Hot Times in the World: A June 2011 Trip Report!

We’ve been home for a week, I’m back at work, and reality is truly setting in. Time to escape it with a trip report!

The cast includes myself (Shannon, 27) and my husband Will (26) spending 8 days in WDW for our second anniversary!

Since this was an anniversary trip and all, here we are a little over 2 years ago on our wedding day…

…and 2 days later on our honeymoon!

We’ve been together since February 2005, and we met in math class during my junior and his sophomore year in college. NERDS.

This was our fourth trip to WDW together after the aforementioned honeymoon in May 2009 (Boardwalk Inn), a quick Thanksgiving trip with the in-laws in November 2009 (Boardwalk Inn – no trip report! For shame.), and another quick trip in February for the 2011 Princess Half Marathon (Port Orleans – Riverside).

For this trip we decided to rent DVC points for the first time as a way to save some cash. Will suggested we do a split stay (great idea since I couldn’t decide on one resort anyway) and we put our requests in with excellent results. For the first 3 nights we scored a savanna-view studio villa at Kidani. For the remainder of our trip we’d be traveling back to the Atlantic coast, staying in a “preferred/boardwalk-view” studio at the Boardwalk Villas. Woot!

Pretty early on in the planning process we ultimately decided that we also wanted to fit in a one-day trip to Universal, primarily to spend a morning frolicking in HP-land. Of the two of us, I am the giant Harry Potter fan (admittedly, more a fan of the books than the movies), and being the fabulous husband that he is, Will tags along with me to the movies and enjoys them, though I don’t think he fully grasps the awesomeness of HP since he refuses to read the books.

Other than that, we made our ADRs, put down some cash for a tour, changed said ADRs a million times, and had some major face palm moments along the way

Above all else, I was most excited to get to spend some quality time with Will. It seems like we were both (separately) super busy for the entirety of spring, and I was more than ready to put real life aside and have another adventure together in WDW!

Onward!

 

[Ariel484]

Upon leaving Raglan Road, we found that the storm from this afternoon was returning! Ugh. At this point it was just lightly raining, but eventually the thunder and lightning started up, too.

Good friends of ours have little twin 4-year-old girls, and we were hoping to come home from the trip with something small for them, so we quickly walked through the rain to World of Disney.

The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique:

Near the Dooneys! Yay!

We didn't find anything for the girls that evening, but I did get a small picture frame. Eventually we picked up 2 identical Minnie Mouse bracelets in MouseGear for the twins…hope they like them!

Our next stop was Basin!

They have some really cute stuff in this store.

I picked out 3 Bath Bombs (which I have yet to use) and a small $2 bag of some chunks of soap before we decided to call it a day. The storm was picking up and we really did not want to get caught in it. Plus, we had to return to AKL to pack up…the resort switch was due to happen the next morning, along with our first-ever Disney tour! Woohoo! :sohappy:

 

[blackthidot]

This is AWESOME. I want it!

 

[disneygirl1]

Amazinf report! We stayed at AKL for the 1st this past December and quickly fell in love with the place! I can not wait to stay there again in the future!!! We were a little disappointed when we were the last stop on ME too when we stayed there, but hey it totally built up our suspense to get there

We went to WWOHP last August and loved it! I was very impressed by it!

I am so sorry about your DVC renting issue, we are considering renting points at either the Beach Club or the Boardwalk for puir pre-Disney Cruise stay! but now. I'm a little nervous. :veryconfu

 

[Ariel484]

This is AWESOME. I want it!

I know! I feel slightly stupid for not getting one myself.

Amazinf report! We stayed at AKL for the 1st this past December and quickly fell in love with the place! I can not wait to stay there again in the future!!! We were a little disappointed when we were the last stop on ME too when we stayed there, but hey it totally built up our suspense to get there

We went to WWOHP last August and loved it! I was very impressed by it!

I am so sorry about your DVC renting issue, we are considering renting points at either the Beach Club or the Boardwalk for puir pre-Disney Cruise stay! but now. I'm a little nervous. :veryconfu

Thanks! I love AKL too...I'wanted wanted to stay there for over 2 years and it did not disappoint!

I was impressed by the Harry Potter area as well...I loved the little details..it looked great.

