Geomom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,869
Day 1 Wednesday 10/5, 6:45AM, Surprise!: I hand the kids their pink shirts from France at Epcot and tell them to get dressed for school. When they get downstairs for breakfast I tell my 6th grade daughter that I have good news and bad news...bad news is that she can't buy lunch on Thursday...since she'll be on vacation. I tell my 2nd grader her bad news--I can't help out at her school library...I'll be packing for said vacation. Oh, and by the way, we're picking you both up early from school today. 'Look on the table.' Hubby had put out Halloween Mickey/Minnie silly bands. 'Can you figure out where we're going?' They figured out Disney...11 year old was ecstatic...7 year old was not...she didn't have a good flight home in February (1500 miles of turbulence and a 6 yr old stomach don't mix well) and she isn't looking forward to flying again. We cheer her up by saying we're going in the pool tonight and staying at a 'new' resort...then we sent the kids off to school...and discovered that in all the excitement we'd forgotten to pack kid #1's lunch...hubby went and dropped it off. We pack for the trip, then hubby and I pick up kid #1 from Middle school...goes better than we expected...dropped off her violin and backpack at home, then picked up kid #2 from elementary school and drove straight to the airport. Get there 2 hours early and get right through security in 5 minutes, eat our dinner at 3PM and get onto our 4:15PM Southwest flight to Orlando due to arrive at 7:30PM. We arrive 40 minutes early! Go down to Magical Express. (Must have just missed a bus...I think we waited 30 minutes for the next one.) We are the last of 4 stops for Magical Express (of course!), get to Animal Kingdom Villas--Kidani Village at around 8:45PM. It's our first stay here. The 'celebration' I added to our reservation isn't even mentioned...whatever...for an anniversary we're just getting buttons anyway...we'll pick them up at a park the next day. We're in Room 7450--beautiful '4th' floor, deluxe studio room with a view of the Sunset Savannah. We were very pleased with the decor of the room (seemed more unique than other DVC's we'd stayed at), the great quality of the sofabed that the kids slept on, and the view of the animals. Long walk from the lobby area--we're the second to last section of Kidani village. But...having said 'long' walk, I really preferred this to the LONG walks we've had at Saratoga and Old Key West--this is all indoors, a real benefit in rainy weather, and it just didn't seem as long of a walk, at least not after we knew 'where' our room was. We start getting ready to go in the pool and our luggage arrives from Magical Express! Very impressed, it's been 2 hours since landing vs. the 3+ hrs we've experienced with other resorts! I think we've only been in our room 15 minutes before the luggage came...and here I packed bathing suits, pj's and toiletries in our carryons...who knew! The kids enjoyed the pool, but it is too late for the pool bar to be open or the water play area to be open. Hubby picks up a bottle of wine at the marketplace, as well as other essentials for breakfast as well as some Mickey Chocolate turtles as a post pool goody. Once the kids finally fall asleep (all those turtles...), hubby and I sit on the balcony, relax with our wine, and try to find animals in the dark...we think we saw some giraffe legs in the distance or are those tree stumps? End of day 1.
