Fourth Family Floriday - Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

FOURTH FAMILY FLORIDAY
CURSE OF THE NO SEE-UMS
3RD OCTOBER 2017
DAY 1 – MAGIC KINGDOM

Apologies for the three month delay in getting this up! Life and Christmas took over! I hope it is worth the wait. Today is over 3300 words, but looking at it uploaded onto the Blog, it looks more photo heavy than actual text!

I was awoken at 4am this morning by the voice of Amelia, asking if it was time to get up. I told her it was far too early yet and to go back to sleep.
4:10am came around and a repeat conversation ensued. This went on every 10 minutes until 5am when I admitted defeat and I got out of bed. She quickly took my place in our bed while I made tea which was an agonizing process using the in-room coffee machine. I quickly concluded that I wouldn’t be drinking much tea while we’re away as, not only did it take forever to make a cup, it tasted bloody awful. I had bought my own tea bags and sweetener, so I could only assume it was the water that made it taste so bad.

We opened the patio doors and could hear the strangest animal sounds coming from the savannah. It was still dark, but we could just about see a few giraffes out there. Amelia thought that’s where the sound was coming from, but it was more like the cross between a peacock and a goose! It sounded too loud to be a flamingo but must have been a big bird of some kind. I know who I’m putting my money on…

We all got showered and dressed and at 6:40am we were almost ready to go! Paul took the kids down to The Mara to get some drinks while I finished putting my make-up on and came back a little while later declaring that Amelia needed to change her shoes as they kept falling off every two seconds! Waste of money they were!

The sun was now up and we could finally see our savannah view which was pretty perfect to say the least. 

With shoes changed, backpacks loaded and magic bands double checked, we were ready to go and we took a slow walk down to the bus stop via the savannah to have a quick look around. The bus stop was easily accessible; you just turn left out of the main entrance and walk down a small sloping walkway and the bus stops are at the bottom. Screens lined the walk way so you can see when the next bus is due.

We got to the bus stop at 7:41am, and the bus was waiting for us! It was completely empty for the whole journey aside from us. It took 20 minutes which went fairly quickly and wasn’t a bad journey at all.  

With Animal Kingdom Lodge being the furthest resort away from the parks, using Disney transport was the one thing I was worried about staying there. I needn’t have worried though. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were with the buses. For the first few days they were either already waiting, or would arrive within 1 minute of us reaching a bus stop.
We went through bag search and I was the chosen one to go through a metal detector, which didn’t bother me in the slightest. If it’s keeping guests safe, then I’m all for a bit of extra security. We took some photos of the pumpkins while Paul ran off to the loo, and then we all went through the magic band scanners without a problem, and entered the happiest place on earth. The park didn’t open for muggles until 9am this morning, but as we had an ADR for 8:30am, they let us in no problem. To be honest I didn’t notice if other people were going in yet. I was too caught up in the magic and was choking back tears. I couldn’t believe we were finally here! 

We picked up a few maps, not to read, as I’m pretty sure I know where everything is now, but for souvenirs, and took obligatory castle photos. There were lots of Main Street vehicles coming through and I managed to take this photo which is one of my favourites from this trip.

We waited a minute or so for our turn with a photo pass photographer, but wished we had chosen one further up Main street as there was an ugly scrim covering Disney Clothiers which kind of ruined the photos. I made it my mission to have more taken later on, but we never did get around to it. 

We took a slow walk up Main Street, stopping to vlog and take photos of all the vehicles. It was really windy today and my ears kept blowing off! When we reached the hub, I had just finished taking some photos of the castle and we turned to make our way towards Crystal Palace when I heard someone calling out “PRINCESS! WAIT UP!” A rather stocky cast member came running over to us and said that he’d been calling us from way back, but we hadn’t seen or heard him! He told Amelia that he wanted her to go to Buckingham Palace and tell the guards to get out of the way and then tell the Princess to leave because a new princess was moving in (her) and then she has to marry the prince. Amelia wasn’t keen on the marriage bit! Apparently, she’s never getting married! The CM was so sweet and I was so pleased I managed to get it all on camera for the vlog. Unfortunately, after spending a small fortune on camera equipment, including a skinny muffler (to block out wind noise), I managed to leave it back at the resort! Boooo! So excuse the wind noise if you watch it after reading this. The CM gave her some stickers and we made our way over to Crystal Palace for our breakfast reservation. She was on cloud 9. 

