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Thank you so much for bringing us along! It has been wonderful getting to know you and Hope and your mom...your TR was so much fun, even though it was a short trip! I'm so excited for the next one!
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Amanda =)
Living out a childhood dream during my summer 2015 trip to WDW. Is it time to go back yet?
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wow, I missed alot! I am so glad that Hope's surgery went well though and congrats on getting club level! It was funny when I was reading your comment about your parents going on the trip too and it not being the same without them, we have that same issue! We have been there a few times without my parents and we just felt lost, like we wanted to turn around and say something to them and they weren't there. Just not the same. We are hoping to go in April, bcv, right before Sam turns 3 and then today I booked BLT for Dec - 2011. Sam was 2 1/2 on this past trip and let me just tell you, you are going to have so much fun with Hope at that age!!!
Congrats on booking BLT! One day I plan on staying there, and what a great time for you to go. Still not decided on the April trip yet? Yes, it's just not Disney without my parents. The one time I did go without them that I actually had a great time was the very first time I took Chad and it was because I was introducing someone to my favorite place. I got to see everything through his eyes and it was great. But now, I just can't see myself going without them. BTW, is Sam good with the characters at this age?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mandy1627
Thank you so much for bringing us along! It has been wonderful getting to know you and Hope and your mom...your TR was so much fun, even though it was a short trip! I'm so excited for the next one!
Thanks so much for joining me. I really hope you join in for the next one, even though it's a little far in the future, but at least that one will be a week long trip!
Well with April being only a few months away, there wasn't much time to put money aside, problem is we have airline credits that we have to use before Oct 1st so we have to go somewhere and we already have our annual passes so why not disney! Right now we are secretly planning that its my parents and us going, we have a 2 bedroom booked at beach club. My mom feels like its too soon, right in the middle of when beach rent is due and so forth, but I think now that the holidays are over, if we plan correctly, she will come to realize that we could all use a little break again. Our trip last month was very nice but we stayed off-site so there was a bit more running around and we had my sister and her family with us which made it a bit more hectic and less relaxing. I want the April trip to be more relaxing with swimming etc. So we will see. I booked BLT which is our home for the 1st full week of Dec this time. We have always gone immediately following Thanksgiving, but we want to try something different this year, so we will be able to decorate before we go and not come home to a mad rush to get everything up! We stayed in a MK view 2 bedroom in Oct 2009 and have been dying to stay there again during the holidays so that we can decorate our balcony and enjoy the decorations.
As far as the characters at 2 1/2, Sam did pretty well. The first 1/2 of the week, he was a bit more shy, he liked them at a distance, liked getting their autographs, but if they got close he freaked. Second 1/2 of the week he started to really let his guard down. He has always loved Mickey and gone right to him with no issues, then we went to the character spot in Epcot and I have to say that was his best character experience of the trip. I really wish we had gotten back there again before we left.
Does Hope watch alot of the disney movies? If not, I would suggest introducing her to them between now and the trip. Sam watches a ton of disney movies and knew most of the characters. He loves Beauty and the Beast and thuroughly enjoyed the show in HS.
Sorry this is a long post, wanted to give you some info!!
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Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
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Oh no! It's over now!
Great TR Melissa! I've enjoyed it immensely.
I hope you love AKL club level as much as we do - otherwise I'll feel like I've let you down somehow.
On the character note - we took Dylan 2 months after he turned 2 and he LOVED the characters. Ran right up to Mickey! And with Hope already seeing them and more time to mature I'm sure she'll love them too.
Well with April being only a few months away, there wasn't much time to put money aside, problem is we have airline credits that we have to use before Oct 1st so we have to go somewhere and we already have our annual passes so why not disney! Right now we are secretly planning that its my parents and us going, we have a 2 bedroom booked at beach club. My mom feels like its too soon, right in the middle of when beach rent is due and so forth, but I think now that the holidays are over, if we plan correctly, she will come to realize that we could all use a little break again. Our trip last month was very nice but we stayed off-site so there was a bit more running around and we had my sister and her family with us which made it a bit more hectic and less relaxing. I want the April trip to be more relaxing with swimming etc. So we will see. I booked BLT which is our home for the 1st full week of Dec this time. We have always gone immediately following Thanksgiving, but we want to try something different this year, so we will be able to decorate before we go and not come home to a mad rush to get everything up! We stayed in a MK view 2 bedroom in Oct 2009 and have been dying to stay there again during the holidays so that we can decorate our balcony and enjoy the decorations.
As far as the characters at 2 1/2, Sam did pretty well. The first 1/2 of the week, he was a bit more shy, he liked them at a distance, liked getting their autographs, but if they got close he freaked. Second 1/2 of the week he started to really let his guard down. He has always loved Mickey and gone right to him with no issues, then we went to the character spot in Epcot and I have to say that was his best character experience of the trip. I really wish we had gotten back there again before we left.
Does Hope watch alot of the disney movies? If not, I would suggest introducing her to them between now and the trip. Sam watches a ton of disney movies and knew most of the characters. He loves Beauty and the Beast and thuroughly enjoyed the show in HS.