I try escargot for the first time--tasted like garlic bread with some parsley and something a little chewy in it. Hey, if I can ask my kids to try something new, I should do that myself! And yes, that cosmo slushie was goooood! After finishing our snack, we make it to the Kim Possible Italy kiosk and get assigned to Japan, the 7 yr old's favorite mission...because the baby just needed to burp! We pick Germany for our next mission, enjoy that, then get rid of our Kimmunicator and head into the Karamel shop! I love the smell of that shop. 7 yr old picks the milk chocolate and caramel dipped strawberry, 11 yr old gets the caramel drizzled peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, and hubby and I split a soft caramel covered with dark chocolate with sea salt--oh so good. We're starting to get overheated by now, and decide to head into the America Pavillion for some A/C. Voices of Liberty will be coming on soon, and we think we can go see the American Adventure before the first Eat to the Beat concert starts. We're sitting on the floor when one of the cast members comes over to us, asking our names and saying that we have a phone call. We go answer it and it's a recording of Mickey and Minnie singing 'Happy Anniversary' to you. Then the cast member writes out a 'celebration' card with our names and 18th anniversary on it. We go back in and listen to the voices of liberty, go to the American Adventure--where for the first time, the 7 yr old stays awake for the whole thing! We get out 15 minutes before Jon Secada is going to play...and YES there are seats left! We watch the show, then head off for...yes, more food... Off to Poland this time where we have Kielbasa and Pierogie with caramelized onions, Golabki, and for the adults--Belvedere strawberry balsamic chillers. Hubby could have eaten a plate of the onions by themselves, they were that good. Kids loved the pierogie and kielbasa. The Strawberry balsamic chillers were interesting...hubby liked it more than I did...more tangy than sweet, but a nice change from other drinks. We kept walking...and yes, stopped for more food in South Africa. 11 yr old and I split the Bunny Chow. 11 yr old loved it. I thought it wasn't warm enough...ours had been sitting under a heat lamp for too long and was tepid in temperature. Flavor was good though. We stopped in Mexico for yet another boat ride...like I said before, the kids love it. We went over to the UK and let the 7yr old run around the hedge maze, then went over to Canada to go see Off Kilter. Hubby was very happy that they played 'Whiskey in the Jar' as part of their set. We then stopped in France at the Boulangerie Patisserie to pick up pastries for breakfast...and yes, desserts for right now! 
7 yr old got the strawberry tart--and ate it ALL by herself. 11 yr old got the chocolate mousse...but couldn't quite finish it. We adults split a Napoleon (couldn't help myself--had to get it) and iced cappucino. Next we walked over to the Portugal Kiosk for something red to cut through all the sweetness of dessert. I tried the JM Da Fonseca Periquita (relatively dry red wine, not as fruity as I normally like, but great after eating that Napoleon), and hubby had the Fonseca Bin 27 Character Port. It was well after 8PM now, so we went off in search of a spot to watch Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Kids wanted to be close to the exit, so we ended up in that area between the 2 shops in the center. We've watched from there a couple of times before--great view, but you get blinded by the white fireworks at the end. We headed back to Kidani Village--caught the 2nd bus, not bad at closing time! We get back to the resort with our feet sore from walking all over Epcot...I think we walked the country loop twice. I've got blisters on my pinkie toes and my right heel hurts. 11 yr old's feet hurt too. Note to self: wear good sneakers to Epcot next time, sandals at the 'less walking' parks. We got the kids to bed, poured ourselves more wine, and went outside to watch the animals in the dark and we see zebras! Then we heard snorting. Yes...zebras snort when they're eating. Sounded like a horse. And off in the distance...more giraffe legs...yes, definitely giraffe legs this time. End of day 2.
They've changed up the show a bit--there were a couple of new things we hadn't seen! They didn't have the Monsters Inc recap this time--DH was Randall last time, and they didn't have 'this guy likes to dance'--DH did that before too. When we get out of the Laugh Floor we head over to the Speedway--10 minute wait! We get in line, kids get their Speedway licenses and we're off! DD7 steers and I push the pedal for her. DD11 does it all herself with DH next to her. DD11 accidentally hits our car! I give her a glare. After the speedway, we head back to Adventureland to see if Pirates has reopened--it has...but now DD7 fakes a stomachache because she doesn't want to go on. 
