From AKL to ASSp - the TR also known as "Did we just become Deluxe snobs?" *UPDATED 6/11*

[disnic75]

Love your report! I had to laugh about the quest for Chick-fil-A. That was my husband and I on our first few trips to Disney. Now we are fortunate to have one right around the corner from our house. Now the quest is for Zaxby's

PS leaving the dogs is harder than leaving the kids

 

[Lady Marie]

Joining in from the other TR-- can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

Now the quest is for Zaxby's

Yaaaassss! That's mine and hubby's tradition when we leave Disney-- eat Zaxby's before we head home!

 

[pagek83]

Pro-Tip for your next Chick-fil-A stop - ask for "Well done fries." They double fry them and they're so crispy and yummy.

 

[TeamSy]

HAHA... we always use the "we got a great rate" excuse too

 

[FantasiaMagic]

The house was cleaned, guest bedroom set up, photographer booked and now it was just onto packing. I say “just” like that's some small feat
I wish I could be one of you responsible, on top of it people who starts packing well before your vacation. Instead, I wait until 12 hours before we leave. Ya know, to really make sure I keep things exciting.

We also had a really sad task we had to accomplish this evening and that was to drop our pup off at his grandparents' house.

I know, leaving my dog when I go on vacation is always tough

It was time!!!

We hoped to leave at 6 with the understanding that if we aimed for 6 we'd probably leave by 7. But we were out the door by 6:20!

Success!

When Joe and I would talk about this trip, we'd ask each other things like “what ride are you looking forward to the most?” and “where are you most excited to eat?”

While, in regard to that second question, among California Grill and Be Our Guest was...Chick-fil-A. No shame. Okay, a little shame. Fine, a lot.

Priorities.

FINALLY at 5pm, a solid FOUR HOURS after our “cut-off point”, we spotted one. And I naturally started singing happy songs and Joe said “wow, it's like what you were like last trip when we got on Disney property for the first time.” Pretty much the same feelings of happiness and like all is right with the world.

And then...it happened.

That looks so good, it doesn't help that I'm getting hungry while reading this

TOMORROW we arrive on property!!! And I definitely don't cry or act like a fool or anything like that when it happens.

YAY!!!!!

I am very excited to keep reading along!

 

[SarahDisney]

Is there no Chick-fil-A app that helps you find the nearest Chick-fil-A? I feel like there should be.
(Also ... I used water for my Chick-fil-A drinking game. It was closer than alcohol.Oops?)

I'm glad to hear you eventually got some chicken. And yay for almost Disney!

 

[awalker1015]

Love your report so far and can't wait to read more! You and your fiancé are too cute. Like you, my DH and I talk about our dog much of the time we are traveling (we do have kids but they are usually with us). Huge Chik Fil A lover here as well. I always get the #1 on wheat. Best meal ever. I did cartwheels when they opened one near us.

Can't wait to read more. Interested to hear about the September heat. We have always done spring or fall. We booked early Sept at the Poly this year with a magical deal and are already having second thoughts and considering downgrading to a different hotel to go in October!

 

[purplelover88]

Thanks for the reminder, I almost forgot...

That's understandable. You can't be expected to remember something like it's finally time to leave for this trip we've been counting down the days to.

Needless to say, Chick-fil-A was an absolute requirement on this trip and we knew it wouldn't be a very difficult mission to accomplish as luckily Chick-fil-As are abundant as you travel south.

As a southern girl myself I still never get used to reading this as there are about 5 chick-fil-a locations within 20 miles of my house. However I never said I don't go once or twice a week.

Now the quest is for Zaxby's

This is the biggest one for me now though since I work at a zaxbys the thought of people seeking it out on vacation is just mind blowing for me because vacation for me is getting far far away!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Yup, wedding photographers book up so fast! I felt so lucky that my uncle was a great one and could do ours. I bet your Disney vacation planning skills are going to come in handy time and time again for your wedding planning!!

