I got up early to sign up for Dopey Challenge for January 2018 as I had it in my head that the pre-registration for Annual Passholders started today. I was mistaken though, whoops!
We had decided that our next family trip to Disney World was going to be over the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend the next year and it apparently can be tough to get DVC rooms at Boardwalk Villas for that period. We wanted to start our stay on January 1st, and with Boardwalk Villas being our home resort that meant that this morning had our 11 month window opened up. Apparently some people do lots of tricks like walking forward reservations to try to save a spot and other things so getting just what we wanted was going to take timing.
I tried to do a DVC booking at about 8 am for Jan 1 to Jan 8 but the online booking was down until the 9 am EST and the DVC offices don’t open until 9 either.
It was going to be a mad scramble to get what we wanted! The availability tools seemed to indicate that it was available but we just couldn’t book it with the online booking down for maintenance.
I started hitting refresh every 10-20 seconds just before 9am and managed to get in and actually booked exactly what we wanted! A minute or so later there was no availability. That was tight!
We then did the final pack up and got out the door of the room shortly after 11. Dropped the bags with bell services to be picked up when we get on the Magical Express this afternoon and started our final tour.
We walked to Epcot, wandered through and took the monorail to Magic Kingdom (TTC) – we did one more check for K’s glasses at the lost and found with no luck and then took the monorail to the park. Got warm today so we enjoyed the heat – was not enjoying my cold / allergies though.
Pic of me not enjoying the allergies while on the monorail to TTC
We made sure to do TTA people mover and It’s a Small World. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays and after some more wandering we headed out to the busses. We waited and waited and no Boardwalk bus came so we got on the second Yacht and Beach Club bus we saw come through. Hopped off at the Yacht to do a walk through there before heading out to the Boardwalk area to walk to the hotel.
We let K and T play a bit in the play area and we checked out the DVC Community Hall before getting our luggage and settling in to wait for the Magical Express bus.
It came a bit early – or they let us on a slightly earlier bus. Mixed blessing – don’t like waiting but don’t want to leave too early either.
Magical Express used to drop at both A and B side depending on what carrier you were with but it appears that this has changed. We were dropped off on the B side and we had to walk to the A side to drop our bags with our carrier.
After a bit of a wait to do that we headed straight through security which was a bit slow and then took the small monorail to our gate.
We had independent snacking along the way and got on the plane. I got in to the window seat to try to sleep because of the cold meds I was on but managed to break my Kindle in the process. Yay!
The flight was good though and after we landed it was a quick and easy run through Canadian customs but we ended up having to wait a bit at the back of the line since the kids needed to go to the bathroom just as we were getting in line.
Short wait for our luggage and headed out of the secured area to pop open our bags and find warm jackets. Then out into the deep cold to get to the truck.
Quick ride home and kids straight to bed around 1:30 am.
We managed to get them up and had them at school on time in the morning!
Next was breakfast and then we went to pick up the pups from the kennel and bring them home.
Last full day! We got the Magical Express envelope under our door through the night – pickup 4:30 pm the next day. That’s pretty good as we get time to do stuff before we have to leave.
We decided to walk over to Beach Club this morning – grab breakfast from the Marketplace and then eat in the Solarium. We enjoy having a snack in the Solarium – love the atmosphere – we are glad that the little tea event Disney was doing in the Solarium is not occurring anymore as we missed the place.
Then a bus from Beach Club over to Animal Kingdom.
Photo Pass pic of the family heading into Africa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris – we hadn’t had a day ride yet this trip on it so it was nice to do that. Heather was hoping to see the new baby elephant – we kind of did back over our shoulders but it wasn’t a great picture opportunity.
Heading into Harambe Wildlife Reserve at Animal Kingdom Kilimanjaro Safari ride
back end of a blurry baby elephant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
After an ice cream we headed out and caught a bus back to Boardwalk.
Then a bit of a rest in the room and then headed on down to the pool and hot tub. The kids did a lot of slide runs and K did some stuff with the entertainment crew.
We had lunch by the pool before heading back up to the room and eventually heading over to Epcot for our last night.
We snacked our way around the park and caught Illuminations (we did Spaceship Earth and once we got off I did our pre-check in for our flights the next day).
