Momof2boys
11-07-2007, 12:25 PM
Our "Slushies, Fast Rides, and Zebra Domes" Trip Report
Recap of Facts
Who:
Amanda (Me) – Looking forward to the Keys to the Kingdom Tour
John (DH) – Enjoys the Food & Wine Festival and nervous about relying only on bus transportation
Matt (DS9) – Begged us to for an ADR at Sci Fi & still trying to convince Mom to go on Tower of Terror
Nate (DS7) – Hoping for warm weather so we can go to a waterpark
When & Where:
Friday, October 19 until Monday, October 29 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Pool View Bunk Beds
Day 1 – Friday, October 19th :
We wanted to get the boys in bed at a decent time Thursday night because we knew wake up time would come all too soon. We had them in bed by 7:30, but at 10:00 they were still up – just laying in the dark because they couldn’t stop thinking about Disney World. :cloud9: John & I got to bed about 10:15 after spending the night packing our things. We had set the alarm for 4:30, but at 3:40 we were both up and all too anxious to leave. While adding our last minute things to one of the suitcases the zipper broke. With no replacement, we’ll have to borrow one from my parents. We woke the boys up at 4:50 and after a quick dress and loading the van we headed off to my parents house. Amazing how quickly they can move when they are not getting up for school. My parents live about 5 minutes from the airport and my dad drives us to the airport so we can leave our van at their house. We arrive at their house a few minutes ahead of schedule so I had my mom get us another suitcase to use. We arrive at the airport at 6:15 for our 7:30 flight. There was a 15 minute wait to check in and we saw lots of families with their Magical Express tags on their bags. Wisconsin schools have a 3 day break the following week so it appears many are heading to warm, sunny Florida for vacation. The security line was a 10 minute wait and pretty soon we were at our gate. We bought some water, Danish, and muffins from the Starbuck’s kiosk for breakfast.
I had been glued to the weather forecast because we had bad storms the night before and with my fear of flying I was trying to see how the flight would be.:scared: It was raining a bit at takeoff but all in all a pretty smooth flight. I usually time the flights pretty good, but when the pilot told us to look out the window so we could see the Atlantic Ocean I knew we had not taken our normal flight path. Turns out there were some severe storms along the GA/FL border so he took the “scenic route” as he called it. We only landed about 20 minutes late. We were finally in Florida ! ! ! Nate & I relished the heat as we exited the plane while John & Matt wondered if it’d be this hot the entire trip.
We headed off to the DME counter and in no time were in line for our bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. This turned into one of longest waits all week. We had to be standing in that line for 20 minutes. They finally loaded our line onto the bus and then we waited as they loaded a line for Pop Century on board. About 30 minutes after getting in line we were finally pulling out and heading towards my favorite purple arches.
The driver seemed to be taking FOREVER. We were on a training route so you could definitely tell he was trying to obey all traffic laws. We stopped at Pop first and let off almost the entire bus. Then we headed to Coronado Springs. Finally it was down to our family and another family. An hour and 40 minutes after after landing we were finally getting off the bus at Animal Kingdom Lodge. The boys & John went straight to the gift shop & to explore the lobby while I went to check in. There was no line at the time so check in went quickly. They did offer to upgrade us from our requested Pool View with Bunk Beds to a Savannah View with 2 Queens, but I declined as it was almost at the end of the Kudu Trail so I declined. The woman seemed surprised but the boys really wanted bunk beds and we thought the area we requested would work best for our family. She assigned us Room 2472 which was down the Zebra Trail. After the necessary paperwork, and submitting our almost $700 in Disney Visa Rewards credit we were following the map to our room. I was not asked to show my annual pass. At the end of our hallway we had a nice outlook over the savannah with telescopes & rocking chairs. It was nice as we did see some animals, but it looked so small. This would be entertainment for the boys while waiting for mom & dad to get ready in the morning. We entered our room and the first thing the boys said was that the room was small. Well, since we have stayed at the Poly the last 2 years it did seem small in comparison, but functional. Our view included some nice, green tropical trees that surrounded the pool. We were pleased.
