We love Donald Duck, oh yes we do! - Link to the PTR - COMPLETE

[IluvXU]

So I saw your ticker... Kalahari! We have been twice to the one in OH, so much fun! Great theming, big rooms and tons of waterpark fun! Are you taking Henry-- the girls loved it and we went when Em was about his age!

 

[jenseib]

So I saw your ticker... Kalahari! We have been twice to the one in OH, so much fun! Great theming, big rooms and tons of waterpark fun! Are you taking Henry-- the girls loved it and we went when Em was about his age!

We went to the Ohio one as well. It was very fun. we went for claire's 3rd birthday.

 

[PNO4TE]

We are supposed to be getting a Kalahari resort here in our fair city. With the economy being what it is I am now wondering if they have postponed the construction.... I need to look into that!

 

[TyRy]

Hi Brook,

Finally catching up after a hundred years. I'm so glad to read that your Gramdma is doing so well now, I was a bit worried when I read the first post. Still sending lots of good thoughts that she stays that way!

I had to laugh at Henry and all the hands on the balcony doors - he was leaving his mark at Disney

Wow - what a great view from 1301. I love great surprises like that...I felt like that on our last trip with our pool view at AKL.

Ummm, the chocolate thing....I'd have to totally agree with you. Outside of a 3 Musketeers bar I really don't eat chocolate. In fact really good chocolate (even the smell of it) can actually make me sick. Not sure if it's an allergy or not, but I just stay away from it. DH is fine with it as it means he can have it all

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh, Brook, it's Friday night, I am on the DIS boards, I have a mug of tea...something's missing...

Just kidding! Kind of...

 

[brookelizabeth]

We're in Jersey and we grill 'em!! Yum!!

Kathy

I never ran into anywhere that sold a brat when I lived in NYC - but I'm happy to hear the East Coast isn't entirely brat deprived!

I'm from Wisconsin and I must admit I have never been!!

It's a fun place! We used to stop during our drives to/from Chicago/Minnesota sometimes - it was a HUGE deal when we were kids. I haven't been in a long time now and we always drive past Wolf Lodge and the Kalahari on I-90, so this year I thought "Let's do it!" kinda celebrating birthdays sorta thing. The Kalahari is PRICEY though - so just one night there, then a cheapy hotel!

I'm so glad to hear your grandma is doing better! Your summer trips sound like they are going to be a lot of fun. I've never been to the Dells, but I have always wanted to go there. It is fairly close by to us, so I'm sure we will visit in the near future.

Thank you! The Dells are pretty fun. Kinda some weird "side show" type stuff, but that is fun sometimes too! I am glad the indoor waterparks have popped up in over the past several years, makes it a year-round destination.

Hi Brook!
You've got some nice trips planned this Spring/ Summer....fun! And I think you're right, you may need something in last September/early October to tied you over until your next Disney trip!! Or you can live vicariously through all of us!!!

I'd like to squeeze in a Disney trip in late September/early October. But, I'll probably be living vicariously... We *might* go camping again in late August too.

I'm slowly but surely making it through everyone's reports now that I am home with Isabella. Henry is a cutie pie! I also really like the pics of him with the towel around his shoulders.

Hi Jill! Catching up on all the TRs is a lot of work isn't it? I have missed out on a ton on MeMoms lately - haven't gotten any of the updates on little Isabella recently! I hope your maternity leave is going well. Thank you for the sweet words about my little man. The towel pics are some of my favorites!

So glad you'll get to see your mom and grandma soon! Your summer plans sound awesome - especially July 4th at Mt Rushmore! A mini TR, please?

I am really excited about seeing my Mom-so excited, as you might have noticed I made a ticker!

And yep, a mini-TR will be included on the trip(s). Hopefully I'll be well into the PTR by July! I can't wait to see the fireworks over Mt. Rushmore...the pics I have seen online are simply beautiful.

Hi Brook! I have been lurking on your trip report and thought I should finally say hello. First, so glad to hear your grandma is home and doing better.

I am enjoying your trip so much -- it almost feels like I am there with you. You do such a great job at giving all of the details. Henry is just adorable and it looks like he had such a great time!

I just bough DVC last year (also at Kidani) and am excited to be staying there for the first time in August.

Great to hear your experience at SSR -- I stayed there in Oct (on developer points) and thought it was just okay, not my favorite resort. You make it sound so much better! I am actually staying there again (have to use up the rest of those developer points before they expire) starting this Saturday and I'm going to try and spend some time exploring the resort. Also, I may just have to request room 1301 for that fabulous view. Already requested Congress Park (love that you can walk to Downtown Disney from there) so hopefully I will luck out with the room In Oct I was also in a Congress Park studio and had a view of, well nothing

Can't wait to hear the rest of your story -- sad that it will be over soon -- but looking forward to hearing your plans for your next trip!

