Author Archives: jennypersons

Be Our Guest Restaurant

We were lucky enough to eat at the Be Our Guest Restaurant twice on our last stay. We were able to set up Fastpass+ Reservations. We were sent an email telling us we could book a lunch fastpass+ for Be Our Guest during our stay. It was only available for the first 7 days of our trip – at first. We were able to book our first reservation 28 days in advance. I ordered our food in advance, since I knew what we would want and my kids are picky eaters, so I knew exactly what they would want. Plus, I knew ordering in advance would make it faster – the faster I can get food in my kids, without waiting in lines, the better!

The day before our reservation, I went to the website, to double-check our time and our order – and it was NOT in the website. I thought something happened to our reservation and it mysteriously disappeared. Great… My kids were really looking forward to that meal… We went to Be Our Guest at our reservation time, with my screen shot in hand, in case the reservation really was missing. There had been no need to fear. Even though it didn’t show up on the website, they had our reservation, no problem.

Since we had pre-ordered our food, we were able to go right to the registers, and skip the long line to order. However, when we got to the register, our meals were not on my magic band. So we scanned my husband’s – they were on his band – which was odd because he never had anything associated with his band.

Once we got the order, we took our receipt and went to look for a seat. The Ballroom and West Wing were full to capacity, so we went to the Rose Gallery, and had to wait for them to clear a table, but we were able to get seated. Wondering around looking for a table, did allow us to look at this beautiful restaurant and all the cool decorations and features! Once you are seated, your food magically finds you! It is actually pretty cool. Your food is brought to you in really cool rolling carts by cast members. I assumed that they found us via our magic bands.

The food:

My husband and I split a Croque Monsieur and then had the French Onion Soup and the Potato Soup

(Apologies for the sideways pictures – when editing, they are upright, when you click on them, they are upright. I can’t figure out why they are sideways on the page. If want to see upright, simply click on the photo!)

Be Our Guest Potato Soup

Be Our Guest Croque Monsiuer

Be Our Guest French Onion Soup

The soups were delicious. The potato soup was creamy. The Cheesy top on the French Onion soup was really good! I loved the Croquet Monsieur. I could have eaten that every day of our trip. My kids had the tomato soup and grilled cheese, the pasta, and the pork kids meals… Apparently they dug in before we got any pictures. We did pop for the cool Light up Castle Goblet to take home with us 🙂

Be Our Guest Castle Goblet

Of course, a meal at Be Our Guest would not be complete without trying the Grey Stuff – It’s Delicious! The Master’s Cupcake was a very good cupcake! My biggest complaint is that it was not a very big cupcake for the price. Many of the cupcakes you order are HUGE and can easily be split. This cupcake was not very large, and rather expensive for the price – in my opinion. It was, however, delicious, just as the song says! 🙂

Be our Guest – Masters Cupcake with the Grey Stuff

After our visit, I went to the website where you can make Fastpass+ reservations. I decided to see if we could make a reservation for the next week when my sister-in-law would be joining us. Sure enough, I could make another reservation for our second week of our vacation (I could only do the first 7 days of our vacation before). So I was able to make one for the following week. There was only one time slot available, so apparently if you wait that long to make a reservation, your time choices are limited, whereas when I made them 28 days in advance, I had my pick of times. I took the time and we went back to Be Our Guest the next week.

We had the same problem with finding our pre-order, except this time is wasn’t on either my husband or my magicbands. Oh well. We just ordered again. When it was my sister-in-law’s turn to order/pay, apparently all the orders were on her magic band – doh!

This trip, we were able to find a table in the Ballroom. I thought we had a table in the West Wing, but someone just came up and took it as we were sitting. Whatever. I don’t care that much. We were happy in the Ballroom 🙂

This time, My husband an I split the Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich and a Croque Monsieur. The Roast Beef Sandwich was good, but not outstanding. I think the meat could have been more tender and flavorful. I think the Croque Monsieur is my favorite item on the menu. Their kids meals are nothing special, and rather expensive when compared to other restaurants. I paid the same amount for kids meals at the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater, but the kids got desserts with the meal.