We checked in and only waited 3 or 4 minutes to be called. As we walked through the restaurant, our greeter walked us towards a table which was covered in celebration confetti. I suddenly had a flashback to the phone call I had with Disney earlier in the year who said he was going to make a note on the system to make sure EVERYONE knows it’s our anniversary (actually 10 years since we met). But luckily, the greeter kept on walking and showed us to a little table by the window which was lovely. Although it would have been nice, the idea of being ‘celebrated’ every time we went for a meal set me on edge. As it happened, throughout the entire trip, the only people to say happy anniversary was the CM on reception who gave us our ’10 ears’ buttons when we checked in at AKL, a CM at the entrance to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and two servers at Akershus and Via Napoli. Luckily no cakes or singing ensued like on our last trip though! 
This was our third time having breakfast at Crystal Palace, and on previous trips we’ve always been a party of 7, so it was nice having a cosy little table to ourselves. 

Our view!

Our server, Samy, came over and was lovely. She must have been in her late 60’s and was very flirty with Paul and kept him constantly topped up with coffee. We all filled our plates with the mickey waffles, pooh puffed French toast, bacon, sausage and scrambled egg which we’d been craving since we returned from our last trip. It was as amazing as I remember.  

Amelia’s plate


Mine!

The characters were great as always. Eeyore and Piglet gave lots of hugs, Tigger was a bit of a love and shove (see video!), although Amelia didn’t notice and he made up for it in kisses. He also held her hand and went on a parade around the restaurant which she loved and he tickled Paul in the ribs! Sadly, Pooh never came round to our table. This was a real shame as, since the second she saw him at the first parade, Amelia has been smitten with Pooh. We were in there almost two hours and couldn’t hang on for him any longer. 

Thank heavens for the dining plan!

There was a bit of a wait for the receipt for our meal and Amelia was getting restless, so Paul and Oliver hung on and waited for Samy to bring it out, while Amelia and I went outside to take (more) photos! 

You only had to walk out and in a straight line to find us, so 20 minutes later, when there was still no sign of them, we were getting pretty fed up. They eventually came waltzing up to us with big grins on their faces, claiming Paul had just met Mary Poppins! You what? We stand here waiting for ages while you’re swanning off meeting Mary P? Apparently, they’d turned left out of Crystal Palace and stumbled across her meet n Greet which had no line. He took us over to where he’d seen her and we saw her through the bushes, and the CM that was with her was waving at us and motioning for us to go over! There was no one in line to see her, and Mary walked down to the bottom of the path and met us, took Amelia’s hand and walked back up to her post. I have to admit, I got a bit choked up. They spoke for ages about what they would put in a carpet bag – or rather Mary did. Amelia was awestruck! 

From there, we made our way over to Adventureland where we made our first pin purchase of the holiday. Paul didn’t have a lanyard, but loves Oswald, so he bought some Oswald and Steamboat Willie pins. I also got a 2017 pin and Amelia got a Tinkerbell pin. 

Our first Fastpass of the holiday was Jungle Cruise so we made our way there next. Our skipper was fantastic. I vlogged the whole thing, so no photos unfortunately. From there we went on The Magic Carpet of Aladdin which was only a 10 minute wait. I was with Amelia in the front who kept jerking the carpet up and down and it was making me feel sick!

Next up was the attraction that everyone loves to hate, the Tiki room. This was the first time we had ever been in here, and after listening to so many Disney podcasts over the past year, I got the sense that it was a classic, and we must go and see what it’s about. And I’m glad we did. I have to say, I loved it! We all loved the catchy song, and the cheesiness, and it is a true Disney classic! 
“In the tiki tiki tiki tiki room, in the tiki tiki tiki tiki room….”

