TikiGoddess
08-02-2012, 07:49 PM
Read Part 1: Click here (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=193492)
Sunday, July 22:
We woke around 7am, and immediately headed out to the balcony. This would be a ritual every time we were in the room. I think it’s the best thing about staying at AKL. There were almost always some animals moving around to watch.
We had a slow morning with breakfast in the lounge, some pin trading, and hidden Mickey hunting. We got the hidden Mickey list from the front desk, and boy let me tell you, they're hard! We found quite a few but needed hints from CMs. Our favorite one was the one by the flamingo pool. It was a neat way to explore places in the resort that we normally wouldn't have seen. We also explored the resort shop, which has some great African-themed art.
By this time Katie was very grumpy, due to the long day yesterday. I love her dearly, but she’s a bear when she’s tired. So we went to the pool, and thankfully that kept her happy for the rest of the morning. The kids enjoyed the slide and took turns going all the way around the edge of the pool with me. We had lunch at the tables outside of The Mara (sandwich, chips, nuggets, grilled cheese, yogurt parfait – much cheaper than the pool bar!). After lunch we had nap/media time. By dinnertime everyone was feeling revived, so we headed to the Polynesian for dinner at Kona. Tim and I are big sushi fans, and we have to rate Kona somewhere in the middle – not fantastic, but good. The Godiva martini (with the striped chocolate straw) was awesome, as was Tim’s Mai Tai. We bought Katie a pin lanyard, as she was very interested in trading this trip and did not have one. We also found some pressed pennies to add to our collection. We took the Monorail over to the Contemporary, where the girls spent a bunch of time playing in the Arcade. They pooled their tickets and got some cute toys. More monorail riding brought us back to the Poly where we picked up our car and headed to bed (after getting dessert and cordials in the lounge, of course!).
Monday, July 23:
Up and at ‘em! Park day! We got up at 6:30 and had breakfast in the lounge. Tim and the girls actually went before me, and when I left the room I had no key, thus no way to get up to the lounge on the 6th floor (oops). After waiting about 10 minutes for someone to find me and let me up, I ended up having to go to the lobby and have bell services use their key in the elevator. Despite my idiocy, we were on the bus to Epcot around 8:20 (with little wait). Security and the ticket booths were slow, but we were in the park around 9:05. Tim went to get FP for Soarin’ while we got in line for the Character Spot. There was about a 10 minute wait, so Tim actually joined us for the pictures. We had a great time meeting the characters and got some awesome family pictures! Next was Sum of All Thrills -- 5 min wait. The girls had a blast designing their own coasters. When we left the ride the wait was posted as 40 min. Next was Mission:Space (Green) which was a walk on. Katie loves it when Daddy pretends to not know what button to post. He hams it up for her. After some iced tea and a pretzel, we went over to the Land for our Soarin’ ride. Now here I must pause and explain.
At the beginning of the trip, when we checked in, we received some papers that said “From the desk of Mickey Mouse”, had our names on them, our interests, and a personal note from Mickey Mouse. (Okay, I might have had a hand in making these…) At the bottom of the paper there was a box with “Cast Member notes” – for example, my husband’s said “add extra drop sequence to Tower of Terror”, Julie’s said, “tell Tink to spread pixie dust in the hotel room every night”, and mine said, “tell Soarin’ cast members to set up surprise” (with surprise crossed out). The girls were intrigued with the idea that Mickey was spreading extra magic for the whole family. And as the trip went by, many of the notes came true – we had gummy bears in the lounge, Tink hid little surprises in the room each night, and there were lots of animals outside our window (some of the other notes found on the papers). So when we went to ride Soarin’, the girls were waiting to see what would happen. My original idea was to catch the golf ball during the movie, but I forgot to get a golf ball! Then as we were waiting in line, I had an idea. As we took off our shoes before the ride, I slipped a Disney gift card that I had into my shoes, so when we came down I found it. The girls were mystified and totally excited that Mom had received magic from Mickey Mouse!
We were so excited about Mickey’s surprise that we forgot Katie’s backpack with her two favorite dolls on the ride. So we had to wait at the front desk near the entrance of the ride while they located the dolls. As we were waiting, I was listening to the CM behind the desk answer questions. Almost all of them were “where are the fastpass machines?” and “how long of a wait is there?” The poor CM… that must be a tough job.
