Hey everyone! My wife and I are freshly back at home after an 8 day Florida retreat. It was very long and very exhausting. However it was fun, magical, and we got to experience how amazing Disney World really is! This wasn't my wife or I's first time at Disney World, but it is our first in over 10 years, and our first together!
2/21 - The day started early...345am early in Richmond, VA we stayed at my parents house so we would be close to the airport. Our flight was set to take off at 06:00am. After arriving at the airport at 5am we sat and waited for our plane to be ready. There was snow set to come through during the morning and we were hoping to leave before it started. 520 we boarded our plane and there we sat....and sat...and sat...and guess what? We sat again! Finally 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time our pilot informed us that we were waiting to be de-iced. The first thought that came through my mind was..."Why wasn't this done earlier?" As this was the first flight of the day out of this terminal and for this plane. There had been no precipitation the night before or the morning of. Finally just before 7am our plane was de-iced and our flight took off. There was panic between me and my wife as we were connecting in JFK to head to Orlando and there was only originally a 43 minute lay over. We landed with about 20 minutes to spare, and right after we landed...we sat...and sat...and sat...and sat some more!(do you see a pattern here?) I look out the window from our plane as its 10 minutes before departure time for our connecting flight and I see a Delta Plane rolling by to the runway. I jokingly said "Hey that looks like our plane!" Needless to say after looking at the actual departure time this plane was indeed our connecting flight. Luckily we had some buffer between when we had to be in Orlando and when our Luke Bryan Concert started! Delta blamed the weather, I blamed the crews for not starting earlier on the deicing, and finally after some back and forth we were put on the next flight leaving in just over 1.5 hours from the present time and we were upgraded to their "Premium Economy Seating" Which I guess is some bit of an upgrade but for only an extra 4 inches I couldnt justify paying for it if I had too. Our connecting flight took off and landed without a hitch and it was off to get our rental car and off to our hotel in downtown Orlando for the evening. We had paid for an economy car and we were upgraded to a crossover SUV! After arriving at the Clarion Inn we were promptly told that we were being moved to another hotel in their chain 20 minutes across Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando. I didn't make a fuss, and we were promptly checked in. We headed off to the Luke Bryan Concert at the Amway Center. I had bought my wife Melanie VIP tickets to this concert for her birthday and it included a pre-show acoustic 3 song set back stage and seats within the first 15 rows. Needless to say both the acoustic show and the main show were phenominal! After the show we headed back to the hotel and went to bed as we had to be back up early to head back to the airport to drop off our rental car and board the Magical Express for our journey to Disney!
2/22 - After waking up at 6am we checked out of our hotel and dropped our rental car off at Orlando Airport and boarded our Magical Express bus instantly to get to our resort All Star Movie Resort. The movie that played on board was a bit dry in humor but did get a good laugh from both of us and really did help put us in the Disney Mindset. We were the 3rd and final stop of the route and we walk into the lobby at 08:10AM. We asked if our room was ready and it was not, so we checked our luggage with the Bell Service and boarded the bus for Animal Kingdom our first day at Disney! Arriving at Animal Kingdom at around 9:10am and we had just missed the rope drop. As we really didn't have any set plans we decided to just go see what was what. We started off with It's a Bugs Life Show, which was fabulous and was much better than I remembered it being 12 years ago! After getting out of the show there was a voice-mail for me to call our resorts Management. Thinking that they were just going to apologize that our room wasn't ready I gave them a call. The manager let me know that they had upgraded us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House with a Savannah View room for no extra charge! We already had a Dinner planned for this evening at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the Wanyama Safari/Jiko Dinner so it worked perfectly(Which was also a magical gift from Disney to us!)! We walked around and did Dinosaur which was also great, but the first time riding it in 12 years it didn't seem as grand as it was when I was younger. We walked the asian trail and had lunch at one of the restaurants next to Everest...the food...was...well subpar at best but it was good as we hadn't eaten anything all day. After lunch we did some of the character meet and greets that were available and headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in! Our room was beautiful, and the first thing I saw when I opened the blinds to our balcony was 2 Giraffes and several Wildebeast walking across the Savannah. We took showers, and got changed for our Dinner to come. 3:15pm we were downstairs at the check-in as required and we waited for the rest of the members of of Safari to arrive so that we could depart! Once our group gathered we were escorted into the wine room of Jiko where a young lady (unfortunately didn't catch her name) from Africa spoke to us about African culture and animals. One of the head Chefs at Jiko came out and spoke to us about the snack that was presented to us before the Safari which included different cheeses, breads, and sausages that were based off African Recipes but of course Disneyfied. The food was tasty and very much full of flavor and spices. Our guides came in and gave a brief rundown of our Safari. We walked single file out of the Lodge and down to a Safari Truck where we were taken behind the scenes at the Lodge. We were shown most of the animals that are kept at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and we drove through all of the Savannahs. We even got to see the People Exhibit/Pen!!!!(This is where you go during a fire alarm so that animals wont bother you). We were talked about Disney's mission to help the enviroment. Evidently for every acre of land that is used at Disney. Disney sets aside 7 acres for conservation....im gonna call it an end for the night because I'm falling asleep at the keyboard and I've got to be up for work early in the morning! But Tuesday I will continue our adventure where I left off!
2/21 - The day started early...345am early in Richmond, VA we stayed at my parents house so we would be close to the airport. Our flight was set to take off at 06:00am. After arriving at the airport at 5am we sat and waited for our plane to be ready. There was snow set to come through during the morning and we were hoping to leave before it started. 520 we boarded our plane and there we sat....and sat...and sat...and guess what? We sat again! Finally 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time our pilot informed us that we were waiting to be de-iced. The first thought that came through my mind was..."Why wasn't this done earlier?" As this was the first flight of the day out of this terminal and for this plane. There had been no precipitation the night before or the morning of. Finally just before 7am our plane was de-iced and our flight took off. There was panic between me and my wife as we were connecting in JFK to head to Orlando and there was only originally a 43 minute lay over. We landed with about 20 minutes to spare, and right after we landed...we sat...and sat...and sat...and sat some more!(do you see a pattern here?) I look out the window from our plane as its 10 minutes before departure time for our connecting flight and I see a Delta Plane rolling by to the runway. I jokingly said "Hey that looks like our plane!" Needless to say after looking at the actual departure time this plane was indeed our connecting flight. Luckily we had some buffer between when we had to be in Orlando and when our Luke Bryan Concert started! Delta blamed the weather, I blamed the crews for not starting earlier on the deicing, and finally after some back and forth we were put on the next flight leaving in just over 1.5 hours from the present time and we were upgraded to their "Premium Economy Seating" Which I guess is some bit of an upgrade but for only an extra 4 inches I couldnt justify paying for it if I had too. Our connecting flight took off and landed without a hitch and it was off to get our rental car and off to our hotel in downtown Orlando for the evening. We had paid for an economy car and we were upgraded to a crossover SUV! After arriving at the Clarion Inn we were promptly told that we were being moved to another hotel in their chain 20 minutes across Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando. I didn't make a fuss, and we were promptly checked in. We headed off to the Luke Bryan Concert at the Amway Center. I had bought my wife Melanie VIP tickets to this concert for her birthday and it included a pre-show acoustic 3 song set back stage and seats within the first 15 rows. Needless to say both the acoustic show and the main show were phenominal! After the show we headed back to the hotel and went to bed as we had to be back up early to head back to the airport to drop off our rental car and board the Magical Express for our journey to Disney!
2/22 - After waking up at 6am we checked out of our hotel and dropped our rental car off at Orlando Airport and boarded our Magical Express bus instantly to get to our resort All Star Movie Resort. The movie that played on board was a bit dry in humor but did get a good laugh from both of us and really did help put us in the Disney Mindset. We were the 3rd and final stop of the route and we walk into the lobby at 08:10AM. We asked if our room was ready and it was not, so we checked our luggage with the Bell Service and boarded the bus for Animal Kingdom our first day at Disney! Arriving at Animal Kingdom at around 9:10am and we had just missed the rope drop. As we really didn't have any set plans we decided to just go see what was what. We started off with It's a Bugs Life Show, which was fabulous and was much better than I remembered it being 12 years ago! After getting out of the show there was a voice-mail for me to call our resorts Management. Thinking that they were just going to apologize that our room wasn't ready I gave them a call. The manager let me know that they had upgraded us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House with a Savannah View room for no extra charge! We already had a Dinner planned for this evening at Animal Kingdom Lodge for the Wanyama Safari/Jiko Dinner so it worked perfectly(Which was also a magical gift from Disney to us!)! We walked around and did Dinosaur which was also great, but the first time riding it in 12 years it didn't seem as grand as it was when I was younger. We walked the asian trail and had lunch at one of the restaurants next to Everest...the food...was...well subpar at best but it was good as we hadn't eaten anything all day. After lunch we did some of the character meet and greets that were available and headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in! Our room was beautiful, and the first thing I saw when I opened the blinds to our balcony was 2 Giraffes and several Wildebeast walking across the Savannah. We took showers, and got changed for our Dinner to come. 3:15pm we were downstairs at the check-in as required and we waited for the rest of the members of of Safari to arrive so that we could depart! Once our group gathered we were escorted into the wine room of Jiko where a young lady (unfortunately didn't catch her name) from Africa spoke to us about African culture and animals. One of the head Chefs at Jiko came out and spoke to us about the snack that was presented to us before the Safari which included different cheeses, breads, and sausages that were based off African Recipes but of course Disneyfied. The food was tasty and very much full of flavor and spices. Our guides came in and gave a brief rundown of our Safari. We walked single file out of the Lodge and down to a Safari Truck where we were taken behind the scenes at the Lodge. We were shown most of the animals that are kept at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and we drove through all of the Savannahs. We even got to see the People Exhibit/Pen!!!!(This is where you go during a fire alarm so that animals wont bother you). We were talked about Disney's mission to help the enviroment. Evidently for every acre of land that is used at Disney. Disney sets aside 7 acres for conservation....im gonna call it an end for the night because I'm falling asleep at the keyboard and I've got to be up for work early in the morning! But Tuesday I will continue our adventure where I left off!
Following along