Our next Fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain wasn’t until 12:20, but it was showing a 10 minute wait on the MDE app, so we headed over to Frontierland. On our last trip in 2014, Amelia didn’t like the dark bits, but she LOVED it this time and screamed the whole way round! She was ecstatic when we said we could ride it again later.

After BTMR, we made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean but the wait time was showing 35 minutes which was over my 20 minute limit! We decided that we’d go and get refreshments while Paul went to find a smoking area. Amelia was starting to flag a bit, and after the many choices of food and drinks I kept firing at her, she just wanted a bottle of water which was very unlike her. We headed over to Aloha Isle where I got her one. Oliver got a dole whip float, and I got a Dole whip cup (soft serve ice cream). I tried to get a decent picture of it, but it started to melt within seconds!

We’d only been sitting down for a couple of minutes when Paul arrived back and got himself the same as me. Amelia refused to try any of ours and I was starting to worry that she was getting ill or something. I think the tiredness was the main cause after her hideously early morning, but she perked up a bit when I checked my the MDE app and saw that POTC was now showing 10 minutes, so we finished our ice creams, wiped ourselves down with wet wipes (they were so sticky) and hurried over there. Paul and Amelia hadn’t been on it before, and Oliver and I hadn’t been on it since 2012, so it took us a bit by surprise! I won’t spoil it for anyone by telling you which bits! We all loved it though. Oliver’s face in this photo cracks me up! He looks terrified!

Back in Frontierland, we rode BTMR for the second time with our fastpass which was loved again by all and Amelia seemed much better afterwards. We picked up some popcorn and as we were walking towards Fantasyland, she caught sight of It’s a Small World and gave me a knowing look, before grabbing Paul’s hand and yanking him towards it! She knows it’s his least favourite ride, and we always play the song in the car to wind him up. She thought getting him to go on it was hilarious! There was a service dog getting in one of the boats when we were in the queue

It was coming up to 1:15pm after our second ride. We had ridden everything we wanted to, and we weren’t particularly hungry, so we skipped the fruit waffle at Sleepy Hollow Refreshments that I had in my plans and decided we would make a slow walk towards to exit via Town Hall for our last fast pass of the day which was Mickey Mouse at 2:20pm. We walked through the castle which ticked off an item on Amelia’s bucket list. We’ve done it several times before, but she couldn’t remember.

It was starting to get cloudy now, and as we reached the hub, it started to bucket it down. Amelia and I ran for cover, with Paul and Oliver close behind. We took shelter in the Emporium and after a good look around, we ended up buying the Pumpkin tea light holder which I had on my list of purchases, and a red polka dot cap with ears for Amelia which kept the post of her bunkbed warm for the entirety of the trip as she wouldn’t wear it until our second from last day! 

The rain eased off a bit, so we headed down Main street to the Town Square theatre. I had hoped to catch the Festival of Fantasy parade which was due at 2pm, but there was still no sign of it starting, which I guess was due to the rain, so we headed inside and waited in line for Mickey. The CM on the door loved Amelia’s skirt and was talking to us for a bit before we went in. 

Then came the golden moment when Mickey gave her a hug and then said to her:

“Say, can you help me with a magic trick?” to which Amelia replied:
“Can you help me with a magic trick?”

I think she took “say” a little too literally!

Mickey did the exact same magic trick that he had done with her on our last trip which was a little disappointing, but she didn’t mind.  
After meeting Mickey, we came outside to find the parade was just starting to come down Main street. We were right inbetween the two staircases and couldn’t see much, then this lovely American couple saw Amelia and motioned for her to stand in between them at the front. I pushed her through and was standing just behind her, but they motioned me to go right to the front too which gave us THE BEST view. I was so grateful to them. I felt a little bad for Paul and Oliver, but they could still see over the top of everyone’s heads, and wasn’t bothered about watching it anyway, so I don’t think they minded much. Sadly, because we were so close, the possibility of getting any decent photos were diminished and I ended up with lots and lots of blurred shots. These were the best of a bad bunch. I have to say, I did fall out with my DSLR a bit on this trip, and after today, it remained in its case in the wardrobe at the resort for the rest of the holiday and I just used the Canon G7X.