Fountains at France pavilion at Epcot World Showcase
T and K from World Showcase with a view of Spaceship Earth at night
There was a section of World Showcase where the lights were out (near Morocco) and we saw lights flicker hard just after we got in the park crossing the bridge to France. There were also several rides down – Frozen Ever After for quite a while, Test Track and Imagination for the whole time. Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth for a shorter time. Apparently Epcot was having some power issues that night!
There were Extra Magic Hours but after doing Nemo I was just done. T wanted to go back to the room as well and relax.
So T and I went back to the hotel and Heather and K stayed in Epcot. They did meet and greets with the Mickey crew, Anna and Elsa and managed to get on Frozen Ever After when they finally opened it again (apparently it was deserted).
Anna and Elsa in Epcot
Deserted Frozen Ever After 1
Deserted Frozen Ever After 2
Selfy of Heather and K with France in the background in Epcot
We got the kids up and moving and I headed into Hollywood Studios with the kids after a quick breakfast of left over pizza.
Heather stayed at the hotel to get laundry done and have a bit of a relax but the kids and I were on a mission to make sure we hit Star Tours since we hadn’t gotten it done earlier in the week.
We walked over and even though it was cool it was still a sunny morning – so it was a nice walk. It is nice when I can spend some time with the kids when we don’t all have our noses buried in electronics!
After we got through security we went immediately to Star Tours – it indicated a 20 minute wait but it took less than that to get through the line.
We decided to ride again even though it said there was now a 25 minute wait. It took less than that again.
K on the speeder bike
Next was Muppets 3D before grabbing some lunch and heading out of the park.
Once we made it back to the hotel we stopped at the laundry room and helped Heather bring the clothes up to the room.
Heather relaxing by the pool at Disney’s Boardwalk Villas while waiting for laundry to finish.
After a bit of a rest we got ready and took the bus to Magic Kingdom.
K Princess on the bus
We wanted to see if we could find our daughter’s glasses so we took the monorail to TTC (whoohoo – whole car to ourselves!) and walked to the lost and found area. The guy working there seemed a bit out of it and couldn’t find the glasses.
We hopped the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and asked at the Town Hall guest services and they didn’t have anything so they suggested checking at the ride, just in case.
After that we still had some time so we decided to check out the Sorcerers of Magic Kingdom game for the first time. We got the run through from the cast member and our first set of cards. We got part way through the game before we decided we had to stop to get to our fast pass.
We went and used our Space Ranger spin fast pass and then walked up to the People Mover. It looked like they had just had to stop the ride and after waiting for a while we decided we couldn’t wait anymore.
We were just heading out of Tomorrowland when they got People Mover working again but we continued on to Cinderella’s Castle for our dining reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table.
After getting checked in we went in we had a short wait and managed to quickly grab a pic of 3 little princesses dressed as Cinderella all waiting for supper.
3 Cinderella’s at Cinderella’s Royal Table
We got our pictures taken with Cinderella and had a short wait until we were called up to the restaurant.
Disney Photopass – Cinderella at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Disney’s Photopass – the family with Cinderella at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Cinderella’s Royal Table Menu
We had a great meal, good food, great service, had the 4 princesses visit the table and got pictures. Had some champagne too.
Aurora at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Aurora at Cinderella’s Royal Table with K and T
Snow White at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Ariel at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Jasmine at Cinderella’s Royal Table
After the fun supper, we wandered out to check at Barnstormer to see if they had K’s glasses. The Cast Members described their nightly and daily routine and it sure made it sound that they would not have missed the glasses in the pouch. We resolved to go back to TTC lost and found and hope a different cast member was there.
We let the kids ride the ride and they were supper excited to get front row.
Then we went and watched Wishes from the bridge area between Be Our Guest and Gaston’s.
Heather got a shot of me shooting fireworks
We then went and rode the Ariel ride twice back to back.
Scuttle on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
Ursula in Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
After that we did Philharmagic and ended with Peter Pan.
Then a walk out to the buses and the ride back to the hotel. Bus to Magic Kingdom had been direct for Boardwalk but at the end of the night they were running the 5 Boardwalk area resorts together. Still was fairly quick to get back to the hotel.
We checked out the main store before heading back to the room to relax and unwind.
I got up around 7 and was not able to get back to sleep so I had a snack and did some typing.
