SuzyQ
10-02-2003, 12:19 PM
Day Five
Wednesday, September 3
Mickey called to wake us up at 6:45am so that we could get ourselves together and at Epcot for early entry (i.e., Extra Magic Hour) at 8am. I made some coffee in the room (requested a coffee pot from housekeeping upon check-in and brought my own filter packs – DH and I just cannot drink Nescafe – ugh!) :? and then we were off!
We got to Epcot just after opening and headed over to check out Mission Space. Wow! :notworthy: Those Imagineers are amazing!!! It is really quite an impressive sight! It was neat to go in and check out all the space stuff. Since there were hardly any people in there yet, we didn’t get much chance to really take in all there was to see, but figured that we would be back. Now let me start by saying that we were really excited about trying this, but as we saw that it would spin in order to make you feel like you were taking off, it made us a bit nervous (spinney rides just don’t mesh well with our heads and tummies). Anyway, DH was commander and I was mechanic/tech or something. We took deep breaths and stared at the screen the whole time and, for me, the ride really was pretty fun. DH was fine as well, though felt a bit off after getting out into the warm air. Overall, it is a very cool experience and definitely one that we will do again, but we wouldn’t ride this one over and over in a day. Once every few days would probably be plenty. :oops:
We played the team games after we got off in the mission control room. They were actually a lot of fun and a great way to get your head back on after the thrilling ride. We then headed over to Test Track where there was only a five-minute wait or so. We really enjoy TT, but it is much better at night.
We headed over to the other end of Future World and did Journey with Figment and then into the Kodak area where you can play with all kinds of fun digital stuff. We love orchestrating our own music and playing with the different emails. This was the first time that I have been here where I didn’t have to wait to get onto a computer for the emails. Terrific!!
Note: For those who have not been to this area of Epcot, we love coming here because we can formulate fun emails with different types of backgrounds to send to our family and friend for FREE!
It was getting close to noon and we had a lunch date with one of our friends from the boards. We had lunch in Mexico at the San Angel Inn (this time without any raucous in the courtyard). Lunch was really yummy. DH and I split an enchilada plate and then we all shared the flan and a chocolate dessert. It was pretty tasty and the abience is quite romantic, but for the money, I think that we prefer just eating at the Cantina outside (the price there is just right for a budgeteer)!
DH still wanted to get his haircut at MK, so we headed there after bidding our friend “adios”. Off to MK via the monorail. One of these days we will ask to ride up front, but whenever I see children, I opt not to ask as I wouldn’t want to take the privilege from a youngster (though I do know that DH would find this to be fun, fun, fun). While DH got his haircut, I boogied over to Adventure Land to grab a pineapple float to take back. Those are just so refreshing on a hot and sticky day. Speaking of which, the weather was very clear and hot this afternoon. No storms, no rain (which was quite surprising for this time of year).
We bee-lined straight over to the barber so as not to miss them again. DH only had about a 5-minute wait so I headed out to stroll through some shops and stay cool in the air conditioning. I also walked over to Adventure Land to grab a Dole Whip Float to bring back to DH (aren’t I a great wife?). I got there just as he was finishing up and boy did he look handsome! They do a great ob there and it is fast becoming a WDW tradition. We headed over to TL to take in a few more rides on Buzz and SM. Again, no people! It was great!!
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to take in some relaxation and pool time. :sun: 8) It was so nice, though there was a threat of a storm most of the time. By the time we saw some lightening pulling in closer to the resort, we headed back in.
We went to DtD so that we could grab a sundae from Ghirardeli’s - can we just say that their hot fudge sundaes are fabulous!? :eat: They run about $6.50, but are worth every penny! We ran into a couple of women who were visiting from New Jersey and enjoying their sundaes as well. We had a great time chatting it up with them about visiting at Disney World. They cam because of the great deal of the Fairy Tale plan. We shared stories of our trips to WDW and exchanged touring tips. That is one of the things that I love about WDW – striking up conversations with people around you who have a common love of Disney! It is so fun to get to know people from all over the country and the world.
Afterwards, we strolled through to Disney’s West Side. We have never ventured over to that side of DtD before and, though we found it fairly interesting, we enjoy the Marketplace area more. The shops on the West Side are less Disney and more main-stream with Virgin Music and various specialty shops such as for magnets and glasswares. We walked by DisneyQuest and it just looked like fun! We will have to look into taking it in on our next trip.
Finally, it was back to our “home” at AKL. We didn’t have to wait too long for a bus, which was great as my feet were tired.
Note: At the Marketplace bus depots, there are plenty of spots to sit and wait for the busses; however at the West Side, only every other bus stop has one bench under cover and the other stops have no cover or benches. We were surprised by this since when it isn’t super sunny, it is usually a bit rainy. Plus, it is hard to sit in one of the benches and still be able to see if your bus is coming. Thought that this might be good information in case you are traveling with tired kids, elderly, or just plain soar feet! ;)
Back at the hotel and off to bed!
Day Six
Thursday, September 4
Early opening for MK here we come! Woke up nice and early (though a bit early for DH) :sleep: , so I made some coffee and went downstairs to grab a pastry from the Mara. They have great cream cheese danishes!
