Twice in one year??? pre trip report

sirenia88

You are a Toy car!
Joined
May 25, 2004
Well... we did it again. Last minute trip as we will be in Disney come early November. We are flying in MCO and out of Tampa as we will be visiting my relatives while in Florida. Trip highlights include...

Flying to Orlando
Staying at Art of Animation for one night.
Moving over to a Lodge. Animal Kingdom that is!
AK for Pandora in the morning. Afternoon resort
MK the next day cause after all we are at WDW
We have 2 day tickets this time. No park hopper
Leave for my relatives to visit them
Fly out from Tampa

Flying well we were going to drive. However the I revisited the cost aspect and time. The DW and I revisited this last weekend. We found a few flight prices we can live with. So it was not as bad as it was a month ago with the pricing. However if we flew out of our local airport, it was going to be about 50 percent more. Even with the drive into NYC and parking, we still come out ahead. That's scary. We had no problem driving but when I thought about geting there by mid afternoon, it kind of sealed the deal. We could sleep in a bit and still get to FLA in daylight and most likely less tired plus enjoy the resorts more.

Now I have one question is anyone going to the Halloween party and will still be there on the 4th, 5th or 6th? My DD playing the sourcer game and we usually try to get the special card for Halloween and Christmas. We were at MK on Halloween last year. It was awesome. She was hoping to find one for this year and trade. DD has been getting into pin collecting and Sourcer game. She now trades when with others at the game locations. If so, we can swing by the fort to make a trade. Thanks in advance.

As a matter of fact, we are going to MK for game, pin trading an the new fireworks show. We are going to some rides but nothing in the way of the characters or usual everything experience.

Less than 2 weeks and counting...
 
So we are here. AoA for the night. Surprised by the wife, going to Trails End for dinner at 8pm. Where you at Bama_ed? Maybe the family and I can pull off a quick meet and greet.
 
So we are here. AoA for the night. Surprised by the wife, going to Trails End for dinner at 8pm. Where you at Bama_ed? Maybe the family and I can pull off a quick meet and greet.

Sirenia,

We are in 125 which is right in the corner by where Big Pine Trail and Fort Wilderness Trail intersect down by the Settlement Bus Depot (the main intersection down there). I have my Bama EZ ups near the corner and am sitting outside watching college football. In my words, I am facing "Times Square".

Come by if you have time. We are going home early tomorrow.

Bama Ed
 


Great meal tonight. TE didn't disappoint. We got to see most of the fireworks from the beach and met finally Bama ed. Total class act. Even gave us a ride back to the car after our quick meet and greet. We got some pictures from tonight but it will have to wait until I can resize them for the boards. Long day time for bed.
 
Glad you made it, but staying off site, shame on you. Your camper tires are going to rot into the ground. Lil medic wants to stay at AK one night on our next trip, you will have to let me know how it was. Have a great time.
 


popcorn::Got my popcorn and waiting.....now I am thirsty.:drinking1

We will wait for some pictures.:artist:
 
Glad you made it, but staying off site, shame on you. Your camper tires are going to rot into the ground. Lil medic wants to stay at AK one night on our next trip, you will have to let me know how it was. Have a great time.
Snowmedic we did AKL on my DW 2nd trip for a week. Yes it was nice to lookout on the Savannah and see all the animals but it has a VERY DIFFERENT vibe than THE FORT. People even CM's not as friendly No feeling of being part of a shared community IMHO They might be disappointed
 
Snowmedic we did AKL on my DW 2nd trip for a week. Yes it was nice to lookout on the Savannah and see all the animals but it has a VERY DIFFERENT vibe than THE FORT. People even CM's not as friendly No feeling of being part of a shared community IMHO They might be disappointed

Thanks, after our trip to the Great Escape I did find out how hard it is to get anyone in a hotel environment to say hi. I tried saying hi to everyone that I passed and all I got for a response was a lot of nothing.

Our daughter just thought that it might be neat to look out the window or sit on the balcony to see the animals roaming around, and I thought that while they sleep I could run over to the Fort and check-in then run back for breakfast and some pool time while we wait for our site to be ready.
 
Thanks, after our trip to the Great Escape I did find out how hard it is to get anyone in a hotel environment to say hi. I tried saying hi to everyone that I passed and all I got for a response was a lot of nothing.

Our daughter just thought that it might be neat to look out the window or sit on the balcony to see the animals roaming around, and I thought that while they sleep I could run over to the Fort and check-in then run back for breakfast and some pool time while we wait for our site to be ready.
Sitting out on the balcony watching all the animals down below was the best part of our stay. Be warned however the balcony is small. The Red Hogs were cute but the Guinea Fowl were the best. They chased the grounds keepers everywhere.
 