We took the bus back to AKL which drops off at Kidani before Jambo House (except for around 5pm when, in our experience, it seemed to go to Jambo first).

There is an outside entrance to Zawadi, the resort’s shop, three quarters of the way up the slope from the buses to the resort entrance, so we popped in there where I bought a pair of binoculars for Amelia to look at the giraffes on the savannah. 

When we got back to the room, Mousekeeping had been in to make the beds and had arranged Amelia’s toys on ours with a little note, thanking us for the dollars and Freddo bar. 

We hung out for a bit. Amelia spilt chocolate milk down her T-shirt at breakfast this morning which we covered up with a sticker from this morning’s cast member to hide it! So we freshened up and got her changed and at around 5pm, we went to The Mara for dinner. Apologies for the lack of photos here. I’ll try and do better! I had oven roasted rotisserie chicken with mash, Paul had the same but with fries, Oliver had a pepperoni flatbread and Amelia had a kid’s turkey sandwich. For desserts I think Paul, Oliver and I all had Oreo cheesecakes and Amelia had a fruit bag with the BIGGEST grapes I’ve ever seen! We took our resort mugs with us and filled them up, and took the drinks that came with our meals back to the room for another day.

Such a poser!

Paul and the kids wanted to go for a swim after dinner. Although I could have quite happily stayed in the room and gone to sleep, I thought I’d better go with them. I put my cozzy on, but wussed out of getting in the water when I saw how cold they were in there. No thank you very much! They soon changed their minds about swimming and we all decided to go for a Jacuzzi instead which was blissfully warm. I could have stayed in there all night. 

When we started to get shriveled, we got dried and picked up some muffins and hot drinks to take back to the room. We watched TV, Amelia went to bed and later on, Paul and I spotted this little guy on the balcony ceiling! He was so cute!

I spent the rest of the evening uploading the photos and footage onto my hard drive. Despite my best efforts, I think I must have fallen asleep at about 9pm (with the laptop still on my lap)! I think I woke up a few hours later and Paul had done the same as the TV was still on. I turned it off and put the laptop and cameras on the floor and fell back to sleep again in an instant.

*********************
TODAYS SPENDS
Crystal Palace
4 table service credits | Tax & Gratuity $ 21.96
Would have cost $151.89 out of pocket (OOP)
B’Wana Bob’s Pin cart
5 pins $53.20 incl. tax
Amelia’s pin $9.58 incl. tax
Aloha Isle
4 Snack credits
Would have cost $18.51 OOP
Popcorn Cart
Regular popcorn
1 snack credit (would have been $4.25 OOP)
The Emporium
Minnie cap $21.99
Mickey pumpkin tea light holder $16.99
Total $41.52 incl tax
Zawadi Market Place
Binoculars $8 incl. tax
The Mara
4 Quick service credits
would have cost £54.95 OOP

TOTAL SPENT TODAY
$134.26

Steps today: 13,960 (4.8 miles)
*********************


TODAY'S VLOG:

Fourth Family Floriday - Day 2

FOURTH FAMILY FLORIDAY
CURSE OF THE NO SEE-UMS

2ND OCTOBER 2017
TRAVEL DAY PART 2
****************

I don’t have the time we woke up in my notes, but I think it was about 7am. We turned on the TV and saw on the news that Monarch had gone into administration. I felt sorry for all those people that should have been flying somewhere today. It was a crisp Autumn morning and we all got showered and dressed and at 8:45am, left the luggage in the room and went down to breakfast at the Thyme restaurant. 

We were shown to a table quite close to the buffet and I was amazed that we were probably the youngest family in there. Most of the people in there were elderly. Maybe Saga holidays only fly out on Mondays?  There were lots to choose from on the buffet but I wasn’t feeling up to eating much this morning which is unlike me when it comes to buffet breakfasts! I was feeling very anxious. Paul had already started arguing with Oliver, as he had only toasted his crumpets on one side and were uncooked. I had a chocolate croissant and a cinnamon and raisin bagel which I discovered was also only toasted on one side when I got back to the table, but like Oliver, I couldn’t be bothered to go back up and toast it again. Amelia must have had my share of hunger this morning though as she decided she was having two plates; one with sausage, egg and bacon, and another with pancakes and a mini muffin. Paul had enough hunger for everyone and had a huge cooked breakfast and three mini muffins. Oliver also had sausages, bacon, hash browns and eggs with his crumpets. We all had tea, coffee and juice. The adult breakfasts were £10.50 each, and children under 15 eat free. Although I didn’t eat much, I think as a family we got our monies worth.