The baby dolls were safely returned to us, so we went over to Nemo and friends (a 5 min moving line) and made Julie’s day by visiting the cuttlefish in the aquarium. For some reason, she is fascinated by this creature. It was getting to lunch time, so we opted to walk to America for lunch. As we passed Japan, it started to rain. We made a run for it and had a decent lunch (chicken wrap, nuggets, mac and cheese) without getting too wet. Unfortunately that was not the last rain we saw. It was starting to rain more steadily as we headed over to Germany on our Agent P mission. The singing steins were very cool and thankfully a lot of the mission was indoors. (The only thing I don’t like about Agent P is that you can’t hear the instructions unless you’re very close to the phone!) Once we rescued the world from Doofenschmirz, we did some shopping. Katie got a Rapunzel set in Der Teddybar with the rest of her souvenir allowance. Then we started toward France, aiming for the pastry shop. Oh, dear, it was really raining now. And had we brought the two umbrellas that we had bought in Tampa?? Or the ponchos I had packed?? Of course not!
We made a stop at Japan, hoping the rain would let up. Pokemon cards were bought, along with some yummy Japanese snacks (LOVE Poky). Still raining. Over to France for pastries (in the rain) -- eclairs, apple turnover, and a cream puff. We were lucky to share an inside table with a mom and her two kids. More rain -- finally my husband’s good sense kicked in and he went into the perfume shop and bought ponchos. Best purchase we made all trip. It felt so good to be dry as we walked through Britain, Canada, rode Figment (again), and visited the Pin trading station. With such a steady rain for most of the afternoon, Epcot was quite empty.
We went back to the hotel after that, for snacks, relaxing time, and dinner in the lounge (amazing hummus, carrots, falafel, and a great spread for the kids – ham and cheese rollups, ranch dip, gummy bears). Oh yes, and wine for the adults. The weather report did not look too good – they were predicting strong thunderstorms in the area. But the girls and I decided to try Animal Kingdom. It was closing at 8pm and hey, we had our ponchos (and now umbrellas). We could do anything!
So my husband stayed at the hotel to rest his back (well, that’s what we told the kids – he actually went back to Epcot to buy some extra Pokemon plush to give the girls at Christmas time). We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom around 6pm. Short ride over – droves of people leaving the park. We checked the times guide and found that the last show of Lion King was at 6:30pm. The girls had never seen it, and I hadn’t seen it since my honeymoon in 2000. We found a seat in the lion section with no problem – plenty of empty seats. It was a great show – until after the tumble monkeys. All of a sudden, the lights came on, the performers started leaving the tent, and a voice said, “this performance of the Lion King will not continue.” The whole audience sat there in stunned silence for about 10-15 seconds, until the CMs started telling us where the exits were. I ask a CM what was going on but I didn’t get any information. Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Julie was so shocked that she started to cry as we walked back to Discovery Island. I didn’t blame her – it was quite a shock to be enjoying the show one minute and being interrupted the next. But, we recovered. It’s Tough To Be A Bug was next – geez, I didn’t remember the part when Hopper attacks you being so intense! I thought the kids would be scared but it turns out I was the only one. Oops. From bugs to bats – Julie wanted to see the bats on the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we found them and were rewarded with a private viewing and our own CM explaining things about the bats. We even saw where they spend the night. What a nice treat!
Another nice treat – Everest. We joined the quickly circulating line and had no wait. There were many people in line with us who were getting off and immediately getting back on. Once was enough for us though, as it was raining and not the most comfortable of rides. The girls wanted to try Primeval Whirl so we rode it. I have to admit, the first time with them was a blast. I think it was one of their favorite rides of the trip. We went on it again (there was no one in line) just for kicks.
The park was closing at this point, so we made our way slowly through the deserted park and perused the shops. I bought 4 packs of the Collector Packs minifigures with my Disney Gift Card (thanks Mickey!). We had a 10 minute wait for the bus but we were all in good spirits after an unexpectedly good time at a rainy Animal Kingdom.
Up Next: Breakfast with Pooh Bear!
