We love rack rate! Aug 1-17 More NEW pics 9/1!

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Tammi - Glad you made it home safely! It was good to see you guys again!

We went to MK this morning with Bernadette & family. Of course it rained on us. And our pet sitter said it is raining at home, too. I am going to mildew if I don't get some sun soon!

DH and DS are napping now, and we haven't decided which park to do tonight. Our passes expire today so this is our last chance. It is going to be so hard to wait an entire year before our next trip! I thought being here for 16 nights would give me enough of a fix to deal with a 12 month wait, but that doesn't seem to be working. Airfare and lack of valid APs should be quite a strong deterrent, though!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Some random thoughts:

The AKL pool and arcade are now open 24 hours. Not sure when that happened, but I am relatively sure it didn't used to be that way. I am not a huge fan of 24 hour pools because of the noise factor.

The bus situation wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it might be.

Crowd levels were up. WAY up. I think today was probably the least crowded we have seen.

In 3 years of August trips we have never been rained on as many times as we have been this year. Seems like we got rained on at least part of the day almost EVERY day.

We didn't have any issues with rude CMs. I did hear some CMs complaining to each other at MGM, and we saw 2 waitresses getting into it at Ohana in the middle of the dining room, but neither one of those instances had anything to do with us.

Fewer dream squad members, fewer dreams, from outward appearances. That might not be the actual case.

We are NEVER switching resorts 3 times in a single stay again. That was brutal. It sucked up huge amounts of time and money. Of course we didn't purposely plan to hop around like that, but we absolutely would not do it again.

For the most part the other guests weren't too bad. We had some VERY loud neighbors at SSR, and we had some folks at AKV who saw no reason to use indoor voices late at night in the halls. I can't think of any situations where people were blatantly rude. I didn't get hit with any scooters, wheelchairs, or strollers, which is remarkable considering how long we were here and how crowded it has been! We've seen rolling backpacks, kids in Heelys, and smokers walking with their lit whatevers (one guy at MK was walking with an enormous cigar, puffing like a freight train) but we just tried to ignore them.

The DxDDP was an absurd waste of money. We won't do that again, even if DS does start to eat larger portions in the future.

We LOVE concierge level at AKL, and it wasn't too shabby at the Poly, either!

I don't mind not having daily housekeeping in the villas, but I can't get used to the towel thing. Must have extra towel packs!

 

[yellowfish78]

Please excuse my DD's ham of a pose. She's not camera shy, is she.

It's because she is an actor, you know.

I was gonna say the exact same thing!

Some random thoughts:

The AKL pool and arcade are now open 24 hours. Not sure when that happened, but I am relatively sure it didn't used to be that way. I am not a huge fan of 24 hour pools because of the noise factor.

The bus situation wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it might be.

Crowd levels were up. WAY up. I think today was probably the least crowded we have seen.

In 3 years of August trips we have never been rained on as many times as we have been this year. Seems like we got rained on at least part of the day almost EVERY day.

We didn't have any issues with rude CMs. I did hear some CMs complaining to each other at MGM, and we saw 2 waitresses getting into it at Ohana in the middle of the dining room, but neither one of those instances had anything to do with us.

Fewer dream squad members, fewer dreams, from outward appearances. That might not be the actual case.

We are NEVER switching resorts 3 times in a single stay again. That was brutal. It sucked up huge amounts of time and money. Of course we didn't purposely plan to hop around like that, but we absolutely would not do it again.

For the most part the other guests weren't too bad. We had some VERY loud neighbors at SSR, and we had some folks at AKV who saw no reason to use indoor voices late at night in the halls. I can't think of any situations where people were blatantly rude. I didn't get hit with any scooters, wheelchairs, or strollers, which is remarkable considering how long we were here and how crowded it has been! We've seen rolling backpacks, kids in Heelys, and smokers walking with their lit whatevers (one guy at MK was walking with an enormous cigar, puffing like a freight train) but we just tried to ignore them.