When we were finishing up breakfast, and Paul was on his last coffee, I checked my phone for the time and saw that I had a notification from Virgin. My excitement began to peak now, and I couldn’t wait to check out of our room and get to the airport!

We thanked the staff and went back up to the room and got all of our stuff together, ensuring that liquids were in bags, and with one last check under the beds for items we may have left behind, we were out of the room and back downstairs. Check out was as simple as handing our key cards to a member of staff who was next to the lift as we exited which was simple enough.  

We walked over into the hustle and bustle of North terminal and went through to premium security. It was quick but pretty busy and I got a bit flustered trying to get everyone’s belongings together when Paul left me to go to the end of the counter when his bag was kept back for screening (we forgot to take the liquids out of the rucksack in into the tray on their own! ). Oliver was faffing with something or other on one side and I just grabbed our tray and took it to one of the little counters and tried to sort everything out with Amelia. Paul had just thrown everything in his pockets into the tray; wallet, phone, lighter, cigarettes, loose change, his watch… you name it. So I was trying to find somewhere to put all of that, as well as getting the rest of our stuff together. I got our ≈≈≈≈≈≈ together and met Paul on the other side and we regained ourselves and took a more relaxed walk over to duty-free. Paul hates it here so I never feel I can look around without peeing him off, so I didn’t look at much. I did have a sneaky squirt of Gucci Flora though. 

Amelia spotted a Flik Flak watch she really liked with dolphins on the strap. She tried it on and it fit her lovely.

My Nan had given the kids £20 each yesterday before we left, so she decided to spend hers on that. It wasn’t until we were in Florida that we realized the hour hand doesn’t sit on the hour properly so I’m going to see if I can somehow exchange it.

Oliver also had a look at the Superdry watches and found a nice black and orange one. He was undecided until I said it would match his orange magic band, and that was it. He went straight over and paid for it.

From there, Paul found a bench and sat down. I was getting restless though and decided to take Amelia off to look in the shops which is when I spotted Cath Kidston. There was a particular purse I wanted which was in the sale before we came away, but it wouldn’t have arrived in time if I had ordered it online. I searched the shop inside and out and couldn’t find it. We must have been in there for a good 20 minutes as Amelia wanted to look at everything. She found a cute cat purse which she wanted, so I got her that, and just as we were on our way to the checkout, I spotted the purse I had been looking for in a basket on its own at the end of an aisle. Result! 

I resisted the temptation of the Tinkerbell saddle bag and left to go back to the bench where Paul and Oliver were previously sitting, except Paul had now disappeared to find a smoking area. Oliver was glued to his phone and Amelia was getting bored, so we had a look in Accessorize. Paul still wasn’t back when we came out of there and Amelia was thirsty, so I told Oliver to wait there for Paul and tell him we’re going over to Boots and then to the kids play area just adjacent to it. You could see the play area sign from where he was sitting. I bought both the kids a drink, some travel bands for Amelia and some cold relief tablets, tissues and halls soothers for Oliver who woke up with a cold this morning. Then we walked over to the play area. There was a sign saying the area was for under 7’s, but there were a few bigger kids in there, and parents sprawled out over the soft play shapes, so they could hardly moan that Amelia was 7. It was really for toddlers, but she had fun jumping across the shapes and playing with some babies. Two minutes later my phone rang. It was Paul and he sounded peed off, asking where we were. Obviously, me telling Oliver to pass on the message had fallen on deaf ears. Apparently, I had been gone ages. How he could assume that when he wasn’t there himself, I don’t know. But he went off on one of his stroppy moods. They met us at the play area with Starbucks in hand. Amelia played for a few more minutes and then we got her out and waited around the corner on some chairs for our gate to be announced as it wasn’t due to be confirmed until 12:05pm. 

