You Get a Suite! You Get a Suite! Everybody Gets a Suite! December 2023 Trip Report! (Updated 4/26!)

[Stacybaeasm]

Quick RL update! I may (big may) be going to Disney in April!

There is a conference down in Orlando that my boss wants someone from my group to go to, so of course I volunteered. Don't know if I'll be accepted, but if so, Flower and Garden here I come! I wouldn't have a ton of time for Disney based on the conference schedule, but it looks like I would have at least one day free and a few mornings, so it could be a perfect little trip to hold me over until our regular September trip. ​

We'll be at BCV April 7 to 11th.

Umm...I'll be there April 7-14th. I have wedding things on Monday (bachelor party in the parks), Wednesday (rehearsal dinner), and Thursday (wedding and reception) but I would love to meet up if time and itineraries allow.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

That woman and her daughter at Tiffins…just, wow. I have no words. Well I do but they would probably get me kicked off the boards. What is wrong with people?!

Your food looked great at least. Glad your dad enjoyed it too.

 

[VAtink]

That was a really long time to wait for your room. The latest we ever had to wait for a room was at the Grand Floridian. I had gone to the front desk several times to see if the room was ready, but it didn't help. We finally got the room ready text at 5:40pm, while we were sitting at the bar at Mizners. They gave us the room was right next to the bank of elevators and we could hear the noise from the elevators moving up and down. I have a feeling that someone else had rejected that room and they had to clean it again to get it ready for us.

Right? I can't believe it took so long!

The bad parent will eventually pay the price when the kid becomes a teenager and makes her life hell.

Haha, good point!

 

[VAtink]

Umm...I'll be there April 7-14th. I have wedding things on Monday (bachelor party in the parks), Wednesday (rehearsal dinner), and Thursday (wedding and reception) but I would love to meet up if time and itineraries allow.

Oh yes! If my boss lets me go to this conference of course He, along with half my office, is out sick with covid currently, so who knows when I'll find out!

 

[VAtink]

That woman and her daughter at Tiffins…just, wow. I have no words. Well I do but they would probably get me kicked off the boards. What is wrong with people?!

I know! I'm still shocked that multiple people asked her to stop her daughter from throwing food and climbing the totem poles, and she refused to. So crazy!

Your food looked great at least. Glad your dad enjoyed it too.

The food was delicious, we really love it there!

 

[VAtink]

Day 3, Part 5: We Finally See Our New Home!​

We last left off checking out Pandora at night!

We then made our way towards the front of the park. It was the extended evening hours for deluxe guests this night, so we could have stayed and done some rides, but none of us really felt like staying much later and we were antsy to finally get into our room.

As we were walking by the ToL we saw the show on it was going on, so stopped to watch. It was really cute, so we decided to stop and wait for the next one as well.
​

https://flic.kr/p/2pyo1By

(please excuse my obnoxiously loud voice at the beginning!)

After the show ended, we took some pictures in the area before heading out.



Of course as we left I had to get a picture of the tree out front all lit up!



We finally made our way to the buses, and once again luck was on our side and a bus was waiting!

It was a super short ride back, and once at the hotel we decided to swing by the lounge first to grab some desserts and drinks to bring back to the room, then go find the room. This ended up being a good choice since the room was so ridiculously far away, actually the last room in the resort.


The red circle in the upper left is where our room was, the red circle on the lower right is where the elevators are.

Ooph that was a long haul! Glad we didn’t go there first and then go back to the lounge!

Once in the room we called bell services to have the bags brought up.

We then explored the room a bit! Once again we were in a two bedroom suite, however this one we actually booked.














​

The room was bigger than the Boardwalks two-bedroom suite, but we preferred the layout and décor over at the Boardwalk more, and especially preferred the location of the room at the Boardwalk more. That long walk to the lobby and lounge was definitely a big downside to the room.

As an aside, does anyone know if prior to the conversion of the top floors to DVC, were the suites at AKL up there instead and closer to the lounge? It seems like such a poor design choice to put some of the most expensive rooms in the hotel in such a bad location, like almost like this was done as an afterthought.

We decided to enjoy the wine and desserts (hello Mickey Bar!) before unpacking, so settled into the dining room to do that.

We were sitting around the dining table enjoying the ice cream, when suddenly my mom started laughing and could not stop. My dad and I were completely confused, we couldn’t figure out what was so funny, and mom was laughing so hard she couldn’t speak, so dad and I just kind of started nervously laughing along with her, completely clueless as to what was so funny.

Finally mom was able to control her laughter and she got up and went to get something from the fridge, comes back and drops a few ziplock bags full of squishy brown stuff on the table in front of us.

It took us a hot second to realize what it was…it was desserts from the dessert party the previous night that we couldn’t finish and mom decided to put into ziplock bags so we could eat it later. But since the desserts were mostly not solid, once in the bags they got all squished and mixed together to make this kind of gross looking brown mess!



