AKV Mock-Ups

After catching a sneak peak of the new Kidani village, Marc and I decided we wanted to look at the AKV room mock-ups again. We went over to Saratoga Springs, another DVC resort, and took a look at them. We started with a studio.

This is the kitchenette in a studio:

 

And the bathroom:

And the queen-sized bed and sleeper sofa:

And the entertainment center/drawer space:

After checking out the studio, we wanted to see a 1-bedroom villa. This is what we'll be staying in next month. First stop was bathroom #1:

This is the view as you walk into the main living area:

The 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units have full kitchens:

This is the living room:

The bedroom with a king-sized bed:

The walk-in shower:

The whirlpool tub:

A close-up of the tiles...Lion King!

And finally (and probably the best feature...), the washer and dryer:

We are so excited to stay at Kidani next month!!!

Welcome Home!

Marc, being the rebel that he is, decided he wanted to see the new Kidani village at Disney's Animal Kingdom Village. Forget the "Construction Vehicles Only" signs. I was so mad, because I was worried that we'd end up getting kicked out. Then I saw this:

Now I want to see more! So on we go!

This is the canopy at the entrance:

Notice the security guard standing at the doorway. I didn't see him when I was taking the pictures, or I would have totally flipped out!

We also took some cool videos, but I don't know how to post them here. They're on You Tube, though!

After our private tour, we decided to call it a night and head back to the resort for a swim. Tomorrow morning....Magic Kingdom!

St. Patrick's Day at Hollywood Studios

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Hollywood Studios by wearing our custom-made t-shirts. We were there for rope drop and quickly made our way over to Toy Story Mania to get FastPasses. The lines were loooonnnngggg, but we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get them. So glad we did!

After getting FastPasses, we headed to some less crowded areas of the park. We went to see Muppet*Vision and walked around the back lot areas. After checking the time for Lights, Motors, Action!, we headed back over toward the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Since I had a really bad motion sickness experience with this ride the last time, I decided to sit out. I watched the Beauty and the Beast show, and Marc rode the coaster. We agreed to meet back up when he was finished.

After the Beauty and the Beast show, I sat on the brick ledge to get some sun and waited for Marc. That was a major mistake! I'll explain later...

After Marc (finally!) showed up, we went to see Lights, Motors, Action! It was an awesome show! We even got to see Herbie!




So, remember how I said I made a big mistake by sitting on that brick ledge? Sunburned, right? Well, not really. A couple of weeks before we left for Disney, I came down with a wicked case of Strep throat. Then about a week later, I caught a cold. As a result, I had an infected lymph node in my neck. It was so bad the day before that it really hurt when I moved my neck, and I had a hard time sleeping on my side.

So, what did Dummy (me) do? I took two strong antibiotics that, thank God, I had brought with me. What I didn't do was read the warnings on the side that said this particular antibiotic caused light sensitivity and to stay out of the sun for prolonged periods.

Well, during Lights, Motors, Action!, I started feeling really sick...a cross between wanting to vomit and passing out. Of course, I didn't tell Marc any of this, because he really, really wanted to see the show. At the end, I politely suggested that we head back to the resort to cool off before dinner. So, turns out sitting on that ledge in the full sun for over 30 minutes turned into a mild case of sun poisoning and a pretty good sunburn on my arms. Lovely!

Marc, seeing that I wasn't feeling too good, agreed to go back to the room, and I was able to shower and cool off. I also took a really long nap and woke up feeling somewhat better. There was no way that I was going to miss eating at Cape May again like I did in September. (Was sick with some sort of stomach thing then!)

We drove over to the Beach Club and enjoyed a nice, cloudy stroll to the resort.

Our dinner was really nice until our server dropped a tray of half-eaten food (from other guests) all over Marc's legs and shoes. Ewwww! (Thank goodness for Crocs!) The server was very apologetic and took 20% off our bill (We were on the dining plan.) and offered to buy us drinks. We were able to get everything cleaned off, so it wasn't a big deal.

After dinner, Marc decided to see if we could sneak over to get some pictures of the new Kidani village. Next up...pictures!

Wishes!

After dinner, Marc and I headed back over to Magic Kingdom and arrived a few minutes before Wishes! was to start. We found a spot on the sidewalk in the main hub. We thought it was a really good place to be, but a cast member came over and told us that right before the show started, we could move into the street. Talk about the perfect place! It didn't get any better!

I took a ton of pictures of the castle during the fireworks! I picked out two of my favorites:

Wishes! was a perfect ending to a wonderful day!

Dinner at Rose & Crown

Monday night's dinner reservation was at Rose & Crown. Marc and I ate there in September, and it was really good, so we thought we'd go again. This time was just as awesome!

Our server brought out some cheese bread and butter for us to snack on until our orders arrived. 

Marc ordered the Steak and Fish. He said it was really good!

For dessert, he ordered the Bailey's Irish Coffee Trifle. Again, really good!

I ordered Harry Ramsden's Fish and Chips. They came out nice and hot.

For my dessert, I ordered the Sticky Toffee Pudding. I put the pudding part on top of the cake before I took a picture, which is why it looks a little messy. It was heavenly!

Our meal was really good, with the exception of some gross little boys who showed up at the end. They were sticking their fingers on top of the malt vinegar bottles, licking their fingers, and repeating. Ewwww! I was ready to leave after seeing that! 

After dinner, we headed over to Magic Kingdom and arrived just in time for Wishes!

