Hi everyone and welcome to Day 16 ~ Sunday August 31st
Well, for SuAnne & Hayley their day started just around 4:00am as they arose to get ready to fly home to Toronto and then catch their onward connection to London, Ontario. I heard them moving about quietly as not to disturb us, however it would take a space shuttle launch in the middle of Arusha Savanna to disturb Noel and I
so it was no problem at all.
I heard the door softly click shut and the next thing I knew I awoke to brilliant sunshine and it was 9:15am. I woke Noel who was still protesting that it was too early ~ she doesn't know what poor Hayley went through at 4:00am.
By the way - we had all fallen asleep around 11:00pm last night but SuAnne and I were awakened by this rumbling/banging vibration sound at midnight... it sounded like it was all around us and shaking the walls... I was getting ready to call about it when it suddenly dawned on suAnne that it was Fireworks! Duh.. guess I can't complain about that! Apparently MGM was closed early to the public for a private function and maybe this fireworks was part of it as we cannot figure out what other park would have them that late Midnight to 12:08am.
Today is our last full day here at Disney and I have pretty well forgotten what my house looks like, and my hubby.. can't even picture them LOL I am not looking forward to mounds of laundry and dust everywhere, an empty fridge and work on Tuesday. Poor Noel is in for a shock going to school bright and early tuesday morning.
We went up to the kilamanjaro club for breakfast and it was quite busy up there as this is labour day weekend and AKL is busy. My plan had been to go to Disney Quest last night and have dinner at Planet Hollywood then today finish up what we missed at the Magic Kingdom. With SuAnne and Hayley's surprise return yesterday we ended up having a lovely evening here at AKL instead.
Last night SuAnne and I sat in the lounge with a dessert and a drink and just soaked in the atmosphere of the Lodge ~ there is really nothing quite like it and we both agreed we will come back for an all girls trip sometime. We chatted with Don last evening ~ he works in the Concierge lounge and he is very customer service oriented. We were asking him questions about food hoarding and he was sharing some stories of people leaving the lounge with piles of things for their room (to share with others - not staying concierge) and one family who practically never left the lounge or hotel, they just kept coming to the lounge and eating/drinking everything in sight.
We asked Don to tell us who the AKL celebrity was that was staying in the Presidential Suite but he said he couldn't tell us - more on this in a moment.
This morning I told Noel we were going to the Magic Kingdom and she balked. Noel wanted to go to Disney Quest because we only had a little time last year and it was fun. It is 'her' holiday afterall so against my better judgement we skipped the magic kingdom *gasp* and took the bus to Downtown Disney Westside.
We arrived there after what felt like a long, long, cross country bus ride with multiple stops and STILL we were early. It was only 10:47am and DQ opened at 11:30am. We were hot and thirsty so we went to house of blues which appeared open but it was the Gospel Brunch so we could not go in.
We walked a little further and saw that Bongo's Cuban Cafe had an outdoor take out window and seating area with the best music playing. It was really nice, there were lots of spanish/hispanic people and they were all chatting and having coffee and some cuban pastries and a few got up and started dancing when the music was right - it was such a nice 30 minutes I almost didn't want to leave, what a great atmosphere.
By 11:15 we got in the BIG lineup already formed to enter Disney Quest... I turned around and just happened to see MikeJ behind us in line... I think he IS following me! Today is Mike and his family's departure via Trans Air. Their flight is in the evening and Disney Quest was their last thing to enjoy before heading to the airport. We chatted for a few minutes and then it was time to head inside.
If you have never done DQ you should give it a try - but don't expect any magic.. it is more of a huge scale arcade with some innovention type things thrown in and a few virtual reality rides. However, it is air conditioned and it does not rain in there - so if you can squeeze it in.. pay it a visit, not so great for little ones but Noel's age and teens would love it.