Want to read more? Part 3 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=193494)
Sunday, July 22:
We woke around 7am, and immediately headed out to the balcony. This would be a ritual every time we were in the room. I think it’s the best thing about staying at AKL. There were almost always some animals moving around to watch.
We had a slow morning with breakfast in the lounge, some pin trading, and hidden Mickey hunting. We got the hidden Mickey list from the front desk, and boy let me tell you, they're hard! We found quite a few but needed hints from CMs. Our favorite one was the one by the flamingo pool. It was a neat way to explore places in the resort that we normally wouldn't have seen. We also explored the resort shop, which has some great African-themed art.
By this time Katie was very grumpy, due to the long day yesterday. I love her dearly, but she’s a bear when she’s tired. So we went to the pool, and thankfully that kept her happy for the rest of the morning. The kids enjoyed the slide and took turns going all the way around the edge of the pool with me. We had lunch at the tables outside of The Mara (sandwich, chips, nuggets, grilled cheese, yogurt parfait – much cheaper than the pool bar!). After lunch we had nap/media time. By dinnertime everyone was feeling revived, so we headed to the Polynesian for dinner at Kona. Tim and I are big sushi fans, and we have to rate Kona somewhere in the middle – not fantastic, but good. The Godiva martini (with the striped chocolate straw) was awesome, as was Tim’s Mai Tai. We bought Katie a pin lanyard, as she was very interested in trading this trip and did not have one. We also found some pressed pennies to add to our collection. We took the Monorail over to the Contemporary, where the girls spent a bunch of time playing in the Arcade. They pooled their tickets and got some cute toys. More monorail riding brought us back to the Poly where we picked up our car and headed to bed (after getting dessert and cordials in the lounge, of course!).
Monday, July 23:
Up and at ‘em! Park day! We got up at 6:30 and had breakfast in the lounge. Tim and the girls actually went before me, and when I left the room I had no key, thus no way to get up to the lounge on the 6th floor (oops). After waiting about 10 minutes for someone to find me and let me up, I ended up having to go to the lobby and have bell services use their key in the elevator. Despite my idiocy, we were on the bus to Epcot around 8:20 (with little wait). Security and the ticket booths were slow, but we were in the park around 9:05. Tim went to get FP for Soarin’ while we got in line for the Character Spot. There was about a 10 minute wait, so Tim actually joined us for the pictures. We had a great time meeting the characters and got some awesome family pictures! Next was Sum of All Thrills -- 5 min wait. The girls had a blast designing their own coasters. When we left the ride the wait was posted as 40 min. Next was Mission:Space (Green) which was a walk on. Katie loves it when Daddy pretends to not know what button to post. He hams it up for her. After some iced tea and a pretzel, we went over to the Land for our Soarin’ ride. Now here I must pause and explain.
At the beginning of the trip, when we checked in, we received some papers that said “From the desk of Mickey Mouse”, had our names on them, our interests, and a personal note from Mickey Mouse. (Okay, I might have had a hand in making these…) At the bottom of the paper there was a box with “Cast Member notes” – for example, my husband’s said “add extra drop sequence to Tower of Terror”, Julie’s said, “tell Tink to spread pixie dust in the hotel room every night”, and mine said, “tell Soarin’ cast members to set up surprise” (with surprise crossed out). The girls were intrigued with the idea that Mickey was spreading extra magic for the whole family. And as the trip went by, many of the notes came true – we had gummy bears in the lounge, Tink hid little surprises in the room each night, and there were lots of animals outside our window (some of the other notes found on the papers). So when we went to ride Soarin’, the girls were waiting to see what would happen. My original idea was to catch the golf ball during the movie, but I forgot to get a golf ball! Then as we were waiting in line, I had an idea. As we took off our shoes before the ride, I slipped a Disney gift card that I had into my shoes, so when we came down I found it. The girls were mystified and totally excited that Mom had received magic from Mickey Mouse!
We were so excited about Mickey’s surprise that we forgot Katie’s backpack with her two favorite dolls on the ride. So we had to wait at the front desk near the entrance of the ride while they located the dolls. As we were waiting, I was listening to the CM behind the desk answer questions. Almost all of them were “where are the fastpass machines?” and “how long of a wait is there?” The poor CM… that must be a tough job.
