Suz36
09-16-2010, 11:15 PM
Again, I apologize for the delay.
I was up early this morning, partly to take in some of the animals out our balcony, but mostly because it was my beautiful daughter's 10th birthday, and I wanted to get her some breakfast! I went up to the concierge lounge and grabbed some things to get us started, then went back to the room. DD and I hung out on the balcony for a good long while, eating our breakfast and being awed by the sights around us - giraffes, ankole cattle, and a duck that hung out with us most of our stay (the kids named him Bister - not sure where they came up with that.) Once we were all ready, we made another run to the concierge lounge, then explored the resort a bit, checking out some of the other savannahs and the gift shop. My DD was in control of this, her special day (which was tough on her control-freak mom :blush: ), and our first destination was AK. She loves animals, and the Lion King is her favorite movie, so this park is a natural fit for her. We got to the park around 10 :15, did a little shopping, then headed to the Festival of the Lion King where we met up with my parents. After a great show (we got to be in DDs favorite section - the lions!) we stopped in for lunch at Pizzafari. Hey, didn't we just eat breakfast? Yes, but my parents were heading home soon, and we had a birthday surprise to get to! After a tasty lunch and tearful goodbye to my parents, we made our way back to Africa. We had reservations for the Wildlife Discovery Excursion, and were to meet our guides at the shop. We had a little time for more shopping, then found our driver, who explained that we were waiting for two more groups then would be on our way. After waiting about 10 minutes, chatting with the animal keepers that would be our guides, it was decided that we needed to get started - looks like we would be getting a private tour!!! Happy Birthday to DD!! They took us backstage, we boarded an air-conditioned van, then drove through some of the backstage animal holding areas before emerging out on the Safari. We then proceeded to follow the regular safari, but would occassionally pull off the regular path and stop for some amazing photo ops! We felt like celebrities as the ride vehicles passed by and people pointed to us, wondering why we were where we were. It was so fantastic that we had the van to ourselves - we were running from one side to the other, snapping photos as fast as our cameras would take them! All along the way the animal keepers were telling us all kinds of interesting facts, and they had different objects - antlers, eggs, elephant hair - that the kids got to handle and explore. The whole tour was amazing, but by far the highlight had to be by the lions. We had shared with the CMs that DDs favorite animal was the lion, so as we approached that area, one of the CMs (who actually works with the big cats) called to the keepers on the safari and had them feed the lions as we were driving by! Both the female and male lion were out, and the female was up, interested in getting a snack rather than snoozing like we usually see them. It was truly a magical moment for my daughter, one I'm sure she will never forget. The tour proved to be a wonderful birthday present for DD. At the end, the CMs gave us the whole stack of FPs for the safari that would normally have been distributed among a much larger group than our 4, so we hopped right back on for another round, then one more. It was neat to look off the path and say, "we were over there!" Once we'd had our fill of the safari, we explored the Tree of Life a bit, then started making our way out of the park. We ducked into one of our favorite animal exhibits, the otters, and sure enough, they were out to wish DD a Happy Birthday! We made our way to the bus stop and hopped aboard our ride to the Magic Kingdom, where DD had requested dinner at Tony's and an evening full of Wishes! We went directly to check in, and were seated almost immediately. They had the table decorated with Mickey confetti - very festive! We had a delicious dinner, spotted some hidden Mickey's in the restaurant, and DD got a special birthday sundae for dessert. I honestly can't remember what we did immediately after dinner, but we did end up in Liberty Square for SpectroMagic, then made our way to Main Street for Wishes! Before the trip, I'd talked with DD about how she wanted to spend her birthday "moment," her actually time of birth (11:13 PM), and wasn't this Disney mom proud when she said she wanted to be sitting in front of Cinderella Castle at that moment! So that it could be a little more private family time, we decided to spend it at the Wishing Well, and that is where my little girl officially turned 10! It was a very sweet moment, she even got a little emotion right before The moment, saying she didn't want to grow up - so Peter Pan of her! It really was very special, a memory I will always cherish. We celebrated for a bit, then made our way "home" to AKL where a birthday cake towel creation from mousekeeping was waiting for DD.
Sorry if I got a little long-winded with this one, but it was a really special day, and I wanted to make sure to share all the details. Thanks for reading!
