Come sail away, Come sail away, Come sail away with me TR Completed 2/8/2012 - Page 25 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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So Josie and I take off to see Believe, along with Duffy Bear. We again, find one lonely seat and take it with Josie sitting on my lap and the show gets started. I have to pause here for a minute though……while we were getting back on the ship from CC I noticed 2 girls walking ahead of us in just their swimsuits. No bags, towels….nada. The one girl looked so small and I said to Arnaud that she must be a character like maybe Minnie or Mickey or something. He of course was all like whatever, but I knew with them carrying nothing with them they had to of been a CM or something. Well as it turns out, I was correct; she was the lead girl in the show. See that, I do know what I was talking about.
The show was great and I was really enjoying it ( despite all the rocking of the ship because now we were moving at full speed) But of course, Josie turns and said she is tired and wants to go up to bed.
We left the theatre and started to walk back to our room and the ship was so quite with nobody around. We happened to be walking past the gift shop when we spotted Oksana again. She bent down to remind Josie of just how special her Duffy is and to take extra care of him.
Once back in the room Arnaud told us that Tinker bell had dropped by to drop something off. Our pillowcases signed with everyone’s autographs!! They were adorable and I have them down in the kid’s playroom for them to snuggle and play with. I love them!!
Josie got settled into bed and I finished a little more packing and again “rearranging “of the bags. Once I got into bed I turned the TV on. Now I have noticed during the cruise that they will show whatever show is going on in the showroom on the TV’s. It’s not live, but a recorded version. So I started watching Believe somewhere after where we had left. I am a show person. I love live shows the most. I was a performer as my paying profession from the age of 19 up until I started having kids, so I watch every little detail and I was kind of bummed to have been leaving all these shows so early. Until they got to this one part of the show and I was crying like a baby. There is a special Disney song that Josie has me sing to her EVERY night before she goes to bed, and as to not spoil this for anyone who has never seen Believe before, I will skip what the song is. But, the father starts singing the song to his daughter and at this point I was happy I wasn’t in the theatre, but then sad too that Josie and I missed that moment together. Anyway, it was sweet and I do hope one day I can see the whole show.
I had to get to sleep at this point for tomorrow would be an early day of getting of the ship and over to the AKL!!!! I was really looking forward to this day too.
THURSDAY OCT 20th,
We all wake up stupid early for our breakfast in Royal Palace, which I think may have been at 6:30am!! I dressed us all in bathing suits under our clothes because I wasn’t sure when our luggage would arrive at AKL and I wanted to head right to the pool once we got there. So down to breakfast we go and I have to say that this felt so rushed to me. I know this day must be hard for all CM, but it really was like “Get em in, move em out” so with food in our tummies we were off to leave the ship, just like that. Bye Disney Dream! You were lovely and I hope to see you again.
Now from reading lots of other TR’s I knew we would grab a porter as soon as we saw one. So we did, we found all our bags, went through customs, which was funny actually. We aren’t big souvenir shoppers, I have no idea why, but maybe a little something here or there, but never much. So when the guy asked us what we bought, we just said “this”. Duffy Bear. He laughs and was like, really, that’s it??? Yup, just this. The porter took us to all the shortest lines and right over to our correct bus, Arnaud tips him, we get on the bus and then we were off.
Pulling up to the AKL was so exciting, I could not wait to get inside. Once we did, I had to have a blinking episode though. I could not see a darn thing in there. It was so dark. Once my eyes got adjusted we found our way over to check in and that all went pretty smooth. He told us a room was ready and sent us on our way. Now I know I have read TR where most people talk about their room being all the way down the hall and the last door. I was starting to think that the further we started walking. Finally, about 4 doors from the last one of the hall, we find our room!!!
I wasn’t sure if I had my sea legs back or not, but walking that far and looking at the busy carpets, I was feeling a little off.
Once inside we do what……….run to see the view!! There wasn’t much going on there at the time, but it was so nice to be looking out into the savannah. We dropped our bags and went off to search for some food and the pool. Which by the way was on the complete opposite side of where we were…………………more walking!!
We finally found the Mara, with some stops along the way to check the place out. Grabbed some food and a table outside and had a nice little lunch.
We then made our way over to the pool and found some seats. Now at this point I told Arnaud to go off and ride the slide, ya know, to make up for the Aqua Duck fiasco. We made an over the top deal of this too.
Josie then went in with daddy while I took off for some FAB with a sleeping baby.
We spent quite a bit of time here and I texted some pics to Kelly and Dawn. The sun was out and it felt great, but Arnaud and Josie were getting chilly in the pool so after a while we started to head back to the room and do some more exploring.
Oh how I remember getting a pic of that lovely mango margarita! (And I finished a jumbo margarita from a local Mexican restaraunt a little bit ago!)
AKL can be quite dark, especially after coming in from the sun, but I hope you enjoyed it! Just seeing those bedspreads made me miss 'my other home'.
Wasn't Believe the greatest? I have a feeling I know what part reduced you to tears. Mostly because of the sobbing mess I was, sitting between my DH & DD! I cried just as hard the second time (which was only 3 days later!).
They do clear the ship pretty early and debarkation feels pretty rushed. You certainly had an easy time going through customs! I hope on your next cruise you get to see the live shows all the way through, but it's great that they show the taped versions on TV. The pool at AKL looked so nice!