Our first magic pass for the day was not set to be until almost 11 so we decided to take it easy in the room and around the hotel before walking into Epcot later to ride Soarin’ and check out the Festival of the Arts activities.
We got to Soarin’ right near the end of the fast pass window and we all rode the ride.
We then got on our fast pass for Living with the Land before heading to the DVC lounge to plan our day and have a snack.
Then a wander over to the Odyssey building which was the main building for the Festival of the Arts. We tried the cronuts, the flat bread and the beer flight before checking out the art in the building. We had never been in the Odyssey building before so that was interesting as well.
Festival Showplace at the Odyssey in Epcot
We did get a huge number of pictures through the PhotoPass folks at various special booths they had set up in honor of the Festival of the Arts – I will look at doing a special post just for those at a later time!
Next we went to the Mexico pavilion and did the Kidcot station. They were doing an artist’s palette in honor of the Festival instead of a Duffy or Perry the Platypus like the last few times the kids had done of the stations.
After that we rode the Three Caballeros ride.
We moved on to Norway for the Kidcot station and a scan of the store before moving to China to do the same.
Then we walked through Africa to Germany where I went to get a beer and a giant pretzel for us to share while Heather took the kids to the Kidcot station.
Next it was Italy and after the Kidcot station we stopped to watch a street performer and I got pulled in as the patsy for a ball toss game with the clown street performer. Our son T did not like me being made fun of but I talked to him after to let him know that I was in on the joke and that I was ok. He is pretty protective of his family.
We then continued on finishing up all the remaining Kidcot stations to fill out the kids’ palettes. We checked the art and Heather made sure to do some sampling along the way.
As part of the festival there were living statues out in front of the Fountain of Nations and K had to have some pictures taken with one. He snuck her glasses off of her head while she was distracted.
Living statues in Epcot as part of Festival of the Arts
We had promised the kids ice cream – so even though it was cold we went in search of ice cream. We ended up at the vendor in front of the Electric Umbrella and T, K and I had ice cream and Heather made us take a picture in front of the fountain.
Ice cream in front of Fountain of Nations in Epcot
Then a quick run through Spaceship Earth before heading back to the Boardwalk area. We ordered pizza to take back to the room – I waited while Heather took the kids back to the room.
We had a quick supper looking out the patio doors to the Boardwalk.
Saw partial Illuminations and Wishes from our room.
Illuminations from Boardwalk Villas room
We took it easy and rested for the evening – it has been tiring trip so far!
I woke up at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I woke everyone else up at 5.
We all got dressed nice and warm for the Pro Bowl 5k and then headed out to the car.
It was a quick and easy drive over to the Epcot to park and get over to the race corral.
There certainly wasn’t the crowd or the same excitement as a true runDisney race but the kids were excited for the race which made up for some of that.
Epcot before ProBowl 5k – not as busy as a runDisney race!ready to run ProBowl 5k
the noise machines are definitely ready to run the ProBowl 5k
definitely not as crowded at the ProBowl 5k as a normal runDisney race
Once we got going we started fairly slow and stuck together but as time went on K would decide to run ahead so I would pace with her and Heather would run slower with T. Then K would have to stop to walk and T and Heather would catch up and we would travel together for a time.
The kids were hugely excited to be in Epcot that early in the morning (just after dawn) with all the music playing and the big torches lit up.
ProBowl 5k in Epcot
ProBowl 5k in Epcot – with torches and lights
ProBowl 5k sunrise in Epcot
ProBowl 5k in Epcot – Canada Pavilion
Before we got to Imagination I could tell that K was getting burnt out and she had to make a bathroom stop. After a wait she came out and she had taken her sweat pants off since she was too warm. Luckily she had on a pair of shorts underneath.
ProBowl 5k in Epcot – the whole family
We caught back up to Heather and T and T was raring to sprint to the finish at this point but K was still tired. So I paced ahead with T and Heather stayed with K.
Then we did the loop around Spaceship Earth and out the back stretch towards the finish line. We ran dawn the home stretch together and got our medals and bottle of water.
K getting her ProBowl 5k medal
T and K with their ProBowl 5k medals after the race
T with his ProBowl 5k medal after the race
We headed back out to the car and back to the hotel to have some warm showers. It was sunny but cool – a great morning for a run!
