A Weekend of First! - 1st stay at Kidani & 1st 10 miler! **Trip Report**

[silverangel879]

Hi guys!

Long time no see!!!
It's been a while since I've post on the DISboard. But here I am again and ready to report!

Cast:

ME: 34, photographer, geek, seasonal cast member and new owner of a DVC

DH: 31, Computer Engineer, geek, video gamer, my best friend


Dates: Oct 5th-7th (a short stay but perfect to try out our hotel!)

A little history

We met in college. Became best friend. Fell in Love...

Us when were just friends (2001)

Meeting the Mouse for the first time! (2005)

Best Day EVER...also my 30th Bday! (2009)

We dated for a long time but decided to tied the not on December 2008.

After a crazy turned of events (2010), we ended up living in Largo FL and me working as a seasonal at my favorite place on earth.

Thanks to be part of the magic, we have been blessed enough to enjoy the parks in different ways. Every time we share it with friends and family is like falling in love with all over again!

So it was only logical tha DVC would be part of our lives soon enough.


We chose AKV, because we fell in love with Animal Kingdom Lodge since the first time we stayed there. It was our first time staying on property too ( But What it is not to love!) We became DVC memebers in May so this will be the first time staying at Kidani.

But you knew that already....

...because of the title...


...Moving On....



Also, as part of this stay, will have our good friends and favorite travel partners:

Laura: Eric's DW, 25, PhD candidate, planner freak (same as I), girly geek, great wine taster

Eric: Laura's DH, 28, Computer Engineer, geek, great bee taster

My DH and Eric met back in college. Eric worked for the same company that my hubby but back home in PR. Luckly for us, they decided to move to FL! When I met Laura, it was like finding a long lost sister. We clicked right away and became good friends. We have so much in common and love to spend all the crazy adventures together...They decided to come to cheer me on and have a nice weekend!


Another cool thing about the stay is that will be trying out the Magic Bands (a first for us). We have them ordered and they look awesome!!!

We are pretty thrilled to try AKV out and enjoy...at least after the race.


NEXT: First Long Race...First RACE EVER! Tower of Terror 10 Miler

 

[silverangel879]

For these update on the Pre-Trip Report, I am talking a lot more about the race and less about the room. For that reason I decided to include the blog post instead of writing it here:

First Long Race...

Have a magical day!

 

[silverangel879]

Hi DISers and DVCrs (wait, is that a term? DVCrs? Oh well....)

First things, first......countdown is in order!

4 DAYS TO GO!!!!

Can we have a little dance?

I know, I know...but I love staying in Disney property and I am dying to try out our DVC...

So, As the planning freak that I am, I worked on a schedule for the wiken...the more detailed one is Saturday, becuase of the race. So her it goes, tell me what you think:

Saturday, Oct 5th

9AM Leave Roku (Laura and Eric's 4-legged son) at the the boarding and leave home(Largo, FL)
10:30AM Arrived @ESPN WWoS for packet pick up and Health/Fitness Expo
1:00PM Head Downtown Disney to buy the last piece of my running outfit and have lunch.
3:00PM Head down to AKV and wait for the room to be ready
4:30 PM head down the pool and realax before race
6:30 PM FREAK OUT....only hours til the race...get ready
7:30PM Get to ESPN WWoS
8PM Grab the Bus to Hollywood Studios (race start)
9:15pm Be at my running corral...and wait....WAIT until they call us, which will be
10:30PM RUN for 2hrs....30min...

***This is the part I freak out again*** LOL

1:30 AM I want to be crossing the finish line by these time...
2:00 AM Disney's Villain Bash
4:00 PM Head back to AKV and crash

Sunday, Oct 6th
***Disclaimer, yes, it is not "officially" Sunday until I go to sleep and wake up again***

10:30 AM Wake Up/ Have breakfast in the room ( the advantages of having a little kitchenette)
11:45 AM Take the Bus to EPCOT for the Food And Wine Festival.

-We are planning to do the same drill that every year. We buy a gift card and load it with an amount (usually $100) and when is done, it's time to go. That way we don't get caught up in the moment and spend a lot. 100 works for us to go around and try at least one plate for each country and have couple of drinks....well maybe more than a couple ....the thing is it works for us...