So just a quick update. We got to AKL. The DD got super excited as we pulled up to the gste. Unfortunately it took most the day to get there since we just hung out at AoA and Disney Springs. We did Paradiso 37 for lunch and Sprinkles for a snack. Then to AKL. We got our room. We are located on the Kidini village side of the savannah. The moment we opened the door, we had instant animals at the balcony.

This morning we hit up AK. We got to do Pandora. Navi journey first since the flight of passage was a fast pass for us. So we got in line and was told the ride was down due to technical issues. Since we got to the park at 7:20 AM we were routed into the hold queue. We hopped out of that and saw there were people standing around for NRJ . It was about 7:45 or so. Magically at 8AM the ride started operating. interesting. I tend not to think the ride was not operating as in not enough employees to run it. So we would up going on it twice! Then we did the safari since there was 5 minute walk on and then Everest twice. So we cleared the fast passes for those since we had them done by 9:30. Then a quick trip in dino land. Then to Flight of Passage. Awesome right but it took a really long time to make it to the actual ride itself. Really awesome though.

After that we got something to eat, did some browsing and then headed back to the resort. We got back around 1PM for some resort time. We did the pool and got run for several hours. We just got back to from dinner.

Tomorrow is a magic kingdom. We are doing a late breakfast as we don't need to be at no until 1230 for the FPs. So we will just lounge around watching the animals in the morning.

The CMs here have been crazy super friendly. However I did noticed a lot of British accents. I know October is their time in the area but wow.

Right now photos will come when we get back to reality which I don't want to think about it.
 
Eventually I will get to the pictures. All I will say is I have been really busy at work since another employee quit and when I got back, I was told they (owners) decided to go to a trade show at the last minute. So between all that and work around the house, extra activities and so forth, I have yet to unload the pictures from the cards never mind anything else. Now with the holidays, I doubt I will find time....this year.
 
Ha, I thought you were getting ready to tell us you where heading back down to Disney. Glad to hear that you had a wonderful trip and thanks for the pics, Savannah really enjoyed them, and is looking forward to a stay at AK.
 
Eventually I will get to the pictures. All I will say is I have been really busy at work since another employee quit and when I got back, I was told they (owners) decided to go to a trade show at the last minute. So between all that and work around the house, extra activities and so forth, I have yet to unload the pictures from the cards never mind anything else. Now with the holidays, I doubt I will find time....this year.

Alan, I know the predicament you are in.

My approach is to do what I can while I am at WDW. Once I get home, life gets in the way again as it tends to do.

No pressure, man.

Bama Ed
 
Finally I got something accomplished and learned something. I can now do batch files! I managed to process all my photos for resizing to the page!!!!

Up first Art of Animation. We did the Little Mermaid section. Pretty cool. Nice pool. The rooms were descent. The beds were small. Since these are vacation photos, I tried to keep the DD and DW out of the pictures.

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Here is our trip to Pandora in AK. Yes it was that overcast. It was glaring annoying. We mainly came down for Pandora and also shack up at the AKL for a couple of nights. To me it was the only way we could experience without killing the budget which was well dead in the water when we wound up booking. YOLO! I told the DW that next time it will be 2 full weeks at Concierge Level and nothing less. She laughed. One of her co workers actually does do this but she had 2 sons and the lounge area works well for her family. Plus her and her husband only do one large family vacation every 2 to 3 years.

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Animal Kingdom Lodge! Here is the courtyard view. It has a number of viewing areas to look at the animals of the savanna. There are guides to answer any questions you might have. It was very quiet the time we walked this area since it was during the day. This is also where they hold the campfires and the like. It was beautiful at night.

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Inside the main lobby there was a bridge. Needless to say the DD and I had to walk across it. Check out the lighting at the top of the staircase.

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This was the view from our room. Kindani Village (DVC villas/ suites) are to our left and the resort was to the right. This is the Sunset Savanna. We literally walked into our room and got to see Giraffes, Zebras, Wilderbeasts, water foul, cattle, etc. After awhile seeing a Giraffe was like seeing Mickey at the 3 o clock parade. You know he is going to be there. I have to say after exploring the hotel a little bit, we had probably one of the best views overall. The central courtyard area was not as nice as this wing.


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More shots of the Savanna.


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Last set for now...

More of the savanna. Every time we came back to the room early was literally to watch the wildlife. Morning, mid day late afternoon and even at night, it was really cool. There were night vision goggles at the one view station by the pool which allowed you to see the animals on that side at night. We didn't have time to take the guide tours of the savanna in AKL at night but maybe next time. We enjoyed our wild Africa Trek in April. We would have enjoyed this.


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