The Land Sea and Wedding Trip Oct 2015 - Day 2, Animal Kingdom, Portobello and Swimming

[Lisa29]

The previous day is HERE.

Monday 12 October 2015

I was awake at 3am today and could not get back to sleep. Madison woke at 3.45am and she also couldn't get back to sleep. Phil and Kaley both woke around 4.30am. Madison and Kaley were really excited but we managed to keep them relatively quiet until about 5.30am. Not long after, everyone else was up anyway.

We all got up, dressed, showers, re-packed what needed re-packing, etc. and the girls all had breakfast (I had brought the Kelloggs variety pack for us to have this morning and Ryan had bought milk last night). We had a message from the front desk asking if we wanted to move rooms so I called to confirm we did. I then called Bell Services to come and get our luggage and they arrived about 20 minutes later.

As we were up and ready so early, we decided to go to the Super Target on the 192 before going to AK so were on our way there at 7.50am.

Another wrong turn(!) on the way but we were soon there, using Sherberth Road to get to the 192. It was very foggy and misty this morning.

We only took one photo in here. I was impressed with one of their types of trolley!

Always bigger and better in the US!

Madison and Kaley weren't on their best behaviour but I think they just wanted to get to AK. We had a problem with our FairFx cards - they now use chip and pin and my pin wouldn't work so I ended up paying cash. I realised a couple of days later what the problem was - I had the last 4 digits stored in my phone of each card and who's card it is and I was trying to use this as the pin, rather than the stored pin numbers that I also had in a separate note!

Along with the essentials, I spent $32.52 on US Weekly (I always buy this!), twizzlers, milk chocolate and sea salt Lindor chocs, Lucky Charms, 2 different flavours of pop tarts, EOS lip balms for the girls and 2 noodles for swimming.

We were in here about an hour so were on our way to AK a bit later than we had wanted, at 9.20am.

We were parking at 9.35am in Peacock 11. As we were walking to the entrance, Dan sent us this picture

They had just arrived from getting their marriage license and this is what awaited us at bag check!

Understandably from the picture shown, bag check took an absolute age, as did the turnstiles. We saw Dan and Dave in the line and caught up with them as ours moved slightly quicker.

Soon we were inside, with park maps in hand and plenty put away for scrapbooking, and seeing the beautiful tree

Our first FP was for Kilimanjaro Safari, between 10.05 and 11.05am so we took a slow walk there, via Creature Comforts

This wasn't to use snack credits, this was to buy the park exclusive mug. It wasn't too busy

The mug was $15.93 including tax. Picture to follow later, when I have all 4 mugs.

Madison and Kaley were very happy to be in a Disney park

We continued round to Africa to Kilimanjaro Safari to use our first ever FP.

***While I mention FPs, with reference to the free FP's mentioned the previous day, Dan and Dave had spoken to the manager again and said that we really wouldn't get the use out of them today as we were only in the park a short time. They changed this for us so we had:

3 x free FP's for Tuesday
3 x free FP's for Thursday
3 x free FP's for the following Wednesday
3 x free FP's for the following Thursday (these were for all of us, so we all had an additional 3 free to use as we wished on each day)

They also gave each of our three rooms a $150 room credit, so we split ours between us, Mum and Dad and Ryan and Bethany. Despite my initial feelings of the free FP's not being good enough, they turned out to be invaluable and we were very grateful for being given them as a gesture for the issues on check in day.***

Back to today and we scanned our bands and joined the fast-moving FP line for the Safari. It was around 10.55am at this point and the standby line was at 90 minutes! We were soon on our journey and seeing lots of animals

Obligatory animal photos

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[Lisa29]

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Madison and Kaley both really enjoyed this

Kaley, in particular, loved it and was really excited to see the different animals

Once we had finished on the Safari, we made our way round towards Expedition Everest to use our next FPs at 11.25-12.25pm

Walking from Africa through to Asia, we saw Michelle and Jamie in the line for food at Yak and Yeti. We stopped to see them and the kids as we hadn't seen them since we arrived, and decided that only those going on Everest would carry on round to there, while the rest of us stayed to get an early lunch. (They hadn't left the kids on their own by the way, Mum and Dad were sat with them. )

I think they all enjoyed the ride!