Hi there! Thank you for posting and saying HELLO!

I can't believe you leave TOMORROW!!!!!!!! Have a wonderful trip!!! I hope you can get into 1301, it really is a great room, very bright and fresh. We weren't overly fond of SSR either - it was just too spread out for my taste, and we didn't have the best bus service, but the views were very pretty, and I loved that quick walk to DTD.

I am very excited about staying at Kidani too! Have you seen the recent pics? There is a great 3 part review on allears.net too.

I'm glad your grandma is doing better. Wisconsin Dells and Mt. Rushmore will be fantastic!

Thank you! I think they will be really fun trips. Joe or I bring up the trips almost daily. Plus, the Mt Rushmore trip will require a bit of planning!

So I saw your ticker... Kalahari! We have been twice to the one in OH, so much fun! Great theming, big rooms and tons of waterpark fun! Are you taking Henry-- the girls loved it and we went when Em was about his age!

I'm so glad to hear that! The one in WiDells gets some mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.com, so hopefully our stay will be a positive one. We aren't too picky, so I think we'll be just fine - plus we are only staying there one night. The waterpark looks AMAZING, plus now they have an indoor amusement park that our friends' kids, who are 6 and 4, will love! I'm glad to hear a wee little one enjoyed it too. They seem to have quite a bit to appeal to all ages, plus most of the big slides are raft rides that even he can go on with us!

We went to the Ohio one as well. It was very fun. we went for claire's 3rd birthday.

Another good review! I'm really glad to hear it. Hopefully the one in WiDells is just as good.

We are supposed to be getting a Kalahari resort here in our fair city. With the economy being what it is I am now wondering if they have postponed the construction.... I need to look into that!

I hope you get one! They look really great - esp a nice getaway when it's chilly out!

Hi Brook,

Finally catching up after a hundred years. I'm so glad to read that your Gramdma is doing so well now, I was a bit worried when I read the first post. Still sending lots of good thoughts that she stays that way!

I had to laugh at Henry and all the hands on the balcony doors - he was leaving his mark at Disney

Wow - what a great view from 1301. I love great surprises like that...I felt like that on our last trip with our pool view at AKL.

Ummm, the chocolate thing....I'd have to totally agree with you. Outside of a 3 Musketeers bar I really don't eat chocolate. In fact really good chocolate (even the smell of it) can actually make me sick. Not sure if it's an allergy or not, but I just stay away from it. DH is fine with it as it means he can have it all

Hey there TyRy! Thank you for thinking of my Grandma.

I like your words on "leaving his mark at Disney" - we'll go with that!

Joe doesn't mind that he can have all the chocolate either! He usually forgets about candy in our house and it lasts foreverrrrrrrr, then suddenly I bring it out and he gets all excited-I just want it gone!

Oh, Brook, it's Friday night, I am on the DIS boards, I have a mug of tea...something's missing...

Just kidding! Kind of...

I know! Yesterday was 80 STINKIN' degrees in Minnesota! I couldn't bring myself indoors - it was soooooooooo nice. Today isn't even 60. Sigh. But that's why I'm here! An update coming tonight!

 

[brookelizabeth]

We left off being in DTD eating our last Disney dinner at WPE. After dinner we went straight to Goofy's! We discovered the beauty of Goofy's Candy Co. last trip and I enjoyed those pretzel rods so much, I had to, had to get them again!

When we walked in, I went straight to the "Make your own" counter and started my order, Joe shopped around a bit-unsure of what treat he wanted. And of course, we took PICS!

I bought a box of these to take back to my co-workers. OH MY WORD DELISH!

The Valentine's stuff started coming out during our week - these looked very nummy

I took this pic with MeMom in mind! Isn't he so cute?

Princess and COLORED hot chocolate!

Conehead Henry

After my pretzel rods were all set, we headed out the door - Joe's selection:

He took a bite before I snapped a pic! He should know better by now!

We didn't have any set plans for the night, I kept hinting at going to MK so we could get that much sought after picture of Henry behind bars with Zurg and also ride a few things we missed earlier in the week, but Joe was not feeling it. He just wanted to explore and take it easy.

Sooooooooo, I took one for the team and off we went to the boat launch to explore OKW. But really, doing anything at Disney is fun, so I didn't mind too much!