Well I finally caught up! Sounds like all in all you had a great time on the cruise and learned alot for next time. I do like how you spent some time in disney before and after so that you aren't rushing back home exhausted! We can't wait to go in the fall and definately have some more pool time!
__________________
Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
Oh how I remember getting a pic of that lovely mango margarita! (And I finished a jumbo margarita from a local Mexican restaraunt a little bit ago!)
AKL can be quite dark, especially after coming in from the sun, but I hope you enjoyed it! Just seeing those bedspreads made me miss 'my other home'.
Ahhh, Kelly, we need to have a margarita together one day
I did enjoy the AKL that's for sure, but the rooms......well I'll get to that in my final thoughts
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Wasn't Believe the greatest? I have a feeling I know what part reduced you to tears. Mostly because of the sobbing mess I was, sitting between my DH & DD! I cried just as hard the second time (which was only 3 days later!).
From what I did see of the show, it was very touching and I hope to see the whole thing soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
They do clear the ship pretty early and debarkation feels pretty rushed. You certainly had an easy time going through customs! I hope on your next cruise you get to see the live shows all the way through, but it's great that they show the taped versions on TV. The pool at AKL looked so nice!
Yeah, it was rushed, but not chaotic though.
I think that is very cool they show those shows on the TV's. Nice bonus!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Sorry to see the cruise come to an end, but at least you have more Disney time ahead of you!
Just a snip of Disney time, but enough to not make leaving the ship soo terrible
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Sounds like a great last night on the ship, and a great first morning at AKL! Great pics!
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeybee723
Sounds like a great day at AKL. I told you that place was DARK!!! Just be glad you weren't spending 7 days in there trying to apply your make-up.
I have mastered the art of applying the makeup just about anywhere........I'll make it work. Where there's a will.....right??
Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbr2015
Well I finally caught up! Sounds like all in all you had a great time on the cruise and learned alot for next time. I do like how you spent some time in disney before and after so that you aren't rushing back home exhausted! We can't wait to go in the fall and definately have some more pool time!
Yes, I did learn alot, but not so sure about the time before and after. I have some thoughts on that
After leaving the pool we decided to do a little more sightseeing around the resort and look for some animals. Staying here was a good choice, there really is so much to see and do and also thanks to my trusty PP friends, Oh Toodles (Kelly) had sent me an activity sheet in advance so I could figure out some things we might want to do. At the top of that list was checking out the story teller by the fire pit before dinner.
Speaking of dinner, we had an ADR for Sanaa but after the way Andre had been at dinner on the ship we thought maybe it would be best to skip the trek over to Kidani Village (boo) and see if Boma had any openings. They did, so we cancelled Sanaa (again, boo) and went to dinner early at Boma.
Another great decision!! This place was great!! We tried so many different things and everything was wonderful. Josie started to have a major meltdown at dinner because she spilled her water and that just sent her over the edge and it was hard to get her back. Then Mr. I want to grab anything and everything off the table, started his dinner routine too. I finally just grabbed a lemon and said, here kid, suck on this for a minute. Well as it turned out…………the kid loved it!!! I for sure was thinking this must be a bad, non-juicy lemon. So of course I tried it out…………NOPE! It was sour and juicy and now this kid wanted it more. This really was a great meal, with the food and atmosphere, but my kids were a bit of a hot mess. So we finished up and went to wonder around a bit more.
We didn’t get too far when I noticed Victoria Falls……………ahhh, mamma needs a BIG glass of red wine, and the shocking thing here was, my kids were calm and cool as can be. Devils!
We then made our way over to the fire pit and grabbed some rocking chairs. We waited around for a while with some other people too, but the storyteller never made it out. I have no idea what happened with that, but after a while we just looked around some more and then made it back to the room.
As we were getting the kids ready for bed I told Josie we had a surprise for her and to grab her Duffy. Arnaud gave her the Duffy book and she was in heaven. We read the book to the kids and then soon after they were both out like a light. That book is adorable and we read it often before bed time here at home now, along with the other one we have.
Arnaud wanted another gin gimlet at this point and I sure wouldn’t mind another glass of red, so I decided to go grab those and also head down to the Mara and grab some things for breakfast. DME was picking us up at 9ish and I didn’t want to deal with that in the AM. I also remembered I wanted to use our rewards dollars too. So I took off for the LONG walk to Mara, then to the gift shop and then to the bar. I told Arnaud I’d be back sometime before the DME came for us.
In the gift shop I picked up some fab five friends for Andre and these adorable AK binoculars for Josie and of course some Goofy gummy candy for my “big kid”. Got some treats for breakfast and most important, our cocktails.
Hiked alllllll the way back to the room and I was wiped out. Our trip was basically over by now as DME was coming early. So I cuddled in bed with my hubs and had a nice toast to our first vacation as a family of 4.
That sounded like a great, relaxing way to end your vacation. Sorry the storyteller didn't show up though, I wonder what happened? Love the lemon picture, too funny that Andre actually liked it! My kiddos are wierd like that too, they love lemons They'd eat 'em like oranges if I let them, yuck!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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Great pics! 
Teresa
They'd eat 'em like oranges if I let them, yuck!
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