Be Our Guest – Roast Beef Sandwich

My son and his Mrs. Potts’ Platter or turkey sandwich

We had another Master’s Cupcake, but also tried a few of their other cupcakes, The Lemon Meringue and the Strawberry Shortcake. I LOVED the Strawberry one and the frosting was delicious.

Be our Guest Lemon Meringue

Be our Guest Strawberry Cream Cheese

Overall, I think the restaurant was worth eating in once. The food is good and the master’s cupcake is delicious. Plus you can’t beat the decor, and the entire atmosphere of the restaurant. Is it worth waiting in line for: no. I was happy to have fastpass+ for these visits, but would never wait in line to eat here (well, anywhere really). Now that I have been, the food is not enough to get me to want to go back. It was just alright, nothing outstanding. So go once for the experience, and then your good 🙂

Be our Guest Rose Gallery

Be our Guest Ballroom

Be our Guest Ballroom – it is “snowing” outside!

Be our Guest West Wing

Be our Guest West Wing – the rose, but it didnt show up well in the picture 😛

Be our Guest Ballroom

Disney’s Aulani

It is official –

Disney Parks Addict and family are headed to Disney’s Aulani for a week in Janurary!!

We are very excited! We booked our Villa back in August, but just secured the airfare today, so we are officially a “go” for our trip! We are staying in an Ocean View Villa! Sweet!!

It will be my kids and Husband’s first trips to Hawaii (I have been before) and all of our first trip to Aulani.

You can guarantee I will have many tips and posts on Aulani when we get back!!

We shall be celebrating my daughters 12th birthday while we are there 🙂 She is beyond thrilled and the one that really wanted to go to Hawaii in the first place, so she really lucked out that we got a week during her Birthday 🙂

Eeek!! So THRILLED! It was an amazing opportunity that we just couldn’t pass up! Now I have to start planning the rest of the trip!

Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream

If you ask my kids what their favorite thing from our last trip to Disneyworld, more than likely, they will tell you getting the Kitchen Sink at Beaches and Cream was one of the highlights of their vacation! They thought it was one of the greatest things we’ve done – so I guess it was worth the hefty price tag 😉

Beaches and Cream is located a the Beach Club resort, right next to Stormalong Bay. We were staying at the Boardwalk, so we just walked over. Otherwise, It is also an easy walk from Epcot.

The first thing I thought when we were seated was how tiny this place was! Really, there are only a few tables! If you want to eat here, I HIGHLY recommend making reservations! I made mine like 6 months out.

We only ordered the Kitchen Sink. It was the only reason that we wanted to come – to try the famous Kitchen Sink!

We told the waitress what we wanted, and she brought us several waters as well.

It didn’t take long, and then the lights dim and sirens and lights go off. My kids were THRILLED! I have to say I was surprised. I didn’t know they did that! All the cast members working chant something about the Kitchen Sink – I didn’t catch all they said, but I know there was something about an entire can of whipped cream at the end.

They brought it to the table and my kids eyes lit up! We were able to substitute the Coffee Ice Cream for another flavor (we don’t do anything coffee). There was cupcakes, brownies, candy bars, 8 LARGE scoops of Ice Cream, jar of cherries, chocolate sauce, PB sauce, Caramel Sauce, Sprinkles, and an entire can of whipped cream.

We did this for my son’s birthday, as it was his 9th Birthday – He thinks this was the BEST Birthday treat ever!

They bring bowls and spoons for everyone at the table so you can dish it up. Or you can be like my toddler and just grab a spoon and dig in 🙂

This was a great treat, that we will be doing again – probably every trip, if my kids get their way. It is a lot of fun, and surprisingly delicious! There were 7 of us, and we could barely finish it off. (I think there was a little left in a bowl when we were done). It was rather expensive, but worth the cost, in my opinion for the fun and experience of it. Plus it was cheaper than buying a dessert for all 7 of us!

All of us with the Kitchen Sink – the waitress was great and offered to take pictures without us even asking! The Jukebox was cool too 🙂

My excited boys

The baby just grabbed a spoon to dig in while I was taking a picture – no waiting for bowls for him!!

Empty Sink

Birthday Boy with the Kitchen Sink

He ate it all!! 😉 HA!