Off we went to MK and got there about 10 minutes before opening. We were able to catch the Mayor of Main Street’s opening celebration and then headed down Main Street to Cindy’s castle for rope drop. We were the first one’s on Peter Pan’s flight and then one of the first ones on Snow White Scary Adventures. Though, the first time around it wasn’t so scary because someone forgot to turn off the lights on the inside so you got to see all the pictures and backstage stuff without the black light effect. They let us just stay on for a second go around – this time dark and spooky, just the way we like it!
We played in Fantasy Land for while a while and then headed over to Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents. We tried looking, again, for the infamous “ring” at HM to no avail. I will have to do some more research on that one. ;) We also headed over to Splash and had a blast! It felt like there was more water in it than usual because every little slide got us wet! We rode that one twice in a row – no waits. Now, off to PotC – love this ride and this time we spent a few minutes on the walkway (our choice) to take in the atmosphere and the theming. Disney does such a great job on theming and we love that this is one of the “classics”. Unfortunately, we missed the singing pirates outside of the attraction, but got to see Captain Hook and Smee as they harassed some kids (in a fun Disney sort of way, of course).
The weather was really sunny most of the time, though once in a while, we would get on a ride while it was sunny and come out and everything was wet. Flash showers seemed to be pretty common these last couple of days. Luckily, we rarely got caught in them!
After goofing around a bit more we headed back to the hotel so that we could grab dinner at Boma when they opened. Now, we have really been looking forward to dinner here because the amazing aromas waft (that is a word, right?) throughout the lobby. We are also pretty eclectic eaters, so this was going to be our “fun” dinner.
The atmosphere was fun and we were sat close to the buffet, which was convenient. The food, though, was a bit disappointing. They have a selection of about 5 soups, which rotate a bit each day. We tried a carrot soup, a chowder and a seafood bisque. The bisque was very good filled with mussels, shrimp and scallops. The others, though interesting in flavor were passable. Then onto the main course: they were serving roasted chicken, peppered flank steak and roast beef. The roast beef was good, but both the flank steak and the chicken were dry, dry, dry. They tasted as if they had been under the lamps for a few hours (but we were in the first seating). The side dishes (mashed potatos, various veggies – both grilled and in a casserole) were good. The saving element for us were the desserts (of course). The zebra domes were good, but we really liked the fruits and the cheesecake with white chocolate crust and also the bread pudding with vanilla sauce – yum! Overall, we left full (not overly full, which was good) and we enjoyed the desserts, but we really felt it was not worth the $60 bill (without alcohol). We were glad we tried it and will come for breakfast sometime, but would definitely recommend ‘Ohanas over Boma anyday.
After dinner, we headed over to Epcot to enjoy some more of the WS. We strolled through the various countries and went to see the American Adventure. I was so tired the last time we saw it (back in May 2002) that I slept through most of it, so I was really happy to be able to actually see it this time. It was awesome and very moving! By the time we were heading out of the American pavilion, Illuminations was just beginning. We decided to watch it while we walked towards the front of the park (since we were planning on seeing it again this trip, we wanted to try to catch the first bus back to the lodge). We just got past the Mexico pavilion as the fireworks towards the end started to fly. We just had to stay and watch as they are so magnificent! Finally as the finale was just about to end, we high-tailed it out to the busses.
Now for some good news/bad news: Good News – we made it onto the first bus that pulled up and got a seat in the back! :theWave:
Bad News – the bus did not have air conditioning! :devil: Yikes! We sat in the back with a very friendly family with their baby and toddler. It was SO HOT! The air just wasn’t circulating and we were just fanning ourselves with whatever we could get our hands on – mostly park maps. We had another great conversation with this family, which made the ride easier to handle, but I was a bit surprised that they sent a bus out without the a/c. Oh well, at least we got home in a good amount of time and met some more neat people. Now back at the lodge, we made some Baileys and creams in our room and just sat back and relaxed. Ahhhhh, I love vacations!
Day Seven
Friday, September 5
It was EMH for AK, so we got up around 7 and made some coffee in the room and decided that we would share a danish from the Mara and head on out (BTW they have very fresh and tasty baked goods there. We are cream cheese danish lovers and theirs was very good – not too bready). We got there about 15 minutes before official opening so we decided to check out the Rainforest Café shop. The weather was sunny and warm and the a/c felt great even in the morning hours. They definitely have some good buys there. We found RFC watersocks for only $7 (that is a great price since they are $14 for WDW ones). They seemed like they were on clearance, though, so they may or may not be there all the time.
We also figured that we would wait inside there and go through the Rainforest turnstile at opening. Always a good idea as there is usually no one there and when the parks open, you get to enter without waiting in the big lines at the main gate. My husband thought I was a genius and I just said that I learned it from Tagrel! :mickey:
Since we had already done most of the attractions, I won’t bore you with all the details. We just meandered around some more taking in all the beautiful scenery. We really love coming to AK and just walking around and taking everything in! The weather was perfect – blue skies and not too hot, yet. We strolled through various shops. We also took the train over to the Conservation Station. This is such a great place to learn about the various animals and habitats around the world. If we had kids, we would definitely spend a lot of time here. So much to learn! (Not to mention, if we had a boy, I’m sure that they would like the snakes and spiders that are kept there. Often times you can catch a CM showing one off to the kids – yuck!). We saw the talking trash can there last time, but it didn’t make an appearance this time. We decided not to go through the petting zoo because we would head over to Flame Tree for lunch when we got back. I did, though, pick up a great deal – a tank top with my favorite saying on it . . . . it’s the one with Pooh looking at a big tiger with a magnifying glass saying “Tigger, is that you?” It was on sale for only $6.99 – yippee! Another bargooon! So I did a little happy dance back to the train and we rode back over to the Harambe station. Another great thing about this little train ride is that you get to see some of the backstage areas where the animals are kept at night. One day, we will have to take one of those backstage tours.