We did a bit of vlogging and Paul took Amelia back into the play area for a bit while I checked Instagram and Oliver continued to look at his phone.
Before long the board read our gate number which was the opposite side to where we currently sat, so we hot-footed it over to where we were supposed to be, taking obligatory aeroplane photos on the way. We were flying on Pretty Woman this time, which coincidentally, is the same name as the model aeroplane that I put in Amelia's reveal bag!

It only seemed like five minutes later and our row was being called! We were upstairs in the bubble again on row 77.
We settled in our seats, Amelia in the middle of Oliver and I, and Paul on the other side of the aisle. He was sitting next to a couple who were going to Orlando for 10 days which explains why the seats next to him were showing as empty on the way back. I wonder if they’re dibbers? 

Amelia was getting a little impatient while everyone was boarding as the seatback TV’s weren’t operating yet. She got her princess earphones on ready. I let her look through the Vera entertainment guide and she picked out what films she was going to watch. Boss Baby was her top pick. Then the cabin crew came around with our menus and we picked out what we wanted. 

To be honest, nothing on there took my fancy, but I decided on the pesto pasta.

We were soon up in the air. Amelia wasn’t keen on the taking off part. She must take after Paul in that respect as I love it! It’s the best part of flying!
The flight was good. Really smooth other than a few bumps and didn’t feel as long as it usually does. Some of the views were amazing. We could see snowcapped mountains and Islands and clouds that went on for miles and miles. We had to take a northerly route just south of Iceland and Greenland and down the Eastern Seaboard due to strong westerly jet streams which was not a direct route, but we took off early, making it an exact 9-hour flight.

Amelia kept herself busy watching films, building the Lego set that was on the front of her magazine, doing crosswords in her Quiz Kids book and decorating mouse-keeping envelopes. We also had a few games of Guess Who but the travel version was very fiddly! I did have to keep a close eye on her as she wanted to play some of the games on the screen, but every time she pressed the screen, the woman in front kept turning around looking disgruntled so I had to tell her she couldn’t play them. Instead, she watched Boss Baby, Captain Underpants, The Secret Life of Pets and also listened to some music. This was different to previous flights and I was actually able to watch some films myself! I watched Rough Night, Gifted and Baywatch which was hilarious! Oliver watched Spiderman and some episodes of Riverdale, Modern Family and American Dad. Paul watched Despicable Me 3 and can’t remember what else!

Before long, Amelia’s child’s meal was given to her and the adults’ followed shortly after. Paul and Oliver had the sausages, but unfortunately, they were demolished before I got my camera out as I was still helping Amelia butter her roll when they were brought round. Here’s ours though.

Amelia’s penne pasta with tomato and mozzarella…

I had a taste and it was lovely. And here’s my Chicken pesto pasta…

I’m not a fan of pesto usually, but this was really nice. I polished off the lot! The menu says we were given a red velvet cake, but I’m 99% positive mine was a lemon pudding of some description. It was really nice.

There’s not really a lot more I can say about the flight. It was pretty uneventful. I was starting to get a bit restless a few hours before landing. I watched the flight map for a bit before going back to a film and took some photos of the view out the window. At one point, I saw another plane not too far away from our own which was pretty cool.

Fab lollies were brought out later…

And then afternoon tea an hour before we landed. I was getting really hungry at this point and ate all of the sandwiches, despite the fact that I don’t usually eat cheese unless it’s melted. They were quite nice. I was also REALLY thirsty, so was glad of a cup of tea. I wish their cups were bigger!

Before long we began our descent into Orlando and our excitement peaked once again. After 18 months of waiting, we were finally here! I’m not sure if it was swampland or flooding (as a result of Irma maybe?), but there was a lot of water as we flew into MCO. You can see it in the video below.  

Some bloke in front of Paul thought it would be clever to immediately get out of his seat when we landed, before the seatbelt sign had gone off and took himself downstairs where he waited by the door to the plane. The cabin crew told him to sit back down but he was having none of it. It was ages before the doors opened. 