Port Orleans: A review

WaterWheel at Port Orleans Riverside

I have always wanted to stay at Port Orleans, and when we had an extra day before checking into Animal Kingdom Lodge, I knew where I wanted to stay! It will probably be the one and only time that we will be able to stay here, as we have 4 kids and don’t fit! But the baby was young enough, we could fit, for one night at least! I wouldn’t want to do much more than one night, with this many of us, again though! (I think I just got spoiled by the 2 bedroom villas!)

I really enjoyed Port Orleans. I liked the vibe of the entire hotel. My biggest complaint was we were staying in the Alligator Bayou area, and it was extremely confusing to get around! I think if I had stayed there longer, I would have figured it out, but only one night, and I was confused! We did figure out how to get to and from the Main pool and the Main building. It took us awhile to find the bus stop though 😛

We checked in at like 7am, expecting to check in our luggage, but we lucked out and they had our room ready! SWEET! Skip a step! So we took our bags directly to our room, on the way to dropping off our rental car and taking the kids to their Pirate Adventure.

The rooms are nice – slightly larger than the ones at the value hotels, and just a step up from the values in about every way. Is it worth the extra money? Well, I am not sure about that, but you do get a little extra room.

Since we were in the Alligator Bayou (and had 6 people), we got a room with the pull down bed – which is GREAT for kids. My 3 oldest fought over who would get to sleep on it! They should have them in all rooms, in my opinion.

We checked out the Main pools at both Riverside and French Quarter. I actually enjoyed the pool at French Quarter more. The theme was quite a bit of fun, and the biggest plus is that is was MUCH less busy! However, all of us thought that the water slide at Riverside was better than the one at French Quarter. The one at French Quarter looked AWESOME, but the one at Riverside was a better slide.

We enjoyed beignets while we were swimming at the French Quarter. They were DELICIOUS. I think they must have been using a whole wheat flour, or it tasted like it, but it didn’t matter because they were yummy regardless! We didn’t eat at the quick service at Riverside, but we did refill our cups in there. It was a large area and very busy every time we went in there.

My daughter and I went down to look at the large gift shop and got to enjoy Yehaa Bob at the River Roost, while we were waiting to met a family member to give them something. He was very enjoyable to watch!

I can’t say much about the buses, as we only took one to Blizzard Beach, the morning we checked out, and it came right away, so we didn’t have any issues. We also took a bus back from Downtown Disney. We wanted to take the boat, but thanks to a thunder-storm, they shut down the boats while we were waiting in line 🙁 the kids were bummed. The buses we did take were great and ran consistently.

It is a beautiful resort and wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again! Other than the Alligator Bayou being incredibly confusing to get around, we really enjoyed our short stay at this hotel!

My 6 foot tall Husband trying to mimic the gator in the picture next to the trundle bed 🙂

Port Orleans French Quarter Pool

Port Orleans French Quarter pool

Waterslide at Port Orleans French Quarter

Quick Service restaurant area at French Quarter

Pull Down bed at Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou

Main Pool at Port Orleans Riverside

Waterslide at Port Orleans Riverside

My son coming down the waterslide, while Husband and baby watch from the bridge

Port Orleans Riverside – view on our walk to the French Quarter

French Quarter Pool

French Quarter Water Slide

My son getting ready to go down the waterslide at Riverside

My 11 year old daughter trying out the trundle bed (she is 5′ 1″)

Boardwalk Villas: A review

I have to admit, when we figured out we were going to be staying at the Boardwalk Villas, I was not as thrilled about the stay as I was about staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Why you ask? The clown pool. The pictures looked freaky and I am not a fan of clowns (neither is my husband!) for this reason alone, this was near the bottom of the list of places we were hoping to stay. But beggars can’t be choosers, so we were happy to have a nice place to stay! The worry was all for nothing, as this was a FANTASTIC hotel, and my kids favorite!

Check-in was quick! And unlike our stay at Animal Kingdom, we actually got the requests for our villa that we asked for! We were right near the lobby and the pool, on the same level as the lobby. I am pretty sure it was the PERFECT location, and if we stayed here again, I would hope for the exact same room, as it was perfect for our needs!