We walked around Asia a bit before heading over for lunch. Once thing that we kept saying we were going to do was Flights of Wonder, but we just never made it to that area at the right time so we will need to save it for another trip (always something to look forward to!). We got a BBQ chicken platter at Flame Tree. Those are great little meals. They run about $8 or so and come with corn and beans. It was enough for us to share and still leave room for a little treat (mmmmh, perhaps a frozen lemonade!).
Finally, it was about 1 PM so we went back to the hotel for a little mid-afternoon rest. We put on our suits and headed to the pool. AKL has such a beautiful and lush pool area! Since we were there after Labor Day, there were hardly any people around. It almost seemed like we were in our own exclusive resort! We walked around the grounds a bit as well and ran into another CM from South Africa. He was from a village not far from the other CM we met. He also told us of some amazing places to see from his home and all about Africa. He was really excited and informative – so much so that DH and I wanted to go to South Africa after we spoke to him!
For our last half of the day, we went over to Epcot for our usual evening walk through World Showcase and also to do test track at night. TT was pretty much a walk on, but they were having some difficulties with one of the cars when we got to the loading area, so we needed to wait a few minutes before “testing out our vehicle”.
Again, the weather pretty much stayed dry. There was one little shower in the middle of the evening, but nothing too wet. Easily accommodated by walking into a pavilion for a little while. The world showcase is so beautiful at night and I highly recommend that if you are looking for a romantic idea, stay at Epcot after Illuminations. Find a nice bench and sit and people watch as the crowds head out of the parks. The resort busses usually pick up until about 2 hours after closing to facilitate shopping and whatnot. This makes for a great opportunity to have a nice leisurely stroll around the magical WS at night while all the lights of one and the park gets quieter and quieter.
We grabbed a bus back to the resort and hit the pillows so that we could be up and rarin’ to go for our last full day in the World. :(
Day Eight
Saturday, September 6
Three Parks – one day!
Though this was the extra magic hour for MGM, we decided to head over for the opening of AK at 9. Once in, we took the best Kila. safari ride ever! The most animals we had ever seen were out and about and frolicking around. Two rhinos were even right in the road so we got some great close-up pictures of them! We left to grab some breakfast at Tusker House and noticed that just outside of the safari entrance, they had some chairs set up and a sign that noted that there would be African culture classes one the hour. That sounded interesting to us, so we got our usual (shared an egg platter) and headed over for the first class. We were the only ones there for quite a while. There was this really nice CM from South Africa who spent quite a lot of time talking with us about his native land and the big differences between where he is from and the U.S. After speaking with him, you really need to appreciate how easy it is for us to just go to the grocery store when we want fruit or that we have fresh water out of the tap (even in Florida!). As we were there, more people showed up and we headed out.
We just wanted to walk around and take in the beautiful decorum of AK. We walked around the Tree of Life and took in the little trails that really show off the amazing detail of this tree. Aren’t Imagineers creative?! We had a lot of fun just looking and pointing out all the different animals. We decided to head out to Epcot center to take in some more of Future World. I love how Disney has busses that go to the other parks as well as the hotels. As this was our last full day (our last day in the parks), we wanted to spend the whole day doing all of our favorites! :D
We got to Epcot around 11 or so and waited just a few minutes in the security line. We headed over to the living seas (DHs favorite) and explored for quite a while checking out the manatees, dolphins, sharks, and multiple other exhibits. We were lucky enough to catch the dolphin show as well. This is great fun – especially for kids. They have two dolphin trainers come out to the main aquarium area and the dolphins follow them from inside performing tricks and “conversing” with the audience. I had wished that I brought my camera as there were a ton of great photo ops.
Next it was off to the land for a snack. We had seen the attractions in here the last trip, so we passed on them this one. Need to save something to look forward to for the next trip!
We played around in FW for a while and saw Kristos (acrobatic/flexibility show) which we thought was amazing since they perform in the scorching sun! We also walked up through Canada and UK. The British Invasion was playing so we watched them for a while – love them – and then headed over to the gateway to grab a boat to MGM. It was a nice boat ride and a very relaxing point in our day. Once we got to MGM, we headed over to RnR and ack!! I forgot that it was closing today (bummer). Oh well, off to another “stay” at the Hollywood Tower of Terror. It is so much fun in the day, but we find it best at night! (Plus it is cooler at night, so if you tend to get a bit queasy, it is a bit easier when you can feel the cool air.)
We went to WWTBAM and tried to get into the top ten, but alas, not this trip. I have so much fun at this game! We also went to see The Little Mermaid show – which was cute and the GMR. There were so few people at the GMR that they were only using half the regular carts to move people through. Odd though, because once we were sat in our cart we had to wait for almost ten minutes! (Weird though I was thinking that perhaps we may have been waiting for someone to get back from their lunch break) :o)
Since we couldn’t think of anyplace that we would have like to eat for a late lunch, we decided to walk over to the Boardwalk and grab lunch and the Big River Brewery. They have the best burgers there! DH tried a beer sampler and burger and I had a side salad and ice tea. The prices are good there and the food is great. We had a very satisfying lunch for about $20.