The DxDDP was an absurd waste of money. We won't do that again, even if DS does start to eat larger portions in the future.

We LOVE concierge level at AKL, and it wasn't too shabby at the Poly, either!

I don't mind not having daily housekeeping in the villas, but I can't get used to the towel thing. Must have extra towel packs!

ACK! More suitcases!?!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I was gonna say the exact same thing!

ACK! More suitcases!?!

No, I just have to call Housekeeping and request extra towels. And pay for them, of course. Unless we can get concierge level.

We're headed home this morning. We went back to MK last night so we didn't get anything packed. I need to get going so we can check the bags through to the airport before breakfast.

Chat with you all soon!

 

[PNO4TE]

No, I just have to call Housekeeping and request extra towels. And pay for them, of course. Unless we can get concierge level.

We're headed home this morning. We went back to MK last night so we didn't get anything packed. I need to get going so we can check the bags through to the airport before breakfast.

Chat with you all soon!

Travel safe, Elizabeth!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We're at the airport. Apparently they cancelled the flight before ours, so things could be interesting! It is very crowded, and the flight was already full. We have decided if they offer us compensation we will give up our seats.

 

[tinknme]

Elizabeth good luck with your flights & have a safe trip home!

I enjoyed meeting up with you & your family, Riley is looking forward to meeting your ds again

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Janet - DS LOVED meeting Riley! I am so glad the boys had a good time! We have the Star Tours Fast Pass pin for Riley if he still needs it, and DS would love to have the hook pin if you still have an extra one.

Well, they sure did offer compensation for people willing to give up their seats on our flight. We could have had $300 travel vouchers AND only been delayed by 2 hours! The catch was that they only wanted 2 people, not 3. I BEGGED DH to go home on the first flight and let DS and me take the later one and get $600 in vouchers but he wouldn't budge. That would have covered 2 tickets for our next trip.

Oh, well. We are home now. I thought we could wait a year to go back, but now I am not sure I can wait. The airline vouchers would have made it impossible to wait, even without valid APs!

Guess I will PM the mods and have this report moved over to the "completed" board.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Just want to say thanks to all who have followed along, looked at our photos, etc! We had a great trip, and I enjoyed posting updates!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Welcome home, sorry you missed out on the vouchers! So glad you posted live, it was neat to read along during your trip! Loved all your pictures, esp of the food! So much calamari, LOL!

Allyson

 

[tinknme]

Glad you all made it home safely Elizabeth!

Riley still needs the Star Tours Fast Pass pin, this will complete all the sets that he got on our trip. He will be so excited to hear you found one We have the extra Hook pin for your ds, I will get this in the mail soon(I can be slow about mailing things, but I promise you will get it ).

Bummer about missing out on the vouchers, I would have jumped on that as well!

I have the Dec. trip to look forward to now, but the boys & I are already talking about next years trip together

If I renew my AP, I might have to try & sneak in another solo trip

 

[Blueeyes101817]

Welcomeh ome elizabeth!

 

[CPer'sMom]

Glad you made it home safely. I loved following along with your live updates Such a great TR!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Did I mention that we never did go to a water park? For the second year in a row! I brought towels and water park passes and we never went to a water park.
We also never played mini golf, but that was because it rained so much.

 

[Tinkaroo]

What a great report, Elizabeth! It made for a nice lunch-time break. Despite all the rain, it sounds like you guys had an amazing trip, and your mom stayed well enough to boot. That's fabulous news! A very happy belated birthday to you - you deserved all the happiness you got!

So, I have a question for you - I have both an AKL CL regular room and AKV sav. view studio booked for our first few nights in Dec. Obviously, the AKL reservation would be $$ out of our pockets (but concierge service and tours!), while AKV would be on points we weren't expecting to have. Having just stayed at both, which would you do? I'm torn - it will probably come down to whether we want to spend the extra $$ or not, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on both types of rooms and the different experiences. (I'm glad to see that at least the AKL CL rooms have been upgraded to the flat screen TVs and new armoires!)