The room was a 2 bedroom Lock-off, as all 2 bedrooms at BoardWalk are. You basically get a studio and a 1 bedroom. You will also get 2 doors to enter your rooms. This worked GREAT because with the magic bands, my kids kept fighting over who would get to open the door with their band. With 2 doors, at least 2 of them could open a door! Less fighting! Plus, since we were on the ground floor, no need for the elevator, so no fighting over who got to push the elevator buttons!

I didn’t go into the studio side much, as my daughter and sister-in-law took it over. You enter the studio side, there was a bathroom to the right with a closet across from it, with sinks in-between, and to the left was a little kitchenette, with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster, sink, etc. There were plastic utensils, paper plates, etc. The room had a queen bed and a pull out queen size sofa bed with a flat screen tv and dresser. There was a balcony with chairs and a table, and then a door that connected to the 1 bedroom living area.

In the one bedroom side, there was a closet to the right as you entered. As you go around the corner, you had the kitchen, with a table to the left, and a bar with more seating on the other side of the kitchen. The living area had a pull out sofa with a queen size bed, a flat screen tv with dvd player, dresser. It then had sliding doors out to the balcony. The balcony in all the rooms were separate from one another, so it was like having 3 separate balconies.

If you turned left instead of right when entering, you would see the washer and dryer, and the entrance to the bathroom. The bathroom was 2 separate rooms. One room had a large shower, toilet, and sink. you could then go through a door to the second half of the bathroom with another sink, jacuzzi tub, and a large walk-in closet. The whole bathroom area was very large! You could then enter the Master bedroom via the sink/jacuzzi room door, or the door in between the washer/dryer and the kitchen table. The Master Bedroom had a king size bed, a chair, a flat screen tv, and dresser. There was also a sliding door out to a private balcony.

The decor was nice. Not quite as new and polished as Animal Kingdom, but still nice. My biggest complaint is that the refrigerator in the kitchen was small, not full size. We had issues with items falling out of the door, and our maple syrup bottle broke because of this 😛

Our room overlooked the main pool area. They were doing some remodeling while we were there, but the pool area was still open

The clown pool. My kids say, out of all the places we’ve stayed at Disney, that this was their favorite pool yet. The slide was GREAT! It was long and quite a bit of fun! It was their favorite hotel slide, so far! The clown wasn’t nearly as large and creepy as I feared. It was still not my favorite thing, but not as horrible as feared 😉 Plus the awesome slide more than made up for it. I did notice that the slide was in need of some paint/remodeling. Noticing the remodeling around the pool area, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened soon. I did miss having a little kid play area that we enjoyed at Kidani. They need to add a little waterslide or splash play area…

The location for Boardwalk is probably the BEST on site. You can easily walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, which we did. You can take the boat too if you’d like, but from Epcot, a walk is much faster. If you are taking the boat to/from Hollywood Studios, get on/off at the Swan/Dolphin as it is MUCH faster to walk than to take the boat all the way around. We would walk to Hollywood Studios and then take the boat back for a nap or when the kids were tired. We did take the boat from Epcot once, the first day of our stay, simply because our kids wanted to ride the boat. Otherwise, just easier/faster to walk. It only take about 5 minutes to walk!

The Boardwalk Bakery was a frequent stop for us, mainly to fill our Rapid Fill cups. They even had a Hot Chocolate machine, which made my kids happy! We also picked up treats to take with us to Fantasmic. We also were able to get our cups filled at the bar near the Clown pool, which was GREAT since our room was right near the pool. Plus they had fun options like Ginger Ale. There isn’t a machine, but you just ask the bartenders, and they get you what you want.

The gift shop was large, and had lots of options for gifts. It also had a variety of grocery items, like milk, eggs, lunch meat, frozen meals and pizza, cheeses, bread, cereal, etc. We would get grocery items here often. WE even picked up a pack of hot dogs and buns one day for dinner. My kids wanted hot dogs. It wasn’t cheap – about $8 for a 8 pack of hot dogs and 8 pack of buns, but considering it is about $8 for just one hot dog in the parks, it was as steal of a deal. Plus you could get condiments for the hot dogs at the bakery or the pool bar!

The lobby was lovely, with several fun sitting areas that were each different. There was even another gift shop just off of the lobby.