Epcot

After our late night the previous day, we decided to sleep in a little bit, not much though, and arrived at Epcot by about 10:00am. We immediately went to Soarin' to get FastPasses for later, which turned out to be a good move. Then we wandered around for a little bit before heading over to Sunshine Seasons for an early lunch. Marc ordered a meal from the Asian area (big disappointment!), and I ordered a ham and salami grinder. (Totally stepping out of the box on that one! It was very good, and Marc had to help me finish it.)

After lunch, we checked out some of the topiaries that were starting to show up for the Flower and Garden Festival. (I'll post those pictures together in a separate post.) Then, we headed over toward World Showcase.


We checked out England, France, Morocco, An American Adventure, Japan, and Italy. This trip, I felt like we got a better chance to slow down and notice things that we didn't the last time. For instance, I totally missed this cute little donkey in Italy the last time we were there.





And we also didn't see the spitting gargoyle in France:








After World Showcase, we went back over to Future World to get some cool liquid refreshment from Club Cool.

We also went to use our Soarin' FastPass. Good thing we did! Yep, that's right...105 minutes!

While I was taking a picture of Marc and our FastPasses in front of the Stand-By Entrance, this cast member hopped in the picture. (I love Disney CMs!) I think he was just as thrilled as we were!





After Soarin', we wandered around a little bit more, and soon it was time for dinner at Rose and Crown!

You Want to Stay 'Til When?

After dinner at Whispering Canyon, we hopped on a bus and headed over to one of the parks (I don't remember which one...) to transfer to our resort bus. We hung around for a little bit, then headed back to Magic Kingdom at about 10:30pm. 

Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours until 2:ooam, so I really wanted to go back. Marc...not so much! But since he'll do anything to make me happy, he agreed to go. I'm really happy that we did! We were able to ride a lot of rides in a short amount of time, because the park wasn't really that busy. The only ride we had to wait in line for was Splash Mountain, and it wasn't that bad either. 

Since we knew we would be running around, I didn't feel like dragging the camera around. We stayed and played until closing time and got back to our room at about 3:00am. It was a crazy, fun night!

Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe

During our September trip, we had a horrible experience eating at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We were late getting seated, the service was horrible, and the food was mediocre. But we decided to give it another try, and we were not disappointed!

Instead of getting seated in the main dining room, we were seated in the back part of the restaurant. I was a little worried at first that we would get forgotten about, but we were soon greeted with a wonderful server. He told him that he didn't have to perform all the antics that WCC is famous for, but that we were just looking for a nice, relaxing dinner. He seemed relieved, so we were off to a good start.

Until this happened: We were told that they were out of milkshakes! (And to be honest, that was the main reason that I wanted to give WCC another try!) It wasn't our server's fault, but I was totally bummed! I had my heart set on a caramel milkshake. Oh well!

We both ordered the skillet, which was the same thing we got the last time. It was so much better on this trip! Everything was hot and fresh! As you can see, it was a lot of food! 

About half-way during our meal, we noticed a crowd of people making their way to the back door of the hotel. Since the shuttle was launching that night, we figured it was probably time for it to fly over. Earlier, our server told us to feel free to go outside to check it out during dinner, so we did. It was amazing, and these pictures don't really do it justice:

In the last picture, the one big dot is the shuttle, and the two small dots at the bottom are the booster rockets falling off the shuttle. Amazing!

We really had a much better experience at Whispering Canyon Cafe this time! We'll definitely be back!

Disney Design-a-Tee

After taking a little break back at the resort, Marc and I headed to Downtown Disney in search of St. Patrick's Day t-shirts. I saw some at one of the shops in Magic Kingdom on Saturday, but they only had smalls and mediums. (And we know those weren't going to work on either one of us...) 

As we were walking in, we noticed this little shop:

It wasn't there in September, so we had to go in to check it out. They had the cutest little St. Patrick's Day shirt in the corner, so I picked it to design my own shirt! Once I picked out the color I wanted, I was able to design the shirt on one of these machines:

Marc also decided to get one, too. These were the finished products:

An Afternoon at Animal Kingdom

After lunch at Yak & Yeti, Marc and I went around the corner to go on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We completely missed all of the walking trails last year, so I was excited to be able to do them. You get a chance to see the animals close-up, and since I'm a big fan of zoos, I was all over this!

Our first stop was the bat house. It's completely open, so I was kinda freaked out about going in there at first. I thought there would be a lot of small, cave-dwelling bats. But noooo! These were huge, lazy bats! 

After the bat house, we rounded the corner and found a tiger. In the distance, we also saw the deer:

Marc asked the cast member why the tiger didn't go after the deer. He looked at us like we were stupid and said "There's a fence in between the tiger and the deer." Well, I'll be! Of course you couldn't actually see the fence...Part of the "Disney Magic" I guess.

I also took a lot of pictures of the theming. In pure Disney fashion, it was spectacular. You really felt like you were transported to Asia. 

After the Jungle Trek, Marc and I got on the train to head to Rafiki's Planet Watch. For some reason, I was expecting this semi-long train ride that took its passengers past roaming animals. I don't know where I dreamt that, but the train ride was a short five minutes, and it took us past a lot of boring stuff. Maybe it was the heat, but I wasn't impressed!

Once we got to Rafiki's Planet Watch, we went into the Conservation Station (boring!) and Affection Section. There was a happy llama (He had an underbite, so it looked like he was smiling.) and two donkeys named Jack and Jill. There were also a lot of goats and one cow. 

Marc and I got back on the train headed back to the main park. On the way back, we decided it was about time to take a little break, so we headed back to our room to relax for a little bit before dinner.