Being upstairs meant we were some of the first off the plane too. We hot-footed it down to immigration and was amazed to find it was completely empty! That’s a first! I don’t think we were in there longer than 10 minutes. The officer who checked our passports was nice enough. He wasn’t chatty at all but got us through quickly with very few questions. We did our fingerprints and mugshots and were soon on our way to baggage claim. Ours took a little while to come out, but not as long as it took Mr “I’m too good to sit on the plane”. Paul said he was still standing there waiting for his luggage after we left. Getting off the plane first and being rude to the cabin crew really didn’t work in his favour!
We skipped the second bag check and took our own luggage up the escalator which was a bit of a fast. It was so busy at the top to get on the monorail and nobody was moving down the platform which resulted in a big pile-up at the top of the stairs! A woman managed to push her way in between Paul and Oliver and Amelia and I and at the top, she fell into Oliver, and then I piled on to her! It was a nightmare. There was no way around it. Paul and Oliver literally couldn’t move as there was no space to move in to. She saw the funny side thankfully, but she did hurt Oliver’s ankle. We were sensible and moved down to the end of the platform in order to get on the front of the monorail, which was already sat there waiting for us. We really were lucky with transport so far. 
We made our way over to the B side and down to Magical Express Transportation. Again, our bus was waiting for us. However, it was a good 30 minutes before we set off. It was only us and two other couples on there!

Paul and Amelia sat in the front seats and videoed some of the journey while Amelia took photos with her camera.

Around half an hour later, we rolled up at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was now dark, but really hot and humid as we stepped off the bus. I almost had to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe after watching so many YouTube videos on the resort over the past 18 months, that we were finally here! It felt like a dream. As we walked through the lobby I think I let out a little gasp. It was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t believe we would be staying here for two weeks!

We set the luggage down next to a group of sofas where the kids sat down and waited for us while we went to check in. I asked the cast member if there was any chance of a partial savannah view room and she said that there were none left as there was a conference on and the resort was booked to capacity. I went on to ask if we would have the bunk beds I requested and she confirmed that we did. At least that was something. I did feel a little deflated that we wouldn’t have a nice view and had images going through my head of the car park. However, my spirits were lifted somewhat when I saw her circle the room we were in on the map. Surely this would have a partial savannah view? 

She explained the map to us and gave us directions to reach our room. She gave us our magic bands (Paul put his on straight away!)

She gave us a resort activity guide and a leaflet explaining the dining plan which had the number of credits we had to use. She told us to get the best value out of quick service credits, order adult meals for Amelia and we could split them, that way we’d have credit over at the end and could spend them on candy etc. as 1 quick service credit = 3 snack credits. Then she asked us to wait one second and was busying around under the desk and came out with two ‘buttons’ for us with “10 ears” written on them! This photo was taken later on in the trip... 

It really cheered me up. We thanked her and we went over to the kids and each took a suitcase and made our way to our room. We had to make our way to the far side of the lobby on the left and walk up a long winding corridor and then take the lift up one floor to the fourth floor. We found out the next day that there was a staircase just before the corner which was a lot quicker than waiting for the lift. We then had quite a walk to our room, but it was worth it when we walked in and saw it. The kids were delighted with their bunk beds. Amelia quickly claimed the top bunk which she thought was hilarious.  

Getting one over on Oliver had her in stitches. When they’re in a good mood, they really bounce off one another and this was one of those moments! They were both in hysterics, winding each other up with playful banter. The latest to amuse them was telling each other they smelt like obscure objects. Oliver would say “Amelia, you smell like eggshells” or something to that extent, to which she’d respond with “Oliver, you smell like elbows!” Fits of giggles would ensue and soon they were having an insult-off (there must be a word for this?!). A moment later, Oliver was looking in the drawer in between the beds and found a bible. And thus brought on a whole new level of obscure religious-based insults which set seed for the remainder of the holiday. 

“Amelia you smell like God”
“Oliver, you smell like Jesus’s beard!
“Amelia. You smell like the New testament”
“Oliver, you smell like a stable”
“Amelia, you smell like the 9th commandment”

You can imagine how tedious this got over time.