I was up early this morning, partly to take in some of the animals out our balcony, but mostly because it was my beautiful daughter's 10th birthday, and I wanted to get her some breakfast! I went up to the concierge lounge and grabbed some things to get us started, then went back to the room. DD and I hung out on the balcony for a good long while, eating our breakfast and being awed by the sights around us - giraffes, ankole cattle, and a duck that hung out with us most of our stay (the kids named him Bister - not sure where they came up with that.) Once we were all ready, we made another run to the concierge lounge, then explored the resort a bit, checking out some of the other savannahs and the gift shop. My DD was in control of this, her special day (which was tough on her control-freak mom :blush: ), and our first destination was AK. She loves animals, and the Lion King is her favorite movie, so this park is a natural fit for her. We got to the park around 10 :15, did a little shopping, then headed to the Festival of the Lion King where we met up with my parents. After a great show (we got to be in DDs favorite section - the lions!) we stopped in for lunch at Pizzafari. Hey, didn't we just eat breakfast? Yes, but my parents were heading home soon, and we had a birthday surprise to get to! After a tasty lunch and tearful goodbye to my parents, we made our way back to Africa. We had reservations for the Wildlife Discovery Excursion, and were to meet our guides at the shop. We had a little time for more shopping, then found our driver, who explained that we were waiting for two more groups then would be on our way. After waiting about 10 minutes, chatting with the animal keepers that would be our guides, it was decided that we needed to get started - looks like we would be getting a private tour!!! Happy Birthday to DD!! They took us backstage, we boarded an air-conditioned van, then drove through some of the backstage animal holding areas before emerging out on the Safari. We then proceeded to follow the regular safari, but would occassionally pull off the regular path and stop for some amazing photo ops! We felt like celebrities as the ride vehicles passed by and people pointed to us, wondering why we were where we were. It was so fantastic that we had the van to ourselves - we were running from one side to the other, snapping photos as fast as our cameras would take them! All along the way the animal keepers were telling us all kinds of interesting facts, and they had different objects - antlers, eggs, elephant hair - that the kids got to handle and explore. The whole tour was amazing, but by far the highlight had to be by the lions. We had shared with the CMs that DDs favorite animal was the lion, so as we approached that area, one of the CMs (who actually works with the big cats) called to the keepers on the safari and had them feed the lions as we were driving by! Both the female and male lion were out, and the female was up, interested in getting a snack rather than snoozing like we usually see them. It was truly a magical moment for my daughter, one I'm sure she will never forget. The tour proved to be a wonderful birthday present for DD. At the end, the CMs gave us the whole stack of FPs for the safari that would normally have been distributed among a much larger group than our 4, so we hopped right back on for another round, then one more. It was neat to look off the path and say, "we were over there!" Once we'd had our fill of the safari, we explored the Tree of Life a bit, then started making our way out of the park. We ducked into one of our favorite animal exhibits, the otters, and sure enough, they were out to wish DD a Happy Birthday! We made our way to the bus stop and hopped aboard our ride to the Magic Kingdom, where DD had requested dinner at Tony's and an evening full of Wishes! We went directly to check in, and were seated almost immediately. They had the table decorated with Mickey confetti - very festive! We had a delicious dinner, spotted some hidden Mickey's in the restaurant, and DD got a special birthday sundae for dessert. I honestly can't remember what we did immediately after dinner, but we did end up in Liberty Square for SpectroMagic, then made our way to Main Street for Wishes! Before the trip, I'd talked with DD about how she wanted to spend her birthday "moment," her actually time of birth (11:13 PM), and wasn't this Disney mom proud when she said she wanted to be sitting in front of Cinderella Castle at that moment! So that it could be a little more private family time, we decided to spend it at the Wishing Well, and that is where my little girl officially turned 10! It was a very sweet moment, she even got a little emotion right before The moment, saying she didn't want to grow up - so Peter Pan of her! It really was very special, a memory I will always cherish. We celebrated for a bit, then made our way "home" to AKL where a birthday cake towel creation from mousekeeping was waiting for DD.
Sorry if I got a little long-winded with this one, but it was a really special day, and I wanted to make sure to share all the details. Thanks for reading!