sarahrdh
Mom to 2 Princes and a 1 Princess!
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2011
Wasn't really planning to write one of these, but I'm trying to keep the magic alive so here goes!
We left Ohio on Friday the 15th. I picked my son up from school at 12:30, and we were on the road by around 1:15pm. We stayed the night in Warner Robbins, GA at a La Quinta, that ended up being $108 for the night with free breakfast. We stopped at a HI Express first but it was I think around $130....so we went back just a bit to the LQ. I had never stayed at one of those, but was very satisfied. Good to know now, bc we stay at hotels fairly often now, as my daughter is on a competitive gymnastics team which means we travel to meets.
We got back on the road around 8:30 the next morning. I had packed a simple overnight bag with just a change of clothes (we slept in what we traveled in that day-comfy clothes), and toothbrushes, hair brushes. Wise thing to do, rather than hauling out suitcases. All I wanted was beds to sleep in, and food to eat...I wasn't wasting time. But great place to stop, nice area, felt safe, highly recommend!
We got to ASMu around 1:30 om on Sat the 16th!!! I had gotten a text around 11am I believe that our room was ready. We were in Calypso 10, room 0616 I think it was (I never took a pic of the room number come to think of it!) I had requested 3rd floor, landscape view. That is what I got! I was happy with it. We were close to elevator too. We parked at the back parking lot that was closest. We hauled all our stuff up in 2 trips- it was just as easy to do, rather than walk to the main hall and get a cart, we just took it ourselves. We could've pulled up to bell services too, but we really had no clue where we were going so we just didn't! We just wanted to find our room!
We ate lunch at the food court and got our refillable mugs collected. I can't even remember what we ate! I just know I wanted to get there in time to eat lunch there and use a QS credit, rather than buy more food on the road! After that, we quickly changed into suits and hit the pool! I was impressed with the pool. Happy for heated water! lol It felt great! We swam for awhile, then went back up to change. We had a 6:10 ressie at Boma. We drove ourselves to Boma. We were a little confused by the AKL area, bc I didn't really realize how spread out it was-how spread out anything was- and we completely cruised by Jambo house, I just assumed to go to the main building. Turns out, IT'S NOT THERE. lol We turned around went to Jambo house.
Here's what I quickly realized about deluxe resorts- they are crowded at meal times!! Bc then it's not just the people staying there, it's everyone coming to eat somewhere nice too! But I'm obsessed with AKL, someday I will stay there! My entire disney dream started when AK opened and I went to my friends house and looked through their Disney Store catalog (!!!!!!) that had all the new park merchandise all over it....So AKL has a special place in my heart. I digress...the service at Boma was great. It wasn't as fantastic of a place as I expected. Lots of new foods to try, most of which we didn't really like so we ate more american offerings, desserts were okay. I wasn't AS impressed with zebra domes as I thought I was going to be. (**ducks from the stones**) I would return, but it' s not on my list anytime soon. I'd try Sanaa though. We did enjoy walking around afterwards, seeing the animals, roasting marshmallows. The kids got a kick out of that! It was an absolutely beautiful resort, hands down! It gave me some peace about NOT staying there anytime soon. After dinner, we went back to ASMu and unpacked a bit, watched some tv, and relaxed for our next day of Magic Kingdom!