Sorry this is a long post, wanted to give you some info!!
No...I like all of the information! I love the idea of decorating your balcony for Christmas...how cute! As for Hope watching Disney movies, we just tried with The Princess and the Frog since it was on Starz this weekend, and she loved it. She actually stopped what she was doing to sit down and watch it. Now, her attention wasn't constantly on it, but I was really impressed by how much she did watch. All of my Disney movies are on VHS, so now I have to start collecting them all on DVD. I'm thinking of doing the Disney Movie Club just to jump start the process.
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Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Oh no! It's over now!
Great TR Melissa! I've enjoyed it immensely.
I hope you love AKL club level as much as we do - otherwise I'll feel like I've let you down somehow.
On the character note - we took Dylan 2 months after he turned 2 and he LOVED the characters. Ran right up to Mickey! And with Hope already seeing them and more time to mature I'm sure she'll love them too.
There is no way you could let me down. I'm so excited I can't even begin to explain it. I want to be there right now!!! I have been doing some reading on some of the boards, and they were saying that because of Kidani being the first bus stop, that Jambo House buses are usually extremely full and they have to wait for a second bus to come. Did you find that to be true? The last time I stayed at AKL, Kidani wasn't even built yet.
Melissa you should sign up for Disney Movie Rewards. They will usually give you a $5 to $10 off coupon for movies when they first release them even when they re-release them. If you use the coupon in the first few days of the release you'll get the store lower price promo as well & save even more. That is why I have started getting the Disney movies on DVD & blue-ray combo packs even though I don't have blue-ray just yet lol! Sometimes they just give you the coupon & sometimes they will ask you for the UPC code from your vhs you can even search the web for the codes. It is a great way to update you collection. Hope this helps.
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Melissa you should sign up for Disney Movie Rewards. They will usually give you a $5 to $10 off coupon for movies when they first release them even when they re-release them. If you use the coupon in the first few days of the release you'll get the store lower price promo as well & save even more. That is why I have started getting the Disney movies on DVD & blue-ray combo packs even though I don't have blue-ray just yet lol! Sometimes they just give you the coupon & sometimes they will ask you for the UPC code from your vhs you can even search the web for the codes. It is a great way to update you collection. Hope this helps.
I just signed up for the Disney Movie Club, but is this something separate from that? If so, I can fufill my obligation of 3 movies at their price and then get the rest of my movies this way. I don't have a Blu Ray either, not sure if I'll get one unless I'm forced too because they no longer are making DVDs, but this sounds like something worth while.
Disney Movie Rewards is different than what you signed up for DMR gives you points for buying disney movies and you can use those points to get different rewards. They also have been giving $10 off coupons for new releases.
Yes! Both of our Concierge trips are at AKV booked on points--both studio rooms. We are always willing to spend the extra points--even if we have to borrow a few to stay concierge at AKV. Our first trip was wonderful and we are looking forward to both stays! We also have a value room booked for June--it will be interesting to compare the concierge level rooms to a value room. Last time I booked a value room I got upgraded to a pool view--using DVC points--weird--unless there are some value rooms that have pool views--not sure. AKL is our favorite resort. Although, if I'm paying cash my preference is the Contemporary. I'm thinking about booking the evening Safari at AKL in October, its through the AKL savannahs--we did the morning one on the last trip--that one is through the Safari Ride and it was awesome!
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Disney Movie Rewards is different than what you signed up for DMR gives you points for buying disney movies and you can use those points to get different rewards. They also have been giving $10 off coupons for new releases.
I just signed up for DMR as well. You can only enter codes on new items bought though right? I guess every little bit helps, whether is's a coupon on a bonus DVD from the movie club. Soon she'll have a ton of new DVDs to watch. We tried hooking up our old VCR so she could watch the VHS tapes, but the quality was so poor I had to turn it off.
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Originally Posted by ilovedisney247
Yes! Both of our Concierge trips are at AKV booked on points--both studio rooms. We are always willing to spend the extra points--even if we have to borrow a few to stay concierge at AKV. Our first trip was wonderful and we are looking forward to both stays! We also have a value room booked for June--it will be interesting to compare the concierge level rooms to a value room. Last time I booked a value room I got upgraded to a pool view--using DVC points--weird--unless there are some value rooms that have pool views--not sure. AKL is our favorite resort. Although, if I'm paying cash my preference is the Contemporary. I'm thinking about booking the evening Safari at AKL in October, its through the AKL savannahs--we did the morning one on the last trip--that one is through the Safari Ride and it was awesome!
Now I'm even more excited! The two times I stayed at AKL was before I was DVC member, and each time I too was upgraded from value to pool view. I've never had Savannah, but even if I don't this time, I'm sure the whole concierge experience will offset that. We are definitely going to book the Sunrise Safari so it's good to hear that you really liked that. I can definitely get myself up that early if it means seeing a lot of animals up close. Do they let you stay in AK if you want too after it's over? I'm thinking of making that day our AK day since we're already going to be there.