Yes, the DVC issue sucked. Initially I freaked out about it, but I believed them when they said it had never happened before, and our other reservation at the Boardwalk for the rest of the trip worked out fine - no issues whatsoever. We actually have another reservation already set up for January (renting points at the Beach Club) through the same organization that I made before this happened, so hopefully it will work out. That reservation is still showing up fine on Disneyworld.com, and I'm pretty sure we're going to use them again for future trips. Are you going to go through a website or contacting a member directly?

Yes, there's a possibility that something can go wrong, but I think it's pretty rare. Good luck! :wave:

 

[HollyBelle]

Oh no... I'm late to the party.

I've only gotten through day 1, but I had to stop and comment... first, I hate that you had so many hiccups at the beginning of your trip/during the planning process. It definitely sounds like you made the best of it, though. I'm glad to hear you liked Sanaa. The ambiance is probably my favorite thing about the restaurant. And I'm excited to hear about your other "new" dining experiences.

I'm with you on debating whether or not a savannah view room is actually worth it. I don't think it is something we took full advantage of either when staying at AKL.

It looks like you're enjoying your new prime lens! You got some great shots with it. Okay...back to read more!

 

[grwnupprincess]

Aw, sheepdogs are so cute! Yay! We did have a hard time leaving the Monster, but he really, really loves doggy camp, so we knew he was in good hands.

And thank you for the anniversary wishes!

this is our guy, Dutch

...he's a bit of a monster as well...but also very lovable...sorry to go off on a tangent (but I had to share my pooch with a fellow dog parent)! keep the updates coming!:sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

Oh no... I'm late to the party.

I've only gotten through day 1, but I had to stop and comment... first, I hate that you had so many hiccups at the beginning of your trip/during the planning process. It definitely sounds like you made the best of it, though. I'm glad to hear you liked Sanaa. The ambiance is probably my favorite thing about the restaurant. And I'm excited to hear about your other "new" dining experiences.

Hi! Yay! :wave:

Yes, I am such an insane planner that it really bothered me to have things get slightly messed up, but it turned out not to be a big deal. I was glad to get the AP rate at AKL.

Sanaa was SOO good. We really liked how intimate and relaxed it was...perfect way to start off the trip.

I'm with you on debating whether or not a savannah view room is actually worth it. I don't think it is something we took full advantage of either when staying at AKL.

I know, I mean, it's really cool to see the animals like that, but...I don't know. We've talked about it a few times since the end of the trip and can't decide one way or another whether we'd pay for it again. Normally we just go for a standard view room.

It looks like you're enjoying your new prime lens! You got some great shots with it. Okay...back to read more!

Yes I am! I'm glad I got it...great for taking photos of the pup too!

this is our guy, Dutch

...he's a bit of a monster as well...but also very lovable...sorry to go off on a tangent (but I had to share my pooch with a fellow dog parent)! keep the updates coming!:sohappy:

Oh no, I can't see your picture! Could you try to re-post, please? I'd love to see a picture of Dutch! No need to apologize for wanting to share a picture, I've decided that from now on all of my trip reports have to include a picture of Archie, even though he has nothing to do with WDW. Just gotta show him off like any proud momma would!

 

[switts]

awesome trip report so far....this on is giving Tom Bricker a run for his money

 

[Ariel484]

Day 4: Thursday, June 16.

Resort Switch Day!

We got up a bit earlier this morning and took one last look at our sweet view. Bye-bye, friends!

They don’t seem to care that we’re leaving. :shrug: Oh well.

We dragged our luggage out to the lobby and went to the front desk first. I was surprised to see where the CM was from…one town over from where I grew up, and where my aunt currently lives! It is a small world after all. (Apologies for anyone who now has the song in their head!)

We set up our luggage transfer with Bell Services, who promised that our everything would be at the Boardwalk Villas by 3PM, and headed to the Mara for a quick breakfast. We now had our blue healthy back bag, my camera bag, and a bigger duffle bag with swimsuits, a change of clothes, etc. in case something went wrong with the transfer. I felt like a tool carrying all of that stuff around.

Bellies full of muffins and bananas, we caught a bus heading for Epcot (bye-bye, AKL!)…I think it was about 7:45 or 8 by that point. When we got to the park, we got all of our bags checked by security (which took much longer this time around with the duffle – as an aside I noticed they were being MUCH more thorough with the bag searches this week as compared to when we went in February), and headed to the left-most turnstile to gain early entry to the park. Our names were checked off the list that the CM had and we were granted entry to a very empty Epcot.

Hey, who’s that guy in my shot??!?