The boardwalk was fun at night. When we would walk back from Epcot or Hollywood Studios, we would have a great time checking out all the different entertainers 🙂

They had movies on the lawn, which we didn’t ever attend 😛 There were several resort activities, but we only really did the pool parties.

The buses here were the BEST we’ve ever had at a resort! With the exception of getting to downtown Disney. We NEVER waited longer than 5 minutes for a bus (other than Downtown Disney). Yes, you also had to stop at Swan/Dolphin, but that never took long, as not many people got on or off there. Plus once or twice, we didn’t even go by there. I LOVED the bus service here, which I am sure was better because you could just walk to 2 of the parks. Plus the buses were never full (to the parks), so we always got a seat 🙂 Now, the Downtown Disney bus was TERRIBLE! It took forever to come, then you go to ALL 5 resorts – swan/dolphin, yacht/beach, and the Boardwalk. WAY too many hotels for one route that takes FOREVER just to pickup/drop off, not to mention the actual drive. The buses weren’t nearly as frequent as to the parks and were always packed. Needless to say, we didn’t go to Downtown Disney much! The return trip as better, and there was usually a bus waiting, so little wait… but it would take so long to get there, it wasn’t worth it! The Boardwalk was the last stop, which was good for going, and when you came back, you can always just get off at the Swan, and walk back to the Boardwalk, instead of taking the bus to all those hotels. I am not sure this is always the case, or just because of all the construction in Downtown Disney? Otherwise, the bus service was awesome here – which is saying something about the Disney Buses!

You could also walk to the Fantasia Mini-Golf and over to the Yacht/Beach club for anything at those place you may want to see. We went to the Beach club to east at Beaches and Cream!

Below are some of the videos and pictures we took during our stay at the villas. We really enjoyed our stay, and we wouldn’t hesitate to stay again, or recommend it to others. It is a great resort and the location really can’t be beat and is probably one of the best locations at Disneyworld!

View of the pool from our room. You can see the maintenance they were doing on the pool bar

One of our 3 balconies

If you look up when you enter the lobby, you’ll see this!

Another view of the interesting fixture

Dresser

Lamp in the Master Bedroom

Lamp in the Living Area

The clown….

The awesome waterslide (and not so awesome clown)

The walkway along the Boardwalk that takes you to Hollywood Studios

mmmmm… Boardwalk Bakery!!

The carousel in the Lobby – it did work!

Roller Coaster in the Lobby

More Boardwalk Lobby

I loved this Elephant in the Lobby

My son was like “Take my picture mom!” in the Lobby (the elephant was just above this)

The carpet outside our room

Dresser

Teacup lamp in the Living Area

Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village: A Review

Ever since they built the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it had been a dream of mine to stay there and wake up with Animals outside my window! Our last visit to Disneyworld, we ate at Boma, and my desire to stay at this hotel deepened!

I never thought we could afford to stay there, especially with 4 kids! When we got the opportunity to stay in a Savannah view, 2 bedroom Villa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village, I JUMPED at the chance – I was sooooo excited!!!

We spent our morning at Blizzard Beach, and when they closed all the water areas at Blizzard Beach due to lightning, we headed over to check into our Villa at Kidani Village. Check in was a breeze. I however, did not get ANY of my room requests. I requested the Sunset Savannah, and we got Pembe. I requested a low floor, and we got the 5th (top) floor. The exact opposite that I requested. Oh well! I was a bit upset at first, but as the week wore on, I was very happy with our room. I loved the Pembe Savannah, and the Okapi! Plus our 5th floor room, we could see the entire Savannah 🙂 (and the pool area!)

We got to our villa – and all I can say is, it was AMAZING! Seriously HUGE and GORGEOUS! My husband commented that it was bigger than most of the apartments he lived in at college. It was VERY large! You enter the villa and there was a full bathroom immediately to your left, and the washer and dryer in a closet immediately to your right. That front bathroom became our “swimming” bathroom – where we hung all our swimming suits to dry!

The kitchen was gorgeous! We quickly found that it did not have much storage or counter space however 🙁 Full size refrigerator, range, and dishwasher, plus fully stocked kitchen for your cooking/baking needs. There was a good size table, with a bench that would fit 3-4 of our kids and 2 chairs. The living room was quite large, with a pull out couch and a pull our chair as well. Along with a entertainment center with a DVD player and Flat screen TV. There was then a sliding door to our balcony.

To the left of the living room, was the master bedroom. It was good size with a chair, desk, King Size bed, large dresser with flat screen tv. There was also a sliding door to the balcony, overlooking at Savannah. Off of the bedroom was a HUGE bathroom! It was massive. I have a VERY large master bathroom in my home, and this was almost as big! There was a lovely jetted tub, a huge walk in shower, a separate closet, and separate toilet area.

On the other side of the living room, was the other bedroom. We could not hear our kids, when they were in this bedroom – it felt like it was a country away! The room had 2 queen beds, a desk, chair, and a dresser with flat screen tv. There was also another sliding door to the balcony. Outside the room was yet another bathroom (3 FULL bathrooms total), and 2 large closets.

All the furnishings had an animal theme. I took some pictures, that you can see below!

The lobby for Kidani Village is MUCH smaller than Jumbo House. My kids loved the tv that showed cartoons though! They had lots of cool artifact and light fixtures. I wish I had thought to take pictures of them all – they were amazing!

Bell services somehow lost 2 of our bags between Port Orleans and Kidani Village. Fortunately, they were able to find our bags within a few hours.

The gift shop in the lobby was also small, but had the Rapid Refill Mug station. My kids wished they had a Hot Chocolate machine though!

There is no Quick Service restaurant, which is fine, since we ate in our room often.

The gift shop had many food items for you to make in your room. We brought alot of food with us, had it delivered from Costco, and went to the grocery store before we turned in our rental car. However, we used the gift shop to purchase milk ($2.99 for half gallon) and eggs ($1.99 per dozen – not much more than the grocery store). We also bought chips, and lunch meat down there. They had many essential items, which were not cheap, but not outrageous either. I think they were like an expensive grocery store prices, and I am used to buying everything on sale, but overall, between what we brought, and their gift shop offerings, we were able to eat a majority of our meals in our Villa, saving us a TON of money! They had bread, bagels, cheeses, bacon, potatoes, pizza, lots of convenience meals, pancake mix, condiments, etc.

The buses were the biggest disappointment when it came to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. (which is true for most Disneyworld hotels, with the exception of our experience with the mostly good Boardwalk Villas transportation). The good thing about Kidani Village was we were picked up FIRST and let off FIRST, so we got seats on every bus. Jumbo house we noticed getting very long lines in the morning! We waited for a bus to Magic Kingdom for 40 minutes one morning – which is a horrible wait, considering we saw 3-4 buses for every other park and we had gotten up EARLY to get to the park before opening, which did NOT happen thanks to the long wait. The wait for buses to the other parks were not as bad, just getting to the Magic Kingdom was terrible. We didn’t have problems later in the day, when we would head back to the parks after our naps. We often got a bus right away. I also liked the TV screens that estimated when the next bus would be there. I wish ALL the hotels and stops had that!!

The pool was GREAT! The waterslide was fun and my littlest kid (18 months) LOVED the little waterslide was well! The 2 little ones also loved the water play area. It was great for little kids to just run around and play in! We were at the pool almost every day that we were there! The pool parties were fun as well. My older kids also enjoyed the Fusball and Air Hockey tables next to the pool! We spent may great hours at the pool and it was never crowded. There is a Rapid Refill mug station located at the bar pool as well! We did go to the pool at Jambo house as well. The slide is not NEARLY as long as the one a Kidani Village. The pool itself is larger, but the one at Kidani was overall much better! Kidani had 2 waterslides and the kids splash play area… Jambo House only had the one, shorter slide, but the pool was bigger. We thought the Kidani Pool was MUCH better, and after one visit, just stuck to the pool at Kidani for the rest of our stay! There was a shuttle that ran between Kidani and Jumbo house, or you could walk. But the shuttle was always there and available, so the 2 times we went between the resorts, we just took the shuttle.

We didn’t get to do too many of the resort activities but there were plenty, and we would get a message each morning telling us of the activities at the hotel. We did go to the Campfire a few times, where they gave the kids sticks and marshmallows to roast over the fire. We took chocolate and Graham Crackers and made S’mores with them 🙂 After the campfire, they showed Disney movies each night on a big blow up screen.

We loved walking to our room to the lobby, gift shop, or buses and just look out the windows as we went. We would see all sorts of different animals, even though we could see them from our balcony, it was still fun to see them everywhere we went in the hotel. Also, the Elevators in the hotel were VERY fast! We were amazed at how quickly we could go up and down 5 stories!

Overall, other than the 40 minute bus incident, we LOVED our stay at Kidani Village. I would stay there again in a heartbeat, as both the rooms and hotel were AMAZING! Savannah view was INCREDIBLE! It was also our first stay in a Deluxe resort, and I am not sure we could ever go back after this stay!

Below I have videos of our room, the slides as both Kidani and Jumbo House – Unfortunately, I took video the wrong way with my phone on the Kidani Waterslide, so I am including the video my husband took, which was at night :P. I also have included many pictures of the room!

Balcony off of the 2 bedroom Villa – Kidani Village

View of the Pembe Savannah from the Kidani Pool/Campfire area

Viewing Guide in the Savannah View Rooms

Small Water Slide – Kidani Village

Chair in Master Bedroom with an adorable toddler in it 🙂

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village door

The door to our Villa

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village headboard king size bed

Master Bed headbaord

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village chairs

Dining Chairs

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village dresser

One of the entertainment centers/dressers

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village tile

Tile in the shower

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village desk

Desk.. and you can see the Mickeys in the carpet!

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village lamp

Lamp in the rooms

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village balcony chairs

Chairs on the Balcony

View of the Savannah from our room

More animals from our room

We loved the animals!

Okapi – we saw them often!

Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village curtains

The sheer curtains in our room

Kids play/splash area

Waterslide and bridge

Frozen Ride in Epcot

It was officially announced this morning that a new Frozen ride will replace Malestrom in the Norway Pavilion in Epcot.

You can read the announcement on the Disney Parks Blog

I am not too surprised about this announcement. Frozen is HUGE right now. I mean, it had taken over Hollywood Studios while we were there and the line to see Anna and Elsa was BY FAR the longest line at Disneyworld, and longer than I had ever even seen for a ride.

I have mixed feelings about this. I believe in and love how Disney is always changing. It makes going back interesting and fun to see new attractions. On the other hand, Malestrom is one of our favorite rides at Epcot. It is a fun boat ride we can all go on as a family. When we rode it a few weeks ago, we teased the little boys, while we were travelling backwards, that we were going to go off the waterfall. Many giggles followed when it didn’t happen and we instead went down a drop forwards. We enjoy that ride and try to ride it often – with a snack of School Bread to follow 🙂

We like Frozen here, but will it still be so popular by the time the ride is finally ready to visitors?

We will miss Malestrom. Makes me happy we JUST rode it and that we were able to ride it several times during our visit, as I was expecting something like this may happen! That being said, I will be excited to ride the new ride, when we go back in a few years….

Mickey Kitchen Sink

My husband was in line at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, before the Fireworks at Magic Kingdom, to get my favorite Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich – they are soooo good! and they are HUGE! 2 of them feed our family! – when he snapped this picture:

I knew we had to get one – a Mickey Kitchen Sink! That sink was so cute! Well, a few days later, when we went back, my sister-in-law bought one, and let us keep the sink! My kids were so excited – they not only liked sharing the ice cream, but they are completely in LOVE with the sink. They fought over who got to carry it and hold it. Now, all they talk about is when we get to use it next! It is probably one of the best souvenirs we brought back with us!

They had it at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club as well, but it was more expensive, so we made sure to get one when we went back to the Magic Kingdom. For $14.99, it is a GREAT deal, considering you get ice cream with toppings, plus the awesome Mickey Kitchen sink to take home! I know my kids thought it was worth EVERY penny!

Frozen Summer Celebration

Frozen Summer Celebration – Olaf

My kids were thrilled that they were having the Frozen Summer Celebration while we were visiting DisneyWorld. They are all big fans of Frozen.

