3 resorts, no parks, christmas week !

[ljcrochet]

Hello!

Just back from a fun week at 3 different DVC resorts in Florida. Figured this was a great spot for a trip report since we didn't do any parks, or take any food pictures. Not sure what i was thinking?

Here we are last christmas at epcot
019ed684d88a5d2ca5969f413ac0f2bab759dd6363 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

This was Christmas day Untitled by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Mickey selfie by LJcrochet, on Flickr

You will have to stick around to find out what the 3 resorts were and what we did on our 8 day trip without to the parks.

 

[ljcrochet]

Here was our loose plan

Plans as of now
Day one: arrive: check out animal kingdom lodge
big river grill for lunch and giants game
AKL swimming
disney springs - dinner at morimoto asia
Day 2: no alarm clock you have no idea how happy this makes me
depending on what we decide about start wars: disney springs to see the movie or off to vero
Day 2-5 Vero with FIL, T, BIL, SIL and nephew Z
Day 5 not sure when they are leaving Vero, but we will have the rest of the day to ourselves.
Day 6: vero/ poly
Day 7: Our anniversary Breakfast at OHANA dinner at Shula
Day 8: have to return rental car at 6

Stick around to read about what we actually did.

 

[ljcrochet]

Saturday 12/19
We dropped the dogs off at Camp Bow Wow on our way to the girls soccer game.
The soccer game was interesting, DD2 got her first yellow card. She accidentally tripped a player on the other team so had to sit out for 2 minutes. This was the first time we had ever seen a player being given a yellow card. It is GU11. So it was very surprising especially because it was a both kids going after the ball.
We came home, packed our bags. We decided to only do carry on bags for this trip. DH packed himself a bag, i shared a bag with each girl. Last big was mostly shoes. Not sure why we didn't think to do a bag for the first night only. I can't find the shrug smiley I used to use.
Girls had Macy's gift cards burning a hole in their pockets so we went shopping and out to 5 guys for dinner.
We were all in bed before 10 because we had an early flight

Sunday 12/20

Our flight originally was 7 something, but got moved up to 6:38am, with boarding starting at 6:08.
We park at a long term parking lot near the airport, so we had to drop off the car. We got on the shuttle to the airport before 5 am
On shuttle at 4:55am

A family of 5 got on last- not really enough seats for them, which is why DD1 is on DH's lap. Then the father realized he left his wallet at the long term parking place down the straight. The driver backed up on the service road of the highway to get to the other place for the guy to get his wallet.

I didn't pay to close attention to what time we got to the airport, but we had to wait in line for security. We were planning on stopping at starbucks for coffee/breakfast, but didn't get through security till after 6:05. We went to the gate and they were already loading all rows of the plane.
We had no trouble fitting our 4 bags in the overhead.

Flight was easy and fast.
We rented from Dollar for the week. It was under $200. In fact when we decided to not stay at vero the whole time, DH priced returning the car and just taking ME back to the airport but it was more money for the car.
DH signed up for dollar's program that you skip the inside counter and head straight to the cars. We had not issues getting to the cars. I think the longest thing was picking which car we wanted in the full size car aisle.
We went with a white/ pearl ford since they usually have good electronics. We were using our phones for GPS. I love the waze's app. Just need to listen to it.

We put Animal Kingdom Lodge into wazes and started to head there. I was also trying to figure out where to stop to get a sunpass, or if needed one.
Last year we drove to florida, instead of buying the sunpass that can go from car to car, we got the one that sticks on the windshield. Not sure what I was thinking.
We also need to stop to get conditioner, soap, sunblock and some water. SInce we didn't check a bag, we could not carry that on the plane with us.

We wound up heading towards AKV, which of course was a toll road. Paid the first toll with a $10, got change but then we stopped at a publix right off the highway.

First think we did was buy the sunpass. I went out to activate it and see if I need to add money. In the time it took me to do that, DH and the girls bought 4 cases of soda. I think it was on sale 4 for something and DH wanted coke zero, DD2 wanted cherry coke zero, DD1 wanted diet ginger ale and diet root beer, as well as 2 cases of publix water. Both girls got a donut. DD1 got a naked veggie smoothie, and DD2 got a yogurt parfait.
Notice that I didn't mention 3 of the 4 items they went in for?

Nope?
It's okay, neither did I.

