WDW Boardwalk, Disney Dream Cruise, Animal Kingdom Villas an aliens report & photos

[MrsJobba1]

Saturday 20th August - castaway cay part two!*

We were so lucky this trip as we had a double dip - which meant we were returning back to *Castaway Cay!*

So we were up early and had our beach bag packed *before we went to breakfast. All ashore time was 8.30am and at 8.25 dh and I were at the doors waiting to be let off the ship. The weather this time was absolutely perfect- very sunny. As soon as the doors opened we literally ran to get on the first tram. *We then were on the first tram to Serenity Bay and there were only a couple of other people with us - it was perfect!*

The sand was untouched , the sea was so blue and we were able to grab a hammock!

*

It was a fabulous morning of snorkelling, sun lounging and cocktails! Lunch was just as good as the other day - yummy BBQ . Boy I really could fancy *some now. *We stayed at Serenity Bay till 3.30, but we knew there was a big job a head of us when we got back to the cabin! Yes we had to pack. Arghhh! Putting aside our clothes for tonight, and tomorrow morning it only took 2 and a half hours to pack this time! *

Now being the foody that I am I'd wanted to make sure I'd try all the restaurants on the ship, which meant on our last night we were going to Palo. *(the other adult only restaurant ). *Despite dh not liking Italian food , i.e. cheese, tomato, pizza & pasta, he was willing to go as we'd been to Palo on the other ships and he really enjoyed the fillet mingon * with the port wine sauce. I hoped it would still be on this menu. phew it was, I was also pleased to find they still did the infamous chocolate soufflé.!

We finished our meal, around 9.15pm, so we nipped back to our room, got changed and put our luggage out in the corridor ( it had to be out by 10pm). We then picked up the tip envelopes and went to the animators palette, the *restaurant we should have dined in. Laura and Marco were pleased to see us and they were just bout to order dessert. Ranzil & Christina were lovely too and offered to get us some food- however we were stuffed and just said that we were checking in to see them! They seemed genuinely pleased. We chatted and then gave our envelopes out.*

Just before ten Laura *dashed to put out there cases and we agreed to meet them for our final breakfast ! *We then headed to skyline bar to spend our last few hours before our last sleep on the dream.*

*

 

[tony64]

The better the cruise the sadder it is when it comes to an end.

 

[jtlover]

the facial and head massage sounds fab - might look into that for next year

 

[jockey]

Really enjoying your reports

 

[MrsJobba1]

Sunday 21st August - end of a dream - start of an animal adventure!

Well the day had finally arrived that Id been dreading- after two years of planning this cruise had totally lived up to all expectations. I was sad but I had to remind myself it was not the end of our holiday . The wake call was set for 7 am, but it was not needed.*
The view from our porthole

We were already awake, so we showered and packed the remainder of toiletries and everything else into *dcl rolling duffle bag we had bought! *After the final Check around the stateroom and sniffle we set off for the animators palette. As we had late seating for dinner our assigned breakfast time was 8am. The ship was busy , it was the first real time I'd noticed the crowds. We waited in *line and met up with Laura and Marco.*

Once seated Christina came over and took our drink orders, whist Ranzil recommended the food . Dh and I just settled for a cooked breakfast, whist Laura and Marco got cereal , then cooked. Ranzil promptly brought out their cereal, and Christina offered us a danish. *Because it was my last day I helped myself to a chocolate donut!! Mmm it was good. Now Laura and Marco finished their cereal, but unusually Ranzil was nowhere to be seen. Twenty minutes passed and dh and myself were starting to get concerned as we had a town car picking us up @ 9.15. By now it was passed 8.30 , so we spotted Christina and told her our situation. She went running to find Ranzil. At 8.45 he came out of the kitchen carrying our food. He was very apologetic saying there had been a problem in the kitchen. Well we rushed down our breakfast, said our goodbyes and by 9.05 we had our kttw cards scanned for the last time.

At the port we got a porter, who incidentally are worth their weight in gold, as they know the system and are able to whip you through customs very quickly indeed. Once through customs we were told to ring for our town car as it wasn't allowed to wait out for us and was in a holding area. However we asked the porter where the public telephones were , and there isn't any! Our porter graciously phoned for us using his phone and took us to the meeting place. I couldn't believe it, it was 9.15' *Wow this huge black monster of a car came for us! Now I'm not sure if they upgraded us because of the mix up earlier , or wether it was because we had a lot of luggage , but this was certainly not the usual town car we've had in the past.*

We had requested when we made the booking to have a grocery stop. We were not using the ddp for this part of our holiday. So when we were near wdw the driver pulled into a publix supermarket. ( I think it was off idrive). We checked our watches we had 30 mins ( it was *10am) . *We got the basics, bagels, cereal, milk, OJ , budwieser and I found bacardi mojitos, and smirnoff ice - mango flavour! Plus other snacks . I also got a $5 phone card which had an hour and half worth of calls on it. Well twenty minutes later we were loading our goodies into our big black monster and we continued to kidani village.