Overall the race was fun but definitely lacking in the splashy and magic of the runDisney races – the course was the standard 5k race path for the runDisney races but there was no on course entertainment and no characters to see. Just some happy Disney cast members cheering folks on.
And the medals were pretty cool.
Very proud of the kids and how well they did – and we didn’t get swept – so that is a bonus.
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After a shower and a change we headed back out to the car and went off Disney property for breakfast. Heather had a desire to hit IHOP so we did that and had a big breakfast.
We then hit another grocery store to get some cold meds before heading to get some gas put in the rental car.
Then we dropped the car at the Dolphin and headed back to the room.
After a bit of a rest we headed into Epcot and ran into a meet and greet with Elena of Avalor – K and her had a chat about dresses as K had on her Christmas Bell dress that is a similar colour to Elena’s.
Elena of Avalor having a laugh with Belle
After glancing at a few of the Festival of the Arts items and booths we made our way through to hop on the monorail to Magic Kingdom.
We made it to Magic Kingdom and got onto Space Mountain with 10 minutes to spare in our Fast Pass.
empty Space Mountain ride cars
Crowds were crazy – it must have been people in for the Pro Bowl because I have never seen it that busy in January.
We used our last special fast passes to ride Space Ranger Spin and then we wandered over to get in the really long fast pass line at Mine Train – they had had a 4 hour outage on the ride earlier in the day and it was backed up. At one point while we were there we saw the standby line jump to over 3.5 hours.
After mine train we did some wandering around to see what else we could ride and the wait times were just insane. We did get into watch the Enchanted Tiki Room show though which is always kitschy fun.
Enchanted Tiki Room
Belle not impressed with Gaston before supper at Be Our Guest
So we wandered and killed some time and it was finally time for our reservation at Be Our Guest. They were backed up about 15-20 minutes but it wasn’t too bad. It was here that we got confirmation that they couldn’t text Canadian numbers either.
Once we were in the service was fantastic and the food was great. I definitely ate too much.
It was still fairly busy after supper and it was getting colder but we weren’t ready to quit yet!
We decided to split up – K and Heather went to meet Ariel and T and I went on Dumbo.
After that we got our wires crossed and Heather and K got on Dumbo and T and I ended up heading closer to Cinderella’s castle. Heather and K got to see some Wishes while on Dumbo and T and I watched it near the castle.
T and I took lots of pictures.
Beast’s castle at night
Part of Wishes can be seen over Beast’s castle
watching Wishes near Storybook CircusWishes looking toward Beast’s castle
Afterwards Heather and K caught up with us and we decided to head to see if the wait times were down for Goofy’s Barnstormers and on the way Kaia realized that she was missing her magic band. I did the wander back and forth over our path and couldn’t see it (the kids rode Barnstormer while I did that) and reviewing pictures we determined that she almost had to have lost it on Dumbo.
After a bit the cast members on Dumbo had found it and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief (it was a special Aurora band).
A quick ride on the tea cups.
Then we wandered over and rode Pirates of the Caribbean before realizing we were just done. At this point it was after 10 and everyone had been up since at least 5. Even though we would have loved to take advantage of the reduced wait times, at this point we were just too tired.
So we wandered out to the buses and after a short wait (as we were waiting it started to rain – leaving was the right call) we were able to get on the bus back directly to the Boardwalk Resort.
On the bus ride K realized she had lost her glasses – after a chat with T and K we were able to determine that she had taken them off and put them in the pouch for riding Barnstormer. And then after the ride they were so concerned about seeing if we had found her magic band that she forgot her glasses. We will have to talk to lost and found at Magic Kingdom on that one. (after several checks with lost and found and with the main lost and fount at TTC we never did get them back unfortunately)
Back to the hotel and a quick stop at reception to pick up Heather and the kids’ annual passholder magic bands (2.0) – we can’t get them shipped to Canada so we have to get these at the hotels – I had gotten mine shipped to the Boardwalk during my Goofy Challenge trip so I had mine but we couldn’t order the others until their annual passes had been activated (which was done on our first full day of the trip). So as soon as we had activated them we had them shipped to the Boardwalk as well. But we hadn’t seen a shipping letter to say they were on the way so we had gotten concerned we weren’t going to get them while we were here. But during supper I checked the Disney site and it indicated that they were at the hotel waiting. Whoohoo!