The baby dolls were safely returned to us, so we went over to Nemo and friends (a 5 min moving line) and made Julie’s day by visiting the cuttlefish in the aquarium. For some reason, she is fascinated by this creature. It was getting to lunch time, so we opted to walk to America for lunch. As we passed Japan, it started to rain. We made a run for it and had a decent lunch (chicken wrap, nuggets, mac and cheese) without getting too wet. Unfortunately that was not the last rain we saw. It was starting to rain more steadily as we headed over to Germany on our Agent P mission. The singing steins were very cool and thankfully a lot of the mission was indoors. (The only thing I don’t like about Agent P is that you can’t hear the instructions unless you’re very close to the phone!) Once we rescued the world from Doofenschmirz, we did some shopping. Katie got a Rapunzel set in Der Teddybar with the rest of her souvenir allowance. Then we started toward France, aiming for the pastry shop. Oh, dear, it was really raining now. And had we brought the two umbrellas that we had bought in Tampa?? Or the ponchos I had packed?? Of course not!
We made a stop at Japan, hoping the rain would let up. Pokemon cards were bought, along with some yummy Japanese snacks (LOVE Poky). Still raining. Over to France for pastries (in the rain) -- eclairs, apple turnover, and a cream puff. We were lucky to share an inside table with a mom and her two kids. More rain -- finally my husband’s good sense kicked in and he went into the perfume shop and bought ponchos. Best purchase we made all trip. It felt so good to be dry as we walked through Britain, Canada, rode Figment (again), and visited the Pin trading station. With such a steady rain for most of the afternoon, Epcot was quite empty.
We went back to the hotel after that, for snacks, relaxing time, and dinner in the lounge (amazing hummus, carrots, falafel, and a great spread for the kids – ham and cheese rollups, ranch dip, gummy bears). Oh yes, and wine for the adults. The weather report did not look too good – they were predicting strong thunderstorms in the area. But the girls and I decided to try Animal Kingdom. It was closing at 8pm and hey, we had our ponchos (and now umbrellas). We could do anything!
So my husband stayed at the hotel to rest his back (well, that’s what we told the kids – he actually went back to Epcot to buy some extra Pokemon plush to give the girls at Christmas time). We caught the bus to Animal Kingdom around 6pm. Short ride over – droves of people leaving the park. We checked the times guide and found that the last show of Lion King was at 6:30pm. The girls had never seen it, and I hadn’t seen it since my honeymoon in 2000. We found a seat in the lion section with no problem – plenty of empty seats. It was a great show – until after the tumble monkeys. All of a sudden, the lights came on, the performers started leaving the tent, and a voice said, “this performance of the Lion King will not continue.” The whole audience sat there in stunned silence for about 10-15 seconds, until the CMs started telling us where the exits were. I ask a CM what was going on but I didn’t get any information. Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Julie was so shocked that she started to cry as we walked back to Discovery Island. I didn’t blame her – it was quite a shock to be enjoying the show one minute and being interrupted the next. But, we recovered. It’s Tough To Be A Bug was next – geez, I didn’t remember the part when Hopper attacks you being so intense! I thought the kids would be scared but it turns out I was the only one. Oops. From bugs to bats – Julie wanted to see the bats on the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we found them and were rewarded with a private viewing and our own CM explaining things about the bats. We even saw where they spend the night. What a nice treat!
Another nice treat – Everest. We joined the quickly circulating line and had no wait. There were many people in line with us who were getting off and immediately getting back on. Once was enough for us though, as it was raining and not the most comfortable of rides. The girls wanted to try Primeval Whirl so we rode it. I have to admit, the first time with them was a blast. I think it was one of their favorite rides of the trip. We went on it again (there was no one in line) just for kicks.
The park was closing at this point, so we made our way slowly through the deserted park and perused the shops. I bought 4 packs of the Collector Packs minifigures with my Disney Gift Card (thanks Mickey!). We had a 10 minute wait for the bus but we were all in good spirits after an unexpectedly good time at a rainy Animal Kingdom.
Up Next: Breakfast with Pooh Bear!
Want to read more? Part 3 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=193494)