Sunday May 17th...Magic Kingdom was the plan. Fastpasses set for: SDMT first, then Enchanted Tales with Belle, then Space Mountain. We also had a lunch ressie at BOG, then a dinner ressie at Tonys. We took the bus to the MK,got there around 9am. I really wanted to go to rope drop, but apparently dh didn't realize that this wasn't a leisurely vacation (?!?!?!) and that I was waking him up at 7:45am. He learned that when he told me I better not wake him up at 8, and I said I won't, 7:45....In my own defense, I asked him a couple times weeks prior if he wanted to hear the intinerary , and he told me he didn't really care. Which I knew he'd regret later, but I let it go and knew he'd figure out that yes, he needs to know the plan! He did. Anyway, by the time we got there, we had just enough time to hit up the photopass for the obligatory castle picture. Honestly, I liked the last day pic better than the first day. Just because I wasn't happy with my outfit. Which sounds dumb. But I wore a dri fit shirt and shorts in an effort to stay comfy and cool but it wasn't flattering AT ALL which surprised me. I get weird about pics of myself. They had us do some cheesy pose that involved me putting my hands on my face like I was sleeping beauty, which ended up being a ridiculous picture. It was terrible, really. And I knew it at the time. Agh. We high tailed it to Fantasyland, stopping at the teacups first. I sat out of that one, I get motion sickness really bad, and spinning does me in, I was just praying I could make it through the mine train! I had taken dramamine and had on my accupressure bands. Then we finally went to SDMT. We used the rider switch, since our youngest couldn't ride. It was great! My dd (5) was terrified. She came off crying. It kinda scarred her for the rest of the trip, she wasted a lot of fastpasses I had booked for her! But also, some of them ended up being too scary for her anyway. I'll get to that. My son (9) thought it was the greatest ride on the planet, thus started him ranking his top 3 rides as we rode them... We then went to It's a Small World- it had a 15 min wait. DD was still emotionally troubled and initially refused to go, though changed her mind and got in line with dh & ds2, a bit behind myself and ds9. They all loved it. I know dh was dreading it bc he saw a youtube video prior and declared it had to be the worst, most annoying ride ever. Which, he ended up finding it tolerable. And we enjoyed a cool break.
Then we went over the Peter Pan- another 15 min wait. Everyone loved this! Dh even liked it, and ranked it as his favorite indoor type attraction. Then we went to the carousel (the horsies as ds2 kept saying) and rode that. Kids loved it. While on my horsie, I noticed there was only a 20min wait at PFH to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel! So there we went! I'm so glad we did, bc both of them were fantastic! I liked this Cinderella better than the next one we met later. They were both super cute!
Somewhere in here, we stopped and enjoyed some frozen treats from a snack cart- mickey bars, frozen banana, and smoothie.
By then it was time to head to BOG. We were in line maybe 5-7min before being directed to an ordering screen. I put something in wrong and ended up starting my order over. Whatevs. We found a table in the library. Our food was delivered fairly quickly.I got the braised pork. IT. WAS. AMAZING. SERIOUSLY. So good! We all shared our desserts, I got the cupcake topped with the grey stuff and dh got the e'clair. Mine was better. We walked to all the rooms and I took some pics. I loooove BATB! It was my fav growing up! So I was really looking forward to dining there. DH loved it too. We WILL come back here next year! We walked around for about 20 min afterwards, before heading to ETwB. I really didn't know much about this, I just knew it has long waits, and I thought the kids would sit on the floor and listen to a story. This ended up being one of my favorite things! I was so surprised how fun & amazing it was! At this point, I was catching on that NOTHING is half-assed at Disney! Belle was my fav princess growing up, I remember my mom surprising me with the VHS tape, and I dressed up as Belle in 2nd grade for halloween. When Belle walked into the room, I was fighting back my tears bc she was SO BEAUTIFUL and was absolutely everything I ever imagined she would be! (Again, better than the next one we met.) I really, truly was just in awe of her. My ds9 ended up being a dinner plate, and my dd was the salt shaker in the the cast. It was really cool they included the kids like that, and how they did the photos at the end. OH- and the animatronic characters?!! Never seen anything like it! AMAZING!!
By this point, we had spent more than half our day in FL, which dh asked if this was the whole park, bc he thought it was bigger. lol We went over to Tomorrowland, and hit the Tomorrowland Speedway (another short wait!) which the kids enjoyed. We still had some time, so dh, ds9, and dd went to Stitch's Great Escape, and I stayed out with ds2. DD came out crying again. DH commented he didn't think it would be scary, and turns out it was! Whoops. My poor dd. She's 5. lol Then we hit up space mountain with our last FP. DD sat out. Good thing, she would've been terrified-again. Too dark & too fast for her! This is the point we figured out, that we would test everything first and if deemed okay, she would ride second on rider switches with her own FP. My son then claimed this to be the BEST RIDE EVER. It ended up as #2 overall.... We had a 5:30 ressie at Tony's so headed there soon after.
