7 Days. 2,962 Pictures Taken. 3 “Dreams” Received. 1 Bedroom Villa at Saratoga Springs Resort. 2 Dole Whips. 1 Looming Hurricane. 19 Consecutive Hours in Magic Kingdom. 3 Hours of Sleep Thereafter. 5 Rides on Toy Story Mania in One Day. 1 Great Time.
I’m sure I could come up with more numbers to illustrate the theme, but I think those embody the poignant portions of the trip well.
We began our first day a little later than past trips—this year we were in Indianapolis staying with Sarah’s parents, who were able to get us to the airport in about a half hour, compared with the three hour transit time of past trips in order to get from Valparaiso to Chicago Midway Airport via an assortment of trains. So the extra sleep that came with getting up at 6 a.m. versus the normal 3:30 a.m. was nice.
Prior to catching the flight, we played around in the airport taking pictures of ourselves and my Figment plush in various poses. We were quite thrilled by this, although it seemed some other patrons of the airport might’ve thought we were a little odd. Scrooges.
Once we got in the air we made use of the free drink coupons that came with our frequent flier flight from Southwest. This coupled with looking through my old WDW books made for a really quick flight. Before we knew it, we had landed in MCO.
The line for Disney’s Magical Express was longer than I’d ever seen. Luckily for me, Sarah waited in the line while I played around, taking more pictures. All told, it took about an hour from the time we got in the DME check in line until we got on the bus.
We arrived at Saratoga Springs Resort about three hours prior to check-in where we met our friend, Nick, who is a cast member at Space Mountain. There was no issue with the early arrival—we even received a free upgrade to a one bedroom villa. I’m not sure if this is a “standard” upgrade during slow times, but it’s the second year in a row that we’ve received the free upgrade at SSR. If they give the free upgrade as a tactic to get people to invest in DVC, it certainly is working, because we’re sold.
After getting settled into the room and watching the Top 7 a few times (more like having the Top 7 play as background music), we got ready and headed to Downtown Disney, where we would catch a bus for Animal Kingdom Lodge where we would be having dinner at Boma.
We arrived a bit early, so we had some time to peruse the lobby prior to dinner. Like most of the Disney Resorts, AKL’s theming is wholly immersive. I’m not sure that we’d ever stay there given its proximity to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Studios, but it certainly is impressive.
Boma lived up to its reputation. For a buffet, the food was quite unique, and good. It’s conservative enough to appeal to a wide range of palates, yet there is a bit of edge to the menu. All told, not something you’d expect from a buffet. The restaurant itself has somewhat low lighting, giving the restaurant a somewhat romantic ambience. Again, definitely not what you’d typically expect from a buffet. I was thoroughly impressed with the place.
After Boma, we headed back to the resort and made a couple drinks before heading out to Pleasure Island. Truth be told, our only previous time at PI was only mediocre, but this time we decided to forgo the sparsely populated dance clubs (I hate the whole club scene anyway, and about the only way I can tolerate it is if they are sparsely populated, but I was still quite pleased not to be “clubbing”) and spend the night at Adventurer’s Club.
The decision turned out to be a great one. Sarah, Nick, and I all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Spending the entire night there definitely improved the experience, as there were plenty of running jokes that you would’ve missed if not there the entire evening. My only complaint is the number of people who were obviously regulars. I’m not saying I have a problem with people who regularly attend the AC, it was the way they carried on. I’m glad you all attend the show regularly and know all of the gags and have your own themed attire, but I paid to see and hear the performers, not hear and see you try to upstage them. This didn’t affect the experience much, but was just a bit aggravating. We had such a good time that we decided to alter our plans a bit to go back later in the week. My only regret was not taking my D40 to get some good pictures of PI and the AC. But I figured it was a safer bet to take a cheap P&S just in case anything were to happen. We got back to our room around 1:30 a.m., and went to bed immediately.
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I’m sure I could come up with more numbers to illustrate the theme, but I think those embody the poignant portions of the trip well.
We began our first day a little later than past trips—this year we were in Indianapolis staying with Sarah’s parents, who were able to get us to the airport in about a half hour, compared with the three hour transit time of past trips in order to get from Valparaiso to Chicago Midway Airport via an assortment of trains. So the extra sleep that came with getting up at 6 a.m. versus the normal 3:30 a.m. was nice.
Prior to catching the flight, we played around in the airport taking pictures of ourselves and my Figment plush in various poses. We were quite thrilled by this, although it seemed some other patrons of the airport might’ve thought we were a little odd. Scrooges.
Once we got in the air we made use of the free drink coupons that came with our frequent flier flight from Southwest. This coupled with looking through my old WDW books made for a really quick flight. Before we knew it, we had landed in MCO.
The line for Disney’s Magical Express was longer than I’d ever seen. Luckily for me, Sarah waited in the line while I played around, taking more pictures. All told, it took about an hour from the time we got in the DME check in line until we got on the bus.
We arrived at Saratoga Springs Resort about three hours prior to check-in where we met our friend, Nick, who is a cast member at Space Mountain. There was no issue with the early arrival—we even received a free upgrade to a one bedroom villa. I’m not sure if this is a “standard” upgrade during slow times, but it’s the second year in a row that we’ve received the free upgrade at SSR. If they give the free upgrade as a tactic to get people to invest in DVC, it certainly is working, because we’re sold.
After getting settled into the room and watching the Top 7 a few times (more like having the Top 7 play as background music), we got ready and headed to Downtown Disney, where we would catch a bus for Animal Kingdom Lodge where we would be having dinner at Boma.
We arrived a bit early, so we had some time to peruse the lobby prior to dinner. Like most of the Disney Resorts, AKL’s theming is wholly immersive. I’m not sure that we’d ever stay there given its proximity to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Studios, but it certainly is impressive.
Boma lived up to its reputation. For a buffet, the food was quite unique, and good. It’s conservative enough to appeal to a wide range of palates, yet there is a bit of edge to the menu. All told, not something you’d expect from a buffet. The restaurant itself has somewhat low lighting, giving the restaurant a somewhat romantic ambience. Again, definitely not what you’d typically expect from a buffet. I was thoroughly impressed with the place.
After Boma, we headed back to the resort and made a couple drinks before heading out to Pleasure Island. Truth be told, our only previous time at PI was only mediocre, but this time we decided to forgo the sparsely populated dance clubs (I hate the whole club scene anyway, and about the only way I can tolerate it is if they are sparsely populated, but I was still quite pleased not to be “clubbing”) and spend the night at Adventurer’s Club.
The decision turned out to be a great one. Sarah, Nick, and I all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Spending the entire night there definitely improved the experience, as there were plenty of running jokes that you would’ve missed if not there the entire evening. My only complaint is the number of people who were obviously regulars. I’m not saying I have a problem with people who regularly attend the AC, it was the way they carried on. I’m glad you all attend the show regularly and know all of the gags and have your own themed attire, but I paid to see and hear the performers, not hear and see you try to upstage them. This didn’t affect the experience much, but was just a bit aggravating. We had such a good time that we decided to alter our plans a bit to go back later in the week. My only regret was not taking my D40 to get some good pictures of PI and the AC. But I figured it was a safer bet to take a cheap P&S just in case anything were to happen. We got back to our room around 1:30 a.m., and went to bed immediately.
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