Bell services took care of all our bags when we pulled up at kidani village. They even put our cold groceries into a refrigerator . We went to checkin and were told our room wasn't ready ( which was not surprising as it was only 10.45 ) so we asked if we could store our valuables ; passports etc in a safe. They obliged and once everything was safely put away we decided to catch a cab to universal studios. As it was just after 11.30 we decided to go to the old universal rather than IOA.*

We headed to the beetlejuice rock and roll show first.

After went to shrek 4d - this was great fun and only had a 15 min wait. It was hot when we wandered about .

For lunch we had no idea where to go, however we stumbled upon an Irish bar and decided to eat there. Dh enjoyed his pint of guiness and I had a smirnoff ice, while we ordered our food. I had a burger and dh had fish and chips. After all the cruise food it was good to have something simple.

After lunch we did the terminator show and also the horror make up show. We did shrek again, and looked at a couple of the shops. Can't remember what else we did but it was getting to 5.10 so we decided to go back to animal kingdom villas and check out out room. *Again we had a 1 bedroom apartment and I loved it. The only problem negative thing was it took us a good 8 minutes to walk from guest services *to the room. However the walk was worth it!*

*

Our balcony was huge and we loved sitting out there !

*

I loved the main bathroom!

The view from the balcony

Bell services delivered our bags and for the last time we unpacked. We had arranged an ADR for boma at Jambo house for 7.30pm. By the time we got everything away it was just after 7. We headed to the front of the lobby, as we were told when we checked in, they ran a complimentary van service between the two hotels. It was there and we were at Jambo house within five minutes. *We checked in at Boma and within no time at all we were seated. Boma is a buffet, and we really enjoyed all the flavours. Everything was labelled ( by name)however *it would have been helpful to no what exactly you were eating. *It was lovely though. After our meal, we were tired so we headed back to kidani and to our room. We grabbed a couple of drinks and headed out onto the balcony. It was so peaceful and as we sat we decided to name all the animals ( well that might, have been the mojitos! ) *

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful photos and updates

Your room at AKL looks beautiful

 

[PJB71]

Really, really enjoyed reading your TR sofar

Cant wait to hear more

 

[Tink2312]

Wow AKV looks fabulous! Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise

 

[MrsJobba1]

Wow AKV looks fabulous! Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise

Animal kingdom villas is our new favourite resort!

It was so peaceful and relaxing, yet it still had lots to see and do!

Oh and the bathroom was amazing, not sure I'd you can make it out, but on the orange tiles it was a silhouette from the lion king!

 

[Jordanblackpool]

Im absolutely loving your trip report!

 

[strawberry blonde]

Great report I've just spent a wet miserable afternoon reading through it all.
Love your apartment at the animal kingdom villas.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Monday 22nd August - Magic Kingdom

I had one last theme park day left for Wdw ( except the million water park days we had from our old tickets lol ) so we decided that we had to go to the Magic Kingdom. The wake up call was set for *6.45, this was a compromise . I had wanted it earlier as it was early EMH at Magic kingdom but dh was starting to get a tad upset about the early rises. (At home he does not wake before 8am) . After a breakfast of bagels we set off !

We arrived at MK around 8.30 ( not too bad) and yet again it was a lovely morning. Ok so I have a ritual, here the 1st ride has too be our favourite so we set off for SPLASH MOUNTAIN!*

Briefly we stopped to get some photos, as I was on a mission!*

It wasn't long before we arrived at *frontier land *and we went straight to splash mountain . It was a 20 minute wait but before we joined the line we went and got fast passes for it. Now we have rode this ride every time we visit WDW but I was still nervous when I was in the cue. I'm getting worse each visit . One of the best things however is when you cue at WDW there is so much to see that you don't actually realise your in the line and consequently it moves fast ( just wait till I let loose on IOA) . Well in no time at all we were getting to the platform where you get into the log flume. My tummy was doing summersaults! Now when I'm nervous I tend to chatter , so I want to take this opportunity to apologise to *the people who were sitting in front of us. Well we were going round and everything was great, lots of oooooo's and arrrrr's and it got to THE climb , you know the one. Well we were heading slowly up and got to the point where the buzzards are sitting and we stopped. Ok no problem, we'll be going soon. We waited , we waited and then the announcement came "please remain in your seats the ride will continue momentarily "!!! Oh my god I was beside myself , well it felt like we'd been waiting an hour however dh assures me it was only 5 minutes. Eventually we set off again and when we went over the hill the scream I screamed , you would have heard it back in the Uk!*