She got a talking to after that, and we headed toward the front of the park to leave, after stopping in the Emporium to let DD11 shop. She got a 40th Anniversary Minnie, and yes, we caved and got DD7 a Halloween Minnie since she's collecting Minnies. We decide we have just enough time to go on a train ride, and enjoy that, trying to spy through the fences by old Toontown to see what we can see of New Fantasyland. We get off the train right before the 5PM Flag Ceremony, so we stay for that and DH and DD11 take pics of the Halloween decor on Main St. We leave the park and just catch our bus as it's about to leave! We take the bus over to Jambo House for our dinner reservation at Boma. Even though we're early, we get seated immediately. Food was very yummy and ethnic. The carving station steak was very tender and I tried all the sauces they had out. I can't remember all the food I tried, it was a little of this and a little of that--all good. Desserts were oh so good. Tried the Zebra Domes, caramel cheesecake, Cinnamon Mousse, and the passionfruit Pannacotta. We stop in the Marketplace to go shopping--get a Pluto pen and a drum type thing for DD11, and a Safari Minnie for DD7--like I said, she's collecting Minnies. DH says, I thought you wanted to get to the pool before the water play area closes. We hurry outside to discover it is raining. We walk through the rain to Kidani Village, as our room is close to Jambo house. Once we're safely in our room I think I hear a rumble outside...we are not going swimming in a thunderstorm. We look at the activity guide and discover there is African drumming going on now--so we head to that, with the kids still grumbling over not going in the pool. We see lightning as we walk to the 'library', so everyone agrees the pool is out tonight. Kids join in at the tail end of the drumming, and we stay for the cultural talk by a woman from South Africa who talked all about her country and what the differences are between there and the U.S. Very interesting. We headed into Community Hall next and the kids did some free crafts. We were so happy to have the Community Hall be in the main building--we never had to go outside in the rain to get to it. We were defnitely enjoying the indoor corridors tonight in the thunderstorm. We get back to our room after 10PM, look outside to see wet zebras. DH and I are surprised...didn't realize the animals stayed out all night. It's down to just rain now, so after the kids are asleep, we grab some more wine and sit out on the mostly dry balcony to watch the wet animals. End of Day 3.
Every time our sandals get soaked, we get more foam. Lovely...I'm foaming at my feet. Hopefully it's raining enough that no one will be looking down at my feet today. We grab FP's to Soarin' for DD7 and myself. We go on the Land ride, go into the Circle of Life movie, then head back out in the rain to go over to Journey with Figment. Now it's time to go back out in the rain to go on Soarin'. After Soarin', we decide to go hit the country kiosks...in the rain...with our foamy toes. Wow, we can't believe how many people are crazy enough to be here in the rain like us...we were hoping the rain would keep the crowds down...we were wrong. We stop first at Canada, DD11 has the maple and beer glazed salmon with barley salad--and eats it all herself, the little pig! DD7 has the cheddar cheese soup, but doesn't want all of it, so we get to try it--good flavor, felt like potato and bacon chunks in it. DH and I split the Chicken Chipotle Sausage with polenta and I get the Neige Bubble (a sparkling apple ice wine). Sausage has a bit of heat to it, but tastes good. Wine was very tasty and went well with the spicy sausage. We're standing in the rain with our food under an umbrella. Lovely weather to eat outside...NOT. We keep walking and get the kids Belgian Waffle with berry compote and some of the Guylian Seashell Truffles. The truffles are in little boxes...had we known that we'd have bought more! We walk on through the rain with our toes still foaming and stop in Japan...where after standing in line 10 minutes DH discovers it's cash only today...so we skip Japan and keep walking. Singapore kiosk is closed due to the rain...so we keep walking all the way to Italy, where we stop and get the kids the cheese ravioli and the chocolate cannoli--they love them both. DH and I split the Spicy Shrimp and capellini pasta and have the Fantinel Prosecco to drink. Kids have the non-alcoholic Primavera Smoothie, despite the fact that it's really too cool to enjoy a frozen drink--they love it. We manage to find a 'dry' area to eat, under the overhang by the perfume shop. Kids get to sit on a DRY bench for a change! After we finish eating, we keep walking through the rain, hoping to grab some more food at the Germany Kiosk...crazy line, lots of people getting beer at both the Brewer's collection and Germany. We decide to skip it and keep on walking through the rain. By the time we get to South Korea, the rain has momentarily stopped. Yay! We can all take our useless hoods off! Everyone tries the pork and Kimchi slaw lettuce wraps, and the Boolgogi BBQ beef--very yummy. DH and I split the herbal rice wine--good dinner drink, subtle herbal flavor, went well with the dishes we ate. We finish eating here, and yes, it starts to rain again! We take the kids on the Mexico boat ride for the 3rd time