I woke up at about 7 AM the next morning. I had no recollection of falling asleep, nor of DH coming Into the bedroom, but there he was, sprawled out on his very own queen sized bed! It was kinda hilarious. I got dressed, tidied up a bit and went up to the lounge for some coffee. I grabbed some fruit to bring down for DD and coffee for DH as well.
When I got to the room everyone was up. Apparently DD woke up and lost her mind that I'd gone missing, poor baby, but all was now right in the world! We decided we'd spend some time swimming and just hanging around the resort. It such a beautiful place! Even with the construction! We had breakfast in the lounge, then DD and I hit the splash pad while DH spent the morning in the arcade.
No pics cause they’re all on the camera...
It really was nice to just be at the resort. I am really starting to enjoy that aspect of WDW. When I was a kid and we'd come up we never spent more than sleeping hours at our hotels; we opened parks and stayed to close them down. But over the last few years we've visited just to do some resort time and I've really enjoyed it! DH loves it too, so much so that we recently recited some DVD information that he requested.
Apparently while we was arcading he also explored the resort a bit. In doing so he chatted with the DVC person and asked about the bungalows and AKL, ya know, all the stuff I natter about! So we got this giant booklet in the mail and he's talking about staying on Bay Lake in a bungalow with our DVC points. I mean who is this guy?!? All joking aside, he may not have the Disney bug, but he seems to really appreciate the level of quality and service Disney provides, which is great for me! Lol!
After our swim time was up DD and I headed to the room, I needed to pack up our stuff! I was really surprised at what a mess we'd managed to make in one night. While I was tidying up and DD was dancing and singing around the room, DH returned from his Adventures, with a merchandise bag… can you imagine what was inside? Yep, the Ariel bride doll. That man is a sucker for that little girl. Granted, she was over the moon excited and now sleeps with the doll, but still!
All packed up, DH took DD up the lounge to snack and wit for me to book our BB for her birthday! I wish I could say it was a breeze, but my CM seemed a bit new. No problem! Things took a bit longer than expected and about 40 minutes later my family returned to check on me… well, we finally got booked! Two rooms at AKL, club level. We've since had to modify the type of ticket and both my daughter and husband's names, but we got it!
We called to check out, everything was in order and we were good to go. We debated on heading to DS for lunch or trying out Geyser Point, the latter won out for convenience but was not the most pleasant experience. Not awful, just not great. The food was ok, don't get me wrong I liked the more adventurous menu items, but neither my nor DH’s lunch was anything special. DD was the only one to actually finish her sandwich.
I will suggest this if you go there and happen to order the bison burger: do not listen to the staff and order it mid-rare. See, I used to work for a speciality burger and beer place and we did many bison burgers. Bison is a dry meat, by nature, so anything beyond mid-rare is chewy and dry and yuck. Well the CM argued with me and urged DH to order medium, as mid-rare would be “raw” but in the end his burger was inedible dry. I generally would have returned the sandwich but the entire staff was huddled at the end of the bar, even the manager.
I'll admit, being in the foodservice industry and then in customer service, I'm a snot about good service, but I really wasn't pleased here. I know it's only QS, but if you're gonna have servers standing about, they may as well help out your patrons. Rant over, and we were off.
We shopped in the mercantile a bit, DD got a lollipop, and we got a photo holder themed after the resort. We took a few pictures and DH showed us the arcade, where we did a photo booth session. I’ll post the copy later.
It was getting to be about 2 PM so DH got the van, we loaded in and started the drive home. I was sad to leave, as always, but knowing I had a trip to plan for dd’s birthday made saying goodbye much easier!
All in all we had a great weekend. DD loved the experience, as did DH, I was really surprised at what a great time he had. I learned a lot this trip too! It was great having a sort of dry run, for our next trip; I feel a little more prepared to handle a week in WDW with Elora and Guido.
I assumed going in that seeing Wishes would have been my favorite part, but it ended up being Enchanted Tales with Belle. DD had such a blast and was such a ham! DH says he liked the resort best, and that ‘Ohana was second. When I asked DD what her favorite part was she shouted “Mickey and Ploohoe!” Lol!
Thanks for reading along friends. That's all I got for now. I do have some updates on our September trip, but those will come along soon.
TTFN! Hope all is well in your worlds!
but that might have to wait for Saturday as I will be working about 12 hour days tomorrow and Friday. Yay. Hurray. I am SO ready to just quit, collect my 401K and stay home with my Booboo, but that's a complicated story, that I won't bore you with.
) My mom booked a room at AKL with us from Friday-Tuesday but she's now considering coming up Thursday so she can go to Universal and see the Potter stuff; she's a HUGE fan. SiL and co. are renting a house off property and aren't sure of much else...