When you enter Hollywood Studios, you can pick up your own Olaf to take pictures with (see above picture) or use as a fan. They also have many different places around to pick up another Olaf.

One of the first things we did was pick up tickets to see the Frozen Sing A Long. You pick up the tickets on the Streets of America. We went for the 1:30 showing – they had plenty of tickets for all the shows.

The Sing A Long was alot of fun! They do a brief re-telling of the Frozen story and you sing all the popular songs. Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff even make appearances. The story is told by the “historians” of Arendelle, and you get to sing along as they tell the story.

We were able to see the Frozen Fireworks several times. We stayed at Boardwalk villas for a week of our stay, so we were able to see them often. But the fireworks show was accompanied with video, and they had various screens set up around the park to view the shows, including the parade. The fireworks show is also accompanied by the music of Frozen, so you will get your fill of the music by the end of the day! It was fun to have the music accompany the fireworks. Plus, after the fireworks, it “snows’ along the main street of Hollywood Studios. My kids thought it was great to have it “snow” in August. (we’ve been to Disney at Christmas time when it snows, but haven’t had “snow” in August!) The snow after the fireworks and music was a GREAT ending to the day.

The other part of the Frozen Summer Celebration was the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post. We spent ALOT of time in here. First, it had AC and was inside 😉 But mainly because my little boys LOVED the build a snowman area and it worked great while the other parent and big kids were on Rock N Roller Coaster.

The build a snowman section held quite a bit of people/kids. It was basically ice. You would get 10 minutes in the play area. They had shovels and sand play toys for the kids to play with. After the 10 minutes, they had a couple of guys that would come in with huge rakes and knock everything down and loosen up the “snow” for the next group. Then the next group would go in for 10 minutes. There was never a wait, and we could always get in with the next group.

We played in there at least 5 or 6 times. My little boys LOVED it and even the big kids liked it 🙂

Along with he build a snowman, there was Ice Skating available. You had to pay to skate, and none of my kids were interested, so we didn’t bother. There was supposed to be shows with performers on the ice, but we never saw any during out time in there.

There was also Frozen Food offerings. My husband was smart enough to remember to take a picture:

Our kids convinced us to get a couple of cupcakes and the Frozen Slushie.

I have to say, the Olaf cupcake was DELICIOUS! Seriously, it was sooooo good! I was expecting it to taste like a store-bought cupcake, which I really can’t stand, but these were REALLY good cupcakes. I could go for another one right now! The Olaf cupcake was a carrot cake with Cream Cheese frosting – the frosting tasted homemade instead of from a can or store. I believe Olaf’s head was White Chocolate, but my kids ate it before I could confirm that 😉 We also bought an Elsa cupcake, which was vanilla. It was really good too, but I only got a bite of it, because my kids inhaled it 🙂 The Anna one was chocolate. All of the cupcakes were HUGE (a much better deal than the small cupcakes at Be Our Guest!)

Frozen Summer Celebration - Olaf cupcake

Delicious Olaf….

My son also wanted the blue Slushie in the Frozen souvenir cup – it was really tasty!

Frozen Summer Celebration - blue slushie

Blue Slushie deliciousness!

My boys eating cupcakes and slushie

As you can see in one of our photopass photos taken after we ate our snack, that I enjoyed the blue slushie 🙂 (the photographer had us pose like that)

Blue Slushie tongue

There are also lots of photo opportunities with Frozen characters. We took LOTS of these pictures, so I am only posting one of each different kind to avoid posting an entire album of Frozen pictures 🙂

The pictures were a lot of fun to have taken and it was great how they added all the Frozen Characters 🙂 YAY for pre-purchasing our memory maker, so all of our photos were included with the purchase!

We all really enjoyed the Frozen Summer Celebration – if you have the chance to enjoy it before it is over, I highly recommend it! Now I am wishing I had another Olaf cupcake and a Slushie….

Back to Life

We just got back from our almost 3 weeks in Orlando! It was WONDERFUL

I have many good posts planned and information to write about about our trip and adventures!

Today was the first day for my 2 older kids to be back at school, so it may take a bit to get some of the posts up here, but stay tuned! I have lots of good info coming your way about DisneyWorld! Plus a VERY exciting announcement about what our next Disney Adventure will be!

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