Afterwards, we grabbed another boat to take us back to Epcot. We wanted to take our time through Italy and China as we haven’t spent much time there yet. We got to Italy just as the Masquerade was beginning. It is a fun “show” to watch and also a bit on the eerie side! We just people-watched as they were getting pictures with the harlequins, and then we stayed to watch their little routine with Italian opera. We waved good-bye and then headed over towards China to see the new film (new since we last saw it in 2002). We love going through the China pavilion because there is just so much to look at – all the detail is amazing!
We meandered through the rest of WS without a drop of rain (though the threat was there from time to time). Overall, it was warm and humid, but not unbearable. By the evening, we were a little hungry again and got something light in Japan. Then, we headed off towards to front of the park to grab a nice spot for our last Illuminations of the trip. We found a spot just between Mexico and FW on the rail overlooking the lagoon. It was a great viewing place for all of the excitement of the fireworks and the story of Illuminations. What a perfect ending to our trip!
Originally we were just planning on going back to the hotel, but we didn’t want to magic to end, so we swam upstream from the front of the park to the International Gateway to grab a bus to DtD from Boardwalk. Once in DtD, we did some last minute shopping at the World of Disney and grabbed a hot fudge sundae to go to share as we walked around taking in all the beautiful lights and breathing in our last of the Disney shopping experience. We had a great bus driver that took us back to AKL. She had us singing Happy Birthday to one of the passengers and chatted about WDW. I love it when they talk with you and have some fun while we are driving. (Did you know that there is a sign posted in the front of the busses that says “Please do not speak to the bus driver as they are driving. “ It says to ask questions when the bus is stopped. I guess that is good for safety, but it can be real Disney magic when the driver interacts with the guests!
Finally, it was the sad chore of packing up our things and preparing to go home. We originally had planned to rent a car this last weekend and then take it straight to the airport, but since we still had not recovered our IDs we needed to reserve Mears. I double-checked the reservation and then we headed off to bed.
Last Day
Sunday, September 7
Sniff, sniff - alas we must check out of our beautiful hotel. :cry:
We slept in until about 8 or so and did our final packing. We had coffee and enjoyed sitting on our balcony enjoying the animals for one last time. This was such a fun place to stay. By about 10, we migrated out to check our luggage with guest services and then went off to explore and video the resort. Mears was going to pick us up at 12:15 so we had a good amount of time to walk around.
We headed over to Mara first for some breakfast. This was the first time that we tried the breakfast pizza and it was delicious! I highly recommend it and it was plenty for us to share. We got some great footage of the animals in all of the savannahs as well as the beautiful pool area. We even got a chance to find a couple more hidden Mickeys (yeah)!
Finally, we had to bid farewell to Animal Kingdom Lodge and hop on our bus to the airport. Our Mears driver was such a hoot and made the goodbyes a little easier to bear. I wish that I could remember his name – something like Jack. He played trivia games with all of us (only about quarter of the bus was full) and gave out prizes. It made the hour long trip (including 2 other stops) worthwhile.
Fortunately, we made it through airport security pretty easily considering we didn’t have our drivers licenses. Not to say that they weren’t cautious. They placed our checked baggage through a special scanner before checking it and when we got to the security check points, we needed to both be wanded and have all of our carry-ons hand searched as well.
The flight to Dallas (our connecting city) was a bit turbulent, but uneventful. We had to go through another ID check before boarding in Dallas, so we needed to go through our explanation of our lost ID and show the police report (glad we had those). Luckily, they let us take our last leg to Seattle and though this was another bumpy flight, we got home in pretty good time.
Final Thoughts:
Needless to say, we had a fabulous vacation and really enjoyed ourselves so much! We did learn, though, that we would not choose to stay offsite again. You always hear the you lose the Disney Magic when you stay offsite and we felt that this was true, but at least we can say we tried it!
AKL is a beautiful hotel and once we got used to the savannah looks, we loved our room and the view. This was one trip where we decided that we want to really take in the details of the resort that we were staying in. So often we make a list of all the things we want to see in the parks and we find that we really did not appreciate the resort itself. This time we asked for a list of hidden mickeys upon check-in and that was fun to go around and try to find them. We could only find a few of them, but it was sure fun looking!
Some things that I forgot to mention was that we got to see the last performance of Wassalou during Disney’s International Music Festival. They were a great African band that played really fun music. They performed at Epcot at the outdoor theater in the US pavilion. I noticed that they had CDs at AKL, so I figure that they must either play at Disney often or they are quite popular.
On Tuesday at MGM, we were picked to participate in the special effects show in the Backlot Tour. OK, this seemed like fun in the beginning, but they give you these really smelly rubber boots to put on and rubber clothes to put over your shorts and shirt. It was hot out, so they REALLY stunk. I can imagine that being picked for this would be quite fun for a teenager, but for us (since the scene that you partake in is not taped and you never get to see it) it wasn’t worth it. Our skin smelled all day and my DH feet were very irritated afterwards. If asked, just say no! ;)
Please feel free to PM me with any questions that you may have. No doubt I forgot a few details, but I would be happy to answer any questions that I can!
