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Old 13 Nov 19, 10:47 PM  
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berniegroves
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Team Groves are Florida bound - October 2017 day 16

Day 16 - 21st October 2017:

I’ve definitely lost momentum getting these last days typed up. But I’m determined to get them done, we had some really amazing days at the end of our trip and so I want to record them for our benefit to help remember.

So day 16, we were off to Animal Kingdom again. This was definitely Miley and Grayson’s favourite park this time around.
I was finding it much harder to get up in the morning now as I’d adjusted to the time difference, but if I don’t get up then nobody does. Do any other mums have the same issue?
The kids had a quick breakfast in the Villa and after wrestling Grayson into his clothes, we were on our way by 8.20.
After an uneventful drive we were parked up in the AK carpark at 8.50. Does it drive anyone else crazy that AK always seem to fill the back of the carpark first?

We walked to the gates and were straight in without a wait, then we walked through the park, heading straight for the safari. As expected the majority of people veered left towards pandora and so when we arrived at the safari it was relatively quiet. We took the stroller into the queue with us and then dropped it off at the stroller park just before the loading bays.

We were all loaded up and setting off at 9.20, so not too bad at all time wise.


This attraction is always a huge hit with my kids, both of them love the animals. It’s one of the only times when Grayson is still and quiet! Miley absolutely loves the wild dogs! She bought a plushie Wild Dog on this trip and it’s still one of her favourite toys two years later.

I took the standard photos, as you do.






The kids both wanted to do some of the wilderness explorer activities so we got their books out and set off.
We came across Timon doing a meet and greet so we waited in the short line for the kids to see him and get his autograph.




This was a lovely meet and greet again, he was so good with both kids and they had a lot of fun.

So onwards we went to look for Wilderness Explorer badges! They did one just outside Dinoland where they had to find some flags and then just inside Dinoland they found another one where they looked at some dinosaur bones and answered some questions.




These are really great little activities and both Miley and Grayson really enjoyed them.

As we walked through Dinoland on our way to the next WE badge stop, Grayson decided he wanted his photo taken - a lot! He literally did dozens and dozens of poses! The boy is a character! In the end I had to stop as he was just posing continuously! He had no concern for the people walking past, he was just in the zone! Lol.
For your enjoyment here are a few of his poses!






I love my kooky crazy boy.

We reached Asia and did a couple more badge stops. I must say it was very satisfying getting things ticked off the list. I knew we wouldn’t be able to do all the badges, but a part of me really wanted to get them all ticked off!


So it was now 10.30 and we’d done the safari, a character meet and 4 of the WE badges. (And a mini photoshoot for Grayson! ).

The park was fairly busy today, definitely busier than we’d seen in the past. We found that to be consistent throughout the holiday, the crowds were heavier than we were used to. I think because we visited just after the hurricane and so lots of Americans had pushed their trip back by one week.

Next up was Finding Nemo the musical. We had really good seats on the aisle that runs across the middle of the theatre, so nobody was directly in front of us. We had about 15 minutes to wait until the show started at 11am.
Both Simon and I really like the show and Grayson enjoyed it too. But Miley wasn’t a fan, I think it was too noisy for her and she didn’t like the ‘dark’ but with the sharks or the sad bits. It was a bit too atmospheric for her and she spent most of the time with her hands over her ears.
We will definitely take noise cancelling headphones next time, as I think if we could remove that sensory issue then she’d be able to enjoy the rest of the show more.

Our seats proved to be great a few times during the show when the fish dancers fill up the aisle as they were literally right in front of us which was amazing.
Such a great show.

We walked around to try Pizzafari for lunch today. We’d not been here before as generally when we are at Animak Kingdom we go to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, but we thought we’d do something different today. Grayson had been tricky during a few meal times and so we wanted something that was quicker.




Simon went to order the food with Grayson and Miley and I found a table. We had a mix of cheese and pepperoni pizzas and we really enjoyed them. We’d definitely come back here again.

Up next was yet another trip to watch the Lion King. Does anyone else have kids that get fixated on a particular show or attraction? In 2016 it was the Frozen show and then this time around it was the Lion King.
We were in the queue for a little while, but the kids entertained themselves with some toys.

We didn’t make it in early enough to sit near the front so unfortunately Miley still couldn’t take part in the show at the end which she was very sad about. And the show was kind of ruined by two groups of people in front of us who held phones up over their heads to film everything. So frustrating.


After the show Grayson climbed into the stroller and promptly fell asleep. He’s always been so good at just falling asleep when he needs to.
I’m not jealous at all!

Whilst he was asleep Miley grabbed the opportunity to drag Simon into the gift shop and I spent some time people watching in front of the tree of life.


Fifteen minutes later they emerged from the gift shop with two Duffy bears and some outfits. Miley was very pleased with her haul!


We left the park now as we had dinner booked later on at Ohanas.

We got back to the villa at about 2.45pm so the kids relaxed for a while before we all started to get ready.

At 3.45 we were all ready to head out. We’d booked this meal as part of Mileys birthday celebrations and I was looking forward to it as we’d heard such good things.

Miley and Grayson had the cutest matching outfits and looked so adorable!

We had some trouble finding a parking space at the Polynesian and it made me glad that we’d left early. We finally managed to find a space but it was one of those stressful holiday moments which wasn’t great.

The resort is so beautiful and I can see why people love staying there so much.



We had a short wait for our table, but not very long at all really. Because it was Mileys birthday the next day we had let her wear a birthday badge. She was SO proud of it! She was too shy to actually talk to anyone, but she kept holding it out in front of her and pointing to it. She was so sweet.



We had the most amazing table right by the window with a view of the castle in the distance. Absolutely perfect!


Unfortunately the table was the highlight of the meal. Our waitress was grumpy and barely spoke to us at all. And the food just wasn’t to our liking.



Although I will say that the pudding was very nice!


They brought a rice crispie treat out for Mileys birthday which was very sweet, but the waitress sang happy birthday at high speed and then literally turned and walked away. It was all very cold and unfriendly and didn’t come close to living up to expectations.



Miley and Grayson thought it was hilarious that you could see this statues bum! They insisted on having a photo!



It’s safe to say we won’t be going back here. I know most people love it, but for us it just wasn’t a good experience and Simon still struggles with the cost of it all!

We left at around 7.30pm and the kids had some really lovely photo pass photos taken on the way out. These are still some of my very favourite photos of them!



We headed back to the villa and put the kids to bed.
Then Simon and I stayed up and wrapped all of Mileys birthday presents and decorated the lounge so that she had a nice surprise in the morning!
Our baby girl was going to be 6!
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