Sure enough they were also the 2.0 bands that Heather was hoping for.
We then got the kids to bed and they were out quickly.
So was Heather.
I read for a bit and then crashed out myself. It was a long but good day!
I was up fairly early with a bit of an ear ache but I still needed to a run on the Boardwalk (one of my favorite things to do at Disney World actually). I wasn’t fast and the start was rough but after a half mile or so it was quite pleasant.
I did 2 long laps including the piece out to Hollywood Studios and then finished with one short loop around the Boardwalk itself to hit 5.5 miles in 55:53 minutes. Sun was rising around when I finished. Beautiful morning and I managed to get a couple shots of the sand bottomed pool at Stormalong Bay between the Beach and Yacht Club Resorts while it was dark out and the pool was all lit up.
sand bottom pool at Stormalong Bay before dawn
Showered and got dressed and the kids were just starting to wake up around 8 am. I love going for a run at Disney World – it gets me up early and I use every minute of the day!
We had fast passes in Hollywood Studios starting around 10:30 and had to pick up the rental car we were getting for a day around noon. And then we figured the plans for the day were in the air after that.
A quick bite in the room before walking over to Hollywood Studios.
We went straight to Toy Story Mania and caught some of the First Order Stormtrooper march down the main street to the stage and back before heading over and using special fast passes to hit Rockin’ Roller Coaster (everyone but Heather again).
Toy Story Mania sign at Hollywood Studios
We then decided to skip our Star Tours fast pass (we would be back!) and go get the car.
Got the car at the Dolphin at around 12:10 and then we went to the ESPN area to pick up our race bibs for the Pro Bowl 5k the next morning. Huge number of people there for the events but things went quite smooth.
Mermaid dress in front of the Dolphin fountain
We headed over to McDonalds for lunch from there.
After lunch we went to Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village so that Heather and the kids finish up their bead collection for the conservation activities. They had 3 more beads to go to get the full set and get the Mickey’s clan bead and all 3 remaining were at Kidani Village that day.
Parking a car at Kidani was different…there is no normal large parking lot – instead the parking spots are under the hotel rooms following the pattern of the building. It was interesting!
We went to the pool area (very nice) to do one activity and hung out there for a while then hopped over to the lobby to do another one.
We also looked at a few of the overlooks and saw many animals resting and learned a few things about ostriches.
We saw some of their painted turtles that are in an enclosure near the lobby.
Then it was back to the pool area to wait and play around until it was time to do the last activity. While we waited the kids did some running and splashing around and also chalk drawing on the pool deck.
T’s Olaf chalk drawing at the pool by Kidani Village
T and K playing by the Kidani Village pool while I lounged
conservation activity by the pool at Kidani Village
splash area at Kidani Village
Splash area at Kidani Village pool
learning about ostriches
After completing everything and getting the special Mickey’s Clan bead for completing all the conservation activities, we wandered back to the car and decided to go off property for supper.
We went to TGI Fridays (5:30ish) on International Boulevard and then stopped at a grocery store after to bring some stuff back to the room for breakfasts and for drinks.
Then we made our way back to the hotel, parked, brought the stuff in and settled in for the night.
We saw some of Illuminations from our room before we lay down.
Illuminations from our Boardwalk Villa’s room
Kids were out early (for Disney) which was good as the Pro Bowl 5k was the next morning and everybody has to get up early.
Hotel move day! We set an alarm as there was an early bead collecting conservation activity Heather and the kids wanted to do before we left. They went to do that and I stayed in the room and finished up packing.
After they go back they only had 3 more activities left to go to complete the full collection but at least those ones were late morning / afternoon activities and we could come back and do those easier – so we made plans to do that later in the week.
We then took our bags over to bell services to have the luggage transferred over to the Boardwalk Villas.
After that we did another wander around the resort and let the kids buy small African drums as a souvenir of the stay at the resort.
We decided we didn’t want to pay for a cab over to Boardwalk Villas so we hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios instead. We got off the bus at the park and took the walk way to the Boardwalk area and checked into the hotel. Our room was not ready yet but they were able to get everything else set up and they said we would get a text when the room was ready. Note for Canadians – it doesn’t look like the texting to a Canadian cell number works for the room check in.