~Suzy
Wednesday, September 3
Mickey called to wake us up at 6:45am so that we could get ourselves together and at Epcot for early entry (i.e., Extra Magic Hour) at 8am. I made some coffee in the room (requested a coffee pot from housekeeping upon check-in and brought my own filter packs – DH and I just cannot drink Nescafe – ugh!) :? and then we were off!
We got to Epcot just after opening and headed over to check out Mission Space. Wow! :notworthy: Those Imagineers are amazing!!! It is really quite an impressive sight! It was neat to go in and check out all the space stuff. Since there were hardly any people in there yet, we didn’t get much chance to really take in all there was to see, but figured that we would be back. Now let me start by saying that we were really excited about trying this, but as we saw that it would spin in order to make you feel like you were taking off, it made us a bit nervous (spinney rides just don’t mesh well with our heads and tummies). Anyway, DH was commander and I was mechanic/tech or something. We took deep breaths and stared at the screen the whole time and, for me, the ride really was pretty fun. DH was fine as well, though felt a bit off after getting out into the warm air. Overall, it is a very cool experience and definitely one that we will do again, but we wouldn’t ride this one over and over in a day. Once every few days would probably be plenty. :oops:
We played the team games after we got off in the mission control room. They were actually a lot of fun and a great way to get your head back on after the thrilling ride. We then headed over to Test Track where there was only a five-minute wait or so. We really enjoy TT, but it is much better at night.
We headed over to the other end of Future World and did Journey with Figment and then into the Kodak area where you can play with all kinds of fun digital stuff. We love orchestrating our own music and playing with the different emails. This was the first time that I have been here where I didn’t have to wait to get onto a computer for the emails. Terrific!!
Note: For those who have not been to this area of Epcot, we love coming here because we can formulate fun emails with different types of backgrounds to send to our family and friend for FREE!
It was getting close to noon and we had a lunch date with one of our friends from the boards. We had lunch in Mexico at the San Angel Inn (this time without any raucous in the courtyard). Lunch was really yummy. DH and I split an enchilada plate and then we all shared the flan and a chocolate dessert. It was pretty tasty and the abience is quite romantic, but for the money, I think that we prefer just eating at the Cantina outside (the price there is just right for a budgeteer)!
DH still wanted to get his haircut at MK, so we headed there after bidding our friend “adios”. Off to MK via the monorail. One of these days we will ask to ride up front, but whenever I see children, I opt not to ask as I wouldn’t want to take the privilege from a youngster (though I do know that DH would find this to be fun, fun, fun). While DH got his haircut, I boogied over to Adventure Land to grab a pineapple float to take back. Those are just so refreshing on a hot and sticky day. Speaking of which, the weather was very clear and hot this afternoon. No storms, no rain (which was quite surprising for this time of year).
We bee-lined straight over to the barber so as not to miss them again. DH only had about a 5-minute wait so I headed out to stroll through some shops and stay cool in the air conditioning. I also walked over to Adventure Land to grab a Dole Whip Float to bring back to DH (aren’t I a great wife?). I got there just as he was finishing up and boy did he look handsome! They do a great ob there and it is fast becoming a WDW tradition. We headed over to TL to take in a few more rides on Buzz and SM. Again, no people! It was great!!
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to take in some relaxation and pool time. :sun: 8) It was so nice, though there was a threat of a storm most of the time. By the time we saw some lightening pulling in closer to the resort, we headed back in.
We went to DtD so that we could grab a sundae from Ghirardeli’s - can we just say that their hot fudge sundaes are fabulous!? :eat: They run about $6.50, but are worth every penny! We ran into a couple of women who were visiting from New Jersey and enjoying their sundaes as well. We had a great time chatting it up with them about visiting at Disney World. They cam because of the great deal of the Fairy Tale plan. We shared stories of our trips to WDW and exchanged touring tips. That is one of the things that I love about WDW – striking up conversations with people around you who have a common love of Disney! It is so fun to get to know people from all over the country and the world.
Afterwards, we strolled through to Disney’s West Side. We have never ventured over to that side of DtD before and, though we found it fairly interesting, we enjoy the Marketplace area more. The shops on the West Side are less Disney and more main-stream with Virgin Music and various specialty shops such as for magnets and glasswares. We walked by DisneyQuest and it just looked like fun! We will have to look into taking it in on our next trip.
Finally, it was back to our “home” at AKL. We didn’t have to wait too long for a bus, which was great as my feet were tired.
Note: At the Marketplace bus depots, there are plenty of spots to sit and wait for the busses; however at the West Side, only every other bus stop has one bench under cover and the other stops have no cover or benches. We were surprised by this since when it isn’t super sunny, it is usually a bit rainy. Plus, it is hard to sit in one of the benches and still be able to see if your bus is coming. Thought that this might be good information in case you are traveling with tired kids, elderly, or just plain soar feet! ;)
Back at the hotel and off to bed!
Day Six
Thursday, September 4
Early opening for MK here we come! Woke up nice and early (though a bit early for DH) :sleep: , so I made some coffee and went downstairs to grab a pastry from the Mara. They have great cream cheese danishes!