 

[Jasperann]

Did you have fun!! Welcome back! I've always wanted to do a trip with no parks but every time I think of doing it I always add park days on.

 

[ljcrochet]

Did you have fun!! Welcome back! I've always wanted to do a trip with no parks but every time I think of doing it I always add park days on.

It was so much fun. I wasn't sure we could do it. But with 4 disney adults the ticket prices are crazy. Plus we are surprising the girls in April with a trip to Disneyland. Not sure yet how we are going to tell them or when.

 

[ljcrochet]

Before i get further along in this, i wanted to share 2 pictures from the girls soccer game from before we left
Here is DD2
Soccer by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Here is DD1 and DD2 along the girl DD2 accidently tripped to get the yellow card
Soccer by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Both pictures have the same time stamp.

I forgot to mention when we pulled over to try and get publix in the GPS we saw an alligator
alligator near airport by LJcrochet, on Flickr

 

[ljcrochet]

We left publix, got back on the highway and headed towards AKV. We decided to stop at disney springs.
But not before we drove under the sign. One of my girls took this picture from the back seat.
Wdw sign by LJcrochet, on Flickr
We had 4 people all taking pictures this trip. I think 564 made it into the shared icloud album, and no clue how many didn't. I think DD1 took almost 200 pictures.

We parked in the open air lot instead of the new parking garage. We stopped at starbucks, DD1 and I told DH and DD2 what we wanted, then we left them to find the ladies room. DH screwed up both my order and DD1's. We started to walk around and shop. It was the first time we had ever gone to downtown disney in the morning. I like it much better when it isn't crowded.

As we were walking around, DH remembered that they bought yogurt and a smoothie. I said let's go check in to AKV. I figured if our room wasn't ready we could just give the cold stuff to bell services to into their fridge.
Would we get a room or would we have to wait?

 

[ljcrochet]

ANIMAL KINGDOM VILLAS: Kidani

We left Disney Springs, i like how quiet it is in the morning. Got to AKL, one side of the gate says guest, other side says returning guest with magic bands. Dh goes though the returning guest side, which of course doesn't work. The guard tells us we have to first swipe our bands at the room before it will work on the gate. All the lobby parking was full so we had to drive under the building to park.
DH had filled out the on line check in for this resort, so when we checked in at the desk, we asked if either our room was ready or if they had a place we could put our cold stuff. I think they said our room wasn't ready but she would look and see if she could find something free. I mentioned that we really wanted to see zebra's from our room. We had a room on the Pembre Savanna. Almost the last room at the end of the hallway. Last elevator.
DD2 and I went to drop off the bags we had, while DD1 and DH moved the car.
Zebra view by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Zebra view by LJcrochet, on Flickr

I went down down to help them with the bags while DD2 stayed in the room. We had to decide if DH wanted to watch the giant's game in the room or go somewhere to watch. If our room wasn't ready, we were going to big river grille, but now our room was ready what should we do? We also hadn't eaten a real meal yet today!

 

[jessrose18]

following along

 

[ljcrochet]

following along

Jessica Welcome

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Guess I better get moving on this trip report. Things here have been busy. Last tuesday was my daughter's school band concert. On Monday get get a text from the PTA president asking me if I would give the band and the orchestra teacher their gift from the PTA. I told her I would give the band, but they should get someone in the orchestra to give the orchestra teacher. Somehow that meant I had to get the orchestra person, which wasn't a big deal.
One of the PTA board members was going to pick up platters from a store and drop it at my house. I realized I was going to right across from there so i offered to get it thinking they had pre-ordered stuff. At that point I found out nope, nothing pre-ordered. I wound up stopping around lunch time and the store was closed. It was also closed when I was across the street later that day.
Now it is the day of the concert and I still had to get stuff. I knew I was going to be near a chocolate store so figured I would just stop there, only problem they are closed on Tuesday's.
I went to a local fun store and got each teacher a lb of chocolate. They put it in a pretty box with a fancy bow. Now to see how long it takes to be reimbursed.

The kids did great at the concert. DH laughed at me since I didn't go on stage to give the music teacher his pretzels, I just went up to the stage. The stage is slightly weird since the stairs are off to the side behind closed doors. Since their was no one running the show, i need to sneak in to give it to him. I also wanted to be back in my seat to video my daughters intro to the last song. We gave the presents between the 3rd and 4th song.