guide gets us going right away. When the tour starts she tells us about all the items that are missing from the characters and how we have to help. While she is away, another cast member shows up to warn us. She tells us not to say the word "magical" or our guide will lose her memory and forget everything. Of course on the way to our first clue, yet another CM tells us to have a "magical" day and then the show ensues.

It begins with us looking for clues all over the park. Our first clue is to head over to the barber shop to find a hamster ball from Bolt.

more clues and more hunting around the magic kingdom.

one of the clues takes us on a ride, Pooh has a 50 min wait but we get to hop in the fastpass line.

One of our next clues leads us to a hidden room by the tea cups where we meet up with Peter Pan.

After we have some fun with Peter Pan we march around the Magic Kingdom for our next clue. The journey takes us to Main Street and we get in line to Meet Mickey and Minnie. Of course we have all the goodies we collected along the way.

After we finish up our tour, we hop on the monorail to spend the rest of the evening at EPCOT. On the way out we hand some people coming in our fastpasses for space mountain since we won't be back to the Magic Kingdom.

As soon as we get to EPCOT we head straight to soarin to grab fastpasses and lunch. After lunch we hop a ride on Living with the Land. EPCOT is very busy at this point, but the land area is always busy.

Among the other things I can't seem to keep track of this trip, I leave my cell phone on the living with the land ride. It was sitting next to me and some how I left it on the seat or when I slid out perhaps dropped it in the water. I hope the second because otherwise someone picked it up and never returned it. I noticed I left it within minutes of getting off the ride, stood waiting for it and it never arrived. If someone did keep it, karma sucks and I'm sure they will reap what they sow, I hope its in the water of living with the land still.

It was several stops during the day and calls to guest services, but we pressed on and hit the rides and world showcase. At this point I'm not feeling the best, didn't eat much at sunshine seasons and have been off all day. Perhaps why I lost my phone, who knows.

This is the last photo from the trip, I was carrying my dSLR at this point so was still able to take photos at least.

After walking around the countries and doing the normal EPCOT 'stuff' we make it around for dinner at Marakeesh. Our ressie is for 6:45 but we get in at 5:00 and the restaurant is empty. They seat us right away. I can't eat but the kids and Tamra have dinner before heading back to the hotel. On the way out we check guest services for the phone again with no luck.

Still a great day at EPCOT and MK today. The family magic tour was a highlight of the day. I'm glad we saved it for the end of the trip, it was a nice way to visit the magic kingdom after having been there several times during the trip.

Back to the hotel, tomorrow was suppose to be Animal Kingdom but we all agree to stay at the hotel. I had a rough night to say the least and didn't leave the room for more than 10 minutes.....

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 13:

Our last full day in Florida

I don't have much to write about today, other than I was in the hotel sick all day. Today was a big day for Trace though, we bought tickets for him and I to go see the Bulls play the Magic. I keep telling myself that I'll be up for it by the time the game comes but it doesn't work out.

During the day Tamra takes the kids to the pool and community center. I sit and watch TV try to eat and start reading the Help.

Come game time I just can't do it. Tamra has to drive and go to the game with Trace.

backtrack, we had ressies today for lunch that we had to cancel in the morning. When we called they said ok, that will be 50 bucks to cancel, 10 bucks...PER PERSON! What a load of crap, she said we were sick so they said, ohh ok, no problem we will waive the fee. That is stupid stuff, I can tell you next trip my meals will become less and less at the parks and those restaurants can stay empty. Seldom did we see a full restaurant even at the busiest of times.

Back to the game, Tamra and Trace drive to the Amway center. The report back was that parking was a breeze and the arena was amazing. They had seats right behind the basket. Before the game Trace bought a Dwight Howard magic jersey. He wore his Bulls Rose jersey to the game and was in a quandary. Before tip off he settled on the Rose jersey. Good thing since they pulled away and won easily. Right in front of them was someone Tamra thought must be famous because everyone was talking to him. She sent me a photo and at first I thought it was eminem, but after a couple looks I quickly figured out it was Jason Williams former NBA point guard. The are sitting about 20 feet from him and he is right on the baseline with his kids.

The other two kids and I watch the wizards of waverly place episode when the family wizard is named. I go back and forth between that and the game to see if I catch a glimpse of the family.

By the end of the night I'm feeling a bit better and I actually get some sleep. Tomorrow we head home, but have lots of time to pack and get around.

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 14:

Time to go home.

I forgot to post yesterday, fitting, that I left the camera in the community hall when we returned form EPCOT on day 12. This after forgetting/losing my phone earlier in the day. At least this one turned out ok. They turned it into the front desk and we were able to recover it yesterday morning. I'd much rather lose my phone that can be replaced for 100 bucks over the 1000+ camera that could have been lost.

So up and at it in the morning, relaxing, reading, playing games in the room and community hall/arcade. We pack up the car and just hang at the resort until it is time to go. A stop off at the big mcdonalds on property, which is lame by the way. Not even a play area or anything. What a waste of space. I'm able to eat a little something and I'm feeling better by the minute. I try not to eat too much, but a few fries are hard to resist.

The trip to the airport was easy, we are flying out of sanford direct to kalamazoo. Love flying into and out of the small airports. Security is a breeze and there are no lines. We shipped boxes home so we didn't have to check any luggage. Its cheaper to ship than to pay the fees to check even one back in either direction. Before we know it we are off, landed and are settled back in at home.

Reflections of the trip? I have no problem going at busy times. As long as you can get up early and hit the parks you can do everything you want to do. We managed to ride the big rides many times during peak crowds. We saved the things like the shooting arcade and country bears for the peak hours of the day and used fastpasses like crazy. Some of our best days were during the busiest week. Loved the down days, as much as I fight it they turn out to be some of the most memorable. Once I'm in a park I have a hard time leaving, my commando takes over and I want to do what they say I can't during busy times. We did a nice job of coming and going and spent a lot of quality time just hanging out.

This is our first trip where we stayed in one spot for such a long time. Thirteen nights at Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing. We started to feel like we were at home, doing laundy dishes, etc but in a good way. Lost track of days and never felt homesick.

Legoland was a big disappointment. We won't return and I can't imagine they will be able to survive that far away and for such a high price. This is the second time the lego company has disappointed me. The discovery center in Schaumburg, IL is just awful. Holyland was half the price and a better value. While they didn't have rides, at least I felt it was worth the cost of admission. Not to mention the food was a lot better.

We currently don't have a plan in the works. Once they open the new fantasyland I'm sure we will be back. We used up all of our DVC points for a while to pull this trip off, so when its time to go back they should be fully operational.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Launchpad11B]

Nice job Donnie boy.

 

[dpuck1998]

Nice job Donnie boy.

Thanks buddy, love ya