She had seen it in the morning and didn’t know what to do with it so just put it in the fridge when we got into the room, and when we had gotten back to the room she remembered those bags and just couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous they ended up looking!

It was a pretty hilarious interaction, and had us laughing for the rest of the night

Next up: Please Don’t Make a Boomer Joke​

 

[Sajchinook2015]

OMG! Your mom sounds like my great aunt Anna. Bless her heart. She used to bring baggies for left overs and they always were never eaten cuz they would get squished. I am laughing so hard i almost dropped my wine glass. Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories for me and remembering my aunt.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

That room needs a tram from the elevator. I love that the suites have their own Christmas trees! Your mom sounds like a hoot. Here, anyone want a bag of brown goo? LOL

 

[VAtink]

OMG! Your mom sounds like my great aunt Anna. Bless her heart. She used to bring baggies for left overs and they always were never eaten cuz they would get squished. I am laughing so hard i almost dropped my wine glass. Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories for me and remembering my aunt.

Haha, yeah for years she's been saying she's going to start bringing tupperware to the parks to save all the food we don't eat, she finally sort of did that and it did not turn out well

 

[VAtink]

That room needs a tram from the elevator. I love that the suites have their own Christmas trees! Your mom sounds like a hoot. Here, anyone want a bag of brown goo? LOL

Right? You don't realize how big that hotel is until you're in the last room! The trees in the suites were such a nice touch, we really were spoiled during this trip!

Haha, yeah my mom cracks us up. We're still laughing about those squishy brown bags

 

[VAtink]

Ok, crowdsourcing some opinions here. We're looking at trips for 2025 (yes, we plan way out), and we are so torn right now on what to do. I'm pushing hard for a Jan 2025 FArts trip, which is looking pretty good, but we're struggling with what to do with our standard fall trip.

I mentioned this in my last TR, but with F&W not bringing back the special events as of yet, it's lost it's pull on us, so we've been discussing going to other festivals that offer more. Now of course the special events could (hopefully) come back, which is part of why we're torn. So right now we're looking at doing either a long September trip, a long December trip, or do two short trips, one in September and one in December.

I'm leaning towards doing the two short trips, but my mom is leaning towards just doing one of the long ones since it would be a bit cheaper (fewer flights, tickets slightly less for increased # of days). And while I am currently leaning towards the two short trips, the long trips definitely are a lot more relaxing, and we see/do more. Plus less packing and less flying (which I HATE).

So what would others do? A long September trip (and hope the F&W events come back), a long December trip (and really experience Festival of the Holidays...we did a horrible job with that this past December), or two short trips to do both (like 4 nights each). And yes, I know, this is not a bad problem to have

 

[mickey916]

hmmm...I would go with the long December trip but I really love the holidays in WDW. Although you may find that the F&W events come back due to the opening of the festival area at Epcot (which I assume will be complete by then). I think weather in September also can be more iffy than December....either way it's a great problem to have.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Really tough call and you know I am one of those feverishly hoping against hope that the F&W events come back. But between that being an unknown and hurricane season ... and also how amazing the holidays at WDW are, I think I'd pick the long, more relaxing December trip (while maybe quietly plotting for a quick trip (solo or with fam) in the fall IF the events come back). Of course, you know the surest way to make the events come back is to book the Dec trip .

 

[jrmint427]

So what would others do? A long September trip (and hope the F&W events come back), a long December trip (and really experience Festival of the Holidays...we did a horrible job with that this past December), or two short trips to do both (like 4 nights each).

I would personally choose the long September trip! September has been my favorite time to be in the parks with lower crowds and I’d rather a long trip during that time than 2 short trips (I’m with your mom on the cost of the extra flights and lost savings on tickets, and with you on the packing!). But I don’t think there’s a wrong choice here

 

[suse66]

There is a conference down in Orlando that my boss wants someone from my group to go to, so of course I volunteered. Don't know if I'll be accepted, but if so, Flower and Garden here I come! I wouldn't have a ton of time for Disney based on the conference schedule, but it looks like I would have at least one day free and a few mornings, so it could be a perfect little trip to hold me over until our regular September trip. ​

That would be great!! I just booked a last minute trip to go to Flower and Garden. I haven't been in 2 years and miss it so much!

There was one downside to dinner, and that was some very very bad parenting happening at a nearby table. This woman was at a table just on the other side of the totem poles from us with her daughter, and this woman was letting her daughter treat the dining room like a playground. This girl was trying to climb the totem poles, was throwing food at other diners and around the room, and kept running around the room screaming. The whole time the mother just sat there playing on her phone ignoring what her kid was doing. Multiple guests and the manager asked her to control her daughter, but the mom just made some snide remark that she’s “a kid so there’s nothing I can do.” Um, what?!?! I’ve seen some bad parenting, but this takes the cake! I get kids acting up from time to time and having tons of energy to burn, but to let your kid throw food in a restaurant, and at other diners, is inexcusable. Fortunately, they left about half way through our dinner, but they left a massive mess behind, I felt bad for the CMs who had to clean up after them. There was food all over the floor, all over the table, and all over the room from this kid!

