August 2018 - "Best Day Ever" Trip - Day 3
8/12 - Day 3
Cast
Me - Jen
DH - Joe
DS - 5
DD - 2
Grammie - my mom
Grandpa - my dad
K - my best friend
J - her husband
J - their daughter, 5; my son's best friend
X - their son, 2
We had picked up breakfast the previous night and had breakfast in the room of pastries, fruit and cereal for the kids while we finished packing up our suitcases because we were transfering to AKL: Kidani Village today.
After checking out and dropping our luggage off with bell services to transfer to Kidani for us, we got on a bus to Magic Kingdom. Our first stop was the Barnstormer, which we all rode because DD was actually tall enough. It’s a favorite of DS’s, and she seemed to enjoy it, too. Afterwards we head over to Dumbo, and even though we could have bypassed the play area entirely the line was moving through so quickly, we opted to head into the play area and wait for my parents and our friends. They joined us and the kids had a great time playing. We probably stayed in the play area for close to an hour before our ride on the elephant. We rode the Ariel ride, which my parents had never done, but enjoyed and then we decided to checkout the waits to meet the sideshow characters. With very, very short waits (I don’t think they ended up being more than 10 minutes) we met all 4 of them (Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and Donald). Our DD is Minnie obsessed and watching her meet “my Minnie” was really fun.
We grabbed lunch at Cosmic Ray’s...using mobil ordering really makes it much easier and were off to Peter Pan. While loading onto Peter Pan I was able to snag Fastpasses for It’s a Small World so that we walked off one and right onto the other. We grabbed some delicious Dole Whips (a theme of our trip, for sure) for a snack before our friends K, J, J and X let for an afternoon break. DD, luckily, is generally able to go for long periods and will nap in her stroller when she gets tired, and DS is basically a bundle of energy, so we decided to stick it out. We went to the Tiki Room for the first time in 8 years for DH and I and the kids first time ever. DS loved the music (he’s been asking to listen to the song since we got back). DD was a little less impressed, about 5 minutes in she turned around, put her head on Daddy’s shoulder and went to sleep and slept for the next hour and a half. After the Tiki Room, DH, DS and I rode the teacups at his request and then we head out of the park so that our family could check into Kidani and get to our dinner reservations at Boma.
My parents love using the Minnie Vans and we were treated to several rides with them since they were planning on calling for them anyways. So we took a Minnie Van to Kidani. Quick and easy check in. .14 mile walk from the lobby to our room. It turned out we had a connecting room with our friends and my parents were just a few rooms down the hall. Their room overlooked the Pembe savannah and when we walked into their room with them, we discovered an okapi just outside their balcony… I love okapi, so that was a fun treat.
Dinner at Boma is always a favorite meal and we always enjoy it. Our server was mediocre, but we were enjoying each other’s company and the food, so it didn’t really color the experience. After dinner we stumbled into a drum parade for the kids in the lobby, so they joined in and ended up sitting in a sharing circle with the cultural representative and learning about each others favorite animals. DS shared that his was a TRex. :-)
After we went back to the room and put the kids to bed, DH and I spent a little while on the balcony sipping wine and watching some ostrich sleep. That is one of my favorite things about staying at Animal Kingdom.
