Birthday Extravaganza Trip

[skimama]

It's my DD's birthday trip! 1 year old had her finger smashed on the plane on the way in. Had to call eMT in the airport to ensure it wasn't broken. But it wasn't! Loving our 2 bedroom villa at Kidani village. This is our first point stay as DVC members! Today was our first park day at Magic Kingdom. DD met Rapunzel and Snow White and about fainted from meeting Rapunzel. She was more excited than I've ever seen her. I got to take her on Barnstormer, her first roller coaster. She was super excited until we had the first drop. Then terror set in. She isn't sure she wants to ride it again. Very disappointed by Chef Mickeys this morning. 45 minutes and not 1 character had been by our table. $95 to meet nobody. DD was sad but also tired of waiting. So she made the executive decision to bail on it and head to the park. Akershus for dinner tonight! Hopefully more leisurely, and actually get to see princesses! Can't wait ... More to come.

So far, Rapunzel has been the absolute highlight of the trip. She was AWESOME!

 

[skimama]

A couple comments so far.

We LOVED the Ariel ride. Every one of us.

I also am really happy with the magic bands. For us, with small children, planning rides before we get to the park has been monumentally better than running to get fast passes. Everything has been very smooth with them. We don't have to worry about being there at rope drop. So, I'm an A+ happy camper right now!

 

[skimama]

Akershus was an A+ experience. The food was fantastic and the princesses were abundant. We loved every minute. Ooh boy, that WAS until the fun stomach illness set in on my husband and I at the exact same time. Shame on whoever contaminated the appetizer buffet! Pretty mild luckily, and our daughters that didn't touch the buffet were fine. Wasn't happy to have to leave the park early though, and then spend money on Immodium and Pepto Bismol. I guess I'm glad it was at the beginning of the trip so we have a whole week to forget about it.

 

[skimama]

We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom today enjoying the Festival of the Lion King and the safari. DD enthusiastically snapped photos of every animal she could find, and loved every minute!

I was disappointed to see the "poachers" removed from the end of the ride. I thought that part was fun. Not sure the ride introduction video makes any sense now without it.

All four of us took a long afternoon nap. We are headed to Hollywood Studios for the evening.

Last night we filed a lost photos request with photopass, and they successfully located them. So I learned its a good thing to check your photos each night to ensure you don't lose important ones!

I'm thinking I might give up on this trip report, as nobody seems to be interested in reading. I must not be a very good writer!

 

[catherines_mama]

I'm reading! We are thinking of going this time next year.

Curious how crowds are. Also where are you guys staying? As it's your 1st stay as members how do you like it?

 

[skimama]

I'm reading! We are thinking of going this time next year. Curious how crowds are. Also where are you guys staying? As it's your 1st stay as members how do you like it?

Good! One reader is enough for me.
Crowds are ok. Undercover tourist has been spot on. Red parks are definitely red. And green parks are wonderful. MVMCP is the way to go for sure.

We had our room decorated by Disney Florist for DD birthday. She believed 100% that it was real. Amazing!



We are staying at Kidani. It's been ok but the bus rides are a super pain. I'm excited to stay in BLT (home) for our next trip. And now that we are here, we have decided either beach club or a combo beach club/grand Floridian will be our add on purchase.

Excited for tomorrow! My MIL got us 18 unassigned fast passes by complaining about a really hot bus! Ride-extravaganza on its way!

 

[skimama]

In fact our park strategy has worked really well. FP+ in any park in am. Lunch/naps in hotel. Then green park in PM. No waits in lines at all!

 

[skimama]

MDE iPhone app has been buggy. "We're sorry, a blip in the network... Blah blah"

And that's on wifi with 100% power. I'm happy with FP+ overall, but this is a problem. Probably a capacity issue.

 

[skimama]

Birthday cakes! Cinderellas Royal table on left and GF 1900 Park Fare on the right. Both were chocolate and delicious. Though I prefer no fondant. So that probably gave GF the edge.

 

[skimama]

DD as Phillipe in Enchanted Tales with Belle. We did this during MVMCP with no wait. I would NEVER wait in the 90min+ lines to do this. Even FP+ had a 40 minute wait during the day! It was really cute though if you can find a time without crazy lines.

 

[catherines_mama]

Sounds great. We enjoyed Kidani and like that it really didn't share buses. We love BWV but that bus loop is horrid. Learned to get off at Swan and take the bridge. We are thinking Kidani for next year this week too. We are asking friends to travel with is and the 3rd bathroom is such a plus.

Love the cakes. We did one a few years ago at Poly and agreed, the choc icing is great! Not a fondant fan.

We also love Little mermaid ride. A lot say it's just like Nemo but it's so much better! I love it!

Your days sound great! Enjoy your FP frenzy!

DH and I are doing an adult only at BWV just 2 days in April so we'll see what FP+ is all about

 

[skimama]

Fast pass extravaganza was great. We couldn't even use them all, so passed them on to others.

MVMCP was not sold out last night. So lines were really short. Rode every ride!

Took DD on Test Track this morning. She did not like it. Kept saying that it messed up her hair, and she did NOT want to ride any more fast rides.

I thought she did pretty well though considering it was really her first "thrill" ride!

 

[skimama]

Also no response yet regarding our stomach upsets. I should have written them back again to let them know that my husband's turned into vomiting.

 

[skimama]

Well it is our last day! We get picked up at 1:30pm. So we are planning to spend the day swimming, packing, and eating.

I accidentally missed a lunch reservation at Sanaa yesterday. So I will be interested to see if I get charged. Easy to see how they can get missed. We were just completely distracted at EPCOT!

We had dinner at BOG last night. The food was fairly good, but rich. Service was initially slow, but got better. We ate in the ballroom due to my skittish daughter, but upon further inspection, she announced she would have rather eaten in the West Wing. Next time, next time.

We accidentally lost our escort out of the park, so we were able to stay for the first parade of MVMCP. And actually, we WERE trying to leave, we just got trapped. And our escort got stopped to answer questions for people. So anyway, lesson learned is leave the park through Tomorrowland!

Overall it was a good trip. Disappointed in the savannah view, as sunset savannah is so clearly superior. They should have another booking class like Jambo for sure.

Don't know how with all the walking we did, but I am fairly certain I gained 5 pounds on this trip. Going to try to work on that for our next trip. Haha!

 

[skimama]

Last post ...

We had lunch today at Wolfgang Puck Express. It was delicious. Bought DD a couple small Lego friends sets for being such a help with her sister. And now we are headed back to Kidani to catch our airport shuttle. 22 degrees at home major bummer. Best trip ever with my two awesome daughters!

 

[skimama]

Finally home! This pic sums up our trip. Full of princess magic!

However, I did forget to mention that the talking Mickey in the theater at MK is A M A Z I N G. I don't know how they do it. But simply incredible.

 

[skimama]

Just got the phone call ... "We will be forwarding your comments onto Akershus executive leadership... This gives us the opportunity to improve." Blah blah blah. Disappointing response. Not sure I'm happy about having paid full price for husband to be vomiting it up later.

 

[wiigirl]

Cute!

 

[kristenabelle]

Birthday cakes! Cinderellas Royal table on left and GF 1900 Park Fare on the right. Both were chocolate and delicious. Though I prefer no fondant. So that probably gave GF the edge.

Whoa! Awesome cakes! Note to self for my next birthday