Disney World - Day 4

Since this was the Animal Kingdom vacation, we started out day four there.   Our first (well, second probably) stop was Starbucks!  Now that there is a Starbucks in every park, we always get our breakfast there.   Usually we rope drop the first ride (Everest!!) and then high tail it to Starbucks for coffees, breakfast sandwiches and/or smoothies.   My boy has become a real Starbucks smoothie lover.  His favorite is orange-mango (which is discontinued as of late summer), followed by strawberry-banana (a favorite to make at home, as well), and bringing up the rear is chocolate (don't be surprised; it's not great)!

We had not spent a lot of time at Animal Kingdom on recent trips, so made sure this day to see. it. all.   We did the walking treks, enjoyed the bird show, did a daytime safari, and ate lots of ice cream and drank lots of mixed drinks and beers (hey, it was hot!). 

That evening John and I went on our "real" anniversary dinner to Jiko, the signature restaurant at AKL.  We sent William to Simba's Cub House (i.e. kids club) for the evening where he enjoyed playing with the counselors and other kids all evening.  William is easy to take to nice restaurants, but it's always fun to have a grown up only dinner and get to catch up with one another.  We also enjoyed after dinner drinks at the lounge with some people watching!   Ah, almost as good as the animal watching on the savannah!  This was our last night at Jambo House; the next morning we left our bags with bell service to be transferred over to Kidani where we would return after our day at the park.   

 

 

 

Disney World - Day 3

Since this trip was the first time we had been to Disney World for more than four days, the schedule I made was a little different than usual.   It also helped that since we had annual passes, that I didn't care if we were only on the park for a half day.   On the third day (and after closing Magic Kingdom for the Kiss Goodnight), we slept in.  Ah, the glorious vacation sleep in - not something we do often at Disney World where the rope drop is prized.   After a nice sleep in, we went to Boma for brunch.   The food was a good mix of traditional American breakfast buffet and African specialties.   We may have just been too stuffed from the huge meals the days before, because I don't remember eating much.   I drank a lot of coffee and POG juice (that's the Polynesian's name for it - pineapple, orange, guava -- but they have it at several buffets on property).  We spent some time at the big Jambo house pool after that and also I think I did some laundry, before we got cleaned up and went to Hollywood Studios for the evening.    

 

 

Our room at Jambo house was a "standard view," but it did face the savannah.  We enjoyed standing on the balcony while watching the vultures feed and the other animals that wandered over.   We were thrilled with having animals to watch, and had no idea how many more would be in store once we moved over to our "savannah view" room at Kidani. 

Disney World - Day 2

Day 2 started with rope drop at the Magic Kingdom.   After enjoying some early morning rides and Starbucks! and meeting our favorite Chip -n - Dale, we had brunch at Crystal Palace with Pooh and Friends.  The characters weren't initially a big draw for us at this age, but William was stoked about the buffet choices he read online!  Turns out it was an all around great meal with fun character interactions, delicious food, and a birthday card and cupcake!

That evening we had our second big meal of the day with an anniversary dinner at California Grill.  John continues to rave at how amazing our server was - truly one of the best we've ever had. . . .in both the real world and Disney World!  He quickly sized up that we were there to enjoy ourselves, even if we did have a kid in tow.   He brought stuff to entertain William (though he's good about just sitting and entertaining himself usually) and wines and appetizers for us to sample!   Fantastic stuff.  We had many rounds of delicious drinks and food, saw the sunset, and then headed out to Magic Kingdom for our nightcap.

 So excited to ride in his own Seven Dwarfs Mine Train car!

 And his own Astro Orbiter!

One "must do" Disney that I had read about was viewing the Kiss Goodnight.  It happens 30 minutes after the park closes.  While we've been there once or twice near closing time, we've never lingered after close.   The castle lights up and there's a goodnight message played over the speakers.   I may have set my expectations too high. . . .or it may have been 90 degrees and after midnight with a sleepy kid. . . .but I just thought it was neat - not amazing.  I did like the photo they got of William oh-so-patiently waiting out our castle photos!

Disney World - Day 1

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary by flying to Orlando for a family vacation at Disney World.   I got us celebration buttons for John and me ("15 yEARS") and a Happy Birthday button for William's 7th which was three days earlier.   We stayed at our DVC home, Animal Kingdom Lodge, for 7 nights - four in a Jambo House studio and three in a Kidani Village one-bedroom savannah view.  More on AKL to come! 

 

 

 

Our first stop in the parks was Animal Kingdom - a five minute bus ride from our hotel.   Unfortunately there is no walking trail, so we had to wait 10 minutes every time for our five minute bus ride.   The first afternoon we had to purchase a Disney Parks mister.  Boy, it was hot out!  And unfortunately we left the mister we already owned from an earlier trip at home.  Most of our food budget was spent on cool drinks and ice cream bars this trip!

 

 

 

 

This summer was the start of a lot of evening entertainment at Animal Kingdom.  We LOVED riding Everest at night.  The safari was fun at sunset, too, with the lions being active.   The Jungle Book show left quite a bit to be desired; and the stadium seating benches were cramped.   But overall, I'd say I prefer Animal Kingdom in the late afternoon and evening to mid-day.   You see completely different details under the lights, and the crowds were pretty thin.  We even did walk on of Kali River Rapids in the dark, which was a little creepy.  The path up to the boats was long and winding and deserted.   Completely different take on the logging backstory, too, since you can see the logs "burning."