Off we went to MK and got there about 10 minutes before opening. We were able to catch the Mayor of Main Street’s opening celebration and then headed down Main Street to Cindy’s castle for rope drop. We were the first one’s on Peter Pan’s flight and then one of the first ones on Snow White Scary Adventures. Though, the first time around it wasn’t so scary because someone forgot to turn off the lights on the inside so you got to see all the pictures and backstage stuff without the black light effect. They let us just stay on for a second go around – this time dark and spooky, just the way we like it!
We played in Fantasy Land for while a while and then headed over to Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents. We tried looking, again, for the infamous “ring” at HM to no avail. I will have to do some more research on that one. ;) We also headed over to Splash and had a blast! It felt like there was more water in it than usual because every little slide got us wet! We rode that one twice in a row – no waits. Now, off to PotC – love this ride and this time we spent a few minutes on the walkway (our choice) to take in the atmosphere and the theming. Disney does such a great job on theming and we love that this is one of the “classics”. Unfortunately, we missed the singing pirates outside of the attraction, but got to see Captain Hook and Smee as they harassed some kids (in a fun Disney sort of way, of course).
The weather was really sunny most of the time, though once in a while, we would get on a ride while it was sunny and come out and everything was wet. Flash showers seemed to be pretty common these last couple of days. Luckily, we rarely got caught in them!
After goofing around a bit more we headed back to the hotel so that we could grab dinner at Boma when they opened. Now, we have really been looking forward to dinner here because the amazing aromas waft (that is a word, right?) throughout the lobby. We are also pretty eclectic eaters, so this was going to be our “fun” dinner.
The atmosphere was fun and we were sat close to the buffet, which was convenient. The food, though, was a bit disappointing. They have a selection of about 5 soups, which rotate a bit each day. We tried a carrot soup, a chowder and a seafood bisque. The bisque was very good filled with mussels, shrimp and scallops. The others, though interesting in flavor were passable. Then onto the main course: they were serving roasted chicken, peppered flank steak and roast beef. The roast beef was good, but both the flank steak and the chicken were dry, dry, dry. They tasted as if they had been under the lamps for a few hours (but we were in the first seating). The side dishes (mashed potatos, various veggies – both grilled and in a casserole) were good. The saving element for us were the desserts (of course). The zebra domes were good, but we really liked the fruits and the cheesecake with white chocolate crust and also the bread pudding with vanilla sauce – yum! Overall, we left full (not overly full, which was good) and we enjoyed the desserts, but we really felt it was not worth the $60 bill (without alcohol). We were glad we tried it and will come for breakfast sometime, but would definitely recommend ‘Ohanas over Boma anyday.
After dinner, we headed over to Epcot to enjoy some more of the WS. We strolled through the various countries and went to see the American Adventure. I was so tired the last time we saw it (back in May 2002) that I slept through most of it, so I was really happy to be able to actually see it this time. It was awesome and very moving! By the time we were heading out of the American pavilion, Illuminations was just beginning. We decided to watch it while we walked towards the front of the park (since we were planning on seeing it again this trip, we wanted to try to catch the first bus back to the lodge). We just got past the Mexico pavilion as the fireworks towards the end started to fly. We just had to stay and watch as they are so magnificent! Finally as the finale was just about to end, we high-tailed it out to the busses.
Now for some good news/bad news: Good News – we made it onto the first bus that pulled up and got a seat in the back! :theWave:
Bad News – the bus did not have air conditioning! :devil: Yikes! We sat in the back with a very friendly family with their baby and toddler. It was SO HOT! The air just wasn’t circulating and we were just fanning ourselves with whatever we could get our hands on – mostly park maps. We had another great conversation with this family, which made the ride easier to handle, but I was a bit surprised that they sent a bus out without the a/c. Oh well, at least we got home in a good amount of time and met some more neat people. Now back at the lodge, we made some Baileys and creams in our room and just sat back and relaxed. Ahhhhh, I love vacations!
Day Seven
Friday, September 5
It was EMH for AK, so we got up around 7 and made some coffee in the room and decided that we would share a danish from the Mara and head on out (BTW they have very fresh and tasty baked goods there. We are cream cheese danish lovers and theirs was very good – not too bready). We got there about 15 minutes before official opening so we decided to check out the Rainforest Café shop. The weather was sunny and warm and the a/c felt great even in the morning hours. They definitely have some good buys there. We found RFC watersocks for only $7 (that is a great price since they are $14 for WDW ones). They seemed like they were on clearance, though, so they may or may not be there all the time.
We also figured that we would wait inside there and go through the Rainforest turnstile at opening. Always a good idea as there is usually no one there and when the parks open, you get to enter without waiting in the big lines at the main gate. My husband thought I was a genius and I just said that I learned it from Tagrel! :mickey:
Since we had already done most of the attractions, I won’t bore you with all the details. We just meandered around some more taking in all the beautiful scenery. We really love coming to AK and just walking around and taking everything in! The weather was perfect – blue skies and not too hot, yet. We strolled through various shops. We also took the train over to the Conservation Station. This is such a great place to learn about the various animals and habitats around the world. If we had kids, we would definitely spend a lot of time here. So much to learn! (Not to mention, if we had a boy, I’m sure that they would like the snakes and spiders that are kept there. Often times you can catch a CM showing one off to the kids – yuck!). We saw the talking trash can there last time, but it didn’t make an appearance this time. We decided not to go through the petting zoo because we would head over to Flame Tree for lunch when we got back. I did, though, pick up a great deal – a tank top with my favorite saying on it . . . . it’s the one with Pooh looking at a big tiger with a magnifying glass saying “Tigger, is that you?” It was on sale for only $6.99 – yippee! Another bargooon! So I did a little happy dance back to the train and we rode back over to the Harambe station. Another great thing about this little train ride is that you get to see some of the backstage areas where the animals are kept at night. One day, we will have to take one of those backstage tours.