We checked in at Guest Relations and were told to meet our tour group in near the Fountain of Nations. After one last bathroom break, and watching some excited Princesses make their way to Akershus, we met the other 5 guests in our group and our instructor…time to learn how to Segway! (Is that a verb? No? Well, it is now.)

After some heckling from Lamonte, our Segway instructor, over our many bags (“Did you just get off the plane??”), we headed to Innoventions West for our Segway training.

This was sort of my anniversary present to Will. Originally I planned on surprising him with the tour, because I thought it would be right up his alley, but I ultimately I convinced myself that I needed to run the idea by him before forking over the cash. I should have known he’d be enthusiastic, and I SO wish I’d kept it a surprise. In the weeks leading up to the trip, it was clear that, except for the food, this is what he was looking forward to the most. I’ll have to think of something equally cool for a future trip and actually keep it a secret next time.

Lamonte told us some basic Segway information (how to turn it on, off, etc.) and we watched a short video in a closed-off section of Innoventions

Basically the video just said you need to be in good health, at least 16, and within the weight limits to get your Segway on. It lasted maybe 3 minutes.

Our next task, which Lamonte described as the hardest part of the tour, was to choose a helmet. And this actually was weirdly hard for me! I kept wavering between the medium and large sizes before deciding that my (apparently) giant dome warranted a large. Lamonte also encouraged us to leave everything behind except for a small camera (which I had), so we were able to store our bags during the tour in the same room where we’d watched the video. We were given small bottles of water to take with us as well.

At this point we were joined by another CM, Mayara, who’d checked us in at Guest Relations that morning. She was going to be our guide during the World Showcase portion of the tour. Together, she and Lamonte taught us how to get on and off the Segways, and we practiced moving forward (we were discouraged from trying to Segway backwards), turning, and stopping. We weaved in and out of cones and up and down a ramp before Lamonte deemed us fit to tackle the World.

Segway-ing is super fun, and I’d recommend it to anyone, but it IS frustrating at first. Will was in the row behind me, and at one point I turned around to see him looking pretty annoyed that he wasn’t getting it right away (that’s just how he is). Two minutes later he was grinning like crazy. Once you get the hang of the Segway, it’s pretty easy, but one thing I never seemed to master was how to keep the Segway still when we were stopped in one place. Something to work on next time (because there will be a next time for sure)!

 

[Ariel484]

After a short bathroom break, we donned our helmets and stepped on to our Segways to be released into the World Showcase. Like ducks in a row, we followed Mayara out of Future World and through the countries, beginning in Mexico. We’d do obsticles in some of the countries (for example, zooming around the koi ponds in Japan) and would periodically stop so that Mayara could tell us some fun facts about the country we were in. Each time she stopped to talk, I HAD to get off the Segway for a bit…it may sound weird, but my feet were getting tired! Will said he could feel it in his calves almost immediately.

In Japan, we were allowed to Segway freely (in a small area marked by cones) and take some pictures!

Channeling his inner G.O.B. Bluth:

Speeding through Japan at a blazing 6 MPH!

Speaking of the speed, Lamonte’s Segway could go 12 MPH - jealous! During training he informed us that our Segways were specifically set to go no more than 6.5 MPH, and if we approached that mark, the Segway would push back on us to try to get us to slow down. This happened quite a bit to both me and Will and it was freaky! It almost felt like we were going to fall off.

Woohoo!

We went through the rest of the World Showcase and back through Future World, which was full of guests at this point. About 4-5 times, someone would say, “Look, a parade!” while others would just get a chuckle out of our line of Segways.

Sadly, the tour had to end. We returned our Segways to Innoventions, got a pin, and left the place on foot.

This was our first Disney tour, and it was a blast! We especially liked our CMs, Mayara and Lamonte. I know Lamonte said he always does the 8:30 class, but I got the impression that Mayara will be leaving Disney soon, so sadly we won’t get to tour with her again. Speaking of the 8:30 time, we thought this was the perfect time to go – not too early, but not too late in the day that we were dodging a ton of people, plus, the weather wasn’t too hot at the point. I also think the size of our group (7) was perfect. The class before us had 15-20, and the class after us had just one couple in addition to the two CMs. I liked that we got individual attention (especially during the training portion), but I think we would have felt weird with just the two of us during the rest of the tour. All in all, we had a wonderful experience and are hoping to do it again in the future.