Oh man, I LOVE my Chick-Fil-A. We discovered it when we lived in Virginia for 5 miles. We just moved to Utah, and luckily there is one 12 minutes away from our house! (I may have timed it).

 

[hbrc2125]

Read your last trip report but never commented.... not sure why
So first off, Congratulations on your engagement
As for this trip report, my boyfriend and I were in the World from September 29th-October 7!! Cant wait to read more and hopefully ease my post Disney world depression a little bit

 

[Cando86]

Love your report! I had to laugh about the quest for Chick-fil-A. That was my husband and I on our first few trips to Disney. Now we are fortunate to have one right around the corner from our house. Now the quest is for Zaxby's

PS leaving the dogs is harder than leaving the kids

Ahhh I'm so jealous you have close Chick-fil-As! Have a spicy chicken sandwich for me, will you?! I keep hearing about Zaxby's - I've never even heard of that!

Hahaha I laughed out loud at your comment about leaving the kids and leaving the dogs Well, that DOES make me feel better about having kids in the future!

Joining in from the other TR-- can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

Yaaaassss! That's mine and hubby's tradition when we leave Disney-- eat Zaxby's before we head home!

YAY HI!!! Thanks for reading this one too

Another mention of Zaxby's! Man, I need to look into this place!

Pro-Tip for your next Chick-fil-A stop - ask for "Well done fries." They double fry them and they're so crispy and yummy.

Best pro tip I've EVER heard! Will DEFINITELY be doing that next time!

HAHA... we always use the "we got a great rate" excuse too

Glad we're not the only ones!! I have a feeling we're among similar company here.

I know, leaving my dog when I go on vacation is always tough



Success!

Priorities.

That looks so good, it doesn't help that I'm getting hungry while reading this


YAY!!!!!

I am very excited to keep reading along!

Ugh, leaving the dog is the worst! But man is it fun coming home to him/her!

Is there no Chick-fil-A app that helps you find the nearest Chick-fil-A? I feel like there should be.
(Also ... I used water for my Chick-fil-A drinking game. It was closer than alcohol.Oops?)

I'm glad to hear you eventually got some chicken. And yay for almost Disney!

There actually is! We used it on the way home, I didn't think to try to find one on the way down. #fail

Water works but it sure isn't as much fun

Love your report so far and can't wait to read more! You and your fiancé are too cute. Like you, my DH and I talk about our dog much of the time we are traveling (we do have kids but they are usually with us). Huge Chik Fil A lover here as well. I always get the #1 on wheat. Best meal ever. I did cartwheels when they opened one near us.

Can't wait to read more. Interested to hear about the September heat. We have always done spring or fall. We booked early Sept at the Poly this year with a magical deal and are already having second thoughts and considering downgrading to a different hotel to go in October!

Thank you so much!!! I'm glad we're not the only ones who spend a lot of the trip talking about the pup! It helps with missing them that's for sure.

Is the #1 the spicy chicken sandwich? I can't remember but that's my favorite! I would totally do cartwheels too if one opened by me!!

That September heat is killer. I'll talk about it probably too much in this report. Every time friends and family ask how the trip was our first response is always "hot." BUT you will have a great time! As long as you're prepared for it, you should be just fine. We drank a TON of water, bought those cooling towels and one of those little O2 fans and those helped a lot. Lots of a/c breaks too!

That's understandable. You can't be expected to remember something like it's finally time to leave for this trip we've been counting down the days to.

As a southern girl myself I still never get used to reading this as there are about 5 chick-fil-a locations within 20 miles of my house. However I never said I don't go once or twice a week.

This is the biggest one for me now though since I work at a zaxbys the thought of people seeking it out on vacation is just mind blowing for me because vacation for me is getting far far away!

Right? It's not like I had been counting down the seconds until this trip or anything...

Oh my gosh SO jealous of your proximity to Chick-fil-As! I would completely go at least once or twice a week too!

This is the third time someone has mentioned Zaxby's! I had never heard of it before! Off to google their menu...

Yup, wedding photographers book up so fast! I felt so lucky that my uncle was a great one and could do ours. I bet your Disney vacation planning skills are going to come in handy time and time again for your wedding planning!!

Oh man, I LOVE my Chick-Fil-A. We discovered it when we lived in Virginia for 5 miles. We just moved to Utah, and luckily there is one 12 minutes away from our house! (I may have timed it).

It is crazy how quick those photographers book up! I fell in love with so many only to find out they were booked already. Those Disney planning skills have come in REAL handy with wedding planning - SO many spreadsheets

Read your last trip report but never commented.... not sure why
So first off, Congratulations on your engagement
As for this trip report, my boyfriend and I were in the World from September 29th-October 7!! Cant wait to read more and hopefully ease my post Disney world depression a little bit

Thank you!!! Oh wow we were there the same time! How'd you handle that heat?! I heard it actually started cooling off like the day we left

 

[HikingBelle]

Great start to the TR!!

 

[Cando86]

September 24, 2015: WELCOME HOME!!!

The day had FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

Magic Kingdom, we're coming! AKL Club Level we're coming! DISNEY WE'RE COMING!!!

We were up and at 'em (until about a year ago I thought this expression was “up and Adam”...it makes a lot more sense now...) at 6am! A bit early for vacation but you can't complain about it when you're heading to the most magical place on Earth! Did you know that Disneyland is “the happiest place on Earth” and WDW is “the most magical place on Earth”? I used them interchangeably all my life and just recently discovered the error of my ways!

We headed downstairs to “eat” some of the hotel's continental breakfast. Where we had a total of about one bite of...something. That's okay, we had LOTS of good eating ahead of us!

Before we really hit the road, we had to run into Walmart for a couple things and by 8am we were on the road. Just a few hours now!

On this trip, Joe got a TON of work calls. We joked that he shouldn't have had to take PTO. He got a few calls during this leg of the trip and took care of business. And, of course, for lunch you can take one guess at what we had...



I was wondering if we'd get a room text since we were staying club level (!). I just wasn't sure exactly how that worked since I know they check you in in a separate area and you bypass check-in when you do online check-in. How many times can one person say “check” in a sentence?

But at noon my phone went off and...



There it was! I was SO EXCITED!!! Until I looked at a map of the room locations at AKL and realized (or thought I realized anyway) that we didn't have a balcony but instead we overlooked the lobby. Or so I thought.

This was the map that caused the confusion:



Where I circled is where our room was. The way the map looked to me was that the rooms were on the inside, didn't have a balcony, and overlooked the lobby. I was really bummed about this. I know, I know first world problems but I was super disappointed! I told Joe I knew I was being ridiculous by being a little bummed but I guess I just had certain expectations when I pictured our room in my head and that wasn't looking like it was going to be. I could have sworn everything I read had said that the DVC club level rooms all had pool or savannah views. I posted in a Disney Facebook group I belong to (Disney in Fall Alumni, holla!) to inquire. Everyone seemed confused as well and I was getting conflicting answers. Some were saying “no, not all DVC rooms overlook the pool or savannah.” Cue more disappointment. Some were saying “there are no rooms that overlook the lobby.” Cue some hope. Others were being kind of snarky, “well maybe that should teach you not to believe everything you read on the internet.” Cue hurt. I felt like Riley in Inside Out with this roller coaster of emotions.

Finally, a hero comes along (with the strength to carry onnnn) and points out the issue. They posted that exact map and explained why I was confused. The map makes it look like those rooms are inside but they just placed them there on the map since they're actually ABOVE the check-in desk and they couldn't exactly put two things on top of each other on a map. SO there was FINALLY a glistening of real hope and I started getting excited again! I decided to just put the phone away and we'd just see once we got there! Nothing we could do about it now really.

So we kept on a-drivin'. Or Joe did anyway. I drove a total of three hours...Joe refused to let me drive really. I'm going to pretend it's because he's just a chivalrous gentlemen and not that he doesn't trust my driving. Even though I know the real answer.

And finally...after months of planning, wedding stress, life stress, etc. etc...we made it home.



If you read my first TR you know that I don't exactly hold in my emotions when it comes to arriving on property. If you didn't read my TR well then...here's proof from this trip that I can get uh...well a little emotional.

Yeah...I wouldn't post that anywhere except here since I know you all get it!

Needless to say, I was just so happy. There's nothing like arriving on property and having your whole trip ahead of you that you've planned so long for! I was just immediately in the best, happiest mood. It's making me really miss it right now.

And then! At 3pm we arrived at the place I've been SO EXCITED about for months!

CHICK-FIL-A!!!

Okay okay...but would you be that surprised if that were actually it?

JAMBO HOUSE!!!

We parked and decided we'd go check-in and then go get our stuff. This is when I said the thing I would regret the rest of the trip. I stepped out of the car, felt the heat, and said “this is it?! This isn't that bad! It's just like Michigan summers! We can handle this.” Yeah...no. We couldn't. We could not handle it.



We walked up to the resort's front doors and before we could walk in a CM with an iPad walks up to us and greets us by name. Disney magic at work .

She and another CM (I think one may have been training) walked us in, took us to the elevator, and walked us to the club level check-in area. This was so cool. My older sister took me to Disney, all expenses paid, with her family a couple years ago and we stayed club level at Beach Club. So, I had experienced the private check-in thing before but this experience topped that. As we sat down, they asked if we wanted anything to drink as we checked-in and we each got some of their AMAZING jungle juice. The two CMs who walked us up left and we sat down with an awesome CM named Sam who walked us through the club level check-in process. After that, of course we went right to our room and it was the moment of truth...will we overlook the lobby?



NOPE!!! Ah, I was so happy!

The room was amazing. So many details, clean, spacious, and that view...​

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​

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And of course, never one to pass up an opportunity to poke fun at me...​

​

It's just a casual picture of the carpet, is there something wrong with that?! Don't answer that (JOE).​

Tell me...what's your favorite resort you've stayed at?​

 

[Bebella]

Just wanted to say, I'm joining in, can't wait to hear about your trip! And I'm from Michigan too! So heyyy....and GO GREEN! I'm sure you've seen/heard about last night's game?!

 

[hbrc2125]

Thank you!!! Oh wow we were there the same time! How'd you handle that heat?! I heard it actually started cooling off like the day we left

It was so awful the first fews days!! I had F&W planned for our 3rd day (10/1) and it was not pleasant Luckily we had a resort day the next day and then it started cooling down.

If you read my first TR you know that I don't exactly hold in my emotions when it comes to arriving on property. If you didn't read my TR well then...here's proof from this trip that I can get uh...well a little emotional.

This is me. My boyfriend gladly lets me sit in the window seat while were on the ME to minimize him embarrassment #noshame. I actually started crying today in the train station because there was a guy playing "Down By the Riverside" on the saxophone, which we usually hear every time we are in the food court at POR. The PDD is real

After that, of course we went right to our room and it was the moment of truth...will we overlook the lobby?

That room is incredible

So excited to read more

 

[AllyinWonderland]

I am excited to follow along! Where I live, in Michigan, we don't have Chick-Fil-A so I completely understand your excitement. We always get it when we head south and it is our first stop at the Orlando airport every time we go to WDW.

I can't imagine how hot it is in Florida in September, sounds miserable. Your room at AKL looks amazing! I can definitely see how ASSp would be a disappointment after that. We leave for our next trip in 8 days and are splitting between Pop and BWI, with Pop first.