We walked around Asia a bit before heading over for lunch. Once thing that we kept saying we were going to do was Flights of Wonder, but we just never made it to that area at the right time so we will need to save it for another trip (always something to look forward to!). We got a BBQ chicken platter at Flame Tree. Those are great little meals. They run about $8 or so and come with corn and beans. It was enough for us to share and still leave room for a little treat (mmmmh, perhaps a frozen lemonade!).
Finally, it was about 1 PM so we went back to the hotel for a little mid-afternoon rest. We put on our suits and headed to the pool. AKL has such a beautiful and lush pool area! Since we were there after Labor Day, there were hardly any people around. It almost seemed like we were in our own exclusive resort! We walked around the grounds a bit as well and ran into another CM from South Africa. He was from a village not far from the other CM we met. He also told us of some amazing places to see from his home and all about Africa. He was really excited and informative – so much so that DH and I wanted to go to South Africa after we spoke to him!
For our last half of the day, we went over to Epcot for our usual evening walk through World Showcase and also to do test track at night. TT was pretty much a walk on, but they were having some difficulties with one of the cars when we got to the loading area, so we needed to wait a few minutes before “testing out our vehicle”.
Again, the weather pretty much stayed dry. There was one little shower in the middle of the evening, but nothing too wet. Easily accommodated by walking into a pavilion for a little while. The world showcase is so beautiful at night and I highly recommend that if you are looking for a romantic idea, stay at Epcot after Illuminations. Find a nice bench and sit and people watch as the crowds head out of the parks. The resort busses usually pick up until about 2 hours after closing to facilitate shopping and whatnot. This makes for a great opportunity to have a nice leisurely stroll around the magical WS at night while all the lights of one and the park gets quieter and quieter.
We grabbed a bus back to the resort and hit the pillows so that we could be up and rarin’ to go for our last full day in the World. :(
Day Eight
Saturday, September 6
Three Parks – one day!
Though this was the extra magic hour for MGM, we decided to head over for the opening of AK at 9. Once in, we took the best Kila. safari ride ever! The most animals we had ever seen were out and about and frolicking around. Two rhinos were even right in the road so we got some great close-up pictures of them! We left to grab some breakfast at Tusker House and noticed that just outside of the safari entrance, they had some chairs set up and a sign that noted that there would be African culture classes one the hour. That sounded interesting to us, so we got our usual (shared an egg platter) and headed over for the first class. We were the only ones there for quite a while. There was this really nice CM from South Africa who spent quite a lot of time talking with us about his native land and the big differences between where he is from and the U.S. After speaking with him, you really need to appreciate how easy it is for us to just go to the grocery store when we want fruit or that we have fresh water out of the tap (even in Florida!). As we were there, more people showed up and we headed out.
We just wanted to walk around and take in the beautiful decorum of AK. We walked around the Tree of Life and took in the little trails that really show off the amazing detail of this tree. Aren’t Imagineers creative?! We had a lot of fun just looking and pointing out all the different animals. We decided to head out to Epcot center to take in some more of Future World. I love how Disney has busses that go to the other parks as well as the hotels. As this was our last full day (our last day in the parks), we wanted to spend the whole day doing all of our favorites! :D
We got to Epcot around 11 or so and waited just a few minutes in the security line. We headed over to the living seas (DHs favorite) and explored for quite a while checking out the manatees, dolphins, sharks, and multiple other exhibits. We were lucky enough to catch the dolphin show as well. This is great fun – especially for kids. They have two dolphin trainers come out to the main aquarium area and the dolphins follow them from inside performing tricks and “conversing” with the audience. I had wished that I brought my camera as there were a ton of great photo ops.
Next it was off to the land for a snack. We had seen the attractions in here the last trip, so we passed on them this one. Need to save something to look forward to for the next trip!
We played around in FW for a while and saw Kristos (acrobatic/flexibility show) which we thought was amazing since they perform in the scorching sun! We also walked up through Canada and UK. The British Invasion was playing so we watched them for a while – love them – and then headed over to the gateway to grab a boat to MGM. It was a nice boat ride and a very relaxing point in our day. Once we got to MGM, we headed over to RnR and ack!! I forgot that it was closing today (bummer). Oh well, off to another “stay” at the Hollywood Tower of Terror. It is so much fun in the day, but we find it best at night! (Plus it is cooler at night, so if you tend to get a bit queasy, it is a bit easier when you can feel the cool air.)
We went to WWTBAM and tried to get into the top ten, but alas, not this trip. I have so much fun at this game! We also went to see The Little Mermaid show – which was cute and the GMR. There were so few people at the GMR that they were only using half the regular carts to move people through. Odd though, because once we were sat in our cart we had to wait for almost ten minutes! (Weird though I was thinking that perhaps we may have been waiting for someone to get back from their lunch break) :o)
Since we couldn’t think of anyplace that we would have like to eat for a late lunch, we decided to walk over to the Boardwalk and grab lunch and the Big River Brewery. They have the best burgers there! DH tried a beer sampler and burger and I had a side salad and ice tea. The prices are good there and the food is great. We had a very satisfying lunch for about $20.