The tour wrapped up at about 10:30 and we were once again carrying our 3 bags. We made our way through Epcot toward the International Gateway (with frequent stops at “my favorite store” along the way – and by that I mean any store that was close and had air conditioning. This became a running joke throughout the whole trip). Sadly, we passed someone that appeared to have fainted near England where Mary Poppins meets and greets. Paramedics were working on her and she seemed to be responsive, but still…yikes! The heat is serious business.

Destination: Boardwalk. We first stopped at Bell Services to drop off our duffle bag…ah, back to carrying a normal amount of stuff! Next, we headed to check-in. We knew we were super early (er…5 hours early, to be exact) but we thought we’d let them know we were there and ready.

So if you’ll recall from the beginning of this report, we rented points at Kidani and the Boardwalk. The Kidani reservation got canceled, but this one went off without a hitch. When I made the reservation, I saw there were 2 options for studio villas – the standard view and the “preferred/boardwalk” view. The price difference wasn’t huge, so we went with the “preferred/boardwalk” view, which basically meant we wouldn’t be looking at a parking lot. I was pretty sure we’d get a quiet pool-view room or something along those lines…no way we'd be lucky enough to score the boardwalk-view rooms...

…can you see where this is going?

We checked in and acknowledged that we knew official check-in time was 4PM, but we’d like them to text us if the room was ready any earlier. The CM pulled up our reservation and said she was trying to find us a room…and then added quite casually, “And yes, you do have a boardwalk-view room.”

WHAAA??? Both our jaws dropped. This was completely unexpected. I don’t know if it worked out this way because we got lucky, or because it was our anniversary (which I had noted on the reservation), but we were giddy. Woohoo!

At that point we left a phone number with the CM (no room ready yet) and headed back to Epcot. Our lunch reservation was creeping up, and we were in a somewhat celebratory mood! We couldn’t wait to see our room.

 

[Ariel484]

awesome trip report so far....this on is giving Tom Bricker a run for his money

Well I don't know about that, but thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and that is certainly high praise.

 

[switts]

Well I don't know about that, but thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and that is certainly high praise.

He may get jealous now... he has competition haha

 

[cowanfamily]

great report!

 

[grwnupprincess]

ugh...as you can tell...I'm completely new to this and trying to figure this all out before I make any attempts at my own trip report...hopefully this will work...fingers crossed

would love to see more pics of Archie! (again...it's pretty obvious I don't have a child yet!) anyway...back to your report, the segway tour looks awesome!! after looking at your pics I think it's definitely on my Disney to-do list!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Yes, Snape! I really like the books more than the movies, but I love Alan Rickman as Snape. He does such a great job! I'm really curious to see how the second part of the 7th movie goes, because I felt like they sort of glossed over him a bit in the last few.

I'm not sure we'll try Universal again. As I said above, it was an expensive day. The other issue we have is that Will is a teacher, so we really CAN'T go at one of the less crowded times of the year Boooo.

I agree 100% Alan Rickman plays a great Snape, and I hope they do him justice in the second part because to me "The Prince's Tale" chapter in the Deathly Hallows is a huge part of the whole series showing how brave Snape was throughout the whole series.

Hopefully one day you can experience WDW and/or anyplace else in Orlando area during one of the less crowded times of the year!

We loved the view too...I wish we'd been around to take advantage of it more! It was really neat to get up in the morning and see the animals tottering around. I'd wanted to stay at AKL since our honeymoon in 2009 so I'm glad we got to do it.

Still can't get over all of your room pictures with the animals, and now I can't wait to see your Boardwalk-view pictures because that is another place I've always dreamed of staying at!

 

[fractal]

Great report!

I'm glad you liked the Segway tour. My wife and daughter will be doing it on our upcoming trip. I booked them for the 8:30 tour - also happy to hear your comments on the time slot.

 

[Ariel484]

He may get jealous now... he has competition haha

Nah, all in good fun here!

great report!

Thank you! :wave:

ugh...as you can tell...I'm completely new to this and trying to figure this all out before I make any attempts at my own trip report...hopefully this will work...fingers crossed

There he is! Yay!! Oh my gosh, he's soooo adorable! I love the sort of scruffy look he has going on. What a sweetheart!

would love to see more pics of Archie! (again...it's pretty obvious I don't have a child yet!)

Yay! Here he is! (And believe me, I have tons more. How things will change when we have kids!)