9:00PM Illuminations...we always wait for it!!

Monday, Oct 7th

Sleep In a little
10:30 AM Wake Up and have coffee at the room
11:30PM Explore the Resort. It is the first time for Eric and Laura visiting AKL so we have to show a little bit of everything
12:50 PM Lunch at SANAA
2:00 PM Head HOME

The only thing that would change could be me having to be strolled in a whealchair...LOL

Hope everybody is having a wonderful day!

 

[silverangel879]

Today is the day!

Can't wait!!!!

 

[lisaviolet]

Today is the day!

Can't wait!!!!

Hope it goes wonderfully. Enjoy.

Look at your post - 11:11 Well it's 11:11 on mine - sometimes my disboard time is wacky!

Have a great race. 10pm, right? EDIT: Maybe I shouldn't read so quickly! Laughing.


Can't wait to hear.

 

[lisaviolet]

Hi guys!



Eric: Laura's DH, 28, Computer Engineer, geek, great bee taster

Wow, that's dangerous.

I hope he likes beer too.

 

[silverangel879]

Hope it goes wonderfully. Enjoy. Look at your post - 11:11 Well it's 11:11 on mine - sometimes my disboard time is wacky! Have a great race. 10pm, right? EDIT: Maybe I shouldn't read so quickly! Laughing. Can't wait to hear.

It was awesome...I am a little more sore than expected! I'll be writing a review soon!

And about the bee...yeah, I guess I was too nervous and my brain was failing!!!!! Lol! Beer tester! BEERRRR tester! Lol

 

[lisaviolet]

It was awesome...I am a little more sore than expected! I'll be writing a review soon!

And about the bee...yeah, I guess I was too nervous and my brain was failing!!!!! Lol! Beer tester! BEERRRR tester! Lol

Can't wait to hear about the entire stay.

 

[silverangel879]

Hi guys!

It's been a week since our first weekend at Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani...oh boy, a week already! But here it is my report.

AS you may know this weekend was a one of first: First stay using DVC and my first 10 miler. So there were excitement and anticipation everywhere.

We Left Largo, FL closer to 9:30am. The plan was to arrived to the Expo closer to 11am and picked up the package. Luckly traffic was on our favor and we arrived at ESPN WWoS close to 11am! First success!

We headed directly to the Expo, I was getting anxious and wanted to make sure to have everything first. Of course I took couple of pics along the way:

After I got the packet and my commemorative necklace, we stroll around the expo. If you haven't been into one of these expo before, it is a great place to get good deals in some athletics brand. They also have a lot of special items only for the race. runDisney have a booth dedicated to Official Merchandise but I was hoping for more 10 Miler stuff and less runDisney stuff. I feel like I can find those at the Team Mickey store in DD...

Close to the exit, they had a big counter...

and I had to snap one with my favorite villain:

By 1:30pm we were hungry and decided to go to DTD to have lunch and buy the last piece of my running costume...The Maleficent Mickey Ears!!!

By 2:30pm we decided to try our luck, and check if our room was ready at Kidani! We arrived and, guess...what...it WAS. We had a little difficulties while using the "remote" check in (Some of the hotels has CM with iPads at the entrance and would start the check-in process before getting to the desks. It is still a new system so there are bugs but it is pretty neat). We set up the card and everything for charge and off we went to our Deluxe Villa.

First thing that we found out was that our room was 5th floor all the way to the end of the hall. It was a long way to haul luggage, and there was no parking available at the Rafiki parking (which is just above it). The room was a Deluxe Savannah View, but unfortunately that savannah is not the most interesting one of the three. We did see a lot of impalas, long horns, an okapi and a family of little pigglets (some type of hog). After stay several times at AKL Jambo (regular rooms), we weren't impressed. I think we have been spoiled. But it was Laura and Eric's first time at AKL and they were thrilled to have the view to the savannah so that made everything better. But in AKL defense, when I booked the room through DVC we got wait listed so we didn't have much choice. So, we will try again soon! LOL!

No matter how good the last view was...it still is an awesome view!!

Next: Relaxing at the pool and the big race!

 

[lisaviolet]

Keep going. I'm reading. And want to hear all about your race and stay.