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

What a great report, Elizabeth! It made for a nice lunch-time break. Despite all the rain, it sounds like you guys had an amazing trip, and your mom stayed well enough to boot. That's fabulous news! A very happy belated birthday to you - you deserved all the happiness you got!

So, I have a question for you - I have both an AKL CL regular room and AKV sav. view studio booked for our first few nights in Dec. Obviously, the AKL reservation would be $$ out of our pockets (but concierge service and tours!), while AKV would be on points we weren't expecting to have. Having just stayed at both, which would you do? I'm torn - it will probably come down to whether we want to spend the extra $$ or not, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on both types of rooms and the different experiences. (I'm glad to see that at least the AKL CL rooms have been upgraded to the flat screen TVs and new armoires!)

We loved concierge. The sunrise safari was AMAZING. I also have that thing about clean towels. I LOVE towels. (When we checked out of the Poly we had 7 clean towels in our room. It was SOOO hard to leave them there! )

We really enjoyed the lounge for breakfast and afternoon snacks. We aren't big beer/wine drinkers but we did stop in one evening for a drink before dinner. When we were in the villa we missed having that perk, but it wasn't like it ruined that part of our trip. Our villa was pool view, which wasn't as nice as savannah view, but it wasn't bad. I don't know what the point differential is between standard view and savannah.

Concierge didn't make that many ADRs for us, and they were for things I could have easily called for myself, so having that available wasn't really a perk. If we hadn't been absolutely bent on doing the safari we could have done quite well without the concierge services.

I am going to try to book a concierge villa for next summer because I like clean towels. They also double-sheet the beds, which I love. If we can't get one I will waitlist for one, but we'll be fine in a regular studio if we can't get concierge. I'll just pay for extra towels.

FWIW, I have no interest in staying in Kidani. We will be booking in Jambo regardless of which category of villa we book.

 

[Tinkaroo]

Thanks for your thoughts. I haven't really used IPO at all at this point (we also have CL over at the GF), except to make room requests and to book the Sunrise and Sunset Safari tours. It would be those tours that would have us going CL, although I do love a well-stocked CL lounge! Of course, then the question becomes which safari do we take - DH would really want the Sunrise, but we did the "Wildlife Discovery" tour that's open to all CL guests at AK and Kilimanjaro last year - although it wasn't as early in the day and didn't include breakfast, we spent a lot of time out on the savannah with one of the zoologists at the AK, so I think it might be somewhat similar.

Oh well - decisions, decisions! Either way, I'm sure we'll have a great time - I'm excited to see AKL at the holidays. Of all our stays and trips there for meals, we've never made it over there in December.

Now, pray tell, how are you going to hang on until next August?!?!

 

[snappy]

FWIW, I have no interest in staying in Kidani. We will be booking in Jambo regardless of which category of villa we book.

Elizabeth, help me with why Jambo over Kidani, once it opens?

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Elizabeth, help me with why Jambo over Kidani, once it opens?

Oh, it's just a personal preference thing. We love AKL. Absolutely adore it. I am just not interested in Kidani. IF we were getting a one bedroom I would probably request Kidani for the extra bathroom, but with just the 3 of us that seems like a waste of points.

From what I have read about Kidani so far, there won't be a counter service option. I like Mara, and I am not one to eat meals in the villa, so I don't want to hike to Jambo to get breakfast.

Obviously if I am able to score a ressie for concierge then Jambo is the only option.

I suppose after Kidani opens and I go look at it I might change my mind, but for now I think we will be requesting Jambo.

 

[Steamboat Marti]

Elizabeth,

I have loved the report. Because of Kristine we have booked AKL CL for two nights in December. We're really looking forward to it -- and are trying to add on a third night because Paul is exceptionally excited about it. Should I have a room request for this? All I know is that they are in the main building - so if you have any tips, I'm all ears!