A boat was already waiting for us, which was nice! So we boarded and waited for a bit before we started our trek down river.

Henry really enjoyed the ride, he played with the seat almost the entire way...up down, up down!

SSR boat launch, "Hi home!"

On our ride we got to see the new Treehouse Villas from the river, but unfortunately it was getting too dark for any of the pictures to come out. From what we could see-they looked really neat! I think it would be a lot of fun to stay in the middle of the woods sometime in one of them.

Continued in the next post

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from previous post

Arriving at OKW...

This paddle boat was just plain cool. Turquoise sparkly. I got a big eye roll from Joe when I pointed it out!

We walked around the pool area-which we both thought was very pretty!

It kinda looks like that one dolphin is peeing, doesn't it?

Onward to the main buildings! The little boardwalk area would be lovely on a warm afternoon...hanging out overlooking the water...

In one of the buildings, if I recall correctly, near the check-in/lobby, there are pictures of all the OKW members. It was fun to look at all the beautiful smiling faces!

And onto the gift shop naturally!

Mickey Croc Flip Flops!

This would be a perfect thing for an OKW lover to have to remind them of their favorite place!

Joe needs this shirt

A really great selection of groceries!

And of course a certain little boy found something he wanted! Thankfully it was easy to say "bye bye" to Pluto without a fit. He's still good about that sort of thing. (be right back, gotta go knock on some wood! )

In the "hallway" area

After our exploring, we boarded the boat once again and rode back to SSR. We both liked OKW, but couldn't get a good "feel" of it being it was dark out. We weren't wowed-but I think we'd both like it more if we visited during the day. I'm sure we'll stay there at some point, we want to try all the DVC resorts-plus the bigger rooms and huge deck entice me!

When we arrived at SSR we walked veryyyy slowly to our room, wandering around the SSR campus a bit more, seeing the tennis courts and walking through random parking lots you never see from the Disney bus! It felt almost industrial with giant sheds and storage buildings, kinda neat to see in some ways too though.

Eventually we were back in our room and Joe mentioned he would like to go "rent" a movie. So, off he went, back to the Carriage House to scope out the available movies for DVC owners. I put Henry down in the pack & play and was about to make my way out to the balcony so he could have quiet to fall asleep, but he literally fell asleep as I laid him down. That boy was O-U-T! I kinda chuckled and decided that I still wanted to soak up some time on the balcony-after all, it isn't always you get a view like this!

Joe called from the rental area and asked if I have ever seen "The 3 Amigos" and I hadn't. He said it was funny with Chevy Chase and Martin Short, it sounded good, so we went with it.

Soon he was back in the room and we sprawled out on our bed and popped in the video expecting this:

And instead we got this:

Stand up comedy!

As soon as we popped in the DVD, before there was even a picture, we heard 3 swear words and we kinda looked at each other like "Huh?"

Very, very uncensored stand-up comedy.

Needless to say, it was NOT what we were looking for, Joe just didn't pay that close of attention when he saw the title, and we ended up watching TV. Joe was a bit bummed, and so was I, and I was a bit surprised this type of non-family friendly movie was even available.

However, all was not lost. These babies were still HIGHLY ENJOYED!

All 3 dipped in milk chocolate, then one in peanuts and more milk chocolate, next one in butterfinger and caramel, and the last in white and milk chocolate chips and drizzled in chocolate. Yum. The salty/sweet combo of these is soooooooooo good.

So, while I was a teensy bit bummed with our last night at WDW-an "eh" dinner, wanting to hit MK again, and ending up just watching TV - it still was a very relaxing and enjoyable night, and looking back we are both glad it ended so calmly, we got lots of rest-preparing ourselves for a full day of travel tomorrow as we said good-bye to Disney!

But don't despair-there is more to come! This TR is NOT done!! Matter of a fact, some of my very favorite moments happened on our last day, and we have a "big" event even on the ride home!!

Up next: HENRY BEHIND BARS!

 

[Flossbolna]

Great update! Being able to take the boat to OKW is really a great plus for that resort! I love the pictures I have seen of OKW from the outside, but at the moment I think the decor is really ugly (just my personal taste) and therefore it really is the resort I would least like to stay at. I really hope they are going to update the rooms soon, because otherwise I think it looks like a great place!!

I am very much looking forward to the next installments, it sounds like you still have interesting events to report. Also, those short trips sound really interesting, I am looking forward to read about those in your PTR!

 

[torsie24]

Mm, your pretzel rods looks yummy!! I need to get me some of those!!!

Love conehead henry too!!