Since it had been a while since the snacks on the plane, we headed down to Mara for a snack. We had a 5:30 ADR for O’hana so we didn’t want to fill up. John had a veggies & dip, I had yogurt w/granola, Matt had Fruit Loops, and Nate chose a fruit cup. We also purchased 4 of the refillable mugs. There are 3 different colored handles (silver, black, and blue) so they boys always knew which mug was theirs. Total at Mara $66.48. We took our time wandering throughout the resort - the Arusha Rock overlook, Arcade, Simba’s Club, lobby, etc. We were hoping to change before leaving for our ADR and fortunately at 3:00 our luggage was delivered to the room. While we were changing, we got a call from our Garden Grocer delivery guy asking for our room number. Five minutes later our food/water had arrived. At 3:30 we decided to leave so we could go to Shades of Green to get John and the boys tickets. A bus for Epcot was just pulling up as we got to the bus area so we decided to take it & then monorail to the TTC. The bus service has been John’s only anxiety about staying at AKL as we’re used to having alternative methods of transport. Hopefully this was a good sign. :fingers:
We arrived at Epcot and I had to have my bagged checked just to get thru to the monorail which I thought was quite strange. They have the bag check set up in a very awkward location. We enjoyed our first monorail ride of the trip to the TTC. During the trip, John decided that he’d just take Matt to purchase their tickets. That way, Nate & I could stay at the Poly in case they were a bit late for our ADR time. So John & Matt headed off to SOG for tickets, and Nate and I took a nice walk thru the grounds of the Poly to the Grand Ceremonial House. We shopped, played some basketball & air hockey in the arcade, and shopped some more. It was nice to see how Captain Cooks turned out as when we stayed there last year it was still in it’s temp location.
At 5:30 Nate and I checked in at the desk for our dinner reservation and by the time our buzzer went off John & Matt had arrived back with tickets in hand. We were seated & served in minutes. Nate had decided that he wanted the chicken nuggets that were offered instead of the meats so his meal came about 10 minutes later. One thing I don’t agree with is they offered the nuggets but then charged us the full price for his meal - $12.99 for some chicken tenders & fries was a bit pricey in my eyes. We pretty much agreed that the shrimp, potatoes, and steak were great while the pork was pretty dry. I still prefer the caramel pineapple instead of the bread pudding, but it was ok. We had used the Disney Dining Experience card last year & had recouped our initial cost so this years savings was a bonus. Cost for 2 adults & 2 kids - $85.16, minus the DDE discount of 20% equaled $68.13.
After dinner we decided to head back to the hotel. We took the monorail to MK and headed to the bus depot. A bus for AKL pulled up within a minute or two and we were headed back to the hotel. The average trip time from MK to AKL would be about 15 minutes all week, which really wasn’t too bad. The boys had begged to swim, so we all put our suits on and headed down to the pool. The slide had closed at 8, but we could still swim at our own risk. We swam :swim: for about an hour before heading back in and getting ready for bed.
Recap of Facts
Who:
Amanda (Me) – Looking forward to the Keys to the Kingdom Tour
John (DH) – Enjoys the Food & Wine Festival and nervous about relying only on bus transportation
Matt (DS9) – Begged us to for an ADR at Sci Fi & still trying to convince Mom to go on Tower of Terror
Nate (DS7) – Hoping for warm weather so we can go to a waterpark
When & Where:
Friday, October 19 until Monday, October 29 at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – Pool View Bunk Beds
Day 1 – Friday, October 19th :
We wanted to get the boys in bed at a decent time Thursday night because we knew wake up time would come all too soon. We had them in bed by 7:30, but at 10:00 they were still up – just laying in the dark because they couldn’t stop thinking about Disney World. :cloud9: John & I got to bed about 10:15 after spending the night packing our things. We had set the alarm for 4:30, but at 3:40 we were both up and all too anxious to leave. While adding our last minute things to one of the suitcases the zipper broke. With no replacement, we’ll have to borrow one from my parents. We woke the boys up at 4:50 and after a quick dress and loading the van we headed off to my parents house. Amazing how quickly they can move when they are not getting up for school. My parents live about 5 minutes from the airport and my dad drives us to the airport so we can leave our van at their house. We arrive at their house a few minutes ahead of schedule so I had my mom get us another suitcase to use. We arrive at the airport at 6:15 for our 7:30 flight. There was a 15 minute wait to check in and we saw lots of families with their Magical Express tags on their bags. Wisconsin schools have a 3 day break the following week so it appears many are heading to warm, sunny Florida for vacation. The security line was a 10 minute wait and pretty soon we were at our gate. We bought some water, Danish, and muffins from the Starbuck’s kiosk for breakfast.
I had been glued to the weather forecast because we had bad storms the night before and with my fear of flying I was trying to see how the flight would be.:scared: It was raining a bit at takeoff but all in all a pretty smooth flight. I usually time the flights pretty good, but when the pilot told us to look out the window so we could see the Atlantic Ocean I knew we had not taken our normal flight path. Turns out there were some severe storms along the GA/FL border so he took the “scenic route” as he called it. We only landed about 20 minutes late. We were finally in Florida ! ! ! Nate & I relished the heat as we exited the plane while John & Matt wondered if it’d be this hot the entire trip.