 

[purplelover88]

Yay! You made it! Crying is totally allowed here upon arrival (and departure) of "home". I totally get the worry of your room overlooking the lobby; even if it wasn't possible the emotional roller coaster running through your head wasn't a fun one I know. Glad it all worked out great in the end. The key to the hear is to NEVER say it isn't too bad because then it gets 20 degrees hotter and 500% more humid.

 

[nilla]

I'm planning to start a protest movement against Chik-fil-A. In spite of your apparent love for the chain, you may be interested in joining along. Hear me out.
While CFA's owners have had some pretty controversial stances, I feel the one that gets overlooked the most is their oppressive "closed on Sundays" policy. I can't even begin to count how many times we were in the mood for CFA, only to be shot down by this policy. Hungry for waffle fries? A chicken sandwich? Too bad. If it's Sunday, you just have to suffer. And they don't care, apparently.

This has to stop.

Anyway, great start to the trip and the TR! AKL Savannah-view always looked fun to me. And Lion King theming? That's the best Disney film EVER.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

The day had FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

The best and happiest of days!

We were up and at 'em (until about a year ago I thought this expression was “up and Adam”...it makes a lot more sense now...)

...I always thought that too - thanks for clearing that up for me!

We headed downstairs to “eat” some of the hotel's continental breakfast. Where we had a total of about one bite of...something. That's okay, we had LOTS of good eating ahead of us!

I always have the same experience at these "breakfasts"

And finally...after months of planning, wedding stress, life stress, etc. etc...we made it home.

Beautiful.

Yeah...I wouldn't post that anywhere except here since I know you all get it!

Needless to say, I was just so happy. There's nothing like arriving on property and having your whole trip ahead of you that you've planned so long for! I was just immediately in the best, happiest mood. It's making me really miss it right now.

While watching your video, I started tearing up too, between your excitement and just seeing the sign....
Aw man, I wanna go back...

She and another CM (I think one may have been training) walked us in, took us to the elevator, and walked us to the club level check-in area. This was so cool. My older sister took me to Disney, all expenses paid, with her family a couple years ago and we stayed club level at Beach Club. So, I had experienced the private check-in thing before but this experience topped that. As we sat down, they asked if we wanted anything to drink as we checked-in and we each got some of their AMAZING jungle juice. The two CMs who walked us up left and we sat down with an awesome CM named Sam who walked us through the club level check-in process. After that, of course we went right to our room and it was the moment of truth...will we overlook the lobby?

Awesome!!! I would love to stay CL one day - it has always sounds so cool. And that view is GORGEOUS!!!

And of course, never one to pass up an opportunity to poke fun at me...

​

You gotta do, what you gotta do!

 

[SarahDisney]

Did you know that Disneyland is “the happiest place on Earth” and WDW is “the most magical place on Earth”? I used them interchangeably all my life and just recently discovered the error of my ways!

Actually ... Magic Kingdom is the most magical place on Earth. Not all of WDW. It's a common mistake. One that even I make sometimes.

I was wondering if we'd get a room text since we were staying club level (!). I just wasn't sure exactly how that worked since I know they check you in in a separate area and you bypass check-in when you do online check-in. How many times can one person say “check” in a sentence?

I think that was only three. There's room for a few more!

Finally, a hero comes along (with the strength to carry onnnn)

And you'll finally see the truth ... that a hero lies in you.
Sorry, I had to.

And then! At 3pm we arrived at the place I've been SO EXCITED about for months!

CHICK-FIL-A!!!

Okay okay...but would you be that surprised if that were actually it?

I'm too lazy to scroll back up and check this, but ... didn't you have Chick-fil-A for lunch? So I would have guessed AKL. Sorry, I guess you're a little predictable.

Yay! Savannah view!

It's just a casual picture of the carpet, is there something wrong with that?! Don't answer that (JOE).​

Carpet pictures are always appropriate when there's a Mickey head in the carpet. Someone should tell Joe that fact.