Afterwards, we grabbed another boat to take us back to Epcot. We wanted to take our time through Italy and China as we haven’t spent much time there yet. We got to Italy just as the Masquerade was beginning. It is a fun “show” to watch and also a bit on the eerie side! We just people-watched as they were getting pictures with the harlequins, and then we stayed to watch their little routine with Italian opera. We waved good-bye and then headed over towards China to see the new film (new since we last saw it in 2002). We love going through the China pavilion because there is just so much to look at – all the detail is amazing!
We meandered through the rest of WS without a drop of rain (though the threat was there from time to time). Overall, it was warm and humid, but not unbearable. By the evening, we were a little hungry again and got something light in Japan. Then, we headed off towards to front of the park to grab a nice spot for our last Illuminations of the trip. We found a spot just between Mexico and FW on the rail overlooking the lagoon. It was a great viewing place for all of the excitement of the fireworks and the story of Illuminations. What a perfect ending to our trip!
Originally we were just planning on going back to the hotel, but we didn’t want to magic to end, so we swam upstream from the front of the park to the International Gateway to grab a bus to DtD from Boardwalk. Once in DtD, we did some last minute shopping at the World of Disney and grabbed a hot fudge sundae to go to share as we walked around taking in all the beautiful lights and breathing in our last of the Disney shopping experience. We had a great bus driver that took us back to AKL. She had us singing Happy Birthday to one of the passengers and chatted about WDW. I love it when they talk with you and have some fun while we are driving. (Did you know that there is a sign posted in the front of the busses that says “Please do not speak to the bus driver as they are driving. “ It says to ask questions when the bus is stopped. I guess that is good for safety, but it can be real Disney magic when the driver interacts with the guests!
Finally, it was the sad chore of packing up our things and preparing to go home. We originally had planned to rent a car this last weekend and then take it straight to the airport, but since we still had not recovered our IDs we needed to reserve Mears. I double-checked the reservation and then we headed off to bed.
Last Day
Sunday, September 7
Sniff, sniff - alas we must check out of our beautiful hotel. :cry:
We slept in until about 8 or so and did our final packing. We had coffee and enjoyed sitting on our balcony enjoying the animals for one last time. This was such a fun place to stay. By about 10, we migrated out to check our luggage with guest services and then went off to explore and video the resort. Mears was going to pick us up at 12:15 so we had a good amount of time to walk around.
We headed over to Mara first for some breakfast. This was the first time that we tried the breakfast pizza and it was delicious! I highly recommend it and it was plenty for us to share. We got some great footage of the animals in all of the savannahs as well as the beautiful pool area. We even got a chance to find a couple more hidden Mickeys (yeah)!
Finally, we had to bid farewell to Animal Kingdom Lodge and hop on our bus to the airport. Our Mears driver was such a hoot and made the goodbyes a little easier to bear. I wish that I could remember his name – something like Jack. He played trivia games with all of us (only about quarter of the bus was full) and gave out prizes. It made the hour long trip (including 2 other stops) worthwhile.
Fortunately, we made it through airport security pretty easily considering we didn’t have our drivers licenses. Not to say that they weren’t cautious. They placed our checked baggage through a special scanner before checking it and when we got to the security check points, we needed to both be wanded and have all of our carry-ons hand searched as well.
The flight to Dallas (our connecting city) was a bit turbulent, but uneventful. We had to go through another ID check before boarding in Dallas, so we needed to go through our explanation of our lost ID and show the police report (glad we had those). Luckily, they let us take our last leg to Seattle and though this was another bumpy flight, we got home in pretty good time.
Final Thoughts:
Needless to say, we had a fabulous vacation and really enjoyed ourselves so much! We did learn, though, that we would not choose to stay offsite again. You always hear the you lose the Disney Magic when you stay offsite and we felt that this was true, but at least we can say we tried it!
AKL is a beautiful hotel and once we got used to the savannah looks, we loved our room and the view. This was one trip where we decided that we want to really take in the details of the resort that we were staying in. So often we make a list of all the things we want to see in the parks and we find that we really did not appreciate the resort itself. This time we asked for a list of hidden mickeys upon check-in and that was fun to go around and try to find them. We could only find a few of them, but it was sure fun looking!
Some things that I forgot to mention was that we got to see the last performance of Wassalou during Disney’s International Music Festival. They were a great African band that played really fun music. They performed at Epcot at the outdoor theater in the US pavilion. I noticed that they had CDs at AKL, so I figure that they must either play at Disney often or they are quite popular.
On Tuesday at MGM, we were picked to participate in the special effects show in the Backlot Tour. OK, this seemed like fun in the beginning, but they give you these really smelly rubber boots to put on and rubber clothes to put over your shorts and shirt. It was hot out, so they REALLY stunk. I can imagine that being picked for this would be quite fun for a teenager, but for us (since the scene that you partake in is not taped and you never get to see it) it wasn’t worth it. Our skin smelled all day and my DH feet were very irritated afterwards. If asked, just say no! ;)
Please feel free to PM me with any questions that you may have. No doubt I forgot a few details, but I would be happy to answer any questions that I can!
~Suzy