It was really neat on this last trip after watching the movies alot, for Sam to recognize Belle and the Beast and Ariel just to name a few. He likes Princess and the Frog alot too. We took him to the movies for toy story 3 (his first theater movie) and this past week my mom and I took him to see Tangled which was cute and he enjoyed it alot. We made it a point on this last trip to try and catch the parades, like the block party bash in HS, Sam really had a blast with that, pointing out all of the characters and waving and dancing. Its funny becuase each trip we find something new that really interests him, so when I plan the next trip I make myself notes of things we absolutely have to do. I have to say that Sam has been to Disney at 8 months, 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 and each trip has had its special moments but it just keeps getting better and better as he grows up. We just realized with our April dates that we are one week shy of seeing the Phillies play Atlanta at the ESPN wide world of sports. bummer!
When we were at BLT in Oct 2009 we noticed that some people had their windows and balconies decorated for halloween, when we were over that way on this last trip we saw a few balconies decorated with christmas lights!
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Teresa
Sammy 5 years and Peyton 15 months - September 2013
What a great trip report! I am so sad it is over On another note...you will Love AKV....that is our other home resort. We have trouble getting the kids to leave the resort and go to the parks. The animals are an attraction in itself.
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I saw in an earlier post that you inquired about the buses being full at AKLV when they get to Jamba house. We stayed at Kidani Village last year and I can confirm for you that I felt so badly for the people at Jamba house because the buses were pretty packed after stopping to pick up those of us at Kidani. It is my understanding that Kidani is always the first bus stop at AKL. Maybe you can switch your ressie to Kidani?
We loved the resort...saw so many animals from our balcony at Kidani. Obviously we had the savannah view. I am sure you will love it!
It was really neat on this last trip after watching the movies alot, for Sam to recognize Belle and the Beast and Ariel just to name a few. He likes Princess and the Frog alot too. We took him to the movies for toy story 3 (his first theater movie) and this past week my mom and I took him to see Tangled which was cute and he enjoyed it alot. We made it a point on this last trip to try and catch the parades, like the block party bash in HS, Sam really had a blast with that, pointing out all of the characters and waving and dancing. Its funny becuase each trip we find something new that really interests him, so when I plan the next trip I make myself notes of things we absolutely have to do. I have to say that Sam has been to Disney at 8 months, 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 and each trip has had its special moments but it just keeps getting better and better as he grows up. We just realized with our April dates that we are one week shy of seeing the Phillies play Atlanta at the ESPN wide world of sports. bummer!
When we were at BLT in Oct 2009 we noticed that some people had their windows and balconies decorated for halloween, when we were over that way on this last trip we saw a few balconies decorated with christmas lights!
How funny is it that Hope was at Disney when she was 8 months and 1/1/2 years old, and her next trip she will be 2 1/2 years old! We're right on the same track with the ages. I'm like you, when I notice that Hope like something before, I make sure to do it again (like the Winnie the Pooh ride), now that has become the favorite thing to do so far. I can't wait for more special moments with her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JandBmom
What a great trip report! I am so sad it is over On another note...you will Love AKV....that is our other home resort. We have trouble getting the kids to leave the resort and go to the parks. The animals are an attraction in itself.
We've been to AKL twice before, and it's also my parent's home resort which is how we were able to get club level since our home resort is SSR. It is one of my favorite resorts and I can't wait to try it out from a club level perspective!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Laurast
Melissa,
I saw in an earlier post that you inquired about the buses being full at AKLV when they get to Jamba house. We stayed at Kidani Village last year and I can confirm for you that I felt so badly for the people at Jamba house because the buses were pretty packed after stopping to pick up those of us at Kidani. It is my understanding that Kidani is always the first bus stop at AKL. Maybe you can switch your ressie to Kidani?
We loved the resort...saw so many animals from our balcony at Kidani. Obviously we had the savannah view. I am sure you will love it!
This doesn't make me too happy. We can't switch because then we wouldn't be able to enjoy club level. Going during the Thanksgiving holiday is going to make an impact as well since it will be more crowded. Now I'm not sure if I should stick with Club level or change our reservation to BCV. Would you consider that a deal breaker?
Melissa! Don't switch!! I'll get on my soapbox to NOT have you switch.
Now I've never found the bus situation to be a problem personally, but maybe that's because we never made it to the parks at opening. And for DTD Jambo is the first stop - that way you can take the bus over to Kidani instead of walking.
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Sometimes they just give you the coupon & sometimes they will ask you for the UPC code from your vhs you can even search the web for the codes. It is a great way to update you collection. Hope this helps.
We are definitely going to book the Sunrise Safari so it's good to hear that you really liked that. I can definitely get myself up that early if it means seeing a lot of animals up close. Do they let you stay in AK if you want too after it's over? I'm thinking of making that day our AK day since we're already going to be there. 
And for DTD Jambo is the first stop - that way you can take the bus over to Kidani instead of walking.
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