What's in a title anyway? How about 1300 pictures? 4/15/11-> Bonus Section pt1 & 2

[DisneyRed95]

Great pictures of Kali and the Tree of Life! I love all the details on the tree too and discover new animals every time I see it.

I'm glad you liked the food at Yak and Yeti! We're thinking about eating there in May. It sounds like you guys really enjoyed it! I'm excited to try it!

 

[JKMJ441724]

Scanned your pictures, now I have to go back and read the report.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[mmjm]

Great photos, it looks like the kids had a great time!

 

[Stefy]

Yes ma'am! First week of May and the last week of October!

So cool and for Halloween too You all gonna dress up?

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

I'll grab the activities list as soon as we walk in. I do want to get the most out of our stay there and give it a fair chance. With DVC it's the cheapest place to stay so if we like it enough, we'll go definitely back.

But I do have to smack Sean around a bit. He thought he was at the Beach Club! That makes sense though because everything we described to him, he had no idea what we were talking about.


I won't tell anybody you said that I'll ask her tonight. Right now she's in a meeting and I'm getting ready to head into work but I'll send her a message on facebook and post it here as soon as I hear anything. Who knows, I might even have another small update to post!

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by AKL... I Definitely think the boys will love it there! They really do have a ton of activites to do there for kids... The pool is no SAB but it is a nice area to relax!

Sean is just a go with the flow kind of guy... Who cares where I stay... I'm here!

 

[tigerdragon]

OMG, that cake looks awesome! Love all of your pictures of ToL!

I'll have to catch up with the rest of the TR when we get back from Disney because we are leaving tomorrow! I'm excited, can you tell?

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Works bogged me down --- been reading when I can, but haven't had a chance to comment on pics and the report... I love Kali Rapids!!! Love, love, LOVE it!!! Yak & Yeti was really good from what I remember, and I believe we got the to die for chocolate cake there!

 

[ToonTagTrolleyDollie]

I'm back again though i seem to be running short on popcorn Loving your pictures of the tree of life and that cake looked GOOD Huuraaay for food porn I may have to go there in august cant wait to read more xxx

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Hi Rob - long time reader, first time responder - just wanted you to know I love your TR, been following it for years! But I gotta ask, what's going on? You're TR has been lacking...

Signing off, Jennifer on Cape Cod

 

[Purpleblanket]

Scanned your pictures, now I have to go back and read the report.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Ah hal!!! I'm not alone in hijacking some of your photos!!

Debbie

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

echo echo echo echo echo

 

[Stefy]

echo echo echo echo echo

Lol

Hey Rob hope you are all doing ok, we miss your updates

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Great pictures of Kali and the Tree of Life! I love all the details on the tree too and discover new animals every time I see it.

I'm glad you liked the food at Yak and Yeti! We're thinking about eating there in May. It sounds like you guys really enjoyed it! I'm excited to try it!

I think you are going to like it! The food was really good and it wasn't as chaotic as a character meal. The Tree of Life is very cool and the story behind creating it is pretty interesting. I don't want to spoil the magic for those who don't know about it but if you get a chance, check out the episode of Modern Marvels that they did on Walt Disney World. Pretty interesting stuff!

Scanned your pictures, now I have to go back and read the report.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

I do the same thing with other TRs Hope you enjoyed it if you went back to the beginning. There will be an ending....evenutally

Great photos, it looks like the kids had a great time!

They really did! It cracks me up because they truly think they are adults when we are there because they make a lot of the decisions on what to do. I love every minute we spend there and can not wait to go back......30 more days!!!

So cool and for Halloween too You all gonna dress up?

I want to be Captain Jack but Tina doesn't think that's such a great idea.....she's so old I'm gonna try to find a happy medium but we'll see. We just had a meeting of all the families that will be going in October. They all think I'm nuts and were cracking up at the idea of me dressing up.....I feel bad for them

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by AKL... I Definitely think the boys will love it there! They really do have a ton of activites to do there for kids... The pool is no SAB but it is a nice area to relax!

Sean is just a go with the flow kind of guy... Who cares where I stay... I'm here!

I'm sure they will. I've been doing a little research on the hotel and the more I look into it, the more I like it. We are officially booked in a 2 bedroom with my family, Sean, his parents, and his brothers We had the choice of either Kadani or Jambo but went with Kadani because that's where everybody else is staying. There's 5 families total so this should be interesting!

OMG, that cake looks awesome! Love all of your pictures of ToL!

I'll have to catch up with the rest of the TR when we get back from Disney because we are leaving tomorrow! I'm excited, can you tell?

Are you back yet? How was the weather? Did you tell Mickey we will be back in a few weeks? Did he mention me? Don't tell me if he didn't. I'll just pretend that he did. I really have to call Y&Y to see if I can get a piece of cake for take out. I don't want to go to the park with expectations and get disappointed

Works bogged me down --- been reading when I can, but haven't had a chance to comment on pics and the report... I love Kali Rapids!!! Love, love, LOVE it!!! Yak & Yeti was really good from what I remember, and I believe we got the to die for chocolate cake there!

I have to stop talking about that cake. I'm just getting back to my pre-Disney Trip Weight

I'm back again though i seem to be running short on popcorn Loving your pictures of the tree of life and that cake looked GOOD Huuraaay for food porn I may have to go there in august cant wait to read more xxx

Welcome back! I can't criticize anybody for not being around.....have you seen how long it's been since the last update??? I keep going back and forth on a food porn TR for our May trip coming up, what do you think? It might be good for those looking for ideas when on the quick service plan

Hi Rob - long time reader, first time responder - just wanted you to know I love your TR, been following it for years! But I gotta ask, what's going on? You're TR has been lacking...

Signing off, Jennifer on Cape Cod

Dear Jennifer in Cape Cod,
We have received your threatening letters in the mail and are pretty sure the egging of our company vehicles in the parking lot may have been friends of yours. Unfortunately, our lawyers are not the best and have no idea what to file to make it stop......so......how about an update??????

I did one up last night

Ah hal!!! I'm not alone in hijacking some of your photos!!

Debbie

Where's that scrapbook we've been hearing about??????

echo echo echo echo echo

That's never happened before in here......we really need to get some carpet installed!

Lol

Hey Rob hope you are all doing ok, we miss your updates

So far so good. It's been a little more hectic than usual but so far we're keeping our head above water somehow. I've been looking forward to spending a day just sitting at the computer getting caught up on my TR ans well as everyone else's but it just hasn't happened yet. I'll explain in a few minutes.....

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Good evening my Disboard friends and welcome back to another addition of Rob’s Trip Report! I know it has been quite some time since our last edition but things really have been just one thing after another on the home front and at work. In the last few weeks on top of my normal running around for 21+ hours a day we’ve had extra school activities, Logan got signed up for FULL TIME kindergarten (which to me means 6 hrs of sleep starting in September!!!, ) The kids room needed some work done so I tore out a bunch of plaster in the walls and ceiling and am in the middle of spackling the new sheetrock, the cars needed some work, the job has been insane at times, booked our October trip for AKL and ironed out some details over a multi-family meeting, and I’ve gone on a mission to drop some poundage! So far, I’m 13 pounds lighter than when we last spoke! On top of all that, Tina had jury duty for week on a high profile case which bumped up the stress levels a bit. Yea, it’s been a fun few weeks now. Unfortunately, my updates have suffered even more than what they used to but tonight I’d like to make a small peace offering if you will accept it……the rest of day 8!

So, the last time we spoke, we had all just left the Yak and Yeti and I has chocolate cake coursing through my veins. Brandon and his group wanted to go do some character meet and greets while my kids wanted to go see some animals. We are in ANIMAL kingdom right? We agreed to meet up later on via text and my group headed off to

The kids found it both educational and fun at the same time. I was still thinking about that chocolate cake. They had all kinds of cool things in there and the kids just took it all in.

There’s a few things in here that I am just not comfortable with, and BATS ARE ONE OF THEM! This place was crawling with them. See the one up top just hanging there? They were HUGE! ewe.

Here’s another one I’m not a fan of…..

Guess what’s behind door #2?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

TIGERS!
Yea, tigers I like. Bats and snakes freak me out.

Gonna go find me some more tigers!

Found em!!!

Still loving the details…..

Than we just followed the boys to wherever they wanted to go. They were loving it, which just means we were loving it! I guess that’s probably the best part about being at Disney. The kids get to just wander around and make their own decisions about what they want to do next. I love following them around just to see what their little minds have in store, and I feel safe doing it. Sorry….babbling again…..

 

[NateNLogansDad]

If anyone knows what these are for, I’d love to hear from you! My best guess was that they were birdfeeders but I’m not 100%

I’m sure the boys will want to do that again on our next trip, they really had a good time in there!

Moving right along.

When we left the jungle trek, there was a little snack shop there that wasn’t open but they had a very cool looking beverage dispenser that Tina pointed out and I thought I’d share….

Yep, it’s all about the details.

By this time Brandon and his tribe were finishing up with the characters and wanted to go ride Dinosaur so we headed over that way.

Yep, you are reading that right! 10 minute wait. But, just like before, even that was wrong. No wait was more like it. Another WALK ON!

Sorry there’s so little pictures of the queue area, you’d be surprised at how hard it is to get even those with a family who just wants to get on the ride! Where’s the photography love???? Anyway, still taking pictures, I followed them on…

After having no pictures from the last time we went on, I was determined to get SOMETHING…….

I thought that last one was pretty cool! Talk about luck with the timing!!! As bumpy as that ride is, there wasn’t any way I was going to try looking through the viewfinder. Here’s what their our picture looked like at that exact same time.

Can you pick me out?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

By this time it was about 4:30 and the park closed at 5 that day so we headed out to go find some stuff to buy. The girls really hadn’t been shopping too much this week so we had planned this evening to be a Downtown Disney night. Heading out we took one last look over at….

…and made our way towards the front. My feet were getting a little sore and I do remember seeing this and thinking “I wonder if anyone would notice me missing if I snuck down and took a short nap…”

But I digress….

Heading out I watched numerous people ahead of us running for the entrance and not even noticing this little guy left behind by a cast member for us…..

If you've never seen something like that on the ground, it's made by a cast member usually dipping a broom into water and drawing it on the ground. It only lasts a little while but they always do an excellent job. Yep….the details

Now, as many of you already know, there isn’t a bus that goes right from the parks to Downtown Disney. As far as I know, the only way to do it is to hop on over to a hotel and grab a 2nd bus to head downtown. This presented an opportunity to go check out another first for us…..well, mostly me I guess. One of the hotels on my list that I wanted to see one day was always Animal Kingdom Lodge. Since we needed a hotel, and that one is only a few minutes away, we headed there!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Unfortunately this was going to be our last full day in Disney World so we figured we’d hang out here for a few till it was exactly 24 hrs till we needed to check in for our flights. We had our smart phones handy and walked around a bit.

Not too shabby! When it came time to check in, of coarse neither one of us could get a decent signal so we ended up going over to the concierge desk and they were more than willing to check us in with Southwest and print out our boarding passes. Very nice people there! After that the boys were itching to go out and look across the savanna, and who was I to stop them!

Play time over there were some females waiting for us, that had credit cards that had barely been touched this whole trip, waiting back in the lobby!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We went out to wait for the next bus but Mommom Ginny decided it would be fun to just hail a cab and head down to the Marketplace. The frugal part of me tried to talk her into waiting for the FREE bus that would be here any minute, but she wanted no part of it. So we all piled into a van and were off!

Passing by this sign, I made a mental note of another first I’d like to see some day…..

20 minutes later we were there!

Our first stop just always has to be…..

I really didn’t have anything I had to buy on my list so I played the part of the good hubby and told Tina to go in while I entertained the kids outside for a bit. As much as I’m sure she would have loved the boys asking her to buy two of everything in the store, she made a B-line for the entrance and never looked back. (You’re welcome sweetie!)

It took a whole two minutes of thinking what we could do before I noticed some people sitting down by the stage not too far from where we were so we headed down.

The guy up there kept saying that things would be starting in a few minutes so we hung around to see what was up. I figured there had to be SOMETHING for the boys to do right? A few minutes later, he confirmed it. They had different dances and games for all the kids in the audience to join in and play. Surprisingly enough, the boys weren’t too shy and jumped right into the mix.

I was loving it! I found a seat down front and just couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. They did so good down there I just couldn’t help but crack up……and take pictures!

Over ½ hr had gone by, but I thought it was only a minute or two, when everybody came out of the World of Disney store. I sent them a text and they met me down there to watch the boys dancing for a while longer. It was great. The boys had an absolute blast!

Brandon Tracey and my Mom were going to check a few stores out and meet up with us later. We were going over to the Lego store and they had no need for anything there. As soon as we walked in, I had wished I went with them instead. That place was insane! There were so many people in there it was hard to walk. We each grabbed a kid and walked around the perimeter of the store as best as we could. I grabbed these two pictures and took the boys outside for some fresh air while Tina grabbed a few things for Christmas.

Pretty cool ceiling huh?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We did our obligatory picture with the sea monster....

And I want to put it out there that I completely stole this idea from one of the guys on the photography boards. In no way, shape, or form, am I creative at all, but I thought it would be a cool addition to the TR!

We did make our scary pictures over by the Transformer guy….

After that it was time for a walk.

One of the things I really did want to try out was the Characters In Flight balloon ride. Tina said “no way” and the boys were on the fence about getting on. Between the line and the price it would have cost to take the boys on and have the freak out ½ way up, I decided against it. It is cool to watch though….

It was getting late and the boys were saying that they could go for a bite to eat. One of my favorite pizza places anywhere just happened to be Wolfgang Puck Express and that was all I needed to hear. Any excuse I can get to go over for a pepperoni pizza works for me.

Yea, that’s about as close as you’re going to get to food porn here. Between the pizza, Tina’s sandwich, the cookies, and the crème brulee, nothing lasted more than a few minutes after hitting the table. Definitely one of the BEST uses of a quick service credit on the meal plan!!!

While we were eating, Brandon sent me a message saying they were heading back to the hotel. After we finished eating we all just sat there and had a conversation about all the things we had done during the week and how much fun we all had. We tried to break it softly to the boys that this was going to be our last night here before we head home but seriously, how can that ever be taken well? Honestly I’m not sure who was more upset, the boys or Tina and I.

Bellies full and promises of a return trip made, we headed out to go find a bus to take us back to the Beach Club one last time. You’d think that this would be a sad time for us but the boys have no idea on how to stop goofing around!

Gotta love it.



This, ladies and gentlemen was our day 8. I have not come this far to not finish out the week. I promise there will be a day 9, and I promise to have it done in one update. Will it be this week? I’m really not sure. Will it be fairly soon? Absolutely.

I will not go back to Disney till this report is over!!!!