What in the world??????? So much terrible parenting out there.

Oh, and while eating we FINALLY got our room ready text, at around 7pm ! Yikes! We theorized the guests in the room before us didn’t want to leave the room on time since there was a large group of giraffes hanging out right in front of the room that afternoon so they tried to stay to watch as long as possible. (When we were out on the overlook earlier we saw this group of giraffes there and I guessed that would be our room since we knew we were on the Arusha savanna so there were only two locations our room could be!). Or it could just be it's such a massive hotel they took forever to finally get to our room to clean (although on our checkout day housekeeping was waiting outside our door by 10am for us to leave...) Oh well, at least we finally had a room!

Thatsa very long time to wait for your room!

As we were walking by the ToL we saw the show on it was going on, so stopped to watch. It was really cute, so we decided to stop and wait for the next one as well.

It's a great show!

As an aside, does anyone know if prior to the conversion of the top floors to DVC, were the suites at AKL up there instead and closer to the lounge? It seems like such a poor design choice to put some of the most expensive rooms in the hotel in such a bad location, like almost like this was done as an afterthought.

I think it's because the suites have the best savannah views so they are at the very end.

We were sitting around the dining table enjoying the ice cream, when suddenly my mom started laughing and could not stop. My dad and I were completely confused, we couldn’t figure out what was so funny, and mom was laughing so hard she couldn’t speak, so dad and I just kind of started nervously laughing along with her, completely clueless as to what was so funny.

So what would others do? A long September trip (and hope the F&W events come back), a long December trip (and really experience Festival of the Holidays...we did a horrible job with that this past December), or two short trips to do both (like 4 nights each). And yes, I know, this is not a bad problem to have

I feel that as another Diser who is always in planning mode!

 

[Counting Stars]

Forced choice, I would go for the longer, relaxed December trip... really experience the holiday décor and activities. But I am easily swayed and can see the positives of going in September as well. I am not a fan of shorter trips. It seems like its the same amount of work required pre-trip for only get a few nights stay.

 

[VAtink]

hmmm...I would go with the long December trip but I really love the holidays in WDW. Although you may find that the F&W events come back due to the opening of the festival area at Epcot (which I assume will be complete by then). I think weather in September also can be more iffy than December....either way it's a great problem to have.

I do love the idea of going in December again, and the weather is typically much nicer and more likely to be sweater weather which I love. Plus not having to watch for hurricanes is definitely a bonus. But I know if we book December, they'll bring back all the events for F&W that year If only we had unlimited funds so we could do long trips both months!

 

[VAtink]

Really tough call and you know I am one of those feverishly hoping against hope that the F&W events come back. But between that being an unknown and hurricane season ... and also how amazing the holidays at WDW are, I think I'd pick the long, more relaxing December trip (while maybe quietly plotting for a quick trip (solo or with fam) in the fall IF the events come back). Of course, you know the surest way to make the events come back is to book the Dec trip .

Yup, this is where we are stuck right now, we're pretty certain if we book a long December trip, then all the fun events will be back for F&W. I wonder if I can convince my mom to do a short September and a long December...

 

[VAtink]

I would personally choose the long September trip! September has been my favorite time to be in the parks with lower crowds and I’d rather a long trip during that time than 2 short trips (I’m with your mom on the cost of the extra flights and lost savings on tickets, and with you on the packing!). But I don’t think there’s a wrong choice here

Yeah, my mom is leaning towards the long September, it's become our tradition to go in September and she's worried we'd miss out on new F&W stuff if we did December instead. I'm still completely torn, which is why the two short trips were looking good, but would be cheaper to just do the one trip and less packing.

 

[VAtink]

That would be great!! I just booked a last minute trip to go to Flower and Garden. I haven't been in 2 years and miss it so much!

That's awesome! I still have no idea if I'll be allowed to go, but fingers crossed. Hope you have a great trip!

What in the world??????? So much terrible parenting out there.

YES! We were shocked, if I behaved even remotely like that kid my parents would have dragged me out of Disney World and onto a plane home immediately!

Thatsa very long time to wait for your room!

So ridiculously long, we've never had a wait that long for a room. Guess that's a problem with booking a room there are so few of

It's a great show!

It was so cute! And I loved the music.

I think it's because the suites have the best savannah views so they are at the very end.

The view actually wasn't very good, our view from our regular savanna view room years ago was much better. Our main balcony in the suite looked out to the back edge of the savanna so it was just a big fence. Fortunately some giraffes like to hang out right by the fence a lot, but it was like we were looking into a backstage area.

We're still laughing about this, I can't believe how gross those desserts looked the next day!

I feel that as another Diser who is always in planning mode!

Haha, yup!