After stepping off my initial thought was why on earth did I get a fast pass , however I remembered the fact that I did enjoy it so we went grabbed a drink and then headed on it again as it was the beginning of the fast pass hour. I must say that the second time went a lot more smoother & I enjoyed it so much more. Next we wandered around and came up to the pirates of the Caribbean ride with only a 10 min wait. So on we went and guess what as soon as we stepped in the raft the announcement came over to stayin *the seat and the ride would resume soon ! Were we jinxed? Anyway it was only 5 minutes before it started. *Now I don't want to offend anyone by what I observed , but I just wanted to state my own opinion. When we lined up a family was in front of us, it was obviously an extended family as there were grandparents , a young couple and a baby. Well as I stated it was only supposed to be a 10 minute wait when we joined the line. We'd walked through a few of the scenes when the young mum decided that her baby needed feeding and then continued to breast feed her baby the whole way round even in the raft that we shared with them. *Dh and I found this a little uncomfortable to say the least. I appreciate the need to feed, but she could have stepped aside and covered herself appropriately and then done the ride after as the wait was not long!*

We headed towards Liberty Square, and as we walked passed the Haunted mansion it was only a 5 minute wait. Now as I'm a whimp , I've never actually done that ride as I am frightened of all things ghostly. But as I was being brave, I thought I'd give it a go, although I really did not know what to expect! Dh said I had to do the full ride so we toured the cemetery , then we went through the mansion . At one point when the carriage tipped backwards I yelped other than that I really enjoyed the ride as you can see from the photos;

Next we moved to Fantasyland and went on Mickey's philharmagic and winnie the *pooh. However it was nearing midday and the temperature was soaring. Dh and I always go on Dumbo ( yes you read right - Dumbo) but there was a 35 min wait and it was too hot to stand out in the sun, so we skipped over to Tomorrow Land. *There we went onBuzz light year and then decided we needed some food. So off we went to Comsic Rays where we tucked into the chicken and rib combo, with mashed potato and green beans, followed by a mango sorbet which was so yummy (and refreshing). It was after two and we were beginning to tire so we made our way over to Adventure land. There we went on the Aladdin Magic carpets( *which was remarkably similar to Dumbo) And also thee jungle river cruise. It was scorching and for shade ( and we'd never done it before) we went into the magical tikki room. Well we sat down and the show started, I turned to face my dh and he was sound asleep! I couldn't believe it , the woman *and *young girl *who were sitting the other side if him turned to me and chuckled. I just held my hands up and rolled my eyes. *Once it finished I woke him and he said, "well I was tired".*

By now it was nearly 5pm and we decided to head back to AKV. However not before we stopped to try something I've read about on the dis but never actually had. We went to Aloha Isle and got two dole whip floats in pineapple juice. WOW it was amazing dh and I both really enjoyed them . Luckily we just got on the bus to resort when the heavens *opened. Back at kidani we went into the store and got a couple of DVDs out . By the time we reached our room it was nearly 6pm and we were exhausted. I ran a bath and grabbed one of the mango smirnoff ices - yum it was good! *Have I mentioned how much I loved that bathroom! For tea i just had cereal and crisps it went well with the smirnoff ice. We stayed up quite late watching criminal minds and a couple of DVDs. It was a great day!*

 

[MrsJobba1]

Im absolutely loving your trip report!

Great report I've just spent a wet miserable afternoon reading through it all.
Love your apartment at the animal kingdom villas.

So pleased you are enjoying it!

 

[Linda67]

Another wonderful day

 

[crabbie1]

Brilliant TR. You have told me all about 2 of the things I am doing in 48 days not that im counting. First ever cruise and AKLV one bed kidani. We had sav studio last time and lovvvvved this resort. Like you we are not hvg the ddp the last 5 nights but are buying AP and TIW card so hopefully this will help a bit with the cost. You dont see to of had big queues at all your trip which is good to hear for august. We have to go between 17-19th aug next year to b back for school . Nice to know its not rammed to the rafters early.
What things did you do on the dream or places you went onboard would you say dont miss? I noticed you ate in EG a lot. Was thinking of doing that for our first lunch when we board as a lot seem to do topsiders. Which did you prefer? Im not familiar with the ship but we hv room 8008 which is right at the front.
The food looks stunning. Aklv looks amazing. My favorite resort along with VWL. Glad you had a super bday. I had my 40th there last year. 12 months this saturday. Feeling very depressed now Amazing report.

 

[MICKEY'S DREAMERS]

Thursday 18th- The day at sea.
...... We stayed there till just after midnight then it was time to go to bed. * However while the atrium was empty I couldn't resist getting this photo!

*

*

Ciao Helen !! I've been so busy lately ... and I still have some of your installments to go through !!!
LOVED your description of the day at sea !! It brings back so many happy memories - such as our "Art Class" together !!!
Also the Goofy by myself and Marco was so ... ... but we dei have a great time !!!