Just the nose in focus on this one

anyway...back to your report, the segway tour looks awesome!! after looking at your pics I think it's definitely on my Disney to-do list!

It was awesome! At the end they mentioned that there are 2 more Segway tours at Disney...one at Fort Wilderness and one in Future World. We agreed that we'd do the Around the World tour again. It was so much fun and completely worth the money.

I agree 100% Alan Rickman plays a great Snape, and I hope they do him justice in the second part because to me "The Prince's Tale" chapter in the Deathly Hallows is a huge part of the whole series showing how brave Snape was throughout the whole series.

They'd better! Of course, I'm one of those who comes out of the movie complaining about what they cut out from the book. Well, not complaining, just wondering how they're going to explain certain things since they left other parts out...ya know??

Hopefully one day you can experience WDW and/or anyplace else in Orlando area during one of the less crowded times of the year!

Still can't get over all of your room pictures with the animals, and now I can't wait to see your Boardwalk-view pictures because that is another place I've always dreamed of staying at!

I hope so too...I hope so too. Sigh.

Great report!

I'm glad you liked the Segway tour. My wife and daughter will be doing it on our upcoming trip. I booked them for the 8:30 tour - also happy to hear your comments on the time slot.

You won't be joining them?? I think they'll really enjoy it. It was cool to see the World Showcase from a different perspective. One thing I forgot to mention is that we saw all kinds of pre-opening maintenance being done as well (paint touch-ups, landscaping, etc.)...which was a little strange but neat to see how much care they really do take of the park.

 

[Ariel484]

Onward to Italy, and Via Napoli!

The place was pretty empty when we first sat down, and we were seated right on time for our 11:30 reservation. As time went on, it got decently full and there was a bit of a wait when we left.

Love the ovens.

The service here was really great. They used sort of a team approach, if that makes any sense.

The pizza was good too! We debated on splitting a pizza and salad or just getting our own individual pizzas, which is what we ended up doing.

Margherita pizza for Will:

And pepperoni for me:

This pizza was pretty tasty! Good flavors, and I liked the sort of burned areas on the crust. We thought it was a pretty solid lunch. Then out of nowhere, we were serenaded by the staff and given yet another anniversary treat!

Yum! We were pleased with this meal overall, and I think we’ll most likely be back in January.

 

[Ariel484]

We still hadn’t gotten the room text when lunch was over, but no worries. I’m sure we can find something to do!

One of my non-food-related goals for the trip was to try a Kim Possible mission…but alas, it was way too hot out for that.

Some other time, KP. Some other time.

So instead, we decided to go back, back…over de falls!

We were in a boat with a lot of younger kids (maybe 5-7 years old), and I remember thinking before the ride began that this was probably a good first ride for the younger folks…almost like the Barnstormer maybe? Apparently not…the general consensus of our younger friends was that the ride was “really scary.” My bad.

We bypassed the Norway movie and made it to Mexico just in time to meet an old friend:

And then decided that we needed another glimpse into the future!

Since we’d been unsuccessful in finding our video the first time we rode Spaceship Earth, we wanted to try again. Will guessed that answering that “home” was most important to us lumped us in a huge category with everyone else, making it harder to search for the video. The strategy today was to answer that “work” was most important and go from there.

We broke down for a minute or so near Michelangelo…so why not take a picture?

 

[Ariel484]

And now, the future! Which includes a hover train:

And reading the newspaper:

Will’s guess was right…we successfully found our video and got a huge kick out of appearing on the big screen!

Still no room text, so it was time to find Nemo.

Obviously this ride isn’t a heavy hitter, but I think it’s cute…unfortunately it was completely ruined by the families on either side of us who took flash photos the whole. entire. time. So annoying…and really, do pictures even come out in there using flash?

By now it was about 2:30, and we were getting super hot…not close to having another heat melt-down, but we were ready to get out of the sun for awhile. We decided to just head to the Boardwalk and check again on our room. If it wasn’t ready, we could hang out in the lobby or swim. On our way, we randomly saw Rapunzel doing a meet-and-greet near the Universe of Energy, of all places. We went to hop in line, but it was cut off. Crap!

We made it to the Boardwalk by 3 (walking is slow going with so many “favorite” stores to check out! ) and our room was ready…and had been for some time. I guess the text never went out. Oh well. After some confusion with bell services (they store the luggage transfers separate from the duffle we gave them that morning…eventually we got it worked out), we high-tailed it to the room…so excited!!! :sohappy: