My Animal Kingdom Lodge Grand Villa Vacation!! With a side trip to see Harry!

Yep! A grand villa at Animal Kingdom Lodge. :sohappy: No words can describe the awesomeness. Any other resort, no matter how deluxe, is going to be a letdown from here on out. In fact, my house was a bit of a disappointment when I got back. :lol:

Who: Us, the DVC members who were kind enough to use our points to take family. :D That's me Tammy- travel agent extraordinaire:lol:, dear hubby - air force officer extraordinaire who was wise enough to buy DVC two years ago, ds15 - our high school student/the quarterback who missed a football game for this trip and whose coach wasn't very happy with me :lookaroun and dd12 - who turned 13 today.:)

My in-laws whom you may recognize from my Mediterranean cruise report from May.

My brother in law and his family.

Here we are!

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When: October 3-10. On my niece’s fall break. My kids flat out skipped school. :D

What: This was supposed to be a relaxing, enjoy our resort kind of trip. I think we succeeded. We took a lot of breaks. We also took advantage of our full kitchen. The in-laws loaded us up on groceries. We ate breakfast in the room every morning and came back for another meal most days. We were trying to cut down on the quantity of food we ate.

Disclaimers: First, I took a bazillion pictures and am working my way through them, but life gets in the way. This report may take a while, but I've got the first couple of days done. Second, I am not good at food pictures. I forget to take them and someone's usually eating before I get a chance.:lol: You'll have to go elsewhere for those. Third, I may offend some with my rather conservative opinions on Disney appropriate behavior. You may think me a prude and I don't mean to offend, lets just agree to disagree.:)
 

myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
Premium Member
:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

Oh Tammy I'm going to be LIVING in this thread till it's done!! Gorgeous pics as always and my jaw dropped open at the space you got to stay in!

I love FotLK and it is a must see, if not two times each trip. Can't wait for more :)
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Woo hoo! That villa is AMAZING! Animalpalooza :lol:

Animalpalooza!! No other word would work! :lol:

:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

Oh Tammy I'm going to be LIVING in this thread till it's done!! Gorgeous pics as always and my jaw dropped open at the space you got to stay in!

I love FotLK and it is a must see, if not two times each trip. Can't wait for more :)

You are so right about FotLK. I realize that every time I go.:)
 

erstwo

Well-Known Member
Sunday – October 3rd

Departure day! Woo hoo!! We had to leave early and we were up late the night before for Homecoming for ds. The alarm came early but we were excited.

We left Colorado Springs and had an unbearably long layover in Chicago. It just seems like such a waste of time when you’re trying to get there!! My bil and sil tormented me with texts from DHS. They went to the Auburn game (War Eagle! You’ll see a theme with their clothes this week) on Saturday and then drove to Gainesville and spent the night. They were there early and I was jealous!!

I'm so excited for your trip report! Did you see in my TR where I put that I hoped you'd post a report of your trip, because I can't wait to see your pics of the MK fall decor?! Because I can't! :)

War Eagle! We were at MK on the 5th, and my husband was walking in front of me and passed a guy in an Auburn shirt and said, "War Eagle!" and they guy replied, "War Eagle!" and then I could hear him say to his wife as he passed by, "That's the second one in an hour!" :D Fun times.

Can't wait to read the rest!
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member

Swooooooon! Seriously, Tammy. I've seen this shot so many times, but yours just blows 'em all away. It's so vibrant and bright!

I'm so in love with your trip report already. We'll be staying at Kidani in December and going to see Harry ourselves, so I can't wait to read the rest. And the Grand Villa (especially through your lens)... STUNNING!
 

eagles

Active Member
no better way to recuperate than reading a trip report! love it tammy. but after seeing the close ups of everest, i doubt i will ever, ever go on that one.
.the villas are amazing.


hurry with more.
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
yay tammy, you started your trip report!! :D so excited to read about your fabulous stay at the akl! that room looks AMAZING! i can't believe how big it is! and a pool table in the room?! CRAZY! can't wait to read the rest!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm so excited for your trip report! Did you see in my TR where I put that I hoped you'd post a report of your trip, because I can't wait to see your pics of the MK fall decor?! Because I can't! :)

War Eagle! We were at MK on the 5th, and my husband was walking in front of me and passed a guy in an Auburn shirt and said, "War Eagle!" and they guy replied, "War Eagle!" and then I could hear him say to his wife as he passed by, "That's the second one in an hour!" :D Fun times.

Can't wait to read the rest!

No!! I have to go read yours!! I've been trying to catch up on some and start mine!! I'm going to go read...

My word, I heard War Eagle so many times that week too!!:lol:

The Villa is amazing! You have a lovely family....looking forward to the rest of your report! :wave:

Thanks disneyrcks!


This is awesome! Keep on posting, it makes me feel like I'm there!!!

:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

More to come soon!

Swooooooon! Seriously, Tammy. I've seen this shot so many times, but yours just blows 'em all away. It's so vibrant and bright!

I'm so in love with your trip report already. We'll be staying at Kidani in December and going to see Harry ourselves, so I can't wait to read the rest. And the Grand Villa (especially through your lens)... STUNNING!

Thanks, Holly! My Grand Villa pics would have been so much better if I'd taken the time to get out my tripod and turn on the lights! I was just too excited!:lol: Then there was stuff and people all over it the rest of the week!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sweeeeeeeett! Awesome pics! I'm so tempted to spend the money and stay at AKL!! Looks great! More pics!:sohappy:

It's so worth it, Jonathan!

no better way to recuperate than reading a trip report! love it tammy. but after seeing the close ups of everest, i doubt i will ever, ever go on that one.
.the villas are amazing.


hurry with more.

I'm trying! Hopefully I'll get up Harryworld today!

WOW...wow wow wow. Your pictures are amazing, and that villa...beautiful. Can't wait to read more! :sohappy:

Thanks, Ariel!

yay tammy, you started your trip report!! :D so excited to read about your fabulous stay at the akl! that room looks AMAZING! i can't believe how big it is! and a pool table in the room?! CRAZY! can't wait to read the rest!

It was amazing. Really. Just amazing. And that's what I said!! A pool table!! No way!!
 

Soaringirl

Member
Loving the trip report :wave: The Grand Villa is absolutely amazing!! What a beautiful family you have. I really did love your daughter's tie dye t-shirt. I think my daughter would enjoy one. Is Etsy a store or can I get it online? Can't wait to hear all about Harry.......
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Awesome trip report! You have a beautiful family! I love the pic of your daughter on Everest...NO FEAR!!!

Yes! That was like the fifth trip down! I would have been ralphing by that point.:lol:

Loving the trip report :wave: The Grand Villa is absolutely amazing!! What a beautiful family you have. I really did love your daughter's tie dye t-shirt. I think my daughter would enjoy one. Is Etsy a store or can I get it online? Can't wait to hear all about Harry.......

Thank you! Isn't the shirt so cute? Etsy.com is a place where people sell things they make. Here's a link to that seller. I saw her link on Facebook:

http://www.etsy.com/search_results....y+mouse+tie+dye&search_type=handmade&ref=auto

You pick the colors and what you want done, i.e. a shirt, a dress, etc. She was fast and easy to work with. I am so pleased with the shirt!:)
 

Korfar

Active Member
AKL looks awesome. We went there for Boma this last trip and the common areas were fantastic. I am with you on Everest. I can only do it once a day. After that I am not feeling so good. :veryconfu
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
AKL looks awesome. We went there for Boma this last trip and the common areas were fantastic. I am with you on Everest. I can only do it once a day. After that I am not feeling so good. :veryconfu

I agree, even the common areas are awesome. I think the savannah view rooms are worth every penny, but if you can't afford it, the common areas make up for your lack of a view.

I don't know why I can only ride it once either, but I'm glad I'm not alone!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tuesday – October 5th

Today we were doing something rather heretical for me. We were *gasp* leaving Disney to go visit Harry. :eek: It felt all kinds of wrong, but we couldn’t miss him. I did start to hyperventilate a little when we got on the interstate.:lookaroun:lol:

We got up way too early again for our drive to Universal. I was ready early so I wandered and took some pics of the pool. You can see how lush it is:

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