I went over to the patio doors, and in her excitement, Amelia ran ahead of me in an effort to get out onto the balcony first and ran face-first smack into the glass doors. I couldn’t believe it. We’d only been in the room for a minute and already she’d injured herself! Luckily there was no blood or anything and her ego was bruised more than her nose. I gave her a cuddle and she stopped crying and we opened the doors to discover the best view we could have hoped for! Granted it was very dark at this point, so the actual view wasn’t great… but I could make out trees… and grass…. Not a car park in sight! We had a savannah view!   
We were given room 4230 which is the floor above the one I requested through Touring Plans. It is right over the top of what I’ve heard people call the “people pen”. I’m not sure what they use the pen for as it was never occupied while we were there. Certainly not for herding people! The view was probably not what you’d get if you booked a savannah view, but seeing as we only booked a standard, we were chuffed to bits. I got my camera out and took a photo to see if it picked anything up. I didn’t expect it to as it was pitch black, but I was astounded to find there were actually giraffes right outside our balcony! 

We looked around the room a bit more and discovered that we had Disney toiletries. There was speculation before we went that the resorts were eradicating them in favour of wall-mounted dispensers like you might find in Premier Inn. I was pleased to see this wasn’t the case.
We decided to leave the unpacking until later and go and explore the resort a bit more and get something to eat. We went out onto the savannah and also took a look at the pool. It was very dark, so we couldn’t see much, but we were excited about staying here. It was a beautiful resort.

Amelia really wanted to go in the pool but I said we’d see how she felt after some dinner. We headed over to the Mara and got our first quick service. First of all, we picked our resort mugs. Purple for me, red for Paul and pink for Amelia which all matched our magic bands. They didn’t have an orange to match Oliver’s magic band, so he picked up a blue one. At the Mara, we had to go up and order our food and were given a receipt and a pager. Then we had to show our receipt and pay at a checkout and wait for the pager to go off when the food was ready. So after ordering our food, off we went to pay. You’d think we’d be used to the Dining plan by now, but it seemed that three years away from Disney had turned us back into amateurs as we couldn’t get it right. We thought we could only get an entrée and a drink now that the dining plan had changed to 2 snacks, but when we went to the checkout, the CM said we also needed to have a dessert each. So, we went back over and picked desserts, then back to the CM who said that Amelia had to have a drink and a dessert from the kid's section, so back over we went. We must have gone backward and forwards about three times. Luckily there was no one behind us. I joked that he must be able to tell it was our first day and he smiled and said we were fine. 
So finally, we were paid up, and our pager went off before we’d finished paying/using our dining credits! It was quiet in the Mara, being so late we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, save for a couple of people. The kids picked a table over by the window and we scoffed our food, now starving after our long travel day. I had a turkey sandwich which was HUGE and crammed with turkey. Paul had an angus cheeseburger, Oliver had a pepperoni flatbread and Amelia had chicken tenders and fries. Unfortunately, I only manage to snap pics of my sandwich and you can see Amelia’s below too. The boys had already started to demolish theirs before I had a chance!

Turkey sandwich


Amelia with her chicken tenders.

For dessert, we had zebra domes and Oreo cheesecakes and Amelia had a yoghurt drink. The zebra domes were amazing and I can see why everybody on The Dibb raves about them!

After dinner, we decided we’d take a slow walk back to the room. Thankfully Amelia had now forgotten that she wanted to go swimming and after getting back to our room, she helped me unpack while Paul went to find a smoking area and Oliver went to explore the arcade and to see if he could find the movies around the pool area. Once I’d found the case with her pyjamas on the top, I got her ready for bed and she climbed up into her top bunk and fell asleep almost instantly. I continued unpacking and was almost finished when Paul and Oliver returned. How convenient! We had a drink on the balcony and listened to the strange sounds coming from the savannah. I have no idea what made those sounds! I backed up today's photos and videos on to my hard drive, put the camera batteries on charge and we all went to bed, excited for what tomorrow will bring!

*********************
The Mara
4 Quick service credits | Tax & Gratuity $ 0
Would have cost $133.64 (including resort mugs)
Steps today: 4963
*********************

If you’d like to see this day in video form, you can watch today's vlog: