Slushies, Fast Rides, and Zebra Domes Trip Report - Days 8 & 9

[Momof2boys]

Recap of Facts

Who:
Amanda (Me)
John (DH)
Matt (DS9)
Nate (DS7)

When & Where:
Friday, October 19 until Monday, October 29 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Pool View Bunk Beds


Day 8 – Friday, October 26th

With having a few long days, I decided to let the boys sleep. I, however, was up bright & early. I used that time to straighten up the room. We had been getting some towel creations (toothbrush holder, butterfly, and yesterday we came back to ghosts hanging off our lights) so I put them together. The boys finally woke about 9:30 and they were anxious to get moving. A super quick breakfast in the room and then we were off to Epcot. We arrived about 10:30. Nate and I walked to Test Track to get some FPs while John & Matt watched the fountain show. By then it was 11:15 and we went to check in for our 11:20 ADR at Garden Grill. This has become a family favorite for us and this time we were lucky enough to sit facing out, so we could watch the scenes from Living With The Land pass by. Our server was mediocre at best, we had to remind him about dessert and refills he'd promised, but the food was fantastic. We loved the catfish, but we only got 2 pieces at a time. I could still do without the cranberry sauce. The boys enjoyed food from both their plate and ours. Nate really liked the steak, as did I. Total for the 4 of us $56.21, after $13.19 DDE discount.

Next it was downstairs to ride Living With The Land and FP’s for Soarin were already gone. Since we hadn’t rode Figment the first day at Epcot, we walked that way. We couldn’t believe it when Figment had a 10 minute wait ! This was the first time we did not just walk on that ride. The boys played around at Imageworks and I found a really nice castle picture frame($20.00) that we bought. Then we went into Innoventions and stood in line for our Disney meet n greet photo. The wait was about 20 minutes but the boys didn’t mind as they were playing the video games. When it was our turn we had Mickey and Pluto but the Photopass guy was having issues with his camera so they told us to come back again.

Disappointed, we took a break and got some ice cream at Fountainview – double scoops for John and the boys and a single scoop for me ($15.09). I made a phone call to my mom to see how things were going & John called his mom to check on Lilo. The boys were begging to swim and I wanted to stay for Illuminations so we decided to split up. John and the boys would go back to the resort to swim and I would stay to wander around the WS. But first, we had to ride Test Track as our FP has opened up. Once again, this ride seemed faster and we had the car to ourselves as there were no single riders.

John and the boys headed back to the bus and I browsed around the shops. I did find a long sleeved Disney is Paradise shirt ($26.95) that I had been wanting in MouseGears so purchased that as it was getting chilly. I also bought the boys a mini Epcot baseball bat ($9.59) to hang in their new sports room. For dinner I had the Chef’s Special at Lotus Blossom café ($8.09) with a Mango Margarita ($8.79) to wash it down with. I got a great spot to view Illuminations and called John, who was enjoying a large cheese pizza ($14.90) from Mara with the boys for their late dinner. I had a cheese pastry & water ($5.00) while waiting. After Illuminations I followed the crowd back to the bus stop. I was back in the room at 10:15, trying not to wake the sleeping boys. I also called down to cancel our breakfast ADR for Boma, as I didn’t think It’d be an early morning for us.


Day 9 – Saturday, October 27th

Just as I had predicted, we would not have made our early morning ADR at Boma as we didn’t rise until 9:40. Went to Mara to get breakfast of eggs, cereal , and Danish ($23.05)and talked about what we were going to do today. I really wanted to try the Disney meet again so instead of going straight to MGM, I suggested we go by route of Epcot. Everyone was in agreement so we boarded an Epcot bus at 11am. Just like yesterday, I went to get a FP for us for Test Track while John & the boys spent time at Club Cool. It was still early to get in line for the Visa meet, so we thought we’d ride Universe of Energy – which was closed due to technical difficulties. So we got a snack of pretzels & soda ($9.00) to hold the boys over until it was time for us to go into meet.

We got in line about 20 minutes before 1:00 and we were first in line. At 1:00 a family of no less than 15 comes up and with the help of a CM goes in before us. They were in there for 12 minutes – yes, we timed. I even asked if it was a Make A Wish child as we had seen many there that week. We were told, No – just a large family. Not really fair in my eyes but what do I know. Finally the CM working the door went in and I think kinda hurried them along. After all, there was a pretty good line of people waiting. We went in and saw Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. Another broken Photopass camera gave us some dancing time while they were programming the new one. Afterwards, we went to the Camera Center and looked at our photos – they did have 1 or 2 from our meet the prior day that weren’t blurry so they let us choose 2 photos for our trouble, which was very nice. We chose our 2 and then went towards the World Showcase, with a quick Test Track ride as we were able to use our FPs. We also rode the Three Caballerors again.

Matt wanted pot stickers & ginger ice cream from China ($8.50). While we were waiting for his food Nate spotted Mulan out – we have never seen her so this was another new character for us. We also were able to get pictures with Belle & Beast, Genie, and Princess Aurora. We stopped for a snack in France as the rain had picked up a bit. We shared a strawberry slushie, Lemon tart, Apple turnover, chocolate cake, and a ham & cheese croissant ($18.37).

We only had to wait about 5 minutes for the Friendship boat to arrive and soon we were on our way to MGM. As we got closer the rain came down harder and harder. Pretty soon nobody (including myself) wanted to go to MGM. John did however say that maybe we should stay at Yacht or Beach Club next year, which makes me think we'll be back. So we ended up heading to the bus stop and taking a bus back to AKL. After a nice warm shower we dressed and headed out to hang out in the resort. We had been wanting to do a charactiture ($30.00 each) of each boy and decided now was as good of time as any. Matt went first and chose a Rock Star theme and Nate chose a skateboarding theme. The girl doing it was named Mandy so the boys thought it was funny because my family still calls me that. She did a great job ! The color drawings really do look like them and they can’t wait to hang them on their walls in the new house. We had to pay for them at Zawadi, so as long as we were there we bought both boys and myself a AKL shirt. Total for the shirts & charactitures was $131.91. The boys also did the parade so they got a Magical Moments certificate.

We were hungry, so we had a late dinner at Mara. John had the chicken dinner, I had the shrimp dinner, Matt had mac & cheese, and Nate had cheese flatbread, with of course Zebra Domes & a carrot cake for dessert ($37.86). We wandered around and finally got back to the room about 10:30. I set a wake up call for 7:15 for our last park day.

[Tinkerfreak]

We checked in at the AKL on the 27th and were hanging around the resort all afternoon also. I can't remember our room number. If you came out of Mara and turned left and kept walking all the way past the batrooms and arcade and entered the door way down there on the end we were right there. We liked being so close to Mara. We switched to the Poly the next day and we are glad we tried it. It was really nice.

[Bethis26fan]

thanks for sharing

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report!

[youngOx96]

Another nice report. Thanks for sharing.

[DizNee143]

yet another great two days!! the yatch and beach club and the boardwalk are great resorts!! hopefully youll get to stay at one of them next year like your hubby said!!!

[faline]

It certainly was quite a challenge to get your picture from the Character Connection!

You and your family have a wonderfully relaxed touring style!

[dolphinmickey9170]

Another great day!! I'm sorry to see it's coming to an end.

[realtreebar]

thanks for the trip report!! "gotta love"