Our first stop was a virtual ride 'Aladdins flying carpets' you have to put this big helmut thing on and it is quite good, you capture jewels as you fly along... I ended up under water and could not get out
Next was the Virtual Jungle Cruise... you sit in a inflatable dingy and have oars... the cruise starts and you can pick the way you want to go for lots of surprises and some dinosaurs too.. the boat moves up and down and side to side - you may even get wet!
Next was my favourite "Pirates of the Carribean" this ride/attraction is the best in my opinion in Disney quest. it is 3D and you are standing on the bow of a pirate ship.. there are several cannons and the helm. One person is the captain and the others man the cannons - the effects are great and you get to blast other ships and take their treasure. Watch out for the Jolly Roger or you may be sunk!
Next was "Invasion" which is kind of a more low tech version of mission space, you have to blast aliens on your mission to rescue trapped colonists... it was fun but a little lame.
Next we walked around the different interactive art type things you can do like learn to draw characters, or make a cartoon with different backdrops and animations abnd "Syd's Build a Toy" from Toy story.
Time was flying it was already almost 2pm! We decided to do one more attraction and I am glad we did as it turned out to be the highlight of the DQ visit. It was "Virtual Space Mountain" and it is done in two steps... first with Bill Nye the Science Guy as your host you build your own rollercoaster... you pick the tracks, the backdrop, the loops and jumps and spins etc... you even get to name it.. the ours was called "Screaching Rocket" and when you are done creating it is stored on a swipe card that you take to Step Two which is where you RIDE your coaster.
These are big capsules you get in and you are harnessed in and then watch the screen in front of you as you ride your 10,000 feet of track you designed. You can get really thrown around in here... it is much smoother than a real roller coaster but you really go upside down and get the effect of the climbs and drops. You are filmed as this is going on and when they ride is done you get to see a bit of yourselves screaming and laughing.. and heres a surprise for you all - you can actually purchase your video. Virtual Space Mountain was so much fun we went back and designed and rode another one!
We then left Disney Quest and I noticed Saratoga Springs across the lake all covered in scaffolding... it looks huge. It was now almost 3;30pm so we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner and picked wolfgang puck. This is a beautiful, bright, colourful restaurant and we sat at the windows that overlooked the lake. Everything on the menu sounded delicious and now that I was over my illness I was starved. I wanted to try the springrolls as an appetizer with something else as an entree but the waiter said it was a large serving... I asked if he could do half and it was no problem at all... so I had a half order of springolls that were OUTSTANDING and a half order of their salad with gorganzola cheese and chicken... Noel had chicken fingers (again).
This was an excellent lunch/dinner.. the restaurant was quiet and interesingly enough they had on a Gordon Lightfoot CD and played several of his songs - I was surprised as he is a Canadian Folk singer and the music (although really nice) just didn't seem to mesh with this modern, hip restaurant.. so I ate my springrolls listening to the ballad 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
Although we wanted dessert we skipped it here in favour of Gihradellis (sp) where we encountered our longest line up and wait of the entire trip... I am serious, even longer then Mission Space! Noel had a single scoop of Cookie Dough Icecream and I had a malt.. we sat at the centre counter and boy was this place packed, we were lucky to get a spot. I was watching the waiters deliver some huge ice cream creations to the tables... some of them looked incredible! I like the atmosphere of this place and I think it is much better than Beaches and Cream, despite having to wait.
We took another few minutes to shop for a souvenier for Noel's friend who is looking after 'Halo' our Hamster - she loves Minnie Mouse so we picked her up a Minnie Nightshirt that says Positivly Pampered - with a big Minnie on the front... hope she likes it
I could not believe the time - almost 6pm, we don't even stay at the themeparks this late - in fact we were always back to the hotel by 3pm, there was no way I was going to waste time taking the bus so we grabbed a cab which was conveniently sitting just outside the exit of the big shop in the Marketplace.
We were back in the AKL by and in the pool by 6:30pm... on the way to the pool we stopped by the concierge lounge to pick up a soda... I saw Don the concierge grinning at me and waving me over to his desk "I can tell you now" he said " - "The celebrity has checked out"
"Well?? who was it"? I demanded impatiently..... WOW! It was Eddie Murphy and his family! I told Noel it was Dr. Doolittle and the guy in Haunted Mansion that she has seen previews for, she was pretty impressed knowing that she was sleeping just a few doors down from him!
We had a great swim tonight.... the pool was pretty quiet and warm, the sun was just setting. Noel took her last slide down the slide
and we went to the hot tub for a half hour. Also deserted until a lady and her daughter arrived, we chatted and it turns out she is a travel agent and she was upset they would not upgrade her to concierge. I asked her if she sold much Disney and she said NO... well there you go...
The hot tub was wonderful but we were getting tired and I was a bit hungry. Noel didn't want anything and as it was now 9:00pm there were only desserts and liquers in the lounge. We dried off and changed clothes and headed up to the lounge. Don was still there and I asked him if he had a room service menu I could look at... then I remembered that great olive/cheese flat bread that SuAnne and I shared at JIKO last night - THATS! what I wanted. I used the house phone up in the lounge and called JIKO... the girl said to come down in 10 minutes and it would be ready... yum!
I picked a couple of little desserts and put them in a take out cup and then went down to JIKO and picked up my flatbread to take to the room.... wow the elevator smelled wonderful and the people using it were staring at my take out container wondering what was in there that smelled so good.
I enjoyed my late night meal in the room while writing this report ~ Noel is watching a DVD and has decided to sleep in SuAnne's DayBed tonight.... don't worry - I won't be sleeping on the top bunk I will stick to the queensize.
Tomorrow we are sleeping in until at least 9 - 9:30am... I have very little to pack as I have hardly unpacked from Beach Club. We will have our breakfast in the kilamanjaro club and the towncar is picking us up at 11:15 to take us to the airport. I will check and see if my flight is ontime... you never know - it may be delayed and I will have something interesting to report tomorrow besides airline food... I may make it to the magic Kingdom yet!
Until then... good night from Animal Kingdom Lodge and thanx for reading my long winded reports ~ Day 17 will come from Toronto with some closing thoughts and observations.
Well, for SuAnne & Hayley their day started just around 4:00am as they arose to get ready to fly home to Toronto and then catch their onward connection to London, Ontario. I heard them moving about quietly as not to disturb us, however it would take a space shuttle launch in the middle of Arusha Savanna to disturb Noel and I
so it was no problem at all.I heard the door softly click shut and the next thing I knew I awoke to brilliant sunshine and it was 9:15am. I woke Noel who was still protesting that it was too early ~ she doesn't know what poor Hayley went through at 4:00am.
By the way - we had all fallen asleep around 11:00pm last night but SuAnne and I were awakened by this rumbling/banging vibration sound at midnight... it sounded like it was all around us and shaking the walls... I was getting ready to call about it when it suddenly dawned on suAnne that it was Fireworks! Duh.. guess I can't complain about that! Apparently MGM was closed early to the public for a private function and maybe this fireworks was part of it as we cannot figure out what other park would have them that late Midnight to 12:08am.
Today is our last full day here at Disney and I have pretty well forgotten what my house looks like, and my hubby.. can't even picture them LOL I am not looking forward to mounds of laundry and dust everywhere, an empty fridge and work on Tuesday. Poor Noel is in for a shock going to school bright and early tuesday morning.
We went up to the kilamanjaro club for breakfast and it was quite busy up there as this is labour day weekend and AKL is busy. My plan had been to go to Disney Quest last night and have dinner at Planet Hollywood then today finish up what we missed at the Magic Kingdom. With SuAnne and Hayley's surprise return yesterday we ended up having a lovely evening here at AKL instead.
Last night SuAnne and I sat in the lounge with a dessert and a drink and just soaked in the atmosphere of the Lodge ~ there is really nothing quite like it and we both agreed we will come back for an all girls trip sometime. We chatted with Don last evening ~ he works in the Concierge lounge and he is very customer service oriented. We were asking him questions about food hoarding and he was sharing some stories of people leaving the lounge with piles of things for their room (to share with others - not staying concierge) and one family who practically never left the lounge or hotel, they just kept coming to the lounge and eating/drinking everything in sight.
We asked Don to tell us who the AKL celebrity was that was staying in the Presidential Suite but he said he couldn't tell us - more on this in a moment.
This morning I told Noel we were going to the Magic Kingdom and she balked. Noel wanted to go to Disney Quest because we only had a little time last year and it was fun. It is 'her' holiday afterall so against my better judgement we skipped the magic kingdom *gasp* and took the bus to Downtown Disney Westside.
We arrived there after what felt like a long, long, cross country bus ride with multiple stops and STILL we were early. It was only 10:47am and DQ opened at 11:30am. We were hot and thirsty so we went to house of blues which appeared open but it was the Gospel Brunch so we could not go in.
We walked a little further and saw that Bongo's Cuban Cafe had an outdoor take out window and seating area with the best music playing. It was really nice, there were lots of spanish/hispanic people and they were all chatting and having coffee and some cuban pastries and a few got up and started dancing when the music was right - it was such a nice 30 minutes I almost didn't want to leave, what a great atmosphere.
By 11:15 we got in the BIG lineup already formed to enter Disney Quest... I turned around and just happened to see MikeJ behind us in line... I think he IS following me! Today is Mike and his family's departure via Trans Air. Their flight is in the evening and Disney Quest was their last thing to enjoy before heading to the airport. We chatted for a few minutes and then it was time to head inside.
If you have never done DQ you should give it a try - but don't expect any magic.. it is more of a huge scale arcade with some innovention type things thrown in and a few virtual reality rides. However, it is air conditioned and it does not rain in there - so if you can squeeze it in.. pay it a visit, not so great for little ones but Noel's age and teens would love it.
Our first stop was a virtual ride 'Aladdins flying carpets' you have to put this big helmut thing on and it is quite good, you capture jewels as you fly along... I ended up under water and could not get out
Next was the Virtual Jungle Cruise... you sit in a inflatable dingy and have oars... the cruise starts and you can pick the way you want to go for lots of surprises and some dinosaurs too.. the boat moves up and down and side to side - you may even get wet!
Next was my favourite "Pirates of the Carribean" this ride/attraction is the best in my opinion in Disney quest. it is 3D and you are standing on the bow of a pirate ship.. there are several cannons and the helm. One person is the captain and the others man the cannons - the effects are great and you get to blast other ships and take their treasure. Watch out for the Jolly Roger or you may be sunk!
Next was "Invasion" which is kind of a more low tech version of mission space, you have to blast aliens on your mission to rescue trapped colonists... it was fun but a little lame.
Next we walked around the different interactive art type things you can do like learn to draw characters, or make a cartoon with different backdrops and animations abnd "Syd's Build a Toy" from Toy story.
Time was flying it was already almost 2pm! We decided to do one more attraction and I am glad we did as it turned out to be the highlight of the DQ visit. It was "Virtual Space Mountain" and it is done in two steps... first with Bill Nye the Science Guy as your host you build your own rollercoaster... you pick the tracks, the backdrop, the loops and jumps and spins etc... you even get to name it.. the ours was called "Screaching Rocket" and when you are done creating it is stored on a swipe card that you take to Step Two which is where you RIDE your coaster.
These are big capsules you get in and you are harnessed in and then watch the screen in front of you as you ride your 10,000 feet of track you designed. You can get really thrown around in here... it is much smoother than a real roller coaster but you really go upside down and get the effect of the climbs and drops. You are filmed as this is going on and when they ride is done you get to see a bit of yourselves screaming and laughing.. and heres a surprise for you all - you can actually purchase your video.
Virtual Space Mountain was so much fun we went back and designed and rode another one!We then left Disney Quest and I noticed Saratoga Springs across the lake all covered in scaffolding... it looks huge. It was now almost 3;30pm so we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner and picked wolfgang puck. This is a beautiful, bright, colourful restaurant and we sat at the windows that overlooked the lake. Everything on the menu sounded delicious and now that I was over my illness I was starved. I wanted to try the springrolls as an appetizer with something else as an entree but the waiter said it was a large serving... I asked if he could do half and it was no problem at all... so I had a half order of springolls that were OUTSTANDING and a half order of their salad with gorganzola cheese and chicken... Noel had chicken fingers (again).
This was an excellent lunch/dinner.. the restaurant was quiet and interesingly enough they had on a Gordon Lightfoot CD and played several of his songs - I was surprised as he is a Canadian Folk singer and the music (although really nice) just didn't seem to mesh with this modern, hip restaurant.. so I ate my springrolls listening to the ballad 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
Although we wanted dessert we skipped it here in favour of Gihradellis (sp) where we encountered our longest line up and wait of the entire trip... I am serious, even longer then Mission Space! Noel had a single scoop of Cookie Dough Icecream and I had a malt.. we sat at the centre counter and boy was this place packed, we were lucky to get a spot. I was watching the waiters deliver some huge ice cream creations to the tables... some of them looked incredible! I like the atmosphere of this place and I think it is much better than Beaches and Cream, despite having to wait.
We took another few minutes to shop for a souvenier for Noel's friend who is looking after 'Halo' our Hamster - she loves Minnie Mouse so we picked her up a Minnie Nightshirt that says Positivly Pampered - with a big Minnie on the front... hope she likes it
I could not believe the time - almost 6pm, we don't even stay at the themeparks this late - in fact we were always back to the hotel by 3pm, there was no way I was going to waste time taking the bus so we grabbed a cab which was conveniently sitting just outside the exit of the big shop in the Marketplace.
We were back in the AKL by and in the pool by 6:30pm... on the way to the pool we stopped by the concierge lounge to pick up a soda... I saw Don the concierge grinning at me and waving me over to his desk "I can tell you now" he said " - "The celebrity has checked out"
"Well?? who was it"? I demanded impatiently..... WOW! It was Eddie Murphy and his family! I told Noel it was Dr. Doolittle and the guy in Haunted Mansion that she has seen previews for, she was pretty impressed knowing that she was sleeping just a few doors down from him!
We had a great swim tonight.... the pool was pretty quiet and warm, the sun was just setting. Noel took her last slide down the slide
and we went to the hot tub for a half hour. Also deserted until a lady and her daughter arrived, we chatted and it turns out she is a travel agent and she was upset they would not upgrade her to concierge. I asked her if she sold much Disney and she said NO... well there you go... The hot tub was wonderful but we were getting tired and I was a bit hungry. Noel didn't want anything and as it was now 9:00pm there were only desserts and liquers in the lounge. We dried off and changed clothes and headed up to the lounge. Don was still there and I asked him if he had a room service menu I could look at... then I remembered that great olive/cheese flat bread that SuAnne and I shared at JIKO last night - THATS! what I wanted. I used the house phone up in the lounge and called JIKO... the girl said to come down in 10 minutes and it would be ready... yum!
I picked a couple of little desserts and put them in a take out cup and then went down to JIKO and picked up my flatbread to take to the room.... wow the elevator smelled wonderful and the people using it were staring at my take out container wondering what was in there that smelled so good.
I enjoyed my late night meal in the room while writing this report ~ Noel is watching a DVD and has decided to sleep in SuAnne's DayBed tonight.... don't worry - I won't be sleeping on the top bunk
I will stick to the queensize.Tomorrow we are sleeping in until at least 9 - 9:30am... I have very little to pack as I have hardly unpacked from Beach Club. We will have our breakfast in the kilamanjaro club and the towncar is picking us up at 11:15 to take us to the airport. I will check and see if my flight is ontime... you never know - it may be delayed and I will have something interesting to report tomorrow besides airline food... I may make it to the magic Kingdom yet!
Until then... good night from Animal Kingdom Lodge and thanx for reading my long winded reports ~ Day 17 will come from Toronto with some closing thoughts and observations.