this trip, and we buy the kids their ceramic animals--owl for DD11 and cat for DD7. It is now 2PM and we're all completely soaked...ponchos did little to keep us dry. It's windy and cool...the kids fingers are all pruny, and I've just about had it with the rain myself. We'd love to see Roger Hodgson at 5:15PM, but just don't think we can make it that long...that's assuming they even hold the show in this wind driven rain. We ask the kids if they'd like to go do the Disney Visa Meet and Greet and play in the innoventions for a while to pass the time in a dry place. No, they've had it, they want to go back to the hotel. The weather has beaten us. 4 hours of constant rain and wind have done us in. And yes, it's still super crowded here! As we head out, the wind picks up--we've never been at Disney with weather this bad! We get back to the hotel and put on DRY clothes. We go on the Kidani hotel tour led by our guide from Namibia. We learn some interesting tidbits from him, about his culture and about the decor in the hotel. We go to the crowded community hall next and do some crafts. DH heads to our room first to place a room service order for dinner...as well as picking up some Rum and Coke for us in the store. Dinner is delicious. I've never seen an ethnic room service menu, only more continental ones. The food is from Sanaa--so Indian inspired African food. We get the Spinach Paneer with basmati rice, the Tandori chicken 5 grain pilaf, the 3 breads/3 sauces, and the dessert trio--all delicious, although the kids didn't like all the food--too much flavor for them. At this point DD7 is begging to go in the pool despite the rain, so DH obliges her...but is disappointed to find that the water play area is not running...and the pool bar is closed. Main pool is open though and they last 1/2 an hour before coming back to the room. In the meantime DD11 and I head to the Community Hall and I let her buy the color your own ceramic Zebra while we watch 'The Lion King' on tv. We head back to the room after the movie and DH and I start to pack up for our trip home. 
End of Day 4.
We let the kids pick the park for our last day and they chose Hollywood Studios--they want to do Toy Story Mania and see Jake and the Neverland Pirates at the revamped Disney Junior Live on Stage show. That's all that we get to do there...the FP's for Toy Story Mania aren't until 4:20PM...when we need to be waiting for Magical Express at our resort. The stand by line is 40 minutes. We suck it up...it'll get us out of the rain and this is what the kids really want to do. It'll be our first time to see all the fun decorations, and our first time seeing the light up/talking/dancing Mr. Potato Head. After Toy Story Mania we go to Disney Junior, sitting up close at one end. Kids are ecstatic to see Jake and the Neverland Pirates...and to collect the gold doubloon papers that fall from the ceiling. Next we shop at the Princess shop just outside of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This shop has the BFF necklaces that DD11 wanted to get for herself and her BFF. DD11 had been really sad that we didn't pick them up on Saturday at Epcot--so she is beside herself to find them here! DD7 gets the Rapunzel Changing head doll playset. (So...does anyone else think it's creepy that you can pull the heads off these dolls? We've got the issue now that half the dolls at home are changing head ones...and half aren't...lots of dolls are losing their heads and going into the trash...) Next we go to lunch at the Commisary. Both DD's get chicken nuggets/fries/carrots. DH gets the red curry chicken and rice. I get the Asian Salad that I get every time we're at Hollywood Studios! I love the pickled ginger, the edamame, the chow mein noodles, and the tangy dressing in the salad! Right after finishing lunch DD7 complains that her stomach hurts--for real this time, and she wants me to pick her up so she can sleep on me. She's been fighting off a cold since before we came on vacation and it's finally caught up to her. We had planned to spend 2 more hours at the park...but DD7 can't take any more...and after all that rain the past 3 days there are no dry benches to just wait outside while DD11 and DH go do things. We decide to all go back to the resort. I carry DD7 all the way out...begging the exit people to let me go through the stroller gate as DD7 is asleep on me now, and her limp limbs are dangling everywhere...no way we could make it through a turnstile without one of us getting hurt. The exit folks DO let me out the stroller gate, thankfully! DD7 sleeps through the bus ride back to Kidani, and wakes up when we get there...all nice and refreshed and cheerful...of course.
Now we have 3 hrs to spend at Kidani without a room to go back to. We go to the Community hall and do some crafts there--I let DD7 buy the color your own beach ball craft. Then we go to the library to participate in the Biodiversity Blocks activity--it's like Jenga. The kids each get a ceramic bead for doing this activity! We look at some animal skulls. Now it's finally stopped raining, so we head out to look at the animals on the sunset savanna and see giraffes close up and hear the zebras 'barking' at each other. We head over to the Pembe Savanna and see Impalas and Okapis! It's beautiful out now, so we tell the kids they can run around the water play area--just don't get soaked! 