I'm going to print and save your trippie - as DGH and I are so enjoying it !!!
It'll make a wonderful memory for us as well !!!

Have to work for my school now -
I'll read your next installments one per day !!!

THANKYOU !! A special hug to Caleb !! laura

 

[MrsJobba1]

Tuesday 23rd August

After the late night, a lie in was called for and no alarm was set. Lol! We got up round 9 and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We had the news on tv and all the talk was of the possible hurricane that was scheduled to hit land at the end of the week. The weather forecaster was showing 3 possible routes that it might take, a b & c . Route C was showing a direct to Orlando on Friday afternoon! Oh great, we were flying home Friday evening. However I wasn't going to let it spoil the rest of my holiday ( although I must admit I *was a bit anxious ).

Now we had no plans for today as we were just going to chill. We'd had a busy couple of days. So we just hung out by the pool for a couple of hours. Now before we'd gone on the cruise we had been to the Polynesian resort *for a dis meet and afterwards dh and I had wandered round the shops. Whilst mooching round I'd spotted some iPad covers and i jokingly said to my dh, " should I buy one of these, just in case". Now dh simply laughed, little did I know that my birthday present was going to be an iPad! Anyways I'd not seen them in any other of the Disney stores I'd been in , so dh and I decided to take a ride out and go get one along with some lunch.*

We were in no hurry so we took the wdw bus to animal kingdom , then swapped and got the Polynesian bus. It took about an hour but we were ok with that! Once there we went straight to the shop and I got my iPad cover. Yippee! We then headed to kona cafe for lunch.*

Dh & I shared an appetiser of sticky wings for two, glazed chicken wings with a tangy mustard dressing. *Then dh had stir-fried Asian noodles, with chicken and peanuts whilst I had the pan fried chicken with coconut & mango sauces. It was very good. *After lunch we headed back to AKV . *

Dh headed to the gym whilst I sat on the balcony reading and enjoying my iPad. Around 6 we decided to walk to the store and hire a DVD for the night. *

Here are some photos from around AKV.*

The rest of the night we just stayed in and chilled watching tv and DVDs as we had a big day of us tomorrow. We were heading to IOA and Harry Potter world!*

 

[MrsJobba1]

Brilliant TR. You have told me all about 2 of the things I am doing in 48 days not that im counting. First ever cruise and AKLV one bed kidani. We had sav studio last time and lovvvvved this resort. Like you we are not hvg the ddp the last 5 nights but are buying AP and TIW card so hopefully this will help a bit with the cost. You dont see to of had big queues at all your trip which is good to hear for august. We have to go between 17-19th aug next year to b back for school . Nice to know its not rammed to the rafters early.
What things did you do on the dream or places you went onboard would you say dont miss? I noticed you ate in EG a lot. Was thinking of doing that for our first lunch when we board as a lot seem to do topsiders. Which did you prefer? Im not familiar with the ship but we hv room 8008 which is right at the front.
The food looks stunning. Aklv looks amazing. My favorite resort along with VWL. Glad you had a super bday. I had my 40th there last year. 12 months this saturday. Feeling very depressed now Amazing report.

Thank you, I'm so pleased you are enjoying my TR In Fl the children went back to school this year 16 th Aug, so parks were quieter then.
Hmm what not to miss on the dream, there's so much that's wonderful. Our cabin was on deck 2 right next to EG so it was very handy for us! Make sure you drop off some thing to be signed by the characters at guest services. It's delivered back to your room on the last night. The two pillow cases I did look amazing. I would also say if you have time, try and use the rainforest room in the spa. Feel free to ask me anymore questions

 

[MrsJobba1]

Brilliant TR. You have told me all about 2 of the things I am doing in 48 days not that im counting. First ever cruise and AKLV one bed kidani. We had sav studio last time and lovvvvved this resort. Like you we are not hvg the ddp the last 5 nights but are buying AP and TIW card so hopefully this will help a bit with the cost. You dont see to of had big queues at all your trip which is good to hear for august. We have to go between 17-19th aug next year to b back for school . Nice to know its not rammed to the rafters early.
What things did you do on the dream or places you went onboard would you say dont miss? I noticed you ate in EG a lot. Was thinking of doing that for our first lunch when we board as a lot seem to do topsiders. Which did you prefer? Im not familiar with the ship but we hv room 8008 which is right at the front.
The food looks stunning. Aklv looks amazing. My favorite resort along with VWL. Glad you had a super bday. I had my 40th there last year. 12 months this saturday. Feeling very depressed now Amazing report.

Meant to say, regarding the embarkation buffet at EG there was no childrens option. It all depends on your plans. I know a lot of the disers on our cruise thread skipped the buffets altogether and headed straight to the pools so their children could swim straight away. They got food from Flos or took trays from Cabanas!

 

[jtlover]

Interested in knowing what cover you got for your ipad.

Enjoying your trip report