We were lucky enough to grab a table and some seats next to where the others were sitting then Mum and Dad stayed with Madison, Kaley and Piper whilst Bethany and I went up to get our food.

I got the Honey Chicken ($9.99) for me, the Korean Stir-Fry Barbecue Chicken ($9.99) for Phil, two kids chicken tenders meal with grapes, carrot sticks, apple juice and water ($5.99 each), a pork egg roll ($3.29) instead of a dessert, a Minute Maid frozen lemonade cup ($3.99) and 2 diet cokes ($3.19 each)

Ryan and Bethany's food is on the tray, which is why there is so much.

This was all so good, I love the food from here. This should have cost $45.62 plus tax but I used 4 counter service credits instead. The line for this had been quite long so we hadn't been sat for very long before the rest came back from riding Everest.

We all had different things we wanted to do now so we went with Dan and Dave to go and watch the 1pm showing of the Festival of the Lion King. I hadn't seen this in years and was really looking forward to it.

We got in line at 12.45pm and it seemed quite busy.

We started moving at 12.55pm and got in just as the show was starting. We were seated in the giraffe section (Madison remembered this, I hadn't written it in my notes!) and all really enjoyed it. I love the music to this film so was happily singing along.

We went for a wander after this and came across a very short line for Flik so stopped to see him

We stopped for photos along the way

And some near the wonderful tree

From here we stopped in Island Mercantile to have a look

Dan and Dave didn't know at this point that we had already bought these ears for them!

I bought a 2015 snow globe and the 2015 decoration, for $19.95 each

The tree again

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[Lisa29]

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After mentally buying most of the shop, we headed out towards the exit, stopping for some PP pics on the way

We stopped for one last photo of the girls on the way out

We had just missed a tram so walked back to the car. We were on our way to OKW at 2.40pm, later than our original plan when we had wanted to go swimming before dinner, but we had to change this as we had to move rooms.

We pulled up in the car park outside Hospitality House and saw Dan and Dave straight away; our room was ready so we made our way round. We were in the Old Turtle Pond Road area, building 41, room 4122. We saw this when we pulled up

My Dad really hadn't liked their car so they went to the Car Care Centre to upgrade to this. He was much happier and preferred driving this.

Our cases were just being delivered as we arrived which was excellent timing. We went up and into our home for the next 11 nights

Brett, who had delivered our cases, asked if he could do anything else so I asked if he could get all the parcels that had been left for us by Mockingjay Services. He said this was fine and went off to get them.

These photos from the villa were all taken the day we left to go to Kidani which is why the beds are messy but there is nothing else anywhere!

As you walked in, there was a large entry way/hallway, with a door to the right into the second bedroom

This is the vanity area outside the bathroom. I think the lock-offs have the kitchenette here instead

Second bathroom

Across from the bedroom was the hallway to the master bedroom, master bathroom and laundry room

First on the left is the laundry room, which also leads through to the master bathroom

Going through into part of the master bathroom, where the toilet, shower and sink were

There was then another door to take you through to the second part of the master bathroom, with the large tub and another sink

This part also had a large double closet that also had the safe in it. This part of the bathroom led through to the master bedroom

The door in the second photo went out to the balcony.

Going back down the hallway and to the left was the kitchen/dining/living area

We did love our 2-bed here. It was much bigger than what we had at SSR in 2013 and the living area in particular was much better for us in the evenings when the kids had gone to bed.

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[Lisa29]

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The men made sure the 'important' things went into the fridge!

We started sorting all of our luggage out and getting ready to head out to dinner. After a while, Brett came back. It had taken him a while again to find all our parcels (I'm still not sure why it was so difficult), but he finally had them all. It took him a few trips up and down the stairs so I tipped him either $20 or $25.

I think we had all gone a bit crazy with shopping!