We then walked the Boardwalk area to International Gateway at Epcot, went through security and rented a locker so we could put down the African drums for a while!
First stop in Epcot was the Canada pavilion where they were giving out Disney buttons with “Canada 150” on them in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.
Next we had to test out one of the perks of full DVC membership by going into the DVC Members Lounge in Epcot. It is located in the glass pyramid above the Imagination with Figment ride. The space has a great vibe and the free snacks and drinks were a nice bonus. We sat and absorbed the atmosphere for a while.
We decided that we would head over to Test Track and use up one of the special fast pass tickets we had been given the other day at the DVC Center. Before we got on the ride though it had to shut for a maintenance issue. The kids were pretty upset unfortunately.
So we went into MouseGears to do some shopping and to stick close to the ride in case it came up quickly. We ended up getting T a nice sweater that he still wears constantly now that we are at home.
Heather also bought all the Dooney and Burke.
Well, not really but she did get some crazy deals and somehow managed to convince me to let her use the e-gift card I had from runDisney due to the Walt Disney World Half Marathon being cancelled earlier in the month.
Heather was looking at the purses and one of the cast members mentioned that the Food and Wine bags were 30%, plus 20% off for annual passholders, plus my e-gift card equals two purses apparently.
We also got a couple fuzzy blankets (as per tradition) and had it all shipped to the hotel.
We then did Spaceship Earth and walked back out to the Boardwalk area to grab a pizza from the pizza window there. We picked up our stuff from the locker at International Gateway on our way.
Surprisingly we still hadn’t gotten the text to tell us our room was ready (which is how we found out that texts to Canadian numbers don’t work) so we wandered back to the hotel and found that our room was ready.
The room was great with a true boardwalk view on the 4th floor – straight view to the lighthouse and the Beach Club Resort. It was also just a short walk down stairs to the pool area and a different set of stairs to end up on the Boardwalk itself. The Boardwalk exit that was closest to our room was an exit only but it sure made it fast to get to the Boardwalk instead of waiting for the elevators.
Beach Club and Yacht Club lighthouse from Boardwalk VillasDisney’s Boardwalk area from Boardwalk Villas room
We then decided to go swimming in the clown pool for a bit – probably 45 minutes there and several trips down the water slide for the kids and a few for Heather and I.
Then back up to the room and called to get our luggage brought up.
Our daughter K did a change over to her Elsa dress and we did a fast walk to Epcot to get into our Frozen Ever After fastpass just about 10 minutes before they expired.
After that we were able to get on Test Track to make up for the disappointment from earlier in the day.
Then a quick snack before heading onto Ellen’s Energy Adventure and then a wander over to do the Nemo ride.
After Nemo we watched the fish and the divers in the aquarium for a while before heading into Coral Reef for our supper reservation. The food was great although T seemed to get a bit of a tough steak.
We spent time on supper and ended up missing Illuminations unfortunately.
We then decided to end the day, so we walked out to the Boardwalk and picked up some items for breakfast the next morning and to keep in the fridge from the store.
Put the kids to bed, did a quick unpack and organize and then went to bed ourselves.
We had fast passes set for today at Animal Kingdom but we had hit all the rides the night before and we just would have needed to hit the shows. After some contemplation we decided to just stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge and explore. The kids really wanted to do more of the conservation activities and collect more of the beads. Plus it was going to be hot and we really wanted to do some swimming!
So I got up and went down to the store to pick up some breakfast which we ate in the room before starting our wander.
Heather and the kids did some medallion rubbing – they have a large (6+ feet diameter) medallion set in the floor near the entrance with various stylized animals on it. A cast member (who is on an exchange program from Africa) comes out with paper and crayons and will sit on the floor with the guests as they rub imprints of the animals on the paper. He/she talks with the guests about the area of Africa they are from – it is an interesting and informal way to learn more about Africa – a very cool idea.
Heather and the kids did 3 different environment activities to collect beads including one where they set up feeders for giraffes.
We sat in the lobby talking supper plans for a bit – during this time our son heard some people playing on African drums and went to find out what was going on. He got to play a little and then came to tell us. We all went over – our daughter did some time that we videoed and then Heather and T did some together that I recorded.
That after noon we swam in the pool for a good hour and a half or so and the kids pretty much did the slide non stop. The pool area was very nice – lots of activities and surrounded by lots of greenery – not too far from a flamingo pond and easy views of the savannah.
We spent time in the room looking out at the savanna and saw many animals come by – including giraffes essentially right outside our window. Lots of pictures and some video.
giraffe at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge – through the treeswildebeest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodgegiraffe at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Lunch was at the Mara by the pool and it was pretty good – there was a decent selection to suit many tastes.
For supper we decided to cab over to Old Key West and try Olivia’s for the first time. Food was great but the atmosphere was more casual than we were expecting – overall a good experience though. Old Key West is very cool at night.
We thought about getting to Magic Kingdom for magic hours until 10 but instead boated to Disney Springs, shopped a bit and then took the bus back to Animal Kingdom.
Back to the room to rest and pack for the hotel move the next day.
Up around 8 with our daughter out on the patio looking around the savannah and being disappointed that there were no animals.
Eventually did see some Roan Antelope (3) and a couple of them butted heads – got pictures of that.
roan antelope head butting Disney’s Animal Kingdom
We had bagels for breakfast in the room watching for animals.
Short tour of parts of the hotel and kids took part in one of the conservation activities that you can collect beads for doing. They did the jenga block type one talking about the ecosystem.
We had a couple of old Samsung S4 phones that still function for wifi and as cameras, etc – so let each of the kids use one to take pictures with. It was pretty fun watching them decide what they wanted to take pictures of during the trip. It was also cool to look at the pictures later to get a view from a different perspective.
sunlight through the trees waiting for the bus at Disney’s Animal Kingdom LodgeK selfie waiting for the bus at Disney’s Animal Kingdom LodgeDisney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge pool
We took the bus to Disney Springs and did a short wander there. There we checked to see if Planet Hollywood was open or not – we had gotten a reservation for that day a few weeks back but it had been cancelled as they weren’t quite ready yet and we wanted to check to see if maybe they might be open after all – they were doing a private event instead. Oh well.
fountain near AMC and Planet Hollywood Disney Springs
During this walk we got a call from our DVC client rep and we sorted out the timing to head over to Saratoga Springs DVC center to sign the paper work in a couple hours.
We ended up having a good lunch at T-Rex without any real wait. T-Rex is always fun.
After lunch and a decent walk around Disney Springs and Saratoga Springs Resort we were at the DVC center and finished up the paperwork and got our add on points. With the changes Disney made to DVC the previous year prior to us buying our points on the resale market we weren’t able to take advantage of some of the benefits that members that bought from them enjoyed. But with the add on points we now have access to the full benefit set. We had our new blue DVC cards saved to our phones and the points banked for next before we left the building!
We got some ice cream for the kids before we left and they also gave us 3 special fast passes to be used how we liked over the next few days. Bonus!
amphibicar near Disney Springs
We walked back to Disney Springs and did some shopping through several stores and then headed out to the buses.
Back to the hotel and took some time to rest at the hotel. We ended up missing our planned Nemo musical fast pass and Primeval Whirl fast pass because of the afternoon events but we wanted to make sure we got to our night safari right fast pass.
Once we got to the park we had to wait to get Heather and the kids’ annual passes set up and then we were in the park for a quick walk to the safari ride. Along the way we saw the lit up Tree of Life for the first time in person – very cool!
Animal Kingdom Tree of Life – lit up at night
We made it to the night safari ride with a half hour to spare in our window and it was a very different experience at night – but a lot of fun!
After that we saw we had about 35 minutes until the park closed – so we hit up Expedition Everest for our son and I to ride in the dark – that was a lot of fun – you can see so far at night. The night safari ride was fun but I think the dark ride on Expedition Everest was cooler.
Then we made it over to Dinoland to make up for our missed Primeval Whirl fast pass and quickly got on the ride (well, all of us but Heather who can’t handle the spinning).
Then all 4 of us got on Triceratops Spin and then a sprint to Dinosaur and we just made it in before the clock changed to 7:30 to indicate the park was closing.
We were the only riders getting on and got an entire car to ourselves (we were the last to ride that night).
At the end the staff had been doing a final inspection of the ride cars and we were left out in the final time tunnel for a few minutes as the cars were backed up. It was pretty awesome and a definite cool first for us but by the end the kids were getting a bit scared.
After that, it was a quick bathroom break and a walk to the front of the park – along the way we managed to catch the animated show on the Tree of Life. Fantastic. Leave it to Disney to turn an oil rig into a tree and then turn around and turn it into a movie screen.
Animal Kingdom Tree of Life – lit up at night
We left the park and caught the direct bus to Epcot as that park was to open to 11 that night.
The bus driver for that ride had a lot of fun joking around with everyone – made for a shorter ride.
After bag check we were into Epcot – we ended up walking right onto Spaceship Earth.
Heather and the kids had only had their annual passes for a little over 3 hours at this point and we were in our second park and had ridden 6 rides. We can be efficient at Disney World sometimes!
We then decided we needed to eat and hit up Electric Umbrella and got a partial view of Illuminations while we ate.
We checked out Test Track but the wait had jumped to 45 minutes, so instead we went over toward the Nemo ride. Along the way we looked at stopping for the Joy and Sadness meet and greet but the wait ended up being 20 minutes and the kids were a bit punch drunk so we needed to keep moving.
Onto Nemo and then did Soarin’ after a short wait. (again Heather did not ride) It was the kids’ first time seeing the updated Soarin’ so it was fun to watch their reactions.
After that we wandered out of the park and onto a bus (after a short wait) then on our way back to the resort.
I woke up at 6:30 am to hear our daughter up early feeding the dogs and taking them to play for a few minutes before school. Usually I will be the first one up and I will feed the dogs before work but she wanted to do it today as we won’t see them for a bit and she was going to miss the pups.
She wanted to make sure she had some time with them before we leave. Very cute.
We then fed the kids breakfast and took them to school for the morning before heading home to take the pups to the kennel. The kennel we use is great but there were some tears dropping the pups off for sure.
Next we drove home, finished up the final bit of packing and did some cleaning (always nice to come home to a clean house!).
After putting all of our stuff in the truck we headed off to pick the kids up from school at lunch time and after a couple stops we headed to the airport.
Check in at the airport was quick and easy and going through US Customs was straightforward as well.
Due to how we had booked our tickets this trip (a couple tickets with Airmiles and a couple with the carrier using their travel miles), we ended up sitting separately – me with our son and Heather with our daughter.
They ended up boarding the plane a little late and then we had a delay as they had to fix a radio on the plane, but once we got going they made up most of the time from the delay and we got to Orlando only a few minutes late.
The flight was good and I am always happy to see how well our kids behave on a plane!
We ended up with a nice surprise when we landed too. When I was down for my Goofy Challenge trip earlier in January, I had talked to our DVC client rep and indicated that when we were down for the family trip we were looking to get add-on points for our home resort. It can be hard to get points at the Boardwalk Resort and being from Canada they really couldn’t be put on a wait list in the normal way but our DVC rep said she would do what she could.
With what she had told us we did not expect to get the points we wanted so we had a plan B and C ready for while we were down there. But…as soon as I fired up my phone and it connected to the cellular network I had a message from the DVC rep indicating that the points had come through! Woohoo! We just needed to call and get an appointment time set up while we were down and we would be good to go.
After getting off the plane we headed over to the Magical Express area and caught our bus to Animal Kingdom. In the end we were the 4th stop to be dropped but we were amused by the driver who late stopped for at least 2 stop signs. Pretty funny.
Check in at the Animal Kingdom (Jambo House) was pretty quick and we wandered around the gorgeous lobby before headed to the room. The big fire pit area was just so cool.
We had a room with a savannah view and as soon as we got in the room we had to check out the patio – spotted a wildebeest wandering around a few deer of some kind (never did figure out what they actually were) having a nap just out from our room.
Then did a wander to buy breakfast for the next morning and a quick evening snack before kids went to bed.
Heather noticed a flashing message light on the room phone – called and our luggage was here. They didn’t just deliver due to the lateness (00:25). I asked them to deliver it and they said it would be right away.
An hour later they still hadn’t come. I called bell services and again and eventually the front desk answered. They said they would get the bags to us right away. It took about another 10 minutes after that. They must have forgotten about us the first time we called, yay!