We headed off to the DME counter and in no time were in line for our bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. This turned into one of longest waits all week. We had to be standing in that line for 20 minutes. They finally loaded our line onto the bus and then we waited as they loaded a line for Pop Century on board. About 30 minutes after getting in line we were finally pulling out and heading towards my favorite purple arches.
The driver seemed to be taking FOREVER. We were on a training route so you could definitely tell he was trying to obey all traffic laws. We stopped at Pop first and let off almost the entire bus. Then we headed to Coronado Springs. Finally it was down to our family and another family. An hour and 40 minutes after after landing we were finally getting off the bus at Animal Kingdom Lodge. The boys & John went straight to the gift shop & to explore the lobby while I went to check in. There was no line at the time so check in went quickly. They did offer to upgrade us from our requested Pool View with Bunk Beds to a Savannah View with 2 Queens, but I declined as it was almost at the end of the Kudu Trail so I declined. The woman seemed surprised but the boys really wanted bunk beds and we thought the area we requested would work best for our family. She assigned us Room 2472 which was down the Zebra Trail. After the necessary paperwork, and submitting our almost $700 in Disney Visa Rewards credit we were following the map to our room. I was not asked to show my annual pass. At the end of our hallway we had a nice outlook over the savannah with telescopes & rocking chairs. It was nice as we did see some animals, but it looked so small. This would be entertainment for the boys while waiting for mom & dad to get ready in the morning. We entered our room and the first thing the boys said was that the room was small. Well, since we have stayed at the Poly the last 2 years it did seem small in comparison, but functional. Our view included some nice, green tropical trees that surrounded the pool. We were pleased.
Since it had been a while since the snacks on the plane, we headed down to Mara for a snack. We had a 5:30 ADR for O’hana so we didn’t want to fill up. John had a veggies & dip, I had yogurt w/granola, Matt had Fruit Loops, and Nate chose a fruit cup. We also purchased 4 of the refillable mugs. There are 3 different colored handles (silver, black, and blue) so they boys always knew which mug was theirs. Total at Mara $66.48. We took our time wandering throughout the resort - the Arusha Rock overlook, Arcade, Simba’s Club, lobby, etc. We were hoping to change before leaving for our ADR and fortunately at 3:00 our luggage was delivered to the room. While we were changing, we got a call from our Garden Grocer delivery guy asking for our room number. Five minutes later our food/water had arrived. At 3:30 we decided to leave so we could go to Shades of Green to get John and the boys tickets. A bus for Epcot was just pulling up as we got to the bus area so we decided to take it & then monorail to the TTC. The bus service has been John’s only anxiety about staying at AKL as we’re used to having alternative methods of transport. Hopefully this was a good sign. :fingers:
We arrived at Epcot and I had to have my bagged checked just to get thru to the monorail which I thought was quite strange. They have the bag check set up in a very awkward location. We enjoyed our first monorail ride of the trip to the TTC. During the trip, John decided that he’d just take Matt to purchase their tickets. That way, Nate & I could stay at the Poly in case they were a bit late for our ADR time. So John & Matt headed off to SOG for tickets, and Nate and I took a nice walk thru the grounds of the Poly to the Grand Ceremonial House. We shopped, played some basketball & air hockey in the arcade, and shopped some more. It was nice to see how Captain Cooks turned out as when we stayed there last year it was still in it’s temp location.
At 5:30 Nate and I checked in at the desk for our dinner reservation and by the time our buzzer went off John & Matt had arrived back with tickets in hand. We were seated & served in minutes. Nate had decided that he wanted the chicken nuggets that were offered instead of the meats so his meal came about 10 minutes later. One thing I don’t agree with is they offered the nuggets but then charged us the full price for his meal - $12.99 for some chicken tenders & fries was a bit pricey in my eyes. We pretty much agreed that the shrimp, potatoes, and steak were great while the pork was pretty dry. I still prefer the caramel pineapple instead of the bread pudding, but it was ok. We had used the Disney Dining Experience card last year & had recouped our initial cost so this years savings was a bonus. Cost for 2 adults & 2 kids - $85.16, minus the DDE discount of 20% equaled $68.13.
After dinner we decided to head back to the hotel. We took the monorail to MK and headed to the bus depot. A bus for AKL pulled up within a minute or two and we were headed back to the hotel. The average trip time from MK to AKL would be about 15 minutes all week, which really wasn’t too bad. The boys had begged to swim, so we all put our suits on and headed down to the pool. The slide had closed at 8, but we could still swim at our own risk. We swam :swim: for about an hour before heading back in and getting ready for bed.