Sizzling Summer Family Vacation - July 23, 2009
- From: Ginny Favers <ginnyfavers@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:33:27 -0400
Sizzling Summer Family Vacation
When: July 19 – August 3, 2009
Who: Joe, 38
Amanda, 38
Miles, 10
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village 1 Bedroom DVC Rental
Polynesian Resort Garden View
Offsite Villa Rental in Clermont on Hwy 22
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnyfavers/sets/72157622274113997/
Thursday, July 23
Surprise Epcot Day
We didn’t get up until mid-morning today. More yoga and iced coffee for me, and then a shower and I think we all didn’t get up and out of there until almost noon.
I thought we’d do Animal Kingdom today, but everybody felt like going over to Epcot. Probably not the best idea, since tonight was an evening Extra Magic Hours night, and it made the park extremely crowded. We managed to dodge most of them by doing less popular things, but it was a little tiring, especially trying to eat and use the restrooms.
We drove, of course, and the parking lot wasn't that full. All the crowds were from on-site guests, today, coming in for EMH, I'm sure.
We went straight to the Land pavilion and signed up for the Behind the Seeds Tour. I figured Miles was old enough to enjoy it, and his growing interest in biology would get fed. Our tour time wasn’t for another 40 minutes, so we rode the boat and had a snack in the food court.
Our tour lasted way longer than the listed time of 60 minutes. We were on the tour for almost two hours! The guide did ask us if anyone had anywhere to be, before she dawdled with us so much.
We got more in-depth information on this tour than the one I took back in May of 2007. This guide told us about which plants had to be hand pollinated, what had to be cleaned and how and when, etc.
Miles got to feed their tank of tilapia, but he gave his ladybugs to another guest to release for him. Guess he didn’t want bugs crawling on him! I don’t think entomology is going to be his major.
After the tour we got Miles some disgusting nuggets at Electric Umbrella. It was beyond crowded in there, and loud, but the upstairs overlook is a reasonably nice place to rest for a while and people-watch.
We headed for Mexico for a ride on El Rio del Tiempo con el Pato, and then – let the shopping begin!
I never, ever, ever “head for the mall” or call QVC up or order anything from the catalogs that flood our home. When I buy something, it’s been planned, thought about for a while, and researched for the best deal. Except at Disney. Disney World is the one place we shop. We came home with a lot of stuff, I have to admit, from this trip. We didn’t eat at expensive places, but every cent we saved on food we spent on merchandise. Epcot is our favorite place to indulge. We have many things in our house that are from various World Showcase pavilion.
We decided to do our master bathroom up like a Mexican fiesta, so we bought a bouquet of paper flowers and a paper banner for up at the top of the wall. Then I got myself a pair of nice silver and gemstone earrings, that after I was wearing them for a day Joe noticed there’s a tiny yellow hidden Mickey in one of the stones! Too cool.
Also got a bag of corn chips that was the best most amazing corn chips I’ve ever tasted. They were flavored with lime, and were very thick and crunchy. I’m looking all over the internet and cannot find them. I wish I’d written down the name, or saved the wrapper!
Next we picked up a Norway fastpass for Maelstrom and we continued on to Japan. Miles was begging to do Kim Possible today, but I wanted to spend time at the resort since it was our last day at AKL and we’d barely been there, so I asked him to hold off for couple days.
Joe and I ate at Yakitori House. I was really hot, we all were, when we arrived, and we were looking forward to sitting down inside in the air conditioning to eat. Sadly, it was fairly warm inside. After lunch, we shopped for an hour in Mitsukoshi and it was warm in there, also. Not like the a/c was broken, but it was definitely not set any lower than the mid to high 70’s. In a crowded public place with doors opening and closing, that’s just not enough to cool you off if you are coming in from the heat. Other shoppers were noticing it, too, so it wasn’t just us.
We still bought a bunch of stuff, including bath salts, incense, tea, plush Pokemon dolls for Miles (this is why we were in here so long – he changed his mind a zillion times about which three to choose) and I got a wallet.
I wanted to get out of here now, as evening was approaching and I really wanted to see Wishes from our balcony again, and swim in our pool for the first and only time. On the way out of the park we rode Maelstrom with our fastpasses and then Spaceship Earth.
Remember when you got in the ride vehicle in Spaceship Earth, and started up the hill, how the air conditioning used to blast you dry? It’s hotter than heck in there, with dead air, now.
I’m all for being green, but in the past, coming during the summer was made bearable by the extreme a/c inside the attractions, shops and restaurants. If they aren’t going to help me get my core temperature down then I can’t see how I can comfortably tour WDW in the summer heat again. We noticed this trend of warmer indoor temperatures throughout our vacation, with Epcot and Animal Kingdom being the biggest offenders. It really did add an extra layer of misery.
Back at the resort I took Miles over to Jambo House to the Mara for dinner. I had the BEST falafel I’ve ever had, no kidding! I’m sorry I only discovered this on our last night, or I would have had this for dinner every day. I would make a special trip for it. It was really spicy and flavorful, not burned or hard at all, but not mushy, just perfect. The pita bread was very high quality and whole-grain, and the produce served with it was ample and just so fresh and beautiful. The sauce was really good, too, not pasty or overly heavy, but light and fresh and tangy. I think it was the best thing I ate this trip.
Back at the room, Joe had gone to get a pizza off-property and he was back with it, munching down. It was almost time for Wishes now, so we watched that from our balcony.
Then we changed into our swim suits and headed out for a late night dip.
The Kidani pool is wonderful. The pool over at Jambo, just a couple of hours ago when Miles and I were over there eating, was a madhouse, but this pool was calm, quiet, and lovely. Very hot hot tub, and a great slide, which was officially closed, but a bunch of young twenty-something guys were walking up it and coming down. We of course we never do such a thing, especially not Joe and Miles. They would never have forty five minutes of serious fun doing such a dangerous, rude and terrible thing.
Bedtime came around midnight, which is normal for us. I packed a bit so tomorrow wouldn’t be such a race to get out of the room by check-out time. Miles cuddled up with his new Pokemon stuffed animals and watched some Disney Channel reruns. He’s a big Corey in the House fan.
I can’t believe how fast our three nights went, here. If I had anything I wanted, I would have spent our entire trip here. But it’s just way out of our price range. I think I have a reasonable way to afford DVC in fall of 2012, if all go well, and this experience did a lot to push me towards deciding to buy in. Well, the DVC annual pass discounts really are helping sell me, too. Hope they don’t disappear.
We’ll probably buy a 220 to 250 point resale at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, but I’m sure I’ll use points some day to come back to a Kidani 1 bedroom for a whole week.
~Amanda
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