Tony's was nice. Our server was fantastic. We were seated in the sunroom, which I almost asked to move, bc I quickly got a headache (I struggle with migraines off & on), and suddenly felt extremely tired-par for the course with migraine sufferers. I sat through dinner debating whether or not to go back for the night and relax bc I was feeling so bad. I had drank plenty of water, I think it was just sitting in direct sunlight that got me. The sun finally started to go down enough that it wasn't right on me, and I drank some Coke (to get some caffeine, something else we migraine sufferers know helps), I had an excellent dessert- amaretto cheesecake. I felt much better by the end of the meal, though wish I could've enjoyed it more. I really can't function like that, I can't interact with my kids, I can't engage in conversation, I go downhill FAST, but was thanking God that I came out of it just as fast, bc that NEVER happens.
I think after dinner was when we actually did the peoplemover, bc it was dark when we were on it...and the dance party. That time is kinda a blur, as I wasn't feeling the greatest by dinner.
We did snag a great spot for fireworks, kinda right in the center of the main hub. Talked with a nice older gentleman, and swapped stories. He told us how neat NYE was but so busy he'll never do it again. lol Wishes was amazing. ds2 and dd ended up falling asleep in the stroller. I did not get teary. I don't think I did anyway. dh wasn't real thrilled with staying, just bc of the crowds, but once it started, I could tell he was amazed too, as he was taking cell phone video! Afterwards, we were directed out a back way, around main st, and to the exit. dh carried out our sleeping ds2 over his shoulder, which is one of my fav pics of our trip. So sweet. That's how kids SHOULD leave the MK! We boarded the bus and headed back to rest up for the next day at Animal Kingdom.
We left Ohio on Friday the 15th. I picked my son up from school at 12:30, and we were on the road by around 1:15pm. We stayed the night in Warner Robbins, GA at a La Quinta, that ended up being $108 for the night with free breakfast. We stopped at a HI Express first but it was I think around $130....so we went back just a bit to the LQ. I had never stayed at one of those, but was very satisfied. Good to know now, bc we stay at hotels fairly often now, as my daughter is on a competitive gymnastics team which means we travel to meets.
We got back on the road around 8:30 the next morning. I had packed a simple overnight bag with just a change of clothes (we slept in what we traveled in that day-comfy clothes), and toothbrushes, hair brushes. Wise thing to do, rather than hauling out suitcases. All I wanted was beds to sleep in, and food to eat...I wasn't wasting time. But great place to stop, nice area, felt safe, highly recommend!
We got to ASMu around 1:30 om on Sat the 16th!!! I had gotten a text around 11am I believe that our room was ready. We were in Calypso 10, room 0616 I think it was (I never took a pic of the room number come to think of it!) I had requested 3rd floor, landscape view. That is what I got! I was happy with it. We were close to elevator too. We parked at the back parking lot that was closest. We hauled all our stuff up in 2 trips- it was just as easy to do, rather than walk to the main hall and get a cart, we just took it ourselves. We could've pulled up to bell services too, but we really had no clue where we were going so we just didn't! We just wanted to find our room!
We ate lunch at the food court and got our refillable mugs collected. I can't even remember what we ate! I just know I wanted to get there in time to eat lunch there and use a QS credit, rather than buy more food on the road! After that, we quickly changed into suits and hit the pool! I was impressed with the pool. Happy for heated water! lol It felt great! We swam for awhile, then went back up to change. We had a 6:10 ressie at Boma. We drove ourselves to Boma. We were a little confused by the AKL area, bc I didn't really realize how spread out it was-how spread out anything was- and we completely cruised by Jambo house, I just assumed to go to the main building. Turns out, IT'S NOT THERE. lol We turned around went to Jambo house.
Here's what I quickly realized about deluxe resorts- they are crowded at meal times!! Bc then it's not just the people staying there, it's everyone coming to eat somewhere nice too! But I'm obsessed with AKL, someday I will stay there! My entire disney dream started when AK opened and I went to my friends house and looked through their Disney Store catalog (!!!!!!) that had all the new park merchandise all over it....So AKL has a special place in my heart. I digress...the service at Boma was great. It wasn't as fantastic of a place as I expected. Lots of new foods to try, most of which we didn't really like so we ate more american offerings, desserts were okay. I wasn't AS impressed with zebra domes as I thought I was going to be. (**ducks from the stones**) I would return, but it' s not on my list anytime soon. I'd try Sanaa though. We did enjoy walking around afterwards, seeing the animals, roasting marshmallows. The kids got a kick out of that! It was an absolutely beautiful resort, hands down! It gave me some peace about NOT staying there anytime soon. After dinner, we went back to ASMu and unpacked a bit, watched some tv, and relaxed for our next day of Magic Kingdom!
Sunday May 17th...Magic Kingdom was the plan. Fastpasses set for: SDMT first, then Enchanted Tales with Belle, then Space Mountain. We also had a lunch ressie at BOG, then a dinner ressie at Tonys. We took the bus to the MK,got there around 9am. I really wanted to go to rope drop, but apparently dh didn't realize that this wasn't a leisurely vacation (?!?!?!) and that I was waking him up at 7:45am. He learned that when he told me I better not wake him up at 8, and I said I won't, 7:45....In my own defense, I asked him a couple times weeks prior if he wanted to hear the intinerary , and he told me he didn't really care. Which I knew he'd regret later, but I let it go and knew he'd figure out that yes, he needs to know the plan! He did. Anyway, by the time we got there, we had just enough time to hit up the photopass for the obligatory castle picture. Honestly, I liked the last day pic better than the first day. Just because I wasn't happy with my outfit. Which sounds dumb. But I wore a dri fit shirt and shorts in an effort to stay comfy and cool but it wasn't flattering AT ALL which surprised me. I get weird about pics of myself. They had us do some cheesy pose that involved me putting my hands on my face like I was sleeping beauty, which ended up being a ridiculous picture. It was terrible, really. And I knew it at the time. Agh. We high tailed it to Fantasyland, stopping at the teacups first. I sat out of that one, I get motion sickness really bad, and spinning does me in, I was just praying I could make it through the mine train! I had taken dramamine and had on my accupressure bands. Then we finally went to SDMT. We used the rider switch, since our youngest couldn't ride. It was great! My dd (5) was terrified. She came off crying. It kinda scarred her for the rest of the trip, she wasted a lot of fastpasses I had booked for her! But also, some of them ended up being too scary for her anyway. I'll get to that. My son (9) thought it was the greatest ride on the planet, thus started him ranking his top 3 rides as we rode them... We then went to It's a Small World- it had a 15 min wait. DD was still emotionally troubled and initially refused to go, though changed her mind and got in line with dh & ds2, a bit behind myself and ds9. They all loved it. I know dh was dreading it bc he saw a youtube video prior and declared it had to be the worst, most annoying ride ever. Which, he ended up finding it tolerable. And we enjoyed a cool break.
Then we went over the Peter Pan- another 15 min wait. Everyone loved this! Dh even liked it, and ranked it as his favorite indoor type attraction. Then we went to the carousel (the horsies as ds2 kept saying) and rode that. Kids loved it. While on my horsie, I noticed there was only a 20min wait at PFH to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel! So there we went! I'm so glad we did, bc both of them were fantastic! I liked this Cinderella better than the next one we met later. They were both super cute!Somewhere in here, we stopped and enjoyed some frozen treats from a snack cart- mickey bars, frozen banana, and smoothie.
By then it was time to head to BOG. We were in line maybe 5-7min before being directed to an ordering screen. I put something in wrong and ended up starting my order over. Whatevs. We found a table in the library. Our food was delivered fairly quickly.I got the braised pork. IT. WAS. AMAZING. SERIOUSLY. So good! We all shared our desserts, I got the cupcake topped with the grey stuff and dh got the e'clair. Mine was better.
We walked to all the rooms and I took some pics. I loooove BATB! It was my fav growing up! So I was really looking forward to dining there. DH loved it too. We WILL come back here next year! We walked around for about 20 min afterwards, before heading to ETwB. I really didn't know much about this, I just knew it has long waits, and I thought the kids would sit on the floor and listen to a story. This ended up being one of my favorite things! I was so surprised how fun & amazing it was! At this point, I was catching on that NOTHING is half-assed at Disney! Belle was my fav princess growing up, I remember my mom surprising me with the VHS tape, and I dressed up as Belle in 2nd grade for halloween. When Belle walked into the room, I was fighting back my tears bc she was SO BEAUTIFUL and was absolutely everything I ever imagined she would be! (Again, better than the next one we met.) I really, truly was just in awe of her. My ds9 ended up being a dinner plate, and my dd was the salt shaker in the the cast. It was really cool they included the kids like that, and how they did the photos at the end. OH- and the animatronic characters?!! Never seen anything like it! AMAZING!! By this point, we had spent more than half our day in FL, which dh asked if this was the whole park, bc he thought it was bigger. lol We went over to Tomorrowland, and hit the Tomorrowland Speedway (another short wait!) which the kids enjoyed. We still had some time, so dh, ds9, and dd went to Stitch's Great Escape, and I stayed out with ds2. DD came out crying again. DH commented he didn't think it would be scary, and turns out it was! Whoops. My poor dd. She's 5. lol Then we hit up space mountain with our last FP. DD sat out. Good thing, she would've been terrified-again. Too dark & too fast for her! This is the point we figured out, that we would test everything first and if deemed okay, she would ride second on rider switches with her own FP. My son then claimed this to be the BEST RIDE EVER. It ended up as #2 overall.... We had a 5:30 ressie at Tony's so headed there soon after.
Tony's was nice. Our server was fantastic. We were seated in the sunroom, which I almost asked to move, bc I quickly got a headache (I struggle with migraines off & on), and suddenly felt extremely tired-par for the course with migraine sufferers. I sat through dinner debating whether or not to go back for the night and relax bc I was feeling so bad. I had drank plenty of water, I think it was just sitting in direct sunlight that got me. The sun finally started to go down enough that it wasn't right on me, and I drank some Coke (to get some caffeine, something else we migraine sufferers know helps), I had an excellent dessert- amaretto cheesecake. I felt much better by the end of the meal, though wish I could've enjoyed it more. I really can't function like that, I can't interact with my kids, I can't engage in conversation, I go downhill FAST, but was thanking God that I came out of it just as fast, bc that NEVER happens.
I think after dinner was when we actually did the peoplemover, bc it was dark when we were on it...and the dance party. That time is kinda a blur, as I wasn't feeling the greatest by dinner.
We did snag a great spot for fireworks, kinda right in the center of the main hub. Talked with a nice older gentleman, and swapped stories. He told us how neat NYE was but so busy he'll never do it again. lol Wishes was amazing. ds2 and dd ended up falling asleep in the stroller. I did not get teary. I don't think I did anyway. dh wasn't real thrilled with staying, just bc of the crowds, but once it started, I could tell he was amazed too, as he was taking cell phone video! Afterwards, we were directed out a back way, around main st, and to the exit. dh carried out our sleeping ds2 over his shoulder, which is one of my fav pics of our trip. So sweet. That's how kids SHOULD leave the MK!
We boarded the bus and headed back to rest up for the next day at Animal Kingdom.