We left around 3.45pm to go to Disney Springs, taking some pics of the girls outside our building first

We drove to Disney Springs and parked in the orange garage, level 4, row 12. We took a slow walk through West Side towards Portobello, which is in the new Landing area, which had some great looking new buildings

I love the view of SSR from here

We were soon at Portobello for our 4.40pm ADR

We went in and saw Michelle and her family, who had not long been seated. They were in the main room, as you walked in and we were taken to a table by the window, off to the left when you walked in. Our server was Jason and he was very good. He took our drink orders (2 diet cokes @ $3.00 each, and 2 kids diet cokes @ $2.00 each), then brought us over some focaccia and roasted garlic with oil

Kaley was very serious, or maybe just a little tired

Kids menu

Kaley had the grilled chicken with potato wedges ($9.00)

Madison had the steak with fries ($11.00)

Main menu (taken outside)

Phil had the Chicken Cacciatore ($24.00)

And I had the Chicken Parmesan ($26.00)

This was all lovely, but such big portions which were a bit much for our first dinner. Mine could easily have done for me, Madison and Kaley and still had leftovers!

We all had fun colouring

Being on the dining plan meant that we had to try dessert!

Madison and Kaley each had a kids sundae ($5.00 each)

Phil had chocolate gelato ($6.00), no pic sorry, and I had White Chocolate Custard ($7.00), which was basically crème brulee

This was absolutely delicious and the best dessert I had during the entire holiday.

The total for the meal was $103.00 plus tax, however, we used 4 dining credits and left a $20 tip. Mum and Dad and Dave's parents had just arrived as we were leaving (we had already seen Michelle, Jamie and the kids before when they left), so chatted for a bit.

From there, we walked back around towards Planet Hollywood, as we had arranged to meet Ryan, Bethany and Piper there after their meal to take them home. We were only there a minute or so before they came out. We took some pictures first

I love this photo

We went back to the car and were soon back at OKW. We had promised the girls swimming so got ready to go to the Old Turtle Pond pool which was next to our building. It was cold! I wimped out and didn't stay in long at all and quickly went in the hot tub. Phil, Madison and Kaley all enjoyed themselves. Once done, we took them back, bathed them in the giant bath and they were in bed around 7.30pm.

Phil, Ryan, Bethany and I did some unpacking and I sorted the gifts for the Grand Welcome and all the bits I had bought for Dan and Dave. We then sat and went through all the packages we had ordered. I thought she had delivered us a parcel by mistake as there was a big box with an inflatable Halloween decoration on the side! I messaged Lisa as we were missing quite a few things that had been ordered and asked if she still had anything of ours, and also let her know that I had something of hers. I got a message straight back saying to look inside said box - inside were all the parcels that were shown in the picture!

There were 27 parcels in all! It was completely worth it though, I had gotten some amazing bargains.

We tidied up as best we could, sat and talked for a bit and went to bed just after 10pm.

The next day is Day 3 - Magic Kingdom, Crystal Palace, Swimming and 'Ohana and is HERE

DINING PLAN ROUND UP - 4/48 Table Service used, 6/48 Counter Service used and 0/48 Snack Credits used

[Buffton]

All those boxes! Wow!
Lovely day. I get more fond of animal kingdom each time I go.
So pleased you are collecting the Starbucks mugs, I love mine! Although I tend to just use the magic kingdom one all the time as its my favourite park!
Lizzie xx

[sheluk]

Wow what's in the boxes?

Lovely day - some beautiful pictures of the girls. Especially that one with the balloon.

Can't believe that line at AK- omg!

Glad you got your room sorted it looks huggggge! X

[Guest]

Shopping looks great. I've booked Lisa but if you could give me hints on bargain online shopping that would be great. Love your trip reports!

[danisleigh]

A great day, really enjoying your report.
The family photos are lovely and I think Madison looks like her daddy and kaley like you!
Looking forward to the next instalment!

[DiddyDan]

What I would give to be back on our first day at Animal Kimgdom!

I still can't believe how busy it was to get in!

I had the exact same food as you in portobello, main and desert lol!

I love the pic of the 3 girls too and the one of Madison holding the balloon! x

[Lisa29]

Originally Posted by Buffton

All those boxes! Wow!
Lovely day. I get more fond of animal kingdom each time I go.
So pleased you are collecting the Starbucks mugs, I love mine! Although I tend to just use the magic kingdom one all the time as its my favourite park!
Lizzie xx

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I know, i couldn't believe it when they were all piled up together!

I really like Animal Kingdom and am really pleased they are adding nighttime entertainment.

Phil is using the mugs as he has coffee and I think the mugs are a bit big for my tea, he is rotating between them all.

xx