 

[MeMom]

Great pictures! I think I've tried one of about everything you showed throughout the years. I'm so dorky that I save the wrappers, like the Mickey coconut bar, etc., and have them sitting with my Chef Mickey plushie in my kitchen hutch. It makes a cute display.

Here's what you missed in the daytime from that spot.

You will have to go back and see it in the daytime, for sure.

Jill, Brooklynn, and I ate a very good lunch there one afternoon a couple of summers ago. It is beautiful, and I would love to stay there sometime That's where tinkgurl stays, too, so she has good pictures that help you see it all better.

Here are a few more, in case you are interested.

The food.

Looking left toward the pool area.

At the pool.

Little round fatty baby showing cool photo ops.

There are bike rentals and a ping pong table in this area.

This is a really beautiful resort, in my opinion.
It definitely has a vacation feel to me. I loved it so much that my downstairs den is fixed up with that style decor in the spring and summer. It's Wilderness Lodge in the fall and winter.

As always, thanks for the great pictures. We look forward to gazing upon those goodies and just doing everything there is to do again in three months! It is time for us to make ADR's this weekend, so Jill has the list all ready to go.

Thanks for the Eeyore picture. I do think he's such a cutie!

I almost always bring Drew back food souvenirs, and I have gotten him colored and flavored hot chocolates and coffees in the cute cans before. He says they're okay, but not great. He always drinks them, though. I will say, I have never gotten him ones in Princess cans, though. I've gone for the ones with Mickey on them, and even that he still kind of makes fun of. He drinks it, but he makes fun of it, too!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Okay, a Saturday morning update with a cup of coffee is good, too!

Mmmm, Goofy's Candy Co. is always such a great place -- your pretzel rods do look delicious!

Old Key West looks neat -- very tropical!

What a bummer about the movie -- I bet Joe looks more closely at the description next time!

 

[shebaxric]

Good morning!

Thank you for the wonderful update. My DH and MIL/FIL will be staying in SSR this November for the first time and I'm sooo excited. Your TR has given me some great ideas. We struggled between OKW and SSR, but in the end it was SSR.

I'm excited that your report isn't quite over yet.... I hate to see trip reports end, knowing that they must. I wil patiently await your next update!

 

[aceys_h0ney]

Whew I got caught up. I was horribly behind. It has been a rough month for the health of my family and I was having trouble getting back in the DIS. I know I know 20 lashings but your TR always brings me back!

First I was thrilled to read that your Grandmother is doing better and only needed her medication adjusted. What a huge relief! How awesome that you will be going to Rushmore! I cannot wait until we go there (no plans yet) Will this be your first time there?

I had to LOL @ the colored hot chocolate tins. I wonder what they are selling for. Last July they had them in the outlet shops for around $5 and my girls begged and begged. I was mean and would not let them get it. Looking back I don't remember why possibly because I was upset they wanted to spend their souvenir money on food products. Hopefully I won't be that mean this year lol. LOL @ poor Joe picking out the movie. This happened to us once I wanted to rent a movie I had seen advertised a lot and did not know there were two movies with the same title. The one I rented ended up being like a horror/porn type film. Not the murder mystery I thought I got. (Well porn to me it was just really sexed up) I turned it off and the store was nice enough to let me exchange it.

Anyway as usual loved the pics. I am sad this is coming to an end. I so wish you would be there during our trip I would love for Brooklyn and Henry to meet. He is so cute. Does he have any new words?

 

[k_reile]

i so didn't know there were mickey croc flip flops....those I might buy if it is subtle. If not then it is only Caleb in our family that is getting mickey crocs for our trip...it'll be cuter on him anyways!

 

[Donald is #1]

Another great report! Hmm, I'm surpirsed that you found that DVD. When I looked at BCV, I thought that all I saw were family movies.

 

[PopArtGal]

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[TyRy]

Great update Brook. I know how you feel about the MK...we always try and hit it on the last day to get that "last" picture we wanted and that kind of stuff. I now pout of DH doesn't want to, but usually will give in.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Fantastic update. Loved all the Goofy Candy Co pics. You think of the coolest things to take pictures of and really unique angles. I love them!

Another endorsement here on OKW. I loved it. It's very laid back and removed from the hustle and bustle. You know you're in Florida certainly but can forget you're in Disney. I thought the rooms were great. I have photos of a 2 BR if you're interested.

Hey- love your new ticker with all the different occasions you're counting down to-- where did you make it?

 

[jenseib]

Love the update. Those candy shots are awesome. I should've taken some of those. When we went there we had to wait forever for our rods. But boy are they good!.